Gabriel’s eyes widened as he felt the sudden pain of fangs rudely piercing the skin of his neck, and he froze. He had softened his body to her, lowered his defenses, and she had abused his trust to drink his blood?

The pain instantly faded as the numbing agent in those fangs took hold, and it felt merely as if she kissed him on the neck. An illusion: he knew her fangs were still inside, drinking his dragon blood. It was an insult.

He was about to throw her off of him and end this farce. But then something happened.

A strange scent wafted to his nostrils. It smelled like lilacs and roses on the breeze, with a hint of musk. It was the most erotic smell ever, at least to him in that moment. Suddenly, his manhood felt more swollen inside her than ever.

Sevilla released him and wiped her lips. When she sat back to ride his cock, he was awed by how beautiful she looked. She had retracted her fangs so they weren’t visible, and she tore off her top, revealing her scrumptious breasts. Her hair fell loose on either side of her face. He’d never seen a sexier, more beautiful woman.

As she rode him up and down, the pleasure he felt was immeasurable. No ordinary dragon woman had ever felt this good. He had been wrong, so wrong, all these years. He had denied himself of this immense joy because he believed that other shifters and humans were inferior to dragons. He was an idiot.

But those thoughts were only on the periphery of his mind, because jolts of insane pleasure passed up and down his body with each of her motions. His body shuddered each time she slid down, taking him. He moaned as she slid up.

The smell had metamorphosed, becoming lavender and mint, tickling his nostrils, further boosting his arousal. His member shuddered with each of her thrusts as if he were continually climaxing. The pleasure he experienced was the same as one long, extended climax.

The smell came from the specialized sweat pores that covered Sevilla’s body; the pleasure, however, was from whatever chemicals her bite had placed into his blood. Both were part of the vampire allure, to prevent victims from fighting them off while a vampire fed. But Sevilla had not done it to feed, only to give him pleasure.

He rolled his eyes at the intensity of the rapture he felt. There was no woman like her. None.

She moaned loudly above him, her fingers digging into his muscular hips.

“Gabriel!” she shouted.

Gabriel shuddered one final time as she finally released him from the pleasure and he climaxed for real.

She slumped on top of him, her head resting on his left shoulder. She cuddled against him, reaching under the open shirt he still wore, and placed a hand over his heart.

Every muscle in Gabriel’s body relaxed. He felt so content. So complete.

“I was going to ask permission, but in the heat of the moment, I couldn’t control myself,” Sevilla said. “I hope it was okay. To bite you, I mean.”

“It was more than okay,” Gabriel said. “I think I really like you.”

“And I like you,” she cooed.

“I was wrong, all these years,” Gabriel said. “Dragons aren’t the superior race. If anything, vampires are. I almost wish I was one.”

She pulled back to look at him. “Too bad dragons can’t become vampires.”

“Yes.” He smiled. “But I’m happy being who I am. Though now I realize it’s time we dragons opened our hearts to the other shifters out there. We’ve been wrong all these years. The First Rule has to go. I understand completely now why my brother and sister have taken non-dragon mates.”

He had the sudden urge to dispose of his condom, but then he remembered he wasn’t wearing one. Not that he really needed it: vampires couldn’t get pregnant.

He ran his fingers along her bare back, tracing random patterns.

“All those years we could have been together,” Gabriel said. “All those wasted years. And now that I’ve finally found you, it’s too late.” He continued stroking her bare back, wanting her to stay there with him forever. Or at least the rest of the night.

They didn’t have to have sex anymore for that night, either: he was content to simply hold her.

“You know, you were right about me,” Gabriel told her earnestly. “I wanted to seduce you, wanted you to fall in love with me, because I desired to control you. I thought I could convince you to set me free. But I don’t care about any of that anymore. I don’t need to be set free, because I’m free when I’m with you. I want you, and nothing else.”

She lay there, saying nothing. Why so quiet?

“Though I admit,” Gabriel continued. “A part of me still hopes you’ll break me out of this jail cell, so that the two of us can run away from all of this. Let’s leave Midnight, you and me. We wouldn’t have to worry about Medeia, or the First Rule, or any of that. Let the vampires hunt you. I’ll never let them get you. I swear it.”

Her quietness was starting to get disturbing.

“What do you think?” Gabriel said.

She didn’t answer him.

When he looked at her, he saw that guilt racked her features. She was weeping softly.

Gabriel sat up in alarm. “What is it? Did I hurt you?”

She closed her eyes, and the tears overflowed onto his shirt, wetting it. She hugged him tighter than ever before. Like she never wanted to let go.

Gabriel reached around her to embrace her in return, but she pulled away unexpectedly.

“No,” she said. “Don’t touch me.”

“What?” He looked at her in confusion.

She closed her pants and got up. She fetched her black top from the bed and replaced it, concealing her bare upper body. She retrieved her glasses, sliding them over the bridge of her nose, and then donned the bone gauntlets resting beside the chair.

“So that’s it?” Gabriel said. “Just like that, we’re done?”

She didn’t answer.

“Where are you going?” Gabriel pressed.

“I’m sorry. So sorry.” And just like that she left. Before the door closed, he caught a glimpse of the vampire guards in the hall outside: he thought they were smirking.

Gabriel lay back. He felt like he’d lost something very special. It was, however, something he never really had in the first place.

Why would she do this to me? Why would she tease me and go? Was it just the fulfillment of some fantasy of hers, or something more?

He could still feel the wetness on his shirt where her tears had fallen on the left hand side, above his heart.

A suitable place.

* * *

Jett soared above the Hooded Dale in dragon form. His night vision made the dark of night seem twilight. The White Swords were at his side, also in dragon form, with the two vampires Poison and Viper clinging to the backsides of Mamba and Titan.

They fought against the undead dragons that emerged from the tunnels and into the mountain-ringed valley that was free of the suppression magic. New enemies arrived every few moments, changing into their deadly native forms and taking flight to join their undead brethren.

Streams of flame, acid, ice, and energy were exchanged on both sides. Pained howls filled the night air. The vampires Poison and Viper wielded their swords masterfully, and used them to lethal effect in any close fighting, sometimes leaping onto the back of an enemy dragon as it flew past, and skewering the foe at close range before jumping back when Mamba or Titan swooped by again. The deadly pair knew all the vulnerable places to hamstring a dragon, and concentrated on the wing areas, slicing open the great tendons that gave the beings flight, crippling them.

But for every dragon Jett and his team brought down, two more emerged. The undead dragons simply kept coming.

It soon became clear that Jett and his White Swords weren’t going to win this battle. Their best chance was to take on the dragons inside Midnight, when they were constrained in human form. That meant Jett and his team would have to flee and return to fight another day. It pained him to do so… he wanted to return to begin the search for Ariel as soon as possible. But it simply wasn’t possible tonight.

“Retreat!” Jett shouted.

The undead weren’t collared—if they left the mountain range, they would remain in dragon form. Powerful magic shielded the Hooded Dale, preventing the dragons from being detected by human technology, but outside the Dale those dragons would be visible. Jett knew Medeia wouldn’t risk drawing undue attention by sending the dragons to pursue him and his team outside the mountains, because if the Wayfarers caught wind that the dragons of Midnight were flaunting their native form outside the den, they’d send shock troops and there would be hell to pay.

At least that was what Jett was counting on as he fled over the closest mountain, which was why he was so taken aback when he spotted a large, hammerheaded dragon barreling down on him from above, passing over the mountain outside the Dale in pursuit. Jett had no time to react before the hammerhead rammed into him.

He took a wicked blow to the side and crashed into the pines below. He went tumbling down the mountainside, the trees harpooning him along the way, tearing away scales, stabbing the flesh deeply. He felt one of his wings rip open. He left a long runnel of fallen and broken trees in his wake.

When he finally ground to a halt, the trunks of several trees protruded from his body where the pines had speared him. It was a similar experience to having the barbs of a porcupine or cactus lodged into his body, except on a much larger scale. His right wing was shredded, and he bled profusely from the area.

He tried to get up but stars filled his vision, and he lay back once more. He realized he was losing too much blood. His breathing came in gasps, and he thought one of his lungs might be punctured.

Jett’s first instinct was to change back into human form, which would cause the trunks that penetrated his scales to fall out, but he was too exhausted to do anything other than lie against the cushion of pine needles formed by the tree just beneath him. The weariness imparted by Ephephany’s earlier Weaves, combined with the fatigue from the fighting, was starting to catch up with him.

Blackness began to overcome his night vision. Through that tunnel of darkness, he saw one of the undead dragons diving from the sky, heading straight toward him. The hammerhead again. It flashed rows of sharp teeth in a terrible rictus.

The last thought before he lost consciousness was of Ariel.

Forgive me, my lioness…