Iris's Guardian

by Lisa Daniels

  The former captain’s eyes shifted to Noely, but he just shook his head. “Well, I guess that settles that. Looks like I have a long trip ahead of me. Good luck, you two crazy love bunnies.”

  Noely stepped toward him, “Don’t you want something to eat?”

  Hisa looked over at the food. “Well, give me just three for the road?”

  “Three whole ones?”

  “The boy’s going to wake up sometime, and I'm not big on stopping.”

  Noely wrapped up some of the food and handed it to him as she asked, “Are you not going to resign from the military?”

  “Resign? Who cares what they think, I'm done. They will promote Mercer or Carrington, and things will go along just fine without me.”

  “That seems a little irresponsible,” she frowned as she looked at the man.

  “Doesn't it just?” He let out a long satisfied sigh. “It’s so good to be free again. Cyprian, don’t hurt her or I will find a way to beat you, so help me gods, I will beat you like you would not believe.”

  “I can believe, I’ve fought you several times before.”

  “Yeah, but I didn’t have proper motivation before.”

  Cyprian moved over to Noely and put a hand around her shoulder. She leaned her head against him and felt the world shift a little. His voice moved though her body like a current as he replied, “I will never give you that kind of motivation.”

  Hisa looked at them with a sly smile, then turned and walked out into the darkness with Jaylon over one shoulder and the food in his other hand. Noely thought she could hear a strange melody as his silhouette disappeared in the distance.

  “Do you really think they will be alright?” Noely asked as soon as she thought Hisa was out of ear shot.

  “I am fairly certain of it. So long as he stays clear of our kind over there, there will be no problems.”

  “Your kind?” Noely turned her head to look at Cyprian. Staring back at her was a pair of crystal clear eyes with light green and yellow flecks. Her heart skipped.

  “Hello, again.” Cyprian smiled at her, but did not wait for her response. He leaned down and gently kissed her. Noely threw her arms around his neck, unable to hide a huge smile.

  They kissed for a few minutes before she pulled away from him. “My gods, but they are even more beautiful now.”

  “Nothing heals exactly as it was before being broken. I am glad you like them.”

  Noely did not say another word. She let her foot run up Cyprian’s calf. His hand gently wrapped around her thigh. Suddenly, the young woman felt herself get lifted off of the floor as two hands pulled her hips against his. She leaned back and moaned in response. Cyprian ran a hand under her dress and stroked the small of her back as he walked toward the bed. His mouth kissed her neck and he gently pulled a little of her skin with his teeth. Noely arched into him and let out a gasp as his hand slid between her thighs.

  Suddenly she was on the bed and her clothes had been completely removed. Cyprian was removing his own clothing beside the bed, his eyes taking in her body. The young woman tried to pull a blanket over herself as the color raised to her cheeks.

  “I would prefer if you didn’t.” The shifter’s voice was like a soft stream caressing her body. He placed a hand on her shoulder and looked at her, “May I?” When she nodded, he pulled the blanket off of her and his eyes looked over her body. Unsure what to do, Noely put a hand on his knee and began to move it up his inner thigh. She giggled as he closed his eyes and moaned.

  “You are right,” he said, sliding a hand onto her thigh. “There will be plenty of time for that later.” He leaned over and kissed her stomach. The further up he moved on her body, the more of his body touched her. Noely ran her hands through his hair and tugged at him. “Please, Cyprian.”

  He looked up at her face, then moved up to kiss her. Noely’s mind tried to take in the feel of his body as it pressed against her, the way he became harder as he positioned himself on top of her.

  Cyprian’s hand moved to her lower back as he gently thrust inside of her. Noely had expected to feel pain, but her mind registered only the feel of Cyprian’s hand running along her back and the one gently cupping her breast. She moaned and arched up into him, and felt him push a little deeper. Noely let out a little scream at the unexpected pleasure. As soon as she registered the pleasure, Cyprian pushed a little further, until the young woman was shouting his name. Then he covered her mouth with his and started a steady rhythm that caused her to peak repeatedly for she didn’t know how long.

  She had no idea how long it lasted, but she was thoroughly tired and happy when Cyprian finally stopped.

  He lay down beside her and stroked her hair out of her face. “Are you alright?”

  She looked over into his beautiful eyes and kissed him in response. Moving her body against his, Noely closed her eyes.

  “I love you, Noely.” She looked up at him and smiled a tired smile. “I’m not doing this as a favor or a debt. I love you.” He stroked her hair and kissed her forehead.

  “I love you too, Cyprian. Promise that you will stay with me. That you will continue to find a reason to live, even after I am gone.”

  A hand ran down the side of her body. “I promise that I will stay with you. And you have showed me that there is always a reason to live. If my time does not come for a long time, I will accept that.”

  “I promise to not be wasteful with my words as long as you are not wasteful with your life.” Her eyes were closed and she could feel her mind starting to drift off into sleep.

  “I promise to protect you so that you are not wasteful with your life either, because I know you will not be careful of yourself on your own.”

  Noely smiled as she buried her head in his chest.

  Several hours later she woke to find Cyprian gone. Rising up on her arm, she immediately began looking around.

  Finally, she spotted the shifter over near the supplies, his eyes on her. The young woman looked down and immediately pulled the covers up to hide her bare chest.

  “It looks much better down.”

  Noely blushed, but released the blanket.

  Cyprian let out a sigh and simply stared at her.

  After a few moments, Noely stood up and walked over to him. It was only as she drew close that the young woman realized the shifter had not gotten dressed. Suddenly her eyes were trying to see every aspect of him all at once. His figure was truly perfect, no bulges or imperfections. It was so impossibly perfect that she had difficulty believing the state she had found him in not so long ago. Twice.

  She crouched down near him and watched as his eyes moved with her body. “Cyprian.” His name seemed to draw his attention to her face, and for a moment she lost the ability to speak as his amazing eyes looked at her expectantly. “I don’t think that I ever told you Augustin’s name.”

  “You didn’t have to tell us. He’s one of us, just a different type.”

  Noely bit her lip and asked the one question she had always avoided asking a shifter, “And what is that?”

  His smile was beatific as he looked at her. “We are dragon shifters.”

  Her eyes went wide. “Dragon? There are dragon shifters?”

  He nodded, his smile widening as he did. “I did tell you we are very good about hiding who we are. That is the one thing that is universal, no matter what type.”

  “And, if it isn’t too personal, what type are you?”

  He leaned forward and kissed her on the nose. “It is a very personal question, and exactly the kind I want you to always feel comfortable asking.” He moved so that she could see the left side of his body. There, in a blue sea, was a large dragon.

  “A water dragon?” Her eyes went to his. “You are a water dragon?”

  He gave her a nod and another kiss on the nose.

  “Can I see?” Her voice was timid as she asked, all of her questions about anything else gone.

  His eyes moved around the cave as if assessing it. Then he suddenly be
gan to shift and change, his muscles elongating and stretching into elegant blue scales.

  Noely covered her mouth as she took in his form, and she could see why people would think that he was a serpent. He was far longer and thinner than any of the dragons she had ever seen, and his movements were like water as he made his way around the cave. His eyes were the same as he stopped to look at her, blinking quietly as if waiting for her approval. The young woman ran forward and began to kiss the dragon on his nose. Suddenly a pair of arms were around her, and Noely’s body responded by pressing into him. She moved in a way that knocked him against the wall, and slid down over him. Noely watched as his eyes closed and the shifter’s head leaned back. Keeping him pinned to the wall, she slowly worked up and down on him, enjoying the way he hardened inside of her. Her movements grew more intense as his breath became shallow. Squeezing with muscles she didn’t know she had, Noely felt Cyprian peaking. Moving faster, she pulsed against him until she was certain he was done.

  He opened his eyes and smiled at her. “If that is the reaction my natural form gets, I think I will be spending more time as a dragon. At least when you are around.” He stepped away from the wall and spun so that her back was to the wall. Carefully, he placed her back against the cave wall and grabbed her hands. Noely moaned as one of his hands stretched her arms over her head while the other reached around her thigh and slid inside of her. Noely screamed, “Gods! More. Oh gods, more!”

  The sun was setting when the pair finally stopped. Noely looked at the fading light. “What happened to the sun?”

  Cyprian leaned over the bed and placed his mouth on her nipple as one hand traced the outline. “We have been busy all day. It is setting.”

  “All day!” She sat up quickly. “I should have been at work a long time ago.”

  Cyprian sat up beside her. “After what happened last night, I doubt anyone expects you to go in today.”

  Noely wanted to say something. Looking at her lover, she said, “I don’t want to go back.”

  “Is there any reason for you to?”

  She nodded, “There are a couple of kids that I wanted to help make well.”

  Cyprian gently pushed her down and leaned over her. His hand ran along her face. “If they are sick, you should not go see them now. You can go into the city tomorrow and look after them. Once you are ready, we will leave.”

  “Where are we going?”

  His hand moved down her face onto her neck and traced her body. “You want to find Augustin.”

  “Do you know where he is?’

  His hands stopped and Cyprian looked into her eyes. “I do not. He said he had something he needed to do, but he didn’t tell anyone of us what that was. Obviously our assumption that it had something to do with his charge was wrong, and we have not heard from him since. Now that we know he has gone missing and left even you unsure, I think he needs to be found.”

  Noely pursed her lips, then asked the one question she would not allow herself to consider over the years. “Do you think he is dead?”

  Cyprian gave her a small smile, “No, I can feel when our kind dies, and that has not happened. Finding him will be difficult, but I believe it is necessary. Things have gone all wrong without him.”

  “May I ask what kind of dragon he is?” She gave a sheepish smile.

  Cyprian laughed and shook his head. “That’s something you will have to ask him. From a safe distance. With me holding on to you.”

  Noely laughed, “Don’t worry.” She leaned up and kissed him. When she tried to lay back down, Cyprian moved with her, his tongue sliding into her mouth. She laughed and kissed him until he stopped. “I had a crush on him once, but that is long gone now.”

  “I know,” the man’s startling eyes were looking into hers.

  “How can you possibly know that?”

  “I’ve been around a long, long time and have learned to read people and emotions. They ebb and flow just like the water, so it is pretty easy to do for most water dragons.”

  “So there are a lot of you out there?”

  He nodded. “Yes, but no water dragon shifter has been born in over 200 years because we have the longest lifespan of any shifter. And being hard to kill, we tend to not need children very often. It’s why we tend to get tangled in so many other affairs. Time is generally on our side.”

  “Are you the oldest?”

  Cyprian looked down at her with a smirk. “You can’t believe everything Hisa says.”

  “So you aren’t?”

  “No, I am, but I was just warning you that you really can’t listen to everything that comes out of that boy’s mouth.”

  Noely gave him a playful slap and rose up on her elbow. “So what am I?”

  “The most beautiful creature in Letera.”

  “I’m serious,” Noely said, pushing Cyprian on his back and leaning over him.

  “So am I, but if you mean what is your species, you are something that is actually rarer than sorcerers and sorceresses.” Her eyes widened, but she did not interrupt. “Oh, they get a bad name, and not really for a good reason anymore as they tend to keep to themselves and deal with what they are on their own. In fact, there are seven of them knocking about in Letera right now. They rarely know that there are others in the world, although some of them assume it. They find it much safer to hide who they are and try to act like ordinary witches and wizards. Kind of sad, really, given what they can do. The most powerful one is in Senones, but I hear that she has calmed down since taking a rather stiff and humorless dragon shifter as her mate.”

  “What?” Noely wasn’t sure if he was being serious or playing a trick on her.

  “It’s true, but there is nothing to worry about from them. She’s actually quite entertaining. I met her myself a couple of times. Sweet girl, just needed someone to help her feel comfortable. Can’t say that I care much for her choice, but then I don’t have to live with Calixto, so not really my concern. Plus, she is in a much better position to help the next one that is about to be born. Different clan, but same continent. That child is in for a world of difficulty because his parents are in trouble right now. It will only get worse if someone doesn't do something to help them.”

  “You are someone, you can help them.” She looked at her lover with pleading eyes.

  “As a water dragon, I’m not exactly welcome there. Not that they can tell I’m there without encountering me, but I try to minimize the damage. With Hisa on his way there, they may take it as a sneaky invasion too, so there is that to worry about.”

  “What if I go?”

  Cyprian looked at her, then rose to his elbows. “If you went, you would need to leave soon. The baby is due within three months, and it is a month and a half trip there.”

  “I think I can manage.”

  Cyprian looked at the mouth of the cave. “I will find someone to accompany you, but,” his eyes trained on her, “you must promise to be careful. Your kind don’t come around every century, and I do not know what I will do if something were to happen to you.”

  “I guess you can’t come with me,” she looked at him, knowing the answer.

  “Once Hisa returns, I may try to go, but he will not be back for a while. That boy will lose track of time and it might be decades before he returns. I hope not, but it would not be the first time he disappeared for so long.”

  “So dragon shifters just disappear whenever they feel like it?”

  “It depends on the type. Fire types tend to stay close to home, near their clans, living by strict rules and policies. They even regulate mating, which the dragon shifters everywhere else find backwards. But it seems to work for them, and they have reduced the number of ones that go wrong. You need to keep that in mind when you go because the sorcerer’s father is a fire dragon. A banished one, which is a large part of the problem. However,” he leaned forward and kissed Noely, his hand on her shoulder pushing her down, “we can talk about them later. Right now, I only care to talk about you.” He kissed the si
de of her face. “You are an angelous, the original name for angels. It means you have no human blood in you. Both of your parents had mixed blood, as did their parents, and probably their parents. Mixed blood is not very common since humans are the only ones who really don’t seem to take species into account when mating. Most other types are incredibly picky and refuse to associate with other species until they are married. Dragon shifters are a rare exception.”

  “So what does it mean that I’m an angelous?”

  He kissed her eyes. “It means that you can bring a sense of calm and peace wherever you are, but you must first feel it yourself. The world always goes through a time of tranquility when an angelous makes it to adulthood, though that is somewhat rare.”

  “Why?”

  He kissed her other eye and stroked her head. “Because it means that power centers stabilize, and those who want power do not want that to happen if it isn’t in their favor. Augustin kept you safe for the most critical part, and you appear to have found a way to make it through on your own sense then. But you do not have to face it alone anymore.” He kissed her lips.

  Noely kissed him back. When he finally pulled away, she looked up at his eyes. “Doesn’t that mean that you should come with me? Having me around will help keep people calmer, right?”

  He gave her a sad smile. “It will look like I am controlling you.”

  “But you said that one of them has a sorceress? Shouldn’t you be able to complain about that? And they are about to have a sorcerer born into their kind. They have two of something pretty rare. It seems only fair. Besides, it’s not like they will know what I am.”

  “You may have a point about it being fair,” his finger traced her lips, and Noely closed her eyes, “but every powerful creature can tell exactly what you are. You are radiant, and now that you know, you are going to shine brighter.”

  “Then I don’t want to go without you.” She put her hand over his.

  “If you really wish for me to go, I will.” He kissed her forehead, “But that means we will need to get moving tomorrow or the day after to find Augustin so that we can make the journey before the child is born.”