“I know what you did to me, monster! Fight me!” she demanded, coming at him again.
“You know not what you ask!” He held out an arm, blocking the next blow. In doing so, the stick flew from her hand, leaving her with no weapon. She charged once more. “Beware little one,” he warned, feeling the change upon him.
“I’ll kill you,” she warned. “You injected me with your poison to have your way with me.”
“You did not object to my taking you. And I thought you said you knew little of dragon ways.”
“I know enough. I was defenseless. You knew that, yet you took me anyway.”
“You were willing.”
“I was poisoned with your aphrodisiac, or whatever you want to call it. You forced me.” Poison or not, Kira had wanted him. His blood boiled with her accusation.
“You know nothing of me,” he threatened.
“I know you steal woman and eat children.” Her eyes were furious, having fully recovered from the hypnotic spell of the evening before.
“Kira, I feel your anger.” The pain gripped his chest. He couldn’t control it. She had spilled his blood. It trickled down his face, found its way into his mouth. She continued her assault on his body with nothing more than her fists.
He was blinded, and the change was here. “Kira,” he growled, the last human sound he could muster. He watched her eyes widen in horror as his face became that of the dragon. Once the dragon emerged the change came on quickly, uncontrollably. It had wanted her flesh from the second she came into his sight. Now, as she challenged it, fought it, Damon’s ability to quell the beast was lost in the struggle. He looked down in horror as his hands became claws and his legs extended. The tail grew from his backside, completing the change, and the dragon emerged, hungry and longing for her flesh.
Kira stood still, apparently in shock from witnessing the change. When the dragon cry erupted from his throat, Damon’s tail swished back and forth, threatening to knock her off balance, and pinned her against the wall.
She fumbled, trying to grasp anything that could be used as a weapon. Damon stalked forward, his eyes locked onto hers, his dragon feeding off the fear while the man fed off the energy.
Anger triggered the change, just as a threat to one’s life did. When she spilled his blood his body reacted. And now she was facing the dragon in his full fury.
Damon breathed in the scent of her flesh. His talons opened her lips, holding her so that he could delve inside and taste even more of her sweetness. He could have fucked her as a dragon. He could have given her the beast’s cock, but he knew it would have killed her. The dragon had her luscious body on his mind. And wanted it with a ferocity Damon couldn’t explain.
He had been able to subdue the beast with a taste of her pussy, which had been enough to help him regain control. Her sweet nectar saved her life. Still, the beast wanted to be rewarded. It wanted to take her savagely and wanted her to fight him. Deep inside, Damon wanted her to fight him.
He steadied his breathing as the dragon began to fade. If he couldn’t control the beast inside him he was no better than his brother. His every instinct wanted to mate with her as warrior and dragon but the man inside him knew he couldn’t harm her. But Kira didn’t know this as she looked up at him, a hint of fear in her eyes. As his hand once more became human, he gently pushed two fingers into her slit and watched her eyes glaze over. She let out a sharp gasp when he penetrated her. “I’m going to punish you now,” he threatened, though the dragon had now rested its head. “I’m going to punish your pussy. Do you understand, Slayer?” he growled.
She nodded, still gasping and moaning.
“No, you don’t understand. I’m going to take you in as many ways as I can imagine. And you are going to be my slave. And if you try to kill me again, I shall let the dragon fuck you and rip you in half. Do you understand?” The warning echoed on the air, but he knew it was nothing more than the words of an angry man who was battling his own beast. He’d never harm her, but in order to keep his heart intact he couldn’t let her know that.
Unwilling to let her know how she affected him, Damon had flipped her over onto her knees. “Do not move,” he hissed into her ear. His penis was already throbbing, already tortured just thinking of diving into her. And the beast was still there on the edge of his mind, taunting him with knowledge of how it could be between them if he could only take with no thoughts of harming her.
She was wetter than the dragon wanted. He wanted her dry, wanted to force himself into her, to rip her skin open the way she had ripped his face open. Damon closed his eyes and fought down the beast, determined not to let him win. When he opened them, her soft pink folds winked at him, opening and closing as she shifted, waiting, anticipating. Her juices coated her outer lips. As he blew out a warm breath, she quivered with delight. The dragon may have made her fear him but it had also turned her on.
Damon ran his fingers along her skin, waiting for her, wanting her to be ready for him. When she groaned and arched against him he gently slapped her opening, coating his hand with her juices. She gasped at the contact but then she wiggled her ass, inviting another rough touch. His hand struck against her again, gaining the same reaction. He continued his assault, slapping her pussy and being rewarded with her gasps, groans and wiggles.
She arched back, placing her folds into the air, inviting him in. Begging him to take her. Begging him to slide into her sweetness and pound them both to ecstasy. Her flesh was red from his assault. Still, it quivered, wanting more.
He grabbed her hips, positioning himself at her tiny opening. In one swift motion, he slid inside of her, all the way up to his balls. She spasmed around him, ground her hips into him.
“You want it rough, Slayer?”
She arched herself into him. He wound his hands into her hair, pulling her head back. With that as leverage, he pounded into her, pulling her hair, punishing her pussy.
His cock slid in and out. With each thrust inside of her he pushed deeper. He wanted to leave his mark on her. Come deep inside of her. Hurt her. Love her. Gods, what was happening to him?
Her juices coated him, dripping out of her.
“Please,” she called. He couldn’t see her face, but he could hear the emotion in her voice.
“Please what?” he tried to keep the brutal edge to his voice, but his heart was reacting to her.
She arched against him again. This time she squeezed with an intensity he thought he’d never recover from. “Please love me.”
“Come for me, slave,” he coaxed, barely able to keep himself from spilling inside her at her admission. Love me. What did she know of love?
Then she came, her body spilling its juices around his cock as she moaned. She twisted her hips, grinding herself into him, taking him to her deepest part. He felt his release building and he released her hair and slowly pulled out.
He wasn’t ready to come yet.
“I love you.”
Damon’s back straightened as she said the words and her fingers fell from his face. This wasn’t what he wanted to hear, but he knew the admission had been lingering there, just on the edge every time he took her. The days had melted away into a week, and he still hadn’t left the confines of the cave for more than a few hours to hunt. His desire to challenge his brother had lessened, his mind having been clouded by their lovemaking.
“You do not love me,” he grumbled, hoping his voice sounded convincing, knowing he could never be what she needed. The amulet was the key to everything. Only now that he had lost control did he realize how it enslaved him.
“Yes, I do.”
“’Tis the poison.” He wanted to release her naked body from his arms but was unable to move. She had captured him, ensnared him as surely as if she held him in chains.
“The poison?” She rose up on her elbow and looked into his eyes, the innocence that had been there days ago replaced by a wanton gaze.
“Yes. The poison. It entered your blood, making you think you love
me. This is what happens when you mate with a dragon.” She slid from his arms, making them feel cold, empty.
“What do you mean?” Her voice sounded as if she were on the verge of tears. He wouldn’t blame her if she spilled them now. Or his blood. He deserved it.
“You were right about the poison. It does cause certain effects on humans. They are vulnerable to it. It acts as a stimulant, to ease the mating process. You don’t love me, Kira.”
She turned her eyes away from him. That one motion caused the pain in his chest to worsen and spread down to his legs. He wished once again that he’d never set eyes on her. Perhaps then the pain in his chest would not feel as if it were crushing the life from him.
He had owed her an answer but what should have been simple became complicated beyond belief. She was his, his! But she was also so powerful. Kira didn’t even know how she was a pawn in the game of control of Tyr. Her father, the king of Karn, controlled the largest army next to Tyr’s. When the two kingdoms joined, it would be winner take all. With Kira at his side and Karn’s army at his back Damon would be unstoppable.
All of that had happened so long ago, and now the woman who still lay sleeping in his arms needed an explanation. She needed to know what Mace had done to her when he found her on the eve of her wedding to Damon. He needed to tell her that he was not a man, that a beast lingered just beneath his flesh and she carried some of the beast with her. She shifted in his arms. She had told him she remembered him but there was still so much she didn’t know. Her reaction to his mention of Mace was less than spectacular, making him think that she did not even recall the man who had left his mark on her skin.
Even though she had opened her body to him, there was much about her relationship with Damon that she still did not recall. He wanted to force the memories to come to her, wanted her to know how much they loved one another, but his own betrayals kept him from waking her now and telling her everything.
He had searched for her at first when she disappeared. Then he had nearly driven himself insane thinking of where she may be and why she had not returned to him. Finally he had all but given up on her. His searches of the nearby planets had yielded nothing.
He knew they were not safe here. He had to find a way to return her to Tyr, to face down Mace and to put an end to the battle for the throne. But first he had to find Tambourne and his medallion.
Chapter Six
He had to find Tambourne. Kira didn’t know it, but the poison from Mace’s bite had worked its way into her system and slowly bonded with her. The fact that she was here instead of on Tyr had somehow managed to slow its reaction to her body and her body’s reaction to it. Now she was at the mercy of the moons just as Damon was. Their joining would last well beyond one night, beyond their time in New Orleans.
If he could find a way to return himself.
Tambourne was easy enough to find. The haggard look of the day before had been replaced with the look of a man who was well put-together, from his starched suit to his impeccable hair. Damon groaned as he eyed the man who had laid claim to his amulet.
“Tambourne. You have something of mine.”
The man looked up from his drink as Damon sat across from him. He sat in the bar, just beyond where Kira was busy signing video game covers. Laying in wait, if Damon knew anything about predatory behavior.
“And you have something of mine. Perhaps we can strike a deal.” The man’s smile was slow and easy but there was a hint of something in his eyes Damon couldn’t quite read.
“I will not strike a deal with you.”
“Then you won’t get what you want. An amazing little trinket, this necklace of yours. Just yesterday the need for blood, the need to change by the moon and kill, was unreal. I couldn’t think. Then this necklace called out to me, demanded that I take it from her. As soon as I slipped it around my neck the drive to feed, to change, it all died down. You say you aren’t like me. Then why is it that you need the amulet?”
“I need it for reasons beyond what you explain.”
“No. You need it to control your devil. I can see inside your head, man. It has told me your secrets, the ones you didn’t reveal to me. Kira’s games. I know all about them now. I know about that mark on her neck. More than what you told me. I know everything.” The last words were a challenge. Pack leader to pack leader. There could only be one alpha male, and Damon refused to let this man take his birthright.
“I am listening.”
“I know you need to get home. I don’t want to fight you. I wouldn’t win. Look at us, not quite an equal match, eh?”
No, they weren’t. Even though this man was large, he would not be able to hold his own against a dragon. “Go on.”
“I can help you. I study things that don’t exist. Like me and you.”
“And?”
“And I have friends who study them, too. Friends who have discovered things they don’t know how to comprehend. You get what I’m saying?”
“I am not making a deal with you. Kira is free to make her own decision.”
“You and I both know that isn’t true. You plan to bring her back with you, to show her the world she doesn’t remember. What you didn’t tell me, your little charm here did. I see the way you look at her, how you sit now in between her and me. You will protect her at all costs, but can you protect her from yourself?”
“Leave her to me.”
“I plan to. She isn’t what I want.”
“Then what?”
“I want to see this world of yours. You tell me where it is, I help you get there, you take me with you.”
Damon studied the man for a second, taking in every line of his face, every vein that pulsed beneath the surface. He was as much a prisoner here as Damon had been at home. And, like Damon, all he wanted was a means to escape. For Damon, escape came with a price.
“And what will you do in a world filled with things you can’t understand?”
“Ah, but I do understand. I am one of them. I am a werewolf. Going to a world of monsters would be like going home. Finally, I would have a place to belong.”
“Ours is not a world of monsters.”
“Suit yourself.” He leaned back in his chair and tossed back the remainder of his drink. “I know differently.”
“I haven’t told her the truth yet. Give me time to explain to her. Then you and I can discuss this.”
“Make it quick. The full moon is in three days. I plan to keep your charm until after the full moon. Just to see if it will affect my change.”
“And if it does?”
“Then that opens up a whole new world of possibility, doesn’t it?”
“Perhaps so.”
“Look, I’ll get back to you. Let me contact my friends. In the meantime, can you give me an idea about where your world is located?”
“And why should I trust you with that knowledge?”
“Because you have no way of going home without me.”
Tambourne spoke the truth. Damon had not been able to find a way home. There was no secret passage from this tiny world to his. The only connections he had to his world were the amulet and the woman who sat in the next room, completely unaware that she was alien to this planet.
“I will give you the information you need but I cannot guarantee you safe passage. Mine is a world of uncertainty. To go there would be to place yourself in danger.”
“I’m already in danger.”
“I need to see a map of the stars. I need to see what you see from here.”
“I can do better than that. Give me an hour, and I’ll have a map of the whole bloody universe.”
* * * * *
The day had been long and Damon wasn’t sure how much more he could take. Leland Tambourne had been true to his word. The map he produced detailed worlds most did not know existed. As a scientist of things that did not exist, as he put it, he was friends with those who studied places that did not exist. Damon’s world was near the far edge of those places and was virtual
ly unreachable from Earth. But there had to be a way. Not once but twice people had moved from his planet to this one, leaving only one conclusion. There must be a way.
Then there was Kira. Last night with her had been heaven, but today had been a chore. He had watched her move all day, weaving through the crowd, taking tiny sips of coffee, licking her lips. He had watched her jeans hug her body as she signed video game disks and covers. Her smile was radiant as she greeted each new person with the presence of an angel, sending her light to those who came into contact with her.
But all Damon wanted to do was come. The need to be inside her overruled every other need he felt. Several times today, her hand had brushed against his and all his blood emptied into his cock and his seed threatened to spill over. They had shared something magical the night before as they loved each other, something sacred and profound that he had never experienced before. He swore he was growing to love the woman he barely knew, the woman who did not remember her time with him. And the desire to tell her the truth was strong.
When he finally got her alone in their room he wasted no time moving toward her, closing in on her to claim her, to sink himself into her. He would never tire of her, never love her enough. He felt it as they crashed against the wall, her body pressing against his as she arched her back, ground her jeans-covered pussy against his leg and sent him to another level of longing.
Damon’s hands fumbled with her blouse before finally tearing two of the buttons from the silk, leaving tangled threads in their place. If he didn’t have his hands on her breasts soon he would die from longing. It had been hours since they last held each other and already the need for her had worked its way into his system, rendering him helpless against her scent.
She smelled like lilacs and heaven—a unique blend of woman, strength and desire. He could drown in her scent and never come up for air, which was exactly what he planned to do as soon as he pulled her jeans from her hips. She wore them tight, accenting her curves, but right now, as his hands feverishly worked, they were too tight, too restrictive, making him long for the dress she had worn the evening before, the dress that would never be worn again due to his lack of care in removing it.
Dragon's Law: Damon Page 9