"Of course I will." Yelena bopped him on the nose. "You're the only one who gets me, silly. I can't lose a friend like that."
Valentine narrowed his eyes. "You chain all your friends to the bed?"
"Only my very special ones," she teased and bit her lip. "Why? Does that thought make you jealous?"
Yes. Valentine fought the growl that wanted to burst from his chest. "I don't know about jealous. Definitely murderous. See? Maybe me becoming more dragon is a bad idea."
Yelena moved and brought her face close to his. "Or the very best of ideas."
"I don't know if I should be more worried about my dragon or you," he whispered.
Yelena's smirk sent a thrill through his whole body. "Always be more worried about me." She lowered her head to kiss him when someone banged on the door to her chambers. Her eyes shimmered silver. "Damn it. They have found us. Better put some clothes on. We are about to have company."
Valentine sat up and found his shirt. His pants didn't survive her shredding. Yelena only blushed and laughed when he held up the scraps. She took a fresh linen towel from her bathroom and handed it to him.
"Put this on. You'll be fine," she said, an evil little gleam in her eye.
"I'm going to get you back for this," Valentine promised and tied the towel around his lower half like a sarong.
Yelena wrapped a floor-length robe about herself and somehow looked put together and amazing.
Valentine ran his hands through his hair to smooth it back and followed her out into the main area.
"Yelena Caelan Tuadach, if you don't open this door this minute, I will break it down!" Emyr shouted through the wood.
Yelena laughed and opened the door. Emyr and Avallach were on the other side, and both looked pissed. Their eyes fell on Valentine and his general state of undress, and whatever they were going to say died on their lips.
"What?" Valentine asked, crossing his arms.
"Well, I suppose that answers the question of where you went. Reeve was worried because your room hadn't been sleptin. We thought you might have run off," Emyr said, coming into the room.
"He knew I was helping Yelena," Valentine replied. His family loved to overreact. He was surprised they hadn't tried to put a tracker on him after Apollo's kidnapping.
"Look what Val made me!" Yelena said, high-pitched and excited. She showed off her hand like some women would show off an engagement ring. Both Avallach and Emyr immediately closed in on her, hammering her with questions about it, turning it this way and that to study it.
"Is there a reason you two came banging on the door this early?" Valentine asked. He would have liked at least another hour in bed, preferably with Yelena naked beside him. Or under him. Or on top of him.
Avallach looked up. "It's almost noon."
"We didn't go to sleep until late," Yelena said with a shrug.
"I bet," Emyr chuckled, and Valentine narrowed his eyes. "Oh, come on, you aren't even wearing pants right now."
Yelena beamed. "I shredded them! They are mine now."
"And this whole place smells of sex," Avallach added, wrinkling his nose. "We are dragons. You can't hide anything from us."
Valentine fought the blush that was trying to force its way up his neck. Yelena wasn't the least bit embarrassed, so he didn't know why he was. "Do you have a point?"
"We aren't shaming you, Val. Calm down," Emyr said, rolling her eyes. "After you went insane trying to get her back, we knew it was only a matter of time."
"And the reason why you're here is..." Valentine prompted. He wasn't going to talk about sex with Yelena. It was no one’s damn business.
"Midir has agreed to a meeting at dusk. Taranis wants you both to be there, and for Midir to know he's failed," Avallachreplied, a feral gleam in his eyes. "I will never forget what he did to Yelena and me, but I will wait until it won't start a war before I get my revenge."
It was sometimes hard to remember that Avallach was the oldest of the knights. He was always quick with a joke and a smile, but according to Killian, Avallach was a legend through all of Faerie for his utter ruthlessness in battle.
"We will be there. Valentine is going to help me experiment with my new hand out of the city first," Yelena said with a nod of her head.
