Page 67 of Dragon Exposed

Before the commotion died down, Izobelle grabbed my hand and tugged me down the street, away from the scene. I carried Nina with a robot-like precision, moving one foot in front of the other, not really focused at all on what I was doing.

Caleb’s dying roars still echoed in my head like a phantom I’d never be able to exorcise.

Izobelle directed us down into the subway and took care of getting us tickets back to the stop closest to the hotel.

It wasn’t until we were on the crowded train, surrounded by humans who had no idea of the horror we just witnessed, that I let the thoughts really sink in. Caleb Barrans was dead, the victim of vampires. I had no doubt he was driven to this fate because of some spell, or some torture from the foul bloodsuckers. Caleb wouldn’t have given up his hope for a mate easily. He wouldn’t have let the craze take over without something serious, something tragic, crushing him.

“Are you okay, Levi?” Izobelle’s voice was soft, hardly noticeable through the rumble of the train and the din of the other passengers, but I would’ve been able to pick her out, regardless of other sensory overloads happening.

I nodded once, not trusting myself to speak just now, not trusting myself to be able to not roar out my anguish the way my dragon demanded we do.

“We’ll get back to the hotel, okay? I’ll take care of Nina, and you do what you need to do.”

The woman in my arms had gone limp, like whatever spell had bound her in her spot had broken as we got further away from Grand Central Station. She was pretty enough, too thin for my tastes, but I could see the love my mate had for her, and because of that, I couldn’t just abandon her to her fate.

She wasn’t going to stay in our room though. I’d see to it that she had a safe place to recover, away from me and my mate.

Away from the dragon inside me, threatening to go on a killing rampage to take down every last fang I found, and all the damned dragon breath women in the same stroke.

“Levi, you’re…” Izobelle bit her lip. “You’re smoking.”

Sure enough, tiny tendrils of smoke were curling up from my nostrils.

I took a deep breath, trying to soothe the dragon within. We’d get our revenge—I’d make sure of it. But first, we needed to get out of this very public location.

If I’d been more coherent, I would’ve steered Izobelle back to the town car. At least then we’d be alone, and the driver would’ve been able to head out of the city if my dragon pushed too close to the surface.

I had to be calm. For my mate. For her friend.

Later, once it was dark, I’d make the vampires pay.

26

When all Hope Seems Lost

IZOBELLE

Levi was scaring me.

Not because his dragon was so close to the surface, making his presence known just as clearly as Levi’s human form, but because Levi seemed to be pulling back from me. Like he was retreating into himself, letting the beast take over.

I had to find a way to remind him that all was not lost, even after what we’d just witnessed.

First order of business was getting Nina settled, to make sure she wasn’t going to suffer any permanent damage.

After that, I had to attend to my mate. To make sure he wasn’t going to do something incredibly stupid.

Levi left me to hold Nina up as he approached the concierge desk and secured a second room. If it were up to me, I probably would’ve just gotten her upstairs and situated in our space, but the look he’d given me as I tried to steer our group to the elevator bank was enough to stop me in my tracks.

He’d been through enough today—neither of us needed to add a lover’s quarrel in the hotel lobby to the list.

“I’ll call Syrena once we get upstairs, see if there are any magical solutions she could recommend to help ease your friend’s suffering.” He said it with such authority, there was little room to argue.

I didn’t want to bring anyone else in on this. I didn’t want to put Nina’s fate in someone else’s hands. It was hard enough knowing that she was only in this place because of me, because of my connection to Levi.

The room Levi opened up for Nina wasn’t nearly as nice as the one we were staying in, but still leaps and bounds better than most of the hotels I’d ever stayed in. He laid her on the bed, and his fingers tested her brow, checking for fever.

“Levi? I think we should talk about what just happened.”

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