“Icould.” I twirl a strand of my hair around my finger. “But if Maggard is keeping a close eye on us, he’ll be able to feel me pass briefly through the demon realm to get to your hoard in Switzerland. If we want to maintain the element of surprise, we should stay under his radar as much as possible until we’re ready to face him.”
“Okay, so we’ll shift and fly,” Tino says. “He can’t sense that, right?”
I shake my head. “No, demons don’t have any way to sense a shift. Obviously, he could follow us unseen, but that’s going to be a risk regardless of how we travel.”
“We’ll stay alert,” Tino says, rubbing his thumb over the back of my hand. The comforting gesture is so small I doubt he even realizes he’s doing it, but it softens places inside of me that I previously thought were made of impenetrable stone.
Could this really be more than hot sex with a fiery beast? Could this dragon be my mate? My insides stir and my skin heats against his, searing his palm and unintentionally drawing his dragon back to the surface.
I can feel the weight of Lord’s gaze on the two of us. Glancing over, I catch him staring at our joined hands. The tight hold he has on his emotions slips just long enough for me to taste theflavors of desperation, longing, and just the slightest bitter hint of jealousy before he drags in a deep breath and stifles them.
He clears his throat and sits up a little straighter. “That’s decided, then. We’ll get prepared to face Maggard while you three go to Switzerland. Once you return, we’ll decide when exactly we want to go after him.” Lord stands up and smooths out his suit jacket with both hands. “I have a few calls to make that are unrelated to this, so if you’ll all excuse me.”
He strides out of the room, and the brothers all exchange looks.
“When this is all over, we need to chip in to get him a rent boy for a long weekend or something, because dude has gonewaytoo long without getting laid,” Arson says.
Draydon snorts. “I don’t think sex is what he’s pouting about.”
“What then?” Valentino asks, frowning.
Dempsey raises both eyebrows and Lake tuts out a laugh while I pat Valentino’s knee with my free hand. None of the brothers seem to have picked up on the vibe that the rest of us clearly have. Poor, dumb lizards. Not every species can be as smart as demons. At least they’re hot.
Dahlia opens the leather satchel that’s slung over her shoulder and rifles around inside of it for a minute. The sound of gentlytinkingglass catches my ears. Eventually, she pulls out a vial with swirling blue liquid inside of it.
“Here you go.” She tosses the bottle towards us. Valentino catches it easily. “Each of you take a sip of that and the binding spell will evaporate.”
He stares at the vial for a few seconds, turning it over in his hand.
“So, if we drink this and we can still feel each other’s emotions, does that mean…?”
The witch holds up both hands. “Fated mate shit is so far above my pay grade it’s not even funny. Witches carry mate marks that tell us when we’ve met our cosmic match. If I were the rest of you, I’d take this ambiguous shit up with a higher power, but that’s just me.” She stands up and twists her hair into a messy knot at the base of her neck to get it out of the way. “I have to make sure I’m stocked up on what we’ll need to face off with Maggard. Be careful.” She gives us a little salute, and then disappears just like Lord did.
Valentino frowns, then sighs.
“Well, we have to break this spell either way, so we might as well do it,” he says. Bringing the bottle towards his mouth, he uses his teeth to yank the cork out, then gulps down a quick shot of it. He wrinkles his nose and licks his lips before passing the vial to me.
I tilt my head back and swallow the rest of it down. It leaves a rancid flavor on my tongue for just a minute, and then I feel heat weaving its way through me, loosening the invisible tethers that were holding me to my dragon. All but one…
The unseen cord stretching from my chest to Valentino’s hums just as strongly as it did before we broke the spell. Does that mean…?
He clears his throat and stands up quickly.
“It’s better if we don’t waste any time. Let’s pack up whatever we need for a quick trip and then hit the sky.”
Mac nods in agreement, and everyone else gets up and files out of the living room too, each of the dragons reminding us to be careful and watch out for the baby dragon. I fight the urge to roll my eyes at their concern. With the twerp it’s obviously not misplaced. For all we know, halfway to Switzerland, he might get a wild hair up his ass to go steal the treasure of a sea witch, and we’ll be the ones trying to rein him back in.
Tino and Mac agree to meet for takeoff on the edge of the forest at the back of their compound in an hour. Then, we head back to Tino’s house so I can pack a bag. I watch my dragon out of the corner of my eye all the way back to his home, but neither of us say a word. His emotions twang at the connection between us, like he’s plucking a guitar string just to see what will happen.
Feeling him this way is different from smelling or tasting or even gorging myself on his emotions. It should be less satisfying, but it’s actually more. I can feel the subtle reverberation and hum of every shift in his emotions, except they’re muted, like listening to a conversation through a thick wall.
In spite of feeling him in my chest and the advantage my incubus powers give me, I don’t have a clue what Valentino is thinking. His expression is impassive, and although the back of his hand brushes mine as we make our way up the stairs, he never reaches for me. Maybe I’m not the mate he was hoping for.
That thought makes laughter bubble in my throat instantly.
Please. Anyone, dragon, demon, or otherwise should fall on their knees and thank the gods to have me as their fated mate. We stop outside my bedroom door and Tino cocks his head curiously at my outburst.
I wave him off. “Just thinking of something funny. Now, I don’t have much time to pack, so don’t you dare distract me, deliciae,” I say, leaning in closer, teasing him with the barely there brush of my lips over his.
