by A. C. Arthur
Theo continued, “He’s actually a lord. Do you know what that is?”
“No,” she replied, her voice much quieter than she wanted it to be.
“He’s of royal blood. Top of the hierarchy in the vampire world. Unfortunately, those in charge won’t officially give him the title because his mother cheated on her husband with someone else, but he’s rightfully a lord vampire. He owns a club where he funnels money for crime bosses and also holds the title as the biggest manufacturer and distributor of hella, the top drug in the Human Realm.”
All of this information was new to her, but she didn’t respond.
“I’d say you’ve got crappy taste in men, but I’ve been told you didn’t select him personally.”
“I did not.”
If this was the chastisement speech, Shola was certain she wasn’t reacting well. So far all she felt was the overwhelming urge to touch him anywhere. Behind her back, she squeezed her fingers together.
“You knew about demonics, and you don’t seem shocked at the existence of vampires. Is that because you are magickal yourself? Or were you sent here to take down one who’s also responsible for siphoning resources from your country?”
“My destiny has nothing to do with his criminal enterprise.” At least she hoped it didn’t. As far as she knew, the identity of the man she was supposed to marry had not become known until he appeared in her village.
He remained silent, and she weighed her options. Her plan to kill Warrick was not working, and now Theo knew more than she did about her target. Wondering why the goddess had not shared who and what Warrick was with her before now was futile.
“I will not apologize for leaving.” He was staring straight ahead and so was she, when her gaze didn’t veer to the side to steal another glimpse at his awesome pectoral muscles. “Or for not telling you why I was here. It was not part of the plan. None of this was. I had no idea that the guard my father hired would bring me to his home and forbid me to leave without his permission or a chaperone.”
“Because from day one, demonics have been after you. After your power and most likely whatever the real reason you are here,” he countered.
“I get it.” She could admit that now. “But to be fair, you have no idea what I am up against. No idea what is at stake if I fail.”
“I have no idea?” he asked, his tone incredulous and loud. So loud that she turned to look at him and found him staring directly at her with very blue eyes.
“Come with me,” he said. It sounded like a request, but the way he grabbed her wrist and practically pulled her along as he began briskly walking gave a different impression.
She stumbled once over a log, and then again when they came to a narrow pathway that would take them across the river into what looked like the wall of the mountain. He turned to her then and scooped her up into his arms, carrying her like a baby across that path. It occurred to her that she could argue that she was perfectly capable of walking—after all she had swum for miles in that river—but his actions ended with her hands on him. Her arms went around his neck, palms resting on the back of his shoulders, and one side of her body was flush with his. The warmth that had begun spreading was comforting as well as arousing.
But her attention was eventually drawn to where he was going after they cleared the pathway. He moved with intent, his long strides easily taking the grass-covered ground. They were headed directly to the mountain. One of the things that had intrigued her most about the Office was how it had been built into the mountain itself. Like the builders just carved out a huge chunk of rock and stuck a mansion-size dwelling into it.
This part of the chunk of rock was different from the front. There were no windows and no doors. No sign of civilization at all. Yet, Theo was walking them straight ahead.
“Where are we going?”
He didn’t answer for a few steps, and then after she noticed the muscle twitching in his jaw, he replied, “To the place I believe we’ve been headed since you climbed onto my bike.”
Theo walked them right up to the mountain, and without him stopping to do anything special, the rock cracked and a thick chunk of it pushed away from the mountain before sliding to the side. He stepped through that opening, and she looked back to see the rock easing back into place behind them.
When she stared forward again it was to total darkness, yet Theo kept walking. She really wanted to ask where they were going again, but refrained, mainly because wherever it was they were going, she was not afraid. In fact, that comfort she had begun to feel being pressed against his very warm chest had spread like wildfire until she almost thought wherever they were going was somehow where she belonged.
In the next seconds, he eased her down until the soft soles of her flats touched the ground. It was cold here and she shivered. Not just chilly, but cold as in an arctic blast and it smelled like fresh rain.
“Theo,” she whispered because even though she could not see, she sensed that he’d left her.
The silence that answered her call was proof she was now alone.
But she heard a sound, like the wind but louder, and the cold air grew frigid. She turned in the direction she thought the noise was coming from and saw a blue glow along stone walls that glittered in the light. Walking in that direction, she stopped a few steps later when shock gripped her throat and her mouth gaped open.
Its feet were huge with deadly sharp black claws and legs taller than her. The body was full of jet black scales with the faintest hint of blue on the pointed ends. Down its back were triple-pronged spikes that moved when it did, and a long barbed tail swung behind it. She was in awe, a small gasp escaping when she stepped back, but she did not take her eyes off it—off him.
Shola tilted her head as those gorgeous eyes stared down at her. Sapphire-blue eyes that she knew she’d seen before—only when she’d seen them, they were a softer hue.
“Theo,” she whispered his name again, and this time didn’t wait for him to answer. “You are a...dragon.”
Her hands moved over his skin slowly, tentatively, still unsure if he were real, and yet, somewhere deep down inside, she knew that he was.
* * *
The beast remained still, watching her with curiosity and awe just as it had on the street. It had been the first time it had seen her through its own eyes, and the sight had been shocking and intriguing. At first it had wanted her—the woman, the body, the feel of experiencing her body. Now that it was seeing her and feeling her hands on it, the hunger was growing.
Theo understood the hunger. He liked sex, and he hadn’t enjoyed it in a long while. But he was smart enough to know that this right here wasn’t just about sex.
“I believe in many things. I had to,” she said while touching the parts of its chest that she could reach. “This... I have never even imagined this.”
He was the unimaginable. Theo had known this would be true to those in the Human Realm. It was part of the reason he’d decided he would never shift here. The other part was shame, but he wasn’t going to encourage that feeling now.
Not when her hands felt so good on him. She’d lifted both palms to rub along his chest, and the beast almost purred. Except dragons didn’t purr. They didn’t roll over when their bellies were being rubbed, and they didn’t love their owners like other pets. They ruled, they flew through the skies, and they killed. An impressive, yet short résumé.
They also didn’t feel. Not like this. Not that Theo had ever recalled. The sensation could only be described as amazing. He peered down to see her small hands on him, her body close to his, eyes staring at him not in disgust, but in adoration. Or at the very least acceptance.
“You are beautiful,” she whispered as if she knew exactly what he was thinking. “Majestic. That is what Ziva called that picture in the dining hall. You are the one in that picture? Those are your wings?”
In this form, he could
only blink in response because he was certain she would not understand the Drakon language. She filled his mind, her smaller form and clear eyes, the deep hue of her soft skin. He moved a wing as if to touch her, almost forgetting that the beast was in charge now. She jumped back, fingers wavering at her side. Sparks of white light fell from the tips of her fingers, seeping into the hard clay ground.
“You are touchy in this form too, I see.” Her tone was flippant, her brows lifting as she tilted her head and stared at him. The beast preferred the markings on her face and the bush of hair surrounding it. Again it moved its wing, because it wanted to touch her. She hesitated a second, looking at the wing and then up to his eyes. He blinked at her, trying his best to relay what the beast wanted through this simple action. She didn’t blink in return, but took a slow step toward him. He remained still, wing extended in her direction. She stepped closer and closer until she could reach out a hand and touch the smooth, yet deadly, tip of his wing.
His breath came out as a huff when it felt like a sigh of relief. The long sheer dress her soul identity wore blew in the breeze created by its action, but she didn’t step away. To the contrary, she moved closer leaning her weight against the wing. The beast enfolded her then, slowly and carefully, pulling her up to its chest and holding her there. Its eyes closed as it breathed in and out, feeling her, smelling her.
“Beautiful,” she said again.
The wispy sound of her voice and the feel of her back against the beast was too much for Theo to handle in this form. He stepped back from her and shifted quickly. She spun around just in time to see his naked human form as he was coming out of the kneeling position he always returned in.
She continued to stare, giving his human ego a terrific boost when her gaze dropped to his blatant arousal. Despite her obvious approval, he groaned and turned away.
“I am a Drakon,” he said after he’d pulled on his previously discarded sweatpants. “I come from the Far Realm where dragons fly free and rule the realm. But not here, there are no dragons in the skies here. I work here as a security expert and a protector of humans from preternatural forces known and unknown. But tonight—” He paused and stopped a foot away from her. “Tonight, you escaped a place I thought was impenetrable and inescapable and you walked into a battle with vampires. I have no doubt you would have killed them all without my interference. But I could not stay away.”
“Wait,” she said and shook her head. “You are a dragon. A living breathing dragon, yet you live like a human, taking money to work cases, like you need a human’s money or permission to just be?”
That wasn’t quite the reaction Theo was expecting. Truth be told, he didn’t know what to expect. All he’d known after seeing her out there tonight was that it was time for the truth, at least part of it anyway.
“It’s my job,” he told her. “And it’s my secret.”
“But why? In case you didn’t notice, there are vampires running clubs and demonics walking on crowded streets.”
“It’s better that way. Now, it’s your turn. Who are you?”
She hesitated. He’d known she would, but he was banking on her having a sense of fairness as well. Shola was not evil. No matter how many times he’d told himself to consider that possibility, he was certain it wasn’t true. He could see evil. He saw it all the time, in its true form and in the form it tried to hide from the world. He could sense it and smell it, and none of that was Shola.
It had occurred to him that he was convinced of this fact when for the last two hundred years he’d prided himself on having zero trust in any woman. Sex with them was easy. It was physical and nothing more. Trust was another story entirely. One his father had learned the hard way.
She tilted her chin up and squared her shoulders before meeting his gaze. “I am Shola N’Gara of the River Tribe. I come from Mobo and was selected to marry Warrick Camden.”
“Selected by whom?”
When she didn’t answer right away, he stepped closer to her. In this space, he seemed so much taller than her, wider, more dominant. He almost stepped back at the thought. His intent was not to intimidate her; it never had been. He just didn’t know how to stay away from her, not when she was engaged, and not now after he’d decided to kill her fiancé.
“You may not believe me,” she said.
“Why would I not believe you?”
“Because nobody ever did. When I was younger and I went to school, I told my friends, or those I thought were my friends, what I had seen and been told, and they laughed at me. They said I was making up stories.”
She didn’t look away from him as she spoke, because she was fearless. But that didn’t mean she wasn’t vulnerable. Her shoulders had dropped only slightly, and he reached out to place his hands on them. “Tell me the story.”
She stared up at him and something in her gaze eased into his chest and squeezed. He remained steady, deciding to examine that feeling later. For now, he needed to know who she was even though he’d already decided to help her.
“I am the daughter of Oya,” she announced in a voice that had immediately grown stronger.
“Before I was born, my father thought my mother was dying. He took her to the river and baptized her in the cool water, praying and hoping that Oya would hear his cries. But the great Orisha was not the only one to hear his prayers. A Dark One—that is what he was called—appeared and offered his help. In exchange, he wanted my father’s first born.”
She looked away and then began again. “My mother had been injured during her years with the Ono Guard. She was told she would never have a child.”
“So your father thought it was a safe bargain,” he finished for her, hating the direction he thought this was going.
Her gaze returned to his, shock clear in her eyes.
“Yes,” she replied. “He made the agreement and the Dark One went away. My father carried my mother back to our house. Oya heard, and she intervened.”
“By giving your mother a child?” It didn’t sound right on the surface but a part of Theo knew it to be true.
“It was said that the Dark One needed human souls to gain power, but he could not just possess those souls; they had to come to him willingly, or in my case, be given to him. But instead of just using me to gain a minimal amount of power, the Dark One had a bigger plan. By marrying me to a soul he already owned, he would gain unfettered access to Mobo and the River Tribe, access that was only granted to members born into the tribe and linked to us by blood. With that connection the Dark One, through the union he orchestrated, could use my people and our resources to build a dark army or worse, he could kill the people of the River Tribe and use our land to settle his own demonic force. My father did not know all of this. He was desperate and thought the payment to the Dark One would never come into existence. Oya knew.
“She gave me to Joku and Ejaita N’Gara to stop the Dark One when the time came. But I was always hers. I will always be a part of her.”
Theo let his hands slide down from her shoulders until he could lace her fingers with his own. “You are not just magickal; you are a demigoddess.”
She blinked but didn’t hesitate. “I am Shola N’Gara of the River Tribe and I came here to save my people.”
Chapter Fourteen
Theo wasn’t sure if it was the combined lethal and proud tone of her voice, or the way that loose-fitting dress brushed the higher portion of her thighs, but he was tired of talking, tired of resisting.
This time when he touched her, he cupped her face in his hands and tilted her head up so it would be easier to kiss her. And so he could stare directly into her eyes when he asked his next question.
“Are you here to kill Warrick Camden?”
“Yes, I—”
Her next words were cut off as he slammed his mouth down over hers, his tongue immediately pressing into her mouth in search of hers. She grabbed hold
of his biceps and pressed her body against his. With a hunger that had the beast growling inside, he took the kiss deeper. She tilted her head and he stroked his tongue over hers before sucking it into his mouth. The blunt tip of her nails pressed into his skin, and he pulled back only slightly, letting her nip his bottom lip and then suck it the same way he’d just sucked her tongue.
He moved his hands up from her face to her hair, pushing through the tightly coiled strands until the tie holding it up snapped off. Then his fingers were deep in the plush mass, loving the feel of its luxuriant texture against his skin. He liked it better free and surrounding her face the way her soul identity wore it.
She moved her hands up to his shoulders and then to loop around his neck, pulling him in closer. This was it right here. Just having her in his arms this way, feeling her, touching her, inhaling everything about her. This was everything.
When she planted her palms on the back of his head, he groaned. He let his hands fall from her hair to move down her back until he could palm the delectable globes of her ass. Pressing her into him almost took his breath away, and he pulled his mouth from hers to scrape his teeth along the line of her jaw. She arched into his embrace, and he continued to kiss down her neck until his tongue was sliding lavishly over her collarbone.
“Fuck!” he groaned and lifted her into his arms.
She wrapped her legs around his waist, clasping them at his back.
“I need to be inside of you, now!” His words were coarse, but he couldn’t take them back. And he couldn’t stop.
She hadn’t said a word, just moaned when he licked farther down her chest until he’d used his face to nudge the loose material of her dress to the side. When he brushed his lips against the bare skin of her breast, his knees almost buckled.
“Dammit. Really, Shola? No bra?” He couldn’t speak another word because he was already closing his mouth over the puckered nipple.
She held on to his neck but arched so that she was practically feeding him her breast, and Theo was taking, he was sucking and he was enjoying. He loved the feel of her taut nipple rubbing over his tongue and was certain he could suck her breasts all day and night. He turned quickly, walking them back to the other chamber where there were blankets, pillows and other amenities for when he spent the night.
