The Dragon and the Singer

by Renee Carr

  Aye aye, mate, Joshua’s response came first, and the Cory’s just a few minutes later. They didn’t argue with him, which he appreciated. His brothers were the only ones allowed to be cheeky with him on a semi-regular basis, but when he spoke with such firmness, he expected them and anyone else to comply within seconds.

  Satisfied that it was taken care of, he headed into his hotel. The rest of the messages, he decided could wait until morning.

  How’d it go? Devon texted, just as he got out of the shower. If you can answer this without typos, it didn’t go well.

  Sorry to disappoint, Nathan texted back. No typos. But it was exactly as you described.

  Good, Devon said. Feel better? I have a package for you to take to Knorpp tomorrow if you can. We found some DNA samples near the site, don’t want to send it over the wires.

  Not leaving tomorrow, Nathan texted back.

  Why? Devon answered. I thought you couldn’t afford another night away?

  Technically, I’m the King and can afford whatever I want, Nathan said. There’s something I want to explore here first. I’ll tell you tomorrow.

  I’ll wait with bated breath, Devon teased. Any progress on the case we are supposed to be exploring?

  None, Nathan texted back. And what’s worse is that I seem to have no leads. Normally, in such murders, it seems like the answer is obvious, but I’m completely lost.

  I’ve got nothing either, Devon said. It has occurred to me that there is some sort of cover-up going on. In cases like this, it’s always someone who surprises me.

  In all my spare time, I have a confession to make, Nathan teased him.

  In all my spare time, I helped you, Devon replied. Keep me posted.

  With that, both of them signed off for the night.

  Nathan threw himself on the bed, closing his eyes. The world began to swirl as he did, and he realized he was drunker than he thought. He was normally completely in control, even on his worst nights.

  But then, he also normally didn’t feel like a tidal wave had hit him when he looked at a woman.

  The fact that he didn’t have an entirely clear mind saved him from coming to a frightening conclusion concretely.

  If he was in his right mind, he would have to deal with the mind-blowing possibility that she wasn’t just an intoxicating woman. He would have to deal with the growing thoughts in his mind about fated mates, or soulmates as humans called it. Dragons had fated mates, and while they could marry someone else if they chose, it would never change the fact that once they met their mate, they would never be able to forget them. He had heard it described as a magnetic pull, or finding a missing piece of your soul. He never understood what people were talking about until he saw her sing. And now, he felt like he needed to hear her soul sing for the rest of her life.

  He had to find out whether or not this was true because if it was, his life was about to change.

  Chapter 4

  Ivy usually liked to sleep in. She worked late and she didn’t feel like she was one of those people who could operate on very little sleep. However, tonight, she didn’t care whether she never slept again.

  If someone had told her three hours ago that she wouldn’t care that she didn’t get an agent or an offer tonight, she could have called them crazy.

  She threw herself on her bed in her small apartment, logging onto her normal rock climbing place and beginning to look for an opening. She wanted to text him the details and go right away, minimizing the time she spent away from him.

  She had never felt like this with anyone. She wasn’t sure whether it was love, or lust, or just a friendship with a person that was different from anyone that she ever met. Either way, she didn’t want to wait.

  She remembered her conversation not that long ago with Natasha, during the open mic night. She had almost made fun of her colleague for being so in love with her husband. She had sworn to Natasha that she would never be like that.

  Ivy had thought that if she was going to get a boyfriend, it would be another singer, or perhaps a musician. She imagined someone with tattoos and piercing, who smoked cigarettes in the back alley and stayed up until dawn, writing music.

  Or maybe she saw herself with a music producer, working 9-5 in an office, and then spending his nights in the sound studio, trying to create the next big artist.

  Nathan did not fit into either of those boxes in her head. She had no idea what she was doing, but she knew that she had to follow through and learn more about him.

  The first available slot was 2 pm, which made her sigh. She didn’t want to have to wait so long to see him again. In addition, she did have to go back to the bar that night for a second performance, and it meant that they couldn’t hang out after unless her rock climbing gear became her newest performance attire.

  She paid for it before someone else took the spot, and then texted Nathan the details. He didn’t answer, and she assumed that he was already asleep.

  She didn’t know his last name, so she took his phone number and his first name and plugged it into Google, hoping for some hits on the search engine.

  She didn’t find anything, which she thought was a little bit strange. She wondered if he had given her a burner phone number and that was the last she was going to hear of him.

  Struck by sudden inspiration, she remembered that she still had his jacket.

  Sticking her hands in the outside pockets, she was disappointed to find they were empty. She was hoping for a business card, or some sort of indication that he was a real person, but there was nothing.

  She was about to give up when she remembered that male suit jackets also had an inside pocket.

  She reached in and found a crumpled piece of paper.

  Pulling it out, she found a ticket that he should have given to the doorman at the bar.

  Nathan Anvers, on behalf of Devon Lupe. VIP section.

  “Ha,” she said, as she ran her hand over it. “Got you.”

  She went back to her phone and entered his full name into the search engine.

  There were several hits, and what confused her were they were all him, in what seemed like different personas.

  He was a businessman, a real estate mogul, a lawyer, and a hotelier, seemingly all at the same time. The profiles were legitimate, and she couldn’t find any discrepancies except for the fact that he seemed too young to be so successful in all those careers.

  Reverse google searching his picture came up with even more information. He was also an oil lord, a tour guide, and a regular high society attendee.

  “Either you’re extremely busy,” she said to herself. “Or you are lying about something.”

  She glanced down at the other name on the paper and then typed it into the search engine.

  Devon Lupe only came up with solid results. He was an artist, and a pretty well-known one from the looks of it, who had a grand mansion on the outskirts of town. From what Ivy could tell, he stayed mostly out of the spotlight and lived a quiet life, selling his paintings for millions but otherwise existing sight unseen.

  The two men had very little in common, judging by the internet, which led her to wonder how exactly they met.

  Devon must have been the regular who always came into the bar, although she had never noticed him. But then, if he preferred a quiet life, perhaps he purposely looked to sit out of the way.

  Nathan had wanted to be noticed tonight. No one chose that seat if they wanted to hide, given its angle to the stage. The lights may have been low and the section obscured by the rope, but she had been drawn to him.

  Ivy shook her head, putting her phone away. These thoughts were ridiculous. She didn’t fall in love; she didn’t even believe in love. He was attractive, and he was mysterious, and that was enough for her to be curious. The rest was just being overtired.

  She locked the door to her apartment, and got ready for bed, trying to think about the show instead. Aside from being distracted by Nathan, she tried to pick out any other errors that she had made.


  She knew her performance was above the rest. She could hit an extra octave, and she scaled up and down her range as easily as someone changed their clothes. She had been told she was a great show woman, and she knew that she looked great.

  And yet, here she was, sitting alone without an offer.

  She needed to step up her game. She needed a gimmick, a trick, because clearly being herself wasn’t enough.

  Or maybe, she thought back to Nathan, she just needed someone with the right connections. If he was even half of what he said he was, he might be able to help. Maybe this meeting was fate, and he was the stepping stone she needed.

  She couldn’t wait until tomorrow, to find out more about him.

  Chapter 5

  Nathan had never gone rock climbing in his life, but he wasn’t daunted by it. He kept himself in good shape, and he had woken up feeling like he could take on the world. He was disappointed that he would have to wait until 2 o'clock in the afternoon, given that he awoke at 9.

  He wanted to see her beforehand, and he usually got what he wanted.

  I don’t have any suitable clothes, he texted her around 10 o'clock. I could have someone send some up, or I could ask your expert opinion. What do you say?

  Her response came almost immediately.

  I could do that, she said. Do you want me to send you some pictures?

  I was thinking we could buy them together, he said. I can send a car for you.

  I just have to do a self-tape, she said. Send one in half an hour.

  He was about to ask what that meant, but he didn’t want to seem ignorant. Instead, he spent a quick second on Google before returning her text.

  Best place for acoustics is apparently the bathroom, if you don’t have a sound studio, he texted back and she grinned.

  Thanks for the tip, she responded. See you soon.

  He had met Kings and Queens from all over the world, Dukes and Queens, Emperors and Empresses. He was never nervous when it came to those people strolling into his palace. But waiting for Ivy, he found, made his hands shake.

  Half an hour gave him enough time to make a single call that he had thought about all night. He had gone over the words in his mind, again and again, trying to find a turn of phrase that wouldn’t make her suspicious.

  As soon as he ordered a car for her, he dialed a number he hadn’t dialed for years.

  It rang several times, and he was worried she wouldn’t answer. But just as he was about to give up, the ringing stopped.

  “Hello?”

  “Sarah,” he said. “It’s Nathan. How are you?”

  “Nathan,” she said. “What a surprise.”

  “I had something I wanted to discuss with you,” he said. “Are you available for a moment?”

  “Uh...” his former sister in law stuttered. “Yes, I am. But I have a feeling it’s something big from the tone of your voice.”

  “It’s about John,” he said. “Or rather, you and John.”

  Her breath came in a gasp then, but she squeaked out a reply.

  “Yes?” she asked.

  He could see her, in his mind’s eye. Sarah had once been a powerful Queen, at John’s side. They were a fated pair, and there was no one who doubted it as soon as they saw them together. But Nathan wasn’t interested in what other people had thought of them. He was interested in what Sarah thought. After John died, she had moved away, to the other side of the planet. The palace took care of her, but she didn’t require much in the way of living expenses. Sarah lived a simple life, seemingly in the hopes of erasing everything that had to do with John. She had once told Nathan that living extravagantly reminded her of who she had lost, and she couldn’t bear it.

  “How do you know when you meet your match?” he asked. “I know all the stories, and all the feelings you are supposed to experience. But how can you be sure?”

  He expected her to take some time to answer. He wanted her to think about and give him the best answer she could.

  But Sarah’s answer came swiftly.

  “You just know,” she said. “You look at them, and you know.”

  “And you’ve never experienced it since John?” he asked.

  “No,” she said. “You know that, Nathan. There’s only one for us, in this universe.”

  “So they say,” he said. “The odds just seem astronomical.”

  “Perhaps they are,” she said. “But when you know, you know.”

  “Hmm,” he replied.

  “Have you...have you met someone?” she asked.

  “No,” he lied. “There’s a ...potential match that seems like it would be a disaster, and claiming a fated mate without it being true would only add to the chaos of it.”

  “No one said that your mate had to be exactly like you,” she said, and he could hear her smile through the line. “In fact, it’s better if they are not. John was nothing like me.”

  “He was everything like you!” Nathan cried and Sarah laughed.

  “No,” she said. “We were good rulers, Nathan. We put on a united front when we were out in front of others. But in private, we were so different.”

  “But if you were so different...” his logical brain tried to fight the idea of fate.

  “We were so different, but fate intended us to be together, and there’s nothing we could do about it,” Sarah said. “Sometimes, finding a way to make it work was the part that was the most fun.”

  “That’s interesting,” he said. “And an aspect I hadn’t considered before.”

  “We are Dragons, Nathan,” she reminded him. “We aren’t like the others. When fate intervenes, we have to answer, or we will die miserably.”

  “Thank you, Sarah,” he said. “This has opened my eyes. Are you...still comfortable where you are?”

  “Yes,” she said. “Thank you for the items that were sent last week. I am well taken care of.”

  “If you need more...”

  “Take care of yourself,” she said, ending the conversation abruptly. “Your brother would be proud of you.”

  The last line sent painful longing through his heart, and he ended the phone call without another word.

  He received an alert on his phone then that Ivy’s car had arrived at her location, and he went to get dressed before she arrived.

  When she arrived, she looked much different than the night before, but he thought she looked even more beautiful if that was possible.

  Her hair was pulled into a long, glossy ponytail, and she had on running shoes, form-hugging leggings, and a tank top, which showed perfectly toned shoulders and luminous skin.

  “Good morning,” he said, unable to take his eyes off of her.

  “Morning,” she said, as her eyes zoned in on the coffee in the hotel lobby where they are meeting. “Do mind if I...?”

  “Uh, no, of course,” he moved aside and she grabbed a large cup of coffee, to fill up. He smiled as she took a large sip.

  “Are you a frequent coffee drinker?” he asked.

  “Sometimes,” she replied. “I need extra energy to rock climb and then perform. Do you drink coffee?”

  “No,” he said, as his phone beeped. It had been beeping at him since he came down, and he knew he should check it. It had been fairly easy to empty his schedule for one day, but he knew that a second day was throwing everyone for a loop. “But everyone keeps telling me I should start.”

  “For work?” she asked. “I googled you last night, by the way.”

  “Oh?” he asked, confused and slightly worried. “Why?”

  “Just because I wanted to know more about you,” she replied. “And to be honest...I learned either a lot about you or nothing.”

  “That’s an interesting sentence,” he replied, knowing exactly what she found online.

  “So what is it that you do?”

  “I do many things,” he said, knowing that he couldn’t reveal the truth to her. People had asked him this before, to the point where he realized he really should use a fake ID when h
e was down here. Before, he had no issue lying to people. But looking into Ivy’s eyes, he wanted to bare his soul.

  This girl was driving him crazy.

  “Yeah, I figured that,” she said.

  “I...” he started, about to give her an excuse, but she shrugged.

  “It’s fine,” she said. “You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.”

  That took him by surprise.

  “Really? You asked and I assumed...”

  “No,” she said. “I asked because I was curious. But I told you last night, there’s no judgment with me. You do you. You don’t want to tell me, that’s fine. Just, if you’re some sort of mass criminal, don’t get me arrested with you, because I really have to show up and perform tonight.”

  He grinned.

  “I think I can manage that.”

  “Can you though,?” she teased him. “Or shall I get you drunk and have you spill your soul and confess your crimes to me?”

  He grinned.

  “I really don’t think you need to get me drunk to do that,” he said. “But I’m not a criminal, I...”

  “Ssh,” she put a finger to his lips and he felt tingles going up and down his spine.

  “It’s fine. Let’s go shopping.”

  He didn’t want to do anything at that moment that would break contact, but she dropped her hands to take one of his, and they began to walk, in step with each other as if they had been doing it their whole lives.

  “Is the shop...close?” he asked, as they hit the pavement.

  “There’s a mall just down the street,” she said, as they walked. Even on a crowded sidewalk, it was clear that she was the center of attention. Men and women turned their heads to stare at her beauty, their mouths open and their eyes bulging. Ivy, however, didn’t seem to notice.