Chapter 15
Chapter
Fifteen
PORTIA
Iwoke to moonlight.
It streamed through the gap in the curtains and fell over the table where the men and I had eaten.
And where Tavish had pushed the top of the whiskey decanter into Albie’s ass. The memory of it was going to stay seared in my brain forever.
More moonlight streamed over the bed—and the men sleeping on either side of me.
Albie lay to my left, his glasses folded neatly on the nightstand. A lock of blond hair had fallen over his forehead. My fingers itched to smooth it back, but I didn’t dare. He looked more boyish than usual in sleep, his lips slightly parted and his damaged eye hidden beneath his closed lid.
On my right, Tavish slept on his stomach with both arms wrapped around a pillow like he’d hunted and captured it. His hair was a dark river on the crisp white sheets. Moonlight turned the ancient swirls and symbols on his arms to silver.
They were so different. Tavish the huge, intimidating warrior was secretly soft as butter inside. And Albie looked gentle and scholarly until his clothes came off. Then he turned into a bossy bottom, demanding exactly what he wanted precisely when he wanted it.
Arousal flared low in my body at the memory of it.
Gods, I was so, so screwed.
Holding my breath, I eased from between them and slipped from the bed. Albie stirred, his brows pulling together, and I froze with my nightgown pinched between my fingers. After a tense moment, his forehead smoothed, and his breathing deepened.
I padded to the window and looked out. The city was quiet, the bustle of the day replaced with peaceful stillness.
Streetlamps cast pools of golden light on sidewalks lined with shops with striped awnings.
A motorcar rumbled past on its narrow tires.
Music drifted from a building on the corner.
The door swung open, and a man and woman emerged.
Their smiles were visible even with the distance between us.
The man put his arm around the woman’s shoulders and pulled her close.
Her sleeveless dress fluttered around her calves, and a black feather was tucked in one side of her beaded headband.
A flapper. She looked like she’d stepped out of an old black and white movie, except she was real. At least, for now. She was exactly where she was supposed to be.
But I wasn’t.
Dropping the curtain, I went to the nightstand. The chronomancer’s bag was in the drawer where I’d left it. I carried it into the bathroom and placed it on the wide marble countertop. Then I studied my reflection in the mirror above the sink.
My hair had dried wavy, and the day’s “activities” had tousled it even more. A stubble rash faded on my neck, another on my chest. I’d slept for hours, but the sleepy, sated look in my eyes advertised exactly how I’d spent the morning.
I looked like I’d been well-fucked, which was exactly what I was.
And I didn’t know what to do about it. Because with every passing moment, it was harder to deny that Tavish and Albie were my mates. Not that I’d ever truly believed they weren’t. My dragon had known from the first moment. She’d been trying to tell me all along.
But accepting it meant accepting all the complications that came with it.
I looked at the velvet bag.
On the first jump, I’d traveled backward in time. But the second jump had sent me forward. What if the next one landed me in my own time?
What if I finally got home…and Tavish and Albie weren’t there? My hand flew to my mouth as the thought took hold.
Tavish and Albie weren’t alive in 2048. I knew every dragon shifter in the world. Thanks to my fathers’ matchmaking attempts, I’d met every unmated male of my species. But I’d never heard of a dragon shifter named Tavish Ramsay or Albie MacLean.
Because they didn’t exist in my time. They were dead, lost to the sorrow and madness brought on by the Curse.
Unless being with me changed that. Another thought crashed through me, and I gripped the edge of the sink as the floor tilted under my feet.
What if meeting me had changed the future for Tavish and Albie? I’d already interfered in their timeline, disrupting the natural course of their lives, which were supposed to end without a fated female.
Oh gods, what if I was supposed to accept their mate bond and stay in the past? I would never see my parents again. I’d never share clothes with Mum or laugh with Malcolm when we reminisced about him trying to raise a litter of kittens in his bedroom closet.
Was that really it? Two impossible choices: Reject the mate bond, see my family, and condemn Tavish and Albie to death. Or accept the bond and lose my family forever.
“Portia.”
I jumped, my heart slamming against my ribs.
Tavish leaned against the doorframe wearing nothing but a kilt slung low on his hips. Moonlight from the bedroom haloed him, turning him into the pagan god once more.
Then he ruined it by lifting a dinner roll to his mouth and tearing off half in one bite.
“Where did you get that?” I asked.
He chewed and swallowed. “The humans left it on a plate in the corridor.”
I knew my disgust showed on my face. “On the floor? You’re eating room service leftovers?”
“I don’t know what any of that means, Princess, but there’s nothing wrong with this bread.” One corner of his mouth lifted. “I worked up a fierce appetite earlier.”
My face heated, and it was an effort to keep my eyes off his chest. For one thing, there was so much of it.
“Do you choose your clothing?” I asked, searching for a distraction. “When you shift, I mean.”
He glanced down as if just noticing what he wore. “I’m not certain how it works, if I’m being honest. It just appears.” He shoved the rest of the roll into his mouth.
Exasperation made me ask, “Do you ever stop eating?”
He smiled as he chewed and swallowed. “I fear I’m insatiable.”
We both knew he wasn’t only talking about food. And I was running out of distractions.
“Did I wake you?” I asked.
His expression told me I had. “Don’t fash yourself over it,” he said. “Most warriors are light sleepers. Those who aren’t tend to wake with a sword at their neck. Or they simply never wake at all.”
My thoughts drifted to the cave, when I’d thought I was so smooth extracting myself from his and Albie’s arms. Tavish must have roused the moment I’d crawled from the bed of moss.
He said nothing now, but his mysterious little smile all but confirmed he’d guessed my thoughts. He gestured to the chronomancer’s bag on the counter.
“What are you doing in here with that?”
“Just thinking,” I said.
Tavish pushed away from the doorframe and stepped into the bathroom. The space immediately felt smaller. The scent of smoke, hotel soap, and a hint of whiskey swirled around me, the combination in no way unpleasant.
“Thinking about running,” he said. It wasn’t a question.
“I don’t know what I’m thinking,” I said truthfully. My mind was a jumble of impossible choices and frightening possibilities.
He kept coming—no, he prowled, and I turned, pressing the small of my back against the edge of the sink as he braced his hands on either side of my hips.
He trapped me, his bulk blocking the door.
Ordinarily, I could twist into smoke and slip around him, but my dragon stayed dormant, content to let him stand over me, his big, bare body throwing off more heat than a radiator.
“Maybe you should do less thinking,” he rumbled.
I snorted—and I tried to ignore the arousal pooling between my legs. “Says the man who eats dinner rolls off the floor.”
“It was on a plate, not the floor.” His breath fanned warm against my cheek. “But I’d gladly eat off the floor if it meant surviving long enough to keep you safe.”
My heart skipped a beat. “Safe from what?”
“From yourself, if need be.” He flicked a look at the bag on the counter. “I won’t let you go, Portia. I’ll follow you through time if I have to.”
The intensity in his gaze made me swallow hard. I tried to look away, but he caught my chin and forced my eyes back to his.
“I know you’re frightened,” he said, his voice softer now. “I can smell it on you. But running isn’t the answer.”
“I’m not running. But what if we’re doomed to stumble from one time to the next, never landing in the place we belong?”
“We belong together.” His voice was firm. Matter-of-fact. “That’s what matters.”
“But we’re from different times.”
“We’re in the same time right now.”
I opened my mouth to argue, then closed it. “Albie said something similar,” I said finally.
Pride warmed Tavish’s gaze. “Aye. My Albie is wise.” He leaned close and brushed the ghost of a kiss over my ear. “After this morning, he’s your Albie, too.”
My pulse quickened. “He’s not my anything.”
Tavish pulled back with a knowing, patient, infuriating smile. “That’s a lie, Princess. Your dragon knows it, and so do you.”
“It’s not that simple.”
“It’s exactly that simple.” He stroked his thumb over my cheek, infinitely gentle. “We’ve found each other across time. Do you truly believe that’s coincidence?”
I didn’t. That was the problem.
Tavish tipped my chin up. “We can go round and round with this for as long as you please. But we both know we have to open that bag eventually. I’d rather do it with a few more hours of sleep under my belt.” His lopsided smile reappeared. “Even though I’m not wearing one.”
I snorted, trying to sound annoyed rather than charmed. “That was terrible.”
“You liked it,” Tavish said, his voice a low rumble that stoked the fire building in my veins. “You fancy me, lass. I’ve said it from the beginning.”
I pushed at his chest. “If we’re going to sleep, you have to get out of the way.”
Obnoxious smile in place, Tavish led me back to the bedroom. Albie had propped himself on one elbow, and his good eye was open and alert. Without his glasses, his damaged eye was cloudy, the skin around the socket marred by puffy white scar tissue.
“I’m sorry I woke you,” I said.
He smiled. “You didn’t. Tavish did with his foraging.”
Tavish shrugged. “A man has to eat.”
A vampire appeared in the center of the room. He wore a suit like the humans on the street, but his hair fell to his hips. He hissed, his fangs dripping with sila.
Albie was on his feet in front of me before I could blink. Tavish shoved me behind him.
“You killed our princess,” the vampire snarled. “I’ll take your heads for it.”
“How did you find this place?” Tavish demanded.
The vampire’s smile was all teeth. “I’ve been here before, idiot.”
“This very room?”
“Obviously.”
My blood ran cold. He was telling the truth. Vampires could only channel to places they’d been before. The vampire had stayed in this exact room.
The vampire winked out of sight.
Albie rushed to the armoire and flung it open. “He’ll be back with others. We have to leave right now.” He turned and tossed a dress at Tavish, who caught it.
“Why wouldn’t he bring others with him the first time?” I asked, my voice muffled as Tavish yanked the dress over my head.
“Reconnaissance,” Tavish said, jerking the fabric down and smoothing it over my hips. “The vampires must have spies in the city. Or maybe someone spotted us in the sky. The leech might have stayed in this hotel before, but he wasn’t expecting to find us in his old room. We surprised him.”
Albie threw a pair of shoes at him. Tavish caught them one-handed, dropped to one knee, and shoved my feet into them.
My head spun. “What are the chances that same vampire stayed in this exact room?”
Neither man answered me. Tavish raced into the bathroom and emerged with the chronomancer’s bag. He thrust it into my hand, his eyes fierce.
“Open it.”
The vampire materialized with two others. All three hissed, their fangs bared.
Albie and Tavish grabbed me, one on each side.
I fumbled with the bag, my fingers clumsy with panic. The drawstring came loose.
The vampires lunged.
I wrenched open the bag.
The world twisted, and we spun into chaos.