Releasing the Dragon (Brides of the Kindred) Read online

  “Go then. I tried to warn you—I hope you won’t find out the hard way that my nose does not lie.”

  For some reason the fact that he wasn’t trying to stop her made Annie angrier than ever.

  “Fine!” She turned on her heel and marched towards the bar where the man of her dreams was waiting for her.

  Only he’s not the man of your dreams—not really, whispered a little voice in her head. Because it’s Dru you’ve been dreaming of, right?

  Annie pushed the little voice away. She had come to the reunion for one reason and one reason only—to take a chance on getting with Christian as she’d always dreamed of back when she was a sad and lonely teen—and she was damn well going to do it no matter what Dru and his Drake Kindred nose said.

  * * * * *

  Dru clenched his hands into fists as he watched her walk away. It was all he could do to keep from going after her. Inside him, his Drake shifted angrily, spreading shadow wings that darkened the room around him and made some of the more clumsy humans stumble and bump against each other, spilling their drinks.

  Mine! She should be MINE!

  It roared so loudly the humans around him winced and looked uneasily from side to side. They couldn’t hear it—not with their ears—but they felt the turmoil of his darker half. It was like a psychic shout directly into their minds. Around him, several of the males pulled their partners closer in a jealous, possessive way. The stronger a Drake, the more it broadcast its emotions which were capable of affecting people in its immediate vicinity. It was one of the reasons the Drake Kindred were considered dangerous and only those like Dru, who had control of his beast, were welcome aboard the Mother Ship.

  Except I’m not doing a very good job of controlling it now, am I? he asked himself angrily. But he couldn’t help it. Seeing the female he had been Dream-Sharing with for the past three solar months leave to go be with another male—a male all his senses told him was not to be trusted—was almost more than either he or his Drake could bear.

  Abruptly, Dru knew he had to go—he had to leave before he lost control of his darker half completely and shifted here and now into the Drake. It was that close to the surface—so close he could almost taste the fire in his throat and feel its wings beating the air. If it came out here and now, in this crowded building, innocent people were going to die horrible deaths—all because he couldn’t control the Drake’s jealous rage.

  Turning, he left quickly, exiting through the red and orange lighted doorway he had come in by. He had to get control of himself—control of his Drake—before he did something he would regret forever.

  Chapter Seven

  Annie saw him leave from the corner of her eye just as she settled herself on a stool beside Christian.

  Good, she thought defiantly. Go on and leave—nobody asked you to come in the first place. Or to invade my dreams for that matter. Now maybe I can do what I came here for. But she couldn’t help the twinge of unease she felt when she saw Dru’s large figure exit through the festively-lighted doorway. What if he’d somehow been right about Christian? What if—?

  “Hey, I was wondering if you were ever going to show up,” Christian said in her ear. His breath was heavy with scotch fumes but he seemed to be talking clearly enough. Maybe he’d had just enough to loosen up which was why he’d approached her in the first place.

  “Sorry about that.” Annie turned to him with an apologetic smile. “It just took me a while to extricate myself.”

  “Trouble in paradise?” He raised an eyebrow at her. “Is that guy your husband or—”

  “No, no—nothing like that,” Annie hastened to assure him. “I actually just met him in person tonight for the first time and he kind of…followed me here.”

  “Oh, on-line date?” Christian asked.

  Annie thought of the strange dreams where Dru had huge, dark wings sprouting from his back and the deep, inhuman voice that growled, “Mine!”

  “Um, something like that.” She laughed weakly. “So anyway, how have you been? I haven’t seen you since graduation.”

  “Likewise, pretty Annie. Here, come into the light so I can see you better.” Christian drew her into a puddle of light that was beaming down from a dim bulb placed over one corner of the bar and Annie let him. “Wow,” he murmured, looking her over. “Amy told me you were different but I didn’t believe her—you’ve changed so much. You’re gorgeous now!”

  It was exactly the kind of thing Annie had imagined him saying to her but somehow she couldn’t seem to take much pleasure in it. For one thing his words implied that she hadn’t been gorgeous before—which was technically true—but it seemed kind of rude to point it out. And for the second, the scotch fumes on his breath were really strong and he was getting too close—it made her want to wince away from him. She held her ground uneasily, afraid she might offend him.

  “You’ve changed too,” she said and it certainly wasn’t a lie. In the slightly stronger light, she could see that Christian’s hair was no longer the gold of melted honey. Or if it was, it was really hard to tell because there was less of it—a lot less. Clearly male pattern baldness ran in his family which was kind of too bad—his hair had always been one of his best features. Also, he had a definite beer gut straining the buttons of the cheap white shirt he was wearing.

  Then Annie realized what she was doing—judging someone solely by their appearance, just like Michelle Prouty.

  I’m not like that—I’m not that person, she told herself firmly. Christian was always nice to me in high school when almost no one else was. He didn’t judge me by my appearance then so I’m not going to judge him by his now. He’s a beautiful person on the inside—right?

  Plus, his eyes were as sky-blue as ever, even if they did have bags under them now. Wow, he looked like he hadn’t been getting enough sleep for a long time. Annie wondered if he was all right.

  “So what do you do for work?” she asked as casually as she could, trying to keep the conversation going.

  “Me? Oh you know…” He waved vaguely. “I’m in management. Fast food management, actually.”

  Fast food management? What does that mean? Does he run a Burger King or something? But she didn’t like to ask out loud—it might hurt Christian’s feelings.

  “Oh, that sounds very…rewarding,” she said instead.

  “Yeah, right.” Christian snorted. “How about you, pretty Annie? What do you do now? Are you a writer? You certainly were good at that in high school.” He nudged her and grinned. “Mrs. Hampstead our English teacher sure thought so, right? All those papers you helped me with…”

  Actually, she’d written every paper line for line but Annie wasn’t going to quibble about details.

  “I’m not exactly a writer—although my job does involve some creative writing. I’m a game designer for Oculus Chasm.” She couldn’t keep the pride and excitement out of her voice.

  “Oh yeah?” Christian asked. “What’s that—the, uh, virtual reality thingy you put on your head?”

  “Right.” She nodded. “Right now I’m working on a new game that’s specifically targeted at women. Did you know that forty-eight percent of on-line gamers are women but there are almost no games aimed at them? It’s ridiculous, really—the same way Hollywood aims so many movies at men in the 18-29 age group and doesn’t even consider that women spend money on movies too.”

  Christian made a face.

  “Christ, don’t tell me you went and became a feminist. That would be a damn shame, sweetheart. Especially now you’re finally thin enough to be fuckable.”

  “What?” Annie felt as though he’d slapped her. It was the same kind of thing her last Love Match date had said when she revealed what she did for a living. But at least he hadn’t referenced her weight and said she was “fuckable” while he was at it!

  Christian seemed to realize he had upset her because he made a soothing gesture with his hands.

  “Hey—sorry about that. Too much scotch, you know? I’m not drunk