Page 25 of Dragon's Flame
His voice was far more familiar—and then Cliff appeared.
Kenna felt her stomach drop—an impressive feat, considering she was already on the ground.
“Yeah, they were. But just how long do you think it took him to heal? He’s already taken her away from here. Fuck!”
“More searching, less cursing,” said someone who sounded like they were in charge, and she stayed quiet, using Tarian’s hot body like a shield.
They waited together, and she was afraid to ask questions, but her mind was full of them, so many it was becoming hard to keep track.
Then, after what seemed like an eternity, Tarian rose and set her free. She scrambled to her knees, and dusted herself off, at the same time as he shook his head in mystified fashion.
“That . . . was nice,” he said aloud, and likely not for her.
“Oh?” she harshly whispered. “I’m glad rubbing on me was cathartic for you.”
His eyes flashed, dark and hurt. “They’re gone. You can use a normal volume now,” he said, and then surprised the hell out of her, offering his phone back. “Here,” he said, glancing at it as he handed it over. “You were right. You have a bar.”
She took it. “And what happens if I call for help?”
“The men who are searching for you will hear the call and get here far before anyone normal can.”
“And then?” Her voice barely made a sound.
“They will try to take you from me. And I will kill a lot of them.”
What the fuck?“Is this some psychological test? Where you’re trying to get me to do murders by proxy?” She kept trying to parse things, but they didn’t make sense.
Tarian’s brow quickly rose on his forehead. “Oh, no. You shouldn’t feel bad about me murdering them in the least. Every last one of them would have it coming. I only meant to impress upon you the futility of your current situation.”
Kenna bit her lower lip. If she hadn’t seen Cliff with them...there was no way she would’ve agreed. But because she had—that meant that everything that’d happened between them was a lie. He’d stalked her for three months, tried to get close to her, and then lured her to a hotel room where he’d been armed.
“Why do they want me?”
Tarian’s shoulders sank. “I am afraid that it is all my fault. Might I take you someplace safer to explain?”
A slightly manic laugh erupted from her lips. “Why do you even bother making it sound like I have a choice?”
He sighed and nodded at that. “I have many regrets...Kenna.” He said her name like it pained him. “And the fact that you do not have a choice is chief among them.”
She shook her head and hugged herself. “Fine. Do what you’re going to do. You were always going to do it anyways.”
The disappointment radiating off of him was almost palpable—but it didn’t stop him from saying what he was going to next. “Close your eyes, Kenna,” he said, waving his hand at her. “And until I tell you you can open them next, do not see.”
Her eyelids snapped shut, as she was forced to do as she was told—and then she heard the unmistakable sound of a zipper’s slide.
20
TARIAN
“Oh, she is going to be pissed when you do whatever it is you’re gonna do right now,” Rocky said, dancing around between their feet.
“I know,” Tarian told the dog, taking his pants off again.
If he transitioned into his dragon wearing them, they’d be torn, and then where would he be? But it wasn’t safe for either of them here. He’d pick her and the dog up and fly them both against the edge of the coast, until he found a cave where he could protect them.
“Get back,” he warned the dog, and Rocky did so, racing back as Tarian let his inner dragon unfurl.
In an instant, he was a magnificent deep-red scaled creature, half as high as a young redwood tree—and he’d taken out several of them with his transition, like he knew he would—but he’d made sure they’d all fallen away from her.
