Dragon Fall: Masters of the Flame 3 (Mating Fever) (18 page)

Violence edged Ashcraft’s voice. “I need the ichor. Take it out with a bullet hole or a knife or a fucking straw, I don’t care, but I
will
have it.”

“Why?” Esme asked. “Why do you need it?”

She swayed again when he shook her and snarled, “Shut up. I’m not talking to you.”

“You should be talking to me,” she snapped in return with such simmering fury that even Bale’s dragon was impressed. “Because now I’ve got ichor in me too.”

Ashcraft jerked her head back so he could glare into her eyes. “You have it?”

She met his stare with unblinking dark eyes. “Guess you should’ve been sweeter to me. Why do you need the ichor?”

Though he had ahold of her, Ashcraft was the one who wavered, as if he were drunk at realizing he was so close to getting what he wanted. “I believe a dragon shapeshifter’s ichor is the missing component in the Elixir of Life,” he said finally, “which alchemists have been fighting about for more than two thousand years under a thousand different names. And
I
will be the one to reveal the mystery.”

To Bale’s surprise, Esme let out a slow sigh. “You had everything, Lars. Rich, handsome, talented. But it wasn’t enough. And really, I feel for you. I don’t blame myself for falling for your spell, because now I see how much I was like you.”

“More alike once I have your ichor,” he said. “But I’m not interested in winning friends and rising above my not-so-humble beginnings like you were.” His lips twisted in a triumphant smirk. “With the elixir, I will rule.”

“So more like me,” Bale rumbled, determined to bring Ashcraft’s deluded attention back to him. “I should warn you, though, being king of all you survey isn’t everything. Turns out, life—even eternal life—is a gamble, and we have to be willing to risk it all, just like everyone else.”

Ashcraft shook his head. “With immortality there is no risk.”

“Even then,” Bale murmured, his gaze on Esme. “Especially then, with an empty eternity stretching ahead of you.”

“I’ll try it for myself anyway, thanks,” Ashcraft said. “Now give me the ichor, or I’ll take it from her.” He released Esme to reach for his pocket.

“Uh, about that…” Esme said. “If you really want to experience what it is to be a dragon—”

Something gleamed in her hand, half diamond-bright, half tar: a needle, glinting sharper than any tooth.

Ashcraft flinched away from her. With his hand still in his pocket and the gun off center, his eyes widened.

Esme plunged the point of the syringe into his neck.

He cried out and swatted at her. This time, she went down hard. He whipped the pistol around toward her.

But Bale was already there, wrenching the warlock’s arm back. Ashcraft screamed again as something snapped.

The gun clattered to the ground. When Ashcraft dove for it, a wolf was standing there spread-legged.

He fell back in a crouch, cradling his arm in his lap and clutching at his neck. “What did you shoot me with?” he croaked.

“Not the gun,” Bale muttered. “Sadly.”

Esme stood over Ashcraft, her stance as wide and threatening as the wolf’s, a power pose that made Bale’s dragon rumble in pleasure. “Whatever was in your pocket.”

“No,” he whispered. “You can’t.”

“Already did,” she reminded him. “I thought it would be the drugs you used to control me, but it was the paralytic toxin you brewed to attack the dragons, wasn’t it?”

“The antidote,” he said. “I need the antidote.”

Bale shook his head, both in answer to Ashcraft and in awe of his gloroius mate. “We’re synthesizing more of the cereus essence, but it’s a slow process.” He narrowed his eyes. “Fortunately for you, so is the process of turning to stone.”

Esme moved to stand beside him and slipped her arm through his left one. He almost wished it was still a wing so he could gather her close, protect her against all harm. But she hadn’t needed him to bring the warlock to his knees.

“There’s one other way to stop the stone blight,” she told Ashcraft. “Find your true mate. Someone who will bring light to your darkness. I imagine it’ll have to be a flamethrower.” Her voice was as smooth and sharp as a faceted obsidian blade.

She spun on her heel and walked away.

The wolf wagged his tail.

“Yeah,” Bale told him. “I think so too.”

As he followed Esme, a young man in a uniform strode in. He was clearly not surprised to see a giant dog in the bar, and he gave Bale a brisk nod. “Rumor has it there’s a wanted man here.”

The bartender sighed and pointed. “No trouble,” she said resignedly.

Bale walked up the stairs into the waiting night.

Chapter 18

Esme looked at the half circle of wolves and one cougar standing in the alley. She caught her breath, unsure if they were friend or otherwise.

But then she felt the looming weight like a thunderstorm behind her and she let out the breath in a soft sigh as the shifters melted away.

Because she had a dragon behind her.

She pivoted to face him. “You came.”

“I came,” he echoed in a hoarse voice. “By all the stars, Esme, if I had not…”

She put her hand on his chest, soothing him. “You came.” She had known he would, and yet she couldn’t keep the note of wonder out of her voice. “Why?”

He put his hand over hers. “The dragon heard you. And I realized I hadn’t fought hard enough to make you hear me.”

She looked up at him. “What did you want to say?”

“Just this.” Slowly, giving her all the time in the universe to move away, he lowered his head.

She waited, quivering like a magnetic filing drawn ever closer.

“That I need you,” he whispered. “Not as queen of my Keep and clan, but the woman who walked into the heart of my darkness without expecting to see light.” His lips brushed over hers, once, twice, a third time.

She breathed in his scent, deep and untamed. “You are everything I wanted,” she said. “The prince, the beast, all of you.”

Parting her lips beneath his, she took his rough exhalation and the ferocity of his kiss as her due.

The kiss had barely ended when Torch and a security team arrived. She had never seen Anjali’s mate angry before, but he
was
a dragon-shifter. He spoke with Joel’s son, the cop, about what would happen to Ashcraft, but then he turned his fury on his reyex.

“You left us,” he growled. “We had no idea what happened.”

Esme stepped between them. “He was saving me.”

Bale rumbled out a laugh. “Mostly I was picking up the pieces. You all seem to get along fine without me.” When Esme whirled to study him anxiously, he smiled. “I don’t mind. In fact, I find I appreciate having someone at my side. But I wouldn’t want you to feel I was taking advantage of you, so I think you should be salaried. Maybe Vice President of Community Outreach?”

Torch grunted. “You have the riches to make it happen.”

“I’ll help you spend it,” Esme offered.

Bale chuckled. “It might take awhile.”

“I’ll be there.” She tucked herself under his arm. “No more running away.”

She stayed by his side on the flight back to Vegas. “You flew to get me,” she said as she snuggled in his lap.

“I would have crawled with one wing in the dirt,” he said. “Anything to get to you.”

She shook her head against his shoulder. “If I don’t run, you don’t crawl, my dragon lord.”

She changed her mind later, though, when he stalked her naked across the soft mattress of her bed in the Amber Suite. Desert sunlight streamed through the wide windows, turning the air gold.

Anticipation made her heart race as his ravenous stare promised wicked delight.

“Do you remember that gift I swore to you if you came back to me the first time?”

She tilted her head. “The gift of my life? Of freedom? My love?”

He skimmed his fingertips across the bristling crown of her head. “Love?” His voice broke.

She stared at him fearlessly though her heartbeat zinged higher. She had to take the risk… “It’s yours, if you want it.”

“I want nothing more,” he said. “Nothing.”

“Nothing?” she teased. “Not even…” She butterflied her thighs for him, bold and wanton.

His eyes blazed. “Command me and I will take it.”

She laughed, and her heart felt full of light and fire. “You will be
my
sacrifice.”

“Willingly, always.”

He raised himself over her, his cock stroking into her depths. But the bond between them went deeper yet. For a stuttering moment, she caught her breath. How could she hope to hold this mighty beast…

His gaze captured hers, and she realized she’d spoken aloud. “You are the one who set me free,” he said. “Not just my body, but my heart which was already stone before you.”

“Parts of you still feel rock hard.” She arched her hips into him.

“That is your fault,” he conceded. “But everywhere else, I feel alive, utterly alive.”

When he came, the orgasmic torrent of ichor rippled through them both, the arc like a shooting star, but instead of falling, they flew.

Wrapped in each other’s arms, she lay with her head on his broad chest, tracing the lingering marks of scales.

“I don’t think they’ll fade,” he said quietly.

“Why should they? They are what you are.”

He kissed her crown. “You gave that back to me. And now I want you to have this.” From behind his back he held out his closed fist between them.

Delighted, she pried at his fingers. “For me?”

“Like you’ve never had a gift,” he said wryly.

She paused, considering. “I’m sure I have… From someone… I mean, if we’re not counting the magic mushroom engagement ring of doom.”

His jaw tightened and he hugged her tight, opening his fist at the same time.

She gasped, almost afraid to reach out.

“Take it,” he urged. “I had it made for you. May I?”

She nodded mutely and held out her hand.

The ring was delicately fit to her finger, but the pearl set into the blued steel was gigantic, ridiculously so, as if it was shouting from the highest parapet of the Keep that she was…

“This is meant for a queen,” she said.

His jaw flexed and then he bit his lip. “Is it too much?” He reached for her hand.

“No.” She snatched it back, then spread her hand before her again. “Oh, Bale. Yes, it is too much. And I love it. It’s perfect.”

He grasped her hand gently. “Of all the jewels in my hoard, none were right for you. The facets were too hard, too sharp. But the pearl…was just right. Translucent, soft.” He traced the pattern carved into the surface, angling her hand toward the light so the nacre shimmered with rainbow undertones, like his ichor. “With so much more to see beneath the surface.”

“What is the symbol?”

“The emblem of the Burning Night.” He raised his gaze to hers. “You came to me as a light in my darkness. You will always be
my
queen.”

She cupped her hand against his cheek, the pearl glowing like a moon in the light of day. “I stayed untouched because I was too afraid to fall with no one to catch me. If not for you, I’d still be locked in my shell, as frozen as a statue of stone.”

He turned his head to kiss the pulse in her wrist. “Will you let me be your fire?”

“Always,” she whispered. “My dragon lord.”

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About the Author

Elsa Jade
, author of sexy shapeshifting romances, also writes paranormal romance, urban fantasy romance, and science fiction romance as
Jessa Slade
and sexy contemporary romance as
Jenna Dales
. In all her incarnations, she believes in the transformational power of love and is thrilled to share her stories with like-minded readers.