Dragon Devotion Read online

  The post-sex high descended over them, and Ajax felt a grin settle over his face.

  “What are you laughing about?” she asked sleepily.

  “You know, this entire trip to King City was just supposed to be a side-trip to my real vacation,” he said with a laugh. “And yet somehow I’m coming out of it with the girl.” He chuckled as she elbowed him.

  “As long as I’m not a side-trip to you.”

  He rolled off of her to lean on his side as he stared into her eyes. “Never. There will never be another like you,” he promised. “I just think it’s funny how life works sometimes,” he told her, happily placing kisses on her exposed chest as she made quiet, contented noises.

  “Yes, yes it is,” she agreed, before pulling him tight to her again.

  Ajax could get used to this.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Arianna

  Warmth.

  That was the first thing she noticed as her brain stirred from its sleep-driven fugue. The window had been left open a crack to allow the breeze to circulate. Now she heard the sounds of birds chirping through the small opening, a soothing start to what was going to be a stressful day.

  Today they were going to smuggle over a dozen men from the motel out of the city, right under the watchful eyes of an organization that wanted them to do anything but that.

  Stressful was an understatement.

  All of a sudden the calming effects of the birds was lost on her. The warmth was still there, but its presence turned from a comforting embrace to suffocating claustrophobia. Arianna sat up in a rush, throwing the blankets—and Ajax’s arm—aside as she sought to free herself.

  “Whassamatturrr?” Ajax blinked sleepily from beside her.

  The moment his eyes focused and saw her expression, he sat up, throwing the blankets away.

  “Ari, is something wrong?” he asked cautiously.

  What was wrong? She looked around, scrambling from the bed. The sheets fell away completely, revealing her naked form. Ajax, despite his focus on her, couldn’t stop himself from taking in the view.

  Breathing hard, she pressed her back against the wall, the wood scraping roughly against her skin.

  “I think I’m having a panic attack,” she said, her voice sounding oddly detached as she slipped on the floor. “Or that serum is having some weird side effects,” she added.

  The walls around her seemed to pulse as she looked at them, noticing details she never had before. A spider crawled across the wood wall near the floor across from her, the motion easily visible. A breeze wafted through the room, and she could hear the sound of the air brushing over the furniture.

  “What does it feel like?” Ajax said, his voice pounding into her ears as he sank down next to her.

  “Shhh,” she said, trying to calm the thundering that came with his voice. “Not so loud.”

  “Loud?” he said, his voice marginally quieter. “Ari, I was whispering.”

  “Not funny,” she said angrily, wincing at the sound of her own voice.

  “I wasn’t,” he replied. She looked at him, seeing the truth written in his eyes. It was covering up another emotion, something more powerful.

  Fear, she realized. He was scared. Not for himself, but for her. Scared that she was losing it. Was she? Was she going crazy and about to die? She looked down at her arm. Where there had once been a bleeding gash, full of ripped and torn skin, there was now an ugly red, purple, and brown scar, but even the scabbing had faded overnight.

  “Look,” she said, instantly regretting the level of her voice. Stars exploded in her head at the sharpness of the noise.

  With an internal growl, she shook her head, forcing her ears to return to normal.

  All of a sudden the world snapped back to reality around her. The sounds and minutiae that she had been exposed to suddenly faded. The world resumed its normalcy.

  “So dull,” she whispered, ignoring the gentle poking of Ajax as he examined her wound.

  “What?” he asked quietly, his voice still a whisper.

  “Everything,” she replied. “It was so clear, unbelievable. I could... I could hear so much. I could see things.” Arianna shook her head. “Am I going crazy?” she asked with blunt honesty.

  “I don’t think so,” he replied.

  Once again she sensed he was hiding something. Arianna thought to push, to get him to reveal what he knew, or was thinking. But before she could, another urge overtook her with an insistence that overwhelmed her mind.

  “Food,” she said, scrambling to her feet. “Let’s go,” she said, heading toward the door.

  “Ari?”

  She turned to see Ajax giving her a funny look.

  “Yes? What is it?” she asked. “Get dressed, let’s go have some food. I’m starved.”

  He barked a laugh. “Don’t you think you’re forgetting something yourself?” he asked, pointing at her.

  Arianna looked down. She was completely naked. There wasn’t even a pair of underwear on to give her any decency.

  Suddenly aware of how exposed she was, and the appraising look that Ajax was giving her, she blushed vigorously and clapped her hands over her body. That just brought another guffaw from Ajax. Realizing that covering up in front of him was silly, as he had seen her naked several times now, she let her hands drop and moved back toward him.

  “Maybe a shower first as well?” he suggested. “After yesterday…”

  Her cheeks still burning, Arianna showered quickly and dressed, flying out of the room as Ajax struggled to keep up. She was hungry.

  Flint had stuck by his promise to feed them, and a big buffet was set up in the common room, where several of the other shifters had already gathered. Arianna’s nose went into overdrive.

  Bacon.

  Pancakes.

  Toast.

  Sausage.

  Syrup.

  Eggs.

  By the time she managed to select her choices and find a seat, she was salivating so much she thought she would drool all over herself. The food disappeared far faster than she wished.

  “Going for seconds?” Ajax teased, sitting down next to her with a plate that had been piled equally as high.

  “No,” she said, feeling a sudden rush as the food hit her system. “Going to give it a minute. I don’t normally eat that much, and the last thing I want are any…um, side effects,” she told him.

  Ajax nodded, stuffing his mouth with pancakes covered in butter and syrup while she sat back and closed her eyes.

  “I have a plan.”

  Those same eyes flew open, focusing sharply on Flint, who had approached without her hearing a thing. For a moment, Ari found herself wishing her hearing was as strong as it had been that morning. She hated being surprised like that.

  “Why do I get the feeling we’re not going to like it?” she asked, looking back and forth between the two of them.

  Ajax had a frown on his face that seemed halfway toward etching itself in place, while Flint looked awkward and unwilling to meet either of their gazes.

  “They know we’re here,” Flint said at last, pulling up a chair that was hastily vacated by one of the other shifters. “That’s unavoidable. My watchers, both those here with us and those around us that they hopefully aren’t aware of, have seen them.”

  “Right, we knew that,” Arianna said, wondering why he was reiterating that point.

  “What Flint’s saying,” Ajax said slowly, addressing her though his gaze never left Flint, “is that we need to draw them off. To make them think that the shifters are going one way, when in fact they’re going in another.”

  “Oh,” she said slowly. “You mean we need bait?” she asked, thinking she understood where they were going with that.

  “Yes,” Ajax said slowly, still not looking away from Flint.

  Arianna looked back and forth between them, wondering what the sudden tension she was feeling was all about.

  “Ajax, what is it?” she asked, growing nervous.

&nb
sp; Flint licked his lips nervously, glancing over at Ajax.

  “Flint can’t afford to reveal his participation in this. Not if we want him to be able to help us in the future. He and his men need to keep a low profile.”

  “Okay?” Arianna said, still confused.

  Her eyes flew open abruptly as things crystallized. “You mean to use us as bait?!” she exclaimed, looking wide-eyed at Flint.

  “He does,” Ajax growled.

  Flint didn’t reply, but if anything he grew more fidgety.

  “That sounds rather dangerous, Ajax,” she said slowly.

  “You’re the only ones who can do it,” Flint said at last.

  Ari’s mind worked furiously as she tried to refute that logic. There must be another option! Why was it that Ajax always had to be in danger? She just wanted things to be over and done with, so that they might spend some time together in relative peace. Eventually, with a sigh of defeat, she gave in.

  “What’s your plan?” she asked at last. If it had to happen this way, she wanted to know every angle of what was going on, and make sure that they minimized the damage.

  Flint told them.

  ***

  “This has to be the stupidest thing I’ve done in a long time,” she raged. “Probably ever.”

  The pair of them were crouched near an opening in the floor of the motel. Unsurprisingly, Flint had an escape tunnel built into it. Unfortunately, it led straight to the sewers, and came up directly across the street from the hotel in a parking lot.

  “It has to be this way,” Ajax told her.

  “I know,” she said sullenly. “But I still like the idea of trying to sneak out, not making more noise than we have to.”

  Her bear shifter—she was still getting used to the concept that he was hers—smiled at her. “If we sneak out without them noticing us trying to, then they’ll just keep watching,” he told her with a laugh.

  “So?” she asked, not really meaning her insolence, but using it more as a way to calm her nerves.

  “I’ll keep you safe,” he promised, leaning closer to give her a kiss.

  She accepted the gesture, but still wasn’t happy. “That’s exactly what I’m worried about, you big lovable idiot,” she told him. “I don’t want you going and doing something stupid to try and protect me.”

  Ajax shuffled around to be nearer to her, holding her close while she wiped away the tears that were falling from her eyes.

  “We’re going to make it through this,” he told her softly. “Then I’m going to take you to where I love, and we’re going to figure out what we want to do with the rest of our lives.”

  She looked up at him. “You mean that?”

  Brown eyes stared back at her unflinching as he spoke. “Every word of it. I love Arianna Jones.” He paused, before continuing. “Bear shifters mate for life, you know. There is no one I would rather spend that with.”

  “Are you proposing?” she asked, holding him tight and resting her head on his chest.

  “No,” he said.

  Arianna looked up sharply, only to see a smiling face looking down at her.

  “I don’t have a ring,” he said with a shrug. “Consider this more of a promise.”

  She shivered at the solemnness of his words. Something echoed within them, something that told her he was speaking the truth, and that he would keep his promise to her no matter the obstacle in his way.

  Even if that obstacle included a likely high-speed chase out of the city and a fight to the death with an unknown amount of enemies. It had been two days since Flint had outlined his plan, and they could only hope that all the elements of the plan were in place. Ajax had told her he’d make some modifications to it, especially after hearing what the enigmatic man had wanted from them. Flint’s plan had not had an ending to it. It was simply “Lead the bad guys off, and then escape them.”

  For some reason, that hadn’t sounded overly appealing to her or Ajax. So now the plan was changed, and though she wasn’t sure what Ajax had done to change it, if they could get out of the city alive and unharmed, they might have a chance.

  That’s a big “if” though. There will be a lot of things that could go very, very wrong.

  Arianna wouldn’t admit it, but she was petrified. Only Ajax’s solid presence and courage was keeping her going. If he faltered, then she would have nothing left to support her.

  Her phone buzzed against her outer thigh. She jumped, but Ajax held her tight.

  “Time to go?” he asked.

  Arianna checked the message.

  “Yeah, the truck is in position and the driver is long gone.”

  “Okay,” here we go,” he said, and heaved open the hatch to the tunnel. With a quick kiss for good luck, he dropped out of sight into the darkness below.

  “Clear,” came his voice, sounding faint.

  With a shiver, Arianna moved forward and fumbled around in the darkness until her hands found the rungs of the steel ladder mounted to the wall. Not all of us can just drop twenty feet without issue. Halfway down, Arianna tugged on a cord that pulled the hatch shut above them.

  She had expected the loud noise, and been prepared for that. What she wasn’t ready for was the sudden extreme vibration of the ladder. Her fingers went numb, and with a scream she dropped into the darkness below.

  Her feet encountered solid floor, her legs flexing beneath her. Arianna landed in a crouch, shoes splashing the thin coating of water on the floor out around her.

  “Nice recovery,” Ajax said from her left.

  She whirled in the pitch black, unable to make out her surroundings.

  “Can you see in this?” she said, ignoring his comment. Over the past two days, she had begun to notice more and more often that changes were occurring. They never seemed to last, but instead manifesting for a moment as her body needed them. Like now. She had needed a sense of balance and strength to survive that fall without injury, and her body had risen to the occasion. She knew Ajax was still terrified she was going to fall sick and die, but the longer she went, the more Arianna began to suspect that wasn’t the case.

  “Not very well,” he admitted in reply.

  Something plastic snapped, and a diffuse orange glow began to emanate from him. His hand was outlined as he passed the glowing stick off to her and pulled another one for himself. It was still very faint and dim, just in case anyone happened to look through one of the openings above at just the wrong moment.

  But it was more than enough for them to see.

  Firmly ignoring the goosebumps spreading across her skin as she stepped through unknowable muck, Arianna set out into the tunnels with Ajax in the lead.

  According to Flint it was a short walk, no more than five, perhaps ten minutes, to reach their destination. The pair took all ten of those minutes, moving slowly and cautiously, unfamiliar with the construction of the sewers around them. In the end, their feet encountered far more solid things in the slow-moving water than she wished to remember, but they made it without incident.

  “This is the one,” Ajax said, pointing to the mark on the wall near the ladder leading up out of the sewers. The mark was the number four inside of a circle, with two dots above and below the circle. He hadn’t explained the meaning behind the symbol, but Arianna figured something that specific had to have one.

  “Ladies first,” she said, dropping her glowstick in the murky waters and shimmying up the ladder before Ajax could object.

  She reached the top, and as promised, found the cover already missing. Flint had arranged for some of his men to park a cargo truck over the grate and haul it open before they left.

  Ajax slipped from the hole as soon as she was clear, and Arianna didn’t fight him when he went for the driver’s seat. He had much more experience driving in situations like this than she did. Or so it seemed at least. How one actually gained experience like that she wasn’t entirely sure, but he didn’t seem nervous about it.

  The pair closed the doors as quietly as they could
. There were watchers all over, and one mistake would be all it took for their enemies to catch them before they were ready. Arianna’s nerves were taut, her heart pounding so loud she was sure someone would hear her.

  The easy part was over and done with. Things were about to get very hairy, very quickly. As soon as Ajax turned the keys over and brought the truck to life, they would become targets.

  I’m not sure I want to know what’s going to happen when he squeals the tires to get us out of here, alerting anyone who wasn’t certain that we’re trying to escape.

  As if he heard her, Ajax reached out and took her hand. “Ready?” he asked.

  “No,” she admitted honestly. “But we have to go whether I am or not.”

  “You never cease to amaze me with your inner strength,” he told her quietly.

  “Just keep amazing me with your outer strength, and we’ll get along just fine,” she joked. Then, with a deep breath that didn’t have anywhere near the calming effect she wanted, Arianna gestured for him to do it.

  Keys twisted. The engine rumbled and then roared as he gave it some gas.

  “Hold on,” Ajax said tightly, shifting into gear and punching the pedal down.

  It would have been an exaggeration in her mind to say the truck shot forward, but it certainly moved with a jolt and the tires began to squeal as Ajax wheeled it hard to the left and out of the parking lot. Headlights blazed in the darkness, lighting their way, as well as signaling to all those around that something was going on.

  “They’re coming,” she told Ajax, voice tight as headlights appeared rapidly in her side mirror. “Two, no three vehicles. Black. SUV or pickup, I can’t tell,” she said.

  “Three, four a piece, that’ll be twelve,” Ajax was mumbling from the driver’s seat, doing the math on their pursuers even as he weaved through what little traffic there was on the streets at that time of night. The motel was thankfully already outside of the core, which meant it was a simple straight shot on their route out of town.

  Of course, the three vehicles pursuing them meant it wasn’t simple at all.