“I vote we eat and then figure out what the hell they brought us in here for,” Keagan said. “Hot pockets only go so far.”
I gave the hounds a worried glance. “This can’t be the end unless Sandor is in the restaurant.” Experimentally, I whispered, “Sandor?” hoping I had enough magic to use that turul skill, even if it was powered with the dragon and ursa magic within my soul now. But no answer came.
Finally, I whispered a message to Ozzie, reaching him easily and letting him know where we were. If my message reached him, that either meant Sandor was incapable of responding, or he was too far beyond my reach to hear me.
“I’m sorry there isn’t room for you guys. It was a challenge to get ourselves in to start with,” I sent.
“We have other tools at our disposal. Don’t worry about us, szívem,” he whispered back. My stomach fluttered at his endearment that I heard all too rarely now.
Several trays of appetizers were being served when motion from the front caught my eye, and a bewildered hostess led another party of four into the restaurant, seating them several yards away at a separate table. Beside me, Bodhi let out an awestruck gasp.
“That is not my mom, is it?”
“Willem must have burned some magic to dress them all up too,” I said, impressed, yet concerned. His soul drain may have been healed, but he was still compromised, and as far as I knew, he hadn’t asked for magic from any of our party in a couple days.
But the four of them certainly looked fantastic, with Maddie in a form-fitting purple silk dress and the other three in suits. With his white hair and silver-gray eyes, Willem looked like an imposing patriarch. Maddie simply looked dazzling, holding Willem’s hand like they’d known each other for ages. Ozzie and Llyr followed with dour expressions. Heads turned from all sides as they passed.
“They look like bodyguards,” Bodhi said. “Like they’d knock some heads if anyone looked at Will and Mom funny.”
“They would, at that,” Rohan said.
“Any updates?” It was Willem whose question filtered into my mind this time. He was just within sight, facing me from across the room, his aura flickering wildly with apprehension as he glanced at the hounds near us.
“They led us here for a reason, I’m sure,” I sent back. “Hang on.”
I closed my eyes and pushed my consciousness into the mind of Blaze once more, hoping to glean some insight to what we were to expect. The only thing I received was an impression that we should wait, as if they’d merely led us into the path of whatever event would take us farther on our journey.
“I think we just need to be patient and enjoy dinner,” I said out loud, lifting my eyebrows toward Willem to make sure he heard. He pressed his lips together and his aura dimmed in disappointment, but he nodded and leaned down to whisper something to Maddie.
When I returned my attention to the table and the food in front of us, I realized Bodhi was still staring at the other group, his expression dark.
“What is it?” I asked, touching his hand.
He shook his head, the worrying look in his eyes fading as he took me in, then the food. “It’s her aura, I guess? It’s all shiny and golden. She’s like a different person since we started this trip.”
“She’s happy,” Rohan said, giving Bodhi a gentle clap on the back. “That’s what joy looks like to a dragon. But I can tell it worries you. It shouldn’t. Willem would never hurt her.”
“Man, you had better be right, or Deva had better find her one hell of a soul mate once we get Sandor back. I’d like her to look that way every goddamn day for the rest of her life.”
I squeezed his hand. “I promise you I will.”
He relaxed a little, but I could tell he was still worried. The way Maddie seemed to glow under Willem’s attention had me a little worried too. If she were falling for him, it would only hurt when he followed through on his commitment to Sandor. I knew all too well what it felt like to love someone who was committed elsewhere.
I ignored the meal placed before me for several minutes, watching my three mates banter with each other about music while they ate. Why couldn’t these three be enough? They fulfilled me in so many ways. Yet I couldn’t allow myself true happiness with the ache in my belly over what I was still missing.
I was a nobody in my family. I was born without a soul, without my full powers, and without the ability to shift. I’d had no true place for the past year, and while my parents included some of the most powerful immortals alive, they were also the oldest and most experienced. They had all earned what they had after years of waiting. I hadn’t been alive more than a blink to most of them, so how could I even be worthy of what I already had? Who was I to think I deserved five, even if I knew it was the only way to have a complete soul?
Hunger eventually overrode the thoughts and I ate, but doubt lingered through the meal. I was sandwiched between Bodhi and Rohan, who seemed to be taking turns giving me comforting touches as though they both sensed that I needed the reassurance.
They had all ordered dessert, which had just been set in the center of the table when the hounds suddenly stood. Their ears perked and their heads swiveled toward the entrance.
All three of the guys stilled, and across the room Willem’s head jerked around to see what the hounds had latched onto.
A pair of men strode in, the hostess scurrying ahead of them. Around us, wait staff grew flustered, and more patrons than had taken interest in Willem when he’d walked in seemed to notice the new arrivals. The big, white Guardian was a curiosity and very striking in his formal attire, but the reaction to the men who had arrived suggested they were known to almost everyone here.
Our waiter returned, his aura jittering around him in a signal of shaky nerves. His hand trembled as he tried to pour water, and I took advantage of the opportunity to exhale a breath to calm him. It worked, to my delight, and I added a twist of mind magic into the smoke that he’d just inhaled.
“Who was that who just arrived?” I asked, the magic compelling him to answer with only the truth.
“Oh, them?” He waved a hand, trying to feign disinterest and doing it poorly. “That’s just the owner of the resort and his assistant. They make surprise visits sometimes just to keep us on our toes.”
“What’s his name?” I asked, determined to find out whatever I could. I wanted to know why my hounds found this person so interesting.
“Mr. Chase? Everyone’s heard of Mr. Chase.”
I gave him a polite smile. “It’s my first time in Las Vegas. I guess I’m the odd one out.”
“Well, you’re probably better off just not knowing. Enjoy your desserts!” he said a little too cheerfully. He wandered off with a wary look at the new arrivals, as if he hoped he wouldn’t be noticed.
I shifted my vision as I turned my attention back to Mr. Chase and his companion, a harried-looking man with his phone pressed to his ear. My blood chilled as I examined Chase’s aura.
“Ro, do you see what I see?” I asked.
Rohan audibly swallowed. “He isn’t human, but I can’t tell what he is.”
The two men had been seated at a more secluded booth near the trickling wall fountain, so I could barely see more than a glimmer of Mr. Chase’s profile, though his assistant was in full view. The part of his aura I could see was a crackling, shifting riot of dark colors that reminded me of the underlying opalescent magic beneath the skin of my mother’s mate, Zorion. But though Zorion was an incredibly ancient, powerful dragon with a nature different from any other, it was still familiar to me.
This man was like nothing I’d seen or read about, even though the theoretical texts I’d studied had mentioned chimeras, despite the fact I’d only existed for a year. There hadn’t been so much as a theory covering a creature like him, but I was more intrigued than scared. The hounds had led us here, to this man, so one way or another, I had to talk to him.
“What’s so strange about that guy?” Bodhi asked. “Not that he looks normal, but besides th
at trippy, psychedelic aura, I just see an epic narcissist, which isn’t unusual, considering he owns this place. Why he’d slum it with the masses, I have no idea.”
“That is odd,” Rohan agreed. “But it’s his aura Deva and I are confused by. It’s a complete mess. Usually someone’s aura is at least a uniform glow that changes colors depending on their mood, or their level of power, if they’re one of us. This guy’s looks like . . .”
“Like fractals,” Bodhi filled in. “It’s kind of pretty.”
“I want to get a closer look,” I said. I closed my eyes again and immersed myself in Blaze’s mind, the process becoming smoother with each attempt. The hound happily let me take over and I padded through the restaurant, slowing when I reached the edge of the booth where Mr. Chase sat.
I avoided moving into his sight, but I was close enough to hear his stressed-out assistant jabbering into his phone. Mr. Chase appeared utterly serene, though his aura continued to shift with the erratic, ever-fluctuating patterns that were nauseating to watch.
“ . . . packed house, every fucking ticket sold out—refunding the tickets are not an option. She needs to get her ass here tonight!” He paused long enough to listen to whoever was on the other end, then blurted, “What’ll we do? We’ll fucking blackball her from the entire goddamn state. You don’t think Mr. Chase can do that? Are you willing to test him?”
Mr. Chase remained calm as the other man dropped his phone with a curse. “Fucking hell, he hung up on me.”
“It’s no matter,” Chase said, waving a hand. A second later, a waitress appeared, setting an elaborate dessert in front of him. It looked like a perfect, shining sphere coated in a glittering, multicolored shell not unlike the strangely changing patterns of his aura.
“Your chocolate bomb, sir,” the waitress said in a strained voice, setting a small pitcher next to the plate.
“Thank you, Tabitha,” Mr. Chase replied, dismissing her with a gesture. She jerked as if pushed and turned on her heel, striding away.
“Why aren’t you more concerned? Sure, the casino can absorb the lost revenue, but the second word gets out that the show is canceled, half our guests are going to leave.”
“We are not canceling the show, Sergio,” Mr. Chase said, lifting the tiny pitcher and tipping it over the top of his dessert. Chocolate syrup drizzled out, flooding over the shimmering dome. The hard shell melted away, revealing a decadent layered dessert that he proceeded to dig into with zeal.
Sergio looked like he was about to explode. “I don’t suppose you have another iconic legend stashed away in your pocket who can satisfy the fans—who paid a premium for the tickets to see this show—do you?” He held up a hand. “Don’t answer that. For all I know, you’ve got the real fucking Elvis alive and tied up in the basement.”
“Let’s just say Fate owes me a favor. Be patient, it’ll all work out.”
I snapped back to my own body with a gasp. “He’s in league with Fate somehow. Is there a concert happening here soon?”
“Uh, yeah,” Bodhi said. “Normally, I’d say Vegas is where old pop stars go to die, but Aella’s still a fucking legend, even though she plays shows here. According to the marquee outside, she’s got a show scheduled for tomorrow night.”
“Not anymore,” I said. “And I have a feeling we’re supposed to take her place.”
32
Deva
The hounds’ ability to seek out this path still perplexed me. I’d thought they worked by creating the opportunities for a pair of soul mates to meet, but after their recent behavior, I was beginning to think they were only prescient creatures that knew how to steer an individual toward the appropriate opportunities to reach their destinies. They couldn’t have had the power to orchestrate the pop star’s refusal to appear for her show—there was a typhoon in the South Pacific, and her flight was grounded until it passed.
Perhaps this creature we were about to become beholden to had something to do with that. I couldn’t discount that possibility, but I was positive my hounds had merely been connecting the dots, leading us to the next likely event to help us reach our final goal. I was at least fairly certain that if they had knowledge of Sandor’s actual location, I’d have seen it after immersing myself in their minds as often as I had over the past day.
“There’s nothing to do now but follow through,” I said, bracing myself for the meeting and the proposal. I filled in Ozzie via whispers the wind carried to him and let Rohan communicate the gist to Willem. Then Bodhi slipped out of the booth, helping me rise behind him before sliding back in to wait.
On the way across the restaurant, my path converged with Ozzie’s and I frowned at him. “I can take care of this,” I said.
“The guys may be your mates, but the band is still mine. I get a say in the gigs we play.”
“You’re not suggesting we avoid this one, are you?”
“No,” he muttered. “I don’t think we have a choice, but I also want to make sure this negotiation doesn’t put is in a worse position than we’re already in. This fucker needs us. Don’t forget that.”
Chase didn’t even look up from his dessert when I reached his table. His assistant blinked at Ozzie’s outstretched hand.
“Ozzie West,” he said. “And this is Deva Rainsong, the woman who’s going to save your casino’s reputation tomorrow night.”
Sergio sputtered until Chase said, “Shake the man’s hand, Sergio, he’s here to help.”
He took a leisurely bite of his dessert, then slowly chewed, his eyes drifting shut and a low rumble of enjoyment emanating from his chest. When he swallowed, he opened his eyes and looked straight at me. His lips stretched into a satisfied smile. He was attractive, in an oddly disconcerting way. His features were so subtly asymmetrical it was hard to notice, yet still a little off-putting.
“Yes, I think she’ll do just fine, assuming you can perform.”
“How the hell do you even know these people? Who are they?” Sergio spat, his aura spiking with red panic.
“No one you’ve heard of, Sergio, but the important thing is that I have. Draw up the standard contract and have it delivered to my office by midnight. Change the marquee right away. It should read ‘Fate’s Fools, featuring Deva Rainsong.’ Mr. West and I will take care of everything else.”
“That’s it?” I asked, my head spinning at how simple this was.
Chase held up a finger to stall me, setting his fork aside and lifting his dessert plate. With complete seriousness, he began to lick it clean of every last drop of chocolate, then set it down and demurely wiped the corners of his mouth with his napkin. He stood and grinned down at me.
“Never waste a drop of a good dessert.” He held out his hand. “Come, Ms. Rainsong. Let’s get you and your entourage set up with a suite.”
The crowd at the front desk parted as he approached, and one of the clerks rushed over the second we reached it. I glanced back at the others following close behind. Llyr appeared shaken, his eyes a wild maelstrom as he eyed Chase, who seemed to be doing nothing more than commandeering a suite for us.
“Give her Aella’s regular apartment. It will sleep eight comfortably.”
The man at the desk nodded and tapped away on his keyboard. Within seconds, we had a collection of keycards that Chase passed out to each of us.
“I will send Sergio by your room later to escort you down to my office. I imagine you’ll want to go over the contract to make sure it’s equitable. You are doing me quite a favor, after all.”
His eyes sparked with humor as if he knew there was more to the story, and I was dying to know exactly what he knew about our entire situation. Hell, I was dying to know what the hell he was, not to mention his relationship to Fate.
The second we entered our suite and the door shut behind us, Keagan said, “Who the fuck are we about to sign a contract with?”
“I don’t know,” Llyr said, voice trembling. “But he’s old and powerful enough that the River pretty much avoids him entirely
. I can’t look at him without feeling sick.”
“Somehow I’m having a hard time finding any sympathy for you,” Keagan said, collapsing onto the leather sofa.
“The hounds led us to him,” I said. “It must mean he’s somehow the key to finding Sandor. We have to follow through with this.”
“So we’re supposed to play a concert to do that?” Bodhi asked. “Didn’t we agree we were going to avoid big venues? Because it sure sounds like this is the opposite of what we agreed to. And I don’t know about the rest of you, but we haven’t exactly spent a lot of time practicing. Aella’s shows are epic spectacles.”
“We have the skills to pull it off,” Ozzie said. “And Deva’s always been a quick study.”
“One good melding between all of us and we’d be perfectly synchronized. No practicing needed,” Llyr said. He was subdued and distant, pacing by the window until he looked out at the fountain, shuddered, and drew the curtains shut.
Willem was poking his head into the refrigerator in the full kitchen occupying the entire corner of the suite near the entrance. He shut the door, turned, and leaned on the counter, shaking his head. “Not all of us. You can leave me and Maddie out of it. I’ll be able to keep up with whatever we need to do.”
Maddie glared at him from her spot on a barstool. “Don’t you dare speak for me. I want to know what he means by a meld before I decide.”
“You don’t really want to know, Mom,” Bodhi said.
Maddie huffed and looked at Willem. “My own son never kept secrets before. Now we’re expected to keep the biggest secret in the history of humanity, and you’re being cagey? Tell me what it is so I can decide for myself.”
Willem flattened his lips and swallowed, nodding. He rounded the counter and bent to whisper into Maddie’s ear. Her eyes widened, and her hand flew to her mouth. She darted a look up at Willem, who had rested his hand on her lower back. Both their auras flared with arousal, pink and shimmering. I shot Rohan a glance and he smiled back at me.
“Dragons too?” Maddie asked in an audible whisper, her cheeks flushed a darker shade.
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