Ember's Kiss (35 page)

He was exhausted.

He was a bit drunk.

He'd had more sex since meeting Viv than ever in his life—which was saying something. Thorolf loved women and he loved sex.

Yet he just couldn't get enough of Viv. She nestled against him and he was instantly ready, all over again. He had just closed his eyes and touched his lips to her
nape, had just heard her sigh of satisfaction, when someone jumped him from behind.

He felt the talons lock into his shoulder.

He smelled
Slayer
, way too late.

He roared and spun, intent on defending Viv.

Gold talons dug deeply into his skin, holding him captive. Thorolf glanced back and Chen chuckled, murmuring something that disoriented Thorolf. He was breathing dragonsmoke, weaving it around Thorolf with dizzying speed and sucking him dry. He was also bleeding, his black
Slayer
blood running from a wound in one eye. It scorched the floor when it dripped onto it, but the injury didn't seem to weaken him.

Thorolf struggled. He fought. He tried to shift shape but couldn't. It just didn't work.

Chen laughed softly, unsurprised.

That was when Thorolf panicked.

It made absolutely no difference. He was completely powerless, as he had never been in his life. Chen held him down, his ferocious strength keeping Thorolf captive. He rolled Thorolf to his back and bared his teeth, closing in to eat Thorolf's guts.

Yet Viv slept, oblivious to his struggle, rubbing her feet against him like a cat. He had the biggest erection of his life, which just made the moment more surreal.

There was nothing sexy about being devoured by Chen.

It was his worst nightmare come true.

Thorolf heard himself moan as he felt Chen's breath on his belly.

He thrashed, and the dragonsmoke net burned him all over. He bellowed, hoping that this was a nightmare and he'd wake up. A tempest swirled in the room, an unnatural wind that ripped at the blinds and cast the dishes to the floor. It seemed to echo Thorolf's anguish, and he wondered whether he had created it somehow.

Niall could control the wind.

Could he?

Thorolf tried to feed the wind's frenzy, tried to make it blow harder and colder. He tried to make it disperse the dragonsmoke, and, to his delight, it worked. He wished for sand in the wind and he laughed when Chen roared in pain beneath a volley of fine gravel. That roar broke the line of dragonsmoke and was the only opportunity Thorolf needed.

He lunged through the remaining net of dragonsmoke, ignoring the way it scathed him. He pounded Chen in the face, jabbing his fist into that damaged eye. Chen roared in pain and thrashed his tail. One blow sent Thorolf sprawling into the far wall.

He still couldn't shift, and now he'd hit his head. He waited on the floor, feigning unconsciousness, waiting for his moment. Viv, incredibly, remained asleep. Chen bared his teeth and breathed dragonfire as he stalked closer.

Suddenly he pounced.

Thorolf lunged straight at his opponent and drove his head into the
Slayer
's gut. He slammed a stool hard into the
Slayer
's genitals. Chen choked. He staggered backward, his plume of dragonfire scorching the
air. Thorolf kicked him in the face and tried again to shift shape.

No luck.

He glanced out the window and thought he saw a person dressed in black on the street below, looking up at his flat's windows. The blinds were open and the dragonfire would make the fight clear to anyone who was looking.

Thorolf saw the pale oval of the observer's face and guessed that the thief he'd once let escape was still following him.

Why?

Then Chen's plume of flames erupted behind him, turning the window into a mirror. Thorolf saw the reflection of a snake in the window glass, wide-awake and watching. There was a green viper coiled in the bed where Viv had been, its eyes sparkling like jewels. It opened its mouth and he saw its sharp fangs, the hungry flick of its tongue.

“We had a deal,” the viper cried, and launched itself at Chen. Its fangs sank deeply into the
Slayer
's hide, and Thorolf wondered what toxin was in its bite.

Because Chen wavered, like a reflection on the surface of a lake, and abruptly disappeared.

The flames vanished, as well, turning the window to an inky square of night once more.

Thorolf spun in horror, fearing for Viv, but Chen really was gone. The flames were gone. The viper was gone. And Viv was reaching for him, concern in her expression.

He was sweating.

He was naked.

He sank to the floor, trembling, feeling as though he was going to be sick.

“Bad dream, baby?” Viv murmured, pulling him into her arms and kissing him gently. “You gotta take it easy with that firewater,” she teased gently, wiping the perspiration from his face. “That shit will kill you.”

Thorolf looked at her, and she smiled. He exhaled shakily. It must have been a nightmare. He looked back out the window, but there was no sign of the thief.

If that person had ever even been there.

“You okay, baby?” Viv murmured. She kissed his cheek, her lips lingering against his skin. A glow lit her eyes as she smiled. “Don't worry. I know how to make the bad dreams go away,” she whispered, rubbing herself against him. Thorolf grinned and caught her close.

Just a dream.

Nothing more than that.

Thorolf just wasn't as young as he used to be.

Yeah. That was it. He carried Viv back to bed, and it was a long time before either of them tried to sleep again.

Chen cursed as he was snatched from Bangkok and flung through time against his will. He was being hauled back to Hawai‘i, unable to resist the spell cast by the witch who carried Brandon's child.

At least he understood why Viv Jason hadn't delivered
Thorolf to him as agreed: she wanted him for herself. She was out of luck. Chen had already decided the
Pyr
would be his due.

That bite of hers meant war.

His blinded eye meant war, even if the Elixir would ultimately heal it.

He'd take out Brandon's mate and Brandon, then return for Viv and Thorolf.

They'd all learn their lesson for daring to wrest control from him.

On the beach on O‘ahu, Brandon was transfixed by the sight of Liz. She was radiant with the fire within her, so filled with power that she looked like she might explode into a flurry of sparks. Her eyes were lit with an inner flame and there were sparks flying from her fingertips, as before. This time, though, her body was so bright with orange light that she could have been made of fire.

She lifted their entwined hands and burned even brighter. He felt his dragon roar with pleasure and a spark shoot through his own body, electrifying him. She was his mate and he loved her.

Then the lightning bolt hit, and his dragon bellowed.

His dragon didn't hesitate and it didn't wait for Brandon's agreement. The shift rocketed through Brandon's body, compelling him to change forms. He beat his wings against the sky and raged in frustration. He tipped his head back and breathed fire at the sky.

His dragon was in control again!

He saw immediately that Liz thought he had shifted on purpose, as discussed. She didn't realize that his dragon was ascendant again. His dragon shouldn't have been in charge of his body, not when he stood so close to Liz, but he guessed that Chen had some other means on his side.

He looked around and saw the twinkle of Dragon Bone Powder around the lip of the vial. His body was reacting to even that trace of the powder that buttressed Chen's control over him. He felt an odd sensation on his chest, like a prickling, but when he looked down, he saw a red salamander running across the spiral in the sand.

With a gold salamander fast behind him.

It was Chen who had compelled him to change!

Neither salamander had been there a moment before and Brandon knew it. He dove and snatched at the pair, seizing one in each claw, but Jorge slipped through his fingers. Chen shifted shape, becoming a young Chinese man in jeans and leather. There was a cut on his cheek, and he favored one leg. One of his eyes was a mess, too. The element of surprise was on Chen's side, and Brandon's grip faltered when he found this stranger in his grasp. The young man punched Brandon in the face, his lip curling as Chen's had. Sure of his identity, Brandon breathed fire at him.

Chen became a dragon with scales of lacquer red that were edged in gold. His eyes flashed and he leapt at Brandon, biting into his shoulder. Brandon struck
him with his tail, digging his own claws into the wound on Chen's face. Black
Slayer
blood fell, burning Brandon's scales wherever it touched. Brandon grabbed the
Slayer
and shoved his head into the beach, compelling him to breathe sand.

Chen shifted shape again, becoming a beautiful Chinese woman. Brandon was sufficiently startled once more that his grip faltered—he couldn't torture a woman!—which was the only opportunity she needed to drive her spike heel into the wound on his belly. He fell back in anguish, remembering the woman who had appeared outside Chen's place, just as she pivoted to fight. She had the same gash on her cheek and the same damaged eye.

She was Chen.

Brandon punched the
Slayer
and went after him, determined to not let him out of his grasp. He pounced on Chen and held him down.

What was wrong with the others? Brandon glanced at the other
Pyr
, only to find that they were frozen in place.

“Another spell,” he whispered, and Chen laughed.

He changed back to dragon form again, leaping at Brandon with talons all bared.

He latched on to Brandon, digging his claws deep into Brandon's hide.

The entire scene was suddenly illuminated in brilliant blue-green light.

Darkfire!

When the auras of the
Pyr
were extinguished, Liz feared the worst. Where there had been a bright play of color, suddenly there was no light at all. The circle was dark and still, like the calm before the storm.

She saw that the
Pyr
appeared to have turned to stone. Their mates were similarly snared, but the children were as active as they had been before.

When Liz saw the red salamander appear out of nothing beside Brandon, she knew exactly what kind of salamander it had to be.

Its name was Chen.

Right behind it appeared another salamander, this one in shades of gold. It popped out of the air exactly the same way. Liz guessed that this was Jorge.

Meanwhile, Brandon gave a cry and shifted shape. He snatched for the two salamanders but managed to hold on to only the red one. The gold one raced across the sand and leapt for the boundary of the circle.

Garrett moved with astonishing speed, grabbing for the gold salamander.

Liz cried out a warning, but Jorge plunged through the circle she'd created. He screamed as he punctured the barrier that kept them all safe, and Liz hoped that both the circle and the dragonsmoke had burned him badly. She saw the rent in the circle's protective veil, like a tear in a silk curtain. She saw that destroyed barrier ripple in the wind and the energy she had raised begin to leak through it.

To her horror, Garrett charged through the barrier after the golden salamander.

Liz raced after the boy, shouting at him to stop. Twenty feet outside the circle, he snatched up the salamander with a hoot. He had time to turn to face her, his expression triumphant as he held the squirming salamander high over his head.

Then Jorge shifted shape. Garrett shouted as the enormous golden dragon snatched him up in his claws and leapt for the sky. Jorge turned to fly away, carrying the struggling boy in front of him.

Liz pulled out the darkfire crystal. At least there was no risk of her hitting the child; Garrett was completely obscured by Jorge's body.

She fired the crystal at Jorge. The beam of blue-green light that emanated from the stone struck him in the spine. He screamed and fell toward the earth, his black blood dripping from the wound in a lethal river. He dropped Garrett, and Liz ran to scoop up the little boy, fearing he had been hurt.

As she pulled him into her arms, he clung to her neck. She spun around to return to the circle.

Only to be confronted with a pillar of flame she'd seen once before.

Liz swallowed.

Her test was beginning, and at the worst possible time.

B
randon knew he was fighting for his life. He turned his dragon's strength to his own desire and thrashed Chen hard with his tail. The
Slayer
's grip faltered, and it was the chance that Brandon needed to tear himself loose, then turn the tables on his opponent. Brandon snatched the
Slayer
. Chen struggled within his grip, and there was a blue shimmer around his body.

Brandon had to weaken him before he disappeared. He remembered Niall's comment about dragonsmoke. Brandon had used dragonsmoke on Jorge, working on intuition, but maybe he could use it even more effectively now that he understood it better. He held tightly to Chen and breathed dragonsmoke in a long, slow plume. He drove his dragonsmoke into the wound in Chen's eye and felt the moment it locked on to the
Slayer
's life force.