Samhain Publishing Ltd, Ebooks and Books in Print

Dragon Tamer by Kathleen Scott

Whatever Darion had been expecting when he contacted his brother in the IFM, it hadn’t been Agent Serrah Gayle. Perhaps he was out of touch, but he thought women were supposed to be loving and nurturing. So far Agent Gayle was nothing more than a badge with boobs and an attitude. Nice boobs though they were. It wasn’t his fault her superiors didn’t share with her the dire circumstances of the “case”.

Gods, did she actually call it “a case”?

It was so easy to boil a problem down to a label when you weren’t the one touched by the pain and agony of the crisis.

He spared a glance at her profile as she tapped away on her handheld. How could such a beautiful woman be so damn cold and unfeeling? They didn’t program that into their agents, did they? Sure Tavil had changed when he’d joined the IFM, but Darion had always figured the training had only amplified the quiet inner strength that was inherent in his brother’s personality.

She raised a slender arm and brushed pale hair back from a heart-shaped face. She pulled her bottom lip between her teeth as she read whatever was on the small screen in front of her. It seemed like such a vulnerable action for a woman who appeared to be anything but. However, that small unconscious action caused his lower belly to tighten in a kick of unexpected lust.

“Dragons are one of your biggest draws to the island, right?” She looked over at him, but he couldn’t see her eyes. She’d had on sunshades since he’d met her at the shuttle port entrance.

“As big a draw as the beaches or volcano spirits.” He eased back the directional control as they started up a hill. The climb cart’s mercurial engine decided to take the opportunity to begin to chug and sputter as if the climb were too much for it to manage.

Agent Gayle shot him a look over the top of her glasses. He didn’t take his attention from the road to give her more than a cursory glance, though he really wanted to study her in much closer circumstances. “Are we even going to make it to the settlement?”

“We’ll make it.”

No doubt Agent Gayle wasn’t used to the rustic surroundings of the settlement. Dragon care and maintenance didn’t require legions of electronic devices. Low-tech equipment usually did the best job and had been proven ever since man and dragon had formed their first bonds. That wasn’t to say the settlement lacked modern conveniences— they just didn’t rely on such things for everyday tasks dealing with the dragons. Records keeping was another matter.

Damn, he wished Mercia, his office assistant, wasn’t off visiting her family. He relied on her to keep things running smoothly and they hadn’t been since she’d left a week ago. He’d hoped Tavil would be sent home, or he’d had more time to prepare for Agent Gayle’s arrival. When the call came earlier in the day to meet the IFM agent, the entire settlement had fallen into chaos to prepare. Thank the gods for Ontonio and Palmer.

The land inclined sharply. With slow, painful progress, the climb cart lurched forward as if the very gravity beneath them thickened and pulled at the cart like quicksand. The thrusters were failing and failing fast.

Damn! He shouldn’t have spoken so soon. Once the thrusters were gone they’d end up having to walk the rest of the way up the foothills.

“It’s still not too late to turn around and go back for a rental.” Agent Gayle sounded helpful, if not a little uncertain.

Darion shifted into a lower gear. They barely stayed afloat over the ground surface, but at least they were moving. Unfortunately, the lower gear didn’t allow for a great amount of speed.

From the corner of his eyes he caught the subtle shake of her head. She went back to her handheld and left her disgruntled words unspoken. Small favors. For once since the dragons began dying off, Darion felt like something had actually gone his way. If she had turned to him and started complaining, he’d have dropped the climb cart and forced her to walk on principle alone. Just the thought made him smile. Somehow the image of her getting all hot and sweaty trekking through the jungle was very tempting. She’d look even more tempting than she did now. If that were possible.

He glanced over at her as she straightened in her seat and looked over at Darion. Dark pink lips were parted on a silent question.

“What?”

“According to your Chamber of Commerce, sloughed dragon scales are Cambry’s biggest source of export.” The statistic came out like an accusation.

“Not for long.”

“No, that’s my point. The question I need to answer is who or what would benefit in the loss of the dragon population.”

Darion frowned as the climb cart gave an exhausted belch and chug. “No one will benefit.”

“Someone has to. Why kill them off, if not for profit?”

Did her world involve so many conspiracies and machinations that the thought something could be a purely biological component sound far-fetched to her? Granted, Darion had been the one to call the IFM in to investigate, but he’d mistakenly thought his brother would arrive and request a team of scientists to discover the reason for the dragons’ deaths, not a stun-rod toting militant female who made his blood boil. “There was no evidence to support that the blight is anything other than some nasty dragon-flesh eating bacteria of unknown origin.”

“Like I said, I want to see the data your expert collected.”

She was also suspicious.

“I’ll get everything to your hut when we arrive.”

“If we arrive,” she muttered under her breath and turned her attention back to the small screen in front of her.

With a violent jerk, the climb cart hit the ground. The thrusters hissed and popped, straining to lift, but to no avail. They were dead on the ground.

Darion killed power to the engines and turned to Agent Gayle, who looked at him over her sunshades as if she wanted to commit murder. “I’ll get your bags out of the back.”

“You’re kidding, right?”

“Not unless you want to sit here in the blazing sun and wait for help to arrive.” A little thrill went through his body as she unhooked the harness and climbed out of the passenger seat. Aggravating her proved to be very enjoyable.

He opened the storage compartment so she could grab her bags. She nudged him with her shoulder to move him out of the way. It was hard for him to stand there and not help her with her bags. She didn’t seem as if she wanted anything to do with him giving her a hand with whatever precious possessions she carried in her luggage. And yet, he found himself wildly attracted to her for some reason.

Darion started walking up the incline to the lower range of foothills. He let his glance slide over his reluctant companion. She looked fit enough, maybe he wouldn’t end up carrying her at some point. But he couldn’t help but dig at her. “The walk from here is pretty grueling. If you need to stop and rest, let me know.”

She readjusted the straps of her larger case and configured them to wear as a backpack. “Same goes.”

A smile tugged the side of his mouth. The woman was all grit and sass. Wait until she came face to face with a full-grown king Ruby. They were the largest dragons on the island and they didn’t suffer fools or arrogance lightly. “Let’s get walking then.”

Agent Gayle raised her arm. “After you, Archer.”

Hard to Guard by Nina Mamone

Connor pushed open the glass door and hit the street, sun and fresh air washing over him.

He didn’t like feeling he’d fucked up royally. It was no secret he and Sorcha rubbed each other the wrong way. Anybody who had ever spent more than a minute with the two of them knew they were like a cat and a dog trapped together in a sack.

So why, deep inside, did he want to fall at her feet and grovel until she gave him one of those warm, Sorcha smiles?

He spotted her ten yards away, a lone, beautiful woman on a teeming city street. Jogging, he caught up and clamped a hand on her elbow, forcing her to a halt.

She swung around, reluctance clear on her face.

Connor sucked in a bracing breath, prepared to apologize. “Hey—”

Brown eyes, usually soft and liquid, were like permafrost. He hadn’t known brown could be icy. “Forget it, Connor.”

“But I want—”

“I don’t want to hear it.”

“Sorcha, would you just—”

“Shut up! Just shut up!” Sorcha leaned towards him until they were one unit for the steady stream of pedestrians to flow around. “I get it, okay? There’s nothing to apologize for. Not liking me is not a crime.” Lips twisted wryly. “Don’t shred your tender heart for me. If you’ll notice, right now you’re not on my list of favorite people either. But it doesn’t matter. Let’s just find the missing wyrm so this will all be over with.”

Sorcha’s anger brought the blush back to her skin. The faint breeze blew strands of dark hair across her cheek and lips.

Connor wanted to have the right to reach out and brush the hair away.

He wanted to throw a blanket over her. She was showing too much of her body, and only he should be the one to see, to know how beautiful she was.

He wanted to be inside of her. It would be hot there, sizzling.

Today, more than ever, the rejection of these feelings tore at him, raged inside him. How much longer could he deny them?

It was like the words came from a different person. “You’re showing too much skin,” Connor said. “Your shirt is cut down to your navel.”

Oh, great, Connor. Insult her again, why don’t you? He braced himself. Sorcha had a tongue like a wasp and never thought twice about using it, especially on him. And this time he deserved it.

She didn’t say a word. She simply stood there, like a remote statue, freezing him out.

He stared at her, thrown. Where was Sorcha? Where was the fire, the vibrancy?

“Are you quite finished?” Clipped and final, the words chilled him.

A shoulder rose in defense. “Sorry,” he muttered, stung.

Sorcha took a deep breath, blew it out. She shook herself, and he could see her throwing off the tension and acclimating herself to the world beyond the two of them. “Where do you think we should start?”

Start? Who cared where they started? Why wouldn’t she argue with him? “Um…”

He looked at her helplessly. What had been the question?

Shaking her head as if she were the most unfortunate woman on earth, she said. “Okay. Let’s split up. You check Raul’s apartment one more time. I’ll go to Louis’s. If we find either at home, great. If we don’t, we can snoop and maybe find a clue as to where they might be. Let’s meet at the diner on Fifth Street in one hour.” She turned to go.

A solid, reasonable plan.

“No,” he said.

Sorcha swiveled back to face him. “What? Why not?”

All right. Now you have to think of a reason. Why? Why? “The Director wants us to work together.”

As justifications went, it was weak as runny oatmeal. Sorcha would know it, too.

She stopped, placed one hand on her hip and cocked her head. “Connor, are you okay?”

“Why do you ask?”

“You’re acting…bizarre.”

“I’m fine.”

She snorted. “So you say. Why do you want to stick together when we could cover twice as much ground apart? We need to split up.”

Plus, he suspected, she was trying to get rid of him. Well, he wasn’t about to let her go so easily.

“I’ve already been to Raul’s apartment today.”

“I know,” she said, “But he could be home now. Raul’s apartment is across town. If Louis isn’t home, we’ll just have to trek all the way over there. This way, we can each go to our wyrm’s apartment and call each other to see what we’ve found. It’ll save us time.”

He cast around desperately for another excuse, and all he could come up with was, “I don’t have my cell phone.”

She looked at him strangely. “Raul’s got a phone in his house, doesn’t he? Use that one.”

For a second, he considered telling her it had been disconnected, then decided he didn’t want her thinking he hadn’t been making sure Raul’s bills were paid on time and discarded the idea. Then he was hit with inspiration.

“I could just call him.”

“You could, but I know for a fact that Raul doesn’t always answer his phone. If he doesn’t, you’ll still have to go over there just to be sure.”

She had him there. It felt different, being on the other side of logic. Usually he was the reasonable one, the calm one. All he could do was push and hope she didn’t notice he wasn’t making a lot of sense. “It could be dangerous,” he said, jaw hardening as he prepared to fight to the bitter end. “We need to stick together.”

Now she would blow up, tell him what an idiot he was. That she could take care of herself and didn’t need a man along to make sure she was safe. She would call him a cretinous barbarian and insult his mother.

Finally, she just sighed and said, “Whatever. Let’s just get this over with.” She took off down the street, each round ass cheek dropping as she walked. “Louis’s apartment is closest. Let’s go there first.” Stopping short, she turned and surveyed him with raised eyebrows. “If that’s okay with you?”

He nodded, his features schooled, as they always were around her. It was instinct, an animal drive for self-preservation.

Usually he was shielding her from his lust, but now he had another emotion he couldn’t allow her to see. A feeling caused not so much by her as of the thought of never seeing her again.

It was a feeling Connor hadn’t known often, but it bit at him now, sharp and cold, spreading through his blood.

Oh, he had a feeling all right. And it was fear.