by DJ Michaels
When they reached the path that would take Chelsea to the lake Sorcha leaned in and gave her a hard hug. “Be careful.”
“Are you sure you’re okay to sneak back in?”
Sorcha winked. “Nothing to it. Send word if you need me.”
Chelsea nodded and squeezed her new friend. She didn’t have the heart to mention that by the end of the day she might not be in a position to send for anybody.
Grinning with bravado she didn’t feel, Chelsea stepped off the marbled walkway and followed the wide, sandy path that led into the lush forest.
The foliage was thick and it took a moment for her eyes to adapt to the cool shadows. Strange birdcalls rippled through the canopy and she caught flashes of color out of the corner of her eye but the leaves were too thick for her to recognize any true shapes. It was creepy, walking along a track of diminishing width while unseen creatures called out to each other from the bush. She wasn’t averse to nature at all but the nature here was a whole bundle of don’t-know-what-to-expect. And her surroundings were enough like a rainforest that she began imagining the alien equivalent of a giant boa constrictor lurking in the trees, waiting to drop on her unsuspecting head.
Just as that not-comforting thought grew large in her mind a man stepped out of nowhere and blocked the path. Chelsea screamed like she’d been shot and her heart banged hard enough to make an escape from her ribs. She had a moment of panic and she actually flexed her knees in preparation to turn and run but she caught herself just in time. Wielding a ruthlessness she never thought to own, she squashed her fear deep down inside her and imagined she actually had a spine. Like it or not, this was her best and perhaps only chance to find Tarkan and therefore her best chance to save Tansy.
The stranger crossed his arms. “Can I help you?”
She sized him up. He was big like Ari and Tarkan, and he looked familiar enough that she thought he might have been one of the Enforcers on the shuttle rescue. His silky, shoulder-length mane was mid-brown and he had startling golden eyes. He maintained a relaxed pose but the sense of imminent action hovered pretty close to the surface.
She took a deep breath, hating the fact that she didn’t know who to trust, hating that she didn’t have enough information to function safely in this world. “I’m looking for Tarkan…” Bloody hell, what was his last name? “Benny-something.”
The stranger cracked a half smile. “Tarkan Benestaire?”
“Yes, that’s it.”
“And why would I allow you access to the lake to see a man whose name you can’t quite remember?”
She stepped forward, not allowing herself to be intimidated by the fact that he was a foot taller than her and twice as wide. “Look, I’ve had a shitty week.” Not to mention the fact that her feet hurt and her corset pinched like a psychotic scorpion. “Nobody wants to listen to me, or help me in the way that I need. I had to sneak out of the dormitory to come here and I don’t know how much time I have before someone comes looking for me.”
She took a breath and tried not to sound so whiny. “Tarkan said he’d help me. He said if I needed him I could find him at the lake every morning after breakfast. So here I am.”
The stranger’s posture relaxed and his half grin broke out into a smile full of sunshine. “Yes, here you are. My name’s Kaelum.”
“Pleased to meet you.” Or at least she hoped she would be. “Will you let me through?”
“I’ll do better than that. Tarkan and Ari would have my hide if I sent you down to the lake unescorted.”
He turned slightly to the side, lifted his head and made a low trilling sound. After a few moments the tree canopy rustled and a flying lizard came hurtling out of the trees. Chelsea screamed again, tucking herself into a ball on the ground and wrapping her arms around her head. Her gasps were harsh and loud in her ears and it wasn’t until her breathing started to slow that she realized everything had gone quiet.
Peering around the crook in her elbow she saw Kaelum standing there, watching her as though she might sprout a second head at any moment. The offending lizard sat on his outstretched arm.
“It’s all right, Chelsea, you can stand up.” And damned if he wasn’t using the kind of voice people normally reserve for scared animals and fractious children. He gestured to the scaled monstrosity on his arm. “This is Skalah, he’ll guide you down to the lake. Don’t be frightened.”
Chelsea blew out a breath and tried not to look as humiliated as she felt. “Sorry.” She shrugged. “Everything is so different here it’s hard to have a normal reaction to anything.”
“No problems.” He nodded toward the lizard. “You’ve never seen a dragonet before?”
Oh, not a lizard. “No, we don’t have anything like his kind on my world.”
Kaelum gestured her forward. “Come closer.”
Chelsea closed half the distance but stopped far out of the dragonet’s reach. He was about three meters long from head to tail, all fine lines and sleek angles and more like a seahorse than a lizard. His scales ranged in color from bronze to orange to red and the wings that were currently tucked tight against his body were an antique gold. The bottom edge of his wings swirled with a delicate pattern that resembled peacock feathers.
“Have a good look. Skalah is a young dragonet and very handsome.” She could hear the tease in Kaelum’s voice, but it seemed more for the dragonet than her. “He’s happy for you too croon over him and tell him how wonderful he is.”
Skalah made a chirping noise, bobbing his head up and down in agreement.
Chelsea stepped a bit closer. “He understands you?”
“Yes, they’re perfectly sentient. The young ones are a bit of a handful. They’re eager to please but their attention span isn’t what it could be. We use them as runners, ferrying messages or smaller packages and in your case Skalah will act as your guide. They talk to the dragons but not to us.”
Skalah was looking at her, his orange eyes bright and inquisitive. He seemed friendly enough. “Can I touch him?”
“Yes. Stand in front of him and go slow, let him get acquainted with your scent. And when you pet him, make sure you run your hand from head to tail. His scales are sharp if you run against them.”
Chelsea lifted her hand, allowing Skalah to sniff and nuzzle her skin before turning her hand to stroke lightly down his head and neck. His skin was leathery but soft, not dry and scaly as she’d expected. She stroked again and on the third pass the dragonet shivered, lifted his wings slightly away from his body and leaned into her hand, closing his eyes and chirruping softly to himself.
“Wow, he’s pretty easy isn’t he?”
Kaelum snorted. “He’s young and there’s a beautiful woman petting him like he’s something special. I don’t know any male, dragonet or Gemarran, who wouldn’t purr under those circumstances.” He stepped back, taking the dragonet out of her reach and moving his arm so he could address Skalah directly. “If you really want to impress the lady, wake up and do your job.”
Skalah shook himself, opened his eyes and hissed at Kaelum, showing a sharp row of teeth that were clearly designed for ripping and tearing. Chelsea jumped back, crossing her arms over her body and trying not to think about how close her hands had been to those sharklike teeth.
Kaelum ignored the hissing and gave Skalah his instructions. “Take Chelsea to Benmonth and Tarkan but make sure you stay high on the beach. I don’t want her getting close to the other dragons. And don’t let any of the other Enforcers approach her, understand?’
Skalah trilled and bobbed his head up and down. Without warning he launched himself from his perch on Kaelum’s arm, using his strong hind legs to push off. The moment he was clear Skalah snapped his wings open and pumped lazily, hovering just above their heads.
Chelsea felt her mouth drop open but she couldn’t quite summon the presence of mind to close it. Skalah was breathtaking in flight, his wings sparkling in the dappled sunlight. For the first time since she’d come to this planet Chelsea felt a s
urge of pure, unadulterated joy.
On impulse she bounded forward and shouted up at her guide. “Skalah, you are a very handsome dragonet and I am blown away by your awesomeness.” He dive-bombed her and she laughed, turning back to Kaelum to share the joke. He shook his head in mock reproof, waving her off.
Skalah led her farther along the path and she stuck close behind him. She’d been listening to Kaelum’s instructions; he’d told the dragonet not to let her near the dragons or the Enforcers and she’d heard it for the warning it was. She had no intension of being caught where she shouldn’t be, nor did she intend to make herself an easy target.
Channeling Tansy, Chelsea straightened her back, lifted her head and acted like she knew exactly what she was doing and where she was going. She strode along the sandy track as it snaked its way between thick grass and lush foliage as if she did this every day. Her aplomb lasted for a good five minutes, right up until the moment they broke through the tree line and she got her first look at the lake. And its occupants.
Chapter Seven
The thick forest stopped all of a sudden, as if a giant had sliced it with a knife and scraped away the excess. Between one step and the next Chelsea was out of the greenery and standing on fine white sand with the sun glaring down on her head and shoulders. The beach stretched as far as she could see in either direction, and it was a good fifty meters from where she stood down to the dark-blue lake. But the beautiful scenery was a mere backdrop for what really caught her attention. Dragons. What seemed like hundreds of them. Huge, dark, mean-looking dragons with snapping teeth and whiplash tales. Every one of them was the size of a small plane and they came in monochrome shades ranging from pale gray to blue-black.
She followed Skalah, hugging the tree line and not for one moment taking her eyes off the action at the shallows of the lake. There were half-naked men in the water with the dragons, scrubbing them down and washing their wings but it didn’t seem to stop the dragons snapping and snarling at each other at random intervals. The men didn’t seem at all perturbed, so Chelsea had to assume the aggression was commonplace.
Eventually Skalah led her toward the beach but when they got halfway down he halted, hovering in mid-air and trilling in the direction of the shoreline. A man separated himself from the group, wading out of the water and jogging in her direction. The moment she realized it was Tarkan, she was so grateful to see a familiar face she didn’t quite register the fact that he was almost naked. But as he got closer the sun glistened off his wet, copper-colored skin and she realized his tiny black shorts did nothing to hide the glory of his body.
My god, he’s perfect. Broad shoulders, deep chest, ten-pack abs and huge arms and legs. He had no hair on his body and every muscle was so clearly delineated he could have posed for an anatomy poster. His blue hair was slicked close to his head and threw his extraordinary facial features into sharp relief.
He drew to a halt a mere half step from her, his cognac-brown eyes sparkling as he addressed Chelsea’s guide. “Thank you, Skalah.”
The dragonet trilled and swooped around Chelsea once before heading down to the lakeshore.
Tarkan took a deep breath and his voice rumbled out, low and sexy. “You came. I wondered if you would.”
She tried to keep her eyes on his face, truly she did but she was a chest and shoulder girl from way back. His naked torso was making it hard to concentrate. “I would have come sooner,” she said. “But they kept a really close eye on us. I had to sneak out of the dormitory.”
“No matter. You’re here now.” He closed the distance between them, near enough that her breasts almost brushed his damp body. Leaning down he whispered in her ear. “Have you come to ask for my help?”
Her whole body jerked and for a moment she thought she was having a seizure, then her nipples hardened and her pussy throbbed and she realized what the sensation was. Lust. Pure and not simple, and certainly not welcome. She kept her gaze fixed on the drool-worthy expanse of his pecs and fisted her hands in her skirts, gripping on for dear life. “Yes, I’ve come to you for help.”
He lifted a large, warm hand to rest on the side of her waist, not gripping her, just resting it there. It felt like a brand, searing her skin through three layers of cloth and all her sensible intentions. Then his hand slid a little lower, his thumb lightly pressing against her hipbone. “Are you willing to pay the price, Chelsea?”
She swallowed hard and tried to cling to her commitment to Tansy. Chelsea had a pretty good idea what the price was going to be and she’d convinced herself she could pay it for the sake of her best friend. But at the last minute her courage got trumped by her self-preservation. “I can’t give you any assurances. Not until I know what the price is.”
Dropping his hand he stepped back and the separation shot a hard spike of anxiety through her.
Tarkan met her gaze. “It doesn’t work like that. You agree to give me what I want and I’ll make sure you get what you want.”
She chewed her lip. As desperate as she was to find Tansy, she just couldn’t bring herself to make a blind promise and she wasn’t sure that Tansy would approve if she did. “No. I’ll listen to you and we can negotiate terms but I’m not going to make an uninformed decision. You can see how stupid that would be for me.” This time it was Chelsea who closed the distance, laying her hand on his forearm in some hopeful attempt at making a connection. “Please Tarkan. I obviously have something you need, you have something I want, let’s just talk to each other and find the best way to achieve both goals.”
He was quiet for a while but she did her best to hold his gaze, silently urging him to trust her, to let her in. Finally he nodded, moving his arm and capturing her hand in his. “We can’t talk here. Will you come to the den with me?”
“Um, yeah, I suppose so.”
She wasn’t sure what or where the den was or how they were going to get there, but if it got her closer to Tansy she was willing to take the calculated risk.
Chelsea followed him meekly to the shoreline, her hand held fast and firm in his. As they approached two evil-looking dragons, Ari stepped out between the monsters, his tall frame barely reaching the dragons shoulder. “Chelsea? Is everything all right?”
He waded toward her, no better dressed than Tarkan and the water sheeting off his body had the same effect on her. They were both gorgeous. Tall, strong, heavily muscled—exactly how she loved a man’s body to look. She squeezed her eyes shut before the sight of him totally did her head in. “Chelsea?”
Damn, she had to open her eyes or he’d know for sure she was losing it. “I’m fine. There’s nothing wrong.”
One of the dragons surged forward and swung his head toward them. Chelsea screamed, jumped in between the two half-naked men and pulled them close to her, not giving a second thought to the fact that she was using the Enforcers as her human shields.
Ari wrapped his arms around her waist and Tarkan pressed tight against her back and in a split second she went from scared to safe. Then her physical position registered as the meat in an almost-naked man sandwich and she had another one of those weird, mini-seizures. Every muscle she possessed flexed and held. Her nerve endings sizzled, she could feel her nipples pushing into Ari’s chest and she didn’t even want to think about the burning ache in her pussy. It was as if she were drowning in pheromones. Or perhaps she was just drowning in her own stupidity.
Entirely disconcerted by her out-of-character reaction, she pushed herself away from the Enforcers stepping aside to give herself some room. Only to come face-to-face with the dragon that had caused the problem in the first place.
It was close enough to touch and its head from forehead to chin was longer than Chelsea’s entire body. She wasn’t sure if she was going to faint, scream, throw up—or all three—when she felt a strong, hard body at her back.
“Easy.” Tarkan’s arms wrapped around her, trapping her arms close to her body. “That’s Benmonth. He’s my partner and I’ve told him all about you. He won�
�t hurt you, he’s just curious. He’s never met an Earth woman before.”
Chelsea’s knees were still shaking, so she leaned back against Tarkan, letting him take her weight as she eyeballed the big, scary, toothy dragon. “So, are we talking curious as in ‘gosh she’s interesting let’s get to know her’ or are we talking ‘gosh she smells good, I wonder what she tastes like and does she come with a dipping sauce?’”
She felt Tarkan chuckle against her back and Ari moved to stand next to Benmonth, looping his arm under the enormous jaw and leaning all his weight against the dragon. “They don’t eat people,” Ari said. “The blacks take their nutrients directly from the ionosphere. However they are born to fight and you need to be wary. You’ll be fine with Benmonth and Annlyss, because they’re partnered with Tarkan and me, but you must never approach a black you don’t know without their rider being present.”
“Black?”
Ari rubbed his free hand absently on Benmonth’s cheek. “What have they been teaching you all week? Have they told you nothing of dragon society?”
Society? Really? Chelsea took a long, hard look at Benmonth. Intelligence lurked in his yellow eyes but so did something else and it looked sinister to her. “You’re telling me dragons are social?”
“Yes. They live in large groups, they mate and care for their young. Each dragon type has a role and position in their society.”
Chelsea thought about Skalah and his ability to understand the spoken word. “Are all dragons sentient?”
“Yes.”
Tarkan, who hadn’t released her through the exchange, kept her held tight to his chest as he spoke. “The dragons are color-coded. The greens are large and mostly landbound, they understand simple instructions and are happy to be used domestically by us, as long as they are kept warm and well fed. The reds and blues are smarter and like to stay in the air. They voluntarily take turns supplying our transport needs, ferrying both people and goods from settlement to settlement.” He took a deep breath and the warmth of his exhale ghosted over her cheek. “And then there are the blacks. The smartest, fastest, most hostile creatures in dragon society. They are fierce, territorial and they live for battle. Every black who comes to a settlement willingly aligns him or herself with an Enforcer and that pairing is exclusive and permanent. They live in the dens as mated pairs and their Enforcers live with them, sharing every aspect of their daily lives.”