by Dee Carney
“Last time?”
“Yeah. This isn’t the first time and I doubt it will be the last. We’d hoped it wouldn’t happen again, but...” She left off the rest. Sebastian’s men couldn’t help. She probably didn’t help much. But for now, Drew could allow them some measure of privacy by letting Sebastian recover in peace.
“He’s my friend as well as my commander. I won’t make the decision to bring others into this lightly, okay?”
She paused, but then nodded. “Yeah, okay.”
Ignoring him again after that didn’t take much effort. It wasn’t that she didn’t value his willingness to watch over them both should the need arise and in truth, she felt comforted by the ability to share this burden with someone else, but Alice figured it was her and Sebastian against the world. They’d handle whatever was thrown their way together.
She kneeled beside him and almost drew back when she realized his eyes were open and watching her movements. They’d reverted to a brilliant black, shiny from the moonlight and perhaps infused with a swirling pearl. There was intelligence behind the eyes studying her so intently. Knowledge that didn’t belong to beast alone, but must have come from the man.
Alice made herself as comfortable as possible, stretching out on the damp grass in front of him. Resting her head on one arm, she settled in to wait. “You’d wanted to know,” she said after a few minutes, “what brought me to this place. Why I live the way I do. Why don’t I tell you about it now?”
Whether or not he understood what she said or if he’d remember later on didn’t matter. She wanted him to feel comforted by her nearness. Ignoring Drew’s presence, not caring if he listened, she focused on Sebastian.
“My brother and I were thick as thieves. We did everything together. So when our parents died, it made sense that we looked out for each other. But a nineteen-year-old isn’t set out to be a good parental substitute, you know? He wasn’t very good in school and barely graduated. I’d only just graduated.” Alice blew out a breath. “Money was hard to come by. Hard. So to make ends meet, he started dealing. Things were okay for a while there.”
She paused, her throat thickening. There had been so much hope for their futures at that point of their lives.
“Then because things were so bad—I mean, eating-once-a-day bad unless he stole it—I guess he started using. One day he was sullen and the next, he was happy again. Like everything was the way it used to be. His happiness was infectious. I didn’t get it. I had no idea, but Bast, I was living high with him. Things were going to be all right. We were going to survive.
“I should have known that since it was too good to be true, it wouldn’t last long. Money he owed was short. Then it wasn’t turned in at all. His friends...” Alice choked out a harsh laugh. “They started dropping by. Then touching me.” Her voice dropped to a whisper. “Then hitting me.”
Her hand came to her face, swiping quickly at tears tracking over her cheeks. Somehow she’d forgotten how miserable things had become. How impossible. It wouldn’t have been long before Richard’s friends had started demanding payment from her in other ways. She wasn’t naïve enough to think that once they’d finished using her bodily, they wouldn’t turn her out on the street corners to earn even more money for them. If she put up a struggle, chemical means would be employed to keep her in line.
“I left before it got worse. Richard and I didn’t speak for months. Then one day he found me, barely making it, but making it. How do you turn down your older brother when he says, ‘let’s start over’? He’s not dealing or using anymore, he says. And because you need to believe him, because you must have already hit rock bottom, you let him back into your world.
“The first time he’d only just come off using. I won’t gross you out with the details, but he ended up in the ER that time. So here comes this vicious cycle. Me leaving. Him swearing it would never happen again. Him dealing and using.
“Then one day, by the most miraculous damned luck ever, I got a job as a receptionist in a small office. Decent money. I could buy things. Got a tiny apartment I didn’t have to share. But if it’s too good to be true, again...I got sick. This time it was me who went running back to Richard. And when my sickness took all of my hard-earned money, and later started dipping into some of his funds, he kicked me out.” Alice laughed, the bitterness of it burning her throat. “I get by now on a miniscule bit of disability, but it’s nowhere near enough to support me and my illness. So I live like this. I lived that way until you found me.
“I think I’m telling you all this to say that if I can survive everything I went through with Richard, with going hungry, with living on the street...then dealing with a vampire dragon is a walk in the park.”
It was, too. It might explain why she never felt true fear around him or why she could lie before him now, ready to come to his aid if he needed it.
She stretched her arm forward, bringing her hand closer to his face. He tensed, as if ready to spring away if she tried to touch him, but it wasn’t what she wanted right now. He could take her hand if he felt compelled or simply lie beside her in the knowledge that she was nearby.
When he moved again, Alice’s breath caught. Although he crawled toward her with exaggerated patience, she didn’t know what it meant. Drew hissed out a sound from nearby, but Alice kept her eyes on Sebastian. He wasn’t growling or doing anything threatening, so she just kept watching.
What she didn’t expect was for him to come to a stop when he fully covered her and then tuck her beneath his arm. The heat his body threw off could have cooked a chicken, but she remained still. He rested his cheek over hers, his touch surprisingly light. One of his wings blanketed the area in front of them, blocking her view. His breathing evened out, a gentle pace that put her further at ease.
It had been a long night for everyone involved, hadn’t it?
Drew would just have to find someplace of his own to get comfortable, but for now, Alice followed Sebastian’s lead. Closing her eyes, she went to sleep.
* * *
“Wake up, princess.”
The words were a whisper next to her ear, so close she felt his lips tickle over her skin. Alice groaned softly, stretching her limbs at the same time.
She turned into the heat of his body, taking comfort in it. He was naked and aroused, seemingly a common state of being for Sebastian. His thighs parted slightly to allow a leg to slip in between his. She walked her fingers over his chest, memorizing all over again the definition of muscles and the light spread of hair.
She kept her eyes closed but responded to his nearness by gliding her lips over his skin. And it was skin she felt. Not the scales she’d last seen on him.
Sebastian’s mouth moved over the ridge of her hair, delicately nuzzling her and sending more goose bumps scattering across her skin. His teeth nipped at the shell of her ear before grasping the lobe. His tongue dragged along the sensitive area, dipping and teasing.
A moan tumbled from Alice’s mouth, responding to Sebastian and coming so, so easily. And when his mouth moved lower, gently biting along her neck, she involuntarily turned toward him, seeking more. His bite became more feral, marking her as if he would stake a claim. The possessiveness of the move turned her on that much more, and Alice let out a small whimper of need.
The sound of a man clearing his throat snapped Alice to attention, her entire body tensing.
“As much as I love hearing a lady being pleasured, in this case, it’s probably best I’m not witness
to it. Right, Bast?” Drew drawled the other man’s name.
She opened her eyes to find herself looking directly into Bast’s dark eyes. Not the eyes of a dragon, but those of the vampire. “You’re back,” she said on a breath.
“Never went anywhere.”
She twisted, seeking Drew out, but Bast’s wing kept her covered and out of his view. Her joy at finding that he’d reverted diminished slightly at the realization that he hadn’t returned completely to normal, but she’d take this over nothing any day of the week. It didn’t stop her from leaning forward to capture his mouth with hers either.
Bast issued a low growl, a sound of wanton desire, as he plunged his tongue into her mouth. He not just kissed her, but devoured her mouth, taking and giving until she was breathless. “You stayed with me,” he murmured against her lips when he finally broke the kiss.
“Of course. Did you really expect differently?”
“I could have hurt you. Or some of the Council, for that matter. I should have been put down.”
“Like a diseased animal? Is that what you think of yourself?” She started to shove away from him, disgusted. Hurting for him as well.
Sebastian grabbed her wrists, yanking her toward him. His eyes flashed, a dangerous swirl of red creeping into them before fading. “What I think is that...” He paused, seemingly at a loss for words. So unlike the warrior she’d spent the past few days with. “I think that I wouldn’t see you harmed for all the world. If it means putting me down to ensure it, then I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
“You stupid, noble man,” she grumbled.
“You don’t mean that. I’ve got wings. Sexy, remember?” His eyebrows waggled up and down, much to Alice’s grudging amusement. His lips twisted in a smirk and then came down on hers again. The flare of passion he aroused in her arose so suddenly, she released another soft whimper.
“Just because I can’t see you doesn’t mean I can’t hear you. Also? The sun is about to roast me whole. Can we all at least go inside now?” Drew, on the other hand, didn’t sound the least bit amused. Or aroused.
“He’s not protected from the sun like I am,” Sebastian said almost at a whisper. Louder, he added, “and the idiot would probably burn to a crisp rather than leave us here in privacy.”
His wing dropped, and Alice squinted against the blanket of dawning light covering them. She turned onto her back to find Drew actually stood facing away from where they lay. Not the lecher he’d implied after all. She studied him intently, wondering why he didn’t get out of the sun’s rays before it was too late. She didn’t quite know how the whole thing worked, but didn’t it make sense for him to run?
“You get inside before my woman thinks you’re a spark away from going up in smoke,” Sebastian said, echoing her thoughts. Sebastian squeezed her closer, and together they watched Drew turn and go inside.
“He’s not really hurt from the sun, is he?”
He grunted. “No, he wouldn’t really burn up just like that.” He snapped his fingers for emphasis. “For a vampire, the reality of being burned is very gradual, very prolonged and very painful. Thankfully, we have several minutes of burning before serious damage is done. Mother Nature is a little kind, even to us odd creatures.”
It was good news. She needed every ally possible when it came to helping Sebastian. Even now, she tensed while remembering the evening before and the way the Council members had stared at him. At the horror on their faces that one of their own had become this thing. She wasn’t naïve enough to believe there wouldn’t be consequences for becoming a danger to the very people he’d been obligated to protect. “About last night...”
“How bad was it?” he asked softly. “I can only remember snippets, and what’s there is behind a fog.”
Alice took a deep breath and thought about what to tell him. How to tell him. There would be no sugar-coating that it was quite possible he’d lost the faith of the people he knew. “I...”
Drew appeared at the back door. He looked troubled, anxious. “Bast,” he said slowly. “I just received a phone call. A message for you.”
The timing was too perfect, and Alice just knew his announcement would be about the Council. What had those pompous, overpampered vampires done now?
Drew shook his head. “I’m sorry. You’ve been relieved of duty and are commanded to report to the Council this evening, an hour past sunset. It sounds like they want your head.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
While Alice availed herself of the facilities, Bast stayed with Drew in the living room. He’d taken the time to retrieve a comfortable pair of jeans but kept his feet bare. The wings made it impossible to don a shirt.
He slipped his eyes closed, allowing what Drew told him to digest. The summary of what had happened in the night. Worse, the phone call he’d received this morning. All because he’d not been himself.
There were fleeting images in his mind, the echoing screams of men and women bouncing in his ears, but every time he tried to focus on a detail, it eluded his grasp. But he remembered the flying. The exhilaration as wind glided over his skin and swirled around him. He’d forgotten what it felt like...
Wait.
Forgotten? How could he have forgotten something he’d never known? Yet he remembered something else too. Not just a memory he’d had to retrieve, but a sense of purpose. Of being.
“I was a dragon,” he said, the words sounding right. “I flew and...I was a dragon. And you know what else, Drew? More important than all of that, I think I’ve found my mate.”
Drew’s head jerked up, not surprisingly. “Alice...she’s worth it?”
“And more.” He couldn’t even find the right words to express how much she’d come to mean to him. “I’ll ask her later when we’re alone, but I think I want to be with her for the rest of my life. No—I know I do. I’ll go to the Council and ask for permission to turn her.”
It was a scary and wonderful thought. A realization that the person he wanted to spend a few hundred years with was this close to forevermore being his. They would exist as vampires together until time saw fit to cease their lives...another six or seven hundred years from now.
“They may not approve,” Drew said, his voice somber.
“They will.” He had to think positively. Had to. “When I prove that I’m not a threat, they’ll have no reason not to. And if they demand I resign my post...” Adrenaline surged through him at the thought. “If they want me to leave, I will.”
“Goddamn,” Drew whispered. He looked up, blue eyes shining. A grin splitting his face. “I’m happy for you. What a fucking day, huh? You’ve discovered your heritage after years of searching. You’ve become the talk of the vampire community. You’re on your way to getting hitched.”
“And I was a dragon!” Bast shouted.
Alice returned, wearing an oversized T-shirt and shorts. Wet hair dripping. Skin pink from hot water use. She smiled, almost beaming. “You were. And you were beautiful.”
Bast took a moment to steady his mind and keep weak legs from collapsing altogether. Dragon. Of all the creatures he’d researched, hoping to find the one that bore his ancestor, that one had never crossed his thoughts. Not even a flicker of an idea in his imagination. The heat, the smoke, the wings. It all made sense now.
He remembered the words Locke the werewolf had told him, that he was something more than just vampire. That had meant so little before. Now a new world had opened up before him, one his mother might ha
ve known would visit upon him one day but still remained silent about. If she would see him, perhaps he’d pay her a visit in the future and try to mend their broken past. The thing that had come between them had been obliterated.
He still wanted to seek out his father and trace the bloodline, to know who he was and how he’d come to breed with a vampire, but just having the knowledge he’d been seeking for so very, very long settled a restlessness inside of Bast. He knew who he was. What he was. He could explain to anyone who wanted to know why he didn’t have all of the vampire traits, but selective ones.
And fucking A, he could shift!
“I have a lot to think about,” Bast said. He wanted to find the right way and time to approach Alice about becoming a vampire. And he would do it right. A big fucking diamond ring. Down on one knee. The whole shebang. “A lot to do. And the Council wants to see me because they think I’m a little different now? They knew that.” A growl rumbled in his throat.
The tiles beneath his feet were eaten up by his long strides as he paced the room. The weight of Drew and Alice’s stares tracked his movement. They were probably wrung out from stress and worry, especially Alice, but he couldn’t stop now. Not when he’d just discovered this vital part of himself.
“They don’t know what to think about you,” Drew responded. “No one knew what you were going to do last night. If you were going to hurt anyone. If we had to hurt you.”
Bast checked his watch. “I have a little over twelve hours to research who I am and what this all means. Less than a day to gather what intel I can to convince the Council I’m not a threat to them.”
“I’ll help you.” Alice stood near the overstocked bar area.
“But you shouldn’t have to. I’ve served them faithfully all this time, and that they would turn me away so easily is an insult. Over a hundred years of searching, and they would turn my triumph into a reason to be afraid of me?”