Dragon Mated: Sexy Urban Fantasy Romance (Prince of the Other Worlds Book 4)

by Kara Lockharte

  “It’s just crazy, is all,” Andi murmured to herself.

  “Yeah,” Danny agreed.

  Andi sighed inside the hood. “So, what else happened that first night?”

  “Big fight. Mom was a bad ass. And then, when we were done, everyone cut up the body.”

  “Don’t make me puke in this hood.”

  “It wasn’t a person, Andi,” Danny tsked. “Not when we fought it, at least. And it wasn’t like it was screaming for help—it was more making Chewbacca noises. It almost killed Joshan. Mom saved his life.”

  “The same guy that Uncle killed?” Andi asked, putting two and two together.

  “Yep. Too bad…I liked him. But Uncle had to make a point about your safety, and Mom’d already given him an extra ten years, so hey.”

  The hood did make it easier to not hyperventilate when she panicked, at least. “So, what, then they had a bar-be-que?”

  Danny snorted. “Kinda sorta. But don’t worry, I didn’t eat any of it. Don’t start thinking I was being noble, though,” he said, as she felt them turn left. “After what I’d seen, I would’ve gladly taken a bite, after watching all the fighting. Only Mom wouldn’t let me. She wanted me to stay pure.”

  Andi curled a lip. “I’m really disgusted, but I also want to make a virginity joke.”

  “Uh, yeah, no,” Danny laughed. “Even then, she was worried I’d introduce variables into her experiment. And, after that night, she and Uncle Lee pulled me aside and asked if I’d sign on board. They didn’t exactly force me, so much as told me I needed to try, for humanity’s sake. And, shit, man, the only thing I’d actually read up until that point were comic books. What the fuck else was I supposed to do?”

  Andi bit her lips inside the blindfold and realized they were making yet another left-hand turn. “Was she sure it’d work?” she asked softly.

  “No. That was the kicker. She’d try one combination of things, and I’d feel stronger or whatever—she didn’t dare let me play any sports—or invincible, but it wouldn’t always last. And I couldn’t ever change into a dragon…until just recently.”

  Andi wondered if her brother’s feelings of invincibility was what had led him to all his brushes with the law. “What changed?”

  “Near as I can figure, I did. After Mom passed, I took some time off. I couldn’t manage trying anymore. It reminded me too much of her. But after a while? I missed it. I didn’t want to feel normal again. What was the point? I never had been. So Uncle Lee set me up with funds, and help. He added that David Argento dude to our team. You saw my workspace, it’s nice, and I still had all Mom’s notes, mostly, so….”

  “Why didn’t you ever tell me, Danny?” she asked, as they took another left-hand turn. “After Mom was dead?”

  “Would you have believed me? You already thought so poorly of me, Andi, don’t lie. If I’d come to you before this, before you met your dragon friend, you would’ve thought I was insane.”

  They took another left, and she sighed. “I know you’re just circling the block now.”

  “So what if I am?” he said lightly, but then she felt them make a ninety-degree turn, probably into another parking lot.

  “I don’t understand why you had to drop off the face of the Earth, Danny. And Rax said you were kidnapped….”

  “We just did that so there’d be a reason I was gone, on video and everything.”

  “Did it ever occur to you just how much you’d worry me?” She yanked the hood off because she needed to see his reaction. She looked around. They were in the rear parking for a place she remembered from their childhood—Skeeters. One of the first bars they’d hustled at. Shit, she remembered their dad taking them there on weekday mornings in summer to play pool, early enough that the bartenders didn’t care that they were far, far underage. She threw the hood at her brother. “You asshole.”

  “Hey! I’ll show you her notes, I promise. I just wanted to hang out with you some, first.” He tossed the hood on the dash. “I mean, when’s the last time you played pool?”

  More recently than you know, she thought, and shook her head. “No, Danny. Answer my question first. Did you think at all about what it would do to me that my twin brother and only living relative dropped off the face of the Earth?”

  “Yes. Just…not a lot.” Danny whipped a hand through his hair. “It was a dick move, all right? I acknowledge that. One hundred percent, Danny-grade dickery. It’s just that once the dragon-thing started to work, I needed to be in a cage, and not the actually-in-prison kind.”

  Andi frowned. “And when you called me scared? From Argento’s phone?”

  “And that was when it was starting to work. The dragon….” Danny began, staring out at the back porch where several of Skeeters’s more colorful patrons were power-smoking cigarettes to get back to their beer. “He needs to be in a cage. He’s me…but he’s not like me. And changing back and forth…it’s hard.”

  She could see the pain of it, written on his face. In their former lives, this moment was exactly when Andi would’ve given him a hug. But she couldn’t do that now, knowing everything she did. And he knew it too. She saw the lonely truth of it in his eyes when he next looked at her. “Wanna go inside? Drinks on me? For old time’s sake?”

  Andi took him in. She knew he was asking for forgiveness of a sort. And while she could never offer that to him…she felt sorry for him, for what he’d become, too. All those times he’d acted sketchy in high school and she’d thought he was on drugs. God…how much easier would his life had been if he’d just been on cocaine? It was like her mom had asked her kid twin brother to become a super-villain…and then given him absolutely no other life skills.

  She closed her eyes and heard herself say, “Sure.”

  Skeeters was exactly as she remembered it inside. Torn posters along the narrow hall getting in, the walls underneath more graffiti than paint, and she already knew she didn’t want to see the bathrooms there ever again in her life. The main bar still had the same poorly-lit-so-you-can’t-see-the-grime thing going for it, facing a decently sized room with tables, chairs, and two pool tables along the back. Honky-tonk was playing overhead, but Andi knew that might change at any moment, depending on the bartender’s whim, and blessedly, no one was on the small stage. No one was here for the music on a no-live-band-night. Tonight, it was only a bar for serious drinking.

  Andi let Danny lead her over to one of the pool tables. “I’ll be right back with beers.”

  “I’ll rack.”

  “Don’t cheat,” he said and grinned at her, before departing. She watched him as she placed the pool balls into the triangle, and from his attitude and body language, she could tell he was shamelessly flirting with the bartender, who was old enough to be their grandmother.

  Well, maybe not their actual grandmother.

  “Gross,” she said when he came back.

  “Whatever,” he laughed. “It doesn’t hurt me to make an old lady’s day.”

  “Don’t let her hear you say that.”

  Andi set her coat down on a nearby chair and tucked her purse underneath it, then chalked her cue, all business, and Danny eyed her. “What, you think you’re gonna speed round me and get out of this?”

  “I’d like to, yes.”

  “Well, just so you know, it’s the best two outta three, already.”

  She shrugged. “I can beat you twice.”

  He leaned over to stage-whisper. “I’m a freaking dragon.”

  “Strangely, I don’t think being a dragon makes you good at pool.” She took the white ball and lined it up. “If we were playing frisbee, maybe. Football? Then, yeah.” She took her aim and broke the rack, sending the balls flying, and she and Danny both took a second to stare at the table and do their personal calculus. “Let’s play to sixty.”

  “Ooooh, and here I thought I was only going to get you for fifteen.”

  “Nope. See, if I win, you give up this turning people into dragons shit.”

  Danny laughed.
“Fuck no. You think I’m stupid?”

  “Do you really want me to answer that?” she asked, as innocently as possible.

  “Man, when I’m not around you, I forget how mean you are sometimes.”

  “Mean, right, same difference, really.”

  He rolled his eyes and leaned over to prepare his shot as she took a sip of her beer. They were just going to get one point per ball in, and not bother with the solids or stripes, until the first one of them hit sixty, less than half the length of a tournament game. “So, what’s your dragon friend like, anyhow?”

  Andi wiped the foam off of her lip. “Ah ha. The real reason we’re here arrives. Get me competitive, liquor me up, and hope that I’ll talk.”

  “We both know that just one beer is not gonna get you drunk. Asian red, maybe, and I’m not above us using that to help us hustle, but we’ll both know the truth.” He shot her one of his charismatic smiles. “Just answer the question?” His eyes stayed on her as he made his shot—and the ball sliced away.

  “Ooooh. Too bad there’re no re-dos.” Andi lined her next shot up and made it, then she stood, surveying the table. Was there anything about Damian that was safe to tell Danny? Without thinking, her hand went for her necklace. She’d taken to rubbing her thumb across its stone in thought at work, and glancing at the light inside it all the time. Then she saw Danny’s eyes, following her gesture. She dropped her hand and straightened. “They’re a good person.”

  “Even though they kill Hunters?”

  “Don’t start. They don’t go out of their way to kill you, like you do them.”

  “Uh, except for that were-girl we spared for you. And all the other ones on vengeance trips. Uncle Lee’s still catching heat for letting her go for you. The Australians went to a lot of trouble to bring her in. Plus there’s been a lot of fighting recently.”

  “Well, maybe if you didn’t use helicopters, you wouldn’t have to get fought so hard,” she said with a frown. “I mean, if all of you left town, I don’t think it’d continue.”

  “No one’s leaving town now. Not now that dragons are involved.”

  Which was what Andi was afraid of because if she didn’t get to touch Damian again soon, she might die. “What’s it like?”

  “To be a dragon?”

  “No, to be the world’s worst brother.”

  Danny snorted softly. “The changing is the best part.” He lined up a shot, took it, and missed, and it occurred to Andi that he was missing so many shots so that their game would last even longer. “You’d think it would hurt, right? But it doesn’t. It’s like stepping into a suit of armor that was made for me. When it happens…I feel so amazing, Andi, you have no idea. I’m so strong and so powerful….” She was about to call him on his shit and ask how he thought it felt for dragon-shifters, but the expression on his face made her pause as he went on. “But then, what comes afterward.” He blew air through pursed lips, and then took a sip of his own beer. “He’s really angry all the time.”

  “Because you keep him in a cage, Danny.” Maybe if Danny let the beast out—and let it fly!—then he’d have more empathy for other dragons.

  Danny’s eyes went wide and he gave her a look. “Are you kidding? Do you know what would happen if he got out? He’d go on a rampage for sure.”

  Andi frowned, not understanding. “Can’t you just talk him out of it?”

  “No. There’s no one to talk to. He’s me. All me.” He stared at her. “He’s like all the angry parts of me sewn together like Frankenstein’s monster. It’s not like it’s another person, and we’re all, ‘can you pass the ketchup?’ inside. It’s like me, amplified to ten thousand and built like a tank with wings. What are you not getting about this?” He squinted at her, then his eyes widened again. “Is it different for your friend?”

  As far as she knew, Damian was one of a kind—his dragon embroiled within him because of his curse. “They do fight with their dragon some,” she offered, non-committal. “But they can take theirs outdoors, at least. Maybe because nobody’s trying to skin them.” Andi had never wished more than now that all that ‘twin connection’ bullshit she’d heard about as a kid was real. If it was, then she’d use it to download just a fraction of her empathy to her brother. “If you treat it like an enemy right off the bat—no wonder it’s always pissed off, even if it is you.”

  Danny’s eyes rose to the heavens. “You’re such a sucker, Andi.”

  “Being nice isn’t a crime, you know.”

  “Which is why you’re nice to everyone else but me?” He jerked his chin at the table. “You’re up.”

  Andi frowned at him, then scanned the table for opportunities. Her next shot was far away. She leaned forward to make it and her necklace swung out. She was hyperaware of it now, but knew Danny would notice if she tried to take it off.

  “So, has he been a dragon his whole life?”

  It was her turn to miss; her pool cue went wide. “How do you know it’s a he?”

  “No ordinary person gave you that necklace, Andi-bear. And, nothing personal, but knowing what that is…I’m assuming it came from a man.”

  Andi fought a blush and ground her teeth. “You shouldn’t make assumptions,” she said, covering the stone with a hand.

  “Nah. I remember when we took molly at Elia’s party, and you whispered and made out with Elia half the night. Afterward when I asked you about it, you were all, ‘boobs are fun and all, but it’s probably dicks for me.’”

  “Thus ending my thrilling career with the truth-telling drug that is ecstasy.” She stared at him. It was unfair that they’d been so close—at least, she’d thought—for half their lives. Danny still knew more about her than anyone else—more even than Damian did. She and Damian were working on that finally, but it would just take time. “I love you, but also, sometimes, I fucking hate you,” she said, and it was true.

  “Yeah. You deserve to,” Danny agreed and shrugged, as though this were an acceptable thing. “But whoever gave you that….” his voice drifted as he looked back at her necklace. “They couldn’t hate you if they tried.”

  Chapter 12

  Damian stared at his phone. He’d texted Andi two hours ago with no response, which was unlike her, because ever since they’d started texting at will, she’d never been apart from her phone once. He had just sent her an ostentatious amount of sex toys though…. Was she pissed at him? Or arranging them into what he hoped was a shrine around her mirror?

  He snorted at himself and gave her fifteen more minutes before heading down to see Jamison. He went to knock on their door and found it open.

  “If it’s not an emergency, give me five?” Jamison was in the rooms he shared with Mills, its mancavey-ist part in one corner, immersed in some sort of full body game play experience with wires and multiple screens.

  “Sure,” Damian said, even though he wasn’t. He sat down on their couch and looked around at the rest of the décor, which was far more Mills’s doing, and looked for all the world like high-class cottage witch. Intricately patterned rugs were on the walls and floor, bunches of drying herbs hung from the ceiling, and almost everything was made of wood or stone, but nothing looked old or was dusty. Even the things Damian knew were old, like the broom on the wall gifted to Mills from her great-grandmother, were shiningly oiled and clean.

  Damian waited a patient three-minutes-and-thirty-some-odd-seconds before clearing his throat. Jamison laughed. “Okay, okay. Sorry, just had to save.” Jamison unplugged himself and his seat swiveled around. “I’m not sure how much more relationship advice I have, man, although I’m honored you’d ask twice.”

  Damian would’ve gotten angry on that point, but he could sense that Jamison really meant it, whereas if he’d had the same conversation with Austin, in every subsequent one the wolf would insert a tease. “Thank you, but no. I need to know where Andi’s phone is.”

  The obvious reason she hadn’t responded was because she’d broken it somehow and lost his number.

 
“Why?” Jamison asked, rather than do as he was told.

  “I sent her a message.” Asking what she was eating for dinner. He was hopeless and he knew it. Still. “She hasn’t responded.”

  “Is she busy?”

  “It’s been two hours and I know she’s not at work tonight.” If Jamison couldn’t find her phone, maybe he’d have him hack the hospital….

  “So, to be clear, we’re stalking your girlfriend,” Jamison said, in a tone that let Damian know what he thought of it.

  “No. What is happening right now is that you’re stalking her, with my permission. This way I don’t have to cheat and use a mirror.” But it’d now been two hours, seven minutes, and thirty seconds with no return text.

  “Tom-a-to, tom-ah-to,” Jamison said with a frown. “Normally I’d fight you harder, but, given the circumstances—”

  “That I’m a dragon with a temper?” Damian gave him a meaningful look.

  “No, that even more Hunters are in town…. Never mind.” Jamison closed his eyes and pulled one of the screens he’d been playing his game on over. It floated out on a metal boom and then showed a map of their city from far overhead before zooming in to one red dot. “There. Her phone’s at her house.”

  Damian squinted at the dot. It wasn’t as satisfying to see as he had hoped.

  “But,” Jamison went on, slowly, “it hasn’t moved in two hours. I don’t know what that means….”

  “Grim,” Damian called out. His cat appeared immediately. “I need a mirror large enough to step through.”

  “Damian!” Mills called his name cheerfully as she walked in. “What’s going on?”

  Damian ignored her, as Grimalkin did his bidding, creating a mirror to hover in the middle of the couple’s living room. “Show Andi to me.” He waved his hand and demanded.

  It was only afterwards he realized that if she had created some sort of shrine with all the sex toys, immediately showing her to everyone else in the room would be awkward. But the mirror he’d summoned fogged and then resolved into a blurry image. Whatever he was seeing Andi’s reflection in was quite dusty, but it was clear she was not at home.