by Marcy Jacks
“We’re really going to fly out?”
Tory held out his hand to him, waiting for Zack to take it. “You’ve flown with me before. Do you trust me?”
Zack slid his hand into Tory’s. “Yeah. Sure. You’ve got the whole Disney prince thing down pretty good so why wouldn’t I?”
Again, Tory laughed at him. Zack wasn’t trying to make the other guy laugh so much, but if he kept on doing it, then Zack was happy enough to be a little quirky for him.
The window led out to the fire escape, but it was positioned in a way that required a little maneuvering that Zack wasn’t entirely sure was legally acceptable, but whatever.
Zack would have thought it would be difficult for a man as large as Tory to get through, but he seemed to turn into a cat in the next instant as he got himself up and onto the fire escape with an excellent amount of grace that left Zack feeling all kinds of jealous.
Meanwhile, he grunted and groaned, pulling himself up to the fire escape out of his window, struggling to get his foot up and almost falling onto the steel grate before Tory steadied him.
“God, do you have to make everything look so amazing and easy?”
“I will do my best to keep from outshining you next time.”
Zack blinked at the man. Then he grinned and pointed at his nose. “Look at you now, making jokes. Ha ha, funny.”
Tory shook his head. “Would you like me to carry you, or ride on your back?”
His apartment was nowhere near as high as the top floor of the building where Tory lived, but a quick glance down showed him he didn’t want to fall. That dumpster down there didn’t look like it would make for a very soft landing, and he didn’t want to break his spine any time tonight.
“I think I’d rather you carry me—hey!”
He wasn’t ready. Tory did it so quickly, pulling Zack up and into his arms with a swiftness that threw him off a little, even scaring him a little, but it didn’t matter because then he was flying.
Zack screamed just a little, not as much as he screamed the last time he was pulled into the sky, but still, he had to force himself to clamp his mouth shut so he wouldn’t wake Mike or break Tory’s eardrums as they flew away.
The moon was still out, though the stars were difficult to see with so much light from the city in the sky.
Not that he was looking for stars, because as soon as Zack was in a position to be in more control of himself, as soon as he was capable of really looking around instead of panicking, he noticed the other dragons in the sky. They flew around, ducking and weaving like demons in the night.
They wouldn’t appreciate that comparison, so he’d never say it, but with the wings, and for some of them, even their tails, there was a dark beauty to watching their black silhouette soaring and gliding across the night and above the lights of the city.
Zack had never seen anything so lovely. Well, he’d seen this before. On TV and in pictures on the Internet. Sometimes when he was down on the ground and he looked up at the sky, he could even make out the small images of the dragons as they flew.
But that was nothing compared to how close he was to them right now.
They could be angels in the sky.
Which he even hated making that comparison because Zack despised it when people looked up to the dragons way more than they deserved. But being up here, he could kind of understand what the hype was about. He could see why so many people would be so interested in the dragons, and why they would want to idolize them.
He needed to say sorry to Mike at some point.
A booming sound off in the distance caught Zack’s attention. He looked over, and far away, where the flying silhouettes were much smaller, Zack saw bright flashes of light. Blue and orange fire, and even some electricity. The dragons were flinging it at each other as they had their match.
Zack tensed. “We’re not going to have your fight up in the sky, are we?”
“Absolutely not. I don’t have the proper harness for you.”
“Uh, I don’t think I’d want to have a dragon battle with you even if you had the harness.”
Tory nodded, though he seemed fixated on searching between the many dragons around him. As though he was looking for something.
“Fair enough, but in this case, we will be having this battle on one of the designated rooftops, or on the ground if you would prefer.”
“Wherever it’s most safe, I’m good.”
He was a bit of a coward and he wasn’t going to be ashamed of keeping himself alive. People could still die when dragons had their epic battles. They did have massive claws, teeth, and breathe fire, after all.
“Are you looking for them? Would they be out right about now?” Zack tried to look around himself, but even with the clear sky, he couldn’t see anything other than shadows flying around. If there had been no wind in his face, he would have still struggled to tell who was where.
“Every dragon is out and about this time of night. This is when business happens.”
“Fighting for territory?”
“Or money. Or mates.”
Zack tensed. “What?”
Tory smiled at him. “I have no intention of fighting with you as the prize. I already have that. I wouldn’t risk it.”
“So how would you get him to agree to the fight?”
“By paying him, of course. There they are.”
Zack’s stomach flung into his mouth when Tory suddenly took a nosedive, flying toward their target, soaring toward them at a speed that made tears rush down Zack’s cheeks, but then he evened out so well that Zack thought they’d touched the ground for a moment.
“Hey Boris!”
They were close enough now that Zack could mostly make out the facial features of the dragons flying around.
And that was definitely Boris.
Zack had wanted to forget what that asshole looked like, but now that he was here, now that he could see the man’s face again in the moonlight, it all came back to him. And he remembered that dickhead putting his disgusting lips on Zack, and he was pissed off all over again.
Any inkling of a doubt he might have had going into this immediately vanished.
Zack wanted to get his revenge. He wanted this asshole to get a beat down for what he and his stupid friends tried to do, and he was more than eager to help give it to him.
Boris, on the other hand, frowned at the both of them, as though struggling to recall them before his eyes widened and he snarled.
“You! Motherfucker, you’ve got some nerve showing up here.”
“It’s the sky, every dragon shows up here.”
“Yeah? And what do you think you’re doing to with that little clump of toilet paper there? You want a fight now that you think you got something?”
“You thought this clump of toilet paper was good enough to put your mouth on earlier, you shithead.” There was only so much trash talking Zack could take before he had to talk back.
“Yeah, well, pieces of shit like you beg me to put my tongue on them all the time, so it’s nothing new.”
Zack couldn’t resist. “You put your tongue on pieces of shit all the time? Right out of the toilet bowl and everything?”
He could see that he’d caught the other man, and it was funny as all hell watching him struggle to come up with something to say to that now that he’d cornered himself.
He just turned red in the face instead while Tory snorted a short laugh.
“No! Shut up!”
Tory did stop laughing, and he squeezed Zack just enough to give him the warning that he needed to stop, too.
Zack took the hint, even though he really wanted to keep humiliating this asshole. He might be stronger, and Zack had been scared of him when he was by himself, but with Tory here with him, Zack realized that he was just a big, stupid idiot, and if there wasn’t the strength difference between them, Zack would be able to happily run circles around this guy.
In a battle of wits, at least.
If he was by himse
lf, he would never mouth off to him, ever.
“What do you want?”
It bothered Zack how Boris managed to sound annoyed with hem, as though they were interfering with his plans for the night.
“I want to challenge you to a fight.”
“Piss off,” Boris said, not taking even a second to think about his answer.
“I’ll give you ten thousand dollars if you win. With a one-thousand-dollar prize even if you lose.”
Boris lifted a brow, clearly interested.
Zack felt the confidence dripping from Tory, and his own need to get revenge on Zack’s behalf. “You have ten seconds to make your decision, or else we will take out business elsewhere.”
“You’ve got a lover with you. A red-haired human to give you more power. What the fuck do I have?”
“I’m a wad of toilet paper, remember?” Zack said, sneering at him. “It won’t matter either way.”
“A thousand dollars if you lose and ten thousand to win. Take it or leave it.”
Boris took almost the full ten second to think about it, the longest ten seconds ever.
“We fight in the sky.”
“No, we find an empty skyscraper with a ring on it. I don’t have a harness for him and you’re not going to pull that shit.”
Boris glared at him, but there was nothing he could do about it.
“Fine. All right, let’s go then.”
“After you,” Tory said.
Boris nodded, though the look on his face suggested he knew he was going to pull something but had been thwarted. He angled his wings and flew downward, gliding toward a place where they could fight.
“You’re sure about this?”
Tory winked at him. “Do you doubt me?”
Now Zack didn’t even have to think about it. “Absolutely not. I trust you.”
Just for luck, he kissed Tory on the mouth.
Maybe his mate wasn’t expecting it, because he seemed to tense up a little. Just a little before finally melting into it and kissing Zack back.
Zack wasn’t just literally flying high now, and it was a shame when they had to pull away from each other.
“Right, want to go and teach this little idiot a lesson?” Tory asked.
“Absolutely.”
They flew after the man.
Zack was about to be in his first dragon battle.
Chapter Ten
There was a lot Zack didn’t know about how the dragon fights worked. Namely because he didn’t care about them before today. He never planned on being in one, and he never in a million years thought he would be mated to a dragon.
But there were a couple of things he did know.
The dragons owned this city and most other cities. There were public and private arenas for dragons to have their battles. It was their way of life. They made their money in the fights. They got their fame, their land, and sometimes their lovers in fights.
Thankfully, Zack had heard loud and clear that Tory had no intentions of offering him up as a prize to Boris if he lost.
Zack sensed his confidence in the fight. Even without Zack there, Tory was sure he was going to win. But because he did have Zack, he was also sure he was going to pummel Boris into the ground, and it would be a thousand dollars well spent.
Another thing, as they flew, Zack realized they were going to a public arena on one of the rooftops.
It would be government owned and there to prevent dragons from destroying anything valuable on the ground level whenever a fight did happen to break out.
Dragons loved their battles a little too much, and humans and dragons alike could only stand to have so many public parks destroyed, so much property damaged, before the arenas had been made. Most were free. Some had a charge in order to get in.
The one Boris landed on seemed to have someone already there, standing in their little tower and waiting for anyone to land.
Boris gestured to the sky before going to stand on his side of the circle, and the man in the tower climbed down, waiting for them to land.
“What was that?” Zack asked as they came down.
“He told him I’m to pay the fee.”
Zack hissed. “That dickhead. A thousand dollars isn’t enough?”
“Don’t worry, honey. I can get it, and it will be worth it.”
“Right,” Zack said, a little embarrassed.
He was going to have to remember that money wasn’t so tight for Tory. He could afford to throw a thousand dollars down to beat up another cocky, asshole dragon shifter, and he could afford to pay a fee when he was weaseled into it. He didn’t need Zack standing up for him in that regard.
Which didn’t stop him from being a little offended on Tory’s behalf, but all the same, he reminded himself that he needed to relax a little.
They landed, and because they were in the air, Zack’s knees were a little wobbly, but he managed to make it over to the man in the tower without falling over, which he was going to take as a good sign.
The man waiting for them seemed pretty official. He had a clipboard in his hands and requested both of their names before Tory produced a single gold coin, handing it over.
Zack never saw dragon gold before, not in person, and he tried not to stare at the coin as the guy in charge of this rooftop arena took it as though he saw things like that every day.
He probably did.
“All right, you get into your corner over there. You’re the mate?”
Zack tensed. “Uh, yeah, that would be me.”
The man nodded. “Right, you can go over in that tower over there.”
Zack looked at it. It looked an awful lot like the guard’s tower. Something to sit in and be kept out of the way.
He didn’t want to sit in it. What if it got between him and whatever he was supposed to be doing to keep Tory powered up?
“Can I just stand behind the white line of the circle?”
“Government arenas will not take any responsibility of any injuries you sustain should you refuse to keep to your tower.”
Zack swallowed hard.
“You can go to the tower. I’ll still feel you,” Tory assured him.
That didn’t sit right with Zack, though. In fact, it really bothered him.
“You promised to keep me safe, right?”
Tory really looked at him just then. “Yes?”
Zack couldn’t stop looking from his mate to the tower, to the line, and back again. “Then, I want to stand behind the line. I don’t want to be in a little box like that.”
He trusted Tory to keep him safe, to keep any flung projectiles from hitting him, and even if some fire got thrown around, he knew Tory would stop anything from hitting that tower if Zack happened to be in it, so standing behind the white line shouldn’t be a big deal.
Tory looked as though he wanted to protest this, but he gave in, thankfully. Zack was not in a mood to argue with his new mate, and he wanted to get this fight over with. The sooner the better.
Tory gripped his shoulders, and for the first time, Zack sensed a real worry in him.
“Don’t simply focus on me. If you get the impression there is a danger coming, go to the tower.”
Zack nodded. “I will.” He looked to what he figured was the referee. “Boris isn’t just allowed to attack me, right?”
“Attacks to any mates are illegal and are grounds for disqualification without payment of any previously agreed upon prizes,” he said. “But accidents do happen.”
“Great.” Zack pushed himself to his toes and pressed another kiss to Tory’s mouth. “For luck,” he said, stepping away from his mate and outside of the circle.
Tory grinned, and he didn’t look the least bit worried as he turned his attention to Boris, the both of them removing their clothes.
“Hey, wait a second,” Zack said, getting the attention of the referee again before he could go back to his own tower.
“The fight is about to begin. I need to get into position.”
�
�I know, but I need your help with something. How do I help Tory?”
The referee looked at him as though he’d just said something funny. “Pardon?”
“You know, help him? I mean, I’m his mate, and I’m supposed to help power him up, and he said he can already feel it, but I don’t feel like I’m doing anything or giving him anything at all.”
The referee’s brows shot right to his hairline beneath the black ball-cap he wore. “This is your first dragon fight?”
“Yeah?”
“You’ve never participated in one of these before? Not even as a dragon’s lover?”
Zack struggled to keep himself from glaring at the other man. “No. I’ve never done this before. How do I give him my energy? Or power? Or whatever it is?”
The referee kept looking at him in a way that suggested Zack really wasn’t going to get any help with this. He also backed off, not taking his eyes off of Zack and not giving him any answers either.
Just backing away like he didn’t want to touch Zack with a ten-foot pole right about now.
What the fuck?
Unprofessional, unhelpful asshole.
Did these arenas have rating systems online? Because if they did then this guy was getting a bad review when they were done here.
But there was nothing he could do about it now except for gather up the clothes Tory tossed aside. Even if he didn’t know exactly what he was supposed to be doing, that didn’t mean he was going to sit on his ass and do nothing at all. He would give Tory the strength he needed, somehow, and keep his clothes safe.
The referee climbed back up into his little box. He surveyed the fighters and turned on any extra lights that were needed before speaking into the microphone, going over the rules.
There was to be no going for the referee or any mates or lovers present, those were the first he went over. The next was that there was to be no attacking the other fighter’s eyes. No attacking the groin area. No continuing to attack if one of the fighters was pushed out of the ring, that was a loss. Attacking the lovers or mates or the referee was a disqualification, which would void any previous agreement the two parties made.