Tdem pulled me back against his chest, holding me up when my legs nearly collapsed under me once Amras let me loose. His fingers traced the crisscross leather over my stomach and ribs and rose to cup my breasts in his hands while his fingers dipped beneath the bra like top and brushed my nipples. I pressed back against him, then murmured and grasped his thighs when his teeth came down upon my shoulder and sank into my skin. I cried out as he purred and licked away the few drops of blood he’d caused to pool from the small punctures. Then he turned me and I held on tightly while his lips plundered mine. My eyes had gone Dragon and were whirling when he passed me to Owen, who had followed me across the room.
“Be yourself,” he urged, then his dark brown eyes went seductive and he gathered me in against his body, stroking his hands over my bottom while he pressed himself against me and hummed. “Perhaps Kit was right,” he offered and gripped my bottom harder, pulling the leather tight against me. His fingers brushed the underside of my cheeks and lifted me off the floor, pressing me against him so I might reach his lips.
Dane was next and his black eyes searched my face and a sly smile lit his eyes. “Give em hell, Lassie,” he said and sank his hands into my hair while proceeding to make love to my mouth. I was gasping for air when he let me up and my eyes were sending sparkles around the room.
Kit wrapped his arm around my waist and grinned down at me while I placed a hand upon his cheek. “For luck,” he replied and lowered his lips to mine while he snapped his fingers.
The world lurched and I found myself standing in front of the same set of double doors I’d been at last week and I stiffened in his arms. “Kit?”
“The Queen would like to visit the caverns,” he informed the guards who stared at the four of us, me in particular, in shock. “Did I mention she is the Queen?” Kit mentioned sarcastically and both guards dropped to their knees immediately.
“Your Majesty, it is good to see you,” the one on the left replied in a strangled voice. “We had heard you were ill.”
“All better now,” I replied and motioned for them to stand. The one on the left couldn’t seem to tear his eyes off me, and I wondered if it was the outfit or the whispers of my near death.
“It is your clothing,” Talon replied and raised an eyebrow at the guard, who seemed to pale and finally dropped his eyes. I frowned and raised my shields… both of them, and watched Talon frown and stare at me through narrowed eyes. Kit grinned and motioned for the guard to open the door. He had to wave his hand a couple time as the guard was staring at me as if he couldn’t believe I hadn’t disappeared along with my mind.
“I did not realize…” Talon muttered, his eyes moving to Roa’ who smiled and raised a shoulder in response.
“It matters little. She cannot use her sorcery with it in place.” And he glanced at me smugly while I bit the inside of my lip. I debated for about half a second, then reached out with my mind and slid my fingers down Roa’s chest and over his left nipple pinching it gently. He sucked air into his lungs and his eyes nearly popped out of his head. Talon glanced between the two of us and frowned. “I take that back, apparently she does have the ability,” Roa’ corrected himself, and I licked my lips and smiled at him.
The guards glanced between us, and Kit made an annoyed sound, which caused the one on the right to reach for the door. We finally got through them after all the bowing and well wishing, and the doors swung shut behind us. I turned to Kit and asked, “So what are the rules?”
Kit glanced at Talon and then back to me. “You may use any weapon upon your person.”
“Any? What about talents?” I asked and he glanced at Talon, who frowned.
“You may not use sorcery,” Talon informed me. Kit snapped his fingers and was holding a huge dictionary in his hands opened to the word ‘sorcery’. “Hmmm, it is defined as: ‘the belief in magical spells that harness occult forces or evil spirits to produce unnatural effects in the world’,” he informed us. “Tell me, Talon, do you believe Lexi to be an evil spirit?” and he snapped his fingers and the book disappeared. He reached out and then ran the back of his knuckles down my cheek.
Talon glanced at Kit and then at me. “No I do not believe she is an evil spirit.”
“Do you think I’m an evil spirit?” Kit asked and turned his best smile on Talon, who scoffed and shook his head. “Hmmm… do you think either of us could be labeled as ‘occult forces’?” And again Talon shook his head and he was starting to look annoyed. “Then if I were to do this,” and kit snapped his fingers and was holding a bottle of water, which he held out for me. I gratefully took it and proceeded to drink almost all of it down. “Or this,” and he snapped his fingers and the bottle disappeared. “You would not call it sorcery, correct?” Talon frowned, then looked at Roa’ who shook his head.
“He is a Demon, that is not sorcery,” Roa’ told him. “It is who he is, not what he does.”
“Ahhh,” Kit smiled, turned to me and winked. “Now where was I? Oh yes, you may use any weapon upon your person or any talent you may possess. The object is not to die,” he informed me while I stared at him in surprise.
“He wants to kill me?”
“No he wants to mate with you,” Kit said.
“Then why all the sword and dagger foreplay?” I demanded.
“Because….” Kit informed me with a grimace, “he wants to MATE with you. You Dragon you,” he told me and leaned forward to give me a look that shouted: Wake up!
I stared at him, totally confused, while inside me Goldy cringed back and hissed. Her wings flared open, her eyes began whirling frantically, and she launched us at Talon. Apparently he was waiting for exactly that reaction, since I quickly found myself flipped over his head as he flung himself backwards. I landed on my hands and toes and hissed. And I guessed from the golden sparkles lighting up the ground that my eyes had shifted.
Chapter 8
The traditional way, eh? I thought, while Talon smiled and reached for his sword. I already had mine in my hand. Not wanting to get backed up against the door, I glanced quickly around me, gripped my sword, and took off in a sprint. I headed in the same direction I’d taken last week. The trail magically appeared before me, and I ran with my braid trailing me straight to the meadow and dodged to the side, turning and bringing my blade up as I heard Talon skid to a halt behind me.
It was clear to me that Goldy wanted nothing to do with traditional sex. Being much happier with the more modern style we were so terribly fond of. “You know Talon,” I told him as he circled to my left and I rotated to follow him. “We don’t need to do this. I was only teasing when I said Roa’ was better looking. I actually think you’re much yummier.”
He frowned and charged me, his sword striking mine and sliding off harmlessly. He followed me as I moved left and our blades met again. I slipped the force of his strike aside, using finesse to combat his overhand barbarian style.
“I don’t believe you,” he replied, palmed a knife and threw it at me. It flashed past my right cheek and I glared at him, starting to become annoyed. When next he attacked I slipped his blade but instead of moving away, I slammed my elbow into his solar plexus, then kicked him in the back of the knee as I swept by. His hand flashed out and he severed a good three feet off my braid with another dagger. It fell to the ground and I looked at it in shock. His blade would have sliced open my arm too, except it hit the guard that Owen had provided and glanced off harmlessly.
“Oh, you want to play like that do you?” I growled and had to dodge another blade that would have buried itself in my left thigh had I been a second slower. I knew exactly where he kept his sharp pointy things, and the next time he came in I slammed the heel of my right boot into the sheathed knife on the inside of his left thigh. He growled and this time I wasn’t fast enough to dodge the blade he threw at me. It stuck me in the side. I hissed, reaching down to yank it out. I shifted my side, using my shift to instantly heal myself.
Talon looked shocked and eased up a moment s
o he could stare at me. “How did you do that?” he demanded; I glared at him and refused to answer. Three more blades flew my way and I dodged two of them, but the third struck me in the shoulder. I spent several minutes with it buried there, while I just managed to keep him from hacking off my head. Blood covered my front all the way to my thigh by the time I got the blade out and was able to shift my shoulder to heal it. He growled again and I flipped the blade and sent it flying at him. It grazed his leg, leaving a nasty cut, which he ignored.
“Do you yield?” I asked and he growled. “Hey did I mention I was part Demon?” I asked. “You know that stuff I did to you in the Everlasting… that wasn’t sorcery. That was me. Are you sure you don’t just want to have sex?”
“No!” he growled and charged me. My words seemed to enrage him and he took some nasty slices and in the end I lost my sword and dagger. Apparently brute force did have its advantages. I ended up running for it. When one of his damn daggers sank into the back of my thigh I went down and rolled, managing to yank out the blade and heal myself by the time I flipped all the way over and landed back on my feet. He circled me slowly, keeping his eyes on mine. He already had a few nasty cuts of his own, and the knife he’d sunk into the back of my thigh was now clenched in my fist.
“Did you enjoy my… what did you call it? Oh yes, the disruption earlier? You do realize that was me having sex right? Actually I was having sex with Gareth and Jace at the same time,” I told him and watched as his eyes shifted to Dragon and began whirling. “How far away were you? Down the hall, half way across the Sidhe? Imagine what that would feel like with your body buried inside mine,” I told him and he gave his head a shake and glared at me. “Come on, Talon… you remember,” I breathed at him. “In the Everlasting, you wrapped your arm around me and pulled me onto the bed then buried yourself deep. Remember? We could do that again…”
Talon had been circling and I’d allowed myself to become distracted with my speech. My heel connected with the log hidden in the grass and I teetered. Another knife lodged itself in my side, and another in my thigh, and I grunted in pain and went down. Talon was on me in an instant, his knees holding me down while his hands grabbed mine and prevented me from pulling the blades from my body. His eyes were whirling as he leaned down and buried his teeth in my shoulder tearing the tender flesh and causing me to scream in agony.
“Shift,” he growled and inside me Goldy reared back and hissed angrily. He bit me again, this time tearing a chunk out of me above my right breast, while he pressed his body against the blade buried in my side shoving it in deeper. “Shift, curse you.” When he would have bitten me a third time I lost my head and shifted, feeling him yank the blades from me as my skin flowed. And then he was on me, a huge gray beast nearly twice my size. I screamed and snapped at him while he lifted his body off me slowly.
Talon’s Dragon form had spikes running up the front of his head in addition to those over his eyes and at the top. His chest was plated, and his wing span was wider than my body was long. Down his back were sharp bony ridges and his tail ended in a barb that was nearly as long as my head. He was the same color of his skin in human form, but his scales were iridescent and glowed in the light. I hissed at him and backed slowly away while he lowered his head and swung it back and fourth. It reminded me of what Spot had done when he’d stolen my golden shoes, only I suspected Talon’s goal was not nearly as pleasant. His size pressed me backward and when I didn’t move fast enough he snapped at me, then went so far as to shove me with his shoulders. I snapped back, hissed and hugged the ground. He made strange warbling sounds and continued to harass me, nearly flipping me over when I stopped and tried to hold my place.
“Stop!” I finally screamed at him, and his multifaceted grey eyes lowered to my level.
“Fly,” he taunted me, and I tilted my head and glanced up at the sky overhead. “Fly… escape from me,” he challenged and then started up with the warbling again so that I growled and hissed and backed some more. His head swung back and forth and when he reached out to bite me on the leg, I reared back and spread my wings. He pulled back immediately and watched me with eager eyes. I screamed and launched myself into the air, doing exactly what he’d wanted all along. I headed for the horizon, glancing over my shoulder and realizing both Roa’ and Kit had shifted and were following.
Below me Talon watched from the ground and I hesitated, looking toward Kit. If I could reach him I thought… and banked to fly in his direction. On the ground Talon roared and launched himself into the air directly into my path. I screamed and flew left, feeling him coming behind and below me, driving me away from Kit. I screamed again and flew higher while he took up a flight pattern below me and made lazy circles, his eyes tracking my flight. I needed to get away from him and headed straight up into the air as fast as I could go.
Talon screamed triumphantly and chased me, his huge wings eating up the distance between us as I climbed higher trying to escape him. In midflight, his body struck mine, flipping me over and sending me into a dive. His claws grabbed at me and his neck wrapped around mine. I screamed and struggled wildly, which just seemed to excite him more as he roared and clutched me tighter. His wings spread wide, halting our tumble and he held us airborne while his tail threaded around mine. His back legs grabbed me by the base of my tail and I felt something huge and barbed stabbing against me and shuddered in horror as I realized it was his penis.
His hind legs lifted me against him as he bent over me, forcing me backwards, and held me with his neck, tail, and powerful legs. He slid me back and forth against him while I struggled and tried to free myself. His tail wrapped around me tighter, pulling me into position and he warbled and rubbed himself against me. When he found my opening I screamed and struggled but he held me, using his legs to pull me up his length as he buried his member inside. I screamed again as his barbed ridges invade me. He bugled and wrapped his wings around us, cocooning us together as we began plummeting toward the earth.
Talon rode me hard and fast, his body pumping furiously while we spiraled downward. I ceased to struggle and looked down in shock, watching in fascinated horror as the ground drew ever closer. “Talon!” I screamed, then struggled to get free from him before he killed us both. He reared back and shuddered, then spread his wings and stopped our decent mere feet from the ground.
He placed me gently upon my back in the meadow grasses, and rubbed his head and neck all over me while he pulled his body from mine and made that strange warbling sound again. Talon unclamped his legs, unwound our tails, then leaned back and seemed to purr while I stared up at him in confusion and tried to understand what it was that had just happened to me.
I shifted form and walked myself back from him on my feet and hands. I slowly went to my knees and watched him warily as he shifted and crossed his arms upon his chest. He stood over me with his legs spread wide, an amused look in his eyes. His mouth and chin were red with my blood. I watched in shock as he ran his tongue across his lips then lifted his fingers and rubbed them over his chin, licking at them when they came away wet and sticky.
Kit and Roa’ shifted as they landed and I flicked my gaze at Kit whose face looked… blank. In fact his eyes wouldn’t even meet mine. I pushed myself to my feet and brushed the meadow grass and dirt off my leather and skin, and thought how nice it would be to have a big pair of dark sunglasses… something to hide behind. I turned my head and my hair swung forward drawing my attention. I glanced down at it, realizing it now barely came to my shoulders. From what I could see of it, the ends looked as if they had been hacked off by a drunk on a binge.
I made a distressed noise and sucked in air, feeling the blood drain from my face as the delayed reaction hit me. Spots appeared before my eyes and I swayed where I stood. Talon reached for me and I couldn’t help it, I bent at the waist and puked up the bottle of water I had drank, along with what seemed like several days’ worth of meals. Kit’s hands held back my hair, and he made low soothing noises while my eyes wat
ered. It took several minutes for my body to empty itself of all my stomach contents. After which, I continued to dry heave for several more minutes. When I was finally finished, Kit silently handed me a damp wash cloth, then a bottle of water. He took both of them back from me when I was done.
“I believe she has met the terms… decide,” Kit told Talon in a dead voice, while I continued to remain bent over and staring at… nothing.
Talon sighed and from my peripheral vision I watched his feet shift his weight. “She is young, but shows promise. I am satisfied,” Talon informed us and I reached for Kit’s arm.
“Get me out of here,” I begged and he snapped his fingers. I staggered and went to my knees in the middle of my room. The tremors started as he dropped beside me and wrapped his arms around my body, holding me tightly. “Oh God, oh god, oh god, oh god,” I mumbled and rocked forward and back. A high keening noise escaped me and I reached to cover my mouth and squeezed my eyes closed. Anxious voices swirled around and over me but my mind could not absorb them. I hyperventilated and mercifully watched my vision go black.
I know ye are awake, Lassie. Open yer eyes and talk to us, Dane’s voice whispered across my mind. I moaned and reached to pull a pillow over my head.
Go away, I whispered back silently.
Nae I willna. And I felt the pillow pulled from my hands and fingers brushed back the now short strands of hair from over my face.
“Lexi?” Gareth whispered and I moaned again and threw my arm across my face. “Lower your shields.” I shook my head and felt his fingers stroke my scalp. “He will be here soon and you do not want him to find you this way,” he informed me urgently, his voice filled with concern.
“Maybe the guards will kill him,” I replied and I couldn’t stop my voice from sounding hopeful. After all, his face and hands were covered in my blood so there was a chance he would be stopped, especially when I did not appear. “If not, have Kit send him back to Hell!” I growled and several of them chuckled while Gareth made an agreeable noise.
Dragon Greed Page 10
