“I don’t answer to traitors,” he spat. Three thousand years and he still recalled what the Silver Sept did. It was their fault he’d sacrificed his life and freedom. Them and their hunger for power. They were the reason the Shaitan entered their world.
“Holy drama. I was just asking the basics.” The female angled her head. “Seriously. What are you?”
Daphne answered for him. “The jerk who ran off and left me alone to deal with the cops.”
Did she imply cowardice? “I did not flee.” At her pointed glare, he amended, “Merely remained out of custody that I might retrieve you later.” She didn’t need to know that initially he’d not actually planned to return.
“You took your sweet time rescuing me then. I’ve been locked up since this morning,” she complained.
“You were not easy to locate.”
“No, she wasn’t, and I got here first,” stated the stranger. “You know what they say, finders keepers. Daphne is coming with me.”
“She will not go nowhere with you. Silver.” He couldn’t help but sneer. The temerity of thinking she was above him.
“Watch that tone, Azrael. My name is Babette Silvergrace, and I am a favorite of the king.”
“Since when do we have a king?”
“We?” The silver cocked her eyes and frowned. “You’re a dragon? What Sept do you belong to? Which family do you come from?”
“I have no family. No allegiance to any self-professed king or country, merely a vow to protect the world,” he stated. When he’d gone into service so very long ago, he’d not really understood just what that meant, what he’d give up.
Too late for regret now.
“So you’re a freelancer?” she asked.
“Hardly free,” he said with a grimace.
The silver dragoness, wearing her human form, eyed him. “Nice cloak. Where’s your horse?”
“My steed did not make it out of the desert.” And proved impractical in a world where machines took their place.
“Did it at least have a name?” Daphne muttered, rubbing her forehead. “Seriously, why are we talking about a horse? We need to leave. At least I do, so I can figure out how to prove you stole that knife, not me.” She jabbed a finger in his direction.
“It’s not theft given it didn’t belong to your museum.”
“It belongs to the government, and they loaned it to a museum they own,” she argued.
“I have need of it.”
“Funny thing, so do we,” declared the silver. She eyed him. “What are you planning to do with it?”
“Keep it out of the hands of those who would use it for the wrong purpose. Like power-hungry silvers.” He glared at her.
“Dude, chill. I don’t know why you’ve got a hater boner on for me and my Sept, but seriously, whatever grudge you have probably happened like ages ago. Get over it.”
Had the silvers’ status changed? Very possible given it had been a few thousand years.
“You know what that dagger can do?” the silver asked.
“Probably more than you,” was his rejoinder.
Daphne clapped her hands. “I don’t know what’s so special about an old dagger, so care to let me in on the secret? Is this some kind of archeological rivalry?”
His vehement no was echoed by the silver. At least she showed the common sense not to tell the humans about their weakness to a certain kind of metal.
“You will stay out of my affairs, silver.”
“No can do, horsey man.”
His brows rose. “You dare insult me? Your irreverence is staggering.”
“You’re one to talk, trespassing on our territory without permission.”
Daphne, following the back and forth, had enough. “You two obviously have some kind of unfinished business between you that doesn’t involve me, so I’m going to leave.”
“You stay until I say so.” Babette grabbed Daphne by the arm.
“I laid claim to her first.” He shot out his hand and, without touching her, dragged her out of Babette’s grip.
Both women turned wide eyes on him, but Babette was the one to gasp, “What did you do? Because, if I didn’t know better, I’d swear you used magic.”
“What else would it be?” he huffed. “Do they not teach you fledglings anything in this era?”
“Magic was banned,” Babette announced. “A long time ago.”
His brows rose. “Banned? By who?”
Before she could reply, an alarm sounded, strident and causing humans to yell from the ground below.
The silver leaned over the edge of the parapet. “So much for my bribe. That bloody orderly has sounded the alarm. Time to leave.”
“Agreed. Daphne comes with me,” he stated.
“Whatever. Doesn’t matter to me since you have to follow me and report to the king.”
He angled his chin. “I don’t have time to indulge in your king’s petty delusions of grandeur.”
“You don’t have a choice.”
“I don’t listen to traitors.” He went to grab Daphne’s arm, only she ducked out of reach and shook her head.
“How about I go with neither since we’re on a rooftop and the only way off of it is down.”
“Or up.” Babette grinned. “Come on, don’t tell me you haven’t figured it out yet.”
“Figured what out?”
“How do you feel about dragons?” Babette winked. “Try not to scream in too much excitement as I dazzle you with—” The silver’s voice trailed as Azrael shed his form and expanded. And kept expanding, his advanced age making him bigger than the silver by far. Usually his magic constrained his weight, and yet now that it was released, the building creaked and cracks appeared on the surface.
Daphne stared, mouth wide open, shocked, before exclaiming, “You’re a dragon!”
He was much more than that. But that explanation could wait for later.
While the silver gaped, he drew Daphne close, twining her in strands of magic against his chest. A place where she could do him no harm. Only the most trusted ever got to ride on the backs of dragons. He never trusted anyone that implicitly.
“Holy shit,” Babette huffed. “You’re a dragon. And those horns mean you’re a mage. Oh, fuck me, the aunties and everyone else are all going to flip.”
As if he cared about what silvers thought.
The door to the rooftop slammed open. “Time to go! Follow me.” Babette transformed quickly and launched herself with a loud trill.
He bunched his legs and propelled himself as well, ignoring the cracks from his departure and the yells of humans on the ground, mere specks that weren’t worth his attention.
He might have ignored them better if they’d not fired upon him. He uttered a sound more of surprise than pain as tiny metal chunks blew through the thinner skin of his wings. He lifted himself higher on the drafts, out of range, flanked by the much smaller silver dragon who’d tried to steal his human. Follow her indeed.
He chose his own path, only to hear her annoying trill. The silver thought to get in his way. He banked away from her and breathed magic into the space ahead of him, slicing open a portal that took him elsewhere.