Love is Always Write Anthology Volume 9

look back at him.
    The fever was distorting his vision again, because there was that nimbus of light around Kreed, just like he'd seen around Robert so many times. It drew him, like a moth, the same as Robert's did, and he was reaching for Kreed before he thought.
    "I have to go." The suddenness with which Kreed lifted into the air on frantically flapping wings made the bed rock. "I'll stop by tomorrow. See how you are." The air in the room chilled and swirled as he flapped to the door. "Get some sleep."
    "Kreed?"
    The door slammed and he was alone.
    ****
    "Kreed was here." Robert wasn't asking, really, so Alec saw no need to answer. His roommate had been gone all night. Morning sun glinted off the bars at the window and off Robert's glossy dark curls where he stood by the window. He looked tired, flushed. Alec resisted asking where he'd been. It was none of his business, and it was mating season. He smelled like dragon.
    Really , none of his business.
    "What did he want?" Robert turned his attention from his early-risen brethren already peppering the sky. His shoulders undulated and Alec could feel the other man's arousal on the air, the barely contained dragon beneath Robert's magic. Air moved through the room as though Robert had flapped huge wings to disturb it.
    "Just seeing how I was feeling." Alec turned his own attention to the window, trying to ignore the pounding blood in his veins. "He was concerned."
    "You shouldn't spend so much time with him."
    "He's my best friend."
    "He's a half-blood."
    "What?" That statement got Alec sitting up. "Since when does that matter?"
    "Since you can't shift." Robert moved away from the window to pace. "Since maybe associating yourself with him, steeping in the taint of half-magic is keeping you—"
    "No!" Alec ignored the ache in his bones to push himself off the bed for the first time in days. "My inability to shift has nothing to do with Kreed. It's me. Something's wrong with me, and it has nothing to do with either of you."
    "Me?" Robert's pacing stilled and he turned, his expression menacing, his fists clenched. "Who says it has anything to do with me?"
    Alec shook his head. "Forget it."
    "Who said it had anything to do with me?" Robert demanded, advancing on him. The sheer size of him, the power barely contained under the magic he held about himself turned every step into a threat and Alec fell back.
    "Forget it."
    "I asked you a question."
    Alec shook his head. For a split second, every fibre of him insisted he bow before the prince of dragons. The part of him that couldn't give the dragon precedence saved him.
    "Back the fuck off!" He squared his shoulders and forced the fever back enough to keep command of his body. "You two don't have to like each other, but neither of you gets a monopoly. I decide who I spend time with." He shoved past Robert and headed for the door. "I'm going outside. Open the locks."
    "It isn't safe."
    "It's my life."
    "The dragons won't—"
    "I said open the locks!"
    He raised a hand and forced magic through his veins, feeling it warm and simmer, as it passed through already heated blood and bones. It responded sluggishly and he struggled to force it into the shape he wanted; one that could knife through the arcane locks holding him prisoner in his room. Long whips of hot power writhed within his grasp and he fought to tie them together, to get them into some semblance of a single mass he could wield. They bent to his command, forming a slithering, unwieldy spell he had little control over. He thrust the mass ahead of him, brute force coming to bear where will and finesse failed. He might have blown the entire wall into the hallway beyond if Robert didn't step forward and encompass his ill-formed spell in a thick bubble of protective magic.
    Alec didn't stop. He wanted out of the prison, however well-meaning it might be. He shoved harder, using the heat and strength of Robert's containing spell to augment his own massive mess of power.
    "Alec, please." Robert's voice was strained as he struggled to control the wild spell.
    "Let. Me. Out." He pushed harder.
    "Dammit." Robert stepped in front of him, faced sideways, one hand holding back Alec's wild magic, the other held at arm's length, fingers manipulating a refined stream that undid the tight knots of spells that had denied Alec access to the outside world for almost a week.
    "This is a mistake," Robert warned as the door swung open.
    "Mine to make." Alec let go of his spell, leaving the