In a metal cage, four pearls floated, one each of black, ivory, rose, and gray.
Hello… the pearls sang. We are so glad to see you.
Mei settled her dragon around the cage, wrapping her wings and legs around the bars, holding herself as close as she could to the jewels.
You’re the most lovely of all the dragons. Their song chorused, and her limbs tingled with euphoria. She no longer cared about anything in the world but the right-then-and-there of being with her pearls.
You are the most wonderful of all the dragons… They sang in a hypnotic, resonating cadence. We honor your brilliance. We are yours. You are ours. We belong to you.
She stroked each palm-sized pearl, rubbing the satiny surface, feeling the reverb of its pleasure radiate up her arm. The world is bright and beautiful, the stars are in the sky, and the jewels are with their dragon. The pull of their crooning call was greater than any worldly being, any lover, any family—and it would always be so.
Mei drifted, tethered to the cage until the first tiny ache for air crackled her lungs. Her human mind forced her eyes to open and focus, knowing her dragon would need time to leave. Even before learning to fly and clothe themselves, fledgling dragons had to learn the skill of wrestling back control of their dragons.
Stay with us, the pearls cried, sensing her withdrawal.
Only a little bit longer. Her human side spoke to her dragon, exerting calm pressure. We must surface soon. Her dragon thrashed a talon through the water in angry belligerence, and Mei knew to give her time to settle before insisting.
Her dragon squeezed both front and back legs through the bars of the cage and clutched all the pearls in her talons. The bright burst of color behind her closed eyelids at the contact was akin to fireworks, and for a moment, she rode the current of pleasure.
Release them now, her human mind insisted. They’re safe. You’ll return. Soon.
Her dragon ignored her, holding tighter to the jewels.
Hurt. Hurt. Hurt. The pearls cried, their mellow tone tilting sharp and dissonant.
You’re squeezing them too tight, Mei told herself.
Her dragon roared in the water.
Let them go now, Mei said strongly, and used her mind to insert human will over her dragon, making her release the jewels. The water dragon released her front claws first, then her back claws. Her slender wings stroked the pearls one last time.
Mei swam backward and exited the cellar. She closed the hatch behind her before her dragon could resist the compulsion to leave.
In the watery yard, she paused, directing her senses outward for threats. She’d never killed anyone, but she would if they endangered her lair. A large striper fish, two feet in length, bumped into her, but she did not move, still listening for a foreign invader.
When she was sure she was alone, she settled her ears back and spread her wings to swim upward. Closer to the surface, she floated unmoving, waiting for dinner. A virtual lion in a sheep’s assuming disguise.
She spread her wings wide, an iridescent net fluttering in the water, unrecognizable to the lake fish as deadly. When a large sturgeon swam by, she slowly closed the trap, bringing the large fish to her nose. In the space of a fin flicker, she snapped him into her jaws.
The fish squirmed and fought and died quickly between her sharp, serrated teeth. A dark red cloud of blood surrounded her and then dissipated. Fresh fish flavored her tongue, and the dying beat of the sturgeon’s heart continued all the way to her belly.
In the ocean, such feasting would draw sharks and other predators, but here, she had no worries about any creature living in the deep lake. She was the biggest and baddest predator in the water. She’d eat her fill and enjoy her kill.
Her lungs pulsed with her heartbeat when she finished, urging her toward the surface. She continued toward the light, content and satisfied in both body and mind. She broke the surface and gasped a full breath into her lungs, her head buzzing with endorphins.
Leaping into flight, she saw a pair of icy, watching dragon eyes a moment too late.
Chapter Eleven
Darius knew Mei saw him by the way she broke the surface of the water and immediately fell back under. She poked out her head, and they watched each other quietly: he in his dragon form, perched on a Styrofoam and weathered lake dock he had “borrowed”, she in her element a few feet beneath the surface, utterly still, not needing to even stroke to stay submerged.
I see you skulking there, he said to her with mind speak. Ice dragons were not good swimmers, so he stayed put. The one time he’d tried to swim, he’d floated like an ice cube atop a soda, nearly drowned as his scales swamped with water.
I see you spying there, she replied. Her words were a gentle brush in his mind. She sounded rejuvenated, light-hearted even. Maybe this was the problem all along: she just needed watering. He smiled at the comparison to a potted plant, knowing she wouldn’t appreciate it at all.
Mei sunk farther into the water, so he couldn’t even see her eyes. He was becoming more in tune with her, though, and he knew she was still there. Just as he’d known to look for her here, at the lake with her jewels.
I’m surprised to see you alone, she said.
Why?
I thought you’d tell Alec everything. Her mind speak had an angry twist to it. I thought the next time I saw you, you would be leading a capture and kill offensive against me.
He couldn’t blame her for thinking he would betray her, or for her anger. I told him enough to ensure his safety. It was a fine line, protecting Mei and serving his sworn king. But when it came down to it, there was no choice. He would lay down his life for both of them, but Mei would be first.
Did you tell him about me? she asked.
No. If the water dragons were coming to the gala, he would be accountable for the omission. I told him nothing of the water dragons at all. Hopefully, his plan would work, and by Monday, the whole thing would be an averted disaster.
Hopefully.
I have a plan, he said.
Mei rose in the water, and the blue scales from her head shone in the overhead sun. You can’t fix this. If there were a way, I’d have done it already.
You haven’t had me to help you before. Now you do.
I’ve heard for the last six years how you land dragons talk of us. Treachery lives in the water. The water dragon is slippery with the truth. I’m despised. I’m an abomination. Her dragon made a sound that sounded somewhere between a huff and a choke.
We’ll fix that. Ancient prejudices against her kind didn’t have to sway the rules of the modern day. They would simply confront Alec with the new evidence. He was hopeful Alec would allow Mei full status with the dragons.
There it was, the hopeful bit again.
Alec would be furious at them. He was likely to call for their execution. Darius’s dragon rumbled and spread his wings before he could get him under control. One thing at a time. First, he had to win Mei’s trust, and then he could convince her to tell Alec the truth. The whole truth about herself and her people.
He wasn’t accustomed to having so many variables unfixed. When he planned a strategy, it flowed neatly from certainty to certainty. But everything with Mei was uncertain. Including whether or not she would ever come out of the water.
You can’t fix prejudice. Mei flipped onto her back and floated closer to him like a seal, totally at ease in the lake. Besides, they are justified. The water dragons are the worst creatures I’ve ever known, except for the women. They don’t know better.
Her dragon popped her head out of the water. They were utterly alone, in the middle of the lake. I was going to leave.
His dragon reacted to her announcement by jumping to the air. He soared around her in circles, before Darius landed back on the dock.
You can’t leave, he insisted.
Mei sprang from the water to join him. He had a moment to take her in up close. Her skin shimmered as if lit by thousands of LED lights, every color of a pale rainbow reflect
ed in the sun. His dragon inched closer to her, wanting to touch her radiant scales.
Before he could touch her, she changed to her human form. She wore shorts and a T-shirt and carried a backpack. With her hair in a high ponytail, it was as if she was bound for a day at the lake. She looked very young.
“I couldn’t leave you to face them alone,” Mei said. She traced a scale on his chest. Her finger moved in swoops along his skin, and he shuddered at the tingling contact. “I’ve never touched a land dragon.”
Darius forced his dragon to hold his position, hoping she would continue touching him. Her fingers meandered in half circle patterns across the bottoms of the scales at his chest. Desire spiraled through him, and he knew he would have to change forms soon or risk hurting her.
But not yet.
You can touch me whenever you like.
Mei glanced at him, and in the smug half-smile, he saw that she knew exactly what she was doing to him, no doubt about it. He leaned back and closed his eyes, giving into the rare experience of feeling desire in both his human and dragon forms.
She lifted her other hand to his neck, so that the soft crush of her breasts met the solid resistance of his chest wall. She turned her fingernails into him, and her feather-like touch turned sharp and abrading.
Love, love, love it. The words slipped from his dragon’s mind into hers, and he felt her surge of power from holding him so completely in her control.
“Should I touch you like this?” She ran her hand lower, stroking the leathery skin of his belly, and tremors shook his frame and the dock. She grabbed at his chest to keep from falling overboard.
He steadied himself and leaned into her, resting his neck on her shoulder. Mei surprised him by laughing. She pulled back and looked into his eyes. “I can feel what you are thinking.”
Mine, his dragon said. Mine. Now. Mine.
This would not work, his human mind insisted. They were too exposed here. He needed to get his plan into action. Get her to safety.
Darius grabbed hold of his sanity and shifted into human form. He caught Mei to his chest so they didn’t fall off the dock. He pulled her into his arms and lowered his mouth a hair’s breadth over hers, until he felt the magnetic pull between them, and he knew she must feel it, too. She grasped his T-shirt in her fists, but she didn’t push him away.
“I want you. In the worst way I have ever known. I want you now, right here in the sunshine with the water under us and your jewels so close I can feel their vibration.” He met her eyes. “But it’s not safe here.”
Her shoulders hunched with the reality of their situation. “I’ve put you in danger. Made you lie to the king—”
“Shh.” He cut her off with a finger over her lips. “I have a plan.”
Her shaky smile told him she didn’t really believe there was a way out for them. The possibility of failure needled him like a foregone conclusion that he wouldn’t accept.
“Trust me,” he said, waiting for her deeper commitment.
She looked directly at him, and then nodded. “I’m out of answers and ideas,” she whispered. “I just know that I’d rather face them with you than without you. It’s not safe for either of us to be alone now.”
It wasn’t the ringing endorsement he would have liked, but it was a start. “Let’s go.”
Chapter Twelve
“This way.” Darius threaded them through the mid-morning Saturday tourists cluttering downtown Freemont Street. They were a twenty-minute drive from the Crown Jewel and the Vegas Strip, where refurbished casinos reveled in the retro.
Mei watched their clasped hands, as if the connection was foreign and uncomfortable. Having her with him felt as natural as if they had always been together. Her hand felt like a perfect fit in his wide palm.
Even when they were spitting and spewing vitriol at each other, she was his other half, his intended mate. He would do anything to have her at his side. Lying to their king to protect her was just the start.
He wove them past the front of Binon’s and the Golden Nugget. Scented air conditioning rushed out into the warm morning as tourists opened the casino doors lining the street. Overhead the canopied light show blared songs and flashed lights. An already drunk tourist stood in open-mouthed awe. High above the street, a man zip-lined off a platform with a scream of exuberant terror.
Mei gave him a little tug, and when he glanced at her, she spoke low so only he could hear. “Where are we going?” She adjusted the ball cap he’d given her lower over her forehead. She was dressed in casual clothes, like him. Her short khaki shorts and sleeveless white shirt and ballet flats still managed to look elegant and crisp.
“Somewhere safe.” Darius smiled reassuringly.
“Isn’t Alec going to wonder why we aren’t helping prepare for the gala tonight?” She pressed close to his side so that they could squeeze along the seam of the crowd together.
“I told him we wouldn’t be there.”
“But I have to go. How else will I know if it is Bo Quan?”
“I’ll handle it.”
She stopped abruptly, and their hands broke contact.
He turned back to her. “What?”
“You can’t handle it,” she said, “without telling me what you’re planning.”
Frustration beat through him. He wasn’t sure she would agree to the whole plan yet. “We need to stay out of sight for a few hours while I get better answers on this Crescent group.”
“There’s more to know?”
“There’s always more to know.” He managed a smile. “Relax. We’ll decide what to do together when we have more information.”
Mei worked her bottom lip with her teeth. “Do you think they might already be here?”
“If I were Bo Quan, I would be here already.” Darius pulled her into a narrow alley, and the sudden silence after the raucousness of Freemont Street was deafening.
“Quit worrying,” He bumped her with his hip and knocked her off her stride. Mei caught her balance, and her I’ll-get-you-for-that smile tunneled straight to his heart and squeezed. He wanted more of her genuine, disarmed smiles. If he had to keep “knocking” her off her feet to get them, so be it.
“Watch it buddy. I may be small, but I cover all the ground I walk on.”
Darius took her hand and brought their clasped fingers to his lips. He kissed her knuckles.
Mei inhaled and leaned into him, and that was all it took for fierce lust to shoot through his body and block out the rest of the world. His eyes didn’t see the passersby or the bright neon signs advertising “strippers” and “pole dancing”. He just saw her.
Her intent gaze said that she felt the connection, too. “It’s going to be all right.”
She leaned in and cupped him through his pants, making his balls draw up even tighter to his body.
“God, woman.” His cock pressed against his shorts, and were it a different day, he would have hustled them somewhere more private to slack his raging need in her tight, hot body. He closed his eyes and inhaled the exquisite longing before forcing clarity to his mind. The stakes were too high for a quick fuck in an alley that might get them caught.
“Let’s pretend we’re on a date for the next few hours.” He tried to put a playful suggestion into the words, but they came out strained between his lips.
“Is this a date?” Mei smiled, and he saw in her expression that she liked the idea of pretending things were normal. “I thought we were running for our lives.”
“That’s just the foreplay.” He rested his forehead against hers.
She laughed against him, and he knew, just knew, they were going to make it. They had to. But first, they had to make it to Monday.
She glanced over his shoulder at the glass doorway he had led her to, and the flashing neon signs. “Don’t tell me this is it?”
Though the flip sign read closed, he opened the door. “Don’t judge a date by its doorway.”
Inside the club, he paused, momentarily sunblind. Lana
, the club’s proprietress, walked toward him, and he recognized her by her human scent. They were all dying, humans, at a much more rapid pace than dragons, and the slow decay gave off a distinctly sweet smell.
Lana wore fishnets, dominatrix boots, and a short, flashy pink poof skirt with a metal link halter that had him politely forcing his eyes to stay above her sternum. Her face came into view with its shock of pink hair, nose piercings, and heavy makeup.
Though Lana was clearly Caucasian, she wore a teardrop-shaped green jewel, mounted Hindu style, in the middle of her forehead. His dragon picked up no precious gem vibe, making it a nice quality cubic zirconia.
“Lana.” He smiled at her but kept his hands at his sides, though she reached for him. “Thank you so much for letting us come by before opening.”
Not finding Mei next to him, he glanced back. She leaned stiffly against the doorframe. “This is my fiancé, Mei, who I told you about.”
Mei walked forward and shook Lana’s extended hand. Her ingrained hostess skills wouldn’t let her be overtly rude, even though disapproval radiated from her in the tense line of her mouth and rigid stance. “Nice to meet you.”
“Charmed, I’m sure.” Lana’s greeting was similarly frosty.
“I’ll lock up when we leave,” Darius said.
Lana gave him a tight smile that said she didn’t appreciate being looked down on by his fiancé. Mei tensed even more at the familiarity of their exchange, and an icy chill permeated the air between them. “Everything’s set up in your office.”
“Thank you.” Darius automatically turned up the charm to compensate for Mei. “I believe I can handle it from here.”
It was a dismissal, and Lana took it well. Nodding, she let herself outside.
“You have an office in her club?” Mei hissed as Lana turned the lock on the metal door.
“It’s my club, too. I’m a silent partner.” Darius walked forward to the stage, checking out the new setup for the show that night. Though he didn’t have any say in the day-to-day operations, he was proud of the profitable venture he ran with Lana.
Dragon Her Back Page 8