Page 41 of The Dragon Shifters' Enemy
We will destroy Behemoth quickly,Raziel said after a hard look at the food.
Valerius quickly speared some beef and stuffed it into his mouth.After he chewed and swallowed--he wasnotan anaconda-- he asked, “So what is it that you meant when you looked at the helix?”
Again, Iolaire struggled with words, but the image it sent was unmistakable.It showed him the helix.There were many colors in the helix.Not just Raziel and Iolaire, but all of the Dragons. Caden’s forehead furrowed.
“Uh, is Iolaire suggesting an orgy with the other Dragon Shifters, because I am so not kissing Illarion,” Caden said with a meaningful cough.
Iolaire let out what suspiciously sounded like a Dragon laugh.Raziel gave a full body shudder.They were not into kissing Illarion either.
“Thankfully, no orgy apparently is needed.Though the two of you mating is what caused the helix,” Valerius pointed out to the two Dragon Spirits.“So how else would we get everyone else’s Dragon colors… oh…”
“Whatoh?”Caden had narrowed his eyes at Valerius suspiciously.
Valerius was surprised at how he squirmed a little bit under Caden’s gaze.“It is probably nothing.”
“From the way that both you and Raziel won’t meet my or Iolaire’s gazes, I’m guessing it's important,” Caden said as his eyes flickered between Valerius and Raziel.
“During the War,” Valerius could even hear the capital W in the word as he drew his fingers along the wood table’s grain, still not able to look at Caden quite yet, “there was a moment when all eight of us were flying together.”
“Oh, yeah!They teach that in class.The eight of you flew around the world in this V-shape with you at the tip of the V,” Caden said, his eyes lighting up.
“When it happened, it was not looked on so happily by the humans,” Valerius said with a faint smile.
“In school, they talk about it as the moment when humanity realized that it didn’t have a chance and then the peace talks began,” Caden explained with a shrug.“It was the end of death and destruction.I’m sure that Jasper Hawes and his people wouldn’t see it as good, but I do.I did even when I was human.”
Valerius nodded.“It was the end, but it also felt…” He licked his lips.How to explain that moment as the Dragons had flown as one?“It felt like the beginning of something too.”
Caden plucked some of the dark purple grapes and smooshed goat cheese on them without looking away from him.Which was really quite the feat. Valerius found himself feeling that welling of affection that ran so deep for Caden to warm up in him again.
“What did it feel like?The beginning of what?”Caden asked as he popped a grape in his mouth.
“Make me one of those, please,” Valerius said. Caden did so and Valerius chewed on the sweet and salty combination.“Huh, it is good.”
“Oh, yeah!Want another one?”Caden asked.
“Bread, goat cheese and apples this time,” Valerius asked.
“Of course, my king,” Caden said with relish to please him.
As Caden made the little sandwich for him, Valerius explained, “It felt as if all of the Dragons could…connecton the Spirit level.”
Caden’s eyebrows rose and his hand froze in smearing goat cheese on bread.“Like--like the Behemoth?Like you could become one big multi-headed thing--”
“No, no, not like that!”Valerius chuckled dryly.He tented his fingers beneath his chin.“You have said to me that you feel--before now--that I have beenalone.”
Caden nodded slowly as he carefully laid apple slices over every inch of bread and goat cheese for him.“Definitely.”
“I think perhaps that there was a moment when the Dragons could haveconnected.When, instead of being alone, we could have been one of a--a spiritual… clan, I suppose?”Valerius struggled just as Iolaire did to put the feeling he’d had in words.“I remember looking at Esme and seeing tears in her eyes.She nodded.I know she did.Was she saying she wanted the connection or did she already know what we would all do?”
“Which was?”Caden handed him the piece of bread.
He took a bite of the sandwich, but though it was rich, creamy and sweet, there was the faint taste of ashes in his mouth as he chewed and swallowed before answering, “We rejected each other, of course. Like eight snarling dogs that slowly back away from one another.”
“I don’t think I have to ask why.Territoriality and stuff, right?”Caden guessed.
“That is what we all thought.But what if…” Valerius’ gaze slid to Raziel.He thought of the violent reaction the Black Dragon Spirit had to Iolaire’s arrival.He thought of its intense need to be alone until… until it experienced something different and wonderful.“What if we are not meant to be alone?”
Caden didn’t look surprised at this.“When you think about it, the Dragon Shifters are… should be… like the guardians of this world.Keeping order.Protecting people.”
