The Dragon Legion Collection 9 (34 page)

She eyed him warily. “Why?”

“Because they complement each other. The firestorm finds the mate best suited to the
Pyr
in question. It seems incredible, but that’s how it works. They make a team and raise their sons together. It’s what I want.”

Something in her eyes softened. “How long of a partnership?”

Thad smiled, sure that he was making his case. “Forever.” He took a step closer, the sudden increase in the heat of the firestorm making him close his eyes against it. When he opened them, she’d retreated again.

“You’re immortal, like a god?”

“No, but we are long-lived. So, for a long lifetime together, maybe even beyond that.”

“No guarantees?”

“Only because I don’t know what happens then.” He offered one hand to her, but she simply stared at his outstretched fingers. “Spending all my days and nights with my destined mate is fine by me.”

“What if your destined mate doesn’t want to have a son?”

“She doesn’t have a choice.” Thad smiled and reached toward her. “I’ll try to make it worth your while.”

She looked indecisive. He could see the desire in her eyes but also that she was resistant to the idea. He knew she wanted him. She kept looking at his mouth, at his hands, then catching her breath. He eased closer, lifting a strand of her long hair. As he wound the curl around his fingertip, the firestorm blazed golden. The light touched her features, making her look like a gilded treasure, and Thad’s chest clenched. He watched as she parted her lips, then bent quickly to steal a kiss.

The way her lips clung to his told him that she wasn’t that resistant.

“My name is Thaddeus,” he whispered against her mouth. “My friends call me Thad.”

“Aura,” she whispered, her eyes were dark and wide. She studied him as he repeated her name softly, and Thad dared to steal another kiss. This one lasted longer and was more potent, making his heart pound and filling his body with a need for more. He felt her fingers in his hair, lightly first, and then when he slanted his mouth across hers and deepened his kiss, her grip tightened.

Pulling him closer. Thad caught her close and lifted her against himself, liking how she framed his head in her hands. Their kiss turned hungry and demanding, kindling to an inferno that demanded satisfaction. He wanted to feel his skin against hers and he slid his hand under the hem of her chiton.

As soon as his skin touched hers, she spun out of his embrace. She backed away, her lips swollen and her cheeks flushed, and eyed him warily. Thad could see the tight beads of her nipples making peaks in the soft fabric and the smell of her desire made his dragon roar. He took a deep breath in a bid for control, determined to let her set the pace.

Then he realized one good thing.

“You’re not disappearing this time,” he said. “How did you disappear like that, anyway?”

Her smile flashed, as if he’d given her an idea. “You think you’re the only one who isn’t human?” she asked, but Thad was confused.

She laughed, then lifted her arms and disappeared in a sparkle of falling light.

He spun in place, but she was gone again.

He had to find her!

Thad suddenly felt a wind ruffle his hair, like a woman’s fingers sliding through it, except the spark of the firestorm crackled there, too. The caress slid down the back of his neck, both a breath of wind and a flurry of sparks, swirled around to cross his chest, then danced down his arm. He stretched out his hand and felt as if fingers of wind interlaced with his own, or maybe a breeze slipped through his fingers. Sparks cascaded from his fingertips as the wind faded to nothing, and he turned in place, wondering where she was.

“You’re a nymph,” he exclaimed, remembering the stories he’d been told as a child.

A whirlwind spiraled to the ground right in front of them and he smiled as the firestorm touched it with gold. In a heartbeat, his mate stood before him again, her hair blowing as it settled over her shoulders. She was smiling at him, and her eyes shone with intent. “This is what I am,
Pyr
. Does the truth change your mind?”

Thad shook his head and saw her eyes sparkle. “It gives us more in common,” he said with resolve. He dropped to his knee before her. They caught their breath simultaneously as he took her hand in his and kissed its back, a potent stab of heat racing through Thad’s body at the contact. “Be with me, Aura,” he murmured, holding her gaze.

She inhaled sharply and her eyes were wide. “Catch me first,” she whispered, her eyes dancing with challenge. That shimmer returned as she disappeared into the whirlwind. It spun up toward the clouds, churning as it rose, the glint of the firestorm fading with distance.

Thad roared and shifted shape, leaping into the air in dragon form to pursue his mate. He knew he didn’t imagine that she laughed before the whirlwind disappeared into the clouds overhead. They swirled, sparks falling from them like strange rain. Thad plunged into the cloud to pursue her, following both her scent and the heat of the firestorm.

Chapter Two

It would have been too easy for Aura to surrender.

She hadn’t just been tempted: she’d been on the cusp of giving her all to Thad. But as willing as her body was, and as persuasive as his argument seemed to be, she couldn’t help thinking that he was saying what he needed to say, in order to seduce her.

She couldn’t help worrying that as soon as the firestorm was satisfied, he’d be gone, and she’d be left with the son of a dragon to bear and raise. She’d seen the same thing happen to nymphs over and over again. It had happened to her mother. Aura had been determined that it would never happen to her.

Even if Thad was nearly irresistible.

She resisted by changing form. It was the only thing she could do to save herself from making what had to be a mistake. She couldn’t figure out how he could be so sure that there would be a son, yet she couldn’t see a child in her future.

Aura had to think—and when Thad kissed her, she couldn’t think responsibly. She could only think of seducing him completely and worrying about the consequences later.

Was that part of a dragon’s spell?

Aura did her best thinking when she was a breeze. Her thoughts flew then and associations were quickly made. Her intuition was stronger and she was more creative. When she shifted to a breeze, a part of her loved that Thad was not surprised.

Even more than not being surprised, he was seeking her. She saw his eyes narrow and heard him take a deep breath. It was exciting not to be certain she could disappear completely from his perception, to imagine that they had a kind of understanding because they were both different from others.

Aura soared out of the glade and through the protective fog that sheltered its secrets. She heard Thad roar behind her and knew he must have shifted shape: she could feel the sparks of the firestorm blaze hotter as she swept over the summit of the peaks. It was wonderful to race across the sky, and even more exciting to be pursued by a dragon nearly as fast as she was.

“
I like him,
” Nephele whispered, her admiration feeding Aura’s confidence in her impulse to trust Thad.
“And I believe him.”
Aura looked back. She saw that one of the clouds had trailed behind her but that a black dragon had flown past it and was closing fast.

It wasn’t Nephele who Thad was determined to seduce.

Aura tumbled down the side of the mountain slope, a zephyr of fresh air or a sigh from the mountain top. The trees swayed with her passing, and their leaves rustled. Thad was so close behind her that she could feel the beat of his wings through the air. She turned hard when she reached the green pastures and raced through the flowers, making them wave with her passing like the surface of the ocean.

“Give him to me,”
whispered the flower nymph.

Aura didn’t think so. She might not be certain she would take the risk to be with Thad, but she wasn’t going to give him up just yet either. He probably would have insisted that the firestorm marked their partnership as a destined one.

Was he right? Did he mean it?

She liked that Thad didn’t give up the chase. That was a good sign. She thought of all he’d said, and all he’d promised, and felt an answering yearning within herself. She wasn’t young and she wasn’t old, but Aura had been alone long enough to find the idea of a partner appealing. Like the
Pyr
, nymphs lived long but weren’t immortal. She was pleased that they had that longevity in common.

That was when she knew. The golden apples of the Hesperides. If he would follow her to Hera’s garden, one bite of a golden apple would compel him to speak the truth to her. Then Aura would know, without doubt, the truth in his heart.

Perfect.

She soared over a river that was splashing down from the peaks of Mount Olympus and followed it, racing just above its surface. She spun and spiraled, knowing her dragon was right behind her. She made the water froth and the spray splash high, even as the sparks of the firestorm glowed in her wake.

Thad roared, and she looked back to see his eyes glowing as he pursued her.

“Remember she-who-should-not-be-named,”
whispered Arethusa.
“It might not be his choice to abandon you.”

Tisiphone. Arethusa had been confident to say the name of the Erinye while they were on Mount Olympus, in the domain of the gods, but here in the land of mortals, she showed more care. That made sense, since Tisiphone was supposed to occupy this realm until she avenged herself upon the
Pyr
.

Could Tisiphone kill Thad?

She could, without doubt. The Erinyes were merciless and horrible, and never forgot a grudge.
Would
she kill Thad? Aura couldn’t bear the possibility, no matter what future was between her and Thad. She stilled, a wind falling idle, and he swept around and through her, like a bird soaring through the leaves of a tree. Aura felt a wonderful shiver of heat in the instant that he was closest to her.

The firestorm’s glow faded to a pale light and Thad halted. The change in its light alerted him that he had missed something. He turned with grace and headed back toward her, his eyes bright with resolve.

“You can protect him,”
Nephele whispered, her voice distant but clear.

And Aura yearned to do so.

So long as his intentions were true.

Her decision was made.

Aura swirled in the sky before Thad, waiting for him to fly closer. When he drew near her again, she rose beneath his wings, bearing him higher in the sky with the current she could create. He was startled, then eyed the radiance beneath his wings and laughed.

“Aura! It’s you!” he cried. “Let’s fly together.” He beat his wings hard and Aura became a faster wind, pushing him out over the Mediterranean. They swept high in the sky together, higher than Aura had ever flown alone. It was easy to be bold in the company of a dragon, and easy to believe anything was possible in the face of Thad’s optimism and conviction. He made her feel buoyant—and she could buoy him up. Thad’s wings moved so slowly that his flight looked effortless. Even if there was never any more than this, Aura knew she’d never forget this shared moment.

“I’ve never flown so high or so far from shore,” he murmured, his low voice sending a shiver through her. She could have shivered again that his thoughts were such a close echo of her own. “I’ve always wanted to be sure I could land.”

“It’s like you said,”
Aura whispered, hoping he could hear her. Most mortals couldn’t hear the speech of the nymphs when they were in their alternate form, but she saw Thad’s head tilt, as if he listened to a faint sound.

“How so?”

“We’re a team. We’re doing more together than apart.”

He laughed then, a joyous sound that made Aura’s heart skip. “Is that how you and your kind speak to each other?” he asked.

“Yes, and you can hear me. Most mortals can’t.”

“Most of them can’t hear us, either, at least not well enough to distinguish the words.”

“Show me how you speak to your kind.”

“It’s old-speak, very low and slow.” Thad took a deep breath. “
Like this.
” The two words hung in the air for what seemed like forever. If Aura hadn’t been listening to him closely, she might have dismissed the sound as a rumble in the earth or the crash of a wave on a distant shore. Because she was listening, she heard the words, as steady as the beat of his heart.

“Tell me a secret,”
she urged in her nymph whisper.

“The
Pyr
I most admire fall in love with their mates and honor them for every day and night of their lives,
” Thad said in old-speak. He scanned the air around himself as he flew and eyed the dancing sparks of the firestorm.
“Let me fall in love with you, Aura.”

It was an enticing offer.

If she hadn’t been her mother’s child, she would have surrendered right then and there. As it was, Aura kissed his cheek with a breath of wind, ran over his muscled body in a breeze that only made her want to touch him with her hands. She caressed the length of his tail and he laughed at the sensation, then she spiraled before him. Each time she slid past his body, the firestorm heated another increment, filling her thoughts with the prospect of pleasure. In her mind’s eye, she saw him in human form and wanted to feel his hands upon her, his flesh against her own.