Firestorm Forever: A Dragonfire Novel (3 page)

She should invite him in for dinner.

Yes. She should.

Ronnie took a deep breath and strode toward Drake with purpose. “Look, you never let me really thank you for what you did…”

He raised his fingertips to touch his cheek, and Ronnie could have sworn that was the exact place she’d kissed him. “Your expression of gratitude was more than sufficient.” He swallowed and his voice dropped low. “Indeed, I owe you my thanks.”

“Really?”

“You gave me new purpose, Veronica,” he said solemnly, his gaze clinging to hers with such intensity that she couldn’t look away. “That has no price and leaves me forever in your debt.”

It was impossible to believe that she had given this man any more resolve than he already possessed, but Ronnie wanted to believe it was true. “How can that be? What do you mean?”

“I had lost faith in the battle,” Drake confessed quietly. “I was no longer certain that there was a reason to fight.”

Ronnie had a lump in her throat. “Finding Mark can’t have helped with that.”

“Giving you the answer you needed did help.” His eyes glittered. “I understood then that the battle was about the people who don’t fight, about defending them, that you, and others like you, were the reason to fight for good.”

His focus upon her made Ronnie shiver. It was remarkably warm for this time in the early evening, and there seemed to be a golden radiance in the parking lot, one that hovered between her and Drake. She hugged her groceries, forgetting the carton of eggs. “But you’re here. After all this time. Why?”

“To give you a choice,” Drake said with soft heat. “I can stay or I can leave.”

She knew exactly what he meant, and the prospect made her mouth go dry. “But…”

Drake lifted a hand either to silence her or reach for her. Ronnie wasn’t sure which because a brilliant orange spark leapt from his fingertip. She stared at it, not believing her eyes, but the spark flew directly toward her. She flinched when it exploded against her shoulder and gasped at the wave of heat that rolled through her body from that point. She rubbed her shoulder reflexively but there wasn’t a burn mark on the fabric.

Just a simmering heat beneath her skin.

No, the heat was simmering lower than that, making Ronnie keenly aware of how long she’d been alone.

And wanting to do something about it.

Had she imagined the spark? There was no question that she felt she’d been touched by fire. She was hot, and she was shivery.

She was also more aroused than she’d been in years.

She stared at Drake, recalling all those fantasies and adding another few. She caught her breath and took a step closer, knowing with complete clarity what she wanted from him. His gaze sharpened and it seemed that there was a halo of flame around his body. She reached for him and he caught her hand in his, his touch sending a jolt of heat surging through her veins. There was brilliant orange light around their joined hands, so bright that she couldn’t see their fingers but she could feel the strength of his hand holding hers.

Ronnie sensed that Drake was tempering his strength, that he was being gentle with her by choice.

She looked up at him, mystified by the light, and was awed to see him smile again.

“You decide,” he whispered, and she heard the tremor in his voice.

He wanted her.

He’d returned to her.

Which meant there was no choice to be made. Ronnie didn’t understand the sparks and she didn’t care. The man she’d been waiting for, the man she’d been dreaming about, the man she’d yearned to see again was standing right in front of her.

Ronnie had learned that you could never count on having a second chance.

“Come and have dinner with me,” she invited, feeling both bold and shy. “I’d like to cook for you.”

“Are you sure?”

She stretched up to kiss Drake for the second time in her life, but this time, Ronnie touched her lips to his, answering him with her touch. His arm locked around her immediately, lifting her to her toes and drawing her against his chest, surrounding them both in a blaze of brilliant yellow light. Ronnie opened her mouth to his kiss, hungry for all he had to give, letting him taste her deeply.

He felt so good.

Her bag of groceries was crushed between them, but Ronnie wasn’t worried about the eggs any more.

In fact, this hunger would only be satisfied by Drake’s touch.

* * *

Seattle

Jacelyn settled deeper into the couch to watch the video for the millionth time. Her throat was tight with unshed tears, but she’d cried enough. This time, she watched the video with a hardened heart, greedy for details about those bastard dragons called the
Pyr
.

It was their fault that she’d been cheated.

Now Jac was going to make them pay.

The video showed a golden dragon suddenly appearing in the middle of a throng of people in downtown Seattle. There was blood on the dragon’s scales and a severed human arm in its mouth. People screamed and started to run, but not fast enough. The dragon shook the arm and blood flew through the air.

The virus was transmitted by the exchange of body fluids. Sam had told her that.

The person whose arm was in the dragon’s mouth clearly had been infected.

The dragon gnawed on the arm with savage glee, making it bleed more profusely. Then he took flight, dripping the infected blood over as many people as possible. There was a lot of screaming and panic in the streets, and even though it was just a video, when the golden dragon turned his glare upon the camera, Jac shivered to the bottom of her feet.

She’d better get used to that look, if she was going to hunt these vermin.

Jac stopped the video before the worst part. She played the beginning again, fighting her instinctive response. She had to learn about her opponent. This
Pyr
was huge, easily twice the height of every person in his vicinity. He was all muscled power, raw strength and agility. He was a fighting machine, or a weapon of war in his own right. He breathed fire and slashed at people with his powerful tail, snatched and tore with his claws. He looked invincible but that couldn’t be the case.

Every
creature had a weakness. Clearly, these dragons weren’t susceptible to this disease, because the gold dragon had the infectious blood all over it. But they had to have another vulnerability.

Even it this dragon looked as if he were armored in gold.

He had to sleep sometime.

Didn’t he?

There were more of them. Maybe there was one he cared about. Maybe he had an emotional vulnerability.

Although he didn’t look like he cared about much other than slaughtering humans. He shimmered blue and disappeared in the blink of an eye at the end of the video, which made Jac play it again. What exactly were his powers? How could he appear and disappear so quickly?

Or had he shifted shape, becoming human, then blended into the crowd, like the other one had done? Jac navigated to Maeve O’Neill’s website, the one called
Dragons Bite
, and went through the list of other amateur videos. Maeve’s broadcasts, calling for people to exterminate the
Pyr
, were all there, too. Jac chose the older video that showed a big blond guy changing into a moonstone and silver dragon in Washington. He’d changed into a human, proof of his shifter nature. The other reporter who had a fascination with the
Pyr
, Melissa Smith, said they were dragon shape shifters. As skeptical as Jac had been, this video made it look so real.

She had her doubts about the photographs taken by Cassie Redmond, the ones that supposedly showed a man becoming a dragon in the desert. It defied belief that they could be real, but she couldn’t find a flaw.

They did say that truth was stranger than fiction.

Jac went back to the first video and slowed it down, trying to see whether the gold dragon had changed into a human. He didn’t. He just shimmered and disappeared. She sat back and drummed her fingers on the arm of the couch. She couldn’t exactly learn every detail of her opponents from YouTube videos, even such a long list of them as on Maeve’s site. They were glimpses of the fiends, no more than that, and Melissa Smith’s broadcasts were clearly just pro-
Pyr
propaganda.

But where else would she find more information?

She wrote an email to Maeve, using the contact link on the reporter’s website. That woman might know more, but Jac was skeptical she’d get a reply.

If she documented what she did know, some patterns might appear. She took a new notebook and printed out the best shot of each dragon from each video. She gave each one a page of his own and noted every detail she could—where the video had been filmed and when, the color of his scales, his human appearance if it had been visible. She even guessed at their alliances and antagonisms, since they sometimes were filmed fighting.

There wasn’t nearly enough information to make a plan, but Jac had moved to Seattle to hunt dragons, and she had to find a way.

She was going to succeed at
something
before she died.

Even if she died doing it, it would be a noble way to go.

At least embarking on this quest made her feel less numb and less alone.

The light was weird on this day, and Jac had heard there was supposed to be a blood moon. She shivered and reviewed her notes, seeing that she’d included everything she knew. It wasn’t nearly enough. She grabbed her jacket, deciding to go to the gym again and work out some of her frustration. There was a kickboxing class at ten and she could use every bit of exercise and fighting experience she could get.

She opened the door to find a dark-haired guy standing there with a package in his hand, his other hand lifted to knock at her door. He was the hunk who had moved into the apartment above her the month before. That in itself was interesting—people were moving out of Seattle to get away from the plague, and the apartment building had been getting progressively more empty. Jac thought there were only three or four apartments rented now.

But this guy had moved
to
Seattle.

She had also moved to Seattle, and it was intriguing to have that in common.

It didn’t hurt that he was gorgeous. Jac had seen him at the gym a couple of times—they evidently had a membership there in common, too—but didn’t know his name.

He smiled slowly at her, as if he liked what he saw, and offered her the package. “I think this is yours.” His voice was low and husky enough to give her shivers.

Good shivers.

Jac looked down, seeing that the parcel had her name but his apartment number. There was no return address, and it was wrapped in brown paper and tied up with string.

Maybe it was somebody’s favorite thing.

“I’m not expecting anything,” she said, then took it from him.

“Maybe it’s a gift from a secret admirer,” he said, obviously having also noticed that there was no return address.

Jac smiled. “I should be so lucky,” she said, then tucked the parcel under her elbow. “You’d think with so few people left in the building, the delivery guy could get it right.”

“The odds would seem to be on his side.”

“I’m Jacelyn,” she said, offering her hand. “But people call me Jac.”

His smile started in his eyes and they were twinkling long before his lips curved. “I’m Marcus,” he said, his hand closing resolutely around hers. “But people call me Marco.”

Jac smiled because she couldn’t do anything else, not when the hottest guy she’d met in years was holding her hand, smiling at her, and looking as if he felt the same powerful attraction she did. Was her luck turning? Or was he another good-looking loser who would use her, break her heart and disappear forever? She had a gift for finding them.

Jac couldn’t quell her optimism. That was a gift, too. “We go to the same gym, don’t we?” she said. “I was just going down for the kickboxing class.”

“Sounds good, but I’ve got a commitment this morning.” Marco’s gaze dropped to the parcel. “Maybe you should open it, in case it’s important.” Then he released her hand and stepped back. “Nice to meet you, Jac. Maybe I’ll see you at the gym one day.”

Maybe?

She’d make sure of it.

Jac took a good look at Marco’s tight butt as he strolled down the hall and admired it mightily. Then she shut the apartment door and considered the parcel. Maybe it
was
important. It couldn’t hurt to find out and she did have a few minutes.

She tore open the corner to find a plain box inside. She got the scissors from the kitchen to cut the string and opened the package, surprised by the weight of it.

There was an old book inside, but no note or message of any kind. She looked through the paper, but she hadn’t missed anything.

She turned the book over.
Habits and Habitats of Dragons: A Compleat Guide for Slayers
by Sigmund Guthrie.

A shiver slipped down Jac’s spine.

Seriously?

She flipped open the book to discover that it was about the
Pyr
.

Even better, it specified how best to hunt and kill them.