The Dragon's Mate, page 2
“Conley, when are you going to find your mate?” Lucy murmured from her place on Kai’s lap. She pushed her black-rimmed glasses up her nose as she waited for him to answer. Kai wore a massive grin. It was like Conley’s middle brother knew how much his dragon was pushing to fly and find his mate even though Conley kept denying the fact to his family.
Conley rolled his neck. “I’m happy being single.”
Every shifter around him could smell the lie. Kirin rolled his eyes and placed a kiss on his mate’s forehead, but he didn’t call Conley out. Conley leaned back in his chair and took another sip of beer.
It was almost seven o’clock p.m., and his dragon was taking his skin earlier and earlier each night as they searched for his mate. It had all started over a month ago when Alida had read his dragon’s mind and told him he would find his mate soon. His dragon half didn’t want to wait for his mate to come to him. He thought Conley could fly around each night and look for her.
His mercenary work kept him busy, but he wanted to take down the council. “I called Kael this morning and asked for a job with the council.”
Kirin folded his arms and glared at Conley. “You are not putting yourself in danger on purpose. This dark man will make a mistake, and when he does, we will take him down as a team.”
Conley pinched the bridge of his nose. “I can’t sit around, waiting. You took a job last week. Kai goes to work each day, and Talia worked a trial yesterday. I haven’t taken a mercenary job because I don’t want to leave the state, but I can’t stay cooped up much longer.”
He winced at how much information he’d given out. His dragon roared, saying he wasn’t doing enough, and urged him to leave that second and find his mate. Alida walked over to him and grabbed his hand. He could tell by the look in her eye that she’d read his mind. He really needed to start wearing a tinfoil hat around the child.
“I already told you tinfoil won’t work.” She smiled. “Your dragon will find his mate soon. I promise. Please don’t leave us.”
Talia rushed to his side. “You can’t leave us.”
When the little girl smiled up at him, he knew he couldn’t be mad at her for telling his secret. “I’m not leaving. I just need to get out of the house for a while. Tonight, I will go for a flight.”
“We’ll come with you,” Kai said.
Conley closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “I’m not a teenager. I can go by myself. I promise to come home, Dad.” He smirked.
Talia’s phone rang, and she frowned at the name.
“Who’s calling you? Kael?” Kirin asked.
“No. Nyx,” Talia whispered.
Nyx had helped project Talia’s vision to prove Talia and Alida were innocent. Over the last month and a half, they hadn’t heard from her, though. Kirin and Talia had even gone to Nyx’s house to look for her, but she hadn’t been there. Someone had destroyed all her things, like they were looking for something.
Conley hadn’t met Nyx yet. He had taken their mom back to the house with Alida to keep them both safe while Kirin and Talia met with Nyx and the council.
Talia swiped her finger across the phone, putting the call on speaker. “I’ve been trying to get ahold of you, Nyx.”
Nyx sighed. “I can’t run anymore. I’m drunk. I’m hungry. I’m… they’re going to kill me.”
The woman’s voice on the phone made Conley’s dragon push harder. He was close to losing control.
“Where are you? We’ll come for you.” Kirin looked alarmed.
“Too late.” She paused. “They found me.”
“Where?” Conley snapped.
She sighed again. “I’m at Talia’s. I was looking for you.” The phone went dead.
Conley looked down at Alida. She was their only chance to get to Nyx in time. He replayed Nyx’s words in his head. They’re going to kill me. He didn’t know if it was the same people who had trashed her house or someone else.
Kirin paced beside him as he ran his hand through his hair. “It’s too dangerous to take Alida.”
Alida tugged at Kirin’s hand. “Nyx needs our help. It’s not only Nyx in danger.”
Talia closed her eyes and gripped Alida’s hand. “Do you remember where the closet is in my bedroom?” Alida nodded. “You go in there and get into the hiding hole at the back. Stay there until Kirin or I come for you.”
“I don’t like this,” Kirin grumbled. “Talia… I don’t think it’s the best idea for you to come.”
Talia crossed her arms and glared. “I’m going.” She placed a hand over her stomach. “I promise to stay near Alida, but I am coming.”
Kirin pinched the bridge of his nose before nodding.
Conley agreed with his older brother. He didn’t like that they were heading into the unknown and unsure of how many men they would need to fight off. Kirin, Talia, Kai, and Conley all held onto Alida as she transported them. They came crashing down in a large pile in the center of Talia’s queen-size bed.
“Move,” Conley grumbled as he pushed Kai off him. His middle brother toppled to the ground, and Alida giggled before Talia led her over to the closet. The three brothers waited for Alida to get secured in the back of the closet.
“I’m going to stand guard here.” Talia held a bat she’d picked up from the side of the bed. “If someone comes in, I’ll scream.”
Kirin leaned over and pressed a kiss to her forehead. “Protect my babies,” he whispered before turning and walking out of the room.
Conley didn’t like that they were putting Alida and Talia in danger. Talia was almost two months pregnant with his niece. Alida had already been talking to her new sister. The young girl’s powers kept getting stronger by the day. His new niece wasn’t just a little girl but a dragon. Kai had started researching the second Alida had mentioned the baby was also a dragon. They didn’t know the last time a female dragon had been born. History made it seem like it had never happened before.
The sound of glass breaking had Conley moving toward the hall. He followed his two brothers down the short hallway. When he walked around the corner, he took a look around the living room. Talia’s pink window coverings had been ripped down, and her couch had blood splatters across the cushions. In the center of the room, Arrow fought two men. One man lay on the ground, not moving. He couldn’t make out what the attackers looked like because they were dressed entirely in black with ski masks on.
Conley’s dragon roared to life when he spotted a woman with long black hair lying on a pink rug, blood dripping down her forehead. He rushed to her side and scooped her up into his arms.
“Get her out of here!” Arrow yelled as he held two men down.
Conley heard the grunts of a fight outside as he looked toward the door. Kirin and Kai stood behind him.
“Go!” Arrow yelled at Conley and his brothers.
Conley didn’t wait to find out what was going to happen next. With Nyx in his arms, he ran back down the hall, holding her tight to his body.
Talia stood in her bedroom, guarding the door. He knew she would give her life to protect Alida. Conley would do the same. Talia reached for the woman in his arms, and he gripped her tighter, enjoying how she felt.
“No,” he ground out.
She opened her mouth but shut it when Kirin and Kai came charging into the bedroom.
“We need to go.”
Talia ran to the closet and knocked on the door. Alida climbed out, walked over, and gripped Conley’s hand. She smiled up at them before they all vanished. The arrival back at Kai’s home was better than the departure. They landed gracefully on the deck and not on top of each other.
Nyx was still unconscious. She was beautiful, glowing in his arms. Her eyes, one blue and one brown, opened for a second, and he was lost in them. She frowned up at him before she passed back out. Conley stood with his family circled around him. He knew he would have to put her down, but his dragon wasn’t ready to release her.
Talia watched him for a second, and he wondered if she could read his mind even without touching him.
She rested her gloved hand on his shoulder. “How about we put her down on the couch in the living room?”
He nodded and walked through the kitchen to Kai’s main living room and gently put Nyx down on the couch. A gray blanket draped over the back of the sofa. He pulled it down to cover her. He knew his brothers were staring holes into his back, but he couldn’t move away. Conley brushed a few hairs out of her face before stepping back.
“Why hasn’t she woken up?” Conley asked himself more than the room.
Talia rested her hand on his shoulder and looked down at Nyx. “She’s tough and will wake up soon. Why don’t you go to the kitchen and get a cool rag to wash the blood off her face?”
Over the years, Conley had never had a girlfriend for more than a few weeks. He’d preferred to keep his love life simple. Every woman he’d been with had known it would only be for a little while. His dragon could only stand to be around a woman for a short time. Conley ran his hand down Nyx’s face one last time before turning. “I have to take care of her,” he mumbled.
Kirin slapped him on the back. “Of course you do.”
Conley rushed to the kitchen and opened the drawer next to the sink to grab a rag. He ran it under the cold water before rushing back to the living room. His dragon didn’t understand why he had to leave his mate. Conley ignored the giant creature. When he rounded the corner, only Talia and his oldest brother, Kirin, were in the room.
He knew Talia wasn’t going to leave her friend’s side, and Conley wouldn’t ask that of her—no matter how much he wanted to take Nyx in his arms and carry her back to his house, but leaving Kai’s wasn’t safe. They were in his main house above ground, and it was still the safest of the homes they owned. Kai had motion detectors installed around his property along with an annoying computer named Antheia to help keep watch. Kirin and his house had security, but nothing state of the art like Kai’s. It had been over a month since he’d stayed in his place, his own bed. Everyone had remained in Kai’s house in case they needed to use his underground lair since Gideon had come after them.
It was safer.
Kirin moved Talia to the side as he approached. Conley ran the cool cloth over Nyx’s forehead, wiping away the few drops of blood. Her eyes fluttered open. She sat up ridiculously fast. Her head was inches from hitting his. He inhaled sharply, worried over her response. Before he had time to ask a question, she clapped a hand over her mouth and glanced around as if trying to get her bearings. A second later, she pushed at his chest, bounded off the couch, and rushed down the hall. Conley was only steps behind her as she pushed open doors until she found the bathroom, dropped in front of the toilet, and threw up.
His dragon roared, not liking his mate being sick, but Conley had smelled the alcohol on her when he’d lifted her off the floor at Talia’s apartment. Being a shifter, he could drink and never get sick from the alcohol.
He kneeled next to her, rubbing her back and hold her long black hair from her face.
“Stop it,” she growled. “Leave me alone, creeper.” Nyx rested her arm across the toilet and put her head down. Her eyes were closed as she asked, “Who is this guy, anyway?”
Conley knew he was coming on too strong, but his dragon pushed to take care of her. He stepped back a couple of feet to give her space. Talia used that opportunity to kneel next to her longtime friend. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught his reflection in the mirror. His eyes were bright violet, a sign his dragon was close to the surface.
Nyx pulled herself away from the toilet and rested against the pale-blue wall. Her eyes were still closed as she wiped her face with toilet paper. “Talia, do you have an extra toothbrush or mouthwash? Tequila tastes as bad going down as it does coming up.” Nyx slowly peeled her eyes open and looked at him. “Dude, I’m in the bathroom. Can you give me some privacy?”
His dragon rumbled in his chest, demanding she acknowledge what they were. He’d waited hundreds of years for that moment, and she’d called him dude.
Nyx looked over at Talia. “Does he understand English?”
“Out.” Talia pointed toward the door.
Kirin grabbed Conley’s shoulder. “Come on, brother. Let’s grab a beer.” Before Conley had a chance to reply, Kirin pulled him toward the door, and Talia slammed it behind them.
“It wasn’t supposed to be like this.”
Kirin rolled his eyes before walking down the long hallway toward the kitchen. Conley could hear Lucy’s giggles coming from the kitchen.
“What was she supposed to do? Drop to the ground and worship you? My mate ran from me. I had to chase her around West Virginia.”
They turned the corner to the kitchen, and Kai already had a beer for Conley in his outstretched hand.
“I don’t know. I just expected something different. And you can’t compare me to you. If my memory is correct, you tried to arrest your mate.”
Kai sat down on a barstool and drew Lucy onto his lap. “I’m glad you didn’t give me a hard time about the mating pull.” He pressed a kiss to her cheek.
Lucy let out a huff. “It was scientifically explained to me. I also had a little time before you woke up from the drug concoction. The only issue I had was with you know who.”
“Just because you don’t say my name doesn’t mean I don’t know who you’re talking about.” Antheia’s voice rang through the kitchen. No matter how many times he’d heard the computer talk, he still wasn’t used to it.
Lucy glared at Kai. His middle brother laughed and pressed a kiss to Lucy’s lips. “She’s better. I haven’t heard her threaten you at all since I fixed some of the code.”
The computer used to be in love with Conley’s brother, and when Kai had taken her down to work on the code, Eric, Kai’s business partner, happened to attack at that moment and catch them off guard. They’d decided it was better to have the computer around than to have her off.
“She is better.” Lucy sighed. “I know she has powers, but maybe she doesn’t know much about the mating pull.”
“And give her time to sober up. What I really want to talk about are the men at her house. Arrow was helping her. I thought he was one of Gideon’s henchmen,” Kirin ground out before taking a swig of his beer.
Conley hadn’t even stopped to think about the fight at Talia’s. His brain had been in a fog since the second his eyes had landed on Nyx. Arrow had been there fighting two men on the ground. “You’re right. I also heard people outside. Did you happen to get a look at who else was there?”
“No.” Kirin ran his hands through his hair. “I hope she isn’t too drunk to remember what happened.”
“Talia could read her memories, or we could go back to the apartment and have Talia read an object in the room.”
Lucy cleared her throat. “They might be waiting for you to come back.”
Alida walked into the kitchen wearing a pair of unicorn pj’s and dragging a stuffed unicorn behind her. Her curly blond hair was up in a ponytail, and tears streamed down her face.
Kirin picked the girl up and wrapped her in his arms. “What’s wrong?”
“In my dream, someone close to us died.”
“It was only a dream.” He patted the young girl on the back.
“But it seemed so real.”
A chill went down Conley’s spine. If anyone else had that dream, he wouldn’t have worried about it, but Alida had powers nobody understood. What happens if her dream comes true?
3
Nyx
Nyx’s head hurt. She kept one hand on the cold tile floor to help stop the room from spinning. Her eyes were still closed as she rested her head against the wall. A wave of nausea rolled over her as she tried to remember how she got to where she was—in a bathroom, she had no clue whose.
Tequila. She remembered drinking lots of tequila and Arrow showing up, followed by ninjas. She couldn’t hold back the giggle. Ninjas didn’t exist. They only showed up in the movies, not real life.
“Do you want to fill me in on what’s so funny?” her longtime friend asked.
Nyx slowly peeled herself off the floor and peered at the large mirror. She looked like death had walked over her and reversed a couple of times to make sure she was dead. “Ninjas,” she replied as she turned the knobs on the gold faucet. The bathroom was stunning. She still didn’t know if it belonged to the creepy guy who had rubbed her back and tried to wash her face with a cloth.
“How drunk are you?”
Nyx caught sight of Talia in the mirror. “Since I still see two of you, I’m guessing I’m pretty drunk.”
“Here.” Talia handed her a toothbrush and toothpaste. She didn’t know where her friend had pulled it from but was thankful to get the taste of tequila out of her mouth. Her stomach growled, reminding her she hadn’t eaten in a while, but she didn’t want to chance eating anything. It might come back up. She wasn’t even sure she was done throwing up the tequila.
Nyx hadn’t drank like that in years. The last time she’d thrown up was her twenty-first birthday, and it had been Talia’s fault. Talia had talked her into going to a new club, and said club had lemon drop shots. Neither of them had realized how powerful the shots were until they were both puking in the bathroom stall.
She hated the feeling of being drunk.
Closing one eye so she could only see one toothbrush, she squeezed some toothpaste onto the bristles and quickly scrubbed her teeth. The mint toothpaste made her feel a little better. It did nothing to help what she looked like. Her long black hair was a snarled mess, and the dark circles around her different-colored eyes didn’t help her look any better. She normally wore contacts so people wouldn’t stare at her.
“Is this the creepy guy’s house?” Nyx asked Talia as she finished brushing her teeth.
Talia handed her a gold cup filled with water. “Nope, it’s the creepy guy’s brother’s house.”
Bed. She needed to lie down. Her head was too foggy to think about anything else. “Is there somewhere I can lie down?”
