by Ophelia Bell
“I already regret it,” I whispered when the twinge in my core protested the deprivation.
He darted his gaze away and turned. “Well, you definitely aren’t going to regret this. Follow me.” He turned toward a shadowy corner of the balcony and started climbing a set of steep steps I hadn’t seen before. When he got to the top, he beckoned and I followed, letting him take my beer and help me up the rest of the way.
When I reached the top I found us on a small, square platform overlooking the entire neighborhood with a view all the way to the dark, chilly ocean beyond.
“There,” Bodhi whispered in my ear, pointing up. I looked up at the sky and gasped in awe. The moon hung high above, fat and full and glowing bright silver. While I stared up at it, Bodhi stepped away for a second and rummaged around in a bench behind us, then produced a thick blanket that he spread out on the wooden floor of the platform.
We sat side by side and I closed my eyes, breathing deeply of the ocean breeze blowing cool across my skin. Ozzie’s face floated unbidden through my mind, an old habit I had of picturing him every time I felt the slightest breeze and fantasizing that he was the one who had sent it to me. But there had never been a message despite my ability to actually hear the whispered messages turul could send each other on the wind. I’d received messages from my stepfather Lukas, when my father wished to relay something to me quickly, but never had Ozzie communicated with me that way.
Bodhi slid his hand down my back, resting it at my hip for a second before taking it away abruptly as though he thought better of it.
“You can touch me. I’m not going to break,” I said.
“I’m just afraid I won’t be able to stop.” He chuckled. “You’re like a freaking magnet. My thoughts, my hands . . . I couldn’t stop thinking about you for even a second after you left yesterday. I dreamed about you last night.” His voice went low and I darted a look at him.
“Oh?” I asked. “What happened in your dream?”
“Things I need to not remember if I want to stay sane right now,” he murmured. “I usually come up here to chill when I’m wound up. Or I take my board out there.” He gestured toward the ocean.
“Your board?” I asked, glancing at him.
“Surfboard. It’s easier to deal with loneliness when I’ve got the waves and wind for company. Until we figure out how to kill this fucking chill that’s taken over my soul, I have a feeling I’ll be spending a lot more time out there soon, or hauling my windsurfing rig up north for a while.”
I felt a pang of envy for that level of freedom and communion with the elements. Leaning back against my elbows with a sigh, I stared up into the dark sky, fixing my gaze on the moon and enjoying the peace and freedom I’d managed to find for myself. Yet the longing for more still lingered.
Bodhi craned his head and looked at me over one shoulder. “What did you mean before, when you said it would be a gift? Last night when I dreamed about you I woke up with the strangest sense that as much as I wanted to . . . you know . . . I should save it. Does that make sense?”
I turned onto my side and met his gaze. “You know?” I asked, prodding even though I could easily infer his meaning.
His aura flared and his eyes narrowed. “Jerk off,” he said. “I didn’t, even though the dream was really fucking dirty.”
A charge of arousal shot through me at his words. “Tell me about it?” I asked, leaning a little closer to him.
He eyed me in silence, his gaze dropping briefly to my chest and sliding over my body. Then he just swallowed and shook his head. “Another time maybe. I’ve got too many questions. The gift thing meant something. I want to know what.”
With a sigh I sat up and stretched my legs out in front of me, smoothing the skirt of my dress over my thighs. “The energy that powers our magic, like the magic I showed you inside, it’s everywhere around us. It’s like air, except it needs to be harnessed to be used. Each of our kind harnesses it a little differently. Through links to the various elements.
“The turul are the wind race. They use the wind itself to harness the magic, and they can command the weather if they’re powerful enough. Anything that involves air, pretty much, which includes music. My friends think your family must have turul blood for how musically inclined you are. I believe them, too. I’ve felt it all day today. I felt it the other night when I sang with you.”
Bodhi twisted around and lay on his stomach, his expression rapt. “Grandma used to say we were descended from Sirens, like in myths. So that isn’t true?”
“I don’t know about that. With the bloodline you could have a mix. Water and wind perhaps. Nymphaea and turul.”
“Nymphaea?”
“They’re the water race,” I continued. “Satyrs and nymphs are the male and female nymphaea. They access the magic through water, mostly through moving water. Oceans, rivers, blood. Especially blood, I think. But other bodily fluids too.”
He smirked. “So, the gift thing . . . you meant it literally?”
“Oh, that? No. I mean, not that your semen doesn’t have power, but exchanging it for the nymphaea is more about mating than actually transferring power. Only the ursa and the dragons have the ability to transfer the power to a partner who isn’t their mate.”
“Fascinating,” he drawled, smirking at me.
I narrowed my eyes at him. “Are you mocking me?”
Bodhi chuckled and raised his hands. “No! Well, a little. You just sound so serious about it. Like you’re trying to prove how much you know.”
“I know pretty much everything, at least about how the four races work. There are other things in the universe that are a mystery to me. Those hounds, for example. And humans.” Not to mention how to actually use all the powers I should have, but there was no sense boring him with my lack of ability to apply all my knowledge.
“Wow, you’re a regular Hermione Granger, aren’t you?”
“What’s a Hermione Granger?”
He stared at me wide-eyed for a moment, then tilted onto his side and patted my knee. “We’ll cover that later when I teach you about humans. Tell me more about ursa and dragons.”
I lay back and continued, my body tingling comfortably in the warmth of his nearness. “Ursa are the earth race, who harness not just the stones and inorganic elements buried in the ground, but also fertility magic. Living, growing things. The power of new life is the most potent, amazing thing there is, but it’s volatile. The female ursa need multiple male mates to help them control it. The males will pair up so they can sufficiently service the females through their fertile periods, or through pregnancy. All that magic has to go somewhere.”
The ursa were the most fascinating and awe-inspiring to me for this reason. I knew I had the potential for that much power, but had never felt a glimmer of it within myself. If I ever did reach estrous the way normal young ursa females did, I’d be in possession of enough power I’m sure it would awaken all the other pieces I was missing. Not to mention, I’d need a pair of mates to help manage it, whether I wanted them or not. But that didn’t seem likely to happen anytime soon.
“Pairs?” Bodhi said sitting up a little straighter. “They service the females in pairs, these guys?” he asked.
I laughed softly at his enthusiasm for the topic. “Yeah, sometimes more than two. And not always two ursa males, at least not recently. My auntie Jade has three mates. My aunt Numa has five, but she’s a dragon.” And every last one of them displayed a soul bond so brilliant it made my heart ache.
“Have you ever been, ah . . . serviced by two ursa?”
Before I could recover my wits enough to answer, a voice called out from below. “Deva! Where the fuck are you?”
I stood and looked over the railing to see Rohan and Keagan standing beneath the strings of lights illuminating the back yard. “Up here with Bodhi!” I called back. Bodhi rose and slipped up beside me, leaning on the rail and waving down.
“Awesome! I’m coming up!” Rohan called.
I
thought he’d head back inside and find the stairs, but before I knew it he’d grabbed hold of the nearby fence in a very inhuman display of skill, climbing up to walk nimbly along the top. From there hopped up onto the porch roof, then leaped across to grab a palm tree at the corner of the house and shimmy up it.
“Holy shit,” Bodhi said. “He is definitely not human. What is he? You said he wasn’t turul. Dragon?”
I laughed as I followed Rohan’s progress until he finally hoisted himself over the railing and swooped in to hug me like he hadn’t seen me in ages. Through my laugher, I said, “Yeah, he’s a dragon. Though after that I can’t help but wonder if he’s really part monkey.”
“Just not afraid of heights,” Rohan said. “I’d have flown up, but I didn’t think it’d be kosher to show my wings in mixed company.”
“So what about him?” Bodhi asked, nodding down at Keagan who stared back up at us looking pissed.
“Come on up dude! It’s easy!” Rohan yelled down.
“Ursa,” I said.
Keagan gestured rudely and went back inside.
“Yeah, he prefers keeping his feet on terra firma,” Rohan said. He flopped down onto the blanket and sighed. “More room for us. What’ve you two been up to?”
25
Deva
“We were just talking.” Bodhi shifted away to a chaste distance.
“I was explaining to him how the different races work. How we use magic. How we absorb magic. I was just about to explain dragons.”
Rohan’s gaze flickered with inner light, betraying his shift to his dragon sight. He scanned Bodhi from head to toe, lingering at his groin and smirking. “Either you really love the boring details of the higher races, or you’re as enthralled by our little chimera as the rest of us.”
“Ah . . . not sure what you mean,” Bodhi said, drifting his hands down to cover the pronounced bulge in the front of his pants. His aura flickered with shame and I knew if he hadn’t been in shadows, he’d be blushing. “What’s a chimera?” he asked, looking at me.
“The perfect mix of all of us,” Rohan supplied. “But I don’t want to delay your lesson. Deva, why don’t we give him a demonstration of how dragons absorb magic?”
He stood and reached out a hand to me. I took it just as another song drifted up from below, this time it was just Keagan on guitar singing a lullaby from the porch beneath us. I glanced over the railing to the front of the house. Susannah and Gus were on the front walk saying farewell to several guests, the hounds still happily at their heels. When the guests disappeared, Gus impulsively took Susannah in his arms and began to slow dance right in the center of the walk.
“Looks like a good idea,” Rohan said pulling me backward into his arms and swaying with the music, hands on my hips and his mouth at my ear. His arousal rubbed at my behind and I inhaled sharply.
“Tell him what you know about us, baby,” he said into my ear.
I flicked my gaze back up to Bodhi’s face. His lips were parted, his eyes fevered, and his aura a bright swell of need.
“Dragons are the fire race,” I said, my voice roughened by the need Rohan drew out of me with his touch. “They revel in fire, literally and figuratively. Passion, lust, it works on the magic like a magnet. The magic finds us when we are aroused. But it isn’t just dragons it clings to. It comes to all of us the same way. Humans too.”
Rohan’s hands slid up my sides and cupped my breasts. He let out a little puff of breath and a moment later the constricting tightness of the bra and panties he’d conjured earlier that day disappeared. My breasts suddenly felt heavy in the bodice of my dress, and the buttons strained, one of them popping open at the top to display more of my ample flesh. A chilly breeze floated in, gusting up my dress and cooling the slick heat between my thighs.
Bodhi’s gaze fixed on my breasts and he swallowed, his Adam’s apple bobbing in his throat. Blinking slowly, he tore his gaze away and scrubbed a hand over his head. “Am I . . . drawing magic now?” he asked.
“Yes,” I said, breathy now from Rohan’s heated kisses against my neck. He slipped his hands along my arms and twined his fingers with mine, still moving to the music and Keagan’s song as he pulled my hands up and placed them at the back of his neck.
“You are dying to touch her, aren’t you?” Rohan asked. “What the hell stopped you?”
“She’s yours, man,” Bodhi choked out. “I respect you too much to horn in.”
Rohan let out a low chuckle in my ear. “She isn’t mine. Not yet. But I am hers, body and soul.”
My breath caught at the intensity of his words. “Ro—” I turned around to object and insist he take it back. I wouldn’t let him tie himself to me when we couldn’t have a true soul bond.
Rohan stopped me with a finger to my lips, then replaced it with his mouth. His kiss was achingly tender and hungry at the same time and it stole whatever words I had intended to say. When he broke away he gave me a sly smile. “Let’s show him what it feels like to make a dragon come, baby.”
He pushed me slowly backward and released me, stepping back when Bodhi’s hands went to my hips.
“Make her come if you want to understand, but take your time about it.”
Bodhi’s heartbeat thudded loudly behind me, so hard I could feel it through my back. His fingertips dug into my hips and he seemed to be holding me away from his pelvis, as though it hurt him to be in too close contact.
“Are you good, Deva? Do you want this?” he asked.
“Only if you do,” I said, turning my head just slightly to look up at him.
Rohan reached out and cupped my cheek. “Look at me, baby. I’m dying to see your face when you finish. I missed it before.” His gaze lifted to Bodhi. “What are you waiting for?”
Bodhi’s hold on me relaxed and I sank back against him, gasping at the rigid bulge of his erection digging into my ass.
“You said to take my time about it.” Bodhi’s lips brushed against my ear. “Is that how I make this good for you, Deva? To draw it out?” His fingers toyed with a button of my dress, unfastening it before teasing his way down the line to open the rest. As he worked with deliberate, tortuous movements, he brushed his lips along my neck, compelling me to tilt my head to give him better access.
When the last button of my bodice was open, he gripped the sides and tugged them apart, freeing my breasts to the chilly ocean breeze. Before me, Rohan made a low rumble of approval and Bodhi shifted his head slightly, gazing down as he cupped both breasts in his hands.
“Sweet Jesus, you’re perfect,” he murmured, hefting my flesh and grazing his thumbs over both achingly hard nipples. I whimpered at the touch, pushing back against his groin and eliciting a harsh hiss from him. “Slow,” he rumbled, as though to remind himself of his task.
He left one hand at my breasts, toying with each nipple in turn as he slipped the other down my belly to the cleft between my legs. He pressed the fabric of my dress flush against my wetness, soaking the thin cloth instantly. The pressure against my sensitive flesh made me cry out and push my hips into his touch.
“Goddamn, are you this wet for me or for him?”
I met Rohan’s intense stare, but he knew the answer already. “You’re the one touching me, Bodhi.”
“Fuck yes,” he whispered, finding the hard bud of my clit and rubbing it. More of my juices soaked through the dress until the only way I knew he wasn’t touching skin was the constricting nature of the fabric binding my folds tight. He stroked until I squirmed, craving more direct contact.
He stopped abruptly, dropping both hands to the skirt of my dress and bunching it in his fists, hiking it up to get beneath. When his warm fingers met my bare flesh I sighed in pleasure. He rumbled another soft curse against my ear as he slipped his fingers between my folds and explored.
“So fucking smooth. I didn’t think I’d like a girl smooth like this but goddamn. Are you sure you want to let me hog all the fun?” Through my haze of pleasure I saw Rohan smile and ease close
r. He dipped slightly and gripped the back of one of my knees, lifting my leg to spread me open for Bodhi.
“I just want to be here when you finish her. I want to see her face, and yours when you understand what it’s like to be a dragon’s lover.”
“She’s not all dragon, is she?” he asked, still tormenting me with his fingers. “She sure feels fucking human.”
“Her true shape is human, and she has four other aspects, don’t you Deva? Dragon is only one of them but that’s what’s driving her now.” He held my knee against his hip, his body so close I could feel the heat of his own need. With his free hand he cupped my cheek and bent to kiss me.
When our mouths met, Bodhi’s touch changed, becoming less exploratory, more direct and deliberate. He found my clit again and I gasped against Rohan’s mouth at the pleasure that shot through my body when Bodhi began to stroke me in tiny, quick circles. He resumed teasing one nipple with his other hand while Rohan toyed with the other breast, gently kneading and tweaking my hard tip.
My body was awash in pleasure, and I was only vaguely aware of their two auras flaring around me, giving away their own urgent and growing desire. But Rohan was a dragon and they always sought to draw pleasure from their partner first.
I let my head fall back against Bodhi’s shoulder and his mouth went to my neck, biting and sucking hotly at my skin as he pushed me higher and higher with his touch.
“Let me see you come, baby,” Rohan rumbled, his hand still at my cheek, his golden gaze fixed to my face while Bodhi pushed me ever closer.
“You’re close, I can feel it,” Bodhi murmured in my ear. “What’ll it take?” He slipped his long fingers through my flooded channel and pushed two into me, fucking deep while he pressed his thumb to my clit. The penetration itself was all I needed, my clit already thrumming from the surge of my climax when he resumed the light circular strokes with his thumb.