Mia’s eyes widened at that. “Murder? Adultery?”
“Paranoid delusions,” Remy dismissed, but his shoulders bunched—high emotion wasn’t something he displayed easily. She’d noticed that in their few hours together. His poker face was as good as hers. Unfortunately for her. “There is no cheating between a bond like ours.” She believed that, but something about what Alexa had said definitely put him on edge.
“So, if he’s awoken because his leman is calling to him—” Like she’d somehow done to him. “And he’s avoiding the bond, then either he’s as mad as his father or...” She pursed her lips. “Maybe he’s scared if he finds his leman, the madness might run in the family, and he’ll hurt her like his father hurt his mother.”
When silence fell, she shuffled awkwardly on the chaise. “It’s only a thought.”
Remy stared at her a second and shot a look at Eirik. “If I requested an interview with him, do you think he’d come?”
Eirik shrugged. “Probably. He’s always respected you.”
“We were close friends once upon a time,” Remy murmured softly, his tone sad.
“Friendship got him far,” Mia retorted with a snort. “You drugged him! That’s hardly extending trust.”
“Judge not, Mia. Not yet, anyway. Not until you meet the pain in the arse.” He rubbed his jaw. “Bring him to me by his acceptance or by force. I’d prefer the former but will accept the latter.”
“If you take him by force, that’s hardly going to make him susceptible to trusting you,” Mia pointed out calmly.
Her mate shot her a look. “What else can they do if he won’t come by his own free will?”
She shrugged. “We could go to him?”
“We?” There was a dangerous hiss to his tone, which had she been anyone else, would have made her shudder at the threat.
She saw Alexa and Eirik flinch and knew that he’d tried some Shifter mojo shit on her.
It hadn’t worked.
She smirked at him; he glowered at her.
“Yeah. We.”
“You’re still disabled.” He cleared his throat. “And after the situation with Lara...”
She blinked at him. Oh shit. She’d forgotten he couldn’t fly long distances because Lara had asked for one of his scales. Apparently, he didn’t want anyone else to know about the underhanded way her Sister Sanguenna had dealt with him.
Touched that he’d trusted her with something so important to him, and so early on in their relationship, she nodded. “Yes. My legs are still weak,” she confirmed, flashing a glance at the two other creatures, who were watching the interaction between man and mate as though it were a game of tennis at Wimbledon.
His shoulders relaxed a little at her capitulation, and he pressed his hand to her calf in gratitude. “Nay,” he said softly. “You are right. Don’t bring him to us by force. Ask it of him. If he refuses, ask him if he remembers the time he got caught up in that fight between Jarvik, the Elven Prince, and Herraldon, the Goblin potion-maker. He’ll know what I mean. He should come then.”
Eirik got to his feet, and Alexa, spying this, did as well. They both genuflected and headed on their way out of the cave without another word.
Remy cocked his ear, apparently waiting for a certain sound. Only when he’d heard it, did he turn to her. “Thank you for not saying anything. It is a source of great shame to have lost a scale and be grounded.”
She smiled at him. Still touched at his ability to share with her.
She wasn’t one for displaying weakness, especially not in front of those who might take advantage of it. In the Vampire court, for example. While Eirik and Alexa were evidently high-ranking officials in Remy’s House, his faith in her, and his trust, made it easy to confess her current disability before them.
She was, she realized, willing to save his face rather than protect her own.
The thought shook her.
“You should have told me before. I wouldn’t have said a whisper on the subject.”
He grunted. “There is plenty such nonsense for you to learn. It will take more than a lifetime. Eirik and Alexa wouldn’t hold it against me, but I’d prefer it to go no further than this cavern.”
“I assume you still consider Georgios a friend even if he doesn’t?”
“One of my eldest,” he confirmed.
“And that situation between the Elven Prince and the Goblin...?”
“He lost two scales. He was grounded for months.” Remy sniffed. “Needed me to bring him food for the first two weeks.”
“Really?” she asked, astonished by how losing a scale could lame them and for so damn long.
He nodded. “It’s like breaking your legs, not being able to fly. Especially considering where we live.”
“True.” She pursed her lips. “You think he’ll come?”
“Yea, I do.” His thumb began to dig into her calf, and she groaned at the nice little massage.
“That feels good.”
“Means you’re getting sensation back. At least partway. Can you feel your toes yet?”
She shook her head then moaned when he carried on, shoving the blanket away and using both hands to start caressing and massaging the still useless muscles.
She let out a shuddery breath. “Why does the mate bond cause such a reaction?”
His thumbs stilled their treatment, and he looked down at her feet rather than her face.
“Remy?”
Silence didn’t bode well.
He grimaced. “The longer the lack of motion, the stronger the bond.”
“That’s good, isn’t it?”
His sigh confused her. “One of the strongest bonds took weeks for the leman to regain sensation.”
For a second, she could only gape at him. “Are you shitting me?” she shrieked. Thirty-six hours was more than enough in this state. Never mind weeks of this status quo.
“No. I didn’t want to scare you.”
“Too late.” Her mouth pursed. “I’m scared.” Scared of killing him, more like. She thought of the prospect of lying on this fucking chaise longue for the next couple of weeks and knew she’d go insane before then. It was a cool chaise longue, fit for a queen more than a peasant, but damn, she was a Sanguenna. Sitting around and taking things easy just weren’t on her agenda. Ever. “When do you start flying normally?”
He hunched his shoulders. “Shortly.”
“How shortly is shortly?”
“A few nights.”
“So, we can return to the other realm?”
He nodded, but she knew he wasn’t pleased at the notion.
Well, tough shit.
“Why does this happen though?” she demanded, still perplexed by it. She’d never heard of another Shifter bond that triggered such a reaction in the non-Shifter partner.
Hell, it was pretty unique considering most Shifters just fucked, bit, then claimed their mates... there was none of this, what she could only describe as, pageantry. Then, of course, she realized, it was as unique as Dragons were. There were none rarer, and maybe the reason for that was the fucked-up way they mated.
They were the pandas of the supernatural world.
Before she could huff out a breath, his thumbs started up again. “It’s twofold. Firstly, it creates codependency between a newly mated pair. Secondly, until the bond is fully manifested, no actual mating can occur, so the intimacy between Dragon and leman can blossom.”
She blinked at the flowery terms and despite her irritation, had to hide a smile. “Only a man would come up with bullshit like that. But it’s cute, I’ll give you that.”
His eyes were loaded with hope at her tone. “You’re not angry?”
“Of course, but it’s not your fault, is it?” She blew out a long breath.
“No, it isn’t, and flowery or not, it’s the truth. Our bond isn’t like another Shifter’s. We’ll live for a very long time, Mia. The foundations are what will tie us together. If we muddle things now—”
“Things will forever
be muddled,” she ended for him. The hope in his eyes had disappeared. Now, there was firm resolve. Whether she liked it or not, their foundations were going to be perfect—she could read each striation in his irises as though it were a page with words written onto it. Because she was equal parts agitated and touched, she ground out, “You’re sure there’s nothing else you’re not telling me about this shit? I won’t get mad if you tell me now.”
He pulled a face, which had her mentally preparing herself. “Some lemans lose use of their arms, others like yourself, their legs. It’s where your mark will manifest.”
The way he said that had her stuttering out, “We regain use though, right? Your phrasing leaves a lot to be desired, Remy.”
He frowned at her chiding. “Yea, you regain movement. I simply meant that whichever part of you that takes longer to recover, is the part where the mark manifests.”
“And what mark’s this?” He’d mentioned nothing of this before, and she’d heard nothing of it from gossip on his species either.
“Dr-asff sc—ahsl.”
She blinked at his mumbling. “What?” she demanded, glowering at him. “Enunciate.”
“A manifestation of Dragon scales.”
Her eyes widened, and she disregarded the word ‘manifestation’ to focus on the more terrifying aspect of his statement. “Dragon scales?”
“Yeah.”
She gulped. “All over?”
“No. Just a patch.”
“A patch on my legs?”
“Yeah.”
“What kind of patch?”
“It’s not unseemly,” he chided her, his fingers digging into the limp muscles and making her groan with delight. His touch had half of her singing, and then, the part with brain function wanting to smack him. The contrast was most perplexing, especially when she’d never imagined she could get turned on from having her damn calves rubbed. “It’s actually a very potent mark,” he confessed.
“For you, you mean.” Not for her. Manifestation or not, she did not want to replicate her favorite alligator purse. That was so not a good look.
His grin was wolfish. “Yea.”
“So, I’m gonna look like a lizard. Great.”
He snorted. “Nay. It’s like a tattoo. But it matches my pattern, that’s all.”
“You had a pattern?”
His pout had her hiding a smile. “You did not notice?”
“At first, I felt like I was on fire, then I was too busy freaking out about the mate bond, then terrified about you potentially dropping me.” She snorted at his glower of outrage.
“You thought I’d drop you?”
“I didn’t know if Dragons sneeze.”
His eyes widened at that. “Sneeze?”
As he looked set to splutter, she turned it around. “So, no sex, then?”
His already flared eyes grew larger at her change of topic. “Nay,” he said huskily.
“That’s a shame. If my legs were working, I’d climb you like a tree.”
“When your legs are working, you can climb me any time.”
She chuckled. “That’s good to know.”
He smirked at her and patted her leg. “It will be good for us.”
“If you say so,” she groused, letting the tension flood from her shoulders as she sank back against the chaise longue for support. “I can’t believe this is all about codependency. I’m relying on you, how is it you’re relying on me?”
“Dragons are selfish creatures,” he confessed softly, his fingers now wandering down to her toes, and he was working on her arch with an intensity that felt beyond sexual. Hell, he would undoubtedly be able to smell her arousal.
She knew she could.
“You are?” Her voice was a low rasp from the need coursing through her. A woman could only take so much teasing, dammit!
He nodded, seemingly unaware of her lusting over him. “A Dragon and his leman rear only a single Dragonling. We’re spoiled for, what humans would deem, an eternity. ’Lings are considered young until their second century. That’s a long time to be in the nest. But,” he said with a shrug, “’tis the way of it.”
“You’re considered kids for two hundred years?” she squeaked. “I’m two hundred and forty. No way am I a kid!”
He laughed at her outrage. “Our physiology is different. It takes a long time for us to mature, and then, when we’re fully grown, we cease aging until many centuries have passed.”
“How many?” she asked, curiosity biting her tone. She knew next to nothing about the species, and not for want of trying either.
Dragons were notoriously close mouthed when it came to their personal histories. Saying that, so was every other creature who lived in this realm, but Dragons were more interesting because they visited the world she inhabited. To those in her plain, Elves and Goblins were just fairy stories that supes knew were founded in fact. Dragons, on the other hand, were accessible yet still couched in the shadows, something that made them all the more fascinating to, hell, everyone.
He grimaced. “The Mother works in mysterious ways. She gave us long lives but limited our numbers for sustainability.”
She wafted a hand. “That means what?”
“It means we can live for thousands of years.”
“Seriously?” Her mouth dropped open. “That’s too cool.”
“It can be,” he granted with a nod. “It can also be incredibly lonely. Some reach a millennium without finding their leman. Imagine how cool they find that?”
She whistled out a breath. “Jesus. I never thought of that.”
“You wouldn’t. The oldest nightwalkers barely live past half a millennium without seeing the sun.”
“Will I do that?” she asked softly, her eyes catching his with a somberness that wasn’t feigned.
“Nay. You are mine now.” The corner of his mouth twitched up in a smile. “You should live as long as I do. But, as I was saying, living alone for such a length of time has its problems. We become set in our routines and accustomed to being alone, to preferring our own company and avoiding everyone else’s. It’s why we sleep. Not just to pass the time until our leman stirs, but because…” He winced. “Most people, even our kind, are an irritant. So, when we find our leman, though we’ve waited for that moment desperately, the adjustment can be hard.
“The Mother works in mysterious ways. She knew this, and this is why you are currently incapacitated.”
“It’s a learning curve,” she said on a laugh, shaking her head at his explanation. “I just wish she’d figured out a way to do all that without it meaning I have to sit on my ass all the time.”
He snorted. “When I can fly, you can sit on your ass and still see this realm. I will have Eirik source a saddle for when your legs work. You shall see this new world of yours.”
“Until then, I want to go home,” she warned him, trying not to shudder about having to fly. Well, not fly. That had been awesome. It was the height thing that sucked.
“Soon. I have to deal with Georgios, first, as well as other House matters.”
Her eyes narrowed. “You’d better not stonewall me on this, Remy,” she warned.
He held up his hands. “I’m not.”
“What is a House anyway?”
“It’s akin to a human family without the shared surnames. We are House Dreconis. Though Eirik and Alexa do not share a family name, we share blood.”
“You’re the head of your House, aren’t you?”
“My father rescinded it to me a few centuries ago.” He grimaced. “The kin are now my problem, unfortunately.”
“Georgios is part of the House too?”
He nodded.
“How many Houses are there?”
He fell quiet, and she moaned when he dug his thumb into the space between the heel and the ball of her toe.
“Don’t think you can side-track me,” she gritted out, feeling close to orgasm that felt so damn good.
“I’m not,” he denied sheepishly.
“Guess again, buddy. I wasn’t raised yesterday.”
He rolled his eyes. “There are six Houses. We all answer to the Queen on our House’s behalf.”
“Six?” She gawked at him. “Wow. You’re pretty powerful.”
“We are,” he told her inclusively.
Warmed to the core by his simple concession, she smiled at him and sat forward, reaching to put her hand on his knee. “I’m grateful to be your leman. Not because you’re the head of one of the Houses, but because you’ve already shown me, by word and deed, how kind you are.”
His deep, dark eyes flashed. Lightning bolts striating through the orbs. “You are my leman. No one else means more to me than you.”
“I know. I feel that.” She blew out a breath. “It’s pretty heady stuff.”
His lips twitched. “It gets headier.”
At his promise, she sank back against the chair once more. Lazily, she allowed her smile to deepen. “I can’t wait.”
Six
After he’d finished massaging her feet and legs, he retreated to the hot springs to wash up.
While he was in the silky, fizzy depths, she watched him and took great pleasure out of seeing him shift into his other form.
When he trumpeted out a noise, she blinked in astonishment as it rang around the cavern again.
More Elven magic?
He did it again. Then three times more. After which, he shifted.
Rushing from the water, she got a quick glance at his junk before he toweled off the moisture licking at his skin—how she wished she could lick him—and started to pull on a pair of simple linen pants.
“What was that all about?” she demanded, sitting up, his feeling of urgency making her nervous.
“Georgios is on his way.”
Several questions hit her. “So fast?” Then, “How do you know?”
“I heard his call,” he told her simply as he started to rub his hair dry. “Why?”
She blinked at him. “Because this is all new to me, and I don’t have a clue what’s going on?”
He grinned. “You’ll learn. My hearing is sensitive in my other form. I heard him trumpeting from afar. I replied.”
“What the hell is this Elven magic that helps amplify your voice?”
Coven: (A Steamy Dragon Shifter/Vampire Romance) (Dragon Bound Book 1) Page 7
