The Dragon King: Not So Ordinary: Ethereal Foes, Book 4 Read online

  She shivered. The creepy thing didn’t belong here. The dragon, maybe. If Zelec could feel normal, then the dragon would fit right in with her insane new world.

  After making her way through the rest of the lavish apartment, she noted the time and cringed. With any luck, Milo had been too busy at work to get Chinese food. At two AM, she’d definitely missed dinner with her cousin. Hopefully he hadn’t grown anxious when she didn’t show. She crossed her fingers. Milo in a panic scared the crap out of her, because he had a habit of calling in favors from his cop buddies.

  She searched for a phone but found nothing, so she watched a little television, impatiently waiting for Zelec to return. They had matters to discuss. His being pitch-black, winged and inhuman for one. Where had he come from? Why had he chosen her, of all people, to be with? Had she been hexed or something?

  She’d never been very religious, so she didn’t fret over the thought of damnation. Spiritual and confident in herself as a human being, she knew she did good things. Well, most of the time. Discounting her situation with Lauren and Grandma Betty, she knew she was no devil child. Her family loved her, and despite her poor track record with relationships, most of her coworkers liked her.

  For a moment, she tried to separate from everything, seeing herself from a distance, not concerned about eternity or her place in the grand scheme of life.

  A part of her knew it would all work out—assuming the creepy things weren’t real. They bothered her more than anything had or would. Talk about a bad vibe. They didn’t fit in this world. At all.

  After a few hours had passed, she realized she might as well go back to sleep. She needed to talk to Zelec again before leaving, and since she hadn’t found any clothes aside from the bathrobe she wore, she planned to wait for him before taking off.

  She’d decided to lock the bedroom door and get some rest when she sensed a presence by the doorway. Finally.

  “Look, Zelec, you…” Her voice tapered off at the sight of another sex god, this one blond-haired, golden all over and naked. His eyes were weird, a marbled blue, black and silver with no pupil to speak of. And he was naked.

  Very naked.

  She couldn’t seem to stop that train of thought.

  “You smell…divine.” He smiled, showing flat white teeth. No fangs, thankfully.

  No clothing. He had to be the owner of the house. “You’re not going to eat me, are you?” she half teased, hoping he wouldn’t call the police on her.

  He cocked his head, took a good sniff, and laughed. “I’d say someone else beat me to it.”

  Realizing what he meant, she blushed. “Look, I’ve had a rough night. I’m sorry for barging in to your house, but my friend—”

  “This isn’t my house.”

  “Then who are you?” Oddly enough, fear never entered her mind. Something about this large blond aroused passion, not terror. His otherworldly eyes drew her, far from repulsive. He radiated sex and confidence, as well as a strange sense of…innocence?

  “I think the question is, who are you, little one?”

  She frowned. “The name is Ella, and I’m not little. I’m five-six.” Five foot five and some change, but still. Then again, this new guy stood an inch or two taller than Zelec. He had to be close to six-five. And just, wow. Was he built. All muscle, and one impressive cock growing even as she watched.

  “You are nephilim.” His smile widened. “Sweet.”

  Again with the nephilim business. “Who are you? Where am I?”

  His smile faded. “I am Jentaron. And you are at James Sinclair’s home.” He stepped closer. Still naked. Still aroused.

  “I don’t know that name.”

  “Yet you know Zelec.”

  “You know him?” Time to get some answers before her body decided they weren’t necessary. The urge to jump this guy, after sleeping with Zelec so recently, alarmed her. Had the demon turned her into a raging nympho? And if so, could she blame herself for wanting to hit the sheets with Sir Hunk-A-Lot?

  Do I know Zelec? “Unfortunately, I am known to him.” Jentaron was familiar with Asael’s right-hand demon. An impressive specimen, imbued with more power than a higher demon had a right to have, and an obnoxious male to boot. They’d crossed paths a few times, not enough to get a true reading on him, though he admitted to a lingering fascination for the creature. Anyone who’d survived so long under Asael’s rule deserved respect at least. But he knew there was more to his interest in the demon than that.

  The female smelled of Zelec, and that scent, of sultry need combined with the rich brimstone of higher demon, made Jentaron’s toes curl. He wanted to lick her up, take her scent deep into his bones and hold it tight—to capture her and Zelec to him.

  Then what?

  “Wait. How do you know Zelec?”

  Disturbed by his possessive train of thought, he answered absently, “He works for another I often have dealings with.”

  She cocked her head, studying him. “Your eyes… You’re the dragon, aren’t you?”

  Perceptive for a human, even one with angel heritage. “I am. You are very intelligent.” And ripe for the plucking. Mine. He heard himself think it. He wanted her. Wanted them both?

  A foreign itch deep inside him festered. A need, a call to claim. Terrible timing, considering the pending end of the world.

  “Jentaron.” She sounded his name out on her pretty pink lips. The female seemed tiny to him, even smaller than Eve. She looked human, but the scent of angelic blood lingered in her, in addition to the taint of a sexualized demon.

  He’d never been attracted to males before, but his brother had mated one. And Jentaron knew many of his kind catered to sex of all kinds with all kinds. Sex, not mating, he told himself.

  And speaking of sex… His cock throbbed, aching to dig deep inside the woman.

  Time to get busy then.

  He took another step toward her and watched as she bumped the bed and fell on the mattress, then scooted back on it. Her robe gaped open to reveal one rosy nipple in the middle of a plump breast. He licked his lips.

  “Hold on.” Her dark eyes flashed with warning, and her cheeks reddened. “It was bad enough I slept with Zelec on our first and only date. I’m not sure what this is—” she motioned around the room “—so the sex he and I had here doesn’t count as anything but a dream.” She looked confused. “I don’t actually like sex as a rule. Never found it worth doing, to be honest. Zelec put a spell on me or something. But then, I’m dealing with a zombie apocalypse, end of the world situation. So whatever.”

  “Demons are good at sex,” he agreed. “But dragons are better.”

  “You seem pretty eager to prove it.” She glanced at his erection and looked right back up to his face again. “Super eager, actually.”

  “I am enchanted by your scent,” he admitted. “Perhaps a kiss to see if we are compatible? I would not force your consent, if that is your concern. I have no need to subdue you.” He had every need, but he didn’t want her scared.

  Jentaron blew out a frustrated breath when she continued to watch him, weighing him in her mind.

  Her eyes widened. “Did you just blow smoke?”

  “Perhaps.” He shrugged and grabbed his dick, needing pressure to ease the sensual ache.

  “What are you doing?”

  “I need you.”

  “Me? We just met.”

  “No. I know you.” Somehow. “In dreams, perhaps.” He frowned, especially when she paled. “What?”

  “I dreamed of you and Zelec. And the other things.”

  “Things?” His arousal grew. Her robe had opened again, and the shadow of her upper thigh allowed her scent to waft when she shifted. Honeyed sex, a thick need. “Please. Just one kiss.”

  “Well…” She nibbled her lower lip, and he groaned. The nephilim were like that. Arousing, pleasing withou
t even trying, and yet a pain in the ass to maneuver. Asael had scored big points for getting Saphirra onto his side. Even if he had sacrificed his son to the female in order to do so. Now the pair had mated, and Duncan wore a perpetual smile on his face. Nephilim sex—better than a succubus orgy.

  Jentaron wanted it—with Ella. No other would do. “I’ll tell you anything you need to know.” He was growing desperate now. “I’ll even take you below to visit the places you dreamed about.”

  “Really?”

  “One kiss.”

  “I guess.” She turned on the bed and did her best not to stare at his crotch, though he saw her gaze return to it. “Just one. Go ahead.”

  He knelt on the bed before her, then he parted her robe, straightened out her legs, and positioned them on either side of his head.

  “Jentaron?”

  He groaned, needing to taste her in the worst way. His dreams had led him here, to her scent. He had to have her. So he buried his face in her pussy and gave her the sweetest kiss with just a touch of blue flame to arouse her.

  She screamed and clutched his hair, coming over his lips. He smiled as he lapped her up, licking and sucking and bringing her to the edge of climax once more.

  She moaned and stroked his hair. He loved the way she encouraged him while urging him to satisfy her. Such hunger in her touch, such demand.

  And underlying her perfection was the faint scent of a demon’s seed, Zelec’s darkness that urged Jentaron to add his marker and take what belonged to him. He continued to kiss her, rubbing his head between her thighs, caressing her with his hands and hair.

  “Please, more.” She let the robe fall from her body.

  He was helpless to deny her.

  He crawled up her body and kissed his way past her soft belly to her plump breasts. He took each nipple between his teeth, sucking and tugging while he positioned himself between her legs.

  “In me,” she ordered. He glanced into her gaze to see those black orbs seething with impatience.

  He slid inside her slowly, so as not to hurt her with his girth while drawing out the experience of this first time. Sex with his Guardian, a demon, had been amazing, but sex with Ella devastated him. Such a connection to the feminine creature that went far beyond the physical. She made him purr, and she made him want to protect while pushing her to give him her all.

  She keened as he continued to penetrate her. In her orgasm, she clamped down on him like a vise.

  “Yes, Ella. Good,” Jentaron moaned and increased the speed of his thrusts. He wanted to wait, to make it unforgettable for her, but he couldn’t stop. He hammered harder, needing to crest that precipice. He growled and snarled, smoke curled from his nose, and he felt his body heat, centering at his groin. But Ella only urged him to go faster, deeper…

  “Harder,” she rasped and yanked his head to hers for a kiss.

  Meeting her mouth while she continued to hold him deep inside her set him off, and he thrust so hard into her the bed rammed against the wall and cracked drywall.

  Then his magic unfurled, and he kissed her in desperation as he began to jet inside her hot, wet, channel.

  “Yes, yes,” she said between kisses to his lips and cheeks.

  He continued to spend, his relief apparent in his uncontrollable shuddering while he made a mess in her and on the sheets. Never before had he released so much seed.

  “Can’t stop,” he warned and nipped her neck, inhaling the scent of them now bonded.

  He fucked her once more, using her body’s grip on him to milk him of the remainder of his store.

  When he’d finally finished after giving her another orgasm, he withdrew and rolled to his side to curl around her. He knew Zelec had done the same not a few hours earlier. An imprint of their lust had settled over the bed, and he wondered that he hadn’t felt that before.

  Or perhaps he had. A unique connection had formed between him and the demon outside of the union he had with Ella. She was a part of him now, yet in some way, Zelec belonged as well. The thought should have disturbed him more. Demons could be devious. Nephilim too alluring for their own good. But Jentaron knew on a soul-deep level he’d met the two creatures in existence strong enough not to bow under his power. He felt…more…with both of them.

  “Oh. My. God.” Ella groaned and huddled close. “You were… I mean… I can’t… I’m sore, but I feel so fucking good.” She clamped her mouth shut, then blurted, “I mean, so freakin’ good. I don’t like to curse.”

  Jentaron grinned and closed his eyes.

  “Are you purring?”

  “Yes. I am quite content.” He wanted to hold her close. To protect her.

  “You’re so strong.” She ran her small hands over his arms, his chest. “So big—everywhere.”

  He opened one eye and peered at her. “I am a dragon.”

  “I saw you in a dream.” Ella sounded in awe, and he liked that. “You had beautiful blue coloring.”

  “I am the only one of my kind. Blue dragons are all but extinct.”

  “What color are dragons if not blue?”

  “My oldest brother is green. My middle brother black. Very handsome.”

  He heard her grin. “But not as handsome as you.”

  “Of course not.” He chuckled. “Oh, Ella, you make me feel so alive. Your body beckons mine again, but I must rest.” She’d taken a lot out of him. “Your kind is so strong in some ways.”

  “My kind?” She paused. “Nephilim, right?”

  “That is so.”

  “What is that, exactly?”

  Jentaron rolled up on one elbow to face her. After tucking a lock of dark hair behind her ear, he stroked her cheek and answered, “You are the child of an angel and human. A nephilim.”

  “That’s impossible.”

  “Are you so sure?” He could drown in her eyes. Jentaron had never before felt so happy, so complete. “I sensed it in you from afar, and I cannot be wrong in this now, not after having tasted you. There is a core of light deep inside you, but its mixture with humanity has darkened it.”

  “So I am evil.” She sounded half amused, half worried.

  “No, darkness is not evil. For there to be light, there must be dark. You are a perfect sense of balance, and so you are more powerful because of it.”

  “But my mom is human.”

  “So it must be your father then.”

  “He died when I was young.”

  “Did he? I have learned, even in my brief existence, that sometimes parents lie to comfort their young.”

  She stared at him.

  “Is there not a large power passed through your familial line? A psychic gift that you possess? Angels are drawn to power, and it would seem your father came to your mother to gift her with life. You are a rare and wonderful thing, Ella.”

  She reddened, and he had to lean down to kiss her.

  “I’m not nice,” she warned.

  “Good.”

  “I mean, I made my ex-friend cry.” She explained the meeting with Lauren, which lead to her gifts and the psychic ability in her family, sounding relieved to confess it all.

  “It’s in your nature. The nephilim are better suited to the lower realm.”

  “To hell, you mean.”

  He shook his head. “Humans. You think in linear terms when life is a sphere, all points interacting, touching.” He dragged a finger down her chest to circle her nipple and watched it stiffen. “You see? I touch you here, and yet deep inside you grow wet for me.”

  “I can’t help it.”

  “Neither can I.” He took her hand and wrapped it around his cock.

  “Oh, wow.”

  “My body knows yours now. But my mind and spirit have known you before we were born.”

  “Huh?”

  “I will explain later. We should rest. You
have taken from me, and I’m depleted.” How that energy exchange happened, he didn’t know. Nephilim weren’t like the succubi, absorbing energy and creating ebbs and flows. They were extraordinarily attractive, though to all outward appearances Ella did not seem magnificent. She was cute, steady. Until one looked into her eyes. There she held her truths close, her power even closer.

  He snuggled into her and continued to purr.

  “So if you’re real and demons are real, are the creepazoids real too?”

  “Hmm?” So tired. He wanted to curl into a ball of flame and bury himself inside her, not talk.

  “You know. And what about Kingu? It mentioned him.”

  Jentaron opened his eyes and stared at his new lover. “What?”

  “When I went to visit Lauren, the one I told you about?”

  “The one who stole Peter.” A male he had no worries about, now that he’d put his mark on her.

  “Yes. Well, she had a vibe, the same one you and Zelec have. That other psychics have. It’s not on everyone, not usually. But once the weirdness started with people acting violent, I started sensing the vibe on normal people. But then it wasn’t a vibe, but this weird sensation that’s hard to describe. A freaky ghost settled over her and warned about Kingu and stuff coming.”

  Another mention of Kingu. His interest fully piqued, he sat up and pulled her into his lap. “Tell me everything.”

  She did.

  “Tell Kingu it will never come to fruition. None of you will escape. And especially not you,” it had said. But what did that mean? And what did Kingu know that it wasn’t telling? Bastard. He’d dig the answers out of the creator one way or another.

  But he had to keep Ella safe. “We must go back to the stronghold. I need answers, and I need to keep you safe.” He pulled them both to their feet and readied himself to return, despite his fatigue.

  She placed a hand on his chest and put a bit of space between them. “Hey, wait a minute. What are you talking about?”

  “I am sorry, but this cannot wait.”

  “Hold it. I’m not leaving without some clothes. Or letting my cousin know I’m okay. He’s probably freaking out since I never checked in.”