by Kimber White
“I know how to take care of myself,” she said. “And Astor is family.”
I couldn’t help myself. I let out a menacing growl. A dragon raised by a mage. If what Calla told me so far was true, she’d been with him as a baby. She was vulnerable. I couldn’t believe this witch hadn’t tried to sell her to the highest bidder.
Still, something crawled up my spine. It was my preternatural sense of danger. That unmistakable shifter scent permeated the streets. I just couldn’t tell if it was new or old.
But, Calla wouldn’t be stopped. She pulled the ladder down and started to climb. As much as I enjoyed watching her ass on the way up, I wasn’t about to let her out of my sight. I growled again and followed her.
We were both drenched to the bone as she opened the back door of the apartment and went inside. Again, my sense of danger flared. Instinct took over and I grabbed Calla and put her behind me.
“Kian, I know what I’m doing,” she protested. But, this wasn’t up for debate.
We came in through a door at the back of the kitchen. The apartment was tiny. Just a hallway off the kitchen with two bedrooms. The central living room faced the street. I noticed the large bay window. There was an easy chair in front of it, and when I peered out, I looked straight down at the Blue Heron a few buildings over. A shiver went through me. That first night I met Calla, I’d seen a man watching from this very window. I had the sense then that he saw me, impossible as that sounded. Now, I wondered if this Astor had been watching us all along. It did nothing to quell my doubts about him.
“Astor,” she called out. But, I could already tell the apartment was empty. Calla went to the closed bedroom door and softly knocked.
“Astor,” she said, softer. “Open the door. Are you okay?”
“He’s not here,” I said. Calla put a hand up to silence me. She let out a sigh and tried the door. It was locked.
“This isn’t like him,” she said. “He was waiting for me to get back. He’s the one who told me to go after Owen.”
As soon as she said it, Calla ran a hand over her face. “My God. Owen. We just left him there. I need to call Sheriff Baines.”
“Try the door,” I said.
“You don’t understand,” she said. “When I saw Astor in the woods...he wasn’t really there. It was a spell he casts, though not very often. Astral projection. He must have been looking for me and saw Owen instead. I don’t know. But, he knows something. Astor knew Owen was in danger.”
“Calla,” I said. “I want you to step away from that door. I don’t like this.” If this Astor could spy on Calla without leaving the room, I wondered what the hell else he’d seen. Did he know about me?
She whirled on me. “I don’t have anything to hide, Kian. When Astor projects like that, it takes a lot out of him. I’ve seen him fall into a coma-like state afterward. Sometimes for days. He’s old. I mean...really, really old. Er...apparently not as old as you, but old for a witch.”
“How old?” I asked.
She shrugged. “Um...he won’t tell me his exact birth date. But, he’s around a hundred and twenty-three, give or take.”
I raised a skeptical brow. I moved to her side. If Calla was going to insist on going through that door, I’d be with her.
“Dammit,” she said. “I don’t want to bust it open.”
I reached forward and focused a spark of flame on the lock. The door popped right open. Calla gave me a quizzical look.
“How did you do that?”
It was my turn to look shocked. Did she not know how to channel her fire the way she wanted?
“Find your friend,” I said.
She went in. I was right behind her. Astor’s room was sparse and neat. There was just the bed, a dresser, and a bookshelf. The bed was made, the covers were drawn back, but it didn’t look like Astor or anyone else had been here.
“Astor?” she said. Calla went to the window and looked outside. She opened the closet. “I don’t understand. Kian, he never leaves. Astor doesn’t get around very well on two legs anymore.”
There was an ornate, ivory cane propped up against the bed. Calla picked it up, concern lining her face. “He never goes anywhere. But he particularly never goes anywhere without this. Something’s wrong.”
“That’s what I’ve been saying,” I said. “I don’t like it. I don’t think it’s safe here.”
Her eyes narrowed as she looked at me. “Kian, I need to know if you had anything to do with this.”
“You think I did something to your...whatever he is?” The air in the bedroom began to stifle me. It was thick with residual magic. I broke out in a sweat and pulled at my collar. When I lifted my hand, scales popped out along my forearm.
“You don’t look very good,” Calla said. “Maybe you better sit down.”
“God,” I said. “Can’t you feel that? The stench of it…”
“Kian…”
I rubbed the back of my neck. There were scales there too. I had to get the hell out of this room, and fast. Maybe even being in the building was a bad idea. It just felt like dark danger in every corner. How could Calla live in the same room with this man? His magic stuck to everything.
I walked into the living room and went to the window again. I pried it open and tried to clear my head with the cool air.
Calla was right behind me. She put a tentative hand on my back. For a moment, it helped. I felt her pulse beating steady and strong. Her dragon was there, just below the surface, but she had control of it. I didn’t.
It had to be the mage’s lingering stench. Calla’s presence should have made this easier. Instead, I felt closer to madness than ever before.
“I didn’t kill your mage,” I said.
“What about the others? Kian, don’t you see? Astor knew something was wrong with Owen. I think he projected because he was trying to find me. It means he might have seen what happened to Owen. And he came to me when I was with you. Astor doesn’t have the sight. He can’t see things before they happen. If he saw Owen in danger, he saw it in real time. You were with me.”
I turned to her. “You think he can clear me. That’s what this is about? You’d trust a mage’s word? God. Calla. You don’t even know your own history. Men like your Astor have tried to use our kind for thousands of years. Do you not even know why you’re one of the last of your kind?”
She took a step back. I’d wounded her. It was the last thing I wanted. I went to her. Instinct took over and I slid my arms around her. Still, my dragon threatened to burst out of me. If I could just feel her a little...if we could.
She slid her hand up, curving her palm around my jaw. Calla seemed to marvel at the sight of me. She tested my power, letting off just a tiny spark from her fingertips. It sent a shiver of pleasure straight down my spine.
I lifted my palm and joined it with hers. If I was careful...if I let the beast out just a little...just to give her what I knew she wanted. My hand began to glow orange. Calla gasped. Her own fire rose to the surface. It was so beautiful. Her essence was green like an emerald.
She was mine. She had to be mine. It’s why I was here. Of all places on earth, I’d ended up in Shadow Point. I couldn’t even remember making a conscious decision to come here. Now, I understood. It was Calla. It had always been Calla.
She grew bolder. Her eyes turned to green fire. Her breath came hot. Sparks skittered down her arm, joining with mine. Embers danced across the floor. Her lips. The light in her eyes. I could get drunk from her.
“Oh, no!” Calla broke away first. The chair by the window had caught fire. She reached for a blanket and tried to smother it. Of course that wouldn’t work. I slid an arm around her waist and gently pulled her aside. I took a deep breath and blew out the fire.
“We have to be more careful,” I said. “I don’t think you have as much control over your power as you think you do. And I know I don’t right now. Calla, this man. This Astor. Has it never occurred to you that he’s been using you?”
“You d
on’t understand,” she said. “I owe him my life. My existence. He’s also the last of his kind.”
“Calla, there are mages all over the world. If he’s told you that, he’s lying.”
“No,” she said. “I know that. But Astor is something special. His ancestor swore an oath to my mother to protect me. It happened like a thousand years ago. And each generation from a direct line of descent going all the way back has kept their promise to protect me.”
“You told me you were born twenty-four years ago,” I said. “Do you mean to tell me that this Astor’s coven has been holding on to what...your egg all this time?”
She nodded. There was a piece missing. It didn’t make sense. “Calla...they’re lying to you. Only dragonfire can hatch a dragon egg. Where are your parents?”
“They’re dead,” she said. “I never knew them. I just...I only know about my mother. Her name was Giselle and she died a thousand years ago. Astor has never lied to me.”
I dropped my shoulders. Calla didn’t even understand her own nature. What in God’s name had this witch done to her all these years to keep her under his control? I wanted to kill him.
Her heart pounding, she looked at me. “I want...I need...Kian...I want you to show me what you can do.”
Anything. At that moment, I knew I would give her anything. If it damned my soul for eternity, it would be worth it.
I kissed her. I couldn’t help it. She was heat and fire and delicious. She let out a little groan that nearly drove me to my knees. She was strong and powerful, but out of control in her own way. She held my heart and broke it at the same time. Because she had been so much more alone than I had. A vengeful rage tore through me. I drew back, seeing black. No. Not now!
“Kian!” Calla sensed the chaos in me. She gripped my arms and pulled me back from the brink.
I took a staggering step away from her. God, it shouldn’t be like this. If Calla was mine, if she was my fated mate, I should have felt more in control around her. It’s what each of my brothers told me to expect. They told me when they met their mates, even from the very first time, they were grounded, tethered. It wasn’t like that for me. If anything, I felt wilder than before.
It was the magic. It had to be. This Astor had done something to her. Cursed her, perhaps.
As I came back into myself, Calla’s expression gutted me. She looked afraid. I knew what she was thinking. Could I be the monster? Had I murdered the people around her? Again, I saw a flash of Adam Webster’s face. I knew in my heart that I had been there when he died.
Calla swallowed hard. “Kian, I know you’re having trouble with this. But, Astor will know what to do. I have to find him. And you have to help me.”
As she looked up at me with fire in her eyes, I knew I had already lost my soul in her. God help us both.
Chapter Eighteen
Calla
I wanted to trust him. I wanted to believe him. Kian was a dragon. I still couldn’t wrap my head around it. I wanted to forget all the horrors I’d seen in Shadow Point over the last few weeks. But, I couldn’t. The simple fact was, the killings started when Kian came to town. And I felt the beast inside of him. His dragon was so strong. So wild. I’d seen this kind of thing so many times in other shifters. Mating sickness. I’d felt it off that bear at the bar. Only...I knew Kian’s animal was so much more powerful than any other shifter on earth. If he lost control for good, I wasn’t sure even I was strong enough to stop him.
For now, Kian was also the only person who could help me find Astor. He led me to the rooftop. He said Astor’s magic was making him sick. I didn’t want to believe him, but the second we got outdoors, I felt him grow calmer.
Could he be right? Had Astor done something to control me all these years? The moment I thought it, I cast my doubts aside. I knew Astor. He loved me. He’d protected me. He’d risked his life to give me mine. That’s the one secret I couldn’t quite bring myself to tell Kian yet. I couldn’t trust him with the knowledge of how I was born.
“Can you scent him?” Kian asked. The rain had stopped, but the wind howled. It was nearly dawn. If Owen’s body hadn’t been discovered yet, it soon would be. Baines would have questions. He’d come looking for me. What was I supposed to tell him?
“Calla!” Kian shouted, drawing me out of my thoughts. “Try. If I reach out looking for him, I can’t promise what will happen.”
I shot him a look. Then, I stepped to the edge of the roof and closed my eyes. When I opened my mind to it, my senses assaulted me. I swayed on my feet. Kian’s steady hand on my back kept me grounded. The shifters were everywhere. I sensed Mason’s pack near the eastern edge of town. There were a few bears in Tiger Mountain. If I stretched my mind far enough, I could even scent a wolf pack as far west as Seattle. But, I couldn’t find Astor. My eyes snapped open and panic flared in my heart.
“He’s gone.” I turned to Kian. I gripped his arms tight. My fire coiled in me as I searched for the truth in him. Kian went rigid, but I think he knew what I was doing. I let out a breath.
“Satisfied?” he asked.
I nodded. “No. I don’t smell Astor on you. I believe you that you don’t know where he is.”
“Good. So, let’s do this the old-fashioned way. You sure there isn’t somewhere the old man likes to go?”
“You don’t understand,” I said. “Astor’s barely ambulatory on his own. You heard me say he’s a hundred and twenty-three. He may be a mage, but even they don’t normally live that long. Astor is...well...he’s special.”
Kian snarled. “He’s been feeding off your magic, Calla. I can’t believe you don’t see that.”
“Don’t start,” I said.
“Witches and shifters are the reason dragons were hunted almost to extinction. Your friend never bothered to give you that history lesson?”
“I know that!” I snapped. My mother’s journal laid it all out. My father had been killed by bear shifters. He’d been lured into a trap using my mother as bait. She begged him not to come for her. But they were fated. There was never any other choice.
“Come on,” he said. “We’re wasting time here. I want to find this mage as much as you do. He has a lot to answer for.”
“If you think you’re going to hurt him, you’ll have to get through me to do it. I’m trusting you, Kian. Don’t make me regret it.”
I looked down at the street. It was still too early for anyone to be out. “We better hurry,” I said. “I still think we’re safer shifting far away from here. I’ve never done it in the city.”
“What difference does it make as long as you cloak yourself?” Kian said.
I gave him a blank stare. It was nearly a throwaway question on his part. Then, he saw my face and his own dropped.
“Calla,” he said. “You do know how to cloak yourself, don’t you?”
I wanted to snap back with a snarky defense. Except, I didn’t have any. I had no idea what the hell he was talking about.
“My God,” he said. “Calla, how often do you let your dragon out?”
I bit my lip. It was in me to lie, to protect myself. I felt vulnerable around Kian at the same time I felt even more powerful. I decided on the truth. “Last night would make three.”
He took a step back as if my words had delivered a slap. “You’re telling me you’ve only shifted into your dragon three times in your entire life?”
“I know how dangerous it is,” I said.
He came to me. “My God. Calla. What have they done to you?”
“Stop,” I said, feeling tears start to well.
He hooked a finger beneath my chin. “Calla, I never thought of it like this before. But, maybe I was lucky. I grew up with four brothers and my mother. Me even telling you that violates their trust. You asked me to trust you. So, I need you to do the same. If anything happens to me, you have to promise me you’ll find them. My mother is Avelina Brandhart. Gideon, Xander, Finn, and Loch are my brothers. You’ll find them in Chicago. Go to the Brandhart Building o
n the Gold Coast. Tell my brothers who and what you are.”
“Don’t,” I said. “Nothing’s going to happen to you.”
“You can’t keep living like this,” he said. “You weren’t meant to be alone. Neither was I. For now, the least I can do is show you. Calla, when we shift, we can use our magic to hide ourselves from humans and other shifters. At least...most of them. There are some that will be able to see through the magic no matter what.”
“How?”
His face grew serious. “Fated mates can always see each other.”
Fated mates. An ache went through me when he said it. It was mystical. Magical. I’d met plenty of mated shifters in my life. My mother wrote that my father was hers. But, it all just seemed like a fairy tale. Her words echoed through me. When he comes, you’ll know.
I shook those thoughts from my mind. I couldn’t afford to give in to fantasy. Three men were dead. Astor was missing. And I just might have been standing on the rooftop with the man responsible. Except, something in my heart told me there had to be another explanation. Otherwise, what was I doing here?
“It comes from within,” he said. “When you feel yourself start to shift, you have to hold just a little of it back.”
“I don’t understand,” I said. The few times I’d shifted, my dragon had pretty much just exploded out of me like it had last night. The first time, I’d nearly killed Astor. I had been just ten years old. The other time had been a couple of years ago. Astor begged me not to, but there was a shifter I trusted who needed my help. Then, it had been Astor’s magic we had used to cloak my dragon. The effort of it is why he could no longer walk without a cane.
“Take my hand,” Kian said. “We’ll go together. Now that I’m thinking about it...it’s how my mother taught me when I was a kid. We’ll shift at the same time. I can use my magic to cloak you. Once you recognize it, you should be able to take over for yourself.”
I held my breath. We stepped to the edge of the roof. The wind kicked up. The heat started in my belly. Kian’s hand was strong as he held me. His magic swelled and took my breath away.