“It tried to eat me!” She only meant to say it once, but the same words burst out three times without any real pauses between syllables.

“Nidan!”

Logan shivered as a voice deeper than Kerestyan’s rang in her ears. She peeked in the direction it came from, expecting to see a huge, burly man, but all she saw was an older gentleman with salt and pepper hair standing outside the doors.

He pointed at the dragon. “She is your Father’s guest. You will treat her with all the respect that honor grants her or I will have Vouclade skin you one scale at a time. Do you understand me?”

The dragon nodded, and if she wasn’t mistaken, snorted what sounded like a snicker on its way back to a worn spot in the grass.

She unfolded her arms from around Kerestyan’s face and pulled his head back. “The dragon understands English?”

“Nidan is one of my older brothers. Yes, he understands English.”

She blinked a few times. This night was making less and less sense by the minute. “Your brother is a dragon?”

He nodded, moving her hands with him. “He wasn’t born a dragon, Logan. He’s a vampire who can change into a dragon. It’s a trait unique to the Nelek line.”

“You can turn into a dragon?” She smacked her hands against his cheeks. “You can turn into a dragon but you can’t turn into a wolf?”

“Yes, I can turn into a dragon, but it’s a form I rarely wear. And no, I already told you, vampires do not turn into wolves. Werewolves turn into wolves.” He reached up and squeezed her hands, hard. “Would you be so kind as to unwrap your legs from around my chest, please?”

She pressed her lips together. “Sorry. I really thought he was trying to eat me. So, how do you turn into a dragon? What color are you? Will you show me some…” she trailed off as Kerestyan loosened her legs then tossed her into the air before he set her back on her feet.

She grinned up at him. “Are you sure there isn’t anything else you should warn me about before we go inside?”

He smiled back. “Where would you like me to start?”

“Why don’t you start by introducing this lovely young woman to your dear friend Alfred?”

Logan turned around when the same voice that scolded the dragon resounded behind her. Now that he was closer, she realized he wasn’t nearly as small as she’d first thought. Granted, he wasn’t much taller than her, but he was still twice as wide. He was also rather handsome in a very regal and distinguished sort of way.

“Alfred, this is Logan Ellis. Logan, this is Alfred, my Father’s personal Servio.”

She extended her hand. “It’s nice to meet you, Alfred.”

He caught her off guard when he accepted her hand but brushed a warm kiss across the back of it. “It’s a pleasure, Miss Ellis.” He released her hand and motioned towards the evil red dragon. “Please, accept my apologies for Nidan’s behavior. He found himself grounded a few centuries ago for his inability to follow the rules, and apparently has yet to learn his lesson. You have my word, it will not happen again.”

She nodded and followed when both men began walking toward the doors again. “It’s alright. I just wasn’t expecting him to snap at me. Then again, since Kerestyan didn’t bother to warn me about anything I might see when I got here, I wasn’t exactly expecting to come face to face with a dragon at all.”

“In Kerestyan’s defense, sometimes it’s better to gift someone the opportunity to draw their own conclusions from an experience, than it is to detail what they might experience.”

If she hadn’t seen it herself, she’d have never believed Kerestyan could puff out his chest so far. “Alfred is a very wise man, Logan. You should listen to every word he says.”

She cupped a hand behind her ear. “I’m sorry, I was so distracted by your huge chest and colorful peacock tail that I didn’t hear what you said. Could you repeat it for me, please?”

He rolled his eyes and cast a glance to Alfred, who chuckled in response. “I’m glad you enjoyed that. Now, imagine what it’s like to be in the same room with her and Odin when they start picking at each other.”

Logan shot him her best glare. “I’d like to openly state, just for the record, it’s not my fault your walking Tin Can of a brother can’t keep his comments to himself. Besides, he started it when he called me an it.”

“Bones!” She stopped walking when the doors, one of which was cracked, burst open in front of them and Odin jumped out flashing an ear to ear grin. “I can’t believe your fragile human mind hasn’t spontaneously combusted yet!”

She rolled her head towards Alfred. “See what I mean?”

He nodded. “Odin, you needn’t worry yourself, she is doing just fine. Now, if you’ll excuse us, she has an overdue meeting with your Father.”

Odin’s face sobered almost instantly. His eerie eyes narrowed on her much the way they had the first time she met him. “I want you to know that while I don’t particularly care for the way you ended up here, I really do wish you the best of luck. What you’re about to go through won’t be easy, but if you walk out on your own two feet at the end…you’ll never walk alone again.” He didn’t give her time to respond before he wandered off into the courtyard.

She stared after him for a long moment, wondering not only what he’d meant by the last part of his statement, but whether all vampires were as moody as him and Kerestyan. It seemed like one moment they were laughing and joking, but the next were so intense you either wanted to scream or cry.

“I think,” Alfred said, “he’s getting used to you.” He then extended his arm towards the doorway and bowed his head. “Miss Ellis, I welcome you to Nelek castle.”

Taking that as a hint to get a move on, she stepped into the main hall with Kerestyan close at her side, and once again lost her ability to speak. The walls here were just as black as the ones outside, only these were adorned with tapestries woven from an array of dark fabrics. The largest, hanging from a railing high above yet another set of closed black doors, had the crimson head of a dragon embroidered into the darkest piece of velvet she’d ever seen.

A thick red carpet cut across the dark marble floor, running from where they stood to the second set of doors. Sculptures and statues were positioned in various places around the huge room, as well as soft chairs and wooden tables, all of which looked to be older than anything she remembered seeing in her history books.

As she moved to the center of the room, at the gentle but very persistent nudging of Kerestyan, who’d moved to stand behind her, she noted just inside the main doors on both the right and left, there were small archways leading to thin hallways lit by torches. To the sides of the closed set of doors were two large archways, each serving as an opening into wide hallways leading to the main wings of the castle.

Kerestyan nudged her again. “Well, what do you think?”

She ground her teeth. “I think if you don’t get your knee out of my ass I’m going to smack you.”

He laughed and moved to stand next to her. “My apologies. Now, what do you really think?”

She tipped her head back and considered the chandelier made of obsidian glass and dozens of red candles, which cast a warm glow over the room. “I think…it’s absolutely spectacular.” She lowered her eyes to meet his, but the proud expression on his face said everything. “But something tells me you know that already.”

“I do,” his eyes darkened as he slowly slid his tongue across his bottom lip, “and you have no idea how much it pleases me to see you standing here, in a place I will always call home.”

Her nipples tingled and stiffened, followed closely by heat flaring in her cheeks as she noticed Alfred shift behind Kerestyan. She choked on something invisible and coughed it out. “Well, we should probably get to the meeting, huh?”

Way to speed up your death just because the hot vampire made eyes at you. She flipped her brain the mental equivalent of the middle finger then smiled at Alfred. “Which way do I go?”

He motioned to the set of black doors behind her. “Lord Nelek awaits you in his chamber.”

Chapter 11

Logan turned around and stared up at the ominous doors. Unlike the ones leading into the castle, these were rectangular and made of some kind of blackened metal instead of wood. They also weren’t nearly as tall or wide as the main doors, but for some strange reason felt much larger and much, much darker.

She slowly approached, pondering how a simple change in material and shape could create such a different energy. Though the wooden doors hadn’t necessarily made her feel happy and welcome, these left her with an odd sense of indifference, as if her presence in front of them meant something and nothing at the same time.

She stilled when all at once, her body relaxed. Her heart slowed from wild racing back to a steady rhythm, the nervous flutters in her stomach faded away and the nausea completely subsided.

The feeling the doors filled her with was something she’d felt almost every single day for well over a decade. She felt it when she walked through Manhattan or a dirty alley in Brooklyn. She felt it when she plucked half eaten food from a trashcan or found something fresh behind a restaurant. She felt it when she stole a purse from a stripper loving old lady or lifted the wallet of a business man stumbling down Fifth Avenue in a drunken stupor.