Fire, Blood, and Beauty: A Reverse Harem Romance Read online

  If there had been doubt about her before, it was erased in that moment.

  And now here she was, the object of my searching, of my obsession and frustration, already morphing into a different kind of obsession. She seems to be dealing with a war of emotions of her own, part shocked and terrified, yes, but there’s another part, something fierce flickering in her gaze.

  “The evil lurks within the wolves because they are a useful vessel. Fast, intelligent, and deadly,” I say after a stretch of silence.

  She needs time to process and absorb, of course, but time is a precious resource we don’t have much of. I can’t give her all the time she needs. She will just have to come to grips with the new reality she’s been faced with some other time.

  “They came to our planet and killed many of our people. We have fought back, but our numbers aren’t as great as they once were. Many have been lost, many others enslaved. That is the evil’s plan. To kill or enslave us all. To destroy my entire planet before moving on to the next.” I take a deep breath, forcing back the anger that’s shaking my voice, forcing out a long, slow breath to calm myself. “That is why we sought you, Eva. We do not want our family and friends to perish. We hope to save them.”

  Eva’s eyes are wider than ever and I think she’s going to say no. I think I might have gone too far and overwhelmed her and now she’s going to be too frightened to help, but then she’s not the one that speaks next.

  “The dragons aren’t the only ones in danger,” Morgan the younger blood-sucker says. “Our kind are facing extinction at the hands of this enemy as well. The wolves are killing vampires in huge numbers and there are precious few left.”

  Eva whirls around to him now, her hair flying past my face and leaving its clean fruity scent tickling my nostrils and hardening my cock. Even with the fate of all life in the balance I can’t help the thoughts of this woman from invading my every waking moment.

  “Did you just say vampires?” Eva asks, her voice so high it cracks.

  Lucas chuckles. “I told you, you hadn’t heard everything.”

  “No kidding,” she mumbles, shaking her head.

  “Yes, vampires,” Morgan continues. “We have been looking for a way to survive, but they manage to keep finding us, thinning our numbers more and more. Our family and friends were not so lucky to avoid them,” he says, the look he sends my way a mixture of anger and bitter jealously.

  I don’t blame him for that. My loved ones still walk and breathe and love. His are gone. I would be bitterly jealous too in his position.

  It’s dangerous to empathize with their kind. I know we’re meant to work together to defeat a common enemy, but that doesn’t erase the centuries of history our peoples have with one another. Reminding yourself of the humanity of your enemy is the fastest way to a sound defeat.

  “The head of our clan eventually sent us on a quest to find you. To seek your help. The help of the one that can save us all.”

  Eva balks at his serious formal tone, her body language closing up tight like a clam.

  “I think you’ve got the wrong girl. Dragons…vampires…evil wolves? I don’t know what you expect me to be able to do about any of that. I’m just one girl. I’ve barely ever left this forest. I don’t know how to fight or anything like that. I just know how to survive. Maybe there’s some other girl in these woods you were supposed to find and I just got in your way…”

  “No,” someone growls, and I realize a moment later it’s me. Everyone turns to look at me, waiting for something else even though I wasn’t planning it.

  I shake my head. “No, you are the right person. There’s no doubt about it. I know Brandt feels it as well, and I’m sure these other men do too.”

  Morgan and Lucas both nod in agreement.

  “We all know you’re the right person. It may seem insane right now, but you will come to see it too. Please, in the meantime, just trust us. Believe that we mean what we say, that we need your help and you’re the only one that can do it.”

  “That’s just… That’s a lot to take in. A lot to absorb…” She’s shaking her head, not making eye contact with any of us. Clearly, we’ve overwhelmed her, but our woman is trying to push past it, trying to cut through the tangles and vines of her own uncertainty to join us in our clearing. No one can do it for her, she has to blaze this trail alone, as much as I would love to accompany her and make everything easier. It just isn’t possible.

  “I know it’s difficult to understand the gravity of this situation,” Lucas says softly, moving in closer to her to cover her hand with his. For a moment, she looks like she’s going to snatch her hand away, but she doesn’t. She lets him keep his cold hand on hers and I have to suppress a possessive growl. She’s no more mine than she is theirs.

  “Perhaps I can help you understand. Perhaps I can show you.”

  “Lucas…?” Morgan says, his eyes widening. For the first time, he looks like something other than smugly confident. For the first time, he looks like he’s not sure.

  Lucas just nods at the silent question. “I think this is the way.”

  I don’t like the way they’re talking, leaving us out of the conversation, speaking in riddles and covert messages. But Morgan nods and it seems we won’t be invited to this discussion.

  “Let me show you,” Lucas says turning her palm to clasp their hands together.

  Eva nods, resolute, like this is going to cement her decision one way or the other. I catch my brother looking to me warily, but I have nothing to offer. I don’t know what’s happening right now any more than he does and the coil of concern is wrapping around my heart the way I’m sure it is with his as well.

  “Okay,” Eva says. “Do it.”

  Chapter Ten

  Lucas

  Eva’s hands are so warm in mine that it almost gives me pause. They’re soft and supple, her fingers slender and slightly rough in places from her hard work in the forest. Her hands are not dainty and feminine, though. Her nails are short, a little dirty even, probably from digging around in the dirt. These are hands that have not been afraid to do things. I’ve known many hands through my years, and more often than not, people are content to keep their hands idle. But not Eva. Eva is a doer, and that’s precisely what we need. What we all need. It’s encouraging, but also, I feel like a monster for dragging her into this whole mess. Not that any of us ever got a say in it.

  Still, this is the last moment before everything changes. If I show this to Eva, she won’t be the same. Neither of us will.

  I realize something else about her hands: they’re trembling. Ever-so-slightly. Hardly perceptible if someone had breath and a pulse of their own to confuse things, but I’m not burdened by such things and once I notice it, it’s painfully obvious how she’s vibrating all over.

  I squeeze her hand gently, content to just hold it.

  “Are you sure? It won’t be pleasant,” I caution, regretting now that I even had this idea. My gift — though calling it that hardly feels accurate, it’s more like a curse — will sure clear up any misgivings she has about our story, but that’s only the beginning. In order to share visions with Eva, I have to make a connection with her, one that will never go away. For either of us. We’re already bound in other ways, fate having pushed us together, but this is taking it a step further. This is me, choosing to lash myself to this woman for the rest of her short life. And then I’ll be alone again, having watched another person I love and cherish grow old and die.

  But I’m getting ahead of myself. The connection won’t produce instant love. And there will be so much happening soon that it may be impossible for it to strengthen further. The most important thing right now is to convince her to help us, and this is the only way I know how.

  “I’m sure,” she says shakily, nodding.

  “Just know that you’re safe and I won’t let anything harm you, okay?” Out of the corner of my eye, I see the dragons being restless, possibly doubting me, neither of them knowing exactly what’s goi
ng on. As far as I know, they don’t have gifts like our kind do. And even among vampires, they’re very rare and only the eldest of us can control them at will.

  She nods again, but now there’s a hint of hesitation in her hazel eyes. “Okay,” she says.

  I want to take my time and really tell her what she’s getting into, but there’s no time. I can already feel the evil presence outside growing closer and we can’t sit around waiting for it to spring.

  Without a word, I nod and take both her hands in both of mine, catching her eyes with mine. Instantly, she’s locked, unable to look away, and that’s when I let it out and we both start to tumble…

  For a moment there’s nothing, and then only fog. I can’t see or hear anything, but Eva’s hand is still in mine, clutching for dear life. I squeeze back and her fingers relax a little, but don’t let go.

  Soon, the fog begins to dissipate and we’re in a European village. It will be strange to her, but it will feel familiar because she’s seeing it through my eyes. This old world town is where my clan settled. Being as old as we were, we still moved quite a lot, traveled endlessly to cover our tracks and not raise any suspicions, but this is where we came when we wanted to go home. This is where my friends and family were. This is the only place where I felt completely safe since the day I was turned.

  But the fog is gone now, and out of the mist, something else appears. I already know what’s coming. I lived through this and have relived it many times in the years since, both in my waking hours and in my nightmares.

  Red eyes, like pinpricks of light, start appearing and soon they’re surrounding the village. Soon, they’re charging into homes and dragging vampires out into the sun, leaving them to writhe and burn. The ones that don’t burn to ash in screaming agony are torn to shreds, ripped limb from limb. Even watching it now, for the hundredth time, so many centuries removed from the carnage, my entire being aches with despair. No matter how many times I watch these senseless acts of violence, they never cease to leave me furious and dismayed. There’s no sense to it. No reason that my life had to be ripped to shreds. The evil just saw a threat and moved to take it out. Simple as that.

  I’d almost forgotten that I’m not here alone, but then I realize that Eva’s trembling has stopped, that she’s not squeezing my hand in a vise anymore. She’s just standing next to me in open-mouthed horror. To her, all of my emotions are new and raw, she’s feeling the true emotions I experienced in the moment. The anguish, the loss, the suffering and the irrepressible rage.

  Her eyes turn to me, big and wet, tears streaming down her face, and like a blanket being thrown over us, the fog is back, blocking out everything but white mist. I can’t see Eva anymore, but I still know she’s there. I still have the look of her heartbreak etched into my heart forever, burned into my brain. Showing her this was probably a mistake. And now she’ll never look at me the same. She may never look at anything the same.

  That’s the thing about emotions. Even when they’re not yours, they can scar you and traumatize you. Eva may as well have just watched everyone she ever knew and loved slaughtered for how she’s feeling.

  I know I should pull us out, stop this before it goes too far. I have a million memories she could be inadvertently diving into at the moment that I’d rather not share with anyone.

  But then the fog starts to clear and it’s me who gets the peculiar feeling of familiarity to a place I’ve never been. We’re in the forest, the woods near her cabin — I recognize it by the feeling of contentment and home she has here. But right now, those feelings are buried deep under a gut-wrenching heart-stopping fear. It’s so strong that it nearly knocks me over. It’s been ages since I experienced that blood-chilling terror. Ages since I had blood to chill or a heart to stop. It’s surreal, but also paralyzing with its foreignness.

  Eva’s staring straight ahead from behind a thick pine trunk and I follow her eyes, my stomach tying itself in worried knots. The wolves are here, too, surrounding an older man — Dad, the thought surfaces along with a flood of related emotions — and they’re looking bored of him, looking to Eva. Surely they know she’s the real threat, but her father’s telling her to run. She can’t just leave him though, she has to do something. She’s not going anywhere, not moving and the wolves are getting closer. I know it’s just a memory, but I can’t handle the fear — both that she’s feeling and that I’m feeling for her. Because these wolves don’t look like a memory. They look like they see us both. They look like they want to rip out Eva’s throat and drink her blood. They look…way too close.

  One snaps and lunges at Eva and I yank her back, pushing us up out of the memory faster than I should, but I don’t know what’s going on and I’m not going to put her at risk. A memory has never reacted to me before. That’s not supposed to happen. I promised Eva I wouldn’t let anything harm her and I intend to keep that promise.

  The fog doesn’t even have time to appear before we’re slamming back into our bodies roughly. Generally, I try to make it gentler, like slowly surfacing after a deep underwater dive. If you come up too fast, you’ll get the psychic variant of the bends. But we had no time for precautions and I can only hope that my vast experience saved us from the worst of outcomes.

  Our hands are still clasped on top of the table and Eva’s eyes are still wide and staring at me, but she’s not there yet. The space behind her eyes is vacant. No one’s home. If I had breath to hold, I’d be holding it right now, waiting for her to come back. Because if she doesn’t, that means she’s trapped in her own mind and there’s nothing I or anyone else can do to get her out. I squeeze her hands so tight it’s probably painful, but some bruised fingers are a price I’m willing to pay if means she comes back to us.

  “Eva,” I say softly, hoping against all hope.

  Her eyes flicker, recognition shining in them as she finally comes back, but before I can feel relieved, her eyes are rolling back and she slumps over in her chair unconscious.

  Chapter Eleven

  Morgan

  The dragons are restless the entire time Lucas and Eva are ‘gone’. They’re still sitting where they were, still holding hands and staring at each other like a couple of mannequins, but they’re clearly not here. Talking to them, touching them, waving a hand in front of the face all does nothing. I already know this from experience with Lucas’s gift, but that doesn’t stop the dragons from trying everything.

  “What has he done to her?”

  “They’re vision sharing,” I say like it should be obvious. “Eva had trouble believing our story, so Lucas is showing her first-hand what happened. Many people are more convinced by their own eyes than by a story.”

  The older dragon narrows his golden eyes at me, but finally nods. “If this will convince her to help us.”

  I shrug. There’s no guarantee of course, but if Eva is the kind of girl I think she is, then I’m pretty sure she won’t be able to turn her back after seeing what the wolves are really capable of. “We’ll see,” is all I say.

  So the dragons start pacing and grumbling amongst themselves in their growling dragon language. I really couldn’t care less. I hate when Lucas does this as much as they do, but I can’t talk to him about it. He’s my elder. If he thinks it’s a good idea, who am I to challenge him? Even if I think he sorely needs a challenge some days.

  The minutes tick by and there’s no change in our traveling pair. The dragons are getting more anxious, constantly peeking out windows and wearing a hole in the floor by pacing circles around the table. The cabin’s barely big enough to hold all of us, so they keep having to push furniture around out of their way to complete their brooding circuits. If I wasn’t so damn nervous about Lucas and Eva myself, I’d probably think it’s hilarious. Stalk, stalk, stalk, slide a chair to the side, pace, pace, pace, squeeze past a bookshelf — it’s utterly ridiculous looking, but they don’t stop.

  “Do you think you could sit still? You’re driving me insane,” I finally snap, looking up from my fingern
ails.

  “How long is this going to go on?” Brandt snaps back.

  “Does it look like I’m on the trip to provide an ETA? These things take time. I know patience is a difficult concept for your kind, but please, try it out.”

  The dragon snarls at me and his hand curls into a fist. I think he’s getting ready to lunge for me when his brother grabs him by the arm and thrusts a finger in Lucas’s direction.

  Lucas blinks and then shakes his head a little before turning his intent gaze to Eva. He’s back…but that means she should be too and she still looks gone. Now, the worry I hadn’t been letting myself feel all surges in at once and nearly makes my body crumple under its weight. I can’t make a sound. I can’t form the words to ask him what happened. All I know is that something went wrong on that vision trip and Eva’s not back. And I know that I’d do anything — anything — to bring her back.

  “Eva?” Lucas says softly, his voice tender and gentle, like he’s worried she’ll shatter like an egg if he’s any rougher.

  The dragons seem to be holding their breath together and if I had a breath to hold, I’d keep it in for an eternity if it meant Eva would come back.

  Then, her eyes light up for the briefest moment before they’re back in her head and she’s gone. But at least she’s out of the vision. She’s only unconscious now. Not that that’s okay.

  “What the hell happened?” I’m yelling before I even realize it, on my feet barking at my elder like I have a death wish.

  “There were complications,” Lucas says, still looking a little lost.

  I’ve never seen him like this, this strange searching look. Whatever happened, he doesn’t understand it any more than we do and that freaks me out. Nothing shakes Lucas.