Deception_Paranormal Romance_Dragon Shifters and Immortals

by Laxmi Hariharan

  Blinking them away, she drew his warmth, the comfort of him, the feeling of being safe in his embrace around her like a shield.

  With a sharp tug that took him by surprise, enough to have his grip loosen, she stepped out from his grasp.

  “He’s right.” Angling her body so that she was at a right angle to him, she positioned herself between the two of them. “You needn’t protect me.”

  The tension leaped off his body and slammed into her. On the psychic plane, the fledgling mating bond pulsed. His dragon surged through the bond, wanting to complete the bond and claim her.

  She didn’t dare turn back to face him. If she did, she’d lose her nerve. She had to get through this to save his life, no matter that it meant certain death for her.

  A low growl sounded next to her.

  She jerked her gaze to Rage.

  Fire sparked from the tips of his hair, and a flame streaked down his skin. The scent of dragon fire was heavy in the air.

  She sensed the fury gathering inside Rage. Any moment then, he was going to transform. It was the first time his dragon would reveal himself to her. His beast would be weak and would put himself at risk from the Elysian.

  She needed to find a way to get Tibor away before that.

  “You did well in forming a bond with him.” Tibor’s arms hung loose by his sides.

  “What does he mean?” Rage sounded puzzled.

  Her stomach fluttered. She tried to form her tongue around the words, but they were stuck in her throat.

  “She created a fledgling bond only to give us a route to get through to you. She didn’t tell you?” Tibor’s eyes widened. “Perhaps you thought she actually cared for you?”

  Rage bared his teeth, and the air around him shimmered. He was close to a transformation.

  “We let the two of you escape only to give her enough time to gain your trust.” He thrust his chin out. “Our plan worked better than expected, didn’t it, Dora?”

  Pandora’s hands shook as she curled her fingers at her sides. Sweat beaded her upper lip.

  Next to her she sensed the tension leap off Rage. She wanted to tell him…what? That she was innocent? When clearly she wasn’t? Her limbs trembled. She felt trapped.

  Tibor’s features were hard as if carved out of ice.

  “What is he talking about, Dora?” Rage stood alert, his gaze still fixed on the Elysian man.

  Her chin quivered. She squeezed her eyes shut and took in a breath to compose herself. “You heard him.” She was proud that her voice was firm when she spoke. “I bonded with you only to find a weakness in your defense. To give the Elysians a way to infiltrate your shields, and through you, the rest of the dragons.”

  Rage’s chin thrust out. Another golden-tipped flame flicked around his chest. “So all this was a ploy to win my trust? You rescued me, put your life at risk, all for him?” He fixed those blue eyes on her.

  “For my brother.” She swallowed and met his gaze. She’d been prepared for his wrath, but the hurt in his eyes slammed into her chest. She couldn’t breathe.

  “They forced you to bond with me?” Rage folded his arms, leaning back on the heels of his feet.

  “I agreed to bond with you to save my brother’s life.” Her lips drooped. “Only, I miscalculated.” She squared her shoulders. “As soon as I sensed your energy, I was drawn to you; I knew I couldn’t put your life in danger.” She swallowed.

  “I don’t believe you.” Rage’s lips thinned. “Is that why you tried to seduce me?”

  “No.” Pandora took a step forward, her palms held up in front of her. “I wanted you, Rage. I needed to awaken your dragon, to set your beast free, so he could fly… It was the only way, don’t you see?”

  Rage folded his arms over his chest. “All I see is a woman who made me believe in her, only to break my trust.” He angled his body so he was half turned away from her.

  Pandora’s shoulders slumped. She’d lost him. He thought everything she’d done so far was an elaborate ruse to trap him.

  This was likely their last meeting. It was best he walk away thinking that she had deceived him. It was the only way to make him forget her.

  Tibor’s shoulders bunched, and he shifted his weight from one leg to the other. “Come now, Pandora, your brother is waiting. Bran needs your help. Share your psychic energy with me, allow me access to the dragon shifter, and you can join my council as my chief empath.”

  Pandora pinched her lips together to keep them from trembling. “Bran is an empath like me. He’d never forgive me if I took another’s life to save his.” As soon as she said it, she knew it was true.

  She couldn’t risk Rage to save Bran.

  Her heart felt like it would shatter any minute. She had tried her best to save her brother and failed. It was only right that she also give up all hope of living.

  She forced herself to meet Rage’s gaze. “Perhaps you’ll find it in your heart to forgive me one day.”

  Rage took a step forward. His features were pale. On the psychic plane, his dragon broke through his psychic shield and leaped for her through the fledgling mating bond.

  She slapped down a secondary shield.

  The beast crashed into the barrier. The shock reverberated through the animal.

  “You can’t shut me out.” Rage’s shoulders shook. He rubbed the skin over his heart where she knew it throbbed. “You may have deceived me, but you’re still my mate.”

  “Not anymore.” Dropping into herself, she reached out to the fledging mating bond.

  Using her psychic senses, she cut the connection between her and Rage.

  25

  Rage

  Pain, sharp and intense, cut through him. It felt like his brain was on fire. All his nerve endings short-circuited at once. His head hung down. His breath came in short gasps.

  It was as though someone had sawed through his ribcage and cut out his heart. His throat closed. He couldn’t breathe.

  On the psychic plane, his dragon quivered, searching for its mate. Where he’d once sensed her energy at the end of the fledgling bond, there was nothing.

  She was just gone.

  All her energy had bled out of his psychic shield, leaving only a deep amber shell in its place.

  Rage’s chest heaved. His shoulders slumped, and he sank to his knees.

  “It’s time to leave, Pandora,” Tibor snapped.

  Rage heard it as if from a distance. He sensed the threat from the Elysian. Tibor was not going to let Dora live. He would make sure Rage would never find his mate.

  Adrenaline laced his blood. He forced himself to raise his head. The world swung around him. “Dora…” Was that strange, harsh voice his own?

  Closing the few steps between them, she dropped to the sand in front of him and peered up into his eyes.

  “What have you done?” He forced his tongue to form the words.

  The green in hers eyes swirled, silver sparks ebbing and flowing. “I am so sorry, Rage. I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

  He clutched his hair as he struggled to take in a breath, to push oxygen into his starved lungs. “Why?” The full impact of what she’d done hadn’t yet sunk in, but he already missed her.

  Her lips twisted. “I am doing what is best for both of us. They cannot get to you, and you can move on now, find your true mate.” She placed her palm flat, fingers splayed out against his chest.

  White pain slashed through his head. Something warm ran down his nose. He was bleeding.

  Her eyes filled. A teardrop ran down her cheek.

  He reached out to touch it. When he took his hand away, the teardrop clung to his fingertip.

  Tibor walked forward. Grabbing her braid, he yanked Pandora to her feet.

  She cried out, curling her hands around the thick rope of hair. “I can’t leave him like this. He’s in pain.”

  Tibor’s gaze fixed on Rage.

  He raised his hand, and a psychic jolt smashed into Rage, blowing him over and onto his back.

&n
bsp; He lay there unmoving. Darkness swirled at the edge of his vision. Above him, Pandora screamed—the sound was abruptly shut off.

  Fear ripped through his insides. His muscles spasmed. He cracked his eyes open. Tibor grabbed Pandora’s limp body and slung it over his shoulder. Tibor’s black eyes glowed with a strange, eerie light.

  The air thinned. The band around Rage’s chest grew tight as he took in a shuddering breath.

  Static crackled; sparks of silver shimmered around Tibor’s figure.

  The hair on Rage’s neck rose.

  The Elysian was getting ready to teleport. He was taking Pandora with him. She had deceived Rage, he should let her go, he didn’t need her.

  But his dragon pushed up. His mate was in danger. A fear unlike any he’d ever faced gripped his insides.

  His psychic shields dissolved.

  The pores on his skin popped open.

  With a roar, the dragon broke through. Tongues of fire licked over his skin. His cells twisted and changed form. His jaw elongated, eyes slanted up, ribcage cracked and expanded, and his skin mottled into scales. Wings sliced though his muscles, flaring out.

  Rage screamed as the force of the transformation cut through him. Pain had him in thrall. It felt like his very insides had been pulled out and then put back together.

  He shook his head to find the ground was much farther away than normal. There was something heavy clinging to his back. With an instinct that had been imprinted in his cells even before birth, Rage snapped out his wings.

  Ahead of him, Tibor’s figure went translucent.

  Rage raised his big head, opening his jaws. Flames of red and amber shot out of his throat and curled around Tibor’s legs.

  The Elysian screamed, and his body shook, but he still kept hold of the woman who was unconscious over his shoulder.

  A psychic breeze blew around Rage, concentrated in a spot in front of him.

  Tibor’s legs wavered, and he stumbled forward. Finding his balance, he pulled himself upright. His figure grew dense, then faded again.

  Rage snapped out his massive wings. The wind raised the sand from the ground, which poured over him. He leaped forward, raised his head, and sent out another stream of fire, just as Tibor’s figure vanished.

  The flames hit the spot where Tibor had stood.

  The Elysian had taken his mate.

  Rage’s dragon raised his head and roared his fury.

  Fear twisted his guts, and anger slammed through his veins. Running across the beach, he spread out his wings and tried to take off.

  He landed back with a bump. His wings drooped. His muscles quivered with the effort. Fury rolled over his scales.

  With another roar, he gouged his massive claws into the sand, leaving shallow ditches in their wake.

  Running across a longer distance, he snapped out his wings. He arched his neck and raised his head. This time he took off, soaring into the sky.

  His wings pounded the clouds, turning them into a mass of boiling black and gray.

  Anger battered at his skull, adrenaline lacing his blood. In the fighting arena of New London, his dragon had been a twisted creature, a mass of anger that drove his human body to fight harder, stronger than any opponent.

  For the first time his dragon was free. The beast was angry at having lost his mate. He wanted revenge. Banking in a deep dive, he hurtled toward Mauritania.

  If he couldn’t have his mate, no one else deserved to either. He wanted everyone to feel the pain, the sorrow, the sheer desperation that he felt just then.

  A scream welled up from deep inside. Opening his massive jaws, he let loose a twisting, seething mass of dragon fire over the city below.

  The tops of the trees caught fire, the drier ones combusting under the intensity of the flame. Black smoke rose from the burning vegetation.

  He kept going, reaching a field that bordered the edge of the city.

  His wings stirred up a breeze fierce enough to sweep up the mud from the open field into a dust storm.

  He shrieked out his anguish and rained flames over the small settlement.

  The roofs of the buildings caught fire; the scent of dragon smoke swirled with the sea breeze.

  It wasn’t enough.

  The beast was hurting too much. He wanted more, much more. He wouldn’t stop until he’d burned everything.

  Dragon fire churned through his blood. His scales heated and his vision narrowed. He searched for the next focus of his wrath.

  A shriek split the air.

  He jerked his long neck to find another dragon tearing through the air at him.

  Scales of violet and gold caught the sunlight. Her wings sparked at the tips. This dragon was familiar. She flew directly at him, wings spread wide enough to block out the view of the city behind.

  It was Eve.

  She screamed, commanding him to stop. Her cry was louder than the crackling of the flames that leaped into the air. The dominance of being alpha was inherent in her every pore. He shrugged it off. He’d never accepted her as his leader.

  Soaring over him, she headed straight for the open sea. She was magnificent, her strength as pure and as potent as his. She flung her neck around and shouted her challenge.

  Rage didn’t hesitate.

  She wanted a fight? Well, he was more than ready to take her on. It didn’t matter that she was his sister. She was an opponent as powerful as him.

  Tucking his wings, he angled his body and hurtled at her.

  Eve snapped out her wings, holding them steady, and stayed suspended in midair over the waves. She was powerful, this dragoness. His anger-addled brain cleared just enough to acknowledge the beauty of her animal form.

  She held her position, meeting his gaze head-on.

  Adrenaline pumped in his veins, his scales extended, his wings sliced through the air, and he raced for her.

  Sparks of gold and violet flashed over her wings. She was not going to back off.

  The smell of dragon fire was heavy in the air. Dragon smoke streamed from his nostrils. He was almost upon her.

  She dropped then, and, raising her wings straight in his path, she shunted him aside.

  His dragon stuttered. The newly awakened senses of his animal wobbled. His balance became unhinged.

  He spiraled into a tailspin. The breeze tore at his wings. His eyes streamed. With a roar, he righted himself.

  There was another cry from above.

  Eve taunted him for not being able to keep up with her.

  He had to accept her as his leader to stay in the clan. There could never be two alphas in their flock.

  He stretched his neck, snapped out his wings, and flew up, heading for the upper reaches of the sky.

  Eve soared up.

  He tracked the figure of the dragon alpha as she snapped out her wings and propelled her body toward the cloud layer.

  He kept going, higher, still higher as he followed her. He broke through the cloud layer and yet didn’t stop.

  He had to catch up with his sister.

  Far above him, Eve made a sweep. Dipping her wings, she waited for him.

  It grew colder, the air thinned, and his skin shriveled. He closed the gap with the other dragon. He flew so fast that his wings sparked from the friction with the atmosphere.

  His tendons felt too weak to hold up his body. He began to lose altitude yet he pushed himself.

  His muscles quivered, then collapsed. His wings fell back, and sweat ran down his body.

  The exertion of the very first transformation caught up. Rage shuddered and his body plummeted.

  The clouds, the waves and the shoreline, all whirled around him. His cells couldn’t sustain the new form and shrunk. His claws retracted. His neck withdrew back into his torso.

  His scales fitted back into the grooves in his skin. He transformed back to his human form.

  Rage hit the surf. His body hurtled through the waves and submerged below the surface.

  His mind stuttered and pushed at him
to stay conscious, but his body refused. His organs shut down.

  The undercurrent drew him down, and he sank past the seaweeds, breaking through the corals until he hit the sea bed.

  Part III

  26

  Pandora

  Her throat felt raw as if she’d been screaming. She drew in a breath, but it hurt too much. The overhead lights switched on, and the glare seared the back of her eyeballs. She blinked and resisted the urge to squeeze her eyes shut.

  “You’re awake?” The metallic scent of aluminum assailed her.

  “No thanks to you.” Her voice sounded strong. Inside, she quaked at her recklessness.

  Footsteps sounded, then a hand clamped on her shoulder, yanking her to her feet. “You’ve found your voice, too. Is that thanks to the dragon shifter, I wonder?”

  When the Elysians found out that she’d cut the connection between her and Rage, they were going to kill her.

  She jerked her arm but was unable to break free. She raised her chin and met Vesta’s cold gaze head-on. “What do you want from me?”

  The Elysian female was taller than her at least by a head. Her jumpsuit was cut off at the shoulders, showing her muscled arms. She wore boots that came over her knees. “You are our key to breaking through the dragon shifter and plugging him into the Sian Web.” Her eyes were like pools of oily darkness.

  A shiver ran down Pandora’s spine. Her heart stuttered. “I won’t let you use me to get to him.”

  Tibor glided across the floor to stand next to Vesta. “It’s not like you have a choice.” His hand snaked around her waist.

  Pandora sensed they were going to hurt her. She should be afraid of them, but that empathetic part of her noticed the attraction that flared between the two Elysians.

  Vesta leaned into Tibor’s embrace. Her pale blonde hair swung aside to reveal the burn scars on her cheek.

  “You’ve forgotten how your last encounter with the dragons ended?” Pandora’s voice was tight. Her jaw muscles flexed.

  A sharp inhale from Vesta filled the space between them. “Perhaps it is you who needs to be reminded that your brother remains in our custody.” There was no change of expression on Vesta’s face. It only made it so much more worse. It would have been much easier if Vesta had screamed and raged at her.