Jazz scowled at the two strange women who’d come to bathe her. She’d fought them, but they managed to lead her through a long tunnel and into another, smaller cavern housing nothing but a huge bathing pool at its center. She watched the steam rise from the water, mixing with the cool cavern air and knew it was a natural hot spring.

She’d studied the Dragon-hewn cave and noticed that it had been retrofitted with a few modern necessities; like doors, plush carpets and many, many candles and lanterns.

Once she relaxed, she heard the other numerous streams running throughout the mountain and her blood nearly sang with joy. Then she’d grown enraged. He’d kept her held in a spacious cavern, with water readily on hand, but refused her access to it.

Essentially, he’d tortured her for pure pleasure. She refused to mate him, but hadn’t figured out her best course of action. She could escape, but she didn’t know her location or the terrain and she couldn’t shift until she gave birth, it would instantly kill the baby should she try.

She was stuck in her helpless human form for the next four months.

The women wasted no time in undressing her and shoving her into the pool. She dropped into the basin and sank to the bottom, pulling as much hydration into her as possible. She allowed her eyes to change to her Dragon vision and peered up through the murky, sulfur-scented liquid.

Sure enough, the two women waving frantically at one another, panicking over the fact that she’d disappeared. Being Fire Elementals, they couldn’t exactly dive into the water after her, not without a fair amount of preparation. Not to mention the fact that should they do so, she could easily outmaneuver them in the cloudy depths.

Waving her arms to and fro, keeping herself submerged, she wished she could stay underwater forever, or maybe just long enough to formulate a way out. But her human form needed oxygen or she’d force a shift. She reluctantly resurfaced and smiled at the glaring women.

“What’s wrong?” she taunted. “You girls don’t like to swim?”

“You bitch,” the blonde one accused. “If we don’t deliver you in pristine condition to his Majesty, he’ll do worse than kill us.” The other one, the red-head reached forward and grabbed a handful of Jazz’s short hair.

“Don’t fuck with us, you Dragon slut,” she hissed and the implied insult made Jazz pause.

“You two are human,” she stated as suddenly the reality of everything clicked. “You’re human and he’s offered you immortality.” She marveled at Coffer’s audacity. The lies didn’t surprise her. Dragon-kin were born not made; there was no way he could give them what they sought.

Apparently he couldn’t raise the numbers he wanted from among the Dragons, he’d turned to manipulating humans.

Dragon-kind kept their existence a secret until just recently when the Elder’s decreed the Prince’s take mates. Prince Jaxen had gone public when he’d taken a diluted Dragon/Human hybrid. Ever since, he’d acted as Dragon-kind’s Ambassador to the various human governments.

The Dragon groupies were an unwelcome side effect.

Smiling, in spite of her current predicament, she reached up and used her Dragon strength to pry the girl’s hand from her hair. She had to give the human credit, she didn’t squeal or cry out at the force of Jazz’s grip, but she did moan a bit.

Things had certainly taken a positive turn, Jazz mused and rose from the depths of the blissful pool to face the two girls. Studying them a bit more closely, she decided they were around their mid-twenties and either drug addicts or alcoholics. They reeked of Coffer and she decided that he’d used them in more carnal ways as well as servants.

She gave one last squeeze to the brunette’s hand and then dropped it like a hot potato. The girl cradled her hand and backed away from Jazz with eyes widened in fear. The other girl - the blonde - speared the brunette with a disgust-filled glare and whirled on Jazz like a viper.

“I won’t let you ruin this for us,” she sneered and pulled a handgun from the back waistband of her jeans. “I know it won’t kill you if I shoot you,” she warned. “But I also know it will hurt like hell,” she threatened. “Now, pick up that robe and get your fat ass dressed,” she demanded and kept the gun firmly trained on Jazz.

Fear for her unborn child was the only thing that kept her from ripping the blonde bitch to pieces. She didn’t know what a bullet wound would do to the baby and she wasn’t willing to take a chance. So, she bent and picked the pristine white robe from the colorful carpet, donning it without taking her eyes from the crazy human.

“I will kill you,” Jazz warned. “Your Majesty won’t save you.”

“We’ll see about that,” the blonde sneered and then waved the gun in the direction of the door. “Now, you’ve got a wedding to get to,” she announced. “Get going.”

The brunette rushed forward to open the door and moved out into the cool, damp hallway. Jazz fell into step behind the girl, following like an obedient lamb to slaughter, the gun-wielding blonde a few steps behind her.