Breath of Fire (Rena Drake)

by Liliana Hart

  I gingerly got out of the bed and made my way over to the window. It didn’t take long to realize I had a problem. How the hell was I going to get down from this tower?

  “A good question indeed,” Julian said.

  “You did this on purpose.”

  “Of course. It is now my job to teach you how to survive as I have.”

  “Well, great master, what do you suggest?”

  “You must fly, of course. And if I were you I’d do it quickly. It will be full daylight shortly. I’m not sure the good citizens of my country are ready to see a dragon over their morning commute.”

  “What if I can’t do it?”

  “Then you will have a long, lonely day spent in the dark.”

  “Shit.”

  “Indeed.”

  I looked out the window at the threatening light of day and then down to the gardens. It was a long, long way down from where I stood. A knot formed in the pit of my stomach. I tried to swallow past the lump in my throat. I was going to have to change into my dragon form. I’d never heard of a Drakán being able to fly without it. The problem was, other than the time I’d changed in front of Eunice, I hadn’t been able to shift into my dragon.

  Just thinking of my dragon brought her to the surface. Her joy was contagious as she moved inside me. She’d gotten what she’d wanted the night before, and now she was up for anything. She wanted to fly, to feel the wind under her scales. I closed my eyes and fought against the nausea. I could see her clearly. Her silver eyes were pleading. She gave me a final nudge and then disappeared.

  Bones and cartilage slid and re-slid inside of me. It didn’t hurt, but it wasn’t exactly comfortable. I was cold. A clear fluid burst from my skin and was replaced by silvery scales. But the scales were dry and cool to the touch when I felt them. Smoother than I thought they’d be. My teeth were sharp. My vision extraordinary. Every particle that floated across the air was crystal clear. Every color vividly bright. The change brought a rush of power I never could have imagined.

  I was stronger. Everything about me was stronger—including my magic. My sense of smell was powerful—scents from the city below me rose up and tickled my snout. But it was the scent of meat—flesh and blood—that had my mouth watering. I wanted to fight. And I wanted to hunt. My dragon was in charge now, and just as she’d been trapped inside me, writhing to get out, the same was now true for my human self.

  But first I needed to get out of my prison. Even my dragon looked down from the window with trepidation. She wasn’t sure what she was meant to do.

  “It will all happen as it is meant. Success and failure are up to you.”

  “You’re not helping,” I answered.

  I looked out the window once again at the plunging depths that awaited me and closed my eyes. My dragon didn’t know the mechanics of flying. But she wanted to jump. Instinct took over. I took a last deep breath and plunged over the edge.

  The wind rose beneath me, and for a short moment I soared. But the ground grew closer and panic clouded my mind. Dragon and human both screamed as I sank like a stone several hundred feet. I lost control of my dragon form, and I shifted back into myself. I opened my mind and pleaded for help.

  A black dragon swooped in from out of nowhere and caught me in a rush of speed just before I hit the ground. He set me down a few feet away and quickly transformed back to his human form. I dropped to my knees and closed my eyes, willing my heart to slow and the nausea to go away. Julian conjured clothes for both of us and then helped me to stand.

  “Th—thank you,” I said.

  He ran his hands down the length of my arms and stepped away from me quickly, as if he was afraid to touch me.

  “That was less than impressive, Rena. You’ll have to do better next time.”

  I snarled in his direction. I was itching for a fight and Julian was as good of a target as any, but he turned and walked away, leaving me impotent in my rage. As if I weren’t there. As if the two of us hadn’t spent the most incredible night of our lives together.

  “Come. Eunice will tend to your burns and then we must talk.”

  I’d had enough. I was just to the edge of the breaking point, and I couldn’t be responsible for what I might do if anything else traumatic happened to me.

  “I’m not going anywhere,” I said.

  Julian turned around and arched an eyebrow. “We do not have time for you to play games.”

  “I’m not playing. If you’d like me to go somewhere with you then you might try asking. Hell, you might try even saying good morning first.”

  He looked at me strangely. “You are displeased with me.”

  “You’re very astute, lifemate.”

  His expression turned hard, and I knew that I’d somehow hurt his feelings. It would be wise to remember that Julian was as new to being a lifemate as I was.

  “I’m not displeased,” I corrected. “I wanted you to kiss me. To speak with me as if what we shared mattered to you. But you didn’t. You just walked away and acted as if I didn’t matter in the least.”

  “I saved your body from considerable damage. If you hadn’t meant anything to me, I would have let you fall.”

  He moved closer to me until he stood less than a breath away. I could barely see the edge of his own tattoos over the collar of his shirt. “And the reason I do not kiss you is because once I start, I will not want to stop.”

  I put my hands against his chest and leaned into him, daring him to kiss me anyway. His eyes darkened with desire. And then we vanished. One moment I was about to be kissed in the garden. The next I was gone into nothingness.

  Chapter Twenty

  My body was weightless, and it floated across a great void in millions of tiny little pieces. My atoms fizzled back together, and when I was able to get my bearings, I noticed we were somewhere back inside the chateau. Julian backed away from me and headed toward the door.

  “Wait, what the hell was that?” I asked.

  “It speeds up travel time tremendously, yes?”

  “If you like your insides to feel like scrambled eggs.”

  I now had proof to the rumors that Julian could travel through time. I wasn’t sure I’d believed him yesterday, even when he’d admitted he could. I’d never seen—or felt—anything like it before. But Julian wasn’t the Destroyer. He couldn’t be. Because a lifemate would know something like that. Right?

  “Where are we?” I asked. “I take it these aren’t your private quarters?”

  The room was wholly feminine in its décor—Queen Anne furniture, lace curtains, crystal candlesticks. Knick-knacks and photographs covered every surface, and a fire blazed in the hearth, making the room toasty warm.

  I wondered if I’d ever get to see Julian’s private space. I’d slept in his bed, and I knew what every part of his body felt like against my skin, but I really didn’t know anything about him. And I found it a little surprising that I very much wanted to know.

  “These are Eunice’s rooms,” he said. “She will treat your burns, and then you and I must talk.” He turned his back and left me standing alone in the middle of the unfamiliar room. I guessed Julian wasn’t very knowledgeable about morning-after etiquette.

  A throat cleared behind me and I turned to see Eunice giving me a steady, serious look. It wasn’t one I’d seen before on her good-humored face.

  I almost didn’t recognize her. She wasn’t dressed as a gypsy today. Instead, she wore black leather pants and a matching halter-top that showed a surprising amount of cleavage for a woman so small. Her red hair curled riotously around her pixie-like face, and large gold hoops hung from her pointed ears. She looked like Bondage Barbie.

  “Come,” Eunice said. “Let me treat your burns. They must be stinging.”

  “They’re not too bad. Just a little tender.”

  “Have a seat and take off your blouse. This won’t take long. Julian is quite anxious to speak with you.”

  “I noticed,” I said dryly. There was something unfamiliar
inside of me. The feelings bombarded me—anticipation, rage, sadness. I knew they were Julian’s emotions, now a part of me forever.

  I took a seat on a small chair and unbuttoned the blue silk blouse. I slipped it from my shoulders and draped it over the back of the chair before unsnapping the front clasp of the black bra Julian had dressed me in. Eunice removed a small silver dish from the mantel of her fireplace. It was octagonal in shape, and the engravings around it were beautiful. It looked incredibly old, but the silver wasn’t tarnished.

  “It belonged to the Fae side of my family. It was my grandmother’s. She was a great healer.”

  We were both silent as she lifted the silver lid and touched her finger at each point of the octagon. Her lips moved and her eyes were closed, and the sheen of the silver grew brighter. I couldn’t help but let my thoughts wander to Julian. I hated being apart from him now, and I needed the reassurance of his touch.

  I shook my head, hoping some common sense would rattle loose. I didn’t like the neediness that had come over me since we’d become lifemates. The worst part of it was that Julian obviously wasn’t as affected. He’d been able to walk away without any problems at all.

  “You should be more understanding,” Eunice said. “His path is a hard one, filled with obstacles and tragedy. You could be a light to his darkness. Rule beside him as an equal. But your own demons are swallowing you whole.”

  “What demons?”

  “Everyone’s are different. But we all have them. You know what you struggle with. And though you and Julian have mated, your path is not forged yet. There are forks in your road that lead in many directions. You’ll have choices to make.”

  I looked down at the tattoo that was supposed to represent everything Julian and I meant to each other. I couldn’t decipher the writings without looking in a mirror, though the gods had outdone themselves with the artistry. The scrollwork truly was a masterpiece.

  “It is, isn’t it?” Eunice pulled up a padded footstool and sat across from me. “This is the first time I’ve seen the writing of the old lands outside of the ancient Drakán scrolls.”

  “Do you think it is written the same for everyone?” I asked.

  “I don’t know, but I would think so. These are the sacred vows of our people, much like the vows in a human marriage ceremony. But these vows are more precious because they are bound by magic, not just words. It is tradition for mated Drakán to read the inscription to each other on their first mating anniversary, or the Yiun.”

  I wasn’t sure that Julian and I would be together in a year. Or if we were I wasn’t sure we’d have anything to celebrate. We’d had a pretty rocky beginning so far. Not to mention I wasn’t sure I’d be alive in a year if the Destroyer had his way.

  Eunice rubbed the salve between her fingers, and the sharp scent of eucalyptus leaves and something else permeated the air.

  “This is also magic,” she said. “When you heat the salve with your dragon fire it releases the magic, and the healing can begin. When I enchant it with the words of Faerie, it will also help prevent future injury. I find being a half-breed, Fae Drakán has its uses every now and then.”

  I smiled and then hissed between my teeth as the salve touched the burn. It seemed to get hotter, and the tattoo came to life. The scrolls undulated and moved like waves down the entire left side of my body. The scrolls glowed from beneath the skin with golden light.

  “The sting will only last for a moment,” Eunice soothed. “It’s drawing the heat out of your skin.”

  The scrolls stopped moving and the glow dimmed. The heat of the salve dissipated and left my skin cool to the touch. It was over. The pain was gone. Not only from the burns, but also the bite mark on my neck and all the aches, pains and bruises I’d suffered from making love on ceilings and hard floors all night.

  I put my shirt back on and thanked Eunice for the salve. “Do you know where I can find Julian?”

  “I do not. But you are his lifemate. Your souls are tied together. If you open yourself to him, you will always be able to find one another.”

  “Keeping myself open to anyone seems like a good way to get hurt.”

  “Perhaps,” she said, smiling. “Good luck with your demons, Rena.” She turned around and went through a door I assumed led to her bedroom and left me standing there alone.

  I didn’t have a choice but to do as she suggested. I lowered my walls, and the thread I’d used to put out Julian’s fire the night before was even stronger, no longer a thread but a rope. I closed my eyes and my dragon came into view. She was always happy when I thought of Julian, and she rubbed against me approvingly. I pushed her back and followed my instincts.

  I could see him clearly in my mind. He sat behind a massive black desk, carved with Drakán images. His face was serious, and at first I thought he must be terribly sad, but the clenching of his fists made me rethink my assessment. Angry fire burned just beneath his skin.

  I followed my vision and our invisible link down the stairs, all the way to the bottom floor of the chateau. I ignored the guards and their curious stares, my focus absolute, as if I were in a trance.

  When I walked through the double doors of the great room, I had no idea what had led me there. It had been cleared of the tables from the night before. The blood had been cleaned from the floor. There was nothing in the room. It was completely empty. Yet I didn’t turn around and walk out. I dropped my shields all the way this time. His emotions were raw and hit me with a force that made me stagger. The tug between us grew stronger—the invisible rope thicker.

  I remembered back to the first night—the night I had met Julian in his dream. He’d appeared from the shadows against the wall. But it hadn’t really been shadows. It had been a door.

  I walked across the room, one foot in front of the other, and placed my hand against the cold wall. I didn’t know what compelled me to push my magic into the black marble. I just knew I had to get to Julian, and that he was on the other side of this wall.

  The door opened soundlessly—seamlessly—and I walked through. It closed behind me, and I was left in darkness. I could see the faint glow of fire somewhere in front of me and I headed toward it.

  The heat was intense inside the hidden room, and my dragon did lazy somersaults inside me, loving the feel of the warmth. I knew that this heat was created by Julian. I could sense his presence, his magic, everywhere around me. I also knew that anyone else who tried to find their way down these secret halls would be crushed under the force of his magic and reduced to ash where they stood.

  But not me. I was his lifemate, and his fire was mine.

  I followed the curve of a staircase deeper into the ground. It smelled of earth and dust, and I could feel the rush of water from somewhere nearby.

  It also smelled of gold. My dragon began to move faster and faster, anticipating the treasure that surely awaited her.

  I reached a point where I couldn’t go down any deeper. A metal door stood in front of me. It was warded by magic, and I automatically took a step back when I felt it strike out against my power.

  But I stopped my retreat. It wasn’t striking out at me. It was trying to grab hold and pull me closer. With my shields down I was aware of Julian as I never had been before.

  There was something wrong. I’d known it since we’d first spoken this morning. And I knew without a shadow of a doubt that he needed me.

  I breathed in his magic that warded the door. It tingled along my spine and caused my dragon to growl with pleasure. The tie between us was still strong and pulsing, so I pulled his magic into my body and absorbed it.

  I touched my hand to the metal door and met no resistance. The metal was like liquid mercury beneath my fingertips, and I slid my hand through easily. I pulled back and stared at my hand. It looked just as it should have. And when I looked back at the door it was already whole again. Amazing.

  “Are you going to stand out there all day?” Julian asked.

  I pushed my hand through the met
al once again, but this time followed it with the rest of my body. I was blinded for a few short seconds, and then I was on the other side of the door. Julian stood close in front of me and looked rather pleased with himself.

  “Very good, Rena. You are becoming more receptive to using your Drakán powers since the mating ritual.”

  His voice caressed across my skin like a whisper, and chills raced along my skin. I became wet without his touch, my folds slick and already prepared to take him. My shields were still open, and my dragon responded to his call. She would always want him. She belonged to him now. As he belonged to her.

  I slammed my shields tightly closed and breathed deeply. My dragon might be good at many things, but common sense was not one of them. Now was not the time to get distracted by sex.

  I moved away from Julian and turned my back to him, trying to gain focus. I looked around the spacious cavern. It was larger than the great room above us, and to my amazement, it wasn’t filled with black marble. This room was old. Very old. And it held everything Julian valued most in his life.

  “Oh, my,” I said.

  My dragon was envious of his hoard. She wanted it fiercely, and if she could have gotten away with it, she’d have taken every last thing in the room for her own. Mounds of gold were piled into big, heaping hills. There were diamonds and sapphires and rubies. There were sculptures and paintings from every era of time. Rare books and artifacts lined shelf after shelf as far as the eye could see.

  And at the center of his hoard was the big black bed I’d woken up in. Lust slammed into me like a wrecking ball. It consumed me. My breathing changed and my dragon fought to get free. She wanted to make love with Julian in the middle of such wonderful treasure. I wanted it too.