Where Sleeping Dragons Lie (Skeleton Key)

by Cristina Rayne

  “…but I thought Joseph was coming…”

  The faint, muffled sound of Carol’s voice coupled with the creak of the door behind her opening instantly shook her out of her thoughts. Crap! She had completely forgotten about Joseph coming to appraise the book.

  She had only a split-second to process Carol’s words and begin to wonder who her friend was talking to before Taron suddenly dashed past her and crashed shoulder-first into the door with a meaty thud, shutting it before it had even opened more than a few inches.

  “What the hell are you doing?” Briana cried, instinctually backing up against the table as the click of Taron engaging the deadbolt on the door sounded out ominously in the air.

  She then violently recoiled when Taron began to stalk towards her, jamming the small of her back painfully into the edge of the table and disorienting her long enough for him to grab her upper arms firmly. Yelling out in alarm, Briana immediately began to struggle against his hold with all her strength, ignoring the throbbing pain in her back as she tried to knee him in the balls.

  However, she would have had better luck wrestling a marble statue for all her efforts even phased him. Taron calmly regarded her with an expression that suspiciously looked like amusement as he held her imprisoned between his hands at arm’s length, rendering her attempts to kick him laughably useless.

  “Let. Me. Go!” Briana screamed angrily as she redoubled her efforts to try and twist out of his vise-like grip, but at that point, Taron wasn’t even looking at her any longer, much less listening to her.

  He was glaring in the direction of the door, his lips curled back into the beginnings of a snarl. The elegant, English gentleman was gone, and in his place was a man with a dark look in his already uncanny eyes that looked infinitely more unstable and scary.

  A loud thud abruptly sounded out on the other side of the door as though someone had taken a sledgehammer to it, and Briana froze. Even in a panic, there was no way Carol would have been able to hit the door with that kind of force.

  “There’s a second door behind us! Take her! I’ll distract him!” Mr. Brown ordered, moving around the table and heading towards the door with the determined, yet resigned, look of a man knowing he was about to die but wishing to meet his death head-on.

  An undeterminable emotion flickered fleetingly within Taron’s eyes before he nodded curtly towards the older man, and in the next breath, Briana was lifted and tossed over his shoulder into a fireman’s carry before she could even think to struggle. She reflexively clutched at the back of his sports coat as he sprinted towards the back.

  “I really hope this door leads outside and not a broom closet, or I’m about to cause more trouble for your friend,” Taron said just as Briana heard the sound of a door splintering at the same time she felt a small jolt that caused a rock-hard shoulder to dig painfully up into her stomach.

  She immediately began to kick her legs in renewed panic as the cool morning air hit her face. He had her outside! They were in a back alley between several buildings with not a single soul around.

  “Dammit! Put me down, you asshole!” she screamed, pounding his back like a woman possessed.

  Then the world did a three-sixty as Taron abruptly flipped her body back into a bridal carry. “Here, hold onto this, please,” he commanded as Briana felt something hard land heavily onto her stomach.

  She had already grabbed for the object on instinct before her gaze dipped down. She wasn’t at all surprised to see the leather book that was at the center of all this craziness.

  “I’m sorry for scaring you, but explanations will have to wait,” Taron said with a wry smile as she looked up at him sharply with half-frightened, half-pissed-off eyes.

  What was strange was he really did sound genuinely sorry. That was the last coherent thought she had before her mind, as well as her body, completely froze as Taron’s face began to—change.

  What appeared to be the beginnings of large, oval-shaped and blood-red blisters began to rapidly swell up to about an inch above the entire surface of his tanned skin as though she were watching it happen in a time-lapsed video. The large blisters were immediately followed by the hazel-orange of his eyes changing into a shade that was more the color of a wildfire under a blinding sun and his pupils stretching out until they resembled the narrow, vertical pupils of a cat.

  Frozen in utter terror in his arms, Briana watched as, in a matter of a few seconds, his head began to both grow and change shape, his clothes ripping at the seams when his body also began to enlarge and contort into a new form. It was only when the pair of huge, red-membraned wings unfolded from his back and began to spread out to an impressive diameter and something rough and sharp tightened a bit unpleasantly around her upper torso and legs that she realized she was being held within the talons of an enormous red and black dragon.

  A dragon that had only seconds before been a very human man.

  With a single, powerful leap, the dragon shot up to the roof of one of the buildings. He stopped only long enough to fully extend his leathery wings to what had to be at least a jaw-dropping span of a hundred feet. Then with a couple of powerful flaps of those wings, they were airborne, and the force of their rapid ascent brutally pressing down on her body mercifully made her black out.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  It was the stomach-churning feeling of suddenly freefalling that jolted Briana awake. For a few, terrifying minutes she had no idea what the hell was going on as something enormous and roughly textured was pressing powerfully against the back of her head, forcing her face against a smooth, though hard, curved red surface that was almost hot enough to scorch her skin.

  Then she heard what sounded like a cross between thunder and the crescendo of a crashing ocean wave in repeated intervals, and the vivid image of a pair of impossibly large, red and black leathery wings extended to their full span flashed through her mind.

  Dragon.

  Taron Hildebrand had shifted into a freaking dragon before her very eyes, and she was now being carried away to God-only-knows-where-and-why by said dragon.

  A very powerful urge to giggle at the utter absurdity of her current situation nearly overwhelmed her, but Briana closed her eyes tightly and took, a few slow, deep breaths in an effort to stop the hysteria that was threatening to consume her mind. The last thing she needed to do right now was to fall into a blubbering mess of fear no matter how much she wanted to. If she wanted to survive this mother of all shit storms the universe had just rained on her, she needed her mind to be as clear and sharp as possible.

  Becoming a dragon’s appetizer was not the way she was going to go out, dammit!

  Then her entire body jolted so violently that for a split-second, Briana was afraid her bones would shatter. Gritting her teeth, she forced her eyes open just as she was pulled away from where she had been pressed against what she now recognized was the dragon’s chest. It was then that she got her first good glimpse of the dragon’s body and realized what she had thought were large blisters forming on his skin were, in fact, a lattice of shiny scales.

  A burst of hot, humid air abruptly washed over her from above, making Briana flinch and finally look up towards the creature’s head with a mixture of curiosity and dread. His neck was long, sinewy, and covered with a thicker, more roughly-textured version of the large red scales on his chest. His head and snout were that of a classic dragon, reptilian-like, with two long, crimson horns growing from his temples horizontally and only inches above his skull towards the back of his head. Each narrow, bony appendage ended in a wickedly sharp, black-tipped point.

  His eyes—the deep oranges and yellows of the irises seemed to swirl in chaotic patterns as though she was looking deep into the heart of a raging wildfire. Staring into them was hypnotic, dangerous.

  Briana jerked back within the confines of his talon-tipped hands and vigorously shook her head until the fogginess that had begun to inundate her mind from staring too long into his eyes dissipated. It was then that she finally notic
ed she was still somehow clutching the book with both hands.

  The dragon opened his mouth, revealing a couple of rows of pointy, T. rex-sized teeth, and she was utterly shocked when a deep, booming voice emerged from within instead of the expected roar. “I’m setting you down now,” he said with the same British accent he had as a human, blasting her with another gust of humid air that smelled of fresh ashes and something akin to the electrical smell of a live wire. “Please don’t make me chase you.”

  Although it was probably a good sign that his breath didn’t even remotely smell like rotting meat or even sulfur as she’d half-expected, she wasn’t stupid enough to test his level of benevolence, especially with the implied threat in his last words.

  Only when she felt her boots settle onto a hard surface did she dare to allow her eyes to flit briefly around at her surroundings. She had expected to see snow-capped mountains in the distance, the mouth of a cave, or even a vast, alien forest. The last thing she expected to see was a close-up of the sides of some very familiar buildings.

  “You brought me to the roof of a building in the middle of downtown?” she blurted out.

  “My hotel,” he said in all seriousness, his eyes staring down at her keenly as though he expected her to bolt at any minute.

  Briana threw her hands up in the air, a feeling of both relief and chagrin flooding through her. “That settles it. This whole crazy day has to be a dream. I’m probably drooling, passed out and facedown, on this weird book right now as we speak. Gorgeous men who transform into dragons are just too interesting to exist in our little old boring, mundane world.”

  The dragon who was once Taron nodded. “And we don’t, but that’s an explanation for a later time. I don’t want to get ahead of myself, especially when you aren’t even convinced that what’s happening now is real, that I’m real and not just a figment of your imagination.”

  A surge of doubt began to creep into her mind. “This can’t be real,” she repeated stubbornly, hugging the book against her chest tightly. “It makes a hell of a lot more sense that what just happened is the result of my brain mixing up my memories of this book along with all the fantasy books and movies I’ve consumed to produce the most screwed up dream I’ve ever had rather than me standing here talking to a freaking dragon!”

  Taron tilted his head in a manner so eerily similar to the way he had done it as a man that it sent a chill up Briana’s spine and regarded her silently for a long moment. “Given how carelessly you’re treating that book as opposed to how careful you were with it earlier, I think you really do believe that you’re currently asleep. Well then, if you are so certain that this is a dream, why not seize the chance for a grand adventure? After all, what human can say that they have soared the skies with a firedrake?”

  “Firedrake?” Her eyes immediately shot to his muzzle in alarm. “You actually breathe fire?”

  The toothy grin he shot her was scary enough to make her take a couple of instinctual steps away from him. “Would you like a demonstration?” he asked cheekily.

  Shrugging with a nonchalance that she absolutely didn’t feel, Briana replied, “Might as well get the full CG package. Just—”

  She trailed off, not liking where her thoughts were going. Still, if there was even a remote chance…

  Briana swallowed against the lump of trepidation that had abruptly formed in her throat, and forced herself to continue, “Just don’t burn anything down.”

  His eyes seemed to flash brighter. “Even if this is only a dream?” he taunted.

  She lifted her chin mulishly. “Even if this is only a dream.”

  Taron opened up his giant maw wide, and a small burst of fire that was more red than orange shot out about a couple meters before dissipating harmlessly in the air. Briana had barely felt the temperature around her rise. It had probably been the equivalent of a human cough.

  She was almost sure that the bastard was laughing at her inside, but she was secretly relieved. The more they talked, the more she was starting to doubt that she was, in fact, dreaming. If he was willing to humor her doubts this much, then if it did turn out that this terrifying but incredible creature indeed existed, maybe she didn’t have to worry about becoming that dragon snack after all.

  “Say I believe that I really am wide awake and this is all real,” Briana said slowly, “that you’re a dragon-shifter hunting for this book I found in my grandmother’s collection only yesterday. What reason could you possibly have for scooping me up and flying me to the roof of your hotel building? My back was turned to the examining table. You could’ve easily snatched just the book and made a break for the back door. I somehow doubt it was because you needed someone to carry it for you while you flew.”

  “We might as well sit,” Taron replied. “The answer to your question is a long one, and we are well hidden up here from prying eyes from down below.”

  He lowered and folded up his body onto the ground more gracefully and quietly than she thought a creature that large should be able to manage. He stretched out his arms before him, reminding her more of a cat settling down for a rest than anything reptilian.

  “You look like a dragon guarding his treasure hoard,” Briana couldn’t resist saying, slowly lowering herself to sit on the cool concrete while never once taking her eyes off the curved, black talons at the end of his digits that were about the length of her torso.

  She imagined one downward swipe could easily slice her in half from head to toe like warm butter. Yet—she really didn’t think she had to worry about that. Other than lunging at her back at the book shop and keeping her from kicking him where it counts, Taron hadn’t behaved even remotely threateningly to her in the least. The fact that she was thinking about him as “Taron” and not “the dragon” was rather telling, as well.

  “A building is quite a big keepsake to hoard,” he quipped. “Unless you mean yourself, but how many stories of dragons have you read that have them hoarding humans?”

  “Maybe a damsel or two, but I wouldn’t be surprised if those kinds of stories also existed,” Briana replied wryly. She then added with a wary frown, “You aren’t planning on adding me to your collection, are you?”

  Taron lowered his head until there was only about a foot of space between her and his snout, making her involuntarily flinch and her pulse speed up in sudden alarm.

  “Would you honestly believe me if I said no?”

  Swallowing thickly, Briana slowly shook her head. “I would be crazy not to have some small measure of doubt.”

  He pulled his head back and grinned that toothy grin that made something primal in her brain shudder. “Good. That means you have great survival instincts. You may soon need them.”

  “Why?” she demanded suspiciously.

  “I suppose that’s as good a place to start explaining myself as any. You recall that the shop owner was about to bring someone into the room where we were examining Beatrice’s book?”

  Briana nodded. “Yeah. I thought it was Joseph, an appraiser from our circle. He works for an auction house in Dallas. I had invited him to come take a look at the book this morning, but from Carol’s words—it was someone you knew, wasn’t it? Is that why you charged the door like a crazed linebacker?”

  Taron’s eyes narrowed. “Oh, I knew him very well. That he’s here in this world at all right now makes me both hopeful and fearful.

  “In this world…” Briana repeated, her words trailing off at the implications.

  “Of course. Did I not say that it was true that there are no dragons native to this world?”

  “Then—how are you here?”

  “According to you, a dream,” he replied with a deep chuckle that made the air noticeably vibrate around her.

  Briana scowled. She hated to admit it, but Taron did have a point. Not even she had dreams this convoluted and vivid. It really would be stupid to continue to delude herself.

  “Fine. Laugh all you want,” she growled, “but even you have to admit that me dreaming
everything that just happened made more sense than me landing right smack in the middle of a fairytale.”

  “Fair enough,” he agreed amiably, his tone somewhat mollifying her rising irritation.

  “So?” she asked, looking up at him expectantly.

  Taron tilted his head curiously at her before abruptly nodding. “Right. We were talking about the unexpected visitor in the shop…”

  “...and how you came to this world,” Briana reminded him, cringing inwardly at how ludicrous that sounded.

  “The answers to both questions are interconnected,” he said. “While I wish I had the time to explain the prologue to this tale more thoroughly, I’m afraid the person we left behind at the shop won’t give us that luxury. Even so, I can’t in all good conscious ask you to help me any further without giving you at least a truncated version of the story.”

  “Though you didn’t exactly ask when you threw me over your shoulder like a sack of potatoes,” Briana said dryly. “So that’s why you didn’t shift back into a man once you had me up here. You’re running from that person. You want to be able to fly away without having to waste time shifting.”

  “I am sorry about that,” Taron replied, sounding genuinely contrite, “but I didn’t expect Cabak to track me to this city so quickly. Never mind the book, there was no way in hell that I was going to let that bloody bastard discover your existence. We’re both extremely lucky that I got to you first.”

  “Me?” Briana exclaimed in bewilderment. “What the hell do I have to do with any of this? It’s not like I could read anything in that book if that’s what he was after.”

  “Maybe nothing or everything,” he replied grimly. “The point is that Cabak would have snuffed out your life the moment he caught your scent.”