Dragonkin: Storms

by Crymsyn Hart

  “Are you coming to visit me?” Drake’s voice whispered in her thoughts as though he were next to her.

  “I thought you might need the company,” she answered. Savanna came to the mouth of the cavern and saw him waiting with his eyes closed, but he wasn’t sleeping.

  His scales were whiter than before, covered with the film of his shedding skin. She ran her fingers over them and Drake quaked. The clicking clacking of his wings was like the rustle of feathers and nails against rocks. His skin was warm instead of cold. What it would be to see him flying with the moon as his backdrop, and his midnight scales bathed in the moonlight? Even crawling up on top of him, what would it be to ride him?

  “It’d be an experience I would love to share with you,” he murmured. His hot breath blasted against the back of her neck. When she turned around, he hadn’t moved.

  “I don’t think the people of the town would appreciate a great dragon flying over the land and scaring the shit out of them.”

  He chuckled. “In my world that wouldn’t be a problem. If there weren’t dragons flying around, then something would be wrong.”

  “I guess that would be true.”

  “You look cold.”

  She ran her fingers over her arms. It was true. The cave was chillier than what she had imagined, and even in the robe her toes were cold. “A little bit, but I can deal with it.”

  “Nonsense. Come here. I can keep you warm. Sit.”

  Movement rustled in the stillness as he lifted his wing. She did what he asked and sat on the ground next to him. He wrapped his wing around her as a blanket. The thin skin of the membrane kept her warm. “Thank you.” Savanna nestled against him. It felt right, that she had come home being next to him.

  “Anything for you.”

  Savanna laid her head back, feeling how he took in a breath and then let one out. The rhythm comforted her, and the silence between them stretched out for a few minutes. “You were gone earlier.”

  “I was hungry. And I figured you and Wyeth needed some time alone together.”

  “Y-you know what happened? You knew I was coming over?” she asked.

  “I knew what happened. I felt the echoes of the pleasure that you shared with him.”

  “It didn’t bother you that I had sex with him?”

  “I thought it would, but no. He’s part of us, part of the bond we share, and if I were to deny that then I’d be denying part of myself. It would hurt you if I did. I sensed your satisfaction. As long as he doesn’t hurt you, then I’m okay with you wanting to have separate time with him. I’d expect the same from him if you want to be together with me.”

  She chuckled at the image of them trying to be intimate in his current state. “I think you’d be a little too big for me right now, and I’m not sure I’d be riding you the way you had proposed.”

  He drew his wing closer to her. “That’s not what I meant, but it’s an amusing image. Although the pleasure I felt with you and Wyeth was something I would have enjoyed bringing you myself.”

  His hand ran along the length of her inner thigh and settled over her panties. The weight and the warmth wasn’t something she was expecting, but neither was the sudden movement of his hand over her sex as he began to massage her clit. She closed her eyes and abandoned herself to him. Drake was somehow there with her in his physical form. He began to manipulate her. She wrapped her hands in the fabric of the robe because she yearned to reach out and grab him.

  “Drake...” she whispered.

  “Say my name, love. Let me hear you moan.”

  He rubbed her faster. It felt as though he had slipped two fingers inside of her. She lifted her hips to go with the rhythm. Her breath became heavy. It was all she could do to keep up with him. Stars appeared in her mind’s eye. All she felt were his fingers and the light caress of his lips on her throat. His teeth nipped at her skin. His other hand cupped her breast and pinched her nipple. Having him there and yet not was agonizing. She had nothing of him to hold onto. She couldn’t breathe in his scent. Savanna arched her back as he increased the tempo of pumping his fingers inside of her. Warmth suffused her body. She bit her lip until it hurt. All her nerves were alive. Drake bit her harder along her throat. She opened her legs, hoping to have him delve inside of her, but all he did was add another finger. It felt she would burst.

  “You have no idea what I can do to you like this,” he nipped her ear lobe. “This is only a taste.”

  “Drake,” Savanna screamed as she convulsed from the orgasm. His wing hugged her a little tighter as she drifted down from the passion he had brought her. Once she caught her breath, Savanna opened her eyes.

  “Did you enjoy that?” he whispered.

  “You know I did. You could feel it,” she said.

  “I’d rather be inside of you, fucking you, tasting you. Yes, I felt it through you, and so did Wyeth, although I don’t think it woke him.”

  “I didn’t come down here so you could seduce me or mind fuck me, or whatever it was that you did to me.”

  “Fuck is so crude, and that was not what I did to you. I wanted to show you there’s much we can do with one another even if I am in this form. When our bond is cemented, then there will be even more wonders.”

  “You’re going home soon. Once you’re gone it will fade away.”

  “Are you sure about that? What if it lingers, and yet you never fully feel as though you’re tied to Wyeth?”

  She raked her fingers through her hair. “Then I never feel complete, I guess. I don’t know. I’m not going to deny you the chance to get home.”

  “Why don’t you come with me? You would be much more there than you are here. Your powers here are nothing. In my world you would be a powerful spellcaster. I know it.”

  “I’m a psychic. I’m always going to be that. When you go home, Wyeth and I will have to deal with that. I can’t go with you.”

  “Why not? What do you have here?”

  “My life. My business.”

  “A crazy roommate who’d do anything to push you out of your apartment. Customers who only come to you for advice when you could be doing so much more with your life. Your family is gone. You don’t feel like you fit in. Tell me this isn’t true.”

  Drake had hit a few key points about her life, but was their relationship strong enough for her to leave everything she knew behind? “It’s not that it isn’t, but ...”

  “I’ve observed humans for almost ten thousand years. I’ve had a long life and never thought that I could find someone, a woman, I could trust enough to share my secret and my life with. I want to do that with you. I want you to be with me. I want to show you my world. In my realm, no one would call you a freak.”

  “I know. I’ve seen a little bit of your world when I visit with Kestrel. I was there tonight before I came here. I fell asleep, and when I woke up she was brushing her hair.”

  “What happened? Why didn’t you tell me this before?”

  “I didn’t get a chance to. I came in here and you assaulted me.” She laughed.

  “You enjoyed it,” he retorted.

  “I didn’t say I didn’t.” Savanna told him about the rest of the conversation she had with Kestrel. He withdrew from her mind, leaving her a little lonelier than before. He shifted, turned, and swung his neck around in the tight space so they were looking at one another. “What else did she say?”

  “She wanted me to ask you what it was like before you were transported here. She said the storm would be catastrophic. Kestrel wanted to prepare for it, so they don’t have as many deaths or whatever’s going to happen. The spell that you need to say so you can pass through the eye of the storm they think is nothing to what the storm is going to do to their people. They think it will bring floods, earthquakes, more natural disasters. Can I tell her something?”

  He exhaled. “You should go back to Wyeth. You’ll be warmer there.”

  Savanna sensed the coldness in his voice, and that he had blocked part of himself from her. It
saddened her after everything they had shared. “Why won’t you talk to me?”

  “There’s nothing to talk about.” Flames curled around his nostrils. He lifted his wing so she could get up. Savanna didn’t budge. “You should go back to Wyeth,” he repeated. “He can keep you warm now.”

  She got up and walked to stand before him. She placed a hand on his snout. The coldness of his voice and the harshness of his comments made him seem almost like a completely different person. “Give me, please. I have to tell her something.”

  He opened his mouth and snapped at her until he was only centimeters from her. He was doing this to scare her back upstairs. “Go. Now. Before I eat you. Don’t ask me again.”

  She stepped back. “Drake, I’m not asking to get some secret out of you. Kestrel wanted to know. Is there something that happened? Something that you did?”

  “I said go!” A jet of fire shot past her and hit the cave wall. The link between them went dead.

  Savanna gritted her teeth. “Fine. Have it your way. Talk to Wyeth the rest of the time that you’re down here. I’m only trying to help. I have other things to do. I can’t believe now you’re deciding to be an asshole.” She wrapped the robe around her and stormed off back upstairs, hurt, pissed off, and confused all at the same time.

  Back in the bedroom, tears streamed down her face, as she felt that she had just been used. Wyeth sat up and studied her.

  “Everything okay?” he asked.

  She sniffled and wiped her nose. “Drake’s being an ass.”

  He gathered her in his arms and held her. He smoothed her hair from her face and wiped her tears away. Savanna recounted what happened between her and Drake and what he said to her. How it was that he seemed to be so different. “Why do you think he pushed you away?”

  “Obviously, he doesn’t want to go into what happened to get him here more so than what we already know.”

  He sighed. “We might all be bonded together, but that doesn’t give him the right to be a dragon douche.”

  “Yeah. Well. He’s a guy under all those scales, and he’s still going to be an asshole like most guys.”

  He rubbed her shoulders and kissed her neck. “Am I most guys?”

  “No. I didn’t mean you. I just—sorry. I don’t have much luck with men. It all turns to shit quicker than I can say boo.”

  “I’m not going to turn into a pile of steaming shit. I promise.”

  Savanna closed her eyes and enjoyed the quiet contact they had for now. She didn’t answer him, because sooner or later he would shatter that promise. Sooner or later this fluke connecting them would break down. Then she would be right back where she started, with nothing.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Kestrel ran her hand over her back as sharp pain stabbed her. The last three weeks had been painful. The baby was growing and unhappy for some reason. Kestrel was worried about the coming storm, and so was Andrik. They had spread the word throughout the mountain to the other dragons so they could warn their spellcasters along with the Athenaeum. Kestrel had been offered a position as a teacher or guest lecturer, but the time hadn’t come for her to go yet. The child kicked again and pushed its foot against her stomach. Kestrel looked down and saw the sharp points of her daughter’s nails pressing into her skin.

  “Hush, little one, there’s nothing to worry about. The storm will come and it will pass. We will be protected.” As she said it, she hoped to hear from Savanna. Ever since the last contact, there had been nothing, and she worried about Savanna. She seemed to be a nice enough woman, and Kestrel could relate to her. Maybe it was the feeling she got that Savanna was lonely and in her own way an outcast among her people. There was power in the woman. There had to be in order for her to make the journey, even if it was in spirit, between the two worlds. Even if she was bonded to the dragon, it wasn’t his power that had propelled her to this realm. Something must have happened if she hadn’t returned.

  Andrik’s hands wrapped around her. Once they had contact, relief filled her. The baby stopped moving. He nuzzled her neck and rubbed the small of her back, pushing his thumbs into the pressure points. She groaned and leaned against him. “She still giving you problems?”

  “Yes. She senses the unease from us, and who knows what else. She’s different than Dravik in many ways. I don’t know exactly how yet.”

  He kneaded a little deeper before growling low in his throat next to her ear. Even as pregnant as she was, the desire that he stirred in her made her shudder. “She’ll calm down once you do. How about you come to bed? Everyone is on high alert about the storm. We have a week to go. I’m sure it’ll all work out. For whatever it’s worth, we have the spellcasters working on enchantments to fortify the mountain. I already have a place in the tombs ready for us. Come with me. I know you’re hungry.”

  She giggled. “You just want to get me into bed.”

  “You figured it out. Any excuse I can get. I’ll have one of the servants bring up a plate of meat.” He trailed his fingers up her sides and squeezed her breasts before leaving her.

  It would be nice to leave her cares behind just for a little while. Once Andrik and she were together, she would share his mind and the world around them would fall away. Kestrel enjoyed the sharing she had with Andrik. She once thought she would never have anyone in her life. When Castigan was died, it left her broken. She had been insane and inconsolable for months. She had burned one of her friends with the dragon fire that she had inherited because she didn’t know how to control it. Having that piece of her lost dragon inside of her then was a constant reminder of the events that occurred and how she was all alone. However, she had risen out of the bleakness that devastated her soul and now she was whole.

  Sometimes she found herself in the crypts within the mountain where the corpses of the royal family were kept until they crumbled back to the earth as dust. She would settle into the crook of his front paw and wing and reminisce about the times they had together. He remained so lifelike that sometimes it seemed he had been sleeping. She would tell him about her day or if she was having troubles. Andrik would find her. He never minded that she was with Cas because he understood. Only once she had asked Andrik to regress and let the part of his soul that had been Cas come forward. All she wanted to know was if Cas was happy. He had said he was, and for once he wanted to hold her. Castigan had never known he could switch his shape, but being born into the incarnation of Andrik he had found that fulfillment. Now they were together. She loved Andrik with all her heart and soul, but sometimes Kestrel wondered. Tonight with all that loomed before her, she wondered.

  What was the outcome of the storm going to be? Would Savanna speak to her once more? Would Meruke answer her questions? Had something happened to him or the three of them?

  Questions plagued her mind. As she thought about it, she felt Andrik tugging at her mind, wondering when she would join him. She sent him a reassuring feeling and looked over the books one more time. They were far from the ocean, but not far enough they didn’t get the storms from it. Soon it would come. Kestrel prayed it would wash over them and spare all of her people.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Savanna sat at her apartment watching the weather. It was still hurricane season. The forecasters were predicting an enormous storm heading out to sea with the possibility of it making landfall.

  “Do you think it’s going to hit?” Chastity asked.

  She glanced at her roommate, who had been distant the past month since she started seeing Wyeth. Not that she had cared, since Savanna hadn’t spent a lot of time at the apartment because she had been at Wyeth’s. Although she had tried to go down to see Drake, every time she did, she was met with a wall that blocked his mind. Even when she tried to talk to him through their bond it was a brick wall. Nothing she could do was able to get through to him. He had completely shut her out, as though they were total strangers. She had spent several nights trying to get through to him, but he wanted to be alone. He wanted to wallow in whatever w
as eating him alive. The distance between them made her question the whole notion of them being mated. She had never come across a man who was so stubborn.

  The only one she could get anything out of was Wyeth. The longer she was with him, the more it seemed they were becoming one. Savanna had shown him more about what it meant to be psychic. He had explained his business, and they had gone out on dates. They spent time together, and it was wonderful. It may have been only a month, but she was falling in love with him. He didn’t want to come to the apartment and pick her up because of Chastity. Which, in her opinion, was a good thing, because Chastity was crazy enough as it was. In the last three weeks, Savanna had seen her roommate go through another five men. At this rate she wasn’t surprised if she had gone through all the eligible bachelors in the town. Then again, Chastity had probably slept with most of the married men, too. Maybe some of the guys were tourists or coming in off the cruise ships.

  Savanna tried to ignore the question and watched the news as the forecasters were predicting that if the front did hit land it would be the mother of all storms, and anyone on the seas, or even on the outskirts of it, needed to batten down the hatches.

  “So?”

  She glanced at Chastity. “I don’t know. The meteorologists are saying it’s going to clip us and then go out to sea. I don’t see why they’d be wrong.”

  “Weathermen are always wrong. One of those forecasted paths is that it’s going to hit us straight on. Wouldn’t that be a hoot? You and I will be stuck in here while the horrible storm rages outside, and we could get to know one another better. We never spend any more time together.” The slight whine in the other woman’s voice made her wonder how many screws she really had loose in her head, or if any brains were between her blond locks.