Text copyright ©2016 Lani Lynn Vale
All Rights Reserved
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
Other titles by Lani Lynn Vale:
The Freebirds
Boomtown
Highway Don’t Care
Another One Bites the Dust
Last Day of My Life
Texas Tornado
I Don’t Dance
The Heroes of The Dixie Wardens MC
Lights To My Siren
Halligan To My Axe
Kevlar To My Vest
Keys To My Cuffs
Life To My Flight
Charge To My Line
Counter To My Intelligence
Right To My Wrong
Code 11- KPD SWAT
Center Mass
Double Tap
Bang Switch
Execution Style
Charlie Foxtrot
Kill Shot
Coup De Grace
The Uncertain Saints
Whiskey Neat
Jack & Coke
Vodka On The Rocks
Bad Apple (9-2-16)
Dirty Mother (11-3-16)
The Kilgore Fire Series
Shock Advised
Flash Point
Oxygen Deprived
Controlled Burn (10-5-16)
I Like Big Dragons Series
I Like Big Dragons and I Cannot Lie
Dragons Need Love, Too
Oh, My Dragon
Dedication
To my babies. I love you.
Acknowledgements
Marisa-Rose Shor, you made this beauty shine. Thank you so much for putting so much effort into this cover. It’s absolutely amazing.
Dani- As always, you do so much to help me that it is unreal. Thank you for loving my books as much as I do.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Epilogue
Keifer Vassago, The Prince of Dragons, has enough on his plate without adding a brunette with a bad attitude to the mix
Fate has a way of screwing all his plans, though, whether he wants them screwed or not. One second he’s fetching his brother from yet another situation that could possibly compromise the Vassago name, and the next that brunette is grabbing his assets.
Blythe isn’t after anyone’s assets, though. She’s a good girl. All she wants is to graduate from nursing school, get a job, and move out of her hell hole apartment. What she does not have time to deal with is a sexy bearded man that accuses her of grabbing his junk.
She tries to forget about the encounter, but fate’s a cruel bitch.
One second she’s a normal college student barely living paycheck to paycheck, and the next she’s setting her panties on fire with powers from an ancient immortal dragon.
To add insult to injury, she’s hearing voices, and none of them are figments of her imagination. Blythe’s life is turned upside down, and Keifer forces her to adapt even though she doesn’t want to. She likes her life just the way it is.
Not to mention she wants nothing to do with that arrogant asshole. She doesn’t care that he rides a dragon. She also could care less about his stupid beard, and his sexy eyes.
Yeah, who was she kidding? She wasn’t convincing anybody.
Chapter 1
Age is just a number. False, age is a word.
-Proven Fact
Keifer
“Farrow, you stupid fuck, where are you?” I growled into my phone.
Stupid fucking brother.
I wouldn’t have had to use my phone if the stupid fuck would’ve answered the telepathic call I sent, but the fucker was blocking me with everything he had. Something he’d only be able to do for one goddamned week, because, well…he just wasn’t me.
I was the oldest. I could do things that they all couldn’t. I could do things that my father couldn’t. Being the eldest, as well as having the gift of time, was helpful.
Not to mention the fact that I was prince of the dragons, for fuck’s sake.
I could tell that he was alive, but nothing else was coming through.
“He’s mad that you told him he couldn’t bring his girlfriend here,” Nikolai explained.
My eyes turned to him and I glared.
Brother or not, he wasn’t too old for a good ass kicking.
“What exactly did you want me to do? If I let him bring his girlfriend onto the grounds, then I’d have to let all of you bring your one-night-fucks, girlfriends, and boyfriends. Then it wouldn’t be very secure anymore, since the shield we spent two fucking years working on would have to come down. Every fucking dragon, dragon rider, or enemy of ours within a thirty-mile radius will be able to spot the place,” I growled in frustration.
Though he’d heard it all before. This was our sanctuary for fuck’s sake. There were other things besides them that I was thinking of!
I was beyond frustrated. It wasn’t like I wanted to forbid it, but I just couldn’t see any other way around it.
I looked at my brother, who was also the brains behind our operations.
Then I sighed. Maybe I was being unfair.
“If you can make it so the veil doesn’t have to be brought down, I would permit it in a heartbeat. But, I have other things to consider here. Until that time comes, I have a moral obligation to keep them out,” I shook my head.
Nikolai nodded and brought his finger up to his upper lip, tapping in concentration. His tattooed biceps bulged with each minuscule movement of his finger.
“Let me brainstorm when we get back from patrol. I might be able to figure out something,” he rumbled before he stood to go.
I watched him walk away, my mind full of turmoil.
“When are you going?” Skylar, my sister, asked, not even bothering to look up from her hunched position over some papers in the corner of the room. The place we all inevitably migrated to despite the massiveness of the sanctuary.
Skylar, my sister, who was the closest in age to me, was the scholar of t
he group. My mother and her had no special powers like my brothers and I did. No female on Earth had powers. It was only the male population that was blessed with those abilities.
But somehow, she could come and go as she pleased, passing through the veil as we did. As could our mother.
So she made up for her ‘shortcomings’, as she saw it, and put all of her available time and ability into research and caring for other dragon riders. She felt that she could be of some help in that way, so she chose to become a doctor, and she researches the dragon riders’ physical makeup, seeing what made them tick.
Very rarely did I see her without her nose in some sort of book. That didn’t mean that she wasn’t fully aware of absolutely everything. Even the things I didn’t want her to be aware of.
She also knew me incredibly well. Knew that I wouldn’t leave my brother for long. Not when he was so close to the change.
It could happen anytime now, seeing as his birthday was only months away.
And when that time came, I sure as hell didn’t want him in the middle of a busy city.
I could see the headline in the news now. Boy Goes Crazy; Summons Dragon In Dallas, Texas
Standing up, I stretched my arms up high over my head. “I’m going out to find the little peckerhead. Do you need anything while I’m gone?”
My sister didn’t answer me, and I didn’t really expect her to.
Your sister’s thinking about that boy again. Declan, my dragon, communicated telepathically with me.
I blinked. What do you mean?
Zed. Or maybe Fred. The dragon rider who came in last week with the smashed in skull. The one who’s in the faint.
I growled. That’d been a blow when Derek had gone down.
His name’s Derek. And it’s a coma…not a faint.
Close enough.
Not even, I thought with a roll of my eyes.
I felt a whisper of a laugh against my skin. The names of mortals other than you do not concern me.
Whatever you say. Meet me in the backyard.
10-4, homie.
I barely resisted the urge to roll my eyes.
Declan’s use of ‘modern day slang’, as he called it, was comical.
He liked to keep up with today’s youth by listening to the radio and watching the television I’d set up in his cave—a cave that he still lived in despite offering him different living accommodations that were closer to the sanctuary.
He told me the music and shows gave him a good insight into the youthful population that they target.
I can still remember the first time Declan had heard a rap song.
He’d been so appalled that he’d broken every radio within a five-mile radius. To this day, it was still spoken about. It was also another reason that the surrounding town was scared shitless of Declan, and therefore me.
Apparently, the dragon’s roar of outrage had been felt as well as heard.
I passed through the kitchen, waving at my mother as I went.
She didn’t say anything, as usual.
Mom was a mute. She hadn’t spoken a word since my father had died fourteen years ago.
My family thought it’d been because my mother was still mourning my father’s death. Of course, I did feel that it did play some part in her silence, but it wasn’t the only reason, and I’ve never gotten a true answer out of my mother about it.
My mother waved back, mashing something sickening into a bowl on the counter. It was probably something for the little ones to snack on; I just wished she didn’t cook it in our kitchen.
I made it out the back door and down the porch steps to the deck before I was tackled.
I went down, curling my body into a ball and rolling as I laughed at the tiny little terrors now crawling all over my body.
It was customary for the dragon to tell you what it wanted to be called, and normally, it was based off the era they were born in. These three rambunctious horrors weren’t named as of yet and wouldn’t be named for another four months, at least.
They were a little over eight months old and wouldn’t be gaining their full telepathic communication abilities, like I had with Declan, until they were at least a year old.
They could, however, send pictures to me.
All three of them sent pictures of snow, ice and a pond.
I sighed. I should’ve known.
Gesturing with my hand, I moved all of the large things out of the middle of the yard. The chairs and table were the first things to move, followed shortly by the A-frame porch swing.
I focused my mind, centering on the air around the legs of the chair, and willed the air to harden around them. From there, it was just pushing with my mind, willing a small amount of wind to carry them to the destination I wished them to be. The gazebo and the swing set were a little harder, but I managed it with a little more focus.
It was something that was so normal to me that it happened sometimes whether I wanted it to or not.
Often times when I was busy working on ledgers at the office or working at the shop, things sort of floated around me.
I had to be exceedingly careful when I was doing that. If the wrong person saw, a shit storm of epic proportions would be swirling around me within minutes.
Dragon riders were highly sought after and very popular.
It was also well known that the only people who could utilize the powers derived from the elements were dragon riders; and I most certainly didn’t want to have my face plastered on billboards like Derek did.
Poor bastard.
I also borrowed power from one of my two brothers if the need ever arose.
Most of the time it wasn’t a problem, but they’d send back a gentle push over our bonds if it wasn’t a good time.
Which rarely ever happened.
My brothers could also do the same with me.
If I let them.
Something I almost always allowed.
The younglings swirling around my knees bumped me with their heads, their sharp horns poking me like large needles in my thighs in their excitement.
“Chill,” I reprimanded gently, pushing the one getting entirely too close to my dick away with a gentle push.
They all looked at me with their softly glowing golden gazes and sat.
Their blue and purple wings folded at their backs tightly, and their little butts quivered as they waited.
The younglings were ice dragons, as their coloring denoted. Most dragons could be identified by the shades of their hides.
They loved the cold, and would normally be at our northernmost safe area, but it’d been compromised a few weeks ago, which had contributed to Derek, one of the best dragon riders in the country, being injured.
These three were only a few of the ones saved, and our sanctuary was now nearly at full capacity.
“So, how cold do you want it? Cold, as in frozen solid, or cold like mostly frozen on the surface and cold water beneath?” I asked.
Their wings quivered, and I blinked, somewhat unsurprised by their answer.
A picture of a slush from Sonic appeared in my mind, and I made a mental note to speak with Declan about letting them watch too much TV.
They wanted the water slushy. Got it.
Narrowing my eyes on the large inground pool, I focused my mind and withdrew the heat from the water.
The change was immediate; one second it was a cool, crystal blue, and the next it was a slushy gray, with a layer of thin ice thick enough to hold the three up if they so wished.
Cute roars of excitement left their mouths as they bound through the air. Their wings flapping faster than a butterfly’s in their exuberance to get to the water.
They reached it in a matter of moments, diving into the water and breaking through the ice easily.
I smiled as I watched them play, wishing we had a way to keep it this cold for them all the time.
Sadly, it wouldn’t be happening until we go
t the newest place in Anchorage up and running.
Which would take some time because not only did we have to set the place up, but also it couldn’t just disappear from sight without raising suspicion amongst those in the area surrounding it.
We had to slowly transition the site’s disappearance from the area, a process that would take many months, if not years, to do without garnering the attention of others.
You’re too nice to them, Declan said.
I shrugged. Yeah.
I shouldn’t be wasting my time on things like this. Although the ice dragons preferred colder climates, they could survive just fine in warmer climates. They just didn’t like to.
“What can I say?” I asked as I approached Declan. “I like keeping my charges happy.”
What do you want to bet he’s doing her instead of answering your call? He asked, an amused lilt in his tone.
“We’ll see about that. Where is he?” I asked as I vaulted onto Declan’s back.
The apartment near the American Airlines Center, he answered back quickly.
Fucking perfect, I thought.
Chapter 2
Life was a lot better when naps were expected of me.
-Blythe’s secret thoughts
Blythe
I walked out of the restaurant where I worked and hurried quickly to my apartment, thanking God that I was so close. I didn’t think my legs could take much more.
My knees were killing me after being on my feet for the past eight hours straight. I’d gone the entire shift without a single break.
Thanks Macy, for not showing up for your shift and making me work both our sections. It was fucking awesome, I thought sourly.
The walk home wasn’t bad. It was less than a mile. Normally, the walk was refreshing.
Today, however, it was not.
Thankfully the walk was easy, and I arrived at my apartment building no worse for wear.
I entered the building, forgoing the mail. Honestly, if I stopped, I wasn’t sure I would make it any further.
I took the one flight of stairs up to my apartment, and walked quickly to the end of the hallway, not bothering to look at the shitty wallpaper that could’ve used a facelift six years ago. Nor did I look at the floor, though I probably should have since the crappy wood floors were separating from the subfloor underneath them.
I Like Big Dragons and I Cannot Lie (The I Like Big Dragons Series) Page 1