3
Neo
Neo slammed into Igor. The force of the impact sent them flying backward. They hit the floor of the stage with a thud.
Thunder boomed from above, and lightning screeched past him. It hit the wood on the stage where they’d been a second ago and went right through. He smelled the reek of ozone
“Don’t hurt him.”
Neo heard her scream, as if from a distance.
The stink of dry frost and old blood washed over him.
It took him right back to when he’d tried to grapple with the man who’d slaughtered his parents. The man had taken him captive as a boy.
He froze. His skin tightened, and there was a sour taste in his mouth. Images hidden deep in his mind came tumbling over him, overwhelming him.
This…this was the Fae male who’d forced Neo to transform prematurely to a dragon. Every time Neo had revealed his fledgling beast, that man had burned him with hellfire.
He still bore the scars on his face, his back, and his chest. The puckered skin seemed to throb, as if being near their creator had brought them to life.
Neo curled his hands into fists at his sides. He sensed Igor get to his feet, felt the force of the gathering storm around him.
His throat went dry, and his leg muscles grew rigid.
It was as if he’d been transported back to the nightmare that had haunted his growing years.
“We meet again.” Then Igor hauled him to his feet. “Miss me, shifter?” Igor raised his fist. “I tried to break you then and absorb the energy of your dragon; perhaps I should finish what I started?”
Fear twisted Neo’s guts. He was once again that five-year-old boy.
The breeze seared his skin as Igor’s fist rammed into Neo’s gut. White pain ripped through him. Then, Neo went flying through the air. He crashed into the wall at the back of the stage.
He braced his body for what seemed like an eternity before he slumped to the floor. His shoulders shuddered, and he groaned, his vision flickered.
His ribs throbbed.
He tried to move. Sparks of red zinged through his brain.
No, this couldn’t be happening. He needed to shift to his dragon form—it was the only way to stop Igor from hurting the woman. He hadn’t been able to save his adoptive parents, but he could save her.
He dropped into the indigo flame of his dragon.
The scent of dragon smoke deepened, and his beast pushed against his skin, goosebumps rising on his arms.
He yanked at the energy, letting it pulse and undulate through his veins.
His dragon quivered, wanting to push out, wanting to face Igor, but that scent that had haunted his growing years held him in thrall. If he revealed his dragon he would be punished.
Igor slithered toward him. He grabbed Neo’s throat. “Have you forgotten how I tortured your parents? Your mother screamed. She begged for her life, until I snapped her neck.” Igor’s fingers tightened around Neo, cutting off the air supply.
Dark strands of griminess flowed through the psychic plane and coiled around Neo’s neck.
It poured through the old scars, pressing down on his chest, penetrating deep into the corners of his heart where he’d locked away the memories of how Igor had hurt him.
His heart hammered, and sweat poured from his brow.
Igor’s dark nothingness coiled around Neo’s psychic presence. It sank into his blood and began to eat away the energy of his beast.
He gritted his teeth and tried to push back.
His leg muscles twisted with the need to move, but he couldn’t.
In his mind he was again the dragonling who hated his captor, who’d mourned his parents, who was afraid of what was going to happen to him. The next second, he was the scarred rockstar, the one who people loved to hate. The broken man who’d spent his life hunting down the killer of his parents.
His consciousness flitted between the two realities. Below it all was this urgent need to shift. But he couldn’t. His dragon quivered.
Igor leaned in. His eyes gleamed. “Obedient dragon.” His breath was hot against Neo’s cheek. “Aren’t you one amazing specimen? I am almost glad I didn’t kill you. It makes the pleasure of taking the fire of your grown-up beast even greater.” Igor’s tongue flicked out. He licked Neo’s cheek.
Neo’s gorge rose. He growled and tried to hit out, but his body moved as if through a thick, syrupy haze.
The darkness grew stronger, blacker. It was as if evil itself was penetrating every pore of his body, pouring through his veins. Digging into his scars, opening those wounds afresh. It hurt so much his big body shuddered.
A snarl sounded from behind him.
The woman swooped around them and launched herself at Igor. The light glinted off her skin, forming a halo over her. “Let him go.” She pounded on Igor’s back. “It’s me you want, not him.”
“No,” Neo tried to protest. His tongue felt so thick he could barely form the word.
She was tiny and fragile, yet all the power she carried inside her made her appear much larger.
Igor’s lips peeled back, showing a flash of teeth. Without breaking his grasp on Neo’s neck, he shrugged a shoulder and sent her flying through the air.
Her body curved and arced before she hit the floor. She lay unmoving, those dark eyelashes a curve against her cheek.
No! Was she hurt? Anger broke through the loop his mind had been caught in. Indigo streaks sparked up his spine, and a roaring filled his head.
Something inside him snapped.
A pale wraith of a shadow, almost like a splatter of light, raised its head inside him.
He couldn’t let anything happen to her.
A streak of dragon smoke puffed from his nostrils.
The cords of his neck tensed, and his leg muscles flexed. He ground his feet into the floor and pushed back.
Every cell in his body strained.
With an effort that came from somewhere deep inside him, Neo broke free of the Fae’s psychic hold. He plowed his fist into Igor’s side. It was just for a second, but that was enough.
Neo swept Igor’s legs out from under him; at the same time he cracked his forehead into Igor’s face.
Pain shredded his nerves, sparks of red exploding behind his eyes.
He followed Igor down, slammed his fist into the other man’s jaw, his face, his chest, then back to his neck.
Igor’s eyes whipped open. He growled, his canines flashing. His muscles trembled a second before Neo was flung back.
That time Neo broke through the back wall of the stage. He landed on the sand.
Neo lay winded.
His lungs burned like they were on fire, and his heartbeat thrashed in his ears. His eyes rolled back, black streaks yanking at the edge of his vision.
With a roar, Igor followed him through the opening. He hammered the weight of his entire body into Neo.
His body twitched. His lungs constricted. It felt like he’d rammed into a stone wall.
Lighting flashed, highlighting Igor’s face.
The illumination above the stage and around the edge of the arena flared then went out. For a second there was complete darkness, then a pale glow rose ahead of him.
It ebbed and faded, then grew stronger and burst into a semicircle of brightness.
His breath caught in his chest.
The light was brilliant. Like nothing he’d ever seen. Like the fierce radiance of the morning sun breaking through monsoon clouds, silver, gold, and starlight woven into a tapestry of rays that snapped out in a crescent of bright light.
The fine hair on the back on his neck stood up.
4
Trinity
A fierce surge of energy burst out of Trinity. She let it overwhelm her senses. The swirling mass of light that was her soul flowed up from her heart to her forehead. She screamed as it drilled out of her third eye in a twisting stream of white light.
So pure, clean, bright it reflected back the sun. It threw the ent
ire stage into relief and flared out in an ecstasy of joy so fierce nothing could stand in its way.
Igor had killed her parents. She wouldn’t let him hurt Neo. He was hers.
Hers
Reaching into herself, she drew on the silver-gold energy that had been part of her since before she was born. She pulled on it, let it fill her cells, and overflow and fill her senses until she became a shimmering beam herself.
She’d never transformed, not before this. Her parents had been insistent she keep herself hidden from the psychic world, for fear of catching Igor’s attention.
She was the last of the light rays, a threat to the shadows of this world. Once she showed herself, every last particle of darkness would seek her out, attracted by the radiance. She’d never be able to mask her presence again on the psychic plane.
It was a cosmic joke, that the light and dark always went together. It was why Igor wanted her as his mate, why he wanted to own her light. And yet…she didn’t question her instinct to shift and reveal her true form just then. She’d come that far—she’d just found him. She wasn’t going to lose him.
She let the light swirl and rush over her, through her blood, her cells, filling every part of her. It burst through in a fierce rush of joy. Of pain and pleasure. There was so much pleasure and just the sheer exhilaration of life, of renewal, of rebirth.
She hadn’t known it could be like that.
Her skin transformed, shifted, and shimmered into pale sleekness. Her face narrowed, her arms drew down, and her spine stretched.
Her hair crackled and swirled around her. She tossed back her mane as the spirit of her unicorn took over. Her feet formed into hooves that dug into the floor.
She shifted to her unicorn form and charged forward. She lowered her head, aiming the beam of light that flowed from her third eye, straight for the Fae’s dark heart.
At the last minute, Igor moved, and the light ray went into his shoulder. It crackled through him, streaking into his pores, lighting up the hollows of his eyes, his mouth, the nothingness in his heart, just for a moment.
Igor raised his head and screamed, a single rip of pain and fear.
Trinity tore Igor’s body off Neo. She flung him to the side. Igor went rolling and came to a stop on his back. He lay panting. She charged at him again, but Igor was already rising to his feet.
Blood flowed from his shoulder, down his chest, bathing him in crimson. He swayed. “You resisted me. You made a big mistake.” His eyes glittered, and he drew his lips back, revealing those sharp fangs. “I will not rest until I have you. I’ll break anything that comes in the way of my possessing you.” His gaze alighted on Neo. Turning, Igor stumbled, then righted himself.
The air grew thin. His body blurred. The outline of his features went translucent, and he teleported away.
The light drew back into her, through her crown, to her heart, down to her womb, dissolving into her blood. For a second, she stayed in her unicorn form. Her mane rippled, and a fine sheen of sweat covered her skin.
She’d sent Igor away, but for how long? At what cost?
She tossed her head and turned to find Neo back on his feet.
His features were pale, and his shoulder-length hair streamed behind him. The tattoos that circled his neck and flowed down his right arm glowed. And his eyes, those eyes bored into her. They swirled with desire—with suspicion? His eyebrows drew down.
She took a step toward him, just as a shudder ran through her.
The ecstasy of being in her unicorn self receded.
The light drew in and firmed as her arms reduced to their human shape. Her hooves turned in and swirled back into feet.
Her knees shook, and sweat ran down her back, her long hair flowing over her, covering her breasts.
Another tremor shook her, and her legs gave out.
All that was left was a fierce joy of having known her unrestrained form—she knew if she transformed again into her unicorn self she may never come back.
She couldn’t, not when flowing into the light was so incredible, was so her.
She shuddered again and almost gave in to the temptation, except his arms came around her. He yanked her to him with such force her breasts crushed against his chest.
He was hot, like a furnace that called to her, whispered at her to come back. The scent of the first rain on dry warm sand seduced her, pulled at her. He was earthy and real, and she curled fingers around his wrists, digging her fingernails into his flesh.
“Stay with me.” His molten-gold spirit swooped in on her silvery self.
It was almost enough, yet…the restraint of being back in her own human body gnawed at her. There was a hollowness inside that the light had illuminated. It tore at her, and she shuddered and shook her head.
“No!” Fear bounced off him and slammed into her.
He tugged back her hair. Pinpricks of pain sizzled down her scalp, reminding her she was still alive. Still there. It was painful, and yet…it awakened a need deep inside her.
Her head fell back, exposing her neck.
The scent of woodsmoke mingled with clean, fresh spices swept over her. Heat from his big body slammed into her chest, pulling her back into herself.
All of it called to her to stay, to revel in the heady pleasures of being human.
For the first time, she realized she hadn’t even begun to tap into the joy of being alive on the physical plane.
His mouth closed over hers.
5
Neo
He plunged his tongue into her mouth.
She was hot and sweet, and the essence of her poured right through him, hit him straight in the heart.
It was as if he’d flown into the sun and now her heat seared every part of his skin. His energy swooped rout to her and merge with hers on the psychic plane. How was that even possible?
Yet he couldn’t stop himself.
His dragon swirled around her essence, grounding her, connecting her back to this plane.
He’d only just laid eyes on her, yet he already knew she was different—so different to what he was, to everything he’d known.
He’d seen her shake, had seen the blind look in her eyes and had acted on instinct. He needed to anchor her. To bring her spirt back into her body and tether her to him.
He couldn’t let her go. He wasn’t going to lose her. He needed her, needed to taste her.
His head reeled, and heat licked his nerves, desire stirring his lower belly.
He deepened the kiss, drinking of her.
Her taste filled him. Her scent of wild lilies poured over him. The feel of her curves sliding over his skin aroused him. Desire urged him to go faster, to take everything she offered, to drown himself in her. The need to take care of her had him faltering. He widened his stance to support their combined body weights.
She moaned, the sound swallowed by his kiss.
That sent another swell of need through him. It hurt so much, he wanted to open himself up in a way he never had before.
No, he couldn’t need her like that. Calling on every last ounce of restraint inside him, he raised his mouth from hers.
Her skin was pale, and her chest rose and fell. Her chin trembled, and he dipped his head toward hers again.
He wrenched his body back, putting distance between them.
She swayed.
He shot out a hand to grip her shoulder. “Who are you?”
Her eyes flew open. The silver of her irises had bled out into clear pools of need. “Trinity.” Her voice whispered over him.
Her lips were swollen, her color flushed.
Her body wavered. She looked as vulnerable as he felt, as erotic as an unreachable dream.
She was light and pure…he was tainted.
Another second and he would have marked her—he was halfway to claiming her, and then what? He had nothing to offer. He was a nomad; he went where his next mission was with the Bureau. The rockstar persona provided the ultimate disguise for that.
&nbs
p; He didn’t even have the anchor of his dragon to share with her. His beast was unpredictable, out of control.
And she…she’d saved his life. She deserved much more.
She tossed her head, and her hair rippled over her shoulder, the glistening strands of gold shining in the moonlight that poured over her.
She was beautiful.
His heart stuttered.
Her tongue flicked out to lick her lips, as if she was savoring his taste.
He dropped his gaze to her mouth and…he so very much wanted to kiss her again. Wrap those heavy tresses around his palm and tug her head back. He wanted to bury his nose at the sweet spot at the base of her neck where her essence would be the most intense.
She leaned forward, just a slight movement, but he noticed it.
Desire flared hot and hard. His resolve weakened. He flexed his shoulders, mirroring her move, and closed the space between them when…
“Neo?”
He looked up and around. “Logan?” He frowned. His mind was still on Trinity, his emotions still surged, but the logical side of his brain, trained at the Bureau, snapped to attention.
The other man prowled across the wrecked stage.
Neo hadn’t seen his fellow batch mate from the Bureau since they’d graduated. That had been more than a decade ago. “What are you doing here?”
“I live here.” Logan sidestepped a fallen beam with a lithe gait and reached them.
Of course! The man was one of the five immortal Ascendants who’d made the city his home. His silent tread was like that of a shifter.
A snarl sounded. Neo didn’t realize it was him. Not until Logan paused where he was, almost a foot away from them. Logan’s gaze widened, his eyes swiveling from Neo to Trinity.
Neo gazed down at her, and he relaxed his shoulders. She’d shifted with her clothes on, something not many shifters could do, but she wasn’t just an ordinary shifter, was she?
She’d taken on and beaten back the Dark Fae Lord himself.
There was something different about her.
Everything in him pushed to take her, guard her. He had to make sure she was protected for the rest of her life. Dios. He swore softly, in the native language of his adoptive family. What was wrong with him?
Seduction Page 2