by CJ Ellisson
“Ahh, but that would have meant bringing those pathetic dragons your father had guard you.”
Lambert grabbed her shirt at her throat and shoved his face into hers. She gasped. His eyes weren’t human. Instead of the brown eyes she remembered him having, now vertical pupils bisected a pure gold eye with no iris. Like a reptile…or a dragon.
“Dragons? Don’t be….”
She didn’t finish the sentence. All the facts, everything she’d seen and heard were churning in her brain until she reached the inevitable conclusion. Lambert smirked as he saw the penny drop.
“Clever man, your father.” His eyes weren’t the only thing affected by his new nature. A forked tongue slid out and flickered across his lips. “He knew or guessed what you are and got in some outside muscle. Not that it helped any. It was pathetically easy to swipe you out from under their noses.”
Honor lifted her chin and glared at him. How could she not have seen what a snake in the grass he was? How had he hidden all…this from her father? Dude had snake eyes and a freaking forked tongue, that had to have come from somewhere.
“Then I hope it’s pathetically easy for you to run, because Baron will be coming for you.” She frowned, picking up on something he’d said. “What do you mean, my father guessed what I am? That’s not difficult. I’m human.”
Lambert threw back his head and laughed, the sound chilling and inhuman. When he looked back at her, his gaze was unsettling, making her shiver and feel dirty, as though just him looking at her contaminated her with something. Perhaps the same sort of crazy as he was.
“Yeah, I’m sure that’s what he said. Tell me, did he tell you much about your mother?”
She looked back at him, tight-lipped, and refused to answer. Her mother was long gone, and she wouldn’t let this piece of shit spoil her memory with his lies.
“She was a dragon-mate…or should have been.” Lambert’s lip curled. “But she renounced the call and married your father. All that potential lost because of a fucking human.”
“No, no, no. She wasn’t anything like that. I don’t believe you.”
She shook her head. Her mom had been as human as she was, hadn’t she? Yet, despite what she knew and as crack-pot as it seemed, Lambert’s words struck a chord within her. She’d always felt a little odd, as though she didn’t quite fit in. At school, with her friends, even at work. The only people she’d felt comfortable with were Lucy and Baron.
“Stupid child.” Lambert shrugged and grabbed her arm, dragging her up against him. “Doesn’t matter what you think, all that matters is what’s in your blood. That’s all I need.”
His words chilled her to the bone. Her blood. He needed her blood. Just her blood…shit. That didn’t bode well for her continued survival. Whatever he planned to do with her, the likelihood of her making it out of this alive it didn’t look promising.
“W-what are you? Some kind of freaking vampire? Shouldn’t you like…sparkle or something?”
Oh, for heaven’s sake, sparkle? Was that the best she could come up with? Lame or not, she knew she had to keep him talking, and just hope to God that Baron figured out where she was and…that he was what Lambert claimed. If he was a dragon, then he might have a chance of getting here before this asshole did whatever it was he was going to do with her blood.
“You’re more stupid than I thought.”
Anger laced Lambert’s voice and his hand tightened on her arm. He turned and started to drag her over to an altar behind him. Covered in velvet embroidered with similar sigils to his robe, a vicious looking knife lay next to a beaten metal bowl. Fear hammered in her chest and clawed its way up to freeze her throat. Her feet scrambled uselessly against the concrete, Lambert hauling her bodily as though she weighed less than a wet kitten.
“I’m a warlock, idiot child. A Dragos…the first in a thousand years. I was powerful before, none could stand against me, but it wasn’t enough. I had to be more. And I did it.”
Pride filled his voice as he swept an arm out and pointed to a small cage in the middle of the redcaps. They parted to reveal the occupant. Two bright golden eyes filled with misery stared back at her. Awe released fear’s lock on her throat and she tried to take a step forward, but Lambert stopped her. Inside the cage was a small dragon.
“Dragonet blood from the royal line to start the process. Every full moon for thirteen moons. And a dragon-mate’s blood to seal the deal.”
“I hope I fucking choke you.”
No match for his supernatural strength, Honor kept her eyes on the little dragon as the warlock turned her in his arms and bared her neck. It was tiny and perfect, the most beautiful thing she’d ever seen. Her mind raced at a million miles a minute but there was no way out. As soon as Lambert had touched her, she’d felt her energy leech away, leaving her body pliant.
Closing her eyes, she waited for the inevitable. Any second now she expected the sharp slice of Lambert’s knife across the tender skin of her throat or to feel it slide through her ribs, seeking her heart within.
She’d never much thought about death and if she had, it had only been in an abstract way, secure in the knowledge that it was an event far in the future. Something which would arrive after a long and happy life filled with the love of a good man and the blessings of children and grandchildren.
Tears welled under her eyelids, pinpricks of heat as her grief and fear took physical form. One escaped to blaze a trail down her cheek. She wanted that. Wanted the white wedding, two point four children and the white picket fence. Hot on the heels of that revelation came another.
She loved Baron. Even though he was a worthless piece of shit who’d lied and deceived her, she couldn’t help her heart. She still loved him and now she wouldn’t get to tell him that, to ask if what she’d heard was the truth. The knife slid over her throat and left a line of fire in its wake. Try as she might, she couldn’t help the whimper that escaped her throat as her mind fed her images of what was going to happen next. Lambert would give her another smile from ear to ear. How long did it take someone to die that way?
Determined not to embarrass herself further, she concentrated on the little dragon. It was crooning and flapping its wings. A weak smile curved her lips at the sound. Bless it, it was trying to soothe her, the croon like that of a mother to her baby. Only those wings didn’t sound that little anymore….
Her eyes snapped open as pandemonium broke out. Redcaps screamed and ran amok, all looking into the night sky, and the little dragon yodeled in welcome. Huge wing beats filled the air, battering the rooftop with heavy gusts of wind like a helicopter was about to land. She looked up, her hair whipped around her face to find the biggest dragons she’d ever seen, their forms shadowy against the night sky.
“No,” screamed Lambert, dragging her across the rooftop. She kicked against him, losing a shoe in the process, but couldn’t break his hold. “I will finish this. Chase, get rid of them!”
The roar from the two dragons above was met by another as a slender woman Honor hadn’t noticed before detached herself from the side of the dragonets cage and leapt into the air. As Honor watched, the woman exploded…kind of. Her body shattered outward and turned to smoke in the blink of an eye. Her mouth dropping open in surprise, she watched as the streaks of shadow that had been the woman attacked the two dragons, wrapping up their wings in dark ropes of smoke.
“That should keep them busy. No clue what they’re dealing with,” Lambert sneered “Fuckwits. No-one can stop me.”
“Yeah? You think?” The anger that had been simmering in Honor’s soul chose that moment to boil over. “Try this on for size.”
Not caring if he cut her or not, she grabbed his arm in a vice-like grip, thrust her ass back and dropped to her knees. Lambert yelped in surprise as he hit the concrete. Hard. But she didn’t give him a chance to recover. Snarling a wordless curse, she pulled her foot back and landed a solid kick in his stomach. The air exited his lungs, in a hard whoosh. Bending down, she scooped up th
e knife that had dropped from his fingers. This whole thing smacked of ritual, even the blade he’d planned to use on her was engraved with the same symbols as on the altar and his robe. So if she had to guess, it was important that he kill her with this knife, and nothing else. She hoped.
“No…. Stop her!”
Shit. She’d forgotten about the redcaps. Wheeling away, she tried to use her longer legs to outrun them but it was no good. They cut her off anyway. Wizened faces leered at her and one licked a wart-covered tongue lovingly along the edge of his pike.
“I hope you slip and cut it off,” she spat as she backed up.
She didn’t get far. Not nearly as far as she wanted anyway. Hell, Europe wouldn’t be far enough. Within a few steps, the small retaining wall around the edge of the roof hit the back of her knees. Unbidden, a shiver rocked its way up her spine. That small, low wall was all that stood between her and the thirty-five floor drop.
“Get the knife,” Lambert bellowed, still doubled over and forced to scuttle sideways like a crab to avoid being decapitated by a razor edged wing as the dragons fought above.
Time slowed for Honor as the redcaps rushed her at once. With a wordless scream she turned and flung the blade as far as she could. If it was that important, see how far Lambert got with his sick little ritual without it. The sounds of anger and the redcaps yells behind her muted as she watched the thing tumble end over end in the air and fall direct toward the lake in the park opposite the building. She’d always nagged her father on his insistence over the expensive, prime-location spot overlooking that lake. Now, she could kiss him. She would, when she got out of this.
So focused on getting rid of the blade, she didn’t factor in the mob of redcaps rushing her, or the weight and momentum of bodies against the tiny retaining wall. She screamed as they slammed into the back of her, and tried to grab the wall. Somehow get behind it and let them topple over her to their deaths below. But she couldn’t get a grip, the weight of the mob at and under her knees before she could crouch. With a sigh of acceptance, she closed her eyes…
…and fell.
*
“No!”
Baron screamed as Honor went over the edge, his heart in his throat and his chest totally exposed to the claws of the she-dragon attacking them. He didn’t care, couldn’t think. All he could see was the redcaps rushing Honor and pushing her over the edge.
The she-dragon wrapped herself around him, claws in the scales over his shoulders as her long-muzzled face materialized in front of his and a new voice, not Duke’s, pushed into his mind.
Go, save her.
Pushing away, she launched herself at his brother, leaving Baron hovering in mid-air for a second in disbelief. She’d had him dead to rights, could have sunk her teeth and claws right into the softer scales just over his heart. But she hadn’t, and in the blink of an eye he watched her manifest her tail, whip his brother across the ass, and then take off into the night-sky with a bellow of challenge.
With no time to figure out what game she was playing, he turned tail and launched himself over the side of the building. Honor was below him, arms crossed and her eyes closed as though she were asleep. A small smile curved her lips, like a sleeping angel. He roared in frustration, beating his wings harder than he ever had before, but less than a micro-second passed before he realized he wasn’t going to reach her in time. Cold sweat crawled over his skin, under his scales, and fiery grief clutched at his heart, closing his throat. It was like his nightmare all over again.
Then acceptance stole over him. If she was going to die, then he was too. He wouldn’t…couldn’t live without her. She was everything he wanted, everything he’d ever wanted. Without her, he would be an empty shell, condemned to misery. Folding his wings, he let himself fall, his eyes open and gaze fixed on his love. He wanted her to be the last thing he saw in this life.
Gravity took hold, a musical ringing in his ears as the air raced past him and the ground rushed to meet them. It was going to be a rough landing. Painful. If either of them survived their bodies being shattered on the hard surface. He hoped they didn’t, wanted to spare Honor that agony. Time slowed but his descent didn’t. A crease furrowed his brow as he gained on her, the distance to the concrete stretching out. He might just reach her.
Hope filled his heart, the massive organ fluttering beneath the scales of his chest as he fully manifested. He might reach her but he wasn’t so naive as to hope he could get them back in the air. There just wasn’t enough room for that. His outstretched claws reached for her, slid through her hair billowing hair.
Her eyes snapped open and he tensed, expecting a scream. Instead she smiled, her lips moving to form the words, “I love you.”
She knew who he was. Warmth flooded his body as he wrapped his claws around her, turning in the air to cushion her against his chest. She knew who he was, even in this form, and she loved him. A single tear slipped from the corner of his eye and he smiled.
I love you too. Mate.
Then they hit the concrete.
*
“Shit. Nonononono….”
Honor scrambled off the huge form she now knew was Baron, sliding down his ribcage and landing on shaky legs. All around them lay the shattered and broken bodies of the redcaps, pitiful whimpers filling the air from those that had been unlucky enough to survive the fall. As each died, music rang in the air, and the corpse vaporized in a green puff of smoke, leaving the sidewalk as pristine as it had been before. No wonder regular humans didn’t come across para bodies if they disappeared.
She rushed to Baron’s head, but he was already changing. His body shrank, the scales and wings disappearing until just the man lay before her.
“Oh God, no. Please, Baron, please be okay.”
She dropped to her knees next to him, reaching out to cup his face in her hands. His hair was swept back from his face, and blood darkened the concrete beneath him. Pain cut her in two, tearing into her heart. He’d killed himself to save her.
A rush of wind warned her a second before something heavy thudded into the ground next to them. With a small scream, she shielded Baron, in case it was Lambert’s pet dragon intent on doing him harm. More harm. But instead, the dragon folded in on itself and materialized into another man. One so like Baron that they had to be related.
“Fucking hell. You freaking moron,” he cursed and dropped into place opposite Honor. Unlike hers, his hands were sure and steady as he checked the unconscious man. “Fuckfuckfuck….”
He looked up and speared her with a direct look. “Do you love him?”
“I-what?” The snapped question took her aback. Baron was dying in front of them, every breath labored and blood bubbling on his lips, but this guy wanted to know what her intentions were? “What does it matter? We need to get him to a hospital. Now!”
“Hospital can’t help him now. Nothing can….” He shook his head, reaching down to pluck something from Baron’s face. About the size of her thumbnail, it sparkled like a diamond but glistened as if wet. A wet diamond? She’d never seen or heard of anything like it. “Or maybe not.”
He held the thing out to her. “Eat it.”
“W-what? What is it?”
Okay, now she was convinced that the guy was nuts. Totally off his rocker, one sandwich short of a picnic type of nuts.
“I think it’s a dragon’s tear,” he said, as though that explained everything. He watched her expectantly, nodding towards his outstretched hand. “Take it.”
She couldn’t help reaching out and touching it. It was so beautiful and pure. Her breath caught in her throat as her fingertip contacted it. Instantly it cleaved to her hand, rolling from his skin to hers, and warmth flowed through her, settling behind her breastbone. Her gaze flicked to his, unsure.
“Why do I need to eat it? It’s too beautiful.”
“What do you think I am, lady? Some kind of fucking dragon-pedia?” he snapped, frustration written over his features. “I don’t know. I’m operating o
n sheer instinct and a whole lot of wing-and-a-fucking-prayer here. Now eat the damn tear.”
The tear vibrated in her hand, waves of reassurance rolling from it. She’d give it a try, but then so help her God, she was getting Baron to a hospital. He was still breathing, so there was hope. There was always hope. There had to be. With a glance down at Baron, still unconscious on the ground, she lifted it to her lips.
Please, just once.
She dropped the tear on her tongue and… nothing. It dissolved in a salty splash and she keened. It hadn’t worked. She knew it wouldn’t work. They had to—
Baron took a deep breath and lurched to a sitting position. His clothes were still tattered and torn, but the blood had vanished from his skin as though it had never been.
“That tickled like hell.”
“Oh shit,” She tumbled backward in surprise, catching herself on her hands before she hit the floor and looked at him in amazement. He looked in the prime of health, no pain twisting his face at all. It took her body a second to catch up with her brain, then she squealed and launched herself at him. “Baron!”
He opened his arms as she landed in his lap and chuckled. “Hey, sweets. That’s quite a welcome. Did you miss me or something?”
“Asshole!” She punched him in the arm, relief combining with anger and love, the emotions bubbling over and around one another. She couldn’t stop looking at him, running her hands through his hair. “You nearly died on me. What the hell were you doing, putting yourself in danger like that?”
“Hey, hey!” He ducked her blows and caught her hands, but his grip wasn’t hard. Instead it was gentle, love shining in his eyes as he cradled her from the hard ground.
“As I remember it, I was saving you.” Voice dropping serious, he pulled her closer into his arms, lips a mere whisper from hers. “And I’d do it again and again if it meant keeping you safe.”
The word ‘safe’ made her shiver and she looked upward, toward the rooftop where Lambert had been.