Hidden Rage: Kindred Tales

To distract himself from his desire, Dragon looked up at the ceiling as the golden glows in the corners of his room began their slow brightening, which signaled morning. There were, of course, no windows in the bed chambers of his family’s main house. Windows were points of entry where assassins from rival Clans could enter. It would be foolish to build such a weakness into a domicile, but he couldn’t deny that sometimes he longed to be wakened by natural light or to at least look out and see the sky.

You’ll see the sky soon enough when you go out. But what about that dream? he asked himself.

Strangely, it hadn’t faded at all, as most dreams do upon waking. Each detail of it was still bright and sharp. Dragon turned it over in is mind like a precious jewel, examining each burnished facet and trying to understand what he had seen.

No, what I was shown, he thought, remembering the strong, feminine voice that had whispered in his ear. She had called him “Warrior” instead of Clansman. And what else had she said? Oh yes…

“You must remember. Not all…not now, it would be too much for you to bear.”

But what would be too much to bear, Dragon wondered? And what had the mysterious voice meant when she said she would “breach the barrier”? What barrier was she talking about?

Never mind that, he told himself. Think of what the dream showed you. Could it really be a way to keep her warm?

He looked down at the sleeping female curled against his left side. Her head was pillowed on his chest and her long, red-gold hair was spread across his shoulder like spilled flames.

The little feela looked so little and vulnerable, pressed against his much larger form. She was so petite that the top of her head barely came up to his bicep when they were standing, but her tiny stature only made her more attractive to Dragon. It made him want to protect her—to possess her—to warm her…

As though she felt him looking at her, her eyes fluttered open and she tilted her head and looked up at him sleepily.

“What…where am I?” she murmured drowsily. “Who’re you?”

“I am Dragon—the one who Claimed you,” Dragon told her, smiling a little at her sleepy confusion.

“Claimed me?” she repeated, frowning. “What…?” Then she looked down at herself. Her eyes got wider as she woke up completely and scrambled away from him. “Oh my God—I’m naked and so are you! Did we—”

“Calm down, we didn’t do anything last night,” Dragon told her. “Don’t you remember me Claiming you yesterday on Avria Pentaura?”

“Now I do.” She clutched the patchwork fur blanket to her breasts and stared at him mistrustfully.

“Don’t look at me like that,” Dragon told her, frowning. “I didn’t touch you last night. You were the one who was draped all over me when I woke up.”

Her face went red in that adorable way she had when she was embarrassed.

“I didn’t mean to! I was probably just trying to keep warm. Which reminds me…” She frowned and rubbed her forehead with one hand. “I was just having such a vivid dream—so crazy. About these two people and the woman was freezing and the man cut his wrist and—”

“Stop.” Dragon sat up and put out a hand to her. “You’re joking,” he said flatly. “You couldn’t have been having that dream.”

“What? Why not?” she demanded, glaring at him. “Hate to break it to you, buddy, but you only kidnapped my body—not my mind. You don’t have any say on what I dream about.”

“No, I mean…” Dragon shook his head and rubbed his temples. “You couldn’t have had that dream because I was having it.”

“What—the exact same dream?” She frowned. “Describe it, then.”

“Two people, like you said—mammalians, not Saurians,” Dragon told her. “The female had long brown hair and eyes—”

“Eyes the exact same color as yours!” she finished for him. “But the man had black hair and his eyes…” She shook her head. “I’ve never seen eyes like that. It was like they were on fire.”

“There were flames in his eyes,” Dragon agreed. “But the female…she was freezing.”

“And he cut his wrist and gave her his blood to drink,” Bobbi said excitedly. “Then they started talking about their son.” She frowned. “Now, what was his name? Oh, I know!”

“Tolor,” they said at the same time and stared at each other.

“This is crazy,” Bobbi whispered. “How in the world can we have had the exact same dream? Do you think it’s some kind of Dream Sharing?”

Dragon frowned.

“What’s ‘Dream sharing?’”

She looked surprised.

“Don’t you know? I thought it was an exclusively Kindred thing.”

Dragon shook his head.

“I was raised by Saurians and I don’t remember my past—you know more about my birth people than I do.”

“Oh, I guess I do. That’s kind of sad, actually. Well, I don’t know a lot about it but as far as I could pick up, it has to do with the Kindred Goddess putting her people together—finding them mates, you know?”