Liekki waited.
She swallowed, preparing herself even as she nodded.“I’ll try my best.”
“We are dragon-shifters.”
Avalore’s lids stretched wide before she could control her response after telling him she’d listen without her human judgment.But one could never be ready to hear something so outlandish— Ready to question him, she stopped herself.Listen.
“I don’t do artful words.I’m sure Aodh, my older brother, the Mckenna, our leader,” he informed, “probably handled telling Aguya Kai better, but that’s not my way.”
Straight, no chaser.That’s how people in the district said it was best to consume home-brewed liquor.They always said life was hard for those in the Dispatch and that you had to take it like an arrow to the gut.That seemed to be the way for her to deal with Liekki.
“Before you asked, little lure, Drahks were created like humans by the Great Spirit and have been around for millenniums.”
Millenniums.Made by God.Her mind seemed to find the only way to process the massive man’s words was in fragmented chunks.
“The sum of all our parts is fire.We are dragons, are one with the flame.”He raised his hand and instantly blew out a small, fiery ball into his palm.
Avalore jumped, almost falling off the big bed before she caught herself by gripping the covers.She kept her gaze on him, watching him flex his wrist and rotate the flame around his hand.“How’s that possible...?Is it magic?”
In the Dispatch District, plenty of con artists made cards or a pebble disappear from their hands and end up in the observer's pocket or behind their ear, all for a fee, or you’d discover your account book had also been picked from your pocket.
“No.”His wide smile and the wink of his white teeth showed he enjoyed shocking and toying with her.
She didn’t like that, and it raised her hackles, but she remained composed.“What do you mean when you say you are dragon-shifters?”
“Just that.”Liekki closed his hand and doused the fire.“We are either male or dragon.”
“But I saw your dragon...a dragon.It’s huge.”Then she balked as she took in the tall frame, broad shoulders, and thick thighs of the man before her.“Well, so are you, but...but—”
“My dragon.”He pounded a hand to his abdomen, not his chest, an indication of his core, not his heart.“No matter the size, we are one, and he still resides within me.”
When she began to speak, he held his palm up—the same hand that moments before held a flame but remained perfect and unscarred.
“The mystery of that is more than your human mind has the capacity to grasp.So, I’ll say that we have Mage power in our blood, as all Preternaturals have in some form.Even the ones who choose not to admit it.”He chuckled.
Preternaturals.Avalore wasn’t sure what other beings Liekki referred to were out there, but she decided it was best for her to focus on the cocky one keeping her in this place.
“How is it possible your kind can exist, and humans don’t have knowledge of it?”
“Your governments do.They’ve been well aware of our existence for centuries.”Liekki snarled and snapped his teeth in a threatening manner.
She didn’t feel like his response was directed at her.With her own convoluted feelings towards her government and the scientists who worked for them, she decided to direct the subject away from them.Avalore gestured toward him.“What about your ink?The tattoos on your arms.”
“The markings you see,” he deftly unbuttoned his vest, then held his arms wide.His new position showcased the scale-like designs covering his arms from wrists to his neck, and those revealed along every carved muscle over his chest and abdomen until they disappeared into the top of his dark trousers.
The temptation to ask him to lower his pants so that she could see if the markings, as he called them, continued over the lower half of his body.The salacious thoughts of seeing the man bared to her and strutting nude—because Liekki would strut if she asked him to strip, she was sure of it—caused heat to ignite in her veins and every drop of blood to pump from her heart and head south to her sex.
Her folds swelled at the apex of her thighs and became wet.Even though she had rarely experienced any level of need or desire, she had no doubt what had happened.Avalore knew if she pressed her thighs together and shifted her hips a little, she’d feel the slickness of her flesh.
A growl erupted in the room, vibrating the gigantic stone walls and her core as Liekki took a big step forward.
Then stopped.
His violet eyes, which generally reflected wicked humor, were drowned under the cobalt-blue flames that roared there.The same deep-blue color illuminated every marking she could see.
Even though the broad-shouldered beast of a man before her seemed to restrain himself from moving closer to her, it didn’t stop the feeling growing within her that there was some invisible band tethering her to Liekki.It was pulled taut, urging her to rise and cross the space to him.
It assured her that she would find pleasure in his arms and so much more.
