heart at the sound of that young, carefree voice. She had never had a childhood, never been able to play or laugh, to feel the freedom of the wind in her face, to look down at the tops of the trees and the glistening meadows, to somersault in the night sky and just have fun. Now, sheer exhilaration sent her singing through the sky. The wind flew in her face, cool and brisk and he felt the joy in her.
Nicolas! This is... amazing.
Yes, it is. She was amazing. She did something to him inside he hadn't expected, turning him inside out with her simple happiness of the moment. In a way, he relived his own first experience of flying, but somehow, he enjoyed hers even more. She had never tasted true freedom. This was her first real exposure to the beauty of their world and he wanted her to enjoy every moment of it, to see the night in the way he did.
Nicolas was astonished to find he was beginning to need her for more than to calm his demons, or spread light through the darkness-he needed to hear her laughter, to see the childlike delight in her sparkling dragon's eyes. He found himself admiring her courage. She had risen from the ashes of cruelty and horror yet maintained a sweetness and hope that he had never imagined could be possible under the circumstances.
Flying through the night sky with her, it suddenly occurred to him that she might be a better person than he, that where duty and honor were ingrained in him, he thought himself superior to those he protected, but Lara truly did care. She cared about her two friends, and her aunts, and was beginning to worry about the father she had believed for years was a monster. He had protection to offer her, but what else?
He had thought finding his lifemate made him entitled to her, that she would worship the ground he walked on-that sheshould worship him, yet he hadn't considered that he might lose his heart to her. The possibility hadn't entered his mind, not even for a moment. She was supposed to lose her heart, but he would remain the same. Now, everything was changing inside of him and he felt off balance-and vulnerable. He didn't want to lose her and not because she was the other half of his soul and could save him. He simply didn't want to lose her and the stirrings of that emotion 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.
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