by Kira Nyte
“Please tell me none of you’ve eaten yet. That this isn’t all just for me.” Ariah looked at Kaylae, then Zareh, and finally landed on Alazar. Alazar tapped the tip of her nose. “Seriously.”
“We were waiting on you for lunch. So? What will it be?”
A typical breakfast for her would have been stale toast or scraps from plates. If she was lucky, one of the cooks at the diner would slip her an egg or two. She wasn’t certain she could handle a meal this size immediately after waking up.
“Hesitation means indecision, which means a little of everything.” Alazar gave her hip a playful pat before she could argue, and maneuvered her to stand to the side. “Zar, mind giving me a hand? We can pamper the ladies.”
“I pamper all the time, right, Doe?” Zareh said as he slid off the stool.
Ariah couldn’t help but notice the affectionate glide of his hand over Kaylae’s shoulders and the chaste kiss to her temple. A subtle yearning stretched inside her, wanting that same affection. Tenderness and adoration.
“You’re whipped, buddy. You’re going to reinvent the meaning of pampering and have every male on the planet hating you for it.” Alazar laughed as he removed a sheet of chicken cutlets from the oven and placed it on hot pads.
“I’m not whipped. ‘In love’ is a nicer term.”
“Call it what you will. You’re whipped so tight you’re blind.” Alazar pointed to the fridge. “Grab the salad and the dressings. I’ll need plates, too.”
Kaylae motioned for Ariah to follow her to sit at the long table in the connected dining room. Ariah snickered as the two men continued their playful banter and left them to their devices. As she sat down across from Kaylae, she hitched her thumb toward the performance.
“Is this normal for them?”
Kaylae rolled her eyes. “Yep. They’ve been close friends for centuries. The two are practically part of each other. Alazar is a perfect balance for Zar, who can be quite serious. Al has a gift for breaking down tension. I don’t think I’ve ever seen the guy angry. It’s not in his nature.”
Ariah tipped her head and watched Alazar plate food, his smile never dimming. Yet she knew there was more hidden beneath the ease and laughter. She had seen his anger and felt his anguish.
He fit a meatball into a hoagie roll and whipped the prongs up, splashing sauce on Zareh’s shirt. Zareh growled, smoke escaping one nostril.
“Come on, brother. What the heck?”
“You’ve got a dozen of the same shirt in the same color. I did you a favor.” Alazar twisted, catching Ariah’s gaze for a brief moment before cutting across to Kaylae. “I’ll bribe you with more Vampire Bites if you’ll do something about his wardrobe.”
“First the bed, then your keys, now his wardrobe. I’ve gained five pounds since I moved in with you two. I think I need a Vampire Bite diet.” Kaylae shook her head, her grin widening. “Ariah, have you tried the Vampire Bites from Hallowed Bean?”
Ariah shook her head. “I think he intended to introduce me, but it didn’t happen.”
“She’s still a Bite virgin. I left them on the building ledge after we reenacted Snow White.”
Ariah’s cheeks warmed as Kaylae’s attention intensified on her. “He showed me scales and I kinda went into shock mode. He pulled the chaste kiss stunt.”
“Brought you back, didn’t it?” She didn’t hear him approach until he braced a hand on the back of her chair and slid a plate in front of her. As decadent as the food smelled, Alazar’s scent captivated her more. “Enjoy, Ace.” To Kaylae, he said, “What will it be, since your man abandoned your plate to change his shirt?”
“The chicken and salad.”
“Coming right up.”
Alazar tipped his head, brushing his gaze with Ariah’s. The fierce pull latched onto something unseen and unknown low in her belly, reeling her into the liquid amber of his eyes. He drew his knuckles over her cheek before returning to the kitchen. Ariah looked at the huge plate of food he managed to arrange with restaurant-quality talent and couldn’t find it in herself to take a bite. Her stomach and throat were tied up in knots.
Kaylae reached over to rest a hand over Ariah’s. Concern etched the woman’s face.
“Everything okay?” she asked quietly.
Ariah blinked and cleared her throat. When had her hands started trembling? The heat that filled her face had tripled from the faint whisper of warmth a few minutes ago.
And the delightful hum that traced along her muscles and her nerves…
“I, uh, I…” Ariah tried to clear her throat again. “Um, I’m sorry. I’ll be right back.”
Ariah hurried from the room, hoping the escape would give her reprieve from this incessant reaction. She knew the only way to keep it at bay, and she wasn’t willing to give that up. Give him up.
You don’t even have him.
“Ariah.”
She’d barely made it halfway down the hallway to the guestroom when Alazar’s fingers caught her forearm in a gentle grip, staying her. She squeezed her eyes shut, willing away the redness from her cheeks, hoping whatever had transpired between them passed enough that she wouldn’t look like a desperate fool when she faced him.
“Ariah, what is it?”
If his voice could sound any more soothing, it would lull her into a trance. He spoke softly, slowly, coaxing her to open up and be honest.
“I forgot my phone in the room.”
And…you lie.
A sharp breath left her lips and she turned to face her hopes and fears all wrapped up in a perfect male package. He regarded her with a mixture of concern and skepticism.
“No. I didn’t forget my phone. Well, I did, but that’s not why I left.” She was a wreck. Tugging her fingers through her hair, she groaned. “This. This is all too much. Too perfect. It’s a fairytale, Alazar, and fairytales don’t exist in real life.”
“Neither do dragons,” Alazar said, releasing her forearm to regard her through narrowed eyes. There was no threat or anger in his expression. Only thoughtfulness. “Which would mean neither do I.”
“You do exist, obviously.” She waved a hand up and down his form. “You’re standing right here.”
“Yes. And?”
Ariah struggled to make sense of her thoughts, her emotions, enough to put them into words. Her brow furrowed and she held Alazar’s gaze to impress upon him the importance of her next statement. “I can’t buy into this. It’s not what would happen to me. Don’t you see? My life is not a fairytale.”
“You don’t say.”
She scowled. “You’re mocking me.”
“No,” he said, drawing out his single-word answer, cutting down the defenses Ariah tried to enforce before she could get them erected. For a long moment, they stood in the hallway, simmering in a quiet hum that would not release her from its hold. His expression held no guard, no anger. She watched as something brewed in his head, something she couldn’t sense, couldn’t hear, and he wouldn’t share. “But is running away from everything you think you don’t deserve really the answer?”
Ariah opened her mouth. Silence answered his inquiry.
“Do you honestly believe you don’t deserve to be happy?” He took a small step toward her. “That you don’t deserve to be treated like a woman should be treated? Have you lost all hope for yourself and accepted the life you lived as the only possible reality there is?”
Ariah’s fingers curled into her palms. “Damn you.”
A short breath of a laugh fled his mouth. “I get that when I’m pretty spot on.”
Ariah clenched her teeth and turned her head down.
“I know what you need.”
“I’m not sure you do.” She flexed her fingers and crossed her arms over her chest. Tight. “I’m not sure I do.”
Alazar brushed by her and disappeared into the guestroom. A moment later, he came back with her boots and her phone. “Here. I’ll pack up lunch.” His brows lifted when she hesitated to take the items. “Trust me. I know exac
tly what you need.”
Chapter Fourteen
“Are you certain this is safe?”
Ariah moved a frustrated glance between her uncle and Alazar. An hour after Alazar insisted he knew what she needed, she found herself standing in the woods on the outskirts of Nocturne Falls. A light rain had started, plastering her hair to her head and face, and starting a chill that touched her bones.
So far, Mr. Know It All was way off his guess.
“Will someone please tell me what the heck is going on?” Ariah demanded. She eyed the strange leather contraption her uncle had draped over his arm. It resembled a saddle without the seat. Actually, it looked more like a harness with lots of loops.
Alazar turned his handsome face toward the sky. She hated herself for allowing the sight of rain streaming over his skin to melt her aggravation a bit. She was still raw from his brutal assumptions at the house and this super duper secret cure for her acceptance issues.
You’re angry that he hit the nail on the head.
It had been a long, long time since someone was able to call her out the way he did. The last person to do so was a friend from her school days, and that was after years of knowing each other. Alazar’s keen sense of knowing what was going on inside of her before she put the puzzle pieces together irked her.
“Perfect weather,” Alazar said. He dropped his chin and his attention to her uncle. “Once we’re above the cloud cover, it’ll be smooth riding.”
Ariah’s eyes widened. “What did you say?”
“‘It’ll be smooth riding.’”
“Riding?” Oh, heck no. She wasn’t riding anything anywhere in this rain. “Yeah, no. I’ll take a rain check.”
Alazar’s lips curled as he strode several long paces away from them. “Ace, it’s raining. I checked.” He pointed to her uncle. “You remember how to put that on?”
“Pretty sure I do.”
“You’re going to have to protect her with your riding coat until I can have one made for her.”
Uncle Mark tugged at the ankle-length leather coat covering his body. “It’s large enough that I can encompass her in front of me.”
Ariah threw up her hands. “Hey, wait! I’m standing right here. Will you please include me in this conversation? What are you talking about? What is this riding coat business? What is that?” She jabbed a finger toward the harness thing. “And what are you protecting me from?”
“Hold those thoughts.”
Although the last twenty-four hours had proven to be the roller coaster ride of a lifetime, nothing could have prepared her for what she witnessed in the next minute.
A ghostly gray haze curled around Alazar, expanding and growing as the form of the man she knew stretched and thickened. Limbs grew from a torso that rounded and puffed out. Her jaw dropped and her eyes widened as the haze melted into glinting black tips that blended into burnt red and lightened to a dark red closest to the enormous body. Scales. Hauntingly beautiful scales. Wings budded from the widening body, enlarging until they flapped, sending a burst of air, rain, and leaves flying against Ariah and Uncle Mark.
Ariah threw up her arm, protecting her face from the debris. Her uncle stepped up beside her and pulled her into his arms, using his body as a shield until the whoosh-whoosh-whoosh of those wings flapping subsided.
When Uncle Mark stepped aside, Ariah reached for his arm, desperate for the support as her legs weakened.
“Oh…my…”
“I never lied to you, honey.”
Alazar. In full dragon form.
All she could do was stare at the magnificent creature of myth and lore.
“Come back to me, Ace. Kissing you Snow White-style right now wouldn’t be a good idea.”
Ariah shuffled back a step when Alazar’s large head came around to her on a long, thick neck that snaked over the ground.
“Easy, sweetheart.”
He tilted his head slightly, watching her out of one giant eye, and held his head a few inches from her as she took in the broader details. Geez, just his dragonhead was almost twice as big as her entire body. His scales were smaller along his head, smoother, with only a hint of black along the tips. Those scales darkened around his eyes, highlighting the intense amber color and thick vertical pupil that dilated when her fingertips grazed his jaw above a spiny beard. A sound that resembled a stifled growl rolled through her ears and the scent of fire filled her nose.
Her heart thundered in her chest, the surreal experience leaving her lightheaded. She flattened her hand against his scales, absorbing the heat that poured off him, her skin sliding with ease over the hard, wet coat. Alazar’s crest was both frightening and beautiful, black bony horns linked by hard webbing. Small spines enhanced the dangerous ridge over his eyes.
A faint sting touched her eyes. “Real.”
“It’s certainly not a dream.”
He pressed his snout down, gently nudging her side before his massive form lowered to the ground. Uncle Mark moved to Alazar’s side and tossed the harness over his back. Alazar partially extended a wing. Ariah stared, too enthralled by the ease with which her uncle maneuvered a boot onto the spike at the tip of the wing and hoisted himself onto Alazar’s back.
Energy, alive and electric, thrummed in the air around them. It resonated along Ariah’s skin and sang to her soul, the lost little girl she stowed away. Her uncle moved with fluid grace, born to move over a dragon as he fit the leather straps through the spines along Alazar’s back.
“You have no idea the gift you’re granting me, Ace. To see the magic sparkling in your eyes… I have a feeling not many have been lucky enough to see it.”
Ariah peeled her attention away from her uncle and turned to the glowing orb level with her head. Alazar stretched his wing out, lifting the thin skin over her head to shield her from the rain.
Without hesitation, she stepped up to the dragon’s head and pressed herself against the warm scales covering his face. She closed her eyes and smiled. “Thank you.”
Ariah must have lost time against Alazar’s cheek. When she opened her eyes, Uncle Mark was walking up to her, brushing his hands together. He reached out a hand for Ariah.
“Come with me. Al, be easy,” Uncle Mark warned.
Alazar snorted, smoke pouring from his nostrils and from between his lips. Ariah caught what she thought was him rolling his eye before she accepted her uncle’s hand and followed him to the fastened harness. He gave a strong tug on one of the leather loops that flanked one strap.
“Climb up. I’ll be right behind you. I’ll get us settled. Figuring the seat between the spines can be tricky.”
“I can’t believe this,” she whispered. Finding her grip on two of the loops that served as rungs on a ladder, she locked one foot into the lowest loop and pulled herself up. The climb was slow as she traded out loops between hands and feet until she reached the line of spines and stopped.
As she lifted her head, a smile slowly claimed her mouth. She stood easily two stories above the ground. Far in the distance, through the trees, she caught a glimpse of a waterfall. The canopy of the trees seemed almost within reach, although they were still far from reachable.
“Pretty incredible, isn’t it?” Uncle Mark asked.
“Such a poor choice of words, Uncle Mark. This is so much more than incredible.” Ariah glanced down when her uncle patted one of the spines. “How does this work without being impaled?”
“You lean to the side of the ones in front of you. The one you will sit on will help give you leverage and help secure you to his body in flight.”
“So, sit?”
“Yes.”
Ariah slid her leg between two spines and waited for her uncle to settle behind her. He leaned forward and wrapped one hand around a grip in the top strap.
“These are your hand grips. This harness is tight, so it won’t slide. Get a good hold, then fit your feet into the stirrups on the lower strap. I’m going to secure the belt around our waists.”
; Uncle Mark reached around her, grabbed a belt from the straps connecting the upper and lower harness together and fitting around the spines. He adjusted the size and pulled it around them as she fit her hands into the grips, followed by her feet in the stirrups.
“How’s it going up there?”
Her uncle leaned over and shifted her to the left of the line of spines.
“Guess we’ll see once we’re airborn?”
“You feel like a natural.”
“And why do I sense something not so innocent in that comment?”
A deep, rumbling growl was her response.
“Do not panic once we’re in the air. You’ve Keeper blood in you and your body will adjust to the altitude and air quality. The connection you have with Alazar will protect you from some of the elements. You must be one with him and not allow your conscious mind to instill fear. This is who we are, Ari,” Uncle Mark said, testing his grips. “I’ll protect you until we have a coat made for you.”
“All right, Ace. I’ve got the okay from Mark. Are you set?”
Ariah tried to ignore the frantic beat of her heart and the twist and turn of her stomach as excitement and anxiety battled for ground. She sucked in a breath and let it out slowly.
“I’m trusting you, Alazar. My life is on your back.”
“I’ve got precious cargo.”
Ariah couldn’t get a scream out of her throat when Alazar launched himself from the ground like a missile, breaking through the forest canopy, spiraling up, up, up with powerful strokes of his wings. She squeezed her eyes closed and turned her face into her shoulder, the force of air rushing over her body near painful. Her uncle pressed tighter against her back, disrupting some of the force. The thickness of the rain-swollen clouds made it hard to breathe.
The first spark of panic lit in the back of her mind.
“Ariah, take a breath. You can breathe. You do not have the restraints a normal human would.”
A flood of heat poured up through her belly and legs, a pulse of security from the dragon beneath her. She fought to stamp out that spark of panic and tried a breath.