Authors: Dahlia Rose
Chapter
Two
It
was a little past midnight when she pulled into the driveway. She unlocked the
back door, leading into the kitchen. Raven invited him in and he sat at the
kitchen table. All she knew about him so far was that his name was Raul, he was
a dragon shifter, and he was injured. That’s what he called himself, a
dragon shifter,
when he told her about
his second nature. The bite on his shoulder had begun to heal, but still looked
pretty bad and needed taken care of before they could discuss anything further.
And then there was the matter of getting his very muscled shoulder back into
place. At least now he was only shirtless, but even that was a distraction.
She’d found some old clothes—pants mainly—tucked away upstairs that
belonged to her brother’s boyfriend. They must have left them the last time
they visited. Michael was a big man and yet his jeans were visibly too short
for Raul.
She
looked at him dubiously after cleaning his wound, first with soap and water and
then with rubbing alcohol. “You’re way bigger than me. There is no way I am
going to be able to put your shoulder back into place. I think we should take
you to the hospital and have that taken care of.”
Raul
shook his head. “It’s already healing itself. By the time we got there, it
would be too late and my shoulder would be in the wrong place.” He got up from
the table and sat on the floor facing the wall, waving her over to him with his
good arm. “Brace your back against the wall here, and put your foot against my
shoulder. You’ll take my arm and pull as you use your heel for leverage. It
should be enough to pop it back into place.”
Raven
stood and looked down at this sexy creature sitting on her floor. “That’s going
to hurt like a bitch on wheels.”
Raul
laughed. “A what on what? You Americans—I love the way you talk.”
“Yeah,
you should hear how you sound,” she said under her breath and moved to stand in
front of him with her back pressed against the wall.
“You
like my voice then?” He gave her a wink and smiled.
Even
though her heart fluttered in her chest, Raven rolled her eyes. “Your voice is
like anyone else’s. Let’s get this over with.”
She
took off her boots and lifted his arm, holding it at the wrist with both her hands.
His chuckle was cut off with a wince of pain when she braced the ball of her
foot against his shoulder.
“We’ll
do this on three,” she said and took a deep breath. “One, two…”
She
pulled hard on his arm and pushed her foot against him simultaneously before
she got to three and felt his shoulder slip back into place. He cursed loudly
and rolled back on the floor.
“Mother
of God, I thought you said on three, female!” he roared. His roar was so loud it
made the small kitchen shake, and a few plates fell off the shelf with a
clatter.
Raven
moved around him. “Well, if you knew when it was going to happen, you would have
tensed up and made it worse. And my name is Raven. If you call me female one
more time I’m going to kick you in the balls.”
He
sat up and glared at her. “I told you that my muscles had begun to heal
already.”
“Suck
it up, champ. You’re a dragon shifter, after all.” She grabbed a bottle of
Ibuprofen out of a cabinet.
He
muttered about bloody coldhearted females as he got up and sat back in the
chair at the table. Raven handed him the bottle of Ibuprofen. He practically
tore the childproof cap off and poured what looked to be at least twelve tablets
in his hand.
“Wait,
that’s way too much,” she said. He gave her a look and then tilted his head
back, swallowing them dry. Raven grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge and
put it on the table in front of him. “I would have given you water.”
“I
didn’t want to bother you with that. I was afraid you might bludgeon me over
the head with it,” he replied.
“It’s
plastic. It wouldn’t have done a lot of damage,” she said mildly. “Okay, so
your shoulder is back in place, which means you owe me some answers. Who the
hell are you and what’s going on?”
“I
told you I am Raul of the Paladin Court,” he replied and took a long swig from
the water bottle. Raven watched his Adam’s apple work as he swallowed and felt
butterflies in her stomach.
“Yes,
you said that, but humor the human in the room. What the hell does that mean?”
He
laughed. “I like you. You’ve got fire in your belly.”
“I’m
glad I amuse you. So how about you give me a laugh, buddy,” Raven replied.
Raul
inclined his head. “The Paladin Court is in the realm that mirrors this one
where dragons roam. Those of us of the court are charged with the protection of
your realm from those who would farm humans like cattle and enslave you.”
“Like
that Asian serpent you were fighting?” Raven asked.
“Yes,
he is part of the
Shen
abomination. Their ancestors
were a regal court themselves,” Raul explained. “But the
Shen
want to rape your planet and use your women to replenish their army.”
“For
what purpose?” Raven asked, unable to believe what she was hearing.
“To
kill our planet and take over yours. We ran them from the barrens on our home
and they see yours as vital now. They want to claim what was never theirs,”
Raul replied. “Now we hunt and we fight until we can find their king. Cut off
the head of the snake and the rest will fall.”
“Won’t
another king rise?” Raven asked. This story was almost unbelievable, but then she
had to remind herself she was sitting across from a man that could become a
creature the size of a semi truck.
“No,
a new king hatchling can only be created every few hundred years and this time
when we wipe them out, they will be gone for good,” Raul said firmly. “They are
raising an army, using human women to bring their abominations into the world.
The solider hatchlings grow quickly—think of how cockroaches reproduce
and grow.”
“How
old are you? I mean, how old can you and others of your kind become?” Raven
asked curiously. This was the anthropological find of the century. She could
learn so much from him and from his world.
“
I
am
only one hundred—young to most
.
Some of my brothers on the court are almost eight hundred human years. The king
himself is close to two thousand and going strong except he is starting to
gray, but he is a fine warrior.” Raul grinned.
She
leaned forward, excited by all he was telling her. “Take me there.”
He
shook his head. “I can see the excitement in your eyes, the new discovery, but
the world can never know about us. I must protect my people.”
“So
humans are not allowed to visit your world?” Raven asked.
“I
didn’t say that. Some dragons have taken human mates. They keep our secret
while you…” Raul shook his head. “You may not.”
That
irritated her to no end. Just because she was excited about this discovery did
not mean she wouldn’t keep it secret. Though she did have to admit that humans did
have a tendency to destroy what they didn’t understand. She put that aside for
the moment and focused on the problem at hand.
“The
serpent said he would return for me, that he had my scent?” Raven questioned. Her
stomach rolled when she remembered how his tongue had flicked out through his
smile before he ran into the tree line.
He
sighed. “You are under my protection now. They are like snakes; they can taste
the air. He has the flavor of you—sweat or perfume. Either way, they do
not like interference, especially from humans. He will see you as either one of
two things: a gift for his king to seed or to kill.”
“So
the king is the only one who can lay eggs?”
“Yes.
The others cannot breed soldier-worthy offspring, but that does not stop them
from trying and defiling human women.” Raul gave her a look and she could see
the seriousness of the situation etched across his face and in his eyes. “It’s
more than just laying eggs. The host is defiled. The barbs of their genitals
cut into… It’s not pretty. Some of the women we’ve found after the birth…well,
it was humane to end their misery.”
She
pushed back from the table in shock. “You killed them?”
“They
were dying slowly and painfully,” Raul explained.
She
felt anger surge inside her. “Or was it to keep your secret? If they survived
they could tell.”
Raul
was up and out of his chair so fast she hardly saw it. He caught her by the
shoulders and gave her a little shake. “Why would we protect this world if we
do not value your lives? Those women were destroyed from the inside out as they
were raped and mutilated and then something inhuman was torn from their bodies.
Would it be right to leave them to suffer and bleed for something that was not
their choice?” He pushed her away. She saw the look of disgust on his face.
“Believe what you want, female. I owe you no explanations.”
“You
should’ve said that you didn’t give a damn when I was saving your life. I could
have walked away and left you to fight on your own,” she shot back
Raul’s
emerald green eyes were cold. “If I was to die then it would be in the honor of
my people. I would be with the gods who charged us with protecting your kind
and my name would be written among the stars. So you may have saved me now, but
my end will come eventually. I thank you for what you did, but know this: I owe
you nothing more than saving your life from the
Shen
.”
“Oh,
I think we’ve established this relationship very clearly,” she said stiffly.
“What’s the game plan from here?”
“First,
I need to get to my home. This was where I was going when it attacked me,” Raul
explained.
“So
they know where you live?”
“Not
necessarily. He may have seen me doing my patrol and reacted, or they may have
a base of operations in the wilderness,” he said. “But when I get home I will
contact my brothers of the court. Tell them what happened and hear their thoughts
on if we should search this area for the king’s base of operation.”
She
shook her head. “Okay, so you don’t know where the king is?”
“Hawke’s
wife,
Daisye
, her father owned a textile plant in
Alabama. They were going to use the smoke stacks to house the king until we
stepped in,” Raul said. “By the time we got there and fought them he was
already gone.
Daisye
lost her father because of them
so we know the consequences to our people the longer he stays hidden.”
“Do
the human mates get to travel back and forth from your realm to this one?”
Raven asked.
“As
long as one of us is with them.
Kalv’s
wife
Ginna
is due to give birth very soon. With this new threat
of the
Shen
attacking at random, the dragons that
have human wives are keeping them very close to home.”
“Do
you have a doctor for when she gives birth?” Raven wondered about their
medicine, their family infrastructure and more. This was why she became an archeologist
and minored in anthropology. She didn’t only want to find objects from the
past,
she wanted to know where the objects came from and how
those people lived.
“We
have healers and, if necessary, we can get a doctor from this world to come,”
Raul said.
“I
can be that. I can help with her delivery. My mother believed that I should
have a well-rounded education.” Raven smiled, hoping that this information
would give him incentive to take her to Paladin. “I was trained and registered
as a nurse by the time I was twenty and while we did six months in Peru on a
dig, we had to deliver a few babies. I went back and trained in midwifery.”
“Archeologist,
anthropologist, nurse and midwife. You are quite accomplished for one so young.”
Raul grinned. “You should have men falling all over themselves to be at your
arm, calling at your window to court you.”
“This
isn’t medieval times. Guys don’t act like that anymore.” Raven looked down
shyly and tucked her hair behind her ears. “Especially when you’re a bookworm
with a brain. I’m not the type that guys like.”
“I
think you may be wrong there,” he murmured. “Anyway, we need to leave because
he will track you here.”
“This
isn’t my home. I’m just staying in this cabin until I finish my thesis,” Raven
said. “My mother’s friend loaned it to me and it’s at least an hour from where
I was camped. Can they track me that far?”
“And
further,” Raul said. “Not only you, but me as well. Trust me. We won’t be
staying at my home long.”
“Are
you going to shift into your dragon form and fly us there?”
Raul
grinned. “I think we should take your truck.”
“Okay.”
She was disappointed and it showed on her face.
He
cupped her chin and gave her a crooked smile. “Don’t worry. You will fly with
me one day when I am sure I can trust you with our secret. My home is about three
hours from here by the road. Gather what you need because you cannot return
until the danger has passed.”