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  “Yes. Kiss me.”

  “You are the bossiest dragon I know,” I said, leaning into him again.

  Behind me, the door clicked open. Jim’s voice said, “Nope, they’re still at it.”

  Drake nibbled my lip for a moment before I pulled away and turned to glare at the demon in the doorway. “I thought I ordered you out.”

  “You did. You didn’t say I couldn’t come back,” it pointed out with a waggle of its doggy eyebrows. “You guys gettin’ busy, or should I tell Stephano you’ll see him?”

  “Stephano?” I asked, surprised to hear the name. “Fiat’s Stephano?”

  “You know any other blue dragons named Stephano?” Jim asked, moving away from the door as I started toward it. Drake caught my arm and held me back until he could go out the door first. I whumped him on the back as I followed.

  Drake stopped in the doorway, his eyes narrowed, his arms crossed. “What do you want here?”

  Stephano, one of the blue wyvern’s elite guards, gave Drake a stiff nod. “Fiat sent me to notify his mate of a con clave called for Wednesday. Her attendance is mandatory.” He made a little bow to me, then turned and would have left the house if Pál and István hadn’t been standing in front of the door that led out to the street.

  “Hang on a minute,” I said, pushing past Drake. He caught my arm and held me close to his body. “I was thinking about this earlier, when I read the history of the green dragons. I know Fiat set up one of the green dragons to take a fall so I’d end up being his mate instead of Drake’s—”

  “You are my mate,” Drake growled. “Nothing Fiat can do will change that.”

  I kissed the tip of his nose. “You’re so cute when you’re stubborn. It’s one of your many charms, and although normally it drives me up the wall, sometimes it’s just downright adorable. Where was I? Oh, the mate thing.” I turned back to Stephano. “I know that Fiat used the lusus naturae challenge on the green dragon he set up as temporary wyvern, but he didn’t follow the rules of the challenge to win. He used a gun, and that wasn’t in the terms of the challenge. Thus, he didn’t really win, which means I’m back to being the green-dragon mate, and as far as I’m concerned, Fiat can stick his conclave where the sun don’t shine.”

  Silence filled the hall. I looked from Stephano, to Pál and István, finally to Drake, all of whom were standing with odd looks on their faces.

  “What?” I asked.

  Jim shook its head. “Just when you were getting a clue, too.”

  “What’s wrong in my reasoning?” I asked Drake.

  “A challenge for lusus naturae is different from a challenge for control of the sept,” he answered, giving me a reassuring squeeze. “The latter must follow the terms of the challenge specifically. The former…” He shrugged. “There is a mortal saying that all is fair in love and war. I’m afraid that would apply to a lusus naturae challenge, as well.”

  “Well, hell,” I said, grinding my teeth just a little as I looked at Stephano. “What time is this conclave thing?”

  “Noon.” Stephano named a well-known hotel that was relatively close. “I will tell Fiat you will attend?”

  “Are you good on that time?” I asked Drake.

  Stephano interrupted before he could answer. “The green wyvern will not be allowed to attend.”

  “Sorry, I don’t go anywhere without Drake.”

  His gaze moved warily between Drake and me. “No dragon outside the sept is allowed at a conclave. It is not done.”

  “Is that kosher?” I asked Drake.

  His jaw tightened as he nodded. “Unfortunately, it is a law most septs adhere to—only members of the sept are al lowed to attend formal meetings.”

  “Well, the answer is simple then. I just won’t go.” I turned back to Stephano. “Please pass along my regrets to Fiat, and tell him it was a good try, but I wasn’t born yesterday. If he wants me at a meeting, he’ll have to make it a less formal function so that I can bring Drake.”

  The blue dragon smiled. For some reason it wasn’t a reassuring gesture. “Fiat assumed you would refuse, and instructed me to tell the green wyvern that if you do not attend the conclave, he will consider that an act of war and will reciprocate as necessary.”

  Drake stepped forward, his hands fisted, clearly bent on telling Stephano what Fiat could do with his threat.

  “Wait a minute,” I said quickly, moving between the two men. “This is stupid. The green dragons don’t have anything to do with my decision to not go to the conclave. Fiat can’t war with them because I don’t want to hang around with him.”

  Stephano’s smile changed to a smirk. “You live with the green wyvern. You bear his child. You are treated as a member of the sept. If you do not attend, it will clearly be due to influence by the sept, and thus Fiat will be within his rights to reclaim his mate by force.”

  I bit my lip as Drake said something to Pál and István in their native Hungarian. The two men closed ranks on Stephano, whose smirk, I was momentarily gratified to notice, took on a strained cast.

  “Now, just wait a second, guys. Nothing is going to be served by beating the crap out of the messenger. Let’s think this out.”

  “You will not go to the conclave,” Drake told me. “I will not allow you to go there unprotected.”

  I nodded. “I have no intention of putting myself in Fiat’s control, but at the same time, I’m not going to allow another war to be declared. We have enough on our hands with the red dragons. There has to be another way around the situation.”

  You are so foolish. You could end the situation so very easily.

  “Argh!” I yelled, startling everyone in the hall.

  “Ash,” Jim said.

  “I’m sorry. It was the voice. Man, I’m sick and tired of it yammering at me day and night. What I’d give to shut it up…”

  Everyone was looking at me oddly again. I cleared my throat and reminded myself that professional Guardians didn’t rant in front of others about the evil voices in their heads. “Sorry.”

  Jim sighed and said, “You’re not thinking.”

  I looked at it. It cocked its head. As a demon, Jim was bound by some silly rule that said it couldn’t come right out and tell me something helpful unless I asked for specific information, but it could—and often did—hint when I was missing something obvious.

  Obvious like…“Oh! Brilliant! Jim, you get two dog cookies when you go to bed tonight. Stephano, you said I couldn’t bring a member of the green sept, correct?”

  “No other sept may attend a conclave.”

  “Gotcha. The answer is simple, then.” I turned my smile onto Drake.

  He frowned.

  “It is?” Pál asked, looking confused.

  “Yup. I’m a prince of Abaddon, remember?”

  “It’s not something we could easily forget,” Drake said dryly.

  “Yeah, well, as a big, bad demon lord, I have scads and scads of demons under my control. If Fiat won’t let me bring a green dragon bodyguard, I’ll simply call up my demon legions and bring them instead. There’s nothing in the sept laws that says a mate can’t bring demons, is there?”

  Stephano’s mouth opened and closed a couple of times before he finally answered. “No.”

  “Good. Problem solved.”

  “Er…” Jim said.

  “It’s not?”

  Drake took my hands in his, his thumbs gently brushing over the backs of my hands. “Kincsem, it would not be wise for you to summon your legions.”

  “Why not?” I looked deep into his eyes. Regret was in there, as well as something extremely distasteful…pity.

  Do not listen to him. You have struck a perfect solution.

  I closed my eyes for a moment, swamped with sadness. “You mean I’d have to use the dark power to summon the legions.”

  “Yes.”

  “But I don’t use it to summon Jim or Tr—the steward,” I said, careful not to say Traci’s name out loud. For some reason we had yet to figu
re out, I had the demon on auto-call, and just saying its name summoned it to me.

  “They are your personal servants. Legions are different.”

  “All right then,” I said, nodding as I turned back to Stephano. “If Fiat wants to play hardball, I’ll play hardball. You can tell his royal majesty that I will attend his conclave—with a non–green dragon bodyguard sufficient to ensure my safety and general well-being.”

  “Hoo boy, this ought to be good,” Jim said, its eyes lighting up as it realized what I was saying.

  Drake rubbed his chin and looked thoughtful for a moment, then nodded. “That will do.”

  Pál and István exchanged glances before István asked, “Who will be bodyguard?”

  “Aisling’s going for blood,” Jim said, snickering. “I can’t wait to see what Uncle Damian makes of Fiat. You think I could place a bet on who’s left after the dust settles?”

  Stephano’s smile faded completely. I leaned into Drake and breathed in his dragon essence, allowing it to seep deep within me, content in his arms.

  “Don’t worry, sweetie. Everything is going to be all right. You’ll see—Uncle Damian can be a badass when he wants.”

  4

  Cold air suddenly swirled around me, causing my bare nipples to harden painfully. Startled, I jumped, and was grabbing for the towel when a familiar voice said, “There you are. I wondered where you were hiding.”

  I let the towel drop and smiled as Drake stood in the doorway of the sauna, quickly removing his clothing. “You’re letting out all the steam,” I pointed out.

  The look he gave me could have melted asbestos. “I assure you that you’ll have as much steam as you can stand. If you don’t mind me joining you, that is?”

  “That ‘Occupied’ sign on the door to the sauna doesn’t apply to you. Although…how did you know Paula and Dad weren’t the ones in here?”

  He laid the last of his clothing on the bench outside of the sauna, closing the door behind him. His emerald-eyed gaze took its time moving along my body, making me shiver a little with its intensity.

  “They just went to bed. Paula said you were going to take a late night swim,” he answered, dumping a ladleful of water on the hot coals. Steam boiled up around him, obscuring the sight of his body for a moment.

  “Yeah, well, there’s nothing like a relaxing steam after a nice dip.” I lay back on the bench, my breath catching in my throat at the sight of his sleek muscles moving as he picked up the towel that had fallen on the floor. “So, I was thinking about you.”

  “Good things, I hope?” he asked, his eyes glittering brightly as he watched me.

  I stretched a little in order to arch my back in a shameless display. “I was thinking about how you shift for a second into dragon form when you have an orgasm. It got me musing over what it must be like to be an animal in human form.”

  Drake had started for me, but at my words paused and cocked an expressive eyebrow. “I am most decidedly not an animal, kincsem.”

  “Sorry, I didn’t mean it like that. I know you’re a man. But sometimes I have a hard time remembering that there are other emotions that you must be feeling than those experienced by the average joe.”

  His other eyebrow rose. “I am not a man, either. I am a dragon. I have simply adopted this form as one which is both comfortable and practical.”

  “You’re certainly not getting any complaints from me about it. But I wondered…” I allowed my gaze to wander over his impressive expanse of flesh. “Perhaps if you got in touch with your inner dragon, you might be able to shift at other times?”

  “It is common for dragons who stay in one form for a long period of time to lose their ability to shift into their traditional form,” he said quietly. “You seem to be under the impression that we are at our most dragon when we are in the latter form—which is not true. We are dragons no matter what our appearance.”

  “I’m not disputing that at all. I wonder, though, just how dragon are you?”

  He was on me in a heartbeat, his body warmed and slickened by the steam. “You question my dragonhood?”

  “I want to know if there are deep, primal instincts driving you that I have yet to see,” I answered, gasping when he took the tip of my breast in his mouth, bathing it in fire.

  “I assure you that I have many primal needs,” he answered. “Needs which only you can fulfill.”

  “Good. I thought we’d explore your dragon side tonight. Just to see if it has any effect on the whole shifting thing,” I said, squirming underneath him.

  “I am more than happy for you to explore any side of me you like,” he answered, nuzzling my other breast.

  I allowed my hands to play along his sides, sweeping down to dig my fingers into the heavy muscles of his behind. “You want me, don’t you?”

  “Do you need to ask?” He wiggled just a little. He was quite obviously aroused, his body slick against mine.

  “Not really. “I nibbled his neck, then bit him on the shoulder. “I want you, too, in case you didn’t notice.”

  His hand, which had been busily stroking a path up my thigh to parts northern, paused. “I noticed,” he said, plunging a finger inside me.

  I damn near came off the bench at that. “Let’s try a little experiment…oh, god, yes. Do that again!”

  His fingers flexed. My eyes crossed, but through the haze of steam that filled the sauna, I could see a quizzical look on his handsome face. “What did you have in mind?”

  It took some effort to remove myself from the paradise of his hands and mouth and body, but I wiggled out from under him and snatched up a towel, saying as I did so, “Dragons like to hunt things, don’t they?”

  “That depends what the prey is,” he answered, blowing a ring of fire at me.

  The towel, not one that had been specially treated to inhibit fire, burst into flames. I dropped it and picked up another one.

  “How about me?”

  He stood up slowly, his eyes lit with a strange look. “Run,” he said.

  “What?”

  “You wish to see the predator in me, do you not? Very well. Run.”

  My mouth opened to tell him that there was no way in Abaddon I could outrun him, but at a low growl deep in his chest, I turned on my heel and ran.

  My heart was beating wildly, adrenaline spiking through me as I ran across the room, hesitating for a moment as I tried to decide where to go. Drake emerged from the sauna, his head lowered slightly, an intense look on his face as he stalked toward me.

  “Do you know what it is to hunt, kincsem? It is a feral drive, one of the most primal urges in dragons, the need to find and possess. It heightens my senses until I can hear your heart pounding, hear the rasp of every breath you take. Your scent lies heavy in the air, sinking deep into my blood, teasing me, tormenting me until all I can think of is possessing you.”

  I gasped and backed away, too caught up in the moment to think straight.

  “Do you really wish to unleash the beast within me?” he asked, continuing to prowl toward me, the muscles of his body moving in a beautiful ballet of power and grace. “Do you think you can handle the feral side of a dragon, kincsem?”

  Cold stone touched my back, stopping me from escaping. I knew just how a mouse felt when it was dropped into a snake’s cage. I tried to answer, but all that came out was an unintelligible squeak. I was caught between intense arousal and a base need to escape, unsure of which emotion to act upon. My body and heart told me Drake would never harm me, but the primitive part of my brain was demanding I get away from the big, scary beast that wanted to eat me.

  He was a hairsbreadth away from me now, the look in his eyes a mixture of passion and something I didn’t recognize, something so frightening it sent my brain into a screaming fit. “Do you really wish to face my true being?”

  I was poised to run, the flight instinct in me swamping other emotions, but just as I was about to flee, Drake lifted his hand. Instead of the expected fingers, a curved blue claw to
uched the mark he’d branded into my flesh.

  “Oh, dear god, yes!” I cried, flinging myself on him, wrapping my legs around his hips as his hands…claws…whatever they were dug into my butt and hoisted me high. I kissed him with every ounce of love I had, offering myself as a sacrifice to tame the wild dragon, my mouth welcoming the intrusion of his tongue even as he thrust hard into my body.

  Our lovemaking was fast as he claimed and I surrendered. Flames licked along my skin as he pressed me into the wall, his body moving in a rhythm that sent me soaring. I bit his neck, sobbing incoherently into his shoulder, my hands mimicking his claws as I raked them along his back. There was no gentleness between us, no soft, teasing touches—this was mating, pure and simple. I had unleashed Drake’s tightly held primal emotions, triggering his need to dominate.

  But I was a wyvern’s mate. I answered every hard thrust with little movements of my own, somewhat hindered by our unorthodox position, but using my hands and mouth to show him he wasn’t the only one who could go wild. As a familiar tension built inside me, I clutched his butt and urged him on faster, crying out his name when I was swept over the edge.

  A fireball exploded around us as Drake’s shout of exultation changed to an animal roar of triumph. The throat I had pressed my face against changed, elongated, the hot, sweaty skin morphing for a fraction of a second into greenish yellow scales.

  I collapsed against him, my heart and soul singing, my brain completely unable to cope with anything else at that moment but the depth of my feelings for the man who had so completely filled my life.

  Consciousness returned with a warm, enveloping air that caressed my bare flesh. I opened my eyes to find myself lying on the bench in the sauna, and Drake splashing water on the rocks. He looked down at where I lay, a smug little smile curling the edges of his mouth.

  “You’re just lucky I’m a wyvern’s mate,” I told his smile, holding out my arms for him. “If I’d still been mortal, I doubt I could have survived that. When can we do it again?”

  He sank down upon me with a hot look, and even hotter kisses.