Her Elemental Dragons: The Complete Series
Her Elemental Dragons: Ride the Wave: Chapter 9

For a long time, there was nothing but cold, dark pain.

A burst of warmth broke through the chill. A tingling sensation spread through my limbs. Familiar voices echoed through the darkness.

“Not too fast, Jasin,” Auric said. “We only want to melt his hands for now.”

“Don’t worry, I’ve got this.”

That cocky bastard. My lips tried to twitch into a grin but didn’t move. Neither did the rest of me. I couldn’t speak. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t even open my eyes. What was wrong with me? Where was I?

Soft hands slid into mine, and they felt so hot I would have hissed if I could. “Come back to me, Reven,” Kira said, her voice mournful. A wave of relief hit me at the sound, though I wasn’t sure why.

“His fingers twitched,” Slade said.

“It’s working,” Auric said. “Start on the rest of him, Jasin. Slowly.”

Memories returned in fragments. Kira being kidnapped. Lava striking my side. Heldor bringing down the Earth Temple on my head. And after that only cold, black death.

Except I was still alive.

The chill began to fade and suddenly a burst of air filled my lungs. My heartbeat pounded in my ears. My skin burned and froze at the same time. Agony spread through my limbs and forced my mouth into a scream, though no sound came out. I was alive but starting to wish I wasn’t.

Kira’s voice was the only thing that held me together, telling me to stay with her over and over. I’m trying, I wanted to tell her. I struggled to open my eyes, to get one more glimpse of her, but the pain became too much. I couldn’t hold on any longer.

The last thing I heard was the others raising their voices in panic as the darkness took me again.

My eyes snapped open and I jerked to a sitting position, reaching for weapons that weren’t there, the memory of pain still fresh in my mind.

“It’s okay,” Kira said, her arms wrapping around me. “Just relax.”

“Kira?” my voice croaked out. I barely recognized it.

“Shh.” She stroked my hair with the gentlest touch. “You’ve been through a lot, but it’s over now. I’m here.”

My arms wrapped around her and I held her close as I breathed in and out. It took some time before my body stopped trembling and I could let her go. Only then did I realize we were both naked and in bed together. An unfamiliar bed, in an unfamiliar room, but none of that mattered. My gaze traveled down to take her in, and the sight of her lush curves woke me up more than anything. Not that I had the energy to do anything about it at the moment, but I still liked the view.

“How am I alive?” I asked, as I lowered myself back onto the bed. Sitting was too much effort. In fact, everything hurt.

Kira touched my face softly as she settled beside me. “You were badly injured during the fight at the Earth Temple, but you surrounded yourself with ice, which kept you alive in a sort of suspended state. Jasin melted the ice while I healed you.”

“I remember.” I touched my side and found it healed, though still tender. “How long was I out?”

“Over a week.”

“A week?” I shook my head, trying to clear it. “The Dragons captured you. Slade stopped them?”

“Not exactly, but I’m safe now. We’ll talk about it later. For now, you need to rest and recover. Then we can head to the Water Temple.”

Right, the Water Temple. Where we’d be bonded together forever.

I turned on my side to face Kira, grunting with the effort. Emotions churned inside me. Big, scary ones. The kind that made a man want to profess his love for a woman and beg her to stay with him forever. Strong feelings like this made me uncomfortable. So I did the only thing I could. I took her lips in a deep kiss as my hand roamed across her body, cupping her breast and stroking her nipple to make it hard, before moving down her stomach and sliding between her legs. If I turned this to sex, maybe the feelings would release their grip on me.

She gently took my hand to stop me and wove her fingers with mine, then pressed a kiss to my forehead. “Not yet. You need to recover more first. Just let me hold you.”

I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to contain the emotions threatening to burst out of me. “It’s been a long time since I let anyone hold me.”

She wrapped herself around me, her skin sliding against mine. “You can tell yourself it’s for healing purposes, if that makes you feel better.”

“Is it?” I’d done something similar once when she’d passed out from giving Jasin too much of her strength, and I’d probably used the same damn excuse then too.

“Yes, but it’s not the only reason. The guys told me what happened, and then I saw you…” Her voice trembled as her arms squeezed tighter. “I realized how close I’d come to losing you. Now I don’t ever want to let you go.”

Dammit, those emotions were back and even stronger now. I couldn’t keep them in any longer. “Kira, I…”

That was all I got out. I tried to say the words. I wanted to, dammit. But I hadn’t said them in so long, and every person I’d said them to had died not long after. I couldn’t lose Kira too.

She pressed a soft kiss to my lips. “I know.”

I buried my face in her thick red hair, breathing in her scent, and just let her hold me. The turmoil inside me died down, and I relaxed against her. Our naked limbs tangled together, and even though we weren’t having sex, it was the most intimate moment of my life. I closed my eyes, and let sleep claim me again.