by A. C. Ryals
“How did the basilisks survive if dragons can attack from the air?”
“They had a dragon on their side, remember? They’re the product of a dragon and an imp. Only an idiot would expect a dragon to turn on his own offspring. Though, there were some idiots who had that expectation.”
And now Wrath was a dragon living with basilisks. “You’re related to that dragon?”
“I am that dragon,” he said somberly. “I’ve lived a long time. My mate died in Herculaneum. She was trying to get her sister to evacuate before a jilted fae prince could set off the volcano. She failed, unfortunately. I don’t know what happened exactly. I felt it when she died, though. I was on my way to meet her.”
Herculaneum? If she remembered her history documentaries correctly, Herculaneum was destroyed by an eruption of Mt. Vesuvius at the same time as Pompeii. She didn’t know the year, but it was back when togas were all the rage. Two thousand years ago?
No wonder he hesitated to talk about the age of his brother Aegidius.
“That’s why Drake is afraid of you,” Jess said. “You’re the leader of the enemies of dragons. You fought your own kind. Your own family.”
“I did. Kurt only knows what the family has told him and I’m sure none of that is good. I killed some of my own nephews. The basilisk who was attacked was my grandson, though. They wanted him dead because he was openly defiant against Kur, the first dragon. They thought of him as a rebel leader. The war gave basilisks freedom from dragon rule.”
“Why are you telling me all this?”
“To see if we can come to the answer of why you’re really here. I’m certain my eldest brother, Etel, sent you. Kurt would hesitate to question Etel on anything. He’s more powerful than any of us aside from our father. Even then, I think he might have a fighting chance. My blood is only half enchanted because my mother was human. Etel’s mother was a full mage. That means he’s full blood enchanted. His magic is powerful. He’s also manipulative. It would be nice if he’d just come out and say what he wants for once.”
She gathered that, by enchanted, he meant some kind of mythical/magical creature. He must think she had a mythical creature in her bloodline that gave her magic, as well.
“I’m sorry I can’t give you more information. I’d help if I could,” Jess said as she got to her feet. It was time to put her theory to the test. Would Wrath let her leave? “I’ll call a cab.”
“You’re staying here,” Wrath said.
She tried to look surprised.
Chapter 10
“Why?” Jess asked, still standing in front of the sofa. She didn’t look as surprised as he expected, but it was hard to tell. Maybe she had a good poker face.
“Because you know our secret. You know Kurt’s secret, too. How do you think that will go over? That, and we still don’t know what you are. You have magic. Don’t you want to know where it comes from and the extent of it?” Wrath said.
There was a time when he’d have invoked enchanted law. She was an enchanted sent as a spy from an enemy. He could lock her in the dungeon. That wouldn’t accomplish anything, though. A lighter touch would be more effective. He could make her see that her staying would be mutually beneficial.
“I do want to know if I have magic but being held as a prisoner indefinitely dampens my enthusiasm,” Jess said getting comfortable on the sofa once again.
“There’s no question. You have magic. Look, if I know what you are, it’ll be easier for me to find out why you were sent. And you’ll better understand the necessity of keeping our existence secret. In the meantime, we can learn to trust each other. When we have trust and I know why you were sent, you’re free to go. For now, you’re my guest.”
“Prisoner,” she clarified while reaching for another cookie.
“Sure, if you’re into that kind of thing. I have handcuffs.”
Wrath was rewarded with a half-smile and barely detectable blush. It was adorable. Yeah, he had to get her into his bed and soon. His dick had been at full alert since he’d seen her lick a crumb off her full lips half an hour ago.
“Since heat doesn’t bother you and you’re good at grilling, maybe you have powers associated with fire and heat. Can you make the fire burn brighter?” Wrath asked.
“I don’t know,” she said with a quick look toward the back door.
The glance at the back door was a tell. She’d try to escape but she’d probably try to get his guard down first. It was a ploy that might work if he wasn’t an ancient dragon who had tried every ploy imaginable himself. He got out his phone and sent a text to Brad telling him that Jess knew about shifters so the guards could patrol in their shifted forms. She was not to be harmed if it could be avoided, but she was not to leave.
Basilisks were basically snakes. As such, the vibrations of a human trying to sneak around would register as sound traveling from their jawbones to their ears. Their vision sucked, but they could hear incredibly well. Between their sense of smell and their hearing, no human could get by them.
Not that she had much of a chance of getting by Wrath. His hearing wasn’t as good, but it was better than a human’s. He’d hear noises she didn’t know she was making. His vision and sense of smell were good as well. He couldn’t sniff things out as well as a bear, but he made up for that with intelligence.
Speaking of intelligence, it would be smart to take her phone away about now.
“I think a better test would be the grill,” Wrath said, getting to his feet.
Placing his hand on Jess’s lower back, he guided her toward the back door. When he moved to open it, he slid his hand down a little lower. There was a high risk of her thinking he was a creep, but he managed to get her phone out of her pocket and slide it up his sleeve. He’d find a place to hide it momentarily. He couldn’t just destroy it, Etel might send a message.
The phone was easily tracked, but that didn’t matter. Etel already knew where he was.
He caught the scent of her pheromones as they went out to the grill. She’d noticed the touch, but it turned her on instead of making her angry. That was encouraging. Even though he was keeping her against her will, she wanted him. That meant on some level she must want to stay. That pleased him far more than it should.
It would be nice to hear from his dragon on the subject, but it was still silent. He was flying blind with this woman and it was disconcerting. He relied on his dragon side to be his instincts, to give him gut feelings that would guide his decisions. Now all he had to rely on was his human side.
Wrath had already set up everything for the grill so all that needed to happen was for it to be lit.
“I don’t suppose you can light it with a thought,” he said.
“No, I don’t think I can.”
“Okay, think about how annoyed you are at me for keeping you here and then say the words izi sig. Imagine that I’m the coals.”
“What do the words mean?”
“Destroy by fire. It’s Sumerian. It’s a language of magic.”
She squeezed her eyes closed and then opened them and said the words. Nothing happened. Her shoulders fell.
“It was a long shot,” Wrath said.
He waved his hand over the coals and they started to burn.
For the first time in years, Wrath let someone else grill his steaks. Jess did a good job. He caught a whiff of magic as she worked the grill. While the steaks rested, they made a salad. Wrath warmed up some bread to have with their meal.
“It’s early for dinner,” she said.
“It’s my only meal today so we can call it late lunch,” Wrath replied as he set the table.
He figured she was torn between wanting to stay and wanting to escape. He knew which side would win. She’d try it tonight when she thought he was sleeping.
~
There was no way in hell she was going to escape so Jess decided to just go with it. She knew when she was outmatched. It’s not like she’d want a dragon or a hoard of basilisks hunting her. No, if she was
going to get out, it would have to be with Wrath’s cooperation and that was that.
Plus, the whole dragon thing was cool. When she left, she’d probably never see one again.
When he’d slipped her phone out of her pocket, she’d briefly thought of seducing him to get away. He seemed to like touching her, but she was no seductress. Plus, it would be like rewarding bad behavior. It’s not nice to hold people prisoner, he shouldn’t get laid for doing it no matter how hot he was.
“Someone should go get my rental car and take it back to Avis,” Jess said as she loaded the dishes into the dishwasher. “Otherwise, people might wonder what my car is doing in the parking lot in the morning. Then they’d call the police. As much as I’m curious to see a dragon fight the police, I don’t think it would be fair to them.”
Wrath looked at her with obvious suspicion. “Yeah, I’ll get one of the guys to do it. Keys are in your purse?”
“Yeah. You can get them if you want. There’s nothing in there but a little make-up and some tampons.”
Wrath disappeared into the living room while Jess finished the dishes and washed her hands.
“Hey,” Jess said. “If you bite me, do I turn into a dragon?”
“No, that’s werewolves,” Wrath replied.
She dried her hands and went into the living room. Her purse looked untouched, but the rental car keys were in his hand. She wondered where he’d put her phone.
“Werewolves are real?” she asked.
“Yeah. They’re cursed and they can pass the curse on to others. There are also wolf shifters. Like other shifters, they can’t turn a human. Thing is, they started interbreeding with werewolves, so most wolf shifters are also werewolves. The remaining wolf shifters have adopted the term werewolf. It used to be a slur to them, but they realized fighting it was pointless. Now they own it.”
The front door opened, Wrath tossed the keys toward the large man in the doorway, and the man walked out, closing the door behind him. She was fascinated by the wordless exchange. The guy didn’t even get a thank you from Wrath.
Then again, who was she to judge dragon/basilisk culture? It was disorientating to realize that Wrath was the forefather to an entire race. Here she was lusting after him like he was a man her age.
“How old are you exactly?” she asked as she sat down.
“I don’t know exactly. I was born during the reign of Naram-Sin. So, I’m around four thousand fifty, give or take.”
It was clear now that her crush on him was silly. She was an infant to him. Then again, who wasn’t? Maybe there were others as old as him, but there couldn’t be many. He’d have to be used to being with younger women by now.
Whatever. She’d already decided not to sleep with him.
She wished she could talk to Drake. A third party with some idea of what was going on would be nice. Then again, he wasn’t an unbiased third party.
Maybe she just needed time to think. That would work.
“Could someone get some of my stuff from my apartment?” Jess asked, hoping Wrath would volunteer out of a desire to investigate her further. If he left, she’d get a chance to be alone. He’d be disappointed in what he found, though. It’s not like she kept a diary and she’d only brought her work laptop.
“Sure, I’ll send someone,” Wrath said, pulling out his phone.
Well, that didn’t work.
“I’m going to take a walk,” Jess said, getting up.
“Don’t stray too far. You never know what might be in these woods.”
Chapter 11
She was either going to try to escape now or possibly plan her escape. Either way, Wrath sent a text to let his people know to keep an eye on her.
Wrath only realized after she left that he didn’t know where she was staying. Her ID had her address in Austin. He was off his game. Without his stupid dragon chiming in all the time, he had to think like a human. It was still there—he could feel it. It was just unable to speak for some reason. At least, it refused to say anything about Jess. It had commented on the steaks, it approved.
If his dragon hadn’t already been broken, declaring every attractive woman his mate, Wrath might think Jess had put a spell on him. Though, that would be unlikely. Dragons were immune to all but the most powerful magic. Jess didn’t have the acrid scent of strong magic on her.
Without his dragon to give him a sense of what he should do about Jess, he felt restless. On impulse, he got up and headed out of the house. She’d only been gone for a couple of minutes. He could easily track her scent.
She wasn’t in any danger. His people knew she was on the property and they’d hear her coming before she stumbled into any sparring matches. Other shifters knew the territory boundaries and respected them, for the most part. Some werewolf pups liked to get a little too close. It was like a rite of passage to be chased off by a basilisk.
With an inhale through his mouth, allowing him to taste her scent like a lizard with his reptilian Jacobson’s organ, he found that she’d graciously decided to stay upwind from the house. That made finding her much easier.
He heated the air around him, creating a shimmer that would make him hard to see. He wanted to watch her and get an idea of what plans she might have for escape. She was heading down a path in the woods that could eventually lead her to a road if she didn’t take a wrong turn, but she was moving slowly.
A test run?
A feminine squeal followed by running footsteps came from around a bend in the path. The brush was too dense for him to see her yet. There were basilisks in the woods, three at least. Maybe one had startled her.
He stopped heating the air so she could find him more quickly.
“Jess?” he called.
“Wrath!”
She came around the bend and threw her arms around him. He automatically returned her embrace, reveling in the feel of her firm little breasts against his chest.
“Are you okay?” Wrath asked, stroking her dark silken hair.
“Snake,” she said, pulling back from him.
He immediately missed her warm body pressed against his.
“Like, a tiny wild snake or a big shapeshifter one?” Wrath asked.
“It wasn’t tiny. I mean, it was like...four feet long,” she said, a smile creeping across her lips. “Don’t laugh at me. I’m a human and we’re afraid of snakes.”
Wrath grinned. “I’m not laughing.”
Jess narrowed her eyes. “Were you following me?”
“Yes. I need the address of your apartment. We could find it eventually, but it seemed easier to ask.”
She brightened. “So, the ancient dragon can forget things?”
“I can and do. This pleases you?”
“It does,” Jess said, looping her arm through his as they headed back toward the house.
“Why?” he asked, wondering if the physical contact was having the same effect on her. He hoped so. His heart was pounding, and he felt almost feverish. At least what he imagined being feverish would feel like.
“You can be a little frightening,” she said. “What with the being able to change into a giant killing machine and being really old and all. It’s bad enough that you’re hot as sin.”
“You think I’m hot?”
Jess hit his arm. “I’m sure you’re really shocked by that. I’ll give you a moment to collect yourself.”
He grinned like a damned fool and said, “Thank you. My heart’s all aflutter.”
He wasn’t kidding. That was the kicker.
Jess was exactly the type of woman his dragon should want for him. Maybe it did. His body was certainly reacting to her, but it was more than that. Warmth began to permeate a part of his heart he thought was dead.
He didn’t really need to force her to stay to find out what Etel was up to, did he? Was he just keeping her there because he wanted to be near her?
It was infuriating that he couldn’t be sure.
Where are you? Tell me what to do.
No respon
se from his dragon.
No woman had affected him this way in longer than he could remember. He was adrift in a sea of his own conflicting feelings. The last thing he wanted to do was interpret his own feelings. Emotions were a minefield he’d rather not traverse.
Still driven to mate, he knew it would be a disaster to try. He didn’t want more kids. While that wasn’t a deal breaker for all women, it was for many of them. Then, he couldn’t trust that she wouldn’t reconsider after a few decades or centuries.
He had changed his stance on having kids at one point, why would he expect any less from someone so young? After the torture he went through as a child, he couldn’t imagine bringing another child into the world. Then he met an imp named Zahra. His dragon wasn’t happy with his choice, but at the time he didn’t know that dragons had true mates.
She was sexy, fun, and her magic smelled like cinnamon.
After a hundred years together, she wanted to start a family. Wrath softened to the idea and before he knew it, they had three kids. Those kids were all basilisks.
They were the reason he couldn’t mate a human. He’d be bringing dragons into a basilisk family. He didn’t want his children at war with one another. That would be too much to take. Even Kur couldn’t handle it.
No, Wrath couldn’t have more children and he wouldn’t drag Jess into a childless life. He could have some fun with her, though. Maybe that would ease the ache in his chest.
Once they were inside, Wrath couldn’t help but notice that Jess’s heart rate was still elevated, and her pheromones indicated she was primed for a little action.
He sent a text with her address and then poured a glass of wine for Jess while they waited for Iris to come over for the keys.
Wrath carried her wine and his whisky into the living room. Jess was seated on the couch by then. He handed her the wine as he sat beside her.
“You’ve had a trying day,” he said.
“One I’m not likely to forget, though.”
“True. So, what work do you do for my little brother, other than playing waitress.”
She took a drink of her wine and then said, “He owns a cybersecurity company. A lot of times, the fixes companies and government agencies need are all just software. Sometimes, it’s more than that. They have people on the inside who are the real security problem. Not intentionally, most of the time. They’re just lazy or they don’t know how to keep people from using their passwords. I find that kind of security issue. With management’s permission I walk into a workplace and see what I can find. If someone delivering sandwiches could stumble upon client files or a list of passwords, it’s a problem.”