"You can. You must. If you don't take me, you will die here and now. Your dragon will drink your blood and slay you to be fed." She locked her black eyes on his. I cannot let that happen." A flash of blue lightning blazed in their depths, swallowing him whole.

Ravenous with need, the War Duke reached for her. He hooked his gore-coated clawed hands into her hip plates and pulled. The Wyvrn tumbled into his arms and he rolled her easily beneath him. Her hair spilled in a bright skein of crimson silk across the dark maroon lake washing across the floor.

His lips captured hers, tasting blood. His tongue speared her mouth hungrily. His spine writhed as he mindlessly sought to work his hips between her thighs, spattering still-warm carmine red over them both. A sibilant growl rumbled from his chest.

His clawed fingers pawed frantically at her suit. It split and shimmered apart under his palm, his fingers scoring her white skin even as his own blood-spattered suit split down his chest, releasing him. With a snarl he pulled her thigh over his, opening her wide. His shaft was agonizingly swollen and inhumanly hard, and his mind enslaved by ravenous l.u.s.t as he worked to penetrate her softness. Her spurred heel dug into the floor, raising her hips. He found her, then plunged within without gentleness, practically screaming with voracious need.

With both clawed hands he cupped her a.s.s and brutally pulled her up to meet his thrusts. She was tight, but wet and ready for him. He buried himself repeatedly to the hilt, then pulled back to slam back into her damp warmth. He pounded savagely into her heat as fast and as hard as he was able. The loud slaps of wet flesh against wet flesh defined every lunge of his hips as he tried to go deeper, to hammer himself through her, into her core.

Around him, he could feel her flesh gripping him in a welcoming velvet fist. She shuddered hard below him, her body climbing to violent surrender. There was a flare at the base of his spine and suddenly he was dancing on the raw edge of climax.

There was a tightening of her body under and around him then she froze, her mouth open. He stilled in awe as he felt a blaze of white-hot flame scorch up from the woman below him. She shrieked, and he felt himself tighten painfully in reaction, then let go in an unbearable fire-fall of release. He pumped fiercely into her as he strove to empty himself into her completely.

A white heat flared at his throat, stealing his breath then searing him through the heart. The room filled with ruby light as their pleasure cascaded into each other's mind and soul, consuming them both. He barely heard her cries of insane joy as he howled in glorious sated rapture, the copper-sweet taste of blood fading from his lips.

As the light from their pleasure dimmed, a light dusting of ash settled where the scattered remains of the sorcerer and the Boar had been, leaving not a drop of scarlet anywhere for anyone to find on either of them.

He opened his eyes to her smiling onyx gaze, and sobbed with joy, hugging her tightly.

"Remind me never to doubt you," he whispered, chuckling.

"Oh, I will beloved, I will indeed."

The Wyvrn, beautiful and sleek, rose from her candle-lit bath. Her long silky mane of blood-red hair fell below her b.u.t.tocks as she waited for him. Firelight gleamed across the water droplets that coated her.

"Welcome to my home, wife," the War Duke said with tenderness. He wrapped a warm towel around her alabaster and human skin planting a gentle kiss, then a not-so-gentle nip on her shoulder.

She turned her onyx eyes to his topaz gaze. With soft fingers she slid her hand through his waist-length raven tresses. Her finger traced the ruby that glowed at the base of his throat, the fiery light throbbing in time to his heartbeat.

"Husband," she whispered to him. "Never would I have dreamed that I would find you. I believed that I was destined to live alone, slaying all who would love me."

"Beloved," he whispered to her, brushing his lips across her brow. "I will be here to share your battles and guard you always. For we are bound, heart to heart and soul to soul. Forever." His lips touched hers, and her mouth opened beneath his in welcome.

Across the fire-lit room a dragon's scale suit of armor sat on a mahogany frame, gleaming clean and silver in the sunlight that poured through the castle window of their home. A ruby-pommeled sword of blue steel lay in its own stand before it. Beside the silver armor, a second stand of mahogany held a similar suit of dragon's skin, dark and black with newness.

In time the second suit would gleam silver also.

A second blue steel sword completed the set. Side by side they rested.

Waiting for the next battle.

The Story of Josephine.

A Tale of Possession.

The bright fluorescent lights of the bank vault glared down on me, much like my heretofore unknown French relatives had when I was seated in her lawyer's office to hear my great-aunt's will. I had been the only American to inherit, and I had never even met my deceased great-aunt. Oddly enough, the lawyer turned out to be a relative as well, a rather distant Uncle Rene.

"As your great-aunt's lawyer, I am here to witness the delivery of her most prized possession to her inheritor."

My Uncle Rene spoke with only a slight French accent in a deep predatory voice I had originally thought was s.e.xy. He was somewhere in his mid-thirties, only a few years older than me, and wore his black hair slicked back in a tight tail emphasizing the sharpness of his widow's peak, and his eyes were black as pitch under finely arched brows. He was tall, dark, and a very handsome, well-built man simply oozing with charm. He was also an evil, manipulative, selfish man simply oozing with mental issues, but very striking physically.

I did not like my Uncle Rene. The moment I had touched his hand in greeting, his selfish personality had slithered across my heightened empathic abilities. As I continued to smile though our initial introduction, I had hastened to dig my leather gloves from my purse to keep from accidentally touching him again and repeating the experience. It took all I had not to run to the ladies' room to wash my hands.

The mental backwash I had received from him had shown me that he liked his women whimpering, and preferably bound by rope or chain. Not my kind of guy.

Unfortunately, I was the physical description of exactly his favorite kind of girl; round and full-figured, with green eyes and long red hair. In the few seconds that I had remained in contact, that message had come through loud and clear. He had the textbook profile of a control-freak with rapist tendencies. Just what I needed...

He stood very still in his expensive suit, as we shared the small room in the heart of the French bank vault. He was watching me and reminding me strongly of a hungry vampire waiting to pounce.

"Tell me again, Josephine, how long have you been considered empathic?"

"Since I was a child," I answered as the impressions I had received from him earlier continued to wander through my mind like a bad smell that refused to dissipate. I had no idea why he continued to badger me on the subject of my ability to pick up other people's auras and personal vibrations from objects. At that moment I was more worried about whether or not I was all that safe with him. Although we were in a public location, the door had been closed behind us, and this was a vault. If I screamed, would anyone hear me?

I heard him step closer to me and he seemed to be breathing heavier. Something in the back of my mind became aware that a predator had focused its attention on me. The small hairs on the back of my neck stood up.

I turned to look at him, and found that he was standing only two steps away. "Do you know what I do for a living, Uncle?"

He frowned. "According to my records, your empathic abilities sent you into early retirement, without husband or family."

I nodded and smiled. Apparently he had no idea how foolish targeting me for mischief had been. "Unfortunately, the pension I'm receiving from the company I founded has proven to be, shall we say, inadequate? I was forced to supplement my income."

He tilted his head to the side, seemingly concerned. "I was unaware of this."

I smiled. "Oddly enough, although my sensitivity to the emotions of the people around me forced me to cut myself off from people, others have found it quite useful." I paused for effect. I was very interested in the look on his face once I dropped this little grenade. "I've been working with the police and the FBI for the past seven years using objects to find missing persons and criminals."

The look on his face was precious. His mouth opened just a tiny bit as his face grew decidedly paler. Hmm, I thought to myself,guilty conscience ?

"As a matter of fact," I continued with a speculative glance aimed his way, "to come to the reading of the will, I left right in the middle of a case dealing with a rapist."

Uncle Rene's eyes narrowed, his mouth snapped closed and he scowled. He took a step back.

Rethinking your actions, dear Uncle? Are you no longer inclined to prey on your American niece now that you know that she works for the police? What a pity.I didn't bother to hide my smile as I turned back to the long bank box sitting on the table before me. Carefully, I stripped off my gloves and tucked them into my jacket pocket.

With bare hands, I lifted the metal box and my mental alarms suddenly began ringing off the hook. Danger screamed across my senses, but I couldn't tell if it was coming from the box in my hands or if my uncle, standing only a few feet away, had suddenly changed his mind and intended to rape me right here, right now. I gasped and turned sharply to look at him.

His black eyes were hard and cold under his finely arched brows as he watched me handle the locked silver box. His sugary cologne rolled off of his body and smelled of over-sweet candy.

He hadn't moved.

I turned my shoulder to him, keeping him in view from the corner of my eye as I worked the tiny key in the lock. I was forced to balance the box on the counter's edge to lift the hinged top open. I pulled out a heavy over-sized manila envelope yellowed with age.

Waves of s.e.xual heat hit me in a freight train of psychic impressions, just from touching the paper. A blazing flash of empathic imagery made me realize that whoever had tucked that envelope in the box decades ago had f.u.c.ked right here in this vault. My pulse raced and I could feel a warm sensual flush surge through my body as I was suddenly inundated and forced to relive those long-ago feelings of s.e.xual heat. A thrumming began low in my belly as unbearable excitement flooded through me in reaction. My panties became damp.

I dearly regretted taking off my leather gloves. The soft kidskin would have protected me, somewhat, from the s.e.xual, psychic miasma that was so strong, it was oozing right through the envelope. Something in the envelope had a powerful s.e.xual imprint and it was profoundly affecting me. Something I did not want to touch with my bare skin.

I glanced over my shoulder at Uncle Rene who was watching me very closely. He licked his full lips in antic.i.p.ation and I suddenly felt far too under-dressed in my black silk suit. I had not counted on my aunt's lawyer being a s.e.xual predator, and there had no time between the reading of the will and the trip to the bank to change from my best suit into something less daring.

His eyes traveled down and I felt him a.s.sessing the plunge of my neckline and the snug fit of the jacket across the fullness of my b.r.e.a.s.t.s. At least he couldn't tell my nipples had hardened under the sensory a.s.sault.

I watched his brows rise and his smile grow feral as his eyes traveled lower. I felt his gaze skim the narrowness of my waist. Like intrusive fingers, his black eyes measured the length of my red hair swinging at my hips against the shortness of my skirt's hemline. My black seamed stockings had obviously been a mistake.

He was up to something, but he made no move to come closer.

"Do you mind?" I asked sharply. He glanced up at me with a calculating lascivious smile. I strongly suspected Uncle Rene knew exactly what kind of an arousing effect the package was having on me. "I'll just take this back to the hotel and open it there," I said to him. And I would definitely be wearing my gloves when I did so.

"I'm afraid, the will stipulates it must be opened and examined here, in front of me, your great aunt's lawyer," Uncle Rene intoned in a very professional manner. "If you choose not to open the envelope, I'm afraid, the contents must go to one of your cousins."

I sighed and got a tentative grip on my racing libido. If I didn't need the money so badly, I would have let one of the French cousins take it. My pension, even with the added police department funds just didn't pay all that well, and I had an overdue mortgage to pay off.

Carefully I opened the age-darkened manila. I pulled out a folded letter, some bank notes, and a ring of oversized iron keys...Oh, so that was what had made the package so heavy. I then dug out what appeared to be a deed, and a small wooden box.

Violent, s.e.xual force coiled around the tiny red lacquered box like a bomb waiting to go off. My legs shook as my body contracted with voracious carnal urgency. I hissed as heat roared in my belly. I had found the source of the sensual onslaught and it sat in my unprotected, bare palm.

"You must open the box, Josephine," Uncle Rene whispered from right behind me.

I turned around and saw he had taken his jacket off and thrown it on the floor. I froze, staring in fascinated alarm. He was nasty in every sense of the word but one. And my body was suddenly and hungrily focused on that one point; he was a virile and handsome man. I couldn't stand the man, but my body didn't seem to care, and remained rooted in place.

He pulled the tie from his collar and dropped it on his jacket. His broad shoulders flexed under the fine silk of his shirt as he moved. He unhooked his cufflinks, showing tanned and muscular forearms. He then unb.u.t.toned his shirt to his waist. His chest was broad and strongly developed. His waist was narrow and his stomach flat in a way that only comes from regular exercise. My eyes dropped lower and I saw that Uncle Rene had a p.r.o.nounced and impressive erection, pressing against the seam of his trousers.

Under the devastating influence of the box, my body jolted hard with l.u.s.t. I could feel moisture soaking my panties and wetting my inner thighs. My body wanted to get f.u.c.ked, and it didn't care who f.u.c.ked it. It was more than willing to take the first available hard c.o.c.k. Apparently Uncle Rene was fully aware of this, if not counting on it. I licked my lips.

I stood riveted in place as Uncle Rene took two steps nearer, merely inches away and far too close. He plucked the forgotten envelope from my fingers, placed it on top of the bank box. With a slight smile, he took the tiny red box from my palm, opened it and turned it so I could see what it held.

Inside on a nest of black velvet was a simple silver finger ring whose only ornament was a tiny, exquisitely crafted loop on a hinge. It was a slave ring, something worn to denote an interest in BDSM, s.e.xual bondage, domination and sadomasochism.

"Your Great Aunt O wanted this to go to her sensitive grand-niece, whom she knew would truly appreciate what this ring represented," Uncle Rene whispered in my ear.

I had no idea what he was referring to. I knew about BDSM, though, from a few games played with trusted lovers, but I had never met my Great Aunt O. How would she have known?

I shuddered. Heat from his body washed against me and I involuntarily took a deep breath, catching the musky scent of his arousal. He captured my hand, sliding the slave ring on my finger.

The raw memories of the original wearer of the ring flooded into my mind. Decades of s.e.xual desire and gratification came slamming through me in a psychic tidal wave. I moaned out loud in exquisite torment as I relived vivid impressions of hands, mouths and leather straps on my flesh.

Uncle Rene caught me as my legs gave way. His arm captured my shoulders in a punishing grip. I whimpered under the onslaught of howling physical need. His hand tangled in my hair in a fierce grip, pulling my head back. His lips covered mine and his tongue swept in to take triumphant possession. And I didn't care.

He tore my jacket from my shoulders as he violently kissed me. My charcoal silk blouse followed. b.u.t.tons popped and scattered on the marble floor. Uncle Rene's hand slid into my lace bra. He molded, then squeezed my breast, pinching my hard nipple. I moaned into his mouth, feeling his hands slide to my back and fumble the catch on my bra open. He tugged the lace from my arms and threw it to the floor.

He broke the kiss to take my breast into his hot, wet mouth.

My head fell back and I gasped, utterly unable to stand from the voluptuous sensation of his mouth sucking on my swollen nipple.

Shamelessly I clung to his arms and pressed my hungry mons against the rigid length of his erection, enslaved by psychic carnal fury. My body did not care that he would use me. It did not care that he was my Uncle. It was single-mindedly focused on its own gaping mouth to feed and his hard c.o.c.k to fill it.

I felt Uncle Rene slide his arm under my knees then I was being tipped back and lowered to the floor. His jacket kept my naked back from the cold marble as my hair spilled across the stone. He came down on his knees and I felt his hands slide up my stockings, pushing my skirt up to my waist. His palms brushed past the lace tops where my garters were fastened under my skirt. His fingers explored the sensitive skin above the stockings, then he brushed the damp silk covering my shaven mound. My flesh trembled as he slid a finger under, grasping the sheer and fragile silk of my panties.

"You will never, ever wear these again," he hissed in my ear as he tore the fragile silk from my thighs. His fingers slid deep into my damp heat. My hips rose in wanton welcome to encourage him deeper.

I clearly heard the rasp of a zipper being drawn.

I felt him withdraw his fingers, slicked with my excitement, and then I felt the blunt heat of his c.o.c.k head pressed against my wet flesh.

Obsessed with the need to f.u.c.k, I embraced him, welcoming his invasion. I dug into his arms and back with my long nails. He flexed and grunted, sliding his heavy c.o.c.k into my hungry sheath. Uncle Rene moaned as my inner muscles clamped down ravenously, drawing him deeper.

I felt something powerful shift in the depths of my soul. My thoughts and desires were abruptly shoved into the pa.s.senger seat of my mind as something welled up and took over the driving of my body. I was no longer in control. A force was moving under my skin, possessing me utterly.

I felt a grim smile spreading across my face. then suddenly, I expertly caught his arm, trapped his leg and flipped him over onto his back with me riding atop him in a move I had never, ever executed before. I grabbed his wrists with an inhuman strength and shoved hard, pressing his hands to the floor above his head. Uncle Rene gasped in surprise then struggled, his heels drumming on the floor in a futile attempt to throw me from my seat, but my thighs held him trapped.

I lunged up and slammed down on him, his b.a.l.l.s rasping against my a.s.s, exciting me further. Uncle Rene cried out, helpless in the clutches of pleasure as my c.u.n.t gripped him like a fist. He shuddered beneath me, writhing, ensnared by the rampant pleasure I was forcing on him. Rising and falling, squeezing and flexing, I took from him what he had sought to take from me.

I leaned forward, grinding my c.l.i.t against him as my body clawed its way to carnal gratification. I felt the pressing need to hurry, hurry. My own breath gasped as I felt the first wave of impending ecstasy. Pleasure boiled up from me in a heated pulsing surge, and I howled in exquisite joy, then sighed in languorous bliss.

I took a deep breath, looked around and felt a second consciousness peering through my eyes at my struggling Uncle with amus.e.m.e.nt. He was still iron hard within my body. He had yet to c.u.m.

"Rene," said a warm and sibilant voice that was not mine. "You have forgotten what have I taught you," it purred from my mouth. My body shifted forward, just a little, sliding on the cream generated from my climax. I rose very slowly, then fell on Uncle Rene's c.o.c.k, stirring him and keeping him hard, but too slow to encourage him to c.u.m.

"Madam!" Uncle Rene gasped in recognition, his mouth wide open in shock as I continued to hold him to the floor.

Madam?I thought to myself.Madam who? Who the h.e.l.l was driving my body as though I was a sports car they were test-driving?

"It seems that you have been a very naughty boy," my mouth whispered in a husky voice. "You have overstepped yourself." She raised my hand and my finger waved at his nose. "You were supposed to wait until my sensitive niece was receptive to us both. You tried to take before she was ready to give."

"Please, Madam," Uncle Rene's soft needy whimpers threaded through his gasps of building rapture. He stiffened beneath me, incited to the breaking edge of his climax.

"Yes, I do believe it is time to resume your lessons, Rene, beginning now." I abruptly dismounted and his hard c.o.c.k, slathered with my dripping honey, slapped against his belly. I stood and the power possessing my body stretched luxuriously, then turned and strode away from my Uncle.

"No!" he cried out in frustration. He grabbed his c.o.c.k as his c.u.m exploded into the air in long white strings, falling to spatter the floor and his chest.

"Now," sighed the voice as I retrieved the fallen envelope. "I see that the deed to the Chateau is here along with the keys, and I'm sure my account is in order?"

"Yes, Madam," Uncle Rene whispered, panting.

I looked at him in surprise. He had risen to sit in a kneeling position his shirt still hanging open. He looked submissively at the floor and trembled.

"Rene, from now on, you will address us as Madam Jo," the voice said almost absently as I examined the doc.u.ments. "Get dressed and call the car. I believe it is time to open the Chateau once again, Rene."

To my surprise, Uncle Rene grabbed his clothes and fled without dressing. I let out a pleasure-laced sigh. Abruptly, I felt my balance shift and I nearly fell as my body came back under my control. I hurried to retrieve my clothes from the floor before Uncle Rene returned.

Dearest Grandniece Jo,whispered through my mind and I jerked to a startled halt.I hope you will enjoy your inheritance. There are great adventures full of undreamed delights just ahead.

"Thank you, Great-aunt O, I'm sure it will be my pleasure, " I answered her, still riding on a wave of shock and spent desire.