Web Of Bones: Book II of the Dragon Mage Series (9 page)

When Melly
awoke, it was to the sound of a crackling fire. It should have been a comforting sound, but to a mage who had watched her parents fall to the mob and flames, it was less than soothing. The only thing that kept the terror at bay was the warm arms and an even hotter power that wrapped around her. She opened her eyes slowly to focus on swirling quicksilver eyes.

She licked her dry lips, her voice a thread of sound.
“How long?”

“
It is the evening of the same day.” His voice was just as low as hers, his eyes searching her face. “You are well?”

“
I am.” She cleared her throat and looked around. She was in the general’s lap, and he was leaning against a tree with the fire a few feet away. She saw the wagon and a few of the horses, but none of the others. “Where is everyone?”

“
Furee has not returned with that human. The huntsmen are farther afield in the forest. Aarion and Lux are patrolling, and keeping an eye on the humans.”

The vision.
She sat up quickly, then had to brace herself against his shoulder when the dizziness hit her. She also felt something else beneath her. She twisted for a more comfortable position, and felt it grow against her backside. She froze, blushed and then her eyes shot to catch the dancing quicksilver in his.

She would have moved then but he held her firmly in place.
“Easy. It’s not going to bite you. Just give yourself a minute, or you’re going to fall on your face.”

“
I’m just ...” She blew out a breath. Then, determined to ignore the fluttering in her belly, she raised her chin. “Furee took the mage to save the girl?”

Solan turned to steel all along her length.
His power built up around them, making her wince at the pressure.

“
Mage?” He asked, his voice lowering and turning dangerous.

Melly swallowed, her eyes trapped in his
; she could feel the building power behind the twirling quicksilver in which she was trapped.

“
The man, the huntsman—he is mage, like me.”

With her eyes on him and the
buildup of power surrounding her, she knew he was not happy with the news. It was still a complete shock, when he grabbed her chin. Pressing his surprisingly lush lips to hers, he conquered her with all the ferocity of a summer storm. She gasped and he took advantage by claiming more ground, his tongue learning the taste of her mouth, until she groaned and kissed him back. All the power that surrounded them seemed to focus through those amazing lips, taking her body by storm, until she felt saturated in power and passion. He took her to the ground beneath him, his hands in her hair, holding her where he wanted her to be, while he moved his rock hard thighs between her softer ones. Even with the skirts in the way, it felt like a brand of naked heat against her.

Melisande was mindless beneath the passion of his onslaught.
His ferocious yearning invaded her. She could not have differentiate her feelings from his, if she had the mind left to consider the matter. Her arms wrapped tight around his neck, her hands grasping for purchase at his shoulders and back.

Solan growled his approval.
Then he was on his knees between her thighs and she felt his hands move from her hair down along the skin of her arching neck, his touch trailing fire, until he found the bodice of her dress and ripped it down the center with a snarl. The sudden onslaught of cold air was as much a slap in the head as the words he uttered against the skin of her neck. “Mine.”

She felt his teeth at her neck as his hard hands claimed her quivering breasts.
“Mine,” he growled again, and she realized what he intended just as his teeth started to bite down.

With a
thought, she called the wind and he was airborne. His roar of rage shook the earth as much as slamming back down to the ground did. She pulled her bodice closed with shaky hands and wrapped her arms around her knees as he came stomping back through the camp with liquid silver eyes and a face half lost to the sharper planes of his dragon form.

The Solan that she knew was lost somewhere in the rage of his beast, and she had no idea how she was going to fix this.

Before he could reach her, Lux and Aarion rammed him from two sides
, taking him back to the ground hard enough she felt it from where she huddled.

“
Mine!” He raged as the dragons fought to restrain his berserker fury.

Aarion looked over at her and yelled.
“Get out of here! We can’t hold him!”

Melly got shakily to her feet
, clutching her bodice closed, but instead of walking away, she walked to where the men were trying desperately to hold the raging beast down. Melly fell to her knees beside his thrashing head and he stilled, his eyes snapping to her face.

Lux looked up and realized she was right there. “My lady,” he started just as Aarion noticed. “What the ...?”

She ignored the other dragons and brushed her hand down the side of Solan
’s face. She didn’t know she was crying until a hot tear dropped to his cheek. His eyes closed in pain as if it burned him. She leaned down until her soft hair was against his cheek and she could whisper right into his ear. “I’m sorry ... I just didn’t want you to claim me when you could have a true mate out there, and we don’t know what would happen to you if you tried it while I am bound to the blood mage. I was trying to protect you. Please, Solan, come back.” She swallowed tears and felt him turn his head so that his nose was buried in her hair, his lips against her skin.

She could feel the lessening of fury in the power mantling them.
She ran her hand around his hard jaw, feeling the dragon’s retreat in the bones beneath her fingers. She cupped the side of his neck, just under his ear, and pulled him closer.

“
Melisande,” he said, his voice gruff but softened to a human timber. She collapsed right there, curled up by his head with such relief it was painful.

Aarion and Lux must have let him go because the next thing she knew he was shifting up, his warm arms pulling her into his chest, and she was once again curled into his lap, while he sat on the ground holding on to her as hard as she clutched him close.

“
I’m so sorry ...” she started, but he shushed her, his hand curving around her head and his face bent over her hair.

“
I am the one who should offer apology, little mage. I reacted badly to the idea of a male mage in your vicinity. All I could think of was claiming you before you chose another, and when you rejected me ...”

She pulled back until she could see his face, interrupting him forcefully.
Her words were earnest and unguarded. “That’s not what this is. If I were to pick one man in the entirety of the world it would be you.” She shook her head, feeling more tears fall. “What if marking me hurts you when I am already bound? And I cannot be meant for you—a dragon knows his mate immediately. I will not steal you away, when you could find the one destined to be yours around the next bend in the road.” She wiped her eyes and raised her chin. “You deserve better than that, and I could not bear to see it.”

He was quiet while he studied her, and then he most unexpectedly smiled.
Melisande blinked, and tried to back up but was caught in his hard arms. “You would choose me?” he asked, his smile turning more savage with satisfaction, if that were possible.

“
You didn’t hear anything else I said, did you?”

“
You would choose me—what else was there to hear?”

She blew out an exasperated breath.
“Dragons are the most ...” But his lips on hers stopped the words. This time they were little more than a gentle brush, but it was enough to clear every thought in her head. Then he was standing up and placing her teetering back on her feet. “I will attempt to give you the time you need to deal with the blood mage. Once I have crushed his head and pulled the spine from his neck, the mark will be gone and then, understand this, Lady Melisande of the House of Fire and Water—we will finish this discussion.” He leaned down to press one more hard kiss to her lips, then turned to walk away. “I’ll get the food. You’ll need to eat after using so much power earlier.”

That was when she noticed both Aarion and Lux were standing there watching, and had probably been there for the whole insane conversation.
“What?” she asked, cranky enough to place her hands on her hips and stare them down.

“
Aren’t you the cutest little dragon’s mate,” Lux said, chuckling. Then he turned to lumber off as well, even while she huffed her frustration.

“
I am not a dragon’s mate,” she told the last dragon still standing there, motioning to herself like it should be obvious.

Aarion just shook his head, ignoring
her; he started to clean up the mess they had made of the camp. But every few moments she could hear him chuckle.

Impossible Dragons
, she thought, and without any idea of what else to do, she went to help. If there was a lightness in her step that had been missing before, well, she couldn’t help it—that arrogant dragon made it sound almost possible. No matter what happens next, she could hug to her the knowledge that such an amazingly beautiful creature as General Solan Fire-Eater wanted her. Even for just a moment.

Later would be time enough to mo
urn reality. Right now, she was just going to dwell in the memory of that first incredible kiss.

The wind came whistling through the camp, whipping the fire into a frenzy while Melly was picking up the pieces of a decimated tree. It had stood for hundreds of years until the dragons turned it to little more than kindling with their rough play. She stilled when she heard the message carried on the wind. It sounded more a whisper this far from the magic-saturated Dracon, so she almost missed it. She looked around the camp and saw only Aarion righting the overturned wagon as if it weighed nothing.

“
They return,” she said, her eyes narrowed on nothing he could see. “We will need Solan when they arrive.”

After everything that he had seen
, the dragon did not question this, just moved to get his commander. Melly moved to the wagon with new purpose and found a blanket. Shaking out the road dust, she headed for the fire and put on water for tea. Just as it started to boil, she felt the wind swirl and looked up to see Furee descending with two mages on his back. She recognized the huntsman despite the soot covering his grim face. The other was a girl. From the look, she was close to womanhood in form, though it was impossible to tell what she looked like under all the grime. Huddled against the man’s chest, she was shaking like a leaf.

Without a
thought, she reached through the flames of the fire dragon and held her hands up to take the girl. The man lowered her down gently, until Melly could grab her legs and keep her from falling the rest of the way. The girl whimpered but allowed the transfer, as she fell into Melly’s arms. She smelled strongly of the bonfire and burned skin. It nearly made Melly buckle with the memories that bombarded her with that smell. She sucked in a deep breath through her mouth, trying to distance herself, and tasted nothing but ash.

She put it aside when she suddenly found herself looking into an overly large version of the
man’s topaz eyes, Melly thought her heart would break when she saw the vacant expression in those beautiful eyes. The woman—and it was a woman, though a young one—had retreated completely. She felt the wind swirl around them both and made sure it was warm air, rather than cold, when the girl continued to shiver. She felt the mage jump off the dragon, but did not think about the fact that she was holding the girl between her and a large fire dragon until, with a thought, the dragon became the man, and he reached arms around the woman and picked her up in his arms.

The Huntsman stepped close his arms out, his eyes on the girl.
“Give her to me.”

Instead,
Furee growled showing his teeth and stepped back from the man, threat clear in those black ember eyes.

The huntsman went to take the girl by force
, his eyes beginning to glow mage green when Melly grabbed his arm, stopping him. “Do not.”

“
That’s my sister,” he growled. His eyes were on the small female in Furee’s arms. “I won’t let him hurt her.”

“
He won’t,” Melly said. “He is thinking of nothing right now but her protection. Let me handle this.” Before the mage could answer, Solan was there, pulling Melly’s hand off the mage’s arm and stepping between them.

Melly ignored them both, confident that Solan would keep the mage back.
She turned her eyes on the fire dragon and had to admit that he was without a doubt the stuff of nightmares, with those eyes and that hair of fire. Beautiful he may be, but something in the way he seemed to come from the very heart of fire made him not the most comfortable dragon to look at, at least for a mage who had seen firsthand the devastation that fire wrought. “Furee. I have a blanket by the fire and some tea ready for the girl.”

Furee finally looked away from the
mage; she flinched when she saw his eyes looked to be active flames now. He looked at her and then down to the girl, his fire restrained. “She is mine,” he said, the wonder in those words hand–in-hand with the possession.

The Huntsman tried to move again with a curse, but
Solan and Aarion were both there to block him, so Melly ignored him.

“
Please, Furee. She needs to be taken care of. Look at her, she is in shock.”

He looked down at the woman, his eyes softening further
until finally he looked back at Melly. “I will let you see to her.”

“
Bring her to the fire and she can lay down on the blanket.” But when he tried to put her down, she whimpered, wrapping her arms tight around his neck. Melly had him sit farther back from the fire and hold the woman with the blanket tucked around her. She got a few sips of the tea into the girl, but looked up at Solan in misery that she could do nothing else for her. “We need the healer.”

Solan nodded,
“Furee, fly her to Forsaken. Have the Kinkaid call for the healer Shehar. She will see your mate put to right.”

“
Hold on, just a damn minute.” The Huntsman growled. “You are not taking my sister anywhere.”

“
She will be safe enough in Furee’s care,” Solan said, giving the man a grim look.

“
Safer than she was in yours,” Aarion added harshly. Clearly, none of the dragons was too impressed with the mage’s care of his sister. Melisande felt for the man; he obviously loved his sister and was willing to face dragons and an angry mob to get to her, but dragons did not see intentions as much as actions and consequences. In their eyes, whatever his intentions or reasons for allowing his sister to be on her own without protection—these were irrelevant when she had been left in harm’s way.

“
She was supposed to be safe.” From the way the tortured words seemed pulled out of him, Melly knew the dragons were not the only ones who blamed him. He blamed himself. And looking down at his unresponsive sister in the lap of a fire dragon, while he was allowed to do nothing for her, was killing him.

“
She will need her brother,” Melly said carefully, the wind starting to whip around her. “When she is healed of body, she will want to see him. And he will have a choice to make. If you do not allow him to make it, I
know
she will pay the price one day. Furee.” Her eyes moved from the girl to the dragon. “You do not see it now, but someday you will need her brother’s help to keep her safe. He must go to Dracon, at least until she is truly awake.”

Solan looked from Melly to the man.
“They both go. Furee, you take the girl now, Aarion can follow with the mage after he deals with his men. Make it fast, Aarion. I want you back here tonight.”

“
I haven’t agreed to this,” the huntsman growled, but Furee was already up and changing to dragon. He now carried the girl pressed to his heart between sharp talons. The girl was going to Dracon. Now they just had to deal with her enraged brother.

When Melly turned back
, the man was furious, his eyes glowing mage green while his hands and arms were literally on fire. His clothes and hair did not burn, but he looked ready to set the forest ablaze.

“
She will be healed before you follow. She has not been taken from you, only moved for her own betterment.”

He turned blazing eyes to Melly
, who now had two dragons standing between them blocking her from danger. She had to peek between them to see the man now had flames burning up and down his arms, his hands clenched to fists as he held back his rage. “She is all I have,” he growled, clearly a breath away from total mayhem. “We were almost too late; the bonfire had already been lit. They were going to burn her. She has only ever wanted to help them.”

“
Then calm down and go to her.” Melly said simply. “She will be upset if she wakes among strangers.”

That seemed to get through as nothing else had, because he
restrained the fire. From the look on his face it seemed a painful process to call it back. But he did it, and then when he was finally flame-free, he opened his eyes. For a moment, she could see the flames he carried flickering there, but then they were back to topaz. He breathed out heavily, catching himself before he fell. Then, standing tall once more, he set his grim jaw. “I will send my men home and be ready to travel.”

“
That is acceptable,” Solan said. “Return here when you are ready and Aarion will take you to your sister and the healer.”

When the man walked out of camp
, Melly let out a loud breath of relief, her hand on Solan’s wide back for support.

“
I will say this for you, mage.” Lux hefted his axe and sheathed it on his back. His voice carried its usual jovial tone, despite the circumstance. “You are never boring, despite being so insignificant and tiny.”

“
As long as you’re having a good time,” Melly muttered, waiting for the strength to return to her legs. “That’s all that matters.”

He just chuckled, clapping a hand genially to her back, and still managing to shove her into Solan with enough force
that she bounced. “Three mates found among the mage kind.” He laughed again. “It does not get better than that.”

Melly would have argued the number
, but he had already turned and walked away.