Chapter Seventeen
"What's going to happen to him?" Virginia said, watching the uniformed paramedics escort Bertram to the ambulance.
The former dragon shifter stumbled docilely between the muscular assistants. His face was still as blank and wondering as a newborn baby's.
"They'll look after him at the psych ward. It'll take him a while to adjust to the loss of his dragon." Dai wrapped an arm round her shoulders, holding her close. "I've seen this before. He'll be all right in the end. Just...very different."
Virginia shivered, huddling up against Dai's side. She was glad Commander Ash was fully occupied talking to the other emergency service workers that he'd summoned. She was grateful to him, of course...but right now, she'd rather be grateful from a distance. There was something deeply unnerving about a creature who could so fundamentally change people against their will.
"Is it over now?" she said hopefully. "Can we go home?"
Dai tilted his head, presumably communicating telepathically with his commander. Across the courtyard, Ash never glanced round from his conversation, but after a second Dai nodded.
"He says we should slip away now." With a touch on her elbow, Dai guided her away. "The Commander will handle the police and Bertram's relatives. It's best if we stay out of the way."
"No kidding." Virginia realized that they were headed further into the field. "Uh, Dai, the road is back that way."
He flashed her a wry grin. "I don't usually go places by road. And I noticed that there's a lovely park behind your house. Perfect for landing." He hesitated, expression turning sombre. "Unless you'd rather I called a taxi. I'd understand if you've had enough of dragons for one night. Or lifetime."
Virginia laced her fingers through his. "There's one dragon I can never get enough of." She squeezed his hand, then released him, stepping back. "And I want to look at you properly, now that I'm not in terror for both of our lives. Go on."
Dai's outline rippled. Light distorted strangely around him—and then the red dragon stood in his place, posed like some heraldic beast. All the breath sighed out of Virginia's lungs. She cast a glance over her shoulder, but the police and paramedics were still going unconcernedly about their business, completely unaware of the wonder behind them.
Flashing lights from the emergency vehicles washed over Dai's scaled hide, striking gleaming red highlights from his jewel-like scales. The dragon's horned head curved downward, luminous green-gold eyes tracking her anxiously as she circled him. Virginia tentatively ran her hand across the vast shoulder, feeling the furnace-like heat emanating through the plated armor. The dragon rumbled, leaning into her palm a little. With a rustle, he spread his wings, one foreleg bending to offer her a way up to his back.
Feeling as though she'd stepped into a fairytale, Virginia climbed up. She fit herself between the crimson spines that ran down his spine, straddling the base of his neck. She felt Dai's enormous muscles shift and bunch under her thighs. Then, with a mighty leap, they were airborne.
It was nothing like her abduction by Bertram—Dai bore her up smoothly, with utmost care. His steady wingbeats rocked her as gently as if she was floating on the surface of the ocean. Virginia leaned into the motion, exhilarated by the wind rushing past and the sight of the ground falling away beneath them. She whooped, and Dai roared, echoing her delight.
All too soon, they reached the city. The lights of Brighton spread out like a shining constellation underneath them. Virginia braced herself against the spines before and behind her as Dai spiraled downward. Despite his bulk, he landed so lightly she didn't even realize he'd touched the ground until his wings folded closed. She slid off his back, wind-swept and laughing, stepping back to let him return to human form.
"Oh, that was wonderful!" She couldn't stop grinning like a loon as they walked the short distance from the park to her apartment. "Can we really do that whenever we like?"
"You'll never have to take a train again," Dai promised, his eyes gleaming with satisfaction at her reaction. "I'm afraid you're still stuck with planes for trans-Atlantic flights though." He hesitated on her doorstep. "Ah. You know, with Bertram gone, you don't need me by your side constantly anymore. If you'd prefer some privacy, I could go to—"
Virginia stretched on her toes to kiss him, cutting him off mid-sentence. "Rose was right," she said when she'd finished. She took his hand. "You really do overthink things."
He smiled ruefully as she led him to the bedroom. "I did make rather a hash of this, didn't I?" He caught her in his arms, tucking the top of her head under his chin. "My beautiful, brave mate. I'm sorry I didn't tell you everything straightaway."
"I didn't exactly make it easy for you." Virginia leaned against him. Even in human form, he retained that draconic heat. She snuggled closer to his chest, enjoying his more-than-human warmth against her wind-chilled skin. "I'm sorry too."
Dai was silent a moment. She had a sense of him diffidently questing at the edges of her mind, trying to untangle her mood.
"You're still sad about something," he said at last.
"No, not sad." Virginia sighed, still pressed against him. "Just a little regretful. I would have liked to examine the Dragon's Eye."
Though she couldn't see his face, she felt his puzzlement down the mate-bond. "Why can't you?"
"I'll appreciate it if you'll let me look at it, of course. But it won't be the same as being able to study it properly." She sighed again. "And it would have made a spectacular centerpiece to a museum exhibit."
Unexpectedly, Dai laughed under his breath. "Oh." His long, strong fingers circled her wrist, turning her hand over. "Virginia," he said, taking the Dragon's Eye out of his pocket. Without the slightest hint of hesitation or doubt, he placed the priceless artifact in her palm. "You didn't think I meant to keep it, did you?"
"B-But—" Virginia stammered. She stared down at the ruby-studded gold, then up into his warm, dancing green eyes. "I gave it to you, freely. It's part of your hoard. I thought dragons never gave away anything from their hoards."
"We don't." He tilted her chin up, bending his face down to hers. "But we do trade. So you'll have to give me something of equal value."
He kissed her, long and deep and slow. Virginia melted against his strong body, sweet fire singing through her veins. She could sense answering heat rising in Dai, their mutual desire echoing and amplifying along the mate-bond into an inferno of passion. That fire swept away all thought, all time, everything in the world except the two of them. She floated in a perfect, endless moment, aware of nothing except the blissful sensation of his mouth on hers.