Chapter 21 #2
“I ran really fast, and I made the air very cold.” He wasn’t sure how else to describe it. He was protecting Jacks with everything in him, wasn’t he? It was his job. He was the dad. Maybe he was the new dad, but he liked to think he could do just as good a job as Hayden at keeping Jacks safe.
Then again, maybe Hayden would have just eaten the moose.
He didn’t know. It didn’t really matter, because he did what he did.
“Yes, but how?”
He looked at Hayden. “How the fuck do I know? There was a moose. Did you see the moose? Moose are big. Like, big . And so I wasn’t really thinking about how I got him away from the moose. I thought about getting him away from the moose so we didn’t have a little grease spot of baby dragon.”
“Well that was graphic.”
He stared at Hayden. “Why am I naked and in the sand pit? If you wanted to have a talk, we could have had a chat upstairs with my clothes on. Or we could have had a chat in our bedroom, and I could have been naked with you and be comfy.”
“You’re a little testy.”
“A little? No, I’m very testy. Jacks almost got eaten by a moose today, and I’m stressed out about it.”
“Is this an inappropriate time to mention that the moose probably wasn’t going to eat him? They’re herbivores.”
He stared at Hayden. “Do you want me to kill you? No? Then yes. It is an absolutely inappropriate time for that.”
“Excellent. That’s what I needed to know.” Hayden was having altogether too much fun.
Daniel crossed his arms over his chest and stomped his foot, almost going right over in the sand in those fucking booties. “Hayden, what is going on?”
Hayden grinned and came to take his hands, bringing them to his mouth to kiss them even as his lover balanced. “What’s going on is I think you were very dragon-y in the way you took care of Jacks and got him into the house. And I think it’s time.”
“Time for…” Daniel shook his head, sighed, and stared at Hayden. “Okay, mate, pretend that I’m absolutely the most clueless human being alive and spell it out for me. Like it is now time for…” He held his hand out.
“Dragons. I want to play dragon with you.”
“Okay.” That made him laugh, but he nodded. “I can do that.”
Hayden kissed him, a bare brush of lips that tingled all the way down. “I have no doubt. When I say dragon, what do you imagine?”
“That’s easy. I think of you.”
“I love you, too. Now, I want you to imagine a dragon, not like me, but when you close your eyes and you think about a dragon, what does it look like?”
He closed his eyes, feeling a little weird, but imagining was something that was important.
“Is it weird if I feel funny not saying you?”
“This isn’t about me; this is about you. All I need you to do is tell me what it is you see, mate.”
He took a deep breath and pondered it. “Blue. But not a sky blue or an ocean blue. It’s like if you’ve ever looked at an ice sculpture.
Look deep inside, like deep, where there’s almost like a darkness, but it’s not scary.
It’s just a deepness, a depth. The idea that this massive crystal form could only be clear so far and then it stops, that kind of blue?
Right before that happens. That’s the color. ”
What about your tail?
I think it’s longer than yours, thinner, more like a whip. Not anything that could thud, but I think there’s something sharp at the end.
Hayden began to pet him, long easy strokes.
What about our scales, are they tinged with another color?
Golden yellow, I think. Not sparkly, shiny gold, but not a weird yellow. Sort of this darker color. It also looks like crystal, like the kind of crystal that forms inside quartz when it’s super clear, but then there’s this little yellow starburst in the middle.
This was fun. He was playing Dragons with Hayden and he was imagining it. He could see himself being these beautiful colors and having a little whip-like tail with sharp spikes on the end. His wings were lacier than Hayden’s, but they would hold him up, he knew it.
Hayden let go of his hands, and he felt the air around him change. He knew that feeling because that was what it felt like when Hayden shifted into his dragon form. When he opened his eyes, he could see Hayden, black and red and beautiful and huge, but he looked different somehow.
In fact, Hayden looked sharper than normal, and his eyes looked a little more faceted, as if Daniel could see things he’d never seen previously.
Mate? He tried to say it out loud, but it didn’t come out, so he said it in his head.
Hayden’s tail slid across the sand, coming to rest against his toes, which were not his toes.
I knew you could do it, love. I knew you could. Look at you. Goddess, you’re so beautiful, you’re the most beautiful compact little dragon I’ve ever seen.
Daniel looked down at himself and tried not to have an absolute panic attack because he didn’t look like him.
He didn’t look like a human. He looked like a dragon, like a blue and golden yellow dragon.
And was he hallucinating? Was it real? He reached out with one claw in the front to poke at Hayden’s scales, and there was a clunking sound.
Hayden? I’m freaking out a little bit . He wasn’t sure what else to say. He had fear filling his belly.
Shush, don’t be afraid, love. There’s nothing to be afraid of. You’re beautiful. You’re perfect, and you’re here with me. Does it feel good in here now? Does it feel better than it did? Is it still too hot?
He tested the sand with his feet, then let his forelegs down to touch with his clawed hands.
Were they hands? Were they paws? What were they now?
He brushed his tail experimentally against the sand, and he had to admit it was just a little bit too warm.
He could see himself finding a refrigerated room and lying on a pile of ice.
But it wasn’t uncomfortable.
I don’t think I would want to do napping down here like you do unless I had something to lay on. But I could see how this would be great to scrub my scales.
Excellent! See? You’re beautiful and absolutely perfect.
Hayden was a nut.
He had chosen Daniel—and there was no fire in him at all.
Is it bad that I’m an ice dragon, and you’re a fire dragon? Is that going to be a problem with the baby?
You worry too much. It’s not a problem. It’s a baby, and soon you’ll be able to regulate a little better now that you’ve let your dragon out. After all, I don’t melt the snow when I walk out on it, do I?
No, no. He chuckled and shook his head, which seemed so big on his neck, which was so long. He blinked and swayed, waving it back and forth. It was vaguely hypnotizing.
In fact, if he added that to the way the light bounced off their scales…
What was I going to say to you?
Hayden just snorted, smoke coming out of his nostrils. Oh, I don’t know. Did you get distracted?
Yes! By my neck! It’s very long.
Hayden’s chuckle sounded strange coming from a dragon, but that was what it was—a little chuffing laugh.
He moved forward to kind of twine their necks together.
It was very odd, but so wonderful, especially when their tails snaked around each other too.
Daniel had to be careful, because his tail had a weird barb at the end of it, and he didn’t want to sink it into Hayden’s body.
You’re not going to hurt me, love, not in this form. I’m sort of armored, you know?
I can still worry about it all I want to.
Hayden just licked him, one long stroke on the underside of his neck. My little worrywart mate.
Oh, that was delicious, and it made his toes curl. It felt like a lick of flame.
He responded by licking right back, frost clattering on Hayden’s scales, which made Hayden shiver, his entire body rippling.
Oh, mate, you liked that.
I did. I can see you’re meant to be up here, my little snow dragon. I bet you can slide like nothing going in this form.
He liked that idea. I bet I could. We’ll have to try. Is it safe up here to just go try?
It is. Now, with three of us, it’ll be even safer because humans will want to come up less and less .
He tilted his head so he could lean back and look into Hayden’s eyes. What does that mean? Is it just because we’re here and instinctively they know that?
Yes. Essentially, we are apex predators as far as the humans are concerned. Somehow they know that the magic we have in any given area is sort of like one of those sonic pest repellents or something.
That statement made Daniel giggle, and in dragon form, it came out as little puffs of ice.
He sort of crawled on top of Hayden to get off the heated sand and just laid there, loving on his mate.