Behind them, Daisy chuckled. She and Rysa walked into the living room and drew the curtains closed. Ladon walked by as well, watching the areas around the women with an odd, protective air about him, the way Gavin would expect a male lion to watch the environment around his pride.
Gavin stopped in the wide threshold between the foyer and the living room and leaned against the wood framing.
Rysa bounced over, smiling again, and glanced over her shoulder. “Dragon is so excited to meet someone else who signs, aren’t you?” she asked the air next to her shoulder.
She curled her fingers around Gavin’s elbow again. “Don’t be too freaked out, okay?”
He stood up straight. “By what?” He knew the beast was in the room. The dragon hadn’t done anything to disguise changes in the air currents his big body created, or to be careful about the noises he made.
But when the line of light appeared in the air about two feet from his face, Gavin gasped. The line traveled over a shimmering snout, down a long neck, across strong front limbs and over stronger back haunches. It stopped, finally, at the tip of a long, ridged tail.
A new purring vibration rolled from Ladon-Dragon. Daisy and Rysa had both warned Gavin about the beast’s hide—about his shapes and colors and his shimmering. But seeing him, being close enough Gavin felt the beast’s breath, made him shiver. He wanted to touch because his brain said all those different layers had to have texture—but he was just Rysa’s normal, hearing-impaired buddy.
Just another normal.
Without his super-hearing, how could he help the people in the room with him right now? How could he help Daisy instead of getting under her feet? Ladon glowered as if he thought Gavin was just another pup to watch over. Rysa, he couldn’t read.
What could Gavin possibly offer?
The beast shifted his weight. His huge front limbs rose into the air, and he signed Hello, Gavin Bower, with his six-taloned hand-claws. You are learning to doctor?
Yes, Gavin signed. “I’m pre-med.”
The beast twisted his giant neck and looked over his shoulder at Rysa, who nodded and smiled.
I also wish to learn to doctor, Ladon-Dragon signed. I have many questions the healers cannot answer.
Gavin’s back straightened and his shoulders squared as he leaned toward the beast. It looked as if he had something in common with a dragon. “Me, too.”
Ladon-Dragon sniffed his face. I wish to learn what they heal, so that I may help.
Gavin chuckled. “I’d like to learn how they do it.” When he asked, Daisy shrugged and said her abilities felt like a part of her. She couldn’t explain it any better than she could explain how she moved her hands, or how she recognized colors.
We have many questions, you and I, Ladon-Dragon signed.
Slowly, Gavin reached out his hand. The beast’s hide felt soft. Silky, even. Not at all terrifying. Gavin smiled. “I think you and I have a lot to talk about.”
“Pizza’s here,” Rysa said.
The doorbell rang.
Gavin felt more than heard the new subsonic rumbling purr roll from Dragon. It oscillated through the living room’s air, riding on the breeze and vibrating Gavin’s bones, and he suspected no one else in the room paid attention. That such sounds were commonplace in their lives.
For a second, he wondered if Praesagio did something new to his aids, but he didn’t think so. Nine years ago, a hit and run driver took most of his hearing. He’d been living in semi-silence ever since, getting back bits and pieces of sound each time he received a technological upgrade. But he’d never gotten used to it. He’d become exquisitely aware of the type of silence he lived within, with sounds painting physical pictures more than carrying phonemes. The quietness of vibrations.
Perhaps the beast lived in a similar space. Perhaps, they had this in common.
Daisy walked toward the foyer and their meal. Ladon curled an arm around Rysa’s waist as he watched Daisy pull her wallet out of her red bag. Rysa, though, watched Gavin around the other man’s shoulder, her eyes twinkling as if she knew something the rest of them didn’t.
Maybe the final message from the angel Fate wasn’t a dismissal. Maybe it was meant to coax Gavin onto a different path, one full of dragon purrs and intricate questions. One where he could be more than just the local normal guy.
Gently, he returned his hand to the beast’s neck. “I’m at your service, Great Sir,” Gavin said. “When would you like to start?”
The Story continues…
… in book five, All But Human…
Rysa, Ladon, Daisy, and Gavin face life on a University campus—and battle the worst Shifters and Fates on the planet….
Or go back to the beginning with book one, Games of Fate, and meet Rysa Torres, Ladon, and Dragon for the first time….
More information about Fate - Fire - Shifter - Dragon.
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The Worlds of
Kris Austen Radcliffe
Genre-bending Science Fiction about
love, family, and dragons:
Fate – Fire – Shifter – Dragon
Games of Fate
Flux of Skin
Fifth of Blood
Bonds Broken & Silent
All But Human
Men and Beasts
The Burning World
Smart Urban Fantasy:
Northern Creatures
Monster Born
Vampire Cursed
Elf Raised (coming soon)
Hot Contemporary Romance:
The Quidell Brothers
Thomas’s Muse
Daniel’s Fire
Robert’s Soul
Thomas’s Need
Andrew’s Kiss (coming soon)
About the Author
As a child, Kris took down a pack of hungry wolves with only a hardcover copy of The Dragonriders of Pern and a sharpened toothbrush. That fateful day set her on a path traversing many storytelling worlds—dabbles in film and comic books, time as a talent agent and a textbook photo coordinator, and a foray into nonfiction. After co-authoring Mind Shapes: Understanding the Differences in Thinking and Communication, Kris returned to academia. But she craved narrative and a richly-textured world of Fates, Shifters, and Dragons—and unexpected, true love.
Kris lives in Minnesota with her husband, two daughters, Handsome Cat, and an entire menagerie of suburban wildlife bent on destroying her house. That battered-but-true copy of Dragonriders? She found it yesterday. It’s time to pay a visit to the woodpeckers.
Fore more information
www.krisaustenradcliffe.com
[email protected]
Bonds Broken & Silent Page 33