Dragon's Melody

by Bell, Ophelia

  “She left me a corporation to run. And a challenge to do it right.”

  “I’d say you’re living up to it finally.”

  Kol gave him a sardonic half-smile, but didn’t challenge the insubordination. The easy relationship they’d had as young dragons still bled through their more professional interactions lately.

  “But as devious as my mother was, she was always honest with her children. There were no puzzles for us to solve when we awakened, aside from the puzzles of our own happiness. What do you suppose your mother wants for you, Skye?”

  “I think she’s given me a literal puzzle to solve. She always claimed she knew me better than I knew myself. All I know is that I need to find a human female mate to unlock this one.”

  “And that’s somehow difficult for you? I find that hard to believe.” Kol shot a glance at the pretty Latina waitress who was carrying another pair of cocktails over to them. Skye hadn’t ordered another. He appreciated the attention, but found it somehow irritating on a deeper level because he hadn’t even invited it.

  “I’d prefer a female who had at least a glimmer of an idea what she was getting into. Getting a human woman up to speed on our ways seems too tedious an undertaking. I don’t have the benefit of a controlled environment like our hibernation temple to help me convince her of my nature.”

  “The Court does have the advantage in that situation. Yet another detail we’ve robbed our children of, but when there are enough dragons, perhaps they won’t feel so pressured to find human mates. Have you considered mating a dragon instead?”

  “Not an option,” Skye said, glaring at the cube he clutched in his palm. He ignored the fact that he hadn’t answered Kol’s question. Female dragons were more difficult to deal with than female humans. The only dragon he’d ever been intimate with was Garen, and Garen deserved a mate who didn’t view him as a subordinate. Garen would be happier with a female human mate in the long run, Skye was sure of it. While Skye just needed to find one he was happy enough with to appeal to whatever magic his mother had infused this infernal box with.

  “When did your mother die?” Kol asked. “She was one of the later ones to renounce her magic at the end, wasn’t she?” He held out his hand, gesturing for the box again. Skye handed it to him.

  “Only a few years ago. Trevor said he was eighteen when he first became her lover. He’s only twenty-three now. Young for a bonded human, but that’s not uncommon in families who stay with us for a while.”

  “Hmm,” Kol said, studying the box more closely. He let out a tiny breath, the shadowy tendrils escaped his lips and reached out, teasing at the crevices in the patterns of the box. “She knew much about the new world by then, no doubt. And the women in it. This is such a pretty object, but the markings are perplexing. There are three aspects to it. Three distinct sets of symbols, and two of the sets are reminiscent of ancient draconic. The other is more modern—more human.” The dark ghosts of his breath seeped into the minute etchings that surrounded the box, but were repelled almost instantly.

  That the Shadow couldn’t breach the box’s barriers didn’t surprise Skye. There was no key but to accomplish what his mother asked. He appreciated that Kol tried, however.

  Skye accepted the object back and studied it. Indeed, the patterns in it were intricate and delicate. Gold framework with blue jade inlay—a vibrant blue that matched his true color. The imagery on opposite sides matched, which made him think it might be a game, but he still hadn’t figured out the rules.

  “A woman already bonded to one of us might be a better option. Do you have any in your employ who appeal to you?”

  Skye had thought of that, too. A bonded human female would be easier to transition to a mate. But he’d met all the women who held that status in his employ. Most were attractive, and some gave him pause enough to think of mating, but in the end he was stuck with his mother’s requirement. They were all too old to breed.

  “Our stock is outdated.”

  The second he said it, he regretted it. It was an old way of thinking and he knew Kol hated the old ways. Humans weren’t a commodity anymore. They were equals in too many ways. Allies, maybe. Dragonkind was outnumbered by humans at any rate. They had no choice but to adapt and conform.

  Which meant he had to stop thinking of humans the way his mother used to.

  She’d told him as much anyway. The world around us is not the world you left behind. Sensitivity is necessary to persist.

  He’d been learning what that meant for months and had only recently begun to understand. Humans had always been their subjects before, but he had to treat them differently now.

  Kol remained silent for a moment, sipping his fresh cocktail and gazing into the orange glow across the surface of the Pacific Ocean beyond their darkening beach. The soft glow of lights around the resort’s patio grew brighter. Kol had more to say, Skye was sure of it. Yet he continued to quietly enjoy the deepening sunset.

  The quiet was comforting, because Skye had a sense that Kol had an answer for him, even though he was being cagey about delivering it. That was the extent of what he could gather from the Shadow’s emotions, however. Most dragons were as open as humans were, but Shadows had always been different. They didn’t project unless they intended to—on the contrary, they tended more often to compel others to project without even getting into their heads the way a Blue like Skye could do. Shadows could clarify the most prominent of a person’s emotion simply by virtue of casting all the less important ones in shadow. Skye could feel him doing it now, in fact, as his true desires gradually became clearer to him.

  He stared down at the box, mesmerized by the patterns that seemed to glow in the twilight. The golden curves of the patterns on it shifted, becoming the bars of a cage. Then they shifted again, with the doors opening.

  This box somehow embodied his future with a mate he had yet to meet. He smiled a little at the thought of Garen and how his friend might react to being put inside a cage.

  Garen had caged himself, though, centuries ago and long before their hibernation when he’d pledged himself to Skye.

  “I am yours, whether you’ll take me or not,” Garen had said, in a fit of passion that his young Guardian nature couldn’t suppress.

  “What if the Virgin chooses you? You won’t be mine then.”

  “Then you’ll be mine, because I’ll outrank you.”

  The Virgin hadn’t chosen Garen, and so now he was Skye’s servant, as trapped by his rank as if he’d been inside this tiny box Skye held in his palm. Skye had the most irrational need to unlock the puzzle then, just to release Garen from an imagined prison.

  What woman would willingly choose to become his prisoner in exchange? Did he even want one who did?

  No, but he did want one who he didn’t have to hunt for. Someone who could be like Garen. Available when he needed.

  Impulsively, he said, “I need a woman willing to sign a contract. One not bonded to me already, but preferably already bonded—a transfer, in other words. And …” He hesitated to say the rest. Kol would understand, but admitting what he wanted to the most human-centric member of the Court made him nervous anyway. “I’d like it if she were willing to simply serve me at first.”

  Kol turned to look at him. “You want her to be your sole source of energy?”

  “Yes. And to do it how I want it.”

  “How do you want it?” Kol asked, eyeing him warily.

  Skye ignored his boss’s scrutiny. His mouth watered, thinking about the ideal woman, and how she’d truly serve his needs. She’d be a combination of the two he’d been with a few days earlier. Gwen with her innocent submission and Cassie with her confident suggestions. Cassie had been the surprising one, in the end, offering the subtlest suggestions to choreograph the evening yet still allowing Skye to make the demands. She’d reminded him of Garen, and Skye started thinking of her as his partner in cr
ime during his seduction of Gwen.

  “I want her to be aware of what is required of her, and willing. I might have strict rules …”

  “How strict?”

  “I want her Nirvana for myself. Always. Why should I bother at first?”

  The confessions grew easier now that he’d begun letting them out. He had so many ideas about his perfect mate that he’d never realized.

  “I want her primed for me daily. A pretty bird who will sing when I tell her to sing. And who will be happy to sing for me alone.”

  “How will you keep her happy?”

  “Garen will prime her for me. It’s a strength of his.” Garen’s strengths were beyond simply priming a woman. “He will also keep her happy while I’m away on Magnus business.”

  Kol cast a dark look at him. “You want this hypothetical woman for your mate, yet you relinquish her to your servant?”

  “She’s hypothetical, so yes.” He hesitated to admit the truth now. He’d been in love, briefly, and devastatingly when he was younger. Garen had been the one to pull him back from the brink of a broken heart, but he’d distanced himself emotionally from women ever since. He suspected that was the root of his inability to settle on a mate. “I want her to be happy. Garen’s better at that.”

  “What if she weren’t hypothetical?” Kol asked softly.

  Skye gaped at Kol. This was the trap. There was an actual woman Kol had in mind and he was being tested to find out if he were worthy.

  Skye closed his eyes tightly. “Garen, I need you.”

  His Guardian’s presence had been lingering at the outskirts of his consciousness all night. Garen never intervened unless required. His role was security, nothing more, unless Skye requested something more.

  Now that his name had been mentioned—Skye’s fault—it seemed necessary to include him in the conversation.

  “I’m here,” Garen’s deep voice said. Skye glanced up to see his shirtless friend, his mop of pale blond hair nearly covering his eyes. The haphazard look he had when they weren’t working always made him smile.

  “Garen,” Kol said, interrupting Skye’s attempt to speak. “Do you think Skye is capable of satisfying a human woman on his own?”

  Garen swiped his hair out of his eyes with his palm and laughed. “Maybe? Well, yes, on the surface, but depends what you mean by ‘satisfy’. I know he’s capable of satisfying several women at once.”

  Skye scowled at his servant and friend. Garen smirked back at him, clearly enjoying the interrogation.

  “I mean as a mate. Does he really need you to help like he says?”

  Garen’s eyes widened for a split second. “I supplement his efforts. Together I think we do well, but no. I don’t think he needs me to satisfy a mate, unless the mate wants us both, that is. But that’s all conjecture, sir.”

  Kol chuckled. “You two need to loosen up, particularly considering the task I’m giving you next week.”

  “Task?” Skye asked, confused.

  “Your new mate, potentially. I’d suggest having Garen vet her if you’re curious. I’ll give you the information, but the transfer will happen a week from now, if you’re amenable. If it isn’t you, it will be another dragon. This one means a lot to me, and I’d like it to be you who takes her, friend. I’ll send you my initial draft of the contract tonight.”

  He rose to leave, and then paused, glancing back at Skye. “You can consider her recompense for Trevor. At least that matter can be settled.”

  Chapter Six

  Garen had been handed a flash drive that supposedly held all he needed to know about the woman in question. The woman he needed to research to ensure she was a good mate for Skye.

  Melody was her name.

  He shoved the drive into his laptop’s receptacle, feeling the same little elation he always felt, waiting for the pop-up. His cock often got hard when he did something technical. That was a new word for him, too. “Technical”. Since his ascension, he’d said it over and over until he stopped getting excited about it.

  Today, he knew just about everything there was to know about “technical” things, yet in spite of a very mundane task he was hard as a rock.

  Melody’s dossier was detailed, as Kol had promised. Nothing left out.

  She’d been an awkward kid who was peer-pressured into being a cheerleader in high school. That gained her some notoriety as a teen. After high school, she became a flight attendant at age eighteen. It was a few years into that stint that she shifted to a job at Magnus, first as an executive assistant, then recently taking on the role of private flight attendant as well. So young, still, but bold enough to take her life into her own hands.

  The raw details didn’t interest him, though. The stuff in between was what caught his attention. She’d grown up in a small southern town, and her mother still lived there, but she’d become an asset of Magnus because one of Kol’s other executives—a Red named Nancy—had seen something special. She’d been bonded to Kol as an employee for less than a year, which made him wonder why she was so special. A woman from a human family like Erika’s or Trevor’s, who had been infused with dragon magic for multiple generations, was ideal.

  Garen’s phone trembled and he glanced at the screen. “She’s worth more investigation,” Kol’s message said. “I didn’t take the time. Too many other distractions.”

  Bastard had probably been tuned into his thoughts the entire time. There was a general etiquette of privacy between dragons, but higher powered ones could still eavesdrop if they tried hard enough. Shadows in particular. Garen glanced around wondering if Kol’s breath lurked in the corners, watching. That kind of stunt took a lot of energy to do, however, so Garen was a little amazed at Kol’s waste. He must really care about this human.

  There wasn’t much more to discover, until he started digging deeper. It wasn’t about her associations. When he started analyzing her short history of lovers, he saw the pattern. Her few intimate relationships had all been with overbearing alpha males, yet they’d failed to hold onto her. What had they done wrong? All were attractive humans, and they all had been left behind by Melody for some reason. Something about them had failed to please her, perhaps?

  He couldn’t be completely sure until he met her. That was the next step. The detail that worried him most was how close she was to Kol.

  The Shadow hadn’t given more than the barest details about his own relationship with Melody. He viewed her as a worthy mate for Skye—that much was apparent. And Skye couldn’t turn down the offer, particularly considering he needed an excuse to let Trevor go.

  Trevor had been Skye’s mother’s “employee” on paper. Bonded to her and receiving a salary, but expected to perform in ways that didn’t require showing up to an office every weekday.

  But Kol had hired this young woman, bonded her via the subtle magic of the medallion all their employees wore around their necks. And he had very likely tasted her essence. Once wasn’t enough to influence her physiology, but over time even unmated humans who shared a bond with a dragon would experience subtle physical changes. One exchange with Kol—one of the most powerful dragons of their generation—was a different story.

  Yet now Kol wanted to trade her away to satisfy Skye’s need for restitution. Rather than ponder why she was special, this new thought made Garen wonder what was wrong with her.

  Nothing as far as he could tell. She was beautiful, for one thing. She had a look of innocence that provoked his protective urge as a Guardian, but her history with men told him she was searching for something in particular and had yet to find it. He knew that feeling well.

  Maybe Kol wanted her far away because he wanted to hide her for some reason. Had Kol actually strayed so far from his nature that he would fall for a woman he wouldn’t mate? Garen reminded himself that Kol had done it before. The First Shadow of their generation had had a human lover when he was younge
r. Pre-hibernation, which was prohibited. He couldn’t have mated her anyway, yet he’d revealed his nature to her. Even now, with their changed laws, that law still stood. Never reveal your nature unless you’re prepared to mate the human who knows your secret.

  No … Kol wouldn’t make that mistake twice. So perhaps that was why he was sending her away. To avoid making another mistake. Certain he’d uncovered the heart of the truth, Garen shifted his attention back to the photograph.

  He stared into the pale blue eyes of her portrait on the page. If she returned Kol’s feelings, that complicated things.

  “What will it take to turn you around, love? If you’ll be Skye’s, we will need to take our time. To turn you around, and to find out why Kol feels the need to send you away to begin with.”

  For the first time in a long time he felt elation over the task at hand. Turning a woman from a bond with Kol was no small challenge, but he relished the opportunity to outdo a Court dragon for once. It might even shift Skye’s attention from his own single-mindedness, too.

  As if the thought had invoked the man, Skye’s presence became apparent in the room behind Garen’s seat at the small desk in the suite they shared.

  Garen didn’t acknowledge his friend, and continued to scroll through the data on Melody. All the while his skin tingled with the obvious power of Skye’s aura. He must have found a private spot to spend a moment with the waitress from earlier. Once Kol had strolled wetly off into the sunset-gilded surf, Garen had retreated back to the room so he didn’t have to bear witness to Skye’s fun.

  He should probably go find a partner himself tonight. He’d been relying too often on Skye’s Nirvana to replenish his own energy and ought to reacquaint himself with human women if Skye intended for him to work with Melody. Yet, he and Skye had been sharing each other for so long, the prospect of human contact—even to fill his well with their crisp, vibrant energy—didn’t appeal to him. He craved the heady, potent power his friend provided, almost as much as he craved simply being near Skye most days.