“Stop,” he said and ran down the stairs as I repeated the spew on the bindings on my legs.
Luckily, he was too arrogant to have a Taser, but he tackled me into the altar. Reed’s eyes blazed open when it bumped into his cage. The man was trying to pin me down, but I was doing my super-special spaz attack, which was me just screaming and flailing, biting and raking my nails. All the agitation wasn’t really good for my stomach, and when he saw I was about to burp again, he thrust himself off me.
“Guards!”
I turned toward Reed’s cage and let fly. It was a noxious green putty, which weakened the bars enough so Reed could force himself out. I scurried back to the corner of the room and the guards coming down the hall shot Tasers into Reed’s side. To a full-size Black Western dragon, the hits were mere pinpricks. I had to duck as his tail whirled around the room. He gored the man who had come down the stairs first to the wall with his horn and then shook him off toward the stairs. The other three guards decided this was not what they signed up for, dropped their Tasers, and began to pull guns.
Reed reared back his head and let forth a splattering mess all over them. His infuriated roar deafened me and turned my guts to water. I was so glad he was on my side. The guards shrieked and clawed their eyes but weren’t prepared for the quick slashing of his talons that left them in bloody ribbons.
“Get out,” he said to me and I scrambled up the stairs, trying hard not to think about the slime on the floor. Acid ate away at my sandals and burned my toes. I sprinted away as fast as I could. After throwing open the door, I stumbled into the next room.
“How are you getting out?” I turned to yell down the stairs, but his great head was in the doorway.
“Move,” he said.
I ran when his shoulder splintered wood and plaster as he pushed his way out. I searched to find the exit and came face-to-face with a snarling woman brandishing a kitchen knife. I dodged the first swipe and ran into the other room, which turned out to be the wrong way. I was in the living room. I tilted the coffee table over and hid behind the chair as she followed me.
“You will bleed,” she said. “I can still cast the spell from your blood.”
“Why are you doing this?” I threw pillows off the couch at her.
“Dragons were hunted like the beasts they were in Nidhogg’s time. The modern world has no place for you.”
Reed grabbed her. He banged her up and down a few times and the house tilted as he kicked out walls.
“Let’s go,” he said, and I scurried around him and found the front door this time.
“Do you think we have time to go back in and find my tiara?” Arianna forced me to say, but the house crumpling behind me answered that question.
“Esmeralda’s men will sift through the wreckage. Get on.”
I glanced warily at his outstretched foreleg. “Whatever happened to not being a beast of burden?”
“My mother happened. Now climb up on my back, or I’ll throw you up there with my teeth.” He snapped at me for good measure, and I scrambled up and hung on to the horns that ringed his neck.
The flap back of his wings almost knocked me out, and I forced my eyes closed when we took off.
“Are we going back to her temple?” I asked.
“No, back to Paisley.”
“What?” I screeched. “This isn’t what I meant when I said I wanted to fly the friendly skies. Besides, we need to finish this.”
“Your part in this is finished.”
“We’re just beginning. We need prisoners. If they know how to cast these spells, they can be forced to tell us how to reverse it.”
“And they’re now after you—the first Queen they’ve seen in over a millennium.”
There was that.
His voice softened. “Don’t worry. You’re safe now.”
Safe? I was about to ride a dragon from Mexico to New York. A dragon who liked to fly fast and dangerous.
“I’d rather fly commercial, no offense.” I gripped my thighs tight around him, as he jumped into the air. The sweat on my hands was making my grip on his horns slippery.
The jungle flowed like a river of greens below us, and it started to get cold as we gained altitude.
“You don’t have your passport with you. Shut up and hang on.”
Chapter Ten
Tenth Rule of Dragons: Humans en masse can be as dangerous as a dragon in a dominance rage
“I know you just got back, my dear, but I must leave for Paris. If the cult loosened Nidhogg’s binds, as you say, I need to find some people to help me recast his chains.” Niall had come to visit me in my room in the lab.
I had been given some serious painkillers and a bunch of dragons tsk-tsked over me, so I was in a fuzzy happy place. My face was unbroken, but it was colorful to the point I was avoiding mirrors.
“Niall, what do I do?”
“We have some magical experts flying in to see if they can detect the blocking spell on you that Esmeralda mentioned. We will break the spell.”
“What if that won’t do it,” I said, with Arianna nudging me. “What if we need to give Arianna back a body?”
“Arianna has gone to the weave.”
“What if she hasn’t?” I asked and then winced as Arianna yelled, Idiot! My head certainly didn’t need any more reason to throb. I jawed down a few over-the-counter painkillers; they were weaning me off the good stuff.
“What do you mean? Is she in there with you?” Niall drew closer and peered into my eyes.
“I’m not sure where she is.” At least that was the truth. Arianna fled back to the recess of my mind and hid.
It satisfied Niall. “There is a spell that can return a dragon’s soul into its body. But there aren’t any female bodies that aren’t already inhabited.”
“What if we find one?” I had to get Arianna out of my head. Not only was she cramping my style with her brother, she was beginning to get on my nerves.
“Where?”
“Well, if we break this spell, it’s possible women all over the planet will start shifting. If one of them dies…”
He put his hand over my mouth. “Don’t speak such blasphemy.”
“But if you did have a female dragon corpse,” I persisted, my voice muffled by his hand.
“It could be done only if the female who once occupied it was truly gone. And then I’m afraid there are only a few dragons who could even cast the spell.” He chucked me under the chin.
“But you could?”
“Yes. But this is a silly argument.” He kissed my forehead. “I will see you when I return. Take it easy on Reed. He’s a good dragon.”
“We’ll work on being a good man,” I told him, and Niall barked out a laugh and left me alone.
It helped to think I was in a dorm room rather than a secret dragon facility. Well, secret to the humans anyway. There were more dragons around here than I ever saw at the embassy. The view from my window showed them landing in the fields and fighting on the lawns. The younger studs were desperate to prove their leadership and ripped into each other with little warning. I turned away from one battle, woozy at the blood. I wished I had a new book to read.
“Can you see the blue band around me?” I asked Arianna when she drifted back into my consciousness.
“No. You would need a Queen trained in magic.”
“Which is probably all of them, except you and me.”
Jack entered the room. “Talking to yourself again?”
“Take me now, or lose me forever!” Arianna shouted in my voice.
Jack raised an eyebrow and closed the door behind him. He started unbuttoning his shirt.
“Wait!” I screeched. “That wasn’t me!”
You can’t go telling everyone about me, Arianna hissed.
You can’t go throwing me at every abled-bodied dragon.
Why not?
I had to think about it, but that gave a shirtless Jack the chance to sit on my bed and take me in his arms. “Who was it
then?”
Arianna kissed him before I could rat her out. Ah hell, there were worse ways to spend an afternoon. Jack was warm and his tongue demanding, while his touch was gentle. He made my headache go away, but he was no Reed.
Stop thinking about my brother.
I put my hand on his naked chest and gave a slight push. “How do you feel about threesomes?” I breathed out, when his lips left mine to press a playful kiss on my nose.
“With another girl, sure. With Reed, no thank you.”
“You’re not my type either, sunshine.” Reed was standing in the open doorway.
Oh crap.
“I thought I closed that,” Jack said and lazily stroked his hand down my leg.
“You did.” Reed came in and I decided to stop being a coward, hiding my face in Jack’s neck, and look him in the eyes. Yeah, he was pissed about something. Could it be he was a little jealous?
“Has the Queen chosen you as consort?” He spoke to Jack like I wasn’t sitting right there.
“I think so.” Jack kissed me again. “Am I yours?”
“I can explain,” I said to Reed, a virtual hand over Arianna’s mouth.
“No explanation needed.” He clipped out and then turned to Jack. “I came here to tell you that Pietr has filed a complaint with the embassy. You’re needed in Russia.”
“Sorry, my Queen.” Jack dipped his head to kiss me enthusiastically again. I managed to turn my head so he got my cheek. “Duty calls.”
“Hurry back,” Arianna purred at him.
Reed and I were left alone in the room, and Arianna went off to paint her scales or something when she saw the glare in her brother’s eyes.
“That wasn’t what it looked like,” I said.
Reed cocked an eyebrow. “So his hand wasn’t unclipping your bra.”
Wow, he had some good eyes.
“I didn’t see you running into the bathroom to have a conversation with a mirror.”
He sounded jealous or angry. I couldn’t judge his mood. On the outside, he was his usual unreadable self. But the air between us shimmered with an energy that had all the hair sticking up on my arm. Thunderstorm, brimstone, something wicked this way comes. He walked closer with an intent that had alarm bells ringing in my head.
Hopping off the bed, I attempted to make it seem like I wasn’t running away from him. I did manage to get a desk chair in between us. “I should tell you. I have issues.”
He lifted the chair between us and tossed it out of the way.
I cringed back from the casual violence, but I was kind of turned on, too. I was weird like that. All I saw was a hunk of muscle stalking me and it got my motor running.
Backing me up to the nearest wall, Reed rested his forearms on either side of my head, my butt becoming one with the wallpaper as he trapped me.
“You were saying?”
My heart was beating so loud I was sure he could hear it. Licking my lips, I croaked out, “I’m not interested in Jack.”
“Didn’t look that way to me.”
The heat from his body and his mouth lowering toward mine made me catch my breath.
“Let me show you.” This time I was doing the kissing and I was lucky Arianna had gone off somewhere. Before it had been a sleepy type of passion. I had been exhausted from being flown around like a dragon kite. This time it was teeth and tongue, my nails digging into his shoulders. His hips grinding me into the wall. I yanked his shirt open, buttons flying everywhere. He broke off the kiss, grabbing my hair to tilt my face up at him.
“Are you going to run away from me again, Carolyn?”
“I don’t know,” I said honestly. “It depends if Arianna comes back or not.”
I had several heartbeats to regret that sentence as everything came to a screeching halt.
When would I ever learn to shut up?
He let me go and backed away. “Why are you saying such things?” Running his hands through his hair, he blinked rapidly as if he was trying to find sanity.
I could relate. His naked chest was seriously distracting. When he noticed me staring, he majicked it back together.
“Your sister possesses me every now and again. Mostly when Jack is around or she wants to spend money.”
“That’s not possible.” Reed cupped my face and stared down into my eyes. “She must go to the weave. We need her feminine energy more than ever.”
“She wants to live, Reed. She wants me to find a body of her own.” I clutched at him. “She needs to get out of my head; otherwise she’s going to make me screw around with Jack.”
A muscle ticked in his jaw.
“I won’t kill another Queen for you or her.” His voice was bleak, but he clutched me to him.
“I’m not asking you to kill anyone.”
“What are you asking?”
“I don’t know.” I clung to him, buried my face in his chest. Breathing in his leather-and-cinnamon scent made me eager to continue what we had been doing. “Break this stupid curse. Find her a dying Queen?”
He flinched.
“I don’t know.” I stroked his back, never wanting to let him go. “What I do know is I don’t want to belong to a hundred men. I want to belong to one.”
He closed his eyes, as if I hurt him. “That’s also impossible,” Reed said. “For the sake of my race.” He took my wrists, kissed each one, and removed my arms from him.
“Don’t,” I said as he put distance between us. “Please,” I whispered. I hated myself for begging. “What do you want, Reed?” I ached to touch him. “Tell me.” Please let him tell me that he wanted me, too.
“An enemy to attack.” His hands were fisted, eyes closed as he fought to control his breath.
So much for that idea.
Then the klaxon alarm started wailing and the lights dimmed.
“Sounds like your wish may have come true.”
“Only an idiot would attack this facility,” Reed said. “Come on.” He grabbed my hand and my heart leaped. He was touching me again.
“Do you think it’s the cult?” I asked as he pulled me down the hall.
“Doubtful,” he said
“Did we find out anything from the Mexican cultists that were captured?”
“Just that we have a group of morons trying to wake Nidhogg, who I hear is really cranky in the morning until he gets a cigarette and coffee,” he said.
“In this case, cigarette and coffee, is a sweet euphemism for death and destruction. Niall’s on that,” I said. “What about the magic? The one brandishing the knife at me seemed to be a witch.”
“It does not concern you,” Reed said, leading me into an office.
“It does concern me,” I said.
He locked the door, pulled me away from the window.
“I want to see,” I said.
Prying apart the slats in the blinds, he looked out. “Aerial assault. Dragons. We’ll wait it out here. If they get past our defenses, we’ll make a run for it.”
“Whatever can we do all alone in a room together?” I waggled my eyes at the couch.
A corner of his mouth twitched up. “Danger turn you on?”
“Are we in danger?”
“I’m not sure yet.” He continued to monitor the situation while I paced.
“Can I talk to the witch?” If she was going to recast the spell, there must be a way to do it in reverse. Did magic even work like that?
“Do you honestly think she would tell you anything?” Reed grumbled.
I crossed my arms over my chest. “I can be very persuasive.”
“It doesn’t matter. She’s not saying much anymore.”
“You killed her?” My mouth dropped.
He looked at me. “You’ve been with me the entire time. Do you think I dropped you off here, then flew all the way back to Mexico to rip her head off because she threatened my Queen?”
His Queen.
I forgot to breathe for a whole minute. “Did you?”
“She’s in Esmerald
a’s hands now. She will strip the information from her mind and report back to us in due time.”
“Can your mother cast the spell to cure me?” I wasn’t sure I wanted Iron Britches to get her claws on me again.
“It’s not her strong point. Lerisse is the best spellcaster, but I would trust Niall to cast it. However, that is not my decision. Nor would it be yours.”
I crossed my arms over my chest. “I should get a say in the matter.”
“Don’t try for power plays when you don’t have the clout to back it up. Unless you think having Jack as your consort, and Niall wrapped around your finger puts you on the playing field?” He scowled at me.
“What about you?”
“What about me?”
We shared another soul-connecting gaze.
“Do you think Jack and Niall are all right?” I asked as Reed pulled his eyes away.
“Yes. No one is after them, and there aren’t any hoards here to steal. That leaves you. And Arianna, if I can believe what you were saying. These dragons have come for you.”
“Don’t leave me alone,” I said as his scales shimmered over his clothes. “We need to get out of here. I don’t like having only one exit. Isn’t it better to hide? Hope they’ll go away?”
“Carolyn.” He gripped my upper arms. “They know we have a Queen. They’re not going anywhere until they have you.”
“That’s not going to happen is it?” I whispered, searching his face.
“Not on my watch.”
I kissed him again because it would have shattered me in two not to.
“Let’s go,” he broke away first. “Before I kill every last one of them.”
“Where are we going?” I held tight to his arm as he led me back out into the corridors and into the stairwell going down.
“I hope you’re up to flying to Europe.”
“I assume we’re going first class?” I was getting to enjoy this Queen-status thing.
“Only the best for you,” he said and I really didn’t like the smile he was giving me.
I found out once we were in the parking lot and he changed that we had different ideas of flying. I was clutched in his massive claws again as Reed streamed into the air.
“You said first class,” I complained.
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