Chapter 2 #3
Why am I trying to cajole her into letting me fuck her? Why do I even want this little human? I’ve not been interested in any female since my wife.
‘A human wife?’ she asks timidly.
‘Yes, and a son.’
Why did I mention Toramund? I haven’t spoken about him since the War of the Roses.
I down another glass of wine and watch as she takes a longer pull from her own glass.
‘I thought you said we couldn’t have your babi—’
‘He was a foundling,’ I interrupt. ‘A baby who was left at a church. We took him and raised him.’
‘What happened?’
‘They were killed.’
I find my chest still aches when I say the words.
‘By dragons?’ she asks.
‘No, by other humans. There was a war, long before the last one fought by humans. They were both killed in it.’
‘I’m sorry.’
I turn away. ‘It was long ago, as I said. Now, do you want me to do it, or would you rather wait for one of the others to rut you while holding you over a table for your first time?’
She shivers and I know I’m scaring her.
I’m doing it on purpose.
Except that I’m not doing it on purpose.
What the fuck are you doing? I snarl silently into the deep dark recesses of my mind.
But he doesn’t answer. He hasn’t since long before the Fall. What’s clear, however, is that he wants this human. Why, I have no idea. He hasn’t shown any interest since my wife.
‘Yes.’ She whispers it so low that even my superior dragon ears almost don’t hear her answer.
I feel his anticipation growing. He can’t wait for her to be under us.
I hold out my hand to her.
‘Come.’
She hesitates, but then takes my offer, her small hand warm in mine. I feel an odd jolt run through me, which I assume is him getting excited.
I take her down the corridor and through one of the bedrooms. Her fingers grip me tighter, obviously assuming we’ll do it now, but I have other plans.
Or perhaps he does. I don’t actually know at the moment.
I’m not quite myself, that much I know as I take her to the stairs which wind down into the heart of the mountain.
‘What was this place?’
‘A place dragons stop at for rest on the way home,’ I answer.
We go past storage rooms that make her exclaim in wonder.
‘Are those paintings?’ she whispers.
‘Yes. Rembrandts, Monets, Caravaggios. Others, too. Saved by those of us who cared about the arts just after the Fall, before your kind could burn them for fuel,’ I snarl.
She blinks up at me and then, shockingly, a giggle bursts out of her.
I stop dead and turn around, watching in surprise as she lets go of me and doubles over.
‘What’s funny?’ I ask without anger.
‘It’s just…’ She giggles again. ‘You saved human artifacts from being burned. But you’re dragons.’
I find myself smiling at her. It’s not that funny, but I can see now that she's drunker than I thought. It wouldn’t be right to do this when she’s not able to consent properly. Maybe I shouldn’t go through with this at all.
No!
I stagger back a step.
He spoke to me. He’s receded again already. But he spoke to me!
My heart aches, wishing he would again. I’ve missed the other half of my soul.
But, though I wait with bated breath, he says nothing else.
‘We’re almost there,’ I say to her, walking further down the corridor.
She sways a little and then follows me to the final door. I open it and am met with a warm, humid blast of air. The lights come on automatically, dim but more than enough for even the human to see by.
I hear her gasp at the sight of the thermal pool, eyes flicking to the waterfall at one end.
‘What is this place?’ she asks, the awe in her voice palpable.
‘It’s dragon-made,’ I say. ‘We enjoy heat in both of our forms. The water flows deep underground, but we have ways of pumping it up by means of perpetual motion pumps for our use relatively easily. Most of our mountains contain these pools.
She goes to the edge and peers over the side carefully.
‘Is it deep?’
‘For a dragon? No. For you? Yes. Can you swim?’
She shakes her head. ‘Never learned. Bodies of water aren’t safe. Not in the south.’
I snort. ‘They’re not safe anywhere anymore. But this one is. There’s nothing lurking. It wouldn’t get past the grates and filters as well as the other security measures. It’s perfectly fine. You’ll need to hold onto the side or onto me though.’
‘Can you swim?’ she asks.
‘Of course.’
She looks in awe again and he preens under her gaze. I can feel him more at the moment than I’ve been able to in the past four hundred years. I feel whole.
I shuck my clothes, amused when she turns her eyes away. ‘You may as well look at my body,’ I tell her. ‘You’re going to be intimately acquainted with it in a few minutes.’
She flinches a little and a part of me wishes I had romanced her a little over dinner. I could at least have told her she’s pretty.
Because she is. She’s beautiful.
I feel him agree.
But it’s too late for that. Plus, it would be cruel to give her something like that when all she’ll have in our mountain is impersonal fucking, if she’s fortunate.
I look away from her as I think of how the others are treated.
Will my brethren all want a taste of her in one night?
I’ve seen them do that with the prettier ones.
They all come with a spark in their eyes that dulls within weeks, and they wander around, performing the duties given to them mindlessly, disassociating from their reality as much as possible.
Can I bear to see Mari end up that way?
What do I care? I hardly know this girl!
‘Strip,’ I snarl.
She stares at me for a moment before she complies.
Her shaking hands undo the buttons on the oversized sweater.
The small tank top underneath that strains against her tits is visible for just a moment before she pulls it off and drops it on a plastic lawn chair someone picked up and brought here once.
The pants come next. She’s not wearing underwear, so she’s naked before me suddenly. I lament the lack of lingerie I used to love in the late twentieth century. But I find I don’t need to see her in it to get hard.
I’m already there. I see her eyes drop down to me, widen, and dart away again.
I grin and take a running jump into the pool with an uncharacteristic whoop.
Heat envelopes me, shocks my cold skin and I kick back up to the surface to find her at the edge, looking worriedly at the water.
I put my hand up and pull her in when she takes it, laughing at her squeal.
But I grab her long before she’s in any real danger, loving the way her shuddering frame grips me for dear life, her body pressing against mine.
He’s impatient for her, but I make him wait.
This is for me, not him.