Solar Dare (6 page)

Her shock was palpable, but a feeling behind her was familiar.

She melted her cuffs and the bolt in her shoulder. “Thank you, you have told me enough. Goodbye, Mr. Winthrop.”

A dragon’s hand appeared in the reflection she could see ahead of her, and she stepped back and into Denhar’s grasp. He closed his claw carefully and pulled her back to the smoke-filled world now devoid of humanity.

What happened? They pulled you through and the rift closed.

They have tech to blow the rifts shut. They just don’t use it much, I am guessing.

I smell blood.

There is still a hole in my shoulder. I think I need a medic.

I will get us home and take care of it.

She nodded, but he was already flying to get a good angle on a sky-born rift. Great beats of his wings echoed the slow pounding of her heart as they went from night on an alien world to the bright sun of Denhar’s home.

Solar pulled in all the power she could, but while it kept her awake, it could not heal the wound slowly seeping blood.

Denhar shifted and held her in his arms, rushing up the stairs to the room. He unbuckled her breastplate and removed her collar. She lay bare from the waist up in his arms and he wasn’t even looking at her naked skin. His gaze was on the jagged wound in her back. “I have heard that this hurts.”

It was all the warning that she got as he applied his mouth to her wound and fire cascaded into her blood. Instead of pain, there was a sharp intensity to the contact that caused an involuntary moan to break from her lips. His breath was hot, and his tongue licked at her skin until the pain disappeared. To her shock, he flipped her to her back and repeated the same treatment.

Her skin was sensitive, the marks on her body pounded with a pulse of power, and her hips shifted restlessly. When he lifted his mouth from her, she sighed and slumped into the bedding. She had been so close to something, and she didn’t even know what it was. All she knew was that she was so frustrated, she wanted to cry.

“Does it feel better?”

She wanted to scream
no,
but instead, she nodded her head. “Thank you.”

“Good. You are now under house arrest. There is a rift restrictor on the walls, so you are not going anywhere again until I am sure that your shields will be up at all times. You could have been killed.”

She nodded. “There was something about that bolt. They were ready for me, and that is more distressing than what I learned while they introduced me to their organizer.”

“What was that?” He may have been oblivious before, but his reaction to her naked torso was starting to make itself obvious.

“The humans are no longer content to explore or to return for the safety of their species. There is a new type of human out here, and they are living for themselves alone. They buy their place on a new world and live content in the knowledge that the dimensional collapse will not happen on that world in their lifetime.”

Denhar sat back and rubbed his forehead.

“Bastards.”

To make sure he understood, she summed it up. “They are aware of us, they are heavily armed and they don’t ever want to go home.”

T
wo days. She was left thinking about what she had learned for two days. Solar was beyond frustrated when her arm was able to move without any pain, and Denhar still kept her locked in her room with only Haringk bringing in one meal at a time and removing traces of the previous one.

Denhar came to her at night so that she wouldn’t have to sleep alone, but it was beyond frustrating that he disappeared before she woke every morning. The heat of his body was still in the sheets, but he was gone.

Frankly, she was lonely.

Haringk brought her books and a history of dragons, but the words on the page reluctantly yielded their secrets as she struggled to teach herself a language she had never been exposed to before.

She saw her mother’s name and stared at the page until the words made sense.

And the lovely Eiwyn came to court and hid from the Dragon King in plain sight. Eventually, her power called to his, and he summoned the great seer to his chamber for a private reading of his future. He laughed for two weeks straight after that consultation, but even when he took other ladies to his bed, his thoughts always returned to the sombre seer.

Eventually, he cursed a vivid streak and demanded Eiwyn’s body as mate.

To everyone’s surprise, she agreed on one condition, that he forgive her once and completely if she should ask it of him. The condition was bound by blood and sealed with power.

The Dragon King had his bride, and she had her promise.

After their union, a courtier asked what had made the Dragon King laugh for so long. He smiled and said,

“The seer promised me a clutch of daughters. Twenty of them born on the same day. How could any male not be amused by such a prediction?” It ceased to be funny the day the Queen disappeared and the King began to descend into madness in his eagerness to retrieve his wife.

--Raykiss, court recorder

Solar knew what happened next. Her mother had slipped away from her father and deliberately fallen into the clutches of the humans. They had taken her four eggs and split them in an experiment, shocked when each one split into five viable embryos that grew in synthetic chambers until they were decanted. Naturally conceived clones. Twenty daughters for the dragon king in one day, just as the seer predicted.

Solar rubbed at her forehead and wished that she had spent more time letting Mother install a knowledge of dragon script. Once they had learned what they were and they had left the confinement of the lab, there was no reason to embrace the knowledge of the dragons. Solar had just left very little time for her to commune with Mother.

She set the leather-bound book back on the pile, and she stared at the door. It was fine for Denhar to try to keep her safe, but this confinement was over. She went to the door and placed her hand on the lowest hinge, melting it into a puddle on the stone floor. She went up, and in few minutes, the hinges were gone and she was free.

Solar heard voices, and she crept out of her room on bare feet, wearing only a simple wrap in black and gold. She followed the sound and came to the door of Denhar’s private study. It was open a crack, and she peered inside, blinking as she saw four other men standing on low platforms. Their bodies were almost transparent, so she recognized them as projections. Denhar was on his own platform, and he ran a hand through his hair. “She is adjusting to the power, but I am not sure what else to do if she insists on rushing into battle.” A lean, elegant male smiled. “The answer is simple, either join her in battle or get her pregnant.”

Solar decided that she didn’t like that man.

One of the others sighed. “Their mother chose us for them, but I think rushing them into a pregnancy is not the answer. They need their freedom. They have not had it until now, and the worlds are still new to them. They need to feel life and know that they can blend with it.” Denhar nodded. “Solar has said as much. I still have trouble imagining her family line and what the queen went through to get them here.” The solemn male said, “She did as she foresaw. It was her destiny, and soon, she will be returned to us. We will have our duty once again as the Star Guard. When we take on that charge, the princesses will need to be able to manage on their own while we are called, whether or not they accompany us.”

The male she didn’t like smirked, “Well, it is good that we have almost concluded our discussion. We have an audience.” Denhar turned casually and nodded to her.

“Good afternoon, Solar. I was wondering what was taking you so long.”

She pushed the door open and walked into the study. “I was reluctant to damage the door. Who are they?”

“The dragons that you met the day you were brought here. Four more members of your mother’s guard.” He smiled and held his hand out. To her surprise, he tugged her onto the platform and stood her in front of him so that the others could see her.

Wait. “How could he see me?”

“Ah, he is gifted with vision beyond vision. He can seek out and find dragons anywhere, and you and your sisters have a very distinct signature.”

“Gentlemen, Solar. Solar, the four members of the Star Guard that your mother selected as matches for you.” He whispered it in her ear and kept his arms around her.

She looked from one to the next. “How are my sisters?”

The solemn one said, “They are adapting. Each one learns at a different pace. You will see your sisters in a few weeks.”

“Why not now?”

“They need to find their place in their freedom.” He inclined his head. “It will come to each of you in different ways, but you are no longer an enclosed group. Separating you will allow you to learn how to adapt to worlds outside your own, on your own.”

She stared at him, and Denhar inclined his head to the other Star Guards. “In two days then for another update.”

The other four nodded, and their images flickered out.

Solar turned in Denhar’s embrace. “What was that?”

“We were catching up on the progress that you and your sisters are making, comparing training techniques.”

He looked down at her, and she stared up into the strange and familiar eyes of another dragon.

She blinked and felt her heart beginning to pound faster. “Was that all?”

He threaded his fingers in her hair and pressed a kiss to her lips that weakened her knees. “There were a few other things but none that involved you directly.”

She lifted a finger to her lips and felt the slight swelling that the contact caused. She could taste him, and the flavour was electricity and starlight.

Solar went up on her toes and pulled his head down to hers, insisting on the kiss. She kept kissing him as he lifted her off her feet and started moving. Power sparked between them where they touched, and to Solar’s surprise, it was not just her hands generating the wild power. His touch was sending crackles of heat through her clothing.

He tilted her down onto the long couch and caged her with his body. “I do not want you acting alone again. You are my charge, and I will be with you, or you will not leave this world.” She blushed and tried to kiss him again, but he moved away. “Fine. I will tell you whenever I head out somewhere and make sure that you can come with me.”

She grimaced, and he asked, “What?” He slowly lowered his body onto hers, and she shivered and bit her lip at the pleasant sensations that came with him.

“I am a pain in the ass. Even my sisters have a hard time working with me. I make a decision and act.” She grumbled. “We were trained as solo operatives after all.”

“You are not solo anymore. I am your new partner.” He kissed her again, and when she leaned toward him, his hands stroked her sides.

Solar wasn’t happy with being on the receiving end, so she wrapped her legs around him and flipped him until he was lying on his back on the floor, a very surprised look on his face. She planted her hands next to his head and kissed him while kneeling astride him.

The dress she was wearing had ridden up during their reversal, so it was easy for Denhar to slide his hands up the back of her thighs.

His fingers skated along her skin, and soon, a shift of cool air across her body indicated that her dress was open. His palm against her hip made her shiver, and she broke the kiss, burying her face against his neck.

She had made her bid for assertion, and now, she was unsure of what happened next. “I think we should—”

He rolled her to her back and sealed her mouth before she could say anything else. Denhar continued to touch her, stroke her and set her skin on fire.

She was unsure if it was pleasure or pain, but she knew she wanted more.

When he pressed into her, her mind rioted at the cacophony of sensations. At first, it was less than pleasant, but as she adapted and responded to his movements, she heard the music of the stars.

She kissed him, stroked him and moved with him as their bodies joined and their power sparked and swirled through the room. Light danced, fabric smouldered and she gasped as her body gripped his in a rush of pleasure and energy.

“Okay, so I see that the floor is a bit of a mistake.” Solar grunted as he helped her to her feet and resettled her clothing into modest lines.

Denhar grinned, something very lazy and satisfied in his gaze. “I tried to move us to the couch, but you bit me.”

She blinked. “Did I? I don’t recall. It’s all a bit of a blur.”

He rubbed a thumb along her collarbone. “I returned the favour, so all is forgiven.” Solar looked up at him and felt a strange harmony roll through her. “I suppose we need to figure out what happens next.”

He lifted her in his arms and walked up to the room she had been confined in.

Haringk was finishing his work on the final hinge, and he nodded and left them when they crossed the threshold.

He took her into the bathing room and stood her up. “What happens is we clear the scent of sex off us so I can think, and then, we plan an attack on the cluster of humans that Myrgik found on one of the worlds in my sector.” She smiled and let him bully her into the shower. They were going hunting. How romantic.