I pulled back with a gasp, breaking the intense connection so suddenly I felt dizzy. From his reaction, Ari felt it too.
“Dios!” he groaned, putting a hand to his head. “Kaitlyn, why…why did you do that? The feeling was so deep and then you cut it like a knife…” He shook his head, as though disoriented and muttered a curse in Spanish.
“Sorry,” I said in a small voice. “It’s just, I felt…”
“What did you feel?” He frowned at me, still cradling me in his lap.
“I felt more…more than just you and me,” I said, struggling to make him understand. “When I bit you, I sensed three people—not just two. I don’t know how else to put it.”
He snorted. “Of course you felt three. The third was my Drake, no doubt. He is very interested in whoever I share my life with.”
“Your…Drake?” I remembered the huge scaled arm ending in the enormous claw-hand with its long talons that had seized me from the cold waters of the lake and shivered.
“Yes, my Drake. Truly, Kaitlyn, you have no need to fear him.” Ari’s voice was quiet and intense. “He regards you highly. He…he cares for you deeply.”
I didn’t know what to say to that. To hear that the huge, fire-breathing dragon which lived inside Ari was not just thinking about me but also cared for me was disconcerting and scary to say the least.
“I…I don’t even know him. Or you,” I said and started to slide off his lap.
But Ari wouldn’t let me.
“Stop.” He put his arms around me and held me to him—not hurtfully but firmly, letting me know he wasn’t going to let me get away.
“Why?” I looked at him uneasily. “You, um, gave me some of your blood. Shouldn’t we get back to class?”
He shook his head.
“This is more important than class—nourishing you, getting to know you…”
“What do you want to know?” I asked uneasily.
He frowned. “Well, to start with, I’d like to know why you let yourself almost expire from thirst instead of coming to me and letting me give you what you need?”
“Um…” I looked down at my hands, biting my lip. How could I explain how hard it was for me to ask for what I needed from him? How could I tell him that I felt so far below him, so undeserving of what he offered and I still didn’t even know exactly why he was offering it.
“Well?” he demanded and I realized I would have to give an answer—he wouldn’t allow me to get away with silence.
“Well, just…just look at you,” I said, gesturing at his muscular physique. “And look at me.” I gestured at my own scarred form.
“I am looking at you, Kaitlyn,” he murmured.
Looking up, I saw that he was staring into my face and the expression in his eyes was softer than it had been a moment before.
Nervously, I put up a hand, making certain that my ever-present curtain of hair was concealing my scars.
To my surprise, Ari reached up and pulled my hand away.
“Don’t do that,” he murmured, brushing my sheaf of hair away from face and baring my scars. “Don’t hide yourself from me, L’lorna.”
“Please…” I put my hair back in place, feeling a panicky tightness in my chest. “Don’t do that,” I told him. “I can’t…can’t have you or anybody seeing me like that.”
“Why not?” he asked gently.
“You know why not,” I told him. “You can see well enough—everybody can. Besides…” I smoothed my hair back into place more firmly. “I thought your people—the Drakes—hated females with…” I had to swallow hard before I could get it out. “With facial deformities,” I finally said.
He frowned and made a fierce gesture with one hand.
“My people don’t know everything. I don’t want you to hide from me, Kaitlyn. At least not while we’re alone together like this—as we will be quite often from now on.”
“We will? What do you mean?” I demanded, frowning back. I looked around the room, which was outfitted like a small den with leather couches and chairs and even a cooler which seemed to be filled with drinks. There were pictures on the stone walls of dragons flying—clearly it was a place for Drakes, but I had never heard of it before. It must be one of the many hidden places in the castle that only certain people knew about and could access.
“This is the Drake Den,” Ari explained. “Only males whose wings fly the highest are allowed entrance. And since Sanchez was expelled and sent back to the Sky Lands, I am the only one who can come in.”
I looked at him uncertainly.
“So this is your own private little den? You’re the only one allowed in here?”
“As well as anyone I invite—as I am inviting you now,” he said firmly. “You will meet me here every day thirty minutes before breakfast and then again, directly before dinner. In this way I can be certain you’re getting enough nourishment and I won’t have to worry about you fainting again.”