Chapter 11
“What the hell do you mean you have no idea where Izabella is?”
Anna Mikhailova twisted her hands together. “We believed she was with you.”
Deryk’s dragon was too close to the surface for him to heed the accusation he could hear in the voice of Izabella’s mother. His talons were currently in danger of piercing his skin with the intention of wreaking carnage on anything and anyone who might be keeping Izabella from him. She was missing, and he and his dragon were both frantic with worry.
“Obviously not.” He looked at the other people working in the kitchen. “Has anyone else seen her this morning?”
“We’ve all been working in here since Izzi had breakfast with us earlier.” Anton Mikhailov quietly answered for everyone in the kitchen.
It was also several hours since Deryk had spoken to Izabella.
Unfortunately, his meeting with his brothers and the Romanovs had gone on much longer than he had expected, mainly because Vaughn had been reluctant to reveal the name of the woman he had been going to meet or to have her questioned when he had revealed it.
Finally, Grigor had been the one to insist the other dragon either give them that information, or he and his brothers would be leaving St. Petersburg, along with Deryk’s mate, and the Romanovs could continue to search alone for the dragon hunters.
After the meeting, Deryk had returned to his bedchamber with every intention of apologizing to Izabella for having been away so long. If her need for him was anything like his for her, then she was in great discomfort. But Izabella hadn’t been in his bedchamber waiting for him, as she had said she would be. A search of the palace had shown she wasn’t anywhere else in the building either.
Where the hell could she have gone?
More to the point, why had she left at all?
The why didn’t really matter, only the where, and Deryk had every intention of turning St. Petersburg inside out and upside down until he found her.
This had been a mistake, Izzi realized within seconds of arriving at the Petrovs’ apartment.
Tanya had been the one to open the door to Izzi’s knock and then invite her inside. The other woman looked slightly pale as they walked through to the kitchen, but otherwise, she appeared in good health. Certainly not ill enough to have called in sick the past two days.
Finding Pyotr was at home too was something of a surprise. He was usually at the university at this time of day.
Pyotr rose noisily from where he had been seated at the kitchen table drinking strong black coffee, as soon as Izzi entered the kitchen with his sister. “What is she doing here?” he sneered.
“I just called to see how Tanya is.” Izzi was the one to answer him evenly, a little surprised at the aggression in Pyotr’s tone. Admittedly, the last time she saw him, she had told him she was having dinner with Deryk, but she had thought the two of them were still friends.
Pyotr gave her a scathing glance. “I’m surprised you could tear yourself away from your new boyfriend.”
She winced at his accusing tone but knew she probably deserved it. “Deryk isn’t my boyfriend.” He was so much more than that. Her fated mate. The man who had stated without hesitation he wanted to spend the rest of his long life with her at his side.
Pyotr snorted. “You could have fooled me. The man has become your shadow.”
Izzi eyed him quizzically. Pyotr was far from being the affable man she’d been dating for the past two months. Was it because he was jealous of the time she had been spending with Deryk? Or something else?
“Are the two of you going away somewhere, or just having a clear out?” She lightly changed the subject to something less controversial as she saw the several hastily packed boxes on the kitchen floor.
There was something very wrong with this whole scenario. Tanya didn’t look ill and neither did Pyotr, so why were they both at home instead of where they should be? And why the packed boxes?
It was as if the two of them were about to leave St. Petersburg for some time, if not for good.
This whole situation gave Izzi a terrible feeling of unease in the pit of her stomach.
“But don’t you see, this is perfect.” Tanya ignored Izzi and answered her brother instead. “We failed last night, but now we have her. Think, Pyotr,” she bit out impatiently as he continued to glare at Izzi. “She is now our safe passage out of St. Petersburg.”
He shook his head. “I keep telling you I’m not leaving until those bastards pay for what they did.”
“But they will pay.” Tanya lightly squeezed her brother’s arm. “We have the leverage now to achieve exactly what we set out to do.” She gave a triumphant glance in Izzi’s direction.
That unease in Izzi’s stomach turned acidic as she realized she was the leverage Tanya was talking about.
But leverage for what and against whom?
It couldn’t be Deryk. He might be arrogant and abrasive, but he hadn’t been in St. Petersburg long enough to have earned the rancor of both brother and sister.
Besides, Tanya and Pyotr had both implied more than one person had to pay for something that had been done to them.
Tanya’s mention of the two of them having failed to take that revenge the previous night was pretty telling, because last night, Vaughn had almost been killed by what Deryk believed were dragon hunters.
Were Tanya and Pyotr those dragon hunters?
If so, which of the dragons was to be their next target after they had failed to kill Vaughn?
“Deryk will come for me,” Izzi told them with absolute certainty. She might not have agreed to go through with their mating yet, but she knew Deryk had no doubt. She was his. His woman. His mate.
“But he will not come alone.” Tanya gave a smile that, to Izzi, went way beyond reckless and bordered almost on madness.
Why had she never seen any of this in the other woman before now? “Deryk’s brothers—”
“The Romanovs will come too,” Tanya stated with certainty.
Izzi’s frown was pained. “Are the two of you responsible for the attack on Vaughn last night?”
“Of course,” Pyotr confirmed without regret.
“The youngest Romanov was so easy to seduce and lull into a false sense of well-being,” Tanya added contemptuously. “He was even whistling softly to himself as we followed him on his way to meet with me.”
Izzi frowned at Pyotr. “You tried to decapitate Vaughn.” She knew it couldn’t have been Tanya who had wielded the knife or sword that had been used, because she had seen Tanya later that evening, and there had been no blood on the other woman’s clothing.
“And failed.” Tanya gave her brother a reproving frown. “Next time, I will be the one to make the death strike.”
And Izzi had almost come home with this woman the night before! “Why do you hate the Romanov brothers so much?”
“Because they are unnatural,” Pyotr scorned. “An abomination on the earth. Nothing but animals. Dragons!” His hands clenched at his sides.
“They are simply wealthy Russian citizens.” Izzi tried to brush off the accusation, her thoughts racing as to how Pyotr could possibly have discovered the truth about the Romanov brothers. Oh God, please let it not be because of something she had said or done—
“They’re all dragons,” Pyotr insisted vehemently. “And murderous bastards!”
Izzi remembered being shocked by Deryk’s comment about not hesitating to kill if the situation warranted it. Did the Romanov brothers live by the same code? And if so, who was the someone they might have killed who was close to the Petrovs?
Or someones…
“Your parents.” She spoke the words out loud before she had time to stop herself, knowing by the fury that now darkened Pyotr’s handsome face that her guess had been correct. Pyotr had never said how his parents died, only stated that they were dead. “How did your parents die?”
“The authorities claimed they were attacked by wolves, but Tanya and I know exactly who it was. The Romanov dragons killed them.” Spittle sprayed from Pyotr’s mouth in his vehemence and hatred against the dragons.
“I don’t—”
“Without mercy,” Pyotr insisted fiercely.
Izzi gave up all further thought of trying to convince the Petrovs there was no such thing as dragons. “Why?”
“Because our parents discovered who and what they are and threatened to expose them,” he bit out coldly.
“Your parents were dragon hunters?”
“Not at first,” Pyotr said bleakly. “Initially, they were just two ordinary people, going to work and bringing up their two children. But once our father began to work in the gardens at Mikhailov Palace, he discovered they were also dragons.” His eyes glittered with malice. “Our parents were devout people, knew such an abomination must be erased off the face of the earth. They began to research how best to kill a dragon, and wrote down those findings in several journals.”
This situation just became worse and worse. “You have those journals?”
He nodded. “But the dragons discovered what our parents were doing before they succeeded in destroying any of them. To ensure our parents didn’t tell anyone else what they knew, the dragons killed them. Without a thought or care for the two children they left behind,” he added bitterly.
Izzi’s mouth was so dry, she was having trouble swallowing. Not only because of the things Pyotr and Tanya were telling her, but because of the fact they were telling her at all. Revealing everything they had done, and why, would seem to imply Izzi wouldn’t be around for long enough to relay that information to anyone else.
She winced. “What happened to the two of you?”
“I was eleven and Tanya fifteen, so what do you think happened to the two of us?” Pyotr sneered.
Even today, Russian orphanages were known to be harsh and totally inadequate for the care of small and vulnerable children. Ten years ago, Pyotr and Tanya hadn’t been endearing babies or young infants, and so would have had little chance of being adopted and leaving the orphanage.
“I spent only a year of abuse at the orphanage before I was thrown out into the street to survive as best I could.” Tanya took over the narrative from her brother. “With no family, no means of support, and nowhere to live, I had no choice but to walk those streets. To become a whore for whoever had the money to pay me.”
Izzi could only imagine how desperate a much younger Tanya would have been.
“But over time, I became good at it,” the other woman added somewhat proudly. “I was eventually able to pick and choose my clients. I was even exclusive to the same man, who kept me in this apartment for six months. I saved the money I earned on the nights he wasn’t able to be with me, was determined when Pyotr was allowed out of the orphanage that he would come to live with me here and have the opportunities I hadn’t. That he would go to university and attain the qualifications that would allow him to find a decent job, a career. Instead, he met you.” Her tone chilled. “Someone who not only lived with them but was one of their human pets.”
Izzi had never thought of herself in that way, nor did she think the Romanovs thought of her and her family that way. But she could see how it might appear that way to the embittered Tanya and Pyotr.
“You used me to get to the Romanovs,” she realized dully.
Tanya huffed. “It was all too easy for Pyotr to charm the privileged rich girl rebelling against the way her family lived to serve the Romanovs.” She eyed Izzi contemptuously. “The spoiled and pampered Izabella Mikhailova, from a family protected by and living with the Romanov dragons. It was too convenient an opportunity to miss. Our destiny, if you will, in revenge for taking the lives of our parents. Having you come here today plays even more perfectly into our hands,” Tanya added triumphantly. “We were going to leave St. Petersburg without achieving what we set out to do, but now we can all simply sit here together and wait for the dragons to arrive.”
“You’ll both die if you try to attack them.” Izzi had no doubt of the outcome. Two humans against the power of ten dragons? Tanya and Pyotr wouldn’t stand a chance.
“But we have you,” Pyotr reminded her. “We’ll demand one of them in exchange for releasing you.”
“And you’ll still both die,” Izzi stated with certainty.
“Not before we’ve killed one of the dragons,” he dismissed with relish. “And Tanya is correct, we can then use you to get ourselves safely out of the city.”
Her eyes widened. “You have no intention of honoring the exchange?”
“Honor?” Pyotr scoffed. “What do the Romanov beasts know of honor?”
The nausea Izzi had felt earlier was nothing compared to how ill she felt now. Not only had she allowed Pyotr to get close to her, but she had arranged for Tanya to be employed at the palace. Vaughn had almost died because of her stupidity. She had placed all the Romanov brothers in danger with her naive and childish rebellion against her family’s servitude to the Romanovs. Deryk was now also at risk.
Because, as Tanya predicted, Deryk would come for her. Just as Izzi knew without a doubt he would be the one to offer himself up in exchange for her safety.
Deryk had expected his brothers to come to his aid in looking for Izabella, but the Romanovs had also insisted on joining in the hunt.
Not that Deryk gave a fuck one way or the other what the Romanov brothers did or didn’t do. His only goal was to find Izabella and take her away from here to somewhere he could keep her safe. Once he had Izabella back in his arms, he intended to do exactly that. They would leave the other dragons to sort out the rest of this shit-storm.
“Izzi and her family are still under my protection,” Vlad informed him coldly as they all gathered on the roof of the Mikhailov Palace, preparing to depart.
Deryk narrowed icy eyes. “And it’s pretty clear to me that over the years, you’ve grown arrogant and lazy in the protection of what you refer to as your humans. Of which Izabella is no longer one,” he added firmly.
“Deryk—”
“Don’t even try to shut me up, Grigor.” He glared at his eldest brother. “If Romanov and his brothers had been doing their job of protection properly, then Izabella wouldn’t now be missing. As far as I’m concerned, Romanov no longer has the right to claim to protect her.”
“You—”
“He’s right.” Vlad spoke quietly over Grigor’s warning before turning back to Deryk, his expression bleak. “When we find Izzi, you have my permission to take her wherever you believe she will be safest from harm.”
“I don’t need your fucking permission—”
“Just ensure that Izzi is safe,” the Russian growled, his eyes glittering. “We will deal with the others. I will also make sure Izzi’s parents understand and accept the situation of your mating when I return to the palace.”
Deryk’s brows rose. “That wasn’t your attitude the last time we spoke on the subject.”
“I have changed my mind.”
He snorted. “No more ‘let’s settle this outside’ crap?”
The other dragon’s jaw tightened. “No.”
“Why not?”
“Because the way you protect Izabella above all else proves she is undoubtedly your mate.”
What Deryk wanted to do right now was rip someone or something apart, preferably Vlad Romanov, but now the bastard had decided to be reasonable. To actually sound as if he cared that Izabella might currently be in great danger. Which Deryk believed she was. She was neither dragon nor dragon’s mate as yet, and as such, she was completely vulnerable.
“Let’s do this,” Deryk snapped, becoming dragon in a matter of seconds, leaving the others to follow him as he took off into the sky.
If Izabella had gone where he thought she had, then once Deryk had her safely away from St. Petersburg, it was his intention to thoroughly chastise her for putting herself and their mating in danger. And his worry was such he knew he wouldn’t be gentle with her.
Once he had her safely out of harm’s way.
If he wasn’t already too late.
The building he landed on several minutes later looked innocuous enough. It was one of the functional apartment buildings that had sprung up on the outskirts of St. Petersburg from the nineteen sixties to the nineteen eighties. They contained little character and were too flimsily built to offer much in the way of security, but at least they gave families the opportunity to live separately and away from the main and expensive part of the city.
Or so Vlad had informed them when they brought up a plan of the building online and all discussed the best way to approach and enter the building.
Deryk didn’t give a fuck whether the apartment building had the security of the Bank of England, he was going in there, and he wasn’t leaving again without Izabella.
Once again, he didn’t wait for the rest of the dragons before easily breaking the lock on the door into the top of the building and quietly entering the emergency stairwell. The apartment he was looking for was on the tenth floor. Number one-zero-two, to be exact.
The apartment he knew to be that of the brother and sister, Pyotr and Tanya.
Vaughn’s would-be lover.
Izabella’s ex-boyfriend.
Dragon hunters.