I swallowed. The dagger dangled uselessly in my right hand, the revival herbs in my left.
An irrational lick of fear ran up my spine. He wouldn't actually eat me would he? I mean, that was...barbaric...but then, there were those stories...
"It would be a shame too, red heads are my favorite," he murmured. The last words slurred a little and his eyelid lowered to half mast.
I jerked back. Red heads were his favorite? My hair was pulled back as tightly as I could manage, and hidden beneath the hood of my cowl, but some strands at my hairline were probably revealed when he snatched me. Was he...seducing me? He wasn't even fully cognizant.
I waited for his grip to loosen. When it became apparent that it wasn't going to happen, I peered at his face again. I did it to judge my chances, but I cursed the discomfort that a childhood of scoldings from adults had instilled into my very being. The sedative pulled at him, but he fought valiantly.
"I am attempting to wake you..." a variety of insults flowed through my mind. It wasn't usual for me to bite my tongue, but right at that moment I found it was probably a better option. I tugged but it was like being entrapped by living metal. Really warm, and far too attractive living metal.
"...Dragon Lord," I growled. "If you do not release me I swear I will see to it that you sleep for another month."
Both his eyes and his grip narrowed menacingly. So much for keeping my mouth shut.
"And what witchcraft is this, that dulls my senses and renders me unconscious?" His tone matched the expression on his face, one that said he was far too dangerous to me, even in his dulled state.
"It is not witchcraft," I huffed. "It is medicine. You nearly died, I created a sedative that would help to keep you alive."
Dark eyebrows shot up.
"How does a sedative keep one alive?" he asked suspiciously.
"It didn't keep you alive, it kept you still. Your body was torn viciously, and it could not begin its healing while you tossed and turned about muttering nonsense. I know dragon healing is nearly as quick as Shifter, but not if you kept opening the wounds."
His eyes lost focus. And he released my right arm to rub at his face viciously.
"Why can't I remember any of this?"
I studied my dagger now free from restraint, debating. Should I use it? He had rendered me helpless far quicker than I had expected and it made me very uncomfortable. Yet, to return him to slumber now was to give up, not just on him, but on any action. I could not venture from the camp on my own. Not where I was headed, not if I wanted to live.
"You have been asleep for a few weeks. Three and two days, to be exact. It will take your memory time to recover."
"Three weeks?" he snarled attempting to sit. He still held my left wrist so the action pulled on me. In the end I pulled back, helping him to right himself. "I have lost three weeks?"
I nodded.
"But..." his eyes flared and he shot up to standing. It lasted a moment before he was forced to sit once more. "Pourtus a traitor, I didn't see him coming. What happened at the Onyx Aerie?" He shook my arm, sending rough vibrations through my entire body. "Where is Dyanarys, or the rest of the Dragon Lords?"
I shrugged, a little angry at being tossed around like some child's toy. "I do not know, nor do I care."
That seemed to bring back his focus a little, he released my other arm and I stepped back, out of reach.
"I am sorry, Shifter, if you provided me care as you have said, and I sense no lie on you, then I owe you a great debt."
Finally, this is where I had imagined the conversation going, at least after I had considered the possibility of his hatred and an outright attack due to my race.
"I must go now, I need to know the outcome, though I suppose I will be to late to do any good," he tried to stand once more.
Wait, he was leaving?
"No!" I growled. "I did not wake you to go flying off, you owe me your aid Dragon Lord."
I sensed his surprise and the return of suspicion, he stilled, half way to standing; hunched a little and holding the cot for support.
"Just what do I owe you?" he spoke softly, the quality of his words reminding me of a panther ready to pounce. Dangerous.
No, I frowned at myself. There would be no pouncing.
"You owe me your life, as you have said already." Alright, that was a stretch. He probably owed his life to the scouts that found him more that he did me, for a sedative I already had and only strengthened. But I wasn't about to tell him the details. "And you owe me for your freedom, which I am giving to you. The pack thinks you are safer unconscious."
Anger became palpable in the air. "You said that I was sedated to heal."
"You were," I considered my dagger once more. What chance would I have at landing a strike upon him? That hadn't been well calculated. "It was once you healed the pack realized what a threat you would be. They have been debating what to do with you."
"All the while keeping me asleep and away from my own people. People who need me," a hand brushed over his hair and tangled in the knots there.
"People who think you are dead, Dragon Lord. Not so much as a single scout has been spotted in this part of the forest for two weeks."
He stood upright stepping toward me. He should not have been able to do so, but I was quickly learning that the Dragon Lord defied the things that he should be able to do. It was intimidating. I could run from him still, given his current strength he would not catch me. But the alert would be sounded and the pack warriors would have little mercy. Already some debated simply ending his life in a humane way, the only fact saving such a method from serious consideration was that the Lord had yet to do harm. And destroying life that was peaceful toward the pack, minus those lives took for food, was against the law.
The blanket had fallen away, it was something I easily ignored. Years of practice diverting my thoughts elsewhere and the constant near nudity of cousins and relatives had given me plenty of practice doing so. But as he stalked forward my thoughts were arrested by the way his muscles rippled as he moved, the shifting of the patterns on his skin nearly mesmerizing, like prey before a cobra.
It took most of my strength to avert my eyes and keep them that way, even when he neared within reach.
"Shifter, I have little tolerance for games. There are lives at risk, and I will not allow a silly girl, or her desires, to stop me from my duty."
My desires? Silly girl? I was nearing twenty six years of age, hardly a girl. And as to my desires...
"You pig-headed rock licker," I snarled. "You think I am waking you up for sex? I should have poisoned you and been done with it."
That stilled him.
Great Six. This is why it was just easier to stay away from other people. What I wanted to happen, the ease of conversation and clarity of my purpose just never formed. Instead I managed to lose my temper or become impatient and insult someone important. Or dangerous.
"I wouldn't poison you," I corrected swiftly, guessing his next move would be to end me before I proved as crazy as I appeared. "But I wouldn't have sex with you either. And I am well aware there are lives at risk. That is why I need your help."
"Pig-headed rock licker?" Amusement tinged his words despite the seriousness of the situation. "I'm not sure whether to be insulted or concerned for your sanity."
"How about grateful, and willing to provide service?" I sighed. This had gone nothing like what I had hoped. He was my last chance, the only way I had to do something for Adda, and I could feel his cooperation, along with any power I had to act, slipping through my fingers. She was alive somewhere, I could feel it. She would be counting on me to feel it, to never give up hope. I couldn't let her down.
A breeze chose that moment to press against the canvas, fluttering the material and sending the lanterns swaying back and forth on their supports.
"Where am I?" the lord demanded.
I looked past his left shoulder, hoping to gauge his features without meeting his eyes directly. "Deep in the forest, hidden."
"One of the free packs then," he frowned.
"Not by choice. My pack was sent from the Onyx aerie when the Lords there decided that they did not need Shifters any longer." And I remembered that bitter night. It had been sudden, and violent. None had lost their lives, but only because of the quick capitulation of our homes and everything we loved to the dragons. And then we fled into the dark. Armed with the knowledge that if we could not escape the Quatori who lurked within the trees we would be their fodder for we had no way to harm them. When we had at last found the valley, untouched by Quatori scent, and settled. Constructing the best defenses we could, ensuring plenty of light was available within the camp during the day by cutting the forest back. And keeping the brightest of lanterns burning within our shelters at night. The only thing safer would be setting the bright burning lanterns about the camp, a barrier to the beasts. But pack members started to go missing while gathering food or scouting the forest and it was deemed dangerous to highlight the position of the camp. Something other than Quatori was attacking my people. And my sister had been one of them.
"You are the Onyx Aerie pack?"
"We were the Onyx Aerie pack." Was he even listening to me?
"And you knew nothing of the plot involving my people?"
I raised a skeptical brow. Until he woke I wasn't even sure who his people were. He could easily have been an Onyx Aerie dragon I had somehow never come across. I did try to avoid them whenever possible and while in the aerie I spend most of my time sequestered in my apartment fiddling with things that made more sense than people. He could have been from the Jade Aerie, or the Amethyst. Hell, there were probably Dragon lines I had never even heard of.
"Alright, I see that you did not...what then is this service you require?"
Shrewd man. Did he think I did not hear the calculation in his words?
"My sister is missing. She is in danger, and every second I am here is another moment of her life that could be her last."
"Oh? And what does a Shifter runaway have to do with me?"
"She didn't run away," I glared at his feet. "Adda wouldn't do that. She was taken, just like the others."
"Others?"
"Six of the pack have gone missing since we were expelled."
"The forest is a dangerous place, what is it you think I can do about that? I might be a dragon, but even I do not have the power to temper its nature."
Of all the arrogance. Were all Lords so ridiculous? "I do not wish you to temper its nature. I need you to come with me, to be my physical protection from the Quatori so that I can get my sister back."
"You make it sound as though she lives, and you know where she is. I thought you said she was missing."
"She is, and I have an idea of where. I've done some calculations..."
"I will make you a deal Shifter," he interrupted. "It is too much of a coincidence that the Onyx Aerie shifters are removed from the aerie just as our delegation is invited. Whatever happens...or has happened there I believe our troubles are related."
"Yes, but.."
"You will return with me first to the Amber Aerie. My people need to know I have survived and I have a feeling your information will be of interest as well."
I shook my head. "I will not go anywhere, I need to find my sister," I managed. I corked the revival herbs and replaced the dagger loose beneath my belt. I had no sheaths, normally I had no blade. Why would I need weapons? I sighed.
I tried not to let the swell of disappointment surface. My only chance and it was over. He was definitely too alert to consider subduing now. It was a foolish chance to begin with. I should stick to predictions of experiments, I utterly fail at estimating the results of anything else.
He chuckled. I was lost in my own emotions but the sound pulled me free.
"You seem to think you have a choice," he said.