by Tijan
“What’s happening?”
“Fucking Kieran Raoul is happening. He’s coming for her.”
“What?!”
A vampire came up behind Quesadilla, who was still drinking from me, and reached for her shoulder.
No! I barked at her in my head.
I didn’t know if she heard me, or she just felt me, but she hesitated—and that was enough.
It was Jay’s fuck-friend.
She was studying me, and whatever she saw had her whispering, “Oh God. He’s your mate, isn’t he?”
“What?”
“What?!” from inside the room.
Both were from vampires, or I was guessing vampires, that I didn’t know.
“WHAT?!” That was Nikki.
“Who’s he?” Jay.
“Shit.” Uncle Cream. “What’s everyone going on about?”
There was another roar, and this one shook everyone. Jay’s bitch trembled before she raised her head, turning to face away.
He was here.
I felt him.
In a blink, he swooped in and everyone was gone.
Jay’s bitch.
Quesadilla.
It was silence. An eerie silence.
A third roar, but from farther away.
“Oh my God. He’s eating them.” Nikki sounded anguished.
“That’s one way to kill ‘em.”
I sighed. Brad. Of course.
There was more screaming.
People or whoever was running.
“He’s coming back.”
I didn’t know who said that, but I felt them.
They swooped over us, Kieran and Rakon’s shadow like a quick blink of the eye, and there were more screams.
It was the screams. The sound of terror.
I felt their energy.
It was all being drained down to me.
I was so drained, so weak.
I didn’t want to taste what they felt, but I couldn’t not. I needed to eat. I was too weak otherwise—Do not!
I need to eat.
No. Me. That's it. No one else.
Kieran…
I was so hungry. So tired. So exhausted.
I can’t—
You will! Two more sweeps and I have them all. Hold on. Just, hold on.
He did two more sweeps, and I ignored the energy that was dancing around me. I was almost frothing with drool. I was so hungry, but I held on.
I waited.
Until there was silence.
Someone was crying. Nikki.
Someone was weeping. I didn’t know who.
“This shit is insane.” A whisper from Brad.
A deep thud, and I felt Kieran coming to me.
I was able to move my head, and there he was.
He was looking at me through Rakon’s eyes.
I thought, You’re beautiful.
He was all black, with the points of his scales tinted in blue. His eyes were large and oval, a literal fire inside of them. His body was the size of three football fields. He had blown the house away, so when he walked over, I felt a chill in the air. He seemed to sense this and his head lowered, his breath coming out to coat me like a warm blanket.
He moved to see me more squarely. Are you okay?
I’m hungry.
But it was more.
If our creatures were mates, or we were mates, I didn’t know. I didn’t care at this point. I needed him.
He blinked, understanding there. Trust me, okay?
I closed my eyes. Yes.
A muffled scream came from someone just as I felt more of his hot breath, then his teeth were nudging at my restraints. They came undone. I think one melted under his fire, which only teased at my skin, before I felt his teeth moving over me.
He was scraping me gently.
What are you doing?
Testing your injuries.
“What are you doing to her?”
Kieran ignored them, continuing with my restraints.
He freed my legs.
He was moving to my arm when Nikki yelled, “Hey! I don’t care who you are, if you hurt her—”
Kieran whipped his head around, flames breathing out from his nostrils. You’ll do what?
I had enough energy to look more around, and I saw Nikki shrink backwards.
I knew his voice had gotten inside her head.
“Nik,” I whispered.
Her large eyes moved to mine. I saw her standing in a cage. Where the cage came from, I hadn’t a clue, but she fell down seeing me seeing her. Her hands were wrapped tightly around the bars.
“I’m okay.”
He freed my second arm, and he opened his giant mouth over me.
“He's going to eat you,” she whispered back.
“No.”
His jaws closed over me, but he only lifted me from the table.
I was secure in his mouth. Nothing was hurting anymore.
I was tuned into him and Rakon. Both were worried about me.
He was about to lift off again.
I said to Nikki right before he did, “Trust me. I’ll be back.”
He sprang up, and we were soaring. Going higher and higher.
I was flying.
19
Yes
When I woke, I was warm all over, and I felt like I was levitating. I wasn’t. I moved around, and I felt blankets underneath me, but that was the feeling in my body. I felt ‘light’ all over.
In a flash, the night came back to me.
The post-Halloween party.
Uncle Cream.
Going into the kitchen.
Jay and her.
Quesadilla.
Quesadilla’s fangs.
Blood.
Nothing.
Waking, feeling lower than absolute shit.
Threats.
Grossness.
More Quesadilla’s fangs.
And then, Kieran.
So much Kieran.
All hot and sexy things Kieran.
I felt a rumble inside of me and instantly thought, Sorry, Rakon.
I amended my earlier memories to: Rakon, Rakon, Rakon.
Better.
I felt him leaving again, feeling happy.
I bolted upright, my heart pounding.
I just felt Rakon’s emotions.
Rakon’s.
I only got glimpses of Kieran’s emotions before, but not Rakon’s and not this strong. Everything was more, all more.
I felt the bed beneath me.
I felt the air around me.
I felt the particles in the air.
I could hear a buzzing in the air and looked out a window. I was hearing the electrical wires, a mile away. I was seeing the wires, a mile away. Through trees, down a hill.
I knew it all and felt it all, and I was having a heart attack.
What was happening to me?
“You merged with your creature last night.”
Kieran was leaning against the doorframe, regarding me.
I had no clue what that meant.
One side of his mouth curved up. He straightened from the doorframe and began to move toward me. “That means you’re not separated anymore. You’re a complete energist.” He sat on the edge of the bed.
It dipped underneath him and those dark eyes were assessing me.
He asked, “How do you feel?”
“I feel good.”
I moved, and nope. There was an ache there, a big ache.
I groaned, and Kieran grinned again. “You were saying?”
I moved back, sighing. “I’m hurting. Never mind.”
“Your body went through a trauma last night and you merged. I’d imagine you’ll feel sore for a day.”
“Only a day?”
He nodded, his gaze sweeping over me. “A day. At least. You fed a little on me last night, enough to start the merge, but not enough to fill you.”
“Oh.”
I didn’t remember feeding.
“You were exh
austed. I made you eat a little before you fell asleep.”
I was disappointed. I’d been looking forward to eating him.
His gaze lifted, then falling to my mouth. “That’s the plan for today.”
Right.
He could hear me. I kept forgetting.
“You choose to forget.”
Right on that too.
He smirked.
Right. Again.
“Sorry.”
He shook his head. “No. It’s entertaining.”
“So, you and Rakon, huh?”
A faint smile from him. “Once Rakon felt you were hurting, there was no stopping him. He rose on his own, and he never does that.”
Mate.
We both heard him and shared a smile.
“There’s that, huh?”
His eyes met mine, staying. Growing somber. “Right.”
A pressure was building inside of me.
I felt like I was going to burst, so I did what every normal person would do.
I changed the subject. “Where does Rakon usually stay?”
It was a question every supernatural being knew about because dragons were the top of the chain. It was also known that there was an under-universe, like the flipside of our surface of another world. Dragons lived there. I thought it’d all been a fantasy story, until I found out Kieran existed.
“Do other dragons live there?”
He nodded. “Rakon’s the only one that’s merged with a sire.”
It was another reminder how ancient, and how powerful Kieran was.
I’d never felt smaller.
He grinned, but taunted me. Scared?
I laughed, my voice hitching on an uncomfortable note. Maybe.
I don’t blame you. It’s taken me a bit to admit it myself.
“Really?” My lips parted in surprise.
He nodded, his gaze returning to my mouth. “I felt it. As soon as I felt your energy in the area, I knew who you were to me. Then you came to me, and I found out you were sent by Quessadiline, and I was furious. I wasn’t accepting you, what you were to me, and you didn’t seem to know yourself.”
I remembered that first night in the blue velvet room. “Uh, I felt something that night, just thought it was a side effect to you analyzing me.”
A full smile came from him. “No. Most aren’t aware of me ‘analyzing’ them. That reaction was a mate reaction.”
That word again.
“You don’t seem happy about that.” I was going out on a limb here, my heart was picking up, pounding harder.
His eyes flicked up to mine, but returned just as quick to my mouth.
He spoke, but he did it very quietly. “I’ve not had a mate for three centuries. It’s…an unusual feeling to have again.” He looked away. “And there’s changes that need to be made.”
Changes.
Unusual feeling.
He so wasn’t happy about it.
I sat up, bringing my knees up and I wrapped my arms around them. I hugged them to my chest, propping my chin on top of one. “Nothing has to change, you know. I mean, Rakon said my creature was his mate—” I stopped at the look Kieran gave me. “What?”
“You are your creature now. When we brought you back here, Rakon claimed you.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“He breathed on you. The mating mark surfaced over you, that’s what helped merge you and your creature together.”
I—I have no idea what to think about that.
You know about mate marks.
I did, but they were almost as mythical as Kieran himself. It was an age-old belief that was believed to be, well, in the ages.
“Where is it?”
“On your back.”
“I don’t remember that.”
“You had passed out.”
“Is that why I’m hurting?”
He shook his head. “Mate marks don’t hurt. Do you want to see it?”
I nodded. Oh boy, did I.
He came over, and he bent down. His arms slid under me, and whoosh, he picked me up.
I squawked from the suddenness of the action, my arms going around him in reflex.
Most of it was reflex. Some of it. I was totally melting on the inside all over again.
Kieran’s gaze moved to mine, and he stayed there, watching me as he carried me into his bathroom.
He set me on the vanity and stood between my legs. Still holding my gaze, his hands moved to my shirt. I was in a tanktop, and he pushed up the bottom, lifting it up and over me. I was still in my bra from last night.
His gaze trailed behind me.
I looked back, and gasped.
It was beautiful.
A full winding dragon stretched over my entire back. The edges were detailed and looked as if the dragon was on fire. Its mouth was raised toward my neck, open, and it looked as if fire itself was rising upwards.
“That came because he breathed on me?”
His hand flexed next to my leg. “That and because we held you in our mouth when we flew you here. The combination of both.”
I’d never seen something as beautiful as that mark, and I felt an underlying pulsating inside of me. As if feeling it too, Kieran moved closer into me, his voice coming out rough, “That’s Rakon. He can feel you.”
I lifted my eyes in the mirror, seeing Kieran looking at me and the intensity in his eyes stole that breath from my throat. I almost gasped, but then Kieran turned to the mirror and his eyes found mine there. There was a fierce emotion mixing with his intensity and a warmth was spreading inside of me, just from seeing it.
My heart began beating even harder.
“Do you want to feel your mark?”
I nodded. I so very badly wanted to touch it.
“Touch it through me.” He raised his hand, as if asking for my permission, and I nodded again.
He leaned closer, his breath coating my shoulder as his finger touched at the base of the mark first.
A surge of pleasure speared through me, and it only raised as his finger went over every inch of the mark.
I was feeling it through him, but also feeling his touch inside me at the same time.
Is it always like this?
His head had lowered closer to my shoulder and I felt his breath caress me. I’ve only had one other mate, but this is more than what I remember.
I had closed my eyes and I didn’t know it until I looked at him. More?
He met my gaze, our lips an inch apart. More.
Everything beautiful I had ever experienced in my life, all the memories, all the feelings, even the tears of joy, every single one of them happened again. At once. Right now. All together, and I gasped from the onslaught of it all. My throat was choking up.
Kieran… I started, but hesitated.
He kept watching me, but his finger was moving over the mark.
Every curve, turn. The skin raised to make the outline and he went over each peak, even the details to make it look as if it were on fire.
I could see it perfectly through him, his mind.
He was letting me see through him, and I was inside of him because of it.
Did you want a mate?
Some didn’t. I would understand if he was one of those.
I didn’t when I felt you, no.
I started to look away, but his other hand caught my chin. A lone finger and he turned me to look at him again.
That’s changed. I was already coming for you, but when we felt Quessadiline’s presence, I called for Rakon without a second thought. He was rising anyways. We both felt it. Rakon has always waited for me. He’s never risen without my signal. That’s how important you are to him. His hand moved to the back of my neck, spreading out. He cupped me there. To me. You’re ours. You’re mine.
He had moved even closer, our chests were touching.
I almost felt every inch of him, and I closed my eyes, giving in.
A swell flooded me, enveloping me, and taking me.
You haven’t eaten enough yet.
I nodded, already answering his call to me. I drew his energy in, digesting it, and it wasn’t the same response as the first time. I knew now that I had been pulled into Rakon. This time, it was both of them. My energy was mingling with his, and lust exploded everywhere. Inside of me. Outside of me. In Kieran. Around us. If I’d opened my eyes, I knew I would’ve seen it in the air surrounding us.
A rough groan left him, and his mouth came to mine.
That made everything even more, tenfold more.
I fed from him, and his energy, and when I was done, he lifted me back up. His mouth never left mine, his tongue slipping inside. He took me back to his bed, laying me down, and coming to cover me. He lay gently over me, but I groaned, needing him.
“You’re sore—”
I shook my head, my mouth catching him. Not anymore. I need this.
His whole body shuddered as he began kissing me back, answering my demand. He took control and demanded from me instead.
I have never felt this before.
I was scared to say the name of what I was feeling, but it was bringing tears to my eyes as Kieran undressed me.
As he kissed me.
As he moved back over me.
As he slid inside of me.
As he filled me.
He was me. We were one.
Humans didn’t know what this feeling was. They said it, but they could never experience it. I was inside of Kieran, feeling me through him and he was doing the same. He was thrusting, and the sensations were a continuous wave of pleasure.
This. He said in my head, watching me as he moved inside of me. You are my mate.
I watched him back. Yes, a whisper back from me.
Yes.
Under my touch on his back, I felt his own dragon mark surface.
20
Explain Yourself
A day later.
Nikki: Hello? ARE YOU ALIVE?!
Cale: Yes. Sorry. Caught up on stuff. I have some things to tell you.
Nikki: THE HELL YOU DO! OMG FREAKING KIERAN RAOUL? R U KIDDING ME?
Cale: Give me a few more days.
NIKKI: DAYS?! I’M FREAKING OUT HERE. Also, Brad is serious about trying for a relationship. What do you think? I need my girl’s input.
Cale: Are you serious? I knew that was the reason for the party, to make up for the shitty Halloween that you had, but … What are you thinking?