by Riley Storm
Then, he felt its presence in his mind. Digging through his memories.
“Those are mine,” he snarled as it latched onto the most prominent, recent one.
The woman at the bar.
The thing twisted its head as if surprised, then made to withdraw. Pietro made sure that’s what it did by kicking it full in the stomach, launching it across the room. The creature twisted gracefully midair, landing on its feet, and then raced from the room before the dragons could recover themselves.
There was a shout of surprise from outside the cavern as the dragons on their way down encountered the creatures, but despite the boom of a storm dragon blasting away, Trent knew they hadn’t succeeded in stopping them. They were too fast. Too skilled.
His mind replayed the memory of the creature that had stood over him. A line on its cheek had stuck out, and Pietro realized with a start that it was the same one he’d hit. The line was all that was left of the wound he’d opened less than a dozen seconds earlier. It had already been nearly healed.
“Well, that’s just great,” he muttered. “What the hell were those things?”
“Those,” Gunnar said as he picked himself up, an arm bent the wrong way from where he’d slammed into the wall. “Were vampires.”
“Worse,” another voice muttered as it entered the room.
Pietro turned to see Kladd, one of his clanmates and a member of the Atrox strike team, enter along with the remaining dragons from the top of the mine shaft.
“Those were vampire Hunters,” Kladd said heavily. “Their elite.”
“Meaning what?” Pietro asked, worried about the way the thing had invaded his memories.
“Meaning we need to find them and kill them,” Kladd said quietly. “Before they multiply.”
Chapter Three
Claire
“You just going to sit there and make eyes all night?”
Claire looked up to see the bartender giving her an amused smile.
“Is it that obvious?” she asked, shaking herself and taking another sip of her drink.
It took a forceful effort of will for Claire to swing herself back around to stare at the wall behind the bar instead of the veritable buffet of man meat behind her.
“Just a bit,” the woman behind the bar said, sliding a fresh drink across to her. “On the house.”
“You don’t—” Claire started to say but was hushed by a narrowing of eyebrows. “Thanks.”
“So which one catches your eye?” the bartender asked, grabbing a cloth and wiping down the bar, as much to keep herself occupied as to clean it. The place looked immaculate to Claire.
“Ha. Muscle boys with tattoos and piercings is what got me into this mess in the first place. They’re all gorgeous, but I am not pining after one. Not tonight.”
Not while I’m still dealing with the last one, she added mentally, not wanting to burden the friendly bartender with her personal issues.
“You need help?” the bartender asked, looking at her sharply.
Claire waved the concerned look off. “Just don’t let me go home with any of them. Especially any that have tattoos. I’m fine now, but a few more of these…” she said, looking down at her drink.
“Of course,” the bartender said. “Kal will make sure you head home fine. Alone.”
A shadow detached itself from the wall to her right, a mammoth pile of muscles, just like most of the other men in the bar.
“He’s big,” Claire admitted. “But so are they.”
Her comment spurred a realization, and she slowly turned to run her eyes over the men inside the bar. Claire had been to the Dragon’s Eye Pub numerous times on her visits home to see her best friend Lilly or her parents, but she’d never noticed just how musclebound most of its male occupants were.
“Is this a gay bar?” she asked abruptly. “Am I just realizing that now? They’re all so jacked.”
The woman behind the bar snorted laughter at the surprised look on Kal’s face.
“No. I mean, some of them are, sure. I don’t really make it my business to pry as long as people pay their tabs. But no, the muscles bit is part of their DNA. Being a dragon has its perks.”
Claire’s eyebrows shot up. “Dragons?” she said.
“Yeah. Apparently, that means you get to be born strong and sexy.”
The mound of muscles next to the bar growled.
The bartender laughed. “You have nothing to worry about, mister, relax.”
Claire glanced at the two of them in surprise. She’d not realized they were an item, but the comment and the playful banter could only be interpreted one way.
“Yeah, he’s mine,” the woman said, sticking out a hand. “Anne Aterna. That lump is Kal, as you know.”
“Claire,” she said, shaking the hand. “So you’re telling me they’re all dragons?”
Anne shrugged. “Most of ‘em, yeah.”
The name of the bar suddenly made a lot more sense. “Is this like, a dragon hangout then? Have I been coming to your motorcycle clubhouse unknowingly?”
Kal growled something, but Anne waved him off.
“She’s trustworthy,” Anne said in defense, looking at Claire. “And as long as you don’t go telling anyone, then yes, this is a dragon hangout.”
“How can you tell she’s trustworthy?” Kal complained. “You don’t know her.”
“Because I have woman-sense,” Anne countered. “It’s the best sense. You’d know if you had it, but you don’t.”
Kal sighed, rolling his eyes, and went back to leaning against the wall as the two women laughed lightly at his expense.
“So, Claire. Boys with muscles and tattoos got you down?”
“You could say that,” Claire said. “A dilemma. No good choices either way.”
Anne nodded thoughtfully. “Been there, understand that for sure. If you wanna talk, I’m a good listener.”
Claire leaned forward, hunching over her drink, blocking out the rest of the people in the bar.
“It’s difficult,” she said at last.
“Bad boys always are,” Anne said in an understanding tone. “Trust me, I know. It wasn’t until this one here that I was able to get rid of him.”
Claire glanced over to see Kal looking pleased with himself. She frowned. “How bad was it?”
Anne swabbed at a non-existent spot on the bar. “I celebrated my son’s tenth birthday hiding out in a shack in the middle of nowhere after moving more times than you can count in a two-year span to get away from my ex. I started on the east coast; now I’m here. He didn’t give up. I was at my wits’ end, and it was simply luck that Kal here was willing to intervene and show him the error of his ways.”
“It was fate,” Kal muttered. “Not luck.”
“Whatever,” Anne said with a grateful smile. “What matters is we celebrated Liam’s eleventh birthday just last month with a bunch of his new friends, and he finally had a real birthday party.”
“Sounds wonderful,” Claire said. “I’d be okay with having my own personal dragon protector, that’s for sure.”
“Take your pick from the litter,” Anne said. “Maybe one of them is your Kal, you never know.”
Claire smiled, glancing over her right shoulder. “I’ve got enough guy troubles right now. I’m not really interested in trying to find any more. Besides, the last time I was here, some guy tried to hit on me, and it was just painful how nice he was. Too nice for me, I think. I’m not ready for that.”
A vision of a tall male with shaven head, blue-green eyes that stood out even in the lowest light, and a smile that screamed ‘good person’ entered her head. He’d been cute but just too nice. Claire needed more attitude from her man.
Do I? That’s what got me into trouble in the first place.
She snorted and took a long drink, feeling the buzz start to spread through her system.
Someone thumped into a chair several spots down the bar on her left as she set the glass down.
Claire turned
to see who the newcomer was, and her mouth dropped open in shock.
“You?” she gasped, staring at a tall, muscular male with a shaven head and blue-green eyes that were all but glittering as they fixed on her.
The man seemed pleased as could be to see her as he flashed her a brilliant smile.
Claire heard Anne cough from behind the bar.
“You two met before?” she asked dryly a moment later.
Chapter Four
Pietro
Sometimes, Pietro knew, Fate worked in mysterious ways. She was a fickle lady, sure, but sometimes she knew just what was necessary.
After the Vampire Hunter had read his memory and latched on to the image of this woman, he’d known he would have to track her down. All he had, however, was the image of her and a faint memory of her scent, picked up for a bare second in the crowded bar the first time he’d met her.
“We met once before,” he said to answer Anne, though his eyes stayed locked on the flame-haired beauty two seats down the bar.
“Claire?” Anne asked.
Pietro held back a frown at the confirmation-seeking tone of Anne’s voice. What was that all about? Why was Anne seeing if things were okay? She knew him, he’d been at the Dragon’s Eye many times before now, without ever causing trouble. What had changed?
So concerned was he over the sudden worry that he’d done something wrong, that it was several more seconds before he realized that Anne had let something slip unintentionally.
Her name is Claire.
The first time they had met, Pietro had been denied such knowledge. Denied that and a whole lot more, he thought glumly, trying not to relive that embarrassing shutdown.
“He’s telling the truth,” Claire said with a flash of brown eyes tinged with amber as she reached over to grab her drink, taking a sip while she eyed him over the lip of it.
Anne looked between the two of them, then shrugged and stood up straight. A call from a table nearby for another round pulled her attention away. Pietro saw Kal lean back into the corner, his eyes the only thing visible in the shadows created by the thick square-edged floor-to-ceiling pillar at the far right side of the bar.
Leaving just him and Claire alone with but two seats separating them.
What do I do now?
Pietro knew he had to make a good impression. He needed Claire to talk to him this time. To give him her attention, so that he could figure out a way to protect her. To keep her safe from the creatures that had come through the Gate.
He could always tell her the truth of course. Simply explain what he was and what had happened, and that she was in danger being out alone at night.
Pietro hesitated. Although the existence of his kind was now public knowledge, he was still stuck in the old mindset of not revealing who or what he was to strangers. The world was slowly coming to accept this new reality, the ever-growing tent cities outside of Five Peaks giving testament to the clamor for more of his kind to be seen on a regular basis.
That publicity and attention was driving many of the dragons into anonymity. Hiding who they were. Some were even leaving Five Peaks for other small mountain towns, desperate to escape what they feared was the inevitable inability to walk down the street without being noticed.
He couldn’t blame any of them. It was that lack of desire for the spotlight that kept Pietro from revealing what he was to Claire. Besides, he realized, he wanted her to talk to him because of who he was, not what he was.
“I’m Pietro,” he said, sticking out a hand to introduce himself.
Claire glanced at his hand then at her drink. To avoid being rude, she took his hand and shook it, then dropped it and immediately went back to her drink.
“How are you doing today, Claire?” he asked, knowing it sounded lame but having precisely zero idea of what else to say.
She looked at him, her golden-brown gaze holding him with steady regard for a double handful of seconds. “Hey, Pietro, listen. I don’t mean this rudely, but I’m really not interested. Didn’t we try this last time, and it didn’t work?”
Pietro’s cheeks burned. A rumble of laughter from the corner caught his ear and he shot a glare at Kal, who was conveniently looking out over the bar, though he made no effort to hide the snicker of laughter.
Feeling embarrassed but also emboldened, he pushed on. “So, you do remember me?” he said casually. “I made that much of an impression, did I?”
Claire’s jaw dropped open, and even Kal shot him a glance at the save.
A laugh escaped Claire’s lips, a light, happy thing that hung in the air for a few seconds. The sound made Pietro’s heart flutter, causing him much consternation as he tried to figure out what the heck that meant.
“Anyone who bombed that badly makes a good impression when they crash,” she pointed out, her smile taking the edge off her words before she took another sip.
“How about a do-over then?” he suggested with a shrug, as if he didn’t care what she said, though inside he was desperately hoping she would agree.
“A what?” she said, blinking.
“A do-over. Start fresh, without that traumatic memory hanging over either of us.” Pietro wasn’t sure where the confidence was coming from, because he normally wasn’t so smooth or—in his mind—funny.
With Claire though, it just seemed to come naturally.
“A do-over,” Claire repeated thoughtfully into her drink before finishing it off with a gulp.
For a moment, Pietro thought he’d won her over and she was going to give him a second chance, but once she swallowed, he noticed she was shaking her head.
“Sorry, Pietro,” she said, meeting his eyes. “Now’s not really a good time.”
Pietro was hit hard by the troubled look on her face. Something was bothering Claire. Her eyes were clouded over with worry, and now, for the first time, he saw the concern etched into the corners of them as well. She wasn’t here drinking for fun. She was here to escape something, and he’d just come barging in, trying to intrude on her private time.
Real smooth, genius. Real smooth.
“I’m sorry,” he said quietly, fighting down the sudden urge from his dragon to go riding to her defense. “I didn’t realize…”
Now was not the time to act like her knight in shining armor. Claire had no idea who he was, and he had to keep his priorities straight. She was in danger because of him, and he needed to do whatever he could to keep her around and safe. There wasn’t a much better place to be when being hunted by vampires than in a bar surrounded by dragons.
Pietro needed her to stay here while the others were out hunting, tracking the killers down before they could wreak untold havoc on the humans of Five Peaks.
There was no doubt in Pietro’s mind as to what the vampires were going to do. Just as the vampire had read his mind, so too had he gotten a glimpse into its. They were here for a very specific reason: to hurt the dragons. To hurt them badly. One way to do that would be to hurt the humans that the dragons existed to protect.
Claire’s expression softened. Perhaps she’d sensed the type of thoughts he was having, or perhaps she just changed her mind. Whatever it was, he could tell in a heartbeat that things were different.
“What the hell,” she said more to herself than anyone else. “Have a seat.”
She glanced down at the chair next to her in invitation. Trying not to appear too anxious, Pietro slid from his seat and went to sit next to Claire. He didn’t want to scare her away. Not now, not when it seemed he might have salvaged the situation after all.
“We can talk,” Claire said politely. “But nothing more, okay? Don’t try anything. I’m not interested right now, and trust me, you really don’t want anything to do with this.”
Pietro nodded. “Not to worry. If our past history is any indication, I’m only going to make things worse with us, not better.”
For the second time that night Claire laughed, but while it started off amused, by the end it had faded into a bitterness that caug
ht Pietro by surprise. That was amplified when she lowered her head and he saw the blankness growing on her face.
There was a moment where it seemed like she was about to recover and settle in and keep talking with him and all would be okay. Then, as her eyes dragged past him, it all seemed to crumble. By the time he glanced over his shoulder, whatever it was she’d seen, if anything, was gone, and Claire was already getting out of her seat.
“I’m sorry Pietro,” she said, shaking her head, long red hair bouncing wildly with the movement. “I’m sorry. I need to go now. I can’t do this.”
Claire hurried out of the door, shoulders hunched.
Staring at her suddenly vacated seat, Pietro saw the shadows move in his peripheral vision. Looking up, he saw Kal fixing him with a look and then glancing past Pietro to where Claire had departed.
Pietro shook his head in response to the unspoken question of why she’d left so suddenly.
“What did I do wrong this time?” he asked to nobody in particular.
Kal just grunted.
Chapter Five
Claire
She pushed out the front door, looking around wildly.
“Shit, shit, shit,” she hissed to herself, pulling her shirt tighter around her and hurrying for home.
Where the hell did he go?
The streets were empty of the short, wiry little man that she’d seen looking in the window. A man that Claire knew well from her time with Pete. Although Jones wasn’t as vicious as her ex-boyfriend, he was a nasty little creep, the perfect person for the job that Pete had clearly assigned him.
I should have known I was going to be followed. Idiot. That’s just like Pete, not trusting me if I’m out of his sight for more than a second!
Her steps took her down the street and around the corner toward the park near the center of town. From there, she took the residential streets that were just on the outskirts of the commercial heart of Five Peaks.
Claire’s parents had done well for themselves in the small town of her birth, and they lived in an area that showed it. The big, old, whitewashed slatted house with its picket fence and rear garage wasn’t huge, but it was more than big enough. It also bespoke of age, and her father had kept it in top shape. He wasn’t a hands-on man himself, but he believed in keeping up appearances and did not hesitate to pay for proper maintenance.
