Dragon Romance: Dragon Fire (Paranormal Shapeshifter Hero Protector Firefighter Romance) (Fantasy Shifter Werewolf BBW Pregnancy Women’s Fiction Short Stories) (82 page)

In her numbed state of mind she had forgotten about him. She stared for a minute. His face in the morning light showed her what she hadn’t been able to see last night. He was actually rather handsome, with long locks of silvery blonde hair falling over his eyes. His straight nose jutted out sharply before falling back into softly curving lips. His square jaw was a strong hard line against the curve of his muscular shoulder. She followed the line around the tight curve of his pectoral muscle and then the smooth ripple of his abdomen and down-

Geneva turned away sharply as she snapped out of her trance-like state of mind. She’d forgotten about his nudity, and in his sleep he had turned over onto his back, giving her a full view that she had not had the time to appreciate the night before when she was tending his wound.

His wound. She knew she needed to check on it, especially now that she had enough light to see the extent of the damage. It wasn’t the first time she’d seen a naked man, but she felt embarrassed for having ogled him while he was asleep.

Across the space, she heard Cadmus shift and groan as he began to wake. Geneva took a deep breath and told herself that she had to check on him, there was nothing inappropriate going on.

She rolled back over and sat up. Cadmus was lying on his side, injured shoulder up, head resting on his good arm, with his eyes open and looking at her. His uncovered naked body was facing her.

Geneva approached and knelt down next to him keeping her eyes purposely averted. Reaching behind him, she pulled the blanket over his exposed body.

“Thank you,” his dry voice cracked as he spoke.

“Good morning,” Geneva smiled as she brushed his hair aside and placed her hand to his forehead to check for a fever. He was warm, but not alarmingly so. She reached out for the skin of water she had left near him last night.

Cadmus propped himself up on his good arm, trying to sit up, a solid gold band set with amethysts chinked against the stone. Geneva helped him sit the rest of the way up before handing him the water.  He mumbled his thanks again and asked, “Who are you?”

“My name’s Geneva. I’m from Haven. I was tracking a dragon that attacked my town when I found you here,” she explained while she began to unwind his bandages to check on his wound.

“I see,” Cadmus said as he took a drink of the water.

“Were you attacked by the dragon?” Geneva asked as she removed the rest of the bandage. The bleeding hadn’t been too bad, she decided as she noted how deep the wounds were.

“No.” The word was hollow and hung in the air for a moment.

Geneva wasn’t sure what he meant at first. Then the morning light caught a glimmer of something in the bandage. She looked at the bloody linen. It was infused with silver. This wasn’t human blood.

Slowly she stood. This was the dragon. His shoulder wound, the claw marks, must have been where he’d dug out the arrows, her arrows. He had attacked her village. He had killed Winda and she had bandaged his wounds.

*****

“I’m sorry.” Cadmus’s words echoed off the stone walls of the cave.

Geneva was backing away slowly to the other side of the space where her pack and her weapons lay. People had known of dragons, but not that they could turn into a human form. She had been tricked into helping the devilish serpent. She had tended to the very wounds she had inflicted.

Cadmus stood just as Geneva reached down to pick up her bow. Thinking better of the short space between them, she reached for the long knife hanging on the side of her pack as well.

Notching an arrow, she drew back and aimed at the dragon. “Why did you attack Haven?”

“I didn’t have a choice,” he said. “I had to.”

“You’re a dragon,” she spat at him. “No one can force you to do anything.”

Cadmus turned to face her. His face looked hollow, a pain that she did not think came from his shoulder. Geneva was caught between her own savage anger and her numb feelings for this angelic face of agony.

“You’d be surprised how little freedom I have,” he said.

The light caught the bracelet around his wrist and Geneva was distracted for a moment as she noticed that the amethysts had darkened in color and were almost black now. In this moment, Cadmus crossed the space towards her. The bow was useless and her arrow ricocheted off of the stone and clattered on the floor of the cave as Cadmus pushed her roughly against the stone wall, knocking the wind out of her.

In her mind, Geneva knew she was going to die. Furthermore, she would die a fool who had aided her own enemy. Taking a deep breath, she prepared to surrender herself to her fate.

Cadmus’s good forearm was pressing her up against the wall. She wondered briefly if he was going to kill her in his human form or if he was going to turn into the dragon. Which way would be faster? Which way would be less painful?

Geneva felt his whole body press against her and his hot breath whispered in her ear. “I don’t want to do this.”

She opened her eyes and found herself staring into his. They were as blue as the clear summer skies, and they pleaded silently with her. She didn’t know what to do and remained silently stunned.

“He’s been watching you,” Cadmus said cryptically before Geneva remembered and her hand gripped the long knife she’d tucked into her waistband. She thrust the knife forward, not sure where it would connect.

Cadmus let out a sharp yell of pain and released Geneva. The knife was sticking out of his side as he stumbled backwards and fell down. Geneva felt a smug sense of satisfaction as he lay there gasping, but at the same time a twinge of guilty curiosity nagged in the back of her mind. She walked out to the mouth of the cave.

He had made it seem like his actions were not his own. She wondered if he was telling the truth. It hadn’t come off as the desperate lie of a man, or rather dragon, who didn’t want to die.

In her mind, Geneva heard Winda’s rational voice telling her about the dark magicians who appeared in noble bloodlines and would take control of rulers. Perhaps dragons, being noble creatures of magic themselves, were not immune to dark spells. There was rumored to be a good magician who lived in the Citadel, but that was a week long journey at least.

Still, if she took him there and he was not under a spell, all of the people of the land would probably enjoy the public execution of a dragon. It was probably a bad idea, but she had nothing to lose, except for Cadmus.

Begrudgingly she gathered up some sparse sticks and some dry grass from the rocky mountainside and returned to the cave. She threw the pile down in front of Cadmus’s writhing body and set it up as a proper structure for a fire. Rummaging in her pack, she found her flint stone.

“What…what are you doing?” Cadmus gasped as he tried to sit up, holding the knife in place in his side to minimize the flow of blood.

The sparks caught on the tinder and Geneva blew on it, encouraging it into a small flame. Looking back at Cadmus she responded, “Not killing you yet.”

He gasped and let out a small sarcastic laugh. “So stabbing me is
not
killing me.”

“Of course not,” she said as she grabbed the linen bandages she had removed from his shoulder. She wadded them up and placed them along with his hand atop the wound. “Not a mighty dragon like yourself.”

She yanked hard to remove the knife while pressing his hand down to stop the flow of blood that spurted forth. She laid the knife in the growing flames and waited for it to heat.

“Why?” Cadmus’s breathing was becoming labored and irregular.

“Because I’m taking you to the Citadel. They’ll sort out whether you’re innocent or not.”

“They’ll execute me just for being a dragon,” he said.

“That’s not my problem,” she said as she pulled the knife out of the fire. Cadmus’s eyes widened and his jaw set as she placed her free hand over his and he prepared for the cauterizing.

He let out a yell as the knife pressed against his skin and sealed the wound closed. Geneva pressed hard until no heat remained glowing in the knife and Cadmus passed out.

Throwing the knife across the cave, she let out her own scream of frustration.

*****

Geneva was washing the blood off of Cadmus with her hands when he awoke.

“Can we not do this again?”

“Not do what?” she looked up at him as she applied pressure to the fresh scar on his side.

His sharp intake of breath did not stop her hard scrubbing. “Can you stop trying to kill me and then changing your mind and saving me? I know you just want an excuse to have your hands all over me, but you can just ask.”

“Next time I really will kill you.” Geneva stood and tossed the blanket at him. “Here, you can cover yourself with that, unless you enjoy walking around naked.”

“Can’t have you distracted now can we,” he said as he stood and fumbled, trying to tie the blanket around his waist in an acceptable fashion. At least his injured arm was working a little now.

Geneva packed up her things and slung the pack across her back, ready to head out. Looking back at Cadmus she saw him standing there awkwardly holding the blanket around his waist, lest it fall down.

“Well at least we know how bright you are,” she grumbled as she walked over to repair the situation. Her disgust was as much with Cadmus as it was with her own decision to let him live and take him to the Citadel.

She grabbed the end of the blanket that he was holding roughly from him.

“What, now you want me naked?”

Geneva hissed a sigh of frustration. “No, I do want you to be able to move though. I’m not carrying you down the mountainside.”

“What makes you think I’m going to just go willingly with you?” he asked as she tied two ends of the blanket over his shoulder.

“Where else do you have to go? I have medicine in my pack and you’re injured, quite badly.” She tied the other two ends of the blanket together where they reached just far enough to have him somewhat modestly covered. “Big, strong dragon or not, I doubt you could get anywhere on your own.”

Cadmus laughed. “Oh really? You don’t even know where you are.”

“Some godforsaken cave in the mountains.”

“This cave is a gateway,” he told her. “It’s the entrance to Althelus, the dragon city of the mountains. All I have to do is walk straight back there and I’ll have a whole court of dragons to attend to me.”

“Oh yes,” Geneva scoffed as she pulled a length of rope out and began binding his hands, noting that the jewels of his gold band were light purple still. She figured she must have imaged the color change from earlier that morning. “You’re what, a lord of dragons?”

“Prince, actually.”

“Well then, your highness, why don’t you play diplomat and come to the Citadel with me. You can explain how it’s not your fault that my village is destroyed and my friends are all dead.”

Cadmus’s eyes fell away as he realized their banter had not lightened the mood at all. “Geneva, I’m sorry, but you don’t understand-”

“You’re right,” she snapped, “I don’t understand how you could burn a village full of innocent people, but you can explain that to the lord of the Citadel while they decide the best way to execute you.”

Cadmus decided to keep his mouth shut as she pulled the knots tight around his wrists and then turned away. She pulled the length of the rope behind her to lead him outside and he followed without a struggle. He felt truly sorry for what had happened, but she didn’t understand. Sometimes he wasn’t allowed to have control over his actions, no matter how terrible they were, the band around his wrist ensured that.

They made their way down the mountainside in the heat of the afternoon. A couple of times Geneva slipped on loose pebbles and Cadmus caught her. The second time this happened she almost thanked him and caught herself. Their faces were inches apart as she looked up into his blue eyes.

Clearing her throat, she pulled away without a word. Cadmus sighed and muttered under his breath, “You’re welcome.”

The sun was hanging low by the time they reached the tree line. They had not exchanged words since leaving the cave. Geneva was wrapped up in her thoughts, questioning herself and rationalizing again and again that it would be better to take him to the Citadel rather than killing him. Cadmus on the other hand, was both bored and anxious.

“So, we’re not going to make it to the Citadel tonight. When do you plan on making camp?”

Geneva didn’t turn around as she answered. “Don’t worry, your highness, only top notch establishments for you. Can’t have you sleeping on the forest floor.” 

Cadmus almost retorted, but thought better of it. Instead, he followed obediently as she led him deep into the forest and tried not to step on too many brambles.

In the waning light of the evening, they finally reached their destination. It was a small tree house that Geneva and Winda had built years ago when they started hunting together. It overlooked a small clearing and was a handy place where they could stay when they were on extended hunting trips and couldn’t get back to Haven with their kills.

“Cozy,” Cadmus remarked.

*****

Geneva sat quietly staring into the campfire they had built on a stone slab that had been incorporated into the tree house for just that purpose. The flames were warm but she felt incredibly cold. Everything here was infused with memories of Winda. Every memory made her regret saving Cadmus, twice. The grief was so near that even the stored food in the tree house reminded her of her lost best friend.