Abandon Read online

  Rikard’s growl preceded a howl of triumph as his body arched beneath hers, carrying her into the air and holding her there as his balls discharged their cargo of scalding semen. Her flesh welcomed him and she laughed in triumph, exposing her fangs to the darkness as she took his release into her and revelled in it.

  His hands teased her body, kept the flames of sensation heating her blood as his erection came to life inside her once again.

  This time he was having none of it. He pushed her aside, took his own draconic form and drove into her from behind. The sensitive skin between her wings was vulnerable as he ran his tongue along her spine.

  George’s tail wrapped around his thigh and kept him close with alarming strength. Her climax was elusive, she was more aroused now than she had ever been but she couldn’t cum. It was only when she felt his body cover her completely, his hands holding her hips and his teeth finding her neck that she rocked and shook as the coil of tension released.

  Pleasure and pain combined, her body sang in triumph as it felt the chemical cocktail of his venom hit her bloodstream. This was how dragons mated. Lust, blood and sex; all in a chemical blend that was designed to get her pregnant.

  Too bad she was on magical contraceptives. They might just have to do this again.

  Chapter 3

  It was only when the dawn beat its way through the gaps in the blind that she stirred again. She twisted in the remnants of the sheets and grunted as her shoulder pulsed in complaint. It was time to go.

  Carefully, trying not to wake the sleeping beast beside her, she shifted toward the end of the bed. As soon as she swung her feet off a hand clamped around her wrist and pulled her back with a thud as she hit his chest.

  “Morning, Rikard. Well, it’s been fun, but I have to get going now.” It was a blatant lie, but she wasn’t going to let him just claim her and hide her away.

  “You are not going anywhere. Where did you come from? Who are your parents? Why aren’t you registered?” He rumbled his questions in her ear as his hand kept her firmly pressed against his morning erection.

  “Well, I will answer the ‘where did I come from,’ question. My mother didn’t want to be kept by a male and so arranged to run into one while in dragon form, and while she was in heat. Nature took its course a mile or two above the ground in Realm; she knocked him down and flew away.”

  “A year later, she laid an egg in the mortal world, and twenty years later, I hatched.” That was it. Well, there was a lot more to it.

  He didn’t speak again for several minutes. “You are an egg-hatch? I thought that those were only a legend.” His hands and his entire body were still. Playtime was over.

  “Apparently not. I know that it isn’t common for a flight mating to result in pregnancy, but it does if the dragon is willing to remain in larger form for the entire year. If she shifts at any time in that year before laying, the egg is lost to the magic of transformation.” Her mother had explained the facts of life to her very early in her life, while she was an egg actually.

  Well, she had been a fully-formed adult when she hatched, so it made a certain sense. Her twenty years in the egg had been spent listening to her mother teaching her. Spells, facts of life, facts of dragon life, and how to live amongst humans. When she emerged, she was fully formed and had all the knowledge that she had been taught in the shell.

  It had still taken years for her to move and speak like a real human, but her mother’s estate had given her plenty of room to grow. To master her forms and her magic. When she had gone to the county fair at the age of fifteen, she had met the other members of the club, and she had discovered friends.

  Hookey began the glamour that would conceal them for the next nineteen years on that very day. It let them all breathe a little easier and kept their parents calmer. The girls could now practice their magic without having someone seeking out their growing power.

  “Why did your mother hide your existence from your father?”

  “She never told me. I assumed that she just wanted to be a single parent.”

  “Where were you going when I grabbed you?”

  “I was heading home. It’s been fun, but I have places to be, spells to sell.” She shrugged and tried to be nonchalant. Her confinement in his arms made it difficult.

  “I don’t think so. Not until I make you mine. Including in the eyes of the council.” His mind made up, he let her go and rolled to his feet. In an instant he had retrieved something from under the bed, and a second later he had her ankle in his hand and was snapping a cuff around it. A delicate and deceptively sturdy chain was dangling from the cuff.

  “What the hell are you doing, Rikard?” She tugged at the cuff and swore softly.

  “I am not going to unshackle you until I have returned here with the council’s approval of our mating, and your official registration. Sometime before lunch.” He smirked at her and walked to the doors that opened onto his balcony. With a smouldering glance over his shoulder at her, he leapt off the balcony and transformed on his way down. A ferocious black dragon hovered with his eye looking in the window for a moment, and then he was off to his gateway to Realm. Off to speak to the Dragon Council.

  “Shit!” A few more futile tugs at the cuff and she gave up. “Right. Plan B.”

  A cursory look at her surroundings let her know that Rikard was a neat freak, last night to the exception, and he favoured oak for his dressers and wardrobes. She stepped off the bed and then noted that the chain led to a neat coil that would be enough length to let her in the en suite bathroom. She shrugged then used the facilities for her morning ablutions.

  On her way back to the bed she noted a pile of clothing. It was her skirt. Hope flared in her. She fumbled with the zippered pocket and was rewarded with her cell phone. Success!

  A blush formed as she prepared to make the call that would set their courtship in motion. She hit her speed dial and was nibbling at a lock of hair as the other phone rang.

  “Okay, Hex, how did you know?” George was genuinely curious as she held the cell phone to her ear and swung her free leg off the edge of the bed. Her mind was recalling the last meeting of the club, when Hex had offered her help when George needed it.

  “I saw it. I didn’t know exactly when, but I did see you in trouble.” Silence fell. “What do you need?”

  “I need you to get me the heck out of here.”

  “Can’t you fly out?”

  “I can’t transform with this stupid shackle on my leg. He chained me to the bed, Hex!” Now that the shock was over, she was furious.

  “He chained you?”

  “Yep. There is just enough play to let me get to the bathroom and back, but my clothes are nowhere to be found. I need help here.”

  “Where is he right now?”

  “He flew off at dawn, about five minutes after he locked me in place. He said he would be back for lunch.”

  “Is there a large mirror nearby?”

  “Oh, Of course! Why didn’t I think of that? Yeah, there is one right across from the bed.”

  “Touch it and hold on until I come through, Okay?”

  “You bet, I’m on it now.” She reached out to flatten her palm against the cool slick surface of the mirror.

  Seconds later it began to ripple and shimmer. A hand appeared in the silver pool, then a foot, then seconds later Hex stepped through. Shimmering with energy, she looked ready for battle. She stopped short and took in the scene, fighting a laugh. “Wow, looks like you had a lot of fun last night.”

  * * * *

  She surveyed the room. Sconces were askew on the walls, pillows had been disemboweled and the sheets were escaping the confines of the bed. The ambiance of the room was also heavily colored by the scent of sex that hung in the air.

  Perched on the edge of the bed was her friend, Graylin Treel. Known to the half-blood club as George, was splendidly nude. Black waves of hair partially concealed the love bites and bruises that decorated her golden skin. Her black eyes were ti
red but shining.

  “Yeah, it was tons of fun. I just want this damn shackle off so that I can get the hell out of here and contemplate trying it again.” Her left leg lifted slightly and waved in the air to cause a gentle jingling noise.

  “Uh, why did he shackle you?” Hex knelt down and began to chant in a low tone. Energy built up and surrounded the cuff.

  “Something about making sure that I was here when he got back.” George watched carefully and sighed.

  * * * *

  No matter how closely she watched, she would never be able to pull off the spell with as much dexterity as Hex. It did seem a shame that with all of that talent, she would never be acknowledged as one of the greatest powers of the modern age unless she joined the aegis of the high council.

  With a shimmering pop, the cuff released.

  “C’mon. I think I hear something.” Hex looked uneasy as she began to feel the presence of power approaching rapidly.

  “Me too. Let’s go.” She jumped off the bed and stood next to the mirror.

  Hex raised her palm to the mirror and began to chant softly once again. The mirror turned into a pool of silver and she reached out to grab George’s hand as she began to enter the pool.

  “Shit, let’s go!” She shoved Hex into the mirror as Rikard came into the bedroom at a full run.

  His roar of rage followed the women through the mirror as they tumbled out the other side. Hex waved her hand frantically at the frame in her living room and it became a mirror once again.

  “That was too close.” Hex slumped onto her couch and flipped an afghan at her.

  Blushing slightly, she tucked the blanket around her naked form and scooted onto the other end of the couch.

  “I am so sorry. I never meant for you to get involved.”

  “Was that Rikard?”

  “Yep.”

  “As in, dragon council Rikard?”

  “Yep.”

  “As in, not going to stop until he finds you now that he knows you exist, Rikard?” Hex had her eyes closed, her head leaning back onto the couch.

  “Yep.”

  “As in, able to call upon the entire high council for a tracking spell to pinpoint your location at anytime, Rikard?”

  “Yep.”

  “Well, you sure can pick ’em.” She sat up and eyed her friend. “How long do you think it will take for him to find you?”

  “I think I have about a week. After that I am going to have to be ready to move very fast, very suddenly.” She sighed.

  “Why him?” She sounded curious.

  “I needed a dragon, right?” George waited for her nod. “So I did my research. Who was the best looking, who was not my father--that was a big one--and who had the best ratings in bed.”

  “Whoa, how did you find that last one out?”

  “I polled his ex-lovers. He likes it a little rough, very fast, and very often.” She blushed. “So do I.”

  “So, it was good then?”

  “It was fantastic. I left as many marks on him as he did on me. We started in the main hall and worked our way to the bedroom.” A dreamy smile crept across her face and her eyes fluttered shut at the remembrances.

  “How long did you say it was going to take him to find you?” Hex’s eyes grew distant.

  “At least a week, why?” George sat up and began to look worried.

  “There is a dragon coming in for a landing in my backyard as we speak. That’s why.” Hex got up and walked to the patio door. She breathed a sigh of relief. The silvery green dragon was extremely familiar.

  “It’s your mom.” Hex flipped the lock, swinging the door open in welcome. A minute later George’s naked mother was walking quickly across the grass and into the house.

  “Excuse me for a moment. I’ll be right back with some clothing.” Hex shot up the stairs as quickly as she could. The look in Arabel’s eyes was pure murder.

  “Graylin Treel. What the hell do you think you are doing?”

  “Whatever do you mean, Mom?”

  “The entire dragon clan has been alerted to your presence. Rikard himself just sent out an alert to locate you.”

  “Wow, that was fast. How did he know who I was? I didn’t give him my real name.”

  “He talked to the council at dawn this morning. He wanted to know who could possibly have had an unrecorded female birth in the last one hundred years.”

  “So, no one knows about me. Do they?”

  “Apparently Mathias had some idea. He immediately mentioned me, had me summoned to the council chambers and they Questioned me.”

  “Ouch. Are you alright?” Questioning hurt. It forced all information that was requested to be revealed. There was no way to couch an answer when you were put to the Question.

  “I am fine. The result of your little interlude however, is not.” Arabel sighed and sat on the couch next to her daughter. They really did look more like sisters than was proper.

  “Arabel,” Hex was returning, “When do you think the council will find her?”

  “In the next twenty four hours.” Arabel took the pullover dress that was handed to her. “You are not safe either, Izzy. You came up in Questioning.”

  Isobel almost fainted. “How?”

  “I was still under the Question when Rikard felt Graylin call you. He asked me if I knew anyone who could retrieve her from his house. Your name came up. I think that they alerted the Warlock council. They may come for you at any time.”

  “Well then, you had best take your daughter and get the hell out of here. Go. Both of you, out!” Hex shooed them out of her house and into her back yard. She stood quietly as they removed the borrowed clothes and transformed into great flying beasts.

  Chapter 4

  Across the psychic plane Graylin was being chewed out by her mother.

  “What did you think you were doing?” She snorted, fire shot out nearly singeing a nearby tree. “I mean, aside from screwing your brains out.”

  “The glamour was coming down, Mom. As of yesterday afternoon I was lit up on the mortal plane like a Christmas tree.”

  “Oh, honey. I am sorry. I didn’t know.” Arabel had always been careful to shield her daughter. It had been a habit that she had been glad to break when the glamour came into effect.

  “It’s alright, Mom. We all have to make our way in the world, right?” She banked left, enjoying the wind around her wings. It felt so good to fly through the mortal skies. She had never yet been to Realm, it had always been too dangerous with her status as an unregistered full-blood female. Some male would have claimed her and that would have been that. No other male would have come near her and she would have been stuck with the guy who got their first.

  “I got to choose him and I don’t regret it. At least it gave me some control over my future.” Her wings propelled her higher and higher and as she levelled out, she noticed what appeared to be a fighter plane in the distance.

  Her flight was lazy, the joy she felt in the sky unmatched in any part of her life. Well, last night had come pretty close.

  “Uh, honey?”

  “Yeah, Mom?”

  “Run.”

  That was no fighter jet, it was Rikard, and he was bearing on her with arrow-like intensity. “Hells.”

  She turned tail and ran, well, flew. She only had about a kilometre between herself and Rikard when she was given a reprieve. Arabel had come up behind him and landed on his back. She bore him to the ground with astonishing suddenness as her daughter headed for the mountain range.

  This was her one chance to make a break for it. So she did. Zeroing in on a lake in a valley between the rocks ahead of her she folded her wings, transformed into her half human form and dove into the water.

  A hastily muttered water breathing spell kept her from having to surface and she swam more deeply into the water, rolling periodically to check for her pursuer. Underwater was a whole new ‘sky’ to fly in.

  A dark shadow cruised low over the surface of the lake, then circled. K
eeping still she tried to think like a fish. She let the currents move her and when she felt them moving her to the surface, she turned and swam for the depths of the lake with all of her strength.

  A maelstrom formed around her and she knew then that he was indeed one of the Northern Ocean dragons. They had a talent for water, and whirlpools were their specialty.

  The flickering thought of ‘this sucks’ went through her head just as she managed to reach a rocky outcropping to dig her talons into. She hung on for dear life as he aimed the vortex at her. Her wings fluttered in the violence of the water and her fingers began to slip.

  There was no way out except one. She let go, and as she rocketed to the surface in the grip of the swirling cone, she transformed into her dragon form the instant that she broke the surface.

  With all of the momentum of the vortex behind her, she bowled him backward with a head butt that sent him flipping into the lake as she once again took to the skies.

  With all the speed that she prided herself for, George found that she could outrun him. If she kept her mind on the flying and on her destination.

  He pursued her for hours. With a sense of triumph she felt her goal in the distance. Home. A dead zone. He would not be able to follow her, nor would she be able to change forms once she arrived there. All the magic in the area had been eradicated, so that was the ideal place for a dragon who was hiding herself, to buy a house.

  As they approached the border, she dropped low, skimming the surface of a field with her talons, then moved into her warrior form, the smaller wings giving her more control. When she felt the effect of the barrier, she flared her wings in a sudden stop and dropped to the ground to continue naked and on foot.

  She was now on her own property. In fact, she had purchased the entire dead zone simply to keep local humans from being distressed by her tendency to forget clothing.

  She didn’t look back to see if he had followed her example, but if he hadn’t the zone would spit him out the other side as if he had never passed.