Page 13

“Our deepest fears are like dragons, guarding our deepest treasure.”

—Rainer Maria Rilke

By the time they arrived at the underwater cavern, surfacing through the pool within, Zai and Sin were awaiting them with several piles of ashes scattered upon the damp, rocky floor.

“Vampires?” Ben asked as he stepped out of the pool and transformed seamlessly into his human form without missing a beat.

He could hear and feel Lizzy’s awe at his transformation in the sharp intake of her breath and how she flexed her fingers in his grip. But otherwise, she took all of this in stride. Because she didn’t have his ability to turn his body heat up or down, he tucked her into his side with one arm securely wound around her waist, letting her wet skin and clothes dry against the furnace of his body.

Zai gave a curt nod.

“They were already here when we arrived. But it doesn’t look as if they found anything. They attacked first. Didn’t bother with niceties.”

“Any idea who sent them?”

“There was likely more than one faction,” it was Sin who answered this time.

“Half of them might have been Sinaga’s contingent, though there were no identifying markers. The other half, not sure. But they were shadow assassins.”

“According to Ryu’s intelligence, no Dark or Pure clan has declared official jurisdiction on this island,” Ben mused. “But the mainland of Japan is protected by the Dark Queen Gozen Hangaku—”

“Wait,” Lizzy interjected, “my Japanese history is rusty, but that name is very familiar.”

She turned to Ben with wide eyes.

“Don’t tell me she’s the same Gozen Hangaku from the 1200s, the ‘beautiful and ferocious’ samurai warrior?”

“The very one,” Ben confirmed, crinkling his eyes at her.

“Wow,” Lizzy breathed, awestruck yet again.

“When we arrived, the two factions were already in the heat of battle,” Sin said. “There must have been more than a dozen fighters.”

“Did both factions attack you or only one?” Ben asked.

Zai and Sin exchanged a look.

“The shadows more or less tried to shove us out of the way or debilitate us,” Sin answered slowly, reflecting as he spoke.

“The others aimed for mortal wounds.”

“A couple of shadows slipped out once the battle was over. We didn’t stop them since they didn’t seem to target us. And the other faction was entirely wiped out,” Zai added.

“They didn’t take the egg?” Ben asked with a puzzled frown.

“What egg?” Sin said, spreading his arms wide to show that there was nothing in the cavern, not even nooks and crannies to hide things in.

“We didn’t find anything yesterday when we came, and it’s the same today. This place looks completely empty.”

Why would two factions go to war, then, Ben wondered.

Perhaps the aggressors who now littered the cavern floor were unwanted guests of the island, and the shadows were simply neutralizing the threat? But then, why did the shadows let Sin and Zai remain? Who sent the two factions in the first place?

He would have to find some time to confer with the Dark King Ramses’ Chosen on possible theories.

“Except…” Zai murmured, fisting his hands at his sides, a study of frustration.

“I feel it. There’s treasure here. It’s close by. I just don’t know where to start looking. We’re surrounded by solid rock.”

Lizzy surprised them all by saying:

“I feel it too. I think it’s hidden in the rock walls, somehow camouflaged and dormant so we can’t tell it apart.”

She was almost dry at this point from Ben’s body heat, but he was still loathe to let go of her when she pushed gently out of his arms to wander around the cavern.

The space was about eight hundred square feet with a twenty-foot ceiling dripping with stalactites. Stalagmites dotted the edges of the pool, while jagged crystals glowed from broken sections of the rock wall. It wasn’t clear what gave the crystals their glow, but they provided a source of light in the otherwise pitch-black cavern. Their light was amplified by the reflective surface of the pool.

The three warriors watched her glide her hands gently along the rock wall, searching.

“I’m not tall enough,” she said after she finished an entire turn.

“Lift me up?”

Ben immediately unfurled his wings and gathered Lizzy in his arms. Together, they made another tour around the cavern, so she could touch every inch of the walls with her hands, even the sections right up to the ceiling.

Just when they were about to come back down empty handed, her fingers glanced over a smooth surface that made her pull back with a gasp.

“What is it?”

“I felt heat,” she murmured. “I don’t think I imagined it.”

She tried to find the same spot again, patting around the area more purposefully this time.

Sure enough, her hands landed on something that began to throb with a dull glow.

“Do you see it?” she said with building excitement.

He did. He could hear Sin and Zai’s questions in his mind through their animal spirit link, and he shared Lizzy’s progress as she went along.

She smoothed her hands over the surface again, and this time, a bumpy pattern rose from the wall itself. Until the shape of an egg formed, bulging slightly from the wall.

“How do we get it out?” she asked, looking to Ben for help.

“Keep petting it,” he said by instinct.

“It seems that the more you touch it, the more it unhides itself.”

She did just that. She caressed her hands over it many times, murmuring encouragement in a low, soothing voice.

The egg rose higher and higher away from the wall as if magnetized to her palms. Its glow grew in intensity too, its bumpy surface getting hotter, more defined, until the hard, stone-like shell was covered by raised patterns that looked like dragon scales.

At last, it popped entirely out of the wall, as if the cavern had given birth to it, and landed heavily in Lizzy’s outstretched arms.

“Oof,” she grunted, staggering under its weight.

But Ben was ready for it and didn’t falter, his wings compensating for the added burden. He brought them gently down to solid ground.

Sin and Zai were already there, surrounding Lizzy like two bulky goliaths. Gingerly, she handed the egg to Sin’s waiting arms, whereupon he cradled it like a baby against his chest.

Zai put both of his hands on it too. The egg glowed even brighter, lighting up from within so that Ben could glimpse the faint outlines of a baby dragon.

“ Mine ,” Zai and Sin said in unison.

The egg seemed to shiver in agreement.

“You did it, Lizzy,” Ben said, wrapping his arms around her waist, her back against his chest.

“I didn’t do anything,” she demurred. “It was just a hunch.”

“Your touch awakened it,” Zai said, shaking his head in wonder and disbelief, staring down at the egg.

“We might have never known it was there all along without you.”

She ducked her head shyly.

“It’s probably because I’m used to digging around for treasure. After all, I’m an archeologist. It’s what I do.”

Ben thought that might have helped, but it wasn’t nearly all of it. Despite being human, the fact was that Lizzy used to be a goddess. The Goddess. Who created dragons and many other Immortals in the first place.

Perhaps there was dormant magic in her still. Perhaps it was that affinity to her creations that awakened the egg.

Maybe this was what Sinaga counted on when she delivered the first egg to Lizzy for her to touch. And if Sinaga suspected what Lizzy was, who else knew?

Ben’s arms tightened around her.

“You must take the egg somewhere safe,” he instructed Zai and Sin.

“Only tell us when you’ve arrived. Don’t tell us where. And try to hatch it as soon as you can. If the news from Rui and Wolfe are any indication, there’s an expiration date.”

Sin flicked a humorous glance at his Mate.

“It’s all on you, dragon,” he purred. “I’m a liger. I don’t have experience hatching eggs.”

“Neither do I,” Zai muttered, scowling at the task at hand.

“You just sit on it in your dragon form,” Sin said with all the authority of a backseat driver.

“Your big muscular ass should do the rest.”

Zai sent him a glare even as the warrior’s sharp cheekbones flooded with color.

“We need to head out now,” Ben commanded. “Water might be the safer route. I have the advantage in my sea dragon form if we need it.”

“You have the advantage in every form,” Sin said with equal parts good-natured envy and pride in the leader his dragon Mate had chosen to follow.

“You’re the only shifter who has all three dragon forms, for sky, earth and sea. And you have all the associated half forms too.”

Ben could feel Lizzy’s avidly curious gaze drilling a hole in the side of his face.

“You okay with the water, cat?” he taunted Sin.

The warrior rolled his shoulders loosely.

“My tiger side loves going for swims. Lead the way.”

The way back through the pool took longer than the way in, for Ben decided to swim farther to a more distant shore, just in case.

When they finally emerged on land, three black-robed figures awaited them. They wore coverings on their heads and faces as well, like ninjas of old.

Ben pushed Lizzy behind him, and Sin and Zai boxed her in, hiding her completely amongst the three of them. Sin held the egg close to his chest and bared his elongated liger fangs in warning.

“We mean you no harm, dragon and Beast lords,” the shadow assassin in the front said in low tones, his English melodiously accented.

“My Mistress sends her regards. She is glad that the treasure has finally found its keepers.”

“Your Mistress?” Ben inquired.

The leader of the shadows bowed slightly but did not respond.

“We are here to deliver a message,” he said instead.

“Our Mistress only wishes for peace. She does not lay claim to the treasure that does not belong, but she has safeguarded it for generations. She knows what it is. There are those who fight for it. Who have come to this island over the many centuries that she has protected it to take it by force. They have failed where you succeed.”

Ben was absolutely certain by this point that their “Mistress” was indeed Gozen Hangaku. What little he’d heard of her was that she was known to be fair and strict. Abiding by the Dark Laws that King Ramses set, even though she was technically outside of his domain.

Her own laws were very much in line with his. The punishment she dealt to law breakers was swift and deadly. Her Dark warriors protected all in her Hive, including Pure Ones, humans and other Immortals.

“She wishes for it to be known to the Dark King that she is an ally should he need one in this region,” the shadow continued. “Perhaps the next time the Dark Assassin visits, he can do so without subterfuge and stealth.”

Ben quirked his lips, knowing that the shadow was taking a dig at Ryu Takamura.

“I will be happy to pass the message along,” he said.

“And you, Dragon King,” the shadow added, “are a welcome ally as well. We have land and sea secured, but we could always use strength in the sky.”

“Understood,” Ben said with a nod.

“I will confer with the Phoenix to see what Beasts of Sky he could spare.”

The three shadows bowed in unison. Without another word, without noticeable movement, they simply melted away into the night.

“Wow,” Lizzy whispered from behind Ben, poking her head out to the side so she could see what was going on.

“Someone pinch me. Because I feel like I might be stuck in a very detailed, very fantastical dream. I mean… Ow!”

Sin grinned at her while she rubbed her arm where he took her words at face value and pinched her obligingly.

A rumble vibrated from Ben’s chest in warning.

“She asked,” the liger Beast said unrepentantly.

“Get going,” Ben ordered Zai and Sin, gesturing with a jerk of his head.

“There’s still the cover of darkness. Take your treasure somewhere safe.”

Without further ado, Zai shifted into a gunmetal gray dragon, his scales reflecting darkness and light so seamlessly that he seemed to disappear. Sin climbed on top of his back with the egg. They shot into the sky with a flying leap and a couple flaps of Zai’s gigantic wings.

“I’ll never get tired of seeing that,” Lizzy whispered, now tucked again into Ben’s side, watching them disappear into the clouds.

“Two down, seven to go,” Ben said.

“Where to next, oh Dragon King?” she asked with a beaming smile, excitement for the ongoing adventure written clearly on her face.

“Egypt,” Ben replied.

“I already sent word to my friends there. They just returned from their travels and will meet us in El Gouna.”

“And I am not a Dragon King,” he added belatedly with a small frown.

“I think you are,” she said cheerfully.

“Your friends and acquaintances clearly think you are. You are a natural leader, Benjamin. As history has shown, the best leaders are often the most reluctant ones. It’s because they care and take so much upon themselves.”

He merely grunted in reply, looking for another more interesting topic to steer them to.

But Lizzy already found one.

“When we get to where we’re going, I want you to tell me what’s really going on. Start from the beginning. Don’t think I haven’t noticed how you didn’t answer my questions before—namely, what’s my role in all of this.”

She grasped both his forearms with her small, graceful hands, head tilted back and eyes locked with his.

“I’ve been having strange dreams, Ben. I’ve had them for a very long time. My whole life, it feels like. But lately, they’ve become more than dreams. They seem like…memories.”

A muscle in his jaw flexed involuntarily.

She knew .

“This isn’t the first time we met, is it?”

Her bright gray eyes searched his, turning iridescent like her eyes, with the first rays of dawn brightening the skies.

“We knew each other…before,” she mused, almost to herself.

“Who are you, Benjamin Larkin D’Angelo?”

Softly, she added, almost afraid—

“Who am I?”

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

This time, they traveled by Dragon Air, courtesy of Ben’s sky dragon form.

He chose this method because it was easier; there were very few options that didn’t involve a lot of complex logistical maneuvering leaving from a remote Japanese island. And, admittedly, he wanted to delay the inevitable—answering Lizzy’s questions. While riding on his back and without tapping fully into the telepathic link they shared, she couldn’t very well interrogate him like she wanted to.

He wasn’t ready to tell her yet.

A part of him wondered whether she was ready to face their past. Another part of him worried that knowing their past would somehow prevent her from fully embracing who she was now .

She was Dr. Elizabeth Rose Winters. Archeologist. Only child of David Winters and Serena Lin.

Human.

A woman who was getting to know him. Starting to care for him.

He didn’t want her to feel obligated because of what they used to share. He didn’t want her regret and, even worse, pity. He wanted her to want him for who they were now and how they could be together in the future.

In this life. And gods willing—forever more.

And so, he was going to do everything in his power to stall for answers. She had to find her own way. Make her own decisions.

If, in the end, she didn’t choose him, he would let her go. No regrets. No matter what happened, he would accept her choice.

He’d already made his own. He’d make it again and again for as long as it took.

With every moment he spent in her presence, he became more enthralled with this version of Lizzy. She reminded him of how pure and innocent she was when she first came into being. All brightness and light.

Yet, the humanity in her kept her grounded in this incarnation. She was guided by logic and reason more than instinct and desire. But the latter were there within her in spades, waiting to be ignited.

This version of Lizzy was peaceful and balanced within herself. She needed no external source to be complete. Because of that, Ben wanted her even more. If she chose him now, it would not be because she reluctantly, even resentfully, needed him. It would be because she truly wanted him.

And he wanted that more than anything.

When they arrived in El Gouna, Ben camouflaged their approach by using his opalescent golden scales to reflect every angle of light, turning them like mirrors. No one below would have known that a giant sky dragon had just landed on the rooftop of the La Maison Bleue, the most luxurious hotel in the area.

Lizzy slid down into his arms seamlessly as he transformed into human. She was a natural and instinctive dragon rider. As if she was made specifically for him.

“Kiss,” she demanded boldly, urging his head down to her with her arms linked around his neck.

He gladly obliged her with a smile teasing his lips, letting her taste his joy when he melded their mouths and delved into her sweetness with his tongue.

“Mmm,” she hummed, pulling away just a fraction to lick her lips, savoring the taste of him and nuzzling her nose against his.

“You taste so good.”

She peeked up at him through her lashes.

“Is it normal to want you this much? I’ve never felt this way…the few men I’ve dated were nice enough, but they never… no one has ever made me feel this way. Like I need you to breathe. Like you’re my air and water and food. It’s crazy, right?”

Ah, his beautiful, innocent, honest Lizzy.

Her forthrightness seduced him as nothing else could have. Without even trying. Her very existence and closeness already kept him hard and ready all the time, but this …

She was killing him with lust and need and the undeniable primal instinct to mate .

“Lizzy,” he said, his voice half growl, half groan.

“Thirty years old, and I never even wanted a kiss from the boys and men in my life. Could barely tolerate a peck,” she went on, keeping their mouths close enough that he felt her warm breath and the movement of her lips as she spoke.

“And now…I want everything . I want to know your body as well as my own. I want to explore everything my body wants too, because I’ve never wanted so much so desperately. It’s like I don’t even know myself. Like you’ve somehow awakened a beast inside me that I never knew existed. I want to devour you, Ben. Surely this isn’t normal. Have you put some kind of spell on me?”

“Lizzy…” he rumbled, his voice resonantly deep and low, barely understandable, a thunderous vibration that shook through his chest and into hers, making her shiver all over.

All the while, her iridescent eyes held his, keeping his soul ensnared in her intense gaze. In these moments, as they stood on the hotel rooftop with the balmy sea breeze sifting through their hair and clothes, it felt as if they were encapsulated in their own other worldly bubble, the way the Pure Goddess used to spirit Byakko away when she wanted him all to herself.

She was the one who’d put a spell on him. Goddess or human, she’d always effortlessly held him in thrall.

“Don’t worry,” she said, placing a chaste kiss on his mouth, then a few more along his jawline and throat as if she couldn’t help herself, before going down on the flat of her feet instead of stretching up on tiptoes.

“I’ll behave myself for now. I need to give my parents a call, if you wouldn’t mind finding us something to eat. I’m famished.”

She waggled her brows at him.

“And not just for the ambrosia of your body, beautiful Ben,” she added tartly.

Gods!

“When are we meeting your friends?”

It took him a second or five to find his tongue after he’d swallowed it. His body was locked into steel by her words, his cock hard and weeping, throbbing in time with his heartbeat.

He cleared his throat before he spoke.

“Heba and Shai will come by the hotel at dusk. It’s easier to hunt for the treasure with the veil of darkness.”

“Are they a dragon couple too?” she asked curiously, linking their hands together as they walked down the stairs from the rooftop.

Ben’s gait was stiff and awkward, but he tried to hide it as much as he could. There was no hiding the monster erection in his pants, however. It bobbed heavily and rubbed against the fabric of his trousers with each step. The lack of underwear didn’t help with the abrasions to his sensitive head.

Maybe he ought to invest in a cock cage to keep himself contained.

“Heba is the nickname for Hatshepsut—”

“No! Don’t tell me she’s the Khnumetamun Hatshepsut, most acclaimed female Pharoah of all of Egyptian history?”

Lizzy was so excited, she stopped their progress at the bottom of the stairs, her hands gripping both of Ben’s hard, as if she needed something to keep her grounded lest she floated away in disbelief.

“The same,” he said, grinning at her enthusiasm.

“She’s a dragon?”

“No, her Mate, Shai, is.”

“Wow.”

She shook her head in amazement.

“I gotta tell you, this is the most awesomest adventure I’ve ever embarked on. If it’s a dream, please don’t wake me up.”

“It’s real, Lizzy.”

“You’re real too,” she whispered, squeezing his hands.

“Aye,” he husked.

Wow , she mouthed silently, as if she still couldn’t believe what was standing right in front of her.

Ben checked them into the hotel with an open-ended checkout date and ordered room service as soon as they entered their penthouse suite. He was pleased to note that Lizzy didn’t bother asking for her own room as he was afraid she might. It seemed she’d accepted their closeness, the fact that they would sleep in each other’s arms from here on out.

She still tried to pay for half of their lodgings, however, ever mindful of pulling her own weight as a woman of independent means. But Ben assured her that there was no reason to, given how absurdly wealthy he was. Dragons of all kinds had a natural knack for money, even when they didn’t try to accumulate it.

“Okay, but if our next stop is somewhere less fancy and within my budget, I’m paying,” she said staunchly in her no-nonsense voice.

He gave of nod of agreement. His Lizzy had pride. He loved that about her.

Ben opened the door for room service as Lizzy started a video call with her parents. He could hear her in the background as he locked the door behind the server and arranged their meal on the small dining table for two in the adjoining sitting room.

“Yes, the speech went well,” Lizzy was saying, “not nearly as stressful as I thought it would be… no, actually I’m not in Bangkok anymore. I went on a…”

She darted a glance in Ben’s direction.

“…an impromptu treasure hunt with a-a friend… yes, we’re in Egypt right now… Who’s the friend? Oh…well, you don’t know him actually…”

She glanced at Ben again as he sat at the table watching her.

“Wanna meet him?”

Ben’s brows elevated at her offer.

This wasn’t how he pictured meeting Lizzy’s family. He didn’t have time to prepare. But as he sat frozen like a deer caught in headlights, she was already coming over with the phone pointed his way.

She came behind him and leaned down to loop her arms around his shoulders, holding the phone in front of them both.

“This is Benjamin D’Angelo, Mom and Dad,” she introduced blithely while Ben continued to stew in his paralysis.

“He’s the historian I mentioned before that I’m a huge fan of. You remember, don’t you?”

“Ooohh!” the pretty Asian woman in the video said, coming closer to the screen as if to take a better look at Ben.

“You never said he was so young and handsome, Lizzy!”

Lizzy turned to Ben, her lips brushing his ear as she murmured, “Congratulations. You’ve already won Mom over. None of my friends ever excite her upon meeting them. What can I say—I get my great taste from her.”

Ben cleared his throat as his traitorous cock throbbed harder at Lizzy’s closeness, at the softness of her lips against the sensitive shell of his ear. He prayed that the camera angle wouldn’t accidentally tilt down.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Mrs. Winters.”

“Call me Serena,” Lizzy’s mother said. “I don’t share my husband’s last name. I’m an independent woman who chooses to share my life with him.”

“Noted,” he croaked, heat flooding his cheeks from her admonishment.

“Mom,” Lizzy whined, as if this was something Serena did all the time—making people uncomfortable with her bluntness.

“Well, it’s true,” her mother said unapologetically. “And when you marry— if you marry—I expect you to keep your own name.”

“She can choose whatever name she wants,” David Winters put in.

“Pleasure to meet you too, Lizzy’s friend,” he greeted Ben with a relaxed smile, his eyes somehow conveying without words that he didn’t believe for a second they were just “friends.”

“Likewise, Sir,” Ben rumbled.

A glint of approval flashed in David’s eyes at Ben’s show of respect.

Casually, as if she did this her whole life, Lizzy kissed his cheek before pulling away and taking the call into the bedroom area.

Ben stared after her nonplussed.

Though she called him her “friend,” she treated him like…more. And in front of her parents, no less.

Like a lovestruck teenager, this dynamic gave Ben hope. He wondered how many men had ever met Lizzy’s parents. Somehow, he was absolutely certain that none of them ever had. It gave him a deep sense of satisfaction.

Lizzy was choosing him whether she was conscious of it or not.