He had shared Michael’s pain when Eve returned more and more often to the Dome. Though they never discussed it, he knew Michael was hurting. He was generous enough never to have felt satisfaction at that pain. And yet the thought had crossed his mind, more than once, that at least Eve was still Michael’s. Somehow he knew these two brightest stars would come back together in the end.

  Yet now, now when Aaron had finally felt another powerful attraction -- and Michael knew it -- the younger man had deliberately stepped in and taken her -- fucked her -- right under his nose.

  He had both the women Aaron wanted, while Aaron was left, as usual, to clean up the mess. That hurt. That made him want to punch Michael’s face in, force him to eat his own careless, treacherous blood…

  A light touch on his arm broke into his savage thoughts.

  Irritably, he glanced round at Iona, the human assistant healer, and tried to school his features into careless amusement.

  “The dance gets people that way,” she said lightly. “For the rest of us, the night is still young. Dance with me?”

  * * *

  Michael lay on his back on her large, round bed. He had made love to her again, this time long and tenderly, trying to make up for his previous, unforgivably rough urgency. She had responded with like passion, her hands running constantly in fascinated exploration of his long, un-winged back. And Christ, she was so beautiful, it had taken all his self-control, including some he hadn’t known he possessed, to hold himself in check. But this time he had tried to focus solely on her pleasure. He loved the way she arched into him, lifting her gorgeous, full breasts for his mouth to devour. He was entranced by the tiny noises of rapture and desire that emanated from her as he caressed her from hair to toes before he even turned his attention to the delight between her legs.

  With his fingers, tenderly playing among her folds and gliding across her clitoris, he had brought her to the edge, arousing himself to fever pitch by avidly watching her reactions. When he withdrew his fingers, she had cried out in petulance, her nails digging painfully into his back. With wicked mischief, he had slid down her delicious body to find her pussy with his lips and excited both of them to screaming point by teasing her some more with his mouth, delving his tongue inside her, losing himself in her unique taste and smell.

  Only when he felt her convulsions tremor on the edge did he move upwards again to hold her in his arms, to slide inside her, little by little, and watch her come long and blissfully while he thrust inside her in slow, gentle strokes to keep her there. His whole body had shaken with the effort to hold back from hammering her to find his own desperate release, but Christ, it had been worth it. His climax had a long, slow build-up that somehow, fed by her own contractions around him, the writhing of her body under and around him, led to an apex so intense he nearly lost consciousness. Only care for her kept him from collapsing on her in blissful abandon.

  She stretched her lithe body under him, smiling with joy and triumph and holding the pleasure for him longer than he had imagined possible.

  “All right,” she said at last. “You have a gentler side.”

  He smiled, feeling like a large, sated cat with a big bowl of cream consumed and another to come later, and rolled onto his back. His arms still held her to him. She laid her head on his chest, her tangle of dark red hair falling across his skin like blood.

  Blood.

  His heart began to pound afresh.

  She said, “Do you want blood?”

  His eyes closed with the suddenly urgent longing. Slowly, he forced them open again. “I thought you had ethics about reading leaky minds.”

  “I was reading your body, not your mind. Well, maybe a bit of both. Besides, you asked for it earlier, remember? If you are -- hungry -- you can drink from me.”

  “Danna…” He broke off helplessly, blind blood-lust warring with his own code that one did not drink from friends, whatever he had said to her in the grip of her dance-induced lust. One drank from clinical blood donations, or from the willing, masochistic victims encountered in the City’s sleazy clubs. Not from a beautiful, passionate lover who offered it like a biscuit with tea.

  She lifted her head, smiling. “We are not so different. There is nothing shameful in sharing the resources of the Earth.”

  “Is that what the Dragul do?”

  “Yes. It is one great cycle.”

  “Do other bodily fluids count as resources of the Earth?” he asked, lazily sweeping one hand down her inner thigh to find his semen trickling there.

  “Of course.” She smiled again, as his fingers slid higher to sink into her hot wetness, and her green eyes seemed to darken. Her wings trembled and unfurled, spreading out behind her.

  “God, you slay me when you do that. You’re the most beautiful creature I’ve ever laid eyes on. I can’t believe I’ve made love to you twice.”

  “Two is not a good number for a Dragul.”

  “No?”

  “No. One means you don’t suit. Two means you do, but are prevented continuing…”

  “What about three?”

  “Three is better,” she said judiciously. “If you’ve had a busy day.”

  “And four?”

  “Four is getting there.”

  He reached for her as she began to kiss his chest, flicking a surprisingly wicked tongue across his sensitized nipples.

  “And how many do you usually get, Dragon Dancer?”

  She smiled around his nipple. “Four.”

  “From whom? The king?”

  Her hand closed around his still hard cock, making the breath hiss from his mouth. “A few times.”

  Jealousy twisted through him like a plunging knife, vying with the sexy movement of her hand for his attention.

  “And Aurel?” he asked, pushing the knife deeper in.

  “Once.”

  “Does Beth know?”

  “I’ve no idea. We are not a celibate people. Are you?” As she spoke, she rose up, straddling him, with his huge, angry cock held in both her delicate, torturing hands.

  “No,” he managed.

  She smiled once more, and her wings moved, gently beating. She rose into the air, several inches, although she still held his cock while she hovered. Holding his eyes, teasing him as he’d earlier teased her. “For what it’s worth, no one ever fucked me against a tree in full view of the king’s party before.”

  “I hope he enjoyed the show,” Michael said fiercely. “I sure as hell did.”

  “Good,” said Danna and lowered herself with aching slowness onto his cock.

  She slid over him like a warm, velvet glove, tight and moist and irresistible. Her hands fled before her pussy, and as she reached his balls, she leaned down and kissed his mouth, a brief, blatantly arousing kiss, thrusting her tongue into his, twisting once and withdrawing as she straightened her body.

  Her wings fluttered, lifting her on his cock. He groaned, reaching for her hips.

  “No hands,” she said. “Not for either of us. Just your cock inside me. Trust me.”

  And so Michael lay back, so aroused he thought he would explode before she found any pleasure at all. But quickly, he became lost in the experience, drowning in the bliss he was as determined as she to make last.

  With the gentle beating of her wings, she rose up and down on his shaft, squeezing and caressing him. Occasionally, she changed the position of her legs, holding them out behind her, then both to one side of him, to see which position he liked best. But the rhythmic rise and fall of her body, slowly massaging him to climax, never paused.

  At some point, she began to lose her care for his pleasure in desperation for her own, and somehow that aroused him even further. Avidly, as she twisted, driving her clitoris against the base of his cock, he drank in her pleasure. He watched her eyes close in bliss, felt her increased rhythm, the hoarse catching of breath as her wild roll began. She convulsed around him once more and he came with her, building to a great shout of joy. Yet still her wings beat, still she rose and fell on his cock, intensifying the pleasure beyond endurance until with a cry she fell on him, her wings trembling back behind her body as she jerked and writhed at the apex of her pleasure.

  From pure instinct, Michael rolled her underneath him, rose up on his knees between her legs and pounded into her. With ferocious triumph, he felt another orgasm spark for her from the embers of the last, revelled in her helpless cries of joy. It drove him on and on, making her come again and again until he was ready for another himself. Then he gathered her into his arms and buried his mouth in hers while he thrust hard inside her twice more and shouted his massive joy into her mouth.

  When he became aware of anything again, he realized he lay with his head on her breast, idly stroking the top of her wing. He said, “Does that count as three or four?”

  Sexy laughter gurgled from her throat, vibrating his cheek. “Eight. At least.”

  He smiled, lazily curling his tongue around her delectable, rosy nipple. “We’ll have to make it ten before bed time. And then,” he added, lifting his head and smiling at her look of delicious anticipation, “there’s still the morning.”

  Chapter Five

  Beth was waiting for him when he finally came back to the palatial house she shared with Aurel. He’d known she would be. With his superior senses, he had hoped to sneak past her, but unfortunately Beth was half-vampire too, with lupi thrown into the mix, so if anything her hearing was stronger than his.

  She had been sitting alone on a luxurious sofa, her back to the door of the room while she gazed out of the massive window at the rising sun. But as he trod softly past the door, she said, “Michael.”

  He paused and gave a resigned sigh. “Beth.”

  “Do you want to tell me how you’re not messing things up?”

  Michael gazed at the ceiling as if hoping for strength, or at least escape. In the end, realizing there was neither, he walked into the room and threw himself down beside Beth.

  “Messing what up? And for whom?”

  “Leaving your own personal life aside…”

  “Yes, let’s leave that well aside.”

  “… the king is fond of Danna.”

  “I know exactly how fond he’s been,” Michael said edgily. He hadn’t meant to sound so savage. It just came out that way.

  Beth’s eyebrows flew up. “Really? Oh, I didn’t know that!” She coughed. “But I’m not talking about that, I’m talking about affection. The king is fond of Danna, and will not look kindly on anyone hurting her.”

  “She seemed quite happy when I saw her last.”

  “Smug bastard,” Beth said with annoyance, and Michael laughed. “Michael, I’m serious! If you want to bring the Dragul closer to the City you won’t do it by messing with the locals!”

  “Speaking as one who has already so messed,” Michael murmured.

  Beth flushed. “That was different. You can’t have flings here, Michael, and still expect to do what you came for. What if Danna falls in love with you?”

  Michael stood up, moving restlessly toward the window. “What if I fall in love with Danna?”

  “Have you?”

  Michael gave a short, contemptuous laugh.

  “I hope you do. Serve you bloody right! Michael, if you’re not serious about the Dragul treaty, move over and leave it to someone who is. Go home, and tell Will to send someone else to help Aaron.”

  “Bossy boots,” he mocked.

  “Stop it.”

  He sighed, and turned back to face her. “All right, I’ve stopped. I’m sorry. I went with the moment, not the greater good. But I still mean to bring some sort of mutually helpful alliance home with me. Satisfied?”

  For a moment, she searched his eyes. A faint smile began to lurk around her own. “I suppose so. Go and change then. The king wants us in conference in an hour. And, Michael,” she added as he began to walk away from her to the door.

  He glanced back at her and saw that the smile had gone. Instinctively, he knew that this was it. “Yes?”

  “Talk to Eve.”

  Curiously, it didn’t hurt. “I don’t have a loud-hailer strong enough. Or even a radio.”

  “Michael, you’re the two most powerful psychics of our generation. You don’t need a bloody radio!”

  “Beth, will you get off my back? Why the hell should I bother Eve? This changes nothing between her and me.”

  She didn’t even flinch. “I’m not talking about Danna here. It’s time you talked to Eve, Michael.”

  He closed his eyes, letting his head fall back against the doorjamb. Knowing she was right didn’t make it any easier.

  * * *

  Aaron was civil but distant as they walked across to the king’s palace. Michael, lashing himself for letting his cock do the thinking last night and so standing on his friend’s toes -- again -- pretended not to notice. It was easy enough in the company of Aurel and Beth who were bidden to the same conference.

  On the other hand, the king revealed no such displeasure. Greeting them with the same polite friendliness he had shown on the previous day, he invited them all to sit among the comfortable cushions of a spacious room with tapestry-lined walls. And when they were settled, he looked expectantly at Michael.

  Michael gave a rueful smile. “Okay, let me start by saying that after Aurel’s ‘stories,’ I completely understand -- as I was meant to -- your reasons for avoiding contact with humans.”

  The king inclined his head.

  “And I’m sure both Beth and Beth’s parents have impressed on Aurel the City’s virtues of living together.”

  Aurel nodded in wry imitation of the royal gesture. The king ignored him.

  “Well, understanding and respecting each other’s point of view, we also have to consider the reality.”

  “Which is?” Aurel prompted.

  Michael shrugged. “That your isolation is effectively over. Your existence is out in the daylight. Both the City and the Dome are aware of you, and you can’t deal with that by ignoring it. If you do, the Dome will simply overrun your land. You could fight and defeat them, I have no doubt, with both hands tied behind your back, but I don’t get the impression that that’s the solution you’re looking for.”

  “So what would you recommend?” Aurel enquired. “Let me guess. That we ally with the City to discourage the Dome.”

  “It seems the only sensible way forward. The City would undertake not to build or farm on any of the land occupied by Dragul, and to watch your back with our own. You must know there are a million things we are desperate to learn from you -- but perhaps there are things we can help you with…”

  “Like?” Aurel asked, with polite incredulity.

  “Like our scientific research into the upper atmosphere. You,” he nodded at the king, “already told me that despite your deep knowledge and understanding of the Earth you didn’t have the technology to bring back the sun.”

  “But you did,” the king acknowledged. “And thereby made our lives here above the ground complete. We are forever grateful. But unless you plan to start more nuclear wars, I don’t see the advantage of an exchange of this knowledge.”

  “Yes, you do,” Michael said shrewdly. “You love the Earth like your mother. You soak up knowledge about her for its own sake. But I only gave it as an example… Look, I don’t believe isolation is good for anyone. Talking, understanding, that’s how you avoid wars like the one that so nearly destroyed us all. You’ve heard me revile the Dome and what it stands for, but I’ve learned from visits there too, and I would never stop talking to them. Will, the City’s leader, will never stop talking to them, or to anyone. If you ask me, isolation is the fastest way to stagnation.”

  “I don’t believe we did,” Aurel remarked, regarding his fingernails, and when everyone stared at him blankly, he glanced up. “Ask him,” he explained.

  “I’ve learned a bit about your history,” Michael went on, ignoring that. Neither did he explain he had learned it from Danna in the quiet moments of the night, more than from Beth or Aurel. “Think of the reasons you came back above the ground, defying the elders and tradition and safety for change, the chance of a better life…

  “But even that’s not the point. The change has already begun. Beth is here, living among you, one of you through Aurel. Aaron and I have come. Everything is changed through contact, and you can never go back. Even Iona, however contented, however much she loves you, has had a glimpse now of another world and will want to explore -- and will want to come back. With her friends.

  “In my opinion, you need to embrace that change before your hand is forced in ways that may be disastrous, before people leave you the way you left the elders.”

  Silence filled the audience chamber. Beth stared at him with a mixture of awe and fright. Beside her, Aurel stirred. “You must make a hell of a storyteller. Would you like a job?”

  A breath of laughter escaped Michael. “If I ever want to change, I’ll look you up.”

  “The reason he asks,” the king said slowly, “is that he has a vacancy for an assistant. Avram left us when Beth first arrived. So afraid of the results of any contact with humans, he betrayed our existence to your Dome enemies, in the belief it would send us back underground. He was wrong. We are never going back. But it illustrates your own point. Things have already changed, and we must indeed embrace that.”

  Michael clamped his jaw together, in danger of bouncing it off the floor.

  The king smiled apologetically. “On the other hand, my friend, how we embrace it is not up for negotiation with you.” He was silent then. So was Aurel, and yet Michael knew they were communicating.

  He glanced up abruptly. “Stay with us another day or so. I am happy for Aaron and our healers to exchange information. Before you leave, I will give you a message for your leader. It may not be the one you’re looking for.”

  Michael nodded. “It may not be. But a message of any kind is better than silence.”