Kallore
“So, what’s the plan?”
He and Elin had come back from their trip to Fort Banner with him suitably awed by the portal and the images of death and destruction poised to strike. Not that he’d really needed it after fighting back the Outsider itself, but it had helped to put into perspective the fact that he’d beaten up but not killed one of the foot soldiers. A nothing, really. There were heavy infantry twice that thing’s size in numbers beyond reckoning out there. Not including the small walkers in their legions and the big walkers, the sizes of small ships.
“What do you mean?” Both Kyen and his scientist friend Lianna were looking at him as he barged into their lab.
“I mean, what is the plan? I’m awake, I’m ready to fight. But we need more of me. You’ve both seen what’s coming. You two woke me up. Now it’s time to repeat the process, isn’t it?”
They stared at him, still caught off guard.
Elin came into the lab a minute later. “What is going on here?”
“We need to move ahead. It’s time.”
“Time for what?”
“To wake some more dragons of course. To start their training. This is going to take a while.”
Elin stared at him. Then at Kyen. Then her eyes came back to his, the amber growing brighter as he watched. That wasn’t a good sign. In fact, it was usually a sign that he’d done something either bad or stupid. Or both. Kal was learning that, though it had taken him more stupid things than he cared to admit to figure it out.
“I’m missing something, aren’t I?” He looked around. It had been three days since they’d come back from their trip, and he hadn’t heard one thing about waking more of his kind yet.
Kallore couldn’t understand the delay. The instant the Outsiders could handle the radiation, they would begin to pour through. If the dragons weren’t there to meet them, it was going to be a disaster of epic proportions. So when he’d come down to the lab to find out just what was going on and why nobody was involving him, he’d expected to hear them say that someone, somewhere, was stalling to prevent them from awakening more dragons.
Elin sighed, walked up to him, grabbed his hand, and pulled him to one of the doors off to the side of the lab.
“Are you sure?” Kyen asked.
“Oh, positive. I don’t want to have to listen to this any longer.” She gave him a shake of her head, then opened the door and pushed him through.
“What the…Oh.”
The door led to an observation room. It was darkened inside, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t see. There were four huge panes of glass set into the wall. Behind each of them was a room. Only two lights were lit, though he could see that three of them contained…something.
Stepping closer, he examined what it was. The mass was hidden constantly behind puffs of white gas that was emitted from what looked to be thousands of little sticks spread across the thing in a webwork pattern, all attached to the walls and overhead arrays.
Then the gas cleared for just a moment, and he realized what it was he was looking at.
“You’re already waking them up.” It wasn’t a question anymore. He’d seen the red stone forged into the shape of a dragon’s eye in the brief moment the gas had cleared. There was no mistaking it.
“Yes,” Kyen said happily as he walked inside. “We’re already waking them up. Unfortunately, it’s not as simple as stabbing a needle into someone or something. You were turned into stone. It’s actually a quite complicated process. First we bathe the stone in—”
Kal held up a hand. “Sorry Kyen, not my thing.” He stared at the two rooms, watching the process.
“How long?”
“A week. Maybe less. We learned a lot from you, but so far you’re our only test subject. The more we have, the better we can hopefully refine the system. We’ve been at it for a week already.”
“I didn’t know that.”
Kyen nodded. “Yep. It took us the better part of two months with you, but that’s because we moved extremely slowly. Now we know better, but I’m not sure how short we can get it down to.”
He nodded. Elin took his hand again and dragged him from the room. “There, you’ve seen what you wanted to see, now let’s go and let them get back to work.”
Kal sighed and followed his mate from the room. “Why did nobody tell me?”
“Did you ask? No, you just spent the past three days expecting someone to volunteer information they didn’t know you were searching for.”
He came to a halt, his hand pulling from hers as she continued for several steps.
“I’m sorry,” Elin said, throwing her head back in frustration, this time at herself. “You didn’t deserve that.” She bounced over to him with a forceful injection of cheer and leaned her head on his chest. “I’m just stressed. There’s a lot more pressure on me now.”
“I know. And I’m about to make it worse.”
She eyed him suspiciously, pulling back, but not far enough that she could escape his arm settling around her waist.
“What are you up to?” she questioned.
“I want to give you something.” He paused as his voice caught. “Something that, if you accept, will bind us to each other forever.”
“If this is how proposals went in your time, this is not the best time for that,” she said nervously. “We haven’t even discussed it.”
There was a smile as she spoke, since though they hadn’t talked marriage, he’d been open with her that being his mate was a forever sort of deal. His kind’s version of marriage. Kallore knew that, and he’d done enough research to realize what was expected of him if he were to propose.
“I know. This is…from me.” He extended an arm, and opened his palm. “What do you think?”
Elin gasped. “Kal…it’s gorgeous.” She reached down to pick it up, but he stopped her with his other hand.
In the palm he grasped a necklace. It wasn’t made from gold or silver, but instead something much rarer. It was dragonbone. His, to be precise. The chain was interlinked lines of bone, twisting round one another like strands of DNA, little channels grooved into each. The pendant was shaped like a scale, with the image of a dragon etched onto it in more little grooves. The perimeter of the scale was also grooved.
“Can I put it on?”
“In a moment. Right now it’s just a necklace. Any dragon could forge this from himself. I want to give you something of me. Something to bind you to me as long as you wear it.”
He concentrated, and flames sprang from his forearm and leapt down into the necklace, filling the grooves in the chain and the scale with a cold fire that wouldn’t burn the skin. “There. Now it’s a part of me.”
Elin was tearing up. “Kal. I can’t take this.”
“Yes,” he said firmly. “You can. It’s for you.”
She looked up at him, tearing her eyes away from the glittering flames. “Are you sure?”
He nodded. “Absolutely positive.” Then he smiled.
“What other reasons are you giving this to me for?” she asked, her head tilting to the side.
Kallore laughed. “Several. One, it will ward off any other dragons. If you’re going to be around them, trust me, you’re going to want it. We’re kind of incorrigible like that.”
“I’d noticed,” she said wryly, her lips twisting upward. “What else?”
“The dragonbone can only be broken by another dragon. If anyone else ever attacks you, take it off. The flames will recognize evil. Use it like a little whip to defend yourself.”
Her eyebrows knitted together. “Really?”
“Yes. But only in times of great need, Elin.”
He reached up and draped it over her neck as she bowed her head slightly. It settled against her skin and he saw goosebumps ripple outward as the coolness of the flame startled her.
“Thank you. I’ll cherish it.”
Reaching down, he swept her off her feet and smothered her with kisses. Elin returned them just as passionately, and before he knew it her shoulders were being pushed into the wall as things grew hot between them.
“Ahem.”
Elin yelped as he half set her down, half dropped her—which one it was depended on who you asked. Elin insisted he’d dropped her—and spun.
“Kyen!” he said awkwardly. “What are you doing here?”
The pacifist dragon frowned. “This is the entrance to my lab. Which is see-through by the way.”
Kallore looked at Elin awkwardly as they both realized the two scientists had seen the entire thing. Then to his surprise she began to laugh. He frowned, but that just set her off even more. Eventually he caught the bug and began to laugh off his embarrassment. They held on to each other, the howls not stopping as the tears started.
“You people are weird,” Kyen said, and stepped back into his lab.
This time they sank to the floor, holding their stomachs.
“I love you,” he managed to get out, reaching one hand over to her.
Elin saw it and managed to grasp it even as they burst into another fit.
“I love you too, Kallore.”
She was absolutely perfect.
********
********
This concludes Dragon Temptation, Crimson Dragons Book 1.
I hope you enjoyed the adventure. Please feel free to let me know your thoughts on the book, anywhere from characters, to plot, to even the formatting of the book itself. I appreciate all feedback, whether it be reviews, on Facebook, or via my website!
If you wish to read some more about Elin & Kallore, sign up for my newsletter to receive a FREE bonus scene. Otherwise, read on for a list of all my other works to check out!