Riding the Storm (31 page)

Six months later no one else had challenged Kendra or in any
way expressed the slightest problem with her relationship with Eric. All it had
taken was a reminder of how brutal she could be, and no one felt the need to
question her choices.

Norris wrote her a letter in care of Abbott, following
protocol even more than was required. He told her he understood the timing
wasn’t right for them to work towards a relationship at this time, but he hoped
she might consider it in a few centuries. This freed her up to check out his theater
work, and then call him to tell him how happy she was for him. They left things
on good terms with each other, and with Norris happy she’d found someone she
cared about, though sad for himself that he’d finally found her and the timing
wasn’t right.

Kendra and Eric had figured out how to make a switch
relationship work, which largely involved just not analyzing it too much.
Sometimes Kendra took charge and Eric submitted, sometimes Eric took charge and
Kendra submitted. Most of the time they were just two people who loved each
other more than words could say.

It worked for them.

Eric asked Kendra hundreds of questions about what it was
like to be turned, how long it took to get control of vampire powers, how one
learned to safely drink from humans without hurting or killing them. Kendra
answered his questions, but made it clear she wouldn’t even consider turning
him until he’d reached his twenty-eighth birthday, which was still a few years
away. Eric was okay with that — he wasn’t in a hurry to say goodbye to
the sun, but at the same time, he began to think that at some point losing his
days would be worth the other things he’d gain. Meanwhile, they made a formal
agreement, with Abbott as witness, stating if Eric was at the point of death,
or was going to die, Kendra and Abbott both had his consent to turn him.
Whether it be next week or next year, he didn’t want to die a human.

In the meantime, they spent most of their time together,
balancing it between his yacht and the coterie house. His new vampire game was
in the testing stages and was poised to become a huge hit when it hit the
market. He’d even brought it to the coterie house to let the vampires help test
it — they got a huge kick out of it, and some were getting addicted to
video games.

Kendra didn’t know where she and Eric were headed for sure,
but she knew she loved him as she hadn’t loved anyone in a very long time.

She couldn’t bear to turn him yet, but when it was time, she
looked forward to getting to know him with his new strengths, though she’d be
sad he’d no longer be able to Top her. Still, the two were so close, she had
hopes they might make it well beyond the five hundred year mark of marriage so
few vampire couples managed to reach. No matter what happened, they’d ride the
storm together until they found clear skies once again.

The
End

If you enjoyed
Riding the Storm
, you may also like
other books set in the same universe, though in different series.

Rolling Thunder Motorcycle Club
, paranormal romance:

·
     
Duke

·
     
Brain (Summer 2015)

·
     
Bash (TBA)

·
     
Gonzo (TBA)

Chattanooga Supernaturals
, paranormal romance:

·
     
The
Dragon King  

·
     
Riding
the Storm

·
     
Acceptable
Risk (in the Every Which Way anthology, June 16
^th
)

Only Human
series, urban fantasy

·
     
Only Human

The Safeword series, intense BDSM contemporary romance

·
     
Safeword Rainbow  

·
     
Safeword: Davenport

·
     
Safewords: Davenport and Chiffon

·
     
Safeword: Quinacridone

·
     
Safeword: Matte  

·
     
Safeword: Matte – In Training  

·
     
No Safeword: Matte – The Honeymoon  

·
     
No Safeword: Matte – Happily Ever After

·
     
Safeword: Arabesque  

Check out other books by Candace Blevins at
candaceblevins.com
.

Keep reading for an excerpt from
The
Dragon King

The Dragon King

By
Candace Blevins

Aaron

Sophia is the most adorable two year old I’ve ever seen.
Fluffy blonde hair, rosy chubby cheeks, and a laugh that makes my heart sore.

I turned to her father, the Swan King, and chose my words
carefully. “Raul, you’re sure this is the best course of action? I know you’re
still grieving over Angelique’s death, but can you truly prepare Sophia for a
life of leading your people if you keep her a prisoner in your home her entire
life?”

I could only get away with asking this question because I’d
helped raise and train Raul, helped prepare him to take the crown when he beat
his brothers and won the throne.

“I did my best to protect my wife from supernaturals, and a
damned
human
hunter took her out. Sophia won’t leave the walls of the
castle until she marries, and hopefully whoever wins her will follow my lead
and also keep her behind protective walls. She won’t see the same fate as
Angelique.” His voice was firm, didn’t waver, and let me know further
conversation on the matter would be met with hostility.

Sophia is the first Swan Princess without at least one
brother since before I was born, and by my best guess I’m around nine thousand
years old. Give or take a thousand.

Swan Princesses are usually given to other royalty as a way
to unite families and sometimes species, but they never have a hope of the
throne. Their brothers are required to fight each other for power, the
strongest and most cunning winning the crown.

Instead of finding another wife to give him sons, Raul is
arranging for a contest between the other Swan royalty, with the strongest
being allowed to care for her until she turns twenty five, and then marry her
and eventually take the crown. Personally, I think Raul wants to step down and
find a way to join his dead wife. The grief of her death still holds him.

I’ve trained the past seven Swan Kings, including Sophia’s
father, Raul. I know him well, and I know he loves his daughter. However, he’s
still feels such pain over his wife’s slaughter, I worry about the decisions
he’s making.

There is precedence amongst some other supernatural species
for his keeping Sophia in seclusion, finding a suitable King, and not giving
her a choice in who she’ll marry. However, watching the toddler play and laugh
and flirt, my heart hurts with the knowledge she’ll grow up with no control of
her major life choices. Or, likely the minor ones, either.

She’s such a happy baby, so full of life and adventure. I
hope her life turns out better than most fairy tales.

* * * *

Ten years later, my heart aches as the court Herald
announces me into the Swan King’s mansion for Sophia’s final unchaperoned
lesson. I’ve been coming to the mansion once a week for a four hour session
since she was six, but this must stop once she becomes a teenager, which in
swan lore makes her a woman.

I’ll be allowed to come four times a year for an all-day
review session, but will never again be alone with her. After today she’ll have
a chaperone or minder with her anytime she’s with a man besides her father
— or husband, once she’s married.

I’m going to miss my time with her. In my busy life, my
half-days with the Swan Princess have been the sunshine of my week. Sophia is a
special child, so smart, so willing to learn, and a joy to be around. My heart
is happy when I’m with her, and we most often go to our spot near a manmade
waterfall on their property so we can talk without worrying so much about being
overheard. Someone from the house can see us, but our words are drowned out.
Sometimes, though, my favorite part of the day is her smile when I arrive and
she skips to me for a hug. Today will be the last time she’ll be allowed to hug
me for no reason, just because she’s happy I’ve arrived. My heart hurts as I
wrap my arms around her and tell her I’m happy to see her.

We walk to our spot, sit on our rock and I open a few books
as I give her another to hold. The rushing waters may provide white noise to
block our voices, but we still need to appear as if I’m teaching her.

“You know this is the last time we’ll be alone, right,
Soph?”

Sophia looks down, takes a breath, and raises her gaze back
to mine. “I know. I’ll miss my time with you.”

“And I’ll miss you, but you’re a Princess, and one day
you’ll be Queen, and this is the way it has to be. I’ll be back to review the
important stuff, but there are some things I’ve taught you that I won’t be able
to review with you out loud. I’ll try to write it in a notebook and let you
read it, so you’ll remember, but there is some danger in that, so I won’t do it
every time.”

“Why take the risk? If I’ll never rule, never make a
difference, why put yourself in danger?”

“Because I’m grooming you for power, Princess. No one knows
for sure what the future holds, and to fully do my job I can’t just teach you
the palatable parts of your history. I understand your family wishes to shield
you and protect you, but I can see the strength in you.”

Sophia sighed. “I’ll still see you at social occasions? Not
just the four times a year you’ll be allowed to come for review?”

“Yes, and I may or may not be allowed a dance with you. I
will certainly not be able to take you outside for a conversation.”

She nodded, and I carefully said, “Sophia, if ever you find
yourself in need of a protector, get a message to me. Your father and Cyrano
will look after you, but if you find yourself without their protection I hope
you’ll feel comfortable letting me keep you safe.”

Shaking her head, Sophia said, “Cyrano scares me. My latest
Governess tells me when I’m a woman I’ll appreciate him for his strength and
resolve, and I must remain meek and quiet around him while I’m a child.”

I wanted to wring Cyrano’s neck for frightening her, as well
as the Governess’s for giving crap advice, but I had to walk a fine line. “I’m
sorry he scares you, Princess. I would advise you to speak to your father about
it, see if he can intercede on your behalf.”

“You always do that.”

I tilted my head and let my eyebrows raise, and Sophia
explained. “When we’re just talking, I’m Soph or Sophia, but when you’re
thinking politically, you call me Princess.”

“Yes, because this is the way an elder speaks to someone of
royalty. I’m your teacher, I know more than you, but I must also show respect.
It’s a balance, Sophia.”

She shook her head. “I don’t know what you are, and my
father either doesn’t know or won’t tell me, but I’m positive you’re royalty,
too. I’ve learned to tell the difference in someone with their own power who
addresses me and my father as an equal while using all the right words, and
someone with no power who addresses us with the same words but a completely
different energy.”

I hoped my smile showed how pleased I was with her insight.
“You make me proud, Sophia. I hope you’ll keep your suppositions to yourself,
though.”

She nodded. “Of course, and I hope someday you’ll trust me
enough to tell me what and who you really are.”

I needed to be sure she understood my offer, so I repeated
it. “Do you understand what I’m saying, Soph? If you ever need help, a
protector, a friend, an advisor…If you’re ever in trouble I hope you’ll find a
way to get a message to me.”

Sophia

I’d been planning my escape for eleven years, and tonight
I’d either fly to my freedom or die trying.

I was to be married to Cyrano on my twenty-fifth birthday,
in seventeen days. However, I was determined it was never going to happen.

Tomorrow, my governess was meeting with people in Charleston
on my behalf to assure the wedding would go off without a hitch. Since I was
never allowed off my father’s property, if someone couldn’t come to me then I
had to send someone to them, and the caterers had decided they couldn’t make
yet another trip to go over last minute details.

I knew they wouldn’t, it was part of my plan.

I’d sent my governess away earlier this evening so she could
stay in a hotel and be present for the seven o’clock meeting tomorrow morning,
and then make surprise visits to check in with the florist and a few other
vendors.

I’d brought books up from the library to my bedroom, asked
for my tea service a little early, and told everyone I wasn’t to be disturbed.

I’d been nervous and anxious for months, so no one paid any
attention to my scent anymore. I was perpetually on edge.

It was eight fifteen, and I figured I’d have until the guard
shift change at three in the morning before anyone realized I was gone. My
current guard wasn’t likely to decide he needed to put eyeballs on me, but I
knew they’d look in on me at shift change. They always did.

Swan shifters need to Change a minimum of four times a year,
at both equinoxes and both solstices. However, since my father didn’t want me
leaving the property, when I Changed they immediately turned me back human. I’d
never been allowed to even
try
to fly. The rest of the time I wore an
anklet my father had brought someone in to create especially for me. It kept me
from turning into a swan any other time of year.

I’d spent years combing through the books in our extensive
library, and was convinced I’d found a way to defeat the anklet. I’d also
learned from one of our servants years ago that it was possible for a virgin to
change without the normal flogging to rip enough skin away so we could shift
into our swan form.

She said one could use a knife to cut a seam from one foot,
up the outside of the body, from armpit to fingers on the bottom of the arm,
and then fingers to shoulder on the top of the arm, over the head and scalp,
skip the right arm and go down the body to the right foot, and then as the left
foot comes out and forms, use the claws to rip a seam in the skin from the
right arm so it can pull free.

I had a very sharp crafting knife and hoped it would do the
job.

Meanwhile, I’d long ago figured out how to defeat the alarm
system at my window so I could at least open it and get fresh air. I used a
screwdriver to carefully removed the contact from the window’s hardware, taped
it to the stationary contact on the window frame, and then slowly opened the
window, making sure everything stayed put. 

Taking a breath, I poured the hot water from my tea service
into the plastic bin that normally held items in the storage area of my closet.

It’d taken me years to assemble all of the herbs and roots
without arousing anyone’s curiosity, and I now dumped them into the bin and
stepped into the scalding water. Trusting the concoction would do its job; I
bent with the knife, stuck it into my foot just under my ankle bone, and began
the excruciating task of literally skinning myself.

I’d known it would hurt, but this was worse than the
traditional flogging a virgin must undergo in order to Change. I was more than
determined, though, so I did it fast and didn’t make a sound, even though I
wanted to scream and cry.

Halfway through the process I knew I’d been wrong about having
hours until my escape was discovered. They were used to smelling fear on me,
but not pain, and certainly not blood. I was going to have to fly for my life
and hope they couldn’t keep up. I cut faster, and my blood flowed into the hot
water at my feet.

As the knife finally reached the outer edge of my right
foot, I stood and imagined myself a swan, thought of how it felt to Change
after I was flogged, and breathed in relief as I felt the transformation
happening. The herbal concoction worked, and the anklet would end up in the
water once I turned into a swan and it could come off my foot. As I Changed, it
only took a few slices with my claw to rip the skin on top of my right arm
enough for it to come free of the skin and turn into a wing, thank goodness.

I made it onto the window sill, looked out at the Waccamaw River,
and knew if I couldn’t figure out how to fly within a few minutes, and the
crash landing didn’t kill me, I needed to find an alligator and hope he was
hungry. I was going to either escape or die — I couldn’t live the rest of
my life trapped in this house, and being forced to marry Cyrano was the final
straw. People might make fun of the Princess trapped in the mansion with
anything her heart desired at her fingertips, but
this
Princess preferred
freedom to riches.

I jumped from the ledge, stretched my wings, and breathed
easy as the wind caught them and I soared up instead of plummeting. I beat
them, pointed my head the direction I wanted to go, and it just somehow
worked
.

I’d spent years on borrowed tablets from various servants,
looking through Google Earth so I could find my way to Chattanooga, Tennessee,
and the offices of Drake Security. I had no idea where Aaron Drake lived, but
figured I could find him at work.

I followed the coast to Savannah, Georgia, fighting the
ocean breeze, and figuring out how this brain parceled the information I’d
taken in with my other brain. I managed to access what I needed to make the
journey, and I followed the coast as I learned to soar, turn, dive, and climb.
The winds coming in off the ocean were brutal at times, fluffing my feathers
the wrong way until I lost control and only regained it by luck. I soon
discovered I needed to get higher to keep from being buffeted by the sea 
breeze, but going too high made it hard to see landforms well enough to
navigate when there weren’t many lights.

I didn’t know how much of a head start I had, so I kept
moving even as I experimented, terrified they’d find me and haul me back to my
father’s house.

When I reached Savannah I found what I was sure was the
interstate, and followed the line of lights north. I was exhausted when I
reached what had to be Macon, and I continued north a little ways before making
a right turn, hoping I could find the wildlife refuge and a relatively safe
place to get some rest. I was so tired, and terribly uncomfortable in this
body, but needed to stay a swan until I made it to Chattanooga. I wasn’t sure I
could cut myself open again, and besides, I no longer had the knife.

I only rested a short time before I flew north, once again
following the interstate. I was sure this wasn’t how swans normally navigated,
but it was the best I could manage. I breathed a little easier as I went over
Atlanta, knowing my journey was close to an end. I often swam miles a day, in
either the lap pool or the endless pool, but I’d never been so tired in my
life.

When I made it to Chattanooga I headed towards the Tennessee
River, followed it until I recognized their unique Aquarium building, and then
followed the streets out of the downtown area to the old school building that
housed the Drake Security offices. My landing was far from graceful, but I made
it into the woods across the street, found a tree limb I hoped would be safe,
and waited.

———————————————————————————————

Click here to keep
reading The Dragon King
.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Candace Blevins is a
southern girl who loves to travel the world. She lives with her husband of 17
years and their two daughters. When not working or driving kids all over the
place she can be found reading, writing, meditating, or swimming.

Candace writes BDSM
Romance, Urban Fantasy, Paranormal Romance, and is currently writing a
Motorcycle Club series.

Her Safeword Series
gives us characters who happen to have some extreme kinks. Relationships can be
difficult enough without throwing power exchange into the mix, and her books
show characters who care enough about each other to fight to make the
relationship work. Each book in the Safeword series highlights a couple with a
different BDSM issue to resolve.  

Her urban fantasy
series,
Only Human
, gives us a world where weredragons, werewolves,
werelions, three different species of vampires, as well as a variety of other
mythological beings exist.

Candace's two paranormal
romance series,
The Chattanooga Supernaturals
and
The Rolling Thunder
Motorcycle Club
, are both sister series to the
Only Human
series,
and give some secondary characters their happily ever after.

You can visit Candace
on the web at candaceblevins.com and feel free to friend her on Facebook at
facebook.com/candacesblevins
and Goodreads at
goodreads.com/CandaceBlevins
.
You can also join
facebook.com/groups/CandacesKinksters
to get sneak peeks into what she's writing now, images that inspire her, and
the occasional juicy blurb. You can visit Candace on the web at
candaceblevins.com
.