Then, just when he was on the edge of entering the phase of his transformation when he would no longer be able to control or curtail it, Cami fell, hitting the ground with a hard thump. Nicholas managed—with an effort—to get himself back under conscious control, to push the dragon back down inside of his human form. His vision had already started to take on the color tones of draconic sight, and he looked around to see what had happened; why was Cami still on the floor, with all four Egan men there? How had he dropped her in the first place? It hit Nicholas in a rush, as human consciousness started to come back more fully: Alexander Yates-Egan hadn’t consciously dropped Cami. He hadn’t been able to keep his grip on her.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Dylan
Dylan tried to reach out with his mind, tried to “hear” on the level that he was used to doing ever since his secondary abilities had begun to manifest in his early childhood, but all that came to him was silence. Holy shit! She did it! Dylan thought, and caught no sign that anyone had heard him. He thought the words “louder” in his mind, and there was nothing, not even the tingle he had long since learned to ignore that came with mental contact with another person.
“Cami!” Elijah moved immediately to help her up off of the floor.
Dylan, Alistair, and Nicholas resumed their positions around her as well. He took a second to glance at the faces of the Egan men and the Elders’ representatives who had come to take the woman that he and his cousins were intent on mating with, and their surprise was obvious enough that he didn’t need his abilities to have a fairly good idea of the kind of thoughts going through their minds.
“She’s Keane’s daughter, all right,” Francesca said, recovering from her shock first.
“How are we going to handle this?” Niall asked, and Dylan wondered if the four older dragons had also had their own abilities nullified, if Cami had just put a blanket force out, suppressing the abilities of every other dragon in the room.
“Are you okay?” Dylan asked as Cami got up with Elijah’s help.
“A bit banged up, but yeah,” Cami replied. She looked at the assembled Egans and the Elders’ representatives. “What the fuck kind of moral high ground can anyone have when you grab women without their consent?” she looked at Alexander, the one who had ‘lifted’ her in the first place, and scowled. Dylan had to resist the urge to laugh.
“We recognize that we didn’t make the best first impression,” Aoife said. “And now that we can confirm who you are, it’s more important than ever that we get you to the Elders.”
“You’re going to have a real hard time with that,” Cami said, crossing her arms over her chest once again. “Because I have zero interest in going anywhere with a bunch of strangers.”
“Nobody here wants to harm you,” Jamie Egan said, and Dylan could see that the elder Egan cousin was trying to get some measure of control over the situation, to get things back on the rails. He wondered if the Egan clan believed any of the prophecy at all or if they just hadn’t counted on Cami gaining her secondary abilities so quickly. Even still, it doesn’t seem likely she can use them all that intentionally, Dylan mused. She knocked out everyone’s abilities without any thought.
“Allow us to take control of this situation,” Adeon suggested to the Egan leader. “Because I think, by now, we’ve had enough Egan-Overton drama.”
“Personally, I feel like the only way out of this mess is to allow Cami to go to her own home,” Dylan pointed out. “She clearly has no interest in reporting to the Elders, and she doesn’t want to go with the Egans or with you.”
“Damn straight,” Cami said. “I have managed my entire life without any Elders overseeing me, and I’m not about to kowtow to any arbitrary authority figure just because people tell me to.”
“You do not want for the Elders to come to you directly,” Niall said. “I’m sure that in spite of everything else going on, the Overton men have told you that the Elders are very real; their abilities very pronounced.”
This does open up the question of whether or not Cami could nullify even the Elders’ abilities, Dylan thought. He was fairly certain he wasn’t the only one having that thought; there was a wariness in the Elders’ representatives that told him that they were questioning their basic positions on the pecking order at that very moment. He still didn’t know if Cami had managed to nullify them too, but then, none of the chosen representatives had telepathic or telekinetic abilities, so it would be harder to determine.
“I propose we reach a compromise,” Nicholas said. “Cami can go to her father’s estate, where she can be under remote supervision by representatives the Elders trust. She’s set to inherit that property anyway, and the fact that she isn’t yet fully a dragon shouldn’t interfere.”
“On her own, in an estate tied to her dragon ancestors, there would be much less opportunity for oversight,” Adeon pointed out.
“That would be why it’s a compromise,” Alistair countered. “Cami gets to remain free, but she isn’t in our keeping and she’s within reach of the Elders.”
“Given the information provided by the Egan clan, the Elders wish to speak with her immediately,” Niall said. “They don’t want to pay court to her on her own property.”
“Sucks to be them, then,” Cami said. Dylan snickered.
“We have our instructions,” Adeon insisted.
“The nature of the situation has changed considerably, Adeon,” Francesca pointed out. “I am in favor of escorting the Keane heir to the property she will be inheriting in due course.”
“She can simply choose to ignore the Elders’ summons there,” Niall countered.
“I fully intend on going to this tribunal thing,” Cami said. “I want to support the Overtons.”
“You haven’t had any exposure to the rest of our kind,” Aoife told her. “You will need more time to discover if this is an alliance you want to maintain.”
“As of right now, your options are to let me go to my father’s house or let me go home,” Cami said matter-of-factly. “Because I’m not really sure you have any way to make me come with you to visit the grandparents.” Dylan suppressed another spurt of laughter that bubbled up in reaction to her description of the Elders.
“Your disrespect of the Elders is not going to serve you well,” Adeon warned her. “They don’t take kindly to being treated the way you’re treating us.”
“Oh, I’m sure they don’t,” Cami said. “I haven’t yet heard a good reason why it’s my problem that they don’t like it, though.”
“They can kill you,” Jamie offered.
“I mean, he’s technically right,” Dylan said. “Even a stopped Egan is right twice a day. The Elders can put you to death.”
Cami raised an eyebrow. “On the other hand, if I am who everyone here seems to think I am, killing me would be a very bad idea,” she pointed out. “If I’m the secret to keeping the species stable and functioning properly, then killing me because I’m a brat would be like killing the goose that laid the golden egg because it only lays one a day.”
“She has a point there,” Elijah said.
“Which brings us back to the compromise,” Nicholas chimed in. “I suggest that you accept the offer, because based on what Cami just did, I don’t think there’s much chance of getting her to cooperate otherwise.”
The four representatives of the Elders looked at each other, and Dylan could see that they were still grappling with the fact that they had so little power in the face of a woman who couldn’t even transform into a dragon yet. They were totally unprepared to confront someone with the abilities that Cami had inherited from her father; he had to think the Elders would be too. It had been a long time since the Keane family had produced a woman—and a long time since someone who could control the abilities of other dragons had been any kind of force in the political landscape.
The question is: what will happen next? Dylan thought. Does she even know how to turn the abilities back on? Can she nullify abilities co
nsciously, or was it just an instinctive use of her ability? He looked at Cami and wished that he had his own ability back to be able to ask her that question in her mind, without letting anyone else in on the issue.
“I think the wisest course is to accept this compromise,” Aoife said to the other three. “I respect that the Elders have made their position plain on this issue, but they aren’t here. Getting her away from the direct and sole influence of the Overton men is the largest concern.”
“They are going to be displeased,” Niall countered.
“Of course they are,” Francesca said. “But how do you suppose we are going to get an unwilling dragon-in-the making to come with us if she doesn’t want to and can resist our abilities—even nullify them?”
“Brute force is an option,” Gabriel Egan pointed out.
“Not the best one,” Francesca told him. “If our goal is to incorporate the Keane heir into our world and help her to fulfill her destiny, we need to give as well as take.”
“As much as I don’t like the possibility of punishment from the Elders, I have to assume that they also would be displeased if things here escalate further,” Adeon said. “Cami—that’s your name?”
Cami nodded. “Camille,” she said. “I would rather strangers call me Camille.”
“Cami, if we agree to your terms, will you undo your nullification of abilities here?” Dylan looked at the woman he wanted as his mate steadily, wondering if she was even capable of doing that.
“I will,” Cami said. “But first, the Egans will leave. I will go with you and one of the Overton men to my father’s property, with my possessions, and then you and whoever you choose from the Overton clan will leave. And I will speak to the Elders at the tribunal.”
“No,” Jamie said. “If the Overtons come, we come.”
“Your clan created more tension here by how you behaved,” Niall told the Egan leader sharply, and Dylan didn’t stop the gratified chuckle that rose up in him at that. “If Alexander hadn’t acted inappropriately, we would not be at this stalemate.”
“Please leave the property,” Nicholas said. “We are happy to allow the representatives to stay until they choose one of us to accompany them in escorting Cami to her new home.”
“You can’t do that!” Gabriel protested.
“I think you will find that we can,” Adeon said. “You four can leave. We will handle this.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Cami
Cami stepped out of the bedroom she had taken at her father’s home, looking down the hallway. She had been in the home—empty except for herself—for a night and part of a day, close to twenty-four hours. She still felt the cold whisper of ghosts in the air.
“It’s creepy,” she said with a sigh.
The mansion her father had owned was no less opulent than it was chilly and haunted; however, everything had been neatly cleaned and put away. As she’d explored the enormous home, Cami had taken in the marble floors, the priceless art, the expensive furniture. The house had a dozen bedrooms, including the master suite; the bedroom she had taken for herself was clearly a guest room, with an attached bathroom that boasted an impressive bath, but the master suite was orders of magnitude grander: a shower alcove that boasted six different shower heads all pointing to the center from different directions, a bathtub big enough for three adults to lounge in, a steam room, and a vanity that took up most of a wall. The closet was still full of clothes and almost the size of her apartment’s bedroom, and the room itself was probably the size of her entire apartment, with a bed that Cami thought could easily hold five adults and a couple of pets.
Every room seemed to have a fireplace, in addition to the central heating, and Cami wondered to herself just how much of her inheritance would have to go to the maintenance of the property; it was clearly a demanding home on all levels, needing constant cleaning and probably with absurdly high utility bills. Between water for the various baths and two pools and the kitchen, and electricity to keep the place warm and lit, she was reasonably sure that her former annual salary would be just enough to cover the costs.
Settling in okay? Cami heard the thought in Dylan’s voice and smiled slightly to herself. It was strange to be away from the Overton men, even overnight; in spite of the fact that she’d been with them for less than a week, the encounter had been intense enough that being alone suddenly felt very different than it had felt before. Cami closed her eyes and focused her thoughts to be able to respond to him and decided to just say it out loud; it would be easier to transmit, according to Dylan, if she used actual speech as her focal point.
“This place is like a palace, and it’s kind of creepy,” she said.
Cami padded down the hall toward where she knew the kitchen was. She had—true to her word—given back the abilities of the various dragons in the room with her when she’d left the Overton property for her father’s former home. It had been as if the moment that Alexander Yates-Egan had lifted her telekinetically had flipped a switch in her mind; she had gone from being able to sense the abilities of the people around her to being able to feel the pressure in her own skull that answered it. In an instant, she had reached out through that ability and nullified all of the draconic abilities around her in one fell swoop, not bothering to distinguish who it was she was shutting off; in that moment, she hadn’t even been sure that Alexander was the one to lift her or that he was the only one. She hadn’t taken the time to follow the trail from herself to the source of the telekinesis. She’d just acted.
If the Egans had intended to start paying court to her, Cami thought, they had gone about it entirely the wrong way. But the other side of the issue was the fact that the Elders’ representatives—and for that matter, the Egans—had had a point: she had only ever been exposed to the Overton men. And the way they’d gone about bringing her into the dragon world was highly suspect. She could understand their motivations, but it didn’t change the fact that they’d gone about things in the least ethical way she could imagine.
Feel up to a visitor?
Cami snorted, opening the fridge. While she had been busy packing, the Elders’ representatives had been making sure that the property was livable. Of course, they had no ideas about her tastes or preferences, so while the kitchen was fully stocked, it was a fairly miscellaneous selection. Fruits and vegetables were fairly universal, but Cami had not the slightest clue whether she would like any of the wines or beers they’d stocked. She was doubtful about some of the cuts of meat, but there was at least plenty at her disposal for experimentation.
“Isn’t that going to get you into trouble with the Elders?”
Cami filled her voice with as much disdain for the elite group as she could muster. She knew that it was probably not the best idea to get too confident regarding her abilities, or too contemptuous of the Elders as a group, but given the way they had gone about trying to exert their authority over her without giving her any say or explanation for it, she wasn’t interested in playing along.
We’re already in trouble, Dylan pointed out in her mind. Besides, I’m curious about your new digs.
Cami snorted and took some cheese out of the fridge—various types on a board, from brie to chèvre to firmer types like Comté. She nudged the fridge door closed and set the board down to get some of the bread that had been out when she’d arrived the afternoon before.
“I’m okay with having some visitors,” Cami said, focusing her mind enough to make sure it got to Dylan. She sliced some bread, poured herself a glass of water, and went into the ground floor living room to enjoy her food.
There was one mystery that had been solved in the past twenty-four hours, Cami mused; she had figured out conclusively who the Egan men had spoken to, in order to find out about her. And Dylan had been right in his suspicions. Her mother had called her the night before, throwing some enormous tantrum about Cami being out of touch and not listening to her, and over the course of the conversation, Cami had managed to get the admission
that her mother had outed her: her mother had been in contact with the Egans for quite some time. It seemed possible that the Egans had found her before the Overtons had. That shook up some of her thoughts about the situation she found herself in, and about her alliances, but she couldn’t help feeling partial to the Overtons even still.
Cami ate bread and cheese meditatively, trying to sort out everything that had happened to her in less than a week. She had been abducted, seduced, and learned why she’d never had a father. She had learned that she was the savior of a species she hadn’t even known existed, and that there was a prophecy concerning her existence. She had learned that she was actually a wealthy person—or would be, once the rest of her inheritance came in. The entire basis of her life and almost everything she thought she knew about herself had been overturned in less than a week.
You’re taking it really well, all things considered, Cami heard Dylan say in her mind.
His mental ‘voice’ was stronger, if not louder, and she realized he had to be on his way to the house. He had been the one she’d chosen to bring with her when the Elders’ representatives had brought her to her father’s house. It had been a difficult choice, but as she’d packed her things, it had occurred to her that Dylan was the best candidate because, if nothing else, he would know where she was and possibly be able to reach her mentally. There were cell phones, but telepathic communication made things even more discreet.
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