Open Flame (Dragon's Fate) (14 page)

“Have you seen my watch?” He entered the parlor.

She had giggled and run around the other side of the settee. “I have.” She pulled the chain from between her breasts and let the watch dangle, spinning in the air.

His breath caught, and he rounded the lane toward his hired coach to the coast and his ship home.

Laura’s voice echoed again.
“The birds are us. The one with the big red chest is you. The flowers on the branch are our children and the moon in the sky our devoted love.”

The moon…

He stared up at the moon’s light in the night sky. Clouds floated past, threatening to cover the glow like his heart.

The damp night chill nipped at his exposed earlobes. He reached up and adjusted his hat to cover more of his ears.

He would see her again someday. He sighed and quickened his pace.

Invisible hands grasped his throat and thrust him to the side and into the rough stone of the building. He closed his eyes and struggled to cough for air. The blackness returned.

“You failed in every way to give me the fire’s mate.”

“Indeed. Madoc is my only true friend. He deserves love and happiness.” Hudson opened his eyes.

A foggy black skeleton made of air stared at him. Havanis.

“What has happened to you?”

“Fire’s mate burned me. Her power and strength will be mine.”

Hudson raised his hands and tried to move the air. Havanis did not falter.

“Made of air. Yet powerful.” Havanis’s black mist jaw opened, and a laugh echoed in the corners of Hudson’s mind. “Your weakness is love. Mine was once too. Love betrays. Love cuts your heart out and slowly stitches up your caring with regret, anger, loss.” The foggy mist released his throat, and cold fingers gripped his shoulder.

He gulped in air. “Havanis, I will not harm Madoc or his happiness. He is my friend.”

“I saw this. I know. You still desire love and happiness. That includes passion. Seeing as I have your manhood, that will not become reality until I have my elements of power.”

“The Zir betrayed you. You want to best them.” He focused on the sapphire working in his pocket. The Zir had never betrayed Hudson.

“No. A woman’s heart is filled with deceit. The Zir are simply the unfortunate casualties.” The misty skeleton glanced down, and their eyes met. A shiver sliced through to Hudson’s very bones. His teeth chattered. So cold.

The skeleton diminished. “You will be called upon again. And when I do, you will do as I say, or you will be dead.”

Hudson reached up and patted his pocket where the sapphire wheel he had concentrated on resided. No bulge met his fingers. Havanis had stolen the working. His lips twitched up. He was no fool. He slid his hand into his inside breast pocket, where a small, hard working still resided. Franco had made two. One for the Zir and one for him. At least he still had one with which to go back in time.

A coldness seeped into Carmen’s fiery cell. She reached her hands out, unseeing, on the hot dirt floor. The cold… Such a delight. She pushed up to her knees and placed both hands in the cool mist.

Invisible icy fingers trailed her forehead down to her chin. It had been forever since she had been touched. Her throat constricted, and she leaned her head into the caress. Goose bumps raced up her arms.

The touch disappeared.

“I have always cherished when you knelt at my feet. I loved you once. You betrayed me. Your betrayal will end many lives.”

Carmen stared into the darkness. Havanis. “Please. No.” She stayed on her knees, her hands in her lap. “They are special. They are our creation. Because of my magic and your curse, we created the Zir. Let them live.” Tears stung her dry eyes.

“You beg. Your fear does nothing for me. You would do anything to leave this isolation. How hard this must be for you to have contact with others but not be able to drink their blood.”

“Not everything I say to you is a lie.” She had come to care about him in the end. She had hoped he would have seen that. He did not, and now she would never forgive him. Dragons deserved to be in this world. Even if they now roamed the world in Zir form.

He laughed again. “And I should believe that?” His voice faded into the darkness.

“Please. Let me out of here. Let me show you they are ours, not just the power you wish to obtain.”

“Never. You belong here with the darkness all about you.”

“Please.”

He did not answer.

She closed her eyes, and images of Havanis lounging on his bed with his red silk robe open down to his navel pressed into her conscious. His long, fair hair and crystal-blue eyes as he laughed and pulled her to him…

She licked her lips. His voice had changed. Icy resentment warped his once singing tone.

He would never let her leave this place.

She needed to find another answer.

Epilogue

Three months later…

Ilmir floated above his brother Madoc as he signed the papers on the wooden table before the hearth. The small ceremony held to celebrate Fina and Madoc’s finding one another came to a close.

Jordan stood with Celeste next to them and raised a glass to toast. “To the Zir and finding survival, love and vitality.”

Two brothers. Two wives.

Ilmir’s stomach roiled, and he rolled his eyes.

The Isle became crowded.

He’d liked it so much better when there were the six beings in the house; the four Zir, Astrid, and Penelope the cook. The three who took care of the animals and grounds all slept in different dwellings on the Isle. He preferred that.

Madoc pivoted to Fina and grasped her hands. He raised them to his lips and kissed her knuckles. “Love. Life. Learning and time.” He leaned in and pressed a kiss to her lips. “We have forever to explore distance and time together.”

Ilmir hated them. He ground his teeth together, and then he shook his head. No. Not hated. Envied. Resented.

He would never find love in a mate. He had love, though she didn’t know he loved her. He certainly would never allow himself to bite her. What if she died? Jordan had lost loves before he’d found Celeste.

No. He could not handle a single day if she died.

He floated from the room and back out into the hall that led to his elemental room. He needed air. He needed to fly and experience the exhilaration that came from a bite. He needed to dream and forget…

Madoc walked Fina down the hall to their elemental rooms. Hidden in his breast pocket was a flower that reminded him of her. The plant now sat next to their bed for her to care for.

Fina squeezed his fingers. “This day is filled with firsts.”

“So has every day been since you bit me.” Happiness overflowed in his heart and filled his soul with love that only she provided. He adored her. Wanted to show her all he knew and learn love together.

“Since I bit you?” Her eyebrows rose.

“Very well, since we bit each other.” He touched her arm and stopped halfway down the hall to their room. She turned toward him. He held up an exotic orchid flower to her. It was bright red with blue veins. The petals looked like a dragon head with long, pointed horns.

She sucked in a breath and grasped the stem. Happiness danced in her eyes.

Beautiful.

The red of the flower accentuated the line on her nose. She wore the scales shimmering like a row of rubies down her nose with a pride that shone in her blue eyes. He reached up and traced to the bridge of her nose. Soft. Softer than his marks. Feminine, delicate and strong. “How did you get this bump?”

“Silly, really.” She twirled the flower in her fingers. “I have always been very clumsy. I tripped in my new boots, lost my balance and slammed into a post out on the square. The post righted me, but not until after my face hit the rough pole.”

He cringed. That must have been painful. He would have caught her. “Did it break?”

“I do not know. It did bleed.” Fire-blue eyes stared up at him, and she smiled. Leaning in, she inhaled deeply. “I love the way you smell. Spicy peppers and sweetness. The sweet smell I did not know until I came to the Isle. Chocolate.” She licked her lips.

“I smell like chocolate?” He chuckled.

“Quite so. I have a little secret.” She ran her hands up his long red-and-black vest and settled them on his chest, where his scales resided. They heated against her touch.

He adored when she did that. “There are no secrets with us.”

She bit her lip, and heat bloomed a rosy color on her face. “I did not bleed this moon.”

The hairs on his nape stood, and he slid his hand down to her abdomen. Beneath his hand, her pulse and a second unique pulse quickened. Their child. “A Zir grows…” His throat tightened. Children. A family. His eyes moistened.

“You said many children.”

He yelled out a cry of jubilation. “Indeed, I did. Let’s hope there are three in there.” He winked at her.

“Oh no. One at a time. I want to cherish this experience over and over.”

“And so we shall.” He leaned in and pressed his lips to her full ones. He slipped his tongue into her warmth. She kissed him back with all the passion he had in his soul. He reached up and cupped her face.

She was his. He was hers.

Together they would embrace the world, and family, with all the fire and passion that pulsed through them as Zir.

About the Author

Lacy Danes made a New Year's resolution to write a hot, historical romance. A year and a half later, she achieved her goal. She lives in Portland, Oregon, where besides writing she enjoys horseback riding, gardening and savoring a great martini while watching the world go by. Visit Lacy at her website
www.lacydanes.com
.

Look for these titles by Lacy Danes

Now Available:

House of Sin

Dragon’s Fate

Waterfall

It’s easy to fall in love. Destiny requires tooth and claw.

Waterfall

© 2013 Lacy Danes

Dragon’s Fate, Book 1

Curses are designed to be cruel, but the one afflicting Jordan and his brothers is almost beyond bearing. A dragon born by blood magic, he is an immortal trapped in human form, with only one hope of finding his eternal mate. He must bite her—and pray she lives.

One dark night, he senses the wounded heartbeat of a woman in the shadows, begging him to end her life. Ever the gentleman, he chivalrously obliges her wish. Only to discover three days later that she lives. And has married another.

Celeste always dreamed of marrying for love, but the nightmare of living in her father’s home drives her to wed the Duke of Hudson. Yet on her wedding eve, she is compelled to follow a mysterious man who professes to know her secret. A man with curious blue scales on his muscular arms—whose shadowed eyes reflect a dangerous mix of destiny and desire…

Warning: Explicit sex, sex in water, four super-hot dragon brothers, and a curse born from magical power that has left them wondering who they are all their lives.

Enjoy the following excerpt for
Waterfall:

Jordan’s vision hazed and warped in a colorful wave, heightening details at the center of his focus. He shook his head and looked down to the highly polished wood floor. His sight returned to normal.

What just happened? His vision never colored except after he had bitten. He locked his jaw, and his chest labored. He slowly raised his gaze back up at the duke and the woman who stood the same height beside him. A rainbow of colors radiated out from her.

He choked.

The woman… He closed his eyes, and the image from the beach came back to him…

Golden hair lit up with the sun. The pearls of her aristocratic dress played against the tips of his fingers as he gently laid her on the grass for dead.

His throat tightened. He had bitten her three days past, and she…
lived.

Oh, bloody hell.

His body shook.

She was his mate.

Heat coursed through his flesh and burned through his cock, which swelled and pressed painfully against his trousers. His mate. He shifted his stance and placed his hand at an angle to disguise his engorged erection. Damn. He glanced about the room. This couldn’t be possible. His attention snapped back to her.

“Lords and ladies, I present to you my new wife, Her Grace, the Duchess of Hudson!” His Grace raised her fingers to his lips and kissed her gloved knuckles.

It was her. It really was the same woman. Jordan had touched that wrist. Had taken her bracelet. His treasure of her death. His fingers fisted, and he stumbled forward, seeing nothing but her golden hair, slender nose, full, angelic lips and noble cheekbones. All held the color of life. Not death.

She had wed Hudson.