Rising Dragons Omnibus (27 page)

Rising Dragons

Book 5

Breath of Love

Ophelia Bell

Breath of Love:
Chapter 1

H
allie woke up in the middle of the night, disconcerted. Kol’s voice reached her ears from another room in their house, yet she was certain he was still lying in bed beside her. His large, strong arms still held her close, his breath soft against her skin. When she stirred, the impression faltered, then grew more solid, warmer.

His shadow.
She smiled to herself and settled again, comforted by the muted sounds of his voice—the one-sided tones of a phone call from the direction of his study. Comforted even more by the half-solid presence he’d left behind with her. She liked this part of him because it reminded her of the night they’d met, when his shadow was all he could give her at first. His shadow had awakened her need for him.

While Hallie loved the hot, hard solidity of his body in all its physical forms, his shadow form was always a tantalizing presence when he used it. He could make love to her with it in a much more subtle way than with his body, and it had become his favorite method of foreplay once he learned how she loved it.

She shifted slightly back against the warm presence and it responded. An invisible hand slid softly over her naked skin, down her side, grazing delicately back up her stomach as soft as a summer breeze, the touch more deliberate when it cupped her breast. The fingertips grew more solid when it teased, the hand spanning her breasts to caress both nipples into hard peaks.

Hallie strained to hear Kol’s voice, but his words had dipped to a low murmur she couldn’t make out beyond the understanding that he was still physically in the other room. She longed to touch him in return, but the shadow hadn’t been entirely solid since the ritual—if she tried to grasp it, her fingers would sink through it like it wasn’t even there. So she always contented herself to enjoy it instead.

She enjoyed this gift he loved to give her. Lips brushed across her neck, beneath her ear, and along her earlobe to whisper, “You feel so good in my arms.”

“Come back to me,” she whispered. “I need you.”

“Soon.”

His erection pressed against her from behind, almost as hot and hard as the true version of it. Fingertips teased between her thighs, followed by a low murmur of appreciation when he drifted a feather-light touch along her moist folds. Her core heated and tingled even more, knowing he was standing down the hall enduring this while doing business over the phone. Or perhaps enjoying it. He was a true master at multi-tasking.

The shadowy hand cupped her breast a little harder, squeezed her nipple until she gasped. The fingertips teased deeper between her thighs. She parted her legs and turned onto her back. The dark caress of him moved down her body, hands parting her thighs wider and urging her to bend her knees. The shadow that was Kol’s breath brushed along her sensitive flesh. She sighed when the invisible tongue dipped into the wetness between her swollen lips.

Her mind went blank with the pleasure and she raised her hands above her head to grip the whorled carvings of their headboard. A pair of fingers pressed into her, as thick as if they were real, his other hand slid back up her torso to tease at her nipples again.

She would come like this if he wasn’t careful, and her Nirvana would be wasted. He had to be physically with her to soak it up. Oh, God she was close.

“Kol! Oh fuck!” She tried to hold it back. The rising well of energy that he’d taught her to feel spread through her, nearly overwhelming her. She would lose it if he didn’t join her
now
.

He was there like he’d materialized out of thin air. His pale, naked heat above her, dark eyes glowing with need. His lips descended on hers, tongue sweeping between her lips as his glorious thickness penetrated her, slamming in deep and hard where his shadow’s tongue had been only a second before.

Hallie’s orgasm ripped through her, her body convulsing with the pleasure of being filled with him, stretched nearly to the point of discomfort. In spite of the nearly overwhelming possession, it was all delicious sensation. Her climax persisted, its ebb and flow rising and falling in time with the undulating thrust of his cock. He’d opened her floodgate so wide there was no stopping until he let it close again.

He released her lips and cried her name, the word coming out on a gust of his magic breath and lingering in the air like an echo as his hot semen pulsed into her. She let it overtake her, let the energy inundate them both, just hoping that this time his seed would take root.

God, she wanted that to happen so much she ached for it daily. She dreamed nightly of being filled with his essence to the point of bursting, her belly ripe and round with the evidence of her love for him. She felt it now, her mark pulsing hotly on her skin, signaling her readiness to conceive.

She suppressed a whimper, a small sound of frustration over wanting something so much and being unable to attain it. She knew it was still a remote possibility they would conceive, Kol had told her the odds. Slim though they were, it was possible, though unlikely. It took most dragons nearly a decade of trying before they conceived their first, and dragons didn’t want for opportunities to try once they found their chosen mates. It was one of the reasons they took several. Only Kol had insisted she was the only woman he ever intended to mate.

“Did I hurt you?” Kol asked, his worry causing his voice to quaver.

Hallie reached a hand to his cheek where he poised above her still. “No. You could never hurt me. I was just wishing extra hard—I think I pulled a muscle.”

He smiled
and shifted to the side, rolling her with him as he liked to do, letting her rest on her belly on top of him. He engulfed her in his embrace, burying his nose in her hair. The sheer size of him surprised her regularly, but when they were together like this, everything seemed to fit.

Hallie sighed contentedly, forcing the fervent, futile wish to the back of her mind. What they had was already beyond her wildest dreams. Though one piece was missing, they would have that in time, too. She was happy to enjoy this part as much as she could in the meantime.

“Who was on the phone?” she asked tentatively. She knew he couldn’t always tell her, given his business, but he hated keeping secrets from her.

Kol’s expression darkened and he groaned. “The Twins. They’ve found it.”

“Found what?” She read a combination of displeasure and excitement in his features that confused her.

“The missing fragment of the Verdanith.”

A rush of elation made Hallie’s eyes grow wide and her heartbeat speed up. She shot up, pressing her palms against his chest. “Get out! You’re fucking kidding me. When?”

Kol chuckled and shook his head, his lips quirked in an ironic smirk. “Yesterday. I guess Dimitri’s historian friend tracked down a family name.”

“Well, this is good, right? Why do you look so pissed?”

“Two reasons, love. First, that the Twins know of its location first doesn’t bode well for Rafe. Second, the family name is Rosencrans.”

“Rosencrans… as in Erika?”

Kol’s single raised eyebrow was all the confirmation she needed.

She sat up abruptly, shifting when Kol grunted at the unexpected pressure of her backside against his spent nethers.

“No shit,” she said. “All this time it’s been right under our noses. There’s no fucking way she knew about it or she’d have told us. You know that, right?”

His lips pressed together in a tight line. “I know you two are close. It isn’t her I mistrust. It’s
him
. He’s never been a team player. I mean, the crazy Red got himself chained to a bed for five hundred years in a fit of pique over having to hibernate in the first place.”

Hallie rolled her eyes at him. “I’ve heard the stories of the orgies Geva was responsible for. Not the best way to earn the respect of your elders, but you have to realize he wants the same thing you do. Why would he jeopardize that?”

“He may not do it intentionally, but he’s developed a reputation for being a reckless fool who doesn’t respect our hierarchy. I already talked to Erika. She says they’re on their way to her estate in Massachusetts to finally locate the missing fragment. She swears she never knew about it.”

Hallie felt a pang of sympathy for her friend. They had become close during the course of their expedition to find the Dragon Temple. Hallie knew enough about the young archaeologist to imagine how she must feel right now. Confused and betrayed most likely, and by her own father, if he’d been the one to keep this from her for her entire life.

“I’d give them the benefit of the doubt,” Hallie said. “I’m just happy this is almost over.” Her realization of what this meant hit her and her mirth bubbled over. She laughed out loud. “Baby, we’re so close now. When can we leave?”

Kol closed his eyes briefly, as though bracing himself. “I need to leave soon. Tonight or tomorrow to get to Boston in time to meet them.”

“Oh no you don’t. We’re going together.”

“But you would be miserable flying.” The excuse was weak for him. She looked into his eyes for a second, sure there was some other thing he wasn’t saying. It couldn’t have been the thing she was trying to avoid thinking about—Boston was the last place she thought she’d ever want to visit again after her abrupt departure when she’d joined the expedition. Even the idea of being in the same city as her ex caused her belly to writhe a little in anxiety, but she’d never told Kol all the details.

She shoved the anxiety deep and leaned closer, affecting a teasing tone. “Not if we flew like normal people fly. Your company has a
jet
for Christ’s sake! Use it for once!”

Kol’s grimace at the suggestion knocked Hallie back a step. The expression he gave her was definitely not faked. She found it exceedingly endearing. “Do you really hate that idea so much? Humans do it all the time, every day. Don’t tell me you are actually afraid of flying. You—a
dragon
?”

He gave her a slight shrug. “Not afraid. The thought of being carried in a tube when I could carry myself just…”

“Scares you.” Hallie suppressed a giggle that threatened to burst from her throat.

“No! It just makes me itch. Makes me feel like a weakling to be carried when I can fly.”

“Come on. I’ll be with you. Just the two of us and a pilot and one or two crew. Maybe he’ll let you into the cockpit so you don’t get so agitated. Or…I can let you into
my
cockpit.” She smirked and shifted her hips back down, brushing her flesh against the sleeping beast between his legs. “We need to warm up for all the baby making we’ll be doing after.”

Kol gripped her hips and sat up. He slid his hands up her back, spanning the entire width of her body easily as he held her against his chest and pressed his lips to hers. The softness of his mouth contrasted with the steel-hard pressure growing between his thighs, nudging up against her tender pussy.

“Do you promise?” he breathed. He slid his hands down to grip her ass and raise her up. The kneading pressure of his fingertips spread her apart enough for the heat of his shaft to rub against her clit.

“Absolutely,” she murmured with a shudder of pleasure. “I’d let you fuck me all the way to Boston if that’s what I need to do. Hell, I’d let you fuck me around the entire world. I wonder how much mileage I’ve got on this beauty already.” She reached between them and gave his cock a long, slow stroke, enjoying the pleased sigh he emitted.

“Yes,” he said. The word drifted out in a slow gasp when Hallie pressed his tip at her entrance and sank down.

“Yes?” she pressed the question against his ear, raising up along his length and pausing with just his tip poised inside her, throbbing hotly in time with her own slick flesh.

“Yes, I’ll fly in the fucking jet with you.”

Hallie cried out in surprise when he pushed her back down hard onto his cock and took control of her movements. All she could do was hang on and enjoy the ride.

Breath of Love:
Chapter 2

K
ol had to duck to enter the cabin of the jet. In spite of a spacious interior that he’d been told rivaled the largest private jets, his skin began to crawl inside his tailored dress shirt and his stomach cramped from the confinement. He calmed a little at the feel of Hallie’s hand when it came to rest gently against his shoulder. He turned his head to glance down at her, giving her a sheepish smile.

She smiled back. “You know it is equipped with a bed, but I think the captain would rather we stay in our seats. It’s only a six hour flight.”

“I won’t be able to sleep anyway, so no point.”

Hallie punched him in the arm and he stumbled forward exaggeratedly. He laughed and glanced around, trying to redirect his mindset to the logistics of bending Hallie over every piece of bolted down furniture in the cabin once the plane took off. He supposed seated he might feel a little less claustrophobic. The black leather sofa that lined one side of the cabin looked like a comfortable venue to begin letting her distract him. The reclining seats might work, too, if the armrests were adjustable. He chose one large, black leather seat midway down the cabin and sat, testing it with a little bounce. He fiddled with the buttons on it, heard a click and discovered that the seat could swivel freely.
That
could have potential.

Hallie paused to watch him, a cute smirk playing across her face. “What are you thinking?” she asked.

Kol gave her a playful look. “Just wondering if this can fit the two of us.” He tested the armrests, which did indeed move up and down. Leaving them in the raised position, he grabbed her hand and tugged. He wrapped his arm around her waist and looked in her eyes when she straddled his lap.

“Ready for practice?” he asked, sneaking his hands under her skirt and sliding them back beneath the drape of fabric to cup both round buttocks. He ventured a little farther after failing to contact any undergarment. A low rumble of appreciation rose up from his chest as he traced his fingertips down the cleft of her spread ass cheeks until they grazed the slick opening of her pussy.

Hallie gasped and twitched her hips. She braced her hands on his shoulders and slid back, coming to rest on his knees. “We should wait until we’re in the air.” Her cheeks had flushed a pretty shade of pink and it was all Kol could do not to push her back into the opposite seat and bury his face between her silken thighs.

The agitation of being trapped in a metal can kept threatening to invade his mind, but her arousal was extremely calming to him. In spite of her pulling away, the pleasant tickle of the magic surrounded her, growing stronger as he caressed her thighs. He closed his eyes and attuned himself to the flow of it, a smooth coolness like a breeze as it bled past, seeking Hallie’s ever deepening well. He took a deep breath, imagining the moment a little later when he’d get to soak it up and forget where they were entirely. But until then he’d be enduring a painfully aching hard-on.

“Sweet Mother, no panties?” Kol opened his eyes and gave her a desperate look, then chuckled at her wry smile. “I suppose torture’s as good a method as any to get me to forget I can’t spread my wings.”

A throat cleared faintly behind him. “Mr. Magnus? The captain asks that you take your seats and buckle in now, please.”

Hallie immediately slid off his lap and settled in the facing seat. Kol shifted, trying to ignore the swelling in his pants, and looked up at the flight attendant with a friendly smile. “Tell Jerry we’re ready when he is, Melody.”

The pretty blonde’s gaze shot briefly to his crotch. She flushed and blinked at him. “Yes sir.” She stepped back through the doorway to the front of the plane, her fingers absently toying with the shiny medallion that hung at her throat. Kol watched her for a second, smiling warmly when she glanced back at him and flushed even brighter, her eyes blinking rapidly.

“You have no idea how sexy you are, do you?”

Kol turned back to look at Hallie, his brows creased in confusion. “What do you mean?”

Hallie laughed, a bold, throaty sound that made him smile almost as much as the alluring way her breasts jiggled when she did it. “You look like a fucking sex god. And with that…” She gestured at the prominent bulge in his pants. “I’m surprised she didn’t climb on and try to rip your clothes off.”

“She is a bonded employee. She wouldn’t unless I invited her to.”

“Yes, I know the rules,” Hallie said as she settled back in her seat and clicked her seatbelt together. “The little pieces of charmed jewelry they all wear that keeps them loyal and just a little bit oblivious to your nature while they’re employed, but doesn’t bond them for life. I’m curious, has anyone ever left a dragon’s employment once they start working for you?”

“The benefits are too good,” Kol said. “They sometimes request transfers, but usually end up in another dragon’s employ. Some become mates eventually. Most have entire families in our employ for generations. They’re loyal and happy to avoid knowing too much—an odd trait most humans seem to have, but it works in our favor.”

She laughed darkly. “Sounds a lot like the mafia if you ask me.” Her gaze shifted distractedly out the window as the plane began taxiing toward the runway.

Kol watched her, concerned about the shift in her normally positive mood. The mention of mafia set his alarm bells ringing. When they’d first moved to Los Angeles, he spent time learning who the big players were within the city, because they would all be potential clients of his security firm. He had both humans and dragons in his employ and hired them out to various parties.

His family name, and the name that the company shared—Magnus—already had a strong reputation for effectiveness and discretion, which clients preferred. Leading it was a role he was good at and enjoyed, though he preferred to delegate as much as possible to subordinates he trusted, like Rafe. In the last eight months since becoming a permanent resident of the city, he’d also become closely acquainted with its darker side, and made a point to learn all those ties in particular. Then in the interest of being thorough to protect the interests of his race, he’d enlisted his subordinates to do the same in every other major city in the world.

That’s when Kol had found him.

David “Rocky” La Pietra was the man’s name, though Hallie had only ever mentioned his first name and only on one occasion shortly after the ritual, but Kol had never forgotten. He’d only learned the man’s full identity when he found mention of Hallie in the information sent from his subordinate, a lesser Shadow assigned to the East Coast. It was only a brief connection, but the details were enough for him to be sure. He’d discovered evidence of a six-month relationship that had begun in New York City, followed by Hallie’s departure and David ultimately chasing her to Boston. She couldn’t have known the ties he had in that city, but she must have believed there was no safe place to run from him when she left the country entirely. A brave move for anyone, cutting ties the way she had.

Braver still to accompany Kol back to a place where she’d never felt safe.

“I will keep you safe,” he said softly.

Hallie closed her eyes, the dark fringe of her lashes casting a shadow on her cheeks from the glow of sunset through the window. A sad smile tugged at her lips. “Thank you. I wasn’t thinking about David, though.”

Only one other thing could cause her to look at him the way she did just then, and the look broke his heart. He swallowed thickly, understanding well enough that need she felt, though possibly not as keenly as she. To have lost a child, even one unborn, must have destroyed her. He realized in that moment that the father of that child hadn’t been the only thing she had run from, and his gut clenched with regret over feeling so fortunate that it had been his arms she had found, that had made her stop running.

“Oh, baby, don’t look at me like that,” she said gently. “I know we’ve been trying so long, but you gave me hope, and I haven’t lost it.”

At that moment the plane tilted as it parted ways with the runway and Kol clutched at the seat. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, trying to will away the itchiness rippling over his skin. Worse than that was the urge to summon and unfurl his wings to catch the air his instincts told him he was soaring through already. Even though he was flush with energy from their lovemaking that morning, he found it tricky to control the urge. It always began with his skin erupting into obsidian scales. Their rigidity was apparent now, and his horns threatened to follow suit.

Hallie’s voice broke through the struggle, grounding him. “I think about her every day. Or him. Which would you prefer?”

Kol sighed, accepting her diversion, and relishing the sound of her voice. “What do you mean?”

“Do you want a boy or a girl?”

He opened his eyes and smiled at her. “Yes.”

She laughed. “Fair enough. I didn’t want just one either.”

“There’s a bigger question for us,” he said. In a lower voice, “What color do you hope for?”

“I didn’t think we had a choice. Isn’t it genetic?”

“The personality traits that help determine color are, but that’s only part of what gives us our color. My mother was a Shadow, like me, but you’ve met my siblings.”

Hallie nodded, smiling. “Polar opposites to you, those two. How did that happen?”

“The Twins had a different human father than I. Mine was a political spy. My mother and he had their fingers in all the royal intrigue in Europe at the time. But the Twins’ father was different. No less devious—the man was a thief by trade, and a smuggler—but what he did, he did for fun as much as money. His personality was infectious, joyous, even. Where Father taught me the things I know to run this business, Audun taught me how to enjoy life and love. I think Mother loved him for that as much as the gifts he would bring her.”

“So you’re saying it was his personality that made them golden?”

Kol had vivid memories of his mother’s second mate. Technically third, but he’d never met the first one, as the man who had awakened Astrid Magnus had promptly gone insane and been sent to the Monastery to live out his days under the care of the monks there. Audun had changed his mother in subtle ways. Infectious was no understatement, because he’d affected Kol’s father almost as much, as well as the employees bonded to his mother. The days when Audun would return from his latest adventure had always been the highlights of Kol’s youth. It had been Audun who had encouraged Kol to love whom he wanted and damn the consequences.

“It’s more complicated than that. His joy was shared by Mother. Where she was calculating and devious with Father, she was bright and joyous with Audun. The Twins were a product of that shared joy in life.”

Hallie listened raptly and he wondered why the subject had never come up before. Until now, the subject of children had been so abstract—something they strove for but dared not truly hope for until the Verdanith was finally assembled.

“What about Reds?” Hallie asked.

“Fierce passion, in love, or war. Geva’s mother was our Queen before, but she had an affinity for men who were battle hardened, as his father was.” Before Hallie could ask, Kol continued down the list, enjoying telling her more about his race. “Greens are born from mates who value both life and wealth. There are only female Greens. Blues are the most spiritual-minded dragons. They say that they are the closest to the Mother. Their colors are the most varied, too—like Issa—she’s not precisely blue, you may have noticed. I never knew her parents, but her father was a Guardian and her mother was a virgin who had been cloistered for the sole purpose of sacrificing her to the brood. I heard she fell in love with her Guardian afterward and they had a passionate relationship, but she took up worship of the Mother once she learned our ways.”

“What about Guardians? Are they always male?”

“Yes. Guardians are most often born to a couple who are together out of convenience or necessity. They may love each other but their relationship is founded more on goodness, justice, and purity of life.”

Hallie screwed up her face. “Sounds boring as hell. Poor Roka.”

Kol chuckled. “We tend to develop our own personalities, in spite of our parents. Roka was a determined guardian when we were young. The strongest and most competitive Guardian and passionate about his role. No doubt he’s been a valuable help to Rafe in their search for Rafe’s Red. I wouldn’t be surprised if Roka’s first child is a Red.”

“What…what color would you like?” she asked tentatively, as though the concept was still alien to her. Sometimes Kol had to remind himself that this was all still very new to her. Her eager acceptance of him at the beginning still astounded him.

“I haven’t given it much thought. I’d like a healthy child more than anything. Ours may be Red or Gold, but we may have a Shadow considering how prone we both are to dark moods.”

“I’d like that,” she said, eyeing him thoughtfully. Her gaze grew distinctly focused in a manner he knew well, as much a signal of her intentions as the scent of her arousal. He had quick enough reflexes to get his seatbelt unfastened before she launched herself into his lap again, her luscious lips against his own, tongue demanding entrance to his mouth.

He gripped her ass tight in his hands, hurriedly rucked up her dress to get underneath and feel her skin. This time he didn’t hesitate to press his fingers deeper into the wet heat of her he’d only barely touched earlier.

Hallie moaned a plea into his mouth and pushed backwards against his probing touch. Her hands groped at his waist, fumbled his trousers open and tugged his cock free. The hot stroke of her palms against his shaft caused his hips to buck involuntarily and Hallie laughed.

“God, baby, you’re so hard. You should’ve seen the look on Melody’s face when she got an eyeful of you earlier. I wonder if she’s watching now. I would be if I were her.”

Kol opened his eyes long enough to glance in the direction of the staircase down to the galley where he’d seen Melody disappear earlier. The scent of the other woman was closer than that, now that he searched for it. A flow of magic similar to Hallie’s, though less potent, was converging just on the other side of the open doorway.