Page 26 of Burn for the Dragon
But he just gave her an impersonal smile. “You and Kohl need to spend some time together. He can tell you what to expect.”
“Why can’t you tell me?”
“Because I’m not a shifter, Everly.”
Someone touched her upper arm and she turned to find Kohl trying to get her attention.
“I’m actually still learning about all this myself,” he told her. “But I’m more than happy to do what I can to help you.” He pulled a cell phone out of his back pocket and checked the time. “The club will be closing soon. Why don’t you take her down to the caverns,” he told Hawke. “And we’ll come down after I make sure everything is locked up.”
Hawke must have responded, for Kohl took Devon’s hand. But before he left, he told Everly, “We have a lot to talk about, all of us. But feel free to get some sleep if you want. We can talk tomorrow.”
“I’m not tired,” she said, though she could barely stand without swaying on her feet. “I’ll wait for you.”
“Okay.” Kohl said something to Hawke she didn’t quite catch and pulled Devon toward the door.
“It’ll be okay,” she told Everly as she passed.
When they were gone, she stood staring at the closed door. The air suddenly felt thick and hard to breathe. She could feel Hawke staring at her hard, the weight of it between her shoulder blades nearly bowling her over.
After a few seconds, he appeared in her peripheral vision, walking to the door with her suitcases. His expression was unreadable. With a cock of his head, he indicated for her to come with him.
Everly followed him back out into the club. The dance floor was still packed with too many bodies, and there wasn’t an empty table to be found. As they passed close to a group of three on their way around the bar, a young blond man lifted another man’s wrist to his mouth. The lights flashed and Everly saw a glimpse of fangs for a brief instant before he bit the guy’s arm. His eyes closed as he drank.
Vampires. She’d nearly forgotten she’d be surrounded by them here.
Hawke took her down to the end of another hallway. At the door, he set down one of her suitcases and laid his palm flat on the reader before opening it.
Everly reached out to take it, but he just shook his head at her and picked it back up, then put his back to the door and held it open for her. As she passed, she tried to catch his eyes, but he kept his head stubbornly down. She found herself on a platform at the top of a metal ramp. It led underground into a dimly lit tunnel of smooth, tan limestone. Her spirit dimmed at the thought of being constantly surrounded by all of this bland stone. But once she reached the bottom, she saw it was much more.
“Oh, my God. It’s beautiful,” she whispered.
What she previously thought a narrow tunnel actually opened up into a path alongside a small cavern. Stalactites of ancient molten stone hung from the ceiling in long formations. Stalagmites rose from the floor in tall, pointed castles made of dripping particles. The humidity was so thick, a glaze of water shimmered on the floor, the walls, and the ceiling, glittering in the light like tiny golden diamonds.
Everly walked closer and gasped with delight. It wasn’t only water that made the walls sparkle. The stone had actual tiny flecks of gold in it. The entire place was like standing in a castle made of gold, albeit a very rustic castle, but a castle nonetheless.
Unable to help herself, Everly spun around to share her delight with Hawke, smiling so big it hurt her face as she gestured to the magic around them.
But he wasn’t looking at the gold in the walls or the impressive columns that seemed to hang mystically in the air. He was looking at her, his body so still he looked to be a part of the stone surrounding them. A predator about to pounce.
Everly caught her breath and her heart began to pound. For a moment, she thought he was about to drop her bags and take her right there on the floor. But then he closed his hungry eyes and visibly inhaled and exhaled. When he opened them again, the embers were still there, but the fire was controlled. “This way,” he said. Then he walked as far around her as he could on the narrow path, careful not to brush against her.
Everly followed him, noticing how he didn’t look around to appreciate the beauty of the underground cavern. Instead, he kept his eyes directly on the path in front of him and never wavered that she could see.
By the time he veered off through a separate smaller cavern, it felt as if they’d walked a good half-mile through rooms of various sizes and beauty. Up ahead, she caught a brief glimpse of a cavern that was…well, cavernous, and easily as big as a football field, with a throne-like structure in the center of a clearing in the middle of the room, surrounded by a field of stalagmites standing straight at attention. Looking up, she saw a part of the ceiling had been replaced with some type of metal trap door. It was large. Large enough for a dragon to fly through.
She stumbled over the uneven surface, and quickly dropped her eyes when Hawke turned back to check on her so he wouldn’t see the shock on her face. Because no matter how many times she’d been told it was true, it still just didn’t seem possible.
He veered off again down another tunnel, this one so narrow Hawke had to turn sideways a few times to get his broad shoulders through. A few minutes later, and they stopped before a large metal door. Inside was a walled-in room with a bed, a large dresser with a mirror above it, and a comfy looking chair. A book lay open on the nightstand beside it.
Hawke set down her suitcases and finally looked at her. The room smelled familiar, but not like him. And she suddenly realized…this wasn’t his room.
Chapter 13
Hawke walked over to stand by the open door, not trusting himself to be closed in another bedroom with Everly.
Despite the fact he couldn’t stand the thought of her in another male’s room, using another male’s shower, sleeping in another male’s bed, Kohl’s room was the best place to keep her, at least until they knew what they were dealing with. The location of the room, through such a narrow passageway, was ideal in case she shifted when she didn’t expect it. And security measures had been taken when Kohl lived there to keep the coven safe from the dragon inside of him. If she did shift, they would have time to get out of the caverns before she managed to bust her way through to the main area.
He knew it was the safest place for her, but he still didn’t like leaving her here. It was too far away. Too isolated. If something happened, if someone decided to harass her, he might not hear it. She could be hurt—or dead— by the time he got to her.
