Fire The Blood: Dragon Mage Series Book III Read Free Page B

good."
    "Asha."
    "What?" she
asked with belligerence, waiting for his next vexing statement.
    "If you don't leave
right now, I will have to taste you again."  His softly uttered words had
power that she felt to the core of her very being.  "Will you be able to
stop a second time?"
    She sucked in a breath
and without another word fled to safety of her rooms.
    After taking a short time
to calm down, she dressed, putting the thought of that kiss out of her mind so
she could make plans.  She would certainly not allow one fire mage to derail
her, no matter what wonders he could perform with his mouth.
    It did not occur to her
much until later that the warmth from the encounter did not fade but lasted
deep into the night, where dreams of a fire mage with topaz eyes and hot hands
were replaced by a cold vision of death.
    ***
    The scream woke him up. 
Braedon jumped out of bed and grabbed his sword, not bothering with clothes as
he sprinted for Lady Asha.  The scream still reverberated in his head; he knew
without being told that it was the dragon seer.  He felt it in his blood where
his fire lived.  He made it to her room and threw open the door, giving no
thought to the fact that no one else had heard the scream and come to help.  Instead,
he went sword first into the room and found her tossing on the bed.  Her white
night rail had ridden up and was showing almost as much leg as his tunic had
earlier, when she ran from him.  She turned, and he realized she wore the same
tunic; she had elected to sleep in his shirt.  He found himself relishing the
sight for a moment while he stood there naked with a sword over a lady dragon’s
bed. 
    It was not exactly the
best situation to be found in and hardly the one protective dragon males would
appreciate.  Indeed, if he had walked in on anyone else in this position, he
would have skewered them on the spot and asked questions while the blood was
being mopped from the floors.  He pulled a throw from the foot of the bed and
wrapped it around his waist.  He knew he looked slightly less dangerous and a
great deal more ridiculous with the tassels hanging about his hips.  It would
have to do.
    It occurred to Braedon as
he stood there and watched her sleep so restlessly that if the scream had
happened anywhere but in his head, the dragons would have beaten him there by
now.  But, what had he heard?  And why did no one else hear it?
    He stepped around to the
bed where he could see the lady’s face.  Braedon placed his sword against the
wall when he found no enemy to face.  Something about the way she twisted and
gasped in pain called to him.  Before he knew he was going to do it, he brushed
back all that luscious hair.  "Asha," he called.  She twisted in his
direction as if seeking the voice, but she did not waken.  Was this what a
vision looked like?  If so, he did not care for the experience at all.
    ***
    Deep in her dream vision
Asha walked.  It was a familiar scene.  She had been here before and wondered
if the conversation about them had triggered another walkthrough.  When the
scene slowly opened up, she knew this was all new.
    Lord Graedon stood in the
deep dark of the cave, his dragon eyes glowing with an inner light that lit the
way for him.  In front of him, Asha could see a vial of some kind and had to
think the deep red color so vibrant in the dark cave had significance.  She
studied it as her mother had taught her, doing her best to ignore the fact that
Laksee's murderer stood so close cursing and knocking over parts of what looked
like some kind of liquid experiment.  She knew nothing of science, so the tubes
and bottles filled with blobby dark matter were alien to her, but she watched
everything just the same.  Then, when she was sure there was nothing else to
see, she looked around for the rest of the vision.  Beside and behind the table
was a long cart draped with a vibrant blue cover, and behind the racket the
dragon was making, she could hear