“I can second that,” Mindy said with a nod.
“What do I do now?” Ryder asked. He’d do anything to hold her, to say sorry in a million ways.
“Fate already brought you back to her,” Taylor said. “Now you just need to find her and make things right again.”
Ryder nodded.
Damn, he’d been a fool. A fool for ignoring his past even when she’d tried to warn him. A fool for not listening to her when she’d tried to explain everything. A fool for running.
He had a lot of groveling to do.
“Is she in her office? I’ll go find her,” Ryder said.
Taylor looked confused. “Her office? She never came in this morning. I figured she was back at her apartment or maybe at your place.”
“I’ll call the front desk of her building and see,” Mindy said, picking up her phone and dialing. A minute later, she shook her head. “Nope, our guard there hasn’t seen her since yesterday morning.” She looked at her phone. “Kira’s not picking up her cell either. Maybe it’s just dead.”
Already, it was approaching noon. All Ryder remembered was leaving her safe at the hotel and telling her to go home.
A rising sense of dread was starting to build inside him.
What if she’d gone back to that lab instead?
“Shit.” Ryder shook his head. They’d both thought the last facility was empty. But if everything was fine, why wasn’t she picking up her phone? It wasn’t too far of a drive, but maybe she’d just taken a short break and stopped somewhere.
Maybe she was fine…
Something at the back of his mind told him otherwise.
Suddenly, there was a cough in the room, and Ryder looked up to realize that it hadn’t come from Taylor or Mindy.
Everyone looked at the back of the room from where the sound had come, but there was only a big leather chair sitting behind Taylor’s desk.
“How long have you been there… Vex?” Taylor said, folding his arms.
The chair disappeared in a puff of smoke, revealing the shape of an annoyed-looking Vexxus.
“Dammit, and I was making such a convincing chair too,” she said, frowning.
“How did you get in here?” Taylor looked like he couldn’t believe what he was seeing. “I’m under orders to apprehend you on sight.”
“Ha, a fairy never reveals her secrets,” she replied haughtily. “And apprehend me? I would like to see you try it.”
Taylor just shrugged. “I mean, I hear my chaos fire is very painful…”
Vex just glared at him as if daring him to go ahead.
Taylor’s expression softened, and he let out a sigh. “Look, just tell me why you’re here, and maybe I can let this slide.”
Vex folded her arms imperiously and nodded at Ryder. “I was spying on those two last night when I overheard them get in an argument. I thought if they broke up, I might convince the radiant fae to join me after all. But then this guy took off, and I was kind of worried about him because he wasn’t flying right. Once you got here and passed out, I went back to try and talk to Kira.”
“And?” Ryder asked.
Vex shrugged. “I got there early this morning and saw her heading up into the mountains, heading for that lab. I figured I’d let her take care of business and meet her here.”
“But she’s not here,” Taylor said, sounding as nervous as Ryder felt.
Vex’s purple eyes flickered with rare seriousness. “Right, and since she still hasn’t shown up, I’m guessing my instincts were right and the light fae showed up early. So your mate is probably in big trouble.” She cocked her head. “Shame.”
“Shit!” Ryder’s wings were ready to burst from his back. He’d fly as fast as he could.
But even so, would it be too late?
He rushed for the door, then felt a hand pulling him backward, tugging on his jacket. He whirled around, expecting Taylor, but instead saw Vex holding him back effortlessly.
“What are you doing? Let me go! I need to help her!”
“You poor, sappy, broken dragon. Ever since I saved Dallin, it’s like I can’t stop helping saps, even against my own better judgment.”
“Stop talking in riddles.”
“Fine. I’ll give you a portal back there. It’s the fastest way.”
Ryder finally relaxed, and she let him go.
“You know that’s dangerous, Ultraviolet,” Taylor said. “The light fae are hunting you harder than anyone else right now. Which means they’ll be watching for your portals. If they find it and follow your signature, they could track you down.”
Vexxus waved a hand dismissively, though Ryder got the impression she already knew what Taylor was talking about.
“Eh, what’s a few more light fae on my trail anyways? If it can help this sad, pathetic casserole of a dragon—”
“Don’t call me that,” Ryder said.
“If I can help this dragon, then so be it.” Vex shrugged. “After all, I like Kira. Would be a waste to let that kind of power fall into the hands of the enemy. Not to mention, she’d make a powerful ally.”
Ryder wasn’t sure if this was a sacrifice or a tactical move. No one really knew when it came to Vex.
He was just grateful for the help.
“Thank you, Vex,” Ryder said, and she rolled her eyes.
“Don’t go getting all sappy on me. You dragons are all the same like that. Just do right by my new fairy friend, and we’re even.”
Ryder nodded. Once he had Kira back with him again, safe, he’d make sure and do right by her for the rest of their lives. For forever.
Vexxus flicked her hand, and a swirling portal appeared. “This should take you where you need to go. Keep an eye out for interlopers, though.”
Taylor and Mindy gave Ryder an encouraging glance, and he took a deep breath before striding forward. Around him, the SRP disappeared, though he could hear Taylor and Vexxus arguing over something as the portal shut behind him.
“Put down my candy tray,” Taylor exclaimed gruffly.
“It’s mine now. I demand tribute,” Vex retorted.
“Whatever. I need to go help him,” Taylor said. “Mindy, we’re going, right?”
But everything else vanished behind Ryder as he flew forward into swirling purple darkness, readying himself for whatever he was about to face.
After seeing the demons of his past and coming out alive, Ryder knew there was nothing that could stop him from protecting his mate.
They would have the life they’d always wanted, together under the sun, finally free.
Free from worries that the past would catch up, free from fear.
He just hoped he found her in time.
18
Kira couldn’t say she was glad to see her old co-workers.
It had been a mistake coming back to the lab without Ryder. But even if things were over between them, she knew she had to finish what they’d started.
She just wished she’d remembered what Vex had said about the light fae possibly showing up early.
Right now, the lab felt more like a warehouse, with light fae in shimmering white robes walking here and there, bringing deliveries from a glowing blue portal that hummed as they came in and out.
In front of her was her old boss, Tyndel, the light fae in charge of the main lab and the head of the DFH experiments.
A nasty piece of work. His cruelty and lust for power made him far more monstrous to her than any of his experiments.
“You don’t have any choice but to help us,” Tyndel said, folding his arms as he continued to pace in front of her.
For the moment, she stayed in the chair he’d led her to. He’d been berating her for hours, trying to get her to rejoin their cause, but she’d stood firm.
No matter her intentions, she would never again assist the people who hurt Ryder. She still couldn’t breathe when she thought about the pain in his eyes. The betrayal.
The way he’d brushed away anything about their love.
&nb
sp; She probably deserved it since she should have pushed the issue sooner… but she’d just gone along with the flow with Ryder since she’d been so overjoyed to even see him alive again.
And then they’d fallen together, all over again, and that had been wonderful too. But what had she thought was going to happen? That he’d never remember? That he’d be fine? She didn’t know.
All she knew was she was never, ever going to put herself in a gray area again.
“No,” she said. “I already told you. I left, and I’m never coming back.”
Tyndel scowled at her. “So the soft little radiant fae grew a spine. How droll.”
She ignored him, folding her arms and looking away.
Tyndel let out a growl as he stepped forward, grabbing her chin. A shock of fear went through her. After all, she’d been with him and the others since she was almost a child. Before, he’d had power over her.
But he didn’t anymore.
“Don’t touch me,” she said.
Surprisingly, he stepped back. “I don’t know why you’re making this difficult. You know you belong here. You don’t think anyone in that world is actually going to accept you, do you? They’re just using you while they can.”
Tears bit at her eyes, and she fought them back. He was wrong. “I don’t care,” she said. “No is no.” She stood out of the chair, shoving him back with her fae strength and turning away.
Tyndel let out a hiss. “Fine. We’ll do it the hard way. You’ll wish you agreed on your own.”
There was a loud roar, and Kira turned around in shock as chaos broke out around the blue portal and something came through that was almost too big to fit.
It was a giant cage, maybe fifteen feet high, with iron bars that were close together and wheels on the bottom so it could be easily moved.
While Kira gaped, Tyndel walked over to the cage, which was now in the middle of the room. The rest of the fae had moved as far away from it as possible, giving the creature inside a wide berth.
Kira didn’t blame them.
“Isn’t he magnificent?” Tyndel clapped his hands together, staring with pride at his “achievement.”
Kira wanted to throw up as she stared at the man inside the cage. As if that were an adequate word for what he was.
He—or it—was at least seven feet tall, as large as any fae in true form she’d seen before. But around him, the nauseating stench of chaos filled the air like a barely visible cloud. And even though he looked like some demented fae, she got the impression he was neither fae nor dragon.
The towering, hulking beast of a person watched Kira from behind long, shaggy black hair. His eyes were dark purple, glowing menacingly. Beneath the tattered shirt and pants he wore, she could see dark lines moving along the veins in his muscular arms.
“With the data I accrued from previous experiments and your help, my DFH 3.0 should be unstoppable,” Tyndel crooned, always overeager to gloat about his work. “Quite a sight to behold, if I do say so myself.” He walked beside his newest project and patted it on the shoulder.
The monster growled, snapping forward as if to try and attack despite the cage. Tyndel backed away.
“What… is it?” Kira asked, trying to hold back a gag. Even with her radiant powers, this thing was overwhelming.
“It’s an improvement. Jarrah made the mistake of using a plain old silver dragon and simply adding chaos. A valiant effort but such a waste. I improved on the design by using a green fae, much stronger and more resilient to chaos energy. I thought the design was perfect, but 2.0 was too… good. Even fatal amounts of chaos couldn’t corrupt it fully.”
Because Ryder refused to become evil. Because he’s a good person, Kira thought to herself.
Even though she was surrounded, she kept looking around, seeing if there was any way she could escape.
Tyndel was standing in front of her, glowering, gray, smoky eyes implacable. “I hope you’re not concocting another escape like I think you are. After all, I have a use for you in all of this, radiant fae.”
“My name’s Kira.”
He scoffed, ignoring her. “Once I realized 2.0 would ultimately be a failure, I had my men capture a chaos dragon from the depths of the burning mountains. Such difficult creatures to catch, to tame. I thought to myself, ‘Why add chaos to a creature when you can just take a creature that already embodies chaos and add the necessary elements to make it unstoppable?’”
Kira thought of Ryder last night, how he’d flown away, tortured and in pain. She’d do anything to take away the pain in his eyes, to be held by him again.
But she had no clue where he was, and she was on the brink of disaster.
“So I found a dragon in the chaos realm, one who had chosen to be infected, one who liked doing bad. I’ve been adding fae blood, making him more powerful, more magical. But as you can see, 3.0 isn’t particularly… stable.”
As if on cue, 3.0 growled, staring at Kira before slanting a particularly hungry glare at her from behind his unkempt hair.
“So I’m going to make you bond with 3.0. After all, you kept 2.0 from dying even when we were practically trying to off him in the end. Somehow, your presence is the one variable I couldn’t calculate, though it all makes sense in hindsight.”
“What do you mean?” Kira asked.
“Love,” Tyndel said mockingly. “After all, I knew about your pathetic little romance. I merely allowed it to happen because I wanted to see what data I could collect. And when I was done, I allowed him to be transferred, knowing my scientists would finish him off, though it seems the opposite happened.”
Kira’s heart fell. She felt violated by anyone knowing about her and Ryder. Their private moments. Though, deep down, she’d always known anyone could be watching. And what Tyndel was saying about bonding sounded absolutely terrible.
Especially because the only man she could ever bond with was Ryder. She’d cared for every experiment, but he’d been her only love.
“As you can see, there’s no way you can win. I thought I’d have to go snatch you from the Shifter-whatever-Project myself, but you came right to me. How fortunate.” The glee in his gaze was disgusting.
As 3.0 leered at her, she grimaced but wondered if this was what she deserved for letting herself get involved with Ryder without insisting on telling him everything. All she’d wanted was to love him, but after seeing the hurt in his eyes, she’d known she’d gone about it the wrong way.
If only she could get out of this and see him again.
“What do you say, radiant fae?” Tyndel said, and when Kira tried to look away, his hand grabbed her chin, forcing her to look up. “If you comply, then maybe I won’t let 3.0 eat you when my work is complete.”
“No,” she said. “Never.”
“Fine,” he said. “Then I guess you’ll have to take a chance with him in his cage.”
Before Kira could protest, she felt herself dragged toward the cage and the animal inside it.
She fought, digging her feet in, but it was useless. Tyndel was so strong, and she was a radiant fae, not used to fighting.
But as he opened the cage door and flung her in, she looked up at the monster, the leer on his face, and decided she’d had enough.
She grabbed the monster by the arm and threw him through the cage door before Tyndel had a chance to shut it.
Then she tried to seal herself inside.
The monster let out a shriek and turned to face her. He took hold of the door of the cage and wrenched it off, then grabbed her by the throat, yanking her out.
She kicked out, hitting him in the leg, and he howled, releasing her for a moment. Just long enough for her to gather her strength and punch him so hard that he flew back and over the desks to hit the wall.
He slid down it with a slump but was up in a second, emitting a low growl.
“You think I wouldn’t fight you?” she yelled, hands clenched in fists. “You think I would accept anyone but my soul bond?” She shook her head. “Th
ere is only one dragon who can touch me. Only one I will bond with, and that’s not you.”
She felt something cold close over her wrist as all the power drained out of her. She slumped down, unable to feel her magic.
Goddamn it, they’d gotten her with a suppressor.
3.0 started walking toward her, brushing debris off his hands. “You’ll mate with one dragon, all right. Me.” He grinned. “Prove I’m better than 2.0 by taking his woman.” He glanced at Tyndel. “I like it.”
Kira crawled backward just as she thought she heard the faint sound of a voice. “I won’t let you do this.”
“Who’s going to stop me?” The dragon threw back his head and laughed, the sound horrible and grating.
“Kira!”
There. The voice again, louder and more distinct this time, from the cavernous hallway that led in from outside.
Kira and Tyndel both looked up simultaneously to see Ryder flying toward them, glowing green wings beating the air behind him with incredible speed. He flew into Tyndel, throwing an incredible punch that sent the light fae flying backward into a large stack of crates.
Kira just stared in shock at what had happened, then up at Ryder, who reached down easily and used a claw to break the suppressor on her arm.
Damn, he was strong.
“Run,” he said quickly.
Nearby, the other light fae moved into action, realizing the radiant fae they’d come for was about to escape. Ryder whirled on two of them, kicking both with one swipe of his leg. Behind her, Kira felt hands trying to pull her back, and she elbowed the fae holding her in the gut, staggering him before spinning and pushing him back with all her strength, sending him careening twenty feet away.
She took a step back just as Ryder did, and they bumped into each other, surrounded by more fae as they came.
“Fly for the exit?” Ryder asked.
“Let’s go,” Kira exclaimed, her pink wings exploding from her back, and both of them leaped off the ground.
But just as she went up, beside her, Ryder was yanked downward, and Kira looked below to see that 3.0 had somehow jumped high enough to grab Ryder’s leg.
Dragon Redeemed (Reclaimed Dragons Book 2) Page 13
