Shadow and Flame

by Katya Moore

  Cadmus looked at me again, something akin to longing in his eyes. "Thank you. Bringing the Queen here. It's..." He struggled for words, then slumped into his pillow. "It's more than I deserve. More than I could have hoped for, in this life."

  I patted his foot awkwardly. "You may have just saved some lives. You deserve nothing but the best. And you still have plenty more life left to live. I'll make sure of that."

  Cadmus shook his head against the pillow. "The Fafner Home..."

  "Is the closest dragon-only medical facility that had a bed for you. You're not dying, Cadmus. We're making sure you live." Galen gave his shoulder a gentle squeeze. "We won’t let you down."

  Cadmus reached his hand up and placed it on Galen's. "Thank you," he rasped.

  "Eldest's blessings, man." Galen rose to his feet. "You take care of yourself, now. We're going to go get those girls. Thanks to you."

  A faint smile crossed Cadmus' face as we closed the curtain behind ourselves.

  Jared stood in the doorway, rubbing his eyes wearily.

  "You really are the alpha earth dragon, Galen," he said softly. "Thank you. Thank you for reaching him."

  Galen shrugged modestly. "Different approaches. Maybe don't lead with the hospice next time."

  Jared chuckled. "A tactical error, I couldn't agree more. But there's more to it than that." He studied Galen's face for a moment. "I envy your pathos. You can connect with people in a way I've never been able to."

  I gave Jared a gentle nudge. "Keep slinging drinks at McKinnett's. If Kitty could teach me how to open up to people, she'll have you on the right track in no time."

  He bowed his head, then smiled at me. "I'll name my next drink after you," he said with a wink.

  Chapter Sixteen

  "Wardwell." Aric keyed it into his laptop and gave a humorless snort. "Only 300 listings. Piece of cake."

  "Shit." I fell back into the sofa.

  "I can narrow it down to the North End, though." Aric tapped at his keyboard. "They found him by Copp’s Hill, right? In his condition, he wouldn't have made it far."

  Cass perked up. "Wait. It wasn't like the name was on a mailbox, right?"

  I sat back up. "No. He said it was on the plaque. Surrounded by sigils."

  Aric looked up from his laptop. "That's money. That's my kind of money. That’s a historic residence." A smile lit up his face. "Okay, that narrows it down a lot."

  Cass frowned. "Or does it?"

  Aric flashed him an annoyed glance. "Okay, buzzkill, what's the deal?"

  Cass ignored the jab. "The current residents might not be Wardwells. Ergo, searching for their name in the current registers might not do us a hell of a lot of good."

  Aric's lips puckered in a look that reminded me a lot of his mother. "I can check with the historical society. What are you going to do?"

  Cass stood up and walked to the door. "I’m going to get a book. I've got a few bound histories of the great families of Boston. One of them has listings of dragons and known Chosen. We can find out more about the Wardwells that way, narrow it down if there are multiple Wardwell buildings."

  "Nerd," Aric sniffed, but I could see a glint of respect in his eye.

  "You know it," Cass smirked, then walked off toward the library.

  I watched him go, admiring the view. He was damned sexy when his confidence flared up, and he was in his element. I felt a warm glow in my chest.

  Aric watched me watch him and harrumphed softly, clicking at his keys with renewed determination. "It's on," he muttered as he scrolled through listings.

  I started to tell him that it wasn't a competition, but frankly, a little competition might be a good thing. Instead, I leaned on Galen and felt useless.

  Sanders popped his head in the door. "May I get anything for you all? Refreshments?"

  "I'd love a cup of tea, please," I replied, then hesitated.

  "Something else, Miss Bellmont?" he asked. Damn him, he never missed a trick.

  "Have you seen Chase?" I asked, heart in my throat. "I need to talk to him."

  Sanders looked sympathetic. "I'm afraid Mr. Hearne stepped out moments after you left. In great haste. I believe he called a taxi."

  I sat bolt upright and stared at Galen with wild eyes. "You don't think he..."

  Before I could finish my sentence, Galen had his cellphone in hand. "I told the hospital to keep him out if he showed up, but I'll call Jared and warn him."

  "Fuck, fuck, fuck..." I chanted softly, wrapping my arms around myself. If he hurt Mr. Cadmus, I'd never forgive myself. Or Chase.

  Sanders looked pensive for a moment. "He was carrying an athletic bag with him, if that allays any fears."

  Galen hung up the phone and sat back. "It does, actually. Thank you, Sanders, for your attention to detail."

  Sanders bowed his head. "Happy to be of assistance. I'll be back with your tea."

  I studied Galen's face. "You don't think he went to the hospital."

  Galen shook his head and took my hand in his. "I know where he is. He'll be out for a while, but he's not going near the hospital." I frowned at him, but he didn't elaborate. Instead, he pulled me in for a hug. "Forget about him for a little while. Let him work some of the asshole off." I could hear a rumble in his chest as he spoke, a feral note utterly unlike anything I'd ever heard from him. It sent a little thrill up my spine.

  "I don't like it," I grumbled, sinking into his embrace.

  "Chase has a lot of excellent qualities," Galen said in a flat tone that did not support his assertion. "Healthy management of his emotions is not one of them."

  I snuggled closer to Galen. "He said you helped him work through a lot of toxic masculinity issues?"

  Galen chuckled. "Yeah, that's one way to put it. Another way is that I kicked him in the ass whenever he acted like a fuckhead. Which was a lot." He ran a hand over his hair and shook his head. "Chase's father was a dick. He hated everything about Chase because Chase refused to fall in line like a good little soldier. So, he tried to crush that out of him. Verbal abuse, beatings, the whole nine. He had Chase convinced that any emotional display was weakness, and any weakness was punished as harshly as he could dole out. By the time Chase got to the Proving Grounds, he was hard. Wouldn't smile, wouldn't socialize, wouldn't talk to you unless spoken to, and then it was two-word answers at best."

  I looked up at Galen. "How the hell did you two become friends?"

  Galen smirked. "I love a challenge. I saw him sitting in the cafeteria by himself and sat down across from him. Just started talking at him about random shit. He ignored me. Next day, same thing, this time asking him some questions about himself. Got a couple of words out of him, but he still pretty much ignored me." He smiled softly. "All the pretty girls at that school, and I sat myself across from Mr. Stoic, day after day, talking to a wall, getting maybe two words back."

  I smiled at that. "Waste of perfectly good flirting time?"

  "Damn right." He grinned, unrepentant. "But then, at the end of the second week, he finally cracked. 'Why the hell do you keep coming over here?' he asks me. I looked at him, he looked at me... and I didn't have a good answer. I just said, 'You looked like you needed it.'"

  "What did he do?" I asked.

  Galen chuckled. "He started to curse me out, standard macho bullshit, 'I don't need you, I don't need anyone, I just need to be left alone,' yada yada. And I sat there, and I took it, until he ran out of ranting and just sat there glaring at me. I asked him, 'You done?' and he stared at me like I had two heads. Then I asked him what he thought about the Patriots' chances that year."

  "What did he say to that?"

  "That they were going to shit the bed again." Galen laughed. "I defended their honor, he countered with their record, and we had our first actual conversation."

  I kissed him on the cheek. "You're a great person," I murmured in his ear.

  He shrugged with an embarrassed smile. "Yeah, well. I don't like seeing people without friends. And Eldest knows he needed one. O
nce I got him to talk to me, it all came out. All the fears, all the insecurities, all the doubts about why we were there and what we were expected to do with our lives. He was so angry. Angry about everything. I just listened to him, shared my own fears, and did my best to help him figure out how to channel that anger into something that would actually do something besides fester in him. We did a lot of sparring, a lot of getting into trouble with the teachers, a lot of sneaking out to the woods and climbing shit just so we didn't have to be locked up. And we did a lot of talking. Girls, parents, politics, you name it." He grew somber. "Then, he got himself kicked out. I guess I'd encouraged him to open up a little too much. Once he opened up, the floodgates wouldn't close again. Talking politics with me was one thing, but then he had the chance to actually unload on Schulte herself and he took it."

  I nuzzled into his shoulder. "You can't blame yourself for that."

  Galen chuckled. "Oh no, that was totally Chase. Honestly, it was the best thing for him." He shifted, wrapping his arm around me a little tighter. "His dad threw him out and he went to live with an uncle who wasn't a total asshat. He and I were pen pals until we hit college age, then we roomed together. Raised a lot of hell, got our associate’s degrees in our respective fields, then we got the call from the Elders and wound up searching for you. The rest, as they say, is history."

  "You've been a good influence on him. I... I never would have thought..." I thought about Chase, how he'd been up until this week. Always at my back. Always supportive. Full of encouragement. My coach. My cheerleader. My friend.

  Galen felt me tense and kissed my hair. "We've all got our damage. Some of us hide it better than others." He nuzzled the top of my head. "He still has that stubborn pride in him. That damage runs deep. Everyone's allowed to have emotions but him."

  Reflexively, I glanced at Aric. He was watching us cuddled on the sofa with a wistful look about him. He caught me looking and the disaffected mask slammed back down. Aric wore his damage like a badge of honor, caring entirely too much that we knew he didn't care. I thought about Cass and his nascent confidence. I thought about myself and the walls that the boys were constantly breaking down.

  I snuggled into Galen. "So, what's your deep dark damage?" I murmured.

  He snorted. "I'm secretly a vampire. I vant to suck your blood." He nipped at my neck.

  I laughed. "Dork. I'll get it out of you eventually."

  "I'm counting on it." The nip became a kiss. "One of these days."

  I chewed my lip absently.

  "Still worried about Chase?" Galen asked, his breath warm against my neck.

  Guilt mingled with my concern. "Yeah."

  Galen nudged me off him and stood up. "Come on. I'll take you to him."

  I stood and turned to Aric. "Give the Elders a call when you guys find what you're looking for. Alpha Squad too. I have a feeling we're going to need a lot of backup."

  Aric looked at me like I'd suggested he should swallow all the arsenic.

  I sighed. "Or call me and I'll call them. Jesus."

  Aric rolled his eyes. "I've got it. Whatever. I'll call them."

  I leaned over and kissed him. "Thank you."

  "Really, it's no imposition."

  I kissed him again.

  "I just love talking to the Elders and my brother every chance I get."

  I grabbed him by the back of the head and stuck my tongue in his mouth. He gave a little noise of approval and relaxed into the kiss.

  "Okay, yer maj, you win," he sighed against my lips. "Go deal with Tall, Dark, and Brooding. We've got it under control here."

  Chapter Seventeen

  "This is a gym? It looks like..." I looked around at the equipment. Tall wooden structures, cages made out of thick steel pipe, and hip-height wooden trestles filled the former warehouse. A maze of balance beams wove around one end. "It looks like the most awesome playground ever, to be honest."

  I watched as a young woman deftly made her way up, around, and through one of the bar cages using only her arms and her midsection, with her legs as a counterbalance. It was possibly the most graceful display I'd ever seen. When she reached the top, she sat down on a bar and waved at us.

  "Are you here for the beginner's class?" she asked, as though sitting twenty feet off the ground on a narrow steel bar was a day at the office.

  "We're looking for Chase," Galen replied.

  The woman glanced over her shoulder. "You... might not want to disturb him right now. He seems to be... working out something." There was a note of fear in her voice.

  Galen sighed. "I know. That's why we're here."

  "Oh." She slid off the bar, did a forward roll over another bar, caught the backs of her knees on the next rung down, and flip-flopped her way to the ground. "He's back by the warped wall. You'll hear him before you see him. He's kind of... growling a lot. We've all been giving him the run of the gym." She laughed a little nervously. "I've kinda been afraid he's going to bite someone."

  Galen and I exchanged a worried look.

  Galen forced a smile. "Thanks. We'll take it from here." The woman's shoulders relaxed a touch, and she smiled gratefully as she went back to twisting around her bar cage.

  We made it about ten feet before we heard him. A thump. A loud grunt. A snarl, fierce and feral. The clang of metal bars knocking together. Another growl.

  I hesitated for a moment. Galen looked back at me and tried to look reassuring.

  "He's not going to want to see me," I said softly.

  Galen's eyes grew hard for a second, but not at me. He glared in the direction of the sounds, then turned a gentler gaze back to me. He took my hands in his. "He doesn't get to treat you like this," he said firmly. "He's apologizing. Now."

  "I... that isn't why I came," I protested.

  "No," Galen said. He released my hands. "That's why I came."

  I started to protest again, but Galen rounded the corner and stepped into Chase's line of sight.

  "Hey dickhead," he called.

  I heard a grunt, but no reply. I turned the corner and stood behind Galen.

  Chase was dangling from a ledge by his fingertips, his feet pressed into the wall below. He didn't look at us. Frankly, considering the precarious position he was in, I didn't particularly want him to. In a move that made my heart stop, he pushed off the wall and twisted his body to catch a horizontal pole on the nearest bar cage, five feet below his starting point. I could see the muscles in his shoulders tense as he swung below the bar, arching his body and launching himself forward into the air. He twisted again, catching another bar. This time, he halted himself mid-swing, catching the bar at hip-height and supporting himself with his arms.

  My eyes wandered over his form as he strained. I couldn't help but remember the feel of those arms around me, pulling me close to those powerful pecs. I felt myself reacting to the thought, warmth spreading through my core and pooling between my legs. It had only been a couple of hours since I'd last been in his arms, but it felt like an eternity. I looked at his face, impassive, refusing to acknowledge our presence. My heart sank. It might as well have been an eternity. I felt tears welling in my eyes but blinked them back.

  This isn't about me.

  Galen took one look at me and his brow furrowed. His fists clenched at his sides. It was his turn to growl. He swung a fist into the side of a wooden box next to Chase's bar cage. Chase's head snapped around, finally acknowledging him.

  "Down here. Now." My eyes widened a little at Galen's tone. Gentle, jovial, friendly Galen had left the building. In his place was a white-hot tower of fury. I took a small step back. My heart pounded, whether from fear or arousal I wasn't quite sure. His eyes flashed with an intensity I'd never seen.

  Chase's deep blue eyes were near-black, narrowed with annoyance and a fury of his own. "Get fucked," he snarled. "I don't want anything to do with either of you right now."

  "Tough shit. We're here. We're talking. Now." Galen rested a hand on one of the bars. "Are you coming down, or
am I coming up and dragging you down?"

  Chase closed his eyes and clenched his jaw. I could see the pulse at his throat as he strained to hold himself up. Finally, he lowered himself down and swung, hand over hand, to where we stood. He hit the mat below with a solid thump.

  "What!” It wasn't a question. It was a demand. He glared straight into Galen's eyes, not even glancing at me. "What the fuck do you want?"

  Galen didn't answer. He just stared back at him malevolently.

  "This isn't about Lina, is it?" Chase's voice was flat.

  Galen slowly shook his head. I opened my mouth to speak, to tell Chase that we'd gotten a lead, to break this horrible tension between them. Galen raised a hand to silence me. I closed my mouth and stepped back another step, not wanting to get between the two friends any more than I already was.

  Chase took a step back toward the bar cage. "If it's not about her, then I don't..."

  Galen stepped forward and gave Chase a good solid shove to the chest. Chase's back hit the bars hard enough to make him wince. I gasped out loud and took a step forward, torn between stepping in and seeing where this was going. This wasn't the Galen I knew. Or was it?

  "You do not get to treat her like this," Galen hissed into Chase's face.

  Chase planted his hands on Galen's shoulders and shoved him back. "She..."

  Galen stepped right back into Chase's face. "No. You listen to me. You do not get to treat her this way. You are her FUCKING MATE now. You don't get to fuck her then abuse her because your butt's hurt."

  The color drained from Chase's face at the word 'abuse.' "I..." he protested, staggering back a step. His back connected with the bars again.

  "Wait a minute," I protested.

  Galen wasn't going to hear it from either of us. "No. I get it. You hate that you're not in control. You hate that she's right. You hate everything about this situation." He gripped a fistful of Chase's tank top and hauled him nose-to-nose. "But you don't get to hate her. She doesn't deserve that, and you FUCKING know it."

  "I..." Chase's mouth moved wordlessly for a moment. I could see him deflating, sinking back against the bars. "I don't..."