“Yeah. It was overwhelming, but whatever they’re making is huge. There’s this underlying current of excitement from the research team. Even when they were meeting me and talking with me, they were still humming with anticipation. Whatever they’re making, they’re getting close to a breakthrough.”
Clara had gone quiet, so Riyah waited a few minutes before she asked, “Are you okay?”
“How is he?”
Riyah shook her head and stared at the Fed-Ex sign, but all she could see was the hollowness in Vyr’s eyes and his frozen dragon pupil. “He asked for his crew.”
“Shhhhit.”
“That’s bad?”
“Vyr doesn’t need people. He was different growing up. He attached to Torren, so I always knew if he asked for Torren, he was in trouble. But he’s asking for his entire crew? He didn’t even want to be Alpha.”
“What do I do?”
“Ship the video. Ship it to me. I’m bringing Damon in. I should’ve from the beginning, but I learned a long time ago to let him and Vyr work their own stuff out. Fire versus fire. They’re both stubborn men, stubborn dragons. Damon has it in his head that Vyr will do a year in that place, and then his punishment will be done and he’ll move on. That’s not what’s happening, though. Damon trusted a broken system to try and keep things calm between shifters and humans, but it’ll get Vyr killed in the process. Time to open my mate’s eyes to how bad things really are. We will send the video to the Sons of Beasts.”
“And what should I do?”
“Riyah, I need you to keep Vyr steady and keep him strong, remind him of the fight he has in him. I’ll get things into motion, but I need time. Be his friend. Be there for him. Be his crew until the Sons of Beasts get there, and when they do, get him as much time with them as possible.”
“Six more months in this place won’t work. He’ll be long dead before he serves the entire sentence.”
“Okay.” Clara inhaled deeply and repeated, “Okay. If he gets close to the edge before I can line things up…Riyah…get my son out of there. Before they take the dragon, get him out. I can’t get anyone else in there to help you, I’m sorry. I tried, and you’re all I was able to secure into one of those positions safely. Help him keep the dragon. Please.”
“I’ll do the best I can. Clara?”
“Yeah, hon?”
Riyah dipped her voice to a whisper. “He’s like me.”
“I know. Damon and I have watched you for a long time, Riyah. We knew of your parents. I’m sorry for everything that happened. I know it’s lonely. I was like that, too, until I found Damon. Vyr struggles with feeling alone as well. You have always felt important, but I couldn’t figure out why. And now I keep getting this feeling that you’re supposed to be there with him.”
A strange sense of déjà vu took her. She’d been thinking the same thing lately. Like the stars were lining up, and her journey could be epic or end in disaster.
She just didn’t know which one yet.
Chapter Five
Riyah plopped onto the couch and rested the carton of chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream on her stomach before she flipped channels, looking for something good to watch. The small apartment was full of boxes she would never unpack because this would never be home. She had a wandering problem. A year at her last job was the longest she’d ever stayed in one place since her parents passed. A few months in, and she would get restless and continue the search for the elusive “home” she’d always craved but never found.
She changed channels until she tracked down a show about Alaska homesteaders and pulled the blanket over her lap, then scooped a spoon of ice cream.
“You’re still awake.”
Riyah jumped so hard she dropped the spoon onto the laminate flooring with a clatter. Terrified, she looked around, but she was alone. “H-hello?”
“Don’t be scared. I can’t burn you from here, Witch.”
“V-Vyr?” she whispered. Fuck! She squeezed her eyes tightly shut and focused, slamming her mind closed.
There. She couldn’t feel him anymore.
Panting, she sat there too scared to move. He’d sounded as if he was sitting right beside her when he spoke. What the hell? He could reach into her mind all the way from the lower levels of the prison? The amount of power he possessed to be able to do such a thing was horrifying. It had built an instant headache behind her eyes. Even with him far away, he could hurt her.
But…
This was kind of like a phone call…right?
Vyr could talk to her. Could she talk back, like when they were facing each other in the prison?
Slowly, she relaxed and opened her mind again. He was gone. She couldn’t feel him anywhere, and the headache had faded as though it had never existed. She tried reaching out for him, but there was nothing to hold onto, and she got mentally exhausted within moments. She would need to use some of Mom’s spells to make her stronger if she wanted to do this. Already she was ticking off a list of plants, herbs, and powders she would need. The spell books were in a box in the corner. She hadn’t looked at them in years, but maybe it was time to dust them off.
She couldn’t focus on the show anymore. She tried for half an hour, but she kept thinking about Vyr and part of her wished he would come back. She’d reacted out of fear, closing her mind like that, and maybe it had pushed him away forever. She should be relieved, but instead, she felt hollow.
Giving up on relaxing before bed, she got up and brushed her teeth and washed her face. It was still early to sleep, but maybe she could get her body to wind down. The alarm would come early enough in the morning.
But as she lay in bed, she thought about Vyr’s eyes, his harsh smile, and straight, white teeth. She tried to remember the footage of his dragon eating that guard, but she kept drifting back to the way his arms pushed against the thin material of his white T-shirt, the way his tattoo ink trailed down his arm to his inner elbow. Even on death’s door, he was a gorgeous man.
“Thank you.”
She’d been half asleep, but Riyah jerked up in bed. “You’re back.”
A deep chuckle echoed through her head. “I tried to leave you alone like you wanted. It’s boring as fuck in here though, so I figured I would try again. What are you doing?”
“I’m lying in bed. And I feel like a crazy person for talking out loud to myself.”
“Maybe you are crazy. Maybe I’m not really in your head. Maybe you just want to talk to me so badly that you’re making all of this up.”
“Are the lights off?” she asked.
There was a mental shrug. “They turned them back off right after you left. I got punished. They made me eat dinner in the dark, too. They have the flashing lights of the hangar doors going though, so there’s that. I’ll probably go insane and twitchy by the next time you see me. Prep yourself. You might not think I look so hot tomorrow.”
“I didn’t say hot.”
“Were you going to touch yourself to me?”
“Stop, or I’ll kick you out again and let you rot in the dark.”
“If I could, I would be jacking off to you. But there are eight grown dudes in the observation rooms. Turns me off.”
Riyah bit back a smile. “You would really jack off to me?”
“Hell, yeah. You’re hot, too.”