Dragon Guardian

by Ophelia Bell

  Vrishti squeezed his hand. “Are you all right?” she asked.

  “Not really. I didn’t even have the balls to talk to him that day. I was too afraid someone might see right through me and call me on it. They’d know I’d broken one of our oldest laws by loving a dragon.”

  “Seems like a pretty ridiculous law to me. If you guys make the rules, why have it?”

  “Except we didn’t make the rules to start with. We are all still children of creatures who never exactly coexisted peacefully. They all fell in love with the same entity. Technically, Aodh and I share a parent, but it’s far more complicated than even that.”

  “He’s your half-brother?”

  “Not exactly. I know this won’t make sense, but his father was my mother. Fate has thousands of faces, so you couldn’t precisely call us siblings, or even half-siblings, because how Fate chose to present itself to our parents would have been different depending on Fate’s goals. Knowing we were a product of Fate’s machinations to begin with made us all work toward peace at the start. Our parents were at odds, and we made a pact to never wind up in such conflict.

  “So we made the unwritten rule never to cross that line. A little fun once in a while wasn’t frowned on, but actually seeking a mate among our own small group … we’d never do that. Except it isn’t so easy if you discover you’ve suddenly fallen in love with the one person you should never feel that way for, incestuous or not.”

  “I don’t think he forgot,” Vrishti said softly, drawing Neph’s attention back to the party that surrounded them. She gestured across the grand hall to a moonlit alcove. Within it sat the silvery dragon with a goblet in his hand, his pale, burning gaze solidly fixed across the room, right on Neph.

  Neph’s heart pounded and a pain shot through his chest at the look of utter despair and betrayal on his lover’s face. How had he not seen this that night? He had no recollection of this particular image of Aodh, but then he’d done his damnedest to avoid meeting the dragon’s gaze, deliberately timing his observations when he knew Aodh wouldn’t see him watching.

  Curious, he repositioned himself and Vrishti farther from the revelry so they could have a better view, and when he did, he caught sight of a scene he’d entirely missed that night.

  “What is it?” Vrishti asked.

  “I’ve never shifted my vantage during this day before. It’s never occurred to me to use my power to alter my recollection of the events. I avoided the memory more often than not, I admit. But this is interesting …”

  He tugged her back several more paces, then backward still until they sat upon the pair of thrones the happy married couple had vacated shortly before. From that vantage, he could see not only his past self, but the entire room filled with revelers.

  One figure in particular stood out. She was clad in modest robes, slightly finer than the servants, but not as elaborate as the other nobles, and she made the rounds of the room in hedonistic abandon. As she moved, the energy of the room gradually shifted as though she were inciting the kind of debauched festivities he often saw in the Haven during one of the numerous holidays they observed.

  The more he watched her behavior, the more certain he was that she must be a nymph, and yet she didn’t have the dewy blue-green shimmer of the nymphs from the Haven. There were very few of the higher races in attendance outside a handful of dragons who were carefully disguised as humans, and several turul who would never pass up a chance to scope out a party for their potential Ones. But by this point, all the leaders had departed, leaving the lower-ranked attendees to their fun.

  Nyx had been eager to return to Nereus that night, and Neph had had no particular desire to stay longer, so they’d both drifted back to the Haven, leaving the party to continue without them. Now Neph was beyond the scope of his own memory, having tapped into the actual flow of history as it had unfolded on this day. The participants in his own life were long gone, so for once he had a clear, unbiased view of the evening, and what he witnessed chilled him.

  The unfamiliar woman continued to work the room, encouraging the others to fall into sensuous abandon, drinking more, eating more, and he wasn’t the least bit surprised when the first couple climbed onto a table and started fucking to the rousing beat of the music that played.

  She could have been a dragon, but he saw no signs of red smoke, and she didn’t seem as interested in absorbing the orgasmic energy as she had in joining in on the fun herself. She fell to her knees in front of the men, eagerly drawing them to orgasm, then burying her face between a woman’s thighs and doing the same, with almost no diminishing of her energy.

  It wasn’t until he saw what she did after each tasting that he knew.

  “Why is she touching their faces that way every time?” Vrishti asked, speaking for the first time in ages.

  “She’s melding them,” he said. “But not out of love. She’s after their secrets.”

  “She sure seems excited about something.”

  “I’m sure she is,” Neph murmured almost to himself. “We just gave her the perfect puppet, and she must know it. She’s preparing to take control.”

  Why he had never considered investigating Meri’s history more closely, he didn’t know. Perhaps this old memory was what had held him back. But now that he’d managed to see beyond the moments of his wallowing in regret over a lost lover, he intended to follow through and see where the rest led. He’d only heard snippets of secondhand stories about what had happened, how their enemy had come to be. Tonight, he would know the truth.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Neph

  “Where are we going?” Vrishti asked when Neph grabbed her hand and led her away. “I thought you said that was Meri … Shouldn’t we watch her?”

  “We will. She’ll be busy for a while, though. I need to see what happened with Nikhil before she got to him. He was just blessed with enough power to make him immortal and impervious to harm of any kind. At least, that’s what we thought when we carried out the wedding ceremony. Meri shouldn’t have been strong enough to control him.”

  “What about Aodh?” Vrishti asked. “Weren’t you showing me what happened with him?”

  “I already did. My point in all this was that I couldn’t bear to even look at him. Neither of us stayed long enough to risk a meeting. I simply wanted the evening to be done, and I gather so did he, considering the speed with which he left. We were too distracted to see what was right under our noses.”

  He led her down a wide corridor, the sounds of the party receding behind them. Voices carried from behind a solid wood door—voices he recognized. Stopping, he drifted the two of them into the room.

  Four figures stood on the wide balcony in the moonlight, each still clad in their colorful wedding garb—red, green, gold, and black. Neph’s pulse raced. Was this where Aodh had gone? But there was no sign of the silver-clad man.

  “That’s Gavra, Numa, and Aurum,” Vrishti whispered. “What are they doing? You would think they’d be back in that … room. With all the sex.”

  “They’re on guard,” Neph said, observing the quartet of dragons speaking in low voices.

  Stealing closer, they paused just inside the door to listen.

  “Nikhil’s a sadist,” Ked said. “I don’t trust him.”

  Gavra let out a low chuckle. “Because he’s too much like you, brother? You know better than anyone that makes him her perfect mate. Let them have their wedding night. We’ll watch and intervene, if need be.”

  The night grew darker for a moment before Aurum spoke up. “They’re in love and no doubt making love as we speak. How they choose to express that is really none of our business. I haven’t seen Belah this happy since before Mother took Zorion away from her. Let her have this, even if it is temporary.”

  Ked’s darkness blotted out even more light. Vrishti let out an alarmed gasp as the room disappeared, leaving them in a diso
rienting void that would have felt utterly complete if not for her hand squeezing Neph’s.

  “Who the hell is he?” Vrishti asked. “I don’t think I like him.”

  “That’s Ked, the Void. He’s their brother too, and not a dragon you would ever want to cross, trust me.”

  He shushed her and pulled her closer as if he could protect her from the Void’s shadows filling the room.

  “Do not remind me of that day, sister. He was my son too. We should have been allowed to raise him.”

  “Ked, desist,” a commanding female voice said into the darkness. He heard a rustling sound and the air was soon filled with a verdant aroma that reminded him of his home at springtime, all budding new life and sexual energy. The darkness faded, leaving behind a pleasant green glow, illuminating the four dragons once more. The other sister, Numa, had moved close to her dark brother and had his face braced in her hands.

  “You knew a time would come for her to move on. This is that time. You may not trust the man she’s chosen, but he is in part a product of your love for her. He carries your blessing twice over now. If she could handle being your sister, I have no doubt she can handle him. Trust her.”

  The hurt and betrayal didn’t leave Ked’s gaze, and Neph wished he could reassure the man that all would be well. Calder had told him all that had unfolded during the last few weeks as the Ultiori’s prisoner, how the black dragon had rescued a pair of lovers who would become his mates shortly before returning to carry Calder and Nicholas out as well.

  This was a man who would stop at nothing to protect the ones he loved and didn’t react well to barriers. Neph supposed it was the nature of a Shadow as powerful as the Void.

  They all turned at the sound of running footsteps coming down the hall outside the door. The door flew open and a breathless woman appeared, eyes wild.

  “My mistress is in trouble! Please, help! He’s gone mad. He’s hurting her!”

  The ensuing chaos was as much a sign as any that this was the moment Neph needed to pay attention to. He lifted his hands with one palm facing inward and made a slow, sweeping gesture, smacking his palm onto the fist he made with the other hand. The scene froze instantly.

  “What happened?” Vrishti asked, clinging to his side.

  “Nothing yet. This is when I think it all began, though. I need you to watch this woman and see where she goes next. I will follow the dragons.”

  “You stopped time. That’s …”

  “This has already happened. I’m merely adjusting to observe the events from different angles. It isn’t possible to stop time.”

  “Oh, but we can travel backwards. Shouldn’t we just go to when this all happened and change it? Whatever it is?”

  “That is also impossible. Time and Fate are two immutable forces that we cannot fight any more than we can fight gravity. All we can do is learn from what occurred.”

  “But if the outcome is inevitable, why even try?” she asked in a defeated tone. “Why bother?”

  “For love, kitten,” he said with a soft smile. “Why do we do anything, if not for love? Now keep your eyes open. I’ll meet you back here soon.”

  She glanced at the frozen figure of the girl—one of the servants who he’d seen at the sidelines of the festivities earlier. With a gesture, he reversed the motion he’d made before, and slowly the figures all began to move again.

  “I told you we shouldn’t trust him,” Ked said. He exhaled a thick black cloud that swiftly snaked through the air to the girl, slipping around her eyes like a blindfold and into her nostrils. She stood, paralyzed and blinded long enough for the four dragons to shift and take to the air without human eyes to witness their transformation.

  The smoke faded a few seconds later and the girl left the room with far less urgency than she’d arrived, a devious glimmer in her eyes.

  Vrishti gave Neph an intrigued look, then kissed him on the cheek before following the girl through the door.

  Neph stepped toward the balcony, summoned his own swift transformation into the shape of a large graceful egret, and took to the air in the direction the dragons had flown. Once he had them in his sights, he swiftly drifted ahead of them to the balcony they were flying toward.

  Inside, he witnessed an alarming scene that reinforced Ked’s assertion of the groom’s sadistic nature. The bride was bound to a large wooden cross and hammered metal bowls were placed at strategic points near her hands and feet.

  Blood flowed into each bowl, the fresh essence of life filling the room with the scent of the sky.

  At first, he might have agreed that the groom was indeed a monster, that they’d made a mistake in granting him the gifts they had that day. But the look on Nikhil’s face as he made love to Belah told a different story.

  The dragon’s blue eyes remained fixed on him with the utmost love and adoration, and his look mirrored hers. Despite the flowing blood, it was perhaps the least sadistic thing he’d ever seen. With a sudden, lurching thud in his chest, he recognized that look—that emotion that he kept buried for so long for the man he’d lost, and that had resurfaced again so recently when he made love to Vrishti.

  The moment Belah’s eyes closed and the blood flow ceased, he understood what had happened. He had no such proclivities toward pain and oblivion, but he knew all too well how alluring the fantasy of death was for creatures like them who could not die. He’d never known one to take it to that extreme, but he’d also never known one who had a lover willing to take them there.

  As he observed Nikhil’s worship of his bride in the moments that followed, he had new respect for the man. Nikhil carefully unbound Belah and carried her to a bath where he proceeded to gently wash the blood from her skin, then dress her in a fine, flowing sheer gown before laying her in the center of her bed. He then methodically disassembled the cross she’d been bound to, stacking the wood near the door. Finally he reverently picked up each bowl of her blood and set it on a nearby shelf, lighting candles and setting them on the shelf as well.

  Every action spoke of love the likes of which Neph had longed for ever since that day he’d lied to Aodh and sent him away. How could something this perfect and beautiful have gone so wrong?

  When the utter cold and darkness filled the room a moment later, he knew without a doubt what had happened.

  “What have you done?!” the enraged black dragon snarled, then flew into the room and attacked.

  Nikhil took several rough hits, but placed himself solidly between Ked and the bride, ever the protector. Gavra had been right—the pair of them were very much alike, and their love for this woman was likely to destroy them.

  The human man lasted longer than he should have, which Neph realized he owed to the blessings he’d been granted during the wedding ceremony. The pair fought as humans at first, Nikhil easily putting Ked down, but it was a temporary victory. When he shifted back into his dragon form, Neph knew there was no hope for Nikhil winning this fight.

  Black flames filled the room, and when they ceased, Nikhil was nothing but a charred shape crouching over the form of his bride as though to protect her.

  Ked reached out a large claw and shoved the burned body aside. He scooped his sister into his claw and turned, launching himself into the darkness and the sky above.

  Neph stood frozen in place, staring at what should have been the body of a dead man. Not even the blessings they’d granted could have protected Nikhil from Ked’s fire. They weren’t fools, after all. They may have agreed to give the man what passed for immortality in order to wed an immortal, but there were loopholes in those blessings. Any one of the immortals could kill him, if it came to that, and the blessings had also been somewhat mutable—they could be reversed to become curses if the givers decided the recipient was no longer worthy. Ultimately, that’s what had happened, but Neph hadn’t realized one of them had indeed tried to kill Nikhil that night.

 
; Yet he had lived. How had he lived?

  His gaze fell on the bowls of blood and he recalled the red that had stained Nikhil’s lips when he’d arrived. The blood … How much of it had he drunk?

  The door opening caught his eye and he reflexively shifted backward into the shadows despite knowing he couldn’t be seen in this vision. The human woman he’d decided was actually Meri inhabiting a new body slipped silently in, with Vrishti following close behind.

  Vrishti saw him a few steps into the room and her eyes lit with excitement. She started to rush to him until she saw the charred body on the bed and immediately halted. Her eyes widened and her hand flew to her mouth.

  “Oh, my god! What happened? Where’s Belah?”

  “Taken away by her family.”

  “Was it true what the girl said? I could have sworn she was lying. I followed her like you said and she went straight to Meri, told her she’d done as asked. Then I followed Meri here.”

  “Misdirection,” he growled. “I’ve never seen a pair more in love than those two were. She played off Ked’s fears like a pro. Manipulative little bitch.”

  While they watched, Meri set to work, almost gleefully gathering the blood into one large stoneware bottle. In the process, she dipped a finger in and tasted it, her eyes rolling in ecstasy.

  She climbed up onto the bed, straddling the charred form. “Let’s see how well you bend to my will, puppet,” she said.

  She produced a knife from her belt and exposed the unburned side of Nikhil’s throat, made a small cut and bent her head to it. Her actions might have been a sensual kiss if Neph didn’t know better. Then she pulled back and made a small slice in her wrist and placed the cut to the mouth of what should have been a corpse.

  “When her blood heals you and you wake up, you will be mine. Belah’s gone. The dragons have betrayed you. It will be your life’s mission to destroy them all.”

  “Oh, my god!” Vrishti whispered beside him. “Was he the enemy? But he’s on our side now, right? Aodh said there was a man who could lead us all to victory.”