by Leia Stone
“I know how to walk,” I growled. What was with this handoff? Logan, Keegan, Logan again. It was like Keegan was just the alpha for show but Logan really called the shots. Their dynamic was weird and hard to read.
“And I know how to keep you alive,” he countered, maneuvering through a crowd of burly men wearing business suits and holding scotch glasses.
As we passed, one of them looked right at me and his nostrils flared. Then just as quickly his face scrunched in repulsion.
“Who are they?” I indicated the business-suited men after we had passed. Logan was speed-walking us to the VIP lounge.
He glanced at the men and then leaned into me. “Those are Collectors. Very powerful sorcerers that would cut us into a thousand pieces and sell us for parts if they knew what we were.”
My gut clenched and I felt fear saturate my body. My dragon stirred in anxiety and I knew it would be suicide if I transformed now, so I took three deep breaths.
I am safe. I am safe. I am safe. Logan will keep me safe, I chanted to my dragon.
The fear dissipated a little and her stirring lessoned. Shit, that was a close call.
Logan seemed to understand. “After tonight, I need to train you, for all of our sakes,” he grumbled.
I just nodded. I didn’t know where I saw myself tomorrow, next week, next year. I was living this shitstorm one day at a time.
Keegan and the rest of the pack arrived at my back as we reached the VIP lounge staircase.
“Logan!” A twenty-something brunette stick figure with boobs shrieked as she jumped up and down.
Logan looked embarrassed. “Hey, Monica. Is Eva upstairs? It’s urgent.”
Monica scrunched her nose up at me and looked beyond us at an injured Nadine and Gear.
“Sure thing.” She unhooked the velvet cord that barred our access and let us upstairs. As we walked up the first few steps, I heard Sophie’s voice behind me as she muttered to Monica:
“Slut.”
Monica fired back: “Dog.”
My eyebrows hit my hairline. It seemed Sophie wasn’t the friendly type.
“Not tonight, ladies,” Keegan warned with a growl in his throat.
Damn, Sophie didn’t hold back her feelings, did she? She had zero filter between thoughts to verbal utterances, and she seemed to have a lot of enemies. Including me.
As we made our way up the stairs, Logan muttered to me: “Sophie is a tough nut to crack, but once she lets you in, she’s a fiercely loyal friend.”
“Right. I’ll keep that in mind when we become besties,” I growled. I didn’t even want to think about her letting Logan “in.”
As we reached the top of the stairs, I saw that we had been transported to a plush and swanky velvet lounge. The walls, the couches, the table tops, everything was black and purple velvet. People milled around, some doing the gross making out thing and others just talking, but one couple caught my eye.
The man wore a suit and top hat, and in his right hand was yellow fire! It floated about a quarter of an inch off of his palm, and the woman he was with was using her hand to change the colors. The flame flickered from yellow to blue to green as she waved her fingers.
Logan saw me looking and yanked me away. “Lower class magic users. Just a party trick. Come on.”
Just a party trick? That was the coolest thing I had ever seen. As we passed the low-lit tables I saw that above the tables were cutouts in the walls. Dancers wearing tiny purple velvet shorts and matching purple velvet bras thrust their hips out to the music. Most of the dancers were female but a few were male. Tip jars lay at their feet and were overflowing with twenty-dollar bills. Damn, I was in the wrong business.
I heard Keegan growl low behind me. Craning my head back, I saw him glaring at one of the male dancers. A bar patron was shoving a twenty dollar bill in the elastic of his waistband. Once he had finished tucking the bill in, the bar patron turned back to look at Keegan as if he sensed or smelled him. He had sleek black hair, shaved at the sides and big on top—one of those hot hipster guys. He took one look at Keegan, his mouth pursing to a thin line, and gave a little wave before turning back towards the dancer.
Nadine was white as a sheet in Keegan’s arms, but spoke through gritted teeth. “If you still love him, then you should just tell him.”
Keegan scoffed and looked elsewhere. “He’s the one who left.”
My eyebrows rose in surprise. Damn, big badass alpha was gay? My gaydar must be broken because I could usually call that. That’ll teach me not to stereotype. As we beelined it towards a set of double doors, I saw the guy Keegan had been sulking about look longingly at Keegan’s back. Love could be painful, and in this moment, I was super glad to be single.
Finally, we reached the closed doors and Logan wasted no time banging furiously on them. After a moment’s pause, a large man who looked like another bodyguard opened it. He took one look at Logan and nodded.
“She’s busy with another customer. You’ll have to wait.”
I could see the muscles in Logan’s jaw tighten. The guard looked at me and recoiled. “Leave that stinky mutt outside. She won’t want it in the office.”
“What the hell did you just call me?” I stepped forward, but Logan yanked me back.
“Tell Eva I have a gold unicorn,” Logan said firmly.
The guard rolled his eyes. “Are you drunk, Logan?”
“Tell her! She’ll know what it means!” he ordered, and I felt some type of power in his voice. It pushed against my skin like a physical thing.
The guard sighed and left.
Not thirty seconds later the door flew open and a beautiful woman with long black hair who looked to be in her early forties was ushering her client out. “Come back tomorrow. I’m closed now.”
The client, an older man in his fifties, looked offended, but nodded.
The woman’s eyes then fell on me. Her nostrils flared but she didn’t recoil. Instead, her eyebrows knitted together in confusion, and then rose again in wonder.
“Nick, out!” she yelled behind her at the guard.
He looked hurt for a moment, but must have been used to the behavior, because he shuffled past us holding his nose.
“Logan, what have you brought me?” Her voice held disbelief.
Logan pulled me forward still clutching my arm and shook his head. “We’re in a shitload of trouble, Eva, and we need your help.”
She waved us in, concern pulling at her features. I saw that her eyes looked similar to the doorman’s, buttery yellow, but not glowing. She wore a crisp grey four-piece suit with a matching top hat. This woman was an alpha in her own right; I could sense that. The entire pack filed into what was a giant office. The walls were filled with floor-to-ceiling books and jars and other weird crap I didn’t even recognize.
Eva’s eyes were pinned on me. “Honey, take off the hood.”
Logan let my arm go finally and nodded to me. “Eva is the only sorcerer you will ever be able to trust.”
That sounded comforting. Not.
I pulled my hood back, letting my red hair fall out, and Eva looked straight into my eyes. Her eyes flashed yellow like a fire that had ignited, and then glowed a hot copper. “It can’t be,” she breathed.
“She’s skyborn. I don’t know how, but I need you to erase her scent like you did mine. And she doesn’t heal when injured so I think her mag—”
“Holy mother of magic,” Eva breathed, and I couldn’t look away from those copper eyes. She stepped closer to me and inhaled, but then frowned. “It was smart of you to cover her scent to get her in here, but I need her clean in order to do the spell.”
Nadine whimpered behind me and Eva shifted her attention to look at her shoulder. “Logan, show her to my private apartment. She needs to shower. In my top drawer, she needs to use the black bar of soap—not the purple one. I have extra dancer costumes she can wear home.” She indicated a pile of purple velvet folded bikinis in plastic bags in the corner of the room.
&nbs
p; My eyebrows rose as I looked at the outfit. Sure, it was cute for summer on the beach in California … by myself. Not walking through a club in the middle of winter.
Logan didn’t look too pleased with the idea either. “We’ll make it work,” he mumbled to me, grabbing one of the plastic baggies.
“Nadine, my darling. What happened?” Eva’s voice held all the love of a concerned mother.
Keegan answered for her: “A druid chucked her across the room, and I think he hit her with magic. It’s not healing right and she’s in more pain than she should be.”
“Did you bring a scale?” she asked.
Keegan pulled a small vial from his pocket. “One for Nadine and two to sell you.”
She smiled and patted his hand. “You boys are good to me.” She must have just noticed the coloring of one of the scales, because she gasped. “Red?”
Keegan flicked his eyebrows my way and Eva nodded, impressed.
I wanted to stay and see how in the hell she was going to heal Nadine with a dragon scale. But Logan was pulling me to the back of the office, where a spiral staircase led to an upper floor.
“Why does Eva need a scale to heal Nadine?” I asked Logan as we made our way up the steps. She was some powerful Sorceress, right? Couldn’t she just magic the injury away?
Logan walked in front of me and I tried my hardest not to stare at his impressive butt.
“Druid magic is powerful. It will slowly eat away at Nadine and she’ll die. The only thing to counteract it is dragon healing. The scale.”
“Weird. You can’t just do the glowing green thing and heal her?” I asked as we reached the top of the staircase.
He chuckled patronizingly at me, as if I was some newbie. “No,” was all he offered.
Speaking of the druid reminded me of something. “Oh, Logan…” I stopped on the stairs and he turned to face me. “That druid … when you put me in the dragon sleep. I … dreamt about him. The bald head, the red tattoo…”
Logan didn’t look shocked, just firmly nodded. “Dragon magic. Sometimes we have prophetic dreams. Let me know if you dream about another one again, okay?”
I simply nodded, in shock that I had the ability to have prophetic dreams.
The top of the stairs opened into a swanky open loft. A kitchen lay against the far wall to the right, living area in the middle, and a large four-poster bed behind a shoji screen to the left.
As Logan led me to the bathroom, I wondered how he knew his way around this place so well. He was totally a player. I would be too if I looked that good naked. He turned to face me and I simply raised an eyebrow. “You sure know your way around here.”
He must have known what I was thinking, because he made a disgusted face. “Eww, no. For all intents and purposes, Eva is my mother. She’s known me since I was a youngling. Back when my parents were still alive.”
Oh. His parents were gone. Now I felt a little bad. “Okay. Cool.” I tried to act like I didn’t care, but then I thought it would be fun to mess with him. “Is Monica like your mom too?” I winked, taking the purple bikini from his outstretched hands.
He blew air through his teeth. “Monica was a really bad oversight. I blame Keegan and his heavy hand in mixing my drinks.”
I smiled and shook my head. Men. So predictable. Before I reached the door, his arm snaked out and grabbed mine, gently forcing me to face him.
“I’m not that kind of guy, just so you know.” His eyes were boring into mine, but all I could think about was the warm, light pressure on my wrist. My dragon sent a pulse of throbbing heat to my groin and I bit my tongue in an effort to distract myself.
“Okay,” I said.
He released my arm and shrugged. “Living forever gets lonely. You’ll see.”
My mouth popped open. “Excuse me, I think the club music is too loud. Did you say forever?”
Logan looked like he’d been caught. “Oh. I thought you knew. Or assumed. You’re immortal unless killed.”
“Fabulous,” was all I could say as I stumbled into the bathroom to wash liquor and wolf piss off of my body with magic black soap. Life was really taking me for a ride today.
5
AFTER SOAPING MYSELF head to toe in this weird black soap that had been shrink-wrapped in Eva’s top drawer, I dried off and put the purple bikini on. This was so not how I wanted to end this day—walking out in front of Logan and the bitchy Sophie in a freaking stripper bikini.
Logan’s voice came through the door. “Once Eva does the spell, I can give you my shirt. But you can’t have my scent on you for the spell.”
“Okay,” I said to the door. Frick! I hated this. I had a nice body. I mean, I was so pale you could see my blue veins, but that was the Irish in me. I was thin, not exactly athletic—things jiggled when I walked—but I liked what I saw in the mirror. Still, I didn’t have much self-confidence for this sort of stuff. My best friend from college, who was currently in Europe with her parents, called me Modest Mary because I was too serious with this type of thing. I didn’t own a cleavage shirt or shorts that let my ass cheeks hang out. God, I missed Jen right about now. She would crap herself if she knew what had been going on.
Logan was right outside the door. “Sloane, we gotta get this spell done. Especially now that your dragon scent is out in the open.”
I assumed I couldn’t wear any of Eva’s clothes either, because her scent would get stuck on me. The only scent I had was that of a Chinese sweat factory. The plastic I pulled this brand-new uniform out of smelled of cheap chemical clothes.
Logan grew impatient. “Sloane…”
“Alright!” I threw the door wide and strut out into the apartment, blowing past Logan and giving him a view of my ass. “I didn’t want to touch the old clothes for fear I would smell again, so I left them on the bathroom floor.” I couldn’t bear to look at him, to see his reaction.
Logan didn’t speak. I was halfway across the loft, headed for the staircase, and didn’t hear him following me. Finally, I risked a glance over my shoulder and saw him watching me with green dragon eyes, no mistaking the desire in his gaze. When he saw me looking at him, he cleared his throat and charged after me.
“It’s fine. She’ll burn the clothes.”
I smirked, enjoying the effect I had on him. It was probably the same effect all decent-looking women had on him, but still, a girl could dream. As we made our way down the staircase, I decided a joke was in order. “You know this uniform is growing on me, and after seeing those full tip jars, I’m thinking of applying here.”
Logan’s husky voice sounded behind me. “You would bankrupt every man in this place.”
I couldn’t help the grin that spread across my face. Logan Sharp was a charmer. I would give him that.
When we walked back into the office, it was empty of the pack. Only Eva remained and she was hunched over a table full of jars and crystals, grinding something into a mortar and pestle. I approached her slowly, unsure, and she must have sensed me, because she set down what she was doing and turned around.
She scanned up and down my body. “If you’re ever in need of a job, you can dance here.” She winked.
“Never gonna happen,” Logan’s serious voice boomed behind me.
I laughed nervously and Eva smiled. “I’m Eva, sweetheart, and I’ve taken an oath long ago to protect the skyborn. You can trust me, but only me. No one else in my club knows what Logan is. They think he’s a wolf because I have given him a wolf’s permanent scent. I’m going to do the same to you. This will allow you to go out in public without fear of hunters or druids smelling you.”
I sighed in relief. “That would have been super helpful two weeks ago.”
Eva smiled. “You’ve had a rough time, I’m sure. Keegan told me you transformed for the first time after falling off the ledge of the Grand Canyon?”
I nodded. “I was plummeting for the ground when a burning broke out on my skin. I … didn’t even think. I just … transformed. It was crazy. I’m stil
l not sure that I’m one hundred percent sane.”
Eva frowned, stepping closer. “Oh, sweetheart, you’re sane, but I need to find out how you have lived your whole life thinking you’re human.”
I shrugged, and she stepped even closer to me. She took a deep breath in through her nose and her eyes flared copper. She took a second breath and her brow furrowed in confusion.
“The black soap should have worked,” she muttered.
“What’s wrong?” Logan called from behind me.
Eva brought her hand up to her chin. “Nothing that I can’t fix for the spell, but she smells like a supernatural mutt—Druid, dragon, sorcerer. It might be too soon after coming into contact with heavy druid magic. Was he powerful?”
Logan shrugged. “I’ve fought worse.”
Eva rolled her eyes and looked at me. “Did Nadine warn you not to fluff his ego?”
I smiled. “She did.”
Logan scoffed behind me. “That is completely unfair.”
Eva winked at me. “Alright, first I’m going to do the scent-binding spell.”
Nerves suddenly clamped down on my belly and sweat broke out on my palms. I had always been a nervous person, socially or with school projects. It was like the second the spotlight was on me, I forgot my name and my palms became wet.
“It doesn’t hurt,” Logan whispered from right behind me. I could feel the warmth of his body heat as his scent wrapped around me, causing my dragon to purr inside of me.
“Is she in heat?” Eva asked Logan, and I nearly choked on my own embarrassment.
Logan cleared his throat and I heard him step back a few feet. “She was. I put her in a sleep until she got through it. I didn’t want to call and tell you about her for fear the phones would be tapped. I was going to bring her to you tomorrow morning.”
Eva was watching me, and I had no doubt that my cheeks matched my hair color. “Hmm,” was all she said, then she switched gears as if the whole “in heat” thing didn’t exist. “Alright, honey, I need a strand of that gorgeous hair,” she said, reaching out and yanking a piece.