by Anya Nowlan
“Why?” Sabrina asked, running her fingertips over the stone.
It sent a shiver of pleasure rocketing across Donovan’s spine.
“You will see,” was all he could say.
They made it up to the mansion, only to find that the weather was indeed as dire as Donovan had predicted. He helped her pack up her camp in the hall, and when he walked her to the front door, Donovan found a truck waiting for her there, the keys on the front seat. It stank of another dragon, and an involuntary snarl rose up his throat, one that Sabrina heard.
She glanced at him with a slight smile, shaking her head.
“He’s married, you know,” she said, hovering in the doorway to keep from the rain that would welcome her when she stepped outside.
“I know,” Donovan said darkly, unable to completely control his tone. “I think you should stay longer, Sabrina.”
“I can handle the weather,” she said, shaking her head. “And my friends haven’t heard from me for too long. Besides, I said I would be down today. But maybe I can come see you before my flight leaves?”
Donovan perked up at that, looking down at the little vixen by his side.
“I would like that.”
“And don’t worry, your secret’s safe with me,” she whispered.
Sabrina got up on her tiptoes, and Donovan leaned forward a bit, receiving a peck on the cheek from her. All he wanted to do was wrap his arms around her and pull her against him, smother her with kisses.
But he didn’t.
When she got in the truck, turned the engine on and waved goodbye to him, he hated himself for it. She pulled out of what passed as a driveway into the mansion, and his dragon twitched within him, telling him to go after her.
He didn’t.
I should never have let her leave.
Sabrina
Donovan hadn’t been kidding when he said that the weather wasn’t any good.
It hadn’t seemed so bad when she began driving, thinking that she’d managed worse, but it quickly turned out that her bravado had been badly placed.
The road can’t be that bad, right? I was just being a baby yesterday when Ares was driving.
The path down from Snarling Dragon Mountain hadn’t gotten any less scary over the night, though. If anything, going down it gave Sabrina plenty of gorgeous sights of… how easily she could roll down the mountainside into immediate death. She swallowed drily, her hands damp with sweat already after the first few miles.
“I should have just stayed with Donovan,” she told herself out loud, turning the music down on the radio so she could concentrate better.
Unlike Donovan’s lair, which seemed to almost expand whenever he walked through it, the road before Sabrina seemed to only get narrower the further she got. The truck barely fit on the path after a while, solid rock on one side and an endless drop into a forested grove on the other. She wasn’t a bad driver in the least, and the truck she was in was the exact right kind of machinery to be driving in a situation like that, but cold, naked fear still seemed to settle in far too fast.
The rain and the wind weren’t helping. Though it was the middle of the day, Sabrina thought it looked more like the dead of night with how dark everything was. Rain kept pounding against the windshield mercilessly, as if trying to break through it completely. She gnawed on her lower lip, panic-stricken and nervous.
Every now and then, a gust of wind would blow and rock the truck, and she’d squeal like a mouse facing a big old housecat. But so far, so good – she was still alive. That was all that mattered, right?
“Focus. You’ll get down this damn mountain and it’ll be fine.”
Though if I get back up here like I told Donovan, I might never come back down again.
The reason for that was twofold, of course. On the one hand, the last thing she really wanted to do was put any distance between herself and the handsome, sexy dragon that she’d stumbled upon. He was interesting, engaging, mysterious, and the night they’d spent together had blown every other sexual experience Sabrina had had straight out of the water.
So why had she walked out of the mansion?
Now she really felt like kicking herself for it.
Absently, her hand went to the chain around her neck. Where it touched her skin, it sent warm spirals skittering through her, just like Donovan’s touch had. Though she’d dated a shifter before – a werewolf barkeep, of all people – she’d never been around someone like Donovan. He was larger than life in every way, and just being in his presence seemed intoxicating, like she could take on anything.
Which was probably part of the reason why she’d figured herself brave enough to face the mountain on her own.
In all honesty, she could blame her rationality for her stepping out of the mansion. How could she simply stay with a dragon who she had only met a day ago? Granted, finding a dragon who was anything but deadly – at least with her – beneath a scary old house had done wonders for her fear of haunted houses. Still, staying with a guy like that wasn’t something that good girls did.
And you wanted to be a good girl. See what that got you into, Sabrina thought with a roll of her eyes, eeking forward on the deadly road so slowly that she could have walked down faster.
Then again, had she tried that, she would have most certainly found herself being blown over the edge within a few faster gusts of wind. The world was dark, gloomy and rainy around her, and Sabrina went between tiny moments of panic and just wanting to smile like a schoolgirl with her first crush.
Whenever she thought back to the time she’d spent with Donovan, she couldn’t help but feel… well, fantastic!
“Whoa!” Sabrina gasped as another burst of wind rattled the truck, making her stomp on the breaks.
The only option she really had was to keep going. There wasn’t any room to turn around, and stalling on the mountainside seemed like a precarious choice to make as well. She gulped and kept going as slowly as she had to and as fast as she dared, hanging onto the steering wheel for dear life.
She had unbuckled the seatbelt a while ago, though she wasn’t entirely sure why. If the truck decided to go over the edge, it wasn’t like she had anywhere to jump – the driver’s side would be the first to tip over. Still, Sabrina took her stuff and tossed it in the back seat from the passenger side, clearing the path if she needed to get out.
“Oh, shut up,” she grumbled, the no seatbelts sign beeping its angry warning.
Try as she might, her thoughts kept going to Donovan. He was an odd man in more ways than one. Entirely worldly, sophisticated, yet clearly lonely and cooped up with his own phobias. At least that was how Sabrina saw it. Just as she had been afraid of facing her fears for the longest time – like the damn scary abandoned houses! – he seemed to be wrestling with demons of his own.
Who the hell would come and steal a dragon’s hoard anyway? she mused. That sounds like entirely suicidal.
The next thought that flickered through her head made her blush and smile a little. She wouldn’t mind being a part of the treasure that he kept safe, though. It was all nonsense, she knew, but she couldn’t help it. A part of her wanted to regress into that teenage state of mind where being someone’s, body and soul, seemed like the most natural state of being.
But why couldn’t it be? What if he is ‘the one’?
Sabrina rolled her eyes. Clearly, she needed some distance to air out her head. One fantastic night was something, okay, but it definitely wasn’t enough to think that there could be a future there, right?
Right?
“Oh shit!” Sabrina yelped, torn violently out of her train of thought as the car jerked to the left just as the road narrowed again.
There had to have been some sort of an avalanche between when Ares had brought up the car and now that Sabrina was taking it down, as half the road was covered by rubble on one side. With half a tire over the edge of the endless abyss, Sabrina had to make the truck slowly try and crawl over the heap.
Her stom
ach twisted and she leaned forward, tossing silent prayers to whatever greater power would listen to her. For a moment, she thought she was home clear, but then the wind howled menacingly and Sabrina heard a rattling sound coming from above her.
She looked up but couldn’t see anything because of the thick rainfall. A second later, she could feel it.
A rockslide!
Rocks were starting to bang against the passenger side of the truck, pounding at it violently. The truck wouldn’t move forward anymore because of a larger boulder that smashed down right in front of the front bumper. Then, the truck started sliding slowly to the left, and Sabrina’s eyes went wide with terror and her body froze for a moment.
The rocks just kept coming, pushing the truck off the pile it had been scaling and towards the endless drop that waited on the other side. Sabrina screeched a scream, scrambling out of the seat as the left tire went over the side completely and the truck lurched forward heavily.
The truck rocked back and forth as the rubble and earth rained down on it. Some of it was landing in its bed, the extra weight in the back the only thing keeping Sabrina from tumbling over the edge of the abyss.
Sabrina clambered onto the passenger seat and tried to open the door, but it was jammed shut because of the heavy dents in its side from the falling boulders and the fact that there were rocks blocking the door even as the truck kept sliding.
“No, no, no!” Sabrina squealed, banging her hand against the door fruitlessly.
She looked around, feeling the hot saltiness of tears in her eyes. It was a two-door cab and the driver’s side door opened to certain death at this point, with nowhere to go but down. Rocks kept banging on the side of the truck and falling all around, trapping her.
What the hell am I going to do!?
Without thinking about it, her hand went to her pendant, gripping it tightly as a dry sob wracked her body. She wasn’t going to give up, but she needed a moment to compose herself.
Maybe I can kick the back window out and escape through there?
It was a small window, but she figured if she wiggled enough, she could get herself through. Carefully, she crawled on the back seat, her breath catching in her throat every time the truck creaked or groaned, teetering dangerously. She could feel even the tiniest motion, promising to take her over the side and flatten her along with the truck into nothing more than a human pancake.
Still, she had to try.
Bracing her back against the front seat, Sabrina slammed her feet against the window. It stuttered, but it wouldn’t budge. She gritted her teeth and hit it again and again, feeling a little bit of give in the spring of the impact-proof window every time she did so. But the window wasn't the only thing that was moving – the whole truck rocked along with each kick.
Her options were to wait until she went over the ledge because of the rockslide or try and get out before but, at the same time, inch the truck closer to the side because of the way she was making it shudder.
She had to pick the option that at least gave her a chance.
Out of breath, Sabrina pulled her legs back once more, her thighs screaming at her. When she kicked at the window one last time with all her might, it finally gave in. But it was too late because the truck lurched forward and passed the point of simply teetering.
Sabrina screamed as it flew over the side, tumbling towards the dark forest below. A million thoughts went through her head as she gripped the seats to keep from floating against the roof of the car. Her life really did flash before her eyes, and there was one thing that struck her most painfully.
Regret.
Regret at things she hadn’t done but would have wanted to. Regret at missed chances.
She kept waiting for the impact, but it never came. Instead, suddenly, she saw the roof above her crinkle as massive talons smashed through it and then the truck was yanked upwards into the skies. Rain poured in through the holes and Sabrina stared in slack-jawed wonder for a moment before her head caught up with what she was seeing.
“Donovan!”
The behemoth of a dragon had caught the truck between its huge claws, carrying it into safety with long, almost slow-looking strokes. Sabrina could see the leathery wings move up and down on either side of the truck, and she reached up, touching one of his talons.
Are you alright, Sabrina?
His voice in her head sounded frantic and worried, but it sent a hot flash through her that seemed to take all the fear that had gripped her right out of her. He was there. And he wasn’t going to let anything happen to her.
“I am now,” she squeaked, awe, gratitude and pure joy mixing together within her into an intoxicating cocktail.
Don’t worry. I will keep you safe.
And she was certain that he would stick to his word.
Donovan carried the truck back to Snarling Dragon Manor and placed it down as gently as a dragon could on the roof of the large house. When he disentangled himself from it, Sabrina had to muffle a scream with her hand when he ripped the whole roof right off of it to get his legs free. He shook the metal and plastic off of himself before touching down on the manor, and Sabrina felt the whole house shudder slightly under the impact.
She ended up climbing out of the truck through the gaping roof, stepping over the rocks in the bed of the truck and then jumping over the side before her feet touched solid ground. She let out a breath and crouched down, just breathing for a few moments as she watched Donovan.
His perfect golden eyes studied her, the dragon so large that he seemed to dwarf the world around him. For a second, Sabrina could imagine the world back when it had been ruled entirely by dragons, when seeing a creature like that in the skies had not been a rarity at all. He was, in a word, amazing.
“Thank you,” she said finally, the dragon studying her just as intently as she was watching him.
He nodded his head and then the shift took him. Though she had understood him to be huge when she had seen him over his hoard, she hadn’t been level with him then. His true size had only now become quite apparent to her.
Who would ever dare steal anything from a dragon? she caught herself wondering once more.
When Donovan was back in his human form, he ran to her, pulling her up on her feet and wrapping her in his embrace. Rain was still pounding down on them, and they were both completely soaked, Sabrina’s hair sticking to her face and neck in long strands. She put her arms around his waist and hugged herself to him, breathing in his intoxicating scent.
She’d never felt quite as safe as she did at that moment then and there.
“I should never have allowed you to leave,” Donovan said, clearly angry with himself.
“You couldn’t keep me against my will,” Sabrina argued weakly.
“I think I could have,” he snorted. “Have you seen me? I am a dragon.”
“You know what I mean,” she laughed in response.
They stood there in silence for a moment, the broken remnants of the truck scattered oddly on the roof of the ancient manor, and a dragon entangled with a woman who had found far more on her trip to a haunted house than she had bargained for. She didn’t want to let go of him, despite the cold and the rain and the wind.
This is the weirdest Halloween I’ve ever had, a misplaced thought scampered through her head.
“How did you know?” she asked finally, looking up as Donovan pressed a kiss on her forehead.
“The dragon stone,” he said simply.
“The what?” Sabrina frowned.
“The necklace,” Donovan explained, hooking one finger around the chain and dragging it upward until the ghostly glowing stone appeared out of the neckline of her shirt. “I told you to touch it if you were ever in trouble, and that I would be there. Dragons do not lie about things like that.”
“But… why did you give something like that to me?” Sabrina asked before she could stop herself.
Well, she had a good enough guess. Her hands squeezed Donovan closer to her out of instin
ct as his face seemed overcome with emotion, trying to choose what to say to her.
“Be honest with me,” she said, trying to make herself sound as stern as she could manage. “Dragons don’t lie about important things, right?”
That made him crack a slight smile.
“Right,” he agreed. Taking a deep breath, his gaze flicked down for a moment and then he brought his hand to her cheek, running his fingertips along the length of her jaw. “It appears you may have done the impossible and taken something from me, Sabrina.”
“What?” she asked, taken aback.
“You seem to have stolen my heart.”
The air was kicked out of her lungs as she stared up at him. While she had wrestled with herself, trying to find excuses or reasons why it would be improper to stay with him for as long as she wanted to, Donovan Silvertip seemed to have skipped right over the theatrics. If he could say something like that then maybe fairytales really did happen at the most unexpected times.
“Donovan,” she whispered, her body seeming to burn in his arms.
“Shh, Sabrina,” he said, leaning closer. “I don’t expect you to say anything. I am a dragon, I know these things much faster than humans do. I was a fool for ever letting you walk out of here when I already knew that you were mine and I was yours. Please just say that you will stay here with me for a while longer, so I can show you that what I am saying is the truth.
“I never want to see you in danger ever again. The thought of losing you tears me to pieces, and I was too stuck in my own head to admit it before. I want you here, I need you here… and I think you want to be here as well.”
Sabrina stuttered, her mind overrun with responses. All of them were variations of ‘yes’, some with too many exclamation points to be considered proper for any journalist. She couldn’t get a single word out though, so instead she opted for nodding.
There, on the roof of a forgotten mansion, wrapped up in the arms of a dragon, Sabrina Corrolie finally realized that whatever she wanted could really come true if she just had the courage to go for it. And sometimes, when she was lucky, what she wanted would come to her when she least expected it.