Dragon Emperor 10: From Human to Dragon to God Read online

“I’m sure,” I murmured. “Did she seem jealous to you?”

  “Perhaps a bit,” the spirit replied. “Maybe she hasn’t been sexually satisfied in a while.”

  “Maybe,” I conceded. “Were you satisfied?”

  “With you?” Miraya asked in surprise, and then a shy smile spread across her beautiful face. “I just had my first two orgasms. I believe that is a sign of much satisfaction.”

  “True,” I chuckled. “You’ll probably be a little sore, but it won’t always be like that.”

  “Will I always feel this… connection?” she wondered as she tugged on a strand of her long, white hair. “It is an odd feeling, like a piece of string is tied between us. Does that make sense?”

  “Yeah,” I agreed and ran a hand through my hair. “But I don’t just feel your string. I feel several of them. What does it mean?”

  “I’m not sure,” the spirit admitted. “It doesn’t happen every time for you?”

  “No.” I shook my head. “This is the first time I’ve experienced something like this.”

  “I hope there’s nothing wrong,” she said as a worried frown creased her face.

  “I doubt there’s anything wrong,” I replied. “It doesn’t feel wrong. It actually feels like the strings are all supposed to be there, like my soul is anchoring multiple ships.”

  Then a deep rumble echoed through the chamber.

  “What in the world was that?” Miraya asked as she pressed her hands to her stomach. “My belly feels horrible.”

  “You’re hungry,” I chuckled. “Sex uses up energy, and now you need to replenish. And so do I. Let’s go downstairs and eat.”

  “Okay,” she said with a nod.

  I grabbed her hand and led her back down the winding staircase to the main floor of the castle. I could hear quiet voices coming from the same direction as the aroma of food, so we followed the sounds into a dining hall.

  Nike and my women sat around a table with their empty plates in front of them. Lord Vallen sat at the head of the table, and Lady Naomi was leaned over his shoulder as she pointed to a few lines in a textbook in front of them.

  Miraya and I walked into the room, and the conversation ceased as everyone stared at the sword spirit.

  “Everyone, this is Miraya,” I introduced her. “She is the spirit of the Sword of Hatra.”

  “Hello,” she greeted the group, and a warm smile spread across her face.

  “Miraya,” Alyona breathed as she returned the smile. “Now, I understand.”

  “Understand what?” I asked with a furrowed brow.

  “The soul bridge,” the princess replied. “I felt its beginning stages a little while ago. Did you two make love?”

  “Yes,” I confirmed. “What is a soul bridge?”

  “It’s binding magic between souls,” Alyona explained. “It’s difficult magic to activate, but your connection to the spirit put it into motion. We each feel one bridge to you, but you likely feel a bridge to each of us. Does that sound right?”

  “Yeah,” I answered as I began to understand. “What does it mean?”

  “Our souls are now bound to you as our mate,” the princess said as she gestured around the table. “We all felt the pull to you, and now we belong to you fully, in both body and soul.”

  “I mean, weren’t you already mine?” I chuckled. “We’ve certainly consummated our relationships enough.”

  “Yes, my love.” Alyona smiled as a blush spread across her porcelain cheeks. “But now it is truly official. We can no longer take other mates, our very souls would reject it.”

  “Really?” I arched an eyebrow. “That… sounds kind of awesome. Are the rest of you alright with this?”

  The dryads, Laika, Ravi, and Aaliyah nodded their heads in agreement.

  “Being magically yours makes me feel all tingly inside,” Polina giggled.

  “In the best way possible,” Trina added.

  “The absolute best,” Marina sighed as she batted her green eyelashes at me.

  “I am rather horny.” Aaliyah smirked as her yellow gaze drifted over my body.

  “It does feel really good.” Ravi smiled shyly and twirled a strand of orange hair around her finger.

  “Yes.” Laika cleared her throat and averted her gaze. “I hope this pleases you, my lord.”

  “Hell yeah.” I grinned. “You know I love all of you. Having my permanent mark on you just makes it even better.”

  “Amazing,” Miraya murmured as she glanced at my other mates. “This world is so strange.”

  Then her stomach growled again, and I redirected my thoughts from spiritual bridges to the scraps of food left on the table.

  “Have you ever eaten before?” I asked Miraya.

  “No.” She shook her head. “What do you do?”

  “Put it in your mouth, chew it up, and enjoy it,” I replied with a grin.

  “Don’t forget to swallow,” Polina giggled.

  “Yes, swallowing, very important,” Trina snickered.

  “Don’t spit it out,” Marina added with a chuckle.

  Aaliyah and Ravi stifled their giggles as Miraya looked at them in confusion.

  “Don’t worry about them.” I smirked. “Just chew and swallow your food.”

  “Fascinating,” Vallen murmured. “Your women are very interesting.”

  “Yeah,” I chuckled. “I’m a pretty lucky guy.”

  Naomi whispered something under her breath, but all I heard was “luck.”

  “What was that?” I asked loudly.

  “Nothing,” the lady mage muttered as she focused on her plate.

  I snickered as I looked over the food that remained on the table and saw a plate of rabbit meat that had been seasoned with a bright red herb. It didn’t smell spicy, so I put a few pieces on Miraya’s plate and piled a heap onto my own. Then I added a few fried frog legs and a scoop of peaches to each plate before I set her plate in front of her and plopped down in front of my own.

  The spirit looked at me with doubt written all over her face, so I grabbed a fork and stabbed a piece of meat before I shoved it into my mouth and chewed slowly. The flavorful meat melted on my tongue, and the herbs and spices nearly overpowered my senses as I closed my eyes to enjoy it.

  I opened my eyes as I swallowed the bite, and Miraya was covering her smile.

  “Was that good?” she giggled.

  “Yes,” I confirmed with a wink. “Your turn.”

  Miraya cleared her throat and poked at the rabbit meat with her fork. Then she slid the tongs into the flesh and picked it up to examine it. She sniffed the meat before she delicately put it on her tongue and slid it off the fork with her teeth.

  “Well?” Vallen asked as Miraya closed her mouth around the bite.

  Suddenly, she moaned as the flavors hit her tongue, and she began to chew the food as she closed her eyes and relished the taste.

  “This is fantastic,” she mumbled through her full mouth.

  “Told you.” I smirked and forked another bite into my mouth. “And that’s just the first thing on your plate.”

  Miraya grinned at me before she stabbed another piece of meat.

  “She’s never eaten before?” Naomi asked and raised a magenta eyebrow.

  “No,” I replied. “She’s mostly lived in her spirit form with the owner of the sword.”

  “Many new experiences, then,” the lizard giggled as she took another bite of her meal.

  We ate the rest of our food without another word, and then it seemed as though everyone was yawning more than they were talking.

  “Are you nearly finished, my lord?” Alyona asked as she stifled another yawn.

  “Yeah,” I replied and then turned to Miraya. “Are you full?”

  “My stomach is no longer growling, my lord,” the spirit confirmed. “But I feel like I can barely keep my eyes open.”

  “We’re all tired,” I chuckled. “Let’s go to bed. We can eat more in the morning.”

  “We will discuss the p
lague first thing tomorrow,” Vallen announced. “I think we could all use some rest after such an exciting day. I have already shown your wonderful ladies where you all will sleep, so I hope the accommodations are to your liking, Lord Evan.”

  “Sounds good,” I agreed.

  “Goodnight, everyone,” the dryads said in unison as they stood from the table, and then the sisters filed out of the room to their chambers down the hall.

  “We’ll be in the room next to yours,” Laika murmured and then nodded to Aaliyah and Ravi as they followed the dryads to bed.

  “And if you wouldn’t mind, try to keep your exploits to yourself this time, Lord Evan.” Naomi smirked as she rose from her chair. “I don’t want to hear your heavy breathing as you slide in and out of your beautiful lovers tonight.”

  “Uh, sure,” I said with a cough.

  Miraya blushed next to me, and Alyona squeezed my hand with a giggle.

  Then Naomi turned and stalked out of the room.

  “I apologize for Lady Naomi,” Vallen sighed. “She tends to come across rather harshly.”

  “Oh, I’m quite close to a woman like her,” I chuckled as I thought of Valerra and her hostile attitude. “She’ll warm up to me eventually.”

  “I hope so,” the lizard replied with a worried frown.

  I wondered if he was more concerned with her offending me or her lack of desire to be with a man. Either way, I had two other women to get to bed, so I dipped my head to Vallen and gestured Miraya and Alyona toward the door.

  The three of us followed the hallway to the last door and went inside. The room was larger than I expected, and it had a large dresser that stood in the corner of the room. Black and gold curtains hung over the window, and the bed was big enough for five or six people.

  “Lord Vallen said he saved this room for you,” Alyona giggled. “I can see why.”

  “Well, we can’t let it go to waste,” I said as I waggled my eyebrows.

  Alyona and Miraya giggled as I pulled them both onto the bed.

  When we awoke the next morning, I could see tiny shafts of sunlight peeking in through the sides of the curtain. The sky outside was a little pink, so I knew it was shortly after sunrise.

  I turned my head back to face my women whose naked bodies laid sprawled out across the giant bed.

  Miraya’s face was covered with a thin sheen of sweat, while Alyona snored softly next to her. The spirit’s arm was crossed over the princess’ narrow waist, and I had a perfect view of my fiancée’s bare ass and a glimpse of her pussy that still dripped with my seed.

  As my cock rose to attention, I heard a light tap on the door.

  “Who is it?” I growled as my women began to stir.

  “Naomi,” the lizard mage’s voice came through the door, and I groaned as I rolled off the bed and made my way toward the doorway.

  Then I yanked it open and stared at her. She’d traded her big black robes for a soft green dress that wrapped around her lithe body and dipped at the collar to reveal the swells of her breasts. Her magenta hair swayed as she tilted her head to the side, and she peeked past me into the room.

  “Like what you see?” I smirked.

  “It appears you have pleased them,” Naomi murmured and then shook her head to focus on me again. “Vallen is waiting for you downstairs.”

  “I did,” I confirmed. “Several times, in fact. But I’ll head down there and talk to Vallen once I get dressed.”

  “Good.” Naomi dipped her head. “Because I don’t need to see your sweaty, naked, fit body anymore today.”

  She put her nose up into the air and strode down the hall.

  I smirked and shut the door.

  “Lady Naomi seems to try very hard to be uninterested in you, Lord Evan,” Miraya said as I turned back to the bed.

  “What can I say?” I laughed. “I’m an interesting guy.”

  “Apparently,” she giggled. “I know last night was certainly interesting for me.”

  “I think it formed more of the bridges, too,” I pointed out. “Each of the strings I felt before with both of you now seems more like a rope.”

  “I agree,” Alyona said as she turned her head toward us. “The soul bridges are becoming stronger. It probably happens when you make love to us.”

  “Interesting,” Miraya murmured.

  “Before we spend too long thinking about those, we need to get downstairs,” I said. “Lord Vallen is waiting for us, and I assume it’s to tell us more about this plague.”

  The women nodded and rose from the bed to get dressed.

  Miraya slid into her thin, white robe, while Alyona pulled a violet robe out from her trunk and wrapped it around her shoulders. She left the front open for a moment, and my dick throbbed at the sight of her mound before she wrapped her belt around her waist and covered her shapely figure.

  I grunted and pulled my own clothes and boots on before I led the women downstairs to the dining hall. Lord Vallen sat at the head of the table with Naomi to his left, and he grinned and motioned to the seat at his right.

  The aromas of rabbit meat, peaches, and eggs filled the air, and my mouth watered as we sat down at the table. Before I could start to make my plate, though, Vallen held up a hand.

  “This is not all,” he declared with a happy smile.

  I raised an eyebrow as I leaned back into my chair.

  Within seconds, a group of his staff glided into the room carrying more trays of food. As they set the steaming hot trays onto the table, I noticed fried frog legs and another kind of meat I hadn’t seen before. It smelled like rosemary and basil, and it was drizzled with a peachy juice.

  “My lord, we have rabbit and badger meat, frog legs, roadrunner eggs, peaches, figs, and, of course, yucca petals,” one of the servants announced as he gestured toward the trays. “Is there anything else you require?”

  “No, Frederick,” Vallen replied with a wave of his hand. “That will be all. Thank you.”

  Frederick bowed deeply and signaled for the rest of the staff to leave the room. The lizards hurried out with him, and Laika, Nike, Ravi, Aaliyah, and the dryads piled into the room as the servants left.

  Laika’s furry gray ears twitched as her alert, gray eyes scanned the room before they all sat down. I could tell she was still concerned the lizard Demi-Humans were tricking us somehow, which was reasonable after our last encounter with one of their kind back in Colaruma.

  As we all loaded up our plates, Vallen looked around at everyone before he cleared his throat dramatically. Everyone turned to him and began to eat as we waited for him to speak.

  “My dear friends, you are enjoying the fruits of labor we can provide outside of our disastrous fields,” the lizard declared. “The crops have been overrun with some sort of disease that has left the plants the color of night.”

  “They all look dead,” Naomi deadpanned with a roll of her yellow eyes. “I can’t explain it. The beans, peppers, squash, even the cacti are struggling to survive, and they can usually withstand just about anything.”

  “Have you had any bad weather recently?” Polina asked.

  “Or extreme heat?” Marina suggested.

  “Possibly even a bug infestation?” Trina shrugged. “There are many possible reasons for the issue.”

  “Our weather rarely changes,” Vallen replied. “As for the bugs, I haven’t seen any, and our farmers are completely baffled. We’ve determined it must be magical.”

  “Typical Green Glass Sect move,” I murmured to Nike. “They eliminate a means of survival for the city, and then they go after whatever it is they really want.”

  “That begs the question,” Nike replied under his breath. “What is it they really want?”

  I shrugged as I rubbed my chin and refocused on the conversation about the plants.

  “Have you tried a rejuvenation spell?” Marina asked.

  “Or perhaps a saturation spell?” Trina offered.

  “Well, just tell us what you have tried,” Polina suggest
ed.

  “I have tried the aqualin, floodwater, and pluvia spells,” Naomi answered. “I have even tried a few cleansing spells I found in old spell books, but nothing has worked so far.”

  “Cleansing spells are harder than you might imagine,” Miraya pointed out.

  “Especially if you aren’t a pure being,” Ravi added.

  “I think we’ll need to see it for ourselves, then,” Alyona said, and I nodded in agreement. “We need to get fresh eyes on the problem and find a solution together.”

  “Let’s finish this delicious breakfast, and then we’ll go,” I decided.

  “Thank the gods,” Aaliyah mumbled as she shoveled more food into her mouth.

  I chuckled as we all finished our plates and rose from the table.

  “This way,” Vallen said as he and Naomi guided us out a side door and onto a road that led behind the castle. “The gardens are just inside the rear wall of the city.”

  We followed the lizard as the path led us past several different buildings, and we passed a masonry, a pottery shop, and a bakery. The smell of the fresh pies on the counter emanated out to us on the street, and I decided to stop there once we fixed the field issue.

  The road led up a sand dune, and once we reached the top, Vallen stopped and pointed below us. As we looked out across the field, I could see rows and rows of various crops and cacti, but halfway across, the stalks changed from a fresh and healthy green to a stark black. The plants on the left almost looked burnt, but there was no damage to the leaves, and the disease stopped without damaging the next row over.

  “It started off as one row turning black overnight,” Vallen explained. “Then every couple of days, another row or two would change. Now, it’s taken over nearly half of our crops out here.”

  “It doesn’t smell like miasma,” Laika murmured into my ear.

  “True, but it smells like something,” I replied and turned to face my companions. “What spell could the Sect be using to cause this slow damage? Their nexus spells typically travel much faster than this.”

  “We should get a closer look,” Alyona suggested. “We may be able to see something they missed or aren’t familiar with.”

  “Okay.” I nodded and turned back to Vallen. “Let’s go down and take a peek.”

  Vallen dipped his head and strode down the dune. He slipped a few times, but Naomi finally took his elbow to help keep him on his feet.