Chapter Nineteen
Constance’s heart was breaking. Technically, she knew it couldn’t actually happen, but that didn’t stop her chest from constricting to the point of pain. He thought she’d betrayed him yet again. She didn’t know how to break down the emotional barriers he kept erecting between them. She couldn’t live like this, having him always suspect the worst from her.
Maybe that wasn’t fair of her, but that’s the way it was.
She couldn’t go from making love to him one minute to having him mistrust her the next. That wasn’t healthy, and she had too much self-respect to stay under such circumstances.
Not that it likely mattered. Not with Dent and his men outside. “You said Dent wasn’t alone? Any idea how many?” She had no idea how keen Nic’s senses were. There was so much she didn’t know about him.
He cocked his head and listened. “Uncertain. Maybe a dozen.”
“A dozen?” How were they supposed to fight a dozen armed men, and they would be well-equipped. Of that she had no doubt. After what had happened back at the warehouse, they’d have even more firepower. “Where did Dent get them?”
Nic shrugged, seemingly unconcerned. She wanted to smack him. “Probably called up another team.”
“Another team?” She knew she kept repeating his words, but it was all so unbelievable, even after all she’d been through. “Just how many teams does this guy have?”
“Who knows.” Nic backed away from the window, took her by the upper arm, and led her away. “All the members in high-ranking positions have money. Lots of it.”
She frowned. “Why don’t you have teams to protect you? I assume you have money. You’ve been around long enough.”
He came to a complete stop in the center of the room and just stared at her as if she were speaking a foreign language. And then it hit her.
“Of course you don’t have teams. You can’t trust anyone.” And the sad part was she could understand his reasoning. There were a lot of people who would betray such a secret for money or power. “So what do we do?”
“You hide, and I’ll deal with them.”
When he started to drag her toward the bedroom, she dug in her heels. “You’ve got to be kidding. You want me to hide?”
“I don’t want you hurt again.” His jaw was set in that stubborn way she was coming to recognize. She might love him, but she wasn’t oblivious to his flaws.
“Too late. You already hurt me. I might as well fight. Or hey, maybe you think I’m on their side and I’ll stab you in the back when you’re not looking. Of course, I don’t think there’s been a blade invented that could penetrate your thick hide,” she muttered the last part.
He raked his fingers through his hair, totally exasperated with her. “I don’t think you’ll stab me in the back. There isn’t time for this. You need to be safe.”
The hardest part of this for her was she knew he meant it. He truly wanted her out of harm’s way. He didn’t think she’d stab him in the back. At least not at this moment, but that could change if something happened to make him suspect her again.
“Let me fight with you.” She stepped closer and placed her hands on his chest.
There was anguish in his eyes. “I can’t let anything happen to you.”
She tried to stay strong, but her insides melted just a bit. “I’m tough,” she reminded him.
He blew out a breath. “You’re the strongest woman I’ve ever known.”
She tried not to feel pride but stood a little taller. Then something else occurred to her. “The statues. We can’t let Dent get the statues.”
Nic nodded and stepped back. The gap between them widened even though he was only a foot away. He was already distancing himself from her.
He hurried to the bedroom with her right behind him. He already had the closet door open and was rummaging around. He pulled out her tote bag. “Really, you put them in my bag. Unbelievable.” She poked him in the shoulder. “What if I did want to betray you? I would not only have found my phone if I’d gone looking for my bag, but the statues, too.”
Nic ignored her and dropped the satchel on the bed. He dug out the three remaining statues they had. The crystal one was in two pieces. The small dragons were works of art. They were also humming with power, even the broken one. Being in close proximity of Nic was making them hot again.
“Too bad you don’t have a vault or something.”
“I do,” he told her. He grabbed the statues and put them in the center of the floor.
“Then why didn’t you lock them up?”
“There was no time.”
Right, he’d been busy saving her life. Then they’d been making love. “Okay.” She shoved her hair out of her face. “So what’s our next move?”
“I destroy the statues.”
“Do you think you can?” After all, his fire hadn’t had any effect on them when he’d been trapped.
“If they’re not in alignment, their power is much weaker. I should be able to.”
As much as it pained her to destroy such amazing works of art, there was no other choice. They were dangerous to Nic as long as they existed. Nothing was more important to her than his safety. And if her phone was able to be tracked, it was dangerous to them both. She grabbed it out of her bag. “This, too.”
“You sure?”
She nodded and placed it next to the statues. “Do it.”
“Stand back.” He pointed toward the open bathroom door. “I don’t think Dent and his men will wait much longer.”
She hurried to the bathroom. She’d barely reached it when there was a blast of energy behind her. Constance whirled and gripped the doorjamb for support. Nic had already stripped off his shirt and jeans and was shifting.
She’d seen him do it before, but things had been complete chaos at the time. Now, she watched in awe as his body grew to massive proportions, filling the entire bedroom, shoving the bed aside. The scales on his body glittered like fire, the reddish color glinting in the sunlight streaming through the window.
He lowered his enormous wedge-shaped head, extending his snout toward the statues. He was hunched over, unable to even sit upright in the normal-size room.
Heat built in the immediate area. He took an enormous breath and released it. Fire erupted from his mouth. Instead of spewing everywhere, it was focused entirely on the three miniature dragons. The backlash from the blast was like being struck by a fierce wind. She actually stumbled back several steps before she caught herself. Bracing her feet and clinging to the door, she tried to watch, but the fire was too bright, too strong. She closed her eyes and looked away, shielding her face with her arm.
The wind stopped and, even with her eyes closed, she sensed the room had grown darker. She dropped her arm and opened her eyes. After the brilliance of his fire, it seemed like night, even with the sunshine pouring through the window.
She blinked and stared at the floor. There was nothing left of the statues. Not any ash or mangled metal. She blinked again. That wasn’t quite true. “The eyes are left.”
Nic shifted. Naked, he crouched down and reverently retrieved the six gems. “Yes. Only a drakon’s own fire can destroy his tears.” He carried them over to the dresser and carefully deposited them into one of the drawers.
“I wasn’t sure you’d be able to destroy them.”
He shut the drawer. “If they’d been infused with drakon blood, I likely wouldn’t have been able to, but they were stone, wood, and metal. Those I can handle. Whatever was giving the statues power seemed to only work when they were put in the proper formation. Outside of that, they were much weaker.”
“That fire was amazing.” She walked over to stand beside him.
One side of his mouth quirked upward. “Fire drakon.”
“Really? Can’t all drakons breathe fire?”
“Yes, but as a fire drakon, it’s my element.” He started to say something but suddenly whipped his head around. “They’re coming.”
He cupped her face in her hands. “If you’re going to betray me to them, do it now. I don’t think I can survive if I give you my trust and then you do it.”
She felt his pain like a living, breathing entity. He wanted to trust her but was afraid to. “Who betrayed you?” She placed her hands over his. “Who hurt you?”
“My mother.”
…
Constance looked shocked. But she couldn’t be any more so than he was. Other than his brothers, no one else knew what had happened. He’d never once breathed a word to another living soul.
“Your mother?” She said it as though she couldn’t believe such a thing.
“Yes. After my sire left and she realized what he was, what she had birthed, she became afraid. The other people in our village discovered my secret. Puberty was not an easy time. To save her place among them, she stood alongside the rest of the village as they cast me out.”
“Oh, Nic.”
There was no time, and he didn’t want to talk about it. “Dent’s men are getting closer.” He tugged her toward the closet and shoved her inside. “It is thick adobe with a layer of steel embedded in it.” He pulled open a second set of doors that had been hidden inside the closet, ones he hadn’t closed before. “These can lock from the inside or the outside.”
“Your closet is a safe.” There was wonder in her voice.
“Yes.” She now realized he could have locked up her bag and the statues but had chosen not to. “You should be safe here.” He captured her mouth in a short but passionate kiss and then stepped back. “Stay here.” He shut the door and thought about locking it from the outside but didn’t want Constance trapped in case she had to run.
He had another reason for wanting her to stay inside the closet, other than her safety. He didn’t want her to see what he was about to do.
The Knights had taken their war on the drakons to another level these past months. Nic wanted no part of it. None of them did. But these men would never stop, never go away. Power, money, and the promise of immortality were what they craved.
He walked down the hallway of his home. Glass shattered and some sort of canister started spewing gas. Nic took a deep breath and held it. He didn’t think the gas would affect him, but he didn’t want to take any chances.
Giving a huge roar, he ran toward the living-room window. He was starting to shift when he crashed through the glass. He released the deep breath he’d taken, spewing a wall of fire in front of him.
Men screamed. Guns fired. He unleashed his wings and took to the air, circling the house. As a fire drakon, he had more control over the element. His fire burned longer and much hotter. He used it like the weapon it was.
Bullets pinged off his scales and fell to the ground, the metal crushed.
“The darts,” he heard Dent yell. “Use the darts.”
Several sharp objects hit him, but they too shattered against his scales. They’d have to get lucky and get the soft area around his neck if they hoped for success.
He swooped down from the sky, a giant predator sighting his prey, and began to destroy the small army of mercenaries Dent had brought with him. They scattered, but he chased them down without mercy. He forced himself to ignore the terror in the men’s eyes as he killed them. This was about survival. It was them or him. Plus, he had Constance inside, and he knew these men would have no problem hurting an innocent woman.
He caught something out of the corner of his eye that made his blood run cold. One of Dent’s men had slipped by him. The one called Oscar was coming out of his house. And he wasn’t alone. He was dragging Constance with him.
…
Constance couldn’t hear a sound. The more time that passed, the more she worried about Nic. Surely it wouldn’t hurt to open the door for a second or two, just long enough to hear what was going on.
Decision made, she took a deep breath and shoved the bolt back. Nic was not going to be happy with her if he found out about this. Better he’d never know. She slowly pushed the door outward.
It was yanked open, and she found herself facing a man with a gun. She was so worried about Nic, it hadn’t occurred to her that any of Dent’s men would get past him.
Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.
He grabbed her by the arm and dragged her out. “Come with me.”
“No.” She dug in her heels and tried to fight, but he simply raised the lethal gun in his hand and pointed it toward her. She recognized him as the man who’d gotten away with Dent.
“Don’t make me use this.” He started pulling her down the hallway toward the front door. “I don’t want to hurt you.”
Shit, Nic was going to believe she was betraying him again. After all, he’d left her supposedly locked in what amounted to a vault. Yet here she was with his enemies.
His own mother had cast him out, choosing to side with the villagers over the well-being of her son. No wonder he didn’t trust anyone. That kind of event left a scar, an invisible one that never truly healed. If it was still that raw after all these years, Nic might never be able to accept that she loved him and would never betray him.
They walked out of the house and into a war zone. She hadn’t been able to hear much while locked inside the closet, but nothing could have prepared her for the carnage awaiting her.
Dead bodies littered the ground. Some had been crushed. A few looked as though they’d been caught in cross fire. She saw half a body in a heap. The top half was totally missing. Like it had disintegrated. Drakon fire. She knew that’s what had happened.
The stench of blood and fear was overwhelming. She tried to breathe through her mouth and not her nose, but the acrid smell was unavoidable.
“Fuck me,” her captor swore under his breath.
She heard a familiar roar and turned her head, meeting Nic’s gaze. She wasn’t sure what she saw there. He had to know she wouldn’t betray him. She fought the hold the mercenary had on her, but he was too strong.
“Settle down,” he told her. “This ends here.”
“I won’t let you hurt him,” she vowed. “I’ll kill you all first.” She had no idea how she’d make it happen, but she would.
She pulled her arm forward and then drove her elbow back into her captor’s midsection with all her might. He gave a grunt of pain and loosened his grip. Constance yanked away from him and raced toward Nic. She’d stand by his side and fight with him to the end.
“Stop.” It wasn’t the mercenary who called out to her, but Dent. He no longer appeared quite so debonair. His clothing was mussed, his hair disheveled.
She ignored him and kept running. Nic seemed a million miles away.
Everything seemed to be happening in slow motion. Dent raised his weapon and aimed it, not at Nic, but at her.
Nic roared as a shot rang out.
Constance expected a jolt of pain but felt nothing. She reached Nic’s side, and he swept her between his front legs, curling his tail around her. She put her hands on it and pushed, needing to see what was happening. When he didn’t lower it, she gave it a couple light taps. His tail retreated the smallest bit, just enough for her to be able to see over it. She wasn’t stupid and stayed behind the impenetrable barrier.
An impossible scene met her gaze. Dent was lying on the ground, a hole in the center of his forehead. His own man had killed him. Everyone was dead but her, Nic, and the one remaining mercenary.
“My name is Oscar Denning.” He held his hands up in a gesture of surrender, but he was still holding his weapon.
Nic gave a huff, smoke pouring from his nostrils. “Why? Why did you kill Dent?” His voice was deeper, almost inhuman when he was in this form.
“I’m a member of the Dragon Guard.”
That meant nothing to her, but she sensed it did to Nic. His entire body stiffened. “I don’t believe you. You were there with Dent when he captured me.”
Oscar holstered his weapon. “Many of us have been undercover for years, working our way into the ranks of the Knights of the Dragon. You’d have been readied for transport, but the dose of the containment drug would have been lower than necessary. You’d have been awake and able to escape before you reached Dent’s holding facility.”
Nic shifted, his entire body morphing from dragon to man in a heartbeat. He stepped in front of her, leaving her staring at his naked back. She pushed to her feet, keeping both men in her sights.
“Why should I believe you?” Nic demanded. “It’s a convenient lie now that the rest of your comrades are dead.”
Oscar inclined his head to concede the point.
“And you also put your hands on Constance.” The underlying fury was unmistakable. She wasn’t sure if he was mad at her for being caught or at Oscar for taking her. Most likely both.
“I unlocked the closet door. I wanted to know what was going on,” she muttered. God did she ever feel like an idiot. If she’d read that in a book, she’d have decided the heroine was too stupid to live. But in the heat of the moment, in her fear for Nic, staying safe hadn’t mattered. Knowing what was happening to him had been a priority.
Nic half turned, keeping Oscar in his sights, and pinned her with his dark gaze. “You what?”
“You heard me.” She did not want to have to repeat herself, especially since she’d likely do it again given the same circumstances.
“I took a chance you had Ms. Owens stashed somewhere inside. I’d almost given up hope, when I saw the closet door opening and was able to persuade her to join me. I figured if I had her with me, you’d be more likely to listen to what I had to say.”
“Persuade?” Nic’s voice was soft and deadly. “At gun point? You took her as a hostage.” All Nic’s attention was back on Oscar. Constance shivered, glad it wasn’t her pinned beneath his furious glare.
“Yes.”
Wow, Constance wasn’t sure whether Oscar was crazy or had balls of steel. To admit that was like waving a red flag in front of a bull. Nic was already pissed off enough as it was.
“You’ve heard of us, haven’t you?” Oscar continued.
“Only very recently,” Nic admitted. She wanted to know who or what the heck this Dragon Guard was.
“We’ve been around since the dawn of your kind, trying to find ways to protect you. The society is small. The duties handed down from father to son or mother to daughter. Sometimes only one or two members of a family even know about us. We’ve built up a trustworthy network over the centuries. And we’ve watched the Knights. We have databases filled with information about them.”
“Why?” Nic stared at Oscar. He might be totally naked and unarmed, but there was no doubting he was in charge of the situation. Constance felt very unnecessary. All she’d managed to do was get captured and be used to distract Nic. Not exactly what she’d wanted to do. She’d been a burden rather than a help. He was right when he’d called her a liability.
“Look, I know you have no reason to trust me,” Oscar began.
“No, I don’t.” There was pure steel in Nic’s tone. This was a man who trusted very few, if anyone. She thought he trusted the man he’d talked to on the phone, but maybe not. With Nic, it was hard to tell.
Oscar began to speak in a language she didn’t understand. Nic jerked back as though he’d been struck and began to sway. Constance jumped in front of him. “Stop it,” she yelled at Oscar. Whatever he was saying was hurting Nic. She could sense it. See it in the pallor of his face.
Oscar stopped abruptly and raised his hands in a sign of peace once again.
“Where did you learn that?” Nic asked, his voice hoarse.
“It’s the language of our founder. A woman from ancient times. We have scrolls she kept, and the language has been passed down from parent to child ever since.” Oscar looked at the ground, seemingly studying the sand and dirt. “She was the mother of a drakon, a child born of a dragon father and a human woman.”
Oh shit. It couldn’t be Nic’s mother. He’d told her she’d betrayed him, abandoned him.
“I don’t understand.” Nic’s powerful voice was little more than a whisper.
“She knew she couldn’t protect her son in the village they lived in, so she sent him away. The village elders were planning to kill and burn the boy if he stayed, so she told him to go. She didn’t know if he was strong enough to survive such an attack, so she pretended to drive him out with the others. She’d taught him how to live in the desert, knew he was tough enough to make it. He was supposed to go to the village’s summer hunting grounds, but by the time she was able to gather supplies and journey there, he was nowhere to be found. She spent the rest of her life searching for him.”
“No, that can’t be.” Nic fell to his knees, and Constance went down with him. She wrapped her arms around him, trying to comfort him, but it was as though she weren’t even there. Nic was lost in the memories of his past.
Oscar slowly reached into a zippered front pocket with one hand, keeping the other one raised, and withdrew something. “She found this at the site where her son was supposed to be and kept it her entire life as a talisman of hope. It’s come down through my line, passed from father to son.” He tossed it toward Nic.
The ruby glinted in the sunshine. Nic only stared at it, so Constance picked it up and held it out to him. When he still didn’t take it, she opened his hand and placed it on his palm.
He stared at it for the longest time. Then he tilted back his head and roared. She slapped her hands over her ears and hunched down to make herself as small as possible, but the sound still rattled her teeth and made her bones ache. Oscar was shoved back by the force of Nic’s anguish, stumbling down on one knee.
Oscar’s eyes widened as he stared at Nic, awe replacing the fear in his gaze. “You’re her son, aren’t you? Oh my God.” He scrambled back to his feet. “She eventually remarried and had another son. One totally human. She trained him that it was his sacred duty to protect all information about drakons and to protect them whenever he could. That duty has come down through my line for thousands of years. Only one is chosen each generation.
He walked over to stand in front of them. “I’m of your blood.”