“A female, I assume.”
His lips flattened.“Yes.I should have stayed in my cave, as it did not end well.”
“What happened?”
“I think it’s time for bed.”He wouldn’t answer, and I thought of Astaria’s mention of a betrayal.Must have been bad if the memory of it still stung.
“Do you even have a bed?”I’d seen little furniture thus far, the stools in the kitchen actually the only items, other than tools.
“I do.”
I soon realized he meant his.A mattress on the floor, in a room that, while clean, showed its age.
“Um, I don’t know if we should be sleeping together,” I said, suddenly very much aware I was alone with a man.A man who’d mentioned killing me a few times.A man who could easily overpower me.It shouldn’t have given me a titillating shiver.
He soon deflated any notion I had of him forcefully seducing—and me swooning in capitulation--as he snorted.“Your virtue is safe.I am going out.”
“Where?It’s raining, and I didn’t get the impression much remained open on the isle once the ferry leaves.”
“I’m going to hunt.There’s a Red Cap that needs handling before it harms the folks that live here.”
With that ominous statement, Alistair, without a hint of embarrassment—then again, why should he have any with that body?—ditched his clothes, opened the window, and jumped.
I ran and leaned out in time to see a dragon winging off in the night sky.How beautiful.Majestic.Mysterious.
Knowing that same beast was also a very handsome man almost made me want to write a gothic romance—with dirty bits.
ChapterSix
Rain pattered against my scales,not that I felt the cold or wet, but still, why had I given up my comfortable bed to fly into a storm?If it had only been about hunger, I could have eaten my unwelcome guest, a thought that, for some reason, didn’t involve me crunching her bones to bits but my head between her?—
Oh no.
Oh fuck no.
The randy turn of my mind surprised.It had been a long time—so very long—since I’d had any interest in the female sex.With a human body came human needs.But why this woman?In the hours since we’d met, she’d done nothing but vex me with endless questions.More annoying, I found myself replying, even as I didn’t mean to.How had she gotten me to reveal so much?She must have somehow beguiled me.Was she a witch?Doubtful.She didn’t have that stink of magic about her.Whatever her trick, she posed a danger, and on the morrow, she planned to leave.Leave with her knowledge of me.Leave to boldly confront Nessie over a stupid treasure.Leave for an almost certain death because the gentle water dragon I used to know had turned ugly and bitter.
Not my problem.I had other more pressing issues that required my attention, such as the emergence of some baby dragons.
My first inkling of their existence came from Asteria over dessert during one of her random visits.We’d just finished my freshly made bread pudding when her eyes unfocussed and she muttered, “Nestled in magma, the egg warms and cracks, heralding a new beginning.”
Fancy words that clearly indicated a dragon had been born.Not that I cared.It was bound to happen eventually.To my surprise, though, Astaria returned within the week and offered another premonition about a second hatchling.By the time she announced a third dragon had emerged from its shell, I found myself curious at the sudden flurry after eons of nothing.Being shit with technology, I ordered my attorney—who had connections—to find these baby dragons.He succeeded in finding the first three and then a surprising fourth, and I received a brief packet with their current locations.Not that I planned to visit.No point in going through that much trouble until I’d decided what to do with them.
I’d trashed the dossiers but not before memorizing their contents.It proved all too easy to remember what I’d learned.
The first to be born was Pollita, a delicate female living in the jungles of Peru, surrounded by servants who all belonged to one big extended family.She seemed sweet.
Second, who hatched apparently within days of Pollita, called himself Abaddon.A large, black-scaled male with curling horns and the ability to spit fire.He resided on a ranch in Alberta, Canada, and had guards patrolling the property and several savvy servants.The file indicated he’d talked openly about his plans for world domination, meaning he’d need monitoring.
Persephone, the third, turned out to be female and plump, with breath that could frost the living.She called Italy her home and had an American novelist and a rich widow at her beck and call.
The fourth, and only one not predicted by Asteria, was a male runt named Tigger.The dossier indicated his growth might be stunted since a Hawaiian volcano spat him out mid-incubation.A few years later, his egg finished curing in a kiln.He had the gift of poison gas and toxic spit.
From no dragons hatched in eons to four in such a short time span seemed suspicious.Coincidence or something else at play?
The most recent hatchling, born in Hawaii, didn’t surprise.Volcanoes in those isles tended to be active.The Italian and Peruvian volcanoes that also produced babies, while not entirely dormant, did end up being a shock to those who monitored them because the usual warning signs didn’t occur.Then again, nature couldn’t always be predicted.
The hatching that perturbed the most came from the dead cone in Alberta that exploded suddenly.From all accounts, it should have never blown.Did the humans have the technology to wake volcanoes?And if yes, were they intentionally trying to hatch dragons?I sure as fuck hoped not.That many dragons, all at once, in a world that had long since relegated them to myth, posed a dilemma.Let them live or cull them before they could cause trouble?
