Dragon Heat (19 page)

his quarters, she was still unconscious but breathing steadily so he

assumed she was going to be all right. But too long had passed, and

Tardieh was starting to get really worried. He had been doing that a lot

lately, he realized. Worrying, getting anxious, going out of his mind,

losing his grip on sanity. He had a faint idea the reason for all that was

lying on his bed at that precise moment.

Sitting up straight on his chaise, he lifted his arms and stretched his

tight muscles. By Apa Dobrý, he was stiff. He hadn’t had a sound day’s

sleep ever since Hikuro and the others arrived at his castle with that note

from Zoricah. Damned female. Why did she have to be so stubborn, so

independent, so freaking irresistible? He wasn’t used to females like her.

He was used to people—nations!—doing what he commanded.
Damned

female!

With a sigh, he turned his head toward the bed to check on Zoricah

for the fifty-seventh time. His heart stopped. Her eyes were open. She had

been watching him quietly.

‚What’s wrong?‛ she asked weakly.

Standing up softly, he went to sit on the bed by her side. ‚Hey, how

are you feeling?‛

‚Like a train wreck,‛ she said with a tired smile. ‚What’s wrong?‛

‚Nothing, nothing’s wrong.‛

‚You were frowning,‛ she added, closing her eyes again.

Tardieh waited silently for her to fully wake up. After a few

moments, she opened her eyes again and took a deep breath.

‚I think I need a shower.‛ Her voice was still weak but seemed to

have recovered some of its beautiful low timbre.

Tardieh stopped ogling, went to his walk-in wardrobe, and picked

up one of his silk robes. It wasn’t a beautiful kimono like the one he had

chosen for her previously, but it was very comfortable and more practical.

Then he went back to the side of the bed and raised the robe up. She took

the hint and pulled the covers off to get out of bed but stopped midway.

‚Oh, I’m naked!‛ she exclaimed in true astonishment.

Tardieh felt himself blush. Why was he blushing? He had seen her

naked before, and stripping her had been the most rational thing to do.

She was unconscious, and the robe she was wearing was full of blood, so

he took it off and cleaned her up. No big deal. So why was he freaking

blushing like a seventeen-year-old school boy?

‚It was the most rational thing to do,‛ he voiced his thoughts out,

then realized it didn’t really explain anything, but decided to let it go.

Looking a bit confused, Zoricah got out of bed and took what he

offered.

‚The bathroom is on the left,‛ Tardieh said, helping her into the

robe. Her delicious blue mist scent invaded his nostrils once more. It had

gotten stronger, he realized. Or was he just starting to notice every single

detail about her? His cock hardened in reply to his rhetorical question.

No, he chided. He was going to get a few answers before giving in to her

charms again.

Tardieh heard the bathroom door close with a soft
thud
. While she

was taking a bath, Tardieh focused on getting her something to eat. He

had sent his butler, Arthur, to the shops. He had no idea what Zoricah ate,

so Tardieh told him to err on the side of caution and get everything he

thought dragons ate, which was quite a wide range of options.

Tardieh speed-dialed Arthur and told him to bring the food down

to his chambers. By the time Zoricah finished her bath, Tardieh had a table

full of food and freshly cleaned clothes ready for her.

The bathroom door clicked open, and she stepped out. It was the

most beautiful sight he had ever witnessed. His three-sizes-too-big robe

had fit her even more perfectly than the kimono. Its dark green color

complimented her eyes, which had become even more golden than before.

Her exotic features looked rejuvenated, glowing with pure energy. Her

long black hair was still wet and dripping slightly, making the silk robe

cling to her delicious breasts.

You need answers. Get those answers first!
Tardieh reminded his cock

which was throbbing with anticipation. He finally found his voice and

asked hoarsely, ‚Feeling better?‛

‚Much, thank you,‛ she said softly, coming into the room.

She spotted the large round table in the middle of the chamber. Her

eyes went wide, and her mouth dropped open. ‚By Apa Dobrý, how

many people will dine with us?‛ she asked, smiling in surprise.

Tardieh looked at the table, too. It had four different kinds of meat,

bread, rice, vegetables, a light chicken soup—just in case she still felt too

weak to eat—fruits, three types of juice, coffee, milk, cheeses, and bread.

‚Please don’t tell me you are a cereal kinda girl,‛ he said, turning

back to face her.

She chuckled at his remark and gave him the most beautiful smile

on Terhem Viahta
.
Man, he had it bad for that draconian.

‚No, I am not, but I am not an army either.‛

Tardieh pulled a chair for her, which she took graciously, and sat

on the one beside her.

They dined in silence. She took a few pieces of lamb, potatoes,

green veggies, and a little bit of juice. He contented himself with a glass of

blood mixed with tomato juice and vodka.

After a while, she put her cutlery down, wiped her mouth with the

linen napkin and said, ‚Okay, I’m nicely fed. You can ask your questions

now.‛

Tardieh raised his eyebrows in surprise.

She gave him a small smile. ‚I’m not psychic. It’s just that I would

have wanted a few answers myself if I were in your shoes.‛

Tardieh nodded in agreement. He took another sip and put his

drink down on the table. She waited silently.

‚You go back to Apa Sâmbetei and interview the dead,‛ Tardieh

finally said. It wasn’t a question, but Zoricah nodded in response.

Tardieh

continued,

‚That’s

how

you

get

your

information—contacting inimăs of people who had been where you need

to be or had experienced what you need to know.‛

Another short nod.

Suddenly curiosity took over, and he asked, ‚Who did you contact

to find out where I was being kept back in the war?‛

‚A razbian maid. She had suffered greatly by Vrajitor’s hand. He

often used her to test his torture inventions on. She shared a cell with you

when you were first taken to that place in the mountains,‛ she answered,

then added thoughtfully, ‚But thankfully she died soon after.‛

Tardieh looked at Zoricah’s golden eyes and asked softly. ‚Why

didn’t you tell me?‛

She just stared back at him, lost for words. Finally, she said weakly,

‚I couldn’t.‛

So he pressed on. ‚Why? Why couldn’t you tell me you are a

calathor?‛ If she had, maybe he would have understood where she was

coming from and maybe he would not have misjudged her actions. Of

course that the fact that she was a calathor didn’t annul the possibility of

her being the mastermind behind his father’s assassination. Deep inside

he didn’t really think she had orchestrated that gruesome massacre at the

castle, but he was not one to only follow his gut feeling. If he were, he

would have been dead long ago.

Zoricah opened her mouth to answer his question, then decided

against it and closed it back again. Tardieh gave her an irritated look and

stood up, frustrated. There she was with her damned secrets. Couldn’t she

realize that was ruining everything?

‚I didn’t know I could trust you,‛ she blurted out from behind him.

‚What about now? Do you still have doubts you can?‛ he asked,

turning to face her once more.

‚No. I don’t have doubts anymore,‛ she answered serenely. Then

she took a deep breath, straightened on the chair, and continued, ‚I am

the daughter of Ucidhere, god of death, lord of Apa Sâmbetei.‛

It was Tardieh’s turn to drop his mouth open. Holy Apa Dobrý! He

knew she was a demigoddess, but because no one had ever raised temples

in her honor or venerated her, not in a spiritual way. He thought she was

the daughter of a minor god, not one of the five gods who'd created their

world, not one of the five gods in the Holy Apa Dobrý quintet!

‚Tardieh, sit down again, please.‛

Still flabbergasted, he granted her wish and sat down on the table

beside her.

Zoricah picked her fork up and started playing with the leftover

food on her plate. ‚I didn’t tell you before because

really have a good reason to trust you.‛ She raised a hand when he

opened his mouth in protest. ‚You are the king of the archenemies of my

people! How many times have dragons been betrayed by your race?‛

Tardieh tried to retort, but she stopped him once again. ‚And you

were
very suspicious of me, so it is only natural I would raise my defenses,

too.‛

He closed his mouth shut. She had a point.

‚And I don’t go off telling everyone Ucidhere is my father either,‛

she continued. ‚This is one of my only weapons against my enemies. If

word got out that I am a calathor, that I can travel to spiritual realms, my

enemies—and my allies, I'm sure—would try and use me for their own

personal benefit. I would have become a puppet in their hands in no time.

Do you remember what happened to the last calathor?‛

Tardieh remembered him well. Having received his tutoring

straight from Socrates and Plato, who were also fae mages in Ancient

Greece, Epimetheus had been a very wise man. Tardieh’s father had

convinced him to become a councilor in the Interracial Court Committee.

When the war broke out between dragons and vampires in the last decade

of the eighteenth century, Epimetheus tried to mediate a peace agreement

before the bloodshed blew out of proportions but got caught in the dirty

politics. Desperate and frustrated, Epimetheus openly recounted to the

committee the testimonies of the deceased victims of war, denouncing the

atrocities both sovereigns had committed. Tardieh’s father and the

draconian lord accused him of manipulating the dead to his advantage.

Alone and without protection, he was assassinated soon after.

‚Look, Tardieh, I know I have trust issues, and I need to work on

that, but how can you blame me?‛ Zoricah asked sincerely.

‚I don’t, well, not anymore.‛ It would have been nice to have had

this conversation when they'd first met, but he understood her

reservations. He hadn’t been completely open and honest with her, either.

If he were honest with himself, he would admit that he would have been

less hard on her had she been fae or human not dragon.

Tardieh leaned forward and took her hands on his. ‚But if we are

going to find and destroy whoever is behind these abductions, we need to

work together.‛

‚Yes, I agree.‛

‚And that means you need to trust me.‛

Zoricah didn’t reply; she just raised an eyebrow at him.

‚Okay, okay, I need to work on my trust issues, too, I admit it,‛

Tardieh said with a crooked smile. Then he grabbed the base of her chair

and dragged it toward him. Leaning forward, he said. ‚Can I kiss you

now?‛

She gave him an impish grin, then whispered against his mouth, ‚I

thought you’d never ask.‛

Her lips touched his lightly, but he felt her warmth all the way to

his bones. He parted her lips with his own, and their tongues met in a

delicious waltz.
Yes
, he thought to himself. She had found the scentless

almond oil he had surreptitiously left in the bath cabinet earlier.

She put her arms around his neck while he lifted her up and

brought her onto his lap, straddling his hips. His cock jumped in delight

as her flesh rubbed him on the right places. She wasn’t wearing any

underwear.

Tardieh needed to feel more of her delicious heat. He undid her

belt and let the robe fall loosely on the floor. She was magnificent. Fair

skin contrasted with dark midnight hair cascading down slender

shoulders and added to exotic almond eyes the color of honey—it was the

most seductive combination he’d ever encountered. Tardieh slowly stroke

her cheeks, then her shoulders, descended through her breasts, her flat

muscular belly, and finally her cunt. Zoricah gloriously arched her back in

response. Ignoring his aching shaft, he took his time, not wanting to rush

things over or miss a detail. He brought his lips down and sucked her

right nipple while fondling the left. Her hard tip felt perfect in his mouth.

He sucked, teased, nibbled it, then started all over again. As a reward, he

heard her moan his name.