“Be careful what you call her!” I snarled menacingly. “She’s worth ten of you, vrota!” Which was a name in the language of my people for a devious or twisted person—one who only wanted to cause harm to others. If there was a better example of a vrota than Nancy Rattcliff, I didn’t know what it was.
Her face darkened and she glared at me.
“So what are you going to do if I decide to mess with your little scarred human, anyway?” she demanded. “Don’t you High Drakes—the really upper class ones—have some kind of code against hurting females? So it’s not like you’re going to actually do me physical harm.” She looked thoughtful. “Although, I guess you could run tell the Headmistress on me. But if you do that, it might get back to your daddy the King Drake that you have a thing for a human—a scarred, deformed human!” she spat and then tilted her head to one side and looked at me with wide eyes. “Why, I wonder what he’ll think about that?”
I felt like gnashing my teeth with rage. She had me there and I knew it. It wasn’t like I could offer her actual physical harm, the way I could if another male was threatening my little human. The Drake code of honor, which I had been raised by, stated that a male must never harm a female. It was considered shameful and low, which was one reason I had been so shocked and angry when Sanchez had hit Kaitlyn in the face with a football and then laughed about it.
I wouldn’t have been so surprised if one of his hangers-on—the common green Drakes who followed him had done such a thing. They had no honor. But to have a nobleman of our kind act so to a female was both repugnant and shocking.
Also, it was true that I didn’t want the news of my choice of Kaitlyn as my future bonded mate to be revealed to my father and mother just yet. If he found out what was going on, my father would doubtless call me back to the Sky Lands and betroth me to what he and my mother considered a “suitable” female at once.
But while I was trying to think how to answer Nancy’s threat, I felt a surge inside me and my Drake suddenly came forward, pushing me aside as he assumed control of my body.
“It will not only be Ari you must deal with if you harm the little human,” he growled in a low, guttural voice much deeper than my own. I could feel my eyes glowing fiercely as they filled with his golden fire. “It is me you must deal with if you hurt her,” he went on. “She is MINE and I will not allow anyone—male or female—to raise a hand against her! Do you understand?”
For the first time since I had come charging out of the shadows, Nancy looked truly frightened. Her eyes widened and her lips trembled as she took a stumbling step back from me and my Drake.
“Y-yes,” she whispered at last. “I understand.”
I knew why she was in fear. My Drake’s message was unequivocal—he would not be bound by any code of conduct or oath of honor as I was. If something happened to Kaitlyn and Nancy was the cause of it, my Drake would make her pay—possibly with her life.
In fact, I could feel him wanting to emerge and make her pay right now, for even daring to threaten my little human.
“Enough,” I shouted at him inside my head. “You’ve made your point. And no, you can’t come out and eat her! Things aren’t the same in the human world as they are in the Sky Lands where a Drake is justified in killing anyone who threatens his female. If you tried that here we’d get kicked out of the Academy and brought up on murder charges as well.”
“She should be taught a lesson,” he insisted, his eyes blazing, his invisible wings stretching inside me, longing to break free.
“She has been,” I insisted. “She won’t bother Kaitlyn now that you’ve threatened her—I’m sure she won’t!”
At least, I didn’t think so. But I didn’t trust my Drake to stay in close proximity to the bitch-witch either. Turning from the still-frightened Nancy, I stalked stiffly away, leaving the Dining Hall as I continued to try and calm my Drake.
I was almost certain that what he’d said to Nancy would be enough to keep her away from Kaitlyn. But just in case, maybe it would be best to warn my little human, I thought, as my Drake finally began to quiet. At the very least, it would give me an excuse to speak to her and try to explain what was going on.
I just hoped she would listen and believe me when I told her I didn’t wish her any ill will—though I would have to be careful not to frighten her by letting her know exactly how I felt about her. The full weight of a Drake’s affections can be heavy indeed, as my mother had warned me when I grew to the age when the opposite sex was of interest to me.
“The love of a Drake is an awesome but burdensome thing, son,” she had told me. “To know that you command the affections of a ten-ton beast with teeth as long as knives and the ability to breathe flame is to know true power…and true responsibility.
“When your Drake picks a female for the two of you to bond with for life, you must treat her gently. Only gradually must she come to understand how much power she holds in her hands when she holds both your heart and your Drake’s.
“The day I first understood that your father’s Drake would kill anyone who even insulted me if I didn’t stop him, I went to my room to cry. For how can love alone control such strength—such raw power and intense, constant
