Darkness gnaws at my edges, but I force myself to ignore it. I think of Clau-dah and her green eyes and her cloud of soft red hair. It makes me want to lose myself in the mating urges. To return to the strange lair she hides inside, push her against the stone, and claim her as mine. Taste her. Claim her. Bite her and give her the fire for her blood that will mark her as mine.
I am a patient drakoni. Normally. But around Clau-dah, I lose control. She makes the emotions in me go wild. It is not surprising. Ever since I have been pulled to this infernal place, I have been nothing but wild emotions, most of them angry. With Clau-dah around, my senses are under a different kind of attack.
I need her. Crave her.
And she still fears me. Not as much, but it is still there.
Progress. She tells me no, but I can smell her arousal. I could see her eyes dilate when I touched her. Perhaps her word will not always be no.
I didn’t intend to pounce on her. I’d simply been exploring her, taking care of her. She was letting me touch her, and it was a moment I intended to cherish. Taking care of my mate is a joy, and I wanted nothing more than to continue doing so for hours. But as soon as I scented her aroused musk in the air, I’d lost control. Just the barest taste of her female scent in the air had been enough to drive sanity away and brings me back to the edge again. Only the knowledge that I would lose her forever if I forced her to mate kept me from pushing deep between her thighs.
Her arousal is curious to me, though. Females of my kind do not go into heat unless they have been conquered in battle. But Clau-dah? She responds to soft touches and affection.
I can be soft with her.
And I can be patient.
Until then, I must leave her alone. I retreat across the room and take the highest vantage point so I can watch both the sky and the lair my mate is hiding in. It will give me distance from her so I do not smell her arousal again and lose control. I need all of my control right now.
11
CLAUDIA
I don’t have the courage to leave the safety of the bathroom just yet.
I finish my makeshift bath, my hands trembling the entire time. Every time I rub one of the rough paper towels over my skin, I’m reminded of Kael’s fascination and intense concentration as he bathed me, and I can’t quite stop shivering. And the worst? I’m not shivering from fear. But arousal is no good—he lost his shit the moment I got wet, so he must be able to smell it. I can’t let this distract him. I scrub between my legs, confused by my own arousal and more than a little annoyed by it. This is not the time to get turned on. This is the time to be a stone-cold bitch. I just need to stick things out until it’s safe to return to Fort Dallas, and then I can make a break for it. The mayor changed his mind. Even if he didn’t and it’s a trap, I still need to go back and get Amy. Kael will just have to find a new girl to hover over.
A big dragon-man with hot amber-on-gold eyes and possessive caresses that make me want to abandon all sanity? Not part of the deal.
I’m a loon for getting turned on in the first place. He’s a killer. A dragon. The scourge that destroyed the Earth and caused most of humanity to be wiped out in a matter of years. It’s only through sheer luck and determination that Amy and I haven’t been counted among the billions that perished.
Dragons are the enemy.
It doesn’t matter that Fort Dallas wants me to ‘tame’ him. What am I going to do with him even if he is tamed? Tell him to go away? Fat chance. The way he hovers attentively around me, he’d never agree to that unless I went with him. Even now, I bet he’s lurking outside of the bathroom, just waiting for me to come out again.
Dragons are killers. I have to remember that. I repeat this to myself over and over again as I finish bathing, then wash my hair in the sink and try to work out the worst of the tangles. When I can’t stall any further, I peek out the bathroom door and give him a wary look.
Kael crouches atop a mound of rubble, looking just as majestic and fierce in human form as he does in dragon. He’s scanning the skies, and the moment I open the door, he glances over at me. His eyes are calm, gold on gold. That’s good, at least.
I manage a friendly smile as I shut the door behind me and head out again. He descends from his little mountain, moving toward me with authoritative strides. When he gets to my side, he gives me a possessive once-over, sniffing me, and then touches my wet hair, rubbing it between his fingers.
I rub my arms, a little shivery due to the fact that I’m naked and it’s windy. Yeah, those are the reasons. Sure. “Don’t suppose you happen to know where the nearest un-pillaged department store is, do you?” At his blank look, I sigh. “Guess not.”
The rest of the day continues kind of like the last one. We circle around each other warily, trying to communicate and failing. Kael stalks me with every step, shadowing me wherever I go, watching me with hungry eyes. I take a nap when I’m tired of exploring—though it’s not much exploring when you’re afraid to do anything that might alarm the other party—and when I wake up, I’m starving. Through a few pantomimes, I ask Kael for food.
Hunger’s not the only reason I ask. If he leaves, I can slip away and return to Fort Dallas. I’ve decided that I need to check on Amy, regardless of if my life is in danger from the militia. My sister can’t fend for herself, not with her bad leg. She’s got no food to eat and we’ve got no money saved. I have to get back to her. Amy’s counting on me.
And that means risking a return to the city. So I have to make Kael leave, and I gesture that he should go hunting.
He does, but he takes me with him, carried in his claws. So much for that. And it seems he’s trying to anticipate my needs, because this time, when he runs down an animal, he doesn’t bother to snap its neck.
He just breathes fire on it and roasts it as it tries to run away.
The pained bellows of the dying cow are awful to hear. I sob as it dies, because I feel responsible. Kael’s trying to please me, and because he is, this critter gets a terrible death. I sob even harder when I eat a hunk of his flank, because I’m too hungry to waste food, even if it died badly. And I sniff unhappily as I wash my hands in the sink afterward. We’re going to have to have a talk about humane butchering of food.
Provided we can ever have a talk, that is. Our dialogue is mostly our names and ‘no.’ I’m not getting anywhere with him. It’s like he’s not interested in learning, and it’s frustrating.
That night, I sleep curled up against him again. He remains in dragon form after the hunt, protectively cradling me between his forelegs and against his breast. His enormous heart thunders against my ear, and it’s almost peaceful.
Except…I keep thinking about that cow. And my sister, who’s probably starving to death waiting for me.
Unless she goes to talk to Blowjob Becky about work… I shudder. Not Amy. Not happy, innocent Amy, who sees the good in everything and refuses to get cynical like her older sister.
I close my eyes and try to sleep, but I see the cow in my dreams. Running away, crying out in terror, and then blasted with flame. Sometimes in my dream, it’s my sister.
Sometimes it’s me.
12
Three Days Later
CLAUDIA