Survivor (Dragon Shifter Book 4)

by Naomi Sparks

  And once she hits that stage, I open my eyes and grin at her. My hands still firmly grasping her hips, I move my own hips in time with hers. The sound of flesh slapping against flesh fills the room, and I hope no one else is awake to hear us. Especially since, not long after that, our moans echo off the wall. Neither of us can contain our sounds of pleasure as we both chase our impending orgasms.

  Somehow, by some miracle, Faith is the first one to come. She yells out as her entire body shakes. Her pussy clamps down around my cock, becoming like a vice. And that's all I can stand. I push my hips up and pull her down at the same time as my cock throbs and explodes inside her.

  God, it seems like we're lost in that unimaginable pleasure for an eternity. And yet...

  When I come back down from that high, it doesn't seem nearly long enough. My entire body aches and is covered in a thin layer of sweat as I suck in breath after breath, trying to get my heart to stop racing. And yet, I want more, crave more. I can easily spend the rest of my life like this, making love to Faith.

  When Faith finally crawls off and snuggles against me, I know we should both go shower, change the sheets, and clean up. But I can't bring myself to get out of bed. We can deal with all of it in the morning.

  It takes only a few minutes before Faith drifts off to sleep in my arms. And as I lay there, a content smile on my face, I realize, she never said she would come with us. Before I can think on it too long though, my eyes droop and I fall asleep, figuring we can just talk about it in the morning.

  12

  Faith

  I wake up with a gasp. My entire body is shaking, covered in a cold sweat. I look around for the source but find nothing. It's only once my heart stops racing and the fog of sleep clears that I realize it had all been a dream. No, not a dream. A nightmare.

  And not just one nightmare either but one after another. In all of them Jerrick was killed by either Amasis or one of Amasis's men. Each nightmare was progressively worse, Jerrick dying in a more horrifying and painful manner each time. Even now, thinking back on them, even with the details slowly fading from memory as sleep completely leaves me, I can't help but feel terrified.

  I pull the blankets up around my naked body and look over at Jerrick. He's still sound asleep and partially uncovered, his chest and torso on display for me. Even in the low moonlight, he looks gorgeous and amazing. And I can't bear to let any of those dreams come true. I can't bear to let anyone hurt him because of me.

  Prophecy isn't my power, it's Hannah's. I realize, perhaps I'd tapped into her power when she'd had a vision. Being able to read her thoughts, and her room being right next to this one, it's possible.

  And even if what I'd dreamed isn't true, I still need to get away from Jerrick and the others. Amasis is going to come for them. They've been on his radar for a while now, but if I stay with them, Amasis will stop at nothing to get me back. Which puts all of them in danger. And I'm not willing to risk their lives just to save myself.

  Being careful not to wake Jerrick up, I slip out of bed and find my clothes. Then, I pack a few things into a bag and sneak downstairs and out, into the night. It's still early, but I know the sun will rise soon.

  Maybe if I head to the docks, I can find some work. Find someone who's willing to take on a woman with no ID and get me out of here. I've never worked on a ship before, but I'm willing to learn if it means getting away from Seattle, away from Amasis.

  I lose track of time as I walk in the direction of the harbor. The farther I get from Jerrick, the more I start second guessing myself. Should I have stayed with him? He was the one who wanted to risk his life for me. I didn't ask him to do that. Maybe staying with them, leaving the city with them, is a better idea than my half-assed plan of finding a boat who's willing to take me on.

  There's a park up ahead, and I detour into it. I find a bench and sit there, closing my eyes and wondering what the Hell I should be doing. Which option is the right one?

  I can imagine how upset Jerrick will be when he wakes up and finds out I'm gone. But, maybe that's for the best. If he doesn't know where I went, then Amasis might leave him alone. Is that wrong, though? After everything he's done for me, it feels wrong to disappear on him, especially after last night.

  Finally, I let out a sigh and stand up. I need to go back, I decide. Leaving in the middle of the night, without so much as a note left behind, was not the right thing to do. It's the childish thing to do. And if I walk quickly, I can be back before the sun is up, and maybe he won't notice I left. Then, we can talk and figure things out. Find somewhere for me to go that keeps both of us safe.

  I'm halfway through the park when a loud roar fills my head. Before I can turn to look for the source, something hard rushes into me, knocking me to the ground. I try to scramble away, but whoever just ran into me holds me impossibly tight. I try to yell out but the moment I open my mouth.it's stuffed with something to muffle my screams.

  I turn over, still trying to get away and come face to face with Leon. My heart nearly stops as he grins down at me. No, I tell myself. This has to be a dream. There's no way he's found me. This isn't happening.

  "Lucky, lucky me," he says menacingly, and swings at me. His fist connects solidly with the side of my head, and then, the world fades away as darkness envelops me.

  My head is throbbing. I struggle to open my eyes. At first, I think I'm still in bed with Jerrick, exhausted from the hot sex we'd had. But as my eyes flutter open, I realize I'm not lying in bed. I'm sitting on a hard, wooden chair and my head is killing me. And there's isn't the bright morning light flooding into the room from Jerrick's open window. Rather, slashes and holes of light poke through the boards nailed over a window.

  "Where am I?" I wonder aloud.

  Chuckling answers my question. My head whips around toward the source of the voice. There’s a man with a buzz cut and a hideous, jagged scar on his face standing in the darkest corner of the room, grinning at me. He hasn’t shaven for weeks it looks like and his clothes are stained and covered with holes.

  I curse silently as the memories of this morning come back to me. Why had I stupidly left the house alone? I put myself in danger and now Leon has me.

  But that doesn't quite add up. How did Leon, of all people, find me? And where are we? This rundown shack isn't Amasis's compound. If Leon found me, why hasn't he taken me back to Amasis yet?

  "How did you find me?" I ask, unable to help myself. I need to know.

  Leon chuckles and pushes off the wall to come stand right in front of me. He squats down until we're at eye level, then grins, showing off all of his teeth. "I've been searching for you since you got away from me. I remembered vaguely where I'd lost track of you, so I just kept circling the area, trying to scent you out. I figured, sooner or later, I'd catch your scent and be able to track you down. And this morning, I did."

  I curse myself again. Maybe if I'd stayed with the guys, he wouldn't have been able to find me. With all the others in that house, including two other females, it made it harder for him to catch my scent. It was also the first time I had left the house since getting there. By leaving today, I painted a big red bullseye on my back like an idiot.

  God, Jerrick will kill me. Well, if Amasis doesn't first.

  Leon stays where he is, still grinning at me, and it's really creeping me out. Why is he looking at me like that? And why are we here instead of the compound? It wouldn't have taken him long to carry me from the park to the compound. So why stop here? Is Amasis on his way? Did Amasis decide it's too much of a risk to let me live?

  I take a few deep breaths, then close my eyes and focus. My powers are weaker now, but I can still hear Leon's thoughts. It only takes a moment before they're coming through loud and clear, rather than in short, choppy bursts.

  My stomach rolls as I figure everything out. He's not taking me back to the compound, not taking me back to Amasis at all. He plans to keep me for himself. Amasis is pissed that Leon lost me and blames him for my escape. Once I'm back a
t the compound, Amasis won't let Leon near me anymore. In fact, he’s worried that Amasis might just kill him outright for letting me get away.

  Leon thinks I belong to him, not to Amasis, and he isn't willing to give me up.

  “Dear God,” I think to myself, and start trying to figure out a way out of here. If there's one thing that's worse than going back to Amasis, it has to be being Leon's pet. The horror of that idea almost makes me regret leaving Amasis in the first place. At least Amasis kept Leon on a leash.

  Now, there's nothing to stop him from getting what he wants.

  Leon reaches out and grabs my chin. His fingers dig in, and I'm sure I'll have a bruise there after this, but he doesn't care. He just keeps grinning and gets right in my face. The smell of his breath turns my stomach. "Maybe once I claim you, Amasis will understand." Then he leans forward and pushes his lips hard against mine. I try to struggle away, but he keeps a tight grip on me, not letting me go anywhere.

  "You... you can't..." I get out once he breaks the kiss. My heart is racing, pounding, as my mind whirls. I need to think fast, need to get out of this, find some way to get out of here.

  "Oh, I can do this. You see, there's no one here to stop me. No one is going to stop me from getting what I want this time." He licks his lips as he looks me up and down, and I shudder.

  My stomach rolls, and I get an idea. I close my eyes and focus on the nausea, focus on the thoughts Leon is thinking. It hasn't been too long since my last round of morning sickness, and I still remember it clearly. When I hear Leon stepping forward again, I turn to the side and vomit onto the ground.

  Leon lets out a disgusted sound. I turn to look up at him with sad eyes, hoping he buys it. "I'm... I'm sorry... It's the baby, you know? The morning sickness. I can't control it." I let the tears I'd been fighting back finally fall. It's the only thing I can think of, the only way to buy time for someone to find me. Anyone.

  Leon grunts as he backs away from me. He frowns at me for a moment, then sighs and nods. "Yes, you're right. Besides, now that I have you, there's no need to rush. We have plenty of time."

  The way he grins at me almost makes me sick a second time.

  I just hope Jerrick finds me soon.

  Actually, I'm not hopeful of my prospects, after the way I left him last night.

  God, I'm such an idiot.

  13

  Jerrick

  I groan as light fills my vision. It's too early to be awake. I pull the pillow over my head to block out the light. When I reach out to pull Faith in against me, I find the bed empty and cold. I shove the pillow aside, as I look for Faith.

  She's not here. Her clothes are gone from the floor. My heart starts pounding immediately. I try to calm myself down, to tell myself she's just in the bathroom or downstairs getting breakfast. But I know that's not the case. She's not here. I don't know how I know it, but I know she's not here.

  I throw on clothes and practically run downstairs. Lex is down there, and I nearly run right into him. "What's going on?" he asks, grabbing my shoulders to keep me still.

  "Faith's gone," I tell him, the words not wanting to come out.

  Lex frowns, then guides me over to a chair and forces me to sit. "Relax. Breathe. You're no use to anyone if you're running around like a crazed maniac. Start from the beginning. What happened?"

  I tell him everything, about the pregnancy test, about asking her to come with us, and then about waking up to find her gone. Part of me wants to think she was taken, that Amasis found a way to get her, but I know that's not true. There's no way another dragon would have got in and out of the house without us noticing. And there's no way I wouldn't have sensed the presence of another dragon in my room last night.

  Besides, even now, no new scents linger here. Which means she left on her own and went God knows where.

  The panic slowly ebbs away as anger fills me instead. Why would she just up and leave like that? We've done everything we can to help her. I even offered for her to come with us, to keep her safe from Amasis. Why would she just leave without saying a word to me? Now I want to get out there and drag her back here just to knock some sense into her.

  It's stupid for her to be out there alone. She was standing right here when Bren told us the Clutch is out there scouring the city, trying to find all of us. Being out there by herself is dangerous, and I want to get her back here before they find her.

  But before I stand up again, the front door opens. Lex and I exchange a look, then practically bolt for the living room. But it's not Faith who came in. It's Bren. And once again, he's frowning, and I know he has some bad news. My heart leaps into my throat.

  Am I too late? Does Amasis already have Faith?

  "What's going on?" Lex asks.

  Bren pulls something out of his pocket, then hands it to Lex. The two of us stare at the burner phone for a moment, then look back at Bren with confused looks.

  "It's from Amasis," Bren says, his mouth tight. "I got this from one of my contacts. Apparently Amasis wants you to take an emergency call from him. I can only imagine what he wants to talk about."

  Maybe he wants to gloat about having gotten Faith back, I think to myself. But I force that thought down, refusing to voice it. I won't go there, I refuse to, until I'm absolutely sure. But I can't quite eliminate the fear that I'm too late, that I can't save her, that history is repeating itself once again. I'm not sure I can survive losing another woman.

  Lex tightens his grip around the phone. "Your sources didn't know anything?"

  Bran shakes his head and lets out a sigh. He looks exhausted, like all this is taking a toll on him, too. I kick myself for not realizing just how stressful this must be for all the others. Their lives are on the line, just like mine. It's not just me and Faith Amasis is hunting for. It's all of us, and he's not going to just ignore the others to get to us.

  The three of us head back into the kitchen together as I try to get my head together. If Faith is out there still, then I need to get out there and find her. The longer she's gone, the higher the chance of Amasis or one of his cronies finding her.

  But before I can really put together a plan, the phone rings. All three of us stare at it, then look at each other. Lex is the one who reaches out for it, flipping the phone open and pressing the button to turn it on speaker.

  "Yeah?" he asks, his voice tight and even. I can tell he's barely holding himself together. He doesn't want to talk to Amasis, but he can't just ignore the call either. He's a good leader and won't let his personal feelings get in the way.

  "Aleksander...." Amasis says, his voice deep and rich even over the crappy phone. "It is good to hear your voice again. How are you?"

  Lex lets out a sigh. His hands ball into fists so tight his knuckles turn white. I can only imagine how badly he wants to just smash the phone to pieces. But he doesn't. He just glares at it, as if that's enough to make it burst into flames.

  "What do you want?" he asks. I wonder if Amasis can hear the tension in his voice if it's just me. Does he know how Lex feels about him? Or is he so deluded that he really thinks Lex will just come back to him willingly?

  "Always right to the point, aren't you?" Amasis sighs, and I can picture him shaking his head in disappointment. Nonetheless, he continues. "I suppose you're aware of our breeding program?"

  "I am."

  "Well, then I'm sure you know about the mortality rate associated with it. It's such a shame, losing so many lives, both the mothers and the children. It's a shame, really, but it's necessary to ensure the survival of our race. Most of the women just don't have the magic required to sustain themselves or the babies."

  Now, the anger inside Lex looks like it's getting ready to bubble over. He reaches out and grips the back of the chair, his fingers dig into the wood. "What's your point?"

  Amasis really must be delusional if he doesn't understand why that might upset Lex. Or any of us. Or is he really just so much of a lost cause that he doesn't understand how people could care about the loss
of human lives? Lex isn't the only one getting angrier and angrier. Now, more than ever, I'm determined to keep Faith as far away from him as possible.

  A slight gasp makes us all whip around to see Hannah standing at the entryway. She's pale and shaky, bracing herself against the doorframe. I can tell Lex wants to rush over to her, but he doesn't dare, not with Amasis on the phone. Instead, I help brace and guide her over to the table.

  "I know one of the girls your little group has picked up is pregnant," Amasis continues, and all of us look at Hannah again. Lex's fingers bite into the wood of the chair, cracks appearing around his grip. "You're not quite as good at keeping secrets as you might think."

  I bite back a string of curses. No doubt Bo Deitweir, the Clutch's archivist, told Amasis after Lex contacted him with questions. Knowing what Lex asked, it wouldn't have taken either of them long to figure out someone here is pregnant.

  "What's your point?" Lex asks, his rage barely contained just beneath the surface.

  "Well, we've had some luck, you see. If we enhance the human's powers by giving them an injection of Fae or witch's blood along with our venom, the chance of success is much higher." I can practically see Amasis grinning, the bastard. "You know we have a supply of Fae that we keep on hand for feeding and breeding. I can be persuaded to give you one or two of them, if Faith is returned to me."

  This time, it's me who wants to lash out and smash the phone to pieces. My dragon roars inside me, and it takes a lot of my self-control not to go straight to the stronghold and tear Amasis to shreds. How dare he try to make a deal for Faith's life. How dare he dangle that in front of Lex.

  I look up at Lex and the two of us lock eyes for a moment. I wish I had Faith's powers so I could tell what he's thinking right then.