Adeem shifted beneath the glow of a solitary light bulb and flexed the cards in his hand. Three cards and a stupid game. How Nev had managed to convince him to play was beyond comprehension. He placed a nine in the pile and picked a new card from the deck. Nev countered with a knight.

"So, are we going to talk about it?" Nev asked, leaning on his elbow. The vampire appeared bored, or perhaps tired. It had been a long night. If Nev hadn't been so freakishly active at night, the guy would probably have dozed off a long time ago. He should have kicked the vampire out of the apartment to get some sleep, but the thought of being alone with his thoughts had killed that urge. He could catch up on sleep later.

"Talk about what?" The wooden chair squeaked beneath him. Despite the modern design of the kitchen, he had a few stray items from decades past—the chairs from the 50s, the copper appliances, the brass towel rack. He returned his focus to the cards.

Nev placed two kings on the table. "You're not stupid. You'll figure it out."

"Right." He hadn't decided if he wanted to talk it out or if he should heed the dragon's command to say nothing. If he took the job and told Nev about it, Nev's position with the Nighters might come in handy to gain information. But, Adeem wasn't sure if it was a good idea to be quite so open about treachery. Nev was a terrible liar and would likely cave after a couple of probing questions. Perhaps it was better to see how it all played out before he told anyone else. He placed a ten and turned the pile and began a new one with one of his lower cards.

"Your apartment is seriously cold, you know." The vampire, who were ill-equipped to keep any sort of warmth, leaned over and snatched the spare blanket from one of the other chairs. "But let's stick to the topic."

"You changed it."

"Fine. But come on. Tell me what happened. You ran away like your powers were back even though we both know they couldn't have been. Right?" Nev frowned and bit into his lip piercing. "Right? Your powers weren't back? I sure hope I didn't bite you in vain. Vein." Nev chuckled. "Get it? Vein."

He rolled his eyes but couldn't help the faint smile. Nev couldn't keep track of a line of questioning for long. It was almost cute. "I get it. It was an awful joke. But no, my powers weren't back," he said. It was better if Nev didn't know how close it had been.

Nev removed the pile with another ten. "I'm pretty sure everyone who could sense your mood was pissing themselves. Saw a few vampires move away and everything. And, Astrid swore like a sailor when you met the secretary by the door."

"Well, nothing happened. It's all good. We're both here." Reassuring Nev had become second nature to him. "You talked to Vincent, you had some blood. All in all, I think it went okay. I mean, no one died."

"True. But that dragon..." Nev shuddered and tucked the blanket tighter around his shoulders. "Do you reckon why they assigned him here? I didn't know they allowed dragons into positions of power."

Shaking his head, Adeem placed the last card he had on hand. "Beats me. I've never heard of a dragon Guardian before. Don't know what to think yet. I mean, we don't know who he is—we only know what we've heard about dragons throughout the years."

"Yeah, but that's bad enough. Controlling, power-hungry beasts who don't care about anyone but themselves." Nev almost spat out the words, clearly unhinged about the whole affair. It was a reasonable reaction.

He thought about it, wondering if Kyung was a bomb waiting to go off, or if there was something else. Was there anything to doubt? Could he even think of cooperating with the dragon? History urged him to see reason, but most of that history had been written by the Council, and why would he trust them implicitly when he knew they lied about almost everything they could get away with. "Well, that's what we've heard, but what do we know exactly? It's been a long time. They fell asleep before I was born."

Nev looked up under his bangs. "Can't remember which year it was. What do they call it? The battle of ten?"

"I think it was around 1350."

"Ten remaining dragons against an army. Must have been pretty tough dragons," Nev commented.

He tried to imagine it and saw a large battlefield with burning corpses, ten dragons chained to the ground, their wings slashed and useless. Death and devastation. It was almost too easy to picture. He could smell the charred bodies, taste the ash on his tongue.

Nev interrupted his thoughts. "And now we have one of them as our Guardian."

Leaning back in the chair, he took a deep breath and tried to calm down. "Well, it's unlikely he was one of the ten. I can't imagine they would let one of those dragons close. The council are a bunch of idiots though, so who knows."

Nev's reaction was instantaneous. "Imagine if he is. Like, what if he was there? What if he's here in Stockholm to get his powers back?"

He swallowed passed the lump in his throat. "No. The council members might be idiots, but they were there. They saw those dragons face to face. There's no way they would have let Kyung become a Guardian if he was involved in battles like that. Hell, those ten dragons laid waste to half of the human populace. Europe was literally dying because of it."

"So, it's Kyung now?"

It was typical of Nev to catch one word like that out of a long string of more important words. "Whatever. It's his name."

"He's still kinda hot. If he hadn't been a dragon...you know." Nev's mood seemed to have switched entirely, or perhaps the vampire was merely faking some kind of cheer.

"No, I don't know. Fuck's sake, Nev. Don't talk like that. He's a dragon. He's the enemy."

Nev leaned closer and wagged his eyebrows. "Is he your enemy because he's the new Guardian or because he's a dragon?"

"Both." He looked out the window, seeing the first signs of a rising sun. "Time to go, Nevvyboy. You don't want to fry that lovely skin of yours."

"You're a dick."

"You think I have the hots for the dragon. Who's the dick?" The frustration quickly set fire to his core, and he could feel the tension rising and hissing. What Nev had drained was back in full force but still within his control.

Nev threw the rest of his cards on the table. "Fine. I'm leaving. You can sit here and play on your own. Build a house of cards. Be a grump. I'm just trying to lighten the mood."

He slouched back, knowing he was being unfair. If anything, he was glad Nev was there as a distraction. "Yeah, sorry. It's been a long night."

"Are your powers back?"

"You mean if I can make you forget everything that happened? Yeah. It's all back. But thanks," he said. Nev deserved a couple of drinks for helping him.

"You're welcome. Just know that you taste like shit." The vampire grinned, flashing a sharp set of incisors.

He chuckled softly. "Thanks. I'll remember. Maybe I can put on some lotion or something that smells like flowers next time."

"Please, don't let it be a next time. And no flowers. Jeez." Nev rose and plucked his leather jacket from the back of the chair. It looked weird with the leather on top of the suit, but Nev never wore anything else. Not even in summer.

"Just mind the light on your way out. Wouldn't want you to get sick."

"Fuck you. Your blood could have made me sicker, and you know it."

He followed the vampire to the hallway and watched Nev tie on the combat style boots. Nothing really matched tonight. "Goodbye, Nev."

"Whatever. See you later. I'm not done with you yet. Still haven't told me what happened between you and that Guardian. Looked like you were about to kill each other."

"Fine. Let's meet up for a beer tonight."

Nev nodded, slipped on his mittens and waved angrily before closing the door.

Wandering back inside the living room, he wondered if he would be able to sleep. The bed looked inviting enough from where he stood, neatly made for once, but with everything going on, he was on edge. If he hadn't feared that instability, he would have left the apartment to find someone to relieve the tension with. Not that it was likely he would find someone at this time in the morning. The sun was on its way up, people were leaving for work, and the only ones who would answer on Grindr were unlikely to fit his tastes.

He could go to the gym. The idea made a lot of sense. Not only could he use up some of the adrenaline—if he were lucky enough, he'd find someone hot who wouldn't mind some extra workout. If he were lucky they might have an early boxing class. Punching at someone, preferably someone tall with dark hair, wide shoulders and a smug grin, would definitely improve his mood.

At least he needed to find a way to let go of some tension before seeing Kyung again, and he definitely needed to get his scattered thoughts together. He had a feeling his decision had the potential to change everything, but the problem was that he had no idea what everything was.

A/N Had a writing sprint session with gabycabezut which resulted in a surprise chapter for you all :)  Hope you enjoyed it! xox

Cliff notes, only read if necessary

1) Adeem questions what he really knows about Dragons.