DO NOT LET ANYTHING HAPPEN TO HER! his dragon shouted at him, as though there was a chance in hell he might.
Shut it! he shouted back at it. He scooped her up as she shrieked, racing her back into the house and through the halls. How much Unearthly blood had touched her? How long had it been in contact with her skin? The closest earthly comparison was like phenol—an acid that numbed you as it burned—incredibly dangerous, and one of the many reasons all his men had magical protections.
“Damian!” She was pounding her fist on his chest, and he was entirely ignoring her until they reached the room with his dragon’s bathing pond. He threw her far out into the water and then leapt into it himself to swim after her.
She bobbed back up, spitting water—and spitting mad. “What the fuck!”
“The blood is dangerous. You have no idea.” He hauled her up to inspect her side.
“I’m half-naked!” she shouted at him.
“So? I’m all naked.” He reached for her to inspect where the blood had brushed her skin. It had already erupted into a bright red welt. He dunked her back into the water, chest-height, and started swirling water quickly past it with a hand. She stood in the water on her tiptoes, panting angrily, water flowing over her breasts with each sweep of his hands, nipples pebbling in the pond’s chill. Shit. “Grim, heat the pond!” he commanded.
“Do you want to explain what the fuck is happening to me right now?” She moved to cross her arms, to hide herself from him, but he caught her wrist just in time. He couldn’t risk her getting burned elsewhere.
“I’m sorry. I know this is strange, but some Unearthly blood is acidic. Or poisonous. Depending on the monster.”
Will she be all right? His dragon rushed forward inside him as if to see for himself.
STOP THAT, Damian commanded. Since when had his dragon ever given a fuck about a human?
Andi slowly lowered her head down to look at her side. “Don’t,” he warned her.
“I’m a nurse, okay? Let me see.” She pushed his hands away and held her arm up, while holding her breast out of the way, rocking forward out of the water to look. Watching her touch herself, even for clinical reasons, did dark things to him. Damian wished the water was opaquer. “It doesn’t look that bad,” she went on.
“We caught it in time. But you’ll need to stay in here for a while until it’s all diluted—just in case.”
She carefully crossed her arms high on her chest, fully covering herself from him. “Fine.”
Had he been looking that greedily? If so, who was to blame? The remnants of the succubus’s sting, his dragon, or him? All three? His dragon was roiling inside, beside himself with proprietary concern. He could still feel the surges of inappropriate lust—surely just his succubus-caused hangover from being attacked last night—and he’d be lying if he said she wasn’t beautiful now. The perfection of her breasts, curve of her neck, the way her hair flowed around her like she was a goddamned mermaid, right down to the blue streak in it. After her kissing him earlier, it was all too easy to imagine them entwined together, his lips on her neck, her breasts pressed against him, his cock seated deep.
Yessssss, his dragon purred.
Damian quickly swallowed and splashed his face, trying to get his head clear. She would have to forget all this—he should not, could not get attached. It would only make it hurt more later.
Pain is fine, his dragon disagreed.
No one asked you, he told it.
Andi watched him splash himself beside her, totally in his element. Less than three minutes ago, she’d been flirting with a dragon, and now she was half-naked in the water with one. Oh, and also burned by acid from monster-blood—because that was a thing that could happen. And to think they never covered that in nursing school.
Damian dunked himself then resurfaced, snapping water out of his hair with a quick shake, before he looked at her again. She could tell by the way he was trying to look at her eyes and not down at all that he was trying very, very hard to grant her some privacy—and she was trying to do the same. Only the way his shoulders breeched the water and how she could see his biceps every time he moved his arms was pretty damn distracting—as was the rest of him. His wide chest narrowed down to abs that were as rippled as the water they both stood in—the expression on his face, dark and brooding like a storm. He was almost too hot to be real—which made sense because he was a dragon. A dragon. An actual, real, honest-to-God, wings-and-all dragon.
She let herself drop into the water, letting it surround her so that she could think. Then she made the mistake of opening her eyes and found herself at Damian’s waist height—and the view below was not any less distracting than the view above. She sprang out of the water, back to her feet again.
If she slept with him—an “if” that was getting smaller all the time, turning the corner into a “when”—chances were, she would have a very good time.
“Are you okay?” He leaned closer, his voice full of concern. She had a feeling he was asking about more than the burn.
“Yeah. Why wouldn’t I be? I just almost died two or three times, plus met a dragon. One that I kissed for some strange reason, earlier in the night.” She laughed nervously and rose up on her tiptoes, the seam of his jeans riding uncomfortably-comfortable between her legs.
He grunted. “About that…that wasn’t you.”
“Tell me about it.”
“No…literally. You weren’t thinking right. You were under a spell.”
Of course, she was, Andi thought with a titter. That made as much sense as anything else. She covered her breasts with her elbows and splashed her face with water to buy herself time to just calm down and think, because if she didn’t, she was going to have a panic attack, or just sleep with him to stop from having one—because at the current rate of craziness, why not?—which also wasn’t optimal. She released a breath and gathered herself before addressing him again. “So, you’re going to tell me everything, right?” That was the least he could do after making her live through last night.
His eyes widened. “Not if I can help it.” He looked away from her, a lock of dark wet hair falling into his face. “Andi, no one can know what we are. Or what we do.”
She gave up on covering herself, as his words sank in. “Wait,” she began, trying to manage this U-turn in her mind. “Why save me from getting burned if you’re going to kill me?”
“What?” he whirled on her and laughed. “No. I’m not going to kill you.”
His protest seemed genuine. “But you said—”
“No.” He shook his head and grabbed her shoulders. And where she hadn’t been able to feel the acid burning her before, she could feel him now, the heat emanating from his hands. She wanted to grab his wrists and pull them down around her. Was that really her or just his ‘spell’? “You’re safe with me. You’re always safe with me. I swear. It’s just that…you might not remember all this tomorrow.”
She stepped back reluctantly. “And why is that?” Complicated emotions swam across his face, and it took him so long to answer, she made a guess. “You’re cursed? And people forget you when they’re not looking at you?” Was that what Auntie Kim had meant?
He barked a laugh. “I wish things were that easy. But no, there’s a room here that I have to take you to before you leave. It’ll help you forget things.”
Andi double-blinked. “After everything I’ve seen? That seems incredibly unlikely.”
He spread his hands into the water in front of her and bowed his head. “And yet, it’s true.”
Why had he told her?
Because he felt like he had to.
Because acting on anything he felt right now—no matter how badly he wanted her, without telling her—would’ve been fucked up. And there’d been a brief window when he could’ve been with her. Her body’d wanted him already; he could scent it this close to her—even in the water like they were—but he’d finally seen it in her eyes.
And so, he’d blurted the truth out to save her from himself. Now. While he was still strong enough. Before any of the things he ached for could happen.
Fool, his dragon chastised from a distance.
Damian closed his eyes and shook his head at his dragon and himself. Selflessness was not a trait often found in his family—or indeed, in any of the Unearthly—and it seemed to cost him more strength than his fire did. But his own mother had been lured in by some “situation” like this. He would never curse another woman to the life he’d watched her lead—one she’d had no choice in.
Meanwhile, Andi was talking at him. Peppering him with questions as her panic rose—another way in which she is delicious, his dragon noted—and he shook his head further.
“There’s no point in explaining anything else,” he said firmly, cutting her off mid-sentence. “More answers will only lead to more questions, and they’re all a waste of time.”
He looked down and saw the fear in her eyes—not quite wild, but getting there—and ignored the small dark voice in his head that said his dragon was right; her fear was beautiful and would that he could scare her more.
“You want me to forget me…you…this?” she sputtered, looking around the waters and then at him again. “No way.”
“You have to. It’s not safe.”
“What about Austin?”
“He’s different.”
She crossed her arms again—this time defiantly and below her breasts—and it made him want to pick her up and bury his face in them.
Cut that out, he growled at his dragon.
You think that’s me? his dragon laughed.
“I’m different!” she protested.
“You are.” It was the truth. It had been a very long time since he’d allowed himself to think dark thoughts, and yet somehow, her presence summoned them. The things he could do to her if given time. All the ways he could make her scream. He swallowed, getting control of his urges. “Very different. And yet, all of this is way too dangerous for you.”
“Why do you get to be the person to make that decision?”
“Because I’m the one who involved you in the first place.” He advanced on her, slowly corralling her toward the shore. “You’re less than twenty-four hours out from the only world you’ve always known. How terrible can it be to return?”
She stood her ground. “If you pick me up… If I am picked up by one more man today—I don’t care what you can turn into—I am kneeing you in the balls. Which I have pretty good access to right now.” She glanced down into the water pointedly.
At the thought of her fighting him, Damian bit back a smile. She fights you because she wants you, his dragon explained.
You have no idea how humans work, he explained back.
“It’s just not safe for you to know, Andi. Humans shouldn’t deal in Unearthly business. They wind up injured—like the man you cared for earlier tonight. And like you, here, now.” He reached his hand out toward her rib cage, longing for an excuse to touch her again. “I don’t want to pick you up and carry you to the Forgetting Fire. Don’t make me.”
He left his hand out and willed her to put hers inside of it. She hesitated, looking at him closely, searching for some mercy in his face. Finding none, she finally took his hand. He pulled her closer with it, and together they started walking back to shore.
What the fuck, what the fuck, what the fuck. Andi’s mind was spinning, looking for a way out. “And so we’re both going to forget everything?” Andi picked the least bad option and tried to keep the fear out of her voice.
“No. Just you. I’m immune.”
She stopped. “And, what, you’ll just whisk me back to my apartment, with no explanation?”
“Pretty much. You’ll wake up in bed and feel like you’ve been sick—it’ll excuse the lost time.” He lifted her hand out of the water like he was asking her to dance, propelling her forward again.
“And I won’t remember being here?” How was such a thing possible? “What about taking the job?” She’d emailed herself a reminder! And it was in her personal calendar even—the old school one she kept in a notebook in her bag!
“Every remnant of me and this place in your memory will be erased.”
“Then…how are you going to pay me?”
“There will be a bank error in your favor.”
“How very Monopoly of you.”
He snorted softly in response. They were both at waist height now, and she took the risk of looking over. Goddamn. Everything about him was amazing, and soon it wouldn’t matter because of magic fire.
“Wait! What about the burn?” She pulled her hand out of his and twisted to see herself again. “Will that go away too?” He inhaled but didn’t speak, and she squinted up at him. “It won’t, will it? Because if you could magic it away, you would’ve just magically healed your friend.” The longer he was silent, the more she knew that she was right. “So now you’re going to put me back into the world with an unexplained scar? No.”
“What do you mean, no? Andi—” he began.
“I mean, no.” She backed into the water. Even if it was still cold and unforgiving—it was farther away from wherever it was that he wanted to take her. “Are you really going to fuck around in my head and erase my memories without my permission?”
“It’s for your own good. I promise.”
“Just the tip, right? Do you know how many times I’ve heard that one before?” She took a strong backstroke into the pool, farther away from him, and it was a shame he was being an asshole right now because he looked like a fucking Greek god. “No. I say no. I’ll leave here—you’ll definitely pay me—and I’ll go home, and I’ll never say another word about any of this to anyone. Your secret will be safe with me. But you’re not messing with my mind.” She was out where she’d begun now, where she could only barely touch the ground, sweeping her arms beside her to boost herself up.
He stared at her—through her, almost—like he was communing with something inside himself. “You won’t even remember,” he finally said.
She stopped swimming and let herself sink, so the water brushed beneath her chin. He’d saved her life. He was a good person—dragon, whatever it was that he was—he had to be. So, she played her only card: “I may not remember it, but you will.”
Either he would come out and swim after her and grab her…or…. She watched his face, trying to read him, wondering if she could really trust him even if he agreed not to erase her memories.
Damian stood halfway in the water and watched her swim away. She had to know there was no way she could win a fight between them, and yet she wouldn’t back down. Could he really go out there and drag her to shore, take her through his house screaming, and throw her in the room with the Forgetting Fire—even if it was for her own good?
He remembered the other side of his mother’s history—a woman only a shell of herself—forced to forget parts of her past “for her own good” too many times.
“Fine,” he said quietly. Her eyes widened, and she didn’t move, not quite believing him.
“Promise it.”
“My word is my word. You can take it or not,” he said and turned to finish striding back to shore.
He heard her follow him, splashing in behind. He didn’t bother to dry off—only yanked clothing out of his closet roughly. She caught up with him when he was half-dressed. Grimalkin had put a fresh replica of all her original clothing on his bed. He picked it up and tossed it to her the second she reached the door. She caught it, and he turned his back on her again.
“Interesting décor. You like to look at yourself a lot?”
Damian glanced up and saw himself in twenty different reflections. “Stop asking questions,” he said, tucking in his shirt.
She was still afraid of him—he could tell by the way she skulked around the edges of the room, staying out of arm’s reach, trying to find someplace to change where she wouldn’t be reflected. Thank God all of the mirrors were closed right now. What would happen if his stepmother was looking through? She’d never let him live this down.
Or, she’d come here and kill Andi herself.
He ground his teeth together in frustration and looked back at her. “I’ll be waiting outside. And if you touch anything in here, I can no longer guarantee your safety.”
She nodded. Her long, wet hair had soaked through her shirt, clearly showing the nipples he’d seen earlier as if to torture him. “Understood.”
He growled again, resisted the urge to pick things up and throw them, and went into the hallway, slamming the door behind himself.
You should never have told her, his dragon rumbled.
I’m different than you. And that’s why I’m in charge.
For now. Now that there was no sex or violence in the offing, he felt his dragon’s presence subside.
“Grimalkin meowed in this direction,” Austin said, rising up the far stair and looking around. “Where’s the girl?”
“Forthcoming,” Damian said.
“As in, not unconscious?” Austin’s head tilted like a particularly thoughtful hound. “Wait…what?”
“She’s still her.” For better or worse. Austin would find out momentarily, better to confess. He watched the other man smell the air. Damn him and his werewolf nose.
“And…you didn’t sleep with her?”
“No.”
Austin worked his jaw several times before speaking again. “I’m just having a hard time figuring out how this happened.”
“I’ll save you time. She’s her own person, and I am unconscionably unlaid.” Damian ran a hand back through his wet hair. “Do you mind taking her home? It’s been a rather long night. Or…maybe Mills?” His secretary wouldn’t be happy as a chaperone, but she would be a whole lot less threatening than Austin to the girl after this morning. “And how is your brother? Did he make it through the night all right?” He didn’t need rest so much as he just needed to be away from Andi. The faster he could throw himself back into his work, the faster he could push everything that happened tonight into the past. He knew Jamison had gotten good data off of their last gate, so at least Zach’s injury hadn’t been for nothing. And if they could just predict the next one’s arrival and seal it before it opened, none of his people would get hurt again.
“Mills isn’t up yet.” Austin eyed him warily again. “And Zach’s fine…but are you?”
Andi’s arrival interrupted any response. She stepped out into the hallway tentatively, fully dressed down to her coat, which was zippered and buckled up to her neck. It didn’t matter though, parts of him had already memorized how she looked, she could never truly hide from him again. Austin looked between them and made a shoving gesture. “We could still—"
Andi caught Austin’s meaning and stepped quickly behind Damian.
“He’s taking you home,” Damian said, sidestepping to reveal her.
“Am I going to be safe with him? He’s not going to try to make me forget, is he?” she asked him, without taking her eyes off of Austin.
“You’ll be as safe as you are with any of my men.”
“After last night, that’s not comforting.”
Damian closed his eyes. He didn’t have time for this. It had caught him off guard how hard the human half of him experienced the strange shining moment of hope he’d had with her earlier—and how hard it was to extinguish now, crushing it back into his dark heart like a spent cigarette. “Look, I could’ve just picked you up, thrown you into the room, and closed the door.”
“But you didn’t because you’re not an asshole.”
He whirled on her. “You don’t really know what I am.” He grabbed her shoulders with both hands, turned, and propelled her toward Austin. “Go! Now! And never speak of this again!”
He watched her open her mouth—and he wasn’t sure if she would fight or agree—when a distant alarm started beeping, somehow stopping her. Concern flashed across both her and Austin’s faces. They looked at each other as the sound continued, found confirmation in one another’s expression, and both started racing downstairs.
Unsure what was going on or what they’d find, Damian raced after them.