Chapter Nineteen
Red! Don’t touch her! he warned. If you want blood, don’t touch her!
But the Red didn’t answer. Jacob’s heart was torn to shreds. He opened his mouth and fire issued forth from between his scaly jaws. Ivy! I’m coming!
He heard Hagan Wray invoke the name of the Virgin Mary as three Drakkons came to life in his front yard. He took off with Garion flying behind him. Helena, stay with River, please. Please protect her.
His sister agreed and made him promise to protect Garion.
Jacob, River’s voice broke through the rest. What the hell is going on? Where are you and Garion going? Is it Ivy? Tell me. Is it? You looked so terrified. Please, this is scaring me. Is it Ivy?
Jacob couldn’t tell her. She’d never stay where she was. He couldn’t tell her what he’d heard. She’d go mad by it. He didn’t know what to answer, so he didn’t say anything. He turned his thoughts to her sister instead.
Ivy? Where are you? Where’s Graham? I don’t see Drakkon. He waited, searching the sky, searching the earth. Ivy?
His resolve faltered. Had the Red found her? Killed her? Kill them both? No, he wouldn’t let himself think the worst.
There’s a farm. Garion thought to him. Ivy said Graham lived close by. Helena says he went off the Onyx again. He’s walking.
Jacob’s blood rushed through his veins like molten fire. Ivy and Graham were a lure to get them away from the house. Go back, Garion, Jacob told him. He might have come here to get you away from Helena.
Smoke blew from Garion’s nostrils as he sliced his tail across the clouds and turned in the air. If you find him before I do and he’s Drakkon, forget his head. Go for his wings. Take him out of the sky. His head will be easy after that.
First, I have to find Ivy and Graham. Jacob pulled in his wings and dove toward the farm. Ivy? He prayed they were unconscious and not…hell, Ivy couldn’t be dead. Red, where is she? Where’s the man? What have you done to them?
He landed, unaltered and stormed on his great taloned feet toward the house. He picked up Red’s scent immediately, but it wasn’t fresh. The Drakkon had been here but was gone. Another scent drew him. Human. Not Ivy. He followed it to the pickup truck, parked and still warm just beyond the house. The front door was ajar. Smeared with blood.
Jacob approached slowly, his heart thundering within. Whose blood was it? Graham? He sniffed then cursed inwardly. Noah. River’s friend who she loved like a brother. Where was his body?
Fear gripped him the way it had only once before in his life when he was a child hiding behind a tree while a Gold Drakkon burned his house and everyone in it to the ground. Ivy, where the hell are you?
He flew over the house and the nearby cliffs listening for any sound of her, smelling the air, hoping to pick up her scent. After ten minutes of nothing, he headed back for the house. What was he going to tell River? The only thing left of her close friend was blood. Her sister was gone. Maybe eaten. The thought sickened him and broke the heart he regretted opening. Love did this—love had changed him, changed his world, and hurt like hell. Ivy and Graham were gone. Ivy. He’d promised to protect her, but he hadn’t even known she was gone. It was his fault Red was here, his fault Ivy was gone. The weight of it dragged him down.
He felt himself altering and flew low before he tumbled through the air as his wings faded and his talons became fingers. He let himself fall, keeping his eyes open on the sky as memories of Ivy’s big, blue eyes filled his thoughts. He descended and hit the water of Loch Seaforth on his back.
He was losing consciousness, sinking into a tomb of cold, murky silence. He heard her voice. “Just don’t hurt my sister. Please.”
It was just a memory.
I’m sorry, Ivy.
Jacob? It was River. Her voice shattered the shadows and brought the real darkness to light. Is Ivy with you?
He’d failed her. He’d failed himself. He’d lost one of his treasures.
Where are you, Jacob? Please, her voice paused on a broken whisper. Please, come back.
He opened his eyes and shot toward the surface, breaking free on an explosion of water and pearl-gold wings. It fell to him to tell her the terrible news. As it should. He could delay no longer. He had to pull himself together and be strong for her. He had to protect her and stop Red. Where was the bastard?
Garion, he reached out as the house came into view. He sensed River inside the house with her father and Helena. Anything on Red?
No. You didn’t find Ivy.
No.
Jacob landed a few feet from his brother-in-law, who was standing by the door and wearing a long, red, hooded fleece robe. He held another one in his hand and tossed it to Jacob when he altered.
“We’ll look like a cult.”
“It’s better than tearing your favorite pair of jeans to shreds,” Garion pointed out with a crook of his mouth. “Helena was right about the size.”
Jacob felt the insane urge to laugh…or cry. He’d never cried a day in his life. Not once.
But then the front door opened and his eyes filled with liquid as River slipped out into the light.
She took a hesitant step toward him, as if he pulled her with invisible tethers and she didn’t want to move.
“Where’s Ivy?” she asked on the barest breath. The anguish in her eyes would haunt him forever.
It took every ounce of strength he possessed to speak and not toss off his robe and fly away…away from the pain in his chest, in his belly. Away from the need to take her in his arms and beg her forgiveness. “I couldn’t find her.”
Somewhere behind Jacob, Garion left. They both knew what not finding her meant.
River stepped closer. Her eyes misted with tears, glistening like twin turbulent seas that threatened to drown him. Her lips parted but, for an instant, nothing but a hollow breath came out. “What…does that mean?”
He would do anything to avoid admitting her worst fear. “It means just that and nothing more. Nothing more.”
She reached out her finger and caught the tear coming down his cheek. “Then what is this?” Before he could answer and before she could stop her own tears from falling, she pressed her palm to his chest. “Is she dead, Jacob? Please tell me the truth.”
“I don’t know. She hasn’t spoken to me since…” Since she was screaming for his help. “Since I left. I searched for her, River. I couldn’t pick up a scent or a sound—”
“She could be hiding somewhere,” she insisted, trying to find hope. “Maybe she got hurt and is unconscious. Did you find Graham?”
“No,” he answered softly.
“Maybe they’re together!”
He nodded. “Yes, you’re probably right.”
“I’m going to the Munroes’.” She wiped her eyes and turned to start walking. “Noah should be getting back from Tarbert. We need to tell him. He’ll help us search for them.”
Jacob wished he’d never met her. He regretted staying with her and bringing Drakkon into her life. He clasped her arm to stop her. “River, there was blood. Noah’s blood.” The sight of her terror-stricken face, her shaking hands reaching for her mouth, was too much for Jacob to bear. He looked away. “I searched for him as well.”
“Blood,” she echoed, staring at him. “So the Red had been there.”
“Yes.”
“And…” She paused, waited a moment, and then continued without another tear. “Ivy hasn’t communicated with you though you’ve reached out.”
Attention everyone!
Red’s voice tore through Jacob’s head and set him spinning on his feet, looking around. Helena, having exited the house at some point prior, stood with Garion. Both were armed with pistols and ready to start shooting.
They saw no one on land or in the sky.
Garion reached into the pocket of his robe and produced another gun. He gave it to Jacob without taking his eyes off the hills. “We shoot him if he’s still walking. It will give us a minute or two to reach him with our claws. There’s a sword by the door, as well.”
“How did you get all that through customs?” Jacob asked, not really wanting to know.
“Is it Red?” River pulled on his sleeve.
Jacob nodded and stepped in front of her. Red! he demanded, Where’s the girl?
Which one? Red laughed.
You know which one, Jacob told him scathingly. The girl from the house west of here.
“I want to listen!” River pulled on his robe again. “Jacob, let me hear what he’s saying!”
No, Jacob shook his head. Not after the question he had just asked Red.
She grabbed fistfuls of the collar of his robe and pulled him down, just enough to level her gaze with his. The strength in her eyes warned him that she would have her way. Her command compelled him to open the connection. “Stop protecting me and let me listen.”
Oh right, the girl, Red answered after thinking about it for a second or two. She was delicious.
Jacob hadn’t let River listen in because he didn’t want her hearing anything like this. But he couldn’t stop his reaction. Or her from seeing it. Rage and horror drained the color from his skin. Red had eaten Ivy. No. Jacob’s eyes fell on River. No, he couldn’t have.
River took one look at him and nearly fell apart. She knew he was hearing something terrible about her sister. Her face mirrored his—horror and anguish vying with fury for dominance. “Let. Me. In,” she gave him one last warning.
He did.
…and the older of the two males was sour going down, Red was saying. He was in love with your life mate. I did you a favor, White.
Jeremy Redmond.
Jacob wasn’t surprised to hear River. He didn’t stop her from saying what she wanted to say, and he wouldn’t let anyone else stop her. He ached to pull her into his embrace, to offer her his strength. But she didn’t need it.
I’m going to kill you, she told Red without any trace of emotion in her tone.
You can’t kill me, human. Red chuckled in all their heads.
Garion raised his palm to her, cautioning her against saying too much.
River didn’t spare him a glance. She did slip her hardened gaze to Jacob, though, as if something just crossed her mind, adding to her anger. Yes, I can, Red, she said slowly, fearlessly, but not foolishly. And I’m going to do it.
Jacob looked into her eyes, wanting to promise her his help in killing Red, wanting to promise her anything.
She turned from him and walked backed to the house. He let her go.
You’ve got yourself a fiery one there, White, Red sneered in their heads. I might have to take her from you.
Jacob answered on a low growl. Come try it, Red. Please.
I’ll see you all soon enough, Red told them and then turned his attention to Garion. I hope you understand now what I’m capable of. Still, for the sake of our longtime friendship, and because I’m not like the Elders, I won’t kill you for what I want.
You’re just as bad as the Elders, Jeremy, Garion corrected him. You killed innocents, just like they did fourteen years ago.
You were always soft, Garion, Red drawled. It makes you easier to control. You forget I know your weaknesses. He laughed and sounded a little out of breath as if he were swimming or climbing. I want ten vials of your blood. Refuse and I’ll follow you wherever you go and kill people in your life until I get it.
Garion put his gun in his pocket and untied his robe. “I’m tired of doing nothing. I think he might try to make it to the ferry. He can disappear in Skye and be back here in an hour. I’m going to look for him. Jacob stay here with your life mate and keep her the hell away from Red.”
Jacob nodded. River would no doubt try to kill Red herself. He wasn’t about to let her get hurt. He wasn’t letting her out of his sight.
He backed up when Garion shrugged the robe off his shoulders and became Drakkon. Wide, elongated, yellow eyes swept over his wife. Helena’s robe fell to the ground and Jacob looked away as his sister moved out of her flesh and into her scales.
Red, Garion sent out lifting himself high on great, twenty-nine foot wide, gold wings. You’re not getting shit. The more people you kill, the more I’m convinced that Drakkon should never again rule the sky.
Walking back to the house, Jacob agreed.