A Shade of Dragon Read Online Free PDF

asked.
    “N-N-Nell,” I answered.
    “Prepare yourself for resuscitation once more, Nell,” he instructed. “It will not hurt.”
    With that, he gently pried my jaw open and placed his lips against mine.

Chapter 7: Nell
    M y eyes widened as the sensation of heat filled my body, reaching down into my fingers and toes, even fluttering from my hair follicles. It lasted only three seconds, and then the mysterious man pulled away from me, detaching his lips from my own. They tingled. Everything tingled. I gazed up at him, mired in curious euphoria, and said, “Who are you?”
    “I am Theon, of Iphras,” he answered, voice booming with pride.
    “And what did you just do to me?”
    “I resuscitated you. Thrice.”
    “You did that to me three times?” I didn’t remember the first two at all.
    Theon glanced over at me, then grimaced and lowered himself to the ground so that our eyes would be even. “You seem upset,” he told me. His gaze was almost sad. “I meant no harm. I heard your cries. I saw you fall. I thought it best to warm and dry your body.” His brow furrowed. “Was I wrong?”
    “No,” I said. “I just thought… there would be… an ambulance.”
    “You’ll be safe without ‘ambulance,’” he said. “The tide is resting now. When it has receded, we may exit the cave and find you ambulance, if you desire it so.”
    “Yeah… What is this place?” The ceilings were as high as a cathedral, and light filled the room, fluctuating like orange oil on the stones of the wall. I twisted and found that a pit was flaming just behind us, real fire crackling and dancing in its depths. “Where are we?”
    “The nest of a beast,” Theon answered. “I can answer no more questions. I have traveled no further than this into its depths. I have only recently arrived myself.”
    “I’m glad you arrived when you did,” I said, fragments of the event beginning to fall into place. He must have heard my cries from outside the cavern and rescued me. I wondered, then, what had been making that breathing sound. The ‘beast?’ And if Theon knew this cave well enough to have staked out its animals and made fire, what was he doing in here? Living? “Do you live here, Theon?”
    “I’m a visitor to your beach,” he answered. “I wouldn’t call it living.”
    “Same,” I grumbled without thinking.
    The dark house must have been his; someone living in this cave—especially someone who appeared attractive and intelligent—was too much to believe. That would explain why no one had been home in that house—he’d been on the beach, too—and it would explain how he could know this cave so well. It was right next to his house. Naturally, he’d have explored it better than any other resident on this strip, perhaps even constructing areas in which he himself could relax.
    “From what kingdom do you hail?”
    “Uh, the District of Columbia,” I answered, persuaded to use its full title by his formal tone. “And you?”
    “It’s a country of which I doubt you have heard.”
    “They must have impeccable literacy rates there,” I remarked to myself. Probably Canada. Everyone thinks Americans are so stupid. “What are you doing around here, so close to Christmas, all by yourself? Are you alone?”
    He broke eye contact and nodded gravely. “Yes, I am alone. But I came here in the hopes of remedying that.” He glanced over at me and blinked. How was he so calm? And how were his eyelashes so thick? “Are you?”
    “Alone?” I stammered. “No. I’m, uh, here with my family. My dad, and his fiancée, and my soon-to-be stepbrother, who I should… really… get back to, now that I think about it. They’re probably starting to get worried.”
    “What is a fiancée?” Theon wondered.
    I raked my fingers through my now-dry hair, bemused. “It’s a French word. It means a woman who is engaged to be wed.” I rubbed at my neck and winced, my other hand going to my lower back. Now that I was no longer numb,