Chapter Fourteen
Where is he! Jacob shouted in his head as he flew northeast with nothing but empty clouds in his wide scope of vision.
He disappeared, Helena’s voice answered from the southern sky. How could he have disappeared right under our noses?
The same way he arrived out of nowhere, Garion’s voice joined theirs, turning Jacob’s blood cold. He altered. He must have done it almost immediately after the attack. We can’t find him because we’re looking for Drakkon.
The Red was walking. If he’d changed immediately then he was likely closer to River than Jacob wanted him to be.
With a stroke of his mighty tail, he changed course and flew toward Tarbert.
Jeremy! He sent out to the four winds, hoping the Red was listening. You tried to snap her up in your jaws. I’m going to kill you for that.
Jacob White, I wish I could say this was a surprise, a thick, raspy voice answered a moment later. I knew Garion would change you once your sister got her claws into him. How is Helena, by the way? Such a pretty little morsel.
Jacob opened his thoughts to Garion so he could listen in. What are you doing here, Red? he demanded. How are you alive?
I need a mate. I’m here for Garion’s blood.
Garion’s voice came like thunder, momentarily rattling Jacob’s thoughts. Come and get it, Red.
Hello, old friend, Red greeted. I’m glad to know that you’ve finally come to your senses and agreed to alter more descendants. Jacob White is a fine example of your work. I look forward to seeing Helena—and your hot sister. Have you turned Ellie yet, big brother? May I?
Jacob would help Garion kill this piece of shit. Where are you?
Don’t worry, his voice raked across Jacob’s thoughts. I’m away from the girl with the pretty, red hair. I wasn’t trying to eat her, but you. I didn’t know she was yours until I spoke to her.
Jacob’s throat burned with a roaring fire. He beat his wings and rode the wind, severing contact with him.
River. His heart boomed in his ears, growing faster, louder with every second she didn’t answer him. The Red was right, she was his. But she was more than a possession. She was his desire, his ache, the captor of his heart. River, please—
Jacob, what’s wrong? Where are you?
He shifted the angle of his tail and flew toward Tarbert. I’m coming. Did a man speak to you? Is he anywhere near you now?
Yes, a man spoke to me. I don’t see him around. He said he was a tourist and he saw you. How did you know he spoke to me?
What did he say to you?
He asked if I was okay, and…he creeped me out a little. He told me to keep my eyes open because the monster could be anywhere. Jacob, was he the Red?
Yes, he told her, almost there. Forget the barn. Hide behind something until I get there.
The slope.
Yes, his heart warmed at the thought of her, composed and strong in the midst of this.
We need clothes, Helena’s voice broke the dreadful silence. And please get Carina.
Yes, I have her, River answered, sounding relieved by the change of subject. And the clothes. I’m almost there. I have Ivy. Hurry.
Jacob pulled his wings in close to his body and dove from the clouds above Tarbert. He saw River below, atop the hill, looking up, and Ivy pointing her phone at him. He stretched his wings and soared toward the vale. He kept his eyes on the sky and the earth, watching River and Ivy hurry down the back of the slope to deposit their clothes.
He landed with perfect ease a short distance from them and folded his wings over his back. River stared at him, much the same way she had the first time she’d seen him. Astounded, curious, in control of her emotions, except one. Her joy at seeing him hit him like a golden arrow to the heart.
It made him want to be a man. He felt himself altering. Turn Ivy around.
River did as he asked, slipping her own eyes back to him as he altered and walked toward his backpack naked.
He met her gaze and was about to smile when Ivy screamed.
It was Charlie Owens. Killed by the Red, most likely for his clothes and dumped here. Jacob pulled on his black jeans and tattered sweater and hurried to them. He took River under his arm, but Ivy pulled away from him.
She stared into his eyes, at the contours of his face, forgetting the dead body near her. “You’re one of them.” Disgust and then fear contorted her features when she looked behind him at the naked couple that had just landed. She turned her gaze to her sister’s and gave her arm—looped through the handle of Carina’s carrier—a tug. “No one is safe.”
“These three will not hurt us,” River reassured her.
“I want to protect you,” Jacob added calmly.
Ivy didn’t look convinced, but there was no time for that now. He heard Garion and Helena come up behind him and watched his brother-in-law, fully dressed, lean over the body.
“His neck is broken,” he informed them. He looked up at his wife. “I just spoke to Ellie. She’s going to stay low.”
Helena nodded and stepped forward to take River’s hand. “What did the man who spoke to you look like?”
“He was bald,” River told her, handing Carina over to Garion.
“Did he have one arm or two?”
Jacob’s gaze flicked to Garion’s and then back to River. He had forgotten what could be possible. His pulse quickened.
“One.”
River’s answer caused the same reaction in all three Drakkon. They smiled, learning a little more about the essence that flowed through their veins. It didn’t regenerate what was cut, or hacked, or bitten off. Jeremy’s head it must be then. “We have to cut off his head,” Garion told them. Jacob and Helena nodded. So did River.
They spread out and searched the ferry terminal and everywhere else in Tarbert. Jeremy Redmond was nowhere to be found.
“We need to keep them safe,” Jacob told Garion an hour later, after his brother-in-law returned from the B&B with his Onyx and their bags. “I know a place on Skye—”
“Red knows we’re here,” Garion said. “He wants my blood. He’ll be back. If we leave Harris, we just delay what we could get done now.”
“Right,” Jacob agreed. “But they’re in harm’s way here.”
“Until we take down the Red,” Helena reminded him, “they’re not safe anywhere. No one is. His veiled threat about being anywhere is real. But we’ll find him.”
Jacob knew she was right, and if anyone could find a man, it was his sister. She’d found Marcus Aquara and Garion Gold. Before she fell in love, she’d dedicated her life to The Bane and hunting Drakkon.
“I don’t want them here when he returns,” he insisted. Jeremy was clearly a sneaky, clever bastard. He’d gotten close to River in both his forms. Jacob didn’t want to take that chance again.
“They’re safest with us,” Garion said. “If you want to protect them, keep them close.”
“You can all stay at my house,” River offered and then turned to him. “I’m not leaving without you. I won’t go.”
He stepped closer to her and looked deep in her eyes. She had too much courage. Red was playing with them. Jeremy could have hurt her. The thought of it made him want to go on a fiery rampage. It also made him think about his days without her in them. Now or later. It was only going to get harder.
I can’t believe you told her about us, Helena’s voice sounded in his head after they started on the path back to Maraig, or that you seem interested in someone for more than a night in bed. We have a lot to talk about, Brother.
Jacob tossed her a scowl. I wasn’t that bad. He knew he was. He just didn’t want to be reminded of it.
Yes, you were. I see what attracts you to River, but it’s hard to believe you’ve noticed.
I have.
Walking beside him and taking note of his scowl, River leaned in close. “What’s she saying?”
He looked at her and thought about all the truths she’d accepted about him already. Should he push more right now or lie to her again? “She’s seeing a side of me she’s never seen before.”
“Oh?” River tilted her face to his and broke down his scowl with the slightest of smiles. “What side is that?”
“Everything that was hidden before.” He looked at her and smiled, baffled about how to explain himself or pinpoint any one part of him.
“So, why don’t you two tell us how you met?”
Jacob flicked his icy gaze to his sister, who had hurried to catch up to them. “Maybe later.”
“Are you an Everbound fan?” Helena ignored him and asked River.
“She’s not a fan,” Jacob said, holding up his palm. He knew she wouldn’t stop until she leaned everything she wanted to know. He’d save her the trouble. “She came upon me while I slept in my new form. I spoke to her telepathically and we stayed in contact after I left Harris.”
Ivy tossed River a disapproving look. “You knew what he was all this time?”
“No,” River corrected her. “I didn’t know the dragon was Jacob until this morning. I didn’t tell you or Da about him because I’d made a deal with him not to tell anyone if he stayed away.”
“You made a deal with him?” Helena asked, stunned. “With a Drakkon?”
“Yes, and I thought he broke his end of the bargain when my father’s cattle were eaten.” River finished the tale, leaving little out but the strong attraction and desire they felt toward each other.
Soon, Helena weaseled her way into Jacob’s spot and curled her arm around River’s. Jacob should be concerned about what his sister might say, but he wanted to speak with Ivy. With his nosey sister engaged in conversation and Garion keeping to the rear with his nose in his seeing Onyx, this was a good opportunity. He liked River’s sister. She was honest and though she possessed a hard shell, she was vulnerable on the inside. He was also fairly certain that he was falling in love with her sister. He didn’t want to be on Ivy’s bad side if she might one day be a part of his family.
His family.
He thought of last night’s dinner with the Wrays and Graham. He hoped for more of the same tonight, this time with Helena and Garion there as well. Had this been what he’d wanted all this time? A family?
He took up his steps beside her and shoved his hands into the front pockets of his jeans. “I’m sorry I lied to you, Ivy.”
She didn’t answer right away, making Jacob squirm. What more should he say? “I should have—”
“You don’t have to do this, Jacob,” she said, holding up her hands.
“I want to apologize to you. I’m not known to do it often, so please hear me out.”
“What is there to say? Do you know what a dragon did to my life?” she asked sharply. “To my father’s life?”
“No one believed what he saw,” Jacob replied quietly. “I only know that.”
She pulled the hood of her sweatshirt over her head and looked out over the loch. “That dragon robbed me and River of our mother, my father of his wife.”
Jacob shook his head. She needed to come to terms with the truth or she would always hate what he was. “The dragon didn’t take her, her unbelief and shame did.”
She turned around and looked at him. Anger and sadness played across her features like a haunting song written on a dreary day.
“I’m sorry she left you,” he said softly, “I know you were young.”
Her huge eyes filled to the brims with tears. Jacob swallowed. What the hell did he know about talking to people about anything of substance? He’d already proven it with River. He knew nothing at all. Had he been asleep his whole life? And now that he seemed to have awakened, he worried that all his walls were falling. How many more was he going to let into his heart?
“I’m sure what you and River went through was incredibly difficult.” He slipped his gaze to her and took another breath or two before he continued. “My mum died before I could remember her. I always thought I was lucky for that. Death is a rough thing for a kid. Your mother didn’t die though. I think what she did is worse.”
She spread her gaze over the water. “Yeah, it is. Our mother was selfish. She didn’t think of us. I know that.” She wiped her eyes and her nose. “Maybe, after all these years, it’s just easier to blame the dragon.”
*
He wanted to comfort her but he wasn’t sure what might come from his mouth next, so he pulled his hand from his pocket and put it around her shoulder. She didn’t move away when he dragged her closer and walked with her toward the path from Urgha.
“Is it after River? After us?”
“No,” he promised, praying he was right. He released her and took a step closer to her sister. “You don’t have anything to worry about. I’ll protect you.”
“Okay. Can I tell Graham?”
“I’d rather you didn’t, but I suspect you will.” He couldn’t help but smile when she grinned. “And get rid of the pictures you took of me please.”
“I will,” she promised. Then, “You were pretty awesome back there. Never thought I’d see a dragon…or four of them. How many are there?”
“Just four.”
She cut him an incredulous look. “Just four—and you’re all in Harris?”
Jacob blinked at her and then turned slowly to Garion. He has us all here together.
He had us in Fiji if that was his plan, his brother-in-law said catching up.
No, Jacob thought to himself, sick to his stomach. An element had been missing before.
He couldn’t find us in Fiji. None of us had turned. Is it a coincidence that I came to Harris as Drakkon, had an encounter with River, then a few weeks later Red shows up here and kills her cattle?
You think he can track Drakkon? His sister joined the conversation.
Jacob hoped not. If the Red had figured out a way to track Drakkon then he was here because of Jacob.
“How many Onyxes are there, Garion?” he asked out loud, including River and Ivy in the discussion. He hadn’t wanted her to hear the first part of the conversation, that this might be a trap meticulously planned out by an enemy Drakkon.
“Only this one.”
“Is there any other way to track us?”
His brother-in-law shook his head. “I don’t know. I’ve only lived on the earth with six other Drakkons in my lifetime. I’ve never had to track any before Red and I used the Onyx to do it. But I can tell you this. Jeremy isn’t stupid enough to think he can fight the three of us. That’s why he’s hiding. His plan, once he found you, was to fish me out.”
“Still,” River pointed out, “that doesn’t tell us how the Red found Jacob, when none of you can find him.”
Jacob groaned inwardly.
“I seem to remember reading something in one of Father’s books about Drakkon,” Helena offered, paying no attention to Jacob’s groan growing a little louder. “It was something about tracking them by star song. It was in the part he wrote about Marrkiya and how they had tracked him and used the Phoenix Amber to transform him while he flew.”
“What are you talking about?” Jacob asked, but he suspected with a sinking heart, that he knew.
“Of course, this was never proven,” she went on, “but Father’s claim was that the stars sing for Drakkon…which we all know now is true. Unlike the life mate song, which anyone who has ever lived as Drakkon can hear, the music of flying is more subtle and can only be heard by the most astute ear.”
The music of flying. Then it was his fault Red was here. His fault her cattle were killed. His fault she was almost eaten today. He lowered his gaze to his feet.
“Jacob?” River asked, going to him and resting her hand on his arm. “Do you think the Red followed you here?”
She hadn’t read his thoughts. She didn’t need to.
“Yes,” he answered, glancing up at her, not knowing what to expect. Not expecting compassion…the warmth of tender affection.
“I don’t care,” she told him softly, quietly. “I’m glad you came.”