Thirst

By L Hunter

Ash and Eva have been reunited.
Henry has found his brother.
Happily ever after.
The end. Right?
Wrong.
They may be together, but all is not what it seems.
They soon discover everyone has their own goals.
Some want freedom. Some want blood. And most want answers.

Who will lose their life in the thirst for power?

Alliances will be forged, battles will be fought, and lines will be drawn.

In the thrilling conclusion to the Dragon Heart series, will Eva and Ash finally have their happily ever after?

Crave Power. Crave Blood. Crave Freedom.

• Language: English
• Publisher: L Hunter
• Release date: Mar 31, 2016
• ISBN: 9781311483294

L Hunter

Professor Lawrance Hunter, Divisional Fellow (Manufacturing and Materials Technology) CSIR and Head of the post-graduate Department of Textile Science of the University of Port Elizabeth, South Africa, has been involved in textile R&D for almost 40 years and has published many papers at conferences and in journals. He was awarded the Textile Institute Warner Memorial Medal for his outstanding contribution to textile science and technology.

Book preview

Prologue

Blades sliced.

Blood splattered.

Screams echoed in the night…

Ash stirred but didn’t wake. He tossed and turned in his sleeping bag, unable to escape from the horror playing out under his eyelids.

No, please! I’ll do anything, but please don’t hurt my family. A woman whimpered. Ash had a clear image of the woman now. She was crawling back on her hands and knees, scrambling from her worst nightmare. Ash gasped.

No! he cried. It was the worst feeling to be able to watch and do nothing. Sometimes he cursed the witch who had given him back his memories. He’d been having the exact same dream every night of late. The same thing happened. The woman pleaded for her life and her family’s while crawling away. The sound of a blade being drawn from its sheath pierced the silent darkness. Then the mysterious assassin killed the woman, something Ash was unable to witness but couldn’t escape. You couldn’t escape your own nightmares.

Tonight was different somehow.

Tonight, he recognized the faces.

Tonight, he stood and did something about it. He stepped into the halo of streetlights, boots crunching on the gravel. The assassin turned. The light shone on his face, and Ash wasn’t surprised. He had suspected this person all along.

You, he whispered.

Hello, Ash. We’ve been waiting for you.

The Assassin stepped forward just as two other shadows stepped out of the dark, their blades clashing with Ash’s.

Part I: Amber

Chapter One

Your Majesty, what is the urgency? Devlan stumbled into Amber’s chambers pulling on a shirt. It was the middle of the night, but he came regardless. He always came when his queen called.

Amber was clothed in her sleeping gown, and her long tendrils of orange hair shimmered like fire in the light of the moon that filtered through the open curtains. She was sitting up in her bed, a sheen of sweat on her brow. Are you all right?

Devlan, she croaked. Her voice was hoarse as if she had been screaming. I had a nightmare.

Your handmaiden told me you called for me? He sat on the side of her bed. She turned to look at him. Something glimmered in her eyes and Devlan was unsure of what it was. He was a little afraid.

Yes, I did. I have been having more dreams of late and none of them good. I am scared of our future.

Devlan shifted his weight and leaned toward her. Then she took him by the scruff of his shirt and pulled him to her. I cannot sleep alone any longer. She pulled his body on top of hers and his lips down to hers. He did not refuse.

***

I blinked. Sleep coated my eyelashes, making them stick together. Moaning and stretching, my left hand hitting flesh—flesh that was not my own. I stilled. Who was in my bed with me? I contemplated calling for my handmaiden or Devlan when the bed moved. A groan that was distinctly male filled the room. Like the queen I was, not weak, I sat up with all the grace I was taught and looked upon the face of the strange male in my bed. But the face did not belong to a stranger.

Devlan?! What in all the realms are you doing here?

A sleepy, casual smirk covered his face. Good morning, my queen.

I smoothed down my hair. It was no doubt stuck up like a porcupine. Then I took a deep breath and stared into Devlan’s incredibly sexy blue eyes. Gosh, why did he have to be so devilishly handsome?

Devlan, answer my question. Why are you in my bed half naked? Just to make sure, I peeped under the covers. I threw them straight back down again and held them tight against my breasts—my very naked breasts. What had happened?

Uh, my queen, do you not remember calling for me last night?

I… No. Had I called for him? And then done unspeakable things with him, my assistant? Who was not royal? My hand flew to my mouth to stifle a shriek.

I don’t want to alarm you, your majesty, but you called me to your room because you had a nightmare. I was there to merely comfort you. But you were all clammy, feverish. You grabbed for me, and… Devlan hung his head in his hands.

And what? Devlan? Speak.

You kissed me. Okay? I tried to stop you, but you kissed me so deeply and so passionately, I had no choice. You see, I’ve always been in love with you, Amber. The hand that was not covering my lips clutched the blankets at my breast. I could feel my heart beating overtime through the blankets. But like the queen I was, my mask came up, and I retained my composure and my grace.

It is Your Majesty to you, Devlan. And I would never do that. Not in my sane mind, anyway. You will not speak of this again to anyone. This cannot happen, do you hear me?

I watched his heart break right in front of me. It was the saddest thing I had ever seen. Tears glistened in his eyes, but he did not cry. He held them back, bowed his head and scrambled from the bed.

Yes, Your Majesty, he mumbled as he left the room. I flopped back on my bed.

Had I done the right thing?

Chapter Two

Being a queen was something I had always dreamed of. It was in my blood. I was born to rule.

For a long time, one thousand years to be exact, I had ruled the Fae Realm. I had been the only queen in all the lands.

Until a magic had been awakened.

One year ago, I was no longer the only queen.

I couldn’t let this happen. So I set out to investigate why I was no longer the only queen.

That was when I discovered the Dragon Princess and her Dragon Heart.

Sure, dragons existed long before Ash and Eva did, but they could not shift into humans. Their magic was dormant.

When Ash was born, his existence somehow awakened the magic of all other creatures and opened the doorway between the humans and us.

Before this, no human had ever heard of a Faerie, a Vampire, or a Siren. The two worlds were separated.

But it was because of the Dragon Heart humans began to find out about us. It was because of the Dragon Heart that we no longer remained a secret. I couldn’t have that.

So I sought out the greatest assassin in all the lands to kill the Dragon Heart. He was all for it because he had a daughter and a kingdom to protect.

The Assassin tracked down the Dragon Heart, the first human who could change into a dragon. He snuck into his house and killed the parents first.

But something went horribly wrong.

The Dragon Heart woke up.

The boy with the dragon blood saw who had killed his parents and fought back. I was watching on as all this happened with the help of my good friend, Airicka. Airicka was the most powerful witch in all the lands. She let me watch her crystal ball as the assassination was carried out.

But we could do nothing as the boy fought back.

Somehow, the boy knew how to fight.

How does he know how to fight? I thought he didn’t know who he was? I clutched my friend’s hand nervously.

He shouldn’t, Airicka said. But watch. The Assassin knows.

We watched on as the boy with the dragon blood circled the man with the blade, the man whose eyes glowed yellow like fire in the streetlight.

They had taken their fight out into the alley behind the house.

We’ve been waiting for you, Ash. Waiting for the day when you would wake up and know who you are.

What do you want from me? Ash growled. A blade glinted in his hand, but the handle slipped, slick with his parent’s blood.

What do I want? That’s a good question, Ash. The Man With The Fire In His Eyes stepped closer. Ash wiped his bloody palm on his jeans and gripped the sword tighter. The samurai blade had belonged to his father. It was razor sharp and the real deal. His father had told him it came from a collector. Now Ash didn’t believe him. The man in front of him knew a lot more about him than he knew himself.

My name is Christian, and I am the leader of a world you wouldn’t and shouldn’t have even dreamed of. A secret world that no human knows about and you are endangering it.

"I don’t know who you think I am, but I’m just an ordinary guy going about my ordinary life. I go to college. I have a job.