Page 30 of Phantom’s Mate

“Can you get inside?” Nick asked.

DB gave him the kind of disdainful look that only a teenager can manage. “I can get into any world, unless it’s warded by Draken-level magic,” he said. “Getting her out might be a different thing.”

“Why?”

“Because she might not want to go,” DB said, as if it were obvious.

“She definitely wants to go.”

“She says she does.” He poked at the barrier again. “But people don’t always know what they really want. Or how they really feel. And they tell themselves lots of crap about their motivations that are complete bullshit.”

Nick couldn’t argue with that, although he spared a thought to wonder how a kid so young could be so sure of it. Nobody knew where he came from, or how he’d been raised. In the six months he’d been hanging around the Wild Bloods, they’d put out the word to all their Draken and Wild Dragon allies, and nobody seemed to be missing a smartass, incredibly powerful adolescent dragon.

Brandon, Kitty and the twins swore he must be related to the Al-Maddeiri clan, because of his looks and his powers. Problem was, as far as anyone knew, all but three of the original clan had been wiped out over forty years ago. One of the survivors was mated to their childhood alpha, so presumably they knew an Al-Maddeiri dragon when they saw one. But he didn’t belong to anyone they knew.

DB had never let any other dragon see him, and he ignored personal questions as though they’d never been asked. Since he could disappear into thin air whenever he wanted, that pretty much closed the subject.

“That’s why she needs a doorway,” Nick said now. “I’m thinking if you can make one into a place that’s neither the spirit world or the human world we know, she might be able to go there. Then you could take us back to Wild Blood territory from there.”

“That could work,” DB said. “Especially if she’s transferred some of her ghostly attachment to you.”

“Excuse me?”

DB rolled his eyes. “Ghosts attach to either a place—where they lived or where they died—or to a person they had a strong relationship with. If you two played ‘hide the sausage,’ then part of her spirit probably attached to you.” He frowned. “If you didn’t, you could go do that now. I’ll wait.”

“Our attachment is fine,” Nick said, teeth clenched.

DB grinned. “Ha. I knew you boinked.”

“Shut up.”

“Boinkety boink boink boink.”

“I swear to god…”

“Just go inside and stand next to her so I can find you,” DB said.

“Going now.” Nick pushed through the boundary. Faintly, behind him, he heard, “Boinkety boink boink…”

He shook his head, grinning despite himself. At this rate, somebody was going to kill that kid before he managed to grow up.

But seeing Britt made him forget everything else. Her spirit might not have attached to his, he realized, but his had attached to hers.

Just putting his arms around her stopped all the churning in his gut, all the questions that couldn’t be answered, the feelings that were pulling him in different directions.

For once in his life, he didn’t want to be anywhere else.

“So this kid is going to transport us to yet another world?” Britt said after he’d explained his plan. “And he can do that because he’s a… dragon.”

“Um, yeah?”

“Wow. After I died, I thought I’d encountered all the weirdness in the world. And then you come along, and things are…” She shook her head.

“Exponentially weird?” he offered.

“Well, yeah. But magical, too.” She looked bemused. “All the cool things I couldn’t know about when I was alive, I get to know about now.” She looked wistful. “Do you suppose he’ll turn into a dragon for me? Maybe just once?”

“Probably.” He would if Nick had anything to say about it. If Brittany wanted dragons, then fuck yeah she was going to have dragons.