Chapter 10
Lisa wasn’t quite sure what Verrian had done to stop the police car, but whatever it was, it had worked. After the sirens had faded away, she directed him back onto the dirt road along the edge of the trees.
He seemed to be able to drive through the trees without hitting anything, but she didn’t see any point in pushing it. She felt a lot better when they weren’t swerving around in the dark. Especially since she didn’t dare tell Verrian to put the headlights back on.
Even once they were sure no one was following them, it was a harrowing ride for the few kilometres to the car park near the base of the mountain where they’d arranged to meet Olivia and Raven.
Thankfully, the car was waiting there for them.
Verrian pulled up next to it and Lisa pulled off her helmet.
Her legs were still shaking, and she stumbled a little as she swung her leg over the motorbike and tried to stand up straight.
“Are you okay?” Verrian asked quietly. He sat astride the bike, looking quite at home.
And way too sexy for his own good.
Lisa couldn’t help the smile that twisted her lips at the concerned look on his face. He was so earnest and sweet, sometimes she wondered how she’d ended up with him.
Not that it had been his choice. He would have died if he hadn’t slept with her.
Sure, he’d said the same thing as Karla, that they could have waited for him to heal without sex, but they’d both known that wasn’t really an option. They’d had to run. And the risks they’d had to take to get this far only proved that they never would have made it if Verrian hadn’t been at full strength.
Not that her sleeping with him had been the only choice for regaining his strength. A small voice in the back of her head reminded her that Verrian could have slept with Olivia if he hadn’t wanted to be mated to her, but she didn’t want to hear it. She wasn’t completely sure she’d really presented that as a valid option. It certainly wasn’t the one she’d wanted him to take.
Doubts filled her head. Had she really done it for his sake, or had she only mated him because of the overwhelming attraction she felt for him? An attraction that was, at least in part, a result of the Mesmer bond. Had that overcome her common sense? She hadn’t really thought this through that well, had she?
“I’m fine,” she said shortly. She couldn’t think about this now. They weren’t safe yet. She could ignore it for a while longer. Pretend it hadn’t happened, and that her ill-considered impulse wouldn’t have far reaching consequences, for both of them, for the rest of their lives. “We need to keep moving. We may have lost the police, but there’s no knowing if they’ll find us again.”
Olivia and Raven were out of the car by then and, to Lisa’s relief, any opportunity they might have had to talk in private was gone.
“Are you okay?” Olivia asked, repeating Verrian’s earlier words. “What happened?”
“We were chased by a helicopter and police car,” Lisa told her. “We lost them, I think Verrian did something?” She looked at him, one eyebrow raised.
Verrian shrugged uncomfortably. “It was nothing.”
It had been cute when he’d first done it. But now, for some reason she couldn’t put her finger on, it irritated Lisa. She put her hands on her hips and glared at him. “Can you stop being so damned self-effacing? You took care of a police helicopter and car that were following us. If you hadn’t, we’d be in serious trouble by now. Can you just admit you did something useful?”
Verrian stared at her, his eyes wide.
Perhaps her tone had been a little strong, but her point was still valid.
“Verrian is amazing,” Olivia said, her eyes shining.
“Yeah, you should have seen how he took out the dragon that came after him at my place,” Raven chimed in.
Looked like Verrian was the only one who was disputing his usefulness.
Then Lisa did a double take.
A dragon? At Raven’s place? Now that he mentioned it, she recalled something about that earlier, but she’d had more important concerns then. As she did now. Sometime, Lisa was going to have to ask Verrian what had actually happened there.
But not now. Right now, they didn’t have time to convince Verrian that he was more use than he thought, or to discuss what had happened. There would be time for that once they were safely back at the lair.
If they made it.
“We need to get moving,” Lisa said flatly. “Everyone in the car.”
Olivia handed Lisa the keys. She sat in the back, leaving the front seat vacant for Verrian. Raven followed them on his bike.
The roads were deserted, either from a fear of running into the dragon, or the police lockdown. Lisa wasn’t sure if it was good or bad that no one was around, it meant there was no traffic for them to blend in with.
Not that it mattered, so long as they didn’t see any police cars.
Hopefully they were all on their way to Ultrima’s lair.
Thinking to maybe find out what was going on, she flicked on the radio. Verrian started when a song came on a little too loudly.
“Sorry,” Lisa apologised, turning it down a little. “Just thought I’d see if we could catch the news.” She switched through a couple of channels until she found one with news.
Everyone in the car was silent, listening to the broadcast. But none of it was new. They were just repeating the police message about everyone staying in their homes. There was no mention of dragons. Apparently they were still pretending this was a terrorist attack.
Lisa frowned. What was going on? Had Rita not released the news like they’d asked her to?
If the police were still hovering around looking for them, then they were in trouble, because they probably had a pretty good idea what direction they were going in. Not for the first time, Lisa wished she had her phone. Looking up some alternative routes could be handy about now.
She glanced in the rear-view mirror, but the roads were still deserted.
“Can you hear anything?” she asked Verrian.
Verrian was silent for a moment, then he shook his head. “Nothing. Why?”
Lisa shrugged, but the uncomfortable feeling wouldn’t leave. “I’m just wondering what’s going on. Why didn’t Rita get the news out? If she didn’t, where is everyone?”
Verrian frowned. He listened more carefully to the news report that was starting over again on another channel. The words were different, but the news was the same.
“They don’t seem to know about Ultrima’s lair at all,” he said.
“Maybe the police want to keep it quiet?” Olivia suggested. “Sneak up on the dragons?”
“Like dragons listen to news stations,” Lisa scoffed.
Then she thought about it.
Ultrima had managed to find her apartment. How?
Maybe the old lightning dragon paid more attention to human technology and news than they’d thought.
That thought was mildly unsettling.
Lisa shook it off. Not her problem right now. Hopefully Ultrima had more than enough problems on his hands right now to stop him worrying about her. At least for long enough for them to get back to the Rian clan lair.
It occurred to her that nowhere in her escape plans had she prepared for what to do if Ultrima showed up.
Suddenly, the deserted roads seemed even more menacing than they had earlier.
Lisa took a deep breath. Ultrima had no idea where they were. That certainly wasn’t on the news, or anywhere else. And hopefully he was far too busy to be worrying about them.
Right now, her only option was to keep driving and hope that they made it safely to the lair.
“Did you mean what you said back there?”
Verrian’s voice was quiet in her head.
“Mean what?” Lisa searched her memory. What exactly had she said?
“You seemed annoyed when I said it was nothing.”
Oh, that.
Lisa heaved a quiet sigh. She wasn’t even quite sure why she’d been annoyed. Probably it had nothing to do with what Verrian had said, and everything to do with her guilt and confusion over their mating.
That was what she really wanted to discuss.
But even though their conversation was private, in their heads, she was still aware of Olivia’s presence. Now wasn’t the time.
“I know you were really uncertain about how to use your powers and how you could help when I first met you, but I think by now you’ve more than proved that you have a lot to offer,” she told him instead. “You’ve saved our butts over and over again when we’ve been dealing with dragons or humans. You need to start believing in yourself.”
Verrian was silent for a minute. “But I didn’t manage to do the most important thing. When Ultrima attacked, there was nothing I could do—I was easily defeated.”
Lisa felt even more guilty for snapping at him. She reached out and put a hand on his arm, her heart aching for him. She could hear the uncertainty, even in his mental thought. It must be eating him up, being defeated like that. Even if he wasn’t as brash as Taurian, he felt the same underneath it all.
Being defeated by someone strong enough to swat at you like a fly had to sting. Especially for a dragon, who was used to being big and powerful.
“Look,” Lisa said softly. “No one can defeat Ultrima. Taurian couldn’t. Your whole family couldn’t when Ultrima attacked all of you. Why do you think you should be able to defeat him?”
“Because if I can’t… if my family can’t… then we’re all going to die.”
Lisa’s hands gripped the wheel tightly, helplessness welling up in her. This wasn’t about his own ego, he was worried because it was his job to protect his clan.
“I can’t protect you.”
Verrian’s voice in her head was soft, barely a whisper, but it caused Lisa’s heart to constrict.
He was worried about her.
He wanted to protect her.
Did that mean he cared about her? Was she part of his clan now?
Lisa wasn’t sure of the answers to those questions, she’d have to ask Karla how being mated to a dragon worked when they got back to the lair.
Right now, she needed to pick Verrian back up. Because she needed him to be ready if Ultrima showed up. If the police showed up. If things started to fall apart.
Because the only thing certain in this adventure was that they would.
“You have protected me,” she told him. “Over and over again. Maybe not by defeating dragons in a physical attack, but by outwitting them. That’s what we’re doing right now. Hopefully the police are out there searching for Ultrima. Worst case scenario, that keeps him distracted, best case, they arrest him and take him away for questioning. Either way, he’s not bothering your clan.”
“It’s not the same.” Verrian’s voice wasn’t quite so hopeless though. “That’s not us defeating him, that’s relying on someone else to do it for us.”
“We humans have a saying,” Lisa told him. “All’s fair in love and war. It means: who cares how you win, as long as you do.”
“That makes no sense,” Verrian said immediately. “How you win means everything.”
“Does it?” Lisa demanded. “Even if Ultrima wins by the fairest means imaginable, and I can’t believe that he’s doing that, does it mean he’s right? If you fail because you stuck to doing everything honourably, you still fail. The reason you’re doing what you’re doing, that’s the most important thing.”
Verrian was silent for a long moment. “I see your point,” he said eventually. “It is not usually the dragon way, but it has merit. Ultrima needs to be defeated to keep my clan safe. If I have to use a few tricks to do that, then so be it. Ultrima has some sort of advantage over us. I don’t know what, but no matter how strong he is, my magic should have had some effect on him. If he is using tricks, then it only makes sense that we do the same.”
“Exactly.”
Verrian was silent again. Lisa hoped he was realising that he had a lot to offer in helping defeat his enemies.
When he spoke though, it was clear his thoughts were going in an entirely different direction.
“So what does ‘All’s fair in love’ mean?”
“I… ahh…”
How was she supposed to answer that one?
“Does it mean that it’s okay to hope you’ll have no choice but to mate with someone who you’re not sure wants to be mate bonded to you?”
Lisa’s heart skipped a beat. What did he mean by that? Was he talking about her, or him?
“Um…” Funny, she would have thought that thought speech, or whatever it was dragons did, wouldn’t have as many awkward pauses. Apparently it did. She took a deep breath. “I think it’s supposed to mean the same thing, that when you love someone, you use any means possible to overcome any obstacles in your path. I don’t think it applies to mate bonding, since humans know nothing about that.”
Skirting the topic. But she had no idea how to answer him.
It might be easier if she knew what he meant.
Had he wanted to mate with her as much as she’d wanted to mate with him?
“That makes sense.” Verrian’s voice gave no clue as to what he was thinking. “Humans don’t mate in the same way as dragons. Once dragons are mated, there are no obstacles, it’s done.”
“There can be obstacles before that,” Lisa argued. “Karla and Taurian had to deal with the clan’s resistance to him mating a human. But they overcame that.”
“My clan cannot object to our mating. It’s already done.”
Somehow, Lisa suspected that wouldn’t stop their objections, but she wasn’t going to say that. They had enough to worry about right now, without considering his clan’s problems. Hopefully the issues, which would affect the whole clan, would draw the attention away from them.
“Do you regret it?” she asked, half afraid of the answer.
“Do you?” Verrian shot back.
Both of them were silent. Neither game to be the first to admit it. Or maybe Verrian didn’t feel it. That was the problem. How could she know?
Did Verrian blame her for the mating? Was that what he’d meant earlier, when he’d asked about mating with someone who didn’t want to be mate bonded to you. If she admitted that she’d wanted this, that she’d ignored other viable solutions because she wanted it so much, then would he blame her?
Somehow, she couldn’t bear to hear him say that.
“It doesn’t matter at this point,” Lisa said finally. “It’s done, and there’s no going back. We’re both resourceful, intelligent people. We can make this work.”
They could, couldn’t they? One way or another.
Somehow, she didn’t want to consider the other.