by Riley Storm
Have you ever let anyone in before?
Vlad’s words echoed in her head. If she wanted to do this, she would have to put herself out there. Be…vulnerable. Even if just a little.
Are you too scared to be open with someone? Too much of a wuss?
The reverse psychology shouldn’t have worked on herself, but a lifetime’s worth of innate responses to such questions kicked in anyway, and Ellyn powered through her fear.
Fine. She was going to do it. She was going to go for it.
Without another thought, she shuffled a little closer to Vlad and leaned her head on his upper arm and shoulder. A tiny tremor raced through him and he tensed for a split second, but then relaxed.
They walked like that, slowly, until they came to a slight rise in the ground. It wasn’t much, but just enough to give them a long look out of the valley to the east. In the distance they could still see the sun’s light hitting the ground where the mountains didn’t block it.
“This is beautiful,” she said from where her head still was pressed to him, enjoying the firmness of his arm, and the warmth of the skin below. His muscles were nice, there was no denying that. Very nice.
“I’m glad you think so.”
“I can see why you missed being here,” she added.
Vlad stiffened. “I never said I missed it,” he said tightly, starting to pull away.
Ellyn didn’t let him. She kept her arm linked to him, but lifted her head, shuffling slightly to be able to look at him closer to straight on.
“I can see it in your eyes, Vlad. I can hear it in your voice. This is your home.”
“Was,” he corrected. “It was my home.”
Ellyn snorted, not bothering to try and contain the noise. “Now who’s the one denying themselves something, hmmm?”
Vlad fell silent, looking at her. Then he lifted his head, panning it from the left, to the right, quiet and reflective. Maybe, just maybe, a little less in denial as well.
Eventually, as seemed to be the case for the night, his gaze returned to her. Ellyn looked up at him through her eyelashes, watching his eyes, his jaw, the slight flare of his nostrils as they locked gazes.
Without thinking she reached up and pushed the handful of wayward blonde strands back behind her ear.
She’d done it subconsciously, but the action left her open. It gave Vlad the invitation.
He took it.
Ellyn closed her eyes just before his lips met hers and she swelled up into the kiss, all the tension and tightness in her body melting away as Vlad’s lips crushed against hers. It was gentle and tender, but confident. Vlad kissed her. He took it, and she practically melted.
Chapter Eighteen
Vlad
It lingered. Vlad never wanted it to end. The slight spiciness of her lips, the closeness of their bodies. He wanted nothing more in that instant. Nothing but her.
He moved his head against her, kissing her deeper. Ellyn’s hands came up and wrapped around his neck, while he did the same to her lower back, having to fight the urge to lift her in the air.
Why fight that?
So he did. With a miniscule effort he lifted her free of the ground so that she could defy gravity, twisting slightly so that her legs dangled free. Ellyn made a little happy noise, but she only squeezed her arms tighter around him.
Vlad let it go on for as long as he dared before setting her down, pulling back just far enough for them to breathe, to open their eyes and look at the other in wide-eyed wonder. That had just happened.
“That was really good,” he whispered, just as the sound of footsteps behind him registered.
The pair straightened, smiling awkwardly at another, older couple as they walked by.
“Enjoy it,” the woman said with a wink directed at Ellyn, and then they were gone, arm in arm.
“I enjoyed it,” Ellyn agreed.
“Want to do it again?”
She smiled broadly and nodded, pulling him back into her. Vlad didn’t resist. Even if he could have, he wouldn’t. Not with her. There was something about Ellyn that was simply intoxicating, stronger than any drug could ever be. She called to him, and he ran to answer.
The deepening of their connection had caught him by surprise, in that he hadn’t expected anything to blossom that evening. In the grander scheme however, he’d begun to note a few things about Ellyn, about the way he reacted to her, and around her, that had clued him in to the fact that there was more than just a surface deep connection.
He didn’t dare tell her what he suspected, not yet, but in time, perhaps, she would come to understand just what was going on between them…
They broke apart again after an indeterminate amount of time, Vlad savoring the lingering feel of her soft lips, knowing he would not be satisfied with the single taste. He would need more. He wanted more.
Ellyn sighed happily and leaned against his chest, twisting her head to the side to rest it flat on his pec, right over his heart. Closing his eyes, he pressed his cheek to the top of her head.
This moment. This moment right here, it was perfect. He took a mental snapshot of it, hoping that it would live forever in his mind.
Life certainly had a funny way of coming at him. Right on the heels of his darkest days while with the Cado, now fate had shown him into the arms of this wonderful woman. A more complete turnaround there couldn’t be.
He opened his mouth to tell her that, to speak his mind.
Ellyn beat him to the punch. “Vlad.”
“You go first,” he said, leaning back, hoping to look into her eyes once more. He loved the swirls of brown, it was easy to lose himself in them.
Except Ellyn wasn’t looking at him.
“What is it?” he asked, following her gaze.
Across the open grass of the park, a figure was leaning against a thick tree trunk, watching them. The gloom and the shadow of the tree made it hard to determine who it was, but everything about their posture was setting off alarm bells in Vlad’s head.
“Stay close,” he said quietly, turning to the left and right, trying to ascertain who else was there.
Was it a human looking for a quick buck? A shifter maybe? Perhaps he wasn’t quite as welcome back in Five Peak’s as he’d thought. Who was it that had come after him? Had Pierce sent someone? Perhaps his former boss, Commander Viko? Vlad had hoped all that was behind him, but maybe it wasn’t.
He made a mental note to talk to Kal Aterna sooner than planned, to see if Viko was still trying to bully him around.
“What do you want?” he called, after determining that it was just the sole figure. For now. Others could be out there, hiding. He would have to be careful. With Ellyn around, he couldn’t risk violence. Especially given human tendencies to use guns.
The figure pushed off from the tree and sauntered forward.
“Ain’t this cute,” came the sneering reply. “You went and seduced her, did ya Teres?”
If the voice hadn’t been a dead giveaway, the derogatory use of his last name would have been.
“Liroi,” Vlad hissed in alarm. “How did you find us?”
The other dragon shifter sighed dramatically. “It really wasn’t that hard when you know the right people.”
Vlad thanked his stars that they were in public. Though night was nearing, there were enough other humans around that Liroi would be greatly reduced in what he could do if it came to blows.
It would be easier for him to keep Ellyn safe.
“Go away Liroi,” Vlad said coldly.
“Nah, I don’t think I will,” the shifter said, sauntering ever closer.
Vlad clenched his fist at his side, feeling it grow warmer as his dragon sensed the threat, not only to him, but to Ellyn, and reacted.
“I can do that too,” Liroi spat, and one of his hands glowed a soft dull orange under the skin, a reminder of the power that he also possessed.
“I don’t want to hurt you Liroi. Just turn around, and leave.”
Liroi laughed. “Like you could. N
ow, just hand her over and I’ll be on my way.”
Vlad’s eye’s narrowed into a fiery glare. “Like I would ever do that. What do you want with her? She’s no bother to you now. Neither of us are. Go back to the others.”
“Not without the bitch,” Liroi spat. “She tried to steal from us. From us, Vlad. That’s not acceptable, and you know it.”
Fighting hard to restrain his dragon from lashing out, Vlad took a deep breath.
“I also know where your hideout is,” Ellyn said, speaking up. “So maybe you should move along before I drop word to certain authorities about it.”
Vlad wasn’t sure how he felt about her taunting the other shifter. The last thing he wanted to do was get in a fight here in public with the unstable Liroi, but she had a point. Maybe they could blackmail him into going.
“We’ve already moved on,” Liroi said with a shrug. “We rarely stay anywhere for long. Ask your boyfriend there. He knows, he was part of us.”
“I was never one of you,” Vlad snarled.
Liroi just smiled and shrugged.
“Go away,” Vlad said, trying again. “It’ll be easier for everyone that way.”
“You stole my catch,” Liroi shouted. “She was mine. Not yours. Mine! I’m going to make you pay for that, then I’m going to take her back to the others.”
“Like I would ever let that happen,” Vlad spat back, adopting a wider stance. A peaceful resolution seemed like a distant hope at this point. Better to be prepared than caught unaware.
“Are you ready to do something about it?” Liroi challenged, his other fist glowing softly as well. It was a faint glow, but it was a warning. “Or are you going to be a coward like always?”
Vlad’s bark of laughter echoed through the park. “I’m not a coward, I just don’t feel the need to validate my pitiful existence by beating up on humans, like the rest of you pathetic sacks of shit.”
“You probably shouldn’t have said that,” Ellyn pointed out nervously from behind him as Liroi shook with rage, the faint glow reaching farther up his forearms.
“Probably not,” Vlad admitted, looking around. They were in public. What the heck was Liroi thinking?
“What do we do next?” Ellyn asked, ducking behind his broad back.
He could feel her crouched there, hiding.
“Um.”
That was a good question. A really good question.
Chapter Nineteen
Vlad
An idea came to him.
It wasn’t the way dragons often used their power, and many never trained with the skill, but Vlad had been a part of the Gate Guard. An elite unit of trained dragon shifters who guarded earth from the creatures of the Otherworld. Though he’d only ever encountered the one creature, he’d trained in the many uses of his fire.
Letting his own flames subside under his skin, he reached out to Liroi, feeling the fire burning just under his opponent’s skin, barely restrained, ready to flick out and unleash hell on whatever it damaged.
It was too easy. At first Vlad thought that it was a trap, but he realized that he was simply dealing with an unguarded shifter, one who had never encountered someone like Vlad before. Someone trained.
With a thought, Vlad wrenched the flames away from Liroi’s control, inserting his own will over them. Then he turned the temperature up real hot for a brief second.
Liroi started to scream.
As soon as he did, Vlad yanked on the power, and the flames went out. The glow faded from Liroi’s fists and arms, and he bounced around, shaking as the lingering increase in heat wreaked havoc inside him.
“Come and threaten my woman will you?” Vlad snarled, storming forward, unable to control his own rage. “Try to take her away from me will you?”
Liroi raised an arm to block him, but savage fury blew Vlad’s fist right through the defense, connecting with the Cado shifter’s jaw.
“I don’t think so,” Vlad continued, chopping aside an uncoordinated return strike before leaning back and kicking Liroi in the stomach.
The shorter shifter curved around Vlad’s boot before shooting backward ten feet. In the darkness Vlad hoped none of the humans would truly understand what had happened. He was certain a crowd would gather in moments now. There was nobody in the immediate vicinity, but they were nearby. The sounds of fighting would attract attention.
“She is mine,” he hissed, hauling the other shifter to his feet, shaking him by the neck.
A steel-toed boot caught him in the knee unexpectedly as Liroi lashed out, and the limb buckled. Vlad flung the smaller shifter backward as he fell, buying himself the few moments he needed to shake the blow off and recover his balance.
“Remember what you are,” he cautioned Liroi as the other shifter got to his feet. “We can’t let them know.”
“What, like she knows?” Liroi spat, looking past Vlad.
“There’s a reason for that,” Vlad growled.
Liroi blinked, confused for a second, then his face split in a broad grin that brought no warmth to Vlad. “Well isn’t that just precious,” he said, the words dripping sarcasm. “How wonderful for you.”
Vlad didn’t acknowledge any of that.
“Have you had your fun?” he said. “Go back home. Now.”
Liroi did the exact opposite. He came at Vlad. There was a bit of a crowd gathering now. Vlad would have to be careful how much strength and power he put into his blows.
It seemed unlikely that Liroi would do the same.
“Someone call the police,” a voice said.
“They’ve already been called,” Ellyn said. “Just a case of a few too many beers. Nothing serious folks.”
Vlad rocked Liroi with a blow to the stomach, and someone in the crowd gasped.
“They’re hurting each other!”
“I highly doubt that,” Ellyn muttered just loud enough for Vlad to hear before he took a forearm shiver to the jaw.
Stumbling backward he shook it off, reversing his direction as Liroi charged at him and raising his knee right into the Cado’s sternum.
Air whoofed from the other shifter’s lungs and he fell to one knee, gasping for air.
Vlad snarled and finally dropped the other shifter with a brutal blow to the temple. Liroi’s eyes rolled up into his head and he crumpled to the ground.
“He’ll be fine,” Vlad said, holding up a giant arm to keep the crowd at bay. “But just in case, I’m going to take him to the hospital. He needs attention.”
“Shouldn’t you wait for the police?” a bystander asked.
“They’re already here,” another voice said.
Vlad blinked as a bright light shone at his chest level. He tensed for a moment before his vision adjusted and he picked out the face of the officer.
“Let’s go,” Carla Aterna said with a growl, pointing away from the crowd. “Bring him with you. I’m not carrying him.”
The crowd muttered in confusion, but none of them seemed willing to intervene. Vlad followed her out of the park and over to her squad car. Though he’d never actually met her before, not in person, word had circulated in the shifter community about the dragon mate who was a sheriff’s deputy.
“Clan?” she asked once they were out of earshot.
“Teres,” he supplied.
“Miss, I’m going to have to ask you to leave,” Carla said, moving to intercept as someone neared.
“It’s okay,” Vlad said, glancing over. “She’s with me. She knows.”
Carla gave him a glance at his choice of words. “Yeah?”
“Yes,” he confirmed, not wanting to say more.
“And who’s this idiot?” Carla asked, prodding the unconscious shifter.
“A member of the Cado,” Vlad said.
Carla hissed angrily.
“Who unfortunately I can’t keep,” Vlad added, knowing the truth, and hating it.
“Why not?” both Carla and Ellyn said in unison.
“Because he won’t be unconscious for long.
Not nearly long enough for me to get him up the mountain to the clan house and behind bars that will actually hold him. And there are too many people around for me to deal with him the…other way,” Vlad said under his breath, indicating the humans that were still watching from a distance.
“I could—” Carla started to say.
“Absolutely not,” Vlad said with finality. “When he wakes up, he may still think he’s in a fight. One kick and that could be it. I will not take that risk. With either of you.”
“What do you propose then?” Carla asked.
“We should have a couple of minutes. I’ll lock him up tight using myself. Find an alley. Drop him there. I’ll have to hunt him down again later if he doesn’t get the hint and leave town.” He shook his head. “I can’t believe the oaf was so pissed off he followed me all the way to Five Peaks. I always knew he was a bit…simple, but ya.”
“Okay,” Carla said with a shrug. “Let’s do it.”
“Good. Then as soon as that’s done, we’ve got to head back to my clan,” Vlad said, looking at Ellyn now.
“We do?”
“Yes. One of the Cado is here. They need to be warned. He might not be alone.”
Chapter Twenty
Ellyn
She waited in his room this time, waiting for Vlad to return from talking to Pierce about his encounter in the park.
It was clear he was worried, because she heard him coming from a mile away. Normally he was so quiet she would have jumped at the sudden knock at the door when he arrived. This time though, she was ready and waiting, pulling the door open before his upraised fist could bang against it.
“Hey,” she said. “Come in.”
She pulled open the door to his quarters and Vlad came in.
“I’m sorry,” he said without preamble, not even waiting until she’d turned back around to look at him.
“Huh?”
“For everything that happened there,” he said with a wave as she rounded on him. “It wasn’t what I wanted. It wasn’t the way I had planned for things to go.”
“You had a plan?” she asked.
Vlad frowned. “No, actually. I didn’t. I was just sort of…winging it.”