Riley hugged his words to her as she kept moving through the dense foliage. She listened to the sound of water racing down the slopes and over rocks to run in narrow ribbons or wider streams. Water was everywhere. Drops fell from the leaves above them to add to the rushing rivulets. More water burst from the side of the hill in a long fall over boulders, a frothy stream of glittering silver. Below the waterfall, the large, moss-covered rocks formed a pool.
Bright green moss covered everything near them, the rocks, the fallen tree trunks, even the trees standing. Riley spotted flowers springing from the green slopes and rocks, some in bushes almost as tall as some of the smaller trees. The splashes of color along with the bright silver of the water in the dark were beautiful. She wished she was alone with Dax and could just sit quietly with him, holding hands and listening to the sounds of the waterfall splashing into the cool pool below.
Dax answered her with a caress down her cheek.
I can always have the Old One make an appearance. He isn’t fond of people. He’ll clear them away fast.
Riley laughed, unable to contain her happiness that she had him. He made her feel safe in a world turned upside down. She could forget the ugliness of the situation for just a few minutes and see the beauty around her because of him.
“It’s damned hot,” Weston called. “Come on, Riley, want to strip down naked and go swimming tonight with all of us? Bet you’d like that. You’d be the center of attention.”
Riley glanced back at Dax. Their eyes met. Amusement bubbled up.
Serpent in paradise. There’s always one.
The Old One particularly finds him foul.
Riley reached deeper. The dragon opened a sleepy eyelid, winked and went back to sleep. He wanted little to do with man.
The Old One, or you?
she teased.
Perhaps both
, Dax conceded. His hands were gentle on the professor, his steps sure as they continued hiking toward the river.
If Weston truly wishes to be naked, I can help him with that.
The trail led down a ravine and back up the other side. The going was easier. Miguel’s machete was silent. Ferns grew everywhere, in between the boulders and along the banks of the pool and stream, creating a glimpse of paradise.
Don’t you dare!
Laughter bubbled over.
Perhaps not
, Dax agreed, but he quickened his pace until he was up beside Weston.
The engineer snickered. “You got something to say to me? I’m just saying what every man here is thinking, including you.” He grinned at Riley. “Isn’t that so, baby? Your fantasy. Naked with all these men licking that gorgeous skin. You’d love it.”
Riley’s heart stilled. She shook her head, her breath burning in her lungs. Weston had no idea what he was dealing with. Dax could go from easy-going to extreme violence and back in seconds.
Don’t. Don’t hurt him.
He will not feel a thing.
His voice had gone from soft and sensual to grim and forbidding.
A shiver went down Riley’s spine. This was a man—a being—one couldn’t control. He would go his own way, make his decisions based on the rules of his world—not hers.
Weston opened his mouth to taunt Dax again and a deep, bullfrog croak came out. Startled, Weston’s hand went to his throat, his eyes going wide. Shelton burst out laughing. “Dude! What’s wrong with you?”
Riley pressed her lips together, trying not to laugh.
Your sense of humor is out of hand.
I don’t find anything about Weston humorous. You wish him to live, so better he croaks this way than another.
There was no amusement in his voice, or in her mind, but his answer made her laughter escape in spite of her determination not to encourage him.
Weston cleared his throat and tried again. A series of loud sounds much like croak, croak, croak burst from his throat.
Even Jubal’s mouth twitched as though he had to suppress his laughter. Gary and Miguel smirked, but neither commented. Miguel continued leading the line of travelers down through the narrow canyon that was a shortcut to the river. The small gorge would save them miles.
You can’t leave him like that.
I think it’s best
, Dax replied.
Once again warmth flooded her mind, all that slow, heated molasses filling her brain with erotic fantasies.
He can’t say your name and
naked
in the same sentence, not without me remembering just how soft your skin is. The only man to lick water off your skin is going to be me.
A frisson of pure arousal slid down her spine. Heat curled in her belly. Even when he was being bad—
especially
when he was being bad—he was downright sexy.
Now you’re just being outrageous.
She paused and then let her imagination take flight, wickedly feeding him a few fantasies of her own.
She felt his breath catch in his throat. Fire smoldered deep.
You could get yourself in trouble. I can always shield us from prying eyes, and believe me,
sivamet
, I am more than willing.
Her womb clenched. Hot moisture gathered. Her breasts felt instantly achy. She would love to be in his arms, legs wrapped tight around his waist, him buried deep inside her. She would love to be in the cool water with him, under the waterfall, or better yet, in a soft bed …
Hard bed
, he corrected.
The things I could do to you in a hard bed. Or on a hard floor.
She swallowed, nearly stumbling at his sexy implication. The things he could do with his voice alone left her breathless; she couldn’t imagine what he had in mind on a hard bed. Her mouth went dry and the blood in her veins throbbed. The ground shifted beneath her feet.
Riley glanced down to see water bubbling up around the soles of her boots. The ground appeared so saturated that the water had nowhere to go. It actually took a moment for her mind to assimilate what was happening. She looked around her. Water leaked from the moss-covered boulders and trickled between smaller rocks. She blinked and several small mudslides gave way to ribbons that swelled in volume.
We have to get out of here. This is a natural basin and it will flood fast.
The other side of the canyon looked a good distance away. More leaks were springing, the mountain too saturated to hold all the water.
I should have been warned. I should have known.
She felt as if the earth had betrayed her. Granted, she was diverted by her exchange with Dax, but still, she should have felt her connection with the earth was so strong, she should have been warned the water was rising all around them.
Another trap
, Dax soothed softly.
Mitro knows I can counter this, so why would he bother? It makes no sense. Can you feel anything beneath the water? Or perhaps in the sides of the canyon?
Riley fought down panic. Miguel picked up the pace, clearly reading the danger. Both Jubal and Gary looked at Dax briefly and then at each other. They must have known Dax could stop the rising of the water, or at least delay it enough for them to get out, but neither said anything.
She forced her mind to stretch, to see beyond the obvious danger of the moment. It was difficult to get past the urge to flee. Her brain told her flight was best, but she grabbed on to Dax’s calm and took a deep breath and let it out. She actually felt her mind unfurl, reaching for her connection to the earth. For a moment, she felt a little dizzy, disoriented, as if she was in two places at one time—aboveground and below.
Sounds faded, the pounding footsteps, the splash as boots hit the water inching up on the trail, the roar of the falls, everything receded until she was left with the whispers of the earth. She went still inside, even though she continued forward, on automatic pilot, her eyes on the man in front of her.
A river rushed beneath the canyon, fed now by the continual rain. Steam rose around them, curling through the boulders and reaching out like fingers toward them. Something moved, shifting continually, hiding in the vapor. She was aware of the movement just outside her vision. The sensation was dreamlike, as if she watched from a distance, seeing the steam drifting as the water table rose.
There was something more … Something she just missed. It was there, lurking beneath the water, waiting for its moment. The thing waited, watched, radiating malevolent hunger. She had the impression of red eyes staring beneath the water, fangs dripping. No, not thing—
things
.
Riley gasped and shook her head adamantly.
No, Dax. Don’t.
You control the water. Don’t try to stop it, that will trigger the attack. Just slow it down.
Riley knew she had no choice. Dax was going to face the monsters below them. He trusted her to stop the rush of water pouring into the canyon from both sides as well as the water rising up beneath them. He was utterly calm and matter-of-fact. She took a breath and nodded her head, the terrible rolling in her stomach stilling. She would do this. If he could face those fangs and the single-minded purpose to kill them all, she could slow the rising of the water, but she’d have to get to it—the water was up to their ankles, slowing them down.
Dax handed the professor off to Alejandro and Jubal, taking care to ensure Patton wouldn’t feel the jarring of the two men as they waded through the rising water. He waved his hands, weaving an intricate pattern, so that for a moment the air around them shimmered, cutting off the humans’ ability to see him, and he slipped beneath the soil to drop into the water below.
Jubal’s brain had contained a wealth of information, and Gary was a walking data bank. His mind carried billions of facts, some so strange and outrageous, at first it was difficult to believe, but when he looked into Riley’s memories of airplanes and trips to the moon, those facts had been confirmed. There was so much he had missed while imprisoned in the volcano. He had knowledge of those things, but he hadn’t experienced them.
Evidently the college student Mitro had found was a walking data bank as well. Jubal recognized a form of the creatures waiting for him there in that river. Goliath tigerfish, although as always, Mitro had manipulated the species and enhanced their natural aggression and savagery. The tigerfish weren’t native to these waters, so the student had to have traveled elsewhere for them to have been in his mind. Surprisingly, it was Jubal’s memories that gave him the most data on the dangerous species. Clearly he was just as well traveled.
Riley’s memories had not contained any information on the fish.
Riley
. His Riley. She was such a miracle to him. He could feel her fear beating at him, but then she would shore up her defenses, set her shoulders and get the job done. There was so much about her to love. The moment she recognized what he intended to do, she no longer feared for herself—it was all for him. He couldn’t remember anyone ever worrying about him, and it was a strange, two-edged sword. His heart swelled with joy at that thought of a woman caring so much, but on the other hand, he really didn’t like to cause her anxiety.
Dax dropped deeper in the water until he felt the first stirrings of evil. The sensation seeped slowly into him rather than poured in. He expanded his vision as well as his senses, shifting into a tiny, nondescript leaf as he neared the gigantic fish. They were formed loosely in a pack, pacing slowly with the humans above them. As the water rose, so did they, gaining ground. So if the water table dropped, how could these fish possibly escape and do harm to those aboveground? What did Mitro have in mind?
Mitro was cunning. Dax would expect fish. Something nasty and brutally savage, but if he stopped the water rising, how would that trigger an attack from monster fish? He was missing something important. The water would rise, and if Dax or Riley didn’t stop it, the fish would attack. But if they did succeed in stopping it, then the fish would be useless to Mitro.
Waves of evil assailed him as he hovered over the pack of fish. The feeling emanated not from the hungry pack of tigerfish, although certainly he felt the taint of the vampire on them, but it was something more, lurking below them, held back like a leashed tiger.
Without warning, a tigerfish lunged at him, mouth open wide, swallowing Dax. He reacted immediately, poisonous spines covering the leaf as it shifted into a very large lionfish, the terrible spines lodging into the tigerfish’s throat and mouth, paralyzing it. He burst through the jaw of the monster fish only to be surrounded by the pack. He shifted again, diving down, leaving behind a trail of the tigerfish’s blood. The pack tore into the goliath fish.
Beneath him, the real threat exploded toward the surface, a monstrous streak of scales, wedge-shaped head and streamlined wings. Front legs were tucked under, just as the wings stayed tight against the sides of the beast as it rose like a locomotive toward the surface. Dax caught the blue-green sheen to the scales as it rushed by. The force of the backwash sent him tumbling backward.
The Old One roared a challenge, the sound bursting through Dax’s skull. Although the dragon had lost his mate long ago, the deep pain and sorrow would forever be etched into his soul. He would not lose Riley. Riley was part of him now, just as Dax was. No water dragon would take her from them.
No, not in your form
. Dax took charge, knowing the water dragon would have the advantage over a fire dragon in their circumstances.
My form, but we both work together.
Dax streaked after the dragon, pouring on speed, cutting through the blood-soaked water, his hands outstretched for that spiked tail. The long tail swept back and forth in the water like a rudder as the water dragon cut easily through the water. Dax allowed the red and gold scales to pour over his body as he caught that wedged spike on the tail and instantly reversed direction. The Old One rose just enough to lend his strength as well.
The water dragon hissed as it halted its forward progress abruptly and was jerked backward. The water churned, great turbulent bubbles, so agitated he could have been in the middle of a geyser. The tail whipped back and forth angrily and the water dragon spun around, and, moving like lightning, rushed the hunter.