Emergence

Chapter Six

I didn’t resist. My mouth opened under his, and I met the clash of his teeth, his tongue. He tasted hot, familiar, a hint of coffee blending with the strawberries, and I deepened the kiss, grabbing at the front of his jacket. Kaden groaned and pushed me back against the smooth sliver of the door frame.

I hit it with a low moan. His hands snaked down my body to grip my backside and press me hard against the length of his erection. “I thought I was a mistake.”

“You were. You are.”

“Then why…?”

“Because in a few hours we’ll have nothing. And it’s killing me.”

He took my mouth again, melting deep, hot kisses that made my heart thud and liquid heat surge through my flesh. I hooked my leg around his, and the change in angle, the press of him against my pubic bone, danced bright sparks behind my eyes. I didn’t want to think about his words, about the unexpected pain lurking in his voice. But he confused me. “Why now?”

His fingers raked down my thigh, found the hem of my skirt and pushed it up. The rough pressure of his fingertips against my bare skin forced a low groan, and under his touch-I arched into him-the calloused pads of his mythoi incited delicious shivers. “I thought I could be the envoy. Practical. Level headed. But I couldn’t.” His lips found my throat, his breath ragged and hot. “Damn it, this is too dangerous for you.”

“That’s my decision.”

Kaden lifted me, sliding his fingers over to grip my backside, my skirt bunched at my hips. “I should remember who I am.”

The sharp edges of talons raked up over my belly, taking my silk top with them, and I shrugged free of the fabric before his mythoi became…over enthusiastic…and tore it. The top dropped to the carpet in a puddle of dark silk. “Don’t.” I looped my arms around his neck, holding his molten gold gaze. “Let’s enjoy the lust while we can.”

“Lust.”

His mythoi’s rasping tongue followed the length of my spine, and I couldn’t help the groan that escaped me. His shadow was impossible. Even after I knew what he could do, the incredible, tactile sensation still shocked me. “Kaden… What is he?”

“What he is doesn’t matter.”

I traced a finger under his lip, feeling the warmth and smoothness of his recently shaved skin. Light gilded him, and his beauty made my heart pound. That he wanted me seemed incredible. Power streamed off him and the strength of it was almost intoxicating. “I want both of you.”

A wicked smile cut his mouth, and he nipped at my teasing finger. “You have us.”

But his next kiss stung, a sharp burn across my lips, and he jerked back. The beginning of a perception film shimmered between us, and heavy disappointment dropped sourness in my gut. Kaden eased his hands free of my skin, and I slid down until my bare feet sank into the carpet.

He stepped back. The film strengthened, forming a curved band of opaque light at his eye level. Kaden straightened his tie and smoothed down his hair. I waved at his mouth, and he rubbed quick fingers over his lips, removing the stain of lipstick. His shadow shrank back until his mythoi formed a dark glaze around his body. His chin lifted. “ Rhodes.”

“Take your time, Rhodes.” The voice of a young man rang sharply from the device. The gryphon in me recognised an undercurrent of power…and from his tone, some youngster who thought he could lord it over Kaden. A dragon, perhaps? “What? Were you asleep? Drunk? You haven’t lost her, have you? You’re asked to do-”

“Can I confirm the arrival of the fleet car, Lord Theron?” Kaden’s smooth and deferential voice eased over the rattlings of the boy on the film. “Lord Sinon has stressed the importance of Jaime Dalton’s punctuality.”

For a blissful few seconds there was silence. I pushed my skirt back into place and bent to pick up my top. I could imagine the impotent fury gripping Theron.

“Scheduled arrival time, twenty minutes.”

“And how can I help you, Lord Theron?”

“Don’t you remember the schedule?” The sneer cut again through the young boy’s voice. “Twenty minutes means the car is early. The North American Dragon Lord Teuthras is disputing our claim to the nain energy source. Lord Sinon wants her tested and out with the rest of the gryphons already scouring the bay. Think you can remember all that?”

“Understood. Thank you, Lord Theron.”

Kaden’s face appeared neutral, pleasantly accepting, a mask that I could see through, but one with which the boy couldn’t argue. With a growl, Theron cut the connection, and the film flickered and vanished.

Kaden scrubbed a hand over his face. “Shit.”

“We’ve run out of time?”

A low laugh escaped him. “Yes, we have.” He moved towards me and his hands cupped my face, his thumb stroking under the line of my lip. His gaze focused on my mouth, and I burned for him to kiss me again, to spend the last twenty minutes we had finding ecstasy. I sighed at the first brush of his warm lips over mine, but then he was stepping back and his shoulders lifted. “You need to pack.”

I licked at my lip, tasting him, and my breath hitched. Pain tightened in my chest. “Yes. Packing.”

I moved on automatic, yanking my case from one of the cupboards and flopping it onto the sheet-rumpled bed. My official summons with the First Dragon’s seal gleaming in gold leaf over the heavy paper stated I could bring only one case to my new life. He would feed and clothe me. So…my case held trinkets, memories of my life. I stroked the black cube that held all my photographs, the vids of my life with my father.

“Here.” Kaden dumped a pile of clothes on the bed beside the case, breaking into my thoughts. “I think I have everything. Though there are papers on the table.”

Habit made me fold clothes before I packed them in and around my possessions. Kaden helped, though I did snatch my underwear from his teasing fingers. He lifted an eyebrow as I stuffed the panties into a side pocket.

“What, I can’t play with these?”

He’d found a bra, one of the desperately dull and practical ones, not the lacy fluff I would’ve preferred him to lift up to the morning light. I groaned and tried to grab it back. Kaden stretched his arm up, dangling the bra just above my reach.

“Not funny.”

His grin was wicked and it caught my breath, spiked my pulse…but then it faded. He dropped the bra into the case. I wanted to run, hide. This was not what we’d agreed. We did sex. End of story. And I couldn’t risk more, however much I wanted to. The attitude of the young dragon, Theron, showed the danger I’d place Kaden in. And I would not allow anything to happen to him because of me.

His hand cupped my jaw, and my fingers trembled as they stroked over his skin. I held his amber gaze, sinking into its warmth, the promise there. Damn him. Dealing with his mask of anger had been easier.

“What is this, Kaden?” I’d said the words out loud, when I hadn’t wanted to. I didn’t want to delve deeper into the emotions churning my gut. I’d accepted lust. Lust was safe. Lust faded with time, with separation. I could live with it. I wanted to live with it. Not…this.

“It’s not what I expected.” His soft words tightened my throat. “You’re not…” He bit back on saying anything more. “And I should stop right there, shouldn’t I?”

I gripped his hand and pulled it away from my cheek. Squeezing his fingers, I gave him a short smile. It felt strained and drove a sharp pain into my chest. Not admitting there could be anything more was the best way forward. The only sane and safe thing to do. “Yes, we both should.”

He eased his fingers free from mine and looked to the case. “Is that everything?”

“My makeup.” I grabbed the bag, catching my reflection. No lipstick remained on my lips, but they looked reddened, swollen. A wry smile twitched, and I turned back to the case. Tossing the bag on top of the folded clothes, I then pulled the lid down and snapped the locks. Yes, not admitting that our…this…was spiralling out of control was the right thing to do. My fingers curled away from the locks and dug nails into the soft flesh of my palms. I had to go on telling myself that.

Kaden took the handle and lifted the case without effort.

I murmured my thanks, belatedly yanking my jacket from the wardrobe. Oh, and my boots, zipping up the smooth leather with shaking fingers. I winced. My brain suddenly couldn’t focus. My assignment to the First Dragon, his owning of me, had become all too real. That was what had my mind blown. Not Kaden. Not him at all.

Still stamping into my boots, I made my way into the sitting room. White sheets littered the middle of the table, and I shuffled them together, the summons glittering on the top. I traced the emblem, the gold leaf cool to the touch. Closing my eyes, I began to fold them over and over before shoving the mass of thick paper into my jacket pocket. “Ready to go.”

Kaden waved me to the door. “We should go straight up.”

I nodded, and a leaden weight sank into my stomach. I took one last glance around the room, the luxury, the clean-lined beauty, and saw Kaden imprinted on its every surface. A slow sigh escaped me. My fling was a monumental mistake, just as Kaden had said. And now I had to make small talk with the man I wanted to strip naked.

“Did you have a room here?”

“When I found out that you were here, I requisitioned one, yes.”

I looked at him. “Explains the suit.”

The door shut behind us, and I headed down the wide corridor to the steel-fronted lifts. It pinged as I approached, and the doors slid open. The soft scents of carpet and polish brought back searing images of standing there the night before, of wanting to devour him. I sucked in a breath and stepped inside. Kaden followed me, and the doors closed with a soft hiss.

“Roof access,” he murmured, and the indicator flashed through the floors. It stopped, and Kaden caught the door before it opened. “Remember, from now on I’m the envoy and you’re the new gryphon.” His lips pursed and his face became sombre. “I can’t guarantee who the driver will be…so when these doors open, it will be beneath you to talk to me.”

I stared at him. “What?”

“I’m a non-shifting menial, you’re a gryphon. Even half-blooded, you can shift-”

“What?” This made no sense. Power flowed from him, hell, his mythoi had a mind of its own…and he couldn’t shift form?

“There is no time to question this. Just believe me. I can’t shift.” He lifted his chin. “Ready?”

I let out a bitter laugh. “No.”

“Good enough.”

He released the door and sharp river breezes lifted my hair and blew hard against my cheeks. I focused forward, determined not to look down over the edge of the building into the river. Heights. I hated heights. A black fleet car already squatted on the wide pad, the golden emblem of the First Dragon-a single dragon twisting through a large crown-gleaming over the doors. A fist tightened in my gut as the driver door lifted and a tall, blonde human woman dressed in the black and gold livery of the First Dragon climbed out.

Kaden strode forward. “Amanda.” The woman’s name came out with a smile wrapped around it, and the fist in my gut squeezed just that bit tighter. Even my gryphon stirred. Oh, yes, I was going to be good at acting as if Kaden was beneath me if jealousy bit so hard. “How did you swing the return trip?”

“Everyone else is shuttling gryphons to Jura. I’m low enough in the pecking order to get the grunt work.” She grinned at him before her gaze slid to me. She performed a short bow, her features slipping into a more professional mask. “Lady Jaime.”

I twitched a smile, watching as Kaden swung my case into the rear storage, and willed my feet to move forward. The large passenger door lifted, and Amanda waved me inside. I settled myself against the soft leather. A harness snaked over my shoulders and hips to click into a buckle below my breasts. I wiggled, trying to find a comfortable position in the padding and wanting to ignore the fact that Kaden had climbed in after me.

Amanda couldn’t hide the brief flicker of surprise that crossed her features. “Want to ride in luxury? All right.” Her palm pressed against the door and it began a controlled descent. I didn’t miss the hardness of her narrowed gaze just before the door clunked into its metal frame.

The soundproofed interior felt heavy, its silence a weight on my spinning thoughts. My gaze flicked over the smooth fabric of the walls, the wide tinted windows, anything rather than acknowledge the insanity of my emotions. I didn’t want to feel jealous, but the tight knot in my stomach wouldn’t loosen. Shit. At least a solid partition separated us from the driver. “Has she worked for Lord Sinon as long as you have?”

Kaden gave a soft chuckle and stretched his legs out over the pale carpet. “No one’s worked as long as me.”

I stared at him, at his profile cut with morning light from the window. Kaden Rhodes looked to be a man in his late thirties. Amanda looked the same age. But she was human. Some mythoi didn’t age at the same rate. Or so I’d heard. My meeting with others of my race was limited to the bar on the dockside, and they were hardly the best examples of my kind. “So how old are you?”

A wicked smile touched his mouth, and I forgot about the bar, about Amanda, hell, about my question. “Old,” he said.

The gryphon in me stirred, recognising his rise of power. She was becoming as fixated as I was. Shame I couldn’t use her as Kaden used his shadow…though it was doubtful her razored beak would be as welcome as his shadow’s clever tongue. I swallowed, trying to will myself to speak and not simply jump him. “How old?”

Humour shone in his eyes. He enjoyed teasing me. Bastard. “I was born in this reality.”

The knowledge that this precious time would be the last we had spiked me, but I fought it to play his game. “So…your top age has to be two hundred years old-”

“Secure your harnesses. We’re about to take off. Travel time to Wormwood Tower is forty-five minutes.” Amanda’s smooth tones cut through my words and the car lifted smooth, quick from the pad and swept up into the clear morning sky. “Enjoy the flight.”

Kaden pressed a panel stretching dark against the cream fabric. “Thank you, Amanda.”

“You’re very welcome, Kaden.”

He rolled his eyes and secured the panel. The car banked, and I grabbed at the armrests, wincing as the windows showed the familiar jumble of buildings and roads that made up the city centre. Squeezing my eyes shut didn’t block the knowledge that I streamed hundreds of metres above the ground in a tiny, black car.

“You were guessing my age.”

Kaden’s soft, deep voice broke into my panic, and his hand closed over mine. The heat of his palm soothed me, eased the cramp from my stomach. I opened my eyes. “Yes, I was, wasn’t I?” I pushed out a breath and focused on his face rather than the disturbing view of the snaking red-brown roofs of terrace houses far, far below. Shit, I was a gryphon. I could fly. But this…the lack of control terrified me. And I had to admit, for a fearless terror of the air, I was absolutely petrified of heights. “Two hundred is the cut off. So…one hundred.”

“No. Try again.”

“Higher or lower?”

His head tilted, and the spark in his eyes caused a quick smile to grow on my mouth. “Older.”

I blinked. “Older?” I couldn’t help it, I searched his face for signs of his age, but he still looked like a man in his late thirties.

“You won’t find a clue in my face.”

I laughed. “Or on the rest of you.”

“Did you look hard enough?”

“Funny.” I bit my lip, thinking. “You’re part gryphon, so that increases your longevity.” My half-breed status projected another two hundred years onto my life. Maybe a lot more. Maybe a lot less. There’d never been anyone like me. Gryphons didn’t breed outside their species. Except Kaden belonged to the rare gryphon-human group too. “Hundred and fifty.”

A smile curved his mouth. “Maybe once, long ago.”

“This is crazy. You can’t be older than that!”

“I’m two hundred years old this year.”

The words stopped my breath. He’d been born in the year of the emergence, probably one of the first. “Are you a gryphon-human hybrid?” I had to know, because his fate could be mine. My stomach turned over, excitement mixing with terror. I could live for hundreds of years. “Is that what you are?”

Kaden closed his eyes and shook his head. For too long a moment, he was silent. “No,” he said. “I’m a corruption.”