“I don’t know. It doesn’t matter. None of it matters now.”
“Why?”
“I thought Katarina remembered our life together, but she doesn’t even know she’s a dragon.”
“How can she not know? You said—”
“I’m a fool,” he interrupted. “I’ve spent centuries searching for her, waiting to see a glimmer of recognition in her eyes, and maybe there was for a moment, but I’m beginning to think it was just wishful thinking on my part.” He held his head in his hands. “I don’t know anything anymore, Egan. I can’t live another day with the hope that our love will be strong enough to break the curse.”
“What are you saying? You want to give up on her?”
“That’s exactly what I’m saying.” Am I?
Out of the blue, Egan punched him. “Wake up, Phoenix!”
Nix fell back onto the sofa and rubbed his jaw. “What the hell did you do that for?”
“You can’t give up on her.”
“I can. I have. It’s time to move on.” But could he?
No, no, NO!
“Keep talking like that, and fearsome dragon or not, I’ll punch you again.”
Flames burned at the back of Nix’s throat. “Try it, and you’ll come off a lot worse,” he said through gritted teeth.
“I don’t care. If I have to beat you to within an inch of your life, I will.”
He’d never seen his brother so vehement. He calmed the flames and glared at him instead.
“I will not let you give up, Nix. If she kept experiencing déjà vu, it has to be a sign.”
Nix snorted.
“Don’t you see?” his brother continued. “This is the closest you’ve ever been to breaking the curse.”
“Maybe, but even if she did remember something, the way she looked at me before she left…” His heart crumbled. “She was terrified of me.”
“Why would she be scared of you?”
“I showed her my dragon eyes. It was our thing we used to do when we made love, right before we—”
Egan held up his hands. “Whoa, too much information, mate.”
He had a point. “Yeah, okay, but her eyes became that of her dragon, and I thought she knew, so I showed her mine. She couldn’t get out of here fast enough, which proves she doesn’t know she’s a dragon.”
“And you let her go?”
“I did, and it broke my heart…” He swallowed. “Then I thought about how afraid she would be if she was morphing into her dragon for the first time, so I went looking for her. I know I ruined any chance of us being together, but I wanted to be there for her. To make sure she was safe.”
“There’s your answer.”
“What answer?”
“You love her, and you always will. You can’t give up on Katarina; she needs you more than ever now.”
Slowly, his brother’s words sank in. Yes, he could live with hope, however small, because without hope, there was nothing but that black abyss, and he’d be damned if he would allow it to take hold this time, not when he was this close. His heartbeat quickened with a determination he hadn’t felt in a long time. She’d done that to him. His Katarina.
“You’re right, Egan. I have to find her.” He leapt off the sofa. “Thanks for the pep talk.”
Egan rolled his eyes and chuckled. “Anytime. I sometimes think I’m only here because I help you through your woes, oh, magnificent one.”
“You’re here because you are my brother,” Nix said sincerely.
“Half-brother, don’t forget.”
He squeezed his shoulder. “No, you’re my brother in every sense of the word, and I wouldn’t have made it this far without you.”
“No need to go all mushy, mate; I get it.”
“There is. You’ve no idea how much this means to me.” He grinned. “Sorry, but I’m going in for a hug.” Nix embraced his brother, emotion catching in his throat.
Egan laughed and returned the hug, slapped his back.
After a few moments, Nix pulled away. “I’m going to find her, Egan. I have to.”
“I know. And I think I know how.”
“What do you mean?”
“Don’t tell me—you were going to go dragon and fly around looking for her?”
“Yes,” he said slowly, failing to see what was wrong with that.
“She lives in town, right? What did you think, you were just going to spot her from above as she goes about her daily business? What if she doesn’t go outside much?”
“What do you suggest then? Without an address, it’s all I’ve got.”
“No, there is another way. Love Bites.”
“The dating agency? What has that got to do with anything?”
“They must have her address from when she signed up.”
His heart beat even faster, filled with renewed hope, but something else too. A niggling sensation in the pit of his stomach, like something, was wrong. He ignored it and focused on how he could find Katarina. “Okay, how do we get on that website thing?”
“We can’t do anything—since you’re living in the Dark Ages without a mobile phone—but I can.” Egan fished his phone from his pocket and tapped the screen. “Looks like it’s little brother to the rescue again.”
Nix craned his neck to see what Egan was doing, but he was tapping the screen too fast for him to read it. There were several messages in speech bubbles, though, and Egan kept typing, so he assumed he was having some kind of conversation.
“Damn, she won’t give me her address,” Egan said.
“Who won’t?”
“Jamie. The online coach.”
He had no idea what an online coach was.
“She says it’s confidential.”
His shoulders sank a fraction, but he wasn’t ready to give up yet. “I guess I’ll have to find Katarina the old-fashioned way then. Thanks for trying.” He headed towards the door and called on his dragon. The niggle in his belly upped its tempo, twisting inside and instilling him with a sense of foreboding. He cradled his stomach, shutting his eyes to concentrate on what his dragon was trying to tell him.
Find her. Find her now.
“Are you all right, Nix? I’m sure we—”
He opened his eyes. “No, I’m not. Something’s wrong. I think Katarina might be in trouble.”
“How can you know that?”
“Katarina and I are connected, or we were in the past. I can’t explain it properly, but before the curse, our souls were one, and after, our connection was lost.”
“Still not following.”
“The connection is back, Egan. I can feel her.” Sprinting out of his front door, he yanked off his robe and morphed into his dragon.
Egan ran after him. “Nix, wait. You still don’t know where she lives.”
He lifted his giant head and sniffed the air. “I will find my soulmate,” his dragon roared, extending his powerful wings to full span.
Phoenix soared into the sky, every one of his dragon senses alert and zinging with determination.
Within ten minutes, the town spanned below him.
Even if he hadn’t heard the police sirens and an explosion, the stench of dark magic was unmistakable. The aniseed odour wafted up his dragon nostrils, bringing with it the memory of where and when he’d smelt it before.
The day the sorceress cursed him and Katarina to live an eternity apart.
Selene.
Chapter Eleven
Phoenix frowned. What the hell?
First Katarina turning up in the town next to where he lived, and now that evil witch? What were the chances? Nix hadn’t seen or heard of her for centuries, so why would she be here?
His instincts, both dragon and human, told him this wasn’t a coincidence.
He shook his horned head, fighting the urge to seek out the jealous sorceress and give her a piece of his mind. What he wouldn’t give to burn her to a crisp—and he’d tried his utmost to do just that back then—but the last time he’d set his flam
es upon her, Selene had surrounded herself with some kind of protection spell.
No, as much as he despised her for what she did, his priority was to find Katarina.
As if on cue, a woman screamed somewhere below, the sound filtering from an apartment block.
He’d recognise her scream anywhere. His stomach churned with unease. His soulmate was in trouble.
“Katarina!” Nix swooped downwards and landed with precision, despite his size, on the top of the apartment building. He folded his wings into his back and transmuted them into his human form. As much as he needed the strength of his dragon right now, he had to be cautious.
Katarina didn’t know he was a dragon. The last time he’d seen her, his dragon eyes had terrified her. He had to assume she didn’t know what she was either, or maybe she didand was confused at the very least. What if she didn’t want to accept the truth?
He balled his fists by his side. One problem at a time.
The sirens got louder. The police were outside the building.
Without a moment to lose, Nix spotted a washing line on the rooftop and grabbed the first thing that came to hand; a woman’s pink dressing gown. He cursed. It was better than running through the building naked, he supposed.
Another blast sounded from inside the building.
Nix slipped into the garment and legged it down a set of concrete steps towards a fire escape door.
After yanking it open, he sprinted through the corridors, searching for his soulmate.
He didn’t have to look for long; rounding a corner, he collided with Katarina, her eyes wide with fear. Her Westie, Toby, was tucked under her arm.
Behind her, at the end of the corridor, he spotted her.
Selene.
Flames of wrath flicked at the back of his throat.
The evil sorceress readied an energy ball in the palm of her hand.
“Nix, look out,” Katarina shouted.
Selene hesitated as she saw him.
Phoenix didn’t give the witch more than a fleeting glance, not with Katarina beside him. She called me Nix. Does she know?
The sorceress’s expression hardened. She launched the greenish-black flames in their direction.
Nix twisted his torso and shoved Katarina against a door, protecting her with his own body.
The energy ball blasted past him, its force ruffling the pink garment. A millisecond later, it exploded in the corridor not four feet away from them, hurling chunks of plaster and splinters of wood around them.
Toby growled, wriggling in her arms. Katarina dropped him.
With the way back to the rooftop blocked, Phoenix tried the door behind Katarina. Luck was on his side for once—the door led to an enclosed stairway, a fire escape. With no time to be gentle, he shunted her inside. They’d have to make a run for it if they had any chance of escaping.
The little dog bared his teeth at Selene and started to run towards her.
“Toby, no,” Katarina shouted.
“Go. Now,” he commanded. “I’ll get him.”
To his relief, she did as she was told and headed for the stairs.
In a flash, Nix scooped Toby up.
“Phoenix, wait… please,” Selene said, her desperate plea oddly satisfying.
Another energy ball pulsated in her palm.
He didn’t wait. Bolting through the door and down the stairs, he finally reached Katarina.
Selene appeared at the top of the stairwell.
Loud commands of, “Armed police. Put down your weapon!” sounded from the corridor behind Selene.
With Toby under one arm, Nix fled with Katarina, down the rest of the stairs and out of the building.
The fire escape led to an alleyway at the back of the apartment block, where an unarmed police officer stood on guard. He reached for his radio handset.
With an upward thrust, Phoenix delivered a blow to the policeman’s nose. The poor man collapsed on the ground, blood pouring from his face, but needs must; Nix couldn’t afford to have the police asking questions he couldn’t answer. He had to get Katarina to safety.
Katarina stopped, her mouth open as she glanced at the police officer. She swallowed, then looked at him. “What have you done?”
He held out his hand to her. “We have to go. It’s not safe here.”
She didn’t move, her gaze flitting between his outstretched hand, the injured police officer and the alleyway exit. “Will he be okay?”
His heart ached, wanting everything to be as it was between them before the curse, but her hesitation suggested she didn’t trust him yet. And he could hardly blame her. The last time she’d seen him, he’d almost morphed into his dragon. Not to mention she was being attacked by an evil sorceress. How the hell had Selene found her? “He’ll be fine.” He inched his hand closer. “Please, we have to get out of here.”
Without a word, she took his hand.
The ache in his heart lessened. He squeezed her hand and headed out of the alleyway, keeping an eye out for the police.
Yelling sounded behind them, and more crashing and destruction, urging them both to run.
It still wasn’t over.
Selene would not stop until she found them.
Frantic, Phoenix searched for somewhere for them to hide.
Katarina took the lead, dragging him through back alleys, past stinking dustbins and a rather bemused drunk propped against a pile of cardboard boxes. “Come on, I know where we can hide.”
Nix followed her to a rundown warehouse, its windows boarded up, and offensive graffiti scrawled on the crumbling brick walls.
Katarina headed for a metal door and yanked the rusty padlock. It snapped in her hand.
She seemed surprised by her dragon strength.
Her dog barked, then wriggled under his arm to get down.
“Here, give Toby to me. Thanks for saving him.”
Nix handed over her dog, and they headed inside.
A framework of industrial steel girders supported a corrugated roof some thirty feet high, both rusty and eaten away through time. Huge metal shelves from floor to ceiling stretched before them in eerie, seemingly endless corridors, and dirty, slate-grey puddles lay stagnant on the concrete floor.
She offered a half-smile that made his pulse rate accelerate. “And for saving me, too,” she added. Shafts of sunlight streamed through various sized holes in the roof, catching the sparkle in her emerald eyes.
“I think you were doing a pretty good job of escaping before I got there.” He followed Katarina as she avoided the puddles and made her way down one corridor, its metal crated shelves like cages, mostly empty, bar a few cardboard boxes, slatted wooden cases, and discarded plastic wrappings.
She stopped so abruptly, Nix almost collided with her. “What were you doing at my flat?” Her hand trembled as she clasped it to her mouth, her eyes wide with fear again. “It’s not my flat, it’s Selene’s… she’s my friend.”
Nix barely controlled his fury. “Your friend? How the hell can she be your friend?”
Katarina frowned. “I don’t understand. What happened to her?”
He ground his molars. “You don’t know who she is, do you?”
“No, I don’t. Selene is my best friend—or was—until she turned psycho witch back there.” Kat shook her head. “None of this makes sense. Selene found me the day I came around on my last reincarnation, after my car accident. She helped me, offered me a home, and a job. Then I found out she was the one who ran me off the road. She said she wanted you. Why does Selene want you? Do you know her?”
He knew her all right, but clearly, Katarina did not. The realisation hit him like a blow to the stomach. It made perfect sense to him. Selene had been playing some kind of sick, manipulative game with Katarina, pretending to befriend her, when all she wanted to do was get to him.
He blew out a breath. “Sit down, Katarina. Everything will be okay, I promise.”
She put Toby down, found a dry patch on the dirty floor, then sat and le
aned her back against a steel girder.
He sat beside her, yearning to take her in his arms and tell her everything, but hesitating even now. “Tell me how much you remember of your past lives.”
Katarina rubbed her temples. “Not much, I’m afraid.”
His heart sank. “Tell me what you do know, and maybe I can help.”
She took a few moments to answer. “Okay, this might sound totally crazy, but…” She swallowed. “I’m pretty certain I’m a dragon.”
Seeing her struggle with the truth tugged at his heartstrings, but his chest swelled with hope.
“With each reincarnation, I searched for clues to my true identity, and now…? My skin turned into scales. Freaking scales! Am I crazy? Tell me I’m not crazy.”
Nix cupped her jaw, then tilted her head until she met his gaze. “You’re not crazy. You’re incredible.”
“I am? I freaked out at first. I thought I was a monster.”
“And what about now?”
“I’m getting used to it, but—”
“I’m a dragon too,” he blurted out before he could stop himself.
The tip of her tongue flicked across her lips.
“I’m so sorry I scared you last night. I thought you knew what you were. What we are.”
A hint of a smile graced her lips as she looked him up and down. “I’m not afraid of you, especially not in that getup. What on earth are you wearing?”
He glanced down at his pink attire. “What, this? Sorry, it was the first thing I could find.” Nix grinned. “It was either this or rescue you in the buff, and since you ran the last time you saw me naked…”
She sucked her cheeks. “You came to rescue me?” Her eyes glinted with amusement. “So, not so much knight in shining armour, more like my knight in a frilly pink dressing gown. Different, I suppose.”
Toby yapped as though to agree.
“Would you rather I was naked then?” He winked and made as if to undo the dressing gown tie.
Her cheeks reddened, much to his delight. “One step at a time,” she whispered, her expression serious now. “I didn’t run from you last night because I was scared. I left because of what was happening to me. To us. I didn’t understand.”
“And do you now?” He forgot to breathe.
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