Memories he’d long buried battered his mind…
Countless ages confined within a coffin cell in Tartarus, no end to the suffering, to the cloying darkness. Race clung to the edges of his sanity.
Impossible power ensnared him, wrenched him from his prison, metal tearing, blood slicking his skin. He lost consciousness…
He awoke, drowning in fury and dread. His dragon ripped free, and he roared, spewing flames wildly, crashing throughthe gloom, scorching everything in the dark, his claws tearing the earth.
Destroy. Tear. Maim. Burn it all?—
A figure stood before him, glowing like the sun. He lunged?—
But every muscle locked up tight.
Rage thundered in his chest at being trapped again. He roared, the sound splintering the air. Birds fled. Animals scattered. The scent of fresh blood lingered, and hunger snapped his jaw wide.
He spewed fire at the radiant witch blocking his path. His flames broke against her light, snuffed out like sparks against stone.
“I am Gaia,” her voice slid through him, holding him rigid. “You dare destroy my earth?”
He growled, straining against the invisible hold. Fire seared his throat, and he roared for release?—
“Stop, Eracier of Lemuria.” Her tone, softer this time, pierced the red haze in his mind. “Let us see if there’s anything left worth saving.”
With a sweep of her hand, the world ripped open, revealing another. The stink of smoke and sulfur, too reminiscent of his cell, suffocated him. Then the screaming started as a horde of dark figures, their blood-red eyes flashing, stomped through a hamlet on a killing spree, feeding on the souls of people.
“Don’t kill the humans.” Her warning in the air, Gaia cast him straight into the carnage…
He couldn’t have disappointed her too much.
Because here he was.
But deep down, he knew he had killed humans.
While those deaths had been the result of uncontrollable rage—with his psyche still locked in his nightmarish incarceration—with Ash, if he didn’t reel in his urges and leave her the hell alone, it would be deliberate. He refused to risk her.
Chapter
Seven
Christ.Ash dragged in a shaky breath as Race vanished into the darkness, her pulse still racing from waking up wrapped around his naked body. How on earth had she gone from sleeping beside his tail to practically tangled around him?
She fanned her hot face with her hands, still feeling the solid weight of him against her.
The man was a walking sin, all heat and hard muscle. And not a hint of body hair anywhere. Of course, she looked. What woman with functioning eyes wouldn’t take a peekthere?
He was impossibly hot, infuriatingly confident—and far too lethal to ogle. So, why couldn’t she get that wretched dragon out of her head? It wasn’t as if she hadn’t seen a naked man before.
Because he isn’t a man—he’s bloody sin on sticks. That’s why.
Even his brutal feeding last night didn’t seem so terrifying or bile-churning in daylight. He was a dragon?—
Damn it, of course.The maddening man must have deliberately shown her his savage side to keep her at a distance.The absolute swine.
No matter how bloody hot he was, she wasn’t throwing herself at him. Or anyone. End of story.
She finally dragged her attention to the dimly lit cavern around her. In the center, pools gathered, fed by a cascading underground spring. The air here was cooler, moist, and fresh.
Her clothes stuck to her skin, gritty with cave dust and, well…dragon slag.
