Greed and Other Dangers

by TJ Nichols

  “She can’t understand you, so why do you talk to her?”

  “Maybe she can understand me.” He took off his gun and put it in the drawer. “You can understand me even when you’re a dragon.”

  Edra gave him a puzzled look. “That’s because I’m still me. My thoughts don’t change, only my body.”

  Standing in the middle of Jordan’s living room, Edra looked lost, hollowed out somehow. “What did you see while you were under?”

  Edra blinked and looked away. He didn’t blink often, and he didn’t look away first too often either. He drew in a breath and shrugged. “If Selena hadn’t intervened, I’d be dead. And I wouldn’t have cared, because it was so beautiful. I don’t know how else to explain it. Can I borrow some clothes? It’s probably best I go home.”

  “Have a shower, borrow some clothes, but I don’t think you should be alone tonight.”

  Edra shook his head. “I’m not good company.”

  “I don’t want to be alone.” Edra meant something to him and the realization that Jordan had lost him so easily, carelessly let the mermaids drag him overboard, didn’t sit well. “I’m sorry I let them take you.”

  “They’d have pulled you over too. And that would’ve been far worse.”

  “Why?”

  “Because even if you’d survived, you’d have a longing for the sea that would never be sated until you drowned. Their song haunts some people.”

  “Humans.”

  “And elves and werewolves. Mermaids stayed in your world a lot longer than everyone else. They crossed more frequently because they like humans.”

  “To eat.”

  Edra didn’t need to say anything.

  “What else do they eat?”

  “Fish, dolphins, seals.”

  “Like sharks.”

  “They eat them too.”

  “How do they get away with murder?” Jordan held up his hand. “I know how. No one is going to prosecute them. Which means we aren’t going to get anywhere with the stolen armor or eggs.”

  Edra flicked his tongue over his lower lip. “We can go after the water dragon.”

  Chapter 11

  EDRA HAD been awake for a while, knowing that he needed to get up and leave but wanting to lie there and listen to Jordan sleep for a little longer. He wanted to be able to go back to sleep and pretend that everything was fine. Instead he grimaced, sat up, and swung his legs over the side of the bed.

  “You don’t have to leave,” Jordan mumbled.

  It was getting harder to part when they spent the evening together. And he wanted to stay. His bed would be cold, and he kept dreaming of mermaids. They sang in his sleep, shattering his dreams.

  Jordan moved closer, and his hand brushed the back of Edra’s hip. “I swear I won’t jump you.”

  Edra tipped his head and stared at the ceiling. He was alive. He should be making the most of that. He wanted Jordan to jump him, but the result of that still scared him. Having a mate was dangerous.

  “Not that I don’t want to.” Jordan pulled his hand away.

  “It’s not that.” It was mostly that. He didn’t want to wake up hard and want to fuck when he wasn’t sure. He should be sure. He really liked Jordan far more than was safe for either of them. But he’d never dated a human before.

  He should turn his attention to another lesser dragon, stay with his kind… though he’d never been one to limit himself to a certain species. Lesser dragons liked to flit around. But a human mate? He was old enough to know better… but he was also old enough to know what he really wanted.

  “You got a half pound of meat lying around for my breakfast?” He turned, one leg folded on the bed.

  “Not sure it’s half a pound.”

  Edra could hear the smile in Jordan’s voice.

  “I’m serious.” He could go without breakfast or eat two polite pieces of toast, but it wouldn’t be enough. Shifting and flying burned through energy quickly, and his metabolism was faster than Jordan’s. He wished he were more like a greater dragon, so he could feast once a month and be fine. “I need to eat.”

  “I know.” Jordan pushed himself up so he was propped on his elbow. “I can stick a roast in the slow cooker. It’ll be ready at six for you to swallow whole.”

  You swallow a few slices of pizza whole and you never live it down. It was probably a good thing Jordan hadn’t seen him eat the barbecued pig’s head when he was in dragon form.

  “Or I’ve got a packet of emergency sausages in the freezer that I can cook up for breakfast along with some eggs.”

  He could stay.

  He desperately wanted to stay. But if he did, his resistance would weaken. It would be easy to pull up the sheets and draw Jordan close. He was already half-hard.

  “And when I want to eat in dragon form and digest for a few hours curled up in front of the TV?” He hadn’t had an evening at home like that for a while because he’d been spending his evenings with Jordan.

  Jordan sat up fully. “That’s fine. I know what you are.”

  He knew logically, but not the reality. “Shifting between forms isn’t a quirky habit.”

  “Why are you being such a dick at two in the morning?”

  “Because you woke up and tried to make me stay.” He could smell Jordan’s arousal. They had danced so close to the edge that Edra thought they’d fall off several times. Maybe there was no real edge with a human, but he could still feel the changes, the way the lust had turned.

  Jordan flopped back down. “Fine. Just fuck off, then.”

  Edra sprung around and landed over Jordan, trapping him beneath the sheets, caging him. Jordan struggled, but he wasn’t as strong. He was stuck and at Edra’s mercy. How kind was he feeling? “I don’t want to go.”

  He brought his face close and tasted Jordan’s lips with the tip of his tongue. Kissing was something that was reserved only for lovers. But he liked the taste of Jordan’s lips and had pressed his own to them more than once. Each time he liked it more. Jordan called those kisses chaste. Jordan would stick his tongue in the mouth of even the most casual lover.

  “Then don’t. It’s not that hard,” Jordan murmured against his lips.

  “Liar.”

  Jordan struggled to get his arm free, but Edra didn’t let him. He stilled. “Now what? You’ve got me. What are you going to do? We both know what you won’t do.”

  Edra growled. He pressed his hips to Jordan’s with only the sheets between them. “Waiting and wanting are very different.”

  Jordan had agreed to wait. It wasn’t like he’d ever dated a mytho before. Waiting was the safe and smart choice.

  And it wasn’t like they could even be public about their relationship. It would look really bad if the only inspector in the Mytho SID was fucking the mytho liaison officer from Mytho Servo. That would be taking “working closely together” to a level that humans and mythos wouldn’t like.

  He ground his hips against Jordan’s, and the length of his dick rubbed all the right places. He kissed Jordan, needing to taste him. Then he flicked his tongue over Jordan’s lips and Jordan’s tongue touched his. Fuck it.

  He knew how to kiss deeply, even though it had been a decade without practice. He parted his lips and let Jordan’s tongue invade, half expecting to recoil in disgust, which was what had happened the first time Jordan tried to kiss him at the train station. But he didn’t.

  Jordan made a little moan. “You’re….”

  Edra dipped his tongue into Jordan’s open mouth. He had to remember not to use his whole tongue. Jordan was human and had human gag reflexes. He wouldn’t appreciate… ohhh…. Jordan sucked on Edra’s tongue as though it were something else entirely.

  Cold traced over his skin, turning him silver to his own gaze and invisible to others.

  “Liked that?”

  Edra didn’t answer, and Jordan couldn’t talk if his mouth was busy. Edra pressed closer, and he slipped his tongue in and let Jordan do the same. He closed his eyes, not caring if
he forgot to breathe. He didn’t want to stop and think what this meant.

  If he was liking it, could he do more?

  Beneath him Jordan writhed, hips pressing up as though he wanted more than a kiss. Maybe it was time and he could take Jordan as his mate. He rolled his hips, the sheets rough against his dick. There was almost nothing between them, and Jordan wasn’t Blissing. Jordan wanted him. That was good. It was what he wanted.

  For a moment he thought he could give in, but the doubts still whispered in his ear. Jordan was human. When the novelty of dating a mytho wore off, what then? Edra would be left to pick up the pieces. He couldn’t lose another mate.

  With a groan, Edra pulled away. He scooped up whatever piece of clothing was on the floor as he put distance between him and the bed, one hand on his dick, stroking. It didn’t take much. Release rushed through him and stole his breath.

  Behind him Jordan gave another moan. Edra didn’t need to turn to know that he was done. He could smell it. He wanted to taste it. He wanted to be the cause of it. He tossed the T-shirt in the direction of the laundry hamper and wiped his hand over his lips. His mouth still tasted like Jordan, which wasn’t as unsettling as it should’ve been.

  “I can see you wiping your mouth.” There was a bite to Jordan’s words that wasn’t there when Jordan used Bliss and they rubbed up against the final line that Edra wasn’t ready to cross. An item of clothing flew toward the hamper and missed. “Was it that bad?”

  “No. It wasn’t bad at all.”

  “Then why are you acting like it was a problem?”

  Edra drew in a breath but didn’t know what to say. He should be happy that he liked it, that things were progressing, and that maybe next time he didn’t need to pull away and they could finish together and cement the bond. But that was just as terrifying as the thought that he’d never again have a mate.

  Handing Jordan his heart and trusting him not to drop it wasn’t particularly smart. But he liked Jordan—the way he smiled, the way he believed in fairness, the way he looked as he Blissed out in silky lingerie, and the way he looked when he was working. The smell of Jordan’s skin made Edra feel as though he didn’t need to shift to fly. He knew that feeling. If Jordan were mytho, Edra wouldn’t be questioning himself.

  If Jordan were mytho, he’d know more about lesser dragons.

  Edra made his way back to bed and got in. He lay on his back and stared at the ceiling.

  Jordan rolled over to face him. He reached a hand out and placed it on Edra’s stomach. Edra covered his hand with his own, but otherwise didn’t move.

  “That was… unexpected for a man who was leaving.”

  He shouldn’t have trapped Jordan like that. He shouldn’t be using his strength in that way. He should just leave. “I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t be. It was just… I don’t think we’ve done that without Bliss.”

  Edra nodded. “I thought that was the only way you were comfortable being with me.”

  Jordan pushed himself up. “No. You want to wait, and I’m not going to push. That restraint falls away when I’m on Bliss.”

  Many inhibitions fell away when the user was on Bliss. Edra liked seeing Jordan unravel, but he didn’t want that to be the only time Jordan wanted to stick his hand down Edra’s pants.

  Jordan leaned closer. “Can I kiss you? Then we can both get some more sleep?”

  Edra turned his head to catch his lips. Jordan’s tongue flicked over Edra’s lower lip, and Edra opened his mouth for more of a taste. It was Jordan who drew back with a sigh. “I can only take so much of your teasing.”

  “Then why don’t you kick me out of bed? Why invite me to stay?”

  “Because I like you, and one evening you’ll finally decide you want me to fuck you.”

  “I want you to. I just—”

  “I know. I don’t want to be a onetime thing either. That’s why I’m waiting for your dragony chemistry to sort itself out.”

  Dragony chemistry.

  Edra was going to say something, but Jordan turned over. How nice it must be to not have dragony chemistry. To exist in a way where lust could become love and when hearts got broken and it wasn’t like losing half your soul.

  BELOW HIM the city sprawled and the blue roofs and orange walls blurred as he spun. Lyo spun with him as they danced over the city. The sky was cloudless, though the weather had been odd of late—torrential rain one day, baking heat the next. The oracle had warned of death.

  Today everything was fine. The boats were out as the fishermen gathered their harvest. But the oracle had been warning of death for a few years, and this year the signs were making people jumpy. They wanted to send an envoy through to Earth to find out if the human world was afflicted, but the elves didn’t want to send one of their own, the vampires couldn’t go because they couldn’t pass for human, and Edra couldn’t go because he was the city’s knight. So there was talk of sending Lyo, his mate.

  The sea rippled and Edra turned away. Lyo knocked into him and Edra hissed. The sea went still. “Did you see it?”

  “No. You’ve been listening to the oracle too much.”

  Because she was never wrong, even if her timing wasn’t always correct. She was known to sometimes be off by a century. But there was something in the air that he couldn’t quite taste. Even magic wasn’t as reliable as it had been. Something was happening. He shook his head and turned away. Then, from the corner of his eye, he saw the sea drain away, beaching boats and stranding merfolk. Sea creatures lay in the mud.

  The trees on the hills fell over.

  Fissures opened, swallowing streets.

  He needed to get to the castle. His wings were flapping but he wasn’t moving—he was falling.

  Where was Lyo?

  He called his mate’s name and then saw the yellow dragon tumbling toward a tear in the earth. Fire belched out of the ground. Even then there wasn’t enough of an updraft for Edra to catch. There was no air, so he couldn’t fly.

  He was falling.

  EDRA GASPED and jerked upright. Sweat made the sheet stick to his skin, and for a moment, he didn’t know where he was. The room was wrong, the light was wrong, the man in his bed was wrong, and everything was shaking.

  “It’s just an earthquake,” the man next to him said. He reached out and checked his phone.

  Edra’s heart beat fast. The panic still gripped him. He remembered falling, unable to fly as the air vanished and his home was torn apart.

  “Edra?” Jordan sat up.

  “I’m fine.” He gripped the sheets and tried to calm his breathing as the shaking faded to a rumble that most wouldn’t be able to hear.

  “That wasn’t your first earthquake.”

  But it was the same every time. He was back in Tariko. If this world ripped apart, what would happen to them all? He couldn’t lose another world.

  Jordan put his arm around Edra and drew him close. “It’s over. There are no warnings that more are coming.” He paused and held him tighter. “It’s not another collapse.”

  Chapter 12

  JORDAN WATCHED the sausages roll in the pan as Edra cooked them. There were eight. He was guessing he’d be lucky to get two, not that sausages were what he usually had for breakfast. He’d gotten up early, put them on the defrost cycle, and gone for a run. He had a scratch in his veins and a need to do something. He wasn’t sure the tremor in his hand was from the run, and it hadn’t been from adrenaline last night either.

  Even though they’d gotten as close as Edra dared last night, it hadn’t been enough to take the edge off Jordan’s craving. It had been a week since he’d used Bliss. Not that long. He shouldn’t be wanting it so much.

  And before that?

  It had started off once a month. Then twice a month.

  And it had been almost weekly before he met Edra and before the trouble at the satyr den. Blowing off stress was no longer a reasonable excuse. He knew that, yet it made sense that he wanted more than what he was getting. He glanced at
Edra as he turned the sausages around the pan. While Jordan had been running, Edra had dressed—in a pair of Jordan’s shorts and a T-shirt—and started cooking. Jordan gave the eggs a stir. He should be stretching and showering, but the moment felt so normal he wanted to linger in it a little longer.

  Edra met his gaze but didn’t toss him a smile.

  Jordan pressed his lips together.

  Just because it looked normal didn’t mean there weren’t monsters beneath the surface.

  “What’s wrong?” Edra asked.

  “Nothing. Just thinking.” He turned off the burner. “Sausages done?”

  “Yeah.” Edra got out plates. He knew his way around Jordan’s apartment as though he belonged.

  Would this need fade if they fucked?

  How much longer was Edra planning to wait for? He’d been to the den. Had he done more than just visit? He said he hadn’t, but…. Jordan raked his fingers through sweat-damp hair. What was wrong with him?

  Edra flicked his tongue out. “Something is definitely wrong.”

  “I’m just….” Just what? Strung out like a junkie. He’d seen it too often not to recognize it. But was it Bliss craving or did he just want to fuck Edra? He wasn’t sure. “Just horny.”

  Yeah, that was all. Edra had some kind of pheromone that was making him feel this way.

  Edra looked at him and lifted an eyebrow but didn’t say anything about the obvious misdirection. “You want four?”

  “Two’s plenty.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Yeah.” Jordan added eggs and toast to the plates, grabbed his coffee, and went out onto the tiny balcony. The day was heating up, but the fog hadn’t burned off yet, so the city was draped in orange mist.

  Edra pulled his hot chocolate out of the microwave and joined him. Sinner sat in the potted plant so she could glare at Edra. If the cat didn’t like his boyfriend, maybe this was a bad idea.

  “You never said if you’d come to the party.”

  Edra cut off a piece of sausage, but instead of eating it, he dropped it on the floor so it rolled toward Sinner. “That’s because I’m not sure I’ll be welcome.”