by Abigail Owen
Then Skylar moved to stand in front of Cami but paused there.
“What are you waiting for?” Cami asked.
“He probably fell when he landed.” Skylar shrugged. “I’m giving him a chance to stand up and be ready to catch you.”
A completely inappropriate chuckle sprang up at that image. One she swallowed. Drake wouldn’t appreciate it if she was already laughing when she arrived, and she needed him.
“Take care of yourself out there,” Skylar murmured, her pale blue eyes suddenly serious. Only Cami had to be imagining the worry turning them an icier hue, like frost on winter windows.
Cami tried for a brave smile to hide the way she’d started to shake. “I’ve got my own dragon to take care of me. I’ll be fine.”
Skylar snorted. “That does not make me feel any better.”
What if this was the wrong choice? What if she was bringing danger, or worse, death, to her family’s doorstep? Like a faithful dog dropping a dead rat filled with plague at her master’s feet.
“Camilla?”
Rune’s voice pulled her gaze his way.
“You should know that Drake is the one who saved you from that fire that hit your ranch. He had to wipe your memory, so you wouldn’t remember. You weren’t going to make it, so he flew you out of there.”
Shock should’ve been her first reaction, but it wasn’t. Maybe even anger at the memory wiping thing, which she’d ask about later. But, for now, all she felt was a sense that she’d found a missing puzzle piece to her life. They’d never been able to explain how they’d got out to the road. This had to be why she felt a connection to a dragon shifter who seemed determined to not like her. Nothing to do with mates, but with a life owed.
Drake will take care of me.
The thought whispered through her, and the shaking stopped, the doubts quieted, leaving her steady and sure.
She nodded at Rune, then faced Skylar. “I’m ready.”
Chapter Nine
Drake rubbed at the back of his head, which he’d slammed into the brick wall with enough force he was surprised he hadn’t left a skull-sized dent in it. All thanks to the narrowness of the alley he’d been sent to, along with the force of Skylar’s shove, which carried through the sightless, soundless void she’d teleported him through and sent him stumbling when he landed here.
Expecting Cami to come immediately after, he managed to keep to his feet, dropped her bag on the ground, and put his hands up, waiting to keep her from a similar injury.
Ten seconds passed, then twenty. A large rat skittered away down the alley. Then a full minute went by, and still no Cami.
He lowered his hands. “Dammit, where is she—”
With no warning, Cami appeared out of thin air. But too close. He didn’t have time to get his hands up before her momentum had her tripping backward. She plowed into him hard enough that they both went down in a tangle of limbs.
Somehow, he managed to keep his body between her and the pavement, smacking his head again with a crack that echoed off the tightly spaced brick buildings.
“You were supposed to catch me,” Cami accused into his chest where her face was pressed.
She lifted her head and pain disappeared in favor of the sudden awareness of how close her lips were to his, the way she lay across him, almost like a lover. Unbidden his hands went to her hips. To lift her off him, he told himself, except he didn’t. Instead, he stayed where he was with her plastered against him.
“That was…weird,” she said next. “Why does she have to shove?”
“You want to get off me?” The question came out harsher than he intended. Either that or drink those lips like she was the last drop of cherry Coke after the apocalypse wiped out supplies.
“Oh. Sorry.” She put her palms against his chest. Even through his shirt, he felt as though she’d imprinted her touch in his skin. Like she’d marked him as hers. Like energy passed from him to her by that simple connection.
Quit that shit.
He moved, and together they managed to right themselves, putting distance between them like a moat of murky water. Drake got a better look at where they’d ended up. The rancid scent of a dumpster filled the alleyway, and the scuttle of little rat feet was hard to miss. But at least they were alone in, by what he could hear, a quieter neighborhood in the city. Assuming they had landed in San Francisco.
He turned his head to find that, instead of looking around, Cami stared at him with a funny light in her eyes, her lips parted on words that didn’t seem to be coming.
“What?” he asked.
She shifted her gaze away, glancing off to the side. “Nothing that can’t wait.” Then she looked around and frowned. “Where are we?” she whispered.
“How the hell should I know? And why are you whispering?”
She blinked at him. Then the woman gave a low chuckle that shot straight to his groin. “I don’t know. Creepy alleyway in the middle of the night.” Then she frowned up at him. “Don’t you have some kind of super eyesight? Or even hearing?”
Rather than answer, he scooped up her bag, flung it over one shoulder, and strode off toward what seemed the closest street at the end of the narrow space.
“Where are you going?” She hustled to keep up, practically having to jog, her feet pattering against the ground.
Drake slowed his stride, and the cadence of her steps evened out. “To see where she sent us and find that hotel.”
They emerged onto a silent street, not a soul in sight, the only light coming from streetlamps every thirty feet or so. It appeared to be mostly residences. Super expensive ones by the looks. Especially if this was San Francisco. The architecture of the homes, an eclectic mix of Victorian and modern, suggested it was. Farther away, though not a bad walk, lights and sounds pierced his senses.
If he wasn’t mistaken, a few blocks would bring them to the wharves that lined the bay. A popular place for tourists, which meant plenty of humans to hide among. Possible other things that could give a rogue dragon and his still human companion plenty of grief, though. Dragons might not like cities, but that left it wide open for other supernaturals.
The location also meant hotels. A shit ton of them. Without a phone to search up the one Rune booked, they’d have to wander until they found it. But Rune and Skylar weren’t stupid. At a guess, assuming Skylar had some accuracy over her teleportation, if they went toward the lights and sounds, they’d hit the hotel pretty soon.
“Let’s find our place for the night.” Or the rest of it at least.
For once, Cami remained silent as they made the trek from where they’d ended up, somewhere on North Point Street in front of a strand of hotels that sat back a couple blocks from the main lineup of restaurants, shops, and sightseeing opportunities near Pier 39. Given the time, this was as asleep as this district ever got.
As they moved along the dark sidewalk, making their way from the halo of light cast by each streetlamp along the way, a large rat scampered out from a narrow alley directly into their path. The thing went up on its hindlegs, balancing there, watching them with beady little black eyes, whiskers twitching.
Drake grabbed Cami by the arm to stop their progress but needn’t have bothered. She’d already slowed to a halt. “I’ve never seen a rat do that,” she said, not taking her wary gaze from the creature.
Maybe her self-preservation instincts weren’t entirely shit.
“That’s because it’s not a rat.” Anger spiked through every word.
Anger directed squarely at himself. This was the same rat that had run off from where they’d landed, dammit. He’d been so focused on saving Cami from knocking her head that he hadn’t paid enough attention.
“What is it? A shifter?”
“Yeah.” And bad fucking news. Rat shifters only associated with the dregs of the creature world. Its presence now meant someth
ing worse was coming.
Drake didn’t need to glance around to know he couldn’t shift in such a narrow space, and not nearly fast enough. The only thing he had was his strength and his fire. With a thought, Drake ignited the flames inside him, the rumble of flame softly floating through the otherwise silent night air as he fed oxygen to it, stoking it hotter.
Beside him, hearing the sound, Cami tensed. To give her credit she didn’t ask, and she didn’t freak out. “What does it want?” she asked.
“Me,” a sweet female voice, a familiar voice, came from the same alley the rat had come from.
Drake pulled up at the sound. “Sera?”
A woman stepped into the lamplight—petite and slender with an almost boyish figure, her chin-length blond hair framing her piquant face, turquoise eyes beseeching him, full of fear.
“Drake?” Cami’s voice had a tremble to it, but he hardly heard it.
He took a step forward. “What are you doing here? I thought you and Aidan were in hiding still. Are you okay?”
Sera shook her head, eyes wide. “I need your help, Drake.”
He stepped closer. Was she in trouble? Had something happened to Aidan? “What do you mean?”
A vague corner of his mind acknowledged that something was wrong. Beside him Cami tugged at his hand, calling his name, her voice high and strained, but almost as though from a long distance off. Like she was in another world. Or maybe he was.
Sera reached out a hand to him. “They have Blake.”
No. Not her son. That boy already had it rough, having lost his father and now being stuck in dragon form so young.
“Where?” He took a step closer. Instincts set off internal alarms. Something was off. Where the hell was Aidan?
But the draw to help her was undeniable. He would never leave one of his own unprotected.
Some microscopic corner of his mind recognized Cami as she jumped in front of him, both her hands on his shoulders, shoving at him. She was forced to back up as he pushed inexorably forward, closer to Sera.
“Drake!” Cami yelled.
Finally, her panic penetrated the fog that had taken hold of his mind, catching at his protective instincts like hands reaching out of a grave. The effort a physical pain, like peeling his skin from his own body, he managed to drag his gaze from the petite blonde to the woman in front of him.
“I need your help, Drake.” Sera’s words brought his gaze back up, locking on her.
“Please, Drake, don’t leave me.” A sob caught in Cami’s voice, and part of him wanted to reach out to her, soothe her fears. Everything would be better when he was at full strength. But the part of him held in thrall to Sera quieted that side.
“Come with me,” Sera beckoned.
“No. I won’t let you have him.” Even through the fog his brain floated in, he registered Cami charging Sera.
Only Cami was glowing.
Drake blinked slowly. Why was Cami glowing? At the center of her chest, even from the back and through her clothes, a light pierced the darkness.
She threw herself at Sera, clawing and kicking, and Drake could see his hand lifting to stop her from attacking his friend, except all his movements had turned sluggish. “No.” He thought the word, but sound lodged in his throat refusing to emerge.
Then he saw. The thing that had been Sera, that he was so damn sure was Sera, wasn’t her at all. Before his eyes the image of Sera morphed into its true form—pale white skin that hung on its bones like a skin suit a few sizes too big, hairless, bald, and with razor sharp teeth ready to rend fresh meat from Cami’s bones.
A ghoul.
Like someone broke a vial of ammonia under his nose, the fog cleared his head, replaced by fury and terror for the woman fighting so hard for him.
The ghoul went for her throat, snapping those deadly teeth, but Cami kicked it in the balls. In the same instant, his little rat friend shifted to his human form and grabbed her by the arms.
A snarl ripped from Drake’s throat as he lunged for the rat shifter, slamming his fist into the back of the man’s neck. The shifter crumpled to his feet, but the ghoul still had Cami who tumbled to the ground at the same time, dragged down by the rat’s weight.
Drake couldn’t move fast enough, and the monster dropped on top of her. With the high-pitched scream of blood lust, the ghoul bit her.
Before Drake could rip it off her, sparks of reds and golds flew out from underneath the abomination with the fizzy, hissing sound of a firecracker. The ghoul screamed and released her, rolling back to reveal a round circle of fire eating into its sickly chest.
Not waiting for a second chance, Drake drew the flames from Cami’s body, using his own control of fire to grow them into something much worse, then hurled the torrent across the ghoul’s form. The creature writhed and screamed in the inescapable inferno until, finally, it stilled. White skin blackened and charred, white eyes still open staring at him as they turned milky with death.
The patter of tiny rodent feet told him the rat got away. But Drake couldn’t worry about that.
“Cami? Fuck. Are you okay?” He dropped to his knees beside Cami who watched him with eyes still full of terror, face so pale he was afraid she’d pass out.
“You weren’t you anymore,” she whispered, voice scratchy, like she’d screamed it raw.
Drake grimaced. “I know.” Fury at himself for leaving her so vulnerable bubbled up under a very real fear for her life that lingered like a bad hangover.
He reached out to touch her arm, but Cami jerked back. “Are you…you now?”
“Yes. It’s me.”
She swallowed, eyes wide, dilated pupils consuming the irises as she searched his face. “How do I know?”
“I’m a dick.”
Even through the fear, humor snapped into place, clearing some of that wariness like a crisp breeze, and she let out a low chuckle. “Okay. It’s you.”
“Are you hurt? Where’d she bite you?”
“My shoulder.”
“She was going for your neck.” Cami let him touch her now and Drake pulled her arm straight. Blood glistened against the dark fabric of her black shirt. Gingerly, he peeled it back to reveal seeping wounds in a perfect bite mark on either side of her shoulder. “Fuck.”
“Is it bad?”
“You’ll live. But you need stitches.” And antibiotics. Maybe a steroid shot. None of which he had access to.
“Let’s get you somewhere safe first.” Hoping like hell his body didn’t choose now to give out, he moved to her other side and heaved her upright. Grabbing her bag, and supporting her with his other arm, he got them moving. A little faster this time.
Most ghouls operated solo, but the rat might be going for reinforcements. Better to disappear and cover their tracks.
Another two blocks, with every sense tuned for the telltale pitter patter of a spy, and Drake spotted their hotel. He deliberately circled several more blocks, going in and out of buildings, laying a false trail, his senses tuned for a tail.
Cami, who remained disturbingly quiet, didn’t ask.
“In here.” Drake changed direction suddenly, heading for the inconspicuous door to the name of the hotel Rune had booked for them.
“A little more warning please,” she grumbled as he paused outside.
“Do you have a jacket?” he asked.
“I’m not cold.”
“The receptionist is going to question your bloody shoulder.”
“Oh. Yeah. In the bag.”
Swiftly he found it, a black utility jacket of some sort. Must be Skylar’s. He wrapped Cami up in it, watching her carefully for each wince.
Breathing hard from the effort, she dropped her forehead against his chest when they finished.
“Can you stay upright on your own?” he asked.
With visible effort, she
lifted her head. “I was enjoying the cuddle, but sure.”
Except the smile she sent him was more wobbly than it should’ve been. But he didn’t say so. She only had to pull this off for the short time it would take to check in and get to their room.
They passed into the small lobby. Newly refurbished, he guessed, based on how white and pristine everything still was in here. The hotel was decorated with a modern-meets-ocean theme.
Not exactly original.
“Nautical? Not all that creative,” Cami commented beside him, echoing his thoughts.
He turned his head to look at her, wrestling with the sudden, weird urge to smile at the woman. He really needed to get a grip.
Ignoring her, he moved to the front desk which was empty. Where was the attendant? All senses went on high alert. What if someone had discovered the corporation Rune booked this under was his? What if they were waiting to ambush—
Cami reached out and rang the bell sitting on the top of the counter, then raised sparkling eyes to his that showed her amusement. Apparently, she’d caught the way he’d tensed. “Don’t worry,” she murmured in that overly motherly voice she was well aware he hated. “I’ll protect you.”
She had the balls to reach out with her good hand and pat his chest.
“May I help you?” A sleepy, somewhat disheveled-looking woman appeared through a door into what must be an office. Her name tag indicated her name was Lucy and she was from Guatemala.
“We have reservations under Trollic Enterprises,” Cami said, adding a smile that was completely unnecessary.
The woman’s fingers flew over the keys as she accessed their booking details. “A king-sized mattress?”
Cami frowned and opened her mouth to protest, but he beat her to it. “Yes. A king.”
To give her credit, Cami managed to paste a serene smile on her lips, even if her eyes shot a protest his way. But Rune had booked it that way on purpose. Anyone looking at reservations would assume either mates were traveling together, or only one person. Not an unclaimed mate and bodyguard.
“ID?” Lucy asked.
