The Touch Reader (#1 of the Elemental Originals Series)

Chapter Seven

I tickled the chin of my little dragon, making her sneeze as she attempted to escape. I just held her tighter, chuckling when she squirmed like a little kid who didn't want to be carried.

After I had heard her name whisper into my ears, I cleaned up the egg fragments to take to my room (the little dragon insisted that I keep them, for whatever reason) and managed to somehow make it to my room and change into another, identical shirt so that no one would realize that I had left before going back to the infirmary.

Now, I was sitting on the bed, the little winged lizard trying to escape the hold I had her in. Pausing, she panted, glancing at me with a sly look in her eyes before a sudden flash of light made me recoil in shock, dropping her onto my lap as I clutched at my eyes.

"The hell?" I yelped, blinking my watery eyes to look at my dragon. The tiny monster sat smugly at the end of the bed, baring her teeth in a dark parody of a grin when I stared at her incredulously.

"And just why would you go on and do that?" I asked, still struggling to blink the thousands of tiny white spots from my vision.

The baby devil made a noise that sounded suspiciously like laughter before hopping closer to me, chittering in excitement as happiness flowed through our link.

I fake scowled at her, reaching over. "Come 'ere, you."

She screeched in mock terror and flapped her wings, rising a few inches above the ground before I snatched her from the air. I tucked her tightly against my chest, ignoring the way she screeched at me to let go.

After several minutes of intense squirming and wiggling, she finally stopped, chittering with agitated amusement. To anyone else it would have seemed almost angry, but because I could feel her emotions I knew that she was enjoying our game as much as I was.

I looked down at her, my lips tugging as amusement and affection rushed from me and into her. "You're kind of a crazy dragon, aren't you?" She glared at me. "But still adorable."

She huffed, rolling her eyes in such a human way that I couldn't help but giggle at.

I felt lighter than I had in years, almost drunk on happiness. I knew that having a dragon would change a person significantly, but I hadn't known how quickly it would happen.

The door suddenly burst open, making the tiny dragon child in my arms screech again, this time in alarm. I immediately covered her with my body, tense as her sudden terror surged through me.

"I heard a screech down the hall and-" Jayden froze, staring with an open mouth at the little dragon in my arms, who was currently poking her head out to stare at him as well.

There was a solid ten seconds of stunned silence before I finally snapped. "What the hell is wrong with you? You can't just barge in here!"

His head snapped to me, and I faltered for a moment as his black swirled in his eyes before collecting myself.

"What's wrong with me? The hell is wrong with you? How did you hatch your dragon and why?"

I stiffened at the question, anger flaring up as I flashed my eyes at him, making him wince slightly. "There is nothing wrong with me, thank you very much," I snapped. "And as to the tiny monster on my lap here, she was the one who wanted to be hatched. I just followed her directions."

He scoffed. "Not possible. A dragon's conscious isn't powerful enough to contact their Rider until after they hatch."

My jaw dropped. "You literally communicated with her while she was still in her egg just a few hours ago!"