Furee Born: The Dragon Mage Series Book IV (9 page)

She sighed. Laying along
his length on the giant bed, her head resting on his heart so that she could
hear it beating and feel the rise and fall of his breath, she was not in the
mood to dwell on anything bad.  Too warm, too languid and comfortable pressed
against the warmth of her mate while magic swirled in the very air around
them.  No one and nothing else seemed to exist, and for the first time in a
long time, she felt safe.  But she could feel it like her own heart beat the
recriminations pounding through his head.  In Furee’s mind, his reason for
existence seemed to be to keep her in a lovely bubble of happiness while he
took all the hits – a job he had just failed miserably in his own eyes.

“You can feel what I’m
feeling, Furee,” Riva answered simply, wrapping her arms around the hard planes
of his chest and squeezing, her cheek rubbing over his heart.  “You know it’s
not hate.”

“I can feel it,” he answered,
his voice dropping even more.  “I just don’t understand how even you can be so
forgiving.”

Riva raised her chin so
she could look up at his face as he studied her.  She could see the questions
as much as feel the confusion in her head.  She raised up so that she could
lean over him, the white sheet that was draped over them slithered down and
Furee’s eyes followed it and heated.  Her hair fell around them and cocooned
them even further from everything else.  “And I don’t understand why you are
blaming yourself for what you had to do to save me.”  She ran her hands up his
face trying to soothe away the tension.  “Let it go.”

“I hurt you, burned you,”
he said, his hands going up to push back her hair and cup her face.

She took hold of his
wrist and sat up, taking him up with her so that they sat facing each other. 
She rubbed her cheek against the hand that held her.  “You were poisoned.  Do
you think I can’t feel how much you hate the thought of hurting me?”

 “I took you while you
were unconscious and forced a mating you weren’t ready for.”

“You saved my life,” she
answered simply.  “I would have done the same.”

That made him blink and
she could feel the thoughts stutter at the picture those words caused. 

Riva laughed.  “Would you
hate me if I hurt you when I was out of my mind with poison?”  He opened his
mouth, but she kept going before he could answer.  “And if you lay dying, do
you think I wouldn’t mount you and bleed you, or do anything else to you if it
meant keeping you alive?”

The word “mount” had his
lips twitching minutely, the glimmer in his eyes heating with both passion and
the slightest humor at her words.  Riva pressed her lips to his lightly and
made sure everything she was feeling was in her eyes when they met his.  “I saw
your memories, just as you saw mine.  Do you think I missed the part where your
soul bled every day you didn’t claim me so I could have time to sort my fears?”

Just that fast, the humor
left his eyes and all that was left was a heat that burned.  Before he could
say anything else, she pressed her lips to his and kissed him with all the
thanks and passion she could get into one kiss.  With a flash of dark and light
limbs, he rolled her until he pressed her full length into the soft sheets that
smelled like night blooming jasmine and magic.  Every inch of him was hard as
rock and pressing down into her softness.  He opened his mouth to speak again,
but she pressed her lips to his, stopping him before he could say it.

“Let it go,” she pulled
back only far enough to say against the full harness of his lips.  “Let it go
and make love to me without life or death in the balance.”

She let her head drop
back to the bed and he followed, his thumb running over the curve of her cheek
bone, his eyes drinking her in.  He seemed to memorize her face and the fall of
her hair on the sheets before he came back to her eyes, and she saw the
smoldering flames flaring in his.  And beneath the heat a seriousness, an
almost reverence that made her suck in a deep breath even before his words
arrowed their way into her heart.

 “I think maybe making
love to you will always be life or death for me.”

She was still reeling
from the beauty of his softly spoken words w
hen he set about
proving them.

Forsaken Mountain was
teaming with dragons and mages alike when they arrived.  The sun had long since
set.  Riva was relieved to see there were no major injuries and no one else
seemed to have come across the poison.  The emotions swirling in the air at
Isolation were intense and seemed to cover everything from anger and worry to
jovial satisfaction.  It was then Riva realized she could sense the dragons’
emotions as easily as the mages’ now.  She also got the feeling they may have
dawdled overlong in their mating bed, though she felt rushed just the same.

I as well,
Furee
thought to her, making her jump just a little.  She had not felt him in her
thoughts that time, too distracted by the influx of extreme emotions. 
Rest
assured, we will return to bed at the earliest opportunity.

Riva was blushing quite noticeably
when her brother stepped through the double doors and out onto the balcony, his
face hard, his eyes molten fire.

He was the first to come
to them when they swooped in and she slid off Furee, but not the last.  The
others at least kept a short polite distance as they studied them.  Braedon saw
her, did a head to toe sweep with his eyes and then snatched her up into arms
that nearly crushed her, he held her so tightly.

“You are well?” he asked,
his voice dropping to a relieved whisper.

“I am.”  Riva patted his
back and looked over his shoulder to see Asha stepping out with a searching
look on her face for both her and Furee.  She was not the only one.  Melisande
was right behind her, her hand caught in her mate’s as he followed at her back.
 The Lady Melisande looked Furee over and then turned a relieved smile on Riva

“What of Forsaken?” Furee
asked gruffly from behind her.  Braedon put her down but did not release her,
meeting her mate’s eyes over Riva’s head.

“Cleared of monsters for
now,” Braedon replied, his eyes studying Furee; his eyes had lost much of their
flash, but you could see questions there he did not voice.

The rest of the dragons
shifted around them, until they were surrounded by Aarion, Adair, Lux, and
General Solan who stood with his mate by the entrance to the war room.

Aarion spoke first.  “None
are in need of a healer, though if you had not come when you did, I doubt I
would have survived the fight in the state I was in.”

Balin looked from Furee
to her and back again, a small smile on his face as he looked them over.  “You
two are unharmed?”

“Come inside,” Eben
Kinkaid called from within before either of them could answer. “We have much to
discuss.”

Riva stepped inside
between her mate and her brother, who refused to leave her side just yet. 
Asha, he kept close to his other side.  Riva was more than aware of the looks
she was getting from the other dragon knights.  Lux in particular took one good
look at them and laughed, his smile seeming out of place as usual.

Braedon glared at the man. 
“What can you possibly be laughing at now?”

More than one of the
knights looked away hastily while Furee growled a warning at Lux.  No one ever
knew what would come out of his mouth.

Riva started to blush
thinking of the possibilities, but even before Furee finished the growl, they
were in the war room and she took one look at Morgan and spoke, halting all
other discussions.

“Everything else will
have to wait,” she said mildly, her eyes on Morgan.  “Right now there are babies
to deliver.”

You would think she fired
a cannon.  Even Lux stopped smiling long enough to gape at her, and then all
eyes fell on Morgan who looked at turns sheepish and mulish.  An interesting
combination her mates noticed right off.

“Shameaa?” Eben Kinkaid
growled, while Ladon moved fast and was holding his mate by her arms and
looking at her before the endearment was out of Kinkaid’s mouth.  Then Ladon
started cursing.

Morgan cleared her
throat.  “I may have been having pains for the last little while.”

“And you said nothing?” 
Eben Kinkaid was now right next to Ladon, and everyone in the room felt the
surge of his displeasure and staggered under the weight of it.

Riva felt Furee step up
closer to her and his power wrapped around her a second later.  She breathed a
little easier when some of the pressure eased.

“Enough,” Morgan said
when her mates started to look like they were ready to breathe fire.  “We were
busy with other things and I thought it was just the babies kicking at first.  Riva
is here now and everyone is safe and accounted for.  Now can you please ease up
on the power play so I can go lie down and finally deliver these dragons?”

“I have the hot springs
already set up as the birth room,” Riva broke in before either of her mates’
heads could explode.  Until she had visited the one by the North Gate, she had
thought it the most power-infused place she could find.  “I suggest you carry
Morgan there and I will follow.”  Her words were barely out before Ladon whisked
his mate up and out of the room.

Riva blinked and she was
following in a blur.  She felt her own mate’s displeasure and realized it was
Kinkaid who had lifted her and was taking her to the temporary birthing room. 
Furee was only steps behind, but he was getting angrier with each step. 

I am fine.  He does not
mean to hurt me, just get me to his mate fast
, she thought to
him, and already her feet were set down in the room, miles into the Earth from
where they started.

His mate’s situation is
the only reason I do not remove his spleen for touching you. 
Furee’s
thoughts were grim but Riva couldn’t resist teasing him.

And that has nothing to
do with him being the oldest and most powerful dragon alive, known as the
Executioner?

She felt Furee’s shrug
against her back, because he was already wrapping his power back around her,
along with his arms. 
That could also be a factor in my self-control.
His
thoughts were more than a little self-deprecating, but at least his anger
seemed to have dissipated.  Riva smiled, turning and kissing him quickly before
pulling herself out of his arms and joining Morgan where Ladon had laid her
down on the birthing bed Riva had prepared.

She did not see Furee’s
reaction to the kiss, but she felt the warm glow of it deep inside where they
were connected.  She smiled even as she got down to business.

“My Lords,” Riva said,
and then had to say it twice, progressively louder each time before she was
heard.  “My Lords. 
My Lords!” 
When she finally had their attention,
she cleared her throat and lowered her voice back to normal.  “I will take it from
here, thank you.”  They both looked at her like she had lost her mind.  She
sighed.  “Step back so that I can check her.”

They did so grudgingly, both
warriors, one light, one dark, looking like thunder.  Walking between them was
like walking in the narrow chasm between dormant volcanoes.  They were not
dangerous, but you never forgot they could be.  But she could get to her
patient at least.

She smiled reassuringly
at Morgan, and she felt both relief and worry coming from her.  “How long have
you been having pain?” she asked as quietly as she could.

Morgan looked beyond her
to the mountains at her back and then looked pained, but answered the
question.  “Since the evening meal.  I assumed it was indigestion at first.”

Both her mates made
sounds ranging from a hiss to a growl, but quieted when Riva turned to glare at
them to be silent.  She turned back to Morgan.  Riva sent her healer power
flowing into the other woman, and was surprised and awed at the dragon magic
coming at her beck and call from all around her.  It seemed with a complete
mating, she had grown not only more powerful, but more in tune to the magic of Dracon
that had been mostly closed to her.  As gently as she could, she sent her
spirit and inflated healing power into Morgan and found that not only had she
been in labor for most of the evening, she was also in a great deal of pain at
the moment that she was hiding from her mates, and more importantly, she had
cut herself off from her body and was hiding it from herself.

Riva returned to her own
body after a visual sweep of the babies showed them ready and anxious to come
into the world, if only their mother would cooperate.  She took a moment to
admire the power and will of a woman who could control her body to such a
degree and then turned mage-green eyes to Morgan.

“You must let go of your
control, Morgan; you needed more time with everything that has been happening,
but you must let go now and allow your daughters to be born.”

Immediately, she felt the
room go nova.  She turned and looked behind her to see not only Eben Kinkaid
and Prince Ladon looking like she had smacked them, but Furee as well.

“Daughters?”  Ladon
choked out the question and both Morgan’s mates moved as one, their hands going
to their mate’s belly around either side of Riva.

Daughters were born so
rarely to Dracon that she had expected this reaction, which is why she had kept
the information to herself for so long.  She suspected both Melly and Asha knew
and had done the same for the same reason.  These dragons were already so over-the-top
protective.  Knowing that their mate carried not one but two girls would have
pushed them over the edge to unbearable.

Riva elbowed the
mountains on either side of her to push them back, and received an incredulous
mental snort from her mate, a laugh from her patient, and absolutely nothing
from the two dragon warriors taking up her needed space.

She glared her
exasperation from one to the other.  “If you would kindly take three steps back,
I will be handing you your daughters fairly quickly.  But I need
space.”
 
She bit out the last word and received another snorting laugh from Morgan.  “And
you,” she said, directing her eyes to Morgan again, “you need to let go of the
hold you have on your body and your pain.  These babies need to come out. 
Now.
”

That wiped the smile off
the woman’s face, and with one searching worried look to Riva, she released the
grip she had on her body . . . and screamed.

Immediately, the two
dragons beside her shoved her aside to grab for their mate.  Riva ended up
hurled into Furee’s arms.  His anger of her nearly being splattered against a
stone wall was the least of her problems.  There was a sound at the doorway and
Riva turned to see a hallway full of dragon warriors. It seemed the rest of the
guests had tracked them down.  Melly and Clare both managed to push their way
through, and Riva breathed a sigh of relief meeting Melisande’s eyes.

“Can you get them to back
off so I can deliver these babies?”

Melly looked for her
screaming sister and found only her feet and the backs of her mates.  With a
sigh and a shake of her head, she sent a gust of wind flying around the room; it
bypassed Furee and Riva, though her hair and gown gushed as it sped past.  It
forced itself between the pregnant mage, now screaming in equal parts pain and
anger, and her two dragon mates, who were lifted off their feet and flung back
against the stone wall with twin roars of displeasure. 

Riva shook off Furee’s
hold with an effort and went to stand before the two angry dragons.  Her hands going
to her hips, she glared at them. “Do you want to deliver these babies yourself?

Finally, blessed quiet. 
Riva smoothed down her dress and placed her hands at her waist.  “I will take
that as a ‘no.’  Melly is going to let you go.  If you cannot keep back and out
of my way until I tell you otherwise, I will have her evict you from this room.” 
More growls, but at least both dragons were listening.  “I know you love your
mate, and you do not like her pain, but every time you react by tossing her
healer across the room, you cost your mate both time and pain she did not have
to feel.  Please, control yourselves or I will do it for you.”

They both blinked down at
her, shocked either at her threats or the realization that they had indeed
thrown her, but she watched them absorb her words and the beast in their eyes
receded until the thinking men returned.

“My apologies,” Eben
Kinkaid finally said in his formal voice.  “We will stay back.”

“But not leave,” Ladon
added, his eyes firmly fixed on his mate.

Riva realized that was
the best she was going to get and then turned to go back to Morgan.

“Thank the light,” Morgan
whispered, when she felt Riva’s soothing energy flow through her, blunting much
of the pain as she examined the placement of the children in the womb.  She
sent a hint of power over the girls when she felt their distress, assuring them
that they would be well and with their mother soon.  They settled back down. 
Morgan met Riva’s eyes, her own worried.  “The babies?”

“Are fine, ready to come
out and, much like their fathers, not caring for the delay, but they are well,
and you,” she smiled at the other woman, pressing her hair back from her damp
forehead, “have a bit of work before you.”

Riva turned to Melisande
and Clare, smiling.  “Can we make this a bit more private?”  She turned to
Furee when Clare rushed to the door to close out the rest of the knights standing
there.  Her brother and Asha had also arrived in time to be locked out.