Page 51 of Burn for the Dragon
When they arrived, Kohl was pacing back and forth across the new drive, waiting for them. His eyes went from Hawke to Everly and back to Hawke, but he didn’t say a word until they approached him.
“What the fuck happened last night?” Kohl immediately looked at Everly. He took a stop toward her, stopping only when Hawke stepped in his way. “What the fuck did you do?”
Rather than retreating, she stepped forward, closing the distance between them. “I saved his fucking life, that’s what I did.”
Both males stilled, regarding her warily.
She rubbed her face with her hands. That may have come out louder than she’d intended. “I’m sorry,” she told Kohl. “I’m tired. And my brother is dead.” The last word caught on a sob. She didn’t try to hide her tears. Over the span of the day, in between fits of sleep, the cold reality of the night before seeped beneath her skin until even Hawke’s embrace couldn’t warm her.
“What happened?” Kohl asked again, quieter this time.
“Just what the lady said,” Hawke replied. “She saved my life. Can we go inside, man? We need to talk.”
Kohl rubbed the back of his neck. “Yeah, sure.”
Inside the two-story house, she found the downstairs at least was almost finished. Though there were no windows, it was light and bright and open, lit up by numerous portable lamps.
A small card table and a set of four folding chairs were set up in one corner. Kohl moved some papers off of it, setting them on the floor, and indicated for them to sit. “I told the crew to take the night off. The rest of the coven will be here shortly.” He glanced at Everly. “I’m sorry, I don’t have anything to drink.”
She showed him the water bottle in her hand. “I’m good. Thank you.”
Pulling up a chair, he joined them at the table. “Are you both okay? I’ve been trying to fucking call you all day. I was about to head over to The Caves when you texted me.”
Everly looked at Hawke, leaving it up to him as to how much he wanted to tell Kohl.
“Yeah. We’re okay. But Parasupe’s lab is in rough shape.”
“What the fuck happened?”
Hawke told him everything, from the time he walked out of the office and realized Everly had taken off with his car, to the race against the sun as they drove back with Matthew’s body. When he was finished, he reached over and grabbed Everly’s hand beneath the table, then looked back at his coven Master. “Kohl, you and I need to talk.”
Kohl frowned. “Is there something else?”
“We need to talk about Everly.”
“And since this concerns my life, I think I should be in on it,” she told him.
Kohl glanced back and forth between the two of them. Whatever he saw there, he didn’t seem to be very happy about it. Leaning back in his chair, he rubbed the back of his neck. “You’re right,” he told her. “I apologize. I’ve been a bit of an asshole about all this, and you don’t deserve that shit from me.”
“Apology accepted,” she told him with a smile. “I get it. Having the responsibility of the lives of an entire coven of vampires would get to anyone.”
“Thank you,” he told her.
“Kohl.” Though he was speaking to him, Hawke was looking at Everly. “I want Everly to come and live with us. More specifically, I want her to come and live with me.”
Kohl sat forward in his chair, and gave Hawke a hard stare. “Hawke, you know that isn’t possible.”
“This isn’t the same situation as your parents, man. Everly is mine. If she leaves, I’m leaving with her.”
Everly felt her heart swell until she didn’t think it would fit in her chest. She realized this was the first time ever someone was fighting for her. That someone wanted to keep her.
Everly is mine.
The words sent a thrill through her, and an answering feeling of possessiveness toward him. “But I would like to stick around,” she told Kohl. “I could really use your help dealing with all of this dragon stuff.”
Kohl’s body jerked backward on a laugh and he rolled his eyes. “I don’t know how much help I’d be there. I’m still learning about this stuff myself.” Looking back and forth between them, he got serious. “And if I don’t agree to this? You’re really gonna just leave your family? Leave me?”
Everly turned to Hawke, suddenly nervous. This was the true test.
