His lips brushed her ear and he sighed a moment later. “He was right,” he said, tilting his head to the dark figure who regarded them from the other side of the chair. “I am just as dark as he is on the inside. It is good that you already died, because what I truly wish to do to you might kill you.”
The suggestion made an involuntary shiver of anticipation pass through her, and she caught the wicked gleam in Zil’s eyes.
“Bring it on, boys,” she said.
“Are you willing to test your limits?” Zil asked. He stroked the surface of the chair and it began to morph once more, flattening out on top and rising higher.
Zorion released her without protest as what had become a pedestal of sorts raised her up to shoulder height. She crouched on her knees, hands flat on the surface, looking over the edge at them both. “Are you trying to test my fear of heights? Because I have wings now, remember?” She stretched her fiery plumage out and shook her feathers at them. Sparks floated through the air like glowing confetti.
“Not quite,” Zil said. “But this is something I think Zorion and I will agree we should be joined for.”
She looked to the other side where Zorion stood frowning. “Is there something that can put you two back together?”
“A common goal, that’s all,” Zorion said. “I could not mark you before, because I am missing the implement required to do so.”
“And I’m unable to make use of said implement without the fire to make it work,” Zil said, his voice now coming from a different angle.
Neela spun around again and gasped at the sight of the enormous obsidian scaled dragon that loomed before her. A long, black tongue darted out from between his teeth, tickling suggestively at her bare breasts.
“We must merge to mark you,” Zorion said.
Neela was too mesmerized by the majestic creature to answer. She leaned into the teasing flicks of his tongue, tilting her head back and pushing her breasts out to offer them to him. He obligingly licked and teased at each hard tip, then stopped when a throat cleared.
Neela frowned and scowled down at the glaring fire-creature who she loved more than life. “So get on with it, Z. I want you no matter what shape you’re in. Dragon shape, man shape, fire shape. All three at once … Can you be all three at once?” She brightened perceptibly without meaning to.
Zil let out a deep, resonant chuckle. “I fear we cannot. Two we can do, but a dragon, a fire man, and a shadow could be arranged.” He let out a puff of black smoke that slowly condensed into a man-sized shape. The shape hovered before her in the air, its smoky erection bobbing before her lips. It cupped her cheek, its touch as soft as velvet as he traced a line down her chest to her nipple.
Neela bit her lip and pushed her chest into his touch. Her nipple brightened with heat at the teasing flick of his finger. The fingertip glowed bright orange, then the entire smoky figure suddenly burst into flame, disappearing in an instant.
“Aw, what happened?”
Zil and Zorion both laughed. “You’re a little too hot for even smoke to survive, love,” Zorion said. “Now turn and let us see those wings so we can decide where to put this mark.”
Chapter Seventeen
Neela ignored the order long enough to watch Zorion rest his hand on the dragon’s flank and witness the power he embodied flow effortlessly into its hide.
The image before her flickered disconcertingly, as though the dragon’s position had changed without her seeing it. His big head had been at eye level to her, then a second later was high above, his neck stretched to its limit. She blinked to clear her vision, worried something was wrong with her head.
“How did you do that?” she asked.
“Did you sense something different?” he asked. “We thought it was just us, but when we merged, it was as though you were frozen for a moment.”
“I didn’t feel anything, but you definitely did something strange. Can you do it again?”
He lowered his big head again, and the strange oscillation she’d seen before turned his shape into a blur. A moment later, Zorion emerged as the man-shaped network of fiery veins again.
“It seems to occur when we merge,” he said. He reached for Zil’s scaled flank again, and once more Neela watched as Zorion’s body flowed into the dragon’s skin.
A sudden searing sensation erupted at the base of her collar bone, and she let out a yelp and placed her hand over the spot. Glancing down, she saw a tiny scrollwork design etched into her skin.
At the sound of low laughter, she looked up, bewildered and disconcerted by the experience. “What the hell happened?”
“It seems that when we merge, time stops,” he said. “It’s brief, but in that time, we were able to leave a small mark on you. You didn’t see us move, did you?’
“No … is this the mark?” She traced her fingertips over the design.
“That is just the beginning, adara. Turn and let us see your wings.” His eyes flashed with multicolored fire, and his long forked tongue flicked out to lash at her hip.
She obliged, spinning on her knees and fanning her new wings out wide. The stretch felt nice, and she rolled her shoulders, pleased by how perfectly balanced they were, despite their weight.
“Hmm, I can envision the pattern perfectly,” Zorion said, and Neela looked over her shoulder at him.
His head was tilted to the side, his long tongue tickling the air as though tasting it. The very tips of both forks of that agile appendage glowed brightly with the power.
She straightened up and smiled coyly, arching her back and spreading her thighs a bit more to ease some of the heat in her core that had built again. His nostrils flared and he shifted his big bulk higher so he practically loomed over her. When he moved, she caught sight of the massive erection that jutted up between his thighs, and the sight made her even hotter.
“What are you waiting for?” she breathed, wishing he would get on with it so he could get back to violating her willing body some more.
He let out a dark puff of smoke that swirled around her, cooling her heated skin and leaving her tingly all over. She glanced down at the iridescent sheen he’d left.
“To numb the pain. It looked like the first mark hurt,” he explained before leaning down and brushing his big snout against her nape. He let out another quick gust of breath that enveloped her scalp. Her skin tingled and warmed, and then silken strands tickled the sides of her face. She gasped, reaching up to feel her head.
“You gave me hair again?”
“I enjoy the way it betrays how well fucked you are after I finish with you. And it gives me something to grip when I need to control how you move.”
He traced a sharp talon along the line of her shoulder and curled one of the strands around its tip. It wasn’t the same deep black she’d had before, but was as variegated with fire as her wings were. He dropped the strand and resumed nuzzling at her neck, his breath sending warm shivers down her spine.
“Your mark will be a dual brand, half mine, half my shadow’s,” Zorion said. “Beginning at the core, where the power lies, the fire that joins us …”
Neela bit her lip at the sensation of his tongue tracing a tickling line down her spine. Then in a flash like a whip had struck, that line of pleasure became pain.
She cried out, but the cloud of smoke he blew out soothed the pain in seconds.
“The wings that mirror a dragon’s wings are what you share with him,” Zorion said, and his tongue sliced more intricate patterns into her shoulders, designs that swirled around the joints of her wings, extending partway up the edges of her feathers.
Again the pain burned bright, but was soothed by his smoke.
“And the darker fire that all three of us crave …” His tongue smoothed down her back without cutting until he reached her hips. The pain sliced sharp again, and this time she was ready, but somehow the fire was
less painful than arousing, perhaps owing to the way he slowed his strokes, his tongue passing more gently from one side to the other in some kind of intricate scrollwork that crisscrossed in the center of her back each time. His strokes moved lower and tightened with each pass, until the very tip of his tongue swiped at the top of her cleft.
She reflexively spread her legs wider, bending to give him more access. Despite the pain his tongue had caused, the cooling layer of magic smoke that still coated her had made an erogenous zone of her entire body, and she wished for those sharp stripes of fire just to feel the magic ease their heat once more.
His tongue didn’t stop at the peak of her cleft, but slowed to the lightest tickling touch. Was he still marking her? She couldn’t tell, but if he was, she didn’t want him to stop.
She leaned forward onto her hands, baring her ass to him. A fresh puff of cool smoke gusted between her cheeks, the sensation like cool tendrils of fog just as soft as that smoky figure’s touch had promised to be before he’d been incinerated by her desire.
The twin tips of his tongue glided down between her ass cheeks, skirting the most sensitive parts, but teasing just enough to make her temperature rise and more molten heat pool in her core. She was so hot, she couldn’t tell whether his tongue was still doing its magic or he’d simply gotten distracted by her offering.
His tongue slipped lower, still carefully tracing the outer edges of her spread pussy with such precision, she realized he must be adding to the mark. The idea of having it extending all the way around that part of her made an involuntary moan rise up in her chest, and her wings shook. When his tongue reached all the way between her thighs and continued almost to her navel, she was sure of it, because at the end, he backtraced a line of white heat in another intricate pattern right over her womb that he left throbbing with quiet agony.
He pulled his tongue away, and his hot scaled snout brushed at her core. “Your womb is mine now, Neela. No child conceived within will ever be taken again.”
Emotion flooded her and tears pricked her eyes. “You know. I thought you were gone that day.”
“I was with you, but Meri was stronger than the shade of my mind could overcome.”
“She had to mind control me to take the baby. I’d have died to protect my child, if she hadn’t.”
Another soft gust of smoke surrounded her, and the pulsing heat started to subside.
“No. I want to feel it. Don’t take that pain away from me just yet, please.”
“Very well,” he rumbled. “But I find myself enthralled by this side of you, now that your lovely petals are gilded by fire. Even my shadow can’t resist the urge to see you spread wide by our shaft. The cock we share in this form aches for that warm haven.”
She looked over her shoulder again, and he was once more gazing down at her with head tilted, his eyes fixed at her core that tingled with heat more intense than simple desire would have produced.
She gave him a playful grin. “Did you mark my pussy, you filthy dragon?”
A dark black cloud puffed from his nostrils and he narrowed his eyes. A deep chuckle rumbled up from his big chest and he rose up and hovered over her.
“I only marked what is mine,” he growled against her ear, and she gasped at the feel of the broad tip of his hot javelin of a cock pressing right at the aching opening he’d branded.
Breathless with need, she said, “Then you’d better finish what you started.”
She reached up behind her and hooked both hands around his neck, anchoring herself to him and arching her back. At the same moment, his hips tilted closer and his cockhead pressed at her tight channel. She stretched a little, her pussy too tight to take him easily, but the fire burned hotter, searing fluid flowing to coat his head and run down her thighs. A little more of him slipped into her, and she cried out at the intrusion, clinging tighter to his head.
His snout dipped lower over her shoulder, his tongue flicking out and more bright lines of fire covered her chest. It distracted her just enough from the invasion at her core for him to push deeper. Then his tongue traced delicate, fiery flowers around the tips of her breasts, and her entire body lit up. She yelped when he thrust hard, bottoming out in her and letting out a loud roar of triumph when she took all of him.
He began to pump, slowly at first, then with quicker, rhythmic thrusts, each push into her punctuated by another lash of his tongue over some part of her body. He didn’t stop at her breasts. Once they were adorned with glowing patterns of dragon fire, he continued down her torso, linking the design beneath her navel to an unfurling motif. She didn’t need to see it to feel its beauty as it sank into her skin, marking her with his very essence, and the brand meant all the more to her because it was their shared effort to make her theirs.
Even though it was a single dragon cock that drove deep into her, she was under no illusions that they were of a single mind. For every bright symbol of fire that he etched onto her skin, the shadow countered it with a darker one that balanced the fire and reminded her of her resurrection.
Blood sacrifice, death, rebirth. That was what Zil’s marks meant, and as their bodies merged with the ever more violent pounding of his cock, she recalled the other shadow that had lingered inside her that fateful day. His shadow, the silent watcher that had always been beside her. He couldn’t take that one memory because he’d known it was one she would never want to forget. Because she needed to be able to remember her daughter when they found her again.
He left no part of her unmarked by the end. Even the contours of her cheeks had tiny threads of fire where he’d ghosted delicate licks along her hairline and at the edges of her jaw. And when his thrusts deepened, her entire body lit up even brighter than before.
“Mine always,” he growled against her ear, but within that voice was an echo of a darker voice speaking the exact same words.
“Yes!” she cried, as much in affirmation of their dual claim as her encouragement of the increase in their tempo, until the world went pure white and she found herself soaring high above the building they were in. The sun still hung higher, but nothing but blue sky surrounded them. Her wings stretched out, but something bigger, stronger, held her aloft, and she looked back to see massive black wings stretched wide on either side. But the body the wings were attached to was human-shaped now.
He slowly turned her in his arms until their eyes met. There was love and wonder within, but also conflict. Two men looked back at her from the single pair of eyes, and they seemed uncertain.
“It’s all right,” she said, stroking the cheek of the face that seemed on the verge of splitting into two. Zorion’s fire-veined image was superimposed atop Zil’s sculpted obsidian features. “I don’t understand why you need to be two, but I’m fine with it. Can you both fly, or do we need to land for you to separate?”
They seemed to exhale a long sigh, and a moment later, only the wicked smile of Zil faced her. At her back was the warm press of another body.
“I don’t have wings, but I can be wherever he is, if I wish,” Zorion said. “And as long as he is with you, that’s where I’ll be.”
Chapter Eighteen
The strange little flowing stone chair had transformed itself into a huge bed by the time they landed. Neela fell into the shimmering softness of it with a sigh. It didn’t even occur to her to worry about setting things on fire until she burrowed down and caught a glimpse of her wing out of the corner of one eye, the tiny flames tickling at the pillow. She sat up with a curse, but settled again when she realized nothing showed any sign of being singed.
“This is the Dragon Glade,” Zorion said. “No need to worry about combustion up here. Nothing burns unless we wish it to.”
“That’s a relief, but I am admittedly a little burned out. Can your sister find this place? Or are she and Naaz stuck back in that bunker of yours?”
“They are here,” Zil said as he se
ttled down on her other side. “She’s testing her ability to craft her own abode across the clearing by our mother’s house. We will rest. Tomorrow is the Equinox when power in the world will be at its peak.”
“Already?” Neela said, her eyelids drooping. “You didn’t have to make it so hard to get to you, you know. We could’ve had more time together before going back to work.”
“I had other plans then,” Zorion said. “I apologize for that.”
She let out a sigh and rolled over, swinging her leg across his hips and patting him on the chest. “I forgive you. So, what’s the plan?”
She groped behind her blindly, hunting for the other half of the pair of mates she’d wound up with so unexpectedly. Zil’s cool skin slid beneath her palm, and a second later, he curled his arm around her waist, brushing his lips along her shoulder.
“To test this new power we have. We can apparently stop time when we merge, so we need to learn the limits of it, and find some way to exploit it in our favor ...” Zil trailed off as he seemed to grow fascinated by the weight of her breast in his hand.
“And use it to help destroy our enemy,” Zorion finished.
“But before we do, I’ve got plans to torture her a little,” Zil said.
“Oh, I like that plan.” Neela smiled and shifted her backside against Zil’s hips, interested in the conversation, but entertaining a rising curiosity about how it would feel to have two cocks fucking her at once.
“Yes,” Zil said. “Meri has secrets we could all benefit from knowing, especially what she has done with your child.”
Neela let out an involuntary sigh, partially in agreement with Zil’s sentiment, and partially in pleasure at the way his cock had hardened and was now pressed between her cheeks.
“Are there any secrets you would like to know, adara?” Zorion said, touching her chin and urging her gaze to his. His expression was a little playful, though heated, as though he already knew the answer to his question.
OBell_Immortal05.5Blessed_022018_AllRetailers Page 13