Dragon Mated: Sexy Urban Fantasy Romance (Prince of the Other Worlds Book 4)

by Kara Lockharte

  Andi looked at the array of implements. It was true, she’d seen Damian’s green room, she knew he wasn’t shy. “This is weird, but do you want some? Like, I think there’s three of these,” she said, setting some of the objects Sammy’s way.

  Sammy gave her a wicked look. “Does he know how many vaginas you have?”

  “Sammy.”

  “Maybe dragon-ladies have three vaginas. I’m just saying!”

  Andi picked up a toy at the same time as Sammy ducked. Andi would’ve thrown it at her, only it wobbled in a disconcerting way. They watched it wiggle and then laughed until they were in tears.

  “Oh my God. I can’t breathe,” Sammy gasped. She picked up the toy and made it wriggle again. “I’m breaking.”

  “Stop, stop,” Andi begged her, taking it away—which meant holding it herself as it flopped between them, sending them cackling again.

  Her phone buzzed and she laughed even harder, imagining herself explaining this to Damian. It wasn’t his fault even. Non-erect dicks were inherently hilarious, even if they weren’t made out of silicone. She saw plenty of them at work. There was no mystery to them. Damian’s was fantastic, yes, but a large part of that was because it was attached to him.

  “Don’t pick up!” Sammy warned, still tittering.

  “Shh, it’s just a text, I’m fine,” Andi said, swiping her screen on.

  It was…but not from Damian.

  Yo. Andi-bear. I’m on my way.

  Andi suddenly sobered. Danny was on his way over, and he hadn’t even bothered to ask her if she gave a shit. But maybe there was an opportunity here. Maybe she could persuade him to stop this foolishness.

  At seeing her, Sammy got serious, too. “I know that face,” she said. “I spent eight months making it.”

  “Danny’s on his way over here to see me.” Andi set her phone down and frowned.

  Sammy looked down at their couch and coffee table, now covered in sex toys. “Guess we’d better put the plastic dicks away before the living one shows up.”

  Danny didn’t come up the stairs; he just honked outside when he got there like a bad prom date. Under normal circumstances, Andi would’ve just waited him out, but she didn’t want to irritate her neighbors, plus she didn’t want him to come up and start something with Sammy, besides.

  The only thing holding her up was whether or not to bring her phone. She wanted it, like a safety blanket, just in case she needed Damian.

  But going out with it didn’t seem very smart. She knew Jamison made sure they weren’t spied on when they texted—although she didn’t know how—and also somehow made sure her apartment was bug free, something Andi hadn’t even considered that the Hunters might have done until Damian mentioned it to her.

  But if the Hunters got her phone as a physical object and somehow traced it back to him…. She shoved it in between the cushions of the couch to wait for her return.

  She jogged down the stairs to meet Danny, already irritated. “Could you not?” she asked, as her feet hit the pavement.

  “What was that?” he asked her, cupping a hand to his ear. “I just got the horn replaced!” he said, hitting it again.

  “Stop it,” she hissed, walking over to the El Camino’s passenger side, listening to him laughing. “I have neighbors, you know.”

  “Eh, they’re all right, it’s not that late,” he said, leaning over inside to unlock her door for her. “Saddle up.”

  She reluctantly got in. The seats were different now, their leather intact and clean, and all the chrome parts inside shone. “You stood me up.”

  “And you didn’t text to see if I was alive.” He was dressed casually in jeans and a Nike T-shirt.

  “I got used to thinking you were dead when you skipped bail.”

  Danny chuckled. “So we’re even again, then, right?”

  “No. Not now, not ever again,” she said, flashing him a look.

  “Pshaw,” he said, then he took a deep inhale and sidled his head back and forth. “So…since I’m taking you to my secret lair and all…I’m afraid I’ve got to ask you for some favors.”

  “Oh, God.”

  “Nothing major,” he protested. “I just need to see your bag.” Andi rolled her eyes but handed her small purse over and watched her brother rifle through it, not all that unlike when they were kids and he was looking to steal cash. “Where’s your phone?” he asked.

  “I left it inside.”

  “All right, that works.” He reached under his seat, and pulled out a bag made out of some kind of velvet with a drawstring, like a Crown Royale bag, but bigger. “I’m gonna need you to wear this.”

  “You’re kidding.”

  “Nope. Not about the super-secret lair part. I can’t have you seeing how to get there.”

  “Dannnnnnnny,” she groaned. If Damian knew she was even vaguely contemplating this he’d be flying over already. But if she hung out with Danny, there was a chance she could get him to cut this shit out. Her brother had always had the attention span of a goldfish; maybe there was something else she could get him to latch onto that wasn’t murdering people.

  Failing that, maybe she could find out something that would help Damian.

  “Come on.” He shook the bag at her. “Daylight’s burning.”

  “It’s already nighttime,” she said, but snatched the bag out of his hands.

  The good thing about letting Danny drive her around with her eyes covered was that she couldn’t really judge his rate of speed. The bad thing about it was that each time he turned, it made her nauseous.

  “If you ever kidnap anyone else, you need to upgrade to cotton,” she told him, holding onto the door with one hand, and her seat belt with the other.

  “I’ll take that under advisement. So…how’ve you been?”

  “Oh, you know, the usual. Living, working, taking care of helicopter crash victims.”

  She heard him snort. “Pretty intense, eh?”

  “It wasn’t fun.” That Hunter was still intubated and in the ICU. “Maybe your friends should’ve left some of the magic gizmos behind for him. I’ve had more than enough patients in with scapulars on before.”

  “Eh. They’re not my friends.”

  “Just coworkers you share pieces of your skin with?” Andi snarked. She couldn’t see him react with the bag on, but the silence between them stretched uncomfortably long. Andi thumped her head back against the headrest. “I’m sorry, but why the hell are you letting them do such a horrible thing to you, Danny? It’s not like you.” She wouldn’t have believed it if she hadn’t seen the one piece on David at Rax’s casino. Danny had always been a selfish bastard—it was entirely unlike him to share anything, much less that. She fought not to shudder.

  “I won’t pretend it’s fun.”

  “What’s your dragon think of things?”

  “He’s not happy about it, but he doesn’t get a vote.” Suddenly Andi was glad for the hood, so Danny couldn’t see her arched eyebrow. It didn’t sound like Danny’s dragon got an opinion—whereas Damian’s very much did. “It’s just…never mind. How did you even meet a dragon, anyhow?” he asked, taking them through a tight right-hand turn. “Had to be at work.”

  “Why?”

  “Because you never go out, otherwise.”

  “I’m very popular,” Andi said lightly, defending herself.

  “Yeah, with librarians.”

  She snorted. “Does it matter? I met one.”

  “And….?” He prompted.

  The bag was even better now; it hid her furious blushing. “And nothing. I’m not going to tell you a thing. I’m just here to see Mom’s English notes.”

  “Uh-huh,” he said. “How many times have you seen it?”

  She put a hand to her mouth and pressed the velour to her lips. Was it safe to answer? “Twice.”

  “What was it like?”

  “You know,” she said.

  “No…I don’t get to see mine on the outside, remember?”

  Andi w
ove her head. “Awe-inspiring? And…scary. Even though I know they wouldn’t hurt me.” She caught herself before she gave Damian’s pronouns away. “It’s just not a thing you expect to see in everyday life. So it’s always a surprise.”

  Danny made a thoughtful sound. “What’s it like for them?”

  She remembered telling her story to Damian’s dragon on the helipad, how intelligently the creature had listened, and how focused it’d been on her, then the thrill of their subsequent flight. “Are we there yet?” she asked Danny, trying to change the subject.

  “Almost,” he promised. “Come on.”

  “I don’t know.” She kicked off her shoes. “I don’t ask too many questions.”

  “Andi Ngo, you are such a fucking liar,” he said with a laugh.

  She groaned inside the blindfold and licked her lips. “You know, if you stopped this shit, you could meet them and ask them yourself.”

  Danny laughed. “It’s not that easy. And how do you know you can trust them, besides?”

  “Because I don’t have bad taste in friends like you do.”

  Her brother snorted derisively, to let her know what he thought of that. “Oh, yeah? Then why did I have to come and save you at Rax’s? Where were they?”

  Andi caught herself before she gasped. She’d forgotten that Damian and Danny had ever overlapped, but they had. Did Danny really not remember? He’d been in such a state that night, so intent on taking vengeance out on David. “The only reason I was there was because of you. Rax said he had information, so technically, that night, you were the one who put me in danger, in the first place. You and Uncle. What even happened that night? What were you doing?” She wished she could look at him. “How did all of this happen to you?”

  “Some combination of Mom and Uncle.” Andi felt the car decelerating, take a sharp turn, and then bump over a low curb into a parking lot. Moments later, they parked. “Hang on,” he told her, and she undid her seat belt, while waiting for him to come to the passenger side. She heard her door swing out and felt a gust of fresh air as he put his hand on her arm and helped pull her up, putting a protective hand above her head so she wouldn’t hit it getting out.

  “Thanks,” she said, standing. “Now?” She reached for the hood.

  “Once we’re inside,” he said, taking her arm and pulling her forward.

  “I don’t like this game,” she muttered, but went with him regardless.

  They padded across a parking lot. Danny warned her to step up onto a sidewalk, and then continued. “Mom started working on me when I was twelve, because by then, Dad was pretty much out of the picture. Stand here.” She stood where he told her to, listened to something beep, and then heard the opening of a sliding door. “And one night, around the time I turned fourteen, she took me out with her.”

  Andi frowned. There had been a period one summer, after Dad had left, when their mom had “cleaned” nights. She remembered struggling to be the woman of the house during the day when her mom slept and Danny apparently fucked off, trying to hold things together, answering the phone, the door, going to the Asian market around the corner so their mom could cook when she got up.

  How had she never known?

  He pulled her forward again, and now she was on carpeting, and she heard his voice echo like they were in a hall. “We went out, she introduced me to some others, and we fought this thing. I didn’t even have words for it at the time. I couldn’t have explained it to you if I’d been allowed. It had wings and teeth and seemed like it was half made out of slime.” He paused them again, another beep, another door. “It was insane. And…you should’ve seen Mom. You know how we watched all those kung fu movies as kids? All of a sudden, it was like she could’ve been in one of them. But better. She was stronger and faster than she had any right to be. It was like she was an entirely different person.”

  A person Andi had never met. She bit her lips beneath the hood.

  “We’re here,” Danny announced. “You can take that off now.”

  Andi reached for the hood, pulling it up and feeling her hair static along with it. They were underneath fluorescent lights in a cavernous room that held a cage the size of a basketball court. “Danny,” Andi whispered, knowing immediately what it’d been for.

  It was dragon-sized, after all.

  “Yeah, yeah, I know. It’s dangerous though, Andi. You wouldn’t understand.”

  “How does your dragon stand it?” she asked, stepping up to the bars. Strange objects had been strung from the struts above, things that looked like jeweled skulls or artifacts from other times and other countries. A carved horse covered in beaten gold, a silver spoon holding a dollop of stone, a tiny pot that had a tiny plant growing in it, and more. The whole roof of the cage looked like it was a nursery mobile made by an inpatient committee at a sanatorium.

  “The objects of power help,” Danny said, jerking his chin at the weird art installation. “And I tell myself to be cool about it, as best I can. Come on,” he said, leading her to the next room.

  This one was just as large as the first, but the cages lining one half of the room were more numerous and normal—complete with cots and toilets. Countertops holding scientific instruments with cabinets above them occupied the room’s other side, making the space look half-prison and half-Stanford, with a side of Ikea, and…inside the cages were people.

  “Elsa?” Andi asked, naming her uncle’s secretary. She recognized the woman’s blonde hair, even though her back was to her, laying on a cot.

  “What?” Elsa snapped, turning around. “Oh. It’s you,” she said flatly. They had the attention of all the people inside the cages now, many of them had come to stand against their bars to see their visitors.

  “Danny, what’s going on?” she asked, shrinking back.

  “I remember how I was back then. Mom had no business letting me be outside. This way’s safer for them.” He waved his hand at the people. “This is my sister, everyone. Uncle Lee wants her here. It’s all right.”

  Several of the people grumbled and wandered off, picking up the books or tablets they’d discarded to come see, while others kept staring disconcertingly.

  “What on earth are you doing to these people, Danny?” Andi asked, looking around. Danny walked over to a fridge and opened it—there were multicolored jars of reagents inside, clear glass tupperwares full of tree-bark-looking-stuff, and Diet Coke. He pulled one out to offer it to her. “See? Your favorite, I remember.”

  She waved his offer away. “I’m good. Start talking.”

  He cracked the can open and used it to gesture at the people behind himself. “I’m making a dragon army.”

  She waited after that, for him to go on, like any normal person would—to laugh, or to apologize, or in some way indicate that they knew what they’d just said was insane. “Don’t tell Uncle though,” he continued.

  “He and I aren’t on speaking terms right now,” Andi said, frowning. “Just what the fuck are you doing to these people, Danny?”

  “Exactly what I said. I’m using my skin and skills and Mom’s notes. Uncle’s off gallivanting around the globe, building up his Hunter network, all worried about the Joining. He wants everyone to be prepared. It’s going to be some kind of epic massacre—natural disasters, monsters pouring out of the sky. Well, this was my idea; it’s how I’m helping.” He downed half the can of soda in a gulp, and he burped just like they were at the high school cafeteria again. “I mean, if dragons come through, I’m going to need more help to fight them, right?”

  Andi put her head in her hands. “Again, you do realize, that some of those monsters are people? Just like you’re a person?”

  “Ehhhhh,” Danny said, tilting his palm between them in midair and rocking it.

  “So, it’s okay for you to make a dragon army but not okay for there to be people out there who are born part dragon? Or part wolf…or part whatever?”

  “Yep. Because when you start off human, you already know what side you’re on.”r />
  Her lip curled in distaste. “You kinda sound like all the racist kids we knew growing up.”

  Danny rolled his eyes and huffed. “There’s a difference between stupid human categories and fucking creatures from other worlds, Andi.”

  Andi felt the eyes of all the people in cages on her and knew if she glanced over she could see them. The whole scene here was giving her major zombie movie vibes and raising her hackles. “Whatever. Just show me her notes already, all right?”

  “Sure, sure,” he said, pulling her back into the hall. She felt immensely safer once the door was closed behind her, and more so when she heard it lock. “You’ve got to put the hood back on.”

  She double blinked. “What?” Not with a hoard of pissed off half-dragon Hunters at her back she wasn’t.

  Danny waved her down. “I’m going to take you to where the notes are. It’s a different location. You think I keep them in there with all those fools?”

  “Danny,” she exhaled in a rush. “No.”

  “You’ll be safe,” he said and laughed. “I mean, come on, being by my side is like the second safest place in the city for you.”

  “Where’s the first?” she challenged him before she thought it through.

  Danny chuckled. “You tell me,” he taunted, and she pulled the hood back on before he could see her flush.

  She was quiet all the way back to the car. She hadn’t even made a dent in his self-righteousness; if anything, she’d pissed him off and made him double down. She concentrated on not tripping, got in the car, and sighed inside the hood.

  “I can’t believe any of that,” she said after he got in and started the engine. But being in the hood wasn’t helping. There was nothing to distract herself with—just darkness and the memory that her completely irresponsible brother was keeping people in cages.

  “They all volunteered, I’ll have you know,” Danny said.

  That part…well…yeah. She remembered talking to Elsa once. The woman’d seemed very keen on advancing her Hunter “career” and what kind of promotion could be higher than becoming part-dragon? Or…all dragon? If their mother’s notes were to be believed?