“Were you alone or did you see anyone there with you?” Gerri squeezed Camille’s hand. “This is very important, honey.”
“I wasn’t alone. There was a cloaked woman with strange blue markings on her face. The shriek came from her mouth.”
“Sorana.” Ryker murmured.
Gerri’s eyes found his. “Not necessarily. It could’ve been a sentinel. All sirens are tattooed once they join the sisterhood.”
Ryker shook his head. “It was her. I know it.”
“Eight hundred years, Ryker. How can you know for sure?”
He looked at the older woman. “I’m still here and you’re still here, so what makes you think Sorana wouldn’t be as well? This is her doing.” His exhale was harsh. “The dark bitch so full of piss and vinegar it makes sense she would sit in wait for my true mate to surface.”
Cami listened to the exchange. “Who is this woman? Is she someone I should be worried about?”
“Camille,” Gerri began, moving to sit beside her on the opposite side of the couch. “You are not only Ryker’s true mate, but his salvation. His dragon marked you as the one to break the curse.”
“Break the curse? How?” Her voice hitched an octave.
Gerri’s eyes locked with hers. “By facing Sorana in the place where she cursed Ryker.”
Ryker got up to pace. “You have to come back with me, Camille.” It was a statement, not a request.
“Back? To your planet?” Cami shook her head. “Do you realize how crazy those words sound? Even speaking them aloud seems absurd.”
Mrs. Wilder met her anxious gaze. “As strange as it sounds, Nova Aurora is a real place. This is no joke. I travel back and forth to the Eos Galaxy almost weekly. It may sound preposterous, but I assure you, it’s not.”
Camille exhaled. “Gerri, I have responsibilities. I have a job I’ve worked nearly ten years to get. I can’t just up and leave. Especially not if the time space continuum is as fucked up as you implied.”
The matchmaker folded her hands in her lap. “It’s the only way Ryker ever be free, Camille, but the choice is yours. Neither of us will force you to do anything you’re not comfortable with.” The older woman eyed Ryker as if to say, “Don’t fuck this up by being a caveman shifter.”
Camille shook her head, but this time as if trying to wrap her head around everything. “You both give me pieces of information. Drip, drip, drip. Never the whole. You spin this fanciful tale of a book and a curse. A tale I’ve chosen to accept as truth. If shifters are real, then why not magic? Boom. Done.
“Now you’ve carried the tale further, telling me I’m Ryker’s true mate and destined to break this curse. I buy that, too. I’d have to be deaf, dumb and blind not to jump for joy at being joined at the pelvis with Ryker as my plus one from now until forever.”
Cami took a breath and eyed them both. “Now, I need the rest of the story. I deserve the rest of the story. All. Of. It.”
She angled her head at them. “So…Who wants to go first?”
Chapter Eleven
“You’re right, Camille. You deserve the whole story.” Gerri nodded, picking up the bottle of merlot from coffee table. She swirled what was left, eying the amount at the bottom.
“First, we’re definitely going to need more vino, and while we’re at it we should think about what to do for dinner,” the older woman said.
“I’ve got two bottles of wine in the closet,” Camille replied with a nod. “Christmas gifts from library patrons. That should get us started. As for food, we can always order take-out.”
Getting up from the couch, she walked to the hall closet and opened the door. Reaching up, she took a shiny silver bag tied with a red ribbon from the top shelf. “Jackpot. It looks like a good cabernet from Napa,” she said untying the gift bag.
Grabbing the corkscrew from the end table as she walked back, she put both the bottle and the opener on the coffee table.
“Are there good take-out places that deliver near here?” Gerri asked. “I’m famished, and I know Ryker must be as well. Shifters have very high metabolisms.”
Camille gave the older woman a quizzical smirk. “This is the Upper East Side, Mrs. Wilder. Not Uzbekistan. There are plenty of decent places around. Sandwiches, pizza or Chinese would be the fastest, and the restaurants are all on Grub Hub. Click. Order. Done,” she replied. “I’ll get my iPad.”
“What is Chinese?” Ryker asked.
Gerri tilted her head. “Asian food from the country of China, it’s the third largest country on Earth. The food is wonderful and there’s usually a lot of it, too.”
“Good. Order that, then.” He nodded with a grin.
Camille chuckled. “Leave it to me.”
With the food situation settled, Ryker opened the wine and handed the bottle to Gerri.
She topped off her glass and then settled back in her chair, thinking. “The best place to start is at the beginning,” Gerri said, keeping her eyes on Ryker. “So, we need to tell Camille the circumstances that got you into your predicament.”
The muscle in his jaw tightened. “Camille already knows what happened. She doesn’t need the details.”
“Oh, yes I do,” Cami replied as she put a tray of cheese and crackers and sliced fruit on the coffee table.
Sitting down, she tucked one leg under her butt and then reached for a handful of crackers and a couple of pieces of cheese. “Food’s ordered. It’ll be about forty-five minutes, so we can snack on this in the meantime.”
Camille poured herself another glass of wine and settled back with her food. “Go ahead, Mrs. Wilder. I’m all ears.”
“First off, I want you to understand the only reason I’m telling you any of this is because if you choose to go with us to Nova Aurora, I don’t want you going under false pretenses. Full disclosure is something I value, especially in my line of work.”
Camille nodded. “I appreciate that. Forewarned is forearmed.”
The matchmaker agreed. “Good. The first thing you need to know is shifters are not an anomaly of nature. They aren’t the next evolutionary step, nor are they originally from Earth.”
Gerri paused, assessing Camille’s reaction, but a simple nod answered her quiet scrutiny.
“It’s okay, Mrs. Wilder. Go on.”
“There is a galaxy far from Earth’s own,” Mrs. Wilder continued. “Earth doesn’t yet have the ability to detect a solar system that distant, so it remains undiscovered in scientific circles, though Nova and her sister planets have known about Earth for ages.”
“Eos,” Camille murmured, leaving Gerri with her wine glass halfway to her mouth.
Cami shrugged. “I walked in on Ryker interrogating my voice database.”
“Excuse me?” the older woman asked, puzzled.
“Alexa. Amazon Echo?” Cami replied.
Gerri grinned. “Now, that’s funny. I can only imagine the database’s reply.
Ryker huffed, reaching for a bunch of grapes. “Useless device.”
Gerri’s smile widened. “I bet it gave you info on Brazil.”
He frowned, chewing slowly. “I didn’t like you much eight hundred years ago, Dragosarra. Now I remember why.”
The matchmaker laughed. “You didn’t like me much because I refused to kiss your ass. I told you the truth, whether you wanted to hear it or not.”
The older woman’s gaze softened. “Lucky for you I have a soft heart, because I intent to help you fix this muddle.” Gerri let her eyes shift to Camille. “With this young lady’s help, of course.”
Camille wasn’t taking the bait. “Okay, moving on. I’m guessing Eos was aware of Earth via manned probes, right? Space age Magellan’s exploring the far universe.” She couldn’t help her grin. “You gotta know Star Trek fans would be creaming in their pants over this.”
Gerri spared a glance for Ryker’s tight jaw before answering. “Not quite manned probes, sweetheart. Those who came here weren’t explorers.”
Camille’s brows knotted sli
ghtly. “Then what were they? Pirates?”
Mrs. Wilder nodded. “Some yes. They were—”
“Criminals.” Ryker cut in, blurting what Gerri was trying to finesse.
Cami sat up straighter. “Criminals? How?”
“Earth was a penal colony, much like Australia was for the British Empire back in the day,” Gerri replied, shooting Ryker a dirty look. “Those who broke interplanetary law and chose to live outside the rulings of Nova and the other planets were sent to Earth to serve out their sentences. They either earned their return passage through service or they chose to stay. Some were exiled completely with no hope of return.”
“So, Earth was a garbage dump for the dregs of your galaxy?”
Gerri shrugged. “I wouldn’t put it that way.”
Ryker snorted. “I would. But we’re talking a millennium ago. The practice had all but disappeared—” he didn’t finish, sparing a look for Mrs. Wilder.
She exhaled. “What Ryker is trying to say is the practice had all but disappeared until I was exiled here eight hundred years ago.”
Camille’s eyes bugged, not sure what shocked her more, that Mrs. Wilder was exiled from a far planet or that it occurred eight hundred years ago.
“Wait. You’re eight hundred years old?” Cami’s words sputtered. “That’s impossible! I know you said time was different on Nova as compared to here, but hundreds of years different?”
Gerri shook her head. “There’s more to the story than my age, Camille. Shifters have a much longer lifespan than average humans. It’s not uncommon for us to live to be two hundred years old. There have even been cases of some living to be three hundred years old, in rare instances. But me, I was—how should I put this? I was punished. Cursed with a permanency equal to Ryker’s imprisonment.”
“Permanency? Do you mean your life is somehow tied to Ryker’s as long as he remains cursed?” Camille looked at the elegant older woman. “Were you the same age when you were banished?”
“No, I’m not tied to Ryker in the way you think.” Gerri shook her head. “I do age, but the speed in which I do is greatly slowed. I won’t die, though. Not while Ryker exists in his captive state. His family saw to my extended longevity so if a time ever presented itself where he could be freed, I would be there to help it happen.”
“In other words, me,” Camille replied.
Gerri shrugged again. “There is more to it than that, but yes. The dragon mark on your arm tells us the time we have waited for is now.”
Camille wanted more, so she pressed. “If Ryker is freed, what happens to you? Do you die or do you simply go back to aging in a normal shifter way?”
Mrs. Wilder spread her hands. “I don’t know, honey. There are no texts for this. No ancient scrolls to consult. Everyone who was present at the time is long gone. This might prove to be an effort in futility, especially if Sorana is gone.”
“She’s not. Camille saw her. I feel it in my gut.” Ryker finally piped up. “The woman is pure evil, bent on revenge. I want to be free of this curse, Dragosarra, but as you talked, I’ve been thinking. In my eagerness to be done with my captivity, I didn’t consider the consequences for Camille. I won’t put her in danger. I threw my life away being selfish and unthinking. I won’t commit the same offense again. Especially not with someone else’s life in the balance.”
“Sorana can’t still be alive, Ryker. Not after eight hundred years.” Camille’s voice was matter-of-fact before she turned to Gerri. “How can I help?”
“You have to face Sorana.”
“Face her how? I’m human, she’s a shifter. Do I at least get a head start or brownie points?” Cami attempt at humor was brave, but the sound was fearful as it left her mouth.
Ryker frowned. “And what if Sorana’s dead, as you both suppose. What then? Why put Camille through this? She and I can stay together like this until she grows old and—”
Cami’s jaw tightened. “And what? Dies?”
“Camille, please—”
She shook her head. “No, Ryker. Do you think I’m going to play house with you when I’m ninety and you still look like a sculpted God from Greek mythology? Not a chance, fire-breath.”
“I will not allow you to risk your life. As you said, we just met,” he shot back.
Cami’s eyes narrowed. “Wow. Using my own insecurities against me.” She glanced at Gerri. “Was he always such an asshole control freak?”
Mrs. Wilder chuckled. “Yes, and arrogant, too. But he has a good heart.”
Camille watched the emotions spar on Ryker’s face. Anger, embarrassment, worry, hope, affection, they were all there in a confusing swirl.
“He does have a good heart.” Cami nodded in agreement. “When his caveman dragon-shifter side doesn’t stomp around overshadowing it.”
Ryker exhaled. “I’m outnumbered. It’s as bad as Nova surrounded by my mother and sisters.”
Camille’s heart squeezed. Ryker had family and friends, and Sorana took him from them, why? Because the bitch signed up for the whole romantic enchilada when it was just a hook up.
Anger bubbled in Cami’s chest. “Where do we find her? Sorana, I mean. It’s time for her teenage tantrum to end. Life isn’t fair and we don’t always get what we want, but that doesn’t give us license to go magically postal on people. This whole thing is overkill in the extreme.”
Ryker chuckled, his eyes warm. “I understood about half of what you said, but your tone is about right. Still, I can’t allow you to do this, Camille.”
Cami crossed her arms in front of her chest. “Use that word again and I swear I’ll punch you in the face.”
Taken aback, he gaped. “What?”
She leaned forward annunciating each syllable. “Al-LOW. The word is not part of my vocabulary, Ryker. If this is going anywhere between us, you need to learn that now.”
Gerri laughed at the exchange. “Oh, boy. You’ve seriously met your match with this one. All I can say is thank God she’s your true mate or you might find yourself back in that book before you could blink.”
Camille snorted. “It still might happen.” She turned her eyes to Gerri. “So, where do we find this petulant space bitch?”
With a grin, Gerri nodded. “On Nova. In the caves outside the Aubergine. In a place called the Wyanar Woods.”
“Aubergine? Isn’t that a shade of purple?” Cami asked.
Gerri nodded. “It’s a nickname for the Purple forests that surround the Dragosland. The ones you saw in your vision.” She gestured to Ryker. “They are the ancestral lands of the Dragos. Ryker’s people.”
Cami angled her head. “I know you said you travel back and forth all the time, but how? Obviously Nova has the technology to travel light years, but here on pokey old Earth, we don’t have that capability. Hell, we can barely get to Mars, so I’m not counting on much when it comes to space travel.”
Space travel. The words sounded alien in her mouth. Cami snorted again. Alien. Can we say Twilight Fucking Zone? But this was as real as it gets and she was a major player.
Gerri took Cami’s hand. “Leave everything to me. Alyx Treyvaal is the ruler of Nova Aurora.” She spared a glance for Ryker knowing the reality of that statement hurt, but it was what it was. “Believe it or not, he’s a client. I matched him with his mate, Isabella.”
Mrs. Wilder nodded before continuing. “Isabella is human, like you. The mark on your arm shows you to be Ryker’s true mate, but human or not, you are the one to undo the mistakes of the past and allow him to live his life as it was meant to be lived. I wouldn’t worry about Sorana or her skills. My guess is by the time this all comes to pass, you’ll have developed a few new skills of your own.”
“Is the king a dragon like Ryker?”
Ryker made a face. “No, he’s a filthy lion.”
“Ryker! Enough!” Gerri snapped. “Perhaps Sorana isn’t the only petulant teenager we’re dealing with. Your own actions caused your fate. I know you feel responsible for your family losing the crown
, but Alyx Treyvaal is a good man and a good king. Nova is at peace, and even the dragons are flourishing again.
“Vykter Dragos is their alpha. He is your ancestor, so your line endures. In fact, he and his mate are doing well, as are others of your kind, so it’s time for you to take your head out of your ass and face facts.
“If our plans to confront Sorana are successful, you will have to take whatever place is granted to you in both the Dragos court and that of the King, but I can tell you this. If you act like an asshole, then you will be treated like an asshole, but if you approach this like the man I know you to be, you will help your kind prosper even more.”
Cami had to bite the inside of her cheek. Gerri was badass and she loved it. “So, when do we do this?”
The matchmaker’s eyes were still on Ryker. “I need a day or so to make arrangements with Alyx. As Nova’s king, he needs to know our plans. He may insist on bringing Viktor in on this, but I don’t know that for sure. I’m not worried, though. Alyx has Nova’s best interests at heart. It was he who allowed me to take the book from Nova to try my luck here on Earth.”
At that, Ryker’s mouth dropped open and Gerri nodded. “That’s right, smarty pants. The filthy lion wanted you set free.”
Ryker exhaled. “My apologies, Dragosarra. I guess I still have a lot to learn.”
Gerri leaned over and rested her palm on his cheek. “You have already.” She let her hand drop softly to his shoulder and then looked between him and Camille.
“Spend the day together tomorrow. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but you two need to know if more than just your private parts fit together.”
Camille laughed, angling her head toward Ryker. “So caveman dragon, what’s the one thing you miss most since being locked in that book?”
He smiled. “The ocean.”
Chapter Twelve
Light clouds floated in a crystal blue sky despite the chilly breeze. The surf rolled over the sand with a calming rhythm. Ryker inhaled and let the soft wind wash over his skin, every sense alive and alert at the amazing feel.
Paranormal Dating Agency: Dragon My Heart Around (Kindle Worlds Novella) Page 7
