Chapter 26
I stay close to Jorusk, but mostly remain quiet as he gets to know his parents. We walk up the hillside among gardens as Drathious mingle with Drathis. We sit around a fountain of red-orange liquid that shimmers like water but glows like lava.
Jorusk was the last egg they chose to send after deciding that if they didn’t hear back, he was gone and the realm beyond was too dangerous. I also learn that the eggs were easier to maintain life support for than an adult with their limited supplies.
“And you two were recently mated?” the queen asks.
Jorusk draws me close. “Yes. We didn’t have much time with the empire threatening our friends.
“Then we must make sure you get to race the mountain tops and dance by the fire,” the king insists.
“We may take a flight, but we cannot race. I do not want to risk our first egg.”
Hearing Jorusk say the words sends a flutter through my belly.
The queen takes my hand in hers. “Anything you need, you tell me.”
I thank her and see the same gentle care in her that my mother had. And I have missed it so much.
“Do I have any siblings?” Jorusk hesitantly asks.
“No,” King Traosis solemnly replies. “We tried but were unable. Heartbreak like that is hard to get over.”
“Why did you sacrifice me?” Jorusk rubs his chest like he’s afraid they didn’t want him, but I can already tell he meant everything, and giving him up was the hardest thing they had to do.
“We were the only ones who still had hope,” his mother replies.
Fire pits flare across the land as darkness falls.
“The Devil’s Dance begins.” King Traosis gets up “Tonight, we bond with fire. Tomorrow we bond with the wind in a flight through the mountains to our ancestral homes.”
Flames light up his wings.
“Joris…” The queen whispers, turning to me. “I do apologize.”
“For what?” She clearly sees something in his fire that I cannot. Even Jorusk tamps back a smile and looks away from him.
“It has been many years.” King Traosis pulls the queen against him. “I must…attend to my mate. I have not felt up to it in many years. She deserves better.
“Please choose a fire pit, bond with your flame, and meet us for food and conversation when the moon rises later tonight.”
The king takes the queen by the hand and leads her up a stone path to a fire pit, where he steps out of his armor, and his body catches fire. The queen does the same, and they begin stalking each other around the blaze until I cannot tell where the pit begins, and they end.
All over the gardens, I see a similar pattern: Drathis dancing around the fire, just two, until they become one with the blaze.
“Are they…doing it in the pit?” Fieri asks, looking on in horror.
I glance up at him and shrug. “I don’t know. But I’m sure as hell not. We have perfectly good rooms on my ship.”
Jorusk hauls me up by a hand and tilts toward Fieri. “Better find a Drath ship, so you don’t torch any seedlings.”
“What…us?” Fieri steals a glance at Cinuska, whose wings catch fire. “We just…I’m not sure…”
Cinuska gets up and winks at him. “A slow burn then.”
Fieri peers helplessly back at me as she leads him away to another pit.
The singles of the crews below us dance in rhythmic movements around bonfires to a hint of drum music. Jorusk leads me to a vacant fire pit. “Keep your armor on. I do not want anyone laying eyes on your skin but me.”
Then he steps back, removes his armor, and lets his body ignite. But it’s the fire in his eyes that has me eager to find out just how hot his love can burn.
Jorusk spreads his wings. Flames crawl across them, licking off the ends.
And he is so magnificent that I can’t seem to get my body to move.
So he dances around me, circling the blaze, making his way back to me.
His radiant hands snake over my body, heating my flesh through my Hellion suit.
Jorusk nears my neck and breathes out a smoky breath that sends embers whirling around me.
He kisses me with hot lips, then slinks away again.
The drum music grows as a group of Drathis on the hill joins in. Jorusk moves to the beat, his wings swaying, gently dipping, and rising with the pulse of the fire pit as if he and the music and the blaze all have a common language.
I glance over at Fieri at the next pit. He’s just as frozen in the heat of Cinuska’s fiery dance as I am in Jorusk’s. He looks awkward, but I give Fieri a thumbs up, which he returns.
Jorusk’s predatory gaze finds me through the flames. The drum beat hits harder and heavier. And I notice the movement of every Drathis and Drathious has paused.
He steps into the fire, inhales, stretches his wings to the sky with his hands, and lets out a primal Rage Roar that is echoed by the thousands of Drath throughout the complex.
It ripples through the mirage, deflects off the mountains, even as Jorusk and the others quiet.
It is the most powerful sound I’ve ever experienced.
I feel it in my heart and thrumming deep into my bones.
He steps out of the fire toward me, leaving the flames behind him.
His body smokes. Jorusk strains to catch his breath.
Then he takes me by the back of my neck and draws me against his mouth with force.
He slides his other hand around my low back and draws my hips against his.
He’s raging hard, hot to the touch, and carries the light scent of a smoking matchstick.
The caress of his forked tongue is an addicting sensation, and I can already feel the veins of fire rising in my face to compensate for his scorching touch.
Up on the hill, the king and queen pause their dance to look at us. They whisper, and I’m certain they’re trying to figure out what’s going on. In time, we will talk, but for now, all I want is the sexy as hell Drath who has eyes for only me.
“Want to get out of here?” he asks.
“Just waiting for you to ask.” I envision Jorusk’s bedroom inside DIA and tap the portal in my armor. In a red-hot flash, we leave the fire pits behind and are standing in Jorusk’s room in front of his bed.
“Oh, we are going to use that a lot,” he chuckles.
He deftly removes me from the Hellion suit and finds me still in my regular armor. “Of course, Aura doubled you up.”
“Because I’m pregnant. He didn’t want to risk it.”
Jorusk works quickly to remove my personal armor. “Remind me to kick his electric ass later for letting you go on that mission.”
“Don’t be too hard…”
“Oh, I’m rock hard.” Jorusk bites my bra off, and then lays me back on his bed.
“I meant on Aura…”
His searing fingers glide down my sides and over my hips, where he tears my panties free with his teeth.
“I was pretty insistent,” I admit. “Went a little crazy when you were taken.”
Jorusk glides his steaming tongue over my nub and back between my folds, igniting a wildfire that courses through my nerves, over my flesh, and deep into my soul.
He plays in my folds before suckling me hard and then crawling up to me. Jorusk rakes his teeth up my breasts, grazing my nipples, and sending delicious tides of heat through me.
Jorusk lets his wings rest on the floor as he snakes his arms up behind my back. He kisses my throat, nips at my jaw, then bites my neck, just hard enough to draw a little blood. “You are mine.”
The pain vanishes as my synthetic Inferno rushes to heat the injury and seal it.
His warm breath travels down my neck to my shoulder, where he leaves a long, tender kiss.
“Mine,” he growls with his Inferno-laced voice.
My pussy tightens in anticipation.
He takes my hands, binds them above my head, and sweeps his lips over mine. His eyes lock on mine, filled with the radiant blaze he holds inside.
His hot tip finds my opening.
“I love you, Brynna. To the ends of the universe.”
Then he pushes inside and steals my breath before I can tell him how I feel. Jorusk pushes deeper, stretching my hips, and sending a sweet firestorm coursing through me that carries me into a new kind of heaven.
Our bodies move as one with every erotic bonding. And slowly, it gets easier to take him. A little more light dances across my skin. My high rises fast but lingers this time, burning hotter and longer until I’m certain I’m a star, shooting across the sky.
“That’s it.” Jorusk thrusts with more force, a dark mischief dancing between the flames in his eyes.
I clench hard around him, setting off an explosive euphoria that inundates my body.
Jorusk pants as he encourages my climax on with every scorching pump of his seed into me. He grunts as he bonds us to the max and binds us together like he’s desperate for the moment to never end.
His lips find my damp chest for a breathless kiss. Then he frees my hands and draws one of them to his mouth. Jorusk presses my radiant fingers to his lips.
He rests his forehead against mine. “Thank you for not running from me, for following me here, for staying with me, and for fighting your way to me even when I was behind enemy walls. You have an Inferno that burns hotter than any other I’ve ever encountered.”
I kiss his lips and smile. “Love you, too.”
He smiles shyly and wraps his body around mine, his tail flicking back and forth behind him. I hold him close, no longer afraid of the future or the war, because I know I’ve finally found the family that will stick with me to the bitter end.