Renegade (Shadow Realms): An Urban Fantasy Dragon Shifter Romance

by Amber Ella Monroe

  When he reached my pelvis, I lifted up on my elbows. "Carrick?" I squeezed my legs together, but my clit pulsed between my legs, longing to be exposed again.

  "Relax, beauty," he whispered and slid a hand between my legs to part me again. "I want to give you the pleasure you seek."

  I nodded and spread my legs wider for him.

  He kissed the insides of my thighs, and I shivered in anticipation. The folds of my sex were wet with my juices and the sensitive bud grew tight with avid desire.

  Fingers parted my slit and stroked my clit. One finger glided slowly into me. My sex tightened and quivered around his finger. I wanted to come. I needed to come. Not by my hand, but by this man's hand. Pleasured by the dragon.

  I cried out when he found my sweet spot.

  He groaned. "You are tight and ready."

  An intense need burned through my core, igniting a passion so great that I feared I would explode.

  Carrick replaced his fingers with his tongue causing me to clutch at the sheets. My orgasm was near. I anticipated it in my racing veins and my loins. He controlled my release, yet my body was ready to relent. His fingers gripped my hips and his tongue lapped at my folds. Soft lips encompassed my clit and nearly took me over the edge. He licked at my bud hungrily, eliciting an inferno within me. When I finally gave in, I did so—body and soul. It was like magic I'd never experienced. My chest heaved, and my body quaked as my orgasm rushed through me. It took every ounce of energy for me to expel the tension.

  As I calmed down from a state of elation, he grinned up at me in satisfaction. "You taste of fine wine."

  "Carrick, I've never done that before." My admission embarrassed me.

  He kissed me on the stomach and crawled up beside me. "Never experienced an orgasm like that?"

  I shook my head. "No, not like that."

  "Oh…" He smiled. "Well, how long has it been for you?"

  "No, that's not what I meant. I—"

  I hissed when the head of his cock made contact with my sensitive clit. I reached down to grab him and discovered that when I wrapped my fingers around him, they barely connected. He was built like a Greek god. The kind of god that I giggled about with my friends in school.

  "I'll be gentle since it's been a while. You like gentle?"

  I swallowed and nodded.

  He rested his head on my shoulder and paused as if he were still battling between whether to take me or not.

  I gripped his back with eager fingers. "Now. Don't think."

  He adjusted between my legs, opening me wider. I accepted him, wanting to know what it was like to love a man in his bed. To have sex with a dragon, one of the most feared supernatural. I thirsted for him anyway. For his strength. For his power. So much so that I felt my magic dancing along the surface of my skin.

  His erection still brushed against my dampened sex. Only one move and he would be inside me, just like I wanted. I met his gaze as he prepared to take me. Fear, confusion, happiness, and arousal filled his eyes. I drowned in his gaze for his emotions mirrored my own.

  His chest met my breasts, and my swollen sex parted even further. His body shivered under my touch, revealing his excitement.

  He caught my gaze again and his lips parted. "I—"

  A Loud commotion from the outside jarred my thoughts. Something pounded erratically on the door.

  My heart thumped in rising fear. His nose flared and lifted to the air. His gaze burned in suspicion like a flame.

  When the door to the cave broke and tore off the frame, we jolted apart in shock. Chilly winds and the smell of dusk burst inside.

  Carrick knelt in an upright position and guarded my body with his. His veins pulsed visibly with adrenaline. I sensed pending danger. The smell of black ash, sulfur, and burnt flesh.

  Demons.

  Chapter 20

  Carrick

  A blood thirsty demon came charging at me with something that resembled a metal rake in his fist. Its skin was scaly and black and it had claws for feet. The top half of the demon was a cross between a human and something beastly looking. Slime and saliva dripped from ashen lips and its eyes were blood red. The only thing between the demon and Leona was me and I'd never let anyone harm her.

  The demon raised the metal rake high and squealed as it barreled toward me. I had just enough time to grab a machete from the wall of the cave and toss it through the air severing its oversized head from the neck. The demon fell with acid and slime gushing from the throat. Another two demons blasted through the cave. The mindless beasts came straight for me like I was bait, hungry for flesh and the need to kill those with souls. The more, the better. One dragon soul could render any demon unstoppable for a period of time. But they wouldn't rid me of my soul. Not here, not now…not ever. I swung at both targets, one after the other, killing them swiftly. Demon gore splattered everywhere, including my exposed skin.

  Five more demons came in, only this time they were bigger and just a little smarter than the others. They possessed a strength that could only be gained from recent kills. I had to put up more of an effort to bring them down. Stabbing them or severing a demon's limbs wouldn't kill them. Decapitation or setting fire to them rendered instant death. I couldn't shift into my dragon form until I was out of the cave and I would never leave Leona alone in the cave now that the demons were here. I could last all night here guarding Leona. I'd killed hundreds of demons this way before. My brain was wired to kill or be killed.

  I finally made it to the entrance of the cave. That way, at least none of the demons could get inside the cave. My limbs were clawed and bloodied. Even my back burned from being attacked by one too many demons at a time. One of them caught me off guard and rammed a broken off shard of metal into my back. One more inch and I would have been paralyzed. Instead, I roared out in pain and threw the perpetrator off my back. He came for me again. I swung an ax I found by the outside of the cave and sliced through the demon's neck. The yelp of surprise, the crack of bone, and the rupture of blood vessels signifying the demon's demise felt like music to my ears. I wanted the tune to go on and on until I had murdered all the bloody bastards.

  When two dozen more demons came through trees, running straight for the cave like brainless, mindless beasts, I knew I was in for another round of being battered and beaten. I quickly extracted a machete from a demon's skull and then gripped my ax with my other hand, ready to cut them down one by one. I never got a chance to strike any of them.

  Out of nowhere, Leona, with her long mane of raven hair, raced out in front of me. I felt her magic as she passed me. She never spoke a word. Instead, she conjured up enough energy to create a stream of hellfire that burned all two dozen demons to blackened crisps. When she was done, their ashes fell to the ground and the forest around us became deathly silent.

  Naked as hell and covered in demon blood and scratches compared to a breathtakingly beautiful, untouched witch, I let my weapons drop to the ground and looked at her in utter disbelief.

  "We have to go," she said. "Another vision just came to me."

  For once in my life, I asked no questions. I just followed.

  Chapter 21

  Leona

  "I don't see how this is a good idea, Leona," Carrick pleaded, rushing closely behind me as I climbed the steep hill somewhere out in the Nevada desert.

  "The portal is just beyond those hills." I pointed to a network of hills and caves off into the distance. "You've brought me this far. Why try to convince me that this isn't a good idea now, huh?"

  "If we had reinforcements—"

  "No need for reinforcements. I know what I have to do and I have to do it now. Why do you think there was an influx of demon breaches within the last week or so? My visions may be confusing and out of sync, but they never lie. I counted nearly fifty demon bodies outside of the cave we just left. We were fortunate because we knew how to kill them. Can you imagine the damage that's being done right now to humans who aren't able to reach protected borders?"

&
nbsp; "Alright, alright," Carrick agreed. "Climb on. I'll take you the rest of the way."

  He shifted into his dragon form seamlessly and I climbed onto his back. He took flight for about five minutes before he landed in a clearing among a multitude of caves. Once he had shifted back, I handed him the compass and said, "Activate it please."

  He sighed. "I have a bad feeling about this."

  "Please just do it. If you're going to back out, just get me in The Void. You don't have to come in."

  "You know that's not going to happen. I'm coming with you." He took the compass from me and placed it in his palm. The device sprung to life and the needles began to spin until finally they stilled, pointing in the direction of the smallest cave in the clearing.

  "It's here." I walked toward the cave. "Open the portal, Carrick."

  He spoke a command in a language I didn't understand. A large black hole opened up right in front of the cave.

  I gasped when I glimpsed inside. Nothing but barren land stared back at me.

  "There's nothing," I mumbled.

  "Maybe that's because there's nothing there. It's called The Void. Maybe you misinterpreted your—"

  Before he could finish his sentence, a dagger shot out from The Void and found itself inside the thickest part of Carrick's leg. A look of morbid shock crossed over his face as he sunk to the ground on his knees. I descended to the ground to help him the moment my Aunt Crystl walked out of the black hole.

  "Aunt Crystl?" I was confused. And possibly hallucinating.

  "Yes, dear, I'm here."

  A twenty-foot dragon followed her out of the cave. It was massive and similar in size to Carrick's dragon. Instead of black leathery scale, this dragon sported evergreen scales and red tipped wings.

  Carrick groaned in agony when he pulled the dagger from his thigh. He chucked it aside on the ground.

  "Zhastar!" He growled between clenched teeth.

  The evergreen dragon opened its mouth and roared at Carrick. Flames shot in our direction. Carrick shoved me out of the way and I found myself some ten feet out of the line of fire. When the evergreen dragon stopped breathing fire, the smoke cleared and Carrick still stood with not one burn on his body. His clothes were burned and charred beyond recognition, but he was…

  I shook my head.

  "Aunt Crystl, what's going on?"

  "Come here." Aunt Crystl motioned with her hands for me to come to her side. "Don't you want to see your mother, dear?"

  I nodded.

  "She's here. All you have to do is come in here." Aunt Crystl pointed.

  "Don't! Leona, she's lying."

  The evergreen dragon changed forms until he was human. The dragon that Carrick had called Zhastar was a man of large stature with red hair. He emerged from the dust, picked up the knife, threw it back into Carrick's thigh.

  I took off running, but Aunt Crystl tugged at my shirt, almost pulling me to the ground. “No, Leona. That’s not your fight.”

  Miraculously Carrick was now standing. But the dragon called Zhastar hadn’t backed down.

  "Hello Carrick," Zhastar said. "Thought you'd never see me again."

  "You traitorous jerk!" Carrick charged for Zhastar with the blade still embedded in his leg.

  Zhastar held his arms out, palms up. “Yeah, it was me. We both have demon blood. Don’t you know that’s what makes us stronger. More superior than all the rest. The Queen and the two Courts are just using us to fight their battles against the Demon King. They’ve brainwashed us to fight demon kind. Our people. Don’t you ever get tired of fighting for the wrong side, brother?”

  “You’re no brother of mine,” Carrick growled.

  Zhastar unsheathed a long warrior’s sword—longer than any sword I’ve ever seen before. Carrick pulled out his machetes and the two men converged on each other.

  "Please tell him to stop," I urged Aunt Crystl. "Carrick has nothing to do with this. He was only helping me."

  "Don't worry. Those two will work it out. Now if you want to see your mother again, you'll follow me. Into The Void, remember?"

  It pained me that Aunt Crystl had betrayed. My own blood. My family. "Why…why are you doing this?"

  "You know why," she stated. "I was thrown from the coven unfairly and all I ever asked them to do was admit the error of their ways. The only way is his way. We can become whole again. Through the King. The only king that was meant to rule all the realms. For the Demon King is my king and I now serve him as a Shadow as all the realms should serve him."

  I shook my head. "No…"

  "Come, see what awaits you in The Void. It's the thing you've been looking for all this time. Your dead mother is right inside. I have another present for you too."

  I croaked, but nothing came out. I was speechless. In shock. And all the while, Carrick and Zhastar were fighting like wild animals in the background.

  "You know the Grimoire is there. Your visions have never lied. You are the key. Through your blood, my King will reign."

  "You!" I pointed. "You were the one my mother went to for help. That's why my intuition led me to you. Right to your doorstep! You betrayed her. It was you all this time."

  "Do you think I was going to let them get away with casting me out like an old unwanted dog?"

  "You crazy bitch!" I charged at her, my rage spilling like an overflowing well.

  I grabbed her and we tumbled over on the ground. My nails dug into her flesh and I smelled blood and fear on her. We rolled and clawed. Threw punches. Dished out slaps. I didn't care about getting my hands dirtied and bloodied, but when I set out for revenge, I didn't like to waste time. If she had done what I think she had done, I wanted that bitch dead.

  She grabbed a handful of my hair, yanked me down to the ground, then used all her strength to pull me into The Void.

  The Void was more than a barren wasteland. When I got inside, the realm seemed to come to light. Souls of the dead rose from the dry, desert-like ground. And they watched us like two fighters in an arena, unable to intervene…just there to witness.

  Aunt Crystl came to a stop and then threw me up against a podium. When I finally glanced upward, I wished that I could un-see the horror. My mother and uncle were suspended upside down from two poles erected on the ground. There was a third pole of which I suspected was meant for me. My uncle's blood was flowing from his throat like a river into a black hole in the ground. But my mother…

  My mother had been dead for months. She was in the same position, but she'd already been bled dry. Her eyes and mouth were still open. I cried out morbidly into the frigid void.

  "Now do you see my master plan?" Aunt Crystl asked.

  "I need three blood sacrifices, that's all. Your mother was most potent, but her blood wasn't enough. My King calls to me, but he calls for more blood." She produced a knife and pointed it at me. "I'll need your help to bring your mother back."

  "There's no bringing her back! You murdered her," I screamed.

  "Yes, I did, but my King promised me that all sacrifices would be brought whole again. Don't you see why this was necessary? We can all be immortals and live forever as Shadows in his image. My King—"

  "Fuck your King!" My rage heightened and my bloodthirsty veins pulled in all sources of energy until it consumed me. I let it all go. The poles splintered and shot out from the ground. The bodies of my mother and uncle were freed and they landed on the dry earth beside the poles.

  My rage storm didn't end until I realized that my aunt was screaming. There was blood pouring out of every one of her openings. Her ears. Her nose. Her mouth. Her eye sockets.

  I took a deep breath, trying to calm myself and my aunt dropped to the floor.

  "My book," I demanded. "Give me my Grimoire."

  My next words were in French. A spell that my mother taught me when I was only a child. On completion of the spell, the book thrust itself away from my aunt and landed at my feet.

  My aunt screamed in pain above my spell. I persisted.

  "V
ire kò yo nan wòch." I chanted over and over again.

  The realm became silent the moment my aunt turned to stone. There would be no more blood sacrifices.

  I picked up the book and collected some dry sand from the ground and recited the spell I'd seen in my visions. Hellfire erupted around me, creating a full circle in which I couldn't escape. Beyond the circles lie six hidden portals into Blackwald. The hellfire around me was hot as Hades. I almost couldn't stand it. I sent the hellfire down into the portals and smiled in satisfaction when I heard the cries of agony from the demons inside of Blackwald. I began the spell, but I had no way of saving myself. All around me the fire burned. I closed my eyes and was just about to fall back into the blaze when a massive dragon with leathery black wings scooped me up and flew me away from the destruction. Once we exited The Void, cooler air rushed over me in relief. My dragon even flew us through a storm or two, but I couldn’t be certain. Maybe it was just my imagination…or me hallucinating. Or dying.

  We landed on another realm which I knew wasn’t Earth.

  "Leona," Carrick called out to me. “I’m so sorry. I have something to tell you about me. About why I came to you.”

  I reached up with what little strength I had and caressed his cheek. “I knew you were sent to kill me. My visions have never failed me. You didn’t go through with it.”

  “I’d never betray you. Not ever,” he said.

  “I know. Carrick…my dragon,” I whispered and then succumbed to darkness.

  Chapter 22

  Carrick

  A Shadow Council meeting was in session when I burst through the doors. They were all surprised to see me and shocked that I’d somehow managed to slip through a dozen guards. The one who managed to catch me marching down the halls of the Ivory Castle was now tied up in a rope at my mercy.

  Nearly everyone jumped from the table, rising to their feet when I made my presence known.