Dragon in the Dark (Kindred Tales)

“I should never have left you.” Dra’vik’s deep voice startled her. She’d been so locked in her own misery she had almost forgotten about the big Drake, even though she was sitting on his lap.

“No—you shouldn’t.” She was glad to hear that her voice sounded more normal—more like herself. “Where did you go?” she asked again, this time more calmly. “Where—”

The words died in her throat as she looked up at him.

His eyes were still glowing but not with fury—the pain in his face was clear to see.

“Can I put you down now?” he asked in a low, hoarse voice.

“Put me down? Why? You want to punch a wall or roar again or something?” she asked him.

It was no more than what she would have expected after the terrifying display he’d put on moments before. She probably should have been frightened of him, but she’d been so relieved to be rescued and so desperate to get out of the scanning room, it hadn’t even occurred to her to fear the big Drake—even after his savage actions and frightening roaring.

He shook his head.

“I’ve failed you and broken my oath of protection—I don’t fucking deserve to hold you, little girl.”

He closed his eyes briefly and she saw emotions passing over his face—pain and shame and self-loathing so deep it made her heart ache for him.

“Please don’t put me down,” she said softly. “Maybe I shouldn’t have blamed you. I mean, we were in separate lines. I was just so scared—”

“Of course you fucking were!” Dra’vik growled hoarsely. “Those fucking bastards—wish I would have killed both of them instead of just one!” He took a deep breath and ran a hand over his face before looking at her again. “Are you all right? Did they—”

“The one you killed tried to,” Iyanna said grimly. “But no, they didn’t manage to…to rape me.” She swallowed and heard a dry click in her throat. She wanted a glass of water but she didn’t want to leave the safety of the big Drake’s arms to go find one.

“The Minister of Botany came to meet me himself and skipped me to the head of the male’s checkpoint line,” Dra’vik told her. “He said he was sending a servant to come get you as well, but he wanted me to sign some paperwork or some bureaucratic bullshit like that. Like a damn fool, I went with him. You were still pretty far back in the line and everything seemed fine. I waved but you weren’t looking in my direction, so I guess you didn’t see me.”

“No, I didn’t.” Iyanna shook her head. “I just looked over and you were gone.”

Dra’vik groaned.

“Fuck. I’m so sorry, little girl. I signed the documents he wanted signed and then realized you still hadn’t shown up. Then the fucking servant brought some other female from the line—he’d mistaken her for you. And then I started getting a worried feeling, like something wasn’t right with you…”

“I’m glad you had a worried feeling, though I wish you would have had it about ten minutes earlier,” Iyanna told him.

Dra’vik scrubbed a hand over his face again.

“The Minister of Botany tried to get me to wait—he said he would send the servant back to the line. But it was like a voice was whispering in my ear that you were in trouble, that I had to get to you right away…” He shook his head. “Should have gone sooner. Should have told him to stuff his documents up his ass or insisted that you come with me in the first place or—”

“Stop—it’s over now.” Iyanna put a hand on his cheek, feeling the roughness of his whiskers, the smoothness of his scales, and the heat of his skin all at once. He was still burning up—much hotter than she’d ever felt him before.

“It never should have happened in the first place,” Dra’vik growled. “Look what they did to you—ripping off your modesty patches and cutting up your sweet little wrists…” He took her hand in his and examined her wrist more closely. “Wish I could heal this for you, but my Fire’s still too fucking high. Have to wait until I cool down some.”

Iyanna didn’t know what he meant by that, but she looked at the wrist he was examining and saw that it was bleeding and bruised—as was the other. Actually, both of them hurt quite a bit but she had been so upset she hadn’t even noticed until now. She also hadn’t thought about her state of undress or how exposed she was, but it seemed too late to worry about that right now.

“I did this to myself, trying to get out of the manacles,” she told him, nodding at her wrists and wondering if there was a First Aid kit anywhere around that she could use. “And as for my modesty patches, they actually fell off when the guards put me under that weird copper arch and started scanning me.” She shivered. “I don’t even know what that thing did to me! What if they zapped me and now I can’t have babies or something?”