Straightening, he gripped the armored glass cover and lifted experimentally. It slid upward — just as a rustle went through the crowd of guards. He quickly set the glass back down, turning to see what they were doing.
“Oh please, Mr. Ember,” came a fluting, androgynous voice from the front of the room. He heard a sliding sound, like heavy robes moving across a polished floor... or perhaps, the slithering of a gigantic snake. “Do continue. I had been hoping you would open the case for me.”
The crowd parted and turned, and suddenly Jason had every one of them pointing their pistols directly at him, even though none of them could see him. Down the aisle that they had made, he saw a now-familiar tall figure glide forward, its inhuman eyes lifted toward him—
—and Laurel's limp form draped in its lean arms.
Laurel! That terrible, cold feeling rushed back, and a thousand times worse, as if his inner fire was dying entirely. How did he get her? Did she follow me here?
“Ah, now it dawns on you. The poor girl never realized that I tracked you back to your home. When I arrived on your roof, all I had to do was wear your face and she ran right into my arms!” His head tilted, tone mocking. “You can see that you're in the losing position in this situation, Jason Ember. Now, show yourself, and let's engage in some... intensive negotiations.”
Once again, that hideously broad, mirthless smile stretched its features. Jason caught himself then, realizing at once that he couldn't get through this if he let fear paralyze him. Yes, his mate was in the snake's hands as his hostage. Yes, he didn't know the extent of its power. Yes, he faced an entire rank of guards hypnotized into acting as meat shields and reinforcements for this monster. But he wasn't out yet. He had weapons to use against his fear — and in turn, against the snake.
He chose anger.
The cameras were off. Any witnesses, hypnotized. He exploded into view in his true form, crouched protectively over the case, and fanned his wings as hard as he could. The guards fell back, slammed to the ground by the blast of wind, several losing their weapons and all losing their hats.
Once they were clear from in front of him, he reared back, summoning a gleam of fire to the back of his throat as a warning, and roared.
“Let her go! Let her go now!”
The snake's response was to lift her in its grip, its jaw opening in a way that no human mouth was capable of, to reveal a huge set of fangs that slid silently from its jaw. It settled them a hair's breadth from Laurel's throat, and Jason froze. A harsh chuckle escaped the snake as it retracted its fangs again.
“I can strike her dead before you can draw breath. Besides, this girl may be your true mate, but she isn't fireproof!”
He drew the fire back down into his belly, eyes narrowing.
“What do you want?” he demanded. “Why have you done this?”
“It's quite simple. I need those eggs.” The snake's tongue flickered in a strangely thoughtful gesture. “You aren't in a position to understand, I suppose, being an orphan and all. No knowledge of your own roots... so tragic. But you see, your people's history and my own are rather inextricably entwined.” The creature's rictus-smile went lopsided. “Once upon a time, so distant a time ago that humans weren't even around for us to emulate yet, your ancestors and my own lived in a much different environment. Great beasts ruled the land, and everything that lived was bigger and more powerful than it is now. Your people were the first to achieve intelligence, and you flourished in the days of giant game and clear and empty skies. In those days, you mated with each other, not with humans, as you so often do now. But my people were less... successful. We crawled limbless through those primordial forests, limited to the basest instincts. Feed, rest, reproduce. And so it would have been forever, if one of my ancestors had not accidentally made a meal of a very particular type of egg.”
Jason stared at him in horror, and his eyes cut down to the clutch in the case at his feet. The snake smiled again, too widely, as he saw Jason catch on. The guards were mutely getting to their feet, gathering close on either side of their tall dominator.
“Yes. Yes indeed. You see, we are born like any snake, just... larger, and more venomous. But the meal of a dragon's egg helps us to evolve into our true natures: brilliant, and powerful. And just as long lived as you. Unfortunately, when you depend on your offspring swallowing the offspring of another species to achieve sentience, that other species is likely to start... dying out.”
Jason's eyes widened, the fury welling up in him again.
“That is where my people went? Down your throats?”
“Oh, that's part of it. But of course, when you dragons found out what we were doing, there was a war. A great and terrible war, that lasted centuries. But because we are far more prolific, and don't have your sad little mating restriction, we have always won by strength of numbers.”
His tongue flickered, and his tone had gone gloating.
Jason shuddered with helpless rage. So many of his people dead and gone before they were even born, made into food by these... things. And more, the adults, lost to a war that had lasted for centuries and in some ways, seemed to be still going on. Except.... Jason suddenly found himself distracted as he saw Laurel's eyelids flutter. Preoccupied with his pedantic chatter, the snake was paying less attention to his captive.
He saw her eye open slightly... and suddenly realized that she wasn't just waking up.
She's playing unconscious! She must have woken up on the way and managed to keep her fear under control. Could she have a plan? A surge of hope went through him, and he focused back on the snake's face. Keep him talking.
“What do you mean, a mating restriction?”
“Oh, it's simple. Your species has never been particularly genetically diverse. Too limited a breeding base, I imagine. So you've always had to borrow genetic material from other races. At first it was dinosaurs, once mating amongst yourselves began to produce aberrations, then certain large reptiles, and then humans. We have done similarly with both snakes and men. But whereas we can mate with any subject we choose, and hatch a whole clutch, most dragon-kind breed one egg at a time, although female dragons mating with human males have been known to produce clutches...” the snakes eyes went to the eggs again for a moment, then back to Jason, “and then only by mating with a certain, specific human with whom they are fully compatible. Only one, ever, and if he or she should die....”
The creature dipped its head toward Laurel meaningfully.
Oh... so that is what is going on. He stared at Laurel's limp form, and felt a surge of longing in him. My mate. My true mate. That's why her scent drew me. Not because she's dragon-blooded. But because we're meant for each other. And now....
“Yes,” the snake crooned. “Now you begin to understand. And with that achieved, I offer you a choice. The life of your mate, and the dragon egg forming within her even now. Or, your clutch-mates. Bring me those eggs without a fight, and I will spare her and all these mortals. Refuse, and everyone here will die. Including your unborn!”
Jason caught sight of movement: Laurel's arm snaking out surreptitiously toward the belt of the nearest guard. He saw her pluck a canister from its loop and draw it back toward her before she went back to playing unconscious.
“I have just one question,” he growled as he coiled his paws around the armored glass as if preparing to lift it. “If your people really won this war, and did it by strength of numbers, then why are you facing me alone?”
The thing's broad, cold smile collapsed, its lips twitching as its fangs half emerged.
“You... you mind your tongue! Do not forget who I have hostage!”
“Huh. Hit a nerve, did I? Let me guess. You guys aren't actually immortal. Stolen power or not, you age and die like normal snakes – slower, perhaps, but still withing decades, or maybe a century. And you're running out of dragon eggs to steal—”
The creature hissed like a broken steam pipe.
“Silence!”
Laurel's eyes fl
ew open as the thing was distracted, and she sat up in its grip suddenly, putting the canister right in its face. He heard a faint hissing sound and smelled the sharp scent of pepper spray. The snake shrieked aloud, its lidless, tearless eyes suddenly clogged with a bright orange foam. Laurel squirmed free of it as it started clawing at its face. Around it, the guards suddenly started sagging and shaking their heads, a few exclaiming in surprise.
Evan jumped out from around the corner then, his eyes wide with incredulous fear but his face determined.
“Run!” he bellowed to the awakening guards. “This way! We have to get out!”
Laurel scrambled to her feet as the thing behind her shrieked and struggled to clear the foam from its injured eyes. Jason saw it transform, scales growing over its chest, limbs and face, its lower body fusing and extending into that of a gigantic green-and-brown snake, its belly the same yellow as its hair. Its body lashed against the heavy linoleum floor, taking a chunk out of a nearby wall as Laurel tried to scramble away. The guards were running away, dodging the snake's flailing coils as they followed Evan's lead into the far wing of the building. One got slammed into a wall and knocked unconscious, but two of his coworkers scooped him up and ran off with him.
“You mortal filth!” the snake screeched, still clawing at its eyes. “I will destroy you for this!”
“Jason!” Laurel started running straight for him, fast as she could, desperate relief on her face. He felt his heart lift in hope—
—and then the snake's furiously coiling tail lashed out. It wrapped around her legs, tripping her and then lifting her high off the floor. Before he could do anything, it flung her — high into the air, through the exhibit exit... and over the third-floor railing.
“Laurel!” he bellowed, and blurred after her as fast as he could fly.
Chapter 11: Hatchlings
Laurel thought she was home free for all of three seconds. Then came that damned snake's tail, its grip bruising her through her clothes before whipping her around and flinging her into space. She was too shocked to even scream as she sailed in a long arc, nearly bouncing off the high ceiling before gravity started pulling her down. She saw the third-floor walkway railing pass by under her, and knew she was headed for the ground floor, the hard way.
I guess this is how I die she thought bleakly, and squeezed her eyes shut. Memories of her time with Jason ran through her head, and a terrible regret mixed with the fear. I'm sorry, Jason—
Something warm and leathery wrapped around her; she heard the heavy thud of wings above her, repeating frantically as something held onto her and tried to slow her fall in time. Her stomach lurched at the deceleration, and a moment later she felt her rescuer coil his huge body around her to shield her — just before they hit the ground.
They came to a stop; she felt heat, smelled a familiar scent, and heard a huge heartbeat coming from behind the smooth scales pressed against her cheek. The shape uncoiled from around her, and gently set her down.
She blinked her eyes open to see Jason towering over her.
“Are you all right?”
She hugged his enormous chest as best she could, gasping for air, and heard him let out a little rumble, like a purr.
“I will be. How do we kill this thing?”
“I'll have to get him into open air and then burn him. It won't be easy with those poison fangs, but—”
A heavy clatter from above caught both their attention; they looked up.
“The display case. The eggs.” She looked up at him, “Go! I'll catch up!”
He leaped skyward, not bothering with his wings this time, simply hooking his forepaws over the railing as he reached it and bounding over the edge. She turned and ran for the stairs, glad to have something to burn her adrenaline off with, but terrified of what might happen next.
I nearly died. But Jason saved me. Yet now... the eggs... what's that snake going to do?
She took the stairs two at a time — and was only halfway up the first flight when she heard a roar of outrage and anguish, followed by the snake's fluting and strangely muffled laughter. Oh no... what happened?
When she got up the stairs she saw a familiar-looking security guard watching the confrontation from behind a display case. He looked over at her, dark skin gone ashen, his brown eyes full of fear.
“Holy shit, am I seeing this?”
“You are. But it's better if you pretend after this that you didn't.” He swallowed and nodded, and she smiled in what she hoped was a reassuring fashion. “Just trust me — the dragon's actually the good guy.”
Then she turned and hurried toward the two scaled figures.
“Wait, don't go in there!” he called after her — but she had to.
She skidded to a stop about halfway in, seeing Jason looming over the snake... but the snake was coiled around the case. To her horror, she saw that it had the last of the eggs in its stretched-out mouth, gulping it down whole as she watched.
“Mmm, there,” it crooned mockingly. “Now, I'll just take these home to my offspring. We're done here. Step aside, and I'll let you and your girl live long enough to breed some replacements.”
Jason roared and advanced on him, an envelope of heat rolling off him as he drew a deep breath.
“I will tear those eggs out of your belly!”
The snake coiled up and hissed at him. “Enough of that! Even your claws can't pierce my hide, and if you use your fire the whole building will go up! You must let me go with the eggs, or risk the life of every human here! And if you attack me on the street, you risk witnesses! You know what will happen then! If the humans discover us, they will make war on us! Humans are irrational xenophobes—”
“Jason!” It was the guard's voice calling out, full of anger and determination. “The exhibit's got state of the art fire suppression! Roast that fucker!”
Not all humans, you creep, Laurel thought triumphantly, shielding her eyes.
Jason spat a gout of blue-gold fire at the snake, the heat from it radiating out in a wind that crisped the hair inside her nostrils and forced her to squint. The creature's scream was lost in the roar of the flames as her lover poured everything he had into the blast. It went on, and on, and on, until the screaming died away and the sinuous, blackened outline in the midst of the fire collapsed. A second later, an alarm went off, and nozzles poked from holes in the ceiling, sending icy sprays of carbon dioxide down to smother the fire as Jason scrambled back out of range. It only took a few seconds... and then the nozzles shut off and retracted, the alarm going silent.
All that was left was a blackened spot on the floor... and an enormous, roasted and very dead snake lying in its midst.
Jason bounded over and lashed out with a claw, slitting open the toasted, flaking skin of the thing's belly. Laurel ran forward, and heard the clatter of the guard's uniform shoes as he ran to join them. As they got there, Jason let out a huge sigh of relief... and shrank back down into his human form.
She came to crouch down beside him and saw that he was gingerly cradling one of the eggs. Exposure to dragonfire had started flaking off some of the stony outer covering, revealing a faintly iridescent green beneath. He looked up at her, his eyes a little wet.
“Look,” he said softly. “I think that did it. It's going to hatch in a few hours.”
He handed it over and then he reached down to dig out the next. The green egg was still very warm to the touch, and wiggled just slightly in her hands as she took it. She heard a very faint, sluggish scratching from within.
“Xenophobia my ass. Fuck that guy, I've been waiting for the aliens to land since I was ten.” The guard came to join them, staring at the corpse and the eggs in amazement. “Holy shit. Were those things your babies?”
“Siblings. This is the remainder of the clutch I was born from.” Jason held the next egg — which showed deep purple where the stone was flaking off — against his chest, and offered the man a hand to shake. “Thank you, Evan. Without your help they would have been lost
.”
Evan smiled, panting a little as he shook hands.
“No problem. Now that the monster's gone, this is about the coolest thing I've ever had happen to me. Are you really a dragon?”
“Yeah. One of the last.”
Jason smiled a bit, and glanced at the egg in Laurel's arms... and then down at her belly. No telling if the snake had been lying about her pregnancy, but she was late, and they’d certainly had enough sex to make it a possibility.
Jason set his jaw and looked at the security guard, trying to be serious despite his excitement.
“What does the Academy get told about this fire?”
“Well, the guys are all disoriented, I don't think they'll remember much of anything,” Evan admitted. “Guess it was a side effect of that hypnosis crap. As for me, I'll just say I showed up while the fire was being put out.”
He peered worriedly at the giant snake corpse... but even now, it was crumbling, turned to a loose sculpture of ash by the fury of the fire. Evan walked behind the now blackened case, retrieved the key, and put it back on his keyring.
“I know the security cameras are malfunctioning, I checked them while I was hiding. Nice trick.”
“Thank you.” Jason handed Laurel the purple one and dug out the last two: one deep crimson, and one a dark sea blue. He paused only long enough to hand Evan a card. “I owe you a gigantic favor. As long as you keep your mouth shut about my people, you can feel free to call it in at any time. And believe me, I can come through to solve a multitude of problems.”
Evan took the card and offered one of his own in return, still staring between the eggs.
“That's good to know. Security guard jobs don't pay too well, and I run out of options sometimes.”
“We can talk about that. Call me, I'll have you over for dinner.” At Evan's wide-eyed look, he corrected, “I meant barbecue.” At Evan's even wider-eyed look, he corrected again. “I meant barbecued steaks.”
“...Oh.” Evan grinned tentatively. “Just checking.”
Bound to Change: A Limited Edition Spring Shifter Romance Collection Page 68