Dragon Blood 3: Surety

by Avril Sabine

  Admitting a failure to Ronan was harder than she thought it would be. “It was a message to ring the Knights.”

  “That was always a possibility.”

  “Why didn’t you say something?”

  “I tried. You ignored me.”

  She bet he enjoyed pointing that out to her. And it wasn’t like he’d tried very hard. “I thought maybe we could keep them together for now.”

  “And give them a chance to plot something?”

  “Can you quit being annoying and come and get her? I need to be home tonight and at this rate I’ll be lucky to make it before midnight.”

  “I’ll be on your balcony in a second.” Ronan disconnected.

  Amber put her phone away and stood, about to join Kade. The argument between him and Helen was getting worse and Amber changed her mind, heading for the stairs. She reached the bottom as Ronan arrived at the top.

  “Is there anyone who’ll notice her gone?”

  Amber shrugged. “I don’t know. Mum will. I don’t know how I’m going to explain it to her.”

  “She rushed to her husband’s side?” Ronan reached the bottom step.

  “This is so complicated. What would you do?”

  Ronan’s predatory smile formed. “Rip all the information from their minds that I can and kill them.”

  “Don’t even try,” Amber warned.

  He shrugged. “You asked what I’d do.”

  “They’re my grandparents. Would you have done the same to yours?” She shook her head. “What am I thinking? You probably would. After all, didn’t you eat the heart of one of your sons?”

  “If my grandparents had wanted me dead, I would have killed them before they could’ve killed me. Why do you persist in treating your enemies as trusted allies?”

  “They’re not my enemy. They’re family!”

  “Family who want you dead.”

  She stepped back from him as if struck. “She’s my grandma.” Her voice sounded small and lost.

  Ronan advanced on her. “Do you want to know who my first kill was? It was my uncle.”

  She held her ground. “Why?”

  “My sister screamed for me in my mind, begging me to help her. I told her I was coming, but still she ran instead of standing and facing him. Ran straight into the trap he’d set for her. Then he came for me. I was all that stood between him and the land he wanted.”

  “What about your parents?”

  “He’d already killed them. My sister found them, my mother’s heart ripped out and missing, my father only recognisable by the ring he wore. I waited for him. Waited for Emlyn. He came with the sunrise, two of his warriors with him. And I killed them all. His was the first heart I took. So don’t you tell me about family. I know all about them. They can kill you as easily as another and stab you in the back just as quick.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “I don’t want your human sympathy. You want to give me sympathy, give me dragon sympathy.”

  “And what is that?”

  “Revenge.” There was a flash of gold in his pale blue eyes.

  Amber reached out to rest her hand on his shoulder. “I’ve already promised to help you get back your lands.”

  “Then don’t get yourself killed before you’ve fulfilled that promise.” He looked past her. “I’ll take the Knight to her husband. If she’s to be in the same room as him it’ll be in chains too.”

  Amber hesitated, then nodded. “Okay.”

  Ronan stepped past her.

  Amber’s hand fell to her side and she hurried after him, worried about their first meeting.

  Helen broke off mid sentence to point at Ronan. “You!” Grabbing a sword from beside her bedroom door, she ran towards Ronan, swinging it at him. “Murderer.”

  Ronan leapt out of the way and still Helen came at him, expertly swinging the sword. Kade rushed her from behind and Ronan disarmed her while Kade struggled to hold the wildly flailing woman.

  “Grandma. Enough. Please stop or you’ll get hurt,” Amber pleaded.

  “Traitor.” Helen glared at her.

  “He’s going to take you to your husband.”

  “Make me a prisoner you mean,” Helen snapped.

  “I’m sorry. But you want me dead. What am I meant to do?”

  “I want the dragons dead. If you help us fight them, the Knights would have a use for you.”

  Amber stared silently at her grandmother. Her glasses were crooked, Kade still held her arms pinned at her sides and her eyes sent daggered looks to Ronan. Had she ever known this woman? It didn’t seem like it. “I’ll come and see you tomorrow after school.” Her words were soft, exhaustion making her want to curl up in bed and pull the blankets over her head for a week. Instead she kept her gaze steady and her stance firm. “No one will harm you if you cooperate.”

  “I’d rather die,” Helen spat.

  “That can be arranged,” Ronan said.

  Amber faced Ronan. “She’s mine.”

  “Are you sure you don’t want to think about this one too?” Ronan gestured towards Helen.

  “No. She’s mine. Until she’s coming at me with a blade, she’s mine.”

  Ronan raised an eyebrow. “But it’s okay for her to come at me with a blade?”

  Amber couldn’t help laughing. “Are you afraid of a little old lady, Ronan?”

  “No, but she better be afraid of me if she goes for you with a blade, Amber. Because you’ve just given me permission to kill her if she does.”

  “Traitor!” The word was filled with anger and bitterness, cutting off Amber’s protests.

  She looked from her grandmother to Ronan, with a glance at Kade who steadily watched her, still keeping Helen’s arms pinned. Was Ronan right? Would her grandmother kill her if she got the chance? Once she would have said no. Actually, she probably would have said hell no. Now she didn’t have a clue. Giving a curt nod Amber met Ronan’s eyes. “Take her to her husband.” It hurt to speak the words in the emotionless tone she used, but not as much as the thought that her grandmother might want to kill her.

  Ronan returned her nod with an equally curt one, grabbing Helen from Kade and disappearing into the Void.

  Amber didn’t care if Golds were watching her from the Void, her legs couldn’t hold her up anymore. She dropped onto the ground, her hands covering her face as she tried to figure out what she’d done.

  Kade wrapped his arms around her, lifting her up. “I’ll take you home.”

  Pulling her hands from her face, she stared up at him. “I can’t face another lecture from my mum.”

  “You won’t have to. I can take us straight to my room.”

  “How about the bathroom? I can’t sleep coated in blood, sweat and dirt.”

  “No. I can’t manage that yet. You’ll have to shower here.” Kade took them to her balcony through the Void.

  Once Amber had showered and changed into fresh dragon-leather clothes, he took her to his room where she collapsed on the bed, falling instantly asleep.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Standing at the bathroom sink in Kade’s house, Amber filled another bracelet with her power. She’d filled three before school and now she’d filled another two. It wasn’t enough. There were still eight that were empty, but she didn’t want to exhaust herself. Especially not before she saw her grandmother. Who knew what she’d face.

  There was a knock on the bathroom door. “Gary sent me a text to say your mother has finished packing a bag for your grandmother and they’re on their way back. If you still want to leave before she returns and realises you’re not taking her to see her parents, we better go now.”

  Sliding the bracelet on, Amber opened the bathroom door and stared at Kade. She really didn’t want to take him anywhere near her grandparents. That just didn’t seem like a good idea. But she doubted he’d be willing to stay away. “Okay, let’s get out of here before I get my second lecture for the day.” She’d been greeted with one over breakfast since she’d slept through
the opportunity last night. Pulling out her phone, she turned it off so she didn’t get any irate calls from her mother while she was with her grandparents, then slid it into her pocket. Her mother would ring the moment she found out the bag she’d packed would be collected by one of Ronan’s Golds and she wouldn’t get to see her parents, particularly her father.

  Chuckling, Kade wrapped an arm around her, taking her to Ronan’s place through the Void. He was there to meet them.

  Amber stepped away from Kade. “How are they?”

  “Alive.”

  She rolled her eyes at Ronan’s answer. “You haven’t messed with their heads, have you?”

  “Not yet.”

  “Then don’t. I wouldn’t want them broken.” She walked beside Ronan, Kade following.

  “Then maybe you should see what information you can get out of them,” Ronan said.

  “Don’t mess with them. I was the one who gave up Topaz for him and Grandma is mine.”

  “Until she attacks you with a blade.”

  Amber had no reply so she fell silent, thankful when they reached the room her grandparents were kept in.

  Ronan swung the door open, stepping in first, his gaze taking in the room before he stepped to the side and let Amber enter. “As I said.” He gestured towards the elderly couple sitting on the edge of the large timber bed. “Both alive.”

  They rose to their feet, Helen coming forward as far as her chain allowed her. “Have you told Donna what you’ve done?”

  “I told her you’re staying with your husband.”

  “Did you tell her you had me imprisoned? That her father is still imprisoned. Traitor!”

  “Stop calling me a traitor,” Amber yelled.

  “You’ve sided with the dragons against us. You’re a traitor,” Helen spoke equally as loud.

  “I didn’t even know the Knights existed.”

  “That’s their fault.” Helen pointed at Ronan. “Murderer.” She spared a glare for him before she continued to glare at Amber. “How could you side with someone who’s killed your own relatives?”

  Amber felt Kade move to stand behind her and she felt safer. She didn’t have to do this alone. She lowered her voice, trying to remain calm, but the panther let her know she was nowhere near calm. “The pair of you would run straight to your Knights if I set you free.”

  Helen shook her head. “No, we’d take the time to kill your dragons first.”

  Amber’s voice rose again. “So what am I meant to do? Let you kill the person I love?”

  “He’s a dragon, not a person.”

  Kade stepped to the side of Amber so he could look at her. “The first time you tell me you love me you yell it at someone else? Not much of a romantic, are you?”

  Amber sent him a glare. “Better than not telling anyone at all.”

  Kade slowly smiled, closing the gap between them. “It won’t be here, in the middle of an argument with your grandparents.”

  Amber ignored her grandmother’s demands to know what Kade was saying to her. “Can we deal with this later?”

  Kade reached out to rest his hands on her hips. “No.” He pulled her tight against him, his lips meeting hers as he took her through the Void.

  Amber pulled away from him to look around, unable to recognise where he’d brought them. “I was in the middle of talking to my grandparents.” She mentally searched the area, finding both Rian and Maira in the building. “We’re at Temolae Keep?”

  “Yeah. Our room.”

  Amber looked around. There were two closed doors, an oversized bed in the centre, a tall chest of drawers on the wall opposite the foot of the bed and smaller drawers on either side of the bed. She returned her attention to Kade. “You can’t just drag me off like that. What was wrong with asking?”

  “You would have said no. Now how about you try that earlier statement and you don’t yell it at someone else.”

  She struggled to hold onto her annoyance at him dragging her away from her argument. The smile that wanted to escape let her know it was a losing battle. “I’m not sure which statement you want me to repeat. There were so many things I was yelling.”

  Kade reached for her, sliding his hand behind her neck, gazing down at her as he stepped close. “I love you, Amber.”

  The smile tugged at the corners of her mouth. “Yeah, me too.”

  “Really? That’s as good as it gets?”

  She grinned. “Yep. Now hurry up and kiss me then take me to Ronan’s so I can go back to yelling at my grandparents.” He obeyed the first part of her demands and when he finally drew away from her, she stared up at him. “I do love you, Kade. And I’m not going to let them kill you.”

  “You want to tell me why you won’t let them kill me? And I know it isn’t just because you love me.”

  She laughed, knowing exactly what he was asking. “You’re mine.” Her laughter was cut off by another kiss and this time when he drew away slightly, he took her back to Ronan’s, through the Void, arriving just outside the room. She stepped inside.

  The room was in chaos. Her grandparents were yelling at each other and Ronan was leaning against the wall near the door, asking if they wanted a knife each so they could sort their argument out quicker.

  Amber came further into the room. “Enough.”

  Both her grandparents turned to face her. It was Charles who spoke first. “She sounds exactly like you, Hel.”

  “Nothing like me,” Helen argued.

  At the same time, Amber said, “I do not.”

  Ronan laughed. “And here I was thinking she took after both of you. Most possessive, bloodthirsty, argumentative, contrary human I’ve come across in ages. A pity she has moments of remorse and wanting to save everyone.”

  “I’m not bloodthirsty,” Amber muttered.

  “I’m sure I could think of at least one dragon who’d agree with me.” Ronan strode forward to stop at her side, smiling his predatory smile. “Oh, that’s right, she can’t anymore, can she?”

  “You’ve killed a dragon?” Helen asked.

  Amber nodded.

  “How?” Charles demanded.

  “What does it matter? She’s dead.”

  “How?” Charles persisted.

  “With a sword.”

  Charles and Helen both beamed at her, sharing a congratulatory look before they turned their smiles back on her.

  Amber fought the urge to take a step backwards. “Right. Now we’re all talking, what am I going to do with you?”

  “Have you still got the sword?” Charles asked.

  “Yeah. Now about-”

  “Where is it?” Charles asked.

  Amber’s annoyance increased. “My ahh… bodyguard has it.” She’d nearly called him her first warrior, but guessed that would set them off again.

  “Your what?” Helen asked.

  “Her first warrior,” Ronan said.

  Amber wanted to hit him. Did he enjoying making trouble?

  “Traitor,” Helen snarled.

  At the same time, Charles growled, “Dragon.”

  “She’s neither Knight nor dragon,” Ronan said. “Stop trying to bring her around to your way of thinking. I’m afraid she’s far too stubborn to give up her own beliefs.”

  “What are they?” Charles demanded.

  “You don’t touch hers. She’ll protect them to the death. She doesn’t believe in running, but facing all threats head on. And she never gives up,” Ronan said.

  Amber shook her head. Surely he was exaggerating. She was nothing like that. She only did what she had to.

  “She would make a perfect Knight,” Charles said.

  “She’d make a perfect dragon,” Ronan pointed out.

  “She is standing right here and is perfectly happy being exactly who she is.” Amber glared at each of them, ignoring Kade’s chuckle. “All we’re figuring out right now is what to do with you.” She pointed at her grandparents. “We’re wasting time with all this rubbish.” Not to mention making her feel highl
y uncomfortable.

  “Set us free and we’ll give your dragon time to leave town before we tell the Knights about him,” Helen said. “And I won’t tell Donna you had me chained up along with your own grandfather.”

  “If I have to leave town, I fail my test,” Kade told Amber.

  “When does your test finish?”

  “Last day of the year.”

  “I can’t keep them imprisoned that long,” Amber burst out.

  “What is he telling you?” Charles and Helen demanded at the same time.

  She ignored their question. “Your suggestion isn’t acceptable.”

  “See,” Ronan said. “You should have listened to me. You don’t threaten one of hers.”

  “He’s a dragon,” Helen said. “How can you even think of siding with him over your own kind?”

  Amber was fed up with them constantly complaining about Kade. “Maybe it runs in the blood. I hear Uncle Roger likes dragons too.” At her grandmother’s expression, she cursed Ronan for pointing out her tendency for remorse. Raising her chin, she refused to take back her words. They never took theirs back. She forced herself to continue. “I wonder what my cousins are like.” She sent a quick look towards Kade. “We should meet them some day.”

  Kade stepped up beside her, sliding an arm around her waist. “Maybe next time we’re at our castle.” He momentarily tightened his arm around her.

  Amber nodded. “Yeah, next time we’re at Temolae Keep.”

  Charles stilled. “Who did you kill?”

  “What is it?” Helen asked her husband.

  “Well?” Charles demanded when Amber didn’t speak.

  Amber was about to answer when she felt two dragons appear in the hallway. She turned to see Alsandair wink at her, before he disappeared into the Void, leaving Rian standing there, her sword in his hand. Kade tensed. She needed to have a talk to Alsandair before Kade decided to kill him after all.

  Rian strode forward, bowing and holding out her sword, resting it on both hands. “My lady.”

  “Don’t you dare screw this up, kitten.”

  Amber sent a quick look towards Ronan, but his face was expressionless. Whatever plan he was hatching he wasn’t about to share it with her. If he was going to keep the plan himself, it’d be his own fault if it got screwed up. She took the sword from Rian and holding it at her side, the point resting on the floor, faced her grandparents again.