Brett sends him a glare, then turns his attention back to me.
For some reason, even him looking at me causes my body to heat in a weird way.
I focus on taking another bite of pizza. I’m planning to go out again tonight, so I’ll need my strength.
“Well, all help is welcome,” I say, setting aside my empty plate. “The stupid landlord doesn’t hire a plow. He expects us to do everything.” I shake my head, wiping my hands on a napkin.
I’m out of pizza, but just as I’m about to get up to leave, another plate is set on my lap. I look up, surprised to see Brett standing there.
“Here,” he says tersely, not meeting my eyes as he looks to the side. “For the road, as you might say.”
I grin. “As I might say?”
He nods.
“You really are different, aren’t you? Just a little bit odd,” I say
He cocks his head, his beautiful eyes narrowing. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“I’m not sure,” I say, eating more pizza. “You just don’t… act like other people. None of you do.”
They all seem a little disappointed by this, but I have no idea why.
“It’s a good thing,” I say. “You offer to share. You’re kind.” I point a half-eaten piece of pizza at him. “You might have freaked me out last night, but it was nice of you to check on me.” I smile at all of them. “All in all, I’m glad we’re neighbors.”
I stand, holding my plate. “Well, I need to head out to work again in a few hours, so—”
Brett steps into my path, muscular arms folded. “What do you mean? Didn’t you just get home?”
I gulp as I attempt to not stare at his chest, bringing my eyes all the way up to his face. “Yes. Some people have more than one job.”
There’s silence in the room as some of them look at each other as if trying to figure out what to do next.
I can tell they wish I wasn’t leaving so early, but they have no excuse to get me to stay.
A prickle of fear moves up my spine, and I get a feeling that I’m missing something about the situation.
It’s not normal.
And I would know about not normal.
“It’s fine. We’re just glad you came down,” Flynn says, charming as ever, his warm smile putting me at ease as he glides past Brett to open the door. “Our door is always open, gorgeous. Stop by anytime.”
I flush because I’m not the type to get called gorgeous, given how little effort I generally put into making myself up.
But from such a good-looking man, it’s a compliment that can’t help but make me smile.
“All right, flatterer, I’ll be back for more pizza sometime. Probably.” I point at Brett because, for some reason, he always draws my attention. “And you, stay away from my door at night. If I go out late, it’s none of your business. I’m fine.”
His eyes narrow and he opens his mouth to protest, but I just grin as I slide out of the door and jog to the stairway before anyone can stop me.
As I walk up the stairs, pizza in hand, I can’t help but remember the sudden surge of pure lust that went through me. The way everything in my vision just zeroed in on Brett’s handsome face.
The way my body seemed to melt for him when no one has affected me like that before.
As I let myself back into my apartment, I’m determined to push that memory down into my subconscious and never think about it again.
4
Brett (Boreas)
“Are you sure this is the right place?” I ask Flynn, who is making a strained face at the tiny smartphone in his hand, tapping it repeatedly with his finger.
“I… believe so,” he says with some uncertainty.
Since Avery doesn’t seem to be in any present danger yet, we’re still accepting missions from Chadwick, the purple dragon who helped us get adjusted to this world.
“Let me see that,” Ian says, grabbing the small, too-breakable device from Flynn’s hand. He peers at it a for a second, letting out a puff of air that dissipates into the wind, then hands it back in frustration.
We are used to following magic streams, not maps.
The ground beneath us is asphalt, cracked everywhere, with dead grass and small bushes springing up through the divots.
There are a few abandoned cars, the remnants of a couple old buildings. We parked a ways off and then walked the rest.
We couldn’t fly, because four guys with giant, colorful flame wings are just bound to be noticed.
“Chad said it would be right here,” Flynn says, staring at the phone again while Ian peers over his shoulder.
“Over there. Look,” Tanner says, drawing all of our attention as he points directly forward.
Ahead of us on the ground, not far away, there’s a dark mist pooling and swirling, rising up in misty tendrils.
As I watch, the mist continues to thicken and grow higher as cracks of electricity spark from the darkness.
I can feel the hum of chaos energy making the hairs on the back of my neck stand up in excitement.
I have no fear. I was born to battle chaos.
Before any of us can speak, a tall figure emerges from the dark mist, coming upward from the ground.
It’s a man, slightly taller than we are in our suppressed forms, and fairly large in stature. But even though he’s wearing human clothes, I can smell the chaos coming off him in waves.
“Chaos-infected shifter,” Flynn says. “A dragon, given the size of him. Chadwick was right.”
The man seems unable to shift, though with a dragon’s natural strength and chaos running through his veins, he’s still a formidable enemy in human form.
His eyes open, and I see dark, glittering orbs where eyes should be. Immediately, he lets out a shriek, screaming and falling to his knees as the mist dissipates into nothingness around him.
Dark wings burst out of his back, leathery and black like a dragon’s but covered in dark magic like a fae’s.
“Destroy. Must… destroy,” he growls, clutching the sides of his head. He has very short brown hair. A face that might have been normal if not for the deep purple of the veins around his eyes and down his neck. The black shadows swirling around his features.
“That thing is pure evil,” Ian says with disgust, taking a step back from it.
A loud crack shakes the earth as the chaos creature, whatever he is, throws his fist into the ground, sending asphalt flying in pieces around him. And as he does, he looks directly at me, face contorted in a snarl, looking ready to destroy anything in his path. His wings are beating behind him ominously, giving off puffs of black smoke.
My heart doesn’t move a beat faster. I’m totally calm as I size him up and decide my next actions.
Because even as my instinct to destroy chaos without mercy is rapidly kicking in, part of me is uncertain as to how evil this dragon truly is.
“Let’s just put him down like the rabid dog he is,” Ian says abruptly, stepping forward and reaching behind him, presumably to pull out his wand. Before he can, I put an arm out, stopping him.
“Wait,” I say sharply. “We don’t have to kill him.”
Ian looks at me as if I’ve just stated that fire fae are the best kind. “You can’t be serious. He reeks of chaos, Brett. If he escapes, if he reaches humans…”
“I can stop him,” I say firmly. “You know I can.”
Ian steps back impatiently as I take my place in front of the half-shifted dragon.
The creature is on his feet now, muscles in his forearms bulging, chest heaving with heavy breaths that cast long lines of wintery mist from his mouth and nostrils.
I move forward, standing at the front of the fae. “I just need to know it isn’t under the control of someone else.”
“Anything involving chaos must be dealt with swiftly,” Ian growls from behind me. “Before we are all infected.”
“This is different. Look at his face. He’s not enjoying this. He’s in pain.”
“I
agree,” Flynn says, for once siding with me. “He’s—”
He’s cut off by another scream as the dragon starts forward, feet stomping into the stiff ground so hard it cracks beneath him. His fists are clenched, eyes wide with rage, locked on mine.
Around me, the fae move back, and Ian raises his hands as if to absolve himself of my foolery.
But as much as I hate chaos, I can’t destroy another living thing so heedlessly, though Ian might call me softhearted.
I roll up my sleeves as I turn to face the dragon.
This is what I was born to do.
“Die!” the creature yells at the top of his lungs, gathering chaos in one fist as he lunges at me, ready to strike with all his might.
But before his fist even comes close, I kick the heel of my foot forward, striking him in his exposed chest. The impact of my boot makes a loud thud, and he careens backward thirty feet through the air, landing on the ground and rolling several times.
Even with my powers suppressed, this will be almost too easy.
No dragon, in any form, can fight a fae prince one on one.
Our strength is just too different.
But to my surprise, this dragon is on his feet in an instant, seemingly unfazed by the incredible impact. The dark orbs of his eyes glitter with chaos power, making his possessed-looking appearance more sinister.
I crack my knuckles, jogging forward as he charges again.
He swings a powerful punch toward me, the air whooshing from the strength of it. But I duck under easily, countless years of training making his movements seem almost infantile.
He swings again, and this time I catch his fist in my hand, wincing at the feel of the chaos there.
He’s strong. Perhaps stronger than any normal dragon I’ve crossed fists with before.
Most of them fight in dragon form, but I suppose he’s too confused to think long enough to shift right now.
He tries to jerk his hand free from my grip, to no avail. My other hand flies forward, smashing him in the jaw once, twice, then a third time. With each strike, his head snaps back, then comes forward again as if nothing happened.
“This would be over a lot faster if one of us used a wand,” Tanner calls out to me, sounding annoyed at my insistence on not using magic.
“Don’t you dare!” I yell back.
“Chaos… death… pain,” the man mutters through tightly clenched teeth. “Make it stop…”
I hit him again, harder this time.
The dragon’s free hand flies toward me, and I’m so distracted by his relentless indomitability that it nearly hits me. But I raise my left hand just in time to block it.
And the longer we fight, the more I can feel darkness growing inside me. I can feel rage starting to form.
Desire to crush this insolent beast for daring to defy me, a fae prince of the highest caliber.
But I resist it. This creature doesn’t know what he’s doing. Maybe he just needs help.
Quickly, I grab his arm and throw him bodily over me, slamming him into the ground with such force he makes a human-shaped indent in the cement.
If this dragon wants to play rough, I can play rough.
The dragon gasps for breath, but then with a horrible shriek, I see his dark form growing up and up into the air until he’s a horrible beast the size of a building.
Giant, chaos-infected wings, spikes of all sizes, glittering scales with the toxic colors of oil spills scattered across them.
A giant maw of gaping, sharp teeth tainted with blackness. It spills out the side of his drooling mouth as he lets out another roar at the sky.
Then he rears back, sucking in a breath, and Flynn steps forward urgently.
“Brett, he’s going to—”
I nod because I’ve run out of time to do this nicely. I leap into the air, flying up in front of him and spinning around quickly to build momentum. As I come around with a hard kick aimed at his face, I’m too fast for him to even see it coming.
It slams into his maw just as he’s about to spew fire, and his entire body ripples with the force of the blow as his head is knocked sideways, pulling him over and down.
As he hits the ground, waves of chaos emanate and the cement shakes all over.
A cloud of dirt flies into the air, falling gently around us like toxic snow.
The dragon lies quiet, knocked out from the blow. Then he slowly transforms back into his human appearance with chaos still swirling around him.
At least when he was in dragon form, I didn’t have to hold back my strength as much.
I could swear, just before he went down, that I heard a quiet, Thank you, whispered on the wind.
“Damn, Brett,” Tanner says, jogging up to me. He rubs his jaw as he watches the dragon breathing deeply. “I forget just how strong you are sometimes.”
“We’re all strong,” I say, kneeling to pull open one eye. Even knocked out, it feels like he’s glaring at me. “Any one of you could have done that.”
“Yeah,” Ian says, walking up and putting away his wand as well. “But you’re the only one silly enough to try it.”
“Not silly. Merciful,” Flynn says. “Which is odd coming from an ice prince.”
I glare at him. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
He simply shrugs, and I decide I don’t have time to verbally spar with a fire fae right now.
“Chad just said he and Bella will be here soon,” Tanner says, folding his arms and looking at the unconscious dragon lying at our feet.
Ian grunts, shaking his head. “I still think we should’ve just destroyed him instantly. He could still infect others he comes into contact with.”
A moment later, we hear the sound of wings beating, followed by Chad and Bella landing nearby, both of them running up to us.
Chadwick can cloak as a dragon, and he flies with his mate tucked under his wing.
His mate, Bella, is a fairy. The first latent fae we met in this world.
“Is this who you saw in your vision?” I ask Chadwick as he switches to human form, walking toward us in his typical purple sweater and jeans.
Beside him, Bella, a tall blonde, is walking with her pink wings trailing out behind her.
“Yes, that’s him,” Chadwick replies, pushing up his glasses. “Honestly, I wasn’t sure how you guys were going to handle it. Is he alive?”
I nod.
“I’m glad you didn’t have to kill him,” Chadwick says, coming over to kneel by him with Bella.
“I can still help him,” Bella says. She waves a hand over his body, spreading a wave of sparkling pink that clears out the darkness, making it shine for a moment before it dissipates.
The man lets out a groan.
“I don’t sense any chaos left in him,” Bella says softly. “Is that usual for dragons from the chaos realm?”
“Normally, they’re pure evil, serving their master’s will to the last breath,” Tanner exclaims. “Chaos princes keep them as pets, but they’re every bit as bad as the princes are.”
“I don’t think this guy is like that, then,” Bella says. “He feels safe now.”
I put my hands on my hips. “Something odd is happening. Some kind of chaos magic that we don’t understand.” I look down at the man at my feet. “It’s almost like they could possess a regular dragon.”
“That shouldn’t be possible,” Chadwick says. “But I’ll have my men bring him in for questioning.” He puts his hands on his hips. “Thanks for your help, but shouldn’t you be getting back to the beacon? Have you made any progress?”
“Not exactly,” I say as Flynn throws his head back, laughing.
“Oh dear,” Bella says. “So you’re matching with her?”
I nod. “But she doesn’t feel resonance back.”
Bella folds her arms as she thinks for a moment. “Right now, she probably just feels like a regular human woman. Have you tried something human, like asking her on a date?”
I blink. “No, but—”
“Then try it,” Chadwick calls back to me as he changes back into dragon form, his sparkling shape reaching up toward the sky. He grabs the fallen man in his front talons. “You need to make progress in getting her to trust you. As you’ve seen today, chaos can be coming from any side.”
Flynn just shakes his head as Chad and Bella take off together, cloaking as they disappear into the sky. “A date? Yeah, like that’s going to happen.”
But I nod to myself, thinking it over. Bella’s right.
I should ask Avery on a date.
It can’t be any harder than fighting a dragon.
5
Avery
I still can’t believe Brett actually came up to ask me for a date earlier.
It was so incredibly normal that I almost said yes, but I couldn’t because I don’t have time for romance, now or ever.
I’m sure a gorgeous guy like that will get over it.
As for me, it’s dark out, and I know exactly where I’m headed.
I’ve been watching this guy every night this week, watching him case his potential victims, and I’m ready to stop him before he can offend again.
The leather of my jacket crinkles and my daggers jingle faintly as I creep along the rooftops of the derelict buildings along the street where I know I’ll catch my prey.
This is what I live for.
Everyone needs to find some sort of meaning in life. I’ve found mine, though it’s not what anyone else might choose.
I’ve been different my whole life. Bullied. Ignored. Feared.
But in these moments, I make a difference.
In these moments, I matter in this world.
I see him exit his favorite bar and turn down the alley toward a restaurant, where the last customers are heading out into the night with their takeout containers.
One is a woman in a khaki trench coat, takeout tucked under one arm, her petite figure shielded from the rain as she holds her hood over her head and hurries into the dark.
She crosses the street to a nearby intersection, probably waiting for a cab, and I see the man I’ve been following cross the street higher up where she can’t see him.
But I do.
Something draws me toward men like this, helps me sense them even when far away.
Found by Frost: Wings, Wands and Soul Bonds Book 1 Page 3
