by Amelia Jade
“Oh,” he grunted, his body coming alive around him. “Oh yes. YES!” The final words came out as a roar. Corde shot to his feet at the same moment the Outsider burst free.
Flame erupted from his mouth in an eye-searing display, so loud it shrieked of its own accord as he unleashed a titanic demonstration of power. Buildings nearby reflected the light, turning the loading dock into a brightly lit arena.
Corde started forward, wings spread wide as he gently fanned the flames with them. The Outsider was pushed back one step. Then another. The concrete beneath its feet began to melt as Corde continued to blast it with a never-ending stream of fire. He’d never felt such power as this!
He advanced on the creature that dared threaten his mate, renewed anger flickering into life. Bits and pieces of it started to mix with the slowly-flowing concrete, black spots of tar-like substance that floated in the superheated river of stone.
The creature was pushed back across the loading bay, until it stumbled into a pile of stacked metal. Corde smiled internally. Maybe he could melt the metal around it, trapping it. He poured on the fire.
His only warning of danger was when the first superheated lance of metal came flying up through his fire. Dodging to the side, he narrowly missed eating the projectile. Several more came after him swiftly, but he dodged them, and hit the Outsider with another beam of fire, driving it back some more.
A spinning metal pipe as thick as his human torso hurtled up at him, catching his lower jaw and wrenching his head to the side. Corde howled in pain, spitting out the nearly molten metal and lunging after the Outsider as he suddenly spied where it had been going this entire time.
The matte-black creature picked up the manhole cover and tossed it right at the tip of his snout, forcing Corde to dodge. Then it dropped into the sewer hole and disappeared. He went after it, shifting as he moved, intending to pursue it in human form.
Almost as soon as he took his first step though, the last of his energy finally ran out. He’d given it his all, but dragonfire took far more out of him than simply tossing it around in his human form.
“Kylie,” he said weakly, falling to the ground.
She rushed over to him, screaming his name. Behind her a vehicle screeched to a halt, Kallore and Vanek emerging swiftly, both of them moving apart until they were able to shift.
Corde stared up at Kallore’s carmine-colored dragon for a second before wrenching his eyes back to Kylie.
“Thank you,” he said softly. “You did it. You saved the day.”
She shook her head, tears of…joy? He hoped joy, pouring down her face.
“No, Corde. You saved the day. And you saved me. You did it.”
The world went black as he passed out.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Kylie
“So you’ve been telling me the truth this entire time,” she said as Corde’s eyes finally flickered open and registered awareness.
He frowned, looking at the sheets of his bed and then the light sky outside. “You’ve been waiting to use that line all night, haven’t you?”
Kylie laughed lightly, both at his comment and in relief that he seemed to be okay. “Three days, actually.”
Corde bolted upright. “I’ve been out three days?”
She winced as he slapped a hand to his head and began to sway before slowly sinking back into the bed.
“Why wasn’t I out for four?” he complained.
“Unfortunately, you didn’t lose your sense of humor in the attack,” she muttered, knowing he’d be able to hear her.
“I didn’t lose it, and I didn’t lose you. It was a good day.”
She blushed. “And I didn’t lose you either, Corde. Though it was touch and go there for a bit.”
He kept his eyes closed, but she saw his cheeks turn a little pink. That was enough for her; she wouldn’t embarrass him too much. Yet.
“And the Outsider?”
“It got away, we think. But not before you hurt it. Badly. We found chunks of it all over the place after the concrete hardened and cooled. It hasn’t been seen since.”
A smile crossed his tired and sunken face. “Yeah, I blasted it pretty good, didn’t I?”
Kylie nodded. “Yeah, yeah you did, Corde.”
“It’s because of you, you know,” he said, his voice already sounding weaker.
“Me? I didn’t do anything.”
“You cared,” he said softly. “You showed me the power of the heart. I always fought with anger before, and when I needed power the most, it failed me. I failed the people who relied on me, because I refused to accept that I cared. That they cared about me. You’ve made me see otherwise.”
“I do care, Corde. A lot.”
He smiled. “Me too.”
Kylie reached out from the chair next to the bed and grabbed his hand. “Corde?”
“Yesss?” his voice was getting a little slurred, and she knew he was probably going to pass back out again. It was now or never.
“Corde, I…” the words caught in her throat.
He smiled. “I know.”
She frowned. “No. Dammit, I’m not letting you get the upper hand on this. I love you, Corde,” she said, uttering the words at long last.
His eyes popped open, graphite-gray orbs focusing on her with sudden vigor.
Kylie’s jaw dropped. “Were you faking that?”
“I love you too, Kylie,” he said, giving her hand a squeeze. “You are my mate.”
Then he collapsed back into sleep, punctuated by a snore that threatened to shake the glass.
“You’d better not sleep like that regularly,” she said under her breath. “Otherwise we’re gonna have trouble. Real trouble.”
Corde snored again, announcing his disdain for her threats.
Kylie just smiled, eyes lifting to the ceiling.
Oh boy, and to think, he was all hers.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Kylie
“I thought this was more of a temporary solution for you?” she said as the elevator opened and she walked out.
Behind her came Corde, loaded down with bags upon bags.
She’d carefully kept her shopping habits a secret from him until now.
“It was supposed to be. But Colonel Mara has just decided to have the military buy the entire building. They’re going to start renovating all the floors below us so that they’re similar to this.”
“That sounds like they’re planning on having a lot of dragons to fill it,” she said, pointing at the table in front of the couch on “her” floor of the penthouse suite.
“Yeah, I’m not sure what she, Kyen, and Lianna have planned, to be honest with you.”
“Who and who?”
“Oh right, I forgot you haven’t met them all yet. Kyen is a dragon like me. Bit of an oddball to be honest. He’s a pacifist. Won’t fight. To our knowledge he’s the only dragon that hasn’t slept all these years, so he’s kind of an old fart in the dragon world.”
Kylie rolled her eyes. Corde’s command of the English language continued to improve, but with it came the idioms. Oddly, she found herself liking him before he used them a lot. This new side of him tended to overuse them a bit, as if trying to prove he knew how. On the flip side, it was adorable when he sometimes screwed up.
“I see. And Lianna?”
“She’s the scientist behind waking us up. The real brains. She and Kyen did it together, but she’s the workhorse for sure. They work out at Fort Stark. It’s a ways from here. Maybe you’ll meet them someday. That would be nice.”
Corde filled the table with packages, and set the rest down on the thick gray rug that sat underneath and around it. “Did we get enough stuff?”
She shot him a fake glare. “You’re the one who asked me to move in. In case you forget though, my house burned down. All of it.”
The knowledge and reminder of that still hurt, but in the week since Corde had fought the Outsider they’d finally admitted their feelings for each other,
and Kylie had caved to the fact that she didn’t want to be anywhere that he wasn’t. It still scared her a bit to think of how fast things were moving, but she couldn’t dismiss the fact that even thinking about a life without him just didn’t feel right on a level so basic and instinctual that she was forced to listen to it.
“Yes, I know. I just don’t think you need to spend all the insurance money on new clothing.”
Kylie’s glare turned a little more real. “You’ve never lived with a woman before, have you?”
“My mother?”
She groaned. “You know what I mean!”
He laughed, walked around the table, and leaned over the couch to kiss her, an action made more difficult by the fact they were both grinning from ear to ear.
“I love you,” he murmured between kisses.
“I love you too,” she said, her cheeks stretching ever wider.
“Best news I’ve heard all day.”
She kissed him again. “You’ve heard it like ten times already.”
“I know.” He kissed her cheek and pulled back. “But I’m still looking forward to the next ten.”
Kylie’s heart swelled as she looked up at the man she’d fallen in love with. True love had never been something she’d believed in, but that no longer seemed like such a big deal to her.
After all, she’d never believed in dragons either.
“Kylie,” Corde said, crouching down to be able to look at her eye level.
“Yes?”
“I know you just bought a lot of clothes, but I was wondering something.”
“Yes, I’d love to buy more!” she giggled. Something about the seriousness of his stare stopped her from commenting further though. “What is it, Corde?”
“I’ve been thinking.” He bit his lip and her heart fluttered a little. What was going on?
“Yes?” If he had something bad to say, just say it!
“Would you consider wearing something for me?”
Her eyes popped open. Was he about to propose?
“Umm, what are you saying, Corde?”
Reaching into his pocket, he withdrew a square metal box, perhaps half an inch thick and three or four inches a side. Kylie frowned; it was unlike any ring box she’d ever seen.
“These were my mother’s, before she passed, given to her by my father.”
Kylie gasped. That meant they were hundreds of years old, whatever they were. And he wanted her to have them? She choked back emotional tears.
“Corde…I don’t know what to say.”
He opened the box, revealing three intricately carved metal bands linked together. They were mostly flat, half an inch wide, and the outside was filled with carvings of various scenes and imagery.
“It’s a bracelet,” he explained, sliding it onto her right wrist.
“It fits perfectly,” she said softly as the cool metal sat against her skin. “Oh Corde, it’s so beautiful.”
“It’s not done,” he said, holding his palm upward.
She pulled back slightly as flames burst into existence on his hand, but he had a solid grip of her wrist, and kept her close.
“It’s okay, it won’t hurt you.”
A tendril of flame licked up and across to the bracelet.
Kylie watched in amazement as it encircled her wrists, setting itself into the bracelets themselves. All the empty lines between carvings danced and wavered with firelight. She waited for the heat and the pain to settle in, wondering what Corde was doing, though she trusted him implicitly.
After a few seconds though, nothing happened. “I don’t feel anything. Just a warm pleasing sensation.”
“That’s all you’ll ever feel from it,” he explained. “Coldfire. It’s…well, fire is our thing, let’s just leave it at that.”
She giggled. “Okay. And you’re sure you want me to have it?”
“You are my mate, Kylie. I don’t know what the future of the world holds, but I do know I want to spend it with you. No matter what happens. Together. Partners.”
Kylie stared up at her man with unabashed glee and enthusiasm. The Outsiders were still out there, still threatening mankind, but she no longer worried.
For so long she’d hoped for someone to come through her program that she could save. To prove that she was doing her part.
In the end though, it had been Corde who had saved her.
********
********
This concludes Dragon Seduction, Crimson Dragons Book 2.
I hope you enjoyed the adventure. Please feel free to let me know your thoughts on the book, anywhere from characters, to plot, to even the formatting of the book itself. I appreciate all feedback, whether it be reviews, on Facebook or via my website!
If you wish to read some more about Corde & Kylie, sign up for my newsletter to receive a FREE bonus scene. Otherwise, read on for a list of all my other works to check out!
(If you’ve already signed up, read one of my newsletters for the link!)
Click here for a free bonus scene with Corde & Kylie
Frost Dragon
Top Scale Book 1
By Amelia Jade
Frost Dragon
Copyright @ 2016 by Amelia Jade
First Electronic Publication: October 2016
Amelia Jade
All Rights Are Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. No part of this book may be scanned, uploaded or distributed via the Internet or any other means, electronic or print, without the author’s permission.
NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR:
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locale or organizations is entirely coincidental. The author does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for third-party websites or their content.
All sexual activities depicted occur between consenting characters 18 years or older who are not blood related.
Bought this book? All of Amelia Jade’s new releases are priced at $0.99 for a limited time. Sign up for her newsletter to ensure that you don’t miss a deal, and for exclusive extras and teasers.
Amelia Jade’s
Newsletter Signup
Frost Dragon
Chapter One
Asher
“What a waste of time.”
Asher Owens practically stormed from the small ranch-style house his parents called home and moved to the large circle of inlaid stone in their front yard. He knelt in the middle, noting how it stretched out thirty or more feet to all sides. It was big enough. Barely.
There were no intricate patterns, no runes or markings on the stones. It was not laid in any particular fashion, nor was it any special stone. It simply was not earth, and that was the thing that mattered. It wouldn’t do to be damaging the ground every time someone came to visit. Especially their son.
He reached into his core, and touched the spark of ice that was permanently a part of him. It burned brightly in him, a strong and powerful light, despite being completely devoid of heat. The effects of him touching it with his mind were both immediate, and startling.
A swirl of fog, like breath on a cool winter’s day, swept up and around him, enveloping him within its touch. The shroud grew larger, and little shards of ice formed and fell to the ground around him in a clatter that reminded him of just how ungainly his transition was. Inside the fog, the changes were taking place.
Asher’s legs abruptly grew to several times their normal proportion, throwing his torso into the air and then flopping him forward. He concentrated on his front legs, and just in time they began to change as well, preventing him from face-planting into the ground. The muscles on h
is back rippled and he felt the telltale bulges of new muscle and tendon alike.
His body seemed to suddenly be far away, as if he were having an out-of-body experience, but the way it bobbed and weaved, Asher knew it was simply his neck assuming the proportions of his other half. His flattened face jutted forward, becoming a muzzle, and then a snout. Icicles appeared across his skin and then shattered, falling to the ground to reveal scales covering every inch of him. Brilliant white, they reflected the faltering light of the night as the sun fell below the mountains to the west.
At the last moment, massive wings sprouted from his back—huge, powerful membranes that instead of jutting up and out in a display of prowess, simply flopped over and dragged at his sides until he mentally took control of them and forced them to do as he commanded.
As a final touch, a layer of frost an inch thick exploded out from his feet, covering the circle of stone, falling short a few inches from the edge.
Asher shook his head. The process of shifting was certainly far more awkward and unimpressive than every story he had read before. But now that it was done, he stood there for a moment, knowing how resplendent he looked in the evening light. He practically glowed, scales bigger than a knight’s shield twinkling as the sun’s rays glanced off his natural armor.
Over fifty feet from snout to tail, he was a magnificent specimen, and of that he was aware. Asher was a Frost Dragon, one of the rarer of the dragon species. Impressively armored, muscled, and with a snout full of razor-sharp teeth, he was undoubtedly one of the most lethal predators on the planet.
Nobody would know it by what’s about to happen though.
Asher flexed his wings, sweeping them out to the side, back, and then finally up, before he thrust them down with an incredible amount of force.