Clicking and snorting furiously, the beast promptly began to nod its head and bounce on its two hind legs, kicking out at the man with its two front legs and striking him on the knee with one cloven hoof. The man’s leg buckled. He staggered, caught his balance and swung and jabbed at the beast with his sword. The beast screamed as the blade sank into his chest and began to flail more frantically, rearing high enough to catch the man on the forehead with one hoof. The blow split his scalp and blood flowed from the man’s head, running like a river over his face. He staggered again, struck out blindly, missing the beast and nearly impaling Raina on the blade. Then he wobbled and both knees gave out.
In horror, Raina stared at the man as the beast stomped him over and over beneath his hooves until he was nothing but a ragged, bloody heap. Quivering all over, the beast finally stopped, wobbled unsteadily and went down on its knees. It struggled for several moments to rise again and finally dropped to the ground on top of the man.
Raina slammed back against the stone wall behind her as she tried to leap out of harm’s way when the beast collapsed. There was little room for maneuvering, though, with the two men pressing Audric back. She managed to avoid the bulk of the beast’s weight, but its body pinned her legs against the stone.
Audric was breathing as if he’d run ten miles, his breath hoarse, grating. Raina could hear his laboring breaths even above the almost constant ringing of three blades as he beat back first one and then another. Realizing any minute Audric was going to be backed against her and the beast, with no room to maneuver at all, that they would have him pinned, Raina looked around frantically for something, anything. She had the pistol in her hand still, she saw. Even if it hadn’t run out of ‘juice’, though, she was too close to all of the men to try to hit one without risking hitting Audric.
Anything she did was liable to distract him. They didn’t have any options, though. Audric was going to trip over the beast. His legs were against it, she saw, and the two men were trying to press their advantage, trying to overbalance him.
She hurled the pistol at Haig’s head as he jerked sideways to dodge a blow Audric swung at him. The pistol caught him across the bridge of his nose. It wasn’t heavy, but he jerked instinctively and when he did, Audric’s blade caught him across the neck. His head tipped drunkenly to one side. Blood spurted from his jugular vein like a fountain.
Audric jerked his blade back in a backhanded swing toward the other man. The man leapt back, but the blade still sliced a gash across his sword arm and all the way across his chest. He staggered back and whirled to run.
Audric lunged at him, shoving his sword straight through the man’s back. The man screamed, flung an arm over his shoulder to claw at the sword between his shoulder blades and then dropped to his knees and fell forward.
Gasping hoarsely, Audric wrenched his blade free as the man fell, driving the tip of his sword against the stone and leaning on it. Shaking all over, hardly daring to believe they’d managed to fight off all of their attackers, Raina strained to free herself from the weight of the dead animal. “Audric?” she gasped shakily as she saw his knees wobble. She screamed as his knees gave way and he dropped to the ground, wavered a moment as the beast had and then pitched sideways.
Her fear for Audric gave her the strength to wrench free of the beast at last and she scrambled over to him, searching him frantically for wounds. Her hands came away from him sticky with blood, but she had no idea how much of it was his. “Audric?”
“Make … certain … they are … dead,” he gasped out in a weak, pained voice.
Sobbing uncontrollably, Raina grabbed his sword, dragging it behind her as she stumbled toward the man he’d just defeated. She didn’t know if he was still breathing or not. She didn’t care. He’d hurt Audric. He wasn’t going to be breathing when she was done with him! Screaming every foul thing she could think of to call the man, she lifted the sword as high as she could and hacked at him over and over until someone grabbed her and grabbed the sword, wrenching it from her hands.
Her chest heaving as much with her emotional outburst as with the effort of moving the heavy sword that was almost as long as she was tall, Raina looked up into Simon’s face without recognition for several moments.
“I believe this one is dead,” Simon said wryly.
Raina’s chin wobbled. “I think he killed Audric.”
The faint glint of amusement in Simon’s eyes died. Handing the sword blindly to the man who stood just beside and behind him, he released Raina and moved quickly toward Audric. Mopping at the tears streaming from her eyes, Raina followed him in a rush, dropping down and struggling to lift Audric’s head into her lap as Simon examined him quickly and turned his head to bellow for a medic.
Sensing Simon’s gaze, Raina lifted her head to look at him hopefully. “Is he …?”
Simon shook his head. “I do not know. He is alive.”
Raina uttered a choked sob and went back to stroking Audric’s face lovingly. “Stay with us, Audric. Someone’s coming. Just hold on for me, ok? Don’t you dare die on me Audric! I’ll never forgive you!”
In a daze of shock, Raina sat holding Audric’s head while two men came and worked over him. Finally, they brought a stretcher to move him. Raina followed as they lifted him and carried him away, hardly aware of what was going on around her, her entire focus on Audric, as if she could keep him breathing by staring at the slight rise and fall of his chest.
No one tried to stop her as she followed the men onto some kind of vehicle and settled beside the stretcher, taking Audric’s limp hand in hers and stroking it soothingly although he didn’t seem to be aware of her at all. The thing they were in moved. She felt the sense of floating, but only peripherally, and then it dropped and the door opened. A shiver skated down her spine when she saw they’d landed in the courtyard where she’d nearly died, but she shut her mind to that and followed the men as they went inside.
Someone took her arms and sat her firmly in a chair as Audric was carried into a room. When she looked up, she saw it was Simon. “You must rest,” he said firmly.
Raina swallowed with an effort. “Later … when I know Audric’s alright.”
His lips tightened. “You must think of the child. You are thin. You have not eaten. You have not rested.”
Raina looked down at her belly, stroking her hand over it as if to soothe the baby. “Alright.”
He stayed with her until she’d bathed and dressed in clothes someone had brought for her--a high-waisted gown sort of thing that buttoned up the front and was intended to be to be worn over loose, flowing trousers--made her eat some of the food that was brought, watched her until she had lain down on the bed and closed her eyes. He was gone when she woke. She had no idea how long she’d slept, a few minutes, or hours, but she got up and found her way back to the room where they’d taken Audric. He was still unconscious, or maybe, she thought hopefully, sleeping. He didn’t rouse when she dragged a chair close to the side of the bed and took his hand in hers, but his hand was warm in hers. His fingers squeezed hers ever so lightly. Comforted, Raina lay her cheek on the back of his hand and dozed off again.
A hand settling heavily on the back of her head roused her. Dopey with fatigue, Raina lifted her head with an effort and found Audric staring down her.
Relief so profound it made her tearful washed over her. “Hey, you,” she murmured shakily. Gathering his hand in both of hers as he dropped it weakly to the bed, she brushed her cheek along the back and kissed it. “How are you feeling?”
He sucked in a pained breath. “Alright.”
“Liar,” she accused without heat.
He managed a faint smile. “Surprised.”
“About what?” she asked curiously.
“That I am still alive.”
Raina’s chin trembled. She swallowed with an effort. “It was close. Don’t do that to me again!”
He smiled a little more easily that time. “You are a bossy wench,” he murmured.
“People keep telling me that.”
She hugged his hand and arm to her, studying him worriedly. He looked pale and weak. It was scary when he’d always been so strong and capable. She felt hopeful now that he’d wakened, but she knew he wasn’t out of the woods yet. “You remember what you asked me just before you left?” she said after a moment, feeling her heart thunder erratically in her chest as she heard movement behind her and glanced around to see that Simon was hovering in the doorway.
She felt the color drain from her face as she met his gaze. Resolutely, she turned her attention back to Audric. He hadn’t noticed Simon, she realized.
And he didn’t remember. He was frowning and she could see he was searching his mind for what she was referring to.
Trying not to feel slighted by the fact that he seemed to have forgotten, she smiled faintly and got up. Leaning over him, she kissed him lightly on the lips. “Well, when you remember, if you still want to, the answer is, yes. You have to get well first, though.”
She didn’t look at Simon as she left. Her heart threatened to beat its way out of chest as she passed him, but thankfully he didn’t try to detain her. She felt so weak and breathless by the time she’d returned to her room, she had to drag herself onto the bed. Her chest felt tight, making it hard to breathe.
She hadn’t even gotten the chance to grieve for the loss of Simon, not really. It was hard facing him when she still hurt so much, but it had been brought home to her as nothing before that there was never going to be anything between her and Simon. It didn’t matter how much she wanted it. It didn’t matter how desperately she loved him.
If he had just been a wealthy businessman, it was still doubtful that he’d chose to ally himself to a woman like her, but it was possible if he cared enough. If he’d even just been some political figure, she might have a chance … assuming he was willing to risk not getting re-elected, or being overthrown because she wasn’t suitable wife material for anybody like that, especially when she had a record for prostitution, however undeserved it was.
She didn’t know all that much about royalty, but she had some education, enough to know kings married princesses. She’d heard about one or two that hadn’t married another royal person, but that was on Earth, not here, and anyway they hadn’t really married beneath them. They’d just married very high born aristocrats with money.
And he didn’t care about her. He didn’t love her. If he had, he wouldn’t have sent her away to start with. He was all bossy and possessive about the baby--the baby he hadn’t wanted and certainly hadn’t wanted her to have, but that was because the baby was at least half-royal.
Well, he could just put all that out of his head! It was her baby! She was the one carrying it around. She was the one that was going have to do all the work of bringing it into the world. All he’d done was have fun fucking her.
Alright, so she’d had fun fucking him, too, but that was beside the point. She’d hoped to get pregnant, wanted his baby because she loved him so much. She was just going to have to remind him that it was hers and he hadn’t wanted it. He could find him a damned princess and make a special, perfect little prince in he wanted one!
Audric loved her and she loved him. If she’d ever been in any doubt about that, and she hadn’t been, realizing he might die was enough to convince her. It wasn’t the same way that she loved Simon, but it was still love, and he wasn’t Simon. Nobody ever loved two different people the same way, because they were different people, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t just as good, or just as real.
She was never going to get over loving Simon. She knew if she lived to be a hundred, she’d still love him and it would still hurt every time she thought about him--which was going to be every time she looked at their baby.
But life went on. A person had to live and there was only one ride on the merry-go-round per person. She could be happy with Audric and she thought she could make Audric happy. She was going to try, really hard, if he wanted to try.
Chapter Twenty One
Simon watched Raina hungrily as she hurried away from him, resisting the urge to go after her. She wouldn’t look at him, though, and he was afraid he knew why.
Anger flickered through him even though he’d known she would be as horrified as all the other humans to discover he wasn’t one of them. He had thought it wouldn’t matter to her, and mayhap it wouldn’t have if she had not seen his dragon form. She could not stick her head in the sand and ignore that as she’d ignored all the rest, though.
He did not regret it. Even if he had known that she would run screaming from him and he would have to chase her down to save her, he would have done it. Even if her knowing meant she would never look at him the same as she once had, he could bear that far easier than he could bear the thought of having her snatched away from him by death.
He supposed, in a way, she was running screaming from him. She was just hiding it inside.
Swallowing a little sickly, he turned away and studied Audric, feeling angry and resentful at the way Raina had fussed over him and at the same time deeply relieved to see that Audric was recovering. He moved into the room after a few moments, struggling with his jealousy. Dragging the chair to a more comfortable distance for himself, he settled in it and dropped his hand to his brother’s.
Audric opened his eyes, stared at him for a long moment and then his eyes lit, a smile curling his lips. “You did it, Simon! I heard the victory shouts!”
“We did it,” Simon said, squeezing Audric’s hand before he released it. He settled back in the chair tiredly, exhausted by the endeavor, weary beyond belief--and more miserable than he had ever been in his life because Raina would not even look at him and he ached to hold her--just to hold her to reassure himself that she was safe. It would be a long time, if ever, before he recovered from the fear that had gripped him when he thought he would not get to her in time. He was going to have nightmares over it--waking nightmares. He felt ill with fear and rage every time the images rose into his mind. “The healers tell me you are too mean to die and hell has spat you back,” he said teasingly.
Audric made a sound that was half laugh half pained cough. “Do not make me laugh. It hurts.”
Silence fell between them. “I owe you a debt of gratitude that I can never repay,” Simon said finally, “for protecting Raina and my child.”
Audric reddened. “You owe me nothing.”
Simon shrugged. “I know you did it as much for her sake, or perhaps more, than mine, but that does not alter the fact that you nigh gave your life for theirs, and it does not lessen my gratitude.”
“I am not at all certain that I could have managed it without Raina,” Audric said wryly. “There were four. If I had been fresh, I would have been more confident, but we had all been fighting for days as you well know. I will not lie. I was so tired and sore by then I do not think my chances were that good at taking them all. But I had called out before I discovered that Haig was the spy we were all hunting so determinedly and there was no hope for it then.
“Luckily for both of us, Raina had demanded that I give her my catatrope and show her how to use it. Also luckily, she has no sense of honor and a great deal of determination,” he added, chuckling and then wincing at the pain. When he’d caught his breath, he continued, “she killed one right off. I scolded her, told her it was very dishonorable to shoot a man armed only with a sword, but she informed me that she did not care if it was honorable or not and she managed to wound all of them before the catatrope ran out of ammunition. If they had not been wounded, the end might not have been so good.
“My beast took care of one, who was trying to get to her, which left me only two and I was still out of breath from fighting the two. I dispatched Haig when she hit him in the head with the empty catatrope and distracted him. The other--I was not sure that I had finished him, but I suppose I must have.”
Simon smiled grimly. “No doubt you did, but Raina was making certain of it when we arrived. I took your swor
d from her before she could injure herself.”
Audric looked at Simon apologetically. “I told her to be sure. I was afraid that he might get up and harm her and I was in no condition to do more. I did not think that she would try to lift my sword. It is nigh as long as she is tall.”
Simon studied him, a half smile playing about his lips. “We have not given proper credit to our little Raina,” he said, bemused. “She does amazingly well at taking care of herself.”
Audric held his stomach, groaning in pain and chuckling at the same time. “Did you see that guard’s face when she punched him in his balls?”
Simon stared at him blankly a moment, searching his memory and finally began to laugh. “I saw. I was just in no state at that moment to really register what she did.”
He got up after a moment. “I will leave you to rest. Raina has ordered you to get well quickly. I will add my command to that. Keep that in mind.”
“Simon?”
Simon paused.
“How did you do it when no one has been able to in generations? How did you even discover how to do it?”
Simon studied him for a long moment and finally closed the door and moved back to the side of the bed. “I must swear you to secrecy.”
Audric frowned. “You know that you can trust me.”
“I do. It is only for that reason that I will tell you--we can all do it, Audric. We never lost the ability. It was taken from us--or rather bartered. As you know, we were a fairly barbaric race in those days--though mayhap you do not know that we had fought amongst ourselves until we were almost to the point of making ourselves extinct. I think that is why the Macedons stepped in--to keep us from self-destruction--this is what they have told me, at any rate. But they knew it was our beast side that needed to be tamed--because when we are in dragon form, it is hard to think as a man at all, hard to reason. I had not realized myself until I morphed, but we are creatures of instinct then, and our instincts have always been to fight others of our kind for our territory, or mates.
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