Still, I haven’t seen Tate in days. There’s no reason why I should feel as freshly-stomped-on as I do. My mind is hazy, head throbbing, and I reach up with my good arm and feel a new knot on my forehead. I must have hit myself somehow.
That’ll look lovely with my black eye.
Not that it matters what I look like. Tate’s not interested in my face half as much as he is in marking up my skin. Of course, it’s going to be another injury I’ll have to explain to Claudia, who—
Claudia.
My mind fills with vague flashes of memory. Of hiding in the school bus from another dragon attack. The dragon landing. Claudia, wearing swim goggles and dragging me out of the safety of the bus while a dragon waits outside.
Falling off the dragon.
Oh god, I remember falling. Fear makes my mouth water, and I feel stunningly close to vomiting. I slow my breathing, ignoring the beads of cold sweat that pop onto my skin. Calm. Calm. You’re clearly safe. You didn’t fall, or you’d remember landing.
Weird. I really don’t remember landing, though. A new whimper escapes my throat. Am I dead? Is this death? Is death supposed to hurt this stinking much?
A low, rumbling sound, almost like a purr, fills the black space around me.
I freeze, not daring to open my eyes.
That…had sounded a bit like a purr, if a cat was the size of, oh, a jetliner. Fear makes my bones feel like jelly, and even though I want to be quiet, my breath begins to rasp in short, echoing gasps, loud even to my own ears.
Oh god. Oh god. I’d been falling. That was the last thing I remembered. Who’d caught me?
What caught me?
I squeeze an eye open, greatly daring.
Something stares back at me. Something with a scaly, horned face the size of a Volkswagen. Something with eyes that swirl in color from black to gold to black again. Something that purrs with fierce intensity and hovers inches away from my face.
A dragon.
I scream.
Epilogue
One Month Later
CLAUDIA
Give me a new challenge, Kael demands. One that will test my skills. You’re not trying hard enough.
I roll my eyes at his smug tone, but I’m having fun. I hold up my stopwatch, reset it, and then glance around. “All right. You want challenging? Let’s do challenging.” I eye the vista around us. We’re on the roof of the tallest building in Old Dallas, Kael perched atop the edge like a big, dangerous bird. I scan the ruins and then lay out the course. “Those three towers over there,” I tell him, pointing at the three farthest broken buildings. “Touch each one, and then fly upside down to number four over there.” I point at another building. “Then I need you to go under that overpass down there and pick up one of the cars and throw it into the Trinity River.”
He snorts, a puff of smoke pluming from his nostrils. Child’s play. How much time do I have?
Kael doesn’t know jack shit about time, but he knows he has to go fast, and he gauges how much time he has based on my reactions. So I pick something that seems do-able but not too easy. “Two minutes.”
Start the timer, then, my mate, and prepare to be impressed.
“Oh, I’ll be impressed,” I tease, and tighten my reinforced harness. If we’re going upside down, I need to be prepared. I hook one arm under my handlebar and then ready my stopwatch. “Ready to do this?”
And what do I win if I ‘blow your mind’ this time, my mate? There’s a sexy tease in his mind that makes my skin prickle with delight. I like that he’s picking up some of my euphemisms, too.
I pretend to consider my options, though we always play for the same thing. “Hmm. A kiss?”
Do I get to pick where? And he sends me a rather naughty visual.
“Yup.” I grin and pull my goggles down over my eyes. “Let’s do this. On my mark…” I click the stopwatch. “Go!”
Kael heaves himself into the air with such speed that it feels like my brains rock backward. I laugh with crazy delight as he pounds his wings through the air, racing for the nearest building on my obstacle course. One touched, and then the next in quick succession. I cling to the saddle handlebar as he hits building number two and bounds off of it so hard that the metal frame collapses behind us.
You’re making a mess, I call out gleefully.
Don’t distract me!
Off he goes to building three. Once he slams his legs into it and twists, we’re off to number four. Immediately we flip in mid-air, and I smother my scream, holding on tight. Flying upside down is terrifying—and also a huge rush. I’m strapped in well enough that I know I’m not going anywhere, but it still steals my breath every time. I jolt as we smack against building number four, and then Kael rights himself, diving low to go under the overpass. He glides along, grabs a car, and then we’re making a beeline for the distant Trinity River.
By the time he dumps it in, I’m laughing with the sheer pleasure of flying.
Time? he asks, but I can hear the pleased amusement in his thoughts. He loves my reactions to his crazy antics in the air.
I click the stopwatch and check it. “Minute fifty-eight,” I admit, impressed. “You’re faster every time we clock this.”
I enjoy the rewards, he tells me slyly, and tilts his wings, then begins to beat them, rising higher. After a ‘bet,’ we always head to our favorite spot—the sandy shore of our lake—for a quick bath and some fooling around. Now let me think of where I would like my kiss this time.
And I chuckle, because I know he doesn’t have to think about it. Kael always likes my mouth in one particular spot, because it always leads to more.
A short time later, we’re both naked on the shore, and sweaty from a round of lovemaking. I’m lying atop Kael, my legs sprawled over his hips, and my breasts and crossed arms resting on his chest. He’s become an enthusiastic advocate for woman-on-top, which apparently isn’t much of a thing with his people, since the females have to be defeated and dominated. The first time I pushed him onto his back, I thought he’d lose his mind. Now it’s one of our go-to positions.
Well, along with missionary, doggy, and every other position we can possibly think of. We just really, really like sex together.
“I suppose we should get up soon,” I tell him, tracing a finger over the scales on his shoulder. His claws are gliding up and down my back, lightly scratching at me.