Dragon Protectors: Shifter Romance Collection

by Lola Gabriel

  4

  Beatrice grabbed Scarlet by the arm and yanked her around the side of the van as she returned from the washroom. Her twin’s face was a mask of fury.

  “What did you say to Theo Tallant?” Scarlet eyed her sister, an unexpected blush coloring her cheeks.

  “Who?” she murmured, and Beatrice scowled.

  “You know who! Theo Tallant!” She pointed toward the arena, and Scarlet’s cheeks reddened more.

  “About what?” she asked innocently.

  “In general! He came here looking for you a few minutes ago like you were old friends!” Scarlet was unreasonably pleased by the information.

  “Did he?” She hadn’t expected to be so charmed by the attractive dragon, but when he set his golden eyes on her, she couldn’t help feeling warmed by the way he looked at her. “I only asked him where to set up, just like you asked.”

  “Stop grinning like a fool!” Beatrice snapped. “What were you thinking, becoming chummy with someone like him?”

  Inexplicably, Scarlet felt a wave of defensiveness overcome her.

  “You don’t know anything about him!” she protested. “And since when are you so staunchly against the Tallants? You’ve been acting weird ever since you took this gig. If you’re so anti-dragon, maybe we should just pack up and go home!”

  “And how would you know what my sentiments are?” Beatrice bit back. “You’re off chasing men all the time.”

  Scarlet was stung by the statement. “Bea!”

  “What?” Beatrice demanded. “Are you going to deny it? If it’s not Cal, you’re flirting with dragons!”

  Scarlet could only gape at her sister in disbelief.

  “You’re awfully testy,” she murmured. “Are you all right?” There was genuine concern in her tone. Beatrice was acting unusually strange with each passing hour.

  “Just stay away from the Tallants and any of their counterparts,” Beatrice insisted. “In fact, stay out of sight today. I don’t want Theo Tallant coming around again.”

  I do! Scarlet thought, but she kept her sentiments to herself and frowned, crossing her arms over her chest.

  “What do you want me to do? Hide?” Beatrice grimaced and looked around.

  “Just… just stay in the tent,” she said. “I’ll do all the loading and unloading.”

  Scarlet wasn’t sure what to answer to that and instead exhaled.

  “Okay, Bea,” she relented. “Whatever you want.” She didn’t feel like getting into it with her sister, and she made her way back into the tent, looking around for another glimpse of Theo. To her disappointment, he had disappeared with his weyr in preparation for the day.

  Bea is just stressed about all the work, she thought. She’ll be back to herself after she gets into her groove. With a huge sigh, Scarlet tried to focus her attention on the daunting task of setting up, but she found her mind wandering back to Theo Tallant. It wasn’t just a one-sided attraction, she mused. Not if he came looking for me.

  The idea made her heart race faster. She felt like a silly schoolgirl who had caught a glimpse of her schoolyard crush at recess.

  You’re a grown woman and he’s a Tallant, she chided herself. Beatrice is right—I can’t have anything to do with him. Dragons and witches don’t mix. Anyway, you have Cal. She groaned aloud at the thought of her on-again-off-again boyfriend who couldn’t commit to anything more than being a cheat. You aren’t with Cal, even if you keep going back to him. He doesn’t call you or text you. You just keep hoping he’ll change.

  For the first time since she could remember, though, Scarlet sincerely didn’t care about Cal and what became of him. In fact, compared to the towering form of Theo Tallant, Cal hardly seemed like a man at all. Scarlet’s mind was only on the emcee of events that weekend.

  She looked up and realized that the park had filled substantially as she had fallen into her daydream. Most of the tents had been set up, and the sun was rising high in the morning sky. A quick glance at her cell phone told Scarlet that it was almost ten o’clock.

  Gates open at eleven, she remembered from the flyers, but she was ready to go. Curiously, her sister was nowhere in sight.

  Leaving the stew pots to simmer on the burners, Scarlet wiped her hands on her apron and wandered out to find her twin. To her surprise, she couldn’t see Beatrice anywhere.

  Great, she sighed to herself. She left me to deal with everyone once the Festival starts. Is this my punishment for being so absent the past few days? That wasn’t really Beatrice’s style, but Scarlet didn’t know what else to think.

  Slowly, she walked around the exterior of the food tent, her eyes peeled toward the pathways. There was still no sign of her twin.

  Sighing with annoyance, Scarlet pulled her phone out of her purse to text Beatrice, but as she did, her sister appeared in the distance, almost running toward her.

  “Where did you go?” Scarlet demanded. “I thought you’d left me here.”

  “That’s what you do; not me. I would never just leave you.” Beatrice retorted. “I’m surprised you’re still here, come to think of it. I thought maybe you’d disappeared behind Theo Tallant’s back.”

  “Okay, enough about that,” Scarlet groaned. “I went to ask him where to set up, that’s all. Stop making something out of nothing.” Beatrice scoffed.

  “The gates are about to open. Let’s go.” She didn’t give her sister an opportunity to answer before stalking back inside the food tent to wait for the horde to show.

  “I’m going to use the washroom,” Scarlet told her.

  “Again?”

  Scarlet scowled. “I was staying hydrated. It’s going to be scorching behind the burners in this sun. Add the dragon’s—”

  “Oh, all right, just hurry up,” Beatrice grumbled, and Scarlet moved toward the makeshift arena where the fights would be held later. She was hoping to catch Theo before he went to show with the other warriors.

  The shows were at two-hour intervals, the winners of the previous battle taking on the next biggest dragon. As far as the public knew, they were an intricate set of costumes, made especially for the Festival of the Immortal, and the dragons knew better than to do anything which might cause the mortals to think otherwise, like morph or breathe real fire.

  For the most part, it was a sparring match with lots of smoke but no real blood. The losers were pre-chosen, as was the winner in the end.

  I imagine that Theo will be the winner this year, Scarlet thought as she lurked around the arena, looking for him. A small shiver ran through her the moment her eyes fell on the other dragons, still in their human forms, waiting for their battles to start. Theo could certainly take any of these guys. Probably with his eyes closed.

  “Are you lost, Scarlet?”

  She jumped at the sound of her name and glanced to her left, where a vaguely familiar man stood, peering at her pensively. How does he know my name? Have we met before?

  “Uh… no… I’m sorry, you are…?”

  He cast her a sheepish grin. “I’m Bran—Theo’s cousin. I was there this morning when you were looking for a place to set up.”

  “Oh!” she laughed. “Of course.” She had no idea who he was, but she assumed what he was saying was true. Should she ask him where to find Theo? Thankfully, he saved her the embarrassment and nodded toward the wings of the stadium.

  “Theo is just giving last minute instructions to the… actors,” he explained, and Scarlet smothered a smile.

  Actors. I wonder how the leader of the warriors feels about calling his soldiers “actors.”

  “Should I tell him you were looking for him?”

  “Oh! I wasn’t!” she lied before she could stop herself and blushed furiously.

  “Oh, no?” he asked, winking suggestively. “Were you looking for me then?” Scarlet was certain her cheeks were as red as her name.

  “No… no, I obviously went the wrong way looking for the bathrooms,” she fibbed, and Bran’s grin widened.

  “That way,”
he told her, pointing in the opposite direction. She smiled gratefully and hurried away before she could humiliate herself more.

  You have the entire weekend to speak with him if you want, Scarlet reminded herself, moving back toward the food tent before Beatrice came looking for her. But instead of finding herself at her sister’s side, she walked directly into Theo’s path. Or maybe I can speak with him now, she thought, pleased with herself. She shoved aside the cautionary voice in her head which asked her why she was so shamelessly pursuing this man. Glutton for punishment. That’s why.

  “Hi,” she said, and he stared at her warily.

  “Hello,” Theo replied slowly. “How are you?”

  “Good. Great. I— We’re all set up now.” She waved her hand irrelevantly behind herself to prove her point and almost hung her head with the embarrassment of the action. He’s turning me into a blubbering fool. What is it about him?

  “That’s good…” He seemed uncomfortable, and Scarlet realized that her sister must have said something to turn him off. “Well, I should be going,” Theo added quickly. “The gates will be opening any moment, and I have to ensure everything is ready.”

  “Yes, of course,” Scarlet agreed. “Maybe we can grab a coffee later or something?” She cocked her head to the side and waited for him to answer. His eyes narrowed in response.

  “I distinctly got the impression that you didn’t want to do that,” he said, confusion coloring his face.

  He doesn’t realize that Beatrice and I are identical twins, she figured out. And I’m sure she didn’t set him right when he came looking for me. She considered throwing her sister under the bus for impersonating her but decided against it. There wasn’t a lot of time for explanations at the moment.

  “I was just busy,” she told him. “Sorry if I came off curt.”

  “You were more than curt,” Theo said, but she could see he wanted to believe her excuse, especially when she flashed her brilliant white teeth at him. “I… suppose I understand, though. I know how short my temper can be when I’m under pressure.”

  Scarlet exhaled with relief, her shoulders sagging.

  “So it’s a date then?” she offered boldly, making him chuckle.

  “Sure. I’ll find you after the last match. You should be closing down around then, right?” Scarlet nodded, her grin so wide, she felt like there was a hanger in her mouth. “Until then,” Theo said, bowing formally before pivoting and heading back into the arena. Scarlet found herself watching him for a long moment.

  He’s extremely handsome. Look at the way he moves. You can tell he’s got noble breeding. With a begrudging exhale, Scarlet returned to the food tent, trying to hide her newfound excitement from her sister. Luckily, Beatrice was far too consumed with her own thoughts to notice.

  “Any customers yet?” Scarlet asked brightly, but her sister didn’t even acknowledge the question.

  “I’ll be right back,” Beatrice said abruptly. She turned and sprinted from the tent, leaving Scarlet to gape after her in surprise.

  “Beatrice!” she yelled after her twin. Beatrice was already out of view, heading into the arena. What the hell is she doing?

  Inexplicably, fear and concern swelled inside Scarlet, and before she even knew what she was doing, her feet took off to race after her sister, who was no longer in sight.

  As she neared the spot she had just been in, speaking with Theo, a horrific sound ruminated through the open space, the undeniable bang of catastrophe striking. Cries filled her ears, and suddenly, she saw fire shooting out from the wings of the makeshift stadium. Bodies flowed toward her in a stream of panic, huge men in various stages of shifting flying out of their staging area as smoke billowed forth.

  “What the hell happened?” she screamed to anyone who would listen, but no one stopped to speak with her, their faces twisted in agony. They were dragons, all of them. Why were they running from a fire? “Beatrice!” Scarlet howled, rushing forward while the others shoved past her. “BEATRICE!”

  In the blink of an eye, Bran was in her face, his eyes bugged and furious.

  “You!” he spat, venom oozing from the single word. “You did this!” Gone was any semblance of the genial attitude which he’d shown only minutes earlier. Instead, he was foaming at the mouth, his fangs extended and his snout shifting back and forth in a grotesque morph.

  It was only then that Scarlet caught a whiff of smoke as it filled her lungs and caused her eyes to tear mercilessly.

  Brimstone! There’s brimstone in that fire!

  Roughly, she felt a hand around her upper arm, and she was hauled upward into the sky, thrown like a ragdoll onto the back of a glistening, silver-grey back. Below, people ran amok, screaming at the wild scene unfolding in disbelief.

  “Put me down!” she gasped, not understanding what was happening. “You can’t take me!”

  “You don’t have a choice,” Theo hissed back. “Your sentence for this will be death.”

  Her stomach twisting sickeningly, Scarlet understood exactly what had occurred.

  Beatrice had set the fire.

  5

  A fusion of anger and disappointment swallowed Theo as he guided himself through the brilliantly bright sky and toward the estate. On his back, he could feel Scarlet’s nails digging into his scales, clinging onto him for dear life as his wings belted through the air.

  How could I have been so wrong about her? he wondered furiously. She was only flirting with me to cause an act of terrorism against us!

  He had managed to escape the staging area only seconds before the fire erupted, covering his warriors in a cloud of brimstone, but he could feel the effects of the powder weakening him all the same.

  Theo swooped lower as the sprawling grounds of his family home appeared, the cream-colored stones of the main house falling into his line of sight. He’d heard Bran’s accusation, that Scarlet had been the one to set the fire while several others had nodded their agreement.

  There was no doubt that he needed to apprehend her before she got away. It wasn’t just that she had done such a monstrous act, but also that the mortals had seen what they were forbidden from seeing: dragons in their true form, flying and morphing.

  She will certainly see death for this, he decided. The aftermath will be devastating, even if no one dies from their wounds.

  “Please!” Scarlet begged as he lowered his body. “Theo, I need to go back! My sister—”

  “Silence!” he growled, his claws touching the ground when he landed. “You have no right to make any demands from me, now or ever!”

  It bothered him to use such a tone with her or to reconcile that she’d had any hand in what had happened.

  Bran and the others have no reason to lie about it. They didn’t all pick out the same random woman in unison. It has to be her. Slowly, Theo morphed from his silver-grey body into his towering mortal frame and lumbered over Scarlet as she scrambled to rise from the ground.

  “You’re not going anywhere,” he told her. “Don’t even try to run.”

  Scarlet’s mouth gaped slightly, and she stared at him pleadingly.

  “You’ve got the wrong person,” she insisted. Theo realized for the first time that she didn’t seem the least bit alarmed by him being a dragon. Surely, she didn’t think it was some kind of trick or special effects. She seemed smarter than that.

  “That’s not what the witnesses seem to think,” Theo growled, his eyes flashing. Inside, his guts were churning, the confusion and imploring on Scarlet’s pale face only perplexing him. She didn’t have the face of an attempted murderer, a terrorist.

  But she doesn’t seem shocked I’m a real dragon. She’s a witch! It was the only feasible explanation, and Theo recalled what Carlyle had told him the previous day.

  “You’re a witch,” he sighed, more anger flooding him. “What was your intention with the brimstone?” Scarlet’s red lips parted, but no sound came out of them, and she shook her head. “I am being gentle on you!” Theo snarled. “When
my Father gets a hold of you—”

  “No!” Scarlet gasped. “Please, Theo, you can’t turn me over to Carlyle.” His eyes narrowed in disbelief.

  “You know who we are!” he hissed, the confirmation of his fears only making him feel worse. “Why would you do something like this to us? Was it also you who harmed Bruno yesterday?”

  Scarlet blinked.

  “Bruno?” she echoed but shook her head quickly. “I don’t have anything to do with any of this, I swear!”

  “But you don’t deny you’re a witch.” Scarlet inhaled and bit on her lower lip.

  “I have no reason to harm you,” she muttered, a shadow crossing over her face. “I like you.” Her face flushed at the confession, and Theo felt a stab of compassion for her.

  No! She’s a witch. She’s deceiving you to get out of trouble. Still, he couldn’t deny that his attraction toward her was strong, despite his better judgment.

  “If not you, then who?” he questioned, beginning to stalk around her, his arms folded over his barrel chest as he waited for an answer. “Do you know who might want to harm us?”

  “There has been bad blood between witches and dragons for centuries,” Scarlet reminded him gently. “Most of us have moved on, accepted that times have changed…” She trailed off, her eyes darkening as if her words had made her realize something.

  “You know who’s responsible,” Theo insisted, drawing his face toward hers. In spite of his ire, his pulse quickened at her nearness. There was a plaintiveness in her eyes that made him want to believe her proclamations.

  “I don’t!” she squealed, her voice two octaves higher than normal. “I only know that it wasn’t me.” Theo didn’t move his head, maintaining his steadfast stare into her eyes. “W-what will you do with me, Theo?” she breathed, the panic on her face clear, but there was not an iota of guile.

  Could the witnesses have been wrong? There had been so much panic, so much confusion… Perhaps they had seen Scarlet and jumped to the wrong conclusion.

  Even then, Theo knew his hope was weak, that there was no reason for his cousin and the others to claim Scarlet was the culprit. Looking into her terrified gaze, however, he couldn’t bring himself to believe that she was capable of such malice.