Fireblood Dragon: Fire In His Blood Part 13

If I'm not inside the walls of Fort Dallas by the time he wakes up, I'm screwed, in more ways than just one. I think of the bite that came at the end of s.e.x-and the hot wash of his s.e.m.e.n inside me-and shudder. Not again. The thought spurs my weary, trembling legs as I race into the main room, s.n.a.t.c.h up the tattered remnants of my jumper, and then gallop down the nearest stairs. I can rest when I'm safely back in my own bed.

This will all be over soon.

17.

CLAUDIA.

I should have looked for better clothing, I tell myself as I pull open a bent car door and slip between two fused Oldsmobiles that make up a portion of the Fort Dallas barricade. The jumper I re-snagged stayed knotted for about a hot minute and then ended up falling to pieces more than before. At this point, I'm strolling into the streets of Fort Dallas buck naked, covered in scratches and filth, and smelling like dragon s.e.x.

But at least I made it home. Beating Kael back to the city had been the most urgent priority, and if that means parading around naked and getting scratched up in the process? I'll do it again in a heartbeat. There's no one out in the Scavenge Lands but me, anyhow.

It's been a long f.u.c.king day, but it's nearly over. I hope.

I'd spotted a red dragon in the skies not ten minutes after I'd left Kael behind. I'd hidden, terrified that it was going to somehow see me. My mind was full of Kael's fight with the other gold and how quickly he'd torn the throat out of his opponent. The last thing I need is to be claimed by another dragon while fleeing the current one. I'd huddled inside an old dumpster, not caring that it reeked of old filth and the stench was overpowering in the midday sun. Didn't matter-it was safe. Well, safe-ish. I doubt I'll ever feel completely safe again. But after an hour pa.s.sed and there'd been no more dragon sightings, I'd abandoned my hiding spot and continued toward Fort Dallas, constantly looking over my shoulder for wings of gold.

But the skies remained clear.

And now night is falling, the skies dark purple with twilight, and I can see the small home fires burning inside Fort Dallas. It's a relief, and I know out there that maybe Amy and Sasha are warming their hands at one of them. I press inside the barricade, wiggling my way through the familiar hidey-hole that I've escaped out of dozens of times on scavenge runs. Every good scavenger has their own secret way to get around the guards at the gate, and this one is mine. I make my way through the back seat of the car and land in a narrow-crawl s.p.a.ce between a crumbling brick building and an old, trash-filled alley used for black market dealings, a bit off the main roads. No one is out, and that's good. People tend to congregate near fires after dark or hide inside their homes. Works for me. No one will see me pull a Lady G.o.diva act through the city.

Which is good, because I'm tired, achy, and cold. The wound in my throat throbs with uncomfortable heat, and it makes me worry. Are dragon bites infected? To think that I'd kissed Kael.

To think that I'd wanted to kiss Kael. That I'd craved him. h.e.l.l, that I'd pursued s.e.x, even after he was ready to back off. I must be crazy.

I keep to the shadows, making my way through the hodgepodge of streets that make up the shanty town of Fort Dallas. The small 'house' I share with Amy and our friend Sasha is located in the poorest part of town, which means it's toward the center of the city, where people are the least protected from dragon attack. The outskirts-and the old parking garage that contains all the important buildings like the militia barracks and the jail-are where people are safest, but you need money or power (or both) to get a place like that. I have neither, so we live in the back half of an old school bus in an abandoned parking lot surrounded by others who have just as little money and protection.

Our small bus has four flat tires, a smashed front end, and almost all of the seats removed-those were some of the first things we sold away. It's fine, though, since we don't plan on driving it anywhere. The metal interior makes a reasonably cozy home, though it's achingly hot in the summer and bitterly cold in the winter. But it keeps us safe and dry, and that's all you can really ask for in times like these. I spot it in the darkness and the flicker of a small lamp-light inside, and a rush of relief fills me. I race toward home, shoving the folding door open and crawling inside. "Amy?"

But it's only Sasha huddled over the dinner fire. Sasha, with her brown eyes and dark hair and too-lean face. Sasha, who was gorgeous and might have been working as an actress or a supermodel if that whole 'dragon apocalypse' thing hadn't happened. She looks thin, and there's a ma.s.sive bruise covering one high cheekbone.

Her eyes go wide at the sight of me. "Claudia! Where the heck have you been?"

I flop down on my small mattress, wrapping my blankets around my body as makes.h.i.+ft clothing. "Where's Amy?"

Sasha puts a lid over the small metal half-barrel we use for cookfires and then crawls over to my side. "You look awful. Are you okay? And why are you naked? Did they hurt you? Did the militia keep you?" She gasps. "Are they making you-"

Sasha's a talker. Her stream of worried chatter makes me feel better, though. It's normal, and so few things feel normal lately. "I'm all right, I promise." I touch her arm. "Long story, and one I'll share later. Where's Amy?"

"Gone looking for you," Sasha says, pulling out a beaten-up water bottle and pa.s.sing it to me. "Are you...okay? Really? Did the guards a.s.sault you? Is that why you've got no clothes and you're all scratched up?"

"Nope. Seriously, I'm fine. But Amy-"

Sasha's eyes widen. "And can I just say this? You smell...really weird, girl. Like garbage and something else. Were you out scavenging and you got robbed? I mean, you smell like you were scavenging, but you've been gone for days and no one scavenges naked."

I give Sasha a weary smile and take the water from her. I intend to only take a sip...and end up downing the entire thing. I'm completely dehydrated, and the feverish feeling is growing. The wound on my neck is bothering me. Actually, everything is bothering me at the moment, from the rough feeling of my blankets to the way my dirty hair falls against my skin. "I think I'm sick," I tell Sasha.

"Sick? How?"

A dragon bit me during s.e.x. "Dunno."

"Is that why you smell?" Her brows furrow together.

I lift my wrist to my nose and sniff. I do smell strange. There's an underlying stink of sweat and garbage from the dumpster, but there's a stronger, much more unusual scent coming from my pores. It smells, oddly enough, like Kael-dragon skin, spices, and heat. I frown and sniff my other wrist, then my hair. It's definitely coming from me. Maybe his scent rubbed off during s.e.x...but wouldn't it be gone by now? "I need a bath."

I want to say I stink, but the truth is...I kind of like the smell. Just another reason why I'm sick in the head. Kael's scent is appealing and comforting, and I wish I hated it now.

"You can bathe later. You have to tell me this story first, though." She turns back to the fire and lifts the lid, and as she does, the scent of soup wafts through the air, making my mouth water. "I'm making stew if you're hungry. There's some squirrel meat and potatoes in it."

"Stew?" I look at her in surprise. "How did you get the ingredients for a stew?"

Sasha averts her gaze, stirring the small pot nestled in the coals. "How do you think? We were hungry, and you didn't come back. There was nothing to eat. I had to do something."

Right. Sasha's 'friend' in the militia who trades her a few coins or snacks in exchange for s.e.x. Well, more than s.e.x, I think, because she always returns with bruises or a haunted look on her face. I've warned her before, that 'seeing' this guy for food is a slippery slope. We know far too many girls who started out with one guy friend and ended up with twenty, or a hundred. They always end up at b.l.o.w.j.o.b Becky's as one of the wh.o.r.es. Sasha swears she's careful, but the bruises on her face and the despair in her eyes tell me something else entirely.

"I'm sorry," I whisper. "I should have been here."

"It happens." She shrugs. "It wasn't so bad, and it bought me and Amy enough to eat for a few days. There are worse things. You hungry?"

Suddenly the bite on my neck doesn't seem so awful. Kael was kind to me, in his own way. Sasha's soldier friend doesn't have a kind bone in his body. She sacrificed for this food, and I'm not going to turn it away and hurt her feelings. "I'll eat. Thank you."

Sasha ladles out a bit of stew into a chipped bowl and pa.s.ses it to me. "Tell me what happened. You've been gone for weeks, and we've been worried sick. Amy said she went and visited Tucker, asking about you. He told her that the militia had you, so she went to go ask them what happened."

My stomach flips uneasily. "When was this?"

"Two days ago." Sasha gnaws on her lip, giving me a worried look. "I asked around, but I didn't get anywhere."

"It's okay," I say, even though it's not. It's normal for me and Sasha to disappear overnight at times, me on scavenge runs and Sasha with her friend. But Amy? Amy always waits here at home. Her leg's bad, and she can't walk far without it hurting. For her to be gone two days is...bad. I gulp down my food. I have to go find her. "She talked to Tucker, huh? That f.u.c.king b.a.s.t.a.r.d."

Sasha looks confused, cradling her bowl. "What did he do?"

"He sold me out to the militia, that's what." I chew angrily, determined to eat quickly. I won't think about the fact that the meat's a little spoiled or that it's spread so thin that you can barely taste it in the broth. I won't think about the fact that I've had fresh meat with Kael every night. He betrayed me. I focus on Sasha instead. "I brought some stuff to Tucker to sell, and he had the militia waiting when I got there. b.a.s.t.a.r.d sold me out to save his own skin." At Sasha's dismayed gasp, I go on. "The militia arrested me and locked me up for over a week, deciding what to do with me. Then they put me on trial in front of the mayor, and you can guess how that went."

Her jaw tightens and she frowns. "That fat hypocrite?"

"Yup. Sitting there using a laptop, too. He had the nerve to look me in the eye and tell me that scavenging was bad and I shouldn't do it, all the while using scavenged equipment. He's a piece of s.h.i.+t. Anyhow." I s.h.i.+ver and set down my empty bowl, dragging my blankets closer. "He decided I should be permanently exiled."

Sasha sucks in a breath of alarm.

"It gets worse," I tell her. "The militia had a different idea."

Sasha reels. "Worse than exile? That's death! Where can you go? Oh, Claudia! This is awful! The nearest fort to here is Fort Orleans, and that's hundreds of miles away. You won't make it." Tears flood her eyes. "If the nomads don't get you, the dragons will-"

"It's okay, Sasha. Really. Just listen." I put my hands up in an attempt to stem the tide of her worry. "The militia had heard that someone in Fort Orleans tamed a dragon, and they decided to use me as bait." Her expressive eyes widen, and she opens her mouth, but I jump in before she can freak out again. "Before you ask, I'll tell you. It seems that the dragons like human females. The militia cleaned me up and chained me to a post in one of the abandoned buildings, and then left me for a dragon." I make a wry smile. "Wouldn't you know, one showed up not too long after."

Sasha's jaw drops. "But...how..."

"I know. It was...weird." I s.h.i.+ver at the memory of seeing Kael for the first time. "He didn't hurt me. Actually, he's kind of fascinated by me. I think the militia was right-the dragons do like human females. The one that found me was a big gold, and he sniffed me and tried to feed me." I tug the blankets higher, wondering how much I should tell her. Might as well spit it all out. "Oh, and, uh, he turns into a man."

"Turns into a man?" Sasha's head tilts slightly, as if she's having a hard time digesting this. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, they're shapechangers. He landed in front of me and turned into a guy." I gesture at the air, as if that's somehow going to help explain things. "He's almost seven feet tall, and his skin is this weird, dappled shade, but he's got hair and eyebrows and everything. He really does look human except for the eyes, and he's got claws. And fangs. And um, some spikes in his arms. And um, bigger than average equipment."

Sasha stares at me. "You saw his equipment?"

"Well, he was naked."

"And you were naked." Her brows go up. "Did you-"

"That's not important. I was just, you know, telling you about how they're different from us but still similar." I am blus.h.i.+ng so hard right now.

"Was it barbed?"

I stare at her. "Was what barbed?"

"His d.i.c.k. I read that in a book once," Sasha tells me. "Before the dragons. There were these shapechanger guys and they had barbed p.e.n.i.ses. Some of them even had two p.e.n.i.ses."

"G.o.d, no! It was just, uh, different. Thicker. And he's hot to the touch." I'm not going to tell her about the scorching release of his s.e.m.e.n.

"So you touched his d.i.c.k!"

"His skin," I cry out. "His skin is hot to the touch."

"But you did touch it, didn't you?" she whispers. "You can tell me."

"Um. Maybe." When Sasha's eyes go wide, I hastily add, "It wasn't like that, though!"

It was exactly like that, but she doesn't need to know the details.

Sasha clears her throat, blinking. "So you did try to tame him?"

"No! I don't want to tame him! It was just..." I struggle to explain it. "So...he captured me, and he was really nice and kept trying to talk to me. But he also made it obvious that he wanted me."

"Wanted you wanted you?"

I nod. "I guess they don't see females much? He kept trying to touch me, but when I said no, he backed off. He wanted me to want him, too."

Sasha's nose wrinkles at the thought.

And I want to protest that she's misunderstanding. That Kael can be really sweet and flirty, and at the time it felt kind of right to be with him. But then he bit me and everything changed again. It's going to be d.a.m.n hard to explain the dynamic with Kael. The constant possessiveness followed by intense tenderness. Sasha won't understand. Heck, it's hard for me to wrap my brain around things sometimes, and I was there. It's hard to think of a dragon as tender and caring...and bitey. That there's a duality to Kael, and one side is incredible and the other side is incredibly scary. "You had to be there. He protected me from another dragon."

"Another dragon?"

"Yeah. It tried to s.n.a.t.c.h me from him." I skip the part where dragons can apparently smell arousal and that's how the other dragon found me. "Kael stole me back from the other dragon and he was all emotional. He wanted me, and I started cleaning him up, and one thing led to another..."

"Cleaning him up?"

"The blood. He ripped the throat out of the other dragon."

Sasha's eyes go wide again. "And you slept with him after this?"

"I wasn't going to tell him no," I tell her. But it feels unfair to paint that image. I could have told Kael no again. I could have pushed him away. The truth is, when he started touching me, I'd responded, and I'd wanted to have s.e.x with him.

But Sasha won't understand that. She doesn't like s.e.x, and she only does it with her officer friend to score food. She wouldn't understand the sheer longing and need I felt for Kael to touch me, or how it felt when he put his mouth on my p.u.s.s.y and went to town.

"And...so you had s.e.x with him and he let you go?" Sasha looks impressed. "Wow. They really are tamed by women."

"Not exactly." I rub at the hot bite on my neck. G.o.d, I feel hot all over now. Achy, really. "In the middle of s.e.x, he bit down on me, and it hurt, so I knocked him on the head with a rock. I left him unconscious and ran away."

Sasha puts a hand to her mouth, gasping. "He bit you? Let me see it."

I pull down the blankets and push my hair aside, exposing my neck. "Is it bad? It was ugly earlier."

Sasha leans in, clicking on one of our precious flashlights that are used only for emergencies, and s.h.i.+nes it on my skin. The light flicks back and forth on my neck. "Where did he bite you?"

"Are you kidding?" I can feel the heat from the bite racing through my skin like poison. I touch my neck to show her. "Here."

"I don't see anything." Sasha's fingers run lightly over the skin, and they feel strangely cool. "You're hot, but the skin's not broken and nothing looks infected. You sure you didn't panic and imagine it? I would think having s.e.x with a dragon can get a little distracting. All those scales."

"He's not scaly," I murmur, hand on my throat. How strange that the bite's gone. "His skin is soft."

"Uh huh." Sasha clearly doesn't believe me. "Look, I'm not going to judge you for having s.e.x with him. You do what you have to do to survive. Trust me, I understand that." She clicks the flashlight back off and sits down across from me. "Do you think he's going to be mad?"

"I don't know." I'm trying not to think about it.

"Will he come after you?" She s.h.i.+vers at the thought, pulling her own blankets closer to her body.

"I don't know that, either," I say, but I suspect I'm lying, even to myself. Of course Kael's going to come after me. "I'm safe in the city, though."

Sasha looks skeptical but says nothing. "Did you finish eating? There's more."

I hand my empty bowl back to her and shake my head. "I'm good. I need to get dressed." I turn to my small trunk of belongings and pull out a s.h.i.+rt and a pair of jeans.

"Where are you going?" Sasha asks.

"I have to find Amy. She's not back yet, and I want her to know I'm okay."

"You look exhausted, Claudia. Can't it wait a few hours?"