Page 17 of Dragon Lord

D raknart could not take his gaze off the goddess, for Belisama would not release him. But from the corner of his eye, he saw Einin on her feet again, taking one stumbling step after the other toward Belinus as the god drew her.

“Your gift pleases me, dragon,” the god said.

Draknart struggled to move, muscles popping, sweat pouring down his body, but he was as weak as a pup in his human form.

“No!” he roared. “She’s not to be taken!”

The swirling column of light that was the goddess suddenly stilled. The great pressure that held Draknart to the ground eased. Not enough for him to rise, but enough so he could breathe easier.

“You’d be willing to face a god’s displeasure for her?” Fascination tempered the goddess’s sharp tone. “You claim her as yours?”

“She is her own,” Draknart growled the words, baring his teeth.

The goddess laughed. “Dragon, are you in love?” The column of light bent at the top as she gave him a closer look.

“You angered me for many years. Centuries. Now I suddenly find you amusing. Never before have I been surprised by one of your kind. Maybe all of you are not as dreadfully predictable as I thought.”

He bowed his head deep, nearly to the ground. “I beg you, goddess, do with me as you wish, only save Einin from Belinus.”

A gale of laughter filled the clearing. “You are in love. How delightful.” She considered him for a long moment. “Let us make a bargain.”

“Aye.” He would agree to anything as long as Belinus didn’t carry Einin off into Fae Land.

“You accept my curse. You will remain a halfling until your death. Neither in man’s world, nor in dragon’s, reviled and hunted by all. A permanent curse, willingly taken, that cannot ever be lifted.”

Every cell of his body protested, everything that he was and had ever been screamed No!

Cursed forever. Gods, but forever was a long time for a dragon. He could live another thousand years or more. Cursed. The thought made him want to rage, made him want to hurl himself from the nearest tall cliff.

“Aye,” he said through gritted teeth.

“Long after the human woman is dead and gone, you will be halfling still. For centuries and centuries, until one of your kind catches you at a disadvantage and rips out your throat.”

“Aye.”

“This woman might not want you. She simmers with anger. She might leave you as soon as Belinus releases her. But you will still remain a halfling forever.”

“Aye.”

The pillar of light that was the goddess drew back. “You surprise me, dragon.” Her stillness dissolved into movement, a swirling column of white. “So be it. I curse you anew.”

The last few words echoed in Draknart’s head, and he knew she spoke them to him alone. Nobody else could hear them.

“I curse you anew,” Belisama said, “yet balance must be kept, so I will bless her. For each day she willingly stays with you, a day will be added to her short human life. But she must never learn about this blessing. She must stay with you for love, not to extend the number of her days. Should she ever find out, my blessing will end.”

“Aye.”

The air shimmered. Draknart could not draw breath. Darkness was gathering at the edges of his vision, when the goddess mercifully turned her attention to Belinus at last. Power pulsed from her in waves.

“Jealous, my love?” the god teased.

The goddess expanded. “Enough to burn the world.”

The deep chuckle that rumbled forth from the god sounded pleased.

He shone brighter. His boundaries grew and grew, until Draknart could no longer look at either one of them.

He only sensed them moving toward each other.

When they touched, the explosion of energy knocked Dracknart on his back. Their hold on him was released.

Pure divine power blew through the clearing like a storm.

Unable to stand, Draknart crawled to Einin, head down, as if fighting strong headwinds. She lay still on the ground, pale but breathing. The gods’ attention and then the explosion of power had overwhelmed her human body.

The storm raged hard, then harder, until she was in danger of being blown away.

“Hold on, lass.” Draknart clawed the earth, wishing for his talons, holding on to clumps of grass as he struggled forward. Then he reached her at last and sheltered her in his arms, carried her behind the giant rock formation by the deer path. That he had the storm and the wind at his back, helped.

He hurled himself into an indentation in the rock, barely a cave, so small that his dragon body would have filled it to the brim.

But as he hid Einin in the most sheltered corner, putting himself between her and danger, he found more room ahead, then more and more as the cave seemed to expand—either the god or the goddess giving them room to survive.

Draknart kept going with gratitude in his heart, all the way to the very back of the cave, into darkness.

Einin revived and startled, struggled in his arms. As she had no dragon vision, she probably saw nothing.

“It is I, Draknart. I have you, sweeting.” He had to raise his voice. ’Twas loud as an ocean storm out there. If they were lucky enough to ever leave the cave alive, he doubted they were going to find a single tree standing.

“Have I been struck blind?”

The panic in Einin’s voice made Draknart hold her tighter. “We are in the dark of a cave.”

She settled against his chest, as if her clash with the angry deities had exhausted her near unto death. “And the gods?”

He cradled her as he turned so she’d be next to the rock wall while he stood between her and the cave’s opening, shielding her with his body. “The gods are mating.”

“It seems very terrible.”

“’Tis not meant to be witnessed by lesser beings.” Which worried him more than anything else just then.

The appearance of the cave meant that either the god or the goddess meant to shelter them. But the threat that their protector would forget about them in the heat of passion was real. And what would happen then? Would Draknart and Einin be sealed inside the rock?

Yet the cave was their best chance for survival. Going outside was certain suicide.

Einin wriggled to slip her feet to the ground, so Draknart released her. He did not want her out of reach, but he was prepared to let her go. When she put her arms around his waist and held on tight, he could have kissed her.

She laid her head on his chest and shouted toward his ear, “Can we survive?”

Had he his great dragon body, Draknart could have protected her better. He could have flown her through the gale that raged outside. But as a weak human…

Frustration silenced him.

Einin clung to him tighter. “Will we die?”

He told her the truth. “Aye. We might.”

A wave of pure lust cut off the reassurance he meant to add. Einin seemed similarly affected. She gasped, dropping to her knees, before Draknart could catch her.

“What…is…this?” Her eyes swam with confusion, her tone thick with desperation.

He reached for her to pull her up, but instead he ended up lowering himself onto the ground next to her.

Best to save his strength to fight what was to come.

The urge to rip off her clothes and mate with her was overpowering.

Draknart growled, his hands curling into fists, his breathing labored as he leaned toward her, unable to resist.

“Pull your sword,” his ragged tone was filled with primal need. Never had he felt more like a wild animal. “Fight me off.”

She stared at him with lust-glazed eyes. Then a brief flicker of recognition at the bottom of her gaze said she finally grasped what was happening. But she was as powerless as he. With a soft cry, she threw herself into his arms.

His mouth took hers in a rough kiss. She let him in, but if she hadn’t, he might have used his tongue to force her already swollen lips to part. Nothing existed but his need for her, his urgent need to be inside her tight, wet heat.

He ripped her clothes away without stopping the savage kiss, and she clawed his naked back, not in protest but to urge him to hurry.

Virgin. Untouched. Will hurt.

The thoughts had no substance in his brain. The words like the mist over the meadows at dawn, there one moment, disappearing the next. He was so filled with lust, no room remained for logic or good intentions.

He pushed her down onto the dirt floor of the cave and settled himself between her legs. Her slim thighs immediately wrapped around his waist, her small but strong hands kneading his chest, then sliding down his rib cage.

“Slow down.” He didn’t know which one of them he was ordering.

Neither of them obeyed.

His swollen, throbbing hardness was poised at her opening, touching the wet entrance as she squirmed under him.

“No.” He found the strength to hold still. “Einin, sweeting. I want you more than I want to live, but we should wait.” The words hurt coming up his throat, as if they were shredded chainmail.

“Draknart, I need… I need so much…”

“I know, sweeting.” He wasn’t going to move. Not if staying still killed him. “Think of something else.”

“I’ve seen you naked more than I’ve seen you with your clothes on.”

“Not that.”

“You look different from the men in the village. When I look at them, I feel nothing. When I look at you, I feel warmth filling my belly, and lower.”

He groaned. “Are you trying to kill me?”

“I thought about it. I planned it even.”

“Good. Think about that.”

“I don’t want to kill you right now.”

“Maybe you should. Where is that damned sword?”

“I want to touch you.”

His arms trembled. “You’re touching me.”

“I want you to touch me. I want you to touch me everywhere.”

“Not like this.”

“You tasted me before. You can taste me again, if you wish.”

“If I wish?” He gave a strangled laugh. “Never mind. Mayhap it’s better if we don’t talk.”

“I don’t want to talk. I want you to take me like a man takes a woman.”

“Eini—”

She cut him off with a desperate cry as she surged up under him and impaled herself on his straining manhood. “Please.”