by Ophelia Bell
With a groan, Rohan rose, his eyes hazy and slightly unfocused. He still looked unsteady, so I slipped my arm around his waist and urged him to lean on me. My own strength had returned with Keagan’s multiple infusions of energy and I knew better than to dump it all into Rohan at once, despite my urge to do so.
“Show me the way,” I said, glancing around. He tilted his head toward a sunlit corridor and I navigated us around the ruined living room and up the couple steps out of it. We headed down the hall where we entered a big, comfortable bedroom with floor-to-ceiling windows that displayed a breathtaking view of the sea and sky. Guitars of all types hung on the walls and stood on stands around the room. Dragons were collectors by nature, and I thought I’d just discovered Rohan’s treasure of choice.
I aimed him at the bed and he obligingly let me throw the covers back and help him in. As he stretched out against the pillows, I shifted my sight to take a look at his soul, which was still seeping magic though more slowly now. The hounds were thankfully absent and I hoped like hell they weren’t hanging around Willem and Sandor.
“We need to keep your aura strong,” I said. “Sing with me?”
Rohan let out a grunt. “Can we not sing Leather and Lace again? I feel like it didn’t work as well in the car.”
He scooted over and beckoned and I slipped into the bed beside him, my body coming alive again with the sensation of his warm, hard muscles pressed against my naked skin. When I pressed my cheek against his chest, he nuzzled my head and sighed in what I hoped was contentment.
“Your aura’s so fucking brilliant. I’ve never seen anything like it. When you’re close to me it helps ease the ache I feel here.” He pressed his fist over his midsection where the glowing orb of his soul resided.
“That’s your soul you feel. The hound bit you and it’s bleeding.”
“You can see it?" He stroked fingertips around in a circle at the base of his sternum.
“When I adjust my vision to look, yes.”
I didn’t want to look again because I already knew how bad it was, and even though he was right—my aura did slow the bleeding when I snuggled close to him—strengthening his aura was the best way to keep it under control. I began to hum softly, a melody emerging in my mind that matched the slow and steady beat of his pulse beneath my ear.
His voice emerged, low but clear and perfectly pitched in harmony with my humming, adding words to the notes. I turned my head and rested my chin on his chest, meeting his gaze as he sang the song to match my melody. His golden irises had brightened slightly, some of his lost fire returning as we continued our improvised tune about a crazy girl born in darkness who falls in love with a boy made of sunlight.
For the briefest second, the power seeping from his soul stopped drifting away into the air toward the direction the hounds must be, and shifted to aim at me. I stared at the tendril of soul magic, wondering what it would do, but when it only lazily swayed in the air without going any farther, I realized why. I had no soul for his to mate with.
I stopped singing abruptly, feeling like an idiot for wishing the song were a real mating song. None of them had been real. Not the one I’d written for Ozzie, who’d taught me all the joys of music to begin with, nor the one I’d sung to Llyr who had introduced me to the true pleasure my body was capable of with a skilled partner. Without a soul, the songs were pointless.
“What’s wrong? Why did you stop singing?”
Sighing, I began again but my heart wasn’t in it. Rohan remained silent and after a moment shifted onto his side to face me. He touched my chin and I quieted.
“It’s all right, you don’t have to keep going. That helped enough for now. Do you have any idea how to make it stop? You said earlier that there were other victims you needed to check on. How are they doing?”
“I’m not sure, but when I left, the first two had improved. Their wounds had closed, and I think it’s because the hounds chose new victims. It’s the two new victims I want to visit. I think now that you and Willem have the wounds, theirs probably healed. Or at least stopped bleeding.”
“We should go visit them then,” he said.
“Not until you’re feeling better. If they are healed, they don’t need me. You do.”
He nodded and closed his eyes. “Tomorrow maybe,” he said, slipping his arm around me and pulling me close. He remained silent and I’d have believed he slept except for the way his eyebrows were drawn together.
“Are you in pain?” I asked, stroking his forehead and smoothing the silken coils of gold back from his brow.
He opened his eyes and shook his head. “No. Just don’t tell Keagan about your theory that choosing new victims heals the old ones. He’d try to get bit.”
I frowned. “We don’t know if they’d attack someone who wasn’t part of the bloodline.”
“He’d find a way, trust me.”
The depth of his worry struck me, and I suddenly felt painfully out of place, like I’d interfered in the worst way possible. “He loves you that much,” I said. “I’ll go get him. You should be together right now.”
I started to slip out of bed but Rohan grabbed me and yanked me back down, pinning me to the mattress and hovering over me. “You are who I need right now. He understands, trust me.”
Rohan muted my objection with his mouth on mine. Despite the very intimate and satisfying encounter I’d had with the pair of them earlier, I wasn’t convinced Keagan was happy I was here. But Rohan’s naked body above mine obliterated any other thoughts. He devoured my mouth and I relented, giving back and letting more of the power I’d absorbed earlier seep into him. If I couldn’t find the inspiration to sing, I could at least keep him topped off.
“Mmm, there are better ways to give me energy, you know,” he murmured against my neck. He palmed one breast and I gasped at the pressure of his fingertips lightly squeezing one taut nipple. Lifting his head he looked down at me with a smirk as he trailed his hand down my belly and between my thighs.
My eyelids fluttered closed and I bit my lip, whimpering when he grazed his fingertips down the center of my channel and back up, halting to begin steady circular strokes over my clit.
“Sweet Mother you’re like a fucking beacon when you’re turned on,” he said. His touch slowed and I opened my eyes. He’d grown pale again and I sat up, pushing him back down to the pillows.
“You need to rest.”
“I need to taste you,” he grumbled. “I bet you still taste like him. He tastes like life, you know.” He chuckled, somehow amused by that observation. “You wouldn’t deprive a sick dragon of the taste of life would you?” he pouted.
His hand strayed up my thigh, lazily stroking between my folds once more.
“It’d be too much of a strain on you clearly,” I said. “You can’t even sit up without almost passing out.”
His tanned shoulder twitched. “So, I’ll just lie here and let you do all the work. You ever sixty-nine before?”
My eyes widened and I coughed. “Ah . . .” I hedged but couldn’t resist perusing his body when he threw the covers off revealing his very ready erection. “No. I’ve never even, um . . .”
He barked out a laugh. “You’re part dragon and you’ve never sucked a dick?” he said, managing to easily read my mind, plucking from it the words I’d thought but was too shy to say aloud.
“I’ve thought about it. Just never done it,” I said, easily visualizing one of my favorite ongoing fantasies. It included the most vivid image of Ozzie West coaching me through taking him in my mouth. I’d spent so much time crafting it that I had the details etched in my mind, right down to the warm, salty flavor of him and the velvety texture of his cock on my tongue.
Rohan squeezed my thigh. In a low voice he said, “It looks like you know what you want to do. Humor me?”
It hit me that this man was far from a fantasy. He was flesh and blood and not only did he need what I could give him, he craved me as much as I craved him.
He groaned as
I awkwardly turned and aimed my backside toward his head and slung my knee across his wide shoulders. A shiver coursed up my spine when he gripped my ass and made a low rumble of approval before his fully shifted dragon tongue slicked slowly through my channel from clit to ass.
“Fuck, Deva,” he rumbled against my core. I was frozen, struggling to process the utterly exposed sensation and the heaviness between my thighs. When he wrapped his lips around my entire sex I gasped and tilted my hips.
He squeezed my ass and bent his knees to gain leverage enough to lift his head and sink his tongue deep into me. I cried out at the invasion and dropped my head to his hip, whimpering from the onslaught of pleasure.
Gradually the silken sensation of his shaft against my nose roused my attention back to reality despite the pleasure he was inflicting on my core. I nuzzled the warm pouch of his testicles, then experimentally brushed my lips over one round orb. Lifting up a little more I darted my tongue out and teased along the smooth seam between them. Rohan let out a rough moan into my flesh and tilted his hips up. I braced myself with one hand on the bed beside his hip and gripped his shaft with the other, marveling at the rigid thickness, so smooth and hot.
Curious, I ran my tongue the full length of him and was thrown straight into my fantasy. Except now I was being pleasured by his mouth at the same time and nothing in that fantasy had felt as exquisite as the sensation of Rohan’s tongue alternately fucking me and tormenting my clit until he drove me mad.
That’s because Ozzie’s not a dragon. I pushed the thought aside. Ozzie had no place in this moment and the strangely persistent fantasy was starting to irritate me. That old crush had stuck with me for the past year, and it was time I made an effort to shed it once and for all. I didn’t need a fantasy based on nothing more than hero-worship when I had reality anyway. Reality right now was the smoky flavor of Rohan’s flesh under my tongue and his fingers digging into my ass when I took his tip into my mouth and sucked, savoring the tangy fluid that had gathered at his small slit.
I found a rhythm with my hands and mouth that felt strangely familiar despite the fact that this was the first time I’d ever done this. I’d been a virgin until three weeks ago and hadn’t had the opportunity to test my oral skills on Llyr when we’d been together. I wasn’t sure I was doing it right, but I loved the way Rohan’s knees splayed wide and he bucked his hips up into my stroking hands. With each stroke I felt the flow of magic churning in the air around us, drawn in by our twin cyclones of desire.
Beneath my hand his balls tightened and he let out an almost subhuman growl that vibrated through my lower abdomen. His cock surged between my lips, pushed deep with a sudden thrust that nearly had me gagging before hot jets slammed into the back of my throat. His mouth left my pussy and he flung his head back with a roar as he came, the magic he’d absorbed flooding into my body as I swallowed his salty spend.
The second he caught his breath he clamped his mouth to my core once more, redoubling his efforts and tormenting me until I couldn’t see. My senses were filled with him, and I was drunk from the flood of his magic. I’d experienced the flow of such magic before during the ritual, but this was the first time I’d absorbed dragon magic directly from a partner. There was something even more delicious about this experience, doing it almost purely for the enjoyment instead of a desperate need to protect my world.
I let myself go, succumbing to the urge to rear back and ride his tongue. I threw my head back with a gasp of pure pleasure and clutched at my breasts, squeezing my nipples hard as he sucked my clit. His hands slid around my thighs and gripped them tight, urging me to spread wider, which forced my hips down closer to his mouth. The sudden, deep invasion of his tongue back into my empty channel threw me over the edge and I cried out, twisting my hips over his face while he tormented my orgasm from me with a low growl of triumph.
Rohan kept tonguing me slowly while my entire body remained tensed above him, paralyzed by pleasure. When I finally regained use of my limbs, they felt heavy and boneless and I collapsed half on top of his big body, carefully twisting my hips away from his head. I lay there humming softly and enjoying the glow for a moment before he squeezed my hand where it rested on his belly and gave it a small tug.
I curled around and rested my cheek on his stomach, then pressed a soft kiss on the indentation of his abdomen just above where his soul resided. “Feel better?” I asked.
“Mmm,” he said, giving me a languid smile. “C’mere.” He tugged again and I relented, sliding up his body and letting him pull me on top of him and into a slow kiss that I guessed was meant to express his gratitude. He tasted half like sunlight and half like me, a heady combination that reminded me of private mornings in the Dragon Glade, swimming in the central pool at dawn when the bright sun was just peeking over the horizon. It had just been me and the sun those mornings and I’d taken the time to explore those constant fantasies that tormented me, imagining my hands weren’t my own but those of a lover. Ozzie’s hands, but perhaps I could rewrite that fantasy now.
I was gratified by his response, and particularly by the way his aura had strengthened considerably after all our fun. I’d always known that the fertile and carnal magic the higher races could produce was powerful, particularly when used by dragons, but until the ritual I’d never seen it in practice. And until today, I’d never experienced it one-on-one with a dragon, the one race who depended on it most heavily. If sex was really this powerful, no wonder it was such a big deal to us all.
This was a feeling I could easily get used to.
While the infusion of energy was as sustaining as a good meal, it didn’t remove the need to empty my bladder. Reluctantly I kissed Rohan and darted a quick glance around the room, hunting for the bathroom.
“Be right back,” I said, and slipped away to relieve myself. When I returned he was curled around a pillow, his golden hair tousled and his eyes half-lidded from exhaustion. He reached for me and I was sure I felt the lightest invisible tug. It had to be my imagination. We’d just had amazing sex, which had blended our energies, and I did care about him. I was responsible for what had happened and therefore obligated to help him in whatever way I could. This draw to him couldn’t be more than that.
But what I felt was something sweeter than simple responsibility. Something giddy and wonderful that was completely out of place considering our predicament. I narrowed my eyes at him as I crawled back up onto the bed. Like it or not, I had fallen for him in the span of a day.
“Please tell me you didn’t waste any of that power I gave you on your dragon breath.” I tugged the pillow out of his arms and slipped in beside him, tucking the pillow behind my back. Rohan snuggled closer, wrapping his arm around my thighs and resting his head in my lap. He blinked up at me, a lazy smile curving his lips, then made a small O with his mouth and let out a little puff of shimmering golden smoke. It floated up to my face and I couldn’t help but inhale, a wave of euphoria passing over me as his magic took effect.
When I opened my eyes he gave me a weak, though genuine smile. “I wanted to see you smile. It worked, didn’t it?”
Laughing softly, I stroked his head. “You should save your energy. I don’t know how long it’s going to take to figure out how to fix you.”
“Mmm,” he agreed, nodding as his eyes fluttered closed in contentment. “I suppose it isn’t feasible to suggest you just stay in my bed for the rest of my life.”
“Probably not, but we can stay for a little while at least.”
He turned over with a low rumble akin to a purr, resting his other cheek on my thigh and curling his arms around my hips. I resumed stroking his head and back and relaxed against the pillows, humming softly. The words to the song we’d made up earlier kept going through my head, and so I started singing again, somehow comforted and fortified as much by the song as he was.
9
Keagan
Deva’s voice carried down the hall from Rohan’s room, the song so quiet and lulling it almost blen
ded with the sound of the crashing surf below the bluffs outside the house. But I could hear it well enough for it to get under my skin. The melody itself should have pleased me. It possessed an honest simplicity and beauty that evoked a love of the sky. But I knew it wasn’t for my ears, which irked me.
She’s just helping Ro.
No matter how many times I reminded myself of that fact, I knew there was something deeper at work. My friend was in danger, and it was a kind of danger I was helpless to defend against. But that song . . . there was so much more to it than simply helping strengthen his aura against the damage to his soul caused by that invisible beast.
I didn’t want to think about what it could mean. What it very likely did mean. That her turul power to command the Winds and music was somehow a lot stronger than she believed, and she’d charmed him into loving her. Into taking him away from me. She sure as fuck wasn’t singing to me, anyway. I’d have rather they went back to fucking, or whatever they’d been doing. Sex sounds were somehow easier to stomach.
With a curse, I tossed another scrap of broken furniture out through the smashed window. I’d already set aside anything salvageable and was gradually removing the trashed bits and throwing them out onto the patio to have Rohan burn later . . . that is, if he had enough power to generate the clean fire needed to turn the detritus to dust.
I’d rather not have the Maestro come home to his house in such disarray, but the more I worked, the more sluggish I became, a helpless feeling coming over me. What was the fucking point? He’d need to know one way or the other. We were his bandmates, and if one of us was out of commission, it’d affect our whole schedule for gigs. Not to mention, he wouldn’t be thrilled we’d brought home a woman, and there was no way in hell I was telling her to leave when she might be the only thing keeping Ro alive.