Page 38 of Bound in Blood

Imari presses her lips together like she’s afraid to speak again.

“Spit it out, Imari. Who is at the gate?”

She bends her head and whispers, but not low enough that I don’t hear. “A dragon, sir.”

“A dragon?” Xavier barks a laugh.

Ophelia yelps with excitement before she contains herself and clamps a hand over her mouth. My eyes dart between her and Giorgios.

“What on earth…” Giorgios grumbles and tosses his balled-up napkin onto the table. “Stay here. All of you.”

“Not a fucking chance in hell I’m missing out on seeing a dragon,” Xavier says, standing up. The rest of us do the same, and Giorgios is too distracted to stop us. Or perhaps, based on his accelerated heart rate and the faint smell of fear emanating from his pores, he’s too afraid.

Is this one of your and Alexandros’s dragons, princess?I ask her, unaware of any other kind, but still, it’s good to check.I wouldn’t put it past Lucian or the Order to have a dragon stashed somewhere.

She nods excitedly.It’s Anikêtos. I just said hi to him.

Dear fuck, I love this girl.I slide my hand into hers, and we follow Giorgios and Imari along the hallway and out into the courtyard. Sure enough, sitting before the gate on his haunches, large enough even with his wings tucked into his sides to obscure our view of the mountain in front of us, is a fucking dragon. All shimmering black scales and silver horns. Smoke unfurling from his nostrils, he trains his huge green eyes on us. With the exception of the pink-haired girl standing next to me, I have never in my life seen anything more magnificent.

“Anikêtos?” Giorgios gasps, his usually olive skin paler than the snow covering the mountaintops.

“He said to tell you he’s not here for you, Giorgios,” Ophelia says, her shoulders rolled back and her jaw tipped defiantly. I have never been prouder of this girl, and that’s saying a lot given how she impresses the hell out of me every single day.

He blinks at her. “You can talk to dragons?”

“Oh, yeah. Did I not mention that? Cool, right?”

He shakes his head. “You cannot take her from here, Anikêtos. I made Alexandros an oath to protect her.”

The dragon blinks his bright-green eyes at Ophelia. “He says he’ll take care of me now. Of all of us. You’re relieved of your duties, Giorgios.”

“No!” he bellows. “You cannot. Guards!”

The few dozen guards standing at the perimeter of the courtyard step forward, but their reluctance and fear are palpable.

“Ani says if they take one more step toward us, he’ll turn them all to ash.” With a single, perfectly aimed plume of flames, the dragon scorches the large tree that towers over the left wall. It crumbles to ash. “Just like that,” Ophelia adds.

Giorgios holds up his hand and orders his men to stand down.

“You will not get away with this. You will die out there on your own without my protection,” Giorgios spits, practically frothing at the mouth. I mean, who can blame him? How often does a dragon rock up at your door in the middle of dinner and put a huge-ass dent in all of your carefully laid plans to rape your brother’s fated mate?

“I think we’ll take our chances,” Ophelia says with a sweet smile. Then she turns to the guards. “We’ll be needing some of your furs. Jackets and hats.”

They stare at her, frozen, until Anikêtos sets one of their hats on fire. Once they finish scrambling to give us what we need, Anikêtos, via Ophelia, demands an extra set for his friend. Which makes me smile like a fucking idiot because I know who that friend is.

I keep a wary eye on Giorgios, unsure why he hasn’t teleported out of here yet.

He can’t, Ophelia reminds me. He can transport in but not out. The hallowed ground thing.

I vaguely recall her mentioning something about that now, but it was while I was under the influence of blue poppy and feeling decidedly not my best.But he’s a vampire.

Yes, but his transportation power isn’t vampiric. He simply let everyone believe it was. It was how he was able to mask his mind-control powers so well.

I shrug on the fur jacket and ignore the faint smell of body odor that wraps around me. Ophelia’s attention is now back on the dragon. By the look on her face, I can only guess I’m not going to like the outcome of the conversation they’re having.

She turns to me with a frown, and trepidation curls its way up my spine. “What’s wrong, princess?”

“Ani says that the minute we leave here, Giorgios will leave the grounds and transport straight to Alexandros. And then we won’t have a chance of getting to him in time. It’s going to take us all night to reach him.”

---