Chapter 23
That night, Kohl rushed down the ramp and through the caverns. “Hawke! Hawke! Goddammit, where are you?”
Per the dragon’s usual drill, he’d woken up in the center of the field near the restaurant.
This time, he’d managed to remain conscious while shifting back, and barely made it to the back door in time.
He’d busted inside, breaking the hinges, and threw his naked ass into the center of the room, slapping at his smoking skin.
Nonplussed, Margaret had turned from the stove and threw a large pot of lukewarm water over him she’d just set to boil, while her brother ignored him completely and opened one of the ovens to check on whatever was cooking inside.
After promising to pay to have their door fixed, he’d spent the remainder of the afternoon below ground, pacing a hole in the carpet.
Using Margaret’s phone, he’d tried to contact Devon, Hawke, and Andrew, but no one was picking up.
He’d contemplated sending someone over to check on things, but immediately discarded the idea.
It was too dangerous. Finally, he’d settled down enough to shower and dress, but he didn’t get any sleep that day.
“Hawke!” He came upon the throne room and skidded to a stop.
The entire coven was there, cleaning up piles of rubble in the middle of the room.
Confused, he drew a breath to call out to Hawke again, and smelled fresh air.
Slowly, his eyes travelled upward. There was a giant hole in the ceiling of the cavern.
Large enough for a dragon to fly through. “Holy fuck.”
Andrew was the first to notice him standing there, and he immediately dropped the large rock in his hands and dropped to one knee.
He slapped the guy next to him on the leg, who frowned at first, but upon seeing Kohl, immediately did the same.
It continued with a domino effect until the entire room was silently kneeling before him.
Kohl’s eyes swept the room, but he didn’t see Hawke. Or the Master. A sense of foreboding had the room spinning around him. “Where is Hawke?” he asked Andrew. He would never forgive himself if he had hurt his friend in any way. It didn’t matter that he retained no memories when he became the beast.
Andrew lifted his head and pointed back down the tunnel, toward Kohl’s rooms. “He’s in your room. With the woman.”
“Devon?”
“Yeah.”
“Thank you.” Kohl spun on his heel, glancing back only once. Questions spun around in his head, but right now he only needed one answer.
Halfway to his room, Devon’s scent came to him, along with Hawke’s.
He realized with a start that the growl he heard was coming from him.
And his fangs were bared. Kohl gave himself a hard shake.
Hawke was his friend. There was no reason to act this way.
The dragon disagreed, but they could argue about it later.
He wasn’t prepared for the sight that met him when he got to his room.
Devon was curled up on his bed with her back to him. She wore one of his T-shirts and what looked like little else. Her beautiful golden-brown skin was ashen, and there was an ugly burn in the shape of a misshapen star covering the outer portion of her right thigh.
Hawke sat in the chair near the bed with his elbows on his knees and his fingers pressed together, staring at the floor.
Kohl must have moved or said something, for suddenly Hawke’s head snapped up and he leapt to his feet. It was proof of his distraction that he hadn’t noticed Kohl was there before then. “Are you all right?”
But Kohl couldn’t take his eyes from the scalded flesh on Devon’s leg. “Did I do that?” A fever raged inside of him, burning so hot his eyes watered and he could barely see. “Hawke? Did I fucking do that to her?”
Hawke said nothing.
Kohl fell back into the wall behind him, pressing the heels of his hands against his eyes to block out the sight.
A heavy hand fell on his shoulder. “She needs you. Kohl! You gotta snap out of it. Devon needs your blood or she isn’t going to make it.”
Kohl swallowed hard and pulled his hands away from his face. “I’m no good for her.”
“Forget all that for right now, man. You can save her.”
“Why didn’t you do it?” The instinct to claim her had him baring his fangs even as he made the suggestion.
“And have my best friend come in here and rip my head off the moment he smelled my blood inside of her? Or worse?” Hawke laughed without humor. “No thanks.”
“I wouldn’t have done that.”
“Ha! Who the hell do you think you’re fooling? This is me you’re talking to. And this girl is yours, whether you like that idea or not.”
Oh, he liked the idea. He liked it a whole hell of a lot. But… “So you were just gonna let her die? What if I didn’t come back?”
“Then I would have saved her. Of course.” Hawke slapped him on the shoulder. “What the hell are you standing here arguing with me for? Go do your thing. I’ll leave you two alone. We’ll talk after you’ve dealt with this.”
“With her,” Kohl said.
“What?”
“With her,” he repeated. “She’s not some…situation to be dealt with. She’s smart and she’s strong and she’s important to me.”
Hawke gave him a grim smile. “I know she is. That’s why I risked my ass to help her.” He picked up his jacket from the end of the bed. “Come find me when Devon is doing better.”
After he left, Kohl went to her, sitting carefully on the edge of the bed. “Dev. Wake up, honey.” He brushed her hair back off her face. “Come on. Don’t do this to me. Wake up, Devon.”
Her eyelids twitched, then blinked open. She stared at the wall for a few seconds, then slowly turned her head. A smile turned up the corners of her colorless lips. “Hey. You’re back. And you’re okay.”
The woman was half alive and she was worried about him.
He released the breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding, bent over, and pressed a lingering kiss to her forehead.
Relief flooded through him. Relief so overwhelming, for a few seconds he thought he was going to end up passed out beside her.
“I need to ask you something,” he whispered against her soft skin. It was cool and clammy to his lips.
“What’s that?”
Kohl sat up just enough so he could focus on her face, not quite believing he was doing this after everything that had happened, but knowing it was the right thing to do.
She deserved to have a choice. He glanced down at the visible bite marks on her arms, glad to see Hawke had washed away most of the blood.
“Kohl?”
He met her tired eyes.
“What did you want to ask me?”
She tried to roll over onto her back, and he scooted over a bit to give her some room, then took her hand between both of his.
Bringing it to his mouth, he kissed her fingertips.
“I need to ask you what you want me to do.” Words caught in his throat, but he forced them out.
“I can take you to a human hospital right now. They’ll be able to help you there.
Give you blood. Treat your burn. And you’ll be okay.
I can drop you off there and then go get Frank to come stay with you. ”
“And what about you? Where would you go? What’s going to happen with your coven?”
“I don’t know,” he told her honestly. “But you would be safe and healthy, and that’s all that really matters to me.” He felt her eyes on him, but he kept his own focused on her hand, so slender and humanly fragile between his own.
“And I wouldn’t see you again,” she deduced.
“No, probably not. If that’s what you wanted.”
“And what’s my other choice?” Her voice broke, and she coughed. “What’s the other choice, Kohl?”
He did look at her then, and he didn’t try to hide from her.
Instead, he allowed everything he was feeling in that moment to show through on his face.
All of the hope. The longing. The wanting.
The dragon stirred deep within, and Kohl didn’t fight it.
She needed to see it, too, so she would fully understand what she would be agreeing to.
“You can stay here with me, and I can give you my blood. It will heal you. It will more than heal you.”
“And I will stay with you? After?”
He gave her a nod. “And you’ll stay with me.”
“For how long?”
Forever, he wanted to say. “For as long as you’ll have me.”
Little lines appeared between her brows. “And what about you?”
“Me?”
“Who will you be with?”
For a second, he was completely fucking confused, but then it came to him. She wanted to know if he would be faithful to her. “Dev, I haven’t been with anyone since I met you that night upstairs. Not for sex, or to feed. And it would stay that way.”
“So, basically, you would depend on me for everything.”
“Yes.”
“And why would you want to put yourself in that position?” A smile teased the corners of her mouth.
“Because I want you,” he told her in all seriousness.
“I think you’re smart, and beautiful, and way too fucking good for me.
But all I want right now is to be near you.
All the time. Every damn day. I listen for the sound of your voice everywhere I go.
The littlest things remind me of your scent.
I want to sleep beside you. I want to have deep conversations with you about God and souls, and silly ones about the latest show you and Frank are binge watching.
I want to hear you laugh, and figure out what makes you tick.
I want to build that house, and watch you lay out by the lake, soaking up the warmth of the sun.
And at night, I want to drink the sunlight in your skin.
I want to share my life with you.” He paused to draw a breath.
“Kohl?”
“Yeah?”
“Why are you still talking? I’m dying here and you’re blathering on and on….”
Laughter rumbled in his throat.
Devon rubbed his beard with her fingertips and then laid her palm against the side of his face. “I want to be with you, Kohl. I want all of that stuff you just said.”
Turning his face, he kissed the center of her palm. “Are you sure? This life isn’t what you’re used to.”