Dragon Captain

by Kendal Davis

  But I could tell that he knew it wasn’t true. I did.

  “I don’t want you to think today didn’t matter to me. I’m not like that. Remember, back on the island, when that sleazy man said he knew me? I never wanted you to think that I was a party girl who got around. The truth is that all I ever did was dance until dawn, and then go home all by myself. Until today, I mean.” I was fumbling my napkin in my hands. This was excruciating, and it was only going to get worse.

  “I would never think that,” he answered. “Look at you. You want to do what you think is right. You want to risk everything to clear an obligation. That speaks of more honor than I have ever had.”

  “Most people wouldn’t get into this mess in the first place,” I said wryly.

  “No, you can’t blame yourself.” He reached across the table and put his hand over mine. Although I knew his body well now, that did not make the contact any less electrifying. On the contrary, it was as if I was touching a live wire. It took all I had to keep my hand in his. I couldn’t let him think I was leaving him because I didn’t want him.

  “I’ll be back, you know,” I whispered. “I will marry him to fulfill the contract, but I will not become his eternal mate. I will find a way.”

  Cobalt chose not to answer me, but his eyes revealed the depths of agony that he felt at the thought of either plan coming to fruition.

  After a long pause, he stood. There was a sense of resolution in his movement, but I wasn’t sure what it meant. Perhaps he was making a decision to be done with me. How could I object, in light of what I was putting him through?

  He looked down at the table for a long moment, then sent me a look that was entirely inscrutable. I did not even know whether we were still friends. The idea of his no longer caring for me left me without an anchor in life, as if I were falling into the depths of a marine trench with no hope of rescue.

  “Let’s go,” he said decisively. “We will need to get you home the way we came. We’ll swim back to the beach, and then you can get out of the water as if nothing happened.”

  “That’s insane,” I goggled at him. “It’s been hours. Nobody will believe that I’ve been in the water all that time.”

  “Well, it’s better than people believing you’ve been somewhere else, isn’t it? Like on the back of a dragon?”

  “Yeah, that’s probably the first thing that would come to mind,” I grumbled as I joined him in preparing to leave. I let it slide, though. It hardly mattered what I did to get back to my own home here in Miami. All that mattered was that my mysterious creditor knew where to find me.

  His letter to Cobalt at the club had been a warning to both of us.

  He was coming.

  When we reversed the journey that we had taken to get to Cobalt’s decadent home, it all seemed to go so much faster. Going back to a place was always like that. It was disorienting, but it was as if time worked differently when you trod the ground that you’d already seen. Or, in this case, flown over.

  We took the elevator back up to the top of Cobalt’s building, where the art installation of massive dragon pieces was still constantly moving on the wing. It looked as if there was a flock of dragons, in every color imaginable, playing, frolicking on the rooftop. I would think that it would make most humans feel ill to watch it for too long. There was so much movement. That must be part of the plan.

  If you could not look right at something, how could you call it out as not belonging?

  If I could not meet this dragon man who was creeping on me, who had been stalking me for years, then how could I stand up to him? We would, it seemed, come face to face only on his terms.

  When we finally reached the beach in front of my Miami home, there were few tourists still there. The light of the day was fading. I knew there were sharks out there. Nobody at all should be swimming in the dusk. Only Cobalt and I had been in the water, safe as we could possibly be.

  Just a few moments ago, I’d been on a dragon’s back, cutting through the water as if it were nothing at all. We had moved through the waves at top speed. No animal of this planet would dare to bother him. He was too powerful, too sure of himself.

  He was the opposite of everything I’d ever been.

  As I reached down to pick up my beach bag, I looked around the beach to see if anybody was watching me. At some point, the families here must have thought I had come out of the water, merely forgetting my belongings in the sand. Nobody had worried, or sounded the alarm.

  A deep voice inside my head answered the thought.

  Nobody missed you.

  “Stop it,” I grunted to myself through gritted teeth. Boy, I needed to work on my self esteem.

  Cobalt turned toward me. He was in the form of a man again, so I tossed him the blue cloak I had been carrying for him. It made sense that clothes were simple when one traveled like this.

  Oh. It almost stopped me in my tracks to think of how well I knew that clothing added nothing to this man. Just as he was closing the cloak around himself, covering his nakedness from the empty beach, I was vividly recalling the way he had looked with nothing on.

  The way he had held himself above me with his strong arms while he pumped me full of his seed. While he penetrated me with every ounce of his being, his flesh filling mine.

  What had I been thinking, to refuse him when he asked me to be his eternal mate?

  It was a false offer.

  Huh? I wasn’t sure that I’d thought of it that way before. I hoisted my bag onto my shoulder and walked with Cobalt across the beach. When we reached the doorman, he gave us a strange look, but did not comment beyond a greeting.

  It was true that we were both bedraggled and oddly dressed. And we’d been gone for hours, with no explanation that made any sense. But in a building this expensive, there were no questions asked.

  Questions.

  I’d heard many questions already today.

  Like if somebody asked me, almost begged me, to become their eternal mate. If they wanted to protect me from my enemies and cherish me at the same time. Yeah, definitely, I’d want to say “no” to that.

  I wasn’t so sure any more.

  He is not the man you think he is.

  Well, maybe.

  He is not honorable.

  No, that was just a silly idea. These intrusive thoughts were killing me. Obviously, Cobalt was the most honorable person I’d ever met. He was a dragon of House Caeruleus, where honor was not a choice, it was a way of life. I liked that about him.

  The thing was, though, that something was off. His description of the charm he’d tried to give me at his home had been incomplete. I didn’t know how to use the little golden bracelet. What was I supposed to do with it? All I could do was try it, with the hope that it would make a difference.

  If I could make it work, then the bracelet might take away the edge of red dragon aggression when I finally met my tormentor.

  Will it though? The question was tinged with an oily amusement.

  Hm. Was I talking to myself now?

  If the charm works to loosen the constraints of one’s House traits, then does that mean that Cobalt is no longer honorable?

  I shook my head at myself as I stepped into the elevator of my own building, with Cobalt still silent at my side. He was the good guy here. He was the one I trusted.

  But the voice inside my head was right.

  He is no longer honorable. He lied to you. He is false.

  No. Even though it was just a fleeting thought in my own head, the suggestion made my eyes prick with tears. I would not believe that of my Cobalt. He could not lie.

  He told you that he did not give you the mating bite out of his deep respect for your choice. But the truth is that he could not do it without your permission. His excuse was nothing but theatrics.

  Wait a minute. I jumped a little where I stood, causing Cobalt to turn and look at me.

  “Are you all right?”

  “Yes,” I muttered. I heard my voice, and it did not sou
nd friendly.

  No matter how much I regretted ever stopping to listen to the mysterious voice in my head, I was beginning to realize that it was quite right. Cobalt had lied to me. If he was capable of doing so, then he was no longer bound by honor. He was no longer a safe haven for me.

  Damn it.

  If I was going to risk this crazy plan of marriage and then a quick annulment, I had thought to do so with Cobalt there to catch me. And now it was becoming clear that he was only working for his own ends.

  He was not my champion.

  He was just like any other man. Out for his own ends, and willing to pull the wool over my eyes if that was what it took to get me in bed.

  Another thing was becoming clear to me, as we walked through the door of my new apartment. This last revelation was the worst part of all of this, but it was also the most undeniable.

  Damn it all, that voice in my head did not belong to me.

  Chapter 16: Cobalt

  Kat was increasingly distant, for no reason that was apparent to me. The flight back here from the island ought to have been exhilarating for both of us. The swim to the beach, as well, had been fun the first time we did it. Why was the return journey so strained? She hardly smiled at all, and answered me only briefly when I spoke to her. Women were so confusing. Human women especially.

  By the time we entered the rooms that Kat and her brother now called home, she was downright sulky. Andres was still nowhere to be seen. After spending so many years working hard on their family business, despite his natural shyness, he was now coming out of his shell and making friends.

  Good. When she agreed to become my mate and move in with me, he could have this place to himself, and be pleased to have his privacy.

  I gently rested a hand on Kat’s back as I followed her into the living room. She tensed, so I lowered my hand, but stayed close to her. “Kat, we need to talk about this.” My words came out as a growl. I was tired of playing games with her. “I can see that you are upset, but this is nothing we can’t work out.”

  She spun around to face me. “What do you mean ‘nothing?’ Is it so unimportant to you?”

  “That’s not what I said. I am telling you that we’ll get through this. I will help you.”

  She raised her eyebrows at me. “I’m starting to think that you’ve already given me too much of what you call your help. I do thank you for the treasure diving.” She waved her hand around the room, her expression softening a little. Then she squared her stance and her mood closed up again. “But the rest of it just isn’t working out between us.”

  “You don’t mean that.” I said it firmly, as if I could alter her feelings just by telling her what I thought.

  “You don’t get to tell me what I mean.” She was more angry than I’d ever seen her. She flung her bag down on the coffee table and began to pace the floor. Her hands were on her hips, then twisting in front of her, then back on her hips.

  She was furious.

  “Listen, Kat, I’m sorry. I don’t even know why you are so upset. Where did this all go wrong? Back at my place, you were still saying you wanted to come back to me, even if you must execute this foolish plan. But now, I’m not even sure that I believe that you want to return to me.”

  “Maybe I had time to think,” she answered. “Maybe once I had a little more time, I realized that all you do is call my plan stupid. You can’t seem to get that it’s important to me.”

  “I do, woman!” Now I was as angry as she was. “You are sulking over something that does not matter. Your idea is foolish and unnecessary and it will never work. But I will still stand behind you and support you because you are meant to be my mate.”

  “What if I’m not?” She stopped pacing and looked at me with big eyes. “Maybe you’ve had that wrong from the beginning. Maybe we were just supposed to have a good time together, and that’s it. So we did. We had some fun, and now we’re through.”

  It took all my dragon poise not to reach out and take her in my arms. She was a bundle of vulnerabilities right now. The last thing I wanted to do was make it worse. “That’s not all it is between us, Kat. I have searched for my mate for thousands of years. Now that I’ve found you, I do not intend to let you go.”

  “I don’t think it matters what you intend. I could never be with somebody who would pretend to support me, but then lie to my face.”

  I stepped back, aghast. “You should not insult a Caerulean dragon that way, my lady. I do not lie; it is not possible for me to be untruthful. You know that.”

  “You did lie, though. When you pretended that you were holding back from making me your mate out of some great respect for my personal readiness. That didn’t mean anything to you.”

  I stared at her. She was unhinged.

  “The truth was that you couldn’t have made me yours, not in a hundred years, without my consent.” Her eyes were bright and wild now, as if she was losing her grasp on reality.

  “That’s right.” I knew I had to try to be the rational one here, but it was all too tempting to fly into a dragon’s animal rage to make her listen. I took a long breath to try to slow my thoughts. “I’m the one that told you that, remember? I think you’ve got this wrong somehow. It’s as if you’re another person entirely right now. Like you’re hearing something in your head that isn’t real.”

  She froze. She shot me the strangest look, then threw up her hands. She was retreating, but not in any peaceful manner. Standing her ground for a few more moments, she snapped at me. “That’s enough. All you do is doubt me. None of this is who I really am. I’ve always been in charge of my own life, my own affairs, ever since I became an adult. I’m not your plaything.”

  She took a step toward her own room, then turned back to face me. “You’ll need to go now. It would never have worked out between us. I know you’ve always expected to make my decisions for me. I couldn’t live like that. Ever. I’ll have the concierge hold the things from your room for you. Just go. Go back to your other apartment that you didn’t tell me about, and your business that you wanted to keep a secret. Go anywhere but here.”

  Then she disappeared into her bedroom, closing the door firmly behind her.

  What the hell?

  She couldn’t be right about any of that, could she? Clearly, she was under the influence of some kind of madness. Some sort of fever.

  No woman had ever told me that I was too controlling. I was a dragon, for goodness’ sake. We were the lords of our land, without question. It was not possible for me to be ‘too’ anything.

  Rather than trying to talk sense into her now, I chose to return to the club. She would have time to cool off before we spoke again. I supposed I would have time to process whatever it was that she thought I should be doing differently.

  When I left the building, I did so by air, not land. The stairway to the roof of this building was a simple one, but it led to an open and beautiful rooftop garden. As I raised my face to the sky, reveling in the darkness and the warm evening air, I knew who I needed to talk with.

  Whom did I know who knew women inside and out? The most charming dragon in my acquaintance would be able to advise me on how to take care of Kat without letting her know I was doing it. That was the problem here. She needed the protection of a dragon, but it was not necessary for her to know I was shadowing her.

  That dragon, the mysterious cipher who was always partying and showed no attachment to the land of his birth? My own business partner, of course. Safyr would listen to me. He would show me what I had to do next to put Kat at ease.

  I flew through the night, my broad wings curving through the sky silently. It was a glorious evening to be outdoors. The warmth was delightful. The comfortable temperature here was part of what drew so many dragons to this city. The water had been foreign to me at first after the wide deserts of my homeland, but I enjoyed it. That sense of water sliding across my scales was something that I had not known I needed until I came to this place.

  Just like I had not rea
lized that I needed Kat.

  Until she appeared in my world, I had not known how much I lacked in my life without her. I had maintained a presence in Miami for a long time, but despite our relative proximity, I might never have met her. Once she stumbled into my dragon world, though, I knew she had to be mine.

  All I needed to do now was to convince her of this truth.

  When I sank into my favorite chair at the club and explained the problem to Safyr, he laughed aloud.

  “What? Nothing about this is amusing,” I protested.

  “Is it not?” His blue eyes missed nothing. He had seen me here earlier with Kat, when the rooms of the club had been fairly empty. Now, the place was a bustling hub of activity. Dragon shifters in their two-legged forms filled the place, laughing and drinking as if they had never felt more at home.

  Safyr settled into his own armchair and smirked at me. “My friend. You are telling me that you did everything you could to stop this woman from pursuing a course of action that she felt strongly about. You told her it was a foolish plan.”

  “Well, it is,” I interjected. “Anybody could see that. Right?”

  “It does not matter what you think about what she is going to do. You are missing the key part of that sentence. She is going to do it no matter what.”

  “Why are human women so headstrong? It is absurd.”

  Safyr shrugged. “Perhaps it is. All I can tell you is that she will not back down from this.”

  “But the rest of it?” I pressed on. “Why would she accuse me of lying to her?”

  My friend sipped his drink, his eyes gleaming at me. “It sounds as if you did. It is not something that a Caerulean dragon ought to be able to do at all. Quite intriguing, really.”

  “I think it is nothing more than semantics,” I said stiffly. “She is splitting hairs to say that I pretended one thing in the face of the other.”

  “What if it is more than that?” Safyr leaned toward me, suddenly more animated. “What if the bracelet is a true charm, and it can break you free of the House qualities that you’ve been shackled to all your life?”