by Nina Croft
“Got it,” Mal murmured.
She swallowed and took a peek. He held the bullet in his hand between his finger and thumb. The wound in Cole’s chest filled with fresh blood, spilling down over his skin. Lily’s nostrils clogged with the metallic scent, the coppery taste on her tongue. Cole had lost so much—how could he survive? They should have risked it and taken him to the ER.
Was it too late?
But Mal lifted the knife again, this time gripped in his left hand. He ran the blade across his own wrist, slicing a shallow line. Blood welled up in the cut and he raised his arm above Cole so the blood dripped into the wounds in his chest. He shifted his attention to Cole’s mouth. Forcing the detective’s lips apart with the thumb and finger of his right hand, he held his cut wrist above the open mouth. Cole swallowed involuntarily.
Mal sat back on his heels, holding one of the towels to his wrist as Cole’s eyes flickered open.
“I think I’ve died and gone to hell,” he muttered.
Mal smiled. “Not yet, but it could be arranged.”
“What happened?”
“You got shot, we rescued you, and we’re at a safe house.”
“Lily? Is she all right?”
“I’m here,” Lily said, coming to stand beside Mal.
Cole gave a curve of his lips, then winced. “Well, you’re still alive, so mission accomplished I guess.” He paused. “So, I’ve been shot. Why aren’t I in hospital?”
“You don’t need a hospital,” Mal replied.
“Mal treated you,” Lily added.
Cole eyed them both suspiciously. “Is that supposed to make me feel better?” He rolled his shoulders, gave a little frown. Lily leaned closer and peered at the wounds. They seemed to be closing. Impossible. She turned to Mal.
“Dragon’s blood,” he murmured, too low for Cole to hear.
“You know,” Cole said, frowning. “I actually feel pretty good. Have you given me some sort of drug? To make my last moments better?”
“Something like that, but it’s not your last moments. I’m afraid you’re going to live. But you do need sleep. I’m going to carry you up to one of the bedrooms. Lily, will you go ahead and find somewhere?”
Lily led them out into the hallway, up the wide staircase. The first door she opened was a bathroom. She made a note of it; her next move was definitely going to be a shower. The room next door was a bedroom, probably a guest room by the lack of clutter.
“In here,” she called out. Mal followed her in, carrying Cole. Lily stripped back the blankets, and he laid the detective down. She bent over him, removed his shoes, and pulled up the sheet.
On impulse, she leaned over and kissed Cole on the cheek. “Thank you for coming,” she whispered.
He smiled. “No problem. All in a day’s work for us coppers.”
“Now,” Mal said. “Sleep.”
Cole’s eyes drifted shut, and a moment later, he slept.
“Is he going to be okay?” Lily asked as they shut the door behind them.
“More than okay. Dragon’s blood is potent stuff to humans. Our Detective Cole is going to find himself a changed man in future.”
“What sort of changes?”
“Stronger, faster, he’ll heal quicker. He’ll also age slower, and find his life span considerably longer. But there’s also another side effect, one which I’m sure Cole will not be pleased about, if he ever discovers it.”
“And that is?”
Mal smiled. “He has to do what I tell him.”
“What?”
“Why do you think he fell asleep so fast? There’s a compulsion spell attached. The taker of dragon blood must do as the dragon bids.”
“Forever?”
“Oh, it will fade, given a few decades. I’m just going to have to resist the urge to tell Cole what to do, and perhaps he might not notice. Now…”
He stared down at her through eyes glinting with ruby lights. Cupping her face in his large hands, he searched her features. Then he lowered his head and kissed her. She didn’t resist as he dragged her close against his hard body. Immediately, she sensed a change in him. He’d always radiated a sort of power, but now it was intensified a thousand fold, until she could feel it like a tangible force, an electric pulse that beat against her.
And he was hot, so hot that she burrowed herself against his broad chest, hid her face in the curve of his neck. She breathed in the wonderful musky scent of him, and let his heat sear away the cold that clung to her.
His burning hands slipped beneath the shirt and he stroked her skin, the curve of her waist, pulling her harder against him. He no longer felt comforting. A thrill of excitement shivered through her as one large hand slid up over her belly to palm her breast, and the heat of desire melted the last of the ice inside her. He rubbed the pad of his thumb over her nipple and flames sizzled along her nerve endings. She shifted against him, so the hardness of his erection nudged against her hip, sending another wave of heat washing over her, and she gave herself up to the feeling.
She moaned and he went still against her. Pressing her face against his shoulder, she listened to the thud of his heart, to each shallow breath he took. His grip tightened on her for a second, then he sighed, and pulled away.
“Later.” His word was a promise. “Now, I’m going to set up a ward around the perimeter, to let us know if anybody gets close. Then I have to bury your friend.”
Joe. She bit her lip at the thought of Joe in the ground.
“Why don’t you rest for a while?” he said.
“Maybe I’ll try. And thanks again for coming for me. I know you’ll say it was your duty, but right now, I don’t give a shit about the whys. I’m just grateful to be alive.” Placing her hand on his shoulder, she pulled herself up and brushed her mouth over his, then stepped back. “Before I rest, I’m going to have a shower, and then I’m going to find some coffee. And after that, if you want to tell me what’s going on, I think I am ready to believe. Anything.”
It was true.
She was just the teensiest bit scared about what she might hear. And that was the understatement of the century.
***
After setting the wards, Mal buried Joe in the woods at the back of the house, putting up a marker so Lily would be able to find the place. Then he returned to the study, took out his cell phone, and frowned. He didn’t want to contact the King. In fact, he wanted to forget Vortigen even existed. He wanted to go and slake himself in Lily’s delectable body and ignore his duties for a while.
How about forever?
Mal pressed his fingers to his eyes. He was getting in too deep with Lily. Hell, who was he fucking kidding? He was already in too deep. He’d been almost undone by the feeling of rightness when he kissed her. As if she already belonged to him.
But she could never be his mate.
Or so he’d believed.
Everything had changed when they stood in front of the altar and the portal had opened. He needed time to think about the implications, but one thing was sure—Vortigen had lied.
The King had always claimed only the pure bred and their mates had the powers to open the gate between the worlds, and consequently the children of the Dragon Princesses had never been permitted to mate.
But together he and Lily had opened the portal. What other lies had Vortigen told? He sighed but punched in the number for the King’s private line.
“It’s Mal.”
“Where the hell are you?”
“That should be my question,” Mal replied. “We went to the meeting place last night, and we were ambushed.”
“The meeting place? What meeting place? You were supposed to bring the girl here.”
Mal frowned. “I spoke to Cassandra. She told me you’d changed your mind—that you didn’t want the girl brought there in case she couldn’t be trusted.”
Vortigen was silent for long minutes, when he spoke again his voice seethed with barely repressed anger. “It seems the girl isn’t the only one
not to be trusted. I’ll deal with Cassandra. You bring the Dragon Princess here. Now.”
“No.”
“What? Do I have to remind you yet again of your allegiance?”
“You need remind me of nothing,” Mal snarled. “I’m drained of power and the countryside is swarming with sorcerers. They know we’re close, and they’re searching for us. It’s not safe to move at the moment.”
“Where are you?”
Mal ignored the question. “I’ll call you when it’s safe.” He shut off the connection before Vortigen could ask anything further and switched the phone to messages.
He stretched, feeling the power in his muscles, coursing through his blood. He’d lied to Vortigen. When he’d stood at the open portal with Ankesh before him, he’d felt his power renewed. He hadn’t been this strong in over a thousand years. The magic hummed in his blood. He had healed Cole with ease, and setting the wards had been no problem. The knowledge that he was now the strongest of his kind nudged at his brain. He could take any of them. Even the King. He pushed the thought to the back of his mind.
A shower, some food and by then he figured Lily would be ready with her questions. They would talk and after that…
***
Lily found what must be the professor’s room. She’d showered and was now wearing one of his shirts—he was hardly going to need it again—and added her jeans. For the first time in what seemed like forever, her brain was clear, and she wanted answers. She went in search of Mal, and met him coming out of the kitchen, a tray in his hands. She smelled the coffee and swooned.
“We’ll go in the sitting room,” he said.
Lily followed and sank down onto the sofa beside him. Along with the coffee, he’d made roast beef sandwiches and opened a bottle of red wine. He poured her a glass and handed it to her.
“I raided the professor’s cellar,” he said. “I thought it was the least he could do.”
The wine was delicious, deep-dark red and rich. She rolled it on her tongue, savoring the taste, then put her glass down and fell on the sandwiches. When she glanced up, Mal was watching her, his golden eyes gleaming with amusement.
“What?” she asked.
“Nothing.” He picked up a sandwich of his own and started to eat. Lily pursed her lips, but then resumed her feeding. Ten minutes later, she sat back, glass in hand, replete.
“How do you feel?” Mal asked.
“You know it’s weird, but in my entire life, I don’t think I have ever felt this strong. Though maybe strong isn’t the right word. It’s as though there’s something inside me, some sort of power. Now the drugs have worn off, I can feel it growing stronger.”
“Magic from Ankesh,” Mal said. “You opened the portal.”
“I know.” She closed her eyes and saw again the flames of another world. A shiver ran through her. “So tell me.”
“Tell you what?”
“Everything. Who am I? What am I? What are you? The secrets of the universe. Everything.” There was one thing she desperately wanted to know but was almost scared to ask. “Tell me about my mother.”
Wariness flashed across his face. “What about her?”
“Is she alive?” She looked into his eyes and knew the answer. Her heart cracked with sudden pain. Why? She’d always believed that her parents had abandoned her, that she had been unwanted, but it had never occurred to her that they were both dead. In the back of her mind, buried deep in her sub-conscious, she’d clung onto the dream of a happy ending. Now she dragged that dream up into the light and cast it away forever.
There was something close to pity in Mal’s face, and she forced her face into blankness. “How did she die?”
Mal hesitated, and then spoke softly. “She killed herself.”
“Why? Was it after she abandoned me?” Lily’s mind reeled. “Was it recently?”
“Lily, it was over two thousand years ago.”
She heard the words but they made no sense. “What?”
“It’s a long story. You have to understand what came before.”
“Then tell me.”
Mal took a sip of his wine, obviously thinking about where to begin. After a minute, he put down the glass and leaned back, staring into space. Lily sat, gnawing at her lower lip. At last, he started speaking.
“I told you how Tannith made the Dragon Princesses?”
She nodded and he continued, “By dragon standards, the princesses were weak, but they had certain powers. Tannith arranged it so they alone could open the portals for their mates. At first, they were fertile and had many children. Some were born with the mark of the dragon and of those, the males were destined to enter Ankesh and become dragons. The females were the Dragon Princesses. For thousands of years we were content.”
“What happened to the children born without a mark?”
Mal smiled bitterly. “That was the start of the problem. The dragons had no interest in them, and in the beginning, they were given to human families to raise on Earth. Eventually, there developed a group of people who had dragon blood, who possessed the ability to perform magic.”
“The sorcerers?”
“Yes. The most powerful joined together and formed the Conclave. The portal called to them, but the dragons refused them entry to Ankesh. They could do magic, but they required dragon blood for their spells, and they turned to sacrificing their own kind to gain further powers. It was their dream to enter Ankesh, and obtain immortality. They believed it was their birthright. When Vortigen became king, he ruled that from then on the children born to the Dragon Princesses without the mark were to be slain, so the blood of dragons could no longer be mixed with that of humans. The princesses became bitter. Many died of grief at the fate of their children. They bred less, and more babies were born without the mark and were killed.
“So the numbers of dragon princesses dwindled. Vortigen killed any who spoke out against him. He’s obsessed with purity of the blood.”
“What about this ‘goddess’? Where the hell was she when all this was going on?”
“She hasn’t been seen in over two thousand years. It seems that Tannith has forsaken us.” He shrugged. “In the end, only Cara, Vortigen’s mate, remained.”
“Tell me about her. What was she like?”
“She was beautiful.” He smiled at some memory.
“You loved her, didn’t you?”
He shot her a quick glance. “Not in the way I…” he broke off and shrugged. “I admired her, cared for her, and I thought we’d become friends. I knew she was bitter, and eventually Vortigen went too far and tipped her over the edge to where vengeance on him for the death of her children became more important than anything else. She had little freedom, but somehow she aligned herself to Draegar, the most powerful of the sorcerers, and she bore him a daughter.”
“Me?” Lily frowned. “So I can’t be a dragon princess then? I’m half human.”
“No, not half—Draegar had much dragon blood in his veins. But it’s true, when we found out about your birth we believed there was no way you could bear the mark, and Vortigen intended to kill you. The Conclave had amassed an army. They were at the portal to protect your mother. But Vortigen brought a host of us through and there was a great battle.”
“And you killed my father.”
Mal held her gaze. “Your father was evil. He deserved to die.”
He probably had a good point. If her father had been anything like Weyland, then she couldn’t argue with Mal’s assessment. What did that make her?
“When we found your mother, she had you in her arms as though she would never let you go. Then she saw Vortigen. He was in a killing rage. Perhaps he would have seen the mark and not killed the baby. Perhaps we could have stopped him.”
“Would you have let him kill me if I hadn’t had the mark? An innocent baby?”
Mal shrugged. “Who knows, but I hope not. Anyway, your mother held you up naked for all to see, and the mark was clear on your arm. Then you were gone, vani
shed. Some magic we didn’t understand and Cara stood there smiling. When Vortigen asked where the baby was, she laughed and told him that she was somewhere in the future, a long way in the future. Then she drew a knife and severed her throat before I could reach her.”
For a moment, he was silent, lost in the memories, his expression bleak. “So we were stranded here on earth until we caught up with Cara’s baby.”
“And here I am.” The tears were damp on Lily’s cheeks, and she dashed them away with the back of her hand. “Why?” she asked. “Why did you let him behave that way? Why didn’t you help my mother?”
Mal sighed. “You don’t understand our natures or the structure of dragon society. Once we’ve given our allegiance, we have a duty of obedience. Besides, Vortigen couldn’t be killed. He was the only hope of breeding more dragon princesses.”
“Couldn’t Cara have mated with another? Couldn’t you have killed the King and saved her?”
“No, dragons mate for life.”
“And this Vortigen is the one you intend to hand me over to? He plans to make me his mate, doesn’t he? Just like my mother. ‘Something worse than death,’ you said. That’s what you meant isn’t it?”
She clenched her fists at her side, trying to overcome her bitterness and betrayal at the story, and at Mal, for his part in it. “You know,” she said, “I once heard a saying that all it needs for evil men to triumph is for good men to do nothing.”
Mal stared back at her “I’m not a good man. I’m not any sort of man. I’m a dragon, and you can’t judge us by your standards.”
Lily smiled bitterly. “Want to bet?”
Chapter 13
The scariest thing of all was that Lily believed him. Everything he told her, however crazy. Her parents were dead, had been dead for thousands of years. One of them at this man’s hand.
But it wasn’t the things he’d done in the past that made her hate Mal right now. It was the things he hadn’t done, and the things he still planned to do.
Mal claimed he had cared for her mother, and yet he’d allowed this man Vortigen to make her life so unbearable that she’d abandoned her child and taken her own life. The same man Mal now intended to hand her to, knowing he meant to do the same or worse.