“The dragon just took over. It was as if this form just became too unstable and we, well…” Jayce shrugs, gesturing around the area they were standing in.
“Yes, young man, we were all there for that part,” the council member said dryly. Hazel couldn’t help the small grin at the hundreds of years old dragon warriors being called ‘young men’ and Jayce and Nika must have picket up on it because they both snickered beside her.
“Is something funny here?” Elizabeth demanded, obviously at the end of her patience. “Because I don’t see anything funny at all.”
Bashfully, they all turned looking at the ground, to the side, anywhere but the accusing eyes of the Mother Guardian.
“No, no not at all–.”
“Good!” she all but shouted as she threw her hands up. Elizabeth turned to Jayce, her eyes like dark steel knifes. “Elaborate.”
“I’m sorry?” he said after a long moment of silence, waiting for her to continue.
“What you were saying earlier. Elaborate.”
“I’m really sorry, but I don’t know–.”
“Are you all daft? You said the further away from Hazel you were the harder it was to maintain your normal,” she gestured to his physique, “form.”
“Yes. Yes, that’s how it happened. The distance just made things…fuzzy.” Nika said, trying to explain.
“Fuzzy, is that what you call it?”
“Well, I guess they will just need to stay here, with me.” Hazel hastily broke in before the Mother Guardian’s face could grow any redder. Hazel barely stopped herself from flinching as her words drew Elizabeth’s scrutiny.
“I’ll keep an eye on them, I promise. I’ll take care of them.”
“We’re not puppies, Hazel…”
“Hush!” Elizabeth’s voice cut through Jayce’s words, her eyes never leaving Hazel’s. “You will take care of them, I’ll make sure of that. If anything happens, any single thing that I don’t like, the council takes them and damn the consequences. Is that clear?”
They immediately nodded their heads, scurrying inside without a glance behind them before the Mother Guardian or the council could change their minds.
Chapter 11
With a sigh of relief, Jayce collapsed onto the creaking bed frame in the spare bedroom. The hectic day flashed through his head, that bossy Mother Guardian and the council members showing up just as Nika and him had begun to discuss what to do about Hazel, telling them without a bit of humor that they were basically under arrest.
He grimaced slightly in the dark as he remembered the events that followed. The way he had felt as he’d taken step after step farther away from the little witch. The way his skin had begun to itch, as if every atom was trying to split apart from itself. The itch had become an ache and then it had come upon them so fast he didn’t even have time to turn and warn the people escorting them. Of course, ‘escorting’ was a polite term, he had seen the dark, nervous look in their eyes as they’d stared at them.
Luckily, Hazel had run outside to calm them, somehow her touch had that miraculous effect. Never in his very long life had he heard of anyone even been able to get that close to a drakolia warrior without being obliterated. As thoughts of Hazel entered Jayce’s mind, he recalled what else had happened earlier that morning.
They had been sitting there in the attic, his brilliant idea to try and test her with the Archon’s way, and caught totally unaware by the strength of his own reaction to her. The lust that had rolled through his body had been instantaneous and overwhelming his will. Within seconds his mouth had been on hers, his hands running over the ample curves of her body because if he hadn’t he would have died, right then and there. Almost nothing would have stopped him and he breathed another sigh of relief that Nika had been there to pull him off her. There was no telling what would have happened if he hadn’t.
But he knew that was a lie, a small inner voice whispered. He would have her naked and trembling underneath him, her sweet thighs wrapped around his waist and…Forcefully, he turned his thoughts away, his body already tightening painfully on the small bed.