Treasure Lane Dragons: Complete Series (BBW Paranormal Dragon Shapeshifter Romance) (39 page)

“We’re heading out in five minutes, by the way,” Tayo called.

“Well, that’s my cue then. Need to make sure they haven’t fucked with my drums. Once, half of them got shipped to Idaho while we went to Wyoming. Not funny, man.” Clay’s face twisted in irritation and he spun around, heading out of the bus with fast strides.

Jade let out a breath she didn’t know she had been holding in, her hands shaking a little as she shoved her suitcases into the compartments between the bunks. With a thankful sigh, she sunk onto one of the beds, propping the fresh pillow under her head and enjoying the moment of calm.

And that was what it was, calm – a snippet in time when she didn’t have to worry. Her hands got clammy and cold just at the thought of what, or more accurately, who she was running from.

Colt and Cameron Blackscale of Death Wing, the band she had been part of for less than a year before she’d snuck away from them a few nights ago, taking only what she could grab. She’d originally got the gig through a friend of hers, Jim, who booked her an audition when they were short a bassist. Apparently, there was something about her that appealed to dragons, and Cameron had hired her on the spot after hearing her play one song – not unlike Alexander.

At that point, Jade had been on top of the world – Death Wing was one of the biggest names in hard rock, and the fact that they’d even consider a female bassist was wild. It wasn’t exactly her scene, but she needed the money, and a great opportunity was not something to let slip between her fingers.

She’d learned their repertoire, and the first few months had been fine enough. That was until their first big single,
Her Blood Tears
, hit it out of the park, igniting a major tour across the country. Colt and Cameron were intense to a fault, almost scarily so, and it didn’t take long for Jade to figure out why. Their arena shows had a similar vibe to the Gold Dragons’ shows; only, where the Dragons elevated their listeners, Death Wing pulled them down, making them angry, aggravated and a dangerous, foul-minded squad all around.

Like the Gold Dragons’, Death Wing’s shows also had a wave splay over the crowd, but theirs was black as ink, undulating over the fans like some sickly mass of darkness that made them all fall into the music and lose themselves to the dark message.

She never liked the way the fans got during their shows. They obviously adored Death Wing and were willing to do whatever they were told, and Colt and Cameron took advantage of it. Often, they would tell their fans to go out and get wild, lose themselves after the show, and they would do just that. It wasn’t a rarity for a Death Wing show to turn into a bit of a riot. In the beginning, Jade had thought it just went with the fans of that particular type of music, but after seeing otherwise nice people turn into raving madmen after some of their shows, she got second thoughts.

Not only that, she could feel the darkness taking root within herself as well, seeping into her pores and making her just as dark and twisted as the crowd. Whenever the effects wore off, she could never really explain to herself why she did what she did during or immediately after the shows.

That was, until that one night in Arizona. Death Wing had played to a full house, and the crowd that left the packed arena had set fire to a number of cars and broken into a few local businesses on their way. Jade had tried to go to sleep after the exhausting concert but found it hard to rest after the negative vibe she’d got from the entire thing. For the umpteenth time, she wondered if playing for Death Wing was really her thing.

So, she got up in the middle of the night and returned to the arena to pack up her bass and store away her gear. When she got there, though, she witnessed something she knew she shouldn’t have.

Cameron and Colt had been swigging whiskey straight from the bottle and laughing about something in the middle of the still filthy arena, riddled with cans and wrappers. Something kept Jade from going forward, and it was then that it happened – the two brothers she knew as the charismatic leaders of the band shifted. The transformation was so fluid that for a moment, Jade wasn’t sure what she was seeing.

Colt went first, his wide shoulders expanding and his whole body following suit. His head got longer and thicker, two horns sprouting from the top of his head and smaller ones down along his cheekbones. His body was covered in black scales that barely caught the light of the full moon; so matte were they in color that he could have been a part of the night sky.

His wings unfolded just as his brother’s shift caught up with him, and when the two beasts stood up, Jade’s stomach dropped. They were both bigger than a house, and when Cameron breathed fire across the arena, scorching the faux grass coverings, Jade was sure she’d pass out right then and there. Instead, she stepped back further into the shadows of the stage, shuddering as she watched the brothers take flight.

They were magnificent to behold, cutting through the sky like hot knives through butter. But the red gleam of their eyes and the horrific screeching sounds they let out left Jade no doubt that the evil presence she’d felt during the concerts was those two.

After that, it wasn’t hard to put two and two together and figure out that the Gold Dragons had to be dragons as well, as ridiculous as that sounded. Having been to their concerts before, Jade remembered the soothing, healing feeling she always got when they played – their music brought a smile to her lips while Death Wing only brought snarls. She wasn’t sure why, but a deep-seated feeling in her told her that if Death Wing ever found out that she knew their secret, she wouldn’t be safe.

Dragons like that wouldn’t want to be exposed. While shifters were a bit of a public secret, Jade had never before heard of actual dragon shifters. Presumably anyone as large and as powerful as that had the capabilities of making sure their secrets didn’t get out, and Jade was not keen on finding out how they managed that.

With a shudder, Jade tucked her hands under her head and exhaled as the bus rumbled to life and took off with a lurch a moment later.

I need to tell Apollo and Alexander what I know… But what if they don’t want anyone to know either? After all, you’re only guessing that they’re the good guys.

Jade’s face contorted in worry, and her hands turned into fists. Somehow, she couldn’t imagine Alexander making some teenager wreck a car or Apollo beat someone up. But she’d been part of Death Wing for almost a year, so was she really the one to judge anyone’s character?
 

CHAPTER FIVE

Apollo

The afterparty was by far Apollo’s favorite part of any gig they played. Filling a ridiculously large hotel room with good booze, fantastic musicians and hot women just dying to meet him was just his idea of a good time. So it was somewhat peculiar that he wasn’t enjoying himself after the Albuquerque show as he usually did. Absently, he kept toying with the gold chains around his neck, sipping on a beer that was getting stale from the amount of time he had been nursing it.

He kept looking for
something
, and as much as he tried to convince himself that he didn’t know what that something was, he knew he was just fooling himself. And, apparently, not doing a very good job at it.

The best of Deep Purple blared through the penthouse hotel room and the party was in full swing around Apollo. Every few minutes, someone dropped by to engage him in conversation, and he just kept brushing them off with muttered platitudes and bored looks. Nothing could really excite him at this point… aside from one thing. His heart jumped a little as he caught sight of a familiar pony tail swinging back and forth as its owner wriggled through the crowd towards one of the bars.

In a flash, Apollo had jumped up and strode over to her before he’d really even had time to ask himself what the hell he was doing.

He grabbed Jade gently by the elbow and smiled at her as she looked up at him, her lovely green eyes full of surprise. Hell yes, he wanted to have those eyes stare up at him again – as soon as possible, and preferably Jade with something in her mouth. Apollo grinned wolfishly at her, the throng of people easily parting ahead of him to allow them passage through the previously solid wall of happy partygoers.

“I’ve been looking for you,” he said, noting that his voice was just a tiny bit too husky.

“Yeah? Why so?” Jade asked. He could hear the uncertainty in her voice, but she made a good effort of covering it up.

“Oh, you know. Wondering how you enjoyed your first show with the Dragons. Was it all it’s cracked up to be?”

That sounded lame even to him. His whole body tingled where he touched her, the feeling of her soft, silky skin under his fingertips immediately sending him half-hard with excitement. Her sweet smell whisked and wafted in his nostrils, making him think of honey and vanilla, and he wondered if she tasted the same way.

Probably,
he thought with a hint of satisfaction.

“It was great,” Jade said in earnest, giving him a brilliant smile. Damn. The woman looked hot as hell in that casual, off the shoulder tee she was wearing and those jeans that wrapped around her ass like she had them painted on. But when she smiled, all his attention had to focus on her. That pale skin, those luminous eyes and those curves he just couldn’t wait to explore… Could it be that Apollo Goldplains was a little smitten?

Fuck no. He quickly let go of her as they reached the bar, taken aback by his sudden mushiness towards a girl he barely knew, and even worse – worked with!

“Good. What’s your poison?” he asked, trying to regain some composure. Apollo was the kind of man who preferred to keep a new woman within arm’s reach every day. The polar opposite of his brother, who was monogamous to a fault, which usually meant he was the most single guy in a thousand mile radius – apparently no one was good enough for the great Alexander Goldplains. Apollo had never understood that line of thought. To him, there was nothing more beautiful than a woman, and most of the songs he wrote were directly influenced by some gorgeous creature he had spent time with. Looking at Jade, he felt like he could write a lifetime of songs, and he wouldn’t even strictly need to touch her more than he already had.

The hell is wrong with you, Apollo,
he chided himself, grabbing for a clean glass.

“Bourbon. Straight up.”

“My kind of girl,” Apollo said with a grin, pouring out two shots of bourbon. He slid one of the glasses towards Jade and leant on the counter. He eyed her thoughtfully, trying to figure out what was it about her that got his motor revving so hard. The body, certainly. And that smile, no doubt. The way she played wasn’t half bad either – in fact, he was sure she was the best bassist he and Alexander had ever played with.

Something about the way she handled herself and synced with their flow was just so right, like her arrival had introduced a piece of their music to them that they hadn’t known was missing. It had been great during rehearsals, but fucking fantastic during the actual show.

At least one thing was certain – Alexander wasn’t going to get rid of her any time soon. Even if he wanted to, Apollo wouldn’t let him. What was it about this little minx that got him all rearing to go? Whatever it was, he wasn’t about to let her go without figuring it out.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” Jade asked with a small voice, her fingers clutching the shot glass. There was a sparkle of mischief in her eyes, the kind that told him that she could be a hell of a lot of fun, but also a tiny bit of something vulnerable, something soft and small he wanted to tuck away and keep out of harm’s way to the best of his abilities. Voodoo woman – he liked it.

“Like what?”

“I don’t know. Like
that,
” she said, blushing a little and waving in his general direction. She looked good with a blush. It made him wonder what she would look like if he
really
gave her something to blush about.

“Just appreciating the view,” he bit back, giving her a wink. She grinned and raised her glass.

“So, are we toasting to something?”

Apollo thought about that for a second.

“Sure. To Jade and the Gold Dragons. May the view never change.” He chugged back the shot without another word, knowing that she hesitated for a second before joining him. A girl who could kick back her drink – another thing to like.

Apollo was just about to put on his best Casanova act, throwing caution to the wind, when shouts and surprised yelps caught their attention. He whipped around, his brows furrowing as he saw a commotion at the entrance, black-clad bodies pressing in through the wide, gilded doors of the hotel room. His stomach dropped when he saw one of the unwanted visitors throwing a punch at a Dragons roadie, decking the man smoothly.