He put his arm around me and turned his face down to my hair. Maybe he intended to smell my shampoo—or my naturally fantastic female pheromones—but he leaned back and frowned.
You smell like smoke. Were you in a fire?
Yeah. I hesitated to bring up Velilah, because he might overreact and leave in a huff to confront her. But it would be better that he deal with her, if he could, than for her to pop up and harass me every time Zav wasn’t around. Your would-be mate tried to burn down the tree Freysha and I were in.
Zav tensed like a coiled spring and radiated anger. I could feel it in the energy of his aura, the energy that I usually found appealing but that now buzzed my senses like lightning about to strike.
We’re fine. I glanced at him, catching an equally stormy expression on his face. We got away without being hurt. Freysha plans to file a complaint with your legal system though. I hope Velilah gets a hefty fine. I smiled to try to alleviate his anger, though my attempts at diffusing anger with humor hadn’t been working well lately.
I told her to stay away from you. And to go back to her home world because I wasn’t interested.
Yeah, but she got excited when you pinned her. I could tell. I wished that was also a joke.
Zav’s frown only deepened.
“Airlock, ah.” Zoltan was poking at his smart phone—looking up submarines. “Interesting. Dimitri could make me a light lock. That would be the appropriate term. I like that. All vampires should have light locks.”
“Maybe Dimitri can perfect self-contained light-lock units and sell them out of the back of the shop. To the vampire clientele that we don’t yet have.” I waved toward my collection bag open on his counter. “Is that plant what you needed, Zoltan?”
“Indeed, yes.” He put his phone away and returned to a burbling concoction on a burner. “I am preparing the formula now. Lord Zavryd—why is he brooding so ferociously, and am I in danger?—has helped stabilize the gnome, but we need the formula to kill the bacteria infecting his system.”
“Zav is having family problems. He’ll be okay.” It felt a bit like hugging a starving lion, but I wrapped an arm around Zav’s waist and patted him on the chest.
Do you want to talk about this? I asked silently. Or anything else?
I wish to find that female and bite her head off.
There’s probably an even bigger fine for that.
He eyed me, then sighed and attempted to loosen his rigid stance. He was only partially successful. With my arm around him, it was hard to miss the tension in his body.
Let us go talk in private, yes.
“We’re going upstairs,” I told Zoltan and Nin. “Let me know if you need anything.”
“For people to stop opening that door.” Zoltan threw up his arms and stalked into the other corner of the basement.
“I’ll text Dimitri about the light lock,” I said as we headed out.
“Do so,” Zoltan called from his dark nook.
I might have opted for talking in the back yard, but Gondo had found the LEGOs in the conservatory, so that wouldn’t be private. We passed through the kitchen, where Freysha had returned to researching the charms, and headed for the stairs. My lungs had recovered from the smoke inhalation, but my airway still felt raw, and I grimaced at the omnipresent mold scent on the second floor.
“Can dragons incinerate mold?” I asked, pausing in front of the bathroom that I suspected was the main source of the problem.
“What?” Zav had been gripping his chin, lost in thought, and almost bumped into me.
“I think there are leaky pipes and mold under the floor or in the walls of this house, and I’d like to get rid of it.”
He stared at me as if he couldn’t figure out why I would be bringing this up when we had larger issues to worry about. A good question. Mary had wanted me to tell Zav about my health problems, but if I did, would he deem me an inferior mate? Not the brave warrior woman he thought he’d claimed?
“Never mind.” I waved for him to follow me to the bedroom in the turret.
“Mold grows on things that can be incinerated,” Zav said. “It would be difficult to destroy the fungi without its substrate.”
“Meaning you could get rid of it, but only by incinerating the house?”
“Select walls perhaps.” His eyes grew distant, as if he was using his magic or maybe his senses. “And floors. And part of the ceiling.”
“Ugh.”
“You do not like its scent? It reminds me of forest caves.”
“Humans are sensitive to the spores. Some humans. Me.” I shrugged, reluctant to go into detail about my increased nightmares and need for the inhalers. “Don’t worry about it. Let’s figure out the mate thing.”
“I figured out my mate many moons ago.” Zav still looked tense and broody, but he managed a smile for me.
“Many moons ago? When we first met, you wanted to kill me.”
“Yes, but I changed my mind after we battled together.” His smile grew a little more relaxed. “And after I saw you in the water box. When will you have one placed in the yard here?”
I imagined us making out in a hot tub while Gondo and Freysha puttered in the conservatory and discussed LEGO engineering. “After the mold problem is fixed.”
And after I priced hot tubs. I doubted they were cheap. And what happened if we moved after our lease was up? They couldn’t be easy to transport.
“Oh?” Zav appeared intrigued—and more interested in solving my mold problem. “Have the vampire’s assistant bring replacement materials for that which must be destroyed, and I will use my magic to incinerate the problem areas.”
The vampire’s assistant? Was that Dimitri?
“Deal,” I said without quibbling over Zav’s inability to learn the names of my friends. We could work on that later. After the house was a healthy place for my lungs.
“Deal.” Zav took my hands. “Val, I regret that the queen—that my mother—is causing this problem. I had thought when my sister reported back about how helpful you’d been in retrieving the stolen Starsinger egg, and averting an inter-clan battle, that the queen would realize your worth.”
It was the closest I’d heard to an apology from him—dragons didn’t ever say please or thank you. I didn’t know what to say.
I rubbed the backs of his hands with my thumbs and gazed into his eyes. “Is it likely she would ever be happy with you having a non-dragon for a mate?”
“As the prime perch holder on the Ruling Council, she has always been forced to be politically minded, and I have not in the past told her that I would refuse a political mating, so perhaps that is part of the problem. In the past, I had not met a female who is willing to pick fights with foes who could crush her with a thought. All for me.” His smile was a touch lopsided.
“I’m not sure if that was a compliment or if you’re calling me a fool.”
“It is natural that your adoration for me compels you to make foolish choices to ensure I am safe.”
“You’re full of yourself.”
“All dragons know their worth.” He lifted a hand to my face and traced my jaw with his thumb while lowering his eyelids to half-mast. “More half-elves should know theirs.”
A tingle ran through me at that touch—and at the way he looked at me—and I grew aware of the nearby bed. I hadn’t exactly proven that I could take care of myself against any magic user who wanted to compel me and use me against him, but I’d made progress. He’d seen that.
His hand shifted, his fingers tracing my neck down to my collarbone. He paused there, looking down at my chest.
“I wish to see you again without your clothes.”
“Oh?” It was silly, but a titillating pulse of desire ran through me at his interest. “Did the goblin water box put thoughts in your mind?”
“I think often of you in the other water box. You were naked, and then you turned the light on so I could see you even better.” His fingers drifted lower to trace the outline of my breast, and I suddenly wanted to see him without clothes too.
“I was trying to turn on the bubbles, not the light. To hide myself.”
“You should not hide yourself from your mate.” He seemed intrigued by fondling my breast, and the light exploratory touches felt way too good for me to protest.
I gripped his shoulders. “If I knew where the zipper or velcro or whatever holds your robe on was, I’d be removing it now.”
“You wish to have sex with me,” Zav stated, his gaze lifting to mine as he cupped me.
“Yeah.”
“Good. I have wanted you for many moons.” He pulled my shirt over my head, and before I could protest that he was still clothed, he tugged off the robe and let it pool on the floor.
I only had time to note that he still went without underwear before his mouth descended on mine. I kissed him back, running my hands over the powerful muscles of his chest. Our caresses in the hot tub had been so brief before we’d been interrupted. Finally, I could explore every inch of him with my hands as our mouths melded together, kisses heated and hungry.
How does this garment come off? He’d tugged one of my bra straps off my shoulder but seemed to realize that move alone wouldn’t defeat it.
There are hooks in the back. My mouth was too busy to speak out loud. Want me to do it? Too bad that would mean taking my hands off him, but only for a moment…
I could incinerate it.
No, no, that’s only for mold. I’ll handle it. Maybe I would strip off the rest of my clothes at the same time, though I’d no sooner had the thought than Zav’s hand drifted lower, to the button of my jeans. Maybe I’d let him strip me.
A hot spike of pleasure almost made me gasp as his hand brushed me through the denim.
“Val!” came Nin’s call from the hallway. “Val, my grandfather is awake.”
Only as she burst in on us, Zav as naked as a porn star and my bra straps drooping off my shoulders, did I realize we’d left the door open.