Page 24 of Ensnared (The Dragon Captured #1)

No, I’m here to try and find the old Liz.

And it worked. Human rebels, right in front of me.

Before I can say a word, before I can even think about greeting them, a water dragon rushes through a gap between a shoe store and a burger place, and a dozen earth dragons flank the troops on the other side.

“Surrender,” a man says from the back of the blue dragon.

Ensnared.

“If you don’t surrender, we’ll be forced to kill you.”

“We’re here to warn you,” the man at the front says. “In three days’ time, we’re going to bomb this entire area off the face of the earth. We’re using nukes. Nothing will survive.”

Are they serious? Will the United States really nuke its own people just to take out the dragons?

Actually, now that I’ve thought that question, I realize that it’s ridiculously naive.

I’m a little surprised they’ve waited this long.

Now that the man has delivered his message, the man opens fire on the blue dragon.

His troops follow suit, all except one. The guy on the farthest side peels away from the others and sneaks around the corner.

He appears to be hiding, which is good. Because moments later, the dragons have—ignoring the gunfire—killed all eleven of the other men.

No one else appears to have noticed that one man snuck off. Or if they did, they must not find him to be much of a threat. After all, his gun can’t do much, and if he fires and kills some of their slave humans, oh well. Plenty more where they came from.

It occurs to me for the first time that if I enslaved him, I could just march him into my pods and no one would notice or care.

I could save his life.

Once the dragons are distracted with talking to one another, I dart after the escapee. Saving someone who would otherwise be killed is admirable, right? I’d have finally done something good. I could save someone who might have died if I hadn’t been here.

It takes me a few minutes of searching to figure out where he went. He’s moving away from me quickly, but finally I’m close enough to an unfamiliar mind to reach for his consciousness.

I tug, and he slows.

I doubt he even realizes he’s doing it. He probably thinks he’s tired, but I slow him enough that I can catch him.

Bizarrely, he’s headed in the general direction of where we’re staying, which will make my job easier.

I won’t have nearly as much time in which I could be discovered and punished after I take hold of his mind.

A little closer, and I’ll do it.

Only, when I do get close enough, he feels familiar somehow.

Like he’s a movie I’ve already seen, or a pair of shoes I’ve broken in some time in the past. Instead of taking over his brain, I wait, creeping closer still.

Close enough to see his face, if only he’d remove the helmet.

Thanks to that bizarre feeling of familiarity, I feel worse than ever about forcing him to pull his helmet off, but I do it anyway.

And then I gasp, because he’s Gideon. My Gideon. Special forces Gideon.

He turns toward the sound of my exhale and our eyes lock.

“Liz!” Gideon shouts.

Then Axel, in his golden dragon form, crashes around the corner, snarling. Before I can even think about stopping him, Gideon raises his weapon and opens fire.

Axel roars even louder, and I realize he’s here to protect me. He probably felt my adrenaline rush, sensed my movements, and raced over to keep me safe.

From my, well, from my almost boyfriend.

“Wait!” I shout. “Don’t kill him.”

Both Axel and Gideon freeze and turn toward me slowly.

“Why not?”

He’s attacking me.

Great. They both think I’m talking to them. But then I remember the promise Axel made to me. “You promised me five humans,” I say. “Remember?”

The golden dragon frowns, the corners of his mouth turning pointedly down.

“I have three living with me, but my mother you claim you can’t help. I haven’t even seen her.”

He snorts.

“This is my friend, my dear friend, Gideon. He’s come to try and rescue me, not knowing that you were already keeping me safe.” I hold up a hand, trying to make a soothing gesture. “He’s number four.”

Axel blinks.

“We aren’t using all the rooms in the house. He can have one.” I pause and check whether he’s calmed down at all. “Yes?”

The golden dragon sniffs.

Gideon hasn’t lowered his gun yet.

“Put that down,” I hiss. “It won’t do anything anyway.”

“These are armor-piercing rounds,” he says. “They’ll shoot through?—”

“Put it down, you idiot.”

“He’s your friend?” Axel asks. Somehow, while I was focused on Gideon, he shifted. “Or he’s your boy friend?”

I didn’t realize he knew there was a distinction. “He’s my friend,” I say.

At the same time Gideon says, “I’m her boyfriend.”

Axel frowns.

“He’s been my friend since I was a child,” I say. “We had just talked about maybe dating when. . .” I gesture around. “All this.”

“I’m here to save her,” Gideon says.

“She doesn’t need saving,” Axel says. “And you can’t have her. She belongs to me.” He arches one eyebrow. “If you want to stay with us as her friend, you’re welcome.” His lip curls. “You can’t stay as her boyfriend.”

“That’s not what you said,” I argue. “You promised me five humans.”

His head snaps toward me. “I promised you five family members . I’m willing to extend that courtesy to this man, this man who came in with a weapon and threatened to try and kill me, but only if he’s not romantically involved with you.”

“You can’t possibly think she might like you.” Gideon’s disgust is clear and apparent.

Axel steps closer, a muscle in his jaw working.

His voice comes out as a snarl as he towers over Gideon, which is not an easy thing to do.

“She belongs to me, and when humans think they love someone, they act even dumber than usual. She’s already made some questionable decisions.

I’d rather not invite someone under my wing unless I’m sure they won’t make that propensity worse. ”

“You don’t have wings.” For someone who couldn’t have known that was a sore spot, Gideon sure did manage to needle it.

“What will it be, little man,” Axel asks. “Will you stay or will you die?”

The lyrics to that stupid song start to run through my head, which is absurd. The last thing I should be doing right now is humming a Clash song from the 80s, but with ‘die’ in place of ‘go,’ but this is how my brain works, apparently.

“I’ll stay.” Gideon drops his gun and lifts his hands. “Message received. I won’t do anything stupid, I swear.”

“See that he doesn’t,” Axel says, ignoring him. “I’d hate for him to endanger Sammy, Coral, and Jade.”

I expect Axel to go back to whatever I yanked him away from now, but he doesn’t. He walks with me, slowly, staying by my side the entire way back to the house. Then he stands next to me, awkwardly, while I show Gideon to a room.

And then he still doesn’t leave.

“Are you alright?” I finally ask, once Gideon’s showering.

“Are you?” Axel’s staring at me. “That man likely came here to find you.”

I think about the letter I left at my house and cringe. “You might be right.”

“He wants to take you away from here.”

“I won’t go,” I say without thinking. But I realize Gideon won’t be easy to dissuade.

“You can’t go,” Axel says. “I haven’t done it, but I can force you to do things, just as you force those humans.”

I had all but forgotten that, in the weeks I’ve been bonded to him. “Why haven’t you forced me before?” I’ve certainly given him plenty of cause. He could order me to stay in the house or within a hundred yards of it, for instance.

“I never wanted to,” he says. “I think rules and orders limit your ability to stay safe, to flex with situations as they arrive. But after today, I’m afraid I might not have a choice.”

I shake my head. “I never even considered leaving with him.”

“Yet.”

I roll my eyes.

“Do you want him here? Or were you just trying to keep him safe?”

“Does it matter? It’s done.”

“Do you love him?” The word love, coming from Axel, sounds bizarre.

“Do you even know what love is?” My words are soft, because I hope that Coral, Jade, and Sammy won’t hear. But also, because I’m not sure that I want to know the answer.

“I’ve read about it,” he says. “I’ve watched human movies that talk about it a lot.”

“So that’s a no.”

“What does it mean to you?”

He likes to ask the really impossible questions. “It’s. . .”

“Also, you didn’t answer. You deflected.”

“I’m trying to answer,” I say. “It’s a complicated question.”

“Not that one—my first one. Do you love that man?”

“Oh.”

He really does ask hard questions.

“I don’t know,” I finally say. He can feel my emotions, so I can’t just lie. “I don’t want him to get hurt. I don’t want him to be in danger. Does that count as love?”

Axel shrugs. “I’m the wrong one to ask.”

Clearly.

“I don’t want you to be hurt,” Axel says. “I don’t want you to be in danger. Does that mean I love you?”

Gideon’s out of the shower and standing in the hallway behind Axel, and he looks ready to try and murder him. “Don’t you have humans to terrorize?”

Axel’s wry smile is bitter, but only I can see it. “Make sure you don’t get confused. I’d hate to be forced to kill him.”

But that’s clearly a lie. He wouldn’t hate it at all.