“Can you heal Lady first?” she sent through the link. “It might make my mom feel better.”
“Of course.” Stretching his long, snaky neck until his scaly snout was pointed at the injured dog, the Drake opened his jaws and breathed out. A warm gust that smelled like a campfire at twilight filled the room. The rush of air ruffled Lady’s fur and she whined restlessly.
At first Luci thought nothing was happening. But then Lady lifted her head and gave a little shake. Then she jumped up and gave a big, all-over shake—the kind dogs do when they come in out of the rain and they’re trying to dry off. She gave a short, sharp, joyful bark and lifted her head to sniff noses with the Drake.
“Here, Lady—here girl!” Luci called. Lady turned her head and trotted to her at once. Luci felt her all over, glad when she found the dog was whole and sound. “Good girl,” she told Lady. “I heard what a brave girl you were, trying to save Frannie! I’m so glad you’re well again!”
“Now me! Now me!” Frannie exclaimed. Looking at the Drake, she held out her arm. “It still hurts where Daddy grabbed it,” she explained sadly. “Please, dragon—can you help it?”
The Drake nodded its head in an exaggerated gesture of agreement and Luci realized that she was the only one who could hear its voice. But that didn’t seem to matter to Frannie—she held perfectly still while the Drake breathed on her arm.
Before their eyes, the swelling in her hurt wrist went down and the red marks from Tony’s cruel grip first faded, and then vanished.
Frannie wiggled her fingers and grinned at Luci. Then she threw both arms around the Drake’s neck and hugged him tight.
“Thank you!” she said. “It doesn’t hurt anymore.” She ran over to Luci and her mom. “See, Abuela?” she said, extending her arm to her grandmother. “The dragon fixed it! He healed me and Lady and now it’s your turn!”
Luci’s mom was still apprehensive, but after the two displays of healing she’d already seen, she was no longer frightened. Well, not much. Luci did hear her praying under her breath in rapid Spanish to the Blessed Virgin to protect her as the Drake extended its snaky neck and breathed gently on her broken arm.
After he was done, Luci’s mom looked down at herself in amazement.
“Madre de Dios,” she whispered. “He really did it!”
“He sure did.” Luci smiled at the Drake gratefully. “Thank you so much,” she sent to him. “Thank you for healing my family!”
“My family too, now,” the Drake reminded her. “Mine and Raze’s. We will always protect you and heal you and love you, Lucia. You are ours and we are yours. Forever.”
Luci felt a swell of love for the Drake. Getting off the couch, she ran to throw her arms around his scaly neck. She was surprised to feel that the emerald green scales which looked so hard and metallic were actually as soft as feathers.
“Oh!” she exclaimed. “You’re so soft!”
“When I want to be.” The Drake nuzzled her lovingly. “Love you, Lucia. Always.”
“I love you, too,” Luci told him. “I—”
But her words were interrupted by a brisk pounding on the door.
“US Immigrations and Customs Enforcement,” a loud, masculine voice shouted. “We had word of an illegal alien sheltering here. Open up!”
Thirty-Four
Luci felt frozen in place. For years she had dreaded this knock on her door. Especially lately when it seemed like the government had gone so crazy, wanting to round up old people who had never hurt anyone and ship them away to countries they hadn’t seen since they were children. When there were so many other, awful problems in the world, why would they go on a crusade to target the helpless and the weak?
“Because they can’t fight back,” a voice whispered in her head and she realized it was Raze. He sounded like he was talking from a long way away—maybe because the Drake was in his physical form right now—but Luci could still clearly understand her new mate. “Only this time they can—open the door, Lucia.”
And quietly, the Drake began to grow.
Before Luci could answer, there was a pounding on the front door again.
“There’s no use resisting or trying to hide!” the ICE agent on the other side barked. “Open up—now!”
Feeling like she was in a dream, Luci got up and went to the door. She opened it just a crack and looked out. Two men dressed in black riot gear glared back at her.
“There’s an alien sheltering here, all right—but it’s not who you think,” Luci told them. “If I was you, I’d get away quick.”
“Cut the bullshit!” one of the men barked. He straight-armed the door, slamming it open and shouldered his way past Luci with the other man right behind him.
Then the two of them stopped dead in their tracks.
The Drake was almost the same size he’d been down in the alley by now, though he had to hunch down and bend his long neck in order to fit. Bringing his huge head down until he was right in front of them, he regarded the men with glowing golden eyes and a low, throbbing roar began to build in the back of his throat.
“Shall I burn them?” he asked Lucia.
“No,” she said quickly aloud. “No, don’t burn the nice men, Drake. I’m sure they were just leaving.” She looked pointedly at the stunned ICE agents. “Weren’t you?”
“Wha…wha…” the second man gasped.
The first man—a hard-faced officer with thinning gray hair and angry eyes was more articulate.
“That’s a fucking dragon!” he gasped.
“Watch your mouth around my kids,” Luci snapped. “And get your pendejo asses out of here now if you don’t want me to tell my husband’s Drake to burn you into little piles of ash!”
As if to illustrate her point, the Drake opened his jaws, showing razor sharp, curving fangs, and puffed a small fireball directly in their faces.
That was all it took. Howling in fear, the two men turned and scrambled out the door, running as fast as they could.
Luci went to the doorway and called after them, “And stay out!” Then she slammed the door triumphantly behind her and turned to see that the Drake had changed again. This time it was Raze, holding out his arms to her. He must have gone into the other room to get dressed while she was shouting at the ICE agents.
Luci ran to him and he picked her up and swung her around.
“Thank you!” she whispered, speaking both to the big Kindred and his Drake. “Thank you so much for everything. Thank you!”
“Of course, sweetheart.” Raze held her close. “I’ll always be there for you. Just like my Drake told you—we love you forever!”
Luci snuggled safe in his arms and smiled as her mom and kids came to hug the big Kindred too. She knew that her life was changed forever for the better and all because she had been…Saved by the Drake.
Epilogue
“So you’re all moving up to the Mother Ship?” Rochelle asked, her eyes widening. She snapped her fingers. “Just like that?”
“Just like that.” Luci grinned and then sighed. “I hate to leave my job here at Paws and Purrs, and you know I hate to leave you. But Raze’s job is on the Mother Ship and there’s an animal practice there that needs a vet tech. Also, now that ICE has that report on my mom, they could come back at any time.”
Though she privately thought they would be fools to do so. She couldn’t help wondering what kind of report the two men who had seen Raze’s Drake had filed. What could they say—that they had seen a huge green dragon who breathed fire at them? They would be laughed out of the office!
Still, she didn’t feel safe from the ICE agents in her apartment anymore and she didn’t like the idea of her mom being alone at her own place either. Also, it was time for her mother to retire.
Getting up at the crack of dawn every day and fighting her way through Tampa rush hour traffic to go make tortillas for way less money than she deserved was taking its toll on her. She deserved to have time to play with her grandkids and sit in the sun and just
enjoy herself. And since Raze had made it clear that her mother was more than welcome to live with them, that was what they were going to do.
“So you’re moving lock stock and barrel?” Rochelle asked. “The animals too?”
“Of course!” Luci exclaimed. “I can’t leave my fur babies. But they’re all going to have to learn how to get along with the three kittens Raze rescued.” She grinned. “I imagine it’s going to be chaos for a while, but we’ll sort it out eventually.”
“Well, I wish you the best of luck, girl.” Rochelle pulled her into a hug. “I’m so glad things worked out for you. But I’m going to miss you around here!”
“I’ll miss you, too.” Luci was sad to leave her friend. “But I promise I’ll come back down to visit.”
“You do that,” Rochelle told her. “And if your man has any hot Kindred friends, send one my way!”
Luci laughed.
“I’ll see what I can do!”
She gave Rochelle one last hug and went to give her notice. She hated to leave her job on Earth, but her new life aboard the Mother Ship was calling and she couldn’t wait to start it.
The End
So much for the lighter side of Kindred love. Let's see how you like the Dark…
Dark
Captured by the Kru'ell One
Dedicated to Angel Margaret
Prologue
He has the face of a beautiful thug.
A nose that’s been broken more than once…black hair shaved close to his scalp…full, sensuous lips that twist easily into a cruel smile. His body is big and hard and muscular. But it’s his eyes that make Alli shiver.
They’re black—pitch black, midnight black—the color of a sinner’s soul. But when he tilts his head, they shine silver in the darkness—a mirror glow like a cat’s.
She doesn’t have to ask to know he can see in the dark—to know he can see her, no matter how she tries to stay hidden in the shadows of this strange place.
Where is she, anyway? Alli doesn’t know. She finds herself here more and more often, always in her dreams.
Dreams! That’s right—I’m dreaming.
She looks down at her left wrist where she tied the red ribbon before she went to bed. The book on lucid dreaming recommended this technique. When you look down at your wrist in the dream and see there’s no ribbon there, you know it’s not real. And once you know that, you can start to take control of the dream—twist it to your own devices or even just end it.
There is no ribbon on her wrist. Alli breathes a sigh of relief. She looks at the man, half hidden in the shadows, his mirror eyes gleaming as he appraises her. He’s like a man looking at a sleek sports car, she thinks—an expensive, beautiful toy he wants to own.
No man has ever looked at her like that, with that hungry lust, that acquisitive greed—especially now that she’s past the age of forty. Oh, she exercises regularly, but she’s still plumper than she’d like to be—too wide in the hips, too big in the ass. Though at least her naturally red hair is still as fiery as it ever was. No grays for Alli, though she feels her age in other ways. She—
Focus! she commands herself. It’s a dream—get out of it. You can do it—you can take control.
“You’re not real,” she says to the man. “You’re just a dream—all of this…” She makes a sweeping gesture, indicating the hall of shadows where they face each other endlessly, every night. “All of this is just a dream.”
The corners of his sensuous lips turn up in amusement. He doesn’t speak—he never speaks. Instead he takes a step towards her and then another and another until suddenly he’s looming over her.
Alli has to tilt her head up to see him now. Dream or no dream, her heart is thundering in her chest. She can feel the heat of his big body radiating against her own, can smell the wild, dark spice of his caramel-colored skin.
“You’re not real,” she says again, but the words come out in a frightened whisper. “Not real—just a dream. Not real!”
For the first time, he speaks.
“Oh, I’m real all right, Allisandra,” he says. His voice is harsh—deep and gravelly, yet oddly gentle. He reaches out to stroke her hair, carding his fingers through the long strands tenderly. “So fucking beautiful,” he murmurs.
His touch makes Alli shiver and goosebumps break out all over her bare flesh. For she is naked, she suddenly realizes. Naked and alone in the hall of shadows with this man—if he even is a man. Maybe he’s a demon—a fallen angel sent to take her soul.
“It’s not your soul I want, Allisandra.” That gravelly voice again, and how did he know what she was thinking? How does he know her name?
“I know everything about you,” he tells her, as though she had spoken her question aloud. “I know all your darkest desires. And I’m going to make them come true, one by one—whether you want me to or not.”
His voice is a rumbling purr—it rubs Alli’s nerves like a rough hand stroking a cat’s fur the wrong way. Her nipples are hard little peaks at the tips of her breasts and she’s suddenly throbbing between her thighs. Heat climbs her spine and sexual need lashes her like a whip. What’s wrong with her?
“I…I don’t know what you’re talking about. I don’t have any desires,” she denies breathlessly.
“You can lie to yourself,” the shadow man with the mirror eyes tells her. He leans closer and she sees herself reflected in his black and silver gaze. “But you can’t lie to me, Allisandra. I see everything—everything you’re hiding. When I come for you, I’m going to make every dark dream—every forbidden fantasy—into a reality.”
“I don’t have any fantasies!” Alli feels close to panic now. Her heart is pounding and her whole body is throbbing with desire. What has he done to her to make her feel like this? What’s wrong with her?
“There’s nothing wrong with you, Allisandra. Nothing I can’t cure.”
The shadow man leans forward, bends down so that their faces are level. And then he opens his mouth.
His teeth are white and even and his tongue looks normal at first, but then it narrows somehow—becomes long and sharp. A needle…a stinger. And it’s coming for her.
“No!” Alli gasps. “It’s a dream—it’s only a dream and I want to wake up!”
And then finally, mercifully, her alarm rings and the dream is blown to dust.
One
Allisandra Stone sat up in bed with a jerk and slapped off the alarm. She was bathed in cold sweat and her heart was pounding in her chest like she’d just run a desperate race. Her body throbbed with unfulfilled desire.
“Only a dream,” she whispered and looked reflexively down at her left wrist. Sure enough, there was the red ribbon she’d tied on before bedtime last night. She was awake. Everything was okay.
Except it wasn’t.
The dreams were getting worse—crazier. The shadow man had never talked to her before but now she couldn’t get his deep, gravelly voice out of her head.
“I’m going to make every fantasy a reality,” he’d said—or something like that. But Alli didn’t have any fantasies.
Not anymore.
Once she might have dreamed of wild nights—hedonistic desires and hot sex. But that was back when she was young and silly. She hadn’t thought of things like that since she was in her twenties. She left them behind for good once she had buckled down to law school and then to building a lucrative practice. Her life was settled—organized and neat.
So why were these crazy dreams cropping up now, when she was on the far side of forty? Was she going through some kind of second puberty or something? Alli had heard that some women had hormone surges in their forties that made them as horny as teenagers. Was that what was happening to her?
If so, it needed to stop. She ran a shaky hand through her hair. God, these crazy dreams had her so rattled she didn’t know if she was coming or going!
Well, right now it’s time to get going. You have a meeting with Lizabeth and Commander Sylvan in an hour and you can’t be
late, the practical little voice in her head informed her.
Alli thought of it as the voice of her self-control—her self-discipline. It was the voice that kept her on track when she was wearily working through a monstrous pile of briefs for a tough case, the voice that jerked her back to reality if she drifted off into a daydream. It was the same voice that told her a second éclair was a bad idea.
Alli didn’t always listen to that voice—her plus-sized behind was proof of that. But it mostly kept her in line and on task and she was grateful for it. Now it prodded her out of bed and into the shower.
The Kindred showers were one of the reasons Alli kept a suite aboard the Mother Ship, even though she still technically lived on Earth. Instead of just one showerhead, the entire ceiling above the large, square shower stall streamed steaming water. It was like stepping into a warm rain and Alli loved it.
After a moment to get her hair and body wet, she waved a hand above her head and said, “Shampoo.”
Immediately a creamy dollop of sweet-smelling foam dropped from above and landed squarely in her hair. Alli massaged it into her scalp, trying to concentrate on the lovely fragrance and forget about the dream.
When she finished rinsing the shampoo out of her hair, she called for conditioner. After working the cream into her hair, she washed her body, trying not to notice how her nipples were still tender and how her pussy throbbed and ached when she ran the cleansing glove over herself.
What’s wrong with me? she wondered, not for the first time since the dreams had started. They had begun about six months ago, just after she’d hired on as a consultant to the Kindred’s legal team. It was a big move for her career—a very prestigious position, and there had been talk recently of making it permanent.
Dark and Light: A Kindred Tales DUET Novel. Contains: Saved by the Drake AND Captured by the Kru'ell One Page 13