Moonlight Mist: A Limited Edition Collection of Fantasy & Paranormal)

by Nicole Morgan

  “Thank you.” I sagged with relief hearing those words.

  “We’ll come, too,” Noah said, with Logan nodding along.

  It wasn’t that I didn’t want the boys to all come and meet my best friend, but I felt bad leaving Sebastian behind. I was also wondering how the hell I was going to explain three amazingly hot guys to Scarlett, because make no mistake, no matter how shaken she was, she would definitely notice them.

  “Text me if anything comes up,” Sebastian said before pulling me into a hug. As he pulled away, his knuckle caught under my chin and tilted my head up to meet his. The kiss he placed on my lips was gentle and almost reverent. “Be careful out there, my little ember. I need you to come back whole and happy.” He kissed me once more and then was gone, disappearing into the elevator just down the hall.

  Logan grabbed a set of keys, and we went out a door I hadn’t even noticed before. I glanced behind me and saw the front of the building that I had seen briefly when they’d brought me here from the hospital. A car sat on a driveway that led nowhere. Part of me wanted to point it out and ask how the hell we were going to get down the mountain, but the rest of me trusted the princes enough to know that they had a way out of there that wasn’t based on a dragon flying around.

  We all got in the car, and I waited for a boulder to move out of the way and reveal a path downward or something. I did not expect that the whole thing was an elevator, batcave style. The ground slowly swallowed up the car, spinning it slowly in a circle until it got to a specific point, and a garage door opened. A blue glow emanated from inside, and as Logan drove us toward it, everything felt squished for a moment before my ears popped and everything changed. Within a couple minutes, we were driving away from what should have been a mountain, except it wasn’t. I kept looking behind us to see if I could tell what the hell had just happened, but I couldn’t. There was no mountain, just a city skyline, one that was all too familiar.

  “What the . . . ?” I couldn’t even articulate my question. For the first time in a long time, I was completely at a loss for words.

  “Magic is real, my lady,” Noah said softly, as though he didn’t want to startle me. “We have portals throughout the mountain that take us to different cities. The one we went through brought us to Chicago.”

  “So where is the mountain?” I muttered, half in shock from this revelation.

  “That is something you will only find out once you become flamekeeper.”

  I nodded. Honestly, I had expected them to keep more secrets from me, and who knew, maybe they were, but it didn’t feel like it. Soon enough, the streets began to look familiar, and I started directing them to Scarlett’s apartment.

  As soon as the car stopped, I was out the door, running up my friend’s front steps and ringing the doorbell despite the protests coming from behind me. They had caught up to me when the door swung open.

  My breath caught at the sight of my best friend, my sister from another mister, covered in bruises and scrapes.

  “I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I’m so sorry. They said they would kill me and Mom.”

  Just like that, all hell broke loose. A man shoved Scarlett aside and grabbed me by the front of my T-shirt, yanking me in and trying to hurry me out her back door. He was taller than I was by at least six inches, and I was usually considered tall for a girl. The man was scrawny but powerful, and I could feel his fingers digging in as he tried to drag me toward his goal. His long, greasy black hair and flowy white shirt made him look like a pirate. It took a second, but my fight instincts kicked in, and I spun in his arms, just about ripping my T-shirt in two as he tried to hold me still. Before I could think about it, my knee came up and made a satisfyingly hard connection with his family jewels. He groaned and doubled over, so I grabbed him by his ponytail and kneed him in the face as well for good measure. Bone crunched in his face, and possibly in my knee as well, but blood was pouring from his nose, which made the vengeful side of me jump for joy.

  A new set of hands grabbed my shoulders, but my guys were in the house by then, and I knew there was nothing that would stop them from keeping me there. I was their flamekeeper, and they were my dragons. Logan was over the couch and around to the back door, blocking the exit, while Grayson ripped the new guy off me, pummeling him into the ground. The second guy looked more similar to the one I had seen in the hospital, a bright shock of white hair on top of his head, but unlike his buddy, he kept it closely trimmed so there was nothing to grab hold of. I looked around and found Noah patching Scarlett up and simultaneously blocking the front door, which made my heart swell with pride at having these guys in my life.

  I started to back up, trying to get away from the action and let them do their thing, which they were clearly good at. When I felt the wall at my back, I almost shrunk to the ground in relief, but I couldn’t do that. I couldn’t let these men destroy me, reduce me to a quivering mess cowering on the floor. Besides, what if one of my guys needed my help? Or I needed to get Scarlett out of there while they handled the attackers? I needed to stay alert, focused.

  The first guy was back up on his feet and coming toward me when Logan rushed him. Fists smacked into flesh, and bones crunched, but mostly it sounded the same as it had in the hospital, like a thunderstorm. Almost deafening claps of noise filled the small space, and I had no doubt that if the neighbors were home, they would be calling the police. After all, it sounded as if Scarlett had started the apocalypse in her living room.

  My eyes danced all over the place, checking on everyone to make sure they were okay. I felt both scared and useless, which just pissed me off. I wanted to help, but I knew if I stepped in, I would just be a distraction. A momentary break in the thunderclap punches allowed me to hear a gasp of pain coming from my best friend. I looked over and found Noah setting her fingers, which were evidently broken, with pens, nail files, and rubber bands. He was creative, I’d give him that.

  Another noise drew my eyes in the opposite direction just in time to see Logan drop to the floor. Everything seemed to freeze for a moment as my gaze sharpened on him. All sound and sensation left me as I tried to see his injury, but his weight went to his hands and the balls of his feet for only a moment before he popped back up. The man he’d been fighting, the first one to grab me, had circled away from him toward the door and smiled cruelly at me. The satisfaction of hurting one of his enemies twisted his face, turning it into something horrid that spoke of vengeance and violence.

  All the noise had faded, and I felt dizzy. For a moment, I didn’t understand what was going on, but then the numbness I had felt when I saw Logan drop to the ground receded, and pain took its place. My hand went to my neck, to the center of the agony that now roared through me, and came away dripping with blood. I didn’t know what to do. Should I scream? Cry? I didn’t end up having much of a choice as my body crumpled to the ground.

  Vaguely, I heard Scarlett scream my name, and then Noah was there leaning over me. His mouth was moving, but I couldn’t make out what he was saying. It was as if someone had put noise-canceling headphones on me, and all I could hear was the rushing of my blood in my ears. Grayson and Logan peeked over Noah’s shoulders as I felt him pressing against me. Everything seemed so distant, though, that when the darkness closed in around me, I let it.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Grayson

  I’d never felt my heart break in two so completely as when I saw Ava on the ground with blood pumping from her neck like a freaking river. I was useless in the face of something like that, always had been. I could put the hurt on, but I couldn’t heal it. That was what Noah was there for, but even he struggled with Ava’s injuries.

  We had rushed her to the hospital, and she was back in a room just down the hall from where we had first found her. The irony was not lost on me. She was supposed to be safe with us, secure and protected in the penthouse, but those bastards had known exactly what would draw her out, and now she was in a worse state than before.

  I had been
sitting in her hospital room with her for most of the last few days, trading off with Sebastian and occasionally Noah. Logan couldn’t even look at her, he was so wracked with guilt. We all were. She was our priority, but we had all been so set on taking the attackers captive that she ended up getting hurt.

  The memories of those first few hours when Noah had carried her into the hospital and the nurses had disappeared behind some double doors with her would be one that would haunt me forever. When they came back and told us she was stable but unconscious, we were relieved, and when she didn’t wake up as expected, the worry set in all over again.

  For some reason, it seemed as though whenever she was badly injured, or maybe it was just being attacked, she went into a coma-like state. The human doctors didn’t think she would come out of it and wanted to do all kinds of scans and tests, but we all knew that was unnecessary. Our little ember would come out of it when she was ready.

  Memories of Rachel kept pressing in on the edges of my mind. We had all been so sure that she was the flamekeeper we needed that when she died in the dragon fire, we were all too shocked to process it for a few days. I had given my heart to her freely and had thought that I would never move on from it for a while, but then the wound faded and the memories became tinged with nostalgia.

  Ava had changed all that. She was smart and asked questions, was interested in how our society functioned, was aware that my brothers and I were different people with different interests. The rose-colored glasses I had been wearing when I remembered Rachel had slowly been taken away as this little ray of sunshine inserted herself into our lives.

  I might have resisted at first, but now, more than anything, I wanted her to wake up, or, at the very least, for the hospital to let us take her home. They just kept refusing, though, telling us she would need medical attention once she was awake.

  My phone buzzed in my pocket, and I knew my time was almost up. Soon Sebastian would be there to take over, and I would be stuck at home, wondering if she was okay. I took her hand in mine for a moment and marveled at the smooth skin I found there before giving it a quick squeeze as I stood, intending to just let go and wait for my brother, but something held me there.

  “Come back to us, Ava. We need you.” I leaned down and whispered in her ear before placing a quick peck on her cheek. It was the truth, and I didn’t just mean as a flamekeeper. We needed someone with her strength and resilience, as well as someone with her heart, who could see the hurt in others and try to heal it. It was the part of the day I hated, letting go of her hand. I moved to the doorway just in time to see Sebastian’s mop of raven hair and dark sunglasses moving through the hallway toward me.

  “How’s she doing?” he asked as he entered the room, rubbing his jaw. His five o’clock shadow had turned into a short beard.

  “Same. No changes.”

  He nodded, and I headed out. Before I left Chicago, though, I stopped in to check on Scarlett. Her home had been partially destroyed in the fight, not to mention the beating she’d taken at the hands of the other dragons before she agreed to lure Ava to her apartment. The woman had been understandably shaken since then, but one of us had tried to check in on her once a day or so.

  I rang the doorbell and heard her approach. A scrape sounded as the covering to the peephole on the newly installed door was moved. I knew it was just my dragon hearing, but surely something like that should be silent.

  “Hey, Grayson,” she said as she opened up.

  “How are you doing today, Scarlett?” I asked, and followed her inside, making sure to shut and lock the door behind me.

  “Not so good to be honest. How’s our girl?” she asked as she sat on the new couch we bought for her since we wrecked the old one.

  I followed suit. “Still sleeping on the job,” I tried to joke, but all I got was a weak half smile. “What’s going on?”

  “Did Ava tell you about Frankie?”

  I nodded.

  “Her ex has been around a few times asking what’s going on with her, and I know he’s trying to get info for Frankie. I haven’t told him anything, don’t worry.” She added the last in a rush, and I knew it was because she still felt guilty about what had happened to Ava, even though she couldn’t have stopped it.

  “We were going to talk to Frankie for her before everything happened, and I guess we forgot about it. Can you get his contact number for me?”

  She looked a little stunned but agreed and tapped away on her phone. We made awkward small talk while we waited for the response from Ava’s ex. She handed the phone to me so I could copy the number to my own phone.

  “Do you mind if I hang out here for a minute while I send a message?”

  “Not at all. It’s actually nice to have the company. Most people have been avoiding me.” She gestured to her face as though the bruises would explain why. If anything, they should make people want to be closer to her, to make sure she was okay, but I knew humans didn’t always follow the same thought patterns as dragons.

  I sent the loan shark a message, pretending to be Ava and asking to set up new terms. It wasn’t long before I got a message back with a time and location, but it wasn’t an address.

  “Do you know the park where they met before?”

  “Yeah, she had me stay behind in the car so she wasn’t alone. I can show you if you want?”

  “If you just tell me, I’ll take it from here.”

  She nodded and pulled up the map application on her phone, pointing out the park the asshole had set as the meet location. The tiny green square was surrounded by roads and what I was willing to guess was a good-sized neighborhood. I sent a message to Noah and Logan, asking if they wanted to join and if they could pick up some cash. I wanted to just pay the guy off and be done with the whole thing. I started to leave, but I had a bad feeling about whatever was going on with Scarlett, and I didn’t want her to feel as if she were completely alone.

  “Here,” I said, pulling out one of the business cards I kept in my wallet. “This is my cell. Call me if you need anything, or if you just want to talk, whatever.” I scrawled the number legibly on the back and handed it over.

  “Thanks,” she said as she wrapped her arms tightly around herself.

  “If that ex comes around again, or you see Frankie, you call me, okay?”

  She nodded.

  We exchanged a couple more pleasantries, and I headed out toward the park. When I got there, it was much smaller than I’d expected, not even a block in size, and there were already a couple shady-looking vehicles parked around it, so I looped around the neighborhood a few times before making any decisions about where to park. Once there, I messaged Logan and Noah, who had both decided they wanted to come, with the location. Then I waited and watched.

  Logan and Noah showed up an hour or so later. I had seen the man I was willing to bet was Frankie get out of the car a few times and intimidate people. Money had exchanged hands, and overall, it seemed as if he had set up more than one meet for his loan shark business in the park. I was not impressed.

  “He’s the short guy. Looks like a rat. I don’t want to give him any money,” I said as my brothers slid into the car with me.

  “How do you want to play this, then?” Logan asked.

  “We could do intimidation?”

  “I know he’s scum, but do you really want to risk him coming after Ava in the hospital, or coming after Scarlett or either of their parents?” Noah asked. “If we pay him, he’s done, and maybe we tip the police off to his activities in the area.”

  “Do you still have your contact in the police department?” I asked, looking at Noah in the rearview mirror.

  He nodded.

  “I agree with Noah,” Logan grunted. “Pay him and let him rot. We have more important things to do.”

  “Fine. How much did you bring?”

  “Fifteen.”

  “I’ll take ten. You guys hold on to the other five, split it between you.”

  As soon as the cash had exc
hanged hands, we got out of the car and headed over to Frankie.

  His buddy got out of the car as we approached. “You’re not welcome here,” the older man said. He was beefy and probably good at intimidating women, which just pissed me off.

  “Ava couldn’t make it, so we brought the cash for Frankie instead,” I said as Noah and Logan stood like silent sentries behind me.

  The ogre turned back to the car and stuck his head through the open window, relaying the message to his boss. The rat-faced man got out of the car, a trail of smoke wafting being him, and headed toward us, looking as if he watched mafia movies a little too often. “I don’t like dealing with people I don’t know.”

  “Well, you’re going to have a bad afternoon, then,” I said, smiling coldly at him.

  “Why isn’t Ava here?”

  “She’s currently indisposed.” Keeping the emotion from my voice was more of a struggle than I’d thought it would be. All I could do was hope he didn’t pick up on my concern.

  “Tell her that I won’t take a payment or make any arrangements without her present,” he said as he turned back to the car.

  “You can either take payment in full now, or never see another dime. Your choice.”

  “Baby girl got herself a sugar daddy, huh?” Frankie asked as he turned back around.

  “She said she owed you ten thousand. I’ve got that right here, and I’ll give it to you with no questions asked if you agree to leave her and everyone connected to her alone.”

  “I’ll take the ten, but there’s an early repayment fee.”

  It took everything I had not to just punch this guy’s face in. “How much will it be total? Give me the final number and we’ll get you the money, but you don’t contact her after that. You don’t even think about her after that.”

  “That’ll be hard. I like to keep all the pretty girls locked away in my mind for when I need them, if you know what I’m saying.” He smiled and tapped the side of his head. It made me want to be sick.