Nioral's Quest Read online

  Merigone finished with another kiss, this one right between his nostrils.

  She liked the taste of his rough skin and the smell of his fiery breath. She’d never been so taken with a man -- and to her he was a man -- in her life. There was a way they could be together, if only he’d take it, but suddenly, from the looks of it, he didn’t seem interested anymore. Merigone fought her disappointment.

  “What’s wrong? Were you teasing me?” she whispered, tears close as she stepped toward him and ran her small human hand across his massive chest.

  Nioral brought his head down close to her, his cheerless gaze capturing hers. Slowly, he shook his head. “There is no concoction, Merigone. I guarantee it does not exist. Where would you get such an idea?”

  The sadness in his voice sent chills through Merigone. Desolation replaced his earlier charisma, and thus her hope. “F-from the witch beyond the glen. I saw it just before she bewitched me.”

  Nioral’s heart skipped a beat. The witch beyond the glen -- he knew her well. Every dragon did. She’d used her dark skills against them more than once. This did not bode well for either of them.

  “Why would you go there?” he asked carefully, not sure if he wanted to hear the answer. Merigone’s fair skin grew even more pale, and for a moment Nioral worried he hadn’t cleansed her entirely of the candy thorn’s poison.

  “My mother sent me to her,” Merigone answered, looking down. “She said she’d heard the witch recently discovered a new remedy, one to cure my father. She feared the witch wouldn’t give the cure to her because my mother once bested her by healing a man the witch couldn’t. I had no choice but to go.”

  Nioral blinked, instantly overcome with sympathy for the beauty who now tried to cover her body as if she’d committed some shameful act. He picked up the dress and foot coverings he’d brought and dropped them at her feet.

  Eagerly grabbing it, she held the blue material in front of her and looked deep into Nioral’s eyes. “I was a fool to go alone. My father begged me not to, but Mother convinced me he won’t make it through more than two bouts without succumbing, even though he’s stable right now. And the bouts come in a matter of months now, instead of years.”

  “Afflicted with the Colax, is he?”

  Merigone nodded, her eyes bright with unshed tears. “He’s fought it since my childhood. For as long as I can remember, I’ve wanted to find a cure for him. What good is a healer who can’t even heal her own?”

  Merigone quickly turned away and donned the frock. It hugged her womanly curves and illuminated the bright white blonde of her thick, wavy hair. She slipped on the foot coverings, and when she turned back around, Nioral let out the breath he held, coughing and releasing a puff of smoke. The black vapor evaporated rapidly, but not before it passed by Merigone. Wiping away a wayward tear, she watched the heart shape dissipate.

  “You’re sure the human/dragon concoction isn’t real?” she asked hopefully.

  “No, my dearest, the concoction isn’t real. Nor would you want it to be. Mayhap your mother doesn’t know it,” Nioral explained, “but the witch’s spells and potions all have nothing but ill effects. I’m afraid any cure she offered you would have some disastrous effect or none at all.”

  “So the cure I saw for the Colax isn’t real either?”

  Merigone looked crushed, and it made Nioral’s chest ache. Never had he wanted to be more wrong than today. Never.

  “There’s a rumor the witch keeps a fake book of remedies, one she uses when she’s planned to trick the unsuspecting. I would guess that’s the book she let you see. If she did have a cure, she’d charge for it. She’s known to be greedy as well as spiteful. She’d probably take your soul if she thought she could.”

  “The witch told me that if a human touched me or another snake mated with me, I’d stay an adder forever,” Merigone recalled with a shudder.

  Something nagged at Nioral. Nothing about this seemed right. Why would any mother send her daughter to the witch beyond the glen? An awful thought popped into Nioral’s head. “I must take you back to your village,” Nioral said, his tone leaving no room for argument.

  Merigone’s face fell. Resignation replaced her passion, and he already missed her glowing at him as if he were the grandest of all creatures on earth.

  But duty called. He grabbed Merigone and swung her up on his back. She instinctively grabbed his neck to steady herself, and her touch sent little sparks through his limbs. Her legs splayed across his back, and the moist heat from her pussy seemed to burn his skin, even through his rigid scales.

  But he couldn’t focus on his desire right now, though it threatened to overwhelm him. If he was right, Merigone’s father could be in grave danger. “Hold on tight,” he ordered. “And Merigone?”

  “Yes, Nioral?” she answered obediently, clutching him with all her strength.

  “No tears.”

  * * *

  The only sight more intimidating than a dragon swooping over one’s village is, well, there really isn’t anything more intimidating than that. At least, Merigone would have thought so. She couldn’t imagine anything more frightening, which is why she didn’t understand her mother standing and glaring at them, instead of cowering as all the other villagers did.

  “You stupid whore!” the woman screeched, hurrying to Nioral and pulling Merigone off his back. Merigone fell to the ground, and Nioral let out a small bellow her mother chose to ignore. “Where have you been? Your father’s dead, you imbecile! I sent you for a cure and your father’s dead because you were off playing with this despicable beast,” Merigone’s mother shouted for all to hear.

  Merigone stumbled to her feet, her legs weak and her mind numb. “Dead? But how? He wasn’t even in a bout yet,” Merigone stammered.

  “Maybe you didn’t think he was in a bout, but he was. You’ve never been much of a healer, always too stubborn and willful. Why people keep coming back to you, I simply don’t know. You’ve killed your father. Killed him!”

  Her mother dragged her into their small hut and threw her across her father’s cold body. Like any healer, Merigone checked him methodically for signs of life, holding her emotions in check until the last test proved beyond a doubt he’d passed on.

  Only then did Merigone burst into tears and collapse on top of her father’s corpse. How could she have missed it? She’d checked him so carefully before she left. Her father had taught her well, so well! Merigone didn’t have any more time to dwell on it. Her mother grabbed her by the neck, dragging her back out of the hut and throwing her in the dirt.

  Merigone heard Nioral’s warning bellow and saw a puff of smoke with a tiny bit of flame to accompany it. Her mother didn’t show one bit of fear or reverence. Merigone glanced at Nioral, and the expression on his wise face told her this was not a good sign. Not a good sign at all.

  With sudden clarity, she realized she could read the dragon’s mind. She knew that her tear-stained face awakened in him a protective urge, and with it a re-ignition of the wild need to fuck anything that moved. Thoughts of Merigone’s moist pussy with his cock in it invaded Nioral’s thoughts, and a strange awareness startled her.

  Nioral had been the man in her dream. He’d somehow been human after all.

  Confusion mixed with grief, but Merigone couldn’t stop reading Nioral’s thoughts, which just kept seeping into her brain. It was clear to him he could be no help to her this way, and, above all, he did want to help her. He also wanted to mate with her more than life itself, but right now he sensed she needed to grieve. He didn’t like leaving her here, but he had no choice if he wanted to keep his secret.

  The secret Merigone now knew, though she didn’t fully understand it. Yet.

  Nioral ambled toward her, ignoring her mother’s wrathful glower and tapping foot. “I must leave you here now, but I will be back,” he assured her with a short snort.

  He said no more, which Merigone thought wise. No one need know they could communicate, especially not her agitated moth
er. Merigone knew Nioral didn’t trust her mother, nor did he think her father’s death had anything to do with the Colax, and Merigone was inclined to agree.

  Merigone managed a faint smile, and though she wanted to caress his snout, to show her affection for him one more time, he left her there and took to the sky.

  Merigone’s mother pulled her to her feet and pushed her toward the hut again, and Merigone tried to focus on thoughts of the time when Nioral would return, when she could be with him and find out what had really happened to her father. He wouldn’t be gone long, just long enough to let her recover somewhat and let him find some relief, relief she could provide if he’d been at liberty to share the dragon’s secret with her.

  But for some reason the gods had let her figure it out. For some reason, they decided she needed to know of Nioral’s affection for her and gave her the ability to read his mind. She also trusted he would return for her soon, and, even though he seemed bound by his dragon’s code, they would face the world together.

  Somehow.

  Chapter Five

  Nioral measured the ingredients of the sleeping tonic carefully to ensure he would sleep for only three days. No more, no less. That should be long enough to ease the throb in his groin and return his thoughts to something akin to normal, although he’d begun to wonder if, now that he’d found Merigone, he would ever be normal again.

  He curled up next to the gypsilius tree and downed the foul-smelling brew. The stink aside, it proved to be effective. Nioral fell instantly asleep, and exactly three days later, he also instantly woke up. Unfortunately, since he’d done nothing but dream of Merigone -- her smile, her tears, her breasts, her buttocks, her fine, wet pussy -- his hard-on woke up with him.

  “Blast!” he snorted, shooting flame up past the treetops.

  Now he had no choice but to return to human form and find a house of sexual delights. A grizzled man he’d never met but seen often advertising his business owned such an establishment, and it operated just a mile away. A few minutes’ flight, but he’d have to walk it. He would not risk the dragon secret just so he could get satisfaction. He hurried to the tali bush, and seconds later, in human form and with a huge erection, he rushed out of the clearing toward the last chance he had to end his misery.

  His arrival at the house met with enticing stares from the many available women. Some batted their eyelashes; some smiled. One or two lifted their skirts to show their legs. Little did they realize it didn’t matter to Nioral which one he bedded. All of them had pussies and none of them were Merigone, which meant he’d complete the act only to take the physical release it would offer but nothing more.

  The old master who ran the place pushed roughly past a few of the girls, but changed his demeanor when he saw Nioral, a potential paying customer. “Well now,” he said through a toothless, grimy grin. “What’ve we here?”

  Nioral threw a gold coin at the man, wishing he could knock the flesh-peddler’s head from his shoulders. He’d dealt with his kind too many times before. “I need a woman. Now.”

  The man jumped back as if he expected something much worse than money to hit him. He winked as he fondled the gold in his hand. “I’ve got a brand new one for the likes of ye. Clean and untouched by me customers. A looker, and feisty too.”

  The man waved for Nioral to follow him. They traveled through a long hallway with doors, the silence punctuated now and then by carnal grunts and groans, and the occasional clink of a chain.

  “Here ye go, friend. Enjoy her for me once, will ya?” The proprietor’s annoying laugh followed Nioral into the scantly furnished room, and he grimaced.

  A bed in the far corner looked clean enough, but not very big. In the other corner, a woman sat hugging herself on the only other piece of furniture in the room -- a wooden chair. Beside her sat a chamber pot, and from the smell, it hadn’t been dumped in quite some time. Even the open window didn’t help.

  The worst of it, though, was the woman herself. Or more specifically, her silky white blonde hair and her scent, one as familiar now to Nioral as his own. His heart flip-flopped.

  Merigone.

  She must have heard him enter the room, but she didn’t look up. “If you come near me, I swear I’ll…” she started, reaching for the chamber pot.

  Bile rose in Nioral’s throat. How did she get here? Why? Would she recognize him from their encounter? Her eyes had been closed most of the time, she’d faced away from him when they made love, and she’d been in the grip of the candy thorn’s poison. He doubted she’d remember anything of it except pain and fear, at least until he’d healed her with his seed. The memory of taking her in the forest flooded his brain with excitement and his body heated in response.

  Merigone.

  As if hearing him think her name, she looked up, glaring at him, and her eyes glittered in defiance before her expression eased and she set the chamber pot down. Nioral inhaled sharply. Merigone never looked more beautiful. She would be no match for him if he wanted to take her, and he wanted to take her. Nioral watched as she moved her gaze up and down his body, taking in all of him. She licked her lips as another scent also permeated the room.

  Her desire.

  She desired him. He detected the scent of her need. The inviting fragrance hadn’t been in the room when he’d entered or his keen sense of smell would have picked up on it. No, she desired him in particular.

  Merigone folded her hands in her lap and sat staring at him, her expression now troubled. It followed she would be confused by having such a response to a stranger. He hoped to distract her, and himself, with conversation.

  “So, my dearest, how did a lovely such as yourself come to this place?” he asked, trying to sound like any other curious customer.

  Merigone looked at the floor and moved her feet around. “My father just died. We just completed the proper burial customs this morning, then my mother sold me to Milo. She threatened to hurt those I’ve cared for in my village if I didn’t consent to the sale.”

  Nioral gritted his teeth. Now he knew Merigone’s mother had something to do with her father’s untimely demise. If the woman had been nearby, he’d have turned her into a cinder without a second thought. Nioral nodded, not trusting his voice to hide his anger, anger a stranger wouldn’t have.

  Merigone stood, surprising him again. “You’ve paid,” she said flatly, lifting her dress, the same one he’d found for her, over her head.

  Nioral’s legs went weak. He fought the urge to shove her against a wall and plunge into her. Her desire grew stronger, and his grew almost beyond his control. The silky patch between her legs called to him, and his dripping erection wanted to answer the call.

  “I’ve been sent by the dragon, Nioral,” Nioral finally managed a reasonable lie. “I’m to take you to him.” His intellect had returned momentarily, long enough for him to think of a way to get out of this mess.

  Merigone raised one eyebrow. “You don’t want me?” she asked, her voice sultry.

  She moved her dress away from her body, dropping it on the floor and giving him a full view of her glorious breasts and sexy curves. In two strides, Nioral crushed her body with his, pressing her into the wall. He held her hands over her head and kissed her soundly, massaging his lips against hers and exploring her hot mouth. He pressed his erection between her thighs and she lifted her leg to his hip, opening herself up to him.

  He released her wrists and stroked her wet, heated curls, raining kisses down the side of her neck and nibbling the soft skin there.

  “Oh, Nioral,” Merigone rasped, and Nioral froze.

  He pulled away from her, breathing hard. “You called me by the dragon’s name,” he stated, as if it offended him.

  “Yes, but I…” Merigone tried to argue, but Nioral would have none of it.

  He grabbed her dress off the floor and threw it at her, angry for a reason he couldn’t explain. Merigone caught it with one hand and, glaring at him the whole time, pulled it over her head.

  “I
’m to take you to your dragon,” Nioral stated again, clearly irritated.

  “Fine. Lead the way,” Merigone snapped, her frustration at the unfulfilled tingling sensations in her pussy making her crabby.

  Nioral did as directed and then some. He picked Merigone up and slung her over his shoulder, to her loud protests. He kicked through the thin wood wall standing between them and the outside, and stepped into the sunshine. The show of strength only heightened her excitement, and that pissed her off even more.

  With Merigone still pounding his back, Nioral carried her off toward the forest as the other patrons and their women watched in astonishment. When he’d gotten them far enough into the woods no one could see, he unceremoniously dropped Merigone on her behind. She landed with an “oomph.”

  “You bastard!” she shouted, trying to stand up and kick him, but she only ended up falling against his broad chest with another “oomph.”

  Merigone lifted her gaze up and up and up until she met Nioral’s glare. Seeing him in her dreams and in a dingy little brothel room was one thing, but seeing him in the forest, in the place she knew to be his element, took her by surprise.

  The bright sunlight streaming into the clearing gave her a much better view of his intense male beauty and a burst of wetness trickled down her thighs. The tallest man she’d ever seen, Nioral sported shaggy blond hair and dark brown eyes, and his rugged jaw gave him such a handsome profile it took her breath away.

  She could barely take her eyes off his mouth. He hadn’t kissed her much, but he knew how to use his tongue, and Merigone could only imagine the divine pleasures he could elicit with its thick length inside her swollen folds.

  His wide shoulders extended out into muscular arms, and his large hands had thick fingers, the kind Merigone knew could pleasure her in several different ways for many hours. Muscles rippled in his torso, visible because he’d pulled his shirt open as he carried her. His brawny thighs made her quiver just looking at them, even clothed, and his enlarged cock tenting his breeches made her mouth water.