Scorched [Pain & Love 3] (BookStrand Publishing Romance)

by Ashlei D. Hawley

  Knowing he wouldn’t last long, Dan decided to make sure Lydia got what she could out of his sure-to-be-limited performance. He drew himself back out until only the head of his member remained buried within her, and then shoved himself full back inside. He began a pounding, relentless series of thrusts deep into her core.

  Every time Dan bumped the back of her, Lydia sighed and moaned. She loved the blend of pressure, pain, and pleasure. She gripped him tighter with her arms and legs and tilted her head back.

  Dan took the opportunity of the exposed skin to lap his tongue over the vanilla-scented stretch of her neck. He moans and murmurs drove him to the edge. He lost his steady, pounding rhythm. His eyes eased shut. Nothing but the moment existed. Nothing but Lydia. His first and only love. His flaming goddess.

  Pleasure rushed through him, hot as a molten river. He spilled himself into her, while they were as tightly clasped together as they could force themselves to be.

  Lydia shook with the rippling after effects of orgasm. Hot sex. She remembered that of Dan Richardson. What she hadn’t expected was hot sex intensified by the heat of a thousand raging infernos with the addition of love. It would take some getting used to, and it was a journey she looked forward to taking with him.

  Drawing back from his chest, Lydia moved just enough so she could kiss him. He tasted as new as he felt, and she quickly became drunk on the flavor.

  Still nestled inside her warmth and heat, Dan felt himself growing hard again.

  “So, what do you think about that air mattress now?” he murmured against her hair.

  “Oh, hell with it,” she said. “Let’s try it.”

  * * * *

  While Dan and Lydia embarked on the first leg of their journey of rediscovery, Jade left the house in her vehicle. She didn’t like to be cooped up with so many people. Daria had healed well, Junior had been stabilized, and the planning people were planning. Jade wasn’t comfortable in the position of planner. She wanted to be doing something. Even if that something was as simple as filling her car up with gas at the corner Gas ‘N’ Go.

  Jade felt certain the old man who ran the gas station closest to Heddy’s home hadn’t evacuated with the rest of them. He’d been there longer than she’d been alive in her current form. Anyone knowing there lived a Dragon in human skin in town would likely think it was him. He often made customers uncomfortable with his gruff, surly nature, but he was the closest resource for gas and snacks without making a trek twenty minutes away from Heddy’s side of the lake. The drive took less than three minutes from the wisewoman’s home.

  Jade thought the old man, whose name tags on all his shirts had been worn away before she’d even stepped foot in the store for the first time, probably acted so abrasively because he wanted to protect what was his until death or taxes took it from him. The real estate was prime, no arguing that, but Jade thought he’d get far more customer support if he didn’t glower at everyone that entered.

  She pulled her car into the Gas ‘N’ Go and parked beside pump two. A sharp wind whipped her ebony hair around, pulling it from the sloppy ponytail she’d tossed it into before leaving.

  Musing about their situation, Jade wondered if she should have left the others to plan what they were going to do. She personally didn’t see how they were going to be able to accomplish anything without their Dragon forms, so conversations about their options generally just made her mad. Sure, she thought as she rummaged in her purse for some money, they had two vampires. But there were hordes of Henry’s crazy-as-fuck vamps running the streets at night. They were on a tight schedule with no access to their greatest asset.

  Jade didn’t want to say it out loud, but she felt certain they were screwed. At least the evacuations had gotten most of the people out. Last she’d heard, there were fewer than a thousand people who refused to leave town. The number left the living population greatly disproportionate to the members of the crazed and fanged walking dead population.

  Yeah, Jade mused, they were pretty screwed.

  Her heels pounded on the parking lot. She watched the uneven pavement, knowing her chances of tripping at the gas station tripled. The old man’s upkeep sucked and the parking lot had never been refinished or repaired.

  She hopped over a hole the size of a toddler and made it to the door. Her heightened awareness could have been due to the situation, but she felt eyes on her before she noticed the man on pump four watching her.

  Slipping inside the store, Jade decided to trust her instincts. The sun had set. The world outside her home, Heddy’s home—and potentially even there if the Hunters ever reclaimed their balls from the vampire fiasco—had become dangerous.

  She waited until another patron pulled up to pump one before she paid for her gas. She figured having another person around would make any potential threat hesitant to act. Better safe than sorry, anyway.

  A solider perused candy bars in the far aisle and nodded at Jade while she claimed her receipt from the old man who tended the till as though the evening was the same as any other he’d passed behind the glass partition.

  “Have a good night,” Jade called before she realized how inane the statement was, considering the current climate of her town. The soldier acknowledged her sentiment with a nod before his eyes returned to the Butterfingers and Hershey’s bars. She felt safer knowing a soldier was inside the store, and another customer had chosen to brave the night to get gas in her vehicle.

  Jade liked to keep her tank close to full, so she knew the fifteen she’d paid would top her off. She’d pump and be gone before anyone could do anything.

  Though the man on pump four had gotten there before her and had paid at the pump, he still stood near his car, brushing imaginary pieces of dust from his trunk. Jade observed the forty-something man openly, taking in everything from his barely there paunch, thinning brown hair, and glasses that gave her the impression he worked in some boring profession. An accountant, maybe. Or a business manager who golfed every weekend in the summer.

  Did vampires even need to wear glasses, she wondered. What about Hunters? The man looked so harmless she wanted to laugh at herself for thinking he could be a threat. But still, she trusted her instinct and looked forward to getting herself safely back to her car.

  She reholstered the pump at its station, made sure her gas cap was on tight, and started around to the front of her car, keys at the ready.

  “Miss?”

  Damn, thought Jade. The guy on pump four had spoken to her, and she knew she’d feel like a jerk for ignoring him. Fewer than a thousand people remained in their town who weren’t military or crazy. The others needed to be united for the fight coming to them.

  “Yes?” she asked. She kept her voice polite, but didn’t move toward him. The woman on pump one rushed from the building, gas paid for. By the amount of luggage Jade had seen in the backseat, it seemed the lady had finally joined the tide of evacuees. She didn’t look at either of her fellow patrons as she hopped in her car and whipped out of the parking lot, heading for the freeway.

  The man on pump four stumbled over his words, seemingly flustered in Jade’s presence. Though certainly not as often as Lydia, Jade had experienced men fumbling around her on occasion. The man’s stammering endeared him to Jade, if only slightly.

  “Do you need something?” she pressed, trying to get information out of him so she could get going. She leaned one hip against her car and let the hand she was holding her keys in drop to the other hip. He laughed nervously.

  “I’ve never done this before, but I figured the world seems to be going to shit, right? I’ve had a real crap day and just wanted to do something positive for someone. Even out the karma, maybe.”

  Jade smiled and laughed a little with him. “All right,” she said. “What were you thinking?”

  Almost cautiously, he approached her. He held out his wallet, indicating his intention. “I figured I could top you off. How much did you put in your tank?”

  “Aw, I filled it up,” J
ade admitted. He stopped walking and frowned. “Sorry,” she continued. It felt strange to her, apologizing to a stranger for paying her own way for something.

  The man looked so bummed out that she wanted to help improve his night even if she couldn’t accept his offer of assistance. She reached out a hand, intending to shake his. “We’ve gotta stick together when the world’s going crazy, right?” she said with a smile.

  The smile brightened his face enough to push Jade the last step away from her paranoia that everyone was out to get her. He moved toward her, replacing his wallet inside his back pocket as he did.

  When they clasped hands for a tentative shake, the man pulled her toward him. Jade wanted to tell him she wasn’t comfortable with a hug, but she didn’t get the chance to say the words. She felt the sharp sting of a needle in her back through her clothes. She gasped in shock, but the drugs worked fast. She collapsed against the man.

  The soldier didn’t even have time to get from the candy aisle to the front of the store before the man took the unconscious Jade to his vehicle, shoved her in the backseat, got behind the wheel, and took off.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Lydia felt frantic. It had been three hours since Jade had gone out for gas and she’d yet to return.

  “Why would you let her go so close to dark, anyway?” she screamed at Leigh. “With Henry’s band of crazy fucks out there and God knows what the Hunters are doing, why would anyone let her step foot out that door?”

  Daria cried on the couch beside Heddy. She felt everything Lydia said or shouted was a personal attack on her. Not only was she worried about Jade, but she also had to deal with the guilt of not having tried to stop her on the way out.

  “It might not be bad,” Dan said as he tried to take Lydia’s hand.

  She continued to pace, heedless of his attempts to comfort her. “Of course it’s bad,” she snapped.

  “Oh, no,” Mallory whispered as she clutched at her shirt collar. “No, no, no…”

  They’d kept the news channel on, watching as the evacuations finished and army blockades were erected on all major roadways and even at the edges of some forests and around the lake. Though no reporter had gone back out into the field, photos and personal videos from evacuees and those who remained had been uploaded to the news station’s website and had been broadcast throughout the day. Also frequenting the screen were evacuation protocols, emergency numbers, and other tidbits of pertinent information.

  Instead of the same thing they’d seen all day, a live feed had begun. Lydia didn’t even want to look. She did anyway. Her legs gave way and the carpeted floor beneath her felt like it should swallow her up in her despair. She recognized Jade, even though her face had been beaten nearly unrecognizable. The middle Dragon sister was naked, chained, and had obviously been traumatized physically.

  “Oh God,” Lydia whispered as she crawled to the TV and touched the screen with trembling fingers.

  Henry’s familiar green eyes filled the screen, followed by his psychotic grin as he backed away from the camera he’d been adjusting. Two of his male vamps stood to either of Jade’s sides, out of range of her flames if she happened to gain consciousness.

  “She’s dead!” Daria wailed. “She’s dead. She’s dead!” The youngest of the Dragons tore at her foamy locks of hair as tears streamed down her inflamed cheeks.

  “No, she’s breathing,” Leigh assured the panic-stricken woman. He didn’t know if that made the situation better or worse.

  “We have to get her out of there,” Mallory demanded. “We can’t leave her with that monster!”

  “They’re at the hockey arena on Collins Street,” Dan said as he slipped into his boots. Everyone in the room had been to the arena for some activity or event throughout the years. “It’s a fifteen-minute drive. Come on, what are we waiting for?”

  Lydia, removed from the situation, traced her sister’s outline on the TV. She barely heard what Henry said and didn’t acknowledge Dan when he tried to pull her to her feet. They were supposed to be together, Lydia thought numbly. Dragons were never without other Dragons. It had been the code for centuries. Otherwise, the chances of losing a heart or having it irreparably damaged were too high. It had been less than a five-minute drive to the gas station. Not long enough to warrant company. Just long enough for them to lose her forever.

  Instead of making demands or threats, Henry said only one thing. “I always wanted to kill a Dragon.”

  One of his minions ensured Jade remained unconscious by delivering an open-handed smack across her damaged cheek. Jade didn’t flinch. Lydia did.

  Henry’s other crony handed him a weapon. Daria’s wailing ceased and her eyes went as wide as they would go. Tears spilled out of them, the only motion on her entire body. She barely seemed to breathe.

  “No,” Lydia choked out. “No, no, no, no…”

  Henry dug into Jade’s chest with the sharp blade. With no effort made to be neat, he gouged and pried until her heart spilled into his hand.

  Jade never struggled. After the deed was done, she slumped farther forward with her chin on the red ruin of her chest. Henry smiled at the camera again, the most beautiful of the dark demons. He traded his blade for a sledgehammer and let Jade’s heart slip from his bloodied hand. After it hit the floor of the arena, a splash of crimson on the formerly pristine white, Henry hefted the hammer.

  Before he could deliver the damning blow, Daria sprang from the couch and flew out of the room, shrieking her sister’s name. Knowing she had no thought except getting to Jade, Lydia dragged herself to her feet and stumbled after Daria. Danger owned the night. She couldn’t lose another sister.

  They both felt it when Jade’s heart shattered under the sledgehammer’s blow. They fell to their knees together on the front lawn and screamed their agony to the night sky.

  * * * *

  In the last of the Hunters’ safe houses, surrounded by the twelve Fallen who had not been taken and destroyed in the abandoned ranger station, Jerry watched Henry’s scene on the television play out in horror. The heart of the previous Dragon matron thrummed and throbbed in its glass case. It seemed to Jerry that the heart knew the unavoidable fate of the Dragon daughter. Henry couldn’t possibly have known. Otherwise, he wouldn’t risk giving his enemies their greatest advantage back. Or maybe he did know. The ancient had obviously dissolved into the madness of the Munetero. He was deranged and cared only for his own twisted pleasures.

  “Idiot,” Jerry whispered. The one condition of the Dragon matron had been that her daughters would not be killed by the Hunters or those under their influence. The Dragon sisters would stay out of the Hunters’ way while they established the strength of their organization, even if they didn’t realize their mother had set it up that way.

  The heart shattered, and any advantage Jerry and the Hunters might have had dissolved with the broken shards.

  The Dragons were no longer contained.

  Chapter Twenty

  The screams turned into roars. Where two agonized women had collapsed on the cold grass, two Dragons called their fury into the darkness. Fire jetted from Lydia’s fearsome snout, an aurora borealis of crimson and gold that licked across the night sky. Power had returned to them. Purpose fueled them. In unison, they returned to their human forms.

  The Dragon sisters looked at each other. Their limbs quaked. Their breaths came in heaving gulps. They knew that Jade was dead. Her heart had been smashed. With her death, the spell given power by their mother’s heart shattered. The agreement had been that none of Nicolette’s daughters would be killed by the Hunters or as the result of their actions. Henry, as an ally, had inadvertently released the bonds of the spell. The power of the Dragon sisters to transform had been restored.

  “We need to get everyone to the lake,” Lydia told Jade. “Get Mallory and Leigh to lead the searches. Everyone must be in the lake before sunrise.”

  Daria nodded and rushed inside. Dan approached Lydia. He thought about helping her sta
nd, but he’d just seen her in Dragon form. The offer for him to do something as inane as help her to her feet seemed laughable. Instead, he took her chin in his hand and brushed a fingertip over her cheek.

  “I’m sorry about your sister,” he told her. “I’m so sorry, Lydia.”

  She hugged him, wary of her returned strength. He was purely human, and she’d just had all of her Dragon power given back to her. Knowing the cost, she would gladly have lived her life without her true form ever belonging to her again. Her sister’s heart could never have been worth the ending of the Hunters’ spell.

  “What are we going to do?” Dan asked when Lydia began moving toward the house. As usual, she didn’t seem to notice her nakedness. She squinted, the only outward sign of acknowledgment of the trouble transforming sometimes brought. Another pair of glasses had been trashed. She thought she had a spare downstairs, not that she intended to use her human form much in the next few hours.

  “We’re going to get everyone still here to a safe place,” Lydia began as she opened the door to Heddy’s house, “and then we’re going to burn this town to ash. Henry and his twisted army are done.”

  Intimidated by the fierceness of Lydia’s tone and the raging fire in her golden eyes, Dan nodded and followed her inside. His vengeful goddess was about to bring down the hellfire.

  * * * *

  “The army said fewer than eight hundred people are still in the town, and maybe even less than that,” Leigh declared as they finalized plans in Heddy’s living room. Being the oldest and soundest of mind, he’d been elected the plan maker. “We need to do whatever we can to get them to the lake, in the lake. Luke, you must go to the news station and get them to broadcast the announcement. Anyone still able to watch probably has the television on. Mallory and I will run through the streets and inform anyone we find of what’s about to happen. If we find Henry, we will do our best to eliminate him. Daria and Annette will stay here with Heddy to organize those who come. Lydia will search the surrounding area for anything.”