But only half of him was human, of course. There was a second creature inside him, and he too was filled with emotion; driven by raw, unrelenting rage. If Umbra had succeeded in robbing Neko’s life away, the Dragon’s wrath would have been enough to shake the foundations of London’s buildings.
Fortunately, the bastard half-breed had failed. And now Neko was safely in their home, within reach of Lumen’s fingertips. If he had his way, she would remain this close for the rest of both their lives.
“Sleep, beautiful woman,” the Dragon shifter whispered, fingers making the softest contact with her hair before he rose from the bed, stepping reluctantly away from her. “You deserve a little peace.”
But even as he turned towards the bedroom door, all thoughts of peaceful rest came to a screeching halt.
Something in the air took hold of his senses, which sprung into action. Inside the shifter, his Dragon was on the alert again, itching to burst out to confront the intruder. All but welcoming any fight that might come his way.
Lumen cocked his head, listening for the footfalls that were beginning to sound in the hallway outside of the bedroom. But after a moment, his body relaxed. All was well; the presence was a friendly one. Lumen knew that gait almost as well as he knew his own. Sniffing the air, he confirmed his suspicion, the revelation bringing on a broad smile.
Aegis.
He was the only friend whom Lumen had granted access into the underwater flat. It was he who had filled the walk-in closet with clothing for Neko. And no doubt he was here to check in. He was a good friend, and loyal.
It only took two strides for Lumen to make it to the bedroom door, which he pulled open quietly.
“You bleedin’ wanker,” he whispered, stepping into the hall and pulling the door shut behind him. “I nearly ripped your head off.”
Aegis chuckled. “Sorry—I should have let you know I was coming. I didn’t want to disturb you.”
“It’s all right. No harm done, luckily for your skull.”
“Come now, you know that I wouldn’t have surrendered my noggin without a fight. I’d at least have slapped you around a little before you tore it off.”
Lumen laughed. It felt good to release a little emotion, even in his state of exhaustion.
“So how is she?” Aegis asked as they made their way towards the kitchen.
“She’ll be all right,” Lumen replied. “So you know what’s happened, then.”
Even as the question came out, he knew, of course, that Aegis would already be in on any of the Guild’s secrets. Even though he kept himself out of their immediate business, he was seldom far off and his senses were keenly attuned to the other Dragons’. No doubt he’d sensed that something was amiss and contacted the Guild to ask what was up.
“I know that the…half-breeds…have come to London,” he replied, “and I know what Tryst saw in her vision.”
“Yes. Thank God for her Sight,” said Lumen. “If she hadn’t told me about it, Neko would no doubt have died at the hands of a fucking monster.”
“I’m glad you got to her in time, Brother. Just try to remember that the monster will become less of a threat as soon as we collect the first of the Relics.”
“True. But I hate to push Neko to hunt for it just yet. She needs a little time to heal. Besides, the game has changed now. We can’t just wander out into the city and grab the Relic, hoping that no one interferes. We’ll need help, so long as Umbra is out there.”
“Of course,” Aegis replied, kindness painting his voice. Like the other Dragon shifters, he would be anxious to ensure the first Relic’s safety. But he was fond of Neko, and wouldn’t wish for her to go through any more trauma than she already had. “Listen, word has spread to the North, as well. There are Kindred on their way down, now that they’ve heard about the…” He halted before uttering the word. Forsaken. As though to say it in this place would be to acknowledge the reality of the creatures roaming London streets in secret. Even a shifter as powerful as Aegis didn’t want to admit that it was possible; it was too horrific a thought.
“The F-word. Yes.” Lumen heaved a deep exhale as he seated himself at the table. “A battle is about to rage in London, to put it mildly. I honestly don’t know how we’re going to keep humans from getting involved in all of it. Once they realize what’s happening, things will get even uglier than they already have.”
“Involved? They already are, aren’t they? I’ve been hearing about dead bodies, sucked dry of blood. If that’s not involved, I don’t know what is.”
“True. But for now at least, panic hasn’t set in. I’d like to keep it that way.” Lumen ground his jaw. “Fucking blood-seekers. They’re parasites, and nothing more.”
Aegis crossed muscular arms over a broad chest as he leaned back against the counter, his body visibly tense. “How did this happen, anyhow? How did Neko end up in a fight with Umbra?”
“She was investigating in a rather shady neighbourhood. Her boss had gone off looking for one of the dead bodies,” Lumen said. “Neko can’t help herself—a born Hunter hunts. She was doing her job, I suppose.” A hint of bitterness threaded through the words.
“You’d prefer that she didn’t,” said Aegis, reading his friend’s face, if not his tone. “You’d like her to give it up.”
Lumen stared at his hands, interlocking tightly on the wooden surface in front of him as though in an attempt to stop themselves from trembling with emotion.
“Yes,” he said, eyes meeting his friend’s. “I’d bloody well prefer that she stopped entirely. After seeing Umbra’s hand on her, drawing the life out of her body…” He pulled his hands apart, his right balling into a tight fist, and for a moment it looked as though he might smash it through the table. But he relaxed, releasing his fingers from their violent prison. “I don’t want to lose her like that, Aegis. I couldn’t stand it.”
“Well, it seems to me that you need to make a choice. Risk losing her that way, or forbid her being a Hunter. And I can imagine how well that would go over.”
“She’d come around,” Lumen said, though he was by no means convinced by his own words.
“Listen, Brother,” Aegis replied, “I’ll admit that I don’t know Neko as well as you do. But she doesn’t strike me as a woman who’s okay with being told what she can and can’t do. If you ask her to give up her life, you’re in for a world of resentment.”
“Maybe she’d be satisfied with another line of work. One with slightly less risk of dismemberment.” Lumen chuckled, but his bright eyes were filled with concern for the woman who had come to possess him, to steal his heart from his chest and cradle it in her own.
“You know that she’s as much a Hunter as you are a Dragon. She wouldn’t ask you to give up half of yourself. Be very careful when considering asking her for the same.”
“I know perfectly well that you’re right,” Lumen said, his hands balling into fists once again. “But I don’t know that I want to spend each day wondering if someone’s managed to kill her while she’s doing her job.”
“Fair enough. But at the end of those days, when you’ve been apart for hours and she returns home to you, it’ll be to tell you that she loves you. That she appreciates you. She’ll sleep with you, hold you, kiss you, and on those days you’ll be grateful that you didn’t try to change her. And she’ll be grateful that you love her back, for who she is.”
Lumen inhaled, holding the breath deep in his chest.
Love.
Aegis said it as though the word was fact. Even before he and Neko had ever uttered it, the other Dragon shifter could see that it was a thick chain, binding them together.
“You’re right,” Lumen said. “Her happiness is most important to me, for whatever time she and I have together. And by the way, when the hell did you become an expert on relationships, you perpetually single fucker?”
Aegis cracked a smile, finally letting out a deep chuckle. “Relationships are very simple, from the outside. It’s easy as anything to see
what two people need, as long as you’re not one of them. I can tell, for instance, that you and Neko have a shot at lasting for centuries, if you’d both just stop being such stubborn arses.”
“Thanks for the advice, Dear Abby,” Lumen shot. “But you know as well as I do that being a stubborn arse is my specialty.”
“Then you’re doomed, you silver-Dragoned bastard.”
“So be it.” Lumen shrugged in mock surrender. “But meanwhile, there’s other business to attend to than my personal life.”
“The Guild meeting. I heard that we’re going to speak with the Syndicate about the forging of a new alliance with their Hunters. Do you really think that’s a good idea?”
“Well, Neko seems to trust them—most of them, anyhow—and so I do, too. We need them to be aware of what’s happening, or else all their lives will be put at risk. They’re human, after all, and more vulnerable than we are. But they could also help us to track the blood-seekers.”
Aegis’s wrinkled brow revealed concern. “If what Kliev says is true, Umbra’s only the first of a wave of half-breeds who are likely to descend upon London. It sounds as though it’s entirely possible that many have lived here for some time already.”
“Yes, it is,” Lumen replied through gritted teeth. “Unfortunately. They’re wily and difficult to detect. That is, except when they’ve fed and their scent grows temporarily stronger. The irony is that now that Neko’s senses are so fine-tuned, she’ll be very good at tracking them, which is exactly what I don’t want her to do.”
“Her senses have improved, then? Because of…?”
Lumen smiled, recalling what exactly had brought about the change in his lover. “The bonding, yes.”
“What a pleasure it must be to help a poor Hunter as you did, by offering your body.”
“Yes, the sacrifices I make are great indeed,” the other shifter laughed. “But in all seriousness, it’s why I wanted her to stay put and to rest. I don’t think she realized how much strain the after-effects would inflict on her body and mind.”
“Well, after some solid rest she’ll manage nicely, I’m sure,” said Aegis, moving towards the hallway. “Listen, I’m going to head out. Let me know when you’re ready to meet and I’ll help in any way that I can. And Lumen—remember that Neko is a grown woman. She’ll want to look after herself. Don’t make the mistake of pushing her away by trying to command her. In my limited experience with the fairer sex, they don’t respond so well to that shite.”
Dreams
When Aegis had made his way to the round room to go back the way he’d come, Lumen returned to the bedroom, stepping lightly and perching on the edge of the bed near his lover. His eyes moved over her peaceful face, so beautiful in the soft light. The red marks on her neck had faded to almost nothing now. She was fighting Umbra’s attack off, her body mending itself from the inside.
So strong, and yet still vulnerable. A woman of human flesh, enhanced by the power of a Dragon. She was his perfect Neko, his lovely mate.
He could never give her up for anything. And deep inside, his Dragon’s possessive spirit raged. She was his mate, to keep. To treasure. To protect.
Of course, his rational human mind knew that Aegis was right. She wouldn’t like the idea of surrendering her duties, even for his sake. Maybe he should just let her be. Let her live her life, regardless of the risks. Even if the thought of someone hurting her drove him—both man and Dragon—utterly insane with rage.
He’d never been in love in all his years on earth. Never found himself so attached to a person that he thought he’d die if he lost her. But now he knew what it was to care so deeply that his soul seemed intermingled with that of someone else. Here he was, cherishing the woman next to him above everything else in the universe. So enthralled with her that he would lay down his life for hers without a second thought. That, he knew, was what stories and legends spoke of when they described love.
After a time he draped a soft blanket over Neko’s sleeping form and lay down next to her, his arm cradling her body close to his. Over the course of mere hours, her breaths had gone from the rasping symptoms of Umbra’s abuse to something more closely resembling the strong, even rhythm of the Neko that he knew.
How ridiculous, to think that a few days earlier he’d been telling Aegis of his intention of seducing her, the Hunter whom he’d met on the street, to gain information. And now his world had flipped itself upside down. She was his, and in turn his heart belonged entirely to her, to do with it as she wanted. He was her servant, her loyal lover, her passionate Dragon.
As he held her in his arms he breathed a heavy, surrendering sigh and closed his eyes. It was time to accept that he was deeply in love.
And maybe he should let her know, before any further harm came to either of them.
* * *
Neko’s mind raced as she slept. Her dreams, which had been so pleasant earlier, were growing vivid, intense and unsettling.
In her mind’s eye she found herself in a dark, yet familiar, place. Alone at first, until unseen creatures began to surround her. Nebulous shapes moving about, never clear enough to focus on. Slowly they inched closer, their faces emerging in the dark, beautiful, yet strange. Ghostly white, veiled in thin blue veins streaking across transparent flesh. Eyes shone bright in the engulfing blackness, large and inquisitive.
And no sense of fear bit at her chest, though she didn’t know who—or what—they were.
“The Hunter has become the prey,” a woman’s voice said softly, penetrating the deepest reaches of her mind. There was a kindness in her tone, as though the speaker was trying to help. “You are not safe, Neko. He seeks you now, just as you seek the Relic.”
“And if I find it?” she asked, spinning around, trying to focus on the source of the words. “Then will I be safe?”
“The Relic cannot be found until his hunt ends, not without many deaths. Stop him, and the Dragons will finally have what they need. It is to you to help them. They need you, Neko.”
“But…if I fail?” Neko spun around, looking for the woman.
But all she saw was the sea of inanimate faces, staring blank at her own, fading gradually into the darkness.
“Fail, and the Relic will be lost forever. All four of them will, and the Dragons will never know their power. But if you succeed, Neko, you will have a chance at happiness the likes of which you’ve never imagined.”
The faces disappeared, a mist swirling about Neko as darkness turned to light. And suddenly she was in a large, open field, the sun shining down on her, warming her again. She was safe, for the moment at least.
And even after the ominous message of warning, Neko felt a surge of the purest happiness flow through her. Excitement about her future coursed through the marrow of her bones. For the first time, she felt that she knew what she needed to do. She knew how to ensure that she and Lumen could be safe again, free to live their lives without threat or danger.
But it would come at a great risk.
* * *
By the time Lumen awoke, the cheerful rays of a morning sun were casting down into the bedroom, ebbing ever so slightly through the air as the small lake’s clear water lapped above them.
Bright-eyed and alert, Neko lay next to him, propped up on one elbow, her fingers lightly stroking his chest. A teasing smile curved the corners of her lips upward as she looked at him.
“Well, hello,” he said groggily, turning to her and mirroring her smile as his eyes moved over her face. “You look like you’re feeling better, my lovely sex goddess.”
“I feel good,” she said, for a moment shutting away the memory of her strange and vivid dream—and the memory of the pain she’d experienced the previous day, denying that anything existed in the world but the two of them. “Very well. Surprisingly so. Amazing what a little rest in a Dragon’s bed can do.”
“Ah,” he replied, slipping an arm around her and pulling her close. She might insist that she was perfectly fine, but he knew what she’d
been through. He’d seen it. “But it’s not just the bed, my Neko. It’s the bond between us, remember. We heal each other—and I must say that I feel a lot better than I did a few hours ago, just seeing that smile on your lips. I was worried about you.”
“The bond between us,” she repeated, her face going immediately serious, her gaze distant all of a sudden. Memories flooded back, her mind unable to prevent their flow or to deny their power over her. “Yesterday, when I thought I was a heartbeat away from death, I wondered if I’d lost my link to you, somehow. I couldn’t find you—my mind couldn’t seek you out. And yet here I am, back with you in this beautiful place.” She leaned towards him, letting her arm flatten under her as her head came to rest on his shoulder. “For a little while, I really thought I’d never see you again. I thought I was done for.”
His hand grasped her a little tighter, reassuring her of his presence.
I’m here now. The words penetrated the thin shield surrounding her mind and she smiled again. He’d found his way inside her, exactly where he belonged.
I know, my Dragon. And I’m so grateful for it.
“I’m sorry,” he said aloud. “So very sorry to have been separated from you—to have left you here as I did. It was foolish.”
“No. It wasn’t your fault. It was my own stupidity. If I’d gotten killed, it would have been no one’s doing but mine. You would have had every right to be enraged.”
“My rage would have been directed at only one creature, and his name is Umbra,” Lumen replied, a low growl rising up in his chest. “I already want to tear his head from his shoulders for what he put you through. He’s a fucking monster—and even more inhuman than we knew.”
“I know it all too well. But Lumen…what is he, exactly?” she asked, her voice betraying apprehension at the thought of the creature Umbra had become. “I thought he was a Controller, but he told me he’s more than that, and I could see it. He’d…altered. It was as though he’d somehow evolved. Everything about him was different. Bigger, stronger.”
Dragon Hunter Box Set: A Dragon Shifter Serial Page 21
