Chapter 17
Tori was exhausted, and it wasn’t even ten in the morning yet. It had taken some time to get things settled with the police. They’d insisted on getting statements and pulling CCTV footage. Tori really didn’t expect them to do anything else. They were just doing their jobs, after all.
But they also wanted to take Cassie to a hospital, and Tori had to explain repeatedly that they couldn’t help her.
The senior cop finally demanded to know just what kind of light show it was they saw on the security cameras. It felt rather like coming out when he told them he was a mage. That Cassie was a mage.
Despite the evidence, it had taken a while for them to wrap their heads around it. Tori had been forced to cast a small spell right in front of them just to move past that point so they would wrap things up.
He had no desire to stay in a place where he’d already been attacked.
The police reluctantly let them go. Very reluctantly.
In fact, Tori wasn’t sure if they were actually allowed to leave or if Baldewin had ignored the cops as he got them shuffled up to the hotel room.
Tori didn’t know if it was paranoia, but it felt like Jaeggi eyes were watching him and Cassie.
He wanted them both away from prying eyes.
For now, Cassie was tucked into bed with Sasha pressed as close as she could get without actually holding the mage in her lap.
Tori sat in a heavily cushioned chair positioned at the foot of the bed, keeping a close watch on the young woman, while Baldewin’s deep voice rumbled with muted anger from the next room, occasionally punctuated by Warin’s baritone as he added to the conversation with curt tones.
Neither of them was happy as they spoke likely to Alric or maybe other dragons back at the castle.
Lifting out of his chair, Tori crossed the short distance and placed a hand to Cassie’s forehead.
She was finally warm, thank god. That unnatural clammy skin had faded.
He could also sense her magical core, which had stabilized in the past couple of hours.
It was muted and faint, compared to what it should be, but much better than the tattered, burned thing it had been before.
Seeing Sasha’s anxious expression, he assured her, “She’s doing fine. Her body’s warmed up, and her magical core is already recovering.”
Her blue eyes swept closed in relief. “Thank all wind and skies. Can I do anything to help her?”
“Keep holding her.” He turned to his seat with a slight grunt. “I know that doesn’t seem like much, but your bond with her is what’s giving her magical core the strength to recover. Direct contact helps. The longer you can hold her, the easier it is for her magical core to recuperate.”
Sasha blinked down at the woman curled into her. “Is it really? I’m glad, then. Is that what helped her when they were draining her of magic? Our bond?”
“In a way, yes.” And in a way, it had only prolonged the insanity. Given enough time, they might well have drained Sasha through Cassie. Seeing how worried she was, he wasn’t about to tell the dragon that. “It certainly gave her the strength to hold on.”
Her arms tightened around her mate’s sleeping form. “Thank you, Tori. You put yourself at considerable risk to help her. Our clan owes you a debt.”
With a snort, he stretched out his long legs in front of him.
He felt tired both physically and emotionally, truth tell.
Too tired to do much more than sit there.
Fighting and emergency medical aid, then arguing with cops, had taken a lot out of him.
“I consider it a debt repaid. Baldewin and Warin have already had to rescue me, remember.”
“Oh. That’s true.” She stroked blue hair lovingly away from Cassie’s face. “I wouldn’t have known how to help her. I’m one of the few born after the war, you see.”
He blinked at her. “Really? I honestly can’t tell ages with all of you.”
“Dragons age so slowly, after all. But yes, I was something of a miracle to my parents. They had been together only a couple of years when I was born. Dragons only go into heat every hundred years or so. Unless there’s some magical intervention going on, dragon children don’t occur more often than that.
I was born a hundred and twenty years after the war, and it was a cause of celebration in the clan.
But because I’m so much younger, there were many things I didn’t learn how to do.
Like treating a mage that’s been attacked. ”
“Because no one thought you’d need to know.” Tori shook his head in sad understanding.
“We’d already lost so many mages. Who would dare attack one? I think that was everyone’s train of thought. At least until the Jaeggi raised their heads.”
It did make sense, from that perspective.
Tori had already seen for himself how a dragon treated a mage.
How carefully they were protected. How he was protected.
To them, it must be anathema to even consider harming a mage.
“Cassie mentioned to me that’s how you two met.
That you’d gone to her rescue because a Jaeggi mage broke into her apartment. ”
That brought a smile to Sasha’s face, if briefly.
“She didn’t need the help, although I didn’t know it then.
Cameron was near frantic, he was so worried about her.
I went with Baldewin to help. When we arrived, I found this little slip of a woman standing there with a smile on her face and a baseball bat in hand.
I couldn’t help but think she was the cutest thing I’d ever seen. ”
“She had no magical training then, right?”
“None at all. Wasn’t even sure if she was a mage, although we were pretty sure on it. Odds were good, if her twin was. But she took on a Jaeggi mage with a baseball bat and won. By the time we got there, she had him in a sushi roll of duct tape and him bleeding on her carpet.”
Tori looked Cassie over with new respect. That was some kind of guts, to take on a mage like that. And win, no less.
“Was it love at first sight?” he couldn’t help but ask.
“No. Lust, certainly, on both ends.” Sasha’s smile was rueful and nostalgic.
“I’ve a weakness for strong people who are bright and optimistic, and heaven knows she’s got all of that in spades.
And the mouth on her, god. She’s constantly making me laugh.
There we were, dealing with the aftermath of a mage attack, and she’s packing her bags and bantering with her grandmother, and I honestly forgot a few times that we had a dead mage in the next room. ”
Having spent an evening with Cassie working magic, Tori could easily see this scene. She might be serious in her work, but she kept you laughing too.
“And I could tell she liked the look of me. She kept finding ways to put her hands on me, to snuggle into my side. By the time we boarded the plane that night, it was all I could do not to pounce on her. That’s how riled up she’d gotten me.
” A laugh in her eyes, she confided, “We made out most of the way to Germany. Poor Baldewin’s not yet forgiven me for it. ”
“Ouch. Well, but it sounds like you two immediately knew you’d found the right person.”
“Hmm, not that first night. It was more that we liked the look of each other and we were still on an adrenaline high. But I admit it didn’t take much time for lust to transition to love. She was my gefreogen for maybe six days? Before we properly mated.”
“I’m sorry, a what?” That single word didn’t mean anything to Tori.
“Gefreogen,” she repeated. “It is what we call the stage of serious courtship with the possibility of mating.”
“Oh. I didn’t know there was a word for that. So, one step shy of engagement?”
“Yes, exactly.”
That begged another question that Tori had always wondered. This seemed the opportune moment to ask. “How did you know? That she was right?”
“Hmm. Both you and Cameron have wondered that.” Sasha regarded him in a way that suggested she suspected why he was curious, although she didn’t voice her suspicions out loud.
“I suppose from your side, it’s not as easy to tell.
Part of it, of course, is that we like the person.
We enjoy their company and want to spend a lifetime with them.
But our certainty comes from our dragon side, I think.
Our dragon instincts are quick to decide if they like a person or not.
And it doesn’t take long for those instincts to tell us if we’ve found the right mage to mate with. ”
“So, you just…know.”
“Basically. It’s hard to explain. And it does seem a bit rushed to our human counterparts, which is why we sometimes court for several weeks, even months, to give them time to catch up with our own feelings.
I would have waited for Cassie if she’d needed that time.
I’ll spend centuries with her, after all.
What’s a few months? Or even a few years?
But it turned out that she, too, has good instincts.
She knew quickly that I was the right one for her. ”
“Which is why you two didn’t hesitate. You’ve been mated for how long now?”
“Two months,” Sasha answered with a honeymoon smile. “It’s been blissful. Are you considering being a mate to one of us, Tori?”
“I…honestly don’t know how to answer that.
” He ran a hand through his hair and blew out a low breath, eyes drawn back to Cassie’s slack form.
“A week ago, if you’d asked me, I would have emphatically said no.
Too many lies had skewed my opinion. But now, after untangling some of the major lies?
Seeing how you and Cassie are together? Hell, I’d sacrifice a leg to have a relationship like yours. ”
She pointed out, “But you don’t have to lose a leg.”
“You really think a dragon of your clan will look at me and fall head over heels?”
There was that suspicious gleam in her eyes again. She pursed her lips, evaluating him for a moment before speaking. “I believe my first introduction to you followed an interrupted kiss between you and Baldewin.”