“No. Let me see you first. I was blindfolded all those other times. I don’t want to imagine the man who’s fucking me. And I don’t want to have this moment obscured from my memory by the lack of light. Show me your face, and you can have me any way you like.”
“Neela …” he said, groaning in frustration.
Her core throbbed with the need to be stretched and filled by him, but the bindings were on the verge of throwing her into panic.
“Please. Lights. Then you’d better fuck me like you own my fucking soul, because you do.”
Zorion’s fingers dug into her thighs so hard she was sure she’d have bruises. The iridescent fire that threaded across his jaw flickered, telegraphing the clenching and unclenching of his teeth. Finally, he let out a deafening roar.
He slammed his cock into her, and the room went white.
Chapter Eleven
Neela screamed from the pleasure of that first piercing stroke, opening her up and filling her in a way she’d never been filled. When her mind cleared from the shock of it, she opened her eyes to the sight of vivid blue sky above.
Her gaze fell to the source of the pleasure: the thick length of cock ramming hard between her thighs and the glorious man attached to it.
But he wasn’t a man. Despite the very tangible erotic sensations of their bodies connecting, now that she could see him in the daylight, she realized she could barely even see him at all. He was pure light. What was between the veins of fire before was nothing but translucent, shimmering space. The luminescent threads that defined his shape were still there, still blazing hotter with every stroke. But if she didn’t know better, she’d have thought he was made of pure magic.
“I will have you. You promised.” He pushed her legs wider, lifting her hips like she weighed nothing to spear her anew in a fresh, excruciatingly pleasurable angle. He pressed a thumb to her clit and tilted his head. “Will you come for me? Is this good?”
“Z … oh, god …” Neela’s mind couldn’t track the surreal turn this encounter had taken. The pleasure he drove through her made it even more difficult to process what was happening, but she nodded. “Yes. Make me come, please.”
Bright power shot down his arm, through his thumb, and straight into her clit. The hot pulse of it acted instantaneously, throwing her into orbit with an agonized cry of pure ecstasy. She arched up, her head flying back while he continued to ram into her over and over, his strokes amplifying the pleasure of the orgasm that rocked her very being.
She had no time to process or even recover from the mind-shattering climax before he flipped her over and twisted his hand into her hair. She felt her head being pulled back by the length of thick black strands, his hand twining around and around ever tighter. Then he was inside her again from behind as she struggled to gain purchase on reality through the onslaught of his punishing thrusts.
Through it all, she had no time to be scared. He’d succeeded in shocking her so thoroughly with everything she needed, but hadn’t known she craved. The pleasure she found in this rough treatment made no sense, but she loved it, loved the way he immobilized her with his hand in her hair and his cock inside her, impaling her with more vigorous thrusts.
She didn’t know what the hell he was, whether he really even was a dragon, but whatever it was she loved it. Loved him.
“Take me, Z. Use me so hard you wipe out the memory of all those other goddamn cocks. Make me forget. Mark me from the inside out, baby.”
His chest brushed against her back as he lowered himself over her, rutting against her like a wild beast now. Hot breath rushed past her ear, heavy panting making it clear how close to the edge he was.
“Your soul is mine, Neela. Your tight little cunt was never really fucked before, because this is what it means to be fucked. Those men were slaves, never worthy of your pleasure. Come for me again and show me how my cock owns you now.”
His voice rumbled around her like thunder, despite the bright sun warming her back. The sounds vibrated through her body to her core, as though her very cells recognized the command he had over her pleasure, and they responded instantaneously, another surge of white-hot light blasting through her body.
As she cried out, his voice rose, his thrusts slowing but growing deeper, harder, and then stopping entirely. A deafening roar that shook the earth encompassed her and he released her hair, grabbing her hips with both hands as his cock surged and shot pulsing hot power deep into her.
Somehow she knew that what he was wasn’t close to physical, and that the seed he’d just filled her womb with was pure magic as well. Her body felt lit up from the inside, and she abstractly wondered if the sun might get jealous by how brightly she must be shining at this very moment.
He started to pull out of her and she reached back, grabbing his hip and twisting around to look at him.
“Don’t you dare run away from me now.”
He exhaled a heavy breath. “I don’t think I have the power to walk, much less carry us back to the warren.”
“Good, because after that, I seriously need to be held. I think you touched my soul with your cock. It’s a little tender.”
He lowered himself over her again and wrapped his arms around her torso. As he pulled her to the ground against him, she took stock of where he’d taken her. Nothing but wild Australian bush surrounded them. Somehow he’d managed to conjure a blanket for them to lay on, though, and for that, she was grateful.
Zorion’s arm tightened around her, and he clutched her to his broad chest. If she closed her eyes, she could believe he was solid and made of warm flesh and bone, but the strange little pulses of fire that warmed the spots where they touched reminded her that something very different was at work here.
Taking a deep breath, she cautiously turned in his arms. She braced herself to face him in the daylight, and when her eyes met his, she caught a similar wariness in them.
Eyes … if they could even be called that. He was made of a web of filaments that merely bound tighter in the pair of lights where eyes should be. They were bright orbs with dots of fathomless black in the centers. Yet she could see the apprehension there regardless. Otherwise, his face was merely a suggestion of a face, like a watercolor artist had splashed colors onto a page, leaving a negative space in the shape of a man. It was the glow around him now that defined his shape more than the space he occupied.
“I get it now,” she said. “Why the darkness makes more sense. You at least look close to solid in the shadows. What’s the deal, Z? Why are you like this? Not that I’m complaining … Your parts all seem perfectly functional, but … I’ve never seen anything like you.”
She lifted a hand to touch where his cheek should be. She met resistance that felt more like static than skin. A fringe of darker fire that almost resembled eyelashes obscured his gaze as he leaned into her touch.
The warm, pink fire of his lips tightened, and then he expelled a slow breath. “I am not yet whole, Neela. What I am to you now is merely the essence of my magic—my fire. More than just my breath sent out like a Shadow’s to seduce and trick. This form is pure dragon fire. Every ounce of power that sustains me made into something as close to human as I can shape it.”
She frowned, drifting her hand down over his shoulder and chest, marveling at how very solid he still felt despite the crackle of energy that tickled her palm. “Where is the rest of you, if you aren’t whole?”
“In the temple, still in stasis. When I figured out how to send my power out along with my fire, I knew I had to meet you this way first. I don’t want you to wake my body. Stay with me like this, if you can find it in yourself to accept this part of me.”
“But I want all of you, Z. Don’t you want to be whole?”
“The creature that sleeps in the temple is a monster. Trust me, it isn’t something you want to see.”
“You were afraid to show yourself to me like t
his. I survived it. I think I can survive seeing your physical body too. I want all of you. I’m committed to the whole package, good or bad. You got all of me, including a very disturbing kink I didn’t even know I had.”
“It isn’t my appearance that I wish to protect you from. I am pure light in this form. My dragon fire is the magic that defines this body, but half of my power was darkness, too. You know who my father is. The combination of his and my mother’s power within me magnified that darkness. Then I watched while you were hurt, and took that pain away from you. The darkness I protected you from is inside that part of me.”
“Oh, god, no wonder you left it behind.” She pressed her lips together. “I think it’s time for me to face it. You shouldn’t have to bear that burden for me, not if it means you sacrificing your true form.”
“What kind of protector would I be if I forced you to take back the pain I shielded you from? I won’t do that. We can stay here, like this. I have more than enough power to make you happy.”
She sighed and shook her head. “It isn’t just about us, though. Asha’s father needs us back. All of us. You should know that.” Her voice grew strident as emotion gripped her chest.
“You know what’s at stake,” she said more softly. He’d been inside her mind the night when Nikhil had come to her, and then again only a few weeks later when the tiny life inside her body was stolen away. He’d comforted her as well as he could through that loss that had left her more raw than any of the other violations of her body.
Zorion remained still, his gaze turned away from her and the fire flowing through his veins pulsing with a rhythm that matched her heartbeat. Racing with uncertainty.
She reached up and squeezed his shoulder. “Come with me like this, then. You can travel as easily as a drift. Quicker even than Naaz or I could, once we’re outside the zone of the temple. We can work out how to deal with your body later, but we need you and Asha to fight this battle.
“I don’t even know what’s happening with the army now. For all I know, they’re already confronting the Ultiori mercenaries in Egypt, but we need to leave within the next day. Nikhil wants us back by the Equinox, because that’s when he expects Meri to make her move.”
“Neela … I can’t. This is my essence, not all of me. I’m still tethered to my physical body. I am not capable of traveling beyond the range of that tether.”
“What do you think will happen if I awaken your body?”
“What I did to you … possessing you like a wild fiend … the creature that sleeps in the temple craves that and more. Pain and humiliation and defilement. That part of me desires those things so much I couldn’t even shake all of it. I craved it like a drunk craves spirit, but the taste you gave me was enough for this part of me to be satisfied. It won’t be enough for him. He would destroy you, and revel in your annihilation. I can’t let that happen to you.”
“But I helped make him that way … it isn’t fair,” she said in a small voice, tears burning her eyelids.
“Asha will be free to go. You can leave me, if you wish, but I can’t leave this place if I want to protect you. Please don’t ask that of me, adara.”
“All right,” she said, sinking into his arms, her heart aching at the thought of what darkness he had borne for her sake that had corrupted his soul to such a degree he had to protect her from it. She took a deep breath and tilted her head up, pressing her lips to the bow-shaped fire above his chin.
At least she had this, and it was infinitely more than she’d ever hoped for.
As he pushed her back to the ground and proceeded to make love to her again, she surrendered to his power completely, her body reacting with fresh heat to the more tender touch he gave her this time. Even without the bindings he’d controlled her with before, he drew her climax from her again and again, proving repeatedly that he owned her soul.
But as he filled her with the bright power of his magic again, that darkness beckoned, its pull every bit as inevitable as the beacon of light that had drawn her to this part of him to begin with.
Chapter Twelve
Neela lay awake in the darkness of a huge bedchamber, her back tingling with the warmth of Zorion’s magic curling around her. He slept soundly, the light of his fire all but extinguished in his slumber. After eons of spending her nights in a pitch black cell, it was a comfort to have this glow surrounding her now.
The wild bush he’d transported them to earlier had been an idyllic spot for a lovers’ first tryst, with the sunlit sky above and wild Outback flowers blooming around them while they made love. Each time he’d been gentler with his touch, seeming to find less and less pleasure in the act of immobilizing her and taking her rough.
Yet her craving for that kind of dominance grew, until she had to restrain herself from begging him to hurt her. She couldn’t bear to ask for it, not after she’d seen his distaste over voicing his need to bind her. At the end of their lovemaking, she’d only found pleasure when she’d been on her knees with his cock filling her mouth and a conjured version of it impaling her core. She could almost imagine the dark version of him taking her while the light one was pleasured by her mouth. And when he’d shot his liquid fire down her throat, she had come harder than any other time before.
She still had the hot taste of him on her tongue, but forced herself to banish the wish that he’d wake and tie her to the bed and ride her hard like he had the first time. She extracted herself from his embrace and eased off the mattress, then padded to the separate chamber where the privy was. When she returned, she stood at the end of the bed, watching him and unable to shake the feeling that something crucial was missing.
It could just be the mark itself. He’d confessed that he couldn’t mark her without the proper implement. A dragon marked with its true tongue. Even though Zorion had command of most of his magic, without being able to manifest that part, he could never truly mark her, either. She’d been disappointed by that news, though he’d distracted her easily by proving how talented his magic tongue could be. But she hadn’t forgotten.
In the back of her mind, that darkness still beckoned, and now she knew what it was. The other half of him waited for her, and she was due to take her burden back.
She silently retrieved her clothes and slipped away, dressing in the darkened corridor outside the chamber they’d shared. Then she made her way to the barracks and shook a sleeping Paolo by the shoulder.
He blinked and grumbled, but his eyes brightened when he saw her.
“Hey. What’s up?”
“I need to know how the hell to get out of this place.”
“Boss man didn’t show you?”
“No. He’s asleep, and I don’t want to wake him.”
Paolo gave her an uncertain look. “If he didn’t give you access, I don’t know if I should.”
“I need to get to the temple,” she said. “Naaz needs me.”
She tacked the last part on as an afterthought. She had no idea how much these guys knew about what she and her brother were after. The majority of Ultiori Hunters were kept in the dark about the finer points of dragon hibernations. They only needed to know how to hunt the ones who were awake, after all, and couldn’t have accessed any of the hibernation temples if they’d wanted to. That was a detail the Ultiori had learned early on. Dragons didn’t fuck around when it came to protecting their offspring.
Paolo rubbed a hand over his face and swung his legs over the edge of the bed. “Need me to wake the others? Surely the boss would want to know if your brother’s in trouble. We probably owe you guys, after the shit we put you through for the last two months.”
“No!” she blurted, then took a deep breath. “I mean, Zorion’s wiped out. It isn’t dire. I just need to get to the temple … It’s kind of a family thing. Personal.”
He was still clad in pants and slipped his feet into the boots left on the floor beside his bunk. Risin
g, he grabbed a shirt and nodded at her as he pulled it on.
“C’mon, it’s this way.”
Exhaling with relief, she followed him out the door. They wound around the corridor and into the break room. Three of the other Hunters glanced up from their card game. Paolo cursed and stalked over to the table. He picked up the empty bottle that sat at the edge and waved it in the air.
“What gives, guys? This was supposed to last us two more days.”
“Don’t worry man. Phillips went to restock.”
“Does the boss know? You know we’ve gotta get approval for shit like this.”
“Boss was indisposed,” one of the men said, giving Neela a sidelong look.
“Fuck. Well, it’s not on me if he loses his shit. Make sure he knows that.”
He started to walk away and Neela fell into step. As they reached the exit to the room, he paused and turned back. “You guys didn’t see us, got it?”
The trio of Hunters chuckled. One guy nodded. “Fair enough. Nobody broke any rules tonight. Not one.” Neela caught a wink as Paolo gripped her arm and urged her on.
She thought she’d explored the place thoroughly the day before, but when the floor started to gradually incline, she knew they were in a section she hadn’t seen.
“How the hell did I miss this?”
“You gotta know it’s there. The opening’s not visible except from the right angle, and the place is arranged so you tend to always travel the corridors in one direction. You’d have found it eventually.”
Within moments, they emerged through a rock face onto a ledge overlooking a canyon. It was the same narrow canyon she and Naaz had last been ambushed in on their way to the temple.
“Path down is there,” Paulo said, pointing to a shadowy area behind a scrubby bush.
“Thank you. I owe you one,” she said, giving his arm a squeeze.
His brows furrowed as he nodded. “You sure you’re cool? I can come with. Make sure the dingoes don’t get you.”
OBell_Immortal05.5Blessed_022018_AllRetailers Page 8
