Nexus (2 page)

“Wow,” she said. “That’s a big one. I’m impressed.”

His eyes shot back up. She stood a few feet away, her lips quirked in a sideways smile. “I meant your tattoo,” she said, filling in his stunned silence.

Of course she meant his tattoo, but a different part of him responded to the mistaken compliment.

“Though the rest of you is impressive, too,” she said. Her gaze swept over him again, lingering at his groin.

“Thank you,” he said, choosing to ignore the throb of his hard-on in favor of studying her reactions. This was the first time he’d been naked and aroused in a woman’s presence. It wasn’t like he could do anything about it, but what would she do? Would she keep her distance the way every other human he encountered seemed to?

“You should come back in for a bit,” she said, her voice a low purr that reminded Kris of how his teachers occasionally spoke to each other when they thought he wasn’t listening. Once he’d discovered their relationship, that tone had always been a signal for Kris to leave the two men alone.

Oh what he wouldn’t give to be able to accept her invitation and see it through to her desired conclusion.

Pushing aside the internal regret, he replied innocently, “But I just dried off. Maybe you should get out and join me here. The sun feels nice.”

Hallie seemed to ponder his suggestion and started toward the rock he reclined on. A few feet away from him, her determination faltered and a cloudy look passed across her face.

She raised both hands and buried her face in them. “What the fuck am I doing?” she asked in a muffled voice behind her palms. “I’m sorry, Kris. I can’t.”

“Can’t what? Get out of the water?”

“No, I can do that. Just not to do what I was
about
to.”

“Which would be…?” He continued playing dumb, even though he knew precisely what she’d been considering because that was what had gone through his own mind, too, in vivid detail. He quickly quashed the thoughts before they caused more trouble than they already had.

With that, the palpable tension wilted and Hallie sighed. She swam the last few feet to the rock and hoisted herself up beside him, close enough that the cooler temperature of the water radiating off her skin was tangible to his heightened senses. She stayed just far enough to avoid touching him outright.

“Something completely inappropriate and unprofessional. That’s what I was about to do. Jump your boner … er…
bones
. Sheesh, I’m a mess.” She glanced sidelong at his lap. “You don’t look much better, come to that.”

“If I ignore it, it’ll go away,” he said, sitting up and giving his stiff prick an irritated look.

“True enough,” she said. “If only all of life’s little annoyances worked that way.” After a contemplative pause, she changed the subject. “So, Mr. Jungle Guide, how soon until we reach this fancy dragon burial ground or whatever it is?”

“It’s a temple, not a grave. The dragons there are very much alive.”

“Ah. These dragons Erika’s so hot for. Don’t tell me
you
buy into her crazy ideas.”

“Not exactly.” Kris had taken the measure of the group’s leader and realized that in spite of Erika’s adherence to science, she was very much an acolyte of dragon lore. Her ideas about what to expect were only half correct, however. She definitely wasn’t expecting the ritual he was diligently leading them to. He hoped he’d be able to convince her of its value once inside the temple.

“Not exactly… You don’t believe her? Or… Please do explain, because us
sane
people are a little outnumbered at the moment.”

“Do you believe in destiny, Hallie?”

Hallie didn’t answer for several beats and Kris looked over at her. Her expression had grown even darker and she rested one hand lightly over her abdomen. In a shaky voice she said, “If you had asked me that a year ago I’d have said no, but now? Yeah, I think I do a little bit.”

“Good, because tomorrow we’re all going to meet our destinies. All seven of us.”

Chapter Two

L
ike all dragons, Issa believed everything happened for a reason. So when Eben, the lovely human man who’d awoken her, made her stop midway through servicing him, she considered it a sign.

Roka had humbly apologized for the interruption, and continued doing so for the entire intermission while Eben and Camille intimately conferred. She only felt the merest pinprick of regret that she hadn’t yet marked the man, but the more she watched him with the golden-haired virgin—
former virgin
, she corrected herself, giving Roka an appraising glance—the more convinced she was that this was the natural order of things.

“They belong together, and she belongs to you, my friend
,” she said to Roka.

Her large, white-haired friend nodded at her from across the room, replying with a thought. “
Don’t let our Shadow hear you speak that way of
belonging
. Besides, the woman will be the one with two mates, not I. Perhaps my first child will have a human brother.”

“Or sister,”
Issa replied.

“Or sister. If that’s the case I will name her Issansaelethessis.”

In truth she was relieved. Eben, seemed the sort who could adjust to sharing. But Issa had always admired the Shadow for his principles. It might be against her nature, but the idea of only having a single mate to please appealed to her very much.

“Issa,” Geva said in his deep, comforting voice when she approached the red dragon and his new mate. Her trouble-maker of a friend had always managed to bolster her mood, but their antics during their youth were centuries behind them. Still, she could allow herself some pleasure until she decided what to do next.

The human woman, Erika, sat up from Geva’s embrace and extended a hand. Issa clasped it and greeted the woman. The pretty auburn-haired woman was still flushed pink from Geva’s attention, but her eyes were bright and alert. She looked ready for anything, a good quality in a leader. And a mate. Geva hadn’t wasted time marking her.

Issa’s red-maned friend lounged smugly against the sloping side of the wide bench where he reclined with his lover. His eyes trailed down Issa’s length in that familiar way he had that was just suggestive enough to make her wonder if it was an invitation or a promise. She felt the violet sheen she liked to keep on her skin ripple and intensify in response to his eyes.

It was the woman who spoke, however. “Join us, please,” Erika said, her voice a rough purr. Oh, she was definitely ready for more. Issa’s mouth watered at the prospect of another human’s Nirvana. Eben had given her just enough of a taste to leave her wanting more.

“Do you mind?”
she asked Geva, already sure she knew the answer.

“If I recall, I am still in your debt for before,”
he replied.
“If not for your intervention, the Council would have banished me from the Court for what I did. Being chained to your bed for five hundred years wasn’t so bad, especially not considering what I got to wake up to.”

“Promise me you won’t try to incite any orgies in the street again. As fun as they are, it confuses the humans and the Council hates the backlash.”

“I didn’t show myself. I just breathed a little life into an otherwise desultory last day before my exile.”

“You guys are having an entire conversation in your heads right now, I bet. Anything I should know?” Erika asked, sitting up straighter.

Geva chuckled and leaned up to nuzzle at Erika’s neck. “Just letting Issa know I don’t mind sharing as long as you don’t, love. Can she have a little taste?”

Erika’s eyelids lowered slightly when she gazed up at Issa. “Only if I can taste back.”

Issa smiled and met Geva’s eyes. “She is perfect for you, Geva. How much has she given you so far?”

“Hmm, half a dozen with no signs of flagging. The next one’s all yours.”

Erika leaned back against Geva’s chest and he tilted her head back enough to lower his mouth onto hers.

Issa knelt on the bench between Erika’s thighs, urging them further apart while she slid her palms down the silky length to the human woman’s core.

Erika’s lips still glistened wetly with her own juices, mixed with the familiar scent of Geva’s heady spunk. This would be a banquet. Geva’s large hands slid around Erika’s chest to cup both breasts and thumb her nipples while he watched Issa. Issa smiled up at him from between Erika’s thighs and Geva grinned back, nodding and urging her to continue. He’d always expressed how he enjoyed watching Issa with a woman as much as he’d enjoyed doing the deed himself, or doing
her
himself.

Issa let her longer Animus tongue slip out for a taste. The twin forks slipped along the creases of Erika’s pussy, gathering juices to pull back into her mouth. Issa closed her eyes, savoring the flavor and enjoying the rough moan that came from the human.

Before she could dip her head for a deeper taste she felt a prickle at the back of her neck. Glancing back over her shoulder, she saw the guide standing in the shadows, watching intently.
The Catalyst
, she corrected herself.

She turned back to her task. As her lips fastened on the sweet human cunt before her, she sent a thought back to her observer.

“Kris, do you like the view?”
She spread her legs a little wider and with her free hand reached between them. Her fingertips slid between her own slick, swollen pussy lips and pushed them apart to give him a better view.

“How does she taste, describe it to me.”
His answer exploded urgently into her mind. He’d interacted with these humans for a time already, Issa realized. Did he have some connection to this one?

Issa delved deeper, pressing an arm down across Erika’s hips to hold her still.
“She tastes like ripe pomegranate coated in rich chocolate and sprinkled with sea salt and pepper flakes. Sweet Mother I haven’t tasted anything so good in five hundred years.”

“Spicy? Is that from her or him, do you think?”

“Oh, the spicy is most definitely from Geva. Do you like spicy? If so I will be sure to tell him to let you have a taste during the penultimate phase.”

“I plan on tasting everyone, trust me. Especially the juicy delicacy I can see between your thighs right now. Touch yourself again for me.”

Issa dipped her fingers deeper into her own cunt while thrusting her tongue into Erika’s hard enough to make the woman squirm and buck.

“Your pussy is the most beautiful color.”
Kris’s voice sounded awestruck in her mind and Issa had to remind herself how inexperienced he was. Still a dragon, but innocent of the sensual delights dragons would normally have partaken of by his age.

Deciding to give him more of a show, she spread her legs a little wider and thrust her ass higher in the air. The thought of breaking in a new dragon thrilled her, particularly one with as much potential as he had. The way he managed to stay unnoticed in the shadows for so long spoke of the incredible magic that protected him. But once that energy was tapped and he realized his true power, she could only imagine the heights he could bring her to.

Issa resolved that he would learn everything she had to teach him during the next few hours while he waited for his turn. Then she would be the first to reap the rewards, and to give him everything she had to give. But that meant she needed to gather more of the humans’ Nirvana first.

Erika cried out under the steady lick of Issa’s forked purple tongue. Unlike the juices coating Erika’s sweet pussy, her Nirvana lacked flavor. Instead, it had the essence of a cool night wind when it coursed through Issa, leaving her hyperaware of the room around her, and of Kris’s eyes on her in particular. The pulse of Erika’s orgasm washed over Issa’s tongue , sending the flood of power straight between her thighs.

Issa’s clit pulsed and her juices flowed thickly over her fingers when she came. She resisted the urge to clench her thighs around her hand and ride the wave of her orgasm, instead spreading herself even wider for her audience.

Kris didn’t speak to her again, but Issa could sense an impression of his thoughts, little bits of appreciation for each motion she made. He liked it when she leaned up and kissed Erika deeply, followed by Geva. He grew tense with anticipation when she moved back across the room to the other trio of lovers, who had parted while they rested, and encouraged them into another round.

Roka was only too willing to allow her to take their Nirvana as a thank-you for letting him mark Eben, too.

She performed the same tongue-tricks against Camille’s pussy, relaying the combination of flavors back to Kris while Eben fucked her again and Camille took Roka’s cock in her virgin mouth for the first time.

Each rush of their energy infused her more, until she craved a high mountain on which to shift and fly.

“I’m giving this all to you very soon. Will you be ready?”
she asked Kris.

She glanced back to where he’d been standing before, but he was gone. A moment later his voice sounded in her rmind.
“I have work to do. Come watch with me when you’re full.”

Chapter Three

I
ssa and the other two dragons all glowed with the Nirvana they’d channeled from the humans by the time Kris sensed the next phase beginning. As much as he would like to, he didn’t have the time or the constitution to watch her continue. He had to get to the Twins’ chamber door. And above all, he had to survive the ritual long enough to make it to his own chamber before imploding from desire.

His powers of observation began to falter for the first time when Issa joined him shortly in the Twins’ chamber. His task, his purpose, was to witness the awakening of each dragon, to watch each phase of the ritual from its beginning until each potential mate was marked and thus bonded to a dragon.

The task Issa didn’t know about was his responsibility to report to his teachers and then the Council when it was all over to let them know if the ritual had proceeded smoothly. Objectivity was one of the things his teachers had impressed on him as being paramount. He’d done just fine until one rogue, lavender dragon gave away her mate, then soaked up every spare drop of Nirvana the humans chose to give her.

Once she was beside him, the power radiating out of her and her intoxicating aroma filling his nostrils, he really wanted to urge the others to move along with their fun.

Dragon law had been his most common lesson in the monastery, and the details of it were etched into his mind. The most prominent one was that dragons were required to mate with humans to preserve their fertility and prevent inbreeding. There were too few of them born in each generation to risk it. The imperative to reproduce was what drove the dragons’ instincts, and also what drove the Council to make the laws it did. Though the infighting that would occur with too many dragons alive in each generation was probably equally undesirable. It was a double-edged sword and the laws they followed were designed to maintain the strict balance.

Yet he was drawn to Issa with a kind of urgency that he hadn’t felt from any of the human women he’d traveled with, in spite of spending several weeks with them. From Hallie’s honesty during their shared mornings bathing, to Erika’s frustrated display earlier that evening, then Camille’s very enthusiastic sacrifice of her own virginity.

Issa still outshone them all in some unfathomable way.

After the ritual, Kris would be an unbonded dragon, free if he chose to be. Free to find his own human mate.
Human mate
, he thought. Not dragon, which was what Issa and he both were.

Lost in his tangled ruminations, he was only half aware of both of the twins marking Dimitri. Damnit. That couldn’t be good. But Kris was only a guide, not an enforcer. He had neither the ability nor the inclination to intervene.

“Is that supposed to happen?”
Issa asked when the trio before them continued their tryst.

“Not exactly, but you weren’t supposed to give Eben away, either.”

“I guess that means I’m not supposed to be in here watching this all unfold with you. Should I leave? I can go wait patiently by the doors until it’s all over.”

He turned to look at her, suddenly bored with the tableau of sex that he couldn’t participate in. He wanted them all, but Issa had already given him the best preview. The image of her violet folds spread open before him lingered even as he observed the two golden dragons and their new lover. Issa’s nearness comforted him even as he found himself dwelling on what she might feel like to touch.

“No. I’m weary of watching, but it’s easier with you beside me.”

Her lips curled into a pleased smile.

They watched the others, Kris finding himself more aroused by Issa’s nearness than the acts of pleasure playing out between the trio in front of him.

“I knew your parents,”
Issa said after a few moments. The comment seemed completely incongruous when he’d just been contemplating doing to her some of the things Dimitri was currently doing to the lovely, golden Aurin, right in front of her brother.

Issa studied him for a long moment until he started to feel a little uncomfortable, then turned back to watch the twins and their new plaything, a brighter smile gracing her pretty face, probably entertained by his speechlessness.

As if inviting more conversation, she continued.
“My father was the Virgin’s Guardian in the last cycle. He wasn’t born a Court dragon like the others’ parents. Or like your parents.”

It hadn’t occurred to Kris that Issa might have known who his parents were. He’d never even known them himself.
“My mother was the last Catalyst, so I’m not sure if that counts as a Court dragon. My father wasn’t, though.
” His teachers rarely mentioned his father, only that he was a Red with no status.
“I never new them…”
he said, trailing off as the understanding dawned on him. His father was a Red. Not a human… a dragon.

“I did. They were nice. Racha can tell you more about them when this is all over.”

“Racha?”
Kris asked, blankly.

“Yes,”
Issa said, her tone holding a smile.
“The Queen. Your sister.”

The revelation stunned him. His teachers had never told him that detail, or even explained his parentage to him aside from sharing his father’s identity. He briefly panicked, wondering if he’d failed in his studies somehow, but no. He’d only glossed over it when it was taught to him because they’d never emphasized the details. He’d never connected himself to those abstract roles.

The Catalyst and the Queen shall be pure-born siblings,
meaning their parents were always a bonded pair of dragons, the only two in a generation allowed to co-breed, though they had the option of breeding with humans, too, if they chose. Kris had always written off that detail as one that wouldn’t apply to him when he was younger, as inevitable as his own isolation felt.

When the twins and Dimitri finally dozed off, he and Issa left the room to wait by the doorway to the next chamber. He only sensed the Shadow’s breath drift by and seep beneath the door. Hallie followed not long after, hesitant but grateful for his and Issa’s presence when she opened the door.

Issa left his side there, heading back to the first chamber to check on the others and make sure they followed with little delay once the Shadow’s phase was complete.

After steppping inside and a brief exchange to make sure the two were headed in the right direction, Kris stepped back into the darkness to observe, as always. He appreciated the darkness of this chamber, deciding to close his eyes and focus his energy into mental preparation for the ordeal ahead of him. The lack of sight caused his other senses to become keener, but he didn’t need powerful hearing to understand the tone of the interaction unfolding inside this room. The lovers had to know he was still there, but he felt like even more of an intruder hearing Kol and Hallie’s emotional exchange than he had in the other chambers. Yet he understood.

What a complicated world they lived in, with such arbitrary rules. He supposed things might change during this cycle, but it was up to the Council to decide. Kris resolved to voice his honest opinion, however. He and Issa may not have anything to worry about, but the twins might run into problems. Kris was just grateful that Hallie had ultimately decided to accept Kol’s mark. Still, he didn’t relish the prospect of running interference for any of them with the Council. He would have to be honest and try to convince them that way.

He opened his eyes when the voices changed from intimate conversation to even more intimate sighs and moans. This was he part he was truly meant to observe, so he watched, his eyes adjusting easily to see through the darkness.

In spite of being dulled to the image of two people coupling in a myriad of configurations, the interaction between Kol and Hallie fascinated Kris. It wasn’t how their bodies connected that kept him interested, however, but the way they never broke the intent gaze they shared. It incited a much deeper longing in him—one that overwhelmed the already dull ache between his legs that he’d endured for hours.

The phase was long complete, the room now illuminated in a warm glow, yet he still watched them sleep contentedly, unwilling to leave just yet. When they did rouse and make love again, he made sure to stay in the shadows, marveling at the intensity of their coupling. Soon Issa was by his side again, followed by the others, who quickly dove into the large pool in the center of the room.

“It’s time,” Issa whispered. She reached for Kris’s hand and he flinched back instinctively.

Issa stared at him like he’d just slapped her. “You’re going to need to touch us all to finish this.”

Kris pursed his lips and nodded. “I know. Let’s just get into the chamber first. I’ll be ready once we’re finally inside.”