Bewitching The Dragon

Dev laid a hand on her back. “You okay, darling?” He thought for a moment she was sobbing but realized she’d begun laughing uncontrollably.

“Am I okay?” she gasped between the laughter. “Holy Mother of God. If you want to kill me that way, it’s fine with me, but if you’re planning to fuck me, I think you’d better do it quick before you render me unconscious with that damn tongue.”

Dev wasn’t about to waste any time. He yanked off his boots, stripped off his clothes, and drew Kylie up onto her knees and entered her once more while she pulled back on the belt that held her wrists and rocked into him to meet his thrusts. Feeling light-headed as he pounded toward climax, he dismissed it as the natural effect of his pent-up desire.

He put his mouth close to her ear. “Do you want me to come inside you?”

Kylie moaned and gyrated her hips. “God, yes.”

“Tell me. Tell me to do it.”

She turned her head toward him and he leaned in to snatch her mouth with his so that the words were moaned against his lips. “I want you to come. Come for me.”

Dev jolted inside her with a roar of pleasure, biting her lip a bit harder than he’d meant to and tasting a drop of blood as the ejaculation shot out of him. He felt as if every muscle he had was releasing simultaneously with it, and he clutched her waist to his as he collapsed onto his side against the bed with an almost giddy sense of lightness.

“That was—” He tried to catch his breath, licking the salty taste of blood from his lip. “That was—” He pulled out swiftly with a cry of surprise as the scar tissue at his back felt like it had caught fire.

“Dev?” Kylie tried to turn her head toward him. “What’s wrong? Are you okay?”

He was on fire, every inch of him crawling with agonizing heat. Dev looked down at his chest. His skin looked like it was boiling. No...it looked like it was—

“Kurrrrr!” The word, hurled from his tongue, was the last coherent thought in his head before he leaped from the bed and stumbled backward on the floor with a sound coming out of his throat that wasn’t his own.

Chapter 7

In place of the constant tingle that had been animating her skin since Dev’s first touch, an icy column of fear gripped her spine. That growl had not been human.

Scrabbling noises of something large and lumbering thudded along the wood floor. The bed shook with the impact.

“Dev?” Ione realized she’d squeezed her eyes shut and she opened them with effort. She was still facedown against the pillow, tethered to the headboard. She took a deep breath and turned her head. At the periphery of her vision, a dark shape hulked. A dark shape that was making heavy breathing sounds—and seemingly emitting steam. Oh, God.

She held her breath and grabbed the belt with one hand just above the spot where it was buckled while folding her other hand almost in two, the pad of her thumb against the outer edge and fingers tented tightly together, and tugged. Dev hadn’t strapped the belt tightly this time and, with a little effort, she freed the hand. She quickly undid the buckle to free the other. Ione sat up on her knees and took another breath before turning around.

An expletive she’d only uttered once or twice in her life burst out of her as she scrambled back against the headboard. Covered in vivid green scales, like poison personified, the creature hulked inside her doorway on all fours, its massive bulk tight and compact, as if ready to pounce. Tension quivered in its thick, muscular limbs, while fiery gold eyes glared out at her from a narrow, reptilian face beneath a bumpy, ridged forehead that sloped back into hornlike protrusions. The bumps on its head continued in a bisecting ridge of the bony substance that traveled down the creature’s body and all the way to the end of the long tail stretching out the door.

The hottest sex she’d ever had and the guy had to get eaten by a monster. And she was about to be the second course.

Her mind was processing this, assessing the situation, as though hulking monsters in one’s bedroom were an ordinary occurrence.

The creature breathed out a huff of steam and made a deep growling noise in its throat that seemed to set the whole house rumbling. Ione considered going for the gun she kept loaded in the nightstand. Her eyes flicked toward it. Depending on how fast this thing moved—the thing moved, and instinct kicked in. Change the perception of a thing and you might change the thing itself.

Ione flung out her hand toward the creature with a sort of battle cry, pushing against air with a move she’d learned in krav maga. The monster flipped backward, cracking the doorframe as it tore through it, a look of surprise in its fiery eyes as it righted itself and skidded along the landing. Ione was almost as surprised as it seemed to be. She’d imagined the force of air throwing it backward, but she hadn’t really expected it to work. It crouched on the landing, tail switching and taking out a row of the railing behind it. Before she could lose her nerve and allow logic to surface, she made the gesture and shouted again, this time with words.

“In the name of God and the Goddess, get out!”

The creature tumbled backward over the railing, batlike wings at awkward angles as if it had forgotten how to use them, and landed on its back on her living room floor with enough force to shake the building. She prepared for an attack, this time going for the gun, and ran out onto the landing with the weapon in both hands, aimed at the thing’s skull. She’d taken shooting lessons to be sure she’d know how to use it if the time ever came, but she’d never actually had to fire at anything but a shooting-range target.

Ione squeezed the trigger, realizing too late she’d also squeezed her eyes shut. The bullet struck the window behind the thing’s head.

Instead of lunging for her, the creature got to its feet and turned to barrel into the wide pane of plate glass that extended across the far wall. The thick glass shattered and the beast clambered through it only to let out a roar of surprise as it struck an invisible barrier inside the walled garden. Rafe’s wards.

“Oh, crap.” She hadn’t expected to need anything to get out; they were fashioned to keep unwanted magic from getting in. If they’d been her own, she could have unlocked them, but these were Rafe’s arcane Aztec symbols.

Ione stepped onto the landing, the gun still aimed at the creature in her backyard. If the place was warded so well that this thing couldn’t get out...how the hell had it gotten in? The golden eyes blinked at her like huge tiger’s-eye gemstones.

“No...effing...way.”

Steam huffed gently from its nostrils as it contemplated her from where it sprawled in the blanket of shattered glass. Ione was still holding a gun on it, threatening a creature she’d effectively cornered. And she was standing naked on her landing. She lowered the gun. The creature didn’t move. Ione stepped into the bedroom to grab her robe from the door. There were Dev’s pants and boots in a heap at the foot of the bed. She stepped back out, wrapping the robe around her. The creature hadn’t moved except to sit back on its haunches like a dog waiting for its master.

Ione descended the spiral staircase that led to the second floor from the front entryway, gun still clutched in her hand, and slowly approached the broken window. The creature breathed out a soft plume of smoke and lowered itself to the ground, settling its bumpy muzzle against its front feet.

With her finger poised on the trigger, Ione studied the glittering eyes from her closer vantage point. “What the hell, Dev?”

The creature let out a sigh, its ridged back gently rising and falling.

She took a step closer. “If that’s really you...why can’t you change back?” Eustace Scrubb had woken up similarly transformed in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader after falling asleep in a dragon’s lair coveting its hoard. What had Dev coveted? Ione? Well, Kylie, anyway. She glanced up at her reflection in what remained of the window. Crap. Ione. When had she lost the glamour? Not that it mattered now. The Covent assayer sent to end her career had screwed her brains out and turned into a dragon. Because, seriously, this was a dragon she was looking at.

“Did I do this to you? My Lilith blood?” The dragon didn’t seem to have the answer to that.

Someone was going to walk by and see this thing from the side path. “Come in here. It’s all right. I won’t shoot you.” She set the gun aside and opened her palms to show they were empty in case the dragon couldn’t understand human speech.

The creature raised its head, tilting it.

“Come on.” She pointed inside the house.

The dragon rose a bit clumsily and she saw why as it started forward. Blood dripped from its left foreleg. She hadn’t entirely missed it, after all.

Ione backed out of the way as the dragon limped through the gap in the wall and hovered just inside. Whether or not it had Dev’s consciousness in there, it definitely wasn’t trying to hurt her.

Watching her, it settled onto the floor, favoring the leg she’d struck, and curled its tail around its body, again resembling an obedient dog. Except this “dog” was taking up half her living room—and would take up all of it if it stood and stretched its wings.

She took a tentative step toward it. “Can I look at your leg?” When it didn’t move to stop her, she came closer and crouched beside it to try to determine how badly she’d injured it. She’d heard the bullet hit the window, so it must have gone clean through. Ione could only see one wound. Perhaps she’d just clipped it. Even so, the dragon was losing a fair amount of blood.

“Stay here.” Ione went for the first-aid kit in the downstairs bathroom opposite the laundry where Dev had—Christ.

With the little kit in hand, she realized what she had wasn’t exactly made for dragon proportions. Or dragon flesh. She brought a towel with her to clean the wound and ended up tying it in place around the upper foreleg. The gauze and bandages were useless. The dragon put up with it patiently.

“Sorry.” She glanced up at the glowing gold eyes. “It’s a good thing I’m not a better shot.”

The dragon made a soft rumble in its throat that might have been a growl or a murmur of agreement. Ione’s stomach answered with a growl of its own. She hadn’t eaten anything since a cup of cottage cheese and a pear before going to the club. Dev probably hadn’t eaten dinner, either. Which meant the dragon was probably hungry. What did dragons eat? It was sort of like a dinosaur, which was a sort of lizard, right? What did lizards eat? Smaller lizards? Ione was on a vegetarian kick, so the only animal proteins in the house were eggs and cheese. Maybe lizards were herbivores.

She compromised and scrambled some eggs with spinach, mushrooms and peppers and crumbled some sharp cheddar and seitan sausage substitute into it. After dishing it up—the largest portion in a big serving bowl—she grabbed the rest of the bag of spinach and tossed it into a separate bowl with some cucumbers and tomatoes, just to give the dragon some options.

“I wasn’t sure if you were hungry,” she said coming back from the kitchen with the food. “I’m always starving after s—” She swallowed the word, heat rushing to her face. The dragon probably had no idea what she was saying, but it didn’t seem right to discuss having been intimate with someone who was no longer in human form. “I don’t know if you’re a grazer or a hunter. I’m guessing hunter, but this is all new to me...so, here—take your pick.” She set the bowls in front of the dragon, but it merely gave them a disinterested sniff.

“Suit yourself.” Ione sat to eat on the one chair that hadn’t been knocked over in the chaos.

By the time she’d finished eating, the towel she’d tied around the dragon’s wound was soaked through. Ione got another from the laundry room and this time wrapped it around a smaller towel folded into a square and pressed against the wound. She could swear as she finished that the dragon was purring.

She tucked her robe around herself as she stood, realizing she’d probably been flashing it. Not that Dev hadn’t seen it all, but this wasn’t exactly Dev. Ione pinched the bridge of her nose and realized how tired she was. The events of the night had worn her out—some more pleasantly than others. Maybe she’d be able to come up with some way of dealing with the dragon in the morning if she just got some sleep.

Damp wind was still blowing through the gaping hole that had been her living room wall. Ione pulled the heavy curtains across it, which helped a little. Between Rafe’s wards and the alarm system—and the fact that a freaking dragon was camped out in her living room—she’d probably be safe enough. She pocketed the Glock just in case.

“Okay, I’m going up to bed. Will you be all right down here?” Like he was going to answer. “Okay,” she said again. “Good night.”

She figured she’d probably just lie there on the bed no matter how tired she was. How could she possibly sleep with a dragon in her living room? But she was out like a light, only waking early in the morning to a loud thudding and clattering on the stairs.

Ione grabbed the gun and jumped up, launching herself into the hall to find the dragon clumsily attempting to climb the spiral staircase, its tail coiling through the railing.

“Mother of God. What are you doing?”

The dragon’s claws slipped on the open wooden stairs and it tumbled backward before flinging its wings out instinctively to catch itself, apparently finally remembering it could fly. It circled the open-plan area beneath the vaulted ceiling, sweeping pictures off the wall and onto the living room floor—with every other item it had knocked over on its way to the stairs—finally settling on the landing, puffing steam like the “Little Engine That Could” and looking rather smug.

Ione tucked the pistol into her waistband at the back of her cotton pajamas. “You’re pretty pleased with yourself, I see. What do you want, a treat?” The dragon tilted its head. Ione yawned. Judging from the pale glow from the skylight, it was about six in the morning. “I’m going back to bed. If you’re hungry, you’re going to have to wait until a reasonable hour.”

After climbing back under the covers, she heard the dragon lumber into the room, just barely clearing the door frame, and settle onto the floor by the bed. Ione opened one eye as the dragon curled its tail over itself like a cat for warmth. How a dragon could be cold with steam coming out of it, she wasn’t sure, but it certainly made for a comfortable room for a human.

She woke again a few hours later to find the dragon gone, but a curious lapping sound was coming from the bathroom down the hall. “Oh, God.” She’d forgotten to give it water. This was why she didn’t have pets. Among other reasons.

Ione kept her eyes closed and pretended not to hear it, stirring only as the dragon thumped back into the room. She opened her eyes, a bit disappointed that the dragon’s transformation hadn’t simply reversed given a few hours. Was he going to be stuck like this? Blood was dripping down the creature’s foreleg, the makeshift bandage soaked through.

She got up and got another set of towels to replace the sodden ones, trying not to think about the state of her pale wood floors and the cream-colored carpet in the living room as she rebandaged the wound.

But by the time she’d cleaned up and gone to the bathroom, blood was already seeping through the towel. Shouldn’t the bleeding have stopped? Maybe dragons had different circulation systems. What the hell was she going to do? It wasn’t like she could dial 9-1-1 and get a paramedic over here to treat a dragon. She needed a vet.

It occurred to her that Theia had worked as a veterinary assistant while studying for her degree in zoology. God, she couldn’t bring Theia into this.

The dragon’s warm breath seemed to be more rapid than it had been. She had to do something.

Theia answered on the first ring. “Hey, Di. Guess you must have felt me dreaming about you, huh?”

“Uh, no. Not exactly.” Before learning about the Lilith blood, she’d never taken her baby sister’s prophetic dreams seriously. “What have you been dreaming?”

“Mostly just vague dreams about power—your magic growing stronger.”

Ione didn’t know about that, unless her magical abilities had been responsible for what had happened to Dev.

“I also dreamed you got a dog. Which is hilarious, because you hate animals.”

“I do not hate animals. I just don’t like having to clean up after them. I did enough cleaning up after you guys.” She bit her tongue. “I didn’t mean that the way it sounded.”

“You did, but that’s okay. I know it couldn’t have been easy having to take care of a bunch of snot-nosed kids when you were barely more than a kid yourself. And we love you for it. You know that.”

Ione’s eyes were smarting and she pinched her arm. She couldn’t afford to be sentimental right now.

“Actually, that’s what I’m calling about. Animals. Do you know anything about...reptiles?” God, was it a reptile? Were dragons reptiles?

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