A Dragonlings' Haunted Halloween: Dragonlings of Valdier (3 page)

“Quiet, I hear someone coming,” Trelon
muttered under his breath. “It’s the women. Hide!”

The men quickly slid into the darkened
spaces of the old dungeon area. Trelon and Kelan pulled open one of
the doors to a cell and slipped inside. Mandra grunted and muttered
a silent curse as he tried to squeeze into an alcove next to him.
Unfortunately, he wasn’t the only one in residence in the narrow
area. The low hiss of a small, hairy rodent and the silky threads
of cobwebs drew a shudder from him. He swore he still had
flashbacks from waking up with a Grombot licking him.

Zoran dropped to his knees behind an
overturned table while Creon jumped on the edge of it and pulled
himself up onto an overhead beam. All of them froze as the voices
sounded closer. A low groan almost escaped each of them when their
symbiots trotted up the stairs and into the room first.

Don’t you dare give us away,
Zoran
ordered Goldie and the other symbiots.
I’ll take every single
one of you back to the Hive and exchange you if you do!

Loud snorts and the image of him hanging
upside down while the women circled him greeted his threat. He
grimaced as he thought of which would be worse; for Abby to
discover him hiding or for her to find out he threatened to
exchange Goldie. He decided to try begging, instead. It might work
better.

Please, my friends,
Zoran said in a
soothing voice.
We are going crazy trying to find out what they
are up to. You know that all is fair in love and war. The women and
Paul have said that many times before.

Relief flooded him as his Symbiot continued
past him with a shake of its head. He swore it moved extra slow in
order to draw out his anxiety of being found by Abby. The other
symbiots were just as bad as each shimmered different colors as
they passed by, as if mocking the fact that the ‘big, bad warriors’
were all cowering from their mates.

Personally, Zoran had learned a long time
ago when to pick his battles. This was one of those times. He’d
figure out a way to get even with his symbiot another day.

Today, he just wanted to find out what his
beautiful, but stubborn, mate had been up to with Cara. Just the
thought of Trelon’s hyperactive mate was enough to make him cringe.
He had to give his brother credit for keeping up with Cara, not to
mention, Amber and Jade. Zoran swore those two girls were
determined to give his son, Zohar, an inferiority complex before he
was three with the way they
ganged
up on
him.

Zoran focused back on the present as Abby
stepped into the room through the door that had been hidden behind
a large, ornate wooden carving built into the wall. She was holding
a giggling Zohar in her arms. His breath caught as he studied her
elegant figure. Her long, dark hair hung over one shoulder and she
was laughing at something one of the other women said. He felt his
body react to the sight and sound of her.

Want mate,
his dragon growled.
Want now.

Not now,
Zoran silently groaned back.
Don’t you dare call for your mate either. If you do, we’ll never
find out what is going on.

She beautiful mate,
his dragon
purred.

Zoran was about to reply when he felt a
small rock hit his shoulder. Glancing up, he barely made out
Creon’s dragon perched on the thick beam. The only thing that gave
his little brother away was the glow of his eyes as they followed
Carmen. She was giggling as Spring and Phoenix gave her kisses on
her cheeks every time she tried to talk.

He glanced back at Mandra who nodded at him
before he slid back into the darkness. There wasn’t anything he
could do without giving away his location. He just hoped that Creon
maintained enough control on his dragon to remain hidden.

“So, you really think the guys aren’t going
to be upset?” Abby asked as she walked by him. “I mean, Zoran has
been very… persistent trying to figure out what we’ve been up
to.”

“You should have seen Creon,” Carmen
laughed, nipping at Phoenix’s fingers. “He has been watching me
like a hawk. I’ve even caught him hiding in the hallways. I can’t
wait to see his face when he sees what I’ve been doing.”

“You? If Kelan gets any closer I swear I’d
be wearing him as a coat!” Trisha giggled. She stopped for a moment
to gently lay B
á
lint down inside the
stroller that Bio shifted into when B
á
lint
yawned and fell sideways as he rode on the symbiot’s back. “I have
to admit, what we’ve been doing has been fun, but tagging him has
been even more enjoyable.”

“TMI, Trisha!” Ariel laughed as she laid
Jabir next to B
á
lint. “Poor Mandra just
worries I’m going to bring home another animal. He is still waiting
for Asim to return.”

“Poor Asim,” Abby chuckled. “Have you heard
from him?”

Ariel nodded. “Yes, he says he’ll be back
once he knows for sure Pearl won’t shoot his ass for kidnapping
her,” she said with a grin. “I guess Pearl has been a touch
uncooperative.”

“From the short time I spent with her and
knowing Riley, I feel sorry for him,” Abby chuckled. “Still, I
think it is wonderful he found his mate after so long.”

“I hope it isn’t much longer,” Ariel replied
with a sigh. “Mandra and his dragon aren’t near as patient, or
calm, around the critters as Asim. Nothing seems to rile Asim. I
think that is why he is so perfect for Pearl.”

The men watched and listened as the women
continued on their way. All of them stiffened when Cara, trailing
the others, paused and looked around the room with a frown. Her
head tilted to one side before she shook it, pushing aside the
feeling of being watched. She was about to call out to Trisha when
a voice behind her called her name.

“Cara,” Dulce said, distracting her.

“Yeah,” she replied, turning as Dulce and
the other men came through the doorway.

“Everything is done,” Dulce said with a
grin. “It is one of the most fascinating things the others and I
have worked on. I’d love to be able to crawl into your brain for
few days.”

Cara just giggled and watched as Amber and
Jade, riding Symba, charged up the stairs ahead of everyone.
“Trelon has told me that a few times. I think he wants to see if
there is an off switch. Thank you, guys, for helping out. It would
have taken me forever to get everything done.”

“Just make sure that your mates know we only
did it because you threatened to take over the workshop,” another
one of the men called out in a teasing tone. “Although, that might
not be a bad thing.”

“You weren’t the one under Trelon’s dragon,”
Dulce reminded the man as their voices faded as they moved up to
the next level.

*.*.*

“I’m going to kill him,” Trelon muttered in
a low voice, glaring in the direction Dulce and the others had
walked.

“Our mates have been down here with the men
for months?” Kelan asked in outrage behind Trelon as he stepped out
of the cell.

“I didn’t smell any of their scents on
Ariel,” Mandra replied with a shudder as he ran his hand through
his hair to remove some of the cobwebs. “Goddess, I hope Asim gets
Pearl under control soon and comes back to the mountain.”

“I want to know what they have been doing,”
Creon snapped as he jumped down.

“I thought you were going to give us away
for a moment there,” Mandra told Creon with a raised eyebrow. “Your
eyes were glowing. It was the only thing I could see. I’m surprised
that Carmen, or her dragon, didn’t sense you.”

“It took every bit of my control to keep him
from pouncing on her,” Creon admitted with a crooked grin. “She is
so damn beautiful, especially when she smiles.”

“I know,” Zoran agreed. “I felt the same way
about Abby.”

“Well, I want to know why Dulce wants to get
inside my mate’s head,” Trelon growled, turning on his heel and
striding toward the massive door. “Once I know, then I’ll kill
him.”

The mumble of agreement echoed as the men
hurried forward. They all wanted to know what was going on. It
seemed the more the women tried to hide it, the more they just had
to know.

Trelon stood at the bottom of the steps with
his mouth hanging open. He knew it was open, but he was powerless
to close it. He stumbled forward when Creon ran into his back.

“What is it?” Kelan asked in fascination as
he came to stand next to Trelon.

“I… don’t know,” Trelon replied at last as
he stepped down the three remaining steps.

Beautiful carved arches supported the rocky
ceiling of the enormous cavern. In addition to the natural glow of
light from the crystals embedded in the rocks, Cara and the others
had installed thousands of tiny lights around the cavern. The
effect was an incredible, colorful visual effect that reminded him
of the gardens around the palace. At night, the plants glowed in a
vivid array of colors.

There was some type of railing system
running through it. Four carts were attached to the tracks with
three sections of dark, red cloth seats built into them. Each
section had doors that opened on both sides of it and a thick,
round bar that folded forward over the rider’s lap. As if that
wasn’t fascinating enough, the tracks ran through the entire area
that was decorated with imitation trees, buildings, and toys of all
sizes and shapes.

“I. M. Here,” Mandra muttered, squinting his
eyes to read something carved on a curved stone across the small
river. “U. R. There. Who needs GPS?” He turned and looked at Zoran.
“What does that mean and why would they carve that on a stone?”

“It is a graveyard,” Creon explained in a
soft voice as his eyes ran over the sayings. “I saw one back on
Earth. It is a place where the humans bury their dead.”

“Who have the women killed and buried?”
Mandra asked in confusion.

Trelon chuckled as he read another marker.
“I like that one,” he said, pointing to a headstone under one of
the spindly trees. “Here lies Dulce. He met a dragon who could not
lose, so now he hangs out with the spooks.”

“I wonder what this does?” Zoran asked as he
walked over to the carts. He fingered the back of the seat and
looked around for a way to make it go.

“It looks like it runs all the way through
the cavern, then circles back,” Trelon muttered as he came to stand
next to Zoran. His eyes followed the track as far as he could see.
“There has to be a way to make it work.”

All the men started when the device on
Trelon’s belt suddenly vibrated. Trelon pulled it from his waist
with a curse and glanced down at it. A moment of panic hit him when
he saw the tracking device on Cara moving back down toward
them.

“We’ve got to go,” Trelon said in an urgent
voice. “Cara is headed back down here.”

“Dragon’s Balls! I wish your mate would stay
in one place for more than a few minutes,” Kelan muttered.

“But, we haven’t had a chance to explore,”
Mandra complained, looking around as he tried to take in
everything.

“Tonight, after the women and the younglings
have fallen asleep, we’ll come back and explore it more
thoroughly,” Zoran said in a determined voice.

“Let’s get out of here before she gets
here,” Trelon said as he turned on his heel and quickly climbed
back up the stairs. “We’ll meet back here at midnight.”

“That will be better anyway,” Creon replied.
“Ha’ven and Vox will be here by then.”

A chuckle escaped Trelon as he briefly
glanced back over his shoulder at the graveyard. His eyes flashed
over the headstone closest to the river. Excitement and amusement
washed through him as he read it.

‘
Here lies Vox, who mated a fox.

He thought he was clever

Until she pressed the lever,

And then he realized he’d been shot.’

Tonight,
he thought as he and his
brothers jogged lightly up the stairs. They quickly returned to
their hiding places just as Cara opened the door further down the
corridor.

He peeked through the narrow slit in the
door of the cell as she paused once again to glance around with a
frown. Her eyes focused for a moment on where he and Kelan were
hiding. For a brief second, unease flashed through him that she
could sense him close even as he tried to hide. A slight sigh of
relief escaped him when she shrugged and continued through the
opening to the lower cavern.

“That was close,” Kelan muttered in his
ear.

“I know,” Trelon whispered back as he slowly
pushed open the door. “Let’s get out of here before we get
caught.”

*.*.*

“Arilla,” Arosa called out as she floated
back into the new cavern they were using as their home. “Arilla,
sister, where are you?”

Arosa grinned as her twin sister rose up out
of the river of flowing gold. She must have been ‘comforting’ the
new symbiots that were still too immature to be given a form yet.
Arilla softly whispered that she would return soon as she floated
up onto the bank. Others of their kind lounged around small pools,
laughing and talking while they rejuvenated after their
travels.

“Where is Aikaterina?” Arosa asked as Arilla
settled down beside her.

Arilla’s shape solidified until she retained
a form similar to the human females that she had taken a liking to.
Her golden eyebrow rose as she saw the mischievous grin on Arosa’s
face. A light chuckle escaped her.

“What have you been up to, sister?” Arilla
asked as she folded her arms over her chest.

“Shush,” Arosa whispered as she glanced
around her. She nodded to a small group of rocks over on the far
side of the cavern. “I don’t want the others to hear.”

“You mean, you don’t want Aikaterina to
hear,” Arilla commented as she floated next to her sister. “She
wasn’t upset when we helped the human male when he was injured,”
she reminded Arosa as she settled onto a rock.