Total pages in book: 91
Estimated words: 84237 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 421(@200wpm)___ 337(@250wpm)___ 281(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 84237 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 421(@200wpm)___ 337(@250wpm)___ 281(@300wpm)
“Yeah, but I was enjoying the feeling of making fast progress and the general lack of bugs trying to feast on me as we moved.” To Dimitri’s surprise, the grumpy archaeologist flashed him a small grin.
“So was I. But we can still have some fun scouting ahead to get our bearings.”
“What do you mean?”
Dimitri didn’t answer. He climbed out of the Jeep and walked to the back where Luka, Vasily, and Gregori were already gathering. They all looked windblown and uncomfortable as they stretched their arms and legs as far as they could.
“We need to scout,” Vasily announced. “Who’s going up?”
“I’ll go,” Dimitri immediately volunteered. “I’ll take Sir Samelot with me.”
Sam opened his mouth to say something, but he paused and shuddered briefly. Dimitri so hoped that was his pained reaction to the newest nickname. He was particularly proud of that one.
“What are you talking about? Go up?” Sam spit out.
“Flying,” Dimitri said. “We need to scout out the best route, and that can be best done in the air. I’m going to shift into my dragon. I thought you’d like to go along for the ride.”
“I can? How?”
Gregori had already opened the trunk of the other Jeep and pulled out the saddle and safety harness. “You’re going to need this. We brought it along in case we had to leave the vehicles behind and make a fast exit from the area with you.”
“Whoa…” Sam exhaled.
An undignified giddiness swept over Dimitri and he couldn’t blame it all on his dragon. There was a general excitement at the idea of showing off his dragon to Sam for the first time. They’d come so far from snapping at each other on the street corner. They’d laughed, screwed, cuddled, and even had a small heart-to-heart. It was only natural for their friendship to progress to the next step, which was obviously showing off his dragon.
Flashing one last grin at Sam, Dimitri called upon his dragon, handing control of his body over to the beast living inside of him. After so many centuries, shifting into his dragon form was as easy as slipping on a favorite pair of worn slippers or simply stretching out worn muscles.
The dragon’s consciousness swelled and took over all the various muscles, bones, and sinews. Because it was happening so fast, he wasn’t necessarily aware of all the minute changes occurring at once. It was more that his perception of the world was shifting. Things were becoming smaller as he grew. The air tasted different on his dragon tongue, and the wind moved differently across his scales and along his wings.
When the change was complete, Dimitri tilted his head to the side to take in Sam with one dragon eye. The mage’s mouth was hanging open and he took one step backward and just sat in the dirt as if his legs had given out.
Sam’s lips moved, but no sound came out. That was okay. Dimitri could read his lips for that one word.
“Beautiful.”
Beautiful.
He was absolutely beautiful.
This wasn’t Samuel’s first time seeing a dragon. He’d watched with the rest of the world when that insane blue dragon had tried to save a non-crashing plane. He’d seen the videos of the German red dragons flying about their castle. He’d watched countless hours of news footage of all kinds of dragons, anything anyone could get even the shortest clip of.
But Dimitri was the very first dragon he’d seen in real life. The first one to shift right in front of him.
And he was so stunning Samuel could hardly draw a breath.
Dimitri was bigger than all the Jeeps combined and covered in sparkling white scales that reminded him of fresh snow glistening under a setting winter sun. His head was enormous and large spikes rose up from the crown while long fangs curved out from under his lips. The pale blue eye that closely regarded him was nearly as big as Samuel was tall, but the intricate color was the same as the man he’d come to know over the past few days.
Samuel was trying to remain cool, to be reserved and aloof. Dimitri’s ego was bigger than the both of them combined. The dragon didn’t need to know that Samuel was in awe of him. That his hands itched to stroke along his scales to discover how they felt under his fingers.
Except that when he took a step backward so he could better take in all of the dragon, his legs stopped working properly and he landed on his ass in the middle of the dirt. All that cool, distant demeanor he was striving to cultivate evaporated in a heartbeat, but Samuel couldn’t bring himself to care too much.
A dragon was standing in front of him.
To his surprise, Dimitri stretched out on his stomach with his chin resting on the ground. There was a sort of expectant look on the dragon’s face—if a dragon could look expectant—as if he was waiting for Samuel to finally say something. Could Dimitri really care about what Samuel thought of his dragon?