by Amelia Jade
Zander
He stiffened as the taunting voice echoed down the hallway.
Oh no.
Footsteps sounded on the tiled floor as the owner decided they no longer cared about being stealthy.
From down the hallway a figure appeared, long slow strides carrying him to the front of the cage, where he leaned back against the concrete block wall. He had something in his hands, candy perhaps, that he tossed into his mouth piece by piece, chewing on it as he regarded the two.
“Come on, Z, don’t just sit there. Speak to her!” Kieran crowed, pointing with his food-filled hand to Riss.
“Go away, Kieran,” he rumbled. “I’m warning you.”
“Warning me?” his cousin laughed. “You’re locked behind bars designed to hold even you inside. What could you possibly be warning me against?”
“I won’t be behind here forever, cousin,” he said, spitting the last word out like an oath.
“Spare me. You’ve yet to beat me in five fights, Z. Six isn’t going to be your lucky number either.” Kieran leaned up straighter against the wall and his eyes hardened. “So do as I say, and tell the pretty girl the truth.”
Something clicked in Zander’s mind.
“You,” he breathed.
“What?” Kieran and Riss both looked confused as they spoke together.
“All along,” Zander said, his voice dropping an octave, an earthen baritone that echoed down the hallway as it built up steam. “I thought that this was all her boss starting something and escalating it as he failed. But I was wrong. So very wrong. It’s been you this whole time, pulling the strings from behind the scenes. The mugging, the panthers. You probably paid her boss off too, didn’t you?” He snarled, lunging at the bars.
Kieran, who had come a step closer, moved just out of Zander’s reach, laughing crazily.
“Well I’m glad you finally figured it out, little cousin. It certainly took you long enough.”
“Zander, what the hell is going on?” Riss asked, standing up and looking back and forth between the two of them.
“Z here has been keeping secrets from you,” Kieran said in a conspiratorial whisper, using a hand to pretend to block his voice from Zander. “Big ones.”
“What does he mean Zander?”
“He means,” Kieran said, talking about himself in the third person, “that Zander here was using you. When his dear old mom, rest in peace, realized her time was almost up, she told your loverboy here that he wasn’t going to be declared heir to the House Pierce name unless he had a mate before she passed away.”
Riss looked at him, but Zander could only hang his head in shame to admit it. “It started out that way,” he admitted. “But it isn’t anymore. I fell for you,” he whispered.
“You used me,” she snarled. “You were just trying to seduce me so you could what, pretend like I was your mate until your mother died, then drop me?”
Her hand flew to her mouth. “That’s why you left me earlier. Your mother passed away, and since she didn’t know about me, you no longer needed me.”
Tears sprung to her eyes and Zander reached out to try and comfort her, to hold her close, but she backed away into the far corner of the cell.
“Stay away from me,” she hissed through the tears.
“Ouch, Z. That has to hurt,” Kieran cackled. “She’s a smart one too, figured that all out right away. I thought I’d have to explain it more, but nope. You really fucked up, buddy. Quite a catch, that little lady.
Zander snarled and lunged through the bars again, but Kieran stayed out of reach.
“I guess all that’s left now is for me to collect my inheritance,” his cousin jeered, turning to leave.
He spun in the cell and went over to where Riss was crouched in the corner, disbelief still plainly written on her face.
He dropped down onto his haunches in front of her.
“What he said is true, and I owe you more of an apology than I fear I can ever provide. I will answer whatever questions you have.” He glanced behind him. “But first I have to go beat his ass for creating this situation in the first place.”
Riss didn’t respond, so after a moment he got to his feet.
“Kieran!” he roared at his cousin.
The other man paused in his journey down the hallway.
Zander moved to the door, and counted the bars strategically on the sliding door. He grabbed the selected ones, planted his feet on two others, and pulled.
The door clicked as he exerted his full strength, and suddenly slid open.
Kieran looked at him in shock.
“How the hell did you do that?”
“I helped renovate these,” he said in a deadly quiet voice. “They always build in a safety like that.”
Kieran grinned. “Well come on then, little Z, let’s do this, shall we?”
“With pleasure,” the dragon shifter said, striding down the hallway to meet his cousin. Fists flexed and knuckles cracked as they closed on each other, faces set in stone.
Kieran was right; he’d won the past five bouts between them. He was more experienced. But this time, Zander was fighting for something.
Two paces out he suddenly threw himself forward, catching Kieran off-guard. The pair went down in a flurry of fists, knees, and whatever they could bring into the fight. Kieran got a leg up and kicked out, sending Zander into the ceiling above, where he fell back down right into the oncoming fist of his cousin.
Bone cracked and he flew to the side, a concrete cinderblock cracking under the blow.
“You can’t beat me,” Kieran taunted moments before Zander’s low kick took out his legs.
He rolled to his feet and grabbed his cousin’s leg, hurling him down the hallway. Skin scraped on the tile and blood streaked along after Kieran as he shed skin from his face and arm on the tile.
“Is that the best you’ve got?” the other dragon shifter roared as he climbed to his feet, shaking the pain off in a spray of blood.
“Not by a long shot,” Zander responded, eyes aflame.
He opened his mind as his cousin came back down the hallway, finding his connection with his dragon. Zander had learned a few new tricks since he’d last fought Kieran. The wind in his mind began to shriek and whistle as it increased to a fever pitch. He summoned that air, feeling it spin up from his feet.
Zander focused it in his mind, condensing it into the tiniest spot in front of him that he could, using much of his mental strength to overwhelm the urge from his dragon to be set free.
Kieran slowed as he realized what Zander was doing and belatedly tried to summon a shield of his own.
But it was too late, and with a roar that split the quiet of the Guardian Headquarters building, he hurled the contained tornado down the confines of the hallway. The blast slammed into Kieran, tossing him from his feet like a ragdoll as it spun him around, until it hit the outer wall and threw him through it into the street beyond.
Zander was right behind it though, lip curled back in a snarl as he launched himself from the second-floor hole-in-the-wall to the ground below.
Kieran was already getting to his feet. But Zander’s punch sent him bouncing across the perfectly manicured lawn until he came to rest in the changing circle.
Kieran spat blood and a tooth from his mouth as he rose, taking stock of where he was.
A grin spread across his face and he went to one knee, his eyes still focused on Zander. Lightning sparked and dark clouds shot through with bolts of super-charged electricity rose up around him, obscuring his form.
Zander didn’t need to know what was happening though.
Ignoring the grass below him, he brought his arms up together in front of his face and summoned his own dragon, touching that whirling core of wind deep inside him, this time letting it free.
Debris pelted him as the force of the wind tore the grass up, ripping leaves from the branches of a nearby bush and other debris. But as his scales pushed to the surface, he stopped feeling them. H
is dragon manifested itself quickly, already near the surface of his mind.
It wasn’t enough. A lightning bolt slammed into his side even before he’d finished shifting, and Zander roared in pain, the wind increasing to a feverish pitch as if to mimic his outburst.
He heard more than saw Kieran charge at him, but the moment was past, and Zander was ready. Spinning in place, he whipsawed his long sinuous tail around and slammed it into the side of Kieran’s head, momentarily stunning the larger dragon. He hit him again, and then launched into the air, where his agility and speed could come into play, taunting Kieran to come after him.
The sapphire-blue dragon obliged, charging up into the skies above Cadia, firing bolt after bolt of lightning at Zander, though he managed to evade most of them. One singed along his hind leg, numbing the limb momentarily even as blinding pain shot up through his body.
Zander roared and summoned his own breath weapon, but Kieran was ready this time, and he dodged clear of the wind blast.
It was only a distraction, however, and Kieran grunted in pain as Zander followed his blast in and raked his talons across his cousin’s underbelly. Blue scales tinged with a dark red ripped free and tumbled to the ground below in a spray of blood.
Zander didn’t escape entirely unscathed. His cousin pivoted in mid-air as he flew by, and before Zander could maneuver out of the way, a powerful blast of lightning slammed into his side. Brass scales cracked and melted as they tried to absorb the energy and failed, peeling up and away from his skin as they blackened with damage.
He gritted his teeth and pulled out of his dive, looping up and around, using his agility to get in behind Kieran. There he landed on the dragon’s back for a second, talons once more gouging deep wounds in his foe.
Bleeding from a dozen places, they spiraled upward, the buildings shrinking below them as they fought.
Kieran finally made a critical mistake. Whether Zander fooled him, or he was slowed by the loss of blood, it didn’t matter. He turned left out of a clash instead of right. As Zander came out of his own loop, he was presented with Kieran flying below him.
He sucked in air quickly and unleashed his breath weapon to its fullest capacity. A vast, shrieking storm of wind exploded from Zander, gale force winds descending upon the unsuspecting Kieran with devastating effect. The ball of wind scooped him up, wrenching the Electro Dragon’s wings around and out of place, turning him into a free-falling object that plummeted to the ground below.
Zander followed him down, but there was no need. At the last moment Kieran managed to reorient himself, but he still hit the ground heavily. His body hit first, and then his head as the long neck of his dragon snapped it down, bouncing it off the stone changing circle.
Kieran rose unsteadily to his feet, but the fight was over, and they both knew it.
“Get out of here,” Zander said. “Before I do something I’ll regret.”
“It doesn’t matter, Z,” Kieran said. “I still inherit the Pierce name. That was what she decreed.”
“You’re an idiot, Kieran,” Zander said with a shake of his head. “Don’t you see? It’s not about the title, or the money. Sure they would be nice, but I can subsist on my own without them. No, you blind fool, it’s about her. About the best damn thing to ever happen to me. She is what I care about.” He lowered his head slightly. “She’s all I care about.”
“Well, I guess you shouldn’t have treated her like a pawn, now should you?” Kieran retorted.
“No, I shouldn’t have. But you know what? I can’t be entirely upset that I did. I should have told her as soon as I developed real feelings, yes. But if I hadn’t been searching for someone to use, I would never have found her. So you see, Kieran, I made mistakes, but it was one of those mistakes that brought her into my life.”
“So why fight me?” the still dazed and weakened blue dragon asked.
“One, because you’re an ass. Two, because you’re an ass. Three, because you threatened her life several times with your stupid machinations. And four, because you didn’t let me tell her on my own terms, where I might have been able to convince her that I was telling the truth when I said that I cared for her, that I thought she was my mate. Now, because of your selfishness, she’ll never believe me.”
“Pretty speech, Z, but I—”
“Get the fuck out of my sight, Kieran, and don’t ever let me see you again, or I’ll finish what I started here.”
The blue dragon stared angrily at him, but Kieran knew he wasn’t in any condition to continue the fight, so he spread his tormented wings and managed to get himself into the air.
Zander slumped down, lungs heaving as he fought to recover his breath from the frantic fighting, finally allowing himself to accept just how hurt he was.
“Did you mean all that?” a voice asked from behind him.
Chapter Fourteen
Riss
The brass dragon turned to face her, moving slowly, and she could see he was clearly favoring one of his hind legs.
“How much did you hear?”
With Riss standing at the opening Zander had blown in the second-story wall, she was almost at eye level with the large dragon. There were several Guardians milling in the hallway, but she’d assured them she wasn’t going anywhere, and for the time being they seemed to be taking her word for it.
“All of it,” she replied as the snout came close, the entire thing bigger than her body.
The yellow cat-like orbs focused on her, and though she’d not been around dragons much, Riss swore she could see pain and sadness reflected in them.
“I meant every word,” he said. “You are the matching puzzle piece that I’ve been seeking. I regret the way under which we met, I truly do, and I am ashamed to admit that at the time I wasn’t sorry at all.”
The big head drooped a little. “But losing my mother has put a great many things into perspective for me, and I think I’ve emerged from it for the better. I only regret that I had to hurt you along the way.”
Riss leaned against the jagged wall to her right, contemplating the words of the dragon shifter in front of her.
“I don’t know,” she said at last. “How am I supposed to know if you’re telling the truth, after being lied to so much? My trust is pretty weak right now.”
Zander’s head dropped even more as he acknowledged her words.
Then it came up slightly, a light igniting deep in his eyes, but it faded almost as fast.
“What?” she asked, but he only shook his head.
“No, it’s nothing.”
“You know, at a time like this, I don’t think you should be keeping anything back,” she told him, crossing her arms.
“Not even when the idea is even more ridiculous than where we already are?” Zander asked, and she could have sworn there was a bit of humor in his voice.
“What do you mean?”
“Well,” he said slowly, “there is one way that you could know for certain that I’m telling the truth. Where there would be no doubt left in your mind at all.”
“I’m listening,” she said warily, not committing to anything.
Riss wanted him to be telling the truth. She couldn’t imagine not having him around, but if she was going to be filled with doubt every time she wondered whether he was serious or not, then it just wasn’t meant to be.
“Well, when a dragon finds his or her mate…” Zander stopped, shaking his head. “No, this is silly. I can’t believe I’m suggesting this idea. You’re going to label me insane and leave.”
“Just say it already, Zander,” she snapped firmly, though without malice.
“If I affix one of my scales to your skin, and bond with you, you’ll be able to feel my emotions. You’ll know if I’m lying to you or not.”
Riss’s jaw dropped.
“You are insane,” she fumed. “I can’t believe you would even suggest that!”
“I tried not to!” he protested. “But it’s the only way I could think of to prove to you how
I feel about you. To prove how my dragon feels.”
“So, what happens after you, what did you call it—bond?—with me?”
“Ah, well. Then we’re mated,” Zander said awkwardly.
“Oh, is that all?”
“Pretty much, yeah.”
Riss couldn’t believe she was actually entertaining the idea of this.
“And what happens if you bond with me, and I find out you’re lying? What then?”
“Ah, well, at that point things get really awkward. I told you it’s ridiculous. You basically have to trust me that I’m telling the truth, in order to find out that I am telling the truth.”
“Right,” she said with another shake of her head. “Because why would I accept something like that if I thought you were lying.”
Zander’s head nodded ponderously. “Exactly.”
“You couldn’t have just asked me out the normal way, could you? You know, without the whole hidden agenda?”
Zander dropped his head.
“I’m sorry,” he practically whispered, an interesting proposition for a fifty-foot-long dragon. Whispers and quiet actions were not something she would have thought possible.
Bringing her mind back to the problem at hand, Riss tried to come up with a solution.
But no matter how hard she tried to come up with something else, her mind kept wandering back to the idea of being bonded to him.
“Does it hurt?” she asked tentatively.
Zander perked up immediately. “I’ve heard it can hurt, but very briefly,” he said honestly. “But there are more benefits than just being able to feel my emotions.”
“What do you mean?” Riss asked, finally admitting to herself that she was at least intrigued by the idea.
Mating herself to Zander wasn’t something that scared her, assuming that he was telling the truth. If that was the real Zander, Riss knew she would never be happier. How she knew that, she couldn’t put into words. It was just a gut feeling, a hunch that said she would be okay.
“Well, as a human, having one of my scales bonded to you transfers some of my strengths to you. So you’ll never get sick again. You’ll heal faster from any injuries you may sustain.” He hesitated, and she stood up straight.