Amethyst Bound (8 page)

A jarring crash to my head threw me to the ground. It took three more hits before I pulled free of Ben’s mind.

The blows were punches to his head, not my own.

The outside lights turned the courtyard into an arena.

A giant purple dragon would be a bit on the visible side. I L. Shannon

61

needed to be more subtle if I could manage it. Would my blending work over her huge body? In the bright light? I doubted it.

Staying in human form, I scouted around the edges of the garden and fought the urge to flinch as they beat Ben.

My first opportunity came when one of the hired guns returned from inside the hotel. He almost tripped over me before I took advantage of his surprise. I spun him around like a top, drawing out his knife from under his goth-style leather coat.

At first I didn’t notice anything different about him.

Maybe because I was mentally preparing myself for what I assumed would be a kill but, whatever the reason, I was left unprepared for the strength he turned on me. He was a skinny guy with the strength of a man four times his size.

His fist hit my face and left me disoriented and gasping through the pain.

Being hit was the one thing that pushed all my buttons, so when he advanced on me with an evil leer, I turned loose my instinctive reactions. I downed him in three moves—a sweep of my leg, a kick to the crotch and a knife to the throat.

“He is not human.”

And I believed her. I’d been hit by men before, and this guy was not packing the usual punch. What if they were all like this guy? How was I going to stop the others? Get Ben to safety?

“If we change form, we will have the advantage.”

“And probably make international news.”
I looked around, and sure enough there were cameras as well as floodlights.
“Do you have a way to disable the
electronics?”

“Yes.”

62

Amethyst Bound

“Do it now.”
No sooner had I thought it than I was rocked by a wave of energy, of which I seemed to be the epicenter. As the wave surged outward, power lines sparked, bulbs exploded and the courtyard fell into darkness.

Now we could take dragon form and save Ben. I waited for the change to take me. And waited and waited.
“What’s
wrong, Amethyst?”

“You must initiate the change.”
In response to my mental shrug, Amethyst continued,
“Relax, Antonia. Take the image
from your mind and project it outward.”
I thought of the pendant and rubbed at it absently.
“Don’t
think I don’t know when I’m being bullied. I know you can
change us, but I think I can do it too.”
After all, I hadn’t known to change into a dragon when we left the temple, and that meant Amethyst could do it and was just being difficult.

I took out the image of my dragon and the glittering scales. The individual scales were slightly different in color but all together they left us a lovely rose-purple shade. And my wings…the best part about the form was the wings. They must have had at least a forty-foot span. The sinuous body felt and looked a little snakelike but the legs and wings added the distinctive dragony look.

“The teeth. Do not forget the teeth.”
Oh, yes. Definitely don’t forget the teeth. Or if my weird dream was anything to go by, the fact that I could maybe breathe fire. My dream of burning the world made the thought of breathing fire more scary than tempting, but someday I would have to try that, too. No point in having weapons I didn’t know how to use.

Bracing myself, I released the carefully formed image and felt the shift take me in a single surge, washing pain and pleasure through my body in a rushing wave.

I was the dragon.

And I had a super-tasty minion to save.

Chapter Nine

Through Ben, I could see the men holding him and feel the beating they were giving him. Not that my lover wasn’t fighting back, but let’s just say his archaeology studies hadn’t prepared him to deal with thugs, and doling out punishment seemed to be right up the hit men’s alley.

We rushed into the garden, crushing plants and concrete statues alike. This time I didn’t bother to blend. I used the shock value of a charging dragon to best advantage.

“Duck
,
”
I called out mentally to Ben, hoping he would hear me.

He must have heard because he fell to the ground as I swiped at the men, who released him to scramble for weapons. Those two men went flying and hit the wall with a satisfying thud. The third had drawn his gun and fired at me. The bullets bit into me like painful bug bites.

To me they were an annoyance, but to Ben they would be deadly so I twisted my body to protect him.

I was too new to the dragon racket to have a clue what to do next. Should I advance and stop the shooter? Or take Ben and flee? I didn’t really want to kill anyone if it could be avoided. For all I knew, they might be good guys who were out to stop the prophecy. I kind of doubted it, but until I was sure, I’d rather not put the period at the end of their lives.

“If you do not intend to kill them, we should leave this
64

Amethyst Bound

place.”

“Sounds good to me.”
I wasn’t sure but it sounded as if Amethyst would have been fine with using the hit men for a snack, so now would be a good time to hit the road…or rather the wind.
“Ben, climb on or be carried by
claw.”

“Climbing,”
he called out mentally as he grabbed his backpack and used one of my neck ridges to swing up over my shoulder.

Even as I felt him settle firmly between two ridges, I spun about to make our escape. With a leap and a single downstroke of my wings we were in the air and leaving the hotel behind.

“We need to regroup.”
Amethyst offered the advice while steadying my wobbly launch.

She was right. We needed another place to stash ourselves, at least until we could all get a grasp on our new situations. I wasn’t about to abandon Ben to a bunch of killers, but he needed a chance to decide for sure this was what he wanted.

“I’ll take us to where I was staying. It’s not all that
comfy but it’s also not traceable.”
Neither Amethyst nor Ben commented so I swept us back toward the mountain near the temple, to the small shack I had commandeered for the few days I’d needed to plan out the recovery job.

And how had a relatively simple recovery job gotten so crazy? Sooner or later I was going to have to deal with the drastic new change in my life. Benjamin wasn’t the only one who hadn’t signed on for this. I had questions that needed answered. Starting with,
“Amethyst, is this
bonding permanent?”

“Yes.”

L. Shannon

65

There had been a tiny hesitation in her answer, but everything we shared between us made it sound like the truth. So, at least for now, I had to accept that I was bound to the spirit of a dragon, and that fact wasn’t about to change any time soon.

Would there be benefits? What besides my job and hard-won independence would it cost me? I didn’t ask Amethyst. Privately, I could see some benefit. Maybe, just maybe, I would finally feel safe. All too often growing up, and even as an adult, I’d felt like a lamb among the wolves. Oh, I might have been wearing a wolf skin, but it didn’t make me feel safe. With Amethyst, would I be able to give up that engrained victim status?

Or was she just another wolf looking for dinner? If we were going to be bound together forever, I wanted to trust her. More than that, I needed to trust her. The brief glimpse into her mind had revealed someone just as bare and fragile as me. Her hurt had called to mine. Someone she’d trusted had betrayed her too.

Ben was another matter. Even if he’d been cast out and ridiculed by his fellow professionals, he’d never understand what it felt like to be…a girl. Simply being male made him dangerous. He might not be a threat to me physically, especially now that I was a dragon, but the drama back at the hotel had shown very clearly that he could hurt me.

It didn’t take long to reach the little hut. Just to be on the safe side, I circled before landing.
“Looks clear.”
I let Davis climb off before shifting back to human form and once more being naked as a jaybird.
Sheesh.
I’d have to figure out some way around this little problem or I was bound to continually embarrass myself.

“Whoops. Can I borrow your shirt again?” 66

Amethyst Bound

He frowned, which did my vanity no good. “I didn’t bring a spare, but you can have this one if you don’t have any other clothes here.”

“I don’t. I didn’t plan to come back here. Everything I had was stashed outside the temple so I could head straight out after recovering the box.”

“Oh.” He slipped off his shirt and handed it over. “I…

Thank you for saving my ass. I think those guys would have killed me to find out where you were.”

“No problem.” I wasn’t about to let him be hurt for something that wasn’t his fault, and I wasn’t comfortable making a big deal of it either. He’d thanked me. I’d accepted. End of story.

“And I’m sorry I was considering bailing on you.

Neither one of us asked for this, and it wasn’t fair to blame you.”

“That’s fine.” I went inside the hut to look for anything useful, even though I knew there was nothing here. Nothing but weather-battered walls, a cracked door and dirt floor. Now that I had Davis safe, I knew he’d want to sort out our problems and I wasn’t all that sure I was up to rehashing it all. Everything we had was on the line, and if I couldn’t trust him, it was as good as worthless.

Amethyst whispered,
“He did not leave.”

“This time. What about next time?”
She didn’t answer me. There was no answer to that question. I wanted to trust him, but how could I? He was male and every male I’d ever known had let me down or worse.

“Toni? If you don’t have any supplies here, we’ll need to see about getting some at the nearest town.” He hesitated in the doorway. After a second a flashlight L. Shannon

67

clicked on and glided around the small room.

Leaning against the wall, I’d rested my arms and head on my up-drawn legs. I was probably flashing him good with his shirt riding up. I thought he might come over to me, to touch me like a lover or offer some kind of comfort, but he only stood in the doorway looking around with an odd quizzical look on his face. The light danced back and forth once more. “Toni? Where are you?” I jerked. My blending had faded me away, hiding me, or rather letting me hide from something I really didn’t want to deal with. I forced myself back into sight. “I’m here.”

His eyes rounded. “What…? How…?” He shook his head. “You were invisible.” I was about to explain but he dragged a small notepad out his pants pocket and started madly scribbling notes. All the while he mumbled around the flashlight that he held with his mouth, “Should’ve known. How else could they… Invisible! That’s why…

Such an idiot. Why didn’t I think of that?” I considered letting him run on, but knowing how much the study of dragons meant to him would have made it just mean. “Davis, it’s me.” He didn’t even look up.

“Davis, stop it. It’s me, not Amethyst. She didn’t go invisible.”

“What?” Still his pencil raced over the pad.

I stood and crossed over until I stood right in front of him. Catching his pencil, I snatched it from his hand. “I said, it wasn’t Amethyst. What you saw was me, not her.” He took the light from his mouth and switched it off.

“Oh.”

The disappointment in his face stung. The dragon thrilled and impressed him, but boring human me couldn’t 68

Amethyst Bound

get more than “oh.”

“You can go invisible? You could before you became a dragon?”

I nodded, ready to let it drop before he did anything else to tick me off. I turned away.

He caught my arm, preventing my retreat. “How? How is it possible? How do you control it? You are human, right?” He shook his head. “Of course you are. Aren’t you?”

“Yeah, far as I know I’m human through and through.”

“But you can become invisible.” He was the first one I’d ever told about blending, but now that he knew, I wanted him to know it all. “I call it blending. I don’t really go invisible, just blend in so people can’t easily see me. If there’d been more light, I’m sure I’d have been at least partially visible.”

“Whatever you call it, you do it very well. Even though I saw you come in here, I would have sworn the room was empty.” His hand moved up and down my arm, sliding the shirt sleeve against my skin. “Why were you blending? Were you hiding from me?” Yeah, I sort of had been, but not on purpose and I wasn’t about to tell him that. “I can’t always control it very well. Sometimes stress makes me blend when I don’t mean to.” That was truth enough.

“This has been a lot to deal with, hasn’t it?” He tugged just a little, pulling me close enough to wrap his arms around me. The embrace wasn’t tight or sexual. It was comforting, something I was definitely not used to. “I wish I could do more. You shouldn’t have to be the strong one all the time.”

I didn’t mind being strong. “It’s all right. I can handle it.” But his arms felt damn good too. I relaxed against his L. Shannon

69

body, accepting the comfort and support he was trying to offer. Leaning into him, I was surprised by how much taller he was than me. His chin rested on the top of my head, and long arms cradled me. The full effect left me almost feeling…protected. Sheltered. Safe.

Ben stroked up and down my back. “We won’t be staying here long, will we?”

“I don’t think we can.” I looked up and my dragony night vision picked up the cuts and bruises on his face.

My own injuries had been healed with shifting, and I wished I could offer him something as good.

“Our connection will help him heal quickly.”

“Then what do you plan to do?” As I lightly ran my fingertips over his injuries, I thought of my home on the Mexican coast. “I have a small beach house near Mazatlán. I plan to head there. I figure if I fly at night, no one will notice me passing through. You can come with me, if you want, or I can drop you off anywhere.”