Fused in Fire (Page 45)

Another roar shook my bones. People screamed. The crackling of fire sounded to the left. Shouts and yells, closer now. We were running out of time.

Darius placed three casings into his open palm before closing his satchel and digging into his backpack. He pulled out a vial of blood.

“If your mind goes hazy with this, just try to operate on your survival instincts. Don’t think, just do. You need the boost, or we’ll never make it.” He handed it over.

I upended it into my mouth as Darius stepped away, murmuring something I couldn’t hear. He crushed the casings in his palm, paused for a beat, and then threw them with all his might.

“Let’s go!” he shouted, and reached for me.

I let him hold my hand until I could yank the zip on my pouch closed. I shook out of his grasp. “Only silly girls in action movies hold hands when they are running for their lives!”

I took off toward the stairs as the ground started to shake. Something hit off my head, and for once, it wasn’t a drop of water. It was a rock.

More came down, the ceiling shedding, and a crack ran through the stone underfoot. The rock walls to our sides made a weird sort of grinding noise.

The shaking keyed up a notch, and I staggered to the side, losing my balance. Darius lurched the other way, reaching for me.

I batted his hand away as I righted. He was more graceful than me and clearly not used to falling. I, on the other hand, was an old pro. It didn’t bother me one bit.

“Let’s go, let’s go!” he yelled over the groaning.

Rocks rained down freely now, bouncing off my head and striking my shoulders and arms and feet. The crack in the ground enlarged as another started up.

An explosion knocked me to my knees, jolting the ground under me. Another pushed me forward onto my hands.

Darius pulled me up by my arm and shoved me in front of him, staggering like a drunk.

“What the hell was that spell?” I hollered as we neared two waist-high beams that denoted the base of the stairs. I grabbed Darius with air and let fire burn around my feet. Yes, I’d agreed not to use my power, but I wasn’t about to let us die. Besides, with all the chaos, who would notice? “Not even Penny has that kind of power.”

“When the natural mage surfaces, it’s usually to make money. I am unusually generous with him. It keeps him coming back. For this spell…he had help.” He looked behind us. “Go fast!”

I lifted us with air and basically flew up the steps, moving my feet like I was running, hoping no one would be the wiser.

“Hurry!” Darius shouted, his hand hitting off the air as he tried to clutch my arm.

I hazarded a glance back, because even though I was reasonably intelligent, I rarely proved it. The dragon pumped its wings, rising into the sky, not flinching as the rocks rained down. Looking straight at us.

“Oh sh—” I put everything into it, hightailing it up the stairs and hauling Darius with me.

I quickly learned that, when fear and panic were raging through me, I couldn’t levitate as quickly as I could run. At least not yet. I set us down, lined the stairs with fire so we could see, and we took two stairs at a time. The flap of wings blotted out the pounding of my feet. My muscles screamed from exertion. Darius’s heart hammered.

“Where the fuck is the fucking door, Batman?” I yelled, grinding my teeth.

The dragon’s roar assaulted my senses and shook my body. I glanced back and saw its huge talons reaching for me.

We need a miracle… Darius’s thought looped around my mind.

The claw touched my side, and the foot closed, nearly surrounding me. It wanted to capture, not kill me.

My father’s dragon was about to capture me. Did he know?

My toe hit a step and I tumbled forward. Darius grabbed my arm and yanked. The world tilted. Sucked at me.

My face hit the hard ground. Darius landed on top of me before quickly rolling off. I jerked around, staring wide-eyed at the horizontal line in the sky. The gate.

We’d made it.

“Holy—” I sucked in a breath, relief flooding through me. “Crap.”

His hand moved over mine. “Yes. We made it.”

We took a moment to just breathe, but all too soon, reality returned. We had gotten through, but that didn’t mean they wouldn’t come after us. Did it? “Should we run? Will they come through?”

“I don’t know, but let’s err on the side of caution. Unless it is day in the Brink. I’ve lost all sense of time.”

I was up and running before he was. We didn’t worry about passing any wide-eyed creatures, and we didn’t. Soon enough, the black of the sky leading to the gate melted into the burnt orange of night. It would be night in the Brink. Thank all that was holy.

A while later, we stood at the gate. Adrenaline surged through me. My heart raced. Laughter bubbled up.

I stepped through first, waited for Darius, and then threw my arms around him. My laugher grew louder as Darius turned to me. He stroked my face. A small smile curved his full lips and his honeyed eyes sparkled. “We made it.”

A tear squeezed out. I took his hand. Yes, we had. Miracle of miracles, we had accomplished the impossible, and made it back in one piece.

Chapter Thirty-One

The next day, I rubbed at my sandy eyes and wiggled a little closer to Darius. We’d headed straight to his house in the French Quarter, and I’d barely found the energy to climb up the stairs. We had gone straight to bed. No food, no canoodling, just sleep.

I glanced over at the clock and did the thinking equivalent of scratching my head. Could that be right?

It had been nearly twenty-four hours since we’d hit the bed. Holy crap.

I ran a hand across Darius’s defined chest, relishing in his heat, in the steady beating of his heart, which I felt in his chest and through the bond. I had made it out because of him. Hell, I’d made it in because of him. He’d been right: I had needed him. Without question. He had just the right amount of knowledge, ability to strategize, intelligence, and daring to shine down there.

I was really lucky.

And really horny. The jaunt through the lust sect hadn’t completely left my system. A lot of the underworld hadn’t completely left my system. There were parts I actually missed. That I’d like to visit again. I hadn’t expected that. I hadn’t expected the peaceful feeling in some areas, and the adrenaline rush in others. I hadn’t expected to belong so well.

It was not meant to be. My home was here. In safety. With Darius.

I let my hand trail over his six-pack and under the covers, then slid my palm against his velvety skin. He breathed out and turned his head to me. I claimed his lips while stroking. He reached for me, pulling me tightly against him.

I threw a leg over his hips and straddled him.

“I enjoy waking up to you,” he said, pushing his hips upward. I moaned into his kiss, rubbing against him until he was ready, then pausing so we could properly line up.

“Me too,” I said.

I fell into his kiss. The feel of him.

Sitting down was bliss, flipping my stomach and eliciting a long moan. I moved against him. A fervor came over me, and I needed him in a way I couldn’t put into words.

His hands drifted up my chest and cupped my breasts, teasing my nipples as I swirled my hips. A moment later, he lowered a hand to below my stomach, working me to a fever pitch with his tricky fingers.

I let my head fall back with a loud moan. This felt ten times better since the bonding. Magnified from our normal lovemaking.

On the edge, my body gloriously tight, I squeezed my eyes shut. An explosion of sensation rocked me, making me cry out. He shuddered a moment later, crushing me to his chest.

After taking a moment to come down, I asked, “Do you need to feed?”

“Yes. After you eat?”

“Sounds great. How long do I have you for?”

“Eternity.”

“No, I mean, until you have to work. I assume you missed a lot of…whatever it is you do.”

He slid his hands down my back and to my butt. He lifted me away and then immediately pulled me back, ready for more. “I have no idea, since I don’t know how long we were down there, but I will make time for you, Reagan. I will always make time for you.”

I didn’t mention that he was a vampire, and really had nothing but time. It was a nice sentiment. I didn’t want to ruin the moment for once.

He thrust into me, lighting up my senses. Then again, so deep and right. Faster and faster he moved, pulling me down as he pushed up. My body wound up, gloriously tight. Wetter than normal.

I frowned at that stray thought, but it wouldn’t shake loose. Half of me soaked in the delicious feel of him. Of the emotion attached to this action. Of our love. But the other half of my brain realized something wasn’t the same. It reminded me of sex with a human…somehow.

An orgasm hit me, making me clench my teeth. More hot wetness invaded my thoughts.

Something was definitely different.

“We need to eat,” I said, moving off him as I tried to identify what was weird.

“What is the mat—” He cut off, staring down at himself.

I followed his gaze before checking my lady bits with my fingertips. “Is that what I think it is?”

He went unnaturally still.

I touched the gooey stuff. Stuff that vampires shouldn’t be able to produce. “I am really glad I haven’t stopped the birth control, or I would be freaking out right now. But is that for real? Did you ejaculate?”