by Ruby Dixon
Claws are a warrior’s honor. I study my foreleg, admiring the missing claw. Of course they ask. The human females might not notice, but a drakoni male always does. Neither.
What do you mean, neither? Dakh is curious.
I tore it off myself to pleasure my female.
Dakh rumbles with amusement. A bold move.
She is worth it. I am not ashamed.
There is a long stretch of uncomfortable silence between us. Dakh shifts on his haunches. Kael studies his own claws, long and unbroken.
I never considered such a thing, Kael says after a moment. I have pleasured my mate, but I am careful of my claws.
I am, as well, but she likes…to try new things. My mate is inventive.
It is a human trait I am fond of, Dakh rumbles. My Sasha sometimes has strange but pleasing ideas.
I grunt a response. I know this well. Emma surprises me often with the way her mind thinks. They are not like us.
If they are, we do not remember such things. At least, I do not. All I remember of the years before my madness are flashes and glimpses, Dakh admits. And not much of that.
My memories are shattered and come mostly in dreams, Kael tells us.
Mine, as well. I think of the dreams I have had, of the mountains and sands of home, and the jungles of the enemy. I think of the female who betrayed me. The queen. Do you dream of her?
I dream of no queen, Kael says.
I have dreamed of her, Dakh adds after a moment. They were not pleasant dreams.
Nor mine. I think she is one reason why the Salorians can trap us with their minds. She works for them. Even now, just thinking about it fills me with anger, dismay, and loss. As if I have been betrayed by my oldest of friends.
My dreams are slightly different, Dakh says. I think she has been taken by the Salorians and they use her as much as they use our people. I remember that.
Interesting. For some reason, I find that reassuring. Do you think it was she who sent us through the Rift? I think of the green, pulsing wound in the sky, and shudder mentally.
Emma sends me comforting thoughts automatically, sensing my distress even locked in conversation with the other females. I reply with a caress of thoughts. I do not want her to worry. They are just memories. They cannot harm me now.
The queen is our past, Dakh says. Our mates are our future.
I agree completely. I would not return home for the queen or for my people, not if it meant leaving my Emma behind. She is my world now…and it is all the more reason I must strive to eliminate the Salorian. If he captures my mind, I cannot keep Emma safe. If she is not safe… I growl at the very thought.
Sasha keeps a log of everything I tell her about our past, Dakh admits after a long moment of silence. Sometimes I have her read them back to me and I do not remember anything that is in there. I wonder sometimes if there is something that is preventing us from remembering. That it is not our minds that are broken but something else that stops us from being able to think about the world we left.
More Salorian mind tricks? I ask.
Perhaps. Who can say? I do not recall any more of Salorians than I do of my mother’s face.
I try to think of my parents. There is nothing but fog. Perhaps Dakh is right. Perhaps there is something that is stopping us from recalling who and what we are except for the basest of memories. If so, it is a very evil thing. I snarl at the thought of it. What reason is there to strip us of everything?
If I had that answer, I would also know how to fix it, Dakh replies, and Kael growls an affirmative.
Perhaps the solution is to destroy the Salorian. Or if nothing else, to find out what he remembers, since he seems to have his mind without a mate. He does not suffer from the mating frenzy that our people do. He is not falling prey to the madness.
Perhaps he is the answer to everything.
EMMA
As I talk with the women, I can’t help but get bits of emotion from my dragon. Zohr’s thoughts are little pings of distress, no matter how much he tries to cover it up. I know he’s thinking about something that bugs him. You okay up there? I ask as Claudia refills our cups with more coffee. What are you guys talking about?
Nothing, he sends back. Just dreams. Memories.
Bad ones?
They are all bad to some extent. Even the good ones are of things I can never have again.
He’s got a point. I’m sorry, babe.
Why do you apologize? You did not bring me through the Rift. You are the only good thing here. His thoughts turn sweet and sultry all at once. You are the best thing…
Down, boy. Not right now, I tease, even as I force myself to concentrate on what Sasha and Claudia are saying. I feel a little bad for Amy because she’s not here, and it was clear she was sad at having to leave the conversation.
“We have to do something about Azar,” Sasha’s saying, her coffee untouched. There’s a distressed expression on her pretty face. “I hate that he’s capturing other dragons and holding their minds hostage. I can’t imagine what it must have been like for you, Emma.” She shudders. “You’re lucky you caught him in time. I don’t know what we do to stop him.”
“I do,” I tell them. “We kill him.”
Claudia’s eyes go wide. “You’d murder someone?”
Sasha looks surprised, as well. Why are they surprised? “He’s a threat,” I tell them. “He’s evil. He has no conscience. Why wouldn’t you take him out?”
They both continue to look shocked.
“It’s not like I’d enjoy murdering the guy, but look at what he’s done. He tried to take your dragon,” I say to Sasha. “He’s forcing reds under his control. He stole Zohr’s mind while he was sleeping. What if it happens again? Even if we run away, we’re never going to be safe from him. I stayed with him and his men. I know them. They can’t be reasoned with. And the others are so far under his thumb that they’ll do whatever he wants and not give a shit about the consequences. If they had any humanity, it’s long gone.” I shake my head and cross my arms over my chest. “Unless you’ve got a better solution.”
Claudia shakes her head. “I don’t. It’s just so…”
“Bloodthirsty,” Sasha whispers.
“Practical, you mean,” I correct them. “This is the After. No one’s looking out for us anymore but us. You think if we ignore Azar he’s going to just wander off and retire to raise flowers somewhere?”
Sasha bites her lip and glances over at Claudia. “She’s right.”
Claudia nods. “I know. I don’t like the thought, but…I also don’t like the idea of someone taking over drakoni minds like a virus.” She puts a hand to her stomach. “I have to think of the future, too.”
Sasha grows pale.
“I can be the one to pull the trigger. I don’t mind.” I don’t understand their reticence. To me, the answer is clear. If he’s a threat, we take him out. “I just want him gone and unable to hurt my Zohr ever again. He’s been through too much already.”
I think of my mate’s shredded wings and how hard he’s worked to recover and I just get angry. Angry that Azar thinks our lives matter less than his. Angry that even in exile, even in a world gone to shit, someone’s making crazy-ass power grabs and trying to ruin what little we have. Fuck all of that.
“We’re on board,” Sasha says quietly. “Dakh is more than ready to exact some revenge.” Behind her, I can hear a dragon growl in agreement.
“We’re on board, too,” Claudia says, though she looks a little worried and touches her stomach again. Maybe breakfast isn’t sitting so well with her.
She carries young, Zohr tells me. I can smell it in her scent. That is why she worries.
Oh. All the more reason that we need to act. “We need to do this, and we need to do it sooner rather than later. I don’t want to be trying to get close to Azar when he has an entire army of mad dragons at his beck and call. No one’s going to be safe. Not you, not me, not those bambalans in the fort. No. One.”
Sasha no
ds firmly. “Then how do we do this?” she asks. “How do we get close enough without putting our men in danger?”
I think for a minute, drumming my fingers on my chin. For some reason, I think of Claudia’s sister Amy. Her sweet, soft sister…who reeks of perfume to hide her scent. The idea’s genius in its simplicity. “We do it the same way that Azar’s pulling in dragons. With bait.”
35
ZOHR
Emma and I watch the skies that night, long after the others have gone to sleep. We stay with Kael and his mate in their tower, but on the floor above. Emma wants us to have privacy, and I agree. We do not mind the cool night air or the high wind…but we did not think we would see another dragon try to fly to the Rift this night, either.
“Another female,” Emma murmurs, her gaze locked to the skies. I can feel the dismay and fear churning through her mind. “Think she will make it?”
I hold my mate tightly against me, my arms wrapped around her shoulders. I regard the female as she struggles upward. There are no thoughts, no mental images accompanying her. She is a shell, and a struggling one. Her wings beat frantically and she bobs, trying to gain altitude. It fills me with a deep sense of regret. I do not think she will.
As if the female can hear my words, she flutters hard in the skies and then plummets, dropping like a stone toward the ground far below. Emma turns away, burying her face against my skin. “I can’t watch.”
I do. Someone must see. Someone must remember. I try to imprint the image of the female’s death-fall into my mind, hoping that even if my memory is stolen again, I will remember this. I will remember how it felt to watch one of my drakoni people fall to her death and know she is not even aware of it. That another, a stranger, has stolen what little she had and used her for his own ends.
The female disappears from sight. I strain my thoughts, almost hoping for some sort of acknowledgment of her death—or her recovery—but there is nothing but echoing silence. Even Azar has stolen this. I stroke Emma’s hair, holding her tight against me, breathing in her scent. My mate is safe here in my arms. I will not let Azar harm her. It is over, I tell her.
Emma lifts her head, shuddering. “She didn’t make it?”
No. I do not think any female will. They are smaller than males, built for speed. She does not have the power in her wings that a male does.
“And yet he still keeps trying to send them to the Rift,” she says bitterly. “What a douchebag.” She shakes her head and gazes out at the night sky, her soft mouth in a hard line. “But he keeps sending females because that’s all he’s got. He must have figured out how to lure females. He can’t get a male without a woman. A young, unmated woman.” She glances up at me. “Which is why our plan should work. Do you think badly of me for being eager to take this bastard out?”
No. Should I?
“I think the others are a little worried that I’m eager for revenge. And I think that’s part of it. I think about my brother sometimes. I think what would have happened to him if he hadn’t gotten mixed up with someone like Azar. Boyd was no angel, but he wasn’t very ambitious, either. He probably would have slid along on his own for a long time, going town to town and being kind of shiftless and shitty, but mostly harmless. Azar made him into a problem. I can’t help but blame Azar for that. And yet at the same time, that’s not why I want to take him out.”
Because he hurt me, I guess.
Emma nods, and her eyes gleam in the darkness. “Because he hurt you and he didn’t care how much he’d destroy by holding you captive. Because he doesn’t care how many people he ruins—yours or mine—just to see if he can cross back through the Rift. He doesn’t give a shit about anyone’s life, and while he’s around, we’re never going to be safe. We’re never going to be free, and I want to know that you can sleep at night and not worry that someone’s going to take over your dreams. I want you to have a good life here, even if you can’t go back. I want you to be able to take your time and let your wings recover. I want you to be able to live a good life. You deserve that after what you’ve been through.”
I do have a good life, I tell her. My mind is whole. My belly is full. I have a mate who is beautiful beyond thought and is clever and strong. I can ask for nothing more.
“You could ask for your memories,” she whispers. “You could ask for your home.”
My home is here with you, I tell her simply, brushing her hair back from her face. And I will make new memories with my mate at my side.
She tilts her face up to me, a silent request for a kiss. I brush my mouth across hers, gently. She clings to me, clearly troubled, and after a moment, whispers, “Are we doing the right thing?”
Do you feel it is the right thing? I ask her.
Emma nods.
Then that is all that matters. I caress her jaw, tracing the delicate bones. Your heart is a good one. Never doubt that.
“My heart may be good, but it’s because I have an amazing mate,” she murmurs, and her hand slides lower to caress my cock. “Let’s go to bed.”
I know my mate well enough to know exactly what she wants. It is not sleeping she is thinking of, and I growl low in my throat with pleasure at the realization. I tangle my claws in her thick hair, holding her against me. You will have to be silent while we mate, or else you will wake your friends.
I can be silent, she sends to me, mischief and need in her eyes. Are you telling me I’m noisy?
Yes, you are, I reply, and pick her up in my arms, carrying her over to the blankets we have set up for our sleep this night. Every time I spear you with my cock, you scream as if you are wounded.
She muffles her laughter behind her hand. Lies. All lies. I’m quiet. It’s you that’s the noisy one. You grunt and bellow and make so much noise you drown me out.
We shall see who is noisy, then, when I put my mouth on your cunt.
Her eyes flare with promise. I won’t be noisy if you give me something to suck on.
And now I am the one that groans with need.
36
EMMA
The next morning, bright and early, I sit atop my dragon on my spanking new saddle, hands on the pommel, and wait. “Any word, babe?”
Kael says the banner should be ready soon. Patience.
“Oh, I’m patient,” I say aloud for our passenger’s benefit. “It’s poor Amy that’s suffering.”
Behind me, Amy crinkles in her weird get-up. “It’s really hot in all this plastic,” she tells me, her hands tight on my waist. “I’m more than ready to get this off of my body. I’m sweating like crazy.”
“You’re getting your scent all adobao and juicy for our trail.”
“Great,” she murmurs, and she doesn’t sound enthused. I wouldn’t be either if I had to wear head-to-toe garbage bags with only a small piece cut out for my face. It’s an utterly ridiculous get-up, but the dragons agreed that when Amy’s smothered in plastic like this, her scent is negligible. Which is good, since we don’t want her scent trailing back to Claudia’s tower.
This is all part of the plan.
Something white unfurls in the distance, at the top of a nearby building. In the same moment, Zohr sends to me, The banner is ready. Kael says we can begin.
I squint at the banner and bring my binoculars to my face. “I think we’re good to go, Ames.”
“It’s up?” she says nervously.
“Yup.” I read the banner aloud. “Help, my sister Felicia has gone missing. She is very young. If you find her, please bring her to this building. Reward!!!” I put the binoculars back into their case and unbuckle my seatbelts, then hop off Zohr’s side. “Heh. Your fake name is Felicia. That’s cute.”
“Great.” She sounds nervous, clumsily sliding down to the ground next to me. “So I should just…uh…do this?”
“Yup. Feel free to get naked.”
“Get naked?” Her voice is a squeak. “I thought we were just going to take my clothes off and drag them around the city?”
“We could do that, t
oo. I’m just teasing.” I give her a cheery smile. “Don’t worry. Zohr’s interested in no one’s tits but mine.”
My dragon rumbles amusement. Your tits are most magnificent. I am very much not interested in another female’s body.
“Right.” Amy doesn’t sound reassured. She strips off her garbage bag coverings and then sighs with relief, wiping her forehead. Her hair is plastered to her head with sweat, and her cheeks are flushed bright pink with exertion. “I wore extra layers of clothing. Do I…do I have to take all of them off?”
Poor thing looks really uncomfortable. “How about you give us the sweaty underlayer first, and when those dry out, we’ll switch ’em out for fresh stuff? So you don’t have to be naked.”
The look she gives me is shyly grateful. She maneuvers her body under the clothing, sliding off a T-shirt and then a skirt, both of them damp from perspiration. She hands them to me and then mops her forehead again with her hand.
“Use your shirt to wipe the sweat,” I tell her. “We want all the smell we can.” I take the clothes and bring them to Zohr. “How do these smell, babe?”
The dragon leans his big head down and his nostrils flare lightly. He rears back slightly, nose twitching. It is thick with her scent. We can use it.
“Okay, good. I’m going to tie them to your tail. Let me know if the knots are too tight, all right?” I send him a loving thought and jog down to his hindquarters. His big tail lifts off the ground slightly so I can slide Amy’s clothing onto it, and then I fiddle with the fabric, knotting it until it’s tight against his scales. “Good?”
Good, my dragon agrees. Climb back on and we will go.
I move to Amy’s side. “All right. Back up we go.” I help her get back into the saddle and then buckle myself in. We’re off a moment later, and I glance behind us, watching as Zohr drags his tail along the dusty, broken road.
Perfect. The plan’s moving along as it should. The banner’s a trick, of course. There’s no Felicia, no one’s missing, and no one’s going to be dumped at that building. It’s all to flush out the bastard. He can’t read English…but his men can. They’re going to want a young girl, and Amy’s scent is going to confirm things if Azar’s senses are anything like the other drakoni.