Bad Dragons: Special Edition Complete Series Page 8

  Griffin’s jaw dropped. “She what?”

  “It hurt less when I touched her.”

  Griffin’s eyes were blazing for a moment. Then he softened. “Seriously?”

  Seth nodded. “Yes.”

  Griffin let out a sigh. “That’s weird.”

  “I know.”

  “I’m not saying I want to mate her,” Griffin said.

  “I know.”

  “I’m not saying I’ll let anyone else, either.”

  “Tell you what,” Seth said. “It’ll take a couple days to get to market. We can try to figure out more on the way. Decide what we want to do after.”

  “And what if we disagree?” Griffin asked, eyes narrowed.

  “Then we fight,” Seth said. “But this way we can avoid it if possible.”

  Griffin hesitated, his gray eyes bright with some unexpressed emotion. Finally, he slumped. “Fine. No fight, then. Yet.”

  Seth smirked inwardly, glad for once that there wasn’t a single creature who wouldn’t want to avoid a fight with the black dragon.

  He was unstoppable, even by himself.

  “She’s watching,” Seth said, looking over at the window of the cabin. “Should we tell her the plan has changed?”

  Griffin’s eyes darted to the cabin where Seth could sense the human. After many years in a hostile world, Seth was always aware when he was being watched, and the human wasn’t even subtle.

  Her wide eyes went wider as she disappeared from the window, and Griffin let out a sigh.

  “It’s not going to be easy if we don’t sell her,” Griffin said. “You know the bears fought over who was going to mate her last night?”

  “True,” Seth said. “Protecting her will be like keeping a butterfly safe in a hail storm, but I still want to try.”

  “For totally selfish reasons,” Griffin muttered.

  Seth smiled. “Of course.”

  “So what, you want to not sell her but somehow keep every creature in this world from trying to kidnap her? While somehow finding someone who might know how mating could work?”

  Seth nodded. “Yes.”

  “You’re delusional,” Griffin said, pacing in frustration.

  But Seth could feel that Griffin was starting to mirror his own excitement, even if it was hidden behind a mountain of doubts.

  This was unlike anything that had happened ever since they messed up so many years ago.

  A chance for something to finally change in a world that had gone so dark.

  “I’m desperate, not delusional,” Seth said. “All I know is that it’s worth a shot.”

  As Griffin turned away to think about it, Seth considered that his plans might be optimistic.

  Maybe none of the dragons would want to pair with him. Maybe it wasn’t even possible in this world for a dragon like him to mate.

  But all he knew was that when near her, the pain had subsided slightly.

  He couldn’t stop until he figured out why.

  “I don’t like that look,” Griffin said, scratching his head. “Look, if we are going to do this, there are going to be a few rules.”

  Seth raised an eyebrow.

  “One, you aren’t going to touch her, even though it relieves your poison. Two, you aren’t going to tell her about what we’re planning. Three—”

  “Please,” Seth said, putting a hand up. “If you think you can control me, you’re mistaken. We’re partners. You’re not my boss, and I’ll handle this any way I have to. Come on. Let’s get ready to leave. Have you helped her pack or shower?”

  Griffin’s face dropped like he hadn’t even thought of that. “Oh, right, I’ll go do that.”

  Seth grinned as the bigger man jogged away from him.

  The red dragon wouldn’t be too hard to deal with, obviously.

  And Seth would touch the human whenever he wanted to.

  Anna

  After a cold shower in the primitive outbuilding where I basically poured buckets of water and soap over my head and hoped no bears walked in on me, I change back into my clothing and am ready to head out.

  Griffin still has this crazy idea that he’s going to sell me at market, but he seems to be telling himself that to reassure himself or something.

  Griffin stares at me as I walk back over to him, using a cloth to towel off my hair. Luckily it tends to dry pretty straight and no-fuss.

  “I guess you don’t… You don’t have other clothing,” he says, frowning at me.

  I look down at my clothes and shrug. “I guess not. I didn’t have a lot of notice.”

  “There’s a human vendor we can fly to,” he says. “We need to get you something sturdier.”

  “A human vendor?”

  Griffin’s eyes are uncomfortable. “He sells things from your world. He came here on his own but has contacts.”

  “Why would he want to come here?”

  “Because he knew about shifters and didn’t want his memory erased, I assume. And because he thought this world might be better than that one. You’d have to ask him.” He frowns. “Then again, maybe not. We’ll probably just have you wait outside.”

  Seth sidles up to us, looking more refreshed than I’ve seen him. His face is a little less pale, his green eyes more grassy than vivid.

  Without warning, he throws his arms around me, pulling me in tight. I let out a squeak of surprise just as Griffin pulls him away from me, giving him a hard shove.

  I’m almost worried about Seth for a moment, but his expression is defiant as he faces off against a much larger Griffin.

  Seth isn’t short. I would guess probably around six feet, but compared to Griffin…

  Griffin cracks his knuckles. “I told you not to do that.”

  He did?

  “And I said you weren’t the boss of me,” Seth retorts angrily. Energy crackles between them, looking like its ready to explode, and I step forward, putting up both hands like a crossing guard.

  “Hey, we’re all on the same team here, right?”

  Seth wrinkles his nose. “No. What gave you that idea?”

  “We’re traveling together, right?”

  “Right,” Seth says. “But no one in this world is on a team. We’re all looking out for ourselves.”

  I flinch. “Then why are you coming with us?”

  “I want you for myself,” Seth says frankly, his pretty face still making me slightly dizzy whenever I look at it. “I’m hoping to convince Griffin to let me have you.”

  His words don’t register for a moment, and when they do, I have to try hard not to sink to the floor. My hands drop as I look at him slowly. “You want me?”

  Seth nods. “To slow the poison.” He walks forward, toward the forest that heads downhill. “Come on.”

  As he walks, a cool breeze lifts his hair, making the blackened tips blow in the wind.

  “How would I stop the poison?”

  He looks at me like I’m stupid, then turns to Griffin. “How do you want to traverse?”

  Griffin’s red flannel is unbuttoned and catches in the wind, showing off the tight tee shirt underneath, which reveals tight, firm abdominals and huge chest muscles. He stretches slightly, revealing little Ken doll lines.

  My mouth waters.

  If I have to be in danger, I might as well enjoy it.

  Griffin catches me staring and tugs his shirt down, a small flush on his cheeks.

  “Oh for fuck’s sake,” Seth says, reaching for the black shirt beneath his coat. He pulls it up and reveals a hard eight pack, tapering to slender hips. His build is more soccer player than bodybuilder but just as attractive. “We all have muscles. No need to be shy about it.”

  “She was ogling me,” Griffin says, slanting a suspicious look at me.

  Seth grins. “Doesn’t that just make our job easier?”

  “No!” Griffin says tersely, buttoning his flannel, to my dismay. “We’re going to sell her. That’s the end of it!”

  Griffin storms over to the landing area, and Se
th strides up beside me, looking calm.

  I can tell he’s not usually this pleasant, that he’s trying to win me over, and I’m not sure I like it.

  “Don’t mind him,” Seth says, sliding his hand into mine before I can stop him. I try to jerk away, but his fingers are so much bigger.

  It surprises me how strong he is, given his pretty face.

  “You can’t keep doing that,” I say, feeling blood rush into my face.

  “Why not?” His tone is frank, his wide, lush green eyes so beautiful I can’t think straight. His slightly rough voice is erotic. “You’re attracted to us. You’re supposed to be.”

  I let out a squeak as he releases my hand. “Supposed to be?”

  “Right,” he says. “Our human forms are meant to attract humans.”

  “Why?”

  He gives me a shrewd smile. “Because we mate with them.”

  I stop for a second, stunned, as he walks toward where Griffin is standing.

  “We do it in pairs,” Seth calls over to me as he sidles up to Griffin and puts an arm around him.

  “Get off me!” Griffin shoves Seth off with a push, sending him stumbling into the dirt. It doesn’t seem to bother Seth much, but there’s a darker gleam in his green eyes, and his pretty lips are tensed as he stands up again.

  “We’ll fly to the Verdatt Forest, see the merchant, and go from there,” Seth says, looking over at me.

  What did he mean in pairs?

  Griffin’s red hair ruffles as he looks down at the ground, wind picking up around him. The shimmery veil I saw when Seth came out of dragon form appears again, and when it’s gone, Griffin is in dragon form.

  “Climb on.” His deep voice rumbles to both of us.

  “See?” Seth says, walking over to Griffin’s tail. “Not so bad sharing, is it?”

  Griffin’s tail whips out, catching Seth and knocking his feet out from under him. Once again barely ruffled, Seth pulls his trench coat back up and tries again.

  This time, Griffin waits patiently.

  Seth walks part of the way up the tail and then stretches a hand to me, and for a moment, I’m caught up in the magnitude of all of this.

  The magic of it.

  A huge, sparkling crimson beast is looking at me with Griffin’s gray eyes. A handsome man unlike anyone I’ve met is holding out his hand to me.

  Behind them, a sky that is both clean and somehow gray stretches out, wide and open.

  And for once, I’m not stressing out about bills.

  I take a step forward, then another, and then find my hand enclosed in Seth’s as he pulls me up onto Griffin’s tail. The feel is smooth but textured under my feet, and I walk carefully up toward Griffin’s spiked back.

  “Is this going to be safe?” I ask nervously, walking around a spike almost as tall as I am.

  “Yes,” Griffin rumbles. “Now stop fidgeting around and get on.”

  Seth finds a spot near the start of Griffin’s long neck and sits down, motioning for me to join him.

  I sit down on Griffin’s cool scales, running my hand over them, feeling the warmth beneath the silky texture.

  Griffin lets out a grunt. “We’re going.”

  And then with a jerk that makes me grab for one of the spikes behind me before Seth pulls me onto his lap, holding me tight, Griffin’s wings flap and he lifts into the air.

  Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God… I’m on a dragon.

  11

  As the world shrinks beneath us and the clouds surround us, exhilaration unlike anything I’ve ever felt floods through me.

  I take a deep breath of the sky.

  Then I stand, pushing away from Seth slightly, stepping back to cling to one of the spikes, feeling stronger and freer than I have in a long time as I watch the foggy landscape beneath us, trying to get more used to this strange land.

  Griffin is quiet and Seth stays sitting, probably conserving his strength, but all I want to do is stay here, feeling the wind on my face for as long as possible.

  I let out a deep sigh, feeling my breath mingle with the wind.

  All too soon, I feel Griffin heading lower, and my stomach drops, causing me to sit down, once again pulled into Seth.

  I let myself relax in against him, enjoying the feel of his warm chest against my back. When I’m not looking at him, I feel a little less nervous at his touch.

  Griffin lands as softly as he can, which still nearly topples us off him.

  Seth helps me down, jumping down first and reaching up his hands to catch me.

  He smiles as he sets me down, and when I look up into his eyes, maybe it’s just the rush of flying, but I feel a little bit… drawn to him.

  My hand goes to his forearm, and I can feel hard muscle there.

  His expression sobers, and his eyes are intent as they meet mine. His irises look like they are made of liquid emerald.

  I hear Griffin clear his throat and turn to see him with his arms folded. I catch my breath, trying to connect him with the huge dragon who just flew us to this place.

  I can’t. All I see is a handsome, conflicted man who is bigger and stronger than everyone around him yet, for some reason, still feels scared.

  I let go of Seth and run over to Griffin, grabbing his hand. “That was amazing. I loved flying.”

  He jerks and looks down at me, shocked, but doesn’t pull his hand away. Instead, after a long, awkward pause, he pulls me forward.

  My eyes widen in shock as my face touches his chest, and his arm around me is feather light, as if he’s afraid he’ll break me if he moves too much.

  His free hand moves down to lift my chin. His eyes look like blue-edged silver as he studies my face. “You make it hard to not want to get close to you.” He releases my face, though it looks like it takes some effort. “And I could tell that you loved to fly.”

  Then he releases me, and I stumble back, wondering why I want so badly to just go back to being held by him.

  I think it was something that bonded all of us, that flight in the air together, and I’m not sure why.

  Perhaps it was just that we are all used to being alone, and for a second, we were together.

  I turn around to see Seth watching us, but he doesn’t look angry. If anything, he seems intrigued.

  “So how far is this place?” I ask, stepping forward as Griffin starts to walk into the tightly packed woods.

  Where we landed, there’s a clearing, but it doesn’t look like there is a safe space for a while.

  “About a mile this way,” Griffin says, eyeing me skeptically. “Can you walk?”

  I nod. “Of course I can.”

  Griffin shrugs, turning his wide back to me as he leads the way into the slightly dark forest ahead.

  There are tall trees with wide canopies shielding us from the not-very-bright sun.

  “You just don’t have any muscle,” Griffin says. “So I wasn’t sure about it.”

  “I have muscle,” I mutter. “I’m just not some monster.”

  Griffin just gives me a grin, and cocky looks good on him. For a second, he could be the hottest guy in a frat in college. The quarterback but bigger.

  His red hair is mussed, and there are little glints of gold here and there, probably from the sun bleaching it.

  The gold glints disappear as we walk into the woods.

  Seth comes up alongside me but doesn’t make any attempt to reach for me this time. Just walks beside me as we find a path in the woods and follow it to the right.

  I’m still looking at everything. The huge, slightly different pines and oaks rising above me. The way even the dirt has a darker cast.

  I glance about for any sign of wildlife, but I don’t see another living thing.

  Not in the branches of trees, not on the ground burrowing.

  It makes me wonder…

  “This is a shadow world,” Seth says. “A faded creation to mimic the other one. Some things didn’t transfer, and magic runs this place, not a biosphere.”

 
; I gape at Seth as Griffin casts a look at us.

  “Biosphere? Have you been talking to Silver?”

  Seth just shrugs, making Griffin scowl at him. “Not everyone hates the idea of being smart.”

  Griffin’s jaw drops, and then he shuts his mouth and glares at Seth for a moment before walking even more assertively ahead. “Can’t believe I gave that guy a free vial,” I hear him mutter.

  Seth looks pleased with himself, but I don’t have time to work out what they are talking about because I can see a small, darkened log cabin—well, more of a shack—just a few hundred feet ahead of us.

  A small feeling of dread courses through me, because honestly, it looks like one of the last stops someone in a horror movie makes before no one ever sees them again, but Griffin and Seth seem oblivious.

  I trudge forward, ignoring my prickling unease because this is their world and they know it better than I do.

  As we get closer, I tug on Seth’s coat, making him turn to me with a quizzical expression, perfectly arched brows raised.

  “Is this guy… is he a bad person?”

  “Of course he is,” Griffin calls from up ahead. “He’s in this world, isn’t he?”

  Seth’s reaction is milder, and he considers my question for a moment. “He’s… not someone a person like you should ever tangle with. Luckily, you have us here to protect you.” He straightens, looking almost cocky as he walks forward to stand next to Griffin. “So think about some of the benefits of mating us, dragon heart.”

  Dragon heart. That term again. Lee used it.

  What does it mean, though?

  Seth and Griffin are almost to the cabin, and they turn and wait for me to catch up, Griffin looking impatient.

  “Come on. He isn’t going to bite you,” Griffin says.

  I finally walk forward, hands in fists, deciding that whatever is in that cabin, it’s probably fine.

  We walk up steps that feel like they could crumble any minute, and I don’t even touch the handrail because it looks so rotted and dark.

  Griffin knocks on the door heartily, and I’m almost worried it’s going to be smashed in half by the force of his huge fist.

  But it doesn’t, and then the door opens and what I see when I look inside makes me gasp audibly.