Kiss of Destiny (15 page)

Erik opened the envelope and removed a sheet of paper. Drake could see that it had eight lines of script, though he couldn’t quite read the words.

Erik read it in old-speak.

“Across the centuries and the years,

You will wait and shed your tears,

Until the darkfire is freed again;

Your vengeance can cause
Pyr
no pain.

I close the portal, for once and all,

To see those I love out of your thrall.

When darkfire will burn once again,

Your sister’s death can be avenged.

When daughters of all elements are mates

Then will the dragons face their fate.”

“So, it is time,” Erik said aloud. He offered his hand to Theo. “Welcome, Theo. Welcome to you and all your company. Please, cross my dragonsmoke and share your tidings with us.” He turned and indicated Drake with a slight smile. “This is Drake, who was Stephanos. He has been weary, but I think you may bring him joy.”

Against Drake’s every expectation, a son of his line stood before him. Theo smiled and there was a gleam of tears in his eyes. He stepped forward and gave a crisp salute. “I have always dreamed of meeting you. It is an honor beyond all, sir.”

“Not sir,” Drake said hoarsely. He took Theo’s hand and shook it, liking the firmness of this young man’s grip. “I would have you call me Drake.” And then he embraced Theo, glad beyond belief that the darkfire had brought him this gift.

* * *

The repair of his scale was a wonderful moment, and one Thad would remember forever. He couldn’t have imagined how any part of it could have been improved.

The sun was setting, the western sky painted with brilliant streaks of orange. He could see the stars overhead and feel a cool breeze from the ocean. He smiled, wondering if it was a friend of Aura’s. The tree with the silver leaves tinkled in the breeze, as if to make music to celebrate their bond.

The firestorm had faded, but the weight of Aura’s hand in his own still brought a lump to Thad’s throat. He was surrounded by friends and comrades, each of whom had found love through the firestorm. He was amongst his own kind and would be with Aura for the duration. He dared to believe that thanks to their efforts, the
Pyr
in the future would triumph over every obstacle.

He felt like the luckiest
Pyr
in the world.

“There must be a token, freely given,” Katina said to Aura.

“She has surrendered her immortality,” Thad said with pride.

“Something tangible,” Petra insisted. “Something that is a measure of her link with the elements.”

“She is air and I am fire,” Thad said.

“But what are your secondary elements? The four must be divided between the two of you, or you wouldn’t have had a firestorm,” Alexander explained.

Thad met Aura’s gaze. She smiled at him. “You must be earth for your practicality,” she said and Thad sensed that she was right.

“And you would be water, for your empathy.”

Aura’s smile turned mischievous. “Or for my love of sensual delights.”

The others chuckled at that, but Thad couldn’t look away from Aura’s shining eyes. He would show her sensual delights, once they had a moment of privacy together. He smiled and she blushed a little, as if she’d guessed his thoughts.

Her eyes widened suddenly and she reached into her tunic. To Thad’s surprise, when her hand was revealed again, she held a golden apple. It was perfect, not missing a single bite, and he wondered if she had stolen another one.

“A gift from Hera,” she said with a smile. She glanced up at the peak where the garden was hidden. “A wedding gift.” She lifted the golden fruit and offered it to Alexander. It looked like it was made of gold, more like a piece of jewelry than fruit.

Alexander accepted it with a slight bow. “I never thought I’d hold one of these myself,” he said with awe. “It will more than suffice.”

Thad felt Alexander change shape beside him and glanced at the dark dragon Alexander had become. Damien shifted shape next and he nodded acknowledgement of that. The dragon known as the Heartbreaker had changed, and the transformation was more than the color of his scales and of his hair. Damien seemed more focused and less restless. Thad knew it was because he was with Petra, his destined mate, once again.

Thad smiled at Aura, then summoned his own change, reveling in the way it surged through him with such strength. The firestorm had made him more than he had been, Thad was sure of it.

The wind lifted Aura’s hair and swept through her tunic as she offered Thad’s lost scale to Alexander. Alexander held it in his claws and breathed fire at it. Damien stepped forward and breathed his dragonfire on it as well. It heated to a golden glow before Thad’s eyes. They turned their fire on the apple and it turned molten on one side before their surprised gazes. Alexander pressed it into the scale and the two merged together, so that the golden apple sat on the surface like an emblem.

“Fire,” Alexander intoned as he pressed the hot scale against Thad’s chest. Thad gritted his teeth at the burning sensation of it against his exposed skin. He heard Aura gasp and saw her eyes fill with tears of sympathy.

“Water,” Aura whispered, lifting a tear from her cheek and placing it on the scale. It sizzled on contact and evaporated.

“Earth,” Thad said, and pressed the scale more deeply into his own chest.

“Air,” Aura concluded, blowing against the hot scale as sweetly as a summer breeze. Thad caught her close and spun her around, his heart bursting with pride that she had given so much to be his mate. He swept into the sky and flew around his fellows, then spun to land on his feet, in human form, with Aura in his arms. He bent to kiss her, but she gasped in wonder as she looked past his shoulder.

“Twins!” she said with delight. “Thad, we will have twin sons!”

There was only one good way to celebrate that news, as far as Thad was concerned. He caught Aura close and kissed her soundly, knowing that this particular night would be filled with the exploration of sensual delights.

And so it would be for all their entwined future.

Thad couldn’t wait to begin.

The Dragon Legion Novellas are also available in a print collection.

The Dragon Legion Collection includes

Kiss of Danger

Kiss of Darkness

and

Kiss of Destiny
.

Available at online book retailers.

Ready for more Dragonfire?

Read on for an excerpt from

Serpent’s Kiss

The Tenth
Dragonfire
Novel

Copyright
© 2013 by Deborah A. Cooke

* * *

Erik checked the perimeter of his lair, ensuring that his dragonsmoke barrier was woven thick and deep. It was late at night, or early in the morning, depending upon how he looked at it. Zoë had been put to bed hours before and even Eileen had fallen asleep. Drake had departed with the new
Pyr
a week before, revitalized by the opportunity to train a new company of dragon shifters.

Erik had spent the week trying to avoid a sense of pending doom. He couldn’t scry the future or see anything beyond the present moment, but he’d had a sense of trouble brewing.

Maybe it was that footage of Jorge appearing, then disappearing, in Seattle. What had the
Slayer
been carrying? It had looked like a severed arm, one that was still bleeding. Erik hadn’t thought much of Jorge shaking blood over the gathering crowd, not then, but today’s news had changed that.

People were becoming sick in Seattle. Very sick. There was a hum of panic building in Seattle as doctors and hospitals noticed the connections between sudden illnesses and deaths. They hadn’t used the word epidemic yet, but the first hospital had put itself into quarantine. They’d already realized that most of the victims had been at the scene of Jorge’s appearance.

It was only a matter of time before dragons were blamed.

Erik shivered, remembering the old hunts that had driven his kind into hiding and claimed so many
Pyr
he’d known and loved. Surely it couldn’t happen again.

Surely his suspicions were unfounded.

The loft was still, despite Erik’s restlessness. He stood at the window and watched the moon ride high overhead, listening to the pulses and breathing of his partner and child. He heard the resonance of his dragonsmoke and felt its icy glitter. The blaze in his mind had quieted, perhaps because he no longer feared it.

The numbers of the
Pyr
had swollen, virtually overnight, thanks to the darkfire crystal and its ability to make reality out of possibilities. The stone remained dark—he had checked it again after Drake’s departure—and he sensed that it would always be so. Its task was completed.

His, unfortunately, was not.

Erik knew he should feel optimistic instead of worried. What could he do? If Jorge had a plan, was it possible that the other
Slayers
knew of it? He had never been able to determine how much they communicated with each other, and their alliances shifted like the wind.

Confident that his barriers were robust and his family safe, Erik left the loft and went to the apartment he’d acquired directly below. There the
Slayer
JP was imprisoned, confined by a barrier of dragonsmoke breathed by Erik and buttressed by every
Pyr
who had come to visit since JP’s capture.

Erik felt a little bit sorry for the other dragon shifter. JP had been branded by Chen, claimed by that old
Slayer
and held captive by his more ancient magic. He had raved and fought when he’d first been captured by the
Pyr
, venting about injustice and plots. Erik had hoped to learn something about Chen from JP, but he was too incoherent to provide any information of use. Then he’d collapsed into a deep slumber, dozing in his dragon form and seldom awakening.

Chen’s sorcery seemed to be killing him. JP’s scales became thinner each time Erik visited him. He wasn’t sure when the other dragon shifter ate, but he didn’t eat much. JP’s breathing was becoming shallower and his pulse slower. Worse, the fight had gone out of him. It was such an unnatural state for a dragon shifter that Erik assumed JP would soon die.

It was such a waste. He could never understand why a
Pyr
would turn
Slayer
in the first place, never mind why Chen would enchant another
Slayer
just to let him fade away.

Erik unlocked the door to the apartment, fearing as he did each time that he would make a gruesome discovery. He passed through the cold shimmer of the dragonsmoke, only to find the apartment in darkness. The drapes were drawn but the apartment was unnaturally dark, given the light of the full moon. It should have stolen into the room somehow, as well as the lights of the city itself.

Erik smelled brimstone.

He slammed the door and shifted shape immediately, but even at his fastest speed, he was too slow. A plume of flame illuminated the middle of the main room. It was breathed by a young Asian man dressed in leather, a man with malice and violence in his eyes.

Chen, in one of his human guises.

Erik leapt at him, talons bared, but Chen laughed. He grabbed the inert JP by the scruff of his neck, waved to Erik, then they both disappeared.

Erik landed hard on the bare floor, but his prey was gone. Chen had used his powers to spontaneously manifest in other locations to bypass the dragonsmoke barrier and collect his prey.

Why did he want JP?

What would he do to him?

What else had the darkfire changed? Erik closed his eyes and checked the connections in his mind, following each conduit to one of the
Pyr
. It took him longer, with the influx of new dragon shifters, but he soon realized that one was missing.

Thorolf.

Erik had been angry with Thorolf for revealing himself to humans. There was even a YouTube video of Thorolf shifting shape in Washington, one that was impressive in its popularity. Thorolf was all impulse and powerful energy, but he spent himself in indulgence. That he made such foolish choices was in direct contrast to his impressive lineage. If Thorolf focused, or even tried to hone his skills, he could have become one of Erik’s most reliable
Pyr
. He could have replaced Erik as leader. But he didn’t try and he didn’t seem to care, and when he had vowed to go to Asia to hunt down Chen, Erik had let him go. He’d been sure nothing would come of it, that Thorolf would find a woman somewhere and spend a few months exploring her charms.