Mercy Burns (20 page)

No
, I thought,
he couldn’t have
. I reached down inside myself and unleashed the dragon, letting her energy swirl into the stranger. But instead of fire, she found nothing. Not even the broken, scattered ashes where once the soul of a dragon had lived.

He hadn’t just stolen his heat, as I’d threatened to do. He’d completely
erased
it.

“How is that possible?” I murmured as I glanced at Damon, feeling sick. “How can you extinguish someone’s very essence?”

He didn’t open his eyes. “Any fire can be put out, Mercy. You just have to know how.”

I swallowed heavily, but it didn’t ease the dryness in my throat. “Can you do that to full dragons as well?”

“It’s harder, but yes.” He dropped his fingers from
the last man and looked at me. “It beats killing them, doesn’t it?”

“But—”

“They’re alive, Mercy. They just can’t flame.”

“For now, or forever?”

He hesitated. “Draman do
not
need flames or wings.”

“Of course not. After all, what right have we got to be able to protect ourselves against you lot?” I snorted softly. “You really have no understanding of what goes on in cliques, do you?”

“And you have no idea just how close the cliques are to being exposed,” he snapped, then made a visible effort to control himself before adding, “Let’s not get into this argument again. If you want to rescue this woman, we need to get moving.”

He went back out onto the deck without waiting for me. I grabbed the backpack, checked that the netbook was still in one piece, then followed. It was a large space, but there wasn’t enough room for a dragon to stand, let alone unfurl his wings.

“You can’t shift shape here,” I commented.

“I know.” His voice was almost absent as he studied the darkness off to our left. The breeze ruffled his dark hair and a half smile touched his lips. “The wind is strong tonight. It’ll help me lift you.”

“Just promise not to drop me.”

I couldn’t help the edge of fear in my voice and he looked at me, his smile growing, once again lending his otherwise arrogant features a delicious warmth. “There may be a lot of things I want to do to you, but dropping you isn’t one of them.”

His gaze burned with sudden desire, and warmth
crept into my cheeks even as part of me basked in the heat of that look. “Oh, I’ve seen some looks thrown my way that suggest you’d love to do that very thing. Drop me from a height, that is.”

“Only when you’re being so frustratingly stubborn.”

I smiled. “Which is a lot, according to you.”

“That’s true.” He gripped the railing of the ladder leading up to the steering deck. “Once I take off, climb to the nose of the boat. I’ll swoop down and grab you.”

“Just you watch where you put those claws,” I said, crossing my arms and trying not to think about all the things that could go wrong. “I do not need any more scars, thank you very much.”

“If I pierce you with one of my claws, you’ll be dead.” He grabbed the rail and climbed up to the next level.

I moved to the back of the boat, leaning my butt against the railing in hopes I could see what was happening above. The roof made that impossible, but the burn of energy across my skin told me he was shifting shape. I closed my eyes, enjoying the sensation while trying to ignore the longing that welled up from within. I might have learned long ago that I would never experience the freedom of shifting shape and skimming the wide-open skies, but that never eased the desire for it.

There was a whoosh of air as wings unfurled and began to sweep across the night. A second later, an inky shape appeared in the starlit sky.

And oh, he was
so
beautiful.

The moonlight glinted off his dark scales, making it seem as if his sleek, powerful body was covered in a million stars. His wings were black gossamer, almost
invisible against the sky except for the shimmer that ran down the edges with every stroke as he powered upward. And he was big for a dragon—a big, powerful beast who looked as deadly as the man.

I sighed—a sound that was part admiration and part frustration at not being able to join him in flight—then walked to the ladder and began to climb.

After moving as far forward as I could and ensuring I was clear of anything that would obstruct his wings, I closed my eyes and waited. While part of me wanted to watch Damon swoop in, part of me feared it, too. I’d seen the damage claws could do to a human body and I doubted I could force myself to stand still while such a large dragon swept down toward me.

The air began to stir, softly at first, barely even teasing my hair. But the nearer he got, the more tumultuous it became, until I felt like there was a maelstrom swirling around me.

Then, as gently as a first-time kiss, his claws wrapped around me, encasing me securely as his wings swept us upward again.

At first I was too frozen by fear to even open my eyes.
Any minute now he’s going to drop me
. Any minute now, I was going to crash down on the rocks like before. And while there might not actually be rocks below us, the ocean gained the consistency of concrete when you plunged into it from any great height.

The air howled past my ears—a sound that should have been all-encompassing but wasn’t. I could hear the ocean far below, feel the chill wash of moonlight across my skin, smell the leathery, musky aroma of
dragon—sounds and scents that sang to my soul and made me want to smile.

As the minutes ticked by and his grip didn’t loosen—and I didn’t drop—the fear eased enough to open my eyes.

Far below us, the ocean raced for the shore, thin strips of white foam breaking across a blacker expanse. On the fast-approaching land, multicolored lights twinkled like stars in the night. The howl of the air became a sound that was sweeter than any I could have imagined, and the sweep of wings filled my soul.

And suddenly it wasn’t scary anymore. It was beautiful and exhilarating and I spread my arms wide, imagining that I was a dragon, that it was me flying on gauzy, glittering wings, sweeping through the night so swiftly and so elegantly.

It was a glorious sensation. A dream fulfilled—even if it wasn’t my wings or my shape. Laughter rose, bubbling through my body—a sound that was as free and as happy as I felt.

But it ended far too soon. We were barely even over land when we were sweeping downward again. The starlight twinkle of lights separated and grew, becoming long sweeps of roads along which the occasional car traveled. Rooftops and trees became visible, along with brightly lit shopping malls and office districts.

Damon banked and headed to the right. Ahead was a vast blot of darkness. As we drew closer, I realized it was a golf course. The perfect spot for a dragon to land unseen.

As the ground grew closer, our speed dropped until it almost felt like we were hovering. Damon released
me, and I dropped the last two feet. I hit the ground running and kept going, getting out of his way.

He landed with unusual grace for such a large dragon, quickly furling his wings as the blue shape-shifting fire began to crawl across his body, giving his black scales an unearthly glow until it encased him completely. Not only did it hide his form, it hid the transformation from dragon body to fully clothed human.

Then the blue fire began to fade and I walked toward him. He turned around, his gaze sweeping my body before returning to meet mine. A small smile teased the corners of his mouth and creased the corners of his dark eyes.

“It sounded like you enjoyed that.”

I stopped in front of him, drawing in the delightful musk of man and dragon that lingered on the air, then leaned forward and dropped a kiss on a cheek still slightly chilled by our flight. “I did. And thank you.”

I would have stepped back, but he lightly cupped the back of my neck with his hand and stopped me. “For what?”

“For not dropping me.” His fingers were barely touching my skin, but it was a weight I felt all the way down to my toes. The heat of his body caressed mine, chasing the last remnants of ice from my flesh. I might not like this man’s attitude to my kind, but that wasn’t stopping my reaction to his closeness.

“Oh, I can think of better ways to thank me than a mere peck on the cheek,” he said, his tone as teasing as his expression.

I raised an eyebrow, even as excitement began to thrum through me. “Can you?”

“Yes,” he murmured, not appearing to move and yet somehow close enough that his body pressed against mine, heating me in ways I couldn’t even begin to describe.

I licked suddenly dry lips, torn between the desire to seize the moment and the knowledge that it just
wasn’t
the right time. And that this man wasn’t the type of dragon I should ever play with. Even if Janelle hadn’t already given me that warning, every sense screamed with the knowledge that he was dangerous in more ways than I could imagine. And his lack of respect for my kind wasn’t even the worst of it.

But it didn’t seem to matter. I wanted him. Wanted to kiss him, to feel his lips against mine again, to explore and taste and enjoy.

And the hunger in his dark eyes suggested that he wanted the same thing.

“Damon, we really need to get moving.”

The words came out breathy and barely audible, and my gaze was drawn to his lips as another smile curved them so deliciously.

“Yes, we do,” he agreed.

Then those delicious lips met mine, and there was no more time for thought, no more time for words. No more time for anything but this kiss. I wrapped my arms around his neck, drawing him closer, tasting him fully even as he tasted and explored me. And though it began as something very sweet, it quickly evolved into something that was raw and powerful and so very erotic.

For too many minutes there was nothing but the hunger of this kiss and the passion that rose between us. Then reality intruded in the form of a gruff voice.

“Hey, you two. This ain’t no lovers’ lane.”

Damon released me and stepped away. Just for a moment, everything around me spun, the abrupt ending to our kiss like a splash of cold water.

I ran a tongue across kiss-bruised lips, drawing in a final taste of him, then turned toward the owner of the voice. He was little more than a gruff-sounding shadow within the confines of a golf cart.

“Sorry,” Damon said, voice as cool and calm as ever. As if he
hadn’t
just experienced a mind-blowing kiss. “I was just showing my girlfriend where I scored the hole-in-one the other day.”

The other man snorted, and it was a sound filled with disbelief. “There’s a hotel up the road better suited to your purposes. And besides, the course closed several hours ago.”

“Sorry, no harm meant.” Damon touched my elbow, then headed down a small gravel path.

“Do you know where you’re going?” I shoved my hands in my pockets and tried not to think about the man beside me, the way the occasional brush of his arm against mine sent little tingles of desire racing across my skin.

“I have no idea,” he said, his gaze on the night ahead. “But I noticed a couple of large buildings in this general direction when we swooped in, so we’re probably headed the right way.”

“I guess he’d come after us if we weren’t.” I resisted the urge to look over my shoulder to see just what, exactly, the man
was
doing, and added, “So how are we going to get to Moraga Drive?”

“Simple. We steal a car with navigation.”

I raised an eyebrow. “As grand plans go, that’s pretty lame.”

“You got a better idea?”

Yeah, kiss me senseless again
. I pushed the thought away and shrugged lightly. “Death stealing a car just seems wrong.”

“Why? It’s practically a national pastime.”

I smiled wryly. “So my brother says.”

“Your brother sounds like a very sensible man.”

“Yeah, my brother inherited all the sensible in our family.”
Not
, I added silently, with a wry smile. “And when we get there?”

He shrugged. “It depends on what we find.”

I glanced at him again. “You don’t expect her to be alive, do you?”

“Honestly? I think we’ll be extremely lucky to find her breathing, but you never know—they might wait to get confirmation of Angus’s death before they move on Coral.”

And if we weren’t lucky, then she was dead and both she and Angus were destined to join Rainey in roaming the endless plains between this world and the next. And with all the souls lost in the two towns, it had to be getting pretty crowded.

We walked on in silence. He didn’t mention the kiss and neither did I, but I knew what we’d started would not end here. The genie was out of the bottle and—respect or not, dangerous or not—I wasn’t about to try and push him back.

Ahead, lights began to twinkle through the darkness, and the mellow tones of music rode the air. I frowned. “I didn’t think the clubhouse would be open at this hour.”

“Usually they’re not, but given the chatter I can hear underneath the music, it’s probably hosting some sort of function. Hence the guard. Which means there could be good pickings when it comes to stealing a vehicle.”

His guess turned out to be correct. The clubhouse was a massive two-story Tuscan-style building with white walls and a pale green roof. We followed a path around the side of the building and headed toward the parking lot. It was huge, but not entirely well lit, brightness pooling in puddles and leaving many areas locked in shadow—which made it almost perfect for thieves, except that there were static security cameras on at least one light pole in each row.

Damon didn’t hesitate, moving with certainty toward an older-looking gray Ford parked in one of the more shadowy areas. He touched my back and motioned me toward the passenger side, then said softly, “Keep your back to the camera.”

I did as he said, and watched while he moved around to the driver’s side. Three seconds, and he was in. He leaned across and opened the door, then reached back and grabbed the street directory from the backseat.

“Not a navigation system, but almost as good,” he said, handing it to me once I was in.

I opened the directory and searched street names, looking for Moraga Drive and keeping my head down as he started the car and drove off smoothly. I found it, traced a route back to the golf club, then began issuing directions as we left. Moraga Drive was, naturally enough, on the other side of Santa Rosa, but traffic was scarce and we got there in pretty good time.