Breath of Fire (10 page)

“What do you want from me?” I asked.

Our food was delivered quickly and quietly, and our server scurried away. She’d have to be an idiot not to feel the undercurrents of violence at our table. My food sat in front of me, but I’d found I’d lost my appetite.

He gave me a look of what could almost be pity. “Believe it or not, Rena, I’m not here to hurt you. I’d like to help you. And I think you might be able to help me. Though we’re approaching this from two different sides, we ultimately have the same goal.”

“I don’t like working with anyone. Just ask my assistant.”

“You might not have a choice this once. There’s always someone higher up on the food chain we have to answer to. I know that just as well as you do. If not better.”

Boy, wasn’t that the truth. I thought of Alasdair and of what my future held for me. My prospects were pretty bleak. And where did Noah fit in?

“Let’s assume I could use your help,” I said. “What are you going to contribute?”

“Two hunters are always better than one. And I’m a good hunter.” He lowered his shields enough for me to see exactly what he wanted me to see. Violence lurked beneath his handsome exterior, and the thrill of the hunt and the pleasure it brought him rode on the crashing waves of death.

He rebuilt his shields quickly, and I hunched over the table, gasping for air. The need for flesh and blood was strong, and I had to close my eyes and focus with every power I had to keep the rush of fluttering heartbeats from the innocents around us from overpowering me.

Noah gave me a knowing look, and I realized he had hold of my hand once again, rubbing erotic circles over my tender flesh. My loins throbbed in time with each touch, and I hated myself for wanting a man who seemed to know my secrets while I still knew nothing about him. Dragon lust was a powerful emotion. Almost as strong as the power of flesh and blood.

“I can also keep the FBI off our trails until these bastards are caught,” he said as an afterthought.

“I don’t even know what you really are. Why should I trust you enough to let you help me?” If he noticed that I’d said he’d be helping me instead of the other way around, he chose not to mention it.

“You’ve got good instincts. What does your gut tell you?”

I took a moment to look at him. Really look at him. Yes, he was handsome. As handsome as any man I’d ever seen, and in our race there wasn’t a shortage of handsome men to choose from. Noah gave off pheromones that every woman in the near vicinity could pick up on. It didn’t matter what age they were. They all watched him with hunger in their eyes.

He moved with a gracefulness that belied his size. Most large men didn’t move like big dangerous cats. He was a predator, but there was something about him that was genuine. He obviously believed in justice, whether it came by human laws or his own sense of right and wrong, I didn’t know. But I knew that like always recognized like, and I got the sense that Noah and I were very much alike in the ways that counted. This was more comforting to me than any of his other qualities.

“I need time to think about this,” I finally said. “I’m leaving tomorrow to get some answers. I’ll contact you if I need help.”

“Oh, you’ll need help all right. I’m sure of it. Even you think you’re going there to die.”

“Stay out of my brother’s head. Our lives are personal, and if I for one second believe you’re a threat to my family, I’ll kill you, no matter how much you intrigue me.”

“You can certainly try.” He got out his wallet and laid a bunch of bills on the table.

The tension between us was thick, and I was in tune to his every movement, just as I knew he was in tune with mine. My senses slowed and sharpened. The colors were brighter. The smell of danger, and to a lesser extent, want, was more potent. There had always been a fine line for me between danger and lust, and the dragon in me wanted so badly to conquer the male that dared to challenge me. But my damned human blood kept things more rational.

I felt my magic rise along my skin, tingling along my scalp and down my arms. I closed my eyes and called the power that brought my visions, searching for something that could give me hope for my future. A glimpse of what might become of me with the threat of the Destroyer hanging over my head. But for the first time in five hundred years, there was absolutely nothing to see. Just blackness. All of a sudden, it was just too much. Everything was too much.

I pushed back from the table and didn’t care that I tipped the chair over, or that others were staring. I just had to get out. To breathe. I grabbed my coat from the rack but didn’t put it on as I slammed out into the cold. It had started to sleet, and the white flecks of ice were bright against the blackness of the night. I ignored the icy wetness that pricked at my cheeks and trudged toward the car.

I heard Noah just behind me, but I didn’t turn around to face him. Instead, I flicked my shoes off and threw my coat onto the hood of his Jeep. And then I ran. I ran fast and hard, the trees whipping by in a blur of speed, not caring as thin branches whipped at my body. The pain was welcome.

My feet barely touched the ground. I was faster than any human could ever hope to be, and for that moment I was free. Free from my family and my responsibilities to my people. I was free from the weight that Calista had placed on my shoulders. And I was free from the Destroyer and whatever the hell Noah Ford was.

I stopped when I reached the lake. My breathing wasn’t labored, but my hands shook. I knew it was from fear. Not fear of Noah, though there was a part of me that respected the danger he could bring me. But it was fear of the unknown. I knew what it meant that I couldn’t see myself in my visions. I was going to die, and no one was going to be able to stop it. Even worse, no one would care.

The Jeep crept to a stop behind me, and the door opened. I kept my back turned, but I could feel Noah approaching from behind. He placed his hand on my shoulder, and I let out the breath I’d been holding. And when he wrapped his arms around me I knew I had nothing to lose and everything to gain. There was tonight, and tomorrow would come whether I wanted it to or not.

I turned in his arms and sought out his mouth, avoiding his gaze at all cost. I didn’t want to think. Only to feel. Liquid fire rolled in my belly as our mouths touched, and all I could think was that I may have underestimated Noah Ford. His desire matched mine. He became the aggressor, sucking at my tongue and biting at my bottom lip until the coppery taste of blood filled my mouth. My temperature spiked, and it wasn’t until then I realized Noah couldn’t possibly be human, or the heat from my flesh would have burned him.

I broke free to question him again about what he was, but he didn’t give me the chance. He picked me up, and I wrapped my legs around his waist, moaning at the hardness I felt rubbing against the sensitive flesh between my thighs. My skirt rose up to my waist, and he grabbed my ass with both hands, grinding me against him until the friction of the fabric from his slacks and the teeth of his zipper became a kind of pain. He kissed me again, our tongues thrusting in imitation of what was sure to come, and he leaned me against the hood of his Jeep.

I couldn’t control the intensity of my inner dragon fire. It had never blazed so hot, and I thought I would die from the pressure of it building inside of me. I’d never felt this way with another man.

Noah either hadn’t noticed the heat of my flesh or he just didn’t care. I didn’t know what to do, or how to make the fire stop, but the all-consuming pleasure was quickly turning into pain. Liquid fire burned down the right side of my body and I screamed.

“What’s wrong?” Noah asked.

“God, it’s like someone’s taking a hot iron to my body.” I writhed against the hood of the Jeep, and rolled over into the fetal position, keeping my eyes closed against the torture. I pushed Noah further away from me, but he made a sound as soon as our bodies separated that made me open my eyes. His face was pinched in a grimace, and his eyes were clouded with pain. “You feel it too?”

He nodded and tried to get control of his breathing.

“What’s happening to us?” I asked.

The naked surprise on his face was like a bucket of cold water over my head, and my curiosity intensified as he quickly blanked his expression. His voice was strangled with effort when he answered me. “Are you telling me you don’t know?”

“Know what?” I looked frantically down my right side, positive I’d see burns along my skin, but there was nothing. Just naked flesh that was quickly turning cold with goose bumps. “What aren’t you telling me?”

He helped me off the hood and straightened my clothes like nothing more than something platonic had just happened between us. “I’m sorry, but I need to take you home,” he said softly.

I’d run the gamut of emotions for the night, and despite everything that had happened since I’d met Noah, my prevailing thought was one of disappointment. And shame. I was still woman enough to feel the sting of rejection.

It was followed closely by anger. The severity of my rage took me by surprise. My throat vibrated, and a roar erupted that I had no intention of stifling. I charged Noah with all the strength and speed I possessed.

He grunted as I tackled him to the ground, but he didn’t cry out. The feel of flesh pounding flesh was fulfilling, and my body needed to be sated. If not by sex, then by violence.

“Dammit, Rena. I promise I’ll tell you everything I can once I find out what the hell is going on. You have every right to be upset, but you have to trust me.”

He captured my arms in an ironclad grasp, so I butted him in the chin with my head and felt satisfaction at the crunch. He didn’t retaliate against me. He only held me closer. In the back of my mind I knew he had every opportunity to fight back, and he was strong enough to injure me. But he didn’t.

“Trust you?” I yelled. “You’ve done nothing but play with my emotions and evade my questions since I met you.” We were tangled in a heap on the ground, arms and legs entwined. All my speed and strength was useless against him.
Definitely not human.
I kicked at the back of his leg, and he rolled with me until I was underneath him.

“Stop it, Rena. I’m sorry, okay? I’m sorry. Please listen to me.”

I stopped struggling, not because I wanted to, but because we were at an impasse. We were evenly matched. Our faces were within inches of each other, and our breaths mingled as we gasped for air.

“Will you listen?” Noah whispered.

I nodded yes, but broke eye contact. I stared at his mouth instead.

“There are things you don’t know that you should have been told before we moved to the physical part of our relationship. Things that will affect your future. And mine. When I sought you out this morning, I fully expected for us to meet each other on a level playing field, but we can’t when there’s so much you don’t know. It’s not fair to you.”

“What don’t I know? Tell me.”

There was regret in his eyes, and I knew it was hopeless for me to ask. He lowered his forehead to mine, and my breath caught in my chest at the sweetness of the gesture.

“I give you an oath on my life that I will tell you everything, but I must find out all I can first. I’ll be betraying my people if I tell you this information, and I need to get permission. I need to find out why it was kept from you, and what will happen once you do know. There are those I can ask these questions and get the answers. And then I will come for you, Rena. There’s nothing that could keep me away now that I’ve tasted you.”

I didn’t acknowledge his explanation one way or another. “Just take me home,” I said.

He nodded and let me up. I got in the car with what was left of my dignity, and stared out the window the entire way, not bothering to reply to Noah’s attempts at conversation.

It was late when we finally turned into the long drive that would bring me home. Noah slowed the Jeep before we got to the front of the house.

“Rena, look at me.”

My pride wouldn’t let me do anything but meet him eye to eye.

“No matter what you’re feeling right now or what happens in the future I want you to know how much I want you. I’ve dreamed of you,” he said, running his finger down the slope of my cheek. “And from now on you’re mine.”

“Excuse me?” I said, ire raised at his presumptuousness. “I don’t belong to anyone but myself.”

“Not anymore. And just as you belong to me, I belong to you as well. Your body burns for me just as mine burns for you. I know it goes against every part of your nature, but I want nothing more than to protect you. And to love you.”

A fierce yearning rushed through my body at the mention of love, but I tamped it down. It was a human emotion, and I couldn’t afford to let my humanness get in the way. “Why?” I asked.

“Because you need to be loved.”

I leaned forward until the gearshift pressed against my hip bone and pulled at his jacket until his face was close to mine. I nipped at his lips and kissed my way down his neck until I could draw in the scent of him. He smelled of rain and wildness.

“You need to tell me what’s going on here, Noah,” I whispered in his ear. “You seem to know all the right buttons to push. The wants and needs I’ve kept hidden my entire life are like an open book for you. If you want those things from me, you’re going to have to give me something in return.”

He pulled back, and a glimmer of humor shone in his eyes. I narrowed my own in return. Dragons were good at manipulation. We were hard to resist when we asked for something. It was a trait built in to assure the growth of our hoards. Most of the time we never had to steal. Items were just given to us willingly.