In perfect unison, the three answered him. “Chicago.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
The smell of roasting meat woke Tobias. It was nearly six, but he had no desire to get out of bed. After Sabrina had poofed out of his office, he’d tried to reach her, to get her to talk to him. She’d sent him one final text.
It’s over. For the best.
His follow up messages had gone unanswered. He couldn’t shake the feeling that she’d quit him cold turkey, and the thought hurt like hell. Eventually, he’d crawled under the covers and escaped into much-needed sleep.
A knock came at the bedroom door. “Tobias? Dinner.” Raven’s voice was steady and sweet. They’d worked it out after Sabrina had left, not that there was any real choice for him to make. Raven had chosen to carry the baby, no matter the consequences to herself or his brother. He would not abandon them. He’d given his word he would do his best to deliver the egg when the time came.
He climbed out of bed and pulled on a shirt before opening the door. His soon to be sister-in-law waited in the hall.
She frowned when she saw him. “Are you okay? I know you’re upset about the baby—”
“No.” He leaned against the doorjamb. “I’m not upset about the baby.” He handed her his phone and showed her Sabrina’s text. “Sabrina ended it. It was just too dangerous for her… for us.”
“Oh, Tobias…”
He rubbed his eyes. He needed an aspirin… and a fentanyl patch.
“You don’t think she’d tell her coven about us?” Raven asked softly.
“No. Never.”
“She made it clear she wants us out of the city. Are you sure you can trust her? What if…”
He raised an eyebrow. “What if what?”
“Madame Chloe said she was dangerous. What if she got close to you to assess the danger to her coven?”
Tobias frowned, considering it. “It seemed real though. It was real for me.” He shook his head. He refused to believe Sabrina would betray them. “It was real. She won’t tell anyone, Raven. She won’t.”
“I’m sorry.” Raven put her arm around his shoulders, her eyes filling with tears. “I shouldn’t have suggested she would. I think this pregnancy makes me irritable and has completely destroyed the filter between my brain and my mouth.”
For all his education and experience in the operating room, Sabrina was a puzzle he couldn’t solve. A dragon’s heart was made of stone, but even stone could break. Or shatter, as the case may be, as if it were a Fabergé egg smashed under her heel. He was a doctor, but he didn’t know how to heal this break.
“How about you?” he asked her. “How are you feeling?”
“Better than fine. All my symptoms are gone. I made myself a potion of ghost peppers, ginger, and turmeric and the fever came down.”
“Ghost pepper?”
She shrugged. “It’s not like I could google dragon pregnancy, but I experimented with some spells in my head about combating fever and swelling and it worked. Maybe dragon baby likes things spicy.”
“Whatever works.”
Raven pointed toward the stairs. “I wanted to do something nice for you, to thank you for everything, for hosting us here and for agreeing to help us with our baby. I made lamb and roasted potatoes. Veggies. Gabriel said it was your favorite, but I suspect it’s actually his, isn’t it?”
Tobias snorted. “Both. We both love lamb. It’s the closest thing to falz on Earth.”
“Falz?”
“Falz are a type of mammal in Paragon, like a giant guinea pig with tusks. The meat is delicious.”
“Well, the lamb is the perfect temperature, so if you want your falz alternative, you should come now. Also, this is the first time I’ve cooked a major dinner on my own, so if you don’t come down and pretend to enjoy it, I’m going to have to stick my foot up your dragon ass.”
He cracked a smile. “Then I guess I better come down. Give me a minute to freshen up.”
Raven disappeared. He retreated to his bathroom. Fuck, Gabriel was a lucky bastard. Only now did he realize the magnitude of his brother’s mating. Raven had given herself to him, for life. Their upcoming human marriage was nothing compared to the bond they shared between their souls. She was his. So in love with him she would die to give him his young. What did Gabriel have that Tobias didn’t to deserve a woman like that?
Sabrina had said she was his, but it was all a lie. She was no one’s but her coven’s.
Feeling wretched, he descended the stairs to find Gabriel lighting two white tapered candles on the dining room table.
“Raven said you’d been sleeping. Are you well, brother?”
Tobias took a seat at the head of the table. “I’m here.”
Raven appeared with a bowl of potatoes. “His heart is broken.”
Tobias did a double take. “Can we not talk about this?”
“Sabrina’s smell is still on you, you’ve been sleeping all afternoon, and you look like someone kneed you in the balls.” Gabriel picked up the knife and fork that rested next to the leg of lamb and started carving. “It wouldn’t take a psychology professor to draw a few conclusions.”
Tobias’s mouth gaped uselessly.
Gabriel loaded his plate with a slab of bright red lamb. “It’s been a long day full of surprises. Have something to eat. You’ll feel better.”
Sawing off a corner of the lamb Gabriel had dropped in front of him, Tobias popped it in his mouth. It was delicious, and another pang of jealousy struck him along with a heavy dose of homesickness. He wished for the easy days of his youth when his family would gather around the long ebony table in the Obsidian Palace after a long day of training. The biggest problem any of them had in those days had to do with the males of the village pursuing their sister Rowan a bit too aggressively. He’d been delinquent back then, never caring to finish his studies or practice his weaponry. He’d left the heavy lifting of royal responsibilities to Marius and Gabriel. Maybe that was why he’d overcompensated with his education here.
“I asked her to be mine,” he said around a bite of potatoes. The confession spilled out of his mouth and his chest instantly felt lighter upon sharing it. There was a clank as Gabriel released his fork and it clattered against his plate. Their eyes met. Tobias answered his unasked question. “She said she was. She lied.”
There was a collective gasp from the couple, and Raven lowered her fork. Their pity dropped on him like a wet blanket.
“That’s a big step, Tobias. How long have you known her?” Gabriel asked pointedly.
Tobias leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms. “How long had you known Raven? I seem to recall you mentioning a month? What was it you said about loving her the moment you saw her?”
Gabriel locked eyes with his brother.
“You love her,” Raven said. “Love doesn’t keep a timeline.”
“I wouldn’t have asked her to be mine if I didn’t. I have worked with her for close to three years, although I only recently discovered she was a vampire. Maybe I never really knew her at all until then.”
Gabriel’s hand landed on Raven’s arm, and Tobias watched something pass between them without a word spoken.
“Please excuse me.” Raven left the dining room in the direction of the bathroom.
“Vampires have never been known for their love of dragons.” Gabriel threaded his fingers together on the table. “There’s a history of violence. Are you sure we’re safe staying here?”
Tobias scratched along his jawline. He’d forgotten to shave that morning, and new growth caught on his fingernails. “That was thousands of years ago. In Paragon. Before we were born. It’s practically folklore. Paragon has been at peace with the vampires of Nochtbend for generations.”
“How many dragon-and-vampire couples did you know in Paragon?”
“None,” Tobias said. “But as you are so fond of saying, brother, we’re not in Paragon.”
“This is different. This is nature. Dragons create fire
. Vampires are prone to burning. They fear us, Tobias. You know as well as I do that a vampire’s will is dominated by the needs of their coven. They never act alone and rarely take a mate outside their societal group.”
Tobias stared down at his half-eaten lamb. Despite the delicious meal, he’d lost his appetite. “Shut the fuck up.”
“Excuse me?”
“Gabriel, shut. The. Fuck. Up. You mated a witch and broke Paragonian law. You’re having a forbidden baby. You have no right telling me who I can and cannot mate.”
“I was only—”
“No. Shut it.” He scoffed and pointed at his mouth. “I have all my teeth, brother. Never bound myself to anyone. I haven’t even taken an oread into my service, even when two attempted to follow me here from Crete. Do you know why?”
“Enlighten me.” Gabriel looked genuinely perplexed.
“We are refugees, Gabriel. We are ghosts of another time and another world. Look what happened to you. A witch cursed your ring and almost killed you and everyone you’ve ever bound to you. You came within a fraction of an inch of bringing about the end of Raven and those two innocent employees at Blakemore’s. I’ve been here hundreds of years, denying myself any real connections, living as a human, surviving alone. Don’t tell me who to love. Don’t tell me who I can or cannot mate. You don’t get to be a hypocrite. Not with me.”
Gabriel returned to cutting his lamb. “Fair enough. I was only trying to be comforting.”
Tobias glared at him incredulously until he couldn’t help but laugh.
“What?” Gabriel asked.
“You are terrible at giving comfort. A complete failure. If I am ever bleeding from an open wound, please do not try to comfort me.”
“Hmm. I mean no offense. You have come to accept Raven. I would do the same for you if…”
“If there was anything to accept.” Tobias rested his head on his fist. “Again, not comforting. Maybe you’re right about dragons and vampires though. Sabrina suggested we all leave the city.”
“What did you tell her?”
“I told her we weren’t leaving. Where would we go? You said New Orleans isn’t safe.”
Gabriel returned to his lamb, his expression growing impassive. He did not make eye contact as he said, “If Sabrina does not appreciate the male she had in you, she is unworthy of you.”
For some reason, in that moment, Tobias thought of Killian, their father. He watched Gabriel eat his meal in silence.
“Why are you staring at me?”
Tobias took a sip of his wine. “That last thing you said. It was comforting.”
Gabriel shrugged.
Tobias sighed. For as strange a day as it had been, he had to admit he was glad his brother was here. Family was a feeling he’d lived without for far too long. It was a closeness he hadn’t felt in a long time. A closeness he needed.
Raven returned to the table and folded her napkin in her lap. “I hope you two worked things out.”
“My brother doesn’t deserve you,” Tobias said.
Gabriel recoiled, baring his teeth.
Raven winked. “Meh. True, but I took pity on him. We all have our crosses to bear.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
Sabrina charged into the tunnels, her blood pumping in her veins. She should have been exhausted. After a night of lovemaking with Tobias and a long day that had ended with her visit to Madam Chloe, she was overdue for some serious R & R. But this thing with Tristan had gone too far. She’d always known he was an asshole, but she’d underestimated how murderous his intentions were. Tristan had known she’d been stabbed, and if Chloe was to be believed, he’d expected her to be dead. He’d expected it because he’d arranged it.
“Hi, Paul. Is my father awake?”
The jovial human nodded and reached for the door. “He’s practicing. Feel free to wait inside. He’s expecting you.”
He opened the door for her, and she entered her father’s well-appointed great room, the sound of the grand piano filling the underground space. He was playing Beethoven, Moonlight Sonata, and she paused to listen, not wanting to disturb his practice. Even so, he noticed her and smiled, his timeless beauty making it hard to believe he was hundreds of years old. Effortlessly, he transitioned into a rendition of Vivaldi’s Storm. He knew it was her favorite.
When he finished, she clapped and whooped just like she used to when she was a child. “Perfect as always.”
He stood and spread his arms, inviting a hug. “Because I practice, my child.”
She wrapped her arms around him and placed a tender kiss on his cheek. “And because you were born with perfect pitch.”
He bowed slightly. “Now, what did you want to talk to me about? Your text said it was urgent.”
“It’s Tristan. He tried to have me killed.”
Her father withdrew, his lips peeling back from his teeth. “What do you mean, killed?”
“There is something I haven’t told you. Three weeks ago, I was stabbed in the chest.”
Her father shrugged. “Stab wounds heal, darling. Was it vampire play?”
She shook her head. Vampires were naturally violent. A stabbing that did not result in death would be seen as play or a test. Her father might defend her from either, but it wouldn’t accomplish what she’d come for. She needed to neutralize Tristan.
“This wasn’t play and it wasn’t a test,” she said. “There was a necrotic agent on the blade. Keetridge Solution. If I were one hundred percent vampire, I would be dead.”
“Keetridge Solution?” Her father scowled. “I thought we had eradicated every source of the substance besides our own.”
“I have reason to believe that if you check our stores, you will find some missing.”
“That’s impossible. Are you sure—”
“I was able to compel a doctor at the hospital to care for me. He extracted the substance and Madam Chloe tested it for me. She told me what it was.”
“And it was Tristan who stabbed you?”
She shook her head. “No. It was a werewolf. The last of the Racine pack.”
He hissed. “Sabrina, why did you not bring this to me? Did you kill the beast?”
“I wanted to handle it myself, both to prove to myself that I could and to get revenge for the pain it caused me. But I haven’t been able to find the werewolf.”
The savage growl that tore from her father made her skin prickle as if it wanted to flee from her body. She’d known he’d be unhappy with her about this part, but it was necessary. She couldn’t thwart Tristan if her father didn’t believe every word she said was the truth. No doubt Tristan was counting on her fear to keep her silent.
“We need a tracking team on this immediately. Do you have anything with his scent?”
She shook her head. “He took the dagger with him.”
“Fucking werewolves.”
“But Father, about Tristan…”
“Mmm, yes. What does he have to do with any of this?”
“That’s why I came to you now. Madam Chloe told me that Tristan stopped in to her shop this week and accused her of helping me survive. He’d expected me to be dead, Father, and was disappointed when I wasn’t. He knew I’d been stabbed with Keetridge Solution. I was cured by humans in a home where Tristan cannot enter. The only way he could have known I was in mortal danger was if he’d arranged it.”
Her father’s teeth clenched, and a vein in his neck bulged with his anger. “Tristan has access to our stores.”
“Yes. There’s something more. The day after, when I returned home, Tristan had ransacked my apartment. I caught him leaving the scene. He threatened me.”
“And still you did not bring this to me.”
She sighed through her nose. “Father, I can handle Tristan if it is just Tristan. I’ve been doing it for years. He’s had me followed and tried to subvert my position in the coven more times than I can count. Only today did I learn he was involved in the stabbing. I came to you because after what Madam Chloe
told me, I now realize that Tristan must have had a relationship with the werewolf and provided him with the Keetridge Solution that coated the dagger I was stabbed with. If I handle this on my own, it will mean knocking Tristan’s head off.”
Her father became eerily still. “A relationship between Tristan and a Racine werewolf is unlikely to be newly founded.”
She crossed her arms over her chest. “My thoughts exactly. Not to mention, stealing Keetridge Solution is treason. Do I have your permission to take him out?”
Her father paced to his bar and poured himself a glass of blood. “If it were any vampire besides Tristan, my answer would be yes.”
“But?”
“But Tristan is one of the oldest and most respected vampires in Chicago. He was here before I was, Sabrina, and is powerfully connected. He’s respected among the old ones. If we don’t have proof of his murderous intentions, the coven could turn on you before your coronation. I’m afraid the others are not going to take the word of a witch.”
“So I can do nothing?”
He narrowed his eyes. “Leave it to me. Tell no one of this. I will take care of Tristan.”
“Soon, I hope. My coronation is in a matter of days. If his goal, as I suspect, is to take me out of the equation in the hopes you will name him as my replacement, he’s going to increase his efforts.”
He kissed her on the forehead. “Trust me. Have I ever failed you?”
“I do trust you. And no.”
“Good. Now, would you like to stay here tonight? Paul will keep you safe.”
“As tempting as that sounds, I still have a few boxes to pack. Plus I want to start checking in with the club owners this week, make sure they’re on board with my transition. I’m not going to let a vampire like Tristan bully me into doing anything I wouldn’t ordinarily do.”
“Thatta girl.”
“Thank you, Daddy. I know I can count on you.”
Secretly rejoicing, she let him walk her to the door. Her success was written all over Calvin’s face. Tristan had no idea what he was in for.
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