Dragon Mine (A Hidden Novella) (7 page)

E
lle and Kirin trudged up the stairs to the second floor and their bedrooms. She could see that he was trying to hide how painful each step was. “I could ask Nana to heal us, but then I’d have to admit we went to the factory.”

“Nothing a hot shower and a few hours of sleep can’t fix.”

She remembered hot showers with Kirin. She didn’t want to, but she did.

He checked her over. “Unless there’s something you’re not telling me.”

“No, I’m just sore. Bruised.” Aching inside.

She paused at her bedroom door. “Esmerelda will be here in the morning to fix breakfast and clean. If you’re awake, come down and eat.”

They’d grabbed dinner at a Pollo Tropical, eating Cuban chicken, black beans, and rice in the car rather than subjecting others to their scraped-up, dirty selves. Neither of them was hungry, but Kirin insisted they eat anyway. Now she was glad they had.

Except she felt hungry for something else. For Kirin’s arms around her as she floated into sleep, making her feel safe and loved and a few other things that had nothing to do with sleep.

“Good night,” she said, forcing herself to go into her room and close the door.

The space she’d lived in as a teenager still bore her painted daisies on its maroon walls. Like mother, like daughter with her teenaged flower obsession. Elle wished she was that girl again, her biggest problem falling for the forbidden boy who worked at the factory.

She stripped out of her clothes, catching her reflection in the bathroom mirror. No, being a grown up was good. Even with her bruises, both inside and out. She flicked on the shower and didn’t even wait until it was hot to step beneath the water.

After drying off, she wrapped herself in a silk robe. She dug through the bathroom cabinet and found the cream she always used on bruises and scrapes. Concocted by Nana, it was an amazing mix of herbs and magick and not nearly as disgusting as Earthen. Elle went down the hall to the guest room and knocked.

“Come in.”

His voice was muffled. She saw why when she opened the door. He was lying face-down on the bed, still damp from his shower. Droplets dotted his broad back and pooled in the indent of his spine, but it was the swath of raw-looking skin that riveted her attention.

He turned his head at her soft intake of breath. “Sorry; should have warned you I was naked.”

“No, it’s…your back.”

“Looks worse than it feels.”

She walked in. “Then why aren’t you lying on it?”

“All right, it hurts like a bitch. Fighting mostly naked is right under frying fish naked. Bad idea. I’m not used to fighting in human form.”

She held up the jar. “I’ve got some cream that might help.”

“You’re an angel. Throw a sheet over my bare ass, would you? Don’t want to be immodest.”

“I don’t care.” She let her gaze drift down to his narrow hips and tight behind. Okay, she cared. She had touched this body many times, reveling in the fact that this gorgeous man was hers. That he wanted her, only her. His golden complexion glowed in the light. His arms were bent, hands beneath his head, flexing his biceps. She focused on opening the jar before he saw that she was staring at him.

“Will it hurt?” he asked, though he didn’t sound worried.

“Oh, it’ll be painful.” To touch him and not
touch
him. “But nothing you can’t handle.”

As she lathered on the cream, she thought about his claim that wanting her was more than just the sex. Was he telling the truth? She could use her ability to sense him and find out. First she had to get him thinking about it. She smoothed her fingers down his back. His muscles stiffened and then relaxed. The scrapes’ redness lessened within seconds.

“When you said you still dreamed about me…did you mean that?”

“I’ve never lied to you, Elle. Not about how I felt.”

She laid her hand on his back and closed her eyes. Images buffeted her, and she had to hold back her sharp intake of breath and the way her body jerked. She saw herself in his eyes, beautiful and perfect. And now, right now, she felt how her touch coursed through his body with pleasure and painful longing all at once.

He grabbed her hand and turned over. “You were reading me, weren’t you?” He didn’t look angry, more like curious.

She wanted to deny it but couldn’t after what he’d said about honesty. “Yes.” She released a breath. “I needed to know if you felt it, too, if it hurt so bad when we were apart that it was like being gutted, and then if seeing me again was like some part of you could breathe for the first time in months.”
Okay, too honest there.

He pulled her down and kissed her fiercely, hungrily. She let herself just feel, getting lost in him. No one had ever loved her the way Kirin had. She ran her hands up his arms, over his shoulders, and across his chest.

“I dreamed about you too,” she said between kisses. Waking up in a sweat from a dream so vivid she could still feel his hands on her body and the throbbing between her legs. And now his hands were on her for real, touching her, sliding beneath her silky robe and up her thigh.

She wanted to feel him, all of him. She untied the sash of her robe and let it slip from her shoulders. He drank her in with heavy green eyes, embers flaring hot.

He ran his hands over the curves of her breasts and rubbed his thumbs over her hardened nipples, making her suck in a breath. Her body ached for him, remembering his touch and the way he fit so perfectly and filled her so completely. His soft hair brushed her chin as he dipped his tongue in the hollow at her throat, and then he moved lower. When his mouth closed over her nipple, she arched and tightened her fingers on his shoulders.

Even without his Dragon energy, he engulfed her with his presence. The Dragon’s essence heated his body and lent a primal urgency to his lovemaking. She had always felt the beast just beneath the surface, ready to break out of his control. Now, he was all Kirin, naked in a way that transcended the physical. Still, she sensed that same passion and sensuality.

His hand skimmed her waist, then went around to her backside and pulled her flush against him. He touched and kissed her everywhere, as though he couldn’t get enough. “God, this burning need to touch you, possess you.” His mouth moved over her throat, kissing her jawline and then claiming her mouth. “I could never get enough of you, Elle. I always wanted more and more and more.”

She dragged her fingers through his hair. “Yes, I know.” The power of his words ignited the memory of feeling sated and yet still wanting more, pushing their exhausted bodies because their souls couldn’t get enough. “Why, Kirin? Why is it like this with us?”

He pressed his forehead against hers, his mouth so close she felt his breath on her lips as he said, “Because our souls crave each other. As bad as it feels to have my Dragon torn out of me, having you torn out of my life was just as gut-wrenching. When you read me just now, could you feel how being apart from you ripped me up and left me in pieces?”

She nodded, feeling hot tears tingle in her eyes. She pulled his mouth to hers, needing him to consume her now. Magick tingled across her skin and shot down her fingers as she ran her hands down his back.

“I’ve missed your magick hands, too,” he said, his body shivering as she left a trail of that magick across the curve of his ass. He kissed her deeply. “
You
are my magick.”

She pushed him back on the bed and, straddling him, trailed her mouth along that sexy angular jawline, down his neck, and across the expanse of his chest. So familiar and exciting and new all at once. She had dreamed of this body, his mouth on her and, yes, her mouth on him just like this. The way he took a staccato breath when she took him in fully and laved him with her tongue.

“Sweet Jesus,” he muttered, his fingers curling against her skin.

Yeah, she even dreamed of the way she could bring him to that blasphemous expression. When she thought he might be on the edge, she moved away.
Not yet, sweetheart. I want you to come inside me.

“P-perfect timing, as always,” he said on a strained breath. Because she remembered how he wanted to come inside her, too.

“I know your body, know exactly when you’re about to lose it.”

He twisted her so that she now lay on the bed and slid his hands down her inner thighs as he parted them. There was a devilish gleam in his eyes, and that smile—oh, it had a magick all on its own. “I know your body just as well.”

And she knew he would torture her now. His tongue slid across her swollen clit and then away before she could feel the sweet release. Her body cried out in indignation. She dug her fingers into his hair, guiding him back. He gave her what she wanted, for a friggin’ second, and then suckled at the skin of her thigh hard enough to leave a mark.

“You bastard,” she breathed, falling into their delicious routine.

“Yes, yes, I am,” he said, trailing his mouth
all
the way to the other thigh, touching her enough to start the orgasm without staying long enough to finish it.

“Don’t…make me beg.”

“Mm, but you know how I like when you beg.”

She yanked his hair, sure she’d pulled out a few strands. Which didn’t stop those tantalizing movements at all as he dipped his tongue into her entrance. She ached for the finish. “Please…”

“Please what, darlin’?”

Yes, he was going to make her do it. “Please. Make. Me. Come. Damn it.”

“All you have to do is ask.”

It never took much when he’d gotten her this worked up. Just a long glide of his tongue did it. He slid his finger inside her, which sent her into another mind-bending orgasm.

“I love when you make those breathy sounds,” he said in a low, husky voice.

“I only make them with you.” Everything she felt, she’d only experienced with him.

He released a throaty growl, possessive and satisfied at the same time.

Kirin leaned over, stretching his body as he rummaged through a bag lying near the bed for a condom. She grabbed it, her gaze on his as she tore it open with her teeth. And she took her sweet time rolling it down over his girth. She squeezed, adjusted. “Have to get it just right.”

He yanked her close, his fingers squeezing the back of her neck, and kissed her hard. “You bad, bad girl.”

She pushed up against him, his erection hard against her stomach. “Your turn to beg.”

He clutched her tight against him. “If I don’t drive my cock into you this second, I will go absolutely, madly insane.”

And she could tell that he was absolutely, madly serious.

He pushed her back on the bed and fulfilled his need. Her need, too, because her body cried out in relief as she arched to bring him in as deep as she could. The feel of him thrusting into her burst a dam of emotions. She dug her nails into his shoulders, God, she would have crawled right inside him if she could.

“Need…you,” he whispered between breaths, brushing his fingers across her cheek for a second. “Elle, Elle, Ellie …” He kissed her, his breath coming fast.

She tensed and called out some unintelligible word as her orgasm claimed her, and only then did he let himself go, pulsing inside her.

He kissed her, bracing her face in his hands and looking into her eyes. That’s what she loved about him; he really saw her. He rubbed his thumb across her lower lip. “I never stopped loving you, Elle. I tried damned hard, but I couldn’t.”

She smiled. “I know.”

He settled in beside her, his body wrapped around hers, one leg draped over her hips. She snuggled even closer into his arms. Now that her body was sated, fatigue washed over her like an ocean wave. It felt good here. Right. She decided that she’d misjudged Kirin. He probably hadn’t seen anything on that note.

“Sleep, love,” she murmured, her eyes drifting shut against her will.

“Mine,” he said, his finger stroking down her arm.

His. She was his, and yes, her soul did crave his possession.

She put her hand over his. “Yours.”

He tightened his hold on her, and in that moment of feeling loved and safe, she gave in to sleep.

The next thing she knew, there was a gasp at the door.

S
ignora!”

Kirin went from dreamland to rudely awake with that one startled exclamation. Oh, and Elle yelping and rolling off him and onto the floor. Leaving him rather exposed, thank you very much.

“Ooooh,” the woman, who was probably in her fifties, said, her eyes wide.

Elle popped up, her cheeks pink, pulling on her robe. “Esmerelda. Uh, good morning.” She shoved the sheet at him, which he pulled over himself. Not that he was modest, but he respected the fact that most Deuces were.

“Is no morning.” Esmerelda tapped her watch. “I didn’t know anyone in here.”

Elle surged to her feet and looked at the clock at the same time he did. Noon. Thank God they hadn’t slept past the time his Dragon was to return. He had to get his father out of that tulpa the moment it came back.

“We’d better get moving.” Elle gave Esmerelda a sheepish smile. “You remember Kirin?”

The maid’s brown eyes alighted on him. “
Si
. Nice young man.”

He gave her a smile of gratitude, the best he could manage.

“I’ll heat your lunch. Enough for both of you.” She pulled the door closed as she left.

Elle burst out laughing. “Now that was an embarrassing way to wake up.” She sank to the corner of the bed, one long leg tucked beneath her. Her expression grew serious, all trace of laughter gone. “So what now, Kirin?”

Between us.
That’s what she meant. Her eyes looked as rich as melted chocolate, her Deuce fog swirling.

What he wanted to say was,
I want you, tonight and always, in my bed and my life, no matter what happens.
But there was something he needed to tell her first. He would not let his lie stand between them.

Before he could open his mouth, she said, “I tried to find you in Atlanta. I was driving through to pick up my horse in North Carolina.” She shook her head, and the light streaming in through the curtains danced over her hair. “I waited outside the building around lunch time. I really, really wanted to see you and feel nothing. Not anger or love or anything. But I still felt both just as strong.”

His chest was too tight to speak for a moment. Finally he said, “I didn’t know. I wish you’d come up to me.”

She gave him a tremulous smile. “Me too.”

She started to reach for him, but he didn’t move. It was all he could do not to forgo the whole being-honest thing. But he had to. “While we’re in confession mode…I did see the note your mom wrote to my pop.”

She dropped her hand. “What?”

“I saw
some
of the note, the signature line: Thank you from the bottom of my heart, T. When I told you I never lied about how I feel, that was true. But if we’re going to go any further—and I want to go further—I have to be honest with you. I never told anyone, not even Lyra.”

She swallowed hard, shifting slightly away. “Lyra must have seen something incriminating for her to burn the damned thing.”

“She admitted she only saw that it was Tara’s writing. She panicked before even reading it, typical Lyra, and acted on impulse. She was afraid it would prove that they’d been romantically involved, which might implicate him in Tara’s disappearance. We grew up on stories about an uncle who was executed by the Guard based on circumstantial evidence. Lyra was terrified that the note would do the same to Pop.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “So was I.”

Kirin could see Elle close down, almost like she’d pulled a shutter between them.

Elle stood, pulling the robe tighter, and stared out the window. “What was she thanking him for? I can’t imagine what he would have been doing for her.”

She wasn’t asking him, and since he didn’t know the answer, he didn’t respond. Finally she turned to him. “Is there anything else you’re holding out on?” Her words came out hard, taut.

“You know everything I know. I hated lying to you, Elle.” He jammed his fingers through his hair. “Hated what Lyra did because it put me in a no-win situation. If I didn’t back her, she would have been arrested for tampering with evidence. I would never have done it if I thought my father was guilty.”

She seemed to consider those words. “Or is it that sometimes we can’t see what we don’t want to see? Because everything inside me screams that my father would never use Shadow Magick to hurt someone. But the harsh truth is, it looks like he did. Everything inside me screams that we are meant to be together, but the truth is, we have too much hurt between us. I hurt you, you betrayed me, and now it looks like our fathers are involved in a deadly drama. How can we ever get past all this?”

He saw her pain, a mirror to his own. “When something matters enough, you just do.”

The words hung in the air, as thick as summer humidity.

She swallowed hard. “Sometimes you can’t. Sometimes you have to walk away. But I can’t walk away from what my father might have done. I think we should go to Stein’s house. The Shadow Magick blocked me, but that’s only been at the scene of the Conjuring. You said his bedroom was tumbled. I want to try sensing what happened.”

Elle knew she’d never sense a thing if she couldn’t untangle her mind from the man walking next to her. Kirin could have kept his secret, but he had shown his honor by admitting something he knew would upset her.

She had her own truths to face. Like how much she still loved him, and how making love to him had sealed her fate in ways she couldn’t yet contemplate. He was giving her time to sort through everything, but she got the sense that he’d made up his mind: they were going to be together, one way or the other. That certainty shook her.

Mine.

Kirin pulled out his key as they reached the front door. “Let me check to see if anyone’s here.” After checking the house, he returned. “It doesn’t look like anyone’s been here recently. Including Lyra, who still hasn’t called me back.”  

“Maybe she’s onto something.”

“That’s what I’m worried about. You know Lyra.”

Impulsive. Rash. Elle only nodded and started to walk in. When she touched the door frame a barrage of emotion and images hit her. Her father pounding on this door, her mother’s open journal in his hand. His anger was palpable. The words at the bottom of the page shook as her father held the book open.

Stein never answered the knock, and her father stalked down the stairs muttering “I’m going to kill him.”

She snapped out of the vision. “My mother was pregnant.” That news hit her with the impact of a cold wave of water. “With your father’s baby.” She told him what she’d seen.

Kirin smacked the wall. “That’s what he wouldn’t tell us. I never believed he would hurt her, but I knew he was hiding something.” He started pacing on the porch. “So she came to tell him, and then what? He rejects the baby, her? I don’t think so. My father had dated no one since my mother’s death. If he slept with Tara, she meant something to him. And by all accounts, they had been seeing each other for a while, so it wasn’t some one-night stand. He learned she was pregnant and wanted to marry her.”

“She refused, and he killed her,” Elle said, joining his speculation. “By accident. His temper flared. Maybe he hit her, and she fell and bashed her head.” She could barely push out the words, “Then hid her body.”

“Or your father found out, and he killed her in an act of rage.”

“Except it appears my father just found out about the pregnancy, which is what triggered him to create the tulpa.”

Kirin released a long breath. He obviously didn’t want to think his father was a murderer. But now they were pretty sure Stein had been seeing Tara and gotten her pregnant. Now not only was Elle’s mother lost to her, but so was her half-sibling.

“But in the note, she was thanking him,” Kirin said. “Maybe she decided to have an abortion. Pop supported her, went with her to a clinic. Or worse, to some backstreet so-called doctor who messed things up.”

“I can’t imagine my mom doing that.” Elle rubbed the bridge of her nose, a headache blooming there. “Besides, women don’t have to do that sort of thing anymore. Unless she didn’t want any evidence of it—I can’t think about that.”

Kirin gestured for them to go inside. “See what you can pick up in Stein’s bedroom. And maybe whatever Lyra found, if she wasn’t just yanking my chain.”

The bedroom was a wreck. Elle took an involuntary step back. “When I think about what happened here, I feel the heaviness of Shadow Magick.” She tried to push past it. “Again, I can’t see what happened. Which means that the tulpa Dad created probably came here.” And most likely had completed its mission.

Kirin took in the room with bleak eyes. “If Pop escaped, we would have heard from him by now. So it’s probably him imprisoned inside the tulpa.” He wiped the grief from his expression and glanced at the clock. “Can you see what Lyra found?”

Elle pushed aside her distress at what her father had done. How many times could she say she was sorry? Now she needed to do everything in her power to fix it. She turned to the room and sent her magick out again. The vision slowly came together. “I see Lyra kneeling on the floor and then…crawling beneath the bed.” Elle watched Lyra scoot back out, holding something. Her long blond hair blocked the sight of the object as Lyra left the room with it. Elle came back to the present. “She found something, but I couldn’t see it.”

Kirin made another call, and Elle heard Lyra’s chipper message. Kirin rubbed the back of his neck, his jaw rigid with tension. “Call me, Lyra. I’m getting worried.” He disconnected. “It went right to voice mail.”

“Maybe her battery’s dead.”

He nodded but didn’t look less concerned. “People keep disappearing.” He took hold of her hand. “I’m not letting you out of my sight.”