Authors: Kassanna
She stuffed the terry cloth back into her oversize purse and slung the strap across her shoulders. Careful of the sharp stones, she jumped from the boulder to the pebble-lined shore. She was supposed to meet Tucker’s son, Assan. He’d contacted her with information regarding Drago’s latest lair. Water dripped down her back and she realized she hadn’t dried her hair. Making a pit stop at the landing that led to the dock, she wrung her tresses out and hastily placed one long, loose braid down the middle of her back. With nothing to tie her hair off with, she plaited to the end and hoped it would stay. She slid her palm down her dress to smooth out the wrinkles and ran up the stairs when realized she forgot her shoes.
It wasn’t easy being human, Goddess, but they had so many mundane things to worry about. She curled her toes against the hard wood and stared at the cityscape. Night had fallen and the buildings were lit up and illuminated the dark sky. A breeze whipped around her, chilling her skin. River wrapped her arms around her and rubbed her biceps. What the hell was she thinking? She didn’t belong here. Trees swayed in the wind as she started walking. She was supposed to meet her contact at some bar, Blue Lagoon Saloon. River shook her head. She hoped it was a come as you are kind of place. As she glanced over her shoulder at the Alaskan Bay and she quelled the longing to jump back into the icy ocean.
Duty first, she reached into the satchel on her hip and pulled out the slip of paper Assan had sent to her with the address to the bar. Big bold letters were written at the top of the instructions.
Catch a cab
. She scrounged around the bottom of the bag in search of her wallet. It had been years since she’d visited a city and she hoped the monies hadn’t changed. She stared at the paved road and walked along its edge. Now to find a ride.
Chapter Two
Jax pushed through the doors of the saloon and paused. He checked the space for entrances and exits. A bar stretched the length of the back wall and every stool at it was occupied by a patron. To his left was a small stage with a karaoke machine on it and some poor soul who was trying to sing as he followed the words that scrolled across the screen. He stared at the guy on the platform, a walrus, he should have known. They were horrible singers and couldn’t carry a tune to save their lives. It was probably the overly large teeth.
Tables with mismatched chairs surrounded the half-moon dais and those were filled, too. Jax raised his chin and took a deep whiff of the miasma of scents swirling around him. Quite a few bears where in the bar, as well as some wolves and a couple of witches if he wasn’t mistaken. He turned his head to the right and met Mag’s black gaze. She arched a brow. Mag’s was one angry dragon. He sighed and navigated his way across the room in her direction.
Magdalena Rafi was Airla’s go-to dragon when she wanted shit done. She stood six foot two and had the smoothest, darkest skin he’d ever laid eyes on. Mags kept her hair cut close to her skull, but no one would miss the bright purple tinge at her temple. If you wanted to know the color of a dragon, all you ever had to do was take a look at their hair. She made an imposing figure, dressed in jeans, boots, and a leather long coat.
He stopped a few feet from her. She kicked a chair out for him and slid a bottle of bourbon across the faux-wood surface of the table. Jax spun the chair around and swung a leg over the seat, resting his arms across the back. He shook his head at her offer for a drink.
“You look good, Mags. It’s been a while.” Jax rested his chin on his forearms.
“You do realize you’re the only one I let call me that? Let’s cut to the chase. It’s time to come home.” She lifted the shot glass and tossed back the amber liquid.
“I still have a few loose ends to tie up.” He held her stare.
“Sorry, but there’s no time left. I’ve put your mother off as long as I could. Hell, I even made arrangements for that child witch to have access to our computer network. Do you have any idea how many favors I called in to make that happen? What will the little sorceress do with dragon healing spells?” Mags tilted her head.
“Change a word here. Insert a different herb there. You know as well as I do that you will end up with a whole other incantation.” He shrugged. “I am so close to taking out Mallow’s killer, I can taste it. I just got sidetracked.”
She held up her thumb and index finger, moving them inches apart. “You’ve been this close to your half brother for a year to hear you tell it. Airla is tired. She wants an heir and since you’re a male, the crown will have to go to your female child.” She leaned back in her seat. “Maybe you’ll get lucky and one will hatch the first go around. Then you can go back to our quest to satisfy a misguided need to avenge a male you never met.”
“He locked my father away, Mags, to wither away and die alone,” Jax growled.
“It was a Malice Duel,
Jaxon
, Drago had the right to decide your father’s fate as champion. Now there are a lot of things I don’t agree with that the crazy fuck with delusions of grandeur does, but the challenge those hundreds of years ago was legit. It’s time to stop this nonsense and come home.”
“Can’t.”
“For the love of the Goddess.” Mags narrowed her eyes. “And why not now?”
“I found Manx’s daughter…”
“Oh, well spit it out.”
“She’s mated to a Kavinkovy and he was tapped by the Dragonrex to succeed him as king.”
Mags picked up the bottle and held it aloft. “I haven’t heard anything about that.” She poured another drink.
“Drago is trying to keep it on the down low. They are looking for the Y Ddraig Goch.” Jax smiled wide.
“Well, hell. Whoever has the jewels can claim dominion over the clans.” She put the bottle down and tapped her digits on the table. “What are you up to?”
He would let her assume what she liked, words could always be twisted to fit one’s needs. “You said it. Whoever has the gems can claim the Supreme title. I’m helping to look for them.”
Magdalena went slack jaw for a moment before a wide grin exposed all her teeth. “The Kavinkovy Clan are assassins. You would do well to remember that.”
Bingo. He just bought himself all the time he needed. “Who can touch me with you watching my back?”
“I’ll be damned. Your more like your mother than I thought.” She lifted the glass to her mouth and tossed back another drink. “Well played. It will be interesting to see how you pull off stealing a treasure.”
“One more thing.”
“Now what?”
“You’ve been around a while—”
She arched a brow. “Are you calling me old?”
Jax chuckled. “I would never do that, but given your age I was wondering if you’ve heard anything about gargoyles?”
“Most of them were wiped out during the Middle Ages.” Her eyes took on a far off look. “Man, I miss those times. You could kill a bitch and drop ’em on the side of the road. No one ever took a second glance. If a human disappeared, you had a good meal and nobody came looking for them. Anyway, yeah, about a hundred years ago I heard there was a small enclave of them in Egypt. Why?”
“I was just wondering. Umm—you do realize that humans are compatible with us? They can bear our children?”
“Got your eye on a human female, Jax? Yes, I’m well aware of it. There were a few of us that embraced crossing those lines, but look at me, I have a hard time finding a male dragon that can take me on. I’d break a mortal man. Nope, they are fun to look at and play with—sort of—but for me they aren’t a feasible option.”
He lifted his head. “Is that why you never mated, Mags?”
“If I was mated, who would be around to keep you out of trouble, young dragon?”
“I’m not that young.”
“
Kid,
you ain’t hit five hundred yet.” She smirked.
“Only fifty years away,” he grinned. “You’re lucky I respect you like my
mother
.”
“Shut up and fetch me another bottle while figure out what I’m gonna tell Airla this time. Don’t be cheap either, Jax.”
He shook his head as he rose from his seat. During his conversation with Mags, the saloon had filled with more customers. Various odors assaulted him, making his eyes water as he crossed the room. The scent of rosewater tickled his nose and he twisted to see where the sweet smell was originating from. His elbow bushed against someone else’s and pain shot down though his fingertips. He spun around in time to see a waif of a woman with one long braid push between the bulks of two polar bear shifters and disappear behind them. His arm ached as if fire ants were crawling under his skin and along his forearm. Jax lifted his hand and could make out faint markings forming at his fingertips. He shook his head and by passed the bar. Mags would have to wait for her next drink. He’d found his mate and was sure it was the woman who passed him by.
* * * *
River made one circuit around the saloon and hadn’t seen a sign of Assan. She huffed as she shouldered her way between two burly men. If she didn’t need the stupid merman, she would have choked the life out of him when they were children. The large EXIT sign in bright red block letters beckoned her. The crowd was making her claustrophobic. She needed to think and her thoughts were jumbled. Distracted by the jostling, noise, and scents, she needed quiet and peace. She slammed into the bar, releasing the door, and shoved it open. Blessed silence enveloped her as she let the door close shut on a whisper. Above her, she could glimpse a sliver of the moon in the night sky between the bar and the low-lying building next to it. The pale orb’s beams provided a faint illumination, cutting a silvery line down the middle of the passage. She glanced up and down the alleyway before taking a few careful steps across the cement. Debris littered the path, old candy wrappers and soda cans lay in puddles of stagnant brown water.
Her tip was a bust. Assan must have flaked out on her. She moved into the light, closed her eyes, and exhaled. There had to be an easier way to secure her dad’s freedom.
“Hello, little fish, and here we thought we’d have to go into the bar and look for you.” The rough voice floated from the shadows.
The muscles along her neck and shoulders tensed. She tightened her grip on the nylon strap of her bag and focused on the darker areas around her.
Damn, damn, damn
. “Looking for me? Shifter, I think you got the wrong woman.”
“Not so, pretty girl. Drago sent us. He would like the pleasure of your company.” The man thrust his face forward and skimmed his tongue along his lips.
Slowly three men eased out of the darkness, surrounding her. The heat emanating from them rolled over her body as they closed in around her. She should have known, fucking dragons. With so many reptiles in close proximity, her sensitive skin prickled. It was like standing at the mouth of a furnace on full blast. Unlike the men of her species, she wasn’t given the gift of a trident at birth. She narrowed her eyes, but that didn’t mean she was weaponless. River opened her mouth.
“Don’t let her scream,” one man yelled.
Fingers grazed her cheek. She leaped forward, slipping the duffel over arm. River raised her bag and threw her weight behind it, slamming into the guy to the side of her. She shoved through the opening the diversion created and put a few feet between her and the dragons before spinning around.
The back door to the saloon was thrown open, banging into the brick wall behind it. A man stepped over the threshold. River tilted her head and studied the newcomer. Heavy black biker boots covered his feet. Her gaze moved up. Jeans covered muscular legs and lean hips. A thick chain was threaded through the belt loops and the ends hung loose at his crotch. One hand was covered in black swirls and loops that appeared to travel up his wrist while she watched. She followed the lines of his body to his face. A smooth, square jaw, high cheekbones, an aquiline nose, and dark blue eyes completed the attractive package. She glanced at his hair and took in the electric-blue roots.
Ah, hell, another fucking dragon. Were the damn reptiles copulating like rabbits?
She met the latest dragon’s gaze and his lips lifted in a knowing smile.
No matter, she could take them all out. She took a deep breath.
“Looks like the party is out here.” The newcomer stepped up next to the man who had come up behind her. “Close your mouth,
polýtimos
. I got this.” He slipped his fingers around the back of her first attacker’s neck and spun the guy around, smashing him into the wall. The fella’s body hit the bricks with a sickening
thud.
The latest dragon lifted his chin and glanced around. “So who’s next?”
River snapped her jaw shut and backed away, unsure of what was happening. A dragon was helping her. They weren’t mortal enemies, but for a few exceptions, most of the time the two species didn’t interact. No longer a concern to her other assailants, they attacked the stranger in unison. She should run while she had the opportunity, but there was something about the new dragon that compelled her to stay.
He whipped the chain away from his pants and swung it around his fist, throwing a punch. The other man who’d tried to take her exhaled a steady stream of flames through his lips. Iron links glowed and orange melted over her rescuer’s hand. Drops of metal splattered the concrete and sizzled across the surface.