Nik clamped his jaw shut, determined not to scream as the bite deepened. He grunted, taking shallow breaths, until the dragon abated, easing away from him.
That was it?
He puffed out a laugh. “That wasn’t so bad.”
A pencil appeared in front of his face. “Bite on this,” Tyler said.
Well, it was a little late for that.
His grandmother came into focus behind the end of the eraser. She gestured to the pencil. “Do it, quickly.”
“Okay, but it’s over. It hardly even hurt.” He shoved the pencil between his teeth, just before the world spun. He dug his fingers further into the earth, but his nails broke off and bled. He screamed as the soil boiled, dragging his hands into its depths before he yanked them free and jumped to his feet. Night had fallen like a thick mist around them. The world became a blur of dark, slow moving shapes.
A shadowy figure wrapped around him, dragging him back to the rolling terrain. Nik kicked and spat, jerking free as he jammed his knee into the shadow’s groin.
Somewhere in the distance, a man grunted and cursed, but Nik sprinted toward a bright beacon shining over the horizon. The light was warm, safe, he needed to get there before… A giant, winged creature reared up before him, shimmering in the darkness. Nik fell, and a thousand hands grasped his arms, yanking him back and holding him to the ground. He screamed and kicked as two huge, glowing eyes materialized in the endless night sky. A hot puff of smoky breath wafted over his face.
Wait. There had been a dragon.
No, but that was ridiculous. Dragons weren’t real.
The hands around him tightened. He twisted and kicked as he sunk deeper into the earth. The soil bubbled up and over his head, churning as it dragged him down. He screamed, but dirt filled his mouth, silencing him as the darkness covered everything.
“Nikky.” Nanna’s voice, a fleeting call from a time long gone, beckoned in the distance.
He was far away. Floating.
Blue sky and clouds shot past his face. Wind whipped through his hair as he soared through the sky. He laughed as the mountains passed far below. But man wasn’t meant to fly. He couldn’t be up here. It was impossible. Inconceivable.
A burst of wind hit his side. His stomach dropped out as he fell. The peak of Mount Cook came rushing toward him—merciless, unrelenting earth waiting to squash him on impact.
“Nikky!”
He lurched, lost in a world of pitch black. He screamed, fighting a grip far stronger than his own. A deep, pressing weight crushed him, drilled him back into the soil, and he squeaked out a dry scream as his eyes shot open, blinded by a blazing sun filtered through the creases in the thick canvas and silhouetting the outline of a…
Oh God, it hadn’t been a dream.
The three-inch claws of a dragon held him down while a gray-haired woman slapped his face.
“Nikky!”
He puffed out a breath. “I’m here.” He blinked against the light. “I’m here.”
The dragon removed its foot, and Nanna drew Nik into her arms. Nik heard Pops whisper, “Thank you, Great One.”
Thank you? The goddamn thing bit me!
Pushing out of his grandmother’s arms, he grabbed his pants and pulled them up slowly over his injured leg. This had to rate up there with the stupidest things he’d ever done. He zipped his fly and shot his attention back to the dragon’s one folded wing.
Shit. The girl.
He eased off the ground and took a stumbling step.
Tyler steadied him. “Take it easy. You’ve been unconscious for nearly an hour.”
The dragon rumbled a challenge deep within its throat.
But Nik was tired of bowing and scrabbling at this creature’s scaly feet. It was nothing more than a winged alligator, and if they had to make this stupid animal into a suitcase to save whoever this thing was holding, then so be it.
“All right, you sack of shit. I let you poison me. Now give up the girl.”
Mine. Need. Find.
Nik’s head spun, and Tyler grabbed him again.
What the hell was that?
Home. Pain. Hurt. Take.
Nik’s stomach churned. He leaned over and heaved. His dry throat rasped as a cough overtook him.
Nanna placed her hand on his back. “You need to open yourself, Nikau. Let the dragon in.”
Let the dragon in? Had this woman always been certifiable? What in God’s name was she talking about now?
Another rumble, and the huge nostrils appeared by the side of his face again. Respect.
Nik turned away. “Great. Now I’m hearing things.”
“Do you hear him?” Nanna asked.
No. It wasn’t possible.
Nik gulped, and looked down the snout of the looming beast. “Did you just say something?”
Insolent. Ungrateful.
Nik grabbed his temples and leaned over. Those weren’t his words.
But that was impossible.
Nanna placed her hand on his back. “What does the Great One say? Will he let us see the girl? Tell him we mean no harm.”
Nik concentrated on the new sensations whirling through his mind. “It’s not like that. He doesn’t talk. It’s more like emotions. Feelings. Well, no, it is words, but emotion words. He’s not really talking. It’s more like he’s thinking what he feels.”
Nanna took his face in her hands. “You are still fighting it. Open yourself to your Kotahi heritage. Be one with the dragon.”
One with the dragon. Great. Were we going to start yoga chants now?
The dragon snorted.
Wait, did that thing just laugh? He hadn’t said that out loud, right?
Another whimper from within the creature’s wing. The beast lowered its head. Its eyes seemed sad.
She afraid. I afraid.
“Holy shit,” Nik whispered.
“Yes,” Nanna said. “Open yourself. Allow the dragon to flow through you.”
Flow? He didn’t know jack shit about flow, but his blood tingled, sparkling through his veins.
Nik straightened. A sense of power coursed through him, a power he knew wasn’t his own. As insane as it all seemed, Nanna was right. He could feel the dragon, and the emotions streaming through him were not the senseless thoughts of a wild beast, but the rational, discerning thoughts of an intelligence that matched—hell, probably surpassed his own.
This wasn’t an animal that they were dealing with, not in the sense he’d thought. As the essence of this creature surged through him, he had to admit, this was something more. It was time for him to step up and take the reins.
Nik held out his hands to the dragon. “We get that you’re afraid. But so is she.”
This was crazy. Stupid. He was talking to a lizard. His mind whirled, struggling to come to terms with what his rational brain saw, and the swirl of clear, analytical thought and emotion coursing through him. Animal, yet not. Uncanny. Strange.
Biped talk stranger. The words loomed in his head, as if they rose up from a space deep within him, hovered, and slipped away as quickly as they’d manifested.
Shit. That was enough to drive anyone nuts. But if Nik was hearing the dragon’s thoughts, could the dragon hear him?
Some. Erratic. Hard. The dragon shifted, and the girl screamed again.
Nik raised his hands higher. “Then search my mind. Know that we wouldn’t hurt her.”
That was the truth, at least. He needed to get her free if they had any chance of smuggling her off this mountain.
The dragon growled deep within its chest.
Nik pushed his thoughts away. This was going to be harder than he thought. “Okay, let’s agree not to trust me.” He pointed to the Maori around him. “But you can trust these people. They want to help. They may all be certifiable, but they are along for this crazy ride. They’re going to do everything in their power to do what’s right by you. All they want to do right now is make sure the girl is all right, and then give her right back to you. Okay?”
The dragon craned his neck. She will run. She is afraid.
Damn, its sentences were getting clearer by the second. Nik sighed. “Do you blame her? God knows where you grabbed her from, and you’ve had her tucked in your wing all night.”
Safe.
“Yeah, maybe, but terror can really mess a person up in the head.” He shivered, remembering the small child trapped in the car seat as he took a step toward the beast. “Just let us take a look at her. I promise I won’t try to take her away.”
Not yet, at least. One step at a time.
The dragon growled again.
Dammit, Nik needed to keep his thoughts in check. He stared into the beast’s eyes. If he was going to be his grandparent’s Kotahi, he was going to be the best damn Kotahi that ever lived. He wouldn’t let this dragon manipulate him.
The creature hobbled to the left on three legs, one still holding the girl within its wing. If its muscles were anything like a human’s, the dragon had to be hurting after clutching someone for so long. And the angry red swelling around the stitches in its wing had to ache.
All that aside, if the lizard didn’t drop the girl, they would be at a stalemate, and if what he remembered about the Seventeen Year ritual was true, this thing only had a few days to return to its lair, or wherever the hell dragons came from; and that wing looked pretty screwed up in his uneducated opinion.
Nik furrowed his brow. If the dragon was as smart as he seemed, he knew his limitations, and he knew better than anyone how hurt he was. No matter how proud this creature might be, he needed help.
Nik glanced at the creature’s primary caregiver. Tyler was a human being before he became veterinarian to a mythical beast. Nik was fairly certain that he could coerce the man into not treating the dragon unless their demands were met; and right now, they needed to convince this thing to drop the girl. Period.
He opened his mouth to say as much, when the dragon blinked, puffed out a hot breath, and unfurled its left wing.