Page 19 of Defy Me

"No," he lied.

"Good." She stuck out her tongue at him and turned back to Yvaine. "The horrible hole in her chest is closing. I don't know how she even survived. What did this to her?"

"Demon dragon." Who was likely a black oil stain in the grass now. Stupid fucker. That was one less soldier Jett would be able to count on in the coming battle against the Black Dragon.

Jakob blew more Dragon's breath over Yvaine. Then he stood and faced Jett. "Were they with Ereshkigal?"

Jett frowned. The Black Witch didn't leave hell and she certainly didn't take demon dragons along with her anywhere. That's what she had her Annunaki demons for. "No. The Black Dragon."

"We haven't seen him since the battle for hell in Africa. We assumed he was licking his wounds, but didn't know where."

"I don't know where he's been, but he found us in Glückstadt, Germany."

"Not far from The Linden's. Cage will be very interested to hear that. The Golds are still hunting for their kidnapped warriors and Geshtianna." Jakob narrowed his eyes at Jett, waiting for him to reply.

Jett did have intel on Geshtianna's whereabouts and didn't feel even a little bit bad about not telling Jakob that. He was saved once again by Ciara from any more scrutiny from the Green Wyvern who would smell an outright lie if he asked Jett if he knew anything. "She's waking up."

"Holy shirt. What? Who? Ack. Where am I? Jett?"

"Yvaine. I'm here.” Holy shirt indeed. She was freaking out and there was no way Jett would be human for more than another-- Poof.I'm right here.

"Oops. Sorry."

When she looked up at him with the pink back in her cheeks and the life back in her soul, Jett wasn't even a little bit sorry he'd just smashed every stick of furniture on the side of the room behind his tail.

Ciara looked from Yvaine to Jett and back again. "Well, you could have warned us your mate was going to shift you into dragon form."

She's not my mate.

The laugh that bubbled out of Ciara was contagious apparently because Yvaine and Jakob started laughing too. Ciara laughed so hard tears streamed down her face. She wiped her eyes and gave one more chuckle. "I'm going to have so much fun planning your wedding."

Mimosas Make Everything Better

Awedding? Surely she hadn't heard that right. Yvaine was not ready to get married to anyone. Oh no. Was the dragon people culture like eighteenth-century England or something? Did they have to get married because they'd kissed? That would be weird. Yvaine was doing a whole lot of assuming here. She didn't know that there even was a dragon culture. So far she'd seen two dragons in her whole entire life. Maybe that's all there was. She didn't know.

Yvaine pushed herself up on the couch and groaned. Man. Ouch. She rubbed her hand over her chest. Did she ever have the worst case of heartburn. She didn't remember eating anything spicy. In fact, the last thing she remembered was Jett trying to convince her to get into the car so they could fly away.

What had happened? They weren't in Kansas anymore. They might just be in the Emerald City though. Every other thing in the room they were in was a shade of green. The couch she was sitting on, the very expensive looking vases on the mantle over the fire place. The big green dragon.

Mother trucker. That was one big dragon. "Whoa. Where did that other dragon come from? Did I do that too?"

She must have developed a new level to her weirdness. Houdinism, teleportation, and now turning hot guys into dragons. This had to be a dream. Or drugs. Yes. Probably she was on drugs.

A very pretty woman who was just as curvy as Yvaine plopped down onto the couch beside her. "That's an interesting power you have. But, no, that one's mine and he's just reacting to yours. One of these guys hulks out and the rest do too. Jakob doesn't like it much when anyone shifts inside the house unless there's danger."

"My what?" This lady's tone and attitude was all very blah for two dragons standing in her living room making mean eyes at each other.

"Your dragon." She said it like it was an every day thing.

At least it wasn't Yvaine's fault. If there was at least three dragons and the woman sitting next to her thought that was normal, there must be more. Those dragons must go around kissing human women and then having to marry them. She guessed that was better than kidnapping them and eating them or forcing them to live in caves or castles waiting for knights in shining armor to rescue them.

"I have to admit, I don't really understand what's going on here." She obviously meant Jett when she said your dragon. He wasn't hers even a little bit. He was a wild thing that shouldn't ever be contained by the restriction of being owned. Or maybe dragon people culture was matriarchal as well as antiquated and because they were supposed to get married Yvaine now owned him. That thought made her wrinkle up her nose. Yuck.

Not at Jett. He was yummy. Which she totally should not be thinking right now.

The woman patted Yvaine's hand. "I feel ya. It took me a while to get a handle on the whole being a dragon's mate thing too."

"I understand the individual words your saying, but not when you put them together like that. Everything your saying has given me about a billion more questions than I had before being attacked by batstriches and seeing a dude turn into a dragon right before my eyes."

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