by Ophelia Bell
“Are you all right?” he asked, reaching out and taking my hand in his.
“Better now,” I said, letting him pull me onto his lap.
“Your aura says otherwise,” he murmured into my hair.
“I don’t think Keagan likes me much,” I confessed, holding tight to him so I didn’t have to see his reaction.
Rohan snorted. “He’s just overprotective. Besides, if he didn’t like you, I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t have come back to me all covered in his scent. I’m not quite sure whether I ought to start with the real food or with you.”
“You need to eat. And if you don’t mind, can I use your shower?”
“And let you wash off all that delicious ursa goodness?” He laughed and gripped my shoulders, urging me back far enough to look into my eyes. Whatever he saw made him frown again. “Yeah . . . whatever you need, but I’m spending the rest of the night improving that moody look. You’re saving my life here. That alone earns you the right to happiness.”
A knot formed in my throat and I leaned in and kissed him, unable to voice my doubts about my right to happiness. I needed more than sweet words from him, but it was a good start.
The second I slipped off his lap and padded toward the bathroom, I heard him crunch into the enormous sandwich I’d made. He moaned, the sound every bit as filled with ecstasy as the noises he’d made when we’d fooled around earlier. I chuckled at how very appropriate the reaction was for a Gold dragon.
By the time I finished with my shower, the room was dark, but I heard him slide over in the bed and pull the covers back when I came close. I slipped into bed beside him, comforted by the way he enveloped me in his big arms and nuzzled the back of my damp neck.
He traced a palm down my side and plucked lightly at the fabric of his shirt that I’d put back on after bathing.
“What’s with this?” he asked.
“I’ve decided it’s my favorite shirt too. Do you mind if I keep it on? You should rest anyway.”
He was silent for a second, then gripped my hand in his. “Give me some of your energy, Deva. Just a little.”
Realizing I should have given him quite a bit more already, I let a measure of power loose through my hand, the room filling with an eerie violet glow until I halted the flow.
The next thing I knew he exhaled a deep breath and we were encompassed in a glittering cloud of glowing gold. I only needed a single breath before the euphoria filled me and every worry seemed to fade away.
“You didn’t have to do that,” I said, snuggling back against him.
“Call me crazy but after everything today, it’s the least I can do. I have the most insane urge to make you happy and until I can figure out how to make that a permanent state, this is all I’ve got.”
His magic didn’t leave room for any second guessing, so I gradually fell asleep, more content than I had any right to be.
Late that night something roused me, my senses sparking like I’d been shocked. I blinked into the darkness, my heart racing, slowly regaining my bearings as the awareness of Rohan’s furnace-warm sleeping body behind me became apparent.
A play of what I’d thought was moonlight shifted near the corner of the room and I darted my eyes in that direction. The blaze down the creature’s face gave it away as the hound who had attacked Rohan, but while its markings had a silver glow before, now they glowed with golden light. Its dark eyes fixed on me and I clenched my jaw, but there was no malice within that gaze. I reflexively pushed a fresh surge of magic into Rohan’s body to fortify his aura.
The hound blinked and whined softly, the golden hue of its blaze fading.
“Get out of here,” I bit out, with as much quiet force as I could without waking Rohan. The hound flinched and glanced at the window, but remained where it was.
Sighing softly, I closed my eyes and began to hum the song I’d used to banish it earlier, then parted my lips and sang in a low voice as near a whisper as I could manage. On the last “I will survive,” I opened my eyes to hazard a glance. The hound was gone, yet for some reason I couldn’t shake the feeling that I’d hurt it more with my song than Rohan had with his fire, and that somehow that creature was as much a victim as the people it had bitten.
14
Deva
The silvery morning light roused me and I opened my eyes, disconcerted by the misty gray glow beyond the window. Warmth encompassed me and the lingering sense of rightness. A big, tan arm was hooked around my midsection, a hand securely fastened over one breast and I closed my eyes again to enjoy the sensation.
I’d never woken up in the arms of a lover before, at least not in real life. I had plenty of dreams about it, and the real thing was every bit as precious. But my savoring of the moment was cut short by the memories seeping in from the day before.
Keagan’s rough, urgent touch had been a stark contradiction to his chilly demeanor, but as much as that had confused and hurt, it was obvious he cared deeply for Rohan. Enveloped as I was in the Gold dragon’s pleasant aura, I understood completely.
I gently extracted myself from Rohan’s embrace, subtly pushing fresh power into him to replace whatever the hound had stolen during the night. I didn’t see any sign of the creature now, and while it could have returned while we slept, I had a feeling it had stayed away as I wished. The creatures were a mystery, but I was at a loss as to how I could unravel it. Perhaps with enough energy and Rohan’s permission, we could experiment a little. They responded to my commands in a way . . . if only I could figure out what command to give to make them stop attacking to begin with.
But that would require Keagan’s participation because I could already tell my magic was waning. Slipping out the bedroom door, I closed it gently behind me. I wasn’t thrilled about the idea of asking Keagan for a refill. While I certainly enjoyed the act itself, I couldn’t stand the constant rejection after the fact. Hopefully he’d be reasonable enough to at least listen to my idea first, and then maybe he’d be a bit less of an asshole the next time around.
I approached his bedroom door and found it open. The big bed in the center looked slept in, but the room itself was empty save for the warm, earthy scent of him. My belly tightened with a rush of arousal, the memory of that scent surrounding me, making my skin tingle and my head buzz. Closing my eyes, I shook my head to clear it, irritated by my poor self-control. I knew most of the higher races were adept at separating the need for magic from the need for love. Perhaps that was a skill I still needed to learn, because a small part of me had a really hard time not craving a deeper connection with Keagan similar to the one I’d already felt forming with Rohan.
It’s been a day, I reminded myself. Most of my kind had centuries to acclimate. Even though in my blood I understood the concept of patience, it would still take practice before it felt natural. That blood was what provided the certainty that I had the potential for far more power than I could display. After all, I had eons worth of memories that weren’t mine stored away, but so far they were all just abstract details; very few of them were attached to any emotion to allow me to latch onto. Perhaps they’d have been more meaningful if the woman who had created me had not been a psychopath devoid of her own emotional ties to the world.
I shivered as I padded through the chilly house, though my reaction was less from the temperature than from one of those more recent memories of early consciousness. In the memory I was completely alone in a gray and desolate place, trapped there yet still possessing enough awareness to understand that whoever held me captive did not have kind intentions. Meri hadn’t wanted love, only a vessel powerful enough for her purposes. But in the end she’d forgotten how much power she was leaving on the table by leaving love out of her formula.
I’d been free from that prison in Meri’s lab for barely more than a year, and in all that time absolutely desperate to find some meaning for my very existence. All those memories that floated around my mind, plus the past year of observing the close bonds my family had to their soul ma
tes, made it clear to me that love was the key to awakening true power. Yet every time I found myself getting close to another person who wasn’t a member of my family, something went wrong. Those memories were raw and recent and hurt like hell. Was this how love was supposed to be? To have a taste of true affection, only to have it twisted and torn from me?
Yes, it had been only a day since I’d met Rohan, but for the first time I finally had something that meaningful within my grasp. I didn’t care what Keagan thought of me. I only hoped he’d be willing to share. If nothing else, he would help me unravel this mystery and figure out how to control the hounds, or reverse what they had done.
Because even if I didn’t succeed at finding the kind of love I wanted, I would damn sure find a way to protect the bloodline.
I followed the same meandering path through the big house I’d taken the evening before, marveling at how very different the landscape outside appeared in the dense marine layer that blanketed everything. I could have believed we were atop the mountain where the monastery lay that protected the entrance to the dragon Glade, or perched on one of the cliffs of one of the four turul Enclaves. The sounds of crashing surf beyond the bluffs were the only thing that gave away our location as being on earth and not in one of those two higher realms.
I passed through the door to the library and paused, spying a figure on the patio outside, big shoulders clad in a black hooded sweatshirt emblazoned with the same winged design that seemed to grace just about everything in this house, including its two residents. He was hunched down in the low-slung wooden chair, one hand gripping a big, steaming mug, the other holding what appeared to be a wooden stick that he idly spun between his fingers. His face was cast in shadow from the hood over his head.
I braced myself for the conversation, hoping it didn’t devolve into another seduction, but also not quite sure I’d mind. The past twenty-four hours had been the first time I’d experienced the ache that accompanied full depletion, and it was creeping in again like an uncomfortable weariness throughout my entire body. I appreciated that it provided me a deeper understanding of my dragon nature, but I knew better than to let it persist for too long.
While I was pretty sure I wouldn’t devolve into a near-feral dragon like Rohan the day before—my native shape was human, after all—I didn’t want to test that limit when there was so much at stake.
I gripped the handle of the glass door and pulled it open, heart pounding despite my resolve to get this conversation over with. At least I’d caught Keagan somewhat relaxed instead of in the throes of angry carpentry. Maybe he’d be willing to listen. I winced and hesitated, realizing I probably should have changed out of Rohan’s shirt or maybe conjured something for myself that wasn’t infused with the dragon’s scent. But Keagan had heard the door open and was already turning toward me so I pressed my lips together and stepped outside, rushing past him to get to the chair facing him and blurting out my request before I could lose my nerve.
“I know you’re not crazy about me being here, but last night proved you’re just as determined to help Rohan as I am. I need to know you can be level-headed and maybe help me figure out a way to permanently heal him so we don’t have to keep fucking when it’s obvious you hate it.”
The cold of the wooden Adirondack chair bit into my bare thighs as I sat and lifted my gaze to face Keagan, anxious for his response.
But the eyes that met mine were a stormy gray-blue and distinctly not Keagan’s light brown. My breath puffed out in surprise as I met a familiar turul gaze that sparked with power. Beneath that power was what could only be described as absolute surprise.
“Ozzie,” I breathed, my entire body going both hot and cold at the same time. “H-how are you here?”
A warm wind picked up, drying the damp, chilly air and heating my skin. I stared at him, not sure whether I was happy or terrified, and confused as hell to see him here of all places. And, oh fuck, what had I just said?
He frowned and gave an exaggeratedly slow look around. “Well, last I checked this was my house, so I think the better question is how the fuck are you here?”
15
Ozzie
I didn’t know whether to hug her or bend her over my goddamn knee. Both impulses warred in me while I waited for Deva to find her voice. The wind kicked up around us, blowing the fog farther inland and leaving us both sitting in a patch of sunlight that made no logical sense at this time of day.
She remained stunned, and the breeze blew into the umbrella over the nearby table, hard enough that it fluttered like a sail and nearly toppled over. It’d taken me a moment to process what she’d said—to put together that she thought I was Keagan, who she’d apparently fucked recently—and while I wasn’t exactly happy, I also wasn’t about to lose my shit over it when I was just relieved as hell she was in one piece. So I knew the wind wasn’t my doing.
When I realized her gaze was fixed on my bare chest visible beyond the open zipper of my hoodie, I frowned.
“Your tattoo . . .” she said, then stopped, her brows turning down in confusion. “Did you ever show it to me before?”
My scalp prickled at her question and I lifted my hand, grazing fingertips over the dark ink design of the Fate’s Fools emblem etched into my chest. “Not that I know of,” I said, and darted a worried glance at the swaying umbrella. I’d better get her calmed the fuck down or we’d wind up with a hurricane. It seemed her turul powers had matured a lot since I’d seen her last, which wasn’t necessarily a good thing, especially when it was clear she had no idea she was the one doing it.
I closed the zipper all the way to my neck and pushed the hood off my head, then forced what I hoped was a more welcoming smile. The wind abated to a light breeze more in tune with the sunny April morning.
“I . . . thought you were Keagan,” she said, finally slumping back in the chair and tugging the hem of the shirt down in an attempt to cover her bare thighs. Her long legs stretched beyond the stark white cotton, muscles tensed and knees clamped tight together. The rich brown of her skin glowed enticingly in the morning sun. Abstractly I wondered if I’d been Keagan would she be so closed off and trying to retreat into herself? I’d heard the small lie she’d blurted out before realizing she was speaking to me. She definitely enjoyed whatever she’d done with Keagan and I highly doubted he hated it as much as she believed.
“I gathered as much,” I said, the corner of my eye twitching as I worked to bury my gut reaction to not only her words, but her very presence here, half naked and looking sexier than she had any business looking in a threadbare old Fate’s Fools t-shirt. The wind carried her scent to me, only it wasn’t just hers. She smelled like both of my bandmates, though I could tell she’d bathed recently. “What exactly is wrong with Rohan, anyway?” I asked, opting to defer the topic to one less incendiary for now. Ironic that it meant discussing the dragon I lived with.
She sat up straight again, her jaw set. I inwardly groaned at that look. Whatever she was here for was going to be nearly impossible to talk her out of, and I knew first-hand how very persuasive she could be even without full command of her turul power.
“I can see souls now,” she began and my eyes widened instantly. She let out a soft laugh. “Yeah, I know, crazy huh? I don’t know if it’s related to being in the realm of the gods last year or just—” She shrugged lightly. “—part of who I am. I am nothing if not a mystery.” The rueful tone made me want to comfort her but I couldn’t let those impulses ride free if I wanted to keep her safe. Her being here was risky enough.
“How recent a development is this?”
She eyed me warily. “Ever since the war ended, but it’s been easier since the Equinox. I linked to the bloodline to deliver the charmed message, and when I did, I could see all their souls at once. But not just that, I could sense them too. I still can.” Her brows twitched as her gaze flickered with inner light the way a dragon’s does when it checks out a person’s aura, then shifted down to my midsection. “I can see eve
ryone’s souls if I look—”
I dropped my hand over my belly and splayed my fingers, summoning a faint net of electricity. “Fucking rude and invasive if you ask me. Just because you can see people’s souls doesn’t mean you have a right to look. What does this have to do with Rohan?”
She shot me an irritated look but thankfully her attention shifted from my belly. I had no idea what she’d have seen had she looked at my soul, but I was damn sure I didn’t want to find out.
“Something’s feeding on people’s souls. Members of the bloodline are the targets, and have been under attack. At least six since the Equinox, but I have a feeling it’s been going on a lot longer. That’s just when I noticed something was wrong.”
“And Rohan?” I prodded once again, impatient now for whatever truth she was avoiding telling me because I had a sinking feeling I knew what was happening.
“He’s a member of the bloodline, on his human parent’s side. He was attacked yesterday morning. The victims—they get bit by these hound-like creatures that only I can see. Eventually their souls bleed dry. It’s my fault Rohan got bit. I wasn’t watching—” Her eyes welled with tears and her gestures became erratic. She rubbed at her eyes and shook her head, then looked straight at me. “I think they’re linked to me somehow. They’re attacking people because of me.”
I started to shake my head, out of an urge to comfort her more than anything, but stopped and sat forward. One thing was crystal clear to me; she absolutely believed everything she’d just told me, and not a breath of it had been a lie. And if her turul power was as potent as it seemed to be, that meant her perception was likely even keener than my own. She could hear the tiniest lie, and could perceive the truth of a situation even when events were unclear, though her own emotions could easily get in the way.