Bad Dragons: Special Edition Complete Series Page 9

  It’s a comfy-looking home, sparsely furnished but clean, with white walls and mauve carpet.

  There are racks of clothing, cabinets, and boxes all around.

  As Griffin leads us in, I turn to see the man holding the door for us.

  He’s not a large man. Maybe five feet ten, with a wiry build and sparse hair over a balding head.

  His dull-blue eyes are hidden behind glasses, and he looks to be in his fifties by human years.

  I’m not sure how age works with dragons.

  He lets us all walk in, and then his owlish face studies me and his eyes widen.

  He steps in front of me, cutting me off from my companions and letting out a low whistle. “How much do you want for the human?”

  Seth is there in an instant, standing between me and the man, and that odd toxic aura is in the air again.

  “Calm down, black dragon,” the shopkeeper says placatingly. “Or I’ll throw you out.”

  “Seth,” Griffin says, coming over to stand by me. “Why don’t you wait outside?”

  I expect Seth to argue, but instead, he opens the door. But before he goes out, he glares at the shopkeeper. “She’s not for sale.”

  Then he goes out, slamming the door behind him.

  “Now then,” the shopkeeper says. “Back to business.” He rubs his hands as he steps back, looking at Griffin. “What can I do for the illustrious red dragon?”

  “Shut up,” Griffin says. “Flattery won’t work. I’m not selling her, Wurt.”

  Wurt once again looks disappointed, and I don’t like the way his eyes narrow at all. But then he calms himself and the lines in his face relax slightly. “All right then. What would you like?”

  “We need clothing,” Griffin says. “In her size.”

  I hate that it gives Wurt an excuse to look me over, but I guess we don’t have a choice. Eventually, I’m going to need a change of outfits.

  Wurt smiles and pins me with a leer. “I think I have some things.”

  He walks behind a changing curtain and comes back with a bag. “That should contain almost everything.”

  I reach out for the bag, but Griffin takes it from him first, rifling through it. At one point, I see Griffin pull out a lacy pink panty. Then he flushes as he shoves it back in.

  He hands it to me, still blushing, and I have to set it down because it’s heavy.

  “Look through it,” he says awkwardly. “See if it has what you need.”

  I crouch, gently moving aside clothing. Some of it has tags still on, and all of it looks new. It also all looks like it might fit me. “How do you have this?”

  Wurt grins. “I have customers who sometimes want to role-play as a human.”

  My face blanches, and Griffin turns away from me, not wanting to face my disgust.

  “What?”

  Wurt walks over, crouching down to face me. “People always want what they can’t have, don’t they?” He reaches up to stroke my cheek, and I pull back so that his fingers barely graze my skin. “In our world, that’s humans like you.”

  I blink. “That’s disgusting.”

  He shrugs. “In your world, in the world I left, people role-play worse things.”

  I pick up the bag, putting it between us, and look over at Griffin, who is pretending to be interested in something on one of the shelves.

  No wonder he keeps talking about selling me. I’m some kind of commodity here.

  Griffin seems to feel me staring and turns around, almost bumping his head on a light fixture as he straightens up. Pushing it aside, he walks toward us, stopping by Wurt. “How much for the set?”

  Wurt cocks his head, pursing his wrinkled lips. “Five hundred.”

  Griffin’s face goes white. “Are you fucking kidding me?”

  Wurt shrugs. “I could get that much from someone else.”

  Griffin looks frustrated, and for a moment, I wonder if he’ll pay. If he truly does sell me, he’ll end up with more money, but there’s still a part of me that thinks he can’t. That he won’t go through with it.

  Then Griffin pulls a small sack out of his pocket and pours a few glittering crystals into his hand.

  Wurt is staring greedily, but not at Griffin’s offering. He steps forward, leering at me again instead.

  “Of course, I could lower the price if we came to some sort of agreement,” he says, eyes wandering over me.

  “No,” Griffin says, counting out something in his hand and then holding it out for the shopkeeper. “Here you go. Five hundred.”

  But Wurt doesn’t seem interested, and I hate the way his eyes linger on me. “I’ve changed my mind. The clothing is no longer for sale.”

  Griffin stares at him for a moment. “Why?”

  Wurt stares at Griffin, then holds up a hand, and I see something shoot out of his palm, knocking Griffin back into a rack of clothes.

  As he struggles to stand up, Wurt walks over to him, pulling something out of his pocket.

  It looks like a tiny rope.

  When he throws it down on a writhing Griffin, it grows and expands until it traps his arms, winding around his body until he’s totally stuck.

  For a second, I’m just mesmerized by his big muscles, flexing and straining as he tries to get free.

  Then his panicked face as he glares up at me.

  “Anna, run!”

  12

  My body takes a second to react, still flooded with adrenaline, and I try to run for the door but feel Wurt catch me by the hand, dragging me in against him.

  He breathes in my scent at my neck, and his hand trails down my side.

  “Get your fucking hands off her,” Griffin shouts. “I’m going to kill you, Wurt.”

  “I’m just taking a taste,” Wurt says creepily, ignoring Griffin’s struggles. “How could you not share with a friend?”

  Griffin is genuinely fighting now, knocking things over as he tries to get off the floor. “Seth! Get in here right now!”

  I hear the doorknob rattle, but it doesn’t move.

  Wurt smiles. “You think I sell to supernaturals and don’t know how to lock my own home? No, I let you in on purpose, but I don’t have to let you out.”

  His hand wraps around my waist, and my whole body goes cold as he leans forward.

  Griffin grunts in pain, and I see his eyes bulging as he tries to worm his way to me.

  “Stop it,” Wurt says tersely. “You’ll only hurt yourself.” He squeezes my waist. “Now, back to you, you beautiful, gentle, sweet little marshmallow of a human.”

  He’s right. Normally, I am a marshmallow of a human. Soft and easy to push around. But he just made me angry by hurting Griffin, my friend.

  My elbow snaps back into his solar plexus, knocking his creepy ass off balance. I follow by spinning to face him, shoving a hard palm into his face while my other foot draws back and then snaps forward into his crotch.

  He goes down with a howl, and I rush to Griffin, who is jerking, his face totally red.

  “I’m going to kill him,” he grates out, still straining at the ropes.

  “Stop,” I say. “You shouldn’t.”

  But Wurt is still rolling on his side, holding his crotch. He might get up soon, though.

  I look at the door, wondering if I can unlock it for Seth, but then a loud snapping sound makes the whole cabin shake, and Griffin is standing, free of the rope.

  His legs are trembling, and he looks pissed as hell but unhurt as far as I can see. I slump in relief.

  He limps over to me, raising a foot over the whimpering Wurt as Seth bursts in the front door, kicking it down in front of him so it slams down flat on the ground, narrowly missing Wurt.

  “Should have kicked it harder,” Seth says, glaring at Wurt’s writhing form. “Might have squashed him.”

  I blink because I was super frightened by the situation, but the dragons don’t even seem very miffed.

  Griffin still looks like he’s going to bring his foot down on Wurt’s head, and I run over
to grab him by the arm.

  “Don’t! I’m fine. I’m fine.”

  Griffin’s eyes are icy, frozen as he looks at me, but he slowly lowers his foot.

  Then he drags me in against him, this time holding me tight to his chest, crushing me in his large arms.

  I feel safe, and I sink in against him as I hear Seth pass us and kneel next to Wurt.

  I look down to see Seth grab Wurt by the collar, jerking him up so he’s right in his face. His voice is vicious, unlike I’ve ever heard it, and as he shakes Wurt violently, I understand why everyone is afraid of the black dragon.

  Seth looks barely on the verge of controlling himself, and though I want to hold on to Griffin, I don’t know if I should intervene.

  “You think you’re going to fuck with the black dragon’s property?” Seth practically shrieks into the man’s face. “You’re going to fucking wish you could die quickly, you fucking piece of shit.” He slams Wurt backward, smashing his head into the ground.

  Then he crawls over him and looks like he is going to breathe something into his mouth, but Griffin releases me just in time to go over and pluck Seth up off the ground by the collar of his coat.

  Seth swings his fists in the air hilariously, telling Griffin to put him down.

  “Let me go, or so help me, I’m going to shift right here and kill all of you!”

  Griffin shakes his head. “I’m not letting you go until you calm down.”

  “He touched her,” Seth says. “You let him fucking touch her.”

  “I wouldn’t have let it go further,” Griffin says. “I got out right after. He had fae bonds.”

  “No excuse,” Seth says grumpily as Griffin sets him down on the ground.

  “Besides,” Griffin says. “Did you see what our dragon heart did to him? Damn.” There is genuine admiration in his eyes as he looks at me, maybe for the first time.

  He’s been attracted to me, irritated too, but this is the first time he looks at me like I’ve surprised him in a very good way.

  “I heard you were a fighter when I came to the wolves’ camp, but I didn’t think I would see it,” Griffin says.

  “You won’t again,” Seth says. “Ridiculous, a fighting dragon heart. We are to protect her. That is our job.”

  “First, we don’t know if she’s a dragon heart. Second—”

  “What’s a dragon heart?” I ask as they both turn to me.

  “Second,” Griffin says, pink tinging his cheekbones. “We shouldn’t be talking about this yet.”

  “Talking about what?”

  Both dragons turn away from me, and Griffin slings the clothing bag over his arm. “There’s a small town a few miles from here. When we get there, you can change.”

  “Great,” I say, still a bit disturbed by the reason Wurt had the clothing.

  What if Griffin is offered so much to sell me that he can’t resist?

  What if someone wants to… use me?

  I’m bonding with these dragons more than ever, but a part of me is still holding back, scared.

  “What happened in there while I was out here?” Seth asked. “Aside from Wurt being a douchebag.”

  “You sound very human sometimes,” I say.

  Seth sighs. “I was raised in the human world. Partly.” He turns back to Griffin. “Anyway, I want an update.”

  “How did you know he touched her?”

  “I heard his voice,” Seth says. “I assumed.”

  Griffin’s expression darkens. “I won’t let it happen again.” He looks at me. “Not until I get paid for the merchandise.”

  After what I’ve been through, that’s just too much, and I stomp away from both of them to go sit next to a nearby bush, rubbing my hands over my face.

  “Look what you did,” Seth hisses at Griffin. “You utter waste of a dragon.”

  Griffin’s voice rises. “I’m not supposed to be in this position. I’m not some hero. I’m a convict. What do you want from me?”

  “You should be more,” Seth yells at him. “You could have been. Fuck, you could have not come to this place, but you got here anyway.”

  “Easy for you to say,” Griffin says. “Since you came here from the start.”

  I look up to see Seth jab Griffin in the chest. “If I had been given the chance to start in the other world, I would have done better. I would have found a human, not fucked up and ended up here.”

  “You fucked up and led to us all being here,” Griffin says, and they are getting in each other’s face now, creating a real threat of a fight.

  I sigh as I push to my feet. “Come on, guys. We need to calm down, and—”

  A loud shriek interrupts us, and something huge crashes down above us, causing trees to break and fly out of the way.

  I barely have time to look up before something wraps around my entire body, jerking me into the air.

  I scream for both Seth and Griffin, but before they can react, I become invisible, just like whatever is holding me.

  I’m carried up and up, breaking through the canopy and rising into the clouds. It’s hard to breathe; we are moving so quickly.

  I scream and kick because after what I’ve just been through, I’m not going to take this lightly.

  Besides, I want to alert Griffin and Seth to my location.

  But would they even come, given how much trouble I’m causing them?

  My answer comes from a hot burst of green fire shot alongside us as a warning.

  I twist back to see Seth and Griffin flying side by side, two huge, magnificent creatures glittering above the clouds.

  Even from here, I can see their dragon eyes fixed on me, and the determination there makes me feel safe.

  I guess Lee was right about leading me to Griffin.

  “I’ll burn your face off next time!” Seth’s voice rumbles. “Put her the fuck down.”

  Whoever is carrying me lets out a huff, then keeps flying.

  A giant stream of red fire even bigger than the green shoots by us on our right, making us dart to the side.

  “Damn,” whoever is carrying me says in a deep, raspy voice.

  I barely have time to react before I feel whatever was holding me release me, and I scream as loud as I can when I realize there’s nothing between me and a long fall to the ground.

  My heart feels like it will explode as I fall backward, staring up at the sky, at my dragons as they dart forward, almost knocking into each other in their haste to grab me.

  With a snarl, Griffin darts ahead, and his claws wrap around me gently, catching me before I can hit the canopy of trees beneath us.

  Slowly flapping his wings, he lowers us through the hole in the trees where whoever had taken me crashed in.

  He sets me on the ground and transforms immediately, falling to his knees on the ground.

  Seth lands next to him and quickly changes back to human form, jogging over to us.

  He puts out a hand for me and pulls me up, then hugs me tightly, burying his head in my shoulder.

  “I thought we lost you for a second,” he says.

  “Oh,” I say, still caught off guard and out of breath.

  “Then I remembered I’m a fucking nightmare and I’ll die before I let anyone take you,” Seth says.

  Griffin pushes himself to his feet, looking slightly woozy. “Damn fae bonds still draining me.”

  “Fae?”

  “The other world on the other side of the Blur,” Griffin says, waving a hand wearily.

  He walks over and extracts me from Seth, then holds me apart from him by the shoulders and studies me closely.

  Then he lets me go, almost making me stumble in response.

  “Fine then,” he says, picking up the bag with my clothing. “Seth, you walk alongside her. Whatever grabbed her is probably regrouping. They were just testing us right now. Let’s get into town and find some shelter. At least that way she can’t just get grabbed out of our hands.”

  Seth nods, coming up alongside me. “You okay?”


  “Yes.” I’m fine walking, even if my legs are a bit shaky.

  “Man, all I do is fight since I met you,” Griffin says, shaking his head as he walks in front of us.

  “Good thing you were born to fight, you big brute.”

  Griffin freezes at Seth’s words, then slowly turns to us.

  I’m shocked and then warmed by the genuine, slight smile on his face as he cocks his head at us.

  “Yeah, I guess that’s true.”

  And then he turns away from us to walk ahead again, and the magic that fell over us all for a moment is broken.

  As we head farther into the dark woods along a branching path, I hope the magic comes back again soon.

  13

  By the time we reach town, my feet are aching, but I forget all about that once the woods open up and the town, if you could call it that, comes into view.

  There are a few little houses, a larger one that looks like a hotel, and then a store and what I think is a restaurant.

  They’re all made of the same material, some kind of painted wood, and they’re all some shade of gray.

  The cabins are light gray, the store is nearly white, and the restaurant is charcoal.

  The street isn’t paved, just covered with small rocks over the dirt.

  I really don’t understand this place.

  “The fae supply some towns; the oracle supplies the others,” Seth says as we walk forward into the eerily quiet center of town.

  “The oracle?”

  Seth shakes his head. “Don’t worry about it. All you need to know is that this place is basically one giant prison for unwanted monsters, and they give us a few comfortable landing spots here and there so they feel humane about it.”

  “It’s not a prison,” Griffin mutters. “It’s too big for that. It’s a world, just not one you want to be in.”

  “A prison is anything that traps you where you don’t want to be,” Seth says gravely.

  Both dragons are quiet, and I can tell they’re as weirded out by the emptiness of the town as I am.

  “Usually, it’s a little busier here,” Griffin says, walking forward and peeking in the windows of the store, which has a closed sign hanging on the front of it. “It’s a small place, but their store is usually running.”