Chapter Nine
Trey
I ’d barely slept last night. Instead I’d caressed Angelica’s soft skin as she slumbered next to me. I murmured soft words in Draconian, promises of what I’d do for her, do to her, for the rest of our lives if only she’d let me. I watched her face relax into sleep, the shadows of moonlight playing across her face and, eventually, the soft gold of sunrise. I hadn’t wanted to miss a moment of this in case I never got another chance. So I gorged myself on the sight of her, tucking it all away for the time when she would only be a memory.
Being surrounded by her smell, her body, hearing sounds no one else did, knowing that she trusted me enough to be that vulnerable was everything. Yet also knowing that she would never surrender her heart to me, no matter how I made her feel, hollowed me out the longer I laid next to her.
When the sun was just breaching the horizon, I tore myself away from her and went downstairs. I’d hoped to be the only one, maybe take a long flight across the desert and let the dry air soothe all of these feelings.
But when I got downstairs, the kitchen light was on and someone was making coffee. I didn’t want her children thinking me rude, so I popped in, hoping to make a good impression.
Derek was alone at the island in the center of an enormous kitchen, sipping his coffee and reading the paper.
“Mind if I…?” I motioned to the coffee.
He shook his head and continued to read.
I took my time doctoring the brew with cream and sugar as I tried to consider if I should talk to him or leave him to his morning reading. Derek made the decision for me and pushed out the stool next to him with his cane.
“We should talk,” he said.
“Is this where you tell me I shouldn’t be with your mother?” I asked with a smirk as I sat.
“I don’t know, should you?”
Okay, so that wasn’t a good start.
I huffed out a breath and scrubbed a hand through my hair. Being in my Mundane form was a bit less intimidating, at least I hoped.
“Would it make any difference to you,” I answered slowly, “if I told you that your mother is my mate? That I saw her in the pools of Fate a hundred years ago and I’ve waited all this time for her?”
Derek frowned down at his cup and slowly took another sip.
“She’s been through a lot,” he finally said, his voice low. “My dad…he didn’t start off a villain. But what he put her through…”
“It’s made you all very protective of her.”
“Yes. They were very much in love, at least that’s what their friends all said. I really don’t remember much of anything before…well, before the dark side of him started taking over. But I do know, from what I heard, their love was rare, maybe like what you’re talking about. And even with that, he came close to ruining her, utterly. Fate, true love, or whatever you want to call it, none of it saved her from the hell he put her through. So you’ll excuse me if your promise from the Fates doesn’t reassure me.”
Anger burned a slow trail through my veins imagining what Angelica had gone through. Derek was the oldest, so he’d remember more than the rest. I didn’t want, or need, details of what had happened to know that my beloved had been through hell. My primal side rumbled with discontent that David was already dead and we were not given the chance to rip his head from his body. It wouldn’t do me any favors to let that fury out, however, so I breathed deep and pretended to merely take a sip of coffee until I calmed down.
“I would never do that to her.”
“I’m sure my father said the same thing.”
“No, you don’t understand,” my voice rumbled low in my chest, the marks on my hands and forearms flaring as my instinct to protect and claim started to rise. “It is a biological imperative to protect our mates, especially those chosen by fate. I would lay down my life for hers, endure any torment to ensure that she is safe and whole.”
“So it isn’t love then?” Derek asked, his gaze turning flinty.
“For some of us, no. But for me…” I swallowed, about to admit something to him that I hadn’t even had the chance to tell Angelica. “For me, I have loved her from the moment I met her four years ago and that has only grown. Your mother is the most extraordinary woman I’ve ever known. I could’ve stayed away from her when I went back to London, but I didn’t. Partly because she was in danger, and I had to protect her. But more than that, because I couldn’t stay away. I need her, I love her.”
Derek nodded slowly, processing my words.
“And if she doesn’t feel the same way?” he asked after a minute.
The words were a burning knife to my chest and my mouth tightened against the answer. I didn’t want to think about it, much less have to talk about it. But his question was valid and I wanted to win at least one of her children to my side. Maybe it would help in the end.
“Then,” I took a shaky breath, “I will walk away. Even if it kills me.”
I didn’t flinch away from Derek’s appraising stare, waiting for him to accept my words. Slowly, he nodded.
“I believe you, and for her sake, I hope she does feel the same way. She deserves to have someone love her like that.”
A tension I hadn’t known I was holding in my shoulders slowly unwound and I let out a slow breath.
“Thank you,” I said.
Derek slid some of the paper over to me and I saw it for the peace offering it was. We sipped our coffee and read in weirdly companionable silence.
Huh…is this what it might be like to have a stepson?
The thought was as strange as it was appealing, but I kept it to myself.
I was gone for far longer than I’d intended, but the dry air was soothing to my mind and scales. From far above, the red clay of the desert stretched in barren serenity before me, only interrupted by a few mountains that I quickly left behind me. It was all so simple and quiet up here, the complications of the situation were as small as the cacti below me. Thorny, sure, but insignificant, as I soared above them.
When I’d left Angelica in that restaurant last year, I never would’ve thought I’d see her again, much less know what her body felt like against mine. The slide of her soft skin, the utter perfection in the way her cunt embraced my dick.
Last night replayed in lurid, lazy detail as I flew and before I knew it, I was in danger of extruding. I could’ve landed, taken care of it and scandalized a few desert rodents, but I’d had my fill of that the last four years. After knowing what the real thing felt like, there was no way I was going back to my hand.
No, I’d save this manic need and unleash it on her later. Maybe she’d let me take her to the desert and fuck her against a rock wall before we left for the rest of the mission, or…
I soared down as a small cabin came into sight. It was on the outskirts of Derek’s property, solitary but well kept. As if it were maybe a vacation home, or lodging for seasonal help. I landed in the dusty yard that was sorely in need of some weeding. When I peeked in the windows, the cabin was small, tidy but there was no sign that anyone was there.
“Perfect,” I grinned, spotting a bed on an elevated platform.
It was a large four-poster that looked like it took up most of the space at the back. I could picture bending her over the footboard and edging her until she cried for me. I wanted her as destroyed as I was every single time. Maybe if I shattered her soul into pieces and put it back together every time like she did mine, Angelica would realize that she didn’t want to let me go at the end of the mission.
Or maybe I’d push her away, but really, what did I have to lose?
It was late morning when I returned to the house, horny as hell and aching to touch Angelica. The mission was a dim thought at the back of my mind and I had the stray thought that I’d have to realign myself if I didn’t want Angelica thinking this was all a distraction from what was important.
I had just landed when I saw River, Derek, Alexis and Angelica approaching an all-terrain Jeep. I walked toward it with a grin as Angelica waited for me to come over before getting into the Jeep.
“Well, good morning,” I said leaning on the door and giving her a grin full of innuendo.
She flushed and glanced away before raising her chin. The attempt to get control of herself only made me grin wider.
“Good morning,” she said, her voice a tiny bit shaky. “Did you have a good flight?”
“It was alright. Maybe next time you’d like to go with me?”
“Well, if you bother waking me up, I might.”
I leaned in, her chest rising and falling faster.
“Were you disappointed I wasn’t there?”
“No,” she tossed her head and glared at me. “I just…it would’ve been nice to know where you went. You can’t just go off like that while we’re on a mission, I need to know where you are at all times.”
This had nothing to do with the mission and we both knew it, but I’d play along all the same.
“I’ll be sure to tell you next time so if you need anything from me, you can find me.”
Her blush deepened and I chuckled darkly in her ear as I kissed her cheek.
“I found a nice little cabin that might be good for some alone time this afternoon. No one around for miles to hear you scream. Maybe when we’re done…?”
She audibly swallowed, lips parted as I leaned back just enough to look into those bright eyes. My fingers found hers, twining loosely around them as I remembered how they’d clutched and dug into me last night. She wasn’t strong enough to leave bruises, but if the glimpse under the collar of her shirt was any indication, I’d left at least one on her. I wanted to touch it, kiss it and make it darker. I wanted to see if there were any others on her back or hips. And if not, add some to the landscape of her perfect skin.
“Mom, you ready?” Derek asked.
She jumped, snapping out of our moment, and climbed into the back of the Jeep without another look at me.
I closed the door for her and climbed in on the other side. Our hands rested on the seat between us and I grazed her pinky finger with mine. The heat from that sliver of contact shot up my arm and made her gasp.
“What’s wrong?” Derek asked from the driver’s seat.
“Nothing,” Angelica snatched her hand away.
Derek glared at me in the rear view mirror and I just looked away, trying to get my primal Dragon in control. That one touch had set him off and he was demanding I get rid of Derek, since he was standing in the way of our claiming Angelica.
Stop it. He’s her son! If we hurt him, we hurt her .
That shut him up, but I could still feel him prowling in the back of my mind. He wasn’t going to go back to sleep any time soon, not until I’d bitten Angelica.
This mission is too important for me to be distracted by you, so stay there until it’s over. For her sake.
He growled, low and long, then retreated a bit more until I could release the tension in my muscles and refocus on what we were here to do.
We drove in silence, windows down, as the Jeep bounced over a graveled road toward the closest mountain range.
“So what’s the situation with the mine? Is the safe very far into it?” I asked.
“About a half hour walk into the mine tunnels and then we have to repel down into an old elevator shaft,” River said from her seat next to Derek. “I shored it up with magic so there’s no risk of cave in, but it’s not easy to get to. And there are magical wards layered in to keep people away. I’ll have disable them as we go.”
“Repelling down shouldn’t be too hard,” Derek said, “but getting it back up will be the difficulty. You think you can fly up with it?”
“Depends on if there’s space for my wings or not. But I should be able to climb up at the very least.”
“Some of the tunnels flooded during the last heavy rains,” River said, “so we’ll have to go around those passages into tunnels with a bit of a steeper decline, but it shouldn’t add too much to the time we’re in the mine itself.”
A sour taste bloomed at the back of my tongue and I rolled my shoulders as unease oozed down my spine. I looked out my window and then through the front windshield. There was nothing but the desert I’d flown over just this morning, all red clay dirt and scrub brush with the occasional cacti.
I glanced at Angelica, who was also frowning like something wasn’t quite right. I tried to catch her eye but she was determined not to look at me. Some of my tattoos were starting to glow, indicating magic was being used nearby. But when I looked up to tell Derek, I saw River looking at a magically conjured map.
Clever. Only someone with the spell can access the map.
Even when she had closed off the spell, there was a sense of danger I couldn’t shake. I let my senses spool out, reaching through the ether to try and detect any other magic. It was a horribly inexact way to do it. If anyone was casting within a few hours from our location, I’d pick up on it. And the thought that River would be the only witch out here was ridiculous. By the time we had stopped at the entrance to the mine, I had found a few other spells, all of them low level and harmless.
I’m just being paranoid about my mate. That’s got to be it. I’ve fucked her so now I’ll be extra cautious where she’s concerned. Great, she’ll love that.
I was ready to just shrug it off when I met River’s deep frown. She scanned the skies around us, fingertips glowing.
“What’s wrong?” Derek asked.
“I don’t know…it’s a sense…there’s something on the air.”
“I feel it too,” I said.
“Any idea what it is?” Angelica asked.
“No,” River said.
“Let’s get the safe and get out of here fast,” Derek said.
We jogged to the entrance and I was caught off guard by a sense of great danger that hit me like a boulder. I grabbed Angelica and tackled her to the ground.
“It’s okay,” River said, “it’s a deterrent spell, it’s supposed to make you afraid.”
I couldn’t stop holding Angelica against me even as I got off the ground. My talons extended and a deep, terrifying growl rolled up from my throat. Angelica must’ve been as affected as I was because she didn’t complain at all as I held her back tightly to my chest.
As swiftly as it had come over me, the feeling was gone, replaced by a metallic taste on my mouth. Angelica was breathing hard, her hand covering mine and holding on.
When she realized what she was doing, she untangled herself from me and didn’t even look back as she tossed her hair and walked into the mouth of the mine.
I didn’t have time for embarrassment or even frustration at her response. That sense of danger that I’d had before River’s spell caught me was growing, like an infection.
“We need to hurry,” I said as I followed everyone in to the cool interior.
“It’s getting closer,” River agreed. “Let me take the lead, I can disable the wards before we get there and you three can just keep going.”
“No,” Derek protested quickly, “we’re not splitting up, what if they’re here, what if they catch you and—?”
River cut off Derek’s worries with a soft kiss.
“You worry too much,” she said with a grin.
“And you don’t worry enough.”
“I’ll be fine. I’m the one that found the shaft for the safe, remember? And I have my Witch light, I can move faster this way.”
“Alright, but activate the mate runes,” he pressed two fingers to his forearm and she did the same.
The mark there ignited in green sparks. With one more kiss, River took off at a swift jog. We waited a minute before following her to give the Witch time to unravel her spells.
The mines smelled musty; the thick moisture in the air felt like a web of humidity on my skin as we walked further into it. I heard dripping from some of the tunnels to the right, which must’ve been the ones that had flooded. Derek led us to the left, the ground veering downward sharply. The floor was mostly hard packed earth with some looser gravel on occasion, and walls narrow enough that we couldn’t walk three abreast. I took the lead since I could actually see pretty far, in spite of the oppressive darkness. Angelica was close to my back, followed by Derek. They both had flashlights but it did little good because Angelica fell into my back several times when her foot slipped on loose rocks.
Not that I minded.
I wasn’t sure how long we’d walked; time felt off here, but I supposed that was the darkness.
At least Dragon caves are well lit and ventilated. This is barbaric.
Finally, we turned a corner and below us was the soft yellow of River’s Witch light.
As we neared her, the damp air was charged with magic and she shook her head.
“Some of this isn’t mine. There’s at least two more Witches here and I’m pretty sure that—”
Thunder roared around us, the ground shook with it.
“Weather Witch,” I breathed. “You said these mines flooded the last time there was heavy rain.”
“Not these tunnels but—”
More thunder erupted, so loud that I swore it was in the mine itself.
A crack pierced the air; not a sound but not a feeling in the ether. It was as if someone had cast a spell to split the very atmosphere around us and then the thick scent of ozone, bordering on sulfuric, made my nose itch.
Someone had just channeled enough power to cause a catastrophic event. And it was directly over us.