Koshi (13 page)

“Hmm…” She watched the pretty Asian woman who knew him by name cross the room. “Sample anything else here besides food?”

The waitress set a warm bottle of sake between them.

Pouring it into small ceramic cups, he grinned. “I remembered you like this.” So did she. Except, she had chugged the sake straight out of the bottle the last time she drank it.

* * * *

What was so urgent in America that it couldn’t wait a few more weeks? Ishi liked his new toy very much. She made him laugh and was fun to play with. She was strong, with just enough muscle to punch like a man. He rubbed his shoulder. Nothing like the delicate flowers he’d plucked from the island from time to time.

How could he not admire a female brave enough to approach him to make a deal? Most humans cowered or cried, or worse, pissed themselves when he was in dragon form. She’d cared for his hide and treated both his forms as equals.

The air seemed too thin to breathe all of a sudden as his gaze met hers. Sweat trickled down his back. By his grandfather’s hairy balls, she cared for him. He tossed his sake back like a shot. Worse, he cared for her.

She made him happy.

“You look a little pale.” She placed a hand over his. “Maybe you should take it easy on the sake. I don’t think I can carry you home.”

The image made him chuckle. “It would take more than a bottle to get me that drunk, sweetie.” He did sip his next cup, though. These feelings swirling in his chest worried him. Normally he’d stomp them out or deny their existence, but they wouldn’t let him ignore them. They’d been there all along, ever since she asked him for directions to a brothel instead of a hotel. He had thought his attraction was only carnal.

“Should I ask what I’m going to eat, or is it better I don’t know?” She finished her drink and made a face. “I won’t eat tentacles.”

Warmth that had nothing to do with the sake spread from his belly. She had such a lovely way of expressing herself. “Nothing bad. I promise.” She opened a new world for him. All he had to do was step in and conquer her heart.

“This, coming from someone who has eaten goblin.”

“Dragon taste buds are different from human ones. I won’t eat dog in this form.”

“Dog?” She leaned away from the table.

The serving wench returned with a tray. Samples of their culinary art were displayed for Sandra.

She regarded dinner with a strategic expression.

He plucked a piece with the chopsticks provided. “It won’t bite. It’s dinner, not a battle.” Lifting it to her mouth, he waited. First, she needed to learn to trust him. He’d never harm her.

With a huge sigh, she opened her mouth and closed her eyes.

He wasn’t feeding her entrails, but she acted like it. The sushi roll he’d chosen didn’t even contain meat. He popped one in his mouth as well, with a generous piece of wasabi and ginger.

Nodding, she chewed with more vigor. “Not bad. So if your tastes are different depending on your form, why don’t you hunt in Outremer as a dragon? Or are you not allowed to pass through the gate?”

“I can pass, yet it calls me when it’s breeched. Like here, I might be able to fly in any direction, but I always get called back.”

“What about just outside the gate? Like here?” She struggled with the chopsticks. Pieces of sushi kept slipping from her grasp, and then with the bravery of a warrior, she used her fingers, tucking one in her mouth.

“Not exactly a place I want to stay. Shadowburn is populated by the darker brethren of supernaturals.”

She paused in taking a sip of her sake. “In English now?”

“It’s where the bad monsters live.” He offered her a roll with tuna hidden inside. “The goblins have a huge nest outside my gate. Well, had a nest. A colony of dwarves have driven them out of their cave system. They even herded a few groups through the gate so I’d do the killing for them, lazy metal grinders.” He shook his head at their audacity. “That’s how I got Urgle.”

She gave a crooked, gentle smile. “You have a soft spot for him.”

“Of course I don’t. He’s just a pet.”

“Most people love their pets.”

“I’m not sleeping with Urgle. No matter how much you beg. I’m not into that kind of thing.” He understood what she meant, but he loved how she threw her head back when she laughed and how her eyes sparkled.

“Okay, so no menage with the goblin, and no vacations in Shadowburn.” She blinked. “Where do your people live?”

“Oh, we can’t bear to live together.” Just the thought sent a shiver down his spine. “But most of us live in Upper Firth. There’s a high concentration of humans in that realm. You’d like it there.”

“You’re isolated from everyone.” Her eyes turned sad.

That was the last thing he wanted to see on her face. “They visit and I can’t wait until they leave. This island provides enough entertainment.” Until recently…

“Oh, well, that’s good.” Her gaze traveled to the waitress serving another couple.

He offered her another piece of sushi.

“You know I can feed myself.” She took the morsel, the delight in her eyes tempering her words.

“I believe you can, but why should you when I’m here?”

“Very smooth.” She dabbed the corner of her mouth. “Don’t you miss your home?” The wistful words caught at his heart and sizzled on its surface. She obviously missed hers.

“The gate is my home. I’ve been here so long, I wouldn’t know what to do with myself if I didn’t guard it.”

She leaned forward. “How long exactly?”

Ah, the age old question every human eventually asked him. Experience had taught him discussing time with short-lived species always made them sad. He didn’t want her ever being like that around him. Yet, time would stalk her, unlike his race.

“Long enough for me to think of this realm as my own.” He waved at the waitress and signaled for another bottle of sake, since theirs had emptied quite quickly.

“Fine, Mr. Evasive, how did this become your job, then?” She jabbed a piece of sushi, spearing it viciously with both chopsticks, and offered it to him.

He appreciated a ferocious streak in his females. Chewing the piece she’d fed him, he considered his toy–companion. “A long, long time ago, in a land far, far away–”

She held up her hand. “Does this involve a man in a black outfit and helmet?”

“It does!” He grinned as she rolled her eyes. “Except where I come from they use real swords, not those fancy light gadgets.”

“Sabers.”

He shrugged. “A dark knight tried to take over all of Outremer. I fought in the war against him.” It was a bloody time in the realm. His mother had thrived on the battles and he had learned there could be more to a dragon’s life than gold.

“And you killed him?”

“No, his son did, but the boy was my squire for many years before obtaining his own knighthood.” The good old days, the clash of metal against metal, the cries of the fallen, the wenching…

“Ishi.”

He blinked, returning to the present. “I may not have swung the killing stroke, but I led many armies against evil and trained even more warriors in my wake. When this gate lost its keeper, it called me. I’ve guarded it ever since.” Goblin hordes had killed the last keeper and almost taken over this island. The offer to fight and defend a helpless realm rang true with his soul when he’d agreed to it.

“Fighting goblins and whatever else that comes through the gate, protecting us.” She took his hand in hers and pressed her lips to his knuckles.

He scanned the room to see if anyone had noticed. “What are you doing?” Males kissed female’s hands. Not the other way around.

She rubbed her cheek against his palm. “You’re a real live hero.”

Laughing, he leaned across the table to kiss her lips before she could notice the blush burning across his cheeks. She had surprised him again. Touche. Settling back in his seat, he pinned her with his stare. “So, who’s dying?”

She sat up straighter in her chair. “What do you mean?”

“You came all this way to obtain the saji from me, a dragon. There has to be something big to drive you to this extreme. People don’t come looking for me, Sandra.”

She fiddled with the edge of the tablecloth. “My little sister. Well, she’s not exactly little, she’s in her twenties, but she’ll always be little to me.” A small chagrined laugh escaped her. It endeared her to him, tying her strings around his heart even tighter. “Anyways, it’s cancer.” She glanced at him. “A wasting disease.”

“I do read and have television. I have a clue.”

“It’s non-operable. Chemo and radiation were shrinking the tumor in her head, but three months ago they found spots on her liver and lungs.” She clutched the pocket on the chest of her dress tight in her hands. “It’s her only hope.”

“You have the saji with you?”

“Yes, I didn’t want to risk leaving it in the den.”

He leaned across the narrow table. “Why?”

“You were in such a foul mood I wondered if you’d take me back to the den.”

A drum began to pound inside his head in time to his heartbeat. “You still don’t trust me?” Her actions cut him deeper than any weapon ever had. Pain sliced through his chest where she’d been weaving herself around his deprived heart. Was all this aching worth it? First her leaving, now this. Sure, she made him happy, but she also gave him insurmountable distress. He grabbed her wrist across the table so she wouldn’t escape.

“You’ve been tricking me ever since we’ve met.” She struggled within his iron gaze. “What do you expect?”

He tossed enough bills on the table to cover three meals, and dragged her from the restaurant. Once outside in the cool air, he pulled her into the alley next to the restaurant for privacy and spun her to face him. “For fun, but nothing I did hurt you except maybe your pride. You should ship the saji to your sister instead of waiting for the plane flight. I’d pay for expediting the package. We could have it there by tomorrow morning and she’d be healed before you ever reached her bedside.”

She stood up straighter as if poked by a sharp stick. “You’d do that?”

A growl escaped him and he almost snapped his teeth. All this time, she thought him a monster, yet treated him like a person. Who was the one being tricked now?

She jumped. “It’s doesn’t matter. I can’t ship it. No one believes in magic where I live. They’d never use it on her.”

He retreated farther down the alley.

“Where are you going?” She didn’t follow.

“I’m taking you back to my den where both you and the saji will be safe until it’s time for your flight.” He shifted form, tucking in his tail so it wouldn’t roll out onto the street. The night should cover his flight well enough. Even then, most residents knew about him in some form.

“I don’t think–”

Not bothering to listen anymore, he snatched her in his claws and took flight. His injury was sore, but he could manage the short flight now.

Sandra punched at his palm until a sharp pain ran up his finger.

He winced. The bitch had bitten him.

Chapter 13

Watching his step, Ishi landed on the ledge, making sure not to squish his precious cargo, even though she had teeth small enough to pinch the skin between his fingers. What was he thinking when he’d admired her ferocious streak?

He sat on his haunches and opened his hand, but Sandra didn’t tumble free.

She bit down even harder.

“For the love of all that’s golden, let me go.” He shook his arm and watched as she dangled from his flesh like a human turned pit-bull. He brought her up to his face. “That hurts.” With his claws, he plucked her by the dress and yanked her off.

The sound of material tearing filled the silence. Sandra slipped from his grasp and landed hard on the stone ledge with an
umph
.

Shifting to human form, he raced to her side. “Sweetie, did I hurt you?” He rolled her over. Only his centuries of training saved him from the punch she swung in his direction.

“You jerk!” She rolled to her feet, not an easy task in a torn dress, and he marveled at her grace. Her sleeve hung loose, exposing the smooth pink skin of her shoulder. Stepping forward, she took aim again.

He caught her fist in his hand. “Easy, Rambo.”

“Stop lugging me around like baggage. I thought you were too injured to fly.” She attempted to jerk her hand from his grip with no result.

Her struggles ignited something primal in his dragon soul. It bloomed deep in his gut and he fought the strange urge to–to mark her. “I heal fast.” He tugged her into his arms and held her tight against him. His arousal was hard and ready, pressing into her thigh.

Damn it, he should have recognized the signs before now. He’d seen enough males of his race go through this. He was courting her as a mate. His stupid animal instincts were so powerful. He wanted to take her against the ledge wall and rut with the passion of his kind.

“Let go.”

“Why? You didn’t when I asked.” He stopped her acid response of foul language with a kiss, plundering her mouth with his tongue. He expected her to bite it, was a pinch disappointed when she didn’t. Instead, she swung her knee between his legs.