Page 39 of The Dragon With A Girl Tattoo
Aisling, who had set down her plate to applaud when Drake sucker punched Baltic, gave me a wry smile.“I know it looks horrible, but it actually does them a lot of good, and no one gets seriously hurt.Dragons have a remarkable healing ability, and as Allie said, Gabriel is available to heal anyone who gets too hurty.Hey!I saw that, Christian!No fangs means no fangs!”
Christian said something quite rude in Czech, but since I gather it was just a general statement and not directed at Aisling, the battle royale went on.
I flinched every time Yrian was attacked, but after a couple more minutes, I realized something astounding—he was clearly enjoying himself.His eyes were so bright they almost glowed gold, while he and Annaliese worked with amazing harmony to take down the others, one pair at a time.
“Yrian was right about her,” I said, watching as Annaliese and he attacked, and took down, Gabriel and his vampire.
“Who?Oh, your guard?”May stood next to me, sipping champagne, wincing when Yrian flung himself onto Gabriel, his fists bloody, but his expression obviously one of satisfaction.“Yeah, she’s pretty tough.Maata, one of Gabriel’s elite guards, is female, too, and there is no way I’d ever want to get on her bad side.She’s beyond badass.Nice one, Gabriel!”
“You may think it’s nice, but now he’s got blood in Archer’s pretty hair,” Thaisa said as she moved over to stand with us.I eyed her for a moment.She had what I assumed was a genetic trait that left her with oddly colored eyes, and a stripe of white on her eyelashes and eyebrow, narrowing into a faint line in her hair.She flashed me a smile.“I know what it’s like to be the new kid on the block.My best advice is to ask questions when things confuse you.The men hate answering questions, but thankfully, all the mates share info.”
“The new kid?”I asked, confused.
“Being a mate, I mean,” she answered.
“I’m not a mate,” I said, shaking my head, but whether it was at her comment or my own misguided emotions, I refused to consider.“I’m an artificer.”
“Right, but you’re with Yrian, aren’t you?”she asked.
“Not in the way you mean—holy shit.He really is something, isn’t he?”I watched in astonished admiration when Yrian spun, kicked, and tackled the others in a manner that left me nigh on giddy with sudden lust.
“They all are,” Thaisa said, smiling broadly.
“Now I know I’m insane,” I murmured to myself, and took the glass Allie offered.
“Five minutes!”she shouted over the sounds of the fray, holding up a bottle of champagne.“Anyone need a refill?”
All the dragon ladies held up their glasses.
Near the end of the allowed time, the fighters broke up their pairings, and it became a free-for-all.
“That happens,” Ysolde told me when she caught sight of my expression when Annaliese jumped Yrian, and they both tumbled to the ground when Drake attacked Yrian at the same moment.“The last few minutes they go solo.Don’t worry—no one looks seriously hurt, although it would appear Drake is bleeding from his mouth, and we all know what that means.”
“He’ll end up with another fake tooth,” Aisling said with a sigh.
“I think Archer may have done something to his knee,” Thaisa said, not in the least bit concerned.“He’s limping after his brother, and it looks like Hunter’s fingers are broken, which is why he’s running away rather than fighting.”
“I am not running away!”the dragon in question bellowed.“I don’t run away from anyone, let alone Archer.Dammit, stop chasing me, so I can fix my fingers!”
“They have really good hearing,” Thaisa said, giving her brother-in-law a little wave.
“They do, but I really want to discuss what Thaisa said.”Ysolde’s eyes were on me, making me feel all shades of awkward.“Do you ...er ...for the lack of better phrasing, like Yrian?”
“Of course I like him,” I said, tamping down the emotions that wanted to rise.“He’s a nice man.”
“He is?”May looked across the carnage.About three-quarters of the dragons and vamps were now on the ground, most moaning, while the remainder lumbered around slowly and painfully, still trying to continue the fight.I was oddly proud of the fact that Yrian was one of the two standing dragons, his brother being the other.Christian and a Spanish guard named Jesús were the upright vampires, but as I watched, Jesús went down when Drake lashed out with a leg.
Allie blew the whistle.“Time’s up.Vampires will find blood inside in the fridge.Dragons, the dragon’s blood is flowing.”
“Literally,” Ysolde said with a little giggle as the ladies all went onto the field of battle and helped their respective men over to the chairs.
“I would say I was dead, but I hurt too much for that to be true.Can someone pick me up and pour me into the nearest chair?”the dragon named Hunter said from where he was struggling to sit upright.
Christian and Baltic obliged, half dragging him over to the chairs, where Aisling handed him a glass of wine.
Yrian took two steps toward me and went down to his knees.I was moving before I even considered what I was doing.“Are you OK?You don’t have any blood on you.”
“You haven’t seen my back,” he said, accepting the glass of wine I had picked up for him.I moved around to look at his back, my eyes wide with horror at the sight of a line of four deep gouges down the middle of his beautiful dragon tat.
