Chapter 4 #2
“We’ve identified another fourteen thousand brights, other than the eight thousand or so who have already bonded a dragon.
” He clears his throat. “The thing is. . .” When he swallows, his Adam’s apple bobs up and down.
“Well, the thing is, only about three thousand or so want to bond a dragon, so that leaves us, oh, about seven thousand short.” He blinks, as if he’s just recalling that there are even more dragons coming quite soon.
“Yes, I knew that could be an issue.”
He shakes his head. “We really can’t force the humans who don’t want—”
“I’m with you there,” I say. “But where can we find more?” I look around the room. “Quickly, I mean. I’m guessing we have days, maybe?”
Azar and Hyperion share a glance, which makes me think they’re talking without our involvement. It annoys me. I wish I was still entwined—this stuff didn’t happen then.
“Well?”
We believe some of the blessed may have a short time indeed.
“Maybe Thunar’s one of them,” Coral says. “It would be nice if he puked up green goo and died.”
Hyperion’s laugh is loud and abrupt.
I love it.
“You’re certainly not the first to think that,” I say.
“I doubt he’ll let it come to that, however.
I can see him razing an entire town and forcing whatever human he meets.
” He certainly reminds me of the vanir from my dreams. “But listen, were there any other nations who were ‘friendly’ to the dragons, as you told me you have been from the start?”
“Japan wasn’t uninterested,” he says. “And they’re at least close.” He bobs his head. “Germany and Sweden both ask me for updates on how things are going almost daily.”
That’s promising. “As the human prime minister of a large country, maybe you could reach out to them. You don’t have to tell them we’re desperate, but maybe tell them we have new dragons who find themselves in need of humans.”
“I’m concerned the United States might become aggressive if they hear that the population has doubled overnight,” George says.
If they do become aggressive, we’ll send Thunar to deal with it. I’ll tag along to make sure he gets things done. Hyperion’s sense of humor is cracked.
But worse, Coral laughs. “Good idea.”
“No,” I say. “Bad idea. We still don’t want humans getting fricasseed, remember? Even if they bring it on themselves.”
Coral frowns. “But they’re humans who want to destroy us.”
“Not us,” I say. “Them.” I point.
“Right, but we’re with them now,” Coral says.
Your sister is far less conflicted than you are, Elizabeth Chadwick. Hyperion calls me that now whenever he wants to be annoying. It’s irritatingly effective.
“Yes, thank you for that,” I say. “The joys of youth. Listen, we can talk about the United States and how to manage the news of the new dragons later. Right now, I’d love to make some progress on finding some brights for the new dragons so we can tell Thunar we’re on it.”
“The obvious start is to talk to the three thousand or so locals,” George says.
The next two or three hours show me how he got the job.
He’s actually much more effective at marshaling people and resources than I expected, and by the time the day is done, those three thousand are mostly ready to come up north to bond some of the new dragons.
But eventually, when night falls, it’s time to take a break.
“You can explain to this Thunar that humans sleep when it gets dark?” His eyes are wide and worried. “Tomorrow morning we should be able to arrange the first meet-and-greet.” He snorts. “Or, you know, meet and bond.”
“Right,” I say. “I’m sure if he doesn’t know, we can explain that. We’ll meet you, as suggested, south of Darwin tomorrow. You work on getting all the humans there by eleven. I know that won’t be easy.”
“That’s why we’re starting with the ones who are close,” he says. “And having companions who can fly isn’t going to hurt.”
It takes another hour or so to reassure the kiddos, make sure they have food, and work out some details, but finally, a few hours after the sun sets, I’m able to shower away the dried sweat that the trauma of today left all over my body and lie down on a very soft, very large, and very clean bed.
“Hey,” I say. “Thunar came, and then Thunar went, and we’re still here.” I can’t help my small smile.
He didn’t really leave. Azar isn’t hovering. A massive red dragon can’t really hover, but he’s watching me pretty closely.
“I know he didn’t leave.” I close my eyes and pull the blankets up to my chin. “I wish he would.”
Sleep now, and we’ll start working on solutions tomorrow. Until then, I’ll watch over you.
“I think I helped a little today, what with my transformation of a few of those blessed.”
You said blessed.
I arch one very tired eyebrow. “Sometimes we all make mistakes.” Then I yawn and close my eyes. “How do we choose which dragons get the humans tomorrow?”
Sleep now. Details later.
Which is his way of saying he’s already working on that.
He’s probably jabbering with Hyperion about it right now.
It’s nice to know that even after I pass out, someone competent’s still hard at work.
“I feel bad for you, you know. Sleep is so refreshing. You feel far better after a nice long night’s sleep. ”
Stop talking about it and do it already.
I give in to a very juvenile impulse and mimic him with my lip curled. “Just do it already. Meh.”
Meh? I didn’t say meh. What does that word even mean?
“Forget it.” I lie still for what feels like a very long time, but then my side itches. After I scratch that, my nose itches. Then my foot. My ribs on the other side. My left wing on the underside. My neck.
And I can’t even sleep on my back, because of the stupid wings.
What are you doing?
“Shut up,” I snap. “I’m tired.” But I can’t go to sleep. I’m not sure how long I toss, itch, scratch, turn, itch more, ignore the itching, toss, give up and scratch my nose, and then behind my ear. Turn again.
Then I hear the engine revving sound, and Azar has turned into human Axel. When he slides under the covers beside me, I feel less sleepy than I ever have.
I roll over. “Sleep’s overrated.”
He runs a hand down the side of my face, his fingers barely grazing the skin of my cheek. “I changed so you could sleep. You seemed restless and worried.”
“And you thought that, what with us having a terrible dragon out there who wants to kill both me and you, you ought to take your weakest form?”
“You’re right.” He pulls away to climb out of bed, but before he can, I snatch his wrist, tightening my fingers around it and tugging.
“Don’t go,” I say, but it comes out like a whispered plea. “Stay with me.”
His arms slide around me, his left arm snaking underneath my neck and sliding past my wings in a way that feels very nice, and his right arm curving around my waist. “For someone who has never done any of this, you’re pretty good at it.”
“What exactly are we doing?” He arches an eyebrow. “I’d like to know what I’m good at.”
I surge forward, sliding against the sheets, all my itching forgotten, and I press my lips against his.
He stiffens for a moment, and then he leans in, his hand on my waist tightening, his arm under my neck curving around to grip my shoulder. His mouth moves over mine much more than it did the last time, boldly, with an added element that he was missing before: familiarity.
He remembers how to kiss, and he seems to like it.
The bond tells me that, and it makes me squirm a little next to him. “I like doing this lying down,” I whisper against his mouth, the breath from my body mixing with his. “But. . .”
“But what?” He pulls back enough that he can see my face. “I like it too.”
I wince a little. “For humans, what we’re doing, in a bed, lying down next to each other. . .” This is worse than explaining it to Coral or Jade would be. “It’s pretty close to—” I choke a little.
“Close to what?”
I shake my head. “Nothing, but we really shouldn’t keep doing this. Not right now, not with everything going on and no idea what this is.” I gesture to him and back to me.
“This is a bond,” he says. “You’re the most important being in the universe to me.”
I groan. “You are so not helping. If you keep talking like that, we’ll, erm, mate, for sure.” I feel the heat rising in my cheeks, but I hope it’s dark enough that he can’t see it.
“This is human mating?” He moves closer, his eyes studying my eyes, my cheeks, and then my lips. Then his mouth follows his eyes and brushes against me. “What exactly does this have to do with your human mating?”
“Dragons don’t kiss, I take it?”
He smiles then, his eyes so cocky and full of swagger, I wonder how a dragon could even get that much confidence in a human form. “This dragon does.”
“Yeah, but what about the others?” I shove him with my free hand. “I saw a pretty handsome dragon today who had the biggest horns.”
Axel’s arms tighten around my waist in a way that’s almost painful. “No.” He scowls. “Bad Liz.”
I bite my lip and slide right up next to him again, our bodies brushing from my face all the way down to his lower leg. “I’m kidding, you beast. I haven’t found anyone else attractive since the day we met.”
“You haven’t?” His smile is downright diabolical. “Since the day we met?” His eyebrows rise. “An event I don’t recall, but that happened long past? You found me attractive even then?”
I press one finger against his mouth. “No, we aren’t talking about this. I want you to remember it.”
He sighs. “I want to remember it, but I don’t know how.”
“Your mother—Freya—she said that you had the memories still.”
“But she told you nothing about how to recapture them.”
“Honestly, I think your mom’s kind of a witch,” I say. “No offense.”
“None taken,” he says. “I never knew her.”
“Well, I want to figure out how you can recover them, but until you can, at least we’re making new ones.” I brush one last kiss against his mouth. “Good ones.”
“I agree,” he says. “And now I think you should show me how kissing and lying together like this is connected to human mating.”
“Ah, ah, ah,” I say with a smile I can’t seem to suppress. “Information is power, and you do not need more power to mess with my raging hormones.”
“Raging. . .what ones?”
“Until you either get your memories back or we discover that humans and dragons can mate without, like, producing some kind of winged monstrosity that will eat the world and have to be put down, no hanky panky.”
He mouths the words ‘hanky panky,’ and I swear, it’s so hard not to laugh.
“Believe me.” I run one hand down the very hard, very defined line of his chest. “If we find out that it’s safe, if we find out that we’re. . .compatible?”
He frowns.
“I’m the first one who’s going to be in.”
“In what exactly?” His eyebrows rise. “Maybe you should just tell me, so once I recover my memories, we can go ahead and mate.”
Men, dragon or human, are all exactly the same.
“There’s no rush,” I say. “But when you recover your memories, I’ll teach you about this human mating. Okay?”
“You’ll teach me about it? Or we’ll actually mate?” He tilts his head, his eyes still on my mouth. “That seems like a relevant distinction.”
Again, I can feel myself blushing, not that he can see it or knows what it means. “We can talk about that later.”
“You think this is one of those things that’s better to experience yourself than to hear about.” He nods slowly. “You might be right, because when you kiss me, especially when your mouth kisses somewhere that isn’t my mouth—”
“Okay, that’s enough.” I clap a hand over his very dirty mouth. “You have to stop now.”
He keeps talking though, his lips moving against my hand. “Why do I feel like it’s me who’s the dog in our bond?”
“What?” I drop my hand. “How so?”
“I’ve seen you give Fluffy treats when she does something good, and now you’re offering me one to get me to do something you want me to do—recover my memories. It’s like you’re offering me bacon to jump over a sideways chair.” He narrows his eyes.
“Recover your memories,” I whisper. “And it’s not a treat to reward you.
It’s a promise to lure and incentivize you.
” I shift my hand so that my fingers can trace the perfect line of his lips.
“Because I very much want to teach you a great deal of human things, but I want it to be my Axel all the way when I do.”
He doesn’t say another word, and with his arms around me, I fall asleep within minutes.