Taming the Dragon (6 page)

ELEVEN

The little silver bell above the door rang into the
dark and quiet little shop.

It was here. Tess had to swallow back a sob of relief as she
stepped inside. She’d been so sure it wouldn’t be, just like yesterday, but she
hadn’t known where else to start looking.

Kaden was gone, along with his necklace. He must have been able
to take it off the whole time, she knew. But why now? It was whatever change
she’d sensed in him last night. Whatever had made their lovemaking so intense
she’d felt like she might shatter.

He’d bitten her. And he’d left.

And now, a scant two days after meeting him, Tess felt like her
world would never be right again unless she could get him back.

“Hello?” Tess walked slowly through the shop, this time very
conscious of the magic in this place. Her eyes moved over all the odd pieces
Morgan had displayed. Were they all things like her necklace, attached to
dragons and wizards and who knew what else? Morgan had hinted at that, she
thought. Saying that she dealt in the...what was it? Magical, maligned and
misunderstood?

Kaden certainly fit that description.

“Tess,” said a warm voice. She turned, and Morgan was emerging
from behind a curtain, as outrageously beautiful as ever.
Witch,
Tess thought. The word actually gave her some hope. Morgan’s
small, catlike smile quickly turned to concern when she got a good look at
Tess’s face.

“Damn. What’s he done?”

“He’s gone,” Tess said. “He’s a dragon, and he took his
necklace, and he’s gone.”

Morgan cursed, a word that seemed utterly out of place coming
from a woman like her.

“Stubborn fool. I am cursed, truly. These men never do what
they’re supposed to! Bloody magic mirrors, angry gargoyles, obstinate
dragons...” She stalked over to the ugly stone gargoyle and gave it a kick. Tess
could have sworn she heard a faint yelp.

“Why did you send me to him, Morgan? Did you make the
dragyn-ka
attach itself to me?”

Morgan shook her head furiously, hair moving like flame. “The
dragons did me a good turn once, long ago. In return I promised to get Kaden
back to them, but what I found was not the warrior they’d described. The dragon
I discovered curled in a cave had given up all hope and refused to listen to
reason.”

“You couldn’t just send him back? He thinks he’s the only one
left. That his entire family is dead.”

Morgan looked annoyed. “Many were lost on the day he was driven
here. Many also lived, despite what he has convinced himself of, and not all of
his family is gone, even now. Time passes fare more quickly here, and dragons
live a long life when they are let be. As to sending Kaden back, my ways are not
the dragons’ ways. I am capable of all manner of enchantments, but getting him
home is a process that would require a fire he no longer possesses. Or rather,
he refuses to use. And I do not
beg.
I take
opportunity when I see it, and I wait. His
dragyn-ka
was the key. And when you walked in the other day, I simply...knew.”

Tess felt ill. “So you did make it attach to me.”

Morgan made an irritated noise and crossed her hands over her
chest to glare. “You and Kaden have much in common. Neither of you hears
anything but what you wish to. I am not going to explain my magic to you, Tess
McGarry. The necklace was meant for you. You were meant to waken him. I am
simply an underpaid and unappreciated facilitator.”

Morgan looked so disgruntled that Tess was compelled to
apologize.

“Sorry.”

Morgan waved a hand. “No. I’m simply...frustrated. Kaden St.
George was once a leader among dragons, a fierce warrior, an inspiration to his
kind. When he was driven here, those he left behind fought all the harder
against the dragon hunters to avenge him. The hunters are all but gone now, and
Kaden’s people need his strength.” She sighed. “They’ve waited quite a while for
me to find a way to do it. Shouting at him didn’t work. I thought finding his
mate might make him remember that there are things worth fighting for even in
this world.”

Tess stared at her, aghast. “That’s it? You want him to get up
and go home, so you...throw some unsuspecting human at him and hope he does the
right thing?”

Morgan pursed her lips. “Well. I don’t love the description,
but that’s the gist, I suppose.”

“Well, it backfired! He took his necklace and left! And those
hunters are out there looking for him...” Her eyes narrowed suspiciously. “Wait
a second. Did you tell those hunters where he was?”

Morgan rolled her eyes heavenward, then strode to one of the
display cases and fussed with the arrangement.

“I thought it would lend a sense of urgency. He
has
to fight back, Tess. If I didn’t make the house
off-limits, he probably would have just dragged you back there. You’re meant for
one another, but that wouldn’t necessarily light a fire under him. Or in him,
rather. He’s lost so much of himself here. If he doesn’t regain it, here he’ll
stay.”

Tess pressed the heels of her palms into her eyes. “This is
some underhanded bullshit.”

“Yes, well, some would say I specialize in that sort of thing.
My heart’s in the right place. Usually.”

“Then help me,” Tess said. She stepped forward and put a hand
on Morgan’s shoulder. The power that sang through her arm nearly took her feet
from under her, a warning. Tess hung on, though, forcing herself to hold
Morgan’s ancient gaze and strengthening her grip. After a moment, the only power
she felt singing through her fingertips was her own.

The witch—and Tess could now see that’s exactly what she
was—sighed.

“Help you? You can’t save him, if he doesn’t wish to be saved.
The hunters will find him, or they will continue to chase him. Kaden will
continue to hide and insult the occasional well-meaning sorceress. Nothing
changes.”

“He
has
changed,” Tess said simply,
words that finally prompted a flicker of a smile on Morgan’s beautiful face. And
as Tess said them, she knew they were true. In the short time she had known him,
Kaden had begun to awaken in more ways than one. Last night had simply been the
culmination. She didn’t know why he’d taken the necklace or why he’d run, but
she thought it was likely out of some misguided sense of honor, not a wish to
leave her.

“He was a bit late,” Morgan said gently, “in taking that
necklace from you. Though in the truest matches, a necklace is never even
needed.” She lifted Tess’s hand away from her dress, and Tess looked, horrified,
at the black claws—
her
claws— that were already
retracting, turning normal once again.

The fabric of Morgan’s dress was torn where Tess’s claws had
been.

Tess stared at her hand. Her heartbeat pulsed in her ears.
Suddenly, all the strange things she’d been feeling physically made sense. “Oh,
my God.”

Morgan studied her own nails. “Or Goddess, as it were.” She
looked up, new determination on her face. “Very well, Tess. I will help. Just
remember...whatever happens, whatever may come next, and whatever methods I
choose to use,
you asked for this
. Is that
clear?”

The relief Tess felt canceled out any trepidation she might
have felt at Morgan’s words, or the odd glint in her catlike eyes.

“Yes, anything you need to do, please. Thank you so much,
Morgan. I doubt he would have gone back to the house, but we could start
there...”

“The thanks are premature, I assure you. Step outside to wait
for me,” Morgan said, and her voice, so compelling, swirled around Tess like
mist. She found her feet moving toward the door without another thought. She
caught a glimpse of Morgan spinning to glide away, back behind the curtain.

Then she was outside in the cold light of morning. She stopped
for only a moment before realizing she wasn’t alone. The hands biting into her
upper arms were an ugly shock, as was the bright sting of whatever was injected
into the side of her neck.

“Get her in the car,” she heard a voice say. “She’s the one.
We’ll get him this time.”

You asked for this,
a voice
whispered through her mind.

Then she was gone, down into the darkness.

TWELVE

Tess’s head lolled on her shoulders as she slowly came
to.

She heard voices whispering, smelled a vaguely familiar
combination of musk and...old house?

She opened her eyes as there was a flurry of activity
nearby.

“Here he comes! Get ready!”

Tess blinked rapidly as an anguished roar filled the sky and
dust fell from the ceiling. She looked around, finally recognizing the house
that had once contained both Kaden and his treasure. Now it held nothing but her
and a small group of men. Heavily armed men. One of whom was carrying what
looked like a gold-plated harpoon.

One of them walked to her and hauled her to her feet.

“Come on. We need him to see you so he gets close enough to
hit. We’ve been looking for your boyfriend for a long time, honey.”

She would have punched him if her hands hadn’t been bound
behind her back. Instead, she could only follow, emerging into the front yard
through the same door Kaden had opened just two weeks ago. It seemed like a
lifetime.

She looked up when another roar echoed through the air, making
her ears ring. That was when she saw him—Kaden, as he really was.

As much as her heart ached, and as bare as her neck now was,
she still thought he was

the most beautiful thing she’d ever seen.

Kaden really did make a magnificent dragon. He was enormous,
covered in scales that were such a deep purple as to look black depending on how
the light hit them. His wings spread out on either side of him as he descended,
his golden eyes blazing with fire. She knew the instant he saw her, heard the
fresh fury in his roar. A jet of flame erupted from his mouth, hitting several
of the hunters’ cars until they burst.

He slammed to the ground, flattening the house across the
street, which had hopefully been as unoccupied as it looked. She caught just a
glimpse of something being tossed from his claws before she was distracted by
the hunters gathering around her.

“Now!”

Someone shot the harpoon. Tess screamed, watching its
trajectory in slow motion. Kaden moved, but he was too big to avoid it
altogether. It tore through one of his wings, and this time, his roar was as
much pain as anger.

There were victorious hoots from the hunters, but Tess barely
heard them. All she could do was watch helplessly as Kaden started forward
again, immolating a couple of stragglers who’d broken from the group. The ground
shook with his every step. He had found the fire that Morgan said he’d
lost...for her. And still, she knew it wouldn’t be enough. She was well guarded,
and the look in his eyes said he wouldn’t stop until she was safe.

Or until he was dead.

Her throat burned in the place where her little silver dragon
had once rested as Tess watched another harpoon tear through his other wing. In
that instant, she realized two things: No matter how the
dragyn-ka
had come to her, it was truly hers. And she was madly,
completely in love with Kaden St. George. It didn’t matter what the necklace
said. Her heart said she belonged to him.

Something inside her shifted as Kaden began to fall, slumping
to one side. Blood poured from his wounded wings, and when he looked at her, the
sound he made was one of the most mournful she’d ever heard. He thought he’d
failed. She wouldn’t let him.

Not when she was sure he loved her, too.

Tess closed her eyes and concentrated on her burning throat, on
the strange instincts she felt as something new shifted within her. Instead of
worrying, she embraced them. She knew what she was.

She was a dragoness.
His
dragoness.

When she opened her mouth, it was to roar in a way that sent
rocks breaking off the cliffs and into the lake below. The bonds at her wrists
snapped. She felt herself growing, becoming both different and ever more
herself. When she finally opened her eyes, it was to see the hunters below
gaping at her in horror. She slammed a foot down on the owner of the one
remaining harpoon and roared again.

Kaden had fought for her. Now, it was her turn to save him.

With a single leap, Tess took to the air with new and
glistening wings.

She soared upward, catching sight of her reflection in the
waters of the river below. She saw glittering scales, shimmering in every shade
of red over an enormous, powerful form that still held a sort of lethal
grace.

It was as though she’d been born to the sky, but her glory in
it lasted only seconds as Kaden’s roar echoed to her, bringing her back. She
turned in midair and dove straight at the scattering hunters.

And with a single breath, set the afternoon aflame.

THIRTEEN

He hated being woken up.

Except, that was, when he came to in the lap of the most
beautiful, fearsome woman he had ever known. He had seen her diving for him,
finishing what he couldn’t do alone. Another dragon, after all this time.

And now she was just his Tess, woman and dragon in one. Alive
and well, just as he seemed to be.

“I’m not dead,” Kaden said wonderingly, looking up into Tess’s
concerned eyes. The emotions he saw there as she began to laugh and cry all at
once would be enough to keep him alive for a thousand years, he was sure, as
long as she was at his side.

“I kind of set them on fire. The ones you missed,” Tess said.
“It seemed like the right thing to do at the time.”

“That’s my dragoness,” Kaden said with a tired grin.

“You didn’t mention loving you would turn me into a dragon,”
Tess said.

“I thought taking the necklace would stop it from happening,”
Kaden said. “I was a fool. You were mine the moment I set eyes on you. And...I
wondered whether you would be able to love me. I
am
a dragon. You deserved to have a choice about whether to become one, too.”

“I choose you,” Tess said, “and everything that goes along with
it. How many people can say they get to be a dragon whenever they want? And if I
hadn’t been able to change, the hunters would have won. You’re right, they’re
stronger than they look. How did you know where I was? I—” She stopped, then
closed her eyes. “Morgan. I didn’t get a chance to ask her.”

“I was already on my way back to the apartment to find you. She
appeared in the middle of the sidewalk, shouted at me, and then left.” He
frowned, remembering. “That would seem to be a trend with her and I.”

“I think she let the hunters bring me here,” Tess admitted.
“She warned me about asking her for help, and to remember that I’d asked for
it.”

“A tricky witch,” Kaden agreed, reaching up to brush a lock of
hair away from Tess’s face. “She knew I would fight for you. I was alone for so
long, Tess. I never thought I would have someone worth fighting for again. You
gave me back my fire. In here,” he said, and pulled her hand to his chest, where
his heart beat strong beneath.

“Morgan said that would open the door. That she couldn’t get
you home without dragon fire.”

“Home?”

Tess smiled, and all at once he realized that there was no
scent of burning on the light breeze, that the air was awash in scents and
sounds he had never thought to experience again. Joy filled him, as bright and
pure as flame. And it was all because of the woman who held him, his mate.

“I only saw Morgan from a distance when she opened the doorway.
I had to fly you through. I...assumed this is what you would want. She said
there are dragons here again. Looking for you.”

“Home,” he whispered softly. “But...
your
home...”

“Dragons are all about music, right? I figure it’s sort of a
two-for-one deal. I get my music, and I get you. And wings, which doesn’t hurt.”
The look in her eyes was one of the sweetest things he’d ever seen, and he knew
that she had chosen him, and all that came with him.

He would never be able to repay the gifts she had given
him...but he would spend his life trying. Kaden shifted and pulled something
from his pocket—a necklace with a small silver dragon on it. He lifted it, and
Tess put out her hand to receive it. The silver flickered with light at her
touch.

“I love you, Tess McGarry. My mate. My life. My heart.
Mine
. Ever and always.”

“Mine,” she echoed softly, “ever and always.” And the love in
her eyes was worth more than any treasure as she leaned down to seal their bond
with a single, perfect kiss.

* * * * *