Burned (Drake Security #5)

Chapter 8

Chapter

Eight

LORD

T he plane lands in a remote area outside of Aberdeen. It’s eerily silent as we deboard, and I’m acutely aware of the tension Alrick carries in his shoulders. A dusky glow lights the sky as nightfall creeps in.

“There’s a village a short walk from here.”

Alrick nods, tossing his bag over his shoulder. “You come here often?”

“Not often, but I’ve been here a few times over the years. I always feel a sense of calm when I’m in Scotland, as if the ghosts of the past welcome me.”

Alrick pauses, glancing at me with curious eyes. “Explain how that feels calming to you.”

I chuckle as I walk past him and he quickly follows.

“Some places carry the souls of the departed with them, weaving their energy into those who remain. The architecture, wilderness, even the living, embody all who came before. There’s a palpable sense of pride permeating the air that wraps around me like a blanket.”

He’s quiet for a few beats before saying, “I’ve never felt that way about a place.”

“It’s rare for me too. Normally the only place that truly feels like home is wherever my brothers are, but if I were to move from where I live now, Scotland would be at the top of the list.”

“You’re close to your brothers?”

“Extremely. We live together, work together, do everything together.”

“Sounds like a wolf pack.”

I glance at him, wondering what his motive is behind that comment. Is he trying to get me to admit what I am? Though I’m positive he knows.

“We’re not at all like a wolf pack. Wolf packs don’t typically share familial bonds since they have a tendency towards pack orgies during the full moon.”

“ Orgies ?” Alrick gulps.

I chuckle. “You have brothers. Aren’t you close to them?”

Alrick blows out a breath, dragging a hand down his long beard. Gods, how I would love to do that. He shifts his gaze to me suddenly, no doubt aware of the uptick in my arousal, but he doesn’t address it.

“Not equally,” he answers, referring to the question about his brothers. “I only have two. They’re both older. My dad and oldest brother are…” He pauses, the silence a beat longer than it should be. “They’re difficult. Guarded, I guess. Don’t get me wrong, I love them both, I just have a harder time finding a connection. They’re both focused on the family mission.”

“Killing dragons,” I say, even as my chest tightens and my dragon thrashes.

“Yeah. It’s all I’ve ever known. As far back as I can remember, it’s been beaten into my head that this is how I’ll spend my life. Literally,” he grumbles the last word under his breath.

“How do you earn a living?”

He scrunches his face up as he wipes a hand across his forehead. I have a feeling I’m not going to like the answer.

“I won’t judge you,” I offer to ease his discomfort. Little does he know I couldn’t hate him if I tried to at the moment.

“We sell the artifacts we find from dragon hoards.”

My heart seizes, my dragon pushing against my human skin to the point where I have to take several deep breaths to keep him contained. The desecration of raiding a dragon’s hoard leaves me almost breathless and choking back smoke.

“Sorry,” Alrick mumbles. “I know it’s shitty. I’ve always felt like an asshole about it, if that’s even kind of redeeming.”

“Have you—” My voice cracks, revealing the emotion I’m desperately trying to keep under wraps. “Seen a hoard?”

“No.” He shakes his head. “I haven’t earned it yet. I’ve seen some pieces when my family brought them back, but without a kill under my belt, I’m left out of the spoils.”

His answer soothes both me and my dragon. I think it’s time to discontinue this conversation for now as we exit the woods and step into a small village.

“There’s a tavern at the end of the street with great fish and chips.”

“Sounds good to me,” Alrick says. “I’m so hungry I could eat a drag?—”

He coughs to cover up his slip, but it didn’t get by me. Alrick offers a faint smile that I return.

“Food will be good for us both. We have a long journey ahead of us.”

We finish the walk to the tavern and slip inside. It’s filled with locals enjoying a meal and the company of others, the scent of old wood and spilled beer oddly familiar to me. A few men glance up from their meals, checking us out and discerning whether we’ll cause trouble or not, but they seem placated well enough.

“Sit anywhere,” a young woman with long blonde braids yells from the bar as she lifts a tray filled with beer mugs.

Alrick points to a table situated against a wall but with a clear view of the door. It must be his upbringing that makes him so cautious and aware of his surroundings. I’ve never much cared given my ability to shift and eliminate any possible threat within minutes.

Ironic that I’m sitting next to a man whose entire life purpose is eradicating my kind. Without a weapon, he’s incapable of harming me, and even with a weapon, he’d be at a disadvantage. Perhaps that’s why I haven’t known of his family’s existence until now.

We look over the menus. “We have to go up to the bar to order.”

Alrick nods. “Okay.”

We get up a minute later and head to the bar, where the woman who greeted us says, “What’s it to be?” Her thick Scottish accent makes me smile.

“Fish and chips for me, please, and a draft of whatever you have on tap.”

Alrick nods. “Same.”

“Table number?”

“Fourteen,” I answer.

She taps on her register, yelling something at another table in Scottish slang that’s meaningless to me. I could tell Alrick that this is one of the oldest pubs in the area and that I was here with my brothers when it was still new, but I’m not quite ready to voice the truth we both know. After we get to the mage woman, break the bond, and get back to the states, I won’t care what his reaction is, but for now I need to keep a modicum of cooperation between us.

Alrick’s attention is on everything but me when we get back to our table, and for a moment, I imagine him joining Drake Security. He’s alert, and obviously strong. He’d make a great bodyguard, especially with my fire flowing through his veins.

The thought is jarring, and a wave of heat spreads through me as my dragon curls up as close to the surface as possible.

“You okay?” Alrick asks.

“Perfectly fine.”

The bartender arrives with our beer, and before I’ve finished my first sip, she’s back with the food and a bucket of cutlery. The aroma of fried goodness stokes my appetite, and I dig right in. Alrick takes several gulps of beer first, his Adam’s apple bobbing and drawing my attention away from my delicious meal.

I tear my gaze away just as he turns to his food. We eat in silence for several minutes, and I imagine the wear and tear of the trip is catching up to him.

He leans back in his seat a few minutes later, munching on a fry as a slow smile spreads across his lips. “I feel transported to another place and time being here. My Viking ancestors are smiling down at me, waiting for me to start the plundering that won’t happen.”

“As I said, the ghosts linger.”

He nods, shifting his weight again to hover over his plate and resting his elbows on the table. He eats happily, licking grease and vinegar from his fingers and washing the food down with beer. He’s so ruggedly handsome and manly, and my thoughts return all too quickly to what it would be like to taste his kiss.

I have many questions, most of which I probably don’t want to hear the answers to. Does he want to kill a dragon? Would he ever allow one to touch him intimately? Would I allow myself to indulge if I could?

I polish off my meal, aware of the shift in his energy. Instead of the guarded man I’ve been sitting across from, I’m met with someone softer, more curious.

“Do you have a question?”

Alrick chuckles. “Uh, yeah, I guess I do.”

“I’ll answer if I can.”

“You’re not in a relationship?”

It’s not the question I was expecting him to ask. It takes me a second to gather my composure and answer.

“No. I haven’t been for some time.” I eye him, working to keep my voice even. “You?”

He shakes his head. “No.” He leans back, scratching his beard as his gaze takes me in unabashedly. “But you date… men?”

I nod. “Exclusively. You?”

“Yeah. I hid it forever because I thought my dad would lose his shit. We were raised in a hyper masculine environment, but then I found out my older brothers are gay too. Surprisingly, my dad was fine with it.”

“That’s good. My parents are very accepting and always have been. It’s normal where I’m from. In fact, we never even had a word for it until…” My words trail off as I realize where I was going with this. “Culturally, previous generations didn’t use modern terms for sexuality. It never mattered. Who we love is who we love, regardless of societal constructs of gender or sexuality.”

“That must have been very freeing for you.”

I shrug. “Didn’t know any different until I was exposed to those outside of my family. I don’t care what others think or what labels they assign me. I am what I am.”

“I finally got there too.”

“Good. We all deserve to be who we are.”

The waitress returns with our check, and I put some money down to cover it.

“I’ll pay you back for my half when I get back home,” Alrick offers.

I wave my hand in a gesture to dismiss the comment. “You’re here because of me. The least I can do is buy you a meal. We should go though.”

“Sure.”

We rise, drawing the attention of several customers again, and one of them looks at us a little too long for my liking. The hair on the back of my neck pricks up and my dragon thrashes defensively. I really don’t want any trouble tonight, but if I have to protect Alrick, I absolutely will.

We exit the tavern and walk down the darkened sidewalk, heading straight through town to the wooded area on the other side. I really hope the archaic directions I found in my book are still relevant and I’m not just leading us into the vastness for no reason. At least Alrick has my fire inside him to help his stamina.

As we walk, a sense of foreboding grips me just as Alrick moves closer to me.

“Hey, Lord?”

“Yes?”

“I think we’re being followed.”

ALRICK

In fact, I’m sure we are. I glance over my shoulder, aware of the shadow slipping between the trees.

“That’s what I’m sensing,” Lord says.

“What do you think he wants?”

“No idea, but I doubt it’s good.”

“Fucking great. I don’t have my sword.”

“We’ll be okay.”

That’s when I remember who I’m next to. Lord is a dragon. He can protect us, if necessary, which is both incredible and terrifying. Up to now I could plausibly deny my suspicions, but if he shows himself, then what? We’ll have to quit dancing around the topic and face it head on, that’s what.

My family would expect me to turn on him and kill him, but the thought of plunging a sword into Lord’s chest makes my stomach sour and threaten to reject the meal I just scarfed down.

I keep in step with him as he speeds up, leaving me slightly surprised that I have the energy to do it, but it’s probably the weird medicine he gave me causing it. A tree branch breaks and snaps and the sound makes me grab Lord’s arm.

“I’m aware,” he whispers.

His skin is warmer than usual, almost hot, though the air around us is cool.

I’m tempted to feel safe, but then another, more alarming thought invades my head. What if Lord lured me out here to give me up to his dragon friends? He got me far away from the protection of my family, drugged me up, and now he’ll destroy me, leaving me to rot out here where I’ll never be found.

The thought enrages me. Am I stupid enough to trust a dragon? Is he really so ruthless that he’d pretend to be nurturing and kind only to betray me? Hell of a long game he’s playing if so.

Before I can form another thought, the sound of increasingly fast footsteps closes in on us. Lord shoves me to the ground, and right before my eyes, orange scales with black tips ripple across his skin. His eyes seem to glow bright orange in the darkness, and his shirt is torn from his body as wings spring from his back.

My jaw drops as Lord wraps a clawed hand around the intruder’s neck and raises him into the air. The man, large and carrying what looks like a gun, kicks his legs wildly, pulling at Lord’s hand around his throat.

“What the fuck are you doing?” Lord demands, his voice deep and inhuman.

Weirdly, my cock swells in reaction, my chest heaving with breath.

“Holy fuck,” the man yells.

Lord tosses the man with enough force that he slides across the leaves and stones that cover the forest ground. The man grabs his chest, trying to catch his breath, but Lord stomps forward, taking the man’s weapon and squeezing it in his hand until it’s nothing but crumpled metal.

The man’s eyes are so wide they look like they could pop out of his head.

“State your business with us,” Lord demands.

The man can’t seem to form a sentence as he trips over his words and produces nothing but garbled noises.

Lord lifts the man back up by his shirt, holding him close to his face. “Don’t you ever come near me or mine again. Next time you will feel my fire.”

The man nods, shifting his gaze to me for a second before finally saying, “Wasn’t gonna hurt you. You looked rich.” He has an American accent. Clearly, he’s out of his element.

“Ah. You planned to rob us.” Lord clicks sharp white teeth. “You should be careful. You never know who you’ll encounter in the woods.” He drops the man to the ground. “Run along before I change my mind and eat you for an after-dinner snack.”

The man scrambles to his feet, tearing off into the woods without even looking back. In the space of a blink, Lord appears normal again, except for the fact that his shirt is shredded and barely clinging to his skin.

He saved me.

He definitely didn’t set me up.

And fucking hell, he’s gorgeous in both forms.

I immediately wonder what he looks like completely shifted, and my body’s reaction to that thought is startling.

But maybe the strangest, most confusing part of it all is that he didn’t hurt that man. He would have been justified in roasting him, but instead he gave him a warning and let him go. My head spins and I can’t quite make sense of it.

Lord pulls the rest of his shirt off before digging in his bag for a replacement. After he tugs it over his head and drags a hand through his hair, he finally settles his gaze on me. I can’t lie and say I don’t want to see the orange glow again.

“Obviously, I’m a dragon,” he says, his voice filled with guarded concern. “And also obviously, I mean no harm. Can you say the same?”

Swallowing hard, I get to my feet as a thousand conflicted emotions clutter my head. I’m supposed to want to kill him, but all I want to do right now is hold him.

“You saved me…” I chuckle and run my fingers through my tangled hair. “Again.”

He nods, but his jaw is set and his eyes are hard. He’s waiting for me to turn on him.

“Thank you.” I take a step toward him, aware of how his body tenses. Without thinking it through, I drag my hand down his arm, noticing the hitch in his breath. “That was pretty badass.”

His expression doesn’t change at all.

“I won’t hurt you, Lord. It’s obvious you’re only trying to help me, and I appreciate it.”

“But you want to, right? You’re holding back?”

His question raises my hackles. “Are you?”

“I’m not a hunter, ” he grits out. “Contrary to what you’ve been told, I’m not a mindless beast intent on the destruction of innocent people.”

I back down. “I can see that. There’s a reason I’ve failed to live up to my family’s legacy so far, you know.”

“Care to tell me why?”

Could I? “Maybe later. But I assure you, I have no ill will towards you.”

“Same.”

I offer my hand and after he gazes at it for a moment, he shakes it.

“Let’s keep going, huh?” I say.

“Yes.”

Lord turns and pushes forward through the trees, but it takes me a second to catch up. He’s attractive, interesting, and kind. He could’ve killed the would-be robber, but he didn’t even harm him.

I’m reevaluating everything I’ve been raised to believe because of this man, and that scares the hell out of me.