Flashfire

  Balthasar.

  Lorenzo reacted immediately and instinctively. The change ripped through him with primal force, his need to defend Cassie so overwhelming that there was nothing he could do to stop his shift.

  That would have worried him, if he’d had time to think about it.

  As it was, he was remembering Balthasar’s threat to change his mind about joining the Slayers.

  Lorenzo knew whose mind was going to get changed and it wouldn’t be his. All he wanted was to be left alone—right now, he wanted to be left alone with Cassie. If Balthasar found that concept elusive, Lorenzo would ensure the Slayer followed it anyway.

  With pure unadulterated dragon emphasis.

  Nobody but nobody was going to lay a talon on anyone in Lorenzo’s lair.

  Cassie watched in amazement as Lorenzo kicked out the glass in the window, shattering it with one blow from his massive tail. He raged into the courtyard, leaping through the broken pane as he breathed fire. She had a heartbeat to wonder what his issue was—then she knew.

  Another dragon swooped over the roof, coming at Lorenzo with talons extended. He exhaled a plume of bright orange fire and Cassie heard a sound like thunder.

  He obviously hadn’t stopped by for a glass of wine.

  Lorenzo must have heard him coming.

  But Lorenzo wasn’t glad to see this dragon. The antagonism between the two crackled in the air. The sound of thunder was relentless if inexplicable. The sky was clear overheard, some stars glittering in the darkness. There was more thunder; then they began to fight.

  Hard.

  The two dragons collided, biting and slashing at each other with ferocious strength. They pounded each other, thrashing with their tails and breathing fire.

  Cassie knew a grudge match when she saw one. Neither one gave the other any quarter.

  The dragon that was Lorenzo appeared just as he had at the theater the other night. His scales looked like they were made of hammered gold—maybe they were—but now she could see that there were different hues of gold in his scales. She saw red-gold scales, white-gold ones, and yellow-gold ones. They glinted, each looking as if it had been pounded to its shape, catching the light as the dragons fought. She could see the powerful muscles moving beneath them, and was awed by the line of what looked like cabochon gems adorning the scales on Lorenzo’s chest and tail.

  He really did look like a medieval reliquary.

  But a dangerous one.

  Where was Salvatore? The thought struck her suddenly.

  Cassie winced as Lorenzo flung the other dragon into the side of the house and the whole building shook with the impact. The other dragon snarled and leapt for Lorenzo, fury in his eyes.

  This other dragon’s scales could have been carved of agate or jasper. They were veined with russet and gold and green, each one rimmed in gold. His talons looked to be gold, too, although they were viciously sharp.

  Did Lorenzo know him? Cassie had to believe that the party circuit for shape-shifting dragon men had to be pretty small. They probably all knew each other.

  She heard the crash of them colliding again and more thunder and winced. It seemed as if they hated each other.

  Although she wouldn’t have been a fan of anyone who came raging into her own private patio to start a vicious fight. Cassie winced as Lorenzo took a hit. His eyes flashed and he breathed a brilliant plume of fire at his opponent. There was a smell of burning flesh as the other dragon yelped and retreated.

  Cassie pulled her camera out of the pocket of her jeans, but hesitated to use it. Instinct told her to grab the shots and run, but Cassie wasn’t sure.

  She knew Lorenzo prized his privacy.

  She was pretty sure she now knew why.

  The thing was that Lorenzo was a publicity hound. He cultivated media attention, but this detail of his life—which would have put him on the front page of every publication in the world—had been one he’d chosen to hide.

  She’d bet that there had been extenuating circumstances of some kind the night before when he’d shifted in the theater—but even then, he’d done it during his show, so people assumed it was an illusion.

  Cassie had to believe that there was a good reason for that. Lorenzo didn’t do anything by accident, and he wasn’t stupid.

  Which meant there was something she didn’t know about these dragons. She heard the crackle of fire and the sound of crunching bones and guessed it might be something that could get a puny human like herself killed.

  Cassie wasn’t stupid either.

  She turned off the camera and put it on the end table. The fact was that she didn’t want to betray Lorenzo. She’d think about why later—for the moment, she’d go with her instinct.

  Which was to get out alive while it was still possible.

  Cassie crossed the floor, making herself as inconspicuous as possible, and picked up Lorenzo’s car keys. The Ferrari would be faster than her Jeep, and closer, too. In the doorway, she looked back and hesitated.

  She couldn’t leave, not without knowing that Lorenzo survived. Even knowing that she could end up getting fried, she couldn’t help but watch.

  Behind the couch offered a better view. She ducked back down there, shoving the car keys into her pocket.

  Lorenzo loosed another torrent of dragonfire at his assailant and Cassie smelled burning flesh. She saw the other dragon’s agate scales blacken and begin to curl.

  The other dragon backed into a corner, but Lorenzo went after him, spewing fire every step of the way. The agate dragon howled when Lorenzo cut open his shoulder with a ferocious slash from his claws. Black blood spurted onto the stone patio. That blood sizzled on contact, a plume of steam rising from the puddle.

  Cassie’s eyes widened. These guys were toxic in more ways than she’d expected.

  The other dragon bared his teeth and rallied, lunging at Lorenzo. Lorenzo punched him in the gut and in the face, a quick volley of five fierce blows that left the other dragon staggering. Lorenzo was savage and he was thorough.

  And he was kicking butt.

  He thrashed the other dragon with his tail and his opponent fell to the ground.

  Lorenzo hovered over him in flight, waiting, perhaps fearing a trick. Cassie saw his eyes narrow as he circled his fallen foe. The other dragon didn’t move.

  Was he breathing? Cassie thought so.

  Suddenly Lorenzo pounced on the other dragon, locking his claws into his opponent’s body and hauling him into the air. Lorenzo’s massive wings gleamed, beating with power as he carried the other dragon into the night sky. Cassie left her hiding place and followed into the atrium, watching from below as Lorenzo soared high into the night sky.

  He was magnificent.

  She saw Lorenzo fling the other dragon into the desert, casting him away from the house. His power and strength left her in awe.

  Cassie heard a scream; then the house jumped with the impact of the dragon’s fall.

  There was no sound of him returning.

  Cassie’s heart stopped when Lorenzo reappeared and looked down at her. She saw his eyes glitter and swallowed. He descended with easy grace, his gaze locked upon her.

  Cassie couldn’t read his mood, not when he was in dragon form. She retreated into the elegant room again, wondering how exactly she would plead for mercy.

  Or whether she needed to.

  Lorenzo landed in the courtyard, his glittering gaze still fixed on Cassie. She stood by the couch and held her ground, reminding herself that Lorenzo had never hurt her. The air practically sizzled with his fury. But then, she would be pretty ticked if someone invaded her home to try to beat her up.

  He folded back his wings with deliberate care, his gaze unblinking. In fact, he showed similar traits in dragon form as in human form. Cassie sensed that he was gathe
ring his composure. She watched him control his passion, exactly the way he did in human form.

  Then his gaze fell on the camera.

  She saw his eyes flash. She saw the puff of smoke flare from his nostrils. She saw him take a step toward her, talons extended, and had a second to panic. There was a shimmer of blue light, a glimpse of Lorenzo nude; then Lorenzo was striding toward her in his jeans.

  With purpose.

  The thing was, he didn’t look significantly less pissed off.

  Lorenzo was livid.

  He couldn’t recall ever having been so furious. How dare Balthasar attack him in his own home? How dare Balthasar threaten the safety of Lorenzo’s elderly father? How dare he taunt him that he would kill his mate?

  Barbarians! Pyr and Slayers were all barbarians, savage and bloodthirsty and primitive. It didn’t matter what their objectives were—their basic nature was consistent. He was glad he had so little to do with them.

  But he’d already sated the firestorm, and that had evidently made no difference. The notion of his kind infecting his life from this point onward was so intolerable that Lorenzo wanted to rip something to shreds.

  Preferably Balthasar.

  Which meant that he was no better. The fact that he’d been unable to keep himself from shifting shape when he’d smelled Balthasar was what made him angriest of all. They were awakening his dragon tendencies, against his own will. He was becoming prey to his own passions, despite his every attempt to master—or eliminate—his nature.

  Never mind that Cassie had witnessed it all.

  The only thing that had stopped Lorenzo from killing Balthasar then and there—as that Slayer so rightly deserved—was the fact that the deed would have verified his own base nature. It would have proven that he was no better than the crude reptiles from which he was descended. It would have proven that he was an animal. A beast. A throwback to a less civilized time.

  And it would have horrified Cassie to have seen him be so brutal.

  All the same, it hadn’t been easy. Lorenzo hated that he’d had to fight his impulses so hard. He could only hope that the flashfire did eliminate his dragon powers.

  Although they had been quite useful of late. For the first time, he felt a shiver of dread. Could he survive without his shifter abilities? Without the ability to beguile? Of course he could!

  The firestorm was proving to be far more trouble than he’d ever expected. And now his dragon nature was riding ascendant. He had shifted without making the choice to do so. He had fought. He had triumphed and was virtually unscathed. He knew that it was the presence of his mate that had made him so vicious and decisive.

  Biology had him in its clutches.

  And now his body wanted to celebrate. He wanted to eat, to drink, to lose himself in the beguiling softness of Cassie. He wanted to spend the night making love, forgetting everything else in the world except her.

  It was a treacherous and dangerous impulse. He had no time for the demands of his dragon nature. He had no time for such primitive nonsense.

  Even though he knew that, desire had Lorenzo sizzling.

  And keenly aware of Cassie. He heard her erratic pulse. He saw the flutter of it at her throat, so achingly vulnerable. He smelled her anxiety, even though she hadn’t heard what Balthasar had threatened to do to her.

  He admired that Cassie didn’t run, although he had to acknowledge that she might be too terrified to do so. She watched him, unblinking, and he knew she had seen and understood every facet of his truth. There could be no facile story now. There could be no excuse, no claim that it was an illusion.

  She knew.

  And he was, for the second time in all his life, exposed.

  It was not a good feeling, especially given what had happened that other time.

  She carried his son. That fact was humbling and changed everything.

  Lorenzo had no idea what to say to her, didn’t want to lie, didn’t want to hear her make the same horrified judgment. At the same time, he didn’t want to just walk away. He was snared by her, just as Erik had suggested, snared by Cassie’s passion and her beauty and her ability to surprise him.

  So he waited for the inevitable condemnation, wishing it wouldn’t come, hoping that history wouldn’t repeat itself. The air crackled between them, his fists clenching and unclenching with that rampant desire.

  Then he saw the camera.

  His temper flared to new heights. How could he have forgotten her occupation?

  Lorenzo marched through the broken glass and snatched up the camera. He might have destroyed it, but he saw that it was turned off. A flick of his thumb revealed that the memory card was empty.

  He looked at Cassie, uncertain what to think.

  She was a professional photographer. He knew that pictures of the Pyr were worth a fortune, thanks to Melissa Smith’s television specials. He had spent his entire life convinced that humans were self-motivated and untrustworthy. He was so convinced of it that the empty memory card shook his world.

  Was it possible that there were humans who were different? Was Cassie different from Caterina?

  Or was this an illusion?

  “I didn’t take any pictures,” she admitted quietly.

  “Why not? Isn’t that your job?” His tone was sharp, but Lorenzo couldn’t help it. He felt vital and alive, but also within a hair of losing control.

  Again.

  Cassie exhaled. “I’m on vacation.” She smiled.

  “Don’t shit me.” Lorenzo spoke with force, having no patience for games. He could have guessed that he was shimmering around his perimeter, hovering on the cusp of change. His eyes were probably glittering, half dragon, his body coiled to fight again.

  He knew he was right when Cassie’s smile disappeared. She looked him over, then swallowed. She took a shaking breath and glanced around the room before meeting his gaze again.

  But she answered him. She wasn’t a coward. He liked that.

  His dragon loved it. He’d never been much for fainting virgins or damsels in distress—and princesses were generally too much trouble.

  “It would be great publicity for you to reveal what you are, but you haven’t done it,” she said. “In fact, you’ve hidden that truth really carefully. I have to think you have a good reason for that, that you know more about the risks than I do.” She shrugged. “You’re not stupid, and neither am I.”

  Lorenzo was astounded by her observations and how much they revealed her understanding of him. “You trust me?”

  Cassie’s smile was quick and genuine. “I guess I do.” If he was shocked by the prospect of a human trusting him, her confirmation amazed him even more. “So what don’t I know about all of this dragon stuff? Will you fill me in?”

  It was a fair question. A fair exchange.

  Even if answering her defied every choice Lorenzo had made in over three hundred years.

  Was she tricking him?

  Did he dare to trust her?

  What about their son?

  Lorenzo put down the camera with care, shaken by his emotions. He wasn’t used to being overwhelmed, not by detail or by passion or by his own base instincts, but he was certainly shaken in this moment. He wasn’t thinking clearly, his body still demanding pleasure with such vehemence that his pulse was pounding.

  She trusted him.

  He wanted to reciprocate in kind.

  “You don’t know anything about it,” he admitted with quiet heat. “And you’re right—it is dangerous.” He met Cassie’s gaze, knowing that she was strong enough for the truth. “Especially for the woman who is the mate of a Pyr. Humans are fundamentally fragile, in comparison to us.”

  As he anticipated, she made the connection. And she didn’t like it much. “Mate. I’ll guess that could be me.” Lorenzo braced
himself for a discussion about the conception of Pyr—never mind the fact that she had already conceived his son.

  He didn’t want to think about the fact that Cassie would—quite reasonably—lose any trust she had in him with his confession that he hadn’t told her all of the truth.

  He’d been sure at the time that he was doing the right thing, but now, now he felt mounting guilt.

  Diavolo.

  It appeared he had more wicked tendencies than he’d previously believed. He recalled only now that humans were supposed to go insane if they witnessed the shift of a Pyr from man to dragon. He’d never believed that either—although there hadn’t been time to think about protecting Cassie from the sight when Balthasar attacked—but he was relieved to find that that bit of lore was nonsense.

  Or was there more to Cassie than met the eye?

  Cassie kept surprising him, forcing him to reconsider his assumptions. Humans might be merely useful, but that perspective was based upon them being self-motivated vermin.

  Lorenzo eyed the camera. What if his mate was not?

  What if the firestorm was right?

  No. He wouldn’t think about that. Firestorms were doomed, as were all partnerships with human women. His nature would betray everything. It was kinder to step away, to let her think badly of him, to deny himself whatever she offered.

  And yet . . .

  Lorenzo glanced at her again. In her presence, it was hard to think about anything other than seducing her again, especially when his body longed to do just that.

  Was that part of the firestorm’s power?

  Cassie surprised him one more time. “How’d you know he was coming? Can dragons see the future?”

  “No.”

  “Well, that’s a relief. I can have some secrets, at least.” The sparkle in Cassie’s eyes, the fact that she had recovered from the sight of his dragon, made him think that celebration might actually be possible.

  He swallowed, choosing his words with care. “Our senses are sharper than human senses. I smelled him.”