Skyborn (Dragons & Druids #1)(10)

Make that two.





3





WE WERE ALL sitting around the pool table in Logan’s game room, scattered on barstools. Some of “the pack” were playing pool and others were talking to me. I had learned that Logan’s security detail was comprised of six animal shifters.

Cooper, a short, stocky redhead with a beard at least twelve inches long, was a fox shifter. He was playing pool with Gear, the punk-rock one of the pack. Gear fixed motorcycles, was a falcon shifter and had a lime-green mohawk to rival Cooper’s funky red beard. Between his nose was a septum piercing, and on his knuckles was tattooed “Stay True.”

Then there was Keegan, the tall, impossibly-handsome alpha. He was a wolf shifter like Nadine. I still wasn’t sure about the creeper standing in the corner. His name was Dom; he barely spoke and wore a hoodie pulled up over his hair, which looked like it might be blond. I couldn’t tell. He wore all black and was silently watching all of us with his ice-blue gaze. He hadn’t told me what his animal was, but I knew from taking away what the others were. He was the lion, the huge, menacing, freaky-ass lion shifter. When I had introduced myself to him he had simply nodded, keeping a hand on the black gun at his hip. He was closed off and mysterious, so naturally I wanted to know everything about him. Logan had put Mittens in the basement when everyone arrived and now I knew why. Dom must have seriously unsettled the poor kitty.

Lastly, there were two females in the pack, Sophie and Nadine. Sophie was a blond coyote shifter with huge breasts spilling out of her top. She had been shooting me eye daggers from across the room all night. Nadine was the dark-haired, tattooed-up wolf who’d saved me from the hunters. She and I had gotten along immediately and she was the one answering all of my questions as we huddled in the corner of the game room.

“Vampires?” I tipped my glass of red wine in her direction.

She snorted. “Nope.”

“Gargoyles?”

Nadine’s body was convulsing slightly in an effort to contain her laughter. “Gargoyles?”

I shrugged. “They could be a thing.”

Logan had simply told me that a land of Fae creatures used to exist, so my imagination was the limit. And as an artist, I had a wild imagination. I used to illustrate fairies in high school. I drew them with big wide eyes and gossamer wings.

Nadine shook her head, her black hair falling around her. She had fair skin, bright blue eyes, and her nose was sharp, giving her beauty uniqueness. But the tattoos covering her arms and legs made her look fierce. This was a woman you didn’t want to cross.

“No gargoyles. Just the earthbound, their hunters, animal shifters, sorcerers and skyborn. We’re all pretty much descended from the same magical soup.”

Right. Earthbound were druids and skyborn were dragons—I at least had that much. Had no idea about the magical soup comment, but thought I would leave it for later.

I nodded. “Okay, well, what powers do the hunters have? I mean, are they just regular humans?”

Nadine took a long swig from her beer. “No, they’re not. Hunters are druids in training. They fight in a pack, and that pack is tied to one druid. That druid, depending how powerful, can empower his hunters with certain gifts. Once a hunter advances to a certain level, the druid initiates them and they become an apprentice druid. The hunters we encountered going after you were a part of a pack that was linked to a pretty weak druid. You were lucky.”

I let out a breath. “So … all druids are bad?”

Nadine stopped chugging her beer and met my eyes. “They didn’t used to be, but the most powerful of their kind turned to darkness.” She lowered her voice. “His name is Ardan and he is a master druid. They are all connected, so each druid pulls power from his master, which leads all the way up to Ardan. Therefore…”

I nodded in understanding. “Spoil one and spoil them all?”

Nadine nodded. “Now the earthbound are power hungry and they will stop at nothing to have all of the skyborn magic left on this Earth.”

I frowned. “How? How do they get the magic?”

Nadine brought up her left index finger and ran it across her neck.

“Oh. So … they kill us and … siphon our magic?” I guessed. I hadn’t thought anyone was listening, until now. A warm, possessive hand landed on my shoulder.

“They try.” Logan’s voice tickled my ear, sending my dragon into a frenzy inside of me. Freaking hormonal dragon. Chill out. “But now there’s two of us and I won’t let that happen.”

His body heat pressed against my skin, making my dragon tighten within me, but his words had me on edge. “So, hypothetically, if the druids were to kill us both and drain our magic…?”

Now the entire room was quiet. Keegan, the alpha, slightly taller than Logan, stepped out from behind the pool table. His sandy-blond hair was cut in a short military style and his presence commanded attention. I had instinctively known he was the alpha earlier, before he had even introduced himself as such.

“Then humanity goes extinct as well,” he said, “and the druids and hunters rule the Earth, taking what’s left of the shifters and sorcerers as their slaves.”

“Jesus.” I involuntarily shuddered and I saw Cooper make the Catholic sign of the cross over his chest. Oops. “What do you mean ‘what’s left’ of the shifters and sorcerers?” I asked Keegan.