by Heather Long
“Hey,” I countered, tapping his chest. “You started it. You locked me in my room like I was a child.”
“No, I locked you in like you are something far too precious to lose because you’re still very young and wildly impulsive and—”
“A lot smarter and stronger than you thought.” I couldn’t help it. Smugness invaded me. He was proud of me. It was right there in his eyes, and he shook his head as he carried me over to the bathing pool. He could have dropped me in, but he just settled me in the water.
“You are brilliant,” he murmured, his voice so low, I thought I had to have misheard. “Your mind fascinates me, but what you did… The prison was bad enough, if the shadow demon got his hands on you…”
I sank into the warm water and laughed. “Oh, he did.”
Then I ducked my face under the water to soak my hair, and as I emerged, I found a scowling, pissed off Alfred staring at me.
I don’t know why it made me laugh, but this asshole really had endeared himself to me.
“Explain,” he ordered.
Leaning back against the stone, I said, “He did get his hands on me. He even kissed me…”
Fin groaned.
The air went both icy and hot in the same moment and a growl rumbled from Maddox, but it was Rogue I stared at. His blue eyes had gone icy and shimmering.
“That wasn’t an explanation, that was a provocation.” Alfred’s tone hadn’t changed one way or the other. But there was a muscle ticking in his jaw.
“Beautiful,” Fin said as he grinned at me. “Stop taunting them and tell them what happened. We just got back, and I don’t want to have to deal with the fallout if Alfred and Rogue decide to level that prison.”
A shiver went through me. “You’d do it, wouldn’t you?” I searched both their faces, and it was Alfred who bent to the pool and braced one hand on the side and slid the other to my nape, forcing my head back so I had to meet his eyes.
“Yes, you’re mine. Anything that touches you…I will destroy.”
Okay, that should not make me feel so content, but I grinned. “I burned him, Alfred.”
At his raised eyebrows, I glanced over at Rogue. He was preparing a plate, but had paused all motion and seemed riveted on me. So I explained about entering willingly so the prison couldn’t hold me, and while neither of them rolled their eyes, they did look a little doubtful. The first kiss had startled him, but the second had lit me up and I’d burned him.
As I explained that part, Alfred’s eyes narrowed and he glanced over to Maddox and Fin.
“Yeah, she glowed,” Fin said as he stretched his arms up. “And you saw the wings.”
“What wings?”
“Your wings, Kitten,” Maddox grinned at me. “Shadow wings. Though the rest of you glowed ethereal light.”
“We’ll circle back to that,” Alfred said after a moment. “What happened to the shadow demon?”
That was the best part, and I grinned. “I don’t know what I did but I didn’t want him hurting Fin, so I pumped all the energy I had flowing through me into him, like he tried with his shadows, and it seemed to break him—he went almost human and there was jagged silver in his shadowy eyes. I was kind of a badass. Rescued my dragon and my druid, and took out the warden. Or at least, hurt him a lot.”
“Hmm, you were amazing, my fierce little hellion.” Alfred pressed a kiss to my forehead. “But your druid and your dragon were right where they planned on being. So I don’t know if your rescue went as you planned…”
“Wait,” I said with a frown. “What?”
“You had to tell her?” Fin grumped. “Thanks.”
“You’re welcome,” he told them as I stared from one to the other. “Next time you decide to go hunting for information and using yourselves as bait, tell her. I guessed. She didn’t believe me that you would be fine.”
“He’s right.” It was my turn to growl. “I didn’t believe him. I broke out of here and ran away to get you, and you wanted to be there?”
“Kitten…” Maddox began.
Rogue slid onto the edge of the pool and held a drink out to me. “You need to eat, little sváss, then we will hold them so you can beat them for worrying you so.”
Oh, there was going to be a beating. I glared between the two and finally locked my gaze on Maddox. It was his pain that tortured me. “Explain.”
CHAPTER 6
“It’s not what happens to you, but how you react that matters.” - Epictetus
ROGUE
I gnoring the dark look Fin shot his way, Rogue ran his fingers through Fiona’s soaking wet hair. There were snarls and tangles he loosened with very little effort.
“I’m waiting.” She snapped out the two words, her attention focused on Maddox. A reasonable direction for her anger. He was the one she’d mated first, after all. Mated. Trusted. And while Rogue understood the strategy and even the reasoning behind their actions, she didn’t. Not yet.
Alfred and he had both tried to assure her they would be fine, but his little sváss’ heart proved far too open, despite the prickly and biting exterior.
“Eat,” he murmured almost under his breath. As fierce and warrior-like as she’d looked half-covered in blood and soot from the battle, he hadn’t missed the hollows in her cheeks or the over-brightness in her eyes. The battle had taken more out of her than she’d admitted, and she’d also fed both Fin and Maddox after their incarceration. It was why he’d agreed with Alfred she needed to feed on him.
Rogue would make sure she ate food, and then he’d feed her blood as well. A week. She’d evaded them for a week. He and Alfred had damn well known where she was heading, but the fact she’d managed to stay hidden had been a sharp if irritating surprise. If she could stay hidden from them, in all likelihood, she could avoid those hunting her.
But there was no doubt at all that Cyril and the others wanted her eradicated, and her going off on her own could have had far deadlier consequences. Maddox and Fin both knew this, yet they’d kept that crucial bit of information from her, and she was far too stubborn and headstrong to listen when compelled by a far more primal nature than any of them possessed.
Well, at least that they’d possessed any longer. Maddox would have been the same if it was his mate. Fin had proven it when he’d found out she was in the prison in the first place.
With a huffed sigh, Maddox said, “We needed to know who among the Seven sent the shadow demon after you. We knew it had to be one of them. We’d tracked nearly all of them…” He glared at Fin as if the druid were the one who’d had the insane idea. As likely as that was, Maddox still went along with it, so Rogue had very little sympathy for the dragon’s predicament. “Between us, we decided that allowing our capture would give us a chance to see what they would do.”
“Why?” Fiona demanded. “They could have executed you.”
“Yes and no, Beautiful,” Fin said, not pausing to let her argue that point. “We’re a lot harder to kill than you might think for one, and for another…”
“They’re leverage,” Alfred answered for them as he joined them, a goblet of spiced wine in one hand. He held it out to her, and she wrinkled her nose like she’d smelled something awful, and he frowned. So did Rogue.
Last he’d checked, she liked the wine.
“Then they would have tried to use them against you?” Fiona asked, glancing up at Alfred this time as he set the wine aside. Rogue didn’t bother to hide his smile at the twin looks of shock on Maddox and Fin’s faces. Alfred had done a fair amount to win her over, though not enough, or she wouldn’t have fled them. Then again, maybe she would have.
If nothing else, he had to accept that her very nature demanded independence. Still…
“Perhaps,” Alfred told her. “They might have used it more to guarantee their distance should they try to bring the fight to me.”
Nose still wrinkled, Fiona snorted. “You were hardly struggling against them today.”
“Hmm,” he replied almost noncommit
tally. “Then why did you rush to my defense, Hellion?”
“Because you’re my asshole.”
Alfred’s pleased smile made Rogue laugh. Only Fiona could turn an insult into a compliment.
“Besides,” she continued, expression sobering as she glared over at the pair in question. “I felt your pain.” All at once, what humor there was to be found in the situation evaporated. There was no mistaking the very real anguish in her voice. “That’s how I knew something was wrong, even before that stupid bitch brought the warning.”
“Stupid bitch?” Fin asked.
“Eleanor,” Alfred supplied. “Synove sent her with a message.”
Maddox pushed away from his side of the pool and came straight to Fiona. Rogue didn’t back off, but continued to work his fingers through the tangles in her hair. Periodically, he’d scratch his fingers over her scalp, and it would loosen some of her tension. Not all of it, not when she kept getting angry all over again.
“Kitten…”
“Were you really in pain?”
Grimacing, the dragon gathered one of her hands in his, but Rogue and Alfred both glared. She was barely eating anything, so he gave a near silent huff before picking up one of the croissants and offering it to her. The stare-off between the two was impressive, but she finally opened her mouth and took the bite, even as she rolled her eyes.
“The pain was necessary,” Maddox said slowly, but there were lines etched around his eyes that told Rogue what he would say next before he even spoke the words. “I didn’t imagine you would feel it.”
“She’s your mate,” Rogue reminded him. “She claimed you, even before she allowed your claim. What part of mating had you forgotten?”
That earned him a baleful look that didn’t impress Rogue. Nor would he back down from the implied challenge. “I would never have allowed her to come to real harm.”
“But you did,” Rogue reminded him. “Something we didn’t quite understand because we worried she might be overreacting, but I don’t think she was anymore.” For that, he would apologize to her personally. But later, when they were alone.
“I’m aware,” Maddox growled, this time at him. “I’ve never mated before, and it didn’t occur to me she would feel it…” Rogue wasn’t the one he needed to be saying this to, a fact he seemed to recognize himself as he looked down at Fiona again. “I’m sorry, Kitten. Truly.”
She gave a little shrug, and it crushed Maddox some. If Rogue read her right, she was about to let him off the hook. The dragon had made a mistake and now he wanted to make up for it, but her not allowing him to would be even a worse punishment.
“You not knowing seems fair,” she said slowly. “After all, I told you succubi don’t mate.”
“You’re not a succubus anymore,” Maddox reminded her, disgruntlement in his voice and a sour look on his face that seemed more self-directed. Which was just as well, because Rogue did not believe that a fight right now was what Fiona needed.
Alfred, on the other hand, cleared his throat and Maddox scowled at him, all blazing heat and furious indignation.
“I wasn’t scolding her.”
“Good.”
Fin bit back a snicker, and Rogue flicked his fingers and sent a jolt of ice right into the hot water. The druid’s jerk brought his rounded gaze to Rogue, and the smirk on his face fell away.
Right, no laughing. I need to make it up to her as well.
Rogue nodded at him once.
For what it’s worth…the vision. It all happened. Maybe not exactly as I saw it, but close enough.
Worry spiked through him, and though he continued to stroke Fiona’s hair and half-listen to Maddox’s quiet assurances and apologies, he focused on Fin. How much?
Enough. The wording seemed off, but I was hurt and poisoned.
Lifting his gaze to the ceiling, he sighed.
I know. The last time they whipped me, they must have laced the leather cords. Fin shook his head. But she said the words, she wouldn’t let me die, and then she fed me and drained the poison.
Rogue slanted a look at the redhead, who had tilted her head as he combed his fingers through her hair. The dragon had fed her most of that stuffed croissant, and Alfred already had another ready.
Bring Alfred into this conversation.
The fallen angel glanced at him, then over at Fin. Not here. Not in front of her.
Fair.
Then after. We need to know.
He gave the curtest of nods, and Maddox shifted his focus to him for a moment and then scowled. “Kitten…”
“Not now,” Alfred repeated aloud.
“Yes. Now.” Maddox glared at him but almost immediately focused on Fiona. “No more secrets.”
“I don’t have any secrets,” she snapped back and then bopped him on the nose. The act was so comical that even Maddox’s fierce frown gave way to a smile.
“Not your secrets, Kitten. Ours.”
Fin groaned.
“I haven’t forgotten about you,” she said, leaning to look sideways at Fin.
“Good,” he retorted with a flash of a smile. “I’ll present myself for you to tan my ass as soon as Alfred and Rogue are done with yours.”
“Who said I was spanking her?” Rogue demanded, and Fiona glanced up at him, biting her lower lip. For a second, she looked so painfully young and earnest, even if her eyes sparked with pure mischief. “Little sváss, if you want me to spank you, all you have to do is ask. However, I won’t ever do it as a punishment.”
“Oh.”
No, he could think of other ways to punish that would be far more pleasing. Though honestly, he had a small measure of a struggle at the flicker of disappointment in her eyes.
“I have to ask?”
“No,” Alfred answered for him. “I’ll take care of it.”
Her laughter, warm and husky, filled the room and she sighed.
“Am I forgiven, Kitten?”
“Almost,” she told him.
“Almost?” If a dragon could sound crestfallen, the noise Maddox made would be it.
“Exactly, consider almost your punishment for worrying me.” Then she took any possible sting out of it with a kiss. But instead of stealing away with her, Maddox let her go after a slow, scorching kiss with a sigh.
“Then we had best discuss the rest in case I have more to make up for.”
“Finish bathing, Hellion, then we’ll take this somewhere more comfortable.” Alfred’s tone suggested there would be a real fight if Maddox or Fin argued with him. Rogue had no such objections. The bathing room was good for her, but between the hot pools and the fire, it was uncomfortable for him after a time.
More surprising than Maddox and Fin accepting Alfred’s unspoken threat was the fact that Fiona didn’t argue. She shifted to move for the soap and the shampoo, and he was forced to leave her hair alone. Instead, he examined his brothers as Fin rose from the water. The marks left on his arms and back had faded significantly, but even the pale pink of them suggested how bad they’d been.
For his part, Maddox looked tired, but he also bristled like his dragon was dangerously close to the surface. To be fair, he and his dragon were more often one in the same, the dragon in the human’s skin and the human in the dragon’s scales. But this was different.
Mating had changed him.
Changed all of them.
There was a peace to Alfred, a resoluteness that had never been there before. His reaction to her disappearance had been profoundly and dangerously quiet. They’d gone after her, and when they hadn’t tracked her immediately, Alfred had simply cleared coven after coven of vampires—all those loyal to the ones allying against them.
Rogue had no objections. They’d gotten out of hand in recent centuries. It was more than time to cull back the worst of the worst. This hadn’t been about culling. It had been about eliminating threats. The other members of the Seven had added a fresh bounty to Fiona’s head. While vampires older than her might still find her a tough target, enough
of them could overwhelm and that was not an option.
When she finished washing up and all traces of blood and soot were gone from her skin, Rogue swept a gaze over her as she rose from the water. He wasn’t the only one looking for signs of injury. There was a hint of bruising along one arm and on her hip. No scrapes or broken skin. More, there was no hint of shadow taint on her to mar the shimmer. Even in the warm-lit gloom of the bathing room, she shimmered faintly.
Glowing.
Yes, he’d seen her outside the prison—the pure light she’d radiated and the shadow wings stretching out from her back. Even her deep red hair had taken on a more vibrant sheen, and when she’d looked away for the briefest of moments, her eyes had been purely luminescent, jewels given life.
Not that she hadn’t always been beautiful, because she had. Beautiful. Stubborn. Irritating. She dug in deep, refusing to be dislodged with her hotheaded impetuousness. Now?
Now she was exquisite in a way Rogue couldn’t even begin to define. Fin and Maddox both dressed in the clothes that had been left for them. It was Maddox who held out a robe and wrapped her in it before he scooped her up. She’d rolled her eyes and slapped his chest because she was fine, but he’d only nipped her ear and murmured something that had her laughing before he carried her up with the rest following.
They’d gone to the library, where fires awaited them, along with hot tea and more food. Fiona had only rolled her eyes as Maddox settled in a chair with her in his lap, and the rest dragged seats over to join them. Rogue plucked her away from Maddox when he was distracted and he scowled, but Fiona only wrapped her arms around Rogue and he curled her closer.
When he’d helped her escape, to spread her then metaphorical wings, he’d known where she was. Yes, he’d told her he wouldn’t be able to track her, but he’d known exactly where she would go, just as Fin had. He’d been able to keep his distance and check on her—discreetly—even as Alfred and Maddox had raged at him.
This time?
No, this time, he’d had a taste of the cool gray overwhelming his world once again in her absence. He would not willingly return to that half-state. One he hadn’t even realized he’d been living in for so long.
