by Aaron Crash
Mouse lifted her hand. “Take the ring off. Free me. And I’ll be yours. I swear it.”
“I don’t own people,” Steven said, shaking his head. He wasn’t liking this, not any of it. “What you’re talking about sounds like slavery.”
“Yeah, this is fifty kinds of fucked up.” Tessa spoke for the first time. “We have to free her, Aria. We have to.”
Steven gripped the simple gold band on Mouse’s left ring finger. He tried to simply remove it, but it wouldn’t budge.
Instinctively, he knew what to do. He reached out a hand. Tessa took it, and the touch of her skin on his fed him a bit more Animus.
Aria sighed. “This will call down the wrath of hell upon us. But I suppose if you two could break into an Aerie to rescue me, we might be able to defeat Mulk.” She walked around Steven and held him, pressing her face against his back. She cupped the muscles of his chest with her hands.
More Animus flowed into him.
He focused his mind on removing the ring. He slid it off in a flash of light. The gold ring promptly disintegrated into dust. Mouse burst into tears and threw herself into Steven’s arms. Tessa held them all, and they stood there for a minute, all four embracing.
A voice boomed through the room. “WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING, WHELP? I DON’T KNOW WHO YOU ARE, BUT I WILL COME FOR YOU. AND YOU WILL KNOW PAIN BEFORE I TEAR YOUR HEART FROM YOUR CHEST.” A great presence, Rhaegen Mulk, without a doubt, filled the room for a moment, and then both the voice and the entity were gone.
“Bring it,” Steven whispered. “I’m not afraid of you.”
Unexpectedly, Aria burst into laughter. “He still doesn’t know who you truly are, Steven! That might give us the edge we need.”
“Please,” Mouse said. “I want to leave this fucking penthouse. I’m so sick of looking at these walls. The wine was good, but freedom tastes so much better.”
“Amen to that,” Tessa agreed. She went over and collected her purse and then found the two Colt Peacekeepers and shoved both into her purse, already near to bursting from holding the Drokharis Grimoire.
Steven quirked an eyebrow at her.
“Yeah, Steven,” Tessa said. “I have spells, but I also want guns. This is just the beginning.”
It was.
They left the penthouse, all four of them together.
Bud hadn’t moved. His eyes widened when he saw Steven with the three beautiful women around him in a semicircle. “Not bad, Cool Whipp. Not bad at all.” The guy then paled. “Sorry, I know you hate it when I call you that.”
Aria went over to him and touched his face. Animus flashed from her eyes. Bud’s own eyes muddied. And then he looked up at them. “Uh, what the fuck happened?”
Tessa knew exactly what to say. “Quite a party, wasn’t it, Bud? You hit that Jägermeister hard. But you shouldn’t have mouthed off to those three huge guys.”
Still a bit confused, Bud grinned. “Yeah, you might not know it, but I can be kind of an asshole sometimes. You know it’s a party when you can’t remember a thing.”
Steven nodded. And just like that, Bud wouldn’t remember seeing a dragon or the battle he’d witnessed with all the strangeness. The Dragonsoul secret was safe once again.
Mouse left Steven’s side and stood over Bud. She made a sign over him with her fingers and whispered, “Magica Cura.”
The worst of Bud’s wounds healed, and he was strong enough to stand. Tessa helped him limp to the elevators.
Mouse visited Steven next, tracing his various wounds with one extended finger. “Magica Cura,” she whispered, finger still gliding along his skin, sending chills racing along his arms and legs as her almond scent filled his nose. He watched as the magic bullets fell from his wounds and clattered on the floor. The shallow cuts disappeared next, and the deeper gashes scabbed over at once. Neat trick.
Already, his new vassal was earning her keep. She’d saved him an awkward trip to the ER.
In the lobby, the security guards were still frozen.
“Is this your work?” Steven asked Mouse.
She shook her head. “Mulk. He had special Mind Wipe spells ready to take care of the humans in the building. They went off automatically once the supernatural shit started. Don’t worry, no one in a mile radius will remember a thing. They’ll snap out of it in an hour or two.”
Outside, emergency vehicles clustered around the remains of Edgar Vale. It felt satisfying, watching them try and get the shattered-bone sack—still reeking of rotting meat—into a body bag.
He’d like to think it was a case of one down, one to go, but Steven knew the truth. Even if he somehow managed to take down Rhaegen Mulk, there would always be another Dragonsoul coming for him, to take away his Escort, his Hoard, and his Aeries.
Aria had warned him. To be a Dragonsoul was to court constant battle.
He grinned anyway. That first kiss had still been worth it.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
STEVEN WOKE TO THE smell of something wonderful cooking in the kitchen of the Lookout Mountain Aerie.
He was in the bed of the master suite in his new home. He’d called his various employers the night before and left messages for all his jobs, telling them he was quitting, and apologizing for not giving them two weeks. Bottom line, he couldn’t dick around with human life anymore. He had to prepare for Mulk’s inevitable counterattack. The Dragonsoul Prime was back in Denver. He’d come for a wedding, but instead, he’d be holding a funeral for Edgar Vale. Worse, Mulk he had lost one of his wives to the very guy he had sent the Dragonskin to kill.
Steven smiled, recalling all the sex from the night before. Tessa and Aria had upped their game, and though they’d all been exhausted, the sex gave them Animus and that helped them heal.
Tessa cuddled up closer to him. She liked to sleep right next to him, and he loved the feel of her touch. He was sore, every inch of him, but he felt himself get hard. Yeah, but there was also his belly to consider. He was hungry in every way.
Seriously, what smelled so good! Aria had to be the one doing the cooking, since she wasn’t in bed with them.
Mouse had spent the night in another bedroom, sleeping alone. She had been so excited, so relieved, to be in a new place with people she didn’t loathe. Yet she also found the wine cellar, fully stocked, and that also made her happy. Girlfriend had a drinking problem.
He couldn’t blame her. Being married to someone you both loved and hated would drive anyone to drink. He swore he wouldn’t pressure her to join his Escort, but he had the feeling that the strange power he had over people would draw her to him. And she was so pretty.
Steven eased himself out of the bed so he wouldn’t wake Tessa. He stood next to the fireplace, which was sparking and snapping like a real fire. But it was better than a real fire because he didn’t have to keep adding logs. He sauntered over to the enormous wall of windows and gazed down at the highway below, edged by a forest of snow-kissed pines. The clouds had finally unloaded the white powder onto the Colorado mountains. It was gorgeous, silent, and peaceful. Snow continued to flutter down.
The hideaway felt so cozy and warm compared to the storm outside.
He’d found soft pajama bottoms the night before. Partially dressed, he padded out of the master suite and into the great room. Like he thought, Aria was in the kitchen, busy cooking breakfast. Full King Soopers bags covered every inch of space. Aria herself was in jeans and an All India Football Federation 2018 T-shirt. No bra. Which was a plus.
When she saw him, she smiled. “I went out early to get groceries. Believe it or not, my American Express card still works. My father though ...” She sighed, lips pressing into a thin line of worry. “He’ll cut me off. He has to in order to save face.”
“We’ll get money,” Steven said, thinking of the opulent Colorado Springs Aerie. He went through cupboards until he found a coffee cup. Then he went to the coffee maker and poured himself a drink. He sipped it. A bitter, terrible taste filled his mouth. He didn’t want t
o be rude, so he swallowed the muck. He so wanted to spit it into the sink.
“Yes, I know, terrible,” Aria said. “The barista needed to sleep. Here, try this.” She moved from a deep-fat fryer to the stove, where a pot burbled. She grabbed another cup and filled it with steaming liquid from the pot. She gave the cup to him, hugged him briefly, and went back to the fryer.
Steven took another sip, dreading the taste, but then the chai tea mixture filled his mouth. “Oh, that is so good!”
“The British and their empire aside, we Indians know how to make a cup of tea,” she said with a smile.
He drifted over to watch her work. Using tongs, she eased a big ball of fried dough out of the fryer. It was puffy, the size of a softball. On the big marble island were a number of small bowls filled with dipping sauces.
“And now, you will sample a traditional Tamil Nadu breakfast. That’s called poori.” She took a tray of the fried spheres and offered him one. He took it, still warm, and dipped part of the ball into a green sauce. When the taste hit his tongue, his eyes lit up. “Damn, Aria, that’s so good!”
Tessa came out in the soft pajama top that matched Steven’s bottoms. She had sleep-filled eyes, sleep-mussed hair, and the Slayer Blade in her fist. “What is it? Are we under attack?”
“No, we’re fine. Just a little heaven on earth this Monday morning.” Steven crossed the room and gave her his mug.
Tessa sipped it and closed her eyes. “Oh, now that’s good stuff. I can see why you woke me up.”
“The chai is good, but dude, try the poori,” Steven said.
“Food!” Tessa dropped the Slayer Blade on a couch and hotfooted it over to snatch a doughy ball off the plate. She dipped it in a bright red sauce, and then she just had to kiss Aria. “Girlfriend, you can cook too? Is there anything you can’t do?”
“I couldn’t save myself,” Aria said, turning serious. “Thank you, Tessa.”
Mouse shuffled, half-asleep, out of a side bedroom. She had a bathrobe on, kind of. It had slipped halfway off her body. Her eyes were still closed, and her blonde hair stood up straight on one side of her head. Wordless, she took Steven’s coffee cup, threw the contents in the sink, and then poured herself a cup of joe.
“Uh, careful,” Steven warned.
“No. Talking. Before. Coffee.” Mouse sipped the coffee, grimaced, and then, from the pocket of her robe, tipped a little booze from a silver flask into the cup. Another sip. A sigh. “Much better.” Girlfriend had a definite drinking problem. They’d take care of that, but first things first.
“Breakfast!” Tessa yelled happily.
Mouse winced, clearly hungover.
They all helped Aria carry dishes to a long glass table facing the snowy mountainside descending to the streets of Golden.
Before they started, Steven raised his cup of chai tea, heavy on the heavy cream. “I’d like to thank you all, for helping me. We have a war coming up. But with you three on my team, well, I know nothing can stop us.”
Every sauce was an explosion of flavor. Combined with the poori, it was the most exotic and yet the best breakfast Steven had ever eaten. He thought of where he’d come from, the Coffee Clutch, that normal day which had turned into the most abnormal of nights. The first of many to come.
After breakfast, Mouse disappeared into her room to sleep more, while Tessa and Aria snuggled into him on the couch. They watched the snow fall together in a tangle of warm bodies.
“Do you think we can really stand up against Mulk?” Aria asked. “Most of his vassals were with him in Cheyenne. We only fought his humans and some mentally ill Skinling.”
“And that Warling,” Steven said. “Kai Charon. The guy in the purple suit.”
“Yes,” Aria agreed. “As we saw in the tableaus, Mulk has Morphlings, Magicians, and other Warlings serving him. We are hopelessly outnumbered.”
“There’s also the yellow Dragonsoul that captured you,” Tessa pointed out.
Aria nodded. A strange expression settled on her face. “Liam Strider. He’s not exactly a vassal of Mulk’s. He was a Ronin, but the oddest Ronin Dragonsoul I’ve ever met. He said he is fleeing Denver because few Dragonsouls will survive the coming war. Yet I feel like we’ll see him again.”
“Which side will he be on?” Steven asked. He wondered if he could ever forgive the yellow dragon for stealing away Aria.
“Now that is a good question,” Aria replied thoughtfully.
“Do you think he helped Mulk kill Steven’s father?” Tessa asked.
Aria shook her head but furrowed her brow. “I don’t believe so. Yet what happened to the Drokharis clan wasn’t normal. We saw five full Dragonsoul males attacking him. They might’ve been part of Mulk’s Primacy, but I can’t see how. And normally, one Dragonsoul male will kill another and take his Prime. This all-out massacre is forbidden. I’m wondering what kind of deals Mulk made with the Primacies around him that they would turn a blind eye to the slaughter.”
All this talk made Steven rage. “I don’t know, but I’ll get the truth out of Mulk. We still don’t know everything about my father and what happened. Mulk’s motive is the key. Why did he kill my parents and every single one of their vassals? If we know the answer to that, we’ll know the answer to everything.”
They went quiet. Steven slowly let go of his anger and banished any trace of worry from his mind. Everything would be fine, he told himself. His mom was safe, he had the Colorado Springs Hoard to finance them, and they’d done the impossible the night before. They’d broken into a penthouse Aerie, against all odds, and rescued one of their own.
Idly, he wondered if Aria would want to marry him, or if Tessa would, and he wondered about Mouse in the other room. How damaged was she?
He had no answers to his questions.
“Yeah,” Tessa said finally. “We are outnumbered. Lucky for us, we have Bud.”
They’d dropped the guy off at his apartment, leaving him thinking he’d had a wild Sunday night downtown.
All of them laughed, but Aria, true to her serious nature, pointed out something Steven hadn’t considered. “Most Dragonsouls do have humans working for them—ambassadors to the normal world. Bud might be good to have. You never know.”
“I’m human,” Tessa insisted. “We already have one of those.”
Aria snuggled into the barista. “You are, and yet you aren’t. The power you wield is enormous. You’re undoubtedly special.”
Tessa closed her eyes. “Special, finally.”
Steve let the peaceful morning flow into him. Yes. Special, finally.
But his uniqueness had come with a price. His birth parents had been murdered, along with all their vassals, Escort, and friends.
As the last scion of the Drokharis Dynasty, he had a responsibility to avenge them and to continue his father’s work. What that was, he wasn’t sure, but he was certain that like Tessa, the mysteries of their lives would come clear in time.
The battle for the Great Plains Primacy was only just beginning.
And Steven Drokharis swore he would win it so he could keep his Escort safe.
Cheyenne Magic
Summary
GATHER AN ESCORT. ACQUIRE a dragon hoard. Build an empire ...
Steven Drokharis knew that embracing his destiny as one of the most powerful Dragonsouls to ever live would be difficult, but he had no idea that he’d be pushed to his very limits.
Ten days after rescuing Aria and ending the life of an insane Dragonskin, Steven and his escort find themselves going toe-to-toe with Rhaegen Mulk—the deadly Dragonsoul responsible for the death of Steven’s parents. And Rhaegen Mulk doesn’t fight fair. He will pull out all the stops to end Steven before he can grow his escort and establish a primacy of his own. If Steven is going to win, he’ll need to level up his skills as a Dragonsoul, discover the next volume of forbidden Drokharis magic, and make friends with an ancient, half-mad Dragonsoul, who may be even more dangerous than Mulk.
Now it’s time to hit back. H
ard. Mulk and his lackeys are about to learn an important lesson: Steven doesn’t fight fair either ...
Chapter One
RHAEGEN MULK LIKED coffee and sex before battle.
He stood outside of the Perk coffee shop in downtown Colorado Springs with a silver cup of coffee in his hand and evil thoughts brewing in his head. It was a warm spring day without a cloud in the azure sky. The Rocky Mountains were splendid to the west; Pike’s Peak led the charge, poking up like an accusatory finger aimed squarely at God above. Not that Rhaegen Mulk believed in any god other than himself.
Mulk sipped slowly from the silver cup taken from an antique Qing Dynasty tea set. Priceless. It was his favorite cup, and throughout his long life, he’d never lost or damaged it. It was with him always.
He glanced up at the Antlers Hotel, eyes squinted, brow furrowed. He was blocks away from the secret Aerie, but he could still see it on top of the skyscraper. He wasn’t sure who had owned it previously, but he knew it was the home of a new Dragonsoul—some punk kid who had power, off-the-charts power. Enough power that Mulk had no choice but to put him down. It was kill or be killed. Though in truth, Mulk didn’t so much mind the killing.
Mulk had sent his top hit man, Edgar Vale, after the kid, but Vale was gone. The Denver Fire Department had to scrape him off the pavement in front of the Wells Fargo building. Luckily, Mulk’s Magician, Gideon Scaramanga, had cast magic to keep such battles hidden from the humans.
Humans. Such worthless things. His mercenaries had failed to bring down this Steven Whipp, but now the gloves were off. Mulk had underestimated Whipp’s powers. He wouldn’t make the same mistake twice. He took another long sip from the cup, savoring the bold flavor of the coffee.
His Escort, Judith, approached him on the street, hips swaying seductively as she walked. She had striking silver hair, which made men glance at her twice. Even though she was a hundred years old, she seemed ageless, tall and strong. She was nearly as tall he was, well over six feet. The crow’s feet around her eyes only added to her beauty—matured like good wine. She’d been the first one to believe in him. At the time, Mulk had been fifty and looking for a Prime of his own.