25. Zara

My head was spinning and my shoulder hurt, but that wasn't what had my attention. Dragon was not a metaphor. I'd seen the eyes. I'd felt the scales once. I'd heard the purr and the growls. But something inside my head hadn't envisioned an actual dragon, regardless of what they said they were.

On that ship in the middle of space, I'd been rescued by something in between this and human. That was what I thought Tarek had meant when he said dragon. But this?

This was an honest to god dragon. Wind flowed through my hair as he beat his wings. I looked down and screamed as I clung to the first thing I could grab. A talon? A claw? It was a sharp and huge and the only thing keeping me from plummeting to my death.

I sure as hell hoped he wasn't going to let me go. His paw held me ever so gently, and right now that was not exactly what I wanted, so I hugged the sharp claw like my lifeline.

The dragon's hide was the same green that I'd had glimpses of. His underbelly nearly matched the sky though. From this vantage point, I could see his neck and part of his head. I could see his tail lashing around in the air.

For all the time I watched this creature move, I failed to realize something. The taste of the air was odd. It held an almost brimstone scent that mixed with everything that was Tarek. I couldn't pick out what kind of chemical it might have been. My life before had been all numbers and safe choices and chemistry had never been something I cared much for.

Words that Aurora had said came back to me. We couldn't live on Pyroth beyond the domes without the dragon's mate bond.

I was living though, wasn't I? Sure, I felt a bit off, but I'd just fallen out of something like a cylindrical bus with three aliens that had drugged me. Tarek's mother, Where was she? She'd been taken too. But taking her was an accident. That's the only thing I'd understood from the human on the bus. He'd somehow understood the creatures, and I guessed he had a translator where I did not.

She'd been the mistake, and I had a tracking device.

Oh shit. I had a tracking device.

I tapped on the dragon's claw and got no response. I moved to the toe and began almost hitting him to get his attention. I did get the attention, but I couldn't figure out how to explain anything to a dragon.

"Uh. Hi. Dragon Tarek. I, uh, you might want to land. Those things are just going to come and find me again. I have a tracker somewhere in me."

The dragon snarled, his teeth bared. And if there had been a way to shrink back and recoil, I would have. Instead, I was just stuck in his grasp as his wings seemed to beat faster and faster. I didn't think it was possible.

Fine, I'd wait. Something glinted in the distance. I realized it was another dome the closer we got, but it looked nothing like what they called Emberhaven. Even from here, tall, no giant, trees towered inside. It was silent out here, not much to notice below, but this? It was almost like a mirage in the desert. No, an oasis.

"Is this a desert? Or is that drug playing with my mind?" I yelled at the dragon. He looked back at me where I hung, and maybe he nodded? It was pretty hard to tell what he was doing from the angle of a claw.

We swooped lower, and I hiccuped. That was an odd reaction. No, the giggle that escaped was an odd reaction.

I really should be freaking out. My shoulder probably hurt a lot more than I seemed to register. I held my hand up to my head, right where it had hurt seconds after I'd been ejected, and my fingers came away bloodied. Something was very wrong with me. And then I giggled again.

The dragon looked back at me. My head bounced a bit, and I should have cried out in pain because the dragon had a bit of a rough landing. I'd missed the ground rushing up even. I must just be in shock.

The dragon steadied me on my feet as he let go, or rather his claws were still supporting me even as Tarek shifted into his human form, the claws retreating and his hand wrapping around my waist.

"Are you hurt?"

I blinked at him and smiled.

"I think I am, but I've never felt better."

He scowled.

"I take it that's not good? Wait, you"re upset because I am hurt, right?"

I giggled again.

"No, none of it is good. The air, it's toxic to you without the dragon's bond. My bond. We don't have much time."

He lifted me into his arms, cradling me, and I didn't mind one bit. He was huge and strong, and I sighed.

"Try not to breathe in the air so deeply," he scolded me, but I didn't have the want to care.

"I don't know what you're so worried about. Do you even know how handsome you are? You could have any woman in all the world." I snorted. "I mean really. All the universe. Cause there is a lot of worlds and aliens and…" I stopped. "Oh dear. I sound drunk. Is that normal?"

He was running. How had I not noticed he was running?

"Open up by order of Tarek of the Drakonia clan."

There was a swoosh, and I shivered as the chill of a different kind of air flooded my senses and enveloped Tarek and myself.

I took a deep breath and could smell and taste the lack of any kind of taste.

"You know this air doesn't have a taste?" I sucked in the air, and although I could breathe, I wasn't feeling any less euphoric.

"Lord Tarek. We weren't expecting you," said a female voice.

"Coups don't seem to give advance notice. My mate has been injured. I want privacy at the Aquae Sanitatum. The healing falls. No one will disturb us."

I heard rather than saw a flourish of movement around us.

I giggled as a leaf brushed my bare legs and spent too much time drawing lazy little circles over Tarek's chest.

"I like this place. No. I just really like you."

A branch hit me in the head.

"Ouch."

The slap to the head pulled me out of the odd little stupor for a moment to realize Tarek was running again. This time through a forest. Sounds of birds and the buzzing of insects broke the silence that had been apparent in Emberhaven. Still, I didn't have the ability to focus for long. I was content to be in his arms. He would keep me safe.

Safe. Right.

"There's a tracker somewhere in me."

That was good and logical. Whatever was wrong with me, I could at least explain something helpful.

"Fuck," was all Tarek said. It sounded a little strange coming from his mouth in the accent that seemed a little more prominent when he was agitated. I supposed that all things human bled into their society just as much as they influenced the humans here. I giggled again.

None of this should have been what I was worried about.

A splash broke the sound of his running and the birds chirping. Then water ran over my body in a warm blanket.

"A pool?" I asked, unconcerned that I was still fully clothed.

Tarek shifted me in his arms, wrapping my legs around his waist.

"Not a pool, mate. Healing waters. Although I am afraid it cannot heal all things. Hold your breath for me."

I did as he asked as he pulled us under the water. Slight tingles tickled over my shoulder, around the cut on my head, and over my legs. I watched Tarek through the water. His dragon was still near the surface. I wanted to kiss him.

Before I could register the need for air, he was already holding me above the water.

"I like your dragon," I said, playing my fingers through the strands of his wet hair.

He didn't answer me right away. I didn't even notice we'd moved until the light of the suns was shadowed and the sound of the water running grew so loud that the forest noises were eclipsed.

I looked around Tarek to see the underside of a waterfall. Small as it was, it blocked the entrance of a tiny little cave. I looked back at the man and dragon. The eyes were the only sign they fought with each other. His face was set with a furrowed brow and his lips were turned down.

"Tarek? Why are you looking at me like that?"

I pressed into the hand that was cupping my head.

"Because this was not the way I wanted to do this."

I closed my eyes, feeling that strange euphoria.

"Do what?"

I felt him shift between my legs as my back pressed into the cave wall.

"Mate you."

And with those words hanging in the air, he slammed his lips to mine.