Magic and Mayhem: How To Date A Dragon (Kindle Worlds Novella) (Baba Yaga Saga Book 2) (7 page)

“Chosen One,” she said quietly, pointing a finger at her chest. “I can tell you’re lying, but then so can anyone else looking at your mad face. Look, Thane… I don’t care if you’re mad at the world. Your mood is your problem not mine. But you don’t want to make your deceit my business. It won’t turn out any better than your altercation with Hildy.”

Thane ran a hand over his face. “Okay. Fine. You’re right. I’m mad. You were almost killed out there. I yelled at you to get out of the way but you didn’t hear me. You were too busy with those other females... and then the stupid elf dove at you.”

“Iren dove at me to save my life… an act that surprised both of us.” Carol snorted and dropped her arms. “Dude, near death accidents happen to me and Hildy every other day. But I don’t think the alchemy class is out to get me personally. Those crazy people are always blowing up their classrooms and labs. Why should I think there was anything suspect in a building almost falling on me? Last time I checked this is not Oz and you’re not a flying monkey.”

Thane snorted at the terrible joke. “I guess you have a point. If I promise to release my anger, can we go have a civilized cup of coffee so I can grovel in peace?”

“Make mine a cold iced tea and you have a deal,” Carol exclaimed. “And I know the perfect private place for our chat. Can I drive?”

“Drive?”

“It’s another joke. I never drive anywhere. But I don’t fly either.” Grinning, Carol stepped close to Thane, took a moment to appreciate his manly smell, and then wrapped her hand around his very big arm. Touching him was thrilling because dragon boy was just muscles on top of muscles. Something flickered in his gaze as he gazed down at her hand on him. Carol told herself it was pleasure, but thinking so gave her a headache.

Damn her instincts. Why was it always headaches?

More likely Thane believed she’d finally come around to appreciating his arrogance, but what fun was that to imagine? Why couldn’t she just enjoy spending a little time in the good-looking man’s company?

That thought made her frown but refusing to dwell on her misgivings, she lifted her hand. A few seconds later, the two of them were on a sidewalk in a nearby human town walking into a coffee shop.

Thane looked around in stunned surprise and then back down at her.

“Magical transport,” Carol said in answer to his unspoken question about where they were and how they got there.

“But you took both of us.”

“Yes, I did.”

“Why was I not aware of traveling?”

“I don’t know.”

“How long did it take?”

“I don’t know.”

Still ignoring his shock, Carol nodded as she stepped to the counter.

“Transporting is sort of my magical specialty. Hildy still gets nauseated when we pop around. Not me, though. I love it. I’m not supposed to be using it as often as I do, but it saves me a lot of time.”

Thane grunted beside her. Or at least she thought it was a grunt. She ordered a frothy green tea treat and waved Thane forward. “Drinks are on me,” she said. The stunned dragon looked like he wanted to argue, but after a couple of seconds Thane finally made a beverage choice.

They chose a table in a quiet corner as they waited on their drinks. Carol couldn’t help noting Thane made sure she was the one sitting with her back to the door. Whispering a chant for protection, Carol made herself relax as she faced him. Her calm poise was yet another thing she owed the Jezibaba.

“So…” Carol said, lifting her chin as she studied the handsome beast in his human skin. She wondered how big his dragon was. “You mentioned groveling over Hildy?”

Thane leaned back in his chair. “I don’t know what happened between us. One minute your friend was kissing me madly and then suddenly I was a fish. Since that night I have come to think that perhaps people have the two of you mixed up. So far you’ve been the more rational one. Hildy is slightly unhinged. I’ve never quite figured out what I said that offended her so greatly.”

A perky wait person with blonde hair hanging down her back brought their drinks to the table. Carol rolled her eyes when the girl giggled and smiled at Thane. She could tell the dragon wanted to growl and scare the human girl away, but he didn’t. She decided to give Thane points for not giving in to his urge.

Carol smiled at Thane as she picked up her tea. “I guess you’ve heard a lot of rumors about Hildy and me.”

“No. I’ve watched you both for over a year now and learned a lot on my own. I’m an academic, after all. Research is as natural to me as breathing.”

“Right. Right,” Carol agreed, wondering why she couldn’t see him as an academic. “So you think Hildy is being irrational about your disagreement?”

Thane shrugged. “I meant her no harm or she would have been harmed. Evidently she does not honor your creed about magic.”

Carol laughed. “Creed? I have a creed?”

“Did neither of you study your own history?
And it harm none
…” Thane recited.

“Dude, you need to get an updated book on witches,” Carol protested. “That’s still the guideline, but magic itself is the judge and jury when it comes to actions. It always has been. The creed was a focused thought meant to help a witch keep her heart pure. If we come across someone doing evil though, Hildy and I are honor bound to do what it takes to stop them.”

“Hildy obviously thought I was a threat. Do you see me as one?” Thane asked.

Carol made a face. “No. No. I was speaking rhetorically… not specifically.”

“I’m sorry. What does rhetoric have to do with anything?” Thane inquired.

Carol rolled her eyes. She couldn’t help it. The dragon wasn’t as sharp as he looked. Or at least he wasn’t another Professor Smoke. The Jezibaba was probably right about her Professor Hottie being one of a kind.

“Forget that stuff. I just said that crap trying to impress your academic side,” Carol confessed, grinning around her iced tea.

Thane chuckled as he sipped his coffee. “Don’t bother being what you are not, witch. I was impressed when I saw you fighting. You fight like an Amazon. Your movements in the training ring are their own poetry.”

“Wow—what a great compliment. Thank you. My trainer would be so happy to hear that. She’s an Amazon, you know. We stay in touch. I get to visit her on the island.”

Thane grunted again. She was sure of it this time. Her little bubble of happiness nearly burst when she had to admit his churlishness to herself.

Then came the hard, hard question. Did she care if he was a knuckle-dragging beast while not in his dragon form? Not all dragons could be as smooth and sexy as Professor Smoke. But then they weren’t as big a challenge as Thane either.

She’d been schooled alongside several dragons. None were quite as full of themselves as Thane was.

Carol studied his square jaw, his even teeth as he sipped his coffee, his button up shirt covering wide shoulders that tapered to a waist she wondered if her hands could span. She thought of being in his arms and a sigh escaped her.

“Evidently, I don’t care,” she said aloud, giggling to herself.

“I’m sorry. Did I miss something in our conversation again?” Thane asked.

Carol was finally startled out of her musings. Had she really spoken her thoughts aloud? Sweet Goddess, that had to stop. Her thoughts were not for mass consumption. She only shared a fraction of them with Hildy and the Jezibaba.

“I’m sorry, Thane. I’m… I think I’m still a bit traumatized from my close call,” she lied.

“Understandable,” Thane said.

Carol squirmed a little in her chair getting comfortable. “You know, I can’t stop wondering how that building defied gravity enough to stay intact for an airborne trip all the way across campus only to fall precisely into the training ring. How do you think something like that could happen?”

Thane smiled. “Such abject dedication to solving all of life’s mysteries. Tell me something, witch. Do you always have Baba Yaga business on your mind? Do you never think of yourself?”

Carol chuckled. “Maybe you have a point. My single-minded focus has been many years in the making. Sometimes I even wake up in the middle of the night figuring things out. Sometimes Morgana visits my dreams and tells me to go back to sleep and stop thinking so hard.”

Thane snorted. “You witches and your deities. Do you really think your Goddess visits you to help you?”

Her back stiffened at his tone as well as his words. Good-looking or not, there was no reason for Thane to doubt her word about the Goddess. She wasn’t a liar. The Jezibaba had cured her of that nasty habit many years ago. And the Goddess always came to help… always.

“Yes. Morgana The Red visits me. She visits the Jezibaba. She doesn’t visit Hildy yet, but we don’t question the Goddess in her comings and goings. We just accept her presence and guidance. Hildy’s spells last longer than anyone’s. Morgana always, always hears her call… as I’m sure you’re well aware of by now.”

“Yes. Well aware,” Thane repeated dryly, drinking the last of his bitter brew. “So now that we’ve established your friend and I are not suited for each other, do you think you might like to go out on a date with me? I find your abrasiveness oddly stimulating.”

Her back stiffened again—this time for a different reason. She stared into Thane’s silver grey eyes and thought about…
Iren
? Yes. That’s exactly who she was thinking about—Iren the skinny elf with his tingling kiss and his eagerness to know her pressed against her thigh. Why wasn’t she thinking about similar things with the dragon? Why was that so impossible to bring to mind?

Carol frowned. “Date you?” she asked, stalling for time enough to figure it out.

Thane glared. “Was I not speaking clearly?”

Carol winced at his irritation, but glared back. “Oh, I heard your words clearly enough. Why don’t I believe you mean them? My instincts are not at all relaxed around you.”

Thane motioned with his hand. “Enough with this doubting. Why are all witches so infuriating? I asked you a simple question. I expect you to give me a simple answer.”

Carol laughed until Thane stood, bent over the table, and lifted her to him by the front of her shirt.
Manhandling? Really?
Was she going to allow him to do this?

The coffee shop patrons stopped talking to watch them. She found their concern for her a little thrilling but quickly pushed the guilty pleasure of loving all that attention aside.

Thane’s mouth on hers jolted her out of her soul-searching and sent bolts of lightning racing along her nerve endings. Her mouth opened on a delighted gasp and his tongue plunged inside to explore in way no boy’s tentative kiss ever had. She liked it… holy Goddess, she liked it a lot. She just didn’t like Thane… or his arrogance… or his lack of respect for her… her job… the Jezibaba. Goddess… Hildy. He kissed perfectly but was the world’s worst jerk.

Carol jerked away and glared at him. Thane glared back but the glare turned to a satisfied smirk as his gaze raked over her face. She didn’t know what he was seeing but she could see in his gaze that he knew precisely what he was making her feel. And that was his miscalculation.

The Jezibaba had been so right about men… so right. No wonder the woman had waited for Professor Smoke before falling in love. Goddess, three hundred years the Jezibaba had waited. Carol hoped she didn’t have to wait that long. She was going to be the oldest living virgin witch in history.

Thane reached out a hand and stroked her cheek. “Do you like that my kiss can make you sweat harder than you do in the training ring? There’s more I can show you… more I want to show you. Say the word, little witch, and I’m yours.”

“Oh. My. Goddess. Hildy was so right about you. You’re as hot as the flame shooting out of your mouth, but also the biggest douchebag on the Witchery U campus. I’d rather date a warlock than to date you, Thane. You’re just trying to score with me because Hildy busted you for being a shit to her.”

Thane moved his hand from her face and rose to his full height. When he opened his mouth to offer a rebuttal, Carol shook her head and held up a hand. “I’ve been playing nice and you’ve been disrespectful about nearly everything I am or believe. It is simply not reasonable for you to assume I’d want to jump you after all the insults you’ve flung my way.”

“And you’re a prize? Even your Elven rescuer walked away from you, witch. I heard him all the way across campus. You should be flattered that a dragon desires you. Any normal female would jump into my arms and be grateful. Any other witch would count herself extremely lucky that I even offered myself to one of her kind.”

“One of her kind? Goddess you’re dumb for an academic.” Carol stood too then. She was at the end of her patience and that was never a good thing. “At the risk of repeating what I’m certain now Hildy said to you… I’m not just any witch, dragon boy. I’m a Baba Yaga. And the answer is no. I don’t want to date you.”

“No is not an acceptable answer. Are you issuing a challenge?” Thane asked.

Carol felt him lean forward until he was inches from her mouth again. She could feel the tingles in the air between them. She made herself memorize this power he had over her feelings because she knew men were going to be her weakness in life, just like they had been for the Jezibaba for years. She didn’t know how she was going to get tough enough to turn down the Thanes of this world, but she’d start with him and figure it out.

Carol leaned towards Thane until their lips almost met. She was no stranger to answering threats of any kind. “Do you want to be a fish again, Thane? Is that what this unwelcome pressure on me is all about? Because if I do that spell to you, I promise you’re going to have a couple heads and some ugly fish feet when I get done. I failed the class on cross-species mutations—twice. It was not pretty.”

Thane reared back at her statements, but Carol didn’t let him reply again. She reached out a hand and grabbed the front of his shirt jerking him closer. Two could play the manhandling game. Seconds later she was shoving him down on the bench in the courtyard.

“You’re going to regret this rejection one day,” Thane warned.

Carol shook her head. “You’re wrong. I regret it already, but I’ve had a lot of practice doing the right thing. In case you’re not familiar with the concept, that’s what this is, Thane… me walking away from you like I’m doing.”