The dragonkin was an interesting lady to be around. Apparently, she was just barely over a hundred and fifty years of age — still a babe by draconic standards, but the fact she had such a mature mind was good enough for Jerome.

  “So your people just let you be after your first flight?”

  “Yes,” Nyx answered. “Dragons are the opposite of Phoenixes in that regard.”

  “They are our close relatives, by the way,” the dragonkin explained. “After they hatch and can fly, they still live in their parent’s nest. We dragons on the other hand, are kicked out the moment we can raise ourselves off the ground when we flap our wings. Even I wasn’t exempt. My mother had second thoughts but still pushed me off a cliff seven thousand feet high in the sky!”

  “What!?” Jerome exclaimed. “That’s brutal!”

  “It’s our way of life,” Nyx said with a shrug. “I wasn’t even a hundred days old when it happened to me.”

  “Wow!” Jerome said, trying to reason it all out. “Humans have it easy compared to you. But…” He looked at the dragonkin, “Can I see them? Your wings, I mean.”

  She smiled at him and large silver bat-like wings unfurled behind her. They seemed to just appear out of nowhere and were attached the moment they did.

  “They’re beautiful,” he said, admiring them.

  Something poked him in the shoulder and he turned to see that Nyx had also unfurled her own wings which were pitch black in color but no less beautiful. But she also wore a dangerous look on her face as their eyes met.

  “Yours are also beautiful, Nyx,” he said, admiring hers as well. Don’t tell me you’re being competitive right now, Nyx.

  You’ve never complimented me before, she transmitted back and huffed, looking away.

  I have.

  You have not! She snapped back at him with a glare.

  “Ahem,” the dragonkin said and pouted at him. “I wish to join minds with you too.”

  “Huh?” Did he hear her right?

  “Don’t play dumb,” she said. “I know you two have a mental connection. Mother said the Chosen of Ilyrrah would be able to re-awaken the Common Path.”

  Nyx, looked away.

  The dragonkin gasped in shock. “He already did, didn’t he!? That’s incredible!”

  “Yes, he did,” Nyx replied. “But he’s not strong enough to carry the weight of more minds connecting to him. It takes Authority to even create the Common Path; I don’t know how he did it on his own.

  “You know I’m right here with you two, right? Don’t speak like I’m not. I may not know the depth of importance this subject has, but I can sense it’s very significant.”

  “Only a few dragons — male dragons — have been able to create the Common Path throughout all of history, Jerome,” Nyx said. “And that was eons ago.”

  “The Common Path connects all dragon minds to the first dragon — Aether, or whichever dragon creates it.” The dragonkin flapped her wings and drew closer to him. “Though no other dragon has been able to do it at the scale Aether did.”

  Nyx saw her draw close and did the same.

  What the fuck, Nyx. Quit acting like a child.

  She’s acting like a child!

  She is a child.

  The dragonkin wrapped her wings around herself but inched closer as if wanting to wrap them around him as well. Jerome pulled both of them closer and flew them upwards.

  “What are you doing?” Nyx asked.

  “There should be something beyond the fog, don’t you think?”

  “If there is,” the dragonkin said. “You can’t get to it by ‘flying’ there. This space is not what you’re used to.”

  Jerome stopped after a while with no results. That had been a real waste of time and energy. But he wanted to at least get a change in scenery. Unfortunately, that was not a possibility at his current level of strength it seemed.

  “So how do I go about ‘joining my mind’ with yours?” he asked.

  The dragonkin dematerialized her wings. “Normally, we would just speak psychically to one another and the path would open up in our minds. But that would mean putting a lot of strain on your psychic pathways. There is another way though” — she gave him a side glance — “but it comes with… side effects.”

  Jerome glanced her way, scrutinizing her look. “And what might this other way and its side effect be?”

  She looked away and floated a pace away from him while folding her arms under her massive bust. The action drew his eyes but it felt defensive, not intended to attract his attention.

  Jerome waited patiently for her to answer, knowing that this might be a touchy subject.

  “We share blood—”

  “What!?”

  Nyx tittered at him. “You’re in for a ride, Chosen of Ilyrrah.”

  “The blood we share isn’t going to be much,” the dragon said defensively. “Only a few drops.”

  “And we swallow these few drops?” Jerome asked.

  The dragonkin nodded.

  “You know what I am, don’t you?” he said. “Besides being the Chosen of Ilyrrah, I’m something else, something darker… that consumes blood.”

  “But you’re not yet that.” She looked up at him with innocent, pleading eyes and moved closer.

  Nyx’s mood grew darker as the dragonkin drew closer to him but she said nothing.

  “Does it matter? I will be someday… very soon. What if your blood triggers something in me?”

  The dragonkin looked away in uncertainty. “I only know that the experience will be… stimulating.”

  Her words sent blood shooting down south between his legs. But even that didn’t assuage his worries. Pandora stirred. She gave off tiny vibrations inside him that was filled with reassurance. It was a strange yet comforting feeling.

  Jerome sighed. “And what is this side effect?”

  “We will be able to find each other anywhere. Though this would wear off as time passes by. Only another exchange of blood will renew it.”

  “I can deal with that.”

  “Really!?” she asked. “Because I was of the opinion you wouldn’t want anyone knowing where you are. Or how to track you.”

  “Why wouldn’t I want that?” he asked, confused. “It sounds like a good thing. If I was in trouble, you could find me, and vice versa.”

  “I’m reminded of the difference between you and us once again, Jerome,” Nyx said. “Dragons are not social creatures. We are territorial and prideful. A dragon doesn’t like to ‘team’ up.” — She made a face at him that he was coming to understand very well. Nyx wasn’t good with people — “We prefer solitude. And beyond that, a team means weakness to us.

  “Like I said, dragons are prideful. We would never call on anyone for help when we are in trouble, we don’t even ‘get’ in trouble. Trouble finds us, and we crush it.”

  “That’s a lonely life. But of course, if parents throw their children out the moment they can fly, how much worse can it get than that?” He looked at Nyx with a small smile. “No hard feelings but, it feels like your very nature as dragons will bring your species to self destruct.”

  “That’s not news, Jerome,” the dragonkin said. “Dragons are going extinct. We have no males anymore so no mates, we have no Common Path to help us commune, we are isolated from the rest of our kin…”

  He had a feeling it was like this and hearing it from the dragonkin’s mouth just solidified his opinions.

  They floated there for many seconds saying nothing. Jerome just held them both to comfort them. He didn’t know what else to do. This however he could do — bring comfort with his presence.

  After a while, he said, “I have a question though… if you don’t mind.”

  “Ask what you will, Jerome,” Nyx said.

  “How do you materialize your wings and tails?”

  Both dragons burst into laughter.

  “What’s so funny?” Jerome asked, smiling at the both of them. “I think that’s a very valid question.”

  “No, it’s just your timing, and I guess the way you asked it,” the dragonkin said as she caught her breath and collected herself. “It sounded funny. But yes, it is a valid question.”

  “Dragons are different from every other creature, I’m sure you understand, Jerome,” Nyx said. “Consciously extending body parts is a part of our constitution. Essence and vitality also plays a big part in it, even if you don’t sense us using it. The dragon is the real us. This human frame is but clothing.”

  “Then where does the dragon, the real you, go? When you summon your wings or tails, where do they come from?”

  They both stared at him in confusion, unable to answer.

  “So it just… is?” he asked, kind of disappointed she didn’t have a better answer for him. What would have been a better answer though?

  “Those are questions I’ve never had to ask myself before, Jerome,” the dragonkin said.

  “I haven’t been in this human form for long so I wouldn’t know how to answer you,” Nyx said. “Maybe Sheela may know. She’s a shifter after all, and seems to have more knowledge than she lets on.”

  “I kind of have a theory of mine, just so you know.”

  “Ooh…” Nyx said, smiling. “Let’s hear it then.”

  “The fae, and some long lost human civilization, I believe, recorded that the material plane is a realm that consists of three spatial dimensions: length, width, and depth. But there is a fourth dimension: time. This is known as the space-time continuum, where every event is described in four dimensions. But the fourth dimension is a complex and debated topic among many.”

  “What does this have to do with our constitution, Jerome?” the dragonkin asked innocently.

  “Here’s my theory,” Jerome continued. “Mere mortals are three dimensional beings on the spatial level. Well, you might ask, ‘what does it take to be a three dimensional being?’ My answer would be that if there were two dimensional beings we would be able to observe them in a way they could never observe themselves.”

  “That would be beings on a flat plane, right?” Nyx asked in thought.

  “Yes,” he answered. “This is all just theoretical but I do think it can hold water. Sacred artists and every one above us can observe the world differently from mere mortals, who are three dimensional beings but ‘see’ the world in two dimensions.”

  Stolen novel; please report.

  “Ah!” the dragonkin exclaimed. “I understand that part.”

  He nodded. “A mortal’s mind, however, would help it create depth to whatever his or her eyes see, and the dimension of time comes into play too. So they see in two dimensions, perceive in three dimensions, and observe in four if you add the dimension of time.”

  “That’s… interesting,” Nyx said. “We can actually see in three dimensions because of our psychic powers.”

  “Humans are three dimensional beings — we all are, actually. Our physical presence is restricted to three spatial dimensions — plus time if you add it. If there was a fourth spatial dimension though, what do you think it would be?”

  Both ladies looked at him in confusion.

  “There is no fourth spatial dimension,” Nyx said after a while.

  Jerome nodded slowly.

  “But you both don’t have the same restrictions as I in this material plane. You can grow claws and tails and horns, probably. I can do none of that because my body isn’t built that way.” He turned to Nyx. “You reverted back to your draconic form when Muna’s minions came after I and Csala. That beastly form must have been a product of a fourth dimension. A place inside you — perhaps inside the very atoms of your body that causes it to stir and grow into your dragon form when you want.”

  “So you’re saying this makes us four dimensional beings?” Nyx asked.

  “Among other things…” He smiled at her. “A fourth dimensional being should be able to see the world differently — in a way three dimensional beings can’t, and affect the world differently. Like move through space differently, or take out the bones from another being without touching them.”

  “But you can do all those things too,” the dragonkin said. “Besides grow claws and horns. Doesn’t that make you a fourth dimensional being as well?”

  Jerome shrugged. “I can’t take out the bones from another being without touching them. I guess my theory falls flat on its face with a little push back. This is all conjecture, by the way. Nothing is proven of it yet.”

  The dragonkin sighed. “Mother’s calling us back. They must have come to a conclusion.”

  “I do think that from the concept of dimensions, another dimension wouldn’t be spatial though,” he said. “It would be something else. Perhaps connected to ability, nature… Transcendents might be fourth, maybe even fifth dimensional beings.”

  “Maybe higher,” Nyx said.

  “Hmm,” the dragonkin concurred. “Maybe higher. Thankfully, you can become as powerful as a Transcendent and even transcend that Realm.”

  Jerome smiled at that.

  “So?” the dragonkin said, looking at him expectantly. “Are we going to…”

  Jerome looked at her. Her oval-shaped, silver irises seemed to be staring into the depths of his soul. When he floated closer, hunger filled her eyes and she took in a shaky breath. Her voluptuous breasts heaved, jiggling as she shook slightly. Their movement attracted his eyes and he could see her nipples poking the silky, silver material of her gown.

  The bulge in his pants seemed to grow harder. Was this what it was like being with a dragon? It was so intense.

  “Calm down,” Jerome said.

  She took another breath. “I’ve been told this can be very intense.”

  He felt her perception scan their surroundings.

  “Nyx left to give us privacy. No one is around us.”

  The dragonkin nodded and moved closer to him. She wrapped her arms around his waist and hugged him tightly, breathing in his scent.

  “You know, I have no idea how to go about this. I’m watching to see what you would do.”

  She chuckled. “Dragons can also grow fangs, you know? To rend flesh from bones but I’ll be gentle.”

  She looked up at him with a smirk. Jerome smiled down at her.

  “You are a lot more comfortable with my presence than you were a while ago,” he said. “So, let’s get this over with.”

  “Don’t rush it.” She pouted. “Why do you think Nyx gave us some privacy?”

  “Oh,” he muttered in realization. “I didn’t think you were a romantic.”

  She blushed furiously and buried her face into his chest. Jerome caressed her long, silky black hair until she looked back up at him.

  “That’s a lie, Xerae,” Achilleia butted into his thoughts. “You knew from the very moment you saw her that she was a romantic.”

  Shush, you.

  “Ok, I’m ready,” the dragonkin said. “Just… Do you trust me?”

  Jerome raised an eyebrow at that but he nodded. “I have a feeling I’m not going to like this.”

  She smiled. “I just… the spot I wish to take you blood from is…”

  “Go ahead,” Jerome said. “As long as I get to take your blood from the same spot on your body.”

  Now she turned as red as a tomato.

  “Really?” he asked. “It can’t be that bad, can it?”

  Still red in the face, she pulled off his long coat and began unbuckling his cuirass.

  “What are you doing?”

  She didn’t answer; didn’t even look him in the face. Jerome looked on as she unbuckled the last of the buckles. She tried pulling off the leather cuirass but was still unable to. Jerome reached up and undid a zipper by the side, causing her to give that part of the cuirass a curious look.

  “It’s a fastener, just like the buckles. It’s called a zipper.”

  He took off his cuirass and watched it float beside him together with his long coat.

  “I didn’t expect you to have this much muscle on you,” she said. “You’re eighteen, aren’t you?”

  Jerome couldn’t focus on her words. Her hands were roaming his muscles causing his skin to tingle in delight.

  She licked the skin of his left chest, sending shivers up his spine. Jerome groaned in pleasure. His bulge was pinned between his thigh and her lower tummy, and was sending shocks of pleasure up his spine.

  The dragonkin kept licking the same spot on his chest until finally, she bit him.

  “Huh?”

  Jerome looked down, wondering what happened. He saw her elongated canines touch his skin. She added a little pressure but his skin didn’t break. She looked cute trying to pierce his skin with the befuddle expressing on her.

  “Try harder,” he said.

  “I might do more damage. Your skin is a lot harder than I expected. It’s like flexible steel.”

  “That’s why I said you should use more force. I won’t break.”

  She used more force but the result was the same.

  “Harder!”

  She bit down harder and Jerome held the back of her head. It took a while, but her fangs broke his skin. He felt them like pin pricks and she lapped up his blood. Her arousal hit him like a wave the next moment. But not just hers. Nyx, wherever she was, must have been spying on them, as he could smell the scent of her too.

  Jerome held himself together. The bulge in his pants had gotten unbearably painful but he held himself back from grinding against her.

  She didn’t though.

  The dragonkin held his ass and began grinding her pelvis against his bulge. Her moans were like sweet music to his ears and her giant bust did things to his senses as she pressed them against him. She began kissing up his neck. Her kisses became aggressive as she took his lips.

  A red haze of pleasure took him over in an instant. Jerome began kissing her back with the same fervor. Their tongues wrestle for dominance and their hands groped each other with a wild hunger. Jerome heard the rending of clothes but he was too far gone to care. He felt her claws pierce his skin, drawing blood but that only served to enhance his pleasure.

  He trailed kisses down her neck with little bites. Her giant mammaries jiggled beneath him and he lifted her up so she could wrap her long legs around his waist. Jerome took a nipple into his mouth. The taste of her skin sent his pulse racing faster.

  He felt his canines lengthen and had just the strength of will to move his mouth upwards, dropping her nipple before biting into her skin. Her blood hit his taste buds like the most delectable thing he had ever tasted. Nothing compared to it. Not even sex felt so damn good.

  He lapped it up in hunger — a different type of hunger he never knew he had. The haze of pleasure he was feeling transformed into hunger. No, his sex drive turned up a notch as well. Both hunger for her blood and hunger for her blended together until he didn’t know which was which. His canines dug deeper into her skin and he heard her moan in pleasure. She gripped his head, pinning him to her bosom.

  But he willed his hunger away. He licked at the wound until it closed, all the while grinding her pelvis against his bulge. Her ass in his hands felt so full and soft. He wanted to have her there and then. But there were Transcendents waiting for them. He couldn’t keep such powerful beings waiting.

  “Calm down,” he whispered, as much to himself as he did to her. “Breathe…”

  The result was almost instantaneous. He felt her presence in his mind open up slowly. It was like taking a deep breath and noticing you have a new pair of limbs.

  You’re incredible, you know!? she transmitted through their budding connection.

  They were both out of breath and aroused. She held onto him, still not letting go. A light sheen of sweat covered them both as they held onto each other. Looking at the spot she bit, he found it was already healed, as though nothing had broken the skin ever before. Her skin was also undamaged.

  As are you, Jerome responded. “Fuck,” he said out loud, realizing he tore her gown. Sorry about your gown.

  It’s fine. She pulled another gown out of nowhere and slid down his body.

  Jerome was reminded of how Nyx threw the rings he gave her into her mouth. They held each other for a long moment, not wanting to let go. But Jerome pulled himself away so she could put on her new gown. He couldn’t make her look indecent.

  “Don’t look away,” she said to him.

  “It’s courteous to look away when a woman is dressing.”

  Hmm. But that’s a human thing, not a dragon thing. So please, don’t look away.

  Jerome watched her undress. She did it slowly, with a lack of experience in seduction. But it just made him want her more. Her movements were still super graceful though. And as she finished undressing, beholding her bare body to him, her confidence increased.

  He couldn’t take his eyes off her. He pulled her close and kissed her fervently. Her hands groped the bulge in his pants and began to caress it lovingly. He gripped her ass cheeks and squeezed, eliciting a moan from her. If he stayed here, they wouldn’t leave.

  He broke their kiss. “Please, put something on. You’re too tempting, too beautiful to not want to touch, to take.” He backed up and called for Nyx.

  With a heavy sigh, she pulled on her new gown and Jerome breathed his own sigh of relief. But he could see in her eyes that she wanted him. He wanted her too. She had awakened something primal in him that he didn’t know was there. Something more powerful than the beast inside him. It was a force more powerful than what he felt when he had sex with Csala — if one could call it that.

  “Maybe next time,” he said.

  “We’ll share blood again?” she asked with a hopeful look.

  “No, I mean…” He sighed. “I am very attracted to you. And I know you’re attracted to me too. But it’s… too sudden.”

  “I understand,” she said, looking away from him. “You humans have cultures and habits we dragons see as superfluous.”

  “Really?”

  “Yes. Dragons don’t concern themselves with courting and marriage. Or at least that’s what I know from the memories I inherited. Dragons can—”

  “I know of the inheritance,” Jerome said. “How did they take mates back then though?”

  He used his tongue to trace over his canines, noticing they had returned to normal.

  They just do, Nyx transmitted, floating toward them. Finding one’s mate had more to do with scent than physical communication. Not even psychic communication was involved.

  So you just smell them out?

  The dragonkin hugged his arm affectionately and Nyx frowned at the action. She pulled him and they began flying toward the meeting of the Transcendents.

  When females are in heat, their scent can be perceived from miles away, the dragonkin said. The males fight to get to her and whoever comes out the winner takes the prize. The rest are wiped out of the mating pool.

  How barbaric, he thought to himself, frowning. Jerome had mastered how to keep his thoughts to himself by thinking about Pandora. So he did just that. I thought an intelligent race such as dragons would not be slaves to their baser instincts.

  “I know what you’re thinking,” the dragonkin said, switching to vocal communication. It was as if she predicted his thoughts and respectfully took a step back from the Common Path.

  “You do?” He raised an eyebrow at her, then looked at Nyx who was glaring at him, as if daring him to speak his thoughts.

  “You think we’re barbaric,” the dragonkin said, unaware of the mental battle he was fighting with Nyx.

  “I don’t think so—” Nyx’s glare intensified. “Well, I do think it’s an archaic way to do things. There should be less brutal ways to fight for a mate, don’t you think? A competition of sorts. Winner takes all; loser goes home with his tail between his legs, but gets to keep his life.”

  “Such a loser will be excommunicated,” the dragonkin said. “He becomes the walking dead, living his life in exile; unable to find meaning to his existence, unable to find a mate to take his seed and help him continue his line. Who would want the seed of a loser?”

  “Damn!” he said, shaking his head. “You dragons are intense. By the way, I have a question. When I” — he pointed at the spot where he bit the dragonkin to draw her blood — “how did I do that? One moment my canines were normal, the next they were extended and sharp.”

  “And intensely arousing,” the dragonkin muttered. She looked up in shock, realizing she had said it out loud.

  Jerome coughed. “So?”

  “I have no idea,” she said, still red in the face.

  He looked at Nyx and she said the same, though with a lot more malice than necessary.

  ~~~

  It was concluded that he would outfit the armies of Vorthe with his ‘boomsticks’ when much steel was provided. Jerome had both ancient beings swear an airtight oath that Achilleia worked on herself. The Transcendents had their own terms as well, though he had anticipated them. He had known they wouldn’t want him selling to anyone but them.

  The oath — in written form — stated that they would not infringe upon his ability, capacity, and right to deal or not to deal arms to any individual, institution, or state. The dragoness had almost turned it down. She argued with several stipulated terms, citing events from history Jerome knew nothing about.

  He didn’t budge though. If anything, her resistance strengthened his resolve that this was the right call. He wouldn’t give power to those who would abuse it without backlash — a tenfold backlash if he might add.

  In addition to making them weapons, Jerome added other incentives, like technologies only known to him. But he made sure that investiture of land and authority to him was a part of the agreement. The Sovereign had actually smiled at that. Every new technology he created for them would come with an equal exchange.

  Jerome began musing on ways to industrialize his production. He needed to draw up plans but he had to get to Alvion. Thankfully, the First Elder dropped him and Nyx off.

  The dragonkin went back to Fei lands with her mother, promising to return when he was ready. Jerome knew he would miss her. Someone he just met shouldn’t have such a pull on him, but she did. He could feel her presence even though she was far, far away. And if he concentrated well enough, his senses would tell him what direction to head in to get to her.

  But like Nyx once said, ‘you don’t need to understand everything, just acknowledge that they are’.