The Dragon Legion Collection 9 (44 page)

It was a drawing.

The drawing was clearly the work of a child, but still Drake recognized the location. There was a black oval in the middle with blue spraying out of a block in the center of the oval. Drake knew it was a fountain. There were green curly lines around it, evoking the shrubbery of a park, and the sky was colored in black with yellow dots for stars. Two stick figures sat on the lip of the fountain, and Drake guessed that they were men. One held a blue-green rectangle in his hand and there were rays of blue and green emanating from it.

It was Thad and Drake, just before Thad had felt the spark of his firestorm.

Drake looked at the little girl with shock. Zoë was drinking a glass of milk, more interested in how many chocolate chips were in her cookie than the attitude of her father’s friend. Eileen must have noticed his expression because she came to his side.

“It’s the park at the university, I think,” she said. “We pass it every day.” She frowned. “We’ve never been there at night.”

“Who are the men, Zoë?” her father asked quietly.

She shrugged and bit into her cookie. “They wanted to be there.” Her gaze barely flicked at Drake, then she finished her snack and went to her room, picking up her pack at her mother’s reminder.

“It’s Thad and me,” Drake said. “This is where the stone brought us the second to last time.”

“So close,” Erik mused. “But not so close that you could sense my presence, or that I would be much aware of yours.”

“Were you?”

Erik slanted a glance at him. “I felt a glimmer a few weeks ago, but it disappeared. I thought I had imagined it, because it was so fleeting. How could you be here and gone again so quickly as that?” He pressed his fingertips to one temple and closed his eyes. “The darkfire is changing everything,” he whispered, then grimaced.

Drake was on his feet in a moment, knowing something was wrong but unable to name it. Before he could speak, Erik’s eyes flew open and he stared at the door. He crossed the room with long strides, and Drake guessed that he had felt a breach of his dragonsmoke barrier.

There was a knock at the door. Erik inhaled deeply, frowned, then cast open the door.

The corridor was filled with unfamiliar men, young and vigorous men who held themselves with determination. There had to be three or four dozen of them.

They were
Pyr
. Drake stood behind Erik and breathed deeply, not believing his own senses. How could there be so many
Pyr
of whom he knew nothing?

“We are the descendants of the Dragon Legion,” said the
Pyr
in front. He tugged up his shirt sleeve, showing a tattoo on his upper arm that was the same as the tattoo Drake and his men had gotten as a sign of solidarity. Drake considered the young man with wonder, liking the intelligence that shone in his dark eyes. “I am named Theo, for my forebear, the son of Stephanos who became Drake,” he said, his words startling Drake. “We come to pledge ourselves to the leader of the
Pyr
, Erik Sorensson, as we pledged to our fathers, who pledged the same to their fathers and their fathers before them.”

“So this is what I sensed,” Erik said, almost under his breath.

Theo offered a piece of paper. “We surrender to you this prophecy, made millenia ago but for these times. We have kept it in trust, preserved it and awaited the moment it should be revealed.” He handed an envelope to Erik.

Erik opened the envelope and removed a sheet of paper. Drake could see that it had eight lines of script, though he couldn’t quite read the words.

Erik read it in old-speak.

“Across the centuries and the years,

You will wait and shed your tears,

Until the darkfire is freed again;

Your vengeance can cause
Pyr
no pain.

I close the portal, for once and all,

To see those I love out of your thrall.

When darkfire will burn once again,

Your sister’s death can be avenged.

When daughters of all elements are mates

Then will the dragons face their fate.”

“So, it is time,” Erik said aloud. He offered his hand to Theo. “Welcome, Theo. Welcome to you and all your company. Please, cross my dragonsmoke and share your tidings with us.” He turned and indicated Drake with a slight smile. “This is Drake, who was Stephanos. He has been weary, but I think you may bring him joy.”

Against Drake’s every expectation, a son of his line stood before him. Theo smiled and there was a gleam of tears in his eyes. He stepped forward and gave a crisp salute. “I have always dreamed of meeting you. It is an honor beyond all, sir.”

“Not sir,” Drake said hoarsely. He took Theo’s hand and shook it, liking the firmness of this young man’s grip. “I would have you call me Drake.” And then he embraced Theo, glad beyond belief that the darkfire had brought him this gift.

* * *

The repair of his scale was a wonderful moment, and one Thad would remember forever. He couldn’t have imagined how any part of it could have been improved.

The sun was setting, the western sky painted with brilliant streaks of orange. He could see the stars overhead and feel a cool breeze from the ocean. He smiled, wondering if it was a friend of Aura’s. The tree with the silver leaves tinkled in the breeze, as if to make music to celebrate their bond.

The firestorm had faded, but the weight of Aura’s hand in his own still brought a lump to Thad’s throat. He was surrounded by friends and comrades, each of whom had found love through the firestorm. He was amongst his own kind and would be with Aura for the duration. He dared to believe that thanks to their efforts, the
Pyr
in the future would triumph over every obstacle.

He felt like the luckiest
Pyr
in the world.

“There must be a token, freely given,” Katina said to Aura.

“She has surrendered her immortality,” Thad said with pride.

“Something tangible,” Petra insisted. “Something that is a measure of her link with the elements.”

“She is air and I am fire,” Thad said.

“But what are your secondary elements? The four must be divided between the two of you, or you wouldn’t have had a firestorm,” Alexander explained.

Thad met Aura’s gaze. She smiled at him. “You must be earth for your practicality,” she said and Thad sensed that she was right.

“And you would be water, for your empathy.”

Aura’s smile turned mischievous. “Or for my love of sensual delights.”

The others chuckled at that, but Thad couldn’t look away from Aura’s shining eyes. He would show her sensual delights, once they had a moment of privacy together. He smiled and she blushed a little, as if she’d guessed his thoughts.

Her eyes widened suddenly and she reached into her tunic. To Thad’s surprise, when her hand was revealed again, she held a golden apple. It was perfect, not missing a single bite, and he wondered if she had stolen another one.

“A gift from Hera,” she said with a smile. She glanced up at the peak where the garden was hidden. “A wedding gift.” She lifted the golden fruit and offered it to Alexander. It looked like it was made of gold, more like a piece of jewelry than fruit.

Alexander accepted it with a slight bow. “I never thought I’d hold one of these myself,” he said with awe. “It will more than suffice.”

Thad felt Alexander change shape beside him and glanced at the dark dragon Alexander had become. Damien shifted shape next and he nodded acknowledgement of that. The dragon known as the Heartbreaker had changed, and the transformation was more than the color of his scales and of his hair. Damien seemed more focused and less restless. Thad knew it was because he was with Petra, his destined mate, once again.

Thad smiled at Aura, then summoned his own change, reveling in the way it surged through him with such strength. The firestorm had made him more than he had been, Thad was sure of it.

The wind lifted Aura’s hair and swept through her tunic as she offered Thad’s lost scale to Alexander. Alexander held it in his claws and breathed fire at it. Damien stepped forward and breathed his dragonfire on it as well. It heated to a golden glow before Thad’s eyes. They turned their fire on the apple and it turned molten on one side before their surprised gazes. Alexander pressed it into the scale and the two merged together, so that the golden apple sat on the surface like an emblem.

“Fire,” Alexander intoned as he pressed the hot scale against Thad’s chest. Thad gritted his teeth at the burning sensation of it against his exposed skin. He heard Aura gasp and saw her eyes fill with tears of sympathy.

“Water,” Aura whispered, lifting a tear from her cheek and placing it on the scale. It sizzled on contact and evaporated.

“Earth,” Thad said, and pressed the scale more deeply into his own chest.

“Air,” Aura concluded, blowing against the hot scale as sweetly as a summer breeze. Thad caught her close and spun her around, his heart bursting with pride that she had given so much to be his mate. He swept into the sky and flew around his fellows, then spun to land on his feet, in human form, with Aura in his arms. He bent to kiss her, but she gasped in wonder as she looked past his shoulder.

“Twins!” she said with delight. “Thad, we will have twin sons!”

There was only one good way to celebrate that news, as far as Thad was concerned. He caught Aura close and kissed her soundly, knowing that this particular night would be filled with the exploration of sensual delights.

And so it would be for all their entwined future.

Thad couldn’t wait to begin.

* * * * *

The Dragon Legion Novellas are also available in a print collection.

The Dragon Legion Collection includes

Kiss of Danger

Kiss of Darkness

and

Kiss of Destiny
.

Available at online book retailers.

Ready for more Dragonfire?

Read on for an excerpt from

Serpent’s Kiss

The Tenth
Dragonfire
Novel

Copyright
© 2013 by Deborah A. Cooke

* * *

Erik checked the perimeter of his lair, ensuring that his dragonsmoke barrier was woven thick and deep. It was late at night, or early in the morning, depending upon how he looked at it. Zoë had been put to bed hours before and even Eileen had fallen asleep. Drake had departed with the new
Pyr
a week before, revitalized by the opportunity to train a new company of dragon shifters.

Erik had spent the week trying to avoid a sense of pending doom. He couldn’t scry the future or see anything beyond the present moment, but he’d had a sense of trouble brewing.

Maybe it was that footage of Jorge appearing, then disappearing, in Seattle. What had the
Slayer
been carrying? It had looked like a severed arm, one that was still bleeding. Erik hadn’t thought much of Jorge shaking blood over the gathering crowd, not then, but today’s news had changed that.

People were becoming sick in Seattle. Very sick. There was a hum of panic building in Seattle as doctors and hospitals noticed the connections between sudden illnesses and deaths. They hadn’t used the word epidemic yet, but the first hospital had put itself into quarantine. They’d already realized that most of the victims had been at the scene of Jorge’s appearance.

It was only a matter of time before dragons were blamed.

Erik shivered, remembering the old hunts that had driven his kind into hiding and claimed so many
Pyr
he’d known and loved. Surely it couldn’t happen again.

Surely his suspicions were unfounded.

The loft was still, despite Erik’s restlessness. He stood at the window and watched the moon ride high overhead, listening to the pulses and breathing of his partner and child. He heard the resonance of his dragonsmoke and felt its icy glitter. The blaze in his mind had quieted, perhaps because he no longer feared it.