Blood Magic (Dragon Born Alexandria Book 2) (17 page)

“Who?”

“My dragon. She’s been rather restless lately.”

I believe my exact word was ‘bored’.

“You speak to your dragon side?” Logan asked.

“Yes.”

“Regularly.”

“Several times a day. Does that sound crazy?”

“No.” He glanced at the page she was reading. “According to this book, it’s completely normal. Perhaps you should speak more to her so you can link up and unlock your magic.”

I like him, and not just because he has a nice butt,
her dragon said.
You should listen to him. You should totally speak more to me.

Alex relayed the message.

“She likes my butt?”

Alex rolled her eyes. “Yeah, that was the important part of what she said.”

The smile he gave her made her magic thump.

“Well, she is a part of me,” Alex said. “And I appreciate your various attributes.”

“Good.” He closed the book and pushed it to the side.

“Logan, I was reading—”

His kiss drowned her protest beneath a mountain of devastating caresses.

“Shouldn’t I try to learn everything I can about the Dragon Born?”

“Of course. That’s why I got you the book.” His hands tightened around her hips. “But right now, I’m trying to distract you.” He pushed up with his arms, even as he lowered his mouth to her skin, trailing a burning river of kisses down her front.

“You’re doing a spectacular job of it.” She gasped as his tongue darted out, tasting her bellybutton. “But—”

“No buts.” He looked up at her, his expression pure sin. “I’m going to wind you up so tightly, that a single breath will make you explode in a riveting deluge of pleasure that will leave your body still trembling even hours later.” He inhaled, smiling at the change in her scent. “Oh, Alex, you’re making this too easy.”

“We have too…” Heat pierced her, and her back arched up, responding to his touch despite herself. “Damn it, Logan, do I have to hit you to make you behave?”

“You don’t want me to behave.”

“They’re here.” Her breaths were staggered now, puffing out in short bursts. “Naomi…and Marek.”

He slid back up. “I know. I can hear them.” He kissed her, his mouth salty with her sweat. “They can wait.”

“It’s dark.” Deep breath. “We need to break into the building…” Gasp. “…where the Convictionites are holding the Blood Orb.” Another deep breath. “And the hybrids.”

He pushed up with his hands, looking down at her. Their noses were so close that they touched every time she breathed. And she was doing a lot of that right now.

“Are you sure?” he asked.

No.
“Yes,” she said.

“Ok.” The mattress bounced back as he climbed off the bed. “We’ll just have to finish this later.”

The sight of him in front of her—stark naked and clearly prepared to finish this
now
—tested her resolve. Luckily, he turned and walked toward the ensuite bathroom before she could do anything foolish.

Alex threw one look at the book, which had returned to its previous dormant state, then rolled off the bed. Beyond the door, she could feel Naomi and Marek in the living room. Naomi’s magic was amused, Marek’s annoyed.

Alex gathered up her clothes from a nearby chair, thankful that Logan had thought to bring them into the bedroom while she’d been sleeping. Going out naked to have Marek toss her own panties at her would have been too much.

“What’s so funny?” Logan asked, stepping out of the bathroom, fully clothed. Wow, he was fast.

She put on her serious face—and her underwear—and said, “Nothing.” She glanced over at the book lying on the bed. “It changed back.”

“It does that,” he replied. “I bet it’s a protection to keep the knowledge out of the hands of the Dragon Born mages’ enemies. Only the Dragon Born can activate the book. Only they can read the secrets it contains.”

“Smart.” She slipped into the last of her clothes, then tugged on her boots. “So, how do you want to do this? Should we come out from different entrances? At different times?”

Logan took her hand. “We go out together.” He gave her a cautious look. “I hope you’re not embarrassed about me.”

“No.” She squeezed his hand.

“Good,” he said. “Because Naomi and Marek already know about us. The evidence is all over the living room.”

He opened the door, leading her out by the hand. Immediately, Alex got an eyeful of that ’evidence’, and it was even worse than she’d remembered. They’d been pretty rough. And of course he hadn’t taken the time to tidy it all up. It would take a huge cleaning team from the hotel several hours to make it all right. God, she hoped Logan had insurance.

Naomi crossed the room to Alex. She winked at Logan, then pulled Alex aside. Marek stood back, looking resigned. As Logan grabbed his computer from the coffee table and sat back onto the sofa, Marek took the big chair opposite him.

“And?” Naomi asked, snapping Alex’s attention back to her. “Spill. I want to know
everything
.”

“You do remember that Logan has super-hearing, right?”

“And? Naomi replied. “From the look in your eyes, he wouldn’t mind hearing it either.”

Across the room, Logan chuckled.

Marek looked at him. “What’s so funny?”

Logan just shook his head and flipped open his computer.

“Naomi, did you talk to Marek about me and Logan?” Alex asked. “He seems different. Resigned. He certainly doesn’t look ready for a fight.”

“I did,” she confirmed. “We talked about Eva, about what happened between her and him. I reminded him of what it’s like to care about someone and want to be with them. To be happy.”

“Did he tell you what happened between him and your cousin?”

“Yes. They were in love, but his mother didn’t approve of the relationship because Eva is only half mage. She wants only a full-blooded mage for her son because he’s part of an important mage dynasty and they don’t mix bloodlines and blah-blah-blah. So Marek broke up with her, but he immediately regretted it. When he went to her place to apologize, she threw him out of a third-story window. You could say my cousin has a temper.”

“Sounds like it.”

“Marek is determined to save her, even if she ends up throwing him out of another window.”

“He can summon dragons to catch him,” Alex said. “He’s not in any real danger.”

“Yeah, Eva knew that. She’s hot-headed, but she’d never hurt someone she loved. And she loves him, whether or not she’s willing to admit it to herself. I know she does.”

Alex believed it. When it came to matters of the heart, Naomi was totally on top of things. She could step into any room and within a few seconds, she knew exactly which people hated, loved, or were attracted to each other. She could also tell you which people
should
be together. If she ever got bored killing monsters, she could start a very successful career as a matchmaker.

“And what do you think?” Alex asked her.

“Marek wants a second chance at love with Eva, bloodlines be damned. He’s willing to do anything to save her. He’s a good guy, Alex.”

“I know that. He’s my friend, even with all his prickles.”

“He’s been down over his fallout with Eva. A broken heart would make anyone prickly,” Naomi pointed out. “And then when he saw you falling for a notorious assassin, he was worried the same thing would happen to you. That you would get hurt too, that your relationship was doomed because you are so different. Just like he and Eva.”

“And what changed?”

“For the first time in a long while, he has hope. I told him I’d help him with Eva. And that in return, I expect him to be more understanding of you and Logan.”

Alex squeezed her hand. “Thanks.”

“Though,” Naomi said, her eyes sweeping the room. “I didn’t expect his resolve to be tested so soon. Or so thoroughly. Man, Alex, what the hell did you two do here?”

“Everything.” Alex couldn’t even hold back the smile. “More or less.”

“Good for you.” She stole a covert glance at Logan. “I have to tell you, Alex. You and Sera get the most delicious men.”

“Thank you, Naomi,” Logan called out.

“Busted,” Alex whispered to her, walking toward the sofa.

“Red-handed,” she agreed, smirking.

As Alex sat down beside Logan, he kissed her forehead. Then he swiveled his computer around to show Naomi and Marek the building blueprints. “Alex and I have developed a plan. We infiltrated the Convictionite architect’s house and copied the blueprints of the Silver Castle.”

Marek looked at her.

“Logan did the infiltrating,” she told him. “I helped by duct-taping the architect to his office chair and setting the contents of his file cabinet on fire.”

Marek snorted.

“We can reach the underground level of the Silver Castle through this tunnel.” Logan tapped the screen. “It connects to the Aldwych tube station, an abandoned underground stop along London’s transportation network.”

Marek leaned in for a closer look. “The Silver Castle is quite far from the station. Are you certain the tunnel goes all the way through?”

“It’s impossible to say without going down there, but I believe it does. All Convictionites have an emergency escape route,” replied Logan. “Do you have the magic chemicals?”

Naomi held up a pink leather handbag. “Got ’em here. We also had the idea of making magic smoke bombs by me combining my Fairy Dust with a gentle wind Marek blows across the area. It would be a quick and quiet way to knock out the guards.”

“Good.”

Naomi turned to Alex. “Your boyfriend approves of our stealthiness.”

“And I approve of you knocking out as many of those guards as you can. Especially any of them you see holding a suspicious-looking device. They use it to control Logan.”

Naomi’s smile faded. “I’ll keep an eye out for it.”

“As will I,” Marek added.

“We will use the magic corrosives to eat a hole through the blocked passage,” Logan continued. “We will then take the tunnel to the end, where we’ll use the corrosives once more to enter the basement of the Silver Castle. This will bring us here.” He pointed at the screen again.

“That’s close to where I feel the hybrids,” Alex said.

“We’ll free the hybrids, then move deeper into the building to collect the Blood Orb, which Alex tells me is on the same underground level.”

“Your magic-sniffing is getting better,” Naomi told her.

“Practice makes perfect.”

“After we have the Blood Orb and the hybrids, we will escape back through the tunnel, collapsing the hole so the Convictionites cannot follow,” Logan said. “Then we clear out of the area before the Convictionite guards stream out the front of the Silver Castle and surround us. Any questions?”

“Yes, just one,” Marek said. “Do you always make impossible plans sound so easy?”

Logan nodded. “Of course. I defy the impossible. Now, suit up, everyone. We leave in half an hour.”

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Magic Corrodes

NIGHT WAS IN full swing in the city as they followed the road toward the abandoned Aldwych tube station. People were enjoying the warm evening air, eating, drinking, and dancing. Despite the early hour, a few of those people were already drunk.

Alex and Naomi walked ahead of the guys, who were further back, discussing infiltration techniques. Or at least Logan was. The last time they’d been in earshot, Marek had kept talking about setting Convictionites on fire.

“I’m reminded of that job we did at Golden Gate Park,” Naomi said.

“Which one? I’ve done hundreds there,” replied Alex.

At least once a week, San Francisco’s two opposing herds of centaurs turned the park into a battleground for their war of dominance—and they didn’t care if there were innocent bystanders around. In fact, they would have just stampeded right over those people if the city hadn’t paid Mayhem to deal with them. And centaurs were just one of the many groups who considered Golden Gate Park their own personal playground.

It was no wonder so many humans feared supernaturals. Many were still in awe of the magic, believing the lie that any one of them could gain magic of their own, if only they got close enough to it. The internet was full of people trying to hawk once-burning baseballs, pieces of metal fence ripped apart by telekinesis, and other junk they’d grabbed from the sites of magic duels.

“The job that you, Sera, and I did about three months ago,” said Naomi. “The one with the dispute between the elves and the nymphs.”

Oh, that one. Elves and nymphs generally got along all right. They were both types of fairies, which meant they usually had more of a reason to unite—against other supernaturals—than to fight. But that one time they’d both had a hissy fit over perceived offenses by the other. Fairies excelled at hissy fits.

“Sera brought her sarcastic tongue to the elves, and I tried to woo the nymphs with my charms,” Naomi said.

“As I recall, neither of you were particularly successful.”

“They were too worked up. Just imagine the travesty! The nymphs were bathing in the lake next to the elves’ trees. And the elves were making such a racket shooting arrows while the nymphs were trying to bathe. The nymphs wanted the elves expelled. The elves threatened to shoot the nymphs if they didn’t stop whining. Neither would listen to reason.”

“And then I brought reason to them,” Alex said, tapping her sword fondly.

“Your approach certainly was direct.”

“I knocked a few heads together, which made both sides so upset that they banded together against us. And they’ve been living happily ever after since.”

“It worked out well, true,” said Naomi. “But this recent business has made me wonder. Elves and nymphs are both a tad temperamental.”

Alex arched an eyebrow. “Just a tad?”

“Ok, a lot. They are prone to some serious mood swings. It wouldn’t have taken much to sour their opinion of the other group.”

“You think someone purposely tried to turn them against each other?”

“The Convictionites are trying to turn humans against supernaturals. And why?”

“Because it strengthens their position, their war on magic,” Alex said.

“Just as it strengthens their position for supernaturals to fight amongst themselves.”