Bloodlust by Nicole Zoltack

body against hers. She opened her mouth, but his hand covered it. He shook his head, a finger to his lips.
    There was just enough room for Ivy to look out into the opening around Lukor. A huge bird approached, with a barbed tail and a massive wingspan that could not fully extend within the monstrous opening. Not a bird after all.
    "Dragon," Ivy breathed.
    His large, warm hand covered her mouth once more.
    So the dwarves had fled because a dragon forced them out. All dragons tended toward violence first, questions later — if the prey survived their initial attack.
    This one glided around the opening, over and under various bridges until stopping beside the first one they'd crossed. It sniffed, following their scent, creeping closer, its twin heads moving up and down on their independent necks.
    Ivy's heart sunk. If a dragon lived here, surely no one else did as well. Lukor had trapped her.
    But why hadn't he fled then?

 
     

    A small part of Lukor, which he promptly ignored, enjoyed being so close to Ivy. Something within him stirred whenever he touched her. He couldn't wait to return home, once the war was over, and find a goliatha to claim as his own. One who appreciated him for all he had to offer. One who made his blood sing, whose touched burned his flesh. Too ambitious for most goliathas, Lukor did not currently have many admirers, save for the few motivated ones who only liked his status, rather than him.
    First, the approaching dragon had to be dealt with. His hand reached for his axe when Ivy gripped his bulging bicep.
    "What are you doing?" she hissed.
    How quaint. He could almost smell her fear. Truthfully, he felt it too. Kennan had sworn he'd vanquished the beast. That it still belched fire — did that suggest Kennan was dead? If that was the case, Lukor might not have long to live, considering the barbarian princess would certainly kill him where he stood once she learned her interpreter no longer breathed.
    Not that she or he had much longer to breathe themselves if they did not destroy it.
    "To battle," he whispered calmly.
    She eyed the beast before looking at the pit. If the dragon grabbed one of them in its claws, it only had to drop them. The mountain cave bottomed out at seventy feet. "How far until we reach where the interpreter is hiding?"
    "You wish to flee a fight? A barbarian running from battle?"
    "Running from suicide." She yanked on his tunic, pulling him nearer. The dragon was ever closer but did not seem to have located their position yet.
    He nodded toward a bridge twenty feet from here. "Down that bridge, back into the passageways. Not far from there."
    Her eyes told all: twenty feet might as well be twenty thousand. They had to cross a small bridge before reaching the one they sought. No way would the dragon miss them.
    "Give me back my shield," she demanded, her voice a trifle too loud.
    "I think not!"
    "Do it." She shoved her silverbow and quiver to him and ripped her shield from him. "Cover me."
    "You have more experience with the bow," he protested too late as she darted out of the crevice.
    The twin dragon heads let out a massive roar, and a rush of fire belched out from their bellies. Ivy leapt into the air, impossibly high, but not quite high enough. The soles of her leather shoes caught on fire. She kicked them off, and they tumbled down the small bridge, falling like burning stars.
    Belatedly, Lukor realized he clenched the silverbow so tightly he risked bending it. Although he knew he could flee now — that Ivy would be trapped here without his aid, would never find Kennan without his help — he couldn't leave, and not solely because she had the shield in her possession again.
    Before the arrow he sent spiraled into the dragon's side, the dragon released another blast of fiery air. This ball Ivy did not attempt to leap over. Instead, she brought up the shield. Crazy fool.
    Without a reasonable thought coursing through his mind, Lukor dashed off toward her. At the last second,