Darkblood Prison - G.K. DeRosa Page 0,71

making this easy for me, Azara. Whatever these powers are that you have, you have no control over. You can’t rely on them to get you out of trouble. And if Thax wants you, you’re in a hell of a lot of trouble. Delacroix is a kitten compared to the dark lord.”

His words pounded into my head like a jackhammer. He didn’t even know the worst part—that Thax had tricked the devil himself to get to me. But I didn’t want to go there… not yet. And especially not after he’d hurled insults at me. The fear morphed into anger, and I clawed onto it for dear life.

“What about you? You and your brothers have been lying to me from day one. I only went to see Delacroix to get some answers. If you’d been straight with me from the beginning I never would’ve ended up in this mess. You hate me one minute and then you kiss me and disappear for days.” There, I said it.

His blazing eyes locked on mine with a laser-like intensity that burned all the way down to my toes.

Crap, crap, crap. Quick, take it back!

Talon stalked toward me, his biceps twitching, every muscle on his perfect body like stone. I shrank back on the bed as unbridled fury roiled off him in waves. This was so not how I’d planned this discussion to go. He leapt on the mattress and the springs whined in protest. His nostrils flared as he stalked closer on hands and knees, a predatory gleam in his eye.

I hit the metal bedframe and the cold wall behind it. “I’m sorry,” I sputtered, the fire in his reptilian eyes shredding my insides. More than that, the closer he got, the more feelings radiated from his hulking frame. And it wasn’t just anger. A tangle of shame, desire, and pain weighed down the air between us.

A whirlwind of emotions tugged at my core, the foreign sentiments invading and intertwining with my own. Something indecipherable flashed across Talon’s glistening silver orbs as he hovered a few inches from my face.

“What is this?” I mumbled, my hand reaching for his scruffy cheek unbidden.

He leaned into my touch for a second before pulling away, a growl resonating in his throat. He jerked back and ended up on the opposite side of the bed and huffed out a breath. “My dragon… my blood…”

I raised a confused brow. “What about your dragon and your blood?”

“When Delacroix’s demon guard attacked you, I gave Fiona my blood to create the antidote to the poison. Draconis demons are like the antitheses of dragon shifters, so our blood is the only known cure.”

“Oh. Well, geez, thanks. How come no one told me?”

“Because sometimes there are side effects of dragon blood sharing. Especially on half-bloods. I hoped it wouldn’t happen so it would be a moot point. But it seems as if my dragon has misinterpreted the situation.”

“What does that mean?”

He shook his head and stared down at the floor. His lower lip jutted out and the most intense urge to bite it rocked through me. What the hades? My pulse skyrocketed. I had a feeling I knew where he was going with this, but I forced the words out anyway. “What side effects, Talon?”

“Unwanted sexual feelings.”

A lump the size of a gaga bird’s egg formed in my throat. I swallowed hard, but I couldn’t chase it away. “I haven’t had any, um, of those…” I cut myself off as heat crawled up my neck and diffused along my cheeks.

“No? Then why’d you kiss me back?”

Because I wanted to, you stupid jackdragon. I bit my tongue, keeping my thoughts to myself. Maybe I was wrong. Maybe it was only because of his sparkly dragon blood. And because he was a grade-A prime hunk of dragon meat. I wanted to smack myself.

“Then why did you give me your blood if you knew that could happen? I know how much you hate me so this must be your worst nightmare.”

“It is.” The shadow of a smile hitched up the corner of his lip. “I couldn’t let you die; you were my charge and I’d never fail you like that. And I wouldn’t allow you to be tied to one of the dragon inmates locked up in here. There was no other option.”

The anger coiling in my gut waned. That was actually pretty decent of him. “Wait, what do you mean tied? How long does this last?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know from personal experience, but