The Dragon Finds Forever (Nocturne Falls Book 7)

by Kristen Painter

  Then Van headed outside to wait for Nick.

  The gargoyle was already there, crouched in the open area Van’s heat had created. He nodded. “Hey. Thanks for the landing zone.”

  It took a lot to surprise a dragon shifter. But seeing Nick in his supernatural form did just that. “You are welcome.” He was staring, and he knew it, but it was the first time he’d seen a gargoyle of Nick’s size in his true form. “You are leviathan class. Very impressive.”

  Nick nodded. “Yep. Big as they come.” His voice was a gravelly rumble. “I’m guessing you’ve fought against my kind before.”

  “Only titan and ranger classes. Never yours.”

  “We are a rare bunch.” He seemed to be studying Van. “You must be about my size when you shift, right?”

  Van smiled. “Something like that.”

  Nick’s stony brows lifted. “Bigger?”

  Van nodded. “Yes.” Then he shrugged lightheartedly. “I am a dragon.”

  Nick laughed, and the sound echoed through the stillness like a shot going off.

  Van narrowed his eyes. “You ever think about fighting?”

  Nick shook his head. “Not in a professional way.”

  “Good. Let’s keep it that way. I do not need the competition.”

  Another deep laugh rumbled out of Nick, then he gave Van a curious look. “I thought you were retired.”

  Van opened his mouth, then closed it again to mull that statement over. “I was. But maybe one more fight.”

  “Cool. I’d love to see that. If I could afford the tickets.”

  “For taking me to Howler’s, I will get you good seats.”

  Nick smiled and jerked his head toward Van. “So how are we doing this?”

  Van lifted the crutch over his head, a hand on each end of the metal support. “Like a hang glider.”

  “Sounds good to me.” Nick spread his wings and lifted into the air, treating Van to a new surprise. The gargoyle was nearly soundless in flight.

  Van used the crutch to get into the middle of the circle, then hoisted it overhead again.

  “Hang on. You fall off, and I may not be able to catch you.”

  “I will be fine.”

  Nick grabbed hold of the crutch and, with a few powerful beats of his wings, took them straight up.

  The view was spectacular, but as they rose, visibility disappeared into a white blur.

  “You can see in this?”

  “Enough,” Nick responded. “But I don’t really need to. I have a decent mental GPS.”

  “Good.” The wind bit into Van as Nick increased his speed. He turned up his internal thermostat until he barely noticed it.

  A few minutes after he’d done that, they started to descend. Nick set them down in Howler’s back parking lot. There were a few cars hidden under a thick draping of snow.

  “You good?”

  “Yes.” Van balanced on his good leg until he got the crutch under him again, which was a little more difficult with the depth of the snow. “Thank you very much.”

  “I hope it works out for you, man.”

  Van nodded, then shifted his gaze to Howler’s back door. “I hope so too.”

  A shot and a half of Jameson’s later and the strangers Monalisa had just met were fast becoming friends. They’d listened with incredible sympathy and attention to her entire history with her father, all about the coin he refused to give her, and how he’d forced her to deceive Van. She felt now like they could be friends for life.

  Too bad that was such an impossibility.

  Almost at the end of her tale, she tipped back the last of the whiskey in her glass, then set it down on the table of the big booth they were crowded into. She took a breath and finished what she had to say. “And then he threw me out.”

  The women responded with a collective gasp.

  Pandora shook her head. “Outrageous.”

  Charisma sighed. “Just like a man not to give a woman a chance.”

  “Not all men,” Roxy said. “But I agree, Ivan should have let you explain.”

  Marigold nodded, making her blonde curls bounce. “This is why I don’t date.”

  Willa crossed her arms and sat back. “And I thought my stint as queen was bad. Sister, you have a world of trouble on your plate.”

  Pandora leaned her forearms on either side of her wine. “Van will understand if you explain.”

  Monalisa ran her finger around the rim of her empty whiskey glass. “I’m glad you think that, but that requires him to listen, and I don’t know.” She shook her head, remembering the look on his face. “I doubt that’s something he’s interested in.”

  Pandora shrugged. “His reaction was just that. A reaction. I’ll go back to the house with you, and I’ll get him to listen.”

  Monalisa sighed and looked around the table. “But he has every right to be furious at me for what I did to him. I lied to him. A lot.”

  “You had no choice,” Charisma said. “He’s got to understand what an impossible situation you were put in.”

  The door at the back of the room opened, letting in a gust of cold, but Monalisa barely felt it as she stabbed her finger into the table. “I’m still in it. My father’s command doesn’t magically go away because Van kicked me out.”

  “What command?”

  The deep, male voice turned all six of their heads. Monalisa, Roxy, and Willa had to push up to see over the back of the booth.

  “Van.” Nervous energy pinged through Monalisa’s body.

  He stared back at her, his gaze as steely as his expression was unreadable. “Lisa.” He frowned. “Is that even your name?”

  “Sort of. It’s actually Monalisa.”

  His eyes narrowed as if he was calculating just how much of a lie that was.

  Pandora slipped out of the booth from her end seat, and the rest of the women followed, forming a circle around Monalisa with Pandora at the front. “Don’t tell me you walked here with that leg and this weather.”

  “No.” He tried to look past Pandora to see Monalisa, but Pandora matched his every move, blocking him.

  Monalisa almost smiled at Pandora’s protectiveness, but then the realization set in about how pathetic it was that the best friends she had were women she’d known less than an hour. That said so much about her life.

  Pandora held her ground. “Then how on earth did you get here?”

  More frowning. Van ran a hand over his shaved head. Stalling maybe? “A friend.”

  “You must have wanted to be here a whole lot.”

  “Pandora, I am here. What else matters? I need to talk to Lisa now.” He grunted. “Monalisa.”

  “I’ll say you need to talk. Throwing a woman out in the middle of a massive snowstorm?” She shook her head and clucked her tongue. “Not very gentlemanly.”

  A muscle in his jaw twitched. “I know.”

  She planted her hands on her hips. “What would your mother say?”

  “Enough,” Van grumped. “I will speak to Monalisa now.”

  Pandora didn’t move. “What if she doesn’t want to speak to you?”

  Monalisa didn’t want Van tortured anymore. He’d been through enough. All of it because of her. She put her hand on Pandora’s arm, moving the witch aside so she could step forward. “It’s okay. I want to talk to him.”

  When he saw her, his expression morphed from relieved to upset, then back to a hard blankness. Except for the tiniest hint of something that looked very much like hurt in his gaze, he was once again unreadable. “Good.”

  He cleared his throat and looked at the women behind her.

  Monalisa understood. She turned and smiled at them. “Maybe we could have a little privacy?”

  They all gave her sympathetic nods. Pandora squeezed her arm. “We’ll be on the other side of the bar if you need us. Just holler. We all have exceptional hearing. Well, except for Roxy. Hers is just normal.”

  “Thanks,” Monalisa said. But she wasn’t worried. For all of Van’s gruffne
ss, he wasn’t going to hurt her.

  Pandora started to leave, but turned at the last second to point at Van. “You be nice.”

  He held out his hands. “I am always nice.”

  She snorted and left.

  The room got uncomfortably quiet with just the two of them in it.

  Monalisa dug her teeth into her bottom lip as she gathered her thoughts. “It was nice of you to come.”

  He grunted an acknowledgment. “It was wrong of me to throw you out.”

  “No argument here.” She took a few steps forward and leaned against the nearest pool table. “You want to hear my side of things?”

  He didn’t move for a moment, then he nodded. “I want to understand what drove you to do what you did. Your act ruined me.”

  Guilt washed over her. She stared at her feet. “I know it did. I’m so sorry. I had no idea that the outcome would be so drastic. But even if I had, I really didn’t have a choice.” She took a breath. “I guess maybe I did. But I’ve never made it through the pain long enough to find out if I really can resist. Or if it will just kill me.”

  His brow furrowed. “I do not understand.”

  “Let me start from the beginning.” She pointed toward one of the booths lining the wall. “Do you want to sit? It’s a long story. And you don’t need to stress your leg any further.”

  “I am fine. But we can sit.”

  So they did, on opposite sides. She folded her hands on the table, one on top of the other, took a breath, and told him exactly what she’d just told the women on the other side of the restaurant.

  Every single awful detail.

  Van had expected a lot of excuses, a sad tale about a life gone wrong, bad choices made, decisions that couldn’t be undone.

  He had not expected what Monalisa actually told him, and by the time she finished, he had to remind himself to shut his mouth, because it hung open in shock and disbelief. “Your father controls you?”

  She nodded, her eyes bright with angry tears. “All my life. I’m nothing to him but a weapon in his arsenal.”

  “I cannot understand how your father can do this. I would never treat a child of mine in such a manner.”

  “Not many would, but he’s a leprechaun, and his status as king has made him greedy, ambitious, and paranoid. Everything he does is a calculated move designed to protect or expand his empire.”

  “Does he not consider you something to be protected as well?”

  She flattened her palms on the table and stared at him. “What do you think, based on what I’ve told you?”

  He clenched his teeth for a moment, his anger now directed at the man who called himself Monalisa’s father. “He does not.”

  “The worst part is…” Her gaze went back to the tabletop as her words trailed off.

  “Tell me.”

  “I don’t want to.”

  He thought about taking her hand, but wasn’t sure if she would welcome that. “Are you afraid of me?”

  That lifted her head. “No, not really. I don’t have any concerns about you hurting me. You don’t seem like that kind of guy.”

  “Good. I am not. So then tell me.”

  She sighed. “I still don’t want to. It’s awful.”

  “I cannot imagine how much worse it could be.”

  She combed a hand through her hair, pushing it off her face, then returned both hands to the table and looked at him. “You understand I am basically powerless to resist him? I can try, of course, but—”

  “You cannot fight the pain it causes.” He slowly reached out and covered her hands with one of his. She didn’t flinch or pull away, so he kept it there. “I do not want you to suffer because of me. I know pain. And I do not want you to become as familiar with it as I have these last few weeks.”

  “Thank you.”

  He lifted her top hand and brought it to his mouth, kissing her knuckles. “I want you to know too that I do not blame you for any of this. And now that I know, my feelings for you are…as they were.”

  She sniffed, and her mouth bent in a tiny smile. “You’re a good man, Ivan Tsvetkov. My feelings are the same for you too.”

  “Then tell me what this worse thing is, and we will figure it out together.”

  She stared at his hand, her gaze taking on a distant gleam. “He has commanded me to bring you to Vegas for the rematch.”

  “I know that, zolotse.”

  She barely noticed that he’d called her by that strange Russian word again. “In five days.”

  He jerked back. “Less than a week? The venom will still be in my system. Fighting will be very difficult. Winning will be impossible.”

  She nodded, looking like she was on the verge of tears. “I tried to tell him that, but he has whales coming in—regular clients who spend huge amounts when they’re at the casino—and he wants the rematch to happen while they’re there so they can bet on it and up his take.”

  “What about Ronan? He has to agree to this too.”

  “Ronan’s been staying in the Dublin Suite since the fight. I think he’s as deep in my father’s pocket as you can get without being part of the pants he has on.”

  Van sat back. “That is a conflict of interest. Does the League know?”

  “A few of the officials do, but my father pays them off to look the other way.”

  “Your father does not deserve the power he holds.”

  “No, he doesn’t. But what can I do about that? What can any of us do?”

  Van tapped his fingers on the table. “I have an idea.” He pointed toward the other side of the bar. “But we’re going to need your new friends.”

  “Gang’s all here,” Pandora said as the women rejoined them. “I take it you two have made up.”

  “We have.” Monalisa had swapped sides to sit with Van. They were hip to hip and thigh to thigh, and his radiating warmth was as welcome as his comforting presence and smoky scent. She knew she was basically in love with him at this point and how silly it was to be so crazy about someone she’d known for such a little amount of time, but she didn’t care. He was the best man she knew.

  And she wanted to keep him.

  Van nodded. “What happened was not Monalisa’s fault. And she needs my help. But first, I need your help.”

  “Mine?” Pandora asked.

  “You and your sisters.” He looked at the other two women. “And yours too, if you can help.”

  They all nodded.

  “Sure,” Pandora said. “What do you need?”

  Monalisa wanted to know too.

  He gestured to the empty side of the booth. “Sit. This is important business.”

  Pandora, Charisma, and Marigold slid onto the bench while Roxy and Willa pulled chairs over.

  When they were all seated, he leaned forward. “I need you to find a spell that will rid me of this venom. I need you to heal me so that I can fight again. And I need you to do it now.”

  The sisters looked at each other. Charisma spoke first. “Can we do that?”

  Marigold shook her head. “I don’t know. I’ve never done it before. But I could make a tincture to dull the pain.”

  “Not good enough,” Van said. “The venom must be gone. I must be whole. I must be able to shift.”

  Willa tucked her hands under her thighs. “You three are very powerful together. There must be something you can do.”

  Pandora nodded. “I’m not saying we can’t, just that we never have. We’ll have to dig into my mother’s library and do some research. That’s the best we can do.” She smiled at Van and Monalisa. “We’ll figure something out. I promise.”

  Roxy straightened. “Maybe I can help. I’m great at research.”

  Bridget joined them, bar towel still over her shoulder. “This has turned into quite the party, I see. You know, I could be closed right now. Y’all are the only ones in here. Besides me and Juan Carlos in the kitchen.” She turned to look out the windows. “But seeing as how no one can go anywhere…”

  Van sl
apped his hand on the table. “If Juan is here, we should put him to work. And make this worth your while. Who’s hungry?”

  Pandora grinned. “You buying?”

  “Of course. I want you all well-fortified for the work ahead.”

  “In that case…” Pandora lifted a finger. “I’ll have the petite filet and a side of the lobster mac and cheese. And truffle fries. Because, why not?”

  The rest of the women started ordering and asking questions. Bridget laughed, pulled a notebook out of her apron, and began scribbling.

  Monalisa tucked her arm through Van’s and snuggled up close to whisper in his ear. “Thank you.”

  He turned and kissed her temple. “I told you, I am a protector. This is what I do. And you are who I want to protect. Always.”

  She leaned in and kissed his cheek. “I hope they can find a way to help you.”

  He patted her hand on his arm. “They will. You’ll see.” Then he smiled. “But first, we eat.”

  “And then I guess we figure out how to get home.”

  Bridget turned toward them. “That reminds me. The snow has stopped, and I just talked to my brothers. The plows are on their way. By the time you’re done eating, the roads should be clear.”

  “Good,” Van said. “Then one of you can take Monalisa and me home.”

  Willa grinned. “You mean you don’t want Nick to fly you back?”

  They all looked at her.

  She laughed and held up her phone. “He texted me.”

  Van rolled his eyes while the women cracked up. “Maybe I will not buy dinner after all…”

  Twenty-four hours of reading, researching, and talking to the most powerful witches in town and Pandora and her sisters had yet to come up with a solution to Van’s problem. He punched the heavy bag in a one-two combo, trying to rid himself of this new frustration.

  It helped, but not enough.

  And while the pain in his leg subsided a little more every day, it wouldn’t be gone enough by fight time. Five days. Four now. What a joke. He’d be the walking wounded and an easy target. Sweat trickled down his back as he continued to pummel the bag. All Ronan would have to do was land blows on the bite mark and Van would go down.