Drakon's Prey (Blood of the Drakon)

by N. J. Walters

  …

  Tarrant was losing his mind. There could be no other reason for watching Valeriya wander around naked in the guest room. He was smart enough not to view the feed from the camera that faced the shower stall. He was aroused enough as it was.

  He spun his chair away from the screen and growled.

  It had taken every ounce of discipline he’d possessed to leave Valeriya sleeping in bed. He’d wanted to stay with her, with her smaller body tucked against his. It was for that very reason that he’d forced himself to get up and leave her once he’d known she was sleeping.

  The searches he’d been running had yielded up some interesting results. There was little about Karina Azarov, other than her name being connected to various businesses. She kept to herself and had competent people in charge of the day-to-day running of her empire.

  Some people might assume she was more socialite than businesswoman. Tarrant knew she was cunning, and a killer. It didn’t matter if she’d never pulled a trigger herself, although he wouldn’t bet good money on that. She was the head of a clandestine organization that would do anything to keep its secrets.

  It meant that if Valeriya was what she seemed to be—a woman caught in the middle of this war because of family ties—she was in danger. He didn’t doubt for one second that Karina would kill her younger sister if she deemed her a threat.

  And if Karina wouldn’t, another one of the Knights would.

  It was surprising Valeriya had lived this long. Tarrant imagined there were several top-ranking members of the Knights keeping tabs on her, hoping to use her against her sister if they could.

  That made sense. In their shoes, he’d have done the same.

  His phone rang. He glanced at it and sighed, knowing if he didn’t answer it would just ring again.

  “Darius is bad enough. I didn’t think you were a nursemaid, too, Ezra.”

  “Fuck off,” his brother shot back. In spite of himself, Tarrant smiled.

  “Is that any way to greet your favorite brother?” He turned his chair back around and watched the screen. The bathroom door was still closed. His fingers itched to click on the video feed for the shower. He curled his hand into a fist.

  Ezra snorted but didn’t deny his claim. They were both loners, eschewing the crowded places of the world. Darius might not like them, but he did dwell in cities for his work. And Nic…well, he was an anomaly none of them understood. He actually sought out people. Tarrant shivered at the horror of being in a place like Vegas with lights and noise and so many damn people.

  “What do you want, Ezra? I’m a little busy here.” He glanced over at several other screens that were running searches and compiling data for him.

  “With the little children’s author. Yeah, Darius told me.” Ezra paused. “I bet you are real busy.”

  The tone of his brother’s voice made Tarrant bristle. “And just what do you mean by that?”

  “She’s most likely a plant,” his brother bluntly stated. “You need to think with that computer-like brain of yours and not with your dick.”

  Tarrant took a deep breath and then another and another. He still couldn’t speak. What he really wanted to do was rip his brother’s head off.

  That was a sobering thought. He loved his brother. Had spent his entire life protecting him.

  “You’re as bad as Darius.” Ezra’s quiet voice was like a thunderclap in the silence between them.

  Tarrant shook his head in denial, even though he knew it was true. He would not allow Valeriya to control him or his actions. She was a means to an end. Nothing more.

  “I’m nothing like what our older brother was like with Sarah.” Denying his connection to Valeriya felt wrong and actually created a physical ache in his chest.

  “You keep telling yourself that.” Ezra sighed and Tarrant could picture his brother dragging his fingers through his hair, as he often did when he was exasperated. “Just be careful. The fact you took the woman instead of just watching her tells me you’re already gone on her. It’s just not like you.”

  “Valeriya. Her name is Valeriya.” She wasn’t just some random woman. She was special. Hell, he was four thousand years old and had never felt the urge to grab a woman and run with her before.

  As much as it pained him to admit it, Ezra was right. He was acting like Darius had with Sarah. Now that they’d made love, he felt even more possessive than he had before.

  “Don’t you find it odd that after all these years, both you and Darius are attracted to women at almost the same time. I don’t know whether I should be excited or worried.”

  Tarrant could tell his brother was only half joking. Ezra was also right. “It’s too much of a coincidence to be a coincidence.”

  “What does it mean? Do you think the Knights are controlling this?” Ezra made a growling noise. “No, scratch that. Sarah would die for Darius.”

  Tarrant wondered if Valeriya would die for him if it came down to a choice between him and the Knights. Did he want her to be that committed to him?

  Tarrant’s attention was caught by the bathroom door in the bedroom opening. He frowned when he realized she was dressed. He liked her much better naked. Her hair looked damp and was pulled back into a braid. The jeans she wore clung to her hips and the top outlined her breasts nicely.

  “If you’re done, I’ve got to go.”

  “All I’m saying is be careful. If I have to come and rescue your scaly ass from the Knights, I’m not going to be happy. You know how I hate to leave my island.” With that parting shot, Ezra hung up on him.

  Tarrant focused entirely on Valeriya as she left the bedroom and went down the hallway to the kitchen. “Tarrant,” she called his name. She paused alongside the island and looked longingly at the kettle.

  After squaring her shoulders, she marched over to the kettle and added water before setting it on the stove to boil.

  “Where is he?” she muttered. He found himself grinning as she wandered around the room, opening cupboard doors and peeking inside. There was nothing for her to find other than dishes, pots and pans, and food.

  She left the kitchen area and wandered around the living room. She paused by the security panel with the blinking light. Not surprising, she jabbed at several of the buttons, all the while glancing nervously over her shoulder.

  Tarrant stood and went to the elevator in his private computer lab. He stepped inside. “Up.” He glanced at the tablet in his hand, watching as she tried another button.

  He opened the upper door and stepped out. It shut behind him, sealing his computer equipment safely away from Valeriya and anyone else. Not even his brothers could access it without him. It was programmed so they could leave if they were with him, but not so they could enter on their own.

  It was safer for all of them that way.

  As he stealthily strode down the hallway, he could hear her muttering. At the last second, he closed down the program on his tablet and locked it. Best not to provide any temptation.

  “What are you doing?” He kept his voice mild, but she still jumped and spun around. The look of guilt on her face was priceless.

  She straightened her shoulders and glared at him. “This is a door to the outside, isn’t it?”

  There was no reason to lie to her. “Yes.” He set the tablet on the counter before going over to stand beside her. “And it requires my handprint and a code to open it.”

  He leaned down and sniffed. She smelled like lemons. He knew that wasn’t her normal scent, which meant she’d used the grooming products he’d left in the bathroom for her. It pleased him deeply.

  “What are you doing?” She took a step back and frowned. The welcoming, passionate woman from hours ago was gone, leaving a guarded one behind. He was sorry to see the welcome gone from her eyes, but it helped steady him. He needed to be more cautious with Valeriya.

  “I’m smelling you,” he answered honestly.

  She hunched her shoulders slightly. “If you don’t like it, it’s your own fau
lt. I used the shampoo and soap in the shower.”

  “I like it. I left it there for you,” he added.

  “You did? I mean, it wasn’t just there for guests? I mean, I am a guest. No, I’m not really one. I’m a captive.” She groaned and leaned against the wall and banged the back of her head against it. “Ignore me. I’m babbling.”

  She was, but he wasn’t stupid enough to agree with her. Some of his tension let go. Valeriya was totally transparent. Every emotion she had was visible on her face. She was no more capable of subterfuge than a child.

  “It’s okay.” He finally did what he’d wanted to do since he’d left her hours before. He leaned down and kissed her.

  She made a sweet sound and went up on her toes to deepen the caress. His dragon roared inside him, wanting him to claim Valeriya as his own. Tarrant broke the kiss and frowned.

  He wasn’t quite sure what the creature wanted or was telling him to do. Even after all these years, the two parts of him had never fully integrated. That was the way of drakons. They were two halves of a whole, but each side didn’t always understand the other. The creature worked wholly on instinct. The human part of him relied on instinct, but intellect as well.

  “Are you hungry?” he asked.

  Her eyes widened and she licked her lips. His pants grew extremely tight and uncomfortable. “You can’t be hungry again. We just ate. Didn’t we?”

  He was hungry all right, but not only for food. “That was hours ago.” She’d managed to sleep for quite some time.

  “Oh.” She pushed away from the wall and wandered over to sit on one of the sofas. He followed, unable to be more than a few feet away from her.

  “You obviously needed the rest. You’ve been under a lot of stress lately.”

  She snorted. “That’s one way of putting it.” She pulled her feet up on to the edge of the couch and wrapped her arms around her legs. It made her seem small and fragile.

  Calculated move or natural reaction? Tarrant wished he could be one hundred percent sure. Instinct told him to trust her, but his intellect demanded caution. Even if she was innocent in the war, her sister was still Karina Azarov. And in his experience, when the shit hit the fan, people always sided with family, not matter what the circumstances.

  Valeriya barely knew him. She could turn on him and give information to her sister. And the worst part of the situation was he couldn’t really fault her for it if she did. Family was family.

  He just had to make sure he never put her in a position to betray him. Cynical? Maybe. But better safe than sorry.

  “What are you going to do with me?”

  He could smell her fear and didn’t like it. “What am I going to do with you?” He knew there was only one choice for him. “I’m keeping you.”

  Chapter Eleven

  Valeriya stared at Tarrant. He was keeping her? “What exactly do you mean by that?” And why did his words make her feel all warm and fuzzy inside. She should be screaming, shouldn’t she?

  Strange as it was, she trusted Tarrant more than she’d ever trusted anyone in her life. Common sense told her everything was mostly likely a ruse and he was most likely working for her sister or another of the Knights. But her intuition was saying just the opposite.

  “Just what I said.” Tarrant sprawled on the other leather sectional and spread his arms across the back, taking up most of it with his big body. He might be living underground, but there was nothing basement-like about this place. It was gorgeous.

  “I can’t let you go. Your sister or one of the Knights would grab you in a heartbeat.”

  “So you took me in order to protect me?” She slowly released the grip on her legs and slid them back down.

  He shook his head. “Wish I could say that was totally true, but I can’t. That’s a side benefit. I took you in case you were working with the Knights and had information. If you didn’t have information, I thought you might be valuable.”

  Wow, that was brutally honest and painful to hear. “I see.”

  Tarrant huffed out a breath and sat forward, resting his forearms on his legs. “No. No, you don’t see at all. You’re dangerous to me. I should take you back and let the Knights deal with you.”

  Her stomach dropped and she thought she might be ill. She hadn’t realized how safe she felt here with Tarrant until he threatened to take it away. She swallowed before she could speak. “And will you? Take me back?”

  “Never.” The single word dropped between them like an anvil.

  She licked her dry lips. “Never is a long time.”

  One corner of his mouth kicked up. “Time is something I have plenty of.”

  “Who are you? Who is the real Tarrant?” Valeriya needed to know more about the man she’d slept with, the man who was quickly becoming her entire world. “You’re not a Knight, and you’re not a mercenary.”

  “You sure about that?” He raised one eyebrow in question.

  She was filled with a surety she was right. Her instincts were telling her to trust him. But more importantly, she felt no sense of danger. And her intuition, her gift, was never wrong.

  She gave an emphatic nod. “Yes.”

  “Who do you think I am?”

  She sat forward, mimicking his pose. “I’m not sure. You seem to have plenty of money. This place didn’t come cheap.”

  He chuckled and shook his head. “No, it didn’t come cheap.”

  This might make him angry. The last time she’d mentioned Darius Varkas, Tarrant had become furious with her. Still, there was only one way to learn more about the mysterious man sitting across from her.

  “I think you’re a friend of Darius Varkas. I read about him online. He’s made a ton of money in mining.”

  Tarrant nodded thoughtfully. “You think I work for Varkas?”

  She started to agree but stopped. “No. I don’t think you work for anyone.” Tarrant was too used to being in command to allow anyone to give him orders.

  He cocked his head and studied her with his icy-blue gaze. “You’re right. I don’t work for anyone. And you’re very observant for a children’s author.”

  She shivered. “It’s the artist in me. I notice details.”

  “Have you told me everything you know about the Knights and dragons?”

  “Drakons,” she corrected automatically. “They’re called drakons.”

  “So they are.”

  “I’ve told you I don’t belong to the Knights.”

  “And you left your home and flew across the country on the off-chance Darius Varkas might be hanging around that cabin I found you in, even though the Knights know about it.”

  Put like that, it didn’t sound like the brightest of plans. “I acted on instinct.” She flopped back against the sofa cushions and crossed her arms over her chest. She knew it was a defensive act, but she couldn’t stop herself.

  “Why?”

  He already thought she was crazy. Why stop here? “I thought he might be a drakon, okay? Or that he knew one.”

  Tarrant moved so fast, he was a blur. One second he was on the other sofa, the next he was looming over her, his hands on the back of the sofa, caging her in. “Why do you care?” His voice was soft, but there was no disguising the menace beneath.

  She tried to swallow but couldn’t. “It’s not right, what my sister, what my family has done for generations. I thought if I could warn one drakon, maybe save one…” She trailed off.

  Tarrant seemed perplexed.

  She gave a wry laugh. “Yeah, I know it was a dumb idea. What drakon would listen to me—the sister of the head of the Knights of the Dragon? Heck, I wouldn’t believe me, either.”

  But she wanted Tarrant to believe her. “I’ve always felt drawn to drakons. I dreamed about them as a child. I even had one as an imaginary friend when I was small.”

  Tarrant eased back and sat beside her. “An imaginary friend? A drakon?”

  She didn’t care how silly it made her seem. “I was a lonely child. What better friend than
a powerful creature who could be both playmate and protector, both human and dragon?”

  …

  Tarrant was stunned by her confession. He, possibly the most cynical man on the planet—although Ezra gave him a run for the title—believed her. It made sense that she wrote children’s books about dragons. She was probably drawing on her childhood memories.

  “Maybe it wasn’t the brightest idea in the world.” She rubbed her eyes. “No, scratch that. It was stupid. I know my sister keeps tabs on me, has people watching me.” She gave him a pointed look. “Karina has spies everywhere. I can’t trust anyone.”

  “Then we have that in common.” He could tell from her expression that she didn’t quite understand, so he elaborated. “I can’t trust anyone, either.” That wasn’t quite true. He trusted his brothers, and now Sarah, but that was it. He’d trusted one human, Father Simon Babineaux, but now he was gone.

  Valeriya inched away from him. His expression had gone dark at the thought of his murdered friend. He raked his fingers through his short hair and shook himself. Best not to think about his friend, not while he was dealing with Valeriya.

  “What would you have done if Darius had been here?” He was curious and also more than a bit jealous. Valeriya was his.

  She smoothed out a small crease in her jeans. “I don’t know. I would have told him that my sister and the Knights were searching for him. It’s never good to be a person of interest with them.”

  “And what if he’d been a drakon?”

  Her green eyes widened, and she bit her bottom lip. Possessiveness roared through Tarrant. He didn’t like the thought Valeriya might be interested in his brother. Of course, she didn’t know Darius was his brother. She didn’t even know what his brother looked like. All she’d wanted to do was help. That calmed his dragon somewhat, but not much.

  “I’ve always wanted to see one.” Her whisper was so soft, he might not have heard it if it weren’t for his preternatural hearing.

  “Why? Do you want to capture one? Drink his blood?”

  She shook her head emphatically. “No. I would never harm a drakon. They’ve been hurt enough over the centuries. But there’s one thing I don’t understand.”