by Willa Okati
Hot. His skin had crisped in the beyond human-tolerable heat, burning and running with sweat. The salty stuff stung where it dripped over dozens of raw, sore spots. He groaned.
“Hell. I’m in Hell.”
Two voices chuckled.
Not yet, Collin. Not for thousands of years, if then.
“What?”
Hush. Rest. Quiet. Peace.
A hand, hot as living coals, dry as lizard skin, came to rest on Collin’s chest. Sharp nails tapped gently on his collarbone.
Too much, too fast, we think. You are still mostly human. We had forgotten how fragile mortals can be. It has been so long for many of our kind, and never for us. Do you know you are the first mortal chosen since the glorious days of Emperor Ming?
A second hand stroked Collin’s sweaty, tangled hair. Forgive us?
“Forgive what? I don’t ... oh. Oh.” Memories rushed back in. Collin couldn’t help chuckling. “Forgive you? Are you truly insane? I’ve just had a sexual experience jaded nymphomaniacs would pay good money for.” He thumbed his chin, briefly thoughtful. “You brought me back to life,” he murmured. “Forgive you? Gentlemen, I’m going to thank you. I just hate that I passed out right at the best part.”
Brought you back to life?
An ... interesting choice of words.
Collin, our fires all but burned you to death. Living death. Permanent death.
Well, that he hadn’t been expecting to hear. “Excuse me?”
We almost killed you.
“You’re serious?” Collin considered the concept. “Did you push that far on purpose?”
Absolutely not!
Collin, Collin, Collin ... we chose you when Liam told us of your existence. He saw your fire heart, frozen cold as a shield against the deeds of those who were wholly heartless.
We had not intended to search for a third, a mate, but now that we have found you ... We mean to keep you for many years.
Decades.
Centuries.
Burning you to ashes now would be more than a waste.
It would be a crime.
Unforgivable by gods or men.
I ask you again: can you forgive us?
Collin bit his lip. “Give me a moment.”
His head tumbled and jangled with way too many thoughts crowding in. Sex. Death. Life. Rebirth. What they’d almost done. What they had accomplished. He’d forgotten how good sex could be, when there was trust. What it was like to hunger for something very intensely. He’d never been so desperate before, so incredibly ... horny. He’d have burst like an overripe grape if they hadn’t done the job for him. The ... dragons. Oh, yes. Oddly enough, their species had entirely slipped his mind for a moment.
Dragons. Creatures of fire. Of myth. Immortal. Apparently, they enjoyed playing games with the rare human or so. He hadn’t known they had a taste for sex, and frankly, the thought of a homosexual sub-deity made him want to snicker.
“Ashes, ashes, we all fall down, eh?”
We do not understand.
“No. I don’t suppose you would.” Collin gave the dragons a half-smile.
You are ... amused? Why?
He shrugged. “After a long dry spell like mine, turning on two creatures probably older than time, to the point where they lose control? No small feat.” His smile broadened into a grin. “I told you that you’d brought me back to life. Almost better, you let me know I still have what it takes. Not too shabby.”
You confuse us, Collin. Explain yourself.
“Maybe later.” Collin arched, stretching his muscles. Odd. He seemed to have more of them than usual, plus a longer spine and new joints in his arms and legs. It would have been disturbing if he’d let himself care, or felt any cause for alarm, instead of this calm ... acceptance. No more snap, crackle, and pop that meant he was getting too old for comfort. He felt young again. No, better. He felt superhuman and young. Like a cat. No -- a dragon. Almost. More half dragon, half man.
He felt a brief, crazy urge to look down and see if he’d started growing scales.
“Forgive you?” he repeated. “After what you did for me, you could have turned me into London broil and I wouldn’t have complained.”
But the danger to you --
“Gentlemen, do you hear any kind of complaints from this quarter?” Collin stretched again. Such a wonderful sensation. “Sometimes,” he said, popping his shoulders, “the risk is worth the reward.”
Silence. Two hands, equipped with sharp claw-nails, tapped Collin’s collarbone. The dragon men had come in close to examine him, looking absolutely baffled by his reaction.
Amusement growing, Collin glanced from one to the other. There was no way of telling what they were thinking from their expressions, but he felt sure they were talking on some higher level he was too human to hear. Too mortal to be worthy of listening in.
He laughed again. The dragon men looked at him curiously. You are exceedingly strange, Collin.
“No. Just queer.”
Dark-curls shook his head. We have known men to run screaming as fast as their legs would carry them before we got half so far as introductions. We have seen other chosen mates, in times long gone. Each dragon spent an age deliberating its choice. Each time, they were disappointed. But you? You surprise us and accept us at every turn.
Collin found himself feeling cheeky enough to wink. “What can I say? I’m just good.”
And conceited. The taller dragon man smirked. I think you are drunk.
“After tasting what Li Hsien has on draft? I wouldn’t be surprised. Speaking of which, could I ask for some more of that special sake? My compliments to the brewmaster, by the way.”
Sake? Surely. We would ask that you wait a little while first, though. You need to rest. To -- how do they say it, these days? -- recharge your batteries.
We would say “rekindle your inner flame.” Dark-curls stroked Collin’s skin. Claws left light scratch trails.
Yes. This is necessary. After a climax like yours, your flame has ebbed to banked coals. Still burning, but at low heat.
Collin considered. “I’m theorizing that sex starts the home fires cooking again?”
The dragon men cocked their heads. Yes. Such is our nature. Our way. Our own magic. Sex magic.
“I thought so, and yet here I am, still not griping one bit.” Boldly, Collin slipped his hand down his torso to grasp his own cock. Still hard. Not aching. Not yet.
Time to strike a match.
He arched his hips, stroking himself. Lingering sweeps of fingers and thumb. Lust blazed to life in the both sets of dragon eyes. Collin grinned. “Come on,” he coaxed. “The night isn’t over already, is it? Are we?”
The taller dragon man shook his head in amazement. Are all mortals so sensually impatient in this modern age?
“From what I hear, yes. I know I am, thanks to you. What do you plan to do about it?” Collin licked his lips and lowered his eyelids to half-mast. “I know you want to play again. You want some more of me.”
Badly, and too much for good sense. But -- no. Not yet. The dragon’s face turned stubborn. First, you must heal.
“Spoilsport.”
You dare to pout? Dark-curls grinned, all sharp teeth and fangs. Rest assured, what we have in mind for the interim will be something you enjoy a great deal. Trust us.
Collin lifted an eyebrow. “Do I have a choice?”
No.
“Fine. But if you want to stop me from imagining you on me, in me, doing everything ever conceived under the sun to me, you’re going to have to knock me out again.”
The dragon men laughed. As you please. Go ahead. Do be aware, though, you cannot climax here without our assistance.
“I call foul!” Collin objected, indignant at the law they’d thrown down so casually. “It’s been a while, but you just don’t work someone up to such a fever pitch and then back down. Are you familiar with the term ‘cock tease’?”
In no way are we teasing you. We fully intend to deliver
. Eventually.
“Wonderful. Well, it’s better than nothing, you --” A thought occurred to Collin. “Do you have names?”
The taller dragon frowned. You could never wrap your tongue around our true, given titles. The language is long since dead, and human mouths cannot reproduce the necessary sounds. But names. Yes. Something to call us.
“That would be the point.”
The two dragons engaged in another silent conference. Call me Pax, the taller offered after a moment. Call him Tiego.
“Pax and Tiego?” Collin had to laugh. “Where in the blue blazes did you come up with those handles?”
Pax glared. Collin raised his hands. “Easy, easy, calm down. They’re good names. I’m only curious.”
We like they way they sound. Now. Enough talking. As you would say, shut up, lie back, and let us get to work. Yes? Pax asked -- no, ordered.
Collin didn’t mind the sound of that demand. He spread out, quadruple-jointed, bonelessly lazy. “Are you going to work me over again?” He licked his lower lip, swollen from earlier kisses. “Be my guest.”
Pax and Tiego shook their heads. All the same, they did bend to their work -- and if Collin had enjoyed what came before, he thought he might die of the sheer blast of lustiness now.
They licked him. All. Over. Head to toe. Face to arch of foot. Definitely not forgetting the best parts, which was to say his cock and balls. Their forked tongues, rough and raspy, tickled his newly awoken libido up to Fahrenheit 451. Everywhere their mouths traveled, magic sparked to life. Healing magic. A fiery burning, as if he’d lain too long exposed in strong sunlight. He felt a sharp sting, then warm relief spreading through every muscle.
Slowly going numb ...
Collin moved his head sluggishly back and forth. “What are you ...”
Only what we promised. Fear not. We were too rough. Your body is made up of flesh, not scales. It cannot withstand our stings and barbs, not yet. You have many sore spots that need tending to.
“Oh ... right. Keep up the good work.” Collin paused in thought, then offered a wicked, if sluggish wink. “No need to stop when you’ve got all the love bites taken care of, now.”
Pax grinned. You like this?
“I’ll give you three guesses, and the first two don’t count.”
What if you looked down and saw we are using our fangs to inject you with healing serum? What would you say then?
Collin shrugged. “I was never was one to shoot up, but I’m feeling experimental. Continue at will.”
You are incorrigible!
“I do believe I am. More, I think I like it. Lick harder.”
I told you he would prove to be a handful, Tiego said to his companion. More than.
Of course. Why did you think I wanted him in particular?
A valid point. Notice I don’t say I mind his one-track train of thought.
But before we take him all the way ...
Yes. I know too well what must be done.
Humans cannot withstand a dragon mating.
Not fully, no. We should have known better. Now, we do. And now we must act. I think ...
Tiego paused, tongue tickling a spot on Collin’s thigh. Collin wriggled, hoping for more, but preferably just a little higher. Yes, he said at last. Changeover.
When?
Now. He’s relaxed. It will be easier.
You’re sure?
Tiego nodded firmly. Now. There will be no better time.
Given. Pax chuckled. Look at him. He is aroused enough to agree to anything.
Are you? Tiego glanced up at Collin. Eyes bright, curious. Will you do what we ask, whatever we ask?
“Mmm.” Collin stretched and sighed out, a long humming sound. His body, filled with dragon anti-venom, started reminding him of his roaring testosterone. Seriously remind him. Sex. Yes, he decided, he wanted sex. Immediately.
Their words sank in. He paused. “Wait -- changeover. What does that mean?” Hopefully: “Can we fuck again if I say yes?”
Collin ... you haven’t truly experienced sex with us yet. Only penetration, and even that, not as it could be, as we prefer. Tiego fell sober. You would incinerate. I do not lie.
“That’d be an orgasm to write home about.”
Be serious. If you, a mere human, mated with us, you would die. We almost killed you with little more than foreplay such as mortals enjoy. Sexual congress with dragons goes far beyond genitals and semen. It is a thing conceived in the soul and birthed in fire. Do you think we are joking? Tiego’s face, an odd mix of reptile and human features, turned vicious and earnest. He meant every word he said.
Collin took a moment to think. To accept the reality that he had almost died. Oddly enough, he didn’t have a problem with the notion. He’d been on the verge of going tachycardiac from high blood pressure, anyway. An inglorious end, slumped over a cooling mug of office coffee.
Death by sex, however ... that would be the best way ever to shuffle off the mortal coil.
But then again, there was this “changeover” concept to deal with. Not an innocent-sounding word. Collin fought to think clearly, to ignore his rampant hard-on long enough to get the point Pax and Tiego were trying to make.
“What do you mean?” he asked, dragging the words out of his hazy mind. They passed as slow as molten honey over his tongue. “Change into what?”
Tiego’s eyes flared bright. Fire-red. A dragon, he said. One of us.
Almost, Pax added. You would have two forms.
Collin suspected his lack of fear should frighten him. He assessed himself briefly, then shrugged. All he felt was a simple acceptance. Too easily come by for a man accustomed to clawing out his own path, but inarguably there. “How’s that?”
You are a rare breed, Collin. Born with the heart and soul of a dragon in the body of a human.
You were so cold when we first touched you. The icy core inside you stung. We melted it away.
You were living as a frozen man. Denying your nature. Never walking inside the fire. You lied about yourself for so long, you had no chance of knowing what you were. Are.
What you could be.
What we can make you.
“Stronger, faster, better. They have the tools and the technology.” Collin half-chuckled. “By the bye, dragons aren’t real. You do know this, right?”
Tiego gave Collin a look that would have sent lesser men screaming for the hills. Very amusing.
Collin sighed and ran his hands down his chest, playing fingers over his ribs like a xylophone. He decided it would be better to be serious, no matter how good he felt in the body. These creatures were dragons -- granted, he was possibly out of his mind for believing this scenario to be reality, and not a dream, but he’d pushed aside his inner Doubting Thomas right about when their mouths had first touched him.
Nothing dreams had to offer could compare with this reality, no matter how, well, surreal.
They said he could be like them.
He could become a dragon.
Did he want to? Could he? Turn his back on everything he was used to? Give up the cold he’d loved so much?
He pondered the question for approximately one hot minute, then rolled his eyes. He might have lost his mind. He was not, however, a moron. As if he’d turn down any further chances at enjoying sex again, especially sex with two scorching men with amazing hands, prodigiously sized cocks, and tongues of rasping fire?
To be offered a chance at staying with Tiego and Pax was the chance of a lifetime. He’d live forever, enjoy unlimited orgasms, and get to thumb his nose at humanity’s sorry limitations.
So the process sounded as if it involved a retooling of his DNA. Collin had turned himself into an icicle executive without supernatural assistance. He believed he could cope with what the dragons offered. In fact, for a shot at another few rounds with Pax and Tiego, Collin thought he could sprout wings and not complain.
Oh, good, Tiego said. He sat back on his heels. I am glad to hear as much.
&nbs
p; Uh-oh.
“What now?” Collin tried to sit up. “Wait a second. Do you mean actual wing wings? Geared for flight?”
Pax and Tiego nodded gravely. They flexed their shoulders in unison. Leathery bat-wings threaded with veins of fire unfurled from their backs and spread in terrifying arches over their heads. Pax’s were crimson red, Tiego’s cobalt blue.
Wings, Pax said helpfully. I believe yours will be green, to match your eyes.
“Won’t that be something.” Collin tried not to gape at the dragons’ new accessories. Startlingly erotic. Startling and erotic. Just plain startling. But also erotic.
He shook his head to clear the mental loop he’d gotten stuck on. Wings. Fine. He wouldn’t let the power of flight stop him, of all things, but ... er ... where would his wings come from?
Collin had a bad feeling he’d find out in an unusually painful fashion.
Still. No backing out. No. He’d decided on a course of action, and be damned if he wouldn’t follow through. Looking up at his dragons, Collin nodded his head.
“Do it.”
Pax and Tiego dove at him and bit down hard on both Collin’s shoulders. He felt a blast of fresh venom rushing into his veins. Pure fire. Magic soup.
Unbelievable agony.
He doubled in half and shrieked. Oh, yeah. This looked to be more fun than a barrel full of monkeys. Stephen King-brand monkeys.
The payoff had better be worth his gamble ...
Chapter Eleven
Fuck! Fuck, fuck, fuck!
Pax and Tiego said “changeover.” They didn’t say “mind-blowing pain.” Didn’t specify turning inside-out, organs dangling about like party favors.
That should definitely be inside my skin, where spleens belong.
Neither one of those scaly players mentioned my bursting into flame. That would have been good to know, too. If I live through this, I’ll be sorely tempted to kill them both. Maybe after I toss them up against the nearest wall, then nail them through the floor. I don’t believe this, but they’ve still got me where it counts most. I’m thinking with my cock first, fists second, and brain trailing in the rear.
Oh, fuck!