Ash Bringer (A Storm of Fire: Paranormal Dragonshifter Romance Book 1)

by Courtney Leigh

  “Zephyre,” I laughed. “That’s an amusing idea. The young ones still believe in urban legends, do they?”

  “Legend or not, it’s preventing us from protecting our populations like we promised. ‘Live in our sectors, under our rules, and you’ll be protected as our own,’ remember?”

  “Not my words. Not my kingdom. That was all Valerio’s vision, not mine. If you need some dirty task done and the head of your security force is MIA, ask Saxon. Dirty jobs used to be his area of expertise.”

  “Used to be. He’s not even on the map anymore. Who knows where he is by now?”

  “So I’ll take care of it,” I said. “If I get bored, that is.”

  “You’re the—”

  “Exactly,” I said. “The anarchy outside our borders doesn’t scare me. Tell me where Borus and his little brats are. I’ll come back with their heads if it gets your mouth to close for a few seconds. In the meantime, I need a moment to collect myself.”

  I departed before Ares could lay more of his societal stresses on my shoulders.

  “Simple luxuries” meant many things. I took one of Ares’s extravagant cars, as much as he hated it, and drove myself to a particular establishment where finding some willing bodies was never a problem. It wasn’t exactly a problem anywhere else, as most women and many men were always anxious to fuck a Draak, but Le Feu was a place where the thirsty lined up like food on a buffet table.

  I parked in an alley outside and walked around the back of the building. I didn’t want the attention I’d get entering through the front. I was on a hunt for something quick and distracting.

  Inside, the bass of a heavy, industrial beat shook the cement walls of a warehouse where hundreds of people were dancing and drinking their night away under red, pulsing lights. Following a Red Race, clubs and bars were always filled with people lusting for more excitement. The blood and violence turned them on like a drug, reminding me how easy it was to herd humans like sheep. It was really their own idea to pit humans against each other for entertainment. Draak were just willing to water the seed. Humans were the sadistic ones. They could never admit it to themselves, though, and we had no problem taking the credit.

  I wove through a dense crowd, eyeing the options. There were plenty of people available for the taking, all dressed in red. Latex, leather, netting. Anything to show off their need. As I passed the bar I reached over the counter and pulled a bottle of bourbon off the shelf, taking a big swig straight from the source. The bartender protested, but shut his mouth when he met my gaze. By the twitch in his brows and the leap in his pulse, he was half exhilarated and half afraid. That never got old. He backed down and I walked off with the bottle in hand.

  Everybody I touched sent a small shock through my skin. I could feel bliss, excitement, nervousness, but mostly confusion. These people were so full of artificial influence I doubted many of them even knew what time it was or even where they were, but that wasn’t my problem..

  Crossing the dance floor, I set my eyes on a lanky, slender woman dressed in crimson latex and sitting at a tall table. Beside her was a man in a heavy, buckle-covered jacket. The woman’s spidery legs were crossed in a seductive manner, one over the other. Her hair was cut into a sleek, black bob that framed her delicate features. I smirked at her as soon as her eyes caught mine and set the bottle of bourbon down on a table as I approached. The man across from her was caressing her arm as if trying to lure her closer, but once I was in the picture...he wasn’t. Ignoring his presence, the woman bit her bottom lip and waited for me to come to her like she was a sacrifice already laid out before me.

  Red was the color of blood. The color of fire and heat. Lust and danger. All things Draak. The woman wore it like a beacon drawing me in and telling me she was already mine before I’d arrived. My eyes gave off a faint glow as my arousal started to warm..

  When I reached the female, she stood, her body a long, elegant shape atop spiked heels. She was attractive, for a human, her rich, brown skin smooth and flawless. I glanced at the man who had been trying to keep her attention. He leaped out of his seat to confront me, but as soon as my eyes flashed in his direction he took an unsettled step back. Nodding with understanding, he retreated and disappeared into the masses.

  I felt the woman’s long fingers slide around the back of my neck and comb through my hair as she leaned in for a kiss, but kisses were for relationships. I felt nothing more than wild hunger for her. She was like a shallow pond, no depth to her at all, and my attraction was just as shallow. I took her by the arm and led her into a back room divided from the rest of the club by a thick, red curtain. Tossing it closed behind us, I grasped the woman’s hips and sat her on a table in a private area. The few people who had retreated there with their own pickings for the night disappeared when they saw us, leaving us alone.

  I spread the woman’s legs and moved between them. She tried to kiss me again, but I maneuvered to the side, biting lightly down on her neck. She whimpered, kissing my jaw in return. She smelled sweet, like apples. Or perhaps it was the apple martini on her breath. Either way, she was a tantalizing snack.

  I moved my hand between the woman’s thighs. She wasn’t wearing any undergarments. She was begging for action, though I was certain this wasn’t what she was expecting. Massaging her hot, wet sex, I could feel her thirsting for me. I slipped two fingers inside with a quick, ungentle thrust. She rolled her head back with a moan and I unbuttoned my leather pants, moving them down off my erect cock just enough to indulge in a quick bit of fun. The woman rocked against me, desperate. With one, long thrust, I buried myself deep inside her cunt . She hadn’t been stingy with her body, I could tell, but she would do. I raised a hand to her neck and threw her down as I used her body to quench my desire.

  Angered by the events of the day, I started to think of all the things that had happened over the past few weeks. Taurus, the filthy Pike, had murdered my brother. For all I knew he’d been training that Everly girl to be a slayer like him. I thrust hard into the woman, pulling her hips toward me with each harsh movement. She pressed her heels into the backs of my legs as I rode her, moaning wildly. I looked at her flawless face and watched as the pleasure turned her expression into one of ecstasy. She was completely lost in it, letting the animal urges carry her into the clouds of her already drug-tainted mind. Her mouth fell agape each time I rocked inside her, each pound deeper than the last. As the sensations grew more intense, so did the heat inside my core. It burned, as all flames did when they were fed.

  I exhaled a faint stream of smoke from my lips and nose as my veins glowed with a mild, orange tinge. The woman cried out, falling somewhere between pain and pleasure as the heat slowly spilled into her. I kept going, strengthening my tempo as her cries loudened.

  Staring at this stranger, I imagined Everly once more. The sweet, apple scent faded away and was replaced by Everly’s lavender aromas. I growled, my hand sliding up the woman’s latex dress, between her supple breasts, and to her slender throat where my fingers wrapped around and squeezed. Her head rolled back, lips stretching into a smile. This woman enjoyed this.

  Tonguing the sharp fangs behind my lips, I closed my eyes and let the pleasures course through my body. When I opened them again, the woman’s sleek, black hair had become long, silver-lavender locks. Her excited expression had faded into Everly’s aggressive scowl. I squeezed her throat harder until I felt her breath stop and then released her, moving my hand to grasp the hair at the nape of her neck. When she gasped, I heard that sweet, startled sound through Everly’s lips. I pulled her head back, hissing as I shoved her down onto the table and pinned her there, thrusting harder.

  The thought of Everly suffering seemed only to arouse me more. A human woman thought she could tell me what to do. Thought she could defy our laws and release a slayer back onto the streets to kill more of my kind. The Draak were better than that. We were better than all of them and I was going to show Everly how small she was soon enough. I groaned, biting my teeth as
I imagined Everly beneath me, my fingers still tangled in her long tresses. She cried out and I felt the tremble of her fear and pleasure crash together inside my veins.

  Driving myself violently, my climax came to a head when I heard Everly’s voice echo in my thoughts. It was swift and fleeting. Some distraction that was. I withdrew from the woman in red and she lay there on the table, spent and a little confused as I buttoned my pants and marched, dissatisfied, out of the room. As I made my way to the exit, I wondered why I felt even less fulfilled than I did when I entered the club in the first place, but of course the answer was simple. I didn’t want any of these women. I wanted her.

  9

  Everly

  . . .

  I’d been brought to an estate outside the city. It was an old fashioned place with many rooms, but where I’d been taken was on the top floor, four stories above the ground. Below, I had seen a courtyard with a stone fountain and hedges surrounding a cobblestone walkway. Atop the fountain was a granite horse that reared toward the sky. It was one of the only things I noticed when the car pulled up to the estate. Everything else was a blur after Taurus was killed. I could taste his blood in my mouth when it splashed across my lips, see the look on Draven’s face when he saw me leaning over Taurus’s body.

  I balled my fists, imagining all the ways I could possibly kill Draven in the coming days. The mark may have tied our lives together in ways I didn’t understand, but I couldn’t care less about what might happen to me if he died.

  I’d been undressed and directed to a large, round tub made of ceramic tiles painted silver. I sat in the hot water, staring across the room at my reflection in the mirror on the other wall. Lavender hair had faded and beneath it the ashy, brown hues were starting to resurface. My pale, grey eyes looked as empty and strange as I felt. As Keera cleaned my body with a cloth, going gently over the array of burn scars and tattoos down the left side of my back, I could tell that she had questions. I simply stared at myself and wondered how the hell I’d gotten into such a horrible situation.

  My left wrist throbbed. My eyes moved slowly down to the slightly reddened handprint where Draven had placed his mark on me. It looked like a stain. Wrinkling my nose, I closed my eyes to try and rid myself of that memory, even if just for a moment.

  “I’m sorry,” Keera finally spoke, her voice a quiet peep in the silence. I opened my eyes and glanced up at her reflection, but said nothing. “I don’t understand what happened today, but I understand that it hurt you and I’m sorry for that.”

  I refrained from responding, unsure what I would say if I did. As Keera’s cloth glided carefully over the gash on my shoulder, she winced, sucking in air through her teeth as if she felt my pain. She seemed to feel it more than I did. I was covered in small injuries from the race and none of them hurt as much as Taurus’s death.

  “How does someone go through the race and come out alive like you did?” she asked.

  “By keeping my mind on the reward,” I said bitterly.

  Keera caught my meaning and lowered her head. There was silence for a while longer as she began to wash my hair. Blood and filth filtered from my locks and into the water as she drenched my hair in a soap that smelled like lavender.

  “So where did you grow up?” Keera asked, desperate to make conversation.

  “Greyport.”

  “Are your parents there?”

  “I have no parents. Taurus raised me.”

  “Oh…” Keera said, falling into another hole of her own embarrassment. “I’m...I’m sorry.”

  “Stop apologizing. You’re not the one I’m going to kill.”

  “You can’t kill him,” she said gently. “He’s a Red. That, and the mark will—”

  “Yeah. I know what it can do. I don’t really care. If this is my leash, I’ll break it. I’d rather die than be his.”

  “If you open your mind and heart to them—”

  “Stop,” I hissed. “I am not a slave. I am not like you.” I turned to look Keera in the eyes. “I don’t care what I have to do, but I will not be bound to him for the rest of my life.”

  Ducking under the water, I rinsed the suds from my hair and jumped out of the bath. I grabbed a red silk robe from the door hanger, leaving the room and Keera behind. I hated the color. Most people took it as a sign of submission to the Draak. I tied the robe tight, walking briskly down a wide hallway with white, tile floors and gold lighting that made everything look like it was washed in firelight.

  “Everly, please,” Keera called. “You need rest. The mark will change you.”

  I kept walking, thoughts swirling in my head. Suddenly I felt dizzy with terror and panic. How did I get here? How did I go from being a farm girl to this? A slave to the Draak that killed the only person I really cared about. It sickened me to think of what he wanted to do with me. To me.

  When I felt a cold breeze rolling down the foyer, I suspected a balcony door was open nearby. The night air chilled my damp skin and I followed it through a pair of glass doors into an empty room and then onto a terrace overlooking the courtyard below. Glancing at the handprint on my wrist, I had the impulse to just end it. Taurus had told me to run. He didn’t want this for me, and neither did I.

  I took a deep breath and stepped up onto the low, stone railing. Balancing on the narrow ledge, my body grew painfully cold in the breeze. I felt a sting in my vision as a tear rolled from one eye and trailed slowly down my cheek. I didn’t really want to jump. Every survival instinct inside of me said it was a stupid idea, but imagining myself under the control of a creature like Draven for the rest of my life made me want to hurl. It made me bloodthirsty and angry. The hatred was like poison in my veins. If the fall didn’t kill me, my rage would. I closed my eyes and began to fall forward, ignoring every objection my body was throwing at my brain, but before my toes disconnected from the railing, a firm grip took hold of my wrist and tugged me forcefully back from the ledge.

  My body collided with the heavy, muscled form of a man. Opening my eyes, I saw it was Lukan as he lowered me to the terrace floor, but kept hold of my wrist. I pulled away from him, but my effort was absolutely pointless.

  “What the hell are you doing?” he demanded, his eyes bright with silver intensity, the fiery ring around his pupil more vivid than I remembered.

  “Trying to get away from you monsters!”

  “By jumping off a balcony?”

  “Death is tempting when I think about the alternative. Being tied to your brother for the rest of my life. Let me go!”

  Lukan pulled me in, grabbing my other wrist when I swung a fist at him, and held me firm.

  “So you’d give up without even fighting?” Lukan asked.

  “I did fight. I fought eleven other people! I fought to be in the race in the first place! My reason for fighting got his brains blown out right in front of me by your brother. And now I’m bound to him like a dog on a leash!” I shouted. “I have more respect for myself than that. I can’t be his and you can’t expect me to honor that agreement after what he did.”

  Lukan shook his head, and dragged me further into the room. I resisted, but his strength rivaled Draven’s. Inside the room, Keera was standing quietly, brows furrowed with concern. As Lukan held out his hand toward her, she gave him a pair of metal cuffs. I struggled harder, my feet sliding across the slick floor.

  “No!” He slapped one of the cuffs over my wrist and secured the other to a heating unit that was built into the wall. “No!” I screamed as he started to leave.

  “Tonight will be hard on your body,” Lukan said. “You’re already acting out against your character. Best to try and sleep through it.”

  Keera followed Lukan out, leaving me alone to boil in my wrath.

  I pulled hard at the cuffs for hours. I tried to slide my hand out, but Lukan had tightened the cuff enough to prevent that. Gods, I tried, though. I tried until I bled. Until my bones had been bruised. Until I was exhausted enough to pass out on the cold floor where my thoughts b
egan to stir vividly in my head.

  10

  Everly

  . . .

  At twenty-five, most girls in town were married and having children. I was trying to think of ways to fit more training into my schedule and plan a trip around the world to places I’d always wanted to visit. Hell, I didn’t care where. I just wanted to get out of Greyport.

  Sitting in the barn with the horses, I started to write all the places I wanted to see in a leather-bound journal Taurus had made me the prior year. I drew small pictures of more designs I wanted to tattoo on my body. I drew the horses we were training. Lilly and Leo. They were siblings and had a lot of potential to be strong riding horses, but at the moment they were young and high strung. I smiled at Leo as he bobbed his head over his stable door and snorted at me. Just then, Taurus walked in, taking off a pair of leather gloves and tossing them on a small, wooden table by the saddle stands.

  “Well,” he exhaled. “Looks like I might have a pretty good job coming my way.”

  “Yeah?” I asked, standing up and closing the journal. “What kind of job?”

  “A paying one.”

  “Taurus,” I said, cocking my head chidingly at him. “What kind of job?”

  “No killing, I swear. My slaying days are behind me. Do you know what it takes to kill a Draak? A very difficult beheading and a lot of precautions to make sure they don’t just come back from their own ashes. No, no. This is different. Apparently, some Draak higher-up wants to meet with a rebel leader in the outer territories. Needs someone who knows their way around to escort him.”

  “Is it political?” I asked, worried. Taurus shrugged, avoiding an answer. “Taurus, no. We can find another way to leave town. I don’t want you taking the job. It sounds weird.”