Dragon Knight (The Collegium Book 3)

by Schwartz, Jenny

  She felt him drive out through the wards of her home. She was alone.

  The red kitchen door swung open of its own volition, urging her in. Her own magic was exhausted. Not burned out as Lewis’s had done, but scraped to the edge.

  In the North West Passage, how had he held onto his control, forcing out more and more magic over the agony of it pulling from the core of him?

  In the hot Mexican sun, Gina had known she wouldn’t be able to do it. She’d felt her control over the zombies tremble. Her ability to wring out that last degree of magic was simply lacking. The agony wrenched at her. She would have failed Lewis and everyone if Fay hadn’t broken the demon’s spell when she did.

  Gina’s muscles ached from all the panicked running through the day, and her skin had dried with the sweat of fear on it. She dragged herself up the stairs, shed her clothes and stepped into the shower. The hot water cascaded over her. She turned her face up to the spray, and cried.

  The tears were cathartic. Exhausted but functioning again, she forced herself downstairs to eat a quick, early dinner of toasted cheese sandwiches. She ate them on the front porch, looking over the dunes to the ocean.

  Lewis and all the Collegium guardians were amazing. She couldn’t imagine feeling like this after every mission. There was no elation, no happiness at the job accomplished. There was only relief, no, disbelief, at surviving. And one guardian hadn’t survived.

  Gina sipped hot chocolate, a comfort drink. Lewis would have to tell the man’s family. He wouldn’t leave the responsibility solely to Kora, not when he’d been there.

  And tomorrow, all of the guardians would be ready to do this all over again.

  For the first time, Gina saw Lewis’s distance and detachment for what it was: a coping mechanism.

  “But he doesn’t need it with me.”

  Explanations had taken forever. Lewis had managed to shower and change and grab something to eat.

  The guardian who’d died in Mérida hadn’t had a family. That didn’t mean no one mourned him. The mood at headquarters was somber.

  And through it all, Lewis was conscious of his need to see Gina, to be with her. She, perhaps more than any of them, had suffered. Fay, Steve and the Collegium team had experience and training to support them. Gina had gotten through on courage and determination. He was proud of her. He worried for her.

  “Go,” Steve said finally, just before midnight.

  Fay and Gilda were still intent over some ancient book opened beside a stack of other books. “Just a little research while the details are fresh in our minds,” Gilda had said, and the other demonologists in the Collegium had agreed with her.

  “Fay has fifteen more minutes,” Steve added, louder.

  Fay flashed him a small, tired smile. “Five, I promise.” Her smiled widened to include Lewis. “Go to Gina. The Collegium is safe. The final, formal report will wait till tomorrow for sign off.”

  “And there’ll always be more work, tomorrow.” William, the chief healer walked in, looking exhausted himself. “Everyone, go home.”

  Lewis went to Gina.

  Gina woke to the soft whisper of the bed coverings being lifted and a large, warm body stealing in beside her. “Lewis.”

  He’d translocated in, not disturbing her wards, but coming to her.

  “Lewis!”

  His mouth captured her cry. The kiss was hot and desperate and she pressed into him. His chest was bare. She ran her fingers over his skin, around to his shoulders, pulling him over her.

  A moment’s resistance. He braced himself above her. “Are you sure?”

  “Yes, oh yes.” This beautiful man, all hers to love.

  He rolled, bringing her over him. Then his hands slid under her nightgown, pushing up along her hips, over her stomach, up to claim her breasts. He squeezed. She kissed him. The harder she kissed him, the more he teased her breasts, his fingers constrained by the tight satin. She tore her mouth from his, sat up and stripped off her nightgown. Now, his hands were free to shape her breasts.

  But his hands left her breasts, slid down her body and traced the edge of her tiny matching knickers. “Satin.” Her legs were parted as she knelt over him, and his fingers skimmed the frail covering dampening from her arousal. His chest heaved. “How should we get these off you?”

  “You still have briefs on,” she managed to point out.

  “I thought it politer, since I was invading your bed.”

  She dropped down, hands bracing either side of his head, hips lowering to follow his teasing fingers. “Invade away.”

  She squeaked.

  “No?” But he left his fingers where they were, slick with her moisture, tormenting her.

  “Definitely yes.”

  He smiled. They kissed. Then his hands were everywhere and so were hers and the last of their clothes were gone. No barriers, only fevered anticipation until finally, wonderfully, he was inside her and his rhythm was fast and urgent, demanding and getting her reckless response. Pleasure burst, and he followed her over the edge, shouting her name.

  For Gina, consciousness faded from pleasure to sleep. She tried to speak, and mumbled. She was hazily aware of Lewis tucking her against him. That felt good, a different kind of good. She nestled closer.

  She woke to the pale light of dawn. A clear dawn with birds singing outside and the distant, very faint sound of a summer sea.

  Lewis’s hand rested over her right breast, fingers gently curved and still.

  She twisted to see his face. He slept, a relaxed, openness to his face. Very carefully she turned so she could study him. His lashes were long against the lightly tanned skin under his eyes. His mouth was firm even in sleep. Such a beautiful mouth, capable of passion. And his ears. He really did have lovely ears. They sat neatly against his skull, his short blonde hair just reaching them.

  Gina traced a curl of his ear.

  The morning was cool, making her glad of the heat radiating from him and the light quilt covering them. She didn’t remember pulling it up, so he must have. The only drawback was that the quilt hid his superb body.

  She couldn’t resist temptation. She mightn’t be able to see, but she could feel. She stroked the muscles of his shoulder, down to his chest, lower to his stomach.

  The corners of his mouth curved. His eyes opened. “Good morning.”

  Her heart stuttered. There was joy in his smile and something a lot like love. “Good morning.”

  “Can I ask where your hand’s going?”

  She grinned, slowly inching back up his body. “Not where you hope.”

  He kissed her, and this time, their lovemaking was a playful tussle. She shrieked with laughter as he tickled her before she attempted to wrestle him into submission. Her failure was also her success as she found herself pinned beneath him and deliciously open to his touch. Loving him was so easy.

  Loving him was so fraught with risk.

  “I have to get back to the office,” he said with a glance at the clock. It was barely seven a.m.. He wound her hair around his hand and tugged gently.

  She wanted him to stay, and knew the Collegium needed him, today, in the aftermath of the demon’s discovery and banishment. “Someone, Zhou at any rate, will probably want to question me. May I come with you?”

  “Please.” He kissed her.

  There was a semi-bitter delight in sharing the morning routine with him. Showering, eating breakfast, dressing. He’d brought a suit with him, and she watched him knot a subdued blue tie.

  “I wish…”

  He looked a question at her.

  She shook her head. “Never mind.”

  “I used Emmaline’s portal.” Lewis held her denim jacket for her as she shrugged into it, a little touch of caring. “The Collegium is coping with enough without discovering that I can translocate.”

  “Was Riaz polite to you?”

  “Yes. Concerned about you, but he seemed to decide I might be more help than threat to you. Am I?”

  Gina paused
in tugging the denim jacket straight. When she hesitated to turn to Lewis, she realized he was watching her in the mirror, anyway.

  His arms went around her. His head rested against hers. “Yesterday was awful. It was tough on everyone, but especially tough for you because you don’t have the training or experience of the rest of us. I was proud of you. You saved lives, Gina. Including mine.”

  She covered his arms with hers, hugging his care to her. “I dreamed of the zombies before you came last night.”

  “We all collect nightmares,” he said somberly.

  “And banish them.” She turned in his embrace. “I’m glad I was with you, yesterday. I’m glad beyond words that you’re safe. I thought I’d lost you. Morag broke her non-interference policy and mentioned a demon and that you wouldn’t be able to use the power of the Deeper Path against it. Then she wouldn’t help.” Remembered hurt, a cut of betrayal, weighted her voice with sadness.

  “Sometimes the hardest thing is to stand aside and let those we love fight. You fought, Gina. You were a true knight, dragon or otherwise.”

  Lewis ignored the cameras in the elevator and kissed Gina good-bye. He was only peripherally aware of silver energy holding the elevator doors closed an extra few seconds. He found it harder to ignore the elevator’s agitated electronic beeping. He released the doors and Gina.

  She smiled at him and strolled out to catch up with Zhou and his team of forecasters.

  Lewis watched the doors close and let himself be carried up to the presidential suite. There, waiting senior mages pounced.

  For a month, he’d tolerated these demands on his time. In periods of change, people needed reassurance, and he—without magic—was an unknown quantity as president. On the other hand, these people were all adults and trained mages of substantial experience. As commander of the guardians, he’d never been ambushed this way. It was wrong that they treated the president so rudely.

  Across the room, Chad stood in front of his desk. He met Lewis’s gaze and gave a frustrated shrug. What can you do? the shrug asked.

  True, the invading mages were difficult and importunate, but Lewis wondered if he’d been handicapped by more than his own steep learning curve of the presidential role. Neither Chad, Haskell nor Shawn were experienced personal assistants. They’d been learning on the job. A first-rate PA would have controlled this crowd. Chad knew only that he couldn’t corral them with magic. He hadn’t learned the art of the disdainful stare, the calculated wielding of authority borrowed from Lewis.

  Which reminded him that perhaps he hadn’t exercised his own authority sufficiently.

  “If you want to babble, go down to the foyer,” he said blightingly. “If you want to report information, do so to your head of department. If you wish to question me, you don’t have that right.”

  A couple of people gasped.

  “The board questions me. It is the appropriate check and balance to presidential power. This—” a condemnatory sweeping glance of the crowded room—“is a waste of everyone’s time. And undisciplined. Out, now. Chad, I thought the board meeting was for ten o’clock?”

  “It is.”

  “Good.” Lewis strode through the crowd and into his inner office. He shut the door.

  Instantly, outside, the babble returned.

  He shook his head and crossed to his desk.

  Two hours later, he dealt with the board in just as brusque a manner. Kora reported on the mission to Mérida and fielded any questions, while he eyed off his fellow board members. They seemed subdued.

  Finally, Neville summed up the mood. “Zombies are sensational enough to have caught everyone’s attention. However, Gilda,” a nod to his fellow department head, “and Fay Olwen seem confident it’s not a spell easily replicated since it required both a demon lord’s ‘blood’ and major magic. And we all know that demon lords are rarely summoned.”

  “Although we must be vigilant,” Gilda said.

  Neville nodded impatiently. “So, now, on to other business.”

  And that’s when the board surprised Lewis.

  Since Lewis was trapped in a board meeting, Gina decided she’d wander off on her own, grab some lunch, maybe do some shopping. But the best of plans could be side-tracked, and from answering the forecasters’ questions—they were remarkably tactful concerning what it had felt like to control the zombies, former humans—the discussion had turned to exactly how the demon had hidden its presence online. From there, it was a matter of pride for Gina to race the forecasters to unravelling the demon’s dark web activities.

  Their intent pursuit was interrupted by Zhou’s return, which meant the board meeting was over. Zhou exchanged a glance with his deputy who was seated at the computer beside Gina’s.

  Gina would have questioned what that glance meant, especially when it seemed to take in her presence in the Zone room, but her attention was distracted.

  Kora entered behind Zhou and smiled at Gina! The commander of the guardians looked better. Her eyes were red-rimmed with tiredness, but her upright posture had lost its defensive rigidity.

  When Gina blinked before tentatively returning the smile, Kora grabbed her arm. “I just need to borrow Gina,” she said to Zhou, and towed her out of the room.

  Bewildered, Gina didn’t even think of resisting. “If it’s about yesterday’s fight, I don’t know anything more about the zombies than Fay and Gilda.”

  “It’s not about yesterday. Or not directly.” Kora released Gina and led the way to the stairs, descending four flights fast enough that Gina had to hold any further questions. They walked into the guardians’ headquarters and through them to Kora’s office. An office that had once been Lewis’s.

  Kora sat behind the desk, gesturing for Gina to take a visitor’s chair.

  Irresistibly curious, Gina managed to peek at the photo frames angled on the desk.

  Kora swiveled them towards her. “My husband and stepdaughters. Ayesha is twelve and Teegan nine. They’re getting to an age where they need me to be there, to be a constant presence and not a source of uncertainty. That’s why I accepted this job, even knowing I’d never be able to replace Lewis.”

  Kora replaced the photo frames and leaned back in her chair. “I taught Lewis when he was a new trainee. Weapons training and basic magic, suitable for a new guardian to teach while she was recovering from a broken arm. He was always ferociously focused. No one ever noticed how old he was. They just responded to the force in him.”

  “I’ve noticed,” Gina said.

  “I’m sure you have. It’s been an eventful few days. Quite an introduction to the Collegium for you.” Kora laced her fingers together. Her wedding ring, but no engagement ring, gleamed. “You’ll have seen how much the Collegium needs Lewis—with his new powers, whatever they are, or without them. He is a leader precisely because we all know he’d never ask us to do anything more than he’d do himself. He has a quiet, unacknowledged bent for self-sacrifice.”

  “I didn’t realize you knew him so well.” Gina wasn’t sure where this was leading.

  “Lewis commanded the guardians. Those of us who served with him had an added incentive to study his ways. We had to know we could rely on him.”

  Thinking of the situation at the compound yesterday, Gina could understand how vital that trust was in an emergency. People didn’t have the luxury of time to assess an order. They had to act.

  “When I stepped into Lewis’s job as commander of the guardians, I knew I’d have to prove myself. Despite my own track record. And then, there was the complication of a president of the Collegium who lacked his own magic. Perhaps I overdid the attempts to protect him.”

  Gina smiled faintly. “Possibly.”

  “And I feared you,” Kora added deliberately.

  “Why?”

  “A new girlfriend at just this time. You could have been attracted to the status of his position as president. That wouldn’t make you someone to rely on. And then, there’s Lewis himself. He rarely commits himself on a p
ersonal level. If you were a casual relationship for him…” She shrugged. “Then no threat. But if you were more, you could distract him precisely when Collegium issues most needed his attention. As it is…”

  Gina was reluctantly fascinated by this revelation of how closely her and Lewis’s relationship had been and would be scrutinized. “As it is…?” she prompted.

  Kora smiled. “You proved yourself, yesterday. The demon and those zombies were as bad as anything I’ve encountered as a guardian. You held your nerve and you did more than that. You were a key part of resolving the situation. If you’ll excuse the personal comment, because I don’t mean to offend you—” Gina gestured acceptance—“You’re strong enough to match Lewis, and for that reason, I’m going to do something I never thought I’d do. I’m going to give you some match-making advice.”

  “You’re kidding?” Gina certainly hadn’t expected that.

  “Not in the least.” Kora glanced at the photos on her desk. “Everyone needs to love and be loved. Lewis is no exception, but he thinks he is. I told you that I’ve known him since he was a kid. Lewis will sacrifice his happiness if he thinks it’ll save yours.”

  “I want Lewis,” Gina said plainly.

  “But he comes with baggage. He has had a lot of missions like that one, yesterday. That makes for baggage. And then, he has whatever this new power is—although you seem to know about it and to be comfortable with it?” Definitely a hint of a question there, but Kora continued. “Finally, loving Lewis brings all the complications of his role as president of the Collegium. Life with him means life with the brawling, intense, and sometimes weird members of the Collegium all competing for his attention. The woman in his life would have to be able to handle it, and to claim her own equal or more than equal status. He’d give it to you, but he won’t ask you to handle it.”

  Gina stared at Kora.

  Kora met her gaze levelly. Woman to woman. “If you want Lewis, you have to prove it to him.”