Eternal Mates 7 - Taken by a Dragon (29 page)

Hartt hit the black bar, making it shudder and jolting Loke.

Anais’s temper broke its tethers.

“Will you all go in the other damned room or something. I’m trying to fucking concentrate!” She turned a glare on every immortal present, uncaring that every single one of them was infinitely more powerful than she was.

They all stared at her in stunned silence.

Even Hartt had an edge of guilt to his violet eyes.

“Take the fight elsewhere, Bleu,” Loren snapped.

Bleu didn’t seem to listen.

He pinned Hartt with a black glare. “Stay away from my sister, you assassin scum. I hear even a rumour that you merely looked at her in the wrong way and I will kill you. Tainted bastards like you deserve to be put down.”

“Tainted?” The female elf stared at Hartt, shock dancing across her pretty face.

“It’s nothing.” Hartt pushed himself off the bar and set his gaze on the other elf he had appeared with and the silver-haired man. “Get a move on, Harbin, or we’re leaving you behind.”

Hartt teleported and reappeared next to the other elf in his group.

Bleu looked there and his eyes widened again. “Commander Fuery? I thought you were dead.”

The darker elf’s expression shifted dangerously, turning even blacker than it had been before.

Bleu took a step towards him, the shock on his face remaining as he stared across the open space at the other elf. The one he had called Fuery didn’t seem to recognise him. He looked as if he was considering attacking Bleu, and possibly everyone else present.

“How did you survive Vail’s attack?” Bleu whispered and Loren’s hand dropped away from Anais’s neck.

She looked back at him and found him staring at Fuery, his wide eyes matching his stunned expression.

Fuery didn’t answer. He continued to stare at Bleu through cold black eyes.

“What happened to you?” Bleu took another step towards the other elf.

This time, Fuery backed away one and cast a panicked look at Hartt, his dark eyes gaining a wild edge as he started to shake his head. Hartt closed the gap between them and placed his hand on Fuery’s shoulder. The touch seemed to comfort him and Fuery drew in a shuddering deep breath.

“The elf is tainted,” Loren said and Bleu looked over his shoulder at him. “The male you knew no longer exists, Bleu.”

The elf male looked as if he didn’t want to believe that. Had they been close to each other once, back before the attack Bleu had mentioned had happened?

Bleu took another step towards Fuery.

The darker male responded by drawing his black blade and snarling at Bleu. Hartt stepped in front of his comrade, partially shielding him with his body and placing his hand over Fuery’s to stay his blade.

“Do you not recognise whose company you are in?” Bleu said and Fuery’s black gaze flickered to Loren. “Do you not recognise your prince?”

Fuery’s eyes narrowed and he snarled through his fangs, black-sounding words in a tongue Anais didn’t know.

Bleu’s expression turned dark and dangerous. “Your prince is standing in this very room, not roaming Hell bent on bloodshed and destruction. That wretched male is not your prince.”

“Watch your tongue, Bleu!” Loren snapped.

Bleu lowered his head and pressed his right hand to his chest. “My apologies, my prince.”

Loke groaned and twitched, and everyone’s eyes leaped to him. Anais stroked his brow, her heart aching with a need to help him. They were close, she could feel it. He was growing stronger. He just needed a little more from her.

“It’s okay,” she whispered and smoothed her fingers across his forehead and then feathered them down his cheek. “We’ll have you back in Hell soon, safe in your cave.”

“Cave?” Bleu frowned at Loke.

“The male is dragon.” Loren returned his focus to Loke, placing his hands back on Anais’s neck and on Loke’s chest. “I will speak with him about the sword and your mission when he is well again.”

Bleu nodded.

“Harbin?” Hartt grabbed hold of Fuery’s wrist and the man lowered his black gaze to it, his eyebrow rising as he stared at Hartt’s hand.

“I might be a while. Go on without me. I need to finish my mission and then I’ll meet you,” Harbin said.

Hartt nodded, cast one last look back towards Bleu where he now stood in front of his sister with Kyter at his side, and disappeared in a flash of silvery light.

Bleu muttered something in the lyrical language of the elves as he gave Harbin the evil eye and Loren responded.

Cavanaugh growled, baring huge canines, and moved in front of his sibling.

“Enough. No more fighting.” Kyter scrubbed a hand down his face, his golden gaze filled with weariness.

The elf female stroked his arm and he frowned at her and then his face softened and he lifted his hand and caressed her cheek. She smiled and Kyter’s gaze darkened, but not with a need for violence this time. There was hunger in it, desire that made Anais ache to have Loke look at her that way again, even when she feared he never would after everything she had done.

Kyter dragged the woman through the back door of the club and jealousy coiled in Anais’s heart, fraying her temper again.

“Can you all get the hell out of here now so I can focus?” Anais barked and everyone looked at her. “I’m trying to save someone’s life.”

Cavanaugh looked down at his boots, tunnelled his fingers through his silver hair, and then lifted his gaze back to meet hers. “I’m sorry.”

He caught Harbin’s arm and led him into the back of the club.

Bleu cast her an apologetic look, and then glanced towards Sable and Thorne. His violet gaze turned troubled, an edge of hurt in it.

“Return home, Bleu. I will be there soon,” Loren said and the elf nodded and disappeared.

Sweet silence fell.

Anais locked all of her focus on Loke and fell swiftly into the trance state. She lost track of time as energy flowed between her, Loke and Loren, a connection that felt like a living thing to her.

It made her veins pulse, a wave of heat travelling through her body with each beat, washing up from her toes to her head. A deeper awareness grew inside her, a sensation that she was connected to an incredible power, and she floated within it, drifting as light as a feather in the hazy pale glow that engulfed her.

Loren’s hand left the back of her neck and the connection shattered, bringing the dimly lit club and Loke back into view. Her knees gave out and Loren caught her under her arms and lifted her into his, cradling her against his chest as if she weighed nothing.

“You have done all you can,” he said. “Now both of you must rest.”

Rest sounded good.

Anais clung to consciousness long enough to take one last look at Loke, hoping she had given enough of her life to save him but not so much that she wouldn’t wake from the warm arms of sleep that were already wrapped around her and pulling her down into the darkness.

He slipped out of focus and sleep took her.

T
he air smelled different. Loke breathed deep of it and frowned as it no longer burned his lungs. They easily expanded in a fluid movement, their silence rousing him further from sleep when he had grown used to them rattling and wheezing. Strength coursed through him and he was aware of it for the first time.

Aware that he had been weak and now he was strong again.

He slowly flexed his fingers against the soft material cushioning his tired body, pulling it into his fists. The aches were gone too. The burning in his bones that had left him feeling they were turning to ash.

What had happened to him?

He wasn’t back in Hell. He knew that much. He wasn’t in the Archangel facility either. He was somewhere new and unfamiliar.

Loke groaned as he tried to open his eyes and they stung despite the low level of lighting in the room. Perhaps he wasn’t back to full strength after all, but he wasn’t being drained of his energy by the mortal world either. Something had happened that had given him back his strength and had stopped it from fading away again.

Whatever that something was, it had left him feeling different.

He opened his eyes again and they burned less this time, allowing him to take in his surroundings. A room with wooden furniture and a soft bed. He looked down the length of his body at his bare feet where they hung off the end of the bed. His blue leather trousers almost matched the colour of the sheets beneath him.

Loke drew in another deep breath and used his senses to pick through the smells. There were others in the building with him. Immortals. He could smell shifters, elves, and the wretched demon who had knocked him out.

He could smell Anais.

He singled her out, using his senses to track her as she moved around somewhere below him. His heart stung and he rubbed his chest, trying to soothe it as the constant voice at the back of his mind began to taunt him again, reminding him of everything she had done.

The demon might have been the one who had knocked him out but it was Anais who had brought him to the mortal world and had placed him into the nefarious hands of her masters.

Anger curled through him, making him restless and driving him from the bed. He sat up and swung his legs over the edge of it, and paused as his head turned and the room spun around him. He pulled down another breath and stared straight ahead at a wooden set of drawers as he waited for the dizzy spell to pass.

The door to his right opened and Anais stood there, the brighter light of the corridor casting her into shadow. Her blonde hair hung around her slender shoulders, threads of it clinging to her black t-shirt. That black t-shirt blended seamlessly into her dark trousers, making her appear more like a wraith than something real.

Loke hung his head and grasped the edges of the mattress with both hands, anchoring himself to the bed when all he wanted to do was stand and cross the room to her, and pull her into his arms and feel that she was indeed real. The part of himself that was having difficulty handling what she had done rebelled against those softer desires, replacing them with a need to lash out at her.

He turned his face towards her.

She held her hands up. “Don’t speak. I need to say something.”

Loke nodded, curious to know what was on her mind.

“I’m sorry about what happened. I know it doesn’t change anything, and I shouldn’t have let them take you like that. It isn’t what I wanted, but it all happened so quickly and I didn’t have time to think.” She paused and cast her gaze down at her boots. “Or maybe I did… I was muddled and part of me wanted to go back… and Sable said that Archangel only wanted information about the dragons so we could rescue the others. I was an idiot to believe them… and Sable feels pretty awful about it too because they duped her as well. If I had known they were going to put you in a cell like that… put you through tests and… if I had known that you couldn’t be in this world without being in danger… I’m sorry. I really am.”

He could feel her hurt flowing through him and it cooled his anger enough that he could look at her with clearer eyes and a more forgiving heart. She had placed him into the hands of Archangel, but she had also rescued him from them, placing herself in great danger and no doubt damaging her relationship with them.

“What did you want?” He rose onto his feet and she lifted her gaze to meet his.

The dark circles beneath her eyes alarmed him and he had moved a step closer and had raised his hand with the intention of touching her pale cheek before he even realised what he was doing. He halted and held her blue gaze instead, waiting to hear her answer.

Anais looked off to her right. “I don’t know.”

Her expression turned troubled and he could feel the conflict within her. She hadn’t only hurt him. She had hurt herself too. He could hear it in the tremulous beat of her heart and smell it in her scent. She was nervous around him. Guilty. Afraid. Not of him, but of what he might say or do. She was afraid he would lash out at her verbally to inflict pain on her and punish her for what she had done.

The darker part of himself believed she deserved such retribution, but the rest of his heart squashed it out of existence because what was done was done and nothing they said or did would change it. He was stronger now, somehow able to cope with being in the mortal realm, and his life was no longer in danger.

He refused to hold a grudge when she had believed that he would be treated in a better manner than he had been. She hadn’t betrayed him or intentionally placed him in danger. If he had been more honest with her about his species and why he had never been to the mortal realm, she would have known he couldn’t survive in her world and she never would have allowed her friend to take him from his cave.

He knew that in his heart.

A heart that loved her.

A heart that feared for her.

“I had another vision.” He let that confession slip out as a whisper but she reacted as if he had shouted it, her head jerking up and her eyes shooting wide as she stared right at him, her heart hammering in his ears.

“What did you see?” Her voice was weak, each word trembling on her lips.

“I saw you die,” he whispered and took another step towards her when she swallowed hard and paled further. He couldn’t shake the vision this time or how it made him feel. Afraid. Weak. Frustrated. He wanted to protect her but he couldn’t. No matter what he did, the vision only changed slightly. “The location was different, but the shadowy figure and the outcome remained the same.”

She dropped her gaze to the strip of floor between them, her fair eyebrows furrowing as she clenched her fists at her sides.

A deep need to comfort her filled him, but he remained where he was, struggling with his feelings as he looked at her. His little Amazon. She looked so weak now and afraid, and it pulled at him, strengthening his need to protect her.

“I thought that since I took you from the battlefield, I would have created a big enough interference in events to stop them… I had thought your fate would change.” He barely held himself back when she wrapped her arms around herself. “I will protect you, Anais.”

Her head lifted and her eyes leaped to meet his. “Why?”