Which she told me not ten seconds later.
“That was amazing!” she said excitedly. “Why don’t I have to do that everywhere?”
I explained the basics to her, and she nodded.
“So this is all the time for you?” she asked, pushing the door open.
I nodded.
“I’ve gotten to the point where the images and information cycle into my mind, into a different compartment than my normal thoughts take place,” I said, walking through the door behind her and turning on the light. “You’ll get to that point too, I’m sure. You’ve already partially taken on my habits, at least when it comes to the powers. You know me, and when you learn something new by touching something of mine, you process it and forget about it almost as fast as it happens. Kind of like the DNA. I see it but I don’t ‘see it.’ Not unless I’m actively telling my brain to process the information.”
“Hmm,” she said, looking around the room.
There wasn’t much to the inside just like the outside.
It was a one-bedroom open styled floor plan. One side of the large room was the kitchen, where we were currently located. The other side housed a bed and wardrobe, as well as a bathroom behind a curtain.
The single window that led to the outside was worn and needed to be thrown away and replaced.
The lighting, however was atrocious. The lamps that were inside were dull, and barely lit the room.
But one of the benefits I’d acquired from Mace was sharper than normal eyesight.
I could see in the dark, which meant that Wink could see in the dark now, too.
Something that she realized when she headed into the room and automatically walked to the string that would turn the light on.
“I can see in the dark,” she said, sounding only mildly surprised.
“Yep,” I confirmed.
“I wanted superhuman strength,” she said.
I snorted.
“So did I,” I said. “But, as you can see, I only get what I’m gifted with. Alaric, one of the other dragon riders who you haven’t met yet, has strength like you’re speaking of. He can do just about anything strength wise, but that’s all he can do.”
“Hmm,” she said. “I’ll have to weigh the benefits.”
She looked around the room while I walked up to the table that Brooklyn had been tied down to, and placed my fingertip on it.
It was a hack I’d grown accustomed to using when I was wary of seeing something that might overwhelm me.
When I was younger and still trying to control my powers, I’d learned to be careful about what I touched, because if I wasn’t, I’d be lost in the memories without my conscious desire to do so.
I’d had to come up with an adaptive technique in the instance that I needed to be aware of my surroundings, but also needing to read something.
The less skin that’s touching the object you’re trying to read, means the less information dump you get.
Doing it the way I did it with the fingertip meant I could control how fast the memories came at me so I could pay attention as well.
Wink watched me work, then did the same thing I was doing.
“Force the memories into your box,” I instructed. “Form the box with your mind, and then funnel them into the box, but also pay attention to me at the same time. Okay?”
She pursed her lips and watched me.
“Working?” I asked her.
She nodded.
“What do you see?” I asked her.
“Pain. Brooklyn. She was in pain,” she whispered.
I nodded.
“Her brother. That’s the male you see in the picture. He teamed up with the purists—religious zealots that didn’t think anything but humans should live on Earth—and tried to lure Nikolai here using Brooklyn,” I informed her.
She nodded.
“I can see,” she confirmed. “There’s another male in the background, but I can’t get a sense of him.”
I nodded.
“That’s the man I think can hide his aura. His signature,” I said. “I can feel him, too, but I can’t get a definite identity on him like I can with everyone else.”
She picked her hand up and walked to the chair in the corner, following the same process I’d just showed her.
I followed her lead and started touching random objects as well, but ended up with the same results each and every time.
“Damn,” Wink said. “I was really hoping you’d get something.”
I nodded my head and walked to the door, opening it for her.
“I have to go on patrol within an hour,” I informed her. “I need to get you home.”
“Patrol?” she asked. “Do you do that every night?”
I nodded my head and switched the light off as I walked outside, closing the door behind us as we left.
“I do,” I confirmed. “Usually it’s more equally split within the ranks of the dragon riders, but Alaric, Ford, and Dorian have been sent to separate areas to protect them from a possible threat, and haven’t been back to share the burden.”
“Ouch,” she said. “Why do they need to protect the other places?”
“There are six hearts spread out over the United States; each heart contains the life force that the dragons need to stay alive. Each dragon has to stay within two hundred square miles of each heart, or they’ll start to age like any mortal being,” I explained. “We have to protect these places, otherwise our dragons could die off, and in turn, so could we.”
“What exactly do you mean by ‘heart?’” she asked, reaching for the hand I offered her.
Hand in hand, we both walked to where Mace was eating apples off a nearby tree.
“The heart is what I would call an ‘energy field’,” I explained. “It gives the dragons the fuel they need to fly and perform their special abilities. We also found out, not too long ago, that the heart could also heal. It healed Nikolai when he was hurt and Brooklyn took him there. It also healed Blythe when she lost too much blood after having the twins.”
“Oh,” she said. “Brooklyn and Blythe explained a little about what happened today while I was up in their room. Just before…you know.” She pointed to her eye.
My teeth ground together.
“What?” I asked, running my fingers over the raised tattoo.
“I found something out this afternoon, and I’ve been trying to work up the courage to ask you about it,” she blurted.
I blinked. “Okay.”
“It’s about this,” she said, fingering her own neck now. “The ladies told me a few things about the tattoos, and they said ours were different than theirs.”
She licked her lips with nervousness.
She said, “What I gathered from Blythe was that the book says that if we’re truly mated, then your powers should’ve disappeared for three days. The powers that were allotted to me will remain, but we’ll both share the ones you got from Mace.” She shrugged. “You’ll be able to hear mind speak with me, as well as Mace, and when we first mate, then our life forces will become one, and a tattoo will appear somewhere on our bodies.” She brought her hand up to her neck.
“We haven’t,” she cleared her throat. “We haven’t done it, so why do I have this?”
I smiled at her use of ‘done it’ and tried to keep the smile from overtaking my face.
“By ‘done it’ you mean have sex?” I teased.
She glared at me.
Grinning, I explained my theory. “My theory is just that, a theory, okay?” At her nod, I continued, “I think that, since we spent so much time together, that when you were in danger, our mating was changed. For Blythe and Keifer, they had to mate to solidify their bond.”
She nodded, and then moved her hand in a continuous motion.
“For Nikolai and Brooklyn, their bond was forged by danger. If whatever bond we have with each other senses danger, then I believe that fate takes the reins in its h
ands and forces us together to keep each other safe. In your case, when I was around you and you encountered the dead chick, whatever bond we had solidified and forced our hand, so to speak,” I expounded.
She licked her lips, then nodded. “And the tattoos?”
I grinned at that.
“I don’t know,” I admitted. “The others are all tribal in design. Ours is…not.”
She snorted. “That, I can tell. Do you know how many people will look at you like you’re an abusive asshole?”
I shrugged. “I’m sure they’ll get over it.”
She rolled her eyes.
“Let’s go,” she growled. “I’m hungry, and you have dragon work to do.”
Twenty minutes later, when we arrived at the house, Wink turned to me and stared at me oddly, her eyes fixated on my neck.
“What?” I asked.
“I’m kind of glad,” she whispered.
“Glad about what?”
“Glad that ours are different than theirs.”
With that she left to run up the stairs, leaving me in a state of arousal that I wasn’t sure Mace would much appreciate having pressed against his back.
Meaning, I was thirty minutes late, pissing off Jean Luc in the process.
“You’re late, mon ami,” Jean Luc growled.
“Embrasse moi tchew,” I growled.
Jean Luc laughed and flipped me off before he disappeared into the night.
I smiled as I remembered the first time I’d said that to Jean Luc.
Embrasse moi tchew meant ‘kiss my ass’ in Cajun French, and I’d gone out of my way to ask an old lady at a New Orleans style restaurant phrases and exactly how to pronounce them in order to say them to Jean Luc and surprise him.
He thought I was simple.
I wasn’t. I just didn’t want to talk.
Nobody could understand that I preferred to spend my time alone.
Well, I used to.
Now I kind of wanted to spend my time with a certain strawberry blonde haired wild child who kept me on my toes.
I’d admired her from afar for far too long. Getting to speak to her now, instead of watching her, was huge to me. I didn’t want to spend my entire night on watch. I wanted to spend it in my bed…with her.
The entire shift I was patrolling I was in a bad mood, and an hour and a half before dawn, when Derek finally showed up for his shift, I was so beyond a good mood that it was almost comical.
“Finally,” I muttered, walking away before I could give Derek a chance to settle.
Derek’s annoyed curse had me wanting to laugh, but I was too fucking tired to be indulgent.
Everything ached, too.
Mace, for once, didn’t fly me out of the way to get to my house. He flew me straight there, and I couldn’t help but say ‘thank you’ the moment I dropped off his side.
You’re welcome.
The moment I hit my front stoop, I unlocked the door with the keypad, punched in the code to halt the alarm, and closed and relocked the door.
Once I was inside, I rearmed the alarm, and quickly walked to the kitchen to down a glass of water.
I was careful to be as quiet as I possibly could, unwilling to wake up Wink if it wasn’t absolutely necessary.
I got into my room and was stripping out of my clothes when I realized being quiet had been all for naught when I saw Wink sitting up in bed, reading.
“You’re reading?” I asked. “Do you realize it’s nearly five in the morning?”
She nodded.
“I found a good book to read,” she admitted as she clicked a button on the side of her electronic device and set it on top of my nightstand. “Why are you so late?”
“Derek decided he wanted to show up an hour late,” I muttered, starting on my pants.
Wink watched me undress without a word, even going as far as to pull the covers back to allow me entrance.
The minute my pants dropped, she gasped, and I smiled.
“By the way,” I said as I slid in beside her. “I didn’t wear underwear.”
Chapter 9
Surprise sex is the best thing to wake up to…unless you’re in prison.
-Fact of Life
Wink
By the time six o’clock rolled around, I gave up trying to sleep.
How I ever thought I’d be able to with a naked man in the same bed as the one I was in was beyond me.
I rolled to my stomach and lifted up onto my elbows, my eyes taking in all that was Ian.
He was a fitful sleeper, and by fitful, I mean terrible.
His arms and legs were everywhere, and I’d never seen someone sleep so restlessly.
I thought I was bad with my legs moving.
Ian was by far the worst. He slept like he was awake. Constantly, he’d move, twitch, strike out, and sometimes even speak.
His words at first hadn’t made much sense, but after listening to him for the last two hours, I’d decided that Ian needed to talk to someone. Maybe multiple someones.
His first incoherent words were about a person named Mattie.
Mattie was apparently in danger somehow, but I’d yet to figure out how.
I’d gained over the last hour that Mattie was Ian’s long lost sister. She was his exact opposite in complexion, and she had a dog named Judy.
Judy had died right along with their parents.
That last part I’d gathered through some fucked up connection that Ian and I had.
At first I hadn’t realized what I was doing, but it didn’t take long to figure out I was reading him, somehow, by my hand placed on his.
His words and meanings had become clearer the moment I’d placed his hand into mine, and had stayed clear until I’d dropped his hand twenty minutes ago.
In the last twenty minutes, he was as restful as I’d ever seen him.
And it was eerie since the last two had been anything but.
I’d gone back to reading my book I’d put down when he came in and had done a fantastic job at ignoring the world around me.
Until that last twenty pages I’d read that depicted the most realistic sex scene I’d ever read in my life.
Now I was hot, horny, and lying next to the world’s sexiest man.
A man who’d kicked off the covers and was lying, in all his naked glory, right next to me.
I’d at first been reclining against the headboard, but had quickly changed positions when I realized how easy it was to see Ian’s cock.
When I’d changed positions, I’d laid on my belly and had propped my Kindle up against the headboard, but quickly halted when Ian’s big, huge, sexy body rolled over and pinned me to the bed.
Now I’d been lying in exactly the same spot for way too long, and I had what amounted to a proverbial flood in between my thighs.
With nothing else to do, I read, and continued reading until I hit about halfway through the first sex scene of the book.
I’d stopped because Ian’s cock had started to rise.
The moment I’d shifted, he’d rolled, exposing that long, thick member to my curious eyes.
And I’d died.
Or, at least, it felt like I had.
I’d been with three men in my life, and none of them had a cock like Ian’s.
Ian’s would make a porn star proud, and it was a cock that should be molded so that tens of thousands of dildos could be produced in its likeness to memorialize its magnificence.
Yes, it was that good.
Slightly more tan than the rest of him, his cock was long—nearly nine inches or more if my guess was correct—and as thick as my wrist.
Granted, my wrist was on the daintier side, but the man’s cock was anything but dainty.
He wasn’t Coke can thick, but I’d definitely say it was beer bottle thick.
That thing would be a brute getting inside of me, especially since I’d never experienced anything quite like Ian’s cock.
“Are you going to stop staring one of these days and actually do something about what you’re feeling?” Ian asked, amusement tinging his words.
My eyes shifted over to his face, and I blushed profusely as I realized he was awake and watching me.
“It’s like a train wreck,” I breathed.
“What makes you compare my dick to a train wreck?” he questioned, leaning up slightly onto his elbows.
I licked my lips involuntarily and replied with, “Because I can’t help but look at it. Just like when you pass a train wreck. You can’t help but look despite knowing that you shouldn’t.”
“What makes you say you shouldn’t be looking?” he persisted.
I cleared my throat and leaned forward, scooting until our thighs touched.
“It’s a bad idea to make this even more complicated than it already is,” I said, my hand reaching forward.
He leaned forward as well, and soon I found myself with a handful of Ian’s cock.
His hot…soft…silky… pulsing …cock.
I licked my lips again, and out of the corner of my eye I saw Ian’s eyes become hooded.
“Fucking is not going to make this any more complicated,” Ian said, his voice rough with something I couldn’t place quite yet. “In fact, it might very well uncomplicate this.”
I leaned forward, and suddenly found myself on my knees, my mouth only inches from the tip of him.
My eyes found his, and I just…gave up.
Stretching my tongue out, I licked the small drop of pre-come that beaded at the top, wondering idly whether it would taste good.
I’d had bad experiences with the taste of come, and to my pleasant surprise, Ian tasted scrumptious.
I swallowed his cockhead whole, and closed my eyes as a moan slipped out of my throat.
Ian’s large cock trapped the moan before it could become audible; Ian felt it rather than heard it.
Which was all that mattered.
His hands came up to my head, sifted through my hair for the barest of seconds, and then disappeared to the bed where he clutched the covers on either sides of his hips.
Oh, My Dragon Page 7
