“Sasha,” Cassie agreed, eyebrows waggling outrageously. “Because she was such a good girl last night.”
He almost swallowed his coffee wrong and had to beat his hand against his chest to keep from choking.
Her eyes turned shrewd as she studied his face. “What, too weird to hear about my sex life?”
“No,” he answered honestly, if a little hoarsely. “Well, yes. But not in the way you mean. I grew up in a very homophobic environment. I’m not used to people joking about it in a nice way.”
“Ahhh. That explains it. I mean, you have no problem kissing Baldewin, so I figured you weren’t straight.”
“No, very much gay.”
“Is that why you left? Because your clan is homophobic?”
“Half the reason, yeah. There was no chance in hell of me ever finding someone if I stayed with them.” This broached a subject Tori himself had many, many questions about. And they were questions only a mage could answer. “Say, Cassie.”
“Yeah?”
“I’m trying to wrap my head around this before I get to your clan. Baldewin and Warin both have told me several times that I’m precious as a mage, and that’s why they’re protecting me. How much of their behavior is them protecting a mage and…ugh, I don’t know how to put this into words. It’s just that Baldewin keeps buying me all these gifts, and I know he likes kissing me, but how much of that is him trying to…date? Do dragons date?”
“Dragons date,” she confirmed, pushing the button for the elevator. At this hour, no one else was nearby. “Granted, dragons don’t date as long as most human cultures do. They figure out pretty quick if they’ve got the right person. You’re not sure if Baldewin is trying to date you, is that the issue?”
“Yeah. Yeah, I guess it is. And it’s a weird thing to wrap my head around, to be honest with you. Because for most of my life, dragons were the enemy. And I’ve figured out that basically everything I was told growing up was a lie. But undoing all of that and shifting my mentality is giving me something of a headache.”
Cassie grimaced. “Yeah, I bet. Kudos to you for doing it, though.”
“What can I say? I’ve got excellent motivation.” When her smile went lecherous, he rolled his eyes. “Yes, yes, in that way, too. But really, I’ve experienced more magical freedom with you than I have anywhere else. In fact—”
The elevator dinged, and he cut himself off.
“Oh crap,” Cassie suddenly said. “I forgot sugar for Sasha’s cup. Tori, hold that thought and the elevator, I’ll be right back.”
“Let me hold one of the cups,” he volunteered.
She gave him Sasha’s cup and promptly speed walked back to the little coffee shop attached to the lobby. From this vantage point, a step above most of the lobby floor, he could easily see her. He kept his foot at the elevator door to hold it open.
It belatedly occurred to him that he hadn’t put his amulet back on. He’d taken it off this morning when he leaned over to splash some water on his face. Tori had never been a morning person and was adamant that mornings were evil and should be abolished. Still, he kicked himself for not thinking of the amulet. It shouldn’t get him into trouble, though. They were minutes away from returning to their rooms, and he could throw it on then.
Something shot out and hit Cassie square in the back, a stream of light that wrapped around her in golden chains. Tori’s breath caught as he recognized the spell, saw the effect of it. She fell backward, as if paralyzed, her body making a thud as it hit the carpet while her coffee went flying through the air. Only a couple other people were in the lobby, waiting for their coffee to be made. They gasped and jumped back, fear and confusion scrawled across their face.
Shit! Adrenaline surged through Tori as he dropped the cups, already running before he could even make out who her attackers were. There—four men, all closing in around her. One of them had hit her with a second spell and was drawing…fuck, was he seeing that right? They were drawing magical power out of her?
They were draining her?!
Tori went for his phone—which was not in his pocket. Because of course he fucking hadn’t remembered it either in his zombie state.
Snarling, he went for the next best thing. He raced for the front windows, with all the reflected sunlight pouring in from the morning sun, and slammed his hand against it, channeling the power raw. While not strong on its own, reflected sunlight in this much abundance could be harvested and honed into something semi-decent to attack with, and Tori wasn’t above using all of it.
He threw his free hand out, aiming the spell. “Infero gev adi!”
Three of the men had their backs to him, not aware of him, and the fire spell hit them dead center. They jumped as the flames hit them, their shirts instantly ablaze. With yelps of panic and muted screams, they frantically dropped, rolling to put the fire out.
It gave Tori the opening to try again, aiming for the mage still drawing upon Cassie’s magic. “Infero gev adi!”
The mage was wrapped in the same distorted magic he’d seen with the other Jaeggi. He instantly rebutted the spell with a personal shield he threw up. “Clyp gev adi!”
Shit. No way would Tori’s attack get past that. He had better power to work with, for one. He wasn’t just drawing upon Cassie’s power, after all, but the dragon life power through her. Sasha’s power. Their mate bond would allow him to do that.
Tori could only pray that Sasha would feel the draw, recognize something was wrong, and come after Cassie. He didn’t know enough about how mate bonds worked to know if that would actually happen.
It would be up to him to drive the Jaeggi off.
He moved slightly, choosing a new spot on the window, and slammed his hand against the hot glass once more. “Infero gev adi!”
The spell hit the three mages still on the ground, and they yelled in panic and pain as the fire hit their front sides this time. They rolled again, putting out the flames.
They had an audience now, everyone in the lobby hiding behind desks and tables, watching them with wide eyes. Tori’s ears caught someone on the phone, probably demanding the police, not that the police could do much in this situation.
But Tori didn’t blame them for calling the cops. He focused once more on the mage intent on drawing power from Cassie and snarled, “Let her go, you bastard. You’ll not drain her dry!”
“You’re next,” the man snapped at him in accented Finnish.
“The hell I am! GET OFF HER!”
The Jaeggi mage had his mouth open on some retort, but he saw something over his shoulder and quickly scrambled, his movements panicked. He said something sharply (it sounded German) to his companions, and they all got up and started running.
Tori didn’t choose to question it, just darted for Cassie, abandoned on the floor and still locked in the paralysis spell. He caught sight from his peripheral vision of Baldewin and Warin sprinting past him, running full out after the Jaeggi. Oh thank god, they’d somehow realized something bad had gone down.
Sasha outstripped him completely, coming to a skidding halt on her knees next to Cassie’s still form. “Cassie! Cassie!”
Tori landed on his knees opposite her, taking in Cassie. Oh god, she was really in bad shape. She was already going into shock, her magical core basically stripped and burned out from what the Jaeggi mage had done. Tori had maybe five minutes before she went into a catatonic state, and he didn’t know enough or have the right elements to pull her safely out of that. He grabbed Sasha’s shoulder urgently. “Sasha. Sasha, we can save her, but we need to act fast. First, kiss me. I need dragon’s breath to break the paralysis. Then go to my room, grab my black bag. I need what’s in it.”