Chapter 10
This was it. The plan of all plans. James was quite proud of himself. He’d not only been able to devise a plan that was epic, but it would take out all the people that he hated most in the world. And—and this was the best part—he’d have all the gems and jewels that he wanted. Just before he killed them, James was going to make them beg, like he’d wanted his father to do—but this would be a major payoff. These were going to be dragons sobbing and begging for their lives.
He’d found some notes that he’d completely forgotten about in the cave that disproved everything that his brother had told him. There was a way to kill a dragon, and it was quick and immediate. You only had to take off their heads, just like normal people, and that would end their lives. Of course, it would his as well if they were to do that to him, but that just wasn’t going to happen. Not to him. Giddy with glee at finding a way to end this shit, he danced around the campfire that he’d started.
He had no food to cook over the hot flames, however. The grocery store that he’d been hitting up on a daily basis had called the police on him when they’d caught him with several steaks and some other foods. Christ, he’d only just barely gotten away without the food when they arrived to take him in. James was sure that Griffith or his mother had had something to do with that. The man at the store had a list of things that he’d been taking, and he wanted money for it all. Money that James just did not have.
“I swear, it’s like they know my every move.” He had an idea that they did. The ground had spies in it. The bugs and shit flying around would have been telling on him. He knew that there were creatures of the earth around all the time. Not only had he seen them, but his parents had made sure that he knew about them so that he’d never cause them harm. “Like that wasn’t just an invite for me to terrorize them. I did it just to spite you all.”
His parents had even had them in his house, doing odd jobs and such. They’d had their own gardens too, just for the faeries and brownies. To him it seemed a total waste of time. And money. The flowers did no one any good other than the stupid bugs. Christ, his parents had been ignorant.
He was as healed as he thought he was going to be now. James still had trouble with his hands on occasion, and his arms would kink up when the weather was wet. He hated the early mornings most of all. When the dew was around, it was like an invitation to cause him a great deal of pain. James was going to make them all pay for that too. Especially that little brat.
He had figured out how she’d hurt him—or how she’d not hurt him. There wasn’t a scent of magic anywhere close to her. And she’d been acting all powerful. But now that he was away from her, he had reasoned that she was only the front man—the real magic had come from one of the others.
“How stupid do they think I am? You’d have to get up very early in the morning to pull one over on me.” Something else that he’d been doing was practicing his name. When Griffith was gone, he’d inherit all his titles. Not to mention wealth as well. “I’ll have it all.”
Putting out his fire, he went to the nearby creek to wash up. He had a new shirt on, one that he’d managed to keep under his shirt when he’d been run off. James wanted them to sit up and take notice of him today, just before he killed them.
Leaning over the water, he reached his hand into it and felt something hit him in the back of the head. Looking around as he sat in the stream, he could see no one, and nothing that would have fallen on him. Standing up, he felt the water rush over his legs and he was down again. Christ.
“What the fuck is going on here?” Of course no one answered him, so he tentatively tried to stand again. Whoosh, the water seemed to tangle around his feet, and this time he went into the water head first. Coming up out of the stream this time, he heard laughter. Sitting on the bank was none other than his woman.
“Hello, dumbass. Are you enjoying your bath? You seem to be having some trouble there.” He asked her what she was doing here. “I’ve come to warn you off. Not that I think it will do me much good, but that’s the reason. And to have some fun with you.”
Before he could guess what she was talking about, he was being lifted by the water, by the fucking water, and held there. There was nothing that he could hold onto, as the water was as slippery as glass. James stared at her as she leaned back on her hands and smiled at him.
“I suppose you think that I’m to be afraid of this. I’m not. It’s not very nice that someone is playing tricks on me so early in the morning.” She asked him if he really thought that. “Of course. Trickery will get you nowhere. What is your name, anyway? The last time I had you, I neglected to ask you that.”
“No, you didn’t care, that’s why you never knew it. And I have no intention of telling you now either. Let’s just call me, Wife to Your Brother.” He cursed at her, and she smiled bigger. “Does your mother know that you curse like that? Who, by the way, is a very nice person. Why would you want to murder her? I mean, it’s not like she’s done anything wrong to you.”
“She was in the way.” The woman nodded as if she understood him. “Are you trying to make me think that you understand the workings of my mind? No one can do that. I’m way beyond any intelligence that you might think you have. I’m much older than you as well. Which also makes me stronger than you are.”
“So, you think that you’re the one controlling the water? And I’m incredibly older than you, moron.” The water started tossing him into the air and catching him. It was dizzying. Up and down, swirling around like a top. When he finally settled again, he had to hold his belly, or he’d be sick all over himself. “I’m the holder of water. A faerie of considerable age. And in turn, your wonderful loving brother, the total opposite of you, is my king.”
“Griffith is no more king than I am. And you? What do you hope to gain by telling such lies?” He was lifted once more, this time to a height that he knew if he was dropped, he was going to hurt again. “Put me down. Right now.”
He should have chosen his words better, because as soon as he said now, the water disappeared from under him and he plummeted to the earth. The water, he thought, was as hard if not harder than the ground when he hit it.
Every part of him hurt again. Not only his arms and wrists, but his legs and his head. Getting out of the water, he noticed that he was covered in blood. Finding the huge knot on his head, he glared at the woman.
“You bitch. Look what you did.” She asked him if he was ready to admit that she had power over the water. “No. But I’m sure that you think you do. Whatever happened there, you can bet that I could do it better. Not because you’re a woman, but because I’m so much better than you.”
Something grabbed him around the waist and he felt himself being dragged back to the water. Trying to pull it off, his hands only met with water, and as it tightened its grip on him, James was afraid. If she did indeed have control over the water, she could hurt him badly with it.
This time instead of taking him up high and dropping him, he was held up by his leg and dipped over and over into the water like a damned tea bag. Every time he’d come up sputtering like a fool, James could hear her laughing. The bitch was going to pay for this. Dropped again, this time on the shore, he laid there for several minutes trying to catch his breath. He was coughing up water, and his nose was leaking it out too.
James closed his eyes, hoping that she was tired of this game and would leave him alone. Making a mental note to hurt her for this, he let his body go limp with exhaustion.
When he woke, he was stiffer than he’d ever been. His clothing was still damp, and that had not helped his aching body. Moving to where he’d been cooking his meals, he found that his matches were now wet, and the wood that he’d had to drag to the site was wet too. Looking around, he realized that it had rained. A great deal, by the looks of things.
Making his way to find some drier wood and a way to light the shit when he got it, he noticed that anything about ten feet from where he was camping was dry. James did a com
plete circle around the campsite and saw that he was right. It had rained, or whatever, just in the circle around his area.
“You fucking bitch. You’re going to pay for this.” He raised his fists to the air and screamed at her again. “What the fuck is wrong with you that you’d do this to me? What the hell have I done to you yet? Nothing. Nothing at all, because someone let you go. Now, you’ll pay. All of you will.”
Dragging the dry wood to the fire pit that he had, James stopped long enough to curse them out, tell them what he had plans for, as well as how much he was going to make them suffer. It took him longer because of that, too.
Once he had all the wood he thought he’d need, he started trying to figure out how to get a fire going. He remembered once that someone on the television had rubbed two sticks together and that seemed to work. So, James set about doing that.
“If I was a fucking dragon like I should have been, then this would be easier.” He screamed and fell back when the fire started in a huge ball of flames. When a shadow fell across him, he looked up at his brother. “What the fuck are you doing here? You’re supposed to wait for me to come to you. Damn it, Griffith, don’t you understand protocol?”
“Yes, well, I didn’t think that we had to stand on ceremony when one of us was living off the land. And you’re welcome, by the way. I don’t want you to freeze to death before I have a chance to talk to you.” Griffith sat down, again uninvited. “I heard you had a nice morning with my wife. Did she get you nice and clean?”
He was making fun of him, and James hated him even more. Instead of telling him off, like he wanted to do, he put more wood onto his fire. The insolent bastard was going to get his. James was going to make sure of it.
“What is it you want? If it’s to make fun of me more, you can just be on your way. I have things to do.” Griffith didn’t move from his spot. “Did you not hear what I just said to you? Go the fuck away.”
“I will when I’m ready.” The hardness of Griffith’s voice made him cringe back from him. “Now, I’d like to ask you to give yourself in to the council and be done with this plotting and planning. You’re not going to be able to kill any of us. First of all, to remove our heads, as you have planned, you need a sword. And I just don’t see one. Unless of course you have it hidden away. But I don’t think so. The mother of the earth would have told me.”
“Mother of the earth? Are you drunk? High? Fuck you. I will succeed, and there won’t be a thing you can do about it.” Griffith nodded and picked up a stick, and played in his fire with it. “You don’t have my permission to bother my things. Go away and leave me in peace. Or die. That would just make my day to see you dead.”
“Yes, I’m sure that it would. But, since I gave you this flame, you had better be nice to me or I’ll take it back. Or I’ll have my mate come and dunk you a few more times in the water. Now shut up and listen to me.” Again, his voice was hard, and James felt as if he had no choice in the matter but to shut up and listen. “You have twenty-four hours to turn yourself in. If you do not, I will kill you. Not maim you, not hurt you a little, but remove your empty head from your shoulders as you did to our father.”
“He was weak, did you know that? Begged me over and over to let him go. To come for you instead of him. But I had him where I wanted him, and I killed him. My plan was to kill both you and Mother too, but I was thwarted in that. But I’m ready for you now. And I’m going to be the one removing heads, not you.” Griffith laughed; it was loud, and seemed to come from the entire forest the way it echoed around the two of them. “You think this is funny, Griffith?”
“I do, as a matter of fact. You can’t even build a decent fire, and you expect me to be quaking in my boots? Not hardly. I’m a much bigger man than you would ever be.” Griffith stood up, and James felt his balls tighten to his body when his brother went from man to dragon in a breath. You’ll heed my warning, James, or this will be the last thing you ever see. I promise you that.
His dragon was enormous, much larger than he’d remembered. And the helmet across his head was dangerous looking, like he could lower his head and ram the barbs there into a person. Suddenly his wings spread out from his body, large and gleaming, like gems and jewels were all over it. Just as he was reaching out to touch them, to see if they were as soft as they looked, they flapped once and raised Griffith off the ground. Then with that, he disappeared into the sky.
James stayed where he was, only moving when the fire started to die down. His brother was a dragon. A fucking dragon. And he was going to try and kill him with it.
He knew that his brother was a dragon, had seen him in all his glory when they’d been kids growing up. Every time he’d seen his brother flying with his friends, James had thought him smaller than the others, and had had a good laugh at the inadequateness of him. Now he thought that Griffith was even bigger than Damn Bird. Fuck, this was getting out of hand.
“I need a better plan.” Sure he did, he thought. One that wouldn’t have him roasting on a spit by his own brother. “I’ll work on it, and they’ll rue the day that they threatened me. See if they don’t.”
~*~
Griff loved what he was doing with Lilac today. The auction that they were attending had all the things that he wanted for his home, and a great deal of them for the museum. He knew the man that was selling his things—he’d been a friend of his for quite a number of years. Carson was a warlock of good standing. Retiring from life, he’d decided to let go of a lot of his things.
“I leave you alone for ten or so years, and what do you do? Go and find you a love and become a king of the water.” They hugged as only good friends could do. “You have a lovely mate, my friend. She’s eyeing my collection of gems. I have told her that whatever she wants, she could have, but she is telling me that she’s going to buy them and not have them given to her. Does she realize that I don’t need the money any more than you do?”
“I’m sure that she does.” They both watched her standing over the boxes while the auctioneer tried to get a much higher bid on some of them. “She won’t go over what she is willing to pay for things. Me? I will get all caught up in the sale and the magic of it, and usually spend too much. But Christ, it’s fun.”
When she got her boxes, she danced around for a minute before collecting them. Adding them to her growing pile, Griff followed Carson into his home. The house along with the property wasn’t up for auction or sale. Carson said that he might return someday, and wanted a place to live.
“I’ve decided that I want you and the missus to have the house.” Griff started to tell him no when he held up his hand. “Treasure abounds in here. The sublevels, well below the basement, has my lab, as well as an extensive collection of wines. I don’t know anyone I trust more than you to take care of this place.”
“I thought you were planning to return someday.” Carson said that he was just too tired. “Once you rest up, you’ll find that you want to come back.”
“I’m sure if that were true, you’d allow me to stay here until I got bored with life again.” Griff told him of course he would. “I miss my Mae. She was my heart and soul. Kept me alive; not just kept my heart beating, but just kept me from becoming an ass, or someone that could turn to the other side of this magic.”
“I’m so sorry about that, Carson. Until I met my own mate, I couldn’t have understood what you mean. You have my heartfelt sympathy. I don’t know what I’d do if I were in the same place.” Carson hugged him again and they sat on the only two pieces of furniture in the living room. “I’ll help you out by keeping an eye on the place for you, but I won’t take it. When you’ve had enough rest, come back and we’ll have a nice steak dinner together.”
Carson nodded and smiled at him. In that moment, Griff knew that the man wasn’t going to come back. Nor was he only going to rest. Carson was going to end his own life, and there would be no talking him out of it.
They talked for a bit longer, nothing really earth shattering, before they made t
heir way outside again. Griff had to laugh. Lilac’s pile had grown exponentially, and she was carrying two more items to her pile even as they made their way to her.
“You would not believe what I got all this for. And I know what you’re going to say—we don’t need another wine opener, we have four. Nor do we need any more pots and pans. But I have a plan.” He asked her what that was, not caring one bit how much she spent or on what since she was having such a good time. “Carson, you should have a talk with that auctioneer. He’s just giving it all away.”
“You enjoy it, my dear. I’m glad that someone that appreciates a good deal is getting it.” She told them that she was going to set up a storage area with these things to give to people in need. “I love that idea. Very much so. Had I thought of it, I would have just donated this all to you and your cause. But I would have missed seeing you having such a wonderful time in getting them.”
“I do like a good deal.”
They both laughed, and Lilac said she was going back to the auction. Griff loved this woman more than he could put to words. He looked at Carson when he laughed.
“I do believe your lovely mate has you all twisted up and wrapped with a pretty bow.” Griff didn’t even try and deny it; he said that she had him hook, line, and sinker. “It shows. You’re happy, and that’s such a good thing for you.”
“It is. I wish that I could say the same for you.” Carson told him that the two of them had given him such joy today. “You’re a good friend, Carson, the best. I’m going to miss you.”
“And I you. To change the subject, I heard that your mother is alive. And that James is causing heartache in your town.” Griff told him about Lilac being caught by him, as well as how he’d been pissed about Mom being alive. “Yes, I can see that about him. What a monster, if you don’t mind me being honest with you.”
Griffith: The English Dragon ― Erotic Paranormal Dragon Shifter Romance Page 13