The questions begin again. How often did the dragon change into his human form? Did he have any particular vulnerabilities in human form? Did I think bullets would pierce his hide while in human form? The questions make me hugely uncomfortable, so I lie to them. No vulnerabilities. No, bullets won’t hurt him in human form. “He’s still covered in scales,” I lie. “Skin’s hard as a rock.”
The captain frowns and writes that down. “I thought you said his skin was human-like except for a pattern?”
“It is,” I tell them, and put on my blankest smile. “A pattern and the scaliness, of course.”
They exchange a look that clearly questions my intelligence. Yeah, put that in your report, asshole.
I do mention the other dragon that Kael had attacked, though, and they make me go over in great detail how Kael attacked him. How he’d moved, how long it had taken for his teeth to tear out the throat of the other. How long had it taken for the other dragon to bleed out? Had the other dragon tried to communicate with her?
The questions make me uncomfortable, and I give them as little information as possible. This isn’t learning how to live alongside the dragons or stop the attacks. This is a ‘how do we defeat the enemy’ sort of questioning talk, and I don’t like it. Maybe a few weeks ago I’d have been all for it, but that was before I knew Kael.
I don’t like the thought of these assholes attacking him. I don’t like the thought of them waiting for him to get into his human form and then hurting him. Because when I think of him in his human form, I don’t think of the dragon-man that bit me. I think of the flirty, playful Kael that says my name in that adorably mangled way of his. “He’s not a monster,” I point out to them. “I think he’s just confused most of the time. All he wanted to do was protect me and take care of me. He didn’t hurt me.”
The captain writes down a few more notes, then flips through his papers. “Let’s go over it again. You mentioned that he ripped out the throat of the other dragon. Did he struggle to do so at all? Do you think his throat is a vulnerability in dragon form? Were you able to tell the amount of scales there versus the rest of his hide?”
I hate this. “Why do you care? It’s clear they can learn English. We can teach him to speak with us and get him to leave the city alone. I’m sure he would do it if we talked to him and the other dragons. We just need to communicate with them somehow.”
The captain stares at me for a moment. Then he looks down at his notes again. “Tell me about the scales on the throat again.”
No one’s listening to me. No one at all.
KAEL
My head aches.
My body is curiously tired, but the throb in my head is the worst of it. I tense, waiting to see if this is another form of the creeping madness that always waits at the fringes…but there is nothing. I feel…normal.
I open my eyes, gazing up. Through the broken ceiling, I can see the skies overhead. They are dark, twinkling with light from the stars. Far in the distance, I can see the greenish, smoky outline of the rip in the skies that my people originally came from. The sight of it doesn’t send me spiraling. Instead, it just makes me feel a little sad. It’s a place I can never get back to, and I suppose a little part of me will always miss it.
It takes a moment for me to realize that the skies are dark. They were not dark earlier, not when I claimed her.
My Clau-dah.
No, I realize. Claudia. That feels right. Dainty and elegant but strong, like my mate.
I reach for her, seeking her small, soft body. Memories of our recent mating flood my mind, and I growl low in my throat with pleasure. Claiming her was the greatest joy I have ever experienced, and I revel in the thoughts of her sweet form under mine, the scent of her filling my lungs, the taste of her on my tongue. Already I am hungry for her again. I reach out with the mind-link even as I reach for her body. I must have fallen asleep after giving her my venom. I’ve heard stories of it draining the strength of a drakoni because our very essence is shared. Claudia has no essence to share back with me, so perhaps that is why I have been unconscious for so long.
But my mind is crystal clear and bright, a sign that the bond is true.
My searching hands do not find Claudia nearby, though. I sit up, flaring my nostrils in the hopes of picking up her delicate scent. Did she walk away?
But the only scent of her is hours old and faint.
She is not here.
I sit up, all weariness forgotten. Claudia? I ask, testing the mental link between us that is established with a mating.
No response. I can feel the tether between us, but she is too far away to receive my thoughts.
Too far away?
Rage flashes through me, hot and fast. Had another male snatched my female while I slept? Unthinkable. A claimed mate is off-limits, even in the madness-crazed minds of the drakoni. No one would dare. Claudia is mine. I have claimed her. She is mine to protect. Mine to cherish.
Mine.
I roar my outrage, bellowing my fury to the skies. I flash into battle form and launch myself into the air, ignoring the crumble of the ceiling as I push my way through it and the way rocks fall to the ground far below. It does not matter if I destroy the entire building. All that matters is getting to my mate.
I climb higher into the skies, my wings beating furiously. There is no other dragon nearby, no sense of her scent, but instinct guides my mind. With the mating bond between us, I can lock on to her mental tether and find her. I close my eyes and let it guide me.
Claudia will come back to me, no matter how many I must attack to free her.
She is mine to protect.
19
CLAUDIA
My head hurts. I rub at my temples, squinting at the bright lights overhead. The hard plastic seat I sit on feels a little too rough against my sensitive skin, but complaining will get me nowhere. My captors—because I can’t call the mayor or the captain anything but that at this point—aren’t interested in me or my comfort. I didn’t think they’d let me just waltz out of here with Amy, but I also didn’t think I’d be grilled endlessly, either. They want to know more about dragons. How they eat. How they sleep. How they talk. No matter what I tell them, they have more questions. I’ve been here for hours on end. Maybe even all night.
And still, no one has brought me my sister.