by Lora Leigh
DRAGON PRIME
An Ellora’s Cave Publication, January 2004
Ellora’s Cave Publishing, Inc.
PO Box 787
Hudson, OH 44236-0787
ISBN MS Reader (LIT) ISBN # 1-84360-707-7
Other available formats (no ISBNs are assigned):
Adobe (PDF), Rocketbook (RB), Mobipocket (PRC) & HTML
DRAGON PRIME © 2004 LORA LEIGH
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part without permission.
This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locales is purely coincidental. They are productions of the authors’ imagination and used fictitiously.
Edited by Kari Berton
Cover art by Darrell King.
DRAGON PRIME
Lora Leigh
Lynn, this one is for you!
Thank you for the friendship and the support. I hope all your greatest dreams come true and that your own Prime Warrior brings you endless nights of satisfaction and golden days of ecstatic dreams. Good luck in all your endeavors and may God always bless you and keep you safe.
Lora Leigh
Prologue
“Alyx. I am dying.” Alyx fought within the dream, unwilling to experience the aching regret that filled his soul each time it came to him.
“I cannot save you, Lady Lynn.” He brushed her tangled hair back from her face, his heart clenching, the Dragon stone at his chest heating with the sorrow of his clan.
He had fought like a demon to reach the battle, to be by her side, to protect her from the dark forces he knew would go through her to reach the one she protected. She was his warrioress, his bond mate, and he would lose her now, possibly forever.
On his planet his powers would have saved her. He could have drawn on the Dragon stone to heal her, to energize her life force. But this was not his planet. This was an alien world, light years away from his home.
He had no power over such matters on this place called Earth. The Fates and Destiny guiding the souls here had refused him the power to act in their name. Yet, still he had tried. He had fought to make it to her side, to ride the dimensional wave to her rescue. If he could have arrived in time he could have snatched her back. Could have taken her to his home, made her his consort, his heart, as he had longed to do.
He had ignored the directives of the Guardians, had fought the advice of Mother Earth and had done what he had never allowed in all his time as a Dragon Prime. He had given his heart to this woman. No other would possess it now and he had arrived too late to save her.
Blood smeared her gentle face; pain filled her warm brown eyes. She had been her lady’s greatest warrior, a protector. Now her lady was dead and soon his gentle Lynn would follow her.
Would they console each other in the afterlife, he wondered. Would they find peace there until their rebirth?
“Will you forget me, Alyx?” Her voice was fainter now, echoing with the terrible pain that consumed her body, the regret that washed through both their souls.
“I will never forget you, little love.” He gathered her against his chest, holding her against his heart. “I will await your return, my lady. And I will not let you escape me so easily next time.”
He had heeded her wishes to wait before taking her to his bed. Had given in to her pleas that he allow her to fulfill her service to the Mistress of the Wind before giving her life to him. If only he had denied her. If only he had taken her despite her pleas, he could have given her the power to walk away from this battle.
“Alyx?” Her breathing was growing faint now.
He felt tears on his cheeks, amazed that he, such a hardened warrior, could cry. He had seen many deaths, but none had struck at his soul in this manner.
“Yes, my love.” He kissed her forehead gently, holding back his scream of rage.
“Alyx, I’m frightened.”
His moan was a sob torn from his soul as he rocked her in his arms, his hold on her tightening, his heart breaking.
“Have no fear, beloved,” he whispered through his tears. “Only beauty awaits you.”
“Don’t let me go.” He heard her tears then. “Hold me, Alyx. Do not let me…”
“No! No!” His wail shattered the blood-filled valley, his agony resonating throughout the clans, filling the Dragon stone, washing throughout the universe as he laid his head back and screamed out his rage.
“Damn your souls, no!” He came awake, awash in sweat, in memories he could not contain.
His body trembled as his arms clutched at the dream vision that had taken her last breath against his chest. Fought to hold her to his heart, to wipe away the aching, endless loss of his own soul in a bloody, battle-strewn field.
“Lynn.” He whispered her name as his fingers clutched the suddenly warming stone at his chest.
It had remained cool all these centuries. He had given his warrior woman his soul. In doing so, he had tied her to the Dragon stone forever, just as he had resigned himself to the endless, aching loss of any comfort he might find in his life of wars and bloodshed.
Yet, the stone had warmed. He lifted it, staring down at it with a desperation that tightened his body to a breaking point. The stone was warm. It was faint, struggling, but it warmed.
“She lives,” he whispered in awe. All these centuries he had waited. Had fought another world’s battles; had lived with only the periodic comfort of his brothers and his Dragon Master. For this. For this moment. For the assurance that when her soul returned, he would be there to protect her, to shelter her.
“Where are you?” He frowned as he sought the binding. “Show yourself, little one, so I might protect you.”
It was not to be. He shook his head, never knowing a time when the stone had failed him, when his powers had not held true.
“You will not interfere.” Shock coursed through his body as the form of Mother Earth appeared at the bottom of his bed, taking human shape, her brilliant eyes glowing with power, her expression fierce. “You will not bind her, Dragon Prime, until the time is right. You will not interfere in the completion of the lives of my children. You will search in vain.”
He sat up slowly in the bed, feeling his rage build as he faced the woman whom he owed his loyalty to.
“She was given to me!” he raged furiously, his heart clouded by hope and pain. “See the stone…” It glowed clear and iridescent now where before it had been cloudy, gray, sleeping within the mist of incompleteness.
“She was to be given at my leisure,” she reminded him coolly. “You interfered, warrior. You will not do so again. Feel her life force. Know she lives and grows in strength. But until her mistress knows the touch of her destiny, you will not know your soul. You will not interfere.”
May
Twenty-four years later
Being jerked through the dimensional wave was not Alyx’s idea of a fun time. He avoided it all costs. But over two decades of searching had left him desolate, desperate.
After hearing of the report that sped through the warrior clans that the Shadow Warrior had rescued his soul wife, Alyx had known he was a step closer to finding the woman who held his heart. A step closer to vanquishing the danger stalking her at every turn. No longer could he bear the knowledge that her life was in danger and he could not aid her. The Earth Mistress would know her; the Earth stone would hold the answers he sought. He just had to get to her.
He could have waited. He would have waited, but he could sense the growing danger surrounding the woman he could feel on a constant basis, yet could not find. He would not wait again. He would not chance her death this time, as he had so long ago.
The Earth Mistress was as beautiful as she had been a millennia ago. She was wounded, weary
, and thankfully sleeping as he approached the bed contained within the primitive aircraft the Earth-based warriors used. Around her neck lay the Earth Crystal, as vibrant and powerful as he had ever known it to be.
He needed only to touch it to know the answers he sought. The woman he searched for was tied to the crystals as well. But this one could give him her location. It could put him a step closer to the woman his soul ached for.
The Mistress’s eyes opened then, a shriek echoing around the craft’s cabin as she went into warrioress mode. She fought like a man, kicking him away, her fist connecting with his nose and coming to her feet in a single bound. Few men could move so quickly, let alone a female.
Rage filled the room, fear and a determination to survive, but Alyx had no desire to fight this one. For the briefest space in time, his fingers had brushed the powerful stone, though, and he had his answers. That was all that mattered in this moment of time. He knew the woman now. Knew her connection and her face, and from there he could track her.
But the Mistress’s abrupt awakening and subsequent scream to alert the warriors required quick action. His fingers touched the Dragon stone at his chest and immediately he was jerked through the dimensional wave to return once again to the house he had taken as his lodging.
His nose bled profusely. Dammit, he hated bleeding. His balls ached. The little witch had slammed her dainty foot directly into them, nearly crushing the three spherical orbs that contained his hope for the future. Why did women always go for the balls? It wasn’t as though he tore at their nipples during battle. He was a gentleman, even when delivering the death blow.
Alyx lay face down on the bed now, fighting for breath as the effects of both the blow to his Dragon pride and his equilibrium fought to find balance. One day he would learn to control the wave, he was certain. Not that any of the other Prime Warriors had managed to do so, but Alyx believed in excellence. It was the one area in which he had not achieved perfection. He would conquer it. Eventually. But first, he must conquer the warrioress he had sworn would be his. In every way.
The Dragon stone at his chest heated with the information contained within it now. He could feel her force, could sense her awareness of his sudden connection to her.
He allowed a wicked, purely sensual grin to curl his lips as he turned carefully on his back and stared up at the ceiling of the bedroom. He could feel the shift within her psychic force, the awareness of the sudden bond that had been reestablished. She had escaped him once before. Death had stolen the destiny that was to be hers, for a time. He would not allow such to happen again.
My warrioresses are not so easily conquered, warrior. The voice of Mother Earth struck his brain with painful clarity as he winced at her power.
You should be willing to aid me more, Earth Mother. He felt like snarling. It is not more than your own soul sister we would save in the completion of this insane game. What should it matter if I gain my soul in return? She is mine!
The sister of my soul knows no victory is complete or truly won without true defeat of the obstacles in our path. He could sense a most unladylike snort. Do not come whining to me for an easier way. My daughters suffered death. My sons have suffered a horror unimagined, even to myself, at the hands of your Guardians. Your world is diseased, Dragon. It will take strength and true honor to awaken the sister of my soul. Anything less and she suffers, as do we all. Attain your victory alone, for I will not aid you in this battle.
And there was the gist of the battle. Earth had become a psychic and oftentimes physical battleground in the war to save the spirit of the planet Alyx called home. Without the females the Prime Warriors were destined to bond with, the evil overtaking their home world would be triumphant. But the Earth Mother refused to allow her children to be taken so easily.
Repayment, Alyx thought. They had brought their evil to this planet and unleashed it on the unknowing life contained on it. For this reason, the bond mates born to the Prime Warriors would not be released until that evil was contained.
It was a highly complicated situation. Guardians and Primes could not kill one another because of the life laws that ruled the two planets. The Guardians had banished Alyx rather than pronouncing death. In doing so, they had punished Earth as well and could do nothing but aid the warriors fighting against it.
The evil was Prime and slowly attaining Guardian power. Jonar, leading the sect of outlaw terrorists known as Blackthorne, was only gaining in power. The forces fighting against the alien castoff had but one last chance to defeat him before he came into a power that this world had no hope of conquering.
The Shadow Warriors and those like them, the strongest of the psychic warriors Mother Earth had created and the Guardians had gifted, now fought the battle against Jonar. To complete that battle, their own bond mates, females gifted with the heart of the Earth’s power, had but one more chance to attain the knowledge of their gifts. It was that first one, Chantel Ducaine, the reincarnated bride of the Shadow Warrior, who held the key to the location of Alyx’s bond mate.
Those of your world, for all their technology and advancements, are still ignorant of your true place in life, the Mother sneered contemptuously. You allowed your leaders to steer you from your true course, from the knowledge my sister bequeathed you. Then you whimper and whine when all is nearly lost. Were it not for their own grief should she perish, I would allow your world to become as dust, Alyx. An example to all those who would make such mistakes again.
Their world was not far from just that. Slowly, the natural order of life was decaying, the breeze growing thin as plant life slowly died in response to the strength that bled from the heart of its power. And she was right. It had been the fault of the Guardians and the Primes, those selected to protect and preserve the land from such evil. The evil had been right under their noses and they had been too foolish, too loyal, to see it.
We will not fail in this. Alyx was determined that no matter the outcome, this time he would not lose the first bond, the woman who held a part of his soul.
We shall see who will win and who will lose. She sounded doubtful of his claim. But you will not win easily. Nor will you win by want alone. I gave her once into your care and you failed. I will not make this mistake again. This time my daughter is strong, Alyx, well able to defend her own life.
I aided in her power, he argued furiously. Her strength comes from my soul.
Soft laughter echoed around him. Aye, your power aids her. Your power will give her the strength to either accept or deny your heart. Which, warrior, will she do?
She was gone as quickly as she had come. Alyx growled in fury at the thought of the fight the woman would most likely hand him now. Mother Earth had given her daughters a stubbornness that would drive even the Dragon Master insane with their rebelliousness.
It would not matter, he assured himself as he allowed his psychic force to center, to calm him and give him direction. She would fight him, no doubt, but he was the Dragon Prime. His skills as a warrior were only surpassed by his skills as a lover, and this time…this time she would be his.
Chapter One
June
St. James Estate
Lexington, Kentucky
Lynn Carstairs tossed restlessly within the light nap she was taking. She could feel him. It was a bond that made her nervous, almost frightened. The invisible path between her force and his had been forged, and she couldn’t break it. Hell, break it? She couldn’t even make a dent in her need to weaken it.
She had known the connection most of her life. That faint force, that sense of something or someone reaching out to her. But several weeks ago, it had suddenly begun strengthening, as though some cosmic power had shifted, opening the psychic window she had kept firmly locked on the strange being reaching out to her. But now he had her and it seemed to only grow stronger each day. She cursed her powers now more than ever, certain that they were the reason she was being tracked, stalked by the presence.
The psychic powers that had s
lowly grown over her lifetime had become the bane of her existence, her career, but also her salvation. In the gifts she carried she could lay the blame for her nightmares, her fears and a knowledge she had never wanted. Yet, at the same time, she knew they had saved her life countless times. Hers and her brothers and those she had fought to protect.
Times like this, though, she cursed them more than most. Not sleeping and yet not awake, shifting knowledge moved about her unconsciousness, creating nightmare visions, images of blood and death and monsters too horrifying to remember when she awakened.
She fought each one; terrified it was her own future death coming to her. She didn’t want to see it. Didn’t want to know it.
She whispered a name then frowned. Whose name did she whisper?
“Where are you?” That question, so often asked of her, was easily enough understood.
“I don’t want this,” she whispered as she fought to pull away. The force remained strong. “Leave me alone. I’m not who you want me to be.”
You were before. You are now. The warrior’s woman. Bound heart and soul, mind and body. The dragon arose before her, the air around her becoming heated, sensitizing her body as she gasped in fear. Her nipples peaked. Her thighs clenched as the tender flesh between them began to throb. She saw him, just for a moment; so handsome it was nearly blinding, so wickedly sexual that the sight of him alone was nearly orgasmic. And he brought death…
A strangled cry escaped Lynn’s throat as she jerked herself awake, staring around the small sitting room, fighting for breath. For life. Wide-eyed, shaking from the effects of the dream and the sudden knowledge that had tried to overwhelm her, she fought to assure herself she was indeed awake.
She dragged her fingers wearily through her tangled hair as she pushed herself shakily to her feet. It was the stress, she assured herself. The fight to protect Ariel St. James’ life was becoming more trying with each attack made against her. Both psychic and physical strikes had been made against the young woman, and despite Lynn’s advanced abilities, she felt as though they were slowly losing the battle.