Read Dragon's Curse (Harlequin Nocturne) for Free Online Page B

invaded his makeshift cell. That was one certainty about being trapped
inside a wooden puzzle box—nothing, and nobody, could gain entry.
    Another certainty was that he couldn’t escape. He’d tried for
well over eight hundred years. But the spell Nathan the Learned had used still
held fast.
    Only love would set him free. He’d interjected that little kink
in Nathan’s spell of his own accord. Unfortunately, he’d not specified whose
love.
    He thought that once the Dragon Lord of Mirabilus found his
soul’s mate that he’d finally be free. Since each generation of Dragon Lords had
found their specific mate, apparently that wasn’t the case.
    So, what had pulled him from his deep meditation, his only form
of escape?
    A tendril of warmth circled around him, inviting him to pay
attention. He pulled away, unwilling to get involved once again.
    But like a demanding child who refused to be denied, the warmth
urged him to focus on the race of emotions building outside the walls of his
cube.
    Fear, lies and distrust wafted strong. Still, he wondered why
he needed to pay attention to such mortal emotions.
    Hunger, desire and need sizzled in the air. Like a thunderbolt
lacing the night sky, the emotions crackled around him with an intensity that
would not be ignored.
    Aelthed rose, a smile curved his lips. “So, another dragon has
found his mate.”
    From the power and hunger pulsing beneath the desire, he could
only surmise it was the changeling.
    A frown wiped away his smile. Getting this dragon to
acknowledge his feelings wouldn’t be easy. The man had fallen in love
before.
    Unfortunately, because of an angry, frightened curse spoken
centuries earlier, his beast hadn’t been interested. Unless it could find
another of his kind it was cursed to thirst for nothing more than Learned blood,
the dragon would never know love.
    Since another of his kind didn’t exist, the man had fallen in
love with a human woman. And when danger had threatened the man’s beloved, the
dragon had ignored the frantic call for help. An act that had ended with a
woman’s death and a man’s horrified distrust.
    Aelthed worried that a part of this changeling unknowingly
despised his beast. That hatred had been the downfall of the other Drake
changelings.
    If the Drake dragon wanted to break the curse, to live or to
ever experience the fulfillment offered by taking a mate, the changeling needed
to embrace his inner dragon.
    Aelthed paced his cell. There had to be a way to help. He
paused, his eyes widening as he sensed something else on the wind.
    Impossible.
    But as he focused harder, a smile curved his lips. The
impossible had happened. He didn’t know how and could hardly fathom the event,
but somewhere out there this dragon’s true mate did indeed exist and she was
close at hand.
    How would he bring them together? He frowned again, then
finally rolled his eyes at his own stupidity.
    Once again hunkering down in a corner of his prison, he traced
symbols and letters in the air. A thin trail of smoke followed his fingertip
before dissipating.
    With a wide grin Aelthed wrote faster, knowing for certain that
the smoke would reappear as ink on the pages of the Drake family’s grimoire.
    * * *
    Cam had watched the van disappear down the mountain and
still he stood before the window, staring at the vast expanse of mountains and
sky.
    Something about Ariel Johnson affected him on a level he
couldn’t quite define—a level that made him strangely uncomfortable.
    Her looks were most definitely a part of his attraction—after
all, what man wouldn’t be drawn to a woman with killer curves and a brazenness
that belied her no-nonsense appearance? No one who looked at her would guess
that beneath the all-business guise lurked a criminal and a liar.
    Ariel Johnson could probably fool a not-so-discerning
investigator. If they didn’t pay close attention, they might miss the way the
flecks of green in her hazel eyes darkened when something unsettled her.