Swaying on her feet, Carissa crumpled to the floor, too. She just needed a few minutes in a lower state to recover. The transformation should help her, but it was going to make Michael’s job harder. Hopefully, he was up to the challenge. She closed her eyes to let go of part of her control.
3
Oh God! Oh God! Oh God! Michael’s brain chanted as his dragon lady stepped into the room filled with enemies. The first strands of sound hit him, and he knew. God, he knew who she was! How had he not recognized her? Who in their right mind would kidnap her? And he had kissed her!Oh God, he was a dead man. The king would have his head. On a platter. For dinner! He had kissed the dragon king’s sister!
Everything made more sense now. The gold and bronze of her corseted gown—the colors of the royal family. The fact she hadn’t said anything to him. How she spoke now was a mystery his panicked brain couldn’t wrap itself around. Born without a voice, she had learned how to borrow the voices of other dragons, but it had to be a dragon. He was most definitely not a dragon. Maybe that part of her lore was wrong. Maybe she could use anyone’s voice.
God, even her being held captive made sense. The king of dragons loved his sister with a fondness that bordered on unnatural. She would have made the perfect leverage to move the king. He would have done anything to keep her safe. That is, if her kidnappers had managed to keep her imprisoned. Whoever chose her as their target had made several very grievous errors—one of which was underestimating Lady Carissa’s power. With their escape, her kidnappers had just made the very top of the king’s shit list.
Suddenly, his pants were less tight. The king would kill him, too, if he knew the kind of things Michael had been thinking about his sister.
Swallowing back his shock, Michael watched Carissa turn to take in the room. Her eyes seemed to be searching for something, but what? He looked around at all the enthralled humans. How he knew they were all human was beyond him at the moment, but he knew it. Her song grew in intensity. He could feel the magic searching for something. It brushed against his skin like a purring cat. A strangled sound drew his attention across the room as a single fellow crumpled to the floor, his strings cut. She had killed him with just her words. His eyes went back to his dragon lady. Carissa, he corrected in his mind. Lady Carissa, sister to the king. The most powerful dragon sorceress known to walk the earth. Her power rivaled even the king of dragons. Oh, he was so dead when they got out of here. Maybe Daniel could find him a nice hole to hide in for the rest of his natural life.
The strum of magic subsided as she brought her song to an end. Her voice was beautiful. Oh, how he would love to hear that voice, maybe a little hoarse, crying out his name in passion. He slammed that thought down with a quick reminder that she was the king’s sister. But it did nothing to relieve the ache growing in his pants again. He was so going to die with blue balls.
He looked around the room at the men. All of them were crumpled to the floor, but the few he could see were still breathing, so they weren’t dead. She had only killed the one man. Why not take them all out? It would solve a lot of issues.
There had been a rash of dragon disappearances, lately. After a long undercover operation, Michael had discovered this group. They had been kidnapping and killing dragons for their glands. The pheromones they produced sold for big money, but they couldn’t be reproduced in a lab. It had been his own bad luck that had gotten him caught during his mission. If he hadn’t gone back for that cup of coffee, he wouldn’t have run smack-dab into their hands. Why they just hadn’t killed him on the spot was still a mystery. Maybe they wanted to try to trade him for some of their buddies whom Daniel already had locked up. Fat chance there. Daniel didn’t make deals. Anyway, Michael was an Elite. He was on his own.
His attention was pulled away from his thoughts when Carissa moved. Horror filled him as she crumpled to the floor. He tried to cry out her name, but his voice didn’t work. She’d definitely stolen it to perform her trick. His heart squeezed when her form dissolved. Dragons only involuntarily shifted to their smaller forms in times of stress or need.
Voicelessly crying out her name again, he rushed to her side and dug the small, golden dragon from inside the body of the dress. He placed his hand on her side, feeling for a heartbeat. For a moment, he thought she was dead, and then she pulled in a raspy breath. His fingers finally located the staccato beat of her little heart—strong and steady. Michael let out a shaky breath as he cradled the limp dragon against his chest. If he’d had any questions about who she was, this cinched it. Only the royal family shifted into gold dragons. He stroked her head and tucked her wings in before turning to roll up her dress. She was going to need it as soon as she recovered.
Once everything was secure, Michael stood up and looked around. Getting her things together had been a quite a chore. He hadn’t wanted to put her down in case he needed to get out of there fast. With her dress, rolled inside the corset, secured to his belt, and her jewels in his pocket, he looked around for the exit. There were three doors leading out of this room. Tucking Carissa into the crook of his left arm, Michael pulled out his gun and headed for the door on the right. He was taking no more chances with her safety.
Michael was surprised at how small Carissa was in this form. The gold dragons were the largest of the great dragon families. They towered head and shoulders above any of the other colors when in their great form. He had seen Carissa in that form many times. She was magnificent. The way the light sparkled off her scales always stole his breath away. Hell, the light sparkling off any color of dragon was magnificent. There was something in their scales that broke the light and reflected it back, like the prismatic coating on interstate signs. He had always wanted to touch her scales. They were so beautiful. His thumb rubbed gently against the side of her head where it rested in his palm. He looked down at her to make sure she was still okay.
God, she was so small. He had seen dragons in their little forms that rivaled Great Danes. But Carissa… she was barely the size of a house cat, although she did have a little length to her. With her head resting in his hand, the tip of her tail hung to nearly his knee. A scalloped frill covered her neck, but she lacked the horns her brother sported in his grander size. The tip of her tail ended in a fanning of soft strands. Not hair, but not hard like quills. It patted softly against his leg as he walked. For a second, the thought of that tail thumping into his back popped into his head. A shot of desire raced through him again. Oh man, he had gone crazy! Now he was having erotic thoughts about her in dragon form. That was just not normal. He had always loved the look of her as a dragon, but it had never caused him to lust before. He shook the thought away, readjusted himself, and worked his way down the next corridor.
Michael had been able to determine they were in some kind of castle-like building. The windows, if there were any, were small and set high in the stone wall. Some didn’t even have glass in them. The halls all wound around oddly, like a maze. He had taken several wrong turns that came to dead ends, but he was able to avoid the people moving about. Carissa had rumbled a few times in her sleep but hadn’t woken. He rubbed his thumb gently over her neck, hoping she would wake soon. He could really use her help to find a way out of here.