Fang and Claw: Nocturne Academy, Book 2

by Anderson, Evangeline

I thought there was something very cat-like about it, except for its long neck, which reminded me a little of a giraffe’s. It’s head—which was shaped more like a horse’s than a crocodile’s—towered several stories above us in the sky.

  “Oh,” Megan breathed beside me. “I thought it was going to look like a T-rex or a snake.”

  “Or maybe an iguana or something,” Emma breathed.

  But in fact, Ari’s Drake didn’t look like any of those things, I thought. He didn’t look like a clumsy, flying dinosaur or a snake with wings or anything reptilian at all, really. He just looked like…himself.

  And with that, I realized I was thinking of the Drake as a “he” rather than an “it.” I wondered how that had happened.

  “I have never seen a Drake in his beast form up close.” Griffin’s voice was low and awed. “Truly he is an awe-inspiring sight.”

  “And I thought he looked magnificent half-naked in his human form,” Avery breathed. “But this is amazing.”

  “He’s gorgeous,” Emma agreed. She looked at me. “Kaitlyn, I think he wants you to go to him.”

  For the Drake had curved his long neck down very gracefully so that his enormous, dinner-plate-sized eye was on the same level as my head. The eye didn’t have a slitted pupil like a cat’s—it didn’t have any pupil at all, that I could see. It was simply a pure, brilliant gold and the Drake was regarding me with it intently.

  “I think Emmers is right, Katydid,” Avery remarked softly. “But it’s up to you if you want to or not. We’ll stand with you either way.”

  “Th-thank you,” I somehow managed to get out. “I think…think you’re right, Avery. I think he wants me to…to go to him.” I took a deep breath. “And I think I should.”

  It took almost more courage than I thought I had to drop my friends’ hands and step forward to go to the huge beast, but somehow I knew I had to. When Ari had asked me to meet his Drake, he hadn’t meant I should just stand in the moonlight gawking at him. No, in order to actually make the Drake’s acquaintance, I would have to get up close and personal with him—a lot more up close and personal than I actually wanted to.

  You have no idea, until you try it yourself, how hard it is to walk towards an animal that is very clearly dangerous—a predator that you know could eat you in a few bloody bites. Walking towards that danger instead of running away goes against an instinct that has been hardwired into humans since the cavemen days. Simply put, you don’t go towards a grizzly bear—you run from it. Forcing yourself to do otherwise is incredibly difficult.

  Imagine walking towards a lion or a tiger with no bars or fences between you and the massive cat. Now imagine that the lion or tiger you’re headed for is as big as a building and could eat you literally in one bite. If you can picture that, you might have some idea of how I felt as I approached the Drake.

  He still had his head lowered and I saw that the head itself was longer than my entire body was tall. He had his enormous head all the way down, so that his chin was resting on the ground, and I could see that he had a pair of curving white horns which swooped straight back from his forehead in a graceful arc over his long neck. He had ears like a horse and they were pricked forward, as though waiting to hear anything I might say to him. Should I talk? What should I say?

  “Hello,” I murmured, feeling foolish.

  The Drake didn’t make any reply, he just kept looking at me. His skin was made of many tiny interlocking scales, the size of my thumbnail. They were royal purple with an iridescent tinge of emerald green—they glimmered like jewels in the moonlight

  Really, he was a beautiful creature, I thought. If only he wasn’t so big. Still, I walked closer and the Drake held perfectly still, not moving or saying a word—if he could even speak in this form, which I wasn’t sure about. He just stayed completely immobile, as though waiting for me to make the first move—whatever that ought to be. I had no idea.

  I watched his flaring nostrils—again like a horse’s—but there wasn’t so much as a puff of smoke, let alone any fire or a jet of flame coming from them. It seemed that Ari’s Drake was on his best behavior and it occurred to me that he was trying very hard not to scare me, which was probably difficult when I was about the same size to him that a very small kitten would be to me.

  What could he possibly want with me?

  Earlier I’d had the nightmarish thought that he wanted to eat me, but now I rejected the idea because it just wasn’t practical. I wouldn’t even make a mouthful for him—he probably wouldn’t even taste me. What would be the point of doing something as socially unacceptable as eating me—which would doubtless get Ari into endless trouble—when the payoff would be slim to none in the flavor department?

  So again the question remained, why did the Drake want me?

  He looked at me steadily with those golden eyes and it occurred to me, as though someone had whispered the thought in my ear, that he wanted me to touch him. And also, that he wanted to touch me—to hold me the same way Ari did when he cradled me against his chest—but the Drake was holding himself back. Doubtless because he knew that if he reached for me with his big, taloned claw I would run away screaming, unable to overcome my instinct to get away from predators and danger anymore.

  “Should I touch you?” I asked him, feeling foolish again. “Do…do you want me to?”

  In answer, the Drake gave a very soft snort. The sound was very like something a horse makes when it’s feeling friendly and inquisitive, although it was a great deal deeper, of course. It put me at ease because it reminded me of the summer camp my Mom used to take me to before The Fire. It was an equestrian riding camp and I had actually become a pretty good rider in the several years that I went there.

  I came right up to the Drake’s long muzzle, looking him in the eye as I went. I felt mesmerized by the swirling golden depths—pulled towards him by some force I didn’t understand. Slowly, as though moving underwater or in slow motion, I put out a hand and stroked his nose, exactly as I might have done with a horse—a really huge horse—to get to know him.

  The moment I touched his skin, everything changed.

  At the skin-to-skin contact, I could suddenly hear him. Not like a voice in my mind, though. It was more like a river of emotion flowing through the enormous beast, which now flowed through me, too.

  And the emotion I felt was love.

  Love and longing and protectiveness and possessiveness and desire—all of those strong currents flowed through the immense being before me and now they flowed into me as well. It was like his feelings were a rainbow of light pouring into me, filling me, connecting me to the Drake in a way I hadn’t even known was possible.

  “Oh,” I whispered, looking into the vast, swirling golden eye. “Oh, now I understand.”

  The Drake sent a feeling of joy and relief, but it seemed to be mixed with a bit of smugness as well. Ari had been afraid I wouldn’t see that we were meant to be together, he informed me—though how he was sending me these complex thoughts without words was difficult to understand. Still he managed to inform me that Ari had thought I would be frightened of him and run away.

  “I was frightened,” I admitted, speaking aloud and knowing he understood me even though we weren’t, strictly speaking, communicating in the same way. “You’re so big.”

  The Drake informed me that a person could not be judged solely by his or her size alone. The very idea was ridiculous—as was the idea that a size difference could or should limit the love between people.

  “I didn’t understand why you wanted me,” I admitted to him. “I thought I was too small, too insignificant for, er, someone like you to…to be interested in me. The same way I didn’t think Ari could want me—because he’s so handsome and perfect and well, I’m not. I’m scarred.”

  As I spoke, the scars on my back throbbed again, pulsing in time with a deeper beat I felt all around me, like a dragon’s heartbeat.

  The Drake told me my feelings of inadequacy and insecurity were all nonsense
. You couldn’t judge a person by what their exterior looked like anymore than you could by their size. He had seen into my heart, he told me. That day on the field, he had looked into me and known—just known—that I was the one for him and for Ari.

  “But how can you know?” I asked, shaking my head. “How can you be sure?”

  At last, the Drake’s emotions seemed to coalesce into words inside my head. It seemed he could talk in more conventional ways—if you called telepathy conventional—if he wanted to.

  “You have the heart of a dragon—the heart of a Drake. I see it burning inside you, like a living coal,” he told me. “You are special—my L’lorna. You are MINE.”

  Then he stopped speaking and sent the feeling that he wanted me to touch him some more.

  Up until now, I’d had my hand resting very lightly on his long nose. Now I stroked him more easily. And then, on impulse, I threw my arms as far around his massive head as I could reach and hugged him.

  “Um, Katydid? Do you think you ought to be doing that?” It was Avery’s voice behind me and he sounded nervous.

  “It’s all right,” I told him, not turning around, still hugging my Drake. “It’s all right, Avery—he would never hurt me.”

  Of course he wouldn’t hurt me! the Drake informed me. He wanted only to treasure and love me always. He wanted only to protect me and keep me safe from anyone who would harm me.

  This was basically what Ari had been telling me too, ever since he’d admitted how he really felt for me and kissed my scars. But somehow, with the Drake, it was easier to believe. Maybe because we were two different species and he was a beast and not a perfect, Greek-god-like guy who should have been so far out of my league it wasn’t funny.

  Or maybe it was the fact that through our new connection, I could feel everything the Drake was feeling. There could be no doubt and no holding back when his love and tenderness for me came through so loud and clear. It was like having a radio station in my head tuned to the self-affirmation channel which sent me only positive thoughts and emotions.

  I rubbed my cheek against the Drake’s nose and breathed in his warm, spicy scent which wasn’t that different from Ari’s.

  “Oh,” I whispered. “You’re so soft. I thought you would be hard and scaly but you’re not at all—you’re like touching warm silk.”

  Indeed, the tiny interlocking scales weren’t hard and cold like diamonds or oily feeling like a snake’s either. Instead, they felt like warm velvet under my hands and cheek. It made me want to cuddle up to the Drake, as though he was a giant teddy bear. I felt that safe with him—that cared for and protected.

  But it was clear from the throat-clearing and foot-shuffling coming from my Coven behind me, that my friends didn’t quite understand what was going on. Obviously the sight of me cuddling with a monstrous dragon made them feel nervous.

  “Um, Kaitlyn?” Megan’s voice was high and uncertain. “Are you sure that’s safe? I mean, getting so close like that?”

  “You’re practically draped all over it!” Emma’s voice was little more than a squeak.

  “Not it,” I said, lifting my head and turning to them at last, though I kept my hand on the long, soft muzzle. “Him. The Drake is…what’s the word for it? Oh, right—he’s sentient. I mean, he can think as well as we can and…and he’s communicating with me.”

  “What is he saying?” Griffin, alone among the group, sounded more interested and less scared—maybe because as a True Nocturne, he was a predator himself.

  “He’s saying…” I felt my cheeks heat in a blush but forced myself to go on. “He’s saying he loves me,” I told them. “He loves me and he wants to protect me always. He…he never wants us to be parted.”

  The Drake reinforced this thought strongly in my head. Of course we could never be parted! We belonged together. I was his treasure—his L’lorna—I must not leave him. I must stay close to him so that he could guard me and protect me always.

  “Don’t worry,” I told him, stroking his long, velvety muzzle. “I won’t.”

  “Um, you won’t what?” Avery asked, frowning.

  “I won’t leave him,” I answered. “He’s asking me to come with him to the Sky Lands. And I’m going.”

  64

  Kaitlyn

  Of course, my announcement caused a lot of consternation and worry among my Coven.

  “Kaitlyn, you can’t just fly away to a whole other world!” Megan protested.

  “Do you even know where the Sky Lands are?” Avery asked, frowning.

  “You’re going to get expelled!” Emma warned, looking worried.

  Again, Griffin was the only one who seemed to understand.

  “Let her go,” he said quietly. “She needs to go.”

  “You can’t know that!” Megan flared, turning on him. “Don’t advise Kaitlyn to go off with a giant dragon she’s never even seen before to God-knows-where with no warning like this!”

  Griffin took her hands in his and looked into her eyes.

  “My darling,” he said gently but firmly. “Can you not feel the connection between them? The force that pulls them together? It is the same force that pulled the two of us into each others’ orbit, though we didn’t understand why. We didn’t know at the time that you were destined to be the Witch Queen or I your Blood Knight—we only knew that being together felt right. And that the idea of parting felt wrong.”

  Megan bit her lip.

  “I guess I can see that,” she admitted grudgingly, at last. “But I worry about Kaitlyn! I don’t like the idea of her going off to a strange land with nobody she knows to protect her.”

  The corners of Griffin’s mouth twitched.

  “Megan,” he murmured, “Do you really think that any one of us can protect Kaitlyn as well as a ten-ton Drake with teeth like daggers, talons like swords, and the ability to breathe flames?”

  “What about that, though?” Avery asked, frowning. “I mean, what about the flame breath?” He looked at me. “Aren’t you afraid of that anymore?”

  I looked at the Drake, who was still regarding me steadily with his large golden eyes.

  “Once you are Blood-Bonded to Ari, my flame cannot burn you,” he told me quite clearly. “And until then, I will be very, very careful, my L’lorna. I would rather die than harm you in any way.”

  The truth of his words—of his love—flowed over and around and through me. I think there’s a verse in the Bible that says something like, “Perfect love casts out all fear.” And that was what I felt now—perfect love. I was so filled with it, there was no room for my fear of his fire anymore.

  I might have been scarred by The Fire and I might fear other flames, but not the Drake’s. Because his would never be directed at me—they would only ever be used to protect and defend me, always.

  But this was too complicated to explain to Avery. So I simply said,

  “No, I’m not afraid. Not anymore.”

  Avery frowned. “I feel like he’s got you hypnotized, Kaitlyn! I don’t like this sudden change. You were scared to death and now you’re acting like this enormous dragon is your new best friend. I mean, the Goddess only knows what’s going on here!”

  I looked back at the Drake, troubled that Avery would think that way.

  “He just doesn’t understand,” I told him, frowning. “Can you…do you think you can make him—make all of them—understand that you don’t want to hurt me?”

  The Drake snorted uncertainly. He would never have the same connection with any of my friends that he had with me, he told me. But he thought that maybe if they would touch him, he could help them understand how he felt for me—at least a little. He would try, anyway, if they were willing.

  I turned back towards my Coven.

  “He wants to help you understand he won’t hurt me,” I said, translating the complex emotional message as best I could. “He says if all of you will come up and touch him, maybe he can make you see.”

  “What—so he can hypnotize us too?” Av
ery snorted, crossing his arms over his chest. “I don’t think so!”

  But Griffin and Megan were already coming forward to stand with me. And next Emma came as well, moving a little tentatively and looking at the Drake with wide, uncertain eyes but moving towards him all the same.

  “Come, Avery,” Griffin said, turning to my last Coven-mate, who was still frowning mulishly and holding his ground. “It’s not any kind of a trick or a hoax. I know you cannot fully understand because you haven’t found your fated-mate yet, but there is truth here. Truth and love.”

  “Well…” Avery frowned and grumbled but at last he threw up his hands. “Fine—I’ll come.”

  He walked over to where we were all standing, in a group around the Drake’s enormous head.

  “All right,” I said when they were all together. “Now everyone put out a hand and touch him—here, with me.”

  I showed how I had one hand on the long, velvety muzzle—in fact, I hadn’t stopped touching him since I had first started—I couldn’t bear to.

  My friends looked at each other and I could practically hear their thoughts. Just because I was petting the grizzly bear or the T-rex- or the saber-toothed tiger, did that mean they should too?

  Then Griffin put out a long white hand and laid it firmly on the Drake’s long nose. Megan followed and then Emma and finally Avery. At last we were all touching him at once.

  “All right,” I said to the Drake. “Show them—show them how you feel for me. How we feel for each other.”

  I felt the Drake getting ready to give his best effort and then he really let go.

  Had I thought I was flooded with his emotions before? Well, I was nearly drowning in them now. But drowning in a good way, if that makes any sense. It occurred to me that I had never felt such love and acceptance since my mother had died and though the Drake’s love for me wasn’t maternal in nature, that’s what it was like. It was unconditional…overwhelming…never-ending and overflowing.

  Wonderful.

  I could tell that my friends were feeling it too, though maybe not quite as strongly as I was.