“Who kept you in the shadows, hellion?”
Life. What I was. Succubi didn’t even want to be around their own kind. We separated from our families as soon as we could survive on our own. We dared not get too close. It was why I had to go.
“Shh…you don’t have to do anything. Show me more.”
I should tell him no. I really should. This was my place. I’d built it for me.
“Please.”
The single word shocked me. I’d already wanted to show him, but now… Fine. I took his hand, threading my fingers with his, and guided him inside. The bedroom was exactly as I envisioned it. Huge, like the room I shared with Rogue, Maddox, and Fin. The bed was much bigger, too. So it was the same with a few tweaks.
He chuckled at the description as we moved toward the windows and looked out over the ocean. “Magnificent.”
I thought so, too. It was why I wanted to be able to look over it. Always. “Just imagine the sunset over the water…” The light changed and played exactly as I’d wanted it to be.
“Show me more?”
The bathroom, the sunken tub and the oversized shower. Though images of the pools in the bathing room flickered in and out. Downstairs, I showed him the kitchen and dining areas, but they were the library. Piece by piece, my house turned into the keep and then changed back.
“It’s all right, Fiona. Trust me.”
Why should I? But he didn’t answer the question as darkness crowded my vision, and then I was gasping as he lifted his head. We were in some room I’d never been in before, and Alfred gazed down at me, his lips red with my blood. He rolled me over so I lay breast to chest, and then he tucked my head to his throat. I knew what he wanted but I was so tired.
I didn’t want to do this anymore.
“It hurts.” It did. Everything hurt. Breathing hurt.
“You have almost no blood left,” he told me as he stroked the hair from my face. “It is like pulling poison from a wound, Fiona. I have to cleanse it all, and I will cleanse it through me.”
That didn’t even make sense.
“You must trust me.”
“Why? You bit me.”
He smiled. “And you may bite me, hellion.”
I didn’t even know him.
“Not true,” he whispered, cradling my face when I couldn’t hold my own head up. My vision dimmed as my heart slowed. Somewhere, a roar punched through the hum in my ears.
Maddox.
“Will be fine. Fin and Rogue are with him. This is hard on the dragon,” Alfred warned me. “Don’t fight me too long, hellion, it hurts him.”
I frowned. How was it hurting him? I didn’t ask for this. I didn’t ask for any of this.
“No,” Alfred told me. “You didn’t…now you must feed.”
I hated him.
I hated all of them.
“I know,” he soothed, rubbing my back as he nestled my face to his throat. The pound of his heart vibrated against my chest, and I licked at the skin. Just a trace of my tongue to gather the salt there, but it was far more decadent than salt, and I sank my teeth in. It took real effort to clamp down, and the hand on the back of my head urged me to keep going, even if it had to be hurting him.
The first gush of blood filled my mouth, and I closed my eyes, losing myself to the ecstasy. The pain receded as I drank.
Rogue led the way down the hillside. We had to move fast. The barbed spear fired by the ballista had hit the golden dragon’s wing. It had crashed to the earth. There were so few of them left. If we didn’t get there fast enough…
I had never moved so fast, only to seem like it wasn’t fast enough. The dragon’s heart thundered in my ears. Pain echoed in his roar, and the clash of steel reached us before we made it to the clearing, leaping the downed trees he’d ripped out as he tumbled from the sky.
Ahead of me by two steps, Rogue unleashed a deadly volley of ice daggers. They sliced right through the opponents, and I continued on. There were easier ways to kill, but I wanted to get to the dragon before further harm had been done to him. My blade cleaved through necks and severed heads. I was already on to the next before the first body fell.
The dragon’s wing dragged the ground, the spear having torn the delicate membrane of the wing. He snapped and ripped one soldier in half with a chomp of his teeth and consumed the two past them with a flash of white-hot fire. Their screams rent the air and then faded as they tumbled, burnt and blackened to the ground.
When the dragon swung his head to face me, I raised my hands, sword angled down. In my grip it was still dangerous, but my posture was non-threatening.
“I’ve come to help you,” I told him. “You can kill me.” Or try anyway. “Or you can let me free you. There are more of them coming. They’ve gotten very skilled at killing your kind.”
The dragon glared, rage and pain radiated from him. The sound of running steps behind me had me twisting, and the head of the latest raider sailed from his shoulders as I stepped up to meet the assault. Rogue was soon at my side as we cut through the attackers.
When the last body dropped, I faced the dragon again. He’d been at our backs the whole time, and while he could have burned us, he hadn’t. He stared steadily, and I passed the blade to Rogue.
“I am going to remove the spear,” I informed him as I moved with purpose in his direction. “It won’t heal as it is, and you won’t be able to get off the ground.”
Dragons were formidable creatures, but they were more vulnerable on the ground. The beast’s pain beat at me. I could smell it in the air and feel it in the thunder of his pulse. When the dragon made no threatening move, I darted forward and gripped the spear. With a yank, it came free.
He roared, and my heart ached for him. I wanted to put a hand on him to help, but I had to move to avoid the snap of the damaged wing and the clack of his teeth coming together mere inches from my head.
Not a real attack. A warning.
“You’re going to want to keep him, aren’t you?” Rogue asked, his tone dry, and I shrugged.
In truth, I’d only wanted to help him. If he wanted to be a companion, I would not be opposed. “I think he likes me,” I said with a grin, and Rogue laughed.
“I like you, didn’t stop me from wanting to kill you.”
This was true.
“Then you and he should get along well.” I clapped Rogue on the shoulder. “Clean up the bodies, or leave them for him to eat?”
We eyed each other, then the dragon, who stared at us a moment. When he dipped his head to the bodies, I swore he smiled.
“Let him eat,” Rogue agreed with me, and we withdrew to give him space.
Fingers in my hair tugged me away from his throat, and I met Alfred’s dark gaze. Though his eyelids were half-lowered as though he was sleepy, I couldn’t look away from the dangerous intensity housed there. The feeling of battle still surged in my veins, and the pleasure at saving such a magnificent beast.
Maddox.
He’d saved Maddox.
He’d saved Rogue, too. That was different in some ways. He’d saved Rogue for himself as much as for Rogue. But Maddox? He’d fought to get to him. Fought to keep him alive. Seeing him in the sun was so different from seeing him in the prison. He’d been majestic and proud. My heart wrenched to see him so hurt.