Page 47 of Bite Me

Jakob rejoined them, Ciara in tow. “Can’t get ahold of Match, but Cage has golds who can be here in a matter of hours. I’ve sent more greens to his place to protect him and heal what they can. He sounded like shit.”

The sooner they could capture the Black Dragon, the sooner he could hunt down Cage’s shard. “Jada, would one of your kind work with the Black Dragon to get him that shard?”

She shook her head. “I don’t know why they would. He’d have to have a pretty compelling reason and the succubus would have to hide what she was doing from her coven. I always thought it was hard to hide anything from one’s demon family, but I guess I was wrong about that.”

Ky asked, “How did the succubus who took Cage’s shard get him to give it up to her?”

“I don’t know. What would make a dragon warrior give his shard to anyone?”

They looked at Steele and Jakob. “You’re the only two dragons who ever have. Why did you give your mates your shard?”

“It wasn’t my shard I was giving Fleur. It was my soul.”

That only confirmed what Ky thought.

Ciara and Jakob exchanged a meaningful look and clasped hands. “I was dying. I thought if I gave it to her, she would still have a part of me and could keep it safe from the demon dragons.”

“How did you know it was the right thing to do, to give it to them?” Ky didn’t care so much about how any of this could help them defeat the Black Dragon so much as if he should give his own shard to Jada.

“If a succubus was able to get the shard from a dragon Wyvern in the first place, it should be a piece of cake for Jada to get it from the Black Dragon.”

Steele shook his head. “But he has the crone. She’s got some scary powerful magic according to Fleur. What if Jada can’t?”

Jada shook her head and smiled. “There isn’t much that can defend against a succubus’s allure when she turns it on full throttle.”

“Then why don’t we just have Jada use her power on the Black Dragon anyway and have her compel him to give up?”

“It doesn’t work that way. It’s a short burst, that makes someone horny enough to want to please me, you know, sexually. I can’t force them to do anything.”

“Have you ever used it for anything else?” Ciara asked.

“Well, no. I guess I never needed to.”

“Try it out on us. We’re already mated, so I don’t think it will affect us.”

Jada sunk back. “No. I,…no. That’s not a good idea.”

Ciara was perky and bright. It was hard to tell her no. “It will be fine. We need to see if it can help. See if you can get us to do something we wouldn’t normally do.”

“I don’t like this.”

Ky didn’t either. If need be, he would defend his mate against any other dragon on the face of the planet. Even his own fellow Wyverns, his brotherhood.

The other women returned from the kitchen. Fleur said, “We have to go to the community garden to get the rhubarb. I only have stalks and the leaves and roots are the most toxic.”

Ky nodded to her. “Steele and Dax will take you. But first, we’re going to try a little experiment. It will work even better if we can see if she has a different effect on mated versus unmated dragons.”

He hated how uncomfortable this made Jada, but Jakob was right. He lifted her hand to his lips and kissed the inside of her wrist, drawing her attention away from the other dragons and their mates.

“This could be a powerful weapon. I know you don’t want to, but I promise to protect you if anything goes wrong.”

Jada chewed on her lip, worrying the skin there. “This is still a bad idea, but I’ll try.”

“Thank you.”

“Get Dax in here.”

“Wait. See if Jada can get him to do it.”

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