by Sadie Sears
“She’s named Chloe, and she’s a pure dragon. She knows a lot more than I do. She can say more than I can—especially at the moment.”
I nodded, and when he took me by the hand and led me to his garage then handed me a motorcycle helmet, I put it on then climbed on the bike behind him.
“Hold on tight,” he said, and I wrapped my arms around his waist, nuzzling my cheek against his unaffected shoulder in case I hurt him.
He shifted beneath me, drawing away a little.
“I don’t want you to accidentally touch it. It’s not who I am, and I don’t know if it’ll hurt you.”
I pulled back and hung on for the ride. It was like flying all over again but different as the engine throbbed beneath me and my body aligned with Draven’s, copying his every movement.
We drew up into a parking lot, and Draven chugged the bike around the back before parking next to a couple of dumpsters, although he spared a wave for Ash as he stood at the door as we passed him.
“I just need to check that my…ah…associate isn’t in there,” Draven told me after he took his helmet off. “And I’ll make sure Chloe is available to talk to you now.” He disappeared through a heavy metal door and the smell of stale beer and woodsmoke wafted out into the alley.
When he reappeared, I’d slid from the seat, and I was standing awkwardly by his bike, eyeing the dark shadows in the corner of the space suspiciously, and turning at every noise of fluttering of the wastepaper lying on the ground.
“You can come in.” Draven pushed his way back outside, already talking to me as he did. “Chloe has a quiet corner table set up for the two of you to talk. You can’t see it from most of the rest of the pub. No one will bother you. I’m going to go and chat with Ash, but I’ll take you to Chloe first.” He held out his right hand, and I slipped mine into it, glad of his firm grasp to lend me strength.
I didn’t like meeting new people when I wasn’t wearing my professional persona to conduct an interview, and this new person was a dragon, so it was pretty far outside my comfort zone. But I gave myself a quick kick in the ass and straightened my spine. After nearly being murdered at a party and a flight on a dragon, I could handle meeting a woman in a bar, if I pushed the reminder that she was a dragon out of my head.
But the woman Draven led me toward was stunning. Slim but looked like she could take care of herself—although I guessed as she was the owner of this place, she needed to be able to do that—blonde hair that tumbled in lazy curls to her shoulders, and green eyes that looked like they missed nothing at all.
She stood to greet me, and she was about an inch or so shorter than me, but her presence was greater. I had no doubt she could command a room’s attention if she needed to.
“Hi, Mae. I’m Chloe. Draven’s told me a lot about you.” She smiled, and her voice was reassuring.
Her hand was warm as I shook it, and I slid a glance to Draven, unsure if she was being polite or genuine. After all, I really only knew one important thing about her.
“Take a seat.” She indicated the empty wooden chair at her table. “Can I get you anything to eat?”
My stomach grumbled at the mention of food, but I shook my head. “No thank you.”
She lifted an eyebrow. “Are you sure? I was going to ask the guys in the kitchen to whip me up something. It’s not often I get to sit down long enough to eat during opening hours.” She waited a moment. “You’d be doing me a favor,” she wheedled.
Draven chuckled. “I’ll leave you two ladies to discuss the merits of Chloe’s food. I need to talk to Ash.” He rested his hand on my shoulder before he moved away, and Chloe watched him go as he passed behind me.
“You’ve got a good one there,” she murmured as she opened one of her menus. “I don’t know why I’m reading this really.” She twirled one finger in her hair idly as she studied the food selection. “I know everything we serve, and I know what they make best.” She snapped the menu shut and brought her sparkling green gaze to mine. “Burgers and loaded skins?” She lowered her voice. “I’m in the mood to sit a while, you know? So, I’m thinking a meal rather than a snack.”
I chuckled at the idea she needed some sort of permission or reason to sit down, but I agreed. “That sounds lovely.” Hopefully, Draven had brought his wallet. I was avoiding spending on my card while there was an active search for me.
She waved a hand. “It’s on me.”
I widened my eyes then narrowed them.
“Oh, you’re just easy to read. Don’t worry about the cost of a burger, though. I make sure they have a healthy mark-up.” She winked.
She made small talk until our food arrived, and by the time I bit into my burger, it was almost like chatting with an old friend.
Her pub was an incredible place, too. Oversized scale-shaped tiles glowed softly in jewel tones behind the bar, lit by an open fire that crackled somewhere I couldn’t quite see. The main color tones were reds and oranges, though. And every so often curls of smoke drifted through the bar as though from nowhere. It was very atmospheric.
Somehow, we’d ended up with both fries and loaded skins, and she swirled a fry through a dollop of ketchup as she spoke. “Has Draven told you much about himself?”
I nodded. “Probably about as much as he thinks I can handle. He said he’s a demon-dragon, and it sounded like there’s an almost constant war inside him for supremacy.”
“That’s about the size of it.” Chloe’s expression turned thoughtful as she chewed, and I took advantage of the silence to take another bite of my burger, the flavors of the smoky meat and gooey cheese exploding over my tongue.
Apparently, flying on a dragon’s back gave me an appetite. Who knew?
“Okay. First thing’s first.” She wiped her fingers delicately on a paper napkin. “When you’re with Draven, you’re safe from Saul. Your dragon mate’s natural scent masks yours, making you almost impossible to find.”
Draven had told me that, but it was good to hear it confirmed by someone else. “It’s weird to think I have a dragon mate.”
She laughed at the words I hadn’t meant to speak aloud. “I get that. Maybe I should also tell you that dragons are almost self-destructively loyal. When they find their mate—and it is a discovery thing, he hasn’t merely chosen you or decided you’ll do for a while—it’s forever.” She sighed. “It all sounds much more dramatic than it is, I’m sure, but you’re it for Draven. His one. There will never be a better model or a hotter woman to attract his attention.”
My face heated. Chloe had zeroed right in on my fear.
“And I know that probably sounds like a really good thing, right?” She tugged a leaf of lettuce from inside her burger bun and tore a strip off before putting it into her mouth.
I nodded in response to her question.
“Well, it is. But also, it isn’t. You see, Draven really loves you. In a way that’s almost without reason because that love is very bad for him.”
As she spoke, cold tendrils of guilt and horror crept up my throat, threatening to choke me. I’d known it was bad, that I was bad for him, that I somehow wasn’t good enough all over again.
“As Draven moves closer to claiming you, and you him, his demon will become more active in an effort to regain control over Draven and drive you away.” She spoke so casually about something so alien to everything I knew and understood. “Has Draven ever told you about me?” She changed the subject so abruptly that I froze with my fry halfway to my mouth before I shook my head.
With nothing else to do, I popped the perfectly seasoned fry into my mouth and waited for her to continue. The claiming thing sounded like it might be straightforward enough. If our souls aligned, or something. Like in every fairytale ever written.
“Okay, well, it’s a long story so I’ll try to keep it short.” She leaned a little closer. “I’m a pure dragon. That is, not like the demon-dragons or the angel-dragons you’ll find here in Port Lair.”
“Angel-dragons?” Okay, so I’d focus
ed on the wrong part, but this world just kept getting weirder and more unlikely.
She waved a hand dismissively like she’d heard something I hadn’t said. “Hardly unlikely. Where you find demons, you usually find angels, but some of them can be self-important little bastards.” But the way she spoke suggested she held affection for any angel-dragons she knew. “And they’re not really important right now, anyway. Not when your issues are all demon-inspired.”
“Why are you pure? Is that all Draven needs to become—pure, too?” My voice came out too quiet to bear the weight of such an important question, but she looked satisfied I’d asked it.
A corner of her mouth tugged downward. “I want to say yes because it’s true. But at the same time, that sounds too trite and easy. It’s really all any of them has to do.” She paused and flicked her glance toward a guy sitting in another shadowed corner.
He was almost motionless as he sat hunched over whatever drink he had in the glass in front of him.
She sighed. “They’re just all waiting for a chance. For their mate. Some of them won’t ever get their chance, won’t ever stop their waiting. Some of them may have missed it—perhaps they weren’t paying attention when the opportunity for love came along or they just didn’t grab hold of that chance with both hands. And for those who do find that one person fated for them, the path isn’t always smoother. If a mate doesn’t respond to a claim, whole-heartedly, without reservation or doubt, the demon takes over and the shifter’s soul is lost to hell.”
I drew in a sharp intake of breath. But surely it wasn’t as dramatic as she made it sound? “Wait. He can get better, right?”
She shook her head slowly. “At that point, he’s beyond redemption. All he has is the chaos his demon causes. That’s his sole purpose in life. And like I said, Mae, right now, Draven’s demon is actively trying to take him. That demon will do anything to keep you and Draven apart. From things Draven might say or do to drive you away, to making his dragon less visible.”
“Aro?”
She laughed. “You’ve met Draven’s dragon?”
I nodded, a smile taking control of my face as my mind filled with images of the huge, powerful creature.
“And he spoke to you? Hell, I bet Draven doesn’t even know his dragon’s name. I don’t see many as disconnected as Draven come in here.” She met my gaze square on. “You’ve got a hard road to travel, have no doubt about it. And Draven’s soul can only be saved if your love for him is great enough.”
I closed my eyes against sudden panic, shutting out Chloe’s gentle eyes, shutting out the reds and yellows and golds of the interior of the pub that were like sitting inside a dragon’s fire.
“What if I can’t?” I whispered the words and Chloe slipped her hand over mine, but she didn’t say anything.
And I meant it. What if I really couldn’t. What if I wasn’t good enough to accept his claim? What if I was too broken and damaged to have a pure enough love, the kind of love I needed to save him? I could make him lose his soul forever, and that was an increasingly likely possibility because I’d never been good enough for any guy before. So how could I suddenly be amazing enough for Draven now?
14
Draven
Mae looked shaken after her chat with Chloe, her face pale and her hands trembling, but she managed a smile when she saw me, and her eyes lit up with the same affection I was used to seeing, so whatever Chloe had said hadn’t put her off me completely. Still, there was a distance in her eyes that I didn’t like, and I glanced at Chloe.
She smiled at me, too, but her expression was unreadable. I’d gotten the impression she felt herself to be a neutral party—both encouraging yet warning, and while I appreciated her talking to Mae, I didn’t want Chloe worrying her or making her rethink what was between us.
I shrugged. If Chloe did that, then my soul could just go straight to hell without passing go or collecting $200 because nothing in my life would matter any longer.
I wrapped my right arm around Mae’s waist and pulled her close, ignoring the pain the gesture caused. Damn demon.
“Let’s go home. We’ve got something to do.”
Ash had asked me how Mae’s faked death footage had turned out, and as we’d returned early from visiting Mae’s grandma, it seemed like a good time to finish the film. I grimaced. Maybe we’d get a good take this time around if I could maintain my control. We’d dodged Saul in the pub already, and maybe we could get lucky a second time by putting him and his minions off Mae’s scent completely. Plus, if I didn’t report back to him soon, he’d send someone to bring me to him—and that wasn’t an option.
“Is everything okay?” Mae asked before she slipped on her bike helmet.
“Yeah. Remember when you said I could kill you anytime?”
She nodded.
“I should probably do that again today. You know, to get the footage to Saul. The tide’s out now.” I fiddled with my own helmet, hoping she could see the sorrow in my eyes before I covered them up.
Even talking about fake killing her for her own protection seemed wrong.
She nodded again, the movement encumbered by the helmet. “Okay.” Her voice was muffled and subdued.
My demon roared in anticipation as I chased Mae across the sand, his gleeful voice loud in my head.
Kill. Kill.
She screamed, the note one of true fear as my feet carried me faster and faster and my claws lengthened and twisted into deadly curves.
My breath came in loud spurts, and my heart pounded adrenaline to my brain, agitating my demon further. I shook my head, trying to dislodge him from my mind and seeking my dragon instead.
His voice was weak when I found him. Protect mate.
For a brief moment, Mae slowed, her strides faltering as she reached the rocks, and she glanced over her shoulder at me as I crashed against her, scooping her into my arms and protecting her from a fall that would have winded her.
I snarled loudly, the sound echoing from the rocky cliff-face, and then the air was filled with the sound of Mae’s clothes tearing as I burst the blood bags that she had hidden against her skin.
She screamed like we’d rehearsed, but the sound pierced my heart with its rawness.
Kill.
KILL.
My demon grew louder and more demanding, and I bent my head as if to savage her neck, my demon teeth descending into position to pierce her soft skin. She stiffened beneath me, and her screams became whimpers then silence as she held her breath for the final scenes.
My demon was still making demands in my head, still hungry for blood, and I remained bent over her to compose myself. I sucked in breath after breath and I tried to ignore my demon. I didn’t want to kill Mae. I couldn’t.
But his voice echoed through me again and again. Ordering. Commanding. Then even wheedling when it seemed like I wasn’t listening. Each second that passed seared a brand of pain inside my head, and more and more of my skin tightened and prickled, erupting with fresh demon patches beneath my clothes.
My thoughts blurred and my vision turned red. I opened my mouth, and a length of acidic saliva stretched off one of my sharp teeth, hanging perilously close to Mae’s neck.
I shoved her out from under me, and she cried out as she rolled off the rock onto the damp sand below. I pushed myself to roll the other way and didn’t even care when my head glanced off some of the rock jutting out where I couldn’t see. Maybe it would help clear my demon from my thoughts. I breathed heavily, my heart pounding, not daring to get back up while my demon was still actively baying for blood.
Everything hurt as I flattened my body to the sand. My head thumped, my bones and teeth ached, and my heart was completely without rhythm as my demon let his displeasure flow in waves, one painful pulse after another.
My muscles tensed and tightened until I almost started to curl in on myself.
“Are you okay?” Mae’s shaky voice floated over the rock.
I barely heard it above the crashing
of the waves as they rolled into shore. “Yes.” I gritted my teeth as I bit out the sharp word.
I glanced at my hand, at the oozing black skin forming there, then pushed it under my back, out of sight, before I rolled to my feet, groaning as dizziness threatened to overcome me.
I caught sight of Mae starting to move too. “Stay there,” I barked out, my sharpness this time a mixture of panic and demon. “Don’t move. Stay away from me.”
Those last words hurt. I wanted her close. Close. But I couldn’t risk it.
Mate. But my dragon’s voice was fainter than I’d heard it.
“I need to go and see Chloe.”
“But we were just there.” She tried to stand up again.
“Only me. You stay.” Each word ripped from me, the effort drawing sweat to my forehead. “I’ll be back. Soon.” My sentences were all fragmented as I tried to focus.
I turned from her, catching her eye as I did so, and the hurt in her gaze sent a fresh wave of pain through my entire body as I strode across the sand to the steps.
She’ll be fine. She’ll be fine. I tried to reassure myself, but doubt lingered in my mind. What kind of mate was I if I could hurt Mae like this? Memories of my mother and her pain and how she dealt with it washed over me.
Perhaps I truly was no better than my father.
I took my car to the club this time and pulled up out front.
“Hey, dude. You forget something?” Ash nodded to me from where I’d left him by the door. Then he did a double-take. “Whoa, man. You look like crap.”
“Thanks.” I only grunted the word, my voice like gravel as I thrust my arm out in front of me to yank the door open.
“Wait. Don’t go in there.”
At the sudden urgency in Ash’s voice, I paused.
“Chloe gave me a message for you if you happened to show up.” He paused and looked me up and down, his gaze disappointed, his stance as fierce as usual, his arms crossed tight over his broad chest, and his feet planted firmly hip width apart. “But I don’t think she expected you to show up looking like you want to kill someone, or you just did.”