by Shannon West
I knew what Eldor would do to him if he got his hands on him—everyone knew what he’d planned to do to that little girl, Rosamund, so many years ago if she hadn’t gotten away. It was monstrous, and the idea of him doing that same thing to Luca fucking terrified me.
The things that Luca always said about pure-bloods came back now to haunt me. “All the Dragon breeds are dangerous and care only for treasure,” he often told me. “They will literally kill to increase their hoards. They’re devious liars too, completely devoid of any moral compass. They are, in a word, assholes—imperious, high-handed, arrogant creatures...”
When he’d said these things I’d get angry and resentful, but what had he said that wasn’t true?
All I could think of was getting to Luca, and I ran out the front door, intending to shift into my Dragon again and kill anyone and anything who got between me and Luca. Before I could, however, I heard the sound of a Sno-Cat headed toward us at top speed. Sebastien and Alexei came to stand beside me, and we waited together to see what was coming.
The heavy vehicle pulled up on the front drive and the door popped open. The first one out was the fucking witch, Pendragon, and I growled menacingly at him, low in my throat. I had every intention of killing him on the spot, but first he was going to tell me where Luca was. Then before I could get to him, he motioned to someone in the cab, and Luca jumped out beside him, his beautiful little face strained and shocked.
I literally saw red. I held out my hand to him to get him out of the way before I unleashed the flames burning in my throat and incinerated the man who had dared touch what was mine. I could feel the inferno building in my body, and I wanted nothing more than to light the bastard up. Luca ran to me before I could do any of that and threw himself into my arms. I loved the feel of him there, but first I had to deal with the witch. I tried to move Luca away, but he wrapped himself tightly around me, and he was like an octopus, all arms and legs, and I couldn’t budge him. Finally, some of the absolute rage I was feeling began to dissipate a little, and I could hear what he was saying to me over the roar of the holocaust in my heart.
“No, Dmitri! It’s not what you think. Well, it is, but everything is different now. Dmitri, listen to me, damn it! You can’t burn up my father now that I’ve finally found him!”
Shaking the haze from my eyes, I looked down at him. “What? What are you talking about? What do you mean?”
“Pen!” he said, shouting it in my face. “Damn it, Dmitri, focus! Rheged Pendragon is my father!”
It took a while for the fire inside me to tamp down and the air to clear, but eventually the things Luca was yelling at me got through. I thought at first the witch was compelling him in some way or had put a spell on him, but gradually the two of them began to convince me that what Luca was saying wasn’t being forced. But I still couldn’t wrap my mind around the idea of Pendragon as Luca’s biological father.
It seemed to be pretty hard for the witch too. He looked like he was in shock, really. He mostly kept staring at Luca with a dumbstruck look on his face, and I could sympathize, because I was feeling a little like that myself.
We had made our way into the front room of the house, and I was sitting on the sofa with Luca standing beside me, too keyed up to sit down, he said. They both explained to me again how Pen had lured him out of the house with lies about me being injured. That made me furious all over again. “So you were just going to deliver him up to Eldor, knowing what Eldor had planned for him.”
“I think so. Maybe,” he said and I wanted to kill him. Then he looked up at Luca who was standing beside me and I saw the misery in his expression. “No, I don’t think so. I was having… second thoughts.”
I made a sound of disgust, and Luca put a hand on my shoulder. “Tell me what he would have done to me. Dmitri said that he’d lock me away and keep me there.”
“Yes,” I said, feeling guilt wash over me. “Well, I may have not been entirely truthful about that.”
Luca glanced back and forth from me to Pen. “What is the truth then? I need to know.”
Pen sighed. “It has to do with the prophecy I told you about. I wish I could remember all of it, but I did lie about one thing. I remembered the last line, but I didn’t want you to know.”
“Imagine that,” I said. “You lying to him.”
“You’re one to talk!” Pen retorted, balling up his fists.
“Dmitri, please. Let him talk.”
“I already told you some of it—when the Spawn rises to rule the land, a son of Dragon and child of man, born of magic, blood and rage…The last dragonet is the only chance, to stem the tide and quell the advance.”
“What the hell?” I said, losing what little patience I had left. “Those old prophecies don’t mean anything.”
“But they do,” he said, glaring at me. “This prophecy is what Eldor has based his entire pursuit of Luca on. He’s frighteningly serious about it, I can assure you.” He turned back to Luca when I rolled my eyes. “The part I left out was the last, because I didn’t want to scare you. His heart is the hardest treasure to hold.”
“Okay,” Luca said. “So why would that scare me? What the hell does that even mean?”
The witch shrugged. “Nobody really knows. Eldor thinks he does though. Prophecies are always confusing and obscure. Some of it makes sense, especially now. You’re the last dragonet, that’s for sure.”
“And born of magic…” Luca said thoughtfully. When he saw me looking at him with a dubious expression, he shrugged. “He’s magic,” he said, nodding over at Pen. “Maybe Rosamund had some too. Exactly what did Eldor plan to do to my mother?”
“Kill her,” he said, so matter-of-factly that it chilled my blood. “He planned to cut her heart out and keep it, in case it proved to be powerful.”
“Oh shit,” Luca said and came around to fall down on the sofa beside me to glare at me. “Jesus, did you know about this?”
I blew out a breath and finally nodded. “Yes, we all heard the rumors when he captured Rosamund. Some didn’t believe them.”
“But you knew,” Luca persisted. “And you never told me.”
“I didn’t know for sure. I just knew he didn’t want you for anything good, no matter what he said that day he came to the house.”
Pen spoke up. “He believes it’s what the prophecy is talking about. He thought her heart was the treasure. The literal-minded asshole thought he had it all figured out.”
“But Rosamund got away. And now he wants to carve out my heart…”
“From your chest while it’s still beating, yes. More potent that way. He thought whoever owned your heart would have all the power and eventually beat the Spawn in some kind of apocalyptic uprising and rule the damn world.”
“But that’s crazy.”
“Yes, it is. Batshit crazy. But that’s Eldor for you. And his fucking son too, because Auric was the one who was trying to sell you out to Eldor. If you’d gone over there to see Auric the night we left, you wouldn’t have been coming back home again.”
“And that makes the man I called my father a monster and the rumors are all true.”
“What rumors?” Pen asked.
“About my mother,” Luca said. “I told you some of it. People in our neighborhood said my dad got drunk the night I was born. The walls are thin in public housing, you know, and that’s where we lived up until I moved out. Some kind of fight started with my mother and the neighbors heard her screaming, but they were too afraid of him to help her. The next day, he told everyone she left him, but nobody believed it. A few days later, the neighbors heard a baby crying in the apartment. They all knew what he’d done. That he’d killed her. But they were still too scared to turn him in.”
Pen jumped to his feet, his voice and manner agitated. He was pale and his hands were shaking. I swear to God the tattoos on his arms and hands were glowing. “Are you saying he murdered Rosamund by beating her to death?” He practically choked on those last words and a look of pure
grief came over his face. It was so raw I had to look away, and I didn’t even like the guy.
“Born of magic, blood and rage,” I quoted softly.
Luca reached out to touch his father’s arm. “And what about you? Were you going to stand by and let Eldor kill my mother? Is that why she left you?”
“No!” he roared, flinching away, and suddenly the smell of ozone was strong in the air around us. “I was only a kid myself—just sixteen and so much in love I thought I’d die from it. I was powerful even then, but I had no discipline and couldn’t always control my magic. I had traveled to Eldor’s house to apprentice with an older magician named Pelasius. Much of the time I was a glorified servant when I wasn’t studying, and that’s how I came to know Rosamund. I brought her food in the dungeon he kept her in. She was so frightened. So beautiful. Many nights I’d sneak back down late at night and talk to her.”
“And you fell in love with her?”
“Yes, I did. And it was agonizing because I knew what Eldor had planned. She was not much more than a child—a year younger than I was. Eldor was waiting for her to mature a little. He had some idea that her body had to fully develop before he could take her heart.”
“God, that’s disgusting.”
“Yes, it was. I planned to get her out of there and take her back to England with me. I knew my father would help me keep her safe. But before I could finalize my plans, she was gone. She left with Auric and the next thing I heard she was in America, pregnant, I thought, with his child. I was devastated.”
“But it wasn’t his baby.”
Pen hung his head. “Not if you’re telling me the truth about the letter you found.”
“I swear it on my life.”
Pen nodded. “I believe you. I’d know if you were lying. I just don’t understand why she left me to go with Auric if she didn’t even love him.”
Pen moaned again, burying his face in his hands, and I felt a little sorry for him, despite how angry I still was. It had been a long time, but twenty years or a thousand years, if I had lost Luca and then learned that he had died so cruelly at another man’s hand, I’d have lost my mind.
****
Luca
Over the next few hours, Pen set up powerful wards to keep Eldor and his men out of Dmitri’s territory. A ward, I learned from Pen, was a spell to put up a barrier to protect what was inside its perimeter. We could go out but Eldor couldn’t come in. Dmitri didn’t like the idea much, saying he could provide the protection I needed, but Pen insisted and did it anyway. I could already see a future of clashes between these two strong-willed men with me right in the middle. I knew that it wouldn’t take much for Dmitri to fight Eldor. He was already dying to.
So when Eldor sent him a challenge over email late that afternoon, calling him a coward who hid behind a mage and his wards, I could see his temper blaze up and take over.
“Look at this!” he said disgustedly, throwing down a piece of paper in front of Sebastien. It was early evening and except for Dmitri, we were all sitting down to dinner, just like we weren’t being threatened by a maniac who wanted to cut out my heart. Dmitri’s mother had insisted we have a civilized meal, but Dmitri said he was too busy and wouldn’t come down. Normally, I’d have seized any chance to miss dinner too, but I knew Pen would be there, and I thought someone should keep him company so he wouldn’t be the only pariah at the table.
So there we were, picking at our roast beef dinners when Dmitri stormed in. He had printed the email out for his cousins to read, and Sebastien and Alexei both bent over the paper with twin expressions of outrage.
“Dmitri, please,” his mother said, but after one furious glare she patted her lips with her napkin and pressed her thin lips firmly together.
“What are we going to do about this, Dmitri?” Sebastien said. “Tell me we’re not going to hide in here behind the wards.”
“What the fuck do you think? I sent him a message back saying we’d meet him at first light, on the border between our land. It’s time to finish this thing once and for all.”
“He’ll have something up his sleeve,” Pen said, throwing down his napkin. “You can’t trust him.”
“Believe me, I don’t. But we can handle anything he throws at us.”
“I’d like to be there too,” Pen said.
Dmitri nodded and turned to me. “And before you start, the answer is no. You’re not going.”
I opened my mouth to respond to him, but he turned his back on me and was out the door before I could say a word. Did he still seriously think that would work on me? I simply folded my napkin and leaned back in my chair, feeling the gazes of everyone at the table burning into me. Pen, in particular, was regarding me thoughtfully. I gave him a brittle smile and stood up.
“Have a good evening,” I said and left to go up to my room. Dmitri was downstairs in his office, which was where they’d make their plans for the coming fight with Eldor. I had already made my decision, and I had my own plans to make.
Halfway up the stairs, I heard someone call my name and turned to see Pen looking up at me from the foot of the staircase.
“Carrying on the family tradition, I see.”
“What are you talking about?”
He climbed a few steps to come up just below me, a little smile playing around his lips. “Taking off and running away when you’re hurt or angry instead of facing things head on. Dmitri’s just trying to keep you safe, you know. He didn’t mean anything else by that.”
I gripped the stair rail so hard my fingers ached. “He thinks of me as a possession, not a person. So yeah, he’s protecting his investment, I guess.”
“He loves you, Luca.”
I shook my head. “Then he has a funny way of showing it.”
“Maybe he’s showing you the only way he knows how.” He glanced back toward the dining room. “I wouldn’t suppose he’s learned a lot about love from those two in there, would you?”
I shifted uncomfortably. “I’m not anyone he can or even should love. I learned that pretty early on.”
Pen surprised me then by putting his hand over mine on the railing. My skin tingled where he made contact. “Who convinced you of that? Auric? Why in the name of the goddess would you trust any opinion of his? Or think that it matters in any way? I’ll spend the rest of my life regretting what happened to you and your mother, son. I should have gone after Rosamund—found out why she left the way she did, but I was so hurt, so full of pride that I convinced myself I was better off without her. If only I had known she was carrying my child…” He looked up at me and I could see the hot pain radiating out of his eyes. “The saddest words in any language, aren’t they? If only. You deserve to be loved, son.” He moved his hand to my chest. “But first, you have to feel it in here, or no one else will ever be able to convince you.” He patted my chest and then turned and went back down the stairs, leaving me staring after him.
I’d like to say his words resonated in me, but that wouldn’t be completely true. I knew he was probably right, but it was still something I had to learn for myself. I was getting there, but I had a few things I had to prove to myself first. See, I had received my own message from Eldor that afternoon in the form of a picture. So I knew the message he sent Dmitri was only a decoy, a lure to get him out of the way. The message I received, though only four words, was much more powerful.
In the photo, a man was tied to a chair. Mr. Alvarez’s snowy white hair was bloody in patches, and he sagged against the ropes that were holding him upright. Artie Samboa, his ugly face grinning into the camera, gripped his hair and held up his battered head. Below the picture was the caption, “Come alone, before dawn.”
I knew I had no choice. They would kill Mr. Alvarez if I didn’t show up. They probably would, anyway, and I already knew what they had planned for me. But if I could manage to take Eldor with me, then I could end this thing once and for all and maybe give Mr. Alvarez a chance to get away. It was a big maybe, but I had to try. Mr. Alvar
ez had stood by me when no one else would. He had given me food and shelter and what’s more, he had given me hope of a better life. He had been the first and maybe the only one in my life at that time who showed me I had some value. How could I abandon him now?
And if I told Dmitri or Pen, then they would insist on storming the place and the first casualty would be Mr. Alvarez. We might succeed in killing Eldor and his men, but my friend wouldn’t stand a chance. I had to try to give him one.
So I went to bed early, lying in the dark and plotting what I would try to do. I heard Dmitri open the connecting door between us, and he stood there in the dark for a long time, just looking at me. I wanted so badly to say goodbye, but of course, I couldn’t give him any indication of what I was planning. After a long time, he gently closed the door.
I waited until the house settled down around me. I could feel the tension in the air as Dmitri and the others prepared themselves mentally for battle, but the house was dark and silent when I sneaked out of my room and up to the roof. Eldor had told me once that his home was just over the mountains. I quickly shed my clothing, shifted into my Wyvern and leaped up into the night sky. The moon was shining down on the icy landscape below me as I made my way across the mountains. The air was still and I thought about my poor, doomed mother, who had tried to escape her own fate, only to meet death a few months later. Now I was on my way to my death, but I didn’t feel sad and sorry for myself.
I was filled with rage.
Once I cleared the mountain top, I could see the lights of Eldor’s mansion below me. I dipped down out of the clouds and flew right up to the front steps, landing lightly on my feet and shifting back to my human form. He must have been watching for me, because the door opened right away and Eldor himself stepped out onto the porch.