Vampire Dragon (7 page)
“Yes,” Bronte said, agreeing to Darkwyn’s offer
and
the bird’s definition, not quite in her right mind, or soul, or emotions, and jolted by the fact.
and
the bird’s definition, not quite in her right mind, or soul, or emotions, and jolted by the fact.
A subtle change took place around Darkwyn’s eyes, an inner smile, perhaps. Hope? Desire? A vague sentiment aimed her way.
“Please,” Bronte whispered, though she dare not count the reasons and ways she meant it.
Forget it, don’t listen. Don’t come. Hurry!
Forget it, don’t listen. Don’t come. Hurry!
SEVEN
Darkwyn saw Bronte do a trick with her eye before she
turned and headed for the crowd in front of her building’s porch steps, near a giant wheeled thing in the road, a red and blue bubble spinning on top.
turned and headed for the crowd in front of her building’s porch steps, near a giant wheeled thing in the road, a red and blue bubble spinning on top.
He touched Vivica’s arm as they turned to greet his brothers. “What does it mean?” he asked, “when a woman closes one eye?”
“She winked? It means she’s attracted to you. Are you attracted to her?”
“Does her name not sound like a song?”
Bastian belly laughed, and Scorch leapt into Darkwyn’s arms.
“Kill the cat,” Puck snapped. “Kill the cat.”
“Shut up, chucklebird,” Vivica snapped before she took the kittens to Bronte. “According to the paramedics,” she said, returning, “no injuries, but the police are taking names, in case of whiplash, that kind of thing.”
“Is Bronte keeping the kittens?” Darkwyn asked.
Vivica scratched Isis behind her ear. “She was glad to have them back.”
He and his brothers embraced while their guardian dragons reunited. Jock the blue, Koko the tan, and Jagidy the sea green, dragon elders all—now small as the palm of a human hand—puffed red celebratory smoke in an air dance that would draw a crowd were they visible.
Darkwyn walked with Vivica and his brothers along a street with crisp red, yellow, and orange leaves beneath their feet. “My heart mate likes animals,” he said, still thinking of Bronte and the kittens. “That is good, yes?”
“Yes,” Bastian and Jaydun said, elbowing each other.
“Do not mock,” Darkwyn said. “I am younger and stronger than both of you.”
Vivica raised a staying hand. “Darkwyn, don’t you think it’s a little too soon to tell that Bronte is your heart mate?”
“I tell only you and my brothers, and I wish to go back soon.
Now
would be good.”
Now
would be good.”
“You need Works Like Magick. It’s more than an employment agency, it’s where I acclimate the chameleons of the universe.”
“Chameleons sound like they should have fifty legs and bite. Do they itch?”
“We are not a disease.” Bastian shoved his shoulder. “Do you itch?
You
are a chameleon. We all are.”
You
are a chameleon. We all are.”
Darkwyn stopped. “We sound like a scourge.”
“I know a journalist who would say you are.” Vivica shoved his arm. “Chameleons acclimate to their surroundings. They fit in wherever they must. They change. Adapt. Sometimes they’re called shape-shifters. You all shift shape, from men to dragons and back. In my business, chameleons are universal travelers who move between the planes and slip through the veil into our world.”
“I see,” Darkwyn said.
“They—you—don’t know how to live on earth, or speak our language at first. You must learn those things so you can earn a living—at the Phoenix, if it’s meant to be. But you will need to be more like one of us, which should take at least a week’s worth of
concentrated
lessons, usually two weeks, while I make you legal.”
concentrated
lessons, usually two weeks, while I make you legal.”
“Will it hurt?”
“A casket just broke over your head,” Vivica said. “I’m thinking you have a high pain threshold.”
Darkwyn raised his throbbing middle finger knowing Bronte’s must be killing her. “This hurts.”
Bastian and Jaydun barked unfamiliar laughter.
Vivica curled that finger down again. “You’re not even injured.”
Bastian cleared his throat. “Bronte hurt the corresponding finger,” his brother said. “So Darkwyn hurts there, too, proof that she is his heart mate. It’s classic for the Dragonelli Brothers. I still hurt when and where my McKenna does, so I really hate that time of the month.”
“What time?” Darkwyn asked.
“Women are not kidding when they say that PMS is brutal.”
“We are so
not
the weaker sex,” Vivica agreed. “Darkwyn, you will learn everything in the unfolding of time.”
not
the weaker sex,” Vivica agreed. “Darkwyn, you will learn everything in the unfolding of time.”
Jaydun knuckled Vivica’s cheek. “Acclimator, be warned. Darkwyn’s never been good with lessons or rule following.”
Vivica gave him a hard look. “Darkwyn, you have to learn our ways if you want to be legal. Bastian and Jaydun are so legal that Bastian is married.”
“I am,” Bastian said. “The first of our legion on earth and the first to marry. You will visit our bed-and-breakfast, the Dragon’s Lair, Darkwyn, to meet my wife and my son, Seb. Glad to have you here, by the way.” Bastian gave his arm a fist shove. “Why do you wear Vivica’s cloak?”
“To hell with that,” Jaydun said. “Why was he still naked?”
“My wet cloak fell off,” Darkwyn said. “Bronte and I went for a dip in Cat Cove. A little matter of life and death, but I saved her.”
“That’s bad,” Bastian said. “Anyone in water with you absorbs some of your magick, and can see things, like your fire and whatever you brought through the veil. For me it was the faery Dewcup and Jock, here.”
“I brought in Puck the bird and two winged kittens that glow. I feared one of them, or Bronte herself, might have cut the casket rope with a light beam and burned the clasp on my cloak. I feared Killian might have taken over Bronte’s body, but since she didn’t retaliate when I tossed her into the Cove, I know better. Besides, Killian doesn’t want Bronte, she wants me. Bronte is safe.”
“For my money,” Vivica said, “Bronte is too strong to have let Killian in, but then her background is a mystery, and she likes it that way.”
“Bronte is safe from Killian only until Bronte means the world to
you
,” Bastian warned. “Killian came through with me,” he added, “though not in disguise, and she did not set her sights on McKenna until McKenna became my world.”
you
,” Bastian warned. “Killian came through with me,” he added, “though not in disguise, and she did not set her sights on McKenna until McKenna became my world.”
Jaydun nodded his understanding. “I’ve been having trouble with a leaf pixie on and off. Lightning and scorched tree branches above my head, that kind of thing. I’ve thought on more than one occasion the pixie might be Killian.”
“Manipulating the weather is one of Killian’s strengths,” Bastian said as they walked between buildings.
As if they’d summoned Killian the evil sorceress, the alley turned dark, while raindrops became hailstones, arriving at growing speeds and sizes.
“Some are big as baseballs,” Jaydun shouted, settling his jacket around Vivica’s shoulders. He protected her from the pelting, until a bolt of lightning raced through the alley, one sunny end to the other, raised them off their feet, tossed them around, and left them lying in puddles.
All except Bastian, who watched, grim and helpless.
As fast as the storm came, the sun returned to warm them.
“It only stormed on us,” Darkwyn said. “Look, it’s sunny and dry everywhere but in here. What must people think?”
“Whatever you do, Darkwyn, don’t tell anyone about—”
“Killian’s ba-ack,” Bastian said, stealing their attention. “I’m dry, because when you best Killian, it’s done. I’ve won my final battle with her. Unnatural air, wind, rain, hail—sent by her—all went around me. I saw what happened to you, but her malevolent magick can’t touch me anymore.”
Darkwyn shivered in his polka-dot cloak, dreading the prospect of fighting their enemy, as they emerged from the alley into a world where everyone was dry but them.
Darkwyn rubbed the new-grown stubble on his face, a sign of his humanity. “If I don’t best Killian—I mean if she bests me—she also steals the magick I drew from Andra to get here, and Andra can’t turn our brothers back to men and send them.”
“You got it,” Jaydun said. “They’ll die in a sea of boiling lava.” He whipped the water from his hair. “Besting Killian hasn’t yet been my burden to bear, though it will be, in time.”
“For now, Jaydun is my bodyguard,” Vivica said, “while I acclimate you, and your brothers after you, so I think Jaydun’s task will ultimately be longer lived and harder won.”
“I hate when you explain my mandate that way,” Jaydun told her.
She shrugged. “I tell it like I see it.”
Darkwyn assessed their proximity, Jaydun’s covertly protective stance, his hand at Vivica’s back. “So,” he said. “Jaydun watches your body and you watch his?”
EIGHT
Vivica squeaked and Jaydun removed his hand from
her back as if from a flame. His brother straightened. “If Vivica and I had a connection, it would be our business, Darkwyn. She connects us, protects us, teaches us earthen ways, and she respects us and our mandates. We owe her the same courtesy. She is our mentor, our guardian here on earth, acting in Andra’s stead,” Jaydun said. “If not for Vivica, we would be charging around on all fours or getting shot from the sky. Subject closed. Now, as for that masked, violet-haired girl, what do you think she knows of us?”
her back as if from a flame. His brother straightened. “If Vivica and I had a connection, it would be our business, Darkwyn. She connects us, protects us, teaches us earthen ways, and she respects us and our mandates. We owe her the same courtesy. She is our mentor, our guardian here on earth, acting in Andra’s stead,” Jaydun said. “If not for Vivica, we would be charging around on all fours or getting shot from the sky. Subject closed. Now, as for that masked, violet-haired girl, what do you think she knows of us?”
“Jaydun, the
girl
is Bronte, and she is my heart mate. Therefore, please give
her
the courtesy of respect.”
girl
is Bronte, and she is my heart mate. Therefore, please give
her
the courtesy of respect.”
Vivica nodded her approval. “Good beginning. You must continue to act like a man of earth, and after you’re acclimated, you can go back and discover for yourself where Killian fits into your new life.”
“I suppose,” Darkwyn said, reluctantly agreeing to his lessons. “I will return to Bronte in due course. I did not
want
to leave her. Her heart is wondrous beautiful and speaks to mine. Her emotions speak, too. I do not think she saw the magick in me. She did not mention Jagidy nor the kittens’ wings.”
want
to leave her. Her heart is wondrous beautiful and speaks to mine. Her emotions speak, too. I do not think she saw the magick in me. She did not mention Jagidy nor the kittens’ wings.”
Bastian frowned. “Are you certain? Having been in the water with you, she did not catch your magick?”
“She pets the kittens as if their wings do not exist. Her hand cuts through them, and when she holds them, her face is framed by wings. For some reason she supersedes their wings.”
“Like when you walk through a ghost,” Vivica said.
Jaydun looked doubtful. “But you say Bronte sees the cats, themselves?”
Darkwyn sought patience. “I believe the cats
want
to be seen.”
want
to be seen.”
“It’s true,” Vivica said. “They practically made a red-carpet entrance.”
“Like Dewcup the faery,” Bastian muttered. “Irritating brat. And when I first got here, Killian wanted me to see
her
, as well. I understand what you’re saying about the cats wanting to be seen. Could a kitten, or the bird, be Killian?”
her
, as well. I understand what you’re saying about the cats wanting to be seen. Could a kitten, or the bird, be Killian?”
“I suppose. The bird is irritating enough, yet I feel a kinship.”
“Trust your instincts,” Bastian said, then he snapped his fingers. “I know why your magick did not infect Bronte like mine did McKenna when she was in the lake with me. Cat Cove is off Salem Harbor and the Atlantic. An ocean is too vast a body of water to hold magick intact. It probably got splintered into a trillion tiny glistening shards worth no magick at all. While in McKenna’s tiny lake my magick remained whole.”
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