Taken by the Dragon King (5 page)

“Does that mean I get to pick what we do when we finally hook up?”

“
No
,” I laugh. “I pick that too, but we don’t have to follow that part of the ritual.”

“Good. Because we won’t be.”

I’ve never felt this pulse between my legs before. I bat my eyes at him, my body heat rising. Right as we sit down and I start telling him about the plot of my chosen entertainment, a couple sitting a few tables away from us starts arguing loudly.

Our heads whip around as the woman throws her drink in her date’s face, screaming out obscenities and accusations about his wandering eye and possibly wandering other parts. These people have apparently forgotten that they are in public. I’ve never seen anything like this, not that I go out much.

Asher watches the pair screaming at each other, his face strained and confused. The insults they exchange are so horrible, both people hitting way below the belt. Maybe they deserve each other. The surrounding mall patrons make comments and exchange laughs over the awful scene. Their callous reaction seems to disturb Asher even more than the lover’s quarrel.

“It’s over!” she screams.

“You’re fucking right, it’s over. I’m so done putting up with your shit.”

“Lindy,” Asher whispers, breathing heavily.

“Shit,” I murmur. Large, panicked eyes. Clenched jaw and fists. He’s going to shift. Holy crap, right here in front of all these people. What are we going to do?

Chapter Eight

“I can’t believe I wasted so much of my time with you,” the girlfriend yells.

“Well at least we agree on that!” the guy yells back.

“Lindy…” Asher’s eyes are fixed on the couple. The jilted lover storms away, leaving her boyfriend standing there alone for a few moments, pretending he doesn’t care until he yells after her and starts the chase, but she just flips him off and walks faster. Ash swallows the knot in this throat, closing his eyes as he struggles to regain control.

“Hey,” I say, grabbing his shoulder to get his attention. His skin is so hot. Shit. “Hey!” I push the table back away from him and crawl into his lap, taking his face in my hands and forcing his eyes to meet mine. “That is not us, Ash. That’s
not
us.” He doesn’t answer, just breathes heavier, nervously glancing around at all the helpless humans. He’ll crush some of them when he shifts, they’re just too close. “Asher!” I yell. “Just breathe. Relax.”

“I can’t.”

“Yes, you can.”

“I’m sorry that I hurt you, Lindy. I don’t want anyone else. Please don’t-”

“Ash!” I clamp my mouth down on his, desperate to short circuit his impending transformation. “I am not going anywhere,” I assure him when I come up for air. “Ever.”

The corner of his mouth lifts slightly as my fingers skim his brow. Asher’s next breath is a familiar combination of a grunt and a growl as he lurches forward, plunging his tongue into my mouth. Before I know it, one of his hands is wrapped into my hair and his other is up my shirt.

“What the hell is this?” he breathes heatedly into my mouth as his fingers struggle to make sense of my bra. “I don’t like it.”

I don’t get a chance to explain yet another strange human custom because he’s kissing me again, his greedy fingers slipping into my bra and finding my nipple. My eyes widen. That sensation is a
lot
more intense than I’m used to.

“I need you,” he rasps, grinding against me.

“Let’s go.”

“They can’t see us and I can’t wait anymore.”

“We can’t…” I trail off as Asher’s lips ravage my neck. Aw, fuck it, maybe we can. The intensity of the moan that escapes my throat startles me. There’s no way someone didn’t hear that. My eyes scan the crowd and find nothing but unsuspecting humans at first, but then I see him.

I’m not sure what type of magical creature he is, but he’s looking right at us. The Glamour shimmers as I stare back at him, but I can’t see through it. “Someone’s watching us,” I whisper into Ash’s ear, pulling myself closer to him.

“Where?”

The last thing we need is for Asher to feel threatened and start a fight. Or shift. “Don’t worry about it, let’s just go.”

“
Where?
” he snarls, his eyes narrowed and stern as he looks for the voyeur. Asher growls when he sees him, wrapping his arms around me protectively.

“It doesn’t matter. Just take me, Ash,” I murmur, tucking my head under his chin. “Take me to the place that makes sense to you. I want to see it.” Asher is still ready to attack, but his face softens. “Please.”

He smiles slightly at my plea, gently pressing his lips to my forehead and nodding. I’m not a whiny person by nature, but if he keeps reacting like this I might become one. My legs wrap around his waist as he scoops me into his arms and carries me away.

Back on the roof, I stare up in awe at the dragon stretching out his wings before me. Asher’s true form. It’s hard to believe that he’s really in there. Tentatively, I slide my fingers along one of his claws. They’re so sharp. If he squeezes me too tightly, I’ll be eviscerated. And here I am worrying about rough sex with his human form.

“Don’t be afraid.” His voice is so deep and powerful it shakes the whole building. We have to get out of here.

Nodding, I shrug the shopping bag securely on my shoulders and step forward. Asher exhales in satisfaction at my compliance, his heated breath blowing my hair back. Somehow I can see that cocky look on his face despite the limited movement of his Dragon features.

He pulls me tightly against his chest. My anxiety is eclipsed by exhilaration as his wings start flapping and we lift into the air. At first it feels like we’re floating and Asher’s eyes narrow, staring into the distance.

“Where are we going?” I ask.

“East.”

“It’s that way.”

“I know which way East is, Lindy,” his laughter reverberates through my body. “Unless the very path of the Sun has changed as well.”

I squeeze my eyes shut when he shoots up into the air rapidly, my hands frantically grasping for something to hold on to. He’s just too huge.

My eyes flutter open and I get a little lightheaded when I see how much height we’ve gained. The sun hangs low on the horizon behind us as he we fly away from the city and into the turquoise blue eastern sky revealing the first pinpricks of stars.

Ash soars even higher, then folds his wings tightly against his body, angling downwards. After a split second of stillness we start picking up speed, plummeting sharply as Asher starts rolling. The world spins, my field of vision rapidly switching between the colorful sky and the barren desert landscape below. It’s too disorienting and I close my eyes, but I’m smiling mainly because Asher is laughing so joyfully, his grip on my body firm and steady. I don’t have the heart to ask him to stop.

“I didn’t mean to scare you,” he says when he slows down. “I just had to get that out of my system.”

“I’m fine,” I fib, my heart slamming into my ribs. “You can keep doing tricks if you want.”

“I do.”

We fly higher and the world starts spinning again. After a few flips and turns, I start to get used to the sensation, except for those barrell rolls. Flying can be really intense, especially when you don’t have that ability yourself and find yourself thousands of feet in the air in the arms of a restless dragon. If I were to start falling, I’d be lucky to wedge my fingers beneath one of his scales, or perhaps wrap them around the very tip of a claw. I’m totally at his mercy. And loving it, as usual.

I notice something is wrong with Asher’s flight when we’re extremely high up. His tightening grip is my first clue, but then my ears hone in on an irregularity in the rhythm of his flapping wings and we start to tilt to the side.

“Ash? What’s wrong?”

“I’m not sure.” His voice doesn’t sound right either, almost like it’s a combination of human and dragon.

My eyes instinctively squeeze shut when I’m suddenly surrounded by flames. Shit. That can’t be good. The sensation of claws and scales disappear, replaced by familiar feeling of Asher’s human hands around my waist and his muscled chest against my cheek. My frightened eyes open and lock with his.

“Shift back,” I cry out, resisting the urge to wrap my arms around his neck.

“I’m trying,” he replies frantically.

He holds me close to his body and takes a deep breath. Nothing. The ground is getting closer and closer. It’s so fast that I can’t stand to look down anymore, so I tuck my head into his shoulder instead. His body tenses up again and again until he inhales in frustration and utters a dragon word that I don’t understand, but I’m relatively sure means “Fuck!”

“I can’t shift,” he murmurs in disbelief. Pulling back to look at him, I’m thankful that I’m on the bottom, staring up at the sky. Somehow I muster the courage to flash him a reassuring smile. If he only gets to stare at my face for a few more precious seconds, I certainly don’t want it to be filled with fear and regret. He might survive this. I surely won’t. “I love you, Lindy,” he says, threading his fingers into my hair and pulling my lips to his for a kiss.

My heart starts pounding even faster and I try to say it back, but he won’t let me, his forked tongue invading my mouth hungrily. The kiss gets deeper with each of his ragged breaths and I start kissing him back. Time slows down and everything seems to disappear until all that’s left is my heart beating in sync with his.

A strange power I’ve never touched builds deep within my chest. My mind stills, all the fear of my imminent demise evaporating.

“Shield!” I scream out the word the very instant that it pops into my head. A guttural howl rips from my throat, releasing the inferno of energy from every nerve ending. All I can see is the fire, the blinding light.

The brightness slips away as I hear Asher’s dragon roar. We connect with the Earth full force and I feel my shield crack from the impact. I scream, frantically reaching for that fiery power, but I can’t find it so I brace for it all to be over. But my crumbling protection is replaced by Asher’s rigid, curved wings circling me like a cage to keep me from being crushed between his body and the ground. I bounce around between them and his chest as we tumble uncontrollably.

He shifts back to human with a growl and I’m flung away from the flames, rolling over the rocky desert floor. My head bounces off a rock and I taste blood, but at least I finally stopped. I can barely move, a sharp pain shooting through my neck as I struggle to turn my head to the side. Ash is a few feet away, covered in a dust that makes his hair look lighter, his face smeared with blood. He’s already crawling toward me, his lips moving as if he’s saying my name, but my ears are ringing too loudly to hear him.

His hands are shaking when he finally reaches me, brushing the hair from my face as he lays down beside me. All I can manage to do is blink at him and give him a tiny smile so he knows I’m okay. He exhales deeply and presses his lips to my forehead before flipping onto his back, his chest heaving as he links his fingers with mine.

We just lay there and recover, watching the last rays of the sun turn the tips of the craggy mountains that surround us a beautiful crimson red. Ash sits up long before I do, his incredibly defined forearms resting on his knees as he stares at the sunrise. I hope I didn’t drop my bag. The poor guy is buck naked.

“I love you, too,” I blurt out automatically as soon as I’m able to speak.

Ash’s head whips around to look at me, his surprised expression soon morphing into a satisfaction that leads him to pull my limp body into his lap. My giggling is silenced by his kiss, his fingers grazing my jawline.

Chapter Nine

“I almost lost you again,” he breathes, wrapping his arms around me and holding me tightly against his chest.

“What happened?” I ask, kissing his collarbone.

“I’m not sure. I just… burned out. I could barely hold onto you, it felt like I was about to disappear.”

My pulse spikes at the thought. “How’d you get it back?”

“I don’t know. I think it was from kissing you like that.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know,” he laughs, one corner of his mouth lifting as my eyes widen. “It made me feel powerful and your magic suddenly worked.”

Hmm. So mauling each other could be the key to keeping our powers. That certainly complicates things.

“Do you know where we are?” I ask.

“Yes,” he replies, grinning. “I finally know exactly where I am. Mountains don’t change as fast as the rest of the world.”

I falter as I rise to my feet, but he helps me up, making sure I’m steady before his hands leave me. “Well, that makes one of us.” I spot the shopping bag near rock a good distance away, surprised that its contents aren’t spread out over the desert.

“I’ll get it.” Asher sprints toward it before I take a single step.

“I can walk, you know,” I grumble when he gets back to me.

“Not if I don’t let you,” he says smugly. I roll my eyes and open the bag to get his clothes. “What are you doing?”

“Well, if you’re cool with walking around naked, I sure am,” I tease him, glancing down at his enthusiasm.

Asher grunts out an admonishing laugh, lifting me into the air and whirling me around. “You’re a lot mouthier in the real world. I kind of like it.”

“No, you don’t,” I insist, even though I think he does. “Put me down.”

“No. Pull your knees up to your chest,” he demands, holding me at arm’s length from his body, my feet dangling.

“We’re not there yet, Ash,” I reply, blushing.

“Just do it.”

Sighing, I try to lift my legs up, but my stomach muscles won’t let me. “I can’t. I’m too weak.”

“I can tell.” Asher sits me back on the ground. “You’re even paler than usual and your fingers are ice cold.”

“Really?”

“Yes,” he says, bending down to kiss me.

I’m expecting it to be a little kiss, but it heats up fast and before I know it, I’m panting as Asher suckles my neck. My hand drawn to his flesh, my fingers wrapping around his bare length. It’s the first time I’ve actually touched him. This feels so natural.

I’m reeling when he breaks away, stooping lower so that we’re eye level. “What?” I ask.

“You’re color is so much better.”

I feel a lot better too. Deep in my belly, I can sense a trace of the power I used to cast that shield. “Did you just charge me up?”

“I think I did. I’m quite invigorated myself. I’ll be able to shift again.”

Wow. Is he taller than he was a few seconds ago? And buffer? “Do we… So when we actually, uh, you know, will we be stronger or something?”

“I don’t know how this works,” he laughs, stretching his arms out over his head. “But I know you’re not walking yet.”

“Well, I’m
not
flying yet, either.”

“I’ll stay low. Just a few feet off the ground.”

“No, Asher,” I say firmly. “We’ll just walk.”

“It’s too far. We’re only halfway there,” he explains. Crap. “Lindy, you can’t possibly think that I’d risk letting you fall again, even if it only was a few feet down.” His jaw tightens. That fall might have rattled him more than me.

“I don’t.” I stand up on my tiptoes and kiss his cheek. “But we can’t risk someone seeing an enormous black dragon flying around in the desert.”

“In my day, the only people that would come out here were shamans, and they’re always high on peyote. It would make their day.”

I burst out laughing. “Oh, my God. Things really have changed, Ash. Hikers come out here all the time. It’s a popular hobby now.”

“What, walking aimlessly in the desert?”

“Pretty much, yeah.”

This expression Ash makes when he learns a trivial new fact about the world is beyond adorable. His eyebrows rise up, wrinkling his forehead as his lips part and he blinks faster, like he’s trying to see clearly. A part of me worried that he’d be a total ass, but he’s not. Not at all.

Asher shakes off that cute, confused look on his face. I recognize the one the replaces it immediately. This stern expression means he won’t stop insisting on something and I’ll eventually give in. There’s nothing adorable about it, but it is kind of hot.

“You are riding me in more ways than one today, Melinda.”

I am so not laughing at that, it will only encourage him. “No, I’m not.”

“This is not negotiable,” he informs me right before he shifts.

“Shit!” I exclaim at the sight of little pieces of sagebrush igniting. “You should really climb on a rock when you do this, you’ll start a brush fire and burn the whole National Forest down.”

“Wildfires are completely natural. It renews the Earth.”

“Asher, it’s not like that anymore!” I snap, running around and stomping out the little flames before they turn into a catastrophe. “Oh no, that beautiful Saguaro cactus! It’s scorched on one side. Asher, this is probably 500 years old and they’re aren’t very many of them left!”

“I…” He quickly starts stomping on any remaining flames with his feet, including a bush that was too big for me to do myself. “I did not realize that you wanted that cactus. I’m sorry.”

“Ash…” I can’t keep cracking up when he says stuff like that, it probably makes him self-conscious. But sheesh, he’s like a giant dinosaur toddler! Completely clueless. “It will be alright,” I assure him, my temper quelled by the remorse in his deep voice. He diligently helps me make sure every little ember is out.

“Do you think you have the strength to sit on my back? It will probably be more comfortable for you.”

“Yeah, I’ll be fine up there. Should I… climb you?” I ask, my hesitation obvious.

“Definitely,” Ash laughs. “But we’ll get to that part later. Right now you can just walk up my wing.” He extends it outward like a ramp as he sinks down on his haunches.

“You’re sure this doesn’t hurt?” I say as I step onto the tip of his wing.

“Of course it doesn’t!” he replies, almost offended. “And even if it did, I wouldn’t care. I’d suffer a thousand years of torture for you.” His choice of words stop my advance and Ash inhales sharply. He already did that. “Be careful, love. Don’t fall on my spikes.”

“So where do I sit?” I’m standing on his back, my arms outstretched for balance. This is pretty cool.

“Wherever you want. There’s a nice rounded spot between two spikes on my shoulders. Avoid being next to the wings if you’d like a good view.”

I see what he’s talking about right away and drop down to my knees as I approach the spikes that run the length of his spine. The gaps between them are larger at the base of his neck and they’re at little wider, curved nicely like they’re made to support a human back comfortably.

As I’m settling between them, I realize that this is new for me, but not for him. He can’t see his own back and someone must have told him about the view.

“Ready?” he asks. I can feel the power of his voice between my legs now. That’s ironic.

“Yes.”

“I can run instead, and I
will
be able to avoid the cacti, but I might injure a marmot or two. Would that upset you?”

“It would.”

“I’ll stay low. Hold on.” Ash flaps his wings and we lift into the air. He keeps himself impressively level, even during takeoff. This definitely isn’t his first time.

We’re still higher than I’d like but he’s probably leaving extra head room for the cacti, which is pretty sweet. I’d hoped he’d be sweet, at least a little bit like he was in my dreams. Asher has gotten a lot rougher around the edges in the past year or so, but back when we were kids, he could be such a softie. I still see that part of him, every once in a while. I wonder if anyone else has ever seen it.

“So you’ve carried someone before?”

“I have,” he says. I refuse to start wondering about another girl again. He would have just been a kid himself anyway and he’ll tell me if wants to. “The shaman that worked for my father, the one the Council spoke of.  He was a dear friend.”

“Oh.” Poor Ash. And I’m such a jerk for being relieved. “Is that the one that you gave the fang to?”

“Yes. I wonder what became of him. You never told me where you found it. Maybe he’s buried there.”

“I doubt it. I found it in a museum.”

“What’s a museum?”

“It’s a… well, it’s a building filled with artifacts from the past.”

“Maybe I should go live there,” he grumbles.

“You’re not an artifact, Ash.” I slide my hand along his back, unsure if he can even feel it.

He doesn’t answer me, just starts flying a little faster as I keep an eye out for hikers. The full moon is high above us, reflecting off Asher’s dark scales. I’ve never been out in desert at night before, it’s so peaceful. And so chilly, especially compared to the heat radiating off Asher’s body.

We fly silently through the wilderness for a while, but then I feel a shudder roll through Ash’s body. “You need to get down,” he rasps, his voice strained. “I’m shifting back, I can’t help it.”

“It’s okay, Ash,” I reply quickly, crawling out from between his spines and scrambling down his outstretched wing. It’s shaking.

He screeches when the flames surround him, but I doubt it hurts. Not physically anyway, though I think it’s wounding his pride. My suspicions are confirmed with the fire subsides and he standing there, head hanging low. Even at his thinnest, he’s still so chiseled and gorgeous, but it’s difficult to enjoy the sight of him with his spirits so low. “We’ll figure it out, Ash.”

Asher sighs, running his hands through his hair as his eyes scan the horizon. I give him his clothes, but he won’t have any shoes. “I landed on a rock first,” he murmurs, reluctantly admitting defeat by pulling on his pants.

“I noticed.”

Asher holds out his hand. “I’m carrying that bag. Give it to me.”

“Thank you,” I say. He’s leaving his shirt off. Yum.

I’m trying not to eye him because I know he’s doing this to tease me, so I spin around and survey the moonlit landscape. “I think I know where we are.”

“I know exactly where we are. I’m not completely useless.”

“Ash, that’s not what I meant. I don’t know a lot about the desert. Wandering around aimlessly isn’t one of my hobbies.”

“That’s a relief. I was afraid to ask.”

“But I do recognize that.” I point into the distance. “That’s Weaver’s Needle.”

“That is called Picacho.”

“Yeah, you’re actually right.”

“That’s nice to hear for a change,” he grumbles.

“It’s the Native name. But it’s a part of a legend. We’re in the Superstition Mountains.”

“I don’t think the Native people would appreciate you calling the holy place where they ascend to the happy hunting grounds a legend.”

“That’s not the legend I’m talking about. You’re not going to like this.”

“I suppose that shouldn’t surprise me at this point.”

“When I moved Uptop, I read a lot of human history books. There was this guy, some gold miner from like 150 years ago. He supposedly found this awesome mine and revealed the location on his deathbed. No one knows if he was serious or not, but they still look for it.

Asher huffs, his nostrils flaring as he stares off into the distance. “Aside from the miner, no one has ever found it?”

“Not that I know of.”

“If anything, a legend from 150 years ago would increase the odds that it’s undisturbed.”

“That’s true,” I reply, skimming my fingers across the back of his neck. Ash nods, reaching behind him to pull my hand around to his lips, kissing the back of my palm. He deftly hops down from the massive boulder and spins around, his arms outstretched to catch me.

I hesitate, looking down at the rocky desert floor. If for some unlikely reason I had ended up on this boulder myself, I’d have to shimmy down on my stomach or risk falling flat on my face. But now Asher’s dark, impatient eyes are staring up at me, tempting me to take a leap of faith.