Virgo

by Kim Faulks

  I wanted to belong and so help me, I wanted someone to belong to me.

  Soft light pulsed all around me. I closed my eyes to the steady throb and felt the brush of his hands. Cold air kissed my skin as he slipped from one button to the other. His fingers slipped inside pressing against my chest…and my heart answered.

  Warmth pulsed, like a calling from his touch. A spark of light flared between us, dancing through flesh and bones to linger under my skin.

  “He wants you, almost as much as I want you.”

  I wrenched my gaze to his. His fingers moved farther, sinking lower to cup my breast.

  A shudder raced, and yet I wasn’t cold. I dropped my head backwards giving in to him—giving him everything. This was no man—no mortal.

  He was Dragon.

  He lowered his head, crouching down. His hot breath teased my nipple. “You should be scared of me.”

  Soft lips found the peak, dragging a whimper from my lips.

  “You should be terrified.”

  His tongue lapped, teeth grazed. The night air took me for a lover, touching my back, my ribs, riding lower as my shirt hit the floor.

  “Are you terrified?” He murmured around my flesh and slid a hand between my legs.

  “I don’t know.” Breathless words bled into a moan as his thumb brushed the juncture of my thighs.

  “That’s not the answer I wanted, Doc. Not the answer I wanted at all.”

  His fingers left the crease of my pants, fingers splayed wide to press against my abdomen. The waistline released, and the slow slide of my zipper followed.

  Outside, car doors slammed, yanking me from the moment until he kissed the crevice of my breasts and slid lower.

  “God you’re beautiful.”

  He kissed my stomach and the wound under my ribs. He kissed the hollow of my navel to the ridge of my hair. He inched my trousers and panties lower, revealing more.

  “So very beautiful.” He pressed his face between my thighs.

  His warm tongue delved, finding the entrance to my slit.

  Jesus. I dropped my hand to his head, spearing my fingers out wide, pressing harder. My pants hit the floor. His hand found the back of my thigh, lifting as he dragged me higher. My feet left the floor, as we tumbled to the bed.

  “I can’t go slow.” Panic rode his words. “I’m sorry.”

  His hand fumbled between us and with a brutal thrust, he breached my defense. Hard thrusts took me away, leading me deeper into the desperate longing.

  His back arched. Hard fingers gripped my hips, gouging my flesh as he pumped harder and harder.

  His cock stretched, gaining ground with the frenzy, until I was swept away, lost by his urgency, swallowed by his power. I gripped his hips, splaying my leg wider.

  “That’s it,” he growled in my ear. “Have me, Doc. I’m all yours.”

  I clenched my thighs around him and shoved, rolling him onto his back. I rolled my hips, grinding harder and slower. He was so beautiful underneath me. I was terrified, terrified of what I’d become—terrified of what I could be…when I was with him.

  “You’re mine,” he whispered.

  His lips glistened, fresh with my taste. I dropped lower, sliding against him as I took his lips with my own.

  “I’m yours,” I answered and somewhere in the sparks of his eyes I pledged myself to another, one with white scales…one who tore a mountain apart to save me. “Both of yours.”

  “Then let it be done. Marry me,” he growled.

  I lost momentum. Lost the heat. I flinched, and tried to find a breath. “What did you say?”

  “Marry me, Angel. Say it now and I’ll have the Shaman here within the hour. I’ll take any damn vow you choose. Right now.”

  His hand slid to the curve of my ass and drove my body higher, riding that heat inside me. It was all too much, too soon. I was too raw—too everything. “Let me think about it, okay? For now, let’s just be…together.”

  He gave me a slow smile tinged with sadness and brushed strands of hair from my shoulder. “Together then…we’ve got plenty of time.”

  Time was the cruelest of all, for it meant nothing to him…and everything to me.

  His grip relaxed, letting my body slide down before wrenching me higher, and I was lost to that slow rhythm once more. Blood hummed in my veins, heat pooled between my thighs taking me higher and higher.

  I lost sight of him. I lost sight of me…nothing else existed but how delicious this felt. His breath tightened, tendons strained. I captured the moment, driving my hips down harder, taking every flare of perfect agony on his face.

  “Look at me,” I murmured. “Look at me.”

  His gaze met mine as his body surged one last time.

  A cry ripped through the room, followed by a moan. He held me in place and shuddered. Light flared in the junction between us, and a warmth followed.

  There was a breathless silence as the light slowly faded, leaving us in the dark.

  I closed my eyes and felt the faint flapping of wings in my chest. The hint of a smile found my lips as Michael wrapped his arms around me and rolled until I found the bed.

  “I’ll give you all the time you need, Doc.”

  I cracked open my lids to find his outline in the dark. He moved closer, mashing my breasts against his chest. “I’ll give you time. But that’s all I’m willing to give you. You’re mine now…ours, okay. You’re ours now, and so there’s certain sacrifices you need to make.”

  Anger lashed, stinging my words. “Such as?”

  “Such as you must be willing for me to take care of you, and that means keeping you safe.”

  Sneaky…

  “In other words you’re camping outside my door, aren’t you?”

  “Not at all. Well, not all the time.”

  Relief flooded me. One night a week, I could handle but…

  “There’s also the Vampire, Gabriel, and my kin. We’ll take turns.”

  I jerked my head up. “Hell, no. That is not happening.”

  His arms slid from around me. The mattress dipped and then bounced as he left. “I’m afraid it’s too late, Doc. You’re either here with me, or I'm there with you.”

  The click of a switch sounded, light flooded the bathroom. He stood in the doorway, and grinned like the fiend he was. His hard muscled body took the heat from my words. I traced the hard contour of his chest to the ridges of his stomach and lower, lingering at the soft thickness of his cock.

  Desire flared, stealing all the words—all the anger.

  “How about a shower and we can do that all again?”

  I tried to swallow, but all I could do was nod. His lips stretched into a grin. He covered the distance in the blink of an eye. “At least I know what to do now when you get angry.”

  “What?”

  He crawled onto the edge of the bed to loom over me. “I’ll just take you to bed and make love to you.” He grasped my hips with both hands and yanked. “Word of warning, Doc. I can get pretty infuriating.”

  He grasped me under my arms and rose from the bed. I wrapped my legs around his waist. His cock grew harder, rubbing between my thighs as he carried me into the bathroom and hit the taps. He kissed me while we waited for the heat to rise.

  There was more than I’d hoped for.

  Steam filled the stall. He tested the water before he eased my arm under the spray. “Is that too hot?”

  I shook my head, letting him take me under until the steady stream pounded my shoulders and ran down my breasts. Michael dropped my legs, leaving me to stand while he bent and grasped a container and squeezed shampoo into his cupped hand.

  He took every opportunity to press his length against me, drawing my hand lower until I cupped his length.

  “Now I promised next time I’d take it slower,” he murmured with a hiss and pressed my spine against the icy tiles. “But you keep doing that and I’m going to have to break that promise.”

  I tightened my grip, using the water to help the
slide. His eyes fluttered, hips slowly pumped. “I think I was wrong…I think I was so very fucking wrong. I’m the one who should be scared of you.”

  “Yes you should—after all I’m a mere mortal,” I answered and slowed my grip. “Now, are you going to stand there, or are you going to wash my hair and take me to bed?”

  His lips parted, a sly, sweet smile curled one side of his mouth. There was no more sadness here, no more regret. He grasped my neck and eased my head under the water. Careful fingers washed and scrubbed, taking his sweet time to linger at the raised, pink wounds under my stomach and then my ankle.

  We’d not speak of these terrors, not now…maybe not ever. He dipped his head under the spray, moving quickly to wash and scrub what remained of the mountain away and twisted the taps ending the spray.

  “Now, slow and steady I believe.”

  I shook my head. “You’re relentless.”

  He jerked his gaze up meeting mine and a cold clarity washed through his eyes. “Yes, when it comes to you.”

  He snatched a towel from the rack and wound it around me, lifting me into his arms.

  “I can walk you know.”

  One shake of his head stilled the smile. “Not yet, not for a while. Not until I can get the sight of you hurt and bleeding out of my head.”

  I closed my mouth and nodded, letting him take me to the bed. He pressed the towel against my body, taking his time, kissing my wounds, licking my body, making me cry out in pleasure, and in the heavy throb of my heart, I knew I needed him to make love to me more.

  His hand skimmed my hip and pressed, turning me over. He kissed the swell of my ass, fingers delved between my thighs finding the parts of me that brought me undone. I fisted the sheets, riding his fingers as they slipped and slid.

  “I want you always like this, Doc,” he growled behind me.

  I nodded, snarling as his fingers slid free, leaving me wanting, until the thick head of his cock took their place.

  He took it painfully slow, riding my body until I screamed out in pleasure and collapsed spent. He took me again, waking up in the middle of the night to reach for me with tired, slow movements, and I responded, opening my legs for him, taking everything he had to give…and somewhere in those quiet, animal-like thrusts, the fist around my heart eased—and the pain slipped behind me.

  I pressed my ass against his body.

  “That’s the way, Doc. That’s the way.”

  Tears slipped down my cheeks, falling to his pillow.

  I cried until there were no more tears to shed, until the savage wound in my chest was clean. My body jerked as I came, and yet there was a sadness, a longing I knew wouldn’t end.

  I collapsed against the pillow, sleep called. I could barely open my eyes. “Michael.”

  “Hmm, yeah?”

  I swallowed hard forcing the words. “I know I’m not really wanted here.”

  He stiffened against me.

  “And that’s okay, don't get angry. But I want you to do something for me. I want to talk to everyone in the morning. Do you think that can be arranged?”

  He rolled closer, pressing his face into my back. “Yeah, Doc, that can be arranged.”

  I stood at the end of the massive table and stared at the growing crowd. They were all here. Zadoc and Joslyn stood in the middle with her brother at her back. I couldn’t look at the bundle in her arms without the walls closing in, couldn’t bear to feel like I’d lost more than I gained.

  Marcus and Abrial stood to the right of them, and Odessa and Victor to the left. Xael watched me from the outskirts with arms folded across her chest. There was no anger here, no hate—only exhaustion and aching, hollow relief. I forced a smile at Gunny, who gave me the flash of one back, and then nodded, as if to say, Go on Doc, do your thing.

  A squeeze of my hand dragged my focus to my side. Michael stood like a warrior beside me, giving strength when I needed it.

  And I needed it now more than ever.

  “I want to say thank you for coming. I know everyone has things they’d rather be taking care of. Lives they need to resurrect.”

  They looked at me like an outsider—even after all I’d done. I closed my eyes and swallowed a shuddered breath. So this was what it felt like to go to war…

  I opened my eyes—only I wasn’t the enemy here.

  I wasn’t the one they needed to destroy.

  Tears brimmed in my eyes, blurring their faces.

  I tried to clear my throat. Start with what I knew. Start with the truth. “For the last fifteen years I’ve dedicated my life to research. One kind of research in particular.”

  Someone shifted, another turned and whispered to someone beside them. Michael took a step closer, commanding the room—and respect. “You’ll give her the courtesy she’s earned—or you’ll answer to me.”

  He turned and set those blazing eyes on me. My body hummed with the kind of energy I’d never felt before. He lifted his hand to my cheek and I leaned into him, taking all I could.

  I’d lost my heart to this man…this Dragon, and now it seemed I was prepared to lose again, for the chance to belong.

  “I’ve been looking for a link,” I continued staring into Michael’s eyes, and then turned to the others.

  Strength rose with outstretched wings like I was part Dragon myself. “A link between the human side of your natures and the animal. I’d been splitting human DNA and recombining it with shifter in an attempt to tap into your regenerative powers. For humans it’d mean no disease, no cancer, no Sickle Cell, no nothing.” I searched every weathered, drawn face, every set of tired, tear-stained eyes and gave them all the information I had. “And last night I cracked it. I split human DNA.”

  Marcus stiffened, doubt turned those brown eyes darker. I could see the repercussions of what I said in his mind. If humans could regenerate like immortals—what kind of strength…what kind of power would that give them?

  And so the line between mortal and immortals would fade.

  “Only it worked once, with one human—and no one else. But it wasn’t the DNA to heal—it wasn’t what I’d been working for. It was something else.”

  I found her now, this blonde haired young woman who’d aged a decade in the space of a few days. “I kept Joslyn’s DNA from the birth to test. And I used it to recombine with another…a panther—and it worked. Her DNA, and only her DNA can be used to create.”

  The room was silent. Too damn silent. They didn’t understand what I was saying—they couldn’t see what I saw. “I can use her DNA to make another…another Dragon.”

  The sudden inhale echoed. Hands dropped to their sides. The room buzzed with energy, but none darker than Marcus. “What did you just say?”

  I swallowed hard and tried to keep my knees from trembling. “Using a small part of Joslyn’s DNA, I can recombine it with Abrial’s to give her the ability to create life with another species…like a Dragon.”

  He took a step forward and stopped.

  The words spilled from my lips. “Her DNA wasn’t the only one I had.” Please don’t kill me…please don’t kill me. “I had samples of Zadoc, of Thorn, of Michael.”

  I caught the flinch beside me, still I had to go on. I had nothing else to give them, nothing more worthy than this.

  “But the strange thing I found was, even though you’re brother and sister, and you share the ability to transform into your Dragon, genetically you’re all different. So theoretically your offspring wouldn’t share the same DNA.”

  Michael shook his head and muttered. “English, Doc. English.”

  “She means our children could mate with each other,” Joslyn spoke, her eyes stretched wide.

  “Does that…” Marcus started. “Does that mean more of us? More Dragons?”

  I gave a slow nod.

  “More Dragons,” Xael clasped her hands together and took a step. “More Dragons…more Dragons.”

  “Hold on… Just, hold on here.” Marcus raised his hand. “You’re telling me you ca
n take the part that allows Joslyn to fall pregnant, and recombine it with another?” He turned to find his mate.

  “Yes, that’s exactly what I’m telling you,” I answered. “Joslyn’s blood will split a DNA strand, but I can’t use it to create an entire new one…I can’t create a new species and I can’t heal my own.”

  “More babies,” Xael murmured as her lips curled. “More baby Dragons.”

  I scanned their shell-shocked expressions, each member was stunned—except one. Odessa curled under Victor’s arm and lifted her face to his.

  She whispered something I couldn’t catch and he smiled in return and dragged his gaze to mine. “Well done, Doc, well done. I think this calls for a celebration. Goddess knows I could do with a damn drink.”

  “There’s one more thing,” I muttered, dragging all eyes to me once more. “I don't think it’s important… I…”

  “Go on, Doc. Tell us,” Victor growled softly.

  “I was visited by someone. And old woman…a witch of some kind.”

  And for the second time the room froze.

  “She told me things.” I held Joslyn’s focus. “She said I was related to you, and I was hers…said she could feel me.”

  “Goddamn old crone,” Marcus snarled with a shake of his head. There was a hint of a smile. “Sneaky old witch. She doesn't stop, does she? She’s…”

  Relentless. The word thrummed inside my chest.

  “She knew.” Xael smiled and skirted the chairs to cross the room toward me. “She knew all along. I guess that makes the decision a little easier.”

  I couldn’t stop the flinch as Xael grasped my hand. Power hummed, stinging my skin. But she never seemed to notice. Her black hair shimmered under the lights as she closed in, drawing me into her arms. “Welcome to the family, Doc. It’s a little crazy around here lately. But I guess you already knew that.”

  She dragged me against her hard body and squeezed me tight.

  Over her shoulder, I caught Evander as he turned to Marcus. “Is that even our sister?”

  Marcus shook his head as Xael gave me one last bone-crushing squeeze and dropped her arms. “More Dragons,” she murmured. Her eyes were alight with possibilities.