“Will do, but it’ll have to wait a bit. You aren’t dying and I’m not leaving my rigs behind. Here . . .” His hand appeared in front of my face, a couple small, white pills in it. I frowned and glanced to the side at him.
“What’s that?”
“Pain pills, dude. High-test. It’ll help, trust me.”
Dubious, I still took the proffered medicine, thinking something had to be better than nothing, and swallowed them both with the bottle of water he handed me next. I could roll onto my right side with no issue, so I twisted around to check out his handiwork. My left ass cheek was a crisscrossing mess of gauze and tape that extended down the back of my bloody thigh, but thankfully very little blood seemed to be seeping through from the actual wounds.
“Pants?” I croaked, preferring to cover my junk when there were snarling beasts nearby.
“Hang on.” He backed out of the tent and out of my field of view. All I could see in the growing dawn were the quickly moving attacks of the four new hounds against my attacker. They’d pushed the other hound beyond the edge of our campsite toward the water, all five creatures blending in with the deep purple sky in the east where the light had begun creeping in beyond the water of the Bay.
Something caught my eye to the south and I turned my head, blinking at the disorientation accompanied by a strange wash of euphoria that reminded me of the effect Willem’s calming breath had had on me when he’d encouraged me to breathe it in. Dragon smoke could have a drugging quality, but the type of drug depended on the color of the dragon it came from. The pain pills Bodhi had given me were effectively White dragon smoke in pill form. I decided I didn’t mind that one bit.
Still, it didn’t cause outright hallucinations, but I was sure I had to be having one right now. Off in the distance to the south, high above the bridge that crossed the bay, were two unmistakable silhouettes of dragons.
Bodhi returned and handed me a folded square of colorful cloth. “Sorry, this is all I’ve got that’ll cover you without hurting.”
I accepted it and shook out what appeared to be nothing more than a wide, tie-died piece of batik cloth with fringes on the ends. I lifted a brow at him.
Bodhi waved his hands at the garment. “It’s a sarong dude. Just wrap it and tie it. You aren’t going to be all that mobile for a while anyway.”
Grunting, I pushed myself to my knees and did as he suggested. I tilted my chin toward the sky. “Do you see that, or am I fucking dreaming?”
He blinked a few times, shook his head, rubbed his eyes, then squinted. “That’s not . . .”
“Dragons?” I offered.
“Fuck me,” he breathed. “First you turn into a goddamn bear before my eyes, and now dragons?”
They were coming fast. Not as fast as the hounds had blown in, but faster than I’d ever seen dragons fly, and they seemed to be heading straight toward us. My heartbeat skittered. Could it be Rohan? But if so, who the hell was the other dragon? I couldn’t see their colors with the scant light filtering in from the east, but one was decidedly bigger than the other. Willem was a huge dragon—double Rohan’s size when shifted, but the bigger one wasn’t quite big enough to be Willem.
“Help me up dude,” I said, reaching out for Bodhi.
Once standing, I limped toward the water for a better look before Bodhi grabbed my elbow and stopped me. I was so excited about seeing who was coming I’d almost forgotten about the damn hounds. The big one who’d attacked was looking pretty ragged, yet still hadn’t backed down and ran. The one who my strange soul leash was linked to backed off and looked over its shoulder at me, then disengaged and loped over.
I froze and took a step back, but the hound slowed, then dipped low to the ground, crawling the rest of the way, its big purple eyes as wide and pleading as I’d ever seen on a pup.
I shook my head and chuckled. “What he fuck do you have to be sorry for?” I asked it. “I was the asshole who made you bite me.”
“You what?” Bodhi shot, casting me a surprised look.
“I’m not proud, dude. But I was desperate.” A knot formed in my belly and I looked back up toward the dragons whose shadowy shapes had disappeared for a second and now reappeared over the tops of the trees above us. Wind kicked up around us as they descended.
At my side, the hound approached and I reached out a hand to it. If it wanted to maul me again, it could have at it, but I didn’t think this one would. I would live, especially if the golden scaled creature landing in front of me meant what I hoped it did.
I glanced at Bodhi once, amused at his slackened jaw and wide eyes as he watched the pair of dragons land. The huge gold one was unmistakably Rohan, but I still had no idea about the other. The dragon that came to rest beside him flexed its wings once, the faint morning light catching and reflecting off the most beautiful iridescent scales I’d ever seen. It was smaller than Rohan by about a third, giving me the impression that it might be female, but Ro had never mentioned any female dragon friends to me before, much less a Prismatic, which was the rarest color.
With a shimmer of light, the immense golden shape shrank into a man and I took a few hesitant steps forward, stopping when he immediately turned to the other dragon.
It tossed its head as if agitated, its big body shaking uncontrollably. Rohan went to it and reached up, gripping its horns and pulling its face down. He pressed his forehead to the other dragon’s face, right between its eyes, and they remained that way for several seconds, both their eyes closed.
As they stood there, I held my breath, waiting and watching, and something on Rohan’s naked chest caught my eye. I took a quiet step closer to see, then stopped short when I realized it was his tattoo. The Fate’s Fools tattoo like the one I had on my own chest. I reached up and traced my fingertips over the matching pattern that was still upraised since it was relatively new. We’d only had these tattoos for a few weeks—ever since we’d joined the band.
Except now his glowed with a fluctuating cascade of multicolored magic. A dragon mark. I shook my head, then exhaled a sharp breath as it hit me. And when the mysterious dragon opened its eyes, I knew.
There was no mistaking those gorgeous variegated irises, and now I remembered the talk of Deva having the powers of a Prismatic.
“Deva?” I blurted, moving closer. She blinked at me once before turning her attention to the snaps and growls of the remaining hounds still hard set on keeping the interloper at bay.
An intense trumpeting sound blasted from her snout at the group of squabbling beasts. Rohan cursed and moved to her side again. He shot a worried look back at us.
“She’s having trouble shifting back. It’s her first time in dragon form so it might take some practice. Deva!” he called to her. “Baby, you need to shift like yesterday. It’s getting light out.”
“Holy fucking shit,” Bodhi muttered beside me. “I think my brain just exploded.”
The dragon—Deva—turned around again and dipped her head. Rohan slid his hands up the twin coils of her pearlescent horns that arced back from her brows. He’d once told me that a dragon’s horns were an erogenous zone, but could also be used to calm them in the right circumstances.
“Deep breath,” Rohan said. Deva’s entire body expanded, then shrank as she exhaled, and continued shrinking. Rohan slid his hands down her cheeks and then crouched when the dragon’s shape diminished to a small, dark-haired figure huddled close to the ground, her back heaving.
“Oh my god, I did it!” Deva’s shocked face looked up into Ro’s and she wrapped her arms around his neck, leaping into his embrace as she rose.
My insides turned to ice when I saw the match to Rohan’s mark gracing the top of her breast, driving home the fact that they had mated each other. Why they’d chosen that mark I had no idea. Maybe it was because the band was Ro’s family, his dragon predecessors not having left him much of a legacy to speak of. He had her now, and for that I should be grateful, but it still fucking hurt.
Deva turned back toward the
hounds and stomped across the wet sand toward them, hands upraised and shimmering with bright power. She let out a sharp whistle and the three hounds who’d saved my life fell back just in time for Deva to unleash a blast of fire from her palms that slammed into the hostile beast and sent it skidding backward to the very edge of the water, winding up with its paws half way phased through one of Bodhi’s windsurf boards.
The hound’s yelp of pain spiked into my mind, and Bodhi flinched beside me. Its entire ethereal hide was riddled with fiery splotches that had all but completely dissolved its shape into nothingness, but enough remained—its head, tail, and paws were apparently enough to still give it presence, but it cowered for the first time since its arrival.
Deva stepped closer, jabbing a finger at it. “You stay the fuck away from my bloodline unless you want me to burn you to fucking ash next time, got it? Especially my friends. You see these guys?” She pointed back at me and Bodhi. “They are mine. Paws off! And you can tell that asshole master of yours I said so. Now fuck off!”
The hound seemed to register everything she said, flinching with every word as though her very voice pained it to hear. And then it was simply gone, disappearing within the span of a blink.
Deva’s shoulders sagged and she nodded sharply, then squatted down in front of the three hounds. The one by my side trotted over to her and she acknowledged it, making odd cooing noises that all four hounds seemed to be eating up.
She rose and turned toward me and my mouth went completely dry. She was naked, her black hair untamed and her eyes bright. When she broke into a dead run, I thought my heart would beat out of my chest. But I didn’t so much as falter when she launched herself into my arms. I caught her easily and held her tight against me.
Holy fuck did she feel good, her warm, soft curves pressed into me, surrounding me in that familiar spicy scent. I felt tears wet my neck and her voice was thick when she said, “God damn you, Keagan. I was afraid Fate would find you. Kill you. That I’d never see you again. That I’d never be able to apologize, tell you I’m sorry for . . . for everything.”
“It’s all right princess,” I managed to force through my tight throat. I never wanted to fucking let her go, and when I opened my eyes I was greeted by a far too understanding look from Rohan. My best friend—my partner—looked like he wanted to say all the same things Deva kept babbling into my ear. But he only nodded.
“It is not all right!” Deva snapped, pulling back from me and glaring. “We were idiots and should have just had a fucking conversation! I didn’t think. Neither of us did. And you two ran away before I could . . .”
I’d had enough of this. Before she could say another word, I grabbed both sides of her head and slammed my mouth against hers, unwilling to wait a second longer to taste those lips. Not when I wasn’t sure if I’d ever get another chance.
11
Keagan
Deva let out the most delicious little moan and sank into me as though the kiss were all she really wanted, and all she needed to appease her worries and fears. She slipped her arms around my neck again and I slid my hands down her back, reveling in the sensation of her warm, silken skin beneath my palms. When my hands reached her ass, I pulled her tight and she gasped, her bare pelvis tilting harder against my arousal.
She let out a muffled protest and pushed against me. “Didn’t you hear what I just said? We should have talked. And we are absolutely going to do that now.” She glanced at Bodhi who still looked like he’d blown a fuse. “All of us.”
“I’m not done kissing you yet. Unless you want to give Bodhi a turn, I’m not letting you go for a goddamn second.”
Deva blinked up at me, then turned to look at Bodhi, her eyes wide, even though I’d kind of meant it rhetorically. The dragon mark on her chest pulsed with hypnotic golden light. It didn’t take a mind reader to interpret her unspoken question to Bodhi and my hard-on twitched. Was she seriously open to all three of us?
A strange sensation unfurled in my gut. A sense of rightness that obliterated all the doubts and loneliness I’d felt since the moment Rohan had first sung a duet with her. Somehow, she was ours. Not just mine and Rohan’s but all of ours. The Maestro’s too. And . . . holy hell . . . that fucking satyr’s too. The certainty sank in like a key sliding into a lock.
But I suppose it was too much for everyone to accept. To my astonishment, Bodhi took a step back.
“I’d just get in the way of what you three have. It’s all . . . uh . . . just a little too complicated, if you ask me.”
I gave him a confounded look. After all our talk for the past day, and he was backing out?
Deva’s shoulders fell, but she took a step toward Bodhi anyway. He let out an embarrassed chuckle and darted his gaze away from her. I, on the other hand, couldn’t take my eyes off the gorgeous undulating curves of her hips and ass and was sorely disappointed when her favorite leather pants began to materialize over those glorious mounds.
“Is this better?” Deva asked, coming to a stop about a foot away from Bodhi. He glanced back down at her and let out a breath.
“Thanks. I’m sorry I can’t get on board with the whole . . . thing.”
“It’s a commitment,” Deva said, nodding. “But I wish you would hear the whole story before you decide. I learned something about myself last night. Something I would never have understood without Rohan’s help. I think you can help me the way he did.” She shot a look over her shoulder at me. “I think you both can.” Turning back to Bodhi, she said, “Will you at least listen to me before you say yes or no?”
Bodhi’s face pinched, and for a second I could swear what I saw was jealousy, plain and simple, and he was fighting to subdue it. Then his shoulders settled and he nodded. “Does what you learned have anything to do with this . . .?” He waved a finger between Deva and Rohan who stood a few feet away, all four hounds settled around Rohan’s feet. Between Rohan and Deva was a brilliant golden thread of light with fiery trails bleeding off it whenever one of them moved. The hounds seemed to follow those trails, the magic sinking into them when they passed through it.
“You two have a soul bond now,” I said. “This was what happened to the old couple wasn’t it? It’s why the hounds aren’t bleeding me dry anymore.”
“Yes, but their distraction by our soul bond isn’t a permanent fix for you,” Deva said. “That’s something we need to talk about . . .” She trailed off, glancing around the destroyed campsite. The two chairs were crumpled heaps, the campfire nothing more than scattered coals and broken guitar pieces. “Is there someplace we can go? I’d rather not ask Llyr to come drift us home.”
I snorted. “You and me both. Bodhi’s not about to leave without his rigs anyway. Let’s pack up and go from there.”
Thanks to the pain pills, I’d all but forgotten about the wound on my ass and thigh, but the second I attempted to bend over and pick up one of the ruined chairs, I hissed from the sharp spike of agony that shot through me. The world went wobbly and I remained hunched over with my hands on my knees.
“Keagan!” Deva rushed to my side. “You’re hurt! What happened?”
“That fucking hound. It got me good.”
Bodhi came up to my other side and filled her in on the attack. A moment later Deva led me back to Bodhi’s truck, his keys in her hands. She opened the rear cab door and urged me onto the narrow bench seats on my belly while Bodhi and Rohan packed up. The pain was a steady, pulsing noise through my entire body, an inescapable shroud between me and the rest of the world. The drugs I’d taken must have worn off or they just weren’t strong enough for that much pain.
“I’ve never tried this before. Not on real flesh, anyway,” Deva said, her voice wavering a little as she lifted the sarong up over my ass and began to peel off the blood-soaked bandages.
“I have faith in you, princess.”
She was silent for a second, nothing but the low-pitched ripping sound of the tape peeling off my skin. Not even the pull of the hairs that went with it c
ould overcome the pain of the wounds themselves. To her credit, she didn’t blanch or curse or make any sort of comment about the extent of the gashes. I already knew they were bad. Then I heard her whisper a silent prayer to Gaia.
“Didn’t know you could do ursa magic,” I said.
“I can’t really, but that doesn’t mean she isn’t listening. My hope is that she’ll make what magic I can do more effective for you since you’re ursa. And Ozzie suggested I could channel power for different purposes too. He seemed to believe I might be able to use my Prismatic abilities to channel the other elements. Use them as an alternate source for dragon magic. I don’t know if it will work yet, but I thought I’d try it now anyway.”
“So I’m your test subject?” I asked and immediately felt like an ass for my poor choice of words, considering her origins. “Sorry, I didn’t mean . . .”
“It isn’t like that,” Deva said. “I know Meri made me, but I’m not like her at all. I just want to understand what I can do.” Her hands rested on the back of my knee, right below where the worst of the pain began. She inhaled deeply, to center herself, perhaps, then she let out a long exhale that lasted several seconds past what I’d have considered normal lung capacity for someone her size. Cool relief crept up my thigh until the pain was gone entirely, leaving behind nothing but a chilly numbness.
“That’s . . . better,” I said, exhaling and finally relaxing.
“I’m not finished yet. That was just to ease your pain. Hold still.”
I rested my cheek on my hand, trying not to focus on the warmth of her soft touch against my skin.
“So . . . you’re a dragon now,” I said, then silently cursed myself for yet another idiotic comment. At least this one earned me a laugh.
“I’m still what I was before. Rohan just helped me awaken my dragon nature. It’s only a small piece of who I am though.”
“Did it happen because he marked you?”
“No, though the mark was probably part of it. He just confirmed what I had guessed already. My lack of a soul was what kept my powers weak.”
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