by Anna Lowe
She’d tried a few tricks on horseback in her time, but holy crap, standing on the seat of a motorcycle while it hammered down a dirt track was different. Very different.
Believe, her dragon chanted. Clear your mind and believe.
She crouched behind Tanner, hanging on to his shoulders.
“Karen!” he protested.
“Just keep it straight. Straight and fast.”
Yes, she was nuts. Yes, she was impulsive. But her dragon was roaring inside her in a way it never had before.
I can do this. Trust me. Let me try.
Trying won’t cut it, she snapped back.
I can do it. Watch. Trust, her dragon roared.
The only reason she didn’t snort and say, Forget it was the Blood Diamond. She’d sensed the energy pulsing off it the first time she’d seen the jewel, and holding it was like holding a hot ember. She could feel the power in it throb.
That diamond holds the power of our ancestors, her grandfather had told her. And the dragon who holds it can harness that power. Make it his own.
His own or her own? she’d joked at the time. They’d laughed, but she sure wasn’t laughing now.
Trust me. I can do this, her dragon said.
She closed her eyes and felt the wind whip her hair. Imagined what it would feel like if she were flying in dragon form. Flying, not gliding. Real flying. If her grandfather’s power had buoyed her that one time she’d really flown, the power of the Blood Diamond would truly make her soar.
I can do it.
Karen clutched harder at Tanner’s shirt.
We can do it. Her dragon nodded.
Karen took a deep breath and jumped into the air.
“Karen!” Tanner shouted, but his voice was faint. The noise of the engine was faint, too, as was everything but the voice in her mind.
I can do it. Watch me fly.
She stretched tall, reaching for the stars, and spread her arms wide. And while half of her expected to crash and be instantly crushed under the oncoming tires of the SUVs, the other half believed. Really believed in the power of the Blood Diamond, if not herself.
Fly. I can fly. I will fly.
And holy crap, she did. An updraft caught her under the wings — partway through her jump, she’d shifted to dragon form in the blink of an eye — and sent her soaring. Up, up, up, as high as the hills slumbering in the distance.
Now bank, her dragon murmured, concentrating hard.
She bent her right wing the teensiest, tiniest bit and curved in a wide, cautious loop. She bent it a little more to tighten the turn then flicked that wing straight and bent the left one, banking the other way. She turned one way then the other, getting the hang of it. Soon, she was shrieking with delight.
I’m flying! Really flying!
She squeezed her eyelids closed until they were mere slits, a barrier to the whipping effect of the wind, and flapped her ears a few times, just to relish the flow of the air over them. It was even better than she imagined. More exhilarating. Intoxicating, even.
A gunshot cracked below her, and she snapped back to her senses. Shit — she had vampires to vanquish. The world’s most persistent bear to kiss. No time to simply enjoy flying.
Headlights swept the desert below — three pairs of headlights from the SUVs, a blindingly bright spotlight aimed from the roof of a fourth, and the dim, single lamp of the motorcycle that wound a crooked path through the scrub.
Save bear! Kill vampires!
She folded her wings and dove, howling with a mixture of rage and glee. Exactly the way she might dive into water, except it was thin air. The best part was, she dove with confidence, because the Blood Diamond was empowering her, and it would never let her down.
The wind whistled off her wingtips while her mind played a soundtrack of bomber planes zooming in on their target. The closer the SUVs drew, the angrier she became, and the more her dragon took over her mind. What right did they have to come between her and her mate? How dare they?
She pulled back her lips, bared her teeth, and inhaled deeply.
Sayonara, assholes, her dragon cried.
She coughed up a spark, exhaled, and — whoosh! A huge, licking flame engulfed the vehicle closest to Tanner. She blew until the flames split over both sides of the roof and rushed over the windows.
The vehicle jerked in a tight right turn. So tight, the SUV tipped over and lay on its side, where she gave it another blast for good measure before sweeping upward again. The doors flew open and vampires clambered out.
If only she could spit up pure fire like the dragons of generations past! Her magick-enhanced fire wasn’t pure enough to be lethal to vampires, so she couldn’t kill them, but seeing them run like panicked chickens was satisfying, too.
She gained altitude with a few flaps of her wings and cackled with a crazy kind of joy. She could dive! Turn! Climb high in the sky! She could really fly!
A whisper on the wind carried a hint of her grandfather’s voice. Of course, you can.
Tanner’s voice was the second to sound in her mind. Of course, you can.
She flapped her wings, rushing after the next two vehicles driving alongside each other in pursuit of the motorcycle.
Perfect, her dragon purred.
She blasted them from behind, spraying a jet of fire from side to side to reach both vehicles, keeping it up even after one banged into the other and both careened into a rocky outcrop. A moment later, vampires spilled from the vehicles, rushing this way and that, and she bombed them with flames. The fire made a rushing, rocket sound when she propelled it, and together with the frantic movements of the vampires, it made her imagine an apocalypse. Fire and brimstone! Pandemonium! The best part was that she was the one making it happen — on purpose, not by some freaky accident. And even though she’d always had it drilled into her that self-respecting dragons never used their powers for destruction, these were vampires, and they had it coming, right?
Right, she decided firmly, looking around.
Three vehicles down, one to go — the SUV with the bright spotlight, which was still in hot pursuit of Tanner. Without her on the back of the bike, he seemed to be holding his own, but then a rifle shot split the night, and she remembered the danger her mate was in.
Not for long, her dragon muttered, extending its neck.
She curled her wings around her body, rolled right, and then leveled out and sped ahead. Schiller was in that SUV — she could sense it — so she had to make this pass count.
Within seconds, she was half a mile ahead of Tanner, scoping out the landscape. There — an upslope that ended in a sheer cliff. She glanced back and slowed, hoping he would follow her lead.
Another crazy escape plan? His voice was faint in her mind.
She grinned. Not so crazy. Just watch the cliff.
She could sense him snort. “Just” and “cliff” don’t really go together, you know.
There’s a trail that turns off right here — she made a sharp left to indicate the spot — and then you can follow the edge.
The edge? Why don’t I like the sound of that?
She’d have loved to keep up the banter, but she had a truck full of vampires to outsmart. And this time, damn it, she’d do it.
Curving her wings, she rose up, twisted, and raced straight for Tanner and the SUV bearing down on him. And damn, did the distance disappear quickly now that she was low to the ground and rushing at them head on.
Karen! Holy— Tanner yelled as he ducked.
At the last possible second, she gave her tail a little flick and cleared him by an inch.
—shit! he finished, speeding onward toward the cliff.
She barreled straight at the SUV and opened her jaws wide. The vampire hanging out the side window with a rifle at his shoulder jerked inside just as she slammed the vehicle with another massive blast of fire. The SUV shuddered from the force of it but rushed on, even with flames washing over the windshield and along both sides. Karen barely pulled up in time to
clear it.
Whoa! The antenna scratched her belly as she scraped over the roof.
As the vehicle sped on, the flames quickly extinguished. Shit — maybe she wasn’t the only witch casting spells in the desert just then. She turned as fast as she could and raced after the SUV, which was gaining on Tanner fast. Really fast.
Hurry! she urged him. Faster!
I got this, he murmured into her mind as he glanced over his shoulder.
The SUV was so close, she couldn’t spit fire at it without hitting Tanner, so she curved away and looped around to come at it from the side.
From her height, she could see both vehicles rapidly approaching the cliff — a blind cliff hidden by a tiny dip and rise.
Turn! she screamed into Tanner’s mind. Turn!
He didn’t waver. Not an inch.
Now! Turn now! she yelled.
A second longer and Tanner would miss the tight turn to the hiker’s trail that paralleled the edge of the cliff. He’d be airborne. He’d crash and die.
Turn, damn it! Turn!
She watched in horror, helpless to intervene as both vehicles raced closer to the drop-off. Closer and closer—
Tanner threw the bike into a bruising ninety-degree turn, jamming his left foot against the ground to prevent an all-out skid over the ledge. And the SUV—
Brakes screeched. Dust flew. The horn blew, and the whole vehicle skipped and shuddered toward the edge of the cliff.
From the corner of her eye, Karen saw Tanner level out, drive a hundred feet, then stop to look back.
The wheels of the SUV plowed deep furrows into the ground as its headlights stabbed over the lip of the cliff. It slowed gradually and came to rest with its front bumper hanging over the drop-off and the front tires an inch from the cliff. Her heart sank. She could practically hear Schiller’s triumphant cackle when he stepped out of the car.
But then the lip of the cliff groaned and gave way, and the front tires tipped over the edge. Five thousand pounds of steel teetered momentarily. One of the doors popped open, and a terrified vampire clung to it, looking for a way out.
Rage flooded Karen’s mind again, and she went from an easy hover to all-out dive, blasting a long spear of flames ahead. She imagined fire forming a battering ram and gave the SUV just enough of a bump to send it over the edge.
Metal groaned, flames hissed, and a vampire screamed, leaping from the SUV a split second before it tipped slowly forward. Then it was airborne, flipping end over end until — Boom! It came to a fiery crash and exploded below.
Karen flinched at the explosion, then admired the sight — for all of five seconds before turning back for Schiller. The vampire stood at the edge of the cliff, smeared with ash and dust. His eyes widened when he saw her coming, and he dove downslope just before her next blast hit.
For the next few minutes, she played the best game of cat and mouse ever, chasing the vampire from one rocky outcrop to the next with little bursts of fire. She might not be able to kill Schiller, but hell, she could humiliate him a bit.
Um, Karen? a deep voice tapped at the edge of her mind.
She popped her head up in midflight. Yeah?
You done yet?
She shot a parting ball of fire at Schiller, then doubled back to the cliff’s edge where the broad silhouette of a lone figure stood out before a startlingly clear, starry sky. She circled once, twice, not quite ready to stop flying — Who knew if she would ever manage to get aloft again? — but plenty ready to return to her mate. When she folded her wings and landed, little puffs of dust rose from the ground.
Her eyes locked on Tanner’s, and they stood in silence, listening to the distant crackle of fire, the chirp of cicadas, the murmur of the night breeze over desert chaparral. Tanner had turned off the engine, so the only light was that of the stars above, the fire below, and the glow of Vegas on the horizon.
“We did it,” she whispered at long last.
Tanner nodded, not taking his eyes off her. “You did it.”
She raked her foot through the sand, slowly transforming to human form, and what started as a claw ended the motion as a bare foot.
Tanner’s eyes flicked over her bare chest and legs, and a tiny smile formed in the corner of his mouth.
“You’re naked.”
She laughed. “Can’t seem to help it around you.”
He grinned then shook his head incredulously, looking around the sky as if replaying her flight. “That was amazing.”
She tried an aw-shucks shrug, but her body refused to play along, standing tall and proud — until two hundred pounds of bear shifter stepped over and wrapped her in a massive hug, that is.
“You did it,” he murmured, running a hand over her hair, her shoulders, her back, checking for broken bones.
A balloon of pride filled in her chest, because even if it had been the diamond fueling her, she could claim some of the credit, right? But a dragon shouldn’t get too full of herself, as her grandfather had warned so many times, so she pulled away from him to explain.
“I could only fly because of the diamond, but still, it was pretty cool.”
Tanner tilted his head at her. “What do you mean, because of the diamond?” His eyes shone in the moonlight.
“The diamond holds the power of the ancient dragons, and it gives—”
He cut her off. “I remember that. But what does that have to do with you flying?”
She laughed. The poor guy had obviously had too long a day. He couldn’t think straight any more.
“I’ve never managed anything more than gliding before. The diamond gave me the power to fly.”
He squinted at her. “The diamond gave you the power from all the way down here?”
“No, I had it with me.” Silly bear.
“No, I had it with me,” Tanner said, patting the side of his jacket.
“I had it with me,” she insisted. “Right here.” She patted her chest, where the necklace would be—
—and immediately panicked, because the diamond wasn’t there. God, had she lost it? Had it been ripped off when she shifted to dragon form?
Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Her dragon started fretting. She’d screwed everything up — again.
“No,” Tanner said slowly, pulling something out of his pocket. “I have it with me.”
He uncurled his fingers and there it was — the Blood Diamond, glinting with the light of a thousand stars.
Karen opened her mouth. Moved her lips. Tried to work her tongue, but it just flopped limply. In her mind, she replayed their escape from the casino. Hadn’t she looped the necklace over her head on the way out of the Scarlet Palace?
Wait — she’d been about to, but then Grandma Panda had come along, so she’d kept the jewel in her hand.
Hop on. She remembered Tanner motioning her onto the motorcycle.
She played the memory forward in her mind slowly. When Tanner gunned the engine, she’d grabbed on to him, slipping her hands inside his jacket pockets for a better grip around his waist.
Tanner grabbed her hand just as she keeled over in surprise.
“Whoa, there.” He grinned and closed her hand over the diamond. “See?”
See? Sure. She could feel it, too — not just the hard edges digging into her palm but the pulsing energy that went right from the stone to her soul. She could sense it, buoying her up.
But believe it? She wasn’t quite there yet. If Tanner had had the diamond all along, that meant…
“Holy shit,” she whispered. “I did it. I flew on my own.”
He shrugged. “Of course, you did.”
There was no hint of surprise or wonder in his voice at all, only faith. Unshakable, unwavering faith, as if he’d known it all along.
She stared at him.
A dragon’s powers are kindled by love, and if you truly believe… Maybe her grandfather hadn’t been kidding her, after all.
“Speechless?” Tanner crooked an eyebrow at her. “That’s a change.”
“God, am I ready to go.” She pulled the shirt on, followed by his leather jacket. They both smelled like Tanner, all woodsy and clean and fresh. Like home. She zipped the jacket high and inhaled, then pulled on a pair of pants. “Definitely ready to go.”
He kicked the motorcycle engine on and waited for her to climb on the back before starting down the trail.
“Where to?” she called over his shoulder.
“Home.” He pointed forward, more toward the stars than to any particular place.
“And where exactly would that be?” It was more a tease than a question, because any place he took her would be fine with her.
“I know just the place for a bear and a dragon-witch to settle down.”
“Oh, yeah?”
“Yeah. A little cabin high in the Bitterroots. Plenty of mountain streams for you to prospect in, and just enough lumbering to keep me busy.”
“Not too busy, I hope.” She slid her hands lower along his bulky frame.
He laughed. “I think I’ll find some spare time.”
She could already picture hitting the sheets of a king-size bed covered with a patchwork quilt stitched with a pattern of pines. Going to sleep in his arms and waking up in them, too — not for a single day or night but a whole lifetime.
“We don’t want life to get boring,” she added, lest he think she was going soft.
Tanner laughed outright. “Is that a promise or a threat?”
She snuggled closer and shut her eyes, listening to the engine hum.
“It’s a promise, my love. A promise.”
* * *
Thank you for reading Gambling on Her Bear! I hope you enjoyed it and that you’ll leave a review on Amazon or Goodreads today. Reviews help independent authors reach a wider audience and guide readers to stories they’ll love.
Gambling on Her Bear is a sequel to Gambling on Her Dragon, which features Karen’s sister Kaya (a very stubborn dragon) and Trey Dixon (a hot-blooded wolf). If you haven’t read that yet, now’s the time! And the fun doesn’t stop there – Dex’s story, Gambling on Her Panther, is also in the works. Make sure you’re signed up for my newsletter so you’ll be the first to hear about its release. You’ll also receive three FREE stories and find out about incredible sales & deals.