The Silver Dragon by Tianna Xander

Chapter One
     
     
    “I’m not sure we should ignore Tony’s warning.” Tansy took a sip of her coffee and wrinkled her nose before dumping a generous amount of creamer into the cup. “He always makes it too strong.”
    Of course, the fact that it could be old apparently never crossed her sister’s mind. “What warning? Didn’t he say we could go out as long as we had an escort?” Iris lifted her drink, guzzled the last of her coffee, stood, and carried her cup to the sink. After rinsing it out, she placed the cup in the dishwasher, turned and faced her sister. “We have two perfectly good male dragons who can go to the mall with us, Tanz. I’m going stir crazy here.”
    Tansy shook her head. “I should have known you’d be trouble when you begged to stay with us. Why didn’t you want to go to Europe with the others?” She, too, guzzled the rest of her coffee before carrying her cup to the sink.
    Iris found out long ago that sometimes gulping down Tony’s attempts at making coffee was the only way to get her caffeine fix. “Because I have a feeling that my man is here in the states. Fat lot of good that does me,” she groused.
    How could she meet the guy if she never got out of the house? Tansy had hated their other sister April’s attempts at matchmaking so much, she refused to introduce any of her sisters to her husband’s friends more than once a month. After suffering through months of April’s weekly matchmaking parties, Tansy’s penchant for staying home and watching TV was getting on Iris’s nerves.
    Certain she’d go mad if she didn’t get out of there, and soon, Iris paced the length of the counter. She couldn’t take another minute cooped up in this-this frigging mansion with her love-struck sister. “You’re right. I shouldn’t have begged to stay here. If anything, I should have begged to go to Europe, with the rest of them, instead of insisting I stay here with you and Mister Boring.” She didn’t dare call her sister Mrs. Boring. That was a good way to get punched. They might be adults, but they would always be sisters.
    Crossing her arms, she leaned back against the counter and glared at her sister. Tansy could talk that boring husband of hers into just about anything. Why wouldn’t she talk him into getting out of the house once in a while?
    “Tansy, you’re mated now. You have come into your powers. You alone could protect us, for crying out loud.” Iris wasn’t positive of that, but she was desperate.
    Unlike Iris, Tansy had complete control over her magic. Once mated, the sisters stopped having issues with their powers. Instead of zapping up frogs, and toadstools, a mated witch conjured whatever it was she wanted. All of her married sisters had oodles of control over their magic. Iris couldn’t conjure up a glass of water.
    “I’m going to go nuts here. You know that, don’t you?” She sighed deeply, knowing her dramatics would have no effect on her sister. They never had.
    “Oh, stop being so melodramatic.” Tansy waved her hand in a dismissive arc. “Soon, everyone will return from Europe and things will be back to normal before you know it.”
    “Okay, damn it. Who are you, and what have you done with my sister?” Iris glared at Tansy. “You used to be the adventurous one. Don’t I remember you escaping Drake’s house and running off with Rose?”
    Not only did she escape but she and Rose climbed a tree, jumped over to a stone wall and then onto the ground where they hurried into a waiting taxi driven by a madman.
    “Yeah. That was before I fell in love.” Tansy batted her eyes, wearing a dreamy expression.
    The wench actually batted her eyes.
    “What’s love got to do with it?” Iris pushed away from the counter, stalked back to the table and plopped back into her seat. She had to do something before she punched Tansy so hard she wouldn’t be able to open her eyes, let alone bat her lashes at her.
    “More than you know.” Tansy’s phone rang.