A Way to a Dragon’s Heart

A Way to a Dragon’s Heart

A Therian World Novel

Xakara

Published 2011

ISBN 978-1-59578-878-8

Published by Liquid Silver Books, imprint of Atlantic Bridge Publishing, 10509 Sedgegrass Dr, Indianapolis, Indiana 46235. Copyright © 2011, Xakara. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the author.

Manufactured in the United States of America

Liquid Silver Books

http://LSbooks.com

Email:

[email protected]

Editor

Devin Govaere

Cover Artist

Amanda Kelsey

This is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents and dialogues in this book are of the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is completely coincidental.

Blurb

Dragon Shifter Kryssa Drake works twenty-hour days, seven days a week racing toward a sabbatical and hiding from the dating world after a devastating break-up that left her questioning her sense of self. The highlight of her day is the two hour lunches spent listening to Near Human, Xander Luciano, co-owner of Luciano's Deli across the street, and living vicariously through his on-again, off-again relationship with Avian, Caleb James. Over the years and countless intimacies of their friendship, Kryssa has grown to love Xander and the idea of Xander and Caleb but ideas and potential are not enough to brave the pain of the past so soon.

Pastry Chef and Near Human, Xander Luciano, has spent the last two years trying to charm Kryssa out of her vow of a five year isolation following her break-up. He's spent that same two years sorting out his feelings for his college sweetheart, Caleb, and trying to figure out a way to pin the restless Avian down or to finally make peace with a few months of happiness at a time. When Caleb opens the pastry café they always dreamed about and invites him to become a partner, Xander sees the flicker of hope that maybe half of his dream is about to come true. When he's volunteered by Kryssa's brother and boss to assist her in her current projects as well as help her relax in his cabin up north, Xander thinks his persistence and culinary skills just might help him have it all.

Sometimes the only way to get a good man to settle down is to have a good woman help. And oft times the most direct way to a Dragon's heart is through her stomach.

Dedication

To Virginia, who believed. And to Kym, who made it possible.

Glossary

Afterspace

A mental and emotional space achieved post orgasm, or energy exchange between two or more preternatural beings. An altered perception of self and a lover post orgasm.

Bonded-Sibling

The sibling closest in age to a newborn Therian.

Clutch-Mate

Therian siblings or extended family within the same generation.

Compass

Four lovers in a polyamorous relationship.

Dormant

A Therian that has reached adulthood without shifting, but who still resonates clearly as Therian.

Dragon-Kin

An Avian or lesser Saurian who exhibits Dragon traits with suspected Dragon ancestry.

Erosine

Living Vampires with reproductive capabilities who feed on sex and love.

Fae-blooded

Any individual who exhibits Fae traits, regardless of percentage or proof of Fae ancestry.

Near Human

Any human with obvious preternatural traits, regardless of percentage or proof of preternatural ancestry.

Therian

Any individual able to shift between a human and animal form, able to take on a blended form. An individual that resonates with their shifter ancestry spiritually, regardless of ability to shift; see also Dormant.

Witness

The first Therian to experience a fellow Therian’s initial shift, or emergence from Dormancy.

Chapter One

“So, you like, get scaly, and big, and stuff?”

Kryssa Drake gritted her teeth and counted to five. What she wanted to do was get scaly, and big,
and stuff
, and eat the annoying young woman following her around the office loft, but Human Resources had warned her about doing that again. Not that she’d actually eaten the other temps, but the way that last one had hollered you’d have thought she had him half swallowed when security showed up. It’s what they got for sending irritating, yet crunchy and salty-good humans during her period. It was a conspiracy.

Firmly ignoring the too-cute, too-blond, too-perky Barbie clone, Kryssa continued the tour to the break room, explaining the shelving and territorial marking of foodstuffs. Just when she thought the dedicated over-talking of the girl had imparted a clue to the temp, it—she—took Kryssa’s arm.

“You’re like, warm and stuff.”

She gave a slow blink as she looked at the girl. Taking that extra breath before speaking, just like they’d taught in anger management, Kryssa tucked a glossy black spiral curl behind her ear and sighed.

“The air conditioner is on low, and it’s eighty-nine degrees outside, not to mention I’m Therian and run hot. What exactly is the mystery?”

The bubbly twit smiled, tilted her head, and gave an affectionate squeeze, confirming the suspicion she had indeed originated from the head cheerleading rung of hell.

“Well, the whole cold-blooded thing, silly. Dragons are reptiles, right?”

Kryssa stared at the porcelain hand on her arm. It stood out against skin the color of gingersnaps, its paleness making it seem delicate and outright fragile. With that in mind, along with a clenched jaw, mental counting exercise, and thoughts of sitting through yet another
Anger Management and You
course, Kryssa managed not to crush the thin wrist as she removed the offensive touch.

“Regardless of what we shift into, Therians are mammals. We’re all hot-blooded.”

And hot-tempered and just plain hot when in a thriving environment, but that was neither here or there. Kryssa needed something to calm her nerves before she forgot herself and a simple orientation became a full-blown situation. A quick rooting through the fridge produced a large tub of raw vegetables. Almost before the top was fully off, several baby carrots disappeared into her mouth.

“Ooo, you eat vegetables too?” A slow continual nodding of the head followed the question, a trait that took the temp all morning whenever something challenged her to think too hard.

Kryssa crunched louder and groaned. “We’re omnivores, you idiot.” The last two words came out a mumbled wreck that bought her a little extra time for decorum.

“Oh yeah, okay, right. So, um, just between us girls, have you ever eaten anyone, Chrissie?”

Time’s up
. “No, but give me a minute.”

Big blue Bambi eyes blinked over at her. “I’m sorry, I didn’t understand you.”

I’m not the only thing she doesn’t understand, by a long shot.
“I said give me a minute. I have to take care of something.” Kryssa backed away slowly, the way you escape from a dog you think might be rabid. Or in this case, one severely mentally stunted, and therefore dangerous to your dry cleaning bill with the slobbering and the pawing. “Get familiar with the cabinets and snack machine and I’ll be back.”

Broccoli florets, raw cauliflower, and more carrots disappeared in the hundred yard dash to a neutral corner. An open concept conference room became her refuge as she ducked through the glass double doors and hopped up on the conference table. She considered the meeting going on at the time just a minor inconvenience she could generously overlook.

“Kryssa, can we help you?”

She looked to the company’s CEO and shook her head.

“Nope. I’m good. Nice suit.” She reached out and fondled the material. “Did I buy you this one?”

The handsome, regal, professional air collapsed in on itself as he looked at her. She reached up and brushed a dark lock of hair from his forehead. It was the same glossy jet black, but had the barest wave to it, unlike the tight curls pinned back off her face and spilling down her back. She couldn’t help but smile at the face, several shades lighter with its olive hue, yet otherwise incredibly similar to her own.

“Yes you did, Kryssa. Nice jeans.”

Funny, it didn’t sound like a compliment. She looked down at the black tailored jeans, matching cropped three-quarter sleeve blazer and white lace cami, unable to find anything wrong. “What? I’m still in head-to-toe Armani. Classic black and white, down to the Italian ankle boots, business casual at its finest. How can you complain, Nicky?”

Dominic Drake sat back and shook his head. “My baby sister just came in eating the equivalent of an entire salad bar and sat on my conference table to crunch her way through the middle of my business negotiations. Where should my list of complaints begin?”

That didn’t leave a lot of room to argue with him, but with family, such a thing is hardly a deterrent to trying. She popped another carrot into her mouth and looked to the oval table. “First, this is
my
conference table. Your conference table would be two floors above, up the hall from your office. You came to my floor, and for the next two months until my sabbatical starts and I escape this place for a while, it’ll be run my way. As Chief Liaison Officer, I like to liaise in comfort so we do things rather informal here.”

She leaned across the table, smiling at the childhood friend at its other end. “You’re going to accept the merger right, Jimmy? You always were. Your sister told me last week. This is just a bit of show in order to ensure you get the east coast offices; which, let me tell you, Nicky is completely prepared to give to you. So you all may as well take an early lunch, business done.”

Dominic stood abruptly and picked her up, carrying her from the room without another word. As distractions went, it worked, and she munched contently as he strode down the hall, giving the smallest grunt when he finally plopped her down on the receptionist desk in her outer office.

“Where’s your assistant?”

The contentment vanished and more vegetables disappeared. She muttered around the mouthful. “She’s on maternity leave, remember?”

She watched Dominic look around the office like he expected the object of his question to materialize out of nowhere. “Where’s the
temp
they sent over this morning?”

When she didn’t answer right away, he grabbed the plastic tub. After a bit of a wrestling match, he secured it and held it out and above her reach in ransom.

“Where is the temp, Kryssa? Tell me now if we need someone from clinic to come up.”

She graced her brother with a begrudging grin. “No, we don’t need medical personnel. I left her in the break room. She’s probably trying to figure out if the screen on the microwave gets cable.”

Giving up on getting the veggies back, she leaned back against the desk, propping herself up on her hands.

“Look, I’m sorry I barged in on your ‘Playskool, My First Meeting’ and everything, but you’ve got to send that girl home while she’s still in one piece. She keeps asking me asinine questions, and she touched me, Nicky. She
touched
me. She wanted to check if I was warm-blooded. You and I both know, I’m going to be checking
her
blood if she touches me again.”

Dominic ran his hand over his face. “At least you haven’t thrown her out of a window like the last time someone touched you.”

Kryssa’s jaw dropped open. “First of all, as an Avian, he should have known better. Second, we were only twenty stories up, for a WereFalcon that’s playground level; he would have landed safely in his sleep. Third, not only did we still get the account, but he thanked me for the compliment to his virility and he asked me out.”

“And as I recall you said no.” Dominic nodded and looked around the office. “Maybe we’d run into this a lot less if you’d said yes. If not to him then to someone.”

Kryssa crossed her arms and stared at him, speaking through clenched teeth. “My sabbatical hasn’t started yet.”

“I know that, and you don’t have to mentally measure me for a coffin, Krys. I’m not talking about a relationship. I just think you need another focus. What about Xander? He seems great from everything you say. When’s the last time you had sex anyway?”

Kryssa slid back on the desk and folded her legs tailor fashion. “Don’t bring this down to sex and stress relief, Nicky. I could sleep with the entire Human Resources department and that girl would still be only slightly smarter than a bag of hammers. Why are you making this about me?”

Dominic rubbed his chin. “Let me think. The temp agency keeps sending people to this office and none of them last a full day. I’m sure there must be a common denominator in this equation somewhere.” He popped a carrot into this mouth.

“Hey.” She reached for the tub again. “Don’t eat my food. It’s the only thing keeping her safe. At my last check, humans don’t fly or bounce, and I doubt what’s-her-name will take any compliment at an abrupt departure from this floor via window if she survives it. Do you really want to hold my coping tools hostage and thus be directly responsible for the resulting paperwork?”

He gave Kryssa back the container with a shake of his head. “All right, I see your point. Eat up.”

He paced in a tight circle, working through the no-win situation. Kryssa smiled around her vegetables. She came from a truly handsome family, and Dominic personified all it meant to be Dragon. He would fix things and look great doing it. “How is Pam doing? Am I going to be an aunt any time soon? I mean to actual
children
finally?”

“Pam’s fine, and the boys are a full seven years younger than you; they’re babies and don’t change the subject. We have to figure this out. We’re under a deadline that that
you
set. With the boys in Tokyo and your interns not back from Sydney for two weeks, you’re short-handed. This has to go smoothly, Krys. Our clients and sister companies are all incredibly nervous.”

Kryssa couldn’t help but smile. “Why are they nervous, Nicky?”

Dominic closed his eyes and took a deep breath before his own smile broke free. “Because when you’re not tossing potential clients out of windows, you’re the best. You know what people want to hear and how to give them what they want.” He walked over and took her face in his hands. “What I want is for this to work. You’re good, but you’re not good enough to do your job and the grunt work portion of phone calls and files and still make deadline. You need the help.” His expression became pleading. “I’ll make sure she’s talked to and doesn’t touch you again. Okay, Krys?”

She sat the tub down with a heavy thump. “Talked to?
Talked
to? Nicky, she asked me if I’ve ever eaten anyone. Talking isn’t going to cut it.” She visibly fought to sound reasonable. “Look, I’m already ahead of schedule. I don’t need an assistant. I’m fine. Send her home.”

Dominic stepped back and put his hands in his pockets. “There are a million small, mundane things to be done that required another pair of hands. Surely the girl can’t be that bad.”

“She is that bad, Nicky. And why did they send an unindoctrinated human anyway? Especially one from an under-funded public school? We should have a no human policy for the company. In fact, I’m instituting it right now.”

A third voice joined in from the hall. “Um, maybe I should just go.”

Kryssa looked past Dominic to the young man in the hall with the lunch cart. Salvation. There were few things that good food and good company couldn’t cure, and what waited in the hall definitely qualified as both. Kryssa hopped off the desk and breezed past Dominic. “I didn’t mean you, Xander. Besides you’re only Near Human, three quarters hardly counts at all.” She leaned over the sleek aluminum cart and inhaled, returning the breath to the world as a near moan. “And useful. You’re very, very useful.”

Xander opened the top of the waist-high deli cart and pulled out a foil wrapped sandwich the size of her arm. He presented it to her with a flourish. “Italian Beef, dipped twice so the bread soaked in just the right amount of juices and possessing enough cheese for an entire dairy case. Exactly as you like, my dear.”

Dominic laughed when she didn’t even bother to walk off, opening the end and taking that first ecstatic bite. She’d had enough feedback to know watching her eat rated as a full-out sensuous experience that came with its own FCC guidelines. Few people ever got to experience full enjoyment mode. Fortunately everyone in the room had made the cut a long time ago.

“Oh gods, it’s incredible. Just like your timing,” she mumbled.

Xander smiled, and Kryssa smiled back. It didn’t come with a choice, like the movement of stars across a night sky. She gave her brother a suspicious glance when he blocked her view of that smile by walking a circle around Xander.

“So, Xander…” Dominic clapped him on the shoulder and looked eye to eye with him—impressive for a Fae-blooded, considering her brother stood a touch over six feet, six inches barefoot. “How are things across the street at our beloved Luciano’s?”

Kryssa made a dismissive sound. “If you didn’t rely on catered meetings through the company’s commissary, you’d know they just finished renovations for their fiftieth anniversary and added to the menu.”

Dominic crossed his arms. “Really? Your grandfather must be so proud. I remember when Mr. Luciano opened the summer of my first full time shifts here at seventeen. He had a very clear vision of what he wanted. I remember being fascinated watching it all come together. Now a third generation of Lucianos are running things and expanding. How long have you worked there now, Xander?”

“Nearly his entire life.” She waved them both into her inner office, walking ahead of them as she spoke. “He’s been there every summer since he was seven. Xander’s been full time since coming back from university and becoming co-owner with his brothers.”

She dropped into the large high-back chair and gestured for them to sit.

Dominic offered his hand. “It’s official? Congratulations. I had heard your dad retired, but I didn’t know you boys had completely taken ownership. You’re only thirty, right? The youngest in the family, like my baby girl here?”