by Eva Chase
My feet hit the artificial bark smack in the center. I grasped the sides of the branch to hold myself steady, exhilaration rushing through me. Without giving myself much time to think, I spotted an appropriate ledge and pushed off again.
The feeling of free-fall raced through me for an instant before I landed. So sharp and giddying. I glanced around and threw myself down toward one of those bowls of bedding. This time I let myself land on my hands and knees. I rolled onto my back and snuggled into the cushions.
“Okay,” I said. “This is almost as good as the climbing part.”
“And the jumping part?” Marco said, hopping onto a nearby branch. His indigo eyes glinted. “You’re a pretty girl, my Princess of Flames, but you’re spectacular when you come that close to flight. It lights you up.”
The compliment lit me up in a totally different way. I pushed myself onto my feet. “Is this how you treat all the girls? Kidnap them and then seduce them with flattery and your awesome house?”
His eyelids lowered, his gaze turning more heated. “Not at all, princess. This is only for you.”
His tone was serious enough beneath the flirting that my pulse skipped. I craved that intensity, but at the same time it sent my nerves jittering. How could I be that important to him, to anyone here, just like that?
I leapt away from those worries, up one of the other slanting branches. “Well, you haven’t caught me yet,” I called back to him.
I heard a laugh in his intake of breath. “Let’s see if I can change that.”
His feet scraped the outcroppings just beneath me. I threw myself forward faster, leaning over so I could pull myself along with my hands as well. As if I were an animal even if I still couldn’t turn myself into one.
I sprang from one branch to another, dashed up that one to a ledge, and abruptly found I had no way to keep going up. I’d almost hit the roof again. Marco was halfway up the branch behind me, loping up it with perfect balance. He hadn’t shifted either, but the feline in him showed in every movement.
“Ran yourself into a corner?” he teased, slowing a little to draw out his pursuit.
Oh, no. I wasn’t letting him win yet. “No such thing,” I informed him. Then, as he reached the edge of the platform, I flung myself off it toward a branch at least a full floor below.
The exhilaration of the fall burst through me—and tugged free a memory from long, long ago. Scrambling onto the roof of a wooden playhouse and launching myself into the air. Feeling my wings unfurl and catch the wind just for a second before my child’s body hit the ground. Rolling in the grass and giggling, reveling in the glimpse of my future powers.
Mama! Mama, did you see that one?
My feet hit the branch hard. My knees jarred, and the vivid glimpse of my past slipped away. I held there, inhaling shakily, my fingers digging into the manufactured bark.
“Princess?” Marco said, lowering himself onto the branch just above me.
I shook myself, but my mind wouldn’t quite settle. Where had I been in that memory? Somewhere with my mother, obviously. But not New York. That had been before New York. In a shifter community somewhere? Was that where I was supposed to go now?
I looked up at Marco. “You keep calling me ‘princess.’ Because my mother was pretty much queen of all the shifters.”
He nodded, watching me curiously.
“She must have had some kind of official home, right?” I went on. “That people would know to come to, if they needed... I don’t know, official guidance or something?”
“There are four houses that are the official property of the dragon shifter line,” Marco said. “One near the center of each kin-group’s main territory. She’d have moved from one to another periodically or as needs required, usually with at least one of her alpha mates. Why?”
I bit my lip. “I just wondered if maybe she might have gone back to one of those homes. When she left New York, I mean. I guess if that symbol had to do with any of them, you’d have recognized it, though, wouldn’t you?”
“Most likely. And if she’d returned to prime shifter territory, she wouldn’t have gone unnoticed.”
So much for that lead. But that line of thinking tickled up another question. “Aaron said you all knew me back then. When I was a little kid, before Mom and I left. Were we, like, friends, or...?”
Marco’s crooked smile looked softer than usual. “We saw you around, here and there. I don’t think I ever spoke to you except a formal introduction after the last alpha chose me—which wasn’t long before you and your mother vanished. You weren’t much more than a toddler most of that time, you know.”
I arched my eyebrows at him. “So you’re not that much of a cradle robber?”
He laughed. “I was still a kid myself, remember. When I was ten, I was a hell of a lot more interested in climbing trees and winning races than thinking about future mates.” The heat crept back into his gaze. “Of course, my interests have changed a lot since then.”
“Oh, yeah?” I padded a little higher up the branch I was on, giving him a challenging glance. It was easier to turn my attention back to the present than to keep dwelling on everything I couldn’t remember.
“Not convinced yet?” His grin widened. Then he sprang after me, so quickly I yelped.
Marco had obviously been holding back before. He knew this feline jungle gym a lot better than I did, after all. I clambered up the branch, jumped over another, and dashed along a ledge, but he caught up with me. Tucking his arm around me, he pulled us down into one of the bowl-like beds.
“Got you,” he murmured, his face just inches from mine. He’d angled his body so it wasn’t quite touching me, holding himself up by his elbow, but the warmth of him washed over me. It stirred up a wave of longing so intense I couldn’t imagine fighting it.
I pushed up toward him, and he claimed my mouth with his.
The kiss radiated heat through my whole being. I looped my arm around Marco’s neck, wanting him closer, harder, everywhere. He teased his teeth over my lip until I whimpered and then tipped his head to kiss me even more deeply. At my tug, his body settled against mine. My breath caught at the solid, muscular weight of him. My hips arched toward his instinctively, and he groaned.
“Yes, princess,” he murmured. “That’s the way.”
His hand traveled up my side, sliding the silk of my blouse over my skin. He cupped my breast through my bra. His thumb swiveled over my nipple, and I gasped into his mouth. Marco smiled into the kiss, teasing that peak harder with steady, knowing strokes. My fingers traced over his cheek and tangled in his hair. The swell of pleasure inside me was rising so fast I didn’t know how to rein it in, how to hold on to anything. It might just carry me away.
Marco dipped his head down to trail his lips across my jaw. His hand left my breast to slip under the hem of my shirt. His fingers eased up over my bare skin, and he nipped the tender skin of my throat. I moaned, my body trembling—and a sharp pain shot through my palm.
I stiffened, and Marco froze over me. He raised his head. The lust in his heavy-lidded eyes sent a fresh tingle through me, but the pain stopped me from getting swept up in it again.
“What’s wrong?” he said.
My hand had balled into a fist. I uncurled my fingers from my palm and stared, bewildered, for a second before I understood what I was seeing.
A small blue gem shone darkly in the middle of my palm. Marco’s sapphire earring. I’d nicked the stud off his ear without even realizing. And accidentally jabbed the pin into my hand. A small drop of blood was beading below it.
Marco laughed low in his throat. “My Princess of Flames and her sticky fingers.” He sat back on the cushions, drawing me with him but leaving a little space between us. With his own nimble fingers, he plucked out the stud. Then he brought my hand to his mouth and slicked his tongue over the tiny wound. My heart stuttered.
But the desire coursing through me had dampened a little. I dragged in a breath. Maybe that was for the best. I still
wanted him—damn, did I want him—but at least I felt in control again.
Marco tucked the earring into his pocket. He kept my hand in his, but he didn’t pull me to him again. Could he sense my hesitation?
“This thieving habit of yours is a bit of a strange one,” he remarked, with an easy smile. “Should I be worried you’ll end up robbing me out of house and home before the end of the day?”
He spoke so lightly I couldn’t help smiling back. “I, um, might also have pocketed a mirror from the guest bedroom. That’s it so far. I’m sorry. It’s kind of a nervous habit.”
Marco cocked his head. “Can I ask how exactly one develops stealing as a habit?”
My chest tightened, but he was looking at me with so little judgment that a moment later I started to relax. The four guys here were sharing so much of themselves with me. Maybe it was only fair they had a better idea who they were letting into their lives.
“When I first lost my apartment, I didn’t have anywhere to go,” I said. The words stuck in my throat, but I pushed them out. “Mom had always warned me about the police and any kind of government authority, so they didn’t seem safe. I ended up getting in with a group of street kids this guy named Fisher had sort of... hired on. He owned a building where he’d let us sleep as long as we’d bring him stuff we’d stolen every day. And he’d give us a small cut of what he got fencing the stuff, so we could buy food and all that. I didn’t like doing it, because I know it’s wrong, but I was good at it, because of how fast I can be. And I didn’t know what else to do.”
Marco stroked his fingertips over the back of my head soothingly. “I think we’ve all been in positions where we had to do things we’d rather not for our own survival. There’s no shame in that, princess.”
There was, though. The shame of it still burned my cheeks when I thought about it. “I didn’t get away from Fisher until I was almost twenty. Kylie helped me. But it took a long time even after I met her, because he didn’t want me to go. I was his best thief. I was scared of what he’d do... But I did get away, in the end, and I haven’t meant to steal anything in more than a year.”
I’d been looking at my hands through my entire confession. Finally I lifted my gaze to Marco’s face. His eyes were gentle, but his tone was as dry and cocky as ever.
“So my princess is a tough girl. I can’t say I have any complaints there.”
The last of the tension inside me released. I gave his shoulder a playful shove. “It seems like you’re a tough guy yourself. What’s the story with that scar?”
I motioned to his eyebrow. The second the question came out, I knew I shouldn’t have asked it. Marco’s muscles tensed where his body was still aligned with mine. Shit. I opened my mouth to say never mind, and just then my butt vibrated.
Or rather, my phone vibrated against my butt. I squirmed a little farther away from Marco into the cushions and tugged it out. In the first instant I read the alert on the screen, every other concern faded from my mind.
“Kylie texted me,” I said, springing to my feet. “She found someone who recognized the symbol from my locket.”
CHAPTER 11
Ren
“IT’S RIGHT in the middle of vampire territory,” Nate said, crossing his arms over his brawny chest where he stood by the arm of the sofa. “We can’t just saunter on in there and expect them to give us a free pass.”
“My scouts move through the city on a regular basis without any trouble whatsoever,” Marco replied. He leaned back in the sitting room’s armchair. “As long as we don’t draw attention to ourselves, they’ll never even realize we were there. I know stealth isn’t your strong point, but you can manage not to lumber about like a total bear, can’t you?”
Nate scowled at him. West paused where he’d been pacing back and forth near the door. “How do we know this information is even worth following up on? We’re hearing it third hand.”
My fingers tightened around my phone. I sat up straighter where I’d curled up at one end of the sofa. “Kylie knows the people she talks to. If she didn’t think this guy was legit, she wouldn’t have told me about it.” She’d reported that a guy she played pool with sometimes did urban “explorations.” He’d been pretty sure he’d seen the inverted flame image in a tunnel leading to one of New York City’s abandoned subway stations.
“Why would anything to do with shifters be down in some abandoned subway tunnel?” Nate asked.
By the fireplace, Aaron raised his head. “The spot could have been chosen for exactly that reason, if the dragon shifters wanted to keep it hidden. No ordinary shifter would stumble across it there. But Nate is right. It’ll be difficult for all four of us to enter the city together without any of the locals noticing. Which is why—”
“All five of us,” I broke in.
He blinked at me, his clear blue eyes momentarily puzzled. “What?”
I gestured to the bunch of us. “You said ‘all four of us.’ But we’re five. I’m coming too, obviously.”
Apparently that fact wasn’t so obvious. Aaron’s mouth tensed, and Nate bristled as if his bear really were coming out.
“No,” the bigger guy said. “It’s dangerous enough with just us. Our job is to make sure you’re protected, and that means you stay here.”
“I was going to suggest that only one, or at most two, of the alphas should investigate,” Aaron said in his light, even voice. “There’s no need for even all four of us to go.”
“Well, even if only one or two of you goes, I’m coming with.” I waved my phone in the air. “I’m the one who got the information, remember? I’m the one it’s for. The symbol was in my locket. It’s some kind of message from my mother. If anyone goes, it should be me.”
Nate shook his head. “If it wasn’t vampire territory, I’d never argue with you. But you don’t understand the full situation. It’s not worth the risk, especially when the tip might not be reliable.”
Marco’s gaze darted between us, his expression somewhere between contemplative and amused. He wasn’t telling me to stay home, but he wasn’t leaping to support me either. The one voice in my favor was West’s, although of course he had to say it in the most insulting way possible.
“If she’s going to be head of all shifter-kin, she’d better be able to hold her own,” he growled. “Let her come. It’ll give her a taste of the supernatural world outside this ridiculous house.”
Marco raised an eyebrow at that. “If you don’t enjoy the comforts in here, you’re welcome to sleep in the yard tonight.”
“Who cares about the house?” I said. “If I am going to be head of all the shifters, I should get to make a few decisions for myself. And I say I’m going. You have no idea what we might be looking for. For all we know, my mom set it up so I’m the only one who can find it or figure out what to do with it. Won’t making one trip with me draw a lot less attention than two trips when you realize you need me there after all?”
“You could stay nearby, ready to join us if we let you know your presence was needed,” Aaron suggested.
“No. No way. I haven’t had a say in any of this so far, but this could be my mother’s last message to me. I have to see it for myself.”
“Ren,” Nate started, but West broke in.
“You’re all too hung up on the past. This is a totally different scenario. Vampires had nothing to do with what happened before.”
“If we do piss them off, vampires are plenty dangerous,” Marco said. “We shouldn’t completely dismiss them.”
“Hold on,” I said, setting down my phone. My fingers curled around the arm of the sofa. “What ‘past scenario’ are you talking about? Why are you so worried about protecting me? What—”
A splinter of a memory jabbed through my mind. Just a fragment, wavering and incomplete, but with a jolt of panic that brought a metallic flavor into my mouth.
I was huddled on the floor, clutching the arm of a girl a little older than me, pale with a head of blond ringlets. Her mouth was set i
n a thin, bloodless line. Another girl, even older, stood at my other side, black waves cascading down her trembling back. Her hand was braced against my head, too tense to really comfort.
The three of us were staring at my mother—my mother and the rugged, barrel-chested man who was arguing with her. I knew that low, hoarse voice had usually wrapped me up in comfort, but now it only made my pulse skitter.
“You have to go. Now.”
“I have to stay and fight for what’s mine,” my mother insisted, her eyes flashing.
An agonized cry rang out. My mother flinched, and the man’s expression shuttered. “There are too many of them. If you try to fight here, you’ll lose your chance to fight your way out. Go. For them.”
He swept his arm toward us—and the memory flicked away.
I slumped forward on the sofa, dropping my head into my hands. The immediacy of the moment was gone, but my sense of it was still trickling in. That man—he’d been one of my fathers. Daddy, some part of me called out with a pang. And the girls beside me...
I looked up, bracing my hands on either side of my neck. The guys had all fallen silent, watching me. My mouth was dry. I swallowed hard.
“I had sisters,” I said in a ragged voice. “Two of them, older than me. Didn’t I? Why did my mother run away with me and not them? What happened to them? What happened to my fathers?”
Nate and Aaron exchanged a glance. Marco opened his mouth and hesitated. West looked as if he’d swallowed his tongue, the one time I actually wanted him to let it loose.
“Tell me,” I snapped. “Why do you keep trying to hide it? What are you all so afraid will happen to me?”
“Ren,” Nate said roughly. He sank onto the sofa beside me. “It’s not that we wanted to hide it from you. We just wanted to give you a chance to adjust before you had to deal with that too.”
“With what?” I said, my voice suddenly small. It was horrible, whatever it was. I didn’t need him to tell me that. The memory and their reactions stunk of it.
