A Dragon's Heart: (Dragons of Paragon - Book 1)

by Jan Dockter

  “This is Steve,” Portia said, gesturing to the man. The door closed behind them and Isabel heard the lock click and thump into place. “He’s a regular human, as you can see. His fantasies include being turned into a vampire and having two succubi service him at once.” Isabel looked at the vampire sharply.

  “I’m not hungry,” Isabel said, shrugging. “Gavin took good care of me earlier.” It was a lie, and Isabel knew that Portia was aware she was lying, but she’d had her commands from Gavin. Steve started towards her, seemingly transfixed. “Stay right there, bud,” Isabel told him sharply.

  He froze in his tracks. “Very good! You take to the mind control aspects of your new state better than some,” Portia said with another smile. “We’ve had some difficulty getting some of our more ... moralistic recruits to embrace that part of their nature.”

  “How do you handle that?” Portia shrugged.

  “We starve them, and then feed them, and then starve them again, until they’re at the brink of losing the ability altogether--at least, temporarily of course – and then only let them feed if they use the ability.” Portia sat down in the only chair in the room and gestured to Steve. “He’s one of our better trainers for that purpose. Just last week, he gave into a succubus’ command to let her fuck him in the ass with a strap-on before she let him take her.” Isabel glanced at Steve.

  “Is that true? Tell me if it is,” she said. Steve nodded.

  “I’d let you do whatever you wanted to me, if I could get inside you,” Steve told her. “Sure I can’t come eat your tight, wet pussy for you?”

  “That’s enough, Steve,” Isabel said. “From now on, you’ll treat me with the same respect that you would your own grandmother.” Steve frowned, obviously conflicted for a moment. Isabel flicked a glance in Portia’s direction to see the vampire’s amusement at the man’s confusion.

  “Okay,” Steve said finally.

  “Why don’t you sit down, Steve?” Steve looked around for somewhere to sit and Isabel suppressed a grin; in a certain respect, the ability to bend men’s minds was actually fun. “Sit on the floor,” she told him. Steve obeyed without a moment’s hesitation. Isabel turned her attention back onto Portia.

  “They were right about you,” Portia said. The vampire woman shook her head slightly. “I may not trust Gavin, but he certainly has an eye for recruitment.”

  “Wouldn’t it be more Oz that had the eye? He did have sex with me first.”

  Portia shrugged as if the distinction didn’t matter much.

  “Whatever the case, you’re clearly precocious,” Portia said. “If you would just let us train you, let us teach you how to be the best you can possibly be …” she smiled again. Always smiling that one, Isabel thought irreverently. “Then you could be a very wealthy, very powerful woman.”

  “And by that you mean, feed on whoever you bring me, and submit to your rules,” Isabel said. She shook her head. “Not particularly interested.”

  “Gavin isn’t going to be in the council’s good graces forever,” Portia told her. “You’re going to need someone to handle you.”

  “I’m kind of full up on people commanding my life,” Isabel said.

  “Succubi on their own become self-destructive,” Portia told her dryly. “Without guidance, without someone to make sure they’re feeding safely …” she shrugged again.

  “And even if you got rid of Gavin, I’d still be here,” Isabel pointed out. “It might have occurred to you that I’m not really keen on being controlled.”

  “No one is,” Portia said. “But when it’s inevitable, there’s a certain joy to be found in having useful employment, as well as protection.”

  “Well, maybe I’ll come around,” Isabel said, glancing at Steve. “But right now, I’m not hungry enough to lower my standards.”

  “I’ll bring you someone more challenging next time, then,” Portia said with another insincere grin. “We have some college boys you might like; lots of stamina and no shame at all in them.”

  “I look forward to seeing what’s on the menu,” Isabel said brightly. She could feel the slick heat along her labia, the tightening of her muscles. If Steve was in the room for much longer, her self-control – motivated by Gavin’s command – would start to crack, she knew it would. Even if Steve wasn’t to her taste, the part of her that had already transformed into a succubus wanted him for what he had to offer.

  “He won’t get up until you tell him,” Portia said, gesturing at the middle-aged man. Portia shook her head, giving Isabel an admiring look. “You’ve got better control than most of the succubi first coming into their powers. You really should reconsider your position.” The woman stood and looked at Isabel expectantly.

  “Why don’t you stand up, Steve?” The man rose to his feet, his gaze still riveted on her, and Isabel couldn’t help but feel a thrum of pride and desire, a jolt of hunger and a greedy thrill of need at the way he looked at her. “How much do you want me?”

  “I would let her drink me dry if I could get a chance at your tight little pussy first,” Steve said blandly. Isabel was torn between a cringe and a smile.

  “What did I tell you about respect?”

  “You asked!” Steve looked almost heartbroken. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to disrespect you.”

  “It’s okay, Steve,” Isabel said, making her voice soothing. “I did ask. You can go now.”

  “But–”

  Isabel scowled slightly at him.

  “Go. You don’t want to upset me further do you?” Steve shook his head and turned on his heel, nearly walking straight into the locked door in his haste to do her bidding. Portia snickered and followed the man, giving Isabel a quick, approving glance before she unlocked the door and stepped through it.

  Chapter Thirteen

  By the time Gavin came into her prison-room again, Isabel’s whole body was on fire with need. “About time you came to see me,” she said irritably as the vampire closed the door behind him. He smirked.

  “Sit down,” he told her firmly. Isabel, grumbling under her breath but unable to evade the command, threw herself down into the chair she had been pacing in front of. Gavin looked her up and down slowly, and Isabel felt a new flash of irritation at the amusement in his gaze, even mingled as it was with the desire she could see. “Portia came to visit you, offer you a treat?” Isabel nodded.

  “Brought a guy named Steve for me to feed on,” Isabel said.

  “You didn’t, did you?” Isabel raised an eyebrow.

  “It’s not like I had the choice to decide for myself,” she said tartly. “You commanded me not to feed on anyone that anyone else brought to me. I’m so hungry I want to eat an entire fucking table.”

  “Or fuck an entire boardroom?” Gavin said. “Admit it,” Isabel pressed her lips together, scowling at him.

  “Fine,” she said, glancing away from him. “If there were an entire boardroom of men in here, I would happily feed on them all.”

  Instead of saying anything, Gavin approached her. He reached out and pulled her from the chair to her feet, and brushed his lips against hers. “It’s a good thing you’re so hungry,” he murmured, one hand cupping her breast in it, his finger and thumb closing around her nipple. “I may have an opening for us to spring Oz, but it’s going to require you to be ready to feed.”

  “Okay,” Isabel said, shivering slightly as Gavin teased her nipple into a firm nub. His other hand rose to cup and squeeze her other breast, and Isabel moaned against his lips as the heat that had been simmering in her body began to rise closer to a boil.

  “We’re going to have to work quickly,” Gavin told her. Isabel nodded, biting her bottom lip as the cold feeling of Gavin’s hands on her sensitive, hot skin sent tingles through her body. “But we have enough time for a little teaser.”

  Gavin’s hands dropped down to her hips, and Isabel tried to shake off the bone-deep desire coursing through her body enough to think. Gavin kissed her lips hungrily, and slid one hand up between
her legs, stroking against her slick, silken-skinned labia. “Your transformation is nearly complete,” Gavin said, his fingertips finding her clitoris. Isabel gasped; just the barest touch from Gavin against her pleasure center was almost enough to make her come.

  “Is … is the hairless thing normal?” Gavin chuckled at her question.

  “Yes and no,” he said. He stroked her slowly, swirling his fingertips around the bead of nerves before beginning to rub up and down. Crackles of sensation coursed through Isabel’s body. She felt herself getting more and more turned on. She hadn’t realized that the intense arousal she’d had the moment Gavin had walked into the room, and the electric, desire that had propelled her from one end of her small room to another after Steve and Portia had left, had been almost nothing. Cold fingers slid along her labia, and Isabel moaned out as the fingers pushed into her slowly – achingly so. She marveled again at the fact that she felt so tight, her inner walls barely able to accommodate the thickness of Gavin’s fingers.

  “Y-yes ... and no?” Isabel struggled to focus on the conversation in spite of the hunger driving her thoughts. Images of Gavin taking her, pinning her against the chair and pushing into her, filling her up and pounding hard and fast inside of her until he came, and then lifting her up with her back against the wall and taking her again. Pushing her down onto her knees, pressing the tip of his cock to her lips and then past them.

  “Not important right now,” Gavin told her. “Tell me how hungry you are, little Isabel.”

  “Hungrier than I’ve ever been,” Isabel said, her breath catching in her throat. “So … so hungry I could take you five times and still want more. So hungry I could take you and two other people at the same time.” Isabel started at the realization of the words that had left her mouth.

  “Could you now?” Gavin said, his voice low and purring in her ear. His fingers worked her, pushing deeper, rubbing steadily against her g-spot as his thumb teased her clitoris, rubbing and retreating, making her whole body tingle with more pleasure, more sensation.

  All at once his fingers retreated and Isabel groaned in dismay and frustration. “What the hell?”

  “I told you – that was just a teaser,” Gavin said, bringing his fingers to his lips and licking them clean. He smiled, looking pleased with himself. “Good to hear that you’re nice and hungry, though.”

  “You do know that you’re the single most frustrating person I’ve ever met, right?” Isabel scowled at him, irritable between the high arousal coursing through her body and the fact that Gavin could so readily manipulate her.

  “Hungry women, all the same,” Gavin said lightly. “You should get dressed.” Isabel had forgotten that she’d never dressed after her shower.

  “What’s the deal?” Isabel went into the next room; along with the shower and a bath, there was a wardrobe with all of the clothes Oz had purchased for her, as well as a toilet and a vanity.

  “Oz is in bad shape,” Gavin said. “They’ve got him where they think they want him – and I said that it would be the perfect time for you to manipulate him.”

  “But my abilities don’t work on either of you,” Isabel countered.

  “No, but Oz, as one of your makers and an angel, has a natural concern for your well-being.”

  “How about you?” Isabel peeked into the main room of her prison.

  “That’s not something they need to know about,” Gavin said. “The green dress looks good on you, wear it.”

  “You haven’t even seen me in it,” Isabel protested.

  “I saw it. I’ve seen you. It looks good on you.” Gavin met her gaze. “Get dressed right now, Isabel.”

  Her hands began moving before she could completely process the command, and Isabel fought back the annoyance she felt at that particular aspect of her new existence. She pulled on the dress, wearing nothing underneath it. Then slipped on a pair of shoes that would coordinate. “Are we springing him tonight?”

  “We are,” Gavin said. “Which is why we’re on a tight schedule.”

  “Am I going to lose all these clothes?” Gavin snorted.

  “You spent the entire day naked without noticing,” he pointed out. “Are you really going to miss clothes you haven’t even worn?”

  “I just feel bad ... Oz spent a lot of money on them.”

  “Oz would rather call it a loss and escape, I promise you,” Gavin said. “Are you ready?” Isabel stepped out of the little room and into the main part of her prison suite. Gavin gave her an approving nod, and a raking, appraising look. “Remember: the only thing that should show on your face is hunger.” Isabel rolled her eyes.

  “I’m certainly hungry enough for that,” she said.

  “Don’t be flip,” Gavin told her. “Look hungry, and obey any commands that I give you.” Isabel stared at Gavin for a moment.

  “I can’t disobey any commands you give me,” she pointed out.

  “Don’t make any comments about commands I give you. You should look like you are too eager to feed to even think about anything else.” Isabel could see that in spite of the vampire’s confidence, he was tense. Okay, so he’s not sure we can pull this off, obviously. Isabel took a deep breath and made her face carefully blank, before giving into the roiling, boiling sensation of need that she had struggled to keep at bay. “Good,” Gavin said, smiling slightly at her.

  He took her hand and led her to the door. The whole time that she had been in the room – the days, Isabel thought – she had not been able to imagine how it was that the vampires could come and go, but she couldn’t even access the locking mechanism. She couldn’t even recognize a mechanism for controlling the lock anywhere near the door. Gavin, too quickly for her to see, bit his thumb and pressed it to a particular spot on the door. The lock clicked and thumped, the door opened. Isabel filed that particular fact away in the back of her mind to ask about later; it was obvious to her that it would be against Gavin’s wishes for her to speak on the way to wherever Oz was.

  Gavin took her hand firmly in his and steered her out of the prison room, into a dimly-lit corridor. Isabel had barely been able to catch small slivers of the area behind her room, but she quickly realized that her cell had to be in a much larger building – and probably a very old one judging by the faintly dry, dusty smell she caught as she walked at Gavin’s side. The carpet under her shoes looked worn, not quite matted, but its fibers had definitely seen better days – sometime in the past fifty years, at least. The walls were paneled halfway up, and then papered to the ceiling in print that almost looked Victorian to Isabel’s eyes as they walked briskly through the hallway.

  She followed Gavin, focusing on nothing more than the need to satisfy the hunger she could feel burning through her bones, coursing through her veins. If someone was watching – and based on Gavin’s warnings, she was fairly certain someone was – it would look as though she were barely keeping up with him, Isabel thought. It would look like she was following in his wake, positively eager to go wherever he led. “Stop,” Gavin said in a quiet, firm voice, and Isabel’s feet froze under her almost too quickly.

  He turned to another door, and once again cut his thumb on his sharp teeth, pressing the bloody digit to a spot on the frame. The door turned out to not be a door at all, but instead the entrance into an old-fashioned elevator. Isabel wanted to ask Gavin just what building they were in, where it was, how old it was, but she kept her face carefully schooled, and her lips pressed together to keep any words from tumbling out. “Come on,” Gavin said, leading her onto the elevator.

  As Gavin led her through the building, Isabel realized that every security measure was tied to the vampires; that it would be nearly impossible for anyone other than a vampire to leave the building unattended. Even if she had somewhere along the way been quick enough to get through the door of her room before it closed and locked behind one of her guests, she wouldn’t have gotten beyond the corridor. They got off the elevator, went down another corridor, and then down several flights of stairs.
Isabel thought to herself that the vampires within the building would have to have extraordinary memories to be able to reliably navigate the place.

  “We are about to see your other maker,” Gavin said, making his voice slightly derisive. “Are you ready to feast on him?”

  “Yes,” Isabel replied, looking up at Gavin with what she hoped was pure longing and desire on her face.