Solar Dare (2 page)

Oh.
That was something at least.
We really didn’t know we had harmed anyone.
Solar wasn’t sure why, but it seemed imperative that he believe her.

We know this. So does your mother. She also knows that we are possibly the only dragons alive who can teach you to control your powers.

Solar continued to look down at the ground as it grew closer and closer. The arid wind brushed her cheeks as they flew low over a craggy mountain. Heat radiated off the ground, almost making her glad that she now wore nothing but Denhar’s hand.

After passing over the mountain, Solar spotted what appeared to be a large sand-coloured structure rising out of the ground.
What is that ahead?

It is my home. The people here carved the first set of rooms out of a sandstone mountain. They presented it to me in hopes that I would stay here. They believe that dragons are their protectors and in helping one, they have garnered the favour of their gods.

Oh. I didn’t know there were still such backward people.

Denhar chuckled.
They aren’t any more backward than your humans who still believe in an all-powerful god who decides their fate and judges them at the end of their lives.
He gave a mental shrug that she could actually feel.
Who are we to judge what they believe?

Beneath their beliefs, they are good people for the most part, just as I would believe your humans are good people.

Most of the humans
were
good people. There were just a few who needed what some of the handlers had always called an attitude adjustment. Solar pressed her lips together as she remembered one of them getting such an adjustment from one of her sisters long ago when he tried to touch her inappropriately.

They neared Denhar’s home, and Solar’s eyes widened as she saw the golden sandstone glistening in the sun. The large home sparkled as though covered with a thin coat of diamonds.

Nothing could have prepared her for such beauty as Denhar circled the large fortress. The rainbow of sparkling beauty almost hurt her eyes it was so exquisite.

Your home is beautiful, Denhar. May I call you Denhar?

Gently, the dragon set her on a stone balcony and shifted back into his humanoid form. “It’s a bit late to ask that since you have already taken the liberty, isn’t it?”

Solar might have been angry at his remark had he not said it with a smile. However, she knew he was just teasing her. The sensation she felt in her stomach was strange though. No one had ever teased her or her sisters before. Everyone on Earth always feared the dragon sets, even those who didn’t emit radiation.

“I think we’re even since you have taken the liberty to stand leering at my nakedness.” She fought the urge to try to cover herself. Why should she act modest? She had nothing to be ashamed of.

She knew from experience that males enjoyed looking at physically fit females. Why should this dragon male be an exception?

“You said I could have clothing.” Raising her chin in the air, Solar crossed her arms over her breasts and moved to walk into the structure. She might not mind
him
looking so much, but she refused to stand on display for anyone else walking around his world.

“And you shall.” He dipped his head in some sort of regal-looking motion and extended his arm toward a doorway large enough to accommodate him in his dragon form. He removed his tunic and draped it over her shoulders as she passed.

“You shouldn’t have bothered.” Solar started to take it off. “My body chemistry will only destroy it.”

Denhar shook his head with a chuckle. “No, it won’t. It is designed to resist all forms of radiation.” He leaned close, his nose almost touching hers. “You and your sisters are
not
the only dragons with a radiation problem, you know.”

Solar supposed she should have realized Denhar had similar issues when he said that he and his brethren could train the sisters to control the radiation that leaked free of their bodies on a regular basis. That alone was why they had holed themselves up on that planet that was nothing but one storm after another. Without the strong solar radiation from a planet’s sun, at least their bodies weren’t supplied more of what they found difficult to control.

“Who taught you and the other males to control your radiation?” She followed him through the large doorway and stood gaping at the huge room in which they stood. “You said the people of this planet carved out the first few rooms. Who carved out the rest?”

Somehow, Solar knew what the answer was going to be before he said it.

“I did, of course.” He waved his hand toward the ceiling. “No one else would have been able to carve anything so high.”

The walls shone like polished glass, and he smiled at her expression as her eyes widened. “I used heat to help carve it. As you may not know, the sandstone here is made up of densely compressed sand. When one heats sand to extremely high temperatures, it turns to glass.” Solar continued to stare at the walls. “So, your walls are made of glass.”

“You could say that.” He grinned and led her through the large room to another, smaller, one that looked as though he’d made it more for his humanoid self, since it was smaller and more compact. He walked to a door, opened it and waved her inside. “This is your closet. I have dreamed of having a lady such as you stay here, even if for only a short time. I have filled it with clothing made by the people of this world. It is resistant to radiation, just as they are.”

S
olar stepped around him to peer into the closet.

She felt her mouth fall open as she stared into the large room that was bigger than the cell she’d lived in at the Earth compound. To her, a closet was a small room where one kept their meagre belongings. This was nothing short of a storeroom filled to the brim with such colourful clothing as she had never seen before.

Of course, she and her sisters had worn different colours, but usually, the humans gave them the same colours all of the time, because it was easier to tell them apart that way. For a moment, she stood speechless as she looked at the veritable rainbow in the
closet
Denhar had said was hers.

“I can’t possibly accept this.” Of course she couldn’t. Such a large array of colours and styles could only have been meant for his mate.

“Of course you can. My people made these clothes for me to give to—”

“Your mate.” Solar finished for him. “I obviously can’t accept them.” At least not all of them. “Since I am not anyone’s mate.” She moved into the closet and picked out a bright red tunic that fell to her knees when she held it up to herself. “If you’ll excuse me. I would like to put this on.”

“There are under things in there as well and along with boots and stockings through the door in the back.”

The door in the back?
Solar did her best not to glance that way until he’d left, closing the door behind him. He was a generous man to share these things with her when he barely knew her. She moved to a shelf where she saw what appeared to be underwear. Grabbing a set that matched the colour of the tunic she chose, Solar began to dress.

It wasn’t until she’d donned the clothing that she ventured toward the door where he said she would find boots and stockings. This time, she wasn’t too surprised to see the boots lined up against the wall in a rainbow of colour. It was the different styles and heel heights that surprised her, along with the fact that every pair was in her size.

Refusing to think about it, Solar chose a shiny pair of knee-high boots with a low heel. Who knew when she would need to fight? She certainly didn’t need to break a heel protecting herself or others from those who would attempt to take her back to Earth.

She’d agreed to continue to send Earthers home to protect the universe, but she refused to return with them. She didn’t belong there. None of her sisters or she had ever belonged there, and she didn’t intend to ever go back.

After dressing, she exited the closet and looked around. Denhar was nowhere to be seen. She looked around the large room, ignoring the huge bed set in the corner and headed for the nearest exit.

Solar didn’t know what she expected when she opened the door, she only knew she hadn’t expected to see a corridor, six-feet wide with a ceiling ten feet above her head. She also hadn’t expected to see Denhar several feet to her right holding a glass which he dropped the second he saw her.

The glass crashed to the gleaming floor and shattered while he stood looking at her as though seeing her for the first time.

“What’s the matter?” Solar tilted her head and stared at him for a minute. Her brows furrowed as she watched several emotions chase across his face. Something inside her wished she knew him well enough to know what those emotions were, but she would have to just make do with asking.

“Should I have chosen something else to wear?”
Is
this tunic a favourite of his?
If so, he should have told her not to choose any of the red. Solar would have been just as happy in any colour that didn’t leave her vulnerable and as naked as the moment she was born.

Solar stared at his bare chest and rippling muscles for a moment before she realized that she should have returned with the tunic he’d let her borrow. He might be a male and he might have ideas that she didn’t agree with at the moment, but she must admit that for a male, he was put together very well.

“No. What you’re wearing is perfect.” He grinned. “Did I tell you that red is my favourite colour?”

“Oh! Well, no. You didn’t.” She looked down at the broken glass that a servant had knelt to clean up. She frowned as she looked down at the man.

Where had he come from?
He hadn’t been there just a moment ago. She would bet her life on it.

“Don’t mind Haringk,” Denhar said as he glanced down to the man at his feet. “He has the uncanny ability to know just when and where I need him. He steals in like a thief, does his duty and leaves almost without a trace.” He glanced down at the man. “Thank you, old friend.” The man merely nodded his head as he swept the glass onto a small, flat piece of wood or sandstone.

Solar glanced up at Denhar and saw the affection he felt for the other man and relaxed.

This male may have kidnapped her, but he was a good man. One could tell a good man by the way he treated his subordinates. At least that was what she’d heard from several of the handlers on Earth.

When she looked back, intending to introduce herself to the other man, he was gone. “Where did he—”

“Don’t mind him. He’s shy,” Denhar said with a grin as he moved through a doorway to his left.

“Would you care for a drink?”

“Yes, please.” She followed him into the room, watching as he picked up a glass and decanter.

“When do you plan to take me to my father?” She knew her father wanted to use them to further alliances. She’d heard that via her mother. Solar didn’t look forward to the meeting, but she had no illusions as to whether or not she was stronger than a male of their kind. Even if she was, she wasn’t sure she could harm another of their kind just to escape the fate her father had planned for her.

“I don’t plan to take you to your father. I don’t work for
him.
”

The pronouncement was definite. Whatever had spurred Denhar to come to their small, quiet world, it had not been the ruler of the dragons.

“So, you work for…” She raised her eyebrows.

“Your mother, Eiwyn. We are her personal guard when she is in the palace, but since her departure, we have not been welcome in your father’s palace. We were told we would have to wait, and so, we waited until she told us where to go and when to be there.”

Mother? Did you do that?

Of course, pet. There are few males capable of handling your talents, and my Guard is equipped to train you.

Why didn’t you tell me about this earlier?

There was a low chuckle.
Because, you would have run, Solar.

Solar rubbed the back of her neck. Her mother was right. She would have run, and she and her sisters would have scattered to the winds.

I hate it when you are right.

I am always right. It is my curse and my torment.

Train and become strong, Solar. The worlds need your help if you are to stem the tide of humanity punching holes in the dimensional curtain.

Yes, Mother.

The connection between them went dormant, and Solar suspected that she was on her own with Denhar.

He offered her a glass, and she took it, almost crying when the liquid boiled and turned to vapour in the glass.

Denhar blinked in surprise but sobered and nodded. “It seems we have some work to do.”

“H
ow is it that you haven’t died of thirst?”

Denhar led Solar into a covered garden with a fountain in the centre.

“The clothing that I was wearing had containment properties. It held the heat in, so I could eat and drink the specially prepared ration packs that we had. Can you give me a long straw or something?”

He chuckled and shook his head. “No, but the first lesson will begin now. Have a seat at the edge of the fountain.”