Chapter Seven
Esther
Okay. He didn’t kidnap them. He was acting out in defense against that other dragon. Robert Dunn. The one that he said he had a rivalry with. Dunn had insinuated that Bryant’s mate had died because of something that he did… or didn’t do…
Esther stumbled as Bryant set her and Kayla down. Her feet were freezing and her head spun in circles. The fast flight or high altitude had not been kind to her. She sank to the ground, putting her head between her knees as she fought against the nausea swirling in her. Beside her, Kayla braced herself on her hands and knees, panting.
“Are you okay?” Bryant bent over them. “Flying can be hard and—”
“You kidnapped us!” Kayla’s voice was a shriek. “You just kidnapped us!”
Esther managed to get herself upright again. “He didn’t kidnap us. You heard that other dragon, he was making all sorts of threats against us.”
“No, he didn’t.”
“He was going to attack us anyway.”
Kayla scrambled to her feet. “He was down. What I saw was this guy attacking him and then you stole my bear spray and—Where is it? You lost it, didn’t you? Don’t you dare come near us!” She glowered at Bryant, though he hadn’t moved. “No. No, this is unacceptable. You are going to take us back to the city at once. Not keep us… wherever this is.”
That was a good question. Where were they? Esther glanced around. They were in a grassy meadow with trees ringing it. She shook her head and turned to Kayla. “Hey, we can’t freak out here. Bryant isn’t going to hurt us. You don’t know who that other dragon was.”
“And you do?”
Esther hesitated. “I know that he and Bryant hate each other. That’s not the point, the point is that Bryant did what he thought was best. Right?” Bryant didn’t answer. Not helping her case. “Let’s just take a moment to breathe and then discuss this. Yeah.”
“Um…” Kayla pointed, her face blanching. “I think we were followed.”
Both Bryant and Esther swiveled around to see the shape of a dragon hurtling toward them. Her heart jumped into her throat as she backed away. Bryant growled as he ran several meters and then leaped into the air. His dragon’s form burst free of its human constraints and her breath caught in her lungs. His scales were bronze, hard and glittering. Spikes ran down his spine and more jutted from the joints on his limbs. He was terrifying. He was beautiful.
The newcomer, a sleek, blue-green color, dodged to the right as Bryant came at him. His back was smooth, but his tail was extra long and as he twisted in the air, it whipped across Bryant’s chest, hurling him back. The bronze dragon quickly regained himself and let out a burst of green-white flame at his attacker. Both dragons dropped to the ground and clashed with each other. Spurts of scales sprayed into the air.
Bryant closed his teeth around the other dragon’s neck, and it let out a growling rumble and grabbed his wing with a clawed hand. Both howled as bursts of flame shot through the air.
Esther clenched her hands and danced on the spot, unable to fully pull in a breath. Then it hit her. The dragon that had turned into Robert Dunn had been a sea-green, similar to this one, but he’d had spikes. On his back, on his tail, and horns curling back from his face. This one had none. He wasn’t Robert Dunn.
The dragons continued to fight. Blood ran slick over their scales and she ran forward, heedless of the danger. “Stop!” she cried. “Stop! It’s not Robert Dunn! Bryant! BRYANT!”
With a roar, Bryant tore himself from the other dragon’s grip. They backed away from each other, smoke rolling from their nostrils. They growled at one another, and Kayla was suddenly running past her. Esther blinked in surprise, and then the other woman was between the two dragons. She held her hands out to both of them.
What was she doing?
“You have to stop fighting!” she shouted. “I don’t know what the heck is going on here, but there will be no more fighting, do you understand me?”
Both dragons stared at her with what could only be described as blank expressions. Esther rushed forward and grabbed Kayla and dragged her back. She was certain that Bryant wasn’t going to attack again, but she had no idea who the other dragon was and what he wanted.
The dragons eyed each other for a moment before both nodded. They shifted back to their human forms slowly. Esther hurried to Bryant’s side to check if he was okay. Their previous argument was all but forgotten. Who cared about marriage and annulment when he was bleeding? He ran a hand through his hair as she got closer. Panting, but he didn’t look any worse for wear except for the blood. When she reached him, though, she saw that the tears in his skin were already starting to scab.
“Shane Freeman.” Bryant shook his head. “Well, this is unexpected.”
Esther glanced over her shoulder. It was Shane. “What are you doing here?”
“I heard this young lady over here,” he nodded at Kayla, who was staring at him like she had never seen a man before, “screaming that you were being kidnapped. I’m not the kind of guy to let that slide.”
Bryant snorted, a puff of smoke bursting from his nostrils. “I didn’t kidnap them.”
“We were attacked,” Esther quickly added. “At least, we were sort of attacked. It all happened so fast…”
“Attacked?” Shane’s face twisted in worry and he strode forward. “By enemies of the Emperor? Is Thunder safe?”
Bryant made a strangled noise in his throat. He glanced at Kayla, who was still staring in shocked awe. “She didn’t know until you went and blabbed,” he spat at Shane. “Why don’t we just tell everybody, huh? It’s not like his parents want to protect him or anything. But now the human knows and she’s not authorized and I can’t just let her go. I have to kidnap her for real now. Are you happy?”
“Hey.” Esther put both her hands on Bryant’s chest. “Stop. Okay? We’re all tense and not happy right now, but we need to just calm down and breathe, okay? No more throwing accusations around and… what we need to do is just go somewhere where we can recover from flying and fighting and… nakedness…”
His chest was naked. As was the rest of him. It must have just been the adrenaline that caused her gaze to drop lower, to see what he had to offer. Heat flared in her cheeks and other parts of her body as she saw his full figure. Oh. My. God. She’d seen naked men before. There was a phase in college when she watched a lot of porn, to help ease her raging hormones (it hadn’t worked) and she hadn’t seen anything like him before. She had to step back to stop herself from letting her hands trail lower.
“Um… yeah. We need to go. And get dressed.”
Esther turned her eyes to the sky, aware of the uncomfortable heat in her body. If Kayla and Shane weren’t there, she didn’t know what she’d do!
“I have a place nearby,” Bryant said. “It’ll have clothes and food and shelter while we figure out what to do next.”
He shifted again and held out a clawed hand to Esther. She hesitated a moment before stepping into his embrace. Shane said something to Kayla, and when he shifted she climbed onto his back. Bryant took off and flew at a soft, gentle pace. Thank goodness, because Esther wasn’t sure if she’d be able to handle the breakneck speed that they had gone through before.
Soon enough they landed again. The building looked similar to a medieval English castle, which was odd considering that they were in the United States. It had a single turret and was smaller than any castle she’d imagined before, but it was still a romantic setting. Ivy grew up its walls and the encroaching forest pressed in around it. The stonework was crumbling in places but it seemed to be fairly intact nonetheless.
Shane set down beside them and allowed Kayla off his back before he shifted again. “So, what is this place?”
“An old family building.” Bryant headed in. “I come from a line of princes in a clan that was wiped out a couple hundred years ago.”
Esther’s jaw dropped. “You’re a prince?”
“No. The clan was wiped out. My great-great-grandfather… or great-great-great, I don’t know… anyway, he fought with his mate and the clan split because of it. The two sides fought until their children were all dead except for one, who joined a new clan and gave up his lands and titles in exchange for living peacefully.”
He led them inside and opened a metal chest, which held clothes. Both him and Shane dressed quickly and then Bryant looked at them with a lost expression. Esther touched his arm, trying to impart some small bit of comfort. If she thought about it, it was all over for him now. Robert Dunn was certainly going to tell Virdi that Bryant was married, which meant he lost his position in the Emperor’s Guard. Did he have anything else?
Dunn said that he failed to protect his first mate. Shaya. What did he mean by that?
“Right. I guess, does anybody have a cellphone? I should call and warn them…”
Esther patted her pockets. “Mine must have fallen from my pocket.”
“My battery is dead,” Kayla said.
“Okay. This way.”
Bryant was quiet as he led them through the stone corridors. The inside of the building was better cared for than the outside, but it seemed big, empty and cold. Like a haunted castle. Esther pushed the thoughts aside, not wanting to scare herself.
Eventually, they came to a room that looked almost dungeon cell-like. The door was just a grate of bars. Whoever decorated had a terrible sense of humor. A phone sat on the table across the room and she rushed in and grabbed it. No dial tone.
The door slammed shut.
Esther whirled to see Bryant stepping back, a conflicted expression on his face. Shane growled and threw himself at the door, but it held. It was only then that she realized there was no handle.
This was a prison cell.
“What are you doing?” Shane snarled at him through the bars.
“This is temporary,” Bryant replied. “It’s just until I’ve figured out where to go from here. I’ll bring blankets and stuff so you won’t get cold.”
That was hardly the point. Esther stared, her hand grasping the dead phone to her ear. Bryant disappeared as Shane spat curses at him and Kayla started crying. Esther, though, couldn’t get herself to feel anything. Except a cold, aching feeling in the pit of her stomach. What was he doing?
“Hey.” Shane wrapped his arms around the still-sobbing Kayla. “It’s okay. I’ll get us out of here. I promise.”
Esther put the phone back in its cradle and moved to the barred, glass window. She was glad that Shane was there to comfort Kayla. Her own mind continued to be blank and she wasn’t certain if she would have been able to comfort her…
Her eyes closed. Bryant, you’ve just made everything even worse.