by Amy Sumida
“Good!” Zimri-dagan shouted. “Be on guard for a lightning attack at all times. Even though you're immune to fire, the light may blind you. Focus on Marduk's eyes; they'll fill with light before he strikes.”
A memory flashed in my mind; Marduk's eyes gathering energy from the shaft of lightning in his hand. He had used the lightning bolt to lift himself into the sky to face me. I saw him hovering before me again, eyes flashing as he slapped a palm on the Tablet of Destinies and started to chant.
Zimri-dagan knocked his sword into my hip, and I went stumbling to the ground. Growls and hissing came from the watching men, but my teacher wasn't concerned.
“Focus, Vervain!”
“Sorry,” I mumbled and scrambled to my feet. “I...” my head swam and I wobbled. “I think I need a break. I'm dehydrated.”
I dropped my practice sword before Zimri-dagan could say another word and trudged toward Pride Palace, feet heavy and limbs weak. Trevor, Kirill, Re, and Viper chased after me. Odin was training with the Valkyries, Azrael with the Demons, and Arach was still in Faerie, overseeing the production of fire weapons.
“But, Vervain,” Zimri-dagan called after me.
“Give her a minute, Jinn!” Re snapped.
Zimri-dagan sighed and went to sit in the shade of a nearby tree.
As I walked, I grew more tired until I was dragging my feet toward the kitchen. I wasn't sure if I was going to make it.
“Sit down.” Kirill altered my path toward a chair beside the fireplace. “I'll get you vater.”
“Thank you,” I whispered and fell into the seat.
“Are you okay, Minn Elska?” Trevor took the chair across from me and leaned forward on his knees, staring at me in concern. “You look pale.”
“Of course, she's not okay,” Re grumbled. “That damn jinn is pushing her too hard. La-la, I think you've trained enough for today.”
“Me too,” I murmured as I laid my head back against the chair. “I'm so tired. But it felt good to use a sword again.”
“What you really need to practice is decapitating someone.” Viper leaned against the back of my chair and stroked my hair. “That takes skill.”
“Viper, she's the Godhunter,” Re said dryly.
“Yeah.” Viper frowned.
“He's like four months old,” Trevor reminded Re.
“Here.” Kirill set a glass of water in my hand. “Drink.”
I gulped it down and sighed. There; that was better. Maybe that's all I—I yawned and the hand holding the glass fell into my lap.
“Oh, that's right,” Re said to Trevor.
“Is someone going to explain whatever it is I'm missing?” Viper asked.
“He's missing something?” Kirill looked at the other men for a clue.
“Viper thinks Vervain needs to learn how to behead gods,” Trevor's voice held a smirk.
Kirill chuckled.
“What?” Viper huffed.
“She's Godhunter,” Kirill said.
Re started laughing.
“Maybe I should just ask Pan,” Viper muttered. “He tells me everything.”
“Like what?” Re asked imperiously. “If he's teaching you about sex, you shouldn't bother. I'm a far better source of information.”
“I don't need to learn about sex,” Viper growled. “Pan's been telling me about the Squad.”
“Oh,” Re said with a little disappointment.
“Why the hell doesn't Vervain need to learn about beheading gods?” Viper snapped.
“Because that's how I used to kill them!” I shouted as I opened my eyes. “I hunted the Gods and the best way to kill a god is to decapitate them. I enchanted my sword and got on-the-job training. I'm good on that front, okay?”
“Okay. You don't have to get upset about it,” Viper grumbled.
“I'm sorry.” I sighed and leaned back in the chair again. “I'm just so tired and all of you keep talking.” I closed my eyes and felt someone take the glass from me. “I need a little nap.”
I slept for four hours.
Chapter Twenty-Three
My dragon king woke me with his fiery kiss.
I sucked in Arach's flames greedily, my body simply taking the energy instead of adding to it and sending it back into him. I slipped my fingers through his crimson hair and held him to me as I drank more and more from him. Arach gave me all he could and then gently pried my hands away and broke the kiss.
“Enough, A Thaisce,” Arach panted. “I need to keep some for myself.”
I blinked and focused on him. “Arach?”
“You need fire, Vervain,” my fey husband said sternly. “You've let your elemental stores get depleted.”
“Fire,” I whispered. “My star was broken and then Marduk stole Love from me. I thought that was what weakened me, but I've just needed a top-off.”
“Not exactly. Those things did weaken you, and you instinctively used your fire as fuel to try to stop the drain. Instead, you only drained yourself further.” Arach looked around the bed at the other men.
They were all there, staring at me in concern.
“I'm better now,” I assured them. “Don't worry.”
“You're not better,” Arach argued. “My element will replenish itself but even when it does, I don't think I'll be able to give you enough to heal you. And as far as your element, it's too depleted to revive normally. It will take time that we don't have. You need more fire, A Thaisce. Energy to restore you now.”
I remembered how I'd once fed on a forest fire—sucking up all of the flames and transforming them into fuel that didn't just heal my body but also went down the lines that connected me to the Froekn and Intare to rejuvenate them as well. I should have thought of this sooner. Hell, Arach should have thought of it sooner. I scowled at him.
“I know.” Arach held up an elegant hand to ward off my lecture. “I'm punching myself for not catching it sooner.”
“You're doing what now?” Trevor chuckled.
Arach narrowed his eyes at the werewolf.
“It's 'kicking myself,' not punching,” I whispered to Arach.
“How would anyone kick themselves?” Arach scowled.
Trevor laughed harder, and the other men grinned.
“He makes a fair point,” Odin admitted.
“Thank you.” Arach waved a hand toward Odin. “Some of these human sayings are insane.”
“Yes, I suppose they are,” I agreed. “But if you're going to use them—and don't want others to laugh when you do—you should probably try to get the words right.”
“Well, you're most definitely feeling better.” Arach grimaced.
“And, I've got a fire for you,” Azrael added as he looked up from his cellphone. “California is burning.”
“Again?” I rolled my eyes. “I swear; God hates California.”
“Which one?” Viper asked innocently.
“Which California?” I blinked at him. “As far as I know, there's only one.”
“I think he means; which god,” Odin clarified.
Viper pointed at Odin and clicked his tongue. “You got it. You know, it's not so funny when you have to explain the joke.”
“Welcome to my world,” I muttered.
“Which one?” Viper asked and grinned.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Arach and I stood in the center of an inferno. He was behind me, his arms wrapped around my waist and his head tucked over the top of mine. We took a moment to soak in the delicious heat and bask in the beauty of the flames. Bright gold, butter-yellow, cadmium, and pumpkin with touches of pure white. Such enchanting colors. They danced across the ground and licked up tree trunks with crackling glee. Lovely.
Arach let me go and gave me a little push forward. “Go ahead, A Thaisce. I'll be here if you need me.”
I inhaled the smoke, setting my dragon to rumbling, and then stretched my hands out to the fire. The energy tingled just beyond my fingertips. I called to it and waited for it to fill me. And waited. I closed m
y eyes and concentrated. It was right there. All around me. Glorious burning fuel. Wondrous heat and power. I could suck this fire up like a vacuum and save this forest. I could do it because...
“Oh, fuck me!” I growled.
“What just happened?” Arach stepped up beside me, his dragon stare scanning the forest warily.
“I forgot,” I huffed. “The Trinity Star is what gives me the ability to consume fire and use it as fuel.”
Arach's face fell into an annoyed expression. “Yes, I seem to have forgotten that as well.”
“Without the star, I can't connect to the energy in the fire.” I made a frustrated sound. “It's right there! Taunting me! And I can't take it.”
“You can still heal yourself,” he said gently. “That's a gift your Fey blood gave you, not the star.”
“I thought only my dragon fire could heal me?”
“Dragon fire is the strongest remedy, but any fire will help.” Arach held a hand out to me. “Shall we take a walk, A Thaisce?”
“Through a flaming forest?” I asked with a grin. “Why yes, I'd love to, Dragon King.”
Arach and I strode forward over smoking soil and walked straight into the fire. Embers burst up around us like startled fireflies, making it feel even more magical. Our clothing burned away and in its place rose scales; gold for me and crimson for Arach. We sighed through the partial shift and grinned at each other as our hair sank beneath our dragon skin. Wings rose from our shoulders and flapped the scorched air languidly as tails whipped around our legs. I took Arach's clawed hand in mine and kept walking. Bare, taloned feet striding over blackened earth, clawed hands trailing through rising flames, the scent of smoke thickening, and the beautiful melody of popping resin and roaring air rising around us.
I let go of Arach's hand to lean against a burning tree. The fire sank through my leathery wings like hot water in a bath. My eyes on a rumbling sigh as I lifted my arms along the trunk, trying to get as much of my body engulfed in the flames as possible. Everywhere they touched came alive, aching exhaustion literally melting away.
Then a growling groan caught my attention and my eyes popped open.
Arach's dragon stare glowed through the haze of smoke. Burning branches fell to the earth behind him with echoing crashes. Embers danced on the breeze his wings created, swirling around his magnificent body. Flames painted his scales in sunset colors, gleaming over their glassy surface. A pair of majestic horns curved back from his temples like a primitive crown. Arach stepped forward, tail lashing behind him and gaze roaming down my body, then set his claws against the tree to either side of me.
“You are so beautiful, A Thaisce,” he whispered in my ear as he pressed his body to mine. “Fire licking your golden scales. I think I'm jealous of it.”
“There's no need for jealousy,” I purred and pulled him closer. “Lick anything you like.”
Arach's mouth covered mine, his slick lips moving over me as our hot tongues tangled together. His body pressed closer, his hands roaming down my sides to clutch at my hips, talons scraping scales. You'd think that scales would dampen sensation, but every touch transferred through the impenetrable barrier to set my nerves to tingling. My tail swung forward to twine with his as Arach lifted me and spread my legs around his waist. I reached between us for the thick shaft already protruding from its protective sheath. Arach groaned as I stroked it then angled him into the slit of my scaled covering. He slipped inside as embers rained down upon us, sprinkling us with little zings of delight.
I cried out and clutched him closer, angling myself onto his shaft. Arach shifted too, so that he was pushing up into me as he held my thighs out to the sides. He started a wicked thrusting and every slam shook more of those glorious embers down around us. My body writhed in primal passion while simultaneously languishing in the healing touch of fire. All of it felt so good; the heat seeping in to refresh me, Arach's wild kiss making my head spin, his slick body gliding against mine, his shaft filling me to bursting, and the hard nub of his rolled back sheath rubbing at my most sensitive spot.
The tree creaked and splintered. Arach caught me and held me to himself as it crashed into a shower of ash, embers, and coal behind me. I kept grinding against him, unable to stop. My movements pulled a growl up Arach's throat, and he went back to kissing me as he lowered me onto a burning patch of ground. The flames rose around us, and my husband leaned out of our kiss to rise with them, onto his claws. His hips pounded forward mercilessly, and I met every thrust with one of my own. But then Arach growled, even louder than before, and rolled us so that I was astride him.
“Bring that beautiful flower here, my fire queen,” Arach demanded. “I was promised some licking.”
I bit my lip and shivered as I moved forward to straddle his face. Arach nosed my sex open and settled against me. He shifted his glowing stare up to mine as he began to lick, long and slow. Pleasure speared me and made me scream. My hands went to Arach's magnificent horns and grabbed them tightly, using them as leverage to draw him closer as I undulated against him. Arach's aroused snarling vibrated against my inner flesh, sending zips of electrical bliss shooting down my thighs. His claws went to my ass and kneaded me, talons scraping against scales. That hot tongue kept flicking and licking then lengthened to thrust into me until I couldn't hold back my climax any longer. I roared into the whooshing cacophony of the forest, thighs trembling around Arach's face. His claws went to my legs and pulled me closer as I came until I finally pushed away from him and fell backward.
I slid limply off Arach's body, glancing at his proud manhood longingly but too relaxed to move. A dragon rumble—a sound like falling stones—announced Arach's intent before he struck. I glanced languidly to my right and watched him crawl over to me. My husband pushed my legs apart possessively and knelt between them. With an aggressive pull, he brought my hips up, over his thighs and spread me wide. One of his deadly talons split my sex, the rounded back rubbing at the apex of my entrance as he angled his shaft into me.
I was sprawled in an angle, only my upper back on the ground. Arach moved over me as he slid home, bringing my thighs up with him so that they were bent down. He surged deeper with the angle, primal sounds grating out of him, and my body jerked under the power of his pumping. Then the smooth tip of his tail slipped into my other entrance and started a gentle rhythm. Rapture consumed me again, sinking into me with Arach's cock and claws and tail, sliding over me with his tongue and growling, and lifting me into glorious completion with the immense will of my dragon lover.
When we finally crested together, there were no words. No whispers of love or shouting of names. Only a deep, satisfied roaring that made the fire itself shiver.
Chapter Twenty-Five
“Well, you look better,” Odin said brightly as Arach and I strode into the bedroom. “It must have been an intense fire for you to make you shift.”
Arach and I were still in our weredragon forms. We had burned away our clothing, and I didn't want to trace home naked.
“Phew, you smell like smoke,” Trevor wrinkled his nose and then frowned. “And male dragon.”
“We had an issue,” I admitted.
“What issue?” Re asked warily.
Normally, Re and Azrael wouldn't be hanging around Pride Palace so much. Re had his own palace and as head of the Egyptian Pantheon, he needed to be there occasionally. Azrael had his own place as well, but he'd temporarily given rulership of Shehaquim, the Third Heaven, to the Archangel Michael, and he'd resigned his post as the Angel of Death so he could spend more time with me and go to Angel University. Unfortunately, Aaru and Angel U would have to wait until this latest debacle was over. Until then, all of my men were staying in Pride Palace with me.
“Consuming fire as fuel is a talent I have because of my star,” I explained.
“Right,” Odin groaned. “I forgot.”
“We all did,” Arach said. “But Vervain can still heal herself with fire. It doesn't exactly fuel her, but it heals what s
he damaged.”
“So, we spent some time in the flames and I feel much better.” I headed toward my dressing room. “I'll just shift and get dressed. That should take care of the lingering smoke. Arach?”
“Yes?” Arach looked at me askance.
“You're a little lizardy,” Trevor waved at Arach's scaled body. “You might want to fix that.”