No avoiding them, then.
She walked into the living room, her muscles so tense they could have been a high-strung C chord tight. As she suspected, her two best friends were watching the credits roll from the HBO series. They were both barefoot and dressed in T-shirts and comfy shorts. Empty ice cream pints sweated moisture on the glass coffee table.
The pools of water under the ice cream held her rapt attention. “You’re making a mess,” she said.
Water, more than any other essence, sought its own, and with her dragon so close to the surface, she became so transfixed by the droplets that she had to grab her jaw and turn her head away. On the floor, discarded cushions were scattered haphazardly. She bent to pick them up and put them forcefully back in place, dislodging Tee from her spot.
“What’s up?” Tee shifted on the edge of the couch and gave her a raised-brow, curious look. “My spidey sense is telling me something is wrong.”
Tee was a human, and after Tee had paired with Leo, a dragon, she’d developed increased levels of empathy. Lucy, Alec’s mate, and also a human, had developed heightened intuition with jewels. A nice trick for the former thief.
Jane flicked off the TV and stared hard, her forehead furrowing in concentration. “What happened?”
The water on the glass was making her nuts. Mei picked up the empty ice cream containers and pitched them in the living room trashcan. She wiped the water from her palms on her skirt, feeling it seep away with longing and regret. Images of blue waves ran through her head, and for a moment, she was weightless and carried away from her troubles. One foot in the human world, but the rest of her just wanted to be away…
She could go to the ocean.
She’d avoided it before because she knew they would track her there like a heat seeking missile. What did it matter now? Li would find her no matter what she did, and this way she’d pull the threat away from Darius and the King.
“Mei?” Jane stood next to her. Her long brown hair was pulled tight in a ponytail, and her face freshly cleaned of the professional makeup she wore each day as Alec’s new Managing CEO of the casino. “You’re…disheveled. What happened?”
Mei turned to Tee, and her dragon fixated laser sharp and furious on her. Tee, the two-time, talk-to-Darius-behind-her-back betrayer. Tee, her supposed best friend. Tee, who’d she trusted and let sleep in their spare room for years while Tee saved money.
“You.” Mei’s hands balled at her sides.
“Me?” Tee looked confused, her angled Paiute cheekbones pulled into sharp relief on her face. “What’d I do?”
“You told him all about me. You told him to annoy me with other women to get my attention.” Her words were loud and staccato in the living room. Ice formed in the air between her and the couch and fell to the carpet like a minced snow cone.
Tee’s expression shifted to guilt. “I was trying to help. The poor guy. He’s desperate.”
Anger coursed through her, and again the air between them frosted. “You had no right to push us together. You have no idea what you’ve done.”
“Okay,” Tee said, placating. She towered almost a foot over Mei, even in her bare feet. “I’m sorry. I’ll find him tomorrow and tell him I was wrong about everything.”
Her dragon didn’t hear the apology, only saw the fragile human bones on Tee’s long brown arms. Bones she could snap in two with one bite. Excitement pulsed under her skin, as if her dragon banged on the window of her frontal lobe for release. Ice coated her fingers, and the air around her grew cold.
Do it, her dragon hissed. Make her pay.
“Calm down, Mei.” Jane put a firm hand on her shoulder. Mei threw her off with a sharp windmill of her arm.
Tee shifted to the side. “I’m sorry,” she said again.
Mei hissed in response, letting her dragon sliver to the forefront, seconds away from jumping from her skin and wrecking the low ceilinged apartment.
“That’s enough.” Jane narrowed her eyes, and the dry wind essence of her storm dragon filled the room. The blankets lifted off the couch, and the cushions rose and danced as if on a puppet wire.
Mei saw the movement, but it made little impression. Her attention was entirely on Tee.
“Honestly,” Tee said, “it was just a silly conversation. I had no idea it would hurt you.”
“You took his side over mine,” she said.
“What?” Tee looked stricken. “No. I didn’t. I just want you to be happy.”
Mei laughed. “Like you and Leo. Like Lucy and Alec. All happy, happy, happy? Not everyone gets to be happy.” Frost webs circled the room, and still she did not break her hard glare.
“Tee, I think you should leave now.” Jane increased the shaking of the cushions so they rose and whirled in a circle around Mei. The cushions created a visual barrier between her and them. Mei pulled her dragon forcefully back under her skin, caging her anger and her fury and hurt.
“I’m so sorry, Mei.” Tee’s voice broke, and she backed away toward the door and left.
When the door slammed, the whirling cushions came into sharp focus, and Mei heaved a breath in. “Stop that!”
Immediately, the cushions fell to the floor.
“What in the hell?” Jane asked.
“Don’t start.”
“Too bad, ice dragon.”
Mei flinched at the erroneous label that had never bothered her before. She was a water dragon. A creature so hated, it had been ordered to extinction for its treachery. “Leave it alone. I didn’t hurt her.”
“What happened to make you go postal on our best friend?” Jane was beyond annoyed. She stood tall. Her wide-legged, bent-knee stance said she was ready to fight it out if necessary. “Don’t tell me it’s because she had some silly conversation with Darius.”
She didn’t want to fight with Jane. She didn’t want to fight with Tee. Exhaustion weighed her down, and she sat hard on the couch and curled her legs to her chest.
“I’m in trouble.”
Jane sat by her. She reached out a hand to touch her, but Mei flinched away. “What can I do?”
“I don’t know.” Mei put a nearby pillow between them, feeling better for the separation.
Jane frowned.
Sitting wasn’t helping. Mei set aside the pillow and stood. She continued straightening the room, avoiding the pools of water on the table. She moved to the bookshelf against the wall. The top row of the double bookshelf came to the top of her head, and the jagged edges of the books grated at her raw nerves. It was a mess, too.
She pulled the books from the top shelves, glanced at the spines, and stacked them in alphabetical piles on the floor. Most of the books on the shelf were hers. She’d collected them after she’d come to Vegas, determined to master the English language and fit in with the other dragons.
All That Rises Must Converge, Crime and Punishment, To Kill a Mockingbird, and Psychology 101 grew like stalagmites from the floor at her feet. The familiar rough bindings and smell of her books distanced her dragon from all that was water.
“There’s always something that can be done,” Jane insisted from the couch.
“Not this time.” Mei set a James Rollins book to the right of Plato. “I’m going to have to leave.”
“And leave me with this mess?” Jane’s voice was teasing.
Mei moved the A’s to the top left, but felt dissonance in her mind. She couldn’t restack them until the whole shelf was empty. She wouldn’t know where to space the B’s, they would all have to come out of the shelves.
She pulled the next shelf of books out and piled them on the floor.
“Would you stop stacking books and talk to me?” Jane said.
“It helps me think.” More like not think, but the rote chore was a relief to her overtaxed mind. The Book of Dragons came off the shelf, and she paused. When she’d joined the king’s sanctuary, she’d spent hours memorizing the history so it wasn’t obvious she’d never even heard of the ancient text. The book was the law, and it contained every
house, every dragon fold ever recorded.
Every dragon house, that was, but hers.
The end of chapter two detailed the uprising of the water dragons, their banishment from the folds, and finally, their execution. She’d been amazed to find that after the second chapter, there was no further mention of them. Slippery is a water dragon, the final edict had been the last word on her kind for a hundred years.
“Where are you planning on going?” Jane came to stand next to her but didn’t hinder her sorting.
“I don’t know.” Mei’s voice broke with emotion, surprising her. She glanced over her shoulder at Jane and shook her head.
“Let me help you.”
“Okay.” Mei nodded at the bookshelf. “Pull the rest of the books out and pile them on the floor.”
“Not exactly what I was talking about, but okay.” Jane came to her knees and pulled the remaining volumes from the bottom shelves. “Whatever has you so upset, you know there’s a good chance I can help you.”
She wasn’t talking about the books.
“Will you donate all these for me?” She was sad to leave her collection behind, but there was no way she could take them with her. Water dragons were poor fliers. Even if she boxed them all up, she’d have trouble carrying them, and they’d never survive the water.
“No,” Jane said. “But I’ll keep them here for you.”
“Really?” Mei looked at Jane’s profile, surprised. “They take up a lot of room.”
“It’s the least of what I’d do for you.” She met her gaze and smiled.
Jane was a marvel, as a person and a friend. A lump tightened Mei’s throat, and she fought to contain the tears that flooded her eyes. She’d miss Jane. And she would miss Tee, too.
“Thank you.”
Jane nodded. “You know, people ask me all the time how we can be friends.”
“You and me?” Dragons had a hard time making friends outside their elemental divisions. It was one of the reasons peace had been so hard to come by in the kingdom. Fire dragons bristled around ice dragons, and storm dragons prickled around fire dragons.
Some shifters didn’t think storm dragons, like Jane, were as powerful as the ice and fire dragons. However, a storm dragon could whip up a mean wind, and some could even call lightning and thunder. They weren’t able to laser point their power on an enemy, though— hence their weaker slot on the dragon pecking order.
Mei always thought it was lucky that the more volatile ice and fire extremes had the storm dragons to sneer at. Surely, if they only had each other, their rivalry wouldn’t end until they were both eliminated.
As it was, none of the dragons were dispositioned toward friendship, but somehow, Alec and his lieutenants had managed to forge a trust that benefited them all. Without the rule of the king, they would still be fighting. The only thing they all universally agreed on: water dragons were awful creatures who deserved what they got. Death.
“You and Tee,” Jane answered. “They really don’t understand us having a human friend.”
Mei had heard similar judgey comments about Tee, but never about her and Jane. Guess everyone just figured it was a miracle Jane could live with her at all. “I’ve never been well liked.”
“You don’t try,” Jane said. “If people really knew you, they would love you like we do.”
She wished that were true, but even Jane would despise her if she knew the truth. Just like Darius. The hurt resurfaced, and she refocused on the book in her hand. A Dale Carnegie Book, How to Win Friends and Influence People. It was underlined and highlighted, dog-eared on important chapters.
“But you don’t have to leave here,” Jane said, breaking her fond memories of the book that helped her become a successful casino hostess.
Mei shook her head. She couldn’t, she wouldn’t, endanger Jane with the truth of the water dragons. “It’s better that you don’t know any more.”
From her knees, Jane frowned, but rather than pushing, she changed the subject. “How do you want to put these back?”
“The A’s at the top left.”
Diligently, Jane picked up the A pile and shuffled the books to the top left shelf. Mei stood beside her and shelved the Book of Dragons at the end of the A’s.
Mei stood back and surveyed the neat rows growing halfway down the shelves under Jane’s hands. She aligned the edges so they were ruler straight across the front, wishing she could line up her own life as well.
“Have you told Darius yet?” Jane’s tone said that Darius might have a way to stop her from leaving, and she was going to make sure he knew if Mei hadn’t told him.
“He knows.”
“I can’t believe he’s just going to let you go. What about his dragon form?”
Mei stared at the now neat bookshelves, admiring the transition from M to N to O in a nice, orderly manner. “He knows.”
Jane stood and gave her an exasperated look. “You and your secrets.”
“I’m going to bed,” Mei said. “I’ve got to meet some players before dawn tomorrow.” The lie rolled off her tongue with surprising ease. If Tee was there with her empathic skills, she would have known, but Jane just nodded.
“Everything will be better in the morning.” Jane gave her an affectionate brush of the arm. Mei caught her hand and held it.
Her throat tightened, knowing she wouldn’t see her again after tomorrow. “I love you.”
“You love me?” Jane’s eyes widened, and she mashed her lips flat. “Now I’m really worried.”
Mei forced herself forward and gave Jane a fierce hug.
Jane’s arms settled around her shoulders. “I’ve been thinking of taking a vacation,” Jane said. “You could come with me. Maybe Tee will come, too, just like old times. Where would you go if you could go anywhere?”
The ocean, her dragon whispered. Back to the ocean with its cool currents and vast underwater surprises. Where everything was muted to slow moving tranquility.
She managed a wavering smile. “A vacation would be nice,” she said. “I’ll think on it.”
She wouldn’t be there to take a trip with Jane. “Tell Tee…” She thought back on her awful behavior. “It’s not her fault about Darius. Tell her I’m sorry.”
“Nope,” Jane said. “Psychotherapy rule number one: do not be triangulated. You tell her yourself.”
“I will.” Mei walked into the hall. “Goodnight.”
In her room, she removed a duffle bag under her bed that she’d packed many years prior. Her “go” bag held a fake passport, money, clothes, flashlights, protein bars— everything she might need should she have to go on the run.
She looked around the room, feeling an ache for the peace and independence she had found there. No pictures hung on the wall. Everything was exactly as it had been for six years. And it would be the same after she was gone.
Chapter Nine
“I need to speak to the king.” Darius stood in front of the king’s personal quarters, waiting for the Viking-like dragon sentry to step aside. Lil was actually Lucy’s bodyguard, and Lucy was Alec’s human mate—the first known human Queen of the Dragons.
The fact that the king was mated to a human was unpopular among his subjects and the biggest fissure threatening the peace—that was until the water dragons resurfaced.
“He’s with the queen.” Lil crossed her impressive arms over her chest and looked down her pale nose. “They’re busy.”
“It’s very important.” Darius balanced himself, placing his feet hip-width apart and stretching to his full height, which still was not as tall as the six-foot-three blonde woman.
“Everything’s important to somebody.”
From inside the suite, he heard orchestra music and the steady count of one and two, one and two. “Come on, Lil.” He flashed her his fifty-watt charming smile, but Lil just smirked her mouth.
“They’re having a dance lesson.” He let his impatience come through in his tone. “I hear the Maestro counting steps.”
“It’s important to the queen, so it’s important to me. It should be important to you.”
Darius smiled through his irritation. “I’ve no problem with the queen.” He did have a problem with the dragons’ ever-present preoccupation with pomp and ceremony, especially when an unforeseen attack from water dragons might be in the works.
Lil softened slightly and unfolded her arms.
“Can you just let him know I’m here?” he asked, all congenial again. “It won’t take a minute.”
Lil moved a broad shoulder upward, dislodging her thick platinum blond braid. Although her face gave nothing away, Darius had the distinct impression that his insistence pleased her.
His hackles went up. Although Lil was an ice dragon like him, she was from the far northern Scandinavian dragon fold. He didn’t trust her. Not for a minute.
“You stay here, Muscovite.” She opened the door, went inside, and shut it in his face.
Darius checked his temper at the racial slur. A Muscovite to a haughty northerner, like Lil, was a lowbrow city dweller who lived in socialist-era beehive apartments and had no cultural pride. It was also a minor mineral deposit with no value or beauty, an even worse distinction.
He turned his head to listen to the noises from the apartment. The music and counting stopped. Lil said something in her low alto voice, and Lucy answered with a negative tone.
A dismissing tone.
Queen or not, he would not be dismissed.
He charged through the door, only to find Lil ready for him. She leaped at him, her arms and right knee extended, to body slam him. Before slamming her to the ground, he caught her in the air and flipped her backward with a satisfied growl. “Stay down.”
The Viking’s eyes were clear blue and calm. “You’ll regret this.” She bucked under him, and Darius threw himself on top of her to hold her. He pinned her with one heavy knee and twisted her long braid around his fist.
“Enough.” Alec’s voice was sharp and commanding.
He gave Lil one last glare before releasing her and rising. Alec held the red-headed Lucy protectively behind his back with one arm, a fierce glower on his face that said he did not appreciate the scuffle close to his mate. Darius angled his back to the entry wall so that Lil, Lucy, Alec, and the slack-jawed Maestro were in front of him.
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