A Dragon's Dream of Love (Song of the Sídhí Series #2) (5 page)

He snapped his teeth together, not
bothering to smother another growl; he hated hurting people. It put him in a
nasty mood.

He stepped past the mess he made and
quickly found several thin and blousy cover-shirts and a bottle of aloe.
Turning, he hurried to the front, grabbing various items as he passed them. He
dumped his growing hoard of goodies on the counter just as Leah sat hers down.

Unable to stop himself, he edged closer
to her.

"Where'd the harem go?" Leah
asked sarcastically. "It was starting to sound like a rock concert with
all their squealing."

He ignored her words. What could he say
that wouldn't make it worse?

His eyes narrowed. Softly growling, he
pressed a feather light finger to her red shoulder. It was hot to the touch;
the sunburn looked a lot worse under the florescent lighting.

“Stop that!” she hissed, swatting his
hand away.

“How long were you in the sun?” he
asked quietly, ignoring her order.

“Doesn’t matter,” she muttered. “As you
noticed, I’m an exile. I burn in the sun.”

“At least it won’t be for much longer,”
the clerk commented; the flab under her arms flopped as she sacked their stuff
up.

“That’s the second time you’ve said
something like that.” Leah sighed, not in the mood to be subtle. “What do you
mean?”

“Humph,” Claire snorted, her jaws
quivered. “You weren’t listening.”

“Sorry,” Leah said, sounding repentant.
“I was sidetracked.”

“The dragons have forbidden blood
drinking.” Claire shuffled backward, inching her way onto the spindly stool.
“All vampires must eat human food or go hungry.”

“Yes, I’ve heard that,” Leah said,
wishing the old woman would spit it out. “What does that have to do with my
skin burning?”

“Don’t they teach you anything in the
Dhark Valley?” Claire asked, apparently shocked over Leah's lack of knowledge.

Derek's anger flared so fast it choked
him. He gripped the edge of the counter until he heard a small crack. He jerked
his eyes from the old harridan – who dared ridicule his Leah – and looked at
the sliver of wood in his hand.

“In Lord PhñDick's house it’s forbidden
to eat human food.” Leah stopped leaning toward Derek, self-consciously
shifting away from him. “The topic of human food in a dhark overlord's court is
rather restricted.”

“Hmm, yes, I suppose it would be,”
Claire half-muttered to herself.

Derek frowned at the wrinkled old
woman, carefully keeping his fangs from glaring at her as well. The dragons
shouldn't let mundane humans work in the commissary if they couldn't be polite.

Turning to Leah, he softly said, “After
a week, maybe two, of not drinking human blood you won’t be as sensitive to the
sun. Your eyes will turn black in the sunshine instead of red and your skin
won’t burn.”

“Oh, thanks,” she said with a sigh,
glancing at him she nervously tugged at the end of her braided hair. “I heard
about differences between blood-drinkers and non-drinkers, but no one talked
about it. It’s a totally taboo subject.”

Derek dug out his black Royal Haven
credit card, but Claire waved it away.

“No charge,” she said. “The dragons
will provide everything you need, including snacks or whatever.”

He shrugged, gathering the assorted
plastic bags in one hand and grabbed a couple more items on the way out of the
store. He looked forward to introducing Leah, to the joy of sweets.

He followed Leah to their table and
watched her grab a small suitcase and carry bag.

“Hold up,” Derek said, dropping his
assorted bags on the round surface.

She didn’t stop; she turned on her
heel, ready to leave.

He grasped the tail of her braid as she
swept past him, pulling her to a stop. "Wait a second."

"No, I'm headed toward the cabin.
I'm so ready to get out of this sun," she said with a glare.

He grinned and gently tugged the end of
her braid until she returned to the table. “The sooner you get sunscreen on,
the better off you’ll be. Who knows how far our cabin is.”

She grumbled, but finally agreed to his
insistent tugging.

She smeared the sunscreen across her
legs and arms. Quickly capping the bottle, she dropped it into her bag.

Derek reached in her big beach-like bag
and snatched it back out.

“What are you doing?” she demanded. The
tips of her small fangs peeked out and her eyes narrowed in warning.

He chuckled at her threatening glare. A
surprising thought hit him like a two-by-four. He realized how totally besotted
he was with her when a glaring vampire looked adorable.

 “You missed a few spots.” He ignored
her protests. Getting up, he rubbed sunscreen on the satiny smooth skin along
the backside of her arms, relishing in the pearl-like quality of its healthy
glow. He swept his large hands in an arc, twitching her braid out of the way
continuing his gentle ministrations along the edge of her hairline, caressing
the gentle curve of her neck.

He tugged her around, carefully
smoothing the creamy liquid on her ears and face.

“Would you stop already? I'm not a
child. You don’t need to do this,” she said. “I can take care of myself.”

It took every inch of his will-power
not to kiss her bare neck as he heard the quiver of desire lacing through her
voice. But she said stop and he'd never do anything against her will. He slowly
pulled his hands away, letting them linger across the shell of her ear.

She shivered.

To his complete delight, when he
started to pull away she moved forward, seeking his touch.

“Your face and ears are already pink.”
He sighed in pleasure and continued his gentle ministrations, keeping his touch
light enough that she could easily pull backward and out of his reach.

“I was trying to hurry,” she said
breathlessly, keeping still for a few more strokes, before sitting backward.
She blinked, appearing stunned that she was half-out of her chair and leaning
toward his body. “That’s more than enough.”

“In a minute,” he said. He reached down
and quickly grabbed her ankles, putting her feet on his lap. He stifled a grin
at her howl of outrage.

“You’re wearing sandals and the tops of
your feet are already pink." To emphasize his point, he pushed a finger
against her soft skin; the rose colored skin turned white under the gently
applied pressure, the same way her shoulder had in the commissary.

“You’re doing this to irritate me,” she
snapped.

“I’d do the same for Beth or Brianna,”
Derek said with a shrug, keeping his voice light and teasing, massaging the
lotion into the tops of her feet as he spoke. “Have you considered I might be
doing this for my benefit? Maybe, I want to protect my ears, because if you're
in any more sun, by tonight you’ll be constantly whining about how much you
hurt.”

“I never whine,” Leah argued.

“You get any more sun and really start
blistering, you will whine.”

Derek finished and rattled ice in his
empty cup. “I’m going to grab a refill before we leave. You want one?” At her
nod, he grabbed her empty cup and left for the cafeteria.

~ ~ ~

A black dragon quietly approached the
edge of the deck, catching Leah's attention.

It sat, and watched people, not speaking
to anyone.

She blinked several times, trying to
un-focus and focus her eyes at the same time. Her aura sight slipped into
place, showing her a colorful picture. 

His aura was a blessing to her way of
thinking. Just the sight of it made her weak with relief. Hopefully, her
biggest problem would soon be over. If she didn't find a trustworthy dragon
before her eighteenth birthday – and her possible first shift – she might as
well send-out invitations to her funeral.

“Hello?”
Leah tentatively asked,
calling a mental greeting to the black dragon.

“Didn’t your parents teach you it’s
rude to mentally speak to someone without being properly introduced?”
A
conceited male voice lectured in her head. His irritation hampered her joy at
finally finding a dragon with an aura shimmering with honor, trustworthiness,
and strength of principle. The bold colors had a ton of smoky gray indicating
smug arrogance streaked through him

She sighed. Slightly rubbing her head,
she shifted her eyes away from the dragon as she spoke. Staring at him would be
a small, yet tell-tell sign she was mentally speaking to him.
“Yes, my mom,
a DeLeigh Dragon, taught me that.”

She forced herself to remain silent,
knowing he’d – sooner or later – demand an explanation to her cryptic remark. She
didn’t have to wait long.

“Explain.”
His curt, one-word
demand, echoed in her head.

Bowing her head in her hands, she
furtively watched his aura for any flicker of dishonesty. Steeling her resolve,
she made her own demand,
“First, tell me if you belong to the Khr’Vurr?”

According to the rumors flying in Dhark
Valley, the Khr'Vurr was a fanatical group of dragons who labeled themselves as
freedom fighters. As far as Leah was concerned, they sounded like terrorists.

His rolling snarl echoed across the deck.
Movement stopped and every eye jerked to stare at him. His open jaws revealed a
deadly set of sharp teeth. Snapping his snout shut with the crashing sound of a
guillotine, he glared at the assembled teenagers. His gaze flitted to one
teenager then the next, pausing as they slid across her face, catching her eyes
for a brief moment. A curl of smoke trickled from his nostrils as he settled
into the grass, ignoring the gathered throng of goggling teenagers.

“Best watch my aura well, Child of a
DeLeigh Dragon, because I will block your voice from my mind if you ever
question my honor again.”
He snapped his jaws, growling at what appeared to
be nothing more than a few blades of grass.
“I would never join the
Khr’Vurr. Now, you will tell me how a vampire - who claims dragon blood as her
own - knows of the treacherous band of dragons that call themselves Freedom
Fighters in the old tongue."

She shook her head, waving at an
imaginary fly.
“What's your name?"

Her mom spoke of many dragons, so Leah
held her breath and hoped this black scaled dragon, with head and back-ridges
of silver, was someone she knew of.

“I am Alexander, son of Marinna and
Richard of the DeLeigh Clan.”

For the first time in over a week, she
felt excitement streak through her. The intense emotion pounded through her
head fighting for dominance against the relief his words caused. She couldn’t
believe her luck, but she needed to make sure. Caution had kept her alive this
long, she wasn't going to screw up now.

Growing up, Leah's mom told stories
about her childhood in Dragon Valley. She had more than enough information to
double check his identity without offending him.
“You mean Alessandro the
Great Dragon of the sunken city of Atlantis?”

“Sweet Jesus!”
His head shot up
and a fat curl of smoke leaked out of flared nostrils.
“Only Lizzie played
that game with me. Tell me she's alive!"

Leah chuckled happily in his head,
“Yes,
mom’s alive, but I think she’d be peeved at the name Lizzie. She said no one
dared call her that after she shoved mud down your ‘rotten black snout.'”

“I’ll call her anything she wants if
she'll only come home. Where is she?”
He questioned with an excited voice,
in a softer tone than his earlier demands had been.

Several large bags crashed on the
table.

Startled, Leah jerked her head up with
a gasp.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you. I
stopped by the commissary and picked up a few more candy bars and stuff,” Derek
said.

"A few?" Leah asked, her
eyebrows reached for her hairline as one of the bags tipped over and every kind
of candy bar imaginable slid across the table.

"I, uh, well I wasn't sure what
kind you might like. So I grabbed a couple of empty bags and filled them,"
he said with a sheepish grin on his face. "Then I realized you might not
like chocolate, so I filled another sack with caramels, hard candy, and
gum."

She rubbed the center of her chest as
it tightened with emotion; no one had ever given her anything.

His smile slipped as her silence grew;
he surveyed the mound of bags and grimaced.

Honestly, she didn't know what to say
to him. At this point, anything would make her burst into tears. She swallowed
the lump in her throat, fighting an urge she couldn't even name. She blinked a
couple of times before answering, but it didn't help the husky tone of her
voice. "Thanks, thanks a lot. It was really thoughtful of you."

He frowned and dropped into a crouch
beside her chair. "Hey, what's wrong? I'm sure those can't be tears, not
from my rough and tough vampire cabin mate." He lowered his voice to a
whisper. "I'll let you in on a secret, she's really scary."

She chuckled, thankful for his teasing
voice; she totally ignored the true concern she heard laced through his words.
She opened her mouth, revealing lengthened fangs and gave a half-hearted hiss,
which was rather hard to do with a smile curling her lips. His next words
nearly had her lunging at his throat.

He leaned closer and she smelled his
hot and spicy aroma mingling with the sweet scent of the candy. "If you
need a bite, I'm more than willing to volunteer," he said seriously,
angling his jugular within inches of her watering mouth.

The beat of her heart throbbed in tempo
with his pulsing vein. The hot liquid gushing through his body called to her as
blood never had in the past. Her fangs ached with the desire to plunge into his
neck, drinking his blood, savoring every pull of life giving fluid.

She eased forward and she heard his
heart race. She distantly wondered if it was in dread or anticipation. She
shivered as her vampire instincts tried to smash her common sense into the
ground. She inched closer to his neck and watched as goose bumps popped up
across his tanned skin.

She sucked in a deep breath, trying to
pull her crumbling ethics back to together. She didn't bite people, not ever.
What was wrong with her? She'd never fought such a desire to drink from
someone. It was like Derek punched buttons she didn't know she had.

He seemed to sense her internal fight.
"You've never actually bitten anyone have you?"

She gulped and shook her head.
"No, but I'm considering it." She turned her face away as she blushed
with shame. Biting was what vampires of the dhark valleys did. And even though
she lived in a dhark valley, she didn't consider herself one of them.

He pulled back and she sighed with
relief.

His lips twitched and she knew he was
laughing at her relieved expression.

"For someone who just gave a
heart-felt sigh of relief, you sure look frustrated. Not to mention your eyes
are glued to my neck and not my face," he said, tapping the side of his
neck.

She blushed, a deep crimson, knowing he
was absolutely correct. Her desire to drink from him was riding her hard and
heavy.

His chuckle strengthened into a full
laugh as it rumbled from his chest. With a wave of his hand he got her off the
hook as he motioned toward the trees. “Ready to find our cabin?”

"Yes," she quickly agreed. It
was only then that she remembered the dragon.

She casually glanced around the deck as
Derek grabbed all of the plastic bags from the commissary, insisting on
carrying them all.

Alexander was gone. It amazed her that
someone, as big as a small jet, could move without a lot of noise. Surely, he
would eventually look for her. She prayed he did. She really needed to speak
with him. Her eighteenth birthday was less than a week away; she was getting
seriously concerned. It didn't help that her mom disappeared after warning her
about the – possible – change her body would go through.

Derek grinned and pulled a wide, floppy
brimmed straw hat out of a bag. With a single step, he hovered over her with
ill-contained glee.

Leah grimaced and shook her head. “No
way, I won't do it.” She ducked as he tried to drop it on her head. “I’m not
wearing that thing. It’s horrid. It looks like an old human granny hat.”

“It’ll shield you from the sun,” he
said, cornering her, he smashed it onto her head.

She growled and started to snatch it
off her head, but she made the mistake of looking up.

His golden eyes twinkled and his firm
lips curled into an adorable crooked grin, which made her knees melt in response.
A dimple winked at her from his cheek, and she vaguely wondered if there was
anything physically – not – perfect about him.

Under his cross-armed supervision, she
wiggled the hat around a bit. Sighing, she gave in to the inevitable. She hated
admitting he was right. His ego was already large enough for ten people, but
having a hat on, especially with such a huge brim, would shield her face from
the sun; it might have been a good idea after all.

“Thanks,” she said, heading down the
steps. “I wonder how far away the cabin is? I really need to walk. I’m still
miserable from lunch.”

“I guess tempting you with chocolate
needs to wait a while then,” he said and grinned when she moaned.

“Not now. Anyway, I’ve heard it’s
addictive,” Leah said, in a questioning tone of voice, while taking in her
surroundings. The camp was located in a truly beautiful mountain area. Glancing
down the hard-packed trail, she frowned. Mint plants crowded along both sides
of the path and throughout the forest floor.

“Delicious and addictive,” Derek said,
tilting his head in question at her frown. “What’s wrong?”

“Mint, tons of the stuff,” she said
disgustedly. “I just noticed it.”

“Yeah, I wondered when I saw it. The
whole campground is planted in the smelly stuff.”

Leah growled softly. “The only reason
to have this much mint is for protection against some pretty nasty Sídhí
creatures.”

“Yeah,” Derek agreed, flipping his hand
toward a cluster of plants. “I asked one of the dragons about that. He said it
was a precautionary measure as there are a dozen or more ‘Nature Preserves’
near the campground, but for us not to worry as the preserves are quarantined.”

“Oh, gee, that makes me feel ever so
much better,” Leah said in grumble, silently thinking the camp must be in
KìvHart Clan territory. The KìvHart dragons were fanatical Sídhí activists,
sheltering every kind of Sídhí creature, whether it was a werewolf or a river
serpent or a basilisk.

~ ~ ~

Derek's tension eased when they
approached a rather large cabin with a blue sparkling lake immediately behind
it. Walking along the path, they stayed shaded; the mountain area was thick
with huge trees, but he didn’t know if the brightness of daylight, even under
the shade, hurt Leah or not. And he wasn't about to ask her and risk getting
into any kind of argument. At the moment, they seemed to be getting along.

They walked in the door and a young man
greeted them.

"Hello you two," the man said
from the kitchen, which was at the back of the cabin, beyond the long common
room. The young man smiled, but his eyes lingered on Leah as he motioned to his
right then his left. “Girls are on that side of the living room and guys are on
the other side. I’m Jacob and I’ll be your dorm parent for the next few
months.”

“Thanks,” Derek said automatically. A
low growl rumbled from his chest and his eyes narrowed in anger as Jacob
continued eyeing Leah’s shapely figure. “Where is everyone?”

“Your group went on a hike. They left
several days ago, heading toward the largest of our nature preserves. After
they finished touring the preserve, they planned to spend a few days in the
paint ball sector,” Jacob said, waving toward the forest. “It’ll be hard for
you to catch up with the main group, but at least you should be able to catch
the other three boys that left an hour or so ago.”

“We’ll wait here for the main group.
Leah needs to stay out of the sun,” Derek said, trying to ignore her gasp of
outrage.

“I can make up my own mind,” she huffed
at his high-handed attitude. "Thank you very much."

“Unfortunately,” Jacob said, grinning
at Leah's snarly remark. “Staying here is against one of the primary camp
rules. The kids in each cabin must stay together and play together. Majority
vote decides each activity and the entire group must participate, whether it’s
swimming, hiking, or watching movies all day.”

“That’s nonsense,” Derek said, his
voice growing harsh. “She’s already getting a burn. Another hour and she’ll be
blistered.”

“I’m fine,” Leah said in exasperation.

“The hike should be perfect,” Jacob
said. “The mountain trails are heavily shaded and it’ll take at least four days
to reach the preserve. They planned to stay there for a couple of days then
another two or three at the upper gun range then ride the rafts back to camp.
I’ll get a couple of packs together with food and stuff. Don’t forget to pack
swimsuits and pick-out a paint gun before you leave.”

In under an hour, they set out armed
with a map and a last minute warning from Jacob. “The nature preserves are
quarantined areas. Don’t leave the approved trail and always sleep at an
approved campsite.” At their grimaces he added, “Camp rules are there for your
protection. Most preserves contain some pretty deadly Sídhí creatures. The
trails and campsites are in secure areas.”

Once on the trail, Leah looked up at
Derek and grimaced. “That was a great send off. I thought I left all the
dangerous creatures behind in the Dhark Valley.”

“Don’t let him scare you,” Derek said,
clenching his fists, angry with the young ‘house parent’ for upsetting his
mate. “I got the feeling he was trying to frighten us.”

“Why? He seemed really helpful,” Leah
said, surprise coloring her voice. Then she grinned up at him. "He's also
gorgeous. He must be nearly seven feet tall and did you see those
dimples?"

“No, I didn't. I've got a gut feeling he
was putting on an act,” he said grumpily, unsuccessfully trying to smother the
growl which rumbled through his words. “Plus he kept going on about how deadly
the creatures in the preserves are. He was trying to frighten you." And,
more importantly he thought, 'helpful Jacob' also couldn't keep his blasted –
perverted – eyes off Derek's precious lifeMate. Surely, Leah didn't honestly
think that dork was gorgeous!

“Hmm, true,” Leah nodded in agreement,
her eyes twinkled with laughter and he realized she had been playing him.

“While you picked out our paint guns,
he told me a pretty gruesome story. It seems the mint is so thick, because a
few years back they had a pack of werewolves and a few Sasquatch escape from a
quarantined area. They went on a killing frenzy, hunting and eating four kids
before being stopped.”

Derek’s dark growl hardened his words
into gun metal. “That was a stupid thing to tell you before we left on a hike
in the same forest. He’s not fit to be in charge of an entire cabin of young
people.”

Leah’s gentle touch on his arm
surprised him. Looking down, he smiled into her worried face. “Afraid I’ll go
back and rip his head off?” he asked jokingly.

“Maybe just a bit,” she admitted with a
big grin.

“It’s tempting, but the dragons
probably wouldn’t like it,” Derek said with a wry smile.

They walked in companionable silence,
but after a while, Derek really wanted to hear her voice. He said the first
thing that popped into his head. “Tell me about your mom.”

When she remained silent, he kicked
himself, remembering Mort's comment about her mom being insane. He seemed to be
making mistake, after mistake with her. Until her synth sang for him and they
mentally bonded, he would probably continue sticking his foot in it.

~ ~ ~

The hat was driving Leah nuts, the brim
kept flopping; with each step it flopped right at the edge of her vision.

For what felt like the thousandth time
she pushed it up.

Derek chuckled and slowly pulled it off
her head.

"Thanks, it was driving me
crazy." She waved at the heavy forest, a mixture of Sídhí and Earth born
plants and trees. “Anyway, it's totally shaded through this area.”

They stopped and Derek tied the hat's
bandanna around a strap on her backpack. When he finished he said, “I could
tell from your voice, your mom means a lot to you.”

“She does,” Leah said, blinking back a
sudden rush of emotion. She didn't like talking about her mom, but Derek seemed
different than most people. A feeling of unease weaved through her stomach; she
didn't want to like him, but with every word he spoke, she liked him more and
more. “She’s the only person in the world I love or that loves me.”

She sighed, giving in to her desire.
She'd wanted to talk with him, but didn't know what to say, not without making
him think she was attracted to him. “I’ve never even seen her face.”

“You've never met your mom?” he asked,
shock twisted his face.

Leah hesitated, not sure what she
should tell him. Admitting she was half dragon was not an option. The other
Sídhí races believed dragons never had children outside their race. How they
kept that secret for this long still amazed her, but she'd promised her mom
that she wouldn't tell. And promises were made to be kept, especially this one.