by test
“I’m having a hard time keeping myself from making things combust,” she
admitted grimacing.
He groaned. “That’s not something a man likes to hear just before he’s going to get into the romantic part.”
She smiled. “I think we should retire to the bedroom. What I have in mind
shouldn’t be seen by anyone else, and since your kind like to contact us through electrical DRAGON’S HEART Marly Mathews 170
appliances I wouldn’t be surprised if someone appeared in my stereo or worse, in the computer screen over there.”
“You have a computer? Until you pointed it out to me sitting over in the corner, I never would have noticed it.”
“Well, I like to keep up with the different technical trends.”
“Okay, I’m not going to argue with that.”
She led him toward the stairwell. “And before you ask, no, there are no
televisions on the second floor of the cottage.”
“There’s a third floor?”
“Yes. It’s just a very small room. I use it to store most of the things I no longer have any use for.”
“Hmm … I’d like to get up there to see what’s in your discard pile.”
“Just shut up and kiss me,” she commanded.
“Not a problem.”
* * * *
She couldn’t believe the incredible sensations racing through her. She’d never felt this way with Denys. She’d locked off part of her mind to Dylan so he wouldn’t be able to hear or feel her thoughts concerning what was happening between them.
“I feel as if you’re hiding something from me.” His words jarred her out of her passionate fog.
“I’m hiding things from you that you wouldn’t want to know. Sometimes, things are best left unsaid.”
“I don’t agree. My mind is open to yours … and yet, you hide knowledge from
me. I don’t like that.”
“Well, you’ll have to live with it. I’m sure you have seeds of secrecy hidden into the very innermost regions of your mind, secrets I wouldn’t be able to sense unless I was deliberately trying to route them out.”
“You have me walking on a one way street, while you walk blithely on a two way street. The odds are not stacked in my favor.”
“Do you want to have an argument right now, or do you want to make love to
me?” she demanded, giving him an ultimatum he couldn't ignore.
He hesitated. The thought that he did that even for such a scant amount of time made her want to pull at her hair.
“Dylan!”
“Grania! You haven’t really told me what Denys meant to you. The next time I see him, I think I’ll end his violent excuse for a life.”
“That’s jealousy in its purest incarnation talking there.”
“And can you honestly say that you blame me? How should I feel knowing that
you loved a man before me? And, by the looks of your face in my magic shop, you loved him pretty deeply.”
“Don’t stand there and tell me that you didn’t love a woman before me.”
“I might have done, but it wasn’t the soul abiding love I have for you. It was merely infatuation. Infatuation doesn’t equate to love, not by a long shot.”
“That’s how it’s going to be then. You’re always going to hold Denys as some
sort of a bargaining piece against me? That’s low, Dylan.”
“I don’t want to, but I can’t help myself. Just tell me, did you feel the same sort DRAGON’S HEART Marly Mathews 170
of emotions for him as you feel for me?”
“No.”
Her simple yet sincere answer sparked something within his eyes. He shook his head. “Then, you didn’t love him as much, or did you love him more?”
“Must we do this? Fine. I’ll tell you the simple truth about Denys and me. We never completed the Mating Ritual. For all of his posturing about how he bloody well hates the human race, he’s had his fair share of human women that he’s used as his pleasure whores. He knew he couldn’t get what he craved from me. He knew I could never give my body to a man that wasn’t my mate. He tried to convince me we were meant to be, but in the fiber of my being, I knew he was incorrect.”
“I see.” His jaw clenched and unclenched. “Denys is a bloody hypocrite. That tells me a bit more about why your side is losing. You play fair. Or rather, your side fights fairly, as for the other side, they don’t. They must pull off every dirty stunt known in the world of warfare.”
“We fight a tad bit differently than you magic kind.”
“Believe me, my side is quickly figuring out how to fight just like your side. We learned a good deal in the last war between us, and we learn from our mistakes.”
“I have to say, I don’t mind hearing that.” She touched his face gently. He didn’t flinch or draw away.
She stared up at the ceiling. She was just about to kiss him, when a loud
determined voice shot up to them from the floor below.
“Grania! We need your assistance!”
“Well, there goes that special moment.” She sighed.
“Nicholas always has a way of putting a bloody kink in my plans.” Dylan
groaned. “We’ll have to postpone this until later .…”
A heavy sigh shuddered through her. “It will be hard to struggle with the feelings that make me want to rip your clothes off.”
“Tempting thought, though, if we don’t go down and humor Nicholas, you can be
sure he’ll be coming up here.”
“How did he get through my protective enchantments?”
“Knowing Nicholas, he found some other inanimate object with which to channel
his message through.”
“The gramophone in the living room!”
“Probably.” He nodded. She dashed toward the steps. He followed her in hot
pursuit.
“Nicholas! You listen to me, old boy, this had better be good! You interrupted an intimate moment between ....”
“Shut your trap!” She looked back at him angrily. Dylan fell silent. “I don’t see him, where? Ah ha! Just as I thought, look at that purple mist coming out of the gramophone!” she said, pointing to it.
“I see it! Nicholas always was a crafty little bugger.”
“I always will be. I have to leave for Dragonia soon. We’ve gotten the message that the situation is growing burning hot there, no pun intended. It looks as if your cousin is bloody well at one of his darkest hours.”
“Then, I should go to help him. Dylan has proven that he doesn’t need me to
keep guard over him.”
DRAGON’S HEART Marly Mathews 170
“Hey, I’m not about to give up my guardian angel of mercy so soon … don’t
think I will.” He accentuated his meaning by reaching for her hand and holding it fast.
“Listen to Dylan. He knows what’s he’s talking about. We don’t need you to go to Dragonia. Dylan, you have to bring her to Headquarters. We have O’Malley
imprisoned here, and we have the inkling that O’Malley knows something we don’t. We think he knows how Draco is going to stage his first wave of invasion on Earth.”
“Not likely. The only way for Draco to come through from Dragonia is to open a magical doorway. Blaze and the other dragon shifters should be at this moment trying to form the necessary blockade. The Royal Family has kept the knowledge of how to cut off Dragonia from Earth a secret since Dragonia was created, they will cut themselves off from Earth if it means keeping Draco and his followers from casting their scourge here.”
Dylan shuddered. “Did you have to say scourge? You make it sound so dark and dismal. You make it sound as if true hellions are about to invade Earth!”
“Believe me, Dylan, she talks the God’s honest truth. Dragonia isn’t the picture of the land of milk and honey right now, England still is, but if England falls, the rest of the world doesn’t have a hope.”
“Oh, yeah. Look how well that turned out when it came to Orion and James,”
Dylan scoffed.
“I’ll thank you to keep those thoughts to yourself.” She narrowed her eyes at him.
“Hey, don’t shoot me just for talking the God’s honest truth.” He cast his eyes back to the gramophone. “We’re on our way, Nicholas. Oh, and Nicholas, do be careful when you’re in Dragonia. Try not to get yourself blown up, I find I’ve become rather accustomed to having you as a constant pain in my ass.”
“I’ll do my bloody best. It’s going to get pretty hot down there .…” he sighed.
“Ah, well, I willingly volunteered for this job I take so seriously. Oh, and your mother wants to have a word with you when you get to headquarters.”
“Your mother is at headquarters? Headquarters for what?”
“Our magical intelligence agency, silly. I keep telling you that we have a
sophisticated society. Lets just say that we work in conjunction with MI5 and MI6 to keep this happy little country safe. There are magical terrorists that sometimes flare up and wreak havoc, as you can well imagine the non-magical government agencies are at a loss when they’re pitted against magical terrorists. We even the playing field and make sure the little demons don’t get an upper hand.”
“Good to know. Meanwhile, I’ve been living here in utter ignorant bliss not
realizing that my whole world was being guided and protected by your lot.”
“And, now, we’ve infiltrated Dragonia.” For her benefit he gave an evil little laugh. She shook her head at him.
“Sometimes, you really are just too gauche.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment.” He bowed to her. She chanced a glance at the gramophone. Judging by the purple misty stuff still emanating from it, Nicholas was still listening in on every word they said.
“You get to Dragonia, while we get to your headquarters. Where are
headquarters?” she asked wearily. Thinking of the secret world the magic kind had was giving her a headache on top of her headache. She certainly felt foolish
DRAGON’S HEART Marly Mathews 170
“You give her all of the Intel, Dylan. I have to get a move on .…” Nicholas'
voice started fading away.
“Why in Cheltenham, since you asked so nicely. It’s a secret location. Take my hand, and come fly with me. I won’t be taking you to the moon, unfortunately, you can’t have everything. Course, you’ll simply have to come with me to attend Madame
Giselle’s Beltane Celebration on the moon. She really knows how to throw one hell of a swell bash.”
“That sounds just divine.” She chuckled. She couldn’t imagine the type of world he lived in, though she had a pretty good feeling she was going to find out. “My people were right when they said your main reason for using the craft was for the pure enjoyment of frippery and frills.”
“Ah, you wound me, right down to the core. You make us sound like shallow
little good for nothings. I warrant that you’re not half off the mark when it comes to some of us, while the rest of us work and struggle for the betterment of our kind and for this world. We will not fail Earth.”
“Even when it failed you.”
“That sounds like a statement of anti-Dragonian sentiment.”
“Don’t be absurd.”
“But still, I know you have your doubts.”
“I don’t have my doubts. Not now. I think that our kind missed the mark when it came to fighting for what mattered. We left this world with our dragon shifting tails between our legs. We shouldn’t have given in so easily. Once we went into total seclusion on Dragonia, this world fell into an age of darkness where they burned people at the stake and committed other unthinkable acts of cruelty against each other. They were barbaric and heartless. The world went to the devil while they said they acted in the name of God!”
“And for that you think Earth should pay?”
“No. Never. Not in the way my father would have them pay. No, I would never think to sentence anyone to that fate. Even now, while half of this world is in chaos?
No. It isn’t the right thing to do.”
“And you always believe in walking the good path, don’t you?”
“Even if it means sacrificing my own happiness. Aye.”
He gave her a silent look of approval. “Let’s go. We are wasting time, and right now, we have precious little as it is.”
“What do you think will happen if Draco succeeds in breaching the blockades put around Earth?” she asked softly.
“Do you think that will happen?”
“My father is cunning and swift when it comes to implementing any of his plans.
If he knows of a way to breach the shields Blaze and my fellow Royalists are erecting as we speak, then, yes, I think it will happen. We are only waiting for the inevitable.”
“God help us, then.” With that, he took her hand, opened a portal, and her next words were lost as the portal sucked them in taking them to their destination.
DRAGON’S HEART Marly Mathews 170
Chapter Nine
She’d been expecting a bumpy ride, and instead, the ride through his magical tunnel went smoothly.
“That was a refreshing change,” she mused, giving him a smile.
He looked over at her perplexed. “Ah, yes, no doubt you had a rough time of it when you used the dragon mark to carry you to my side. I’m sorry.” They stood outside a large building in Cheltenham. People passed them on the street, and some men and women walked past them into the building they stood in front of. It was by far the most modern building on the street.
A light rain drizzled down around them. Fortunately, she now wore a raincoat.
“Nice change.”
“Well, when we set off we both weren’t dressed, so I made a few improvements.”
He was right. She’d been so rattled earlier at the prospect of their lovemaking, and then by Nicholas' update that she’d completely forgotten she was still in her nightgown when she’d more or less ordered Dylan to take them to headquarters right away.
“Thanks for noticing that.”
“Well, I can’t exactly show up in front of my mum at her place of business
wearing nothing but my boxer shorts. Could you see her reaction? Her eyes would fall clear out of her head!”
He laughed, and she followed. “The day is dismal isn’t it? It feels like a
foreboding of sorts.”
“We’ll have sunny weather again soon. Hey, it’s England, the weather here is
known to change at the drop of a hat.”
“If my kind does invade, it will be changing on the hour, most likely. With our temperaments and our control over the elements ....”
“Let’s not dwell on that sordid thought right now. We should get a move on, get past security and onto where O’Malley is kept.”
He held open the door for her and ushered her inside. They stepped into a
tastefully decorated lobby. Two secretaries sat in front of them. The one desk was immaculate. The other desk had a candle, a quill pen, and what looked to be a wand sitting on it. She noticed the other secretary wore a tailored designer suit, while the other secretary wore an Empire waist dress. She didn’t need Dylan to tell her that the one was human, and the other one was a witch.
“Master Lightfoot! How good to see you again! I see you’ve brought along your new bodyguard. Excellent. Your mother is waiting for you. We just need you to take the necessary security precautions and then, you’re on your way!”
A console appeared out of thin air. A light started to flicker on it, and then, it took what appeared to be Dylan’s picture.
An old wheezy voice shot out of the console. “Identity: Master Lord Dylan
Lightfoot. Wizard: Fi
rst Class. Hails from the ancestral families of Lightfoot, Fairborn, DRAGON’S HEART Marly Mathews 170
Le Fay, and Wynn among other less dignified families. Security clearance: Alpha. ”
While the console spoke, a physical representation of Dylan appeared along with the many colors that represented his aura.
“Nice. I can’t wait to see what it’s going to say about me,” she muttered, eyeing the device with distaste.
“I’m getting to you, Mistress Burns.”
She gasped. “Is there a person behind that?”
“What do you think? We don’t use computers like our mortal counterparts do.
Now, smile for my wand .…”
In the next instant, the same bright light that had surrounded Dylan also engulfed her. Two images of her appeared in front of her. The first image was of her in her human form, while the other image was of her dragon shifter form.
“You are beautiful when you’re a dragon.” He looked in awe. “I’ve never seen a white dragon with a red mane before .…”
“We are rare.” She smiled at him. “You’ll see me in living color the next time I have to shift.”
“Don’t be thinking of doing that in here, we have strict rules against shape
shifting while in these buildings.” The voice rasped, then wheezed, then whoever belonged to the voice started to cough. It was a hacking, grating sound. “Now, where was I? Ah, yes. Identity: Lady Grania Burns. Dragon Shape Shifter: First Class.
Security clearance: Nonexistent, given guest clearance. Hails from the ancestral line of Burns, Pendragon, Augustus, and the Royal Ruling Houses of Dragonia, Gemini and Dionysus. Daughter of: Lord Draco Burns, our enemy and Princess Polaris, deceased.Ó
She drew in a sharp breath at the last word. Her stomach churned.
“Pendragon, eh? Impressive.” He gave her a cheeky smile. As always, he was
trying to make light of a very serious situation. She was going to spend the rest of her life with a man that her father wanted dead. In fact, she didn’t think he’d ever give up until one of them was dead.
“You may pass into the restricted zone.” The woman coughed again, and then sighed. “This Earthly air, really grates on my lungs, especially at this time of the year, the pollens and pollution are hell. You all have a blessed day.”