CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Jareth~
He felt the precise moment of Iliana’s transformation. One moment he was trying to make love to a weeping wax effigy, and the next heat flushed Iliana’s body and she thawed into a supple and willing partner. Her aura began to resonate with his. Thank goodness. Coupling with a cold, stiff woman had felt obscene.
He kissed her again. Her eagerness had returned and she responded to his suckling tongue with advances of her own. This was all happening too fast for a virgin. For a pair of virgins. But even dragons could not vanquish hypothermia in human form in subzero temperature for long.
He did not know what had possessed her to ignore Hel’s warning, but he had to deal with the consequences or they would die after all. Now that she was transformed, they had a sporting chance, even though he was starting to feel the cold settling into his core.
Iliana was nowhere near ready to come, but he let his climax take him. He held her closer as he flooded her passage with his semen. Her breasts pressed harder into his chest and she kept rocking her pelvis, urging him on. But sadly he was done.
He gave her one last kiss. “It’s done,” he said. He still felt a surge of delight, but it was obvious it was not shared.
“Oh.” Her voice was almost inaudible. “And now I have a baby?” she asked hopefully.
“Maybe.” Was a child all she cared about? “Now you are a dragoness. We have to fly home as quickly as we can. You may be too small to make it all the way,” he warned. “You might have to ride on my back.”
“Are you sure?” she whispered.
“Sure that you are a dragoness?”
“Yes,” she whispered. “I feel odd. But not scaly.”
“You aren’t in dragon form yet. You’re used to becoming a fish or a turtle or whatnot, aren’t you?”
She brightened. “Yes.” Her eyes shut. She remained clinging to his torso. She shook her head. “Nothing.” Fresh tears leaked from her eyes and fell to the ground like a shower of pebbles.
That was reassuring. He hugged her. “You’re crying diamonds, Iliana. That means that for sure you are a dragoness. Try again. I’m going to put you down and transform myself. But I can’t go back and forth between dragon and man. I need to save my strength for the flight home.”
“All right.” She sounded scared.
He took a moment to scoop up her tears and put them into her little box. Her first tears were a treasure beyond price. “We may have to leave this behind, but we can return for it.”
She shook her head. Now that she was not pressed up against his body she was starting to shiver again. Her lovely breasts were purple with cold. “We must leave it as a gift for the goddess, to thank her for returning my soul. Besides, without my magic, I doubt we could find the Gateway to Hel again.”
“As you wish.” He allowed himself to become a dragon. If all else failed, he could let her warm herself by his breath. He just hoped he had enough control not to incinerate his bride. But here on the tundra there was not so much as a stick of wood to make her a fire.
She crouched as he had done and her metamorphosis began. He was sorry to see more tears fall from her eyes as the agony of her first change broke her bones and reformed them. He had hoped for a gentler introduction to both making love and her first change.
It seemed to be taking her a long time. But then what did he know of transforming women? Only what he had been told. And his cousins tended to dwell on the beauty and perfection of their fated mates and glide over the actual process of turning them into dragonesses.
Gradually her feet and hands became the clawed front and rear paws of a dragon. She was going to be green, he thought, as her arms and legs became scaly. An iridescent tail sprouted and grew a sharp tip. Poison dripped from it and blackened the snow. Shift on a crooked stick. He took a step backward.
Had he told Iliana that she would have a venomous tail dart? If he wasn’t careful she would kill him. And then she bellowed with either pain or rage as pale gray wings sprouted from her torso. Fire licked past him and the air sizzled. He leapt out of the way.
Why in the name of Thor had no one told him how dangerous it was to transform your mate? Why the heck had his cousins gone on and on about the transcendental bliss of it? Well, maybe if you satisfied your mate, this whole experience was easier. What a foul beginning to the rest of their lives.
Iliana’s scaly green legs darkened to a deep teal. Her wings softened to the color of sea foam. Her face lengthened and great teeth filled her snout. Smoke drifted from her nostrils and her horns and tail dart glittered as blue as his scales.
She wasn’t as small as he had feared, but her wings were still too stubby to be able to fly far. And her tail, while a weapon of mate destruction, was too short to serve as an adequate rudder. He launched himself into the air and circled overhead calling to her.
It took her several tries to get aloft. A maiden flight was always easier from a tower* or a cliff, but they were stuck with flat tundra. He tried to show her how to angle her wings in order to catch the air currents, but she continued to flap.
Not that flapping was wrong. But you could go farther and faster and save your energy by using your wings as a sail. Although dragon scales were diamond hard, their wings were leathery. Dragon wings could expand so they could use the force of the air currents instead of sheer muscle power to steer, and increase and decrease speed.
Jareth had had twelve years to learn how to fly. Iliana had not had twelve minutes. He could not risk letting her fly over the sea. Yet she was not so small that carrying her would not slow him down. But what choice did he have? Leaving her behind to fend for herself was not an option.
He landed and crouched until Iliana clambered clumsily onto his back. Her talons bit painfully into his shoulders and haunches as she steadied herself. She was about the size of a dairy cow, but probably lighter. Dragons were descended from birds so their bones were hollow. But it would still be a challenge to fly hundreds of miles with her on his back.
He would have to remember not to pitch or roll too sharply lest he dump her into the ocean. Keeping low would not be a problem, although maintaining altitude might. He had to remember that she would be scared. He just hoped she kept her tail dart well away from his flanks.
Since they would no longer be invisible, getting back to Severn Island would probably be awkward. He would have to stay low to avoid aircraft and find places for them to hole up during the day to avoid human eyes. If only he knew where they were.
The flight north had taken a long time. Far longer than it should have, even for a relatively small dragon. His first priority was to circle until he found a landmark. After that he would be more likely to know where they were.
As he made his first cautious turn, Iliana’s talons locked onto his shoulder muscles, skewering them. He ignored the pain and soared as high as he could on the cold current. Surprisingly he recognized the coastline almost immediately. He marked his course, drifted lower and set off towards the place he knew.
Flying was much easier without the countess. The air was cold and thin, and there were of course no thermals to lift his wings, yet it was far less work. That was good news. But those energy bars would not take them far. He mentally reviewed places where they could safely land and find food.
What on earth or in Hel had possessed his mate to open that box before they got home? He was doomed not to understand her.
*Dragon’s Confession