Humans were always killing, murdering, and destroying.
It wasn’t shocking there was an ancient law forbidding dragons to mate with humans. Henrik knew dragons had their own issues. He’d been buried in dragon issues for the last year. Ash, his eldest brother, and king apparent of the Tourmaline Clan, was doing everything he could to hold the clan together.
Now with the clans wanting revoke the Tourmaline Clan from the conclave until another sibling took the throne or he denounced his human mate, who wasn’t even human anymore…
The whole thing gave him a headache. He hated politics. He’d never been interested in the throne. Being a prince was enough to make his scales itch. It was still his job to protect the clan. Right now, that meant finding Grey, the stupid vampire, who was trying to dominate the world. Or over dragons. Or over something. It was hard to gauge exactly what the fang-head was after.
It took everything Henrik had to keep his dragon calm as he drove away from the clinic. He wanted to go back in there and demand her phone number and address and then possibly throw her over his shoulder and take her to his bed and have his way with her.
After a while, his dragon settled, and Henrik could think beyond his desire to seduce the doctor.
He arrived at his house by the lake. It afforded him privacy and space. The sun had come up while he traveled home slowly, only cautious to make sure he didn’t wreck his car on the icy roads. When he arrived, he wasn’t surprised to find a vampire on his doorstep.
Dragons were fine in the cold, but vampires were completely unphased by the temperature changes. Most at least wore coats when they needed to blend in, but out here, away from anyone but the fish in the frozen-over lake, no one would know.
He pulled into the garage and waited for Cillian. The vampire came in and Henrik shut the garage door after him.
“What are you doing here? I thought we agreed that you were going to stop just showing up.”
“You agreed. I never did such a thing.”
Henrik headed in through the garage door into the house. He kicked off his shoes. Cillian followed suit. It was just polite when it was snowing.
“What are you doing here?” he asked again as he started making coffee.
“Our spy got found out.”
“Fuck. How? Is he still alive?”
Cillian’s grave expression darkened. “Oh, he’s still alive. Stefano intends on using him as an example when it’s prudent.”
“How the hell did James get discovered? He was in deep. Deeper than you, I might add.”
“I don’t know. He messed up somewhere. We’ve got to get him out of there.”
Henrik snarled, “This is ridiculous. We’re going to blow our own cover and then what? Stefano is close to revealing all. This gets us one step closer to Grey who is a fucking enigma. We’re never going to find him at this rate.”
“I think it’s the witch.”
“Tabitha?”
Cillian nodded. “Warren lost her trail. He was working on trying to find her on the west coast when she breeched his territory, but she’s gone now, without a scent to follow.”
“You’re just here to deliver the bad news?”
“I’m afraid so,” Cillian said. “And there’s more. Tristian and Declan have gone radio silent.”
“Why am I hearing all this from you and not Ash?”
“Ash took Finley, Olivia, and Krystana underground. Kashton and Malcom are overseas following a couple of leads, but Ash wants them to lay low too.”
“Do not tell me you’re here to order me to lay low.”
“It’s a fucking tragedy if James dies, but you cannot get caught. If Grey takes you out, then he’s winning. We can’t take the blow of him getting his hands on another dragon. He’s still controlling the Opal Clan as far as we can tell. If he gains the Tourmaline Clan, that’s it. Game over.”
“Maybe the conclave would get it through their head that there’s a problem and it has nothing to do with mating with humans.” Henrik growled, low in his chest until it came out as a roar.
Cillian was unmoved by the display of anger.