by Loki Renard
He was not a fan of hers, she knew that, but this had to be discussed. She wished more than anything that she had some clothes on. She had gotten used to being naked around Vyktor, but this dragon gave her the chills. He looked at her with a cold sort of anger and hunger she did not trust.
“Uhm, hello?” She tried for a smile and waved her fingers in a sort of placating fashion.
“What do you want, human? Where is your master?” He snapped the questions roughly at her.
“I want to help,” she said, getting straight to the point. “I know you’re trying to get a truce. If you give me a message, I will pass it onto command. I just need you to take me down to a vaguely civilized area somewhere in California. I can take it from there.”
“You wish to help us?” Eldor cocked his head to the side, his dark eyes narrowed in suspicion. “Why?”
“I want to end this war,” Aria said. “Helping you helps ending the war.”
“And you want to escape your master’s clutches, I bet. What assurance do I have that you will do as you say? If I set you free, there is nothing to stop you simply running away without delivering the message at all.”
“I don’t want to run away,” Aria said, feeling strangely embarrassed before this old dragon and his piercing gaze. “I want to help end this.”
“Even though it will mean losing your master.”
“I was a pilot,” she said. “I know what sacrifice is. I risked my life every day I flew. This is just my heart. Besides, I can always come back, can’t I?”
Eldor let out a snort. He didn’t believe her. He was talking to her the way a cat person might address a talking dog, with disdain, but inescapable interest.
“I do not trust you, human. But it seems to me that I do not have any choice but to trust you,” he said. “I take it your master does not know you are here talking to me.”
“He told me he wouldn’t consider my plan,” she said. “But it’s the only way this can work. You have to send me. And you have to do it quickly.” She could feel tears pricking her eyes as she did her best to keep a stoic, brave front. She didn’t want to leave Vyktor, and she hated that she was going to have to leave this way, without so much as a goodbye.
“Return to your master’s rooms,” Eldor said. “I will send for him and tell him that there is a matter which requires his urgent attention. You will then be flown to your leaders. Do not speak a word about this to him. He will not take kindly to this idea.”
“Oh, I know,” Aria said. “I know.”
*
She sneaked back into the room, where Vyktor was still sleeping. She looked down at him for a long moment, wondering if she could really do this. She was going to miss him. A lot. And he was going to be so very, very angry with her. She took a deep breath, almost losing her resolve. Before she could, she leaned down and woke him up with a kiss to his hard, masculine cheek.
“Hello, pet,” he smiled up at her, opening his eyes. “In a better mood now?”
“Yes,” she said, lying down next to him to rest her head upon his chest. This would be the last time she would ever feel his body beneath hers. The last time his warmth would comfort and reassure her. God. She could feel tears coming to her eyes already. How was she going to do this? How was she going to…
“Vyktor!” Eldor walked into the room without knocking. “There’s a disturbance on the north face of the mountain. Take a unit and inspect it!”
“Of course,” Vyktor said, immediately rising to action. “Do you think the humans have found our base?”
“They may have done,” Eldor lied. Aria was struck by how smoothly he did it. Untruth flowed from his tongue as easily as truth. It sent a little shiver up her spine watching him effectively betray Vyktor. But it was for a good cause. It was to end the war.
“See you soon, pet,” Vyktor said, dropping a kiss on her head.
“Yeah,” Aria replied, blinking back the tears that threatened to give everything away. “Bye.”
Chapter Eleven
Vyktor’s mission had turned out to be a false alarm. The only thing on the mountain was a small pack of goats. The flight time gave Vyktor a chance to think about how he might explain himself to Eldor though. Arriving back at the dragon roost, he went straight to the library they had compiled, found the book that had captured his attention in the early days of the invasion, and sought Eldor out.
“Vyktor,” Eldor said, his tone carrying no small measure of… something. Was it trepidation? “What do you need?”
“This human book,” he said, handing it to Eldor. “I found it in the wreckage of one of their buildings when we first came here. It was this book, in part, which gave me the idea to take a human and make her my pet.”
Eldor turned the slim volume over in his hands and read the title. “The Little Prince? What does this mean?”
“There is a talking fox in this book,” Vyktor said. “A talking fox who is trained by a boy to become his companion. His pet. This talking fox says to the prince… you are forever responsible for what you tame. I am responsible for Aria. I tamed her. I made her mine. And I must follow through. I will not leave her here alone when the retreat comes. I will stay with her, and I will see what this world has to offer me.”
Eldor’s expression became gruff. “Are you using a book for juvenile humans to tell me you intend to ignore the order to withdraw?”
“I am saying someone should stay behind to keep an eye on them. Someone should watch over this world. Someone should ensure that they do not open another portal, and if they do, someone should be here to try to stop them, or mediate the result.”
“And you will be this man, will you? Because of a human you call pet.” Eldor shook his head. “Your head is clouded, Vyktor. Your judgment is not what it could be. It was a mistake to become attached to the woman. She should be set free and you should return to our realm.”
“I do not wish to.”
“Then what will you do? Live here on this cold planet for the rest of your days? Play with your pet? They will hunt you when we are gone. They will blame you for all the pain they have brought upon themselves with their foolish acts. They will persecute you, Vyktor. It would not surprise me if they killed you.”
“I am not easy to kill,” Vyktor smiled. “I do not fear the humans.”
“You should,” Eldor growled. “They are small, they are soft, but they possess a spirit like no other, and their passion for vengeance and violence is unparalleled.”
“But they can also be kind and gentle and thoughtful,” Vyktor replied. “Besides, I am sure I could learn to pass among them. What I do know is that Aria could never survive in our realm. But I can live here. I could live well here, Eldor.”
“I will not give my permission for that suicide mission.”
“I do not need your permission,” Vyktor replied bluntly. “I follow the orders I choose to. I am not a vassal to you, Eldor. And if I am to live here, I will owe fealty to nobody.”
“If you stay, you will be lost to us,” Eldor replied. “Your name will be written on the wall of the ones who were.”
“So be it.”
Vyktor was firm in his resolve. When the dragons flew home to roost, he would not be among their number. He would remain on the Earth plane with his pet, and he would make a new life among the humans.
“Fortunately, I do not think that will be an issue,” Eldor said with a cold smile.
“What do you mean?”
“Aria is no longer with us.”
Vyktor surged forward, forcing Eldor to retreat several steps. “What did you do to her?”
“I sent her to the humans. She came to me and explained that you were refusing the safest plan, for her to approach her people with the terms of our retreat. I would say that I am disappointed in you.” Eldor gave him a derisive look. “But you know that already. Your judgment since taking that woman has been severely impeded. Fortunately, she seems to know what is best even if you don’t.”
Vykto
r swallowed his anger. There was no time to lose in beating Eldor to within an inch of his existence, though he very much wanted to do that. He had to find Aria. “I am going after her. She needs protection.”
“She doesn’t need protection,” Eldor said. “You just want her to need it. She was one of the few people who learned how to fly almost as well as we do without wings. She overcame the human horror of height, and you think she needs you to hold her hand as she delivers a message?”
Vyktor couldn’t argue with that. It was just as it had been when Aria had made the argument, except in her case he could threaten to cage her. That threat would not work with Eldor—and he supposed, it had not worked with Aria either. Vyktor was really starting to hate being in the wrong.
“How will she return?”
“There is no way for her to,” Eldor said. “There is no reason for her to.”
“What!?” Vyktor’s shout of rage was so loud and powerful that the mountain around them shook with the energy of it.
“She has served her purpose,” Eldor said coldly, his eyes gleaming with ice fire. “We have learned what we needed to learn, and she has carried our message to the humans. If they agree to our terms, they will move their machines of war away from the portal and we will make our exit within twenty-four hours.”
“Where is she?”
“I flew her from the mountains to a nearby town. It was largely deserted, but she informed me that she could take it from there. Very inventive, your pet. She clothed herself within minutes from clothing the humans had left hanging outside for reasons best known to themselves, and took one of their flightless machines which rolls upon the roads they’ve ruined the countryside with.”
Vyktor’s fist hit the table, making the rock crumble beneath its fury. He seethed with pure rage, his teeth bared as he advanced on Eldor.
“How dare you take what was mine and use it for your own ends.”
“I used her for our ends,” Eldor growled, not moving an inch. “She wanted it. The only one unhappy about this is you, Vyktor, and I do not like your reasons for it. You were always going to have to release her when you returned home. At most, you have lost a day or two with her. I saved you a messy goodbye. You should be thanking me.”
Vyktor’s anger was so intense he was forced to turn and walk away. He was not sure he could contain himself if he spent another moment in Eldor’s presence. He stormed through the passages of their temporary roost, out to one of the balcony perches. He stepped to the precipice, ready to take his dragon form and search Aria out. But as he looked at the human landscape stretching out to the distant horizons, he realized the magnitude of his task. To find her, he needed to know where she had gone. He suspected Eldor would not tell him that, and even if he did, it could be a lie. She was probably deep in the heart of human territory by now, totally out of reach.
Filled with a sadness that threatened to consume him, and an anger that was unable to be sated, Vyktor returned to his chambers. He had not cried since he was a whelpling. Even when severely injured he had kept his emotional reactions tightly contained. But as he walked into his room and saw her collar on the bed, he let out a sob.
Eldor must have removed it for her, and she had laid it out for him to find. Had she been glad to escape? Was she happy now? Vyktor took a deep breath to ward off the tears and laid down on the bed. As he put his head down, a small piece of paper fluttered out from underneath his pillow. He grasped it before it could waft its way onto the floor. Perhaps it was a note from Aria. A goodbye note.
He opened the folded paper and saw that it was no goodbye. There wasn’t a single word on the paper. There was simply a set of numbers, penned in Aria’s unmistakable hand.
It took him a moment to realize what they were. And then it hit him. Coordinates. A date. And a time. His pet had left directions as to where to find her, and it was only three days hence. He felt his heart rise, a smile spreading over his face.
The greatest part of his grief had been in thinking that Aria wished to be free of him. This little scrap of paper told him more than a thousand words ever could. It told him that she wanted him to come and find her. It told him that their connection was more than captor and captive.
He grinned to himself, his spirits lifting from the very dark place they had been languishing in since he had discovered Aria’s absence and had then given serious thought to tearing Eldor’s throat out for setting her loose.
Chapter Twelve
Aria sat on a rock in the middle of the desert and waited. It had been a week since leaving the dragon’s nest, four days longer than she had anticipated, but the delay could not have been avoided. Upon bringing the message from the dragons, she had been questioned intently about the nature of her relationship with them, nailed with inquiries.
She missed Vyktor like she would have missed a limb. It felt wrong not to have him by her side. It was so strange, to be alone in the world again. The relief she had anticipated in being back among real people and being taken back into the military fold was not as great as the sense of loss. When they’d questioned her, they were not concerned about her well-being. They were concerned about the dragons. It made sense, of course; why should anyone care about her when there was a dragon invasion to tend to?
But Vyktor cared. At least, she hoped he did. Had he even come to the location? Had he actually found the paper? Would he know to wait? She didn’t know. All she could do was sit there and wait and hope that the military didn’t come looking for her before Vyktor did. She was supposed to be consulting closely with them, though ‘consulting’ really meant ‘being squeezed for every last drop of potentially relevant information.’
The night was drawing in and the temperature began to drop. Aria wrapped her arms around her knees, gazed up at the stars and made a wish…
Not a second later, arms descended around her, wrapping her in a tight hug, and a husky voice growled in her ear. “Naughty pet.”
Aria squealed with delight and turned to kiss Vyktor with all the passion she had.
“You snuck up on me!”
“I had to be discreet, pet.” Vyktor smiled down at her. “Can’t alert your government’s many detection systems, can I? They might send another misbehaved pilot after me—and I only have the two arms to deal with you.”
“You’re not mad at me, are you?” Aria looked up at him under her lashes.
“Pet, you are in so much trouble, you could barely begin to understand it,” he said in the most loving tones possible.
“But I did a… it was a good thing! They got the message and nobody got hurt!” She began to squirm in his grasp, but of course it was no good. He was holding her tight and firm—and she loved it. In the days between their meeting, she had often daydreamed of him. Not just his loving care, but also this side of him, the unyielding disciplinarian.
“You did precisely what I told you not to do,” he said. “You disobeyed me in the most dangerous of ways.”
“But I also told you where you could find me! Doesn’t that count for anything?”
“That counts for everything, pet,” he said as he sat down on the rock she had vacated and tugged her over his knee.
“Vyktor! Hey! No!” Aria complained as he began to spank her denim-clad butt with firm swats—not as hard as he was capable of, but more than hard enough to make her butt sting regardless. “Hey! This isn’t fair!”
“This is more than fair,” he informed her. “And you know this is a fraction of what you deserve. I should have you in chains and be lashing your bottom. This is nothing compared to what you have earned with your dangerous disobedience.”
“Vyktor!” She squealed his name in lieu of making an argument.
“You disobeyed me,” he growled down at her. “And you put yourself at risk.”
“Yeah!” She threw the words back over her shoulder. “And I’d do it again. Didn’t you hear me! We got the truce!”
“I don’t care if we got sole possession of this planet and every
one in it,” Vyktor growled. “You will obey me, pet.”
“I’m sorry,” Aria squeaked. “I know it scared you, but I just wanted to help. And I did. They’ve already started pulling back from the portal. You’ll be able to leave soon!”
“I’m not going anywhere, pet,” Vyktor reiterated, slapping her bottom harder still. “How can I leave you here in this realm knowing how much trouble you’ll get yourself into? No. I’m taking you back, and I’m going to put you back in your cage, pet.”
“You don’t have to cage me,” she argued. “I came back, didn’t I? Well, at least told you where to find me, anyway.”
“True,” Vyktor admitted, his great palm resting on her bottom. “But I like you caged, pet. I like you caged, and naked, and dripping with lust.”
He ran his fingertip down the center of her crack and she felt her jeans split where he’d applied that dragon touch he was so adept at using. In one smooth motion, he kept her clothed but exposed the mound of her sex to the cool desert air.
“Vyktor,” Aria moaned softly as he began to caress her there, his finger warm along the seam of her lips. “I missed you.”
“I missed you too, pet,” he murmured. “I missed you terribly.”
He slipped her from his lap and laid in the rocky sand on his back. His cock was hard and erect as he beckoned her down.
“Show me how much you missed me, pet,” he ordered gently.
Aria knew precisely what he wanted. She knelt between his spread thighs and put her mouth to his cock. She had missed this hard rod, missed the taste of him. She could feel the cool air on her pussy as she began to suckle on his dick, making up for her disobedience with the eager application of her lips and tongue.
Once she would have found this a humiliation. Now it was a pleasure. To hear him groan, to see him arch his hips higher, to feel his cock begin to leak his dragon semen against her tongue. This was a small piece of power and she rather relished it in a naughty way. Aria ran the very tip of her tongue around the rim of the head of his cock and looked up at him with a mischievous smile.