Page 27 of Burn for the Dragon
Realistically, he knew none of that was likely to happen. The entire coven was loyal to Kohl. More loyal than they had ever been to the Master before him. And even better, they were fucking terrified of him. Well, not of him. But of the beast inside of him who could make an appearance at any moment, especially if they pissed him off. If Kohl told them Everly was not to be touched, they would keep their distance.
But, still, it tore at him.
“Whose room is this?” she asked.
“This is Kohl’s room.”
She frowned. “I don’t want to put anyone out.”
“You’re not. Kohl and Devon are building a house on his property, and they’re staying somewhere else until it gets done.”
Glancing around again, she said, “I thought I would be staying with you.”
It was hard to ignore the tinge of disappointment in her tone. He pretended not to hear it or understand what it meant. “You’ll be all right here,” he told her. “I won’t let anything happen to you. But I need to keep my people safe.”
She looked confused at first, but then her expression cleared as she figured out what he meant by that. “Safe from me.” Her voice was barely more than a whisper, and he wasn’t sure if she was talking to him or to herself.
He nodded once. “Yes.” But she wasn’t paying him any mind.
Everly wandered around the room, running her fingers over the plaid comforter on the bed. Touching the dresser. Peeking into the bathroom.
Hawke remained where he was, watching her move around the room in her baggy pajama pants and sweater. She wore the same kind of slip on sneakers all of the human teenagers were wearing these days. Her red hair was pulled into a messy bun on top of her head. Her lips were still red and swollen from his kisses.
But there were new lines of tension around her mouth and in her posture. Her smile, when it came, was timid and unlike her normal Cheshire grin. “Are you going to stay here with me?”
“No. But I won’t be far.”
She dropped her eyes, but not fast enough. They touched on the bed and back as she made one last ditch effort to make sure she was making herself clear. “I wouldn’t mind if you stayed here, too.” She laughed a little even as she flushed, blood warming the skin of her chest and neck. “It’s not like the bed isn’t big enough.” The laughter dwindled away. “But I don’t want to disrupt your life, either.”
Oh, honey. You’ve already disrupted my life more than you’ll ever know. Hawke wasn’t ready to have this conversation, not by a long shot, but it was better to just get it over with. “I can’t stay here with you, Everly. I can’t…we can’t be together like we were tonight. Not ever again.”
He suddenly felt gutted as the hurt rammed through her and into him. Her expression, however, stayed perfectly composed. It came to him that she was very good at hiding her feelings when she wanted to, probably something she’d perfected growing up the way she had.
“What are you talking about? Why not?”
“Because a mating between a vampire and a dragon is forbidden in our world.”
She frowned, watching his mouth closely as he spoke, as though she couldn’t be understanding him correctly. “Why?”
“It’s an old law, going way back. Our two species can’t coexist.”
“So, you’re saying a vampire and a…” She stumbled a bit over the next words. “…dragon shifter have never hooked up? Ever?”
Well, he’d just backed himself into that corner, hadn’t he? “Only once,” he told her after a pause.
“And what happened?”
“Kohl happened.”
Her mouth fell open comically. “Kohl isn’t a dragon? He’s a?—”
“Hybrid. Half shifter and half dragon, actually.”
She stared at him for a minute. “Well, maybe that law needs to be updated.” Then she frowned. “And what about Kohl? You said the two species couldn’t coexist, yet he’s here.”
“He is. Because when his mother got pregnant, his father disappeared in shame, and his mother was exiled from her Thunder. It’s what dragons call their coven, or pack,” he explained at her look of confusion. “She had a contact here, and when the previous Master heard about her—or heard about Kohl, the only one of his kind—he decided to give her and her child shelter. Not out of any feelings of pity for them, but out of the need to be the only coven with a hybrid in its midst.”
She thought about that. “If this coven is already different, then maybe…”
