“We need to get you out of here first, all right? Help me wake up your mom.”
I went to Maddie’s gurney and bent down and started singing. Bodhi hopped up and added his tenor to my soprano, and seconds later, his mother roused.
I ushered them back to the elevator, explaining my plan along the way. “Get your grandmother and go home. I have an idea of how to help, but I need to do a little footwork first.”
“Are they gone?” Maddie asked. “Sweet Jesus, I feel like I just woke up from a bender. Does that go away?”
“I don’t think you can break the link without getting the hounds to attack someone else. They stopped draining Susannah’s soul when they attacked you, and the same is true for the other man.”
“The other man?” Bodhi asked. “You mean grandma wasn’t the only . . . ah . . . victim?”
I shook my head. “There’s an older man in the ICU. He didn’t wake up, but I don’t think he’s in danger of dying now that the soul link is broken. We need to figure out how to fix the two of you without risking the lives of anyone else to do it.”
“These hounds . . . Why are they after us? Is it because of who we are? Because we’re linked to you somehow?”
The elevator stopped at the fifth floor and the doors opened. I needed them to get moving so I could do what I could while the hounds were dormant. I sighed.
“I don’t really know what they want, only that they feed on your souls. Playing music somehow helps shield you from them, so get your grandmother and go home and surround yourself with as much music as you can, all right? I’m going to get help. I’ll find you when I’ve got a plan.”
Maddie pulled me into a fierce hug. “Thank you,” she said, then released me and broke into a jog toward the doors to the ICU ward.
Bodhi stood in the open elevator doors a moment longer, staring at me. He glanced at the floor and shoved a hand into his pocket, then pulled it out again. “We live in Venice Beach . . . I don’t have a pen or anything. I could give you my number . . .”
“I’ll find you. Trust me.” I gave him a tight smile.
“Then I’ll, ah, see you soon?”
I nodded, and our gazes remained fixed on each other as the elevator doors closed, my heart pounding the entire time. The way his aura flared reddish violet with desire reminded me so much of someone else’s aura . . . Two people’s, in fact, both of whom I’d rather not waste time thinking about.
The worst part was that my vocal cords ached to sing the words that had threatened to burst forth earlier. I had to rein in that unruly instinct—it had already bitten me on the ass twice in my short life.
Finally the doors closed and I pressed the button for the parking level, breathing a sigh of relief as I descended.
Once in the solitude of my small car, I closed my eyes to get my bearings again. The parking garage was awash in gray dawn light, the spring morning gilded at the edges as the sun broke over the hills and burned off the marine layer that lay over this coastal city most mornings.
My chest ached with longing for my mother every time I watched the sun rise—my biological mother, to be exact. After all, there were three women in my life who would happily claim me as their daughter.
But my biological mother was the human one, and the one I thought of most often when I found myself overwhelmed by the weight of this task I’d taken upon myself. Diving into the human world the way I had without any preparation or a tour guide had been terrifying and exhilarating. My wish had been to experience it wholesale, all the darkness and light that went along with simply being human, so I could understand that side of my identity as much as the other four pieces that I’d inherited from the higher races.
I hadn’t counted on taking on the responsibility of being a savior to a segment of the human population that only I had the power to easily find.
It had required a crash course in human social customs, and that quick-study trait of mine came in especially handy then. As a result, I blended in as well as any of the higher races did. Better, since even my own kind could barely recognize I was one of them.
I’d learned to drive on my second day after discovering the perils of public transportation. I would only drift in emergencies if I needed to get somewhere fast and would save my remaining power for bare necessities, like conjuring myself clothing and currency. I realized that currency could get clothing, of course, but that took time I didn’t believe I had. The second I’d gotten a good look at a twenty-dollar bill, I’d used my power to conjure a stack of them, got myself a car, and learned to drive it.
My third day in the human world, I’d bought a smartphone after trying and failing to conjure one. I thought I knew magic, but those things were truly baffling.
After replacing my scrubs with an outfit more appropriate for where I was headed next, I pulled out the smartphone and did an internet search. A variety of options came up, none of which seemed likely as I scrolled through.
Finally, I found the place that had to be the one I wanted. I tapped the address and set the phone in the cradle on the dash.
Music blasted through my speakers the second I turned on the ignition and I started singing along to one of my latest favorite human bands. Every time I heard one, I wondered if they were members of the bloodline and possibly imbued with turul genes and the magic of the Four Winds. That’s where my own singing ability had come from, along with plenty of practice and the best teacher a girl could ask for, even if he’d stopped speaking to me months ago.
The music on the radio possessed a hint of magic, but it was nothing like the power I’d witnessed when Bodhi and his mother had sung together. There was no doubt in my mind that his family carried turul genes that had likely been activated on the Equinox. I doubted they’d ever acquire power as strong as a full-blooded turul, but something close to what I possessed couldn’t be out of the realm of possibility.
If I managed to keep them alive.
I pressed my foot harder on the gas pedal and sped down the road. The Dragon’s Scale music store would be open in less than an hour, and I wanted to be there the second they unlocked their doors.
4
Rohan
I was in love—with this world, with this city, with this beautiful, sunny morning, and the salt breeze wafting off the Pacific. I almost wanted to take another trip around the block just to bask in the bustle of humanity around Santa Monica. But the guys were waiting, so I dutifully carried my haul back to the Dragon’s Scale to deliver it.
The door jingled as I opened it. I loved music, even little bells.
“Breakfast is served!” I announced, pushing through and letting the door swing closed behind me.
Nobody moved or said a thing, which was odd, because I’d have at least expected Keagan to be drooling on me the second I walked in, already rifling through the bag and pulling out an everything bagel, then swiping the lox. I had to get two of everything—one for him, and one for everyone else. The man was a beast.
By the time I made it around the counter and deposited the bagels onto the corner table, the three of them still hadn’t budged, and my empathic nature clued me in that mood in the room was distinctly interested in something. Keagan was propped back against the checkout counter, his attention following something in the store, and both Willem and Sandor were leaning on the glass top behind the register, just as transfixed.
I handed out coffees, which my apparently hypnotized friends accepted wordlessly and began to drink.
I leaned close to Keagan and in an exaggerated whisper said, “What’s up, dude?”
He tilted his scruffy chin toward the store at large.
I didn’t see her at first as I scanned the racks of instruments and shelves of sheet music. Then she stood up beyond one of the shelves, her dark hair shining in an ebony cascade over her brown shoulders. She was holding a guitar. My heart skipped a beat.
“Who is she?” I asked, barely able to breathe.
“Better question is, ‘Why is she here?
’ ” Sandor asked. “Humans don’t come into this store. The door’s warded to repel them.”
“Maybe she’s a member of the bloodline,” Willem said. “The wards may not work on them now.”
“How would it be any different than before?” I asked. “They’re still human, right?”
I couldn’t take my eyes off the woman as she reverently caressed the neck of the guitar. My cock roused at the sight and I let out a faint, involuntary grunt. Keagan side-eyed me and lifted one dark brow.
“They are more than human as of the Equinox,” Willem said.
I glanced at him, my eyes wide. “How’s that?”
The big white-haired dragon was the oldest of our group. He’d had managed to escape the last dragon Renunciation and gone into hiding in a turul enclave for five centuries. Now that the Dragon Council had pardoned all the dragons who hadn’t committed the mandatory ritual suicide, he was finally free to live his life after more than fifteen hundred years.
He and Sandor owned the Dragon’s Scale. They were like brothers . . . closer, even. Kind of like me and Keagan, I supposed—fuck-buddies with emotional benefits. Or I figured as much, as I hadn’t seen a dragon mark on Sandor yet. But they could also just be old-fashioned; it was only within the past year that it had become kosher for turul and dragons to mate each other.
“I think you know as well as I do, Rohan,” Willem said. “Not all the members of the bloodline were human to start with.”
Our gazes held for a moment longer before I swallowed and turned away. I’d never told anyone what I’d experienced on the Equinox three weeks ago. I’d woken up that morning particularly energized as though the sex I’d had with Keagan the night before had given me a double-dose of magic. But the strange thing was that it hadn’t faded, even after I’d shifted and flown and used my powers. It still clung to me.
The warning we’d received a couple days prior to that night seemed connected. It’d been delivered on the Wind in turul fashion, warning us to lie low until after Equinox. Then the message had arrived shortly after. It’d sounded like it was meant for humans, not dragons like me. If our leaders had planned a ritual to somehow control the bloodline, this dark beauty’s unexpected appearance in the store had to be a consequence.
“Rohan, you really need to pay more attention,” Sandor said, shaking his head. “Willem’s been waiting for you to get it.”
I shrugged. “I don’t like to overthink things. So what if I’m part of the bloodline too?”
“It was your mother, wasn’t it?” Keagan asked gently. “You said she was an Ultiori defector. That’s how you wound up with some of the Lamia’s blood; All the Ultiori were infused with it.”
I returned my attention to the woman, offering only a half-shrug to my big ursa friend. So I had a dark ancestry, but that was the past.
Suddenly what Willem and Sandor had both said hit me and I turned to stare. “You too?”
Sandor chuckled and muttered something about dumb blondes that I chose to ignore.
Willem nodded solemnly. “The first ascension, there were quite a few more defectors. My great-great grandmother chose a former Ultiori soldier for a mate. He’d served under Nikhil himself.”
“So you and I are both part of the bloodline too . . . even though we’re dragons.”
“You heard the message, didn’t you?” Willem said.
Keagan stood up straighter, at least three inches taller than me at full height. “You two got a message? From who?”
I shrugged. “From the Council, or whatever they’re calling themselves now that all our leaders have hooked up. The Quantum? I can’t fucking keep track. But it was meant for the humans who carry the blood. Like we were all copied on the same email.”
Keagan snorted, probably because I’d only just grasped how email worked after nearly two years of him trying to teach me. As an ursa on his pilgrimage, he’d spent a lot more time in the human world than I had. I’d spent the bulk of the last five centuries in hibernation.
“From the leaders of the higher races,” Willem supplied, “otherwise known as The Quorum. The two of you weren’t involved in the war, but Sandor and I were in the Haven at the end. Dionysus sacrificed his power to subvert the Lamia’s hold on her victims and to facilitate her death at Nikhil’s hand. It’s the god’s blood that runs through the bloodline now instead of our enemy’s, and divine blood comes with some side-effects, not the least of which is that the bloodline now has the ability to recognize the higher races for what we are.”
“Hence the message,” I said, finally catching on.
“Hence the message,” Willem agreed. He tilted his chin at the woman. “So either she is bloodline, or she’s one of us, but I can’t for the life of me decide which.”
“She has a human aura,” I said, shifting my sight to view the cloud of energy that surrounded every sentient being. It shifted in a crisp, clear glow around her curvy shape, the perfectly textbook example of an aura, which honestly made no sense. Humans were messy, complicated creatures. Their auras were never so . . . unadulterated.
“Except it’s missing something,” I added. “Besides, she’s too fucking beautiful to be human.”
I tilted my head, enthralled by both her beauty and her aura as she set the guitar down and reached for a different one on a higher rack. Her shirt slid up, revealing a tight expanse of burnished skin, and I completely forgot to care about her aura.
She wore black leather pants that molded perfectly to her plump ass, and a thick, metal-studded belt to accent her narrow waist. Sweet Mother, this girl could not be human looking like that.
When she let out a frustrated noise, I leapt into action, ignoring Willem’s reminder that I didn’t work here and it was his job to help the customers. Fuck that.
“Here, I’ve got that,” I said, slipping up beside her and gripping the guitar by the neck. The magic in the instrument hummed beneath my touch, making my fingers ache to hang onto it and play. But she wanted it, and I desperately wanted to know anything I could learn about her.
With a sharp intake of breath, she turned and stared up at me. My own breath left my lungs. Her eyes were the oddest combination of colors I’d ever seen, not a single color, but a variegated rainbow, black in the center followed by a deep green, then blue fading into purple, red at the outer edge, and finally a searing silver ring.
“Are you going to let me have it?” she asked.
I shook off the trance her eyes had put me under and laughed. “You sure you can play? These instruments are for pros, hand-crafted by two master musicians right over there.”
I turned and nodded at Willem and Sandor, who both gave me dubious looks in return. Keagan looked downright irritated that I’d even talk to her—maybe because I’d beaten him to the punch.
She laughed. “I’ve had some practice. If you’ll allow me, I can demonstrate.” She waggled her fingers at the guitar.
“All right, let’s see what kind of chops you’ve got.”
I relinquished the instrument and she took it, gaze traveling over the glossy ebony contours the way I’d just ogled her moments ago. It was a beautiful instrument that I didn’t quite feel worthy to play. Sandor said he’d crafted it with a turul owner in mind, but the right one had yet to walk through these doors.
She hooked the strap over her neck. Without blinking or looking at the strings, she began to play.
It was as though time stopped when the music filled the room. My heart had ceased beating, and when she added her voice to the chords, I thought I’d died and gone to heaven. I knew angels didn’t exist, but if they did, she’d qualify.
Her voice rang clear and strong, and she closed her eyes as she plucked at the strings. Speechless, I glanced at the guys. Keagan looked stunned, but Willem and Sandor both looked like they were about to leap for joy. Willem stabbed a finger toward the guitar on the wall next to me. At the same time, he blasted a message into my head.
“She’s singing a goddamn duet, you dolt. Don
’t let her down.”
In a flash, I had the other guitar in my hands and picked up the rhythm of the familiar song. It was one the humans called a “classic,” and it was the perfect vehicle for her voice and mine to intermingle.
When we hit the chorus, the air charged with enough electricity to make the fine hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. Her eyes were still closed, her brow creased with the power of the emotions conveyed in the lyrics.
I glanced down at her hands and nearly stopped playing. Tiny silver sparks danced between her fingertips and the guitar strings, and the fucking guitar glowed.
Then she opened her eyes and my entire world turned upside-down. I got lost inside her, as if every single word she sang called to me and me alone. Something in the very core of my being lit on fire and burned so hot my mouth went dry, and I found it a challenge to belt out the last few words of the song.
There was no fucking way this girl was human, but she was like nothing I’d ever seen among the higher races either. Maybe angels really did exist. Either way, I knew to the core of my dragon soul that I had to have her.
I was breathless when the last verse ended, my fingertips tingling and my chest hot from the magic I’d inadvertently pushed out of my lungs and into the words I’d sung. I should’ve been more careful, but a little joy smoke never hurt anyone.
My beautiful angel’s cheeks were flushed, and she blinked rapidly as though confused, but then something behind me grabbed her attention. Her eyes went wide and she lurched toward me.
Then all hell broke loose.
5
Deva
They attacked out of thin air, too fast for me to warn my duet partner before they were on him. I had just enough time to stumble like an idiot, flailing with the guitar swinging under my arm and around to my back. I spun around in front of him just as he turned. I thought I’d made it in time to block the attack, but the hound jumped straight through me.
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