by Kendal Davis
I stepped over the prone form of Brick. The ambitious red dragon had been a member of the Caerulean Guards with me until his betrayal of my Count. He would never be welcome in my Guards again.
Belatedly, I realized that they were no longer my Guards. I had no plans to ever take my post again.
I would stay here with Kat. It would be no sacrifice at all, if I had her with me.
“Kat, are you all right?” I called across the room to her as I passed Andres, patting him on the shoulder. He looked dazed by what he had just done, but pleased.
“I am better than all right,” she answered grimly. “I am armed with my own magic, ready to use it on this intruder.” She raised her arm with the golden bracelet. The smooth metal began to emit a faint glow.
“Kat, be careful. I don’t know what the charm is capable of doing.” I was loathe to tip my hand so much to Rosso, but I needed to warn her.
Every instinct within me told me to put myself between her and Rosso, but I knew she would hate that. Instead, I took my place at her side. Rosso looked from her face to mine, smiling with an oily confidence.
“That toy of a charm will do nothing,” he snarled. “Now that I can shift into my dragon form again, I am far too powerful to be stopped.” He was looking only at her now. “I will have you as my mate, little human. I have planned for this day for many years.”
“No,” I broke in. “She is not meant to be yours. She does not consent. She will never be your mate.” And, just like that, I was done with this. I was finished talking to him. I’d had enough of trying to play by the rules of non-violence.
I held up my hand, in much the same way as Safyr had done when he shared his magic with me. This time, though, the purpose of the gesture was to forcibly strike with my power. I allowed lightning to swirl from me until it pressed against Rosso’s aura. He was strong, but not enough to pretend that he did not feel it.
He staggered back, trying to hide his growing alarm. “You should not have so much power, you fool of a Captain of the Guards. I am the Count of my House. I should be far stronger than you.” His feet were carrying him unwillingly to where I wanted him to go.
I snarled at him, no longer polite. “You’ll see. The charm is setting us free from our House constraints. Your ambition is waning.” As I saw the understanding dawn in his eyes, I all but bellowed my last words. “And my honor is fading. That is all that has protected you from my wrath thus far. You should run. NOW!”
Kat’s bracelet was shining like fire. Her forehead was beading with sweat at the strain of wearing the charm, but she did not falter. She glared at Rosso.
He broke. Instead of slinking to the door of the balcony, as I’d thought I could make him do, he bolted. He fled through the door, turning the handle noisily and leaping from the wide platform.
Before I dashed after him, I took in the fact that Safyr was now in the doorway. He would handle Brick when he awoke. If I could count on him to watch out for Kat and Andres, I was free to give chase to Rosso.
I followed, clambering over the railing and jumping. The exhilaration of turning into a dragon in the air was one of my favorite things in any world. The wind rushed past my ears, sweeping over my two-legged body, and then along my dragon scales as I shifted. Instead of falling, I was now rising through the air as my broad blue wings beat against the warm night breeze.
There would be time to fly for pleasure later. I would take Kat for joyrides on my back, and when she was ready, she would fly at my side. I would wait for as long as it took until she asked me to mate with her.
When she did, I would give her my essence in the ritual bite of mating, and she too would be a dragon for eternity.
First, though, there was the small matter of the red dragon currently beating a retreat. He could not be allowed to leave without finishing this.
Rosso. You are no Count here. You are only a pathetic loser, overreaching your power with your unending ambition.
He wheeled to face me. Your pet human uses tainted magic. That is not the work of dragons. It stinks of peasant witch. His distaste for the magic of the bracelet was no match for his shame at knowing he was beaten.
I closed with him, breathing fire. I felt reckless, no longer bound by the honor of my House. I might even try to kill him.
My claws flexed powerfully. I would tear him apart for his folly of ever dreaming that he could force Kat to be his mate. I would destroy him for coming between us.
No.
The voice in my head was as clear as a bell. It was Kat.
She was right.
I did not need to give up everything that made me who I was. All I needed was one signature.
What? Rosso’s confusion was palpable.
I shouted my laughter at his question. You thought that you could turn the laws of this land to your purpose. Right? Well this should close the deal.
In the night air, as we flew, I sent him a vision of the contract that he had used to threaten Kat all this time.
That day, back on Roatán, when the local clerk had come to deliver the papers, I should have known immediately that they had all the marks of a dragon plot. It had been a devious plan, but it was also easy to finish, now that I had him flying scared.
I now added to the contract. In the vision I held in his mind, I contributed a final clause that would discharge the debt entirely. It detailed the cash payment that Kat had already left at the attorney’s office back at the island. It stated that this was to be considered to be payment in full.
There. Now sign this and take your stupid contract away.
No. Rosso wanted to resist, but I knew he was faltering.
You will not win her. If the only way you could make Kat your mate was to trick her into consenting to marriage, then you must see that you are finished here. She will never choose you.
He tried one last time. And if I refuse to sign?
My patience grows thin. I trumpeted a threat into the night sky. Flames filled the air, leaving a scent of smoke all around me. I will tear you apart limb from limb. Watch me.
Rosso’s red dragon form twisted through the air, making one last attempt at attacking me, but his ferocity was half-hearted. He no longer had the will to make every action one of violence. Something had drained from him, some key part of his evil was no longer there.
His red eyes glinted at me in the moonlight. Then he threw back his head in disgust. Fine.
He said nothing else. In another moment, the darkness around me was still and quiet. He had flown away, over the ocean. The last I saw of Count Rosso was his red-scaled tail as he vanished into the heavy Florida air.
He would return home, now that he was no longer frozen in the form of a two-legged creature with no magic of his own. I was glad of that. If I ever saw him in my club again, I would have to reconsider my promise not to kill him.
Kat.
She was the only thing that mattered to me. Her safety was paramount.
Even knowing that she was safe with her brother and with Safyr, I still added as much speed as I could to my flight. I turned back to her building, to the balcony from which I had flown.
I had the contract, held tightly in my mind. Rosso’s signature, left by the power of his thoughts, was there, fresh and now permanent. He no longer had any business with Kat.
But I did.
My business with her was far from finished.
I flew, like an arrow, to her.
Chapter 21: Kat
When Cobalt returned, he was oddly calm. I’d never seen my dragon bodyguard so centered.
“Look at you,” I murmured, as I watched him touch down onto his feet on my balcony. A moment ago, he’d had the form of a massive blue dragon. Now, he landed lightly in his two-legged form, not shaking the surface of the floor at all. It was stirring to watch the way he combined such physical power with a unique bodily grace.
Everything about the man represented grace to me. It was through his care and his acceptance of me that we had finally found
closure on the matter that had haunted my family for so many years, even before I knew of it.
He raised his head and met my eyes with an intensity that made me gasp. “No, look at you.” He brushed his hair back with an impatient gesture, then closed the distance between us in only a few strides. “You really know how to run things, don’t you? With you at the helm, we found a way to close Rosso in his own trap. He has signed the contract, agreeing that you have paid the debt in full.”
I hardly knew how to answer. “I know you thought it was too risky,” I allowed. “For a little while there, I was sure you’d been right. I can’t tell you how it scared me to see you lying there on the roof.” My voice broke as I remembered the sight of his crumpled form.
Cobalt took me in his arms, pulling me to him tightly. His strong forearms held me against him while his hands caressed my hair. As usual, the long strands were everywhere, waving in the evening breeze and catching themselves on my face. When I reached up to try to untangle a lock of hair, he gently did it for me. He moved back a little to look into my face.
With the tip of his finger, he lifted my chin. Maybe he wanted to see if I was crying.
“Of course you’re not,” he laughed. “It would never cross my mind that a woman who was strong enough to outwit a dragon would dissolve into tears.” His full lips smiled encouragingly at me, teasing me into returning the grin.
“No, you’re right. It’s true that I was worried about you, but I wasn’t exactly afraid for myself. I’ve always trusted you. I just didn’t know it.” I whispered the last words, just before his mouth met mine. His kiss was gentle. His hand stroked my cheek as though I was something very precious.
He spoke into my ear. “Do you know the line about women wanting to be seen as rational creatures instead of fine ladies?”
I burst out laughing. “No, but let me guess. Jane Austen?”
He looked at me solemnly. “Yes, of course. Persuasion. She goes on to say this: ‘None of us want to be in calm waters all our lives.’”
“Aha.” I felt a sense of rightness wash over me. “You’re right. That is just how I feel. Although, after all this, I could go for being becalmed for just a little while.”
Suddenly, I became increasingly aware that his body against mine was naked. I knew I ought not to even notice such a thing. These dragon shifters were always unclothed when they returned to their manly forms. It did not have to mean anything was about to happen between us.
Or, in fact, maybe it did.
Cobalt was softly kissing my neck now. His lips lingered on my skin as if we had all the time in the world. “Kat, my Kat,” he murmured. “I think we should spend some time together, with you just as naked as I am right now. It hardly seems fair for me to be the only one to enjoy the comfort of being without the encumbrance of clothing.”
I slid my hands down his back, pulling his taut body to me. I felt the hardness of him. I would willingly have shed every stitch of clothing that I wore in a moment. He could rip the white sundress from me if he wanted. I laughed. “It does seem unfair.”
As I took him by the hand to lead him inside, I saw Safyr ushering Andres and Brick from the apartment.
“Where will they go?” I asked.
“To the club. Safyr will take fine care of Andres. It will be an adventure for your brother. He is not as shy as he once was, you know.” Cobalt hesitated for a moment before continuing. “As for Brick, I’m not sure. I believe Rosso will return home without helping him.”
“He will not share his magic with Brick?”
“No. And neither will I. But he will find a way home in time. It does not trouble me.”
I held his hand as we made our way to my bedroom. Our fingers were linked together, but even in this moment of intimacy, I was afraid to ask the question that loomed in my mind. Before we reached the door to my room, I forced myself to say the words.
“Will you go home as well? I don’t think I need a bodyguard anymore.”
Cobalt stopped to look into my face in wonderment. “Of course not. Do you not know this yet? I will stay here with you forever.”
I had to steady myself against the door frame. It was as if I could breathe again, after a moment of almost forgetting how.
“You will, truly? You would give up your position as Captain of the Guards?”
“I already have,” he answered. “We will live here in this world, running the club together. I know that you are not yet ready to become my mate. That is fine. We can still be together. When you are ready, you will tell me. Until then, I will stay with you and love you without expecting anything in return.”
“Not anything at all?” I was teasing him now, running my hand lightly up his arm. The strength I felt in his body was mesmerizing to me, and yet I knew it was nothing compared to the honor and discipline that filled his spirit. This dragon man had kept his head under the pressure of battle. He had remembered who and what he was, and he had listened to me. My satisfaction at knowing he heard me was exquisite.
“Perhaps I might ask you to touch me here…” He moved my hand gently to a lower part of his body. “And perhaps I might want to do this…” His hand brushed my breast with a touch that was light, then insistent. When he rubbed his thumb against my nipple, my breath caught in a gasp.
“Well, you see, that’s the thing.”
I had meant only to continue the joke, but something must have been too serious in my tone. Cobalt stopped his playful caresses and looked wary. “What? Kat, is there something you want to tell me? Do you not want this?”
I gathered my wits about me. I would need them.
“My dragon, my Cobalt. There is something I need to tell you.” I hesitated, then said it all at once. “I am ready. I want to become your mate now. Right now, this minute. It is all I want in the world.” I leaned into him, thinking I would take comfort from our closeness.
Instead, it was as if a bonfire caught all at once between us. The heat that swirled around us wrapped us into our own world. I felt the exhilaration of knowing that we were meant for each other, forever.
Cobalt groaned. He felt it too. I could see the passion blazing in his eyes. “Kat, you are everything to me. I may be a Captain without any Guards…”
“And I am a Captain without a boat…” I laughed, feeling easier in my soul than ever before in my life.
“But this will be all we need.” With those words, so sure of our happiness now that we were embarking on a new life as two dragons, linked forever in our love, Cobalt pressed his mouth on mine.
The kiss was as hot and enfolding as if we now existed inside a whirlwind of fire. We would never return to that old life where we had not known we were fated to be mates.
And that was fine.
Somehow, we stumbled together into my bedroom, where he became mine, and I became his.
Forever.
I hope you enjoyed the second book in the Elterian Shifters series! If you had fun reading it, please consider taking the time to leave a review to help others find out about it.
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xoxo,
Kendal
Also by Kendal Davis
Elterian Shifters:
Dragon Count
Wind Ridge Shifters:
Stallion’s Gem
Dragon’s Aria
Wolf’s Treasure
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