Firefighter Dragon's Demi-God Daughter Read online

  I love you, he thought.

  He fell forward, collapsing to the ground. But even gravely wounded, he didn’t stop. He grabbed a demon by the ankle and slashed at its Achilles tendon, even as darkness descended over him.

  He rolled to his back and stared up at the night sky. Within seconds, Helena dropped to her knees next to him. “Hold on,” she whispered. “You did it. You convinced my family to come.”

  “Ares came back?”

  “Ares and a demi-God both came. Athena's toughest daughter is here. We have a God and a demi-God on our side.” Her hands were on his face. “So don't you dare give up right now. Your clan needs you. I need you.”

  His hand was trembling, but he managed to lift it up far enough to touch her delicate lips. “You were amazing.”

  “So were you,” she said.

  By then he was half-conscious. But he was aware of a blinding light, and a sonic boom.

  “That's my family,” she said with pride in her voice.

  Now that he knew she would be safe, he let his eyes slip closed.

  18

  Helena

  While the battle raged around her, she held on to her mate.

  She pleaded with him not to let go. “I just found you,'' she whispered. “And you found me, thousands of miles away at the top of the highest mountain in Greece. Because you're my mate.” Her mate, who had not batted an eye when he realized she was related to Zeus.

  In the background, she was aware of Ares and his niece finishing off the rest of the demons. Maybe between the both of them, they could find the portal or the source where the demons were getting into the Earth and stop it.

  “I love you,” she told him. They had not said it to each other yet. But she wanted him to know.

  Eventually, all of the demons were dead. Her grandfather showed up and stood beside her. He said nothing, but he squeezed her shoulder.

  She looked up at him. “Thank you for coming.”

  He nodded and walked away. In the distance, she saw him taking care of the demons’ bodies. Over the next few hours, she learned that none of the clan members had been killed, but plenty had been injured.

  The doctor set up a field hospital and was treating them as he would treat humans.

  She sat next to Jackson and held his hand. Around her, activity buzzed. Shifters came and went, and Jackson did not wake up. Every four hours, Eli, Jackson’s best friend brought her food and water. Sometimes he brought coffee and tea, and sometimes a slice of pie. All of it tasted like ash to Helena, but she ate it dutifully.

  Jackson’s parents came by, and so did his sister, Jenny, and all of his cousins, even the one who was a famous rock star. There was always a lot of hustle and bustle around his bedside. Night or day, there was someone who’d show up, chattering and bringing him a card that he wasn’t awake to see, or flowers that he wasn’t awake to smell.

  The relationships just seemed so free and easy compared to the tension-laden connections she shared with her family. She found she liked being part of a big family, at least one that functioned well. She pictured herself living here in Cape Meares with Jackson, in one of the tall clapboard houses lined with trees, knowing the rest of the clan was nearby, biking, gardening, and swimming in the ocean. She’d never had any of that.

  But maybe that part was going to get better for her too.

  Ares came by and sat next to her. He ignored Jackson, but he squeezed her shoulder once and then patted her head. “You did a good job out there,” he said.

  She nearly fell off her chair. “Are you actually complimenting me?” she asked.

  He looked away. “Yes.” His eyes darted back to her face. It was almost funny to see him look so uncomfortable. He ran his hand through his loose curls. “It has come to my attention that I am a rotten old bastard and that I need to do a better job with my only living granddaughter.”

  “Who told you that?” Surely it wasn’t any of her family. None of them would dare speak against Ares, except Zeus or his brothers, and they didn’t care if he was a rotten old bastard because they were too.

  “It was your boyfriend’s mother. She gave me a stern talking to.”

  Helena pressed her lips together and put her hand over her mouth, trying to cover her laugh. But it didn’t work. Her shoulders even began to shake as she laughed, imagining Jackson’s sweet, fun-loving mother giving the god of war a lecture on how to behave.

  “Well, I’m glad you listened to her. She’s pretty wise,” Helena said. Jackson’s mother was kind and generous, and brave too. Despite having been a seamstress and clothing designer for her entire life, she’d jumped right into the fray with the demons, wielding a dagger and even stabbing a few of them. “And he’s not my boyfriend.”

  “Then what is he?” Ares demanded, crossing his arms.

  “For someone who’s turning over a new leaf, you sure sound pretty grouchy.”

  He made a scoffing noise. “That’s not going to change.”

  “Jackson is my mate. It’s a much stronger connection than just a boyfriend.”

  “What does it mean?”

  “It means we’re connected.” She tapped her foot against the floor. “It means that he can find me anywhere in the world. Even Olympus.”

  Ares leans back in the folding chair, making it creak. “He found you there?”

  “Yes. How’d you think he found me?” she asked.

  “I figured you’d told him. Texted him. Called him. Skyped him. Whatever it is people do now.”

  “No. He found me because he’s my mate.”

  “Like a homing pigeon.”

  She rolled her eyes. “Thanks for ruining the moment. I can’t imagine why anyone would ever call you a rotten old bastard.” She wasn’t presumptuous to think she and Jackson would be making their mating formal by getting married, or by having children. She had no idea how he even felt about procreating. She’d always been against it. She had been against raising a child the way she had been raised and thrusting them into a group of powerful, entitled people that had more in common with a pit of vipers than a family.

  But there, in Cape Meares, surrounded by Jackson’s family, she could picture herself with a child. The child she pictured was a little boy who looked just like his father.

  She looked at Ares. He would thrive in that scenario. He had loved her father, and he’d been devastated when the demons killed him. Ares had thought his son was safe as a demi-God with the blood of the Gods in his veins. None of them had counted on the demons. So Ares had gotten to have a family for a brief time, and then it was taken from him. He’d been left with Helena, powerful and strong, but not as gifted as a demi-God, and she’d been a constant reminder of what he’d lost.

  She mentioned none of this to him, but she held onto the memory and kept it close to her heart.

  Ares came and went. He was mostly silent, and he didn’t do anything useful, but he was there. That was more than enough.

  Then finally, he had some really good news. Zeus himself had left his throne, and his palace on the mountain, and even Greece itself. That was not something that happened very often. In fact, it had been five hundred years since he’d deemed something valid enough to warrant his personal attention.

  But he’d left, along with Athena, and they’d searched the entire world trying to find out how the demons were getting in. After three days of scouring the earth without a break, they found the portal at the border between Canada and the United States, buried deep in the woods. Usually, the demons thrived in cities, preferring to have a lot of negative energy to feast on. The demons that had killed Helena’s mother and father had come in via Chicago. Another time, they’d all poured in via Buenos Aires.

  Zeus himself had closed the portal, sealing it shut for good with his lightning bolt. If they were lucky, another decade would go by before another demon found its way to the surface of the earth.

  She wondered aloud to Ares again why Zeus didn’t get involved more often, but her grandfather told he
r to quit obsessing over it. He claimed it would only lead to madness. He said he spoke from experience, and she believed him.

  In the moments where no one visited, Helena worked on her laptop. Eli had gotten it for her, bless him. In an email to her boss, she was able to create a scenario where she made it look like the demons were humans, and they were the arsonists setting the fires in all the important buildings.

  With the help of Jackson’s firefighting crew of dragon shifters, they’d taken some human remains from a morgue and made it look like three men were killed during one of the fires they set at an abandoned church. She felt guilty about using remains without permission, but for now, the demons were all gone, and she needed proof for the FBI that the arsons would stop.

  Her boss accepted this lie easily because the arsons did stop, just as soon as Zeus closed the portal and there were no more demons to set the fires. Her boss was pleased and gave her a week off as a reward, which was convenient because she was not prepared to leave Jackson while he was injured, not even for her job.

  And the best news was that the demons would not be able to take over the witches’ coven. The witches would have to be dealt with, but that was a problem for another day.

  Finally, on the fourth day after the battle, Jackson stirred.

  He blinked as he woke up. She was so glad she had stayed, even as his clan members had tried to convince her to take a break. Her face was the first thing he saw when he woke up.

  “I cannot wait to get in my own shower,” Jackson said.

  He’d gotten more of the demon poison in his blood than any other shifter, and the doctors had been reluctant to let him to leave the field hospital.

  About two hours after he’d woken up he’d insisted that he was fine and tried to leave, but no one would let him.

  He’d tried to sway Helena, but she was undeterred. “Not a chance,” she said when he tried to convince her to sneak him out. “I watched you get stabbed by that thing. I will not condone you doing anything against medical advice.”

  So he’d spend an additional twenty-four hours sitting in the field hospital. He’d paced, he’d stood up, and he’d even jogged, but nothing would make them release him. He finally settled down when Helena asked him if he wasn’t content just to be with her.

  Now she was leading him back to his house. He shared it with other family members, just as everyone in their clan did, but they’d all made themselves scarce so Helena could have some alone time with her mate.

  She followed him into the bathroom, reluctant to let him out of her sight. “I can join you,” she offered.

  “Are you saying that because you want to, or because you think I’m an invalid?” he asked with one eyebrow quirked

  “Both,” she said.

  “At least you’re honest.” He made a face. “It’s not very sexy to be the patient non-stop.”

  She put her hands on his hips. “Everything about you is sexy to me.”

  “In that case…” He pressed his lips to her neck, then pulled back and grabbed his toothbrush. “I brushed my teeth at the field hospital, but I want to do it in a real bathroom.” He started brushing and flipped the shower switch on.

  Minutes later, the bathroom was steamy and he was shedding his clothes. She watched eagerly, feeling a bit greedy for staring at him when he was still recovering.

  Once he was under the hot spray, he waved her in. “Aren’t you coming?”

  She undressed in just seconds and joined him. This was the first time they’d been naked together since their night in Portland. After that, everything had spiraled into madness, and they had barely had a moment to catch their breath since.

  He pulled her close to him. “This is what I’ve been waiting for.”

  “The shower?”

  He kissed her nose. “No silly. Being alone with you.”

  She sighed against his shoulder and rested her head on his chest. Carefully she put her hand over the stab wound. “Does it hurt?”

  “Not now,” he said. He tipped her chin up so she was staring into his bright green eyes. “You remember I told you we were mates on the plane ride back here?”

  She nodded.

  “Well, I told you that, but I didn’t tell you the important part.”

  “What’s that?” she asked.

  “I love you.”

  Her eyes burned. She swallowed around the lump in her throat. “I love you too.” They spent the next several minutes exploring each other and soaping each other up.

  “Turn around,” he said. “Let me wash your hair.”

  She frowned. “I should be taking care of you.”

  “Nope,” he said. “I’m fine. It’s my turn to take care of you.”

  She heard what he didn’t say, that he didn’t get to take care of her after she was injured by the demon, because they’d argued and he’d walked out on her.

  That was all in the past, and he’d more than made up for it. She wasn’t going to turn down having his hands on any part of her body.

  She let him guide her under the spray and wet down her thick hair. He poured shampoo into his palm and lathered it up, gently running his hands through her hair until every strand was covered in suds.

  No one had washed her hair since she had been a child. She was not sure it would have mattered if someone else had though because it wouldn’t have compared to this bliss. Now Jackson was the one doing it, and that was all that mattered.

  She closed her eyes and quit thinking, quit planning. She wanted to just feel. She felt his strong hands on her scalp, massaging, sending tendrils of tingling pleasure through her body.

  She moaned, and the tingling pleasure moved from relaxing to erotic.

  He moved against her, and at once she felt his rock hard erection, slotted up against her backside. He rocked into her, still running his hands through her hair. He guided her back under the spray and rinsed her, taking care to get out every bubble of soap. The entire time, he kept his hard cock pressed against her wet skin.

  Arousal flared in her belly. She clenched her thighs together; her pussy was already slick.

  Once her hair was free of suds, she turned in his arms. “Are you sure you’re up for this?”

  He lifted his eyebrows and glanced down. “I’d say I’m definitely up for this.”

  She laughed, even though she tried not to. “That was a really bad joke,” she says.

  She grabbed the body wash. “It’s my turn now.” She smoothed her hands over his hard pecs, not pressing down when she reached the scar. She ran her hands down his firm biceps and over his flat stomach. She washed his cock, smiling when he moaned and let his head thunk back against the shower wall.

  She rinsed him off, still holding his erection in her hand. “I’ve wanted to taste you since we met,” she says.

  His green eyes were dark with lust as she moved to her knees, kneeling in front of him. She backed out of the spray so that it was only misting over her face. She looked up at him from under her lashes. She wasn’t sure if the look was sexy or not, but it seemed to work for him.

  “Helena,” he panted. “God. You look so good. You are the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.”

  At his words, she ducked her head. She wanted to touch herself, even though it would never be as good as having his hands between her legs. Instead, she wrapped one hand around his thick cock, listening for his deep moans.

  But her need overtook her. She slipped her free hand between her own legs, letting one finger ghost over her slick entrance. It didn’t feel anywhere close to how his hand would feel, but it was better than nothing.

  She pushed her tongue out and licked the tip of his cock. Even with her own hand rubbing circles on her clit, her core ached with need.

  “Helena,” he said with reverence. His hand came to rest on top of her head. She opened her mouth and took him in fully. She began to move back and forth, setting a pace that she thought would bring him close to the edge but not take him over.

  She had
never done this before, but she had an idea of how it worked. She recalled her roommate talking about it in college and did her best to mimic the things she’d heard. She hallowed her cheeks and started to suck.

  She looked up, watching Jackson’s face. His chest was heaving, and his eyes glittered. It looked like she was doing something right.

  She kept her palm wrapped snugly around the base, and she felt his cock throb a few times as she began to make a humming sound while moving up and down on his cock. She had wanted to taste him for herself, and she’d wanted to do this for him, to make him feel good. But she hadn’t anticipated how much it would fuel her own passion. She loved the way his big cock filled her mouth.

  She pushed one finger into her pussy, but it wasn’t nearly enough.

  He groaned. “Helena. Fuck. Are you touching yourself?”

  Her mouth was full of him, but she nodded.

  “Oh hell,” he said, crying out. “I need to see that.”

  She pulled back a little. “Cum in my mouth,” she said. Her cheeks heated up, but during one of her many conversations with Jackson’s clan members while he was in the field hospital, one of his female friends had told Helena that male shifters had a better refractory period than human men. It wasn’t information Helena had asked for, but it could be useful.

  Even if it wasn’t accurate, she wanted this from him.

  He framed her cheeks with his hands. “You’re sure?”

  She nodded and got back to work sucking his cock. He began to thrust carefully into her mouth. The friction felt good against her lips and she relaxed, letting him set the pace. He pulled out and slid back in. She watched the pleasure cross his features.

  “I’m close,” he said as his eyes closed.

  He began to pulse in her mouth, flooding her senses with his masculine taste. She swallowed, satisfied that she had pulled it off.

  As soon as he was spent, he pulled away from her and crouched in front of her. “Thank you,” he said, brushing her wet hair back from her forehead. “That was amazing.”

  “It was my first time.”