Chapter 23 #2
“Yes, my sweet. It’s the mating fever.” I stroked the side of her face, and she leaned into my caress with a soft smile.
“Are you… Are you going to fuck me into oblivion now?” she asked, still wide-eyed, but sounding more intrigued than terrified now.
“Only if that’s something you want.”
Gods, fucking was all I could think about now. The dragon’s animalistic need for coupling merged with the fae’s mating urge, creating a head-spinning mix. But I’d be damned if I hurt her, even if the lust burned me alive.
She bit her lip, leaning over me. “Are you sure you can give me that choice? Because that’s not what I’ve heard about the shadow fae’s mating fever. I heard it turns you into animals, unable to think and incapable of restraint.”
“I’m already half animal, remember?” I raised my tail between us in demonstration. “Only half of me is still of fae. I only have half as strong of a mating fever to restrain.”
Of course, the dragon half remained permanently aroused by Elaine. It’d be torture akin to death to stay away from her. I hoped I wouldn’t have to, and it was a relief beyond measure when she gently stroked my hair, then kissed me, pressing her flushed body to mine.
“I don’t know if it’s still the lingering aftereffects of the golden hyacinth or if it’s the usual effect that your charming self has on me, but I absolutely don’t mind being ravaged by you,” she murmured between kisses.
Her smile was brilliant. The look in her eyes was the one that would send me into battle for her without a moment of hesitation. And I couldn’t hold the words back anymore.
“I love you,” I said, cupping her face and drowning in her eyes, in her tenderness, and in her joy. I didn’t even need to connect to her to remember how much joy she always had when she looked at me like this.
“Feel me,” she whispered as I rose over her again, ready to claim her. “I want you to know how your love makes me feel.”
I released my tendrils, ready to dive into her emotions. And when I did, I realized how similar they were to mine. Tenderness, caring, devotion, and love—I felt them all too. Only Elaine’s world was also illuminated by joy, by that pure happiness I knew she only ever felt when she was with me.
The pathetic fools who tried to steal her from me never grasped that. They stole and bought humans. They had Elaine. But they were too stupid to understand that true happiness could never be stolen or bought. For joy to exist, it had to be given freely.
“How long has it been since you brought me here?” Elaine asked, sitting in the cushions in our new bed.
The light from the glowing veins in the ceiling mosaic reflected in the crystal lenses of her glasses that I had returned to her the moment we could get our hands off each other and take a break.
A wooden tray was on her lap. It held dishes with fresh fruit, cooked rice sweetened with honey, and a tall glass of water—all of them nearly empty now that she had almost finished with her meal.
The fruit and rice had been delivered from the market by the same people whom Tobis had sent to clean the house.
I wasn’t in the position to go to the market myself, with my cock still standing hard most of the time and my mating cluster aglow.
I feared the situation currently happening in my crotch would attract even more attention than my wings or my tail if I ventured out, no matter how many skirts I’d put on.
I made a quick calculation in my head, based on what the cleaning people had told me when delivering food.
“About fifteen hours or so,” I replied to Elaine. “We’ve been here for fifteen hours now. And those were some of the best hours of my life, thanks to you, my love.”
I kissed her, and Elaine put a grape into my mouth with a laugh.
“You need to eat too.”
I ate the grape, then kissed her again.
“So,” she said, playfully. “Fifteen hours, and I’ve yet to see our new house.”
We’d been too preoccupied with loving each other in every way our bodies allowed for her to even get out of bed yet.
“I’ll take you through it.” I dragged her onto my lap, ready to fly up.
“No, wait. My head is spinning even when I’m not moving. I’m afraid I’d throw up if you take me flying. I’m just… I’m still trying to figure out what exactly happened in all those hours, as well as the hours before that.”
She took a bite of an apricot, then set it back on the plate and moved the tray aside.
“I remember waiting for you in our cave,” she said slowly, keeping her gaze on the bitten fruit while going back into her memories.
“The water… No, there was the voice first. The mage, Suhai. He told me he could cure you!” She snapped her gaze to me.
“We need to find him. He said he has a way to extend your life by thirty years.”
I rubbed my chin, wondering where to begin.
“Well, I don’t believe Suhai’s magic was much stronger than what was necessary to create these.” I pointed at the glasses perched on her nose. “And even if it was, he made too many mistakes for me to trust him with anything more invasive than taking measurements.”
“But what if what he said is true? Shouldn’t we at least consider it since we don’t have any other choice?”
The familiar desperate hope filled her, spilling over to me through my tendrils.
“Oh, sweetheart, come here.” I pulled her onto my lap. “I believe there is a much greater power in you than Suhai could ever possess or even comprehend.”
“In me? But I don’t have any magic. I’m a human, remember?”
“You’re far more magical than you think. It was foolish of me to think that my connection to you could ever harm me. The corrupted way that Ray was drinking his Joy Vessels’ emotions was what ruined him.”
“You think so?”
I really did. Seeing Prince Rha with Elaine’s friend convinced me.
The prince and Dawn were inseparable and obviously in love.
But it didn’t damage them. On the contrary, it seemed to have made them both stronger.
Their love for each other created a bond that even made it possible for a human woman to use the shadow magic of the tendrils.
When humans were mistreated, however, their emotions ruined the fae who consumed them.
“They say that golden hyacinth has no ill effects on shadow fae unless it’s used in a few very specific spells,” I explained. “But it obviously harms humans. I think when fae consume the emotions of the inebriated humans, it damages them too.”
Elaine nodded thoughtfully. “That would explain the behavior of those from the queen’s court too then. I wondered if the emotions of drunk humans eventually made the fae who shared them act like drunks too.”
“Exactly.” I kissed her hair, then stretched my right leg.
“Look.” I traced the vertical line where the scales on the outside met the skin on my inner thigh.
“The way it used to progress before I met you, I should have at least a whole new row of scales here by now. But I didn’t get a single new scale since the day they tried to steal you from our hut on the beach. ”
“The day when you first connected your tendrils to me,” she whispered, tracing the line of the scales with her finger too.
“According to my calculations, I should’ve lost another tendril at least a week ago too. But the bone never progressed past this vertebra.” I touched the edge of the bones just below the back of my neck.
She gasped, leaning over me to see the bones on my back. “Are you saying the poison stopped progressing then?”
“I think that at the very least, it has slowed down significantly.”
The only thing I’d discovered since that day on the beach was my ability to breathe fire. But that may actually not be new. I could’ve gotten the ability long ago. I just never used it until they enraged me beyond control by taking my Elaine from me.
“There is a great magic in your love, my sweet,” I said. “We definitely don’t need Suhai and his lies to meddle into our lives, which is a good thing because…” I scratched behind my ear. “Well, he’s dead now anyway.”
“He is? Suhai is dead? How do you know?”
“I killed him,” I said simply and explained since she stared at me in shock. “He was at Mazra’s place when I found you. He was one of them.”
She blinked, the deep lines of a frown forming between her eyebrows.
“He came to the doors of our cave,” she said slowly, remembering. “He told me about the solution he said he’d found for you. Something about extending your lifespan by using mine.”
“Only a mating bond can do that,” I said. “But normally, it expands the life of a human to match that of their fae mate, not the other way around.”
“Well, he tried to convince me that he could do it. But…” She moved her eyes to mine.
“I didn’t open the door, Timur. I told him I would need to make that decision with you.
Then…” She frowned again, dropping her head between her shoulders and rubbing her forehead.
“The water…I kept drinking the water, but they laced it with the tea or juice or whatever they used to make me so horny, I lost my mind. I thought I would die. I opened the door…just to stop it all.”
I wrapped her trembling form in my arms and cradled her to my chest.
“It’s over now. I’m here. You’re safe,” I murmured into her hair between soothing kisses.
“And everyone who has wronged you is now nothing but shadows and ash,” I added in my mind with deep, dark satisfaction.
“I…I don’t remember much of what happened after that,” she said in a small voice.
“Mazra and her people took you. I found you with them.” Echo of the loss twisted painfully in my heart. “I learned about you being taken from the man who sold us this house. I flew to get you back, and Ashgate had to fall.”
Her mouth fell open. “What happened to Ashgate?”
“I didn’t get to see its very final moments, but I set the city on fire, and knowing Prince Rha, he finished the rest. The prince is always thorough in his conquests.”
“Prince Rha came with you?” Her astonishment grew.
“He did.” I nodded, stroking her wild hair. “Along with many of his best warriors. We should visit the royal palace soon. I gave your friend my word that I’d bring you to Teneris.”
“My friend?” She blinked, grabbing my hand. “What friend?”
“Dawn.”
“Dawn!” She climbed to her knees before throwing herself into my arms. “Dawn is here? Did you see her? With your own eyes?”
Her excitement burst through my tendrils like fireworks. I laughed, unable to process that much emotion in any other way.
“Yes, my sweet darling, I saw her with my own eyes. I talked to her. She even hugged me.”
She brought a hand to her mouth, trying to contain her excitement. “Oh, Timur, I need to see her. Can we go to the palace right now?”
I glanced down at my straining cock and the undulating feelers of its surrounding cluster.
“I guess I could wear an underskirt,” I muttered. “From some very heavy material. Like chainmail maybe?”
She pushed me down onto my back, then climbed on top of me with a happy giggle. “No skirt will contain that monster, and you know it. We’ll have to do something about it right now.”
I hissed in pleasure as she aligned my cock with her opening. My control waned, and the feelers of my mating cluster wiggled toward her.
“Ohhh…” She stilled at their contact.
I focused all my senses on my unruly wiggling appendages, making them stroke and rub her exactly where she needed them.
“Just when I thought it couldn’t get any better with you,” she breathed out, “you go ahead and grow those things. Ahh… Oh, it’s so good, Timur.”
She rotated her hips a little, getting used to all the new sensations that my mating cluster made her feel. Then with a long, blissful sigh, she lowered herself onto my cock.
Our combined pleasure rushed me. I tipped my head back and closed my eyes, savoring every drop of it.
“Elaine, my woman…my treasure…my salvation,” I chanted in reverence as she moved over me.
When the pleasure crested with our joint orgasm, Elaine exhaled a moan, and I caught her in my arms, our bodies warm and relaxed against each other.
“I love you, Timur,” she murmured into my chest, “more than I ever thought was possible.”
“I love you too, my sweet, precious darling.”
Happiness enveloped me. No longer a fae, never to become fully a dragon, I was completely at peace with who I was. As long as she loved me.