Page 5 of Her Dragons

Of course, in our human shapes, some of us were freer than others.Some of us could live in luxury apartments on the ocean, or in penthouses.Then there were some others who came from neighborhoods like where I grew up.I started my flight by soaring out over the ocean and looking down at the waves rolling in and spreading themselves out in foam over the beach.Then I caught a current, banking and pivoting in the air, and let it carry me back over the city.I aimed myself for a place on the opposite side of Haventon from Jake’s uncle’s apartment and the blue Pacific.I flew to a greyer place, a place of not so fancy buildings, ordinary storefronts, less expensive cars, more asphalt and concrete than grass, smaller houses — smaller lives.Like a bird coming home to roost, I flew to Flint Street, just to look.

When I first flew as a kid, and when I flew with the Firewings, it was over this street and the ones surrounding it — but the Firewings were careful not to fly over Anchor Street, just like the Blackhorns avoided flying over Flint Street.Get caught soaring over the other guys’ turf, and you could touch off anaerial rumble that might crash down onto the ground.Things might get messy and bring the cops after you.The cops — and some of them were our kind, not humans — had things that Drakes didn’t like: not just guns, handcuffs, and nightsticks, but chains and Tasers.None of us wanted to get chained and none of us wanted to get Tasered.Rumbles had a way of breaking up as fast as they happened.Life was lived fast in a Drake gang in a neighborhood like Flint Street.

Not wanting to remember any more of that, I pointed my snout up and beat my wings and slashed my tail to get speed and altitude.That took me higher up and over and away, out of where I once lived, and into a different part of town, where the buildings were taller, the houses and shops were nicer — where the students lived.I flew to the neighborhood of the University of Haventon.

I looked down at the campus buildings, all brick and glass with big lawns and rows of palm and pine trees, and my strongest, best memories were about meeting Jake.His human friends called him Jake the Drake back then.I sat next to him in lectures, and he’d share his notes with me.He didn’t mind, and he took better notes than I did.When I told him where I came from and that I used to be in a gang, he didn’t get snobbish and blow me off.He was interested — really fascinated.Jake wanted to know everything about me, and he wasn’t patronizing me or acting superior to the street dragon from the wrong side of town.He didn’t have to treat me as if there were no difference between us, but he did.We’d get together to study and end up talking about everything else but class work.It was Jake who asked me if I’d ever been with a human female.I told him I never had, but I’d always wanted to.And that was when our friendship really began.

Jake knew human girls who were interested in Drake boys.He knew where they liked to hang out.He’d been tobed with some of them, and he knew some who were interested in hookups with more than one Drake boy at a time.The best nights of my college life were the nights Jake and I spent with the girls we met — long, sweet nights when we’d pick one up, or she’d pick us up, and we’d go back to someone’s room, and Jake and I would take turns with her.They couldn’t get enough of us, and we sure couldn’t get enough of them.There were times even now when I relived some of those nights.

Haventon University was where Jake and I and the girls got into bed together — and where Jake and I got into trouble together.So many times, I’d barely avoided trouble back on Flint Street.It was my college experience, and the Joust, where my luck ran out.That was when I finally felt the shock of the police Tasers and the coldness of the police chains.And that was when the difference between where Jake and I came from finally became a real thing.Jake’s family was able to get him off from Jousting charges with just probation and a temporary suspension from school.I was the one who got time behind bars, then had to plead my case to the University board to get readmitted.Just enough luck was with me that I got to finish school instead of being thrown out on my dragon tail for good.

And Jake stayed my friend.He said he’d be my friend no matter what, and he meant it.

I didn’t want to think about the Joust anymore.It was a stupid thing to do, the kind of thing you only do when you’re a dragon and you’re young.Sometimes, Jake brought it up.But neither of us ever did it again.

With a hiss of bad memory, I lifted my head again and flung myself back in the direction of the shoreline.I wanted to get back to the apartment.Were Jake and Lily up yet, I wondered.And if they were up… what were they up to?

CHAPTER 3

Lily

My eyes opened to warm sunlight sifting from the window into the dimness of the room.I blinked and wondered where I was and how I had gotten there.And then I remembered.

An apartment.On the beach.With two very, very hot young dragon guys that I’d met in the park.And one of them…I gasped and bolted up on the bed.One of them knew Mark!

I settled down and rubbed my head.Alex and Jake hadn’t tried anything with me.Jake especially seemed sensitive to the way I was feeling, and Alex was as shocked about my relationship with Mark as I was by his past with Mark.When I fell into bed last night, I drifted off to sleep thinking how I couldn’t get over how Mark and Alex were actually fellow gang members.How had it worked out that I escaped from Mark and ended up with someone that he knew in a past that he’d never even mentioned to me?Mark had always been reluctant to talk about some parts of his past; he’d only brought up in passing that he’d come from a rough neighborhood and pulled himself up to where he was.That was meant to impress me, to show me that he was a take-charge Alpha dragon, that he had his claws and tail out and knew how to use them and get whatever he wanted.That included vulnerable human women — and there were none more vulnerable than I was.

Mark had made me his territory from the beginning.And now his territory had gotten away from him.I imagined what he must be thinking and how he must be feeling this morning.His Drake metabolism had taken care of the hangover, I was sure.But his Drake pride had to have been stung when he realized I’d flown from the nest.

Well, let him feel that way, I thought.I couldn’t possibly have stung him any worse than all the times he’d hurt me in the past two years.And now, I was with two other Drakes who’d made me believe they wouldn’t repeat that experience.From Jake and Alex, I believed I’d feel no pain.And just maybe, with their help, I actually could reclaim my life — such as it was.

All I’d ever wanted to do was play the piano.All I’d ever asked was to have a career, a real, genuine career in music, which I loved more than anything else.And what had I gotten instead?Gigs that didn’t run long enough, people who didn’t want to pay me half the time, bad jobs that barely covered the gaps.And a man who I thought would make everything better, who just made everything hurt.

Perhaps I should have done something different with my music.I wanted to be a recording artist or a concert pianist.Perhaps I should have gone into commercial work.Everything might have been different then.It would have paid better, even gotten my work onto television.But it was so competitive.I didn’t want to compete.I just wanted to play.Perhaps that was my mistake.And maybe I could correct that mistake now.If I looked for commercial work, it wouldn’t be as public as the work that I really wanted.It would be more anonymous.Mark would have no way of knowing what I was doing.I should just swallow my artistic pride and go that route, I thought.

But for now, I just wanted to play.And in the living room of Jake’s uncle’s apartment was the perfect outlet for my desire.

Wearing just a T-shirt and sweatpants, I quietly made my way out to the living room.I didn’t know what kind of hours Jake and Alex kept, and whether they would be up now.But I decided to be a little discreet about my appearance.There in the living room, I found what I was most happy to see last night.My heart warmed at the sight of it — big and black and polished, with its bench in front of it.Thank you, Uncle Robert, I thought wistfully at the sight of his piano.

Whatever was going on in my life, my troubles would always melt away during the time that I spent caressing a keyboard and bringing something beautiful out of the instrument, making notes dance in the air.I sat down on the bench and let just my fingertips touch the keys, carefully, just for the feeling of it.No notes or chords sounded.I just wanted the sweet familiarity of touching the keyboard with the promise of a song.I needed to play something, but my two hosts weren’t there, and I assumed they must still be in bed.I didn’t want to disturb them, but I needed so badly to bring some music from the piano — and from myself.What should I play?Something that didn’t need to be loud or fast, which might jarringly wake the two young Drakes who’d been so kind to me.Something soft and gentle, something with not an attitude but just a mood.There was one thing I could think of that fit the moment perfectly.

Beethoven’s Piano Sonata Number 8–the “Pathetique Sonata.”I went right into the most familiar part of it.It was slow and beautiful, but melancholy; a lovely thing that sounded like sorrow mixed with hope, which was exactly the kind of place where my heart found itself this morning.I had left pain and fear behind me when I slipped away from Mark’s penthouse and went out into uncertainty and anxiety, only to find hope in the form of Jake and Alex.That’s what the Pathetique Sonata meant to me now, my scared and heavy heart journeying into hope.Years ago, Billy Joel quoted the melody that I was now playing as the refrain in his song, “This Night.”He turned it into a doo-wop song, obviously taking liberties with Beethoven.Playing it in its pure form now put everything in my heart out into the air of myluxurious new surroundings.I just closed my eyes and played what was in me.

It felt so good to play, even if it was only for myself.I got lost in the melody and in the motions of my fingers along the keyboard and up and down on the keys.It was a sensuous thing.When I played, I felt as if I were becoming what I was playing.It could have gone on forever…

…except that soon, I had the feeling that I wasn’t alone.I was overtaken by a feeling of someone else occupying the space that, at first, belonged only to the music and me.I stopped playing, halting the music in mid-melody.I opened my eyes again and saw the reflections of two figures in muted tones in the polished wood of the piano — my own, and another right behind me.

I whirled around and blinked to find Jake Hudson standing there, dressed in nothing but a thong.Knowing Drake men as I did, I knew he must have just rolled out of bed nude and put on the thong just for my benefit.Nearly naked, Jake was a heart-stopping, breathtaking sight.I thought he was one of the handsomest things I’d ever seen last night, when I saw him fully dressed.Now, with nothing covering any part of his body but that pouch enclosing his penis and the slender string encircling him just at the edge of his pubic hair, he was absolutely stunning.Perfectly groomed, sandy brown-blond hair crowned his head.A short growth of unshaven beard shadowed his square jaw.Dark hazel eyes peered out of a face that would have been boyishly good-looking if not for the scruff of his beard.The body was all lean muscle.The beautifully cut pecs were perfectly haired, and a dusting of hair cascaded down his lower abs to where his pubes started.His heroically muscled legs were hair-dusted as well.And enclosed in the pouch of that thong was a member that filled it to a generous bulge.I had never heard ofan unattractive Drake man, but Jake was surely the very model of male Drake beauty.

“Don’t stop,” he said, smiling warmly.“That was good.”

Mildly embarrassed, I glanced back at the piano for a second and replied, “I couldn’t resist.Your uncle’s piano being out here was the first thing I thought of when I woke up.Does he play?”

“A little,” said Jake.“I think he has it here mostly because it looks good.You could give him lessons.”

I smiled at the compliment.It felt good to smile.I’d had too little reason to smile lately.“Thank you.I just felt this urge to play, and I wanted to play something that wasn’t too loud.I didn’t want to disturb you or Alex.”I gazed over his shoulder.“Is Alex up yet?Where…?”

Jake rubbed the back of his neck.“Alex is probably on his morning flight.We usually have a morning flight together.For some reason, I overslept and he didn’t bother to wake me up.He’ll be back soon.”

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