Artistic Vision

her trust and obedience with a single glance, a muttered word. Only the knowledge that her mate was out there, alone and wounded, captured by an unknown enemy, kept the total peace he offered at bay.

“Holy fuck.”

She looked up through dazed eyes to find Leo staring at her in shock. “What did you do, Robin?”

“Called the little bird to hand.” Robin’s hand tightened briefly in her hair before resuming her stroking. “Your brother left a disturbing statue out, but I believe he intended his mate to find it rather than I.”

Leo gulped. Behind him, Ruby stirred, but Akane could barely bring herself to care. “What was it?”

The stroking stopped and Akane stopped purring. “Torture.”

The dragon stirred. Her mate was hurting.

Her mate was hurting.

Akane hurled herself from Robin’s side, the dragon’s wrath once more roused. She could smell blood on Robin.

Shane’s blood.

With a shriek she tore out of the mansion, uncaring that she remained in her hybrid form. Let the world think harpies had returned to plague them, because if Shane died it wouldn’t be far from the truth.

“That went well.” Robin sighed and rubbed his eyes wearily. Some days it just didn’t pay to get out of bed. “Akane will return to the studio and find her mate’s blood. She’ll hunt him down, and those who have taken him from her will pay the price.”

“You mean she’ll kill them.”

Robin turned to Leo Dunne. Sometimes the middle Dunne child seemed too innocent for what Robin feared was coming. “Yes.”

“Good.” Robin blinked in surprise as Leo reached behind him. He helped Ruby to her feet, holding her close. “But there’s something you should know.”

“Hmm?” Robin was still processing the fact that Leo wanted someone’s blood to spill.

“There are redcaps coming up the driveway, and Robin?” The fear in Leo’s eyes had his little mate whimpering. “They aren’t alone.”

Shane opened his eyes and immediately wished he hadn’t. The light from the overhead lamp damn near blinded him, the pain stabbing into his already throbbing head like dull spoons trying to gouge out his eyeballs.

“I’m sorry, Mr. Joloun. I truly am. I hope you understand that this is nothing personal.”

“Sure it’s not.” Shane opened his eyes and stared at Mr. Klaussner, the pooka art dealer from New York. “I never got even a hint that you were Black Court.”

The little man, who used to wring his hands, merely grinned. “I’m good at what I do.” His eyes flashed an eerie, familiar green. “It’s what I was born for.”

Shane groaned. Great. Just great. Rumor had it that Robin, not exactly known for his celibacy, had fathered the rare child. It seemed Shane had accidentally met one of them. But if he was Robin’s child… “Was your mother human, by any chance?”

Klaussner snorted. “As if He would stoop so low as to cavort with a mortal.” The reverence in his voice when he spoke of Robin was undermined by the mad light in his eyes.

Shane relaxed ever so slightly. This wasn’t the man he’d foreseen, then. The chances of him surviving this encounter had just gone up exponentially.

“No. My mother was pregnant with me when the Dark Queen took her, turned her.” Klaussner’s face rippled, his face turning almost elfin. The ginger hair on top of his head was a pale reflection of Robin’s red mane. His eyes turned to pure amber rimmed with Robin’s green light. Even his body changed, elongated, became lean and supple. Goat horns rose from his temples, reminding Shane of why they were often called devils. Vampiric fangs, delicate and deadly, graced his smile, a gift from his mother’s change.

Oh. Oh shit. This might even be worse than the man Shane had feared it would be. “A vampiric pooka?”

Klaussner nodded, looking pleased. “She is. She’s beautiful, so filled with dark power.”

Shane smiled. “My mate is going to rip your head off and shit down your neck.”

Klaussner merely clucked his tongue. “Speaking of your dragon mate, we know what her weakness is.”

“Akane doesn’t have a weakness.” Shane watched as Klaussner picked up something that looked like a quilting tool his mother had. It looked remarkably like a pizza cutter, but with a hood over the blade. He thought it was called a rotary cutter, but he wasn’t sure.

“Oh yes, she does.” Klaussner ran the blade over Shane’s stomach, sighing in pleasure as the blood welled up.

Shane held himself still, barely. He wasn’t giving Klaussner the pleasure of seeing him squirm. “And that would be?”

“You.” Klaussner took the blade and ran it across the dragon tattoo, making sure to cut the wings.

Shane, horrified, scrambled to pull away from the blade. Gods, please don’t let her wings be damaged. “Why are you doing this?”

Klaussner smiled at someone standing above Shane’s head. “For love.”

Constance Malmayne stepped into the light, her blue-gray eyes hard, her sleek golden hair knotted at the base of her skull. She smiled at Klaussner, and suddenly Shane saw what had been missing in his visions recently. Cullen and Kaitlynn, even Charles himself, were but pawns in Constance Malmayne’s bid for power. The vision that danced before his eyes made his blood run cold. “Does Henri know that you’re planning to kill him?”

Constance smiled. “See, Hobart? I told you his visions would be useful.”

Wait. Hobart? “Does He know?” Shane tried not to twitch as the blade came close to his tattoo once more. If he moved the wrong way he was terrified he’d accidentally cripple Akane. He dared not say Robin’s name out loud, though he screamed it in his head. If he did say it aloud the two might outright kill him for fear of attracting the Hob’s attention.

“Does who know?”

“That you’re named after him.”

The blade paused. “No. But He will.” He looked up from the blood seeping from Shane’s flesh, those familiar green eyes strange in Klaussner’s thin, horned face. “I am my father’s son.”

The first black tentacle struck and Shane screamed, but when the poison pumped into his system the agony pushed him beyond even that.

Oh dear gods, this had better be worth it.

Akane streaked through the night sky, her wings beating furiously. Dark blood dripped from a cut across one of them, the pain a distant worry. Her wings worked and could carry her to her mate. That was all she cared about.

Akane could sense where Shane was. His blood scented the air, the sweet smell stronger the closer she got. It wouldn’t be long before the others came, before Jaden made his way to his bondmate’s brother, before Tristan tried to save what was left of his clan. Akane didn’t care.

The Malmaynes were dead. They just didn’t know it yet.

She wasn’t surprised they hadn’t taken Shane to the Malmayne estate. It would be too easy to figure out, too easy to check, and Jaden had proven he could get in and out at will. So taking Shane to another location was the smart thing to do.

Too bad for them they didn’t know how strongly bonded she already was to her hybrid mate. Shane’s scent filled her senses; his essence was etched across her soul. She’d be able to find him now no matter where in the world he went.

How could she have been so stupid? She’d finished the dragon mating yet still believed that somehow they would not wind up together. Shane deserved someone who could give him a normal life, not someone who would constantly put him in danger or be away from him for long periods of time. She’d known that from the start, but the gold flooding her system had ended all her resistance. She’d marked him, made him hers, and there was no taking that back. She should never have left her lover’s side, never left him vulnerable. It was her fault he’d been taken, and if he died she would curl up around him and die with him.