by Lisa Daniels
Annora patted his hand, not sure what to say.
“Humans don’t usually bother us, but when they do, they really make a mess of things. Our young are more likely to become violent and vicious towards them. I am one of the few who spends more time in human form because I spend much of my time monitoring people who are likely to cause us problems. Leonides spends nearly as much time as a human because he refuses to leave the full burden up to me. He’s a good man. I think he was originally afraid that I was going to lose it after Lilou disappeared and Phelan was exiled. I wasn’t the leader back them. Leonides has kept an eye on me ever since. It’s funny since I am considerably older than him, but it does help me stay grounded.”
Annora looked up at him. With so many questions going through her head, she wasn’t sure what she could ask.
Elian looked down at her. A hand went to her face and he caressed her cheek with his thumb. “I suppose he was trying to keep me away from you as well. Leonides has me figured out so well, he knows what I am feeling before I realize it. Well, he was right, and now I’m not quite sure what to do.”
Annora looked away. “You have responsibilities. You have to take care of them first.”
The man laughed. “Yes, that is a nearly perfect imitation of something he would say.”
“He’s not wrong.” She looked up at him.
“No, that certainly isn’t wrong, but my responsibility goes well beyond just my clan now. He knew by the way I treated you that I had made my choice, and he will also tell you that can’t be ignored either.”
Annora frowned. “I don’t know what you mean. Responsibility is always first.”
“Yes, and I took responsibility for you that night. Nothing you say or do now is going to change that. It will just change how I act to fulfill that responsibility.”
“I don’t even know what to say to that.”
Elian leaned in, his mouth close to her ear. “Say that you will allow me to fulfill the responsibility by your side. It will make things so much easier.”
Annora pushed him away. “Easier for who? Certainly not easier for me. I do not want to be locked up and guarded for the rest of my life.”
“Nor do I want to lock you up. Often,” he grinned down at her. “If The Fiend were to join my clan, do you have any idea just what that will do?”
“Make a lot of your people hate you?”
He laughed, “No. You have a reputation as being ruthless, but never without cause. Your name is invoked to keep our young in line.”
“So I’m a boogey man to your people?” Annora wasn’t sure if she should be flattered or insulted with this revelation.
He smiled at her. “Not to me.” His hand stroked the back of her head. “If you were to join me, we would rest better knowing that we had our own protector.”
“That makes no sense,” she tried to find his lie in his eyes, but they were sincere.
“No one was even sure if you were human, they certainly have no idea that you are a female human. Your species does not have a great… track record for the way women are treated. A sword-wielding woman is pretty much unheard of, which kind of baffles shifters. Most of our best warriors are women, especially the mothers. I feel humans are really missing something to sideline women.” His hand gestured toward Annora. “Case in point right here.”
Annora ran a hand through her hair at the compliment. “I never saw what gender had to do with anything. I wanted revenge. I wanted to never lose anyone I loved ever again. There was only one choice for me to make.”
“Yes. And now you can change the course of your life.”
She looked up at him, her mind trying to take in what he was saying. “But I don’t even know how that would work.”
“Simple. You stay with me, help me deal with humans, and when something happens to one of our own, you help me hunt to bring them back. It’s really not that much different than what you do now. Except you will always have a guaranteed home, no need to find someone willing to pay you.”
Annora’s eyebrows went up. That would make her life considerably easier. It was so difficult to get people to take her seriously, which meant getting hired was particularly annoying. She looked into his reddish eyes and a smile spread across her face. “Of course, I will still have a high price for clothing. Modified clothing is not cheap.”
Elian laughed and ran a hand down her arm. “It is very well done. Where did you get it so quickly?”
“I can introduce you to him later. I should probably thank you for choosing Kildeer; it would have been impossible to find something better than those hideous clothes anywhere else.”
He flinched. “Hideous? I thought they looked charming on you.”
“It is impossible to fight with that much fabric flying everywhere. The only benefit was the fact that men are so easily distracted that mobility is only a minor problem.”
Elian laughed again. “Well, I can’t say that I blame them. You are a very beautiful woman, despite how you try to hide it.”
Annora tilted her head to the side. “Hide it? I simply don’t care.”
Elian pulled her toward him, his hand smoothing down her hair as he looked at her face. “I wish I could say I don’t care either, but right now that would be a lie.”
Slowly he leaned down toward her. Annora closed her eyes as his eyes asked. She sighed as his lips pressed against hers. His hands were skillfully working her shirt off as hers clumsily slipped under his shirt and began pulling up.
He began to push against her, lowering her to the ground. Annora placed her hands on his chest and pushed him away. Elian’s face was shocked as he looked at her. Annora swung her leg over his. Placing both of her hands on his shoulders, she roughly pushed him to the ground. He laughed before grabbing her hips and rolling over on top of her. Before she could protest, his mouth covered hers while his hands unfastened her belt.
As the sun rose the next morning, Elian and Annora pulled closer together.
“Too bright,” she muttered as the light shone on their faces.
He pulled her head into his chest. “I’ll protect you.”
She gave him a gentle push. “I don’t need protection, I just want more sleep.”
“But you seem so awake.” He looked down at her tired face. “I can help with that.”
Her laugh was stifled as his mouth began kissing her neck and his hand explored her body.
Once they were finished, the pair dressed and looked around the empty cavern. Hand in hand, they stepped out into the late morning light.
The End
Bree’s Dragon
By: Lisa Daniels
Chapter 1
Unexpected News
“Gods! Is it morning already?” A rather sleepy voice was muffled through several blankets. Throwing them off displayed the incredibly vibrant curly red hair of an unbelievably attractive woman. Despite having just woken, everything about her looked like she had just stepped out of the halls of the gods. Sparkling green eyes reflected an intelligence that seemed in dissidence with the pretty features. Her nose was petite, but not small. Her cheeks bones were obvious, but they did not look sharp. A well-defined jaw rested under glimmering pink lips that looked almost heart-shaped.
The beautiful mouth widened to reveal a perfect set of teeth and a very pink tongue. The young woman’s yawn was far more an exaggeration than a necessity. Swinging her legs over the side of the bed, the woman made her way to a small chest with an energy that did not seem to belong to the morning. With a quick gesture, she flicked the chest open and began flipping through all of her available dresses. Given the size of the chest, it was nearly impossible to believe just how much clothing the redhead was able to cram into it.
Suddenly, her face brightened, “Well hello, old friend! It has been quite a while since we last got together.” With a melodic laugh, a shiny green dress was drawn from a small space behind most of the other clothing.
The woman’s steps were light as she danced with her dress a
cross the floor and into a small bathroom. Pulling off her glittering golden nightdress, the woman tossed it to the floor and picked up her underclothing. She gave them a skeptical look and tossed them on top of her night dress. “I think not today.” Parading around the bathroom without any clothing, the woman washed her faced, brushed and styled her hair, looked in the mirror with a gentle frown, and admired the view from her current location. In the building opposite was a rather young looking man whose eyes were clearly watching the young woman. His hands were held up to his mouth as if he was taking an imaginary drink of tea, a look that hinted at the cup that had been there until he had looked out of the window at the inn. The young woman gave him a huge smile and an energetic wave before moving back into the bedroom area, the dress back in her hands.
Pulling open a small drawer in the chest, the young woman decided on a simple set of underclothing that would be more comfortable for traveling. Pulling the dress on over her head, the red head moved toward the door without a backward look at the mess she had made that morning.
She missed the little head shake her neighbor gave before leaning over to see if she was still moving about naked. Soon after he called in a servant to clean up the broken cup and get him a change of clothes as his current outfit was covered in tea.
Not entirely unaware of what she had done, the young woman bounced down three flights of stairs, her arms swinging and a beautiful melody resonating from her chest as she hummed. Her long fingers curled, and her arm stretched to rap on the door marked 204. She continued to hum as she turned the handle and barged into the room.
Her body stopped as the sight that met her eyes was not the childhood friend that she expected but a young couple clearly intent on something that did not require her presence. The sound of the door closing behind her did not register as the woman’s eyes moved between the two figures on the bed. Instead of turning and leaving, the young woman put her hands on her slim hips, “And just what do you two think you are doing here? And I don’t mean the obvious.”
The man immediately got off of a very dainty looking woman. Hurriedly pulling the sheet over himself and the blanket over his companion, he rose from the bed. Extending a hand, the scantily clad man introduced himself, “I am Phelan, and my charming companion is Taja. You must be the friend that we were told would stop by to visit.”
An eyebrow rose as a smirk spread across the red head’s mouth, “Oh, I see. She did a runner last night. Good gods, but that woman…” With a shake of her brilliantly lively hair, the woman looked between the couple. The woman’s face was very striking, and she looked far less composed than the man. Holding out her hand, the red head took the proffered hand as she sized up the male. He was just slightly taller than her, though his build was clearly a lot more muscular. Despite his apparent composure, his cheeks were nearly as red as her hair. “It is very nice to meet you Phelan. I’m Bree, Annora’s friend, as you already know.” There was a slight gasp from him as she gave his hand a very firm shake. Letting it go, the young woman turned to a chair. “I do hope you don’t mind a bit of interrogation. It is rather unfortunate, but I am somewhat busy and need to head out soon, and since I did not hear that my friend was going to depart, I need a few details to make sure she hasn’t done anything stupid. You will be allowed to return to your previous activities shortly.”
Phelan looked back at the woman on the bed. Taja smiled as she looked at the red-haired woman, “Well, Ms. Bounty Hunter did say that we should expect a bubbly woman in the morning. Since she was kind enough to give us her room, we may as well consider this payment for such luxurious accommodations.”
Phelan moved to sit on the bed as Bree clicked her tongue. Taja moved next to her companion and put her arm through his, almost like she couldn’t stand to be without physical contact. Bree noticed, but her mind was a bit too preoccupied with their words to make fun of the woman for her clinginess. “So, Annora said that she was a bounty hunter and she told you that she acquired the rooms, huh?” Her eyebrows were raised.
The couple looked at each other, their nervousness clear. Phelan responded, “Well, no. We assumed from the fact that she was…um, running out at night into a dangerous forest dressed as a man – we figured she must be a bounty hunter. And she never said otherwise.”
Bree raised an eyebrow.
The petite woman responded, her nearly platinum blond hair tumbling around her doll-like face, “Actually, she kind of did, didn’t she?”
“I don’t remember her saying anything against it.” The way the pair talked made Bree wonder if they forgot she was there.
“No, remember when we said something about her coming after you, she said, ‘I'm not going to track any creature that has aided me.’ She never said she was hunting people.”
The man laughed and kissed the woman’s forehead, “I wish I had your memory. Of course, you are right. We didn’t pick up on it at the time, did we?”
The doll-like woman’s head shook, causing her hair to sway against her face. It was a cute style that really suited her little features.
As interesting as it was to watch these two, Bree was in a hurry. Clearing her throat, she reminded them that she was there before saying, “That does sound like Annora. Before moving on to the second lie, what exactly are you not telling me about her appearance when you bumped into her?”
Both pairs of eyes immediately moved to the clothes on the floor before shifting around the room. It was obvious that they were going to lie.
“Never mind. I'm sure I’ll find out soon enough, so don’t bother lying. I’ll bet it was something stupid like a broken bone or bloody injury.” The pair exchanged a look, and Bree said triumphantly, “So obviously she was bloodied. Well, I hope she didn’t leave too much on your clothes as I do not plan to have them cleaned on her behalf.”
Bree’s hand slapped the arm of the chair causing the couple to jump. They both pulled their sheets and blanks to cover themselves as Bree stood. “As for the second lie, she didn’t procure this room. I did that. You’ll probably say that she simply told you to use this room or some such nonsense to defend her. But honestly, someone could have told me something.”
“Actually ma’am,” Taja looked concerned as she appeared to be getting angry at her friend, “She left you a letter. I had tried to slip it under your door, but there were….was a problem.”
The way he reworded his sentence made Bree laugh. “Ah yes, there was no way for you to get up to the floor to leave it. So where is the letter?” As the young man rose, Bree waved him off, “Oh please, just point to it. I would hate for your clothing to fall off while I am in the room.” The way she looked at him suggested Bree would not be at all upset, but that just made Phelan blush harder. Taja leaned over him and pointed at something on the desk. Bree’s eyes followed the direction and there on the table was a familiar handwriting that could only be Annora’s.
Shaking her head, Bree moved over and picked up the letter, “Do you have any idea how difficult it was to get her to learn her letters. I am at least glad she has kept up with it.” Her eyes flitted over the note before creasing it and slipping it into an unseen pocket in her dress. “Well, I would love to go after her to reprimand her for this, but by now she’s gods know where facing down a monster. And I have quite enough work of my own.”
Taja tilted her head to the side, “So she hunts beasts for a living.”
Bree took in a deep breath and gave the pair a knowing look, “Yes, she does, but as she said, there would have to be a good reason for her to go after either of you.”
Both heads swiveled to look at each other, a look of concern painting their lovely features. Phelan bit his lip and turned to say something to her, his embarrassment from earlier clearly worn off. There was a gentle smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes as he looked at the authoritative woman who had interrupted their love making, “She is more than human isn’t she?”
Bree gave him an incredulous look before answering, “She’s 100% human, u
nlike the three of us.”
Again, they exchanged a look that they were ill at ease the longer Bree was in the room, a reaction that the woman was rather accustomed to. Then the man began to laugh, “Ah well, I suppose I should have known that people up here are a little bit more knowledgeable about humanoids than the people in cities. I was certain last night that there was something about your friend that suggested she wasn’t human, but it was late and we were-”
“Tired.” Taja cut in trying to keep him from saying what had actually happened once they had arrived.
Bree shook her head, “You didn’t look tired to me, and I know that second generation pixie’s have enough stamina to best a griffin.
And-”
Phelan couldn’t help but cut in, “Second generation?” His eyes went back to his companion. “I thought you were third generation.”
Taja shrugged, “I didn’t know I was any Pixie amount of pixie before you, so don’t look at me.”
A sad smile spread across Bree’s face as she watched them. It was hardly the first time she had encountered something like this, but at least the pair had found each other. With any luck they would be enough. Interrupting their dialogue, Bree tried to wrap up their discussion so that she could move on to her own work. “She is definitely second generation, which means that her grandmother on her father’s side was full pixie. That should be enough if you are looking to locate her family.”
Taja shook her head and hugged Phelan’s arm tighter, “I have all the family I need right here.”
Bree could guess the girl’s story. Humans always loved the humanoids until the pressure from other humans turned the love to hate. With a knowing sigh, the young woman gave them a strange look, “Well, I have no doubt you will be singing a different tune the next time I see you.”
They both frowned at her not understanding what Bree was hinting at. Brushing the stomach of her dress, Bree continued, “As I was saying, I have known enough shifters to know that it is nearly impossible to tire one.” Her eyes caught and held Phelan’s eyes.