DragonMaster (2 page)

There was also a quality about him, an
innocence she didn’t often encounter, almost like he’d lived in some isolated
place for most of his life and had just come to the city. If she’d been a gay
guy, she’d have claimed him in an instant.

Her lips tightened as she remembered all
the times she’d stopped by Kei’s shop and Miles was there. Without fail, he’d suggest
the three of them do a private scene with him being the master of two fuckable
slaves. He’d done it despite knowing Kei was like her—he could handle some play
with others, but he wanted exclusivity when it came to his master’s cock. And
no was no. She’d told Miles she wasn’t interested, would never be interested,
but he wouldn’t let it go.

She folded her check and pocketed it. “I
think I’ll swing by Kei’s place to make sure he’s okay.”

“Good idea. You going to ITS afterward?”

“Maybe.” But probably just as a voyeur
tonight.

It took her a few minutes to get out of
Rockets and over to Kei’s. She parked in front of his shop. It wasn’t in the
pricey part of town, but it was close enough to the beach to attract tourists.

The shop was dark. There was no car out
front except hers since Kei didn’t drive, other than during the lessons she was
giving him.

He claimed to sell antiques. Depending on
who got asked, it might be more trash than treasure. She smiled, though, at
seeing the old rocking horses in the window. There were three, one of which
needed some serious restoration to fix the broken tail and get rid of gouges,
scratches and the patches of gray wood where there was no longer any paint.

If she had a workshop and the necessary
talent, she’d love to make it a project, though Kei claimed fixing up old
things actually decreased their value. She’d take her chance on the horse.
There was something about it that called to her despite the fact she’d never
been on a horse, never even had up-close-and-personal contact with one.

She snickered. Well, at least not the kind
of horses these icons of childhood represented. She’d been in the saddle more
than once in the club’s dungeon, and she’d ridden hard.

Her channel clenched with the memory and an
all-too-familiar restlessness rolled through her, tightening her nipples in the
process. She touched the front window in passing, as if she could reach through
and stroke the beleaguered rocking horse. It was more wishful thinking than
promise. Not that she wanted kids in the near future, but she dreamed about
having a large family one day, imagined the rocking horses in childhood
bedrooms, then later, as nostalgic decoration.

Rounding the corner, she glanced upward.
There was a light on in Kei’s tiny apartment. It went off as if he’d become
aware of her presence and was trying to avoid contact.

It didn’t deter her. She took the stairs
two at a time, called his name when she got to the top of them and knocked on
his door.

There was no sound, not even a yell to go
away.

“Just let me in for a minute, okay?”

Nothing.

She pressed her ear to the wood and tried
the doorknob. Locked, but she thought she heard a whimper and couldn’t shake a
growing sense of urgency, the deepening conviction something was wrong.

Was he emotionally fragile enough to
attempt suicide? The possibility sent a chill through her. In her first year at
Rockets one of the regulars had nearly succeeded in it after a bad breakup.

“Kei?”

A glance at the window and she saw he
hadn’t replaced the screen with a hole in it and the window wasn’t all the way
closed. She’d warned him about making sure he locked it, because a determined
burglar could work off the porch, holding on to the railing in order to free
the screen and open the window before committing to stretching the distance
required to get inside.

She did just that, cursing when the screen
slipped and fell to the concrete.
Don’t look down.
Not that she was
afraid of heights, she just preferred those heights to be wave sized so a
tumble curled her in water rather than leaving her flat and broken on hard
ground.

She grimaced at the sound the window made
as she pulled it upward. Hopefully Lyra was around to bail her out if the cops
showed up.

Okay, here goes.

She committed. Leg first, over, in and
locked, followed by a hand grabbing the side of the window frame then a push
off the porch.

“Made it.” A shaky acknowledgement to
accompany the racing of her heart.

“Kei?” Softer this time because the air
seemed thick with fear. “Let me help you? Okay?”

Enough light came through the window to
show her that he wasn’t in the living room. She entered the bedroom.

He wasn’t in bed.

She turned on the light even as a voice
came from the door-less closet saying, “Don’t.”

Shock held her still.

Denial.

Her rational mind tried to process what her
eyes told her was truth, and could come up with only one answer.

This was some elaborate hoax.

The furred, foxlike ears, the human arms
ending in paws instead of hands and the bushy tail against bare human legs were
part of an amazing costume.

But the tears, the whimper ending in sobs,
contradicted. Refuted.

Dared her to accept.

She shied away from it. Waivered and
returned, heartbeat sounding like roaring surf in her head as her mouth went
dry and her thoughts spun to the last time she’d gone cave diving. It was a
decision that had nearly cost her life, and one she hadn’t repeated, preferring
to take her danger on the surface of the ocean rather than in its depths.

Separated from the others. Running out of
oxygen and lost in darkness, she’d thought she’d imagined the being who’d led
her to safety, created the image in those moments of growing panic and terror
and lightheadedness.

Mermaid.
She
spoke the word silently. Accepted it. Flashed back to the times she’d caught a
glimpse of Kei in profile and thought
fox
, her subconscious
understanding perhaps, the part of her that believed there were supernatural
aspects to existence, much like Lyra’s use of tarot cards.

Compassion freed her feet. This was Kei, a
friend in need.

She closed the distance, kneeling next to
him.
What happened
didn’t even begin to sort the confusion of her
thoughts.

“Kei?” She reached out and rubbed his naked
back.

Red fur erupted along his spine in the
beginnings of a luxurious coat. Her breath caught. Her mind spun away again but
only for the span of a heartbeat. She reined in fear and panic and disbelief
like an emergency room nurse would, like her mother would, though she knew her
mother had never encountered trauma like this.

“Beautiful,” she said, stroking Kei’s fur,
calming him with her acceptance, and in turn becoming more collected herself.
“I take it you’re a shapeshifter.”

The words felt totally alien. Totally
surreal.

“Kitsune. I’m kitsune.”

“Like in anime?”

Her description brought a hiccupped laugh
from Kei and an uncurling of his body. He sat, though he brought his knees up
to his chest and tucked his paws out of sight.

“Does this have something to do with
Miles?” Maybe heartbreak made a kitsune lose control?

“Yes. He stole something important to me.”

“What?”

“I can’t tell you! You’re not even supposed
to have seen me like this! There are covenants forbidding it. I could be
punished. You’re only allowed to reveal yourself to a mate. And you’re—”

He broke off as she returned to stroking
his back. Shuddered beneath her hand, his skin giving way to more fur.

“What does it matter?” he whispered. “I’ll
fade and die anyway. Or worse, I’ll owe a terrible favor.”

“What kind of favor?”

“I don’t know. I’ve stayed away from other
supernaturals. I was afraid of being used by them.”

“What happened, Kei?”

A sob escaped. His trembling escalated.

“Tell me,” she coaxed. “Please, Kei.”

Long moments passed before he finally said,
“Miles knew what I was. There have always been humans who have the
sight
and can see the true nature of things. Everything was a lie. He didn’t love
me.”

She didn’t doubt the latter, but
considering the company Miles had been seen in and his brag about going to
Chains, she suspected the brunette or someone else was behind this theft. “What
did he steal?”

“My
hoshi no tama
. My star ball.”

“I don’t know what that is. I don’t know
what it means for you.”

He turned his face toward her. “It holds a
part of my magic when I’m in this form. I’m young by kitsune standards. Only
fifty. My parents forbade me from coming here.”

She massaged the back of his neck, trying
to wrap her head around his being fifty when he looked barely old enough to
legally drink. Skin continued to change to fur with her touch. “Here? To the
city.”

“To the human realm.”

That was the easiest thing to accept. She’d
never believed humans were alone in the universe. She’d just figured something
alien would come via spaceship and suspected they’d consider it a visit to a
backwater place.

“But you came anyway.”

“Yes.”

Which explained how innocent he’d seemed to
her. “And your star ball? It’s small?”

“Yes.”

“He forced you to turn it over to him?”
Anger built as she imagined Miles breaking Kei’s fingers or hands so they’d
become paws in order to heal.

“No. I hid it inside one of the alphabet
blocks. The D, with the donkey carved on it. He took it from there.”

She knew the blocks he was talking about.
They lived on a shelf behind the cash register along with other antique toys,
old cars and carved wooden animals.

“You don’t have to keep the star ball with
you?”

“Not when I’m in the store or the
apartment. As long as I’m close to it I can stay human. I thought it would be
safer not to have it on me, in case someone came into the store to rob me.”

“So Miles searched and found it?” It
explained all those times she’d found him here with Kei.

“Worse. I showed it to him! He told me he
loved me. It was the first time he’d ever said it to me. He told me he trusted
me and because of it, he wanted to share a secret, to show me something passed
down in his family, his greatest treasure.”

Considering who they were talking about,
she could easily imagine Miles whipping out his dick. She bit off the comment,
barely. “And did he?”

“Yes. It was a four-leaf clover. He said
he’d made a wish and right afterward he’d met me. I believed him. I could feel
magic on the charm.”

Leprechauns? She was
so
not ready to
pursue that line of thought.

“And in return you showed him the star
ball.”

“I didn’t let him see where I hid it. When
I brought it up to bed and showed it to him, he said it was pretty. He
pretended to believe it was just a very unique pearl. He was smart enough not
to grab it and try to run. Even though I’m young, I can hold a pretty big
illusion. That was a couple of days ago. He’s been here every night. But now I
think he must have put one of those little spy cameras in the shop, like one I
saw online. Yesterday we went out for dinner. I had to take my
hoshi no tama
with me. And tonight—” Kei buried his face against his knees and rocked.

She combed her fingers through the thick
mane of his hair. “Tonight?”

“When he got here, we had sex in the shop.”

He started crying again. “It wasn’t
lovemaking. It was just fucking. Him fucking me over. Afterward we came up
here. He kissed me for hours, made me come so many times that all I wanted to
do was sleep. He said he needed to go out for a while. He went downstairs
without me, because he’d left his clothes in the shop.”

Summer put her arm around his shoulder.
“And by the time you knew what he’d done, you were trapped in the apartment.”

“Yes,” Kei whispered. “I started changing
to my first form as soon as he stepped outside.” He leaned into her. “If I
don’t get my
hoshi no tama
back, Summer, I’ll die.”

She tightened her arm and touched the side
of her head to his. “How long?”

“If I stop fighting the change, a week.
Maybe a little longer. I don’t know.”

So there’d hopefully be time for a backup
plan if the one crystallizing in her mind didn’t work. “I’ll get the star ball
back for you. Miles will be at Chains tonight. Simon overheard him bragging
about it. The doorkeeper there is a friend of mine. And another friend works
behind the counter. She’ll vouch for me and let me in for the evening on a
guest membership.”

There were advantages to being an
unattached sub. It curdled her stomach to imagine playing slave to Miles’
master, but if that’s what it took, she’d do it. She didn’t doubt she could
convince him that the encounter was purely accidental. And his ego was large
enough to believe she’d finally succumbed to his charm.

Kei looked at her, hope and fear in his
eyes as well as guilt because he knew how she felt about Miles. “What if he’s
already sold it?”

“Then I’ll find a way to get him here. If I
do, can you scare him into telling you what he did with it? Is that what you
meant by being able to hold an illusion?”

“Yes. I can make him think he’s surrounded
by cobras or in a burning building. Whatever it takes.”

“Okay then.” She gave him a hug. “I should
go. The star ball looks like a pearl?”

“You’ll know it when you see it. It’s lit
from within by fox-fire. It might even seem to have a reddish glow because of
my first form color.”

Kei’s toes dug into the clothing he’d
pulled off hangers to make a nest for himself in the closet. When he drew his
leg back, there was a locket dangling from a silver chain. “Put my
hoshi no
tama
in here. It’ll mute the magic so other supernaturals won’t know you’ve
got something valuable.”