“Goddamn, I can’t wait to be alone with the two of you,” Marcus muttered, his words barely audible amid the din. Evie’s turul hearing was beyond sharp enough to make out his words, though, and she blew him a kiss and winked. The crowd went wild anew as if the gesture was for them.
The band said their farewells and thank-yous and the stage lights dimmed.
“Come on,” Ked said, grabbing Marcus by the hand and aiming for the door behind the stage. The crowd parted instantly for him as though repelled.
“It’s fucking eerie how you do that so well,” Marcus said.
“You could too, if you practiced using your powers at all.”
“I’m done with that shit. I just want to be a man again, if it’s all the same to you. Evie’s mate. Sebestyan’s father. Your fuck-toy.”
Ked snorted and glanced back at Marcus as he pushed through the door. On the other side, he turned and slammed the door shut, pushing Marcus against it. Marcus grunted and let out a deep chuckle, already grabbing at Ked’s neck in anticipation of the hungry kiss he planted on him.
“Likewise,” Ked said, releasing the other man’s mouth and licking his lips. He narrowed his eyes. “You taste like Evie. When . . . ?”
Marcus gave him a shit-eating grin. “I’m her fuck-toy too. She needed a stress reliever before going on stage. You were busy in a meeting with Belah and Nik, and it sounded too important to interrupt.”
“Hm.” Ked nodded. “We’re expected in the Haven early. Tomorrow. Nik will drift us there at dawn.”
“All of us? What about the Sebbie and Layla?”
“Sophia and Ozzie are taking them to the Sanctuary on the Equinox. All the babes will be watched and protected by the ursa elders. They’ll be safe.”
“Can you share why we need to show up early?”
“I would if I knew,” Ked said. “Numa said it would be best to go over it all in person once we’re there. She promised it wasn’t a life or death situation, though, so you can relax.”
Marcus expelled a breath. “Thank god for that. I imagine it’s got something to do with Dion’s power returning.”
Ked stopped short halfway into the club’s green room. He grabbed Marcus by the bicep and swung him around. “What do you mean? Numa didn’t say anything about his power returning. How the hell do you know?”
“How can I not? I guarantee Nikhil knows just as well as I do. Surprised he didn’t share as much with you in your meeting. We were both Meri’s puppets and linked to the bloodline, which is Dion’s bloodline now, and that blood is on fire. Of course it has the added side-effect of making you look even prettier than usual.” He smirked and patted Ked’s cheek. “As if you could look more fuckable.”
Ked grabbed his hand and glared at him, then at the source of the soft snickers coming from inside the room.
“Am I right?” Marcus asked the others.
Evie bounded over and launched herself at them both. With synchronized ease, Ked and Marcus caught her, each with a hand at her waist as she hooked an arm around each man’s neck.
“You’re both the most fuckable guys on the planet.” She pressed a quick kiss to each of their cheeks and beamed at them before sliding down again. Her slight body pressed tight against Ked’s side and he resisted the urge to pick her up again and cradle her in his arms. Evie had grown tired of his babying her months ago . . . around the time she’d given birth to Sebestyan, in fact.
Ked caught the unamused looks of Evie’s brothers as they cleared their throats. He met their stares and pulled Evie tighter against him, dipping his head to kiss her squarely on the mouth. She hummed against his lips, the benign sound of pleasure sinking into his ears and straight to his cock. The fuckers were well overdue for getting used to the idea of their sister having a dragon for a mate.
“Brother, please.”
Ked reluctantly heeded his sister’s exasperated objection, but couldn’t resist darting a smug smile in the direction of her two turul mates. Iszak and Lukas looked pissed, but Nikhil chuckled and shook his head.
“We’ll have time for all the fun in the world in two days’ time,” he said. “You can bet Evie’s brothers and I will be taking advantage of it too. With your sister.”
Marcus laughed, but Ked scowled. Finally he relaxed his features and nodded. “Fair enough. Is Marcus right? Have Dion’s powers returned?”
Nikhil’s throat rippled as he swallowed, causing the glowing dragon mark that tied him to Belah to flare. He looked at Belah, who nodded. “Show him,” she said.
“I don’t know if we’re all like this,” Nikhil said. “Marcus will have to weigh in. But for the past two days, I’ve been able to pick any member of the higher races out of a crowd without effort. In the past, it always took quite a bit of observation and behavioral analysis. My Elites were all trained to learn the mannerisms of the different races, the cues that gave them away, but there were always a few who blended in well enough that we’d miss them. Not anymore. I can see them as clearly as if they had neon signs tacked to their foreheads. This is new, and I believe it’s tied to the divine blood those of us who were once linked to Meri now possess. Come, I’ll show you.”
Ked followed him out the door to the shadowy corner at the back of the stage. The club’s stereo was playing heavy blues, and the patrons danced just beyond. The bar was packed even after the final set ended, but there were still two hours until closing, and the music of Fate’s Fools tended to keep the fans energized well into the night.
Marcus slipped up to Ked’s other side. “You picking out the hidden dragons?” he asked under his breath.
“Dragons, ursa, turul. There aren’t any nymphs out. The turul tend to blend in best with crowds like this, but your average human eyesight wouldn’t know the difference without training. What do you see, Marcus?”
“I see a human woman about to get very lucky with a dragon and an ursa on the dance floor. Think they’re together?”
“Where do you see that?” Ked asked, darting his gaze around at the swaying bodies in the flickering light of the club. He deliberately avoided using his power to pick out the figures, but could see several possibilities.
“Far left, near the bar,” Nikhil said. “My guess is the dragon’s a Gold and the ursa’s a Sundance, judging by his coloring. All I see is how different they are. More vibrant. The magic clings to them. But even more troubling is that there are other humans who are starting to notice. Look at the bartender . . . He keeps giving them strange looks. I’d bet money that the bartender’s linked to the bloodline too, and with the resurgence in Dion’s power, he’s able to see them for what they are.”
Ked narrowed his eyes at the bartender and exhaled a breath. He silently commanded his power to seek out the higher races in the room and cloak them, beginning with the pair Nikhil had pointed out. His magic surreptitiously flowed through the shadows and clung to the dragon and ursa. The bartender blinked and shook his head, then shifted his attention back to the customers.
“This has potentially devastating consequences. I’m half tempted to leave for the Haven now.”
“I recommend doing a bit of damage control first,” Nikhil said.
Belah appeared at his side, her expression solemn. “Between the two of us, we can reach most of the higher races in New York,” she said. “Come . . .”
She led them back into the dressing room and motioned for the others to gather around. Nikhil and Marcus stood back while Ked and Belah linked hands with Evie and Iszak to one side and Lukas and Ozzie to the other.
“Whisper the warnings into our breath,” Belah said, then nodded at Ked. The two of them exhaled clouds of blue and black smoke that swirled into a misty sphere between them. The four turul barely moved their lips, but the message was clear as it filtered into the smoke: Take heed, there may be danger of discovery among the humans. Retreat to seclusion until word comes that it is safe. Answers will come after Equinox.
Then they commanded the cloud of smoke skyward. Ked followe
d the wisps as they faded to near nothingness and filtered into the air vents of the club to be distributed among the patrons and out into the night. Word would spread quickly, as it tended to now that the higher races were more closely bound.
“That should be enough to maintain order for now, at least,” Belah said.
Marcus stepped back into the room and closed the door behind him while the rest of them settled into the sofas. “That place cleared out fast. Looks like it worked. Now what?”
“Now we make a toast to the end of an era,” Ozzie said, grabbing a bottle of champagne out of the mini-fridge and holding it up. Everyone stared at him for a moment and he rolled his eyes. “I mean the band, not the whole goddamn world. I’m pretty confident that what we did was enough for now, but I’m gonna miss what we had here. A year was too little time to have you three back together just to have it end again so soon.”
The blond turul’s aura rippled with sadness and loss that was far more potent than this toast warranted, but Ked didn’t know the man well enough to press for more details. He had the kind of broken-hearted aura of someone whose love was unrequited, which he’d never seen in an unmated turul before.
“The band’s yours, if you want to keep it going,” Iszak said, accepting a plastic cup filled with bubbly alcohol. “Fate’s Fools doesn’t need to die just because the three of us need to move on.”
Lukas toasted his agreement. “Yeah, man. You were the only thing keeping me and Iszak together all those years before we met Belah. You can rebuild it.”
“You have our blessing,” Evie said. “You can use it to play your song and finally find your One.”
Ozzie sighed and rested back against the edge of a low cabinet strewn with the crumbs and half-eaten snacks from their intermission between sets. He took a swig straight from the bottle then set it on his knee, tightly gripping the neck. “I don’t know if I see the point. What’s Fate’s Fools without you fools, anyway?”
“We weren’t the only victims of Fate,” Iszak said. “I guarantee if you put out the right ad, you’d have a slew of responses—dragons, ursa, and turul alike. Maybe even a nymph, if any of them are brave enough to venture out of the Haven. You’ve always been the glue, so I have no doubt you can pull it off again.”
Across the room, Lukas strummed a guitar and burst into song, his clear voice ringing out over the thumping bass from the stereo in the club. “Carry on, my wayward son . . .” he sang, but Ozzie only looked even more forlorn.
“That isn’t helping, dude. I’m gonna miss you fucks.”
“Honey, we aren’t dying,” Belah said. “When the kids are older, we’ll come visit.”
The utterly downtrodden look on Ozzie’s face made Ked feel like a ball of light by contrast. He didn’t quite understand Ozzie’s dark mood. The decision to raise Sebestyan and Layla in the turul Enclave hadn’t been a secret. They’d talked about it off and on since the babies were born. The only reason they hadn’t gone earlier was to give Evie a bit of time to enjoy her freedom, and for Ked and Belah to get a longer glimpse of twenty-first century human life up close.
“Nanyo’s going to drive me batshit by the time the kids are out of diapers. Do you have any idea how hyperfocused that woman is on my love life?” Ozzie groaned.
Lukas idly strummed his guitar and started picking out a distinct tune again. Before Ozzie could object, Lukas scrunched up his face with faux emotion and belted out, “Did you ever know that you’re my hero . . . And everything I would like to be?”
Ozzie lurched across the room and grabbed the guitar while Marcus doubled over in laughter. “Fuck you guys. I’ll see you in the god damned Sanctuary after your party.” With that, he stormed out of the room and slammed the door.
“That’s my damned guitar!” Lukas bellowed. His shoulders shook with laughter. “Do you think we were too hard on him?”
“Well, the mood has lightened now that he’s gone, and the fucking Void is still sitting right here,” Iszak said, darting a look at Ked.
“He’s been a mess all year,” Lukas said. “You’d think he was in the thick of the fight last year, but all he did was hang out with Deva in the Realm of the Gods. It’s as if babysitting was the worst thing in the world.”
“He’ll come around. It can’t be easy to be the last man standing after watching all of us hook up,” Evie said.
“Think he’ll join in the festivities in the Haven?” Marcus asked. “He could find his One there, if he cared to try.”
Belah shot him a knowing look and Ked shook his head. “Unlikely. If I didn’t know better, I’d say your cousin is pining for love more than he’s upset about losing you guys. When you go, he’ll be losing the distraction from whatever the true hurt is that plagues him.”
Iszak and Lukas both burst out laughing. “Not likely. He’s been so keen on finding his One, we know he wouldn’t shut up about it if it happened,” Lukas said.
“Yeah, no fucking way,” Iszak agreed.
Ked shrugged. “I’m just calling it as I see it.”
Chapter 5
The day before Equinox dawned, Deva rose to the sound of trumpeting dragon calls and laughter echoing around the Glade. She stepped out onto the vast perch that doubled as a balcony overlooking the empty sky and tilted her face toward the sun.
Blinking into the brightness, she squinted when she made out wings, then smiled when she realized that it wasn’t the sun shining down on her, but her own mother. Neela’s fiery wings blazed pale yellow against the sky and she twisted and swooped, calling out taunts to the massive and darkly iridescent dragon who flew after her. Zorion could barely keep up, and Deva laughed at the frustrated blast of flame that burst from his snout.
Deva’s mother banked hard, her small form able to make tighter turns than her huge mate’s. When she faced the perch, her eyes lit on Deva and brightened. She arced downward and came to a soft, graceful landing beside her daughter, rushing to pull her into a hug.
“Mom, you were so beautiful up there! I don’t think I will ever get tired of watching you fly.”
Neela’s heat crackled against Deva’s nightgown, but Deva had learned to hone her dragon resistance months ago just so she could hug her mother without fear of being burned.
“Oh shit,” Neela said, jerking away and patting at the tiny flames that licked at the edge of Deva’s clothing.
Deva laughed. “It’s conjured. I can replace it.”
“I know,” Neela said, frowning. “I still need to learn better self-control. When I’m happy, I set things on fire. When I’m pissed, I set things on fire. It seems the only truly safe state with me is when I’m completely neutral, which is absolutely no fun at all.”
Zorion’s shadow swelled overhead, and he came to land with equal grace as Neela despite his size. The big dragon shifted and simultaneously split into two male shapes that clothed themselves with a breath. Zil’s darker form dipped to kiss Deva on the cheek.
“Good morning, daughter. Are you well today?”
“I’m well enough. Ready for a change in scenery.” She hugged him and his iridescent-skinned twin. As her mother’s mates, she considered them her fathers, and felt more kinship with them than any of the other immortals in her family. The pair of unusual dragons were as sequestered as she was from the human world. But while she’d been kept close to her parents for her own safety, Zorion and Zil remained in the higher realms because their appearance made it problematic for them to blend with humans. She longed for more freedom to test the limits of her power and hoped that she could leverage the fact that tomorrow was her birthday to request a reprieve from the constant oversight. She just didn’t want to mention it in front of Zorion and Zil for fear of sounding insensitive to their situation.
But as always, Zorion seemed to know the inner workings of her mind. His expression softened and he cupped her cheek, the nacreous filaments of his veins lighting up within his arm. “You have been stifled for the past year, haven’t you?”
“It isn
’t that,” she said. “Well, it is partly that . . . but as much as each of the higher realms feels like home to me, I never feel complete when I’m in one place. I have this strange, surreal craving to . . . I don’t know . . . mash them all together.” She held her hands up, palms facing, and mimed crushing something. “Is that crazy?”
“You want freedom.” Neela shrugged as she shared an understanding look with Zorion. “Trust me, baby, I understand. If it were up to me, we’d all be out there exploring, but until I learn to rein in my fire and these two stop looking so fucking godlike, I’m afraid it isn’t in the cards for us. But we have to wait for that. There’s no harm in learning a little patience.”
“I have been patient. I just don’t think I have enough room to grow in the higher realms anymore.”
She had restrained herself from yelling, but only barely. There was nothing to be patient about. She had mastered all the most basic skills of each element present within her blood. She could do all the spells in her sleep, from short drifts to conjuring clothing. She could even coax the most stubborn seeds to grow. And no one could deny that her singing was as beautiful as any turul’s, and she’d become adept at playing just about every instrument she could get her hands on. The next level was within her grasp, the abilities so close she could taste that power, yet it eluded her.
“It will come with time, that’s all,” Neela said, though Deva sensed her mother’s uncertainty.
She clenched her teeth. “All the signs point to my physical maturity being on schedule with at least being able to shift. I’m not going to get any better unless I challenge myself, which you guys won’t let me do. My powers feel stunted . . . incomplete. I need to know where I belong to understand how they work, and as much as I love the higher realms, each of these places leaves me feeling unfulfilled . . . like I’m adrift without a clear purpose. I need more.”
Dragon Avenged: Immortal Dragons Epilogue Page 3