by Sammie Joyce
Gavin still didn’t look convinced.
“How about this? We can arrange individual dates for all of us, not just you. That way, no one can complain you’re getting special treatment.” Rose found she liked the idea. “Every week, I’ll set aside one night for each of you, alone. We’ll have dinner, then spend the night alone together. The rest of the time, we can spend together, as usual.”
Gavin only needed to consider for a moment. “I’d like that. When can we do it?”
“How about tomorrow night? You look like you’re about to pass out—I reckon you probably need to spend the rest of the day sleeping. We can have dinner and the night together tomorrow.”
“Dinner tomorrow is great, though I’m not sure I’ll be up to much in bed.” Gavin sighed regretfully. “Getting stabbed really took it out of me.”
“I’m sure we’ll still find ways to have fun.” Rose sent him an image of her thoughts. They were both naked, and Gavin was lying on his back in bed. She was giving him a blowjob. Even through the blankets, she could see his cock rising.
“Tease,” Gavin muttered, but he was smiling.
“Now, I say you get some rest. Care for some company while you fall asleep?”
Gavin pulled the covers aside, allowing Rose to climb in. “I’ll be glad for the company, but I doubt I’ll be doing much sleeping with you pressed up against me.” He looked meaningfully down at his cock.
“Nice try, but you’re not getting any today. Maria said no strenuous activity. I may be willing to bend the rules tomorrow, but today, all you’re getting is chicken soup and sympathy.”
“Well, it was worth a shot—I’ll take it. Do I get to see you in a sexy chef apron?”
“Maybe tomorrow.” Rose sent him another image, this one of her wearing a skimpy apron and nothing else.
“You do know you’re torturing me, right?”
She laughed as she snuggled down next to Gavin, running her fingers through his hair. Rose fully expected to be up for hours. She felt wide awake from all the adrenaline.
Apparently, adrenaline had its limits, though. The stress of the day all seemed to catch up to her at once, and she drifted off in Gavin’s arms.
Rose woke up to movement around her. There were no windows in the basement, but she checked her watch to find that it was nighttime. Jagger, Asher, and Mace were coming to bed. The five of them had been sharing a bed for months now. Rose loved it, but she also wouldn’t mind having time with each of her dragons individually.
Mace was on her left, with Gavin still on her right. Jagger crawled in next to his twin, brushing the hair off Gavin’s forehead. Even though everyone had assured him what happened wasn’t his fault, Rose knew he still felt guilty.
Asher was on the edge next to Mace. He caught her eye and gave her a soft smile. “Go back to sleep, love. We didn’t mean to wake you.”
Rose mumbled something incoherent as Mace spooned her from behind. It was extremely comfortable. Before she knew it, she was asleep again.
Chapter Three
Waking up entangled with her dragons was always a pleasant experience. Rose was in no hurry to get up. They typically lounged in bed for a while when they woke, talking and catching up.
Apart from her, only Jagger was awake so far. “Hey. How are you doing?”
He shrugged. “I’m just glad he’s okay—you too. I could have killed you.”
“Let it go, Jagger.”
He nodded, but Rose was sure it was simply to appease her. Jagger wasn’t going to be letting this go anytime soon. She worried for him.
“We should get tattoos.”
“What?” The suggestion took her completely by surprise. Asher had tattoos—black, swirling designs that covered his arms and back—but none of the other dragons did.
“You know, matching tattoos, all five of us.”
Rose found herself liking the idea. “What do you want to get?”
“I don’t know. I haven’t really given it much thought.”
“I’m in.” Asher had been woken by their quiet conversation. “I’ve been trying to convince you wimps to get inked for years. If Rose manages it, more power to her.”
Mace and Gavin were also roused by the conversation. “What about dragon back spikes?” Mace suggested, his voice shaking with suppressed laughter.
“Shut up,” Gavin muttered, while Jagger gave Mace an approving look.
“Definitely not.” Rose managed to refrain from laughing with difficulty. “You’re a bad influence on him, Jagger.”
“No arguments there,” Mace agreed. Jagger reached over to swat his shoulder, but Mace ducked behind Rose.
“We could get matching motorcycles,” Asher suggested hopefully.
“Shut up, Asher, I’m not getting your mistress tattooed onto my skin.”
“She’s not my mistress.” His injured tone had Rose laughing.
“And yet you call her ‘she’.”
“She’s definitely his mistress,” Jagger added. “You should see the things he does to her when they’re alone together.”
Everyone roared with laughter, even Asher.
They chatted for a few more minutes, the argument of yesterday seemingly forgotten. Rose could tell that both Jagger and Gavin still felt bad about it, but that would ease with time.
As the four of them exited the basement, heading for the dining room, Rose was surprised to find a number of witches waiting for them.
“Are you okay?” Wendy asked Gavin. “We’ve all been worried about you.”
“Jade and a few of the others nodded their agreement.
“I’m fine—thank you.” Gavin was clearly taken aback, but he returned their smiles tentatively.
It was heartwarming to see the witches’ genuine relief at his words. Asher had been in mental communication with the other dragons, so they all knew that Gavin was fine, but the witches didn’t have the benefit of instant communication. They could do it with a spell, but that wasn’t attempted unless necessary.
One of Rose’s lessons had been about when to use magic. Magic was like fire in some ways—an invaluable tool, but one that could be dangerous if not used carefully. The coven was encouraged to use phones when possible.
The dining hall was packed. Multiple people came over to tell Gavin that they were happy to see him up and about. He took it graciously, even though Rose could see he didn’t really like all the attention.
“So, what’s on the schedule today?” Jagger asked.
“I’ve got my classes as normal.” Rose was still learning magic with Annabelle, Jade, and Wendy. Now that Kaylee was no longer posing as coven leader, Maria had delegated Elaine to teach them. This was more than okay with Rose. Elaine specialized in translating witch magic to human medicine, which was something Rose wanted to work on herself as soon as they had Hellith under control.
No one had heard anything from Hellith, which was making everyone nervous. As part of their training, Elaine had been teaching them some of the history around Hellith. In the past, she had wreaked havoc and destruction. No one understood why she had gone silent after revealing herself.
Asher suggested that maybe she wanted to gain some strength before renewing her attack on the coven, but she had seemed plenty strong to Rose when they had fought her nine months ago.
“I told Maria that I can lead a lesson she’s running about fighting a flying opponent, since Hellith can fly. I was thinking Mace and Jagger could help me.”
“What, you don’t want the crazy brother joining you? Worried I’ll go off and start attacking people?”
“No, Gavin, I wasn’t thinking that,” Asher said patiently, used to Gavin assuming the worst. “You need rest, remember? Flying around and having spells thrown at you is hardly restful. Take the day off and enjoy it.”
Gavin mumbled something sourly under his breath, but Rose couldn’t make it out.
She kissed all of her dragons before going off to class. When she’d first come here, classes had taken at mos
t a couple of hours per day, but at her suggestion, Maria had extended their lesson times, and made some form of training mandatory for all witches. The more experienced witches weren’t happy about it, but they knew that they had to do what was necessary to fight Hellith.
Now, instead of just the morning, Rose would be in class until the evening. She didn’t mind; she loved learning. When this was all over, she still hoped to go back to medical school. Modern medicine could be revolutionized with some of the healing spells witches had.
Of course, the humans didn’t know about witches of dragons. That, as Elaine explained, was most of the problem. It would be easy enough to bring some spells and potions into medicine. The hard part was doing it in such a way so that the humans didn’t realize that witches existed.
If their existence was discovered, Rose didn’t doubt that they’d all be locked in government facilities within the day.
Today, they were learning about shield spells, which would be vital when fighting Hellith. Rose already knew a basic shield spell, but Elaine had a lot of useful strategies for the best ways to increase shield strength with minimal energy investment.
To test it, they paired up. Rose stood on one end of the room, facing Annabelle, who was on the other side. Rose used the hurling spell they had already learned to chuck a pillow at Annabelle. It sailed through Annabelle’s shield, hitting her in the face. Fortunately, it didn’t do any damage—that was exactly why Elaine had directed them to practice with pillows.
After several tries, Annabelle’s shield deflected the pillow.
“Well done, Annabelle! Now, see if you can add some of the elements I told you about. If you do it right, the pillow should be incinerated on contact, though I don’t expect you to get that far today. But hopefully you can at least singe it.”
Annabelle managed to singe the pillow before Jade, who was practicing with Wendy, did the same, so she and Rose watched their two classmates for a bit.
Rose leaned close to Annabelle, speaking in a low voice. “So… you and Dane. You managed to keep that one under wraps. How long has it been going on for?”
Annabelle gaped at her. “How did you know?”
“You do remember dragon hearing, right? He made a comment to you yesterday that Jagger heard. He told me that you could only be a couple.”
Annabelle’s face went bright red. “Did he… did he tell you what Dane said?”
“No, and I don’t want to know. I’m not sure if you wanted to keep your relationship private, but if you did, I think it’s too late for that. At least all of the dragons know by now.”
“We hadn’t exactly discussed keeping it secret, but I was trying to be discreet. I guess Dane wasn’t.” Annabelle didn’t look upset, at least—just embarrassed. “I suppose there are worse things.”
“There are,” Rose agreed.
The lessons for the rest of the day were uneventful. Rose was looking forward to her date with Gavin tonight. It would be good to get out of the coven’s mansion for a while and forget about her worries. She’d given it some thought, and decided to take him to a restaurant in town.
He still had his old bedroom in the basement, even though they all slept together in the same bed. Tonight, she and Gavin would sleep in his room. Rose was looking forward to the night in bed even more than the night out. She loved having attention lavished on her by all of her dragons, but it would be nice to have the time to focus on one of them and lavish attention on him in turn.
Once their lessons were done, Rose hurried to their basement quarters. She picked out a dress from the cupboard, purple to match Gavin’s scales when he was in his dragon form. Rose seldom wore dresses, but tonight was an exception. She wanted it to be special. She was just putting on some gold earrings when Mace walked in.
“Hey. What’s the special occasion?”
“Gavin and I are going out for dinner.”
“Oh, you never said anything. Is it somewhere fancy? I’d better dress accordingly.”
“No, it’s just Gavin and me tonight.”
“What?” Mace wasn’t prone to anger, but he looked annoyed now.
“Gavin’s been feeling left out. I want to spend some time with him individually.”
“Rose, he’s always complaining about something,” Mace groaned. “That’s no reason to give him special treatment. We always do things as a group. There’s no reason that has to change.”
Rose sighed, trying not to get impatient. “What do you want me to do, Mace? He’s my mate, the same as you. It’s not just your job to take care of me. It’s my job to take care of you too. If Gavin needs more alone time, then that’s what he’ll get. I’m going to—”
“Sure, let him keep you all to himself. You’re playing right into his hands, letting him manipulate you.”
This wasn’t like Mace. He was usually the most easygoing of the brothers, but now his face was set in resentment. Rose had been about to tell him that she would be spending time alone with him, Jagger, and Asher too, but she was distracted by the undercurrent of anger in his thoughts.
“What’s going on, Mace? What’s wrong?”
Mace had never been one to hide his feelings like Gavin did, and sure enough, he didn’t hold back. “What’s going on is that Gavin almost killed Jagger yesterday! His own twin! How could he do that? I feel like I don’t know him anymore.”
Rose took Mace’s arm, urging him to sit with her on the couch. “He’s struggling to learn to share me with the rest of you. You’re used to sharing—you’ve been doing that with your brothers for your whole life. Gavin isn’t. He’s always been a bit of a loner. Now he’s drawn more closely into the clan because of me. You can’t resent him for taking some time to adjust.”
“No, but I can resent him for trying to murder Jagger.” Mace sighed. “But I suppose you have a point.” He hesitated. “Do you… trust him?”
Rose didn’t have to think for a moment. “With my life.”
“With Jagger’s life?”
“Absolutely. You cannot possibly be angrier with Gavin than he is with himself. Trust me, he truly regrets what happened. He won’t be doing anything like that again any time soon.”
“I hope you’re right. Asher wasn’t joking when he said he’d kick Gavin out. If I hadn’t gotten to you in time…”
“Hey.” Rose tried to bring him out of his dark thoughts. “I’m fine, that’s what matters. You reacted like lightning, jumping on top of me like that. You’re my hero.”
That brought a smile to Mace’s lips. “I just hope you don’t need a hero again any time soon. Has there been any word on Hellith?”
“Not since I last checked in with Maria.” Rose stood up and turned to the mirror. She started brushing her hair, wondering if she had time to curl it.
The door opened and she turned, expecting to see Gavin, but instead, Asher was there, looking harried.
“Come, quickly.”
Rose was immediately caught up in the urgency of his voice. “What’s wrong?”
She and Mace hurried alongside him as Asher strode up the stairs and started along the hall.
“There’s a fire in the distance, somewhere near the front gate. I’ve been trying to get in contact with the witches in charge of guarding that gate tonight, but they aren’t answering. I figured I should have backup in checking it out.” He was walking so fast that Rose had trouble keeping up with him.
“Why didn’t you call us mentally, Asher? It would have saved time.”
“I’ve done that with Jagger and Gavin, but I wanted to see you with my own eyes, to be sure you’re safe. If there’s something wrong out at the gate, you just stay behind me. You can cast magic from a distance. If there’s an attack, we would be better at taking the brunt of it.”
As much as it rankled to be told she had to cower behind her dragons for protection, Rose knew he was right. Dragons were physically much hardier than witches. A blow that would cripple Rose would merely be an annoyance to them. Most of her training focused
on casting ranged spells for that reason.
Jagger and Gavin joined them just as they exited the mansion and stepped onto the lawn.
Rose grabbed Asher’s arm, dragging him to a halt. “Asher, wait. If you really think something is wrong, we should get some of the witches to come too. I’m still inexperienced and weak compared to some of the senior witches.”
“You have something they don’t have. Maria reckons that necklace of yours is more powerful than even the strongest witch here.”
“Yes, but I can’t always control it, remember?” They had done a number of stress tests, but no one had been able to find any way to help Rose consciously direct the necklace’s power. It worked when it worked, often in times of great need, but not infallibly so.
Asher hesitated only for a moment. “We’re nearly there. If they’re in trouble, I don’t want to wait. I’ll tell Dane to gather some witches and meet us outside.”
It was the best she was going to get. Rose broke into a jog to keep up with her dragons as they hurried toward the gate. Was she imagining it, or could she smell smoke? No, she wasn’t imagining it. She could see a few tendrils of it rising up from the far side of the wall.
That must be the fire Asher said he’d seen, and it didn’t bode well. The witches on guard had no reason to light a fire, and Rose couldn’t think how it could have been started accidentally. Even if that somehow did happen, they would be able to put it out with magic long before it started smoking like this one apparently was.
Asher got to the gates and threw them open. Rose tried to peer past him, her heart galloping in her throat.
Chapter Four
Asher stood frozen only for a moment. Then he signaled Mace and Jagger to sweep the area. They did so silently, opening up a view of the scene for Rose.
Julianna and Everlee, who had been guarding the gate, were lying on the ground, their necks bent at odd angles. It was only too obvious that they were dead.
Rose’s feet took her forward automatically. She knelt down at Everlee’s side, gently closing her eyes. Gavin put a hand on her shoulder, but didn’t speak. Rose brushed away tears. There would be time for tears later.
