Page 10 of Dragon's Code

The fucking vampire who wants to rule the world. To turn humans into bloodsuckers’ own personal commodities.

Dragons are by no means perfect. Plenty of my kind have had their own issues with a small selection of humans. Humans who wanted to get revenge on the dragons that were malicious, evil creatures. And by all accounts, those dragons deserved to be put down. Stealing women from villages. Kidnapping. Raping. Murdering. They gave us all a bad name and I don’t blame the humans for coming after us all. They had no way of knowing which of us could be friends, and so they saw us all as foes.

Somewhere in history, the dragons forbade connections to humans as much as possible. After we hid ourselves from the majority of humans, most of the problems went away. But there’s always exceptions to the rules and sometimes humans catch us at a bad moment.

Now, with social media and everyone with cameras on their phones, all the shit has hit the fan, and the Elders are fooling themselves if they think they can keep going with ‘that’s just how it’s done’ sort of mentality.

I’ve never been very good at accepting things just because that’s how we’ve always done it, and because of this, I’ve questioned the laws regarding interactions with humans most of my life. Admittedly, it probably has something to do with meeting my best friend—who just happens to be human—when I was ten years old.

Athena’s my favorite person in the world. I don’t understand why the Elders and most dragons frankly have such a bad attitude about them.

There are shitty humans out there, just like there are shitty dragons, but not Athena.

She’s been the one joy in my life. She’s why I went to college. I wanted to bring some value to my already overly talented family. The danger of humans and them finding out about our kind has become a bigger and bigger conversation over the years, and since I was a kid, I’ve wanted to really understand them.

I decided to become fluent in all things human.

What happened with Levi was always going to happen. It’s just unfortunate that it happened now, with our family, when we’re already causing the Elders to want to destroy our lineage, to end our family line, because of our relationships with humans. Most of the older dragons, not just in the tourmaline clan, but in all the clans, think we’re to blame for everything that’s gone wrong the last few years. Our clan was brutally attacked by another clan, controlled by fucking Grey. We were driven out of our home, our clan lands, and now Ash is doing everything he can to hold it all together.

But three of my brothers have broken what is, to most dragons, our most sacred and long-lasting law, and they’ve taken human mates.

Personally, I think it’s about damn time we start looking at humans as more than just medieval enemies.

I push open the door of my brother’s office. I was summoned, so I figure I have the right to walk in.

“You rang?” I tease.

Ash is standing at the window, his hands behind his back like a soldier at ease. Declan is slouched on the leather couch next to the bookshelf. We all share the same similarities in our looks. Dark hair, big statures, varying shades of green eyes for most of us, but personality-wise we come in all shapes and sizes.

“I need you to go to Las Vegas with Declan.”

I glance over at Declan on the couch who just shrugs and looks highly bored but also annoyed, like this is the last place he wants to be.

“For fun and games?”

“I’ve been summoned to a conclave with the Elders regarding the rash of dragons mating with humans. In the meantime, Jerrick Carmine has agreed to host the dragons with human mates in a summit to discuss our options and how we’re going to handle it. There’s enough of us now that we have a real argument. I intend to get as much information about the Obsidian Clan as I can as well. I’m tired of the Elders keeping their fucking secrets. If Grey intentionally screwed with our ability to have female children, then mating only with dragons is no longer an option. We put all this stock into our heartstones, and yet the Elders are trying to tell us the heartstones are wrong because they chose humans. We’re all calling bullshit at this point.”

“Why are you sending me to Las Vegas? Declan and I don’t have mates, let alone human ones.”

“Declan’s got his own job to do. He’s mostly just flying out there with you. I need you to go because you’re the bridge between human and dragon. Aside from Gavin and Ryker, we’ve all been living in our sheltered dragon lives. You’ve lived among the humans, your best friend is human, and I feel like you like them. That will go a long way with this group. Plus, you’re the best at diplomatically being direct without starting a war. The rest of us would likely just shift into a dragon and start a fight.”

“Let me take Krystana with me,” I say immediately.

Ash turns around from the window and raises an eyebrow at me. “Why?”

I let out a frustrated breath, trying to rein in my emotions before I speak. “She’s been a prisoner for the better part of her life. She’s the princess in a tower waiting for the prince to save her, except she has five angry dragon brothers who will tear apart any prince that comes near her. I’m about the only one who wouldn’t.” I purse my lips, deciding how far I can push this. “She’s a female dragon, not a fucking Fabergé egg. She’s tougher than all of us, and she can handle her own shit. Stop treating her like she’s a commodity. She’s a fucking dragon, and I’ve never known her to be afraid to breathe fire when necessary.” I know that I’ve gone too far, but I don’t care.

Krystana has been through enough and I know she’s miserable. She’s never going to be able to live her life if Ash keeps hoarding her like treasure.

Ash makes a clicking noise with his tongue. “Fine. Just make sure you keep an eye on her.”

“Yeah, yeah,” I say.

“I mean it, Kashton. With Grey trying to ensure the death of all dragons…”

I hold up my hand to stop his diatribe. Like I don’t know the risks involved. “I know. I promise, I will keep an eye on her, but shouldn’t you be making her promise to keep an eye on me? We both know that she can kick my ass.”

It’s true. My sister is a badass. Her princess lessons didn’t include curtsying, sipping tea with her pinky in the air, or balancing a book on her head. She studied with the best dragon warriors and even a couple of other trusted shifters. I didn’t want to be a warrior. She did.

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