Page 13 of Bound to the Dragon

Those last two goons weren’t even dressed in suits. They made no attempt to look civilized in some fashion. They wore jeans and flannels over their burly frames; all they were missing was a club in their hands to complete their thuggish appearance. So that’s how this was going, was it? They wanted to scare me into giving them access. Char was right. They were after whatever evil creature was locked inside that prison.

“No,” I said, “Now leave.” I crossed my arms and mimicked his towering stance, glaring back as good as I got. His mouth curled into a thin line, and then he glanced over his shoulder at Miss Elie and I realized she’d brought him along as muscle, and she was definitely the boss. When she gave him a nod, he raised a hand so fast I only saw a blur.

One moment, we’d been staring each other down, the next he was moving at lightning speed. But Char moved just as fast, his hand reaching over my shoulder and intercepting the goon. I was only really aware of what had happened when I was staring at clawed and gold-covered fingers gripping the man’s thick wrist right in front of my face.

“I suggest you rethink that action,” Chardum said in a deep, dark voice, edged with a hint of a growl. The man’s muscles strained as he tried to pull his hand from Char’s grip. When he yanked himself free, I wasn’t sure if he’d managed it himself or if my dragon had let him go.

“Oh, is that so? Chardum the Destroyer?” Miss Elie drawled, sounding more cocky than they’d looked when they first got here. “And what are you going to do? There’s only one of you here and four of us.” And what was I? Chopped liver? She acted like I was not important now when it was me they wanted to sign over the rights. If they stooped to intimidation tactics like this, why were they even bothering with legal issues?

That she’d called Char by his full name also told me that she knew exactly what he was, but did they know that I was Zachary’s daughter? I didn’t carry his last name; did they think I was just some random person who’d gotten her hands on this place?

Chardum bared his teeth, a roar rattling from his chest that made me clutch my hands over my ears from how loud it was. “Leave. Four of you are no match against me.” I believed that even if all four of them were vampires. A fire-breathing dragon trumped everything, didn’t it?

The man in the suit took a step back, frowning as he flexed his hands at his sides. But Elie’s expression remained arrogant and angry. “Are you sure you want to test that theory?” she asked, her icy eyes darting to my face with an implied threat. I had enough of it when all three of her brought muscle men lined up and started closing in on me, not Char. Not that I believed for even a heartbeat that my dragon would let me come to harm.

Anger bubbled over inside of me, and I raised my hand to point it at the obnoxious bitch. “We’re sure that you need to fucking leave. Get in your car and drive away, right now.” I swung my hand from the woman to the Lexus with my own little growl.No… wait… That wasn’t me, but there was definitely a deep rumble coming from somewhere.

Everyone cast their eyes about, trying to locate the source, so it wasn’t just me. Then chaos erupted when an enormous boulder came soaring through the air from the left side of the farmhouse, from where the rock slide had been. Sunworld’s reps had to leap out of the way. Chardum snatched me around the waist and covered me with his body on the ground.

Covered by heat and male muscle. For a long moment, I had no idea what was going on. The only view I had was of Char’s chest and a portion of his neck and a long black braid. Then I managed to twist my head to the side and stared in shock.

That giant boulder had flattened the Lexus like a freaking pancake before it had tumbled to a stop conveniently just to the right of the driveway. The vampire and her muscle lay like scattered bowling pins along the dirt. As they scrambled to their feet, Chardum flashed into golden light above me.

They ran, but I barely saw them. They moved that fast. And then I was left pinned protectively beneath the giant paw of my golden dragon.

Chapter 17

Rosemary

I sat on the edge of the porch and stared at my paint-speckled hands like they were those of a stranger. Chardum was pacing behind me with my phone against his ear. For a man who’d been stuck under rubble for twenty-six years, he seemed to have no trouble quickly learning and understanding new technologies.

He was calling the mayor, with Grandma Liz, to inform her of the situation. Turns out, this kindly old lady was really the powerful Alpha of the local werewolf pack. That was information I was struggling to imagine. That old grannie could turn into a hairy wolf on a full moon? She wrangled not just a nearly abandoned town but a small pack of wolves, many of them male. It was crazy to think about.

The sound of a car arriving wasn’t nearly as ominous as it was last time, this one was expected. Chardum had called the garage in town for a tow for that flattened Lexus, and he’d also called the sheriff. I hadn’t met any of them, but Char had known their numbers from memory and theystillfreaking worked.

The police cruiser arrived first, parking a little down my drive to leave space for the tow truck coming in behind them. Two men in uniform stepped from the car, one late thirties but dashingly handsome, the other an eager young guy who looked like he was fresh out of the police academy. Neither could be old enough to be on the force twenty-six years ago when Char was around.

Naturally, that turned out to mean absolutely nothing around here. “Char! Good to see you,” the Sheriff said heartily, his handslooped into his belt as he approached. He whistled as he circled the damaged car, and then he glanced at the giant boulder a dozen or so feet away and nodded.

His eyes found me on the porch, piercing me with a bright, unnaturally yellow glance that faded to a deep brown so fast that I thought I imagined it. “I see Zachary’s daughter is up to his old tricks. Scared off that cold-hearted bitch real good, huh? Write the accident report, stray boulder.” He aimed the last words at his completely baffled-looking deputy.

I felt warmth flush through me at being called that, at the Sheriff correctly assuming that it had been me that did that. His obvious approval radiated from every single word. I rose, no longer feeling like I was a stranger in my own skin, something unfurling deep inside of me and raising its head toward the light.

Yeah, that was me. Ididthat. I scared off the vampire with my earth powers because I was a nymph and a total badass. I was the guardian of this land, and with it, that damn evil prison. This was who I was born to be, where I’d always been meant to end up. I had found my home, my purpose, and my identity.

Chardum had walked over to greet the two men, shaking their hands, slapping the Sherrif’s shoulder like he knew him, which he probably did. I rose to my feet and joined them, wriggling my bare toes in the dirt with every step I took and feeling the earth reach up to greet me. Who the fuck cared if I preferred taking off my shoes whenever? I didn’t, because it felt right and the earth beneath my soles would never hurt me. I knew that with unshakable faith.

“Hello,” I said, offering my hand, “I’m Rosemary, but you can call me Rosy. Everyone does.” The Sheriff’s hand was warm and calloused when he shook my fingers firmly, the corners of his eyes crinkling when he smiled. The deputy glanced at Chardum and then just nodded my way, not daring to step closer to grasp my fingers.

“Welcome to Hillcrest Hollow,” the Sheriff said kindly. “It’s good to have both of you back. Things have gone to hell in a handbasket in the last couple of years. I hope this means Sunworld is done with their shit.” He glared at the flattened car but didn’t look convinced of his own words. Neither was I; they would definitely try again.

The deputy offered more quietly, “You made good headway painting. Want some extra hands tomorrow to finish the house? I can round up the boys.” Neither had been introduced with a name to me, but the Sherif’s uniform had a tag declaring him a Jackson by last name. That didn’t give me much of a clue as to who these ‘boys’ might be, but Chardum grinned and happily agreed.

Sheriff Jackson nodded, “Maybe you can come look at my sister’s fields tomorrow, Rosy? She’s having trouble with her corn lately.” What now? For a moment, I slipped into my old life and was baffled by the request, but then I realized that it wasn’t as weird as it seemed. The town folks knew, especially the werewolves. He was asking me to help his sister’s crops, something that was probably exactly the kind of thing a nymph did around here.

“I’d be happy to help… but I’m still really new at this.” I figured I’d better give him that disclaimer, but it just made the threemen chuckle and glance at the giant boulder again, like that said it all.

When the tow truck arrived not much later, the man getting out was outright laughing, and he continued to do so the entire time he worked to get that wreck onto the back of his truck. Cackling as he shook his wild black hair when he was strapping the wreck to his truck to tow it. It was clear that nobody, except the deputy at first, was all that surprised, and nobody in town liked the vampire and her cohorts.

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