The Dragon's Mate, page 3
Talia grabbed her hand, and Nyx immediately tried to pull away, but she saw nothing. She looked down and noticed her friend had on gloves.
“Follow me.” Talia opened the door and walked out.
Nyx half expected the man who had been hovering over her to be standing outside the bathroom. When she didn’t see him, sadness washed over her for a second. Must be the tequila.
She followed her friend into a room across the hall. Large windows lined the far wall. She couldn’t see out into the night sky, but it almost looked like they were on the side of a mountain. Her head hurt when she tried to squint and look closer. She gave up and flopped down on the large king-size bed. “Make the room stop spinning,” she grumbled as she placed one foot on the floor. “What have I done?”
Talia sat down in a white chaise in front of the large windows. “You drank too much and didn’t call me for help until you thought you were going to die.”
“I didn’t want to put you in danger. It made sense in my head for the last month or so, but as I’m lying here drunk, nothing makes sense. You still haven’t told me where I am besides the creepy guy’s brother’s house.”
“Creepy guy—” Talia giggled. “Is also my mate’s brother.”
Nyx peeled one eye open. Talia had dimmed the lights in the room. “So, you settled down and are all living in your mate’s brother’s house?”
“If you would’ve answered your phone once in the past month, you would know what’s going on. Instead, you chose to fight the world by yourself and not let us help you, even though I owe you the world for helping prove my daughter’s innocence, and you would know all of this if you hadn’t gone dark. Now, do you want to tell me why you decided to get drunk and not fight your way out but rather drown yourself in alcohol?”
Nyx groaned. “I didn’t want them to take me sober. I expected torture, and I thought it would be better—easier—if I were drunk.” She shrugged. It had made perfect sense to her at the time. Not so much anymore.
Talia rubbed her hand over her belly. “You’ve missed a lot in the last month.”
“I’m here now.” Nyx sat up in bed. The world was slowly coming back to normal. She took another swig of water from the gold cup. “Does the owner of the house have a thing for gold or something?”
“Dragons like gold.”
“I think I heard you wrong. Dragons?” Nyx kept her distance from the supernatural world. She knew about wolf shifters, warlocks, witches, even fairies, but dragons only existed in fairy tale books, yet her friend wasn’t laughing or saying she was joking.
Talia licked her lips. “You heard me correctly. My mate, Kirin, is a dragon shifter along with his brothers.” Nyx’s friend was talking too fast.
“Did you say mate? When did you have time to meet a guy?”
“You met Kirin. He drove us to the council.”
“Sorry, I’m trying to wrap my head around dragons existing.”
Talia was the only supernatural Nyx ever spent time with. She had heard stories over the years about other shifters, but dragons were something she never thought would exist except in the movies.
If my good friend could find someone… Nyx quickly shut down her train of thought. She would never be with anyone. Now that the council knew about her powers, she would put everyone she loved in danger.
“For years, you’ve said you would never settle down.” Nyx was happy her friend had found someone. She ignored the pang in her own heart. “I swear I heard you use the word ‘mate,’ which makes no sense. You’re a psychic. They don’t mate. I’m a psychic, kind of. We don’t mate either. That’s for—”
“Shifters.” Talia grinned. “He’s a dragon shifter. I never thought I’d feel this way about anyone, but I do. I love him. I’m really attached.” She glanced at the closed bedroom door.
“Oh my God, you can’t stand being away from him, can you?” Nyx shivered. “Not for me. I like my space. You know. You remember.” She slowly rolled off the bed, made her way to the balcony, and pulled open the sliding glass doors.
The view at night was breathtaking. She couldn’t wait to see what it looked like in the morning. She leaned her hip against the railing and waited for her friend to join her outside.
Talia’s hands rested on her stomach again.
The liquor was making Nyx’s brain function ten times slower. “You’re pregnant.” It wasn’t a question. She didn’t need Talia to confirm it. She’d said the words out loud more for herself than anything.
“Yes.” Talia sat down in the chair on the deck and looked out to the mountainside. “That’s another reason we’ve stayed here. Kai’s house is built with the most security. The only other place as secure is Kirin’s cave. The location is beautiful, but I’m not going to let him lock me away there, and Alida would go nuts not getting to see her uncles.”
Her friend had a family. Where will I fit into the puzzle when this is all done? Maybe calling Talia had been the wrong decision. No matter what, she would never have what her friend had. After constantly being on the run growing up, she didn’t want to put anyone through what she and her dad had to endure. Nyx wouldn’t get a happily ever after. She’d learned that years ago, when her mother was killed because of her gift.
“Stop,” Talia grumbled. “You deserve happiness, and someone in this house is taken with you.”
Images of the man rubbing her back flashed in Nyx’s mind, his crystal-blue eyes sometimes appearing almost violet. She remembered being cradled against his chest and feeling safe. He’d touched her, and she hadn’t seen his memories or what he was thinking. Maybe the alcohol had made her powers stop working.
Nyx walked over to the other chair on the deck and sat down. “How is it not cold out here?” Snow flurries were coming down, but it felt closer to seventy degrees.
“Don’t think I didn’t notice you trying to change the subject. To answer your question, magic. In layman’s terms, Kai has a bubble around his property. He also has a computer that’s very annoying.”
“That’s rude, Talia. I help protect you and your family.”
Nyx rested her head back against the chair. “I feel like I fell down a rabbit hole and came out at a different time. Maybe I’m still lying in your apartment unconscious, and this is all a dream. Because I swear I just heard someone else speak, and we’re out here alone.”
“I’m not a person, Ms. Casper. Kai built me to keep his family safe. Now that also includes you. Since you arrived, I’ve compiled a folder on you to help with your needs.”
“Antheia, please leave us alone. And this is not a dream.” Talia watched Nyx for a few seconds. “Can I ask you something?”
“Sure.”
“What happened when you were in his arms?”
Nyx let out a huff. “Are you going to tell me his name?”
“Nope, that is for him to tell you. Now answer the question.”
She didn’t know if it had been caused by the alcohol or her powers going on the fritz. Nothing had happened. She hadn’t experienced that with anyone. The first time she’d tried to have sex and her hands had touched Mickey, she’d seen his thoughts and accidentally projected them on the wall. It had been horrifying. He’d been thinking about his grandmother naked. Nyx had jumped off the bed, grabbed her things, and left. That hadn’t been the only time she’d had something like that happen during sex. That was why she only used a vibrator. Her vibrator didn’t have thoughts she would accidentally see while close to climax.
“My powers are off because of the tequila.”
Talia narrowed her eyes. “Is that really what you’re going with?”
“You know I can’t have what you have with Kirin,” Nyx whispered. “You know how hard it is for me to be around people to begin with.”
Talia sighed. “I thought the same thing, but it’s different when you find your mate.”
“No, it’s not. I can’t have kids,” Nyx murmured. “I’m not going to put a kid through what I went through growing up.”
“That was your parents’ choice, Nyx. I know I’m not going to change your mind in one conversation, but be open to the possibility of something more.”
What Talia wanted of her would lead to heartache, but she saw no point in arguing with her friend. She nodded. “I haven’t slept well in over a month. I’m going to go lie down and sleep for a few, then I’ll be on my way.”
“No, you won’t. We have to bring Gideon down, and we can’t do that without you.”
Nyx walked back into the room, crawled into the large bed, and pulled the white comforter up. When she inhaled, the scent reminded her of the man who’d been hovering over her. His piercing blue eyes came to her mind as she fell sleep.
4
Conley
Talia and Nyx had been behind the closed door for too long.
Conley took a long swig of his cold beer, but it did nothing to settle his dragon. His inner beast wanted him to march down the hall, throw the door open to his room, and demand Nyx talk to him. Hell, his dragon didn’t even care if she didn’t want him around.
It’s not happening. He rolled his neck to relieve some tension. Fifty-eight minutes ago, Talia had closed the bathroom door. Conley half listened to his brothers talk. Most of his attention was down the hall, waiting for Talia to walk out of his room.
Nyx was in his room. He heard the faint click of the door opening. Conley gripped his beer and worked not to run toward the room. One set of steps walked down the hall. From the short strides, he knew it was Talia.
Kirin pulled Talia into his arms when she walked into the kitchen. “Is she feeling any better?”
“No,” Talia said with a sigh. “She had way too much alcohol, and she’s still really drunk. I’m just happy we know where she is and that she’s alive.” She patted Kirin on the chest before stepping back and going to the fridge. Talia pulled out fruit and set it on the counter.
Kirin reached in the cupboard and brought down a couple of bowls. “Did she happen to mention how long Arrow has been helping her?”
“She didn’t say anything about Arrow being there, and I had no clue, so I didn’t ask.”
“You were in there for an hour,” Conley said as he looked at the clock on the stove. It was close to two o’clock in the morning, and it felt like he’d had three shots of espresso. He shifted his stance as he waited for Talia to tell them more.
“Nyx is drunk. It wasn’t like she was functioning on all cylinders. When she gets up in the morning, we can ask her questions, but we aren’t going to get anything we need tonight.”
“I was able to find Arrow’s phone number, and I sent him a cryptic message.” Kai popped a piece of fruit in his mouth before he continued. “I hope he understands what it means. I didn’t want to tell him too much in a text. You never know who could be watching or intercepting transmissions.”
“Don’t you miss the days when we would suit up in our armor and go fight to the death?” Kirin growled. “Now we have to worry about cellphones, GPS, and devices that take our powers away. Before, all I worried about was how strong the man I was going to fight was.”
Talia rolled her eyes. “It’s not the eighteen hundreds anymore.”
“I like technology,” Kai grumbled. “It makes life so much easier.”
“You like your computer-operated girlfriend.” Conley snickered.
“I’m not his girlfriend,” Antheia announced.
No matter how many times she spoke, Conley couldn’t get used to the computer. He still wasn’t sure if she would try and kill him while he was taking a shower. Since the rewrite, she hadn’t been calling his middle brother master anymore. Conley wasn’t completely sold on AI technology and never planned to have one in his house.
“My computer had a few bugs, but she’s back and better than ever.”
“Thank you for the complement, Kai.”
Lucy came walking into the kitchen. “Thank god she doesn’t call you master anymore.” Lucy glared up at the ceiling. “I’m still not sure she isn’t planning my murder and just sucking up to me by day.”
“I promise she won’t kill you.”
Lucy rolled her eyes before turning to Talia. “Is Nyx sleeping?”
Talia nodded. “Yes, she’s going to feel like shit in the morning. If she drank the tequila from my apartment, it was a bottle I found on clearance for five dollars. I’m sure it wasn’t anything good.”
Conley had had human friends get drunk and hungover over the years. They’d all loved greasy breakfasts when they’d woken up. He wasn’t the best cook, but he could make her an egg sandwich.
Kai’s phone buzzed on the counter.
“Looks like Arrow was taken because his message doesn’t correspond with what I sent. Someone is trying to set us up. We’re going to head downstairs and get some sleep. I have Antheia researching Arrow’s whereabouts for the past month. Hopefully that will give us more information because I highly doubt Nyx will have much for us.” Kai grabbed Lucy’s hand and headed out of the room.
“I’m still wondering why Arrow was helping,” Conley grumbled.
Kirin ran his hand through his hair. “Hopefully Kai’s wrong, and Nyx can tell us something tomorrow.”
“Did she say anything about me?” Conley blurted out after his middle brother and Lucy had left the room.
Talia’s hand stopped halfway to her mouth. “She’s not like you.”
A rumble came from his chest. His dragon didn’t understand why she wouldn’t want to spend time with him. “Clearly, she isn’t a shifter, but I know you felt the mating pull when you met Kirin. Lucy felt the same way when she met Kai.”
“I did feel things for Kirin the second I touched him. His whole life flashed before me, but it didn’t mean I just went with it. He wanted to take me in.”
Kirin let out a huff. “We aren’t sure I would’ve taken you in. Am I ever going to live that down?”
Kirin had been hired by the council to bring Talia and Alida in. At the time, Kirin had thought the council could do no wrong, but the more he’d stopped and questioned Talia’s case, the more things hadn’t added up. In the end, he’d helped Talia and Alida and hadn’t brought either of them in until he’d had proof that Alida hadn’t done anything wrong, but they hadn’t found enough evidence to prove Gideon was behind everything.
Over the past few months, they had gathered more evidence, but nothing had proved with one hundred percent certainty that Gideon was changing humans into shifters and using the device that blocked shifters’ powers.
“I forgive you, hun, but you better never doubt me again,” Talia said before standing on her tiptoes and placing a kiss on Kirin’s lips. “Nyx is going to need time. She’s never imagined settling down with anyone, and I’m not sure she’ll ever be able to settle down.”
“Why?”
Talia shrugged. “Because of her abilities.” She sat down on the stool across from him, and he could tell she was trying to figure out how to explain it.
He knew Nyx had done something to help Talia prove her innocence. He thought it had to do with projecting someone’s thoughts. “What are her abilities? Why would they prevent our union?” He frowned. None of it made sense. He had money. He had looks. He had a career. He was a damn catch. After meeting her, he didn’t care if she had powers or if she was human. If he’d been asked a day ago, he wouldn’t have been okay with a human mate, but after meeting Nyx, he didn’t care about anything other than wanting to know more about her.
“She is a projector. She can share my visions, whatever is going on in my head… with the world, or at least those in the room. Not only is it incredibly draining, but it’s also incredibly dangerous.” She took a deep breath. “She could be in danger because of it. Her mother had the same powers, and…”
“Had?”
Talia was quiet for a moment. “It’s not my story to tell. Nyx will need time. You can’t go charging in and demand she be your mate this second. Give her a couple of days or until this whole thing is over.”
If Talia didn’t want to tell him about Nyx’s mother, it had to be bad. Conley knew, no matter what, he would protect Nyx for the rest of her life. Nyx could be in constant danger. She could have her powers used against her. “Okay, slow.”
Kirin chuckled next to him. “You’ve never been good at waiting for anything. Growing up, you would open your gifts the second Mom put them under the tree.”
His brother was right. He hated waiting for anything. Judy, his mom, would hide his gifts until the last minute.
Earlier, when he’d wrapped Nyx in his arms, her powers hadn’t been active. He knew it wasn’t from the alcohol. It was because they were mates. Not too long ago, the council had used Talia for her powers even when she hadn’t wanted to help. He worried Gideon would try the same with Nyx. She might think she could conquer the world on her own, but she needed him more than she knew, and he would work his way into her heart.
“I’ll protect her,” Conley murmured. He stared at Talia to make sure she’d heard him. “She will be safe with me. I’ll keep her from harm and Gideon, which is mostly the same thing these days.” He blew out a steamy breath.
Talia reached out and squeezed his hand. “I know you’ll protect her, but go slow.”
“I’m perfect for her.”
Talia groaned. “All guys think that.”
He chuckled. “I’m a shield, Talia. I’m one of the few people in the world she can’t read. I’m one of the few in the world who can care for her and not be in danger. I’m her perfect mate.”
“That speech right there won’t work on her. Nyx wasn’t brought up like I was. She had a different… childhood. It’s not my place to say. Take a flight or go to sleep. Tomorrow we can get more answers to what happened these past few months, and maybe she has something that will help lead us to Gideon.”
“Talia’s right. Go for a flight. It will help clear your mind.” Kirin pulled Talia up from the kitchen chair. He gently placed his hand on Talia’s stomach. She wasn’t showing yet. “Let’s get you to bed.” He didn’t leave any room for her to say no or for Conley to ask more questions about Nyx. They both turned and walked out of the kitchen.
