by Nicole Hall
“Look.”
Dru’s eyes fluttered open, and she saw their faint reflection in the dark glass. As she watched, his free hand trailed up her abdomen to cup her breast. He trailed his fingers over her nipple, and her legs trembled.
The raw hunger in his eyes as they clashed with hers. He nipped the skin of her mark and soothed the sting with his tongue. Pleasure, so intense it was almost painful, arrowed straight to her core.
Dru used the window and his grip to lift herself high enough so that he glided between her legs in a long, slick slide. When she rolled her hips back, he sank into her folds, and his grip tightened.
“I can protect you with magic. Do you trust me?”
It took a second for his rough question to pierce her haze of desire, but Dru’s internal response was an immediate yes. She trusted him with her magic, something she hadn’t offered anyone else. She trusted him with her body, knowing he’d never hurt her. His bare cock pushed against her entrance with each rocking motion, and the knowledge solidified that she trusted him with her future.
“Yes.”
His hand gripped her thigh and lifted her leg to curl around his hip, and he plunged deep. They both inhaled sharply, then he began to move.
She panted, watching them come together, and met his eyes as he thrust into her. The bond swelled with need and possession, but also affection, and something deeper she shied away from. Dru met his movements with increased urgency until she perched on the edge of orgasm.
Oren ran his hand up her thigh to where they joined and applied expert pressure in just the right spot. Dru exploded with his name on her lips, unable to control her shuddering climax.
He held her tight and drove into her twice more before following her over.
13
DRU
Dru hated hiding. She’d spent the last few days stuck in the apartment like before, but at least she had Oren to keep her company when he wasn’t out working. Despite her horrid mood, a trickle of contentment kept her going. Oren was the bright spot in the shitty situation.
He left every day to hunt down leads he’d found in their search for Bri, and every day, Dru’s tension ratcheted higher.
Her work had begun to suffer, and she drew the line there. Her art reflected her deepest self, no matter that she sold it to corporations, and she’d always been able to reproduce the images in her head with no effort. The last few days had taken effort. This morning, she couldn’t get more than half a design finished.
Dru needed some outside time to clear her mind.
There hadn’t been a threat since the tainted take-out, and the community garden was only a block away. She left a note for Oren—he’d probably rush home and cart her into the apartment if she sent him a text—and packed a small bag with a sandwich, apple slices, and a water bottle. She’d do some good for the locals and get in some me time for herself. Win-win.
The garden looked worse than the last time she’d visited. Dru dropped her bag on the shelf near the tool shed and took stock. The humid air reminded her that they’d had an abundance of rain lately, not that she’d been able to enjoy it while stuck inside without so much as a window that opened. She blew errant strands of hair away from her sticky face. The rain may have encouraged fast growth, but most of the weeds weren’t big enough to have established a complex root system yet. Better start with the bigger ones in the sunnier plots.
Dru pulled weeds with a vengeance, even though her magic gave her the ability to eject them from the soil with little effort. Working with the sun on her back, her hands in the soil, fed her soul, and she tried to soak up as much as possible because the second Oren returned she’d be in for a lecture about appropriate risks.
She worked long enough for sweat to drip down her back, but no one else came into the garden. How did these people keep it running if no one took care of it on the regular? Dru wiped her face on her shirt, and when she looked up again, a movement in her peripheral vision caught her attention. She swung around to stare at the bushes lining the edge of the property. A bird, maybe?
She squinted against the sun, but the bushes remained still. Not even a breeze moved their leaves. Dru glance up at the blue, cloudless sky and wished she’d brought more than one water bottle. She turned to retrieve her bottle from her bag, and almost ran over a small man standing directly behind her.
Dru squeaked and flailed her arms to maintain her balance. Instead of moving, the man looked up with beady black eyes, the iris completely dark with no color and no pupils. Fear stole her breath. He grinned and swept a knife across her thigh. Dru’s surprise turned into a shout of pain. She caught her balance and jumped back away from the crazy man.
Her leg burned and blood dripped down to her knee. The muscle didn’t want to work quite right, so she hobbled farther away, closer to the street, while she kept him in her sights. He wore a grimy white tank top over dark red shorts. A dark splotch of something she didn’t want to think about nearly covered a cartoon fire truck at the bottom of one of the legs. She’d just been stabbed by a guy wearing kid shorts.
He didn’t seem in a hurry to follow her, punctuating his slow steps with a couple of lunges that made her flinch. Dru used her long legs to unevenly trot backward toward the sunny strip in the middle of the garden where she’d left the pruning shears, and he sped up in pursuit. Her eyes widened as he shimmered faintly green in the sunlight before skittering back into the shade to her left.
“What the hell are you?” Dru pressed her palm to the blood slowly oozing out of her leg, fighting down the panic and pain that came with the wound.
“Never seen a goblin before?”
A goblin. A real fucking goblin. With a Brooklyn accent. She’d always believed they were a human folk tale, but the creature stalking her through the garden didn’t seem to have gotten the memo. She grabbed the shears from the raised bed and held them in front of her like a spear.
He only came up to her waist, but the parts of his body she could see around his loose tank top looked like solid muscle. The tip of the shears pointed at his face, and he laughed low. Great. How embarrassing that a bodybuilding goblin with a stupidly fast knife-hand might be able to take her.
As if reading her mind, he reared back and threw the knife. Dru jerked to the side, narrowly missing being skewered, and glanced over her shoulder to see the blade embedded hilt-deep in her bag.
“You killed my lunch!” Dru brandished the pruning shears in his direction, and wished once again that she could throw fireballs or energy blasts, anything that would be useful during an attack. The little man bared a mouthful of disturbing, pointed teeth and hissed at her.
When she looked down, he had another knife in his hand. Where was he keeping those? He crept forward, and Dru backpedaled into the tomatoes. With nowhere left to go, she chucked the shears at him then sprinted toward the street while he was busy dodging. She’d only made it past the raised beds when rustling all around her slowed her steps.
More goblins popped out. All grinning maliciously and clutching sharp-looking daggers. Dru cursed and darted between two that reacted slower than the rest, right back toward the original goblin attacker.
Her heartbeat pounded in her chest as she heard footsteps behind her on the grass. No way was she going to be taken out by an army of goblins. Dru aimed for the first goblin and hoped he didn’t throw a second knife. She wasn’t sure how she’d avoided the first one.
The knife made her hesitate, but with her retreat blocked off, her next best plan was to take out the leader. Not a very good plan, admittedly. Even if she could disarm him, he could probably bench press her onto something spiky or bite her with those wicked-looking teeth. Both terrible options.
Dru told her inner pessimist to shut the hell up and charged the lead goblin. His head cocked at the sight of his prey running toward him, but he recovered fast.
“For the goblin horde!” He rushed at her, but suddenly a huge, black bear stood between Dru and the jagged blade. The bear growled m
enacingly, and the goblin slid to a stop well outside of arm’s reach.
His beady eyes widened, and he hunched over, losing his aggressive posture. How had she missed a damn bear sneaking up on them? A second later, the bear had been replaced with a pissed-off Oren. He wore his usual jeans and tee shirt, and Dru thanked whatever gods were watching that his shifting included clothes. She’d have enough trouble explaining a battle and a bear in the community garden to anyone who’d happened to look over. A naked man would make it even weirder.
Oren stepped toward the goblin, who backed up so quickly he almost tripped over a watering can.
“Look, buddy, I was hired to scare the lady. I don’t want no trouble with the clans.” He lifted his hands in surrender and backed up. The knife had mysteriously disappeared, so had all the other goblins.
Dru scowled and grabbed for him, but he dodged her smoothly. “Someone hired you?”
He shrugged. “Not a lot of work for goblins now-a-days. No refunds, no exchanges.”
The little man had made it almost entirely into the bushes that lined the garden before Dru realized he planned to run away without answering her questions. Oh, hell no. She called her magic and sent it through the earth, up into the bush he tried to hide inside. Power filled the plant, which willingly bowed to her will. Taking control of its movements, she wrapped the branches of the bush around him. A prison instead of an escape.
She let her anger and fear seep into the magic, turning the plant a sickly shade of yellow. The goblin wriggled, and Dru felt a flare of power against the bush she controlled, but his tricks wouldn’t work on the plant. Her hold was absolute. “Hey, I didn’t mean no harm, I swear.”
She constricted the branches until he gasped for air. “My leg begs to differ. Who hired you?”
He whimpered quietly. Dru didn’t take her eyes off the goblin, but Oren’s disapproval touched her through the bond. Well, screw him. She finally had a chance to get some answers, and she’d do what was necessary.
“If you don’t answer, I will crush the life out of you.” Vines from the pumpkins joined the branches of the bush to wrap around the goblin, pressing against his leathery flesh. She didn’t expect they’d be able to penetrate, but he winced all the same.
“Okay, okay.” He wheezed the words out at a much higher octave. “I’m happy to answer. Happy. Free of charge.”
Dru allowed the vines to loosen a little, enough that he sucked in a deep breath. “Talk.”
“I didn’t get his name. Didn’t ask. Average guy. He gave me a picture and told me where to find you.”
“How did he know I’d be in the garden today?”
The goblin tried to shake his head, but the vines were too tight. “Not the garden. Your building. Nice, by the way. I followed you here. He said to cut you up a little, but don’t do any major damage and stay away from your face.”
A white-hot anger filled Dru, and the goblin squeaked as the vines tightened inadvertently. She reminded herself he was cooperating and forced herself to relax his bindings when all she wanted to do was squeeze until he popped like bubble wrap.
Oren’s concern increased from behind her, but he didn’t interrupt.
Dru took a breath and spoke calmly. “Give me a better description than ‘average guy’.”
“Yeah, sure. No problem. Shorter than you two giants, brown hair, brown eyes, business casual. Like I said, average. Hey, I’m sorry about the leg, but it was just business, you know.”
She’d forgotten that he’d managed to get in a swipe with his blade. Blood crusted the edges of the fabric, scraping against her skin. Her yoga pants had a nice slit across her thigh, but the leg underneath looked pristine.
“A word of advice, goblin, you should—”
“Hank.”
Dru blinked. “What?”
“The name’s Hank. You ever need someone messed up a little, I’m your guy. I think I got a business card here somewhere…” He started patting the part of his leg he could reach with his fingers. “Aha. Here it is.”
A glossy business card floated to the ground in front of him. “Both numbers on there will get to me, but the second is a little sketchy on account of Vinnie getting in some trouble with the human cops.”
Dru stared at the small rectangle of cardstock and wondered when she’d lost control of the situation. Oren’s amusement touched her, but she shoved it away and grasped for her anger again. Weaker than before, she shook the goblin. “What do you know about Hollis?”
He turned a light shade of green and shook his head as much as the vines would allow. “I don’t know no Hollis. I swear.”
Oren laid his hand on her arm. “Unless you plan to make him an example of your power, I’d let him go.”
Dru’s anger withered at his calm tone, and the goblin dropped from the bush.
Hank straightened his tank top and sent her an appreciative look. “I was wrong. I thought the bear was the bigger threat, but you’re way scarier. Let me know if you’re ever in the market for some enforcer work. I know a guy.”
Dru’s mouth dropped open in surprise as he disappeared into the shadows. She examined the small mess they’d made, mourning the wet spot on her bag where the knife must have pierced her water bottle. There were no signs of any other attackers, not that she was an expert in finding that stuff, but there should have at least been footprints in the muddy areas where she’d been watering the plants.
“Where’d the others go?”
Oren shook his head. “What others?”
Dru gestured around, but no other goblins popped out of the rows of vegetables. “The actual horde of goblins that chased me around the garden.”
“There weren’t any other goblins.”
She pinched the bridge of her nose and squeezed her eyes shut for a moment. The goblins had all looked real, and though her leg didn’t actually ache, she still felt the pain from the knife blade cutting into her skin. How many other parts of her life were illusions?
OREN
He frowned as he examined the bush and pumpkin vine now rapidly turning brown. “It’s actually a myth that goblins come in packs. They can create phantoms of themselves to make it seem like there are many when there’s only one.”
She glared at him. “Up until about ten minutes ago, I thought goblins were a myth.”
He stood, wiping off his hands. She’d nearly killed both plants, and he’d felt her urge to kill the goblin along with them. “And now you practically have one on payroll. That should come in handy the next time you channel Hollis for an interrogation.”
Dru reared back, no doubt hearing the anger in his voice and feeling it pulse through the bond at her. “Did you just compare me to my mother? The one who plans to sacrifice me like she’s done to countless others so she can maintain her iron grip on the throne? The one who’s been low-key torturing me for almost ten years now?”
Oren’s jaw ticked, but he didn’t back down. He’d wanted to maul that little goblin into strips for hurting his mate, yet he’d known the man had been holding back. “There are other ways to get information besides crushing someone to within an inch of their life. Goblins will do just about anything for money. We could easily have paid him to tell us everything he knew.”
Dru crossed her arms. “And how are we supposed to trust he tells us the truth? Fear is a much better motivator than greed.”
She gestured at the cut in her pants. “He stabbed me. If we’re mates or whatever, shouldn’t you care more that I was bleeding when you arrived?”
Oren knew she was lashing out from fear and frustration, but her words struck him all the same. He reached for her, but she pushed his hand away. “Kalia, if I’d thought you were in real danger, I would have torn him to shreds, but he was playing with you. Just like Hollis is playing with you.”
“He was trying to kill me.”
Oren wanted to shake her. Had the woman not listened at all to what the goblin had said? “No, he was trying to scare you. That knife throw coul
d have killed you, but he gave you plenty of time to dodge it. Have you considered what that means for the rest of your near-death experiences?”
“You mean during the time that I thought I was fighting for my life, when you were apparently sitting back and enjoying the show?”
“I waited to intervene because I wanted a better idea of the goblin’s intentions. I know what it looks like to fight to kill, and that wasn’t it.” Oren tried reaching for her again, becoming desperate to make her listen, but she jerked away. “This is what Hollis wants. She wants you making desperate choices without thinking about the consequences.”
“I considered the consequences. Just like I’m considering them now.” Dru turned and marched away from him.
Oren’s hands clenched into fists, and he yelled after her. “I talked to Samantha about the man in the coffee shop.”
Dru stopped walking and whirled around. “And?”
“She remembers him, but she’s never seen him before or since.”
“Of course, she remembers him. She’s not blind or senile.” Dru snorted. “That pathetic information wasn’t worth me turning around.”
“What about the information that his description matches the one Hank gave us.”
“Yeah, his and a quarter of the population of Manhattan.” She took a couple of steps back to him, and Oren relaxed until she started talking again. “I’m not stupid, despite what I want Hollis to think. I understand that we just found out that my life hasn’t really been in danger. That someone wants me scared and running back to Vethr. Three guesses who that is.”
“Kalia, don’t use this as an excuse to take chances. She wants—”
“Just stop.” Dru shook her head slowly, and he could feel exhaustion blanket her as her adrenaline returned to normal. “I’ve known her a lot longer than you. I think I know more than anyone what she wants.” She sighed. “This whole situation must have been so convenient for you. Damsel in distress in need of a big, strong protector, but I don’t need a shield anymore. Hollis didn’t see you coming, so she couldn’t predict that I’d go running to you instead of her. By all accounts, I should have run away from you at the first sign of deeper feelings.”
