by Alexia Black
Alexia Black
Not a Dragon
Soulmarked: Kiara Ravenlocke Files 1
Copyright © 2021 by Alexia Black
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise without written permission from the publisher. It is illegal to copy this book, post it to a website, or distribute it by any other means without permission.
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
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Dedicated to my youngest siblings, Serah and Thomas.Without you guys pestering me into telling you bedtime stories for two hours every night none of these stories would’ve come alive. Thank you for pushing me to write these and thank you for being my biggest fans.
I love you both so much!
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Acknowledgement
About the Author
Chapter 1
The vampire bared her golden fangs.
“How does it look?” the client asked, her eyes glued to the compact mirror in her hand.
“Beautiful,” I said, a pleasant smile plastered on my face.
“Don’t tell me you two are the bodyguards,” Caroline rolled her eyes, stuffing the mirror into her purse.
I knew exactly what she meant. Neither of us looked like the bodyguards she usually hired. An 18-year-old girl and a military-looking grandpa, in bulletproof vests and a jacket, as opposed to two male bodyguards she could ‘accidentally’ grope.
“I am Kiara Ravenlocke,” I said, the lie coming out smoothly with months of practice, “and this is Bart Williamson. We will be your assigned bodyguards today.” I extended my hand.
She stared at my hand and then at my face like I had lost my mind. I dropped my hand awkwardly.
She gracefully flipped her long red hair and walked towards the limo. Bart opened the door, throwing me a look as if he was asking why the hell I had taken this stupid assignment. This was way below his pay grade. I grimaced. I was going to have a lot of explaining to do to my mentor. Thankfully, he was too professional to kick my ass in front of a client.
I checked my phone one last time and went through the schedule her manager had mailed us; just regular shopping. I internally sighed. It had been so long and I still wasn’t any closer to my goal than I was eight months ago and time was running out fast. I needed to figure out a new plan.
Her driver dropped us off at the mall. Caroline gracefully got out after Bart and glided ahead, as if it was just another runway for her. I followed behind with Bart taking her side. With the amount of celebrity clients we had been chaperoning lately, I was as familiar with this mall as I was with my apartment. You needed to be stinking rich to even know this place existed. But turns out, being rich didn’t always equate to having common sense.
She was taking selfies with her golden plated fangs in full view Bart and I looked at each other. He could see the plain disbelief written across my face. Even I, who had been allowed to be part of the real world only a few months ago, knew what a big blunder it was. You always hide what species you are, not wave it like a bloody flag. Hushed whispers rose around us. Unless this was some tactic to revive her dying modeling career, she had to be the dumbest person I’d ever met.
Bart motioned me with his eyes, dumping the responsibility of stopping her on me. Sometimes, being a bodyguard means saving the clients from themselves. I looked pleadingly at Bart. He just shot me an unimpressed look. Damn his seniority. It wasn’t like I was any better at tact than he was. On a scale of 1-10, my ability to smooth talk was a solid two.
“Ms. Garcia,” I tentatively started.
Before I could get another word in, she pushed her phone into my hand, held up her shopping bag, the luxury brand clearly on display, and presented her version of the smoldered look. The command was obvious; take her pictures. I internally sighed. Considering all the assignments I’d been recently picking up, I was on my way to becoming a professional photographer very soon. I put down all the shopping bags she had saddled on me and started clicking.
After two hours of taking photos, nitpicking about the lighting and my ability to always mess up her angle, she finally had one she liked. Unfortunately, it was one where her fangs could be seen slightly.
“Ms. Garcia, it would be wise not to let anyone know what species you are,” I said in a low voice.
She looked up from her phone where she had been typing out a caption and looked around. No one was openly gawking at her but she still had everyone’s attention.
She did a perfect hair flip. “So what? If you two do your job well, then there is no problem,” she said, pointing her chin towards the daggers and charms strapped to my black tactical suit.
I didn’t let my smile slip, “You have only hired us till noon. We would not be able to protect you after that.” Caroline may not have enemies like our other clients but she was still pretty popular. There will be creeps who will want to own her like a trophy and announcing her species was pretty much declaring open season on herself.
She waved away my concern with the haughtiness of a supernatural who knew she was at the top of the food chain. If Bart hadn’t wanted to kill me for being forced along with this job in the beginning, he would definitely want to now.
“What are you two?” She asked, her fingers swiping across her phone as she replied to comment after comment under her photo.
Did she really just ask that? Bart’s face tightened, annoyance flitting across his eyes.
Fingers still flying across the screen, she gestured in our general direction, “No offense but… you two look like humans or something.”
“Appearances can be deceiving,” Bart said evenly. It was especially true in his case. The serpent shifter had fought in the last great supernatural war but didn’t look a day over sixty. He had been protecting and killing decades before I was even born, and didn’t really have much patience for idiots - clients or otherwise.
“I am afraid we cannot disclose what we are, but I assure you we are fully trained to protect you. Please, do not worry about your safety” I said, the epitome of politeness. She wasn’t far off the mark in predicting. I was more or less human. And if we went technical, I was way below the food chain, even compared to humans.
“You are no fun,” the vampire stamped her feet, her stilettoes clacking against the floor. She pivoted and walked towards another clothing store muttering something about finding anothe
r date dress. I looked down at the ten million shopping bags in my hand.
Then what were we buying till now?
I had to give it to her though; even through this temper tantrum, she didn’t look any less elegant. Some part of me wanted to be her. To make people look at me and not look down on me. But my survival depended on being invisible and that was the only thing I cared about.
“You owe me,” my mentor said.
“Yeah, I really do,” I mentally increased the donuts I was going to buy him to two dozen.
“And when we get back to the office you will tell me why exactly you took this job over the others.”
I had expected this question. He always asked me when I chased after assignments received from this specific company. I would be more surprised if he wasn’t suspicious. But, I couldn’t tell him; no matter what.
“If I tell you, I would have to kill you,” I joked and turned to catch up with Caroline. How did she walk so fast in those heels?
He scoffed. “Too many secrets will kill you kid,” he kept his voice low, not that she would’ve heard anyway. Vampire hearing wasn’t much different than a human’s.
I didn’t reply to Bart. He didn’t know how close to the truth he was, how close I was to death’s door. The Kiara he knew and mentored was made up of lies and faked paperwork. To all my colleagues, I was an orphaned human who became a bodyguard because of my intense desire to protect others. An idealist, they said, patting my head. As if. There was only one person in this world I cared for enough to protect, and this job was just a means to that.
My gaze skipped from person to person in the shop. Making sure I remembered every single staff member. Caroline didn’t have any active stalkers currently, but better safe than sorry. From experience I knew that pretending to be either a fan, someone they had met at an event, or a shop personnel, was the best way to get closer to a celebrity.
I mentally scanned everyone around me, trying to guess the species, their weakness; filing away their mannerisms in my head to analyze. Not an easy task. But when you are the weakest one in the room, you adapt quick.
The potion stains on the tips of the witch’s fingers, the way the vampires barely breathed, and the unique twitch of the nose, when bunny shifters laughed. In the last few months that I had been in the outside world, I had learned more than what a decade of hiding and reading books had taught me.
I checked the time, it was past noon. If there was one drawback to vampire clients, it was that they didn’t require food and forgot people around them did as well. Usually we took shifts when there were more than two guards but there were only two of us and this assignment was supposed to be done half an hour back. She better be ready to pay for all the overtime.
Caroline stopped abruptly, eyes glued to an elaborate gown display outside a shop. She grinned, “Let’s go in!”
Bart looked ready to leave the world and descend into hell. I grimaced. The least I could do now was not let him hold the bags after putting him in this position. Besides, he needed to have his hands free in case we got attacked.
“Out of all the cases you could have chosen from,” Bart shook his head. “I regret being your handler.”
If only Caroline hadn’t worked for Starfire Entertainment. But she was the only ‘in’ I had in the half year I had been working for Blazewood security. I couldn’t let this chance go.
“Sorry.” It was all I could offer him.
Just as we were preparing to suffer through another two hours as her personal bag holders, someone caught her attention.
A man dressed in skinny jeans and a black turtleneck walked in. He marched like a military general ready for war, completely at odds with the soulful poet look he had going on. His silver hair was pulled back in a messy bun and a few wild tendrils framed his face. His pale eyes stood stark against his tan skin. He didn’t look much different in real life, compared to the billboards I had seen him on.
“Aiden!” Caroline batted her eyelashes and sauntered over to him. She cut a striking figure in her red bodycon dress.
We followed her. Aiden stopped and turned hearing his name. Piercing silver eyes met hers.
His face darkened. Beside him, the other man who had just caught up with Aiden’s strides, rolled his eyes. Looks like Caroline wasn’t a welcome presence. Too bad she didn’t care about that.
Less than ten seconds later, we were standing in front of Aiden Riversend. Lead singer of Inferno, Ice Prince of the Rockstars, and the darling of Starfire Entertainment.
Chapter 2
“Aiden!” She sing-songed, stepping forward to lean on his arm. Aiden very neatly sidestepped her.
I smothered my snicker at her pouting expression.
“Sorry but he has an appointment now,” his manager said coming to stand in between them like a wall.
“See you later,” Aiden said and walked towards the elevator faster than he had come in.
“Such a nice ass,” her gaze was glued on his retreating figure. “If only he had a better personality.”
Yeah right, his personality was the problem.
Caroline flipped her hair as if flipping off her disappointment and glided out.
We followed her out to the car and the driver got out to help us stuff all her shopping bags into the car.
“No need to follow me back home,” Caroline said. “I am not paying you for an hour more,” she closed the door and the car took off leaving us behind. To make it worse, Bart’s SUV was parked at her place. We had to somehow go back there to get it.
I blinked and looked towards Bart. If the expression on his face was any indication, this was probably going to be my last day on earth.
“Umm, would you accept lunch instead of my life?”
Bart glared. “Log in the time the client terminated our services,” he said gruffly. “The office will send an overtime bill to her manager.”
“C’mon I owe you at least lunch,” I took off my jacket and freed my short hair from the tight ponytail. I made a mental note to check whether my blonde roots had started showing through the dark dye job. Fanning my face with my hand, I took off my vest. The days were getting hotter and hotter. Sweat was making my white t-shirt stick to my chest. It felt weird to go back in there again, but there weren’t any other places nearby to have lunch. The mall and its parking had monopolized most of the land around here.
Bart was still looking around as if he was searching for a shortcut. Was he planning to walk all the way back to a bus stop on an empty stomach? A hungry Bart was a grumpy Bart. No way was I having that on my watch. And, I knew exactly how to persuade him.
“I heard they have your favorite triple chocolate donuts here!” That was a complete lie but it did the trick. Without a word, Bart did a 180 and went back inside the mall. I followed him, fervently praying to the three fates they had triple chocolate donuts here.
The mall’s food court was pretty much the rich people version of casual dining. Bright colorful art adorned the walls. Each table had an assigned waiter with a consolidated menu of all the food places within. The waiter left to give us time to decide. From experience I knew the menus didn’t have prices on it and how much that invisible price would cost me. My wallet was already crying.
“I am paying,” Bart said gruffly. “Order what you want.”
I wiped off my crestfallen expression and looked up from the menu. Maybe I should have taken the money I was offered when I had gotten disowned. I doubt even buying a couple of mansions would have made a dent in my family’s accounts. But no, the one time I had listened to my pride instead of logic had to be then.
“Nope, no way. My treat, I owe you at least this,” I really wanted to pay this time. I felt guilty enough as it is. This work had been way below his experience and status as a veteran. I had taken advantage of the soft spot he had for me to drag him into this. This was the least I could do in return. I had enough money to cover the bill, as long as I remembered to stick to ramen packets for the rest of the month.<
br />
“No,” he said simply. “Now, order.”
“I have enough money.”
Bart just narrowed his eyes and I knew it was a lost cause. My sister used to say no one was more obstinate than me. Obviously she hadn’t met Bart.
“Thanks gramps,” I said, giving up. He tried to hide his pleased smile at the way I addressed him. What had started as a teasing nickname had ended up meaning more to both of us. Bart was more of a family to me than my own ever was.
I hid my smile, pretending I didn’t see his expression. He wouldn’t like that. Fates forbid anyone knew he was a big softie inside.
We placed our order and settled into comfortable silence. I hadn’t noticed but I had automatically started eavesdropping. Old survival habits die hard. I only realized how much I was tuning into conversations around me when I heard Aiden’s deep voice rumbling. He sat a table away from me with his manager. I hadn’t heard any of his songs before, but if this is what he sounded like, then I needed to start listening, ASAP.
Stop eavesdropping, I scolded myself, you are not at home anymore, no one wants to kill you here. I was just about to tune out when a saleswoman came over, handing them a branded shopping bag. “Ms. Caroline forgot this at our shop. She had left by the time we noticed. Would it be possible to return this to her?” I narrowed my eyes at her words. “I wouldn’t want to impose but, since you work at the same company, I thought you might see her today,” she hesitated before adding, “We would’ve kept it for a day but she wouldn’t have been happy with us.”
True, Caroline seemed like the type who would yell at them for not reminding her to take her purchase. But, she wouldn’t in this case. Two reasons.
First, Caroline hadn’t forgotten anything. I had made sure of it.
Second, and most importantly, the woman wasn’t a staff of any of the shops we had visited. I would’ve remembered.
“If you could stop drooling over that boy,” Bart said, “the food is here.”
I snapped out of my thoughts.
“Look at that girl,” I tipped my chin in her direction. “Be subtle.”