by Crymsyn Hart
A bolt of fear ran through her. “Are you going with them?”
He shook his head and smoothed the hair from her face. “No. I’m staying here. I’m no use in human form. I can’t fight them like this. I can’t—” His body tensed against hers. He began to move away.
She turned his head toward her. “You’re of use to me. I need you, Andrik. I need you to make love to me.” Once she said it, there was no going back. The fire inside of her would consume her if she didn’t act upon the desire. The long nights of dreaming of him only made her lonely.
His expression softened. “I’ll give you whatever you want. It could be rough. Dragons can get carried away. I could hurt you. I don’t want to hurt you.”
A devilish smile turned on her lips. “I can take the pain. I’ve been burned and spurned in the past. Besides, I can deal a few blows myself.”
Chapter Eight
“It’s not the pain I’m worried about.”
Kestrel understood the concern in his eyes. Pain didn’t bother her. She had come to appreciate it. Pain was part of the fire that lived inside of her. “Then what are you worried about?”
He looked away. “That I won’t be adequate for you. Ever since Lara died, I’ve tried to be with other women, but I wasn’t able to perform.”
Hurt twisted his expression. “Andrik, no matter what happens, I love you for you.” When the words slipped from her lips, she meant them. She loved him.
His face lit up. “You mean that? You love me?”
“Yes.”
He picked her up and spun her around. “The gods have answered my prayers. Come with me.”
He took hold of her wrist and led her through the maze of dragons and out a door she didn’t know was there. They emerged in a small corridor that wound up the mountain. No torches burned in the hall, but she could see from the balls of fire floating behind them. They stopped halfway up the tunnel. Andrik pressed a depression in the wall, and it turned. He moved through the opening.
“This was fashioned in the old days in case there was ever a siege on the mountain. The crypt below contains another passage that leads to an underground river that will eventually join with the sea. It weaves through the mountain range. My ancestors carved it out. It flows east for miles. Not many know about it. All the entrances are guarded by other dragons. Come.” He motioned her inside.
Once she entered, the wall rotated and closed so she would have never known there was a doorway. Inside, the room was decorated with a plush rug on the stone floor, shelves overflowed with books, and there was a couch to sit on. He took her arm and led her through another entry that revealed his bed. It nearly filled the room. A window let her know they were high up in the mountain. She heard the other door close, and when it did, the lights in the room burst on. The colors on the bed were reds and golds.
He stood by the bed and beckoned her forward. She walked slowly, glancing at him to see what he would do. The firelight flickered off his face. Seeing him there she wondered if Castigan would have looked like him if he were human. I can’t think that way. He’s one and the same. I can’t be daydreaming about the past. I want him for him.
“What’s the matter? You don’t want to do this after all?”
“Of course I do. I just need to say something, and I’m not sure how to say it.”
He slipped arm around her waist. “Tell me anything you want. I won’t be offended. I know this isn’t the typical situation most mates have.”
“Mate? Are you sure?”
He pushed a tendril of hair behind her ear. “What else would you be to me? You were marked in the past for it. And I would mark you again in this lifetime if you let me. Although I don’t want to scare you. What’s on your mind?”
“I know your soul is Castigan’s, but you are you. Would it be selfish to ask you to see if I could talk to him? If that’s possible?”
“It’s important to you.”
She nodded.
“Okay. I’ll try to do this.” He searched her gaze and nodded.
“I understand if it doesn’t work.”
He sat on the bed and crossed his legs. She sat across from him. Andrik took a deep breath and closed his eyes. After a few more breaths, the tension drained from his face. His eyes began to flutter. His features shifted to a little more reptilian. He took in another breath and grumbled. His eyes opened. The irises had changed color to the same emerald as Castigan’s.
“Cas?”
He lunged forward and stopped inches from her face. He inhaled, and then his hand was around her throat, holding her in place, before she could react. “What human are you to call me that?”
She slid her hand over his. “One who has missed you very much. You know who I am, don’t you?”
His eyes didn’t register that he knew her. The pressure on her throat increased. Kestrel searched her mind and knew the one thing that would get his attention. It always did. “With the wind under my wings, we’ll fly away. My fire burns hot and bright only to warm you in the night. We’ll ride the currents and glide away until the end of time.”
His eyes widened. “Kes.” He released her.
“Yeah. It’s me.”
“This isn’t right. You can’t awaken me and expect my other half to remain in a trance pushed aside.”
“I don’t want that. I just wanted to talk to you for a moment. To say thank you. That’s all. You gave me another chance to live. And because of it, I met Andrik. Whether you are him or he is you or vice versa, it doesn’t matter. I-I just wanted to know if you were happy.”
He smiled. “I’m happy if you’re happy. That was all I ever wanted. May I ask one thing before I go?”
She nodded. “Anything.”
“Let me hold you just once.”
Tears lined her eyes as she went into the circle of his arms. Time stopped. Frozen in the dragon’s arms as her long-lost friend held her, she was at peace. He tightened his grip on her, and she felt him brush his lips across her head. The steady sound of his heart was the one she was used to. It brought her back to when he would hold her close and she would stroke his head. He began to a hum a tune that would soothe her when she was a child. She rocked back and forth in his arms for a few precious seconds, and then he lifted her face to his.
“I love you. All my years as a dragon, I loved you. You’d rib me about finding a mate, but all I wanted was you. Andrik loves you, too, only in a different way. We’re one and the same, he and I. I’m your past, and he’s your future. Our shared soul has been torn to shreds because of the events of our two lives. But the gods brought me back to give me another chance with you. Know that I’m here. A part of him. Whatever you say, I’ll hear. Be kind to him. He needs your love more than you know. I have to go now, little bird.”
She felt the dragon recede from Andrik’s body. Kestrel thought she would be heartbroken again, but she wasn’t. The serenity she had always wanted was with her now. She had said her good-byes, and he was always going to be with her.
He blinked. “Dragon’s teeth. Did I hurt you?”
He started to pull away from her, but she caught his arm. “No. You didn’t hurt me.” She rested a hand on his face and felt the fight drain from him. “You gave me the best gift I ever could have asked for.” She leaned in and kissed him lightly. She dragged her tongue across his bottom lip and let her free hand rove over his flat belly. “Make love to me, Andrik.”
His nails dragged down her back. She heard the rip of fabric and the rake of his nails along her flesh. Andrik’s hands slid under her and scooped her up until she was straddling him. His cock pressed against the fabric of her undergarments. The heat of his body went through the thin material of her nightdress and warmed her. His hands clutched her ass and trailed along her back. Kestrel kissed him again, this time crushing her lips to his hungrily, wanting to taste all of him. She delved her hand under the waistband of his pants and stroked his hard shaft. He broke the kiss and watched her. Kestrel began to stroke him slowly, enjoyi
ng the shape of his dick. He made no move to stop her. She shimmied along his body and pulled down his pants to reveal his cock.
Without saying anything, she took the length of it in her mouth. She cupped his balls and squeezed them lightly. He moaned when she wrapped her tongue around his shaft and dragged her teeth along the sides until she came to the spongy head.
“I’m supposed to be pleasuring you.”
She didn’t respond, but worked on his dick faster and faster, drawing what she could of him into her mouth. The spicy taste of him only encouraged her to lick him longer and keep him in her mouth. His hips rose off the bed as he began to plunge into her until he hit the back of her throat.
From his shallow grunts, she knew he would come at any moment. She wanted to taste all of him. The first spray of come hit her mouth, and she swallowed the tangy fluid. She continued to nurse his cock for a few more sucks, savoring his taste until he was spent. Kestrel gave him a wicked smile and stood up. She pulled off her nightdress, dropped it on the floor, and straddled him. Andrik’s eyes grew larger.
His hands traveled across her stomach and cupped her breasts. He was scorching her, and she didn’t mind. He brought one of her breasts into his mouth, sucking on her nipple, trying to stuff as much of her breast into his mouth as he could. She wound her fingers through his hair and held him there while she began to gyrate against him.
His hands gripped her hips. He uttered a groan and fell back on the bed. She was heating up. The power between them flared to life, and the link that bonded them together wound around her. She was awash in its power and let it bathe her. His sharpened nails scraped down her back. She registered some pain, but not much. Something was happening inside of her she couldn’t understand. The magic and the fire were coming together and burning her up from the inside out.
She cried out when he pulled away.
“What’s the matter?” he asked, breathless. “Something’s happening to you. I can feel it.”
“I don’t know how to describe it. Everything is merging inside of me.” She squeezed her eyes shut and let the power overtake her. Things shifted within her. The presence in her that was dragon awoke. It wasn’t pain in the way she was used to. It was beyond anything she ever felt. This was happening to her spirit.
“We can stop.”
She shook her head. Somehow, she knew that if they stopped, this transformation would never occur. This was meant to happen. They would miss the opportunity to be flesh together, to form this union. The morphing began to settle into her flesh. She heard her spine crack, and her vision shifted. “Kiss me.”
The world became one of different colors. The way it always was when she looked through Castigan’s eyes in years past. She now saw with dragon eyes. Her nails sharpened. Andrik’s lips met hers in a hungry kiss spurred on by her command and something else. A hidden part of him was awakening that hadn’t been there for centuries. His cock stirred against her. Andrik thrust his hips upward and impaled her on his length. She groaned. The fire ignited over her. She couldn’t keep it down. When she looked at him, he was blazing, too. Their two conjoined flames were one, but they weren’t burning the sheets.
“Kes, your eyes. Your teeth.” He ran his hand over her face. She turned her cheek into his palm and caught his thumb on one of her sharpened canines. His blood welled into her mouth and sparked the hunger inside of her. Fresh blood had never tasted so good. She rode him hard, going with the new sensations that were commanding her body.
“I need you, my love. Don’t hold back. Don’t be afraid,” she whispered in his ear.
The encouragement seemed to help because he began to pump inside of her with a surety he hadn’t had before. She kissed his throat and nipped it. When she licked his flesh, he shivered.
She noticed the sandy texture of her tongue. He kissed her back, biting her cheek. His tongue was the same. He broke into a faster rhythm. Kestrel saw his face was a human-reptile mixture. It didn’t scare her. It made her want him more. He caught her hair and brought him to her lips. He plunged his tongue into her mouth. They touched and teased one another. She felt the sharp points of his teeth. When he drew her blood and sucked on her tongue, she groaned. This was how they were supposed to be together. The fire hadn’t died over them, but it had intensified.
They were both going to come soon.
“Will you be my mate?” he asked her.
“If you’ll be mine.”
“Always.”
He wrenched her neck to the side and bit deep into the meat of her throat. She cried out and came at the same time. He dug into her flesh and then released her, licking the wounds he had inflicted. He continued to plunge inside of her. She nipped his flesh and on instinct sank her fangs deep into the side of his skin. Andrik screamed and came. His grip on her tightened. The fire around them died. A tie existed between them now that went deeper than spellcaster and dragon. They were mated. Nothing was going to drive them apart. In all of it, she sensed Castigan there, too, but he was blending with Andrik’s personality. That was the one thing she wanted. She moved on top of him for a few more strokes, licked his wounds, and then kissed him lovingly before settling next to him.
Kestrel lay her head on his chest and listened to his heartbeat. It was steady. For the first time in a long time, she was content. Everything seemed right in the world, and she belonged somewhere. She didn’t understand the changes that had occurred in her body, but she didn’t fear them. Maybe they had always been there, waiting for her to unlock them. Maybe they were part of the gift Castigan had given her. Andrik ran his fingers over her back and made her shiver. Her neck wasn’t even sore from where he had bitten her.
“Are you okay?”
She glanced at him and saw his features had returned to normal, but she was still seeing the heat radiating from his body. Running her tongue over her teeth, she looked at her nails. They had thickened and were longer and sharper, like claws. “I think so. What happened to me?”
“I think you took more of the dragon inside of you from my former incarnation than we thought before. Or you are now truly my mate. We’ll have to ask Ralag in the morning. Concentrate on being the way you were, and you’ll shift back.”
Kestrel closed her eyes and thought about returning to normal, but it wasn’t working. A momentary bolt of panic went through her. Andrik stroked her hair.
“Don’t think so hard. It’s like water. We flow back into our human bodies. There should be no pain once you’re used to it. Trust yourself.”
She drew in a deep breath, but the shift wasn’t happening. She groaned in frustration. He kissed her ear and the side of her throat. The sudden pleasure roaming through her made her quiver. Her nerves were on fire once more. The power ignited and moved through her. Once it did, she felt it connect the link between them. Andrik moaned again.
“I’d forgotten how this can be.”
“What do you mean?” Kestrel closed her eyes. She tried to push the pleasure aside that had awoken inside of her, but it was consuming her.
This time he straddled her and held her hands above her head. “The bond between mates lets me experience everything you feel. And vice versa. I might be able to help. Close your eyes and trust me.”
He kissed her slowly, but kept a hard grip on her hands. She began to squirm under him when the power between them grew to be too much. The fire went over both of them. Passion burned along her nerves. It seemed she was going to crawl out of her body. Kestrel wanted to writhe and get lost in the ecstasy. She arched her back when the orgasm hit her. Stars appeared in her vision. When the rapture flowed through her, her body responded. Andrik was inside her mind, coaxing her down, pushing the dragon back inside of her for now. He kissed her again. His lips were soft.
They gave her a connection back to reality. He broke the kiss and rested his head against her chest. He breathed heavy. When she opened her eyes, she could see clearly again. Everything about them had returned to normal, too.
“Thank you.”
“You don’t have to thank me, Kestrel. I’m always going to be here for you. I’ll never leave you again.”
Chapter Nine
The next morning when she awoke, it took her a minute to remember where she was. Her body ached from the night she had spent with Andrik. Once she looked around the room in the sunlight, she saw, besides his clothes, it was filled with books. A small painting stood on one of the chests of drawers. It was of a woman with blonde hair, pale blue eyes, and a round face. I bet that is his first mate. Kestrel searched the room and didn’t see him in it. A momentary bolt of panic gripped her. Then the door opened. Andrik entered carrying a tray filled with food and drink. He smiled when he saw her.
“You’re awake. How are you feeling?” He set the tray down on a small table near her side of the bed and sat next to her.
“Good. A little sore, but nothing that won’t heal.” She winced when she moved her arm. Her shoulder with the burn always gave her problems after strenuous activities. He saw her grimace.
“Come here.” He motioned her closer.
She bit her lip and gathered her hair onto her shoulder. His thumbs pressed against both of her shoulder blades, and his fingers began to warm. The warmth eased into her flesh and made it a little easier to move the more he massaged her. She moaned from the magic flowing into her. It made her wet. He rubbed her a little harder, and she drew in a cool breath, trying to stay steady.
“If you keep that up, I’m going to fuck you right here.”
He kissed her neck. His tongue licked the side of her throat, and he nibbled her ear. “I can certainly oblige you, but I think we should eat something first. Ralag knows one of our healers that can look at the burn for you. Dragon fire wounds are hard to heal if they’re old, but she might be able to do something for you.”
