Stone of Ascension (26 page)

He chuckled, unable to stop himself. His hand stroked through her hair, then brushed across her cheek. “Yes, the day is over,” he reassured her. “I think we’ve both handled enough for one day.”

She sighed and finally relaxed completely into him, curling around him in a link of belonging.

His dragon danced lightly in joy before it turned in a circle and settled down with a contented sigh. The wings fluttered, soft and light, before they curled in and rested.

“Damian?”

“Yes?”

She ducked her head. A pale streak of light from the bathroom provided just enough illumination for him to see the soft flesh of her bottom lip disappear between her teeth. “Is it always like that?”

He swallowed the chuckle this time. He tipped her head up until she was looking at him, her face once again tinged with a faint blush of red. “No, beauty. It’s never been like that for me.”

Her eyes widened before a soft smile curled over her lips.

“This was something special,” he affirmed. “Something even I don’t fully comprehend. But I wouldn’t take it back.”

He cupped her face, the possessiveness coursing through him in a tempestuous fury. He held her gaze, his fingers flexing on the tender skin of her cheek. “You’re mine, Amber.” Not a question in his mind on that. “There’s no going back. I won’t give you up. Not after that.”

She sucked in a large gulp of air, fear and a slight mix of apprehension skidding across her face before she slowly released her breath. She lifted herself up and brushed her fingers over his lips. He held still and waited for her to process what he’d said and come to an understanding on her own terms.

“I’m not sure I like your choice of words.” She tilted her head, her brows dropped in thought. “But I like the feeling they bring. I know I can’t go back… I don’t think I even want to anymore.”

Relief flooded him as she peered into his eyes, searching for something before her face lightened, the spark of mischief returning to her golden eyes. “I’m okay belonging to you. Just as long as you know that you’re also mine.”

Quiet acceptance. So like her in so many ways. Yet there was more.

She wouldn’t stand behind or before him. She would be at his side—equal. She’d just offered him a precious gift that no one had ever given him.

He pulled her in, holding her a breath away from his lips. “Deal,” he agreed roughly, before lifting to meet her sweet, swollen lips.

She yielded under his mouth, accepting him. His heart beat hard and insistent as he surrendered to the energy. Relenting to the insistent push and allowing himself to trust in it—in her.

He drew back from her soft lips and the tempting warmth of her mouth “We need to rest,” he told her as he tucked her head against his chest. “As much as I would love to finish that kiss, tomorrow is another day of unknown. We need to be prepared for whatever comes.”

She gave a single nod of acceptance, her hair brushing like silk across his chest. “I’m not afraid. Not anymore. Not with you.”

He pulled her tight, hugging her to him in a sudden, desperate need to be what she needed. His eyes clamped shut as he silently willed the energy to be right. Her faith and trust in him was a gift he would never betray.

The energy within him burned, hot and vibrant as if new fuel had been added to a dying flame. Fresh, young and full of expectation. It flowed through, humming a song of life. Of new beginnings.

Of second chances.

A chance he vowed to honor.

Warmth encased her, surrounding her with an essence of security that she’d never felt before. Amber didn’t want it to end. It chased away the cold that always lingered just around the edge of her consciousness. Instinctively, she snuggled closer to the heat and reveled in the sun-baked feel that enveloped her.

Beneath her, the body she was wrapped around stirred under her wiggling. Her eyelids flew open, the movement instantly eliminating the just-waking-up haze. The events of the last day crashed into her respite, shattering the quiet of her mind with the clarity of light. Her head flipped up and her gaze locked with the Damian’s dark eyes.

“Morning, beauty.”

His deep voice rumbled in his chest and vibrated into hers, which was spread unabashedly across his strong, bare one. Her stomach knotted, the warm flush of embarrassment blooming across her cheeks. It was stupid to feel shy after what happened between them last night, but years of insecurities fostered by her sheltered existence could not be dropped overnight.

Swallowing, she forced herself to smile and hold his gaze. “Morning.”

The back of his fingers brushed against her warm cheek. “Still the blush,” he said, the slight note of humor matched the teasing spark in his eyes.

“I think it’s much like the hair.” She admitted with a shrug. “Just a part of me.”

“And just as beautiful.”

The heat deepened. “You did that on purpose,” she accused with a smile. The pleasure at the light banter spread through her like a slow-moving river, drifting down her until she was immersed in the calm waters.

“Just speaking the truth,” he defended.

Giving in to impulse, she leaned down and nipped him lightly on the chest, finding the play new and wonderful. Surprisingly, she felt no shame about what actually happened last night. Instead, she felt whole. Finally.

“Hey,” he admonished, flinching away before he rubbed at the little bite mark. “Be careful what you start here, beauty. I can take you down faster than you can blink.”

“That’s what I’m counting on,” she taunted, adding a suggestive lift of her eyebrows, unsure where the coyness was coming from, but going with it anyway. It was freeing and, for once, pure fun.

As quickly as the previous night, she was on her back with him looming above her. Only this time, it was minus the clothing. Every inch of his gorgeous body was pressed intimately to hers. Including the hard length of his erection pressed firmly against her stomach.

Damian looked down at her, intent clear in his smoky gaze. “You only had to ask.”

She laughed, the happiness bubbling out of her. “But the other way was much more fun.”

“You’re a minx,” he said through his own laughter.

“No,” she denied, flipping her arm up to show him the back of her hand. “I’m a bird. Remember?”

“
Shit
.” Damian’s exclamation snapped the levity out of the moment.

He dropped his smile, his face hardening as he grabbed her hand and yanked her with him into a sitting position. “When did this happen?”

“What?” she asked, quickly tucking the sheet under her arms to cover her naked breasts. “You saw that yesterday.”

“No.
Look
.” He lifted her hand up so she could see the mark. “When did
this
happen?”

She gaped in disbelief at the bird that was now intimately entwined around a winged dragon.

Damian’s dragon.

The two animals looked at each other, their heads almost touching. Their wings were spread behind them before their lower bodies twisted together, the long, scaled dragon’s tail wrapping around the feathery tail of the bird. The spiked end of the dragon’s tail looped in a circle around her wrist like a bracelet, locking them in place. The dominant color on both the dragon and the bird was still white, but both were now shot through with stark streaks of violet and gold.

Just like the colors of the stone.

Quickly, she grabbed Damian’s hand and held it next to her own. His breath hissed as they both stared dumbstruck at the now matching marks on the backs of their hands.

“Shit.” Damian mumbled, bemusement lightening the curse. His hand fisted, causing the mark to flex and ripple over his skin. The tattoo-style mark was perfectly blended, the two animals equal in strength and form. Unified.

“How?” she whispered, too in awe to speak any louder. Tentatively, she reached with her other hand to skim over the newly formed mark. Like before, her skin was still soft and smooth where the mark was.

“Hell if I know.” He chuckled, then finally relaxed his fist and brushed his fingers over the mark on his hand. Instantly, she felt his touch as if he were stroking her hand, causing a wave of goose bumps to flow up her arm. The bird cooed softly and wrapped itself even tighter around the dragon. Even though the mark remained unmoving on her hand, Amber felt the movement and emotion through the energy that vibrated within her. The dragon tucked its head and gently rubbed its snout over the soft-feathered cheek of the bird.

“What do these mean?” It was a question she’d been meaning to ask for a while.

He looked at her, his brows lowering. “You don’t know?” The doubt registered in his eyes.

“How would I know? The bird just appeared on my hand eight weeks ago when I touched this damn stone.” She grabbed the stone and lifted it off her chest to let it twirl from the chain in front of her.

“I bet that was quite the surprise.”

“Yeah, just a little.” She let the stone fall back down to plunk against the sheets that stretched over her breasts. Missing the heat, needing the comfort it brought, she lifted the cloth away and slid the pendant under the material until it rested against her skin in the valley of her breasts.

Damian looked down at the marks and shook his head as if he was trying to figure them out as well. After a long period of quiet contemplation, he explained, “Everyone in the Energy races is born with a mark on their hand. Both Energen and Shifter. A mark of belonging. A statement of power. The mark appears as a two-dimensional, unchanging image. A standard, flat tattoo of sorts. But to the people of the Energy races, it is actually as much a part of us as the hand itself. As you probably know by now.” He shot her a quick look. “I can assume that you’ve felt its response, the movement, the messages it sends to you. To us, the marks are living, breathing creatures that move and communicate with each individual through our own energy. Like us, they listen and respond to the energy, both within us and around us.”

“How?” The whole concept seemed so foreign and impossible. She almost laughed out loud at the thought. As if everything else she’d experienced in the last twenty-four hours was normal and acceptable.

His eyes narrowed as he studied the new mark. “It just is and always has been. They are our friends, our anchors…a sort of energy barometer that lives beneath our skin.”

“Do they have meaning? The different marks?”

“Generally, within the Energens, our marks align to our elemental ability. The Shifters are always a dragon of some sort.”

Understanding dawned once again. “So when your mark changed to a dragon, it was assumed you’d changed to their side.”

His shoulders slumped when he exhaled as if he was tired of defending that question. “Yes. But I didn’t.”

“I know,” she assured him, rubbing a hand across the broad expanse of his shoulders, a touch of comfort she hoped he wouldn’t reject. “Why do they change?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know. Mine was the first. No one can remember it ever happening before. That mine changed to a dragon was what made it so condemning.” He twisted his marked hand back and forth as he stared down at it. “Now it’s changed twice in a day. To top it all off, I’ve never heard of someone having two animals on their hand.”

“Really?” So what did it mean? Why would the two of them have the same mark, one that mixed both their animals? The questions assaulted her once again, but she refused to succumb to the niggling of fear that crept into her conscious and rubbed icily against the back of her mind.

“Really.” He gave a light sniff of irritation before he pulled away and scooted off the bed, keeping his back to her.

“Damian.” Her voice made him pause, but he didn’t turn around. “Are you okay?”

His spine stiffened with his inhale, his muscles rigid and stiff. His voice, when he spoke, was low and coarse. “I’ll be okay when this is done. When the questions have answers and mysteries are resolved. Now, we should get dressed and prepare for the day.”

The warmth and intimacy of just moments before was gone, overpowered by the reality of what they still faced. Of the questions that had no answers and the unknown that loomed before them.

“And what can we expect today?” she asked without expecting a real answer.

He looked at her over his shoulder, his expression void of amusement. “I have no idea. But with luck, we will make it to the end.”

Chapter Twenty

Amber finished tying the laces on her boots, then straightened and stood. She slipped into Damian’s coat—the black, wool trench coat that she’d worn most of yesterday. The weight of it hung heavy on her shoulders, but it was welcomed. Oddly, it provided comfort, as if the material itself offered her a shield against whatever they faced.

She took a deep breath and inhaled the light scent of pine that lingered in the thick weave. She barely resisted the urge to close her eyes and enjoy the images that flashed in her mind of what had happened between them last night.

She’d given him her virginity.

A fact she’d finally had the time to process and ponder while she’d showered and prepared for the day. The silence had extended between her and Damian, not exactly uncomfortable, but no longer easy and natural as it had been when they’d first woke. Apprehension had settled like a sharp-quilled porcupine filled with all the questions and doubts that threatened to stab them both.