by Ophelia Bell
Thea fell back into her pillows with a frustrated huff. What was the point? The fool said he was leaving and it didn’t take a genius to see neither his sister nor Dimitri were particularly happy about it. Thea just wished she knew exactly why. Splitting up with Dimitri after his brother’s death had left them both at the end of their ropes. That she had ultimately been the one to push him away still ate at her. Now he had finally worked his way back to something good—something phenomenal, if she were being honest—and that knowledge had somehow let her feel absolved of her own part in his despair when they had parted.
She could see the sadness and uncertainty in Dimitri’s eyes that night when he’d looked at Aurik. Dimitri and Aurin had shared similar glances that Thea knew well the meaning of. Would they survive together without Aurik?
Knowing it was a futile task to try to fix their relationship without knowing all the details, Thea shifted her thinking to the project she’d been hired for. She’d been tasked to track down a bloodline more than five centuries old with multiple gaps in the documentation of the lineage. The process of it excited her more than anything. More interesting, however, was how excited Dimitri and Aurin seemed to be when they’d skimmed through Erika’s data the night before and watched Thea point out the obvious details she could anchor her research on. Family names were one thing, but locales were another, particularly if they were small towns that had an active church, or at least a library of archives.
She’d decided to begin the next day, and stick to her guns when it came to her insistence that Dimitri let her run with it. His eagerness to be involved amused her, but she couldn’t deal with the distraction of him if she were going to get this done in a timely fashion.
His attentiveness the night before had affected her nearly as much as Aurik’s lovemaking. That old longing had returned and with it the constant stream of memories of how happy they had been at the beginning. A reflection of that happiness must have existed between Dimitri and these Twins, and it made her heart ache for him to be a witness to it crumbling. Maybe when she returned from Rouen in a week or so, she would have it out with Aurik. Make him tell her everything and point out to him what a fool he was being. Dimitri deserved to be happy, even if she couldn’t be a part of it. She didn’t know Aurik well enough to know whether she ought to blame him. She definitely couldn’t bring herself to hate a man she knew so little about, but if he didn’t come to his senses and broke Dimitri’s heart she most definitely could hate him then.
She dozed off again filled with self-righteous anger at the man she’d earlier been in the midst of a luscious fantasy about fucking. The anger was almost as satisfying a feeling.
***
Aurik held the bit of lace to his nose, enjoying the soft texture. Even after going through a wash and dry cycle, Thea’s scent still lingered.
“Where did you get those?” Dimitri asked, pushing past to start a fresh load. “Don’t tell me you’ve discovered the joys of cross dressing. I can’t quite picture you in a bra and panties, but if it gets you off…”
Aurik crumpled the panties in his fist and shoved them into his pocket. “Thea left them. I was going to give them back to her today.”
“Well, that’ll be a challenge seeing as she’s in Rouen for the next week, following up on a lead.” Dimitri eyed him curiously. “She’s gotten under your skin somehow, hasn’t she?” He seemed almost excited about the prospect.
“No.” Aurik lied. “It’s just fascinating to meet another human with as strong a draw to the magic as you have. I can’t help but wonder what’s so special about the two of you. Why aren’t more humans like that?”
Dimitri turned on the washer cycle and looked him over. “It might have something to do with you. With dragons, I mean. In the temple I remember Kris talking about how it was our destiny to be there. Thea and my brother were supposed to go, but it all changed after Alex died. Maybe she was meant to meet you. I mean, there were two of you, and only one of me.”
Aurik shook his head. “By that logic, all the others should be like you, too. I didn’t get that impression from Camille or Erika or any of the others. They don’t have any more draw than a normal human. As for it being your destiny, I’d like to point out that Kris didn’t obey the laws any more than we did, choosing to mate with a Court dragon without Council approval. The pairings never added up to begin with.”
“They might have if Thea and Alex had gone. They didn’t, so their spot was taken by Hallie. One person. I have no doubt she was meant to be there, too.” Dimitri patted the front pocket of Aurik’s pants. “Listen, we can argue destiny until we’re blue in the face, but you’re lousy at keeping secrets. If you’re into her, just say so. It would solve all our problems, you know.”
“If I did, it would introduce new ones. I don’t want to fight with my sister over either of you.”
Dimitri’s face hardened. “Giving up is a lousy fucking alternative, and I know Aurin agrees even though she hasn’t said as much out loud,” he said as he stalked out of the small room.
Aurik wanted to tell him that he had a better alternative in mind already, but couldn’t say so without ensuring Thea would agree to it. And he couldn’t stand the idea of the argument that would come if he had them all in the room at the same time when that happened. He regretted having to break their own unspoken rules, as well as the pact he had made with his sister when they were awakened, but he saw no other way.
***
He agonized over it for the rest of the week, finally concluding that he had to leave before Dimitri and his sister knew and had a chance to object to the idea. He just hoped Thea would be too surprised by his confession to do anything but accept. The shock of such knowledge tended to render humans either entirely terrified and in denial, or eager to know more. He had a strong feeling Thea was the type who preferred knowledge over ignorance.
In his true form and at full size, Aurik could fly faster than the average car could drive. It was a straight shot between Paris and Rouen, though he would normally prefer the scenic route along the winding turns of the river. Getting there quickly would serve him best. He would leave that night, then hopefully be beyond his sister’s reach by the time she and Dimitri found out he had gone.
The flight took even less time than he expected. Halfway through the valley, the unmistakable pull of Thea’s energy reached him, as though even from more than a hundred kilometres she reached out to them. Was it Dimitri she wished for? Knowing their history, that had to be the case. Dimitri’s suggestion that she was fated for him somehow seemed absurd. Thea, Dimitri, and Alex had been a unit, and Aurik couldn’t imagine how any of the dragons of the Court could have asserted themselves in the middle of a trio that tight. He assumed Dimitri’s brother must have been like him as well. Three such potent wells of energy would have been able to command the dragons. Perhaps Geva could have absorbed their energy easily, but it would have taken more than one dragon to avoid wasting any of it. The thought crossed his mind that one of them could easily have awakened a Queen. Speculation was pointless now, however. The team had awakened them all, regardless of the lack of a perfectly equitable match, at least on his part.
He disagreed with the Council on that point, but there was nothing to be gained by arguing. When such an ephemeral ruling body made its decree, they tended not to invite further discussion. Either he followed their laws or they would come back later with an even heavier hand, and he couldn’t risk either his sister or Dimitri being caught in the crossfire.
Aurik found himself growing eager the closer he got to Thea. To have this weight lifted would be a relief. He was more and more certain with each stretch and pull of his wings through the air that his sister and Dimitri would understand and agree with him. He did feel some regret that he hadn’t told them first, but it was too late to turn back.
It was near midnight when he followed Thea’s trail through the cobbled streets of the village. He landed in a darkened churchyard and shifted, clothing himself in mo
dern garments before approaching the small hotel where she must be lodging for the week. Her energy was less potent than it had been before, but still easy enough for Aurik’s attuned senses to follow.
He wished he could reach out to her mentally like he could with his sister. Being able to assess her mood before approaching her would have eased his anxiety over what he was about to do. Telling a human his secrets without the intention of marking them was against dragon law, but he would explain that detail to her and make sure she knew Aurin would have to handle that detail quickly.
He entered the small, but luxuriously appointed lobby of the hotel with purpose. The desk clerk smiled amiably as he walked past, giving the illusion that he belonged.
The web of human energy was strong in this small hotel. A murmuring couple walked through the lobby to the elevator, their own threads intermingled and tangled to the point he couldn’t differentiate. The man pushed the woman against the wall and whispered into her ear, his words eliciting a throaty laugh from her, and their energy pulsed brighter with the subsequent arousal.
Aurik felt himself becoming aroused merely by their proximity and waited to let them have the privacy of their own lift before pushing the button for himself. He could sense them as they traveled upward, the allure of the magic growing dimmer the further away they got. There were no threads seeking their way outward from that pair, either, so engrossed were they in each other, cocooned in their own desire.
Rather than hit the button for the floor of the room he’d been assigned, he hit the button for the sixth floor, the level he’d sensed Thea on. He had no plans to stay the night.
***
Thea smacked her hand down on her notes, frustrated. Something was missing. Some crucial detail left out of the information Dimitri had given her. She scoured through the files again. There were hundreds of subfolders on the small drive. Some contained scanned pages of illuminated texts. How Camille had managed to get those, she had no clue, but Thea was impressed with the woman’s translation skills. All except for one particular passage. It was almost as though it had been overlooked, and the poor attention to detail in that particular spot was inconsistent with how thorough all the other translations had been.
She’d managed to trace the family’s lineage backward at first, to ensure she was following the right paths going forward from the point in time Camille had left off. The focus of names shifted every few generations, when a female descendant would marry and take her husband’s name. She’d followed the family from Germany to France and was now stuck, trying to figure out what this impossibly obscure language meant. All she had to go on were the images in the margins of the scanned page on the thumb drive. Roses. Red roses coiled around the edges of the page and around some circular emblem at the top, a medallion with six dragons entwined within, that she’d seen repeated on many of the other images. She wasn’t after that image, but couldn’t shake the feeling it was significant to her search somehow.
She cursed, the feeling that she’d been deliberately left in the dark over this whole project returning even stronger than before.
“What the fuck are you keeping from me, Dimitri?” she muttered, her words almost obscuring the knock at her door. She checked her watch trying to remember if she’d ordered room service. She had forgotten to eat but couldn’t remember if that detail had already crossed her mind. Work tended to take precedence over all else when she had her teeth sunk deep enough in such a meaty project as this one was.
When she opened the door, it took her a moment to register what she was seeing. His hair hung in shining waves to his shoulders, framing the too-perfect golden features of his face. His trimmed goatee caught the hallway light, making it seem to glow against the darker tan of his skin. And those eyes, God, she still couldn’t get them out of her mind.
She was simultaneously more frustrated at the sight of him and aroused at the memory of their lovemaking. She stood gaping at him, torn between punching him and kissing him. His bearing and serious expression suggested neither option would be the right one, however, so she merely stood back wordlessly and let him enter.
“Aurik. What are you doing here?” She checked the hallway, but he appeared to be alone.
“I need a favor,” he said. “It’s about what I told you last week.”
She raised a brow. “You mean about you leaving?”
Aurik nodded and swiped a hand nervously through his hair. The utter desperation on his face struck a chord deep inside her. Her ire settled slightly, her previous urge to wring his neck subsiding into mere agitated curiosity. She’d probably had a touch too much coffee to listen patiently to whatever he needed to talk to her about, so she went to the mini fridge and pulled out the bottle of wine she’d been saving for a moment when she chose to relax, something she’d promised herself she would do while she was there.
Aurik accepted the glass she poured for him and sat at the edge of her bed, resting his elbows on his knees. His gaze traveled over her slowly, seeming to take her in with as much thirst as he showed his drink. He swallowed the wine in three long gulps and held out the glass for her to refill it with chilled golden liquid.
“You’re still leaving, aren’t you,” she whispered, and her heart seemed to clench at the realization. “Please tell me why?”
He glanced away, focusing on her stacks of notes. His eyes fixed on the image of the illuminated manuscript that was still displayed on her screen. “Who’s Rosenkrantz?” he asked, suddenly seeming to forget why he was there.
“Nobody, just stay focused here. You were saying something about leaving, and I want you to come out with it already. Tell me the truth. Tell me why you think you have to go!”
Aurik tore his eyes away from her screen and seemed to struggle for a moment to focus. “Thea, I’m not human. I’m a dragon,” he began, and took a deep breath. She stared at him blankly for a moment, waiting for the punch line. What he shared after that caused the world to slide out from beneath her.
Her hand shook as she poured another glassful of wine and drank it down quickly, willing the alcohol to hurry and obliterate what she’d just heard. But her body wouldn’t cooperate. Her mind raced over all the research she’d done that week, and all the out of place details suddenly fit. The oddly anachronistic names of some of the linked families made sense. Not the families in direct lineage to the one she was searching for, but employers. Until about five centuries before when the last line of names of an employer that had seemingly gone back for generations was eventually severed.
She hurried to her desk and began rifling through her notes, hunting for that name.
“Did you hear me, Thea? I need your answer.”
“Not a fucking chance,” she said, still irritated at his proposal but too distracted by what she’d learned to give him the courtesy of a full response. “Why the fuck didn’t you guys tell me this to begin with?” She shot a glare at him and went back to flipping through her piles of notes. Third century, come on, come on. Yes!
She snatched the dog-eared piece of paper out of the stack and peeled off the small Post-It note with her question on it. “Saint George?” the note asked. She’d dismissed it as unrelated considering most accounts of the historical figure were likely fabricated. Turning to her laptop, she clicked her mouse on the image files one at a time, going back several centuries from the date on the paper until she found it.
“Does this image mean anything to you?” she asked.
Aurik stared at her, mouth agape. Thea tapped the screen impatiently. He nodded. “Yeah, that’s a dragon named Sutylutha. He was killed long before my time, though. He was one of the reasons we have such strict laws in the first place, and why the Verdanith was dismantled. He was a brutal killer.”
“Yet he had a mate and offspring. Do you know what happened to them?”
“It was his son who killed him. I believe the son attained Court status at the beginning of his generation’s hibernation as a result. Sutylutha supposedly murdered the son’
s mate, so he retaliated. Suty’s mate had her magic bound and lived in servitude to the Council after that. That would have been the first Hibernation, actually.”
“Has something like this happened since? A dragon execution, I mean. More like third century.” Her mind spun with the understanding. The structure of the research she had been sent had the sense that it paralleled human history, only intertwining with it in key spots, though there were many names that seemed to correspond precisely with ancient legends and mythology.
“It’s happened a few times,” he said, looking put on the spot as though he were being administered a college quiz. His bafflement at her insistence would have been amusing in any other circumstance, but once she caught the thread of truth during her research she felt compelled to keep tugging and tugging until the entire story was unraveled.
“Just the most recent one. About sixteen centuries ago, or thereabout.” She almost rejoiced when he creased his brows and nodded slowly. The excitement of the discovery had her blood flowing hot. She felt flushed, but perhaps it was more from the wine than anything. She reached out and unlatched a window, pulling it open to let the breeze blow in and cool her off before turning back to Aurik to hear the story.
“It was a similar situation. A dragon named Silene went mad and was put down by her son. This time he was in human form, however. Of course the Council and the other dragons knew the son’s identity, but it was a strategic execution, meant to protect our secrets since most of dragonkind were attempting to assimilate with humans by then. Not to mention no human alive could have stood up to her.”