Read Online Dragons Realm by Tessa Dawn - Free Book Online Page A

her trapezius muscles, and then he placed each hand on one of her shoulders and whispered in her ear. “Lean back against my chest, Ahavi, so you don’t grow faint.”
    “Mi­lord, please…I…I’m not ready.”
    “You will do as you are bid, sweet Mina.” Be­fore she could reply or re­fuse him , he tugged her back against him, swirled his tongue lightly over the area where the bend of her neck met her shoulder, and then swiftly made a seal over the moist circle with his mouth.
    Mina felt the slow drag of fangs where his cool tongue and warm breath had just been, and she tensed, send­ing a si­lent prayer up to the Spirit Keep­ers for strength.
    Shh , Dante whispered in her mind . And then he re­leased his fangs and sank them deep into her flesh, tak­ing the barest sip of blood in his first primal pull.
    Mina jol­ted from the pain, and then she whimpered from the help­less­ness, clutch­ing at his hands for sup­port. He held her more tightly against him, lock­ing her body to his in an iron hold, even as he con­tin­ued to feed from her es­sence , no longer tak­ing her blood. Al­though the pain began to sub­side, she still didn’t want this. She just wasn’t ready to serve him this soon.
    But what choice did she have?
    She was an Ahavi, a fe­male sworn to serve the dragon, to feed his fire at his be­hest; and moreover, she was Dante’s Sk­la­vos Ahavi, or she would be soon, the mo­ment the king de­creed it—and that meant Dante’s every wish was to be her com­mand. It was simply the way of the Realm.
    It had al­ways been the way of the Realm.
    And Mina thought she had been pre­pared for the in­ev­it­ab­il­ity of her duty, for this de­fense­less, sub­ser­vi­ent mo­ment, un­til she began to feel the warmth seep­ing out of her body, the very nuc­leus of her soul drain­ing from her flesh. Un­til the dragon con­tin­ued to feed his fire with her heat, and her life force began to dis­sip­ate.
    In­ex­press­ible chills traveled along Mina’s spine as her body tem­per­at­ure dropped rap­idly and her en­ergy waned. Frosty sen­sa­tions, like fin­gers gloved in shards of ice, played along her skin—grasp­ing, prob­ing, tak­ing—even as her muscles grew weak and her skin turned blue. She shivered and moaned.
    Yet and still, Dante fed.
    When at last he with­drew his fangs, she felt as if she might col­lapse from ex­haus­tion, as if any mo­ment now, she would draw one last shal­low breath and just let go, pass on to the neth­er­world, drained from the core. She felt as if her body no longer con­tained the es­sence it needed to main­tain life , as if her soul was no longer sep­ar­ate from his.
    As if Dante had taken it all.
    The dragon had drained her com­pletely.
    Dante sealed the punc­ture wounds with a rasp of his tongue, and then he began to blow a steady stream of fire over the raw, in­flamed skin. She knew it was blue fire —or at least she hoped it was—be­cause that was the heal­ing color they were taught to ex­pect at the Keep, the only fire that came from a dragon which gave life in­stead of tak­ing it. Well that and sil­ver, which was used to be­stow im­mor­tal­ity.
    As the mys­tical flames licked at her skin, caus­ing a dull, ra­di­at­ing pain to throb in her neck, she felt her body tem­per­at­ure be­gin to rise al­most as rap­idly as it had fallen. The strength in her muscles re­turned, and she be­came in­stantly re­an­im­ated. She was sud­denly in­fused with amaz­ing strength, ro­bust health, and re­newed vi­tal­ity; and some­how, she knew she was stronger than be­fore. Dante had sealed the wound with a power­ful, heal­ing fire.
    And then he knelt be­hind her again .
    Only this time, he picked up the towel; ran it along her smooth, del­ic­ate skin; and stood back up, reach­ing around to tuck the front into a loosely fol­ded knot, just above her breasts. He was care­ful not to touch her