“I’m hungry,” Cyrus said, almost whining. Val sighed, leading the way deeper and deeper into the cave where Kitty was hidden. Heaven above, had she ever thought Cyrus manly? Had she ever found him at all appealing? She’d been right to start this quest alone, and that was how she’d have to finish it. Once she had Kitty and they were out of the cave, she’d leave Cyrus behind. Maybe she’d be a coward and slip away in the night, as she had when she’d left home. Then again, maybe she’d order him to go, and he would.

One born, one hatched, one created. Perhaps there was a reason for all those ones. Were they meant to be alone, always? Were they destined to always and forever be one?

If she survived the war in which she was supposed to play a part, then she could think about boys and perhaps marry, one day. If she survived, she could put aside her life of purpose and training and singular focus. But only if. Not every warrior survived. Far too many of them did not.

“Did you hear me?” Cyrus said. This time, he did whine.

“Yes. You are hungry. I am hungry. Our supplies are meager. We must ration what food we have. Once we’re out of here, we’ll hunt, and we will eat until we are full.”

He sighed. Sighed! Gods, she did not remember him being such a girl.

They walked alongside flowing water which sparkled with color and light until that stream took a turn and disappeared into a crevice. The walls still gleamed, but as they moved away from the water, the cavernous space became darker, more shadowed. It was as if they walked in starlight, instead of bright moonlight. There were darker shadows here, and she could not see as far ahead as she’d been able to do before.

Cyrus was probably frightened, but he said nothing. And she did not ask the question, which would surely bring on more complaint.

She should have left him on the side of the mountain, near the short-lived entrance to this magical place. But she had not. Pity.

The water was well behind them when Cyrus gave a startled gasp. Val unsheathed her knife and spun, but she soon returned her weapon to its place. Cyrus was on his knees, reaching into a dark crevice and coming away with a handful of oddly colored mushrooms. And then another. Maybe it was the light, not the mushrooms themselves, but they didn’t look like anything she’d consume unless she was truly starving. Nothing edible was that shade of blue! And the green ones looked as if they were slimy. That orange? Gross.

“I haven’t had these in years,” Cyrus said, plopping down and studying his bounty. After a moment, he dropped both handfuls in his lap.

When he lifted one reddish-orange mushroom to his mouth, Val shouted, “No!” The word seemed to reverberate off the walls, to echo along the entire mountain.

Ignoring her, Cyrus bit off a large chunk of the mushroom, then he lifted the fungus up, offering it to her. “It’s delicious,” he said.

Val took a step forward. Cyrus did live in this part of the world, and while the mushrooms he had collected looked odd to her, he didn’t have a problem eating them. And like him, she was hungry. She just didn’t complain about it. She took another step toward Cyrus and the offered mushroom, and then she jerked to a stop. Her hand rested over the knife at her waist.

Sitting in that dark corner, his eyes flashed. Not blue, not the rainbow colors of the stone around them, but red. Demon red. Val blinked, and it happened again.

And Kitty whispered, for her and her alone.

Demon. Run.

* * *

There were many things Linara had never expected to know. A true kiss was one of them. Sex? Impossible. Or so she had always believed.

Pax had reclined on one of his furs a while back. Heavens above, he was long and muscled, intimidatingly tall even when lying down. He’d closed his eyes, and his breathing was deep and even, but she did not believe him to be asleep. It was as if she could feel his awareness. As if she were washed in it. They were connected in a strange way.

Did he know what she was thinking?

She scooted closer to him so that she shared the fur he had made his bed and basked in his warmth. This close, she felt so small, so powerless. She might be small, but powerless? Never.

Pax was a large man, perhaps the largest she had ever known. Most of the men in her family were of average size. Pax was not at all average. He was impressive in many ways.

There was a wildness about him that appealed to her, as if she were an ordinary woman who might choose a man for herself.

She placed her hand on his bare chest, and his eyes drifted open. He was not alarmed; he had not been sleeping.

“I cannot sleep,” she whispered.

“Neither can I.” His response was as softly spoken as hers, though there was not another living being for many miles.

“Why can’t you sleep?” She held her breath as she awaited an answer.

“I want you beneath me and around me,” he answered simply. “That is all I can think about.”

“I have never been with a man,” she confessed. “I don’t know that I can, not without…not without danger to you.”

“Because you are Ksana.”

“Yes. I am poison.”

“Your kiss did not injure me. Perhaps you are not as deadly as you have been led to believe.”

If that were true…she held her breath, wondering, waiting, wishing…

Pax wrapped an arm around her, and in one smooth move she was beneath him. His large body crushed hers, but not too much. “And if you are that deadly, well, I can think of no finer way to leave this earth.” He smiled, a brilliant, sexy, alluring smile.

She loved that smile. Well, she liked it a lot. She wasn’t capable of loving anything or anyone. It was not in her nature. And yet, she did like Pax very well. He was kind and caring. He was strong and handsome. He did not seem to care at all that she was what she was.

He wore nothing but a loose kilt. She’d shed her gown before lying down to sleep, and wore only the thin under-shift which was loose enough to be removed in a flash. If she was going to do this, she wanted nothing between them. Nothing at all.

“If I hurt you, we will stop instantly,” she whispered.

“Words I never expected to hear from a beautiful woman,” he teased.

Linara could not tease, she could not engage in lighthearted banter. This moment was too important. She found the fastening at the side of his kilt and fumbled with it. “I want you naked.”

His smile faded. “You shall have all that you wish for tonight.”

* * *

Before she had a chance to turn and run, Val blinked again and Cyrus — not Cyrus — flickered. For a brief moment a woman sat there, and then it was Cyrus, and then, again, it was not.

Val held her knife ready. The woman who was not Cyrus and likely not a woman, either, stood. The mushrooms she had collected fell to the cavern floor, landing silently and rolling away.

“You see me,” the stranger said. “The magic of this cavern speaks to you; it allows you to see beyond my magic. I should have known.”

“Who are you, and where is Cyrus?” Val snapped.

“I am Uryen. Perhaps you have heard of me.”

The demon who’d lived in these mountains since childhood. The demon who had attempted to kill Val’s parents simply so Val would never be. “Where is Cyrus?”

The demon did not surge forward, as Val had expected she might. “Find the sword and give it to me, and perhaps I will tell you.”

“No.”

She does not move toward you because she is afraid. You are destined to kill her. She fears you.

Val was not comforted by Kitty’s whisper. “Cyrus,” she said simply, biting out the word.

Uryen shrugged her shoulders. Her eyes glowed red again, and so did her hair. It was as if flame danced there, among the strands. “Dead, maybe. Perhaps stunned by the rock with which I bashed him over the head.” She demonstrated, swiping a fist at the air.

“Where and when?” Val asked, while in her mind she tried to remember precisely where on this mountain they’d been when Cyrus had changed. Why hadn’t she paid more attention! Why had she moved blindly forward without even noticing?

But she had noticed, hadn’t she? She’d been so intent on her goal — Kitty — that she’d dismissed all other concerns.

Uryen took a step closer, and her face fell into the light. She was what anyone would call beautiful. Her skin was pale and flawless. Her hair was an unusual and vivid red, touched with that fire. She had a woman’s shapely body, and long, slim fingers. “Give me the sword, and I will tell you. You are supposed to be the end of me, but without the sword you are nothing. I want it for myself. If you gift it to me, if you command the sword to accept me, then perhaps I can allow you to go free.”

Val didn’t believe that, not for a moment. Uryen was not going to let the warrior destined to take her life survive. The demon must want Kitty badly to allow Val to make it this far.

“Kitty for Cyrus,” Uryen said in a sing-song voice. “Give me the sword, and I’ll tell you where he is, and then I’ll let you go. Promise.”

As if a promise from a demon meant anything!

They heard the disturbance in the air at the same time. Both of them reacted, turning toward what sounded like wind and rain and lightning, a storm inside the cavern, moving closer at an alarming speed.

Kitty.

I am yours. You cannot give me away.

As if I would even consider it!

Val held out her free hand, and in an instant, the crystal grip of the sword her mother had claimed many years earlier slapped into her palm.

There was a sense of wonder and relief that washed through Val’s body as the sword became a part of her.

Uryen cursed and disappeared. Poof, as if she had never been there.

Val spun around, searching, but she was alone. There were no retreating footsteps, no far-off whispers. She was…no, not alone. She had Kitty.

She lifted the sword so she could see it from end to end. The crystal grip gleamed, and so did the blade. The colors of the cavern were drawn to it, and into it. Such magic. Such wonder.

We have a war to win, Kitty whispered.

“I must find Cyrus first.”

He is unimportant, irrelevant.

“But…”

Irrelevant!

“I can’t move on until I know,” Val said softly. Yes, many lives were at stake, and perhaps one might seem insignificant. But Cyrus was not insignificant to her. He had joined her to help, and she could not abandon him. She could not leave him behind. “He is my friend. Show me the way out of here so we can get started.”

She had not known a sword could sigh, but Kitty did.

* * *

Linara had never thought to feel a man’s bare body against hers, and the sensation was surprisingly delicious. It was more than Pax’s warmth, it was the texture of his skin, the way his heart beat, his breath on her neck as he kissed her there.

It was so beautiful, she might think this a dream. But it was no dream, it was reality. A reality that might not last, and yet…

He shifted; his hands gently spread her thighs. He touched her there, where she was already wet for him, where she ached for him. Pleasure so intense she caught her breath whipped through her. She wanted him inside her, but at the same time she didn’t want this to end. He stroked her as he kissed her throat and then the valley between her breasts. He slipped a finger inside her while he sucked on one nipple.

If he entered her and found her touch was truly poison, would she be able to stop? Would he? She would gladly risk her own life for this moment. Would she risk his, too?

Yes. Selfishly, she would.

And yet… “If I hurt you,” she began.

Pax did not allow her to finish. He growled, shifted, and entered her. His movements were slow but forceful, determined but gentle. And beautiful. Heavens above, so beautiful. To be joined with another, to experience such pleasure, was a joy she had never thought to know.

He was inside her, fully, completely, and she found herself on the edge of something more. Pax moved, and she moved with him, urging him deeper, catching her breath, gasping as he brought her nearer and nearer to something she did not understand. She was driven to get to that place, determined to reach the destination.

And then she did. Intense pleasure ripped through her. She screamed, her body shook and convulsed inside and out, wave upon wave. When he joined her, she felt that, too. He did not scream, as she had, but he growled again.

Pebbles were loosened from the walls around them. They fell with a sound like rushing water in the distance. The light in the cavern changed, brightened then dimmed again.

Linara gasped. She was boneless, worthless, and completely sated. Pax rolled off her, but still cradled her in his arms. Their legs were entwined; their breath came heavy.

She touched his face. “Are you…”

“Alive? Barely.” And then he laughed.

“That’s nothing to joke about,” she said lightly. “You know what I am.”

“You are the child of a demon come to kill the dragon. You are poisonous to some, but not to me.” He lifted his head and looked at her. “And until we decide otherwise, you are my woman.”

* * *

Pax watched Linara sleep. He should know better than to lie with a woman who had come to his mountain to end him, but she was tempting. Amazing, really.

All his adult life — hundreds of years — he’d had to be cautious with the women he bedded. Humans were fragile. He had to hold back; he had to be careful not to hurt them. He could not forget his strength, could never entirely let go. He found release and so did his partners, but he had never been entirely free.

With her, he could be free. Linara had taken all he had to give. She had given just as strongly.

She was indeed Ksana. No ordinary man would’ve been able to survive fucking her. He wanted her again, and again, and again. He wanted to stay in this cave forever, with her.

That was a dangerous thought. He had not given up on his quest for a true mate. Another like him must exist somewhere in this world. A female dragon, a mate he could spend his life with. Humans, even demons, were temporary distractions, nothing more. Linara could only be his at the moment. A month, a year, twenty years or more…

Eventually, she would know who he was, though, and then what? Would she choose sex over her assassin’s mission? How dedicated was she to her kind?

How dedicated was she to him?

Her eyes fluttered open and she turned her head to look at him. “I should sleep,” she whispered, “but I want you again. I feel as if I will die without you.” She rolled onto her side. Her breasts brushed his chest, her fingers caressed his cheek, and he was hard again. “I have never experienced any feeling so intensely.” Her eyes met his. “Is this love?”

Such a naive and unnecessary question, one he answered immediately.

“No.”