Page 55 of Driven By Dragonblood
“Yes.” She stared at me with uncanny seriousness, her face void of emotion as I rounded my desk.
“I’m sorry I didn’t hear your knock. Please,” I motioned toward the chair facing mine. “Won’t you sit?”
She shut the door behind her and shuffled forward in her slippers, a tattered Hello Kitty robe cinched tight around her narrow waist. Perching on the chair’s edge, she held my stare until I turned my back on her to round my desk.
I sat, unease prickling the hairs on my nape. My smile forced, I glanced quickly at the file I should have thoroughly studied before she’d arrived, the whispering thing inside me trying the walls containing him. “So, Emelia?—”
“I can hear him.”
The soft murmur jerked my head up. “I beg your pardon?”
“Your beast. He speaks to me.”
I cleared my throat while curses flooded my thoughts. Even though cameras weren’t mounted inside my office for those above me to keep tabs on what went down in private sessions, I still knew better than to be reckless with mywords and hint at belief of anything outside reality. I needed to ask my questions about what she thought to be the truth with care and withhold from agreeing with this young woman in any way.
“What exactly can you hear, Emelia?”
“The voice inside you.” She tipped her head to the side, her dark as coal eyes peering into mine as though she listened to the cackling laughter escaping the box inside my soul. “I have one of my own, you know.” Emelia finally tore her intense stare off me to glance at the folder on my desk. “But youdoalready know that.”
“Mmm.” I nodded absently, horrified at my lack of focus, the disaster that was supposed to be Doctor Macaire. “I, ah, do. Yes.” I tried for another smile and closed the folder, wondering how the fuck to rectify the situation my distraction had put me in without admitting to anything that would tarnish my reputation.
“You need to listen to him.”
Perhaps going with the flow would bring some clarity for a change. “And why should I listen to this supposed voice?”
“Becauseheis what you’ve been driven to find in your search for fulfillment, and you won’t experience true contentment until you become one with him.”
I swallowed the million questions rising in my mind and focused on the young woman and the mental instability that had landed her at Lockwood. “I’m assuming listening to the voice in your head is what brought you to this facility.”
“Yes.”
“I can’t imagine doing so has madeyouhappy.”
A soft smile lit her face. “But it did. I’ve met you—the man I was destined to help along on his journey.”
I stared, my heart stuttering as I gasped, “Wh—what?”
“You, Doctor Macaire.” She smiled again, hands claspedlightly in her lap. “You’re one of the reasons I’m here. The orb I found told me to show you the way to your mates.”
Orb…
I frowned as the memory of David’s granddaughter stating something about orbs being what was left of a dragon when their souls rose to reign over the stars.
I scrubbed a hand down over my mouth and whiskered chin, cursing in my mind. Emelia had found a fucking orb—and it spoke to her about my mates. “My mates?” Rasped to hell, my tone barely audible.
“Yes. Your beta and your female.”
I hopped up, hands fisting and releasing. “I—I’ll be right back. Don’t go anywhere.”
A quick trip to the bathroom and a splash of cold-as-fuck water on my face didn’t clear my head. The measured breaths on a counted intake and exhale didn’t either.
Orb.
Voices.
Goddamned fated mates.
Emelia’s declaration that I wouldn’t be happy until I submitted myself to this thing inside me echoed in my ears.
