The Dragon's Heart (Dragon Lore) (8 page)

“Put these on,” he snapped.

Once she’d taken the clothes, he shut the door again before rounding on Luca, who was leaning against the kitchen’s island. “Alright,” he snapped. “I’m listening.”

Luca raised a dark brow at him. “She shoot you down?”

“Fuck off. I thought you had news.”

The humor faded off Luca’s face. He jerked his head toward a chair. “You might want to sit.”

Daniel let out a string of curses. Ignoring his suggestion, he planted his feet where he was, his arms crossed over his chest. “I’m listening.”

“The media’s having a field day with this.” At Daniel’s bland look, Luca’s gaze hardened. “I get you couldn’t give a shit, but this is your mate’s life. Without answers, the media are making up their own. That could be dangerous for all of us.”

Daniel scrubbed a hand over his face. Luca was right. He couldn’t care less about what the media was coming up with.
Ryuu
. This should have been the least of his worries.

“I’m listening,” he repeated.

“There are already whispers her shooting is tied in with what happened to you at her place.”

Daniel felt the muscle under his eye begin to twitch. “What’s the spin?”

Luca shrugged. “Not good. The second they couldn’t find her at any area hospital, the tone of the news stories went from sympathetic to…well, nasty. They’re digging into everything–her past, her friends, any relationship they can connect to her.” Luca crossed his ankles, then his arms over his chest. “So far, none of the stories have come close to anything with a supernatural bent, but with all the reality shows featuring ghosts and the hunt for mythical beings, it’s only a matter of time before rumors start surfacing, especially if someone gets a shot of her without a bullet hole in her shoulder.”

The pounding that had started at the base of his skull was quickly ratcheting itself into a full-on migraine. Daniel rolled his neck once in a useless effort to loosen the knots. “Anything else?”

“Not only are the police searching for her, the media is hinting she faked the shooting to disappear because of her involvement with what happened to you.” Luca winced. “That means the police are looking hard for you. They want answers from her. Right now, they’re treating it like she’s guilty as hell.”

It was on the tip of Daniel’s tongue to snap that she
was
guilty and he wouldn’t put it past her to stage her own shooting. Only the words wouldn’t come. Instead, he said, “the police won’t find me here.”

“No,” Luca agreed, his tone ominous, “but a Hunter could.”

Daniel didn’t say anything right away. He knew Luca meant they needed to get the hell out of there, but no one was stupid enough to give him commands. Well, no one except Shelby. Daniel’s head turned toward the bathroom. She hadn’t come out yet. Despite all common sense, worry started to build in his gut. She’d been through hell in the last couple of hours, and the last thing she needed was to go on the run.

His face was blank as he made up his mind. “We’re not going anywhere yet. She needs to rest first.”

“Ashborne–”

Daniel cut him off with a snarl. “Not open for discussion. We’ll take turns on the roof. I’ll take the first shift. You don’t let her out of your fucking sight.”

Luca cursed under his breath. “You’re being an ass. Have you looked in the fucking mirror? The undead look healthier than you, my Lord. You need to rest as much as she does, and we both know if a Hunter is motivated enough, they could already know where we are.”

“Then we don’t let them in. If someone is stupid enough to come at me head on, they’ll be stupid enough to take out easily.” Daniel stood up, his voice hard and unyielding. “Nothing is going to get past me to hurt her. I won’t allow it. If anyone is going to strangle her, it’s going to be me.”

7

Shelby stared down at the clothes Daniel had given her to wear, wondering how he expected her to be able to get them on.

She sat on the edge of the tub, scowling at the soft pink pajama bottoms and white, snug-fitting camisole. The white cotton panties and bra bothered her. Even if it wasn’t completely ridiculous to expect a woman to wear another’s underwear, there was no way the bra was going to fit her. Twin pangs of jealousy and nausea welled in her stomach. Shelby had no complaints about the size of her own breasts, but whosever bra she was holding…

Holy damn.

Shelby knew she shouldn’t care how perfectly endowed his former women had been, but it seriously hurt to think about him being with other women when she’d spent so much time trying to get over him. It wasn’t fair. He wasn’t supposed to have moved on.

Her chest hurt. His moods were giving her whiplash, and she was too emotionally raw to keep up with them.

Sighing, she reached down to pick up her own panties. No way was she wearing another woman’s, but Daniel hadn’t taken hers off before putting her in the bathtub, so hers were out of the question, too. By the time she finally managed to get into the pajama pants, she decided to skip the bra thing entirely. She wouldn’t be able to get it on, anyway.

The hard part came in trying to get into the camisole. While the material was stretchy, she only had so much mobility in her shoulder. While she could move it with only a slight twinge, lifting it high enough to put through the armhole probably wasn’t a good idea.

In the end, she stepped into the shirt. After a good couple of minutes trying to pull it up and put her good arm through it, she left the left side tucked underneath her arm.

Taking a deep breath, she finally met her gaze in the mirror, only to immediately blush down to her toes. The stretchy fabric of the shirt molded around her breasts, and if she got cold at all, Daniel and Luca would definitely know it.

Finally deciding there was nothing she could do, she searched through the vanity drawers until she found a comb. She ran it through her damp strands as quickly as possible, accepting she was going to have to embrace her natural curls when her hair dried.

It figured. So much for knocking his socks off the next time she saw him.

When she couldn’t put it off any longer, she finally managed to talk herself into stepping out of the bathroom, only to realize immediately Daniel wasn’t there. Feeling uncomfortable when she saw Luca at the stove with his back to her, she crossed her arms over her breasts as she searched for Daniel.

“He’s on watch duty.”

Her head swung back at Luca’s deep voice, and because she didn’t know what to say to him, she only nodded dumbly. “Oh.” She exhaled slowly at her brilliant conversation skills, and made her way over to the island. “Why?” she asked carefully, almost afraid of the answer. “Did something happen?”

“Not exactly.” He glanced at her over his shoulder, studying her with dark blue eyes that stayed locked directly on hers. “I think he wanted to get out of here for a while.”

“I’m not surprised,” she murmured, a sad smile tugging at her mouth as she tried to pretend it didn’t hurt. “He doesn’t like me very much.”

“He has valid reasons.” He shrugged as he turned around, leaning back against the stove.

“I don’t blame him.” She didn’t. He’d been almost killed in her house the last time they were together. She shivered under Luca’s probing stare, and glanced toward Daniel’s bedroom. “I don’t suppose you know where he keeps his sweatshirts, do you?”

“No.”

She let out an unladylike snort. “As talkative as Daniel, aren’t you.” She pointed at him. “Don’t move. I’ll be right back, and we’re going to talk.”

Not sure he’d listen to her command, she ran down to the back of the apartment. Uncomfortable going through his dresser, she struck pay dirt in his closet. It was full of basic male hoodies–all in black or gray. She frowned. The man was in desperate need of color in his life. Between his eyes and the shades of gray in his apartment, it was like being in the middle of a storm cloud. Shaking it off, she chose a black one with a zipper, shoved her arms into it, and was back in the kitchen less than a minute later.

“So.” Shelby hitched herself onto a stool, her head canting as she studied him. He seemed much more relaxed with her covered up. “Are you going to explain what you meant by the mate comment earlier?”

His jaw worked for a long time, before he shook his head. “No. Daniel will explain it to you when he’s ready.” When she frowned at him, he lifted one dark brow. “I’m hungry. You hungry?”

Her teeth worried at her bottom lip for a moment. “Actually, I can’t tell if I’m more tired or hungry.” As if to make the decision for her, she yawned. “I’m sorry.”

Luca ignored her as he went over to open the fridge, pulling out a stack of hamburger patties. “How many do you want?”

“One, please.” She yawned again and leaned forward, bracing her right elbow onto the island. She cupped her chin in her palm. “How long have you known Daniel?”

He pulled out a frying pan, seasoning the patties as he dropped them in. “A long time,” he finally murmured.

The knowledge she might finally get answers had her sitting up a little straighter. “So you…” her voice trailed off as she tried to find the words without going into too much detail, “you know what happened the night we went out?”

To her surprise, his voice turned glacial. “Yes.”

It shouldn’t have surprised her Luca blamed her too. Daniel was adamant it was her fault, and Luca seemed to be the loyal-to-his-core type. Her chest constricted as she remembered how hurt Daniel had been when the EMTs had carried him out.

“What happened to him that night?” she asked, her voice off as she tried to keep this stranger from seeing how afraid she’d been for Daniel. She didn’t want to be that girl who turned everything around to be about her. “The police said he vanished out of the back of the ambulance, and no one was ever able to find him.”

Luca studied her for a long time. “Have you asked him?”

“Yes.” She shrugged. “He won’t answer me.”

“Hospitals aren’t something our kind does well,” he said, getting comfortable against the counter as he studied her. “Did you try to find him?”

Still confused about the
our kind
comment, and the dawning realization they both talked as if they weren’t exactly human, she thought about lying. She could play it cool. Things were screwy enough between them without him finding out how desperate she’d been after that night.

She wanted answers, though, and something told her she wasn’t going to get any if she didn’t start giving some. So she nodded slowly, wrapping her arms around herself to ward off the pain. “Yes.” She looked down at the island top so he wouldn’t see her embarrassment. “I must have called him a hundred times in the first week.”

“Why?”

Her gaze snapped up. “Why?” she asked, confused. “Because he was dying, the police wouldn’t let me go with him, and I was scared out of my mind. I just wanted to know he was all right.”

“So it wasn’t because the police thought you had something to do with it?”

She sat up straighter as temper flared bright in her blood. “Even if I found him, I wouldn’t have told the police where he was.”

“Why not?”

“You’re kidding, right? There’s self-defense, and then there’s what he did to the man in my bedroom. Daniel didn’t kill him. He ripped him apart, and the police wanted answers.”

“You weren’t afraid of him after that?” When she just snorted at him, Luca crossed his arms over his chest, his gaze narrowing on her face. “The police must have made your life hell once they couldn’t find Daniel.”

She rolled her eyes at the understatement. “Hell would have been a walk in the park.” She didn’t bother to hide the snap in her voice. “Don’t you watch the news? When they couldn’t find him, they assumed his injuries were faked. They tried to prosecute me for accessory to murder.”

Luca’s body jerked as if she’d shot him. “What? Are you serious?”

She let out a humorless laugh. “You need to invest in a computer or television or newspaper, Luca.” She glanced around as a thought occurred to her. “Which reminds me, I have to make some phone calls. I need to call my manager, my agent and my assistant. They’re probably worried sick.”

“It’s not a good idea to contact any of them.”

Her eyes went wide at the fatality of his tone. “Why–why not?”

“Because we don’t know who shot you. We can’t rule any of them out yet.”