by Paula Quinn
Helena stared at him, stunned at what he was telling her. Now, it felt as if her eyes were truly open. A Drakkon had killed her father, but it wasn’t the Gold and it wasn’t the Red. “You re-altered Marcus and he killed my father.”
“Yes,” he told her the truth, shedding light on everything. “After your father shot him with a gold-tipped arrow and had almost killed Samantha. Marcus lived by transforming back into a man a moment before the arrow struck. He used the Phoenix Amber for the second time and gave up most of his Drakkon power.”
“Most?”
“He can still use telepathy.”
“You never told me.”
“And put my father at risk if you told the Elders? They don’t know.”
“And you trust me now not to tell them?” she asked.
“Yes, I do.”
She didn’t know what to make of it. Or how to feel about it. She knew more about Garion than anyone else did. He’d let her into his world, not by pulling her into his claws, but by letting the tower surrounding him crumble. She could hand him right over to the Elders with enough evidence to cost him his life. He knew that. But she wasn’t going to and he knew that, too. He’d let her into his private life, trusting her to keep it that way. He’d never been anything but open and honest, even when it wasn’t what she wanted to hear. Despite him turning her, she trusted him, as well. He hadn’t done it to refill the sky with Drakkon. He’d done it because she was dying and he’d wanted to save her life.
She looked out the window, at the sky—home of Drakkon and wiped a tear that had fallen from her eye. “Was my father really so terrible that he would transform a Drakkon and try to kidnap a woman so he could kill a child?” She lifted her gaze to his. “Is that the truth, Garion?”
“It is,” he told her in a deep tone warm with tenderness. “It’s the truth, though it gives me no satisfaction to tell you.”
“My family has always taught me that my father was some kind of champion for mankind. It made continuing his mission feel like some kind of heroic duty. Now, to find out there was no mission at all but to return to the sky—it’s so hard to believe.”
“I know. We could go to England if you’d like and you can speak with my mother, with Marcus, too. I’m sure he won’t put a finger to you. He’ll tell you everything he knows about your father—and the Elders.”
Maybe she should. She wanted to hear everything, no matter how hard it was to swallow.
“After that,” he continued, “I’ll go to Jarakan with you and make him tell you the truth.”
“No!” she cried, taking his hand again. “The Elders will kill you, Garion! I won’t let you go!”
He pulled her into his arms and, against every logical, reasonable thought in her head, her heart told her it was right. The walls she’d built around him for fourteen years had come crumbling down and he came out like a ray of light brightening her dull, drab life.
Sensuality deepened the color of his eyes and curled his mouth. “You worry over me. Even now?”
After he and his father practically wiped out her entire family. After he turned her into a Drakkon. Even now.
“I’ve grown accustomed to eating all my meals with you.”
“Good,” he said in a deep, throaty tone that made her muscles ache, “because I’d like to continue the tradition.”
For what…? she probed with a tilt of her lips, like forever?
Yes, forever, he answered, leaning down to kiss her.
She was aware of nothing but the full impact he had on her senses. His size enveloped her like smoke, making her feel drunk with wine. She loved kissing him, breathing him. He smelled good, too, like fresh morning air. Pressed close in his arms with his mighty heart beating hard against her, she felt as if she were made of hundreds of millions of wicks, and he was igniting them all.
When he broke their kiss to bend over her and slip one arm under her knees, she didn’t resist being swept off her feet and carried to his bedroom. She surrendered willingly. She knew she never really had a chance. She was his life mate. She had to be.
I feared you’d never forgive me for all I’ve done. His languid voice blew across her thoughts as he set her on his enormous bed. I understand why you wouldn’t.
I do, she said kicking off her boots.
He sat next to her and looked deep into her eyes. “But I turned you, Helena. I made you what you hate. How can you forgive me for that?”
She hadn’t asked herself that question yet. But the answer didn’t take long when he did. She kneeled on the mattress so their gazes were level. “Take off your socks and boots.” After he did what she’d asked, she pulled him in closer and then pushed him down gently. When she had him lying down, she straddled him, pulled her sweater over her head and tossed it aside. “Because, all my life, I thought of you as an unfeeling monster, fiery and furious, but that isn’t who you are. You are a thoughtful and considerate man, guarded and understandably untrusting, unruffled by my most beguiling smile.”
“Oh, I am beguiled,” he assured her on a low, male growl, his gaze shifting from her face to her breasts as they came free from her bra.
She loved the way his gaze took her in as if she were desired above all else. He made her feel like she was, giving no other women any serious attention. “A monster wouldn’t care if I was cold and bring me to a wonderful hot spring,” she said, lifting his sweater over his sculpted torso, “or cover me with his wing, or hold me naked in his arms without taking full advantage of my weakened state.” She smiled at him, pulling his sweater away from his arms when he lifted them over his head. She feasted her eyes on him and hurled his sweater over her shoulder. “The truest test of your heart though, is reflected in your gentleness with the most delicate of creatures.”
With Carina, she told him, capturing and stopping his much bigger hands when they reached for her. Leaning across his chest, his flesh hot on her nipples, she returned his hands over his head. With me when you are Drakkon. She ran her palms over the smooth muscles of his arms. She pressed her mouth to his, relishing the taste of him in her mouth, the breadth of his chest against her breast, the strength of his thighs between hers.
I forgive you, Garion, because of why you changed me, she told him as he closed his thick arms around her. To save my life.
He withdrewto gaze at her. “And because I love you, Helena. I did it because you meanmore than everything I have, more than anything I could ever want.”
She smiled while her heart melted all over him. “So, it’s forever then?”
#
Garion dipped his mouth to her nipple. She lay beneath him, stripped bare by his slightly awkward fingers. He drank of her and licked her delectable body until he grew as taut as one of her violin strings.
She was listening in and cast him a seductive smile.
This was a bad idea. What if he turned? But he couldn’t stop himself. He wanted her. He wanted to delight in her scent, her skin, her surrender. The most primal part of him stirred from slumber and fevered his desire. A thought passed fleetingly across his thoughts. What if they had a child? What would he be unleashing on the world?
It’s covered, she answered proving she connected with him without even a push. I’m on birth control.
Still, he lamented. I don’t think we should. Something could happen.
She shook her head and coiled her arms around his neck. It won’t. When her legs wrapped around his waist next, he tightened his jaw and ground out a moan. He tried to think of a million other things while he lowered himself into her, but her tight, little groan and her even tighter sheath beckoned him to unleash himself upon her. He wasn’t sure which sensation was more satisfying, her soft, inviting body beneath him, or his cock in flames inside her. Both, he decided with another slick thrust.
The urge to toss back his head and breathe fire stopped him from moving. Nostrils flaring, he held back the Drakkon.
“Look at me, Garion.” Her voice in his ears drew him back. He set his fiery eyes on her an
d sensed a thread of fear in her. She didn’t look away though. “Do I feel good?”
He closed his eyes and tightened his jaw. “Yes.”
“That’s because you’re a man. All man,” she said moving her hands languidly down his arms, across his shoulders then down his back to his hips. And more. “Drakkon doesn’t feel this. Do you want to stop?”
“No.” And he didn’t. Twice, the urge to bite her somewhere, anywhere halted his movements. But the temptation to turn grew less frequent and, soon, every thrust drove back the Drakkon and presented the man, hard and big enough to tear her in half. Her snug, hot embrace and the look of pure ecstasy made him cum three times. The first time he came, he thought he felt a scale or two puncturing his back. He didn’t want to be Drakkon. Not now, at least.
He didn’t know how much stamina was normal for a man, but when Helena marveled at his sustained erection while she pushed him up and on his knees and perched herself on it, he was glad he wasn’t done in so easily.
She clamped her thighs around him and he held her up with the power in his thighs. He let her ride him and suckled from her breasts while she rode him to climax. He watched her swing back her glorious mane, her eyes clamped, her lips parted with gasps as she tightened her grip on him.
He felt it bubbling up in her and his eyes shot open. She was going to turn!
He hurried off the bed with her still attached and ran to the sliding doors. He pulled them open and stepped into the wind a moment before she turned, bursting from his arms. He watched her from the terrace for a moment, taking in the radiance of her pearly-white scales and sleek, spiked head.
When she flapped more wildly, her great, sapphire eyes growing larger with panic, he turned instantly and flew to her.
Stay with me, my love, he begged softly, enclosing her in his wings. Fly with me.
He didn’t let her go but spiraled upward with her, wrapping his long, spaded tail around hers. He snapped his fangs at her. She snapped hers back. Washed in the exhilaration of approaching the crystal clear Milky Way, and in the music falling down from the stars, they danced the dance of the ancients, cleaving together and becoming one.
Later, back in his bed and clutching her in his arms, Garion thought about how he was going to keep her safe from what was to come. It was his fault she was in danger—from Red and from the Elders—and the others who would come after him next.
“They will all want my blood,” he whispered into her hair.
“How many are there?” she asked against his neck.
“The Elders, The Bane, the descendants, people I thought I could trust. More than we can fight off.”
“I’m sorry you had to live half a life, Garion,” she told him, kissing his chest. “And I promise you can trust me.”
He felt his heart well up with love for her and kissed her forehead, then her eyelids when she tilted her beautiful face to his. He ran his knuckles over her cheek then through her hair. His lips found hers and he kissed her. He’d found his life mate in Patrick White’s daughter. What would their families think?
When she climbed on top of him, his cock sprang to life and his thoughts fled his brain.
Chapter Nineteen
Helena came awake and swept her hand over the bed. When she found herself in it alone, she opened her eyes. The room was dark. Had they slept all day? No wonder she was so hungry.
She heard a sound near the sliding doors and looked that way as the blue hour approached. She saw his masterful frame silhouetted against the dusky twilight, looking out toward the stars.
She left the bed and moved forward then and grimaced at the dull ache between her legs. He didn’t tire and she wasn’t complaining. She remembered what he’d told Jeremy as she came up behind him. He resisted the temptation to turn every day. She could feel it and her Drakkon had just been awakened. How much more difficult was it for him?
“Go,” she urged coming to stand beside him. “Go fly. I’ll make us breakfast and then we’ll get tickets to one of your islands and get the hell away from all this.”
He put his arm around her shoulder and drew her under it. “I’ll get my family to Tahiti. You and Jacob will fly to Fiji with Carina. I’ll meet up with you there.”
She turned her head up to look at him. “It’s both endearing and insulting that you think I’d let you go before the Council alone.”
“Helena, I—”
“Shh, my love.” She lifted her index finger to his lips. “They’ll never find us in Fiji. They don’t have me. Now, go fly. Give the Drakkon his time.”
He stared down at her in disbelief. “Give the Drakkon his time? Since when have you sympathized with the Drakkon?”
“He’s not so bad. He reacted to Thomas’ death the same way you did—but with more power. You were just a boy, Garion. You aren’t a monster and you’re nothing like Red.”
“Come with me,” he beckoned.
She shook her head. “No, I need to learn to control it in times like this. Go, and get reacquainted with yourself.”
He kissed her then pulled on the doors and stepped out. For a moment she wanted to call him back and take him back to bed. When he transformed, she wondered if she’d ever get used to seeing him shoot across the sky.
She thought about flying with him, mating with him as Drakkon. The flight had been indescribable. The lure of the stars was strong, new in her veins. Being wrapped in his wings while music played throughout the heavens was exhilarating. She could understand the pull of it being overwhelming. Madly enough, she wanted to return.
She shook her head at the madness of it all and lingered at the window to watch him fly across the blue and gold horizon.
The Bane was going to come after him. The Elders would never stop. She understood the threat Garion presented to them. If he filled the sky with Drakkon then, sooner or later, in order to survive among the mighty, Jarakan and the other Elders would be forced to go to him and be altered. But why wouldn’t they want that? It was the only way they could be men and Drakkon, together. Why the hell would they be against that? They wouldn’t. They wanted his blood for the same reason her father wanted it. They wanted him dead so they’d be in control and command over who gets transformed.
They would never agree to a deal. Now that they knew he existed, thanks to her and the stars, and now that they had pictures of him, thanks solely to her, they’d triple their efforts to find and kill him.
Weighted by the knowledge that she’d put him in so much danger, she wiped a tear from her cheek and knew what she had to do. They were going to see the Elders together. She would arrange it. And then she’d kill them all.
Garion?
Yes, Helena?
I’m coming with you to see Jarakan. You won’t stop me.
Helena—
Garion, I’m in love with you and I’m not going to Fiji without you.
Silence met her declaration and amplified the sounds of his wings as he returned and landed on the terrace. He slid open the doors and went to her, his naked body drenched in sunlight.
“What was that I heard?” he asked, narrowing his eyes on her and letting his smile creep over his inviting mouth.
“I’m not going to Fiji without you.” Her body ached to have him, to be near him. She stepped forward and into his arms.
“Before that,” he said in a silky tone above her.
She tilted her face up to look at him and smiled playfully. “Oh, that. I’m in love with you.”
He stepped away from her. His smile vanished. “What?”
Helena stared at him. Was he talking to her?
He answered her silent question a moment later. It’s your brother.
Jacob?
He’s here. In Bodø. We have to get him. Now.
Her blood drained. Jacob was here? Why? He knew Jeremy was after them. Oh, Jacob, you idiot! What the hell are you doing here?
Helena? Her brother’s voice loomed in her head. How am I hearing you?
Oh, no! What had she d
one? She’d used telepathy on him. A Drakkon trait she now possessed! This wasn’t how she wanted Jacob to find out!
Through me, Garion told him, letting her listen. That seemed to mollify Jacob for now.
She smiled and mouthed the words thank you at him. Her lips tightened when she returned her thoughts to her brother. How did you know where to find us?
You told me you were in the Børvasstindene Mountains.
I didn’t think you’d show up! Garion wanted to pay for your ticket, but not with Red on the loose! What if he shows up here?
You’re my sister. You were shot and then kidnapped by a Drakkon and now the one who shot you is also a Drakkon—and you didn’t think I’d come? Now, it’s cold and Carina is unfortunately suffering the worst of it. When can I expect you?
Twenty minutes. Garion scowled and broke the connection. He padded back to the bedroom in silence. Helena followed him.
“Jacob shouldn’t have come,” she said, slipping on her boots. She knew Garion was angry, worried. “He shouldn’t have brought her knowing there would possibly be danger.”
“I wish he hadn’t,” he agreed. “But it’s an admirable trait that he would fly so far to protect you from something he could never fight.”
She smiled. Yes, it was. She kissed him and left the room with him hot on her heels.
#
They found Jacob where they told him to meet. The moment Helena saw him, she forgot why she was angry with him. He was here with them. Really, it was the safest place he could be. She went to him smiling and stepped into his arms.
He pulled back. “Your wound.”
“Jake, he healed me. It’s as if it never happened. Look.” She pulled her coat and the sweater beneath it up over her belly. “Nothing.”
Jacob looked up at Garion standing behind her, reunited with his cat. “Thank you.”
Garion nodded and led them back to the truck. On the way up the fells, she told them her new theory about the Elders and why they wanted Garion dead. They had to be stopped or the hunt wouldn’t end.
“So we kill them?” Jacob asked her.
She turned around in her seat to look at him and nodded regretfully. “Or take the chance of them getting Garion’s essence and starting their own Drakkon army.”
