“You require sustenance?” Zav floated his robe back over to him. “I will hunt for you.”
“I’d settle for a packet of beef jerky.”
“Remain here and settle in.” He strode out of the cave, shifted into his dragon form, and launched into the night.
Since I had no camping gear, there wasn’t much to settle. I found a dry guano-free spot against a wall and discovered that the cave floor was every bit as lumpy and unpleasant as I’d imagined. After fifteen minutes of sitting on it, I needed someone to rub my butt.
Zav returned, landing on a precipice outside of the cave, though he didn’t come back inside right away. Orange light flared outside. Had he made a cook fire? I hoped so. Raw meat wasn’t my thing.
I was about to go out and investigate when he walked in, holding something that looked like a large rotisserie chicken skewered on a branch, the outside crispy but not charred. The smells wafting from it were foreign, but I was hungry enough not to care.
“This is a dwarven delicacy.” Zav sat beside me and held out the branch. “I lack seasonings and sauces, but salt is plentiful in these mountains.”
I pulled off a wing and took a tentative bite. He’d salted it heavily, which was probably good because it had a pungent scent and taste that reminded me of liver. If this was a dwarven delicacy, I didn’t want to attend any of their feasts. But I ate enough to sate my hunger, with Zav watching with approval. He waited until I’d had all I wanted to polish off the rest.
“You’re also a considerate dragon.” I wiped grease off his chin. “Thank you.”
“Considerate, yes. Not cocky.”
“Oh, you’re still cocky.” I smiled, scooted lower against the wall, and snuggled into his side.
“I will mend my wounds now.” He closed his eyes. “Not cockily.”
“That’s good. Cocky wound-mending sounds problematic.”
His body heat drove away the chill of the night. I rested an arm across his stomach, careful not to touch any of the wounds he was mending. They’d stopped glowing shortly after I’d applied the goo, which left me hopeful that he’d be fine in the morning.
His eyes remained closed as he healed himself, but he slid an arm around me. “I am thinking of softening the ground.”
“Softening the ground? Like creating a mattress?”
“It is difficult to create something out of nothing, even with powerful dragon magic, but I could rearrange the molecules in the existing stone to make it less… lumpy.”
“I didn’t know dragons were bothered by lumps.”
“As a dragon, I am not. My scales are armor that protect me from swords, bullets, magical attacks, and lumpy ground.”
“Miracle scales.”
“Indeed. I will do this for your comfort. One moment.”
The ground snapped and shifted under me, and if he hadn’t warned me, I would have leaped up, certain a fissure was opening up to swallow us. But there were no great cracks, only grinding noises along with the rising and lowering of patches of rock. A memory of being a kid in the ball pit at McDonald’s came to mind.
When the shifting stopped, the ground was smoother and curved upward on either side of us to cup us in this new den. The slopes created enough of a hollow to keep the chilly breeze from reaching us.
“Have I mentioned lately that you’re a handy dragon?” I asked.
“Not lately, but I know you know this is true.”
“Even though you have trouble reading my mind?”
“I can tell by the way you beam appreciation at me and stroke my stomach.”
I caught myself—I was stroking his stomach. Well, it was a nice stomach. Not my fault. But we shouldn’t contemplate sex when we were on a strange world with enemies about that could harm Zav. Besides, he needed to use his energy to finish healing himself.
“I didn’t know I was capable of beaming appreciation.” None of my past boyfriends had mentioned it. Thad would have said I beamed sarcasm. Loudly.
“I have evoked this latent talent in you.”
“You’re skilled as well as handy.”
“Yes.” The hand he’d wrapped around my back slid under my shirt to do some stroking of its own.
Since we’d eaten, Zav was probably feeling randy. Maybe I was, too, because it crossed my mind to fling my leg over him and forget about the threat of enemies for a time. But even with our distance from the mountain, I doubted we were safe. Those skeletal creatures had to be out flying on patrols and maybe even looking for us specifically.
“My clan will see that we are good for each other,” Zav said. “They will come to our wedding.”
“You’re still concerned about that? I don’t mind if they don’t come.”
“That’s because you do not like them,” Zav said dryly.
I thought about denying that, but I didn’t like to lie to him, and he knew me pretty well for a guy from another world who’d never read my mind.
“I don’t mind your Uncle Ston,” I offered, unfastening his robe so I could touch warm skin instead of fabric.
“He is affable for a dragon.”
“That’s why I don’t mind him. Why do you want the others to come so badly? A few weeks ago, you scoffed at the idea of a human wedding, saying we were already mated in the dragon way and that’s what counts.”
Zav did not answer right away, though his fingers didn’t pause in their perusal of my skin, trails of magic teasing my nerves even more than his physical touch. Little zings of pleasure ran through my body.
“The queen no longer objects to you as my mate, as she has seen your worth in battle and that you will fight at my side, but she does not believe our union will last many years. She believes you are reckless and have human blood, so you will die before long, and then I will take a dragon mate, and she need only be patient. She believes there is little reason to humor me by attending a meaningless human ceremony.”
“Well, she may be right. Even if I don’t get myself killed doing my job—or being hunted down by someone doing his job—humans don’t live nearly as long as dragons. It sucks, but I won’t be able to be your mate forever, or as long as you live. Aren’t you all hundreds or thousands of years old?”
“Dragons live long lives, but it is also possible that I will get myself killed doing my job—or being hunted down by someone with a dragon-slaying sword.” His tone had turned dry. “You do not have the only one, you must be aware.”
“I assumed not, though with all the interest in it, I have wondered how many are left.”
“There used to be more of them, perhaps a hundred. Many have been lost over the centuries. They are rare.” His tone grew more serious again, his gaze shifting toward the dark stalactites above. “I wish for my family—especially my mother—to attend the wedding and show that they support me in this and realize that you are not a passing fancy. Always, I have supported my mother and my elders, often risking my life to obey their orders and be loyal to my clan. They could support me in this.” As he spoke, distracted by his thoughts, his fingers had paused scant inches from my breasts.
I would prefer they continue to drift upward, but I tried to focus on his problem and think of a way I could help or at least commiserate. It was rare for Zav to set aside his dragon haughtiness and open up candidly about his family and his concerns, and I wanted him to feel he could do so with me.