Page 23 of Siren Sins
No matter if my daughter was speaking the truth, I wasn’t about to do anything she wanted me to do. I gripped the stone harder, growling as pain grazed against my bones. “It won’t matter if I stop them.”
Her gaze flickered to the red fog billowing around us. “It’s too late for that, Mother.”
Silhouettes lingered in the shadows. The shrieks were real now, not just echoes from another world.
“Shit,” I said under my breath and tried to lift the stone, but it was too heavy.
“Here, allow me.” It was Jet’s voice. I nearly fainted with relief as he wrapped his scaled fingers around mine. “It’s going to hurt,” he warned, then helped me to lift the stone.
I ground my teeth together as pain made me dizzy. “We have to destroy it!” I yelled over the growing cascade of voices. The Demonspawn were in our plane now, but I knew they were linked to this thing. The red fog all around us was evidence of their world merging with ours. Whatever ritual Luke was helping Lilith complete, it wasn’t done yet. If we broke the connection, there might still be a chance.
Lilith rolled her eyes. “You think dropping it is going to break it? Please.”
Jet’s fingers tightened around mine. “Feed from me,” he whispered.
I closed my eyes and focused on the sensation of his body pressing up against my back. I recalled how he’d thrust into me, how I’d tasted only the finest layer of his power. I’d thought Jet to be just like any other dragon, but now I realized that I’d recognized he was something special. He was an uncrowned king, and I was going to use his power to stop the end of the world.
Dragonfire swelled in my stomach as I drew from Jet’s well. It could very well kill me, but there was a whole nest of Blood Stones to draw the power now. I would overwhelm it, make it shatter into a thousand pieces just like my necklace had done before.
“What are you doing?” Lilith asked, her voice going up in a concerned lilt.
“Don’t you dare come any closer,” I snapped as Lilith took one step towards us. “I’ll make sure you die along with this wretched thing.” Her gaze zipped to my fingertips which now dripped with molten red. I was controlling dragonfire.
The ruby shadows swept apart like a curtain as the Demonspawn broke through the mist. They snarled, their saliva dripping from long fangs. They’d all taken on the appearance of the Shanghai Dragons who’d been sacrificed to bring them into our world. Their eyes slit with reptilian irises rimmed with red.
“Focus,” Jet instructed.
I drew in a deep breath and closed my eyes. It took effort to push down my bubbling fear. I told myself that I had all the time in the world. There weren’t Demonspawn just feet away about to rip Luke and Jet’s throats out. There wasn’t my Demonspawn daughter just seconds away from snatching the crystal out of my grasp.
“You can do this,” Jet said.
When his fingers tightened and his lips caressed my neck, I took down the last remaining wall that I’d held up to keep myself apart from Jet’s true power.
I let it all in.
My world exploded in flames and I screamed both with ecstasy and agony of the fresh wave. The possibility of death didn’t cross my mind. All that mattered was this intense feeling of magic that I’d denied myself when I’d slept with Jet before. I’d allowed my Blood Stone to absorb that gift, but now it was mine to savor in its entirety.
Demonspawn shrieks filled the tunnels and my own daughter’s cries joined the fray. I reveled in their pain, until I heard Luke’s voice raise with them.
My eyes flashed open and I found him free of the crystal’s hold. “Luke!” I shouted and jerked one hand free to reach for him.
Jet tried to stop me, but my fingertips brushed Luke’s until he found my grip and held on tight.
I soothed a cooling protection through him as the world around us burned.
The True Dragon King
Sonya
When the flames hissed into grey smoke and dissipated, I sucked in a breath and coughed in the dusty air.
“Sonya,” Luke wheezed. His grip clenched around my fingers and his knuckles went white as he flexed. “What the hell was that?”
Unable to shake Luke, I turned to find Jet smiling. Fangs framed his teeth and his wild eyes were alight with excitement. “That was fun.”
I smirked. Hand it to a dragon to think banishing hell from our plane of existence to be the definition of fun.
The ground trembled, breaking our momentary reprieve. I whirled, but couldn’t find my daughter Lilith anywhere, or any hint of the Demonspawn that had threatened to invade our world.
