Kiss of the Dragon by Nicola Claire Read Free Book Online

Court, held his head high and effected a regal pose.
    We all waited with the Dökkálfa King.
    I shook my head and turned back to look out over the fairies too. Today had certainly turned strange. First an audience with Aliath, then the spin fighting dance to the fairies chimes. Then his feeding on my courage, his strange intimate behaviour and the onset of my illness. To this. A suspended moment in time waiting for some thing .
    I crossed my leg over my knee and slumped back in my chair, the nausea still constant in the background, but nothing like it used to be. Sora knelt at my feet, her head bowed and hands cupped on her lap. I felt my lids grow heavy as I watched her preternaturally still pose. It reminded me of the vampires. How still they could be so easily. I'm a fidgeter, I can't help moving. Right now my foot was bobbing up and down softly, slowly, just enough to keep me settled, but not enough to make me feel more ill.
    Thinking of vampire stillness made me think of Michel. How he could turn to stone or a statue at the drop of a hat. It used to creep me out, even after I understood what was happening; he'd be visiting the Iunctio network and was mentally just not there. Or he was trying to hide a strong emotion, a reaction to something I had done he didn't want me to see and he'd had little control over. Or he was injured and he needed to retreat to heal. No matter what reason watching the man you love become little more than a wax model was unnerving.
    Sora wasn't quite as still as that, but she was definitely holding her pose longer than most humans could, and way longer than me. Michel used to tease me, about my constant needed to move. Occasionally he'd like to spend a morning curled up on the sofa reading newspapers or surfing the internet on his tablet computer, but I would always have to get up and fluff, make coffee, move cushions, right magazines or books on the side tables. In other words, never sit still. He threatened to tie me down more than once. I smiled at the memory of the ensuing arguments to those threats.
    No matter what he did though; sitting still, commanding a room full of vampires, politicking, engaging, conversing, fighting, just being near him was always enough to calm. Despite how tired I felt now, I also felt that same calm I have when he is nearby. When I am connected to him. It's as familiar as my own skin. Even though it had been months since we had been joined that first time and I had only experienced it again for less than an hour before I was pulled through a portal to Álfheimr, I would always recognise that connection to him that caused me so much calm.
    Like I did now.
    I sat upright in my chair and glanced around the room frantically.
    Aliath shifted next to me, but didn't make a sound. My heart began to beat quickly, my breaths came in excited short huffs. Sweat graced my skin in a chilling but delightful wash.
    But it wasn't my kindred who walked through a rip in space before us and for a split second that confused me and broke a little of my heart.
    Until I spotted my vampire, one of my Tego Texi Tectum duos. Sergei. Who immediately upon appearing in the throne room of the Dökkálfa Royal Court, got down on bended knee before us. Head bowed, hand fisted across chest.
    "I come before you as an emissary to the Champion of the Nosferatu and beg audience with the new King of Dökkálfa ."
    A Hyrða guard approached from the side, holding one of those golden filigree nets and without a moment's pause, threw the strange substance over my vampire. I shot to my feet, swayed slightly, but the filigree thing simply slipped off Sergei's shoulders and fell discarded to the floor. I collapsed back into my seat with relief and renewed exhaustion. I tried to hide both from my face.
    Sergei looked up at Aliath who was blazing all manner of green from his eyes - even I could see the colours flashing in the room from my slightly turned away stance.
    "Your Majesty," Sergei said coming to his