Excerpt Continued…

The girls had been gone about a month and stuck to their bargain. She heard from Jade yesterday and wasn’t expecting another check-in this soon. Up to this point, Jade was careful to calculate the time difference between Europe and North America so she wouldn’t disturb Midnight’s rest. Something had to be wrong.

Standing, she started throwing on clothes. She couldn’t put her hands on her leather pants so she settled for the thong she was wearing and her midriff armor. I’m here, Jade. What’s wrong?

Do you want the good news first, or the bad?

Midnight could sense laughter in Jade’s voice, so that meant no one was hurt. You know, I’ve always hated conversations that started with that question. But I’ll play. Give me the good news first.

Well, my little Tulip spoke today. But before you get excited about my dragon talking—we seem to have found a Dragon Lord. Or, I guess more to the point, he found us. Tulip spoke when she saw him…she distinctly said, “He’s not ours.” And then went back to her incessant humming of Eensy Weensy Spider.

Jade wouldn’t have shocked her more if she said the fledglings somehow landed on the moon. Not at what Jade’s baby dragon said, that was typical for newly awakened dragons…but a Dragon Lord?

For several seconds, there was nothing but dead silence in her mind.

Dragon Lord? You found a…where are you? she demanded.

Well, you see that is the bad news. We’re in Romania. In the Dragon Lord’s castle, in a little town called Hunedoara. And he won’t let us go.

With that pronouncement, Midnight stood to her full height and narrowed her eyes in lethal concentration. Very softly and succinctly she asked, What do you mean he won’t let you go?

She could feel Jade’s amusement and sense of anticipation when she started to explain. Without going into details about how we met him, he invited us to lunch. We didn’t know he was a Dragon Lord, but he knew about us. A few minutes after we got to his castle, he told us he knew that we’re fledglings. Then he informed us that he is prepared to make the supreme sacrifice, and look after us for the rest of all time. He turned deaf when we told him we didn’t need a dragon-sitter. Seems he has a couple of brothers as well. As he explained it, his plan is to train us to become proper dragon-mates...whatever the hell he means by that. And then when we “mature” he and his brothers will somehow figure out if they can mate with us. Isn’t that gross?

Midnight growled, Did you tell him you belonged to a coven and are already under my protection?

Nah. We thought it would make a bigger impression if you told him. With that, Jade mentally giggled.

Oh, yeah. I’ll make an impression all right. Hold on.

By this time, Midnight had dressed in her fighting leathers and gathered up just about every blade she had. Leaving her room, she strode down the long hall and loudly beat on Winter’s bedroom door. “Winter. Are you in here?”

“Sleeping. Go away.”

Midnight rolled her eyes. Winter loved to fight. There was no way she would sleep through this. “Okay, I just thought you’d like to help rescue the fledglings from a Dragon Lord that wants to keep them and train—“

Before she could finish her sentence, Winter threw open her bedroom door, and a blast of cold air interrupted Midnight’s ramblings.

“What! Did you just say a Dragon Lord has our fledglings?” Winter scowled.

Quickly Midnight threw up her hand and covered her eyes. “Jeez, Winter! I do not need to see you naked. But, yes, I did say that. Get dressed and ready to go to Romania and kick some dragon’s ass.”

Sifting through the different time and space lines that circled the Earth, it took less than a half-hour before Midnight and her friends were gathered below a very impressive castle. Surrounded by high battlements, they eyed the closed drawbridge. Midnight counted three huge pointed towers in this gothic monstrosity.

She snorted, and sent her disgust mentally to the women, A working drawbridge? How utterly medieval of them.

Winter smirked. Bullshit. You’ve always wished our castle had one. You just couldn’t get the magic to agree.

Midnight ignored her friend’s irritating truth. This time speaking out loud, “I want Dawn to take the girls to the European safe house while we deal with the Dragon Lord. Jade said the idiot has brothers, so I don’t know what we’ll be dealing with.”

Midnight felt Lushy shudder inside her. I want out, her dragon demanded.

Not now, Lushy. I need to concentrate. She knew her dragon loved to fight, but she wasn’t about to let her out until the fledglings were safe. She didn’t want them hurt if this turned into a battle.

But it isn’t just the Dragon Lord, you will need me…

Hush. I’ve got this handled. I’ll let you out if I need you. Midnight could feel her dragon roll her eyes and sulk. Not now, Lushy.

You’ll be sorry…

Midnight shrugged off her dragon’s warning and looked at her sister. “Are you okay with getting the three of them to Paris?”

Dawn nodded.

When Midnight woke her sister earlier, Dawn had quickly dressed and grabbed a bag of her healing herbs and ointments. She was prepared for just about any injury. Midnight couldn’t help wishing that Summer had been home, but the other third of her Trinity was half-way around the world. She had to trust Dawn to handle this.

While Winter and Midnight took care of the man or men...Dawn would get the girls to a safe location and make sure they hadn’t been harmed.

Jade told her no one was hurt, but Midnight wanted to be sure.

Concentrating on the castle, Midnight considered her options. Jade had said the three fledglings were sitting in a large room called the Knight’s Hall, on the main level. The Dragon Lord was seated in front of them, intent on watching their every move. He was trying to get them to talk about where they came from, why they were in Europe, or if they knew of the existence of any other Dragon Witches. Her fledglings would never talk, they had been taught well.

But he was about to get the answers to his questions.

“So. Any idea of how you want to do this?” Winter drawled.

“Painfully, comes to mind. Dragon Lords are almost impossible to kill, but then so are we. And really, do we want him dead? No. To capture him I think the element of surprise will work best, so that cancels out just knocking on the door. This castle hasn’t been protected by blood-rite, which is good for us. Give me a minute here, let me see if I can use Jade for a moment. She’s never sight-swapped before, but I think I can walk her through it.”

Jade.

Oh, goody. You’re here.

At this pronouncement, Midnight smiled. She could hear the eagerness in Jade’s voice. This girl was going to make an excellent warrior someday.

Yes. I need you to relax for a moment. I want to use your eyes to see the layout of the room and figure out how we’re going to do this. If you don’t resist me, I can use your vision and see what you’re looking at. I want you to do a sweep of the room without drawing attention to yourself.

No problem.

And try not to look directly at the Dragon Lord. I don’t want him to see your eyes change color. If your eyes are suddenly russet instead of green, he is going to know what we’re doing.

Matei. His name is Matei. Jade transferred the information helpfully while she scanned the room.

Midnight shook her head as she concentrated on seeing into the large chamber. As far as she was concerned his name was mud.

The room the girls were being kept in was huge, with marble columns standing about four feet from the wall. Perfect. When Jade’s gaze passed quickly over the dark-haired man seated a few feet in front of her, Midnight held her breath. Dragon’s-blood the man was gorgeous. And very, very big. For a second she just stared, relieved when Jade looked away. This was so not the time to snag her thoughts on a pretty face.

Breaking her connection with Jade, she turned to see Winter looking at her with a question on her face. Evidently, she noticed Midnight’s sharp inhale. Shaking it off, she explained the setup of the room to both Dawn and Winter.

“Let’s do this,” she said, and the three of them waved a hand and transported through the solid rock walls.

“What in the dragon-hell!” The Dragon Lord jumped to his feet in a battle stance as soon as the three Dragon Witches appeared in the hall.

Midnight didn’t wait around to see if the man had any weapons. Instead, she threw up her arm and sent a blast of power toward him.

Unprepared for the assault, he went sailing across the room to slam into one of the marble pillars.

Winter followed with a binding spell, wrapping the man in witch-chains. He wouldn’t be going anywhere.

Midnight knew he realized this fact when his anger filled the room with heat.

“Dawn, take the fledglings out of here,” Midnight commanded as she stalked toward her prisoner.

“Ah, Midnight. I don’t want to go, this is just getting fun.” Jade and the other two girls stopped their protests at Midnight’s glare.

“Midnight somewhere in this castle is a sister Dragon Witch. She’s ill, close to the Fade and needs our help,” Dawn said softly.

Turning to the Dragon Lord in anger, Midnight didn’t hesitate to hit him with a witch-bolt. “Where is the witch?”

Dawn’s healing abilities gave her the power to sense those in pain. She didn’t have to see the person who was ill. If the sick person was within a few hundred feet of her, somehow Dawn would know. Evidently, the fledglings weren’t the only prisoners in this moated castle.

At the Lord’s glaring silence, she turned back to Jade, “Did you see anyone besides this man today?” At Jade’s negative response, Midnight made her decision. “I won’t take the chance of putting the fledglings in harm’s way. Dawn, take them to the safehouse. Winter will find the Dragon Witch and bring her to you.”

At her friend’s hesitation, Midnight reassured her. Go, Winter, you know he won’t be able to move with your spell keeping him in place. I’ll just interrogate him for a bit. I’m not sure I want to take him back to Dragon Home. It may not be wise to let him know where we live.

Watching Winter slowly nod at her mental request, she knew her friend didn’t like leaving her alone with the Dragon Lord—but for the short term, it couldn’t be helped. None of the remaining witches in their coven were available tonight. Even if they had been, it would take them over an hour to reach Romania from where they were currently working. Winter could be gone and back in that amount of time. If they wanted to help the Fading Witch, this was the only way.

When everyone disappeared, she turned her attention back to her captive. “So, Matei. You thought you could imprison my fledglings?”

The man before her raised dark eyebrows at her use of his name.

Midnight couldn’t help noticing how regal he looked.

He looked downright dangerous with all the hard muscle and strength barely contained within a black tee-shirt and jeans, both stretched to cover his body. And that face. Even contorted in anger it was still a lovely piece of work. His eyes were a deep cobalt blue, his cheekbones high and sharp, and his chin square and stubborn. The mass of black hair falling past his shoulders, made her want to test its apparent silkiness by running her hands through it.

This isn’t the time.

If it was, she thought she would rather use her hands to smooth over his tan skin. What she saw of it looked very intriguing. She could just make out the curl of a dragon’s tail on his upper left arm. It was one of his body-markings.

Now, what in dragon-hell am I supposed to do with him?

“I will not justify my actions to you. Your fledglings called you Midnight. Well, Midnight, if you were so concerned about your little dragons, you should have kept them safe.” The disdain in his voice was clear.

Midnight snorted. “Oh, they’re safe. You are the one tied to a pillar in your own fortress. Getting sloppy in your old age, Dragon Lord? Are you so bored with your life you’ve resorted to bullying dragon-children? It is obvious that you forgot to fortify your stronghold with a simple blood-rite. And you think you can keep them safe?”

His wince told her she scored a direct hit.

“I’ll not justify such idiocy with a comment. It’s you who should be worried, pet,” he grumbled at her.

This time Midnight laughed aloud. “And what do you think you’re going to do from your current position?”

She jumped when a voice rumbled close to her ear. “Oh, he won’t be doing anything. I am thinking I’m the one that is going to play. I have long lists of what I want to do with a Dragon Witch for a pet.”

Midnight started to swing around, trying to pull her dragon-scythe to meet the threat from this new voice.

But she was too late.

Before she could turn, a strong male arm was banded about her waist and something was fastened around her neck. She threw her arms up, attempting to call out to Winter. It didn’t work!

Her magic and the ability to mentally communicate with Winter or any of those in her coven had been blocked. Probably by the dragon-dammed collar around her neck!

“Ummm. She is smelling so verrry good. Ripe. Excited. Darkness.” The man actually purred with his head buried in her hair.

Midnight had to fight the shiver of awareness that overcame her body. “Let me go! And what do you mean darkness?”

“Darkness. You.”

Luscious. How does this man know you call me Darkness? Midnight silently growled at her dragon.

The nickname was one only her dragon used for her. It was impossible that this man knew what her dragon called her. Maybe it was just a lucky guess.

Not a man, Darkness. Dragon-male. And he smells delicious.

She could hear the smile in her dragon’s tone and it pissed her off.

What do you mean dragon-male? And don’t go getting all hot and bothered in there. We are not interested. And you didn’t answer my question. Did you tell him—?

Midnight stopped her internal tirade with her familiar when the man shifted, pulled her closer and rubbed an obviously excited portion of his body against her. Her eyes shot to Matei, still bound by the witch-chains to the marble pillar.

He was watching her, his burning blue gaze met hers and he smiled, wicked intent clear in his impassioned eyes. Shit. Shit. Shit. This is not happening to me. Tearing her eyes away from the man, she tried again with her familiar.

Can you help me out a little here, Lushy?

Can’t now, and you didn’t listen to me earlier. I told you I wanted out.

Midnight could feel the dragon-familiar’s mental shrug.

Lushy purred, The dragon-male used his magic to create the collar, and I can’t leave. Don’t want to anyways. Want the dragon-male.