by Jill Haven
“We have no idea,” Bishop rumbled, straightforward as ever. “We’ll do a sweep of the area tonight to make sure you are safe.” Haiden didn’t seem impressed by that, but I could have hugged Bishop.
“Thank you.”
Bishop said nothing.
“I don’t like the idea that someone out there might be a sitting duck. Could you imagine if we were talking about one of the other omegas in our clan? Agatha nearly ripped heads off when Larkin’s fuck of an ex went crawling back to his clan. None of the Blood dragons would want to see an omega in a vulnerable position.” Mason was close to ranting, and far more serious than I’d seen him in a long while, even with food in his hands.
“Agreed,” I said. “So, let’s finish up eating and go out. Scout the area. I’ve been wanting to be more proactive.”
“I don’t want to be here by myself,” Haiden said, for the first time sounding like he may be scared.
“We’ll stay here together,” Jade said to him. “Watch a movie or something.”
“Maybe we should all go?” he asked, but every instinct I had recoiled at the idea.
“No,” I said, louder than I should have.
Haiden was back to glaring, but I couldn’t cave on this. I left him there to be angry, hoping he would forgive me, and went outside to wait for Bishop and Mason. They emerged not long later, and we left in Bishop’s eyesore of a vehicle to go to Haiden’s apartment. We began at his home and scouted out through the woods. It took a disturbingly short time to find a camp in a secluded dirt gulley, less than a mile from his house. A fire still smoldered and there were tents set up. The entire area smelled like dragon.
“Well, do we trash it?”
I shrugged and simmered inside. If the dragon who’d been watching Haiden had showed himself this second, I would have tried to gut him. I nodded and Bishop did something that had me holding my breath. He opened his mouth and a stream of fire spewed from him, blue at the edges, hotter than even what I thought I could produce. The tents caught. We stood there and watched them burn until I figured they weren’t going to be an issue, especially since it wasn’t dry in the woods.
“Let’s see if we can hunt them down,” Mason said, a spark in his eyes I hadn’t seen since WWI when he had enlisted. “If they were just trying to stay secluded, I’ll happily replace their supplies, but I don’t think so. You don’t spy on people when you’re not trying to be found.”
“Lead the way,” I said, gesturing toward the trees. He laughed, and Bishop strode off into the wilderness, but I wasn’t hopeful that we would locate anyone. I stared up at the large plume of smoke rising through the trees into the sky. By now they probably knew we were coming.
22
Haiden
Carlisle and I were inseparable, except for when I went to work. For the last week, he, Mason, and Bishop had been camped out in the motel room discussing where they should start looking for the other omegas with human and dragon parents—I still thought Divine Omega sounded a little strange, but with them constantly talking about it, I was getting used to hearing the words. The big question I kept asking was whether or not these guys wanted to be found, but no one except me seemed to worry about that too much. Mason and Carlisle just kept bickering about same things over and over again, and everyone was getting frustrated. I was also tired of constantly being surrounded by people, it wasn’t something I was used to, so it was a relief to go to work and be by myself in the kitchen for a while.
Except that today my stomach was tossing like I was on a boat, no matter what I did. The stress of constantly talking about dragon business was tweaking my anxiety in a bad way, and my stomach didn’t like it at all. I’d been doing better at managing my anxiety with Carlisle around, but I had to concede that it won when I almost upchucked onto the flattop while making some pancakes. I was pretty sure Eric would never forgive me for that, so I waited until a lull in the orders to go find him in his office.
He looked up when I stepped into the doorway. His gray and blond beard was bushier than ever, and his smile was wide, but slipped the longer he stared at me. “What’s wrong, kiddo?”
“Stomach. It won’t quit. I think maybe I must have eaten something awful. I don’t feel like I have a fever or anything.” I turned away and pressed the back of my hand to my mouth as a wave of nausea rose in me. I had to breathe deep and wait before it receded.
Eric nodded and sighed. “Scoot, then.” He stood and herded me out of the way back in the direction of the kitchen. I gave him one last wave on my way out into the dining room with my hand on my stomach trying to hold off the sickness. Jade frowned at me when she saw me coming into the customer area and she finished up taking an order in a hurry. She rushed over.
“What’s wrong?”
“Not feeling well,” I told her, and she narrowed her eyes on me. She did that dragon thing that Carlisle liked to do and took a deep breath in my direction. I flashed her a smile, but felt like hell, so it didn’t stick.
“Okay, get home fast.”
I nearly rolled my eyes and asked her what she thought I was doing, but she seemed so worried with the way she pursed her red lips. I pecked her fast on the cheek and shuffled toward the exit.
As I opened the front door to step out onto the porch, I stopped dead. The smell of acrid smoke—like burning electric wires—hit my nose again. I’d smelled it once before in my apartment. Frowning, I glanced around and saw a man sitting on one of the rocking chairs at the end of the front porch. When he spotted me, he stood. The guy was average enough, tall and a little muscly, and vaguely familiar, like maybe I’d served him a few times before. He had a long-jawed nice face and I really did feel like I should know him. I raised a hand, still frowning in his direction.
“What’s wrong? Why are you standing in the doorway?” Jade crowded out beside me and the man’s eyes flashed a greenish gold. I gasped. They stayed that way for a few moments before they faded back to a human brown and she growled. “Leave through the kitchen.”
“But—”
“Go back and leave through the kitchen,” she said quietly. “Get to Carlisle.”
“Haiden, Divine One, don’t run,” the man said. I found myself cringing against Jade, even though I hated that. How did he know what I was? “This will be easier if you come with me.” My stomach turned. Oh, fuck. No, no, no!
She spun and shoved me backward into the diner, and panic boiled up inside me like I hadn’t been feeling recently. Someone in a nearby booth stood. The sounds of a scuffle behind me drove me forward toward the kitchen faster on shaky legs. People stared away from me, toward whatever Jade was doing to that guy, as I stumbled and ran for the kitchen. I went behind the counter and through the doors. Eric wasn’t manning the cooking area, and I was glad he was doing something else because I felt like my tongue was stuck to the roof of my mouth and I was having trouble breathing.
I grabbed my phone out of my pocket. Carlisle’s name was at the top of my recent calls, so I tapped it and pressed the phone to my ear as I rushed toward the back door.
“Hello, beautiful.” Carlisle’s rich voice shivered through me and for a second, I was able to breathe easier.
“There’s a dragon here we don’t know. He’s fighting with Jade.” I stepped out into the rear parking lot. “I’m on my way ho—”
Someone slapped my phone out of my hand, and I cringed away from the attack, but it was too late. Two men were on me and everything was chaos. Someone kicked my left leg and the pain slammed into every inch of me. My knee burned and I would have fallen, except they had me by the arms.
“What? Haiden, what the hell is going on there?” I could hear Carlisle yelling from the phone, but I strained and couldn’t do anything, even to help myself.
“Help!” I yelled, hoping Carlisle would help. Someone kicked my phone away with a growl. The men who had me didn’t really register in my mind as anything other than obstacles to try to be avoided. I wasn’t seeing them so much as panicking and trying t
o get away. I kicked and got a hand loose and punched someone on the chest, but it wasn’t hard, and all three of us were panting and straining.
My knee took another kick. The pain stole my breath, and then it was over. I cried out as my left arm was twisted in a way that ached and burned and the same thing happened to my right arm, and suddenly they were behind me and one of the men—dragons, I realized after a few seconds and getting a deep whiff of them—was hurting me and able to hold me all by himself. The other guy stood in front of me shaking his head. He had reddish hair and also looked familiar. He looked like he might be brothers with the guy out front.
“Lovely thing, you don’t need to fight us like this. You’re going to be well taken care of.”
In the distance, there was a roar from what I thought was the direction of the motel, and all three of us shivered with it. That sound was pure rage. The dragon in front of me looked up at the guy behind him. “Fuck. Let’s go.”
I tried to struggle, but my arms felt like they were going to snap when I dropped my weight or twisted. I cried out again as my knee hurt.
“Stop that. Walk.” The man with me shoved me toward a box van I hadn’t noticed before in the corner of the parking lot. I tried to fight, dragged my feet, strained, but the dragon moving me was just so much stronger than me that I felt like a kid fighting against an adult. My stomach tossed with fear as the van door was opened and then I sagged at what I saw.
My dad lay in there, on the floor. His face was so bloody I barely recognized him, and his chest seemed to be stuttering every time it rose and fell. The smell of blood was so strong on the air that I gagged and bile bit at the back of my throat. I was shoved inside and the dragon holding my arms followed me.
“Fuck, is he going to die?” I asked, feeling morbidly detached from the situation even while my brain seemed to clog with the adrenaline spiking through my system. It was harder to think than it should be.
“No. Sit down. We don’t have seatbelts back here, but you’ll be fine. Sit on the floor,” the dragon said. “Don’t want you getting hurt.” He wasn’t holding me quite as tight anymore, but my shoulders ached like they might be snapped right out of their sockets, so I listened. He got behind me and sat too. I hated this. The van rumbled to life and the exhaust was strong back here. The door slammed shut and it went dark. I stiffened. I couldn’t see the driver—this was the kind of van meant for tools and stuff in the back with no windows.
“Behave yourself, yeah? I’m letting go, but you’d best be still, or you’ll find yourself in a state.”
Hunching forward, I ignored him and brought my arms around across my belly to hold myself. He slipped a cloth over my eyes and I immediately shoved at it, but the man gripped my already aching shoulder hard enough to send pain streaking through my back.
“It’s a blindfold, and you’ll wear it.”
I nodded carefully. The blindfold was secured, and at least then I couldn’t see Dad’s ruined body when the door opened again. I cringed away from the body heat of the dragon behind me as the van jerked forward.
We rode in the van for a while, and I thought maybe I should try to do something to get away, but every time I tensed, the dragon watching me squeezed my arm hard until it hurt. Seething on the inside, I sat still. I already had all the proof I needed that they would hurt someone. Warm wetness soaked my pant leg, and I suspected it was Dad’s blood. We went over a hard bump, like we were going from the main road onto a dirt one, and Dad groaned.
Eventually the van stopped, and I was dragged out. It smelled like fall wherever I was, and we crunched through a lot of leaves, walked far longer than I thought we would, and then I was dragged up some steps that sounded hollow and wooden. I stumbled and went down on one knee, hurting myself, and was yanked up roughly.
“Stop,” I gasped, but I was ignored.
We walked again. I could tell we went into a building because our footsteps echoed strangely, and the air got still and musty. I was taken into a room and roughly shoved down. My stomach lurched, but I landed hard in a chair and the blindfold was ripped upward and off my head. The sudden sunlight dazzled me. The room I was in had peeling wallpaper and was empty of everything, except for the chair I sat on and a man—I assumed by the smell in here a dragon—wearing a sleek black suit. He had black hair slicked back that was long enough to curl a little at the ends. He gave me a soft friendly smile and there were dimples in his cheeks, but my stomach churned. I wanted Carlisle and the way the man took his time staring as he looked me over made my skin crawl.
“I’m Vladimir,” the man said, and he stepped closer. “I’ve had other names over the years, but this is the one I use now. I was part of your Grandmother’s clan. Do you know about that?”
My heart raced. “If you were part of her clan, why don’t you let me go? Why do this?”
His smile went hard. “She lied to us. She told the Cloud dragons that her daughter and her grandchild had died. We all grieved your loss. It was a rough time for our clan because there were other losses as well. In the span of twenty years, we lost every omega and most of the females.”
He stepped closer to me and leaned in, taking a deep whiff of the air around me. He nodded, almost like I’d done something he liked, and my stomach roiled. His scent was smoky, in a bad way, and made the inside of my nose itch.
“Imagine my surprise when Bree’s widower, drunk as a pack of skunks, tracked me down at my home. We used to be acquaintances. He worked for me for a time,” Vladimir said that with a sniff, as if it hurt him to admit it. He smoothed a hand over his tie. “Seems Poole had a sudden, violent recall of memories brought on by… well, who knows what?” He smirked at the dragon behind me who had hauled me in here. “Perhaps seeing a transformation for the first time in many years jogged his memories. Mind magic is funny that way. Doesn’t always hold tight. The human mind doesn’t forget things, just locks them away.”
“I want to go home. I don’t want to be here.”
Vladimir sighed. “Your father knew we’d want you back. I’d made it clear to him before you were born that I was willing to pay handsomely for you, for he and his wife to keep you and raise you, of course, I’m not a monster. The deal was that when it came time for you to choose a partner, he was to steer that choice to me. And I kept my part of the bargain. I gave him a very large sum of money.” Vladimir bared his teeth in my direction and my heart fluttered in my throat. Panic made me squirm, but hands came down on my shoulders to hold me in place. “Your father frittered part of the money away, and then his wife died, and he drowned himself in drink. I’m assuming when he turned vicious toward you is when your grandmother mind-fucked him—which I don’t honestly blame her for. I would have simply ripped his throat out. She was always kinder.”
He ran his thumb over my bottom lip, and I jerked back from him. “Why’s he all beat up if he was doing what you wanted?”
Vladimir straightened. “He’s trash, as most humans are.” He eyed me like I was a steak, and I got an uncomfortable sinking feeling in my gut. “Granted, Poole is slightly less foul with the smidge of dragon blood in his veins, but still. He got his memories back and came to me, told me there was another dragon here, trying to claim you. He wanted more money for the information.”
“Oh. So, you… did that? To him?”
Vladimir smiled, and even though Carlisle had hit my dad, this was so much worse somehow. Carlisle was trying to protect me. This guy had hurt my dad for what? Revenge?
“You bought me like a cow or something. That’s nice.”
Vladimir laughed and stepped closer. “Not quite. Arrangements are not uncommon between dragon families. You were denied our culture, or you would see the wisdom in this. I’m glad I have you back.”
“I’m not yours.”
“Oh, on the contrary,” he said, squeezing my face lightly between his fingers. It didn’t hurt, but I hated the way he made me look at him. “You are. You’re a Cloud dragon by birthright. I might have negotiated w
ith Carlisle, his clan wealth is legendary, but our women are gone. You’re worth more to us here. I was worried when my clansmen told me who was here, who it was who had taken an interest. We’ve been watching you for a while now, off and on. The crux of the matter is that save for that traitor, Jade, there are no more Cloud dragon females. We have no omegas. We need you. You’re going to keep us alive.”
He stroked my face and the air I managed to drag into my lungs felt like it was made of razor blades. My eyes burned. I didn’t want this.
He smiled. “I’m going to have you fat with a Cloud dragon very soon, no matter how many tries it takes. You’ll enjoy lying with me.” He smirked.
My breath caught in my throat and panic poked at me, making the room seem gray around the edges. “So, my dad fucked me over.”
“He blames you for killing the woman he loved, I suppose. He remembers that night, now, the one when you were born.” He ran a finger along the scar on my jaw, so like Carlisle, but instead of feeling warm and good inside the way I did with Carlisle, I gagged hard and couldn’t breathe. Tears pricked at me eyes. “I’d already heard about this,” he said, tapping my jaw, “and the way he’d been damaging what I’d already paid for. He would have gotten what he had coming to him, either way.”
I couldn’t breathe. I tried. Couldn’t. Sweat stung my eyes. Vladimir said my name, but I was panicking hard. It felt worse than ever since I hadn’t been having as many issues with Carlisle around, and while normally I could talk myself down a little, all I could see in my mind’s eye was my dad, bloody in that fucking van, and I cringed at the idea of this dragon doing any of the things with me, to me, that Carlisle had.
I got lost in my mind and couldn’t think or see or hear anymore. Someone was calling my name, but then I was gone from it all.