by Dixon, Ruby
Fire In His Spirit
A Post-Apocalyptic Dragon Shifter Romance
Ruby Dixon
Fireblood Dragons #5
Copyright © 2018 by Ruby Dixon
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Cover Photo by: Sara Eirew Photographer
Cover Design by: Kati Wilde
Edits: Aquila Editing
Created with Vellum
Contents
Fire In His Spirit
What Has Gone Before
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Epilogue
Author’s Note
Also In This Series
Other Titles by Ruby Dixon
Want More?
Fire In His Spirit
Gwen’s never wanted to be a leader, but when no one else stepped up, she took on the role. As the mayor of post-apocalyptic Shreveport, she’s made decisions to protect her people…and most of them have backfired disastrously. When she discovers that the dangerous gold dragon lurking outside of the fort has decided she’s his mate, heartsick Gwen decides that the best thing she can do is confront him and take him far away from the city.
She does this to save her people - her sister, her friends, her fort.
She doesn’t expect to understand the dragon.
She certainly doesn’t expect to fall in love.
What Has Gone Before
The year is 2023, seven years after the destruction of the known world. Back in 2016, a Rift opened in the heavens and dragons poured forth, as terrible and violent as the beasts of legend. Like ants, they swarmed over the human cities, destroying everything in their wake. Buildings crumbled, countries fell, and within a matter of months, humankind was broken. Guns had no effect on the unearthly creatures from another dimension. Planes and missiles were too slow. Riots broke out as men were forced to fight not only for their survival against the dragons, but against each other.
The people who survived those first brutal days took to hiding. Eventually, small groups of survivors banded together and formed forts where they could live safely and securely. In the After, concrete is the building material of choice, and people freely give up their rights in exchange for protection for their families. The forts themselves are isolated and corrupt, run by a power-hungry militia. The guns they carry might not be useful against dragons, but they’re more than enough to keep the people of the fort in line. Those who cannot obey a fort’s rules are cast out, to live as nomads. They are considered scum by fort-dwellers and view themselves as dead men walking. Without shelter or a permanent place to call home, they might as well be.
For seven years, humanity continues on, living in the cracks and hiding in the shadows.
Then, things begin to slowly change. CLAUDIA, a thief from Fort Dallas, is left in the wild, abandoned streets of the Scavenge Lands as bait to tame a dragon. No one expects her to live…or for it to work. Her dragon KAEL is fierce and possessive, his mind broken by the constant madness that eats at the drakoni. Despite this, he is an intelligent being and can be as kind and loving as he is brutal. After a time, Claudia stops seeing him as the enemy and starts seeing him as a partner. With Kael’s help, she hatches a plan to rescue her sister AMY and her friend SASHA from Fort Dallas and its corrupt militia. (Book 1 - Fire in His Blood)
During the chaos of the rescue mission, Sasha is snatched away by DAKH, a crazed male dragon who seeks a mate to fix his mind. Though it takes time for the fearful Sasha to trust Dakh, she eventually realizes that the dragon would do anything for her and that he can love just as fiercely as any male human. When Sasha is captured by local bandits, she learns that not only are the nomads working with an old enemy of hers, but the bandits are led by a mysterious stranger named AZAR.
Azar claims to be drakoni, but not like the others. He’s not crazed, he can’t (or won’t) shift to dragon form, and he has a plan to return to his homeworld. He needs someone to go back through the rift that was created between worlds, but since no one knows if it can be done, he needs a volunteer. If he can’t get one, he’ll force someone through. He holds Sasha hostage in the hopes that she can persuade Dakh to go through the Rift, even if it costs him his life. To make matters even more dangerous, Azar’s captured ZOHR, another dragon, but he remains too crazed to be useful. Sasha refuses to pull Dakh into Azar’s dangerous games. With the help of Emma, she breaks free from captivity and escapes into Dakh’s waiting arms. (Book 2 - Fire in His Kiss)
Meanwhile, Emma remains behind with Azar’s people to try to free Zohr. To do so, she must mate with him to establish a psychic bond. Zohr frees himself after a confrontation with Azar, but at the cost of his wings. While he heals, he and Emma work on a plan to destroy Azar and his men. When the mated pair approach Claudia and Kael for help, Claudia’s unmated sister Amy is enlisted to be scent-bait. (Book 3 - Fire in His Embrace)
Amy has a plan of her own, though. She tosses her panties down in the city so a dragon can find her and fall in love with her. She wants to be free of the quasi-exile she lives in back in Claudia’s tower. A dragon does find her panties—RAST. The big gold male comes to claim her, taking her away to be his mate. Rast has more memories of his time and remembers being a conscripted soldier to the Salorians. Worried that Amy and other drakoni will hate him, he struggles with how to reconcile who he is now—Amy’s mate—with who he was back then. They receive a message on a carrier pigeon, leading them to Fort Shreveport. This fort is small and run by GWEN, who tries to sell them out to local nomads in the hopes of protecting her kidnapped sister, DANIELA. Gwen is surprised and pleased when Amy and Rast volunteer to help the struggling Fort Shreveport and eventually take on a leadership position, putting the nomads in their place. (Book 4 - Fire in His Fury)
Things are escalating all over the land, however. Emma and Zohr have traveled to distant Fort Orleans because Fort Dallas is surrounded by a bevy of dragons, and they worry that all of the forts are affected thus. They do not know Azar has taken residence there, just that things are strange. Rumors fly of Fort Tulsa and the terrible crimes against people that happen there. Fort Shreveport has its hands full with its own dragon problems, as a drakoni male named VAAN will not leave the city’s surroundings. He is convinced his mate waits within. And another drakoni male—this one in human form and with no telepathy—has
shown up in Fort Shreveport, but no one knows who the mysterious LIAM is…
1
GWEN
"Dragons," Andrea murmurs from her cot across the room. "Did you ever think that when the world ended, it'd be because of dragons?"
I roll over in my bed, unable to sleep either. We've shared this room together since we both left (well, fled) Fort Tulsa and settled here in what became Fort Shreveport. Andrea's been my best friend, my second-in-charge, and my sounding board. This isn't the first late night we've had discussing all kinds of things from food rations to men to our lives in the Before. It's certainly not the first time we've talked dragons.
Today, it carries a lot more weight, though.
"I thought it'd be a bomb of some kind," I admit to her, tucking my hands under my cheek as I stare into the darkness of our room. "War. Heck, global warming making the oceans too hot. Something gradual."
"Yeah, same. Never thought, 'hey, maybe this great big honking tear will open up in the sky and a bunch of bloodthirsty dragons will shoot out and flame the world. Gotta say that on my list of end-time scenarios, that wasn't even in the top ten."
I chuckle, because what else can you do but laugh? The time for sobbing and railing over our fate is years past. Those who could adapt and survive, did. The billions that couldn't…didn't.
"Dragons," Andrea sighs again. "I thought aliens were more likely than dragons. I mean, damn. How many science fiction movies were there about aliens? I can't think of any with freaking dragons. Can you?"
I can think of one, actually, but it's not why Andrea's getting chatty late at night. She's trying to distract me from the host of problems that have been piling onto Fort Shreveport in the last few days. The worst of all, they're problems that are all my fault. Despair threads through me and I want to bury my face into my pillow and hide from the world.
But I can't, because I'm the mayor. I have to be the leader because no one else stepped up.
I look over at the empty cot on the other side of the classroom, across from Andrea's and mine, tucked under the old blackboard. It's my sister's bed, and right now, she's being held captive by nomads, all because I'm a terrible leader. Somewhere out in the night, Daniela's suffering and there's nothing I can do about it. I can't leave because I'm needed here…even as I drive the damn place into the ground with my choices.
Is this how the president felt when the dragons arrived, I wonder? That every choice made just makes things worse? That no matter how good your intentions, shit just keeps piling higher until you feel like screaming and never stopping?
"Gwen?" Andrea whispers.
"I'm here. I'm sorry. I'm just…thinking."
"About Daniela? It isn't your fault."
"Isn't it? I let the Brothers of Ash into the fort."
"We've let everyone into the fort," she says reasonably. "That's what we do. We're a refuge for others who are fleeing other forts. You didn't know they'd turn out to be assholes."
I didn't, but I should have known. When I saw a dozen bikers ride up without a single woman amongst them, I should have known. I should have listened to the little voice in the back of my head that was screaming that this was a bad idea. But I felt guilty for that voice. Just because they were a bunch of old grizzled white dudes didn't mean they were going to hurt anyone. Maybe they were just looking for shelter from a dragon attack, and Andrea was right, we'd always let everyone in. You can't pick and choose based on how people look.
I'm so stupid. So, so stupid. Maybe if I'd listened to that cautious little voice, no one would have gotten hurt. They wouldn't have robbed us, hurt some of the girls, blackmailed us into giving up all of our supplies.
Maybe Daniela'd be safe in her bed instead of a captive of those jerks. Possibly dead. Most likely raped. Oh god. All of that's my fault, too.
"You did what you thought was best," Andrea tells me, but I don't believe her. I'm the leader. I should know better. I should think with more caution because I'm supposed to protect everyone.
"Thanks," I say softly, because what else can I say? Andrea's going to try to cheer me up all night if I don't acknowledge her. She's a good friend and incredibly loyal. She'll never let me speak badly of myself even when I fuck up.
"But it sounds like Amy wants to be in charge. How do you feel about that?" Andi looks at me curiously.
"Relieved," I admit, and then we both go silent. I'm pretty sure we're both thinking the same thing. We're thinking about Amy's dragon.
Amy herself is a sweet, mild-seeming blonde with a limp. She comes from Fort Dallas and arrived a day or two ago. That's not so unusual. We get people passing through all the time. What is unusual is that she came with a man. A man with golden skin, strange hair, and who kept his eyes covered. We didn't think anything of it at first—in the After, you run into a lot of weirdos. People cope in different ways. Some go crazy. Some pierce everything they can find. Some cover themselves with tattoos. We had one girl who passed through on the way to Fort Orleans and had cut her face thousands of times so she'd be scarred up and unattractive to anyone who wanted a woman. So yeah, we've seen a lot of weird, and at first I thought he was just more weird showing up at the fort.
I hated that the reason they’d arrived was because I'd made a pact with the Brothers of Ash, the biker nomads, that if we got any newcomers, we'd hand them over as our tithe. We’d set up a crappy plan to lure outsiders in. I hated the thought of doing so, but the nomads have Daniela. It's another one of those leadership problems where there's no right answer. Do I sell out total strangers to save my sister? Or do I let them go and let my sister die a horrible death at the hands of nomads?
There's no winning. I chose Daniela and set a trap for Amy and her friend “Sam.”
Amy, however, saw through the trap I set. She confronted me, and I folded like a deck of cards, admitting the truth. I expected her to attack me, to try to kill me for what I pulled. Part of me actually welcomed it because then the choice was out of my hands. Cowardly, I know, but I've been so desperate and afraid that at least it was an answer.
Amy didn't attack, though.
She very quietly and firmly took charge of the situation and introduced us to her dragon.
“Sam” isn't a Sam at all. He isn't even human. He's a dragon, one of the golden males that seemingly has his mind together. It's a lot to take in and I didn't believe it at first, despite the man's strange, golden eyes, sharp teeth, and scaly-looking skin. Like I said, I've seen weird before.
But then he shifted to dragon form. And then I believed. I think Andrea passed out when she saw him. I don't blame her. I nearly peed my pants in terror at the sight of him, and the only thing that stopped me was just how utterly unafraid Amy was. Fragile Amy with her bad leg was completely at ease as the big dragon ran his muzzle against her cheek. She said his name was Rast, not Sam, and that his people were drakoni. That they'd lost their minds when they came to this world through the Rift, and only being mated to her has helped him. Her sister has bonded with a dragon, too, and a friend of hers.
The dragon that's decided to start attacking Fort Shreveport and had us under siege for the last week or so? Amy says he's looking for his mate. That he smells her in the fort and when he finds her, he won't attack anymore.
It's a lot to take in.
"I can't believe dragons turn into people," Andrea whispers, and it's clear we're thinking the same. "That under there all this time, there's a person. I always thought of them like…I don't know. Scorpions or snakes. Just really, really big. Attack-y. I didn't think of them as people."
"I know what you mean." I never thought of them as anything other than a mindless enemy. Now I can't help but wonder what's going on with them as they rampage over each city, attacking it. They still do. They're like clockwork. No matter where there's a human settlement, they find us and attack. I thought the rest of our lives would be spent hiding and trying to scrape out a living. Amy's bond with her dragon shows me that there's hope for something else. That the dr
agons are people, too, and if we can just somehow talk to them, maybe we can co-exist peacefully.
"He looks like Liam," Andrea says. "The gold skin. The hair. Always covered up."
I think of Liam. I barely know the guy. Out of all the forty-three people in Fort Shreveport, I know him the least. He showed up a few months ago, alone and without supplies. Said he was from a little fort out west that had been completely razed to the ground and was looking for a new home. He settled in and keeps to himself. Andrea's little brother Benny knows him better than anyone else, I think. I've talked to him a few times, but he's never pinged my radar as dangerous. Strange, yes. He's got that weird golden skin and sharp teeth, but, again, it's the After. Weird is normal. I never thought of him as dangerous, though.
Now, looking back, it's just another person that I've let into our fort without realizing how deadly they are, and I'm filled with shame. "You think Liam…"
"I think so," Andrea says. "I mean, I don't know for sure. I've never seen him without a hat on, so I don't know if he has the spikes in his hair like Sam does."
"Rast," I correct softly. "His name is Rast." Sam sounds far too human.