“Drakon’s men?” Roarke asked.

  “Yes.” I pressed a hand to the wound at my side, immediately cringing as pain flared. Right, bad idea. “Let’s get inside.”

  Ares held out an arm, letting me lean on him. I got the sense he wanted to sweep me into his arms—that was a real Ares thing to do, I was learning—but that was a shitty idea with a wound like mine.

  By the time we made it to the green door that was only fifteen feet away, the bodies of our attackers were no more than tiny piles of dust that would blow away on the wind.

  I let us into the building and then made the laborious climb to my apartment door, grateful that I was on the first floor.

  Del and Cass waited on the landing, faces pale and worried.

  “Are you okay?” Cass asked.

  “Yeah. Beaker is fine,” I said.

  “I meant you, dummy.” She nodded to my wound. “That’s ugly.”

  A wry grin twisted my mouth. “Thanks. Ruined my hot dog shirt.”

  “I’ll get you a new one,” Del said.

  Cass pushed open my apartment door and held it open. I staggered through, dropping heavily onto the couch. My arms shook as I held up the box. “Check the beaker.”

  Del took it and the key I then handed her. She set the box on the coffee table and knelt, then unlocked the padlock and lifted the lid. A sigh escaped me at the sight of the unbroken beaker still nestled in its custom foam bedding. “Thank fates. They didn’t get it.”

  Ares knelt at my side, his hand lifting my jacket away from the wound. “This is deep. Three claw marks.”

  “Are they poisoned?” Cass asked.

  “Don’t know.” I gritted my teeth. “Burns like hell, though.”

  “I’ll heal you.” Ares raised a wrist to his mouth, ready to bite.

  “No!” I held up a hand. “No, I’ve already had too much.”

  I was worried about the side effects from his blood. “Aidan, can you heal me?” His gifts came with no side effects.

  “Yes.” Aidan stepped forward.

  Possessiveness—or something like it—flared in Ares’s eyes and his knuckles whitened. His jaw hardened, as if he didn’t like the idea of another man touching or healing me, but then he nodded and leaned back, a frown of resignation on his face. I reached for his hand. At least he could control his inner cave man.

  Ares squeezed my hand, then released it and moved away so that Aidan could kneel at my side. His dark hair gleamed in the light as he leaned over me and hovered his hand over my wounds. Warmth flowed from his palm, soothing the burning ache until it faded to nothing. My muscles finally relaxed as the pain dissipated.

  The lack of agony was pleasure in itself.

  Aidan sat back. “That should do it.”

  I leaned up and peered at my side, nudged the torn shirt away until I could see that my flesh was once again unbroken. “Thanks.”

  “I don’t think they were after the beaker,” Del said.

  My gaze darted to her. She still knelt by the box.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Even after the demon stole the box, all the rest kept going for you. It was easier to see the pattern from up above.”

  “I’m with Del,” Cass said. “Drakon’s men were after you, not the beaker.”

  “Well, maybe both,” Del said. “But they were definitely after you.”

  I slumped back against the couch, my mind racing. “Damn.”

  “Why?” Ares demanded.

  Del and Cass shrugged. “No idea.”

  I scrubbed a hand over my face. “Why now? Why me?”

  “Maybe because you’re the one who chased him up the stairs at his compound and made him evacuate?” Cass asked. “It’s not the best theory, but it’s all I’ve got right now.”

  “All I’ve got too,” Del said. “He saw you, though. You were the biggest threat to him.”

  “Well, he now knows where we live,” I said.

  “How’d he find that out?” Ares asked.

  “Powerful guy like him…” I said.

  “But he can’t get into the building,” Cass said. “The protections are too strong.”

  “I’ll stay the night with you,” Ares said.

  Pleasure flared in my chest at his words, followed quickly by worry.

  After an injury like the one I’d just had, and as exhausted as I was, I wanted nothing more than to visit my trove. It was like a hunger inside me, something I couldn’t ignore. And even though I trusted him, I couldn’t invite him up there. Not yet.

  My trove was private. The most personal thing in my life.

  “Thank you, but not tonight. You already said you had to go back to the Vampire Court for something important. Do that. I’ll be with these guys.” I gestured to Cass and Del. “And no one can get in here, truly. We already had great security, and Aidan amped it up by a thousand a few months ago.”

  “I insist.” He knelt by my side, eyes worried. That softness was such a contrast to the hardened shell that he always wore.

  As much as I wanted to be with him—he was complex. My feelings for him were complex. The situation was freaking complex. And I needed to heal. To rest amongst my trove to get to one hundred percent strength.

  Being with Ares… it certainly wasn’t restful.

  I had to be ready for whatever came at me. I didn’t have time for distractions. Not now.

  I reached for his hand, squeezing it. “Thank you. But go do your business in the Vampire realm. It’s important, right? And I’ll be safe here.”

  His eyes flickered, indecision clearly warring within him. Finally, his mouth flat and his gaze resigned, he nodded. “I’ll be back in the morning. Don’t leave the apartment until I return.”

  I almost snapped at him that I knew how to take care of myself, but I bit my tongue. He meant well by it. I wouldn’t make a habit of letting him tell me what to do, but right now, if it made him comfortable enough to give me the space I needed…

  “Okay.” I nodded, squeezing his hand once more. “Go do your thing.”

  He pressed a gentle kiss to my forehead, sending heat streaking through me at a most inappropriate time, then leaned down and whispered raggedly in my ear, “Be careful.”

  I sucked in a ragged breath and met his gaze. Go. Don’t go.

  I didn’t know what to say.

  But he saved me from that by standing and nodding to the others, then leaving.

  I swallowed hard and turned to my friends. “Thanks for having our backs out there.”

  “Anytime.” Concern shadowed Cass’s eyes. “You need anything?”

  “Just a shower and a nap. Then let’s start fresh tomorrow.”

  “Well, you call us if you need us,” Del said.

  I smiled at her. “Always.”

  I didn’t look in the mirror as I went into the bathroom to shower. The memory of the blood splattering on my face was enough to remind me that I didn’t actually want to see my reflection.

  Despite Aidan’s healing ability, all my muscles ached as I leaned into the crummy old shower to crank on the water. Though my deirfiúr and I put vast quantities of loot into our troves, you’d never know it from the way our apartments looked.

  As the shower heated up, I leaned my aching body against the small sink counter and stared at the box holding the beaker. I’d brought it into the shower for paranoia’s sake, really, because once it was within the building, it was safe.

  Mordaca was right. It was an unassuming thing, to be so powerful and coveted. Now I just had to figure out the potion that would allow me to use it. Because damned if I didn’t want to understand the prophecy about dragons. Real dragons were supposed to be dead. Gone. So what did Drakon want with them? Whatever it was, I couldn’t let him have it.

  But we had so little to go on. Our clues were hardly even clues. Was I really capable of this? I knew so little about my past and my magic. My qualifications… Not impressive.

  Suddenly, I realized that steam had filled the room and warmed my cheeks. I’d been staring at the beaker too long and wallowing in self-doubt. That would get me nowhere. I shoved the miserable thought away.

  My muscles twinged as I shrugged out of my clothes and climbed into the water. Showering was a chore and the water ran pink—gross—but I was glad to finally be clean.

  I was moving like a sloth by the time I shut off the water. As quickly as I could, which wasn’t very quickly at all, I dried off and pulled on a fluffy robe.

  With the box containing the beaker tucked under my arm, I climbed the stairs to my trove. It was only three flights up, but it felt like a hundred. Though my wound was closed, every inch of me hurt.

  By the time I climbed up into the greenhouse, I was anxious to be amongst my treasures. It was more than my normal excitement over visiting my trove. This felt like a compulsion.

  A need to be in my garden.

  I shut the door behind me and turned to face my treasures.

  The jungle spread out around me, plants sitting on tables and dangling from the ceiling. Vines and leaves and flowers filled the space, drinking the water that dripped from the custom irrigation system I’d installed. Whenever the water turned on, it felt like it was raining and I loved it.

  Every muscle in my body relaxed just being here, loosening like I’d been to an hour-long massage. I grinned at the sight of my three cars, sitting on the other side of the jungle and out of reach of the sprinkler system. But it was the plants that called me this time.

  I walked toward a table full of orchids. Their blooms were a riot of colors—pink, yellow, orange, white. It was strange, but as I walked, I almost felt stronger. As if some of the exhaustion and muscle aches from my wounds were fading.

  The deep need that I’d had to be up here—the one that had made me banish Ares from the house—had settled somewhat, curling up in my chest like a snoozing kitten.

  I set the box containing the beaker on the table, finding a space between two pots containing dragonfruit plants. Their thick green stalks supported strange red fruit that looked like something Dr. Seuss might have invented. I’d worked my butt off for this place, putting every penny I had into building my greenhouse.

  I loved my plants. And I was almost sure they loved me. Even now, it seemed like the dragonfruit plants were leaning toward me.

  I shook my head, trying to clear the image. That was too weird. Had to be the exhaustion. We’d been going straight for nearly two days after our last big sleep. I was due for a nap.

  I strolled by the plants, running my fingertips over leaves and petals. It almost felt like energy flowed into me.

  I made my way toward the Firebird, slipping inside the red car and leaning back against the seat to gaze out at my own personal paradise.

  It wasn’t long before my eyelids slid closed, lulled by the sense of rightness that I felt just being here. As I drifted in the hazy state between wakefulness and sleep, an errant thought tugged at my mind.

  Something was up with my magic. Particularly around plants. I didn’t know what it was, but something new seemed to be coming online…

  At first, I didn’t realize that it was a dream.

  I was back in the Monster’s dungeon, in the lair of the man who’d stolen me away from my family. In the place where I’d first met Cass and Del, when we’d been so young. Children still, all of fourteen.

  Too young for the horror of stone floors and walls that dripped with water. Too young for the echoes of the screams of those down the hall. Too young to be holed up in a place with no light and only rats for company.

  But that didn’t matter. I was back there anyway, unable to escape.

  My heart thundered in my chest, an aching beat that hurt my ribs. Sweat chilled my skin despite the cool air of the dungeon. I gripped the stone floor upon which I sat, digging my fingernails into the crevices in the stone.

  I was alone.

  Cass and Del had not yet been brought here. Though I was within the dream, I was separate, watching. I tried to maintain that, to remain an observer, but I was dragged back into the mind of my fourteen-year-old self.

  Dry sobs wracked my chest, but no tears poured from my eyes. I’d run out of tears long ago. Ever since they’d stolen me from my life, along with my mother and father. Weeks ago, a month? I had no idea. I’d lost track of time in this dark dungeon.

  Come for me, Mum and Da.

  But they couldn’t hear my prayers. They’d have come if they could. They’d been stolen along with me—but they were so strong and fierce. Of course they could break free and come for me. They were my world. They could do anything.

  Except it’d been so long. Ages that I’d been in the darkness, eating whatever gruel was shoved through the slot in the door. And my parents were nowhere to be seen. My strong, brave parents.

  They weren’t coming.

  Since I’d been put in this room, I hadn’t seen a single soul besides the guard who occasionally pushed food into the room.

  Loneliness clawed at my chest. All I could hear was my own ragged breath, filling the horrible stone room where the men had thrown me.

  I squeezed my eyes closed and tried to envision my home. Though it frightened me—how could I not be frightened of what was happening there?—I would give anything to return to my family and friends. It was better than this. Anything was better than this.

  I curled in a ball against the stone wall, wishing for them with a ferocity that made my stomach ache. What had happened to them? Would they ever come for me? Would I ever be free?

  4

  I woke with a start the next morning. Though there was a crick in my neck, the rest of my body felt rejuvenated and fresh. The nightmare that had haunted my dreams was a distant memory, leaving only a lingering sadness and fear.

  For my old home? Why would I be afraid of my own home? Or so damned sad? It’d been like a quicksand pulling me down, a grief so deep I couldn’t understand it. And I’d been so young when I’d been stolen away. How could a child feel so much?

  Fates, I wished I had answers. Del and Cass had gotten theirs, learning about their pasts over the last year. But the mystery of my past still haunted me, an open wound that wouldn’t heal.

  But I had nothing. What I wouldn’t give to learn what had happened to my family. I wanted it more than almost anything in the world.

  Sun streamed through the glass roof, a shaft bright against my face. I blinked, thrusting away the sad memories and gazing out upon my trove. In the morning sun, the blooms blazed with light. It was one of my favorite times, when I could really see all the beauty that I’d worked so hard to create.

  I climbed out of the car and collected the box containing the beaker. One last time, I ran my fingertips over the leaves and petals as I walked toward the staircase.

  Though the sprinkler system would keep my plants alive, they needed some serious TLC soon. I loved pruning and trimming and fertilizing. Planting and sprouting and transferring. All of it fed my soul. But lately, I’d been so preoccupied with the task ahead of me that my garden had been faltering. My soul had been faltering. Even being away from the shop, my calm oasis in the madness of the world, was making me itchy.

  If I wanted to get back to any of this, I needed to finish this and take down Drakon. Or I’d never get my life back.

  I took the stairs two at a time, descending to my apartment.

  I showered quickly, then dressed in my usual motorcycle boots and jeans, topping it with a vintage Wonder Woman T-shirt. Just as I was tugging on my jacket and dreaming of a coffee from P&P, a pebble clattered against my window.

  Ares.

  He still didn’t have access to the green door that allowed entrance to the building. I went to the window to check, grinning when I saw him standing on the sidewalk. He held a small package in his hand.

  I gave him a thumbs-up, then grabbed the beaker box and slipped the strap over my head. I’d had to conjure a new strap and had been sure to make this one extra thick.

  Rejuvenated from my R&R, I took the stairs two at a time. At the bottom, I pushed open the door and stepped out into the cool morning air. Ares stood about ten feet down the sidewalk, talking to a man I didn’t recognize. I turned toward them, the box clutched to my chest, memories of the attack last night still fresh in my mind.

  Ares turned toward me, a smile in his eyes.

  Out of the corner of my eye, the air shimmered with an opalescent sheen. It pulled at me, a magnet. Time slowed as I turned toward it, every second stretching to a minute. I felt every molecule in the air against my skin, heard the slowed-down chirping of the birds. But my gaze was fully riveted on the shimmering air in front of me.

  Hunger yawned inside me. It had to be a portal.

  My dragon sense tugged hard toward the gateway, the fiercest it’d ever been.

  My mind zeroed in on one fact—answers lay within. So many answers to questions I’d held for so long. How I knew that, I had no idea. But I did.

  Maybe it was my dragon sense, which was screaming for me to step into the portal. I’d never wanted anything so badly in all my life. It consumed me, forcing away thoughts of the beaker, Drakon, my life on earth.

  This was what I wanted.

  So I did it, stepping into the shimmering light.

  Immediately, the world went wild around me. Wind and rain and snow and hot summer air buffeted me as trees and oceans and deserts shimmered in the distance. It was everything at once, and I was spinning through it like a top.

  This was nothing like transporting, which was always dark. This was a sensory explosion that short-circuited my mind. I tried to scream, but the vacuum of space stole the breath straight from my lungs.

  A second later, the portal ejected me, throwing me onto the ground. The air whooshed out of me as the box dug into my gut, my vision going temporarily blind while I adjusted to the dim light after the brightness of the portal.

  I blinked, scrambling upright with the box clutched to my chest.

  Where the heck was I? And had I really just stepped into that portal?

 

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