Chapter 18

Ryuu.

She literally ran into him everywhere she went.

“...you ever talk about her like that again! If I hear you say shit like that again, I will hit you so hard that you won’t remember your name, or your mama’s.”

Pushing past the last line of people in front of her, Jayde winced at the threat, idly wondering who the guy had been talking about to get Ryuu so riled up. She was soon at his side, also looking down at the trembling, bleeding guy on the ground. He was glaring up at Ryuu, not even paying attention to the fact that a trickle of blood leaked from under his hand and was slowly making its way down his cheek. She followed the line of blood, watching it slide to his jawline.

Her stomach tightened, reminding Jayde that even though the spell on her had lasted much longer than people had anticipated, it could still wear off whenever and wherever. She got a little scared of herself as the urge to lick the blood off his face welled up, her stomach suddenly feeling empty and starved. Jayde whirled to face Ryuu, trying to ignore the fact that her gums were tingling.

“Hey! Stop being a bully,” Jayde stepped in front of Ryuu, blocking his eyesight, hands in fists at her sides.

As soon as she spoke Ryuu’s entire attention was on her. His eyes were doing the whole switch back and forth between green and silver as his hands clenched and unclenched from fists. It took him a moment, but he realized who was standing in front of him, he seemed to relax a bit. His eyes switched once more, back to silver, staying that enchanting color as he stared at her.

Swallowing hard against the rising urges, Jayde gave him a stern look, hands on her hips. “Stop being a bully. Go into the forest and calm down,” she gently yet forcibly tried to push him in the direction of the trees. “Go on now.”

He didn’t move at all, not even a single muscle jump when she put her hands on his chest and pushed. No, Ryuu just kept staring at her with those unwavering, serious silver eyes that Jayde almost let herself get lost in. She gritted her teeth and tried pushing him again, putting all of her weight behind her this time. He grabbed her wrists with a move so quick that Jayde didn’t have the time to register he had moved until she pressed against him with his face tucked into the crook of her neck and shoulder. She automatically stiffened, holding herself still, some small instinct inside her head yelling at her to hold still because if she tried to move away, it would somehow get worse.

A soft rumbling, very similar to a cat’s purr, sounded in her ear, surprising Jayde. But it also made it obvious just how quiet the crowd was. The music had either been paused or completely turned off. The only sound that could be heard in the silence was the soft crackling of the fire.

Then the quiet was interrupted by a shrill shriek, a flurry of movement in the crowd behind Jayde, and then her hair was being grabbed. Jayde was dragged backwards, stumbling as she cried out, holding her hands up to her head. Whoever had grabbed her yanked her down hard, making her fall to her butt. Jayde, hand to her head and a scowl on her face, turned to face the new problem. Of course, it was Alodie.

Jayde jumped to her feet, fist flying, and broke Alodie’s nose. The blonde bimbo dropped to her knees, screaming as she put her hands to the now bleeding appendage.

She was about to step forward, ready to put her own threat out there like Ryuu had, but before she could do anything, a loud roar that shook the trees and almost made her ears bleed sounded. It was followed by a quick series of pops and cracks, a blinding white light, and then another eardrum piercing roar. The crowd had a mix of reactions as some gasped, some applauded, and some even laughed.

Jayde froze, terrified to look behind her at what she assumed the sound had come from. A soft huff of cold air was blown onto her neck, raising goosebumps, arm hairs, and a shiver to go up her spine.

It was obviously what Ryuu shifted into, seeing as how it was literally right behind her. Jayde was curious to see what he was, but also unsure if she really wanted to. But, as the saying went “curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back”, she had to turn around and satisfy her rampant curiosity.

As soon as she turned and got an eyeful of the creature, Jayde wanted to run in the opposite direction as fast as she possibly could. Right in front of her and everyone else, was a freaking dragon. A huge, gleaming white dragon with a blue pearlescent tinge to its scales, and large, sparkling metallic silver eyes that watched her intently. She noted Ryuu looked a bit surprised, but she couldn’t really tell as she was focusing on not hyperventilating.

He puffed out another heavy breath that formed into a white cloud of sorts, chilling the air around them even more than the first one had. She shivered as her temperature dropped, still trying to really take in the enormous size of the dragon. He held his wings tightly to his sides, though she could see that the leathery insides of them gleamed like pearls, and if she leaned to look around him a bit, Jayde could see what looked like sharp fringe at the bottom of his wings. Spikes that started out probably four feet tall started at the top of his, between large horns, and got smaller as they went down his back to his tail. The end of said tail had what almost looked like a ball with spikes, and the crowd had given it plenty of space.

He took a step forward, taking her attention to the large, clawed feet. Each claw was probably two and a half to three feet in length, and he had five on all of his paws, making twenty sharp tools of death. No wonder Ophelia had said he’d be fine. It definitely didn’t help that he was about three stories tall, though he was shorter than what Jayde would have imagined an adult dragon to be. To be fair, he wasn’t able to really move a lot in the clearing since he filled up a good chunk of the space. People were trying to give him more room, stepping into the trees or grouping together on the other side of the fire.

Jayde swallowed, trying to keep her fear down where it couldn’t escape her mouth in a scream, and looked back into his silvery eyes. Ryuu lowered his head, using his giant ass nose to nudge her to the side as he stepped closer to a cowering Alodie, hovering over her with his spiked teeth bared.

Taking a moment to calm herself, Jayde acknowledged that though terrifying, Ryuu was absolutely gorgeous. Maybe even beyond that. She just couldn’t think of the words to describe him. Then Alodie’s scream got her moving forward, going to Ryuu to either calm him down or make him go somewhere else. He had lowered his head, barely two feet above where Alodie lay, and a low, dark growl rumbled from him, shaking the ground like a train would.

It would seem that Ryuu didn’t have a lot of love left for the girl curled up in a ball, crying her eyes out, but that didn’t mean he had to be such a bully. He was intentionally scaring her with his deep growl and pointy teeth.

“Good freaking Lord, Ryuu! Calm down!” Jayde bent, pulling Alodie roughly out from under the large snout, and stood in front of her, glaring at Ryuu as he narrowed his eyes at her. “No more being mean. Seriously. Go… fly, or-or whatever, to calm down.”

He chuffed at her, blowing a ball of cold air at her, making her hair flair out behind her. She blinked the dryness from the air out of her eyes as he turned his giant head to squint at her with just one of his eyes. His head was almost resting on the ground to look at her eye-to-eye, and he growled at her softly, seemingly irritated with her interference. Jayde didn’t care, keeping a straight face even as her heart pounded. She frowned at Ryuu, trying not to let her hands shake as she made shoo-ing motions at him.