Shane: Dragon’s Savior – Ménage Erotic Fantasy (Dragon's Savior Book 4) (7 page)

“So, as we thought, they’ll come here to try and find them. Do you suppose they know where she is? I mean, I doubt very much if she’s this strong, that they’d be able to keep tabs on her unless she let them. She’d know to make herself safe.” Shane agreed. “I was by the castle not long ago. Asher said that he could use our help if we’d like to come by. I told him that I’d see what you wanted to do.”

They both turned to the doorway when they heard someone there. Lelani was dressed in a long skirt and vest and very little else. He wondered briefly if she had on panties when she moved toward them with a limp. Pulling out a chair for her, he took her foot in his hand when she said she’d hurt it.

“I took a little tumble in the bathroom. It’s not.... I hope you don’t mind, but I made it just a little bigger than it was. I can put it back should you not care for it.” Shane looked over at Keion and he grinned. “Or not. I don’t really care. I don’t think I’ll be here that much longer anyway, do you?”

“Why not?” She said that people were looking for her. “Yes. The Herald. They’re looking for all witches. I don’t know what sparked them to life again, but they’ve been out and about making trouble for a few. I think, total, there are about nine of them living on this land. Witches, I mean. Also, I wanted to tell you about the others. The other dragons besides the family.”

“Roger told me.” She pulled her foot out of his hands and stood up. “And about the other witches. I know that they’re here. I can feel them. A couple of them, you should know, don’t belong here. They’re witches, but have been promised things that won’t be delivered to them if they tell these people what they know about this place and the people here. The witches think to profit off the death of their sisters by keeping tabs on what is going on, the ways in and out of here, as well as how many people are not human. They’re especially supposed to find out all they can about Erin, who I don’t think they know has already been killed. Or if they’ve heard, they don’t believe it. They’ve seen me.”

“You mean that these witches are working for the Herald?” She said that they were working with someone. “Can you tell me which ones? We can’t have trouble here. We have enough of that as it is with dragon slayers and anyone else that thinks to come here for personal gain.”

“I don’t know them by name, only that they’re here with the idea that killing a witch will give them their powers.” He asked her if it would. “To a point. But you cannot kill us without reason. I mean, simply because you want their powers, perhaps, but you can’t kill for a profit. That’s what it would be should they take the money from the men that seek us and then kill.”

“You mean they must follow the rules too, even in this?” She nodded and put a cup on the table. With a touch of her fingers, the cup was filled with hot tea. Lelani asked them if they’d like a cup before they left. “We’re leaving?”

“Yes. The castle needs to be finished. Now. I need to go and make that happen before it’s too late.”

~~~

Keion wasn’t sure what he was supposed to do. Lelani told him to stand behind her but not to touch her yet. It was the most difficult thing he’d been asked to do. But then, she’d not asked. He was beginning to think it was the way she did things all the time, just tell you what needed done and expect you to comply. It wasn’t that she was rude, but she knew how it was to work and didn’t care for anyone messing with her ideas.

“I’m sorry. But once more. We’re going to do this how?” Asher looked at him and Shane when Lelani told him it was time to get the south wall up. “And why this wall only? I was under the impression that we had to build the walls up a layer at a time.”

Daniel moved to stand beside them now, as had several of the other larger dragons. They seemed to understand the progression of things better than they did, but Keion didn’t ask again. He thought himself stupid for not understanding what she wanted.

“Okay, first of all….” She turned to him. “You’re not stupid. And if you say that again, I’m going to hurt you. You’re ignorant of this process. That does not make you stupid. You just don’t know. Got it?”

“Yes.” He kissed her then and she told him to behave. “Trust me when I tell you, I am. What I really want to do is take you over to that flat stone, lay you out naked, and take you. This is me appeasing myself with a kiss and not fucking you hard out here in the open where anyone can see us.”

He might have been pleased with the look on her face if he wasn’t afraid of her. Not that she’d hurt him, but she was having some trouble controlling her magic. He wasn’t sure why and neither were the rest of them, but he’d bet it was because she had so much and rarely used it. The fact that she had no control over it was something that he was going to ask her about too. Why didn’t she use what had been given to her? Asher cleared his throat.

“Okay, the south wall. I don’t know. I mean, all I know is that it has to be up before nightfall. And as your mates aren’t here to help me with that, the dragons will.” Asher looked at the line of dragons, then back at her. “I’m going to use them. Not completely, I’d never do that, but they’re going to enrich my magic for me. But I need for you to stay out of the way or risk being harmed. And by harmed I mean crushed under the weight of a stone that could easily weigh about seventy tons.”

It was then that Keion got it. They weren’t going to help lift, they were going to let her use a part of their magic to get the wall up. And only the older dragons, like Daniel and a few others. They were able to help because it would be very draining on the younger ones who had less magic, and since the older ones had the most power, she would use them enough to make this work.

But it wasn’t just the help of magic that she was going to need. He and Shane were there to give her whatever she desired. Mostly she told him to catch her when she fell, and she would. And also to make sure that she wasn’t down too long without replenishments. That was where her familiar came in.

Elbert brought the coolers from the truck. Caroline and Gobi exited the other side. He wasn’t sure what was going to happen between the witches. He’d noticed that they were a very solitary type, so he moved closer to Lelani when Shane did as the other two approached her. They seemed to be sizing each other up, trying to see who was the baddest there. Then when both Caroline and Gobi bowed, Keion was pretty sure that they’d just acknowledged that Lelani was.

“We’ve come to help.” Lelani shook her head. “Okay, let me say this another way. We would like to lend you our power. I’ve also instructed Elbert and Jacob to stand by with juice and fruit, and there is fresh meat for the dragons when you’re done. You’ll need us for no other reason than we’re going to be drained anyway, so we might as well be here.”

“I won’t take from the others. It’s not right, and I have no wish to hurt you.” Caroline nodded and thanked her for that. “They’ll feel it, the women who just gave birth, but they won’t be harmed by it. I only know that this needs to be done.”

“Elbert left them juices as well, both of them. Lindsey is upset that she cannot be here, but she knows that the babe needs her more. And Essie is setting up a place for the others to come when they’re ready. Her little girl is doing well, thanks to you.” Keion felt Lelani’s embarrassment, but didn’t say anything. She’d given something to Essie when she’d been in labor, he thought. To keep her healthy. “If you’re ready, we’re ready.”

Ariannona joined them then, with hundreds of faeries and brownies. They bound together, forming great circles around Lelani but never touching her. Whatever they were lending her, apparently it had to be done as a group. Lelani told everyone there that she was as ready as she’d ever be.

When she lifted her arms up he thought of last night, when he’d had the vision of tying her up so that they could both have their way with her. But when the trees swayed a little at first, then a little more, he saw the way the dragons moved closer to her. He touched her arms when he was told to, as did Shane. The pulse of energy was powerful, and draining as well. He could only imagine what she was taking from the dragons when he felt slightly nauseous and weak at just a small touch.

The energy burning off her was hot. Almost too much, he thought, for a woman without a dragon. He ran hot, being what he was, and would be hotter still when he was in his other form. But to see her like this, feel her heat, he wondered at how much magic she did indeed have.

It was then that the rocks that had been brought from the quarry started to move, their weight nothing to the magic that lifted them and moved them quietly into position as if they were held by a magical string. As they watched, keeping a safe distance back, the wall that they’d been working on began to take shape. The earth below it moved, making room for the stone, to make sure that it was tight against the stone wall behind it.

They’d raised the walls several stones high over the last several weeks, and recently had started seeing the shape of the castle taking its ending form. Having cleared out all the lower levels inside the fallen castle, and with the stone that they were going to use in neat piles, they knew it was going to be a long hard haul to finish. They’d been lifting the stones, with the help of all the larger dragons, and putting them in place to form the foundation of what would be the main part of the castle, but it was slow, difficult work.

As he watched Lelani work to bring the stones to the base, he could see windows form in the stone that hadn’t been accounted for just yet. There was a fireplace, he realized, on the wall in the drawings, and it was formed too. Shelves that had been carved from the stone in the other castle were there as well. Improvements too, some of them small but noticeable, and larger ones, like the longer hearth and the stone indentations to hold extra wood. It was almost as if she’d been here or had looked in the books they’d found.

Daniel dropped to the ground. She’d told him that she’d use him first so that he could rest the longest in the event she needed him again, and it looked to have been a little too much for him. He was an old dragon, brother to Keion’s mom, actually. But in that moment, Keion knew that she’d not used him up, not entirely, and wouldn’t go back to use him again if she could help it. She’d given him his dignity in this, his self-worth, by using him as her first bit of power to show all that watched that he was still a dragon worth having around. Keion fell in love with her all over in that moment.

For all her professed hatred of people, she’d done this for him. Of course, Daniel wasn’t a person, but a dragon, but he was still their friend. He watched as two more of the dragons fell to the earth, their bodies heaving with exhaustion while the castle moved and became complete…as complete as it could be right now.

Others still began to drop in exhaustion. Caroline and Gobi were waning but never moved away, but did take juice and fruit when it was handed to them. Even as his brothers began to falter, Lelani never stopped, didn’t lower her hands or stop the movement of the stones. The need to have this wall complete no matter what clawed at her, and in turn him and Shane as well.

After several more minutes, the wall was up. Not only that, but he could see where the other stones would fit, the way the opening for the door had been carved by magic, and there were shutters for the windows she’d put in, for winter months as well as wind. Her magic had done more in one hour than they’d done over the last month. Christ, it was going to be beautiful here when they were done.

When she staggered a little, he and Shane caught her. Asher had fallen to the earth, his body covered in a fine sweat, as had the others, but they were otherwise fine. The only ones that remained standing other than the three of them were Caroline and Akassa, his brother. Picking Lelani up in his arms, Shane took her to the ground as well and Keion joined them, looking at the wall.

He knew that the castle was going to be large. But to see this single wall, the turret on it there as well, he was blown away by the sheer size of it. The stone looked as if it had been carved from a single rock, no small cracks in it to mar its beauty, nor did the window openings looked crooked or misaligned. Standing up, he moved to stand next to it and put his hand upon it. He felt the heat under his hand and asked about it. As Lelani explained, he went back to sit with her. Everything, even breathing, was exhausting to him, he realized then.

“The earth has decided that there should be no reason for you to ever be cold. And in the summer months, it will be cooler in the castle for those that live there. The windows that are on this side, they’re high enough up so that they can’t be used as an entry point as well.” When Lelani yawned again, he did as well. “Someone is coming.” And with that, she fell asleep.

“Someone is coming? That’s all we get?” Asher looked upset, but he didn’t get up just then. If Keion was honest, he wasn’t sure he could do it again, and wondered if the person coming was going to harm them. “You do know that we’re all dead should someone really be coming. And if they have a knife or sword, I don’t think I could even fend them off with my hands, much less my body.”

“She didn’t mean now. She meant soon.” Caroline stood up and brushed her dress off. Then she turned to him and Shane. “Do you have any idea of the kind of power it took to do this? I don’t mean just the moving of the stone—you could have done that—but this is a fortress now. There is no way, even with all our magic, that we could have done even half of what she’s done here today. This looks just as it did when your parents were here. The magic used here, it’s not just old but ancient. Whatever they gave her, it was enriched by whatever magic she had as well. She is, I believe, the queen of witches everywhere.”