Page 45 of Of Blood and Banes (The Arterian #2)

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“ G ood morning.”

My eyes flash open, and green eyes stare straight into me.

For a moment, I don’t even recognize Darian’s voice, still gravelly and rough from his previous night’s brush with death.

My hand still rests on the side of his stubbled neck, the tips of our noses mere inches apart. Before my mind can catch up to why I’m in bed with Darian, I scramble backward frantically.

My cheeks heat, and I pull the sheets up over my chin. “The hells are you doing here?—”

Oh . It all swims back to me. The dragon’s breath has clearly settled within his body. Color blooms in his cheeks, chasing away the ashen color into his hairline. Even his eyes are a brighter shade of green, the rise and fall of his chest mellowed to a simpler rhythm.

“Not like I have anywhere else to go,” he whispers, pulling a fist up to rattle the manacles encircling his wrists.

My grip on the sheets relax, and I let my arms fall into my lap.

He pushes up to lean his weight onto his elbow. “Who knew you’d become so fond of your roommate.”

I turn my back to him, sitting on the edge of the bed braiding my hair as I mumble, “I’ll soon be requesting your transfer to someone else’s room, so don’t hold your breath about being my roommate for much longer.”

“I’ll hold my breath if it means stopping my heart to kiss you again,” he whispers as his hand rests on my upper back and slides over the top of my shoulder.

I spin with a glare, the bed jumping underneath us at how vigorously I turn. I suppose there’s no hope he might have forgotten that little detail in his delirious state.

“Good,” he purrs, locking eyes with me. “I have your attention.”

His hand travels down the front of my shoulder, skating across my collar bone and edging dangerously close to the swell of my breast. I’m frozen, my heart thudding painfully in my chest as I watch his lazy movement.

He cuts toward the center of my chest and plucks the necklace, then turns the vial over in his scarred fingers.

His eyes snap back up to mine. “Where did you get this?”

I hold his stare and flick his fingers off the vial. “I don’t think that’s any of your business.”

“It is my business if you forced it down my throat. So, you’re going to tell me exactly where?—”

I laugh in his face. “You’re cute if you think?—”

“Ahh, so finally you admit your attraction to me.” He tilts his head to the side, his hair sweeping down into his brow.

Guess he’s back to his regularly scheduled bullshit. He must be feeling much better now. “I’m not telling you anything. At least, not until you tell me what I need to know. That’s the only reason I’m keeping you alive. Now you owe me.”

“Pfft, I owe you nothing. You did me no favors. I wanted to stay dead, and you took the choice from me. If anything, you owe me .”

“I’m sure another opportunity will present itself.” I push off the bed, stalking across the room to gather my clothes and changing into them.

He falls quiet. When I turn back to him, fully clothed, his head rests on a fist, hair a flustered mess and a coy smile on his lips. He doesn’t even bother to hide his lazy infatuation.

“Your turn.” I throw him a set of fresh clothes.

One of his eyebrows raises in question, and he pulls the clothes that landed on the bed toward him, eyeing it for a second before looking back at me. “How do you expect me to change myself? Not sure if you noticed, but my wrists are a bit...” He lifts a hand and shakes the chains.

“I didn’t see you complaining about your restraints limiting your capabilities when you fought Sethan.”

“I have no problem taking my clothes off , kitten. If you remember, I fuck as well as I fight. But getting my clothes back on will be difficult.”

I cross my arms over my chest. “You’ve never backed down from a challenge before.”

“If you really want me to change, you’ll get your stubborn ass over here and undress me. Unless you’d rather call on someone like Nolan or Archie to help. In which case…they might ask how I managed to survive so miraculously. And I might tell them Katerina Ashbourne?—”

Cole’s last name on his tongue makes me fidget. He still thinks we’re related.

“—pressed her luscious lips to mine, forced dragon’s breath down my throat, and begged for me to not stop kissing her. Considering you don’t want to disclose where you got that vial from…I’m assuming you don’t want anyone to know you used it. Especially on little ol’ me. Am I right?”

Gritting my teeth, I stare him down. Manipulative asshole.

“Clocks ticking, kitten. And I’m feeling less inclined to keep my mouth shut…”

I mumble a string of incoherent words under my breath and storm toward him.

Not wanting to look him in his stupidly smug face, I train my eyes on his chest. I pull cord by cord loose in the crisscrossed tie down the front of his shirt.

Grabbing the hem, I tug it up an inch, then realize it’ll be far too complicated to remove while he’s shackled.

I grab one of my daggers and place the tip at the bottom of the V in his shirt and slice it down his abdomen.

“Oof,” he hisses playfully. “What a disappointment. I was quite fond of that one.”

I sheathe the dagger at my side and freeze when the fabric splits into two pieces.

My eyes flick to his naked, bronze chest—I can’t help it.

Good grief, am I so simple as to be distracted by a set of perfectly muscled abs?

As I consider shifting my attention to something less damning like his shoulder, my gaze wanders down to his navel.

Damnit. Yes…yes, maybe I am.

He clears his throat. “Like what you see? I have a pretty simple rule of if you look, you touch.”

“Nope,” I grit out, accepting the fact I have to remove his shackles.

Working quickly, I unlock them long enough to pull the sleeves off before securing it back on his wrists.

Then remove his smoke-stained shirt. Adopting the same strategy of unlocking and locking, I tug the new shirt over him, pulling perhaps a little too roughly to cover his naked skin.

“I don’t believe you. I can see it in your eyes. Can tell by how quickly you breathe?—”

“You’re delusional,” I say as I lace up his new shirt, still avoiding his eye contact.

“And you’re pathetic at hiding the things you want.”

Finally, I glare up at him. “And what is it you think I want?”

“You don’t want someone to be gentle with you.

You want rough. Raw. To be tossed around.

You’re tired of being treated like you’re some frail thing.

You’re not breakable. Or…maybe you’re so broken, you don’t feel like you can break any more.

And maybe, there’s a freedom to that. Knowing there’s nothing else you have left to lose. ”

I pat his chest with a little force, signaling the end to our conversation now that I have him dressed. “I should have just let you die.”

He grins. “I know.”

During the morning, the townspeople report the damage to Sethan in the community hall. Apparently, the reason the bunker wasn’t large enough to fit all the townspeople is because wild dragons haven’t come this far in almost half a century.

They weren’t prepared.

I say to Sethan, “Before she left, the fire dragon mentioned we stole her eggs. And that’s why they attacked?”

“Likely was the King’s Close Circle. Since he took the throne, he’s had a special operations group designated for extracting dragon eggs and bringing them back to Arterias to destroy them.”

Damn. So, the King’s Close Circle could have been here in the city? “My father wrote that during his time spying on the King, he found a locked room of eggs. Why not have his Close Circle members destroy the eggs immediately? Why risk bringing them back to the castle?”

Sethan’s lips twitch into a frown. “I’m not sure. There were many peculiar things the King did. While I was there, I tried to keep my head down and nose out of things.”

We sit in silent contemplation, before he says, “But…thanks to you, the city is still standing today.” He dips his head, swallowing. “Thank you.”

I nod, clearing my throat. “I couldn’t have done it without Daeja. She had taken a full blast of fire to the chest and saved me and the civilians before she fought off a fire dragon.”

He twists his head. “Really? Only fire dragons are tolerant of flame. She shouldn’t have been able to take such a hit without major damage.

But…I suppose being a moon dragon, there’s no telling what she’s capable of.

Perhaps she can reflect other elemental magic?

Have you noticed any other peculiar powers? ”

“She used to be able to turn invisible. Though, it seems to have faded since she grew.”

“Hmmm…perhaps just a hatchling power, then. Or one that may resurface once her mind matures enough to catch up to her body. A dragon of her size should easily be a juvenile. At least several years old.”

“Don’t let her hear you use the word juvenile in reference to her.” I grin.

A guard steps in, whispering into Sethan’s ear, before Sethan straightens and looks back at me. “We’ll stay one more night here in Vathstone to recover and assess our supplies. Tomorrow, we’ll press on to Ashfall.”