by Aidy Award
Little flame, your fire inside burns so brightly. I only hope my darkness doesn't block your light.
Whoa. That was Ace's voice inside of her head. She didn't realize there was anyway to be even more intimate with someone than to share her body with them, but sharing her mind was an entirely deeper level than she could have ever fathomed was possible. She wasn't sure she could share her thoughts with him but wanted to try. That can never happen as long as you're the one lighting my fire.
Ace withdrew his teeth from her, and his head shot up. “You heard me?”
“I did and I loved it.”
Ace snuggled into the crook of her neck again and licked the spot where he'd bit her. He reached out and touched the necklace her mother had given her, the one that looked so very similar to the one Jerko had flipped out over. When his fingers touched the jewel, it disintegrated and turned into a million rainbow sparkles that floated away on some kind of non-existent breeze.
Thing number four-hundred and eighty-two on the list of weird things to happen today.
“My love, I want nothing more to drag you down the hall and see if there is a bed in this place, but I think Kady and Neo are on their way here and they're going to want to work on a way to defend against the shadow demon warriors and the Cult of the Dead.
“I think we'll have plenty of time for everything we want to do together. Let's get to work.” She kissed him on the cheek and went to play with her new toys.
Ace followed her around the interior seeming pleased with each of her oohs and awes. He also took every opportunity to touch her, whether it was a caress of her arm or their hips meeting as they stood side-by-side. It didn’t take long before his casual touches became a little more serious. Like hands on her butt, caressing it in ways that made her go all gooey inside, serious.
The analytical part of her mind noted that this time the new light that accompanied her magic didn’t rise up quite so quick or bright now as when they’d touched her before. Her first hypothesis was because they had done the marking thing. Not that she understood either that process, or it’s affects. She did infer that this new increase in her magic’s spontaneous manifestations had a direct correlation with Ace and Not.
She’d like to talk to Kady about that.
Ace’s fingers danced along her neck and over the places where he’d bitten her. “Where have you gone, pretty mate? You’re certainly not here with me right now.”
Busted. “Oops. Sorry. Sometimes I get lost in my head.”
He chuckled, not irritated like most everyone else she zoned out on. “I know someone else like that too. What were you thinking about?”
“That I have a sister.” It was hard for her to even say that word out loud.
His playful touches turned soft as he considered her words. “That came as a shock to you, didn’t it?”
“I’ve never had any kind of family. I never thought I would.” She’d given up on the idea of a mother and father the first time a foster parent had hit her. She’d never even considered that she might have siblings.
“I won’t say I’m sorry, but that does make my heart sad to hear.” He took her hand and brought it to his lips. “But, if you’ll accept me, let me be yours, the dragons, their mates, and the Brotherhood will be a family for you, along with your sister.”
Ash had to gulp to swallow the Jupiter sized lump in her throat and found that she’d forgotten to breath too.
When she remembered how to make her lungs work again and cleared her throat, she asked a question that no theory or equation had ever been able to solve for her. She’d shoved it aside after so many years and told herself it didn’t matter. But talking with Ace now, she realized she’d lied to herself.
“What if I don’t know how to be part of a family?” Each word burned on its way across her tongue.
“Aw, little flame. You don’t have to know how. You just have to be you. I will love you no matter what.”
Just be her.
No, that couldn’t be right.
“You didn’t even know I existed until a few hours ago. How can you love me?”
“I’ve known you existed from the time I received my soul shard. It took only one look, one touch for me to fall in love with you. By the will of the White Witch and the First Dragon, we were meant for each other.”
“I don’t put much faith in imaginary higher powers.” She assumed the dragons worshipped this Witch and First Dragon as deities.
Ace laughed which took her off guard. That was not the usual reaction one got when dismissing someone’s religion.
“You’re smart not to. The First Dragon is something like a god, but he's also my father. The father of all Dragonkind, and he sired all of the Black Dragons. Clearly, he was a horndog back then, but don’t tell him I said that. I’d like to keep my head attached to my body.”
Huh. He was both making light of his beliefs and intimating that they were important to him. “You don’t mind that I don’t believe in your mythology?”
“The First Dragon and his mate are a part of our culture, not yours. I know in my heart that our destinies have been entangled—”
Ash interrupted, “And I happen to believe we make our own fates. I’d choose to tangle my life with yours in any realm, any time, anyway.”
Inside, in a place Ash discounted, isolated, made sure to keep from the world so that it never mattered if it was hurt or not, a warm glow, similar in feel to her magic, ignited. Her heart could have fueled a thousand iron man suits at that moment.
Ace took her other hand in his and kissed her palm. “Now, how do you like your new lab? Think you can make something to help us take care of the spectrals in here.”
She had an inkling he’d done that for her so that they got back to a subject she was comfortable with. Science she could do.
Family and love. She didn’t know about that quite yet.
“The lab is amazing. But I’ve been trying to replicate a containment field the Organization has surrounding one of the non-photonic, uh, shadow beings a super-heated plasma field. Boeing patented something similar for use with troops to deflect the shockwaves of explosions.”
“God, your sexy when you say super smart shit I don't even understand.” Ace crushed her against his body and kissed her once again.
She really didn’t want to fall in love. Her logical realistic part of her brain rejected the idea. That couldn’t even happen. The heat coursing through her body and settling between her legs flipped her brain the finger on its way to sexy times land.
Someone nearby squeaked. “Oh geez. Sorry. I’ll come back.”
Ace broke the kiss and pressed his forehead to hers taking three long deep breaths that matched hers before he cleared his throat and spoke.
“No, Kady. Please. Come in.”
She did but was looking everywhere but at the two of them. They all stood around awkwardly for a minute until Kady said, “Looks like you Ellie and Apollo turned this tiny house into the astrometrics lab on Enterprise. You got a holodeck in here somewhere too?”
Ash snort laughed. Like out loud. She covered her mouth but didn’t quite contain her giggle. “I was wondering the same thing. Do the dragons have that kind of technology?”
She and Kady smiled at each other, both clearly excited to find that something new that they shared.
“Sadly, no. This is just plain old human technology, bought with a dragon's hoard.”
Another man wearing a cowboy hat poked his head into the entryway to the house. “Two of the Brotherhood just flew in with reports that the Cult is on the move. If you’re working on some sort of defense it needs to be now.”
“Thanks, Percy,” Neo said, then turned to Kady. “Sweet fire, let’s show your sister what you can do.”
Kady took Neo’s hand in both of hers. “Are you sure?”
He touched her cheek and nodded.
What could her sister possibly do that would help defend against the Organization? They were a huge well-funded tacti
cal operation. They had helicopters and tanks and... shadow demons.
All her little underdog team had was one tiny house full of tech, two sisters, a handful of dragons and a town of magical people.
“How much do you know about your magic, Ash?” Kady asked her.
“Not much. It’s kind of erratic. Until today I hadn’t ever manifested it except to do small things like some electricity tricks. To be honest, it seems so weird I haven’t wanted to. But some pretty crazy things happened with it after I met the dragons.”
Kady nodded. “Right. I didn’t even know I had magic in me until I met Neo. There’s something about the connection between us that brought it out in me.”
Neo cupped the back of Kady’s neck in a move that was both so supportive and possessive of her that it made Ash’s heart tingle with wishing she had someone who was that for her.
Before she was even finished putting that yearning out into the universe Ace slid his hand beneath her hair and gave her neck a gentle squeeze. His other hand softly swirled over her spine, settling at the small of her back. The tiny tingle in her chest burst into a million sparkles across her skin and his.
Kady blinked and glanced up at her mate, then back to Ash. “I was about to ask if being with your mates, you know, uh, sexually brings out your magic too. Guess that’s obvious.”
Ash’s mind whirled putting the pieces of that puzzle together. “Can you show me – I mean, not like have sex, geez. Sorry. I’m just curious to see how it works.”
Kady didn’t seem bothered in the least by Ash’s complete social blunder. Phew.
“Yeah. Ellie and Apollo asked me to come over and show you the shield I can put up around a shadow demon warrior because you might be able to recreate it with whatever you’ve been researching for the Cult.”
“Yes. Please. I’d love to see it. Do we need to like, leave, or turn our backs or something?”
Kady giggled. “No, no. I’m much better at pulling the magic up than I used to be. I don’t need much more than to think of him now. I’ve learned a lot from the other mates of dragons and wolves in town. Although, physical touch brings it out a lot faster and stronger.”
Kady moved closer to Neo, looked at him for a long moment and a flash of something Ash thought might be worry was quickly replaced when he took her hand in his. He brought her palm to his lips and kissed it in a moment so intimate, Ash really thought they all should look away.
Neo moved down and nibbled the tender part of Kady’s wrist right above her pulse point. The necklace around Kady’s neck, similar to the amulets Ace wore around his, lit up like a light bulb.
Ash’s mouth dropped open when swirls of light lifted off of Kady’s skin and surrounded the couple in a bubble of light.
Kady brushed her hand across Neo’s cheek. “Ready?”
He nodded.
Both of their eyes drifted shut, but while Neo’s remained closed, Kady’s opened. The light glowed from inside of her, shining out through her eyes. Slowly, a silvery black form lifted out of Neo’s body. It looked like a ghost made out of dark matter and an angry malevolence poured out of it. It hovered over Kady, a shadowy tentacle reaching toward her.
Ace and Apollo reacted in a flash grabbing for Kady and Ellie. The bubble of energy acted like some sort of force field and they crashed against it. Dragon claws emerged and scales rippled across their bodies and the two warriors scratched and clawed at the barrier.
Kady raised her hand, in a Zen-like state as if she didn’t want to disturb the biome she’d created around her.
The being in there with them was not a ghost. Ash knew better. That was a non-photonic being, a shadow demon. But why wasn’t Kady afraid of it? Why wasn’t it attacking the others and assimilating them?
Ash glanced around the shiny new lab and grabbed the first piece of equipment at hand. It looked a little like a cross between a police radar gun and a Star Trek tricorder. She pushed the switch to turn it on and pointed it at Kady and her magic.
The first view was an infrared reading. Kady looked like a normal human with areas of green, blue, red, yellow, and orange. But Black was mostly blue. Where his heart should register, the camera showed pure black. The exact same color as the spectral, floating in the air above them both.
The magic flowing out of Kady, the field around her registered like an oil slick. Predominately blues and purples with streaks of yellows and orange lit up the screen.
Ash flicked a switch and got a whole new view. This handy dandy tool was showing her the view as if she were looking through and electron microscope.
She switched the view several more times, fascinated with the various data it showed her. She made a few quick notes on an iPad and set down her favorite new toy.
“Kady? Can you hear me?”
Kady nodded moving her head only a fraction.
“I have more than enough information. You can do whatever you need to put the genie back in the bottle.”
Kady grabbed the necklace and in a whoosh, the shadow demon was gone along with the magical force field. Neo blinked, then grabbed her and kissed her, dipping her just like in the movies.
Apollo was the first one to break their spell. “What the shit?”
Sex Magic
Ace
Ash didn’t give Neo a chance to explain why the hell Kady could pull a shadow demon out of his fucking soul or body or wherever the hell it had come from.
Ace's dragon was as close to the surface as it could be and still be contained. Every protective instinct he had over his brethren and his new mate roared for him to rip the enemy to shreds. Which he couldn’t do. There was none.
Ash turned to him, grabbed his shirt and kissed him. While he wanted nothing more than to spend a lot of time with her pressed against his body, locking lips and bodies with hers, now was not the time. Her fire swirled around him, her scent filled his nose, and her taste flooding his tastebuds soothed the beast more than any revenge or battle, could have.
She batted her eyes at him and licked her lips. “We need to have sex.”
Not like he was going to say no to that, but had he really charmed her enough for her to accept his claiming, to be forever linked as mates? Because now that he'd marked her, that's what having sex meant. Not that she knew enough about dragon culture to know that.
“I need to learn to access my magic. You,” she waved her hand toward his groin area “apparently have a magic penis.”
Ace choked and almost swallowed his own tongue. “Love, I can work some magic with my cock, and I want to with you and only you. But, when I fuck you, it will be because you have accepted my claim on you, your soul, and have become my true mate.”
She wrinkled her brow, those brain cells in her head turning that idea over.
He’d spent only a few hours trying to charm her. Courting her hadn’t even begun. There was no way she was ready to accept him and the darkness he would bring to her soul.
“I agree.” She said matter of factly. “What do you have to do to make me your mate? Does it involve more biting? Is there a wedding? I don’t think we have time for that. Can we elope? Have the local judge marry us? Does Rogue have a judge? He is probably a vampire or a warlock or something, right?”
The questions kept on coming out of her mouth. Her eyes were lit with excitement and curiosity. It was absolutely adorable. But it wasn’t love.
He hadn’t even realized he needed that from her until this moment. Mates were mates. They had feelings for each other that made them loyal, protective, devoted. Many grew to love each other, even long after the lust of the mating frenzy was gone.
He needed that from Ash. He wanted her to love him.
Claim her. His dragon roared into his mind. His fears that the evil mar on his soul leftover from being raised in hell, would overwhelm her, destroy her, reared its ugly head. Ace could all too easily lose Ash, his true mate, his one chance at living a whole-hearted life just like Jett had.
Wasn't it better to live this ha
lf-life of a warrior than to love her and lose her? Jett was a broken dragon without his mate. Ace knew deep inside that Neo would be the same if he lost Kady. How could they take that chance?
“No.” Ace let the word slip out before he was even sure he should say anything. “Defeating the Cult is important, and I want nothing more than to claim you and fuck you until you are screaming with pleasure. But I will not claim you in the name of science, and never before you’re ready to truly make us me mates, in your heart and mind. Not until you understand the risks.”
“I get it. Let’s do this.” Ash reached for her pants and unbuckled them. “Kady. Thanks for the illuminating education. I’d like to hang out with you later. Is that okay?”
Ash slid her pants right off and down to the floor. Ace jumped in front of her so no one else could see all those luscious curves. They were his.
Kady giggled. “Yeah. We’re watching a Star Trek marathon in the garden tonight and having a potluck. So, come find me when you’re done…uh, practicing magic.”
“Will do. Oh. Would you mind seeing if you could find some food for Flerkie?” Ash popped around Ace and grabbed Kady in a hug. Her beautiful plump ass wiggled in front of him. Begging him to caress it, pinch and spank it.
Maybe fucking her for science sake wasn’t such a bad idea.
No. Once he sunk his cock into her, he would never be able to leave her. It would all be too late then.
“Ninsy asked me if I would bring Flerken by. Seems they are old friends.” Kady picked Ash's animal up off the floor and snuggled in into her arms. Neo frowned at the beast and took a step back. Smart.
“Remind me to ask you about that later.” The women kissed each other on the cheeks.
Kady elbowed Neo and let him away. “Let’s go try out your magic penis,” she whispered a little too loudly.
Neo saluted Ace and followed his mate out of the tiny house and closed the door behind them.