by Alisa Woods
I smile when she sees me. “Still here,” I say, opening the possibility that I’ll leave if she wants. It would kill me, but I’d do it—if only so she knows I’ll respect whatever she decides. I’m not a curse upon her. At least, I don’t want to be.
She nods, sits up, and rubs her eyes. The last meal is still here—she scoots to the edge of the bed, her back to me, and lifts the cover to check it out.
“I can order you something fresh.” I tentatively move closer. I have no idea what our status is.
She unwraps the plastic-covered fork and pokes at the cold eggs. “What’s your name?” She asks it without turning, without looking at me.
But I take it as an invitation, quickly stepping around the bed so I can face her. “Akkan.”
“Is that a dragon name?” She flicks a look at me, then forks up some eggs and puts them in her mouth.
“Akkan is not that unusual for a dragon of my time. I’m from Greece, but the name itself has some Turkish roots. My full name is Akkan Nikanor Azarchehr.”
She raises her eyebrows, still chewing.
“It’s a mouthful,” I say with a smirk. My heart is thudding, but she’s not throwing me out. Yet.
“Akkan.” She says my name like she’s trying it on for size. I can’t tell if it pleases her or not. She spears more eggs. “So, the other half of my soul is a dragon from Greece.” She flicks a look at me but then keeps her gaze trained on her food. “How does that work, exactly? And what do you mean, ‘a dragon of my time’?”
I take it as a further invitation and snag the plastic chair, turning it backward to sit facing her across the tray. She’s up higher than I am, perched on her hospital bed, but I’m taller, so we’re about level. “I was born in 1795.”
Her fork freezes momentarily on the way to her mouth. She looks to see if I’m serious, which I am, so she continues eating. She waits for me to explain, so I do.
“Dragons live a long time, but I’m near the end of mine.”
That grabs her attention. She looks me over, studying me. “You look about my age. Forty. Maybe a little older.”
“As I will until I start the Withering.” I grimace. How to explain this without driving her away with talk of mating? “It’s what happens at the end of our lives. The magic finally fails, and death comes swiftly. It’s a mercy that way, I suppose.”
She nods and returns to her food, picking up some toast and taking a big bite. I’m actually pleased to see her appetite returning—it’s been so weakened, like the rest of her. But when she finishes that bite, she sets it down and shoves away the whole thing. Her hair is wonderfully mussed, and her dress is hiked up nearly to her panties. She doesn’t fix any of it, just holds me with a serious stare that captivates me.
“What does this mean, being soul mates?” she asks. “You said we’re connected in some way. That the Vardigah could get to you through me.”
I swallow. I guess there’s no way around it. “When I was born, my dragon soul was broken and half fused with your human soul. We call you dragon spirited. If the Vardigah had succeeded in destroying your dragon soul, I would have simply died. But you would have lived on.”
“So that’s why you’re here.” She’s studying me again. “To make sure the half I’m carrying doesn’t get destroyed.”
“No.” I cringe again, but I feel the need to be honest with her. “I’m here because our souls are meant to be together.”
She scowls. “Soul mates.”
“Yes.” I bite my lip, waiting for the backlash.
“I don’t understand.” She shakes her head then looks down at her mostly bare legs. She purses her lips, eases down from the bed, then straightens the skirt, so it falls farther. What was I thinking, getting her something so obviously sensual? It’s making her uncomfortable. “So, what?” She props her hands on her hips and stares at me, defiant. “We’re supposed to be lovers? Is that it?”
Obviously not happening any time this century. I hold out my hands, palm up. “I only wanted to make sure you were okay, Daisy. I don’t expect…” I lean back and run both hands through my hair. “I’m sorry.” I stand up from the chair, and it skids forward a little. “Of course, not,” I finally answer her question. “You don’t know me. You’ve been kidnapped and tortured because of me. Why would you ever be interested in…” My distress is leaking into my voice, and I don’t want that either. I press my hands together and hold them in front of my face, closing my eyes and breathing in some reservoir of calm. It takes a moment, but decades of training come through. When I open my eyes again, she’s staring at me with a newly open expression. “You’re the other half of my soul, Daisy. I couldn’t not make sure you were okay. I couldn’t not care that you were safe and recovering from the things you suffered, things for which I’m responsible even though I couldn’t stop it. I didn’t even know—” Again, the stab of ancient pain. I breathe through that as well. “I’m here to make sure you’re okay.”
Her chin lifts, studying me anew. I’m discovering she has a piercing gaze when she wishes, and I’m right now in that blazing light.
At that moment, the door swings open, and the nurse bustles in. There are so many different ones, but this is the one who I entrusted to give Daisy the dress she’s wearing now.
“Miss Daisy!” Lucía proclaims. “Good—you’re awake!” She brushes past me and wheels over the small stand with the blood pressure cuff. “Just need to take your vitals, but this is your lucky day, tía!”
“How’s that?” But Daisy complies, taking a seat while Lucía wraps the cuff around her thin arm.
“Today, you’re gonna get to go home!” The nurse gives me a small smile like I’m in on some joke, but I’m absolutely not.
I look to Daisy.
“Oh,” she says, but her cheeks have gone more pale than normal.
“That is okay, right?” Lucía asks. “That is what you want?” Again, she peeks at me, but this time her expression is more uncertain.
“Sure,” Daisy says, but it doesn’t sound like the truth. “Akkan, can you do something for me?”
“Of course.” My mind is reeling. I hadn’t thought this far ahead, but I’m completely unwilling to let her go. At the same time, I realize that’s not up to me. My heart lurches into panic.
“I want to talk to my friends.” Daisy’s watching Lucía listen to her heart. “Grace and Jayda.” She looks to me. “Can you tell them? I don’t have a phone.” Lucía presses a thermometer to her forehead.
I nod and pull out my phone, texting them quickly. It’s morning here in New York. Grace is still in the Greek Isles with Theo, and Jayda should be in the south of France with her mate, Ree, but it shouldn’t be too late for them to stop by. There are many advantages to being a mated dragon, but teleportation has to be one of the most extraordinary. I’ve never understood why that was part of the package. Enhanced dragon powers like venom and strength, I can understand—that’s just more of what every dragon is born with. But teleportation? It’s always struck me as odd. More so now, in the modern age. Back when I was a young dragon, naïve to the ways of the world, it was just another magic that belonged to the mated ones.
When I look up from my phone, Lucía’s finished with her vitals check.
“All right, Miss Daisy,” she says, cheerily, “you’re doing great. The doctor just has to sign off on the discharge order. I know you’re a strong one, honey, but you should have someone at home to watch over you for a while, okay?” She gives me a meaningful look, but then turns and bustles out of the room, off to her next patient.
Daisy is frowning at her hands, which are back to gripping her knees as she sits on the edge of the bed.
“Do you…” I stall out. It’s never occurred to me before. I’ve been so wrapped up in caring for her… but she could have a boyfriend. A husband? Surely, she would have mentioned it. Right? “I don’t know where you live, Daisy.” I just leave it at that.
She narrows her eyes. “I was staying with a friend.” The
n she’s up out of bed and searching the room, checking out the dresser.
My heart is sinking. What friend? It’s probably already hopeless with her, but if she’s involved with someone—
“Where’s my stuff?” she demands as she cycles through the dresser a second time.
“We had to get rid of everything.”
She whips her head to me. “What?”
I look to the door, but Lucía has closed it behind her. Still, I lower my voice. “The Vardigah track by things. Anything you were wearing while you were captured, they’d be able to find you again using that. So, I destroyed all of it. I’m sorry.”
She just blinks, and her face loses its color.
“You’re safe now, I promise.” I want to reassure her with my touch, but it’s not really welcome. I gesture to her white, filmy dress. “I tried to find something that would be similar. I’m sorry if it wasn’t the right thing.”
She frowns down at the dress and smooths it across her belly. She’s still so thin from the starvation and the coma, it hangs on her. “It’s fine.” It almost sounds like she means it.
The door swings open suddenly—Jayda and Grace stride in.
“Holy shit, you’re up!” Grace gushes. She hurries across the room. I step out of the way just as she grabs Daisy into a hug.
Shock lights up Daisy’s face as she hugs Grace back. “How did you get here so fast?”
Grace ignores that as Jayda tugs her aside. “Don’t hog the girl, Grace.” Then Jayda wraps her arms around Daisy and hugs her as well. “Oh, Lord, it’s good to see you upright.”
A smile is finally showing up on Daisy’s face. She pulls back and looks between the two of them. “Don’t tell me you’ve been camping outside my door all this time!”
“Um.” Jayda pulls back and exchanges a look with Grace. “We were nearby.”
I step over to the door and close it. “She knows,” I tell them.
“All of it?” Grace asks, eyes wide.
“What do I know?” Daisy asks, clearly not happy.
I join the three of them in the center of the room. “That dragons exist. That we mate with our soul mates. And that the Vardigah track you through your things. The teleportation is new to her.” I nod to Jayda and Grace. “As is your status.”
“Teleportation?” Daisy asks them, incredulous. “Is he serious?”
“Well, only if you’re mated,” Grace says with a smirk.
Jayda glares at her.
Grace’s eyes go wide. “Oops.”
Jayda sighs.
Daisy’s nodding like teleportation is, of course, the natural thing that comes along with a magic world of dragons and elves. And she’s already on to the next thing. “You two are soul mates. Like me. And you’ve…” She flicks a very concerned look at me then at her friends. “You’re mated? Already? What does that even mean? And when did this happen?”
“You were sleeping, honey.” Jayda gives a small shrug. “Although, to be fair, it all happened pretty fast.”
Grace is biting her lip, keeping quiet now that she’s spilled everything. I’m not sure that it matters. Daisy’s earlier easy acceptance of all things magical obviously doesn’t extend to embracing that I’m her soul mate. My heart is still doing battle with what that means, but I need to keep my focus on making sure she’s cared for. If she’ll allow it. The rest matters little anyway.
Daisy’s gaze is flitting between the three of us. “You knew. You all knew all along about all of this.” Then her gaze becomes untethered from us and wanders around the room.
“You were only just recovering,” I try. “No one wanted to rush you.”
Jayda angles to get her attention again. “Daisy, honey, it’s a lot. We weren’t hiding it from you. We just knew that…” She glances at me, which makes me cringe. “Well, that you were in good hands.”
Daisy’s gaze sharpens with that. “Because Akkan’s my soul mate.”
“Well… yes.” Jayda seems to realize there’s a problem. Too late.
Daisy edges past all of us to return to the bed and the tray with her half-eaten food. She looks down at her dress again and her bare feet. The vulnerability of it has me cursing myself and wishing I’d just kept with the plain pajamas I’d been supplying. This dress is my fantasy running ahead of me.
Suddenly, the door opens, and Lucía pops her head in. “Miss Daisy! The doctor will be here with the discharge papers in a moment, okay? Just wanted to let you know.” She sweeps a look over all of us but then retreats.
Daisy turns back to us. “You can go,” she says to all three of us. “I can take care of myself.”
“What?” Grace gasps.
“Oh, hell no.” Jayda steps forward. I’ve only just met the woman recently, but I can tell she’s a tour de force. “You can come back home with me. You need someone to watch over you until you’re feeling better.” Jayda throws a quick pointed look at me, but I’m not going to interfere.
“Or you can stay with Theo and me,” Grace adds, sliding between Jayda and the tray of food. “We’re honeymooning on the Greek Isles, and you wouldn’t believe it—” She cuts off at Jayda’s scowl. “What?”
Daisy eases onto the bed and looks defeated. But when she looks up at her friends, her voice is nothing but kindness. “You two…” She shakes her head. “I knew the Universe had plans for you. I didn’t know specifically it was mating with dragons, but the Universe is tricky that way. But I’m not going to move in on your honeymoons.”
“It’s not like that…” Grace starts then bites her lip.
Jayda leans into Daisy and says in a mock whisper, “It’s totally like that.”
Daisy smiles. And for that alone, I’m grateful her friends are here.
Jayda puts on a serious face. “Look, we can get someone to stay with you at your apartment—a nurse, or something.” She flicks a look at me like she expects me to lean into this. But I’ve already screwed things up.
Daisy sighs. “I don’t, technically, have an apartment.”
Grace frowns. “Where were you staying before? You never did tell us.”
Daisy shrugs one shoulder while staring at her bare feet. “I stay with friends. Move around. You know, whoever will let me use their couch for a while.” She pulls in a breath and looks up. “I’m handy. Task Rabbit brings in enough for food and basics. Just not enough for rent in the city, you know?”
Jayda’s face is drawing down with concern, but relief is filling me—the friend is simply a friend. Maybe even less.
Grace looks confused. “What’s Task Rabbit?”
“It’s a gig economy thing, Rich Girl,” Jayda chastises her lightly. To Daisy, she says, “You can stay at my apartment in the city. I never use it anymore. Well, almost never.”
“I don’t want to put you out—”
“You should stay with me.” I say it with the assurance that I’m finally feeling. I haven’t even figured out where yet, but the with me part is necessary, now that I know there’s no one else who’s staked a claim to her heart.
Grace and Jayda hold their breath and look to Daisy to see her response. Her eyes are fixed on me, that scrutinizing stare again. So, I make my pitch. “I’m your soul mate. You need someone to watch over you until you’re recovered. I’m going to be doing it anyway, Daisy.” I gesture to the chair I’ve been occupying. “I’ve been doing it for weeks. It’s just a matter of whether you’ll let me help you or whether I’ll be camped out across the street, texting you relentlessly to make sure you’re okay.”
A flicker of a smile crosses her face. “I don’t have a phone.”
“We can fix that.” I hold that brown-eyed stare of hers.
Uncertainty clouds her expression, and she drops her gaze. “I need my things. My Tarot deck. My tools.” Then fatigue seems to take over, drawing down her shoulders.
I edge forward, Jayda and Grace backing up to give me room, and I kneel on one knee next to the bed. “They took you because of me. I’m not going to rest until
your life is put back together, Daisy. Whatever that takes.”
Her expression opens. “The Emperor builds a better world.”
I frown and glance at Jayda and Grace. They seem baffled as well.
I turn back to Daisy. “I’ll build a better world for you, I promise.”
She nods, and it’s an acceptance that floods my heart and lifts me up. Just as I rise, there’s a knock at the door, and the doctor enters. I step back to let him check her and clear her for discharge, but my mind is whirling ahead.
I need a home for my mate.
Five
Daisy
The magic of all this is sinking in.
First, the teleportation. Grace is mated—whatever that truly means—so she was able to teleport Akkan and me from the stairwell of the hospital to this inexpressibly beautiful seaside cottage on an island called Hydra, which is near Athens. Greece. Grace brought us halfway around the world in a blink. Which is good because I was exhausted just making it to the stairwell. Once we arrived, Akkan parked me in an oversized wicker chair with a nest of cushions and blankets and a beautiful view of a quiet port and the sparkling blue sea. Grace assured me, with a wink, this wasn’t her honeymoon cottage, then she whisked Akkan back to the city to gather my things.
That’s the second part of the magic. Akkan. He’s truly the Emperor card come to life, but not in the way I thought. He’s kind and caring with a depth of soul I can see in his eyes. The worst part of the Vardigah was discovering the world of magic was evil. But Akkan is the good kind of magic—the kind I’ve always thought was the natural way of the Universe.
But this business about being soul mates?
I can accept that I’m holding onto half of his dragon soul—my lives have always been complicated, not quite of this world. And there’s a connection between us, if only the intense way he looks at me with those pretty slate-blue eyes. There’s plenty to like about the man. He’s as beautiful as the quaint Greek village that is my view. It’s almost evening here, and the sun is lowering in the sky, turning it a dragon-fire orange. I can accept that Akkan feels some obligation to care for me, and this is his way of doing that. But this business of mating? He didn’t seem to take any slight when I wanted to change back into the soft cotton pajamas. It’s clear I’m in no shape for sexual adventures. Men are something I indulge in on occasion when the itch strikes. Or there’s particular chemistry. We enjoy each other for a time, and then I set them free. The Lovers card was never one I drew for any length of time.
