Chapter Eight
MARIUS
My heart hammered as I stood in the shadows at the top of the metro stairs, watching the platform on the opposite side of the tracks. A glance at my watch said nine twenty-five. I’d warned Mina not to come early, but that was like telling Henrik not to drink blood. It went against her nature.
She must have sensed the gravity of the situation, though, because so far, she’d actually done as instructed. Or, crap. Had she decided not to come at all?
She’ll come, my dragon side assured me.
I half hoped she wouldn’t, because this was all about parting ways.
A wisp of smoke escaped my nostrils as my dragon rumbled, Never.
A fiftysomething lady wrinkled her nose as she passed me, muttering something about no smoking on the platforms, even up here on the elevated tracks.
Not smoking, lady, my dragon growled inside. Just pining for my mate.
I’d spent weeks denying that obvious fact, then made the mistake of embracing it for a while. Eventually, reality had come along and smacked me in the head, forcing me to Plan C. I could love my mate as much as I wanted, but for her own safety, I had to stay away. Far away. Forever.
More rumbling, more wisps of smoke, more dirty looks from the lady.
Luckily, the train came along and took her on her way.
It chugged out of the station at nine twenty-seven, its lights blending with those of nighttime Paris.
A beautiful autumn night with mostly clear skies, as a glance through the antique glass awnings revealed.
Then I looked back across the tracks and—
My breath caught, and my dragon roared in glee. Mate!
Mina paused at the top of the stairs opposite me, looked both ways along the platform, and checked her watch.
Then she fiddled with the zip on her jacket and checked her watch again.
She checked the display over the platform too, which helped make her look like just another young, single Parisian late for a date rather than a woman involved in anything sketchy.
Then she whirled and looked right at me from across the tracks.
She senses us, my dragon rumbled proudly.
I’d hoped a few days apart would weaken the bond that had developed between us, but it seemed to have had the opposite effect.
I took a deep breath, reminding myself that danger lurked.
Walk to the far end of the platform, then walk back. I threw my voice into her mind and tilted my head right.
Mind-speaking with Mina was hit or miss, because we weren’t actually mated—
Yet, my dragon growled.
—and she tended to block me out when she was mad. But she usually got the gist of my message, if not the details.
She blinked, then looked down the length of the platform and back to me.
Exactly, I said. Walk down to the end, then back so I can see if you’re being followed.
But Mina was Mina, so following orders was a problem.
She threw up her hands, signaling, Why the hell should I walk around at a time like this?
I nearly put my face in my hands. So much for not being noticed by anyone following her.
Just walk to the end and back. Please, I shouted into her mind.
She rolled her eyes and stomped off, huffing. Dragons!
My inner beast practically swooned. The woman was at her best when riled up, all bold, confident, and no-nonsense.
I dragged my gaze away to check the stairs she’d taken. No one followed her, but I kept my guard up. Mina walked three-quarters of the way down the platform, whirled, and stalked back, shooting me an impatient look.
Happy?
I grimaced. No, because the entire situation was fucked. But at least it didn’t look like she’d been followed.
I pointed down, then held up my hand in a stop sign.
She held up her validated ticket and mouthed an obscenity at me.
Typical Mina. Not one to waste a cent, even though she owned a chateau.
My dragon snorted. A crumbling chateau.
I repeated my hand signals and waited for her to — finally — obey. Then I checked the platforms one more time and descended on my side.
I found her by the ticket machines on ground level, her arms crossed, her foot tapping impatiently.
“Is this really nec—”
“Yes.” I grabbed her by the elbow and hustled her out to the street.
And, zing! Just that little amount of contact sent electricity through my veins.
I checked our surroundings and hurried her over a bridge to the far side of the Canal Saint-Martin.
“Nice to see you too,” she muttered.
“Nice to see you,” I echoed, and it really was, though that wasn’t the point of this meeting.
A point that grew harder and harder to remember the more I inhaled her rose-and-lilac scent.
“Oh, no one will notice us like this,” she grumbled, like she was the expert in covert operations.
“Like what?”
“We’re racing along like we don’t want to be followed. It’s obvious.”
Well, yes, because we were out in the open, and dragons didn’t slink through the shadows the way lowly felines did. (Roux came to mind, as did Bene. Two totally random examples, of course.) But Mina was a potential target, and it was only prudent to avoid being caught out.
“Got a better idea?” I grumbled.
“Yes.” She settled into a leisurely stroll, wrapping her elbow around mine. “Like this. Much less obvious.”
“Much slower,” I grumbled, but she had a point.
Nice, my dragon sighed dreamily as she pressed into my side.
“Slower but less obvious,” she whispered. “We’re just two happy lovers out for an evening stroll.”
I wished we were, but—
No buts! My dragon roared so fiercely, I stumbled over my next step.
“Enjoying our time together, looking at the stars…” Mina went on in that singsong voice that was guaranteed to calm my soul, every fucking time.
My breaths grew slower and deeper, my shoulders a little less tense.
Mina had once confided to me that she’d inherited such a mix of magic, she didn’t know what it — or she — was capable of. But somewhere in her supernatural ancestry, there had to be a siren who lured sailors into cliffs — or away from them, if she took pity on the poor soul.
Like me?
Not magic, my dragon said with conviction. Destiny.
Either way, I found myself looking over my shoulder less frequently and glancing at her face instead.
“See? Much nicer,” Mina murmured, pressing closer.
Very nice, my dragon agreed.
She stopped under a tree and faced me, whispering, “We can even do this.”
And she kissed me. Soft. Long. Deep.
My eyes slid to half-mast, and that surveillance system I found so hard to switch off instantly shut down.
Mate, my dragon murmured dreamily.
And, shit. Even my human side agreed.
Then a moped zoomed by, and we broke apart.
Mina sighed, watching it go. Then she blushed and stuck a finger at me.
“I’m still mad at you, you know.”
“Obviously.”
We stared at each other for another few seconds, then fell into another deep, hungry kiss. A full minute later, I caught myself and broke away again.
“Stop. We can’t.”
Mina shook her head, refusing to release my hands. “We can. We did. What’s changed?”
I opened my mouth, then closed it again. How could I ever explain?
Mina huffed in frustration. “I don’t understand. None of this. It’s like you switched off. Don’t you want me any more? Don’t you want us?”
I fumbled for words. “I want, but I can’t. We can’t. Not any more.”
“You’re saying you can’t touch me?” she murmured, nestling closer.
I shook my head miserably.
“Can’t kiss me?” she whispered.
My lips quirked, and I gulped hard.
“Not here…or here…or here?” She pressed kisses to my cheek, jaw, and neck.
Every muscle in my body strained as I tried not to respond.
“No more stripping each other naked and sliding into bed…” she continued, smoothing her hands over my chest. “Never?”
I went hard all over. Yes, all over, in the best — er, most inappropriate — way.
“Mina…” I murmured, trying to muster the strength to say no.
“No more sex?” she whispered.
Heat tore through my cheeks as memories flooded my mind. Not the memory of one particular time, but every time, all at once.
“Stop it,” I begged, working up the strength to gently push her away. “Stop teasing.”
She clamped on to my hands. “I’m not teasing. I’m trying to understand why you don’t want me any more.”
“I never said I don’t want you,” I growled. “I do. More than anything. Every day. Every night. Every fucking minute.”
Oops. So much for building a compelling case.
Her mouth fell open, and she searched my eyes. “And yet, you left me.”
“It’s not that I don’t want you. It’s that I can’t,” I said over the sandpaper in my throat.
“Because…?” Persistent as hell. That was Mina. One of many reasons I loved her.
Then her expression turned fierce. “Wait. Did Gordon say something? I swear, if he did…”
“No, not Gordon.” I looked around. We were still out in the open. Time to move.
“Then who? What?” she demanded.
“I’ll explain. I swear I will,” I conceded, pulling her onward. “But not here.”
We were nearly at the Bassin de la Villette — the wider basin where barges could turn or moor up — and we needed to move to a more private location. I led her over another bridge to the Quai de la Loire side.
“This again?” she protested.
“Just for the view,” I lied, checking for anyone tailing us. I steered her past a restaurant and several benches until I reached—
“A construction site?” Mina dug in her heels.
I pulled her forward. “Trust me.”
A big ask after everything I’d put her through, but Mina slowly fell into step with me.
My clenched gut slowly relaxed, and I swallowed hard. I’d never trusted — or been trusted by — anyone as much as Mina. I’d never wanted that either. But now…
Trust is a treasure, my dragon whispered. A precious one, like love.
When the beast had become such a poet, I had no idea, but every word rang true. How would I ever let her go?
You don’t, moron, my dragon grumbled, sounding a hell of a lot like Roux.
I tapped the top of the chest-high barrier we reached. “Want a leg up?”
Oh please, her affronted expression said.
She stuck a foot in the lip of a trash can and hoisted herself over the fence. I vaulted it to land beside her, then motioned her onward.
“Nothing as romantic as breaking and entering,” she said dryly, pointing to a sign that listed all the offenses we could be prosecuted for.
Could be, but wouldn’t. I’d checked for cameras earlier, and no one was following us.
“You and me, baby,” I tried a lame joke. “Like… Who were they? Bonnie and Clyde?”
Mina grimaced. “Things didn’t end well for them.”
“Er, I mean, nothing like Bonnie and Clyde.”
Romeo and Juliet came to mind next, but they hadn’t celebrated a happy end either. Dammit, was every great love story doomed? Were we?
Mina squeezed my hand, and a little hope crept back into my heart. Dangerously so, but that was the thing with hope. It was a persistent little bugger that was hard to shake, especially around Mina.
“Ah, yes. Incredibly romantic,” she muttered as I led her around giant spools of wire.
No, it wasn’t, but that wasn’t the priority right now. Not with her safety at stake.
I made a beeline for the container that housed the construction office, all closed up for the night, and took the stairs that led to the roof.
“Shh…” I warned, making sure my boots didn’t ring against the metal.
Mina followed, quiet as a mouse, then looked around. “Back there was a zero on the scale of romantic locations. Now, you’re up to about a three.”
I checked the perimeter, then sat facing the boat basin with my back to a higher container set behind the first.
“At least a four,” I tried.
I expected Mina to sit beside me, but she nestled into the space between my legs and leaned against my chest.
Ten out of ten, my dragon sighed.
She must have done it on autopilot, because she tensed a moment later. Then she turned and held a finger in my face. “I meant it about being mad at you, you know.”
I stuck up my hands. “I promise to keep my hands off.”
“Don’t you dare,” she muttered, tugging my arms until they were crossed around her.
So, lots of mixed messages, but I was just as guilty of that as she was.
The next few minutes passed in blissful silence, and I nearly forgot the mission I’d tasked myself with.
“As nice as this is, I guess we’re not here to snuggle,” Mina sighed, reading my mind.
Ha. Snuggle. Not a word that applied to too many instances in my life. Only a few rare ones, and only ever with Mina.
“No, we’re here because it’s an elevated position where I can keep a lookout,” I said, reminding myself to do that instead of enjoying her scent.
“Keeping a lookout for…?” she asked.
I clenched my jaw. That was the hard part. “I’m not sure.”
Mina thumped her head back against my chest in exasperation. Then she drew a long, I shall be calm now breath and grunted, “Explain.”
I leaned to one side to pull my phone from my pocket.
“Hey, you said no phones,” she protested.
Once a teacher, always a teacher. They loved sticking to the rules. She was like Roux that way.
“I said, don’t bring your phone,” I pointed out, though the Roux thing occupied most of my mind.
My dragon rumbled unhappily at the thought of a potential competitor, but I just snorted. Mina and Roux? As if.
Mina and that ass of a police officer who kept sniffing around the chateau, on the other hand…
My hackles rose. If I was forced to leave Mina, Clement would make his move fast, and he would probably earn pole position ahead of Bene, Henrik, and Roux.
“Boy, what is it with you?” Mina complained, waving a hand to clear the air of whiffs of acrid smoke.
I pulled out my phone, scrolled to a picture, and held it in front of her. She tensed, staring at the photo on the screen.