I listened carefully, and no noise came from the bedroom. Following Bahlin’s instructions, I stood and waited on him, dagger clenched in my sweaty hand. I hoped that I would be brave enough to end myself if need be, because I knew I wasn’t strong enough to endure any type of serious torture. But I was the Niteclif, and we don’t cop to fear too easily…out loud, anyway. My conscience jumped in, reminding me that this wasn’t the first time I’d had that particular thought. I mentally threw it half a peace sign, and I waited.
The door creaked and I tensed, lifting the dagger despite my initial queasiness. It was Bahlin. He again held his finger to his lips and motioned for me to follow him. Heart thundering in my throat, I padded along behind him barefoot. We passed through the bedroom, and he held up a hand for me to stop while he checked the hallway. He was gone for only a few moments before he came back and took my hand, tugging me forward. I was so terrified my bowels felt loose.
Bahlin looked back over his shoulder and, with more breath than voice, said, “There’s a doorway at the end of this hall. Last I checked, it opened into a large foyer with three doors inside it. I’ll go through and check each door until I find the exit. The sithen has been known to move things about to trap the non-fae inside, so wait for my all-clear signal.”
My eyes must have widened perceptibly because Bahlin just shook his head, took my shaking hand and led me forward. As promised, there was a large wooden door banded with metal and sporting a huge metal locking mechanism at the end of the light-suffused hallway. Physically setting me to the side of the door, thus leaving me partially hidden once the door was opened, he peered into the foyer beyond. I breathed in shallow pants, afraid to draw any attention to myself, continuing to grip the dagger in my right hand and fisting my left. I was ready to defend myself as well as I might should trouble find us, and I knew without a doubt that it was actively looking.
Bahlin returned to me in minutes, deftly reaching around the edge of the door and grabbing my wrist above the hand that held the knife. Wise man, er, dragon. I squeaked involuntarily and then mentally flagellated myself for my lack of bravery. Fake it ’til you make it, Niteclif, I chastised myself. Bahlin seemed to hear my thoughts because he rolled his eyes and shook his head, dragging me forward. He stopped in the doorway and looked at me closely. “Take a deep breath.”
My heart jumped. “Why?”
“I can feel your pulse, and it’s making me nervous.”
“Sorry,” I said, and attempted to draw my hand away from his forearm.
“I didn’t ask you to let go of me, only to control your breathing.”
I shifted my hand to grip him with my fingertips, though I still clenched his arm.
“Here,” he said, and took my hand, lacing his fingers through mine. He squeezed my fingers in reassurance. “Better?”
I took a deep breath and nodded. We moved forward.
There was no sign of anyone in the foyer and only one door was open. Darkness shown beyond the doorway like a savior’s beacon and we streaked across the foyer like twin wraiths, emerging into the night like we’d been belched from the earth. The night air felt as if it breathed through the open doorway like it was the nose of a sleeping giant. I could feel the fresh air move past my cheek, back and forth, back and forth.
Once we were outside, the door slammed shut behind us with an echoing bang making us both jump, and then I had both feet on the ground at the same time. My body was suddenly lifted up by an unseen force and thrown backward toward the now grassy hillside, no door in existence. I was slammed down with something as resonant as a sonic boom. My body felt as if the reverberations had dislodged major organs, and my heart hurt for a moment. I lay there, stunned, staring at the night sky and relearning how to breathe.
“What in great glory’s name,” I wheezed, “just happened?”
“So much for stealth,” Bahlin said, grinning. “I forgot to tell you that, as a mortal, you would immediately gather all the time you’d spent inside the sithen. Inside, your lifespan is increased a thousand fold. Outside, well, you catch up with whatever time you lost. Since you’re not aging while you’re the Niteclif, it just hurts like hell. Your body is shocked but not affected.”
I pushed myself to sit with a grunt. “And it never dawned on either of you to tell me this before I left, huh?”
“It’s not like we had a great opportunity, Maddy,” Bahlin said softly. “We were, I was, more worried about keeping you alive.”
“Sorry.” Again. Man I was turning into a bitch. “And that was only four days?” Reaching for my hand, Bahlin helped me up, holding it for an extra moment when he had me vertical. He looked at me, and I felt the color rise in my cheeks. He squeezed and let go, stepping back.
“The longer you’re in there, the worse leaving will be. Ah well. It’s done now. I suppose we had better depart with all haste.” He began unbuttoning his pants, and I spun away from him.
“How the hell is getting naked going to help us get away from this damnable place?” I hissed. “I understand the whole near-death-reaffirming-life sex thing but this isn’t the time or place to—”
His deep, breathy laughter was my only answer. Something hit me in the back and I flinched, looking down as whatever it was slithered down my back. His jeans. I bent and picked them up without turning around, preparing to toss them back over my shoulder at him with some witty comment when I felt the air move. It wasn’t wind, but rather a disturbance of the molecules themselves. Static was everywhere, and my shirt crackled with it as I pulled his jeans into my arms. I was suddenly aware that something very large was behind me, and I froze, unable to even blink for a moment.
“Bay?” I asked in a soft voice, the kind you used to call out for your parents when you were a child scared of the night.
A deep snort sounded behind me, like a horse blowing out after a run, and I turned in slow motion and looked up, and up some more. He had shifted.
Bahlin’s dragon form was breathtaking and terrifying and beautiful all at the same time. He was enormous, standing roughly eight feet tall at the withers. In the pre-dawn darkness it was impossible to discern the color of his scales, but they were inky, so dense he seemed carved out of the shadows of night itself. He crouched in front of me on four legs, with two great muscular rear legs and two sinewy forelegs that were more like arms. Each foot held five claws as large as my forearm. His tail was long and barbed, and it swished back and forth with implied impatience. His eyes were the same icy blue I had experienced before, set into a massive head adorned with a horned crown at the end of a long neck. His face was shaped like a horse’s though his nose was slightly beaked and he had a sparse beard of spikes along his jaw. And his teeth. His teeth were massive and filled his mouth like daggers.
But it was his wings that stole my heart. Set into his shoulders where his arms met his body, they were iridescent and partially translucent, enough so I could see stars through the membrane of the wing. With a structure like that of a bat, the wings were like secondary arms. He had a small hooked claw at the upper bed of the wing and structural boning throughout to build support. The lightest of veining could be seen in the translucence. I stepped up close to him and reached out a hand tentatively to stroke his graceful neck and gasped with surprise at the texture of his scales. They were smooth and tight to his body. He really did feel like a lizard, but he was clearly warm-blooded. And while his scales must provide some type of protection, they were so supple they felt like saddle leather. I smiled and stroked the juncture of wing and body and he snorted and gave a grumbling growl, turning his head back to nose me closer. I couldn’t figure out what he was after until he bellied down to the ground and continued pushing me toward his back.
“You’re kidding,” I choked out. “I am not getting on your back.”
He snorted and looked back in the general direction of the door as if to say, “Don’t be stupid. Of course you are.”
I studied his back skeptically before I realized it really wa
s feasible. If I sat just in front of the wings and hooked my knees carefully… I’d decided to give it a try when I heard the shout of pursuit behind me. Decision made.
With studied carefulness balanced with haste, Bahlin pushed me to his shoulder, stuck his nose under my butt and lifted me up. I scrambled ungracefully onto his back and with a great surge of power he unfurled his wings and pushed off with his hind legs, nearly unseating me. I leaned down and wrapped my arms as far around his neck as I could and we were off, bulleting into the night sky, the sithen erupting with activity below us as his jeans drifted slowly back to earth.
Chapter Seven
The pre-dawn air was cold, and my nipples puckered painfully in response. Tears streamed over my cheeks, brought on by the racing wind in my face and the near constant fear of the last five days. In fairness, I knew it wasn’t his fault, but he was the closest target for my rage. I balled up a fist and punched him in the shoulder. He didn’t flinch.
Bahlin moved through the night sky in near silence, the only sound the disturbance of his wings cutting through the air and the occasional huff of breath. I could feel his lungs expand and contract between my knees and it was oddly sexual, though I didn’t examine that feeling too closely. He raced parallel to the breaking dawn. It wasn’t long before I began shivering with true cold. I couldn’t feel my feet at all. Bahlin dipped lower over the open expanse of farmland, the ground getting closer and closer, the only break in the landscape the fencing and small herds of sheep and cows that scattered instinctively as the predator raced passed them. I realized Bahlin was beginning to breathe harder, his movements less graceful. He banked to the right and dove toward a small cottage that seemed to grow out of the hillside, setting down in the front yard. I was shaking in earnest now, my skin tinged blue from the cold, my joints frozen in macabre positions. Bahlin bellied down to the ground again, but I couldn’t move. He turned his enormous head back to look at me.
Teeth chattering so hard I worried they’d crack I stuttered, “I-I-I c-c-c-can’t-t-t-t…”
He rolled his shoulder to the ground and reached behind him, so incredibly gentle with his clawed hands, and pulled me into his arms. I tried to struggle, but I couldn’t gain any semblance of control over my traitorous muscles. He held me close to his chest and began to hum. The sound seemed to generate deep in his chest, rumbling out, sounding like a monk’s liturgy. In a moment of hysteria I laughed. Should I offer to insert a quarter or pray? When I realized he was warming physically, I knew what he was doing. He was generating body heat to warm me up. I rolled into his embrace and cuddled with him and he sighed, a content sound. I laughed out loud again, though this time the sound was less harsh. I was snuggling with a dragon. We sat that way until the sun rose over the horizon, and we were casting a soft shadow. I looked up and gasped. His scales were a matte midnight blue, nearly black. He was like the night sky incarnate, touchable and tangible. Suddenly I stiffened. What if we were seen? What if the cottage occupant caught us on the doorstep? How do you explain the unexplainable?
“Put me down,” I hissed, struggling in his arms.
Bahlin set me on the ground where I promptly collapsed. I was still cold enough that I couldn’t command my feet or legs to obey. He looked at me and then looked at the door, nosing me toward it. The only thing he accomplished was disturbing the grass and royally pissing me off.
“You are insane if you think I’m going in there,” I said in a harsh whisper. I swear he cocked an eyebrow at me. “No. No, I am not,” I said in the same low voice.
He turned and looked toward the sky, unfurled his wings and pushed off the ground, gaining height more slowly and laboriously this time. He left me sitting there in the yard, gaping at his retreating form, alone.
I lay there for a minute, flexing my muscles and trying to get them to warm up. I finally stood, albeit unsteadily, and turned back toward the cottage. I screamed, jumping back and falling on my ass yet again.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to startle you,” said the woman who had been standing at my back. Without asking or straining, she bent and lifted me to my feet, setting me down gently. Then she stepped back. “I assumed if Bahlin dropped you off here, you knew of me.” Her brow furrowed, and she looked at me with some concern. She was as tall as me, and it was a novelty to look a woman eye to eye. Her hair was a deep mahogany and fell to her diminutive waist. Her eyes were a shade or two lighter than Bahlin’s intense blue, and her skin was lightly tanned but completely unlined. Her voice was like rich cream, soft and decadent, and it held the softest hint of Scotland. She was ethereal, and I think I hated her a little bit for it.
“You, uh, know about Bay, uh, Bahlin?” I stuttered, trying to reign in my galloping heart and wheezing breath.
“‘Bay’? I like that. To answer you, yes I know very well about Bahlin.”
My hackles rose, and I found myself jealous of this unknown woman. Who was she to him? And why did he leave me with her? Before my brain could stop my mouth I said, “So you know him well. How well?”
She chuckled and said, “I think you may want to come inside. He has probably gone to feed and, in that case, he’ll be gone a while. Would you like a cup of tea?” She turned and walked back into the house, all grace and perfect form, her skirt swirling about her ankles, as if dragons coming and going and depositing strangers in the yard were simple everyday things.
Unsure what to do, I followed her. I had dropped my dagger sometime during the flight, likely after the shaking had taken over. So I was unarmed and alone. I didn’t like it. But if Bahlin thought this was a safe place, I had to trust him. After all, I had no one else. He and I were definitely going to have to talk about this.
The thatch-roofed house was much larger than it appeared from the outside. The front door opened directly into a large living room with an attached, open, eat-in kitchen. The stone hearth was huge, with a baking oven built in above the firebox. I looked around, appreciating the simple decor and the hand-scraped wood floors, the plush furniture and soft-colored walls. It was all so charming with a cohesiveness I’d never be able to achieve without hiring a decorator. I think I hated the house a little at that moment too.
My hostess walked down a long hallway and returned with an enormous sweatshirt. Handing it to me, she smiled and said, “It’s Bahlin’s. I’m sure he won’t mind if you borrow it.” Her manner was proprietary, and it made me even more uncomfortable. She grinned, her eyes flashing that icy blue then back to sapphire. Had it been the light? I accepted the sweatshirt and pulled it on slowly, enjoying the smell of Bahlin so close.
Realizing I didn’t even know the woman’s name I stuck out my hand.
“I’m Maddy.”
“I know.” She looked me over very carefully, her eyes cooling as I cuddled the sweatshirt a little. “You’re the Niteclif.”
“How did you—”
“Know? I knew well before you did.” She arched a brow at me and crossed her arms over her small, I really do hate her, chest.
“I’m sorry. Have I pissed you off somehow? Because I’m pretty sure I don’t know you well enough for you to be so catty.” I stared at her hard, my own eyes growing cold, as I rolled the sleeves up on the sweatshirt just in case this conversation came to blows. With the way my last few days had been, it wouldn’t come as a surprise.
“Oh no, I’m not pissed as you Americans say. I’m fine. But I have a strongly vested interest in Bahlin’s well-being, and I won’t have you come in here and…”
“And what?” I demanded, stepping closer to her.
“If he’s not told you, I don’t believe I will.”
“But—”
“Leave it,” came a deep voice from behind me. I spun around, finding Bahlin coming through the front door wearing a pair of ratty sweats and nothing more. His torso was lean but well muscled with cobblestone abs included, the only hair a line from his belly button to his waistband.
“What the hell is it with everyone sneaking up on me around her
e?” I exclaimed, frustration lacing every word.
Bahlin laughed and walked to me with a hip-rolling swagger. He wrapped me in his arms and said, “I borrowed Aiden’s sweats from his gym bag, Brylanna. Tell him he needs to wash the damned things on occasion.” He looked down at me. “Has my Brylanna been kind, Maddy?”
“Define kind,” I said, standing stiff in his arms. What did he mean his Brylanna? He chuckled in my ear, his breath playing through my hair and down my neck and giving me goose bumps. I wiggled my hands up to his smooth, muscled chest and pushed back from him, needing space to think. “Why are dragons so keen on avoiding questions?”
“Ah, so she told you she’s a dragon, then?”
“Nope, you just did.”
He laughed again, but softly this time. “What gave it away?”
“The eyes flashed that weird blue color. Then she said she knew I was the Niteclif. Only the supernatural world knows about my existence, so logic says she must be one of your world. Then you came here in dragon form, without concern of being seen, so she had to know about you. Simple deduction.”
“Well done, Maddy. Ah, the eyes. She must have lost her temper then. Brylanna?”
“She provoked me,” the woman said, sounding sulky.
“And you know better than to be provoked,” Bahlin said, sounding reproving. “Maddy, Brylanna is my sister and yes, she’s a dragon, as well.”
Ah, sister. I hated that I felt relieved, so I took the offensive, though it was more curiosity than anger in my voice. “Explain the whole she-knew-before-I-knew thing.” I walked to the small dining table and sat.
“Make yourself comfortable,” Brylanna said in a sickly sweet voice.
“Brylanna. She is my guest. Respect her as such.” Bahlin’s voice brooked no room for argument.
“My apologies, Niteclif,” she said, looking honestly chagrined.
Legacy: The Niteclif Evolutions, Book 1 Page 12