by Nicole Hall
He spoke over his shoulder. “She couldn’t have gone far if she knew about the investigator. Most likely, she stayed close enough to keep an eye on her parents in case Hollis tried something.”
Dru nodded, following his attention. “Yeah, somewhere near the forest.”
Oren stuffed the four trinkets into his pocket. “She’d need a small town. A place that a fresh adult could get a job without leaving a paper trail.”
Nick turned. “Well that’s easy then. A small town near this little backwoods area next to a forest. That should narrow it down nicely.”
Dru stared at the painting, speaking absently. “Can’t you use your magic to narrow it down, Nick?”
He walked back to the door and glanced out into the hallway. “First, we’d be better off not mentioning that considering how Jenny’s singing traveled earlier. Second, no, I have no magic of my own, and certainly none that would help us find an errant dryad.”
“Doesn’t sound like you’re very useful then, are you?” Dru tilted her head and squinted at the wall.
Oren inspected the painting himself, but nothing stuck out to him. “What do you see?”
“The style looks sort of familiar, but I can’t place it.” She blinked a couple of times and focused on Oren. “Now it’s going to bother me all day.”
“Not if we find something else for you to think about. Come on, kalia, I think we’ve gotten all we can from here.” He took her hand and pulled her to her feet, kissing her fingers before escorting her from the room.
Nick rolled his eyes as they passed, then followed them down the stairs. “I’ll try to get ahold of a buddy that might have better resources than what a PI could offer. Pursue this the human way.”
Oren nodded. “I have some non-human contacts I’d like to try.” It didn’t seem like much, but they’d learned a lot in that room.
Marcus met them at the bottom of the stairs. “I’ll wish you luck, but if you succeed in finding her, please honor her wishes. If my wife is right and she doesn’t want to be found, leave her in peace.”
Oren shook the man’s hand. He couldn’t promise to leave her alone, but he’d do his best to keep her safe. “If we find her, I’ll relay the information to you. At least you’ll know where she is.”
Jenny came out of the kitchen, wiping her hands on a rag, and nodded to the group. “Tell my girl I love her.”
Dru’s hand tightened on his. “We will, Jenny. Thank you for your hospitality.”
Tears threatened in the older woman’s eyes. “Come back any time, honey.”
They all filed silently out of the house, with Nick waving a belated goodbye. The door closed solidly behind them, and Oren kept walking until he got to the cars. The pieces of Brianne’s life in his pocket would give him a better idea of where to look, but he didn’t want to perform the spell in front of Nick. Keris had warned him to be circumspect with his abilities, and he’d learned long ago to take Keris’ warnings seriously. Better to do it in the privacy of the apartment. Besides, sadness swamped Dru, and he had an idea of a way to take her mind off of her sister for a little while.
Nick gestured at his sedan. “Need a ride home?”
Oren’s hand twitched on hers. She could leave with Nick—he was her rightful bodyguard after all—but Oren wanted to be the one she chose. The one to coax a smile out of her melancholy, the one she turned to for support.
She didn’t hesitate. “I’m staying with Oren for now.”
He fully intended to change the ‘for now’ portion of their arrangement, but he needed to have patience. And he needed to talk to Keris.
Nick’s eyes landed on their linked hands, and his brows drew together. “Are you sure this is what you want? I always thought you avoided relationships because of your future role.”
“No one said I had to be a virgin to be the vessel.” She tilted her head, gazing off into the distance. “Probably for the best since that ship sailed a while ago.”
Nick looked pained, then scrubbed his hand down his face. “I’d rather not think about your sex life, if that’s all the same to you.”
“You brought it up.”
Oren choked out a laugh and pulled her toward their car. “You already have my promise to protect her. We’ll contact you if we have any other leads.”
“Yeah. I’ll do the same.” Sadness filled his eyes. “See you later, Dru.” He ducked into his car, and Oren had the sense that he was telling her goodbye. Strange, since he’d professed several times to not think of her as a romantic partner. Why would Dru being in a relationship warrant a goodbye?
She seemed to be on the same thought as she watched him drive away. “Why did that feel so final?”
“I don’t know. He’s your best friend.” Oren started the car as she buckled her seatbelt. “I want to make a stop on the way home if that’s okay.”
Dru stared out the passenger window at the forest across from Brianne’s house, and he thought he saw a smile come and go. “That’s fine. It’s nice that you think of it as home.”
Only because you’re there. He stopped the thought from leaving his mouth at the last second, but the truth in the statement burrowed in his chest, refusing to let go.
11
DRU
Trees blurred together as they sped down some two-lane road, but Dru didn’t give a crap where they were headed. I always thought you avoided relationships because of your future role. Trust Nick to hit right at the center of her anxiety. Brianne—Bri, as her parents called her—must be so alone. She’d abandoned her loving family to keep them safe, something Dru could understand.
Her own relationship with her mom was strained. Margaret never doubted Dru’s love, but she didn’t understand why Dru never wanted to come home. Hollis believed her flighty façade, but the unfortunate side effect was that her mom believed it too. Everyone believed it.
If—when—she found Bri, she’d make sure her sister didn’t have to live like that anymore.
They’d been driving for maybe fifteen minutes when Oren slowed and turned onto a service road that led into the trees. Dru pulled herself out of her thoughts and realized she didn’t even know which direction they’d been going.
Oren must have sensed her unease because he caught her hand and brought it to his mouth for a kiss. “I promise not to murder you in the woods.”
Her surprised laugh echoed in the car as they pulled to a stop at the side of the dirt track. “Well I wasn’t worried about that, but now it’s there. Taunting me.” Dru shifted to face him and heaved a dramatic sigh. “Can you at least take your shirt off so I have something nice to look at while I take my last breaths?”
He grinned at her, a wicked gleam in his eyes. “Maybe later. I want to show you something first.”
Dru got out of the car and looked around. “Where are we?” Birds chirped in the distance, but there weren’t any signs of human life other than them. And technically neither of them was human either.
“We’re in one of the many state parks in this area. I needed a large space away from prying eyes.” He led her down a narrow trail through the brush that opened into a meadow.
Her eyes widened at the blanket of wildflowers. “This is amazing.”
“This isn’t what I wanted to show you.”
Dru picked a wild daisy swaying in the breeze and turned toward Oren, fully expecting some kind of outdoor sexcapades. Not her usual thing, but she loved being in nature. Except, it wasn’t Oren she saw behind her.
Her smile turned into a gasp as a beautiful dragon with iridescent blue-black scales folded its wings and sat on its hind legs in front of her. The creature loomed over her, even in a sitting position, and she chewed on her bottom lip as she tried to stand very still.
“Fehr?”
The dragon tilted its head and huffed warm air at her. A long tail with a row of spines down the middle curled around its legs, looking for all the world like a giant, irritated housecat. The expression on its face clearly said she should know b
etter. This was no spirit animal.
“Oren.” Her momentary fear forgotten, Dru stepped closer with a huge grin. “I knew you weren’t just a bear.”
He lowered his head to be eye-level with her, and Dru ran her hand down his snout. His scales were warm to the touch, almost soft, but when she pressed down slightly there was no give. Flexible armor. She giggled as his rough tongue snaked out to lick her inner wrist.
His big body hunched down, almost laying his belly on the grassy ground, and he nodded toward his back. Dru’s brows shot up.
“Are you insane?”
Oren rolled his eyes. Serpentine eyes, but the same bright blue. The whole moment felt insanely surreal. He lifted his head to watch a bird burst out of the trees near them. The rest of the bird’s brethren continued singing, so they, at least, didn’t seem put out that a new predator had appeared in their forest. She wasn’t afraid of heights or anything, but a dragon? A real dragon? That’s one hell of a new form, and he wanted her to climb right on up.
“Is there some kind of instruction manual for this? How to properly ride a dragon?” His head swung around with glee in his eyes. “Not like that, you perv. Also, this would be a whole lot easier if you could do the telepathy thing. I feel like that should be required for all non-humanoid forms.”
He shook his wings out and curled one around her, urging her closer. The soft, leathery skin brushed her arm, and a sense of reassurance touched her mind.
“Okay, but stay low. I’ve always been crap at riding horses, and they’re on the ground.”
Oren crouched again, enough that Dru could use his hind leg as a step up. She gingerly sat between his wings, just behind his shoulder blades and precariously balanced between the larger spines on his back. She wrapped her hands around the spine in front of her, surprised to find it flexible and not nearly as sharp as it looked. Oren grunted and took one last look at her before he moved.
A panicked thrill made her clench the spine and grip his back with her thighs. All those years of equestrian training her mom paid for might actually come in handy. After two jostling steps and a powerful sweep of his wings, they lifted away from the ground.
Dru tried not to think about how she’d explain this if a stray ranger or camper looked up at the right time. Prickles of Oren’s magic tickled her palms and ran up her arms, so she knew he was doing something. Maybe magic kept him aloft. Or maybe he had a way to prevent them from being seen. She seriously hoped it was the second one.
Wind tangled her hair as she flattened herself around the spike in front of her. Not as much wind as she’d expected though. Flying like this felt more like riding a motorcycle if the machine were made of smooth scales and had no handles. She had no way to tell how fast they were going, but one glance down was enough to convince her to keep her eyes on the horizon. Fear and excitement battled for control, and Dru tried her best to just hold on.
Seeing him as a dragon fulfilled some pretty specific fantasies she’d held since her middle school days, but she preferred Oren as a man. One that could speak and wouldn’t accidentally fling her to her death if he sneezed too hard.
They flew above a forest of rolling hills, then Oren circled them back to a clearing close to where they’d parked. Dru dismounted, as gracefully as she’d expected, and walked a few steps away on shaky legs. The heady scent of leaves and growth surrounded her, and Dru breathed deep. She missed this in the city.
In a blink, Oren reverted to his human form, and Dru threw herself at him. Strong, human arms closed around her.
“Better?” His rusty voice sounded like he’d been breathing fire, which made sense.
“You. Are. Amazing. I can’t believe you can turn into a dragon. Can any shapeshifter do that? Why don’t we have dragons flying through the Taco Bell drive through?”
His smile dimmed. “You can’t tell anyone, kalia. I can shift to a dragon because of Fehr, remember that other fun stuff I mentioned?”
She vaguely recalled a comment like that, but she’d been naked and sated in bed with Oren. ‘Fun stuff’ had a totally different meaning.
“No one else besides my clan leader knows, and it needs to stay a secret. Dragons are thought to be extinct, even by my people.”
Dru tried to calm her racing heartbeat and take his words seriously, but she’d just flown with a dragon, so that seemed ambitious. For him, though, she put in some effort.
She met his eyes. “I’ll keep your secrets.”
He skimmed her cheekbone with his thumb, and heat rushed up to meet him. “I know.”
Dru’s focus narrowed to his light touch against her face until he dropped his hand to her waist. She took a shuddering breath, and asked the first question that came to mind.
“How can you fly? I mean physically. Science was never my strong suit, but I think something your size shouldn’t be able to glide along above the trees like that.”
Oren chuckled and nuzzled her head to the side so he could inhale along her neck, a gesture she was becoming increasingly familiar with. His rumbling sound of pleasure danced along her nerve endings.
“Magic.” A quick swipe of his tongue against the mark made her breath hitch, and Dru forgot her physics concerns. She melted against him, letting the languid warmth from his mouth drift through the rest of her. His hands roamed down to her ass and held her in place as he worked a different kind of magic.
OREN
His sojourn in the woods with Dru marked the first time he’d ever voluntarily shown someone his preferred form. Keris had caught him in his early days and instructed him to never show anyone else. He’d decided that order didn’t include Dru. She deserved to know the full truth.
They’d returned to the car much later, with Dru lamenting the loose grass in her hair. The pull of her after his flight—the scent of the wind on her—had been too much to resist, so he hadn’t. Thankfully, she didn’t seem inclined to sing on the way home, preferring to talk about her childhood.
Seeing Brianne’s house and parents must have made her nostalgic for her own beginnings. Oren was happy to listen to stories of her youth. They gave him insight into the woman she’d become. A woman who’d turned out to be his mate.
He knew he should stay with Dru, spend some time hitting up his contacts for more information about Brianne, definitely work the spell he’d planned with the items he’d stashed in the car before bringing Dru in on his secret. But the mate surprise superseded all of that. He needed to talk to Keris, which meant a four-hour drive north to the now-functioning doorway in upstate New York.
There was more going on with the elders and the dryads than he knew, so he wasn’t willing to risk bringing Dru with him to Aecantha. She did not want to stay behind.
“What if there’s another attempt on my life?” She stubbornly sat in the car with her arms crossed while Jeff sent them increasingly panicked looks from the doorway of the apartment building.
“What was it you told me? You’ve kept yourself alive for the last almost twenty-eight years? I think you can handle a day or two without me.”
She tossed her hair over her shoulder. “Of course, I can handle myself. That’s not the point. We should be looking for Bri, not traipsing back home for a status report.”
Oren ran a hand through his hair. “I agree, but I need as much information as I can get on the bond between us to stop Hollis. We need a plan beyond kidnapping your sister before she does.”
Dru sighed and stared out the passenger window for a moment, and Oren pinpointed the source of her discomfort. She was worried he wouldn’t come back.
He reached for her, twining their fingers together and waiting until she met his eyes again. “I promise to return. Nothing Keris could say would keep me away from you.” Her face softened, and he knew he’d won. “Stay in the apartment and don’t answer the door for anyone you don’t know. And please, no more take-out.”
Dru raised a brow, and Oren tried a different tactic. “I trust you. Trust me to come back.”
She relented and nodded. Oren kissed her wrist, though he wanted to pull her close and make her forget all about their audience. The heat in her eyes told him she’d picked up on exactly what he’d hoped to do.
Dru shook her head as a blush stained her cheeks. “You are such a bad influence.”
She reluctantly extracted her hand and climbed out of the car, waving as she passed Jeff on her way into the building.
Almost immediately, his plan to travel there and back as fast as possible unraveled. Someone had closed the doorway in New York. Keris had assured him the portal would remain open as long as he was on assignment in Terra, the same as usual, but after driving for half a day and hiking over an hour into the woods, the stone arch remained stubbornly magicless.
Oren wanted to punch something, but even with advanced healing, he didn’t relish the momentary pain that would accompany striking out in anger. Instead, he hiked back out of the forest and drove a short distance further to the closest nexus.
Magic liked to gather, attracting more magic, and the elemental power in Terra was no exception. The places where the magic met became nexuses, and those with the knowledge could travel from one to another using trods. The Fae liked to claim providence, but most magic-users knew enough to use them.
Oren had never traveled through this particular nexus before, but the sprites appeared just as they should when he entered the elemental forest. This trod would take him to Aiden’s cabin in Texas, home to the only other operational doorway he knew of. Seth had given him instructions on where they kept the powerstone in case of an emergency, and Oren counted this as an emergency.
If it had only been about the mate bond, he might have reconsidered, but having the doorway closed to him tripped every one of his internal alarms. The sprites drifted by aimlessly, silly puffs of golden light, and Oren walked for what felt like an eternity.
Night had fallen long before he’d reached the nexus in New York, and he worried about the time shift that always seemed to happen while traveling through the trods. An hour spent traversing a path through the woods could be more than a day in the rest of Terra.
