Fire in His Blood

Give me a new challenge, Kael demands. One that will test my skills. You’re not trying hard enough.

I roll my eyes at his smug tone, but I’m having fun. I hold up my stopwatch, reset it, and then glance around. “All right. You want challenging? Let’s do challenging.” I eye the vista around us. We’re on the roof of the tallest building in Old Dallas, Kael perched atop the edge like a big, dangerous bird. I scan the ruins and then lay out the course. “Those three towers over there,” I tell him, pointing at the three farthest broken buildings. “Touch each one, and then fly upside down to number four over there.” I point at another building. “Then I need you to go under that overpass down there and pick up one of the cars and throw it into the Trinity River.”

He snorts, a puff of smoke pluming from his nostrils. Child’s play. How much time do I have?

Kael doesn’t know jack shit about time, but he knows he has to go fast, and he gauges how much time he has based on my reactions. So I pick something that seems do-able but not too easy. “Two minutes.”

Start the timer, then, my mate, and prepare to be impressed.

“Oh, I’ll be impressed,” I tease, and tighten my reinforced harness. If we’re going upside down, I need to be prepared. I hook one arm under my handlebar and then ready my stopwatch. “Ready to do this?”

And what do I win if I ‘blow your mind’ this time, my mate? There’s a sexy tease in his mind that makes my skin prickle with delight. I like that he’s picking up some of my euphemisms, too.

I pretend to consider my options, though we always play for the same thing. “Hmm. A kiss?”

Do I get to pick where? And he sends me a rather naughty visual.

“Yup.” I grin and pull my goggles down over my eyes. “Let’s do this. On my mark…” I click the stopwatch. “Go!”

Kael heaves himself into the air with such speed that it feels like my brains rock backward. I laugh with crazy delight as he pounds his wings through the air, racing for the nearest building on my obstacle course. One touched, and then the next in quick succession. I cling to the saddle handlebar as he hits building number two and bounds off of it so hard that the metal frame collapses behind us.

You’re making a mess, I call out gleefully.

Don’t distract me!

Off he goes to building three. Once he slams his legs into it and twists, we’re off to number four. Immediately we flip in mid-air, and I smother my scream, holding on tight. Flying upside down is terrifying—and also a huge rush. I’m strapped in well enough that I know I’m not going anywhere, but it still steals my breath every time. I jolt as we smack against building number four, and then Kael rights himself, diving low to go under the overpass. He glides along, grabs a car, and then we’re making a beeline for the distant Trinity River.

By the time he dumps it in, I’m laughing with the sheer pleasure of flying.

Time? he asks, but I can hear the pleased amusement in his thoughts. He loves my reactions to his crazy antics in the air.

I click the stopwatch and check it. “Minute fifty-eight,” I admit, impressed. “You’re faster every time we clock this.”

I enjoy the rewards, he tells me slyly, and tilts his wings, then begins to beat them, rising higher. After a ‘bet,’ we always head to our favorite spot—the sandy shore of our lake—for a quick bath and some fooling around. Now let me think of where I would like my kiss this time.

And I chuckle, because I know he doesn’t have to think about it. Kael always likes my mouth in one particular spot, because it always leads to more.

A short time later, we’re both naked on the shore, and sweaty from a round of lovemaking. I’m lying atop Kael, my legs sprawled over his hips, and my breasts and crossed arms resting on his chest. He’s become an enthusiastic advocate for woman-on-top, which apparently isn’t much of a thing with his people, since the females have to be defeated and dominated. The first time I pushed him onto his back, I thought he’d lose his mind. Now it’s one of our go-to positions.

Well, along with missionary, doggy, and every other position we can possibly think of. We just really, really like sex together.

“I suppose we should get up soon,” I tell him, tracing a finger over the scales on his shoulder. His claws are gliding up and down my back, lightly scratching at me.

He arches an eyebrow at my words, and I blush, because it’s clear from my thoughts that I’m not in a hurry to go back, no matter what I say aloud. I like our private time. Melina’s back in the city for the most part—though we run errands for her when she sends a message now and then—but Amy still lives in our apartment with us. She’s still wearing my dirty clothes and using my shampoo, and when we’re gone, she takes to her ‘panic’ room that we’ve set up a few floors down in the building’s old security room. In case of emergency, Amy can lock herself into a room with a steel door and reinforced walls. She has a flare gun she can pop off in case of danger, and several air horns to alert us if we’re nearby and somehow miss a big honking dragon horning in on Kael’s territory.

For the most part, things are quiet, though. Male dragons have been largely absent from our area because they sense a male with his mate and don’t wish to disturb our nest, Kael tells me. We see an occasional red or two, but Kael’s able to drive them away.

Ironically enough, since we’ve ‘settled’ in this territory, we’re protecting Fort Dallas. The dragon attacks have stopped since this is now Kael’s territory instead of a place to fight over. Dakh is somewhere on the outskirts of the city, I think, but we don’t go looking for him. I don’t like leaving Amy alone, even with the panic room set-up, because I remember all-too-well that Kael tore apart a building to get to me.

If I have to choose between Sasha and Amy, I choose Amy. I know that Sasha must be safe out there somewhere, and I feel guilty that she didn’t get to pick her fate. But it has to be better than what was waiting for her back in Fort Dallas. I tell myself that. Often.

Sometimes it helps the guilt, sometimes not.

At some point, when Amy’s safe, I do think I’d like to go searching for Sasha and Dakh. I want to know what happened to my friend—one way or another. And I want to travel to see what the rest of the country is like. Are there bigger, better cities than Fort Dallas? What about the dragon girl in Fort Orleans? There are so many places I want to visit since we can fly anywhere…but Amy’s safety comes first. I don’t know that she’d be safe on Kael’s back, or if other dragons would be attracted to her scent and attack us to get to her.