The chaos was even worse on the streets, all three of them running like they were fleeing an eruption.
An eruption of what, Barkus asked, but then his attention was wholly back on the hunt as they turned a corner so sharply Najlah nearly ran into a wall.
As they burst from the far side of the narrow street they'd run down, Tevra bellowed, "Down!"
In the very same moment, Najlah smelled fire. As the other two dropped to the ground, Najlah surged forward, charging into a blast of scorching blue flames. For a few seconds, he almost felt as warm as he would back in Tahjil.
Beyond the flames was a man who realized his stupidity the very moment he saw Najlah. Not that it mattered, because in the very next breath Najlah had crunched his head like a firebird egg. Wasn't nearly as tasty. Spitting out the remains caught in his teeth, he turned to the next threat.
He made short work of two more, but as he rounded on a third, suddenly there was a great many more than that, an entire circle, and they radiated so much magic that it stung his nostrils. Growling, Najlah moved so he was back-to-back with the other two, forming a defensive circle. What's going on? Because it felt a great deal worse than a standard ambush.
"They're going to break us," Tevra snarled. "Both of you, hold on to me, and draw blood when you do it. If you can mix yours with mine, all the better."
Even as he spoke, the circle of people seemed to almost vibrate in place, or was it the ground? Their eyes glowed a sickly red-brown color, and Najlah felt like he was going to heave up his stomach.
He did as Tevra had ordered, sinking his teeth into his calf, holding tightly without clamping down so hard that he'd do serious damage. He could smell more blood as Barkus acted as well.
Tevra screamed, and blinding yellow light consumed them at the same time that the sickly red-brown color seemed to explode in all—
*~*~*
Najlah woke with a snarl, but before he could lunge, he registered he was in fire. Then the smells struck him.
His room. He was in his fireplace in his room in the palace. How in the world had he gotten here? What had happened? He growled as the memories wouldn't come. Not past the ambush. Biting Tevra.
Pain sliced his head, and the memory of using too much magic too fast, exactly the way he knew he shouldn't.
Najlah rumbled in confusion. That wasn't his thought. It wasn't Barkus's thought either. What in the flames was going on?
The question was answered as someone sat up in his bed as frantically as Najlah had woken up a moment ago. Not Barkus, though, but Tevra.
Where am I? Tevra asked, looking around the room. The palace. This isn't my room, not my old one or new one. Did they move me again? How did I get back here?
Najlah growled. He could hear Tevra's thoughts like he could Barkus's. How was that possible. What was going on?
"Who said that!" Tevra looked around frantically again, then pressed a hand to his forehead. "I think I'm losing my mind."
You're not, Najlah said, growling again. You're mentally bound to me, and presumably Barkus.
"Lord Najlah?" Tevra gave the room yet another sweep. "Where are you?"
Rumbling and chittering in amusement, Najlah uncurled and slithered from the fireplace, shaking off embers.
Tevra's eyes widened. "You—were you in the fire."
I'm a dragon of Tahjil, Najlah said with a snorting snuff. Sitting in fire is the only way I get remotely close to the temperatures to which I'm accustomed, the only way to keep my blood suitably heated outside of the pack bond I share with the Lukos and before that, an amulet.
Brow furrowing, moving to the edge of the bed, Tevra asked, "Why don't you just use sigils?"
Najlah rumbled, eyes turning pink.
"Like mine," Tevra said, standing and slowly approaching him. He extended his arms, and his tattoos seemed to gleam in the light. "You could permanently embed a spell for heat. It would require a constant use of energy, but bound to a pack, it would be a negligible drain at best, and it would also draw upon natural heat in an area. So long as you were close to a fire or out in the sun or whatever, it would keep you well and have reserves to draw on when you're thrust into cold unexpectedly."
I… did not know that was possible. Restuel does not use your markings. Magic is done or not done; it shouldn't require fancy scribblings.
Tevra laughed. "Fancy scribblings let you do much more than a single person can with only their own energy. Sigils draw energy from the world around them, requiring less of the caster and enabling greater strength and power. It has its own costs and drawbacks, as anything does, but the benefits outweigh them, at least for me. Here, these are the ones we'd need for you." He touched several of the runes on his arms and two on his face, causing them to glow the color of burning embers. "The trick would be where to carve them, as those scales don't lend themselves well to the process. They couldn't be burned in, either." He laughed again. "Not in someone who sleeps in fire the way the rest of us do a bed."
Najlah chittered, eyes swirling green, and flicked his tongue out.
He wasn't prepared for the lust-laced curiosity that filled his mind, or the way Tevra's face went red the moment he realized that thought had slipped out.
"Sorry!" Tevra burst out. "I'm not used to this at all. Mind-sharing is a Lukos thing. I've never heard of a human brought into the bond, save the rare few who marry into the pack, which hasn't happened in decades. I don't know how this happened."
Najlah hissed playfully, crawling toward the hastily retreating Tevra. But you have theories.
Tevra stilled briefly, distracted, and Najlah used the opportunity to turn and swing out his tail, deftly sweeping Tevra off his feet so he landed on the thick rug nearby. Then Najlah crawled over him, lust tingling along his spine, turning his eyes red. He rumbled softly, close enough that Tevra would feel it in his own body. "Call me crazy, but I don't think you really care about my theories right now."
Do you? Najlah asked, flicking his tongue out to finally get a proper taste. Tevra tasted like blood and the bitter, acrid flavor he associated with magic.
"I'm more baffled why you're… doing this. You've made your contempt of humans pretty clear."
Najlah licked him, dragging his forked tongue across Tevra's cheek, then took the softest nip of his jaw. Shock and pain and pleasure jolted through the bond, so he did it again—and nearly jumped himself when hands glided along his scales, firm enough to really be felt.
"Is… is this okay?" Tevra asked.
Don’t ask stupid questions.
I still am not certain why you would… with me.
You're as much a hornless brute as a human can be, Najlah replied.
Tevra laughed, the sound delightfully low and husky. That doesn't really explain it, but I think I get the general idea. You'll have to tell, or I suppose, show me, what to do for you. I've never worked with anything but a human body.
Najlah wasn't certain how to respond to that, except with a quiet happiness he didn't quite know what to do with. Barkus didn't mind when he stayed in this form when they fucked, but he'd never encountered a single human who continued to smell like lust when they saw him this way. Let alone one who simply accepted it as a given, instead of taking it for understood that he'd shift.