Page 55 of Dragon’s Rogue

Blinking back tears, she stood in the elevator and watched the numbers descend, not knowing what to say.

Zane wished with everything in him that he could hear Blaze’s thoughts, the way she’d heard him speaking in her mind when he was in dragon form. He’d been shocked by that—he’d only ever been able to talk to other dragons with mind-speech, and even then, only those he was close to.

He couldn’t hear her mental voice, unfortunately, and right now he’d give half his hoard to know what she was feeling. He could smell that she was still a little bit afraid, though she was hiding it well.

He didn’t want her to be afraid. He wanted her like she’d been back up on the roof before Thorne came, leaning on him and letting him give her strength.

She’d seen his beast, before she’d really gotten a chance to know him. He’d dreamed of her loving him as a man. He’d never dared to dream of her loving his dragon.

In saving her life tonight, in showing her what he really was, he might have doomed any chance of there being anything between them.

The ride ended too soon, and the elevator doors opened straight into the Batcave. Tyr and Thorne were already there, watching the monitors.

Blaze took two steps out of the elevator and stopped, staring around the room like it was a movie set.

It was kind of overwhelming. Zane started to put his hand on her back to usher her into the room, and then dropped it. He didn’t want to scare her more by acting too possessive.

She’s ours, his dragon muttered.

Give her a chance to get used to us.

She walked around the room slowly, looking at the monitors at the different work stations. She stopped at one, drawing in her breath with a soft gasp.

It showed an immense cavern, dimly lit by glowing spheres of light. Around the perimeter, stalactites extended down from the ceiling like dragons’ teeth, and forests of stalagmites grew from the floor.

In the center was what looked like a frozen lake, extending into the dim distance, the surface smooth as glass. But underneath the ‘ice’ was a huge, shadowy figure.

A dragon.

Sleeping.

Blaze walked slowly forward, unable to take her eyes off the scene. “Is that him?” she asked. “Vyrkos?”

“The Draken Lord himself,” Thorne said, turning in his chair to look at her.

“Damn,” Blaze breathed, reaching out to touch the screen lightly. “He’s real.”

She looked so stunned, Zane wanted to hug her up and tell her that everything was going to be okay, but he didn’t think she’d let him do that right now.

Maybe not ever.

“Yes, he’s real,” Thorne said. “Thanks for noticing. And for doing whatever it was you two did tonight that rattled his cage.”

“Don’t start in on her, Thorne,” Zane said, glaring at his brother. “Can’t you see she’s exhausted?”

“I’m okay,” she insisted, but she was swaying on her feet. Zane shook his head and steered her over to the table, pulling out a chair for her and shoving piles of papers aside to make a space in front of her.

“I can get you food. Or something to drink?” He felt the overwhelming need to take care of her, whether she wanted him to or not.

To show her there was nothing to be afraid of.

Except Vyrkos and the end of the world as they knew it.

“I—not right now,” she said. “I still feel a little sick. If I could just sit for a minute…”

She was still clutching the idol, he realized. It seemed dormant now, but he didn’t like seeing her holding it. It could come back to life at any time. Gently, he took it out of her hands and set it on the table.

He touched Blaze briefly on the shoulder and then went over to the monitoring screens. “What have we got?” he asked.