by Eva Chase
“Something about this alliance seems meaningful to you right now,” Aaron prompted, his gaze intent on me. “Why did you focus on that thread of our history?”
“Partly I just happened to stumble on it. And after that… I get the sense that it’s all tied together somehow. The relationships between the different paranormal communities. The way we’ve clashed. I can’t pin it down yet, but I feel like there’s something important in all those past events that might help us see what to do.” I paused and sighed. “And also I haven’t come across many records about vampires at all. It seems like we’ve mostly steered clear of each other.”
“That sounds accurate,” Marco said. “If only they’d keep steering clear.”
“If there’s anything to learn about the fae, it’s that they’re backstabbing bastards,” West broke in. “Maybe they pretended to ally with us before, but everything they’ve done since…” He swept his arm through the air in a violent motion that made me think of his mottled scar. “You follow whatever paths you want, Sparks, but I can’t see us gaining anything from the fae we’re dealing with now.”
The twist of his mouth echoed how I felt, thinking about the fae. They’d taken both of our mothers from us, hadn’t they? I swallowed hard and reached across the table to touch his hand.
A day or two ago, I’d have expected him to jerk his arm away. Funny how much one conversation—and, er, other activities following said conversation—could change things. He turned his hand so I could twine my fingers through his.
“I know,” I said. “Believe me, I don’t trust them either.” But even as I said those words, a deeper discomfort echoed through me. The way that past dragon shifter had talked about the fae, warmly, almost admiring…
Had she really been completely deceived, or was there more to the fae than I’d been able to see in my own experiences?
“What do we do now?” Kylie asked.
I frowned. “I don’t know.” My gaze slid to the window. It had darkened into evening outside. “Has there been any word from the estates or any of the other communities?”
Nate shook his head. “I gave my kin instructions to contact me as soon as there was any news. I’ll be keeping my phone right by me.”
“Same as all of us,” Marco said. “And when we hear anything, you’ll be the first to know, Ren.”
Were the vampires really going to hold off on us tonight? I found that hard to believe. Some part of me had felt I needed to come here. I had to figure out why.
I gave West’s hand a quick squeeze before letting go and reaching for my fork. “I guess the best plan I have is to get some more dinner in me, and then go back to the records room. There’s got to be something useful down there.”
The soft glow of the crystals was starting to sting my eyes. I leaned against the side of the armchair and rubbed them. The meal had revived my energy for a few hours, but I could feel myself flagging again. The last few tablets I’d taken out, more out of desperation than any clear sign they’d be useful, hadn’t given me any real guidance.
There had to be something more about the fae. How could we have fallen apart to the point of becoming almost enemies without any dragon shifter recording those events? They’re reported on the freaking crop growth patterns, for fuck’s sake.
I’d just straightened up to roll the cricks out of my shoulders when my gaze snagged on a glinting corner just barely protruding between two of the shelving units. Kneeling beside them, I slid my hand in and tugged. One, and then another, and then another tablet tumbled out. They must have fallen through a gap in the partly open sides of the shelves and gotten wedged back there.
As I examined my new finds, my pulse fluttered. One of them showed a fae figure and a dragon on either side of a jagged line. I didn’t need to be a psychoanalyst to take a stab at what that might mean.
I shoved the other two tablets onto a shelf and dropped into the chair. Time to find out what the hell had gone wrong between us and the fae.
“Dragon shifter Mirabel,” a weary voice said. “1908. It is with sad heart that I report the dissolution of our friendly relations with fae kind. An accident was made on our part, I’ll admit that, but they’ve proven completely unwilling to listen to reason.”
The images rose up and faded from one to another before my eyes. Humans settling near one of the shifter villages. One of them killing a partridge shifter who’d gone out to stretch her wings. The shifters gathering their things and moving deeper into the nearby wilderness. “Fae territory,” Mirabel said. “But they had shared with us before. And my kin had little choice of where to go.”
But the scene before me went wrong. The shifters hustled the carts packed with their belongings along through the sparsely wooded plains and sent them careening down a hill without seeing the small group of fae who’d been relaxing below. The fae shrieked and scattered, but one didn’t leap up quite in time. A cart’s wheel slammed right over his leg.
I flinched, watching. The fae boy scrambled away, dragging his wounded leg, his face twisted with agony. One of his companions gave a shout and hurled a bolt of magic at the cart. It split in two with a sizzle, half the cargo bursting into shimmers of light.
Precious belongings, all the shifters had left from their own home. My long-ago kin let out a wail. One of them lunged at the fae who’d cast the magic, knocking her to the ground with a slash of talons. Then the image faded.
“So naturally I was called in to resolve the conflict,” the dragon shifter said. “I went to see the fae monarch to resolve the situation peacefully. But she was not happy to see only me. She wished for my kin to be brought before her for her judgment. As if she didn’t trust my own. I couldn’t leave my kin to that potential vengeance. But she took my refusal as a horrific insult. Wouldn’t hear any talk of compensation for my kin’s losses.”
The fae queen in the vision spun on her heel, a cloud of magic gusting between her and Mirabel. The dragon shifter strode off in the other direction.
“They’ve been cold to us ever since,” she said in my mind. “Driving us from lands we once shared. Refusing assistance to kin in need. The way they’re behaving, I can’t help but wonder if they’ve been simply waiting for a moment such as this as an excuse to set themselves apart from us. My mother said they once tried to steal her fire. Maybe they’ve realized we’ll never permit that, and we’re no longer of any use to them. Good riddance, in that case.”
Her voice faded away. I came back to the records room, clutching the tablet. My heart was thudding.
Was that really how the animosity between our peoples had started? With a simple accident and a kneejerk act of retaliation. But I guessed tensions had been building for some time underneath, if the previous dragon shifter had suspected the fae… of trying to steal her fire? What the hell did that even mean?
And how did you get from there to outright murder?
Chapter 15
Nate
I didn’t know what time it was, but the moon was stark against the black sky outside my window. I shoved myself out of bed and checked the phone on my room’s desk again, as if I’d have missed it if someone had called or texted. No alerts, of course.
I grimaced at the screen and walked into the ensuite bathroom. Tiny aches still nibbled at my muscles here and there if I moved at any speed. I could pretend to be totally recovered, but inside the holes the bullets had dug weren’t quite finished healing.
My body had better hurry up and stitch itself whole. There was too much fighting still ahead of us.
The brief walk didn’t leave me any more ready to sleep. My head was muggy, but the rest of me was on high alert. Any moment, that call announcing disaster might come. Any moment, Ren might need me.
I tossed myself back into bed anyway, burrowing my face in the pillow. I’d be a lot more useful to all of them if I wasn’t a zombie from exhaustion.
The blanket cocooned me in warmth. Crickets chirped beyond the window. The aches faded from my muscles. But I still
couldn’t quite drift off.
The door to my rooms eased open, a faint click and a whisper of air. Quiet footsteps padded across the floor. I caught my mate’s familiar scent before she’d made it halfway across the bedroom. My eyes opened, and she shot me a soft smile. I pushed myself over on the bed to make more room for her.
She clambered right up and slid under the covers, wrapping her arm around me. I slept in nothing but boxers. The feel of her bare skin against mine set my nerves on alert in a much more gratifying way.
“Finished your researching?” I asked.
“For now, anyway.” Ren nestled her head under my chin and pressed a kiss to my shoulder. “Everyone else is already asleep. I wanted someone to cuddle up with. And I thought you might be feeling a little neglected.”
I snorted. “I’m sure you were giving me plenty of attention while I was out of commission. It’s not your fault I wasn’t conscious enough to enjoy it.”
She made a humming sound and squirmed even closer. I definitely wasn’t going to complain about the attention now.
“How are you feeling now?” she asked. “Still sore?”
I didn’t want her fretting about me, but I wasn’t going to lie to her. “A little. When you’re injured that badly, it takes a while for everything to sort itself out. But I’m almost there.” I ran my hand over her hair. “You must still be feeling that attack last night.”
She shrugged. “It’s not so bad. I’ve spent most of the day sitting in one chair or another. Plenty of rest.” She tipped her head back to look me in the eyes. “I’m sure you need your rest. You came out of that coma less than a day ago. I hope I didn’t wake you up.”
“No, I’ve been doing a good job of keeping myself awake all by myself,” I said with a half-smile.
Her brow knit. “Worrying about your kin?”
“Mostly. It’s hard not to. But I think I’ll have an easier time letting go of those thoughts with you here.”
“Hmm.” She teased her hand up my neck and urged my head down. I met her lips with a long, gentle kiss. My body reacted instantly, heat washing through me, my cock thickening. By the time our mouths slipped apart, I was painfully hard and not minding it at all.
“You know,” Ren said, a mischievous note coming into her voice, “I remember a time not all that long ago when I was all tensed up with worries, and you found the perfect way to relax me.”
An eager quiver ran through me. “I’m all for that.”
I moved to cover her body with mine, but she held me back with a light press of her hand. “No,” she murmured, letting her fingers slip down my chest and abdomen to the waist of my boxers. “I was thinking of that first time, in the van… I don’t want you straining anything that’s not quite healed. You just relax and let me take care of you.”
Dear God, when she said it like that, looking at me through her eyelashes so coyly, I just about came apart from that alone.
Ren pulled me into another kiss, this one more intense, while her hand ventured under my boxers. I groaned as her fingers closed around my erection. She stroked me loosely at first, and then with firming grip, her thumb flicking over the head of my cock. Pleasure shot through my veins.
I kissed her harder, but that wasn’t enough. Even if she wouldn’t let me respond with all the passion I wanted to give her, I could still share this bliss. As I rocked into her grasp, I reached up under her dress and tucked my hand between her legs.
Ren whimpered. Our kisses turned sloppier as we both began to pant. I rubbed the heel of my hand against her clit, my fingers testing and then dipping inside her opening. She slicked precum down my length and pumped me faster.
I was soaring on pleasure now. Was this how it felt when she shifted into that magnificent dragon form and sailed up into the sky?
The pressure building in my balls was the most amazing torture, but I wanted to see her through first. I hooked my fingers higher into the tight, hot center of her. She gasped. My thumb pressed down on her nub, and her sex clenched around me. She shuddered with a broken sound of ecstasy, but her hold on me didn’t falter. Two more steady strokes, and I was spilling over with her.
We sagged deeper into the mattress, our breaths falling back into an easier rhythm together. Ren kissed me one more time, so perfectly sweet. And perfectly right. As she snuggled against me again, my body finally let go of the last of its tensions, and I drifted into sleep.
Ren
When I woke up next to Nate, my eyelids protested, too heavy to comfortably lift. I blinked blearily at the dark room. It was still night outside the window.
But a tremor of unease had passed over me. My pulse was thumping faster.
Something was wrong. My mates were upset.
I tried to slip out from under the blanket without waking Nate, but he stirred as soon as I moved. “Ren?” he murmured.
“I just want to make sure everything’s all right,” I said. “You can stay right there.”
Fat chance of that. The bear shifter shoved back the blankets to join me. He grabbed a housecoat from a hook on his wardrobe. My dress was wrinkled, but I didn’t really care. Everyone in this house had seen me looking a lot worse.
We came out into the hall to find West striding toward us. He stopped, taking in the two of us with a twitch of amusement at the corner of his mouth. Otherwise his expression was grim. My stomach balled tighter.
“I was just coming to get both of you,” he said. “Looks like it’s an easy job.”
He turned to head back the way he’d come with a motion for us to follow. I caught up with him. “What’s going on?” I said. “Have the vampires made another attack?”
“Of course they have,” he muttered, his voice as grim as his face. “They’ve been experimenting with different tactics to counteract the fires. Water tanks with hoses to spray them down, mostly. Around the estates our kin added extra gasoline to the wood so it wouldn’t burn out so easily, but there were a couple of villages hit that hadn’t evacuated… They weren’t prepared enough.”
My heart sank. “Did anyone make it out?”
He shook his head, his jaw clenched. Behind me, Nate swore. “None of my lieutenants have contacted me.”
“They might still be busy fighting the vamps off,” I pointed out. And no matter what was happening out there, there was nothing he or the rest of us could do about it right now. By the time we made it to any village, it’d be morning, the vampires gone—and whatever wreckage they’d left behind already settled.
“That’s not all,” West said as we strode into the private common room meant for just the five of us. “I had a couple of my people watching the only highway that comes close to this estate. A truck stinking of vamps passed by not long ago, heading our way. Maybe they’re hoping they’ll catch us by surprise, coming this deep into our territory, like the rogues did before. The speed they were going, they’ll be here in the next half hour.”
My pulse stuttered. “We haven’t put up any defenses.” The dragon shifter estate boasted a stone wall around its inner boundaries much like the one at the canine estate, but that wouldn’t stop the vampires by itself. We hadn’t brought enough kin with us to fully defend it. We hadn’t laid down wood for a fire. We’d assumed the vampires wouldn’t be prepared to venture this far—and wouldn’t see any reason to. “How do they even know we’re here? We left in the middle of the day.”
“They might not,” Aaron said. He was standing at the end of the dining table, looking at a map he’d spread out there. “They might just want to do whatever damage they can to the property—as a show of force, to lower our general morale. It doesn’t sound as if there are a lot of them on their way here.”
Marco folded his arms where he was leaning against the table’s edge. “Or one of those last few rogues who’ve thrown in with the bloodsuckers decided to play spy. They might have heard something from outside the walls of the canine estate, the kin there talking about our trip, or simply guessed from the direction the jet headed i
n.”
I gritted my teeth at the thought of those traitors. What had the vampires offered them to make them think they were better off siding with creatures who wanted to exterminate the rest of us? Or did they think the vamps would be satisfied once they’d taken out me and my alphas and leave the rest of us alone? Hadn’t they seen what those monsters were doing?
Of course, from what Timothy had reported… maybe they weren’t thinking very much at all. Sixteen years was a long time to be carrying that much rage. I’d bet some of the losers from the battle at Marco’s estate had faded back into the wilderness to live their lives apart from us in peace. The ones who’d run to the vampires—they were too far gone to reason with.
“So what’s the plan?” I said.
Aaron tapped the map. I came over to stand beside him. “There’s only one road that can support a truck that comes into the lands around the estate,” he said. “Here, between two of the lower hills. So we know where they’ll be coming from.”
Looking at the lines on the paper, it all seemed very clear. “I go out there and blast them to bits, then.”
Marco’s lips curled up. “Sounds simple enough.”
West, on the other hand, frowned. “You’re tired, Ren. How late were you up in that records room?” I pressed my mouth flat against an honest answer, and he glowered at me. “That’s what I thought. I don’t like the idea of you going out there alone. What if there are more of them than we expect? If they shoot you down, you might be too far from the estate to make it back.”
“We have a few vehicles in the garage,” Nate started.
I could read the answer to that suggestion in Aaron’s eyes. “None of them is solid enough to withstand automatic gunfire, though, right?” I said. “You guys are a lot more vulnerable out there than I am. And they’ll be just as happy to kill you.” My hands clenched. “Look, I’ll just fly up and keep watch. If I see them stopping and getting ready to come out with the guns, I’ll fry them before they have the chance. Otherwise I’ll wait them out here. Okay? We can’t do nothing.”
