Page 15 of Dragon Exposed

Sighing, I flop down on the bed and stare up at the ceiling. “I don’t know for sure that she’s mine. She doesn’t have my heartstone, as far as I can tell. My dragon’s pretty sure of it, though, and if a vampire’s trying to use her as bait, I have to assume the ache I feel when she’s not near must mean something.”

“Wait. Back up. Tell me the whole damned story.”

I rolled my eyes. Of course, the most observant, the most curious of my siblings had to be the one to call when I was feeling vulnerable. “There’s not much to tell. I met her that night, when Viktor tore through Epsilon. She’s…fuck, Dec, she’s something special. Fearless, full of fight and spunk. And now Viktor, or some other vampire flunky, is trying to use her as bait. Trying to get me to fly through Times Square.”

I didn’t tell him that I was deeply considering doing it. Not that I needed to.

“You can’t. I don’t need to actually go to New York to know that Times Square is never not busy. You fly there, and someone’s going to see. Too many people for us to be able to pretend it’s a hoax.”

“Dec, people won’t just see, it’ll be on every smartphone I pass by. You think I don’t know that? What am I supposed to do? If he knows about Izobelle, if he plans to use her against me, how do I fight against that? How do I keep her safe, unless I go along with his asinine plan?”

“You have to call Ash. Maybe we should bring all the dragons who are still on our side, who still believe in our claim to the Tourmaline throne, together, and figure out how to deal with these vampires once and for all.”

“Before tomorrow morning? There’s no time.” I squeezed my eyes shut and swallowed hard. “What would you do, if it were your mate in danger?”

The line went silent, so quiet that if it weren’t for an occasional whisper of breath, I’d wonder if it had gone dead.

Finally, Declan said softly, “If it were my mate, I’d burn down all of New York City to get her back.”

I smirked slightly, knowing that my little brother was passionate enough to do just that. It was hardly his approval for me to do it, but at least I could trust him to be on my side when the inevitable fallout from what I’d have to do would come down on us all.

After a few more minutes of chatter with Declan, avoiding any more discussion of Izobelle or vampires, I hung up and pulled up pictures of Times Square on my phone’s internet browser.

It was like a glowing neon beacon, and it didn’t seem like any angle would allow me to follow the mystery instructions without also giving up the truth about dragons to the world.

I had to hope, at least, that just after six in the morning, it wouldn’t be a huge tourist destination, and if there was one thing I’d noticed about all the hustle and bustle of this city, it was that everyone seemed to have tunnel vision for their destinations, and if I were really lucky, and I stayed high enough above the square itself, there was a chance that I could swoop past without every cell phone camera in the city homed in on me.

Why hadn’t I traded numbers with Izobelle? Why had it not even crossed my mind? I needed to hear her voice, needed to know that she wasn’t being bled dry or controlled by those fucking vampires.

Honestly, more than anything, I just needed to hear her say my name. To call me by that ridiculous nickname she’d given me, the one I didn’t really understand until I did an internet search and found out my name was also a popular brand of jeans.

I needed to hear her laugh. I craved the taste of her lips, the soft moans that I swallowed every time our mouths met.

I was in deep, and I didn’t want to let her go for anything.

The only question was, how did I get to keep her without risking all of dragonkind in the process?

* * *

Atop one ofthe many skyscrapers surrounding Times Square, freezing my naked ass off, I paced the roof’s edge, wondering for the millionth time if there was any way to do this without exposing myself.

My phone rang, the unknown number lighting up the screen like a beacon in the early morning light.

I almost didn’t bring the device with me at all, but I tucked it into a pouch at the last minute and carried it along with me, around my neck on a cord that let it dangle dangerously low when I was in my human form.

“Who is this?”

“Doesn’t matter. Are you ready to make your nationwide debut?” The voice on the other end didn’t sound familiar, meaning it wasn’t Viktor.

It didn’t mean he wouldn’t die for this.

“If you hurt a single hair on her head, I’ll rip you limb from limb.”

“Now, now, there’s no need for such violence. Would you like to see her? To know she’s safe and sound?” A chime went off in my ear, indicating that the caller wanted to change this call to a video chat.

Reluctantly, I hit accept.

Izobelle’s curvy, tempting frame filled my screen, looking entirely too fuckable in a pencil skirt and a button-up blouse. And those heels…

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