On the Accidental Wings of Dragons (Dragons of Eternity Book 1) (3 page)

3

Oh God! Oh God!
Oh God!
Michael’s brain chanted as his dragon lady stepped into the room filled with enemies. The first strands of sound hit him, and he knew. God, he knew who she was! How had he not recognized her?
Who in their right mind would kidnap her?
And he had kissed her!
Oh God, he was a dead man. The king would have his head. On a platter.
For dinner!
He had
kissed
the dragon king’s
sister!

Everything made more sense now. The gold and bronze of her corseted gown—the colors of the royal family. The fact she hadn’t said anything to him. How she spoke now was a mystery his panicked brain couldn’t wrap itself around. Born without a voice, she had learned how to borrow the voices of other dragons, but it had to be a
dragon
. He was most definitely not a dragon. Maybe that part of her lore was wrong. Maybe she could use anyone’s voice.

God, even her being held captive made sense. The king of dragons loved his sister with a fondness that bordered on unnatural. She would have made the perfect leverage to move the king. He would have done anything to keep her safe. That is, if her kidnappers had managed to keep her imprisoned. Whoever chose her as their target had made several very grievous errors—one of which was underestimating Lady Carissa’s power. With their escape, her kidnappers had just made the very top of the king’s shit list.

Suddenly, his pants were less tight. The king would kill him, too, if he knew the kind of things Michael had been thinking about his sister.

Swallowing back his shock, Michael watched Carissa turn to take in the room. Her eyes seemed to be searching for something, but what? He looked around at all the enthralled humans. How he knew they were all human was beyond him at the moment, but he knew it. Her song grew in intensity. He could feel the magic searching for something. It brushed against his skin like a purring cat. A strangled sound drew his attention across the room as a single fellow crumpled to the floor, his strings cut. She had killed him with just her words. His eyes went back to his dragon lady.
Carissa
, he corrected in his mind. Lady Carissa, sister to the king. The most powerful dragon sorceress known to walk the earth. Her power rivaled even the king of dragons. Oh, he was so dead when they got out of here. Maybe Daniel could find him a nice hole to hide in for the rest of his natural life.

The strum of magic subsided as she brought her song to an end. Her voice was beautiful. Oh, how he would love to hear that voice, maybe a little hoarse, crying out his name in passion. He slammed that thought down with a quick reminder that she was the
king’s sister
. But it did nothing to relieve the ache growing in his pants again. He was so going to die with blue balls.

He looked around the room at the men. All of them were crumpled to the floor, but the few he could see were still breathing, so they weren’t dead. She had only killed the one man. Why not take them all out? It would solve a lot of issues.

There had been a rash of dragon disappearances, lately. After a long undercover operation, Michael had discovered this group. They had been kidnapping and killing dragons for their glands. The pheromones they produced sold for big money, but they couldn’t be reproduced in a lab. It had been his own bad luck that had gotten him caught during his mission. If he hadn’t gone back for that cup of coffee, he wouldn’t have run smack-dab into their hands. Why they just hadn’t killed him on the spot was still a mystery. Maybe they wanted to try to trade him for some of their buddies whom Daniel already had locked up. Fat chance there. Daniel didn’t make deals. Anyway, Michael was an Elite. He was on his own.

His attention was pulled away from his thoughts when Carissa moved. Horror filled him as she crumpled to the floor. He tried to cry out her name, but his voice didn’t work. She’d definitely stolen it to perform her trick. His heart squeezed when her form dissolved. Dragons only involuntarily shifted to their smaller forms in times of stress or need.

Voicelessly crying out her name again, he rushed to her side and dug the small, golden dragon from inside the body of the dress. He placed his hand on her side, feeling for a heartbeat. For a moment, he thought she was dead, and then she pulled in a raspy breath. His fingers finally located the staccato beat of her little heart—strong and steady. Michael let out a shaky breath as he cradled the limp dragon against his chest. If he’d had any questions about who she was, this cinched it. Only the royal family shifted into gold dragons. He stroked her head and tucked her wings in before turning to roll up her dress. She was going to need it as soon as she recovered.

Once everything was secure, Michael stood up and looked around. Getting her things together had been a quite a chore. He hadn’t wanted to put her down in case he needed to get out of there fast. With her dress, rolled inside the corset, secured to his belt, and her jewels in his pocket, he looked around for the exit. There were three doors leading out of this room. Tucking Carissa into the crook of his left arm, Michael pulled out his gun and headed for the door on the right. He was taking no more chances with her safety.

Michael was surprised at how small Carissa was in this form. The gold dragons were the largest of the great dragon families. They towered head and shoulders above any of the other colors when in their great form. He had seen Carissa in that form many times. She was magnificent. The way the light sparkled off her scales always stole his breath away. Hell, the light sparkling off any color of dragon was magnificent. There was something in their scales that broke the light and reflected it back, like the prismatic coating on interstate signs. He had always wanted to touch her scales. They were so beautiful. His thumb rubbed gently against the side of her head where it rested in his palm. He looked down at her to make sure she was still okay.

God, she was so small. He had seen dragons in their little forms that rivaled Great Danes. But Carissa… she was barely the size of a house cat, although she did have a little length to her. With her head resting in his hand, the tip of her tail hung to nearly his knee. A scalloped frill covered her neck, but she lacked the horns her brother sported in his grander size. The tip of her tail ended in a fanning of soft strands. Not hair, but not hard like quills. It patted softly against his leg as he walked. For a second, the thought of that tail thumping into his back popped into his head. A shot of desire raced through him again. Oh man, he
had
gone crazy! Now he was having erotic thoughts about her in dragon form. That was just not normal. He had always loved the look of her as a dragon, but it had never caused him to lust before. He shook the thought away, readjusted himself, and worked his way down the next corridor.

Michael had been able to determine they were in some kind of castle-like building. The windows, if there were any, were small and set high in the stone wall. Some didn’t even have glass in them. The halls all wound around oddly, like a maze. He had taken several wrong turns that came to dead ends, but he was able to avoid the people moving about. Carissa had rumbled a few times in her sleep but hadn’t woken. He rubbed his thumb gently over her neck, hoping she would wake soon. He could really use her help to find a way out of here.

The sound of pounding feet echoed up the hall. Michael slipped into one of the side rooms so they could pass. Someone must have discovered the unconscious men in the barracks. Oh great, his job just got harder. Michael considered finding someplace to hole up, but this group wouldn’t stop searching for them until they had turned over every stone, or found them. And with only one gun, he wanted to be away as quickly as he could. A few minutes later, a herd of feet thundered past, heading in the other direction. He had to get out of there. Now.

Tucking Carissa tighter to his body, Michael took off in a sprint down the hall away from where he’d come. There had to be an exit around here somewhere. Something thumped against his back, causing him to whip around to find his attacker. Another thump smacked him between the shoulder blades, this time accompanied by a gurgle. He looked down to find that he was squeezing Carissa hard against him. He tried to curse and apologize as he loosened his grip. She thumped him once more before climbing up his coat. Her needle-point claws bit into his jacket before she wrapped herself around his neck. Thank God for good leather.

“Can’t find the way out,” he mouthed to her as she settled on his shoulders. She rubbed the top of her head on his cheek soothingly before looking around at their options. Noise was coming from behind them, so Michael started off down the corridor again. When the hall dead-ended in the middle of another, he stopped. Carissa thumped him hard on the back with her tail and pointed her nose to the right. He turned right.

Every few steps, Carissa would swish her tail from the front of his body to the back. Movement to work out her nerves. God, he wished she would stop doing that. The soft thwap of the tufty bit at the end of her tail reminded him of that soft flogger his ex used to like. It really wasn’t helping with his earlier thoughts. God, if he got out of this, got her safely back to the king, survived the king’s wrath, then survived Daniel’s wrath for his initial fuckup; he was so heading over to that BDSM club downtown. A pretty girl with a soft flogger would probably go a long way to work the dragon hormones out of his system. Carissa’s tail thumped into his back again, and he caught the end when it came back around. She whipped her head around to look at him, but he just gave her a half smile and a shrug. It’s not like he would explain the issue to her even if he could. Her tail stilled, but he held on, rubbing the soft fringe at the end.

Finally, natural light filled the far end of their hallway. Michael didn’t care anymore; be it door or window, they were going to get out. Luck would have it that it was a door, a big, beautiful, wooden door being held open by a man. He was yelling something to someone outside, but that didn’t bother Michael. As soon as the man finished and went to shut the door, Michael smacked him in the back of the head with the butt of his gun. He dropped like a stone. A purr vibrated through his shoulder from Carissa. He shivered in response. Even while killing someone, just a sound from her made him hard.

What the hell was wrong with him? He had handled dragons before—heard their noises, felt their purrs, touched their scales—and none of them brought on any response even close to what she brought out in him. He wanted her. Right now.
In this form.
How was that even possible? He was going to need some serious counseling when the whole, sordid affair was over.

After a few deep breaths, Michael pulled himself together and opened the door. Two men turned to look at him. Two men. Michael could handle that. He pointed his gun at the first and pulled the trigger. The hammer fell on the round with an audible click, but nothing happened. A dud. He tried again, but the gun jammed up.
Shit!

The men had frozen when the door had opened, but now they sprang into action. One raced away for help while the other came at them, fighting to get his gun out of wherever he had stuck it. Carissa launched herself at the man’s face. Five pounds of teeth, claws, and wings distracted him enough for Michael to shoulder-check him and smack them to the ground.

Carissa’s wings and tail trembled and thrashed as she hissed from where she landed. Michael snapped the man’s neck before turning to look at the little dragon. She didn’t look hurt, but he was afraid she had gone down hard. He reached for her, but she snapped at him and turned towards the woods just beyond the courtyard.

Snapping to his senses, Michael looked around for the other man, but he was already out of sight. Dropping the useless gun, Michael chased after the flash of gold scampering across the open ground. She was quick for her size. Pausing at the tree line, Carissa waited long enough for him to catch up before slipping off into the woods. Chaos exploded from the castle behind them.

Snatching her up from the ground, Michael tucked Carissa back under his arm and booked it for all he was worth. He wasn’t going to break any land-speed records, but he had trained for just this kind of thing. Sprinting short distances, he zigzagged his way through the trees, looking for a place to hide. Someplace to get away from the men he could hear following them. He shot for a break in the bush to his right. An unruly bramble caught his legs, and he slipped. Tumbling, he tucked Carissa in against his chest, protected by his arms. Who knew what kind of damage he could do to a small dragon if he fell on it. Panic filled him as he saw what they were falling towards. Nice, soft, green grass… at the bottom of a really long hill.

***

“
Let me go, you stupid man!
” Carissa hissed from where she was crushed to Michael’s chest. Unfortunately, he didn’t understand dragon. Didn’t he have a brain cell in that head of his? She could have told him those brambles hid the edge of a cliff. Hadn’t Daniel taught him
anything
? Didn’t he know to release a dragon in a fall? Now he was going to crush her as they rolled down the hill. Oh yes, he had tucked her up between his arms to protect her body, but what about her wings or tail? What would happen if she broke something? Now that they were outside, it wouldn’t take but a few moments for her to shift to a larger form and get them out of there, but he was too stupid to realize it. Just snatched her up and took off, willy-nilly, into the woods. God save her from men, no matter how they made her feel. And oh, how he had made her feel!