by Tessa Adams
ETERNAL EMBERS
A Dragon’s Heat Novella
Tessa Adams
New American Library
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First E-Book Printing, September 2011
Copyright © Tracy Deebs-Elkenaney, 2011
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Chapter One
Weak. Pathetic. Blind. Stupid.
Weak. Pathetic. Blind. Stupid.
Caitlyn Jacoby’s feet slapped the ground in rhythm to the insults screaming through her brain. Part of her wanted to say to hell with jogging, to hell with the whole PT routine as she was about to be court marshaled. Or demoted. Or whatever the hell they did to dragon sentries who had completely failed their king. Not that there was exactly a precedent for this sort of thing—in the two centuries she had been alive, she’d never heard of another member of her clan messing up this badly.
Nothing like being the first. Ugh.
Trying to clear her mind, to forget what waited for her in Dylan’s lair, she continued to run through the miles of desert that stretched before her like a mixed-up artist’s palette, reds and oranges and purples blending with a million different shades of gray and brown. In the distance, the sun rose slowly over the craggy mountains, setting the sky—and the sand all around her—on fire. It was a beautiful sight, one that rarely failed to make her grateful to be alive. But today Caitlyn only glanced at it before closing her eyes and blowing out a long, silent breath.
Normally her early morning workout was her favorite time of day, but today all it did was give her more time to think. To worry. To regret the many, many mistakes she’d made.
She was a failure as a sentry, a joke. One step above the traitor who had helped land her in this position. Her beast growled at the thought, lunged against the stranglehold she’d had on it since it had gone insane the night before. She tightened the noose, forced it down before it could get even more out of control. Before she could get even more out of control.
Its answer was a vicious hiss and a scrape of claws against the inside of her skin. Her dragon wasn’t happy with her, but then the feeling was entirely mutual. She might have fallen prey to the blindness of friendship but surely her beast should have suspected that something wasn’t right. It had failed her and in turn, she had failed her entire clan.
Weak. Pathetic. Blind. Stupid.
The words continued to beat at her even as she increased her already brutal pace. Soon she was running full out, holding nothing back, her stride long and fast as she covered huge stretches of the amber-lit desert. Maybe if she ran far enough, fast enough, she could outrun what she’d done . . . and what she hadn’t. Maybe she could figure out how she was supposed to face Dylan after everything that had gone down.
Just the thought of the Dragonstar king, of the disgust and disapproval she would see in his eyes, made Caitlyn want to weep. She had worked so hard to gain entrance to the Council, to be a sentry that Dylan and the others could be proud of. But she had screwed up, royally, and now she had to pay for it. Which was fine—she knew she deserved whatever was coming to her. She just wished she’d been smarter, braver, more observant. Maybe then Michael would still be alive. And Lana. And Josh. And all the many, many others they’d been forced to build funeral pyres for too soon.
The first caverns were in sight now, the last moments of her reprieve almost over. Her stomach clenched with nervousness and shame and her dragon roared, reacting to her upset. It was trying to defend her, but right now she wanted nothing from the beast, not even its protection. So she ignored it, slowed her pace and focused on what she was going to say to Dylan. As if there was anything she could say. She was totally out of—A movement near one of the outlying caves suddenly caught her eye and she felt everything inside of her freeze. Even her beast settled down, stopped scratching and struggling against the hold she had on it. She didn’t know if that was a good thing or bad.
Eyes narrowed, Caitlyn slowed her pace even more as she watched the entrance of the cave, waiting for whatever was there to reveal itself again. Maybe it was another Dragonstar—Shawn liked to roam this same stretch of desert at dawn, after all. But her internal radar wasn’t going off, wasn’t alerting her that another dragon was near. And these initial caverns were pretty much deserted these days. Deeming them too easily accessible, Dylan had ordered his clan to move back to deeper, darker caves. Caves that had very limited access and entrances humans were a lot less tempted to poke around in.
So what had she seen? she wondered as she used her magic to blur the edges of her outline until she blended into the stark desert all around her. What was out there? An animal looking for food? A lost hiker looking for civilization? An enemy looking to strike another blow to the Dragonstars?
It was that thought that galvanized her, had her hurrying across the last few hundred yards between her and the caverns. If the Wyvernmoons had returned, it meant they were gunning for Dylan, trying to hit the Dragonstars while they were still reeling from the last attack.
It was her job to make sure they never got a shot at him.
Reaching inside her for the dragon that was so much a part of her—and that ha
d been right below her skin for the last forty-eight hours, aching to get out—she was shocked to realize her beast had retreated. Instead of biting and snarling in an effort to get at the intruder, it had gone completely quiet.
What the hell?
She yanked off her sweaty T-shirt, reached deeper and prepared to shift. But her dragon wouldn’t rise for her, wouldn’t budge from where it had curled up deep inside of her. She could feel it there, waiting, watching, but for whatever reason, it refused to come to the fore.
Nothing like this had ever happened to her and for a minute, Caitlyn refused to acknowledge that it was now. Instead, she tried to force the shift, to make her dragon bend to her will. But for the first time ever, the stubborn beast was having no part of it.
Frustrated, angry, and more than a little confused, Caitlyn tried to figure out what to do. But until she knew what was happening, what was causing her dragon to retreat, how was she supposed to fix it? Was this just part and parcel of her betrayal of the clan? She hadn’t lived up to her responsibilities as a Dragonstar, so her dragon was punishing her for it even as she had sought to punish it?
Pain lanced through her at the thought, but she shoved it back. She could drown in self-pity later. Right now she needed to figure out if whatever she’d seen was a threat to her clan or not. But being unable to call her dragon left her handicapped, and she wasn’t willing to take chances right now—not when her clan was already in such bad shape. Narrowing her concentration, she focused on the magic that burned so brightly inside of her. Wielding it, bending it, manipulating it was her special talent, one she could only hope didn’t decide to abandon her now too.
No, there it was, brighter and hotter than ever. She wrapped her thoughts, her focus around it. Then she thrust it outward, searching for Logan, whose psychic powers would enable him to pick up on her misgivings.
Caitlyn, what’s wrong? It only took a couple of seconds before his voice was there, sharp and concerned, in the corners of her mind.
I don’t know. I’m at the edges of the primary cave set. I saw something, but I’m not sure what it was.
I’ll be there in ten minutes, he said, and she got the impression of him running through a long, dark hallway, whose uneven walls were embedded with precious gemstones the size of grapefruits and cantaloupes.
Great, he was already with the High Council. That meant they would be here, en masse, in the next few minutes. What if she was wrong? She’d look even more stupid than she already did.
But what if she wasn’t? What if the Wyvernmoons were back, sniffing around in an effort to do God only knew what this time? The Dragonstars were already crippled—they couldn’t withstand another full-fledged attack.
Wait for us, Caitlyn. It was Shawn, her closest friend and one of the other sentries, talking to her now, using the connection Logan had established to send his thoughts straight into her head. She started to tell them that she would, but then she caught another shift of movement near the entrance of the cave. She streaked forward, using every ounce of power she had to get down there before whatever she was seeing disappeared again.
Damn it, Caitlyn! Don’t be an idiot. Gabe’s admonishment rang in her ears, but she ignored him. There’d be hell to pay later from Dylan’s second-in-command, but it wasn’t like she wasn’t already on the chopping block.
She made her way carefully across the last few yards, making sure to keep her image blurred as she went. A human wouldn’t be able to see much more than a shimmer of air as she moved. Another dragon would be able to see her, as their eyes functioned differently, but she couldn’t worry about that now. The other sentries would be here soon—she just had to pinpoint what it was she was seeing and then they could back her up.
She was only a few feet away from the cave’s opening when she found what she’d been looking for. Who she’d been looking for. Scooting to the side of the cave, she crouched down behind a large rock and simply watched him for a moment, even as everything inside of her reeled at the sight of him.
It couldn’t be him, she told herself. Not now, not after all these years. She had to be projecting, seeing him in this man’s similar build and coloring.
Still, hard as she tried, she couldn’t get away from the idea either. Not when her dragon was still curled up inside of her, all but purring at the sight of him—the traitor—just as it had done the first time she’d seen him nearly six decades before.
He looked exactly the same. Oh, his clothes were different—this time he was dressed in faded and worn blue jeans and a black T-shirt instead of a suit—but nothing else had changed.
Not his broad, muscular build and mile-wide shoulders.
Not his sharp cheekbones, midnight black eyes and fallen angel face.
Not even his dark hair, worn long and pulled back from his strong jaw with some kind of leather tie.Even his skin was the same. A warm, tawny color that was the same shade as the sun-kissed sand at her feet.
But it wasn’t possible, she told herself furiously. There was no way this was the same man she’d known so many years before. First off, because he did still look exactly the same. So did she, but dragons aged much more slowly than humans. If he’d been thirty-five when she first saw him, he’d be ninety-five now. And while she didn’t know all that much about humans, she knew enough to know that the man standing in front of her was nowhere near the century mark. This man was still very much in his prime.
Her dragon stretched at that observation, swished its tail in lazy agreement as a wave of heat swept through her. It burned away the barriers she’d placed around her memories of him, memories Caitlyn had spent decades ignoring. They welled up inside of her, spilling out in all directions. Memories of his mouth on hers, of his arms around her, of his naked chest pressed against her back as he took her again and again.
She flushed at the recollection, trembled, even as she tried to shove the thoughts—and the emotions they evoked—back down deep inside herself. What was wrong with her? she wondered frantically, as her nipples peaked against the soft cotton of her bra. As her knees trembled and her whole body softened. It had been decades since she’d seen him, since he’d disappeared without a trace, and yet here she was, getting all hot and bothered—for the second time—over a man who couldn’t possibly be what he appeared. Add in the fact that her clan mates were due any second and it was a completely untenable situation, especially since she had never shared her long ago folly with anyone.
Who was he? And what was he doing here? The questions chased themselves around inside her brain, haunting her now as they had so many years before. Part of her didn’t care. Not with all the strange feelings and heat welling up inside of her. That part wanted nothing more than to say to hell with duty and just get the fuck out of here as fast as possible
Her dragon snarled at the thought, coming to the forefront for the first time since it had sensed his presence. Angry claws raked her from the inside—a demand that she go nowhere. A warning that there would be hell to pay if she tried.
Caitlyn grimaced at the sharp edge of pain, then did her best to ignore her beast’s demands. She was already in enough trouble with Dylan. The last thing she needed was for him to show up and realize her dragon was practically in heat. And over a human male whose very existence made no sense.
“So, are you going to hide behind that rock all day?” His voice, smooth and rich and frighteningly familiar, startled her. “Or are you going to come out here where I can see you?”
Her dragon preened at his attention, even as Caitlyn wondered how the hell he’d known she was there. She hadn’t made a sound and her magic made her all but invisible to human eyes. It simply wasn’t possible. Maybe he was guessing . . .
But then he was walking straight toward her and around the rock. Crouching down next to her. Their eyes met and every doubt and couldn’t-be she had disappeared. It was him, Matthew Black
well, and against all sense, all reason, and every law of physics she knew about, he had not changed at all.
His eyes widened as he looked her over, shock rippling across his face. But it was gone almost as soon as it had come, buried under the smooth charm she remembered so well. “You know, hiding her head in the sand never worked very well for the ostrich either.”
“I’m not—” To her eternal shame, her voice and her hands shook. Clenching her fists, she called forth the fire that was never far from her surface. Her dragon roared a protest, but she ignored it, focused on the pain and the pleasure of the burn. Focused on the strength the flames brought her. When she was calmer, she cleared her throat then tried again. “I’m not an ostrich.”
“No?” He flashed her the crooked grin that haunted her dreams much more often than she liked to admit. “Just a dragon then.” Standing up, he reached a hand out to help her to her feet. When she didn’t take it, just stared at him incredulously, he asked, “So, are you going to sit there are all day, then?”
“Of course not.” She sprang to her feet so quickly she narrowly missed banging her head on a jagged portion of the rock. “Who are you?”
“You know exactly who I am.” His grin flashed wickedly, took her back to a time she’d done her damnedest to forget. As her breath caught in her chest, her dragon panted a little inside of her. Obviously it remembered that long ago weekend as well.
“Do I?” she asked acidly, long sublimated hurt and rage mingling with the desire she did not want to feel. “I’m not so sure, especially since the last time I saw you, you were human.”
“I’m still human. See?” He extended his hand again, in the purely human manner of greeting, and this time she did take it, hoping that the skin to skin contact would enable her to read something from him.
But as his hand enveloped hers, electric shocks that had nothing to do with her powers shot through her, blindsided her. For sixty years she’d been telling herself that her memories had exaggerated her reaction to him, that time had made her remember the course of events incorrectly. But if anything, she’d underestimated his effect on her. The thought galvanized her, ripped her out of the strange stupor that had overwhelmed her at the first contact. She started to tug her hand away but he wouldn’t let go. His fingers clasped hers for a lot longer than necessary as his thumb stroked over the back of her hand. “And you are?”
