“Are you alright?” I run my hand over Saige’s hair, stealing one of her wrists and placing a kiss over her pulse. With as quick of a flash as we got of her bare skin, there was no way to study her for marks, and the scales make it impossible now.
Her reply is muffled, sighing into the side of Kaiden’s neck. “Mhmm. Just starving and in desperate need of a hot bath.”
“Did...did someone in that place do the blood transfer?” Kinsley nervously asks, as desperate as the rest of us to understand what happened while just as equally scared of hearing the answer.
Out here, there’s nothing. She would have needed to go underground, and I know what that would have cost her. Add in potentially being strapped down, needles piercing her skin and not sure what they would really do...
An unfeminine snort has me physically sagging in relief. “No. They chucked the kid out of there like some virgin sacrifice to the old gods so I wouldn’t smite them. Poor Timmy was flying before he ever got his wings, like the kid on the electric fence in that old dinosaur movie. Seriously, Timmys have the worst luck. Electrocuted, no legs, wells...”
Kinsley comes over and starts rubbing his palm over one of her legs quickly in the hope that she doesn’t walk out of this without a couple of toes. “So then how’d you get him to finish shifting?”
She lifts her head with a small, sad smile. “Figured if he really was like me, then my blood wasn’t the key. Dragon was already there trying to get out early and causing all of the problems, so I thought it was worth a shot scaring the hell out of him before we started stabbing each other.”
Ben curses and my gaze whips to him instantly, braced for the threat. Though there’s nothing I can do about this one, the golden dragon’s teeth embedded into his hand and rumbling with displeasure.
Saige smirks, not in any hurry to help him either and just watches it play out with amusement. “But it didn’t work. Kid knew I’d never actually hurt him.”
Grinning, I watch him finally release Ben, jumping out of Faye’s arms to turn his narrowed eyes on the three of us. Namely Kaiden who’s still clutching Saige, and that certainly seems to piss the little beast off.
“But he wasn’t sure the four of us wouldn’t hurt you two.” I don’t phrase it like a question, confident in the assessment.
Crouching down, I hold out my hand palm up and wait to see what he’s going to do. If Saige’s dragon is a good example, then the ones forged in a lab are driven more by instinct than logic, a foreign entity taking root into a system not built for it. It gives me a bit more confidence that if we ever shift, it will be the same as our sister and the other natural borns, leaving us in control. It just means adapting, ensuring that when face to face with a slightly feral, engineered dragon rather than a domesticated one, we approach them with the proper precautions and respect so we don’t lose a limb.
Head low to guard his throat, he tentatively steps closer. He doesn’t come within reach, just continues to assess me, judging how much of a threat I am. With a snap of his wings, he lunges forward and turns, tail whipping my arm and leaving a long welt.
“Well, shit.”
Rubbing at the mark, I watch him perch on Saige’s back, front talons digging into the coat on her shoulder and scrambling to get a foothold at the bottom.
“Timothy Whateverthehellyourname is, fuckingow!” Saige hisses, sliding to her feet and reaching behind her to peel the kid off like a cat from the curtains. “You’re not a guard parrot, you weirdo, and you’re too big for piggy back rides.”
She grips him under his front legs and holds him out in front of her to scold him, and I know within a heartbeat that she’s a goner. He widens his slitted, amber eyes as much as possible and I swear, he manages to make his lower lip tremble like an abused puppy.
At her exaggerated groan, Kins bursts out laughing. “Come on, let’s start making our way back to the car before my balls shrivel up for good. We’ll figure everything out when there’s enough heat to actually think straight.”
Chapter 24
