by Zara Stark
"Did I see this around your waist earlier?" He asked.
"Yes," I snatched it out of his hand and buckled it around my waist. "I know, I know, Cobalt already gave me a lecture about it. I've been losing weight. But I didn't lose it all in a day and so I can't put it all back on in a day either."
"I was just asking," Azar told me with wide eyes.
"Oh," My cheeks burned. "Sorry for the outburst. I really wasn't looking for another lecture."
I glared at Cobalt.
"I care about you, I didn't mean to coddle you," Cobalt huffed.
"You're sweet and I knew it came from a good place but I'm a grown woman. I can handle those types of things myself," I walked up to him and gave him a kiss on the cheek.
"What about me?" Azar fake whined. I laughed and walked over to him, giving him a kiss too.
"There you go," I patted his cheek. "Are you ready?"
"Yes," Azar said.
Cobalt didn't say anything, he walked out of the room and beckoned for us to follow behind him. Azar and I trailed after him, meeting him back in the main room with the pools of magma.
"About time," Vulcan huffed. "I thought I was going to have to go back in there and stop you from breaking in my bed with the metal dragon."
My cheeks heated up. "Sorry again, I mean, that really wasn't appropriate. It's not an excuse but we really couldn't help ourselves."
"Dragons and their mates," Vulcan rolled his eyes. "You're all sex and hormones. I think it would be easier for theGodsif we had the same types of fated connections. My marriage might be better at least."
I looked over the deity again, he might be scarred with a metal leg but he was very attractive under the dirt and grime. His otherworldly height and features might be godlike and beautiful but the ill-fit of his strophion, his disheveled hair and the poor state of his home made me think he was single.
"You have a wife?" I asked.
"You really don't know?" He asked in a strange tone. "I'm married to Venus, goddess of love and beauty."
"I thought the myths said she boinked Mars," Azar word vomited out, making Cobalt and I both wince.
The lava pools around us bubbled hot and the volcano rumbled around us. Vulcan really hadn't liked that.
"Don't remind me. She prefers him to me," Vulcan looked away, uncomfortable.
"Well maybe you'll find a nice girl dragon and you won't be lonely anymore," I tried to comfort him but his entire face fell at the word lonely. Oops. I really was just as bad as Azar.
"The metal dragon told me a bit of your plan," Vulcan cleared his throat, his faraway look disappeared and he focused on me once more. "To petition the Gods. Mars will be one of them."
"And?" I sensed a favor coming.
"He's not going to agree with you. The world is constantly at war, feeding his power. He doesn't even need the Dragon Gladiator Games to power him but he still won't agree with you. He's a greedy bastard," Vulcan started.
"So what are you proposing?" I asked him.
"Something to help the both of us out, you seem to not know the stories of the gods, at least not in detail," He walked away from us, pulling a small golden box the size of a deck of cards off of the wall. He stomped back over to us and roughly pressed it into my hands. It was plain-looking, a flat gold with no design or shine except for an ivory button in the center of it.
"What’s this?" I asked him, I looked back up at the god. His blue eyes were alight with pleasure, it was almost scary.
"Mars will be in his fortress with Venus, if you press that button when you're in the presence of them both, they will agree to whatever you want them too," The god let out a mad laugh. "Just make sure you make him swear to Rhea when he agrees to dissolve the games."
"Thank you but you were so forthright about helping us being a transaction that we had to pay for. What are you getting out of this?" I asked him.
"Satisfaction? Vengeance? Undeniable pleasure? Take your pick," He shrugged. "Don't worry, it won't kill them."
A chill ran down my spine. Hell hath no fury like a blacksmith god scorned apparently.
"Gotcha," I nodded to him, I put the small box into my card holster with my deck.
"That concludes our business, if you have need of me again, meaning you want to trade for more rare metals you can contact me through Iris," Vulcan said in a monotone, snapping his fingers.
The world around us faded away once more, we all winced at the bright sunlight that burned our eyes.
"Well that was very interesting," Cobalt said.
"It definitely was, are you going to really do it, Octavia?" Azar asked me. "Are you going to do what he wants?"
"I think so, I mean Venus is cheating on him with Mars, Mars knows she's married, cheating is wrong," I shrugged. "He said it wouldn't kill them."
"I agree, Vulcan is a very dangerous deity to cross, he makes all of their magical weapons and relics. She could ask for a divorce if she really wanted one but instead, she enjoys causing Vulcan pain. Vulcan is too in love with her to ask for a divorce. He talked about her the entire time I was making the Rhodium for him. Telling me all about the jewelry he makes for her, all the tiaras. If he wasn't a deity. I would have told him he was pathetic," Cobalt growled.
"Harsh," I shook my head. "I really don't want to get caught in the middle of their cuckold drama. I was just rationalizing to you guys that we shouldn't feel guilty for using whatever this is. We should use it because it gives us a leg up on the Concilium. Tefra said that Mars was going to be the hard sell anyways, this eliminates that problem."
"Tefra this, Tefra that," Cobalt growled, running his fingers along the phoenix feather in my hair.
"So jealous," I admonished him.
"I know it's ridiculous, possessive not jealous though," Cobalt pointed out. " I know I never have anything to be jealous of. You only have eyes for us. You belong to us."
"Or you all below to me," I hugged him. Azar came up and hugged me from behind.
"Why not both? You can belong to us and we can belong to you." Azar leaned down behind me. His arms were tight. He kissed my neck softly, making me shiver.
"We gotta stop," Cobalt pulled away. "If we start this, we aren't going to get very far today. We have to find Raiden and Nevada."
"So what? Those assholes can wait," Azar pulled me into his chest, pressing his hard cock against my back.
"We made a rule, we travel during the day and we do whatever we want at night," Cobalt glared at Azar.
"How funny, mister motorcycles and tattoos suddenly has rules," Azar laughed, the gesture making my entire body vibrate against him. I couldn't help but rub my ass against his erection, making him press harder. Cobalt's nostrils flared and his pupils dilated.
"Don't encourage him Tavia, imagine how much sweeter it will be tonight after waiting all day," He said in a low, rough voice, making me shiver again.
"Delayed gratification, now that is definitely more Cobalt," I bit my bottom lip, removing Azar's arms from around me.
"He's right Zar, we've got the entire night to do whatever we want," I smoothed down my dress and tried to calm my heartbeat. "We need a plan, to get to Northern Italy the most direct path is through or in our case over Rome."
"We can't do that, all of these other small towns might not have any way to hurt a dragon but the Concilium holds Rome. We can't risk it," Cobalt spoke up.
"We can't go over the sea, it will take us longer than twelve hours to get to the Genoa Valley," Azar complained. "Water and fire dragons don't exactly mix. I'm pretty powered up from soaking in lava every day for more than a month. I don't want to lose that power to freaking sea water."
"We've been stopping at night to sleep on merchant ships, commandeer their bedrooms. Do you think you could at least stand water for a minute or two?" I asked.
Cobalt and Azar both shook their heads.
"We can't afford him losing power for a silly reason and those ships are heading to and from Rome, we can't have merchant entering Rome
telling everyone about a beautiful brunette parading around with a fire and metal dragon," Cobalt sighed, running a hand down his face. "We're too recognizable near Rome. Fuck this. Getting from Genoa to the Alps will be easy but this leg of our journey is going to be rough as fuck."
"Okay, what if we fly to over the sea today and land on one of the islands west of here? Like Corsica or Sardinia?" I asked him. "That solves the Rome issue and the water issue. It is a bit out of our way but it will only add a few days to the trip."
"And a few nights of alone time," Azar purred from behind me.
I rolled my eyes at him. "Yes, a few extra days of travel and a few extra nights of Cobalt and Azar time for me."
"It will also give us a few extra days to come up with a plan for Raiden," Cobalt scowled. "That motherfucker is going to be hard to take down."
"Scared old man?" Azar laughed.
"Raiden is the most in touch with his element, he's got a million uses for it. Do you want to get caught in his EM field?! Idiot!" Cobalt yelled at Azar. I sighed, we were back to the arguing.
"It really is too bad that Nevada is even farther away, magnetism doesn't work in extreme cold. You guys might be all powered up from eating gold and lava but I bet Nevada is especially suped up right now," I pointed out.
"I didn't know that!" Azar's eyes went wide in shock.
"And why would you? Nevada doesn't bring stuff up for no reason and he had no reason here in hot and humid ancient Italy," I shrugged at him. "It was just a random thought. I wonder if my Moon card will be enough to use against him," I thought aloud.
"See? Extra time means extra planning," Cobalt shrugged.
"Now you're sounding like Raiden," Azar laughed.
"We're going to have to if we're going to defeat the master of strategy," I looked back and forth between them. "Do you think he's as clever in dragon form?"
"Right now? No, all I thought before you found me was eat, destroy, hoard again and again. Eat. Destroy. Hoard. Over and over," Cobalt's words made a chill run down my spine. "Now in dragon form, coherent thought is getting easier but not until you turned me back."
"Same," Azar pointed out. "We've got an advantage there."
I nodded, smiling. "Well let's get this show on the road. Who am I riding today?"
They both chuckled at me.
Chapter 17
"I mean which dragon's back am I riding on, you pervs!" I laughed.
"Uh huh, sure Tavia," Azar's tanned face stretched into a large grin that made my heart flutter in my chest. I was so happy to have him back.
"Hush you," I swatted at his chest. He stepped into my little assault and wrapped his arms around me again.
"I want you to ride me today. Both in dragon form and in human form tonight," Azar whispered in my ear.
"Stop it," Cobalt rolled his eyes now. "She's riding me. I can move my spikes to lock her on my back, so she's safe. There's no argument, she's riding me."
"Fine. But should I even shift then? Wouldn't riding on your back draw less attention to us than two dragons flying together?" Azar asked.
"You need to get used to your dragon form and keeping your human mind at the same time," Cobalt vetoed. "It will get easier every day."
They stripped and I tried not to watch them. For my own sanity and for theirs. They tossed their clothes at me and I haphazardly folded them, stuffing them into my bag.
When I looked back both dragons were perched on the side of the volcano. I nodded my head to Azar and he nodded back, it was still Azar in there and not the mindless creature that had hurt Cobalt the day before.
I walked over to Cobalt, he already had his spikes aligned for me into a ladder. I didn't waste any time, climbing up his back. I settled into my spot behind his neck and his spikes pushed through his scales to lock around me. It was weird how normal all of this was becoming.
We took off into the air with a few pumps of Cobalt's wings. Azar was right behind us. We climbed higher in the sky until Mount Vesuvius was just a black speck below. They flew west, or at least I hoped they did. I had no idea where the hell I was so I was glad they did at least.
We flew back over Pompeii but we were so high up it was hard to tell what was below. I slumped forward, falling asleep against Cobalt.
I came to much later when the setting sun sunk low on the western horizon. The sky and see reflected the burnt orange and pink of the setting sun. I rubbed at my eyes and stretched my arms up, cracking my back. Azar must have tired me out more than I thought the night before. A few miles ahead of us was land, I was guessing it was the island of Sardinia. I didn't know a lot about Sardinia, I was pretty sure at his point in history it was part of the Roman Empire or at least slowly becoming colonized by the Romans. Cobalt and Azat beat their wings harder, making us come upon the land fast. Below Sardinia looked like it was all beautiful bitches and rolling green hills. We came arrived at a large city, that had to be the capital of Cagliari. Cagliari was what it was called in my time, I wasn't sure if it was called that now but it was the largest city in Sardinia and it sat on the southern tip of the massive island. It was full of hundreds of bright building made of varying colors of stone, the city glowed like a rainbow against the bright sunset.
Cobalt and Azar landed outside of the city. I slid off of Cobalt's back, pulling their clothes from my bag. They shifted back and I tossed them their clothing.
"Nice nap, Tavia?" Azar walked up to me, hugging me tightly.
"Yeah, sorry I fell asleep," I chuckled in his arms.
"You were so cute, all hunched over his back, snoring just a little bit," Azar grinned.
"Stop! I do not snore, you liar," I glared at him but I could hardly keep a grin from spreading over my face.
"He's not wrong, you do snore," Cobalt shrugged.
"I must really be tired," I sighed. "Cobalt you must be exhausted. You were up synthesizing Rhodium all night and flew all day today with me on your back. Are you okay?"
"I'm fine, I would like some food though," Cobalt rubbed his stomach.
"Let's go see what Cagliari has to offer," Azar looped his arm through mine and pulled me toward the city gates, Cobalt followed behind.
We wandered around the city, taking in the beautiful and colorful architecture. Cobalt and Azar got large portions of spit-roasted meat and I got an assortment of bread, cheese, and fruit. We found a spot on the beach to eat. We watched the sunset and ate in silence, Cobalt on one side and Azar on the other. They finished their food a lot faster than I did. I for one was savoring mine. Just as I stuffed the last bit of cheese in my mouth with a fig, Cobalt pulled me to my feet and set off to find an inn for us to stay at for the night.
Just like any other town. The three of us made quite an impression on the locals. Men gave my guys a wide berth but women sighed as they passed, glaring at me and the marks decorating my neck. Couples walked along the street by the beach, it made me realize how deep in my little harem I was, I had completely forgotten that women were sometimes with only one other person.
"What are you thinking about?" Azar asked as I people watched.
"Thinking about how right it feels that we're together again," I smiled up at him His copper hair looked pink in the evening light, bright and loud. I reached up to twist a strand through my fingers.
"You really did miss us didn't you?" Azar chuckled.
"Duh," I scoffed at him.
Cobalt finally found us an inn, a large stone building covered in verdant vines that snaked up the outer walls. The clerk nearly jumped out of his skin at the sight of us. His bronze skin went pale as his eyes took in Cobalt and Azar. No words seemed to be necessary, the man took our gold and ran around the counter leading us to a room. He opened the door for us and sped away without a word.
"Poor guy, he was terrified of you two," I watched the clerk retreat.
"We weren't doing anything to scare him, just one look at us made him terrified," Cobalt sighed. "Dragons are feared all over the world. Humans at least in this day
and age seem to be able to sense one, even masked in human skin."
We had barely settled into the room when Cobalt gave me a dark look. I quirked an eyebrow at him and he smirked. I turned to look at Azar.
“Zar?” I asked him.
He looked at me with a curious expression. “Yeah?”
“Cobalt had a little idea,” I started, grinning nervously.
“Threesome?” He asked in a nonchalant voice.