6. Dakota

Alexandra didn"t trust him, but after four days and six more vampire outposts wiped off the map, Dakota thought things were changing between them. She might finally believe he was telling the truth when he said he wanted to eliminate the entire vampire kiss. They'd flown hundreds of miles to crush a variety of office buildings, warehouses, and actual homes in the middle of suburban neighborhoods. He had identified each one and let her lead the attack, reserving himself to patrol the perimeter and prevent any escapes. In one home he located an emergency tunnel underground that led to a parking garage that they also demolished.

She didn"t trust him, but maybe she believed him, now. She watched him closely, analyzing his every breath. Dakota relished her attention, preened his scales for her, danced in the air on their flights between vampire nests, and was willing to answer any question that came to mind.

And her questions were changing. They'd started hostile, aggressive. She wanted to know his intentions and plans. They'd moved to questions about Malik and the vampires: what Dakota knew of the clan and its makeup. Malik's goals and how he might achieve them.

But after days of interrogation she finally asked the questions he knew she was holding close to her chest.

What did he know about the prophecy? Why did he believe Fate's vision of the future would come true.

What did he see in his dreams?

Could he see past a world on fire?

He answered them all softly, sitting on opposite beds in the motel room overnight. He prayed to the Goddess that his truth matched the visions she'd had. They talked for hours, in stilted pauses and awkward leaps at first. Neither of them practiced in holding a conversation for very long. But they were tied together in metaphysical ways that kept tugging them closer to one another. The mate bond had been sealed and now it wouldn't allow them to drift apart due to something as minor as being out of practice.

She didn't touch him again.

Not on purpose and certainly not by accident. She maintained a very deliberate distance in either form and kept an eye on him at all time lest he try to reach over the gap.

He didn't try. She'd already bridged the distance between them once. He could feel her in his heart, like an echo. It was only a matter of time before she reached for him again. Dakota could be patient. He'd waited for her for his entire life. Just having her in proximity gave him a pleasant buzz.

And he feasted each night in the shower on his memory of her riding him among the aftermath of their first assault. Of the sun on her breasts and the flaming debris all around. He remembered licking the blood off her lips, and when he came he eagerly shouted her name, knowing she'd be listening on the other side of the bathroom door.

Dakota stretched his wings and body in the air as his cock filled and extended with the memory alone. Of the arch of her back and his hand wrapped in her braid. Of the way she glimmered with sweat. He growled into the wind and dipped one wing, executing a turn around Alexandra to show himself off.

His interested cock, yes, bright pink against his dark scales, but also his strength and agility in the air. His technique on the wing.

She watched him without obvious interest. Her sharp eyes took him in from snout to tail, but her wingbeats remained steady and on course.

He flew inverted below her. When she glanced down he offered his claws in offering. It was traditional for dragons to court in the skies. They would lock claws like eagles and plummet, circling each other until they had to break free at the very last moment.

His cock thickened at the idea of a flight display. Of showing every other dragon on earth that she was his.

Alexandra ignored the invitation. She soared onward.

Dakota swung himself back around to fly at her side without protest. She could keep him at arms length, for now, but he took every opportunity to remind her where she belonged. He had no doubt this would end with her in his arms.

And there were only a few vampires left to stand between him and the future he knew was coming.

They perched together overlooking the latest vampire hideout in the bright noon-day sun. This one was a warehouse in the manufacturing district. One street over, the power plant hummed with the demands of a humid city. Water treatment chugged along on the other side.

It wasn't well-trafficked and they felt confident enough to overlook their next target from the neighboring building. Dakota had suggested they eliminate this one at night to reduce the risk of human casualties in the area, but Alexandra wasn't willing to engage the vampires at their strongest. When she refused, Dakota didn"t push it. It was easy enough to disrupt traffic in the area with some rubble dropped overhead in the early morning, and now there were several blocks free of people for them to do their work.

Unlike the office buildings and the homes they had destroyed, this warehouse was large enough to fit a dragon inside if she chose. Dakota remained on lookout as Alexandra ripped a casual hole in the side of the building. She considered it, her slim snout peering into the expanse with cautious sniffing. The whole block stank of oil and machinery. He'd be surprised if she could identify anything else in the middle of all that.

Vampires usually smelled like dust and copper, with a hint of sweeness. It had been strange to Dakota, at first, that sweet aftertaste, until he'd become more intimate with the clans. It wasn't sweet like sugar, he'd come to realize. It was sweet like decay. The rotting of old flesh that produced its oddly attractive aroma. Too delicate a scent to survive the crush of industry around them.

Alexandra crawled inside her impromptu entrance cautiously, wings tucked close and claws at the ready. Dakota scanned the building for movement, then the neighboring block that he could see from his vantage point.

He didn't expect them to come from behind.

Something strong, agile, and with tough claws sprang onto his hind legs. Two more onto his back. Another four onto both wings like the enemy had sprouted, fully formed, from the roof he stood on. Dakota flung his wings out wide and threw his assailants off the roof, only for a dozen more to swarm out of a rooftop door and snarl their challenges.

Werewolves. An entire pack of them, all in their fastest, strongest wolfman form. They could run on two legs, but had plenty of claws and teeth to sink into Dakota's scales and weigh him down.

He roared in surprise and pain.

Alexandra twisted out of the building but before she could do more, another dozen wolves raced out of the building and took flying leaps at her neck, back, wings, and tail. Anything to keep her grounded.

Dakota snarled. He raked his claws through the pack, but they all sprang nimbly away. He caught one with his teeth, crunching bone and snapping his jaw twice to be sure. Werewolves weren't as immortal as vampires, but they still had powerful healing like a dragon if they had a chance to shift form. Dakota didn't give the wolf in his jaws a chance.

They weren't as fast as vampires, either, but with numbers and surprise on their side, the wolves overwhelmed him in seconds. He twisted at them and growled in frustration, their weight enough to prevent him from simply springing into the sky.

He considered shifting down but dismissed the thought instantly. His size and scales were all that protected him from this many enemies. He'd have to solve this some other way.

Fire unexpectedly washed over him from below.

Dakota jerked his head around, surprised to see Alexandra ignoring the swarm of wolves crawling across her body and instead spitting flame all across Dakota. He was immune to the heat, but the wolves yelped and snarled and jumped away from him, trying to outrun the flames.

With a pleased rumble, Dakota flexed his chest and blew his white-hot flames across Alexandra. He spat fire at every wolf who tried to climb her and burned several to ash when they didn't run fast enough.

Her flames cut off sharply. Alexandra lunged up on top of the warehouse first, then she shouldered against Dakota and launched into the air. He followed her lead. He snapped his teeth at a bold werewolf and whipped his tail at another as he lept for the sky.

He watched the wolves swarm the rootop, the whole pack looking up at them as they fled the scene.

Werewolves were hearty but they couldn"t fly.

Dakota growled under his breath as a thousand small injuries announced themselves. Claws that had pried under his scales and tried to open him up. Small cuts along his wing joints and hips. Slashes down his side and tail while he'd been pinned.

Alexandra was equally injured. She favored her right wing and blood dripped from some injury mid-back, running in a little rivulet down her scales and off the end of her tail.

Dakota angled in front of her, then guided them down to a park. Alexandra probably considered the damage minimal comparatively, but Dakota wasn't in the habit of flying while bleeding. Not when the danger had been left behind.

He shifted smoothly, backwinging to scrub his speed and come to rest on hind legs so that by the time his weight came down he could step forward as human once more. All cuts and bruises healed.

Alexandra was more aggressive in her shift. She landed as a dragon on all fours and seemed to shove her wings into her own body, forcing the transition as rapidly as possible. He winced at the rip and tear of scale and muscle. Her shift probably did as much damage as the wolves. She staggered out of herself with an expression of agony, which she quickly wiped under practiced neutrality. She swallowed the pain with iron will.

It broke his heart to watch her. The shift was supposed to be clean and painless. A perfect blending of human and dragon forms. Smooth and euphoric. Effortless. Yet the danger Alexandra had faced for so long forced her to adapt what should have been an easy transition into something brutal. He'd never seen anyone shift as fast as she did. From one form to the other in just a few seconds. But he'd also never known anyone willing to break their own bodies to do it. The sacrifices she had made to live were incredible.

He'd seen the scarring that marked her dragon form, of course. Stark white stripes against glimmering green. Like shots of mother-of-pearl through emerald. Reverse tiger-stripes that proved she was a survivor.

The look she shot him dared him to comment.

Dakota wasn't in the habit of taking losing bets.

Instead he took his place at her side and simply matched her limping pace out of the park and onto the neighborhood sidewalks. Her stiff muscles evened out after a few blocks.

When he was reasonably confident she wouldn't snap at him for it, Dakota found a local coffee shop for them to blend into and called a ride back to the motel.