"Kenyon, Sherrilyn - Dark-Hunter 03 - Dragonswan" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kenyon Sherrilyn)

Sebastian stepped away from the bed, then paused.
He couldn't leave like this, as if the night had meant nothing to him.
Pulling his mother's medallion from his neck, he placed it around Channon's and kissed her parted lips.
"Sleep, little one," he whispered. "May the Fates be kind to you. Always."


Then, he shimmered from her room and out into the dark night. Alone. He was always alone.
He'd long ago accepted that fact. It was what had to be.
But tonight he felt that loneliness more profoundly than he had ever felt it before.
As he rounded the hotel's building and headed toward his car, he collided with a middle-aged woman who was walking, huddled from the cold, in a worn jacket. She wore the faded uniform of a waitress and the old shoes of a woman who had no choice but to be practical.
"Hey," he said as she started past him. "Do you have a car?"
She shook her head no.
"You do now." He handed her the keys to his Lexus and pointed it out to her. "You'll find the registration in the glove box. Just fill it out and it's yours."
She blinked at him. "Yeah, right."
Sebastian offered her a genuine smile. He'd only bought the car to use while he'd been trapped in this time period. Where he was going, there was no need for it.
"I'm serious," he said, nudging her toward it. "No strings attached. I took a vow of poverty about fifteen minutes ago, and it's all yours."
She laughed incredulously. "I have no idea who you are, but thank you."
Sebastian inclined his head and waited until the woman had driven off.
Cautiously, he stepped into the alley and looked around to make sure there were no witnesses. He called forth the powers of Night to shield him from anyone who might happen by, then he shifted into his alternate form. The power of the Drakos rushed through him like fire as the ions in the air around him were charged with electrical energy-electrical energy that allowed him to shed one form and shift into another.
In his case, his alternate form was that of a dragon.





Spreading his bloodred wings out to their full forty-foot span, he launched himself from his hind legs and flew into the sky, careful to stay below radar level this time.
Sebastian had one last thing to do before he could return to his time. Yet even as he headed back to the museum, he couldn't shake the image of Channon from his mind.
He could still see her asleep in the bed, her hair spread out around her shoulders. He could still feel the texture of the honey-laced strands in his palm.
His dragon form burned with need, and he yearned to return to her.
Not that he could. One-night stands with humans were all he dared. The risk of exposure was too great.
Sebastian crossed town in a matter of minutes and landed on the roof of the museum. He summoned the electrical field that allowed the molecules of his body to transform from animal to human and flashed back into his man form.
With a flick of his hand, he dressed himself all in black, then shimmered from the roof into the room that held the tapestry.
"There you are," he said as he saw Antiphone's work again. Sadness, guilt, and grief tore through him as he recalled his baby sister's gentle face.
After he'd sold this tapestry, he had never wanted to see it again.
But now he had to have it. It was the only way to save his brother's life. Not that he should care. Damos had never given a damn about him.
After all the things Damos had done to break him, Sebastian still couldn't turn his back on his brother and let the man die. Not when he could help it.
"I'm a bloody fool," he said disgustedly.
He willed the tapestry from the museum case into his hand. Then he folded and tucked it carefully into a black leather bag to protect it.


As he began to shimmer from the room back to the roof, an odd burning started in the palm of his left hand.
"What the... ?"
Hissing from the pain, he dropped the case and pulled off his glove. Sebastian blew cool air across his hot skin and frowned as a round geometric design appeared in his palm.
"No," he breathed in disbelief as he stared at it.
This wasn't possible, yet there was no denying what he saw and felt. Worse, there was a presence inside him, a tickling in the depth of his heart that made him curse even louder.
Against his will, he was mated.