Chapter Six
ChapteR
siX
"I DON'T WANT to go home."
Julian surveyed the wrecked suite. "We have other rooms."
"With stronger furniture?"
"Significantly."
He left before I could decide whether he was joking.
Thore stood. "You should be somewhere secure until we know the mark is harmless."
"I'm in a secret mansion with armed guards and at least two dragons."
"He is not a dragon."
"Black scales and creepy eyes don't count?"
"No."
"That answer suggests a much longer list of possibilities than I'm ready for."
"Yes."
I found my panties near the desk and pulled them on under the shredded dress. The practical movement gave me time to look at him without a lamp in my hand or a chain trying to drag me to hell.
He appeared human again. Blond, muscular, irritatingly calm. No horns. No claws. No sign that wings wider than my car had unfolded from his back five minutes ago.
I walked around him.
Two long tears split the skin beside his shoulder blades. They were closing as I watched.
"Do that again."
Thore looked over his shoulder. "Shift?"
"You have a less alarming word for it?"
"No."
"Then yes."
"This room isn't large enough for me to shift fully."
"O-okay." I waved my hand. "Just do what you did before."
Bronze moved beneath his skin. Scales surfaced first, spreading from his spine over his shoulders. His body grew broader. Horns curled through his hair. The wings opened slowly this time, filling the space between us and the window.
I touched the closest one. The wing was warm and smooth along the outer edge. Thin bronze membranes stretched between jointed bones, darker where moonlight passed through them. A small tear near the tip leaked one bright drop of blood.
"I did that?" I asked.
"The window did."
I pressed my palm against the broad joint where the wing met his back. Muscle shifted under scales. This was real. I snatched my hand away. "How long?"
"How long have dragons existed?"
"How long have you been lying to humans?"
His wings folded tight. "Longer than your histories remember us as real."
"And the club?"
"Nocturne Arcana serves Society. Humans don't generally know it exists."
"But I got an invitation."
"You did."
"You are not being helpful."
"I don't know why the club selected you. When I learned you'd been invited, I came to stop you because the blade had marked you. The mark made you a door."
I looked at my palm. "He said I was convenient."
"He put the relic where any human might touch it. He didn't choose you."
I paced to the window and looked down. Staff in black moved through the maze, repairing hedges with ordinary shovels and wheelbarrows. One woman pointed at a broken section, and the leaves grew back in a green rush.
I turned away before my brain started smoking.
"What happens now that I know?"
Thore's face closed.
"That bad?"
"My standing allows me to sponsor your knowledge and guarantee your discretion."
"You'd do that for a woman you met two days ago?"
"I'd do it for you."
I rubbed my thumb over the gold line. "And this?"
He took my hand when I offered it. "A guardian's fire can remove what the relic left behind."
"You're going to set me on fire."
"Only your palm."
"That's attached to the rest of me." I looked at his claws. "Will it hurt?"
"Yes."
"Will it work?"
"Yes."
"Do it."
Thore shook his head. "You've had enough for one night."
"I want it gone."
"Ariana."
"You said you were listening."
His jaw tightened.
I held out my hand.
Thore kneeled and cradled my wrist between scaled fingers. Heat gathered in his chest. Red glowed beneath the scales of his throat.
"Last chance," he said.
"Burn it."
Fire spilled across my palm.
Pain struck white and immediate. I locked my knees and refused to pull away.
The gold line blackened, curled, and lifted from my skin like a thread. Thore caught it between his teeth. His fire went out.
He spat a sliver of black metal onto the desk.
My palm was pink and unbroken.
I flexed my fingers. "Useful."
"Are you hurt?"
"You ask that a lot."
"You're injured a lot."
"We've known each other for two days."
"It's been a difficult two days."
I laughed.
The suite door opened. Julian looked inside, saw Thore kneeling between my legs, and held out a brass key.
"Your replacement room. The intruder is secured. The remaining relic pieces have been located."
Thore took the key. "All of them?"
"The search continues, but he's become cooperative."
I examined my knuckles. "Happy to help."
Julian smiled at me and this time, I noticed his canines were a bit too long and a lot too sharp. "Your services won't be needed." He nodded toward the hall. "The blue door."
The replacement suite had stone walls, a bed anchored to the floor, and no windows for anyone to punch through. Someone had placed my folded clothes on a chair and stocked the bathroom with first-aid supplies.
Thore set the brass key on a table. "You need rest."
"You need to stop telling me what I need."
"I'm trying."
"Try naked."
He stared at me.
"Keep the scales," I said. "And the horns."
Heat rolled through the room.
"Ariana, you don't owe me--"
"I know." I took the leather cuffs from the bedside table. "Hands behind your back."
I buckled the cuffs around his wrists. The leather looked delicate against his scaled forearms. He could break it by breathing wrong.
"Too tight?" I asked.
"No."
"Tell me if that changes."
"I will."
I led him to the bed and pressed one hand between his wings. Thore bent forward until his knees touched the mattress and his chest met the blankets.
His wings spread on either side of us. His tail curled around my ankle.
I traced the scales down his spine. They grew smaller at his waist and disappeared beneath his pants. "These need to go."
He stood long enough for me to strip him, then returned to the position I'd chosen. His cock hung hard between his thighs.
I wrapped my hand around him from behind.
Thore's claws dug into his own palms. The leather cuffs creaked.
"Don't break those."
"You're making it difficult."
I stroked him slowly, learning the weight and heat of him without a crisis exploding through the window. His tail tightened around my leg. Every pass of my fist pulled a rougher sound from his chest.
I leaned over his back and kissed the base of one horn.
His hips jerked.
"Sensitive?"
"Very."
I did it again.
Thore groaned into the mattress.
I smiled against the bronze curve. "You should have mentioned that."
"I was distracted."
"By the dragon attack?"
"He wasn't a dragon."
"I'm going to need flashcards."
He laughed, breathless and deep.
I released his cock and climbed onto the bed. "Roll over."
Thore shifted onto his back, wings folding beneath him. I straddled his thighs and looked down at him.
"Still good?" I asked.
"Yes."
I opened the bedside drawer, found another condom, and rolled it over him. Then I sank onto his cock.
His eyes turned red.
I braced my hands on his scaled chest and rode him. The texture scraped my palms without cutting them. His tail slid up my calf and wrapped around my thigh, holding without directing.
"Touch me," I said.
The leather cuffs snapped. His hands caught my hips, and I laughed as he pulled me down hard.
"Those were probably expensive," I said.
"I'll buy the building."
"You already said that."
"It's still true."
He rolled us before I could answer, catching his weight on his forearms. His wings arched over the bed. He waited there, cock deep inside me, until I hooked both legs around his waist.
"Move," I said.
Thore drove into me.