by Kendal Davis
I narrowed my eyes at him. “That’s rather a strong way to put it, isn’t it? Have you felt that way about the honor of our House?”
Safyr closed his mouth, looking sure that he had said more than he’d intended.
A low voice came from behind me. At the expression on Safyr’s face, I turned, but I was sure already who it would be. I did not need to hear him speak to know that it was Kat’s pursuer. “I have felt that way about my own House, to be sure.” His statement was flat, neither friendly nor aggressive.
His body language, on the other hand, was unmistakably combative. He stood at the arm of my chair now, far too close, and with a squared stance that suggested he was ready for me to attack him. It almost looked as if he were hoping I would.
“Ah. Count Rosso.” I kept my tone smooth. “Have you indeed wished to be free of the traits of your own House? I did not know that the dragons of House Rubellus ever tired of being violent and ambitious.”
Safyr shook his head at me. We did not engage in insults or conflict in the club, not ever. It was the only rule we had here. The two of us were ultimately responsible for setting the tone of the place, and we took that seriously.
I ignored his caution.
“Count Rosso, I have felt your ugly presence in this mess for far too long now.” His glare at my rudeness should have stopped me, but I went on. “It is you, is it not? You have been hounding Kat about your despicable, predatory contract. Your vengeful ways are legendary. But does it not seem petty, even to you, to torture the feelings of a human woman for your own entertainment?”
He looked at me for a long moment. Something about what he saw made him smile a long, slow grin of satisfaction. He took pleasure in my agitation. It was unmistakable.
“It is not petty at all, young Captain of the Caerulean Guards. I am far older and wiser than you. I am the Count of my House, not a lesser cousin, always in the shadow of his betters. And this woman is not a small matter.”
“She is not any matter to you. She is meant to be my mate.”
He threw back his head and laughed. It was a sound that grated on my nerves, perhaps because there was no mirth at all in it, only bitterness and revenge. And a sort of twisted desire. The thought of Count Rosso touching Kat made my heart clench.
“Yes, now you’re getting it,” he said, almost encouragingly, as my face fell. “She is not yours at all. She is meant to be my mate. I have planned this for years, long before you met her. Her fine mettle will serve me well.”
“No,” I said, gritting my teeth. “You can’t have her. Choose anybody else.”
“I don’t have to. She no longer has any interest in you. Isn’t that correct?” He showed his teeth. “Kat will be my mate soon.”
And with that, he waved at us both, his almost-pleasant savoir faire incongruous with the evil that churned in his eyes. They blazed red, reminding me that he was of a tradition that craved flame and destruction above all else. He turned to leave, striding from the room before I could stop him.
I stood to follow. Count Rosso would not have Kat. That would never come to be.
A part of my mind urged me to consider, though, that there might be a problem.
He had spoken the truth about a few things. He was the Count of his house, not a less important cousin. He was worldly, handsome, and powerful. When she met him, she might form an opinion about him that was at odds with mine.
What if she wanted to take him as her mate?
Chapter 17: Kat
It had been a week. Not that I was counting.
A full week, seven days exactly since I’d seen Cobalt. What had I done? I still found it hard to believe that I had actually thrown him out. I must have been crazy to think that I’d be better off without him.
He was supposed to be here as my bodyguard. He was my protector, my massive, shining-scaled dragon. Without him, I was vulnerable to anything that might come my way.
I mean, sure, I’d always been vulnerable, but I’d always been able to take care of myself in the end. That was one of the main reasons I’d told him to leave, wasn’t it? The details were, for some reason, a little fuzzy in my mind. My own independence had been so important to me that I’d been outraged at him.
That was really all I could remember about those fateful few minutes when I’d argued with him and told him to leave. I’d been so happy earlier that day. We’d had such a connection, and I was certain that we were fated to be mates. The force of the emotions that pulled me to him was stronger than anything ordinary. It was otherworldly.
And then I’d told him to leave. I’d refused to become his mate. I remembered that part. It sort of made sense to me. I wanted to solve my own problems, stand on my own two feet. But why had we argued? There was still, in my mind, a sense of oily coating of confusion. It was as if there had been a voice telling me that Cobalt was no good for me. That he was untrustworthy.
That was silly, though. Perhaps I’d felt an instinct of self-preservation, but if that was so, then why couldn’t I capture those feelings again? My mom had always told me to listen to my heart. Maybe I’d been thinking I was following her advice.
But there was still the problem of my not being able to remember having those feelings in my heart. If I hadn’t been listening to my own instincts, then what had I been hearing? There had been somebody else in my head, influencing me.
I had brief flashes of remembering the way those intrusive thoughts had echoed in my mind, but then the sense of it slipped away again. It was hard to keep ideas in my mind right now, with the constant sleeping and watching television. I knew I had to pull out of it. I was going to, any minute, really.
As the gorgeous living room filled with morning light, Andres brushed past me on his way to the kitchen. He looked over at me with disapproval as he poured orange juice into a glass.
“Kat, you can’t sit there on the couch for the rest of your life. It’s ridiculous.” He sounded irritated. Why? I wasn’t bothering him.
I spoke the thought aloud, with more ire than I’d meant to convey. “Andres, it’s none of your business. You don’t have any idea what I’m going through.”
He watched me with little sympathy, biting into his toast, then brushing crumbs from his hand before bothering to reply. “You’re acting like a loser, Sis. I get it; you and Cobalt broke up. But was that really a surprise? He’s a dragon. Come on, what did you ever have in common?”
“Lots.” I tried to brush the hair from my face, but it was too tangled for the move to really work. An entire section of long blonde hair refused to cooperate and merely sat on the top of my head, sticking straight up.
“You need to get it together,” he urged. “From what I can tell, you two finally did it, then it didn’t work out after that. Well, newsflash, that happens to people all the time.” He ignored the fact that I threw a magazine at him at the utterance of the phrase “did it.” Instead of getting mad, though, he looked more sympathetic than he had in days. “Just promise me you’ll get out of the house today, ok? Look, I know we both love how great this new place is, but it’s bad for you to stay inside all the time.”
“I guess,” I mumbled at him. When he hoisted his backpack to head to his morning lectures, he sent me a friendly wave. Then he was gone and I was alone in a luxury condo with nothing but soap operas and courtroom shows.
That didn’t have to be so bad. Lots of people lived like this all the time. By choice.
But was this really my choice?
I’d spent so much time trying to tell Cobalt that I couldn’t compromise who I was for him. Maybe, though, I’d created problems where there were none.
I could hear the swish of the mail coming through our door slot. These little perks of a fancy place were to die for. But when I rushed to look through the envelopes, the one thing I hoped to see was not there. I sank to the plush, carpeted floor, letting the mail fall from my hands. I’d pick it up later.
“Damn it,” I murmured aloud. “Andres, you don’t underst
and. I can’t perk up. I can’t do anything at all, until I get another letter.” Saying the words aloud helped me. There was a reason that I was in this pathetic holding pattern right now. I remembered that much.
All I needed was a word from my stalker. If that tricky bastard would just contact me, then I could follow through with my plan. I would marry him, fulfill my end of the deal, then get rid of him before any of this mating business happened. I’d even set up a plan with the courthouse and a law office so I could get the annulment I needed.
I had definitely not just been watching TV all this time.
Finally, after too long sitting there on the carpet, I got up, shaking my head at myself. “Andres is right. I have to get out and do something.” I drifted back into my bedroom, stepping over the laundry that I’d left on the floor. I’d always been a person to keep my living space shipshape, whether it was our old, dingy apartment, or a tiny corner on my own boat.
Yeah, that was kind of the problem. It had never been my own boat.
But was that so bad? Everybody bought things on credit. Car loans, mortgages; that was how modern life worked.
It only worked, apparently, when you didn’t borrow money from an immortal dragon from another dimension. As I pulled on some rumpled clothes, I figured I should create a list of life tips for my younger brother. That would be my main suggestion. Never fall under the control of a dragon.
He still had no idea about the debt, and I was going to keep it that way.
When I exited the building onto the rooftop garden, I blinked in the sunlight. It was shaping up to be a hot day. The shafts of morning sun were slanting into my eyes like daggers. Maybe it had been a few too many days since I’d been outside.
All I could think was that the last time I’d left the condo, I’d had the best day of my life. I’d gone for a swim, been collected in the water by my dragon, been to a ritzy club for billionaire shapeshifters, then had amazing sex.
That had been a great day, right up to the point when I’d broken up with my boyfriend over some feelings that I couldn’t even understand anymore. Boy, I was losing my mind.
As I mulled over the mistakes I’d made, it felt like my whole life was falling into shadow. A sense of impending darkness spread through me, as if I would never see the sun again.
Then, a sound above me made me look up. I really was in shadow, not just metaphorically. The shape above me could be nothing other than a dragon on the wing. And he was landing here, on my rooftop garden.
I stepped back, pressing myself against the wall. Even as I did so, though, I realized that the blue dragon above me was Cobalt. He might be frustrated or angry with me, but he would never harm me. Whatever he wanted, he would land in a way that posed no threat to my safety.
As I’d thought, he came down lightly, without even brushing me. Just as he dropped from the sky, he changed back into the form of a man. All at once, he was no longer sparkling turquoise scales and widespread, beating wings.
In the blink of an eye, he was a man. His strong arms came down to his sides, no longer in the shape of wings, as he touched gently down. His naked form was as riveting to me as ever. Apparently our breakup hadn’t made me immune to noticing the carved musculature of his abdomen, or the firmness of his biceps. And now that I knew more about what he could do with the manly equipment between his legs, I was having a hard time averting my eyes, as I supposed politeness required.
I did remember the part about what he could do with his cock. What we had done together. And I remembered that I’d never meant for that to be the only time. How, exactly had it worked out that way?
Cobalt looked at me with a sense of urgency. I should have known that this wasn’t just a social call. As far as he was concerned, we were totally through. I had to remember that.
“Kat, I came as soon as I could. You have to get to safety.”
“What are you talking about? This is my home. I’m perfectly safe here.” I had started to smile with pleasure when I saw him, but his businesslike tone made my face freeze up. “You are here as my bodyguard, right? Nothing else, of course.”
He gave me a hooded look. “That’s right. Nothing else.”
“So what do you want?”
“I’ve been tracking him for days now. He knows it, too. But today was the day that he finally decided to make his move. He’s here, coming for you.”
I was about to open my mouth to tell Cobalt that this was great news. It wasn’t the problem he was making it out to be. This was what I had been waiting for. Without contact from my creditor, I would never have the chance to fix things.
If he was coming here, then I would be ready for him.
Before I could speak, though, the door to the garden opened. Into the sunlight stepped a tall man whose face bore the stamp of a dragon shifter. I’d met enough of them now that I would have been able to pick him out anywhere.
“And I would know you anywhere, my dear Kat,” the newcomer said. With a courtly flourish, he stepped forward and took my hand to kiss it.
Chapter 18: Cobalt
I wanted desperately to leap between the two of them, knocking the Count to the ground. What did this asshole think he was doing, kissing the hand of my mate? He had no right to even be in the same room as her, let alone touch her. He had hounded her and scared her, making it impossible for her to live her life until she sorted out the insane problem he’d presented to her.
She was a hard-working, honest person. Just as her parents had been before her. In no way did she deserve to be saddled with this debt. The amount of money involved looked like almost nothing to her now, with the riches she now possessed. She had even paid the debt in full already. But that didn’t matter.
At least, it didn’t matter to Count Rosso.
Like any red dragon, he was only concerned with conquest and control. His main ambition was to wreak havoc on the world until it bent to his demands. And it looked like he had chosen my mate as the recipient of his desire for mastery.
He smiled grimly at me, continuing to keep Kat’s hand in his grip. In an impeccably controlled voice, he spoke to me, rather than to her. “She is not your mate after all, is she?”
I glared at him but did not answer.
He went on. “This lovely woman will be my mate. She is going to agree to be my wife, and then once we are married, I shall claim her. Her wishes will not matter at that point.”
“Hello!” Kat broke in indignantly. “I’m right here. I can hear you, you know.”
He turned back to her, stroking her hand with a gesture that made me want to rip out his throat. “My dear, I always know exactly where you are. I have followed your small human life for many years now. I now look forward to spending eternity with you by my side.”
Kat was about to answer, but she clamped her mouth shut. She looked like whatever had almost passed her lips was so unpleasant that it was hard to hold it in, but she did it. Although she still had her hand in Rosso’s I was suddenly aware that she did not look happy about it.
He didn’t bother to notice, though. With a shrug of his shoulders, he spun her into his arms. “Shall we kiss to seal the deal, my Kat?”
She studiously avoided eye contact with me. Instead of kissing him, she answered with a question. “It was you in my head, wasn’t it? I recognize your voice now.”
“Ah, yes,” he preened. With his chiseled features and his height, I could see how she might be impressed with his appearance. The red eyes were a bit of a stretch, but different people liked different things. “You will learn much more of me now that we have properly met. You will find that a dragon of the old school is quite different from this young pup.”
“You call him young?” A tinge of amusement colored her voice, despite the tension of our tableau. “He has told me that he is very old.”
“No doubt he has. But I am a generation older, and that is a monumental difference among dragons. I am the Count of my House. He is merely a foolish and inexperienced Guard Captain.”
/>
I could not stand still and listen to bravado as transparent as this when I felt that Kat’s very life was in danger. I edged forward, trying not to set him off.
“Rosso. If you have indeed been in her head, casting a glamour over her thoughts, it is a shameful thing. This has to stop. You knew it a week ago, when I confronted you. Let her free of your preposterous contract.”
Kat lifted her head in surprise. “Wait, what? You told him this a week ago? You talked to him, and you knew he was the one who was after me?”
Rosso smiled down at her possessively. “That’s right. This ineffectual young idiot tried to tell me to leave you alone. But did he fight for you? No. He did not even bother to champion you. He is timid. That is why he has always been in the shadow of others. And he always will be.”
Kat met my eyes. “You did? You mean you had a chance to fight him, but you backed down? And then you came here to me today, to warn me that he was on his way. But you let him come, so I could be the one to handle it.” She did not want to say it aloud, but I could tell she realized that I had finally listened to her.
I wanted desperately to send her my thoughts, but I did not dare with another dragon listening in.
Instead, I responded as neutrally as I could. “You wanted me to believe in you. So I did.” I yearned to hold her in my arms, to kiss her lips, but I stayed back. “I do.”
She gave an almost imperceptible nod. She knew what I meant.
That was all she had needed from me, and I had failed her up until this point. She did not want me to step in and save her. She wanted me to believe that she was capable of doing that herself.
I was trying.
Wary of Rosso’s instability, I took a step back now. “Rosso, I will yield to you. If Kat wants to go with you, then I will not stop her.”
He bared his teeth at me in a scathing smile. “That is what I thought. You are afraid of real power. You are nothing without your uniform and your rules. When it comes to the real world, to a genuine confrontation, you stand down.”