Mayah narrowed her eyes. “Tristan, why don’t you see what he’s got under those wrappings, while I stay here, poised to rip him apart if he tries anything?”
Zakerek sighed. “I’m not doing anything. Why does everyone always think I’m up to something nefarious?”
“Because you usually are.”
Tristan manifested his wolf claws and tore away part of the wrapping around the object. He started laughing.
Mayah frowned. “What is it?”
Tristan shook his head, still laughing. “It’s a pool table. A nice one, by the looks of it.” He frowned at Zakerek. “An expensive one.”
Zakerek shrugged. “Emon never said I couldn’t have a pool table.”
Mayah sighed. “Where the hell are you going to put it? It’s huge.”
“My man cave.” Zakerek said that like it should be obvious.
Tristan pulled the wrappings back even further, exposing a large flat box. “That’s gonna be a tricked-out man cave,” he said. “He’s got a 60-inch flatscreen TV on here too.”
Mayah shook her head. “So you’re going to sit all alone in your man cave, watching porn on the big screen, and brooding in between solitary pool games?”
Zakerek said, “Brooding is a time-honored dragon pastime. Are you going to tell Emon or not?”
“I haven’t decided,” Mayah said. “I have other things on my mind.”
Zakerek studied her suspiciously. “So can I still have the pool table?”
Mayah blew out a sigh. “Go ahead,” she said, waving her hand towards the castle. “But if Emon burns it to ashes when he gets the bill, don’t blame me.”
She and Tristan watched as Zakerek continued on his way up to the castle, the pool table floating along in front of him. He must be using a levitation spell.
Tristan was still laughing. “He’s a fucking asshole, but the dude has chutzpah, I’ll give him that,” he said. “He kind of reminds me of Xander. Hell, maybe I’ll go down to his man cave and shoot pool with him sometime. If I can find it.”
Mayah stared after Zakerek. “Maybe you should. I think he’s lonely.” The idea of Zakerek alone in his man cave with all his toys made her a little sad. “But in the meantime, I think I need to get some sleep. We have research to do tomorrow.”
Tristan came up behind her and slid his arms around her waist. “I guess you’re really tired,” he said. “You probably want to go to sleep right away.”
She leaned back against him. “Well, maybe not right away…”
Chapter 14
Their research was pretty much a bust, even after Mayah found a spell that would allow Tristan to read Draken.
There was nothing to show that any Al-Maddeiri dragons besides Kira, Emon and Mayah had survived the slaughter of their clan.
Mayah put a call through to Kira on the communication device. Emon had given their sister one that worked between dimensions, so they could talk whenever they wanted to.
She told Kira everything that had happened, and how they’d hit a dead end in their research. “I remembered you told me that when you were looking for us, Ashley Silver went with you through the spirit world to try to reach us.”
Ashley was a Draken princess of the House of Akkabi—and also a country singer, currently on tour with her band of raven shifters. She was mated to a Silverlake wolf, Israel Jonas.
Mayah went on, “I was hoping you would do that with me. You know. Go with me. And see if we can find my ghosts.”
She always felt a little awkward talking to Kira. They hadn’t grown up together—Mayah and Emon had been taken by Ragnor when their clan was destroyed, and Kira had been rescued by Markus.
Mayah and Emon had thought she was dead, along with their parents, until she showed up over a year ago to rescue them from Ragnor. All flashing knives and unbound magic, with Flynn at her side—the most legendary shifter on Earth. And an army to back them up.
She also didn’t have a super-approachable personality, even though she tried to be nice.
Kira said, “Do you think they’re on Earth? Or in the Dragonlands?”
Mayah had been thinking about that. “I think they’re in different places? But the ones I see the most…” She closed her eyes, calling up the image of the white-tiled hallway. “It looks like an Earth building. Plain tiled walls and floor. Not like something Draken would build.”
Kira nodded. “Then we should do it here—it will be easier to hone in on the location if we’re in the same world. Bad Blood territory is warded, so it should probably be safe enough. I’ll run it by Flynn and get back to you.”
Flynn was the alpha of the crew, and the territory magic was keyed to him. He had the last word on what did and didn’t happen there.
But Kira seemed pretty sure he would say it was okay.
Relief started to seep through Mayah. Kira would help her. And maybe if she rescued some of her “ghosts,” they’d stop haunting her—and Tristan could stop hurting himself trying to fix her.
Flynn agreed to let Mayah and Tristan come and do their spirit traveling in his territory, although Mayah had the feeling he’d taken some convincing. He was famous for his paranoia, though, so that wasn’t really a surprise.
They fixed the date for the following Sunday, when the whole crew could be there. “They’re dying to see Tristan,” Kira told Mayah during her return call. “He hasn’t been back here since Tank’s daughter was born. Apparently, we’re throwing a barbecue.”
They made their plans and Mayah ended the call. It would be good for Tristan to hang out with the crew. He was still getting headaches, and he still had periods of deep moodiness. Seeing his friends would help. Even though they slept together every night, she still sensed he was holding back.
She needed to do something about that before they went on their mission. Because traveling through the spirit world would be taxing enough, without him battling his emotions and their growing bond the whole time.
She had to show him she was in this for the long haul.
Tristan was intrigued when Mayah told him she had a surprise for him. Especially since she’d seemed almost shy when she said it.
Mayah was many things, but ‘shy’ was not one of them.
She led him deep down into the depths of the castle, refusing to tell him where she was going. They went past the entrance to the dungeons and through a dusty storage area. Finally, at the back of the wine cellar, she stopped in front of what looked like a blank wall.
“Okay,” she said, taking a deep breath. “Here it is.”
Tristan said, “You wanted to show me the wine cellar?”
“Don’t be a dick,” she said. “This is important to me. Only, I haven’t been here in a while. And I don’t know what state it’s in. And I did some of it when I was only little. So don’t judge.”
Tristan suddenly realized where they were.
And what it meant.
Mayah took another deep breath and pressed a stone in the wall, murmuring a few words in Draken. A magical symbol glowed, and then part of the wall slid open.
It was a secret room, and he knew what was in it.
Her hoard. She was showing him her hoard. One of the biggest acts of trust a dragon could bestow.
The room was dark, with a layer of dust on the floor. Tristan frowned. It looked empty. Maybe he’d been wrong about what this was.
Mayah whispered another spell, and the dust cleared. Light globes in the corners went on.
And Tristan saw. The room didn’t contain the hoard. The room was the hoard.
The whole room was inlaid in colored stone, glittering with jewel-like colors. Together it all made a picture, like an art mosaic, but so detailed it was had to be magical.
In the middle of the floor was an aerial view of a castle. Surrounding it were fields and woods, rivers and farms and villages, spreading to the walls. Around the perimeter of the room were mountains, green in the near view, and then blue and purple as they faded into the distance.
&nbs
p; On one side of the room was a sunrise, the colors moving to blue and gold across the ceiling as they reached the middle of the room, then to sunset and finally to night on the far side, with stars and galaxies of tiny glittering gemstones.
Tristan was speechless. “Holy fuck,” he said, turning slowly to take it all in. “It’s the domain. Your home.”
She nodded. “I collected the stones myself,” she said. “And I’d come down here when Ragnor didn’t know, and sing them into the walls.” She bit her lip. “Do you like it?”
“Are you kidding?” he asked. “I’m stunned. It’s amazing. You took a piece of your prison, and you made it into something incredibly beautiful.”
He turned to face her. “And you showed it to me.” He cupped her face, his chest tight with emotion. “I can’t even—” He had to clear his throat. “You have no idea what this means to me.”
He would treasure this moment forever, keep it in his heart with his other memories of her. Making love. Laughing together. Flying.
He kissed her gently, tenderly.
Then, remembering what she’d said on the roof, he added, “And I don’t believe for a second your dragon didn’t want this. Any dragon would be honored to have this hoard.”
And then she started to sing.
The sound came out of Mayah’s mouth, but it was definitely her dragon’s voice. She sang to the stones, and they sang back in a song so beautiful it brought tears to Tristan’s eyes.
Gradually, a holographic image rose from the stones, filling the room. The castle grew and turned three-dimensional, and so did the forests. The rivers flowed, and tiny sheep moved in the pastures.
A white wolf ran across the fields towards the castle, and a black dragon flew above him.
And then the song ended and the image receded, the stones shining in their places.
For a moment they were both silent, the song still vibrating between them.
Then Mayah let out a deep sigh, her face lit with pride and pleasure. “She does like it,” she whispered.
Tristan put his arms around her, holding her close. “So now you have two hoards,” he said. “Hers and yours. And once we rescue the ghosts, maybe she won’t need hers anymore.”
“And we will,” Tristan promised her. “We’ll all do it together.”
Chapter 15
On Sunday afternoon Kira met them at the Earth end of the portal—a secluded shack at the edge of Bad Blood territory—and drove them back to the main compound in a battered pickup truck.
The ride was mostly silent. Tristan was in one of his brooding moods, and Mayah was once more having Kira-induced awkwardness.
Her older sister was just so… everything. Tall. Beautiful. Confident. Deadly. She’d done all kinds of badass things that she didn’t really talk about—mercenary jobs, hostage rescue. Possibly even assassinations.
While Mayah sat in her castle, haunted by ghosts, eating Silverlake Bakery cupcakes and getting fat.
Finally she said, “Thanks for helping us with this. I—we—really appreciate it.”
Kira gave a one-shouldered shrug. “To be honest, Flynn’s not totally in favor of it. He doesn’t like messing around with the spirit world. But he’s willing to give it a shot.”
She gave Tristan a sidelong look. “After the long-lost brother barbecue.”
“Excuse me?” Tristan said. “The what?”
Kira gave a snort of laughter. “You know how they get when you show up. To them, you’re a Bad Blood, even if you left before they pledged as a crew. They’ve got the beer on ice and the grill fired up. Jaz and Brody even took off from the restaurant tonight to see you.”
“They did?” Tristan sounded surprised. Doofus. His old crew adored him.
He also still looked broody, and a little worried. Mayah squeezed his thigh. It was good for him to be around people who loved him. Other than her.
Kira caught the look on Tristan’s face, and added, “Besides, if we’re going to go mind-traveling, better to do it later tonight when it’s quiet.”
Tristan nodded.
They pulled into the compound, bouncing over the rutted ground, and edged in among a bunch of other vehicles parked every which way.
Mayah looked around with interest. She liked the Bad Blood Crew. She hadn’t seen much of them because she’d been too messed up in the head to go visiting. But they were her kind of people—disorganized and opposed to rules.
The main compound was a large clearing surrounded by woods. In the center was a big two-story cabin, with a soaring roof, a wraparound porch, and acres of windows. There were a few utility sheds dotted around the perimeter, and a number of paths led through the trees to more cabins and trailers.
Smoke was already rising from the industrial-sized grill in the sunken barbecue area. It was surrounded by a waist-high retaining wall and held a picnic table, a scattering of chairs and loungers, and a full outdoor kitchen.
At one side of the clearing was a huge spreading oak tree, with an enormous super-cool three-story tree house. Mayah knew that was where Xander lived—the panther—with his mate Jenny and their son Brandon.
As soon as they pulled in, the crew clustered around. Tank was in front—a giant of a man cradling a baby in one arm, so tiny next to his bulk that she looked like a doll.
His face split into a grin the moment he saw Tristan. Tristan’s face relaxed, and he grinned back.
“Hey, Papa Bear,” he said, climbing out of the truck and clapping Tank on the shoulder. “Man, look at Arden! She’s huge! How old is she now?”
“Seven months, two weeks and three days.” Arden grabbed Tank’s ear, and he beamed down at her. It slayed Mayah, seeing that enormous man so gaga over his little girl.
The rest of the crew descended on them, hugging Tristan, or crowding close to touch him in the way animal shifters liked to do with the people they cared about.
They greeted Mayah too, doing their best to make her feel welcome, but most of the attention was on Tristan. Mayah didn’t begrudge him that, but it made her feel a bit wistful. Even if the crew’s bond with him was caused by shared suffering that she wouldn’t wish on anyone, she still envied it.
She felt a touch on her arm, and turned to see Lissa, Tank’s mate. “They’re all going to be hugging and yakking for a few minutes,” she said. “Come on over to the firepit. We’ll get us some beers and talk about them behind their backs.”
Mayah followed her across the clearing, where two women were sitting on a quilt spread on the lawn near the top of the retaining wall, two identical babies rolling around between them. One seemed to be trying to bite his brother’s toes off, hampered only by the fact that he had very few teeth yet.
“You remember Caitlyn and Jenny, right?” Caitlyn, a snowy owl shifter, had honey-brown hair and round amber eyes. Jenny had dark curly hair and a thin scar on one cheek. She was also very pregnant.
They exchanged hello’s, and then Lissa got them beers from the cooler and they kicked back on two of the loungers near the fire pit. Lissa looked over at the rest of her crew, still standing by the pickup truck, all talking at once. Her face softened when she looked at Tank, holding his utterly girly, pink-beribboned daughter.
“Tank misses Tristan,” she said. “It meant a lot to him that Tristan came here when Arden was born.”
“I didn’t know him then,” Mayah said, “but I think it meant a lot to him too.”
Lissa grinned. “You should have seen them. Tank was like, glued to the side of the bed the whole time I was in labor, holding my hand and trying to pretend he wasn’t freaking out, and Tristan and Flynn sat right behind him all night, drinking whiskey and slipping it to Tank when they thought I wasn’t looking.”
She took a swig of beer. “I wasn’t about to object. God knows he needed it. He was a wreck.”
Mayah could totally picture it. “Sometimes I think Tristan should co
me back here,” she said. “He always seems happier when he’s around the Bad Bloods. He doesn’t like to admit it, but he’s lonely.”
“Even with you around?” Lissa asked, raising her eyebrows.
“What?” Mayah hadn’t expected that. She and Tristan hadn’t told Kira about their whatever-it-was. It was too new.
Lissa shrugged. “You have that vibe between you. You know. The boinking vibe.” She paused. “Are you mates?”
Mayah looked over at Tristan, who was laughing at something Xander said. “I don’t know.”
Lissa nodded sympathetically. “Meaning, you do know, but you guys haven’t committed yet. Probably because Tristan is being dense. Like all Bad Blood men.”
Mayah laughed. “I guess.” Then she shrugged, picking at her beer bottle. “I just—sometimes I don’t think I’m enough for him. He needs someone who understands his past, but he doesn’t want to share it with me.”
Lissa rolled her eyes. “Tell me about it. Tank was the same. It was so hard to get him to talk about his former mate, let alone all the bad shit that happened to him after she died. He wanted to forget his past, but then, he was stuck in it at the same time.”
“Are we leading parallel lives?” Mayah asked. “Because it’s like you read my diary. Which I don’t have. But if I did, that would be in it. What did you do?”
“Tried to help him carry some of it,” Lissa said. “As much as he could share. And tried to build new memories with him, so the others would gradually fade. And I had his baby.”
She winked at Mayah. “You know what Tank’s like—a badass teddy bear. He’s totally in love with Arden. If it wasn’t for the wild bear sex we have when she’s sleeping, I’d think he’d forgotten all about me.”
But he hadn’t. Mayah could see the way his gaze found Lissa every few minutes, lingering on her.
Lissa said, “It’s hard sometimes—for both of us—to leave our pasts behind. And it takes time. But it’s worth it.”
Eventually the crew meandered over towards the fire pit, and the party started.
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