Tamed: A Curvy Girl and Dragon Shifter Romance (Black Dragon Brotherhood Book 1), Page 5

  Before he could move, Kady appeared on the porch of her home, a small black box and wiring leading into the house under her arm.

  A weapon?

  “Come on universe. Gimme some cloud cover,” she said.

  The billows of smoke from the fires he’d started quickly built banks of clouds that closed in over the field. The bladed ships were engulfed and moved off.

  Holy shit. The smoke and weather behaved as if someone told them what to do. There were no Gold Dragons around to manipulate the wind. Had Kady done this magic?

  She squatted down, pointed one end of the box toward the sky and flipped open a cover to reveal a white light.

  A squadron of metal dragon-like creatures appeared in the sky, moving into formation at the moment the clouds completely blotted out the view of the night sky. Smoke and clouds were no surprise, but red lasers shooting from the mouths of the metal creatures shocked both Neo and the owl men. The men raised their weapons and fired.

  Kady aimed a remote control at the interior of her home and the sound of the roars whooshed through the sky. Fiery bursts of flames in red and green sounded, pew pew pew, and they could all hear the metal dragons calling out to each other, but not in mindspeak.

  “Red leader one…”

  “He’s on my tail, I can’t shake him.”

  “It’s a trap!”

  Neo looked up at the battle raging in the sky, and then over at Kady. What kind of Dragon Warrior Queen was she? And did he have to compete with all of these metal dragons to claim her as his mate?

  “Don’t just stand there, you big... uh, dragon, help me unhitch the trailer.” She ran toward the back of the Herbie while the masses of men and metal dragons were engaged in battle.

  Neo used all his energy to run to her side and fell beside her. The last hits of the weapons had weakened him. Perhaps her metal dragon warriors could protect her now.

  “Oh no. Neo. You can’t die now. Please.” She touched his muzzle, imbuing him with her own spirit. The flow of her soul into his buzzed like a shot of Dragon's Breath spreading warmth through him. It was enough to get him back on his feet.

  The First Dragon had given him a powerful mate indeed. He only hoped he was good enough for her.

  Kady pushed on the metal bar connecting the Herbie and the tiny house, turning the crank on a hand wheel at the same time. “These dickheads are only going to fall for those X-wing fighters for about two more seconds. Come on, universe. Gimme a little help.”

  The metal ball and socket holding the whole thing together fell apart right before his eyes. That was the second time Kady had used those words and made her will happen.

  Hot damn. How had he not noticed it before? His mate was a witch. A much more powerful one than any of the ones the Dragon Wyverns were mated to. She had powers beyond the elements, and an entire new species of dragons at her command.

  “Go, Neo, go.” She pushed him toward the Herbie.

  “God. You’re not going to fit. Can you turn back into a man?”

  Neo pushed the dragon back inside, again shifting faster than normal. That had to be from her powers as well.

  “Yes,” he said.

  “Okay then. Get in the truck. The Death Star is about to explode.”

  Sweet stench of Hell, what did that mean? Just how powerful was his witch?

  They both jumped into the vehicle. Kady started it up and pushed on a flat bit of metal on the floor. They screeched across the field and down a hidden dirt road. As they flew into the cover of the trees, behind them a loud explosion boomed and then the sounds of cheering reverberated through the air.

  “Remember the force will be with you,” the metal dragons said, and then disappeared.

  “Did those soldiers of the owl destroy your army?” He would mourn their loss with her, but he couldn't contain his hope that this meant the competition for her affections would be no more. She was once again his and his alone.

  “No, the rebels just defeated the Empire.”

  Neo looked at her, wondering what Empire she could possibly mean. Ereshkigal had ruled over the underworld during the reign of the Sumerian and Akkadian Empires, but they were long since gone. Perhaps she meant the Empire where her metal dragons came from. But she didn't seem upset about their defeat, so maybe not.

  There was so much more to Kady than he expected. Her powers could help in the battle against the shadow warriors. The sooner they could hook up with the Black Dragon Brotherhood, the better.

  “Don’t worry,” Kady said, “The Empire will strike back.”

  Uh-oh. Neo would have to be ready to challenge this Empire and keep the light of his soul, his mate safe. The best way to do that was to mark, claim, and mate her as soon as possible.

  Like right now.

  Game of Gnomes

  Herbie flew down the mountain so fast she thought he might fall apart. Kady had never seen him go above fifty, but they were doing ninety miles an hour trying to get away from the army of men. Those were no ordinary men in black either. She'd never seen that stylized owl symbol in any alien conspiracy stuff on the internet before.

  How could they have a whole army, and no one had ever heard of them or gotten a picture or anything? Not that she'd gotten pictures. Running for your life and camera phones didn't go well together.

  She took the turns like a Formula One driver, which she was not. But the steering wheel easily glided through her hands and Herbie floated around the bends in the road and the bumps over the rocks and dirt.

  Maybe her alien lizard man was using a special power to help them escape. Good, because they could use all the help in the universe. If some black ops men in a black rogue unit were after them, they were totally screwed.

  She’d read all the conspiracy theories, from Area 51 to the ancient aliens of Nazca. That’s all they had ever been, fun to think about, but not reality. Then again, she thought the same about aliens up until a few hours ago.

  Kady glanced over at Neo. He had transformed back into a man, a man who was bleeding all over the place.

  “We have to get you to a hospital. No, wait scratch that. We need to get somewhere with Internet, so I can watch a YouTube video or something to figure out how do first aid on bullet wounds.”

  There was a video for everything on YouTube. At the very least there would be an episode of Grey’s Anatomy.

  She glanced down at the towel that had somehow stayed on her body through all that, and wished for a Target.

  “No. Keep going. Put as much terrain between us and them as you can. I’ll be fine. When we find a safe place, you can use your powers to heal where my dragon has not.”

  They hit Devil’s Gulch Road and the evening traffic buzzed by. Okay, two cars passed, but an old red pickup going ninety would stick out. They would be less conspicuous if she went the speed limit. They’d need to find a place to hide quick.

  Neo sunk deeper into the bench seat, looking less Mr. Universe and more pale by the second. “Why did you not tell me you were a witch?”

  Losing blood or not, there was no reason for him to get assholey. “Hey. Don’t be calling me names. I just saved your ass. Again.”

  Three big dark SUVs with tinted windows passed them going toward her home and the crash site. The longer they stayed out in the open, the more chance someone was going to spot them. And capture them. And probe them.

  Kady did not want to be probed. Unless it was by Neo’s tongue. What, wait, whoa. No. That must be the adrenaline talking. Yeah, yeah, the complete and total attraction to a dragon-shifting, alpha male, alien was all because of a hormone.

  “Is witch a derogatory term to human mortals? What do women who can manipulate the world around them with their will call themselves? Your powers are far beyond anything that I have seen among Dragons’ mates. Even the wolves' mates with special powers have nothing on you.”

  “What powers? The power of an LCD projector and high-speed internet?” The closer to town they got, the more rubber-necking tourists they
encountered. They passed at least five cars pulled over to the side of the road. Usually people stopped to stare and take pictures of the wildlife that came down from the sanctuary of Rocky Mountain National Park and wandered around the town. These gawkers were all focused on the billows of smoke and the steady line of emergency vehicles speeding up the mountain.

  Kady glanced over at Neo and found him frowning at her. Not like he was mad, but like he couldn’t figure her out. That was not a first.

  “Stop staring at me like that and help me find a place we can hide both ourselves and Herbie.”

  He did not stop staring. “I know of a place we will be safe, but it is not nearby.”

  “I’ll take anything at the moment. Unless you mean your home planet. I don’t think we have enough gas for that.” Although, for being an ancient truck, Herbie got excellent gas mileage.

  Neo pointed toward the East. “No. Do you know how to get to New York?”

  “Oh, my god. Are you taking me to a secret government facility? Is your mothership there?” She’d always wanted to go to someplace like Area 51, but really, if aliens had landed on Earth, why would they go to someplace like New Mexico? They'd find out where the leaders were. Why else would everyone always be saying 'Take me to your leader'?

  “The governing body in Rogue is under rule of the Tzar, and I would appreciate it if you could keep that a secret. I don’t who my mother was, but she does not have a ship. She was a demon and they don't much like water. We need to get to the headquarters of my brotherhood. There are more of your kind there, and my team is waiting for me.”

  Her kind? Like plump, nerdy girls who didn’t much like people and preferred to live in sci-fi and fantasy worlds on TV and in books? The only place she’d ever been that had people like her was Comicon.

  “We need someplace closer than New York. You’re wounded, and Herbie isn’t exactly inconspicuous.” Maybe they could get lost in the traffic in Denver. But first they had to get there.

  “We should at least head in that direction.” He gasped as a bullet popped out of his chest from a patch of shiny black scales. “Do you have any friends we could take refuge with?”

  Friends were not her strong suit. She’d been better off on her own, up in the woods, on her mountain, in her tiny house.

  Her tiny house that was probably now swarming with agents of this secretive owl organization who were examining every bit of her pathetic life.

  “Not really.” Kady glanced over at Neo, expecting to see the disdain everyone who was cooler than she was got when she had to admit her shortcomings.

  He looked decidedly unwell. His injuries were taking a toll on him. “Can you call your team and have them come get you?”

  He shook his head. “No. They must report back to our Wyvern about the...new threat we face.”

  Her cell phone was back in the remains of her tiny house. Damn. “Won’t they come to rescue you?”

  “No. The mission they are on is more important than one man. Which is why we must get to New York.”

  Once they got past the lake, she got on US 34 to head down the mountain. The road was only two lanes, and there were not a lot of options to get off if that army of men in black showed up.

  Which they did, right then and there.

  One of the big dark SUVs they’d seen earlier drove up behind them and rammed her rear bumper. “Holy crap. They’re going to kill us.”

  There were only trees, a cliff, and the steep slope of a mountain on either side of the road. If they tried to run her off, she and Neo would either end up Thelma and Louis-ing off the cliff, or crashing through the trees. Neo had already done that once today.

  “Go, Kady, go. I will try to find a way to defend us.” Neo opened the glove box and found Herbie’s service records, a box of breath mints, an aux cord, and nothing else.

  He crumpled the papers and tossed them out the window. One stuck to the SUVs windshield, but their wipers took care of that instantly.

  The owly bad guys gunned it and pulled up next to her, then plowed into the side of Herbie, making her swerve onto the shoulder.

  Neo shook his head. “I suggest you call upon the universe to help us, because I can't fly.”

  Well, crap. “I don’t think the law of attraction works like that.”

  “Do it, Kady. Say your spell.” Neo looked at her like she was something special, and it made her heart go pitter patter.

  The SUV rammed them again. That also had her heart working overtime. Between the two of them she was going to need to see a cardiovascular specialist.

  What the hell. “Dear sweet universe, help us not die and get away from the bad guys.”

  They took the next turn, screeching around the corner and straight into a thick bank of fog. Kady couldn’t see a thing, but she knew the cliff edge was to the left and the forest was to the right.

  She’d rather end up smashed into a tree than smashed into the canyon floor a trillion feet below them.

  She jerked the steering wheel to the right and Herbie flew into the ditch, alongside the trees and down a small incline. Kady did the best she could to steer. Tree branches slapped the windows as they bumped over the rocks and other terrain. The ground below them dipped and she lost all control of the truck floating through the air. Please don’t let them have gone over the cliff.

  One minute they were bouncing off trees, and the next they were at a complete stand still.

  Kady breathed in and out. It was all she could muster for a moment. How had they stopped? They hadn’t crashed. They’d simply stopped moving forward. Maybe they had plowed into a tree and were dead now.

  “Kady, are you okay? Are you injured?” Neo was breathing as fast as she was, but he seemed unharmed too.

  “I’m fine, I think. Unless we died in a fiery crash and don’t know it yet.” Her body was on fire, but not in a bad way. In a ‘wish she'd brought her vibrator on this road trip’ kind of way.

  Neo pointed out the window. The fog bank lifted, leaving as suddenly as it had rolled in. “I think not, unless your afterlife is a green field surrounded by large metal boxes.”

  In front of them sat a small, serene meadow dotted with tiny houses made from shipping containers. Behind them was a forest of thick trees, none of which seemed disturbed by their violent entry.

  How? What?

  A small person, like really short and stocky with a long white beard and a shiny prosthetic arm, popped out the front door of one of the houses. If Kady were less PC, she’d have said he was a garden gnome minus his hat.

  She couldn’t hear him, but he was waving his arms and yelling across the field at them. Then a second small person, a woman wearing a flowing white dress and an apron, came out and starting yelling at the man.

  “Do you know these tiny beings?” Neo asked.

  She smacked him on the arm. “Don’t call them that. They’re little people.”

  “The little people are approaching. We should ask them for shelter.” He opened the door and got out of Herbie.

  She followed him out, but only to stop him. “Wait. They don’t look very friendly.”

  “We will be able to evade the men searching for us with them. Come, fire of my soul. I have a good feeling about them.” Neo took her hand and led her across the field.

  “You,” the little man pointed at Kady, “what do you think you’re doing coming in on a cloud and invading our garden?”

  His words were accusatory, but he had a twinkle in his eye, like he knew exactly why they were here. Which was a strange thought for Kady to have. Even she didn't know why they were here.

  The woman tsked. “Now, dear. Don’t make the pretty witch and her dragon mad. I’m sure if they needed to break through our wards and come for a visit, there is a good reason.”

  The woman mumbled some foreign-sounding words, waved her hands in the air, and a quick buzz, like a bee flying by, shot over their heads. “There, that fixes that.”

  Neo put his body between the little people an
d Kady, like he had when the soldiers had been firing at her. Both times this strange tingling happened below her breastbone. Not to mention the tingling between her legs.

  “We require your assistance,” Neo said.

  Great, way to get on the angry little man’s good side. She might not have that many social skills, but at least she could apologize and start them off on a better foot.

  “Sorry, we couldn’t see where we were going in all that fog. We didn’t mean to invade or break your, uh, wards.” Whatever those were. Kady glanced at Neo’s wounds, her own towel dress and then to the woman, hoping for some empathy. “See, we were run off the road. We could really use your help.”

  “Oh, yes. Come, come, we’ll put you in the house Kur just completed.” She indicated they should follow her and walked toward one of the containers. “It’s an order for another witch so the interior should be the right size for the two of you.”

  Maybe Kady had bonked her head in the crash down the mountain because these people were saying things she couldn’t wrap her mind around. Another witch?

  The man stomped his foot, but then winked at Kady. He was playing some kind of game. “Inanna, you always do this. We are not doing anything for these people. They broke into our garden, trouble is following them, and I have to ship that house tomorrow.”

  Inanna tsked him again and then bopped him on the nose. “Shush yourself, Kur. Everything will be fine. The dragon needs our help. You can still ship your beautiful house tomorrow.”

  Kur seemed to like the compliment and getting his nose bopped because he rolled his eyes and pretended to still be mad, but there was an unmistakable grin on his face. He also checked out his wife's ass as she turned back toward Kady.

  “Will your broom be okay in the grass?” Inanna gestured to Herbie and then led them to one of the containers.

  “My truck?” What kind of mountain version of Hogsmeade had they entered? “Sure. The grass is fine.”

  The shipping container turned into a tiny house had been painted a beautiful light blue on top with grass and trees to blend in with the scenery below, a whole bay of windows had been added, and it even had a covered porch. It was bigger, and much nicer, than Kady’s tiny house. A stylized graphic of a garden gnome had been stamped on the door. Under it were the words Gnome Sweet Home, Inc.