Oh. “It sounds like you don’t agree with them being the same thing.”
She pushed up her jacket sleeves and displayed the dark skin on her forearms. “Do I look like I would keep slaves?”
“No,” he said. “Not at all. And you don’t seem to be the type of callous, inhumane psychopath who would do such a thing, either.”
“Right?” she asked him, obviously frustrated as her hands flexed into claws, then fists. “Elementals are sentient, but they’re not slaves. They’re more like—” she bobbled her head, casting around for the word, “—cats.”
“Cats?” Cai asked. “Having cats isn’t immoral.”
“Exactly. An elemental contained in a vial is a fluffy, happy, snugly housecat sleeping in a basket in the sun. A wild elemental is a scared, skinny feral cat gnawing on a chicken bone that might splinter and kill it because it’s too hungry. They’re happier when they’re contained. And safer. And everyone else is safer, too. A better analogy for a wild elemental might be a skinny, angry tiger hunting near a preschool. I’ve been working with them for over a decade, and they enter the bottles of their own free will. There’s not a witch or mage on Earth that can bottle an elemental if they don’t want to go, at least not long-term. But capturing magic can get dark.”
“This doesn’t sound unethical.”
“And you saw that guy on the stage today. If an elemental isn’t happy, they will escape. What’s unethical is when people use them for bad things, like sending a fire elemental to burn a snitch’s house down or whipping up a wind elemental into a tornado to take out a town that isn’t keeping up its insurance premiums. That’s unethical.”
He could see where that might give elemental magic a bad rep. “Dragons have a reputation problem, too. Burning things down upsets people.”
“And some elemental witches do abuse them, just like some assholes abuse animals. Oops, sorry.” She covered her mouth.
“I work with rock stars and roadies. I’ve heard worse,” Cai told her. She was cute when she cussed and cuter when she was embarrassed.
“Okay, sorry. That fire guy today was so skittish. I’m pretty sure that he had been abused. Do you know where he came from?”
“The band that was packing in, Dark Horizons, denied knowing anything about it, but you never know. DH is known to be a little rough around the edges. Dragon’s Den doesn’t allow the use of elementals by traveling acts in the arena. Insurance premiums for supernatural effects is expensive.”
She nodded. “Right. Well, I’ll work with him for a couple of weeks to gentle him. He’ll probably be okay. It just takes some time and love.”
He smiled at her. “Any magic that begins with love doesn’t sound like evil magic to me.”
The word love reverberated in his mouth and heart.
He tried not to think about what that meant.
Ember said, “Thank you. That’s what I think. That’s how it feels. Black magic begins with the unholy joy of hurting people. It delights in controlling and wounding others.”
Yeah, that was how Cai grew up. Even though he’d never felt that way, he understood what it was like to be on the receiving end of it. It was probably a very good thing that his mother hadn’t been a witch.
“What happens if you can’t?” he asked.
“Hmmm, what?” Ember asked as the hostess walked toward them, holding steaming plates.
“Can’t gentle them,” Cai said.
She sighed. “That’s a tough situation. If they don’t bond, if they’re too wild to bond, then you have to let them go. Sometimes, you can tell right off if they’re too wild to be tamed. They can’t be around people at all because they’re too dangerous, and they don’t like people, either. If a cat isn’t domesticated when they’re a kitten, then sometimes you can find a barn for them to live in, to catch mice and be feral. You can’t even do that with elementals. You have to take them out into their element and set them free.”
“And the fire elemental? What would you do with him if he was too wild?”
“I had one like that a long time ago. I gave her to a friend, who set her free in an active volcano in Hawaii. Loralei said that the elemental found a herd of other fire elementals within minutes, and she’d seemed happy. Domesticated elementals wouldn’t do that, though. If you tried to drop them into a volcano, they’d hop right back into their bottles and rattle you to take them home.”
The hostess placed their lunches on the table.
Cai dug in, and the burger was hot and juicy in the crisp lettuce wrap, and the fries were crunchy in his mouth. He called the hostess back. “Could I get another order of these fries?”
She ran back to the kitchen, and Ember laughed at him. “Flying must be a workout.”
No, mating fever increased appetite because his dragon was growing.
Jeez, that beast was already big. He was going to be the size of Mathonwy’s dragon if he grew any more, though Math’s dragon had probably increased in size since he’d mated, too. Dang, that monster of Math’s must be the size of a 747 now. Or a battleship.
But Cai couldn’t tell Ember that, so he said, “Yep, flying makes you hungry.”
And yet, the thought occurred to Cai as he inhaled his burger and munched fries, what if he did tell her about the mating fever? What if he took her hand, told her that he loved her and was enthralled by her, even though they’d only met a few times? What if he asked her to be his dragonmate, telling her that he would be her devoted mate and mount for centuries until they went down the well of time together?
And he stuffed that thought right down in the dark hole it belonged in and he shoved more fries into his mouth, lest he accidentally slip and propose marriage and mating to a girl he’d met just over a week before and had freaked out on while they were in bed that first afternoon.
Yeah, no good could come from that sort of conversation, yet.
And after he’d finished devouring this burger, he should sprint as far away as he could from the lovely, curvy, delectable Ember Niamh, lest he succumb to mating frenzy and go insane.
Devouring
AFTER lunch, Ember’s back thumped against the wall, but Cai’s hand protected her skull from bonking against the plaster.
“Thanks for lunch,” she whispered against his plush lips, her voice throaty as she unbuttoned his shirt.
“Thanks for taking care of the fire elemental,” Cai growled as he pulled her blouse out of the waistband of her slacks. He kicked the front door to his penthouse shut behind them with one of his long, muscular legs.
Ember gave up on his buttons and started yanking his shirt out of his pants. “Thanks for the ridiculous amounts of jewelry that I’m going to give back to you.”
“Don’t. Keep it.” He grabbed her hip and forced her stomach against his strong body. His heavy muscles under his clothes practically glowed from the heat flowing through the fabric under her palms. “Thanks for accepting a job with the Dragon’s Den Casino so that I can see you and your gorgeous body every day.”
She ran her hands up his bulging arms and over his broad shoulders, thinking, Yep, this time. Totally this time. It’s gonna happen this time. “Thanks for not running away from me this time.”
His chuckle vibrated against the side of her throat. “I’ll do my best.”
He slung her up in his strong arms and carried her to his bedroom, grinning and baring his straight and white teeth between his lips.
She asked him, “Hey, are we going to—”
He tossed her on the bed, and the springy mattress bounced her. He clambered onto the bed after her, still laughing. “You bet, we are. I’ve been dying to touch you. I’ve been dreaming about having you ever since we met.”
She leaned back as he kissed her, his mouth opening over hers, and he nudged her back on the bed. She grinned at him. “Didn’t seem like it last time.”
“And I said I would do my best not to do that again. God, Ember. You’re so beautiful. I can’t keep my hands off of you, or my lips
, or my—”
“Hey,” she said, winding her arms around his neck, “you might want to put a towel down.”
“Oh, are you okay with this? Some girls aren’t.”
“Are you okay with it?” she asked.
“I don’t care,” he said, lipping down her throat. “It’s never bothered me.”
Ember laughed a breathless gasp. “How many virgins have you had?”
Cai stopped kissing her.
He pushed himself up on his arms. His fiery green eyes were a little wider, and his smile was gone. “Virgins?”
“Um, yeah.”
His amazing green eyes widened. “You’re a virgin?”
“Yeah,” Ember admitted.
Cai climbed off of her and sat on the edge of the bed. “Oh, so that’s why you were so nonchalant about the napkin thing in the ballroom and came right upstairs with me that day. Virgins never know their own power. You didn’t realize that you were playing with fire. Virginal explorations are terrifying.” He started putting his shoes on.
Ember grabbed his shoulders and tried to wrestle him backward onto the bed. “You are not doing this to me again. You get back in this bed.”
“This is not a good idea, Ember.”
“Cai, I mean it.”
His head dropped back, and he stared at the ceiling. “Seriously, oh ye Dragon Lords? You send me a virgin? Me, of all people?”
She shoved his back a little bit. “Look, I just want a nice guy who knows what he’s doing. And after the other week, you seem to have some pretty good skills in the bedroom area. I’m tired of waiting around for Mr. Right and my wedding night and all the clear-magic signs.”
Cai turned toward her, and she could have sworn that his green eyes were glowing even more brightly. “Have you ever wanted to slap the Mistresses of Magic upside their heads? Because the Dragon Lords are bastards, and when I see them, I’m going to punch them in their mouths.”
Ember laughed because the situation was just so ridiculous. “There is a Dark Mistress. If she had an evil sense of humor, that would explain a lot about the world. But you promised you wouldn’t run away again.”
“I’m not. I’m calmly leaving for now, as I should.” He leaned back over and tied his other shoe. His white shirt stretched dangerously tightly over his broad shoulders. “You deserve better than this, Ember, especially for your first time. You deserve something a lot better than a hot and dirty afternoon.”
A hot and dirty afternoon sounded like exactly what she wanted. “Cai—”
“I can’t hang out with you tonight. Prior appointment.” He took his phone out of his pocket and powered it on. A series of chimes, bells, and one alarm buzz whistled out of it. “Several prior engagements. I missed three meetings during lunch, evidently, and another conference room is asking where the hell I am. This casino isn’t going to gala-open itself.” He sighed. “And I do have a lot to finish, and only a short time to do it in.”
She rolled backward on the bed. Her brain was going to frickin’ explode out of her eyeballs and ear holes. She pressed her fists against her temples and squeezed her eyes shut. “I cannot believe you’re doing this to me again.”
“Oh, me either, Ember. I’m as shocked as you are.” His dry tone sounded almost annoyed.
“You’re being ridiculous,” she started, opening her eyes.
He leaned over where she lay, resting on his forearms. “Yeah, I know. But you deserve a great night, not just this.”
Where his forearm touched hers, his skin was scalding hot.
She touched his cheek with the back of her fingers. “You’re burning up. Are you sick?”
He shook his head and pulled away from her. “Dragons run hot.”
“That makes sense. With the fire and stuff.”
“In a couple of days or so, we’ll do it right, okay? Maybe this weekend. We’ll dress up. We’ll go out for dinner. I’ll try to score some tickets to a show or something. We’ll make it a wonderful evening, and if you still want me to, then I’ll show you what you’ve been missing.”
He kissed her with a long, slow, soothing caress on her mouth.
Even his lips felt hot against hers.
When he pulled away, Ember’s head was spinning.
He asked, “All right?”
“Yeah,” she whispered. “All right.”
She might have agreed to anything just then.
He stood up and finished buttoning his shirt. “You’ve already eaten lunch, so no room service this time, okay?”
Dust Devils
OUTSIDE the Dragon’s Den Casino, a sandstorm roared through the air and painted the sky orange.
Cai Wyvern ran back toward the casino’s revolving door with one arm over his face, shouting into his phone, “The air elementals that were on the roof of the King Solomon’s Mines casino got loose! Can you bottle them up? Please?”
Ember was already running out of the Dragon’s Den casino’s spinning door, striding with those long, curvy legs that made him want to wrap her limbs around his waist and fill his hands with her ass. Her hair flew around her head, and her oversized purse flopped behind her back. She yelled over the howling wind, “I’m here! What the heck happened?”
“I don’t know! One minute, I was over by the fountain looking at the stinky sea serpents, and then next, bam! Sandstorm!”
“There are two of them?” she yelled.
Cai pointed at the bare room of the casino next door. “Both of them are gone! I assume they’re both out here.”
She looked around at the chaos of the wind swirling through the concrete security planters and blowing newspapers and fast food soda cups with the dirt and twigs. “I’ve got this! You can go inside!”
He would have liked to go inside the casino because his squishy human skin was getting sandblasted, but leaving Ember out here at the mercy of capricious elementals seemed wrong. Elementals are dangerous, sentient magical entities, capable of performing powerful magic and physically strong. His dragon might be able to protect or rescue her if her elemental whispering capabilities didn’t work.
Ember slung her purse to the ground and set out two larger vials, laying their stoppers on the ground beside them. The wind tipped over one of the bottles.
Cai yelled, “Do you need me to hold them up?”
Ember nodded.
He sat down on the warm cement, legs crossed, and held the bottles at their bases. In his long fingers, the bottles looked too small to hold a serving of soda pop, let alone the pair of dust devils whirling over the courtyard and darkening the sky. Grit coated his eyes, and he blinked as his tears cleared out the dirt.
Ember sat across from him, her legs folded, and she settled her wrists on her knees again, palms up. Her face stilled, a small smile relaxing her features.
Man, he wished he could read what was going on in her head.
He didn’t have to wish it, he realized after a minute. Calm energy radiated from her like a warm breeze on his skin.
The raging air elementals blew around them, whipping Ember’s natural curls around her head and flapping her clothes against her body.
Cai tried to keep his eyes on her face and failed utterly.
The wind pressed her clothes to her curves until the thin cloth looked painted on. He could see every ridge of her bra and the luxurious swells of her breasts.
His fingers loosened on the bottles, but he grabbed them before they tipped over.
The serenity on her face was alluring, and he settled backward, lest he rise up on his knees and brush a kiss across her lips.
That might distract her from her job.
He hoped it would distract her. What was he, chopped dragon liver?
The wind around them fluttered a little less frantically.
Ember’s full lips parted, and her eyebrows raised as if in pleasant surprise.
One of the whirlwinds condensed, relinquishing its fury, and spun itself into a bottle.
Ember whispered, almost singing, “Put
the stopper in.”
Cai grabbed the stopper and plugged the top of the bottle.
Wow, she’d already caught one. Just one more to go.
But the other air elemental whipped around them, buffeting Cai where he sat, and the wind slapped Ember. Her blouse snapped in the gale, and her hair flowed in the rising wind.
Cai glanced up, the blowing sand stinging his eyes.
Clouds were gathering above them.
Electricity crackled.
He asked, “Um, Ember?”
She opened her eyes a little, squinting at the thunderstorm gathering above them. “Dammit.” Her eyes squeezed tightly, and her forehead wrinkled in concentration.
The clouds roiled and expanded, filling the sky. “Ember.”
Lightening slammed between the clouds, thundering like the air was exploding around them.
Cai’s dragon jumped into the air, and he couldn’t even fight for control. He watched, trying to bring his dragon to heel and take back over as Wyvern crouched over Ember, shielding her and bellowing at the cracking sky.
He ducked his head to check on Ember and make sure she was all right. Cai watched out the dragon’s eyes, still fighting for control.
Ember was still frantically looking around at the dragon that was standing over her, her head swiveling as she crouched in the small space under his belly. She looked straight at his face and said, “You aren’t going to squash me like a bug, are you?”
Cai took enough control to swivel the dragon’s head back and forth and then lost his grip.
“Or fry me?” she asked.
Cai latched onto the soul and body and shook the dragon’s head no.
“Okay, then. You just stay right there, big guy. That air elemental is insane. He is out of his mind. Desperate times call for desperate measures.”
The dragon braced his legs against the battering wind and lowered his wings around the space, making a low-ceilinged room built of dragon flesh around her. He kept watching her, though he turned his head upside down. With her black, flowing skirt and his head upside down like that, she kind of looked like she was clinging to the ceiling like a cute little fruit bat that might nibble on a mango.
Dragons and Fire Page 10
