Dragon Awakened(49)

“Tulpas? What are those?”

“Later,” Cyn said, picking up both books. “Time to go.”

“Later. Always later.” She looked back at Kade. “They’re not good, are they?”

“She’s newly minted,” Cyn said at Kade’s confused look. Apparently she should know all this. “Don’t ask. It’s a long story.”

“In other words, later,” she said to Kade.

Kade chuckled, but his expression quickly grew serious. “Sounds like you’re in dangerous territory.”

“You don’t know the half of it,” Ruby and Cyn said at the same time. He shook his head and headed to the door. “Have you felt any change in the Deus Vis lately?”

“Yeah, the solar storm flares are kicking in. It’ll get worse once the winds hit, Crescents getting irritable, others getting weak. Nothing we can’t handle.”

Cyn didn’t contradict that last statement. He clasped Kade’s hand. “Thanks, I appreciate the help. And the confidentiality.”

“This isn’t going to put me in a position to lie to my superiors or give you away, is it?” Kade asked, following them out the door. “You know what I went through. I can’t do that.”

“No one should connect you to me.”

Kade put his hand on Cyn’s shoulder just before he could follow Ruby onto the deck. “You ever going to tell me why you quit so suddenly?”

She paused at his low voice, wanting to hear the answer, too.

“All I can say is, trust your gut above all else. If it doesn’t feel right, it’s probably not.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.” Kade didn’t look any happier with that non-answer than Ruby was. “Be careful,” he called out as they left.

She waited until they neared Cyn’s car before reaching for his forearm. “You had the same tattoo Kade has. V for ‘Vega,’ I presume.”

He watched her trace the lines. “Yes, they use magick ink, inscribed by a Deuce with that particular skill.”

“But yours is faded.”

“They use magick to take it away, too, when you leave.”

She saw the shadows in his eyes. “Come on, tell me. Why did you quit?” When his expression hardened, she said, “Oh, wait. I know. Later.”

That actually got a smile out of him.



Cyn’s body was plastered to her backside.

It wasn’t an altogether bad feeling.

Okay, it shot heat through her, little electrical sparks down to areas that hadn’t felt anything like that before meeting Cyn. And her Dragon was writhing in pleasure, which felt weirder than anything else.

They were in his workout room, and she was supposed to be learning how to fight with the walking stick. His arms were around her as he showed her how to position her hands on the stick.

“Hold it firmly, hands roughly shoulder width apart,” he was saying just above her ear.

She didn’t mean to, but she leaned slightly into him, her eyes closing for a second. Something about his body enveloping hers, the strength of him, made her feel safe. She’d never needed to feel safe before, never had a guy act protectively on her behalf. She was too tough to need a guy’s help. Until now. And somehow Cyn and his protector role aroused her, too. Get hold of yourself.

She focused on their hands, side by side on the carved wood. “Like this?”

“Perfect.” The word rumbled next to her ear. “You have excellent posture, shoulders even and up, body straight.”

She swore her Dragon purred in response. Something had changed in the way she moved. Subtle, but definitely different. Since she’d Awakened, she had gained an awareness of her body.

And with sexy-as-sin Cyn around and half naked, another part of her body had awakened, too. Because for an old man, he totally rocked.

Without saying a word, he’d pulled into a music store on the way back and bought her a Red Hot Chili Peppers CD, which was now playing.

Her Dragon sighed.

“Okay, Ruby, pretend I’m an assailant who’s come up behind you. If you’re not expecting it, you’d have the stick down like this.” He guided the stick so the tip hit the floor, molding her hand over the smooth top of it with his. “The instant my arms go around you, bring the stick up and hit me in the neck. The element of surprise only lasts a second or two, so capitalize on those seconds.” He clamped his arms over her shoulders.

The problem was that it felt so good she didn’t want to make him move away.

“Ruby? Attacking you, remember? Don’t worry about hurting me. I’m tough.” He was real tough, not her bluff tough, she realized.

She pulled up the stick, stopping it when it touched his neck. Then she twisted out of his grip and brought it to the side of his head, feeling like a baseball batter.