Cami finished up her snack and put away the leftover cheese, setting the knives she’d used in the sink to clean later. A knock at the door cut through her thoughts, and Cami frowned; she hadn’t expected Dylan so soon. She walked toward the front door, and as she approached, she sensed the dragons on the other side; neither one was Dylan, and in fact, the one she recognized wasn’t any of the Overton men. She recognized one of the presences, humming in her mind, as Jamie, the leader of the Egan men she’d met the day before. The other presence felt older, but not as much as the Elders’ representatives. Curious but cautious, Cami opened the door.
Jamie Egan was, Cami had to admit, easy on the eyes; Dylan hadn’t lied about that. None of the Egan men were hard to look at. Jamie was just shy of six feet tall, with a rough, tough build—broad shoulders, straight waist, strong-looking thighs wrapped in denim. He had big, almond-shaped hazel-brown eyes and chin-length brown hair framing a face that was almost pretty: oval shape, full lips, arched eyebrows. His strong nose and sharper jawline stopped him from looking in any way feminine.
Next to him stood a woman Cami thought was probably in her early 50s, with bright blue eyes and jet-black hair falling past her shoulders. There was the start of crow’s feet at the corners of her eyes, a slight hint of smile lines around her lips, but neither of those factors marred the beauty of her face. Cami mentally opened herself up to the shimmering veil around the woman and took in the fact that her secondary ability was involved in teleportation; between that and her resemblance to Jamie, Cami decided the woman had to be an Egan.
“I think you both know better than to try anything stupid,” Cami said, looking at each of them.
“My son made a bad first impression on you,” the woman said. “We’re here in peace. In fact, we brought a housewarming gift.” The woman held up a basket full of charcuterie, jams, and other things Cami couldn’t initially identify, smiling pleasantly.
“Your son made an extremely bad first impression on me,” Cami said. “I appreciate the effort of a gift, but I’m going to need a really good reason—better than dried meat—to let you into my home.”
The woman smiled slightly. “I’m Vanessa Egan,” she said. “As already mentioned, I’m Jamie’s mother. I’m not sure how much you know about dragon politics already, but he only leads our clan because of me.”
“I’ve been told that women are the real power houses,” Cami said. “If you’re in charge, how come you weren’t there yesterday?”
Vanessa shrugged and somehow managed to look elegant doing it. “Women in dragon circles tend to be more political, less direct action,” Vanessa said. “I wanted to come and apologize on my clan’s behalf, and maybe have a conversation with you.”
Cami considered the proposition. She had no trust toward Jamie; he was involved in the ill-conceived attack on the Overton house. But she had to admit that she was curious about the Egans’ side of the story, what they thought of the rivalry, and what they had to say about the prophecy.
“What is it that you think we have to talk about?”
Vanessa raised one well-groomed eyebrow and held Cami’s gaze steadily. “I think you and I have a lot to talk about,” Vanessa replied. “You deserve a fuller picture of the political landscape you’ve been thrust into, and a broader history of what’s going on.”
Cami glanced at Jamie, hesitating a moment longer purely on the grounds of his involvement in the fiasco the day before.
“I will allow you in,” Cami said. “But just in case this is a cover for an abduction attempt, you should know that, this time, I’m not going to be as easily convinced to turn your abilities back on as I was last time.”
“It is not at all my intention to put you in the position to use your abilities,” Vanessa said. “Jamie either.”
“I want to have a civil conversation,” Jamie said. Cami opened the door wider, letting the two dragons into her home, and reached into her pocket for her cell phone. She could communicate mentally with Dylan when he reached out to her, but not being directly telepathic, she couldn’t reach him on her own through her mind. She pulled up the text message thread with him and sent a quick message. Hang back for a bit. I have some other visitors, and I don’t want the drama of another showdown. She tapped send and led her guests into the living room.
Vanessa and her son are there? They act quick. Don’t blindly believe anything they tell you, Cami heard Dylan say in her mind. She pressed her lips together and decided that she would judge for herself.
“Can I get you something to drink? Water, coffee, wine, beer?” Cami resented the polite programming her mother had raised her with, but she stopped short of countering her own offer; in spite of Jamie and his cousins’ actions the day before, she didn’t have any real reason to consider the Egan clan her enemy. They were definitely the Overtons’ enemies, but she hadn’t officially made herself an Overton.
“I would love a glass of wine,” Vanessa said. “I think Jamie could handle a beer.”
“I’d appreciate a beer, yes,” Jamie said.
Cami went into the kitchen and made an executive decision about which kind of wine she wanted to serve the dragon matriarch: the chilled chardonnay, which she would also—in the name of being companionable—have a glass of. The two dragons waited patiently for her, and when Cami left the kitchen, she brought the second cheeseboard that had been set up with her, along with the drinks.
“So,” Cami said, sitting down across from the two Egan dragons. “Let’s have a conversation.”
“I want you to understand that, while there are plenty of hostilities between Egans and Overtons, we had no issues whatsoever with your father—or with the Keane clan, more broadly,” Vanessa said.
“I would assume not,” Cami mused. “It wouldn’t exactly make sense for you to be against my father’s family.”
“There are some factions in the dragon world who are,” Jamie said. “Some grudges held from an era when your family still had sufficient women to make and take abilities on a broader scale.”
“Which, of course, isn’t fair to you, but generational feuds rarely are,” Vanessa said.
“What’s the beef between Egans and Overtons, then?” Cami asked.
“It’s a Hatfields and McCoys situation at this point,” Vanessa admitted. “None of us know what the original fight was about. None of us know who started it. But it’s been going on long enough that both sides manage to continue it.”
“Why not be the side that makes the peace?” Cami suggested. “Take the high ground.”
“Draconic rivalries don’t really work that way,” Jamie said.
“Picture something like The Tudors,” Vanessa suggested. “Or whatever royalty situation you prefer. There’s currently no monarch to catch the ear of, but the dragon families, rich or poor, all want to be at the top. All of us want to be the wealthiest, with the most heirs, the most clout with the Elders.”
“What’s the endpoint, though?” Cami wondered. “If no one ever gets to be king or queen or ruler?”
“It’s kind of like capitalism,” Jamie said wryly. “Everyone always wants more, a bigger piece of the pie.”
“Sounds depressing,” Cami said.
“It’s part of why you’re so important,” Vanessa told her. “You’re the first female Keane born in generations. The political balance has shifted—is shifting. The power you have, the ability you were born to use, makes you a force to be reckoned with.”
“The Overtons admitted as much,” Cami said.
“They want to ally with you mostly because your clout, your power, will pull their whole clan up,” Jamie said. “And obviously, we have our own interests in that arena.”
“What about this prophecy I heard about from them?” Cami asked. We’re getting right to the meat and potatoes, it seems.
“Their matriarch, Nicholas’s mother, interpreted the prophecy very narrowly,” Vanessa replied. “There are other dragon clans, not just ours, that heard the same prophecy, and w
e don’t think that you have to be mated specifically to an Overton heir to fulfill your destiny to our species.”
“They said as much to me,” Cami said. “Just how vague was the prophecy if they can think it’s talking about them, and other dragon clans think that it’s any clan?”
Vanessa shrugged. “There are some indications that it could be the Overtons,” Vanessa admitted. “But the draconic language is slippery. The same images could refer to people who live in a certain area, or who have a history of certain heraldry.”
“So,” Cami said, sipping her wine. “I’m assuming that you’re not just here to make amends and tell me about politics. What’s your pitch?”
“Right now, with you still activating, all I would ask of you is to keep your eyes open, your mind undecided,” Vanessa said. “I won’t lie: we would be happy to put the Overton clan in the shadows. But our interest has been—and remains—to do that legitimately. We went to the Elders because we suspected that you were being manipulated, that you were being led to make commitments without having all the information you needed.”
“That sounds very fair,” Cami told the older woman. “And then?”
“And then, when you’re fully active and in a position to make choices about your clan, I would ask that you let my son and nephews pay court to you, just like other dragon families will be doing,” Vanessa said with a faint smile.
“I am sorry for the way Alexander acted,” Jamie added. “I should have held onto control of the situation yesterday. And I should have found a better way to get access to you. It was my mistake, my error in judgment.”
“I appreciate the acknowledgement,” Cami told him. “I have a lot to consider.”
“If you don’t have anything to do right away, I’d love to enjoy some of this cheese,” Vanessa suggested. “And maybe give you a little more information—general, of course—about the history of our kind and your place in it.”
Cami thought about Dylan, waiting to visit her; on the one hand, she couldn’t deny that she was interested in seeing the lanky, pretty Overton heir. On the other, she was curious about what the Egans’ perspective on dragon history was and whether she might not get more out of them than the Overtons had volunteered.
“I’m free for the next hour,” Cami said. “And I definitely don’t want to eat all this cheese by myself.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Alistair
There were cars outside of Cami’s new residence when Alistair drove up; he looked closely at the plates and realized that the Keane heiress had some very high-class visitors. Dylan had backed off after the Egans had short-circuited his visit to Cami, and now—with only hours remaining before the tribunal with the Elders—she was being visited by at least one Halloway and one Kinney. Alistair considered whether or not to pass by the house entirely, thinking that there was a good chance that just his appearance there would ruffle feathers. But there were things he needed to talk to Cami about before she went before the Elders, before the case was judged; he was the best person to risk being seen by the Elders’ representatives or their family members, if it came to that.
“Fuck it,” Alistair said, pulling into the driveway at the Keane mansion and making sure to leave plenty of room for the other two cars to exit the property later. “We can’t get in more trouble with the Elders, the way things stand now.”
He shut off the engine and reached into the back seat to grab the care package that he, Nicholas, Elijah, and Dylan had put together for the woman they wanted to woo. Even if she weren’t the savior of our species, I would want to make her my mate, Alistair thought, remembering the first phase of the interrupted bonding ritual with Cami and Elijah. It had been strange to have sex with someone at the same time his cousin was, but it had been easy, after the first few minutes, to ignore Elijah almost entirely, apart from avoiding touching the man. He had not lived as a monk while the Overton family sought out the Keane heir; while he hadn’t been with scores of women, he’d been with enough to know that Cami was probably the best sex he would ever get; the only way he’d be able to keep having sex with her was to convince her to ally with the Overton family at least, preferably to bond with him personally.
Just as he reached the front patio of the house, the door opened to reveal Eoin Halloway and Lachlan Kinney, heirs of their respective families. Alistair nodded to the two men as they emerged from Cami’s new home and saw the suspicion in their eyes. Cami appeared as well; her eyes widened when she saw Alistair, but she smiled slightly as he approached the door, passing Lachlan and Eoin as he did.
“Suddenly, I am so popular,” Cami said.
Alistair held up the care package he had brought with him, smiling. “We did try to warn you,” he pointed out. “We told you that you’d be popular.”
“Yeah, but I didn’t figure it would happen this quickly,” Cami said. “I’m guessing you’d like to come in for a visit?”
Alistair nodded. “We need to talk about the tribunal tonight,” Alistair said.
Cami let him into the house, and Alistair followed her to the living room. It was a little statelier than the Overton living room, with more chairs and fewer large couches, but there was still an air of comfort, antique but luxurious. He sat down opposite the chair that Cami had taken and watched her open the box; they’d put in more of the bath luxuries that Cami had preferred during her stay with them, along with her favorite jam and a few other odds and ends, in the hopes that it would sweeten her. Looking around the room, Alistair could tell that his family wasn’t the only one to take that tactic; in the span of a day, Cami had received a few florists’ bouquets, some fruit baskets, and a basket of pastries that she’d left on a coffee table for visitors to enjoy.
“What do you need to tell me about the tribunal?” Cami asked, setting the package at her feet and turning her attention onto him. Looking at her up close, one-on-one, Alistair could tell that her transition was continuing even without the constant proximity of other dragons. Of course, given the visits she’s been getting, there’s probably been plenty of proximity to dragons to help fuel the change.
“The Elders are going to want to punish us,” Alistair said. “And in fairness to them, they’d have a right to. We went about activating you in a shady way, and it’s true that we technically kidnapped you to start with.”
“And you’re going to ask me to help you not be punished for all of that,” Cami surmised.
Alistair sighed. “It’s a weak pitch, and I know it,” he said. “But our interest in activating you isn’t purely motivated by what we have to gain; I hope you know that.”
“I know that you have the belief that by having me on your side, getting me to mate with one of you, you’re helping our entire species,” Cami said. “But I also know that it isn’t just the Egans who think it doesn’t have to be your family that mates with me.”
“If you had been raised with dragons, learned the language growing up—all of that—then you would be in a better position to know why we believe the way we do, and why the other families want it to be them,” Alistair said. “You’re being thrown into this at breakneck speed, and it’s not fair to you.”
“So far, I agree. You’ll be overjoyed to know that the Egans agree with that too,” Cami said playfully.
“I want to be honest with you,” Alistair said. “Even if you weren’t the savior of dragon-kind, even if you weren’t prophesied to mate with me or one of my cousins, I’d still be interested in you.”
“You know, when someone tells me they want to be honest with me, I get the feeling that they weren’t being honest before,” Cami said.
Alistair cringed. “I know,” he said. “And I know that we haven’t been entirely forthcoming. We’ve kept things from you and didn’t give you a bigger picture of how things are. That was wrong of us.”
“But you want me to prevent you being held accountable,” Cami said.
Alistair shook his head. “We can be held accountable without being punished t
he way the Elders are likely to want to,” Alistair said. “They’re going to be judging on the basis of the Egans’ perspective. Having you be at least a little on our sidethat would help.”
“Right now, I don’t know whose side I’m on other than my own,” Cami told him.
She took a deep breath, and Alistair gave himself a moment to appreciate the slight, luminous glow her skin had taken on, the beauty of her body—he was interested in seeing it naked again, as many times as he could—as she sat back slightly in her chair, as her heavy breath made her breasts stretch the fabric of her shirt for just a moment.
“All I’m asking is that you lean on the fact that we didn’t harm you,” Alistair said. “And that you were willing to stay with us.”
“I think I can do that,” Cami said. She met his gaze steadily. “I have no real idea how this tribunal is supposed to go, but if I have any voice at all in this, I’ll tell the truth as far as I see it.”
“That’s all I want,” Alistair said. “I want my family to have a fair chance to court you with everyone else.”
Cami giggled. “After you already broke the rules once?”
Alistair shrugged. “Better to ask forgiveness than consent?” Alistair suggested.
Cami laughed again. “I will admit that the dream sex and the actual threesome that happened were both good times,” she said. “I’m willing to say I was there consensually. But I can’t make any guarantees on if they ask me, like, detailed questions.”
“The Egans are going to try and use this as an excuse to take out my whole family,” Alistair told Cami. “I can understand why you’d be hesitant to believe us, but please just keep that in mind.”
“I will do what I can,” Cami said. Alistair took a deep breath; he’d done what he’d come to do, but he definitely didn’t want to leave yet. He smiled slightly.
“Want to give me a tour of your new digs?” he asked.
Cami grinned. “It will be my fourth grand tour since I arrived,” Cami told him. “At some point, I’m sure that the charm of it will wear off, but it hasn’t yet.”
House Of Dragons (The Cami Bakersfield Saga Book 1) Page 19