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“For now, or forever?”
He hesitated. “Draman do not need flames or wings.”
“Of course not. After all, what right have we got to be able to protect ourselves against you lot?” I snorted softly. “You really have no understanding of what goes on in cliques, do you?”
“And you have no idea just how close the cliques are to being exposed,” he snapped, then made a visible effort to control himself before adding, “Let’s not get into this argument again. If you want to rescue this woman, we need to get moving.”
He went back out onto the deck without waiting for me. I grabbed the backpack, checked that the netbook was still in one piece, then followed. It was a large space, but there wasn’t enough room for a dragon to stand, let alone unfurl his wings.
“You can’t shift shape here,” I commented.
“I know.” His voice was almost absent as he studied the darkness off to our left. The breeze ruffled his dark hair and a half smile touched his lips. “The wind is strong tonight. It’ll help me lift you.”
“Just promise not to drop me.”
I couldn’t help the edge of fear in my voice and he looked at me, his smile growing, once again lending his otherwise arrogant features a delicious warmth. “There may be a lot of things I want to do to you, but dropping you isn’t one of them.”
His gaze burned with sudden desire, and warmth crept into my cheeks even as part of me basked in the heat of that look. “Oh, I’ve seen some looks thrown my way that suggest you’d love to do that very thing. Drop me from a height, that is.”
“Only when you’re being so frustratingly stubborn.”
I smiled. “Which is a lot, according to you.”
“That’s true.” He gripped the railing of the ladder leading up to the steering deck. “Once I take off, climb to the nose of the boat. I’ll swoop down and grab you.”
“Just you watch where you put those claws,” I said, crossing my arms and trying not to think about all the things that could go wrong. “I do not need any more scars, thank you very much.”
“If I pierce you with one of my claws, you’ll be dead.” He grabbed the rail and climbed up to the next level.
I moved to the back of the boat, leaning my butt against the railing in hopes I could see what was happening above. The roof made that impossible, but the burn of energy across my skin told me he was shifting shape. I closed my eyes, enjoying the sensation while trying to ignore the longing that welled up from within. I might have learned long ago that I would never experience the freedom of shifting shape and skimming the wide-open skies, but that never eased the desire for it.
There was a whoosh of air as wings unfurled and began to sweep across the night. A second later, an inky shape appeared in the starlit sky.
And oh, he was so beautiful.
The moonlight glinted off his dark scales, making it seem as if his sleek, powerful body was covered in a million stars. His wings were black gossamer, almost invisible against the sky except for the shimmer that ran down the edges with every stroke as he powered upward. And he was big for a dragon—a big, powerful beast who looked as deadly as the man.
I sighed—a sound that was part admiration and part frustration at not being able to join him in flight—then walked to the ladder and began to climb.
After moving as far forward as I could and ensuring I was clear of anything that would obstruct his wings, I closed my eyes and waited. While part of me wanted to watch Damon swoop in, part of me feared it, too. I’d seen the damage claws could do to a human body and I doubted I could force myself to stand still while such a large dragon swept down toward me.
The air began to stir, softly at first, barely even teasing my hair. But the nearer he got, the more tumultuous it became, until I felt like there was a maelstrom swirling around me.
Then, as gently as a first-time kiss, his claws wrapped around me, encasing me securely as his wings swept us upward again.
At first I was too frozen by fear to even open my eyes. Any minute now he’s going to drop me. Any minute now, I was going to crash down on the rocks like before. And while there might not actually be rocks below us, the ocean gained the consistency of concrete when you plunged into it from any great height.
The air howled past my ears—a sound that should have been all-encompassing but wasn’t. I could hear the ocean far below, feel the chill wash of moonlight across my skin, smell the leathery, musky aroma of dragon—sounds and scents that sang to my soul and made me want to smile.
As the minutes ticked by and his grip didn’t loosen—and I didn’t drop—the fear eased enough to open my eyes.
Far below us, the ocean raced for the shore, thin strips of white foam breaking across a blacker expanse. On the fast-approaching land, multicolored lights twinkled like stars in the night. The howl of the air became a sound that was sweeter than any I could have imagined, and the sweep of wings filled my soul.
And suddenly it wasn’t scary anymore. It was beautiful and exhilarating and I spread my arms wide, imagining that I was a dragon, that it was me flying on gauzy, glittering wings, sweeping through the night so swiftly and so elegantly.
It was a glorious sensation. A dream fulfilled—even if it wasn’t my wings or my shape. Laughter rose, bubbling through my body—a sound that was as free and as happy as I felt.
But it ended far too soon. We were barely even over land when we were sweeping downward again. The starlight twinkle of lights separated and grew, becoming long sweeps of roads along which the occasional car traveled. Rooftops and trees became visible, along with brightly lit shopping malls and office districts.
