“If you die, I die,” Izzi reminded him.
He instantly sobered. “My head would need to be severed from my body by my own sword for my death to occur.”
“Yuck.”
His expression was grim. “The person who attacked Vaughn knew that.”
Her eyes widened. “They tried to decapitate him?”
“Yes.”
“He’s going to survive, though?” she prompted worriedly. Vaughn really was her favorite of the Romanov brothers.
“Yes.”
“Does Vaughn even own a sword?” If he did, Izzi had never see it.
“I told you, our clans aren’t the same,” Deryk dismissed. “I believe any form of decapitation will kill the Russian dragons.”
“I… But… How could someone even know that?” Izzi’s family had been servants to the Romanovs for centuries, and she had never heard of anyone being able to kill one of them.
He shrugged. “Someone who has studied dragon lore, probably. Which means we’re probably dealing with dragon hunters.”
“There are such things?”
“My brother Rufus was killed by them.”
It made Izzi feel slightly dizzy to realize dragons were vulnerable after all. “I’m sorry.”
“It happened almost two hundred years ago.”
“Did they use his sword to do it?”
“Yes.”
Nausea followed the dizziness. “I hope you keep your own sword well hidden.”
He grimaced. “All our swords are hanging in the entrance hall of Pendragon Castle.”
Her brows rose. “Then I suggest, after this attack on Vaughn, you take them down and lock them away somewhere no one else can find them!”
He nodded. “I’ll mention it to Grigor when I return to the palace.”
“How did your brother get here so quickly?”
“He was spending some time at his cave in Alaska. We all have a cave, Izabella,” Deryk added dryly at she raised her brows. “Our dragons occasionally need that solitude. More so of late, when the drive to mate seems to have become more intense for all of us.”
“Where’s your cave?”
“Scotland.”
“I— If we mate, will you take me there one day?”
“If you want to go, yes, of course. Anything I have, all that I am, is now yours, Izabella.”
Izzi wanted to be angry with Deryk for putting her in this irredeemable position. But the more he told her about dragons, the more she realized he was as helpless against this mating as she was. Given a choice, she doubted he would have chosen a twenty-two-year-old Russian virgin as his mate.
So what did they do?
Both make the best of it?
Or both die?
Chapter 10
“Are you absolutely sure you want to do this?”
Was Izzi absolutely sure she wanted to become the fated mate of a dragon shifter?
Absolutely not.
Was she absolutely sure she didn’t want to die, or for Deryk to die either?
Absolutely yes.
“It seems we have no other choice if we both want to live,” she told Deryk firmly.
At her instigation, the two of them had returned to the privacy of her apartment to complete their mating rather than going back to the palace. Izzi would have felt distinctly uncomfortable having full-blown sex with Deryk with her parents in the same building.
“We don’t have to rush this,” Deryk insisted. “We have time.”
“A little under three weeks to decide whether to live or die?” she scorned. “I already know I’ll choose to live.”
“I still think you should take the time you have left. To allow yourself more time to accept the mating. To accept me.”
She gave him a mocking glance. “I doubt three weeks is long enough for me to accept either of those things, so why wait?”
“All this will become even more intense once we’re properly mated,” he warned. “Once I’ve bitten you to complete the mating, your blood mixing with mine and your body taking in more of the aphrodisiac, the two of us won’t be able to be apart for too long at any one time.”
Izzi frowned. “You already told me that, and said you’re willing to remain in Russia until after I’ve finished my degree.”
“If Vlad gives his permission for me to do so, yes.” He nodded tersely.
She looked at him searchingly. “Is there now some reason why you think he won’t do that?”
Deryk grimaced. “Apart from the fact I made it perfectly clear earlier I think he’s an arrogant asshole, and he made it equally as clear he believes the same about me?”
“That’s because you’re both alpha males,” Izzi dismissed ruefully.
He nodded “From totally different dragon clans.”
“Because your mother is a goddess?”
“That’s part of it, yes. But there could be other differences too that I don’t know about without talking more in depth with the Romanovs.” Something he doubted was going to be possible right now.
“Such as?”
“We have almost three weeks to talk about them.”
“What else are you hiding from me?”
“I’m not deliberately hiding anything from you.” His gaze met her searching one unflinchingly. “I just don’t want to overwhelm you with too much information all at once.”
Considering Izzi was still having trouble accepting the whole mating concept, perhaps Deryk was wise to do that. “How did you and the Romanov dragons meet?”
He smiled. “Grigor and Vlad got into a fight.”
“Oh my God… Who won?”
“According to Grigor, it was a draw. We’re now all trying to work together in our search for our mates but this visit to Russia has shown that cooperation is better done from a great distance than in each other’s faces.” Deryk’s nostrils flared. “If I remain here, I would have to learn to curb my natural instinct to rip Vlad apart.”
She laughed softly. “Poor Deryk.”
“You have no idea!”
Oh, Izzi believed she did. She had lived with Vlad Romanov’s arrogance all her life, and she’d had plenty of opportunity to witness Deryk’s for the past two days too. It didn’t surprise her in the least that the two alpha dragons were at loggerheads. “But you would do it for me, wouldn’t you,” she prompted.
“I would, and will, do anything for my mate.”
“Then we don’t have a problem.”
Deryk’s eyes narrowed. “It also works in reverse, Izabella. That’s something else you need to realize about mating a dragon. Our hearts will be joined. Our bodies will crave each other. Our emotions will be open to each other. Our thoughts too, once the mating is established. And our memories. You will never be able to hide anything from me.”
“Or you from me?”
“Yes.”
She tilted her head, noting the shadows now in those magnificent golden eyes. “Do you want to hide anything from me?”
He snorted. “I’ve been alive for fifteen hundred years, so what do you think?”
“None of us can change the past, Deryk.”
“My attitude toward the women in my life hasn’t always been…kind,” he acknowledged reluctantly.
“I’m your mate, not just any woman.”
He nodded. “My past also involves much blood being spilled and many lives taken, by both my own hands and my dragon’s talons.”
“Considering you were born at the end of the fifth century, I would think so, yes.” History wasn’t Izzi’s subject, but she knew enough to know those early centuries had been a bloody time for the whole of the world’s history. As had the fifteen hundred years since. Battles, rebellion, revolutions. And Deryk had lived through it all. “It’s fascinating,” she murmured.
“That’s one way of putting it,” he muttered dryly. “I will never be domesticated, Isabella, so don’t ever think I will. My brothers and I hide behind the respectability of a security firm nowadays, but none of us he
sitates to kill if we believe the situation warrants it.”
“Oh.”
His chin rose in challenge. “The question you have to ask yourself is are you prepared to accept that, to accept me and all that being a dragon mate entails?”
Was she? The alternative wasn’t too appealing. But neither was the thought of Deryk, her mate, going around killing people. Or of Deryk and his brothers setting themselves up as judge, jury, and executioner. It went against everything her studying to be a lawyer represented.
She chewed on her bottom lip. “Perhaps we should give completing the mating a little more time after all.”
Deryk’s mouth twisted. It was the answer he had expected, of course. Izabella was a twenty-first-century woman, with all the social mores that involved. Deryk might have adapted to the changes of each century as he lived through them, but that didn’t mean his thoughts and ideas were any more civilized now than they had been fifteen centuries ago. His dragon’s certainly weren’t.
His gaze avoided hers. “There’s also something about the mating itself you need to be made aware of.”
She snorted. “The biting me on the back of the neck and sucking my blood isn’t enough?”
He drew in a deep breath. “I don’t know if the Romanovs have it, but the Pendragon shifters have a barb. At the base of our cock,” he added as she looked puzzled.
Her cheeks flamed with fresh color. “It wasn’t there earlier.”
“Because I controlled it. But it can’t be controlled during the mating. It…grows, latches on inside our mate, and doesn’t release again for some time.”
Izabella’s eyes were wide even as her cheeks remained that fiery red. “How much time?”
“According to Nathaniel, a minimum of fifteen minutes, but usually much longer.”
“Is this because of the procreating thing?”
“Yes.”
“Then we definitely need to hold off on the mating until after you’ve talked to your brother Dylan and discover if he’s perfected the dragon contraceptive yet.” She nodded. “This is all too new and strange, and we don’t know each other well enough to become parents before the two of us have become comfortable in our mating.”
“And in the meantime?”
Her eyes narrowed. “In the meantime, we carry on exactly as we have been. But without any more…bodily fluids passing from you to me or vice versa.” The color blazed brighter in her cheeks.
Deryk’s cock gave an enthusiastic surge at the mention of the release of bodily fluids. “Now?” he prompted hopefully.
Izabella shook her head. “Now I think we should go back to the palace, after all. Not for my sake but for yours,” she added as he frowned. “I should have thought of this earlier, but without knowing who attacked Vaughn and why, you’re all vulnerable. You especially so if we stay the night here in my apartment. Your sword might not be here so they can kill you, but I don’t like the thought of there being someone in St. Petersburg who might decide to attack and seriously injure you next,” she acknowledged.
Did Izabella’s worry for his welfare mean the affection, perhaps even love, was happening for her?
Or was her concern only for the fact his death would ultimately result in her own?
Only time would tell, but time, unfortunately, was something in short supply for both of them.
“Anything new to report?” Deryk looked enquiringly at his two brothers the following morning as they stood outside in the hallway of the breakfast room where they had just left the Romanov brothers.
Including Vaughn, who had looked a little pale but otherwise showed no other evidence of yesterday’s attack.
Bryn shook his head. “It’s a little like looking for that proverbial needle in a haystack when Vaughn didn’t see who attacked him.”
Deryk frowned. “How is that possible?” Their dragon senses were heightened to a degree Vaughn should have been aware of anyone trying to approach him. Unless… “You mentioned he was on his way to meet with a woman last night?”
Bryn’s mouth twisted derisively. “Yes.”
“Could she possibly be involved?”
“He says not.”
“But…?”
“But Vlad will make discreet enquiries anyway.”
Deryk gave a dismissive huff. “He would.”
“Izabella is safe?” Grigor changed the subject to something less controversial.
Izabella was not only safe but still cozily asleep upstairs in Deryk’s bed. Something she had done after discovering that his touch alone helped dissipate the sexual fever enough she was able to lie next to him and fall into a deep sleep.
Deryk had lain awake for those same hours, his body aching for Izabella, wanting her to the depths of his being.
Instead, he had spent most of the night looking at her, drinking in every feature and nuance of all that was Izabella. His mate.
He’d had no idea what his mate would look like, if or when he found her, but now all Deryk could see, hear, and feel was Izabella. How perfect she was. How beautiful, both inside and out.
“She is,” he answered his brother.
“You are still not mated.” Grigor stated rather than questioned.
“Not yet,” he confirmed. “She’s only twenty-two, and we’re talking about a lifetime, hundreds of years, of the two of us being mates,” he defended as Grigor scowled his disapproval. “That’s a huge step for any young woman to contemplate, and I intend to give Izabella all the time she needs before making such an important decision.”
Bryn leaned forward. “And if you die before she does that?”
“Then I fucking die,” Deryk stated evenly. “I’m not pushing Izabella into this mating if it isn’t what she wants.”
“I am glad to hear it.” Vlad joined in the conversation as he left the breakfast room.
Deryk’s eyes narrowed on the other dragon. “If I ever want your opinion, I’ll ask for it.”
The Russian’s mouth tightened. “Your arrogance—”
“Is equal to your own.” Deryk stated the obvious. “I suggest you concentrate your arrogance on finding Vaughn’s attacker and leave my mating and my mate to me.” He strode down the hallway toward the main entrance hall before Vlad could make any further comment.
“Your mate would like to speak with you privately,” Izabella said quietly behind him.
Deryk spun round to see she was in the hallway with him. The flush in Izabella’s cheeks and the fevered glitter in her eyes indicated she was once again suffering from their separation. He stepped closer to reach out and take a light grip of her arm, relieved when he instantly felt some of the tension leave the stiffness of her body.
Izzi released a shaky breath. “I need to talk to you about something.”
“Talk?” Deryk repeated doubtfully, his disappointment blatantly obvious in his expression.
She smiled. “Yes, talk. It’s what people do to communicate with each other,” she added teasingly.
“One of the things people do to communicate.”
Despite the seriousness of this situation, Izzi couldn’t stop herself from chuckling at his now hopeful expression. She was really starting to like Deryk, as well as feeling this overwhelming desire for him. Which was perhaps as well, given the circumstances.
She instantly sobered at the thought of those circumstances. “I was in the kitchen talking to my parents just now and… I’m really not sure if this is important or not.” She frowned, feeling slightly disloyal, at the same time as she knew her family loyalty was to the Romanovs. Besides, Vaughn could so easily have been killed last night. “Tanya wasn’t working at the palace last night, and she hasn’t come in today either.”
Deryk’s gaze sharpened. “Tanya is the woman I met last night? Petrov’s sister.”
“Yes.”
“Did she say she was working?”
“Not exactly. I assumed she was…” Izzi nodded, “…and she let me continue to think that. But according to my parents, she phoned t
hem early yesterday evening and told them she was sick and wouldn’t be coming in to work.”
Deryk’s brows rose. “She didn’t look sick when we saw her.”
“No.” And that troubled Izzi. “Of course, she could have just made the excuse so she could go out with her boyfriend.”
“Have you met her boyfriend?”
“No.” She shook her head slowly. “I didn’t even know she had one.”
Deryk frowned. “Vaughn was supposed to be meeting a woman.”
Izzi’s brows rose. “Do you think it could have been Tanya?” The other woman had been working at the palace for a couple of months now, and Tanya was very beautiful. Something one of the handsome Romanov brothers—Vaughn?—could certainly have noticed and decided to enjoy.
Deryk shrugged. “Why don’t we ask him?”
Izzi’s eyes widened in alarm. “My family isn’t allowed to question—”
“Forget what your family is allowed, Izabella,” he growled. “You’re not only Izabella Mikhailova now, but also the mate of a Pendragon dragon. As such you can ask any of the Romanovs whatever the hell you damn well please.”
She had always understood and accepted her parents’ subservience to the Romanov family, but since leaving school and going to university, learning of the freedoms her peer group enjoyed, Izzi had begun to question that attitude in regard to herself. She realized it was an antiquated practice at best and positively feudal at worst. Those feelings had been what drew her to Pyotr’s more rebellious political leanings.
She moistened her lips with the tip of her tongue. “Vlad won’t like us questioning Vaughn.”
Deryk gave a derisive snort. “I believe I have made my feelings more than clear in regard to Vlad’s opinion on anything.”
Izzi would agree, from the little she had overheard of the conversation just now between the two men. It had filled her with a sense of…pride wasn’t quite the right word, but she had certainly enjoyed hearing Deryk defend her as his mate.
Once Deryk had accepted last night that sleep was all Izzi wanted, she had slept reasonably well with Deryk beside her, the weight of his hand on her hip enough to dampen her desire to a manageable level. But as soon as she woke up this morning, alone in his bed, the return of that fever of desire had instantly consumed her. It was literally becoming painful, as Deryk had said it would with the deepening of the mating, for her to be apart from him. The lines of strain feathering out from his eyes told her he wasn’t faring much better.
Deryk (Dragon Hearts 2) Page 9