by Ophelia Bell
“All right. I’ll come back here on this same date in six years. I expect to hear that you delivered the message.”
She nodded and reached to the floor for her dress, tugging it swiftly over her head. When Marcus stood, she eyed his bulging crotch and gave him a small smile. “You can let me take care of you, too, if you would like. As a thank you for not capturing me?”
Marcus merely shook his head. “Six years,” he said again and walked out the door.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Marcus
Dragon Monastery, Sunda Islands
Present Day
Evie’s moans of climax reverberated in Marcus’s mind loud enough to make him aware of the renewed connection between himself and his savior. His fingers clenched, skin tingling at the phantom sensation of her tight channel and hot, wet fluids coating Ked’s fingers as they penetrated her.
It was as though Marcus was with her himself, doing these things to her, and he groaned out loud at the unmistakable ache that plagued his groin. He only ever got that hard around Evie, but there was a new aspect to his craving. Something inside him reached out, not for the connection with Evie, but for the man who Marcus was somehow inexorably linked to. Marcus wanted to thank him, and to tell him to take care of Evie, the way Marcus was unable to. He wanted something else, too, but the craving was new and alien to him. So alien he couldn’t quite process it, so he focused on the need to express his gratitude.
“I can hear you,” Ked’s already familiar, deep voice resonated in his mind. “Like I told you before, you are part of me now, so we can communicate at will. You can’t block me out if I don’t wish you to.”
“Then you have to know I’m through with this world. Please, let me die. My strength is gone, and she has you now. I’m at peace now that she’s safe.”
“You’ll regain your strength, if you are willing to live and let me help you,” Ked said.
Marcus didn’t want to hear more. With the force of the last vestiges of dark power he had possessed for fifty years, he cloaked his mind to block out the voice again. He could still sense Ked’s presence lingering in the shadows of his thoughts, but the black dragon thankfully stayed silent.
With Evie’s warmth lingering on his skin and her scent in his nostrils, Marcus closed his eyes and let himself revisit that night. The only night they’d had together in the fifty years of her captivity and his slavery to a brutal master.
* * *
He’d returned to the Shanghai night club six years to the day after his first visit, as promised. The blue dragon he’d convinced to carry his message was nowhere to be found.
Sitting at the bar, he ordered the same drink he’d ordered before and scowled around, seeking out the blue of her aura among the myriad flickering energies of the humans that filled the large room. He even scanned the opaque glass of the windows along the second floor, wondering if she lay hidden in one of the VIP suites above. His senses picked up other dragons, but none of their auras were familiar to him.
Fucking hell. Had she screwed him over after all?
Just when he was about to give up, an attractive, dark-haired man seated himself on the barstool to Marcus’s left.
“All the dragons in here are aware of your presence, Elite,” the man said in a low voice. “We’ve been expecting you.”
Marcus stiffened and set his gaze on the man’s face. “I hope they know better than to act. You don’t want the human patrons to find out what this meat market really is to you guys. Your choices would be exposure of your kind, or insanity for the humans in here.” His brows drew together as he studied the man’s somewhat familiar features. He wasn’t the person Marcus had hoped to meet, but he had to be related to the woman he’d given his message to. He had the same sleek, black hair, refined features, and vivid blue eyes, though his cheekbones were heavier, his jaw wider, and his eyes rounder.
“We’re not foolish enough to try to take you,” he said, his tone calm, but his tension betrayed by the rigid set of his shoulders. “Besides, I admit I’m curious why you entrusted my mother with such a valuable message. She gave up her last reserves of energy to ensure the message was delivered. Power that would have been my inheritance. In the end, I was the one who had to endure the scrutiny of the darkest black dragon in existence in order to fulfill my mother’s dying wish. You spared her, so she felt obligated to follow through, even after her death.”
“You’re her son. Of course.” Marcus had forgotten how significant the timing was. The woman would not have been able to wait for the Ascension. Each subsequent generation of dragons gave up their lives every five hundred years, leaving the last of their power as a legacy to their offspring. “How long has it been since she died?”
“A little over a year. We Ascended shortly after her death, and I came home to find her message.” The man let out a sigh and took a slow swallow of his drink. He cast his glimmering blue eyes to Marcus. “You’re one of them, but you’re not loyal. That makes me very curious. Care to explain why you entrusted my mother with your message?”
“I just need to know that it was delivered.”
The man’s jaw clenched and he stared down at his drink. “It was. I hope like hell the sacrifice we made to do so was worth it. The Void seemed particularly interested in the details when I delivered it. He told me…” The man’s eyes went foggy and he shivered. “He thanked me and said he would reward me once he retrieved the woman mentioned in the message.”
“Did he say when he would do it?” Marcus asked, agitated now that he knew his plan had worked.
“No, but shit was definitely happening when I left him. He and two other dragons—his brothers, I think—flew off faster than I could track. You do know who this guy was, don’t you? The fucking Void. If he wanted to, he could carve your mind out and leave you with nothing but an empty core, with your worst nightmare the only thing left behind for you to live with for eternity.”
Marcus gathered his power and raised his hand, prepared to show the man exactly how well he understood, but stopped himself. He lived with that void inside him already. He was weary of using it on others. Weary of carrying the burden himself and being forced to do precisely that to the myriad of victims his master had sent him and his brothers out to capture over the years. No. If Evie could be sent away to safety, he would stop, regardless of the torture he had to endure in the aftermath of her escape. And, God willing, he could actually die.
Marcus would love to meet this Void before he died, though. To curse him for his contribution to the last fifty years of purgatory he’d endured. To every dragon he’d met in the intervening years, his own power was considered a cosmic balance of a sort. No one questioned exactly why Marcus and his brothers had virtually the same powers as the dragons, even though they manifested theirs a little differently—through their palms as well as through the power of their lungs. But he knew the truth. For some reason, the trio of males the lower-ranked dragons revered as near-god-like were the reason for Marcus and his brothers’ very existence.
Marcus shut his eyes and laughed softly. He finished his drink and ordered another.
“I’m in the mood for a void of a different sort tonight, my friend,” he said to the man beside him. “I have a few hours before my brothers find me. I’m not at liberty to share my reasons for doing what I did, but if you get me drunk enough, details may slip. In the meantime, I’d love to hear more about your mother. She was a lovely woman.”
The man’s brow furrowed and a perplexed half-smile tugged at the corner of his lips. “You’re nothing like I expected for an Elite. In stature, certainly, but demeanor… you look hopeless.”
“Not for lack of trying,” Marcus said.
The man’s gaze drifted over his face slowly, cautiously, and Marcus caught a glint of something more curious and bold in those blue eyes. With a jolt, he remembered this was a dragon he was becoming far to
o relaxed beside. The fire of attraction in the man’s eyes made him realize he’d taken a bigger risk than he intended. He was still a Blessed, and this blue dragon before him wanted a taste as strongly as his mother had. The idea of giving in to someone else’s craving for his sex energized him, but not in the direction his companion might have hoped.
“I apologize,” he said, flinging cash onto the bar and standing. “I’d love to stay, but I just realized I have somewhere to be.”
* * *
Half a day later, he returned to the “dungeon,” as he liked to call it. He ignored Sterlyn and Naaz’s objections when he immediately headed down the hallway that held Evie’s cell at the end. Their master was due back within days, but Marcus wasn’t about to waste time now that he knew they were coming for her. He wanted just one night before she left him.
He paused outside her cell and closed his eyes, making an effort to gather his wits. He’d been too long apart from her, and his need overwhelmed his senses to the point that he couldn’t remember the key code that would let him into her room. When the keypad beeped and flashed angry red lights, he stared blindly at the message on the digital readout. “Biometric Scan Rejected,” was all it said. He mashed his thumb onto the tiny surface of the scanner and received the same message.
Marcus was on the verge of smashing his fist into the screen embedded flush into the wall in front of him, the little lights and messages taunting him. He needed to get to her.
“Hang on, brother,” Sterlyn said, gripping his shoulder tightly. “You’re not authorized to enter her room. But I am.”
Sterlyn leaned around him and tapped in his own code, then rested his thumb on the glowing surface.
The door clicked open.
Marcus relaxed slightly. “Thank you,” he said, giving Sterlyn a weary smile. He wished he could share what he’d done, but he supposed they probably already had an idea. If he could have helped them, he would have, but that would require a level of communication they weren’t at liberty to attempt, unless they liked being tortured.
Sterlyn had taken a risk by even helping him get into Evie’s cell just now. He wasn’t about to waste that. After she was rescued, he would spent the rest of his time here contriving ways to help the two of them get their loved ones out.
“She’s waiting for you in there,” Sterlyn said. “What the hell are you waiting for?”
“Not a damn thing,” Marcus thought, and strode in.
Evie stood mere feet from the door, her beautiful dark eyes wide, but cautious.
Marcus remembered the last time he’d seen her and the heartbreak in her eyes when he’d pushed her away.
“I’m not here to abandon you tonight, baby. I need my angel again. I need to hear you sing.”
He struggled to keep the finality of it out of his voice. This would be their last night together, if his plan had worked.
Her twitching eyebrows made him curse silently. She was irritated about something, but he didn’t know what.
He lowered his head and said, “I’m sorry. I don’t even know how to be with you now. You…”
“Marcus,” she said, interrupting him. “Look at me.”
He met her eyes. They were as deep, dark, and beautiful as he remembered, and filled with so many decades of longing.
“I knew you didn’t abandon me, so stop looking at me like you did.” She stepped closer and reached a shaky hand up, as though she were terrified to touch him.
God, he wanted her to. If her touch were the last thing he ever felt, he could die happy. She brushed her fingertips over his face and he closed his eyes. His entire being shifted in response to that contact, his body relaxing, his breath easing out of him in a slow surge.
She undid him with that touch. The first stage was simple relief, and understanding that she still wanted him. The second stage began when her touch turned hard and needy, her trailing fingertips turning to claws, hungrily pulling at the collar of his shirt, yanking him down until their mouths met.
Marcus embraced her, his entire body thrumming from the simple contact, his cock alive from her hot kiss. She let out a resonant moan as their lips slid together and her tongue ventured deeper. She tasted the same as he remembered. Like heaven had opened up and rained down all the power of grace and love on his tongue.
His mind clouded with lust and he was only half aware of his actions as he undressed her. He reveled in the hot, silky smoothness of her skin, and she moaned so softly when he pulled her shirt off over her head. He bent to capture a nipple in his mouth as he wrapped his hands around her tiny waist, pushing her back toward the poor excuse for a bed she’d been given all these years.
Her pants came off in a blur of frantic need. He had to have her naked. In the next second, he’d undressed himself and their limbs were entwined on the bed, hot skin sliding together, every increment of contact rousing his desire further.
“Jesus, Evie, I missed you.”
“Don’t fucking talk, all right? We don’t have time.”
She pushed him down against her flat pillows and straddled his hips. Her face was alight with primal hunger, her eyes flashing with desire. She dug her fingernails into his chest and he believed she wanted to draw blood. To punish him for his absence from her.
But she didn’t. All she did was lift her hips and press the hot, wet opening of her cunt against his throbbing tip. She lingered there, her eyes on his, as she teased him around in those delicious folds of heat.
Finally, Evie closed her eyes and relaxed down, sinking so slowly onto him he could believe time had slowed down in those stretched out moments.
When she engulfed him, she opened her eyes and his heart almost stopped at the overwhelming sense of love and devotion that lay in those chestnut depths.
She was his entire life, and making sure she had a life was his personal mission. He’d fucked it up for long enough, and now that he’d finally fixed it, he let himself rejoice in her once again.
“Let me see your wings, baby,” he said. “You hid them from me the first time. I want to make love to an angel…” He trailed off, about to add, “…before I die,” but not wanting to alarm her in the moment.
Evie gave him a sultry smile. “I will. Just be patient.”
Being patient involved letting her fuck him so slowly he thought he’d lose his mind. She’d always loved savoring the things that gave her the most pleasure. On every date they had, she’d eat the meal with such devoted attention to every bite it drove him mad. Even a simple orange could take her half an hour to finish, the way she took her time, peeling it and segmenting it, pausing to enjoy the scent of the rind before taking the first bite of a wedge. She’d let the juice pool in her mouth and hum a little song for just that first taste. He loved interrupting her snacks because her enjoyment aroused him so much.
Evie had the same look now and he groaned in anticipation, but loved it just the same.
Her muscles tightened around him and she let out a soft sigh. She remained seated on him and opened her eyes.
“I just want to feel you again. It’s been so long.”
Her tight, hot muscles quivered around him. He wanted so badly to just fuck her, but he restrained himself.
“I missed you, too,” Marcus said. “So much.” He gripped her hips and squeezed, hoping to urge her movement. God, he needed her to fuck him, but she just rested there, her muscles clenching around him and her eyes closed, her head tilted back slightly.
He slid his hand between them and found her swollen, exposed clit. He stroked the slick bud gently, coaxing her to give him permission to do more.
“Yes,” she murmured and rose up on his shaft. The friction made his head spin.
She sank back down and he pressed his thumb harder against her bundle of hardened flesh.
Evie opened her eyes and stared at him, seemingly amazed at his presence.
“It’s really you,” she said. She looked near to tears when she said the words. “I missed you so much. They weren’t enough to make me feel whole, but you are.”
She clutched his hand where it rested between her legs, at the junction where their bodies met. Her fingers pushed his harder against her pulsing nub and he rubbed, enjoying the way her eyes fluttered closed.
“Fuck me, please,” he whispered. He sat up, craving more contact, and bent his knees, enveloping her in his arms. His hands slid up her back and paused at the unusual eruptions on the backs of her shoulders.
“Don’t think about it too much,” she said. “I haven’t manifested them in a long time, so I need a bit of a push to get them out.”
“A push like this?” Marcus said, thrusting up into her and smiling.
Evie gasped and clutched at his shoulders. “Yes. Do that a lot more, please.”
He did, gripping her ass and shoving into her over and over. Evie arched her back and he bent his head to tease his tongue over her breasts, one by one. He wanted to see her wings again, but more than anything he simply wanted to feel that perfect surge of power that flowed between them when they came. He hadn’t understood it the first time it happened, but now that he knew what it was, he craved it.
“I love you so much,” Evie murmured as she clung to him, one hand tangled in his hair and the other gripping hard at his shoulder to steady herself.
Her body quivered even as she bucked her hips hard, fucking him. He looked into her eyes and saw the extent of the torture she’d endured, but the hard edge softened with recognition.
A second later, her eyelids shut and she began to sing.
Marcus came hard inside her, his pulsing orgasm keeping time with the song coming from Evie’s throat. He pressed his face into her shoulder and waited out the tremors of his orgasm, enjoying the sound of her voice rising high into the stale air of her prison. His eyes opened for a second, then widened at the sight of feathers before him.
