Taste of Darkness (11 page)

Thankfully he returned her embrace, burying his face in her hair and inhaling deeply. “Victoria.”

The way he said that one word, like a prayer, made her grip him tighter. No matter what happened with his family or anything else, she was glad he had no problem leaning on her. Because she would never let him down.

* * *

Conall eyed the newcomers carefully, not making any aggressive moves. He didn’t need his weapons. Not when he could breathe fire. But he knew who these shifters were and fire wasn’t going to stop them.

Finn Stavros, powerful shifter leader of the Stavros pack. Gabriel, his Guardian, and two warriors with him. The female warrior made him do a double-take as the strangest vibrating sensation welled in his chest, but he kept his focus on the Alpha. He wasn’t going to be attacked because of stupidity.

The Alpha’s icy blue stare cut through Conall for a moment before Stavros looked at Bo Broussard, the owner of the club. A half-demon Stavros allowed to operate in his territory. It was interesting how many supernatural beings lived in harmony in this location. The Alpha was also mated to a blood-born vampire. Which was very interesting. It gave him hope they’d be able to negotiate together without violence.

“May we use your club to discuss a few things in private?” Stavros asked Broussard. Even though the shifter phrased it as a question it was clear to everyone the Alpha wasn’t asking.

Broussard sighed as if this was an everyday hassle and nodded. “Yeah. Grab anything you want from the bar too,” he said as he waved a hand at the ceiling.

Conall raised his eyebrows as the hole in the ceiling mended itself and the dusty mess on the floor vanished. When he glanced at Stavros it was clear the Alpha had never seen the half-demon do something like that. After he gave the gaping hole in the front door the same treatment, Broussard headed for a red door. When he reached it, he turned and looked at them. “Unless this place is on fire, I would appreciate it if no one disturbs me.” Without another word, he disappeared through the door, closing it softly behind him.

The four others pinned Conall and Keelin—who was being unusually quiet—with their stares.

Stavros stepped forward and nodded at the wall of empty booths. “Talk with us?” Again, not exactly a question.

Conall nodded. “Of course.”

Conall and Keelin sat in the rounded booth while the Alpha sat across from them. The three others stood nearby, giving them space. Against his will, Conall found his gaze drawn to the female with the wild hair and beautiful light mocha skin once more.

Her amber eyes were bright, her wolf gleaming in them as if she considered him an enemy. It shouldn’t have bothered him, but for some reason it did. He would analyze it and that annoying vibrating inside him later.

Frowning, he looked at Stavros. “We apologize for entering your territory without asking. Circumstances prevented it.”

“Why were you flying over my compound early this morning?” The question was casual as the Alpha threw an arm back against his side of the booth. But there was no denying the edge to his words, not when his wolf glittered in his eyes.

Conall’s frown deepened and he glanced at his sister. They hadn’t gone anywhere near the Alpha’s compound in dragon form. “Neither I nor my sister have flown over your compound. Ever.”

The male’s eyes narrowed a fraction, but Conall wasn’t lying and wouldn’t put off the acidic scent associated with an untruth. “Then who was it?”

“I don’t know.” But if there was another dragon in the territory, that concerned him greatly. No one knew why his brother had been locked in Hell or who had done it. Of course no one knew he’d been locked there in the first place until months ago. “What did this dragon look like?”

“Cobalt blue body, white-gold wings.” A succinct response.

Conall liked that the Alpha didn’t make small talk. In order to gain this male’s trust to a certain degree he needed to be forthright. Which meant revealing more about his kind than he cared to do, but it was necessary to bring his brother home. “That sounds like a Moana dragon. They live near the water, but make their homes on land. My clan is not at war with them. Was the dragon hostile?”

Stavros shook his head.

“They’re the least violent of all of our kind,” Keelin said, her voice shaky and he could guess why. She was still reeling from their brother’s anger toward them. “They wouldn’t attack without a reason. It’s possible they heard about a dragon living here with a shifter pack and were simply curious.”

Keelin had been so excited and hopeful to find their brother and likely hadn’t expected the reception they’d just had. Not that he blamed his brother. And he knew without a doubt after seeing the male that they were related. Even if they didn’t look so similar, he felt the connection in his bones. Once he discovered who’d put his brother in Hell, he was going to avenge him and make the guilty party suffer for an eternity.

“Why did it take you so long to come for your brother?” The way Stavros said the word
brother
made it sound as if he didn’t believe they were actually related.

Conall reined in his anger, but Keelin shifted against the seat, her agitation clear. “We couldn’t exactly take out an ad online,” she snapped. The mini outburst was unlike her. Normally she was the most diplomatic of everyone in their clan.

“I thought you
felt
him.” There was a slight edge of sarcasm in his voice.

“We did, when he reemerged into the world. But we’re not telepathically connected on a continuous basis.” Conall’s throat tightened as he thought of how long his brother had been locked away. How none of them had known, had just been living their lives. Well, that wasn’t exactly true. Their parents had gone into a deep sleep hundreds of years ago, their mother still mourning the loss of her oldest son and unable to take the grief. Conall wondered if she knew he was back. He’d never gone into a Protective Hibernation before so he wasn’t sure how connected sleeping dragons were to the rest of their clan. Though he doubted she or his father knew about Drake’s re-emergence. They would have returned by now.

“What do you want with him now?” Stavros demanded.

He blinked at the question. “To bring him home where he belongs. We are his family, his clan.” And he was next in line to rule since their father was in a Protective Hibernation and had stepped down. Conall was the current leader of their clan but would give the position to his brother. It was rightfully his.

“You didn’t do a very good job of protecting him before,” the one named Gabriel said, his voice dry.

Before Conall could respond, Keelin jumped up, shoving the round table in the half-moon shaped booth out of their way so that nothing separated them and the Alpha. But her ire was directed at Gabriel as her eyes burned like liquid silver. “I was five and my brother was ten! He was our protector, our big brother. Then he was just gone one day. We didn’t know or we would have razed this entire fucking planet to the ground to find him.” The bitter words from his peaceful sister rattled him.

Even if they were true.

Conall tensed as the male stared at his sister with an unreadable expression. Conall remained still, waiting to strike, but Gabriel gave one short nod and said, “I apologize.”

Still humming with anger, Keelin didn’t respond as she sat back down. She’d come out of a deep sleep a year ago and was still adjusting to this world. Sometimes he wondered if she’d been too sheltered. But that sure as hell wasn’t the issue he needed to worry about now.

“What’s your clan name? And what’s Drake’s real name?” The Alpha had barely moved from his position, even when Keelin had freaked out. As he spoke again, every line in his body was pulled taut.

“I’ll not tell you my clan name before I’ve spoken to my brother again.” As for Drake’s name, that was an odd question. “His name
is
Drake. Dragos after our father, but we called him Drake for short.”

The Alpha’s mouth curved up the tiniest fraction but it was the beautiful female who laughed. “Holy shit. Looks like Vega was pretty spot on.”

Conall frowned at the Alpha. “What does she mean?” he asked, refusing to look at the female. She was too much of a distraction.

Stavros’s stare was intense. “When Drake came out of Hell he didn’t know his name or much about his history. I didn’t realize it at the time though. Vega, my daughter, covered for him and told us his name was Drake.”

The sharpest sense of sadness invaded Conall. His brother hadn’t remembered his own name? Oh yes, whoever had put his brother in Hell was going to pay. He was going to strip away everything the guilty party cared for and make sure they suffered as Drake had.

Chapter Nine

Victoria was careful driving back to the mansion, even putting the SUV on cruise control when she could so her lead foot wouldn’t get out of control. Drake didn’t seem to notice though.

After he’d told her about that horrible memory, he’d been even quieter than normal. They’d sat watching the water for a while before taking a long walk down the beach strip then cutting through one of the historic neighborhoods and walking around the small downtown area of shops. He hadn’t talked much, not about anything important anyway. Certainly not about his supposed siblings.

But she was pretty sure he wanted to. Just as she was certain they were related to him. The other male, whose name she still needed to find out, looked too damn similar to Drake for there not to be a familial link.

As they pulled up to a red light, she tapped her finger against the steering wheel.

“What’s wrong?” Drake asked, turning away from looking out the passenger side window.

“When I went to Bo’s he told me about a blood-born vampire in Tennessee who might know more about dragons. He said the male was bat shit crazy—his words, not mine—but might be able to help with information on dragons. He also said to take backup, meaning you.”

“That’s why you went to see him?”

She nodded. “I didn’t tell anyone because the pack still tries to coddle me sometimes. I just wanted to do what I needed to do, then come back to the mansion. Without an escort.” Even though she was a grown woman who’d used her healing gift on most of them at one time or another, they treated her like a seventeen year old cub sometimes. It was because she was in her twenties where most of them were decades older. In some cases older than that. Just because she understood their reasoning didn’t mean it wasn’t annoying. She loved that Drake had never treated her that way. “I knew Bo would be more willing to talk if it was just me.”

Drake’s eyes flicked to silver, as if a switch had been flipped. “Thank you.”

As a feeling of warmth spread through her at those two simple words, a horn blasted behind them, making her jump in her seat. As she pressed on the gas, she decided to just say what she needed to say. “So what are you going to do? About your alleged siblings?”

“I don’t know. I want to go see the vampire in Tennessee.”

“But you now have two dragons who could probably answer all your questions.” She understood he was feeling betrayed and probably a whole host of other emotions, but Victoria was good at reading people and the agony she’d seen on those dragon’s faces had been real.

He shrugged, the action stiff. “They could lie. I want to speak to an impartial being.”

Drake had that tone of voice that told her arguing would be pointless. And the truth was, she didn’t want to argue with him. Not about this. His life, his decision; she just wanted to support him. “Okay. I’m going with you. When do you want to leave?” She didn’t care how soon. The pack would learn to live without her. They finally had a lead on dragons—other than the ones right in their city—and she wanted to jump on it.

His answer was immediate. “As soon as possible.”

“Today?”

He nodded. “How long do you think it will take us to reach the place?”

She’d looked up the coordinates on her phone when they’d stopped at a café downtown to grab more coffee and it wasn’t too bad of a drive. “It’s eleven now and it’ll likely take us an hour to pack and say goodbye to everyone.” Meaning convince her Alpha and Gabriel to let them do this without an entourage. Drake wouldn’t want that and she didn’t either. It was time to spread her wings a bit more. “So if we leave around noon and factoring in gas stops, I’d say we can make it by ten, ten thirty.”

Which would give them a lot more alone time. Something she was craving, especially since she knew he wanted her as much as she wanted him. It would also give them enough time to catch some Zs before hunting down the vampire early in the morning. If this vamp was blood-born he was naturally powerful so going early would make more sense. They wanted to catch him when he couldn’t go outside. Of course it was possible he could, but day walkers were incredibly rare.

“You’re sure you don’t mind?” His voice was hesitant, his posture stiff.

She didn’t like it. “Drake, this thing between us, it’s not casual.” Obviously. She still couldn’t put into words exactly how she felt. Not out loud anyway. She was terrified that if she did, she’d lose him. After being abandoned by her aunt and uncle when she was ten, she didn’t like to take anything for granted, least of all this thing with Drake. “Would you let me go off by myself?”

“No. But you have a pack, a family.” Again with the hesitancy.