When he’d looked at the Little Fox’s poor, helpless face again, he’d felt something inside him snap, and the floodgates flew open to let a tide of guilt rushing in. His dragon seemed to spasm inside, roaring at him in anger. If it had been a human, he’d think it was chucking a fit.
Save her. The voice had called out. Not his dragon’s voice. Someone else’s.
Shocked, he’d almost dropped the Little Fox’s head. But at the last moment, he’d tightened his grip on her jaw. She moaned, and it was like a stab at his heart.
It had the effect of pulling him right back to his senses.
How badly was she hurt? He’d wondered then. For the first time since the start of the fight, his mind was clear enough for him to be sensible of his present actions. He’d gone overboard and lost control – that much was obvious. He’d hurt the girl, and it may have been badly he surmised, as he looked down and checked her out. She was moaning and writhing in a fair amount of pain.
He’d been relieved when he heard Damien calling out to him to stop the fight. Otherwise, he had no idea how he could’ve ended it without risking the others thinking he’d grown soft. Above all else – this was something he absolutely could not tolerate. He could not let others think of him as weak.
So, when the moment came and Ethan had asked him to heal her, he’d folded his arms over his chest and firmly refused. Ethan in return, had thrown him a withering look, but Drake had stood his ground. No amount of pleading – even from Knox – could make him budge.
In the end, Damien had agreed to do it – to use his power to neutralize the fire scorching through her blood.
The fire he’d put in there, into her system, when the searing magic in his palm had touched her flesh.
But when he’d had to watch Damien lean over Jasmine… He’d lied to himself, telling himself he didn’t care. But his inner dragon knew – and it had railed against him, thrashing inside, threatening to rip that fake stony exterior of his completely apart.
It was all he could do to knuckle down on the dragon inside him and force himself to stand there stiffly, still as a statue, not daring to move.
But he’d immediately regretted his decision the next moment, when he’d seen Damien’s lips close in over the Little Fox’s to cover her mouth completely, in a deep, long kiss. At that point, he’d wanted nothing more than to race over there and tear Damien off Jasmine’s soft lips.
His stoic facade had dropped, and it was all he could do to contain the fury swirling inside him. With fists clenched, he’d glared at the top of Damien’s head – hard enough to bore a hole in it.
But Damien hadn’t seemed to notice – too busily engrossed in the kiss.
Worst of all – his older brother had even looked like he might be enjoying it! The normally elusive, cold and aloof, over-achieving bastard, who avoided women like the plague.
What was up with him? Drake had wondered. Was his brother attracted to her?
The possibility had made his blood turn icy cold, and he’d felt his gut wrench tight. For some unfathomable reason, he didn’t want Damien to like the Little Fox.
And even more so – he didn’t want the Little Fox liking Damien back.
“What’s wrong?” Knox had asked at the time, noticing Drake was grinding his teeth. His other brother, Liam, had also thrown him a strange look, which made him suspect his emotions had been playing quite vividly across his face.
Drake could hear his own uneven breathing, and he was worried the others could pick up on it aswell. Because of this, and because he couldn’t explain himself to them without revealing his true thoughts, he’d turned on his heel, and left without a word.
Thankfully, no one had gone after him back then, Drake thought, just as he turned the steering wheel to make a right.
Pushing the memories of that day back inside the deep recesses of his mind, he forced his eyes to focus on the path straight ahead. They were approaching the familiar winding road that led up to the auction house.
Unfortunately – he couldn’t help but have this final thought – it now felt like there were some open ends with this girl – ends he felt tempted but was reluctant to explore.
He scowled, and made a silent vow to himself.
Going forward, he would avoid getting close to the Little Fox, at all costs.
CHAPTER NINE
Jasmine
“We’re here,” Drake announced, wheeling the car into the front courtyard of a large, white sandstone building that looked like it had been built in the Victorian era – complete with stained glass windows, spires, and a clocktower constructed into its middle.
Drake cut off the engine and everyone, including myself, stepped out of the car.
I was the last to scramble out, as I’d been sitting squashed up in the middle seat in the back, between Damien and Liam.
The experience had made me realize that being cramped between two tall, massive guys for a forty minute car ride, was as uncomfortable as it got inside a motor vehicle.
Besides that, the second worse thing had been the tense, chilly atmosphere during the entire drive. From what I could gather, Drake was royally pissed at having to take me along on this drive, and I could barely wait to arrive at our destination, so I could get as far away from him as possible.
I was also glad to be in the fresh, open air again, as I clambered outside.
“What is this place?” I asked, looking around me. We were in a secluded area surrounded by thickets of tall trees. Their green leaves rustled quietly in the gentle breeze blowing under the warm midday sun.
Cobblestones lined the driveway in front of the building, where we were standing in now, and many high-end luxury cars were parked in an area towards the side.
“It’s an exclusive auction house,” Knox spoke up to inform me, adding, “it’s by invite only.” He was the only one who ever seemed to bother responding to me – besides Ethan of course. But he wasn’t here right now.
To demonstrate this – the other three guys had pretty much ignored me for the entire car ride here.
A movement caught the corner of my eye, and I turned to see a young man dressed in a white shirt under a dark red vest, and black pants come towards us.
“Would you like me to park your car, Sir?” he asked, reaching us, and I realized he was the valet.
Drake nodded his head. “Be careful with it,” he rumbled, tossing the valet the set of car keys he’d fished out of his pocket. “Someone’s already put a huge dent in it today – ” he said, slanting his eyes sideways to glance at me, “I don’t want any more scratches on it.”
The valet nodded his head to reassure Drake. “Of course, Sir. Rest assured, I will be extra careful when parking your car.”
Drake acknowledged his promise with a grunt, and tucked his hands into the pocket of his pants, before turning away and striding towards the entrance of the building, without waiting for anyone.
“Hey, wait up!” Knox yelled out, and grabbing my hand without warning, he dragged me with him as he followed the direction Drake was walking in. I yelped in surprise, my feet stumbling a little, and I had to jog to keep up with Knox’s long strides.
“Slow down!” I hissed, as my feet tripped on the ground for the third time.
Knox stopped abruptly and turned around. “Oh, sorry…” he said, his gaze trailing downwards to see me bending over and rubbing my stubbed toes beneath the tops of my shoes.
Before I could respond, Damien passes us, and issues us with a warning. “Don’t dawdle,” he reproached, flashing us a stern look. I frown, feeling his words to be unfair.
Can’t he see I’m injured here?! Damn a-hole.
“Come on,” Knox said to me, tugging at my elbow gently. We climbed up the short set of steps, and they led us to a big-ass door, which looked large enough to fit an adult sized elephant. Stepping inside, we immediately entered a large corridor, and as we continued moving down the passageway, I observed the building’s interior had an old, antique feel to it. The
re was vintage wallpaper and white patterned stucco on the walls, in a style that reminded me of the famous baroque interiors.
I could see Liam and Damien further up ahead, while Drake was no where in sight. There was also another patron – a stranger holding a black walking cane, several yards ahead of us, but I barely caught a glimpse of the monocled man as Knox rushed me past him.
“Sorry, but we need to hurry, my brave Little Lionheart,” Knox apologized in a soft voice, as I began jogging to try and keep up with his pace.
“Little Lionheart?” I asked, gazing with confusion at the side of his profile, wondering if I’d misheard. “What do you mean by that?”
Knox’s eyes twinkled mischievously as he turned to glance at me. “Well, you were bold enough to try and face off mano a mano with a dragon. Not many people would have the guts to do that.”
I grimaced, adopting a tone of disdain. “No. What you mean is, not many people are stupid enough to do something like that.”
Knox chuckled softly, and hearing the sound brought a warm feeling to spread through my limbs. I don’t know why, but being around Knox put me at ease – which was weird because I hardly knew the guy. Though not as tall, broad shouldered, and muscular as Drake and Damien, he was still powerfully built, with leaner muscles like Liam.
A part of me also suspected, without having the need for him to demonstrate it, his ability to wield magic was likely to be very potent – just like Ethan and his other dragon shifting comrades.
Having never encountered a dragon shifter before, I was slowly realizing it involved more than just the ability to transform into a scaly, reptilian lizard with wings. My thoughts followed on to wonder what they all looked like when they shifted…
Knox lifted his hand up towards my face, but I didn’t notice since I was still absorbed in my own thoughts – that is, until I felt his finger flick lightly against my forehead in an affectionate manner, like I was some small misbehaving child.
“Not stupid. Brave.” He corrected.
I flinched, rubbing the spot where he’d flicked me – more an automatic response than because it hurt. At the same time, my cheeks flushed a little red at his compliment, and I did something I usually didn’t do. I stuck my tongue out at him.
Knox’s lips cracked into a wide grin, revealing a perfect row of pearly white teeth. So, perhaps the guy had been a little bit annoying at the beginning when he’d gotten all up in my personal space, but his presence was growing on me. For now, it seemed like I might even be able to count on him as an ally – and I scarcely dared to hope – perhaps eventually even a friend.
The sound of a gavel loudly banging down interrupted my current train of thought, and I looked forward to find we were nearing a large doorway connecting to the corridor we were in, on the side to our left.
“Come on, let’s get inside,” Knox said, scooting me through the entrance.
The male auctioneer’s reedy voice drifted to my ears before I even rounded the corner and entered the room. It echoed inside the spacious hall as he rattled on to the audience, describing the next item up for sale and a brief history of its origins.
His accent caught my attention from the start, reminding me of those posh English butlers I often saw in movies, and when he came into sight, I was astounded by the uncanny resemblance – like many of those butlers, he too sported a short, dark black moustache!
Knox was right behind me, and he quickly guided me down the wide aisleway to one of the rows of seats near the back. Damien and Liam were already seated next to one another, in whispered conversation with their heads bent low.
“Go on,” Knox instructed, shooing me into the same row of seats as them with a wave of his hands, and I shuffled along until I stopped at the seat right next to Damien.
Sparing me a brief sideways glance as he looked up, I saw him frown, before he returned wordlessly to the conversation he was having with Liam, ignoring my presence altogether.
That suited me fine. I didn’t want to speak to him anyway.
“Let’s swap seats,” I turned to say to Knox, unable to stop myself from feeling awkward and unwanted, despite my best efforts to block out Damien’s rejection.
Knox shrugged, nonplussed, and I took a step forward about to trade spots with him, when I was stopped in my tracks by a hand suddenly grabbing my forearm, lightly yanking me back.
I jerked back a small step, but the force of the tug wasn’t strong enough to make me lose my footing. Before I’d fully turned around to see who was holding onto my arm, I heard Damien’s voice speak up.
“Sit down,” he commanded in an authoritative tone.
I was fully facing him now, and I could clearly see in fact it was his hand that was wrapped firmly around my forearm, just above my wrist.
Damien’s flinty eyes stared back at me, his mouth set in a firm line as he watched me with a penetrating look that I was certain was checking for any sign or indication I was planning to disobey.
Being this up close, I was able to notice the middle of his irises were a beautiful arctic blue, the color gradating into a mesmerizing ocean green moving towards the onyx black of his pupils. The tinge of gray edging them at the moment made him look stormy. Or maybe that had to do more with his furrowed brow.
He looked so serious, but damn…was he sexy. The thought flittered across my mind unintentionally, and before I knew it, my eyes were trailing down to his soft, full lips. My fingers moved up unconsciously to feather my own, feeling them strangely tingle.
“You know, if you intend to keep staring this intently at my face, you should do us both a favor and take a photograph,” he taunted.
My eyes snapped up and I found myself meeting Damien’s patronizing gaze.
Of course my first reaction was to deny it. “I wasn’t staring,” I refuted, my face flushing from the embarrassment of being called out.
Despite the strong urge to continue justifying myself I stopped myself from saying anything more, afraid to give him further ammunition to fire back at me with, and instead whipped around to face the front.
By this time, I had completely forgotten I’d been mid-way through trading seats with Knox, and was busily pretending to be engrossed in what was happening up on the stage at the front.
“You okay?” Knox bent his head down towards me, whispering into my ear from behind his hand. “Wanna swap places?”
I shook my head to indicate a ‘no’, and I felt the weight of Damien’s gaze graze the side of my profile. I attempted to hold back the prickling sensation of my hairs standing on end at the back my neck, but it was no use. The man had this strange effect on me that I couldn’t shake off. I was like a moth being drawn to a flame; where Damien was the deadly, yet attractive luminous light – and flying close presented the very real danger of being burned alive.
“Is the scroll up yet?” Knox asked Damien and Liam from over my head.
“Not yet,” Liam replied, looking tense. “Where the hell is Drake? That dumbass should be here too.”
“I’m right here, you little grunt,” Drake snorted, smacking the back of Liam’s head as he suddenly appeared in the row behind us.
“Oww!” Liam cried out, rubbing the spot on his skull where it smarted, while turning around to throw Drake an angry, dark look. “Where have you been you oversized buffoon.”
“Searching for a vending machine,” Drake replied, plonking down in the seat directly behind Damien.
Drake produced a bag of chips, and tore it open. Hungry, Liam snatched at the packet, but Drake batted his hand away.
“Get your own food,” he growled.
So, obviously, aside from being a number one jackass, Drake was also not good at sharing.
“Are you even supposed to have that in here?” I asked him pointedly, folding my arms, and indicating with a gesture of my chin to the ‘no food, no drink’ policy stuck on the walls just several feet from us.
Drake gave me a ‘I don’t give two fucks’ look, and grabbed a handful of c
hips out of the packet. My stomach growled without my permission as I watched him stuff them into his mouth, and he wiped the salt off his lips to reveal a condescending smirk.
I immediately responded by spinning back around to face the front, and letting my body sink down low into my seat, too mortified to say anything else, and pissed that my stomach would betray me at such a crucial moment.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Knox reaching an arm over my shoulder and behind me, and managed to steal a handful of chips somehow. Drake for some reason didn’t complain about this loss of chips, which made me think he’d refused to give Liam any deliberately, with the purpose of pissing him off.
“Here,” Knox said offering the chips to me in his big hand. I stared down at the small pile, then into Knox’s gorgeous hazel, honey colored eyes, too proud and too embarrassed to take any.
My stomach growled again, and then I was too hungry to give a crap about my image any longer. “Thanks,” I mumbled, shamelessly grabbing a generous portion from the pile and shoving them straight into my mouth. I returned to face the front again.
I heard Drake snorting behind me, but I didn’t give a shit as my mouth was too busy enjoying itself as my teeth crunched down on crisp, salty potato chips. God – did it taste divine.
Meanwhile, there was something happening up on the stage. I saw a staff member wheeling a cart out, and on it were several large, light blue gemstones that seemed to sparkle with some sort of iridescent magic inside them.
“The next item is a set of four aura cleansing gems,” the auctioneer announced, looking around at the faces in the room. “These precious stones can clear a room of any magical residue. Why don’t we start bidding at twenty-thousand dollars…” I let his voice fall into the background as I eyed the gemstones next to him intently.
More than merely curious, I’d never seen this type of magical item before, and I wondered where it’d come from.
The bidding was now in full swing, and the gemstones seemed to be garnering a lot of interest. I watched as individuals raised their paddles, one after the other, successively bidding higher and higher. The excitement and energy in the atmosphere began to build to a loud rustle, as the bids came in quicker and faster.
Dragon Lords Blood Contract Page 8
