Fawks (Dragons of Kratak Book 4)

by Ruth Anne Scott

  He changed into a huge black dragon. His skin swallowed up the sunlight glinting off his sides. He flew through the trees with only his eyes burning out of the inky shadow of his enormous body, but he didn't fly at his brothers battling Fawks. He flew around them, straight at Sheena.

  She barely had time to raise her arms to defend herself before he was on her. His black wings surrounded her with the blackest night. She couldn't see anything beyond those glowing eyes pricking the lightless surface of his face.

  His claws closed around her arms, and the razor-sharp points dug into her skin. The pain startled her out of her shocked trance. She kicked and struggled against him, but he held her firm. He closed her against his scaly hide. With one down stroke of his wings, he dragged her back through the trees toward the Keep.

  Nothing she could do could break that iron grip. Her feet made no dent in his armored skin. She could scratch and scream and struggle, but she could do nothing to free herself.

  Adrenaline scorched through her guts. She couldn't let him take her back to the Keep. She twisted every which way in his clutches, but with every step, he took her farther away from Fawks.

  She strained her neck to look behind her. “Fawks! Help! Help me!”

  Fawks white head whipped around on his snake-like neck. His eyes flashed wicked and wild when he spotted Gao dragging her off, but he couldn't do anything with Rocor and Warku coming at him from both direction.

  In the moment when she distracted him, Rocor threw off his crushing foot and knocked him back. Warku thumped his wings against the ground and took to the air to come down with all four clawed feet on Fawks' back. His fangs sank into Fawks' spine.

  The white dragon screamed and raked the sky with his spiky form, but Rocor slithered around under his feet. With one slash of his tail, he swept Fawks' feet out from under him and brought him down on his side on the hard ground. Fawks twisted to regain his position, but both dragons attacked him at the same time. They fluttered their wings to beat the air and shredded Fawks with their claws. They pounded him with their tails and gnawed his with their jaws.

  Sheena saw it all from between the trees where Gao drew her farther and farther away. If only she could get to Fawks, she might be able to help him. How could she help him, though? How could she fight three dragons when she couldn't free herself from one of them?

  He was a dragon, a dragon as strong as they were, but not even he could beat three against one. Had she come all this way, on a strange planet, to lose the love of her life when she just found it? Would she lose her life on this planet along with Fawks? Why did she have to go through all this heartache and upheaval for nothing?

  She fought Gao with renewed energy, but panic started to take hold. It robbed her of any ability to fight him effectively. Rocor and Warku kept Fawks from regaining his feet. He couldn't reach her. He couldn't do anything to stop Gao from taking her away.

  She tore one arm free of Gao's clutches. She extended her hand toward Fawks in a last desperate plea for help, but he couldn't see her beyond their beating wings. Sheena's heart sank. It was all over.

  Just when she gave up all hope, Fawks gave one last wrench of his lizard body. In the blink of an eye, he shifted and changed back into a man. The two dragons paused in their attack to register the change, and in that brief interlude, Fawks rolled sideways under their slashing claws to freedom.

  Before they could react and come after him, Fawks rolled up onto his feet some paces away. He plunged his hand into his clothes and withdrew a weapon Sheena never saw before. She'd undressed him to his bare skin with her own hands. How had he managed to keep it hidden all this time?

  It didn't function like Rex's gun. It lay flat against his palm and stuck to his hand with some magnetic force. He didn't have to operate any firing mechanism. Sheena could see no moving parts on the thing at all.

  All he did was raise his arm and point his fingers at Gao, and the thing went off. A sizzling blast of lightning shot through the trees. Before Gao knew what happened, the shot hit him in the wing and ripped it clean off his body.

  The black dragon released his grip on Sheena with a deafening screech. She slammed down on the ground, but when she looked up, the dragon wasn't there anymore. A man with long dark hair hanging down to his shoulders inched back away from her to safety in the trees. He hugged one arm across his chest, and a ragged, bloody hole discolored one shoulder.

  Rocor and Warku ran over to their brother, but Fawks kept his weapon trained on all three of them. He grabbed Sheena by the arm and helped her to her feet. He backed her away from the three men. “Don't follow us, and don't come after us again or I'll kill all of you.”

  Rocor supported Gao on one side and helped him to retreat. “This means war, Ulasso. We will arm our whole Clan. We will repay all the Ulasso for this.”

  Fawks swept the brothers with his weapon. “The next Assan who shows his face to me or any Ulasso is a dead man. Do you hear me? You attacked me without provocation and tried to kidnap my mate. Take your brother home and lick your wounds. Don't come near me or mine again, or you will die.”

  Warku pointed at Fawks, but none of the brothers said anything more. Gao whimpered under his breath with every step, and he leaned on Rocor to limp away. Fawks stood panting and fuming with his arm outstretched. His eyes sought any sign of the brothers' return, but they didn't come back.

  Sheena's shoulders slumped. She touched Fawks' bloody arm. “Are you all right?”

  He shook her hand away with a smack of his lips. “I'm fine.” He shuddered, and his arm hung at his side. “Are you okay?”

  “I'm all right. I just got scared. That's all. Where did you get that thing? How did you hide it from me all this time?”

  He glanced at the weapon before concealing it under his clothes. “I wouldn't be much of a saboteur if I didn't bring a weapon, would I?”

  “You really did some damage with that thing. You blew his wing off. He probably can't heal that with his saliva.”

  “He can heal that and a lot worse. It might take a few days, but the wing will regenerate. He'll be as good as new.”

  “Good as new to make war on the Ulasso, you mean?”

  “They can't do anything to the Ulasso.”

  “That's what you keep saying, but all the Ingasores should be banding together against the Allies. Now is not the time for them to be fighting each other.”

  “The Assans don't know about the Allies. They don't know the true nature of the Allies threat.”

  “And you won't tell them, will you?”

  “They wouldn't listen to me if I told them. Your friends won't tell them, either. They would be left defenseless.”

  “They'll be left defenseless if they attack the Ulasso.”

  “They'll be destroyed if they attack the Ulasso.”

  “You heard what he said. They're going home to arm for war.”

  “Let them come.”

  Chapter 17

  Sheena peered closer at Fawks' face. The mysterious movement under his skin showed clear for one brief minute, only to submerge out of sight again. "Is that pattern under your skin the same as the Assans?"

  "All Ingasores have it. The color comes from our dragon skin. Did you notice how those three brothers have different colors? All Ulasso are white, so the pattern doesn't show up so well against our skin. The other Clans have dark colors, so you see it clearly."

  Sheena shuddered. "It's hideous."

  He bit back a smile. "Am I hideous, too?"

  "Do you mean as a dragon? I'll admit it took some getting used to. It might still take some getting used to. You're pretty scary as a dragon."

  He came near her, and her skin tightened against the inevitable desire raging in her soul. "Scary. I like that."

  "You won't have any trouble striking fear into the Allies' hearts when the time comes. I can assure you of that."

  He inclined his head deeper into the forest. "If you're ready, if I'm not too scary for you, I'll change and we can
go."

  "You're not too scary for me. I like you scary."

  "Yeah?"

  "Don't you know that's what drew me to you in the first place. If I hadn't been scared of you, I wouldn't have fallen for you the way I did."

  He took a step back to give himself room. He swelled to twice his normal size, and his long neck stretched back to lift his reptile head on its long snake whip. His wings spread to fill the sky, and the white dragon walked in a circle in front of her.

  He turned his shoulder toward her, but she couldn't bring herself to approach him until he crouched down. She put out her hand, but that white skin didn't seem real enough to touch.

  She repeated the words over in her mind. This is Fawks. This is Fawks. This was the man she loved, the man she gave her life to. This was her future, this dragon. Her fingers touched his armored scales. They glowed from underneath with heat, and she pulled her hand back. Those scales didn't give one iota under her touch.

  She tried again, and this time, she succeeded in laying her hand on his massive shoulder. The heat, his heat, radiated up her arm into her heart. He grumbled under his breath at her touch. Did he feel her hand through those impenetrable scales?

  He startled her by bringing his head around to stare at her with smoldering eyes. His spiky eyebrows furrowed over white-blue eyes. She yanked her hand away in a hurry and took a step away again.

  A second later, he changed back into a man. "What's wrong? Why don't you climb up?"

  She smacked her lips. "Don't keep doing that. Don't keep changing back and forth. I can't get used to you as a dragon if you keep changing. Just stay that way until I get used to it."

  "Okay. Whatever works for you."

  "Just don't stare at me like that."

  "Like what?"

  She flapped her hands. "Just don't look at me at all."

  "Ever?" He laughed.

  "Just stand there and let me get used to you. When you look at me like that, I see the dragon that attacked our shuttle."

  "I am the dragon that attacked your shuttle."

  "Well, I don't need you reminding me of that, do I?"

  He turned away. "All right."

  When he became a dragon this time, Sheena was ready. She watched the whole transformation process with a keen eye, and she stepped right up to his shoulder and ran her hand down his side.

  He slithered his head around, but he didn't look at her. Sulfury smoke rose from his nostrils, and his wings rustled. His sides heaved, and his scales seethed, but he stood still until she finished touching him.

  He crooked one leg at her side, and she put her foot on it. He lifted her up so she could throw her leg over his back. The moment she sat down, he spread his wings and raised his neck. She slid down over his spiky spine into a hollow place between his back and his neck. He spread his wings and strode a few paces into an open place between the trees.

  His back muscles contracted between her thighs, and his wings caught the air. The wind whipped through her hair, and the treetops fell away on either side. She gripped Fawks’ sides with her legs, and his long body surged forward and back, forward and back in liquid movements.

  Her instincts told her to grip his neck with her hands, but she didn’t have to. His spine undulated one way and his neck slithered the other way. The two waves met under her seat to create a place of perfect stillness. She glided on air, faster than the wind, but she never moved a muscle.

  The white dragon soared over the forest. He circled once so she got a good, long look Assan Keep, but nothing could tempt her to go back. He banked back around and headed south, over the plain and between the mountains.

  One mountain after another disappeared behind them. Sheena said good-bye to them one after another. When would she see mountains again? The wide desert lay before her, all the way into the future.

  The mountain range ended and gave way to rolling grasslands. The wind struck her face hotter, but she could still see bushes and trees and wide swathes of wildflowers carpeting the ground.

  Hour after hour passed, and the sun sank toward the horizon. Sheena couldn’t watch anymore. She laid her head on Fawks’ warm neck and closed her eyes. She opened them a few hours later in the dark of night. The stars glistened in a clear night sky, and the landscape spread out below her.

  She couldn’t make out any trees or vegetation now, but she had to strain her eyes to make out the vast countryside below. Canyons and spires of solid rock cut through the barren landscape, and a warm wind warmed her face.

  That rock landscape still dominated from horizon to horizon when the sun rose red and hot the next morning. The hotter the day got, the faster Fawks flew. His muscles surged with power. The heat fed him and made him stronger and more assured. He knew his place now, and nothing could stop him from returning to his own country.

  Sheena dared not sit upright against that scorching wind. She lay down against his neck where the wind blew over her head, but she had no idea just how hot it would get.

  Fawks flew over the stone canyon lands half the day before it changed. The spires and crevices got smaller and less noticeable. She barely noticed when they vanished entirely into a flat wasteland of solid red stone.

  The sun blasted the stone pale pink, peach, and finally white before the torturous wind scoured the stones to sand. Sheena long since ceased to watch the inexorable change below her. The sun hurt her eyes, and the wind chapped her cheeks and lips.

  She didn’t notice when Fawks slowed and made a slow swoop to one side. He jolted and started Sheena awake. When she sat up, she found him standing on a single column of neatly knitted brick. The wind didn’t howl through her hair and against her ears anymore. She slipped to the ground and teetered before she caught her balance.

  Flat white sand surrounded them on all sides as far as the eye could see. Not one blip of dune or oasis dotted that desert out of some dream. She blinked. Her mind didn’t want to comprehend a desert as big and flat and inhospitable as this.

  Fawks’ arms surrounded her waist from behind. She leaned back into him. “Is this it?”

  “This is it.”

  “I never imagined it could be like this.”

  “What did you think it would be like?”

  “I thought it would be a different kind of desert. The deserts we have all have some kind of life in them—animals and plants and insects all making their living in an arid environment. We don’t have deserts as….as stark as this, at least not entirely like this.”

  “It’s all like this. Nothing lives here but the Ulasso.”

  “It’s hard to believe anything could be alive in this.”

  “They’re alive underground. They couldn’t live on the surface. Nothing could.”

  “When do you want to go down?”

  “When you’re ready.”

  She covered his hands with hers. “I don’t want to go down yet. I want to stay up here with you.”

  “We’ll be together down there, too.”

  “I know. I just want you.”

  “You have me.”

  “I want everything.”

  He buried his face in her neck. “I can give you that.”

  His lips marked a delicious trail up her neck to her ear. He nibbled her ear until she rocked in his arms and pressed her body back into him. The gentle relaxation of his certainty gave way to the terrible tension of her desire. His heat mounted behind her, and his manhood met her urgent nudging backward to spur him on.

  She followed his hands up and down, around her belly, until they discovered by degrees the mounds of her breasts. She could close her eyes and lean against him to succumb to the tornado of her own escalating tension. She didn’t have to look her destruction in the eye now. She knew it. She prayed for it.

  His fingers enclosed her breasts and swallowed them in their dominating grip. The ever-increasing tingles spread from her prickling nipples down her rib cage to her box sagging open for something to devour. Her muscles ached from contracting against each ot
her in desperate hunger.

  His masterful hand skated up her neck to arch her head back, while the other slid down to the split awaiting him between her legs. She moaned under his attentions, and his fingers slipped through the filmy wetness to the ravenous tissues calling out for them. Her petals offered no friction to his tiny circles around her clitoris, and her nether lips pouted to receive the first intrusions into her saturated hole.

  She flexed her knees to rise and fall on those probing fingers. Let them enter her and pump the sweet syrup from her source. Let them scratch the nagging itch driving her to distraction. She rose and fell with her ass scraping his crotch, and he buried his point in her back door to match her ardor.

  The harder she rode against his cock, the harder he dug his fingers into her dripping cunt. He copied her rhythm and massaged her clit against her pubic bone with his wrist. She whimpered and sighed, but she couldn’t stem the tsunami of explosive passion breaking over her and smashing her against him. Before she could stop it, that deluge covered her over and sucked her down into the abyss of orgasmic fulfillment.

  She tossed through a tempest of overriding pleasure, but he held her firm with his rock-hard arms. He brought her in hard against his hips and rode his bulge into her ass while his hand worked her from the front. She could only ride it to its limit, but it never ended. Instead of crescendoing to a peak and subsiding, it rolled on and on in infinite peaks, one after another, until she couldn’t stand the intensity.

  Into this mixture of heady desire and blossoming being, his ramrod shaft found its way between her pillowed thighs to bury its point in her essence. He stirred her juices to a frothy head, but try as she might, she couldn’t bend over to invite him in. He held her upright against all her tormented efforts to accept him.

  She sobbed and cried for it. “Oh, please. Oh, please. Oh, yes. Oh, oh, oh!”

  He remained inviolate. He held her chin back against his shoulder and fingered her slit where his cock bored into her swollen flesh. How she wanted to bend over for him, but he had other ideas.