by Rinelle Grey
Though she took a very circuitous route and kept a careful eye out on the drive home, Karla saw no signs of any dragons, human or otherwise. Considering how obvious Edtrima had made his tailing them earlier, that had to mean they were in the clear.
Didn't it?
She pulled up in front of her dad’s home as the first few drops of rain hit the windscreen, their plops of sound loud in the silence. Karla took a deep breath. The street was empty. They were safe.
Karla raced to the veranda, trying not to get wet. Taurian followed more sedately, his close presence both making her uncomfortable, and easing the itch she'd felt since they'd gotten out of bed. Karla fished in her bag for the keys, but the door opened before she could find them. Lightning split the sky.
Karla looked up, expecting to see her dad and stared straight into Bruce’s eyes.
Chapter 20
“My god! Bruce? What are you doing here?” Karla’s voice was unnaturally high.
When the stranger opened her father’s door after their recent escape from his enemy, Taurian’s first thought was to pull Karla close to protect her. But just as he grabbed her hand, her words sunk in.
Bruce? This was Karla’s lifemate? This pasty, soft, pale man? Taurian had already concluded that she wasn’t really in love with Bruce, but he’d at least expected a real rival. A man who could live up to the commitment that she’d demonstrated over the last few days.
Bruce’s icy blue eyes shifted from Karla’s face to their linked hands. He cleared his throat before lifting his head back up to look at Taurian. Conflicting emotions swirled through Bruce’s eyes–hurt, embarrassment, even a hint of anger before cool civility masked them all.
He extended his hand to Taurian. “I’m Bruce. I don’t believe we’ve met?” His tone was clipped but pleasant enough.
Taurian opened his mouth to introduce himself, in great detail, when Karla jerked her hand out of his and interrupted. “Not now, Bruce. Let’s go inside.”
She cast a look at the grey sky, and it reminded Taurian that there were more important things at stake. They really didn't want to stay outside for any longer than they had to, much less draw attention to themselves in any way.
“Yes, let's go inside,” Taurian agreed. Not that there was anyone around to see them. The street was completely deserted due to the approaching storm.
Karla didn’t wait for Bruce’s response, she pushed past him and into the house. Taurian and Bruce followed.
Karla’s father was just inside the door. He had been out of sight, but not out of hearing.
For a moment, an uncomfortable silence hung in the air.
“Does anyone want a cup of coffee?” Karla’s father asked.
Neither Karla, nor Bruce, answered him. Taurian was almost tempted even though he hadn't been too impressed by the human’s coffee when he had tried it earlier. But pausing for a drink would demonstrate his lack of concern about the situation.
A lack of concern that he certainly didn’t feel. It wasn’t that he was worried that Karla loved Bruce. Now that he had seen the man, he was even more certain that she didn’t.
But she had made a commitment to him. A commitment that meant she refused to sleep with him to complete the Mesmer ritual. And that meant he couldn’t deal with his enemies. That thought still left a bitter taste in his mouth.
He had to admit that a part of him was just plain jealous of any regard she gave to the other man, especially if it kept her away from him. Whether that was due to his connection to Karla through the Mesmer ritual, or something deeper, he didn’t really want to think about. The situation was concerning enough without considering the implications of caring too much about a human.
Karla ignored her father’s question, asking again, “What are you doing here, Bruce?”
“You called, and I thought… well, I hoped…” Bruce broke off, glancing at Taurian and Karla’s father. He cleared his throat. “Can we talk in private?”
Karla hesitated, then turned to Taurian. “Can you give us a minute alone?” she asked.
That was the last thing Taurian wanted to do. Despite Karla not loving this man, she gave far too much weight to his wishes. If he left them alone, they might sort things out and then what? What if her lifemate said he wanted her to return home with him immediately?
What if they slept together?
He had no idea what that would do to the Mesmer bond. It had never happened before. The idea was unheard of. The concern about the damage it could do added to his turmoil. And the turmoil built to the point where he felt almost like tearing the human into little pieces. Karla was his. Until the Mesmer ritual was complete at least.
“Of course, Taurian and I can wait in the…” her father began.
“No.” Taurian crossed his arms.
Everyone stared at him, their expressions shocked.
He didn’t care. None of them knew how serious this was. None of them could ever understand.
Karla scowled. “Taurian, what’s your problem?”
“I don’t think it’s a good idea right now, given everything that happened last night.”
Putting her hands on her hips, Karla said, “You’re just making excuses. We lost him. It has nothing to do with this.”
“What happened last night? Is there a problem?” Bruce asked. His voice was still so polite and controlled. Did nothing bother him?
Karla looked at Taurian and raised an eyebrow. “You tell him then.”
Taurian frowned. What did she expect him to tell the man? The last thing he felt like was including Karla’s lifemate in his secret. He didn’t trust him.
But then again, maybe once the human knew, he would realise he couldn’t possibly compete with a dragon prince.
“I’m a dragon, Prince of Rian clan, and Karla and I were accidentally bonded when she awoke me from the Mesmer sleep. If we are separated for any length of time before the ritual is completed, both of us could die. If my dragon enemy doesn’t catch us first.”
Bruce stared at him for a moment, his eyes wide with disbelief. He looked at Karla, then back to Taurian. “Is this a joke?” A trace of annoyance entered his voice. The first sign of being human he had shown.
“It’s no joke,” Karla said quietly. “I know it’s hard to believe, but Taurian is telling the truth.”
Her lifemate’s expression didn’t change. His face was still a picture of disbelief, and he looked around all of them as though he expected someone to start laughing at him any minute.
Taurian summoned all his energy, and was about to shift just enough to convince the human he was telling the truth—change a hand into a claw perhaps, or let his horns show—but the disappointed expression on Karla’s face caused him to pause. It wouldn’t hurt her to see that this man was not worthy of being her lifemate.
“It’s the truth,” Karla’s father said quietly.
Bruce stared at him. “You’re kidding me, right? Are you all crazy? I saw the temperatures here on the news, has the heat addled your brains?”
Now, at least, he was showing some honest emotion. Trouble was, it didn’t make Taurian any more impressed with him. He was no mate for Karla. She had believed his story far more readily.
It hadn’t been just because of the lightning dragon attacking them either.
“Are you saying you don’t believe me?” Karla demanded.
Bruce stared at her. “Karla, you’re not serious, are you?”
“Totally serious.”
Bruce stared at Taurian as though trying to see his scales.
Taurian stared back. If this man truly wanted to be Karla’s lifemate, he would believe her without needing to see evidence. Taurian wasn’t going to deliberately cause trouble between them, he was just trying to help the man prove he was worthy. He couldn’t help it if he failed to do so.
The man shook his head. “Look, I don’t know what’s going on here, Karla, but this isn’t what I expected to find when I came here. I thought, when you called me, that you’d�
��” he glanced up at Taurian who tried to keep his face impassive, then back to Karla. “I thought you’d maybe made a decision and wanted to discuss it. But if you don’t want to marry me, just say so. There’s no need to make up a crazy story.”
“I’m sorry you don’t believe me, Bruce,” Karla said softly. “And I’m sorry you came all this way for nothing. I can’t marry you. I should have been honest enough to admit it before all this.” There was genuine sadness in her voice.
Taurian bit back a sigh. Anger at him he could have handled, but he couldn’t bear to see her sad. He was going to have to give her lifemate a clue. “Look,” he said to Bruce.
The man glanced at him, irritated at the interruption. His expression changed in an instant as Taurian used valuable energy to transform his eyes and show a hint of his scales.
Bruce took two steps back, his hand fluttering at his chest. “What the hell?” He stared at Taurian, disbelief warring with the evidence before his eyes. He looked from Taurian to Karla. “This is real?”
“Yeah,” Karla said softly. “That’s about what I thought when I first found out.”
Bruce stared at her for a few moments, obviously trying to take the news in. He shook his head, and stared from her to Taurain again. Then his expression changed. “So is this why you came home? Or why you couldn’t marry me? How long have you known this man?”
“No, it’s not like that,” Karla protested. “I only met Taurian a few days ago. He has nothing to do with why I can’t marry you.”
“Don’t play me for a fool, Karla. I can see that there’s something between the two of you. It’s obvious.”
“There’s nothing between us, not like that,” Karla insisted. “You didn’t believe me about him being a dragon, and I was telling the truth, can’t you trust me on this one?”
Bruce looked from Taurian to Karla, then back again.
Taurian threw him a bone. “If I had made a life commitment to someone, I would believe them without question.”
Bruce looked a little taken aback. He stared at Karla, then gave a small sigh. “It doesn’t really matter, does it?” he said to her. “You didn’t want to make that commitment. You don’t want to be with me. So whether I believe you or not doesn’t matter.”
This time, Karla was silent. She had no comeback for that.
Taurian tried not to let his hopes soar. She had been quite specific that this had nothing to do with him. And he actually believed that. She had never loved her lifemate. Perhaps being with him had helped her realise that, but it wasn’t the cause.
However, if she had no other commitments, he didn’t think that she would hold out long against the strong pull of the Mesmer bond.
Bruce looked at her for a few moments as though hoping for a response. When none came, he squared his shoulders and forced his face into a polite expression. “I guess this is it then. It’s been nice knowing you, Karla. Please, don’t ring me again.”
He turned and walked out the door.
Chapter 21
Karla’s thoughts spun as the door slammed behind Bruce just as the rain started. She stared at it, his words echoing in her mind. “Don’t call me again.”
This was it. It was really and truly over.
Oh, she was sure she could chase after him and convince him that she still wanted him. He still loved her.
She tried not to look over at Taurian. He hadn’t exactly been helpful in that conversation. It might have gone very differently if he’d admitted who he was and proved it to Bruce right from the start. But she couldn’t really blame him.
Letting things drag out would have been cruel to Bruce. She didn’t love him. She never had. And much as he might be hurting right now, letting him go was better than dragging this out any longer. For both of them.
Now there was nothing stopping her sleeping with Taurian.
She felt instantly uncomfortable and guilty at the thought, even while a delicious thrill ran through her body.
She’d told Bruce that her decision had nothing to do with Taurian, but that wasn’t completely true. She firmly believed that she had doubted her feelings for Bruce even before she met Taurian—that was why she hadn’t been able to marry him.
But there was no denying the fact that being around Taurian had made that truth painfully obvious, challenging her several times.
It was very strange that she no longer had to hold back. No longer had an excuse to. Very strange.
There was no rush though. They had escaped Edtrima, and they still had at least a week before the Mesmer ritual would be naturally complete.
Now she had time to think things through, and be sure of what she wanted before she hurt anyone else.
“I think I might have that coffee now, Dad,” she said.
“That sounds like…”
A scream broke through the sound of rain drumming on the roof, followed by a dragon screech.
Karla’s heart stumbled, then started galloping. She ran the few steps to the front door and ripped it open and stumbled out of it. Taurian and her father were right behind her. All of them stared up through the falling rain into the stormy sky, where Ultrima’s dragon form, with Bruce dangling from his claws, disappeared into the clouds amidst a clap of thunder.
This couldn’t be happening. Karla stared at the clouds where the dragon had disappeared for a moment. There was no way she could follow him, he was already out of sight. The only way to catch him would be to fly. So she turned to Taurian, her heart pounding. “You need to go after him.”
Taurian stared at her. “I can’t.”
Anger and guilt threatened to suffocate Karla. She shoved Taurian, her hands shaking.
He stumbled back, staring at her, and Karla didn’t even care that his expression was hurt. “You could have stopped this,” she accused. “If you hadn’t been so pig-headed, Bruce would never have walked out like that.” She drew in a sharp breath. “And now he’s gone, and you won’t even try to help. Who knows what Ultrima will do to him!” Despite her best intentions, the fear and guilt overwhelmed her, and she burst into tears.
Blaming Taurian was wrong. It hadn’t been his fault. She’d been the one sitting inside thinking of sleeping with him, while Bruce was outside getting kidnapped by a dragon. Because of her. This was all because of her.
Taurian put a hand on her shoulder. “I’m sorry. I would help if I could, but I don’t have enough energy to shift into my dragon form right now. If I could, I would take on Ultrima in a heartbeat.”
Karla drew in a shaky breath and nodded. Despite his obvious dislike of Bruce, she didn’t really believe Taurian would let the dragon take him without doing anything he could. He was right. If he couldn’t transform, he could do no more than she could.
Her shoulders sagged. “Then there’s nothing we can do.”
“You have to do something,” her father said. “Even if you can’t fly, we could follow him by car, couldn’t we?”
“And what are you going to do when we get there?” Taurian demanded. “You can’t fight a dragon with a car. No, we can’t take on Ultrima until I am back at my full strength.”
“But we can’t wait that long,” Karla exclaimed. “That will take ages. And who knows what he will do to Bruce in that time.”
“Ultrima will keep him safe in his lair to use as bait. He’s after me, not Bruce.” Taurian’s voice was flat and emotionless. “He will come to no harm, I can assure you. Dragon’s don’t eat people, no matter what your storybooks say.”
Well, she hadn’t exactly thought they did. Not since meeting Taurian anyway. “What if Ultrima hurts him to try to get him to, I don’t know, give him information?”
“What, like where you live? He already knows, Karla.”
Good point. Karla tried to think of anything else Ultrima might need to know and came up blank. But… “What if he’s just plain angry and wants to get back at us?”
Taurian shook his head. “Ultrima doesn’t work like that. He's into playing games, not vi
olence. He has no reason to hurt Bruce.”
His words helped Karla calm down. It was true. Everything she’d seen of the smooth and arrogant Ultrima confirmed Taurian’s words. He didn’t rush into things, he kept his emotions under control at all times.
Kind of like Bruce.
An image of the two of them sitting down to a cup of tea, being excessively polite to each other popped into her mind, and she bit back an irrational giggle.
But how could she just sit around worrying about Bruce and waiting to rescue him? That would be maddening. There must be something she could do.
But what? She couldn’t possibly take on a dragon. It would take a dragon to do that, and the only one she had wasn’t exactly functional right now.
Heat shot through her.
There was one way.
But was she game?
“What if we help you heal faster?” Karla said.
Taurian’s eyes widened slightly, and bored into her, the golden flecks in them pulsating. His lips parted slightly as he sucked in a breath, then let it out slowly.
How could he make her insides heat just by looking at her?
A sliver of guilt remained. She’d only just broken up with Bruce. She really should wait a bit longer before sleeping with Taurian. That would be the decent thing to do. Of course, rescuing him might be considered decent too.
Anyway, she wasn’t rushing straight into another relationship or anything. This was more of a business decision. It was a means to an end. Not an emotional thing at all.
Not that sleeping with him would be a chore. It was positively wrong how much she was hoping she’d have no other choice. That was the bit that bothered her.
But she didn’t have time for those kind of scruples. “There’s no other way,” she said, hoping her voice wouldn’t betray her jumbled thoughts.
Her father looked from one to the other. “You can do that?” he asked. “Why haven’t you done that before?” He looked from Karla to Taurian expectantly.
