Ice Dragon's Caress (High House Draconis Book 3)

by Riley Storm

  Valla watched her ass as it danced with each impact, calling out to him. Without thinking, he lifted a hand and smacked his palm against her cheek.

  Liz moaned. “Yes! Fuck yes. Spank me!”

  Valla didn’t have to be told twice, and his hand descended twice more in quick succession, leaving her skin slightly pink from the impacts. Liz seemed to love it, and she bucked against him hard.

  Not wanting to leave anything out, Valla gave her other side some attention as well, hitting just a little harder.

  Liz loved every second of it, and he thrust harder because of it. One of his hands went up to grab her breasts, holding and squeezing it as he bounced wildly against her, starting to lose control, to feel the pressure build up in his sac. It wouldn’t be long now.

  “I’m close,” he gasped, shocked at just how easily she managed to get him to the breaking point. It was like her body was meant for his.

  “Don’t stop,” Liz moaned. “Whatever you do, don’t fucking stop. Just fuck me, Valla. Go until you can’t.”

  He relinquished his hold on her breast and once again grabbed her hips from either side. His primal brain took over, pushing his thrusts into overdrive, slapping his thighs against her ass as he buried himself deep inside over and over again.

  Liz twisted and pushed one hand underneath her. Valla wasn’t sure what she was doing until a moment later, she suddenly tightened. Everything clenched down around his cock and he knew then and there that the fight was lost.

  “I’m going to cum!” he groaned.

  “Me too,” Liz gasped, barely getting the words out as she slumped forward onto the desk, not able to hold herself up any longer.

  Valla’s sac tightened abruptly and then he throbbed inside her. Calling out her name, he came hard and furious, not slowing his pounding. Somewhere in his brain, he noticed that Liz was overcome by hard, wracking spasms as she too climaxed, her entire body convulsing.

  Holding her tight as he emptied himself deep inside her, Valla only slowed when he simply could no longer keep going, his body exhausted and threatening to collapse right then and there.

  Bending at the waist, he slumped over her, his chest to her back, laying small kisses on her neck as he gathered himself.

  “That was great,” he whispered once he had the breath to.

  Liz only answered with a positive sound, not really words.

  It was then that they heard the sound of people talking and approaching the office, gravel crunching underfoot outside the thin walls.

  “Oh shit!”

  They both scrambled to get dressed, Liz only briefly complaining that her underwear was going to be ruined. He felt bad that he was going to be leaking out of her all day, but she only smiled and said that it would give her plenty of reason to go home and touch herself later.

  Valla smiled as he imagined it, and then tossed her shirt across the trailer moments before the first knock as someone realized it was locked.

  “How do I look?” Liz asked as she finished dressing.

  He grinned. “Like a million bucks.”

  Then he pulled the chair out from under the door, and put on his best innocent smile, trying the entire time to ignore that the room stank of sex.

  Oh well. That was fun.

  31

  “Well boys,” she said as they drove along. “You did good work.”

  “Tell me again why we didn’t call the police?” Peter muttered from where he sat in the backseat.

  “Because we have no proof yet,” she explained. “For all we know, they could have stolen that truck for the evening. If these guys are pro’s, like you said, then why would they use their own vehicles, right? Come on now.”

  Peter, mouth already opened to protest, sat back, frowning. “That’s…not bad logic at all actually. “So—what, we do a drive by, see what we can see, and go from there?”

  “Exactly,” she said.

  Liz had her doubts whether anything would pan out from this trip. Whoever the crooks were, they were good like Peter had warned her, and she couldn’t fathom a single reason they would use their own vehicle for such a heist. It made no sense.

  But Peter and Chase had seemed overly proud of themselves when they’d come back with the owner of the vehicle and who it was registered to. The name didn’t ring any bells to them, her, or even Cheryl, but that didn’t mean much. Plymouth Falls was a small town, but there were still plenty of people living nearby whom she did not know by name.

  “Even if we don’t nab our suspects, maybe this guy has a video system installed that caught them on cam and can give us our next clue.”

  Peter brightened at that, while Chase remained silent, watching the landscape go by with most of his attention focused that way.

  “You okay back there, big C?” she asked.

  “Long way from town,” was all she got by way of reply.

  “Yeah, whoever this guy is, he lives way out here.”

  Just the way I want it.

  When Liz had received the text from Peter that he’d gotten the address information off the vehicle owner, she’d told Valla her plan. How she intended to just scout it out, but not actually confront anyone. He’d been unsure of that, but when she’d pointed out how it would keep her away from the vampires and whatever was going on there, he’d relented, admitting that he too had somewhere to go, a lead to follow up about the potential location of their lair.

  She blushed to herself, thinking back just a little but further, to what they’d done in the office, right there, surrounded by dozens of construction men. How many of them had heard her muffled cries and attempts to be silent, she wondered?

  Valla was a bad influence on her like that. He could get her going with the flick of his finger, and she both loved and hated it. If they got together for good, it was going to be very interesting.

  They had parted not long after that bit of fun. Liz had held her words back as they went in separate directions, not wanting to confess her fears to Valla about his mission. If he was going to have to fight, she wanted him having a clear mind, not preoccupied by her desire that he stay out of it. That just wasn’t possible, and Liz knew it.

  But she still feared for him. Going up against the vampires, the ancient enemy of the dragons, it terrified her. She wanted him to come back. To come back to her, afterward, so that they could explore some more of the sentiments they’d briefly expressed about one another.

  Sentiments that were much stronger than she’d dared to admit to him.

  “We getting close?” she muttered, trying to distract her brain before it went down the path of examining every word, action and bit of body language Valla had exhibited to see if perhaps he was holding back on her as well.

  “Very,” Chase said gruffly from the passenger seat.

  Liz rolled her eyes. “Next time, Peter sits up front. He’s a way better shotgun.”

  Chase glanced over at her, then went back to looking out ahead of them, just as the plains on either side of them ended, the road plunging through a forest that loomed up on either side. The trees were large enough that the top boughs reached together to form a tunnel-like canopy. Between that and the fading light of the shorter days in late fall, there was very little in the way of natural light for her to see by. Even the trees on either side were barely visible once her headlights moved past them.

  “Should be on our right after we—”

  Chase was cut off by a low whistle from the back seat as the forest cleared and a wide swathe of land stretched out before them. It sloped off down to their right gradually, before spiking up somewhat sharper perhaps half a mile away.

  At the crest of that ridgeline was the object of their attention. An obvious beehive of activity, they could see the massive, sprawling construction project.

  “I guess we know why they’re stealing building supplies now,” Peter observed. “They want them for themselves.”

  The building slowly rising from the ground looked like it would be massive, easily riv
aling Drakon Keep, and more than likely outclassing it on sheer size, though Liz doubted it would ever have the same beauty to it that the dragon shifters had imbued upon their own home.

  “Anyone see a bright red SUV?” she asked. Peter lifted a pair of binoculars to his eyes, but Chase just continued to survey the land around them as they drove slowly along.

  “Yup, got it,” Peter said after a moment. “Not even attempting to hide it.”

  “So, what do we do now?” she asked, feeling very much out of her element as they followed the road along, curving away from the building.

  “Call the cops,” Peter said, pulling out his phone. “We have the information we need, and enough proof to at least get them out here to investigate. It’s time we turned it over to them, let them handle it.”

  Liz nodded. It was a disappointing end. She wanted to bust in there and confront them herself, but she was well aware just how terrible an idea that was.

  “Not getting any signal,” Peter cursed. “We’re too far out here.”

  Pulling the car off to the side of the road, she swung it through a wide turn, and headed back the way they had come, back up the gentle slope.

  “Wait! Got it!” Peter said as they cleared the crest. “Stop here!”

  She eased onto the shoulder and came to a halt, looking across the way at the building as Peter tried to dial.

  “It keeps cutting in and out,” he grumbled.

  “We should go,” Chase said, speaking up. “We’re very exposed right here. They can see us. They know we’re here.”

  Peter fell silent, and she heard him fumble with the binoculars. “The SUV is gone,” he said.

  An uncomfortable feeling settled over Liz, and she put it in drive. “Time to go,” she agreed, giving it a bit more speed than she would have before.

  They entered the tree-tunnel, and she breathed a sigh of relief as they left the mysterious building behind.

  But they were too slow already.

  “Guys,” she said uneasily, foot shifting to the brakes as her headlights illuminated something on the road ahead.

  It was the red SUV. Blocking the road.

  “Turn around,” Chase snapped. “Turn and gun it.”

  “Too late,” Peter said, “they’re behind us already.”

  Liz glanced in her rearview mirror, seeing a black pickup pull out of the shadows to block their escape.

  They were trapped.

  “Stay here,” Chase growled, pulling a large pistol from his armpit and holding it comfortably, like he knew how to use it.

  She heard another pistol slide behind her as Peter prepped himself. “What? No, come on,” she pleaded. “We’re not doing this, guys. There has to be another way.”

  Chase shrugged. “They wouldn’t have done this if they didn’t already know who’s in the car. They’re ready to ensure we don’t report back on them. Whoever they are, they do not want to be found. Now, wait here.”

  Liz hunkered down in the driver’s seat as the two men got out.

  This was bad. This was very bad.

  32

  Valla crept through the forest, approaching his target from the south.

  The wind was blowing out of the north-east that afternoon, masking his scent. He was taking no precautions on this scouting run. The sun was fading over the horizon, and darkness would soon be upon him fully.

  Whatever you do, don’t do anything stupid. You need to get back to Liz tonight. Just get some information that the others can use to plan an assault and get out. No heroics, Valla. It’s not needed.

  The trees grew together thickly, making his passage difficult to keep silent, but he tried, moving through the undergrowth as swift as possible. On the other side of this forest was the place the young vampire had described, or so he hoped.

  It wasn’t so much an address that he’d been given, but a set of directions, and a rough lay of the landscape. This had to be the place, it matched everything he’d been given. Not only that, but Valla’s six sense, the one that warned him about others like him, was starting to tingle.

  He was close.

  All at once, the trees ended, however, and he found himself stepping out onto a single-lane road. Looking left and right, he could see no markings, no openings, nothing. The main road should have been just off to his left, but he could see nothing. The road ended in something impenetrable, even to his eyesight.

  Biting his lip, Valla decided to follow it, as it ran, at least for the moment, in the direction he wanted to go. Picking up the pace, he jogged along as silent as the wind, barely disturbing anything with his passage.

  His nose, fully open to scents, picked up the faint acrid tang of engine oil. Someone had used this road, and not too long ago, though the smell grew fainter the farther he jogged along.

  All at once, the road dipped, disappearing into an unlighted tunnel.

  The ice dragon followed, something telling him that this is where he needed to go. Thirty-seconds later, a faint rumble reached his ears. It was an engine. Someone was coming.

  He picked up his pace, knowing that there was no way that anyone driving down the tunnel wouldn’t see him. It was simply too small, with nowhere for him to hide out of sight.

  Abandoning any pretense of stealth, he raced down the tunnel in an attempt to stay ahead of whoever was coming down after him, desperately hoping that at some point he would be able to hide, or that it would end.

  As if he’d been granted a wish, the tunnel abruptly ended, and he spilled out into a little ravine. Looking around wildly, he launched himself up above the tunnel and back into the forest.

  Safely concealed among the trees, he took in his bearings.

  To his left and right, the trees ended in a line so straight it could only be manmade. The land also sloped downward at a sharp angle, creating a long, wide ditch that would be hidden to anyone who didn’t know the land well.

  But it was what lay ahead of him that truly caught Valla’s attention. Ahead, the single-lane road went up the slope and ended on the top of the ridge.

  Right in the middle of a building site, where something massive and grand was being constructed.

  “He wasn’t lying,” Valla whispered, too stunned to believe it. It simply made no sense, and he’d discounted much of the vampire’s statement, thinking him too young and unnecessary to the elder vampires to be given any true details of their plans.

  Yet here it was, the proof.

  Below him, the rumble got louder, and moments later, a trio of vehicles exited the tunnel. There was a big red SUV in the lead, followed by a black pickup, and behind that a white four-door sedan that looked awfully familiar.

  Valla’s eyes widened as pieces started falling into place.

  “No,” he whispered.

  It was all his fault. He’d been so caught up in his own quest in tracking down the vampires, that he’d ignored what Liz was up to, thinking it something minor, something unrelated.

  The truth of it all had been there for him to see, but he’d refused. Vampires didn’t build anything, they were here to kill him, the dragons and likely all the other shifters too. That was their sole purpose in coming to Plymouth Falls.

  The newly-made vampire had told him they were building something, but in his arrogance, he’d ignored it, thinking he knew vampires better than one of their own. That what he’d read in the texts meant more than what a live one had to say.

  You knew this was different. That they were changed, because Victor and Aaric told you! They warned you about the new abilities the vamps were showing, to be able to shift, just like us. Why wouldn’t they be doing something else new as well?

  Now Liz was paying the price, because he’d been too blind to accept that perhaps it was the vampires stealing the building supplies, to create someplace more defensible than a cave.

  The sweet irony was there as well, because they were quite literally stealing from the dragons, while also coming here to kill them.

  Valla was up and running b
efore he realized it. The convoy of vehicles had several switchbacks to do as they climbed the ridge. If he could intercept them there, perhaps he could free her. A swift raid, get in, grab his woman, and get out.

  He never wondered when he’d stopped thinking of Liz as the mother of his child and started thinking of her as his.

  Whatever it takes.

  33

  Valla landed on the road, his knees barely noticing the fifteen-foot drop. His only concern was for Liz.

  The cars were approaching the first switchback where they would loop back onto themselves, the road going back and forth the entire way up, instead of a straight line. This would be his best chance to intercept them.

  He charged across the road and straight up the hill, taking a track the cars couldn’t. Valla measured his pace so that he would hit the last car first. Given that it was Liz’s, he hoped she would be in it, that he could easily pick her off, throw her over his shoulder and book it out of there before anyone had time to react.

  That plan came to a halt almost immediately, however, as his eyes pierced the darkness, telling him that the rear car was empty except for the driver. It was one of her guards, not Liz, but he was driving with the slack-jawed stare of a vampire Thrall.

  Angrily, Valla waited, letting the convoy pass, then sprinting up the hill, getting ready to intercept them on the next switchback. He could have struck then, taking out the enthralled guard, but then his surprise would have worn off. If he was going to succeed, his first strike would have to take out the vehicle with Liz inside.

  The last thing Valla wanted to do was take on all the vampires and their thralls on their home turf. If one of the elder vampires was present, he would be in serious trouble. As such a young dragon, they would have centuries, perhaps millennia, on him.

  The pickup had tinted windows. Valla swore, his vision not able to tell him who was riding in the backseat.

  There was only one more switchback. He either risked it now or waited and went after the red SUV.

  Then the truck was on him and he struck. His hand sprouted claws as he forced part of his dragon through and he slashed them across the front tire, grabbed the driver’s door and ripped it free and jumped into the cab.