Stroke of Fire

by Kira Nyte

  Syn was perfect. Her perfect.

  Syn was her dream within a dream.

  Chapter Twelve

  Roaring laughter and the sound of loud bangs jerked her from a blessedly peaceful sleep. Briella groaned, rolling to her side, and tugged the blanket over her head.

  Her leg fell off the edge of the bed and her body followed.

  “Shit!” She scrambled to keep from becoming one with the hardwood floor, and came up short of a painful tumble. Blinking several times, trying to clear her eyes of sleep and slow her frantic heartbeat, she took in her surroundings.

  Sofa. Living space. She wasn’t in bed.

  “That’s right.” She’d come out here because she didn’t want to be alone. She wanted to be next to Syn, and that’s exactly where she’d fallen asleep. Curled up next to a dragon.

  A grin tugged her lips at the memory. Her soul brimmed with satisfaction over the small step into what she had only just discovered was her destiny.

  “I think you might be able to use a cup this morning.”

  Briella looked up at the man who stood over her from her awkward place kneeling on the floor, her upper body clinging to the sofa cushion. He had a steaming mug in one hand and an arm stretched out to her. An arched brow accompanied his humored grin.

  “May I help you up?”

  She nodded, taking his hand. Syn pulled her to her feet—to her toes with all that power—and steadied her. She rested a hand on his chest as she gained her bearings, her fingers tingling as they slid over the defined curves of his muscles under the fabric of his shirt.

  Ohhh, boy.

  “Here, sweet. Have some coffee.”

  “Thanks.” She accepted the mug and took a deep breath of the rich aroma. “How did you make it?”

  “A coffee pot?”

  Briella laughed. “No. Sugar and milk wise.”

  “Ah, got a laugh out of you in the first five minutes of being awake.” Syn kissed the top of her head, his smile stunning. “I knew what you meant. Two sugars and more milk than coffee. As per your mother.”

  She lifted a brow. “You asked my mother how I like my coffee?”

  His brows furrowed. “I know how bad a day one can have starting off with a bad cup of coffee. Don’t think I’ve forgotten you prefer tea.”

  “Then why the coffee?” she teased. She took a sip and sighed. “Damn good coffee.”

  “Because you had a damn bad night.”

  She nudged him in the ribs. “It wasn’t all bad, you know.”

  He tilted his head to the side, a nonchalant, knowing motion that plucked away another panel of her resistant wall. The morning coffee and his thoughtfulness to take the trouble to find out how she preferred it launched a wrecking ball through an entire side of panels.

  A new round of raucous laughter filtered up the stairs. Briella took another sip of coffee.

  “What time is it?”

  Syn glanced at his watch. “Little after one.”

  She nearly dropped her mug. Syn shot a hand beneath the bottom to steady it in her grip.

  “One? Are you serious?”

  “You were up most of the night. And if I were to assume, you didn’t sleep much the night before.” If she weren’t in such a good mood, she’d have a few words about that smug smile. “Who am I to wake a sleeping beauty up?”

  “Oh, the compliments.” She fanned her face and batted her eyes. “I’m overwhelmed by your charm, but”—all joking aside, she took another swig of coffee before handing the mug back to Syn—“I need to go.”

  She brushed past him and stalked into her room. Syn followed to the door, where he stopped and made himself comfortable leaning against the door frame like a big, languorous…

  She jerked her attention from him and gathered her clothes from the closet and dresser.

  “Where do you have to go today?”

  “I need to stop by the gallery and pick up brochures, then start pushing my show. Time is ticking away while I’m losing sleep during the night and letting that sleep eat up my days.” She paused as another bang and thump shook the house. She cocked her head and scrunched her nose. “Um, should I be nervous about that noise?”

  Syn chuckled. “Get a bunch of dragons together in one place, you’re bound to have some rattling.” He waved his hand in a lazy manner. Briella fisted her clothes to her chest. “I’ll let you get ready. There’s food downstairs. I’ll introduce you to Emery and Gabe. Let me know when you’re done.”

  Syn reached into the room far enough to place her coffee mug on a decorative table, cast her one last lingering look, and quietly closed the door. She let out a sharp breath, her legs growing warm and weak as she stumbled to the adjoining bathroom, plucking her cell phone off the dresser on her way.

  She really needed flame-retardant body armor. If it wasn’t proverbial fire from a dragon’s mouth, it would ultimately be those dark, scalding glances that would cause her to combust.

  When she lit up the screen on her phone, dozens of messages, text and voicemail, scrolled up the window. Emma’s last text was a panicky threat to have the cops show up at her place if she didn’t get in touch with her. Immediately.

  That was an hour ago.

  Briella quickly put in a call. The last thing she needed to add to her topsy-turvy life was the police assuming she’d been assaulted and kidnapped when they saw the damage to the entryway at her apartment.

  “Briella! Where are you? Where have you been? You send us some cryptic message yesterday and don’t return calls, texts, leaving us worried sick over you!”

  Briella pulled the phone away from her ear and cringed. Only when the phone remained silent for a few seconds did she dare bring it back to her ear. “Hi, Em. I’m okay. There was a freak accident at my apartment yesterday. And then my parents showed up and so I’m staying with them until my place is fixed.”

  Emma huffed. “That doesn’t explain why you’ve ignored our attempts to reach you since yesterday afternoon.”

  Damn, was she really going to lie to her friend? How was she supposed to explain this insanity without sounding, well, insane?

  “I got caught up in a painting. Really, really caught up in a painting.”

  A partial truth, but certainly believable. Her friends had experience with her immersion in her work when inspiration had a death grip on her.

  “Where are you? What hotel are you staying at? I’m coming down to make sure you’re unharmed.”

  “Hey, no need to do that. I’m leaving shortly anyhow. I have to do some advertising for my show. How about I stop by your place in, say, an hour? You can do a body check and see I have no injuries.”

  “Briella.” The terse tone in Emma’s voice made her blush. The only other people capable of making her feel like a scolded child were her parents. “Don’t you ever scare us like that again, you hear? Mark stopped by your place three times between your text and midnight, hoping you’d be there. Adrienne and Mindy were over here, waiting to hear from you. Girl, you can’t do that to us.”

  She rubbed her cheek, shame sputtering around her head. “I’m sorry, Em. Really I am. Things kinda happened. Fast.”

  “Well.” She heard the sound of her friend’s long exhale over the line. “As long as you’re okay, that’s all that matters. But I expect to be filled in on everything when you stop by.”

  “Will do.”

  She disconnected the call and slumped against the counter. How was she going to explain everything to her friends? Without creating a story of lies?

  Since when did her life turn into the obscured imitation of one of her paintings?

  If only reconfiguring life in reality was as easy as it was on canvas.

  * * *

  Syn sank against the wall beside Briella’s door and let out a long, ragged breath. There was no term in his centuries’ old vocabulary that could adequately describe the torture he’d endured in the last forty-eight hours. The pain he suffered when his wings were shredded by Baroqueth sorcery could not co
mpare to the pain of maintaining control over his dragon, and himself.

  But he would continue to endure, even if she curled around him again because she couldn’t sleep alone. Even if her hands crept over his body in her sleepy state, making him acutely aware of what her simplest touch unleashed beneath his skin. Even if she looked at him with heavily-hooded eyes and the tension between them ramped up faster than he could launch into the sky.

  Her lighthearted attitude in the last few minutes was a slight relief.

  The only relief you’ll find is either leaving the area for another continent or being accepted into her bed.

  With a resigned growl, he pushed away from the wall and headed downstairs.

  “Well, well. He’s finally decided to join the party!”

  Syn laughed, accepting the hard hug and clap on the back from Emery as he strode into the kitchen.

  “Ah, man. It’s so good to see you.” Emery groaned, then backed up, holding Syn at arm’s length. “Look at you. Haven’t changed an ugly ounce. Amazing.”

  “I can give you a few pointers.” Syn flicked a wave of jet-black hair off Emery’s cheek. “You may benefit from my advice.”

  Emery tucked the chunk of hair behind his ear and winked. “Girls love the longer hair. Feels so good when they tug—”

  “Okay, okay.” Syn threw his hand up to forestall Emery’s revelation. “Don’t need to hear about your bed-ventures. Bad enough I got a dose from Taryn last night.” He looked over Emery’s shoulder and caught Gabe’s glowing gaze from his propped-up position against the counter. “You guys are rocking this house off its foundation.”

  Gabe wagged his brows. “Sad it’s us and not you and your missus.”

  “Watch it, Gabe. I love you like a brother, but your mouth regarding her is to remain clean.” Unlike Syn’s imagination. He allowed a hint of his dragon to show in his eyes before he switched from dead serious to laidback. Emery dropped his hands from Syn’s shoulders and fell into a seat at the table. “She’ll put you in your place better than I ever could.”

  Gabe snorted and grabbed a handful of peanuts from a bowl.

  Taryn tsked. “Syn’s right. That girl is no joke.”

  “None of the females are jokes,” Gabriel said. “That’s why they’re Keepers and lifemates. Takes a special kinda person to handle one of us.”

  Syn glanced around the kitchen. “Where’re Giovani and Saralyn?”

  “They insisted on going to Café du Monde.”

  “And you let them go alone? With an unknown number of Baroqueth scouring this city?” Syn’s good humor died at the carelessness of his brethren. The three dragons exchanged glances. “Seriously?”

  He couldn’t have felt more relief when a familiar voice said, “Don’t let those guys mess with you. We’re in the courtyard. Taryn brought us over to the café earlier,” Giovani said, stepping up to Syn. He gave Syn’s arm a squeeze before turning his head toward the upstairs bedrooms. “You were still asleep. Saralyn and I didn’t want to bother you.”

  Syn calmed his dragon, and himself, and settled a grin over his mouth. “Very well.” He shot the three dragons a scalding look. “I’m going to have a few words with you three later.”

  “Well, until our scolding”—Gabe pushed off the counter, wiping his hands on his jeans, and joined Taryn and Emery at the table—“who’s ready to continue with smoke bombs?”

  “That’s what all the noise is from?” Syn groused.

  The childish antics of his three brethren were unexpected, but not entirely surprising. Emery and Gabriel, true brothers by blood, were two of the youngest survivors of the attack. Their mother had been one of the few female Keepers born outside of a near extinction, and the brothers’ births came a couple of centuries after most of them.

  Having only a few centuries under their wings, there were occasions when their immaturity came out. However, when it came down to it, the two men could be as serious and lethal as any of them.

  Smoke bombs and all.

  “Syn, you’ve gotta see this. It’s crazy!” Emery said, flipping a metal bowl upside down. Pinching the rim with the tips of his talons, he breathed a steady stream of smoke beneath the bowl until it started to seep under the edges.

  Syn stretched his arm out toward Emery and narrowed his eyes on Taryn. “You’re allowing this crazy in your house? And you wonder why I never settled in one place. Insanity follows.”

  Taryn shrugged. “If he blows out a window, I’ll fix it. Oh, which reminds me.” Taryn rolled out of his chair and snatched a piece of paper from the counter. “Here are a few people you can trust to clean up our mess at Briella’s apartment. Should get it done in the next few days so she can break her lease. The sooner she has no connections with that place, the better.”

  “Good luck, Syn,” Giovani said from where he stood pouring out two cups of coffee from the carafe. “She’s got a wicked stubborn side to her. She loves her apartment and won’t leave easily. It’s her first place.”

  “Almost thirty and you’ve never let her out of the house?” Gabe asked. “Geez, Daddy. Isn’t that a little extreme?”

  Giovani scooped up a handful of nuts and pitched them at Gabe. They rained down over the table and floor, plinking against the metal bowl. Emery coughed out a short burst of flame, toasting some of the nuts before they skidded across the table. Gabriel protected his head with a scale-covered arm. Taryn jumped back, spilling water from the bottle in his hand onto the floor.

  A loud bang brought Syn around.

  “What the—”

  Syn had no time to follow that sweet female voice. He flung up his arm as the metal bowl shot toward him and deflected it to the floor, where it bounced until it came to rest against the wall.

  Syn spun around and swallowed back a swell of flame in his throat. Briella stood, pale, wide-eyed and mouth agape, a couple of steps behind him. Those eyes dropped to his arm, where his scales retracted, then around him to all the men in the kitchen. Syn took in the familiar riding boots and a new pair of dark skinny jeans with silver threadwork up one leg, and his eyes trailed up the V-neck shirt that showcased the lush swell of her cleavage. She’d pulled her hair back in a ponytail that left soft waves pouring down her back and over one shoulder.

  The woman was damn stunning.

  “What are you boys doing in here?” Saralyn asked, stepped up beside Briella. She gave Syn a knowing look before she turned her attention to Taryn. “You’re going to have your neighbors calling the police on you, Taryn. The last thing we need is unwanted attention coming to your door.”

  Taryn’s head dropped. “Yes, Mom.”

  “Don’t you Mom me, old man.” Saralyn pointed a finger at Emery. “And you. Play a game of Monopoly and stop trying to put holes in this beautiful house.” She leaned through the archway to peer around the corner and a disgruntled groan escaped her. “Oh, Gio. I expect better from you.”

  Giovani threw up his hands. “I swear I had no part of this. Look.” He held up the two mugs of coffee. “This is all I came in here for.”

  “He threw nuts at me,” Gabe said casually, leaning back in his chair.

  Saralyn shook her head and turned, giving the kitchen, and the chaos, her back. Syn waited for her to give Briella a hug and a kiss, then held his hand out for his lifemate.

  “I’m almost afraid to introduce you to these clowns,” Syn said. He’d never suffered any form of embarrassment until now. The lick of warmth that touched his face was not overlooked by Briella. She seemed to shake the shock and stepped forward, accepting his hand and her place at his side. Giovani came over to kiss his daughter’s cheek.

  “Morning. Or afternoon, rather. How did you sleep, Belle?”

  Briella rubbed at the back of her neck, rose painting her cheeks. Giovani winked at Syn when his daughter wasn’t looking.

  “Good, I guess.”

  “I’ll leave you two to face these knuckleheads. Your mom and I’ll be in the courtyard.”

  Syn nodded to Giova
ni as he followed Saralyn out.

  “So, this is the woman of the day,” Emery said, getting to his feet and raking a hand through his hair. He stepped forward, extending a hand to Briella, and smiled. “I’m Emery LaRouche. And that pitiful sight there”—he made a careless motion toward Gabe—“is my brother, Gabriel. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

  Briella took his hand and laughed quietly at Emery’s exaggerated chivalric motion of bowing and kissing her knuckles. “Stop that nonsense. I’m Briella Everett.”

  “Now if that isn’t a sexy name.”

  “Emery,” Syn growled.

  Briella snickered and rested a hand against Syn’s stomach. “Hey, no worries. It’s not the first time I’ve been told that.”

  Syn groaned, ignoring the implication and the dark swirl of jealousy it inspired. He caught Emery’s mind churning with amusement. His mouth opened to say something goading. Syn threw up a hand to silence him.

  “Don’t you even think about it,” he warned on a low rumble.

  “You are so easy to tease. Too serious and always the gentleman.”

  “It’s nice to have a gentleman around these days. They’re few and far between,” Briella said, sidling a little closer to Syn. He looked down at her and caught the sparkle in her eyes as she smiled up at him. Oh, he could definitely kiss her right about now. “I have to get going. I’ll be back in a few hours so I can get ready for work.”

  “Yeah, about that,” Taryn started.

  All of the sweet admiration drained from Briella’s expression. She leveled her attention on Taryn. “What are you talking about?”

  “Hey, we’ll catch up with you guys in a few,” Gabe said. Light on his feet, he snatched Emery’s arm and dragged him from the kitchen, leaving Syn in the awkward position of breaking the bad news to his lifemate.

  Taryn raised his water bottle in a salute and shrugged. “Things are fun and games, but when it comes down to it, our guards are never down, Brie.”

  “What Taryn is trying to say is that you can’t go out alone. Not with the Baroqueth searching for you,” Syn interjected.