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Before the other dragon could even react, Tevryn dove under it, raking his talons across the thing’s belly and opening it up. Tevryn rose above the thing and then dove at it, grasping and shredding its wings as he dashed it onto a spire not far from her.
Tevryn knelt on one knee, gasping for air and covered in blood. She could feel his exhaustion as she approached him. He turned as if to speak to her but before they could they were both startled by another piercing screech from the sky above. Taking a deep breath, Tevryn stood, reaching for her, but she recoiled, the reaction an instinctual response created by the complicated emotions roiling within her—love, confusion, fear. A look of sorrow and pain crossed his face only to be banished by one of determination, and once more he shifted from man to dragon.
He flew powerfully, breathing fire in an arc that kept the other two dragons at bay. One roared a challenge and flew straight at him, while the other banked, focusing on her and lining her up as a target. There was a horrific scream as Tevryn set the one dragon’s wings on fire and tried to catch the dragon closing in on her.
Delaney was afraid he wouldn’t reach her in time, and hoped there was some way for him to know she regretted having recoiled from him. She realized as she’d watched him engage two more opponents that she didn’t care that he was a dragon. She cared that he hadn’t offered up that information, but she also recognized it wasn’t something she couldn’t move past.
The flying creature—Delaney refused to call it a dragon—zoned in on her. It had nothing of Tevryn’s grace, power, and beauty. She closed her eyes and prepared to die. I love you. It would be her last thought, and she hoped he could somehow hear her.
She heard the intake of a large breath, smelled the sulfur mixed with other noxious fumes as the thing took aim to end her life. Only she never felt the flames. When she opened her eyes, another dragon looking like Tevryn had joined the fray and literally incinerated the beast that had thought to end her.
Delaney pointed to where Tevryn now flew with the other dragon grasped in his talons. “Help him!” she cried. “The one that looks like you,” she added lamely.
She was fairly sure she heard the dragon chuckle, but it seemed to understand. It dropped a net that sparkled in the afternoon sun and contained an iron collar before it flew to Tevryn’s aid. Between them they carried the flying serpent—Delaney had decided that’s what she would call them—to the ground and landed. The dragon that wasn’t Tevryn spoke still in its dragon form, and shook the mutant dragon, commanding that it shift.
“Shift now or die,” growled Tevryn “You are of no use to us in this form.”
Realizing it was defeated, the thing shifted, followed swiftly by Tevryn and the other dragon who was holding the man, who appeared to have been put together by committee—far less musculature, knobby joints and bones seeming to be glued together and not formed as a normal human being.
“I dropped a capture net and collar,” said the other dragon, pointing to where they lay.
Knowing Tevryn had to be exhausted, Delaney ran to the net and brought it and the collar to Tevryn.
“I love you, and I can explain,” he said as he cast the net over the weakened and misshapen creature that lay crumbled on the ground before securing the collar around its neck. “Obsidian and iron. It can’t shift back.”
This time when he turned and reached for her, she flung herself into his arms and hugged him with every bit of strength she had. “I love you, too.” He set her down, grinning like the Cheshire Cat. The grin quickly turned to a grimace as she kicked him in the shin. “You’re damn right you’re going to explain this to me.”
There was another maelstrom of lightning, thunder and color as the other dragon shifted to his human form, and Delaney recognized him as the man Tevryn had called Warrick.
“The no last name—that’s a dragon thing, right?” she asked.
“Yes. It’s a dragon thing. There’s so much…” Tevryn was silenced as she laid her index finger on his lips.
“It can wait.” She looked around Tevryn to Warrick who was as naked as Tevryn, although not, she thought, as finely made. And the other guy ought to be embarrassed standing next to the two men who had vanquished him. Delaney pointed to Warrick’s erect cock. “You probably ought to put that thing away.”
Warrick roared with laughter. “Oh, I like her. She and Dani are going to become good friends.”
Tevryn grinned. “Think that through, brother. Do you really want them to become good friends? And at some point, they’ll add Kessily to their little troupe.”
Warrick chuckled and shifted back to a dragon in what seemed to be an effortless blink of the eye. “You have a point.” He turned to the impaled corpse and incinerated it, as well. Looking at her, he shrugged. “No fuss; no muss; no DNA evidence.”
Shaking her head, Delaney said, “Let’s get back to camp. We have food and a first-aid kit. Warrick, if you can manage to drag that thing back, I can let Tevryn lean on me.”
“Somehow, I think Tevryn got the better end of that deal.”
Slowly they made their way back to their basecamp, where Delaney went to light the fire to cook with.
“Babe?” Tevryn said, moving her to the side and puffing a small flame that had the fire going immediately. “S’mores on demand.”
Delaney laughed. “That could come in handy. Warrick, can you secure that guy. Then you can borrow some of Tevryn’s clothes. By the way, what happened to your clothes?”
“The shifting process renders you naked,” Tevryn explained. “Except for precious metals and gems.”
“What self-respecting dragon would do anything to rob him of his gold and jewels?” Delaney quipped. “Let me get the first-aid kit.”
“I’m fine, Delaney. Don’t fuss. These scratches will be healed before morning.”
Once Warrick had gone inside their tent, dragging their captive with him, she rounded on Tevryn and smacked his bare chest. “What the hell? Were you going to tell me you were a dragon?”
