by Sadie Sears
She lifted an eyebrow. “You don’t know? Had you been drinking? Did you report your attack to the police?”
I shook my head. “It wasn’t really my attack. They only chased me, but I got away. Draven rescued me.”
She nodded like she’d expected no less. “It’s not too weird, so far.”
Grandma loved nothing more than to issue a challenge.
“Actually, the guy trying to get me was some sort of demon, and Draven is a dragon shifter, if you really want weird.” I expected her to laugh because I’d just said two completely unlikely things, but she nodded again.
“You know, I always wondered.” She returned to scrolling on her phone. “Veni Vidi Eatsy? Does that one deliver out here?”
“So anyway, like I said, Draven is a dragon shifter. Oh, and he’s part demon as well, apparently.”
Grandma lifted her finger. “Let me just make this call.” Then she called the restaurant she’d identified and placed an order for far too much pizza. “I heard dragons like it,” she muttered after she hung up. She looked at me. “Now, start at the beginning—properly.”
“Okay.” I took a breath and told her everything—from the monster at Saul’s party to hiding in Draven’s garage, to watching him fly from his balcony. “But he’s getting sick. His demon is taking over. Draven is losing his dragon to hell. All that will remain will be an empty shell of a man. A man without a soul. A man with simply a demon.”
“A demon is stealing his soul?” Grandma supplied.
“Yeah.” I frowned. “How did you know?”
Grandma waved her hand. “Grandmas just know.” She chuckled. “But my mom used to tell me stories as I grew up. Stories about when dragons were free, when angels and demons existed.” She looked out of the window at the view of the ocean. “I always hoped those stories were true.” She shook her head slightly. “But I guess maybe the question is what you plan to do about everything you know.” She hesitated. “And perhaps everything you feel?”
I huffed out a sigh and buried my face in my hands. “I don’t know. I don’t knoooow. I’m just so overwhelmed. I thought I was doing the right thing, but it turns out, I’m not the right woman. Draven needs someone else. It’s not me. I’m wrong again.”
She covered my hand with her own. “You’ve never been wrong in your life. You’re a Turner.”
I laughed. “Thank you, Grandma.” I paused just a beat and turned to her. “Hey, can I come to stay with you? Just for a little bit? I have a lot of stuff I need to work through. Feelings.”
“Feelings for Draven?” She narrowed her eyes on me, and I nodded. “Then I don’t think you have a whole lot to figure out. Your feelings for him are crystal clear to anyone watching the two of you. They’re probably even crystal clear to the astronauts up there on the space station.”
I sighed again, this time hiding my frustration in a long slow release of breath. If only it was that simple. But what could I tell her? That Draven obviously didn’t feel the same because if he did, the whole claiming thing would have worked, and I would have been able to save him?
“Please let me come and stay with you. I need to figure some stuff out because I must have been getting this wrong, but if I get it right, maybe I can save him.”
It didn’t seem long before there was a knock at the door, and we both turned in the direction of the sound.
“That’s probably pizza, but do you need to hide just in case it isn’t?”
Her concern amused me, but I slid into a corner of the kitchen that couldn’t be seen from the open front door.
Grandma breezed back in, four pizza boxes stacked in her arms. “Pizza’s here,” she announced unnecessarily.
“So please can I come?” I nudged her because she still hadn’t answered me. “Can I come home?”
She opened cupboards until she found plates before she turned to me and replied. “I raised you to be strong, Mae. So, you need to look into your heart and really figure out why you’re coming home. If you’re running because you’re scared or butt-hurt, no dice. I’m telling you, that man exercising his big dragon heart out loves you.” She broke off. “Oh! Do you think he’d show me his dragon if I asked him?” Then she covered her mouth. “That sounded far more inappropriate than I expected. But anyway, where were we? Oh, yes. Running home.” She set the plates out on the counter one by one. “That home is yours for as long as I’m around, and of course you can always come home. Always.” She looked at me, her gaze focused on mine, holding my eyes captive so I couldn’t blink or look around.
“But?” I whispered.
She nodded. “But I raised a fighter. And you should really talk to Draven before you make any kind of decision.”
As she finished speaking, the door from the gym opened, and Draven stepped through. “Do I smell pizza?” he asked.
“Sure do.” Grandma handed him a plate. “Help yourself.” Then she looked at me. I didn’t dare look back, but I could feel that laser gaze. “Mae.”
I lifted my head. “Yes?” Damn, she had a way of making me feel like a kid again. But she was the only one I let do it.
“I’m going to powder my nose.” She stopped. “I always thought that was a dumb phrase. The crapper. I’m going to the crapper. It should give you two time to talk.” She left with a wave of her hand. “I’ll find it. Don’t worry.”
“Do we need to talk?” Draven’s voice was small, hesitant, but resigned.
“I think so.” I spoke slowly as I nodded my head in time. “I’ve asked Grandma if I can go to her place for a couple of days. I need to do some reassessing, and it should mean you can live the next few days without pain because, hey—” I threw in an overly bright smile of encouragement. “I won’t be around.”
He closed his eyes briefly, like he was asking for strength from somewhere.
“No, it’s okay. I get it. I know I’ve been hurting you, and I haven’t meant to, and now we’ve filmed my death scene, and all that shit’s out of the way, it should be safe for me to go without being hunted by anyone, and it’s safe for you to resume things pain free, right?”
“We haven’t supplied Saul with the footage yet.” His words were a pained whisper, and he started to shake his head then stopped, but when he looked at me, his eyes were empty, and my chest hollowed. I reached for his hand, but he jerked it away from me.
“I’m sorry.” I whispered, too, not fully understanding his reaction. “But I’m still hurting you by being here.”
I hadn’t betrayed him. I was still trying to help him, trying to take the pain away that was my fault. The whole love thing hadn’t worked, and I needed to go away and think about that in a place I couldn’t do anymore damage.
He pushed his plate away before he’d even had a bite of the pizza slice he’d helped himself to. “Let me know when you’ve packed. I’ll put your things in the car.”
His additional distance hurt.
I nodded and stood. “I’ll go pack now. No sense in delaying things.” Grandma and I could grab something to eat on the trip home.
I threw everything I had at Draven’s in a grocery bag I found, and then laughed sadly at the idea I’d need a big, strong dragon to lift this anywhere on my behalf. I went outside and shoved it onto the backseat of Grandma’s car. As I slammed the door shut, she appeared on Draven’s porch.
“Did you talk? Are we going?”
I nodded but couldn’t meet her gaze. We were going, but I felt like crap about it.
I opened the passenger door and got in, watching Draven and Grandma in the side mirror.
She stepped forward and pulled him into the kind of hug she needed to trademark, but he stood stiffly in her arms as she spoke words I couldn’t hear. Then she hurried to the car and climbed in her side.
“I hope you’re buckled up, kiddo. I think you’ve lined yourself up for a bumpy ride.”
I shook my head, not appreciating her speaking in thinly veiled riddles about my life choices, but I couldn’t tear my gaze from Dr
aven as he watched us drive away.
He must have known this was the right decision.
He didn’t even try to stop me.
16
Draven
I stood straight as I watched the car drive away, ignoring the pieces of me crumbling inside my body, ignoring my demon as it blasted pain through me. I didn’t even flinch. I welcomed the pain and willed the demon to hurt me again.
My dragon growled, pulled from his slumber, and thrashed in my chest, restless in a way he hadn’t been for days. The urge to run after the car claimed me, but instead I stood my ground, watching until it rounded the bend out of view.
Even then, I watched the last spot I saw the brake lights as Mae’s grandma had slowed to take the curve.
Then I turned and ran, sprinting until my heart beat fast enough to burst right out of my chest. I welcomed that pain, too. I pumped my arms and legs as I headed for the cliff top at the back of my house, not breaking my stride as I reached the edge and ran right over. My clothes shredded from my body, falling in small pieces of fabric to the angry waves of the ocean below as I caught myself with the grace of my dragon before I skimmed slow over the waves, dipping the tip of my wing into the choppy Atlantic waters.
Then I let go, receding into the background as I let my dragon do all the thinking. I didn’t want to think right now. It hurt too much. I’d just watched my actual soul drive away from me in a car I could outfly any day of the week. But at least my demon was quiet.
My dragon flew in large wide circles over the open sea, far from shore, riding the air currents and huffing smoky breaths into the clouds. He rolled onto his back and flapped his wings lazily where no one could see him and roared his frustrations where no one but a passing whale would notice.
Eventually, he returned to the cliffs and made a graceful landing behind the house. Something smelled different, so I shifted quickly and jogged down the stairs to my gym access. I grabbed some spare workout clothes and threw them on before heading to the kitchen.
By the time I arrived on the first floor of the house, the doorbell was ringing, and the visitor was also knocking on the door as well.
I gritted my teeth. It could only be one person. Saul wouldn’t trouble himself to come here—he’d summon me to him. Or send a minion, and they wouldn’t bother to knock.
I opened the door so abruptly that Detective Orozco nearly fell into my house, but she recovered her balance quickly as I pulled my hair forward to cover the skin creeping from my collarbone up my neck.
“Detective.” I stretched my mouth thin into something that clearly wasn’t a smile as my demon laughed in my head at another dumb woman.
Except why couldn’t I shake this one? I hadn’t done anything to mark me of interest, but for some reason she kept zeroing in on me.
“I’ve been looking through some of the city’s cold cases,” she said, like that was supposed to interest me.
I was caught between leaving her talking to herself in my doorway and going into my kitchen for a coffee, and standing right here and barring her further entry to my home.
“You know, there are a hell of a lot of perps that match your general description. A hell of a lot.” She smirked like she’d caught me out.
I lifted my shoulders in a lazy shrug. I didn’t give a shit what was written in the cases no one had solved. They were unsolved for a reason. “Not guilty.”
Truthfully, I had no idea which crimes she wanted to pin me for. I was probably guilty of at least half of them, but without seeing the files, I couldn’t guarantee that. And she wasn’t going to get a doorway confession out of me just because I happened to resemble a witness description in an old case she’d looked at. Besides, witnesses were notoriously unreliable.
I thought that was the first thing they taught the eager new recruits at the academy. Policing 101. I smirked at my interior monolog.
“How nice that you find that so amusing.” Her frosty tone suggested it was anything but nice, and she rubbed her elbow where she’d bumped it against my doorframe as she’d stumbled inside. “I may not be able to tie you to those crimes. Not yet, anyway, but you do have an association with Mr. Saul Brek, the host of the party Mae Turner disappeared from. That’s by your own admission and enough of a reason for me to make your life pretty miserable while I complete my inquiries. I can and I will find out what happened.”
“You said before there’s no evidence of a party.” I fought to remain reasonable.
She rolled her eyes, sending a flicker of fast fury to jolt my thoughts. “You and I both know there’s more to this case than evidence.”
Kill.
My demon gave an unexpected order, and I stiffened as I took in an almost involuntary inhale.
This detective always excited my demon.
I stepped closer to her and inhaled again. She definitely smelled different.
Mate. My demon hissed the word usually spoken with love by my dragon, and I stepped back, surprised.
Detective Orozco sure the hell wasn’t my mate, but maybe…maybe she was someone’s. Destined to love a dragon. Dangerous to that guy’s demon.
Shit. Maybe I could trust her. But… I hadn’t trusted anyone in a long time.
Except Mae.
Only this time I needed to trust someone to help me keep Mae safe. But was that person Jo Orozco? After all, I already had Ash. Even Chloe in a pinch. Not that either of them was here right now.
I spun abruptly from the door. “Coffee?” I threw the word over my shoulder, but she didn’t answer.
Instead, the door closed with a soft click, and Jo’s footsteps followed me across the tiled floor.
My demon kicked up its excitement a notch because the petite-bodied detective was now in my house. Feeble human female. At our mercy.
I walked into the kitchen and headed around the counter. “Sit.” I barked out the instruction, willing her to obey me and keep the counter between us.
Luckily, she slid into place on one of the barstools.
I opened the fridge door but continued talking to her as I examined the contents. “When we spoke before, you said you know my kind.”
I needed to find out how much she knew before I went any further because I couldn’t just spill my guts to someone who had no clue I even existed. That person wouldn’t be capable of helping Mae if my demon pulled me under.
Jo huffed. “Do I know that you’re a bastard? Hell, yeah.”
I almost snickered. “Nothing more than that?” I glanced over my shoulder at her, and she wrinkled her nose.
“I’ve heard some whispers.” She shrugged. “Had some experience.”
“You mentioned a brother,” I probed.
She grimaced and shook her head. “Oh, no.” Then she stood. “You’re not going to get your thrills by listening to me recount Rhett’s death at the hands of people just like you.” She turned around and strode toward the door. “No coffee for me.”
“Wait.” My voice croaked from my throat. “Please. I need your help.”
She slowed and rested her hand against the doorframe as she turned slowly back toward me. “I’m listening. You’ve got five seconds.”
There was no way I could explain everything in so short a time, so I pushed my hair aside, revealing my demon skin.
Jo gasped and backed away, her hand automatically reaching for her weapon. “You did kill Mae.” She pointed a finger at me, her expression fierce even though her finger trembled. “What did you do with her body, you bastard?”
“No.” I shook my head. “No, Mae’s with her grandma. She was here with me, but she was in danger from Saul, so we faked her death and…” My voice caught. “And she left.”
“So she’s safe?” Jo still didn’t come any closer.
“Yeah…yeah. Probably.” I nodded my head and shook it again. “Maybe. Probably. I’m not sure.”
“And what’s your problem?” She jerked her head toward me then pointed again, circling her finger slightly. “I mean, with your nec
k doohickey thing.”
“Oh.” I pressed my palm against the skin, belatedly trying to hide it from her view. “That’s my de— Complicated. That’s complicated.”
She narrowed her eyes. “You’d be surprised how well I’m able to understand complicated in the little job I work at Port Lair PD.”
“I need you to help me to protect Mae.” I blurted the words out then winced as my demon sent a shot of pain as a warning at the idea that I still wanted to help Mae.
My dragon growled in response.
Jo stepped out of the kitchen and spoke to me from the hallway. “What’s wrong? What are you doing?”
“Nothing.” My voice was tight as I fought with both my demon and dragon. “Nothing. I’m not doing anything. I have it under control.” I finished on another gasp.
“Sure looks like it.” But Jo stepped closer. “Look, I’ll go and pick up this Saul guy if you say you have the evidence to take him down.”
“No.” I yelled the word as I lifted my head to look at her. “I mean no. Leave Saul to me. He’s dangerous. He’s one of the bastards you’ve heard about.”
She tapped her foot and narrowed her eyes again.
I tried for reasonable, again, sucking in a breath before I spoke. “Look, I understand if you don’t trust me, but you need to leave him to me. He has friends and acquaintances he pays on the police force.”
“Fine.”
It was one of those times when fine really wasn’t fine.
“I mean it. Mae is my first priority. I’ll do anything I can to protect her, and right now, her life could be in danger from Saul.”
“I need her number.” Jo pulled her phone from her back pocket. “I want to verify your story with her.”
Shit. The memory of crushing Mae’s phone in my hand slammed through my skull. Shit. Shit.
“She doesn’t have a phone—”
Jo’s eyebrows lifted almost into her hairline.
“But I can tell you where to find her.” I rattled off Mae’s grandma’s address. “But don’t go storming up there. She’s in hiding, like I said. If Saul follows you, or sends someone to follow you, all of the action we’ve taken to conceal Mae will be for nothing.”