“Is the Relic all that’s bothering you?”
The voice was deep, rich. Liquid silver spinning through her mind. Ashlyn hardly dared believe she’d really registered the words. Yet his scent told her that he was nearby; she could feel him on the air as it wound around her head.
Aegis had come to her for a third time.
“No, it can’t be,” she said, pulling herself up to look around. The windows were still closed, as was the door. She’d only imagined him. A mirage casting a faint glow of hope over her soul.
“The Relic isn’t all that’s bothering me,” she said. “There’s the fact that I’ve gone totally off the deep end.”
“Not so. And if you’ll open the bloody window, perhaps I can explain all of it to you.”
Without thinking, Ashlyn leapt to her feet and dashed over to the window. Unfastening its latch, she pulled the two panes inward on their hinges, leaning on the sill and peering out into the chilly evening sky. To her left, nothing but barren landscape. But when she turned to the right she picked up that scent again, spinning through the air in small twisters of heaven. A moment later, a dark shadow appeared overhead, looming between her face and the cloud cover. She started, springing back into the room just as an enormous nearly-black head filled the window’s frame.
“Hello, lovely,” the voice said.
“Aegis? But how…?” The world had flipped on its head again. This couldn’t be happening; Aegis was far away. He’d given her up. He’d discarded her for the greater good. He’d…
“May I come in?”
“I…yes…of course.”
The Dragon surged forward, and for a second Ashlyn thought he would break clean through the stone wall. But at the last moment he shifted, and then Aegis was leaping onto the sill, grabbing the window frame’s sides with both hands.
The look on his face was priceless. He looked so good, those sly, sexy eyes of his sparkling in the room’s dim light. His blond hair was a mess, his jaw darkened with the stubble of a man who hadn’t bothered with a razor in some time. Everything about him screamed Kiss me.
Ashlyn wanted to return his smile, to throw her arms around him and to plead with him to take her away from this awful place. But then she remembered what he’d done to her that morning when he’d met with the Guild. He’d hurt her, stung her to the core with his rejection, but worst of all, it was because of him that she was now imprisoned in this barren wasteland. He’d surrendered her willingly, agreed to give her over to the Dragon of Fire. All because duty meant more to him than she did.
“I want so badly to kiss you,” he said softly as he stepped down, apparently oblivious to her quiet rage. “But first I think I need to tell you something.”
“What can you possibly want to tell me?” she said, a flash of anger surging through her chest. Why had he even come, now that he’d ruined her life? Was he here to gloat? To make her his mistress? What? “You sent that…that man…to come find me. You told him he could have me. You…”
“I did what?” he asked, his eyebrows knitting with confusion. “Ashlyn, I did no such thing. How could you think that of me?”
“Mardoc told me all about it. That at the Guild meeting, you’d decreed that he was my proper mate, and that you’d sent him to find me with your blessing.”
“Ashlyn,” he said, slipping towards her. But she edged backwards, retreating slowly. Happy though a part of her was to see him, she needed to be angry just now; he didn’t get a free pass after everything he and his fellow Dragon shifters had done to crush her happiness.
“Explain yourself then,” she snarled, choking back a sob. “Tell me I’m wrong, because I don’t even want to look at you right now.”
“You’re wrong.”
“No, I’m not.”
“Yes, you are. Ashlyn, there is no man by that name in my Guild. The man I thought you’d be partnered with is named Kabal, and frankly, he doesn’t deserve you either…but that’s a story for another day. The point is, there is no Mardoc. I’ve never met the plonker. All I know is that he’s a monster for what he’s done to you, to us.”
“You really didn’t send him to me?”
Aegis shook his head. “Of course not, and I don’t think I could’ve sent Kabal either in the end. I realized this morning that I could never let some other man have you, whatever the risk to my reputation or even to my Guild. I would have taken expulsion over losing you.”
“So how…” Ashlyn sank back towards the wall, her palms adhering to her cheeks, which had gone hot with excitement or fever. Or whatever this medley of emotion was doing to her. “I don’t understand…he did such strange things to my mind…”
“There are some who do that. Mind-benders toy with emotions, manipulate people for their own benefit. It seems to me that you’ve encountered such a shifter.”
“But when we got here, he stopped doing it. Like he didn’t need to try anymore. Aegis…he made all but forget you, though I’ll never fully understand how. He played me like a fiddle.”
Aegis’s eyes were sympathetic as he locked them on her, though Ashlyn sensed anger bubbling up somewhere behind them. Rage, aimed at the man who’d taken her so far away from him and threatened to tear them apart forever. “When I went to St. Dunstan’s to find you,” he said, “there was no sign of struggle. The woman I know wouldn’t let a man steal her unless she’d given up hope, or something else had happened. But now I get it.” He arched an eyebrow as he worked his way through his developing theory. “You thought I’d given you away; that I didn’t care anymore and that I’d encouraged this Mardoc bastard to steal you for his own. So your mind was weakened by grief, vulnerable to his particular set of skills, at least for a time. He probably told you that he’d need to mate with you in order to help your Seeker to come out.”
Ashlyn nodded, unable to deny any of it.
“That was a lie, of course,” Aegis said before clamping his jaw shut, seemingly deep in thought.
Please, Ashlyn thought, tell me you’re here because you need me as much as I need you. Everything was coming back into focus now, her anger vanishing into the air around her. Replaced by a sweet feeling of warmth that she’d thought she’d never feel again. Aegis hadn’t betrayed her after all.
No, of course he hadn’t. She should have known better than to think the worst of him. He was kind, generous, honest, every good thing a man could be.
Seeming to read her mind, Aegis lifted his stubbled chin and looked her square in the eye, stepping abruptly towards her, a glorious smile revisiting his face. “Silly, wonderful woman. You think I don’t care, but the truth is that I love you, Ashlyn. I would never let another man have you, not without a fight. Hell, I’ll admit that I thought I could for a little while, for the sake of the Guild. I thought I could give you up to help others. I thought it was noble to do so, even. But now that I know what I know, I will never surrender you. You’re everything to me. You’re my whole life. The idea of letting you go kills me.”
“Now that you know what you know?” She took a hesitant step forward. “What do you mean?”
“You are not what you think you are,” he said, slipping forward, almost daring to touch her. He trapped her in his gaze, his secrecy almost too much to take. “Those bright, amazing eyes of yours. That beautiful body, that birth mark of flame, your scent, your strength. I always knew that you weren’t a typical human, but…”
“But what?” He was killing her with the cryptic words.
“But I never suspected how amazing you truly were.”
He cupped her cheek in his hand and leaned in to kiss her lips once, gently. Then again, this time with all the power and hunger that had eaten away at him since he’d lost her. His tongue hunted hers and she welcomed him, felt herself fall through the floor then float into the sky, all the weight of the world lifting from her shoulders. She didn’t know what he was talking about, but all that mattered was that he’d come to her. He’d come to say that she was his.
When he p
ulled back at last, Aegis’s eyes had gone bright, the Dragon inside him very near the surface. Aching to break free of his human bonds. He stared at her with so much love that she could feel it deep inside her chest, a small explosion of fiery warmth illuminating her. “You see Ashlyn, you’re not a Seeker after all.”
“I’m not?” Her head was swimming in his presence. Blissful, peaceful, calm for once.
He shook his head. “No. It’s rather more complicated than that.”
“I..it is?”
Aegis nodded slowly. “You see, the fevers—the verse—everything that’s happened to you. Even surviving that blaze as an infant—”
Ashlyn was breathless, dizzy. “Tell me what’s going on, Aegis. I need to know what you’re talking about or I’ll go completely nuts. With everything that’s happened…”
“You’re a Dragon shifter,” he interrupted, blurting the words out quickly as though tearing a bandage off a wound. “Ashlyn, you’re one of us. You’re a very, very powerful woman.”
She pulled her body backwards, drawing herself away to better read his expression. What the hell had he just said? “I am not,” she stammered, “I can’t be, it’s not possible…I’ve never even shifted…”
“When you were ten you were struck by a violent fever,” he said. “That’s normally the age when a shifter learns to transform into his—or her—déor. Those fevers were your Dragon’s attempt to alert you of her presence. You had visions back then, you told me. No doubt there were some Dragons involved in those visions?”
“Yes, but…”
“Your parents were shifters, both of them. You are as purebred as a Dragon shifter can be.”
Ashlyn’s heart hurt for the mother and father that she’d never known, who’d died in the fire so long ago. The parents who hadn’t been around to teach her about her fate or her abilities.
“The creature inside you was trying to help you, as she’s been trying for years. She was doing her damnedest to escape your human form. But you fought her back, because you didn’t know what she was, and as a result you nearly died. Now it’s time to learn to set her free.”
Ashlyn moved back again, her pulse quickening as she slammed down onto the edge of the bed. Could it really be the truth? The voice in her mind that bossed her around so aggressively—could it really be a Dragon speaking to her?
“But if I’m…what you say I am…what does that mean for us?” She stared at her fingers as they fidgeted with one another in a confused play for supremacy. To think that this flesh of hers would turn into a scaled beast, somehow, was so strange. Yet so…good. “What does it mean for you and me?”
“Well, unconventional though it is, it would appear that I’m your Seeker. It’s you who are the shifter of Fire, and I’m the one meant to help you in your search for the Relic. Thanks to you, it’s now safe with the Guild.”
“It is?” Her face lit up as she spoke. This was the best news she’d ever received.
Aegis nodded, her contagious smile making its way to his lips. “You led me to St. Dunstan’s, and I recovered it. What I’m trying to tell you in a very roundabout way is that you and I can, in fact, be together, Ashlyn Raleigh. There’s nothing in our way now.”
She lifted her chin to look into his eyes, her own brimming with moisture. For the first time, the tears were happy ones.
“There’s something else, too,” Aegis added. “Last night, we…”
“We made love.”
He nodded. “We bonded, you and I, and sealed our fate. That’s why I was able to find the Relic today. Tell me, did you feel different this morning when you got up?”
“I…” Ashlyn began. “A little funny, I suppose. But mostly I felt very clear-headed, well, at least until Mardoc came along. When Neko told me about St. Dunstan’s this morning, the voice in my mind said that she was right, though how it—she—my Dragon—could have known that, I have no idea.”
“Your Dragon knows a good deal that you don’t. You will find that you have certain new abilities.” Aegis took a few steps away from her, his eyes scanning the sky out the window.
“Abilities? Like flying, you mean,” she said.
“Yes, and there’s a good deal of other madness that you’ll discover, as well.” He swung back to face her. “But listen—we don’t have a lot of time. I need to get you out of here.”
Ashlyn rose to her feet. There was nothing she would have liked more in the world. But after one step she pulled back. “We can’t go,” she told him. “Not yet.”
“Why not? I can fly us out of here in twenty seconds flat.”
She spoke the words slowly, taking ownership of her newly revealed identity. “If I’m a shifter then I owe it to my parents, to all of Dragon-kind, to get some answers. Don’t you think it’s a little odd that when Mardoc came to find me, he knew about the Guild meeting? A man who’s apparently not part of your Guild? A man you’ve never met?”
“Yes, of course it’s odd, but it’s possible that he made some clever guesses, I suppose.” But a Aegis spoke each word, his voice lost conviction. Ashlyn was making her point.
She shook her head. “I don’t think so. He knew your name. He knew what you’d talked about at the meeting, even—the Relic, me.”
“You think there’s a traitor in the Guild. Someone who fed him that information.”
Ashlyn nodded. “He told me that he’s got a visitor coming tomorrow. One of your friends. I think it’s his ally in the Guild”
“Oh, Christ…” Aegis mumbled. “We were betrayed, all of us.”
He looked so devastated that Ashlyn moved forward and threw her arms around him, pulling him close. “I’m so sorry,” she said. “But don’t you see? If I stay tonight, I can find out who it is. If I leave now, we may never know. I’m willing to take this bullet for the Guild, now that…”
“Now that you know that I will never, ever desert you, my Dragon queen?” Aegis pulled back. He looked at her with so much warmth in that moment that she knew it was the truth. He would follow her to the ends of the earth. He’d already proven it.
“Yes.”
“Then let me spend the night with you,” he said, pulling her to him and holding on as though he never wanted to let go. “In the morning I’ll leave you, but not for long. Never for long again.”
Bliss
“I want you with me more than anything,” Ashlyn said, “but we’ll have to be careful. Mardoc’s got what look like Forsaken roaming around this place. One of them is supposed to come by first thing tomorrow. I’m sort of amazed that they didn’t spot you flying in and come to kill us both.”
“Stealth is a gift that my Dragon and I share,” Aegis said, giving her one of those sexy, sly smiles of his. “I’ll make myself scarce in the small hours of the night, don’t worry. I’ll have to leave to warn the others about what’s happening anyhow; they’ll want to come see the Guild’s traitor for themselves.”
Ashlyn pulled away, a thought coursing through her mind, throwing up a narrow wall between her heart and the beautiful man who stood in front of her.
“Aegis,” she said softly, “is this really happening?” She looked up at him, a hesitant expression in her eyes. “Is everything really okay with us? Your Guild…you? I mean, there’s no reason for me to be afraid anymore, is there?”
In silent answer to her question, Aegis took a step backwards, stripped away his jacket and tossed it onto the tile floor before pulling his t-shirt over his head. Ashlyn fought back a smile, all but swooning at the sight of his muscles rippling with each motion. Gorgeous demigod. He was such a contrast to Mardoc, who’d grabbed hold of her mind and, like a predator, forced her to bend to his will. Aegis’s brand of intoxication was so welcome, so wonderful. Nothing about him made her want to rebel or fight him off.
If Mardoc was her poison, Aegis was her lifeblood.
“To respond to your question, Ashlyn Raleigh—oh ye of little faith—this is all yours,” Aegis said, gesturing towards his body like a spokesmodel
showing off a shiny new car. “Every inch of me belongs to you, now and forever.”
“It’s so hard to believe this could be real, after everything…” Ashlyn began, but Aegis was already moving to one knee before her, taking her hand. “What are you doing?” she asked, letting out a delighted laugh.
He smiled that perfect, charming, white-toothed grin of his as he levelled her with a sensual gaze. God, he was delicious. But what was he doing on one knee? Surely he wasn’t going to propose marriage. Did Dragon shifters even get married?
“Ashlyn Raleigh,” he said in a solemn tone, “we’ve known each other for all of what? A week?”
“About that, yeah.”
“No matter. As I’ve told you, it feels like a lifetime. In a good way of course.”
She laughed again; he was so right. Aegis cleared his throat reproachfully and continued. “You nearly got yourself killed by a psycho in an alley. Then you nearly killed him. Then I nearly killed him. Then we had some fantastic oral…”
“Cut to the chase, would you?” she commanded, trying to look stern as she suppressed another laugh.
“Point is, I have no ring to offer you. But I have something better. Something more…permanent.” He slid his right hand up in front of her face, fingers curled into a tight fist. Then he opened it, showing her his palm for the first time.
Ashlyn gasped when she saw the flames embedded in his flesh. His skin shone with a strange pink texture, painful looking but oddly beautiful. “Oh my God, Aegis! What happened?”
“The Relic and I had a little bonding session of our own,” he said. “Your mark—the mark of Fire—is branded on me now, so you’d better accept this pseudo-proposal of mine. This is more permanent than any tattoo, so I’m yours forever.”
Ashlyn slipped down onto her knees and took his hand in hers, planting a delicate kiss on his scar, which had all but healed. This must be a Dragon’s legendary strength at work. “I’d say yes to anything you offered right now,” she told him, her eyes meeting his again. She meant it, too. If he’d asked her to run away to Tahiti that second she’d have done it.
Dragon's Lover, Part Three: A Dragon Shifter Romance Page 6