Fire of a Dragon (Fallen Immortals 3) - Paranormal Fairytale Romance (3 page)

After almost two weeks of being naked,
it felt strange for Arabella to have clothes on.

Lucian was by her side, per usual, as they walked down the corridor toward the guest apartment that used to be her home—her temporary home, at least. They had spent so much time intertwined, intimately locked, having endless rounds of sex, but now that they were outside his lair, Lucian seemed to want to be even closer. His arm was draped protectively around her. Their steps were in sync. He didn’t seem to realize that a little personal space was in order, especially if they were going to be around other people.

“I have to see Rachel
alone,”
Arabella said as they rounded a corner and approached the door to the guest apartment.

“I’m not going to leave your side,” Lucian said, tightly. His hand squeezed her shoulder for emphasis. “I already told you that. And besides we shouldn’t even be outside the lair—you’re barely two weeks into the pregnancy. We should be at home.”

Arabella knew he was stressed, but they couldn’t stay in the lair forever. And there was a lingering unspoken topic—Cara’s death during her pregnancy, at Lucian’s hands as he tried to save their unborn son—that hung between them, making it worse. But she
wasn’t
Cara. Lucian’s previous mate had been seduced by Zephan, the fae Prince. Arabella doubted Lucian knew that, but she could too easily imagine how it had just wrecked the woman. It must have caused Cara to doubt her love for Lucian, and that was what spelled her doom. But that
wasn’t
going to happen to Arabella. And Lucian needed to back off and let her take care of things with her best friend. Rachel had to be going crazy not having heard from Arabella for almost two weeks—even if her best friend knew she was in the keep, locked up with a gorgeous dragon shifter, having amazing sex.

Arabella wriggled out from under Lucian’s hold.

He let her go with a look that was glowering.

“I have to talk to Rachel alone,” Arabella ground out between her teeth. She couldn’t believe he couldn’t just
get
this. “She’s going to be so angry at me—I need time alone to smooth it over.”

“She has no cause for anger.” Lucian wasn’t conceding this one bit.

“You don’t know Rachel—she doesn’t need a cause.” Arabella stopped in front of the door but didn’t knock. “Besides, she
does
have cause.” She couldn’t believe he was forcing her to say this, but she would, if she had to.

“She was worried you wouldn’t survive the sealing,” he said, the tension ramping up in his voice. “But you did. Why would she still be angry?”

“Because I might yet die.”

Lucian’s face dropped to blankness, and he just blinked. But he didn’t have any immediate comeback.

Arabella pounded on the door.

It opened immediately, but the person on the other side of the door wasn’t Rachel—it was Cinaed, Lucian’s right-hand dragon. The tall, muscular, reddish-haired dragon shifter was hot for Rachel, and Arabella had left him alone with her for two weeks with explicit permission to take her best friend to bed. If they wanted to. Arabella didn’t know if that had happened, but if Cinaed took Lucian’s side and tried to keep Arabella from having a one-on-one girl discussion with her best friend, she would lay them both out.

“Thank magic you’re here,” Cinaed said, gesturing her inside.

Arabella brushed past him. “Where is she?” She scanned the great room that was off the entranceway, but it was empty.

Lucian closed the door behind them.

Cinaed hovered close, looking Arabella over like he wanted to hug her, or something, but didn’t quite have the bravery to do it. His gaze kept bouncing down to her belly and back up to her eyes as if he expected her to be incapacitated by the tiny bump that was her son.

His gaze finally settled on her eyes. “She’s hiding in the bedroom. Claims she doesn’t want to speak to you, my lady, but it’s a lie. She does.”

Arabella put a hand on Cinaed’s shoulder, and her touch seemed to make him relax. “I know.” Then she glanced at Lucian, whose scowl was just getting darker. “I’m going in. You stay here.”

She turned her back on Lucian and marched towards the bedroom in the back of the apartment. But Lucian wasn’t letting this go—he was right at her heels, and he caught her elbow before she reached the door.

Arabella stopped and dropped her voice, not wanting Rachel to hear them, even through the door. “Lucian Smoke, I swear to God—”

But his arms simply went around her, and he pulled her into his chest. His touch always disarmed her—
man, he
was playing dirty.

Then he whispered into her hair, “Take care of your friend. But all the demons in hell couldn’t pull me from this door. I’ll be waiting for you.”

He released her.

She rolled her eyes. “It’s not like I’m going through the gates of the underworld here.” She shook her head, but his slightly terrified look wrenched the sympathy out of her. “Oh, for God’s sake.” She leaned up and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek, then turned away and wrenched open the bedroom door, quickly scuttling in and closing it behind her.

Rachel was standing at the window, her back turned to Arabella. But she could tell by the stiffness of her best friend’s stance that she was well-aware of Arabella.

“Cinaed explained it to me,” Rachel said. Arabella had never heard so much anger in her voice. “Either you’re going to die giving birth to this
thing…
or you’re going to live forever as Lucian’s baby mama. Either way, I’m fucked.”

Okay,
that
pissed her off. “If I live, it won’t be forever—just for five hundred years. And that
thing
is my son.”

The anger in Arabella’s voice must have gotten through the thick wall she knew Rachel liked to throw up against anything that might hurt her heart. Arabella had never been on the other side of that wall—she’d seen it put up time and again, against everything and everyone else in the world, but not her. Never her.

Rachel turned to her with wide eyes, her shoulders dropping. “Your son?” There were tears in her eyes.

“I can already feel the baby, Rach. Sweet and beautiful and made of magic. And I already love him.” There was a catch in her voice, and Rachel’s tears let loose. Arabella hadn’t seen her cry since… well, she couldn’t remember
ever
seeing Rachel cry. Not out of sadness or love—occasionally out of anger or fear. Arabella hurried across the room and threw her arms around Rachel’s neck.

She latched on like she was drowning. “It’s not fair!” she sobbed into Arabella’s hair. “I lose you either way.”

“No, it’s
me
who loses
you.”
Arabella squeezed her tighter, and she could feel Rachel relax, just a little. “You’re staying with me through this—I need you, Rach. I need your support. And God, I
so
need a place to come that’s not Lucian’s lair because I’m going nuts in there.”

Rachel sniffed and pulled back, grasping hold of Arabella’s shoulders and staring her in the eyes. “Is that damn dragon shifter keeping you prisoner? I swear to God, I will kick his ass—”

A crazy laugh erupted deep inside Arabella. “He’s right outside the door if that tells you anything. And I’m sure he can hear every word we’re saying.”

Rachel wrenched her head toward the door and threw her words at it. “Fuck you, Lucian Smoke! Fuck you for knocking up my best friend!”

Now the giggles were seriously getting hold of Arabella. She fought them down.

Rachel turned a mournful look back to her. “Well,
of course,
you have me for support during this whole…” She gestured to Arabella’s body. “… dragon pregnancy thing. But you’re not going to want me around after that. There’s no place for me here.”

Arabella’s humor died completely. “Yes, there is. You and I—we’re sisters. We stick together, remember?”

Rachel’s face pinched up again, and it looked like the tears were coming back. “You’re mated now. And if you don’t die from this whole crazy-ass thing, you’ll be too busy raising the baby.”

“I better not be! Who do you think is going to run the business?” Arabella gave her an incredulous look. “What about all the women we help? All the ones who need us to save them from the assholes in their life? I’m not going to give that up, Rach. I’ve work too hard for it.” She gave her best friend a stern look. “Don’t you go wimping out on me. I’m having this baby, and I’m going to take care of him, but our work is too important to let fall by the wayside. The only way to make that happen is with
your
help. Are you with me?”

Rachel scowled at her. “How is that even a question?”

Arabella nodded. “That’s more like it.” She glanced at the door. “Besides, staying here might not be too bad. What about Cinaed?”

Rachel’s scowl got darker. “What about him?”

“Have you slept with him yet?” She arched her eyebrows.

Rachel drew back, her expression filled with disgust. “That
dragon?
No. What are you even talking about?”

Arabella found herself rolling her eyes for the second time in as many minutes. Why did the people she loved have to be so stubbornly obtuse? “Oh, come on! He’s super hot, and I’ve seen the way he looks at you. I know he wants to do you, Rachel.”

“Well, of course, he does!” She looked offended. “What’s not to love here?” She gestured to her ample chest and curvy figure. The truth was that Arabella’s best friend was super hot herself—one reason why she always had drop-dead gorgeous guys after her. That wasn’t the problem. It was that Rachel had been burned pretty much every single time. And not by dragonfire… just the regular human-asshole-type burn.

Rachel scowled. “Cinaed is hot and nice and, yes, I can tell he wants me bad—and yet he hasn’t made even the slightest move. What the hell am I supposed to do with that?” She threw an accusing finger toward the door. “If he just wanted to fuck, I could do that. But he doesn’t. It’s like… like he’s holding out for something more. And you
know
I can’t do that. I am
not
making that mistake again. He’s playing some kind of head game. They
all
play games, but the ones who are hotter than sin are especially good at it. And I’m no fool.”

Arabella frowned. “Cinaed’s not like that. You know that.”

“Why?” Her voice dripped with ice. “Because he’s a sexy dragon shifter? That just makes him hotter… in all the different meanings of that word. But he’s still a man, Arabella.”

“So all this time in the apartment together, you guys haven’t…?” She was frankly amazed Rachel hadn’t just gone for one really hot night and then dumped Cinaed. Because that was her
modus operandi.
Maybe it was because she knew she couldn’t just shove him out the door when she was done with him.

The disgust was back on Rachel’s face. “No. And I’m not going to. End of story.”

Arabella sighed. “Okay, fine. But I’m just saying… you heard him talk about his family, just like I did, Rach.”

“So what? So he lost his family. That’s happened to lots of people.” Rachel’s eyes turned hard now, and Arabella understood where she was coming from. Both of them had been through the foster system together because they had lost their families early on. It had been hard and awful, and no one in the system had ever loved them, not truly—except each other. It was why they were sisters. To know Cinaed had the same thing happen to him, only more violently, having his parents torn from him… and yet, he still believed in love… well, Arabella could see how that would rankle. Pretty bad.

“Maybe you two can be friends,” she said.

“Yeah, okay.” Rachel folded her arms. “Maybe.”

Arabella smiled and slid one arm around her best friend’s shoulders, squeezing tight. “Holy shit, I’ve missed you.”

“Hey, I’m not the one off fucking her brains out with some hot guy instead of hanging out with, you know, her best friend on the planet.” But there was no heat behind it, and Rachel’s arm slipped around her waist and squeezed back.

Arabella released her. “We better get back out there before Lucian loses his mind.”

Rachel squinted at her. “What is it with these fucking dragons? So damn overprotective.”

Arabella gestured her toward the door. “Well, it’s not as if there aren’t a few dangerous things out in the world. But I know Lucian’s going to protect me from them. It’s kind of his job now to proactively worry overtime.”

Rachel shrugged as they reached the door. Arabella pulled it open, and sure enough, Lucian was lurking outside. Cinaed had a hand on his shoulder, gripping tight as if he was physically restraining Lucian from breaking through and coming after her.

Arabella just shook her head, but before she could say anything, Cinaed hustled past Rachel and motioned Arabella back into the bedroom.

“A word with you, my lady,” he said as he quickly closed the door, leaving a gap-mouthed Lucian still outside.

The two of them were alone in the room. Arabella frowned. “What’s up?”

Cinaed dropped to one knee, head bent, arms splayed out to the side in some kind of bizarre dramatic bowing thing. He spoke loudly with this odd, formal tone in his lilting Irish accent. “Your love for my lord is True, my lady, and I pledge my life to protect yours and the future prince of the House of Smoke.”

She grinned. “Okay.” It was kind of adorable, she had to admit.

Cinaed looked up, his eyes shining but serious. “You should know, my lady, that my prince loves you more than anything else on this earth. It’s the kind of love a dragon such as myself can only wish for some day. Please tell me you understand this.”

She was back to frowning again. “Yes, I understand that.”

Relief washed over Cinaed’s face, and he climbed to his feet. His expression was less formal, but no less serious now. “I wanted to speak to you privately, my lady, about a personal matter…” He glanced at the door. “One we have discussed previously.”

Recognition dawned in Arabella’s mind. “This is about Rachel.” 

He nodded and looked adorably bashful, dropping his gaze and biting his lip. He worried it for a moment, then looked back up. “I know that you gave me leave to pursue her—although I am not quite sure she wishes to be pursued—but I have been holding back.”