Sleeping Dragons Book 1: Animus (2 page)

“I can’t take you anywhere,” she said.

“Tell me you don’t want to play with it. They’re all so… anatomically correct. I always wondered what a dragon’s dick looked like. Almost as nice as mine. And it’s so
smooth
. Seriously, you need to touch it.”

“It’s just a reflection of their virility.” Her heartbeat sped up. She knew her assessment was accurate from an academic standpoint, but the growing heat between her thighs confused her.

“So erect cocks are only symbolic, is that what you’re saying?”

Erika gave him a sidelong glance. “In a statue, yeah. In you, it just means you haven’t jerked off in a few hours.” She looked pointedly at the huge bulge in his crotch.

“I always have a cock. It’s not my fault if you’re too big a prude to want to touch it,” he muttered.

She scowled back at him knowing he was digging at her for kicking him out of her tent the night before, but she’d been too stressed about their imminent discovery to entertain him. Her plan had been to rub out enough orgasms to send herself into a mini-coma and sleep through the night without the distraction of another body beside her. She’d hoped tonight would be a different story. It was unlike him to take issue with a night apart, but maybe she’d taken advantage of his eagerness to please her one time too many. She knew he’d just as soon go hungry when they were in a tiff, rather than come begging to her for sustenance of the carnal variety.

A hesitant throat cleared nearby and they both glanced up. Camille stood fidgeting slightly, her bright blue eyes locked onto Eben’s hand where it still absently stroked the rod of polished stone.

“What is it, Cammy?” Erika asked.

“Uh… um… Do you mind if I start translating?” Camille asked, darting a look at Erika. “Everything is covered with text. Well, almost everything.” Camille’s attention slid back to Eben’s hand on the dragon statue’s cock. Erika narrowed her eyes when she caught the wicked smile on Eben’s face while he watched Camille blush.

“Have at it,” Erika said. “The sooner we find out the secrets of this place the better, right? The boys can set up camp. It’s their night, anyway.”

Camille nodded and left, clutching and twisting at the end of her long, blond braid, a nervous habit she only seemed to affect when she was around Eben.

“You’re such an asshole sometimes,” Erika said. “She’s got the hots for you and you keep taunting her like that. It’s not fair.”

He chuckled and let go of the dragon’s penis. “I’d love a taste of her, but I have a feeling she’s nowhere near as experienced as you. I like women who take the initiative.”

“Or men?” she asked, reminded of his excuse after she’d found him entangled with a fellow geology TA named Jared. Eben had been cocky enough to invite her to join them, but she’d been too shocked to take advantage of the opportunity. Later when she questioned him about it, all he’d said was, “He asked.”

Eben shrugged. “Depends on the man, but yeah.” His expression grew thoughtful as he turned to watch Camille bend over to extract a notebook from her gear. “I don’t know, maybe I could teach her something.”

Erika let out a long-suffering sigh. “Behave yourself while we’re here, alright? I can’t have my linguist falling to pieces mid-month because you popped her cherry and she’s too in love to keep working.”

“Yes, mistress,” he said with a gleam in his eye.

Chapter Two

A
fter exploring for a time, they erected their equipment and set up camp in one of the four alcoves that flanked the mezzanine. Each of the alcoves possessed a fire pit that seemed to work the same way as the wall sconces had, and put out a steady amount of heat, sufficient for cooking. They settled into camp to plan their study and catalog their finds.

Kris began cooking dinner. Within moments the entire area was awash in aromatic spices that made Erika’s mouth water and distracted her from her planning. She’d only mapped out a fraction of the compound that afternoon. They had mostly encountered a lot of jade corridors lined with locked doors. Tomorrow she would focus on the doors, but now she was distracted by a deeper need. It was like an itch she couldn’t scratch. She shoved it aside for the time being to eat dinner, thanking Kris when he brought a steaming bowl of curry and rice to her.

The sculpted Thai made Erika think of a Mongolian warrior sometimes. While she ate the spicy food she imagined him naked on horseback, clad only in scant fur armor, coming to ravage her. The delicate flavors of her dinner made her mouth water more with every bite; the spice on her tongue sent a zing of pleasure straight between her thighs. If he made love as well as he cooked, he’d have her sweating and salivating all night. Her nipples pricked and a sweat broke out on her skin. She found it tough to keep her eyes off Kris now, or any of the men for that matter.

They were all attractive, though Eben had always been the most forward one of the group. Dimitri was soft-spoken, though quick-witted, and flirted in a very subdued manner with everyone. His sweet face and short-cropped blond hair evoked images of Nordic gods. His full lips consuming the delicious food had her mesmerized for a moment. Her heart sped up when his tongue darted out to lick his lips. She shifted her gaze away, replying to their steady banter mindlessly while she watched the rest of her team.

Corey ate quickly in general, but tonight he seemed to savor the meal for a change. He took slow bites in between conversation about their find. The normally prominent lines beside his blue eyes relaxed making him look ten years younger, and oh what a pretty boy he must have been when he was in his mid twenties like the rest of them. Now, he was a very attractive man who’d probably been hurt one too many times if the sad look in his eyes was any indication. He’d always been the most aloof member of the group, but he’d been a more than competent team member during their long trek to get here.

Camille was still giving Eben that puppy-dog look, but appeared more flushed this time, her glance periodically darting to his crotch. Erika eyed Eben’s lap and raised an eyebrow. The man still had a hard-on. What the hell was up with him? He’d been a tad oversexed at least as long as they’d known each other, but this was something new. She glanced around at the others to gauge their relative levels of excitement. When she met Hallie’s eyes the pretty brunette raised an eyebrow and shot a pointed look at Eben. Erika just rolled her eyes in response and smiled.

Hallie was the reliable one. Open and honest to a fault, not afraid to share her opinion. She had managed to rebuff Eben’s periodic advances adeptly. Erika wondered if the woman was gay until they’d actually talked and she expressed that she preferred men who were just a little more mysterious.

“Why not Corey?” Erika had asked.

Hallie had pursed her lips and confided, “He’s way too laser-focused on his own agenda. I don’t do casual sex and neither does he, from what I can gather. If I’m gonna sleep with a guy I need to know he’s doing it because he wants me—not some feminine ideal that I probably wouldn’t live up to anyway.”

But now Hallie had pulled her long hair up and was fanning her face while she eyed Kris. Kris was the mysterious native, his Asian features a contrast to the other men. He’d spent their weeks-long trek being the ideal guide, regaling them with stories of the jungles they traveled through, protecting them from potential predators, and cooking the best food they’d ever tasted. Yet he’d shared very little about himself. Mysterious didn’t begin to cover the large man who was now collecting their dishes to clean up, smiling politely at each of them as he went around the camp. One thing she did note when he collected her bowl was the unmistakable bulge of an erection pressing against the front of his khaki shorts. It caught her eye before she could censor herself. When she met his eyes a second later he just smiled and said, “Still hungry?”

She blinked at him and swallowed. A vivid image of taking his cock in her mouth right there blazed across her mind and her thighs clenched involuntarily. What the hell was happening to her?

“Ah… I’m full.” Full was an understatement…she’d love to be full of him. So much that her vaginal muscles ached. God, she wouldn’t normally think of it so clinically, but the feeling was akin to an affliction now. No longer just a dull itch, but a very present distraction bordering on discomfort.

“Thanks for another great dinner, Kris. I’ll be right back.” She stood and wandered into the dimly lit corridor that led from the back of the alcove behind the tiers of the amphitheater seats.

Past the offshoots of a side-corridor that she knew spanned the circumference of the temple was a cozy rear chamber that contained a flowing fountain of the ubiquitous jade, its water spilling into a shallow pool. The entire chamber was lit with the same small globes that had come to life when they opened the outer doors.

She bent over the edge of the pool and splashed water on her heated face, undid a few buttons of her shirt and splashed more on her chest. Something about this place made her too hot. It couldn’t just be the excitement of finding it. Ever since they’d opened the doors, she’d grown more and more aroused.

It wasn’t unlike her to want sex after a find like this, but she normally had control over her impulses. Here she feared she was completely losing it. There was no logic… no focus to her desires. She found herself gazing longingly at the oblong tip of the fountain that spewed fresh water into the pool and wondered what it might feel like buried inside her.

“You okay?”

The deep voice startled her. “Kris. Yeah… I think so. This place is pretty epic. I guess I’m just a bit overwhelmed by it.”

“You don’t look okay. Did the magic get to you already? I tried to keep the spice light tonight.”

“Magic… what magic? And what spice?”

He looked around like there might be invisible things floating in the air, then smirked at her.

“Dragon magic. It’s everywhere. Giving me a hellacious boner, too. Dragons are horny beasts.”

“Not Dwarves?” she asked laughing about Eben’s earlier joke.

“Nah… Dwarves are a myth. Dragons are real, and they live here.” He leaned closer and said in a conspiratorial voice, “And they really love to fuck.”

His words made her quiver and she had to close her eyes to get herself under control. When she opened them again, he was kneeling beside the pool and stripping off his shirt. His shoulders rippled in the warm glow of the lights that illuminated the room. He leaned over the edge of the pool bracing both hands at the lip and plunged his entire upper body through the surface, down into the cool water. She watched the expanse of olive skin submerge, the tattoos that twined around his torso nearly obscured. Dragons. No, not plural. One dragon, its head draped across his back, eying her steadily from where it rested on the surface of one bunched shoulder. It coiled around him in a proprietary fashion, its tail twining around his waist. The eyes of the tattoo seemed to follow her.

Kris emerged from the pool and flipped his head back, flinging water behind him. He sat gasping and blinking, his glistening, tattooed torso covered with little rivulets of water. Her mouth watered, and her pussy began to tingle in a way not unlike her tongue had during dinner.

“It won’t take long,” he said cryptically, swiping a hand down his face and flinging water off into a corner.

“What won’t take long?”

“The magic. You don’t really need to translate the text for it to happen. It’s your destiny as much as it is mine. Now that you’re in the current of the magic, it’ll take you where it needs you to be.”

“And where is that?” she asked, a pang of anxiety dimly present inside her, but not enough to counteract the lust. Why the hell was she humoring him? He was speaking nonsense. Magic? And
dragons
? She needed to get hold of herself for Christ’s sake.

He raked fingers through his wet hair and stood up, gesturing down the shadowed corridor. “I’ll show you.”

“Should I be scared?” she asked with the last shred of logic in her. Goddamn if she wasn’t curious enough to let him prove it to her.

He chuckled and let his eyes drift down over her sweaty, dirty trekking shirt that was already half undone. The fabric was soaked through from the water she’d splashed on her chest to counteract the heat that seemed to well up from deep within her. Her nipples were clearly visible, pressing against the weave.

“With tits like yours, no.” He took a deep breath through his nose and closed his eyes as if savoring some aroma that lingered in the air. “And a pussy that sweet, definitely not. I’d fuck you now if I were allowed to.”

If he were allowed to?
“Who the hell are you?”

“Your guide.” He grinned and turned to walk away.

“Wait!” she yelled after him, then ran to catch up. “What the fuck about the fucking dragon magic?”

“It’s everywhere in here,” he replied with an all-encompassing wave of his arm that made the muscles in his broad back flex alluringly. “And it’s the strongest it’s ever been since they were sent to sleep half a millennium ago. Now it’s time for them to awaken and live in the world again. To mate with humans and ensure the magic stays strong.”

Chapter Three

K
ris led her down a pale corridor that glowed with magic dragon light, or she supposed that’s what it was now. She felt a little drugged. Her skin tingled, so sensitive the rub of the material of her shirt over her nipples sent jolts of pleasure through her with every stride. She’d been horny enough upon opening the doorway into this place, but now her normally healthy appetite seemed to be magnified ten-fold.
Magic,
she thought. A little thrill went through her at the memory of some of the stories her father had told her, but she still wasn’t quite prepared to believe it.

“I guess magic
might
explain Eben’s perma-boner,” she joked, trying to dispel her anxiety. It might also explain the personal porn-video that kept running through her mind—the one of Kris nailing her against the warm jade of the temple wall, or bending her over the edge of the pool and fucking her from behind, or countless others she’d imagined just in the span of the last fifteen minutes.

In a moment, they emerged at the back of the main room, outside one of the heavy carved doors that flanked the dais.

“Those doors are locked,” she said.

Kris smiled back at her. “Not if you know how to open them.” He pushed against the smooth surface of the door. The door swung open just enough for them to slip into the darkness beyond. More sconces lit, illuminating a row of closed doors set deep into the curved wall of the corridor, each one flanked by a pair of majestic white jade dragons similar to the ones that stood guard beside the throne in the main chamber. All of them sported similar erections to the one Eben had so lewdly stroked earlier. Kris paused in front of the first door, one carved out of red and lavender jade.

“This door will kick off the ritual. Then this…” He moved to stand in front of the door beside it, staring up at the shimmering golden carvings. Not gilt, she realized when she looked closely, but more carved jade in a hue that resembled gold. “Then those over there.” He skipped the central door, which was larger than the others and a translucent grass-green that matched the throne. He pointed at the two on the far side. One of solid black at the end, then then one next to the green door—a twisting swirl of almost every color in the rainbow.

“The ritual happens in that order,” Kris said. “My door…” He walked to the rainbow door. “Is this one, the last one before the Queen.”

“Your door?” she asked. She had too many questions. She’d only gotten as far as the first door and stood mesmerized by the carved figures of the dragons on its face.

“Yes, that one is my door. This is your door.” He came back and stood close behind her, his breath audible in her ears. Goosebumps rose up on her skin at the caress of his words. She wanted to spin to face him, kiss him savagely, then fall on the floor and fuck him. She spread her fingers thinking to reach back and touch him.

“You can’t touch me,” he said in a near whisper that tickled at her skin. “I know you want to, but it isn’t allowed. Not by human hands. No one has touched me since I was a child.”

“What?” she asked, finally turning to face him and staring at him in disbelief. She tried to remember any moment during their trek when he’d touched another member of her team, but he’d always been oddly distant, camping a little further away from the rest. She’d interpreted his attitude as a cultural divide of some kind, but his brash declaration by the pool a moment earlier contradicted that.

“I’m destined for this.” His dark eyes met hers, intent and steady. He didn’t
look
like a crazy man. Should she believe him?

“What the hell is this, Kris? I hope you understand I’m having a very hard time believing what you’re telling me. Dragons? Seriously?”

“I’m the sacrifice that will revive them.”

She laughed. “You’re crazy. You just need to get laid.”

“I’d love to. But you can’t help me unless you walk through that door and begin the ritual.”

She gave him her best skeptical scientific once-over. “So how did you get that tattoo? Someone had to touch you to give it to you.”

“I’ve had this since I was born.”

“You’re telling me they gave a newborn baby a tattoo?”

“My mother gave it to me. She was one of them—a dragon—before she died. Two of the monks who helped raise me were also.”

“Ohh kayy… I believe
that
about as much as I believe you can’t be touched.” She narrowed her eyes. His story was so outlandish she couldn’t wait to prove he was full of shit.

“I’d love to feel your hands on me, Erika.” His voice held a hint of challenge but she didn’t move. She couldn’t decide how to start.

“I’ll help you out,” he said. He stripped off his shirt again, and dropped his pants. He stood in front of her, resplendent in his nakedness and glowing in the warm light. Not only did he have the dark coil of the dragon around his sculpted torso, but his strong thighs were tattooed in a dark, scaled pattern all the way up over his hips. His erection was spectacular, too. Long and thick, with a glistening bead already dripping from his tip.

She reached for him but stopped, her knuckles curling in like she’d hit a barrier just an inch away from him, so close the heat of him seemed to sear her skin. She shook her head thinking it was hesitation.

“I’d love to have you suck me, Erika, but it can’t happen. Their power is too strong. I’m the sacrifice. I’m too sacred for contact and it’s driven me crazy my entire life, but the frustration is nearly over. No matter how hard you try, they won’t let you touch me. Not until we walk through that door over there. Before we get there you and your friends need to open the other doors. It’s my job to watch you carry out the first four stages of the ritual.”

“You’re telling me you have some magical dragon curse that won’t let you come into contact with another human? And what… that you’re destined to be some blood sacrifice to resurrect a mythical race?”

He smiled. “It isn’t a curse. I’m a gift to them, and it isn’t my blood they want but my lifetime of pent up need. You just need to play your part. Now that the magic is in you, all you need to do is let it carry you.”

“So, we do our part and you get laid? What exactly are we putting on the line here?”

“We give up our pleasure to them and they awaken.”

“They?” she asked.

“The dragons.” He reached out a hand and stroked the wing of one of the guardians that stood sentinel outside the doorway they stood within. “They’re asleep, but when this is all over they’ll be awake again. And free to live among humans again. To find mates among you. To extend their existence for another generation.”

The tattoo around his middle seemed to shift in the flickering light. Kris’s cock twitched. She slicked her tongue across the smooth inner skin of her lower lip, imagining what he must taste like. She dropped to her knees, intent on proving him wrong, but just knelt poised and fevered at the effort to get closer. Her mind wanted him but her body was commanded by something beyond her.

“Fuck,” she muttered. “Fine, if I can’t give it to you, I’ll give it to myself.”

“Don’t,” he said, crouching in front of her, but she’d already pulled her shirt open and shoved up her tank top to expose her firm, bare breasts. Her nipples were hard as small pebbles. She pinched them between her thumbs and forefingers—her own favorite brand of foreplay. Twin jolts of pleasure shot straight between her thighs. Having his eyes on her, all smoldering and hungry, just made her hotter.

“Don’t what? Don’t jerk off in front of you? You like looking at me. I know you do.”

“I love looking at you, but this won’t help.”

“It’ll help me.” She unzipped her shorts and shoved her hand down the front. Her pussy was slick and wet, her clit a hard, thick bundle, swollen and throbbing. Her fingertips swept over it, sending a rush of tingles up through her body. She continued down, sinking into the slick heat between her pussy lips, gathering wetness, then back up to rub with two fingers over her clit in delicious slow circles. She squeezed one breast in her free hand, rubbing her nipple with her thumb while she watched him. His eyes stayed fixed on the movement of her hand underneath her shorts. After a second he swallowed and cleared his throat then met her eyes.

“It won’t help.”

“It will when I come, and you’ll wish you did it to me.”

“That’s just it. You can’t. Now that the magic is in you, your nirvana belongs to them.” He glanced to the tightly closed door beside them.

“We’ll see about that.” The rush was already beginning, her muscles clenching and her body tingling all over, but it dissipated as quickly as it had begun. She rubbed her clit harder, chasing the sensation she was so ready for—she just needed a little bit more to get there. Her jaw clenched in the effort to find it. She sped up her motions and tweaked her nipple harder, grabbed her other breast and teased, but nothing. She was
there
! Why couldn’t she come? It had never been hard for her to have an orgasm. If she wanted it all she had to do was this… exactly what she was doing. Usually it was easier and better if someone happened to be fucking her at the same time, though that had never been a requirement.

“Why aren’t you touching yourself?” she asked, breathless and pausing to let her tired muscles rest for a moment.

“I can’t.” He slumped back against the wall behind him and looked down between his thighs at his cock like it was some foreign beast he couldn’t quite comprehend.

“What do you mean? You can’t touch me and you can’t touch yourself either? How do you
bathe
?”

He laughed. “Well, I
can...
technically, but I learned years ago that it did no good. I can’t bring myself off. And you won’t be able to… ah…
come
… while you’re here.”

“Let me guess… dragon magic.” She settled back against the wall, too exhausted to keep trying even though her pussy screamed for release.

He smiled ruefully. “Yes.”

“So you’ve never had an orgasm? That’s tragic.”

“I have, but only in my sleep. They send me dreams sometimes. It’s how I knew you and your team were the ones I was meant to bring. I dreamed of all of you the week before I met you. Especially of you. Probably because you are the leader.”

She stared up at the illuminated carving on the door. The polished red and purple colors beckoned to her and she reached out, tracing her finger over the upraised surface of the carved design. The smooth stone was only slightly cooler under her heated touch and the colors mesmerized her. Jade came in an array of colors, Eben had said, and was also one of the toughest minerals, nearly impervious to breakage, which the pristine quality of these carvings attested to. It had to have taken years to carve it all, and the entire place was decorated entirely in carved jade.

This door included a bas relief image depicting two dragons coiled around what looked like two human figures. It was like looking at a page of the Kama Sutra the way the angles were just a little off, but it was clear enough for her to understand what the image was meant to convey. Two humans, a man and a woman, engaged in passionate coitus with two dragons. Though she had to blink a few times to register the shapes of the dragons. Sometimes they looked like scaled, long-tailed beasts, but if she shifted her eyes the right way, they looked almost human.

“What the hell did you put in our food, anyway?”

“Some spices I cultivated myself known to awaken the senses. Other than that, nothing but the water here. It’s been steeping in their magic for hundreds of years. Their need to awaken is very present. This is the time.”

He seemed so earnest, but his need wasn’t enough to sell her. She stood up and straightened her shirt.

“I think you’re playing us somehow. I have no idea how, but I’ll figure it out. Put your fucking pants on.”
Before I go nuts.

As she was walking back toward the doorway to the main chamber she heard behind her, “Erika. You can’t leave this place until you’ve completed the ritual. I didn’t trap you into this.”

“Oh? Then why does it feel like I have no other options?” she shot back over her shoulder.

“I’m more than just a guide, so I know it was always your quest to be here. This is where you belong—where we both belong. You know it’s true, deep inside. Just translate some of the text and it’ll be clear, I promise.”

She paused for a single step and clenched her fists. If he was playing them all for his own ends, she’d figure it out, but he wasn’t lying about her quest. Still, Kris’s words were too much fantasy for her to reconcile. She’d found it. That was enough. All she needed to do now was catalog the artifacts and transport the pieces suitable for study and display. Then write her dissertation on the entire expedition. After it was published she would reap the rewards and bask in the professional limelight. End of story.

Except deep inside she knew there was so much more to the story than that. Her father had never been after glory, but his research had led her here after all. Maybe there was more for her to find besides artifacts. Maybe Kris was the key to uncovering the deeper secrets of this temple. Before she’d walked through those doors at the surface she would have argued that only science could convince her of the truth. Now, she wasn’t so sure. With each step further away from the doorway she’d just left behind, the weaker her hold was on her own convictions until what she wanted had shifted entirely.

She raised her hand up to fondle the small jade figurine at her throat. It was a childhood dream come true. More than that, it was her life’s work realized in spectacular fashion. Her entire body buzzed with the understanding that
this
was what she really wanted. To awaken the dragons.

And Erika was used to getting what she wanted.