Chapter Four
Vanek
He burst into the apartment with a swirl of excitement. The normally exquisite view displayed right after exiting the elevator was ignored as he raced around the corner and up the stairs to the second level of his penthouse.
“It’s her!” he announced with a flourish.
“What’s her?”
“Her? Who?”
“What the hell are you wearing?”
Vanek turned on Kallore, who had asked the final question. “It’s called a suit, you uneducated swine. Try having some class. I’m sure Elin would appreciate you looking like you didn’t just walk out of a pig sty every now and then.”
The ash-blond shifter’s mouth fell open, while nearby Corde howled with laughter from his seat on a couch. “Oh that’s rich, considering how earlier you were complaining about how ridiculous you looked!”
“That was before my mate complimented me on how I looked,” he retorted, purposefully not looking at Corde.
All the friends were gathered in the penthouse, even Elin Mara, who had journeyed from Fort Stark. It was the two-month anniversary of Kallore’s awakening, and they were having a celebratory evening.
“Your mate?” Kylie asked from where she sat on the armrest next to Corde. “You found her?”
“I did!” he said, pumping his fist with joy. “It was a complete accident of course, but yes, I ran into her two days ago.”
“Two days?” Corde asked. “You didn’t tell me, even though we live together, for two days?”
He shrugged. “I wanted to make sure it was her, okay. We went to dinner tonight. I, um, had to make it up to her for something.”
Though he’d tried to slip that little fact by everyone, nobody was willing to let it go. Everyone clamored to know “how badly he’d fucked up” and they weren’t willing to let it pass.
“Okay, but let me preface this by saying—”
“Let me guess,” Kallore drawled. “It wasn’t my fault!” He mocked Vanek in a higher-pitched voice, drawing more laughter from the assembled crowd.
“It wasn’t!” he protested, looking around for support as everyone held their stomachs, trying not to spill their drinks as they chuckled. “If anything, it was his!” he said, stabbing a finger.
“Me?” Corde yelped. “How is it my fault? I don’t even know who this is!”
“No, but you gave me terrible advice.”
The other dragon shifter frowned, his graphite-gray eyes becoming unfocused for a moment as he thought over their most recent conversations. Then bushy eyebrows shot up as he remembered. “You went out and screwed up on purpose, and you’re blaming me for that? You gave me that advice first, you ass!”
More laughter ensued from all sides. “Yeah, but you acted like it worked!”
“It did work!” Corde’s hand reached around Kylie’s waist, tugging the champagne beauty in closer to him. “Look. She loves me.”
“Most days,” she commented, drawing a false look of pain from Corde. Then she looked at Vanek. “Still, he fucked up by accident, sort of. More so he pushed the boundaries on an already established relationship, making the first move. Which is good, because I never would have. He didn’t go out and purposefully screw up! Tell me that’s not what you did?”
Vanek looked around for help from anywhere, but everyone was just laughing or waiting for his answer. He hung his head in shame. “That’s exactly what I did.”
The spacious penthouse suite was filled with peals of laughter once more.
“Okay, okay,” Corde said, waving his arms to calm everyone. “Let’s hear just how badly our infallible leader screwed up!”
Vanek’s blood went cold at the comment. He knew that Corde hadn’t meant it that way, but it still stabbed him in the gut with a knife, slicing open old wounds that he hadn’t thou
Blinking rapidly, he brought himself back to the present, shoving the memories back into the box in his mind where they belonged. This was a joyous occasion, and he wasn’t going to let a slip of the tongue ruin it for everyone.
“Well,” he started, then coughed as his voice broke. “Well,” he started again, stronger now. “I went outside right after we talked the other day. I was going to go for a walk. And there was a big crowd, and lots of noise, and I was just sort of lost in it all. Then there was a dog, and I tripped and fell into the road.”
Kylie leaned forward intently, and he felt the sudden sinking sensation that she knew where he was going. The look on her face told him it was going to be bad. Very, very bad. Worse than he’d anticipated.
“Oh my God. Of course! It was you!”
Everyone else turned to look at her.
“He’s the guy who fell into the street and got run over by the parade float!”
Four sets of eyes locked on him.
Vanek sagged. “Yeah. It was me.”
Laughter erupted into the room for the umpteenth time. It went on and on, and despite his own embarrassment eventually Vanek was swept up into it, retelling the story about how she’d come at him, not giving him the time of day or anything, this little fireball a few inches over five feet tearing strips off him like he was her own child.
By the end of it the others were in tears, clutching at their sides as they bounced with laughter. Vanek smiled over the room, glad he was able to bring such joy to them all.
“Oh, by the way Elin,” he said lazily, “I’m going to need a large sum of funds.”
Elin’s face sobered immediately, much to his surprise. “For what?”
“I promised her I’d buy her a new float, to replace the one I destroyed. She needs it for her business.”
“I’m sorry, Vanek, but I can’t authorize that,” Colonel Mara said.
Not Elin. Colonel Mara. The sudden change in personality was instant and unmistakable. The set of the shoulders, the tone of command—it all rang out, filling the room with a sudden tension as things went from friendly to formal in a nanosecond.
“What the hell not?” Vanek was confused, angry, and not just a little hurt. Was she purposefully trying to prevent him from winning over his mate? Did she have something against him that he’d been unaware of until now?
Colonel Mara met his gaze without flinching, though that wasn’t to say she looked happy about it. “The Central Defense Command has frozen any large transfers of money to you, especially for frivolous purposes.”
Corde coughed politely. “Does that include the lavish retrofit of the lower levels of this building in preparation for inhabitation by other dragons in the future? This is bullshit, Colonel.”
“I am well aware of the specific excrement makeup of the order, Corde,” Colonel Mara said coldly. “Unfortunately, it is just that, an order. Therefore I must obey it.”
“But why?” Vanek snapped angrily. “Treasure, in this case money—since that’s apparently what is used for transactions these days—was part of the deal.”
Colonel Mara sighed. “I know, Vanek. I made the original deal. But the deal was twofold, and right now you haven’t been living up to your end of it.”
“We said we would fight,” he ground out. “We have been fighting. It’s not our fault that these things are incredibly tough, and when they go to ground like they have recently, they’re impossible to find.”
“I know. I know.” She held up her hand to forestall any more arguments. “But some at the CDC, and possibly even higher, have decided that they would rather spend the funds on more soldiers, more weapons, and more research and development. It’s not a tiny sum that has been given to each of you, and earmarked for the other dragons as well.”
“I wasn’t given anything,” Vanek growled.
“Well, you aren’t mated yet. We’ve waited until after that.”
It was a lame reason and Colonel Mara knew it, he could tell.
“So give that to me now. It will at least partially cover the cost. It’s better than nothing.”
“I can’t do that, Vanek, though I wish I could. They aren’t releasing anything. What you have is what you get until an Outsider is dead. I’m sorry.”
Though she was unyielding, Vanek could tell that Colonel Mara didn’t agree.
“What am I supposed to do now?” he asked, feeling defeated. “What am I to tell Harlow? She’s expecting a new float so that her business can stay…afloat.”
“I don’t know, Vanek.” Colonel Mara stood, arms tight to her sides. “My hands are tied. I need to follow my orders, no matter how much I disagree with them.”
He stood too, his fists clenched tightly to his sides. Kallore eyed him warily, ready to leap to his feet if Vanek should do anything untoward to his mate. Vanek eyed him with a snort. He wasn’t like that, despite his fury.
“This is ridiculous. Just because we haven’t killed one doesn’t mean we haven’t done our part. Where would you be now if Kallore hadn’t risked his life for you at Fork Stark the first time they showed their heads?”
“It’s not my decision, Vanek,” Colonel Mara snapped, obviously upset by his implication, knowing that he was right.
“Vanek,” Corde said at last, getting his attention. “She’s right. She can’t do anything. Look at her, she hates that she’s forced to do this to you. But the decision came from higher.”
He was well aware of that. “Call them again. Tell them the situation and why it’s necessary,” he pleaded. “Fight for me.”
Colonel Mara’s spine straightened. “I was already planning on it. I doubt anything will come of it, but I’m not going to give up, Vanek. I support you in this. We need the dragons.”
Vanek nodded. “Yes, yes you do.”
He turned on his heel and stormed from the room, leaving the apartment to find somewhere appropriate to vent his anger.
How the hell was he going to break this to Harlow?