Authors: L. Shannon
“You worry too much.”
I ignored her. Worry kept me alive. “So which room is yours?”
He pulled out a key and opened the first door on the left, holding it open for me. I made it one step inside the room before laughing at the space he’d been living in for who knew how long. The room was small to begin with, and he had filled probably half the cubic space with textbooks and tattered notebooks. Good thing I hadn’t made my move on him yet. His research materials overflowed the bed.
“Did you leave anything at the office?”
“Yeah, my clothes,” he mumbled.
I could believe that. I wandered over to the first stack, and a single glance told me that the pile was dedicated to dragons. As was the next pile and the one after that. How lucky was it that the guy helping me with my dragon problem happened to be obsessed with dragons? A dragon expert and a box full of dragon pendants in the same place—was it a coincidence?
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But I didn’t believe in coincidences. He’d claimed to have been there for the box, so it wasn’t really suspicious.
I sighed and tried to let go of my usual distrust.
Davis was already settled into the only chair, with two books open on the bed before him and another in his lap.
He didn’t look or act suspicious unless I considered how happy he was to be involved. Who on earth would want to be carried off a mountain in the claws of a giant purple dragon?
Benjamin Davis.
The big question was should I confront him now and get this sorted out right away, or would that ruin his willingness to help? On the other hand, if he wasn’t willing to help, I could just eat him.
“He does look tasty,”
Amethyst purred into my mind.
Did she mean for food or for sex? A shudder ran through my body as if in answer. She meant sex…definitely sex. “We have something in common, then.” I laughed at her mental smirk.
“Have what?” Davis asked without raising his head.
“Amethyst and I were just discussing your various merits.”
“Does she really talk to you? I didn’t hear any other voices.” He grabbed one of the textbooks from the bed and settled it onto his lap, on top of the first book.
“She talks in my head. Telepathy, I think it’s called.”
“Since both voices are in your head, I think that’s called schizophrenia.” He flashed me a dimpled grin before flipping through the book.
“Could be. Did I hallucinate turning into a dragon and carrying your ungrateful ass off the mountain?”
“If you did, so did I.” His face was covered with a silly smile, and I could imagine he was remembering the flight.
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“And why weren’t you afraid? Seems to me most people would be changing their shorts after that flight.
Hell, if I’d had control of my body, I might have needed a change myself.”
He shook his head and ducked back into the book on his lap.
“He is excited but unsure of himself.”
“How do you know that?”
“I read his emotions. You can do so as well if you
focus on the task.”
I’d never been able to read minds before, but I’d never flown either, so…I stared at Davis, focusing on him and what he’d be thinking. He didn’t look up or seem to notice my attention. But I wasn’t getting anything from him that wasn’t obvious in his body language, which did agree with Amethyst’s assessment. Maybe she was yanking my chain and not able to read him either.
“You must open yourself to the other being’s emotions.
Your shields shut out any chance to use this sense to its
advantage.”
A couple seconds ticked by before she asked,
“Why do you lock out the world?”
This from a dragon locked inside a chunk of jewelry for who knew how long… Yeah, I wasn’t answering her.
“How long were you in the pendant before I found you?”
“The passage of time is not easily determined when
you are without form.”
Right. Of course it would be different. What was I thinking?
“What was it like? Was it like you were
sleeping?”
“No.”
The finality of that one word left me wondering if it had been hard on Amethyst to be without a body. Had it been painful? Or lonely? Maybe I wasn’t the only one who kept a painful past private.
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She had asked why I shut out the world and kept to myself when the truth was that I wanted to feel close to another being. I’d never considered being glued to a dragon, but the feeling of connection still warmed me deep inside. It was almost the feel of a lover. I’d never been in love, but I had shared that illusion of love that lust offered. Amethyst soothed me instead of setting fire to my body, but the sense of connection was still there.
Not that I wasn’t afraid of the sudden invasion.
Keeping others out was what I did best. It was how I’d stayed safe and sane all these years.
“You are not alone. We are together and have Davis.”
“We have Davis? I didn’t realize you had a fondness
for the doctor.”
But of course I did know, and for the record, I thought Amethyst had good taste.
With that in mind, I needed to find out if Davis was making headway sorting out our dragon mystery. I moved close enough to see what he was studying. If I wasn’t ready to jump into his mind, then at least I could snoop over his shoulder.
What I had mistaken for a textbook was actually a hardbound journal. I was guessing it was his personal notes. Of the two visible pages, one was neatly typed and the other handwritten. The margins of both were filled with notations and sketches.
“Have you always focused your study on dragon mythology?” I leaned over so I could get a better look at the intricate drawing that covered a quarter of the page.
As I did, my body brushed in close to his and heat jumped between us. I couldn’t help but jerk at the jolt, and when I did, I ended up resting my arm on his shoulder in an attempt to look casual.
His gray eyes left the page and drilled me with 38
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speculation. What was he thinking? I considered trying my telepathy on him but figured that if I couldn’t read his emotions, I probably wouldn’t get his thoughts either. His steady gaze left me twitching like a bug under a glass. I drew back a little to get a grip. Davis couldn’t help looking at me that way. He’d almost been crushed when I’d turned into a dragon. That was enough to leave anyone with serious depths of contemplation.
“I have been focused on, most would claim obsessed with, dragons for the past eight years.” He looked so serious. I reached out and ran a finger along his jaw. “What happened eight years ago?” He flipped the pages of the book back to the beginning and revealed a picture of a dragon carved into a stone wall. Only this one had deep claw marks marring the face of the rock. And below that was another photo. This one of a younger Davis holding an enormous claw.
Amethyst whispered,
“Daegyn-rok,”
her tone full of awe.
“Is that real?” Even as I asked, I knew it was. I felt Amethyst accept it and saw the pride on Davis’s face.
That claw was real, which meant there were more dragons out there, or at least there once had been.
“Yes, I believe so. It was embedded in the stone as if it had been broken during the act of defacing the carving.
The claw tip is fourteen inches long, and from all appearances was only the end of the beast’s claw.”
“Why didn’t that make the news? I can’t imagine it wasn’t a huge story at the time.”
“The Quetzalcoatl claw was determined to be a hoax.
The claw was tested and exposed as a fake, carved from antelope horn.” His fingers caressed the page.
“But you didn’t believe their explanation?” L. Shannon
39
“No. I was there. I was the one who found it and had to chip it from the stone it was embedded in. The claw was not a fake.” He sighed a resigned little sound. “But of course it was rather hard to be taken seriously once my findings were proven false.” He turned the page and pointed to pictures of other dig sites. The dragons were different at each, but as he flipped the pages, I found a certain similarity between the various styles of ancient art.
“How could all these different cultures have a similar dragon story if there were no link to reality? I had to find out the truth. The search has been my private project and the reason I was at that specific temple.”
“I don’t believe in coincidence.”
“Neither do I. Years ago, I found that claw tip and was set on a path that I’m now certain was destined to lead to you and Amethyst.”
“You think us meeting was destiny?” Maybe Amethyst had dropped him on his head when we landed.
“You said you don’t believe in coincidence. Too many things had to happen to bring us together in the temple to be to the product of chance. So I figure that leaves two options. Either we are being manipulated by some powerful being, or we were simply meant to meet there. I prefer the destiny theory. It sounds better than being someone’s pawn in a game.”
“But doesn’t that mean we have no say over what happens to us? I don’t think I can live with that.” I didn’t just have an issue with fearing the unknown. For me it was an absolute terror of losing control over my own life.
My life had been complete shit before I’d gathered the reins in my teeth and run for the hills. I remembered not having control and simply wasn’t willing to go there again.
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“I will not let another hurt you.”
Amethyst’s voice flowed over me, wrapping me in the comfort of a protective hug.
I’d never spoken of what my father had done to me, nor would I ever. Even dead, he shaped many of my choices. I still had nightmares about him and his drunken or drugged bouts of anger. Somehow Amethyst understood. I felt her caress in my mind, so I let down the shields I had been trying to hold against her.
The flood of sensation that rushed over me was a mixture of soothing cool and burning fire—Amethyst tearing down my defenses and filling the voids in my mind and heart.
I had no recollection of falling, but I hit the floor hard.
Then Davis was there, pulling me into his arms, rocking me against his chest. He whispered into my hair and cradled me like a child. I was crushed between him and Amethyst. I couldn’t hide within, nor could I maintain my façade. All my repressed past and all the current crap—it all landed on me at once. I might pretend to hold the emotions in and be okay, but she’d torn away my control and once more left me raw and exposed.
“You are strong and will heal from your past.”
“I thought I had healed.”
But it was a lie. When I’d finally escaped, I had sworn never to trust another soul. I would rely on myself for every need, both physical and emotional. I was alone and liked it that way. I couldn’t be hurt or betrayed if I never let another person get close enough to touch me. For fifteen years I had lived like that with my heart kept safe.
Now my security was shredded. I was laid bare before Amethyst. She knew all my flaws and weaknesses. How could I trust that she wouldn’t betray me too?
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“I will never betray you, Antonia.”
“How can I know?”
“You need only look into my mind. Join me and know
my thoughts as I know yours.”
Could I do that? Could I read Amethyst just as she read me? Once we connected, could Amethyst lie to me?
Would I be able to think on my own? I didn’t have any answers. Even now I could feel her presence within me.
On the other hand, I couldn’t see how I would be able to live with her in my mind without testing that trust.
I imagined her as a book that could be read, and I pictured that book opening in my mind. And as the pages fell open, the image changed to a dragon curled around me. I looked into her iridescent, many-faceted eyes and knew her thoughts. Like a spring giving up its water, she allowed her every need and desire to flow into me.
She had come from a piece of old magic and was forced into the pendant, where she stayed for so very long. Then she was free and yearned to feel life in all its forms. She wanted to feel flesh, taste foods and experience everything. Each new moment brought her such pleasure. Her every sense was exquisite to the point of pain. And she reveled in the joy of that too.
Where I had been closed to anything touching me, Amethyst was the opposite. She devoured every detail within the reach of her senses.
While I had hidden behind my fears, she had jumped into life.
“You are as you had to be. As am I.”
“Shh…” Davis’s arms tightened. He held me trapped against his chest. Yet I knew if I pushed free he would let me go.
Instead, I let him hold me and examined what I 42
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wanted. His touch was firm and comforting. His strength offered something I hadn’t known I needed. I rubbed my cheek against his soft shirt and inhaled the smell that was unique to him.
A tangle of desire twisted through my body. Davis was more than a bookworm who might have knowledge I’d need. He was a man I’d found attractive from the first glance.
“You feel my needs as much as your own.”
Amethyst was right. I could feel her desire within me.
I could also feel Davis’s masculine body and its flattering reaction to holding me. And since I had no pants nor underwear, and the borrowed shirt had ridden up to my waist, I was pressed intimately to his jeans where I was curled into his lap.
But what did I want out of the situation? Davis wasn’t pressuring me. Neither was Amethyst. Only my choice was left, and both would let me do the choosing.
“You can trust him.”
“Can I trust myself?”
Or did I even have a choice? I wanted Davis physically and I wanted to offer the experience to Amethyst. And even more important, I couldn’t let my fear of defeat control me. If I went willingly into a situation, then I could be in control.
I turned into Davis’s embrace, sliding my arms around his waist. With the first motion, he tensed. I wanted to tell him to relax, that I wasn’t going to bite him. But even the thought made me wonder. Biting him sounded good too.