Dangerous Liaisons (Obsidian Flame Book 2)

by J. C. McKenzie

  “Nice of you to join us,” Hank said.

  Lara ignored the ginger and turned to Rafael.

  The raw rage in his expression burned her retinas for the nanosecond their gazes locked.

  Oh crap!

  She looked away.

  A low growl rumbled from his chest. Even chained, he vibrated, ready to explode.

  “Why did you come?” Rafael asked, his voice surprisingly calm, almost cool.

  Lara rolled her eyes. “To save you.”

  “Great job.”

  Lara threw her manacled arms up. “We could’ve waited for backup, but we weren’t sure how much time we had.”

  “Is backup coming?”

  Lara’s skin rankled. Her dragon hissed.

  “Yes,” Hank interjected. He flinched when Rafael turned his evil eye to him. “But who knows how long it will take the men to assemble and find us. They might end up walking into the same trap, or kill us by accident. Or our captors might kill us the moment they arrive.”

  “You’re a bag of gingered sunshine,” Lara snapped.

  Hank glared.

  Lara lifted her manacled hand to finger wave before looking away. Like the previous building the ispolini held her in, this one was a large warehouse-like structure. A favorite of the giants, apparently, which made sense after seeing the monstrosity who attacked them in the hallway.

  Lines painted the concrete floor and large, garage-like doors, only bigger, lined one side of the room. Probably some sort of airplane hangar. “There’s lots of space in here for more company.”

  Both men snapped their irritated gazes to her.

  She shrugged. “Just saying.”

  The two men grumbled and heavy silence fell over them. Rats scurried around the edges of the room and the crickets outside picked up their song.

  “How’d they get you here?” Lara asked Rafael.

  He scowled. “I received a text from your number asking to meet up.”

  They must’ve mirrored her phone. “You fell for that?”

  If Rafael had been a fire dragon, his intense gaze would’ve set her on fire. His jaw clenched. The swelling and wounds on his face had already healed.

  He’s so hot when he’s angry, her dragon sighed.

  Lara drew her shoulders back and met his challenge “What?”

  “You shouldn’t be here.”

  “Why not? You paid me to be your bodyguard. I need to be close to you to do that, and I had the means to track you.”

  Hank shifted in his seated position and looked away.

  Rafael squeezed the chains that led to his wrists. “You should’ve let—”

  Lara held her hand up. Metal clanked. “If you even try to feed me some bullshit line like letting the big boys handle it, stop. Just stop. No. I can handle myself and learned long ago if I wanted to play with the big dogs, I had to piss in the tall grass.”

  Rafael’s dark brows shot up. “That doesn’t even make sense.”

  “We’re dragons, not dogs.” Hank grumbled. “And it’s not grass you need to piss on, but the ispolini.”

  Lara shuddered at Hank’s mention of the supernatural group. Like she needed a reminder of who held them. “If you’re dragons, why aren’t you acting like it?”

  Both men stiffened.

  “Release the beasts, break these chains, and get us out of here. They obviously miscalculated your drug dosage.”

  “I can’t feel my dragon.” Rafael’s expression softened. “They’re anti-shifter chains.”

  Hank nodded, face grim.

  He couldn’t feel his dragon? That wasn’t right. Lara felt hers. Cold slithered over her skin. The ispolini didn’t know she was a dragon shifter. They must’ve chained her as a mage, which did nothing to suppress her abilities to change.

  A new dilemma percolated. Use her skills to escape and expose her true nature, or remain selfishly silent to keep her secret, waiting for potential rescue, and further endanger her life along with Hank and Rafael’s?

  Her dragon growled.

  I know. I know. Lara gulped. Maybe there was another way? Her thoughts scrambled to come up with alternative possibilities. Sweat dripped down her spine. Each second ticking by was one less second they all had to live.

  Lure a guard in, somehow incapacitate him or her and use their keys to break free... Doubtful.

  Use her magic? One, her power didn’t work the way she needed it to. Her magic couldn’t unlock chains or give her super strength to break them. And second, she wore mage dampening chains. Although they wouldn’t prevent her from shifting, they’d weaken any magic she attempted to cast.

  Lara swallowed again and squeezed her fists together. Her nails bit into her palms.

  “The backup team shouldn’t be much longer, right?” she asked, not able to prevent hope from leaching into her voice.

  Rafael looked away and Hank shook his head. “I texted our location before we left the embankment. They shouldn’t be far away, but that’s assuming they can find us through the cloaking and diversion spells the ispolini laid over this place, and figure out which building we’re in. Your connection with Rafael is probably the only thing that got us through.”

  Lara squeezed her eyes shut. Crap. No alternative. Her secret wasn’t worth three lives, including her own.

  She drew in a deep breath to call her dragon.

  A door on the far side of the wide room swung open. The hinges creaked and a gust of floral scented air rushed in.

  Lara paused with her heart in her throat and stopped the change. Her dragon waited, impatient.

  A woman with long leather-clad legs and beautiful, long blonde hair sauntered into the room. Her heels clacked against the concrete floor, echoing against the far walls, and her full chest bounced under a slinky silk shirt with each step and hip swing.

  Hilary. The woman who’d tried to spell Rafael into claiming her as his mate.

  Rafael’s ex-girlfriend cast a dismissive glance toward Hank and Lara before zeroing in on Rafael. “Raf,” she purred when she reached him.

  Rafael barred his teeth.

  “You should’ve let me lay the claiming magic on you.” She stretched her arm out and ran her hand down his healed cheek. “It would’ve been so much more enjoyable than the fate now awaiting you.”

  Rafael jerked his head away from her hand. “How so? I die either way.”

  “At least you’d die with a smile on your face.”

  Lara’s dragon growled. Let me at this bitch.

  “You always overestimated your abilities.”

  Hilary’s smug smile faltered, but she quickly recovered. “Funny, you never seemed to mind my abilities when we were together.” She ran her hand down his hair like he was some sort of pet.

  Oh, enough of this. Lara grabbed her spitting dragon and pulled.

  Her hands grew clammy, and if her heart beat any harder against her breastbone, it would punch straight through. Hilary’s nasal voice grew distant and faded into nothing. Silence seeped into her bones as she drew inward, focusing on the dragon essence coiled deep within her psyche.

  Finally, her dragon crooned, and stretched.

  “You know what the problem is?” Hilary continued, her designer-clad back to Lara.

  “I think that’s rather obvious, don’t you?” Raf snapped.

  “You men always assume women are helpless.”

  Lara bit back a grunt as the change took hold.

  Hank glanced over at her, and his gaze snagged. He frowned.

  Lara ignored him and embraced the fiery dragon essence as it spiraled up. Molten hot lava reformed her bones. She expanded and released the ferocious beast waiting inside. Her clothing ripped and tore, biting into sensitive flesh. The heat in the dry room called to her. She shook off the remnants of her clothing and swallowed the roar burning for release in her throat.

  Hank’s eyes widened.

  Lara stretched her long neck and turned to Hilary who still stood over Raf.

  Mine.

&n
bsp; Raf looked up, past Hilary’s shoulder, and froze.

  Hilary stopped crooning and spun around. Her mouth dropped open.

  Lara took a deep breath in and released all her anger in one controlled streak of ravaging fire.

  “No!” Hilary screamed and flung up her arms as the fire encased her. And only her. She screeched and thrashed as the flames quickly engulfed her. The fire died out and left a pile of black, smoking ash where Hilary once stood.

  Lara rarely killed, but she felt no remorse for frying the bitch in front of her. Nothing but relief. Maybe she should’ve given a lengthy speech about her feelings, intentions and the importance of good conquering evil, but in her experience, extravagance and “flare” in a fight rarely benefitted anyone but the opponent.

  “Holy shit,” Hank muttered. “Didn’t see that coming.”

  Rafael’s smoldering gaze met hers, his body tense and mouth firm. A dark and forbidden promise created by his posture and the sheer energy dancing off his skin surrounded her.

  She stepped through the cloud of burnt flesh. The fire within bubbled and burned, waiting for release. Smoke billowed from her nostrils and clouded her vision. The vapor surrounded Rafael. It didn’t matter, though. She’d sense him anywhere—with or without sight or smell.

  With her long, sharp claws, she reached forward, snagged the chains confining Rafael and pulled. The metal groaned before snapping apart. Rafael surged to his feet.

  She turned to Hank and repeated her actions. He stood more slowly, warily. As he straightened, he stretched and surveyed the room, probably revising the escape and attack plans, and calculating the probabilities of success.

  Rafael kept his potent gaze locked on her. His irises flashed emerald and dragon gold while his body continue to vibrate. His fists and jaw clenched and unclenched. He stood, waiting.

  For what?

  For whom, you big idiot.

  That makes no sense. I’m right here.

  Her dragon grunted and did the mental equivalent of an eye roll.

  Lara leaned forward and extended her snout toward Rafael. He hesitated. After a brief pause, he reached out and placed his warm palm flat against the bridge of her snout. The moment his skin contacted hers, an energy bolt slammed through her body.

  Rafael sucked in a deep breath and snapped his hand back.

  Just as well. Her long, powerful limbs trembled like a hatchling. The tangible, indelible, physical reaction of one mate recognizing another shook her body to the core. Heck, she’d already experienced the sensation when Raf rescued her and it still threatened to knock her on her ass. His dragon must’ve shielded Raf from the effects during that encounter, but not this time.

  “You knew.” With his voice low, his shoulders bunched.

  She dipped her head. Her heart convulsed. Though they could communicate telepathically now Rafael knew she was a dragon, she couldn’t bare his seductive voice rumbling in her mind.

  His large, powerful hands rolled into fists. His body hardened as all his muscles tensed.

  Hank’s attention rebounded back and forth between them. He wouldn’t have felt the energy burst, but he wasn’t an idiot. A giant, ginger pain in the ass, but not a simpleton. Already calculating what had transpired and what it meant, he quickly came to some sort of conclusion and his expression relaxed. He pulled his shoulders back and turned to the Astarot.

  “Lecture her later,” he said.

  Rafael grunted and finally pulled his hard gaze away from Lara, releasing her from the icy potency of his anger and hurt.

  “We need to shift and break out of here,” Hank stated. “I suggest the hangar doors.”

  What about the darts? Lower and more gravelly, Lara projected her dragon voice into their minds.

  Rafael shuddered.

  “By the time they react to us ripping this building apart, we’ll be airborne and out of range,” Hank said as he peeled off his shirt. Scores of scars, old and new, marred his pasty white skin. His muscles rippled under the factory lighting.

  “So we run away?” Rafael grunted. He pulled his tie free and tossed it on the ground by the broken chains. He started working on the buttons of his torn shirt. They both could’ve shifted with clothes on and ripped through the material like she had but it hurt more. Cloth sliced into the exposed flesh during a shift and left a lasting sting after the final changes occurred. Most shifters undressed first if given the time and choice.

  “We make it appear so,” Hank said. “We hover high, collect the troops and annihilate them.”

  Rafael’s dark brows rose.

  “I want my weapons back,” Hank added before dropping his cargo pants. The belt buckle clanked against the hard flooring.

  Rafael copied Hank’s actions and stepped from his underwear. He stood gloriously naked with his smoldering gaze daring her to look away. His mouth twitched.

  As if she could look away. She returned his stare, heat and all, and took in every detail, every inch of bronzed skin begging her to run her tongue along it.

  Lara’s dragon crooned in her mind.

  Hank coughed. “You two need to break this off. We have ispolini to take down, and I’d rather not watch you eye fuck each other.”

  Rafael smirked and closed his eyes. His body trembled and burst apart as his menacing dragon ripped through his humanity.

  She’d seen his large, magnificent dragon before. And it was as breathtaking as the first time. The midnight scales flashing under the artificial light, the intimidating size of him, and the angle of his large triangular head. All these features mesmerized her, but even more so now that she was also in dragon form. Now that he knew she was a dragon, as well, and his mate.

  With a roar, Hank joined him in the transition and before she could blink twice, two large male dragons faced her.

  Hank transformed into a red dragon, a perfect representation of the Topaz Dragon Clan. His scales shone like flickering flames.

  Is that what she looked like?

  We’re more amazing, her dragon puffed.

  Let’s do this, Rafael’s commanding voice growled in her head.

  The deep sound rolled over her neurons and made her blood sing.

  Raf stomped to the doors, gripped the metal in his claws and heaved. The doors groaned and shook, but held. They’re magically reinforced.

  Hank grunted. The roof, then.

  She nodded and stepped forward to stand beside Hank, whose bulking form dwarfed her.

  As dragons from the Topaz Clan, they controlled the element of fire. And, from a quick assessment, the roofing material to the warehouse appeared flammable. With unspoken agreement, Lara and Hank tilted their heads back and aimed for the roof.

  She closed her eyes as the heat and flames from within erupted. Molten hot fire scorched her throat and shot toward the roof. She continued to aim the streams of fire beside Hank’s as they incinerated the building. Heavy beams, half consumed by fire, fell to the floor with loud bangs and thumps. An alarm sounded somewhere off in the distance.

  Squatting low to provide thrust for her jump, Lara launched into the air and headed directly for the incinerated roof. A stream of cool ice flowed past her and neutralized the fire. She broke free from the building. Cool air hit her scales.

  With strong pumps of her wings, she stretched her neck out and drove harder for the night sky, Rafael and Hank’s strong, reassuring presence behind her.

  The loud siren continued to blare below them, drowning out the splintering thud of wood and metal as parts of the building crashed down.

  She slowed to position herself behind Rafael. She needed to protect him, still.

  Rafael snapped in her mind. Keep going.

  I should be tailing—

  Keep going, he growled.

  What the hell? Even in dragon form, he wouldn’t let her do her job—the one he paid her to do.

  Her dragon snorted. You’re his mate. And now he knows it. You’ve become the most important and precious thing in his entire horde.
r />   Horde, more like empire.

  The most precious thing. Her dragon’s words repeated in her head like a death knell. She’d be his “thing.” Unease rippled along her scales. She barely survived five minutes of his undivided attention. If she replaced his horde, she’d be the focus of his considerable attention. All the time. He’d try to control her…

  Lara shook the thoughts of her changing role from her head.

  Focus. She needed to focus. First, they had to take out the ispolini without incurring any casualties, or at least as few as possible. Next, retrieve her weapons. Hank wasn’t the only one attached to pieces of sharpened metal, and last, they needed to figure out how far down the bunny hole this treachery went. Hilary didn’t act alone. Someone else within the dragon shifter community had betrayed Rafael. And after all that?

  Then…

  Lara leveled out and drifted along the cool airflows high above the glow and heat of the burning building, far out of range of any man-made weapons. The ispolini compound shrank from view, and the alarm’s siren grew more distant.

  Rafael pulled forward to hover beside her.

  Then…

  Then she needed to face the wrath of her mate and determine fact from fiction. Did he truly want nothing to do with a mate as he said? Or was Hank correct in saying the Astarot lied to himself?

  Uncertainty rumbled along with the fire in her gut.

  Would she prove to be Rafael’s salvation, or his undoing?

  Chapter Seventeen

  Dark figures in the distance approached. Lara’s wings itched to beat harder and take her away. Away from ispolini, away from other dragons knowing about her, away from…Raf?

  Her heart convulsed and a plume of smoke puffed out of her snout.

  The dark figures formed into eight obsidian dragons.

  Where’s the rest? she asked.

  This is the entirety of the Obsidian Dragon Clan Force. They are kin. Raf beat his wings slow and steady, sending gusts of cool air against her side. They can be trusted.

  And the other dragons couldn’t. They had at least one traitor to find and couldn’t risk the conspirator tipping off the ispolini below. Of course, the giants would be stupid not to expect retaliation after they escaped, but they wouldn’t know what to plan for or when to expect it.