Chapter 39
The song of the gold surrounded them, making them one. Their minds merged together, whispering words like love, heart, and forever over and over. Their lips explored and tasted, hot and hard and soft and yearning, tongues tangling and hands cupping, stroking, finding each other’s most secret and sensitive places with the instincts of lovers who had known each other for years, decades, centuries.
Zane couldn’t just hear Blaze in his mind, he could feel her, feel her sensations as much as his own: the shiver as he kissed between her legs, his own belly clenching as she stroked his hot, hard shaft. Her lips, her teeth, her nails digging into him as she gasped with pleasure, and the flush of her skin as he stroked her, the tension building in her core.
There were no boundaries between them, only shared sensation. The gold beneath them softened and shifted as they moved and intertwined, clothes gone, hot and naked, searching to share the same skin, the same emotions, the same soul.
Hands, curves, hard abs and soft thighs. Wordless cries as his fingers stroked her velvety core, wet and slick with need. Her arching toward him, wanting every part of him. Her mouth and hands on his shaft, creating a hot hard rhythm that traveled up his spine and nearly exploded the back of his head.
His mouth on her breasts, the hard nubs of her erect nipples, the lines of exquisite pleasure that traveled from there to her core.
How she longed for him to fill her the way he longed to plunge inside her, and the exquisite pleasure when he finally, finally slid deeply into her, buried to the hilt in the molten gold of her core.
And then the seemingly never-ending rise of passion, as they took and gave in every possible way: the feel of her soft, sweet ass caressing his thighs as he entered her from behind, the feel of her arms reaching back around his neck as he drew her down on his lap, thrusting into her as he stroked her clit and felt her shatter in his arms.
Her straddling him as he lay surrounded by treasure, her head thrown back in ecstasy as he moved inside her, the feel of her breasts against his chest as she lay on top of him and wrapped herself around him, shaking with another climax.
And finally, laying her down in a bed of gold that cradled and welcomed her, warm and comforting as a blanket, while he lowered himself into her and surrounded her with music and treasure and love and light. The whole cavern glowed with their love, bringing them to the heights, and plunging them over the edge to a final, crashing climax where there was no Zane and no Blaze, but just the shared magic of their bond.
Afterwards they lay twined around each other, still unsure where one ended and the other began.
Their hands drifted in feather-soft caresses, their lips moving in gentle kisses, unwilling to become two instead of one.
After a long time, when words and sanity had returned, Blaze turned in Zane’s arms. “I want to give you the Seal,” she said.
Zane smoothed his hands over her back. He could feel the magic of the Seal, now that he knew what it was. Its magic was intertwined with everything that was good and brave and caring in Blaze, every part of her that turned toward the light.
It drew on that goodness and joined with it to keep her safe. He didn’t want to take that away from her—everything in him resisted making her any more vulnerable to Turner and the idol than she already was.
“It’s protecting you,” he said. “Thorne and Tyr weren’t completely sure they got every bit of the dark power out of you.”
“I know,” Blaze said. She’d figured that out from the way Thorne had evaded her questions. “But… it isn’t meant to protect just me, is it? It’s supposed to protect everyone, by keeping Vyrkos in his tomb. What kind of person would I be if I kept it all for myself, just because I’m afraid?”
He stroked her back, breathing in the scent of her skin, wrapping his fingers luxuriously in her flame-colored hair. He loved her hair. He loved every inch of her. He’d loved her for a century.
Nothing bad could ever be allowed to happen to her. Any risk was unacceptable. That’s what all his instincts were telling him.
But it wasn’t right. They both knew it.
Still… “We don’t know what will happen if you try to give it to me. I’m not even sure how you could.”
“The same way my mother gave it to me,” Blaze said. “It was hers, and her mother’s before her. She transferred it to me just before she died. She told me… she always told me it was for good luck and protection.”
It was one of her last memories of her mother. So weak, but so insistent that Blaze should have the tattoo before it died with her.
“Did she have any idea what it really was?”
Blaze shook her head. “I’m sure she didn’t. It was passed down magically from mother to daughter for generations, until everyone forgot why, I think. But I remember exactly what she did to pass it to me.”
“We could try it, I guess,” Zane said dubiously. “Although, me having it as a tattoo isn’t any more useful to our mission than you having it as a tattoo.”
“You’re just afraid a dragonfly tattoo is too girly for your virile manliness.” She kissed his bicep, and then let her lips travel up his shoulder and over his collarbone. It made his skin shiver and his belly tighten again.
“There’s that.” He couldn’t keep the breathlessness out of his voice. Every touch, every kiss set him on fire. She was the spark to his flame, always.
“But it’s what the story says to do,” she said. “Maybe it works differently when the Keeper gives it to her destined Guardian.”
“Maybe.” If the story was accurate. If it worked with a Wild Dragon who wasn’t really a Guardian.
“I need to try.” She sat up, and he hated even that small distance between them. She sat cross-legged on his pile of gold, putting one hand on his chest and one on his shoulder.
Closing her eyes, she said softly, “By the power and grace of our ancestors, I offer you freely their love and protection in the form of this charm. As it goes from me to thee, may it keep you safe and bring you always to the light.”
A white glow spread out from her back, up to her shoulders and down her hands. Zane felt life and love and healing spreading down to where she touched him. It lingered for a minute, and then gradually faded away.
There was no tattoo.
Blaze twisted around and showed him her back.
“It’s still there,” he said. He didn’t know whether to be disappointed or relieved. Was that why the transfer didn’t take—because he hadn’t truly accepted her gift?
“Maybe it doesn’t work on dragons. Or on men,” he said.
Blaze bit her lip, obviously frustrated. “But I’m supposed to give it to you. That’s the whole point, isn’t it? So there must be a way.”
He took her hand and kissed it. “We’ll figure it out. Let’s go talk to the others. Maybe one of them will have an idea.”