Page 5 of A Dagger of Twisted Starlight

That was interesting. I thought I’d just be staying withXavier, not the entire Blackthorne family. Not that I cared. The idea actually excited me. I just wondered…

“Oh, you don’t mind camping, right?” Xavier asked.

“Not really. Haven’t done it much, if I’m being honest.”

“Good. We have our family camping trip coming up in a couple of weeks out in Joshua Tree.”

“Sound like it’d be fun,” I said, a little absentmindedly. I was still hooked on that train of thought I’d had before he brought up camping. Xavier gave me another white-toothed grin before excusing himself to the bathroom. I tried to distract myself on my phone, but the thought still nagged at me. As Air Force Two continued on its way through the sky, I found myself looking out the window and wondering:

What the hell’s so bad that my dad wants me staying in a castle surrounded by dragons?

Chapter 3

Pitching A Tent

Xavier

The sun slammeddown into the cracked desert ground. It reflected back up, warming the dark golden scales of my underbelly. I released a languid yawn and stretched out my wings. Sunlight enveloped them in warmth.

I laid my head back onto the warm earth. I shut my eyes contentedly.

A little over a month had passed since my brother Maddox and his boyfriend, Caleb, saved the world by stopping Niazatos, the Chaos King, from breaking free of his prison. To celebrate such an accomplishment, we realized we couldn’t bake a cake and call it a day. Dawn was the one who suggested a family outing to Joshua Tree, which was what had brought us right back to our old hatching grounds.

I think you need to check up on your client, Dawn chided me. Dragons who were part of the same family had a telepathic link when they were in their scaly forms and close by, which was what allowed my sister to butt into my peaceful thoughts.

I lifted my head. Worry rushed through me. Had I been too lax? Did someone come and try hurting him while my guard was down?

Blake was by the tents, flailing his arms in the air as he ran in a wide circle. I rolled my eyes. Huffed a breath. It was a bee.

“Get it away from me!”

“Stop moving,” my brother Damien said as he pulled a fresh beer from the cooler, “You’re making it angry.”

“It’s makingmeangry—whoa!” Blake ducked down to the floor to avoid an aerial swipe from his assailant.

No wonder they had decided Blake could use a bodyguard.

I stretched out, flexing my claws into the dry dirt and flicking my tail a few times. The long, silky white hair hanging off the end looked more reddish brown now that it had collected some of the desert’s essence. I went to Blake, who had a difficult time getting back onto his feet. It appeared as if the bee kept watch over him. It hovered in the air above Blake one second and was snapped up by my jaws the next.

Blake blinked up at me, my large form blocking out the sun. He smiled awkwardly and gave me a wave from the ground. “Thank you.”

I chuckled. The sound came out like a distant rockslide beginning to form on one of the beige rock formations that made up the landscape. Blake got back to his feet, and I decided to get back to mine.

Shifting from dragon to our human forms came as easily to us as breathing. All I had to do was will it to happen. Golden mist swirled around me. My bones painlessly rearranged themselves, my organs following suit, my male form taking shape in under a minute. All of it happened under a veil of gold. Themist dispersed once the shift was complete. I stood there in my gray gym shorts, black T-shirt, and backward LA Dodgers baseball cap as if I’d been like that the entire time.

Blake brushed the dust and dirt off his pants. He still had some across his shoulders and back. “Turn around,” I said. I cleaned off his back. He felt firmer than I had been expecting.

This wasn’t in my job description, but I didn’t entirely mind. I’d been protecting Blake for about a few weeks now and found him pretty enjoyable to be around. When I picked up the job, I thought I’d be dealing with a prickly and snobby politician’s kid. Albeit an extremely influential politician.

I’d expected Blake to be out of touch with the real world and had no inclination to fix that.

I’d been completely wrong. That had been a pleasant surprise.

“Are you allergic?” I asked. It’s something that should have been told to me from the beginning, but I understood things slipped.

I did have to keep him far from strawberries, though.

“No, just a little scared of them.” Blake’s cheeks had a rosy tint to him. He was a funny guy. I normally stayed disconnected from my clients. They were usually all young, coked-out starlets or hypermasculine and entitled sports players. Sometimes I’d get the occasional rich businessman or sex-starved housewife. It came with the territory of being a highly sought-after bodyguard working in Los Angeles.

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