by Cara Bristol
Playing with Fyre (Alien Dragon Shifters 3)
Copyright © February 2021 by Cara Bristol
All rights reserved. This copy is intended for the original purchaser of this e-book ONLY. No part of this e-book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without prior written permission from the author. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.
eISBN: 978-1-947203-24-2
Editor: Kate Richards
Copy Editor: Nanette Sipe
Cover Artist: Sweet ’n Spicy Designs
Formatting by Wizards in Publishing
Published in the United States of America
Cara Bristol Website: http://carabristol.com
This e-book is a work of fiction. While reference might be made to actual historical events or existing locations, the names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Table of Contents
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Epilogue
Other Titles by Cara Bristol
Acknowledgements
A forbidden love forged by fyre…
Former Secret Service agent Henry Winslow comes to planet Draco to help a friend. He intends to return to Earth, but something about the mysterious woman in bridal white grabs him and won’t let him go. It’s a crazy, futile infatuation. She’s an alien dragoness, a priestess, and possibly literally divine. To pursue her would be playing with fyre…
After a devastating loss, dragon-shifter O’ne seeks vengeance at the temple of the Eternal Fyre. Unexpectedly, she is exalted to priestess and bonded to the sacred flame, transforming her life to one of duty and devotion. Then Henry arrives, and the mostly human man awakens her secret yearnings. To have anything to do with him would be playing with fyre…
Surrendering to temptation and passion, Henry and O’ne are about to discover when they play with fyre they might get burned.
* * * *
Don’t miss the fiery conclusion to the Alien Dragon Shifter series. Playing with Fyre can be read as a standalone, but the series is best read in order: Under Fyre, Line of Fyre, and Playing with Fyre.
PLAYING WITH FYRE
(Alien Dragon Shifters 3)
Cara Bristol
Prologue
The dragoness watched as the priestess slept. For eons they had moved in sync, two minds sharing one body, united in fyre and duty. Then he arrived.
The human interloper. He tempted the priestess, called to the vestiges of what used to be O’ne. He kindled a yearning. He weakened her.
H’ry. The dragoness snorted and expelled a puff of smoke and ire. That he had fyre mattered not. He was still human in all the worst ways.
O’ne had developed a fondness for the weak creatures of Earth after birthing a half-human child. But then she’d been exalted to priestess of the Eternal Fyre, becoming so powerful the mighty King K’rah quaked in awe. No lowly human male would jeopardize their status. The dragoness would not allow it!
The male showed no fear. No respect. Well, he would. Before he died, he would. With him gone, the priestess would return to her. They would unite in mind and fyre, and they would become more powerful.
Chapter One
The marble palace sprawled below, and Henry braced for the nosedive. His stomach plunged as the donatta swooped and landed outside Prince T’mar’s opulent residence. Before releasing him, she dug in her talons hard enough to make him wince but not so deep as to break the skin and eliminate the possibility it could have been an accident.
His assigned guardian loathed him. Few Draconians had warmed to him, but this one had been ordered to protect him. And, perhaps, to spy on him.
Draconians eyed him with suspicion, and he suspected the donatta reported his comings and goings to King K’rah. As a former CIA operative and member of the Secret Service, he recognized the signs of being under surveillance.
The dragons accepted him on sufferance because he was a friend of Princess Helena. Otherwise, they would have booted him back to Earth. Or fried his ass. Probably the latter.
Snorting smoke, the donatta flew away. He had no way to summon her to return to the human habitat, but he didn’t doubt she would appear at the right time. That she never failed to show up when he needed transportation proved he was being watched.
Henry straightened his clothing and took a drag from an inhaler to clear his lungs. In a rare occurrence, a volcano had erupted yesterday, and the resulting vog was toxic to humans. Draconians loved smoky, ashy air; they lived for it. The sky had been filled with dragons enjoying the Draconian version of a nice day. Had there been more days like this one, a crisis could have been avoided.
Sentries in demiforma, a half-shift between full dragon and man, stepped aside to let him pass through ornate gilded doors into a great hall where an inlay of jewels glittered in the marble floor. Bemusement struck him that he tromped over a fortune in precious stones.
“Henry! I’m so glad you could come.” Helena Marshfield greeted him with a welcoming smile.
“I had to rearrange my schedule, but I’m here,” he said drily. He’d been twiddling his thumbs at the human habitat. With the exception of resentful demiforma servants, he lived alone in a biounit constructed for hundreds. Knocking around the empty rooms of the transparent tubular structure left him bored and edgy.
His surly donatta flew him anywhere he wanted to go, but how many pointless treks could he make to the Temple of the Eternal Fyre?
Helena rounded a rosewood desk imported from Earth but stopped short of touching him. Old friends and former associates, they would have hugged, except male dragons were jealous creatures with acute olfaction. Prince T’mar would smell if they so much as shook hands. A smart man picked his battles. Ticking off a fire-throwing dragon over a greeting wasn’t worth the risk.
A titian-haired beauty with emerald eyes, Helena had the luck of a cat, managing to land on her feet in any adversity. As Earth’s former First Daughter, she’d been a popular political celebrity. When she’d run afoul of Jackson Biggs, a fixer inside the deep state, she’d fled Earth for Draco—and snagged herself a dragon prince.
Henry settled on her sofa, appreciating the familiar construction and upholstered comfort. His accommodations in the habitat, while well-appointed by Draconians’ standards, couldn’t compare to the furnishings he’d taken for granted on Earth—or to what Helena had in the palace. As doting as they were jealous, a dragon would do anything for his mate. If she liked furniture from her birth planet, then Prince T’mar would import the finest domestic accoutrements his treasure could buy.
Helena perched on the opposite sofa after offering him refreshments, which he declined.
“What’s up?” A hunch told him there was more to the meeting than a social invitation.
“Phase one of construction on Elementa has been completed, and King K’rah has ordered relocation to begin. A new geological report says the cooling of Draco’s core is accelerating, so the king believes the sooner they establish themselves on Elementa, the better off everyone will be. Draconians got a reprieve yesterday with the eruption, but the atmosphere grows more and more unhealthful for them.”
Dragons required heat, fire, and smoke to survive. Draco, which had sustained them for eons, was dying. Volcanoes had gone extinct, fires had extinguished, and the vog was clearing. It was leave or die.
After searching for millennia, explorers discovered Elementa, a volcanic planet very similar to what their home world used to be. However, relocation was no simple feat. Infrastructure had to be constructed, a population of millions had to be transported, and the sacred fyre had to be moved. And there was the small matter of the squatters. Earth’s government and corporations had snuck in and established colonies.
“Prince K’ev and Rhianna will remain on Draco and coordinate the emigration from here while T’mar and I go on to Elementa and facilitate the transition from that end.”
Henry straightened. “You’re leaving? When?”
“Day after tomorrow.”
“That’s…soon.”
She nodded. “I don’t want to leave you in the lurch,” she said. “You wouldn’t be here if not for me.”
“Don’t be silly. I’m a big boy, and I made my own decisions. I didn’t have to come to Draco, I chose to come.” He didn’t hold Helena responsible for anything that had happened. Patsy, his former partner, had asked him to join her in accompanying Helena to Draco. What he hadn’t known was that Patsy was a double agent who later had attempted to assassinate Helena. Patsy was dead now.
“Well, I don’t want to abandon you, so I spoke to T’mar, and we want to let you know what your options are.”
“Okay…”
“First, you can remain on Draco for the near to intermediate future. Since Rhianna will be here, she can run interference if you encounter any difficulties with the Draconians.”
“You don’t need to worry about me. I’ll be fine,” he reassured her, although he wasn’t as confident as he sounded. Dragons didn’t forgive easily. After Earth had double-crossed them and attempted to usurp the one planet that could sustain them, the hot-tempered Draconians needed little excuse or provocation to torch a human.
He liked to think he could take care of himself. By habit and training, he never went anywhere unarmed—not that most Earth weapons would be very effective against a flamethrower the size of a bus.
Helena and Rhianna were safe due to their connections—they’d mated to sons of the Draconian king.
“Option two—you could return to Earth,” she said.
“I can?” He hadn’t realized going home was a possibility. Resuming his life on Earth held great appeal, except for one downside: leaving O’ne. He’d encountered the priestess only once, but something about her had grabbed him in its jaws and refused to let go.
The infatuation couldn’t be more futile. Although she’d been cordial when they’d met, she had made no effort to seek him out since then, and the times he’d ventured into the temple in hopes of seeing her, she’d been absent—or had avoided him.
Not that he could blame her. She was the single most powerful being in all of Draco, and while he was unsure what her duties entailed, he assumed being priestess compared to being a nun. What kind of idiot mooned over a nun?
“Returning to Earth can be arranged, but I recommend against it,” Helena said. “I spoke to my father the other day. Biggs still hasn’t surfaced.”
Biggs, the president’s former advisor, had attempted to spark a war between Earth and Draco. When his machinations had been discovered, he had been taken into custody, but he’d killed the officer and escaped. Since Helena had been responsible for thwarting his plans, the lives of anyone who’d assisted her were in jeopardy. Until authorities recaptured him, he remained a significant threat. However, having dealt with men like Biggs his entire operative career, Henry wasn’t unduly worried.
“I would like to return to Earth,” he said.
Helena raised a hand. “Before you commit…a third option is for you to accompany me and T’mar to Elementa—to stay, indefinitely or permanently. My father has recalled all colonists and dismantled the habitats. With the humans gone, construction of the First City has been going like gangbusters. Most of the infrastructure has been completed, including a small palace for me and T’mar. There’s a separate guest wing modified for humans—which is where you would stay if you join us.”
“That is big—positive—news.” The Draconians had made great progress in the six short months since he, Helena, and Patsy had arrived. “So Draco’s claim on Elementa is free and clear?”
“Yes. So, will you come?”
“I thank you for the offer, but if it’s not too much trouble, I still wish to return to Earth. My future is there.” His parents and sister were there, although, for their safety, he couldn’t contact them. After his CIA cover had been blown, he’d been given a new identity. “It’s different for you. You’re mated to Prince T’mar. Rhianna is here, and you two are very close. You’ve established yourself in Draconian society. You have ties here.”
“You have ties,” she protested. “You have me!”
“And I appreciate your friendship tremendously. However, you need to focus on your mate and your royal duties. If I stayed, I’d become another responsibility. You have enough on your plate with the transition. Since the situation on Earth is more or less normal again, it’s best that I go back.”
With distance, maybe he could forget O’ne. Meet a nice woman and settle down in the suburbs. Have 2.3 kids. Get a dog.
Eventually that prospect might hold some appeal.
“Biggs is still on the loose,” she argued.
“He’s one man, and Earth is a populous planet. If he became a significant threat, I’m sure your father would see I received a new identity.” Another new identity. This was getting to be a habit.
She sighed. “All right. I accept your decision. I don’t like it, but I had a feeling you’d go that route. You’ll have to come with us to Elementa, and, from there, we can work out transportation to Earth, determine who will provide a ship, T’mar or my father.”
“Thank you. So, I need to be ready to leave Draco the day after tomorrow?”
“Yes.”
Curious, he asked, “How many Draconians will be moving to Elementa?”
“Only about five thousand in the first thunder.”
Only?
“The plan is to keep the first group small to work out any glitches in the relocation. We need this first trip to go smoothly to convince the doubters to leave. There’s a significant minority of dragons who are refusing to leave Draco. They’ve never seen Elementa, and they’re reluctant to leave the only home they’ve ever known. That’s another reason why it’s so important for a member of the royal family to set an example by being the first to relocate.”
On Earth, it took months to move tens of thousands of troops across the globe. The logistics to transport millions across the galaxy boggled his mind.
“Once the First City is settled, relocation will ramp up. The first thunder will expand the Elemental workforce, allowing housing and other infrastructure to be constructed faster, which will permit more Draconians to relocate, which will increase the workforce, etc., etc. The royal family will transition, along with the populace.”
There were enough Draconian royals to comprise a small town by themselves. King K’rah and his queen had eight children and dozens of granddragons in addition to siblings, nieces and nephews, aunts and uncles, and first, second, and third cousins.
“Wh
at about O’ne—the priestess?” he asked. “When does she move?” He’d met the woman once, for crying out loud. And she was a priestess. A dragoness. Why couldn’t he get over this inappropriate preoccupation?
Helena’s mouth quirked. “The answer to that question is above my pay grade—everyone’s pay grade. She’s not in the first thunder—that I know. Someday she will go, but when is anybody’s guess.”
“When she does move, what happens to the Eternal Fyre? Do they snuff it out and light a new one on Elementa?”
“Oh god, no!” Helena muffled a horrified laugh. “I’m sorry. I assumed you knew. While the Eternal Fyre manifests as a flame to the human eye, it’s not fire. Not exactly. It’s the collective of all their fyres. If anything happened to it, if it were to be extinguished, every single dragon would die. So, moving it from Draco to Elementa is a major and critical undertaking.”
“And they only have one priestess protecting it?” He was aghast.
“Twelve guardians protect her, and twelve novitiates are ready to step in if an unlikely tragedy did befall her. But it won’t. She commands powers the king doesn’t have. She’s held her position for more than 10,000 years.”
“You’re kidding.” He’d known she was out of his league, but this information floored him.
“Here’s another tidbit you might find interesting.” Helena paused. “Rhianna and I are remotely related to her.”
“What?”
“She’s like our five hundred times great-grandmother. While searching for a replacement planet, Draconian explorers crashed on Earth 10,000 years ago. The priestess, who was only an acolyte then, had gone with them. They were stranded for a while, and she got pregnant by a human man. A rescue ship came, but the other Draconians forced her to leave her daughter behind. Rhianna and I trace our ancestry to her.”
“So that’s why she calls you my child.”
