Kiss of a Dragon (Fallen Immortals 1) - Paranormal Fairytale Romance (16 page)

But that didn’t make it any easier to watch.

“Leksander.” Getting his brother to pry his pained stare from her wasn’t easy.
“Leksander!”
he hissed.

His brother blinked, hesitated, then strode over.

“Is this the only demon you found tonight?” Lucian asked, trying to distract him. Erelah was done with the actual life-kiss, but the man was still recovering—and he seemed loathe to let go of the beauty who had resuscitated him. For her part, she was glowing with the aftereffects of that encounter, even more so than the demon slaying, and was in no hurry to release him, either.

Leksander wrenched his gaze away from her and focused on Lucian. “No. There was one other. Both of which were Odious Class.”

Lucian narrowed his eyes. Demons were chaotic forces of evil, generally speaking, although they obeyed their masters once summoned. But once mated and producing hybrids, all bets were off. They aligned with the forces of evil surrounding them, and those usually lined up with the seven deadly sins: Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Sloth, Wrath, Envy, and especially Pride. Each sponsored a class of demon specialized in bringing that particular evil out in humans, not that demons couldn’t be multi-talented and bring out more than one. Especially when cross-bred with humans, who seemed to have a limitless talent for evil.

Odious Class demons specialized in Wrath—hatred, rage, anger. An insufferable need to destroy the lives of others. A consuming desire for vengeance that passed all semblance of righteous justice.

“So Leonidas was right,” Lucian said, watching Erelah and the now demon-free man support each other as they rose up from the ground. “The hatred that’s been fomenting in Seattle—the troubles between the shifters and humans—is feeding the energy of these demons, bringing them out of their slumbering DNA.”

“It’s definitely possible,” Leksander said, the tension in his shoulders stepping down as a glowing Erelah moved away from the man and bid him to leave with a gracious sweep of her delicately beautiful arms. “Odious Class demons are especially susceptible to swelling up out of the dark corners of humanity, assuming they’re latent in their genetic code somewhere. Leftovers from the time they were more numerous. And hatred is the most easily communicable of the seven sins—it could easily spread wide enough to bring them out.”

His brother was certainly right about that. And the look on his face, directed at the man standing next to Erelah, wasn’t exactly warm and welcoming. The man’s erection hadn’t abated, and he wasn’t making any moves to leave. He had better go soon, or Leksander might light a fire under his feet.

“Are we simply seeing remnants of the troubles now?” Lucian asked, again trying to distract his brother. “Because those are behind us. Or at least, so I thought.”

The man finally ambled off after much urging from Erelah, her face shining with happiness at the man’s renewed lease on life. Lucian had never met a True Angel, only hybrids like Erelah—the pure Angels and Devils kept their distance from both the mortal and immortal worlds. But he couldn’t help wondering if they were all as clueless as their children about their powerful, attractive pull. It was as though Erelah couldn’t see the lust in the man’s eyes… or his pants. She was like a child, unaware in many ways.

Leksander’s growl for the man’s retreating back was contained deep in his chest, but Lucian still heard it. His brother finally turned to him. “Yes, the active hunt for shifters has seemingly ceased, at least in Seattle. But the anger and the loathing run deep in humans. It may be tempered, but I doubt it has disappeared.”

Lucian cocked his head as Erelah approached. Leksander quickly turned to face her. He was so reactive around her, so obvious. Why couldn’t she see that and put his brother out of his misery? At least grant him an acknowledgment of his obvious desire for her, even if she chose to keep chaste. Or at least, chaste from
him.

Lucian managed to keep his sigh inside. “Did you sense anything about the demon’s origins before you smote him with your heavenly sword?” he asked her, barely restraining his sarcasm.

“Oh, Lucian,” she said, her smile still bright from her twin ecstasies. “You should know I couldn’t keep from helping that poor man! His demon side was nothing but a torment. Endlessly. You should have seen the stories I glimpsed in his mind as he claimed his fully human self. So many terrible things he couldn’t help from doing, driven by that
odious daemonus.
”

“Yes, I’m sure he would have been a prince otherwise.” Lucian loved humanity, but not with the blind intensity of an angel. And he was certain that the female half was far superior to the males, in any event.

She scowled at him, but lightly. Then she laid a delicate-fingered hand on Leksander, and his brother’s reaction would have been clear to anyone with eyes to see. “Tell your brother, Leksander. Humans are but angels in disguise.”

“Some of them.” Leksander gave him a pained look.

Lucian held in his laugh. “All right, slayer,” he said to her. “But let’s have an understanding, shall we? If you find one that’s demon-infected, can you stay your blade for a moment or three? It’s important to stop this resurgence or whatever it is. I suspect it is more than a fomenting of
odious
spirits.”

Some of the gleeful haze in Erelah’s eyes faded. “You suspect the fae are involved. Leksander told me. I regret I didn’t have time to sense the demon’s origins to help further that cause.” The angels’ natural enemy—
the fae, conjurers and keepers of the demonic forces, at least in the Winter Court—tended to bring out the warrior side of any angel.

“We’ll find it in time. If you can work with me and restrain yourself, that is.” Lucian was being as polite as he could manage while still being direct. Nuance tended to be lost on angelings, just like the angels that spawned them.

But she seemed to understand. At least, she nodded. It was difficult to parse what a slayer knew, what they sensed, and what they didn’t. “You are spelling Leksander’s patrol, are you not? I wish to stay. I’ll hunt with you now.”

Lucian winced as his brother struggled to keep the hurt off his face. Lucian really needed to have a talk with him—and soon—about the futility of this crush. He’d gone longer than Lucian in not partaking in human female company. It was time. Perhaps Leonidas could help find someone to capture Leksander’s attention, if even just for a short while.

Lucian sighed. “Why don’t we split up?” He threw a meaningful glance at his brother, whose eyes had sharpened. “You and Leksander take the southern half of the city; I’ll take the northern part. I won’t slay anything without you, as long as you promise the same in return.”

“Deal!” she exclaimed, the smile wide on her face. She was truly, breathtakingly beautiful, just as all children of angels were. It wasn’t much of a mystery why his brother was smitten. It was just terribly unfortunate.

Erelah’s wings unfurled, and she lifted from the ground in a gliding way that spoke of her power, not her wings’ ability to beat the air into submission.

Lucian watched her go, seeking out more demons to ecstatically slay. She must be as drunk on that as he was leaving Arabella at his lair. Then he dropped his gaze to his brother, whose look of longing was almost painful to see. “Chasing angelfire will only get you burned, my brother.”

He lingered on her quickly rising form until it cloaked. “You’re right.” Then he brought his gaze back down to earth and smirked. “But it will be glorious while it lasts.”

Lucian shook his head, stepping back as Leksander shifted into his silver dragon and went after her, cloaking a half heartbeat later. And in truth, he could hardly blame his brother—Lucian had his own tempting angel back in his lair.

And loving Arabella just might burn him to ash as well.

Thank God, she was on the pill.

She’d been on birth control ever since that night with her ex, regardless of the status of her relationships. Not that there were any. But she didn’t want to accidentally end up carrying the spawn of some asshole, and rape happened way too damn often in the world. This thing with Lucian was anything but that… but it had come on so suddenly… and Arabella never had a man come inside her
so much
in a single day.

Twenty-four hours of sex and sleep and sex and more sex. After the fourth or fifth round—she’d rapidly lost count—Lucian had explained that dragon libido was enhanced like every other ability.
Holy shit,
he wasn’t kidding about that. And the things he did to her… she was still buzzing from all those orgasms hours after he’d flown off to patrol Seattle, leaving her alone in his lair. Somewhere in the middle, he’d also explained she didn’t need to worry about pregnancy or disease—that pregnancy could only occur after sealing, and shifters didn’t have diseases, not ones that were communicable to humans, anyway. It was part of the whole immortality thing. Of course, he could totally be lying. But she was inclined to believe him—if it were that easy to get pregnant, he wouldn’t be searching so hard for a mate.

A mate.
Was that where this was headed? She was so dazed by their time in bed, by the sweet caring of a man who felt the pain of her trauma then helped her get past it—not just once, but again and again and again—it was like he was making up for all her lost time. And all that sexual energy bottled up inside her came spilling out… right along with her heart.

It was possibly the most intimate and kind gift she’d ever received, and dammit, she could feel it—she was falling in love with him. Because
Jesus Lord,
he was hot and kind and an incredible lover. What was not to love? Except for that whole dragon thing. And the fact that she’d just met him. And,
hello,
that he had basically kidnapped her and was still holding her prisoner. Maybe. She wasn’t really sure about that part anymore, given she had free run of the House of Smoke in his absence. Presumably, she could bop down to the garage, snag a car, and leave.

Only that was the last thing she wanted to do.

Her head could argue all day about how falling in love with Lucian Smoke was the height of irresponsibly crazy foolishness… but her heart was already long, long gone. And her lady parts were in some kind of nirvana they didn’t even know existed. Like
literally.
She had no idea her body could feel this
sated.

Not that she wasn’t sore. She hurt in parts of her body she didn’t know she owned—like she’d been possessed by someone who tried to win an IronMan Extreme Decathlon where all the events were staged in Lucian’s circular bed. Her legs and arms and
everything
were one big limping soreness… all except the parts between her legs. Or anywhere else Lucian’s magical-healing wet kisses could reach. He said all his bodily fluids had restorative powers—like he literally leaked immortality—and she believed it. Her lady parts were already raring to go again, even as her back was considering traction. But the buzz of uncountable orgasms won the day with a resounding
worth it!
finishing any and all arguments.

She couldn’t wait for Lucian to return.

Oh, God,
she had it bad for him.

What she
really
needed was to clear her head and sort this out, which was how she found herself wandering the hallways of the House of Smoke. The keep was like a small city on top of the mountain. Lucian had given her a cell phone with his number programmed in, plus a built-in GPS so she could find her way back to his lair, and then said she would be safe anywhere she chose to explore. He’d given some kind of command to everyone in the keep to watch out for her… although no one had shown their face so far.

The keep had common areas, like an amazing swim room that was a sparkling lake built into the side of the mountain, complete with waterfall. And a domed observatory that grew out of the top and gave a 360-degree view of the gorgeous mountain scenery at dusk. The keep itself was sprawling and huge, a series of gorgeous, luxury apartments all connected by a common walkway. She was slowly mapping out the maze with the GPS app on her phone and her leisurely wandering.

She didn’t know how many dragons were in the keep, but they seemed to be staying in their lairs. Or perhaps they had left the keep entirely. What did dragons do all day beside lounge in their opulent apartments? Lucian had given her the coordinates and phone number for Leonidas in case she needed something. What she could possibly need that wasn’t provided in Lucian’s well-stocked lair or the entertainment of the miniature surround-sound theater or any number of other pastimes within the glass castle in the sky, she couldn’t imagine.

Except she did—she needed someone to talk to about all this.

Rachel wouldn’t be much help—she knew as much about dragons as she knew about men—but Leonidas was Lucian’s brother. A prince and a dragon as well. Maybe he could help her understand what all this was really about. Because she was falling in love with a dragon prince who was looking for a mate, and the idea of that just turned her head inside out.

When she arrived at the coordinates for Leonidas’s apartment, the entrance was unmarked, except for the extravagant, carved brass dragon in bold relief that draped down the edges. She knocked but nothing happened, and there wasn’t a doorbell. Lucian’s apartment was enormous—maybe Leonidas just couldn’t hear her? She was about to dial his number, when suddenly, and without a whisper of sound, the door slid open.