Stones of Dracontias

by N. D. Jones

  She laughed, then moaned when he spread his legs and thrust upward.

  “And tight.”

  He did it again.

  “And wet.”

  Armstrong was so close. From her harsh breaths, so was Kya.

  “A compromise, Bloodstone Dragon.”

  “Mmmm, not now. Later.”

  Knowing she wouldn’t listen to him as long as she was on top and in the power position, Armstrong flipped them over. Not as smoothly as Kya had done but he’d stayed inside her, which was all that mattered.

  Her growl of annoyance had him wrapping Kya’s right leg around his hip and driving into her with long, deep thrusts. In a matter of seconds, her growls evened out to pleased groans.

  “A compromise.” Armstrong stopped and waited for Kya’s eyes to focus on him. When they did, he said again, “A compromise. Please.”

  Her hands cradled his face again. “What’s the compromise?”

  “I won’t accept my wish from the Aragonite Star Dragon. I’ll live what’s left of my human life, spending as much time with you and Elijah as your duties to Buto will allow. In exchange, Kya, I only ask, when I’m old with a well-lived life behind me, you’ll come to me and grant my wish. I know the compromise doesn’t solve the issue of the possibility of Westmore being wrong. I don’t know how to get around that except to say, if the worst happens and you have to kill me, you’ll know you haven’t denied me life but given me the death I earned.”

  The tears she hadn’t let fall when they were downstairs dropped now. Down the sides of her face, over her ears and onto the pillow below her head.

  “The first night on the rooftop of my apartment building, you asked me to be your human guide, a cross-cultural exchange you couldn’t fully offer in return. As a compromise, you agreed to grant me one wish and two questions. Since then, you’ve given me so many wishes, some I didn’t deserve or shouldn’t have expected from you. And you’ve answered hundreds of my questions except for the one I’ve never been brave enough to ask because dragons don’t marry.”

  More tears fell, and Armstrong began to push into Kya again, unable to deny them this rare stolen moment of carnal delight.

  “You have always asked for too much.”

  “I never asked for anything before I met you. As a child, I forced myself to accept the absence of my father in my life. With you, Kya, I can’t breathe for wanting you so much. Your bloodstone does more than heals. It brings love and grounds negative energy. I have faith in the power of your Stone of Dracontias, not because of what Westmore hypothesized but because I know my wish is also yours.”

  Armstrong made love to Kya, channeling his hopes and dreams for a shared Dracontias future into giving her pleasure and multiple orgasms.

  He grunted as he came, sweaty and loud and blissed out of his mind.

  A floorboard outside of the closed door creaked. “Dad-dy?”

  Wait. Had his son just—Armstrong, naked and partially erect, bolted out of bed and rushed to the door. He would’ve opened it too, as he was if a composed Kya hadn’t used her magic to dress him in boxers and a T-shirt.

  He opened the door and smiled down at his son. He’d gone to bed as a dragon and now stood, sleepy-eyed and the size of a five-year-old. Armstrong didn’t think he would ever get used to the difference between human and dragon development. Thin but strong arms raised. Armstrong didn’t hesitate to pick up his son and bring him into the bedroom.

  “He spoke.”

  “Yes, I heard.”

  “He said daddy. All my hard work paid off. Elijah’s first word was daddy.”

  “As I said, I heard.”

  “You’re jealous.”

  As usual, when he said something ridiculous, Kya ignored him. In a blink, she’d done away with the sex-scented sheets and replaced them with fresh linen. They both smelled of sex, which, thankfully, Elijah wouldn’t know.

  Armstrong settled himself and his son under the covers. Elijah went straight to his mother the moment his knees hit the mattress. She wore a sexy red nightgown he planned to strip off her come morning. That was if he could get their son back into his bed without waking him.

  Tucked against Kya and between them, Elijah wasted no time falling asleep, one hand fisted in his mother’s hair, the other in his mouth, sucking his thumb.

  He’d worry about the boy having buck teeth if he kept that up, but Elijah was a healing dragon. His teeth would be just fine.

  Armstrong caught Kya’s gaze over their son’s head, a mass of hair the child hated to have combed, but Kya refused to have cut.

  “A compromise?”

  “Yes,” he answered.

  On a long put-upon sigh, Kya, the Bloodstone Dragon, future leader of Buto and mother to his child, rolled her eyes like a true Knight female. “Fine. We have a compromise. If I’m forced to kill you, Armstrong Knight, I’ll make it bloody and quite painful.”

  “I love you, too. I’ll never ask for another wish.”

  “Liar.”

  “Okay, maybe one tiny wish in a hundred fifty years when you’re ovulating again or whatever happens to female dragons when they’re ready to conceive.”

  Present-Day

  “Mother, it’s time.”

  “I know.”

  Kya’s eyes drifted from Armstrong’s weathered face and to Elijah who held his father in his arms. She’d heard humans say, about the ninety-two-year-old Armstrong Knight, that he “looked good for his age.” To Kya, her kendi appeared frail and exhausted. Death danced around the corners of dull brown eyes that sagged more than focused.

  She thought she prepared herself well for this moment. The way tears slipped from her and hands shook, Kya knew she had not. Her diata could die tonight. If she did nothing, his human form would succumb to age. If she transformed him and he turned into a mindless Afiya, he would be lost to her and Elijah forever.

  “It’s what Dad wants.”

  “I know.” Eyes that reminded her so much of Armstrong stared back at Kya, watery and afraid. “You do not need to be here. Everyone will watch over your father.”

  Elijah shifted his father in his arms and glanced around the clearing. The entire Akata family stood in front of Armstrong’s cabin home on Buto. In honor of the human they all loved, they’d gathered in their human form to say farewell to the man they knew and, if all went well, to welcome a new Dracontias to their family.

  “I know I’m young, but I’d like to stay. Please, Mother.”

  Kya should make Elijah return to the Eshe Forest until it was done. She didn’t want his last memory of his father to be that of a ravaging dragon his mother had to put down like a rabid dog.

  Like his father, Kya could deny Elijah little.

  “Place your father onto the sleeping bag, then step back.”

  With careful movements, Elijah bent to one then two knees and settled Armstrong onto the black sleeping bag he’d had for years. For several minutes, the young dragon held his father’s hand and didn’t move. He understood, like all gathered, his father might not survive what was to come.

  Kya gave her son the time he needed to say what could be his final words to Armstrong.

  “I love you, Dad.”

  Weak, Armstrong raised a hand to Elijah’s cheek and wiped away his tears. “I know. You’re the best son a man could’ve ever hoped to have. If I cannot, take care of your mother for me. She’ll grumble that she’s the Bloodstone Dragon and can take care of herself. It’s a partial truth. Stay by her side and listen to her words of wisdom. She’s the smartest person I know.”

  Elijah laughed, pressed his cheek into his father’s palm, and then with slumped shoulders stood.

  “Come closer, Kya. I can barely see you.”

  No, not prepared at all for this moment. Armstrong understood the risks and had tried, since Kya brought him to Buto a week ago, to get her to speak with him about it so they could say their farewells. She’d refused. But she could no longer.

  Kya dropped to her knees beside Ar
mstrong. “Don’t make me say goodbye.”

  “Not goodbye, my Bloodstone Dragon. Never goodbye. Three words. You’ve only said them once. I’d like to hear them again.”

  Leaning over Armstrong, loose hair a curtain of black around his face, Kya kissed his forehead. His cheeks. His lips. “I love you.”

  “And I love you. I’ve lived a good life, Kya, much of it because of you and our son. I have no regrets, if this is the end. Any life I may get to live after this one is a bonus. So, don’t cry, my love. I’ll always be your diata.”

  Heart in her throat, Kya stood and stepped away from Armstrong. She didn’t trust Westmore. The man’s thought processes hadn’t worked like most humans. Yet, he had achieved something no Dracontias knew was possible.

  Kya had learned much from the Aragonite Star Dragon, who stood next to Elijah. Dragons, though powerful as one, were invincible as a group with a single-minded purpose. Today, Armstrong’s safe transition from human to Afiya was the Akata family’s single-minded purpose.

  If Westmore thought the magic from one Afiya’s Stone of Dracontias would produce a mentally stable dragon, then Kya reasoned the combined magic and might of ten would be that much stronger.

  Elijah’s blood may have resulted in a weak, impure version of a Kesin, but Kya had no intention of plying Armstrong with dragon’s blood. She may not have prepared for his passing, but Kya had given his transformation much thought.

  If she didn’t succeed, it wouldn’t be because Kya failed to dissect and address every option before deciding on the best plan of action.

  Her family, all except Elijah, who ran onto the cabin’s front porch for his safety, transformed into dragons. Kya did as well. As one, they lifted fifty feet into the air, a circle of gold and green dragons around the form of Armstrong Knight.

  In unison, they blew wisps of healing stone magic from their nostrils and onto her diata.

  Bloodstone.

  Aragonite.

  Lapis Lazuli.

  Sunstone.

  Soul Stone.

  Jade.

  Amethyst.

  Carnelian.

  Onyx.

  Citrine.

  Ten Stones of Dracontias, one mighty fog of transformative healing magic.

  Human science could never duplicate this, the giving of stone magic to birth an Afiya with a Stone of Dracontias.

  Kya saw the stone take form in the center of the magical fog. Armstrong’s stone, golden-brown with a silky luster.

  Collectively, they pushed the fog and gemstone downward. The stone would have to accept Armstrong and he the stone.

  Kya heard Armstrong’s deep intake of breath. He coughed. Choked. The fog formed a funnel, the tip of which was in Armstrong’s mouth. With labored gulps, he sucked down the stone and the magical fog.

  It was done then.

  Lowering to the ground, Kya and her family, still in a protective circle around Armstrong’s prone human body, they waited.

  “What’s going on? I can’t see anything. Is Dad all right?”

  “I don’t yet know. Be patient. If you must, transform and come sit behind me. You may not enter or join the circle, however.”

  Her son transformed quicker than she’d known him to do. Soon enough, Kya felt his smaller frame snuggled against her lower back.

  “Comfortable, Red Jasper Dragon?”

  “Yes, what will be Dad’s Dracontias name?”

  “Tiger’s Eye Dragon. Willpower, confidence, and good fortune.”

  “It suits him.”

  Kya agreed. But Armstrong hadn’t yet shifted, and he no longer breathed.

  Two excruciating hours later, the transformation began. Wrinkled skin, gray hair, and brittle bones curled in on themselves as golden-brown magic seeped from Armstrong’s eyes, nose, and ears and engulfed the human.

  Elijah stirred where he’d fallen asleep against Kya and tried to peer between Kya and Ledisi and to see what Kya could only gaze upon with awe and rapture.

  From the golden-brown fog of magic emerged a dark-brown Afiya, his chest and legs golden-brown and his eyes, which repeatedly blinked at the dragon’s around him, were a rich shade of gold.

  At that moment, Kya was sure she didn’t breathe. The thirty-foot dragon of muscle and might stood tall and strong, and Kya was afraid to trust the sanity she saw in the eyes that found hers.

  Unable not to, she inched forward, which gave Elijah enough room to dart past her and straight to the large golden-brown dragon.

  The red dragon skidded to a halt. Instinctively, Kya began to reach for her son with her tail.

  “Let me. I’ve always wanted to hold our son the way you do.”

  Excited, Elijah squealed when Armstrong wrapped his golden-brown tail around him and lifted until father and son were face-to-face.

  Her family drifted away, leaving Kya alone with her son and dragon mate.

  “You did it. I never doubted you, Kya. Not for one minute. Thank you.”

  He may not have. But she’d certainly doubted herself.

  “So, this is what it’s like to be a dragon. Except for looking down on everything, I feel the same.”

  Only Armstrong Knight could manage the impossible and make such an outrageous claim.

  Kya closed the distance between herself and Armstrong, Elijah pressed between them. Her head fell to Armstrong, and she caressed him in the way of familial dragons. Later, she would show Armstrong how mated dragons touched.

  “Will you teach me all there is to know about being a dragon?”

  “Of course. For a fee.”

  “A fee?” Armstrong placed Elijah on the ground, and the dragon ran around their legs, hyper and happy. “What kind of fee?”

  “Hmm, I don’t yet know.”

  Armstrong returned her caress, his tail finding the spot on her side he knew sent flutters of pleasure through her.

  “When you figure it out, let me know. In the meantime, teach me how to fly.”

  Elijah jumped onto Armstrong’s back and scrambled up his body until his neck lay propped on the top of his father’s head.

  “Flying takes a lot of concentration, Dad.” Elijah cut his red eyes at Kya, lowered his voice and whispered into his father’s ear as if she couldn’t hear him. “Mother is a stern instructor. Believe it or not, she’s worse than grandfather.”

  “Oh, really? Well, I can’t wait for your mother’s lessons.”

  He winked, a gesture she’d never seen by a dragon.

  “Say it again, Kya.”

  “I just said it.”

  “That’s when I was human Armstrong Knight. I want to hear it as the Tiger’s Eye Dragon.”

  “It will sound the same.”

  “I don’t think it will. Say it again.”

  Kya increased her pace, leaving Armstrong behind her. “You want too much,” she threw over her shoulder.

  “I’ve only ever wanted you. I love you, Bloodstone Dragon.”

  Kya stopped, waited for Armstrong to catch up. They faced each other, and she blew Bloodstone magic in his face.

  “And I’ve only ever wanted you. Now and forever.”

  THE END

  AN EXCLUSIVE SNEAK PEEK: DRAGON LORE AND LOVE: ISIS AND OSIRIS

  Prologue

  The Dragon Kingdom of Nebty

  Forests burned, dragons roared, and wings flapped in a deadly cacophony of violence and war.

  Dragons of all sizes and colors were in the air and on the ground, battling to the death over who would control the twin deity scepters of Wadget and Nekhbet.

  Nut, a blue-and-white sky dragon, growled at her mate when Geb used one of his two massive heads to shove her to the mouth of the Cave of Dep.

  “You stay here and protect the hatchlings,” he ordered as if the twin goddesses had left the earth dragon as the sole ruler of Nebty. They hadn’t.

  Glancing behind her at the cracked white shells and to the baby dragons huddled there, Nut understood Geb’s position, although the thought of leaving her mate set
the fire in her belly to boiling.

  “If I fall in battle, your sky magic and ferocity will be all that stands between the foolish among us from getting their claws on the scepters.”

  “I know.” Nut stepped closer to her mate, her snout going to one of his thick necks and rubbing. “You must not only defeat the traitors from among us who want the power of the scepters but also those in the Demon Kingdom who seek unfettered access to the human realm.”

  That was as close as Nut would get to acknowledging the very real possibility that her mate may not survive this dark and dangerous night. For years, the Demon Kingdom, led by King Sansabonsom, had sought to undermine the rules set forth by the goddesses after they’d sought eternal rest within the scepters, leaving Nut and Geb as the gatekeepers between the preternatural and human realms.

  Even as they spoke of Nut fleeing with their daughters and Geb remaining behind, sounds of warfare permeated the cold winter air, echoing with the sounds of bodies crashing from the sky in flaming scales of defeat.

  “Not all want the scepters. The strongest of our allies will stay and fight.” Geb lowered his heads and licked Nut’s face, an affectionate gesture she feared would be their last. “I need you to lead the others to safety, especially the young ones.”

  A stream of fire emerged from the darkness and behind Geb. The spray of molten heat slammed into the earth dragon. His wings, instinctively, snapped out and up to shield Nut and their hatchlings. With a bellow of fury, Geb leaped into the air, his wings taking him on a collision course with a lava dragon who possessed none of the earth dragon’s size or might.

  In a matter of seconds, Geb had one of his mouths locked around the dragon’s reddish-black neck and the other jaw clamped on a black wing. With a hard tug, he disconnected the dragon's wing and head from its body. Magma spurted and oozed. The dead lava dragon smashed to the charred ground with a resounding thud.

  Spitting out the wing and head, Geb turned to Nut, who still stood at the mouth of the cave. As they stared at one another, dragons not involved in the battle began to move toward her. Most of them were dragon mothers with their hatchlings, or dragons too young, old or small to fight on either side but old enough to help tend to the youngest in their party.