by Bonnie Vanak
Then I remembered his pack’s reaction. “I don’t have any friends who understand me.”
“I’m sure you do,” he said softly.
“I have work. Good day.”
Instead of leaving, he picked up my hand and stroked a thumb over the edge of my glove. I couldn’t help a shudder of anticipation. He had stroked every spot on my body that way.
Satisfaction gleamed on his face, the same kind he’d shown after I lay gasping from all the orgasms he’d given me.
Yanking away my hand, I smiled tightly.
“Good day.”
Instead of leaving, he reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a single red rose. “For the lady,” he said softly. “You should always have fresh flowers. You deserve it.”
For a moment I thought my tightened throat would give way to the emotion swirling inside me. Maybe I did deserve better.
Instead, I took the rose, and did not meet his gaze. “Thank you.”
As he walked off, I saw Grayson’s gaze meet mine.
He licked his lips.
The space between my legs grew wet and I squirmed. Arousal bit, sharp and aching. If I let my sexual need take charge, I’d be grabbing the alpha and running to the storage closet with him to have his cock slide into me in record time. Just the thought of that long, thick hardness ramming into my body as I wrapped my legs around his hips nearly made me moan.
I returned to the computer screen.
An hour later, I glanced at the clock. Break time. But instead of going to the company cafeteria for a snack and smoothie, I stayed put. Not a good idea to run into Grayson again.
Or else I might take a sex break instead of a juice one. Why did I have absolutely no control around that wolf?
No shifter had ever done that to me before.
No shifter had ever seen deep inside me, either, and took the time to find out what pleased me, instead of pleasing only himself.
Nicolas and Stephan had been the same. Each of the wolves were different, and had different styles in bed, but despite their personalities, they all showed gentle, sweet consideration for me.
They were fierce, dominating lovers in bed.
Tender and gentle out of it.
What woman would ever want to walk away from such bliss? Men who listened and offered you the world?
I did. I couldn’t afford the world. I’d already ruined my own corner of it.
Chapter 25
When break time was over, I decided to seek help.
If I were to finish these reports and save my job, leaving on my own time, I needed a recruit.
Kara wasn’t at her desk.
I rolled back my chair and peeked around the corner. Lavender, in the cube next to hers, doodled in a notebook. Time for Lavender to earn her paycheck.
I walked over.
“Hi Lavender.”
She didn’t respond. Lavender Speigel was weird. Others speculated she was one of the many nepotism hires. Lavender rode a bicycle to work, carried her own lunch and was a vegan. That wasn’t the odd stuff, except she rode her bike in winter, so the office gossips said.
She hadn’t made any friends at work the month she’d been at the company and management seemed to ignore her, just let her do whatever work she decided to take on at that particular moment.
I saw her paycheck in passing. Lavender had left the echeck stub out on her desk for anyone to read in passing. It was enough to make my head spin. She had to be related to one of the executives. No one makes $125,000 for doodling.
Once I’d speculated she was Fae, but I knew my people. Lavender was merely eccentric.
“Hi Lavender,” I said, louder this time. “I need some help with inputting the data for these reports Randall wants by tomorrow.”
She lifted her head. Lavender had a heart-shaped face, wispy blonde hair and a slender, boyish body. “So?”
“I thought you could help me.”
“No.”
Lavender resumed her doodling. Annoyed now, I went further into her cube, ready to rip the paper from the pad and march it toward the shredder.
Something made me stop. I took a close look at her drawing.
No mere doodles, such as animals or mountains or people. These looked more like symbols. Weird symbols…
Now unease crawled down my spine. They looked like symbols that hallmarked magick, some kind of mysterious power.
“Do you like my drawings, Sienna?” For the first time I noticed how dark her eyes were, almost black. I’d never paid her much attention before.
Maybe I should have, just as Kara warned.
A buzzing sounded at my desk. My cell phone vibrating. Without saying anything else, I hurried away, glad for the excuse to leave her. That chick seriously spooked me and I couldn’t put my finger on it.
Caller ID displayed Grayson’s number again.
I picked it up. “You again?”
“Sienna, get out of there now.”
“Why? What’s going on?”
“No time for questions. Leave. Don’t go back. Don’t stop to answer questions, just take your bag and go.”
Worry sharpened his tone, but his voice was deep and commanding, the tones of an alpha wolf expecting obedience.
The practical part of me that sensed danger knew he didn’t issue orders for a lark.
I fished in the drawer for my purse, slung it over one shoulder, still talking as I headed out of my cube. “Tell me what’s happening.”
As I started to pass Lavender’s cube, I ground to a halt.
Lavender had vanished. But the pretty violet orchid that adorned her desk had grown.
Immensely.
Vines snaked over the desk, draped over the monitor. The flowers had changed as well, each one resembling a tiny face.
I didn’t need Grayson to tell me this was dark magick manifesting itself.
“Sienna? Sienna!”
“Gotta go. Something’s happening.” I hung up.
Everything fell together like the pieces of mosaic forming a recognizable pattern. The odd smells emitting from her cube. The way she never socialized with others and no one gave her stacks of work like they did with myself and others. As if she cast management under a spell…
Lavender wasn’t Fae.
Lavender was a witch.
As I increased my pace, snaking around the cube farm to head for the hallway, panic clogged my throat. Lavender could be anywhere. I burst into the hallway, saw the comforting steel doors of the elevator. As I punched the down button, something snaked around my right ankle.
Mouth dry, I looked down in horror. Lavender’s orchid sent out a vine, slowly entwining itself around my foot. Trapping me.
It took more than a damn orchid to keep me at bay. I gave my foot a hard yank, and the vine broke. But two more slithered out into the hallway, and this elevator was slow.
The red EXIT sign offered a much better alternative. When I reached the door, I glanced over my shoulder.
Several vines slithered over the elevator doors.
Much as I detested my boss, I hoped he was upstairs in his office. I don’t imagine Randall would enjoy tangling with evil, enchanted plants.
Unless he could order them to get reports finished by noon.
Thankful I was in good shape, I took the stairs several at a time, jumping down a few, grateful for flats. This was the reason I never wore heels. Because for the past three years, my life was all about running from something.
Not running to something.
Somehow, I managed to leash my powers. Inside, I felt them clamoring for release, like a caged tiger roaring for freedom. But manifesting my magick would only feed the dark energy.
And I could accidentally hurt someone innocent, like Kara. Where was she? Worry bit me as I slammed onto the first floor landing, and bolted into the hallway. I could have gone outside, where the stairs led to the street below, but how could I leave Kara to face those things?
She was a powerless human.
&n
bsp; Slouch bag banging against my hip, I hurried down the hallway, fumbling with my cell to call Kara. No answer. She must not have taken her phone with her.
Or, maybe that thing upstairs… don’t think like that. Evil fed off negativity. It empowered them.
Only one way to find her without magick. I hurried into an empty office (had everyone called in sick this morning?) and picked up the desk phone, dialing pound zero.
The whine of the intercom came over the public address system.
“Kara Baylor, report to the cafeteria IMMEDIATELY.”
I hung up and headed there, hoping my friend heard the announcement. And that Lavender had suddenly gone deaf.
Williams Marketing had few perks, but one was a cafeteria that accommodated almost all the employees, with vending machines, long gray tables with comfortable chairs, microwaves, refrigerators and even free snacks served on afternoon break. Right now it was empty.
No sign of Kara, or those treacherous vines. But a gray mist seeped beneath the door on the room’s other end.
The very same mist Kallan had used at Crossroads to attack me.
He was back, and had found me once more.
No weapons. No human ones. I ran to the row of cabinets beneath the sinks and opened them, pawing through for a knife, anything.
All I could find were those little sporks, which are useless to eat with, let alone fight a dark Fionn Fae.
Gray mist lazily drifted in my direction. I had a choice, run and abandon Kara to dark forces, or use my powers and risk it…
A lump constricted my throat. I thought I’d have more time. More time to lead a somewhat normal life, more time to enjoy life instead of constantly running.
Leaving Kara here to confront evil was not an option. I headed for the vending machines, set down my bag and drew a deep breath. Broken glass hurt, and I planned to break plenty of it. Already I envisioned spears of it sailing directly at my enemy…
I raised my arms, ready to call forth the power burning inside me.
The cafeteria door opened and Kara burst through. “Sienna! Get out of here!”
My psyche was prepared to fight. “Get back.”
“Get out!” She tugged at my arm.
“The vending machines…” Startled, I lowered my arms.
“Are you going to fight her with Doritos? Bad idea.” Kara pulled me out of the cafeteria and we ran down the hallway.
We turned right and then left. Halfway down the second hallway, she yanked open the door to a storage closet and herded me inside. “Safest place for now.”
“What are you?” I demanded as she slammed the door shut.
Kara blinked again, her pupils turning to slits. No optical illusion this time. “Guess.”
“Aw shit. You’re a fucking dragon?”
“Better than that Fae out there.” Kara pulled me away from the doorway.
Trapped, nowhere to go. Mist drifted beneath the door, fogging the air, turning it icy cold, freezing everything in its path.
My teeth chattered. Freezing to death in the company supply closet was not the way I’d anticipated dying. I could have called upon my powers to fight Kallan’s magick, but in this vulnerable position, he might leech magick from me.
“Stay back,” Kara warned.
She stretched out her hands and fire leapt from her manicured fingertips. Fire that burned away the ice, turning it into warm water and moist air. Bottom shelves filled with supplies got soaked.
“I hope you don’t need any binders or file folders,” she said with typical wry humor.
Sloshing through the water, Kara kept going until she reached the door. She splayed her palm against it. “I’ve been watching Lavender since I started working here and underestimated her powers. Damn. That’s so unlike me. I thought we’d have more time.”
Happy to see her, disturbed that she had hidden her magick from me, I packed the expansive closet. “How did you get here and why are you here?”
“I’m a mercenary dragon, hired to protect you.” She fished her phone out of her skirt pocket, glanced at the screen.
“Hired by… Answers, damnit. Who hired you?”
“Grayson.”
Shock slammed into me, and yet, somehow I had already known the answer.
I sagged to the floor, leaning against the rows of metal shelving.
“He didn’t want you unprotected.” Kara glanced at me. “He’s paying a hefty fee for me to be here, too. Twenty thousand dollars. In gold.”
I didn’t know whether to feel secretly pleased or pissed as hell that he’d assigned a bodyguard.
Forget Grayson. We had a much bigger problem in the building.
“Where’s Lavender?” I asked.
“She left, probably to join her master, Kallan. He must have planted her here to watch you, just as Grayson hired me to do the same.”
A little knowledge would have been great foresight. “Now you’re telling me this?”
“Only just found out. I’ve had my doubts about her, but today when I saw those runes, I had evidence. Grayson gave me strict orders to merely keep an eye on you as protection, and to blend in, not use any magick. Until it was necessary.”
I flicked a hand at the door. “I’d say that mist makes it necessary. It’s the same mist that attacked me at my second job. Makes it hard for a girl to earn a living.”
Kara’s mouth quirked upward. “I like you, Sienna. You’re funny. Grayson said you had a good sense of humor. So you’re his lover?”
I shrugged.
“He’s cute. Not my type, though.” She pressed her ear against the door. “Seems to be gone.”
“What is your type, anyway? You never talk about your dates.”
Red suffused her cheeks. “I don’t know. I’ve never slept with a guy before.”
Hard to tell which was more shocking, the fact that Kara was a virgin or that she was a dragon shapeshifter.
“Haven’t found the right one yet?”
Her turn to shrug. “Sex can complicate matters. I’m trying to save money to buy my own place and get away from my people. Dragons can be demanding. Especially male dragons.”
Not as much as werewolf alphas, who proved mighty protective.
“Where is everyone today? Randall noticed something funky with Lavender. Shouldn’t others have noticed?” I asked.
“The humans are clueless, thank the goddess. Every last one, even Randall, has left for a meeting in another part of town. Building is empty. Lavender must have cast a spell on them to wipe out memory as well. No one in HR can remember hiring her, let alone giving her a boss to report to.”
Kara checked her phone again. “When I caught that stench, I knew something was going down soon, so I came downstairs to make safe areas. Used my powers so you don’t have to use yours.”
She knew what I was. But not how much power I held. Few did, and those who did were already dead.
I recalled the odd symbols she drew. “What were those doodles?”
“Witch runes.”
The ache in my stomach turned to bitter nausea. I fought it. Not a good time to be sick. I’d been sick enough over what I’d done to my people.
“I’d have been better off alone, instead of him dragging you into this,” I muttered.
Her expression softened. “Have a little empathy for the guy, Sienna. He cares.”
“Cares or stalks?”
She shrugged. “He’s a wolf. They’re pretty possessive when they know what woman they want.”
Right.
“And how did he find you? Google search?”
“I have a website.” She showed me on her phone.
Modern times, even for dragons.
“Why are you checking your phone? Waiting for Grayson to call and give you orders where to take me?”
“Maybe.” Kara peered out of the hall closet. “It’s clear. Go. We’re going to have to run through hallways to reach the lobby and the exit. Grayson has a bike outside.”
Soon as I
stepped out of the closet, a screeching filled the air. Wincing, I fought the urge to counter it with magick and followed Kara to the main stairway that led from the lobby to the second floor executive suites.
We reached the stairs when something cold and sharp touched the back of my neck. A warning of powerful, dark magick.
“Oh dear goddess, look out,” Kara warned.
Something out of a nightmare slithered down the hallway, down the carpeting toward me. A vine. At the edge was a pod the size of a softball, like a flower about to open. It looked like Lavender’s purple orchid.
The pod burst and revealed a red mouth filled with tiny, sharp teeth. A long, purple tongue slid out of that mouth, testing the air, like a snake sensing its surroundings.
Snapping at the air, the mouth advanced. It slid up a closed door, licked over the lock and the mouth enclosed the doorknob. A sickening crunch ensued. When the mouth drew back, the doorknob was gone.
“What the hell kind of fertilizer has Lavender been using?” I muttered.
Kara tugged at my arm. “Let’s go.”
“We can’t let that thing roam around here. It could hurt one of the humans.”
“They aren’t here. Find a fire extinguisher.”
Maybe that thing was a mutant, but it was still a plant and vulnerable.
Spotting a fire extinguisher, I ran to it and tugged off the tag. As that mouth/orchid thing slithered toward me, jaws chomping merrily, Kara stretched out her hands. Fire streamed from her fingers, torching the vine. It gasped and shriveled.
When I was certain the vine died, I sprayed it and put out the fire. “Look, it’s a polar vortex.” I sprayed.
More vines slithered down the hallway. One fire extinguisher wouldn’t solve this.
“This is my fault they came here. I have to solve this.” Holding out my hands, I prepared to send Lavender’s plant to greenhouse hell.
Fog rolled into the hallway and then vanished, revealing Lavender and a silver-robed man with straight brown hair growing past thin shoulders.
Kallan. Once my mentor and friend.
His features were sharp and his eyes glowed green. Sallow skinned, he had hollow cheeks and looked thin. Almost opaque. He held up a skeletal hand and I could see a fine network of veins and arteries beneath it, the blood pulsing through it.