The warmth that flowed through her made her feel like a light bulb that had just been switched on. “I love you too.”
A kiss landed on her lips and he disappeared. Invisible, she realized. The door opened and he was gone.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Tobias dragged himself into his house, feeling numb and not from the cold. Actually, the snow had melted, and the morning was temperate by Chicago standards. He was numb because he knew that everything would change now. It had to. He’d exposed himself to the coven. Did that mean he’d be accepted as Sabrina’s mate? Or did it mean that tonight, after sunset, he’d be surrounded by vampires with pitchforks?
The good news was Sabrina loved him. She’d admitted they were bound and couldn’t stay apart. But the initial buzz he’d gotten from that admission had worn off as he’d made his way through the tunnels to the surface. There were practicalities. Old laws.
At least one worry was gone from his mind. He’d checked on Katelyn before returning home. Thankfully, she had not been harmed. Not that Tobias gave Tristan credit for that. No, he wasn’t sure why the people working for Tristan hadn’t followed through. He somehow doubted it had all been a bluff.
As he turned the corner from the mudroom into the kitchen, a hiss from the general direction of the floor attracted his attention. Artemis arched her back and flicked her tail, guarding her domain like Cerberus at the gates of the underworld.
“Et tu, Kitte?” he said, staring her down. “Do you think you could give me a break? Just this once?”
The cat stopped hissing and crept closer, weaving between his legs. He bent down and gently picked her up, scratching her behind the ears. The kitten started to purr almost immediately. “Well, I’ll be damned. I guess you’re not the spawn of the devil after all.”
Raven appeared in the doorway to the living room and stopped short. “By the goddess, there’s a sight I never thought I’d see.”
“She took pity on me.”
Raven gave him a once-over. Thankfully, he’d had athletic clothes in the gym bag in his trunk and had changed out of the cloak into a pair of sweats and a fleece. “Are you doing the walk of shame?”
Tobias raised an eyebrow. “Something like that.”
“Sabrina?”
He tipped his head and laughed. “I wish it was under better circumstances. Her coven-mate abducted me and took me to her coronation where I thought I would be beheaded. Instead, her father set me free, I shifted into my dragon in under a millisecond for the first time in, oh, ever, and burned a gang of her werewolf rivals to extra-crispy dead. Well, technically I bit two in half.” He told her the entire story from the beginning, from Tristan’s trap, to the ceremony, to the wolves and even Katelyn.
“Sweet mother of mercy!” Raven looked him over again, this time with an entirely different eye.
“I’m fine. Just exhausted.”
She leaned against the kitchen island. “Well, if it’s any help, I can solve one mystery for you. I warded Katelyn’s place at the same time I did Sabrina’s.”
“Huh?”
“I didn’t tell you because I knew how you felt about magic. But once you explained why Sabrina was in danger, it crossed my mind that they might target Katelyn. It wasn’t difficult to find her. She was all over the papers.”
“Thank you.” Tobias lowered his head. “By the Mountain, Raven, thank you.”
“You’re welcome. That’s what family is for.”
Family. A warm feeling blossomed deep inside his chest and Tobias’s vision blurred. He rubbed the space over his heart and blinked away the swell of emotion.
“Are you sure you’re okay?”
He sighed. “It’s just good to have a friend. You know, the worst part about all of this is, I’m still not sure where Sabrina and I stand. I mean, we’re mated. The two of us are… good. But her coven… She’s master now. I’ve exposed myself.”
Raven took a deep breath and blew it out slowly. “I’m sorry, Tobias.”
“Yeah.” He stared at her for a minute, his fingers working in Artemis’s fur. “So what are you doing up?”
A blush stained her cheeks as she opened up the freezer, then held up a new pint of Chunky Monkey. “Baby wants ice cream.”
“It’s five in the morning.”
She shrugged. “What baby wants, baby gets.”
He stared at her for a beat, taking in her sock-monkey-print flannel pajamas. Those were new. One definitely did not need flannel pajamas in New Orleans. “Mind if I join you? I don’t think I’ll be able to sleep.”
She opened the drawer and grabbed two spoons. Then she reached back in the freezer and retrieved a second pint of ice cream.
“Damn, how many of those do you have in there?”
“Twelve. Don’t judge me.” She handed him a pint and the spoon. He set Artemis down near his feet and took the frosty container before following her into the living room and sinking into one of the two wingback chairs.
“Should I light the fire?” he asked, detesting the thought of standing up.
“Fotiá.” With a flick of her finger, the flue opened and the logs inside the fireplace blazed to life.
“Thanks.” He pried off the lid to his ice cream and dug in.
“I think you should come to New York with us to look for Rowan.”
Tobias dropped his spoon. It flipped off the edge of the carton and landed on the rug. He cursed.
“Sorry,” Raven said. “Maybe this isn’t a good time.”
With a slanted glance in her direction, he fished the spoon off the floor, wiped it on his pants, and took another bite.
“It’s just that we need you. I know you said before that you didn’t believe us about your mother, but I think that’s changed now, hasn’t it? And if we stay together, we’ll be able to protect each other should the empress send another guardsman. When she sends another guardsman. We all know she will. Also, if and when we find Rowan, it will be easier to convince her of the truth if we’re together.”
He sighed. “Don’t forget you’re going to need me to help with this pregnancy.”
“Yes. Oh, Tobias, will you do it?”
“Hold on there, witchy poo. I’m not saying that I’m giving up my life here to join the sibling-hunting circus with you guys, okay? And I’m certainly not leaving Sabrina. She’s my mate. I couldn’t leave her if I tried. Even if she pushes me away again, I’m in. I’ll wait as long as it takes for her to come back around.”
“Of course. Yes. You’re mated. That’s understandable.” Raven’s face fell, and she stared into her ice cream.
“What I am saying is, given what’s happened, maybe I’ll take a sabbatical. Go with you to New York for a few days. Be more available after that, in case something happens.”
Raven reached out and squeezed his hand. “Really?”
“Seeing Sabrina tonight, I get it. I get why she rose to master even though she doesn’t love everything that comes with the title. Sometimes fate calls us to be more than what we want to be. More than what we ever expected for ourselves. Like it or not, I’m an heir to Paragon. If Mother has done what it seems she’s done, maybe it’s time I rose too. I mean, Gabriel is the eldest. I don’t want to lead. I’m just saying, well, when it comes to you and Gabriel, I’m in too.”
Raven sighed, looking far too happy about the turn of events. Her smile clashed with the general exhausted funk he was in and made her hard to be around. Everything was too up in the air. He needed his mate to tell him where they stood with the coven and what would happen next. He wouldn’t feel whole until she did.
“I hope Sabrina knows what she has in you. You are an admirable man, Tobias.”
He sighed. “Admirable me and my ice cream are going to bed. We can talk more in the morning. I’m sure Gabriel will want to rub my nose in my backpedaling and general compliance with your plan.”
“Oh, no, Tobias. It’s not like that.”
“Do you know your mate?” Tobias gave her a pacifying
wink before climbing the stairs to the master bedroom. Only he found that when he got there, he couldn’t sleep in his bed. Sabrina had been in that bed, only days ago, naked and close and his. By the Mountain, she’d been his, if only for a night. He was afraid if he lay in it now without her, somehow he’d be jinxing himself. It was sunrise. If she was coming, she’d be there soon.
He took a hot shower and then collapsed in the armchair near the window, turning on the TV to a DVR’d episode of The Great British Baking Show. His eyes fell on his ring. The sapphire held his dragon magic, magic he hadn’t used in centuries until recently, until Sabrina. A dragon loving a vampire wasn’t logical, but as Sabrina always told him, logic was overrated. He supposed it was time to believe in magic.
He leaned his head against the back of the chair and drifted into oblivion.
Chapter Thirty-Five
“Keetridge Solution.” Sabrina pointed at the gritty edges of a wound on a dead vampire. “They didn’t stand a chance. Without human blood, they had no defense against the necrosis.”
“Some are still alive. Should we call the witch?” her father asked.
She raced to the next victim, a young female vamp with a wound in her stomach. “Hold still. I’m going to help you.” Sabrina dug in her wound with a pair of forceps and tore a bullet from her flesh. The vampire cried out and bared her fangs. Sabrina handed her a bag of blood and watched her wound heal as fast as she could drink it.
She held the bullet up so her father could see it clearly.
“Silver,” he said.
“It looks like the amount of solution Tristan stole from us didn’t go very far. He augmented with silver and probably wood. That means we can save some of them. Go get more blood. I’ll extract any bullets left in the wounded.”
Her father didn’t move. It suddenly dawned on her that this was the first time she’d ever ordered him to do anything. When she turned her head to look at him, he simply smiled proudly before taking off in the direction of the blood.
It took hours to treat the remaining injured vampires. After everything, the stockpile of blood that she had created by working among humans for so long had been a lifesaver. Without it, the vampires would have still healed, but it would’ve taken time and left them vulnerable. This way they’d be back to normal by the time they woke up at nightfall.
As the sun rose above the tunnels, her younger patients fell asleep. While she’d felt the sunrise warm her blood from forty feet up, the sinking draw that rendered them dead until nightfall did not have the same effect on her. Her father wobbled on his feet as he handed her the next bag.
“Go to bed, Father. I’ll finish.”
“But…”
“Go. I’m too exhausted to carry you if you fall here.”
He nodded, then slowly trudged toward his chambers. Sabrina handled the rest on her own, providing transfusions when needed and making sure each of her charges was safely in their coffin. She had to carry the last of the wounded to their beds herself.
When she was done, she took a shower in the apartment that would soon be hers and put on jeans and her softest sweater. She was so exhausted she could hardly stand up, but she refused to give in to the draw of sleep. She’d promised Tobias she’d go to him. After what he’d done for her today, she needed to see him. Needed to tell him how much he meant to her.
With every ounce of energy she had left, she dematerialized to his room. After taking a second to orient herself, she saw him sleeping in his chair, an empty pint of ice cream in his hands. She gently removed it and placed it on the end table. Should she wake him? He’d overdone things tonight. She’d watched him explode out of his own skin like the charge of a grenade. No, she’d let him sleep. He needed it.
Although she wondered if she should move him to the bed, ultimately she wasn’t sure she’d be strong enough in her current state. Instead, she crawled under the covers and curled on her side. She’d be here when he woke.
Hours passed in the blink of an eye. When Sabrina woke again, it was twilight and Tobias was standing over her, staring at her with frozen, stiff limbs. The only things that were moving were his eyelids. He kept blinking, closing his eyes tightly and then opening them again.
“Tobias,” she whispered.
“Are you really here?”
She smiled at him and scooted over to make room for him in bed. “I didn’t want to wake you, and I didn’t think I could lift you.”
His biceps stretched the soft gray T-shirt he was wearing as he scrubbed his face with his hands. But instead of climbing into bed beside her, he sat back down in the chair. “I was afraid you wouldn’t come.”
“Why? I told you I would.” She climbed from the bed and moved to kneel in front of him.
“You need to tell me where we stand with your coven. Your father didn’t kill me today, but I exposed myself. What happens now? I don’t think I can handle you telling me we can’t be together.”
She cradled his hands between her own. “No. That’s not what I came to tell you.” She could feel distance like a trench between them. She had done this, pushed him away one too many times. What did she expect? He was self-protecting.
“Thank you for what you did today,” she said softly. She had to start somewhere. “You saved my people.”
He swallowed. “I was proud of you. Your coven needs you. You’re a good leader.”
She took a deep breath and blew it out slowly. “Tobias, I will never forget what you did for us.”
“Right. But you can’t see me anymore because now your people want to kill me. They’ll probably surround the house with torches as soon as the sun sets.”
“No.”
“No?”
“Before my father tasted your blood, I told him you were my mate. After you left, he explained it was the primary reason he covered for you. My coven knows what you are, and they are thankful for you. And the ones who aren’t thankful fear you. I don’t think they pose a threat.”
He rubbed his thumb over hers. “What does that mean for us?”
“When vampires mate, they mate for life. The bond between mated pairs is so strong that if one dies, the other usually commits suicide or dies of grief. It is considered a crime among our kind to separate a mated pair.”
“But mating with a dragon…”
“Is normally forbidden; however, given the circumstances, my father gave us his blessing. I’m master now. I didn’t need it. But I am thankful for it.”
Tobias’s breath hitched, his palms rubbing nervously against his thighs. “Which means?”
“As master, I have a level of control over my coven I didn’t have before. The longer I am master, the stronger that control becomes. Tristan was able to challenge me after my coronation because my father had excommunicated him from the coven. Those vampires who remain have accepted me. That means what I say goes. And frankly, after last night, it would take a very strong vampire to challenge us.”
“Us. There’s an us in this story?”
“My father sees our mating as a benefit to our coven. You are a protector and as my mate would never turn on us. I know it’s not flattering to be thought of as a guard dog. I don’t approve of that, but my father is a man from a different time. You should have seen his face when you shifted. It was like he’d discovered a new toy.”
“I think I saw it when he tasted my blood.” Tobias’s breath quickened.
“I should have foreseen it actually. In hindsight it seems so clear. My own birth was a result of my father breaking the rules. He wasn’t supposed to mate with a human, but he did. I guess the heart wants what it wants.”
“What do you want, Sabrina?” His eyes twinkled.
She sat back on her heels. She was already on her knees, she might as well do what she came to do. Her eyes shifted downward to the place a shadow stretched across the floor and she steadied herself.
“I couldn’t stop myself from loving you, Tobias. It’s what I was born to do. And if you love me too, there’s som
ething I need to ask you.”
He gave a light, breathy laugh. “If it’s not clear that I love you, I’ve done something very, very wrong.”
“I need to ask you if you’ll become my consort.” She bit her lip and fisted her hands.
Tobias blinked.
“It’s an official role within the coven. You’d be crowned and expected to help me rule, at my side.”
“I know what a consort is. We had them in Paragon. I’d be Prince Phillip to your Queen Elizabeth.”
“Yes. I know it’s a huge sacrifice.” Sabrina rushed on when Tobias gave her a strange, bewildered look. “It’s a full-time role. You’d have to leave the hospital. Not forever, mind you. I won’t be master forever. But as long as you rule by my side, it has to be your first priority. And you’d have to live with me, underground. I know that’s probably scary…”
She stopped talking. Silence uncoiled between them and took an unhurried stretch. He wasn’t saying anything, just staring at her.
“Tobias? Say something. If it’s too much, just tell me.”
Tobias rolled the idea around in his head. He couldn’t escape the irony that when he’d left Paragon, the last thing he’d wanted was to rule. But here he was, considering a royal position over Sabrina’s people. He hated politics. Had never thought of himself as a warrior or a protector of any kind. But maybe he’d underestimated himself. Knowing Sabrina and following her journey had made him respect the fortitude it took to step up to a challenge. She hadn’t loved the idea of becoming master, but she’d felt a responsibility to her people.
“Tobias?”
He shook his head as if waking himself from a dream. There was only one answer. He would not give her up for anything. “Yes.”
“Yes?” Sabrina let out a shaky breath. “You don’t mind giving up your job and living underground?”
“I will always be a healer, Sabrina, but as far as leaving the hospital now, I think it’s the right time. Over the centuries, I’ve had to change my identity every thirty years or so. I’ve been Dr. Winthrop for long enough. This is as good a time as any.”
Windy City Dragon Page 25