9. Chapter Eight

Chapter Eight

Tan

I blinked myself awake, confused about where I was. It took a few seconds for me to realize I was in Garrick's condo, and a few seconds more to realize that I'd fallen asleep on the couch with my head in Garrick's lap.

I somehow had a blanket spread over me, my legs were stretched out along the cushions, Orangelica curled up on my chest, and yep, head in Garrick's lap.

I winced, guilt making my chest clench. I hadn't meant to fall asleep, and I certainly hadn't meant to use Garrick's thigh as a pillow… even if it was a nice one.

After taking a fortifying breath, I turned my head up to Garrick's, expecting to see his grump staring back at me. Instead, I found him sleeping with his head back against the couch and his mouth hanging open. I snickered quietly. He had drool hanging out of his mouth. I sorta wanted to reach up and wipe it off his chin, but I was too scared to make any sudden movements.

Garrick was in the corner of the sectional sofa, so at least his legs were outstretched, so he couldn't be too uncomfortable, right?

I moved a little and realized that his hand was in my hair. It made me freeze.

In his sleep, he played with the strands of my hair for a moment. Orangelica distracted me by uncurling and nudging my face affectionately. I gave her some scratches and smiled while she purred. She was so fucking sweet. Mother, I loved my Bonded.

Without warning, a huge amount of pressure sort of surrounded my head and pressed inward. For a second, I thought I was about to get a migraine, but then I felt the magic of it, and I gasped.

"Garrick!" I yelled as I sat up so suddenly I knocked poor Orangelica off my chest. She yowled as she jumped to her feet on top of my thighs. Although she wasn't yelling at me, she was yelling at the invading magic.

Garrick sprang to life as well, hopping onto his feet on top of the couch cushion in a crouched position, glancing around and looking for danger. He moved faster than I expected.

But I was just as fast. Before either of them regained their footing, I already had a shield around the three of us.

"What is it?" Garrick hissed, sounding sort of snake-like with his panic.

"I'm not sure. Someone's trying to get through our wards."

"Shall we go find them before they break through?"

I shot him a quick glance. "They're not going to get through, Gar. We're safe here… but we should probably see who it is. Maybe we can capture them and bring them in for questioning or something. Stop them from attacking us again."

He gave a nod. "Can you tell where they are? I think they're trying to come in through the roof access. Did you put wards there?"

"I sure did. There are wards in your office too, but I only charge those at night so there isn't a problem with your meetings during the day."

He straightened a bit. "I didn't know you were doing that."

I waved him away. "I need my tablet."

Garrick grabbed it from the coffee table—lucky I'd had it out to pull up a movie I'd saved to send to Gar's TV—and passed it over. I quickly pulled up the surveillance videos for Gar's condo, stood beside Garrick, and held the device between us as I focused on the camera that hung above the roof access door.

A person was standing there, dressed in all black, wearing a hoodie with the hood up. I couldn't be sure, but I thought they were avoiding the camera like they knew exactly where it was.

So they'd obviously cased the joint before trying to break in.

Dread filled my belly. We had no idea what they knew and what they didn't. We had no clue what was driving them to this—or at least I had no idea.

"Do you recognize them?" I asked Garrick.

He shook his head. "I can't tell since we can't see their face."

"They're hiding from the camera on purpose, right? This is a professional assassin, isn't it?"

He met my gaze with a fierce grimace. "Likely, yes."

"Lovely," I muttered under my breath. "Alright, let's go get the fucker."

Before I could step away, Garrick grabbed my wrist. "You sure? You don't have to do this."

"Isn't this what you hired me for?"

He flinched. "I don't want you to get hurt."

"I'll be fine, big guy." I patted his chest and ignored the way my fingers sort of zinged from the touch. "Why don't you call Roman and have him meet us in the stairwell?"

I didn't need him, but I knew he'd be pissed if we didn't wake him up for this.

Garrick pulled out his phone, and I scooped Orangelica up, putting her on my shoulder before heading for the condo door. I kept the shield over us for as long as I could, but the spiral staircase made that impossible. So I dropped it while we ascended the steps, then threw a shield over us again.

"He on his way?" I whispered, not wanting the bad guy on the other side of the door to hear me.

He nodded, so I concentrated on opening the door. I had a key that I used now, slowly and quietly. Garrick was holding the tablet, and I could see that the intruder was still there, although they'd stepped backward and stared at the door knob. Clearly, they'd noticed the movement.

I heard Roman thundering up the stairs, so I figured he was sufficient backup, and pushed the door open.

The second it shot open, the ground moved beneath my feet. Shit . Was this an earthquake?

My shield was still covering us, so I wasn't too worried. At least I hadn't been until my shield was hit with the first bolt of the intruder's magic. It hit like a freight train, and I sucked in a breath as power was leached from me.

That had never happened before.

I'd been able to hold my shield for hours at a time and under constant attack. Hours. It had only been a few minutes. This… this wasn't right.

The ground rumbled on, and Garrick said, "Stop it. I'm under a shield, for crying out loud."

"What?"

Another bolt of red magic hit me even harder, distracting me from Garrick, and I grunted but shook it off quickly. It was annoying, but I could handle it. This guy was not going to get the best of me. I refused. I would never allow them to kill my Garrick. Never, ever.

With that in mind, I gathered an energy spell, pulling my death magic from the floor beneath my feet. The floor made of wood—AKA, dead trees.

I lobbed it at the enemy, and my spell bounced off their shield as easily as spells usually bounced off of mine. What the hell? Who was this person?

Garrick grumbled behind me, and the ground stopped shifting, thank the Mother of All.

They threw two more spells at me, and I noticed the red balls of magic held bright red spikes on the inside. When the orbs hit, they sort of popped, and the spikes tried to stab my shield. The spikes were the thing that hurt, not the red energy around them. Strange. But obviously, this was a blood witch. Or, at the very least, they weren't a regular witch but some other kind of magic user.

Even though I had a million questions, I didn't lose concentration. I didn't hesitate to throw another bolt of energy, and another, and another, and another.

With every bolt, I was pushing the other witch backward on the roof. It was a huge roof, so they had plenty of space to go before they got to the edge, but now it meant that Garrick, Roman, and I all had more space as well. Three to one wasn't great odds for the assassin. Add in that two were dragons, and well, I was pretty sure one of them could just eat them.

Orangelica jumped to the ground and stood directly in front of Garrick, guarding him, and I was grateful. I didn't foresee the enemy getting through my shield, but it was always a good idea to have a backup plan, and Orangelica could protect him. Hell, she could probably just eat the assassin herself.

I kept throwing spells at them, and they countered, throwing more and more at me, but their spells were weakening. They weren't burning anymore. They were more like an annoying little pinch.

"Let me out of your shield, Tan," Roman said. "I'll take him down."

I scowled, unwilling to look away from my opponent. "No. He's throwing strong magic. You'll get hit."

He let out a growl that was all dragon and sent chills up my arms. "I have my sword and my scales. I'll be fine. Let me help."

I glanced at Garrick, and he nodded, murmuring, "He's telling the truth."

I blew out a calming breath and threw another spell at the blood witch before eyeing Roman. He had a huge broadsword in one hand, and pretty blue scales covered most of his exposed skin. His other arm was huge, and his fingers were shifted into claws. Well, okay then. That made me feel a little better.

I said, "Fine, but if you get killed, don't blame me."

He snorted. "I won't. Let me out on the left side."

I made sure to continue throwing bolts of magic at the other witch so they wouldn't see what I was doing with my shield. With a practiced ease, I made an opening big enough for Roman to fit through. As soon as I felt him pass over the threshold, I reclosed the shield so no one could hurt Garrick.

As far as I knew, there was only one assassin, but that didn't mean there wasn't another one lying in wait. I wasn't about to risk it.

Roman went running at the witch, and the blood witch switched gears, aiming their magic at him. I held my breath as a huge ball of red went flying at the dragon and watched in amazement as he sliced his sword right through it. The blood witch's magic burst into ash and floated to the ground before it had a chance to touch even one hair on his head.

"Well, I guess he can take care of himself," I muttered as I decided to use the blood witch's distraction against them.

Instead of throwing another bolt, I gathered my magic and shaped it into an arrow. I needed to pierce the witch's shield or this would never work. I sent a volley of magic arrows at their shield, each one aiming for the same spot.

When the witch flinched, I knew I was making an impact, so I upped my assault. Roman kept slicing through magic, holding his own, and I figured if I could get the witch to attack me, he could move forward and slice at their shield, breaking the spell.

And if not, then hopefully, my magic would break it instead.

Right when I could feel that their shield was about to give, they turned to me and threw three spells rapidly. The spells burned, but the witch screamed when Roman snuck close enough to slice apart their shield.

I threw a stun spell, and they dodged. Roman and I attacked them at the same time, and the assassin retreated, rolling on the ground farther away from us. We advanced, and I saw the blood witch glance between Roman and me. I could see the calculation in their eyes—the only part of their face I could see because they had a mask over the bottom half of their face—and I knew they knew they were outnumbered.

They turned and ran toward the edge of the building. I screamed out, wanting to stop them, not wanting them to jump. But there was nothing I could do as I reached out with my magic, and the witch knocked it out of the way. They leapt off the building, and my heart felt like it was going to leap out of my chest.

Shit . The last thing I'd wanted was for that person to kill themself.

The three of us ran to the edge to look over, and I gasped. A few hundred feet away, there was something flying away with a rider on its back.

No, not a something flying, it was a mother-effing dragon.

The assassin was with a dragon?

Why the hell was another dragon after my dragon? Dragon shifters were rare. Like super fucking rare. And as far as all my research had shown, they were a small community. As in, they'd been living so long that they all knew each other because they came from the same place. If that was a dragon shifter, and not a lesser one, it was likely that Garrick and Roman knew them.

"What the hell, Garrick?"

He side-eyed me. "What the hell, what?"

I made an incoherent noise and threw my arm out in the direction the dragon had gone.

He shrugged. "There are other dragons in existence, you know."

I huffed in anger. "I know that. Do you know who that was?"

"I didn't get a good look. Roman?"

Roman shook his head. "I couldn't tell either."

I sighed. "Okay. What the hell is another dragon doing trying to kill you?"

Garrick stared off into the distance for a long time before he whispered, "They want the crown." Then he turned on his heel and headed for the door.

"I'm gonna need more than that, Garrick."

"Well, that's all I have tonight."

I ran a hand through my hair in frustration. "Was there an earthquake? Is everyone okay?"

"It wasn't an earthquake," Gar said.

I dipped my head and waved in a go-on gesture. "Oookkkaaay, then what the hell was it?"

"Another security measure."

I stared at him in disbelief. "Are you serious?"

"Yes."

"You have security in place that you didn't tell me about? Me, the person you hired to do your freaking security?" My voice had gotten loud and high-pitched.

He scowled. "Yes."

When he didn't continue, my temper flared. "How am I supposed to protect you when you won't tell me anything? You have secret security that I'm not privy to apparently, and you won't tell me what's really going on. How am I supposed to keep you safe? I need to know these things."

"No, you don't."

My nostrils flared in anger. "What the hell, Garrick? You hired me to protect you. I do need to fucking know. I need more information. If I knew who was after you, I could find a way to stop them before they get this fucking close. Don't you understand that? Don't you want them to stop coming for you?"

He growled, low and deep. "Of course I do, but I don't want you more involved than you already are. It's none of your fucking business."

I jerked back like he'd slapped me. Hurt lanced through my heart, and I crossed my arms over my chest, allowing my anger to overpower me so I didn't have to focus on the hurt. "Wow, I don't think I've ever heard you cuss, and when I finally do, it's at me. Thanks a lot, asshole."

"I didn't mean—"

"Whatever. It's none of my fucking business, so I may as well shut my fucking mouth and leave you alone."

"Tan—"

"No. I got the message, Your Majesty ."

He flinched when I used his title. "Tan, I didn't mean for it to come out that harshly."

I didn't say anything at all. I just kept my arms crossed, tapping my foot while I waited for something, like an actual apology, maybe? But none ever came, so I didn't say a thing.

He let out a long sigh. "We need to clean ourselves up and get some sleep."

"Whatever."

He sighed again. "Get some sleep, little pretty."

Before I could complain about the little pretty thing, he was halfway through the doorway.

"Hey!" I called out. "Let me go first and check it!"

The asshat didn't listen, but Orangelica ran ahead of me to catch up with him. He walked all the way to the condo, let himself inside, and headed for his bedroom, slamming the door.

Well, I guess that was how it was going to be. Asshole .

"Tan?" Roman called out, having followed us inside.

After scooping Orangelica into my arms and holding her against my chest, I turned to look at Roman and lifted a brow. I wasn't in the mood to talk to him or anyone right now. My heart was full of worry, hurt, and disappointment, and all I wanted to do was crawl under the covers and cuddle with my Bonded.

"Thank you for saving him. You were amazing up there."

I shrugged. "That's my job, isn't it?" That came out way harsher than I'd meant it, and I immediately felt bad because Roman wasn't even the person I was angry with.

"Listen, I know he was… cruel up there—"

"Yeah, your friend is a grade-A asshole."

He nodded in agreement. "He comes off that way sometimes, yes, but… he doesn't want to put you in danger. That's why he won't share."

I opened one arm wide, gesturing to everything. "Then what the hell am I doing here?"

Roman sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "He was terrified to have you help us, but he also knew you were the only one who could. I know it doesn't make sense to you right now, but these people… they're bad news, Tan. Garrick doesn't want you in the middle of it."

"He probably should've thought of that before he hired me."

Roman winced. "I'll talk to him."

"Don't bother." I turned away, then turned right back. "Sorry, now I'm being an asshole to you, and it's not even your fault."

"It's alright. Dealing with Garrick does that to a person sometimes. I should know. I've been dealing with him my whole life."

I snorted.

"I'll let you get back to sleep. Thanks again for protecting him."

"I'm not going to let him get hurt, even when he's a total dickhead."

He smiled. "I know you won't. Good night, Tan."

"Good night."

As soon as Roman left, I locked the door behind him, then marched to my bedroom. And because I was still pissed and wanted Garrick to know it, I slammed my own door for good measure.