Dragon Joined (7 page)

As soon as he turned the handle, the water turned off.

He picked up the towel and dried her off. “Listen. I need to
tell you what’s happening tomorrow.”

“No.” She pulled the towel more tightly against her. “I
don’t want to know. I have to concentrate to keep these memories away from her.
The less I know, the better.”

“Are you in danger of that?”

Amanda sighed. “Look. I don’t know. This is all new for me
too.”

“Whatever you need to be safe, you do it. That’s an order.”

She mock saluted him, a glimmer returning to her eyes. “Yes.
As you say, sir.”

“I like that. Maybe next time in bed.”

Amanda dressed. His unfulfilled cock jumped in appreciation of
her curves. Damn it, he still hadn’t gotten any real time with her breasts. When
he did he might never let her come up for air.

They walked hand in hand out of the barracks and back toward
the dragons’ sleeping quarters. He needed to see her back safely and it also
gave him the added edge of finding out where the dragons hid at night, whose
room was whose. Even the servants didn’t know.

He looked up at the sleeping dragon that should have been
guarding the entrance. Narrowing his gaze, he took a second to be amazed. How
did they keep killing his people if they were this dumb?

Before he let her walk by the lizard, he pulled her to the
side.

He spoke in a whisper. “It’s not at all concerned?”

She shrugged. “Why should he be? They’re on top of the food
chain with the other dragons. None of the others have successfully waged war
against them for years. And their human-joined pairs are completely asleep. Their
servants are terrified.”

“Wait.” He paused, letting her information sink in. “They’re
at war with the other dragons?”

“Sure.” She yawned. He’d lose her soon. “They’re all
fighting over land. When they came here from their planet, after it had been
nearly destroyed, they brought their clan warfare with them. The other dragons
tried to take this location from them. But no one human joins as well as
Princess’ people. Maybe because she’s so good at it. In any case, it’s been a
long time since anybody made an attempt.”

He leaned over and planted a kiss square on her mouth. Her
eyes widened. “You, sweetheart, are a gem. Time to get you in.”

Dean took her to her room. By the time she lay down on the
mat where she spent nights, she could barely form words. As he watched, her
eyes closed, and within seconds she was snoring lightly. He grinned. She’d
probably hate it if he told her she snored.

Given the direness of his situation, he should probably be
afraid. Only he didn’t get nervous when the cards were against him. Too many
times he’d stared down death and watched it blink. This time would be no
different, because this time he had the added benefit of knowing this was his
chance to make things right for Amanda.

Maybe there really were second chances.

He snuck out the way he’d gotten in and headed back to his
bed. Not that he’d sleep much, but a little bit would clear his brain.

Dean needed to plot. The dragons were at war? There had to
be a way to use that information to his own benefit.

The night air felt cooler without Amanda beside him. She
made everything better just by being with him. Maybe all he needed to do was
make the dragons weaker, then the other beasts would step in and do the job for
him.

He grinned.
Thank you, Amanda
. Tomorrow might
actually be lots of fun.

Amanda opened her eyes and blinked at the midday sun. Princess,
wearing Amanda’s body, strode around the feed room making a checklist.

“Well. You’re awake. Someone was a lazybones today. It’s a
good thing I don’t need you alert to use you.”

That’s disgusting
. Amanda could think whatever she
liked. Princess didn’t listen unless she needed something from her.

She supposed she could come up with some kind of reason why
she’d slept late but Princess didn’t really care. Living with the dragon for so
long had at least taught her what the creature wanted an answer to and what she
didn’t.

“Are you getting sick? I won’t be in a sick human body. I
just won’t.”

Amanda sighed. “Not sick.”

Dragons didn’t die well. If they weren’t shot down or killed
in battle, they ended up in such a state of pain that it made human aging seem
kind. Usually the leader, Princess in their case, killed them to get their
uselessness out of the group. Anything that might be seen to increase the aging
process, like illness, made Princess crazed.

“Well, then. That’s fine.”

Besides, wouldn’t Princess know if she were sick? Amanda
rolled her eyes. She dominated her body—surely she’d be alerted first if Amanda
took ill. She stopped her thoughts.

Maybe not
. If Princess had to ask, then maybe she
didn’t have all the answers the way she pretended to. Amanda had already
managed to do something Princess thought impossible when she’d temporarily
freed herself. What else could she get away with?

Princess was writing numbers down. In her life before coming
here, Amanda had never learned to write. Well, she’d tried, but school hadn’t
worked out well for her. The only reason she’d figured out how to speak a
little bit better had been because of Princess’ constant prodding. Apparently
the dragon didn’t want to listen to her prattle on if she couldn’t do it correctly.

What could she do to interfere with her writing? Amanda
pushed her own vision into her eyes with Princess’. As long as she didn’t try
to take control, Princess probably wouldn’t mind her sharing. It turned out that
the dragon didn’t even notice.

We share a body, yet I’m too below her attention to
acknowledge
. In this case, Princess’ inattention would benefit the
experiment.

The dragon was writing down the weights of the vegetables
they’d brought it. The scale read 15.8 pounds. Some poor human joined had been
out in the heat picking them. Princess bit down on her lip and Amanda tasted
blood. The metallic taste made her gag.

“I specifically told him sixteen pounds. What is wrong with
all of them? Incompetence.”

The poor guy had probably broken his back getting it up the
side of the building. His dragon wouldn’t have bothered to go and get him, or
at least none of the dragons Amanda knew would have taken the time.

“When he sees this report, he’s going to be punished. And
his dragon too. Who let him get away with 15.8 pounds of corn? What good does
that do me?”

Princess wanted to write down the number 15.8. Amanda
narrowed her eyes and took a deep breath. Using every bit of strength, she’d
mustered up, she made Princess write the number 16 instead. Her dragon captor
didn’t even notice as she moved on to the next box.

Amanda did a little dance. Well, no one would see it, but
she managed to experience the joy just the same. She’d really be boogying
around if she could.

“So now that you’ve deigned to wake up for the day, I must
tell you that I have decided what to do with Dean. I thought you might be
interested, since you had sex with him yesterday.”

She listened to Princess. Somehow she had to keep her
anxiety under control, otherwise Princess might read her thoughts and discover
her late-night antics. To say that would be bad would be an understatement.

“Oh yes?” She wanted Princess to tell her details. Then she
could, maybe, find a way to relay that information to Dean.

“I’ve decided to make an alliance. One of the less-worthy dragon
clans has requested to our join ranks. I’d like to do it but the question
always comes as to how to make the rest of the clan kowtow to me without having
to resort to blood. You know how I feel about that.” Princess preferred to
leave her slaughtering for humans and enemy dragons. Nothing pissed the dragon
off more than having to kill when it hadn’t been her idea. “This will solve
that.”

“I’m afraid I’m not following you.” Worse, she actually
feared she had.

Princess was a monster but her taking over of Amanda’s mind
had been virtually painless. All the joinings went well among her dragons. If
the human could connect, they connected. Bad for the victim on one hand, but it
could be so much worse.

Amanda shuddered. She’d heard the dragons speak of other
clans. The destruction of human minds just for fun. The person left a mindless
shell. Dead except for the use of his or her body.

Princess didn’t like mess. That constituted
mess
.

“The king of their clan is going to take over Dean. He has a
human now whom he’s going to discard. Then he’ll join with one of our humans,
which will bring the clans together, under my rule. He and I will mate. That
way we can continue to have sex using Dean’s body if that’s what we wish. I’m
interested in seeing if he can bring me that level of feeling again. Yesterday,
I went somewhere else during sex. Tell me, are all men from New Strauss able to
do that?”

“I was a child when I left New Strauss. A teenager when I
last saw it. Other than Dean, I’ve never had sex with anyone before.”

Dean burst through the door. Princess looked up from her
work. He looked at them for a second before scratching his head. He swallowed,
his neck muscles clenched.

Either he was acting or he didn’t look like a man who had
expected to find them in there. What on earth did he want in the food storage
room?

She shook her head. Having asked him the night before not to
tell her, she had to live with questions for a while.
Just until tonight
.
That was what he’d told her. Unless the Dean she knew had disappeared by then, brutally
taken over by some dragon clan leader.

No
. She wouldn’t let that happen.

“What are you doing in here, Dean?” Princess sauntered
forward. Amanda hated how it made her hips feel to move like that. The movement
didn’t come naturally. Seduction didn’t seem to be built into her body’s
natural rhythms. “Not that I’m not glad to see you. I have to give you good
news.”

“I’m helping the servants.” He nodded. “I wanted to see
where everything was.”

What?
Amanda couldn’t see the servants sending Dean
to inspect the vegetables. Doing so constituted a cushy job. Why would they
give it up? Something else had to be going on.

“Well, feel free.” She pointed downward. “You can start with
the corn. We’re short .2 pounds. Because of idiocy.”

“Mind if I take a look?” Dean walked over, sticking his head
down into the corn before she gave him permission.

“Are all human men this dedicated to produce?” She rubbed
his back.

Amanda wanted to throw something. How dare Princess touch
her man? She had to get her breathing under control. Since opening her eyes,
all Amanda had wanted to do was touch Dean, kiss him, make sure he still felt
the same way about her that he had the night before—even if thinking like that
made her seem insecure. Whatever. She wanted him.

And only Princess got to touch him and that just…sucked.

Dean looked up for a second, staring in her eyes. He made a
nonsensical noise and looked back down into the corn. “No offense, Princess.
But when I’m studying corn, I don’t want to be touched with scaly hands.”

“Your nastiness will be ending soon. We have found you a
match to join. After he is with you, all will be better.”

Princess had to be deluding herself. The leader might want
to join with her for strategic purposes, but no ruler wanted to subject
themselves to another monarch. This had to be eating the other dragon alive. He
wasn’t going to immediately fall in love with Princess and start spewing
romantic poetry. Not that she’d ever heard of a dragon doing such a thing.

Dean pulled his head out of the corn. She expected to read
horror in his gaze. Instead he didn’t seem the least bit concerned about that
at all. He stared at her for a moment with a blank expression on his face. “Has
anyone taken any of this corn? How about any of the other vegetables? How is
the food distributed?”

Princess opened and closed her mouth once before she spoke.
“You are quite obsessed with this.”

“It’s a hobby.”

Amanda wanted to laugh. Dean Andrews had no time for
farming. Oh, he’d make sure the agricultural needs of New Strauss were taken
care of. They’d be as safe as he could make them, but Amanda doubted Dean had
ever looked at a vegetable he wasn’t eating before in his life.

“And you are more concerned with it than your future?”

Dean wiped his brow. Amanda never knew if it was hot or
cold. Princess could regulate her body temperature both in her dragon and her
non-dragon forms. But if Dean was sweating, that meant it had gotten really hot
outside. Not that it ever really cooled down in the jungle. Some of the dragons
were less concerned with their humans’ comfort. They let their joined be very
uncomfortable. For that, Amanda could count herself lucky. Princess always took
care of the small details.

Her obsessiveness over things made her a very formidable
enemy.

“I don’t really consider you to have much to do with my
future. But that corn.” He pointed to it. “I might eat that. It matters.”

With that, he turned his back on her and stormed from the
room.

Princess called after him, “Your dragon will be here in a
few hours.”

She hadn’t been able to resist giving him the information
she felt he needed, even though he’d been uninterested. Amanda sighed. Some
things were predictable.

Princess put her hands on her hips. “Infuriating little
creature. Maybe I should have killed him.”

How on earth was she going to get Dean her intel while she
remained trapped in Princess? She couldn’t very well make her lie down and
start sexually fantasizing about Dean.

* * * * *

Amanda watched as they dragged Dean into the room. He had a
black eye. It had been hours since she’d seen him. What had happened in that
time? Princess must not even know or Amanda would have heard it too. Her heart
stuttered. How badly had they hurt him and why?

Flapping of wings made Amanda look upward. Four black dragons
swooped in from the hole in the ceiling. No wonder Princess had dragged Dean
in. His dragon had arrived.

Princess had spent the day like any other—inspecting,
cleaning and ordering her dragons around. Several had returned from a raid on a
local village. Apparently the villagers had been caught in areas of the jungle where
they didn’t belong. They’d paid for that with their homes and some with their
lives. Princess didn’t feel anything about the news. To her, punishment had to
be doled out like vitamins. It made everyone stronger.

Amanda suspected that the villagers hadn’t seen them coming.
Her heart broke thinking of their families. Why did she have to be so totally
incapable of stopping Princess from doing these things?

Dean looked up at her. “I’m fine.”

Princess shrugged. “No one asked.”

She appreciated him letting her know. What had happened? She
wanted to open her mouth and ask. Had the fight been his fault? Or had someone
attacked him?

“I attacked a dragon-joined human.” He sat back in his chair
as if he hadn’t made a startling announcement.

Princess stormed over to him. “Why would you do such a
thing? I will not have this kind of disorder in my home.”

“I felt like it. Let’s say I conducted an experiment and I
liked the results.”

Princess slapped him across the side of his face that was already
bruised. He hissed in a breath, rubbing his damaged eye socket but giving no
other indication he’d been bothered by her assault.

She huffed. “You are a barbarian.”

“Maybe.” He rubbed his forehead. “Maybe not.”

What the hell did he mean he’d experimented, and did she
even want to dwell on that? Hadn’t she told him not to tell her anything? She
wanted to groan and stick her head under a pillow.

The largest of the black dragons that had entered the room
stepped forward, its footsteps shaking the table where Dean sat. Her lover
looked up at the new dragon with a raise of his eyebrow. Didn’t he feel
nervous? When Princess had taken Amanda, she had screamed and yelled. Not her
best moment, considering she had lived outside the protection of a homeland
feeding two toddlers for years without a complaint.

Yet that day she’d wailed for her mother. She closed her
eyes, unable to remember that moment any longer. No one had come to rescue her
and she’d been well past the ability to save herself from her fate.

Acceptance of the inevitable hadn’t happened until Princess had
slammed into her mind, leaving her no other choice.

Did nothing faze Dean Andrews?

The dragon roared. Inside she shuddered, but externally
Princess barely recognized the assault on her ears.

Princess brushed her bangs out of her eyes. “You don’t have
to shout, Xor, I can hear you fine. And I’d like to keep these human ears for
the length of time I keep this human.”

Xor growled low in his throat and Princess nodded. “I know
it takes a little getting used to. You were not as successful as we in your
joinings. But here we all have humans, if we are strong enough to warrant them.
I assure you, it doesn’t take long to get used to regulating your voice.”

Princess grabbed Dean by the ear. “This specimen is to be
yours. I can talk you through the process of joining and if you fail this time
there will be others. I liked him, but right now I wouldn’t mind having him
move on.”