by Cara Bristol
“O’ne!” H’ry shouted.
The Eternal Fyre erupted, bursting out of her in a thundering blaze.
“Noooo!” H’ry dove in front of her as Biggs’s weapon discharged with a deafening report.
The blast hit him dead center in the chest and threw his body across the sanctuary to slam into the wall. He crumpled into a motionless heap.
H’ry…H’ry… She collapsed, wracked by agony and grief. Her son had killed her mate! H’ry had died for her, taking the blast meant for her.
She tried to shift, to release the dragoness, but her powers had been spent by the rebirth. Weeping, clawing the floor, she dragged herself toward her mate’s body.
Overhead, the Eternal Fyre roared and spun in a vortex toward L’yla, who reached out with open arms and mouth and drew the sacred flame into the shelter of her body.
Biggs fired at her, but the shot missed and bounced off the wall. He tore an egg-shaped object from his belt.
L’yla’s eyes glowed amber with power. Flames shot from her fingertips, the streaks of fire merging and swelling into a huge fireball that engulfed Biggs.
In seconds, nothing remained of her son but ash.
O’ne crawled to H’ry’s body.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Pain. Burning. Noise. Pressure. The awful smell of charred flesh. Henry peeled his eyelids open to find O’ne draped across him, weeping but alive. But not for long, if he didn’t get up. Where was Biggs now? What was he doing?
“Biggs…” He struggled to rise. He felt like he’d been punched by a battering ram.
O’ne went rigid then sprang to a crouched position. “H’ry?” She gaped like she didn’t believe her eyes.
“In the flesh. More or less,” he groaned and tried to get up.
“Stay here.” She pressed a hand against his chest.
He sucked in a sharp breath. “Biggs—I have to stop him.”
“He’s dead. I killed him.” An acolyte stepped forward. “The guardians killed the other twelve who were with him.”
He fell back onto the floor in relief, but his heart could ache now for O’ne who’d lost a child just as she’d found him. Biggs would have killed her and everyone else. Henry covered her hand and held it against his chest, which still hurt like a motherfucker. But why wasn’t he dead? The blaster had hit him dead-on.
“I had no choice,” the woman deadpanned with a blank expression, but he caught a whiff of regret.
“I would have killed him myself if I could have. You did the right thing, L’yla—I mean, Priestess,” O’ne replied.
Thank god L’yla had done the deed and not O’ne. Biggs needed to die, but no mother should be forced to kill her own offspring. “I’m glad it wasn’t you—whoa, wait…what do you mean priestess?” His gaze ping-ponged between the two women, his senses belatedly absorbing the aura around L’yla—and the lack of one around O’ne.
“The sacred flame released me from my obligation and exalted L’yla.” Her lips curved with a beatific smile. “I am free, my mate.”
Call him cynical, but he doubted the Eternal Fyre had intended to do her any favors. More likely, it had jumped out of her in an act of self-preservation. If she had died, the Eternal Fyre would have died with her—along with every Draconian.
“So, you’re not the keeper of the sacred flame anymore?” he verified.
“No.” She shook her head happily.
He peered up at the empty ceiling. “So, where is it?” he whispered.
She shifted her gaze to L’yla.
He widened his eyes. “Oh…”
“Temporarily. The rebirth ritual must occur.” L’yla glanced pointedly at H’ry. “You cannot be present at the ceremony. You must go back to the palace.” She turned to O’ne. I know you desire to accompany him, but we must have a circle of twelve. There is no time to anoint and train a replacement.”
“Of course, I’ll assist,” O’ne agreed and smiled apologetically at H’ry. “I’ll come to the palace as soon as the sacred flame is rebirthed.”
“Do what you need to do. We have a lifetime to be together now.” He rolled to his feet. His inhaler had melted into a blackened lump, and the fabric of his shirt had fused to the pendant underneath.
He peeled off the fabric and tugged the gleaming diamond out of his ruined clothing. Starbursts of light sparked off the diamond, still gleaming even though bits of fabric were stuck to it. “The plasma blast hit the diamond!” He rubbed his sore chest. He was bruised from the force of impact but otherwise fine.
“Draconian safryres attract and deflect energy,” O’ne said.
“I have called for your donatta to deliver you to the palace and instructed her to bring you another inhaler,” L’yla said. “While you await your mate, please inform the prince the defiler of the first temple has met with a rightful end, but there are other humans on the planet. There are good ones, and there are bad ones. He will need to sort them out.”
“Of course…Priestess,” he replied.
“I will grant you a moment,” she said to both of them. Then she turned and left the sanctuary, followed by the eleven. A bemused smile curved O’ne’s lips. “She would not have been the one I would have picked to succeed me, but that is why the Eternal Fyre does the choosing. Already she grows into the role faster than I did.”
“It must be awkward to defer to your former, uh, understudy,” he said.
“On the contrary, it is the answer to a prayer.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
O’ne slipped into the pool room where H’ry swam, unaware of her presence. His clothing lay piled on the floor, a knife sheath poking out from beneath his shirt. After the attack at the temple, she doubted he’d ever venture anywhere unarmed. Bending, she picked up the leather case and slapped it against her palm before extracting the blade.
She ran her thumb along the dagger’s gleaming edge. Eons ago, similar weapons had been used on Earth, but chiseled from stone, those knives hadn’t been nearly as sharp as H’ry’s modern one.
He continued to crawl through the water with bold, smooth strokes. My mate, she thought with gratitude and thankfulness. They shared a future now. But how could one embrace the future while still clutching remnants of the past?
The time had come to let go. With the dagger, she sliced and sawed away the ancient ties, old hurts, and bitter regrets, leaving her feeling lighter, unfettered, free. When the deed was done, she laughed as she shook her head.
“Oh my god! What did you do? Your hair! You cut your hair!” H’ry stood in the pool, gaping at her.
“A little trim.” She stood among yards of hair puddled at her feet and shook her head again, reveling in the carefree swing and lightness of her new waist-length tresses. Maybe she’d cut more later. She’d try this and see how she liked it.
She dropped her dress atop her hair and eased into the water. “I will never forget my daughter, but remembering does not mean I must continue to suffer. Her fyre lives in me and in her descendants. I’d vowed not to cut my hair until all my children returned to me. I now realize I can never reunite with them all, and, as Jackson Biggs showed, even if they return, they may still be lost to me.
“If I am to live, I must let go. I don’t want to squander the future by clinging to the past.” She waded toward her mate. “I didn’t become priestess to serve but to avenge. If I hadn’t sought to hurt those who’d wronged me, I never would have gone to the temple upon returning to Draco, and I wouldn’t have been exalted. But then I wouldn’t have met you or known Helena and Rhianna.”
She stopped in front of him. Water had darkened his hair, plastered it to his scalp. Her vision riveted on a single droplet trickling down his muscular chest. The bruise had darkened. He’d had such a close call. Giving him the safyre had been an impulsive act, a selfish desire to leave her mark, to ensure he would think of her when he met the woman who would give him children.
Now she realized the woman of her vision whose face she’d been unable to see had been her. H’r
y’s future had been their future.
“Maybe the reunion with your children was all part of the Eternal Fyre’s plan,” he suggested.
“Perhaps it was.” She shook her head, not to disagree but to revel in the new freedom. Even soaked, her shorter hair felt unbelievably light. Then she leveled a stern gaze on him.
“You saved my life. You took the blaster hit meant for me.”
With a sheepish smile, he tipped an imaginary hat. “All in a day’s work, ma’am.”
She was not amused. “Don’t ever do that again.”
His expression turned serious in an instant. “I can’t and won’t promise that.”
She glared.
“You’ll just have to promise not to put yourself in danger.”
That she couldn’t do. She might have to accept a standoff. “You’re really okay?”
He rubbed his chest and then fingered his skull. “Got a pretty bruise and a heck of a goose egg, but I feel great. Alive is great!” He flashed a tummy-curling grin. “Why are you standing all the way over there?”
She melted into his arms, hugged his waist, and kissed his chest.
“The diamond, uh, safyre is in my room. I don’t wear it when I swim. I need to give it back to you.”
“No, it’s yours. I wanted you to have it.”
“A parting gift. But now we’re not parting.”
“All the better!” She smiled up at him.
He grinned back and then said, “You were gone longer than I had expected. I started to get worried something had gone wrong.”
“L’yla had to perform the rebirth ceremony from the beginning. Afterward, she sought my counsel. Even when one desires to serve, one cannot be fully prepared for the enormity of the responsibility, but she is adapting well and fast. Her fyre burns true and pure. She will be very, very powerful—more than I ever was.”
“The Eternal Fyre is where it needs to be?”
She nodded. “The sacred flame burns in the consecrated temple.”
“And you don’t have any more official duties?”
“None.” She rubbed her cheek against his chest, appreciating the tactile sensation of his wet skin against her face. How she’d longed for this, to be held, to be cossetted by a mate. She hugged him tighter.
“So you’re not a demigod anymore?” he teased.
“Just a dragon.”
A mighty dragoness capable of decimating a foe in a single breath, the dragoness said.
“Glad you still have the magic touch.” He chuckled.
She giggled and then asked, “Were you able to speak to Prince T’mar? What happened with the other humans?”
“They were apprehended. Once T’mar knew they were underground, they were easy to find, and they surrendered without a fight. Biggs’s people had watched on monitors as the temple guardians slew his enforcers. The poor bastards never had a chance. The remaining employees will be deported to Earth. A few, surprisingly most of the women, have asked to remain, and he’ll review their requests.”
“A lot happened. I wasn’t gone that long!”
“Well, Prince T’mar acted fast.” His eyes gleamed. “And you’re here now.”
“Now and forever…”
“Speaking of which, if you’re no longer priestess, does that mean you—we—won’t live forever?”
“Only tens of thousands of years.”
“We don’t have much time, then.” He kissed her. She sighed into the embrace, savoring the feel of his lips on hers, her fyre flaring, snapping, and crackling, seeking union. Against her abdomen, his cock hardened, and she slipped her hand down to caress him.
He lifted his head. A wicked glint lit his gaze. “Lady, you do know how to light my fyre.”
Epilogue
Two years later
Wake up! Wake up! The dragoness’s raspy voice infiltrated into Henry’s slumber.
What it is? What time is it? His gaze darted around the bedroom of the new palace constructed for him and O’ne. His mate lay asleep beside him, her hand curled under her cheek.
F’iery is at it again.
Henry sprang out of bed. Enough morning light drifted through the skylight for him to see a wisp of smoke drift up from the bassinette. He dashed to the crib in time to see his baby daughter shift from dragon into demiforma. Charred spots darkened the sheets where she’d lit fires.
No fires, F’iery. No fires. He pushed a mind link to the baby, unsure if she understood—or if she understood but ignored. F’iery blinked innocent blue eyes and flashed a grin, all gums, except for two recently-erupted tiny fangs.
Raising a precocious baby dragoness was no easy task.
He lifted her out of the bassinette. A year old now, she’d been born in demiforma with tiny little horns on a ridged head covered by wispy red hair. Although it might change as she matured, her skin was smooth and unscaled until she shifted—which she shouldn’t have been able to do yet. Except she could. And did. Frequently.
Hence, she required round-the-clock supervision. Fortunately, they had a ready nanny in the dragoness who kept watch so they could catch some sleep.
His mate sat up and rubbed her eyes. “What did F’iery do now? Did she fly out of the nest, or is she playing with fire again?”
“Fire,” he replied as the baby chortled. She was so damn cute! Why wouldn’t she be? She took after her beautiful mother.
“F’iery!” O’ne chided and reached for their daughter.
He placed the baby in her mother’s arms.
“What are we going to do with you?” she said.
Can I go to sleep now? I’ve been up all night, the dragoness groused.
Go to sleep, he and O’ne replied. Thank you, he added, but she had already drifted off.
“I don’t know what we’d do without our dragonanny,” he said.
She snorted and rocked F’iery, who grabbed ahold of her mother’s shoulder-length hair.
Henry frowned. “You don’t think she’s helpful?”
She peered over the baby’s head. “Who do you think taught F’iery to throw fireballs?”
“She did?”
“Yep.”
“Son of a dragon! I don’t feel so guilty about keeping her up all night then.”
“To be fair, she didn’t realize F’iery would attempt it on her own.” She cradled the baby whose eyelids had begun to droop. “Dragons mature slowly and don’t gain the ability to shift until they’re much, much older. It was our good fortune to have a daughter who is advanced for her age,” she said with a mother’s pride and kissed the baby’s head.
“I wonder if junior will be the same.” He palmed her rounded belly. If the little boy dragon she was expecting was advanced like his sister, they’d have their hands full times two.
“Probably. You should be prepared.”
“I guess it’s to be expected when the mother is the former priestess of the Eternal Fyre.”
“I don’t have any special powers anymore.” She gave him a sidelong glance and teased, “Perhaps our children’s abilities are derived from your fyre.”
“I doubt that. Have you given more thought as to what to name our son?” he asked.
“No, have you?”
“Actually, yes. What about B’laze?”
“I like it!”
“You really don’t miss being priestess, do you?” She’d been demoted to just another dragon—although she would never be just anything to him.
She managed to cradle the baby with one hand and cup his cheek with the other. “Nothing could fulfill me more than what I have now.” Her happy scent, a vanilla-like aroma, reminded him of fresh-baked cookies. After losing her powers, she’d begun exuding emotional scents, and, since their mating and the strengthening of his fyre, his olfaction had improved. He kissed her palm.
“L’yla is doing an admirable job,” she said. “She’s taken a far greater secular role than I ever did.”
“It’s amazing she got King K’rah to sign the treaty with E
arth and deed over Draco.”
“Prince T’mar and Prince K’ev argued strongly in favor, but I’m sure her opinion tipped the balance. L’yla came to understand humans and their motivations during her freedom furlough. I think she would like to see an alliance between our two planets.”
“That would be wonderful,” he said fervently. There had been so many false starts. Perhaps the fact that the governments of both planets kept trying to reach out to the other indicated an alliance was meant to be.
All the Draconians had relocated to Elementa, which had been renamed New Draco. Giving up their barely habitable planet represented no great sacrifice, but it meant a lot to Earth, which could mine it for precious metals, minerals, oil, and other natural resources.
O’ne rubbed her belly. “By the time B’laze is born, passenger flights to Earth may be resumed. Maybe you’d like to go home for a visit?”
“Wherever you are is home,” he replied. “I do still have friends on Earth. It might be nice to drop in.” Maybe he could see his family. He’d always suspected Biggs had been responsible for blowing his cover when he was in the CIA, and, with him out of the picture, maybe a visit would be possible. He’d send out feelers into the intel community.
“F’iery and B’laze should see their father’s planet, their roots,” she said.
“Sounds like a plan, then,” he replied.
“I have another plan.”
“Oh?”
She settled the sleeping dragonling into his arms. “Why don’t you put F’iery in her nest and come to bed so we can heat up the sheets?” A cinnamon scent he associated with sex drifted on the air as she waggled her eyebrows.
“Playing with fyre. I like it.” He pressed a hot kiss to her mouth. “Back in a flash!”
* * * *
Thank you for reading Playing with Fyre, the final book of the Alien Dragon Shifters series. I hope you enjoyed it and will consider leaving a review to let other readers know about the book. If you missed Under Fyre (book 1) or Line of Fyre (book 2), the blurbs to those books are below. Finally, I have an excerpt from my new series, Alien Castaways. There are/will be six books in that series: Chameleon, Wingman, Psy, Shadow, Inferno, and Tigre.
