by Ella Summers
“Are you sure?” he asked. He was kneeling on the mattress beside her, looking down upon her, but he hadn’t climbed onto her yet. From the strained look on his face, it was taking every shred of willpower not to do so.
“What would you do if I said no?” she teased, tracing her finger down his rigid stomach.
“Curse you as an evil temptress,” he growled, his eyes rolling back as he suppressed a groan. He caught her hand before it could venture lower, then looked at her, his eyes serious, if not throbbing with desire. “Then go take a cold shower. With lots of ice. Maybe summon a blizzard while I’m at it.”
“Well, we couldn’t have that. Frostbite is nasty business, even for a dragon. You could lose a toenail—uh, talon.”
Then, smiling, she gave his arm a tug, pulling him onto her.
17
The Tunnel Vision Defense
Whether from Kai’s healing massage or the other sort of massage that came afterward, Sera woke up the next morning feeling refreshed. She felt more refreshed, in fact, than she had since that pinecone-scented mage had showed up on her doorstep nearly a month ago to inform her that she’d been entered into the Magic Games—and, oh, by the way, participation was not voluntary.
She rolled over on the bed. Kai wasn’t there, but he hadn’t been gone long. His pillow was still thick with his scent. Sera grabbed it, pressing it to her nose and inhaling deeply. Her toes might have curled a little.
Diffused sunlight shone through the billowy curtains, a gentle breeze rippling across the soft fabric. It was still early—she glanced at the clock—just not early enough. All she wanted was to nestle into the soft sheets and sleep, but soon she’d have to wake up. She had to get to the Magic Games. In less than two hours, she’d be facing down her next opponents. She only hoped it wasn’t vampires again. She was sick and tired of vampires.
Extending her yawn into a stretch, Sera rolled up. She could feel Kai in the next room. His magic was taut and alert, like it usually was. Except for last night. She teetered between a smile and a blush. She’d made Kai lose control, made his magic do things she’d never felt before, made him utter noises that she would give anything to hear again.
Despite his confident—ok, arrogant—demeanor, he’d turned out to be a caring lover, as attentive to her needs as he was concerned about his own. In fact, nothing seemed to arouse him more than her own pleasure. And he’d experimented with that—thoroughly. By the time they finally went to sleep, he’d pushed every button in her body, including ones she hadn’t even known existed.
“Calm down,” she whispered to herself, trying to push down the heat pulsing through her body as she remembered what he’d done to her. His hands. His lips. His tongue.
She pivoted away from the door, beelining for the bathroom. And the shower. This was no time for her raging libido.
A few minutes later, she was clean, dressed in a fluffy bathrobe, and thinking only chaste thoughts. Ok, scratch that last one. But she was trying to think only chaste thoughts. When she got to the fighting pit, the battle would smack the remaining giddiness out of her. Hopefully not literally.
She turned the doorknob and stepped out into the living room, nearly tripping over a bag of clothes in front of the door. She snatched it up and backed into the bathroom to get dressed. New clothes kept appearing out of nowhere—like magic.
When she emerged the second time, Kai was sitting on the sofa, talking on his phone. From the half of the conversation that she could hear, it sounded like the commandos were on the other end. Kai turned to look over the back of the sofa. He met her eyes and waved her over. She approached, encouraged by the fond look in his eyes and by the scent of hot blueberry pancakes.
“Check in with the other Magic Council members present for the Games. So far, the vampires have only gone after Blackbrooke, but that doesn’t mean he’s their only target. They all need extra security,” Kai spoke into the phone.
He looked up at Sera and pointed at the breakfast tray on the coffee table. In addition to a stack of blueberry pancakes—lightly dusted with powdered sugar—there was a large glass of milk. Mmm.
“Look, I don’t care what they claim, Callum,” Kai said impatiently. “The fact is that a magic hate group is in possession of a magical artifact that can control vampires. They are using this power here, in New York, to target a prestigious member of the Magic Council. They aren’t just going to give up. And Sera is far too busy jumping through Duncan Blackbrooke’s Magic Games hoops to save his ass again, let alone babysit the entire Magic Council contingent here. Tell my esteemed colleagues that they can either get some added security or get dead.”
As Sera sat down next to him, she could hear the buzz of one of the commandos speaking.
“Yes, you can quote me on that,” Kai said and hung up the phone. He set it on the table, then turned toward her. “Good morning, Sera. I ordered you some breakfast while you were in the shower.”
A warm flush spread across her cheeks as she remembered the thoughts that had necessitated the shower. “Thanks,” she said. “I love pancakes.”
“I know.” The look in his eyes made her blush again, as though he were saying, “I know what else you like.”
She grabbed the plate, focusing on the pancakes. Her tunnel-vision defense hadn’t held up long last night, but maybe it would work this time. As she slid the fork into the first pancake, Kai leaned over to kiss her on her head. She jumped a little, and the fork tumbled from her fingers, bouncing against the plush white carpet. She stared down at the blueberry-stained spot and groaned.
“You look forlorn,” Kai said.
“Between the bloody towels and the blueberry carpet stains, the hotel manager is going to blow a fuse.” She cringed, imagining hotel manager parts and pieces raining down on the lobby. “Do you have any idea how many monsters I have to kill before I can pay off those damages?”
“It’s just a few towels and a tiny stain, Sera.”
“And the mutilated remains of the hotel manager.”
“I wasn’t aware that he was dead,” he said drily.
“He will be after he sees this mess.”
“Is it possible that you’re overreacting?”
She wiped down her fork, then cut into the pancakes. “I’d never admit to that.” She ate her way through the first pancake, then, realizing she was being rude, held out her fork to Kai.
He shook his head. “I already ate.”
“What did you have?”
“A roll with salami.”
Of course. “No sheep? Or goats?” she added with a smile.
“The kitchen was fresh out of grass-fed quadrupeds.”
She snorted, and milk shot out of her nose. Thankfully, it didn’t get on him. “Sorry,” she muttered, patting her face with a napkin. “Geez, that was really attractive.”
“You’re always attractive,” he told her. “Even with milk shooting out of your nose.” He leaned down to kiss her on the head again, watching her closely the whole time, like he was afraid she’d bolt.
“Still here,” she told him with a smile.
“I was…concerned,” he said. “The last time I kissed you, you dropped a fork and proceeded to plan out the murder of the hotel manager.”
“Hey, I didn’t plan his murder,” she protested, dipping a piece of pancake in some milk that had spilled onto her plate. “I only said he’d explode when he saw the mess I’d made. And I didn’t drop the fork because you kissed me.”
His dark brows lifted. “Oh?”
“I dropped it because you kissed me while I was thinking salacious thoughts, and I, uh, felt guilty about that.”
He studied her face for a moment, then said, “Tell me.”
“Tell you what?”
“I want to hear more about these salacious thoughts. Was I naked? Were you? And what were we doing?”
“We’re always naked in my thoughts. And doing, um, things.”
He lifted his hand to her neck, caressing the sensitive
skin. It slid down, tracing her collarbone, then disappeared beneath her top. His fingers kissed her breasts, his lips tickled her jaw.
“Like this?” he whispered, his words grazing her ear. Her skin tingled with goosebumps.
“For instance.”
She tried to concentrate, to think through the fog clouding her mind, but he was making that impossible. His hand stroked the inside of her thigh.
“I liked it when you were wearing a skirt,” he said, his voice strained.
“I could do it again.”
“Yes.” His hand slid under her top, his fingernails massaging her skin. His other hand moved up her thigh, rubbing her through the stretchy fabric of her sports pants. His magic whispered across her skin like a warm summer breeze.
She moaned, deep in her throat, losing a grip on her plate. Kai caught it one-handed before it hit the ground. He shoved it hurriedly onto the table, then returned that hand to her back. He tugged her shirt up, lifting it over her head.
“Kai,” she protested, her words nearly dissolving before they left her lips.
“Hmm?” His voice buzzed against her bellybutton.
“We’ll be late for the Games.”
“Plenty of time,” he said, kissing down her stomach. His tongue teased the waistband of her pants.
Oh, to hell with it! She grabbed hold of his shoulders and pushed him down onto the sofa.
“Your pancakes are cold.”
Sera looked at Kai, who was leaning leisurely against the puffy arm of the sofa. Deep breaths purred inside his chest, and he returned her glance with a satisfied smirk. He did look a tad guilty about the pancakes, though.
“They’re fine,” she assured him, taking a bite. “Just as good cold as hot.”
“And you?”
“Sorry?”
“Are you fine?” he asked.
“Yes.” She leaned in to kiss him, a smile on her lips. “Though maybe a bit too relaxed to fight any monsters at the moment.”
“So basically you’d like me to work you up into a frenzy, then unleash you on the monsters?”
“You wouldn’t dare,” she said, poking him in the chest.
He kissed her finger. “I would dare a lot of things, sweetheart.”
“The Magic Council—”
“Forget them,” he said. “This has nothing to do with them.”
“Blackbrooke was on your case about me, and that was before we slept together. He would have an aneurysm if he found out about us.”
“Let him. I don’t care what he thinks.”
“Could he pull you as my coach?” Sera asked.
Kai said nothing. But his silence told all.
“That’s what I thought. We can’t tell him, Kai. We can’t tell anyone.”
He looked at her. “Do you trust me, Sera?”
“I trust you to have my back in a fight,” she said, smiling. Her smile died on her lips as a cool, expressionless mask slid across his face.
“That’s not what I mean.” He expelled an exasperated sigh. “After all we’ve been through, you still don’t trust me. Not really. Not completely.”
“I…” She opened her mouth, ready to lie, but decided he deserved better than that. “I don’t trust easily.” Her secret was too dangerous. She looked up from her clasped hands, meeting his eyes. “And neither do you.”
“That’s true. I don’t trust easily,” he agreed. “But you’re not a very good liar, Sera. I see right through you, through that hard and tough exterior. You’re sweet inside. Gooey even.”
“Gooey?” she said, coughing.
“You heard me, Miss Badass Mercenary. I know you, and you’re no revolutionary. Whatever secrets you’re keeping locked away inside, they don’t make you a threat to the Magic Council. The Council has nothing to fear from you until the day they go after someone you care about. You fight hard for the people you love.”
“Yes.” She skewered a piece of pancake onto her fork. “I do.”
“Good. You’ll need that fighting spirit today at the Games.”
Sera’s phone buzzed across the table. She ignored it.
“Are you going to get that?” he asked.
“No.”
“Care to elaborate?”
“No.”
He folded his hands together and stared at her. Sera lasted about two seconds beneath the dragon’s stare before she cracked.
“There’s no point in checking. I already know who it is. One of my two stalkers.”
“There’s another one now? Besides Finn?” His face betrayed no emotion, but the bolt of magic lightning that blew up the toaster on the counter behind him was pretty much a dead giveaway.
“Technically, Finn was the second,” she said, picking up her phone with a heavy sigh. “The first is Cutler. He keeps messaging me, asking me to go out with him.”
“Let me see that.”
“No.” She sat on the phone, then, before he could do so much as arch an irked eyebrow at her, she said, “I have this hunch about Cutler.”
“That his parents are bribing the Magic Council with large sums of money to keep him out of a mental institution?”
“No.” She stopped. “Wait, huh? Is that true?”
“Sadly, no.”
“So you were being playful?”
“Roar,” he said, his face deadpan as he clawed the air like a kitten.
Sera snorted, thankfully this time without milk in her mouth. “Ok, my hunch. I’ve been running into Cutler everywhere since we arrived in New York. Macy’s, Trove, the fighting arena…”
“All the places that the photos Finn sent you were taken,” Kai finished for her.
“Yes.”
“You think Cutler is working for Finn,” he said. “That he’s one of the mages in Finn’s cult of crazy.”
“Cutler sure fits the bill for crazy,” she pointed out.
“Hmm.” He grabbed his phone off the table. “I think I’ll have a chat with Cutler.”
“It’s just an idea. He could have nothing to do with Finn,” she said. “Maybe he’s just engaging in normal stalker behavior.”
“As opposed to criminal mastermind minion stalking behavior?” He looked up from his phone. “If this is your way of dissuading me from talking to him, it needs work.”
“Just promise me you won’t open your chat with Cutler by tearing his arms off.”
“Of course,” he said. “I never open interrogations—er, chats that way. You can’t start by going straight for the big guns. You need to build up to it.”
“Kai!”
He snickered. “Kidding. I don’t tear people’s arms off. You let me worry about Finn and Cutler. You concentrate on the Games.”
Sera’s phone buzzed beneath her butt. She grabbed it and flipped the case open—and immediately wished she hadn’t. It was another message from Finn. She showed Kai the picture on the screen, one of her fighting the vampires in the Empire State Building last night.
A moment later, her phone exploded.
18
Black Magic
Sera stood up, looking at the broken remains of her phone strewn across the living room. Then she turned to Kai, gaping. “You blew up my phone,” she said quietly.
“I apologize,” he said. At least he looked guilty about it. Mostly just fire-breathing, devastation-wreaking angry, but also a little guilty. “I’ll get you another one.”
She plucked the melted SIM card from the ground. “I’ll need another one of these too.”
He swiped a few things across his phone screen, then looked up at her. “You’ll have a new one before we leave the hotel.”
“This happens a lot, doesn’t it?”
“On occasion.”
Yeah, right. It probably happened every time he lost his temper. Dragons were a moody bunch. And yet, she couldn’t resist teasing him.
“How many phones have you gone through this month?”
“One or two.”
She poked the fire again. “I’ve had th
e same phone for years.”
“I find that surprising considering your hobbies.”
“Verbal sparring with dragons?” she muttered under her breath.
“I heard that,” he said. “And no. I meant your other hobby: hunting down monsters.” His eyes hardened. “Without magic.”
“Hunting monsters isn’t a hobby. It’s a paycheck. And it was magic—your magic, to be precise—that broke my phone. Not a monster. My phone survived many years of my magic-free monster hunting lifestyle. What it didn’t survive was my new lifestyle with a certain dragon-shifting mage.”
“So I’m part of your lifestyle.” His magic grinned. Yes, grinned. Magic could grin, even if its master was stingy with the smiles.
“Yes,” she said.
She could have denied it, but that wouldn’t have been fair to either of them. He was a part of her life now, as much as Naomi was. The question was, could she trust him? She’d known Naomi for years, and she still hadn’t told her that she was Dragon Born. It wasn’t exactly a prime conversation starter. In fact, it was more like a conversation ender. And then, ten seconds later, agents of the Magic Council would storm the room.
“So, as someone who is an acknowledged part of your life, you wouldn’t mind if I’m concerned for your wellbeing?”
“I guess not,” she said slowly, wondering where this was going.
“Finn is stalking you. He’s obviously obsessed with you.”
“He’s not my type.”
“This isn’t funny, Sera.”
“No,” she agreed. “But there’s nothing we can do about Finn right now.”
“I have already done something. I’ve called in some extra security to protect you.”
