“It’s my only recourse,” I reply without any of the confidence I want to feel. “You will promise not to harm me or my cat Oscar. Now.”
He sneers. “Or you’ll light my Dick on fire?”
A thread of amusement pokes through my nervousness at the statement. I don’t reply, because I don’t want to lie, but I hold the flame a tiny bit closer in attempt to prove my intention.
He grits his teeth and his claws flex at his sides. “The threat is unnecessary. As previously stated, you and your feline can stay.”
“But you mustn’t hurt us. Promise!”
His throat rolls and he stands up straighter; his milky eyes focused on the fire. “I will not harm, nor allow any harm to come to you, nor Oscar the feline.”
He raises his arm and drags a claw across his skin, splitting it. I suck in a sharp breath as ink seeps from the wound. Golden light flickers off the scales on his body as the dark blood swirls toward me. Bright orange words scrawl through the black in a slow roll.
Te ab omni malo protego.
“This oath I swear upon my hoard,” he says, and the ink surges around my body.
I drop the lighter as I pull back, but it’s too late. The words sear through my sweater and into my skin. I yelp at the sharp sting of what feels like a hundred tiny needles pricking my skin at once. The dragon lunges forward and I stumble back to my ass with a heavyoofthat radiates from my butt to my skull.
He feels around on the floor in front of me until he finds the book I dropped, then snatches it up in both arms pinned to his body. He watches me warily from his crouched position as the tattooing sensation reaches a crescendo that makes me whimper. But then there’s a rush of excitement. As if knowledge from centuries past is moving through my body and enlightening me. It’s as confusing as it is euphoric.
And then it’s over.
The pain in my chest subsides almost instantly. I yank open the neck of my sweater to see gold light shimming under my skin at the base of my sternum, right there between my boobs. It’s a full circle of the words that appeared in the ink, and inside that circle is a large, clawed hand. Inside that clawed hand is a smaller human-looking hand, and inside the palm of that hand is a little cat paw.
Holy.
Freaking.
Dickballs.
I mean, I know he’s a lizard that transformed into a man-thing, but what I just witnessed wasrealmagic. The blooping away withink could’ve been some illusion, but this is something else. Something supernatural.
I run my fingers over the mark and the dragon in the corner hisses in breath, then takes two steps closer, though it looks as if he’s resisting the motion.
I glance up at him. “What?”
“You are under my protection now, as you asked for. When you need me, you can touch the mark, and I will come to you.”
“How?” I whisper.
“It is my power,” he says.
I nod dumbly. “Huh.”
The dragon rises and tentatively extends his hand to me. There’s something tender in the gesture, and a little scared. He’s offering something he’s never offered before, or perhaps something that’s been rejected.
I’m not sure where that thought came from but knowing that he won’t—or rather can’t—hurt me because of this magic, makes it feel a lot safer to touch him.
I mean, maybe the spell isn’t real…maybe I should be afraid.
But I’m not.
Those unseeing eyes are tinged with deep suffering. The pinch of his nervous brow is pleading. The thin line of his pursed lips and the little fang that pokes out from behind them are hopeful but prepared for rebuke.
I lean forward and take his offer. His fingers are smooth like paper and his palm is warm as I slide my hand into his.
“I’m Caitlin,” I say, staring up at him.
