But she could at least enjoy every second of her adventure with the man she’d always loved.
By the evening, they were back at the SRP, giving Taylor a quick update.
“This looks good. I’m glad everything went all right,” Taylor said, shuffling some papers in front of him. “From what you told me in the preliminary findings, I was worried you’d run into something. I hadn’t thought they would explode their own locations, though.”
They were in a fairly normal-looking conference room with leather chairs and a big table.
At the other end of the table, two men were discussing something heatedly. One of them she recognized, and one she didn’t.
The man with brown hair and calm purple eyes was Chad, the purple dragon who oversaw this region and had personally helped found the SRP and the fae exchange program. His mate was Isabella, a radiant fae like Kira. He looked comfortable as usual, with a cashmere sweater and his thick-rimmed glasses.
The man next to him couldn’t have been more different.
His dark, unkempt hair fell over his shoulders, and his piercing purple eyes had red glints like amethysts. The stubble on his sharp jaw emphasized his beauty, but the intensity in his eyes made Kira uneasy.
Right now, they seemed to be discussing memories.
As purple dragons, it was their job to do erasures.
“Tinkering with people’s memory isn’t like ordering takeout,” Chad said. “If you pick and choose what you take, it’ll only lead to confusion. A brain isn’t something to mess with.”
“I disagree,” the other man said with a snicker. “Brains are the most fun things to mess with.”
Chad put a hand to his head. “I can’t let you help with memory removal if you’re like this.”
“That’s fine,” the man said, tossing his hair back over his shoulder as he leaned back on his chair, kicking up his booted feet on the table. He was wearing a long dark leather jacket despite being inside. “I’m better at torture anyway.”
“We don’t torture people here, and…” Chad sighed, exasperated, as his eyes met Kira’s. “Sorry, this is Van, a purple dragon we’ve been thinking of bringing in to help us. He’s a little… unorthodox.”
“Nice to meet you,” she said awkwardly.
Van gave her a grin that made her shiver slightly, then went back to arguing with Chad about the benefits of torture and the fun things you could do with the brain when things like “morals” and “laws” weren’t holding you back.
Taylor cleared his throat, getting her attention. “At any rate, I think we’ve got everything we need for now. I’m going to greenlight you two for these new locations you’ve sent me. Just go out there and do your thing and keep me updated.” Taylor stood and reached across the table with a big arm to shake Kira’s hand, then Ryder’s. “Don’t be afraid to reach out if—”
“If something comes up,” Ryder said. “Will do.” He sent Kira a grin that made her toes curl. “Though, we’re pretty good at staying close and watching each other’s backs.”
She felt blood rush her neck. “Yeah, we are.” Especially at the staying close part.
Taylor just grinned. “Glad to hear you’re keeping each other safe.”
Ryder stayed just close enough to Kira that she could feel his presence near her as they exited the room but not so close as to give anyone ideas about them.
“Take care, you two,” Chad said, walking out behind them and passing them to catch up to Taylor.
There was a moment of calm, and Kira thought about grabbing Ryder for a kiss just because no one was watching.
But someone interrupted her thoughts before she could.
“Well, aren’t you an interesting piece of work?” a low voice drawled.
Ryder and Kira both flipped around, and for a moment, Kira thought the voice had been addressing her.
But it was Van, and he was staring at Ryder.
Even though Ryder was several inches taller and had a great deal more muscle, the purple dragon didn’t look remotely intimidated.
“What did you say?” Ryder asked, his tone deceptively cool.
“I don’t mean your hybrid nature, though that fascinates me. I mean up here.” Van tapped the side of his own head roughly.
“My brain?” Ryder frowned. “What about it?”
“As someone who makes other people’s minds and memories his business, it’s like a doctor staring at an X-ray of someone with no lungs or heart in their chest but still walking around acting normal. Very fun how brains work sometimes.”
“Was there something you wanted?” Ryder asked, sounding a bit on edge.
Van just shrugged, tucking his hands into the pockets of his long black coat, and headed in the opposite direction Taylor and Chad had gone. “No, just making an observation. After all, Byron’s waiting for me downstairs, and he gets impatient for us to get back to our mate.” He wagged one finger over his shoulder as he took long strides. “But if you want a second opinion, I wouldn’t mind doing some digging in there for you.”
Kira shuddered at the thought. Something about him wasn’t right, though if Chad trusted the guy, she should too.
Still, what an odd dragon.
“That was… unique,” Ryder said, looking down at Kira. She loved the way his eyes softened whenever their gazes met.
“You get used to it working at the SRP. After all, a lot of different kinds of people—humans and shifters—come through these doors.”
“I can see why you got so involved. It’s good to have something put your energy into. A way to help.”
“As they say, if you’re doing nothing, you’re part of the problem. I like being a part of the solution.”
She turned to face him, and his gaze roved down her, expression intensifying as he looked back up into her eyes.
Kira could feel they were alone in the hallway, and already, she wanted to get back to her apartment, uncork a bottle of wine, and…
“My thoughts exactly,” Ryder said, tilting up her chin with one finger. She felt his hand on her waist, and he lowered to kiss her, sending shivers of anticipation up her back as they just reveled in the moment.
She could picture a life with Ryder like this. Fighting to make the world a better place during the day. Hot nights where they expressed unfiltered attraction and want between them in a million fun, sexy ways.
A pipe dream but one that was becoming more and more real each day she spent with her dragon.
“Want to sleep over at my place again tonight?” she asked.
“Only if you’ll join me on the couch,” he replied with a smile against her lips, the breath from his mouth tickling her. “After all, I can imagine the view from there will be pretty amazing while I’m getting you off.”
She laughed nervously, the image of both of them naked and panting already too fun to wait a second longer.
“It’s a deal.” And she took his hand as they raced for the elevator, heading home.
Though, in reality, the only view she’d ever need for the rest of her life would be Ryder next to her like this.
Nothing else would compare.
14
In Ryder’s heart, things couldn’t possibly be going better. Between missions during the day and heated nights filled with passion, he couldn’t imagine ever letting go of his new life with Kira by his side.
For the past week, they’d been targeting smaller locations and satellite facilities, shutting them down with ever-greater efficiency. And aside from a couple golems that they’d easily dispatched together, no bigger dangers had yet presented themselves.
Leaving Ryder time in the evenings to make love to his fae in all the myriad ways they could both come up with.
He’d never known life could be so good, having every day with his best friend and lover as they grew even closer together.
Ryder was almost positive now. Kira was his soul bond. At least to the fae part of him. But he also knew she was his mate. Every time they came together, every
time he got to watch her eyes roll back in pleasure, the beast inside him roared, “Mate.”
So even though they were headed for their final destination for the time being—their biggest catch yet—Ryder wasn’t particularly worried.
He knew he was on the right path.
“So this should be the largest of all of the fae sites we’ve been to?” Ryder asked, watching the road. They were high in the mountains where large granite cliffs and steep declines left little room for the sparse patches of pine trees scattered throughout the area.
It would be almost beautiful if it weren’t so desolate.
“Yup,” Kira replied, poring over some scattered papers in her lap and scribbling notes. “If my calculations are correct, this place should be the central hub for all of the others we’ve so far shut down.”
“Hub?”
“Yeah, like a train station. All the other labs were intended to have been connected to one lab by a series of portals, allowing movements between all of them if the whole system had been allowed to be online. Now all we have to do is take out the heart of the source, and the light fae’s plans for setting up on this side of the country should be thwarted for good.”
“I love it when you talk dirty,” Ryder said, giving her a smile.
“Glad you’re having a little more fun on our missions,” Kira retorted, blushing. “Remember when you used your vines to shut the door?”
“If I had known sticking it to the fae was going to be so fun, I would have flung that door wide open.” He reached over a hand, taking Kira’s and grasping it lightly. “Then again, it gave me a chance to be with you, which has absolutely been my favorite part.”
“Me too,” she said softly.
“What are those papers?” Ryder glanced over as Kira tried to arrange them on her lap.
“Just analyzing some readouts our people back at the SRP gave us. After all, this facility predates both of us from the look of it.”
He was quiet for a moment, not liking anything that hinted at Kira’s or his past with the SRP. But as he looked at the quiet fairy shuffling her papers, he couldn’t help wanting to know more. “Kira, how did you even end up involved in all this?”
“What do you mean?” She looked surprised he was asking, which made sense because he was a live-in-the-moment kind of dragon and hated looking into the past.
But if he was going to spend forever with Kira, he should know more about the woman he loved.
“You grew up as a fairy. What was that like? When did you get your powers?” He took a deep breath. “And how did you end up with the scientists?”
She got a far-off look in her eyes, the overcast day both bright and shadowed all around them.
“I was born to the fae middle class. Just a normal fairy with normal parents, a part of a bigger society run by the princes and princesses at the top.”
Ryder nodded. He knew how fae society was structured, more or less.
“Anyway, now and then, fairies born to normal families can manifest powers that reach far back in their bloodline. Kind of like how human beacons can manifest fae blood. Anyway, my parents were frost fae—but one day, I started to get pink wings.”
“What happened?”
“Pretty soon, I was the talk of the whole town. And one day, a group of light fae came and visited us, which for normal fairies like us was a big deal.”
Ryder began to get a sinking feeling just hearing about them.
“They came and offered my parents and the whole town untold wealth, promising to take me somewhere special where I could put my newfound abilities to use helping all faekind.”
“More like helping the light fae with their dirty work.” He growled.
“Granted, I was only the human equivalent of fifteen or sixteen at the time. And since I already knew I was different, I thought maybe I could use that to make a difference in the world.” She sighed. “I was so stupid. So naive.”
“Everyone just thought you were moving up the ladder?”
“They all thought I’d become a fae princess, have a kingdom of my own. The first radiant fae in generations after they’d all died out.”
“Instead, they hid you from sight and took advantage of your powers.”
Kira waved a hand as if dispelling bad memories. “I mean, I wasn’t technically a prisoner. I just knew that at any moment, if I wasn’t useful to the fairies running the labs deep underground, they’d make sure I ended up like anyone else they didn’t like. Dead or worse.”
“Were there other fae like you who were forced to work there?”
“Fae from all over that had been pressed into service without question for the light kingdom’s purposes? Yes. Radiant fae like me? No, though I know there were multiple attempts to capture human women from Earth and force them to manifest radiant powers. After all, with the experiments they were doing with chaos energy, having someone to cleanse chaos is kind of necessary.”
Ryder’s heart thumped in his chest, rage at their shared history and at the people who knew only cruelty making him burn with righteous vindication. Of course she had been pressed into service as well.
“That sucks, Kira. You deserved better.”
Kira looked nervous, biting her lower lip as her eyes avoided him. “Thank you, but I just told myself it wasn’t that bad, I suppose.”
He took her hand again, bringing it up to his mouth to kiss her palm once before looking directly at her. “I’ll just do my best to make your new life here on Earth a thousand times better so you can someday forget.”
Her grin was slightly tense then, though he didn’t know why. “There are some things I don’t ever want to forget. But thanks, Ryder. For listening and being so kind.”
“Don’t mention it, fae.” But the word was affectionate now.
Kira laughed. Then her phone, which had the map, started beeping, and she picked it up.
“Oh, there’s our turn.” She pointed to a gravel road nestled between two giant pines.
“Well, here we go,” Ryder replied, turning and heading up the rough terrain, deeper into the mountains.
15
They pulled up to a single steel doorway nestled into the side of a sheer rock cliff. By the time they’d gone inside and found their way into the heart of the facility, a heavy uneasiness had settled over Ryder like something was off.
This was by far the largest they’d encountered, the inside the size of a football field from end to end. Big enough that a dragon could take full form and not even feel cramped by the ceiling.
At one side, he could see many doorway-like structures that seemed powered off but gave him the impression they might be portals if turned on.
On the other side, there were stacked crates and boxes that were full of who knew what. Along the walls, a vast array of panels and equipment that defied his limited knowledge of fae things.
“Okay, this place is creepy,” Kira said, walking close as they headed for the central area.
It wasn’t until Ryder spotted two large, roundish hulks of metal lying near each other that he tensed, recognizing the shapes of golems. But they weren’t moving.
Then he saw their heads, one of which had been sliced in half, the other crumpled up like a paper cup.
“We’re not the first to come here,” Ryder said low, looking around carefully, trying to spot any movement in the dimly lit corners.
He could hear a shuffling sound, though that could just be rats.
Kira peered around with him. “It’s not light fae. Nor chaos. Both of those things have a certain feel to them, you know?”
“I do,” Ryder replied. There was a small stack of crates near them, and Ryder could hear the shuffling intensify like something rummaging in a chest of toys. Taking silent steps, he moved toward the crates, ready to blast dragon fire on anything that jumped out.
The sound of something crashing, then breaking, followed by a muffled feminine voice swearing gave Ryder an idea of just who they’d stumbled upon.
&nb
sp; “Anyone there?” Ryder said loudly, addressing the boxes.
Immediately, a familiar face popped up from behind one open box, with short light-purple hair sticking up in all directions and light purple-gray eyes that were always a little too intense.
Ultraviolet.
Her expression was surprised, then annoyed, lips flattening as she appraised Ryder and Kira. “Oh. It’s you. What are you doing here?”
“Me?” He strode around the boxes, Kira close behind him. There were open crates with supplies and materials littered all over. “What are you doing here?”
“Couldn’t let you two destroy this place before I could snatch its secrets.” She considered a crystal data pad, blue letters zooming up the page as she quickly perused it, then tossed the thing aside where it clattered to the ground, surprising Ryder by not breaking.
Based on the fact there was one big pile to her left and a smaller pile to the right, she was sorting through information and deciding what to keep.
“Is that the Ultraviolet?” Kira whispered next to Ryder.
“Yes.” Ryder groaned. Despite being on the run from practically everyone these days, Ryder had a begrudging respect for the glamour fae. After all, she’d freed Dallin and helped him on his quest to free all dragons.
The fact that she’d only done it for her revenge plot was a minor detail.
“The name’s Vex. And don’t talk about me like I’m not here. Rude,” UV muttered, reading something else while grabbing for something in her pocket and popping it into her mouth, chewing thoughtfully.
She was certainly healthier-looking than when Ryder had last seen her in the light fae’s dungeon.
Then Vex glanced over at Kira, and a gleam of predatory delight lit her face.
Kira had already stepped forward, though, offering a hand. “I’m Kira. It’s nice to meet you, Vex. I mean, I know a lot of people think you’re a criminal, but I think—”
Vex dropped what she was doing and appeared in front of Kira in the blink of an eye, taking her hand eagerly and cutting her off. “You’re that radiant fae I’ve heard so much about…”
Dragon Redeemed (Reclaimed Dragons Book 2) Page 10