Free Dark Magic by REBECCA YORK

hips rose and fell, his being vibrating with tension. Then she felt him go rigid, felt him suck more strongly as his body jerked.
    She lay breathing hard, overwhelmed by what they had just done, as he eased off of her and rolled to his back.
    When she turned her head, she saw her blood on his mouth. Maybe that should have horrified her, but she only felt limp and relaxed.
    She had come here to save her people. They had receded into the background as he fulfilled a longing she hadn’t known existed within her. She wanted to tell him what making love with him had meant to her, but she was afraid to reveal too much.
    “I took your blood,” he said in a harsh voice.
    “I gave it to you,” she answered.
    He sat up and looked down at her. “You knew I drank blood?”
    “Not you, but I read about the dragon. I knew blood had something to do with it.”
    “I don’t just drink it. I live on it.”
    She nodded.
    “That doesn’t shock you?”
    “Maybe it does.” She kept her gaze fixed on him. “You said you killed Cragor. But you’ve taken his place, haven’t you?”
    “Yes.”
    “How?”
    He kept his gaze fixed on her, his voice hard. “Female dragons and their young live in caves with their community. When the females mature, they stay with the group. The males are driven away when they reach adolescence. They come back only to mate.”
    “Why?”
    “That is the way it has always been. We go off and find our own cave. Or we stalk an old dragon who already has a dwelling—and great riches. If we can kill him, we can take over his domain.”
    “That’s not…very nice.”
    “I told you I wasn’t moral.”
    “You and Cragor battled?”
    “Yes.”
    “He was old?”
    “Yes.”
    “How long ago?”
    “A hundred and fifty years.”
    “But you look like a young man.”
    “I am a dragon.” He gave her a hard look. “Old male dragons become bitter and angry—because of the life they are forced to lead. When they can’t be with their people, and they can’t live with humans, they grow angry and frustrated. They lose all sense of morality. I did the world a favor by ridding it of Cragor.” She saw him swallow hard. “But I will turn into a being like him.”
    “It doesn’t have to be that way.”
    “I think I know more about it than you do.”
    Maybe not, she thought. Still, she changed the subject.
    “Where do the women dragons live? Not in these mountains.”
    “You ask a lot of questions.”
    “I always have.”
    “The female dragons live in another…world.”
    “How is that possible?”
    He shrugged. “I can’t answer that. I only know that we must go through a…gateway to get here.”
    “What’s it like there?”
    His voice took on a dreamy quality. “Warmer. Darker. Comfortable.”
    The words and the tone of his voice told her how much he had lost by being cast out. Did it have to be that way? Was there something she could do about it? When she realized ideas were spinning in her head, she stopped herself.
    “No humans live there,” he added.
    She tried to imagine a world without people.
    “There the dragons have many animals to sustain them.”
    “And here?”
    “I have a herd of deer that feed me. They come when I call them. They are my friends.”
    His friends. She tried to imagine how lonely he must be. That would drive anyone to bitterness. Or madness.
    Emotions welled inside her. She felt something for this—man—that she had never felt before and didn’t understand now. She only knew that her heart seemed to swell inside her chest.
    “Human blood tastes better,” he said, then looked away. “So I must stay away from the communities of men. If I take too much from one person, I kill him. Or her.”
    “You didn’t kill me.”
    “I could have.”
    “But you didn’t want to. I think you’ve learned control.”
    He made a dismissive gesture. “I frighten humans—with good reason. You were very brave or very foolish to come here.”
    She lifted her chin. “Call it