Page 36 of The Dragon With A Girl Tattoo
EIGHT
BECKET
“Idon’t think poorAllie was prepared for all of us,” Aisling said softly to Ysolde, May, and me.
“This is my fault,” I said, feeling guilty as the castle hall was filled with not just other vamps and a whole bunch of dragons, but now also my bandmates, who had hinted broadly that they would love to see inside until I asked Allie if a brief tour was possible.
“Of course,” she said, looking a bit glazed about the eyes when we all rolled up, complete with my vampire guard escort.
All the ladies turned to look at the newest arrivals, who were greeting Christian.
“That’s Archer with Thaisa, his mate,” Aisling said, nodding toward them.“His twin is Hunter.Their dad is the guy who is evidently trying to destroy the dragons, although no one knows why.”
“Or at least the men aren’t telling us why,” Ysolde answered, shooting Baltic a pointed look.
He didn’t so much as bat an eyelash at it.He stood somewhat apart from the other dragons, his arms crossed as he watched them.
I turned to look to my right.Yrian stood in almost the same pose, wearing an identical expression of watchfulness.
Allie went forward to greet the newcomers as Ysolde went to her dragon, sliding an arm around his waist and leaning in to bite his ear.
I moved next to Yrian as a sense of yearning gripped me, making me feel things I hadn’t felt in many years.
“Why are you standing over here all by your lonesome?”I asked him when I reached his side.“These are your family, aren’t they?Or are the new guys not dragons?They look like dragons to me, but I admit that I’m not very conversant with your people.”
His gaze shifted to the newcomers.Absently, I noticed that the gold of his eyes was now dulled, more of an old gold than the shiny brightness I’d seen before.
“They are ...”He hesitated.“Not kin and yet they are.I would ask my youngest brother about them, but he indicated that the green wyvern was calling asárkány, so I will get my answer there.”
“What’s asárkány?”I couldn’t help but ask, telling myself that I didn’t need to involve myself with dragon things any more than was necessary.That thought was dismissed almost immediately.I liked the dragons.I liked the women, and while the men were rather intense and intimidating, Yrian wasn’t in the least bit like them.He was warm and protective and fascinating, and a hell of a fighter to boot.
“It is a meeting of septs.”He pulled out his phone when it meowed at him.“Ah.The Internet mage informs me that he found a laptop for me.I have not had one of those before, but he told me it was better even than the tablet.”
“You bought a phone and a tablet?”I asked, fighting to keep from smiling.For a man who’d spent almost the last two thousand years out of the mortal world, he sure did love his YouTube cat videos.The fact that he found so much delight in them warmed me to my toes.It was just one of the many contradictory facets of his personality ...a personality that I was finding more and more attractive as each minute passed.
“It was necessary,” he said with a serious mien that also made me want to laugh.
“I’m sure it was.So, you’re having a meeting with your dragon buddies?When is that?Not that it’s really any of my business other than wanting to make sure I have someone around me when we’re performing,” I asked.
He glanced at his phone.“You have three and a half hours before you must sing?”
“About that, yes.”
“Then we can have thesárkánynow.I will inform my youngest brother,” he said, surprising me by taking my hand when he marched across the hall to where Allie, Christian, the ladies, and the dragons were now in a cluster.My band had gone off with the housekeeper to see what Allie had said was a nice collection of art Christian housed in the basement, so it was just dragons, vamps, and me.
