Dirty Dragon: Breath of Air Collection (Dragons Love Curves Book 7) Read online

  No Red Dragon Warrior should. They were here to save the world, not play house with pretty plump witches who rocked their worlds so hard they forgot their missions and their heads. He was such a dumb ass.

  He'd been sent to Rogue and the Troikas to protect them and instead of nullifying the threat, he'd bedded her. He should have his warrior card revoked. His cock had just doomed them all.

  He was never using it ever again. Then he could be a cranky old man like Match. At least then they'd all be safe instead of bringing on the destruction of the world.

  Fallyn looked up at Cage and then pointed to Match. She lit a circle of fire all around him, but this one burned not just with their shared element, but with a sparkling magic that brought the Red Wyvern to his knees. She pointed to him and said, "Not yet."

  Match roared in anguish and the fires around him burned hotter and brighter. Fallyn frowned and rubbed at her forehead. "Shut up, all of you. I'm fighting for us all. Shut. Up."

  Cray-cray was having a moment and that was Dax's chance to do something. He pulled his fire up from deep inside and opened his mouth to shoot it at the two witches. He coughed and choked on his own flames. He couldn't do it. He could not harm Jules. Fuck.

  It had to be because she was wearing his soul shard. He had to get it back. He vowed he would take possession and never give it to any woman ever again.

  "Hey, bitch-face. I thought we were friends. I helped you. I let you hold my baby. We named our daughter Isolda because of you. The whole damn Wyr calls her Izzy. What the hell is going on now? Did you kidnap my son?" Azy ground her fist into her hand and moved toward Fallyn and Jules. If anyone could hold their own against two witches it was a half-mermaid half-badass from the south side of Chicago.

  "Yeah, get her Azy," Dax shouted.

  Cage threw a death glare at him, but joined in from the peanut gallery on the ceiling. "Yes, love of my life. Kick her ass."

  Jules lifted their would-be attacker into the air and brought her up next to Cage. She scowled at Azy. "You should be helping us. Aren't you the Blue Witch?"

  "Who you calling witch, witch?" Azy swung her arms and legs trying to kick or punch or maybe air swim at Jules. It didn't work.

  "She doesn't know. I had too many voices in my head back then. I didn't know or I did and I didn't." Fallyn shook her head and pain was evident on her face. Her crazy was showing in the furrows on her brow. "We need her. We need them all. Where are the shadows?"

  Azy sighed and shook her head. "Fallyn, you're not making any sense. Let us all down and we can help you. You know me. I'm your friend. But I won't be if you hurt my kids or my mate. Do you hear me?"

  "We have to go. One of the shadows is already battling Ereshkigal. The end is nigh." Fallyn pointed at Cage. "The Golds are under the tree. Quit dicking around and get them out. Their light is giving me a headache."

  "What tree? I don't understand, you insane piece of hell." Cage grabbed Azy's hand and his scales shimmered again. For the first time since Jules had pinned them to the ceiling with her power of the wind, Cage's own element fought against her. She must be getting tired, using her magic in such a long-sustained burst like this. The wind whipped around her hair and got in her face. She blew at it and spit it out, but it was enough of a distraction that Cage and Azy floated to the floor.

  Fallyn grunted in frustration. "The dragon tree. Pay attention. Save them and the winter shadow. I can only do so much by myself. I'm tired."

  Cage growled. "What about Apollo? If we save them and this winter shadow, will you return him to us?"

  Fallyn shook her head and sighed like the AllWyvern was not the brightest star in the sky. "I don't have him."

  "Don't be cryptic with me. I want my son back." Dax could hardly wait for Azy to figure out how to get down from here and beat Fallyn senseless.

  "He's not yours anymore." Fallyn actually sounded sort of sad when she said that. This was one crazy lady. Dax guessed being raised in hell by the Black Dragon would do that to a person.

  Azy didn't like that answer at all. "Yes. He. Is."

  Fallyn shrugged. "Not for long. We have to go. Now." She reached into her vest and brought out a mirror.

  "You stole my mother's mirror, too? We need to have a talk about right and wrong. Come here and I'll let my fist introduce you to the concept of do-the-right-thing." Azy was practically vibrating with anger. Water pooled around her feet and if it didn't smell like the sea, Dax might have thought she peed from being so fucking pissed off.

  "Save your power. You're going to need it. Soon." Fallyn pointed the sword she'd taken from Cage at Jules.

  Dax's fire flared and his dragon roared to the surface. That was his mate and nobody was going to kill her. Except him. Damn it. The wind that had been holding him to the ceiling released him and he dropped to the floor. He stalked toward his wayward mate. Fallyn stabbed her right through the heart and she cried out. Before his very eyes, she disappeared. That hole in his chest was nothing compared to the emptiness eating him from the inside out. Pain rippled out from his breastbone and made his entire rib cage ache.

  Fallyn pointed the sword at her own chest, stabbed herself Juliet style, and she was gone, too. Good riddance.

  Match howled with a pain that equalled the way Dax felt right now. He rushed to his Wyvern's side and tested the fires surrounding him. They should both be able to control the flames and certainly shouldn’t be hurt by them. Dax reached into the fire and real pain like a thousand daggers piercing his flesh made him pull away. Fucking dark magic.

  How Match endured it for as long as he had spoke to the pure strength and power of the Red Wyvern. Sweat, actual beads of perspiration broke out on his temples and poured down the side of his face. Match groaned and looked up at Dax. "Go after her. Save her."

  "What? No. First we're saving your ass. Then we're hunting those witches down." There was no saving the woman he'd thought was his mate. There was no saving his own soul. "Azy, can you use some of that water to douse the flames?"

  "I'll try. I'm not great with the water when I'm not in it." Raindrops fell from the ceiling, but the fire burned so hot they evaporated before they reached Match or the flames themselves. "Sorry. Let me try something else."

  Azy continued to throw different water features at Match and none of them had any effect. They needed to figure out something else.

  "Listen, Daxton Cervony." The power of Match's alpha voice resonated through Dax's brain.

  Whatever his Wyvern was about to tell him to do, he would not be able to refuse. Whatever it was, he would do it. He was ready to sacrifice himself in Match's place if needs be. The pain of the witch's fire would be a welcome feeling. Then maybe he could ignore the pain around where his heart used to be.

  "I'm listening. What would you have me do?" If he was lucky Match would ask him to burn down hell. That sounded like a great fucking idea.

  Match grunted in pain and his breathing labored to come out. His words were harsh and gutterual. "Save. Your. Mate."

  He'd do anything. But he couldn't do that. "I'm sorry, sir. I... I can't. She's not my mate. She can't be. I thought we were something special. That the First Dragon and the White Witch had made a mistake and given her to me before you found your mate. I'm sorry everyone had to see what a dumbass I am."

  Azy found the clinic’s fire extinguisher and shot it straight at Match’s chest. He breathed out a sigh of relief. Azy emptied the canister on him. The fire wasn’t gone, but Match stood and grabbed his own sword from his scabbard. He thrust it through the flames and into Dax’s hands. "Take this, you’re going to need it. And you are a dumbass. But not for thinking you couldn't have a mate. That falls on my shoulders. It is clear to us all that she is yours."

  The power of the Red Wyvern’s sword poured into Dax. He felt like he could do almost anything. "But how? You haven't even found yours, much less marked, claimed, or mated her."

  Match sighed, looked over at Cage and then back to Dax. "But I have."

  Ca
ge threw his hands up in the air. "What? Who? When? Why haven't you presented her to the AllWyr?"

  "Because, brother, you know as well as I that I haven't been able to catch her. And every time I do find her, she tries to kill me." Match pointed to the spot where Fallyn had stood only moments before. “She reviles and fears me above all others.”

  No. He couldn’t mean Fallyn. Evil incarnate ... mated to the Red Wyvern. He had a bad feeling about this.

  Match grabbed Dax’s arm through the flames, even though they had to be torture. “Don’t let the same thing happen to your mate. Save her.”

  Crazy Is As Crazy Does

  “What in hell is going on?” Jules sucked in the hot air and pulled out a ball of sunshine so she could see where Fallyn had taken them. She wasn’t entirely sure she wasn’t dead. The witch had stabbed her in the chest. Although it didn’t hurt. Instead her head had gone all fuzzy and then she was stumbling around in the dark until Fallyn appeared in the same place.

  “This is only the edge of hell.” Fallyn looked around the darkness and then headed down a tunnel Jules hadn’t even seen. “We have a ways to go to get to actual hell. So we need to hurry.”

  Nope. This was not working out the way she had hoped. But really what did she think was going to happen when she betrayed the love of a good man-dragon-warrior trying to save his and everyone else’s life? That it was going to be easy peasy lemon squeezy? That was not how life worked. Not hers anyway. “I’m not going anywhere else with you until you tell me exactly who you are and what is going on. I just left my mate back there and he thinks I’ve betrayed him.”

  Fallyn stalked back to her and got right up into her face. “You remember what I showed you, don’t you?”

  Jules shivered despite the heat and nodded. “Yes, of course.”

  “Then you know who I am and what we’re trying to prevent. We have to get that necklace to the girl.” She crossed her arms and her eyes. “I’d hoped you had already done it.”

  “Sorry.” Jules resisted drawing the word out like a third grader, but barely. “I went straight to where I thought she was when I woke up.”

  “We’re wasting time talking about this. You weren’t fast enough. End of story. Now we have to save her and her dragon, too.” Fallyn marched away, obviously expecting Jules to follow her.

  She did. What else was she supposed to do? She had no idea where she was and the sunshine she held onto was fading fast. She didn’t really understand how it worked, but figured she needed to refill herself in actual sunlight. Kind of like Superman. Yeah. Cause she was a superhero. Not. She rolled her eyes at herself and hurried to catch up to Fallyn. The only light she had now was the glow from Dax’s soul shard. “What do you mean her dragon?”

  “You ask too many questions. Use your powers to see the answers and let’s get a move on. Ereshkigal is not the best mother. She’s an even worse witch and nobody will want that boy if she draws his soul out. Then we’re all screwed.” Fallyn took another turn down a side tunnel and the floor took a steep dip downward.

  Jules allowed herself one whole second to let her jaw hang open and to shake her head. So many whats and not enough answers. She scrambled after Fallyn, not wanting to lose her in the darkness. “It’s not like I’m psychic.”

  “Of course you are. Why do you think you’ve been seeing the future? Duh. You simply needed a little jump start. The Mother didn’t have you raised properly. I figured I could kill two birds with one other bird.”

  “I don’t think that’s how that saying goes.” This lady really was batty. A niggle of worry burrowed into Jules’s brain that she’d chosen the wrong team. She’d seemed a lot more sane in the vision. Now, not so much. Didn’t people say that evil villains always thought they were doing bad things because they thought they justified or something? Fallyn could very well be leading Jules to her death because she thought she was supposed to in order to save the world.

  Crazy is as crazy does. Including spelunking in hell. She didn't have much of choice now. She'd chosen this dark path and she was going to follow it until she either saved the world and got Dax back or ... no, she did not want to think about that. She really needed to concentrate on not falling and knocking herself out on this uneven terrain. They climbed over boulders and past huge caverns that looked like they housed armies of bats or more likely demons, but were empty.

  “I’m new to the whole talking-to-real-people thing. Trust me, it’s better that you didn’t access your abilities sooner. The dragons would have probably taken you a long time ago if you had. Bastards. You’re the first of the fallen I’ve interacted with, but I didn’t really have any other choice. Even the winter shadow is tainted. You two are the last of the dragon daughters and I couldn’t exactly get to the shadow.

  “I only understand about half of what you say.” They paused at the sound of shouts and a rumbling up ahead. Someone was fighting a battle down here. That had to be where they were headed. Jules pushed forward, but Fallyn stopped her and backtracked, choosing a different tunnel for them to go down. This one was steeper than the last.

  “Huh. Well, I don’t really get you, either. Why would you let that dragon do all those weird things to you with his mouth. It looks gross but all you fallen do it. A lot. Does it placate their beasts or something? Is that why you smash your mouths together?”

  Oh God. Was she seriously asking about her sex life? Geez. No one could see her blush so far underground, but her face didn't care and did it anyway thinking about whether had Fallyn seen the dirty things she and Dax had done together. The questions were phrased very strangely though. Like Fallyn had never gotten the birds and the bees talk from anyone. “Umm. Do you mean kissing?”

  “Kss, kss, kss.” Fallyn repeated the sound over and over like she was testing it. “I think I preferred the biting. That at least I understood.”

  Biting. Like when Dax had marked her. Understood. As in the past tense. Jules reached up and touched the place where Dax’s mark was tattooed on her skin. She could feel it moving under her fingers. She knew it meant she belonged to him and even if he never wanted anything to do with her again after this, she would wear it with pride.

  “So, uh, did a dragon warrior bite you, Fallyn?” If one had, where was he? Had Fallyn killed him? Jules had absolutely no idea if she’d chosen to ally herself with a good guy or a bad guy. Too late now.

  “Shh." Fallyn crouched at the entrance to another split in the tunnel. She waved her hand up and down showing Jules the red sparkles of her magical force field already in place. "We’re here. Get ready to put the necklace on Ellie, as fast as you can.”

  Jules took out one of the packages from her bodice, somehow knowing it was the right one for Ellie. She slid the necklace out and grasped the charm in her hand. The metal circle had half a sun on one side and a partial moon on the other in an almost yin-yang shape. The sun glowed with a golden light similar to her own sunshine and the moon had an almost translucent blue-ish shimmer to it. “I'm ready. What happens then?”

  “She’ll be marked as a dragon daughter and her dragon can find her and they can save the future. Half of it anyway. Izzy will have to do the rest.”

  Not exactly the answer she was looking for. What she really needed to know was how they were going to get out of hell. “But Ellie is the daughter of wolf shifters. She’s not a dragon.”

  Fallyn made a face like Jules was being really dumb. “You seriously ask too many questions when the answers are right there. There is not such thing as a female dragon. Dragon daughters are not born to dragons. They are made by the White Witch. How did you think you became one and got your powers? By accident? Didn’t she tell you? She’s bad at that. No really much better of a mother than her sister.”

  Finally a small piece she understood. “You're talking about the goddess. Who is her sister?”

  “Just do your job, Gold Witch.” Fallyn shoved Jules around the corner and into a huge cavern.

  Jules stumbled and only just caught herse
lf. She looked up to see a battle raging around her. The demon wyrms were everywhere. They fought against a band of women who were attached to some big gladiator-looking dudes with chains. There were dragons flying around too. Mostly gold and black ones. They focused their part of the battle against a huge black dragon. Eek. The Black Dragon.

  Then she saw a glimpse of one, no, two red dragons.

  Dax. He was here. She opened her mouth to call out to him at the same time he spotted her. He folded his wings and dove for her. He was focused solely on her and didn’t see the burst of black flame coming for him.

  Jules screamed, but in the din of the battle she couldn’t be heard. The black flame hit Dax in the side and he went tumbling toward the floor of the cave and crashed hard into the wall.

  "Dax, no, no, no. I'm coming." Jules had never sprinted so fast in her life. She dodged demon wyrms, jumped over spiked dragon tails, and ducked to avoid fire bombs flying over her head. She wasn't the only one who'd seen Dax crash to the ground. A group of demons were scrambling toward his unmoving body to kick him while he was down. She was not going to let that happen. Baseball bat or not, she would defend her mate.

  "Jules, thank the moon, help me, please, help me." A woman's voice that was so familiar and yet she'd never heard it before rang through the chamber.

  Jules didn't stop running toward Dax, but swiveled her head left and right looking for the woman. Crap. There on a carved bit of stone, raised up from the floor, lie Ellie, fully grown into a young woman. She lifted her arm reaching for Jules but could barely lift it under the heavy chains holding her down.

  Jules. Thank the First Dragon.

  The sunshine she thought was depleted burst back to life. Dax wasn't dead. She could still be with him, once she explained what had happened and he hopefully forgave her. If those demons didn't get to him.