Bride Of The Dragon

by Georgette St. Clair

  Teresa handed Kelly her purse, and she reached inside, her fingers closing over the cool facets of the stone. At once a golden glow seeped into her fingertips and began to flow through her veins like warm honey. It was a feeling that everything in the world was all right.

  She pulled the citrine out of the purse, holding it up and allowing the light to play in the sparkles in its heart.

  She smiled. “We did it. Now we can—”

  “Not so fast.” Marvin stepped from a doorway, his lips twisted in a malevolent smile. He was holding the Dragonsblood Ruby. He tossed it in the air and caught it again, and Kelly winced. His empath powers must be very weak indeed for him to treat such a powerful stone with that kind of disrespect. She could feel the low vibrations of anger emanating from the stone from here.

  But weak or not, she knew he was going to try to use the stone – and with only shaky control, the stone could very well end up using him.

  He smirked at Kelly, misinterpreting the horror on her face. “I’m really going to enjoy this,” he said. “You don’t like it, do you? Knowing one of the most powerful gems in the world is right in this room, and you’re not the one it’s attuned to.”

  “Marvin—” she began, with no idea what she was going to say to talk him out of his crazy plan. But then a rumbling growl from Gabriel made her turn, and panic clutched her heart.

  Gabriel was covered in scales, as rich and ruby-red as the Dragonsblood. The air around him shimmered with heat, the wallpaper behind his chair slowly scorching and blackening. Smoke curled from his nostrils with every labored breath. He turned his head and stared right through Kelly, as though she wasn’t there.

  “Gabriel?” she stammered.

  Marvin laughed. It was a nasty, gleeful sound, and Kelly had a sudden image of a little boy burning ants with a magnifying glass. “Pandora, Mr. Maplethorpe,” he called, “you can come in now.”

  Pandora sashayed through the door, her pretty face distorted by a spiteful sneer. Mr. Maplethorpe followed. He was sweating, but he looked determined, and he was holding a gun to Winthrop’s temple.

  Winthrop looked furious. There was an ugly gash on his scalp – Kelly thought Mr. Maplethorpe had probably hit him from behind with the butt of the gun.

  “I must apologize for this, Miss Henderson, Miss Teresa,” Winthrop said. “The gentlemen” – he said the word with an inflection that coming from him sounded worse than any curse word – “took me by surprise.”

  “You’re bleeding!” Teresa cried, and she tried to rush forward, but Kelly grabbed her arm and held her back.

  Pandora gave a tinkling laugh, then she focused her gaze on Kelly, smiling spitefully. “I can’t wait to see Gabriel burn you alive. That’s why I had Evangeline call and lure him here – because I want to see him kill you. You nearly ruined everything for us.”

  Kelly looked from Pandora to Marvin, who was rolling the Dragonsblood from hand to hand like he was playing with a giant marble. “You knew about the Dragonsblood all along,” she said. “That’s why you rigged it so you’d be the Fair Maiden.”

  Pandora clapped her hands. “Oh, well done,” she said, her tone dripping with sarcasm. “Yes, we found out about the Dragonsblood when Marvin contacted us and struck a deal. We figured if I married Gabriel, I could find a way to gain access to the stone. Marvin would move into the castle with us, use the Dragonsblood’s powers, and share in the wealth – we’d control the Kingsleys, and through them all their money.”

  “How did you even know about the ruby’s abilities to control dragons?” Kelly asked Marvin, desperately trying to stall. For what, she wasn’t sure.

  “You think that you’re the only smart one.” The leer on Marvin’s face made him positively hideous. “I’ve been doing research on power gems for years, looking for one that would give me some advantage. I heard rumors about what the Dragonsblood could do. Then I went to Italy and found some original documentation about the Dragonsblood, hundreds of years old, describing its powers.”

  Teresa grabbed Kelly. “Oh God, I feel sick,” she gasped.

  “Teresa, do you really think—”

  Kelly had been about to snap that now was not the time to make the situation all about her, but when she looked at Teresa, she was rubbing her wrist and casting her eyes sideways at Alexandra. “I think I’m going to faint,” she wailed theatrically.

  Kelly glanced at Alexandra. Oh. She wasn’t wearing copper bracelets or anklets anymore…and Marvin and the Maplethorpes didn’t seem to have noticed. Alexandra’s flickering eyes briefly met Kelly’s. Or did they?

  Kelly concentrated with all of her might, reaching into Alexandra’s mind, where darkness swirled and clutched. She pulled the power of the citrine from the jewel and poured it into Alexandra, burning away the darkness. Alexandra made a choking noise, and her eyes opened wide. She stared at Kelly with a startled look and then her gaze slowly swept the room, taking everything in.

  Gabriel rose to his feet, his movements unnaturally smooth, like a puppet pulled by its strings. His beautiful eyes were glowing crimson and without recognition. His clothes were smoldering in patches with the heat from his skin. He walked towards Kelly and Teresa, and stopped a few feet away. He opened his mouth and took a deep breath, his broad chest expanding.

  Kelly clutched the Sunrise Citrine so hard her fingers hurt, and yelled, “Now!”

  Alexandra leaped in front of Kelly and Teresa, scales cascading over her skin like falling dominoes. Her wings burst from her back and she spread them wide, shielding the sisters. She roared with pain as Gabriel blasted her with dragonfire, but she held her ground.

  Flames raced up the walls, licking at the ceiling. Paint bubbled and blackened as the fire spread across the horizontal surface in great lapping tongues of red-orange heat.

  Mr. Maplethorpe staggered backwards, panic on his face. He gestured at Marvin with his gun. “Do something,” he demanded. “Use the Dragonsblood – control her.”

  “I…I can’t,” Marvin stammered, and he shook the gem like it was a Magic 8 Ball. “It isn’t working.”

  “Of course it isn’t working,” Kelly shouted over the roaring of the flames. It was getting hard to breathe. “The Dragonsblood wants chaos, and you’re not strong enough to rein it in. You’re weak, Marvin. You always were.”

  Marvin turned on her, his face made ugly by a combination of anger and fear. “You self-satisfied bitch—” he began.

  Then he crumpled to the ground and the Dragonsblood rolled from his limp fingers.

  Winthrop stood behind him, the remains of a vase in one upraised hand. “I must apologize once again,” he said, wheezing through the smoke. “I would have intervened sooner, but I was inconvenienced by the gentleman with the gun.”

  Mr. Maplethorpe made a horrible gurgling sound. His face was purple and beads of sweat rolled down his temples. Standing behind him, face a mask of tightly controlled anger, was Calder. The centurion had his arm locked around Mr. Maplethorpe’s throat. In his free hand, he held the gun trained on Pandora, who’d been trying to slip out in the confusion.

  How had he gotten there? How did he know they needed help? Never mind, Kelly would ask him later – if they all survived.

  Gabriel was back in control of his body and looking around frantically. His gaze landed on his twin and the anger that was usually in his eyes let up for a moment as he gave him a nod of acknowledgement. But the fire was raging out of control. They all flinched as a window exploded outwards. Part of the ceiling collapsed at the far end of the room, charred debris crashing down and sending plumes of dust and smoke rolling towards them.

  Kelly grabbed Teresa’s hand and they fought their way blindly out of the house, staggering away from the blaze, eyes streaming, choking on the smoke they’d breathed in. As they turned back to look at the house, Winthrop emerged, and behind him Calder, who carried Evangeline in his arms. Almost as soon as they were out of the house she wriggled out of his grasp and ran over to Kelly and Teresa.

/>   They all huddled together, listening to the agonized screams from inside the house as one side of it collapsed into the flames, turning the neat little residence into a bonfire.

  Moments later, two dragons emerged from the flames, rising on the thermals from the blaze and circling high above, their wings slicing through the billows of black smoke.

  Gabriel landed on the neatly clipped lawn in front of them. He transformed back into his human shape, wings furling and folding back into his body, and carved-ruby scales giving way to smooth skin smeared with soot.

  “It’s over,” he told Kelly. “I burned them all. I’m so sorry for doubting you, Kelly. I know I don’t have the right to ask, but please…forgive me?”

  Epilogue

  The rose gardens behind the Kingsley Castle, one month later…

  Everyone was relaxing underneath an enormous shady arbor, because the sun was beating down full force and the Nevada days were as scorching as the nights were chilly. Everyone, that is, except for Orion, who was in dragon form, flying overhead with his four dragonlings – two ice and two fire. They were only two years old, and he flew beneath them in case any of them took a tumble. Every time they flew directly over the group below, it stirred up a nice cooling breeze that ruffled Kelly’s hair.

  Tabitha and Emerson were sitting on an ornate iron bench, watching the dragonlings fly and sipping mimosas.

  “Kelly Kingsley. Kelly Kingsley,” Kelly repeated, trying to get used to the sound of it as she stroked the huge sparkler on her finger.

  “Try saying that five times fast,” Teresa observed wryly. “You probably should have married someone with a last name like Smith.”

  “Ha. Teresa Higginbotham. Your last name will sound like bottom,” Kelly crowed triumphantly. Terribly immature of her, but hey, it had been so long since she’d felt like she could affectionately tease her sister that she wanted to seize the opportunity.

  “Wait, do you know something?” Teresa demanded.

  Kelly coughed behind her hand and looked away. Gabriel shook his head at her chidingly. “Just couldn’t keep a secret, could you?” His eyes gleamed with amusement.

  “Spill it. Now,” Teresa ordered her.

  “It’ll spoil the surprise,” Kelly protested. Damn it, her and her big mouth.

  “I hate surprises.”

  That was true; borderline OCD Teresa believed that surprises were as evil as unmade beds, dirty dishes, or daily planners with blank spaces in them.

  Kelly let out a sigh. “It is possible that yesterday, when I was hanging out with Gabriel at the jewelry store, Winthrop might maybe possibly have been ring shopping.”

  “Ohmigod ohmigod ohimigod. What did it look like?” Teresa’s eyes bugged open so wide Kelly was almost afraid they’d fall out of her head. “Was it bigger than yours?” she added hopefully.

  “Yes, Teresa, it was bigger than mine, and that’s all I’m telling you,” Kelly informed her firmly. “Now go be nice to Winthrop and act like you don’t know anything.”

  Kelly had actually advised Winthrop on what to choose, and told him it had to be bigger than hers. She didn’t have any need to compete, and she knew it would make Teresa happy.

  Teresa scampered over to Winthrop, who was trimming a rose bush. He didn’t have to. Since saving Gabriel’s life, he and his family were no longer duty-bound to work for the Kingsleys, much to everyone’s relief. He just couldn’t help himself. But when he saw her coming, he actually set the clippers back down in his gardener’s bag and let Teresa lead him away by the hand, and they disappeared behind an enormous rose bush.

  Teresa was staying in Winthrop’s chambers while Gabriel paid to have his house rebuilt. Once he and Teresa were married, she would have to wean him away from trying to organize the Kingsleys’ chaotic lives. Since he’d never be happy if he wasn’t organizing someone’s life, they were talking about opening a wedding-planning service.

  “I still can’t believe we’re married,” Kelly said to Cadence as a maid approached with a tray of drinks.

  “You’d better believe it,” Gabriel said with mock hurt. Then he flashed her a devilish grin. “But just in case, I’ll have to work extra hard to prove it to you tonight.”

  “I could say that I hate saying I told you so, but that would be a lie. Tooooold…youoooo…so…” Cadence glanced at Kelly as she plucked a drink from the tray, and her face fell. “You just picked a mimosa. Not pregnant yet.”

  “Jeez, I’ve been married a week. I will definitely be hitting you up for dragonling-raising tips. Give it time.” She stroked Gabriel’s arm. “We’re still in the honeymoon phase.”

  “That we are,” Gabriel said. He threw his arm around her shoulders, and she leaned in to him contentedly.

  Her arrival in dragon territory had started like a nightmare and ended like a fairytale.

  It turned out that the Rossi family wouldn’t get the Dragonsblood Ruby back after all, after a joint human-dragon council had decided that the mere existence of such a dangerous jewel was too much of a threat. The jewel had been destroyed, and it had turned out that a clause in the Allied Insurance contract meant that the agency was not on the hook for “government-sanctioned destruction”.

  Kelly’s mother realized too late how much she needed Kelly working for her agency, and sent her several hundred emails and texts that alternately wheedled and threatened, until Kelly finally sent her a cease and desist letter and blocked her from contacting her again.

  Alexandra was fully recovered, and slowly regaining weight on her painfully thin frame. Evangeline shone like the sun now, all traces of the sullen teenager gone. Principe Teague had never been able to conclusively prove that she was behind the attacks on the Maplethorpes, and since they were no longer alive to press charges, the matter ended there.

  And Calder…Calder had been there when they’d really needed him, on the day of the fiery showdown with Marvin and the Maplethorpes. It turned out that he had been following the Maplethorpes, because he thought that they were trying to frame his family. The day of the attack, he’d followed them right to Winthrop’s house.

  Now he was walking across the field towards them.

  “Mother. Father,” he said to Emerson and Tabitha, nodding to them as Kelly and Gabriel strolled up.

  “I suppose I owe you something of an apology,” Tabitha said to him, setting her drink down on a small ornate iron side table. She glanced over at Kelly, who looked down at her with a scowl. “All right, then, I definitely owe you an apology.”

  “We both do,” Emerson conceded, standing up. “I shouldn’t have blamed you. You were doing your job.”

  “If you wish to come back home…”Tabitha added hesitantly.

  Calder shook his head. “I appreciate the apology, and the offer. I think we all know that wouldn’t work out. I don’t really fit in here. Never have.”

  “It’s true,” Tabitha said with a sigh, glancing at Kelly. “I knew it as soon as he was picked to be hall monitor in first grade. He was born for law enforcement. I don’t know where I went wrong.” She shook her head regretfully.

  “But I’ll be happy to come by for dinner, and to meet my new nieces and nephews when they’re born,” Calder continued. “Maybe I could actually be a good influence on them.”

  “You too?” Kelly shook her head in mild reproach. “Honeymoon. Anyone ever heard of a honeymoon around here?”

  “Anyway, I came to give you some good news,” Calder continued, ignoring her. “The town of South Lyndvale needs their own Principe, to stand up to the ice dragon Principe. And I need a job. I’ve already discussed it with the mayor, and he agrees wholeheartedly.”

  “You’re going to be a police chief?” Tabitha said with dismay, and then when Kelly kicked her on the shin, amended with a pained smile, “You’re going to be a police chief!”

  “Why do I have the feeling that you’d be much more proud if I told you I was going to be a mob boss?” Calder said, looking amused.

  “Because you�
��ve met me before?” His mother sighed. “Well, I’m happy for you. And I’d love it if you came for dinner this Saturday night.”

  Calder agreed that he would, and he said his goodbyes.

  As he walked away, Gabriel pulled Kelly into an embrace and wrapped his arms around her waist. He leaned down and kissed the top of her head, and then let out a chuckle.

  “What’s so funny?” she asked.

  “I was just thinking about how in the skit, the dragon saves the Fair Maiden. But really, this time, it was the Fair Maiden who saved the dragon.”

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  THE END

  About the Author

  Hello, I am Georgette St. Clair, writer of hot, sexy romances which star all Alpha heroes, all the time. The road to love may be rocky and fraught with peril, (and humor and scorchtastic sex and healthy heapings of snark) but my shifters will stop at nothing to claim their fated mate.

  A little about me: I live in Florida. My checkered career involved stints as a newspaper reporter, EMT, internet marketer, cocktail waitress, temp, nurse’s aide (but not all at the same time...)

  Now I’m living my perfect life, spending my days in a fantasy universe where I nudge my smart-mouthed, take-no-guff heroines onto the path that will set them on a collision course with true love.

  Check out my website for a complete list of titles and what’s coming soon. Or connect with me on Facebook.

  Also by Georgette St. Clair

  The Mating Game Series:

  The Mating Game: Big Bad Wolf (The Mating Game Book 1)

  Dating a Dragon (The Mating Game Book 2)