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  A stable hand came running up to them and darted off again

  almost immediately to fetch Tevra's horse as requested. Several

  minutes later they were off, with Tevra on his horse, Barkus in his

  wolf form, and Najlah taking the lead, alert for even the slightest hint

  of suspicious scent or sound or movement.

  They made it into the city without issue, but really, getting

  there was the easy part. As they had no idea what they were facing,

  they had no idea what to be braced for. An attack could come from

  any direction and take any form. Their unknown assailants had

  already used weapons and magic to achieve their ends, so they had

  an impressive skillset.

  Not impressive enough, but not to be dismissed either.

  Najlah growled as they made their way through the streets,

  falling back to let Barkus, who had shifted back to human, take the

  lead. All around them people stared and pointed and whispered.

  He'd come into town before, in dragon and human-like form, but

  there was always the gawking. Whispers of demon in that tone he

  hated, like they really did believe he was some stupid myth and not

  just a being from a drastically different environment.

  He ignored them, as nothing he said or did would change their

  minds, and he was working anyway. A distracted hunter was a dead

  hunter.

  We say it, 'the rabbit that stops paying attention becomes

  dinner.'

  "Stop here," Tevra said abruptly, as they came up to a building

  that had one of those signs indicating it was a sleep-over. No, that

  wasn't the word they used here. What was it?

  "Inn," Barkus said.

  Najlah rumbled in thanks and entered the inn first. There were

  the usual startled noises at his appearance, but he ignored them,

  focused entirely on smelling.

  There. That stardust smell again. Faint, very faint, not coming

  from the dining room or someone currently smoking.

  Growling, barely noticing the way people nearby scattered, he

  prowled up the stairs, following the weak scent. He could hear Tevra

  and Barkus behind him. From his thoughts, Barkus was expecting

  trouble. Najlah hadn't smelled or heard anything out of the ordinary,

  but he trusted Barkus's instincts.

  As they drew closer to the source, which seemed to be the

  last door on the right at the end of the hall, Najlah could smell magic

  as well. Faint, but sharp and acrid, not magic he'd ever smelled

  before. He growled, and Barkus said, "Najlah says he can smell

  magic, and something about it is strange."

  "I can feel it," Tevra said. "Only barely. It's masked, so we

  don't know it's there. I think someone has set a trap, but I've no idea

  if it was laid by Verin, the dead agent who was staying here, or by

  someone who came after they killed her. Allow me."

  Najlah growled and blocked the door.

  "Lord Najlah, I can disarm the spell. My tattoos are not for

  show, I promise. Your job is to protect me, I respect that, but I know

  magic like you know fire. It's literally been carved into my flesh."

  That, Najlah couldn't really argue with, especially with the way

  some of the tattoos had started to glow, as though they were backed

  by lamplight, save that he'd never seen lamplight come in so many

  colors. He wanted to taste them.

  Barkus laughed, and Najlah shot him a glare before putting

  his attention fully back on the matter at hand.

  Tevra's right arm shimmered and glowed with a rainbow of

  colors as various marks across it lit up, sometimes just one,

  sometimes in pairs or threes, then several of them all at once as he

  rested his hand on the door. "Nothing on the door," he said as the

  glowing faded away. "Whatever it is, it's elsewhere in the room."

  Najlah growled and shoved him out of the way, then swung

  and slammed his tail into the door, shattering it. Knocking away

  some of the pieces, he stepped over the rest as he prowled into the

  room, spikes coming out, the tips gleaming with venom.

  The room was empty but smelled of recent occupation—and

  stardust.

  "High— Tevra, did the woman who resided here smoke

  stardust?"

  "No," Tevra said. "Stardust can warp the senses. It's not

  something Verin would use, even in her off hours. Too risky, given all

  the secrets she knows, all the deadly skills she's mastered."

  "Then someone else was here before us, and they do smoke

  stardust. We found a used cigarette in the field behind the palace."

  "It's a common practice in Gormestia, though the wealthier

  use pipes more often than cigarettes." Tevra ventured further into the

  room, more of his marks glowing softly. Najlah wanted to know how

  they worked but refrained for the moment. Curiosity could be sated

  when the hunt was finished.

  Tevra walked the perimeter of the room slowly, fingers of his

  right hand following the wall but not quite touching it, his left at his

  side as though poised to attack. There was a look of concentration

  on his face that said he would be oblivious to anything else that

  happened, at least until too late.

  Well, good thing he had a dragon and a wolf with him.

  Barkus chuckled, amusement and fondness and a smug

  knowing rolling through the bond.

  Najlah hissed at him but didn't argue.

  Tevra stirred briefly from his work to cast them a confused

  look but went back to it when Barkus gave a slight shake of his head.

  Muttering to himself in what Najlah assumed was Gormestian, he

  moved to the center of the room and knelt. Frown deepening, he

  rose and threw his right hand back so the flat of his palm was

  parallel with the ceiling. Some of his sigils glowed yellow, then pink,

  then red. On the ceiling, a large, intricate looking sigil glowed the

  same shade of red. Tevra let out a smug, "Got you."

  "What, precisely, do you have?" Barkus asked.

  "The spell Najlah smelled and that I sensed. Once I found and

  negated the masking spell, there it was. Better still, it's an alert

  spell."

  Najlah growled and thwacked the floor.

  Tevra smiled at him. "An alert spell lets the caster known

  when someone in a different location has stepped into the room,

  unlocked a box… whatever they set it for. It has a limited range,

  though, approximately a quarter mile or so. It's used frequently by

  thieves and the sort. My people would not use something like this—

  too risky if there's a competent enough mage involved."

  "I assume you're competent enough?" Barkus asked with one

  of his amused snorts.

  "I'm far better than that," Tevra replied. "We'll need to move

  quickly once my spell is cast, though. There's nothing I can do to

  prevent them from knowing it's tripped, and they'll likely either make

  a run for it or come at us braced to kill. Either way, we must be

  ready."

  Najlah growled. Finally some fun. He jerked his head, baring

  his teeth briefly.

  "Here we go, then," Tevra replied, and once more lifted his

  hand to the ceiling. This time his sigils glowed green, then blue, then

/>   purple—and with a flash of purple light, the sigil vanished from the

  ceiling, the light coalescing into an orb. "Now!" Tevra said, as the orb

  shot from the room, giving chase immediately.

  Najlah bolted after him, Barkus right on his heels.

  People swore and screamed and shouted as they tore

  through the inn, barely dodging out of the way in time, calling threats

  and colorful crudities after them.

  The chaos was even worse on the streets, all three of them

  running like they were fleeing an eruption.

  An eruption of what, Barkus asked, but then his attention was

  wholly back on the hunt as they turned a corner so sharply Najlah

  nearly ran into a wall.

  As they burst from the far side of the narrow street they'd run

  down, Tevra bellowed, "Down!"

  In the very same moment, Najlah smelled fire. As the other

  two dropped to the ground, Najlah surged forward, charging into a

  blast of scorching blue flames. For a few seconds, he almost felt as

  warm as he would back in Tahjil.

  Beyond the flames was a man who realized his stupidity the

  very moment he saw Najlah. Not that it mattered, because in the

  very next breath Najlah had crunched his head like a firebird egg.

  Wasn't nearly as tasty. Spitting out the remains caught in his teeth,

  he turned to the next threat.

  He made short work of two more, but as he rounded on a

  third, suddenly there was a great many more than that, an entire

  circle, and they radiated so much magic that it stung his nostrils.

  Growling, Najlah moved so he was back-to-back with the other two,

  forming a defensive circle. What's going on? Because it felt a great

  deal worse than a standard ambush.

  "They're going to break us," Tevra snarled. "Both of you, hold

  on to me, and draw blood when you do it. If you can mix yours with

  mine, all the better."

  Even as he spoke, the circle of people seemed to almost

  vibrate in place, or was it the ground? Their eyes glowed a sickly

  red-brown color, and Najlah felt like he was going to heave up his

  stomach.

  He did as Tevra had ordered, sinking his teeth into his calf,

  holding tightly without clamping down so hard that he'd do serious

  damage. He could smell more blood as Barkus acted as well.

  Tevra screamed, and blinding yellow light consumed them at

  the same time that the sickly red-brown color seemed to explode in

  all—

  *~*~*

  Najlah woke with a snarl, but before he could lunge, he

  registered he was in fire. Then the smells struck him.

  His room. He was in his fireplace in his room in the palace.

  How in the world had he gotten here? What had happened? He

  growled as the memories wouldn't come. Not past the ambush.

  Biting Tevra.

  Pain sliced his head, and the memory of using too much

  magic too fast, exactly the way he knew he shouldn't.

  Najlah rumbled in confusion. That wasn't his thought. It wasn't

  Barkus's thought either. What in the flames was going on?

  The question was answered as someone sat up in his bed as

  frantically as Najlah had woken up a moment ago. Not Barkus,

  though, but Tevra.

  Where am I? Tevra asked, looking around the room. The

  palace. This isn't my room, not my old one or new one. Did they

  move me again? How did I get back here?

  Najlah growled. He could hear Tevra's thoughts like he could

  Barkus's. How was that possible. What was going on?

  "Who said that!" Tevra looked around frantically again, then

  pressed a hand to his forehead. "I think I'm losing my mind."

  You're not, Najlah said, growling again. You're mentally bound

  to me, and presumably Barkus.

  "Lord Najlah?" Tevra gave the room yet another sweep.

  "Where are you?"

  Rumbling and chittering in amusement, Najlah uncurled and

  slithered from the fireplace, shaking off embers.

  Tevra's eyes widened. "You—were you in the fire."

  I'm a dragon of Tahjil, Najlah said with a snorting snuff. Sitting

  in fire is the only way I get remotely close to the temperatures to

  which I'm accustomed, the only way to keep my blood suitably

  heated outside of the pack bond I share with the Lukos and before

  that, an amulet.

  Brow furrowing, moving to the edge of the bed, Tevra asked,

  "Why don't you just use sigils?"

  Najlah rumbled, eyes turning pink.

  "Like mine," Tevra said, standing and slowly approaching him.

  He extended his arms, and his tattoos seemed to gleam in the light.

  "You could permanently embed a spell for heat. It would require a

  constant use of energy, but bound to a pack, it would be a negligible

  drain at best, and it would also draw upon natural heat in an area. So

  long as you were close to a fire or out in the sun or whatever, it

  would keep you well and have reserves to draw on when you're

  thrust into cold unexpectedly."

  I… did not know that was possible. Restuel does not use your

  markings. Magic is done or not done; it shouldn't require fancy

  scribblings.

  Tevra laughed. "Fancy scribblings let you do much more than

  a single person can with only their own energy. Sigils draw energy

  from the world around them, requiring less of the caster and enabling

  greater strength and power. It has its own costs and drawbacks, as

  anything does, but the benefits outweigh them, at least for me. Here,

  these are the ones we'd need for you." He touched several of the

  runes on his arms and two on his face, causing them to glow the

  color of burning embers. "The trick would be where to carve them, as

  those scales don't lend themselves well to the process. They couldn't

  be burned in, either." He laughed again. "Not in someone who sleeps

  in fire the way the rest of us do a bed."

  Najlah chittered, eyes swirling green, and flicked his tongue

  out.

  He wasn't prepared for the lust-laced curiosity that filled his

  mind, or the way Tevra's face went red the moment he realized that

  thought had slipped out.

  "Sorry!" Tevra burst out. "I'm not used to this at all. Mind-

  sharing is a Lukos thing. I've never heard of a human brought into

  the bond, save the rare few who marry into the pack, which hasn't

  happened in decades. I don't know how this happened."

  Najlah hissed playfully, crawling toward the hastily retreating

  Tevra. But you have theories.

  Tevra stilled briefly, distracted, and Najlah used the

  opportunity to turn and swing out his tail, deftly sweeping Tevra off

  his feet so he landed on the thick rug nearby. Then Najlah crawled

  over him, lust tingling along his spine, turning his eyes red. He

  rumbled softly, close enough that Tevra would feel it in his own body.

  "Call me crazy, but I don't think you really care about my theories

  right now."

  Do you? Najlah asked, flicking his tongue out to finally get a

  proper taste. Tevra tasted like blood and the bitter, acrid flavor he

  associated with magic.

  "I'm more baffled why you're… doing this. You've made your

  contempt of humans pretty cle
ar."

  Najlah licked him, dragging his forked tongue across Tevra's

  cheek, then took the softest nip of his jaw. Shock and pain and

  pleasure jolted through the bond, so he did it again—and nearly

  jumped himself when hands glided along his scales, firm enough to

  really be felt.

  "Is… is this okay?" Tevra asked.

  Don’t ask stupid questions.

  I still am not certain why you would… with me.

  You're as much a hornless brute as a human can be, Najlah

  replied.

  Tevra laughed, the sound delightfully low and husky. That

  doesn't really explain it, but I think I get the general idea. You'll have

  to tell, or I suppose, show me, what to do for you. I've never worked

  with anything but a human body.

  Najlah wasn't certain how to respond to that, except with a

  quiet happiness he didn't quite know what to do with. Barkus didn't

  mind when he stayed in this form when they fucked, but he'd never

  encountered a single human who continued to smell like lust when

  they saw him this way. Let alone one who simply accepted it as a

  given, instead of taking it for understood that he'd shift.

  He got his teeth on the loose shirt Tevra was wearing and

  tugged at it. Off.

  "All right, all right. You'll have to get off me, though; you're

  heavy."

  Rumbling in amusement, Najlah obeyed, waiting impatiently

  as Tevra hastily discarded his clothes. He glanced briefly toward the

  bed, where Barkus still slept like the dead. He won't mind?

  Why would he mind?

  Aren't you lovers?

  Najlah growled, eyes swirling pink and blue. We don't ascribe

  to your stupid human conventions. Are you only allowed one family

  member? One friend? Of course not. So why would you only be

  allowed one lover?

  Tevra laughed. It seems so obvious when you put it that way.

  All right, you bossy dragon, what do we do now?

  Najlah pushed him back onto the rug, and finally got his

  tongue on the rest of that long, lean body, going over each and every

  scar, wounds he had healed, that he had tasted. He knew the weight

  and flavor and smell of Tevra's blood, had consumed enough that it

  was in his blood.

  "Bossy and possessive," Tevra said with a laugh, the words

  anything but a complaint.

  Najlah rumbled approvingly and kept going, until he finally got

  his long, smooth tongue around Tevra's cock. They could do the

  slow, leisurely thing later.