Neela chuckled and patted the blade at her belt. “As long as I don’t get ambushed by Hunters again, I’ll be fine. I’m wise to you guys now … and I’ve kind of got the goods on your boss.”
He nodded and smiled. “I sure wouldn’t want to meet either you or your brother alone. We weren’t aiming to kill you, but the way you laid us out both times, I don’t think you were in any danger. We’re fucking lucky we work for him now. Doctor Waters would’ve left us to rot.”
“The doctor ruined everyone’s lives,” Neela said. “It’s time for retribution. Stick with him and you guys will do fine, deal?”
Paolo laughed. “Nobody pays better than him. I doubt any of the guys are in a hurry to cut and run.”
He remained on the ledge, his gaze following her as she descended the treacherous path to the canyon floor. When she reached the bottom, she paused and closed her eyes, reaching out for that shadow of an impression she’d sensed before, but hadn’t understood. Zorion’s magic still floated like a bright light at the back of her mind, but she knew now that wasn’t all of him.
She didn’t know what she would find when she awakened his true body, but whatever darkness corrupted him now was hers to bear. She’d been strong enough to survive without him for so long. She had to give him a chance to be whole, and the cravings he’d awakened in her the past day made her certain she could handle whatever darkness the other half of him was made of.
The dark presence pulsed at the core of her mind, each beat reflected in a similar throb between her thighs. Zorion’s lighter half had satisfied her well, but she was still left wanting. It made no sense to her that she should harbor such dark cravings, after all she’d lived through.
She couldn’t bear the thought of part of him left to the darkness, forced to remain trapped in a stone prison the way she’d been trapped for most of her life.
She reached the canyon floor and the spot where she and Naaz had parted ways. He’d been right all along, his tracks moving off in the direction the shadowy pulses drew her. He was in the arms of Asha now, his damaged soul made whole by the light within his dragon. It was Neela’s duty to do the same for Zorion.
“Where do you think you’re going, little breeder?”
She jumped at the grating voice that came from the shadows to one side of the path. She’d been so focused on reaching the temple she hadn’t been alert to her surroundings. A chill went down her spite at the sound of that voice. Squinting into the darkness, she saw a vaguely human shape squatting atop a big boulder.
It was a Hunter, judging by the details of his clothing she could make out in the shadows. He wore black fatigues with a knife at his belt and held a length of rope in one hand. He was toying with the rope, coiling it into loops and uncoiling it again.
“Are you Phillips? Your buddies are waiting for the whiskey, you know. You don’t need to follow me—I’m fine without a bodyguard.”
“You’ve strayed just a little too far from your master, Elite. Time for me to bring you home. That warm little oven of yours is too valuable to let some filthy dragon fill it up.”
That voice again … the strange pitch made no sense coming from a burly man like the Hunter who watched her. It sounded like the voice of a woman who’d survived being strangled, and made Neela’s mind itch like insects were crawling inside her skull.
Her skin prickled. The day Nikhil had arrived in her cell and they’d made love, silently agreeing to the union out of self-preservation more than desire. Shortly afterward, their true master had appeared. Nikhil’s behavior had shifted instantly, his eyes going blank and soulless when the woman in the lab coat smiled. He’d left without so much as a backward glance after a night of pure tenderness.
The contrast was jarring, but more alarming was the feeling Neela had had afterward. Like some foul creature had defiled the inside of her head. Despite the fact that she’d viewed Nikhil as a father her entire life, making love to him hadn’t felt dirty. But in the moments after Meri had visited that day, she couldn’t scrub her skin hard enough to feel clean.
She felt the same way now.
“Meri. It’s too fucking late. I’ll never let you touch me again. If you let that man near me, I’ll slit his fucking throat. There’s nothing you can do.”
“He doesn’t need to get near you, breeder. He’s skilled enough to do just what I need from here.”
“What, come and talk shit to me? I’ve had about three thousand years too much of your shit. Get the fuck over yourself.”
The man shook his head and made a tutting sound with his tongue. “You’ve grown bold in your freedom, slave. You and your brother were nothing more than the worthless spawn of a dragon’s whores. You have one thing that makes you special, and I’m here to take that back. And once I have you, I’ll take your brother back too. It’s time you returned to serve me before I take control of my home.”
The man’s eyes swirled with a disorienting whirlpool of light. Before Neela could react, his hand whipped out, the coil of dark leather unfurling in the darkness, barely visible as it sailed toward her. The cracking sound betrayed the nature of what he’d held. Not a rope, but a whip, and the lash had just snapped tight around her throat.
She tried to cry out, but her throat constricted, her breath cut short by the sudden yank of a strong arm on the other end. Scrabbling and clawing at it did no good. She stumbled, eyes wide and tears falling as the man with the wild nymph’s eyes hauled her toward the boulder he sat on, pulling hand over hand on the whip until she was dangling against the side, kicking at air and grasping at her throat.
“Zorion! Need you!” The desperate cry shot from her mind just as her vision went black.
Chapter Thirteen
Naaz jolted awake and scrambled up out of bed, driven to action by the horrifying dream he’d just had. His sister was in danger. Real danger.
“What is wrong?” Asha asked, staring wide-eyed at him from a nest of silken sheets.
“It’s Neela. Something’s happened. I mean … something happened before I got here, but this is worse.”
“Can I help?”
He paused with his boots half-laced and looked at her. “Yeah, about that … I kind of came here for your help to begin with. I shouldn’t have gotten distracted for so long. I need you to help me find her.”
“I know.” She gave him the sweetest smile, her lovely skin shimmering with subtle inner fire. “You were afraid to hurt my feelings before. Tell me what happened to her.”
He gave her the short version of the repeated attacks they’d endured that made their travels such an ordeal, all of them culminating in the one that had separated him and his sister.
“Something feels different about this, though. I’ve always had a sense of when she’s in danger. When she was taken by that man, I was worried … he made threats. But I never felt like this. We still had a link that made me sure she was out there and unharmed, until now …”
“Now you’re not so sure she’s alive?”
“Yeah … and that scares the shit out of me.”
“What did he look like? The man who took her.”
He opened his mouth to describe Neela’s kidnapper, then closed it again, uncertain how to explain his odd appearance. “It was like he was made of night, darkness, with this crazy fire under his skin. Kind of the exact opposite of you, in fact.”
He stared at her bare breasts where the web of tiny veins was most concentrated, growing denser toward her nipples, which seemed to brighten under his gaze. They hardened, and she lifted her hands to cover them.
“Is there something wrong with my breasts?”
“No … it’s just … He was like you. Oh, god.” Naaz’s brain churned as he put the pieces together. The way she’d argued about the direction of the temple, and then the creature who had taken her, so similar to Asha, yet so very different. “Zorion did this.”
Rage warred with panic inside him and he threw on the rest of his clothes. “If that fucker’s hurt her, I will kill him. I don’t care how long it’s been since I’ve shed dragon blood, I will fucking end his life.”
He finally paused long enough to see the stricken look on Asha’s face and gritted his teeth.
“Zorion wouldn’t. He loves her,” she said. “And I know him. He’s protective. He’d never hurt her. He’d be more likely to hurt you for touching me, but it’s too late for him to worry about that, because you’re mine now.”
As if in response to her declaration, his entire back tingled with the fresh mark she’d given him partway through their lovemaking.
“All I know is that something bad has happened, and he was the last person who had her. If it’s him, and she’s hurt … I won’t make any promises, baby.”
She pressed her lips into a hard line and nodded. “I know where to start.”
She hopped off the bed and strode toward the door. As she walked, a cloud of shimmering smoke flowed from her mouth and nose, weaving itself into an outfit not unlike the one he wore. The cargo pants and boots fit her well, but looked extremely out of place against her fair, luminescent skin. But a second later that changed too, until she was simply a lovely human woman dressed for battle.
He followed her out into the corridor beyond the big door to her chamber, but she didn’t go far. She strode several paces then stopped outside the other set of big double doors in that hallway. The monolithic carved black opal loomed in front of Naaz.
Asha leaned her ear close and knocked daintily on the surface.
“Zorion, are you awake? Naaz needs to ask you some questions.”
Naaz tilted his head. “Ah … he didn’t bring her back here, did he? We’d have known.”
“She isn’t here, but he is. And if he took her, he’d know.”
“But he can’t be here … not if he’s out there.”
“He’s been here since they moved us in. I would know if he’d left.”
She leaned against the doors and they slowly swung inward, revealing a maw of pure midnight so impenetrable it was disconcerting to look at. Nothingness was what came to mind, and Naaz nearly yelled out an objection when Asha took a step across the threshold, fearing she’d fall into an abyss.
But the veil of night parted for her, the luminosity of her skin piercing it and her brilliance flooding the room. When she was several yards in, she turned.
“Are you coming? He’s in here.”
Naaz hesitated before moving toward her, his skin prickling with dread despite his conviction that he’d seen Zorion outside the temple. He recalled what the man had said now … the threats he’d made, forcing Naaz to choose between Asha or his sister. But if that had been Zorion, what the hell was still inside the temple where Zorion should have been?
Asha reached out a hand and he took it, letting her lead him farther into the murky darkness.
“Doesn’t this seem … off to you?” he whispered.
“He’s been like this since we moved in. Broody.”
“Jesus. If this is broody, I’d hate to see him in a really bad mood.”
“You have to understand, we’ve waited a long time for you and your sister. He’s probably just a little envious that you came first. But if his fire has your sister, he will want to know.”
“His … fire?”
“I think that’s what you saw out there. My brother’s fire left him a couple months ago … not long after we were sealed in. Without it, we get this.” She let out a weary sigh and waved around at the darkness.
“Is ... one side good and one evil?” Naaz asked, bombarded with paranoid images of some kind of Jekyll and Hyde creature who was destined to mate with his sister. He needed to figure this out, and fast, but for now, he was back to the conviction that he might have to get on board with killing a dragon again.
Asha laughed and rolled her eyes. “He’s just Zorion. My big brother. You’ll get used to him.”
A vague shape coalesced out of the shadows, and Naaz squinted to try to make sense of it. A few steps farther in, he recognized a sarcophagus similar to the one Asha had slept in. This one was clearly male, with a rigid outline of a phallus cast in stone in an exaggerated size and shape. It was so far from representing a human male, Naaz nearly laughed at the absurdity of it.
It mattered little now. “Can you talk to him?” he asked.
“We both can after we wake him up. Now that we’re both awake, it should be easy.”
“No fucking way,” Naaz said, stepping in front of her and pushing her backward. “That’s Neela’s job, not yours. I mean, he’s your brother, for fuck’s sake!”
“Not like that! Ugh, no.” She gripped his hands and squeezed, bringing them up to cover her breasts. Her nipples were hard beneath the fabric of her conjured shirt. “You and me together, just close enough for him to have your Nirvana. I’ll hold back. Neela’s your blood, so it should work.”
Naaz’s cock hardened at the mere suggestion of bedding her again, and when she arched her chest into his palms, he couldn’t help but squeeze both luscious orbs. The fabric of her shirt dissolved, leaving him in contact with Asha’s bare skin and hard nipples.
You’ve done far worse than make love to a girl in front of her brother, he told himself. And this particular girl was one he’d happily make love to anytime and anyplace she asked for it.
She turned, a slow smile spreading across her face as she backed up toward the sarcophagus. Its dark, polished stone reflected the glowing fire beneath her skin as her bare backside came to rest against it.
“God, you drive me wild,” Naaz murmured against her ear, burying his face against her neck and kissing his way down her shoulder. “This had better work, and he’d better fucking have some answers if it does.”
“He will,” she said as she pushed Naaz’s shirt up, tracing tiny circles around his nipples before tearing at his belt buckle and the closure of his pants.
He bent and closed his lips around one delicious ripe cherry of a nipple, groaning against her skin as she lifted her legs to wrap them around his hips. With one hand, she stroked his cock and aimed it at her entrance. Then he was lost to her, staring down into the iridescent fire of her eyes and burying himself into her to the hilt.
Asha’s head flew back and she exhaled a half-moan, half-sigh when he began to fuck her, slowly at first, then harder and with more urgency. She clung to him, lifting her hips to meet his, and gripped at the back of his neck, forcing his head down to meet her lips.
Naaz braced both hands on the warm opal of the sarcophagus, barely conscious of the growing heat beneath his palms. He was too lost in her to care when a fissure appeared beneath his fingers just as his orgasm took hold.
The cover split in two when he yelled Asha’s name, his semen shooting deep into her tight channel. Her nails raked delicious furrows of fire down his back, his entire body lighting up with pleasure.
“Don’t stop!” she cried.
His cock wasn’t close to soft, so he kept fucking, the orgasm fading, but another building swiftly. It was as though he’d become a conduit for pleasure, and it was flowing straight through his body. But unlike the first few times he’d made love to her, the power wasn’t going to her. It went into the stone behind her.
He was too consumed by ecstasy to make sense of what happened next. Her soft heat was all that mattered, so when the opposite side of the sarcophagus flew back and smashed into pieces and a dark shape emerged, he couldn’t stop.
The last thing he remembered before Asha’s cry of pleasure was the gargantuan shape of a dragon launching into the air and smashing through the ceiling above. A roar sounded, echoing over the din of stones crashing down around them. In that roar, Naaz was nearly certain he’d heard his sister’s name.
Chapter Fourteen
Zorion woke to the panicked cry of his lover, every thread of magic that defined his shape lighting up like the sun. She wasn’t in the bed next to him. Focusing on the origin of that call, he went, the magic transporting him instantly to the location where the cry had originated.
The imprint of her fear was burned into the air, but Neela was nowhere to be found. Only the kicked up dust before a large boulder betrayed that someone had been here. Someone who had struggled.
He couldn’t sense her, either, no matter how far he reached, and the inability to find even a faint sign of her presence made him panic. He transported himself to the very edge of his new prison—a prison he’d forced himself to accept—yet found no hint that she was anywhere within these boundaries. But even if she had gone outside them, he’d have sensed her. Their minds had been linked for millennia—ever since she’d first found him and touched the black stone sarcophagus of his prison. He’d been able to communicate with her mind, her very soul, all that time.
He never knew how much he’d come to love that sense of her until now.
“Neela!” he bellowed from the top of the boulder where she’d last been.
A thunderous roar answered, and his eyes shot to the sky. “Sweet Mother, no! Not you!”
A dark shape circled above, wingtips shining with what remnants of inner fire still remained after Zorion had left his physical form. How had his body awakened without her? For a split-second, he had a spark of hope. Had she gone to the temple? Had his shadow hidden her from him?
The creature spiraled around the canyon, black smoke billowing from its maw. It had no fire, but it had power. If he had to fight to get her back, it wouldn’t be pretty.
“What have you done with her?!” he yelled at his shadow when it lowered itself to the canyon floor, wings flapping to steady its descent.
The creature landed, churning up dust and rocks and crushing several bushes beneath its huge bulk. Then it shifted, shrinking into the shape of a flesh and blood man with skin the color of night. The sight was a harsh reminder of what Zorion lacked, being made of pure dragon fire with no physical aspect of his own. He could mimic that shape, but could never truly have a body.
OBell_Immortal05.5Blessed_022018_AllRetailers Page 9