Marked at Midnight--Mark of the Dragon, Book 1

by Claire Conrad

  * * *

  The hunt proved fruitless, the Riven untraceable. Twilight had faded to darkness and the hunger to be with our mate, to protect her, fuck her, sleep with her safely between us, was strong. Iavo, especially, refused to wait to find her. He was obsessed. On edge. I'd never seen him like this and for the first time since we'd been bonded as dragon and rider, I was afraid. Afraid of what would happen to Iavo if Brittany refused us, refused his mating bond, his claim.

  I wasn’t sure where to begin our search, but Iavo tracked her easily. He followed her scent to a small dorm room at the university. When we knocked, a fragile human male answered. Too thin, blood polluted with drugs, he looked sickly. Weak. And he was home alone.

  “Hey, dudes.”

  Dudes? Iavo rolled his eyes and walked away, his elite dragon senses unwilling to endure the stench of the strange smoke that wafted into the hall. “We are looking for Brittany. She stopped by here earlier today, looking for her brother?” There was no way this man was related to our mate.

  His blood did not sing to me. I glanced to Iavo, the question in my eyes. A dragon could always sense a Dragonborn, the magic in their blood.

  I almost sighed with relief when Iavo confirmed my instincts. This man was not Brittany’s brother and, therefore, not ours.

  “Look, man, she stopped by this morning. Garrett ain’t here and I told her that when she came back this afternoon. He shacks up with his girlfriend a lot, you know?”

  “I wonder why.” Peering past the man’s shoulder I saw a pigsty of leftover pizza, beer cans and drug paraphernalia scattered on the floor surrounded by dirty clothing. This weakling wasn’t related to Brittany, but his roommate was, in fact, the brother she’d been searching for, Garrett.

  “And where might we find his girlfriend?” I asked.

  He shrugged, unconcerned. “Not his keeper, dude. I have no idea. Don’t even really like the guy, you know.”

  Turning on my heel, I left without another word. None was needed. Iavo fell into step beside me as we made our way down the stairs. “He said she was here this afternoon. Can you pick up her trail outside?”

  Of course.

  Half an hour later, Lake Michigan looked like glass as Iavo and I walked up the navy pier towards the only seafood restaurant there. The same place we’d first met her. Brittany mentioned her job last night. I knew we should leave her alone, let her work in peace, but neither Iavo nor I could get her out of our heads.

  When we walked through the front door, the hostess looked us up and down as if we were eye candy. “Can I help you?” the bubbly blonde hostess asked with a toothy, white smile.

  “Yes, we need to see Brittany, can you tell her Zach and Iavo are here?” I said casually.

  The blonde nodded her head and walked off to find Brittany. It wasn’t long before she appeared from around a corner. Her blonde hair was perfectly done, her makeup was artfully applied, and her piercing blue eyes made me forget to breathe.

  And you accuse me of thinking with my cock. Iavo’s telepathic voice was full of laughter.

  “Shut up.” I mouthed the words through my smile as she came up to us with a look of curiosity written all over her beautiful face.

  “What’s up, guys? I’m not supposed to have visitors. I’m going to get in trouble if we don’t make this quick,” Brittany said as she walked us out onto the empty patio.

  “We stopped by your brother’s dorm, and his roommate said he was with his girlfriend. He’s fine and should be back tomorrow. Garrett’s sickly roommate said there wasn’t anything to worry about,” I said as I put my hand against Brittany’s lower back. Iavo closed the gap, as Brittany backed up with her brow furrowed.

  Her eyes briefly widened as she looked from me to Iavo and then back again. Then, they narrowed, and her brows furrowed. She’d gone from obvious shock or even fear to pissed off in no time flat. “No one asked you to check in on my brother. I can take care of this myself,” Brittany said with an indignant tone.

  My smile faded as I attempted to reassure her. “You said you were worried about your brother, so we checked in on him. We are yours now, Brittany. We will always take care of you and didn’t want you to worry.”

  Careful, Zach, her heart is beating too quickly and she smells of rage. You are making her angry.

  “Shut up, Iavo. I’ve got this.”

  “Shut up?” Brittany’s gaze darted over her shoulder, to Iavo, standing silent, as always, at her back, before looking back to me. “He didn’t say anything.”

  I sighed. There was so much to tell her. So much to teach her. It was too easy to forget that she wasn’t part of our world. Not yet.

  I took her hands in mine and Iavo’s palms landed on her shoulders. We held her between us. “Brittany, we are here on a mission. Once that mission is complete, we must return to our home. To Arizona.”

  “You’re leaving? When? Now?”

  “No. As soon as we complete the hunt, and we want you to come with us,” I said still holding that smile. Hoping. Praying.

  “Hunt?” Trying to take another step back, Brittany bumped into Iavo’s chest, shook her head and responded, “I can’t go anywhere. I don’t even know where my brother is, and after our separation as children, I’m not about to go off to Arizona and leave him.”

  Iavo started yelling in my head, The Riven’s not far from here, and we’re about to be in way over our fucking heads if we don’t get out of here. The last thing we need is him catching her scent and going after our mate.

  “Duty calls, Brittany. Please, think about our offer. We will return when we have finished our…business here.”

  Iavo stepped out from behind her and walked to the edge of the pier. He was barely holding back his beast, his skin swirling with the amber color of his dragon as he held off the change. Hurry, Zach. He is close.

  Lifting my hand to caress our mate’s soft cheek, I leaned in and kissed her on the forehead. “Stay inside, okay? Promise me. It’s not safe. We’ll be back as soon as we can.”

  "Duty calls? Or hunting?" Brittany crossed her arms and waited for an answer, which I did not feel the need to provide. After several long minutes, she regarded us carefully before simply nodding at us and walking back into the relative safety of the restaurant. Iavo turned to face me, his eyes glowing with his power.

  She’s going to be a target now. He’s close, really fucking close. I need to kill him. Now.

  He was right, and I knew it. If we didn’t move quickly, we would become the hunted and so would Brittany. We couldn’t let that happen, not when we had just found her.

  Chapter 6

  Brittany

  * * *

  Well, that little visit had been more than unexpected. It felt—strange. Inside, I was screaming for joy, drawn to them. Part of me wanted to yell at them to come back and take me with them. It was hard to explain why I felt so close to them, needful of them, but I did. Their presence made me feel safe in a way I never had before, but there was my brain arguing with my heart, insisting that something was off. That Zach and Iavo were keeping secrets. Big ones.

  Why was Iavo mute? And if he was really mute, why did Zach talk to him like he wasn’t? And what were they hunting? Zach had said the word ‘hunt’ multiple times. Hunt. And Mission. And yours? Zach said they were mine. They?

  I wondered what Iavo thought about that little statement.

  Seemed Zach had a habit of talking for both of them, which was beginning to annoy me. Was Iavo too stupid to use sign language? To learn how to read or write? Hell, he could try charades for all I cared.

  And they were mine? Mine?

  After one night? Even I wasn’t that foolish, no matter how high I still was from the orgasm induced stupor. How could they be mine when I had no idea who they were?

  My imagination filled in all the blanks. Spies. CIA. Mafia. Hitmen. Super warriors who were part of some uber-top-secret government program like I saw on my favorite television shows.

  Logically, I knew
I had just met then, knew almost nothing about them, and shouldn’t have wanted to go anywhere with them, let alone out of town. I realized just how strange it was for them to track down my brother to try to talk to him, and it was just as strange for them to come to my place of business. It was kind of creepy and stalkerish—but my heart and instincts refused to let that take hold.

  They were safe. They were mine. And my logical brain could scream all it wanted to, the rest of me wasn’t listening.

  I felt like I was left in a daydream when the twins left, a mix of emotions tearing at me. My shift seemed to drag on like it never wanted to end. Even worse was that the hours always seemed to drag on weekdays anyway. Business was always a bit slower—especially late at night when everyone was more than likely at home, reading bedtime stories to their kids and watching sitcoms. The slow pace did nothing to allow me to get lost in work and forget the passage of time. Apparently, there weren’t as many drunk people on weekdays.

  Once the weekend came, people packed the place and the alcohol flowed. From morning mimosas to the whiskey chasers, beers to shots, we were hopping all day and into the evening. It kept me constantly busy, and I had no time to watch the clock.

  The tips were always best on the weekends. That was more than likely because most of my customers were men, and they tended to get a bit gracious once they’d had a few. Most of the time, they kept their thoughts—and their hands—to themselves, so it didn’t bother me much.

  But tonight was different. It was slow and boring. Tonight felt like it dragged out from beginning to end. With the twins on my mind, it was even worse. I had a customer curse me out because the cook couldn’t make her scallops right—as if that was my fault. I didn’t cook it, lady. Three plates, forty minutes, and three fails later, she left without leaving me one dime for a tip.

  I think she might just have been my worst customer to date.

  In addition to her, I had one customer seated in my section. He wasn’t rude or annoying like Ms. Scallops had been. Though, that wasn’t to say I enjoyed having him. He registered on the weirdo radar. He was a handsome, tall, blond man with golden eyes. He didn’t talk. I wasn’t sure if he was sick, or if he was mute, but he was certainly quiet. The man sat there jittery and constantly looking over his shoulder as I went to the serving station to get his drink, Scotch on the rocks.

  His gaze followed me as I worked my way around the tables, the interest in his eyes not the hot and sexy kind. More like the I-am-thinking-about-dissecting-you kind. I had no reason to think that way, but there was just something about him that made my skin tingle with alarm, not lust.

  I whispered to Lucy. “Man, I hope he’s an eat and go kind of guy. He gives me the creeps. There’s something about him that just feels… off.”

  Lucy snuck a peek around the corner. “Yeah, I can see it. He looks like a tweaker. See how twitchy he is? Probably an addict…or a dealer.” She shrugged. “Hot, but definitely creepy.”

  Her face screwed up a bit as she looked him over for a few seconds. Then, she shook her head and turned to rush off to the hostess station to welcome the new customers. Lucy was the perfect hostess, she was beautiful, personable, outgoing, and just the right amount of confident without looking like a complete snob.

  Mentally, I prepared myself to go back to the creepy-guy table before walking over. As usual, I pasted on a smile—even if I didn’t quite mean it. I set the drink down in front of him and pulled out my pen and pad of paper.

  “I’m ready for your order if you’ve made a decision,” I said with a smile.

  He picked up the menu and pointed at the shrimp scampi. Mute? Right. Another one. Like that was totally normal.

  “That’s a great choice,” I said. “One of my favorites. We’ll have it right out.” I put my order pad away and flashed another smile. When I reached for his menu, he grabbed my wrist, not painfully, but hard enough that I knew I couldn’t pull away.

  “Hey!” I yanked on my wrist but he just held it and stared for a few seconds. When I realized he wasn’t going to do anything else, and I was surrounded by a roomful of people, I calmed down and gave him my very best version of a death glare. “Let. Me. Go.”

  His blazing yellow eyes blinked slowly, almost like a lazy snake basking in the sun, and he leaned down over my hand and sniffed.

  What the hell?

  I yanked harder this time, ready to put up a fight if he didn’t let me go, but he released me, sat back in the booth and smirked like he knew something I didn’t. The edgy nerves he’d been displaying, the bouncing knee, the constant looking over his shoulder, the twitching…all gone. In their place was complete calm, as if suddenly he had the answers to everything in the universe.

  I took a step back. Two. His eyes had changed somehow, they seemed brighter, and he looked at me again, but this time it was different. It was like he was taking inventory. He stared. At everything. Shoes. Knees. Clothing. Even my ears. When he looked me in the eye at last, I was shaking.

  He noticed, glancing at my hand as the pen I’d been holding rattled against the order pad in the pocket of my apron. My reaction made him smile.

  This was serial killer weird. He’d just gone from creepy to terrifying in the space of a few seconds.

  I turned on my heel and walked away as if nothing had happened. Once I was out of the dining area, I hid in the hall between the kitchen and bussers’ station. I couldn’t wait for that guy to leave. Something was really, really wrong with him. Lucy thought he was on drugs, but I’d seen enough of that growing up to know that wasn’t his problem.

  This one reeked of sociopath. Killer.

  A wolf in sheep’s clothing. He was perfect. Sexy. His chest was muscular and filled out his t-shirt to perfection. His gaze was intensely golden, just like Iavo’s. I’d never seen eyes like that before, and now there were two of them? And, like Iavo, he didn’t talk?

  But that wasn’t what had me shaking, hiding in the hall like a coward.

  I didn’t want to bring his food to him, so I had a bus boy drop it off as I got a drink of water in the kitchen and made my way to the balcony out back to get some fresh air. It helped, but not as much as I’d hoped. I focused on the breeze blowing in over the water and the way the moonlight lit the clouds. It was peaceful out here. Quiet.

  I bent forward with my hands on the railing as I tried to stop the wave of nausea that had taken me over.

  Deep breath, Brittany, deep breath, Brittany, I kept thinking to myself, hoping the words would keep me centered so I didn’t throw up everywhere.

  When I was young and in the foster system, I had several breakdowns. As a result, I learned how to self-soothe. I learned what to say to myself to calm down. For me, all it took was telling myself to breathe.

  I grabbed Lucy, who finished up with Mr. Creepy. We did that for each other, stepping in and taking over when things got weird. Which was more often than I liked.

  When they were both gone, I worked like a zombie through the rest of my shift. All I could think about was the guys. Zach and Iavo. No matter what I tried to focus on, they weren’t ever far behind. My obsession seemed strange to me, but I’d never been in love before, so maybe this was what falling in love felt like.

  But with two of them?

  I wasn’t sure what the rest of the world would have to say about that, but I couldn’t change it now. Zach was funny and gentle and playful. Patient. But Iavo? For someone who didn’t talk, he communicated just fine. Those eyes spoke a thousand words and I knew what he wanted without being told. When he touched me, I knew. When his eyes burned into me like I was the most beautiful, desirable woman in the world, I knew. His intensity was impossible to resist. But Zach’s gentleness with me, the way he liked to play? I needed that, too.

  It wasn’t just lust. One night together and I was analyzing them both like they were my own personal jigsaw puzzle, and I couldn’t wait to be snapped into place between them again.

  The butterflies in my stomach gave way to heat. My
cheeks always betrayed me, and I blushed when they came to mind. Lucy, the hostess, kept teasing me. She had noticed my flushed cheeks from the moment the guys had walked in. It was kind of hard to deny, especially with how flustered I had become when they had come in to check up on me. Kind of sweet. Annoying, in an alpha male way, but I had to admit that it made me feel special. Like they cared. And everything inside me craved that feeling.

  “Come on, Britt. Let’s get off our feet.” Lucy pulled me along outside, carrying a bottle of wine and two glasses. Two steaming plates were up on the counter as we passed. I yelled thanks to the cooks and we headed outside for a few minutes to rest and eat. We’d catch up on our work. The back of house always took longer to close up than we did.

  The darkness always engulfed us when we were on the pier. With no light pollution coming from the lake, I knew the restaurant looked like a beacon on the end of the pier. The night sky seemed infinitely darker, and some sailors said we looked like a lighthouse jutting out into the water.

  With the gentle waves of the tide rolling in and the soft breeze, I let out a heavy sigh, feeling a bit more content. I stood on the balcony and enjoyed the moment of quiet. My feet throbbed, my lower back ached, and I smelled like fried food and grease.

  Gross.

  A breeze from the open lake brushed a strand of hair across my cheek, but I didn’t mind. It felt amazing as I watched stars melt into the darkness. This was my favorite time of day.

  Lucy handed me a glass of white wine. I grabbed it with both hands, smelled it, then took that first sip. “Thank you,” I said as I smiled at Lucy.

  Lucy just smiled and nodded as she tipped up her own glass. Lucy and I were the ones closing the front of the house, and I didn’t mind that at all. She could definitely be fun to work with, especially when we were bored and needed to keep things entertaining to pass the time.

  Lucy locked the door behind us as we made our way back inside. I grabbed our wrapped plates of fish and chips and she grabbed the wine. By the time Lucy made it back inside to the table, I had already gotten them ready, and put the malt vinegar down between us.