by Heather Long
“When everything seems to be going against you, remember the airplane takes off against the wind not with it.” - Henry Ford
FIONA
G o ahead. Let the bastard kiss you again.
I had.
Only instead of dragging me closer, Dorran had roared in pain as light flashed out around us. With my sight still spotting from the brilliance of it, I blinked as Dorran yanked me away from him. The bite of his hands on my arms promised to leave bruises, but it was the dismay and the raw fury in his expression that captivated me.
That and the blistering around the corners of his mouth. Did I do that? Fascinated, I pressed my strength against his as I pushed forward. Locking my hands on his face, I dragged him down, and this time when he kissed me, I savaged him. The flare of light damn near blinded me. I’d be seeing the afterimage for days, but Dorran erupted in my arms and the shadows exploded around me.
Wild laughter slipped free as I danced in a circle. The pull of those same shadows being dragged out of me by Alfred had left their mark. Now, as Dorran writhed along the walls, the shadows twisting and curling over each other but never quite touching me, even as they tried to surround me, made me laugh harder.
This was a delightful discovery.
I had no idea what that light was, but I liked it.
“Come on, Dorran,” I taunted. “I thought you wanted me. Isn’t that what you used to say? You were going to mark me and make me yours?” Hands on my hips, I surveyed the antechamber we occupied as his shadows licked over the area around me as though I were enveloped in a bubble. “I’m right here, big bad shadow demon. Come try and put all your shadows in me. I dare you.”
Cocky?
Maybe.
Dangerous?
Sure, why not.
A roar shook the foundations, and the taunting smirk on my face slid away for something a lot more joyful. Maddox. Oh, I’d missed my grumpy dragon.
“Tick tock,” I called out to Dorran and began skipping forward. “I am late for an important date.”
The first guard swung at me, the shadows peeling apart to reveal his presence. I caught the fist he aimed at my face and damn near laughed again. It was like I was on speed or he was in slow motion. But it took me nothing to catch it, and I turned his arm until the bone snapped.
“Bad wolf,” I scolded, and thumped him on the nose.
The shifter flew backwards and slammed into the wall with a crunch.
Holy shit, this was awesome.
At the sudden howling as guards rushed in, a sense of savage satisfaction filled my veins. Eagerness for battle flooded me, and I was already moving to rush toward one of the shifters myself. The wolf snarled, all teeth and claws. All the better to beat you with.
Maddox roared again, and I wanted to throw my head back and make the same sound, only I was a little busy dancing the kick ass fandango.
I told you… Fin scolding me was kind of hot, no lie. But I was a little busy right now. We needed to save the foreplay for later.
You dared me to do it again. Did you know that it actually burned him?
That shocked him.
Where are you? The question pinged through me, even as I seized another wolf shifter and slammed him into a second one. Their bones cracking shouldn’t sound so cool, but it was kind of like bubble wrap.
Once you started popping, you couldn’t stop with just one.
I’m coming, Beautiful. Don’t kill them all without me.
I snorted. No promises. Maddox released another aggrieved roar, this one furious and demanding. Not agony.
No, he was pissed.
Pissed I could deal with.
I never wanted him to hurt. I was being pulled in two directions, however. At least the one from the west seemed to lessen, but the one to the east…
Oh, I needed to get that way.
The slick of Dorran’s shadows still writhed about, slithering like an oily army of darkness. Another guard got in my way, and I knocked him off his feet and flipped him before rushing the next one.
Another sound split through the snap of bones and the meaty thud of bodies hitting the walls and the floor. The rich stink of copper filled the air with a near metallic haze. It made my eyes water and burn. There was zero desire to bite. It was like wading through a beer battle and I’d ended up in one of the vats.
The smell damn threatened me with nausea, and my stomach rebelled. All at once, the shadows slammed together and Dorran let out a near preternatural sound before he lunged at Fin.
Fin!
My heart swelled and I stopped to grin as he held up two fists ringed in fire and stepped into the fight with Dorran. Oh, my druid was littered with bruises and cuts, and one of his eyes was nearly swollen shut. It wasn’t until he twisted and danced with Dorran, his back facing me, that I caught sight of the whip marks.
Whip.
Marks.
Fury was a potent thing. I’d once been told by a witch I liked very much that my temper was going to get me killed one day.
She’d been wrong about that. Lust had gotten me killed, not my temper. A snide little voice in the back of my mind reminded me it had been my anger that had me saying yes to Alfred and agreeing to that transition finally.
Potato. Poh-tah-to.
The point was, my anger was a powerful thing, and apparently, now, so was I. Whoever had put those whip marks on Fin was going to die.
I love you too, Beautiful. Big ugly on your back.
Fine. I turned and narrowly missed the fist aimed at my face, but it still managed to hit my shoulder. Fuck, that hurt. Hitting the rocks as I skidded backwards and slammed into the stone wall hurt even more.
The roar from Maddox turned furious again.
“Keep your scales on,” I yelled. “I’m working on it.”
His bellowing fell off abruptly, and I glared at tall, mangy, and toothy, who glared at me from red-hazed eyes. The snarl had his lips pulling back from his fairly human teeth, though those canines were getting longer and his snout was growing.
Oh, he was shifting.
Ugh. I sent a mental apology to Elias and a kiss of thanks. He’d once explained to me how vulnerable shifters were in those precious seconds between reaching for their animals and when the shift came over them. On their human side, they were dangerous. On the animal side, fucking lethal. But in between?
I lunged off the wall, using my momentum to help me crash my fist right into his elongating jaw. His yelp of surprised pain served as all the encouragement I needed to rain blows down on him. The principles of fighting weren’t lost on me. I did, actually, know how to fight. I’d even taken Krav Maga.
What?
It did wonders for my ass and my arms.
I’d never had any real effect against anything stronger than a human before. Okay, not totally true. There was this fae once, but that story was better forgotten and never told.
He would never forgive me for what I did to his hair.
Still, the strength coursing through my veins coupled with the speed vibrating my bones meant I was a fucking superhero. The last blow sent the guard tumbling across the floor, and he let out a rattling wheeze before going still.
The stink of blood coated my nostrils and clogged my throat. Spatters of gore had flown off the wolf as I tore into him. Even now, I was shaking little bits of stuff I never wanted to identify off my hands.
Shadow and flame danced in the antechamber. Some of the bodies had caught on fire, and the acrid scent of roasting flesh and burnt hair just added to the shitty Scentsy party.
Gag.
This was awful.
And…I was out of guards.
I took a step toward Fin and Dorran, when the shadow demon hurled backwards and shadows enfolded me.
Holding my breath seemed like a stellar idea. I did not want to take one ounce of him in by accident, ’cause, you know, gross.
Inky dark and icy cold draped me. A sensation akin to falling prickled over my flesh. The shadows pressed in e
ven closer, mummifying and threatening to smother me. Thankfully, I didn’t need to breathe—at least not right away. I curled my fingers against the insubstantial night. How much of it could I touch or affect?
It slid through my fingers like water. Great. The image of a wet T-shirt contest leapt to mind, and I couldn’t help it. I had to laugh. How great would that be, to hear about the epic battle at Nightmare Penitentiary waged by a succubus versus a shadow demon in a wet T-shirt contest? I’d win the second my breasts were on display.
Men were so predictable.
Predictable.
I twisted around in the darkness, almost like I was swimming or trying to at least tread water, even without the sense of buoyancy. The shadows seemed to thicken, making it harder to move. All sound had blotted out like my ears had been stuffed with cotton. So annoying. Yet, men were predictable.
Even shadow demon males.
The thickest part of the darkness offered some resistance. Spongier. It pushed back.
A grin pulled at my lips, but I kept them pressed tightly together before I rammed my fist into that near solid, spongy mass. The darkness shuddered.
Another drive forward with my free hand into the same area, and the shudder turned to a vibrating pulse rippling through the darkness. Again and again, I struck until sparks danced in front of my eyes as my lungs burned in desperate need for air—mental or physical, who knew? I just knew if I dared suck in a breath here, it would open up another clusterfuck.
I, for one, was done with clusterfucks.
The ripples colliding into each other tumbled faster, like a whirlpool determined to suck me down, and somewhere within me, I swore Maddox roared again. As though demanding I do something. Damn, grumpy dragon. What the hell did he think I was doing?
The weight of Rogue’s disappointment feathered over me. The image of him was a flash on my retinas, as though he stood just in the garden where the sun edged the cold, sleeping vines and the icy rocks. He wanted me to understand something, but apparently, I was being thick.
Alfred, hands in his pockets, stood in front of a blazing fire in the great hall. It was empty behind him, cold and barren. His anger was a palpable thing chilling the air, despite the heat from the flames. As though suddenly aware of me, he turned those dark rimmed eyes on me. Fathomless voids that held so much emotion, it threatened to suffocate me worse than the shadow demon currently holding me captive.
Currently.
Holding.
Me.
Captive.
I was no one’s captive.
No cell would hold me again. Not one constructed by a vampire, demon, or angel. Hear that, my loving asshole? I sent the thought out there. You’re my asshole. I can accept that. But I will not be caged by any of you.
And I would not be caged by this shadow demon, who, like everyone else, had tried to own me from the day he met me. How clear it was to me now. All those visits. All that steely affection laced with command. Forcing me to feed on him, even though I hadn’t wanted it. Despite the fact he offered blood bags every day and I’d refused them.
The blood in those bags would never have sustained me.
I knew that now. Then? I just hadn’t wanted them.
The scorch of heat flooded my veins. The thrum of power raced over my skin. My heart slammed a rhythmic tattoo against my ribs as I struck at the shadow demon over and over.
The white light from earlier pierced the darkness, and it seemed to shimmer out of every single one of my pores. One moment, I was encased in the darkness as I struck at it, and in the next, the darkness flooded with strands of silver and white, each vein creeping through the darkness to illuminate it, even as it began to separate it into a hundred different pieces.
Bursting through the cocoon of darkness, I stretched out my arms because the power seemed to swell through me, and it lit up the entire cavern. The surge of guards heading toward us turned back, shrieking as light filled every crevice and depression in the stone. They raised hands to cover their faces, and the stone just beyond them erupted as a dragon forced his way through.
The wild hazel green and gold eyes with their slits focused on me, even as the pupils retracted at the brilliance of the light.
A pained sound pulled my attention, and I stared down at the warden now lying near my feet. He’d resumed his humanoid form, his dark eyes shot through with silver and his arm lifted as though to shield his face. Yet even as I watched, the grizzled parts of his cheeks turned almost ruddier and the light kissed over his flesh, softening him.
It was like the blur of a camera lens filtering out the harsher elements and leaving behind…
Surprise and wonder filled Dorran’s eyes as he focused on me. There was color in those endless black pits. Shock and grief exploded through the surprise and wonder, and he let out a sound of agony so profound, it had to have shredded his throat.
A blast of heated breath hit me as Maddox roared, and I pulled my gaze away from the downed warden, his troubled expression already forgotten as I focused on my beautiful golden dragon. His scales shimmered in the light, and his huge head dipped toward me as I hurried across the buckled and crumbling floor with its litter of bodies.
Fin scooped me up a step away from Maddox and curled his thick arms around me as he pulled me close. “Give me a minute, Beautiful.” Then he focused on Maddox when my dragon snarled a warning. “Mind your temper. She’s mine too.”
Before I could snap at either of them for arguing, Fin fisted my hair and dipped his face to mine. I cupped his cheeks, halting his descent as I studied him. Bruises marred his beautiful face, and there was blood on his lip where it had been split wide open and an ugly jagged slash through one of his eyebrows.
Worse, he staggered a little, blanching under his pallor. Pain. He was hurting. Smoothing my hands down to his nape, I took care not to touch a single one of the stripe marks on his back. I paused only when I looked at my fingers against his chest where they seemed to glow against his flesh. Ignoring that for a moment, I flattened my palm over the beat of his heart.
It was sluggish.
Maddox’s grunt of sound seemed to echo my own thoughts.
“Fin.” Worry speared through me, but Fin ignored that and dragged me in for a kiss. Tears sparked in my eyes at the first brush of his cool lips over mine. Where I’d once tasted laughter and mischief, all I found was cold iron and ash.
Worse, deeper as his tongue stroked over mine was something more acrid. The blood from his broken lip flooded my mouth, and I jerked backward. It tasted wrong. Something darker slid through his veins.
He let out a mournful sound as I pulled away, and I turned him, trying to get a better look at his back.
“Gheall mé duit, Álainn,” he murmured. “Tá mé ag fanacht le fada leat.”
As beautiful as those words were, I had no idea what they meant. The marks on his back were dark and deep. They were radiating out in little black lines. Maddox let out another huff as he snaked his head around us, and there was a sickening crunch of bone and a meaty tearing of muscle and flesh.
I grimaced. Even as covered in blood as I was, that sound turned my stomach. “Something is wrong with him, Maddox…” I knew it. “And I love you, my dragon, but you’re gonna remember the rules about kissing.”
He huffed a laugh at me and then nudged me toward Fin as he moved to wrap around us both, then his wing slid over us like a shelter in the storm.
My dragon would watch our backs, and I cradled Fin to me as he staggered. Turning his face to my throat, I slid my fingers through his hair.
“Drink, Fin,” I whispered. “You’ve lost too much blood.”
Cradling him close, I didn’t miss his mumbled words as he mouthed a kiss against my pulse. “I could die happy here, Beautiful.”
Thank fuck that was in English.
“You’re not dying,” I told him. “Do you understand me? You are not allowed to die. I did not come all this way to save you, only to have you die. You promised to put balm o
n my ass after Alfred and Rogue tan it, and what will Maddox do without you?”
The dragon let out a rumbling growl that verged dangerously close to a purr, and I smiled as I leaned into his side, even as I stroked Fin’s hair. Even in the gloom cast by the shelter of Maddox’s wings, I had no trouble seeing my damaged druid.
I was going to tear whoever did this to him apart.
Fiona… Nightshade and death goddess. There is no saving me. It’s already locking up my magic. But you’re here.
You don’t get to die, Fin. You promised me.
I’d beg if I had to.
Please, my love, please drink.
Your love?
Yes, you impetuous fool, I love you, now drink…
Your throat… You don’t like your throat touched.
You can have my throat. They all could. I trust you.
The hard strike of his teeth was instantaneous, as if those words unleashed the beast within my druid. The first hard suck had me shaking all the way down to my core. The fact he worked his hand right into my pants and had two fingers pumping into me registered distantly. All I could feel was Fin inside me, stroking me as though desperate to bring me to orgasm, wrapped around me like a cloak of the sexiest fur. My whole body shuddered as he sucked and pulled and stroked.
Fuck me, I was going to come right here, and the release when it exploded out of me… I shuddered as I rolled my hips up to meet his hand, while his thumb kept pressure on my clit, and the pleasure just spiraled. When he dragged his head upward, the eyes shining down at me held mischief as he pressed his lips to mine, and I tasted my own blood in his mouth.
Drunk on the feel of him, I tore at his pants until I could wrap my hand around him and then began to stroke his stiff cock. The huff from Maddox registered distantly, as did the heat of fire and the screams of the dying, but I shut them all the fuck out as Fin tore my pants. Then he pushed into me, and I had my legs wrapped around him.
I sank my teeth into his throat, and he growled, a deep, fully bellied growl that was so like Maddox, I laughed. The acridness in his blood was a tang on my tongue, but I wouldn’t be deterred. If the poison was in him, I wanted it out.