“I hate to break it to you,” I said while examining Santiago for injuries aside from the knock on his noggin, “but it’s going to take longer than fifteen minutes for them to get there and you to get here.”
“They’re already en route to the bunkhouse,” he explained. “They hoped that removing themselves from the equation might help smooth things over with Rixton.”
Heart a lead weight in my chest, I sank onto my butt on the concrete. “That’s no longer a concern.”
Cole remained silent for a beat too long. Sometimes his no-platitudes policy really sucked.
“I have to go.” I tunneled the fingers of one hand through Santiago’s hair and applied pressure as best I could without stripping off my shirt or his to use as a makeshift bandage. “I need both hands for this.”
Before I killed the connection, a bloodcurdling roar announced his dragon had cracked his chest wide open in a fit of righteous fury.
“Head… hurts,” Santiago hissed. “You… good?”
“I’m fine.” I kept my hand right where it was and dared him with a glare to fight me over playing nurse while I tucked away my phone. “It’s you that worries me. You got your brains scrambled, and you’re already one egg short of an omelet.”
Glazed eyes narrowed on the mouth of the alley. “What did she… want?”
“To introduce herself.” I repeated what she told me, doubt slathered on thick, burning the minutes until help arrived. “She played me like a banjo. She showed me a young girl with blood on her shirt, mentioned a guy trying to grab her, and I couldn’t get out here fast enough.”
His lids drooped. “Sucker.”
Irritated, I zinged him. “You suck.”
Okay, so zing implied I had rocked the comeback when it was more of a pebble, but come on.
A sudden heaviness in the air had me craning my neck to search for Cole, but his camouflage was flawless when he chose. There was no way to disguise the wind gusts, however, or the air displaced by his massive wings. Not to mention the deep-throated rumble that poured from his muzzle and helped me locate his exact position.
Warm scales brushed against my outstretched hand, his lips plucking at the skin of my palm the way a horse might as it searched for a sugar cube. An inquisitive noise rose in his chest while he curled the length of his serpentine tail around my ankle.
Headlights blinded me before I could raise a hand to shield my eyes, and I shot to my feet, placing my body between Santiago, the invisible dragon, and whoever had jumped the curb. Doors opened and shut, and Thom appeared carrying a med kit with Miller tight on his heels.
“We need to get him out of this alley,” Miller said in lieu of hello. “Sariah cherry-picked her spot to make sure any stink you raised would bring the cops running.”
“What are you doing here?” I almost tripped where Cole had manacled me. “I thought you guys were sitting with Portia.”
“Cole texted us about Sariah.” Miller looked me over, his gaze snagging on the odd way I stood with my ankle cocked to one side. “We got a late start, so we were closer to you than the bunkhouse. I texted back to let him know we’d handle the pickup, but I got no response.” His nostrils flared as his chest rose and fell in quick pants. “Now I see why.”
Thom, who had gone around us, was binding Santiago’s head with gauze when I turned to check on him. “The injury is minor,” Thom announced, “but he’ll heal faster in the water.”
That bumped the farmhouse out of the running. “You’re headed on to the bunkhouse?”
“That’s best for now, yes.” Thom met my eyes, his seeing too much. “You should go home too.”
With no help from me, they loaded Santiago onto the backseat. Thom tossed me a packet of wet wipes to clean the blood from my hands then pulled away from the curb. I stared after them for a few minutes before noticing I had more company.
Wu stepped from the shadows into a pool of light. “Did you really think they’d leave you unprotected?”
The weight around my ankle tightened, assuring me I was far from alone.
“Thom has two patients onboard.” Our medic was getting a workout these days. “They’re the priority.”
“You’re the priority,” he corrected me with a shake of his head. “I hope you grasp that before it’s too late.”
The air beside me wavered, a moonlight mirage taking shape, and in its place stood Cole dressed in his White Horse tactical gear. As usual, my heart gave a wild kick, the sight of him always good for my daily dose of cardio.
The edge of Cole’s lip snarled up over his teeth. “We’re well aware of where our priorities lie.”
“Are you?” Wu crossed his arms over his chest and plucked at his upper lip. “Sariah gained access to Luce. We could have lost her tonight.”
From the corner of my eye, I saw Cole flinch as if struck either by the insult to the coterie or the thought of losing me. “Luce can take care of herself.”
“Not yet, she can’t.” Wu dared him to disagree. “She’s too human, and you know it. You allow it. You all do.” His gaze dipped to my ankle, where I still felt the absence of the dragon’s tail. “No, you encourage it.”
Cole chewed on his words before spitting out, “She needs more time.”
“Does she?” Wu cocked his head in a birdlike manner. “Or is it you who needs more time?”
“We’ve been over this, Wu,” I interrupted. “You admitted I’m my own person. No take-backs.”
“You are Luce,” he agreed, “but you’re Conquest too. You won’t be whole until her echoes are silenced.”
“How do you propose I do that?” I waited on him to enlighten me. “It’s not like I can hold a pillow over my head until she stops kicking. Suffocate her, and you suffocate me too.”
“He wants you to harness her power.” Disgust thickened Cole’s voice. “He wants to control her through you.”
Wu didn’t disagree, and that made me nervous. “I’m not going to be the one who opens Pandora’s Box.”
“To win this war, we must use every weapon at our disposal.” Wu wasn’t talking to me. He was talking over me, to Cole. “Surely you must see that.”
“What I see is a terrene that will rise or fall like all the rest. This is not my home, these are not my people, this is not my fight. I have already lost all those things.” Cole angled his chin away from me, unable to look at me when he said, “I will fight for this world, for these humans, because Luce asks it of me. I will bleed for her, not for you. You can’t win my loyalty. It’s already been given, and not to you.”
“Conquest owns you.” Wu studied Cole for his reaction. “How do you know she’s not compelling you now?”
Sickness writhed through my gut, tying my stomach into queasy knots that squirmed. “I would never.”
“You might not realize you’re doing it,” Wu pointed out. “You have no idea what you’re capable of. None of us do. None of us will, if you don’t try.” He shook his head slowly. “How do you know what he feels for you isn’t a reflection of what you feel for him? How can you be sure? Unless you master your power, you’ll never be certain what’s real and what is the direct result of your will.”
Giving Wu his back, Cole eased in front of me and cradled my face between his broad palms. I hadn’t realized I was crying, that more of my worst insecurities were leaking down my face, until his thumbs wiped away the moisture. He ducked down, putting our faces on the same level.
“I have had a lifetime, several of them, to learn what it is to be compelled to love by Conquest.” The rasp of his calloused fingers across my cheeks soothed me. “I would recognize the taint of her in your voice, your eyes, your touch.” His thumbs strayed downward, toward my mouth, and they caressed that tender skin too. “Just as I would recognize you anywhere.”
Vision blurry, I sniffled and wrapped my hands around his wrists to hold him in place. “Cole…”
I’m sorry for who I am, for what I’ve done, for what I was and might be again.
“Shh.” He lowered his forehead to mine, our breaths mingling, my heart racing. “I know.”