Page 38 of Awaken the Dragon
When she stared forward again it was to total darkness, yet Theo kept walking. She really wanted to ask where they were going again, but refrained, mainly because wherever it was they were going, she was not afraid. In fact, that comfort she had begun to feel being pressed against his very warm chest had spread like wildfire until she almost thought wherever they were going was somehow where she belonged.
In the next seconds, he eased her down until the soft soles of her flats touched the ground. It was cold here and she shivered. Not just chilly, but cold as in an arctic blast and it smelled like fresh rain.
“Theo,” she whispered because even though she could not see, she sensed that he’d left her.
The silence that answered her call was proof she was now alone.
But she heard a sound, like the wind but louder, and the cold air grew frigid. She turned in the direction she thought the noise was coming from and saw a blue glow along stone walls that glittered in the light. Walking in that direction, she stopped a few steps later when shock gripped her throat and her mouth gaped open.
Its feet were huge with deadly sharp black claws and legs taller than her. The body was full of jet black scales with the faintest hint of blue on the pointed ends. Down its back were triple-pronged spikes that moved when it did, and a long barbed tail swung behind it. She was in awe, a small gasp escaping when she stepped back, but she did not take her eyes off it—off him.
Shola tilted her head as those gorgeous eyes stared down at her. Sapphire-blue eyes that she knew she’d seen before—only when she’d seen them, they were a softer hue.
“Theo,” she whispered his name again, and this time didn’t wait for him to answer. “You are a...dragon.”
Her hands moved over his skin slowly, tentatively, still unsure if he were real, and yet, somewhere deep down inside, she knew that he was.
The beast remained still, watching her with curiosity and awe just as it had on the street. It had been the first time it had seen her through its own eyes, and the sight had been shocking and intriguing. At first it had wanted her—the woman, the body, the feel of experiencing her body. Now that it was seeing her and feeling her hands on it, the hunger was growing.
Theo understood the hunger. He liked sex, and he hadn’t enjoyed it in a long while. But he was smart enough to know that this right here wasn’t just about sex.
“I believe in many things. I had to,” she said while touching the parts of its chest that she could reach. “This... I have never even imagined this.”
He was the unimaginable. Theo had known this would be true to those in the Human Realm. It was part of the reason he’d decided he would never shift here. The other part was shame, but he wasn’t going to encourage that feeling now.
Not when her hands felt so good on him. She’d lifted both palms to rub along his chest, and the beast almost purred. Except dragons didn’t purr. They didn’t roll over when their bellies were being rubbed, and they didn’t love their owners like other pets. They ruled, they flew through the skies, and they killed. An impressive, yet short résumé.
They also didn’t feel. Not like this. Not that Theo had ever recalled. The sensation could only be described as amazing. He peered down to see her small hands on him, her body close to his, eyes staring at him not in disgust, but in adoration. Or at the very least acceptance.
“You are beautiful,” she whispered as if she knew exactly what he was thinking. “Majestic. That is what Ziva called that picture in the dining hall. You are the one in that picture? Those are your wings?”
In this form, he could only blink in response because he was certain she would not understand the Drakon language. She filled his mind, her smaller form and clear eyes, the deep hue of her soft skin. He moved a wing as if to touch her, almost forgetting that the beast was in charge now. She jumped back, fingers wavering at her side. Sparks of white light fell from the tips of her fingers, seeping into the hard clay ground.
“You are touchy in this form too, I see.” Her tone was flippant, her brows lifting as she tilted her head and stared at him. The beast preferred the markings on her face and the bush of hair surrounding it. Again it moved its wing, because it wanted to touch her. She hesitated a second, looking at the wing and then up to his eyes. He blinked at her, trying his best to relay what the beast wanted through this simple action. She didn’t blink in return, but took a slow step toward him. He remained still, wing extended in her direction. She stepped closer and closer until she could reach out a hand and touch the smooth, yet deadly, tip of his wing.
His breath came out as a huff when it felt like a sigh of relief. The long sheer dress her soul identity wore blew in the breeze created by its action, but she didn’t step away. To the contrary, she moved closer leaning her weight against the wing. The beast enfolded her then, slowly and carefully, pulling her up to its chest and holding her there. Its eyes closed as it breathed in and out, feeling her, smelling her.
“Beautiful,” she said again.
The wispy sound of her voice and the feel of her back against the beast was too much for Theo to handle in this form. He stepped back from her and shifted quickly. She spun around just in time to see his naked human form as he was coming out of the kneeling position he always returned in.
She continued to stare, giving his human ego a terrific boost when her gaze dropped to his blatant arousal. Despite her obvious approval, he groaned and turned away.
“I am a Drakon,” he said after he’d pulled on his previously discarded sweatpants. “I come from the Far Realm where dragons fly free and rule the realm. But not here, there are no dragons in the skies here. I work here as a security expert and a protector of humans from preternatural forces known and unknown. But tonight—” He paused and stopped a foot away from her. “Tonight, you escaped a place I thought was impenetrable and inescapable and you walked into a battle with vampires. I have no doubt you would have killed them all without my interference. But I could not stay away.”
“Wait,” she said and shook her head. “You are a dragon. A living breathing dragon, yet you live like a human, taking money to work cases, like you need a human’s money or permission to just be?”
That wasn’t quite the reaction Theo was expecting. Truth be told, he didn’t know what to expect. All he’d known after seeing her out there tonight was that it was time for the truth, at least part of it anyway.
“It’s my job,” he told her. “And it’s my secret.”
“But why? In case you didn’t notice, there are vampires running clubs and demonics walking on crowded streets.”
“It’s better that way. Now, it’s your turn. Who are you?”
She hesitated. He’d known she would, but he was banking on her having a sense of fairness as well. Shola was not evil. No matter how many times he’d told himself to consider that possibility, he was certain it wasn’t true. He could see evil. He saw it all the time, in its true form and in the form it tried to hide from the world. He could sense it and smell it, and none of that was Shola.
It had occurred to him that he was convinced of this fact when for the last two hundred years he’d prided himself on having zero trust in any woman. Sex with them was easy. It was physical and nothing more. Trust was another story entirely. One his father had learned the hard way.
