by Ava Benton
Whatever he was about to say in reply vanished. “Oh, shit!”
“What?” I lifted my face from the sink and turned to him, halfway through rinsing off.
“I forgot, I turned off my phone in the restaurant. There are twelve missed calls.” I hurried up and dried my face while he listened to his voicemail. When I lowered the towel, and saw the panic in his eyes, my stomach dropped.
“What is it?” I breathed.
He looked me up and down. “Get changed into something comfortable and pack a bag.”
“What?”
“Do it. Pack everything that matters to you. And hurry.”
He went back to the living room, dialing as he did, and his tight whispers rang in my ears as I did what I was told, though I wished I knew why I was doing it.
14
Fence
I didn’t say much as we rode in the taxi, Ciera’s bags in the trunk. I hadn’t told her yet that she probably wouldn’t see her apartment again. Not that she’d be missing much. The place was a closet. There was no way we could’ve shared that creaky old bed without breaking it.
One of those bags held her research. My heart clenched when I imagined how she’d react when I told her what needed to be done.
I’m so sorry, my love. I took her hand, and she squeezed, not knowing what I was thinking.
What was she thinking? A look at her from the corner of my eye revealed little. She was excited—being told to pack a bag and rushing out onto the street was exciting, I supposed. She was tired, for certain, and I could identify with that. She was uncertain. But she was there, with me, in that car. She hadn’t asked any further questions. She was willing to follow my lead. That had to say something about her feelings, didn’t it?
I could only hope I did them justice.
Miles had already informed the hotel staff that I would have a guest in my room, so they didn’t bat an eye when I walked in with her and two pieces of luggage.
Our ride on the elevator was silent, too. She looked around, taking it all in, keeping her thoughts to herself. I had never appreciated silence more than I did just then. There was too much banging around in my head to leave room for conversation. How was I going to break it to her?
As it turned out, I didn’t need to worry about it. My brother was more than willing to do it for me, the clumsy oaf.
“You told her she’s coming with us, then?” he asked, eyeing up her bags as we rolled them into the room where he was waiting with Miles.
I winced, closing my eyes briefly.
“I’m what?” Ciera looked up at me, eyes darting back and forth over my face. “What did he just say?”
“You dumbass,” I hissed at my brother.
“Oh. I’m sorry.” For once, he accepted that he’d said the wrong thing, and his face darkened.
“What did he just say?” she repeated, this time more pointedly.
“Sit down, please,” I replied, attempting to steer her to the armchair by the window.
Miles stepped aside to make room.
“Don’t coddle me.” She shook me off, whirling around to glare at the three of us. “I’m pretty sick of this three-against-one bullshit, to be honest. Just come out and tell me what it is I need to know, instead of glancing at each other and wondering how to break it gently.”
It fell on my shoulders, and that was as it should’ve been. I owed her that much. “You need to come back to the States with us for your protection.”
“Like hell, I do,” she said, tossing her head defiantly. “You’ve got another thing coming if you think I’ll drop everything and run off with you, just because you said so.”
“Ciera, please.” Miles was much more level-headed than the rest of us just then, the way he normally was. “Let me explain. Gate and I went back to the cave last night to do some more exploring. We found the place where you fell and hit your head. I’m sure you remember that.”
She touched the bump on her head, which I hadn’t realized until just then had been artfully hidden by her hair. “Yes. I do.”
“Do you remember how the wall looked when you woke up?”
“I dented it,” she grimaced.
“What else?”
She blinked. “Um… there was blood.”
“Right. Only there was no blood last night.”
I watched closely as she processed this. She frowned. “I don’t understand what that means.”
“Somebody else was there—likely after we left, since I’m sure we would’ve sensed an additional presence. They could’ve been watching to see whether any stragglers from the clan would return to the cave. They removed your blood from the wall. There’s no way of knowing what they did with it.”
“What could they want with my blood, anyway?” She looked at him, at me, at my brother.
Gate shrugged. “They might have only cleaned up for the sake of cleaning, but that doesn’t make much sense. Even though the cave is suspiciously clean and free of evidence. They might have taken a sample to see if they could test it.”
“Test it?” she gasped.
“To see if a human left it, or something else.” He shook his head. “We really don’t know. I wish we did.”
“Yeah. You and me both.” She finally sank into the chair, wrapping her arms around herself.
I wanted to protect her. My dragon wanted to protect her. As far as the dragon and I were concerned, she was ours. She always would be. It was fated. But I refused to push that onto her until she was fully aware of what it meant. She had to know the full truth of her situation before she could accept her role as my mate. I wouldn’t mark her until she knew it was forever.
She took a few shaky breaths, rocking slightly, as though she were trying to comfort herself. “All right. So, they may or may not have my blood, and they may or may not have nefarious plans for its use.”
“I think it would be better to err on the side of caution. Don’t you?” Miles was as kind as he could be, but it was clear his patience was cracking.
None of us could understand why she was so slow to understand or accept what was obvious to us—but she didn’t have our experience, either. It had been ten hours since she found out who I was, that dragons even existed. Asking her to immediately go along with our train of thought was a bit of a stretch.
I knelt in front of her, forgetting the others for a moment. “Whoever they are, they must have something to do with our clan’s disappearance. Which means they’re powerful. We’ve talked about this. There’s no way I can run the risk of them finding out who you are, that a human knows about the clan’s existence. Do you understand what they could do to you if they found you?”
“You’re scaring me.”
“I don’t want to—but maybe you need to be scared, just a little. I need you to understand what we’re up against. This is why I already discussed with them over the phone the need for you to come under our protection. Which means coming home with us.”
“But… what about my work?”
I sensed the discomfort in the other two, and I glanced up at them. “Could you leave us alone for a little while? I know we could both use some rest.”
“You’re not the only ones,” Gate grumbled as he left. “We tried to get a hold of you all night.”
“I’m sorry about that,” I called out over my shoulder. They’d spent the night thinking I’d been captured.
Ciera rocked back and forth, still holding onto herself like there was a chance she’d fall apart at any moment. “What about my work? Why did you send them away?”
I placed a hand on her trembling knee. “Ciera…”
She wasn’t swayed by my touch. “You’re telling me I can’t use it. Isn’t that right? That I’ve wasted all this time on something I can never present, because if I do, somebody out there might find out and decide I know too much.”
The bitterness in her voice was nearly enough to break my heart, even as my dragon told me to ignore the guilt stirring in my gut. “I’m so sorry.”
“You were never going to let me finish what I was researching, were you?” Her eyes burned into me, forcing the truth I wished I didn’t have to reveal.
I shook my head. “I couldn’t.”
“You bastard.” A tear rolled down her cheek. “You should’ve just told me. What were you planning to do? Steal everything? Maybe when I was sleeping, and you were protecting me?”
“No. That’s not it at all. Don’t say that.”
“What, then? Would you have given me enough respect to warn me of what you were going to do before you did it? I’m honored.”
“Ciera, you’re making this impossible.” I stood and turned away, running my hands through my hair, wishing like anything that things could be different. But they couldn’t. We had to face reality. “Do you think I like this? Do you think this is fun for me? I came here with a single purpose in mind: to find out what happened to my clan. All I managed to find was their absence. No bodies, no clues, nothing. They simply vanished one day. We heard the heartbeats, as we’ve always done, and then they were gone.” I had told her about that over the course of the night. I had told her about everything but the treasure. No one was ever to know about the treasure.
I turned back, desperate for her to understand, even as the dragon raged for me to make her mine. That she was meant to be with me. That nothing else mattered. That was fine and good for him. I was sure he even believed himself. But it wasn’t enough for her. She deserved a little more than an order.
“And I found you. For some reason, something put us in that cave at the same time. Whatever that something is—call it fate, if you want—it pushed me in your direction. I felt it here.” I made a fist and pressed it against my sternum. “There was a certainty I never felt before. I had never even come close to it. That knowing. Knowing I had to help you. I had to protect you. I had to make you mine, somehow. It was meant to be.”
When she didn’t respond, I dropped to my knees again. “We’re meant to be. You’re my fated mate. And that means placing your safety above all other things—even my own safety. It means keeping you from being discovered by whatever forces are out there, trying to destroy us. This isn’t my fault. I’m doing everything I can to keep whoever it is from hurting you one day. I couldn’t possibly leave you for them. There’s no life without you now. I wish I could make you understand that. I don’t consider the work you did to be wasted, because it brought us together. And it could help the rest of us piece together what happened in the centuries since we left home. I can’t tell you what it means to be able to do that. You could be our salvation, you brilliant girl.”
I took a chance and reached up to touch her damp cheek. She didn’t pull back. A good sign.
“Ciera, no matter how mad this sounds, it’s the truth: I love you.” There it was. As simply as I could express it.
All that was left was the excruciating, breathless, crushing moment of silence that greeted my declaration.
15
Ciera
I blinked rapidly as every thought I ever had dissolved and left my brain empty.
Did he just say that?
Was I imagining what I wanted to hear? That had to be it. No way he loved me. I was tired and foggy-headed and confused.
But the way he looked at me…
Like he meant it.
“What did you just say? The last part. Can you repeat it, please?”
The ghost of a smile touched his handsome face. “I said I love you,” he replied.
Hearing it again didn’t make it any more believable. I wondered why it was so hard for me to believe he meant it. There was no reason to lie. Telling me he wanted me to go with him for the sake of my safety was enough. I knew that once I had the time to think it over, leaving would make sense. I didn’t have any desire to meet up with anyone strong enough to take down an entire clan of dragon shifters.
Are you really entertaining the possibility that any of this is true? My rational mind still refused to acknowledge the existence of such a thing. I wanted more than anything to tell him I felt the same way he did.
I loved him. My heart was so full of love, I was sure it would crack open. My hands ached to touch him. My body ached to feel him all over me. There was just that one thing still standing between us. The ability to believe that what he said was possible.
Instead of telling him I loved him, too, I asked, “Can you do something for me?”
“You’re sure you won’t get into any trouble for doing this?” I looked around, suddenly worried. The woods were thick, and we hadn’t come across anything even remotely resembling a campfire or tents or anything that would warn us of the presence of outsiders.
“I’m sure. Once I take to the air, no one will be able to see me, anyway.” He peeled off his jacket, folding it before placing it on the ground.
“How’s that possible?”
“An enchantment granted us; we’re invisible to human eyes while in flight.”
I could only shake my head in wonder. If he was making it up, he was doing a good job of it. He hadn’t so much as hesitated to answer a single question I’d thrown his way.
He crossed his arms over his abdomen and took the hem of his sweater in his hands, then lifted. I forgot how to breathe as he revealed himself to me—eight-pack abs, chiseled pecs, biceps that looked more like bowling balls than muscles. I swallowed hard when saliva flooded my mouth.
“You okay?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Define okay.”
He only chuckled knowingly as he kicked off his shoes and lowered his pants. I was halfway through licking my lips before I noticed I was doing it. It was better for me to look away and let him get on with it before somebody found us.
“You’re ready for this?” he asked.
I glanced up briefly, just enough to see that he was completely, gloriously naked, and nodded. My heart raced almost sickeningly fast. I was about to see something that shouldn’t be possible. Something I wouldn’t have believed only a few days earlier.
The shift happened quickly. One second, he was Fence, with an almost obscenely perfect body, perfect enough to stir deep, dark longing in my core. The next, he threw back his head and threw his arms out to the sides before falling forward, on all fours. His body lengthened, wings unfolded themselves from his shoulder blades, his skin turned to shining, amber scales.
Before me stood a full-grown, magnificent dragon with eyes the color of black coffee. Just like Fence’s.
“It’s all real,” I whispered, not sure if I should laugh or cry or both. He was real. Everything he’d told me was real. I wrung my hands, wanting to touch him but almost afraid to. Was he in there? Did he think as himself when he was the dragon?
When he lowered his head until his chin nearly touched the ground, exposing his long, graceful neck, I knew he was inviting me to touch him.
I heard the heavy, deep breath coming from nostrils nearly as large as I was tall and reminded myself that I was still dealing with a beast—a very large, very powerful beast—but it was a beast with Fence’s heart. And he’d sworn he would never hurt me.
His scales reminded me of the pet lizard my fifth-grade class had kept as a pet. Funny, the things you remember when you’re faced with something outside your comprehension.
I ran a hand over his neck, then stood on tiptoe to examine the horns which trailed down his neck, getting larger as they ran down his back, and ending in spikes at his tail.
He was beautiful.
“Are you sure you want me to try this? You know how I am. I wouldn’t want you to feel bad if I fall off.”
He only snorted, his head moving back and forth like he was telling me I was crazy. I didn’t think it was so crazy. What would happen to me if I lost my grip?
I decided to try, anyway, and placed my left foot on what would’ve been his shoulder if he’d been human, before swinging my right leg over his back. I looked around for something to hold onto and settled on linking my hands around one of his hor
ns and letting my thighs do the rest. I would’ve felt a lot better if there was a seatbelt.
It all happened so fast. His wings stretched out, and wind rushed through my ears when he flapped them. We were airborne before I knew it, rising higher and higher with every movement of those incredible wings. They looked so delicate but were as strong as steel, able to lift us into the air and keep us there.
“I can’t believe this!” I screamed, holding on for all I was worth.
We sailed over the treetops, then even higher, until I was sure we would touch the clouds. The beauty beneath us was enough to make me want to weep—so green, so blue, so pure. I would never see it again. I wouldn’t have a choice.
But I would get to fly.
I laughed wildly as we swooped down, then sailed back up and in a wide circle. I had never felt so free, so incredibly alive. And he was under me, keeping us airborne. We couldn’t have been closer if we tried. The power between my thighs was enough to make me feel a little faint. All that power…
We were back on the ground before I was ready to land, but there was something I needed to tell him, anyway.
I slid off and waited for him to shift back, my heart in my throat. When he was human again, I threw my arms around his neck before he had the chance to put so much as a stitch of clothing on.
“I love you,” I gasped before covering his mouth with mine and kissing him as hard as I could.
I wanted him to believe it.
I felt laughter rumbling in his chest as he kissed me back, wrapping his arms around my waist, crushing me against his unyielding body.
He lowered us both to the ground, and I slid my arms from my coat and left it under me as he stretched out on top of me. I didn’t even care that we were out in the open—it wasn’t really open, anyway, not with the trees all around us.
The branches crisscrossed above our heads and blocked out the sky, making it almost as dark as night.
But I could still see him—more important, I could feel him. I could touch him while he touched me, running his hands over my body as he kissed me again and again, until I couldn’t breathe but held him closer anyway, needing more. My head spun, but I clung to him like a life raft as he explored me.
