Rowan held out his arm. Before our eyes, his hand holding the bit of pale pink glass changed, morphed into long red fingers tipped with gold claws.
We both stared in complete, absolute disbelief.
“I think the First Dragon just decided I’d pay for the debt after all.” He looked up and met my gaze. His eyes were now brown, with tiny gold and red flecks. “I think I’m a dragon.”
Twelve
“This… you… how?” Sophea seemed to be having as much trouble understanding what had just happened as Rowan himself.
He flexed his red-scaled fingers and willed them back to normal. It took a couple of tries, but at last his fingers returned to a more familiar shape and color. He glanced at the bits of broken shard that the First Dragon gave him and tucked them away in a pocket.
“How did he do it?” Sophea asked. “How did he make you a dragon?”
“He’s a demigod. He started the dragonkin.” Rowan gave a one-shouldered shrug. “He obviously has the power to increase the tribe. Weyr. Whatever a collective of dragons is.”
“Rawr. It’s a rawr of dragons,” Sophea said absently. She eyed Rowan with speculation. “Your eyes changed. They’re just like they were in my dream.”
He touched the edge of an eye as if it would feel any different. “Are they freaky now?”
“No. Just brown, with really pretty flecks of gold and scarlet in them. How do you feel? Do you hurt?”
“Not really, no. I feel…” He did a brief survey of all his limbs. “I feel different. More…”
“More what?” she prompted when he didn’t finish.
“More… more, I guess. More powerful. Like the world is mine, and all I have to do is reach out and take it. It feels—”
The door was flung open at that moment and several people rushed into the room.
Instantly, Rowan was swamped with emotions—anger, lust, a fierce protective sense that warned him that his mate was in danger, and lastly, irritation. He snarled and pulled Sophea behind him, the better to protect her from the potential threats.
“What happened?” Gabriel asked as he crossed the threshold. May quickly followed with, “We felt something amazing—it was like sunshine streaming through us. It was the First Dragon, wasn’t it? He was here?”
“Yes, he was here,” Sophea answered, moving alongside Rowan with an annoyed look cast his way. “He put on a hell of a show, too. I don’t like him, I have to say. He’s awfully high-handed.”
Another woman entered, saying, “Welcome to the club.” She had long silvery blond hair and was accompanied by a male dragon.
Rowan narrowed his eyes at the man, waiting for him to take even so much as one little move toward Sophea.
“What’s going on?” another woman called from behind the two strangers. She pushed forward, stopping to stare in surprise at Rowan and Sophea. “Sorry we’re late. Drake insisted on checking the boat for demons before he let me aboard, which is silly because I could have told him that there weren’t any here.”
“Hello, standin’ right next to you,” a large black dog said, plopping his butt down next to the latest newcomer. The dog tipped his head to consider Rowan. “Wow. New dragon. And a mate, huh? Did I miss any hot mate-claiming action?”
“What on the good green earth is that?” Sophea asked in a near shriek, pointing toward the cluster of people.
Rowan was having a hard enough time trying to keep all the wyverns under his intense scrutiny without having to explain to Sophea that some demons choose to pick nonhuman forms, as the dog clearly had.
As it turned out, it wasn’t the dog she questioned.
“Hi, everyone, we’re here! Connie and Bee will be right along. Did we miss any of the good explanations of what happened? Jim! Long time no see, buddy. Excuse me, Mr. Drake. Miss Aisling, would you mind scooting just a smidgen to the left? Connie got me this fabulous new set of solar-powered wheels and what with the cup holder and solar array, it has a bigger footprint.” A disembodied head sitting on a radio-controlled jeep rolled forward, the joystick control within easy reach of the head’s mouth.
Sophea stared at it as it stopped in front of the crowd, her eyes doing a remarkable approximation of bugging out in horror. “What. Is. It?” she asked in little panting gasps.
Rowan took the chance that the wyverns were not going to try to steal her from him and glanced down. “It’s a head.”
Sophea pinched his arm. “I can see it’s a head, silly.”
“Then what was the purpose in you questioning me?” he couldn’t help but ask. “Can’t you see I’m busy trying to keep all those wyverns from jumping on you?”
She turned to face him. “I asked because it’s not a sight you see every day, now is it? I mean, I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve seen a disembodied head riding around in a toy jeep. No, I lie, I can count on one finger!”
Rowan was confused by the ire in her voice. He frowned at her to let her know that he didn’t appreciate her distracting him when he was doing the important job of keeping her from being stolen by all the wyverns present.
“And furthermore—wait, what? Who’s going to jump me?” She stopped looking annoyed and switched to confused. “Is that why you’re being ‘Mr. I’m Going to Stand in Front of You’? Because if it is, you can just knock it off. I’m not a weakling who needs to be protected. I’m mostly a dragon, remember? I kicked a demon through a window.”
“Whoa now,” the demon dog said, backing away from where it had been sniffing her knees. “Let’s have none of that sort of talk around here.”
“It is my job to protect you,” Rowan said, self-righteousness all but oozing from him. He waved a hand at the still-growing number of wyverns and their mates gathered at the entrance of the cabin. “I don’t know most of these people. Do you? No, I didn’t think so. Therefore, I am fully within my rights to protect you from them.”
“I don’t need protecting,” she objected, waving at the mass of wyverns just waiting to pounce on her. Or so it seemed to Rowan. “No one here cares one hoot about me.”
“Oh, we care,” May said, smiling. “But not the way that Rowan evidently thinks.”
“Most certainly not in that manner,” Gabriel agreed, his gaze narrowed on Rowan. “Ah, that would explain much.”
The other men were examining him in the same manner, which made Rowan feel itchy, annoyed, and oddly antagonistic. He thought seriously of treating each and every one of them to a sound beating.
“Indeed,” the wyvern named Drake said, nodding. “A new dragon.”
“A new wyvern,” the man with the blond woman said. “That makes it even worse.”
“Much worse,” Gabriel said, with yet another nod, and a somewhat sympathetic smile. “And if Sophea is his mate—”
“We’ll be lucky to get out of here without him challenging us all to physical combat,” Drake finished.
“Is that a slur?” Rowan asked, his desire to get rid of the wyverns almost overwhelming. “Because if it is, you’re on. All of you. At the same time if you like.”
“What the hell, dude?” Sophea asked, pulling on his arm until he glanced at her. “What is wrong with you? Why are you acting like the world’s biggest ass?”
“Don’t blame him. It’s not really his fault,” May told her. “Wyverns get this way about their mates when they’re new—the mates, not the wyvern—and in Rowan’s case, he’s got both things going against him.”
“I don’t fight women,” Rowan told May, her attention to Sophea generating the direst of suspicions. “But if you have designs on Sophea—”
May laughed at the same time that Sophea whapped him on the arm. “Right, that’s it. It’s bad enough you acting possessive when you have absolutely no right to do so, but to extend that idiocy to May, of all people, is just beyond enough. Stop it. Stop it right now, and continue to stop it in the future.”
“Hiya,” the head said in a chipper voice, smiling up at Sophea, and thankfully for Rowan’s peace of mind, dist
racting everyone from staring at her. “I’m Gary. It’s Gareth, really, but no one ever calls me that. You’re a dragon, too? Everyone is a dragon these days. Or at least a mate of one.”
“I have every right,” Rowan told Sophea. “It’s my job to protect you.”
“First of all,” Sophea said with an odd expression on her face. It was as if she couldn’t make up her mind whether to laugh or to yell. “Your perception of rights is way off base. Just because we’ve done the sheet tango doesn’t mean I’m suddenly helpless.”
“Rowan, there you are! Hello, you must be May and Gabriel. We haven’t met before, but I’ve heard about you from Aisling and Ysolde. I’m Bee, Rowan’s sister. And I assume you know Constantine?”
Rowan’s eyes narrowed on his sister’s wyvern. He didn’t particularly like the man, especially his habit of calling him the Dragon Breaker. “Bee. What are you doing here? This is Sophea. She’s my mate.”
“Whoa now! I don’t recall agreeing to that,” Sophea said, then suddenly turned to face the massive number of dragons who were now filling the cabin. “Your sister? Uh… hi.”
“Hello,” Bee said politely, gesturing toward the man next to her. “This is Constantine. Have you met everyone? Did you guys see a big splash of light thing, too?”
“Mate?” Constantine asked, squinting at Rowan. Suddenly, he sucked in his breath. “Christos! Am I seeing things?”
“No,” Drake said. “Your eyes do not lie. The Dragon Breaker appears to be a dragon.”
“A wyvern, in fact.” Gabriel frowned slightly. “But what sept?”
Rowan decided to take matters in his own hands. They were capable hands, good hands. Sophea liked his hands—she’d told him so. He straightened his shoulders and said in a loud, authoritative voice, “Everyone out. Go away. All of you. Except Bee. She can stay for a little bit. The rest of you, pack up the head and the talking dog, and leave.”
“You’re all dragon people?” Sophea asked, ignoring the fact that he, the lord and master of the cabin, had proclaimed an order. “So, we’re all like related? I’ve never had a family before—this is kind of neat. Why doesn’t everyone sit down so we can have a chat.”
“No one is sitting,” Rowan counter-ordered. “There will be no chatting.”
“Hi, I’m Aisling. This is Drake. We’re green dragons,” one of the women said, stepping forward to point at everyone, clearly ignoring what Rowan had just said. “Jim is my demon. I’m a Guardian, which is kind of a demon wrangler. That’s May and Gabriel, they’re silver dragons.”
“We’ve met,” Sophea said with a dark look at them.
“Go away,” Rowan said, making shooing gestures. “We are busy coping with things. Important things. We will talk to you later.”
“That’s Ysolde,” Aisling continued. “Her dragon is Baltic. He’s the one leaning against the wall looking bored. His father is the First Dragon, by the way.”
“Hence the bored expression,” Ysolde said wryly. “The First Dragon is the biggest pain in the ass… but I digress. It’s a pleasure to meet you both.”
“Bee and Constantine you met, and I think… yes, that’s Aoife and Kostya just coming in now.”
“Are we late? We saw the most amazing light show just as we got to the ship,” Aoife said, squeezing through the mass of bodies. Following her was a man who glared at Rowan. Rowan glared right back at him, feeling it was the only right and proper method of greeting another wyvern. “Hiya, Rowan. Bee says you’re working with a wyvern’s mate? Oh, hello, I didn’t see you because of the others in my way. I’m Aoife. I’m Rowan’s other sister. This is Kostya. He’s the one who’s scowling.”
Kostya shot Aoife a look. “If I am, it’s because you insisted we join the others. I told you that we were not needed here.”
“Kostya,” Drake said, nodding toward Rowan. “Take another look.”
“Why? It’s just the Dragon Break…” Kostya stopped, frowned even more, then raised his eyebrows in surprise. “He’s a dragon.”
“Yes,” Rowan said, flexing his fingers. He wasn’t the least bit surprised to see that they were now dragon fingers again. “And we are still coping with that fact, and would like to continue doing so in private.”
“A red dragon?” Kostya asked, glancing at Rowan’s hands.
“The red wyvern,” Gabriel said slowly. “Interesting that the First Dragon chose that sept for him.”
Rowan sighed and said to Sophea, “They aren’t listening to me. Why aren’t they listening to me?”
“You’re being rude.”
He shot her a hurt look, wanting to explain to her that foreign, intense emotions were in possession of him now, and he was doing his best to cope with them. She apparently read his expression accurately, because her gaze softened, and she patted him on the arm. “It’s okay, pumpkin. I know this is hard for you. But you might want to give them a little slack. They’re just a bit surprised. After all, they thought you were the big bad enemy, and now you’re one of them. One of us. Give them a little leeway for having the rug pulled out from under them.”
“I don’t want to. I don’t want them looking at you.” He felt a moment of surprise at that. He’d never been an overly possessive man when it came to his romantic partners, and now here he was wanting to throw every single man bodily out of the cabin. And off the ship, for that matter.
“Why?” Sophea asked, looking more curious than annoyed by his statement. “You weren’t like that before… oh. It is something dragony?”
“Yes,” Baltic answered, pushing himself away from the wall. He gestured to the others. “And the former Dragon Breaker is right—we should not be here while he adapts to being a dragon. A wyvern. Such is not an easy task, and less so when he was not born to it, as we were.”
The other wyverns thought about that for a few seconds, then all nodded.
“He has a point,” Drake said.
“Not to be rude, but why, exactly, are you all here?” Sophea asked, and Rowan could have kissed her. In fact, he planned on doing that the second the annoying other dragons left.
“The First Dragon,” May and Ysolde said together.
“Ysolde said that she and May were told by the First Dragon—somehow, I’m not quite sure on whether it was a psychic thing because they both have a link to him or just an ordinary phone call—he told them that something was up and that it was important to the weyr that there be witnesses. And they told me and Aoife and Bee, and we told our men, and they complained, but because they’re smart and know we are wise to the ways of the First Dragon, they agreed we should all pop into the Underworld and see what it is the First Dragon was making such a fuss about.”
“The birth of a new sept is an important event,” Drake said, looking somewhat skeptical. “But I’m not sure it needed all the wyverns present to witness.”
“But that’s just the point, I think,” Gabriel said. “We have witnessed that the Dragon Breaker—Rowan—is now the wyvern of the red dragons, and Sophea, formerly the mate of Jian, is now his mate. We will accept them as such, and the red dragons will be reborn and thus rejoin the weyr.”
“You know,” Sophea said in a conversational tone of voice, “just once I’d like to understand what’s being said without wishing I had a dragon dictionary. What’s a weyr?”
“I like you,” Jim the demon dog said, snuffling at her sandals. “I like the sword, I like the whole Xena role play thing, and I like that you smell like someone who would give a starving dog some treats. Got any, as we’re on the subject?”
“Rawr,” Sophea told the demon, sending a little ball of fire to his feet.
“Gotcha,” Jim said, nodding and giving her toes one last sniff. “You both need some alone time. Luckily, I’m happy to chill in the buffet line. Ash, babe, lead me to the buffet!”
“We aren’t staying, silly,” Aisling told her demon. “We’re just here for a little bit. Although I do agree that the First Dragon seems kind of high-handed in asking us to come all t
he way to the Egyptian Underworld just to see a new wyvern made.”
Drake shot her a look. “Mate, you should not speak of the First Dragon in that manner. He is a god.”
“Demigod,” Rowan said without thinking, then made a face. “And if you’ve looked long enough at my mate—”
“I am so not your mate. Or maybe I am… I’m not exactly sure what’s going on here, other than I like you a lot, but I’m really thinking that this is not the time or place to try to work out a blossoming relationship, especially since my first husband—wyvern—whatever—didn’t last an hour after we were married.”
“You’re getting married?” Bee asked. She turned to Constantine. “We should do that.”
“We should?” he asked, looking startled.
“Kostya and I are getting married in St. Petersburg,” Aoife told Bee. “In September. He says it’s really pretty then, and it sounds very romantic.”
“Oh my gosh,” Gary the head said, bouncing up and down slightly in his jeep. “You three should totally have a group wedding! All the siblings together! Wouldn’t that be awesome? I can see it now—all the ladies in white, and the gentlemen in tuxes, and Jim and me leading the way with flowers. And afterward, we could have a ripping party!”
“I wouldn’t mind, if Bee didn’t,” Aoife said slowly.
“Hmm.” Bee appeared to think about this. “I suppose we could…”
“No,” Rowan said, and made shooing gestures again, this time with broader sweeps of his hands. “We want no part of your plans.”
“Well… hold on. Maybe we do. I mean, I’m not big on weddings at all, which is why Jian and I had ours at the courthouse, but I have to admit that a group party with your family sounds kind of fun,” Sophea said. “Not that I’m saying I want to marry you, because honestly, I still have a suspicion that there’s some sort of kiss of death thing going on with men I marry. I mean, the First Dragon was all set to off you before we winnowed down the number of deaths you owed him, and he decided to take you as one of them.”
“Ah, is that how this came about?” Drake nodded. “I wondered why he chose to forgive the debt.”