Chapter 13
Hawke walked over to stand by the open door, not trusting himself to be closed in another bedroom with Everly.
Despite the fact he couldn’t stand the thought of her in another male’s room, using another male’s shower, sleeping in another male’s bed, Kohl’s room was the best place to keep her, at least until they knew what they were dealing with.
The location of the room, through such a narrow passageway, was ideal in case she shifted when she didn’t expect it.
And security measures had been taken when Kohl lived there to keep the coven safe from the dragon inside of him.
If she did shift, they would have time to get out of the caverns before she managed to bust her way through to the main area.
He knew it was the safest place for her, but he still didn’t like leaving her here. It was too far away. Too isolated. If something happened, if someone decided to harass her, he might not hear it. She could be hurt—or dead— by the time he got to her.
Realistically, he knew none of that was likely to happen.
The entire coven was loyal to Kohl. More loyal than they had ever been to the Master before him.
And even better, they were fucking terrified of him.
Well, not of him. But of the beast inside of him who could make an appearance at any moment, especially if they pissed him off.
If Kohl told them Everly was not to be touched, they would keep their distance.
But, still, it tore at him.
“Whose room is this?” she asked.
“This is Kohl’s room.”
She frowned. “I don’t want to put anyone out.”
“You’re not. Kohl and Devon are building a house on his property, and they’re staying somewhere else until it gets done.”
Glancing around again, she said, “I thought I would be staying with you.”
It was hard to ignore the tinge of disappointment in her tone. He pretended not to hear it or understand what it meant. “You’ll be all right here,” he told her. “I won’t let anything happen to you. But I need to keep my people safe.”
She looked confused at first, but then her expression cleared as she figured out what he meant by that. “Safe from me.” Her voice was barely more than a whisper, and he wasn’t sure if she was talking to him or to herself.
He nodded once. “Yes.” But she wasn’t paying him any mind.
Everly wandered around the room, running her fingers over the plaid comforter on the bed. Touching the dresser. Peeking into the bathroom.
Hawke remained where he was, watching her move around the room in her baggy pajama pants and sweater.
She wore the same kind of slip on sneakers all of the human teenagers were wearing these days.
Her red hair was pulled into a messy bun on top of her head.
Her lips were still red and swollen from his kisses.
But there were new lines of tension around her mouth and in her posture. Her smile, when it came, was timid and unlike her normal Cheshire grin. “Are you going to stay here with me?”
“No. But I won’t be far.”
She dropped her eyes, but not fast enough.
They touched on the bed and back as she made one last ditch effort to make sure she was making herself clear.
“I wouldn’t mind if you stayed here, too.
” She laughed a little even as she flushed, blood warming the skin of her chest and neck.
“It’s not like the bed isn’t big enough.
” The laughter dwindled away. “But I don’t want to disrupt your life, either. ”
Oh, honey. You’ve already disrupted my life more than you’ll ever know. Hawke wasn’t ready to have this conversation, not by a long shot, but it was better to just get it over with. “I can’t stay here with you, Everly. I can’t…we can’t be together like we were tonight. Not ever again.”
He suddenly felt gutted as the hurt rammed through her and into him. Her expression, however, stayed perfectly composed. It came to him that she was very good at hiding her feelings when she wanted to, probably something she’d perfected growing up the way she had.
“What are you talking about? Why not?”
“Because a mating between a vampire and a dragon is forbidden in our world.”
She frowned, watching his mouth closely as he spoke, as though she couldn’t be understanding him correctly. “Why?”
“It’s an old law, going way back. Our two species can’t coexist.”
“So, you’re saying a vampire and a…” She stumbled a bit over the next words. “…dragon shifter have never hooked up? Ever?”
Well, he’d just backed himself into that corner, hadn’t he? “Only once,” he told her after a pause.
“And what happened?”
“Kohl happened.”
Her mouth fell open comically. “Kohl isn’t a dragon? He’s a—”
“Hybrid. Half shifter and half dragon, actually.”
She stared at him for a minute. “Well, maybe that law needs to be updated.” Then she frowned. “And what about Kohl? You said the two species couldn’t coexist, yet he’s here.”
“He is. Because when his mother got pregnant, his father disappeared in shame, and his mother was exiled from her Thunder. It’s what dragons call their coven, or pack,” he explained at her look of confusion.
“She had a contact here, and when the previous Master heard about her—or heard about Kohl, the only one of his kind—he decided to give her and her child shelter. Not out of any feelings of pity for them, but out of the need to be the only coven with a hybrid in its midst.”
She thought about that. “If this coven is already different, then maybe…”
“It’s forbidden, Everly.”
“It’s archaic,” she corrected. She searched his face, looking for a soft spot, but if she was good at hiding her feelings, Hawke was a master. Even from himself. After a pregnant pause, she muttered, “I see.”
Footsteps echoed down the passageway, and Hawke turned his head, breaking the tension between them. Kohl and Devon were coming. Hawke shifted his stance so his back was to Everly and waited for his friends to arrive.
Kohl came around the corner with Devon close on his heels. He looked back and forth between Hawke and Everly. “You okay?” he asked Hawke. “Everything good?”
“Yeah. Everything’s fine.”
“Then why does Everly look like she just lost her best friend?” Devon asked. “And why is she being locked away down here?”
Hawke exchanged a look with Kohl before he responded. “Because we need to keep her secure until we know what we’re dealing with.”
Devon looked at him like he’d lost his mind. “What the hell are you talking about?”
Hawke spoke up before Kohl could answer. “Everly is a shifter, Devon. A young shifter. Which means she has no control over that part of her nature. And that makes her dangerous.”
“You’re dealing with an intelligent woman, not some kind of animal.”
Her words stabbed him straight in the chest, sharp as a dagger, but he managed to keep his voice level.
Because she was wrong. Everly was an intelligent woman, yes, but she was also a threat to him and his family.
“I’m not letting her roam free until one of two things happen.
” He raised a finger. “One: she goes back to her Thunder. Or, two”—he raised a second finger—“We confirm that she can control her dragon and she’s not a threat. ”
Everly walked up to the group. “I’m right here, you know. And have I mentioned that I am an excellent lip reader?”
Devon turned apologetic eyes her way. “I’m sorry, Ev.
Why don’t you throw some jeans on and we’ll go get something to eat?
Are you hungry?” She shooed her toward her suitcases, not really giving her a choice.
After Everly found some pants and closed the bathroom door behind her, Devon turned defiant eyes on the two vampires.
“I’m taking her for something to eat.” She held up her hand, halting whatever Kohl was about to say.
“We’ll be fine. We’ll tag along with Andrew and Frank.
They were about to go get something.” She was already texting as she said it.
Kohl grabbed her around the back of her neck and pulled her in for a quick, hard kiss. “Please trust me on this one and be careful. I’ll catch up with you as soon as I talk to Hawke.”
She smiled. “We’ll be fine.”
He released her, and with a withering look at Hawke, she grabbed Everly and left the two of them alone.
Hawke exchanged a look with Kohl as they listened to the female’s footsteps fade away. He knew what was coming, and it was nothing he didn’t fucking deserve.
Kohl stared after Devon for a long time, his hands fisted at his sides, before he finally turned to Hawke.
“You fucking slept with her, Hawke? What the hell were you thinking?” The words burst from Kohl like water breaking from a dam.
“And I thought you said she wasn’t a shifter? You swore she wasn’t.”
Hawke shoved his hands into his hair. “You didn’t know, either,” he told him. “There was no way I could’ve known. She showed no signs up until tonight. She doesn’t even smell like a shifter!”
Kohl rubbed the back of his neck, a sure sign he was riled up. “Because she hasn’t changed yet. No one could tell I am what I am until I changed the first time.”
Hawke stared at his friend. “You were younger than she is when you first shifted, and the signs were there long before that.” He started pacing the small space. “How can we not sense it? Smell it? And she’s fucking deaf! How the hell is this possible?”
“I don’t know.”
His words barely penetrated as Hawke began to pace in agitation. “Dragons, or any supernatural creature, don’t have defects. Ever. How the hell was I supposed to know?”
“Maybe because her brother is a dragon?” Sarcasm dripped from Kohl’s voice. “Maybe because you didn’t want to know? Maybe because you wanted to fuck her first?”
Hawke’s hand was around Kohl’s throat before the last word finished leaving his lips. “Don’t you fucking talk about her like that.” He was beginning to wish he hadn’t filled Kohl in on what he’d found at Parasupe. Or rather, who.
Kohl stood his ground, his face turning red from lack of oxygen, and stared Hawke down until he released him with a soft curse.
Kohl took a deep breath, exhaling loudly.
Hawke met his eyes.
“It’s forbidden, Hawke.”
Hawke was suddenly tired. His head fell forward until his chin rested on his chest. “I know. Why the fuck do you think I brought her here?”
“Why did you bring her here?” Kohl asked with genuine curiosity. “Why not just let her go?”
Hawke gave Kohl a level stare, every cell in his body screaming in revolt as he said, “To do what I have to do to protect our coven and our home.”
“Don’t you think not having a dragon in our midst would do a better job at that?”
“She came to us.”
“To help her break her brother out of Parasupe. Which proves she either has no idea of the bad blood between your species and hers, or she’s just playing us. What’s to keep them from tracking her here?”
It saddened Hawke that his friend didn’t include himself in either of those groups. “They won’t find her here, for just that reason. And I will do whatever I have to do to protect the coven, but I firmly believe she didn’t know. About her brother, or about herself.”
“Good. Because you may need to.” He paused. “As soon as we find out what she’s really about, she’s out. And I’m leaving that mess up to you to take care of.” His tone was final. The words of a true leader who had to make hard decisions and stand by them.
Hawke lifted one eyebrow in surprise. “I thought you’d be softer about this. After all, you wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for your mom and dad hooking up.”
Kohl barked out a derisive laugh and slapped his palms flat against his own chest. “That’s exactly it, Hawke. You want to bring another abomination like me into this world?”
“You’re not a fucking abomination.”
“No? What would you call it, then? I’m a freak of nature. And I would’ve been dead a long time ago if the Master hadn’t taken us in.”
“Because he saw you were worth keeping alive.”
“Because he wanted to fuck my mom.”
Hawke almost forgot about Everly for a second. Almost. “What?”
Kohl laughed bitterly. “Yeah. I was young, but I wasn’t stupid. And when he was done with her, he killed her.”
This time his attention was all on his friend. “What?”
“Better that than have a grown dragon running loose in his coven.” Kohl’s shoulders suddenly sagged, and he rubbed the back of his neck. “I can’t prove it. But I know he did. She was healthy. She was fine. And then she…wasn’t.”
His friend’s pain was plain to see this time. “Why didn’t you ever say anything?”
Another bitter laugh burst from Kohl’s throat.
“To who? You? Or one of the other vampires who were so far up the Master’s ass it was a wonder they could piss without his permission?
” He shoved his hands in his pockets and shook his head.
“No. There was no one to tell. And I was too young to do anything about it. Hell, even if I’d tried, I would’ve either been killed or shoved back out into the sun to be captured by assholes like Parasupe or taken out by another coven. If I didn’t burn alive first.”
Hawke felt like an asshole. On an impulse, he grabbed Kohl in a hug, ignoring his efforts to push him off. “I’m sorry, man. I really am. I wish I’d known.”
Finally, Kohl gave up and hugged him back hard for a quick second before pushing him away for real this time. “It’s in the past. Nothing you can do about it now. So, don’t worry about it.”
Hawke scrubbed his face with his hands. “Fuck.” That was about all he could say to sum up this conversation.
“I’m gonna need to talk to Everly.” Kohl paused with one hand on the lock. “Are you sure she didn’t know anything at all about what’s going on with her? Didn’t know about her brother?”
“She only does now because I told her before I brought her here. But she was completely shocked when I stuck a mirror in front of her face tonight. If her eyes have done that before, she wasn’t aware of it.”
“That’s how it starts.”
Hawke well remembered the horror on Kohl’s face the first time it had happened to him. “Yeah.”
“And, Hawke?”
“Yeah?”
“Stay the fuck away from Everly.” Kohl turned on his heel and stalked off to go find Devon and Everly.
Stay away from the female. Easy, right?
Hawke headed to his room. He needed a cold shower. Maybe it would shock some sense back into him. Because right now, his entire being was screaming in anger and denial for what he would have to do.