Desired by Dragons
Terry Bolryder
Contents
Copyright
Dedication
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Epilogue
Sample of Destined Dragons
Also by Terry Bolryder
Copyright © 2015 by Terry Bolryder
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Cover Design by Melody Simmons of eBookindiecovers
Created with Vellum
For all the fans who asked for more dragons. You know who you are. :)
1
If I stay here much longer, he’ll find me.
The thought was macabre, but it hit Tara nonetheless as she tried to enjoy a few minutes of calm. It was a beautiful sunny day, humid and warm. Droves of people surrounded her, bustling and exploring the area around the new dam that had just been constructed last year. Parents snapped photos and herded young children. Kids ate ice cream. Couples lounged about together on the different paths leading to and from the overlook that jutted out into the river that fed into the dam.
Soon she would get in her car, drive to the next trade show on her route, be there for a few days, and then go on to the next place. Wash. Rinse. Repeat.
She looked at the time on her phone, sighed, and decided it was time to get back on the road. It was safest to keep moving, and her business working with companies to design corporate promotional clothing gave her every excuse to do so. But just as she was getting ready to walk to her car, she was interrupted by a loud shout that stopped her in her tracks.
“Hey, look, is that someone's kid in there?” a man shouted, pointing into the water.
Tara’s heart jumped as she looked in the direction the man pointed, and sure enough, it looked like there was child. A young boy, probably no more than five years old, floundering in the rushing current.
“Where are his parents?” another woman yelled.
There was no answer from the crowd, only worried muttering. A few shocked screams. It was very likely his parents were at the gift shop or somewhere nearby but had lost track of the boy.
Oh no.
“Someone should go in,” yelled one person.
“And get killed too? There’s no way to reach him and get back in time,” said another woman, sounding shrill. And it was true; just a few weeks ago, Tara had read a story about someone who’d died trying to rescue someone from a dammed river.
But that didn’t matter. Someone’s kid was in danger. And Tara knew people froze up in situations like this. But she couldn’t let herself, or this child, be a victim of the bystander effect. If she didn’t do something, no one would. If she died, she’d die doing what was right. Adrenaline rushed through her, making her oddly calm as she ran down the steps and onto the river shore. She tossed off her jacket with her phone and wallet so they wouldn’t weigh her down and then plunged into the freezing water. Every second counted.
The water was swift and turbulent. She pushed with the current propelling her toward the child. He was thankfully still above water, though probably not for long.
She regretted not having been much of a swimmer, but she’d at least worked out in pools at the various hotels she visited. She hoped it was enough.
In the background, she could hear people yelling at her from the shore, though it was muffled by the water sloshing over and around her head and ears. Just ahead, the dam loomed ominously above her, probably no more than fifty or so meters away.
She reached the child, who was still flailing uncontrollably, and looped an arm around him.
“Hey, it’s okay. You’re going to be fine,” Tara tried to say over the rushing water. But with every passing moment, the river pushed them closer and closer to the dam and the imminent doom it promised.
Tara reversed direction and made for the shore with all her might. The kid whimpered and clung tightly to her as she kicked with both legs and grasped with her free arm.
Luckily, several people had followed her along the water’s edge, navigating the large rocks near the shore to stay parallel with her. As she got closer to the dam, she could feel the river’s current getting stronger and stronger. If she could just make it to where those people were.
She gave one last drive, her muscles long exhausted from the exertion against the relentless river and the constant gulps of water she breathed in. She was so close now.
A man reached a hand down toward her, his other hand connected to someone standing behind him like a human chain. Tara kicked out hard, pushing the kid forward in front of her. With his arms outstretched, it was just enough. With one tug, the child was pulled into the man’s arms, then passed to someone else standing on the side.
The boy was safe. Thank heavens.
The man grasped for Tara’s outstretched arm, but by the time he did, it was too late. The current pulled her past the group and downriver, where it was speeding up by the second.
Tara paddled toward the shore, but her muscles were long spent. They had nothing left. She could vaguely hear worried shouts from the shore, encouraging her forward, but everything was dull to her.
I don’t want to die. The thought crossed her mind, panicked and severe. But her body couldn’t respond. The river was far too strong to do anything about now.
This was it.
She was pulled underwater, and all she could feel was the icy coldness surrounding her. Then nothing.
* * *
Ah, freedom, Quill thought as he flew through the air in his dragon form, the countryside far below him. He loved these moments, free from his partner’s nagging and over-controlling nature.
Drake and Quill had been arguing this morning about just the very thing he was now doing. Being alone without his partner.
Technically, dragons were always supposed to work in twos in order to protect them from capture or worse. And Quill had been captured a while back, leading to Drake having to rescue him.
But Quill couldn’t just sit home and wait for a mission. He wasn’t driven by wealth or power or status like his counterparts. As a blue dragon, gifted with supernatural healing abilities, his greatest desire in life was to make use of it.
And to make thing worse, Quill’s partner was a red dragon, practically invincible. Sturdier than a draft horse and built like a steel-coated cinderblock. So what use could Quill’s powers possibly be there?
So Quill had gotten into the habit of finding people he could help. And out in the world of humans, there was never a shortage of people who needed him, who benefited from his abilities.
Today he was flying northwest. He’d never stop taking advantage of the fact that dragon scales could render him invisible to the human eye, allowing him to roam freely without danger of being detected, so long as he didn’t run into any buildings or low-flying aircraft.
Below him there was a dam, surrounded by green forests and packed with people, probably visiting for the weekend. Surely there was someone there he could help.
He flew lower and landed in the corner of an empty-looking parking lot. He might be invisible, but that didn’t change the fa
ct that he could knock someone over with a gust from his wings if they got too close. Once on the ground, he looked around to make sure nobody was watching, then shifted into his human form. His dragon magic made it so he was fully clothed after shifting.
Thankfully, he was wearing something on the more casual side today, slim jeans and a fitted shirt, so he wouldn’t stand out more than he already did with his dark blue-black hair that came down past his shoulders. As he walked across the parking lot, he tied it in a low queue with a band from his pocket.
The gift shops and viewing areas were more packed than he’d initially thought from his view at a thousand feet. Droves of mortals surrounded him, going on with their day-to-day activities, completely unaware of their all-too-short lifespans.
Quill used to frequent hospitals and medical centers, since that was a surefire way to find people in need, and heal them with his abilities. But after a couple times where security was called on him because he’d lied about being someone’s relative to get inside, he’d forgone that practice and stuck to more easily accessible places like this.
As Quill walked around, getting curious stares from children and a few leering looks from both men and women, he could instinctively sense the people surrounding him. His power was never specific—he wouldn’t know what was wrong with someone unless they told him or he could physically see it—but he could feel if someone was gravely ill or in terrible pain. Or he could tell if an epidemic was going to break out somewhere. A healer’s intuition, his mentor had told him.
And from the sound of it, something was indeed going wrong right now.
There were distressed shouts and yells, and Quill rushed in their direction. He came up to an overlook that gave view of the back of the damn, which was full of people pressing toward the railing to see something. No space there. So instead, he came around it and down onto a small, rocky beach.
The sight in the water shocked him. A woman, probably in her mid-twenties, was making for the shore with a small child in her arms. And despite her efforts, she looked exhausted, struggling against the powerful currents rushing toward the dam.
From the murmurs coming from the crowds, she’d apparently jumped in for the child, despite him not being hers. The bravery of it took his breath away.
Quill sprinted down the beach toward larger granite boulders, which he bounded over with incredible agility, just in time to see the woman hand off the child to several people reaching out to her at the water’s edge.
But the hands reaching for her failed, and she was swept back out into the current. Quill put a hand up to shade his eyes and saw she was headed straight for the dam, where she would be sucked under and almost certainly killed.
If she didn’t drown first.
Quill knew what had to be done. But just as he went to take off his shoes, a hand grabbed him by the shoulder and jerked him around.
“There you are. What the hell are you doing out here?” It was Drake, Quill’s partner. He was wearing his typical casual wear, a too-small polo that showed his bulging pecs, paired with expensive chinos. His blue-green eyes were filled with fury, and his short blond hair was ruffled.
“No time to talk. Someone needs our help,” Quill replied, pointing out into the water. Drake peered over Quill’s shoulder, then back to him.
“What do you mean, ‘needs our help?’ Since when has it ever been our job to help humans? How many times do I have to tell you this?” he said angrily, lowering his voice so people around wouldn’t hear.
“A woman, she jumped in to save a little boy. She got him back to shore, but she’s still out there. Such bravery. Do you think she could be a…?”
Quill didn’t have to finish his sentence for Drake to understand what he meant. “No, I don’t,” he said sternly.
“If you’re not going to do anything about it, then I’m going in,” Quill pushed back on Drake, who released his grip, then turned to jump into the water.
“Damn it. Fine,” Drake muttered, and before Quill could leap, Drake ran past, shoving him backward and leaping into the water with incredible grace.
Quill stumbled backward, then turned to watch his partner speeding through the water with incredible force.
Contrary to what one would think, red dragons were the most athletic and, more importantly, the best swimmers of their race.
Which was a good thing, since Quill could see the woman just slip under the water’s surface. Drake reached the spot she went under and dove down, disappearing from his view.
Quill stood at the water’s edge, listening to the worried talking from the crowd gathering near him and trying not to flip out.
If something happened to Drake or the woman, he’d never forgive himself.
Thankfully, a few seconds later, Drake popped above the surface, holding the woman with his arms and kicking on his back toward the shore. Something like that would be impossible against such strong currents and so close to the dam’s undertow, but Drake’s incredible strength propelled them quickly through the water.
When Drake reached the rocks, several people waded into the water to help. But Drake, ever independent, turned and picked her up, carrying her out of the shallows, across the rocks, and toward the trees behind them. Quill followed, ready to use his healing power.
“Step aside. Make room, people,” Drake said commandingly, laying the woman down on the beach.
Unlike Quill, Drake didn’t have particularly high regard for humans, especially rubberneckers.
“I’m a doctor,” Quill said to the crowd so he could inspect the woman’s condition without people questioning his credentials. Not technically true, but a close-enough comparison…
“Damn, no breathing. No pulse,” Quill muttered.
“Great, so I risked my life for someone already dead?” Drake said, sounding more worried about the woman than Quill could have expected and running a hand through his short, wet hair.
“Not yet. I still think there’s a possibility she’ll make it if I…” Quill didn’t finish the sentence and looked up to Drake. He paused, then nodded.
If I use my dragon fire.
Quill could do CPR and mouth-to-mouth, but given her condition, the chances were still slim she would pull out. And even if she did, her lungs were filled with fluid and her brain had been without oxygen while Drake brought her back to shore.
Quill tilted back her head and opened her mouth, unable to keep from noticing how beautiful she was, with shoulder-length, curly black hair and a heart-shaped face, then brought his mouth and covered hers completely. He breathed into her deeply, and to any normal bystander, it would look like mouth-to-mouth respiration, completely normal given the situation. But Drake and Quill both knew he was breathing in much more than just oxygen.
One of the advantages of Quill’s dragon fire was it could be as subtle as a breath and nearly invisible if used in small doses. If Quill was in his dragon form, then instead, it could be a wide arc of blue flame that could quickly cure almost any ailment. But given the audience, that obviously wasn’t an option.
Quill left the woman’s lips and brought his ear to her mouth, waiting for any sign of life from her. Nothing. So he put his mouth over hers again, covering it completely so nobody would see the hint of blue fire being breathed into her, and waited again.
“What are you, an Olympic swimmer or something?” Quill could hear a man ask Drake.
“Something like that,” Drake huffed, ignoring the man. Quill could feel his eyes watching him and the woman intently.
“Shouldn’t he be doing CPR?” another bystander whispered.
C’mon, fire. Do your thing.
If only Quill could actually breathe a substantial amount of fire onto her, he wouldn’t have to be doing this. But above any other rules, the highest and most important was that dragons never reveal themselves to humankind. Ever. No matter how badly Quill wished to save this woman.
And no matter how pessimistic Drake was about the whole thing, Quill couldn’t shak
e the feeling this woman could be the one. That she could be a dragon-heart. It was something that happened extremely rarely and was even more rare to find before the person’s lifespan expired.
Dragon-hearts were known for being incredibly brave, and this woman had been. Whether she would survive was another matter altogether. But Quill wasn’t giving up yet.
He gave her a third breath, making it long and trying to breathe as much fire into her as possible, hoping its healing power would be enough to bring this woman back from her critical condition. He left her mouth and waited. If dragon fire didn’t heal her, no amount of CPR would do anything.
To Quill’s surprise, Drake placed a comforting hand on his shoulder, the rare touch from his partner soothing and welcome.
The crowd’s muttering grew louder, and in the distance, sirens could be heard approaching.
Quill looked up at Drake, panicked. “I can’t do it here. I need more dragon fire,” he said quietly.
Drake nodded and swept the woman up in his arms. Quill had been expecting him to protest and leave her there to die, but once again, he was surprised by his harsh partner.
He followed Drake as they ignored the crowds and jogged into the woods next to the flowing water. People were yelling behind them, trying to figure out what was going on as the ambulances arrived and everyone turned their attention to the blaring sirens.
Drake transformed instantly, going shimmering invisible as he lifted off into the air in his huge dragon form. Dragons could see each other, even when invisible. Quill followed, transforming quickly so he could use his dragon power.
When they were high enough, Drake held the human out in his claws, holding her by the arms, and Quill took a long breath and breathed out as hard as he could, watching blue fire merge over her, bathing her in blue light.
He’d felt the warmth of her body, knew it wasn’t too late for his fire to save her. He had to admit, even for him, his desire to save this woman was extreme. But she was special. What she did, no one else had been willing to do.
Desired by Dragons: BBW Paranormal Romance (Dragons of New York Book 2) Page 1