“Damian?” Jamison said, his voice spiked with worry.
“What’s that?” she asked, reaching up for his ear. He caught her wrist.
“An earpiece. Jamison’s been monitoring me.”
She turned pale. “Can he hear us?”
Damian laughed. “No,” he said, tucking himself down as he pulled his jeans up. “I’m not that perverted. Unless you wanted me to be, but even so, there’s issues of consent and—”
“You’re going, aren’t you?” She pushed herself up to sitting again. Her hair looked like a small tornado had hit it and her whole beautiful body was covered with the marks of his love.
“I shouldn’t be so rough with you.”
She ran her hands down her sides as if sealing them in. “I love it. I love you. Are you in danger?”
He ran a hand through his hair. “Around you? Always.”
“Five targets, Damian,” Jamison said in a serious tone. “I can see them coming in. I don’t know how it is that they’re getting to you though, it looks like they’re walking through buildings? Shit’s making me nervous, I’m sending in a crew….”
“Stop being a smart ass,” she said, grabbing his hoodie’s collar for his attention.
“Andi, I don’t want to worry—”
“Am I your mate or am I not?”
He snapped to. “You are,” he told her firmly.
“Then is this how you’re supposed to treat me?”
He glowered at her, angry—because she was right. “Hunters are on their way.”
“For you?” she asked, her voice going high.
“Who else would they be coming for?”
“Yeah, you missed some shit while you were gone.” Andi pushed him back and hopped off the counter to start pulling on her clothes.
He grabbed her arm. “Come with me.” All he had to do was take her away from here, back into his castle with him. Him tying her up in his closet was still a valid option.
Yes, his dragon agreed readily.
“No,” she said, stepping reluctantly back. “I think I’m hanging out with my brother tonight. He wants to show me my mom’s notes.”
“What?” Damian said, in far more stern a tone than he intended.
“Because it’s all fate or no fate, and I’m betting on no.” She gestured between them quickly. “This? This is real. And my brother? Is just a jackass. But if I participate in your fairytale ending, what’s that do for his? I don’t want any of it, Damian, I’ve told you that, repeatedly.”
“Damian, they’re just about on top of you….” Jamison’s voice was loud, insistent.
“We have to go now to keep you safe!” he shouted at her, then managed to find restraint from somewhere as he hissed, “I’m not letting you go, Andi.”
“And I’m not asking you to, this time! I can’t do that again, not to you or myself. So,” she said, taking another step back, “fucking call me or text me, like a grown-up, but don’t you dare fucking die.”
“What the fuck are you doing, man?” Jamison demanded.
It was clear she was staying behind, and he was going to have to leave her to protect her. Damian ripped the earpiece out of his ear, crushed it, and threw it against the wall. “You are killing me.”
“I’m a nurse; I would know if I were.” She grabbed hold of his arm and started dragging him down a narrow hall, propelling him into a strange small room, before pointing at a beautiful mosaic on one wall. It must have taken years to create. “That’s how Eumie got out. They stepped through it and disappeared.”
Damian grunted and frowned. “Then they were indeed Unearthly.” Now that he wasn’t target-locked on Andi and they were in the baker’s room, he could scent something of them beneath all the other strong fragrances of the bakery. An Unearthly hiding here made sense. He waved his hand against the wall—he could tell it was magical, but it didn’t respond to him. “Although that’s a type of magic that I don’t understand.”
“Fuck,” Andi said, tensing.
He scanned around the room, casting out with his dragon’s senses, and felt a much cooler area behind the decorated wall. “Don’t hate me,” he told Andi, and then punched a hole in it. Mosaic crumbled, showing the drywall behind, which he then kicked through—finding a cement lined service closet, with a metal plate on the ground, and a faint scent of sewer. “That’s my exit,” he said, stepping into the much smaller room, to lift up the metal lid.
“If you see them down there, give them my regards?” Andi tried to sound lighthearted but he could read the very real panic in her body, watching him. “I need you to stay safe, Damian,” she whispered, and he realized he’d never gotten the chance to explain his earlier gift to her either.
“That’s why I gave you that necklace, Andi. As long as there’s light in the stone, I’m yours.”
She gasped as her hand rose to her throat, and seeing her standing there flooded him with fresh desire. He stepped back into the bedroom to pull her to him and give her a kiss worth dying for, the kind where he owned her mouth, sucking with his lips and pushing with his tongue, feeling her melt against him as she went weak in the knees, until he relented slowly, dragging his teeth over her bottom lip before releasing it.
“I can’t lose you,” she said, pushing him away with only the strength of a kitten.
“You won’t. I swear,” he promised, watching her swoon, before stepping away to drop down the hole.
The tunnel beneath the bakery was dark, but he had no problem using his dragon’s senses to navigate it. It was an access tunnel offset for a sewer somewhere. He could scent the waste, and it was barely big enough for him to get through, but it explained why Jamison couldn’t figure out how the Hunters were coming for him—they were travelling underground. He heard someone’s soft cough from up ahead, and another person mutter, “This is disgusting.”
His dragon, who’d been close beneath his skin with Andi, hadn’t yet gone away.
We’re leaving her, it stated. Again.
Yes. But not permanently. Damian pressed his bulk against a damp, cool wall, still listening.
And you expect me to have patience. Again.
It would be nice if you could muster some, he told the beast sarcastically. Try it, you might like it.
I would prefer to be angry.
Damian fought back a laugh. I had fucking noticed.
The dragon made a thoughtful sound. So, we cannot be with her. But we are not fully going away. And the only thing that stands between us and her are more Hunters?
It was an oversimplification at best, but the beast was trying. Yes.
Like the Hunters down here with us?
Also, yes.
Can I take my anger out on them?
Damian put a hand to his chest, feeling the dragon’s power blossoming inside of him, as it used its ability to sense heat, pinpointing each and every one of the Hunters Jamison had warned him about in the dark.
Dragon, be my guest.
Damian walked into his home an hour later, after having left a large enough Uber tip for the driver to buy himself a new car. Jamison came down the stairs to see him, with Ryana close behind, carrying Grimalkin.
“Damian! What the hell happened out there?”
“Where are the others?” Damian asked, carefully taking off his hoodie. The thing was trashed which was upsetting because up until he’d had to go into the tunnel, it’d smelled like Andi.
“On their way back. By the time they’d gotten there the targets had stopped moving…which I took to mean that you’d killed them, despite the fact that your earpiece cut out. Did it break?” Jamison asked.
“You could say that,” Damian said, grinning.
“Brother, you stink.” Ryana’s lip curled. Grim bounced down from her arms toward him, bounced back with a disgusted mew! then disappeared. “Even your cat agrees.”
“The reason you couldn’t trace the Hunters was because they were in tunnels. The same tunnels I wound up using to escape. It wasn’t prett
y.”
Jamison’s brow rose. “What you did to them, or your surroundings?”
“Both?” Damian kept smiling while he pulled off his shirt. “I think it might be easier to just burn my clothes off of me. I’ve got to go shower.” He dodged around them and trotted up the stairs.
His shower was an indulgent thing. It felt like not only was he washing away the gross grit of the sewer, he was scrubbing off weeks of angst and pain, like he was peeling off a second skin, leaving only fresh new man behind.
The kind of man who knew that his mate loved him. He laughed, hit the wall of the shower just slightly lighter than the point at which it’d break, and whooped his joy, before getting out to dry himself off.
Coming into his bedroom, he found his sister sitting on the edge of his bed, with a hand over her eyes. “Are you decent?”
“Never,” he said, laughing, moving the towel he’d had draped around his shoulders to circle his waist. “Now,” he told her, and she lowered her hand.
“Somebody’s happy,” she told him. Her lips were fighting back an impish grin. “Don’t deny it.”
“I don’t want to.”
“Well?” She spun her hand between them, urging him on, as he went inside his closet to change.
“I saw Andi. And while technically it was a hugely bad idea, it was also the best thing I’ve done this century.” He pulled on jeans and leaned out the door. “Actually, in my whole life.”
“Do tell,” she said, crossing her legs and resting her hands on her knees.
“I finally told her we’re mates, Ry. And while she wasn’t maybe entirely enthusiastic about the concept, she loves me, and that’s good enough.”
“Uh-huh,” Ryana said, looking smug, and Damian narrowed his eyes at her.
“Are you judging me?”
“Perpetually!” she said with a laugh. “But no. I’m happy for you. And happier still that she was receptive.” She tilted her head as though she were waiting for him to say something else. His eyes narrowed.
“I’m scared to ask, but to what do I owe the pleasure of your current company, Ryana?”
“Remember how I said I’d find a place for myself if you didn’t?”
Damian thought back and remembered dimly—anything prior to his recent events with Andi felt like a lifetime ago. “Yes…we’ll work on that today. I think Zach’s idea is excellent.”
She waved it away. “Well, last night I sat around and thought, ‘How best can I be helpful?’ and then I thought, ‘Perhaps I’ll meet this Andi.’”
Damian was struck with horror. “When…wait…how?”
“Your stack of photos over there,” she said, gesturing behind her. “I can use a mirror as well as you, Damian. I concentrated on finding her, then I went to threaten her last night.”
“With what?” he asked, blindsided for a moment by the idea that Andi’s professed feelings for him might not be true. Then he thought back to the way her blood moved through her body as she sat beside him on the bus. There was no faking that or anything else they’d gone on to do.
“Death, of course. So any minute now, you can say ‘Thank you.’ Although, ‘Thank you, Ryana, who is the best sister in this world and all the others,’ has a certain ring to it.”
Damian blinked, and then laughed, roughing his hair with the towel again. “Thank you, Ryana. But I didn’t need you. Andi and I have fate on our side.”
Ryana demurred with a thoughtful sound. “Did you solve anything?”
“We solved absolutely nothing…and I don’t fucking care.” He shrugged, pulling on a shirt. “We’re mated. I know it. She knows it. Things will work out.” He watched her eyebrows arch as she rolled her eyes to the heavens. “What?”
“You can’t just rely on that, you know,” she said in an exasperated tone.
“Why not?”
“Because. You know who else was mated? Our dad and your mom. Did things ‘work out’ for them?”
Damian rocked his head back, remembering. “I’m a different man than he is, Ryana.”
She stood up and put an affectionate hand on his chest. “I know you are, brother. Just make sure of it.”
Andi went back to her apartment, each step feeling heavier than the next. She was worried about Damian, obviously, but it was also the increasing weight of all her realizations.
All the times when he’d told her that she was his only, or that no one else could make her feel this way, she’d assumed it was just braggadocio, words he’d said to win fights or to make her feel sexy.
But no.
He’d really, truly meant them.
They were true.
And so was he.
She rocked up on her toes and bit back a squeal of delight, before heading inside.
Sammy was in their kitchen on the other side of their short breakfast bar, munching on a bowl of cereal, looking worse for the wear.
“What’re you doing up?” Andi asked her.
“No reason,” Sammy chirped, despite her apparent exhaustion. “Is Eumie all right?”
“Yes, but, about that…they took off, for their own safety.” Andi set the spare key down on the counter. “We might not see them again for some time.”
Sammy blinked in disbelief. “For real?” she asked, and as Andi nodded, she went on. “That fucking sucks.” She put down her cereal bowl slowly, stunned. “And I didn’t even get to say a proper good-bye.”
“You helped save their life, Sammy. They told me to tell you they loved you. And also they left money behind to help clean your car.”
Sammy frowned. “They could keep their money, if it meant they’d stay,” she muttered.
“I know they wanted to, but it’s just not safe.”
Sammy took in a deep breath and sighed. “It’s just sad, is all.”
“I know. Good-byes are not actually ever good.” Andi sat across from her on a barstool because she might as well tell Sammy everything right now. “And, I’ve known Danny was back for a while now. It’s just that he’s in some things, deep—”
“Of course,” Sammy snorted.
“And I didn’t want you to get involved. Or me, for that matter.” Despite the fact that, according to Danny, it was inevitable. She wondered what Danny was going to try to show her tonight. She imagined him pulling out one of the folded paper fortune tellers kids used to use in the back of the bus. Or maybe they’d play a rousing game of MASH. She did know someone who had a mansion, after all…. “Anyhow, if you see him, stay away from him, please.”
“Oh, obviously,” Sammy said, sounding offended that Andi even felt she had to say something. “Does he still owe you money?”
“Yep.” Andi had finally turned the cash Damian had given her into Danny’s bail bondsmen, so at least they were off her back, but it was the spirit of the thing. Danny’d gone and left her high and dry, completely unsurprisingly.
She kicked off her shoes and felt all her energy drain away, except for a tickle of pleasure of knowing she was with Damian. “Anyhow, Sammy, we can talk more later, but I really need to sleep now.”
“Yeah, I’m heading back to sleep myself,” Sammy said, giving her cereal bowl a desultory rinse in the sink. “Uh…I don’t know how to say this, but…just in case you’re gonna do that again?” she began, gesturing downward. “You should know that Eumie was absolutely not kidding about the walls.”
Andi felt herself turn bright red. “Oh my God,” she said, sidestepping toward her room. “I just turned invisible, bye!”
Sammy laughed indulgently. “I’m telling you as a friend!”
“You can’t see me! I’m not here!” Andi called from the safety of the darkened hall.
“You didn’t sound invisible earlier!” Sammy hooted after her, as Andi closed her bedroom door.
While the most hygienic thing to do would’ve been to take a shower, she didn’t want to. She could catch whiffs of his breath in her hair, and she was sure she smelled like exactly what they’d done, but it was good. It felt
like reality. Love and fates and mates was nice and all, but on some level, because she wasn’t used to it, it felt unreal.
Whereas this? The satisfied soreness running through her body, the air that smelled like sin? She had this—and he’d had her.
She kicked off her shoes, flopped into her bed, and basked in how badly he’d wanted her—to the point of distraction, if not release.
She didn’t think she was dozing until her phone buzzed and she found out that she had been. She fumbled for it, quickly, and found one word:
Home.
Really? Andi texted back. Just, ‘home’?
I could ask you what you’re wearing.
You already know what I’m wearing. I’m tired and very lazy.
All right then, princess. Go to sleep.
Andi glared at her phone. He wasn’t wrong, but he also wasn’t right. And just because he was the boss of her when they fucked, sometimes, didn’t mean he got to order her around in daily life.
Would you like a bedtime story? If you haven’t already turned off your phone, that is.
Andi bit her lips and stared at her phone, not touching the keys.
Perhaps I will tell you one, regardless, and if you have turned off your phone, like a good and tired princess should, you can read it when you wake up.
Andi turned onto her side, propping her phone beside her on a pillow, so that she could see its screen, tucking her arm up beneath her.
Once upon a time, there was a particular cat who loved cheese more than anything in the world. So much so that he talked his beloved owner into buying him cheese from Serbia, despite the fact that the export restrictions on said cheese made it highly illegal to do so.
Andi laughed so hard the phone fell over. She picked it up and put it into her scrubs breast pocket to save Damian’s story for later, relishing the feeling of it buzzing periodically as she drifted off to sleep, like a tiny mechanical heartbeat.
Danny stood her up that evening.
She hadn’t precisely been looking forward to seeing him, but she didn’t want him to treat her like she didn’t matter, either. Andi didn’t know why she expected anything to be different now; he’d essentially taken her for granted her whole life, but it still hurt.
Dragon Mated: Sexy Urban Fantasy Romance (Prince of the Other Worlds Book 4) Page 17
