Skyborn(12)

Logan pulled me forward still clutching my arm and shook his head. "We're in a shitload of trouble, Eva, and we need your help."

She waved us in, concern pulling at her features. I saw that her eyes  looked similar to the doorman's, buttery yellow, but not glowing. She  wore a crisp grey four-piece suit with a matching top hat. This woman  was an alpha in her own right; I could sense that. The entire pack filed  into what was a giant office. The walls were filled with  floor-to-ceiling books and jars and other weird crap I didn't even  recognize.

Eva's eyes were pinned on me. "Honey, take off the hood."

Logan let my arm go finally and nodded to me. "Eva is the only sorcerer you will ever be able to trust."

That sounded comforting. Not.

I pulled my hood back, letting my red hair fall out, and Eva looked  straight into my eyes. Her eyes flashed yellow like a fire that had  ignited, and then glowed a hot copper. "It can't be," she breathed.

"She's skyborn. I don't know how, but I need you to erase her scent like  you did mine. And she doesn't heal when injured so I think her mag-"

"Holy mother of magic," Eva breathed, and I couldn't look away from  those copper eyes. She stepped closer to me and inhaled, but then  frowned. "It was smart of you to cover her scent to get her in here, but  I need her clean in order to do the spell."

Nadine whimpered behind me and Eva shifted her attention to look at her  shoulder. "Logan, show her to my private apartment. She needs to shower.  In my top drawer, she needs to use the black bar of soap-not the purple  one. I have extra dancer costumes she can wear home." She indicated a  pile of purple velvet folded bikinis in plastic bags in the corner of  the room.

My eyebrows rose as I looked at the outfit. Sure, it was cute for summer  on the beach in California  …  by myself. Not walking through a club in  the middle of winter.

Logan didn't look too pleased with the idea either. "We'll make it work," he mumbled to me, grabbing one of the plastic baggies.

"Nadine, my darling. What happened?" Eva's voice held all the love of a concerned mother.

Keegan answered for her: "A druid chucked her across the room, and I  think he hit her with magic. It's not healing right and she's in more  pain than she should be."

"Did you bring a scale?" she asked.

Keegan pulled a small vial from his pocket. "One for Nadine and two to sell you."

She smiled and patted his hand. "You boys are good to me." She must have  just noticed the coloring of one of the scales, because she gasped.  "Red?"

Keegan flicked his eyebrows my way and Eva nodded, impressed.

I wanted to stay and see how in the hell she was going to heal Nadine  with a dragon scale. But Logan was pulling me to the back of the office,  where a spiral staircase led to an upper floor.

"Why does Eva need a scale to heal Nadine?" I asked Logan as we made our  way up the steps. She was some powerful Sorceress, right? Couldn't she  just magic the injury away?

Logan walked in front of me and I tried my hardest not to stare at his impressive butt.

"Druid magic is powerful. It will slowly eat away at Nadine and she'll  die. The only thing to counteract it is dragon healing. The scale."

"Weird. You can't just do the glowing green thing and heal her?" I asked as we reached the top of the staircase.

He chuckled patronizingly at me, as if I was some newbie. "No," was all he offered.

Speaking of the druid reminded me of something. "Oh, Logan … " I stopped  on the stairs and he turned to face me. "That druid  …  when you put me in  the dragon sleep. I  …  dreamt about him. The bald head, the red tattoo … "

Logan didn't look shocked, just firmly nodded. "Dragon magic. Sometimes  we have prophetic dreams. Let me know if you dream about another one  again, okay?"

I simply nodded, in shock that I had the ability to have prophetic dreams.

The top of the stairs opened into a swanky open loft. A kitchen lay  against the far wall to the right, living area in the middle, and a  large four-poster bed behind a shoji screen to the left.

As Logan led me to the bathroom, I wondered how he knew his way around  this place so well. He was totally a player. I would be too if I looked  that good naked. He turned to face me and I simply raised an eyebrow.  "You sure know your way around here."                       
       
           



       

He must have known what I was thinking, because he made a disgusted  face. "Eww, no. For all intents and purposes, Eva is my mother. She's  known me since I was a youngling. Back when my parents were still  alive."

Oh. His parents were gone. Now I felt a little bad. "Okay. Cool." I  tried to act like I didn't care, but then I thought it would be fun to  mess with him. "Is Monica like your mom too?" I winked, taking the  purple bikini from his outstretched hands.

He blew air through his teeth. "Monica was a really bad oversight. I blame Keegan and his heavy hand in mixing my drinks."

I smiled and shook my head. Men. So predictable. Before I reached the  door, his arm snaked out and grabbed mine, gently forcing me to face  him.

"I'm not that kind of guy, just so you know." His eyes were boring into  mine, but all I could think about was the warm, light pressure on my  wrist. My dragon sent a pulse of throbbing heat to my groin and I bit my  tongue in an effort to distract myself.

"Okay," I said.

He released my arm and shrugged. "Living forever gets lonely. You'll see."

My mouth popped open. "Excuse me, I think the club music is too loud. Did you say forever?"

Logan looked like he'd been caught. "Oh. I thought you knew. Or assumed. You're immortal unless killed."

"Fabulous," was all I could say as I stumbled into the bathroom to wash  liquor and wolf piss off of my body with magic black soap. Life was  really taking me for a ride today.





5





AFTER SOAPING MYSELF head to toe in this weird black soap that had been  shrink-wrapped in Eva's top drawer, I dried off and put the purple  bikini on. This was so not how I wanted to end this day-walking out in  front of Logan and the bitchy Sophie in a freaking stripper bikini.

Logan's voice came through the door. "Once Eva does the spell, I can  give you my shirt. But you can't have my scent on you for the spell."

"Okay," I said to the door. Frick! I hated this. I had a nice body. I  mean, I was so pale you could see my blue veins, but that was the Irish  in me. I was thin, not exactly athletic-things jiggled when I walked-but  I liked what I saw in the mirror. Still, I didn't have much  self-confidence for this sort of stuff. My best friend from college, who  was currently in Europe with her parents, called me Modest Mary because  I was too serious with this type of thing. I didn't own a cleavage  shirt or shorts that let my ass cheeks hang out. God, I missed Jen right  about now. She would crap herself if she knew what had been going on.

Logan was right outside the door. "Sloane, we gotta get this spell done.  Especially now that your dragon scent is out in the open."

I assumed I couldn't wear any of Eva's clothes either, because her scent  would get stuck on me. The only scent I had was that of a Chinese sweat  factory. The plastic I pulled this brand-new uniform out of smelled of  cheap chemical clothes.

Logan grew impatient. "Sloane … "

"Alright!" I threw the door wide and strut out into the apartment,  blowing past Logan and giving him a view of my ass. "I didn't want to  touch the old clothes for fear I would smell again, so I left them on  the bathroom floor." I couldn't bear to look at him, to see his  reaction.

Logan didn't speak. I was halfway across the loft, headed for the  staircase, and didn't hear him following me. Finally, I risked a glance  over my shoulder and saw him watching me with green dragon eyes, no  mistaking the desire in his gaze. When he saw me looking at him, he  cleared his throat and charged after me.

"It's fine. She'll burn the clothes."

I smirked, enjoying the effect I had on him. It was probably the same  effect all decent-looking women had on him, but still, a girl could  dream. As we made our way down the staircase, I decided a joke was in  order. "You know this uniform is growing on me, and after seeing those  full tip jars, I'm thinking of applying here."

Logan's husky voice sounded behind me. "You would bankrupt every man in this place."

I couldn't help the grin that spread across my face. Logan Sharp was a charmer. I would give him that.

When we walked back into the office, it was empty of the pack. Only Eva  remained and she was hunched over a table full of jars and crystals,  grinding something into a mortar and pestle. I approached her slowly,  unsure, and she must have sensed me, because she set down what she was  doing and turned around.