by Liliana Hart
I heard Noah just behind me, but I didn’t turn around to face him. Instead, I flicked my shoes off and threw my coat onto the hood of his Jeep. And then I ran. I ran fast and hard, the trees whipping by in a blur of speed, not caring as thin branches whipped at my body. The pain was welcome.
My feet barely touched the ground. I was faster than any human could ever hope to be, and for that moment I was free. Free from my family and my responsibilities to my people. I was free from the weight that Calista had placed on my shoulders. And I was free from the Destroyer and whatever the hell Noah Ford was.
I stopped when I reached the lake. My breathing wasn’t labored, but my hands shook. I knew it was from fear. Not fear of Noah, though there was a part of me that respected the danger he could bring me. But it was fear of the unknown. I knew what it meant that I couldn’t see myself in my visions. I was going to die, and no one was going to be able to stop it. Even worse, no one would care.
The Jeep crept to a stop behind me, and the door opened. I kept my back turned, but I could feel Noah approaching from behind. He placed his hand on my shoulder, and I let out the breath I’d been holding. And when he wrapped his arms around me I knew I had nothing to lose and everything to gain. There was tonight, and tomorrow would come whether I wanted it to or not.
I turned in his arms and sought out his mouth, avoiding his gaze at all cost. I didn’t want to think. Only to feel. Liquid fire rolled in my belly as our mouths touched, and all I could think was that I may have underestimated Noah Ford. His desire matched mine. He became the aggressor, sucking at my tongue and biting at my bottom lip until the coppery taste of blood filled my mouth. My temperature spiked, and it wasn’t until then I realized Noah couldn’t possibly be human, or the heat from my flesh would have burned him.
I broke free to question him again about what he was, but he didn’t give me the chance. He picked me up, and I wrapped my legs around his waist, moaning at the hardness I felt rubbing against the sensitive flesh between my thighs. My skirt rose up to my waist, and he grabbed my ass with both hands, grinding me against him until the friction of the fabric from his slacks and the teeth of his zipper became a kind of pain. He kissed me again, our tongues thrusting in imitation of what was sure to come, and he leaned me against the hood of his Jeep.
I couldn’t control the intensity of my inner dragon fire. It had never blazed so hot, and I thought I would die from the pressure of it building inside of me. I’d never felt this way with another man.
Noah either hadn’t noticed the heat of my flesh or he just didn’t care. I didn’t know what to do, or how to make the fire stop, but the all-consuming pleasure was quickly turning into pain. Liquid fire burned down the right side of my body and I screamed.
“What’s wrong?” Noah asked.
“God, it’s like someone’s taking a hot iron to my body.” I writhed against the hood of the Jeep, and rolled over into the fetal position, keeping my eyes closed against the torture. I pushed Noah further away from me, but he made a sound as soon as our bodies separated that made me open my eyes. His face was pinched in a grimace, and his eyes were clouded with pain. “You feel it too?”
He nodded and tried to get control of his breathing.
“What’s happening to us?” I asked.
The naked surprise on his face was like a bucket of cold water over my head, and my curiosity intensified as he quickly blanked his expression. His voice was strangled with effort when he answered me. “Are you telling me you don’t know?”
“Know what?” I looked frantically down my right side, positive I’d see burns along my skin, but there was nothing. Just naked flesh that was quickly turning cold with goose bumps. “What aren’t you telling me?”
He helped me off the hood and straightened my clothes like nothing more than something platonic had just happened between us. “I’m sorry, but I need to take you home,” he said softly.
I’d run the gamut of emotions for the night, and despite everything that had happened since I’d met Noah, my prevailing thought was one of disappointment. And shame. I was still woman enough to feel the sting of rejection.
It was followed closely by anger. The severity of my rage took me by surprise. My throat vibrated, and a roar erupted that I had no intention of stifling. I charged Noah with all the strength and speed I possessed.
He grunted as I tackled him to the ground, but he didn’t cry out. The feel of flesh pounding flesh was fulfilling, and my body needed to be sated. If not by sex, then by violence.
“Dammit, Rena. I promise I’ll tell you everything I can once I find out what the hell is going on. You have every right to be upset, but you have to trust me.”
He captured my arms in an ironclad grasp, so I butted him in the chin with my head and felt satisfaction at the crunch. He didn’t retaliate against me. He only held me closer. In the back of my mind I knew he had every opportunity to fight back, and he was strong enough to injure me. But he didn’t.
“Trust you?” I yelled. “You’ve done nothing but play with my emotions and evade my questions since I met you.” We were tangled in a heap on the ground, arms and legs entwined. All my speed and strength was useless against him. Definitely not human. I kicked at the back of his leg, and he rolled with me until I was underneath him.
“Stop it, Rena. I’m sorry, okay? I’m sorry. Please listen to me.”
I stopped struggling, not because I wanted to, but because we were at an impasse. We were evenly matched. Our faces were within inches of each other, and our breaths mingled as we gasped for air.
“Will you listen?” Noah whispered.
I nodded yes, but broke eye contact. I stared at his mouth instead.
“There are things you don’t know that you should have been told before we moved to the physical part of our relationship. Things that will affect your future. And mine. When I sought you out this morning, I fully expected for us to meet each other on a level playing field, but we can’t when there’s so much you don’t know. It’s not fair to you.”
“What don’t I know? Tell me.”
There was regret in his eyes, and I knew it was hopeless for me to ask. He lowered his forehead to mine, and my breath caught in my chest at the sweetness of the gesture.
“I give you an oath on my life that I will tell you everything, but I must find out all I can first. I’ll be betraying my people if I tell you this information, and I need to get permission. I need to find out why it was kept from you, and what will happen once you do know. There are those I can ask these questions and get the answers. And then I will come for you, Rena. There’s nothing that could keep me away now that I’ve tasted you.”
I didn’t acknowledge his explanation one way or another. “Just take me home,” I said.
He nodded and let me up. I got in the car with what was left of my dignity, and stared out the window the entire way, not bothering to reply to Noah’s attempts at conversation.
It was late when we finally turned into the long drive that would bring me home. Noah slowed the Jeep before we got to the front of the house.
“Rena, look at me.”
My pride wouldn’t let me do anything but meet him eye to eye.
“No matter what you’re feeling right now or what happens in the future I want you to know how much I want you. I’ve dreamed of you,” he said, running his finger down the slope of my cheek. “And from now on you’re mine.”
“Excuse me?” I said, ire raised at his presumptuousness. “I don’t belong to anyone but myself.”
“Not anymore. And just as you belong to me, I belong to you as well. Your body burns for me just as mine burns for you. I know it goes against every part of your nature, but I want nothing more than to protect you. And to love you.”
A fierce yearning rushed through my body at the mention of love, but I tamped it down. It was a human emotion, and I couldn’t afford to let my humanness get in the way. “Why?” I asked.
“Because you need to be loved.”
I leaned forward until the gearshift pressed against my hip bone and pulled at his jacket until his face was close to mine. I nipped at his lips and kissed my way down his neck until I could draw in the scent of him. He smelled of rain and wildness.
“You need to tell me what’s going on here, Noah,” I whispered in his ear. “You seem to know all the right buttons to push. The wants and needs I’ve kept hidden my entire life are like an open book for you. If you want those things from me, you’re going to have to give me something in return.”
He pulled back, and a glimmer of humor shone in his eyes. I narrowed my own in return. Dragons were good at manipulation. We were hard to resist when we asked for something. It was a trait built in to assure the growth of our hoards. Most of the time we never had to steal. Items were just given to us willingly.
“I won’t betray my people, Rena. You of all people should understand the honor in that.”
I pulled back, feeling a prick of conscience that was rare with the Drakán. He was right. I couldn’t ask him to betray his people.
“I’m sorry,” I said. The words came out with difficulty. I wasn’t sure I’d ever uttered them before.
“Give me your phone,” he said.
I handed him my iPhone without a thought and watched with curiosity as he typed something into it. He handed it back and I stared at his information programmed into my address book.
“I don’t know what’s going to face you in Belgium, Rena, but I don’t have a good feeling about it. No matter where you are. If you need me, I’ll come.”
“I appreciate the gesture, but I’d probably be dead by the time you got to me.”
“I could be there faster than you think. Remember that and use the phone if you need me. You could even call to talk dirty if you wanted to. I’m not picky.” He pushed down on the accelerator and drove to the front of the house.
I wondered what grand plans the gods had in store for me. They’d given me the Destroyer and a man who wanted to love me all in the same day.
When the car stopped, I pushed the door open, ready to flee and get control over my emotions once again. But Noah put his hand on my shoulder to stop me. My body turned toward him voluntarily, almost as if I couldn’t help it.
“Rena.” It was all he had to say, and I leaned in to kiss him goodbye. It was a soft kiss, with none of the explosive passion we’d shared earlier, but it was just as potent. His fingers were hot on my skin, and I could feel my own temperature rising. My breasts were full and heavy with passion, and moisture pooled between my legs. The unspent desire from earlier in the evening was rushing to the surface, and the liquid fire that had filled us both with pain was beginning to streak down my body. I pulled away before things could get out of hand and the pain became unbearable.
The blue of his eyes glowed eerily and his teeth were clenched together to fight the pain. His breathing was erratic and the bulge behind his zipper had to be uncomfortable.
“Have a safe trip,” he said as he got himself under control.
I got out of the car on unsteady legs, and I didn’t look back as Noah drove away. I knew Erik was waiting for me on the porch, but I pretended he wasn’t there and opened the front door. I didn’t feel like facing the inquisition or any more judgments.
Erik followed me inside and closed the door behind us. “It must have been a hell of a date. You have sticks in your hair.”
“It wasn’t a date. It was business.” I walked up the stairs with every intention of ignoring him. I had to pack for a trip, which led me to the question, what was the correct wardrobe when you were going to meet your potential death?
“I found your Jillian. I thought you’d want to know,” he said, interrupting my thoughts.
It was the one thing Erik could have said that made me stop to pay attention. I turned around to face him, but he still stood at the bottom of the stairs.
“How did you find her?” I asked. “What clan is she?”
“She was in the database. She disappeared about two weeks ago, and her family put a notice up on one of the Drakán forums. She belongs to the Belgae.”
“What? Shit.” This was not what I’d been expecting. She was one of Julian’s. I wasn’t a big believer in coincidence.
“This could work to your advantage,” Erik said. “You now have a reason to show up in his lands unannounced without accusing him of anything and risking your death.”
“Did you find out anything else?”
“Nothing that makes sense.”
“What do you mean?”
“While you were gone I went to dispose of her ashes, and as I was sweeping them away I found two different places where silver had melted from her body and was re-hardening into discs. Each disc weighed exactly 5.995 grams.”
“So she had coins embedded in her skin. That’s not unusual.”
“No, but those were the only two pieces I found, and they just happen to be the exact weight of a silver half Shekel—the silver coins that Judas Iscariot received to betray Jesus.”
“So she was a traitor?”
“That’s for you to find out. I’m just a scientist.”
“You’ve never been just a scientist.”
Erik’s posture stiffened and he gave me a curt bow—every inch the Roman general he used to be—before turning on his heel and heading to his wing of the house. Erik’s moods changed with the winds, and I never knew if the things I said hurt or helped the way he felt about being powerless.
I put Erik out of my mind and fled the rest of the way up the stairs, my thoughts racing with possibilities. I didn’t know what Jillian had to do with the Destroyer, or what she’d done to deserve such a horrific death. But I knew I had to find him. And the best place to start was with Julian of the Belgae.
I had a plane to Belgium to catch. I just prayed to the gods that Julian gave me a chance to explain my reasons for crossing into his territory before he tried to turn me to ashes.
Chapter Eight
When the plane landed in Brussels, I uncurled my cramped fingers from around the armrests and leaned my head back against the cool leather of my seat. The nausea was slowly fading. My skin was clammy with sweat and my legs were shaking. If an enemy wanted to kill me, now was the perfect time to do so. I hated to fly.
The only flight I could get on such short notice had three connections, so I got to experience the pure terror of take off and landing three times as much as normal. My connecting flight from Heathrow to Brussels had been the last one of the day. The flight attendant had announced—in a chirpy voice that made me want to vomit down the front of her crisp white blouse—that it was after ten o’clock in the evening when the wheels touched down. 10:07 to be exact.
I restrained myself from dropping to my knees and kissing the ground as I walked through the terminal with my small carry-on wheeled bag and my purse. The airport was all but deserted—the grey walls dingier than they would have seemed in daylight—the kiosks more pathetic as they stood abandoned. I was starving, but all of the fast food places were already closed. The only thing that was still open was a small bar, about a hundred square feet of long countertop and cramped tables. It was dark on the inside. A neon open sign flickered in the front window, trying to decide if it wanted to go out completely. It looked like an oasis after the hell I’d just been through.
“Three fingers of whiskey, please. Neat,” I told the bartender. She tore her gaze away from her Kindle and looked me over from head to toe, obviously not impressed with what she saw. She handed me the drink and went back to her book. I knocked the whiskey back in two swallows, and finally felt warmth return to my body. The tension that squeezed along my spine and up to the base of my neck started to ease and I took my first deep breath.
I paid for my drink and turned to leave, but I caught a glimpse of my reflection in the front window. No wonder the bartender hadn’t been impressed. I wore a black pencil skirt and white silk blouse. The skirt was wrinkled beyond repair and torn at the hem,
and a man had spilled coffee down the front of my blouse during my connecting flight to Boston. I’d already thrown my jacket in a trash bin because the shoulder seam ripped when it got caught in the turnstile at Heathrow. Not to mention I’d been selected for random security checks at all three airports.
I had an extra change of clothes in my carry-on, so I headed toward the restrooms. It would be a few minutes before my checked luggage came through, so I’d have time. My heels clicked in rapid staccato against the tile floor and echoed against the space that surrounded me. Everything was too still. Warnings surged inside my mind, and the exhaustion that had taken over my body from the long trip flared into pure adrenaline.
My steps quickened, and I resisted the urge to rub warmth into the pebbled flesh on my arms. Power was a physical rush, and the greater a person’s power, the larger the circle it cast out. The airport wasn’t crowded, but the people who were there all began to slow. Their movements stilled completely until they all stood frozen in time—a lifelike snapshot they’d never remember. It was surreal moving between the fleshy statues. I’d never before seen anything like it.
My dragon senses were rioting inside me, and I began to run.
“Rena Drake. Come.”
I looked over my shoulder. There was no one there. The voice wasn’t low or high, but the language it was spoken in was unmistakable. Only the oldest of our kind still used the language of our lost civilization. My father and Calista both still used it. I knew how to speak it because it was required as Enforcer—just like it was required to speak the native languages of all five of the clans. But the old language was power in itself.
I couldn’t transform into a dragon, but just because I couldn’t make the change on the outside didn’t mean my dragon wasn’t inside me. And she let herself be known with a vengeance as the old language was spoken. The words called her, and she writhed beneath my skin as she tried to follow orders like an obedient soldier. It took all my willpower to put one foot in front of the other and not succumb to the seduction of that immense power.