by Katya Moore
Finally, finally, I felt the head of his cock tracing my folds. Finally, finally, I felt him press against me.
"You want this?" he asked me, voice rough with restrained desire.
"All of you," I murmured throatily.
The corner of his mouth turned up at that, then the intensity returned as he pressed into me. My head fell back against the cushions, a long, low moan bursting from my throat and continuing as he slowly filled me up. When he had buried himself to the hilt, his lips met mine. This kiss was slower, tantalizing, luscious, made sweeter as he slowly drew back, then filled me again. I wanted to buck against him, to drive him into me and take my orgasm from him at last, but this long, slow burn was magical. I pressed my knees into his hips and held him tight as he eased himself in and out of me, trembling with effort. After a glorious eternity, he could bear it no longer. The thrusts came faster, more powerful, driving me into the cushions and tearing high-pitched cries of ecstasy from my throat. The surge filled me, driving me closer, closer, all over again.
"I need to come," I cried out. "Please, let me come."
Chase kissed me deeply. "Come for me, Sia."
I threw my head back and screamed as the orgasm took me. Chase roared with exultation, then thrust into me once, twice, then buried himself deep inside me and took his own pleasure.
We slumped onto the sofa as one, Chase still inside me. He buried his face in my shoulder, panting and gasping for air. I kissed his shoulder and nuzzled him.
"I love you. Goddamn, I love you," he panted, face still buried.
I beamed at the ceiling. "I love you too."
Then, I felt the trickle of tears on my arm.
"Chase?" I asked, alarmed.
"I'm... sorry." He started to sit up, started to scrub at his face with the back of his hand. "I... it's just..."
My hands were still bound. I couldn't hug him. Not with my arms, at least. I wrapped my legs around him and pulled him closer. "Shh. No. It's okay." I struggled with the belt and managed to loosen it enough to wriggle free. I wrapped my arms around him. "Don't you dare apologize. Just let it out."
And he did. We held each other, still entwined, and all of the poison and pain came pouring out of Chase in wracking sobs. I stroked his hair and nuzzled his cheek. He clutched onto me like I was the only thing holding him to the earth. I had a strange feeling that I was.
"I thought I was losing everyone I loved. First, Lina. My baby sister. The only person who ever gave a damn about me when I was young." His voice caught. "And I took it all out on you. And I thought I was going to lose you too. And I can’t lose you. You’re too… I…I need you, Sia. I need you."
"I’m not going anywhere," I whispered into his hair, kissing the top of his head as he buried his face in my chest. "I’m here. I’m yours. Forever."
I held him like that, stroking his hair, resting my forehead on his head, projecting as much calm and love and peace as I could. My heart ached for my strong protector, laid low by grief and fear. Slowly, his sobs subsided, and he cleared his throat self-consciously.
"I... I'm sorry. I've never done that before," he muttered, not looking me in the eye.
I stroked his hair. "Cried after sex?" I asked gently.
He met my gaze reluctantly. "Cried."
I tried and failed to hide my shock.
Chase shrugged at my slack jaw. "Not since I was very small. Emotions weren't a big thing for my family." He glanced at the door. "Until I met Galen at the Proving Grounds, I was pretty stoic." He gave a short laugh. "He was a good bad influence. Tried to save me from myself. Saw through the toxic masculinity bullshit and got me to admit that feelings weren't the end of the world."
I shook my head to clear it. "I...never would have guessed that. You've always been so open to my feelings, so careful about not hurting me..."
He snorted softly. "Other people's emotions are one thing. My own..." He shrugged again. "That's why I've been such a dick. I really don't know how to process these things. Obviously."
I opened my mouth to reassure him, just as the door swung open.
"Chase, we've got a possible oh wow I'm sorry," Galen said in one breath as he took in the scene before him, eyes wide with surprise. He turned around in the doorway, facing out into the hall, rubbing the back of his neck. "I'd come back later, but this is important. We've got a possible lead to check out. You may want pants."
Chapter Fourteen
Galen
I leaned against the doorframe, arms crossed, waiting semi-patiently as Chase and Sia rustled around behind me.
"What do you know?" Chase asked roughly. "I don't need clothes to listen."
He had a point. "A call came across the system about an hour ago. Police found a man in pretty bad shape lying face-down by the Copps Hill Burying Grounds, incoherent and delirious. They took him to Boston Metropolitan Hospital. Thankfully, Jared was working the ER. Victim’s a dragon. A fire dragon. And he looks like he went through the same wringer Aric did."
Chase gripped my shoulder roughly. "So what the hell are we still doing here? Let's go!"
I glanced back at him. "One, pants. Please. Two, there's no way in hell I'm going to let you interrogate a half-conscious torture victim."
Chase's grip tightened as a feral growl slipped from his throat. I reached to grab his hand, but Sia beat me to it.
"Chase, Galen has a point," she said softly. I glanced back at her. I couldn't help myself. She was beautiful, with her long black hair draped over her breasts, clad only in a tiny pair of black bikini briefs. I felt myself stirring at the vision before me, so I turned my head to face forward once more.
The growl intensified. "We need to..."
"And we will. Galen and I will go talk to him. We'll find out where Lina is. I promise." She curled her fingers around Chase's hand and pried it off my shoulder with effort. "You need to step back from this one."
Chase yanked his hand away from Sia. She flinched. My dragon stirred in my chest. "I need to go with you. I need to find out what he knows. We need..."
"We will find out. And we'll call you the second we know. But..." Sia paused, chewing her lip the way she always did when she didn't want to say something.
"You're not yourself right now," I finished for her. "Dude, look at you. You're ready to clobber us both right now. Us. Your friends. Your queen, for Eldest’s sake. You're not going to be anything but a threat to this guy right now, and we can't let you do that."
"You can, and you will!" Chase shouted. "Goddamn it, Sia..."
I turned around and stepped in front of her, shielding her with my body. "Stand down, Chase," I snarled. "You're acting like an animal when we need you to be a leader. Remember yourself."
"Fuck. You." Chase shoved me roughly to the side and stormed out of the room, not even glancing at Sia. He paused at the foot of the stairs. "You really are turning into one of them, Sia. You'll be an Elder before you know it."
To her credit, Sia held it together until he was all the way upstairs. I turned and caught her as the first sobs shook her delicate frame.
"Goddamn it. GodDAMN it," she sobbed into my chest. I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her close. I could smell him on her, musky and primal. Fury made my dragon writhe in my chest, wrapping around my heart and constricting until the pain made me tear up.
I buried my face in her hair and kissed the top of her head. "Fuck him. Fuck him straight to hell," I muttered softly.
"No. I..." Sia started to protest, then sagged in my arms. "We're right. Aren't we? Why does it feel so wrong?"
"Chase would rip this poor bastard apart. Remember the cultist in Winchendon?" I cradled her to my chest. "You saw him. You heard him. He is not capable of the amount of calm we're going to need to get any information out of a traumatized torture victim. We are." I could feel her tears soaking through my shirt, and I wanted to rip Chase's scrotum off and feed it to him.
It seemed like every time I turned around, I was comforting this beautiful, amazing woma
n because one of the other guys fucked up. First Aric with his temper tantrum after the trial, now Chase turning into a fucking monster right after they… I didn't even want to think about it. He sure as hell didn't deserve to be her mate, not now. Any other time, I might have forgiven him, but right now, knowing he’d just taken her, I just wanted to end him.
Sia sniffled into my shirt and cleared her throat. "We should get going. Before Chase gets it into his head to beat us there."
I nodded and released my hold on her. "You have a good point. Let's take his car, just to be sure."
Sia slipped her dress on over her head. I turned to give her some privacy.
"I’m not, am I? Turning into one of them?" I could hear the doubt in her voice. The fear.
I spun on my heel and stepped forward, catching her in my arms. "No. No. Don’t let Chase’s bullshit get into your head." I pulled her close, but she resisted and I released her.
She paced the carpet. "But I am. I’m taking this investigation away from him. I’m pulling rank. I’m…"
I shook my head. "You’re making good, sensible, sane choices. He is not." I gave her a reassuring smile. "We need someone making the right choices right now. He needs you, even if he’s being an asshole about it." And I’m going to make sure he knows it.
Slowly, she nodded. "We need to go. Now." Her eyes had a grim determination to them.
I nodded slowly. "I’ve got his keys. Let’s go."
Chapter Fifteen
Sia
"He's in rough shape. Couldn't tell me his name, where he was from, anything. We've sedated him, but you know how draconic systems are." Jared walked ahead of us, a clipboard tucked under his arm. His limp was less pronounced, but I could see Galen watching his gait with a guilty eye. "I’m at max dosage of alprazolam and lorazepam hourly, and it’s barely touching him."
I felt like I was doing rounds in a TV medical drama, and was following what Jared was saying about as well as I followed the medical babble in those shows.
Galen nodded. He could follow it just fine.
I swallowed my pride. "What about draconic systems?" I asked.
Jared blinked, registering my presence again. "Oh, sorry. Dragons heal faster than humans, but they also process medications faster than humans. We're having trouble keeping him sedated without raising suspicions in the human medical staff. I've got Elder Chang in the loop. She's authorizing a back channel for us to send his medication requests through, but we've got some sharp nurses on tonight, and that's bad for us."
"Oh. Shit." The last thing we needed on top of the Chosen was a narcotics investigation. "Can we get him into private care?"
"Chang's got Veta on it. She's sending an ambulance from the Fafner Home." Jared led us around a corner and glanced back at me. "It's a hospice home for terminally ill dragons, but they have a medical staff that should be able to handle his injuries. We have to act fast to talk to him before they come, though. I put in the call twenty minutes ago, and they're only an hour out."
"Why not the Drake Center?" Galen asked, brow furrowed. "They’re the more traditional place to send wounded dragons."
Jared frowned. "Elder Council’s orders. They want him isolated from other patients, in case he starts screaming state secrets."
"Got it," Galen said. "Hopefully, we won't take too long."
"I'll do my best." Jared checked his clipboard and looked up at the room numbers. "I've worked with trauma victims for a few years now, but I've never been the one asking them to relive their horrors. I leave that to the police."
I smiled at him. "You've got this. You've got the shrink training, you'll be fine."
He smiled at that. "We've seen how well my training versus my practical applications can go."
I winced a little at that. He'd had a hard lesson when the boys pulled Aric out of the Chosen hideout. Aric had been mangled, poisoned, and near death, and without his carefully-controlled emergency room environment, Jared panicked and needed Galen to quite literally slap the sense back into him. Looking at him now, pale beneath his calm veneer, I could tell he still hadn't forgiven himself.
We stepped into the room. The curtain was drawn around the bed. I could hear ragged breathing from within. Jared raised a hand and glanced back at us. "Wait here," he whispered.
Galen and I nodded and sat in the stiff wooden chairs by the door. Jared pulled the curtain aside just enough to slip in.
"Mr. Cadmus? I'm Dr. McKee. I'm here to see how you're doing, and to ask you a few questions about how you came to be here."
The breathing sped up, rasping and painful-sounding. I heard him struggling in the bed.
"There's nothing to be afraid of, Mr. Cadmus. You're safe here."
"Not safe here. Not safe anywhere." His voice was a bare whisper, full of anguish. "She'll come for me here. She knows where I am. You can't protect me. No one can."
"We're relocating you to a different medical facility. A dragon facility. You'll be safe there." Jared's voice was calm, but emotionless. I squirmed in my seat.
Cadmus' voice went up a notch. "Relocated? What dragon facility? Where are you taking me?"
I closed my eyes tightly. This was not going to go well.
"We're sending you to the Fafner Home," Jared began, still with his icy calm.
"I'm not dying! Why would you send me there?" I could hear him writhing in his bed, horror overtaking him. "I don't want to go! Dragons go there to die! I don't want to die!"
Galen looked at me, brow furrowed. "This is not going well," he whispered.
I met his gaze. "We need to rescue him. He's not going to get anything now."
Galen nodded.
When we pulled back the curtain, we found an emaciated man curled up in the fetal position in the hospital bed. His skin was more bruise than flesh, and scored with long, jagged scratches and gouges. His feet were bandaged. I guessed that he'd been barefoot when he escaped. Jared watched him impassively, but I could feel the frustration pouring off him.
Galen looked at Jared. "Tag," he said softly.
Jared looked up at him gratefully. "Good luck," he whispered, and rose from his chair. He turned to address Mr. Cadmus. "These are my associates, Galen Alexander and Arysia Bellmont. They'd like to talk to you."
"You're here to take me away. Take me to die. Go away!" The man curled up tighter.
Galen went to one knee next to the bed, close to Cadmus' face. "No. We're not taking you anywhere. We just want to talk."
"I don't want to talk." Cadmus shut his eyes, as though we'd vanish if he didn't see us.
"That's okay. You don't have to talk. But I'm going to, if you don't mind." Galen's voice was conversational, warm and genial. "You've been through a lot. A hell of a lot. I wouldn't want to talk about that either." He cast a sidelong glance at me. "But you weren't the only one down there, were you?"
Cadmus covered his face with his hands and whimpered. "I couldn't save them."
My heart lodged itself in my throat. No. We can’t be too late. We just can’t.
Galen's face was grim, but he kept his tone gentle. "You couldn't save who?"
Cadmus sobbed. "There were five of us. At first." His voice cut off for a moment. "There was just me, after a week. Then they brought the girls. Kids." He choked on that. "Two teenagers. Then a third. They're still there. I couldn't... I couldn't get the cage open when I got free. So I ran. I left them there to die." He clawed at his face, writhing in despair and agony. "I deserve to die. I just left those little girls there."
Galen placed a gentle hand on his shoulder. "You can still save them. You can still help them."
"I can't do anything." The sobbing stopped, replaced by a deadly calm. "I can't help anyone now."
Galen stroked his arm. "Do you remember where you were? Where they took you?"
Cadmus stared at Galen silently for a long time. His eyes had a glazed look to them, lost to pain and misery. "Who's she?" he asked at last.
"Who's who?" Galen asked, then glanced at me
. "Oh, she's..."
I stepped forward. "I'm the Shadow Queen. And I need your help."
Cadmus slowly rolled to face me. He ran a self-conscious hand over his head, ruffling his matted brown hair. "You...you're alive?"
I smiled at him. "I am." I took a deep breath, choosing my words carefully. "And so are those girls. Anything you can remember, anything at all, could save their lives."
He closed his eyes. Tears trickled down. "It was a brownstone. I remember that. When I was fighting them, when I could fight them, I knocked the hood off myself for a moment."
I stepped forward and placed a hand on his ankle. I summoned all the calm I could find inside me and pushed, through my dragon, down my arm, down into his body. It had to work. It just had to.
I watched as the tension in his body dissolved. His shoulders relaxed against the mattress, his head sank into the pillow. The tears stopped, and his breathing slowed. I closed my eyes in relief.
"There was a name on the wall plaque. Surrounded by sigils." His breath caught in his throat at that. I gave him another pulse of calm. He swallowed and continued. "Ward...something." His jaw tensed. "Wardwell. In script that looked like moving shadows."
I looked at Galen. "We can work with that," I said in a low voice. Galen nodded.
"Do you remember anything else about the street? The house? Anything at all?" Galen tried to keep the excitement out of his voice. "Did you smell anything?"
Cadmus screwed his face up tight, then gave a short, humorless laugh. "Pasta."
I wasn't able to keep the confusion off my face.
He gave a weak smile at my expression. "Pasta sauce. Maybe pizza. Tomato sauce of some kind." His head lolled over to look at Galen. "I'm hungry."
Galen patted his shoulder and smiled at him. "Let's get some food into you. You've been a trooper, dude. Thank you so much."