That wasn’t helping right now, though.
The dragon dropped to all fours again, swinging his tail around and hitting the wall. Some dust, a possible crack, but not the hoped-for hole. He turned to a gentle touch on his tail.
“My name’s Jenn. Could you turn back into a human?”
His dragon felt like at this point they had done what they could, for the moment anyway. A second later he was in human form.
“I am Deo,” he said.
She smiled, her dirt covered face showed streaks of more tears.
“I. Uh, well. I know I’m not what a guy like you would want. But I could maybe help? There’s no use in both of us dying here.”
Deo cocked his head. What was she talking about?
“You are an exquisite female. A male would be more than lucky to have you as a mate. I have a mate or, well-” he broke off. Closing his eyes, he breathed away the pain in his heart. He had a mate that didn’t want him, or at least not enough to trust him to give her what she needed. His entire life was a duty before your own needs until his mate. Suddenly his need for her came above all things, and then his new mission was to serve her. Make her happy and he’d failed. He hadn’t succeeded and it not only hurt to fail, but the brokenness inside of him might rip him apart.
“I can’t release you until I understand the demons,” he finally finished.
She shook her head. Deo watched her as she unbuttoned the now dirt brown shirt.
“I didn’t mean for me to get out of here. I told you my name so that someone would remember me. I already tried to get away once and I won’t try again. I don’t even understand what happened. Something was in my head. I couldn’t see straight. The walls came alive and attacked me. I can’t do that again,” she said.
Deo knew at once what was out there. Fear demons. Well, at least the doctor stuck with what worked. Only thing was, that still made no sense as to why he couldn’t communicate with his brothers.
Deo shook his head as something tried to break through.
His eyes grew wider and her fingers shook worse and worse as she got to the last button. She discarded her shirt. “I’m not afraid of you. You seem like a good person, dragon, whatever it is you are. If you do as he asks, you can go free.”
Understanding creeped in as she unbuttoned her pants.
“No. Stop!” he shouted.
He took two steps forward and grabbed her hands, holding them within his own.
“No. No woman should ever be used. No woman should ever have her choices taken from her.”
She smiled. “Yeah. Well. I am making this choice, though. I mean, I’ve never been in love. I really don’t have anyone to miss me and I love kids. Maybe this is okay?”
A shiver ran up his spine.
“Jenn, no. They will use you and discard you once they are done. This is not someplace you can simply just live.”
She looked up into his eyes.
“Whoever your, was it mate? Whoever she is, she’s lucky.”
Her eyes cast down and Jenn pulled her hands free of him.
Turning her back, her shoulders shook as sob after sob racked her body. The sound of anguish filling the prison like room.
Deo didn’t know what to do. Why was she crying?
“Jenn. I am sorry. Did I hurt you? Are you okay?” he asked as he hesitantly reached for her shoulder again.
“No. No, I’m not okay. I’m so ugly that you won’t even have me to save your own life. How is a woman supposed to take that? I can’t even die here thinking that maybe in another life I might have found someone to love me.”
He turned her around, slowly. She didn’t fight. He was certain the fight in her had been exhausted.
“It’s not that I don’t find you beautiful. I meant it. You are very pleasing to the eye. Understand though that once a dragon's heart is claimed, he is bound to his mate heart, mind, and soul. To break that bond would be a fate worse than death.”
And it was true. He knew that. So why, even with Aisha’s denial, was he still standing? Why was he able to get through the pain? Perhaps he was wrong. Did he dare think that?
She sniffled. “I’m sorry. But would it be worse to never see her again?”
Deo stopped to think about this. Was the anguish within him now based purely on his own false conclusions? Was it pain he felt or the sorrow perhaps from the effects of the demon magic here? He felt deep within himself, truly searched every corner of his soul and there within the magic he could still sense her.
Something wasn’t what it seemed. And at this moment he roiled in conflicted thought. Did he try to escape and know for certain he would seal this female’s death? He couldn’t be with her, though. Beautiful or not, it wasn’t an option.
“Would you say you trust me?” he asked.
She nodded. “You seem okay,” she said.
Well, did she really have a choice? She was between a demon and a dragon. Life wasn’t getting less complicated for this woman.
“What exactly did you see out there, when you tried to escape?”
Her skin paled.
“I, it was awful. It was like everything that I didn’t even know I was afraid of filled my head. Everything was out to get me. I was alone, but people were everywhere. Honestly, I’m not even sure if this place has a way out.”
Her arms wrapped around her midsection.
“Put your shirt back on, because we are getting out of here. I’m prepared to handle these demons.”
She shook. “I don’t think they are the only monsters here though. He mentioned that if I had gotten too far,
