Prince Verrian_Dragon Echoes Compilation

by Rinelle Grey

  Chapter 11

  Lisa glanced in the rear-view mirror again, but the road behind them was empty.

  It was hard not to be jumpy. She couldn’t quite believe that they had managed to get out of that mess. She kept expecting the police to show up behind them. Or Paul.

  Or Rita.

  Even though Rita had assured them that she wasn’t going to call the police when they’d left her at a friend’s house, Lisa still found it hard to believe. The fact that she’d convinced her friend to sell them his old car for a reasonable price only helped a little.

  Lisa was glad she had only given the reporter a very bare bones version of Verrian’s story, with promises of more in the future, after she’d proved she could be trusted. Especially since Rita’s information on her informant had been next to useless. Rita didn’t even know the name of the young woman who had come up to her in the street. She’d only believed it because she’d been hearing rumours that something was going on for a few weeks.

  Lisa shouldn’t be surprised at the fact that the mining company had reported finding Taurian’s Mesmer chamber when they’d started digging, or that the librarian had told Rita about Gretchen’s strange visitor and frequent absences.

  In reality, it was surprising it had taken this long for something to come out.

  How they were going to continue to hide the dragon’s existence was the real question. It seemed Rita’s insistence that this was going to come out eventually could well hold some truth. But that wasn’t her problem. Karla and Taurian would have to deal with that one, with Verrian’s help. Right now, Lisa had a bigger issue.

  They still had nowhere to go.

  “We can’t go back to the lair,” she told Verrian. As if he didn’t already know. “Even if Rita’s informant doesn’t tell her anything, they could tell someone else.”

  “Where can we go then?” Verrian asked quietly. “It’s not safe to remain in town, but if we leave on our own, Ultrima is a real risk.”

  Lisa heaved a sigh. They couldn’t stay, and they couldn’t go. What other options were there?

  What they needed was somewhere that wasn’t Mungaloo, but where there were people.

  Then the idea hit her.

  She had no idea why she hadn’t thought of it before.

  “You can come back to the city with me.”

  “Back to… you mean, back to your home?”

  The thought of having Verrian all to herself in her apartment back at the city was both intoxicating and terrifying.

  His presence was so overpowering, and it constantly reminded her of how amazing it had been to sleep with him. Of how much she wanted to do it again.

  When they’d been stuck at her parents, and busy running from dragons, she’d been able to push it away. But if they were alone…

  Like they had been at the ruined house…

  Lisa shook her head. She couldn’t think about that now. Right now, they just needed to go somewhere away from all this.

  “We’ll be safe there,” she told Verrian. “And it’s far enough away, and there are enough people around that I don’t think Ultrima will bother us. So long as Rita keeps her word and doesn’t publish this, then we’ll be fine there until Karla and Taurian sort this out. Safer there than anywhere else.”

  “Are you okay with that?” Verrian asked, his expression unreadable.

  After all the mess she’d made, he was still worried about her. Lisa’s eyes filled with tears. He was the nicest person she’d ever met, and he wasn’t even human.

  She didn’t deserve his concern.

  “It’s my fault all this happened. If I hadn’t tried to talk you into leaving my parents, we’d still be safe. Rita wouldn’t have found out anything more about the dragons, much less seen proof of their existence, and you wouldn’t be…” Her voice broke.

  She didn’t even want to mention the fact that he wouldn’t be wounded if not for her.

  “Hey.” Verrian’s voice was soft, but it was his hand on her knee, sending a warm, wonderful flush through her body, that was almost her undoing.

  Lisa sniffled, holding back the tears with great effort.

  “You did the best you could,” he continued softly. “And the way you took that camera away from Rita and convinced her not to tell this story, that was amazing.”

  Lisa shook her head. She took a couple of deep breaths, trying to get her voice under control before she said, “That was nothing. All I did was snatch a camera and talk lots. It doesn’t even begin to compare to fighting a dragon.”

  “Yeah, like I did a good job at that.”

  Seriously? He still didn’t see it?

  The need to convince him that he wasn’t worthless stopped Lisa’s tears. “You did! You were amazing. You beat that other dragon. How can you not see that?”

  “He was distracted,” Verrian said flatly. “If you hadn’t yelled at Rita right when you did, he would have finished me. It had nothing to do with anything I did.”

  Lisa stared at him. “So, if it had been me fighting that dragon, I could have done the same thing then?”

  “I… Well, maybe not. But that’s just because I’m a dragon and you're human. If you were a dragon, I’m sure you could have.”

  Lisa outright laughed at that. “Yeah, me. Who freezes up as soon as she gets scared. Not a chance. But you, you didn’t even hesitate,” she insisted. “When the dragon was going to attack Rita, you just jumped in, even though you knew there was a very big chance he was going to beat you. That’s real courage. Way more than snatching a camera from a woman who isn’t any more threatening than you are.”

  “Well, what else could I do?” Verrian stared at her, honestly confused.

  Lisa’s heart swelled. The fact that he couldn’t see it just made it more adorable. “You’re amazing,” she told him.

  Verrian blushed bright red. “You’re more amazing,” he countered.

  It was Lisa’s turn to blush. She didn’t believe him, but it was very nice that he thought so.

  The moment hung between them, and Lisa was pretty sure there was something in there. Something that neither of them were prepared to come outright and say.

  Something she didn’t even want to think about, for fear of scaring it away.

  She cleared her throat. “Well, anyway, I do need to get back home. I’m going to lose my job if I don’t. So do you want to come?”

  She focused on the road, trying not to let the fact that Verrian was staring at her affect her.

  “I’d love to,” he said solemnly.

  Lisa smiled over at him. “Great.”

  Looking at him only reminded her of his wounds. Rita had convinced her friend to sell them a pair of jeans and paired with the leather jacket from Paul’s car, they covered most of the blood, but Lisa knew he wasn’t doing so well.

  Meaning she might have to sleep with Verrian again. She knew that was how Karla had healed Taurian back at the ruined house.

  It would be her duty, wouldn’t it?

  The fact that she’d enjoy it would just be a bonus.

  Chapter 24

  Verrian stared in awe as they drove down the street. It was three times as wide as the ones they’d driven on in Mungaloo and there were cars everywhere. Hundreds of them, all moving along in the same direction.

  It almost made him forget the pain from the many rents and tears in his skin.

  The cars didn’t seem to bother Lisa one bit, she just zipped in and out around them.

  On either side of the wide road were buildings, some small like the houses in Mungaloo, but some many times larger, big enough to fit twenty dragons inside.

  Verrian was impressed at how busy the humans had been in the three hundred years he’d been asleep.

  From what he’d heard from the elders, the humans had always been a resourceful bunch, even back in England, before the dragons had fled. Even so, this was far greater than anything he’d ever expected to see. It made all the other human accomplishments he’d heard of—swords,
bows and arrows, their stone buildings—look like child’s play.

  Excitement zinged through his blood, moving as fast as the cars moved along the highway veins of this city.

  What would he discover here? What were the humans up to? What wonders had they created? He was fascinated to learn more about them. Trouble was, his explorations were limited, there was no way a dragon could take flight here and not be noticed.

  Of course, that was a good thing. It meant that even if Ultrima could figure out where they were, he wasn’t going to turn up out of the blue. Not in dragon form anyway.

  The wound on his arm rubbed against the leather of the too small jacket, reminding Verrian his fighting skills left a lot to be desired. He’d had enough trouble fighting a minor dragon, he didn’t want to face Ultrima on his own any time soon.

  He should be safe enough if he remained in the human city. There were certainly enough people everywhere here that Ultrima wouldn’t risk showing up in dragon form. Even throwing around dragon magic would be a big risk. Without his magic or his dragon form, Ultrima wasn’t much of a threat.

  That thought made Verrian feel almost free, for the first time since he’d woken up.

  “Where’s your home?” he asked, turning away from the window towards Lisa.

  Her smile was wide, and for a second, he felt like he was sharing this freedom with her. She looked far more relaxed than she’d been since he’d met her. “A little further, I’m in the inner city. Are you hungry? Do you want something to eat?”

  Verrian’s stomach rumbled in response. Hungry was an understatement. But he looked around, confused. “What can we eat here? There’s no food and nowhere to cook.”

  Lisa’s grin made him feel like he was missing something, something that should be obvious. Her voice was happy though, as she said, “I’ll show you.”

  She zipped in between several cars so quickly, Verrian couldn’t help wincing. How did all these cars drive around and not crash into each other? If this many dragons shared such a small area of the sky, he was sure there would be collisions.

  She pulled onto a side road off the big one, and drove towards one of the buildings, a medium sized one this time.

  Verrian expected her to pull over and get out. He hadn’t seen one of the human’s shopping places, but Lisa had explained how they worked. Lisa didn’t stop though. She drove past all the parked cars and onto a small road behind the building.

  She pulled to a stop near a red post and rolled down her window.

  “Please place your order,” a voice said out of nowhere.

  Verrian looked around, but no humans were nearby. The voice had to be coming from the red post. He wrinkled his nose, trying to get a closer look without being too obvious.

  How had the human managed to get their voice inside the post? It certainly wasn’t big enough for an actual person to be inside. The voice sounded a little like the disembodied voices on Lisa’s phone. They must work in a similar way. He was fascinated, and would have liked to ask more, but Lisa was busy replying to the voice.

  She spoke so quickly, a lot of what she said was lost on Verrian. He did hear something about chicken though.

  It only made him feel more hungry.

  “Please drive down to the first window,” the post said.

  Lisa moved forwards. “It’s a drive through,” she explained to Verrian. “They cook the food inside, and we can buy it from out here. Saves people getting out of their cars.”

  Verrian nodded. Ahh, another human invention. He could approve of this strange building that dispensed food to the cars.

  Lisa pulled up at a window, and this time a human leaned out. “That’ll be twenty-six fifty,” she said with a smile. “Do you want to pay by card or cash?”

  She glanced over at Verrian, her expression bored, but even though he smiled in response, her eyes widened as she took in his borrowed clothes. He tried not to let his smile slip, but he couldn’t help remembering that there were one or two bloodstains that probably didn’t look good.

  “Card thanks.”

  The woman’s gaze went back to Lisa as she handed the woman one of the pieces of plastic. Verrian watched closely as she pressed some numbers on the small device the woman handed out the window. Even the human’s money seemed strange and foreign.

  Once they’d finished with the card, the woman handed Lisa a big box that smelled delicious.

  The woman in the drive through stared at Verrian again, but he avoided looking at her, focusing instead on accepting the box that Lisa handed to him as they drove away from the window.

  Verrian filled his nose with the tempting smells emanating from the box.

  “Go on, open it,” Lisa urged with a smile.

  Verrian didn’t need to be told twice. He pulled at the box until it opened, then picked up one of the pieces of chicken inside. It tasted as delicious as it smelled.

  By the time he and Lisa had finished everything in the box, he’d come up with a plan. He needed to learn everything he could about this human world. This was a big opportunity for him to actually use some of his skills—getting on with others and learning about them—to help his clan. Even if he couldn’t fight, he had a chance to discover something that might be just as useful.

  If the humans’ technology could make mundane tasks like getting food this much easier, surely they must have technology that could help in their fight.

  It could be the answer to defeating Ultrima.

  *****

  Since they were clearly in the city, Verrian had thought they must be nearly at Lisa’s house. He was looking forward to arriving there, where they would be safe while they waited for Rita to back off. While he was happy to spend more time with Lisa, what he really wanted was to get back to his clan and be able to help them.

  But Lisa kept driving, and the buildings around them grew taller and taller.

  Verrian tried to guess how many humans must live in this city, but the only answer he could come up with was ‘lots’. Many thousands. Many hundreds of thousands if the number of cars they passed was any indication.

  The sun was setting by the time they pulled in underneath one of the tall buildings.

  Verrian was exhausted and his wounds were a constant, painful ache. He needed sleep.

  Lisa parked the car, and then turned to him. “We’re here.”

  There were lines of exhaustion on her face too. Controlling the car for several hours must be even harder than sitting.

  She’d done all this for him. Verrian felt overwhelmingly grateful for her help, and a little guilty over all the trouble he’d caused for her.

  “Thank you,” he said quietly.

  Lisa’s nose wrinkled. “Thank you for what?” she asked. “I haven’t done anything.”

  Verrian gave a short laugh. “Sure, nothing at all. Only driven me all this way, fed me, and taken me into your home.”

  Lisa shrugged, looking uncomfortable. “It’s nothing. I owe you for all the trouble I’ve caused. Come on, let’s get upstairs and get settled in.”

  Verrian wasn’t going to argue with getting settled. He hid a wince as he climbed out of the car, the movement reminding him of every bite and scratch as his skin stretched. It did ease a little as he moved at least.

  He followed Lisa over to a big metal door and watched as she pressed a button with a small arrow pointing to the ceiling.

  “It’s an elevator,” she explained. “It will take us up to my apartment.” She hesitated for a minute, then added, “We might not be the only people in it, so if there are others, maybe best to save the questions until we get inside my apartment.”

  Verrian nodded. He wasn’t stupid. He’d already figured that asking questions in front of the other humans could give him away, but he didn’t blame Lisa for warning him.

  If anyone guessed he wasn’t a normal human, they were going to have issues.

  That was going to be the danger here. Not dragons, or reporters, but just ordinary people, and his lack of know
ledge.

  That’s why he needed to learn how this world works, so he could fit in without Lisa having to worry about him. He took notice of not only her actions, but the way she relaxed as they waited, shoving her hands in her pockets.

  Fitting in in the human world was going to be essential.

  This was something he could do. All it required was keen observation skills and a good memory. Both of those he had in spades.

  There was no fighting here.

  Strangely, he felt far less out of his depth in the human world than he had when fighting his own kind. The thought surprised him at first, but when he thought about it, it made sense. He’d always done far better at talking to people than physical fighting, and the humans weren’t so different to dragons, underneath it all. Their way of dealing with problems certainly seemed far more closely aligned to his own right now.

  Before the ‘elevator’ had arrived, an elderly couple joined them in waiting. Verrian tried to observe them without overtly staring, though they weren’t giving him the same courtesy.

  Their looks, as they stared at the leather jacket that wouldn’t do up and the bloodstained jeans, were clearly disapproving.

  He needed to fix his clothes. That was step number one to fitting in, clearly.

  The elderly humans didn’t say anything though, even when all four of them were squeezed into the small room. Verrian wasn’t sure what to expect as the doors slid shut behind him and Lisa pressed a buttoned labelled thirty-three.

  Verrian tried to ignore the fact that the confined space made him feel a touch nervous. Somehow, this felt different than a tiny cave.

  His stomach lurched. They were moving. Upwards. And quite quickly.

  Verrian held his breath for a few moments, but nothing seemed to happen, and after the initial movement, the ride was smooth. They stopped after a while, and the elderly couple got out. Verrian felt much better when it was just him and Lisa in the cramped room.

  He felt even better when the metal doors slid open again, and Lisa said, “We’re here.”

  Her statement though, was only partially true. She led him down a corridor with four doors, stopping in front of one labelled one hundred and thirty-four. She put her key in the lock, and opened the door.