Free Serpent's Kiss: A Dragonfire Novel by Deborah Cooke

wondered.”
    “Chen?” Chandra echoed, unfamiliar with this name.
    “An ancient and powerful Slayer , possessed of lost dragon magic,” Rafferty said. “He’s targeted Thorolf before and his lair is hidden in the Himalayas. In this part of the world, damage can be easily attributed to him.”
    “He likes enslaving Pyr and has made Slayers and shadow dragons with the Elixir,” Thorolf said.
    “I thought the Dragon’s Blood Elixir was gone,” Chandra said, inadvertently drawing Rafferty’s attention again. “Or at least its source.”
    “You’re well informed,” Rafferty said softly.
    “Yes,” she said simply. He waited, but she didn’t elaborate.
    Chandra would have to see what she could learn about Chen once they got back to her sanctuary. She supposed it only made sense that the Pyr ’s traditional opponents might be involved, although it was yet another complication. She folded her arms across her chest, unable to dismiss the sense that life would only get more complicated the longer she remained with Thorolf.
    She had to find Viv Jason and she believed Thorolf would lead her to her prey, one way or the other. She wasn’t leaving yet.
    “But it can’t be Chen this time,” Thorolf argued with Rafferty. “He almost got me once, but he failed.”
    “Why couldn’t he come after you again?” Chandra asked.
    “He did say he needed a Pyr with an affinity for air,” Rafferty said. “That’s why he targeted you, and Lorenzo, and Brandon.”
    “If he didn’t get any of them, what makes you assume he got me?”
    “Where else could you have been all this time?” Rafferty demanded and Thorolf looked bewildered again. “And this tattoo took time. Remember that Chen uses spirals in his dark magic.”
    Thorolf stared at his skin in horror.
    Rafferty tapped him on the shoulder. “Remember: it was the firestorm that led me to you.”
    Purpose lit in Thorolf’s blue eyes. “You think it can save me.”
    Rafferty smiled. “I think that’s what firestorms do. The firestorm saved Delaney from a plan to turn him Slayer .”
    “So, I’m having a firestorm at the perfect moment,” Thorolf said with satisfaction. He reached for Chandra but she backed away.
    This was all getting too complicated too fast.
    “I thought firestorms were about the creation of more Pyr ,” she felt obliged to note. She wasn’t going to be anyone’s sexual toy or destined mate, much less the mother of his son. She was in this realm to complete a quest and had already lingered longer than she’d planned.
    This was an expectation she had to stop in its tracks.
    “They are,” Rafferty agreed. “But sometimes they’re about more than that. Sometimes they’re about partnership and alliance.”
    “Sometimes they’re about second chances,” Thorolf agreed. “New beginnings and all that.”
    That was exactly what Chandra didn’t want to hear. She didn’t do commitment and long term and partnership. “No. That’s out of the question. I work alone,” she said. “Always have and always will. I complete the task at hand, then take on another.”
    Thorolf stared at her, his astonishment making her feel mean for stating the truth. “You’d just carry on, as if the firestorm had never happened, as if you’d never had a son? My son?”
    “I’m not going to have your son.”
    “Of course you are! When we consummate the firestorm, you’ll conceive my son.”
    Chandra folded her arms across her chest and glared at Thorolf, wishing the firestorm would stop making the Pyr plan sound so desirable. “Just because there’s a firestorm doesn’t mean it has to be consummated.”
    Thorolf’s eyes gleamed and his hand landed on her elbow. The heat made Chandra swallow, but she didn’t back down.
    In a way, she liked that he didn’t admit defeat easily.
    In another way, she was afraid he could succeed.
    “Maybe I’ll change your mind,” he said with an intent that made her swallow. The heat that emanated from his touch