“The Veritas Protectorate isn’t just any club, Noir. You need to prove your worth. You need to bring something to the table. You bring your Arcana connections, and if Miss Bastion is to be one of us, she must prove her resourcefulness.”
“And she did. She got out of the facility alive.”
“But left the Others to rot.”
This wasn’t about the Others. He knew why Wila had left them behind. He understood the risks, both to Wila’s life and to the fate of Arcana. The bastard was hiding something and it was somehow tied to Wila. Magic caressed the back of my neck, eager to be used, eager to flow through me.
My eyes narrowed. “What is it, Lex? What are you hiding from me?” I walked up to his desk and splayed my fingers against the wood, registering the ache and tingle in the tips where magic pooled, ready to be expelled. “Never mind. How about I find out for myself.”
Lex’s eyes flared and something akin to panic flitted across his cutthroat features. The greyhound climbed to his feet and padded around the desk to stand at Lex’s side. Lex side-eyed the beast but didn’t speak to it. He was worried. Good. He should be. Up until now, I’d respected his privacy, the boundaries he’d set around what was personal and what was business. Our friendship was based on mutual trust and respect. But over the past few weeks, he’d pushed me too far. His disregard for Wila’s safety was the last straw, especially when ... when she meant so much to me.
“You know me, Lex. I have connections, and once I get it into my head to dig, I don’t stop until I hit oil.”
Lex exhaled. “And you know me. You know that if I could, I’d help you. But there is more at stake here than you realize. Miss Bastion will either come home alive or ... or it wasn’t meant to be.”
Wasn’t meant to be? Was he serious? My control was like steel, unrelenting, unyielding, but in that moment, with Wila’s life on the line, it snapped. Electricity whiplashed from my fingers and slammed into Lex, knocking him back, seat and all, to hit the reinforced glass behind him.
Lex’s eyes bled to black as he slowly rose out of the leatherback chair. He raised his hand in a slashing motion and dark lances of power hurtled toward me. I dodged easily, which told me it had been a warning shot. Lex didn’t miss.
“You really want to do this, Noir?” Lex stared me down with his obsidian eyes.
His heritage was a mystery. Arcana mixed with something more—something that, according to The Institute laws, shouldn’t exist. Something he hid from everyone but those closest to him. People like me. People in the Veritas Protectorate. People who were his friends. The Institute left him alone because he couldn’t be mortally wounded. He was a wild card, and in exchange for his silence, they turned a blind eye to his existence.
He’d built the VP from nothing, finding and recruiting key members of society interested in rooting out the truth and keeping it safe for generations to come. The VP worked to keep the citizens of Arcana safe, to promote justice for those unable to demand it for themselves, and to stop The Institute from crushing the plebs. Bastion was a perfect candidate, and when Amber had been taken, it had been Lex who’d sent me to Wila. He’d made me believe, and now he was willing to walk away, to let her die in that place? It made no sense.
The fight bled out of me. “I didn’t come here to challenge you, Lex.” I snorted. “Goodness knows you could kick my arse. I just ... I can’t stand back and do nothing. She’s worth too much.” I looked him straight in the eyes. “She’s everything.”
Lex turned his back on me, his shoulders tense. “I wish I could help you, Noir. Goddammit, you have no idea how—”
“I’ll do it,” the greyhound said.
I blinked down at the beast and then backed up as it began to grow and morph until a slender male with androgynous features stood before me. He was wearing what looked like a jumpsuit that clung to his body as if it had been painted on. Wila would have had something witty to say about the whole thing. My heart ached.
Lex’s jaw was tight. “Leopold, what are you doing?”
“What needs to be done. You tell her that I’m done sitting on the sidelines. You tell her that it’s time to step forward. If she wants the map, she’ll need to get her hands dirty.” He focused on me. “Take me to the breach. I will bring our Wila back.”
Our Wila? But questioning this Other who was willing to go into the Everdark was not on my agenda.
I took his soft hand in mine and stepped into the ether.
We landed by the breach, the gaping maw of darkness that had ripped an old oak in two but yet allowed it to continue to grow and flourish.
Leopold took a step toward the breach and paused. “Do not blame yourself for being unable to help her. You are not Other or Shedim or Draconi. You are Arcana, and the breach will not allow you through. It does not recognize you.”
It was what I’d suspected, but it was good to have it confirmed. “It recognized Wila ...”
He smiled. “Yes. It did.”
What was he implying? “Are you saying that Wila isn’t a neph?”
“I’m not saying anything, Mr. Noir. You are.”
It made sense. It all made sense. The changes she’d been experiencing and her connection to Azren and Valance. She wasn’t neph. She was something else, but what? And why was this Other willing to walk into danger to save her?
“Why are you helping me?”
Leopold glanced back with a smile, and then his body rippled and he morphed again, widening and bulking up until Hound stood by the breach, his violet eyes pinned to me. For a moment my mind was a blank, and then the pieces clicked into place, spawning several more questions. There was no time to ask them, though, because with a bunching of his haunches, Hound leapt into the Everdark, leaving me reeling.
18
The warm water washed over my skin, stinging and washing away the worst of the muck. Man, I’d missed this spring, one of the reasons Jinx had chosen to make his home here. It was tucked away through a tunnel accessible only via Jinx’s cave, and the water ran clean and fresh. My hair was a mass of tangles. There would be no teasing those out, not without a huge dollop of conditioner and a detangling brush. But at least it was clean. My clothes were drying on a nearby hot rock. Jinx had explained that there was some source of heat below the surface, a hot spring of some description which made this part of the cave super cozy. Valance had washed already and was getting dinner ready. Yeah, we were so totally domesticated now. Almost twenty days together in a nightmare and we’d made our own little haven in which to hide and wait out the shit.
Only two days now and we’d be home. Don’t think about the run or the danger, just focus on the moment we’d pass through the breach. Just think of seeing Noir and Tay and Trev and Gil again. Just focus on getting Azren back.
Azren ... He’d locked me out of his mind. Erected a wall between us, preventing me from reaching him, but his pain couldn’t be locked away. It seeped through the wall and pierced my soul like a thousand shards.
A soft gasp had me scrambling to cover myself with my damp shirt. “Shit, Valance. Peeping Tom much?”
He didn’t look away immediately, instead he scanned me from head to toe, his eyes bright in the darkness, his expression filled with fire and yearning. Desire lurched in my abdomen, and I bit the insides of my cheeks. He turned away, his shoulders tense knots of muscle. His bare biceps flexed as he reached up to rub the back of his neck.
“Food’s almost ready.” His voice was hoarse.
“I’ll join you in a minute.” I shrugged on my shirt, ducking my head to hide my flaming cheeks even though he was no longer looking.
This pull between us had grown stronger, almost too much to resist, but according to Valance and his scalemate 101, this wasn’t what scalemates were supposed to feel. We were supposed to be soulbounded—the relationship like that of close siblings, and there were moments of closeness that weren’t sexual, like when he held me in his arms every night and lulled me to sleep with his steady heartbeat, or when he
’d tried to untangle my hair with his fingers for half an hour the other day, but there were also moments like now, when the urge to rip off his clothes and mount him was an alarm blaring at my libido.
He vanished through the tunnel. The damned lead cuff they had on him had cut off access to his dragon form and prevented him from shifting from place to place without extreme exertion. At least he could still use his talons and scale armor, if need be. We’d need those on the run out of here.
Urgh. Damp clothes sucked. Pulling out a wedgie, I headed back to the cave.
The flames spat as the meat cooked. That’s what we called it. Meat. Not spider or centipede or roach, just meat. My stomach turned and cramped at the same time. It had been almost two days since we’d eaten, and we’d gotten lucky with our catch today. The Everdark was getting busier. Others were moving closer to the spot where the breach would appear, holing up in caves and gathering around huge fires to keep the denizens at bay, and the denizens themselves? Well, there was no sign of them, not a peep. Almost as if they were hiding, lying in wait for the actual event when they would swoop down and feast.
Our cave was warm and safe. Heh, I was thinking of it as ours, I was thinking of us as an us. Jinx’s cave had been home for the past twelve cycles, and the breach was due to appear in two cycles’ time—I’d kept track on my arm and had the scars to prove it. It meant re-cutting over and over to prevent healing, but it was my only way of keeping track.
We’d be leaving soon. Back to our world, and back to the mission that was still burning a hole in my mind, but I’d be lying if I said there wasn’t a part of me that would miss this ... This, just the two of us, me and my scalemate—a male who was so much more than his dragon, a man who was funny and quirky and dammit, super sexy, not that I’d gone there ... yet, but we were close. We were teetering on the precipice, both wondering what would tip us over the edge, because sexual intimacy wasn’t supposed to be part of our bond. Scalemates did not ... mate.
The shade had left two days ago, saying he’d return in time for the breach. He did that a lot, came and went, but never told us exactly where he was going or what he was doing. So, it was just the two of us again, and tonight there was a strange tension in the air—anticipation of escape from this nightmare place, or the realization that our time alone was almost over? Probably a mixture of the two.
The fire crackled as Valance turned the spit to evenly cook the meat. “When we get back, I’m eating vegetables for a week.” He sighed. “I never thought I’d say this, being a dragon and all, but meat is overrated.”
I snorted. “Ice cream. I’m going to eat a bucket.”
“Chips and donuts,” Valance added.
“Oh, God. Yes! And beer, I want a beer.”
“A good single malt.”
“Upper-class toff.”
“Pleb.”
We eyed each other with matching grins, and then my smile slipped. How could I be sitting here feeling stupid and giddy when Azren was still in Elora’s clutches? How could I fucking be sharing a joke?
I stood and walked over to the cave entrance where Valance had laid several cleverly made traps to alert us of intruders—bones and talons and jaws, to be precise. The cold air ruffled my hair, cooling my cheeks that were hot with shame. I’d come here to find Valance, get him out, and then save Azren. My focus had to be on the end game at all times. There could be no reprieve until it was over, until all the guys were safe, home with me.
Valance came up behind me, stopping short of touching me but lending me his heat. “We’ll get him back. We’ll find a way to force Elora to let him go.”
“Yeah, we keep saying that, but so far we’ve come up with nothing. We know what she’s planning to do, and we can’t tell her we know because she may deploy sooner and then we’re fucked. Telling The Institute what they’re up against won’t get Azren back.”
“But if they know what’s at stake, they may be able to help us get into Draconi territory, even if it’s for reconnaissance,” Valance pointed out. He made a sound of exasperation. “I promise you, I won’t leave him to rot in the pit.”
“Even after what he did to you?”
Valance was silent for several long seconds. “I hated him for a while, I had to, because if I didn’t, then I’d have to hate the woman who bore me and I wasn’t ready for that. So I hated him even though deep down I knew he was simply a pawn. He was her pawn. He was just as trapped as me. And then I found out ... I discovered things.”
“That Elora was hurting him too? Abusing him sexually?”
“You know?”
My gut clenched at the memory of Elora all over Azren, how she’d forced him to kiss her. “I saw the way she was with him.”
“Then you understand. I couldn’t hate him after that, but being nice to him wasn’t an option either. We could never be friends, not in our world, and not if Azren was to keep his pride.”
I turned my head to look at him. “So, you put on an act of despising him?”
He pulled me back against his chest. “I’m a talented actor, Wila. It’s what I do. It’s how I survived Mother.”
“The drunk fool?”
“The drunk fool.” There was a smile in his voice.
A thought occurred to me, the fact that Valance never spoke of his father. Did he know which one of Elora’s mates had sired him? How did that even work? “What about your father? Didn’t he have anything to say about any of this?”
“My father’s dead.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Yes, so am I.”
I turned in his arms and looked into his freshly-shaven face. Turned out that his talons made pretty good razors. “I can’t believe I was scared of you.”
He graced me with a slow blink. “You were never scared, Wila. You were intrigued. You were attracted and you were wary, but never scared. I would have smelled it on you.”
I cocked my head. “Really? I felt pretty scared a couple of times.”
“You know I’d never intentionally hurt you.” Those electric blue peepers were fixed on me, hungry but not for the denizen meat. “And Azren wouldn’t want you to stop living, stop feeling, because he wasn’t here to share it with you. That isn’t who he is.”
My mouth was suddenly dry, and I clenched my hands into fists to stop myself from running my fingers through his damp hair. “We should eat.”
I walked around him and sat by the fire before sliding the meat off the spit and onto the mat I’d made of dried reeds.
“Wila ... is that what you’re really hungry for?”
Oh, shit. “Valance, I ...” The excuses died on my lips because, why? Why hold back on what we both wanted? Valance was mine, just as Azren and Taylem were mine. Death was everywhere, and life could be snuffed out without a moment’s notice, and right now we were both here, alive, together. It was fucked up, but since finding Valance, the Everdark didn’t feel like such a nightmare. With him by my side, it felt like home. Yeah, totally messed up.
Valance skirted the fire and lowered himself to the ground beside me. His arm brushed mine, sending delicious shivers radiating outward from the point of contact.
“Look at me, Wila.”
It was that voice again—the one that had mesmerized me in the shower, the one that had tugged at the very heart of me, the one I’d promised myself I’d avoid at all costs, but everything was different now. I was different, and his compelling tone stirred something new inside me, a power I’d only sensed from afar, one that had been skirting my consciousness, playing hide-and-seek for the past few weeks. It unfurled now, leisurely stretching out to infuse me and fill me with a glow of sensual energy that filled my limbs with delicious, lethargic need.
I turned my head and met his gaze, my vision tunneling and blurring before snapping into sharp focus.
Valance grabbed my face with both his hands, a gasp exploding from his lips. “Wila, your eyes.” His thumbs swept over my cheekbones. “You have dragon eyes.”
The world w
as sharper, brighter, and filled only with him.
Valance’s pupils dilated, drinking me in, and my skin tingled, signaling the emergence of my scales. He dipped his head and swept his tongue up the column of my throat. The scales withdrew as if by his command. He licked up the side of my neck to my earlobe, sucked it into his mouth, and then tugged on it with his teeth, sending a sharp lance of need through me. His breath was hot on my skin, skimming along my jaw toward my mouth. We met, parted lips, eager tongues, tasting, tangling, and wanting more. When had I crawled onto his lap? When had I wrapped my arms around his neck? He broke the kiss and hauled me onto him, the heat of his breath seeping through the material of my shirt to tease my breasts, his warm mouth and tongue circling the peak of my nipple. My body arched into him, offering myself to him, but the fabric, the darn fabric.
“Take it off.” My voice was a hushed plea.
Valance’s laughter was thick with desire as he peeled the fabric over my head. He stared at my naked torso, soaking me in with his dragon eyes, and then he reached up, placed a hand on my collar, and swept it down between my breasts, down to my navel. The contact was a low electrical hum forcing me to arch my back, coaxing a low, soft moan from my throat. And then his tongue found my skin, his mouth closed round my nipple, and there was no space in my mind for coherent thought. My body took over, hips rolling against him, begging, pleading. There was only our ragged breath, my desperate whimpers and moans, and his hard fingers bordering on pain as they dug into my hips and back. I reached between us, wanting to touch, wanting to free him, but then the ground was at my back, the fabric and furs that made up our bed cushioning me. He sat back on his haunches, drinking me in, his gaze like twin caresses sweeping over my bare skin and tugging my nipples into twin peaks of need. They wanted his mouth back. They ached for him.
City of Everdark (Chronicles of Arcana Book 3) Page 16