The Dracons' Woman (6 page)

“Is this the garbage Bearen wanted taken out?”

Barc looked up to see a third guard join the two standing over him. 

“Not any more,” one of his guards said.  “They want this lucky shit back.”

“What the hell for?” asked the new guard.

Both of the original guards laughed, a sound that did not fill Barc with confidence.  “This idiot not only grabbed a woman and broke her arm,” the man paused and all three guards glared at Barc for a long moment, “turns out the woman is none other than the Dracons’ Arima.”

Expressions of surprise, disbelief, and awe crossed the new guard’s face in rapid succession, causing Barc to wonder what the hell they were talking about.  What was an Arima?  And when they said Dracons, did they mean Dracons as in the royal princes?  Those Dracons?  His luck could not be that bad.  Could it?  Barc looked up to see all three guards glaring at him harder than ever.  Yep, his luck was that bad.

“Excuse me,” said another new voice as a short figure stepped around the guards.  A Terran female dressed in a distinctive silver med-tech jumpsuit looked at him calmly and cocked her head.  “This is the patient?” she asked.

The gossipy guard nodded.  “That’s him.”

“And you want him treated here, rather than in the med-center, is that correct?” the woman asked with no inflection in her high voice.  Terran’s always annoyed Barc.  They sounded like badly programmed bots.

The guard nodded.  “We’re just gonna toss him in a holding cell until planet security picks him up.”

“Very well,” she said, pulling a short metal rod from her pocket.  Barc blanched.  A portable bone annealer.  Damn.  This was going to hurt.  He glanced up at the guards, then gritted his teeth at what he saw on their faces.

“I will need help aligning the edges of the bone,” the Terran said.

Yeah, this was going to hurt a lot.

Chapter 3

Lariah felt deep softness beneath her and sighed as she snuggled into the cozy bed.  Her eyes popped open as she realized that she didn’t have a cozy soft bed to sleep in any more, and hadn’t for some time now.  She lay frozen for a moment, then relaxed as she remembered leaving the spaceport with the Dracon brothers, being lifted into the huge, sleek ground-car, the feeling of safety and warmth infusing her entire being as she watched the lavender sky darken to purple night through the window while she listened vaguely to the brothers as they chatted on the drive home.  She must have fallen asleep in the car, and they had carried her inside. 

As soon as she thought of the Dracon brothers she realized that she could still sense them.  She
knew
that they were somewhere nearby, and that they were all together.  She didn’t understand how or why she knew.  It was so strange.  She shook her head slightly and decided not to think about it for the moment. 

She sat up and looked around, taking in the big, airy room.  The wall to her right was set with wide windows and a sliding glass door looking out over what appeared to be a patio.  The bed itself was large, warm and clean, the light yellow blanket so soft she was sure she had never seen or felt anything like it.  The furnishings were all made from a light gold colored wood, gleaming softly in the sunlight streaming through the windows, and the walls were pale, warm yellow.  The room was soothing with its cheerful colors and natural sunlight. 

She flipped back the covers, relieved to find herself still dressed in her oversized clothes, save for her shoes.  She swung her legs over the edge of the bed and stood slowly, testing her body as she moved.  She had been injured badly enough, recently enough, that she wasn’t completely confident in her physical condition.  She took a careful inventory and was surprised to find she actually felt better, stronger, than she had in a long time.  She took a deep breath and let go of the bed, stepping away from it slowly.  No dizziness, no pain in her arm or leg or anywhere else she’d been injured.  It was such a relief to feel her old self again that she couldn’t help but smile.

Lariah crossed the floor slowly, her feet sinking into thick, multi colored rugs scattered across the shiny wood floor, and paused to stare out the window.  Her breath caught in her throat at the beauty of the landscape before her.  Lavender skies stretched as far as the eye could see, broken here and there with puffy white clouds.  Immediately outside her window was a covered patio, as she had guessed, with several deeply cushioned chairs and small tables scattered here and there, and one large round one in the center with matching chairs set neatly around it.  Beyond the patio stretched a large garden filled with bushes, flowers, and trees in colors and shapes she had never imagined. 

In the distance, blue grass rippled in a gentle breeze over rolling hills dotted with animals of some sort.  Her forehead wrinkled as she tried to identify the distant shapes.  Cows, she thought, and, perhaps those other things were horses.  She had only seen images of such things, had never actually seen the living breathing animals themselves, but she was fairly certain she was correct.  Her smile widened in wonder at the breathtaking view. 

After a few minutes she turned away from the window and studied the room.  It looked as though it had been decorated either by or for a woman, but at the same time, it didn’t seem to belong to anyone.  There were no personal effects in the room, no clothing anywhere, no pictures on the wall.  She spotted her handbag and her canvas tote on a chair near the bed and was relieved that she had not lost her few, meager possessions.  She also noted a partially open door and hurried to it, hoping very much that it led to a bathroom.  It did.  In fact, it led to a beautiful, gleaming bathroom with a large, deep bath tub.  Once she was finished with her more urgent needs, she debated using the tub.

She knew that taking off all of her clothes and climbing into the tub would expose her to danger.  But, for some reason, she wasn’t feeling the usual fear that went along with the knowledge.  The fear that had haunted her every waking moment for weeks was now gone. 

She bit her lip as she considered the situation.  Finally, with a soft sigh, she closed her eyes and mentally reached out for the Dracon brothers.  The moment she felt them, a rush of unfamiliar heat raced through her body and she became extremely aroused.  Her eyes flew open and she gasped with surprise.  She had never felt anything like that in her entire life.  She had no idea what to do with such intense feelings so she tried to ignore them by focusing on whether she should take a bath.

She knew that all three of the Dracon brothers were together, and that they were nearby.  She had no way of knowing if they were in the same house she was in as she hadn’t seen anything other than the bedroom and bathroom, but she thought they were.  For reasons she wasn’t quite ready to examine, she knew that if they were nearby, then she was safe.  

They had put her in a guest room and the guest room had a bath so it was logical to assume that she was welcome to use it if she wished.  Well, she thought, that might be pushing things, but if she had to explain herself, that was what she would say.

Deciding that she was safe, and that the tub was intended to be used, she went back to the bedroom, grabbed her bags, took them into the bathroom and locked the door behind her.  She couldn’t remember the last time she had experienced the luxury of a full bath.  Inter-System Transport Lines came up short on bathing facilities and, while she had been able to take quick showers in tiny, cramped stalls during her long journey, she had dreamed of a real bath.  She decided to set aside all other problems for right now and just enjoy this luxury.

She set the water taps to fill the tub and retrieved her toiletries bag and some fresh clothes from her tote.  She spotted a tray of little bottles at one end of the bathroom counter and discovered they were a variety of bath oils, shampoos and lotions.  She hesitated for a moment, biting her lip at her own audacity, then shrugged.  What the heck, she thought, if they want they can charge me for them.  She selected several bottles of a light lemony scent she liked and set them on the edge of the tub.  She emptied the bath oil into the water and breathed in the scent rising with the steam.  She could hardly wait to get in. 

She all but ripped her clothes off and left them in a pile on the floor, hesitated for one second, and decided to throw caution to the winds.  Happy with her decision, she reached up and yanked the tight, hot wig from her head and tossed it onto the pile of clothes.  She unwound the long braid from around her head, sighing at the blessedly cool feel of air against her scalp.  Loosening the braid with quick, practiced fingers, she stepped into the tub.  She lowered herself into the water slowly, feeling her muscles practically groan as the heat seeped into them.  She laid back in the water up to her neck, closed her eyes and sighed with pleasure.

Garen stood at the window in the ranch office, staring out over the home pasture, the usually calming sight of grazing cattle and horses doing nothing to ease his tension. 

“Thank you for your assistance Jackson,” Trey said, speaking to the vid screen on Garen’s desk.  “Please keep us posted if you learn anything new.”

Garen heard Jackson assure Trey that he would keep them informed, then the click as the call was disconnected.  He turned to face his brothers.  “So, someone, somehow, managed to remove this Barc Landon from his holding cell on the skyport before he could be transported back here to face our questions.  I find that disturbing news.”

Val sighed.  “The worst of it being, of course, that it was our people holding him.”

“We don’t know that yet,” Trey said.  “Jackson said he thought there might have been some Terians on duty.”

“I hope so,” Garen said.  “I do not want to consider the consequences of a traitor amongst our own people.”

“The message to the council concerning Riata has been received,” Trey said.  “They ask for the morning to consider our request and promise they will answer by noon.”

Garen nodded.  “That is reasonable,” he said.  “It is a lot to ask.”

“Perhaps,” Val said.  “But then, Lariah is the first Arima in three thousand years.  We have good reason to ask a lot.  She is important to all of our people.”

“Yes,” Garen agreed.  “We must move slowly and carefully in this.  There are too many things we don’t understand.”

A soft knock at the study door interrupted their conversation.  “Enter,” Garen called.  The door opened and the short, plump figure of their housekeeper, Suly, stepped in.  “Excuse me,” she said nervously, her hands clenched tightly in front of her.  “I went in the guest room to check if your lady guest was awake and would like some breakfast, and, well, I’m sorry, but she was not there.” 

The words were not fully out of her mouth when she felt gentle hands on her shoulders, lifting her aside before Garen, Trey and Val raced through the door.  Suly exhaled loudly in relief.  She knew the Dracons to be good men, but she had not wanted to face them with this news.  If the rumors were true, the lady guest was their Arima.  Suly had lived on Jasan and worked for the Dracons for many years, so she had heard stories of the legendary Arimas.  Until now, she had thought that’s all they were; stories.  If the young lady was truly their Arima, the Dracons would not be happy that she had disappeared. 

Garen raced through the house, Val and Trey at his heels.  When he reached the door of the guest room he simply hit the door with the palm of his hand, causing it to fly open.  The three of them paused in the doorway, noting that Lariah, and her belongings, were indeed absent.  He started to turn, his mind a jumble of thoughts on how to find her, where to start, his heart already in his throat, when he heard a sound from deeper in the room.  He paused and turned back.  Water?  He crossed the room to the bathroom and pushed the door open, his magic negating the lock.  All three rushed into the bathroom in a near panic.  As one, they gasped. 

There, standing in the tub, was Lariah.  A Lariah that none of the Dracon brothers had imagined.  In fact, so complete was her transformation that it was her unique scent of roses and honey, blended with the light citrusy scent of lemon that told them it was she in that first stunning moment.  Gone were the black brows, short black hair, and baggy clothes.  Instead, she stood there naked, her hands twisting a thick rope of red-gold hair pulled forward over her shoulder and hanging to her hip.  Her eyebrows now matched her hair, and though they were darkened with water, Garen was certain that when dry, they would exactly match the red-gold freckles on her nose.  Her skin was wet and glistening, flushed rosy from her bath, with a light sprinkling of red-gold freckles on her chest and shoulders.  Garen could not believe how completely the baggy clothing had hidden her beautiful body.  High, full breasts with rose-colored nipples, a narrow rib cage curving into a tiny waist which flared out to full hips and long, shapely legs crowned with a triangle of silky red-gold curls.  She was standing at a slight angle to him so he had a full view of the curve of her back before it flared out into the round, firm globes of her bottom.  She was the most stunning female he had ever seen.

Lariah stood motionless as the three brothers drank their fill of the sight of her, the pale milky rose of her skin darkening with embarrassment the longer they stared.  The moment stretched so long that her heart began to race, indicating the beginnings of panic.  Garen stepped forward slowly and held his hand out to her.