Touched by a Dragon (Fallen Immortals 6) - Paranormal Fairy Tale Romance

by Alisa Woods

  A trilling sound—almost so high-pitched Rosalyn couldn’t hear it—shook the walls and door and the air. Angelsong. The demon inside her responded to it, thrashing around and causing Rosalyn’s baby to lurch in her womb. She put a hand to it, suddenly afraid—maybe she should go? But the sound cut off, and Erelah still hadn’t come to the door, which was now shook open a fraction of an inch more, such that Rosalyn could see Erelah’s barely-clad back and Leksander’s tormented face over her shoulder.

  “I’m sorry,” he said. “I know you want to help, it’s just…” He seemed to struggle for words.

  “Your duty is clear, Leksander,” she said, voice resolute and strong. “It matters not your personal feelings. I may have love of a human—each one is a passing delight, a temptation beyond measure—but I’m forbidden to taste of that. For you, it is your duty to do so. So get to it.” The anger in her voice gave it power, inching it up closer to that powerful angel mode again. “And if your brother cannot make a dragonling who will fulfill the treaty with this mate, then he should find another.”

  Find another. Those words were like an icy electric jolt to her heart.

  “Erelah!” Now Leksander was pissed… but Rosalyn barely felt the heat of his anger. She was too busy grasping hold of the side of the doorway and staying upright. “For the love of magic,” Leksander was saying, anger heating his words. “Rosalyn’s love is True! And you know my brother’s love is as True as they come. How can you even suggest—”

  “Because others will suffer, that’s why!” Erelah’s angry voice shrilled the air again.

  Silence followed and beat on Rosalyn’s ears. All of what they were saying was true… and it was tearing at her heart. No matter what Leonidas said, Rosalyn knew… she’d made a horrible mistake in mating with him when she was demon-infected.

  “And you know this will end badly, regardless.” That was Erelah’s voice again, calm but still resonating with a powerful undercurrent of anger. “That baby cannot be allowed to live.”

  What? That shook Rosalyn out of her daze and sent her back to straining to see through the crack. Erelah had moved to the side and was speaking with her head turned to Leksander. His face was crumpled, staring blindly at the floor.

  “The baby’s death will destroy my brother.” His voice was a whisper.

  Why were they talking about the baby dying? Rosalyn’s mouth was running dry with horror.

  “Leksander will survive. Just as Lucian did.” Erelah’s voice was softer now. “It will be hard, but he has his duty, and he must fulfill it. Or all is lost. You know this, Leksander.”

  “I do.” He was blinking and staring at the floor.

  “This is why you must let me do this now.” Erelah’s voice was even softer, entreating. “Let me use my blade. It may yet work, but every day is a count against us. And if it does not, if we cannot separate the demon from the dragon heir, you know the baby will have to be destroyed, regardless. Then your brother will be free to try again. He does not have much time, Leksander.”

  “What you’re asking…” Leksander just shook his head, still staring at the floor. “It’s too much. Leonidas would never mate again. When the baby is destroyed, he’ll take his own life.” He looked up from the floor and peered into Erelah’s eyes. Even through the crack, Rosalyn could see the pain in them. “You don’t know my brother like I do.”

  “I know the House of Smoke has never failed the world before.” Erelah nodded sharply. “He will do what’s necessary. If not on his own, then you have to convince him.”

  But Erelah was wrong… Rosalyn knew it in her heart. Leksander was right—Leonidas wouldn’t leave her and go on to find another mate. He’d already said as much. There was never going to be anyone else for me. Those weren’t just words for Leonidas. She knew his heart too well. Losing the baby would kill them both.

  A shudder went through her… and suddenly she knew what she had to do.

  Leksander was just shaking his head. “I can try.”

  Erelah nodded.

  Then Leksander was striding away from her… toward the door. Rosalyn skittered away from the crack and scurried to hide behind the half-open door of the Great Room. She garnered a couple glances from the dragons inside, but they were at the far end, so they didn’t call out to her. She prayed Leksander wouldn’t find her there, but he strode right past, head down, scowling at the floor as he passed, not noticing her. Rosalyn glanced back. Erelah stood on the threshold of the doorway, watching Leksander leave. She raised her eyebrows when she saw Rosalyn peeking around the door… so she hurried out from her hiding spot. The angeling’s eyebrows just lifted higher as Rosalyn shooed her back into the room and closed the door.

  Erelah just blinked, struck speechless for the moment.

  “I need your help,” Rosalyn said, her voice shaky. Was she really going to do this? But there was no choice—no good choice. Erelah was right about that.

  The angeling recovered from her shock and frowned. “In what way?”

  “I overheard what you were saying.”

  Erelah nodded like she had figured this much out already.

  “And Leksander is right—if the baby is lost, Leonidas wouldn’t go on to find another mate. He would end it right there. I know him. This is it for him. Unless… unless he believes that something else has taken the baby. And me.”

  Erelah’s eyebrows flew up again. She was ethereally beautiful and radiant with angel power, but in that moment, she looked almost comically naïve. Innocent and perplexed. “What are you suggesting?”

  Rosalyn scowled, but she would have to spell it out exactly, so there was no misunderstanding. “I’m still trying to get rid of the demon. I haven’t given up hope yet. Specifically, I want to get my father to help me. But if everything else fails, if all my attempts prove unsuccessful, and we get to the end of the pregnancy… I want you to use your angel blade to separate the demon from the baby, one way or another, once and for all.”

  Erelah’s eyebrows had fallen, and she was nodding. “It is risky to wait until the end, but I understand. It is a last resort. When the time comes, the result will be final. Dragon and witch and demon—if I cannot separate them, they will be slain together. And you should know, princess of the House of Smoke, that the baby’s magic will have to be severed from yours first. Which means, whether the child lives or dies, your magic will have to be destroyed—it is the only way to prevent the demon from harboring there whilst I slay it in your child.”

  “I… I understand.” Rosalyn swallowed. “But that doesn’t matter. If it doesn’t work—if the baby dies—I need you to kill me too. Not just my magic. All the way dead.”

  Erelah stepped back and blinked. Several times. Without speaking. Finally, she said, “I do not understand this.”

  “It’s very simple,” Rosalyn said, although fear was shaking her voice. “Leonidas has to live. I do not. He’s the only one who can make a baby to fulfill the treaty. If it’s not going to be me and this baby—if I’m going to just be the first try at a mate for him—then I need to be out of the way so he can try again.”

  Erelah’s eyes were wide, but she was nodding. “As long as you live, he would not leave you for another.”

  “Exactly.”

  “And your selfless True Love would have you make this sacrifice.”

  It wasn’t a question, but Rosalyn answered it anyway. “There’s more at stake here than just me.”

  Erelah had a look of awe on her face. Slowly, she bowed, deep and long. Then she lifted her head and said, “You have a pure and righteous heart, Rosalyn Thorne. You are a mighty hero among women.”

  “Yeah.” Rosalyn felt like she would throw up right there. “Just don’t, you know, kill me unless you have to.”

  “Of course.”

  “And wait until… until I’m ready. At the very end. When we’ve tried everything and… and the baby doesn’t make it.” Her stomach was truly heaving now.

  Erelah nodded solemnly.

  �
��And you need to make it look like… like an accident or something.” Rosalyn was babbling now. Giving instructions for her own murder to an angel was about as surreal as her life had ever been. “Above all else, don’t let Leonidas or his brothers be responsible for my death. Or the baby’s. It needs to be something that just… happened. Blame it on the demon or something. Tell them you saw the demon kill me. Then Leonidas can mourn us and, eventually, move on.”

  “I understand.” Erelah gestured to her rounded belly. “I can feel the demon inside you and your child growing stronger every day. It would be better if we didn’t wait.” But she wasn’t insisting on that… just making note.

  “I still have other things I want to try.” Rosalyn’s voice was strained.

  Erelah tipped her head in acknowledgment. “I will remain in the keep and await your instructions, princess of the House of Smoke.” She stepped toward Rosalyn, like she wanted to embrace her, but then stopped and fell back. A small smile snuck out on her face. “I would give you a kiss, but the demon inside you would not like it.”

  A kiss? That seemed… odd. But then odd was like Erelah’s middle name.

  “How will I contact you?” Rosalyn asked.

  Erelah gave a gentle smile. “You are demon-infected. I’m painfully aware of your presence at all times. Just return here, to this room…” She gestured to the bookcases lining the walls. “And I will know that you’re ready.”

  Rosalyn swallowed. “Agreed.”

  Erelah nodded sharply and strode from the room.

  The room where Rosalyn might die.

  She scurried out of it as well and hurried back toward Leonidas’s lair. With any luck, she would get her father to restore her mother’s magic, and they could separate the demon that way. Or she’d think of something else and try that.

  She had three weeks to solve this… or literally die trying.

  A week passed, in pits of agony and summits of ecstasy.

  Right now… definitely ecstasy.

  Leonidas had Rosalyn up against a wall, although not the way he normally had a woman he was pleasuring. At four weeks, her belly was becoming a more significant challenge, so today’s new position involved her leaning forward, hands braced against the wall, legs spread, while he took her from behind. It was like a very naughty form of being patted down for arrest… which made him think that some dress up might be next on the menu.

  He held her hips and thrust upward, eliciting some satisfying moans and occasional shrieks when he angled just right and hit deep. His grip kept her steady, although his thrusts were hard enough to lift her nearly off her feet. He was taking it slow and steady, each long stroke a lightning of pleasure everywhere they touched, drawing it out to make it better in the end.

  “Fuck! Leonidas,” she panted, bucking back against him as he slowly thrust in. “What do you call this form of torture?”

  He grinned. “I’m slow-loving you, baby.” He stayed buried and reached around to rub a few pleasure sparks into her swollen nub.

  “Oh, God!” The sweet shiver of her flesh in response said she was close. He kept getting her almost there then backing off. “Leonidas,” she warned.

  “You are in no position to make demands,” he said with a smirk. But then he stepped up both his thrusting and the pleasure straight to her core… mostly because her small wiggle of protest, with her bottom rubbing against him, was suddenly coiling tension deep and low in his belly. He didn’t want to blow before she did.

  “Yes! God, just like that. Please, yes, please.” And when she begged like that, he was officially done, helpless to not give her exactly what she wanted. He unleashed that no-holding-back fucking she seemed to love as much as he did, and within seconds, they were both climaxing hard. She screamed one long yesss through hers, and Leonidas felt like he’d literally exploded from the waist-down. The sweet tightness of her body became a rock-hard grip that milked every last bit of pleasure out of him. She was panting, and he was light-headed by the time they stopped. He pulled out, and she slumped against the wall. Afraid he’d worn her out, he quickly scooped her up and brought her back to the bed, sweeping aside the netting and laying her gently on the snow-white down comforter.

  For a moment, breathing heavily and snuggling, time was pure bliss. But for most of the last week, time had been like an uncertain death march—Leonidas knew the end point was drawing near, but he didn’t know the exact place or time. Rosalyn was in a relatively “safe” part of her pregnancy, and for any normal dragon mate, this would be the time of the best sex, the most joyful celebrations, and gifts from far and wide across the immortal realm. The birth would still loom as the last possible time things could go wrong, but that was a long two weeks away. Normally, life could safely be enjoyed. But for him… it was a struggle between desperately wanting to relish the time left and knowing that each second was another step toward losing everything that mattered to him.

  Only he couldn’t share even that—Rosalyn was convinced there was still hope.

  “Are you sure my father is returning this evening?” she asked for the fourth time that day.

  “His flight is already in the air,” he said as patiently as he could. “It’s a virtual certainty that he’ll land at the appointed time.” As mild as his sarcasm was, it still earned him a smack on his bare chest. None too lightly, either. Which only sprung his cock to attention again. “But…” He rolled her on her side and hitched down to get into position to take her again. “I’d be happy to take your mind off the wait.”

  But she insisted on rolling to her back, then facing him.

  He kept the sigh inside. Because he knew what was coming next.

  “Don’t take that tone when he gets here,” she insisted with all earnestness. “Let me do the talking.”

  “I know.” Her father had left in a huff once Rosalyn had gone into seclusion, and Leonidas hadn’t bothered to stop him. Now he wished he had just sequestered the witch where he could get to him easily, not let him travel halfway around the world back to Seattle. But Leonidas had been too focused on Rosalyn at the time.

  “I want to try to talk him into it first,” she said. “It’ll be better that way.”

  “I know.”

  “Unless I give you the signal. Then I want you to lean on him. Hard.”

  By some miracle, he managed not to roll his eyes, just cupped her cheek in his hand, sparking pleasureful magic between them instead. “Your wish is my command, mistress. Please. Command me.” He would do anything she asked—anything that wasn’t talking about the baby and her impending efforts to dispel the demon, which would undoubtedly fail. The whole thing was tearing him to pieces, but seeing the hope in her eyes when he knew no ordinary witch spell could equal the combined magical strength of three dragon princes of the House of Smoke… it was threatening to crumble this façade he had going to mask his despair.

  She planted both hands on his chest and pushed him back on the bed. “I command you to make me pancakes.”

  Thank God. “At once, my lady!” He hustled his ass off the bed and toward the bedroom door.

  “In the nude!” she called out behind him, making him smirk. But he didn’t slow down. He didn’t have a full kitchen in the lair—when the keep was in operation before, they had servants for that sort of thing—but Leksander had a small kitchenette installed when they first arrived. With a refrigerator, sink, and a hot plate, it was perfect for pancakes, if not much else. Once Leonidas fortified his mate with sustenance, he would tease more pleasure out of her body. Both activities should keep his mind from straying to the horror that loomed ahead of him.

  He had only just broken the eggs when his phone buzzed on the counter. Rosalyn was still in their bedroom. He half expected her to take a quick nap after the last several rounds of lovemaking, but sometimes she called him rather than trekking across the lair. Not that they were physically separated that often.

  He edged over to peer at it. Leksander.

  Leonidas scowled at the phone, w
iped his hands on the dishtowel and picked it up. “Yes?”

  “Got a minute?”

  He wanted to make a smart-assed remark about having a precise amount, all numbered and accounted for, but he held back. He owed his gratitude to his brothers in advance for the role they would play in ending all this. “I’m making pancakes in the nude. Do you have a better offer?” It was easier to regain his humor without Rosalyn in the room.

  Leksander wasn’t biting. “I have an angel who wants to see you.”

  “Tell your girlfriend I’m not into threesomes like that.” It didn’t escape Leonidas’s attention that his own death would be his brother’s as well… but at least Leksander would finally bare his heart to Erelah. Leonidas had extracted that promise on pain of talons just a few days before.

  “His name is Markos, and he’s standing right here in the Great Hall.”

  “Holy fuck!” Leonidas spat out. He hurriedly turned off the griddle. “Why didn’t you say so?”

  “Great. We’ll see you shortly, then.”

  Holy fucking shit… the angels were paying them a visit? This was not good. Not when his mate was demon-infected. His heart lurched as he reached out with his fae senses to double check, but yes—the wards around his lair were still intact. Not that an angel could technically pose a threat to Rosalyn. Angels were forbidden from engaging demons directly. The rules—such as they were and who knew how they were set—said only humans and the lesser immortals could have direct contact with demons. Something about the light and the dark annihilating one another. The loophole was angelings. They were half-breeds—angels and humans—so their human side got a pass on the slaying of demons. The angel side particularly relished it, as demons were the darkness to their inner angel light.

  At least, that’s how Erelah sold it.

  Regardless, a full-powered angel in the House of Smoke was not a good thing. While Markos couldn’t harm Rosalyn himself, he could direct a legion of angelings to descend upon them. Or make war on dragons. Particularly dragons of the House of Smoke. Very particularly, dragons of the House of Smoke who failed to uphold treaties which protected the humans that angels loved above all creatures from the fae who were the angels’ immortal enemies.