by Ophelia Bell
He let out a gasp and abruptly dropped back into the chair. “Belah?”
“Damn you, Ked. You’re not the only one who gets to have dark moments.”
Ked shifted in his seat and leaned back, regarding her. “No,” he said, chagrined. “I came here to help you. You’re right, I need to not let my own agenda get in the way. Tell me how I can help you.”
“I don’t think you can,” she said, her voice shaky with despair. “Lukas rejected me for what I’ve done. He and his brother have spent decades dealing with their sister’s death, and it seems Lukas hasn’t come to terms with it yet.” And now here she was, a brutal reminder coming back into his life. She only wished she could take away the hurt.
Ked’s eyes narrowed. “You say he has a brother. Did his brother reject you, too?”
Belah stared at him, confused, her skin prickling at the memory of Iszak’s hands on her naked skin during the confrontation with Lukas. There had been a glimmer of emotion in his aura that she’d rejected, but now it came back with undeniable clarity. He’d wanted her as much as Lukas, but his sense of loyalty was far too strong to act on it.
“Why do his desires matter? He sided with his brother, for good reason.”
“Have you dreamed since you’ve been outside the Glade?” Ked asked out of the blue. The question was odd considering the context, but not surprising. Their common dreams were often what prompted a change of laws, or an action to make sure the Court were on their guard. They were always prophetic in nature, and they’d learned early on not to dismiss the visions the six of them shared.
“Yes,” she said. “I dreamed of the North brothers awash in blue flames. I’ve already hurt them enough—it must be a warning for me to stay away, or else destroy them entirely.”
“You did not see the full picture,” Ked said. “Me and our sisters and brothers all had similar dreams. Mine was of a vast darkness with a Turul made of sunlight making the shadows cower at her feet. Numa and Aurum dreamed of Ursa males, and Aodh and Gavra of the Nymphs. The six of us with our allies stood as a bulwark against the Ultiori Hunters, but in our dreams they weren’t just our allies. Belah, they were our mates. And it wasn’t us that the Ultiori cowered before, it was our offspring. Hybrids.”
“What are you saying, brother?” she asked, the air somehow escaping her lungs so that the words were barely a whisper.
“You must mate one of these brothers. In more than three thousand years we have never truly taken mates like the rest of our race. It is time we did, for their sake. If the one brother won’t accept you, then we have to appeal to the other. Perhaps he will come around.”
Belah shook her head. After Lukas’s rejection, she needed more time. It wasn’t enough that her heart ached for both of them, that what she hoped to accomplish would finally avenge their sister.
And it didn’t help that the prospect of bedding Iszak made her briefly forget her anguish over the rejection. He had wanted her with as strong a craving as Lukas in the brief moment they’d been in contact. She hated to admit the feeling was mutual, but the brothers shared a quality she’d never found in another man before. One she feared she couldn’t live without.
“I- I don’t even know how to find him, other than returning to their home. But Iszak won’t agree if his brother’s there, I’m sure of it.”
“I know where to find Iszak,” Erika said. Belah looked up to see her friend leaning in the doorway, her expression matter-of-fact. At Belah’s inquiring look, she shrugged. “This affects me, too. Our children.” Her cheeks grew pink when she glanced at her mate beside her, then turned back to Belah with a determined look. “He’s headlining at a blues club in town this weekend. Not nearly as classy a place as the one where his brother plays, but if you liked Lukas’s music, you will love Iszak’s. It’s pure sex.”
Belah glanced between Erika and Geva, noting Geva’s raised eyebrow as he looked at his mate.
“What will entice Iszak?” she asked. “Does making him watch and not touch work as well as it does on his brother?” She felt compelled to ask, even though a sense of dread settled deep in her belly at the thought of shifting gears so swiftly. She still desperately wanted Lukas to forgive her, but the idea of capturing Iszak’s attention thrilled her. Maybe if he could be convinced of her need for one of them, he would help her turn Lukas around.
Erika’s lips spread in a wicked smile. “Oh, he’d rather watch, especially if he knows his music is doing its work. I wish I’d known before exactly why their music was so special. But now that I do, I think we can have a lot of fun.” She turned and stepped close to Geva, placing her palms against his broad chest. “I need you in the background, baby. If we’re going to get this guy, he needs to feel like top dog, all right?”
Geva’s hands slid down her sides to rest at her hips as he regarded her. “As long as I get to watch, too, I can stay in the shadows with Ked.”
Erika’s face split into a delighted grin. “Good, then it’s settled,” she said, and kissed him so deeply, their shared aura left Belah tingling from the energy.
Chapter Ten
Erika insisted on making the men follow them separately to the club. “They’ll let us in without a cover if we appear single.” Belah didn’t argue—she was so far out of her element, she preferred to trust Erika. She even trusted her friend with the choice of attire, though the jeans and low-cut halter-top she now wore felt strange and too tight around her body. Very unfeminine, by her own standards, even though she’d seen countless human women dressed the same way since she’d been here. She didn’t quite understand why the fashion would be so enticing to men, but Erika assured her it was.
She’d also put her thick black hair up in a messy twist that Erika insisted was sexy as hell. “Heads are gonna turn. Especially Iszak’s. Just follow my lead tonight, okay? He’ll be eating out of the palm of your hand.”
Geva and her brother would show up after them, and with Ked’s powers assisting them they would stay hidden unless needed. The precaution eased her mind. She’d only had the sense of a hunter’s presence once since her visit began, and it had given her a cold chill, but it had been faint and had passed quickly. There were so many humans now, she hoped that her kind were as hard to find for the hunters as the Ultiori were for them. It would at least give them time to mount a proper offense against them.
If this part of their plan went well, it might only be a couple decades before they could bring their enemy to heel and finally render them powerless for the first time in millennia. The thought of being able to spread her wings in the real world again indefinitely made her itch to have Iszak accept her. She only wished that the dream image of the pair of brothers didn’t still haunt her. The blue fire hadn’t consumed them in her dream. It had merely enveloped them both, leaving them glowing with her magic as though in some fiery aura. Was Ked right? Could it have meant so much more than she’d seen?
The taxi cab pulled up on a crowded street and Erika paid the fare, then tugged her out by the hand.
A pair of large men flanked the double doors of the club, and on seeing the two women, simultaneously opened the doors to let them inside without a word.
Somehow she’d expected a similar experience to the one from the week earlier when they’d walked into the jazz club where Lukas played. What she encountered beyond that wide portal was something far different. The inside was just as dark, but the pure sexual energy and emotion permeating the air inside made her skin tingle with delight.
Then the music began and everything increased tenfold with the rough strains of an instrument both very similar and very different to the one Lukas had played. She could tell it was Iszak playing even before they cleared the lobby of the club and passed into the main room. The way the vibrations of the air seemed to seek her out, coax her forward with a come-hither tickle of her eardrums signaled the power behind the notes. Unlike Lukas’s music, this sound dug deep from the start and worked its way through her from her soul outward.
&nb
sp; She let go of Erika’s hand and walked into the crowded center of the room, drawn by the sound as surely as if he’d cast a line and hooked her with the notes. There he was, up on stage, wearing a pair of tattered jeans and nothing else. His eyes were shut tightly, his face intent, as though his instrument were a lover. His aura pulsed around him in a cloud, dark gray with glimmers of red light that reminded her of an ocean storm at sunset.
“Dance,” Erika said behind her, and placed hands against her hips, urging her to move.
Belah let the other woman guide her. Within a few seconds, the music itself became her body’s guide. Erika moved in sync with her, their hips aligned, thighs pressed together.
“That’s right, move with me,” Erika said.
“Have you been with him, too?” she asked, turning her head slightly to catch a glimpse of Erika from the corner of her eye.
“Not Iszak. I tried once, but he told me I was meant for someone less damaged. He didn’t like it when I wound up in his brother’s bed. I think he knew I wasn’t the right woman for either of them. Seems like we know why now, don’t we?”
Erika’s laugh sent a hot breath past Belah’s ear. The woman’s contact complemented the music, warm and soft behind her in enticing contrast to the rough heat of Iszak’s magic.
She relaxed under Erika’s touch, letting herself move by instinct, to enjoy the way the collected auras and emotions in the room fluctuated in time with the notes Iszak and the rest of the band played.
The tempo slowed and Iszak opened his eyes. When his gaze moved to the middle of the room, Belah tensed, grateful for Erika’s presence keeping her from freezing entirely. She shouldn’t fear making eye contact with him, but she did, terrified of what she’d find. The intensity in those deep-set eyes made her pulse race when he finally did see her and began moving across the stage, never losing sight of her, and never missing a note as he kept playing.
Erika’s slow movements subtly urged Belah forward, the crowded dancers somehow instinctively parting to let them pass.
“This is it,” Erika whispered huskily. “Turn around now.”
She was acutely aware of Erika’s arousal from the way the woman’s aura flickered around them. The hunger in her eyes when she finally turned in Erika’s arms was surprising, however. She delved into Erika’s mind to determine the cause, but wasn’t shocked to discover it was all simply the music, affecting her friend ten times as strongly as it affected her.
She’d said Iszak liked to watch. With their hips pressed together she moved, letting the steady rhythm of the music guide her. Erika’s gaze grew feverish at their contact. Belah shifted, slipping her thigh between Erika’s legs and grinding her hips against the other woman’s in time to the steady beat of the drum and bass, and Iszak’s inexorable crooning saxophone that surrounded them. She was in no way immune to the music herself, particularly now that she was aware of Iszak’s attention on the pair of them. Remembering Erika’s sly plan to entice Lukas the week before, she took action.
She slid one hand up to the back of Erika’s neck and pulled her into a kiss. Erika whimpered softly against her mouth, surrendering so readily Belah wished for a split second that they were alone. The shift in tone of the music betrayed Iszak’s attention, but she maintained her focus on the woman in her arms, and on the soft, sensuous hunger of the mouth pressed against hers.
She had one advantage, at least—from the impression she had of his emotions, she knew he would watch, and would want her all the more afterward for the lack of attention she gave him now.
But now, all she wanted was to return the favor Erika had given her a week ago, and with the help of Iszak’s music as a dedicated assistant, it would be easy.
They were both breathless when she pulled away from the kiss and looked into Erika’s lust-strickened eyes.
“It’s the music,” Erika panted. “God, I get it now, but why didn’t I ever feel this hot at his shows before?”
“He’s targeting us,” Belah said. “I imagine he likes what he’s seeing, so lets give him a show.”
Erika grinned and snaked her arms over Belah’s shoulders. Their hips still twisted together, undulating with the same slow rhythm of the blues that filled the room. Other patrons had followed their cue and were entwined together, dancing with sensuous movements on the dimly lit dance floor.
She bent her head again to Erika’s neck, darted out her tongue to taste the woman’s cooling droplets of sweat. Erika tilted her neck and pressed her lips against Belah’s neck. “What do you have in mind?” she murmured.
“I’m going to take your Nirvana,” Belah said. “Ked will help.”
“Geva might be a little upset he can’t participate.”
“He is watching from the Shadows … directing, he says.” Belah shook her head, trying to clear it of the Red’s excitement, but it only made her more eager to show this woman how amazing pleasure could feel at her hands.
“Geva’s watching?” Erika said. “And your brother?” Her aura pulsed brighter with the knowledge. At the same moment, subtle shadows slipped over Erika’s body and she shuddered.
“They’re both watching,” Belah murmured. “Ked hasn’t been with a human woman in a very long time.” The cool shadows of her brother’s breath drifted between them, over Erika’s body. In any other era, they’d have been God Kings and Queens and not hesitated to lay her on the floor and take turns making love to her in front of a crowd of worshipers. But now they needed to be a little more circumspect.
Erika shuddered under Ked’s shadowy touch. Her eyes opened wide and she smiled at Belah. She pulled her into a kiss, somehow never losing the rhythm of their close dancing while Ked’s breath teased her.
“God, I love you guys,” Erika said.
Chapter Eleven
Fuck if the woman wasn’t relentless trying to break him down.
The worst part was that it was working, yet he didn’t know why the hell she’d bother with him. He was even more damaged than his idealistic brother. At least Lukas cared. Lukas still drove himself mad over the loss of their sister. Mad enough to reject the love of his life when she found him.
Iszak was still dead inside after learning of their sister’s death. He still hated that the Ultiori kept her body. All his family had gotten back was a lock of her hair, her jewelry, and a single shining white feather rimmed with her blood.
The woman on the dance floor represented everything he should hate. Yet he’d buried his rage so deep for five decades, it had turned into an ice-cold stone of disinterest. Fifty years was too long to carry hate with you. Especially if you were only faking it for the sake of your family.
What the holy fuck was she doing now, though? She loved his brother, didn’t she? Dragons were as singular in their affections as Turul were. They did have a wider capacity for love, though. Turul were rarely happy with more than one mate, but dragons were known to take on multiples, and managed to keep them all happy, too.
But Christ, what those two women were doing on the dance floor in front of him made him want to drop his saxophone and hop down and join them. Erika’s reputation was one thing, but having met Belah already—having held her in his arms, only made him want her more.
It’s just lust, he told himself, but the growing burn in his stomach said something else. His cock didn’t rise looking at the pair. It was Erika who was coming undone under his Blue’s attention and while the sight was enticing, Erika’s pleasure didn’t interest him. Not even when she came a moment later, her cries in perfect sync with the climax of the song they were playing.
The human woman left during the finale of the song, leaving Belah behind.
The dragon turned, her blue eyes peering up at him, seeming to tell him, “It’s just you and me. I’m patient.”
She started dancing, and fuck if he completely lost his frame of reference on reality entirely. Thank the Wind playing music was second nature to him. He hated that he was so committed to this gig. That meant he’d be tortured by a
vision of her for the next two hours.
Tortured by the seduction of a woman who his brother had already claimed. A woman who he wanted like no other.
The grip of that knowledge made the faded ache of grief he held inside disappear entirely. He hated himself for that more than anything. This woman—this dragon—was the only person who could save him from his grief over Evie’s death. Yet she was the one who had caused it.
That she was even here, in their world, was the detail that astounded him. Her kind had stayed hidden forever. The dragons themselves had been around, sure, but he’d heard from his elders about the Immortals. How they had sequestered themselves after their grave mistake, and then subsequently started hiding their children away one generation at a time.
She looked free in the throes of his music now. Free in a way she hadn’t looked after being with Lukas, so he took a breath and kept playing, hoping to keep her happy that way, at least. And hoping like hell that the burn in his gut didn’t mean what he thought it meant.
***
He tried to escape after the show. Panic had begun to set in during the last set having to watch her dance with other men while he played. He itched to be the one with his hands on her, but rejected every urge. Lukas had laid his claim already. She was still his until Iszak heard explicitly that she wasn’t.
Staring at his bike, he realized he’d forgotten something crucial in his eagerness to escape. His sax, packed up tight in her case, cushioned in blue velvet. How the fuck had he missed that?
Cursing himself, he turned to go back through the alley door of the club.
“Iszak.”
She looked so normal he could have ignored her, if it hadn’t been for the scent of his brother that shrouded her. And the tug of his soul to hers. Turul matings could be a bitch, but he’d probably won the lottery of bad matings. He and his brother both shared the ticket.
