by Aidy Award
Jules's cries became incoherent words and Dax delivered his final coup. He released just one dancing flame from his dragon's fire and let it flicker over her clit and down to his hand. He allowed the warmth of the fire to slide inside of her and quiver as he rubbed her g-spot.
"Dax. Oh, oh. Dax, Dax, Dax." Jules's muscles locked and she screamed his name as the orgasm over took her entire body. She came around his fingers so hard he could feel her muscles clenching, and her clit pulsed and fluttered inside of his mouth. He continued to push her body, pushing to give him every drop of pleasure, drawing her climax out as long as he absolutely could.
She collapsed back to the floor and still her body shook. Dax lifted his head and the sight of her dazzled him. The fire he'd given her sparkled and spun across her skin, undulating to and fro in time to the beat of her body. Not only had she taken his fire, a feat only other wielders of the element could normally do, but she played with it, making it into a more beautiful version of their powers combined.
Dax licked his way up her body, extinguishing the flames as he went until he'd captured them all, and he was looking at the shining new mark he'd made on her collarbone. A fiery red dragon shone there, looking like a living tattoo on her skin. His mark. No man or dragon would ever doubt that she belonged to a dragon, that she belonged to him.
He kissed each of her eyelids, closed still, and then her satisfied smiling lips. The sunshine pendant went nuts on her neck, sparkling and vibrating.
Jules moaned, "You're insatiable. I'm all up for playing with a vibrating toy, but maybe not on my neck."
She reached up to touch the pendant and met Dax's hand doing the same thing. He lifted the pendant and Jules opened her eyes just in time to see it disintegrate in his fingers and turn into sparkling red, blue, green, gold, black, and white jewels. No. Not jewels. Scales. They lifted out of his hand and swirled in a tiny eddy of air. They rose into the sunshine pouring into her room from the window and disappeared into the light.
"That was cool. But why would she give me a necklace and then take it away?" Jules reached into the light as if she could still touch the residual magic instead of only dust motes.
"Who gave you that necklace?" The scales, so brightly colored, could only have come from one dragon. His friend Steele had said when he had a near death experience that he'd seen the First Dragon and the White Witch.
"I'm not sure. I can't seem to bring the memory into focus," Jules gasped. "You don't think it's that lady in red, the succubus queen whosie-what's-her-face, do you?"
He hadn't meant to scare her. He wanted nothing to ever scare her again. Dax moved to lay on the blanket with her and relaxed. He pulled her onto his chest and stroked his hands through her hair. "No. There was nothing evil about it. It drew its light from your magic and called to mine. I think that was a gift from a divine matchmaker."
Jules mimicked Dax's stroking fingers but on his chest. "Like a goddess? Do dragons have a goddess of love?"
"No. We don't worship any gods, not in the sense of a religion. We do revere the First Dragon and his mate, the White Witch. We're dragons because of him, but we can shift between our dragon and human selves because of her gift of love for him and their children. They are the parents of all Dragonkind. The first Wyverns were their children."
Jules at up and stretched. "Huh. I was sure there was some sort of goddess. Super gorgeous curvy mother nature type, creamy tan skin, sort of Middle Eastern looking like Gal, wears all white, flowing robes and all that."
Dax couldn't resist touching her, he was so damn drawn to her. He ran his hand up the side her rib cage, loving her softness. He kept going and circled her breasts, teasing her before moving his hands up to run along his mark on her. "Is that who gave you the necklace?"
"Maybe. I'm not being coy. It's weird, like she's at the periphery of my vision and I can't quite see her." Jules yawned and threw a leg over Dax's.
She seemed completely comfortable in her nakedness now. He'd worried for nothing. He'd never felt more at ease in his life. There was no after-sex weirdness. Just the two of them enjoying being together. "I know the feeling. It may be because we're both exhausted. When's the last time you slept?"
She blinked thinking for a minute. "About twenty-four hours ago. Yesterday, before I met you."
It seemed incredible that he'd met his mate, marked her, and claimed her in the span of a few hours. There was no denying fate once he'd found her. Okay, so he'd tried to deny it at first. He still didn't understand how he could be mated before Match. That's not how it worked. He'd just have to ask his Wyvern when he arrived later today.
Jules yawned again and Dax used that as an excuse to take action. He pulled her into his arms, wrapped the blankets around her and picked her up. When he set her on the bed, he kissed her long and hard, wanting to linger much longer than he should. He reluctantly broke the kiss and took one large step back knowing full well if he didn't, he wouldn't be leaving her bed anytime soon. "Get some sleep now, my pretty mate."
Her eyes flicked back and forth when he called her his mate. It wasn't like he'd talked to her about what marking and claiming really meant. Only in the heat of the moment. Which made him a huge douchecanoe. He mentally prepared a speech. Maybe he should do the human custom of going down on one knee to ask her to be with him forever. Shit. What if she said no? What if this was nothing but working off a whole lot of battle-fueled adrenaline. He'd done that plenty of times himself. This wasn't one of those times. Sex with Jules meant something.
Then she patted the pillow next to her. "Come sleep with me."
He needed a little time to think of a plan, on how to talk to her about how they were connected now. He'd plan something romantic and woo her not only into his bed, but into his life. Forever. He could definitely use some advice from a more experienced dragon in his Prime. "There's nothing I want more, but my Wyvern, the alpha of the Red Dragons, is on his way here. So is the AllWyvern, Cage. He's the leader of all dragon warriors during this war with the Black Dragon. I need to fly out to meet them and let them know what's happened here."
"Oh." Her eyes dropped and she fiddled with the blanket, scratching and pulling at an invisible spec of nothing. "Okay, then. I understand. I'll see you around, then."
The light in the room faded as if a cloud had passed overhead in the sky. But it was the light from her that had gone dim. Shit. He was fucking this up left and right. "Lass. No. Come here. Let me show you something."
She frowned but allowed him to take her hand and pull her across the room to a small square mirror hung near the door. He kissed her neck, right over her mark and stepped out of the way so she could see. Her eyes went as wide as they could and she gaped at her reflection. Dax bit the inside of his lip to keep from blurting something dumb out. She needed time to process.
Jules reached up and touched the mark, running her fingers along the design of the red dragon. It stretched and writhed under her hand like a pet vying for more attention. "Whoa."
She didn't say more than that and Dax's nerves were jumping around in his chest like cats on caffeine. He had absolutely no idea what she was thinking. Was she mad? Was she freaking out? He was.
Dax took a breath to say something and Jules held up a single finger to shush him. "A. My sex hair is fan-fucking-tastic and I expect you to do this to me every morning because lord knows I can't get it to have this much body."
"Every morning?" That was a good sign. He would resign himself to being her sex-hair stylist if nothing else. The anxiety jumping around inside of him hadn't yet subsided though, because she hadn't acknowledged the mark. His mark.
"Yes, and B. That is the coolest thing I have ever seen in my life. It's so beautiful. It looks just like you. Thank you."
Holy First Dragon, he could breathe again. You're welcome did not seem like the appropriate response here. "It’s only as beautiful as you are, my love. My mark wouldn't look as good on anyone else. It was made for you. Just as I was."
Jules
turned and looked up into his eyes. They shimmered and sparkled with a golden light that hadn't been there before. "What do you mean made for me? How could that be, until a couple days ago I was nothing more than a plain human."
"Fate. We were fated to be mates. I don't profess to know how any of this works, because up until earlier this year dragon warriors weren't even sure we could even still have mates at all. Not since the First Dragon and his mate died. Reds are the last holdout, too. I have no idea how I got so lucky to find you."
Dax had heard that some women didn't do great with the whole fate thing. Everyone liked to think they had choices in life and who they loved was a biggie. At the end of the day she could choose not to be with him, but there would never be another for either of them. They would be miserable, but he would abide by her decision.
Although, he would fight for her. She was worth it.
Jules stayed quiet, looking into his eyes, studying the inside of his soul if he had to guess. He should wait and allow her to come to whatever conclusions about their relationship all on her own. He couldn't do it. "So, uh, what do you think? Because I want you to know it doesn't matter even a little bit to me that we just met or that we're riding the high of battle adrenaline or anything else. I am all in, Jules."
She pulled her lips into her mouth, either thinking or trying not to blurt out like he just had. If she didn't say something soon he was going to--
"This is so freaking cool." She jumped up and wrapped her arms around his neck and peppered his face and neck with a thousand little kisses. "I was sure I was doomed to a boring lonely life where I could only watch all the amazing supernatural beings around me live these amazing lives. Now I am one and fate has dived into the fray too and said here's the dragon, man, warrior, sex god, who you get to fall in insta-love with and it's not weird or creepy to him because he feels the same? Hell, yeah I'm all in."
Thank the First Dragon. Dax had every intention to go out and meet up with Match and Cage before they arrived in Rogue, but that was going to have to wait until after he sexed up his lover one more, or seven more times. He grabbed Jules by the waist and swung her around. She squealed and laughed and the sunshine filled the room once again.
Mark her. Claim her. Mate her.
Give her your soul.
The shard at his neck lit up and its hot red light joined her golden beams. Excitement and love burst through his chest, tightening it until he thought his heart would burst. There was one more thing he had to do.
He set Jules down and dropped down onto one knee. Her hands went up covering her mouth and she did an adorable little dance with her feet. Dax grasped the cord his soul shard hung from and lifted it. "Jules, this shard contains a piece of my soul. It was pulled from me by a powerful witch when I came of age and allowed me the power to take my dragon form. It gave me dominion over the element of fire, but its true purpose was to show me the way to my true mate."
Jules nodded and the glimmer of joyful tears glistened in her eyes.
"Will you take my soul and give me yours in return? I am yours for all eternity. Will you be mine?"
She blinked and nodded her head. Suddenly, her throat bobbed and she swallowed. Her mouth turned down into a frown, and fear burst out of her eyes. "No. No no no no no."
She reached out for Dax, but her arm froze in mid air. Jules’s body went rigid and she collapsed into convulsions.
One Bad Trip Deserves Another
Damn. Damn. Damn.
This vision stuff was getting old real fast. She had the love of a lifetime to get back to and was really looking forward to more fiery orgasms with him. But no. She had to be pulled into another vision. She looked around trying to figure out who or what was interfering with her sex life.
This vision wasn't as foggy or stifling as the previous ones. She'd always been frozen and unable to do anything but watch what was happening around her before. This time she could move, walk about, and interact with where ever she was. This was less a vision and more like she'd been transported somewhere else.
The only reason she was sure her body was still in the bedroom of her little house with the dragon that she loved was the steady heartbeat pulsing from her hands. That wasn't her heart. Dax must be freaking out and at the same time doing all he could to keep her grounded. If they were being forced to be apart right at this critical time in their relationship, she was damn well going to make the best of the situation. The sooner she could get back to him, the better.
"Hello? Is anyone here? What is it you want me to see?" Where before the visions had all taken place outside, this one was somewhere dark and hot. Maybe underground even. Jules reached out and touched the wall of what looked like a cave. The stone was craggy with sharp bits and her hand came away blackened as if everything was covered in soot. Gross.
Up ahead a soft red glow emanated from some sort of larger space than the tunnel she seemed to be in. The color reminded her of the light from Dax's soul shard. The one he had been about to give her.
Jules touched her neck and found the cord and pendant hanging there. Its warmth gave her a modicum of strength and even in this strange state, Dax's love and protection swirled around her. He may not be here with her, but he was still watching out for her. She used that knowledge to give her the courage she needed to move toward the glow and find out what in the world was happening.
At the entrance to the cavern, Jules paused and snuck a quick peek around the corner of the wall. There was indeed a room with half a dozen other tunnels breaking off from this main hub. Nooks were carved into the stone in several places around the room and above each one hung bright sparkling charms of some sort. In fact, they looked like Christmas ornaments. How strange.
She didn't see anyone in the room so it seemed safe enough to venture out and explore. There had to be a reason she was here specifically. The first carved-out area looked like an armory of sorts. There were a lot of very shiny swords, a box covered in small glittering mirrors, and a few armor-type items made of dark red and black leather. It was way too hot down here to be wearing that kind of clothing.
She didn't exactly know what she was looking for, so simply catalogued the stuff in her mind and moved to the next alcove. This one had a platform of some sort carved into the stone. A bed maybe? She glanced across to the other one and saw the same. Sparks moved up and down the entrance to the little alcoves and Jules realized it was a force field of some sort. She didn't see any sort of electrical panel or anything so it must be magical and not futuristic science. Whatever it was, she couldn't see beyond it except for the stone inside.
Handy spell, that. She wouldn't mind learning how to only allow people to see what she wanted them, too. If this was only a vision she could maybe move through the magical force field and see what lay inside. She crept closer and touched just the very tippy tip of her finger to one of the sparks running down from the ceiling. Nothing happened.
Cool. She pushed her hand through and since there didn't seem to be any side effects, stepped through and into the tiny room.
"I see he's captured you. I'd hoped you would become my ally and not my enemy, Gold Witch."
A shot of adrenaline hit her straight in the heart along with a boulder of dread dropping into her gut. A woman dressed in red leather, with about a dozen knives and daggers strapped to her legs, arms, and waist stood against one wall of the cave. On the bed of stone, the image of Ellie, but once again older, lay snuggled up with a stuffed bear sans head. She was both here and in her own bed.
Right before her eyes Ellie's body and face transformed from that of a young teenage girl at that all legs and arms awkward stage into a beautiful young woman. In a couple of blinks of an eye, she aged at least five or six years.
Jules jumped toward the shadowy figure of the girl she'd known as a baby only a day ago. "Stop. What are you doing to her?"
The woman in red shoved Jules so that she fell to the floor and the sharp stone suddenly felt all too real. Her hands stung with the burn
of the rock scraping her skin open and she was going to have one mega bruise on her butt when she got out of here.
"I'm saving her from a fate like yours. It's either this," the woman pointed to Ellie, "or this.” A red ball of light, formed in the woman's hands, looking more like a colorful crystal ball, rather than a weapon. She threw the fiery orb at Jules's face.
Jules ducked and covered her face with her bleeding hands. The ball struck her anyway and her world flashed into another vision. This one was like the others. She couldn't move, couldn't interact, couldn't breathe. All she could do was stare at the death and destruction around her.
The ground appeared scorched and dead, covered in great patches of slimy black oil and ash. In the sky above her, an army of dragon warriors flew like airplanes, diving and spinning, fighting an army of red-eyed black dragons. One by one the dragon warriors fell to the burnt land all around her. Land that she recognized.
Over there was the strip mall where she'd gotten her first job at a frozen yogurt shop. On the corner was the shell of a gas station still burning. Down the street, where the library should be, was nothing but a great crater in the land. Slowly her body turned, allowing her to see the ruins of Rogue all around her.
Her vision flashed again and she was at the beach. The bodies of great blue dragons and dozens of dark-skinned mermaids floated in the surf like bodies of soldiers at Normandy. The water was red with their blood.
Her vision flashed and she saw the clearing in the forested reserve where the wolf pack held the mating ceremonies.
The wolves were all there. All of her friends. Dead.
She flashed once more but not far. She floated above the land near the dragon tree that had been created in the last battle the wolves and dragons had against the King of Hell. Below her a group of dragons and women stood together, elemental magic circling and floating all around them. There were two big green dragons, three gold ones, a blue one and two reds. One she recognized.