Dragon's Fire (9 page)

“Do you have the information for a warrant?”

I liked this guy. Agent Ass-hat would've made me prove six ways from Sunday that my pursuit was valid before I could even bring up the idea of a warrant. “All I have so far is that it's either a witch or a warlock performing curses. I have a contact in New Orleans who can tell me more.”

“New Orleans?” Beck sounded surprised, but not angry. “Are you flying or driving?”

I had a momentary mental image of Judah shifting on a plane. “Driving.”

“You'll need federal authorization to pursue a Paranormal Being across state lines, so use me as your contact point. I'll get a Magick Practitioner warrant and we can fill in the details whenever you have them.”

Yeah, I really liked this guy. “Thanks, Agent Beck.”

“Be careful and keep me posted.”

I tossed the phone onto the seat between Judah and myself. It was only then that I realized he was still naked. A jolt of desire went through me. My body was humming, the after-effects of the fight finally hitting me. I still had one question answer I needed.

“Judah, what triggered you to shift?”

“I...” Judah glanced at me, his eyes finally focusing. His cheeks turned red as his hands fell to his lap, covering himself.

I really wanted him and it was only through great self-control that I pursued the question. “I need to know why you couldn't control it.”

“I chose to shift.”

I almost slammed on the brakes. “Excuse me?”

“I meant to do it.”

“You...” I was at a loss. I needed to pull over. A few yards ahead, I saw a sign for the Foundry Branch Valley Park. With any luck, it'd be deserted and I could take care of two things at once. I pulled in and, seeing no one else around, pulled off of the parking lot and maneuverer Judah's car behind a small thicket of trees. I yanked off the seatbelt and turned towards him. “Did you just tell me that you intentionally shifted into a dragon?”

Judah nodded. He didn't seem to know how I was going to respond. Understandable since I didn't know how I felt about it.

“Why?”

Judah's eyes implored me to understand. “I thought they were going to hurt you and I knew that I didn't stand a chance as a human, but as a dragon...” His voice faded.

“Get out of the car,” my voice was strained.

“What?” Judah looked completely bewildered and hurt flashed through his eyes.

I leaned across the seat and pressed my lips hard against his. I scratched my nails down his chest and shoved my tongue into his mouth when he gasped. I didn't wait for him to respond to the kiss and pulled back, panting. “It's way too small to try to fuck in here.”

Judah stared at me, but I just climbed out of the car and walked around to the passenger's side. He was still watching me, as if waiting for me to say that I was only joking. There was one surefire way I knew to make him realize I was serious. I pulled my shirt over my head and tossed it through the open window. My bra immediately followed.

“Shit,” Judah's hand fumbled at the door.

I unsnapped my jeans as the door opened. Judah climbed out of the car, but still made no move to touch me. His hands were over his cock, though they wouldn't be able to do much once he was hard, and I expected that to happen very soon. I cupped one of my breasts and slid my other hand down my stomach and into my pants. Judah made a sound low in his throat as I teased my nipple with my thumb and finger. My other hand moved beneath my panties, my fingers slipping between my folds to find me wet. “If you aren't going to help me out, I guess I'll have to take care of it myself.”

Judah's arms were around me before I'd made two strokes, crushing me against him. His mouth found mine and he kissed me with a fierceness that made me shiver. I pushed back, our tongues tangling as they fought for dominance. One of his hands worked its way between us and grabbed my breast, the touch rougher than I'd expected, but exactly what I wanted. I scraped my teeth across his bottom lip, biting down as I broke the kiss. If we'd been in a more private place, there would be so many things I would have that mouth do to me. Right now, I just needed the release.

“I need you inside me.”

Judah gave an almost animalistic growl and spun me around. My hands barely caught me as he bent me over the hood of the car. He yanked on my pants, taking the panties with them until they were down to my thighs. This was going to be a tight fit.

“Fuck,” I swore as I felt one of his fingers probe at my entrance. “Stop teasing already. Just fuck me.”

I half-expected him to protest, but it seemed that his need was as great as my own. He grabbed onto my hips and shoved himself inside of me. I'm not embarrassed to admit that I wailed. He was almost too big in this position, with my legs barely able to part, but it felt amazing. He didn't wait for me to adjust and I didn't want him to. The pressure was already building inside me and I knew it wouldn't take much for me to explode. He fucked me hard and fast, his hips snapping forward at an almost brutal pace that drove the air from my lungs. The hot hood of the car burned my skin, the pinpricks of pain rushing along my nerves to join with the exquisite pleasure radiating up from the place where my body accepted his. I dropped my head and closed my eyes, so close.

Judah moved his hands from my hips, running them up my stomach to where my breasts swayed, my hard nipples brushing against the smooth metal. His fingers played across my flesh, kneading and pinching and squeezing until it was all I could do to keep myself from falling face-first onto the hood.

“Please, cum,” he begged, his hips stuttering as his own release neared. He took both of my nipples between his fingers and pulled on the tips.

I wanted to scream as I climaxed, my entire body shaking and spasming beneath his, but nothing came from my open mouth. My legs buckled and only Judah's cock in my pussy kept me from falling to the ground. Spots danced behind my eyes and Judah slammed into my twice more before he came. His body shuddered as it slumped over me, his arms crossing beneath my breasts to hold me. I could feel his legs trembling against mine, but he held us up as our bodies slowly came down.

He pressed an open-mouthed kiss against my shoulder. His voice was breathless in my ear as he said, “I think I need to find something to wear if we're going anywhere public.”

I chuckled, a lazy grin spreading across my face. There were going to be some serious perks on this road trip.

Chapter Eight

I stopped at the first store we passed that sold clothes. As much as I enjoyed looking at Judah's very nice body, we'd never make it to New Orleans in sixteen hours if I kept wanting to stop and fuck. I was well aware that this was unusual, even for me, but I didn't want to analyze the intensity of this attraction. I had too much else on my plate and I was actually enjoying his company, even without the sex. It was nice to forget the crazy, even if it was only for a little while.

We took turns driving and talked about everything except the elephant in the room, or I suppose, the dragon in the car. The only other thing I didn't want to talk about was what had happened to my family, but Judah never asked. I figured it was safe to assume that a journalist who'd been following my career would know that they were all dead. No one alive knew the details. After I'd found them, I'd called Paul and we'd cleaned up before bringing in the other authorities. Death for hunters was supposed to be private and what had been done had been particularly degrading. No one else was going to see my family that way.

Judah kept telling me how his life had been so unexciting and boring by comparison to mine, at least until the curse. He'd said that, often while growing up, he'd wish for a more exciting life. Now, he said, he was thankful for the quiet suburban upbringing his two sisters and he'd had. I told him that I'd never thought about another kind of life. Hunting was the family business, and not just from one side. Both of my parents had been born into it. On my mother's side, we went back to the founding of the country. There'd been a Donnell on the Mayflower. Granted, he'd been a sailor and not a passenger, but he'd saved the settlers from a very pissed off necromancer who'd fallen asleep on the boat and woke half-way out to sea. Then, there was my father's side. Despite their Jewish heritage, the Fausts had stayed in Germany to fight against the Paranormal Beings Hitler had recruited. They'd nearly been wiped out by the time the war ended. Only my great-great-great grandmother and her infant son had made it to America. There'd never been a doubt in my mind as to what I would be doing with my life.

We didn't talk constantly and, during one of the silences, Judah had finally fallen asleep. I waited until we were just outside the city limits before waking Judah. I'd insisted he catch a few hours while I drove the last leg. I'd gotten a whole four hours while he'd driven, so I was good to go. Besides, he'd shifted three times in twenty-four hours, fucked twice and been attacked once. That was bound to wear anyone out.

Once he was coherent, I gave him the rundown on what we were going to do. “There's a warlock here, Malane Lundos, who's helped my family in the past. He's a good guy, you know, for a warlock,” I grinned. “If anyone knows who did this, it's him.”

As we entered the French Quarter, I began to tense. What most people didn't know was that New Orleans had been controlled by a very powerful coven of vampires since before it had been New Orleans. Hunters had tried to wipe them out but not had ever succeeded. Finally, in the forties or fifties, an uneasy truce had been made and hunters stayed out. The coven policed the creatures within their borders and only took blood from the willing, or so the agreement went. Hunters used informants, some human and some not, to make sure the truce was being kept. Malane was one such informant.

I parked the car, then leaned over the back of the seat to retrieve as many weapons as I could discreetly carry.

“Expecting trouble?” Judah asked.

“Stay close by me,” I didn't directly answer his question. “A lot of things here don't like me.”

Judah didn't argue, for which I was grateful. When I stepped out of the car, I had to look around to get my bearings. I hadn't been here since I was fourteen and never on my own. A pang of sadness went through me as I thought of how safe I'd felt with my parents and Baethan watching me and Liam.

The memory came to me slowly, but it came, helped greatly by the recent addition of a sign that read 'Warlock Extraordinaire Malane Lundos.' The Revealing sure even changed New Orleans.

I pointed at the sign. “It's down that alley way.”

Judah followed me as I hurried along the sidewalk. I got my usual share of looks, but most of these had nothing to do with my appearance. I had a bad feeling that all of the unwanted press I'd received was going to get me into trouble when I was trying to fly below the radar. Judah and I were halfway down the alley before it happened.

A pair of djinn appeared from the shadows to block the path. No djinn – the 'd' is silent – looked like those cartoons that come out of a lamp, or like any old TV show with gauzy clothes. Their features and bodies were human, but that's where the similarities ended. They all had either jet-black hair or none at all. Their eyes were a gleaming silver and their skin a strange grayish-blue that made them look like walking corpses. They were actually responsible for most zombie sightings. They'd even used it to their advantage, getting hunters to go after necromancers for crimes the djinn had committed.