The Dragon's Heart (Dragon Lore) (9 page)

Her laugh bubbled out. “Oh, you don’t have to worry about them. They would never hurt me.”

“Still.”

She frowned. Then as quickly as the relief came, it was gone. “Have you seen the news yet?”

No.”

Her eyes narrowed, sure he was lying. She was too tired to argue with him about it, though. She suddenly couldn’t stop yawning. “Luca? How much longer until the burgers are done?”

“Ten minutes.”

She nodded as she slid off the stool, feeling drunk as the room started to spin. She didn’t know how she made it to the couch, she was just grateful she did. “I’m going to take a quick nap, wake me when it’s time to eat, alright?”

“No problem.”

* * * *

Considering she’d been on life support earlier in the day, Shelby felt surprisingly good when she woke up. “How long was I asleep?” She shoved the hair out of her face, automatically scanning the room for Daniel. Her stubborn, traitorous heart ached when she realized it was still just Luca in the room with her. “He isn’t back yet?”

“No. I was going to go find him, but he’d gut me if I left you alone.”

She gave a tired snort as she sat up carefully. She frowned as she watched him hurriedly shut his laptop. “He’d probably kiss your feet if something happened to me.”

A grin flickered over Luca’s mouth as he slipped the computer under the island, making her wonder what he had been looking at that he hadn’t wanted her to see. “Trust me, blondie.” He laughed. “He’s been a dark, moody bastard for almost a year now.”

She grinned, unable to help it. “You mean he has other moods?”

Luca cocked his head, studying her. “Tonight’s the first time I’ve seen life in him since that night. But to answer your question, he has two moods–dark, moody and pissed off, and
really
dark, moody and pissed off.”

“But it works so well for him.” Her teeth caught her bottom lip to stop the ridiculous, goofy grin that wanted to form. Afraid of giving too much of her emotions away to Luca, she concentrated on moving into the corner of the couch, pulling a throw blanket over her pulled-up knees.

When she was settled, she turned her attention back to him. Realizing he’d been serious, her humor fled, replaced with temper. “There’s so much more to him, Luca, you know that, right? He has all this pent-up anger at me, and yet…” her voice trailed off as she closed her eyes. “He’s been so gentle every time he’s touched me. He’s taking care of me when he doesn’t have to. He could have let me fend for myself when I needed a bath, but he helped me. He even held me when I cried. Of course, he then yelled at me for crying, but it was because he didn’t know how to fix it, not because he was annoyed.” She shifted onto her knees and shook her finger at him as she considered throwing something at his head. Like a really big rock. “A man with nothing but darkness and anger wouldn’t worry about what’s hurting a woman he’s so angry with.”

Luca spun his stool around. Bending forward, he braced his arms against his knees as he studied her, his face neutral. “I think you’re giving him too much credit. Seeing things in him that aren’t there.” He gave her a look that suggested he was coddling her. “Maybe you’ve made one romantic comedy too many.” He snorted out a humorless laugh. “Do you really think Daniel is hero material?”

She was on her feet in the next instant, more furious than she’d ever been in her life. “Do you know my shoulder doesn’t hurt? I was shot today and I haven’t felt a single moment’s discomfort because Daniel refuses to let me.” Her hands clenched into fists. “I don’t know how he’s doing it, but he is. All you have to do is look at him to know it’s wearing on him, and you, his
friend,
are calling him a heartless bastard? What is wrong with you?”

“Whoa, Blondie. It’s all right. I’m on your side here.”

She snorted, disgusted. “Save it. If this is how you have someone’s back, I don’t want you at mine.” Her gaze narrowed on him. “Where is he?”

Luca was apparently smart enough to realize how close she was to hurting him. “The roof.”

She nodded once, already rounding the couch. “How do I get there?”

He moved to the elevator, hitting a button to open the doors, then held them open for her. He hit another button inside the car. “Straight up there.”

She made a wide berth around him as she walked in, but she was sure he didn’t miss the daggers she was shooting his way. “By the way, my name is Shelby. Not Blondie.”

His only reply was to let the elevator doors slide closed between them.

Her stomach was in knots by the time she stepped out onto the roof. Luca was supposed to be Daniel’s friend, and it shook her on every level to know what his friend thought about him.

She just didn’t get how Luca–how anyone–couldn’t see what was beneath the gruff, permanently pissed-off exterior. So help her, she would beat the knowledge into Luca if she had to, but the idiot was going to see the kind of person Daniel was.

The night came tumbling back with crystal, heartbreaking clarity. He’d taken his time with her at first. She had reveled in it, her body coming alive. She hadn’t been The Good Girl. She’d been sexy, the most beautiful woman in the world. His hands and mouth had been urgent, desperate, like he couldn’t get enough of her, as if he needed her just so he could breathe. Then, he’d devoured her. Dear Lord, by the time they’d come up for air, every bone in her body had melted, and it had taken her ten minutes to remember her own name.

He’d been dangerous, a little bit wicked, and she’d been soul-deep addicted.

It hadn’t just been the sex, though, that had been romance-novel mind-blowing. It had been
him.
Daniel. His power, his strength, the absolute control and intensity in him with every move he made, as if with the barest flick of his wrist he could send the world spinning off its axis. When she’d seen the scars covering his skin, suggesting he’d spent his entire life in battle, the need in her to take care of him ran so deep, it had terrified her down to the bones. Because when they’d touched, she’d felt how lost he was, and how desperate he was to find a connection to someone who cared about him
.

Then he’d disappeared, and she’d felt like her world had shattered.

Pushing it aside, she wrapped her good arm around herself to ward off the sharp breeze as she glanced around in the darkness.

When she didn’t see him, she was about to head back to the apartment when a movement caught the corner of her eye. She swung around, her heart seizing in her chest as she saw a massive dragon perched on the low wall that wrapped around the roof.

For a second, she was sure the creature was breathing. The full moon played off black and red iridescent scales that looked warm to the touch. She kept waiting for the massive wings to stretch out as the giant beast took flight. It was so real she took a step forward with her hand stretched out, only to snatch it back with a laugh.

Of course, it wasn’t real. It was a massive, seriously lifelike statue. Amused at herself for letting Daniel’s off-the-wall comment earlier play with her imagination, she took a step back. “I’m losing my mind,” she muttered, as she started to turn back for the stairs, only for her body to freeze into place as the dragon lifted its head and slowly turned toward her.

Screaming, she tripped over her feet as she scrambled backward, landing on her backside. In an effort to stop herself from wrenching open her shoulder wound, she tried to shift her momentum at the last moment. As her head bounced off a concrete pillar, the last thing she saw before her vision grayed, her world fading to black, was the dragon roaring.

8

The second the elevator doors opened, Daniel ran for the bedroom. “Luca!”

“What the hell happened?” Luca asked. “She only went up there a minute ago!”

Daniel’s face wiped clean of emotion as he carefully laid his mate on his bed. “She saw the dragon.”

“Fucking hell.”

As soon as she was as comfortable as he could make her, Daniel straightened. Without warning, he gripped Luca by his leather jacket, shoving him against the wall. He moved his body in, trapping the other dragon. Daniel’s teeth lengthened dangerously, his pupils turning to slits. “What the
hell
were you thinking letting her up there?” he asked, snarling.

To Daniel’s surprise, Luca didn’t fight back. He met Daniel’s gaze head on. “I found some things about her you need to see.”

Daniel slammed his lieutenant against the wall, leaving Dragan with no personal space and his feet an inch off the floor. While Daniel’s human form was only scarcely bigger than Luca’s, Daniel was King. If Luca so much as raised his fist against him, Daniel would be in his right to kill him. There were very few times Daniel had ever exercised the right, but Luca had put his mate in danger. Fury didn’t come close to explaining what was roaring through Daniel’s blood at the moment. “That’s not an answer!”

“I’ll explain as soon you look,” Luca said. His lieutenant’s calmness, when Daniel was ready to rip out his throat, had the rage ebbing back as fear took over.

Worrying about Shelby wasn’t new to him. Giving into the emotion and having to deal with it were.

He stepped back, letting the other dragon go. “I’m listening.”

“In the kitchen.” Luca winced as he gave Daniel the order. “She doesn’t need to hear any of this if she wakes up.”

Daniel’s jaw worked for a long moment. As much as he wanted to slam his fist into Luca’s face for daring to tell him what
his
mate needed, the other dragon was right. But his urge to make sure Shelby was taken care of outweighed everything, even his need for answers. “Give me a few.”

Luca only nodded once.

Daniel watched him turn away. “Luca.”

“Yes?”

“Call Seren. She’s not bleeding, and I don’t think she hit her head hard. I think it was mostly fear, but there’s a bump.”

“I’m on it.”

Daniel didn’t move until Luca was in the kitchen. He knew Luca wouldn’t call Seren. Thanks to the mark, he’d know if Shelby was seriously hurt, and Luca would have seen it on his face. Then he let out a low, violent growl. It shook the floor and rattled the windows, but it wasn’t enough. He wanted to let his dragon loose and roar the city to its knees.

His mate was hurt again.

Because of him.

Sinking to his knees beside the bed, he took in every inch of her. Her pale gold hair was a riot of soft waves against his pillow, a burst of sunshine against the ugly gray of his sheets.

Warmth to melt the ice that had formed around his heart and soul.

Damn it. Everything about her was perfect. Even now with his heart at war with his brain, he knew why the world was obsessed with her. She represented something good and beautiful in a world growing ever darker. It was in the way her green eyes sparkled on the screen, the way her smile seemed to radiate from her very core that enveloped everyone and charmed them all.

He forced his emotions off as he got to his feet. He was acting like a goddamn fledgling. It wasn’t solving anything. He wasn’t a lovesick idiot. Not since her hired gun tried to dispose of him.

After a quick check to make sure her breathing was even, he stalked down to the kitchen. One corner of his lip lifted in a snarl. “This better be good.”

Luca finished typing something on the computer before he jerked his head toward a stool. “You might want to sit. You’re not going to like any of this.”

Daniel remained standing. He crossed his arms over his chest, impatient. “I’m waiting.”

Luca rolled his eyes, but he turned the laptop around to face Daniel. After a moment’s hesitation, he hit play.

At first, Daniel wasn’t sure what he was watching, but as the scene played out, pieces to the puzzle started to fill in.

The footage started with the media arriving at Shelby’s house only minutes after Daniel’s stabbing. There was confusion, even sympathy for Shelby in the reports. By the next day, the sympathy had given way to curiosity along with reports of Shelby questioned, then held in response to Daniel’s stabbing and subsequent disappearance. The brutal death of the unknown assailant in her bedroom didn’t help her case, either.

The police department finally decided to charge her with accessory to murder. The media sensation it caused took its obvious toll on her. She lost weight by the day, the vibrancy in her eyes fading. Within the first three months after his disappearance, it was clear everyone thought she was guilty. Even those who didn’t have an opinion were quick to point out her place in the American film industry was rapidly becoming non-existent. Her brilliant star was tarnished.