Page 16 of Chase Me

“I tire of your denial, Ciara.”

“You said you can smell lies. Take a good sniff, then tell me again that I'm lying.”

Fire danced in her eyes and across his skin. The scent of her fear was gone, and it had been replaced, not by deceit, but desire. Nothing this far underground had seen the sun in hundreds of years, but the scent of sunshine on a warm spring day surrounded him.

She wasn't lying. Yet along with her natural perfume, he could not only scent the relic, but he could even feel its power on her. Here, where it had been kept for the past 700 years, its magic—the same each soul shard a dragon warrior wore—flowed in and around both of them.

The little stone in the necklace she had on lit up with a green light that matched the incessant glow from his soul shard. It was as if she had her own shard.

But that couldn't be. Only dragons were given a shard of the First Dragon’s soul, and it imbued them with the power to shift. There were no such thing as female dragons. Only sons of sons of sons of the First Dragon.

If he could touch the necklace, hold it in his hand, maybe then he could understand. “I believe you. There are a lot of unanswered questions though.”

“Finally. So, can I go home now? I've got a lot to do, not to mention my date on Wednesday.”

Jakob rankled at the mention of a date. She wouldn't be going on any dates with anyone, except maybe him. “Where did you get that necklace?”

Ciara touched her neck and seem surprised that the charmwas glowing. “Someone gave it to me as a present. I just don't know who. My mother, I suppose. However, that is very atypical for her.”

The air around them frosted, but not in the pleasurable tingly way it had before. Icicles formed on the wall nearest them. Ciara wrinkled her nose. “Oops.”

“Oops?”

“Yes, your Mrs. Bohacek told me I needed to not suppress my emotions while I was here because I might burn the house down. I guess icicles are better than flames.”

There was a new vulnerability in her voice.

One that Jakob wanted to hear more of.

It was really too bad that dragons didn't have mates anymore and hadn't for almost seven-hundred years, because he could sure imagine himself with Ciara for a good long time. Maybe Steele was right, and he did need a companion. But that term didn't seem right for Ciara at all.

What did seem right was to do something no one since his grandfather's generation had. Right now, standing with her amongst all of his treasure, what he wanted more than anything else was to lick his way across her shoulder and bite into that soft, supple flesh, claiming her.

Ridiculous.

He might do it anyway.

“Ciara, come here my little witch.” What would she taste like? He needed to know.

“What? I'm sorry about the icicles. They'll melt, won't they?”

“I don't care about the ice, although I do like the fire.”

His fingers hovered above her arm, ready to pull her to him.

A shrill alarm blasted through the air, and the door to the vault flashed with lights that indicated it would shut soon.

Shit.

That alarm only meant one thing.

Demon dragons.

“Do not move from this spot.” Jakob pointed at Ciara. “You will be safe here.”

He bolted for the door, already letting the shift take over, claws and talons sprouting, his wings unfurling.

“Hey, where are you going? What am I supposed to do?” Ciara scrambled to follow him.

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