Dragul Dawn

by Marie Treanor

  Someone he had noticed, perhaps, on one of his sorties to the City? Maybe. It didn’t matter. She couldn’t even see a speck on the hill. He was only here to contaminate her samples, send her home with the firm belief that developing this northern land was impossibly difficult.

  He stayed very still as she drank the contents of the mug, drawing her coat more closely around her against the cold night air. Then, she banked the fire a little, and retreated inside the tent, taking her bag with her.

  Aurel waited, giving her plenty of time to settle down and drift into deep sleep. Then, in the darkness, lit only by the distant stars winking between bands of cloud, he flew silently down to her camp, coming to land between the fire and the tent. For an instant, he held his wings out steadily, listening with all his senses for any reaction from the girl. Nothing.

  Slowly, he folded his wings behind him and reached for the tent flap, noiselessly breaking the ties and stepping inside.

  Behind him, the fire flared, throwing a red and orange glow across the face of the girl.

  Who wasn’t sleeping at all. She sat bolt upright in a blanket, her tangled blond hair falling about her shoulders, and her beautiful dark eyes blazing at him with terror and excitement.

  Aurel, never one to let a set-back throw him, said politely, “Good evening.”

  The girl swallowed visibly. “What do you want?” she said hoarsely.

  “Actually,” Aurel lied, “I came to talk to you.”

  For some reason, the girl laughed, a breathless, throaty sound that sent electricity tingling round his wings and down to the region of his cock. Well, her whole response to his presence, that odd, powerful mixture of fear and arousal she radiated, was curiously exciting. He found himself wondering irrelevantly what she wore under the blanket.

  “So talk,” the girl snapped, clearly not one to let fright overcome her. “And then get out.”

  Hastily, she brushed a lock of hair off her face and Aurel saw that she was shaking. He took pity.

  “I have a better idea,” he said smoothly. “I see I make you uncomfortable here. Why don’t you come out, and then we’ll talk? I’ll build the fire a bit more to make it warmer.”

  And without waiting for her response, he backed out of the tent. Carefully, his eyes picked out the precise location of the backpack as he went.

  Chapter Three

  By the time she emerged a few moments later, the blanket still clutched round her shoulders, her lower legs tantalizingly bare, he was sitting by a merrily roaring blaze.

  “How did you do that?” she asked abruptly. “There was no more wood.”

  “Oh there’s always wood,” he said vaguely. “Please, sit down. I’m sorry I startled you. I wasn’t sure if you were asleep.”

  She gave an uncertain smile. “I suppose it’s difficult to knock at a tent door.”

  “Precisely.” He smiled back, wondering why he hadn’t sensed that she was awake. It seemed she was a more powerful blocker than he had given her credit for. Yet now that she faced him, churning, unreadable emotion was seeping from her, mixed still with a little fear, a little wariness, and a lot of desire.

  Aurel’s cock twitched further. He liked that she wanted him. He would have liked to do something about that too. He had never had a human woman. He wanted to run his hands all the way down her smooth, wingless back to cup her pert little buttocks. Dragul passion was fierce. He wondered if hers was too, or if it was softer, gentler, sweeter…

  Discreetly altering his position -- no point in scaring her with the sight of his upright member, which began to feel like a wayward tree-trunk attached to his body -- he said mildly, “What’s your name?”

  “Beth.” She sank into a sitting position, not too close to him. To his disappointment, her legs disappeared under the blanket with the rest of her, and he had to content himself with watching the flaring firelight shadow different planes and hollows of her face. “So what did you come back to talk about in the middle of the night?”

  “You, your tests, your City… What made you choose this region?”

  “There are several areas under consideration. It makes sense to cultivate land around the space elevator, to develop the temporary community there into a permanent one.”

  “And to make sure the City keeps control of the elevator?”

  She gave a flickering smile that he found unexpectedly enchanting. “That too.”

  “Still playing politics,” he murmured. “Even after almost annihilating yourselves.”

  “We found the elevator,” she protested. Under his deliberate influence, she had relaxed a little -- not enough to drop her guard, but enough to stop radiating alarm. “We used it to clean the environment and break up the cloud for all of us. And now the Dome seems to think it has the right to take control over it as well as over the rest of us!”

  “Well,” Aurel observed. “You seem to think you have the right to take over this land too.”

  “That’s different, we use the tether…”

  Aurel looked around him theatrically. “I see no tether.”

  She frowned at that, but rather to his surprise, she didn’t get angry. Instead, she met his gaze properly for the first time, searching his eyes. “You’re concerned for the independence of your own people? The Dragul? Aurel, I don’t even know where they are…” Confusion entered her eyes again, something excitingly intense and hot, swiftly veiled. Her gaze fell. “Would they -- you -- not benefit also from agricultural development here?”

  “No,” he said regretfully. Another idea began to form in his head, a far riskier one, but one which, if it worked, might well be more reliable… And more enjoyable. Her desire was a gift to him.

  Beth pulled at some grass by her feet. She said abruptly, “How is the boy?”

  “Rad? He is well, if somewhat chastened. He won’t stray so far again. Tell me, what would you do if you discovered your development plans would ruin our society?”

  Her eyes flew to his, and held. “I suppose I would look elsewhere.”

  “But you’re a scientist. You don’t rule the world, or even the City. Would your masters see things the same way?”

  “Some wouldn’t,” she conceded. “But some would. And some would see no reason why we can’t all live together. As an ideal it’s become a bit of a sacred cow in my City. It wasn’t easy for mutants and humans to trust each other, or for mutants to trust other mutants, for that matter.”

  Something sparked in her eyes. “No one knows you exist, Aurel. But we’re no threat to you. One thing we have learned in the City is that to mix is good.”

  “And what mix are you, my more than human friend?”

  She blinked at that, surprised, wary. Yet her answer was quite matter-of-fact. “My mother is a lupi -- a werewolf, if you like. My father is a vampire.”

  “Explosive combination. So do you shift?”

  “I can. I don’t choose to very often. I can control it. And before you ask, I eat normal food too and feel no compulsion to rip the throats out of passing strangers.” She glanced at him and added sweetly, “Or at least not very often.”

  Aurel grinned. “I’d like you to try.” It was only a very light flirtation, but it brought out all the confused rush of feeling again. Before she could bolt, as was her clear intention, Aurel said, “I was joking before. I knew you wouldn’t come with me then. But I want to ask you now, in all seriousness. Let me take you to the kingdom, introduce you to the Dragul. You can decide for yourself whether mixing would be good for us, or for you.”

  Her eyes widened. A momentary chink in her armour revealed her temptation, her curiosity, and he was sure a lot of it centred on him. Delicately, he radiated trust, soothing calm.

  She said slowly, “How long would it take to get there?”

  “Not long.”

  She smiled. “You can fly. I can’t.”

  “You can with me.”

  “No!” A flat denial, which came out with rather more aggression than she intended, judging by
her embarrassment. “That is, no thank you, I’d rather walk. I’m not good with heights. Even though I spent my childhood in an apartment at the top of a high-rise block.”

  Something stirred again in Aurel’s memory. Something to do with the girl, and his vague feeling that he’d seen her before. But that was of secondary importance. The main thing was to get her to the Dragul, to persuade her to see things his way.

  “You’ll lose all reference to the ground when we fly -- so you won’t be afraid.”

  “You might drop me. Trust me, I’m no light weight.”

  He let his eyes flicker over the blanket. It had begun to gape temptingly at the throat. “You will be no heavier than Rad -- possibly lighter. Dragul have heavy bones. I will not drop you. But if you’re worried, I can tie us together. Go, put your clothes on, you’ll need them against the cold.”

  There was a pause while she stared at him. Then, “You can’t push me into this.”

  Oh yes I can. But he didn’t need to. She already wanted to go with him.

  “Please,” he said quietly, and her gaze fell. He had won.

  * * *

  She tried to tell herself she was mad. But the truth was, she could barely control the excitement screaming through her. Because she was going to meet a new people? Or because she was going with him? In his arms. Perhaps dreams meant something after all. Perhaps it had been no sex-starved post-adolescent fantasy, perhaps it was prophecy. A foretelling of what was to come. And suddenly the prospect of all that with this very real winged man made her breathless.

  When she emerged from the tent, Aurel had stamped out the fire and spread the ashes. You couldn’t tell anyone had been here. Uneasily, she suspected that was his aim. Without a word, he un-pegged her tent and rolled it up, stuffing it into her bag.

  “I can leave this stuff,” she protested. “It’s not as if anyone’s going to steal it!”

  “We’ll take it,” he said briefly, swinging the bag over one shoulder, delicately avoiding his wing. Then he turned to her. “Come here.”

  It was ridiculous. She had got used very quickly to his voice speaking without his lips moving. Yet the voice itself melted her bones.

  Trying to be brisk about it, she marched the few feet and stood before him. From an unseen pocket in his shift, he took out what looked like a jumble of thread. He sifted it once through his fingers and the jumble resolved into a long string. Stepping closer, he passed it around her waist and his. Unexpectedly, his arm swept round her, drawing her right in to him before he wound the thread around them again.

  Shock kept her silent. The shock of his body-heat, the shock of the huge, hard shaft she could feel against her abdomen. She should have been outraged, even afraid of assault. Instead, she was aware of fierce triumph that she could arouse this strange, powerful being. And the feel of it rubbing against her every time he moved was delicious enough to send a gush of hot moisture to the juncture of her thighs.

  And yet he seemed quite unaware of it. Certainly he was not remotely embarrassed by his obvious arousal… Or was he aroused? Perhaps Dragul cocks were always like that -- ever-ready, as it were…

  Hysterical laughter gurgled up her throat before she cut it off. Aurel glanced at her, a faint, quizzical smile on his full, sensual lips. His gaze held hers, searching. He said, “Do you want to tell me now?”

  “Tell you what?” It was difficult to concentrate on anything other than the rock-hard rod still now against her belly. She remembered writhing on it in those hot, ecstatic dreams and the memory didn’t make his perceptive gaze easier to bear.

  “What it is about me that so disturbs you?”

  “Nothing,” she muttered, trying and failing to draw her gaze free. “You’re a bit outside my experience, that’s all.”

  “So is Rad, yet you accepted him immediately. Is it sexual desire?”

  Heat galloped through her body. “In your dreams!”

  He smiled, a devastating, half-teasing smile that softened his eyes and face without removing a trace of the immovable power. He touched her cheek with his long, sensitive fingers and she shivered in his hold. “Perhaps,” he allowed, “but it’s yours that concern me here. If there’s something I can help with, you only have to say.”

  She remembered to close her mouth. “No thank you,” she said faintly.

  Gracefully, his wings unfolded and spread out. Beth was glad to have something to watch other than his all-seeing eyes. His fingers moved to her lips, tracing their outline. Her breath caught.

  “You can speak to me with your mind if you’d rather.”

  She swallowed. “I can’t control that…” But neither could she bear this discomfort under the assault of his prying questions and his tender fingers. Aggressively, she slapped his hand away. “Listen, you don’t disturb me more than any other flying stranger who’s taking me out of my world into his. So stop being an arsehole and get on with it.”

  He wasn’t remotely offended. Instead, the skin at the corner of his eyes crinkled attractively as he laughed at her. “Arsehole? What colorful terms you humans use.”

  His wings began to move in slow rhythm, and it came almost as a shock to realize how much a part of his body they were. He looked like an ordinary man -- well, quite an extraordinary one, but a man nonetheless -- with wings stuck on his back, like an angel in a human play. But in reality, when he moved them, it affected muscles all over his body, sending ripples through his hard chest and abdomen. Against her breast, it felt unbelievably sexy, like a caress of her pebbled nipples. Worse, it made his cock move again, in small, gentle thrusts that came too close to sex for comfort.

  Jesus, how do I survive this?

  “Just hold on. Put your arms around my neck. You’re bound safely to me, so I couldn’t drop you if I tried.”

  Hell, he heard me. Thank Christ he misunderstood! I have got to get a grip on this…

  The thread wrapped round her waist and hips, joining her to him, seemed more than a little flimsy for its job, but when she instinctively strained against it to test, it held as firmly as a rope.

  Slowly, she lifted her arms and laid them around his neck, grasping her own fingers rather than his warm skin. His hair brushed against her hands. When she finally felt brave enough to meet his gaze once more, she caught an instant of confusion that might have mirrored her own.

  “I won’t hurt you.” There was no teasing in his voice now. It was softer, gentler, only a little puzzled. “You don’t need to be afraid of me.”

  “I’m not.” It came out in a strangled choke, because his arms had closed around her and the beat of his wings had increased, lifting them both off the ground. “I’m afraid of heights!”

  That at least was true. “Oh Jesus Christ! Oh fuck!” She squeezed her eyes shut as they rose into the air, quickly soaring toward the level of the highest hill. Why was it easy to climb a hill and yet unbearable to be suspended over it at a lower height?

  Aurel said, “Hold on to me with your legs too -- you’ll feel more secure.”

  “Don’t bet on it,” she muttered. But taking a deep breath, she swung her legs up around his hips and since it was convenient, buried her face in his shoulder. The filmy garment he wore felt unexpectedly cosy under her cheek, yet was quite thin enough to reveal the contours of his nether regions as they fitted neatly between her thighs, competing with the height fear for her attention.

  This was ridiculous. She was a grown, capable, trusted woman not entirely inexperienced in sexual matters. She wouldn’t go on playing the confused little girl. She didn’t like the role. “It’s not you. It’s dreams I had when I was younger, about a winged man. He looked very much like you. It does confuse me. The dreams were very vivid. You -- he -- appeared outside my bedroom window -- which was weird enough. We lived on the twenty-fifth floor. Then you -- he -- spread his wings… you looked just like that outside the tent tonight. I thought I was dreaming again. Actually, I still think it.”

  With conscious courage, she opened her eyes
and tilted her head to see his face. He was staring at her, as if he had just remembered something.

  He said slowly, “Were these sexual dreams?”

  She opened her mouth to deny it -- but what was the point? She had nothing to hide, and nothing to gain by behaving like the adolescent she’d been then. “Very,” she said dryly, and his serious look vanished.

  “Was it good?” he asked, and she found herself answering the smile in his eyes.

  “Very,” she said again.

  His head bent a little, and his breath teased her lips. “I’m glad of that, at least… Later, I’ll tell you something that might explain your dreams.”

  Beth swallowed. “What’s wrong with now?”

  He gave a little breath of laughter that stirred her lips and spread heat from them all the way to her core. For the life of her, she couldn’t prevent the upward surge of her hips, fitting her hot, damp pussy more closely around his cock. Her breath caught.

  “Now,” he said, “I’ve other things on my mind.”

  “Like what?” she asked breathlessly.

  “Like kissing you.”

  She gasped, and his lips sank onto her open mouth. He caressed her trembling lips with his, touched them with the tip of his tongue, and then, with a sigh, he pushed deeper, turning her mouth over and drawing her tongue around his own.

  He tasted divine. She couldn’t get enough of him, licking his sharp teeth, caressing every corner of his mouth with her lips and tongue. He used only his mouth to arouse her and yet the fever built impossibly fast. His cock pressed into her, but apart from the movement of his flight, he held it still. Beth moved against it, wanting it, wanting him. Memory mixed with reality as she lost herself in him, the feel of his hard, strong body, the devastating caress of his mouth and the relentless, rhythmic beat of his wings carrying them through the cold night air.