D
arkness was a perpetual irritation, particularly for a creature like Kol. He was not only trapped in it, he was a part of it. For centuries he’d lived without light. The darkness of the temple he lived in was incidental compared to the inky black of the mood he’d wallowed in since the day the exit doors had slid closed, trapping him and his multitude of brethren inside to sleep for half a millennium.

He’d lost count of the days since the light had gone out, but guessed it had to be close to the five centuries the dragons’ cycle of sleep should last. He could have done the math but didn’t care to. What purpose would it serve to mark time in such a place? Particularly when you were the only one awake.

That wasn’t precisely true. They could all be conscious if they chose to be, but aside from himself and the Guardians, the others had a choice in their static jade forms to sleep through the centuries. For the first week he’d heard the others in his mind, speaking in subdued voices. Gradually the voices had grown fewer and fewer as they’d succumbed to sleep, until only his twin siblings had been awake, trying to bolster his mood as always.
We love you, Kol. We know it’s an honor to be chosen for your job. We’d do it in a heartbeat.

Finishing each other’s sentences, Aurin and Aurik were as oblivious to Kol’s demons as they were to their own strange and shifting symmetry. The two of them reminded him of a gyroscope. As long as their balance of power exchange remained, he believed the Earth probably still maintained its axis. If Aurin and Aurik ever faltered, then Kol would worry about the fate of dragonkind.

In spite of their sentiments, they never would have been chosen for his job. The job of Shadow was only for a black dragon like him. Brilliant gold as the twins were, they were better suited for uplifting humanity than skulking around in the dark.

Skulking was something he was good at, and had been even before doing it for five hundred years. Technically, he
was
asleep. At least his body was. But his magic, unique to black dragons, allowed him to manifest through his breath. While his physical body slept on, frozen in black jade, the shadow of his breath coalesced into a smaller, human form and lurked about the temple like a ghost, ensuring the security of all who slept within.

Tedious, monotonous, dreary, boring—he could think of so many other terms to describe his job. Dragon law dictated that a Shadow watch over the brood each cycle, and he’d been chosen for this one. Though he was not precisely
chosen
so much as compelled. True, he was probably the best candidate for the position, but traditionally potential Shadows were given a choice because of the psychological strain it took. He was the first one who’d been compelled to do it as a penalty for poor behavior.

He chuckled to himself at that. Speak out against the council’s outdated ideals and get shoved in a dark prison. Granted, he’d have been here anyway, but at least he could have slept through the whole ordeal and let one of the others like him do the job.

He’d undeniably broken the rules, as archaic as they were.
Willfully
broken the rules, the council had said when he stood before them on the eve of his sentence. As if the heart knew anything beyond what made it beat.

Generations had passed since. The lover he’d accepted the sentence for was long dead, but the certainty didn’t help quell the excitement that welled in him knowing how close they were to the end of their confinement. What would he find on the outside? Dragon lore only spoke of vast changes in each cycle, but they were an infinitely adaptable race. Would he look for her? Her descendants? He suddenly wished fervently that he’d had the foresight to mate with her before they’d been parted. He’d already broken one rule by falling in love with her, why not one more by getting her with child? Oh, would
that
have left the council in a bind considering the child wouldn’t have been born until after the temple was sealed. But he hadn’t left anything behind but regret and a now dead lover.

It happened sometimes. Young dragons breaking the rules prior to their slumber. The marked mates often died of sorrow if the dragon had no elder family to take them in. Any children of such a union would be taken and raised by the council, but would grow up nameless, forbidden from acquiring treasure. They would spend their lives in service to the council and tended to die young, only living out roughly half of a dragon’s multiple-century life span. Slavery and grief were the last things Kol wanted for a mate and child of his own. His lover may have grieved him, but at least he’d left her with the freedom to move on.

Eveline.

Even thinking the name after the centuries without her brought back the memories of their time together. The loss twisted painfully in his chest, as sharp as a blade. The discomfort was enough to make him pause in his mindless patrol of the temple corridors. Sleep would be nice right now. Sleep would have been nice for the last five hundred years, but it wasn’t for him. And he didn’t want to be the one who slept on the job, even if it were a possibility. Hah.

At least he had the Guardians for company during his daily patrols. They were the second defense if their temple were ever prematurely breached, so they existed in a more aroused state of wakefulness than the rest. Kol chuckled at
that
thought.
All
of them were asleep in an
aroused
state, even his massive slumbering form in the room beside the Queen’s sported its own huge erection. They had to be ready when the awakening ritual began. The Guardians were just the most visible. He often wondered what they would look like if the temple were ever actually attacked and they were forced into action. White dragons with massive erections might distract even the most determined grave robber.

The thought made him laugh.

“How goes it, Roka?” he asked, pausing on his rounds in front of his closest friend of the Guardians.

“You tease me with your voice, Shadow. If I had breath, we could have a proper duel and see who triumphed.”
The voice permeated Kol’s mind rather than the air between him and the rigid white statue he stood before. Kol still reached out a hand and rested it on Roka’s shoulder.

Kol laughed. “If you had breath you know mine would overtake yours in a second.”

“We’ll see who gathers the most treasure when we awaken. I’ll wager I get more, even as a guardian.”

“I’ll wager you do, too, friend. I don’t see the allure in treasure. Not even humans, as pretty and vibrant as they are.”

“You deserve more after this cycle. You deserve concubines.”

“I do, do I? You know that the Court is already entitled to a multitude of partners if we choose, right?”

Kol smirked at the silence his friend responded with.

“Then why don’t you seem happy about that prospect?”

Mother of all… Roka did always ask the most irritating questions.

“I just want one woman. One sweet morsel to savor for the next few decades after this temple is finally opened. Someone whose world I can change enough to see in her eyes how much I mean to her and her alone.”

“But you’re not a collector? It’s our nature. I want at least two. At least I know what I would do with two. More than that might be… complicated.”

Kol laughed. “Yes, more than two becomes problematic. All I want to collect is the touch of her skin, the silky dew between her thighs, the little sounds she makes that lets me know my touch is affecting her.”

He wandered away from the conversation with his fingertips tingling as though they’d already touched hot skin, memories of Eveline playing over and over in his mind.

Chapter Two

T
he sweet dark of sleep was a hard commodity to retain. Hallie questioned her own sanity every morning when the camp awakened and she was forced to rise with the rest. She wasn’t a morning person, but apparently she was outnumbered. And since she was trying her best to conform to the ideals of the expeditionary type, she rose, too. Or she tried to, anyway.

It was still fucking dark in their jungle camp, but the entire group had been edgy all night knowing the next leg of their trek would likely take them to their final destination.

She opened her eyes and glared at the edge of her sleeping bag, resisting rising for just a few more moments. Five minutes… she could squeeze in five more minutes of sleep if she tried really hard. She clenched her eyes shut, trying to bring back the delicious dream she’d been having about Kris. In the dream he’d had a massive erection and was about to shove it in her.

Something tickled her cheek and she swept her palm over it. The tickle came back a second later, an irritating distraction from her hopeful dreams. She smacked her hand on her cheek smartly, wishing whatever it was would go away.

The tickle returned, accompanied by a throaty giggle.

“Camille, you’re in for it,” she murmured gruffly against her sleeping bag.

A hard sigh sounded behind her. “I’m sorry. You said you wanted help waking up, so I thought I’d try this. It was fun until you started sounding bitchy.”

“Don’t take it personally. I’m always bitchy at this time of day. At least if I’m awake.”

She rolled over and smiled sleepily at her blonde friend.

“Did he take the bait?” she asked.

Camille scowled. “No. I messed it up. He just…” She flushed brightly and bit her lower lip hard enough to make it shine bright red. Her discomfort made Hallie reach out to comfort her.

“Sweetie, don’t do that… Eben loves you, I know it.”

Camille looked like she was about to cry. “So why…?” Her lip quivered before she could get another word out.

“Just focus on work for now, alright? He’ll come around, I promise.”

She felt like a fraud spouting useless advice to the girl. Camille was brilliant and beautiful, in a weirdly delicate way, but completely ill-equipped to deal with a crush on a guy. At least Hallie hadn’t been lying about Eben’s feelings. That was one detail she’d bet her life on if she had to, considering how she’d seen Eben watching Camille every day since the expedition had begun. He’d cast furtive glances at the pretty linguist, then look away and spend the next hour or so with a broody crease between his eyebrows. Hallie wasn’t the least bit surprised, either. Camille possessed the perfect combination of sensuality and innocence that could drive men mad. At least one man.

Hallie felt like a fraud in a lot of other ways, too. Mostly because she
was
a fraud. She didn’t know archeology from a hole in the wall, yet she’d convinced Erika somehow that she belonged with them. It wasn’t as if she’d been dead weight during their expedition, at least. If anything she’d been more valuable than the others during the rugged trek. It helped growing up in the wilderness of Canada. Tropical hazards were different, but her constitution could handle them.

And they were very far away from the bullshit she’d left behind, which was the biggest plus. No one would even think to look for her here, least of all the asshole she’d conceived this entire crazy plan to escape. Still, every day the easy camaraderie of the others left her feeling like an outsider. She’d lied to join them and kept lying to cover up her lack of experience. She’d only done the bare minimum of research prior to applying for the assistantship required to join the expedition. She’d learned how to manipulate potential bosses years ago. Be pretty and clean, drop all the right words, show the right level of confidence. Her past few jobs were acquired under the same pretense, which was a requirement when you had things to hide.

This one had been a little different. She’d only had two days to set it up. Posing as an esoteric scholar should have been easy but it had proven to be the most stressful interview of her life. Ultimately she’d given up on the exhaustive planning she usually employed and just threw on jeans and a t-shirt, studied her notes on the subject in question, and headed out the door. She was likely dead either way it went, so why stress over details?

Somehow, it had worked.

Erika hadn’t even glanced at Hallie’s fabricated curriculum vitae. She’d met Hallie in a tiny cafe west of campus. They’d exchanged pleasantries, then Erika had completely ignored the folder of papers she had in front of her and proceeded to grill Hallie on her personal history.

It had been a shock, but Hallie had answered honestly, at least until Erika got to the college questions. The best lies always held a kernel of truth. In the end, the woman she sold to Erika was an intelligent girl restricted by her upbringing and rising up from nothing. It wasn’t very far from the truth. She’d always wanted to be that woman, but poor decisions had gotten in her way.

When their interview concluded, Erika had stuck out her hand and pulled her into a tight hug. Flabbergasted at the quick acceptance, Hallie had hugged back. She nodded and murmured a thank you when Erika expressed how she couldn’t wait to see her the next day when their flight to Indonesia departed.

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