Read Firestorm Forever: A Dragonfire Novel Online
Authors: Deborah Cooke
Firestorm Forever: A Dragonfire Novel (90 page)
“I knew he was a warrior,” Timmy said, and Ronnie couldn’t help but smile. “Right from the first.”
She drew her son into a hug, pressing a kiss to the top of his head. “And you were right.” Just as Ronnie had suspected from the first that Drake was a man who could heal her wounded heart.
* * *
Maeve found her prey easily.
She had Jorge’s scale in her cabinet of trophies, a token from another unnatural species that was rightfully extinct. The
Pyr
, though, continued to survive, which meant the job was only half completed. She was in Chicago to film a report on the
Pyr
’s final appearance, partly because the network demanded it but more because she needed to snare a
Pyr
.
This was the best place to find one.
And they did intend to disappear from view after this night.
Lorenzo had told her so much about his kind and it was all so interesting. She could use the information to bend a dragon to her will. It would take time, but Maeve had nothing but time. After all, the creature best equipped to hunt dragons had to be another dragon, and she did have that pesky other issue to see resolved.
She definitely needed a
Pyr
of her own.
The crowd was thick with
Pyr
, but she made her selection with care. A muscular young man with dark hair was emanating frustration almost as vehemently as he exuded the scent of
Pyr
. He looked to be in his late twenties, but it was his attitude that intrigued her. He seemed to feel unappreciated. Maeve could work with it. She deliberately jostled against him, then gave him her most sultry smile.
He looked her up and down, then smiled in return as they exchanged apologies. He snapped his fingers as his gaze brightened. “Hey, aren’t you that reporter?”
“I’m Maeve,” she whispered, holding his gaze as she exhaled a spell. He was dazzled easily, not nearly as much of a challenge as Lorenzo had been. “And you?”
“Kade,” he whispered.
“Hello, Kade.” Maeve conjured a stylus of ice from her sleeve and placed it in his hand.
He frowned down at it. “What’s that?”
“A little gift from me to you,” she whispered, then caught the back of his neck in her hand. He was delicious and she barely restrained herself from claiming him immediately. Surrender was so much sweeter. “If you ever want to see me again, just use it to draw a door.”
“A door?” Kade chuckled. His skepticism made her spell slip slightly.
Maeve smiled. “A door. Draw it anywhere, then add a knob and a keyhole.” She tapped the stylus. “This will unlock it.” She kissed him, leaving her lipstick on his mouth and her perfume on his skin. “Trust me,” she whispered, then continued on her way.
The camera lights were on and the crew was waiting for her at the assigned location, her assistant even having found some humans to share their views on the
Pyr
.
But what Maeve noticed most was the weight of that handsome
Pyr
’s gaze following her progress.
Kade
.
He’d do very well indeed.
* * *
Sam stood with the other mates, excitement fluttering in her belly. She couldn’t believe that she’d have a son again, but there was no doubting it, given the disappearance of their firestorm. Sam knew enough to believe in the physiology of the
Pyr
. What she really couldn’t believe was that she was happy again and looking forward to the future. Her sister was beside her, Jac’s belly round with her son, and Sam was glad that Jac’s dream of having a family was finally coming true. It was wonderful how much their relationship had already healed and improved. Jac was thrilled about the house, and Sam was glad that her sister would be right next door.
On this night, they were at Navy Pier, waiting for Erik’s show to begin. All along Chicago’s waterfront, people were gathered to see the fireworks display and to have their last glimpse of the
Pyr
. The excitement was tangible and the atmosphere festive. The lake was like a dark mirror, and the weather was perfect. The sky was clear and the water still. Sam could see the lights all along the park system reflected in the water. There was music and the sound of the rides on the pier, children laughing, and vendors hawking their wares.
Melissa Smith was doing live interviews with people who had come to watch the show and would broadcast it live. Sam could see the lights from the television cameras and knew that some of the
Pyr
mates were going to be interviewed, even though they were going to pretend to be passersby.
Sam was content to blend into the crowd, to be with Jac and wait. Jac glanced at her watch, looked at Sam, and tapped the display.
Sam was amused that the flare fired over the lake on the stroke of the hour. She could have expected that Erik would insist upon punctuality. The audience cheered as the flare spewed a brilliant trail of stars, and the music soared. Those stars grew bigger and spun, turning from white to yellow to red before they fell into the lake below.
Before they were extinguished, nine similar flares went straight up from the barge where the fireworks were loaded. They shot high into the sky and exploded into a corona of stars. The audience gasped and applauded as the stars rained down into the lake. They fell silent as they realized that a dragon had taken position in the sky behind the curtain of the fireworks. It was Erik. He breathed dragonfire, the brilliant flames licking against the night sky and the crowd gasped in wonder.
A dragon appeared behind him, his dragonfire revealing his presence and casting Erik into silhouette. It was Quinn, flying with power. Donovan appeared behind him in the same way, his dragonfire casting Quinn in silhouette, his scales shining against the night. The trio fanned out, and three dragons appeared behind them in the same way.
Delaney was the copper and emerald dragon behind Donovan, Sam knew, while Niall was the amethyst and platinum dragon behind Quinn. Rafferty was the opal and gold dragon behind Erik. The music soared and the
Pyr
flew in a tight circle, then fanned out again.
Six more dragons appeared behind them in the same way. Sam identified Thorolf as the diamond and platinum dragon behind Quinn, Brandon as the black dragon with scales edged in orange behind Erik, Marco as the anthracite dragon behind Rafferty, Drake as the thorned dragon whose scales gleamed like they were made of black pearls behind Donovan, Lorenzo as the dragon in three shades of gold behind Delaney and Theo as the carnelian and gold dragon behind Niall.
Sam saw more than one person filming the sight with a camera or cellphone.
There were more
Pyr
in the crowd, she knew, dragon shifters who were part of Theo’s Dragon Legion. Other than Kristofer and Arach, who she’d met briefly, their identities were hidden to her still. Sam knew she’d be meeting more
Pyr
over time.
Meanwhile, the
Pyr
overhead formed created two circles as they flew in time to the music, one facing inward and one outward. Plumes of dragonfire erupted from their mouths and burned brightly against the night. They wove in and out of each other’s flight paths, the outer circle going one way and the inside one the other. They blew fire intermittently then, matching the clash of drums in the music, and people clapped along. The kids began to cheer.
The
Pyr
flew faster and faster, so it seemed that there were two spinning circles of flame in the night sky. They all breathed fire at once and the circles became an orb of burning flames almost as bright as the sun. They broke rank and all flew outward at the same point, revealing one dragon at the point where the middle of the circle had been.
The Apothecary, who had healed the earth.
Her
Pyr
.
Sam locked her hands together as Sloane, tourmaline and gold, beat his wings to hover in place. The crowd cheered as the
Pyr
shot toward the coastline. They flew over the crowds of people, diving so low that people could almost reach up and touch their scales. They continued to do acrobatics in the air, then back over the water again, enchanting everyone who had come to see them.
“They have to be exhausted,” Jac said, her gaze following Marco.
“Do dragons get tired?” Sam asked and a little girl solemnly informed her that they did not. Niall swooped over them then and the girl squealed with pleasure. She reached up her hands toward Niall and he returned to scoop her up and fly her over the pier before returning her safely to her parents.
The kids went wild, all of them shouting for rides after that.
But the
Pyr
flew back over the lake, looking for all the world like sleek fighter jets to Sam. They flew winding paths around each other, changing places so rapidly that they blurred together. Each seized the one ahead of himself by the tail and traded places with him, the one who fell behind breathing fire as he dropped back. They flew up like the flares, breathing plumes of flame the whole way, then joined claws to fly in a spinning circle high overhead. This time it was Theo who was in the middle of the circle of twelve dragons.
Sam caught her breath when the blue-green light of the darkfire crackled, illuminating those repaired scales and making the circle of
Pyr
look to be lit by an inner fire. The darkfire brightened so that she had to close her eyes against it.
It sparked to strike Theo in the brow, leaving a golden spark burning there that looked like a firestorm’s light.
Then the darkfire went out.
A triumphant volley of fireworks erupted in the sky and the music soared as a frenzy of fireworks were let off. The dragons were gone from view, and Sam knew they would be hidden from human view forevermore. The sky was thick with tumbling cascades of fire and she was clapping along with the music when she felt the weight of familiar hands on her shoulders.
“Sorry we’re late,” Sloane murmured into her ear, a thread of humor in his tone. “Traffic was terrible.”
“And we couldn’t find a parking spot,” Marco agreed, sliding his arms around Jac’s waist. Sam knew she wasn’t the only one biting back a smile at their cover story.
“Did we miss anything?” Sloane asked with such innocence that Sam nearly laughed aloud. They were surrounded by people who had no idea of the truth, though. She turned around in his embrace and her heart leapt when she met his gaze.
“Just some dragons showing off,” she said.
Sloane grinned. “Oh, the kind of thing you see all the time, you mean.”
“From what Melissa Smith says, we won’t be seeing the
Pyr
again,” Sam said, as if he didn’t know. “They’re disappearing from human view for all time.” She caught a glimpse of Theo about thirty feet away, his hand over his heart as he scanned the crowd as if looking for someone he knew.
Had he felt the spark of a firestorm? Sam hoped so.
“Maybe,” Sloane mused. “I have to think that some lucky humans will still catch a glimpse of a dragon once in a while.”
“That would work for me,” Sam said, hooking her arms around his neck. “So long as I have a valiant defender by my side.”
Sloane’s smile widened. “I’ll have to see what I can arrange,” he murmured, just before he bent and captured her lips beneath her own. Sam very happily kissed him back, knowing that this was one dragon she wasn’t going to lose track of anytime soon.
And that suited her just fine.
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About the Author
Deborah Cooke
sold her first book in 1992, a medieval romance called
The Romance of the Rose
published under her pseudonym Claire Delacroix. Since then, she has published over fifty novels in a wide variety of sub-genres, including historical romance, contemporary romance, paranormal romance, fantasy romance, time-travel romance, women’s fiction, paranormal young adult, and fantasy with romantic elements. She has published under the names Claire Delacroix, Claire Cross and Deborah Cooke.
The Beauty
, part of her successful Bride Quest series of historical romances, was her first title to land on the
New York Times
List of Bestselling Books. Her books routinely appear on other bestseller lists and have won numerous awards. In 2009, she was the writer-in-residence at the Toronto Public Library, the first time the library has hosted a residency focused on the romance genre. In 2012, she was honored to receive the Romance Writers of America’s Mentor of the Year Award.
Currently, she writes paranormal romances featuring dragon shape shifter heroes under the name Deborah Cooke. She also writes medieval romances as Claire Delacroix. Deborah lives in Canada with her husband and family, as well as far too many unfinished knitting projects.
Here Be Dragons: The Dragonfire Companion
