Dragon Guardian Read online

  Immortal Dragons

  Book Five

  DRAGON GUARDIAN

  Ophelia Bell

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  Contents

  Description

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  Chapter Forty

  Chapter Forty-One

  Chapter Forty-Two

  Chapter Forty-Three

  Chapter Forty-Four

  Chapter Forty-Five

  Chapter Forty-Seven

  Chapter Forty-Eight

  Chapter Forty-Nine

  Chapter Fifty

  Books by Ophelia Bell

  About Ophelia Bell

  Description

  Time is of the essence. But is it friend, or foe?

  For Aodh, the answer is clear. Trapped in a magical prison on an island thousands of years in the past, time has become his enemy. The only person who can save him is Neph, an old lover he didn’t exactly part on good terms with who is also one of the twin leaders of the nymphaea.

  Neph, however, has a different view of time. Time is what allows him to court Vrishti, Aodh’s fated mate and a powerful ursa princess. But as long as she remains a virgin, her true power will remain trapped inside her. It’s practically Neph’s duty to help her unleash it.

  They’ll need her power for the coming war. Their mortal enemy looms ever closer. Every strategy is fair game now, not just on the battlefield—but in love as well.

  For the first time in Neph’s and Aodh’s storied history, sharing a third might just be the charm.

  Time is the school in which we learn,

  time is the fire in which we burn.

  - Delmore Schwartz

  Prologue

  Inside the Nymphaea Haven, Several Millennia Ago…

  A cool trickle of water scattered over Aodh’s sun-drenched back, slowly making a line down his spine. Icy beads formed, moving at his lover’s command in tickling circles down his body. When they reached the apex of his cleft, he clenched his ass and opened one eye to stare lazily at the source of the wet exploration.

  Meri let out a throaty laugh and gave him a smile of mock surprise. “Why can’t I play with you there? You let Neph do it all the time.”

  With a growl, Aodh surged up, toppling the nymph and pinning her beneath him against the warm stone they’d been sunning themselves on.

  “Because Neph’s better equipped to follow through. What have you got?” He held her arms above her head with one hand while he slid his other down her twisting torso. When he delved his fingers between her thighs, he found her as slick and ready as any nymph. Wetter, even, reminding him how she’d taken Neph’s seed earlier and was still filled with it now.

  “Aodh, stop,” she complained, even as her hips pushed up into his hand, forcing his probing fingers deeper into her.

  “Do you really want me to stop?” he asked, looking down at her face.

  “Yes,” she said, though her head moved from side to side in clear contradiction. The little liar always loved playing games with them.

  He let out a gruff laugh and latched onto one of her hard nipples, then replaced his mouth with his hand as he slid farther down.

  “Maybe you want my mouth more,” he said, grazing his lips over her glistening mound.

  “Oh, Gaia, that’s worse,” she said. “Definitely don’t use your tongue on me.” She spread her legs wide enough for her wet petals to part for him.

  Aodh’s eyelids fluttered closed at the sight of her sodden folds still creamy with the remnants of Neph’s climax. The satyr he’d fallen for wasn’t with them at the moment, off seeing to some important Haven business with his sister, but he’d left a lovely gift that Aodh intended to savor.

  Meri moaned impatiently, then shivered and let her head fall back when Aodh dipped his tongue in for a taste. Her flavor was there too, but it was Neph he was after and he delved in hungrily, grabbing her thighs to hold her wider for him.

  Sweet Mother, the taste of his lover was intoxicating, and he almost wished he could have had Neph’s gift unadulterated by the essence of this nymph. Meri’s taste was pleasant, and abundant the more Aodh licked her, but her presence was only a necessity.

  He plunged his tongue in deep, seeking to lick every last drop of Neph from within her channel and off her slick lips. His beloved satyr’s essence coated his tongue as he continued his onslaught of Meri’s tender flesh, his arousal driving him to pull a body-shaking orgasm from her quickly so she would return the favor.

  He couldn’t bring himself to fuck her. Not yet, though Neph didn’t have the same reluctance. The satyrs and nymphs in the Haven were much freer with their attentions. Dragons were generally just as free, but the significance of Meri’s presence in their secret meeting place in the temple gardens beside the Nile was too significant for him to get past.

  He wanted Neph as his mate. And even though the feeling was mutual, they’d be breaking laws and denying traditions in declaring their desires to the higher races. As two of those races’ leaders, they had to set an example.

  Breeding was an issue for the nymphaea, which meant Neph needed a female to do his duty to his home and his race. Meri might be that female.

  “You could just fuck me,” Meri said when Aodh rolled over and tugged at her shoulder to signal he was ready for her mouth on him. “My pussy’s tight. Just ask Neph—he loves it.”

  “Can’t risk it. You know that,” Aodh said, though he knew there was no way he’d accidentally impregnate her without marking her. Their arrangement was secret, merely a cover for a deeper melding with Neph once Meri was safely pregnant with Neph’s child.

  Resting her hands on his thighs, Meri let out a sigh. “Listen, I know I’m not here for you to love, either of you. I’m not blind or stupid. Neph wants a deeper bond with you as much as you want it with him, but you need me to make it happen so you can keep up appearances. I’m all-in for my own reason—I want a baby. What nymph wouldn’t be honored to be the chosen
mate of a Dionarch and be the mother of his children? But you should know making sure he can pull this off when he and I are in public together depends on how close you and I are in private.”

  She stroked a skilled hand up the length of his shaft. Pleasure shot through him, making his body hum and his aura pulse around him. He propped himself up on his elbows and glanced down at her.

  “Go on,” he said, curious about her direction.

  She pressed a kiss to the tip of his cock, sucked the head between her lips, and teased the underside with her tongue for a moment… just long enough for him to war with the impatient need for her to take him all versus his curiosity about what she might be about to suggest.

  She released him with a pop and slowly stroked his rigid length.

  “He needs to look like he loves me, but we both know he doesn’t. He loves you. But if you and I were more closely bonded, it would make it as if we were one person. One soul in two bodies. He can have you when he has me, and he can have you when he has you. Happy Neph all the way around.”

  Meri went back to sucking him before Aodh could comment, his mind shutting down in response to her mouth. Happy Neph all around was all he could think of, and the idea made him happy. Happier than Meri’s delicious lips and tongue working him to climax.

  He lay in a buzzed stupor for several moments afterward, then gradually opened his eyes to see her swirling, expectant gaze.

  “What exactly do we need to do? Are you talking about melding? Because Neph and I are already about as deeply melded as we can get.”

  “You aren’t this deep. He won’t share this with you because it’s too sacred a bond, which is sad, really. But I care about the two of you and want you to be happy, so I’ll make the sacrifice. All you need to do is give me a taste of your blood …”

  Aodh shot up and scooted away from her. “Absolutely not. Our blood is sacred … mine and my siblings. It isn’t possible for me to share it.”

  “Not possible? Or are you just not willing? Wouldn’t you shed your blood for love, like we do? Every loving bond between a nymph and satyr pair is bound by a blood meld. There can be no deeper bond between us. Neph hasn’t offered you that bond, has he?”

  Aodh frowned, his heart in turmoil. Neph had melded with him so many times they shared their senses easily when they made love, like it was second nature. But when his lover was away, the satyr kept his mind shut off from Aodh. As one of the six members of the Dragon Council, Aodh understood the burden of responsibility, but his burden was not as great as his more powerful siblings’. Ked and Belah bore the heaviest burdens of their kind. Aodh’s own responsibilities required less thought, more action; he was the dragon who oversaw the teaching and training of all the dragon Guardians, as well as the crafting of his people’s temples and artifacts.

  “I don’t blame him for his responsibilities, Meri. I would never ask something of him that he wasn’t willing to give.”

  “No, but wouldn’t you give him something of yourself, if you could? If you knew your blood could be a gift to him, would increase his happiness, wouldn’t you give it? Giving without asking in return is the ultimate proof of your love.”

  Aodh’s chest tightened and he looked away for a moment, staring at the nearby fountain burbling up from the center of the lush gardens they lay in. He reached beneath the water with his mind through the portal into the Haven that lay on the bed of the river, seeking out the bond he had with Neph as unobtrusively as he could.

  He found his lover’s consciousness and hovered just on the outside, not wanting to intrude, but Neph seemed to sense him there and shifted his focus from whatever Haven-related task he was performing. A deep, welcoming warmth enveloped Aodh’s being at that small bit of acknowledgment. No words were shared, but Neph’s love was clear before he got back to business.

  “I would give him my very soul if I thought we could get away with it,” Aodh said.

  “Then share your blood with me. You won’t regret it.”

  Chapter One

  Aodh

  The Island of Ceylon, Inside a Temporal Bubble

  Forget Fate—Time had just moved to the top of Aodh’s shit list.

  As an immortal, he’d taken time for granted. It was as plentiful as the air he breathed. But being trapped in a prison on an island in the river of time meant little expectation of enjoying more of his infinite life with his mates.

  His life was no less infinite in this place—it was literally an island, and one he’d visited many times. Or would visit, he supposed. He didn’t quite have the same broad perspective of time that the nymphaea had. But there was no mistaking that Nyx had locked him in a time bubble that day she’d sent him away from the Haven. He had no way to escape, and no expectation of being found anytime soon.

  Because thanks to fucking Time, he now had even more than he wanted. The future he’d come from was more than three thousand years away, by his estimation of where … or when he’d wound up. Even if Nyx came to her senses or, Mother forbid, Neph found out and came looking for him, it could happen at any time within that vast window of his past that now, paradoxically, stretched ahead of him like some well-trodden road he’d just as soon not walk down again.

  Once was enough. He was ready to get on with his life, but the getting on part started where he’d left off, not … now. Whenever now was.

  His time might be infinite, but the space he had on this island wasn’t. Shortly after arriving, he’d tested the boundaries, shifting and flying as far as he could until he hit the edge. The magical barrier surrounding the island hadn’t provided any resistance, and for a moment he’d believed he could just fly past the shore and into the world beyond, but within seconds he found himself turned around and aimed back the way he’d come without so much as a tilt of his wing.

  He’d tested every direction, and finally determining that there was no escape within his power, he’d decided to get the lay of the land and spent a few hours flying a circuit around the borders. He recognized the place within only a few miles of winging above the island’s moonlit shores. Ceylon wasn’t vastly different from the last time he’d seen it, though parts of it looked distinctly less worn down, and it was missing the odor he recalled from when the dragons had first instituted their hibernations and retreated to the ancient temple on this very island.

  Nyx had wanted him clear of Meri’s influence, and she had certainly succeeded in her goal, because everything about this place suggested he was a few centuries too early for the nymph to even exist. She’d only been a few decades old when he’d fallen into her trap like some hapless fool. At the time, Meri had been one of the newest additions to the powerful squadron of the Haven’s Thiasoi soldiers, hand-picked by Nereus himself. That meant she was in the circle of trust, one of the rare positions of honor granted only to those dozen assigned protectors of order within the Haven. Her lack of attachment to one of the Thiasoi satyrs had meant she was perfect for their needs. A little too perfect, it turned out, once Aodh learned how she’d orchestrated the entire relationship to suit her own purposes.

  He landed in a secluded cove that reminded him of the once-accessible entrance to the Haven. He dug his talons into the sand and shifted, staring out at the starlit water, still trying to process this turn his life had taken. As wild and open as this island was, it was still as much a prison as the room he’d been trapped in at the Stonetree Lodge no more than a day or so ago.

  He stared up at the stars blindly for several moments. When he focused on the bright pinpoints in the black velvet, he had the perfect clock right there in the heavens, but what he saw didn’t improve his mood. The arrangement of the constellations and the tilt of the Earth’s axis only confirmed what he dreaded—Nyx had sent him far enough into the past that his presence would be meaningless to the enemy his blood might serve to lure. In fact, if his interpretation of the stars was correct, he was a good four centuries before Me
ri had even been born.

  He clenched his fists impatiently, wishing for some outlet for the rage that bubbled forth. More than three thousand years—all the mistakes he had made stretched before him now, yet he could take no steps to change them as long as he was trapped here. And for how long. he had no clue, but given the vindictive Dionarch’s command of time, he wouldn’t put it past the Nyx to leave him to rot for centuries—he could very well be trapped here until he caught up to his own present, one plodding century at a time.

  The island was familiar to him, at least, though the last time he’d visited, it was at least five centuries older. The vegetation was still lush, but the landscape now was harsher, having not been softened by age.

  Ceylon was significant to his race, though it had been all but forgotten over the ages. His mind turned over the ancient memories. They hadn’t cared about the place in some time, having far greater things to worry about than their ancient hibernation grounds. Dragons endeavored not to dwell on the past as a rule, and he and his siblings were no different. But something itched at the back of his mind. Some lost nugget of history that might be meaningful if he could just grasp it.

  The hibernations … they’d begun not long after he and his brothers made their ancient pact to resurrect their sister. Their enemy had grown too strong, too ruthless for them not to take serious precautions. There had been six hibernations since the first. Six temples within which their children slept to protect each generation until they grew powerful enough to protect themselves.

  The most recent was the temple in Sumatra, built by the Guardians of the last generation. Their ancient tradition had begun with the very first temple. Except they hadn’t built the first one. Only five of the six temples had been built by the Guardians for the younger generation. The first temple had already existed, though they had no explanation for its presence or its design. The legend was that Fate and the Mother Dragon had created it for them in their time of need, and that the immense power infusing its many rooms, and even its very walls, was a divine gift intended to protect their young while they weathered the storm of attacks from their enemy.