Storm Clouds: Dragon's Fate, Book 3

by Lacy Danes

  He stumbled down the carriage steps and held his hand up for her. She too swayed on the uneven ground caused by brandy. The butler said nothing as he opened the door, and Ilmir guided his guest up the stairs to the third floor. His rooms here resided in the attic. Only one additional room was on the floor—the guest room. No one ever came to visit. Why would they? He closed the door. “Miss Elizabeth.” He stepped toward her. She did not move.

  “Lady Elizabeth,” she corrected and grasped the velvet of his deep red greatcoat.

  His brow pinched. She crumpled the fabric. His blood surged, and his gray-gloved fingers wrapped about her throat. He tipped her chin back. “Take off your gloves.”

  She whimpered, and the salty smell of her heated skin flooded his nostrils. Indeed. Tonight would be epic. Slowly she slipped the gloves from her hands.

  “Good. Now lift your skirts and spread your thighs. I want to watch as you slide your fingers deep inside your loveliness.”

  The throb of her pulse against the taut skin in her thrust-up neck increased.

  Her feet slid apart on the wood floor. His own heartbeat thundered in his ears. He needed a taste. No… The one thing he would do was give her pleasure beyond anything she had known, before he took her life.

  A loud thump came against the wall beyond the headboard where Astrid rested. Rested. Indeed. Her heart fluttered. She was not asleep. She could not sleep. She squeezed her eyes shut. Horse hooves clopped on the cobbles outside, and the wheels of carriages going down the street echoed in the dark. Her eyes drifted open. Light poured into the dark room. At night, the city was aglow.

  Her mind raced and her skin burned with awareness. A woman whimpered on the other side of the wall. A heady warmth smothered her. She sat up. Astrid had heard similar sounds on the Isle, but none where she slept. She threw back the blankets, walked to the wall and pressed her ear to the smooth surface.

  Muffled sounds met her ear. But nothing she could make out.

  She frowned, grasped her robe and pushed her arms through the wool sleeves. She held her breath as she tiptoed out of her room and into the hall. The only other room on the floor was to the left of hers.

  “Ilmir’s room,” Fina had said when they arrived at the late evening hour.

  Hers was the only guest room in the house. Well, if he intruded on her slumber, she would ruin his fun too. This impulse was wrong, but this was her week, and he was part of her name-day wish. To bring him back to the family. To make him see he too was Zir. She raised her hand to knock on the door.

  A woman moaned in deep pleasure on the other side.

  Her eyebrows rose. That sounded delightful. What was he doing to her? Did they kiss? Astrid’s hand lightly wrapped the doorknob instead and squeezed the cool metal. Chills and fever raced her skin. She had never seen a man and woman together. Horses, pigs, birds, certainly.

  She wanted to see what went on beyond the door. Her chest tightened, and she struggled to inhale. Today was her name day for another thirty moments.

  She needed to see. She closed her eyes. In her five and twenty years, she had not been kissed, not once, and especially not in the way that came from the other side of the door.

  “Turn so I can unlace you.” As if in a rush of air, Ilmir’s voice slid through the keyhole in the door. Astrid’s hand turned the knob. The door slipped open without a sound. She stepped in and closed the door, placing her back against the wood.

  Ilmir glowed pure white in the black room. Glowing light lit the woman pressed against the wall. Her creamy white skin was bare. She wore nothing, no clothing at all. Her legs were parted, and her hands wrapped her stomach. Ilmir stood back, watching. The woman whimpered.

  “Slip your right hand down between your thighs. Find your bud and, with the tip of your finger, trace circles around the hard flesh.” Ilmir’s hands fisted on either side of his hips.

  Astrid inhaled and tried to still her own heart. Gooseflesh pebbled in a wave along her skin.

  Ilmir’s head tilted slightly toward Astrid and then back to the window. He stepped forward. “No. Like this.” He placed his still-gloved hand on top of the woman’s lower curls and rubbed.

  Astrid’s same muscles tightened and tingled. She swallowed hard. She would watch all. Every bit. His tongue slipped up the woman’s neck to her ear. “I am going to bring you so much pleasure that you will be exhausted before I take my desires from you.”

  Those same words echoed through Astrid’s mind and struck deep in the dark sexual place she kept such experiences. She caught a moan in her clenched teeth.

  “Oh!” The woman licked her bottom lip and then dragged her teeth across the plump flesh.

  Astrid could see everything lit up like the sun. But there was no sun. Ilmir glowed as bright as the piecing rays when the light pushed through the black of a storm. He was the visual of that same bright feeling that energized her from within and washed through her when she watch a storm roll in off the coast. An uncomfortable ache intensified between her thighs.

  And….

  Ilmir?

  He had saved her when she was eight, but he had been everything except a hero since.

  He pulled the woman’s hands up, fanning her fingers out one by one on the smooth wallpaper. Her fingers clenched and then loosened.

  He continued to move his hand between her thighs.

  Astrid tipped her head back against the door and inhaled deeply. Her hand slid down to push the fabric of her thin nightdress into her own folds. She found the spot that made her toes curl, and pressed. Sensation zinged through her.

  His hand took up a rhythm between the woman’s thighs, and Astrid mirrored her motions to his.

  His white hair covered his face. What torment did he do to the woman with his tongue?

  “You want this? To watch me?” Air blew against Astrid’s ear. Had she actually heard him speak?

  “This will not end well for her. You know that. If you stay, you will not scream when I bite her.”

  He spoke to her on the wind, and he would bite this woman once he was done. Astrid could not look away. Certainly she helped feed Hudson and Grandmum blood, and then there was the sadness of the deaths the Zir caused. She just had not expected this. Not right here, right now. As she watched. No. She could not stay. She slowly turned away and let her hand drop from between her thighs.

  Her hand on the doorknob, she stilled. She couldn’t let him kill that woman. Knowing his intentions made her just as guilty. She turned back to the room.

  His laughter silently wrapped her. “What, dear? Do you wish to speak?”

  “Quite so.” She spoke in a loud, purposeful tone into the room. “I am sorry to intrude, sir. And truly pardon, ma’am or my lady or whoever you are. But you must leave.”

  The woman shrieked. Ilmir pulled back from her and stared at Astrid. His glow dimmed, as did each beat of her heart. Astrid rushed forward and gathered the woman’s clothing from the floor. She thrust the garments at her.

  The woman blinked and clutched the clothing to herself. “Are you his wife?”

  Astrid laughed. “No. Never.”

  “You find that funny?” Ilmir’s face scrunched up.

  The woman pulled her chemise over her head, and then her dress. She stared at Astrid and slipped her satin slippers onto bare feet. Her corset and stockings tucked under her arm, she flung open the door to the hallway and disappeared.

  Ilmir leaned back against the wall where he stood. His blue eyes sparked with annoyance, and his lips turned up into a wicked smile. “You realize you may have saved her for tonight, but the thrill of being caught in the buff by you will only have her calling on me again tomorrow.”

  “The thrill? You are truly mad. No person wants what just happened here.”

  “You can’t be that naïve. You found pleasure in watching me with her. Others find pleasure in being caught
.”

  “I have no inkling of what you speak of.”

  “You didn’t find watching me pleasure her satisfying?” He pushed from the wall and was in front of her by the time she blinked. He inhaled. “Your body says otherwise.”

  “Pardon?”

  “May I?” He slipped off his left glove and held up his bare hand.

  “May you what?”

  “Stand still.” With his gloved hand, he lifted her nightdress up above her hips. “Inhale.”

  She inhaled, and a sweet musky scent filled the air.

  “That is you when you are aroused.” He let the cotton fall back to her ankles. “Unless you plan on allowing me to finish my night with you, I suggest you leave.”

  “You would not dare bite me.”

  “Did I say anything about biting? Nibbling, maybe.”

  Her mouth dropped open. “You… Never.”

  “So you keep saying. Yet you still stand here.”

  She glanced down at her feet, then back up at him. “I’m leaving.”

  “The door is right behind you…and open.” He turned away and walked to the small window by the side of the bed. He threw the sash wide.

  Cool air rushed in and nipped at her bare toes.

  He turned back to her. “Leave.” His eyes glowed deep sapphire. “I will not give you another chance.” The air whipped against her thighs like a switch.

  Astrid flinched as a long-ago the memory cut into her mind. A man chased her down a muddy street. His long black hair puffed and bobbed back, and his thick middle restricted his knees from going too fast. She giggled, certain of her escape, then slipped in the mud. Hands flailing, she dropped the bread and landed on her knees. Thick fingers grasped her hair and pulled her back to standing. The tree branch slashed her thighs first, then her back. She cried out and twisted, but he kept hitting her. She was only six years old.

  Panic tightened her throat. She turned away from Ilmir and ran. She didn’t go back to her own room. She fled down three flights of stairs and into the servants’ hall. She darted under the kitchen worktable and into the dark.

  Clutching her knees to her chest, she rocked back and forth. What in all the world just happened to me? Ilmir’s words had brought back a memory she had not thought of since that day. She snagged her lip, and more tears fell. She wanted Ilmir to do as he suggested. His words were no suggestion. Ilmir and that memory… No. She could never let him touch her that way.

  Or could she?

  Chapter Three

  The chatter in the house was beyond annoying. What was the time? Ilmir rolled to his side and pushed up to sitting. Damn Zir. Zir women and blood drinkers.

  He stood and pulled the bell for water to be brought up to his room. He turned back toward the door. On the wood between the door and the rug lay one white glove. What happened last night? One moment he was on his way to blood oblivion, and the next… The energy from Astrid came through the door and slid up his spine. Complete and utter distraction. What was she doing here?

  She had said never, and she was correct. But never what?

  Never his wife, for certain. If he bit her, she would die.

  Never let him touch her?

  That was an event altogether different, and seeing her standing there touching herself as if he touched her would be his unbinding. His resolve never to engage with her cracked just a bit and then crumbled.

  There had always been an energy to her that he wanted to follow. And, indeed, follow was the correct word. He was thankful he saw her only when on the Isle. While there, he was in his cups and irritable, as he had no way to feed his glow.

  She was here. In his space, this time.

  Water arrived, and he bathed. He then pulled on dark gray pantaloons and a crisp dark gray shirt. His valet tied a white-and-gray-striped cravat about his throat and then helped him into a golden waist vest adorned with shimmering dark shell buttons. The final touch, his new coat made of dark purple velvet that was lush and soft to the touch. He studied his reflection in the mirror.

  He was a ghost. Pale skin with pale eyes, and white hair. The bright colors might not enliven his complexion, but they lifted his mood. He ran his hands down the slick silk fabric and closed his eyes savoring the texture… Softer than a woman’s skin. A pang of hunger pinched his stomach.

  His morning ritual lasted longer than that of a female’s, but his appearance was worth every tick of the clock. The attention to detail drew the eyes of all, and that he learned to use to his advantage.

  He opened his door and headed down to the parlor for his morning tea and cream. The noise increased stair by stair. He turned into the parlor, and his body tensed from the energy in the small space. He would not spare the damn Zir women a glance. He would retrieve his tea and cream, then head to Samgor’s Den to spend the rest of the day playing cards, away from here.

  Carriage wheels clattered on the cobbles out front. He stared at the door. Never mind repast here. He would simply eat at Samgor’s. He went for the door and out into the carriage.

  Astrid stepped up into the carriage before Celeste.

  Ilmir sat in the middle of the seat, his legs spread wide. “If I have to share this cab with anyone, there is only room for you.”

  Astrid peeked over her shoulder at Celeste. “Do not fret. I need to talk to Grandmum anyway. We will see you at Branigan’s.”

  Astrid took a step back to exit the carriage.

  Ilmir’s fingers wrapped about her gloved wrist. “Oh no. We have much to speak about.” He pulled her into the cab and pushed so that she sat directly next to him on the seat. He hit the roof of the cab with his fist, and the conveyance lurched forward. Her sweet fresh smell filled the carriage.

  “You will not interfere again,” he stated in a calm, flat tone.

  “I did no such thing. I simply watched you.” Her forehead wrinkled, and she stared at him with a glare that shot pinpricks up his spine.

  “And then interfered.” The muscle in his left cheek twitched.

  “Only to save that woman’s life.” She scooted as close to the window and away from him as possible.

  “You don’t know her. Why should you care if she lives or dies?”

  Her jaw tightened. “Why does that matter?” She shook her head. “The rest of the family hates what you do. You cause them grief and have done so for years. You need to stop biting.”

  “Biting women is what all of us do.” Did she truly think otherwise?

  “But you enjoy it.” Her words spat out angrily, but her tone held a question instead.

  “Indeed I do. I do not dwell on guilt when the benefits of doing what I do are so capital.”

  “How are they wonderful? You have not found your mate. You just kill and kill and kill.”

  Ilmir turned his head and stared out the window. Kill and kill and kill. “You know nothing about me. You accept that Grandmum and Hudson need blood to survive, that they too would kill if they had no pigs to drink from. You accept that the other Zir brothers also bite and kill to find their mates. But you judge me harshly because the blood is what keeps my powers alive. I am not Jordan or Madoc or Ferrous. I do as I do to survive.”

  There. Hopefully she understood. They rode in silence. The beat of her heart so close put him on edge. He fisted and flexed his fingers. “Why did you come into my room last night to watch me?”

  Huge brown eyes closed, and a rosy blush rushed to her cheeks. She snagged her lip with her teeth, and her fingers gripped the edge of the carriage seat between them. “I have never… Well, I have never seen anyone ever…”

  “And you have never yourself.”

  She opened her eyes and stared at him. “No.”

  “And you wanted to know what the act looked like?”

  “I know that seems foolish, but I did.” She stuck out her chin. Such adventure she sought. He
wanted to reach out and cup her face in his hands before anyone else did.

  “Do you still?”

  She turned her head to gaze out the window. “Indeed.” The word came softly, like a feather on the wind.

  He slid his hand closer to hers on the seat. He needed to touch her. Show her. He lightly rubbed his little finger along hers.

  She jumped but didn’t remove her hand. Her heartbeat increased, and she continued to stare out the window.

  His own blood warmed, and heat flooded him. He parted her small finger away from her ring finger, then pressed his fingertip to the carriage seat as he had his hand to the wall last night. Sensation sparked his fingers. He wanted to feel her wetness on his hands, but for now this would do. He caressed this one small part of her body while mimicking his fingers’ movements from the night before. He needed to show her. Not only what she wished to see, but that he was more than simply a killer.

  He grazed his fingers along the back of her hand and then dipped each fingertip into the matching crevice between her fingers and caressed her palm.

  She stared at his hand wrapped about hers, then up into his eyes. Irresistible. Her tongue wet her lips. He leaned forward to capture her lips and stopped.

  No. Not yet.

  He hovered a breath away from tasting her. “I will show you.” His throat tightened. The urgency to display her naked before him surprised him. His pantaloons grew tight.

  “You kill the women you bed.” Her expression stayed soft, but her eyes muddied to unease.

  And that was why his desire to be nice to her was a folly. He pulled back. “Most, but I do have restraint.”

  “I certainly have never seen anything but indulgence.”

  She had just witnessed it and did not see it.

  The carriage came to a halt, and the footman rushed to open the door. Ilmir gently removed his fingers from her hand. The door opened, and she glanced out at the walk, then back to him. “I will consider what you have said.”