by Celeste Raye
“I am afraid to tell her about us, Frank. We have all heard the stories about some women, human women, not being able to handle the news. What if she is one of them, and I lose her for good?”
“You already have a baby together. You're already halfway there to mating. All she has to do is agree to be with you. That's it. Don't worry about it. I see the way she looks at you, Neil, and I can feel the love when I am around the two of you. You have nothing to worry about.”
“When did you get so damn positive?” Neil didn’t remember his brother that way at all.
Frank shrugged. “I guess when you live as long as I have, you realize that whatever is supposed to happen is going to happen one way or another. There is no stopping fate. Everything happens when and how it is supposed to. Once you give in to that idea, there is less to worry about. Anybody can see that the two of you are made for each other, so I would not stress about it too much little brother. She is yours. Audra doesn't even have to be marked to be yours.”
“So, it’s okay to bring in humans, but not as customers?”
Frank agreed. “Let's keep it to the clientele that we have. I would like to add some new things, and I was thinking that we should take a survey and see what else they would like to see here.”
Dynasty Club was already full of decadence. What more could they want? Neil didn’t know if he liked his brother’s approach, although he had to admit that his brother had been running it very successfully for years. It was a family business from their father, but Frank had taken over some time ago and the place had thrived ever since.
Neil didn’t know what else they could offer. It was already a pretty big club, with about anything that a person could think to do. The club did have a little bit of everything already. There were pools, clubs, three bars with different themes, tennis courts, squash, spas, golf. Anything that their wealthy kind could think of, with an around-the-clock concierge to pick up anything that wasn’t readily available.
Then Neil had a thought. What if they stopped catering to their kind like they are human? They’re not. They’re dragons and they have specific needs that are not taken into account. He could see changes that he was going to propose. It wasn’t just services that they needed to rethink, but who the customer was to begin with.
“If we aren't going to have humans here, then why not get a little more specialized? I think there should be another side to the club that has nothing to do with what is here now.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, we should double it and one side takes care of the human form, and one side takes care of our shifter form. We could do scale polishing and cleaning. There a lot of smoke treatments, and hell, Frank, we could even take care of teeth cleaning. I know that some of us worry about how we look in all phases.”
Frank looked at his brother for a moment like he had lost his mind. He was trying to envision what the hell he was going on about, but he just couldn't. It was too strange, too different. But after a moment, Frank started to smile when he too could see it in his mind’s eye.
“You know what? I think this would actually work. We already cater to people that want to look their best and to feel their best. Why not in all forms?”
“So, you want to think about it? I mean, I need to work on it a bit, but I think that is a new direction that we can go in that would work out well.”
Neil had tried to come up with a plan when he first checked out the club. He was impressed, and for a while, he was sure that there was going to be nothing he could do to improve on it. The idea that he had something to offer made him even more excited about it.
“Yes, I'm really going to think about it, Neil. That is a damn good idea. It would take a little bit of capital, but we have enough.”
Neil agreed. He was already changing his life in a way that made it more conducive to having a family. He didn't even really have to think about it. Whatever was going to keep him close to Audra was what he was going to do. It was all he could think to do.
“Yes, we have more than enough, Frank. You start thinking about it more, and I will draw up some plans. I have something already going off in my head.”
Frank agreed, and the two men went their separate ways. Neil was feeling better about his new life, especially if it included Audra. She was the key after all.
Neil still needed time to wrap his head around the baby issue. As much as he wanted to believe his brother, he still needed it in writing. He just needed to be sure before he could really move on in his mind.
Neil knew exactly what he was looking for when he was walking back to the bar. It had been so long since he had been around Audra, he had convinced himself that he now needed to soak up every minute that he could with her. That he could somehow keep it and claim it for his own.
Once he turned the corner to enter the bar, his eyes scanned the room for Audra. He didn't see her anywhere and instantly deflated.
Neil was about to ask the male bartender that was in her place, where she was, but then he heard a gunshot that made him pause. This wasn't the sort of place where gunshots were normal, and Neil immediately thought of Audra and the fact that she was missing. His mind already had her in the way of the bullet, and he went towards the sound while everyone else was moving away from it.
There was no reason for him to think so, but Neil knew it had to be Audra. It wasn’t rational, but the feeling propelled him forward, and he was unable to stop the thoughts. They taunted him, and each step took longer than the last one. He knew that there was something about his gut, telling him to move faster.
Telling him he was too late…
Chapter Twenty-Six
He could feel his inner beast wanting to come out. It always clicked in during high-alert moments like this. He had to fight it back though, knowing that it would do him no good at the present time. He was trying to get to Audra, not make it harder. It was a lot harder to go through a crowd in his dragon form. Even if he burned them down, it would take too long to get to her. As he got into the other room, there were several men in black with guns. They were rushing someone out the back door that he could only imagine was Audra, and there were several more men that turned their guns on him.
At this point, it didn't matter if they saw him change. He did not have a gun with him, and the only way he was going to survive being shot multiple times was in his dragon form. Bullets could not get through the tough skin and scales that would surround him. Whoever was there to attack did not know who he was or what sort of place they had crashed into. That was going to be to his advantage.
The change was instant. It was like a release of pressure had finally been let out and he was able to finally breathe and be himself. Neil wanted to find out who they were and who they were working for, but all he could think about was stopping the men that were shooting at him. His only vulnerable spots were his eyes and underbelly, places that they were not shooting at, but at the same time, it didn't feel too good, and he wanted it to stop.
It wasn't much to flick his tail and take two of them out. The dark black dragon scared the shit out of most of them, and they were no longer in the mood to fight. They were running off, but he wasn't going to let them go anywhere. They couldn't run off and tell his secret to anyone else.
Neil stopped them from leaving by breaking their necks. The last ones that he didn't get right away were subject to fire that burned hot from between his lips. It wasn't something that he usually did in public, but Neil had torched the room, as well as most of the ceiling.
Frank ran in the room in his true form, but there was nothing else to tackle. His brother had taken care of everything and was changing back. Neil wasn’t in the mood for the barrage of questions that started to come his way. His mind was on Audra and getting her back from whomever had taken her. Revenge would be next.
“What the hell happened?” Frank was stunned at the damage and the sight of his brother covered in blood. The dead men on the ground were suspect as well. They had guns
and were in tactical gear. It obviously wasn’t some random act, and Frank asked his brother again what the hell had happened. “I’ve never had an attack here. All these dead bodies…”
He just shook his head in disbelief as his voice trailed off.
“They took her, Frank.”
“They took Audra?”
Frank couldn't believe it, but he could see the pain on his brother’s face and knew that he had heard right.
“Don't worry, Neil. This is going to be fine. We will take care of this.”
“How can I not worry?”
“We're going to bring her back. I promise you that, little brother.”
Neil tried to calm down and believe his brother’s words, but it was impossible to. He knew almost immediately who it was. The only one that came to mind was her husband. She had always said that he would keep looking for her and it wasn't that he didn't believe her, but he hoped that she was scared and embellishing. Now he was starting to realize that she hadn’t embellished, not a bit. That man was never going to walk away.
“Do you know who this was?”
Neil turned to his brother and nodded.
“Is this the husband, Ben?”
“Yes. I saw a couple of his goons taking her away.”
“Where would they take her?”
“Most likely back to the house. How about we fly there and meet them on the way?”
“Is the house around a lot of other houses?”
“Somewhat. It would most likely do for our purposes. We will drop into the back and switch before we get to the front.”
Frank agreed, and Neil was happy that his brother was going to help him. Because he was a dragon, Neil spent very little time being afraid. It was hard to be afraid when he could literally breathe fire. But at that moment, he was scared. He was terrified that he was going to lose the woman he loved and there would be nothing he could do about it. All the strength in the world wouldn’t mean a thing if something happened to her and he was unable to stop it.
The two men made their way towards Ben’s house that he had shared with his wife. It was one of the last places that Neil wanted to go, but if there was any chance that she was there, he had to try.
They made good time and beat Ben's men there. They were waiting for them when the car pulled up, and Frank actual held Neil back. Neil wanted to run forward and take the rest of them out. He was feeling rash and just wanted her away from them. It was all he could think about, even though he could have been walking into a trap. At that point, Neil didn't care.
“Wait a minute, brother. I want to see who all is here. In this form, we need to be more careful.”
Neil agreed because of the other men that he had found in the club. They had machine guns and had no problem using them. He could imagine that the wall had absorbed many of the bullets that had bounced off of him. He was going to have small welts for a little while from it, but that was it. When he was in his human form, things were different. He would not be able to withstand a bullet quite the same. Healing would also be harder to manage.
The two men waited, and Neil had to hold himself back again when he saw Audra getting pulled out of the back of the car. She was fighting with her captors, and part of him smiled on the inside because of it. She was not afraid; she was bitching, and that made him feel better. He never wanted to think of her as being afraid of anything.
Another man came out that Neil knew was bad, and he said a few things to Audra that they couldn't quite hear. If her reaction to it was any indication, it wasn’t anything nice. He smiled at her reaction, when she spit in his face.
Ben quickly smacked her across her face and Neil was unable to hold himself back any longer. He was never going to be able to sit idly by while somebody put their hands on her. His brother tried to hold him, but it was of no use. Neil had the devil inside of him all of a sudden and moved forward, running towards Ben to tackle him. He no longer cared about anything as mundane as bullets, not when someone was hurting Audra.
Neil was shot three times before he got to Ben and while it should have stopped him, it didn't. Frank cursed his younger brother's decision and ran after him. The last thing that he wanted to do was get into an altercation like this, and he quickly realized that he was going to have to turn into a dragon to end the situation. It was a risk because it was outside and close to the city, but it was a risk he had to take. He couldn’t let anything happen to Neil. And Neil couldn’t let anything happen Audra.
Neil tackled Ben to the ground and starting to choke him. Every time they moved, he would hit him a few more times in the face as hard as he could and then start choking him again. He had more strength than a normal human, and when his biceps rippled and flexed the grip on Ben's neck, all of a sudden, Ben didn't seem so scary. He was human, and Neil could never be afraid of a human.
Neil was aware of everything else going on around him, but he couldn't do anything about it. His focus, all of his focus, was on Ben and the way his face was changing colors. He didn't want to stop, really couldn't stop, until the man was dead. He knew that the only way to keep Audra safe was to make sure that Ben wasn't breathing anymore.
His mind went to Jamie, and he squeezed a little harder to make sure that his life never came back to him.
When he was done, he stepped back and he switched into his dragon form along with Frank to take care of an endless stream of security coming out of the house. It seemed like overkill, but if he and his brother would have been anybody else, they wouldn’t have made it.
Only when the extensive yard was full of bodies and Neil and his brother had switched back to their human forms, covered in blood, did they realize that Audra was nowhere to be found. Neil started to panic and was searching the ground for her, but then he detected her scent ever so faintly over the blood.
He looked around the yard and found her cowering behind a tree. Her eyes were wide, and as he moved closer, she pulled back a little bit. Audra had found out about his truth in the worst way possible, and Neil had no idea how he was supposed to come back from that. She wasn't supposed to see him like that. He’d wanted to break it to her slowly. Not like that.
“Come here, Audra.”
She shook her head very quickly and then moved further away from him. Neil was afraid again, but this time it was for himself. What if Audra wasn't going to be able to accept him for who he truly was? Then what?
He tried again to coax her out, making his voice as gentle as he possibly could, but it wasn’t enough. She just looked at him with huge blue eyes and shook her head vigorously.
Neil cursed under his breath, unsure of what to do next. He wanted to beg and plead with her, would have, if he thought it would actually work.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Audra couldn't believe what she had just seen in front of her. It was like a fantasy or a dream that came to life when she was still awake. There was no way that a nightmare would feel this real. Audra had almost forgotten about Ben. She had somehow been so blissfully happy in those moments that Ben had not existed to her. It was a fatal mistake obviously; when she and Neil had reunited everything changed. For just a moment, she was able to forget about Ben and what that meant for her.
Then Ben made sure to remind her. He had her picked up at her job with a bunch of people around and nobody to stop them. She was being dragged out when she saw something that made no sense to her. There was some kind of creature with scales, and if she didn't know any better, she would have called it a dragon. It had started to kill the men taking her. She didn't know if it was coming after her or what it was trying to do, but there was some satisfaction in hearing their screams that were cut short.
Then the car ride had changed her mind about everything else. They told her that they worked for Ben and Audra knew that it didn't matter what she had seen before because she wasn't going to be living that much longer. They had made it very clear what would happen if they had to chase her down. She had been running for this long and Audra knew th
at in all that time, he had just grown angrier and angrier. There would be no mercy for her.
She feared for her life the full distance that it took her to get back to Ben’s place. When she saw the house in the passenger side window, the feeling of dread was back. This was her life, or this was going to be the last little bit of her life. Whatever he decided to give her.
In some ways, Audra knew that it would be easier to let him make it quick. If not, Audra could imagine what he would make her do and see the rest of the time she was alive. He wasn't a man that would ever let it go, and he was one for games.
What had really turned her blood cold, was when one of the men had asked about her baby. Apparently, Ben knew about it, and that was the last thing that she wanted. It was one thing to sacrifice herself for the man that she had chosen, no matter how stupid that decision was. It was another thing altogether to risk Jamie. She never wanted her baby to go anywhere near Ben, whether he was her father or not.
So, when she was asked, Audra refused to answer the question. She was hit across the face and asked again, but she just pressed her lips tighter together. Audra wasn’t going to let those people get a hold of her child. She just refused to let it happen. Frank would do something. Neil would take care of her. She had to hold on to that thought or she was going to lose it.
The door was opened for her and Audra stepped out. She knew that she was going to be meeting her destiny and she wasn't afraid anymore. The fact that Jamie was going to be taken care of and kept safe was what made it a lot easier to walk forward towards the house. She knew what awaited her; if not the exact plan, she knew the gist of it. It was not going to be pleasant. Finally, she was going to be able to do what she knew she needed to.