Page 52 of Dance for the Dragon
Confusion crossed her features and she shook her head. “No! Kohl, please. Tell me what happened!”
But she didn’t fool him. Not any longer. Hawke had been right. “You sent them. You sent them.”
Again, she shook her head. “I didn’t send anybody. I just—” She winced and touched her temple with one hand, then took a step toward him. “Dammit, Kohl! You were supposed to text me.”
Linking his hands behind his neck, he stared up at the ceiling. The dragon was unusually quiet. Surprising, considering the rollercoaster of emotions free falling around inside his gut so hard it made him want to throw up. Kohl was both glad and sorry about its timing. Glad because even after knowing what he did, he couldn’t bring himself to want to hurt her. Sorry because for the first time in his fucked up life, at this moment, he would welcome the oblivion of shifting.
“Kohl, please. Listen to me.”
Dropping his arms back down to his sides, he bared his fangs at her in warning. “I don’t think so, Devon.”
Her eyes flared their own warning. “Kohl.”
Deliberately, he walked around her, heading toward the door.
“Kohl! Where are you going?”
He paused at the door, but didn’t turn around. “You need to leave, Devon. Pack your bags and get the hell out of this city. Out of this state. Tonight. Right now. The coven knows it was you. I can’t protect you anymore. Not right now. Get the hell out of here until I figure out what to do.” He let himself out, closing the door gently behind him. A familiar scent wafted past his nose, but it was there and gone so fast he didn’t have time to place it.
When he got back out to his bike, he realized something that he’d been too distracted to notice before.
Her blood call was weaker than before. As a matter of fact, he could barely feel her at all.
Kohl felt no relief that their bond was nearly severed. He only felt alone. Perhaps it had never really been there to begin with. An ugly laugh rose up from his gut and burst from his lips.
He started the engine and lifted the bike off its kickstand.
Devon came running out of the building. Either it took her a minute to follow him or he hadn’t realized how fast he’d wanted to get out of there. She stopped when she saw him across the lot, tears running silently down her cheeks.
Kohl saw a crossroads before him. One road led back to the only family he’d ever known, the ones who had taken him in and protected him when he and his mom had nothing and no one. The other road led him to the woman standing shivering in the cold, tears running down her face, who, despite everything she’d done, was still so full of light it warmed him down to his soul and made the dragon purr with pleasure.
But the light wasn’t enough to pierce the darkness of her betrayal.
Shifting the bike into first gear, Kohl rode away from her and headed back to help the others get rid of the evidence of the raid.
The dragon spread its wings and screeched in protest. Kohl bared his fangs back at it and hissed into the wind. Four vampires had died. Four young, innocent vampires who hadn’t done anything to anyone. They’d died because they’d tried to run instead of taking shelter down in the safety of the caverns while the elders took out the Parasupe team. It hadn’t been hard. The humans in the club never even knew anything unusual had happened other than the fact the vampire working the door who wouldn’t let anyone leave until he got the okay from Hawke or the Master—a simple enough task of planting the suggestion in their customer’s minds that they weren’t ready to go home yet.
They’d been lucky this time, but he knew from what had happened to other covens that they wouldn’t get away so easily next time. And there would be a next time, thanks to Devon. Now that Parasupe knew where they were, they’d be back. Especially after the first team didn’t come home. Fuck, the entire coven might as well be walking around with giant targets on their backs. Himself, included.
Laying low on his bike, Kohl kicked it into high gear.
Halfway back to the caverns, he came up to the intersection that would lead him to the restaurant where he’d taken Devon. At the last minute, he leaned into a sharp right turn. The back tire spun beneath him on some loose gravel, but he leveled things out and sped west. He needed to warn Margaret and her family. If the coven turned on Kohl after hearing what happened the night before, it could very well spill over onto the family. They all knew how close Kohl was with them, and with a vampire’s vindictiveness, would go after anyone he cared about just to hurt him.
The image of Devon crying in the cold flickered within the glow of his headlights. With a snarl, Kohl shook his head and the image dispersed. He’d thought he could trust her. He’d been horribly wrong.
He could only hope she’d heed his warning and get the hell out of Austin, because despite what she’d done, he had no wish to see her dead.
Chapter 18
Devon threw her suitcase on the bed and started yanking open drawers and stuffing things into it. She had no idea what. She could barely see through the damn tears. She didn’t waste time changing out of her pajamas. She’d do that when the sun rose and she could stop somewhere and catch her breath.
It took her a few seconds to realize the incessant pounding she heard wasn’t her throbbing head, but the front door.
“Dev? Open up! It’s me.”
With a sob, Devon kept packing. She couldn’t talk to Frank right now. She didn’t know why Kohl was so upset with her, but it was obviously some kind of mistake. However, she wouldn’t be able to fix it if she was dead.
“Devon, what the hell are you doing? Didn’t you hear me knocking?”
