Adventures in Aetherea Book 1 The Last Legacy July 2007/Champagne Books    Lilly’s fingers closed on the kitten’s neck.  “I have you.  Ooh, shit!”  She felt herself slipping.  It all went in slow motion then.  Her fall took forever.  Distantly she heard a high screeching noise, and wondered at it.     Then, everything sped up and she hit the floor with a hollow thud.  She lay flat of her back, dazed and breathless.  She turned her head slowly toward the window and watched the tiny cat make its way down the curtain by itself.  Why hadn’t he done that before?  She felt a small shifting in her head, something strangely heavy settled around her heart.  The necklace heated slightly and she reached up to clasp it in her hand holding it up to her face.  The blurry outline began to glow.  Warm light suffused the area surrounding her.  The world became fuller, the air richer, and she breathed it in with greedy gulps.  She stared at the tiny dragon on the necklace and tried to focus. A draft of air blew across her face and she slowly turned her head towards it and stared.  Oh crap, she’d lost her mind, addled her brains, or broken her biscuits. Maybe she had a concussion.   She thought her vision had cleared, but now she wasn’t sure, because the purple dragon from her necklace was standing in the middle of her foyer.  Was he the English version of Barney?  God, she hoped not.  He was a small for a dragon, with pretty scales and wings.  Her thoughts were foggy and disconnected.  She wondered at the expression on the creature’s face, then her vision dimmed and everything went black.   ****                                                                                                                    She woke to a tickling sensation on the side of her neck and froze, afraid to open her eyes.  She’d seen something before she lost consciousness.  Maybe it had been a hallucination.  Surely, there wasn’t a dragon in her damned house.  A dragon!  She felt the tickle again, behind her ear this time.  A dragon was going to eat her.  Wait!  She wasn’t a freaking virgin!  She wasn’t dragon food material.  With a sigh of relief, she relaxed.  It had been her imagination.  She couldn’t seem to open her eyes though.  She didn’t have the nerve.  Finally, a soft weight settled on her chest and she heard a very normal sound, the purring of the cat.  Of course, it was Merlin, checking on her. She opened her eyes and lifted her hand to stroke his ears.  “You goofy cat, I could have been really hurt.”    A hand pressed on her back when she faltered, helping her to sit.  “Oh, thanks.”  She giggled muzzily, then she slowly turned her head and her world changed forever. It sat with its tail coiled neatly around its legs and the wings folded back.  It was about eight feet long, with scales and clawed feet.  It didn’t have arms, just wings with prehensile claws on the tips, which it opened and closed as it sat there staring back at her.  She took a deep breath and closed her eyes.  “I’m not seeing a dragon in my house.” “I’m not a dragon!”   He spoke in a huffy voice. She put her hand to her head in confusion.  It talked, but in her mind.   “Dragons are fat and greedy.  They are much too large to be inside a house.  They’re also very uncouth, grabbing up all the virgins as if they have a right to them, pah!  I’ve never in all my days seen the like.”    The not-a-dragon’s rant went on but she ignored him.    She wasn’t afraid, that was the strangest thing.  She didn’t think it was possible to be afraid of something so prissily angry with her. He began to lecture her angrily.  “If you think I’m going to be lumped in with those things, you better think again. My name is Faelen McKenna, I’m a wyvern, thank you, and I’d like you to get this straight right now.  We are better, more compact, and much more beautiful at that.”  “Ok, I’m sorry but you know it’s easy to mix it up!”  She snapped.  He hissed at her and flicked his tongue out. She scooted back when he rose up rearing his head like a serpent.  He was much more intimidating than he had been a second ago.  Merlin took exception to the tail that flicked in agitation and pounced. With a screech, Faelen made a dash for the safety of the staircase thinking the cat wouldn’t follow.   Lilly watched the long serpentine form slither in and out of the banister.  Soon, she’d be running from the house shrieking like a mad woman.  Soon, she promised herself.  For right now, she was just too stunned to move.   Merlin was negotiating the stairs much quicker than the wyvern thought he could.  There was a hissing contest midway, which Faelen lost.  The kitten scratched him on the nose again.  “Call off this little beast before I roast him!”   This got Lilly into motion.  “You get away from him!”  She staggered to her feet to chase after them.  She took the stairs two at a time and reached the little cat just as he was getting ready to spring.   The wyvern perched on the railing in an attempt to keep his tail out of the feline’s reach.  He glared at her as if it were her fault. “I didn’t do it.”  She scooped the kitten up in her arms and gave him back his glare with interest. He sniffed and turned his back on them both as he balanced on the rail.  “You let him do it, I’m sure you laughed too. None of the others had cats.” “I did not!”  She answered.  “What are you doing in my house anyway?  Where did you come from?”  “I don’t have to tell you anything.”  He informed her sulkily.   She thumped his scales but jumped back when his head whipped around.  Merlin’s claws sank into her arm so she quickly put him down.  When she stood back upright, she found herself pinned by the wyvern’s violet gaze.  Lilly took a step forward then another, drawn to him somehow.  Her hand came up and she stroked her fingers down the bumpy ridge over his brow then smoothed them down the long sinuous neck.  She heard a rumble almost like a purr and smiled.  “You’re beautiful.”  She said in a voice full of wonder.  “Of course I am.”  He snorted, and then added almost shyly.  “So are you.” As they stared at each other, the stained glass window bathed the whole landing in its rosy glow.  Lilly gasped when it set the wyvern ablaze, she shielded her eyes from the glare.  “What’s happening?”  “Sunset.”   He replied, then exclaimed, “Shit!”  out loud a deep masculine voice.  Lilly moved her hands away and watched as a large man fell over the side.  Strike that, a large and naked man.   ****   Lilly ran to the rail and stared in horror at the man sprawled in the foyer.  “Don’t let him be dead, please don’t let him be dead.”  She chanted as she ran down the stairs.  Grabbing the newel post, she swung around it and slid the rest of the way on her knees.  “Don’t be dead.” Hesitantly she reached out to touch his shoulder.  Where was his clothing?  She noticed a tattoo at the small of his back in the shape of a wyvern. It was the same even down to the color.  He would have a tattoo of himself, she thought.  He seemed to be a little egotistical from what she could tell.  Lilly slowly turned him on his back and began frantically trying to recall the first aid training she had learned in high school.  Did you tilt the head and blow in their mouths or pump their sternums, and when, if they weren’t breathing, or if their hearts weren’t beating? “Shit!” She felt for a pulse, but all she could tell was that the one in her fingers was playing a damned samba.  She brushed her hair away from her ear and put her head down on his chest to listen.  “Don’t be dead.”  She whispered again. Her eyes closed as she tried to pick out his heartbeat from her own that thundered in her ears.  “Oh for Chrissakes!”  She screeched and pressed her ear against his chest harder; finally, she thought she heard a faint thud.   Lilly’s eyes fluttered open and she breathed a sigh of relief, and then her gaze slid down his stomach to his...  Well!  She jerked away from him as if she’d been scalded. He was alive all right!  She glared down his face indignantly.  His eyes remained closed but a small smile played around his mouth.  A very nice mouth too, she thought before she smacked him on the arm.  “Ass!”  She growled, trying not to notice the hot body that matched the mouth. “Ow, hey, I’m injured; you shouldn’t hit an injured man.”   He opened one eye. “You’re not that injured!  That’s alive and well.”  She snorted and waved her hand toward his very happy penis.  “Why are you naked?”  She scooted backwards when he started to sit up.  “Stay away whatever the hell you are.”  Her hands came up and clenched into fists.  She knew how to fight, if push came to shove.  Not that she ever had, unless you counted Debbie from sixth grade. “I’m naked because I was knocked unconscious.”  Faelen told her loftily, but he made no move to cover his assets.   “Stop waving that thing around in my house.  It’s not allowed.”  She scooted away again when he got to his knees and started towards her.    “Back!  Stay back!”  She made the sign of the cross but he only laughed, showing white, even teeth.  “That doesn’t work on me, love.”  He told her in his nicely accented voice.  An Irish freak in her house.  An attractive one, but a freak, nonetheless.     Lilly looked around for a weapon.  She spied a large walking stick in the umbrella stand.  She dove for it, but his hand closed around her ankle and he flipped her onto her back. “Do you really want to hit me with that?  Look at me I’m harmless.”  He grinned at her until she tried to kick him between the legs.  “Hey!”  He grabbed her other foot wiggled his fingers over her bare sole.  “Ack!  Stop that tickles you bastard!”  She jerked her foot, but he held onto it.  “Let me go!  Help!”  She began to scream. He dragged her towards him inch by inch.  “Nobody can hear you, Lilly.”  Faelen informed her with a wicked smile that made him look even more handsome.  “Scream all you want.”   Neither noticed the shadow slipping past them. If someone had been standing in the yard at that minute, they’d have heard a scream.  It was rather high-pitched.  That person would also have noticed that it was male, panicked and pain filled as well. For more Adventures in Aetherea in reading order Divine Alchemy Demonic Inspiration Dragon Lady All of the above are works in progress.. unedited and worked on when the muse strikes.