Onyx Gryphon: A Paranormal Shifter Romance (Gryphons vs Dragons Book 4) Read online

  My chest with the desire to inhale, to fill my lungs with anything, even water, and I fought against the urge with the last mote of willpower I possessed.

  I broke the surface right before blacking out.

  I gasped, breathing deeply of the sweet air. Water splashed all around and I inhaled some of it, which made me cough and gasp and struggle for a moment, but then it was over. Stars flew across my vision but otherwise I was okay.

  The surrounding area, however, was not. The lake was filled with people treading water and crying out for help. Smoke billowed from the yacht deck above me; more passengers leaped into the air to escape the flames. The dragon must have ignited it when we crashed onto the deck.

  The dragon. I wasn’t safe.

  I turned toward the yacht club docks, where police leaned over the edge and helped people out of the water. I didn’t have the strength to make a full stroke, so I doggy-paddled in that direction at a meager pace with the totem in one hand, praying the dragon wouldn’t suddenly grab my legs and pull me back down to the depths. I realized I was nude; that was a problem Ethan had warned about. I wasn’t modest, but how would I explain that to the cops? Would they even care?

  “YOU WILL ALL DIE!” screamed a voice on the other side of the burning yacht. “Now, and for all of time!”

  Sebastian, the Onyx Dragon. Even with so many cops around I didn’t feel safe. I had to get away.

  I reached the dock, where a stocky policewoman reached down and helped me climb onto the wet wood. “I was, uhh, changing clothes on the yacht when…”

  But she wasn’t even looking at me: her eyes were glued to the commotion on the next pier over. Sebastian screamed with fury and threw a punch at the first officer who tried to help him, and then another tackled him in the back and pinned him to the dock. Three more police fell onto him with handcuffs drawn, and even with so many of them they struggled to subdue the rabid man.

  “You cannot stop me,” I heard him growl underneath the pile. “I will kill him! I must end this!”

  I got to my feet—which was an immense struggle by itself in my weakened state—and another officer handed me one of those shiny reflective space blankets. I wrapped it around myself while staring at the dragon.

  Kill him.

  The thought invaded my mind as if someone else had put it there. The dragon, my eternal foe, was vulnerable right now. He was right there. The urge to take one of the cops’ guns and stride across the dock and shoot the dragon in the head overwhelmed me.

  It was a compulsion. A desire so powerful it was almost sexual, or intimate.

  I recoiled from the thought of killing someone in cold blood. Even him, after what he’d tried to do to me and Cassie. That I could feel desire to murder someone in front of a crowd scared me. That’s not who I was.

  In all of this, I couldn’t allow the dragon to change who I was.

  Once I fought that desire, my exhaustion returned like a weight on my shoulders. I needed to get out of here before I passed out on the dock.

  I turned my gaze toward the looming Chicago skyline and flinched at what I saw. Smoke billowed into the sky from a dozen different sources both near and far, with a cacophony of fire truck sirens in every direction. The smell of smoke hit my nose then, refusing to leave, reminding me of the soaring flight through the city while trying to escape the dragon. Good God, we’d created a lot of damage. The city was like a war zone.

  “HIM!” the dragon screamed, a finger shooting out from underneath the pile of police to point in my general direction. “BRING HIM TO ME NOW!”

  I was only five blocks from my apartment. It was time to move. I forced one leg forward, then the other, slowly putting distance between myself and the dragon. The totem in my hand pulsed with satisfaction with every step.

  As I strode through Chicago, with a dozen fires blazing and people running in every direction, it felt like the end of the world.

  31

  CASSANDRA

  “Relax, sir,” one of the police officers said to an upset train passenger, “it’s not the end of the world if you don’t get to Springfield.”

  “You don’t understand…”

  We stood in a long line at the train station, waiting to be interviewed by the police. The police hadn’t forced us to remain here, but they hadn’t exactly told us we were allowed to leave. They’d taped off the entire train wreckage and station, and a crowd of frenzied reporters with cameramen in tow stood 100 feet away clamoring to get an interview from one of us.

  I was worried what to say to the police when it was my turn to give a statement. Well, more accurately I was worried about what others would say. Everyone saw me come forward with the totem on the train. Obviously nobody knew what that meant, but they would know the totem and I were the reason for the entire hijacking. I didn’t really have anything to hide, but I also didn’t know how I would explain it. I doubted they would believe that I’d never seen Sebastian before in my life, even though that was the truth.

  Their questions would lead to the totem, and that would lead to questions about Orlando, and that would lead to questions about how I knew him…

  Orlando. After the spike of fear I’d felt for him, the sensation of my mate had diminished in my head. I thought that meant he was safe, but I wasn’t sure. Whenever I tried to reach out with my sixth sense and feel him it only made my head ache worse. Already it was hard to even stand there on the platform without cringing from the pain.

  “Hey,” I asked, “do you happen to have a cell phone?”

  The old man—whose name I finally learned was Maurice—turned around and gave me an apologetic smile. “Sorry, dear. I’ve never had a cell phone, in spite my family’s protests. Too high-tech for me. Although right now my grandchildren are probably worried sick…”

  “You’re going to have one hell of a story to tell them.”

  “If I ever get to them!” Maurice scrunched his face in frustration, which somehow doubled the number of wrinkles. “I don’t know how I’m going to get to St. Louis now. Suppose Eric will have to rent a car and come get me, but the entire purpose of me taking the train was so I wouldn’t be a burden…”

  I put a hand on his arm. “Maurice. We just survived a train crash. Hell, we helped stop the train before it could crash even worse! You’re a hero. Your grandchildren won’t think you’re a burden at all.”

  He tried to cover it up, but I could see him swelling with pride.

  I was about to comment on how long it would take to wait in line when my headache miraculously faded.

  Clouds lifted inside my head, a thick fog finally parted by beams of brilliant sunlight. It happened so suddenly it was mystifying. I put a hand to my temple and sighed at the relief of pressure.

  And then I realized what it meant.

  Before I knew what was happening I was running toward the row of reporters behind the police tape. I scanned the crowd, searching for a familiar dark face…

  “Move! Out of my way!” A man shoved aside a reporter, and even with his face turned I knew who he was.

  “Orlando!” I called, hobbling as fast as I could on my bandaged foot. His head whipped toward me and his face brightened. He ducked under the tape and ignored the shouting officer, who grabbed him by the arm and tried to hold him back, one hand on the pepper spray cannister on his belt, but then I was tackling Orlando in a desperate embrace.

  The cop let go and allowed us to have our reunion. Orlando’s arms surrounded me and pulled me against his broad chest. I buried my head in his neck and breathed deeply of his scent, sweat and musk and something close to lake water. He held me possessively, overwhelmed with need. My hands found the back of his head and I gripped him tight, pleading with him to never let me go.

  “I won’t,” he whispered in my hair, reading my mind. “I’ll never let you go again.”

  “Promise?”

  “Promise.”

  “Good.” I was shocked by the tremble in my voice, like I might burst into tears. All
of the craziness from the day was beginning to overwhelm me.

  “I’ve got a car,” Orlando said, finally pulling apart to look into my eyes. “Let’s get out of here.”

  “What about all this?” I waved my hand. “And your bag on the train…”

  “Forget about it. We can get what we need along the way. It’s a long drive to where we’re going, and I want to get on the road.” He lowered his voice to a whisper. “And away from all this press.”

  He never questioned whether or not I would go with him. Which was fine, because I never questioned it myself.

  I put my cheek against his chest, which gave me a view of the line of train passengers waiting to give their statements to the police. Maurice was grinning widely at me, and then flashed me a thumbs-up.

  “Can we make a stop along the way?” I asked.

  “Anything for you, my love.”

  32

  ORLANDO

  I didn’t know who Maurice was, except that he seemed cool with the entire situation and never asked any suspicious questions. We dropped him off in front of a little house outside St. Louis. Cassie got out of the car to say goodbye, giving him a long hug.

  “You two make a beautiful couple,” he said, giving me a wink through the car window. “Though I’m sure you hear that a lot.”

  “Actually, you’re literally the first person to say that to us.” She hugged him one more time. “Say hi to the grandkids for me.”

  The door to the house opened and three little boys came running down the walkway screaming, “Paw Paw! Paw Paw is here!”

  They surrounded him like jackals eager to grab chunks of flesh, and he ran his hands through their hair.

  “These are actually my great grandkids,” he said, then nodded at the door. “My grandchildren are adults. Take care, dear.”

  He allowed himself to be ushered toward the front door. Cassie watched him for a few moments, then turned back to the car.

  “Hey, wait!” she shouted. “You forgot the knife!”

  “I don’t want it,” he called over his shoulder without looking. “Too dangerous around these little guys!”

  I reached into the back seat to grab the blade; the hilt was made of a dull black material, with leather wrapped around the grip. The blade itself was a wicked curve on one side, with three notches on the other that ended in points.

  “It’s shaped like a dragon wing,” I muttered.

  Cassie fell into the front seat and closed the door. “That’s what Sebastian had.”

  The blade felt powerful in my hands—almost like it had a mind of its own. I shivered in spite of myself, tossed it in the glove compartment, and slammed it closed.

  “I don’t want to look at that thing until we’ve put a few states between us and the dragon.”

  Cassie squeezed my hand tight. “That sounds like a good plan to me.”

  We drove south-west out of St. Louis until we saw signs for a Wal-Mart. Using the backup credit cards from my apartment we stocked up on supplies: a disposable cell phone, a cheap Chromebook laptop, toiletries for the trip. A pack of energy drinks to help with the drive. We both needed clothes; even though I’d stopped by my apartment I’d been too flustered to grab anything in my scramble to get to Cassie as quickly as possible. She made a joke about how only low-end escorts bought their wardrobe at Wal-Mart, and I joked back that maybe now I’d be able to afford her services full-time. She shot back that she rarely took on repeat customers, so I pointed out that technically I hadn’t received the full weekend with her that I’d paid for.

  It was all light-hearted. The kind of dark banter you made after a traumatic event. It was comforting that way.

  A quick pit-stop in the Wal-Mart coffee shop to turn on our new Chromebook and look up directions. I also took the opportunity to give Ethan my new cell phone number and to let him know we were alive. The reality of that fact crashed on me as I typed the words: we were alive. That had been in doubt today. Cassie and I could have died. It didn’t help that the TV in the coffee shop was showing footage of the many Chicago fires being put out by firemen. There was a body count, and it was a non-zero number. I forced myself to stop watching after that.

  We returned to the road, fleeing south-west on I-44. The first sign said 422 miles to Oklahoma City. The sun was beginning to set, so I cracked open one of the energy drinks and guzzled half of it. Now that I was with Cassie I was hitting my second wind.

  We drove for an hour before she broke the silence.

  “I thought I’d lost you.”

  She spoke in a whisper, more to herself than to me. She was staring out the window at the trees passing by.

  Her words were almost identical to what I’d been thinking about her, so I said, “Me too.”

  She turned to face me. Tears were in her eyes. “Is this really possible?”

  She could have meant anything: the totem pulsing in her lap, the ability we shared, or the dragon that had nearly killed us both. But what she said was something I didn’t expect.

  “To love someone this much after only a few days?”

  Warmth blossomed in my chest. That was a truth I’d been struggling to accept myself: that I cared deeply for Cassie, bordering on love. I would have been afraid to say that word, love, but she didn’t have any reluctance.

  She wasn’t afraid.

  “It’s not crazier than everything else,” I said carefully. I could feel her gaze on me while I stared at the white lines of the interstate flashing by. “Yeah. I think it’s possible.”

  I finally met her gaze, her beautiful round eyes and diamond-shaped face that was already more familiar and comforting than anything else in my life up to this point. Her full lips twitched in a hopeful smile; the relief that I felt the same way she did.

  God, she was beautiful. The way she looked at me literally made me weak in the chest.

  Before I knew what I was doing, I was pulling off on the side of the road.

  33

  CASSANDRA

  I flinched as he spun the wheel, sliding through gravel and dirt on the edge of the Missouri interstate.

  “What…” I began as he came to a stop.

  He pounced on me, grabbing my head in both of his hands and taking my lips like he would die if he didn’t have me right then. His kiss was possessive and intense, first pushing his tongue into my mouth and then biting my lower lip. My entire body surrendered to him, because this was what I hadn’t realized I’d been craving throughout the aftermath of the train wreck. I needed to be with my mate.

  And he needed me just as much.

  “I want you,” he said, lips moving to my neck and shoulder. I ran my hands under his shirt and across his chest, savoring how solid he felt. His hands moved along my ribs and waist, squeezing me.

  I yelped as he lifted me off the seat and pushed me into the back seat of the car. I slid backwards and he crawled through the opening to follow, covering me with his body, smothering me against the car fabric with his wonderful weight. He leaned back and ripped at my pants, tearing the belt as if to snap it in half with his lust before finally getting it undone normally, then pulled my pants and panties down around my ankles in one strong tug. I kicked them off and then his arms spread my legs wide, one foot scraping against the ceiling of the car and the other bending forward, and I moaned as he bent his head to my swollen sex.

  He stopped mere inches from me, close enough that I could feel his hot breath against the skin of my lips and thighs. He inhaled deeply, and made a noise deep inside his throat like a lion’s purr.

  “I love your scent,” he said, then buried his face in my pussy.

  I gasped and arched my back on the seat as his tongue found my wet hole, slipping deep inside and then rolling up and down like a wave against my inner walls. He kept my legs spread in his grip, forcing me to take his oral pleasure, devouring me like I was his last meal. I closed my eyes and panted at the sudden and intense pleasure of his mouth, alternating between his tongue lapping up my inside and
his lips wrapping around my clitoris as if it were a nipple, sucking the entire hood into his mouth and then letting it slide out. I raked my fingers along his back and neck. By then I was practically screaming with pleasure at being taken so suddenly by my mate, his animal instincts overwhelming any conscious human thought.

  His purring throat vibrated against my sex while he ate me out, and he pressed his entire head firmly against my outer lips while I bucked against his face.

  With aching finality he pushed his tongue as deep as he could inside of me one last time before pulling out completely. His lips moved across my clit and up my belly, too slow for me, so I grabbed a handful of his short hair and yanked him to my face so I could taste myself on his dark lips.

  I reached down with my free hand and grabbed the huge bulge in his jeans, as desperate to touch him as he was to touch me. He moaned loudly as I rubbed him through the fabric, and with my other hand still in his hair I pulled his head back to give him a command.

  “I want to feel you inside of me. Now.”

  A lustful grin came to his lips and he scrambled to get his jeans off. The moment they were down I wrapped my fingers around his thick cock and stroked him rapidly, feeling his skin move across his hot, hard meat.

  “You want me?” He narrowed his eyes and pawed at my breast, pressing it against my chest with wonderful pressure.

  “Ohh you know I do!”

  I guided his tip to my dripping hot sex, rubbing it against my entrance, coating it with my juices. But when I tried to guide him in, he held back.

  “I’m going to explode the moment I’m inside you,” he sighed, closing his eyes for a moment.

  “Good,” I gasped, “explode for me. Fill me to the brim.”

  Still he resisted my guiding hand; the tip slid inside, but he would not go any farther. I moaned in desperation and he pumped his hips gently, moving his head a scarce millimeter back and forth, barely more than a tremble. I could feel the heft of his cock in my hand, locked and loaded and ready to fill me completely. It drove me wild being right on the edge of it and denied what I needed.