Carpathian 17 - Dark Curse

terrified him.
    Nicolas! Come on. Let\'s race to that huge gray cloud.
    He let her get a head start, holding his dragon back to a more leisurely pace until she got several yards away.
    Then she built up a great deal of speed. The female dragon shimmered with metallic reds and gold, her scales gleaming whenever the moon managed to sneak out from behind a cloud and illuminate her as she sped across the sky. She gave off a halo of light, glowing, an age old call, female dragon to her male.
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    Christine Feehan: Dark Curse
    Nicolas was so startled he nearly lost his image of the dragon. Lara\'s female was calling to her mate, and in her innocence, with her spirit still dwelling on their kiss, Lara was inadvertently heightening the female\'s drive for her mate. Lara was unleashing a storm of hunger so intense Nicolas could feel his own instinctive reaction-his own demon rising.
    No! He tried to hold back the male, but his dragon roared, tearing himself free of Nicolas\'s control, diving after his mate, powerful wings creating a windstorm as he flew after her. Lara\'s laughter washed over and into him, her mind rubbing intimately up against his in her excitement. She was innocent in her enticement, entirely unaware she was arousing the heat in the male-and in him.
    The ground below seemed far away as the dragons rose sharply into the sky, dancing as the star dragons had done, performing an aerial ballet. Swift and lithe in the air, Lara soared free, growing more confident as she felt the dragon\'s strength. The creatures held power and magic and she identified strongly. She tried a series of rolls and then glided through the air before somersaulting in a graceful acrobatic display.
    Nicolas felt his dragon gathering himself-waiting-watching as he chose the moment he needed to capture her in midair. There was no stopping the male, unless he took both of them out of the sky. He was almost as enraptured as his dragon, counting the beats of the wings, as the male increased his speed, circling to come in at an angle just below her. Hot blood surged through his veins, filled his groin, lust punching hard and mean.
    The female spread her wings wide and the male made his move, sending his large body into a roll, coming upside down below her, belly to belly, wings wrapping her in a tight embrace, his talons locking with hers as he took possession of her body, burying himself deep.
    Nicolas felt Lara\'s shocked excitement as the two dragons spiraled toward earth, heads entwined, wings tight around each other, talons locked, the male plunging over and over into the female. Lara and Nicolas were separate from the dragons, only their spirits held in the physical bodies, yet both felt every heated stroke, the love of two mates expressed in dizzying passion in the air. Nicolas wanted Lara with that same intensity his dragon felt for his mate. The dragon passion only increased his need. He stroked Lara\'s mind, a soft intimate brush, showing her without words how he felt.
    Without warning, a bolt of fire speared through the air, impaling the coupling dragons, entering straight through the male dragon\'s back, passing through his belly to the female and out her back. The male trumpeted, the female screamed, blood sprayed into the air, droplets scattering across the cloud, mingling with the snow falling to the ground.
    The male tried to hold the female, talons digging deep even as he lost strength with the great flow of blood.
    The ground was coming at them fast.
    Nicolas seized Lara\'s spirit, ripping her from the female dragon, shifting to mist and abandoning the mortally wounded dragons.
    We can\'t leave them. Lara was horrified. And then she coughed. More droplets showered the clouds, falling like rain to dot the white landscape in red.
    We have no choice. He held her to him with his ruthless determination, blocking out everything but the danger they were in. They are part real, part illusion, we are all real. We have to get to safety . He was wounded as well. Already in need of blood, he had given to Lara twice, he couldn\'t afford to lose much more-not and fight the undead.
    Thunder cracked, the roar shaking the ground as a lightning bolt simultaneously slammed from ground to sky, narrowly missing them. As it was the shock wave threw them apart, and sent Lara tumbling toward the rocks Page 107

    Christine Feehan: Dark Curse
    below.
    Nicolas reversed direction, masking her blood, shifting the air to cushion her and bring her