Page 15 of Here Be Dragons

My heartbeat quickened. Did he mean me?

No, of course not. That would be silly. He must mean—the key. Yeah. The key. These two must really be idiots to mess with a dragon’s treasure.

“It’s n-n-not like that, I-I-I swear,” Leonard stammered.

Desmon wasn’t listening. He took a menacing step toward the two.

The two asshats scrambled to their feet and ran even as a wisp of smoke left Desmon’s toothy snout. A forked tongue darted out, and his nostrils flared for just a second before he blew out a jet of flames.

Belatedly, I realized that they were between Desmon and me, which meant the flames were coming my way as well. They weren’t pointed directly at me, but I’d still be singed, if not completely toasted, if I didn’t move out of the way. I dove to the side, hoping I’d come out only slightly charred and not burnt to a crisp.

I heard the men’s screams moments before the flames engulfed me.

I opened my mouth, ready to scream as well, but instead of searing pain, all I felt was a comforting warmth, like Desmon was here surrounding me and hugging me.

What the hell!?

Chapter 8

Desmon

By the time I’dseized back control of my body from my angry dragon, it was too late. A sizzling stream of our magical fire was already rushing toward Carly. It would reach her before I could do anything!

“You idiot!“ I bellowed aloud to him.

My heart stilled in my chest as yellow and orange engulfed her small form. But no shrill feminine scream bounced off theconcrete;Carly didn’t burn. Her clothes did, but she did not. Rather, she glowed.

She held her hand in front of her, her hazel eyes round and awestruck as she watched the flames dance on her fingers. Then she tentatively formed a ball of fire in one hand and tossed it up into the air before catching it again deftly.

See! Our fire cannot harm her. She is our mate.My dragon sounded smug and extremely pleased with himself.

You didn’t know that for sure. What if you had been wrong? She could be dead now!I wasn’t so calm. If we weren’t one and the same, and it was physically possible, I would wring his neck for doing something this utterly stupid.

But Iwasn’twrong. She is our mate, just like I said.

And if she hadn’t been?I demanded.

Then no big loss.

A hundred years ago, I would’ve agreed with him. Anyone that wasn’t directly benefiting me was at risk of being sacrificed. There simply weren’t any reasons to make the extra effort otherwise, even something as minor as moving my stream of fire two degrees to the left.

In the past, I’d saved the lives of other dragons and several demons. But I could count on the talons of one claw the times I’d actively tried to help humans or other lesser monsters: a human prince, a very strong witch, a leader of a wolf pack. They had thusall owed me a life debts, which I’d made sure to call in before their time in this realm was done.

It was hard to ask for such favors after the reaper came for them. Death’s claim always came first when it came to such things. I’d tried bargaining with Death once, and it hadn’t gone well. There were some entities even dragons shouldn’t mess with; I’d been young and foolish at the time.

It seemed the reapers were on vacation today because Carly was whole. Even as I thought that, I spied two annoyed reapers standing off to the side of the burning bodies of the males who dared kidnap my mate, scythes in hand and cloaks swirling around their feet. They never liked it when souls refused to leave the mortal plane.

I hurried towards Carly, eager to get her out of here before the reapers noticed her and decided there’d been a mistake and took her as well. I took three enormous dragon-sized steps toward her, reverting into my human form as I did.

The flames had died down by now, but they had burned through all of her clothes, which I’d noticed before were the same set she’d worn yesterday. Now that I thought about it, I’d seen her clothes scattered all over her bedroom floor, and they were all quite colorful. Was this the only black set of clothing she owned?

Oops. I’d make sure to take her shopping later.

My fire not only refused to harm my one true mate, it had also protected her from the heat of her burning garments. Now she was frowning and stepping out of her shoes, which had melted to the point that they looked more like goo than footwear. The onlything still intact were her glasses, though even they were a little warped from the heat. My fire must’ve decided that they were a part of her and spared them.

I took another step toward her, afraid she’d shy away from me now that she’d seen what a monster my dragon was with her own eyes. But she seemed more worried about the fact that she was completely naked, apart from some soot from her clothes that was smudged on her shoulder. Humans were weird about clothing. It was the reason I had all my pants enchanted so they’d shift with me. Made it less awkward.

I didn’t give her time to focus on such trivial matters as clothing. The dislike of nudity was a human foible she’d cast off as soon as she got used to living with me.

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