by Ophelia Bell
“I will get to the Source one way or another,” she said through gritted teeth. “If you won’t give me the secret, I have better uses for you.” She turned to her lackey. “Hold his head still and open his mouth.”
Before Calder could blink, a large hand gripped him by the hair and wrenched his head back painfully. Another grabbed his chin, forcing his mouth open. He bucked against his restraints. This was how it had to be, but hell if he was going to let her take him easily.
She climbed on top of him, her knees digging into his groin painfully as she knelt on his lap and held her wrist over his mouth. He let out a strangled cry of protest, tears springing to his eyes, but all he could do was watch while she opened a vein in her wrist with a barbed ring and her blood flowed.
This is what we want.
The repeated reminder was little consolation when her blood hit his tongue and the magic instantly flooded him. He clung to consciousness, but her power inundated him like a landslide, too quick and violent for him to maintain purchase.
Let go.
Every fiber of his being struggled against the onslaught of her power and the dark tendrils that crept into his mind. He could push her out, he knew, but as unpleasant as the experience would be, they needed her to believe she had full control over him.
“We aren’t going anywhere, Calder.” Aurum’s golden voice reached him like a beacon beyond the darkness that flooded his consciousness. Nicholas’s solid, unwavering presence was right beside her, keeping watch over the deepest part of his soul and the shared well of power they would use to defeat Meri when the time came.
After one last-ditch struggle he told himself was for appearance’s sake, he let go and the darkness finally took over.
Rather than be bound by her trap, his soul retreated into the safety of that secret place, like a pebble sinking to the ocean floor. The cloudy darkness of Meri’s power blotted out the light above, but he was safe within the arms of his lovers.
“This is only the beginning,” he reminded them. Aurum and Nicholas both nodded.
“We’re ready for whatever she has to throw at us,” Nicholas said. His expression shifted inward and he turned his head, as though listening to something beyond the range of Calder’s hearing.
“What are Nikhil’s orders?” Calder asked.
“Watch and wait. The fact that she hasn’t tried to kill you suggests she still wants you for something. That she doesn’t need you conscious for whatever it is likely means she wants your blood.”
“That would be her M.O.,” Calder said bitterly. “But for what, I don’t know. She has enough power with her own blood if she can still use it to knock me out like this. Female blood has always carried the most power.”
“All we know is that she’s hiding something big. Hopefully if she thinks you’re under her control, she’ll slip up and say something. As soon as we sense it’s safe, we should restore enough of your consciousness to at least listen in.”
Calder hated the lack of control he had over his own body. All he had was a vague awareness of movement, as though his center of gravity had shifted and was now being carried. Thanks to his tie to Gaia and the River, at least those primal senses couldn’t be overridden by Meri’s power, but none of his other senses functioned at the moment, all having been obliterated by the darkness she’d flooded him with through that single drop of her blood.
“She’s moving me. When it stops …” He frowned, because she had just stopped, but she couldn’t have taken him very far. A cold, familiar pressure filled his consciousness, like a floodgate had been opened and a strong current rushed in. “Oh, shit.”
The world went black again and his awareness of his lovers washed away. Everything else in the universe dissipated, in fact, including the blood Meri had just fed him to take over his mind. He was in the drift, going who knew where because she was the one in control of it and had a tight hold on him.
It lasted longer than any drift he’d taken, stretching on without end until his lungs ached from lack of breath. His body would acclimate itself to the River if he stayed in it long enough, but until the reflex kicked in, he’d be close to panic as though he were drowning. The worst part was that his connection to Aurum and Nicholas was gone; only a vague essence of their power remained inside their secret place as though they’d been the ones carried away by the flood.
He reached out a desperate thread of power to locate them. With the River’s power, he shouldn’t have lost them any more than he should have lost the link to the Thiasoi all those years ago, but wherever Meri had taken him, he had no connection.
His awareness of his body returned with a jolt. Cold hard floor pressed against his side, the pain in his head returning with a vengeance from his beating. He let out a rough groan and opened his eyes, blinking into flickering shadows that coalesced as his vision cleared.
A pair of sleek-booted feet came into view, their shining leather creaking as the owner crouched.
“Fuck,” Meri said. “How the hell are you awake already? Please don’t tell me you’re as stubborn about giving in as your father is.”
Calder closed his eyes, feigning nausea, but needing to process what she’d just said. As stubborn as his father is. Not was. Swallowing past a dry tongue, he opened his eyes again.
“What the fuck are you planning to do with me, Meri?”
She tilted her head and cast her gaze down his prone body. His wrists and ankles were still bound. He had the power to easily slip his bindings—she must have known that. Testing her reaction, he did just that, letting his cells become fluid enough for the ropes to pass through before he became solid again. He flexed his fingers and sat up, looking around at the nondescript concrete room she’d drifted them into.
“There’s no way out,” she said. “Try to leave, if you wish to learn for yourself.”
Her utter lack of interest in what he did next told him she wasn’t lying, but there was a small chance she could be bluffing, so he called her on it. Reaching for his link to the River, he focused on the drift, but no sooner had he dematerialized to become one with the flow than his body smacked into a solid wall of magic, preventing him from drifting past whatever structure she’d brought him to.
The impact left him stunned and writhing on the floor, his entire body awash in so much pain he felt like he’d just walked through fire. When the agony finally faded enough for him to see straight, she was standing above him, gazing down imperiously, her arms crossed over a midnight-blue silk blouse that accented her full breasts. She’d certainly chosen an attractive host this time around.
“I can see I need to work harder to subdue you. I wonder if your blood is as sweet as your father’s.” She swiped a hand through her sleek brunette hair and stepped closer, placing one booted foot on either side of his hips. A pair of big men clad in scrubs approached from behind her, one of them carrying a rope.
“You know bindings can’t hold me. I’ll find a way out of this place somehow,” he said.
“If you had the power to even stand, you’d be running. That misguided escape attempt weakened you too much, and you know it.”
He gritted his teeth, willing power back through his tingling limbs, but she was right. He was as weak as a newborn, his limbs shaking limply when the pair of men gripped each of his wrists and yanked his hands above his head to bind them together. Something hot seared his skin and he let out a surprised yelp, staring up at the bindings.
“What the fuck are you tying me with?”
“The same magic that powers my barrier also infuses the ropes. You remember being locked in that cell before, right? Not even your ursa boytoy had the strength to break out. Every creature has a weakness. Earth and Sky just don’t mix. Neither do Fire and Water.”
The heat that sank into his skin finally made it click. Dragon magic … Fire. That’s what she’d used to hold him, weaken him. And somehow even
his blood bond to Aurum had been severed, though he still had some resistance to Meri’s power if simply drifting had managed to wash away her mind control. But he wouldn’t be able to do that again.
Her gaze flicked to the man at his head, and without a word he knelt, holding Calder’s bound fists to the floor. He felt another pair of strong hands at his feet, tying his legs together and holding them still as well.
Then she smiled down at him and bent her knees, lowering herself until she was on all fours above him. This new human body she inhabited was younger and taller than the gray-haired doctor he remembered—the one who’d locked him and Nicholas in that cell and left them for dead. This one resembled the nymph’s true form more than any other he’d seen her take, which must have been why she chose it.
She chuckled softly as she lowered her face to his and turned her head, brushing her lips over his cheek. “You look enough like your father that I can pretend. Let’s see how your taste compares.”
Her warm breath gusted against his ear, making him shiver with disgust, but when her hips pressed into his, her core rubbing back and forth over his groin, his cock responded.
He let out a hiss of irritation at the uncontrollable reflex.
“You can’t fight your nature, Calder. Why don’t you just let it happen?”
“Why, so you can fuck me, you fucking whore?”
“Who said I wanted sex?” she said into his ear. A second later a sharp pain sliced into his neck and her warm mouth pressed to his throat. He could hear her swallowing, could feel the current of his blood flowing from his body into her mouth. All the while her hips writhed against him and his primal self responded, his cock hard and throbbing with the need for release.
She rose up and smiled down at him through blood-tinged teeth, then licked her lips and let out a sensual moan. “Just as savory as Nereus. Now let’s find out if your essence tastes as good.”
She proceeded to slide down his body and he arched, trying to buck her off, but her two guards tightened their grasps on his bonds. She reached his midsection and unfastened his pants, gliding her fingertips into his zipper as she tugged down the tab with her other hand.
He closed his eyes, wishing like hell it didn’t feel so fucking good when her lips wrapped around him and she sucked him deep. She had been his father’s equal in fighting skill when he’d first known her, back when he had still admired her poise and prowess—and occasionally entertained a pubescent satyr’s fantasies of bedding her when he came of age. But that had been before she’d changed … betrayed her race. It should be no surprise that she’d retained the skills he’d always imagined she had, which rivaled those of any nymph. Maybe not equal to a dragon, but his cock didn’t seem to make any distinction despite the waves of revulsion that had his head buzzing with dark denial when his orgasm tore from him in a flood she eagerly swallowed.
In a flash, she moved back up and clutched his head savagely in both her hands, her lips still glistening with saliva and remnants of his climax.
“I have every drop of your fertile essence inside me now. You will not shed my hold again.” Her fingers dug into his temples, her thumbs nearly choking him as they pressed hard against his throat. As the unwelcome meld began, darkness flooded his mind, but it wasn’t the bleak shadows of unconsciousness. It was her power taking over, slithering in like an inky, multi-headed snake, filling in and immobilizing every corner of his consciousness until he was paralyzed in his own mind, barely able to form a solid thought.
The darkness pulled him under and he let himself sink, grateful when he finally managed to slide beyond her reach into that secret place that he shared with his lovers, only they weren’t there now. All that remained of Aurum and Nicholas was a single raven’s feather and bright golden talon.
She couldn’t reach him this deep inside his mind, but wherever she’d taken him was beyond their reach too.
Chapter Fourteen
Nikhil
“What do you mean, you’ve lost him?” Nikhil yelled.
Their Trojan horse was supposed to be foolproof, the blood bond between Calder and his mates unbreakable, or so they’d claimed. He had no reason to doubt them, either, not after being under a blood bond of sorts himself for most of history. He’d had few moments completely free of Meri’s presence inside his mind until Belah’s blood and Evie’s song had dragged his soul away from her dark clutches.
“We don’t understand it, noshi,” Nicholas said. He held Aurum close, her face buried in his chest. The beautiful golden-haired dragon had let out an ear-splitting roar of distress a moment ago before falling into a heap on the ground. Now she was inconsolable, her despair sucking most of the light out of the room so that even the brilliant green jade of the map table appeared drab and dull. “He was there one moment—in Madagascar where they captured him. Then we sensed him carried in a drift. Then he was just gone. It was like a door slammed shut between us.”
“No trace?” Nikhil asked, unable to believe their so-called permanent bond had been so cleanly broken.
“Not of Calder himself,” Nicholas said. “We’re still linked to the River, we still have his power, just not him. His essence is still part of us, but his soul …”
“You can still contact his sister in the Haven?”
Aurum’s sobbing quieted and she turned to look at Nikhil, her red eyes brightening for the first time in several minutes. “My link to my brother is still strong. His mate must know something … or her mother.”
Nicholas gave him a grateful look and led Aurum out of the room. This was a major setback if they couldn’t maintain contact with Calder throughout his mission, but they had other tasks to complete.
One of his teams was systematically tearing down the Alexandria Institute’s—and the Ultiori’s—network. It would make it difficult for the organization to band together, or even function in the human world. Without Elites to lead their mercenaries and without the necessary resources to function, they’d have trouble fighting back against Nikhil’s infiltration of the organization.
There were protocols in place to deal with such events, but as the Institute’s former security head, Nikhil knew how to circumvent them. If Calder was as important to Meri as they all hoped, she’d be too distracted by his acquisition to maintain control over the dismantling of her network.
But she had always been working toward some end-game related to her breeding experiments. If she was close to reaching that end-game, she may not care about maintaining her control of the Alexandria Institute’s facilities. He had to be prepared for the eventuality that she had come that close to her goal to be willing to sacrifice the entire Institute to reach that final step, whatever it was.
He stared down at the map, rubbing his temples to stave off an encroaching headache.
A gentle hand slid over his shoulder, the touch easing some of his tension. He reached up and placed his hand over Belah’s and sighed when she slid her other arm around him from behind, pressing her breasts into his back.
“My sister will find out how to reach Calder again, even if she has to circumnavigate the globe to do it.”
“We don’t have time for that,” Nikhil said wearily. “Everything we’ve learned so far suggests the Equinox is our deadline to get to her. If Meri’s planning something big, that will be the day she carries it out.”
A throat cleared behind them and he turned, tucking Belah into his side as he moved, unwilling to relinquish her touch just yet. An auburn-haired human woman dressed in well-worn expedition gear stood a few paces away, below the dais that held the huge table with their world in all its detail. She arched a brow and smiled.
“I didn’t mean to interrupt, but I think my team and I found something you’ll want to see.”
The spark in her eye instantly set him on alert. “What do you mean, you and your team? We’re on stand down until we hear from Calder. No one does anything exc
ept on my order.”
The woman chuckled and crossed her arms, tilting her chin up. “You can’t expect a team like mine to come to a temple like this and sit on our asses.”
He felt a gentle vibration against his side and looked down to see Belah smiling and barely suppressing laughter.
“What are you laughing about?” he growled. “Do you know this woman?”
“Yes, Nikhil. And I should have introduced you two before now. This is Erika Rosencrans. Erika and her team were the ones who awakened the current brood. In fact, she and her mate helped me find you.”
“Hey, don’t blame me for that,” Erika said, dropping her hands to her hips and drawing his attention to a belly as swollen with pregnancy as Belah’s. “If anything, it was indirect. Something tells me you two would have found each other no matter what. But the fact remains that my team and I kick ass at finding ancient dragon shit, and we’ve found something new—or rather, very, very old—that you are not going to fucking believe. Want to follow me and I’ll show you?”
Erika tilted her head toward the door with a cocky smile and turned to leave the room. Nikhil followed her to the end of the throne room where the massive spiral staircase carved out of the mountain itself descended deeper beneath the temple. He had led a few thousand dragons and turul here because the temple was the most secure location that could house an army the size of his, but it was an artifact of ancient dragon lore, so he shouldn’t be surprised that someone had felt the urge to explore the place. He’d commanded a half dozen shadows to ensure its security should anything breach his cloaking barrier, but otherwise had had no interest of his own in anything but the major access points from outside, of which there was only one—the cupola rooftop where they had entered.
On the way out through the door, the big red dragon he knew as Geva fell into step just behind her, piquing his interest further. Belah squeezed his hand and her soft laugh tickled inside his mind.