Ascend (4 page)

Chapter Eight

T
he excitement in the huge hall was infectious. Erika stood near the front of the Queen’s dais, as giddy with the mood as the rest of them. She stared around, marveling at all the beautiful figures that filled up the tiers that surrounded them.

“Geva, I had no idea there were so many of you!”

Her lover’s arms wrapped around her waist and his lips brushed her ear. “We are all here thanks to you and your friends. I will spend the rest of my life thanking you for your sacrifice.”

She snorted out a laugh. “Sacrifice? With that tongue of yours, I promise, the pleasure was
all
mine.”

The other members of her team had gathered around, standing before the dais that held the throne. Waiting.

“What do you think is taking them so long?” Hallie whispered.

“I bet they fell in love like I did,” Camille said, eyes twinkling. Erika eyed the pretty blonde where she stood flanked by the two beautiful men who couldn’t take their hands off her. Even now, Eben was stroking her back and Roka held her hand, pulling it up to his lips and kissing it periodically.

All the dragons had foregone their preferred nudity in favor of garments in every color. Erika admired the man at her side. How sexy would he look in modern clothes if he cleaned up this nice? What he wore now mimicked her own attire of loose-fitting shirt and draw-string linen pants—the cleanest things she had packed for the expedition. Geva had admitted that he could clothe her with his magic but refused to because he’d rather keep her naked.

Kris and Issa stood off to the side, sharing private whispers. Erika nudged Geva in the ribs with her elbow. “Use your fancy mental skills to ask what’s taking them so long.”

Geva let out a suffering sigh that would normally have provoked a deeper dig into a man’s ribs from her, but the smile on his face let Erika know he enjoyed it. He grew quiet for a moment.

“Kris says they’re on their way. And… No, I shouldn’t say.”

“The hell you say. Tell me!”

Geva grinned. “And he says the Queen sounds very happy and satisfied. Your friend Corey performed wonders, it sounds like.”

Erika was on the verge of retorting when the doors behind the dais opened, and the pair emerged. Corey looked tired but radiantly happy… happier than she’d ever seen the good-natured tech. On his arm was the loveliest woman Erika had ever seen. Erika gaped for a second before realizing that everyone around her had fallen to their knees and bowed their heads.
Holy shit! Right. I’m in the presence of royalty.

“What the hell?” Corey whispered, the words just barely audible to Erika’s ears when they all knelt.

“Everyone, please stand.”

The Queen’s voice was strong and light and carried audibly through the room. Erika liked her already.

When all were standing again, the Queen introduced herself.

“I am Rachasara, your Queen, whom most of you already know. This is Corey.” She paused to grasp Corey’s hand and gaze up at him admiringly. Erika raised an eyebrow. The man did have skills if he’d made her that happy.

The Queen continued. “He tells me the changes between our birth time and this time are very drastic. Our transition may take more time than past generations experienced, but our awakening decree remains unchanged.”

Erika heard murmurs of surprise and excitement and turned to look behind her. The Queen continued talking, but Erika was too fascinated—and possibly too exhausted—to focus on her words, instead becoming distracted by the activity of the other dragons. Corey had his camera on, at least, though she expected none of their footage from the last twenty-four hours would ever see the public eye.

Geva’s hand clutched her hip, urging her attention back to the front.

The Queen stood before her, arms outstretched. Corey was behind her, rubbing his neck in embarrassment.

“She wanted to meet you first,” he said apologetically.

“Of course!” Erika grasped the outstretched hands affectionately. The woman had startling, slanted green eyes and a sweet, heart-shaped face.

“Corey says you are the one to thank for the awakening. I am eternally grateful to you.” The Queen cast a sidelong look at Geva who had seemed to recede a bit behind Erika. “Any favor you ask, I will be happy to fulfill. Even for him.”

“Um, thank you so much, your highness. I hope we can talk a bit less… formally soon. I have a lot to ask you.”

The Queen smiled. “Call me Racha, and I would very much like to talk.” She gave Erika’s hands another squeeze with her tiny, delicate fingers before moving on to speak affectionately to Kris.

“What the hell was that about?” she asked Geva who had moved back to her side.

“I told you I was a bad boy. She only knows me by reputation, so I didn’t take it personally.”

“Well, good to know she’s forgiven you, I guess.”

Geva shrugged, the overtly careless, nonchalant gesture more of an indication of his self-consciousness in the presence of his
liege
than any words could be.

“You feel
bad
about what you did, don’t you?” Erika asked.

“Yes,” he said, meeting her eyes squarely. “I would give anything to redeem myself. I don’t feel worthy of
you
with that hanging on my past.”

“Jesus, you fool. That was centuries ago! I don’t care! And I get the feeling she’s giving you a clean slate, too. So take advantage of it. Be better. Or just be very, very bad with me and me alone.” She gave him a wicked grin, enjoying the growl and hungry kiss she got in return.

His erection was pure and present against her hip, but Erika got the sense that right here and now, amid the entire congregation, as it were, was not the place for them to indulge themselves. And the truth was, she very much looked forward to having Geva in her own domain for a change. Maybe tied to her bed in her apartment in Boston. She wondered how well her old bed could withstand the weight of a dragon. Or maybe she’d open up her family’s estate again to give them more room and sturdier furnishings.

Her pulse picked up thinking about revisiting the place where she’d grown up. Particularly her father’s study where she had first found the glimmer of a clue that a race like Geva’s might even exist.

It was done, she realized. The last twenty-four hours had been a whirlwind. Had it really only been that long? Her watch, which she’d recovered from the pile of clothing in the first chamber when she dressed, told her that it was barely even dawn, and they’d arrived just after sunrise the day before.

Now there was a multitude of very much living and breathing dragons milling around the room. The excitement was infectious.

“What happens now?” she asked Geva, but he’d left her side again. She looked around for him, and found him and the other Court dragons standing in the center of the room.

The eight beautiful figures joined hands in a circle and raised their arms above their heads. The air above them began to shimmer. All heads in the room tilted back to observe.

Erika felt hands grip her own from either side, but her companions remained silent, as awed as she was at what was transpiring.

Before their eyes, the huge, round dome of the ceiling glowed orange as though with the breaking dawn. Waves of light hit it from beneath.

In unison, the eight figures walked backward, drawing the circle of light wider and wider until their circle encompassed the entire ceiling. Then they began to shift. Their clothing disappeared and their bodies grew. Colored scales replaced human skin. Horns coiled from graceful, elongated heads. Thick tails extended from the ends of their spines.

A moment later, eight horned heads craned up, breaths swirling together in a twisting cyclone of colorful fog. Erika’s skin tingled, whether from the crackling magic in the air or simple exhilaration, she couldn’t be sure. Either way, it was a spectacular sight, particularly seeing Geva’s breathtaking true shape at full size.

The column of variegated smoke reached the dome and exploded in a burst of light.

When the spots receded from Erika’s vision, the view above was of a clear morning sunrise, wisps of clouds still tinged pink but beginning to glow brighter each second.

The entire hall erupted in a flurry of roars and beating wings as the dragons that filled it shifted and ascended. Free for the first time in centuries.

Erika’s hands were numb from the tight grips of Hallie and Camille, her vision blurry from the tears that streamed down her face.

“Beautiful,” someone murmured, and she was dimly aware it was her own voice.

The others moved away while Erika still gazed up, enraptured at the sight of all those majestic horned, winged creatures taking flight.

“It is time, my love,” a deep, resonant voice said.

A gust of warm breath against her neck brought her back to the present. Geva’s massive, horned head took up her entire field of vision. He cocked sideways to gaze at her through one eye.

“Time for what?”

“Time to fly. Climb on.”

***

Destiny. It had never meant anything to Erika even though it had drawn her to this expedition from the very beginning. That first day in her father’s study, finding his sketches of the creatures he was sure existed but none of his colleagues would believe in. It all made sense now. This was where she belonged.

Well, maybe not
here
, in the literal sense. She looked around the austere but comfortable room she and Geva had been given at the monastery the dragons had flown to in their exodus from the temple. The trip had been both spectacular and terrifying, clinging to Geva’s back while her team followed suit with the rest of the Court.

They’d finally landed on an island that had to be somewhere in the South China Sea if her sense of direction was still working. A throng of monks prostrated themselves in greeting to all the dragons, this time, not just the Queen and her retinue.

But what happened after they left this place?
Destiny,
her irritating inner voice said again. So, she believed it, and she did kinda give them all the benefit of the doubt. Particularly when one big, red dragon was insistently pulling her into a white-sheeted bed and tearing off the clothes she’d quickly thrown on to meet the Queen.
A bed. Yes, a bed would be good.

Oh, Jesus, none of that mattered when his cock was fucking her. Dragon fucking
magic
. Followed by the pleasant burn of her tattoo and basking in the glow… a literal glow, she realized. That was new, but somehow not the least bit surprising.

Geva murmured against her sweaty skin. “We may be here for awhile, until each of the dragons is sent home. But if you can endure a wait like this, so can I. I don’t really care where we are. I just want to love you for the rest of my natural life.”

“Which means dragging me along for the next few centuries?” They’d had the conversation already but Erika still felt overwhelmed by the thought of being held in these arms every night for what seemed like an eternity for her.

“Yes. And others, if they’re willing. It doesn’t just have to be
me
who you endure. I’m sure we can find someone else equally irritating to distract you.”

She laughed, but the prospect encouraged her. She loved him. Christ, it was crazy, but she did. Yet, was it so bad that she couldn’t imagine five hundred years fucking one man? But if there were more of them, would she even want to share? Or even be shared?

“Why are you so tense?” he asked, massaging her shoulders. “I’m trying to make love to you but you keep me on the outside. I don’t understand.”

“No, you don’t. Because you’re not like us!” She cringed over her outburst. She’d never been quite so tied up in knots over her feelings for a man at the same time as wanting him to fuck her until she ached from head to toe. Again.

“I am more like you than you know. Let me in, sweet Erika.”

He nuzzled at her breasts and she opened her legs reflexively because she really,
really
wanted him between them.

“Stop. I need to talk.” She gripped his forehead just as he was about to sink his sweet tongue into her pussy. God, what a force of will
that
took.

He sat back and looked at her expectantly.

“Sweetie, you are too perfect for words. When we’re done with this conversation I promise you can fuck me any way you’d like to.”

Geva grinned wickedly. “So good deeds still garner rewards in this generation?”

“Yes. Yes they do. But I need to figure out how the hell we’re going to support your fucking
brood
once we get out there. I can’t abide homeless dragons in Boston. And they all seem so… sex starved and destitute. I mean, no offense, but the first place we come to all the residents have taken vows of poverty. Frankly, I worry for the population. If I’m being frank.”

Geva’s brows creased and he nodded sagely. Then let out a hearty laugh.

“You’re worried we can’t support ourselves?”

“Well… yeah?”

He gripped her shoulders and pushed her back against the pillows.

“My love, we are dragons. Riches are our specialty and we have cultivated them for several thousand years. We want for nothing. And neither should you. You will soon see. Yes, the humans who live here want no riches, but that is because it is their mandate to protect
our
interests. Different sects of their order have functioned in this capacity for millennia.” He looked around their room with a creased brow. “They’ve changed since I first visited before sleeping, however. It’s much cleaner now.”

“So where is ‘home’ for these dragons? Another halfway house as destitute as this one?” Erika felt a little bad for being so pissy at him. The truth was the first meal they’d been served had been one of the most delicious dishes she’d tasted, and the bed they were in was a far cry from sleeping on hard ground.

“I said you will see. We all are descendents of the most prominent dragon citizens. These men are the keymasters to our treasure, between generations. You had a father, yes? You’ve spoken of him.”

“Yes. I loved my dad.”