Alexa's Dragon (Dragon mates Book 1) (21 page)

Alexa ducked and rolled, then came up on her knees and shot a bolt of red power from her hands.

“Again!” Syn’s voice rang out and she repeated it.

She couldn’t believe this was what her days had become. She had woken up three days ago expecting kisses and hot sexy times. Instead, she got a pat on her rear, and a command to get up. This had been what she was doing sun up and she literally meant sun up to sun down. Very few breaks. All she did was learn how to deal with the power coursing through her body. If she didn’t know better, she’d think she was being invaded by a body snatcher from outer space. It barely let her sleep.

Syn had informed her it was a battle. Either she won and her power was in her control or it won and her body was in her power’s control and just the thought of that made her shudder, because she was suddenly very powerful.

She tried to dive right, but her power was pulling her left. “
Not on my watch,” she growled at it mentally.

“What do you know?” it replied. “You were barely able to spot the real power in the room. You went after the blues.” It snubbed her mentally. She would have stood opened mouthed but they were still fighting over which way her body would go. This could lead to death.

“It’s my body and I know which way to go.” She added a little more mental force and rolled to the right and almost into a trap.

“Good going,” the smug voice of her power said.

“Yeah, well look to the left. There was a trap there even worse than the one I avoided.” There was a hole in the ground; it was almost invisible but her eyes were much sharper now and she could see it waiting for her.

“I knew it was there and was prepared for it, only dumb luck kept you from falling into this one.”

“Then you better hope we have a lot of dumb luck because I’m not letting you take over my body. I’ll use you, heck, I’ll even share my body with you to make it easier, but you can’t have my body.”

“Why didn’t you say that in the beginning?”

“Say what?” She threw her hands up in frustration.

They were deep in the forest where Syn said she could train without worrying about hurting others. He was throwing fire and whatever else he could think of her way, keeping her busy. Now her power wanted to have a heart to heart chat. For one minute she missed just sitting in Nadia’s restaurant eating French toast.

“The share your body part of course. I don’t want your body; I have the perfect one but now it’s contained within you.”

Pictures of a beautiful red lightning bolt filled her mind. She grudgingly had to agree as bodies went that was a perfect one for power.

“Don’t get jealous; your body is nice even if it is big and unwieldly and hard to fit into small places…”

“I get it, you can stop now.”

“All I’m saying is that when we’re fighting we need to come together as one to protect our male.” They both stopped to smile at that. It was the one thing they were in total agreement on, Syn needed protection.

“When we are protecting him we need to work together and if you’re scared to share your body then I have to fight for control of it.”

Alexa dropped and stretched out on the ground under a canopy of trees. Share her body. It came down to sharing her mind too. This is what made it so hard to take that final step with Syn. The responsibility of being transparent. Could she do it? Already she was waiting for the other shoe to drop with her mate bonded, for him to stumble into some part of her that she was protective about so that she could cut him down at the knees.

Now her blasted power wanted in on the game. Power. Is this what it was all about in the end? Her needing all the power so she could protect herself from the projected hurts that might never come her way. Is that why Syn had not dared to enter her mind or look around? Did he know she was waiting for one mistake so she could pat herself on the back and tell herself it was wrong from the beginning?

He would make a mistake, he couldn’t be alive and not make one small misstep; it was the curse and the gift of humanity. They made mistakes. We made mistakes. She made mistakes and she’d spent three days making one with her power and more time than that making one with Syn. She reached for her big girl thong and rolled to her knees.

“How do we do this?”

“We merge.” Her power spoke to her before slipping seamlessly into her mind. Suddenly she saw the whole area around them as a war zone. Her thoughts combined with the ones of her power and gave her a greater understanding of what was happening.

When Syn came for her this time she was prepared and so was he. Mace and Zeno were with him. Her mind sped looking at every possible angle discarding thoughts well before she understood their implications. She simply knew they wouldn’t work.

They, her and her power moved as one. They shimmied up a tree and made a jump to another that would have been impossible without each other. Up to the tallest branch, they crawled and when Zeno dropped down for them, they popped up and sent a bolt of power at him. Harmless her power assured her, but the obvious tag would take him out the game and it did.

She gave a laugh and then dove to a lower branch before one of the other two spotted them. They set their sights on Mace next, clocking his moves even as they stayed low to the ground having left the branches behind.

Mace was moving stealthily. He stayed just out of their range not letting them know if it was sheer luck or if he knew where they were every step of the way.

“There’s an opening a few feet from here. Let’s trap him there.” She didn’t even question her power, she simply turned towards it.

They staggered towards it, their shoulders slumped, defeat written in their posture. There were a few wide leaves around so they pulled them down and made a bed something they could lay on because tiredness had taken over their body they would recoup when Mace showed up. Giving up they lay down.

“For one powerful, frightening minute I thought you might actually beat me, Alexa,” Mace said. “Look at you tired, worn out and all I have to do is tag you. Touch your skin and you’re done and if I were the real enemy you’d be dead. Not yet though because I would want to place my hands around you and do it up close if I were the real enemy. Don’t worry though we’ll do it again tomorrow. You’ll get there, I have faith in you.”

Her eyes popped open, “Mace, no!”

“Nice try.” He took one more step and sprung the trap.

He fell into a deep hole that her power had created without ever breaking the surface of the land.

Proud laughter reached her as she looked over the side of the pit. “You did it. I couldn’t be more proud of you. Two down and one to go. Alexa, if I ever have little ones promise not to tell them this story.”

“No promises, Maceo.” Then she was off running to take down the hardest one of all, Syn.

“Tricks won’t work with Syn. We’ll have to prove that we can beat him.”

“I agree,” her power said making her heart beat a little wilder.

If she wanted Syn, she was going to have to prove she was an equal, that she was worthy of him.

Her feet slowed as she entered another clearing where she knew he was waiting for her. This was her last stand or his. Maybe both of theirs because they would fight for everything they held dear and they could lose it all or gain it all with one fatal blow.

“You took down two dragons, Alexa. I’m proud of you.”

“Thank you.” She tilted her head in acknowledgement of his words. They were understated but she knew them for the high praise they were meant to be. He had insisted she train to learn to protect herself from the threat of Mutufa. No one knew exactly what they would be called upon to do.

He threw a bolt of power at her that she dodged. It struck the edge of her arm tearing into the fabric of her shirt and producing a heat that stung. Flipping to her back, she raised both hands and flung a bolt aimed at his chest but it caught him in his thigh as he moved.

She caught her breath and kicked up coming to her feet. He turned and she caught an edge of a shield.

“We need a shield.”

“Working on it,” her power replied.

The next bolt that came their way was aimed at their chest but the shield went up in enough time. The bolt knocked them down but didn’t do any other damage.

“How do we defeat a shield?”

“By intensifying our power.” That was not what Alexa wanted to hear because that meant it was what Syn was going to do.

His next bolt seared the ground at their feet. The fight was on. She threw a bolt, he countered. He retaliated, she countered. They were evenly matched. There could be no winner or loser and soon they would both wear themselves out.

She did the only thing she could think of. She merged her mind with his.

He gave her a lazy smile. “You’re supposed to be fighting not merging with me.”

“We could fight forever, we’re evenly matched.”

“Yes, I wondered how long it would take you to notice.”

“I noticed and now I’m noticing something else. You’re strong, Syn, you could have taken me down.”

“You don’t have to be strong to take someone down. When a weaker person wins we call it a fluke. I think it’s so much more. There’s nothing quite like desperation or righteous dignity or a thousand and one other feelings that give you an edge. Winning isn’t only the right of the strong. Sometimes wining is simply about knowing where to hit.

“It’s like merging with your mate bonded who feels like he’s been waiting forever for this minute.”

“Your mind is as beautiful and as complicated as you, Syn. I could stay here forever.”

“That’s the goal, welcome home, Love.”

She was back in her body but she could feel the bridge that linked them together. The natural sharing of information as well as love. He loved her; she could feel it in every breath he took. In every beat of his heart. Right now, he was thinking of how he’d like to take her home, strip her naked, and worship her body by kissing every inch of it then doing it again just in case he missed a spot.

The answers to that thought was easy on the bed or in the shower.

“Let’s go collect my brothers so we can get started.”

Mace had gotten out of the pit by the time they got back to him. He took her and gave her a big hug welcoming her into the family and congratulating her on her mastery of her power.

They found Zeno hanging in a tree upside down swinging, his knees over the branch of a tree.

“Darn, is it time to go? I haven’t done this since I was a kid. I had forgotten how much fun it could be.”

“Hey, I loved that too.” Mace climbed the tree found his branch and began to swing.

Syn stood there just looking at them.

“Oh just go,” she said.

He gave her a kiss and then climbed to his own branch and started swinging.

She stood there laughing at them before she found her cell phone and started taking pictures.

“Hey, no blackmailing us,” Mace called out over laughter.

“Just taking pictures of the scenery.” She laughed enjoying the freedom that came with playing with family.

Things went from great to worse or at least that’s how they felt. All she wanted was one night to make love with her mate bonded. To be able to feel what he felt when she rocked his world. Was that too much to ask? Obviously, the universe said yes because they woke to a black cloud spreading over the land and unless she missed her guess, it wasn’t natural.

“Maybe you have unusual weather you forgot to mention.”

“This is definitely unusual, but I didn’t forget to mention it.” Syn got up reaching for his clothes.

“One day, Syn, was it too much to ask?”

“Love, when we take care of this minor problem, we’ll have forever.”

“And that’s why I don’t talk to dragons, because their idea of minor is different from the rest of the world.”

“At least you get to play with your power for real now.”

She wanted to frown at him, she really did, but there was a blasted smile hovering over her lips.

“Do you think this is the big play?”

“Let’s hope so. I’m tired of dealing with him.”

She nodded and went to the bathroom.

“Where are you going?”

“To take a shower. I’m dirty and I was too exhausted to do it last night. I’m going to kick his ass but I’m going to do it clean.”

“Only you, Baby.”

His voice followed her as she disappeared into the bathroom. Dipping into the hot water of the shower, she took her time preparing her mind for the fight to come. She looked at her power noting she was hundred percent ready to whoop tail.

Then she commanded herself to breathe. It would be the real thing this time, not a game played with dragons who loved her. She was ready. Clutching her stomach, she told herself that lie again before she cleaned up and got out.

There was an outfit laid out on the bed when she got out there. A pair of red leather pants and a tank top. There was a knife laid with it as well as a sheath to keep it in and a pair of boots that were killer.

“I thought since you liked red…”

“When did you have time to get this?”

“I might have asked Tamia for some help.”

Shaking her head, she threw her arms around his neck and gave him a deep and lingering kiss.

“I love it. I’ll be lit up like a Christmas tree, but I still love it.”