Dragon My Heart Around

by Marianne Morea

  The sun was strong, but the beach was deserted because of the slight chill. The scene took on an air of romance in the solitude. He watched Camille kick at the cold surf foaming around their feet. If ever there was a moment ripe with possibilities it was now.

  He took her hand. “How much longer do you plan for us to walk?”

  She slid her eyes sideways to him. “Why? The big bad dragon getting tired already?”

  Ryker smirked. “No, but my stomach is growling for whatever you packed in this two-ton hamper.”

  “Picnics on the beach have to have specific foods or it’s not a proper picnic. Fried chicken, potato salad, watermelon, pinwheel sandwiches, deviled eggs and of course, lemonade.” She swung their linked hands. “I even put in chocolate cupcakes because you said you missed sweets, but because you’re being impatient, you’ll have to earn those now.”

  “Earn? Now that sounds promising.” He winked.

  She flashed a small grin. “Sorry to disappoint you shifter-boy, but this doesn’t involve your man parts. It’s a Q& A and I want you to be honest with me.”

  He all but groaned. “Didn’t we talk enough last night? My brain still hurts from Gerri and her revelations. I know Gerri says no, but part of me still believes meeting you was happenstance and not fate.”

  Camille shook her head. “Alyx wouldn’t have given Gerri access to the book if there was any question. You are of the Dragos, Ryker. They know your story.”

  “That’s what worries me.”

  “So then tell me everything I need to know so I can help argue the point.” She squeezed his hand. “You’re not alone, but—”

  “Oh, boy. I knew there would be some kind of strings attached.”

  She chuckled. “No strings. Just questions. Ones I want YOU to answer, not Gerri.”

  He rolled his eyes, exhaling. “At least promise you’ll feed me before you start the inquisition.”

  “This isn’t an inquisition, Ryker. There are certain things I want to know before we embark on this journey through space. Especially since you’re not the only one who doesn’t know what’s waiting on the other side.”

  There was no metallic tang of deceit in the air between them. Just curiosity. “Okay, shoot. I’ll do my best to answer whatever you want to know,” he replied.

  “Not until we get to the dunes. I want you to give me your full attention.”

  “Okay, then tell me about you,” he said, flipping things around.

  She shoved her long hair from her face from the wind. “There’s not much to tell. Compared to you, I’m pretty boring.”

  “Tell me about your hopes and dreams. What you love—” his lips pushed into a side smirk. “Besides my man parts.” He winked stressing her phrase.

  Camille cringed, laughing out loud. “It’s corny enough when I say man parts, but you? No. Just, no.” She waved her hand.

  He lifted her hand to his lips. “Life isn’t boring, Camille, regardless of what we think of particular story. We only get the one, and being trapped in hell for so long has taught me to appreciate that.”

  She shrugged. “There’s not much of a story to tell. My parents died when I was a teenager and my brother and I had to live with our grandparents. They were nice enough, but really too old to deal with two teens going through the stages of grief. I buried myself in books, history and romance. My brother buried himself in whatever numbed the pain best.

  “We were so close once, but he got involved in things he shouldn’t have. Bad things.” She shrugged again. “I suppose it’s why I keep his clothes. I hang onto the hope he’ll show up at my front door one day, the brother I once knew. I went away to college and fostered my passion for words and built a career. It’s dull and not very lucrative, but it makes me happy, even though I’m alone.”

  Ryker watched the shadows cross her pretty face. “You’re not alone, Camille.”

  She exhaled. “I suppose not. There’s Valerie Ross.” Cami glanced sideways at him. “She’s my best friend.”

  A small touched her lips. “It was her idea for me to call the Paranormal Dating Agency and speak with Gerri, so I guess she’s the reason we met. Too bad I can’t tell her about all this.”

  “Who says you can’t? Once my situation is settled, Gerri can bring her to Nova for a visit.”

  She looked at him and blinked. “Visit? You’re not coming back to Earth?”

  He stopped and the wind whipped at their clothes, the breeze blowing Cami’s hair around her face like a dark hurricane. “I don’t know, Camille. I have no place here and I may have no place on Nova.”

  Camille didn’t answer.

  “Tell me more about your life,” he said changing the subject.

  As Camille talked, he listened to the nostalgia in her voice and the animated way she spoke held him captivated, almost as much as the scent of her skin against the tang of the salty air. The breeze off the water blew back her long hair, and the sun streaked copper highlights in the dark mass. She was beautiful.

  “Are you okay?” she asked.

  Ryker nodded and bent to pick a seashell from the wet sand and handed it to her. “I’ve never been better.”

  She smiled. “Sorry about the chill. I didn’t expect it to be so cool out here, but that happens in June sometimes.”

  Carrying the beach blanket Cami took from the trunk of the car, he pointed to a set of dunes ahead. “How about there? The dunes will shelter us from the breeze and I can always warm us both.”

  Ryker held his hand out and helped Camille up the slight hill between the two rises. He put the picnic basket to one corner before spreading the woven throw over the uneven sand.

  Camille settled on the blanket, patting the large plaid print for him to sit as well.

  “So now that you know what makes me tick, it’s my turn,” she said as she reached into the picnic basket to set out the food.

  Ryker leaned on one elbow, taking a chicken leg from the plate. “Go ahead. I’ll answer whatever you want to know.”

  “How did you meet Sorana?”

  He froze with the chicken leg in his hand. “Right to the heart of the matter.” He nodded, putting the piece of chicken on a paper plate. “You weren’t kidding last night when you said you wanted details.”

  “I just want to know how you met and what it was about her that made you take such a calculated risk.” She scooted around on the blanket to sit crisscross style. “The thing is you don’t strike me as a rash man. You’re proud and thoughtful. Determined, yet you listen and weigh things.”

  “Just because I’m not impulsive or irresponsible now, doesn’t mean I wasn’t at the time I was cursed.” He paused, glancing down at his hands. “I wasn’t always the man you see now. Enduring what I have has been a long lesson in humility.”

  “Too long,” Camille said. “And one I can’t wait to put an end to. I hate bullies, Ryker. And this woman who did this is most definitely a bully. I get the whole hell hath no fury thing, but eight hundred fucking years? That is more than just scorn. That’s full on retribution with a side order of psycho.

  “I want to free you, Ryker,” she continued. “It’s the right thing to do, regardless of what does or doesn’t happen with us. This Sorana abused her God given abilities for selfish reasons. Her actions may have made her feel better because she held power over you, but it’s too much, for way too long. Now she needs a taste of her own medicine.”

  Camille’s zeal was infectious and her ability to trust and believe what others would doubt and scorn showed true strength. Ryker marveled at her and his chest swelled.

  “You are an amazing woman. I know it’s only been three days, but—”

  She shook her head. “You don’t have to tell me how nuts this feels. I keep rejecting the emotions curling through me. It’s infatuation. It’s desperation.”

  Cami shrugged. “Trust me. I’ve already argued all sides. Let’s just focus on the here and now, okay?”

  He leaned up and brushed her lips with his,
but didn’t comment. Instead, he pushed his paper plate away and pulled her down to the blanket, tucking her under his arm.

  “If you really want to know about Sorana, I’ll tell you. It’s better to know your enemy before battle.”

  “I’m not planning on battling her, just giving her a good bitch slap for carrying things way too far with you. Bitter witch.”

  “Sorana isn’t a witch. She’s a siren.”

  Camille turned in his arms so she could see his face. “Gerri mentioned that when she spoke of the tattoos on the woman I saw in my vision. When you say siren, are you talking the beautiful maidens whose songs lured sailors to shipwreck their boats?”

  He shrugged. “If that’s your mythology about them, then yes. The sirens of Nova are a little different, though. They don’t inhabit the pink ocean, they are forest dwellers. They live in a part of the Aubergine known as the Wyanar Wood, and they do have some skill with sorcery.”

  “Sounds medieval, like something out of Robin Hood.”

  He grinned. “Nova Aurora is a complex mix of the old and the new. We have technology at the tip of our fingers, yet castles and villages are still where we dwell.” His eyes saddened. “Well, at least that was the way it was before I was cursed.”

  “Anyway, the myth you spoke of carries similarities. The siren’s song lures men to their death. They are enthralled to the point of forgetting all else. They live to love the siren whose song entraps them. A sex slave.”

  “What about women? Are they lured as well?”

  He shook his head. “No. The sound a woman hears when facing a siren is the shriek that bloodied your ears.”

  “Misogyny, but from women against women. Interesting, huh.”

  “I was hunting near the Wyanar Woods when I met Sorana. Her song held me like no other. I camped alone in the cold woods for just a glimpse of her. I didn’t eat, I refused to listen to my family or—”

  “Gerri.”

  He nodded. “I was completely taken in. I wanted nothing but Sorana. I had to have her. Finally, she came to my meager camp and I followed her to her sanctuary. She stripped her clothing and bid me do the same. She danced for me, and in the end I promised to love only her, to take her to the palace and make her my queen if she let me have her.”

  “And?”

  He shrugged. “I had her for one solid night. When I awoke, the spell was broken, but I had promised in blood to do what I swore. I refused. Sorana laughed, giving me until the next moonrise to come for her. I went back to my family. They blamed Gerri and banished her to Earth when she could see no end, no way out of my dilemma.

  “I tried to reason with Sorana, but she wouldn’t hear it. No amount of gold or promise of power would sway her. She wanted me, and if she couldn’t have me then no one would.”

  He ran a hand through his hair. “She must have known what I would say, because all the tools of her dark trade were in place, ready and waiting. She cursed me that very night and every night since.”

  “How did the book find its way into Alyx’s hands? We should’ve asked Gerri last night.”

  Ryker shook his head. “It doesn’t matter. Sorana kept if for centuries at first and would let her siren sisters and high paying customers summon me for sport. Sometimes, she would even watch.”

  “Eew. I mean, to each their own, but yuck.” Camille frowned, but then put her hand on Ryker’s cheek. “We will confront her like Gerri said. In her own sanctuary. If the sirens of Nova are anything like the sirens of our mythology, then a little beeswax will go a long while in protecting us from whatever comes out of her mouth. I’ll put the book in a safe place here on Earth so she can’t get to it.”

  He shook his head. “You can’t. The book has to stay in your close possession.”

  Sitting up, Camille considered this. “Then we take it with us. Whatever we have to do, we’ll do.”

  Ryker sat up as well. “You amaze me, Camille. Such a small woman with the power of a dragon inside her tiny body.”

  She laughed, handing him his plate before picking up her own piled dish. “Tiny? Maybe where you come from, but here I have a healthy appetite and the curves to match.”

  Ryker dipped a finger into the top of one of the chocolate cupcakes and held the frosting to Camille’s lips. “Your curves match my body perfectly. I wouldn’t change a thing about you, mo thávma.”

  She rolled her tongue over the chocolate, sucking his finger deep before he slid it from her mouth.

  “Any other questions?” he asked dipping his finger again.

  She nodded. “Plenty, but right now I just have one.”

  “What?”

  “How about you put some of that chocolate on your cock and let me lick it clean?”

  Chapter Thirteen

  “Mrs. Wilder?” Steven opened the cab door and quickly took her bag from the back passenger seat. “I got your message. I thought you weren’t taking another jump for at least another month.”

  She shook her head. “I wasn’t planning a trip, but this was unexpected, making the jump unavoidable now. Is everything set? How are conditions?”

  He whistled low. “Conditions are rocky, I gotta be honest. You sure you don’t want to put this off?”

  With a small smile, she patted the tall, handsome man’s arm. “I appreciate the heads up, Steven, but we have to go?”

  “We?”

  She gave him a nod and handed him a twenty dollar bill to pay the driver. “One’s human, the other is a Nova native.”

  His brow knotted. “I don’t remember you coming back with anyone the last time.”

  The matchmaker winked. “He was in my suitcase.” With a quick nod, she ended any further questions.

  “Do you want me to stow this in the unit while you wait for your guests?”

  She nodded again and then glanced at her watch. “That would be terrific, Steven. Thanks. They should be here shortly. I hope.”

  He glanced at the darkening sky. “For their sake, I hope so. The later it gets, the worse the solar flares.”

  Gerri glanced toward the road at the flicker of approaching headlights. “That’s them. No one else would come down this way after dark.”

  She gestured with her head toward the power plant’s metal gates and Steven went to the booth to punch in his code.

  The aging metal gate creaked open as he walked from the booth. “I’ll see you down below in a jiffy. With the weather turning, I’d better make sure the read outs are correct. I hate having to reprogram coordinates mid-jump.”

  She chuckled. “You and me both.” Watching him walk with her bag toward the back of the nondescript plant, she turned as a set of headlights pulled into the narrow parking lot. The power plant that housed her transport was nestled between rows of abandoned warehouses. The perfect camouflage for her clandestine travels. As desolate as this was, the electromagnetism of the place made it a lift off point.

  The taxi pulled into the lot, and Camille waved from behind the driver, gesturing for the cab to pull right up to the power plant gates. Ryker got out and looked around, surprise on his handsome face.

  “I was starting to think you’d changed your mind,” Gerri said, greeting them with a quick smile. “I’m glad you didn’t.”

  “I took Ryker out to Montauk Point. We spent the day enjoying the beach.”

  Gerri raised an eyebrow. “The beach? But it barely got above sixty-five degrees today. It had to be chillier by the water.” She looked from one to the other.

  “It was a little on the cold side, but we managed to stay warm.” Ryker replied with a grin.

  Camille’s mouth dropped. “Oh, my God! Is nothing sacred with the two of you?”

  Gerri laughed. “Not with me, honey. You’re lucky I don’t ask my boy for details, not that I need them. From the smile on his face and the after-scent dripping off both of you I have a pretty good picture in my head.”

  “Okay, then. Moving on. Why are we at an abandoned power plant? This looks like a set straight out of
the Walking Dead.”

  Ryker looked around and then lifted one hand, holding it palm out. “The electromagnetism is phenomenal here. This plant must have been built on a ley line.” He turned quickly. “Do you think the humans had any idea of the natural power bump?”

  Gerri shrugged. “I think they just got lucky. The plant is abandoned and my guess is they didn’t know how to harness the natural ebb and flow from the source, so they couldn’t explain the unexpected surges and drops in their output.” She looked around as well. “Too bad, really. This could have saved the city millions and cut black outs down to nothing.”

  “Uhm, book nerd here! I don’t have one scientifically inclined neuron in my brain, so someone needs to translate,” Cami said waving a hand.

  “It has to do with why this is the perfect spot for a transport system.” Gerri replied.

  “Transport. As in ‘beam me up, Scotty?” Camille asked, nonplussed.

  Ryker laughed slipping an arm around her shoulders. “How else do you think we were getting to Nova? Hitch hike?”

  Gerri nodded, impressed. “Very good, Ryker. You know there was a series called The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, but that was science fiction.”

  Camille snorted. “Says the woman with her hyperspace transport system in her backyard.”

  “Are we ready to roll, Mrs. Wilder?” Steven asked, coming from the back of the power plant.

  She nodded. “I think so. You’ve got my bag, and Ryker and Camille only have one, so we’re good to go.”

  Steven took the bag from Ryker and motioned for them to follow him to the back of the building. He pressed the flat of his hand on a nondescript metal plate on the wall. The square lit around the edges, and three beeps later a hidden door slid open.

  The flight coordinator waited for everyone to file through before stowing the last piece of luggage in a secure bin. He pressed an inside button to close the bin door behind him.

  With a nod, Steven left and Gerri watched until he was gone before she leaned her face toward a small rectangular scanner. Blue lights moved across her eye, the beam moving forward and then back.