Firestorm: Volume 1: A Dragon Romance Read online

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  Prologue

  Long, long ago ...

  The stench of death and blood filled the air no matter how high Dmitri flew. Everywhere he looked, he saw another dead dragon with mortals cheering. It was gut wrenching. Everything the Dragon Kings had worked so hard for was being obliterated.

  And by the very beings they had vowed to protect.

  Time was running out. His heart banged with trepidation. Already, he’d lost several of his Whites in the never-ending battles. The loss pierced his soul, leaving a scar that would never heal. Their deaths would be a weight he carried for eternity.

  The dragon bridge blazed brightly in the distance. The sky darkened from the swarm of dragons rushing toward the bridge. Each of the Kings was responsible for getting their clan to the bridge—including the sick and the old. No dragon was to be left behind.

  Dmitri looked over his shoulder to see his clan behind him. When he saw his aunt falter and slow, he dipped one wing and turned to go to her.

  “Keep going!” he shouted through the mental link shared by all dragons.

  He came up under his aunt until she was resting on his back.

  “You shouldn’t,” she said in his mind.

  He ignored her and kept flying. They had no other choice but to get the dragons to the bridge so they could find another realm—somewhere. No longer could the dragons and mortals co-exist.

  Yet, Dmitri wasn’t sure he could let his family go. It was going to take more strength than he had. More than he was willing to give.

  His gaze looked to the earth below. The humans were to blame. They were the ones who kept claiming more and more land, the ones who insisted everything was theirs simply because they wanted it.

  Because of it, he was not only losing his clan and home but also his family.

  The closer he got to the dragon bridge, the more he wanted to fight the mortals and claim the realm for the dragons as it had always been. Then he spotted a flash of gold next to him and looked over to find Constantine.

  The King of Dragon Kings gave him a nod. In Con’s royal purple dragon eyes, Dmitri recognized the same emotions within himself. Con’s Golds had been the first to cross the bridge. If he could let his dragons go, then so would Dmitri.

  He flew faster until he was leading the Whites once more. Sadness clogged his throat when his aunt rested her head against his.

  His sister came up on the other side of him, his wing touching hers. The last few miles, he soaked up every moment he could with his family, because each beat of his wings took them closer to the dragon bridge.

  All too soon, they arrived. He hovered near the bridge. His aunt rolled off him before spreading her wings and flying to face him.

  “I’ll see you soon, nephew. I love you,” she said.

  He gave her a nod. “I love you, too. Take care of our dragons until we can call you home again.”

  With fierce determination in her eyes, his aunt faced the dragon bridge and led the Whites over. Dmitri remained at the entrance, touching his wing to each of his dragons before they flew over the bridge.

  His sister waited until the last. “Don’t worry about us.”

  “You’re in charge of them now.”

  She nodded. “Aunt and I will do our duty and lead our clan until you can take your rightful place. Just be quick about it,” she said before bumping into him.

  “I love you, too, sis,” he said.

  A tear fell from her eye. With one last look, she flew over the dragon bridge.

  Dmitri’s heart shattered. Pain filled his chest, suffocating him until he couldn’t draw breath. He watched until his sister faded from sight. Then, reluctantly, he tucked his wings and dove to the ground where Con and the other Dragon Kings stood in human form, watching the dragons leave their home.

  Just before he hit the ground, Dmitri shifted. He rolled to his feet and raised his gaze upward. He’d taken the sight of dragons in the sky for granted. Within the hour, the last of the dragons would be gone.

  None of the Kings spoke. The anguish was too great, too raw. Everything they were was being viciously and savagely stripped away.

  The horror didn’t end with the last of the dragons crossing the bridge. Now, the Kings had to destroy every dead dragon. They were erasing themselves from the realm—and the minds of men.

  Dreagan

  January, present day

  Dmitri breathed in deeply as he entered the warehouse. The smooth, dry peat smell accented with oak filled his senses. Whisky.

  It wasn’t just Dreagan’s major source of income. It was the essence of the land and the people. Every time he walked the warehouses where the oak cask barrels were stored, he felt pride in what they did.

  He let his fingers trail over the barrels that had been maturing for seventy-five years as he moved down the rows. His mouth watered at the thought of sampling the Scotch. Stopping at the end of a row, he put his hand on the oaken barrel and squatted down beside it.

  “Anxious, I see.”

  He looked up to see Constantine walking toward him. “Aye,” Dmitri answered and straightened.

  While the world might know Dreagan Industries as the global leader in Scotch sales, there was much more to those who lived on the sixty thousand acres than anyone realized.

  For starters, they weren’t human. They were dragons able to shift into the form of mortals and live among them.

  But as with any story, it wasn’t so cut and dry as that. Dmitri blew out a breath when Con reached him. The men at Dreagan were Dragon Kings—leaders of each of their dragon races.

  As their leader, Con ensured that their true identities remained secret from the world. However, that was becoming more and more problematic.

  One of their enemies—the Dark Fae—had secretly videoed the Kings in battle with the Dark. The subsequent release of said video showing the Kings shifting multiple times had caused a worldwide sensation—and brought the attention of every military and government agency around the globe.

  “What’s wrong?” Dmitri asked, noting the worry in the depths of Con’s black eyes.

  Con twisted the gold dragon head cufflink at his left wrist. “There’s a matter I need you to attend to.”

  “Name it.”

  “I’m sending you to Fair Isle.”

  For a moment, Dmitri didn’t breathe. “Now isna the time for more of us to leave. Asher is still in Paris at the World Whisky Consortium. No’ to mention Anson, Kinsey, Henry, and Esther are about to head to investigate Kyvor.”

  It seemed that the Kings had adversaries coming at them from all sides. The Dark Fae and humans, but the most troubling was a banished Dragon King, Ulrik.

  He was the instigator of most of the things happing at Dreagan. Unfortunately, so far, Ulrik remained one step ahead of them.

  “I agreed with Ryder that in order to find out who from Kyvor sent Kinsey and Esther, the girls had to go there and infiltrate the offices,
” Con explained.

  Dmitri still couldn’t believe that Ryder wasn’t going to be with his mate, Kinsey. Then again, as a computer mastermind, Ryder could keep an eye on Kinsey from behind his rows of monitors.

  “They’re all mortals,” Dmitri reminded Con.

  Con raised a blond brow. “Both Henry and Esther have sworn to aid us, and Kinsey is Ryder’s mate.”

  “But the ceremony hasna been done, which means she’s no’ immortal yet.”

  “No one is more aware of that than Ryder. Frankly, right now, we can use them. Until Vaughn takes care of the legal papers to get MI5 and the news crews off Dreagan, our wings are clipped.”

  “I ken that. But we also know that whoever used magic on Kinsey and Esther to turn them against us can do it again.”

  “Ryder will protect Kinsey, and Henry will look after his sister. Asher is doing fine in Paris, so there is no reason for you no’ to go to Fair Isle.”

  Dmitri’s heart missed a beat. It had been so very long since he was last there. Would it be the same? Would he even recognize it? “What’s happening on the tiny isle?”

  He hoped it was Dark Fae. He was ready to kill more of those bastards. The Kings were still cleaning up the mess those evil shites had made on Halloween across the UK.

  “I got a call from MacLeod Castle today.”

  That caused Dmitri to worry because, for the most part, those at the castle had remained out of the war. If they had reached out, then something must really be wrong. Thankfully, the Warriors and Druids were allied with the Kings. Each group had helped the other out several times.

  “Have the Dark finally found the Warriors?” he asked.

  Con gave a shake of his surfer-boy blond hair and adjusted the sleeves of his dress shirt before slipping his hands into the pockets of his pants. “In some ways, that would be better.”

  Better? This wasn’t going to be good. An ominous feeling ran down Dmitri’s spine like the fingers of Fate. There was no getting out of it—not that he would even try. “Spit it out.”

  “The call came from Ronnie.”

  The foreboding increased, twisting until it grew into a tight knot in the pit of his stomach. “Dr. Reid? Is she in trouble? Is she on a dig at Fair Isle?”

  “She’s well. Everyone at MacLeod Castle is fine. But there is a dig on the isle. Ronnie received a text from a fellow archeologist and friend about a recent find.”

  Dmitri folded his arms across his chest. It was Veronica Reid’s “find” that had brought the immortal Warriors into her life, allowing her and Arran to fall in love.

  As a Druid, Ronnie was able to locate hidden treasures beneath the ground, which had brought her to the attention of the Warriors to begin with.

  “What find?” Dmitri demanded.

  Con’s gaze was steady, his face set in hard lines. Then he delivered the killing blow. “A dragon skeleton.”

  Chapter One

  Fair Isle

  Faith Reynolds never felt more at home than she did in the middle of a dig. Sounds of rocks being moved and dirt shoveled into pails filled the air, giving her a purpose—and a goal.

  All around her, people talked and laughed, but she didn’t hear their conversations. She was so deep inside the cave that the darkness and dampness that clung to everything didn’t even register. Her focus was on something much more important. Something much more valuable.

  Bones. But they weren’t just any bones.

  She moved the electric lamp and used the large cleaning brush to gently smooth away the sand and dirt to expose more of the jawbone. Over eighty percent of the head and neck had been excavated.

  It wasn’t until she’d discovered the bones of what was obviously a wing that she confirmed what she’d found—a dragon!

  A week later, and she still couldn’t believe it.

  Nor did anyone else.

  Since her funding came from The British Museum, they continued to send other archeologists, biologists, and zoologists to declare her a fraud.

  Except not a single one of those idiots had been able to do that. It made her smile. They wouldn’t confirm it was a dragon, but they couldn’t name it as another animal either.

  For the moment, that was enough. She was sure someone would attempt to say it was a new dinosaur. By that time, she wanted the entire skeleton excavated and brought to her lab so she could study it more.

  Until then, she wasn’t going far from her find. She felt a connection to it that she couldn’t explain or understand. As if she were supposed to be the one to finally give it peace.

  Almost as if the skeleton had been waiting for her to discover it. She shook her head, inwardly laughing at herself. A firm believer in making her own destiny, her thoughts were vastly different than her normal scientific reasoning.

  She enjoyed hearing all the local tales and legends, but they were nothing more than stories. Nothing about them was real.

  This dragon, however, was something else completely. It proved that the animals had once existed. It would also confirm that all the myths about dragons having magic were entirely false.

  Her excitement to share what she’d found made her want to hurry and uncover the remains, but that would be folly. Something could go wrong, or she might damage the bones. No, she needed to proceed cautiously.

  It was too bad her mother couldn’t be there to share in the delight. Molly had loved dragons so much that they were everywhere in the house—knickknacks, paintings, pillows, posters, wind chimes, and even a potholder. Faith never had to wonder what to get her mom. If it had a dragon on it, Molly Reynolds wanted it.

  Faith looked up, her hand stilling as her eyes became unfocused. All of her mother’s dragons were now carefully wrapped and boxed away in a storage unit back in Houston.

  She blew out a breath and blinked several times. Though it had only been six months since she’d walked into her mother’s house for a day of shopping only to find that she’d died peacefully in her sleep, the hurt was still there.

  The first thing Faith had done when she’d found the skeleton was grab her cell phone and dial her mom’s number. Molly hadn’t just been Faith’s mother, she’d also been her best friend.

  Faith had never cared that she didn’t have a father, that he hadn’t wanted her enough to stay. Molly had loved her enough that it didn’t matter.

  She swallowed, her eyes filling with tears. “Oh, Mom. If only you could be here,” she whispered into the darkness.

  Faith hastily swiped her cheeks with the back of her left hand. She sniffed and returned to her work. Little by little, she uncovered the rest of the jawbone.

  She ran her hand lovingly over the head that was easily five feet long. The snout wasn’t rounded, but narrow. And the teeth were incredibly long and sharp, particularly the canines.

  As intriguing as the four horns—extending from the back of the head like fingers—were, it was the two sets of ridges along its nose that she found most interesting.

  She placed her hand between the two rows and spread her fingers but couldn’t quite reach either side. If the head were that large, just how big was the rest of the dragon?

  “Dr. Reynolds,” Tamir said as he squatted down beside her.

  She jumped, startled by her assistant. Faith turned her head and smiled. He’d just returned from a visit with his family in Israel.

  With his thick, black hair pulled back in a man-bun and his muscular body, every woman on the dig lusted after Tamir. Everyone woman that is, except her.

  To her, Tamir would always be the gangly, awkward young man who was eager to learn from anyone.

  “What is it?” she asked, rolling onto her side to better see him.

  Tamir’s dark eyes quickly looked away. “Another news crew arrived.”

  “Send them away,” she said with a shrug.

  “I tried.”

  She sat up. “Then just ignore them. They’ll go away like the others.”

  “I don’t think so.”

  “What aren�
��t you telling me?” she urged as she got to her feet.

  Tamir ran a hand down his face. “I found two men trying to get into the cave. Fair is small, Faith. Only seventy people live here, and the authorities aren’t prepared for any of this.”

  That’s when it hit her. “You think those men were going to hurt me?”

  “It’s certainly a possibility. There was something . . . odd . . . about them.” He gave a shake of his head. “I can’t explain what, but I sensed evil.”

  “Did you call the police?”

  At this, Tamir looked away. “No.”

  “Why not?”

  “I wanted to.” He cleared his throat. “Then I couldn’t.”

  “Couldn’t?” Now she was concerned. This was very unlike him. Had someone threatened him? “Did they try to hurt you?”

  Now Tamir wouldn’t meet her gaze. “Just the opposite.”

  “They came on to you?” she asked with a grin. It wasn’t the first time a man had taken an interest in him, nor did she suspect it would be the last.

  Tamir nodded.

  She laughed and slapped him on the shoulder. “What’s the big deal?”

  “I . . . I wanted them.”

  Them. Not him. Them. Since Tamir’s interests ran exclusively to women, this came as a shock. And explained why he was so upset.

  “Where did they go?” she pressed.

  He shrugged and fisted one of his hands. “They walked away. Once they were gone, I felt like myself again.”

  She tucked a strand of blond hair behind her ear. “We can’t help desire. Or fight it.”

  “You don’t understand,” he insisted, his gaze swinging to her. “I wanted them. I would’ve done anything to have them, but even during all of that, I felt their evil. I think the locals are right. I think there is magic on this island.”

  If there was one thing she couldn’t stand, it was people saying something was magic simply because they were either too lazy or too ignorant to find a scientific explanation.

  “It wasn’t magic,” she stated. “How long ago did this happen?”

  “Thirty minutes or so.”