Sammy’s eyes narrowed, and Andi remembered they hadn’t parted on good terms. “I liked you better when you were dead,” she said, frowning deeply at Danny before grabbing the bag from Andi’s hands and wheeling back inside.
“It’s been a busy night here,” Andi said once the door was closed again.
“Sounds like,” Danny said with a chuckle. “She knows that’s poisonous right?”
“Somebody in there does,” Andi said. She knew she needed to go back inside and help Eumie, but she also felt like she might never see her brother again.
Which would be a good thing…wouldn’t it?
“Take care, Andi-bear,” Danny said with a nod. He turned to trot down the stairs, and then paused to turn back. “And tell your so-called friend to lay low. There’s practically a Hunter convention in town right now.”
“I’d noticed,” she said, catching herself before crossing her arms and getting Eumie’s blood on even more of herself. Danny gave her a mock salute and took the remaining stairs two by two, before hopping into his car, a vintage dark-green souped up El Camino, and driving off with a thunderous roar.
After he’d gone, and before she went back inside, Andi wondered which friend he’d meant…Eumie or Damian.
Chapter 7
Damian was waiting in the foyer for Austin to come down. Mills had announced another set of targets for them and it was a large enough group she’d invited Stella to come, especially since Zach was indisposed.
Damian had spent most of the afternoon in his office trying, and failing, to write a letter to Andi. All he wanted to do was tell her how he felt. To somehow promise her a future. He didn’t trust himself to text her—especially when there’d been no sign she was getting his texts anyhow.
But he couldn’t make the words flow either. He’d waited too long and didn’t know where to begin anymore. Anytime he opened up the door to thoughts of her inside his heart, his emotions poured out and drowned him, and then his dragon started in. It was through talking to him, disgusted with what it viewed as his inaction and spent its days inside him committing violence. The only thing that quieted it was training to the point of exhaustion, and that only bought him a slim window for sleep.
He’d wound up throwing the pieces of paper into the brazier of Forgetting Fire on his desk, wishing that he could forget his own futility as well.
“You ready?” Austin asked at the top of the stair. He was kitted out in the military things he enjoyed, dressed in black, with a mask pulled down around his neck like a scarf for later.
“As ever.”
Austin came down and clapped his shoulders, giving him a wicked grin. “The interstate offer still stands, you know.”
Damian snorted. “No, thank you. And I don’t think Stella would appreciate the detour.”
Austin laughed. “We could always leave her in the trunk.”
“I don’t think so,” Zach said, coming up to see them off. Mills had already done her magicks on him, making him look like an older version of Damian for an international business call. There was no way for Mills to do it and not make Zach look like Damian’s father, because they’d shared so many traits.
“Oh, come on, brother, I was joking. I would never put a member of Starry Sky in a trunk—unless I was sure that trunk had air holes,” Austin went on.
“Don’t make me aerate you,” Zach jokingly threatened.
It was always strange for Damian to see Zach’s performance, but no more so than when he smiled. It wasn’t an expression he could remember his father making from his childhood, no matter how hard he tried.
“Wait for me!” Ryana announced, from the top of the stair. She had her wings tucked away, and was also wearing black. It gave her a curvy silhouette against the white wall behind her and made the red bird sitting on her shoulder all the more striking.
“Ryana?” Damian asked. There’d been no mention of his sister when they’d been planning this raid. “Mills didn’t tell you to come, did she?” If she had, he was going to have some words with the witch.
“She didn’t have to,” Ryana told him simply, descending the stairs with a look of triumph. “I’m coming.”
“You’re not,” he growled. He could barely keep himself together outside his castle’s walls. He couldn’t kill Hunters, manage his dragon, and be worrying about her, too. “You’re staying here.”
Ryana rolled her eyes. “Damian, I am my own person. Not to mention that I’ve been trained in fighting and statescraft since I was five.”
“Statescraft? I’ll take you,” Zach said, turning toward her for the first time.
Ryana saw him and gasped. “F-father?” she asked, her voice going high, as Lyka shot up, to caw and fling herself at Zach’s eyes.
“Whoa!” Damian said, swatting the bird aside gently as Zach ducked.
“It’s Zach, it’s Zach!” The werewolf waved his hands. “Sorry!”
Ryana regained her footing and snarled. “What is the meaning of this?”
Damian put himself in her path. “Zach pretends to be a person who doesn’t exist to run my company. I’m too ageless to do it myself and also too busy. Not all fights require him, but most require me.”
“But it looks exactly like him,” Ryana said, her voice a whisper, peeking around Damian’s shoulders to see again.
“I know. It’s because I’ve been on Earth for twenty years. It has to be believable.”
Her eyes narrowed on Damian. “So he has two jobs, and I can’t even have one?”
Damian blew out air roughly. “Ryana, perhaps we should have this conversation in private.”
“No, because I know what your answer will be.” Her green-leather wings snapped out of her back to arch in defiance and Damian heard Austin gasp beside him. “You want to keep me in a box, like the Heart.”
“It’s different, Ry,” he tried.
“You’re not the only person Max taught how to fight!”
“Yes, but…the outside world is dangerous, wings,” Austin said, taking Damian’s side.
“So?” Ryana told him. “I have watched all of your suggested movies and then some. And what I have learned is that if I don’t like my current situation here, I should probably beat someone up to get my way. Which means that the Earth and the Realms are not all that different.”
Damian looked over to Austin. He was vaguely aware that after finding out they’d watched Die Hard, Austin had given her a list of other movies to catch up on. “And just what movies did he tell you to watch, Ryana?” he asked his sister while watching the werewolf tense.
“I have seen many Alien, Terminator, Rambo, and Rocky films. Highly variable in quality, but the message seemed to be the same.”
Damian put a hand to his head. This was all his fault for not keeping a closer eye on her, yes, but….
Austin grimaced. “I should go check out the SUV, make sure it’s all geared up,” he said, angling for the door.
“Yes, you should,” Damian said flatly.
“Nice knowing you, brother,” Zach said, low.
Austin made to leave, and then stopped on the threshold and looked back, as they all heard Stella’s motorcycle pulling up behind him. “The wings are why you can’t come.”
Ryana gave a dancing shiver and both wings disappeared. “There. They’re gone now. Happy?” She crossed her arms.
“No. I wish you could be you all the time,” the werewolf told her. “But we’ve already got enough Hunters on this fool’s ass,” he said, jerking his chin at Damian. “I don’t think we could handle any more heat right now, honestly. And if they found out about you, they’d be twice as relentless.”
“Why?” she asked warily, through half-lidded eyes.
“Because you’re a lot better looking than he is,” Austin said. He leaned against the doorjamb and surveyed Ryana appreciatively. “Also, if you go into business with my brother, you should watch Working Girl tonight.”
“You should not do that,” Zach said, shoving Austin out
and closing the door behind him. “But the offer still stands, otherwise,” he said, turning to find Ryana giving him a horrified glare. “Yes…well…I’ll remind you tomorrow. Good luck, in any case,” he said, waving to Damian, before making his own escape.
Ryana sat down on the stairs with a huff. “You’re not going to let me go, are you?”
“I’m sorry, Ry,” Damian said, sitting down beside her. He could hear the SUV idling right outside and scent a wisp of its exhaust.
His sister held up her hand to tick off fingers. “So far on Earth I’ve learned that we’re hunted by cannibals, that your purported mate is a traitor, and that someone else has to pretend to be our dead father. I’m not sure that I like it here.”
He pulled her in for a hug. “Andi’s not a traitor,” he reminded her.
“No…now she’s not a traitor for the hunters…she’s a traitor to you,” Ryana said, pushing him away. “She’s hurting you. I see it, even if they do not.” She rolled her eyes in the direction of outdoors.
“They probably do. There’s just nothing for it right now. What is there to say?” he asked her.
One of her eyebrows rose. “I am a fighter. You know it.”
He snorted. “Yes. I remember our childhood. Vividly.”
“I’d apologize, but as I recall, most the time you deserved it.” She smirked for a moment, then became serious. “So remember I’m part-dragon, too. Even if there’s not a beast inside of me, our father’s blood runs through my veins, same as it does yours. We are creatures of action, Damian. I’m happy to be living, yes, but just breathing’s not enough.”
“I feel that. Deeper than you know.”
“Good,” she told him, then shoved him lightly. “Now go.”
“We’ll make a place for you tomorrow,” he promised her, standing.
“Or else I’ll make a place,” she threatened, with a dangerous smile that showed all her teeth. He knew she meant it as he went out the door, getting into the SUV.
“What were you thinking?” he asked Austin, the second his seat belt was buckled.
“That it might be a good idea for your sister to be familiar with some of the best films from the twentieth century?”
“Nothing useful? Or kind?”
“Hey, now, Rocky’s plenty useful,” Austin started, as they drove off.
“Wait!” Stella shouted. “Where’s Zach?” She twisted in the back seat to see the castle dwindling behind them, showing her blonde hair in two low ponytails.
“He’s got a business meeting,” Damian said.
“He passed up a fight…for business?” Stella asked, like Zach might have grown a second head.
“Business is much like fighting when you do it at his level,” Austin said, defending his brother’s honor, looking back in the rearview. “You in or you out, Starry Sky?”
“I’m in,” she said, crossing her arms. Her well-lined eyes narrowed. “Someone has to keep an eye on you two.”
“You’re not wrong,” Austin said. He looped an arm around Damian’s headrest and looked back at her after the next turn. “And when we’re finished, how do you feel about detours?”
Jamison’s coordinates were taking them to the mansion he’d shown them photos of earlier. According to Mills, this was tonight’s best bet—Hunters in an isolated cluster outside of town—and if they worked cleanly enough, no one would know they’d been wiped off the board till morning.
Damian opened the glove box in front of him and pulled out earpieces for all of them, offering one to Austin and then one to Stella.
“You shouldn’t have!” she breathily exclaimed like he was giving her a gift. “No, really, you shouldn’t have,” she said more normally, and didn’t touch it. “I don’t like being tracked.”
“There’s only three of us. We might get separated, we need to know if you get into trouble.”
“Mmm, I’m more worried about what happens if you get into trouble,” she said. “Does this have magic dragon-turning-offing powers?”
“No.” His crew had been keeping a short leash on him after his first night. It’d been frustrating, although he supposed he couldn’t blame them. “You’ll just have to trust me for that.”
She squinted up at him. “I don’t know if you noticed, but I have trust issues.”
“Oh, we’d noticed,” Austin told her, putting his own earpiece in.
“You’re wearing the earpiece or we’re dropping you off,” Damian said, tossing it up in midair.
“Fine,” she said dramatically and caught it, plugging it into her ear same as Damian did with his. He watched her find gum from somewhere on her person and put it in her mouth, before looking out the window.
“You never did tell me what you told her,” he said. Stella was one of the last people he knew who’d seen Andi in person, and in hindsight, maybe he’d missed an opportunity that night to just run after Andi, chase her down, take her home, and keep her hog-tied in his closet.
She shrugged a shoulder. “Just the truth. That her uncle would do anything to get hold of a dragon.” Stella’s head swiveled toward him. “Why do you care so much anyhow? I mean, she’s a nice girl, but that shit’s a dime a dozen.”
“She is not,” he said, with a low growl.
“Okay, okay, maybe not that common,” Stella said, waving him down. “Especially being that she managed to rescue my ass by the power of being bratty. But really, dragon-man, why on earth would you choose to associate with a human that has so much baggage?”
Damian paused, trying to formulate an answer that would explain how much Andi meant to him and was met with the same problems that blocked his earlier letter. It was all too much, too strong. What metaphors were there to use? True north and magnets, the moon and tides? The way that thinking of her made him feel like he was beneath warm rain on a cool night?
“They’re mates,” Austin answered for him when he took too long, and Damian had to stop himself from punching the werewolf’s arm.
Stella winced. “Ooof. That’s…quaint. I mean, I would rather shoot myself with my Ruger here than be mated to anyone. Fucking’s fun and all, but….”
“This isn’t a topic we need to discuss,” Damian said, turning back around.
Stella waited five seconds before saying, “Shoulda thought of that before you gave me this fancy earpiece,” in a whisper, as his own earpiece echoed her words into his ear.
They decided to take the first “targets” after a brief stakeout just after nightfall. The Hunters had attempted to turn the mansion into a safe house, but while there were guards on all the entrances, no one was watching the skylight on the roof. Jamison cut off all external communications as they started and blipped the security cameras sequentially, as the three of them climbed up. After that, it was nothing for Damian to wrench off the skylight and them to all drop inside. Between the element of surprise, the wolves’ ability to scent and hear and Damian’s skill at sensing traces of heat, they cleared the house of all its occupants and guards in under ten minutes.
“Nice work,” Jamison said in all their ears.
“Training does pay off,” Austin said, pleased.
“Which is why I do so much of it,” Damian muttered. His dragon had been happy to help while they’d been fighting, but had now gone back to writhing inside of him, expressing its displeasure. He’d have to train for hours more tonight to get it to quiet unless Mills had other plans for them.
“And we didn’t even need earpieces,” Stella said on their line, before disappearing to shake down corpses for talismans like she always did.
“Grab some gear while you’re at it,” Jamison suggested. “I want to crack it later, see what exactly they know.”
“Sure,” Austin said, chucking a tablet with a bloody palm print on it into his rucksack, before moving into Damian’s path. “I’ve been meaning to say something, Damian. I’ve seen the gym logs. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad for you to slow down for a night and watch a movie, too.”
“And
I’m sure you could suggest something,” Damian said. “Rocky twelve?”
“Hey, no friendly fire.” Austin held his hands up in surrender. “I just don’t know how long you can keep this up.” He gave Damian a concerned look. “Do you?”
“As long as it takes,” Damian said without hesitation, as they all heard Stella gasp in their ears as one. They looked at one another, then ran for the hallway they’d last seen her go down.
Damian let his dragon’s senses flare. They were alone in the building now—he was sure of it—but as he raced into the room where Stella was, he realized that wasn’t why she’d inhaled.
“That guy seemed like he was going somewhere,” Stella said, pointing at a corpse back out in the hall. “So, I thought, let’s find out what he was running for, and….” she said, then stopped speaking to gesture helplessly at the room and the crates she’d already broken into.
The room they were in wouldn’t have been out of place on a modern whaling vessel. Stella had used a crowbar to pry her way into several boxes, some of which had nets made of metal rope as thick as Damian’s wrists. The last box she’d gotten into had what Damian knew was an explosive harpoon. He was sure its launcher was in another box nearby.
“What?” Jamison asked, sounding panicked as they all went silent. “What’re you seeing?”
“My phone’s live,” Austin announced, pulling it out to swing around so Jamison could get a view.
“Fuck me,” Jamison muttered.
“No, actually, I think they’re aiming for me,” Damian corrected with a snort. Box after box, and it was a massive room.
“D,” Austin began. “This gear represents some serious intent.”
“When money’s no object,” Stella said, kicking a box’s wooden edge.
“Serial numbers. I need serial numbers,” Jamison demanded. Austin stepped up with his phone and waved it around each of the parcels like a magic wand.
Stella looked to Damian. “And here I thought I was wanted.”
“Sorry to disappoint,” Damian told her, then glanced around. “We need to take all these out of commission.”
Dragon Mated: Sexy Urban Fantasy Romance (Prince of the Other Worlds Book 4) Page 11