Jamie gave her arm a squeeze. “We’ll teach you to use it.” We’ll? He wished. “Well, I won’t because I don’t have much magic.”
“You used magic a lot in my world.”
“That was a fluke. It was like your world was filled with titanium.”
“Titanium? What does that have to do with anything?”
Was he going to tell her the bane of Draconi? Give her power over him? Apparently he was, seeing how his mouth started moving of its own volition. So much for keeping a secret. “A Draconi’s magic is inhibited by titanium. Right before we came to your world, we were in the cave, and Erik said the titanium deposit interfered with his magic. But when it would interfere with his, mine would activate.”
“Didn’t you learn when you were a kid that titanium affected your magic?”
“We ban the substance as much as possible. I’d never been exposed to it.”
“Titanium is in a lot of things back home. Maybe that’s why you were able to work magic in my world and Erik couldn’t.”
“Yes. That’s what we thought.” Jamie stood and held out a hand. “We need to find Erik. He can’t leave us here while he reports to the Council.”
“You actually think he’s going back to the Council to tattle on his dad?” Parker grasped his hand and let him pull her to her feet while she spoke. “Because it seems to me he’s going to find his father and needed a convenient way of getting rid of us without harming us.”
Jamie blinked. And again. And one more time. Did he hear her correctly? Did she just accuse Erik of aiding a banished male? Clearly she didn’t realize how insane that proposition was. No male in his right mind would aid a male who’d been banished. Not even for a blood relative.
He could say a lot about Erik’s attitude, but his constitution did not include aiding and abetting a known criminal.
“Of course he is. You don’t understand our society. We would never help a banished male.”
“And yet you refused to chase after Kol when you landed in the cave.”
“That was because I was concerned about you. And I can find people with ease.”
“Or he messed with our minds. Didn’t Erik say that’s what he did? So, if he messed with our minds, to what end? What’s he want?”
The answer slammed into his mind. Impossible.
“Why was he banished?”
“I don’t know. I always thought he was dead. Erik never talked about his father. It was just him and his mother.” His mother. Jamie gave himself a mental smack. A mated male would return for his mate. But Erik helping a banished male made no sense.
“Perhaps he returned for his wife. Were they in love?”
In love? If Kol felt for his mate anything close to the strings binding Jamie to Parker, then love was a poor word for the overpowering emotion. A male separated from his mate became crazed, prone to irrational behavior. At least until he learned to control the pain of separation. Some never learned. Would rather join their mates in death than live alone.
“A bonded male is a fierce beast. Protective of his mate, even to death. Living apart, knowing the other existed and being unable to reach them would be torture.”
Her eyes narrowed, flecks of jealousy darting through their depths. “Do you have a mate?”
Now would be the perfect time to tell her his suspicion. To inform her of the bond trying to grow between them.
To overwhelm her with too much information at one time. Passing through a portal into a different realm and confronting a different species was shock enough. Learning a defective shape-shifting dragon identified her as a mate might push her over the insanity cliff.
“It was assumed because of my lack of magic that I do not have one,” he hedged, hoping she missed the delay in his answer.
Her expression relaxed, jealousy giving way to curiosity. A soul-piercing gaze latched onto him, breaking down his resistance, until he lay bare before her.
Jamie swallowed.
“Only a Draconi with magic can have a mate?”
“I’m a Halfling. I’m not a full breed. Not all Halflings have mates. That doesn’t mean they can’t love, but a mate is a sacred bond. Only one mate per Draconi.”
“How do you find your mate? Date around?”
“Date around?”
“Just the two of you going out. For dinner. Drinks. Other things.”
Other things? His mind tripped into a fantasy featuring Parker splayed on his bed, eyes shining with desire. Shaking off the vision, he focused on her question. “We take bed partners. Meet to talk and eat. If we find a female we like, then we can test for mating compatibility.”
“How?”
“Put one of the pair in a dangerous situation and see if the other transports to them. If the non-endangered one transports against their will, then the couple are mates.”
“That is the strangest thing I’ve ever heard of. I don’t even know where to start with the questions.”
“It is a little odd, I admit. But it works.” Or so he’d heard.
“It isn’t any more odd than some mating practices in different countries of my world.” A pause. “What are we going to do about Kol and Erik?”
“I’ll try to contact Thoren to come get us.”
“Can we walk back?”
“I’m not certain where we are.”
“Perhaps you can transport us. When I was shot, I broke my arm. The doctors fixed it by putting in a screw. A titanium screw. Touch me. See if it helps.”
“Your healers use titanium to repair bones?” Hope and surprise warred within him. What was more shocking? The fact her healers could not repair a broken bone without using metal or by carrying a small amount of titanium within her body, she became his personal power source?
“Yes. Try it.” Parker held out an arm, presumably the one she had broken.
Jamie grabbed her bicep, the muscle firm under his fingers, her skin soft to his touch. Before attempting a transport, he tried to form an energy ball, to start small and increase his magic. Provided his magic worked.
With only a thought, an energy ball appeared in his upturned palm. Jamie blinked. Extinguished the ball. Imagined transporting to the nearest tree, several feet in front of them. The familiar feel of his body pulling apart slammed through him, the tree appearing as they materialized.
Jamie turned Parker to face him, grasping her other arm. “Thank you!” He lowered his head and pressed his lips against hers.
Her body stiffened then relaxed, her arms circling his neck, pulling him closer. Her lips softened, mouth opening, tongue tangling with his as he dropped his grip and wrapped his arms around her waist.
Heat flooded his veins, stiffened his shaft, his thoughts returning to the vision of Parker naked, lying on his bed. Tingles started in his legs, circling upward, a transport in slow motion. Transport?
Before he could take a step backward, his body split apart, flying over the ground as scattered particles to land in his bedroom. His. Bedroom. Goddess’s bloody toes.
Parker took a step back, her gaze flitting around his room.
What an idiot. But how was he supposed to know that thinking of a place meant an imminent transport?
He needed to explain before she thought he was pulling a fast one. Not that he minded pulling a fast one, but a couple of kisses did not mean she wanted him for bedplay.
“Guess the transport needs a bit of work. At least we didn’t fall out of the sky.”
She grinned, her lips swollen from his kiss. “Good job. I’m going to be sore for a week from all that falling out of transport.” She shook her head. “Never thought I’d hear myself say anything like that.”
Did she regret meeting him? “Changes are difficult.”
“Especially when they strike without warning.”
“Sometimes, though, they’re for the better.” You, for instance.
Her eyes flared like she heard his internal thoughts. As if that could happen without him projecting them to her. “True. So
metimes.”
He held out his hand. “Come. I’ll take you to the Council. We need to tell them about Kol.” And Erik. The thought churned his stomach into a ball of wiggling worms. What was Erik thinking?
He was afraid he knew the answer. No, no, no. He refused to go there. Erik was loyal to the Council, to Draconia. He would never betray either, not even for his father.
Parker ignored his outstretched palm and ran her fingers across his dresser. “I’ve got to admit, I’m a little nervous about meeting this Council.” She picked up a large ruby. “Is this your room?”
“Yes.” He dropped his hand. “Don’t let Erik’s words trouble you. I’ll be with you. The Council won’t hurt you.” He hoped. What if they refused to allow her to live with him?
Would he like living in her city? Jamie shuddered.
“I know. It still makes me nervous.” She swallowed and held out the ruby. “You found all these?”
“Yes. I like jewels.”
“I can tell. You seem to like rubies.”
“They’re my favorite.”
Parker chuckled. “Seriously? That’s my first name. Ruby.”
First name? “What is a first name? You said your name was Parker.”
“Ruby is my first name, like Jamie is yours. But most people call me by my last name, Parker. A last name is a family name. You said at the hospital that you don’t have a last name. Then how do you tell who belongs to which family?”
“We refer to ourselves as sons or daughters of whoever is the most powerful in the family.”
“Like the Vikings did.”
“Vikings?”
“Sorry. They were ancient warriors. Whose son are you?”
Jamie swallowed as his father’s face flashed in his mind. “Bjorn was my father. But I am the adopted son of Thoren and that’s how I’m known.”
Chapter Fifteen
A wave of sympathy crashed into Parker. Whatever happened to his parents left an indelible mark upon his soul. She understood the emptiness that came from losing a parent at an early age.
“I’m so sorry. I lost my mom to cancer when I was young. What happened your parents?”
Jamie grimaced, pain etching lines in his face. “They were killed in front of me. I ran and hid when a group of soldiers came and only by the Goddess’s hand did they not find me. They wanted me, not my parents, but Father tried to fight them off. The soldiers possessed a titanium sword, which prohibited him from using his magic. They killed him before he could turn into a dragon. Sometimes I wonder if my parents would still be alive if they hadn’t resisted. If they had handed me over.”
“Oh, Jamie. I’m so sorry. Were the killers caught?”
The grin curving his lips sent a shiver down her spine. “Oh yes. Thoren and Enar killed them.”
“That’s good.” Detectives arrested suspects, leaving sentencing to judge and jury. But in her mind, Parker tried the perps herself, no jury necessary, sentenced them to a few years, life or death depending upon their crimes. And in her book, killing parents in front of their children ranked as one of the most heinous crimes. “You must have had a hard time growing up without your parents.”
“I was lucky to be adopted by Keara and Thoren.”
“Tell me about the first time you met them.”
“Keara found me after my parents," he swallowed, “died. She was an apothecary and was out hunting herbs and found me instead. I lived with her a few months until Thoren rescued us.”
“Rescued?”
“We weren’t born in Draconia. Keara and I. We were both Halflings, but she didn’t realize it. We lived in Caustasia, in River’s Run. The townsfolk hated anything different, and she stood out like a jewel in a case of rocks. Thoren rescued her and by extension, me.”
“And he brought you both back to Draconia?”
“Yes. She was his mate, and after their mating ceremony they adopted me.” Jamie ran his hand over a ruby the size of a grapefruit, his gaze caught on his moving fingers. “They’re my family. My father’s Draconi relatives want nothing to do with me. Halflings are usually prized, but not by all Draconi.” He cleared his throat, his gaze rising to meet hers. “What about you? Your mother died when you were young?”
“Yeah. My dad never remarried. He threw himself into his work as a detective in an effort to forget about her. He died shortly after I was promoted to detective.” Parker forced her jaw to relax as childhood memories snuck past overused barriers. “He was the one who encouraged me to go to the Police Academy.”
“Police Academy?”
“Classes that teach you to be a cop. You have to be a patrol cop before you can become a detective.”
“A detective belongs to a security force, right?”
“Yep. A couple of years on patrol and then I put in for a transfer to be a detective. Just like Dad.” Her fingers clenched into a fist. So much for believing in the adage forgive and forget. Words burst from her lips like a cleansing deluge. “I wanted to please him. I liked helping people, so I followed in his footsteps. Tried to impress him. But grief can obliterate everything else in someone’s life.” Make a father forget he had a daughter. Make a daughter put aside her dreams to impress her father. Make life seem dull and gray.
Jamie’s touch on her arm snapped her out of the miasma of memories. “At least I knew my parents were dead. It must have been hard to live with both a dead ghost and a living one.”
“Yeah. It was. Anyway, enough of being morose. In case you think I regret my job, I don’t. I love it. Loved it.” Her captain’s voice slammed into her mind. Administrative leave.
“What will you do if your ex-partner cannot convince your boss to reinstate you?”
“I need my job. It’s my life.” Rather like her father, come to think of it. And how effed up was that? Turned out she was more like her old man than she thought.
Damn it.
She would get her job back. Not if. Would. House payments didn’t grow on vines. “So, what about this Council?”
Not that she wanted to see this mysterious, and apparently fear-inducing, Council, but it beat discussing the past and her sorry state of affairs. And Kol needed to be brought to justice. As in slap his happy ass in jail and see how he liked being locked up. Would serve him right.
And then there was the problem of what to do about Erik.
“Right. The Council.” Jamie slid his hand down her arm to grab her hand.
Devil take her, but she liked the way his large palm gripped hers. Liked the heat licking up her arm. Liked how the heat filled her veins with giddiness.
She must be losing her damn mind.
Stay on topic, Parker. “What will you tell them about Erik?”
“He should already be there.”
“He won’t be.”
Dark brows knotted together. “Yes. He will.”
“Jamie, think this though. Blood runs thicker than society rules.”
“Not this rule. And not Erik.”
“Okay. If you say so.” Erik ran off to help his father. No other explanation existed. And something told her that little tidbit of news wouldn’t go over so well with this esteemed and frightening Council.
Why was this her problem? She barely knew Erik, and his teasing made Jamie ear-steaming mad. All evidence pointed to her ignoring this issue, letting Jamie sort things out, this being his society and laws. But Erik was Jamie’s friend, and she hated to see Jamie hurt.
Which was something she learned early in her career. You can’t free everyone from hurt. Without pain, there can be no growth.
“This angers you?”
How perceptive of him. “I disagree with you, that’s all. It’s your people. You know them better than I do.”
Dread crept across her skin as she thought of meeting this Council. Meeting strange people should not bother her, heaven only knew she met enough strangers working a case.
But the thought of Jamie’s countrymen gave her a case of the willies no gang member ever inspired.
Probably since she lacked her metal friend.
Relying on her Glock instead of her wits only led to trouble.
“Yes. And no Draconi would help one who is banished.”
“Not even their father?”
“Of—” He paused, a faraway look in his eyes, a remembrance of his childhood, or what he’d do to see his father again? “I…No. Of course not. Not even for their father.”
“Well, then.” You’ll be in for a big surprise.
One eyebrow cocked a query as if he heard her snide remark. Impossible. Wait, he read minds. Damn it. How embarrassing.
Thank goodness her darker skin hid the heat splashing her cheeks. Or so she hoped. “What about that Council?”
Jamie’s lips twitched. “We’ll go see…no wait. You need to learn the language.”
“Unlike you I can’t pull it out of someone’s mind, and there’s no way in hell I can learn a language in a day.”
“I will give it to you.”
“You’ll what?”
The words no sooner left her lips than a sound like a thousand fluttering butterfly wings filled her mind. Images of runes coupled with sounds spilled into her brain like too many papers in a case file. Pain stabbed, and Parker clapped her hands against her head. As if that would keep the file from expanding.
And then the pain receded.
“Sorry. Are you all right?” Concern bled from the edges of his eyes as he knelt in front of her.
Knelt? Oh. Right. Sometime during the language download she’d dropped to her knees. And, she might want to remove her palms from her head lest she give the impression of addled wits.
Had he really given her an entire language like a file downloaded off the internet? How was that even possible?
“Parker?”
Yeah. Definitely needed to drop her hands. Drop. Her. Hands.
Right when she feared learning a language shorted out her ability to move, her hands dropped. Parker blinked and focused on the small specks of yellow dotting Jamie’s gray eyes. She drew in a breath and then another one for good measure.
“Fine. What did you just do?” The fact she asked a question to which she already knew the answer did not bode well for her mental functioning.
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