by Lauren Smith
“I was thinking that if we could actually talk we might get somewhere, not these crazy roughhouse tactics. Is this how you always intended to talk to the Barinovs? God, Meg was right to be worried about giving you the serum.”
“And what would you have us do?”
“Don’t treat him like he belongs in prison. I’ve spent time with him. And he’s not dangerous, not to me.” She shoved past her brother and ran straight into Jason, who kept her from getting to her mate.
Jason gripped her by the wrists, holding her still while he spoke over her head. “Damien, he’s coming around already.”
“Shit, that’s supposed to keep an elephant out for hours.”
“Guess our intel was right—he’s a battle dragon.”
“Shit!” Tamara hissed and stepped away from Rurik’s prone body when one of his arms twitched. “Load another dart.”
Charlotte jerked herself free of Jason’s hold and rushed to Rurik, kneeling down beside him. She turned to her brothers, fury in her eyes.
“Release him.”
“Are you nuts?” Damien and Jason said in unison.
Charlotte turned to Meg, her only ally. “Meg, please…”
Meg shifted, biting her lip. Her gaze darted between Charlotte and Damien. “Charlotte, hon, you’re really worked up right now. Once we’ve got things under control, then maybe we can all talk about this…”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Damien said. “Nicholas, Jason, take him to the room next door. Inject him again if you have to. I’ll join you shortly.”
As Rurik was dragged to his feet, his eyes opened and he blinked slowly. Her name escaped his lips in a plea that broke her heart. “Charlotte…”
“Damien, please. Don’t do this.” Charlotte tried to reach for Rurik, but Damien grabbed her wrist, jerking her away.
“Listen. You’re clearly under his power. We will break whatever hold he has over you.” Damien’s hazel eyes, so like her own, were cold and hard now. This was the sort of man Grigori and Mikhail had feared when they learned of her identity. A man who scared her now.
“He doesn’t have a hold over me. We just—”
Damien called out to one of his hunters. “Tamara.”
Tamara stared at him, lips parted in shock. “She’s not really—”
“Just do it,” Damien snapped.
Something pinched her left arm. She looked down. Tamara was injecting something into her.
“You’re tranquilizing me?”
“It’s a mild sedative mixed with a bit of verum seri. We need to be certain you haven’t been compromised.”
As he spoke, the sedative kicked in and her knees buckled. Mild my ass. Tamara caught her and helped her sit in the desk chair by the bed.
“I’m sorry, Charlotte.” Tamara pulled out some zip ties and secured Charlotte’s wrists to the chair arms.
Charlotte’s brain seemed to slow down. Everything was a bit fuzzy, like she’d had too much to drink. She pulled at her wrists, but the zip ties cut into her skin.
“Please… Don’t hurt him.” Her eyes watered, and she blinked, feeling tears trail down her cheeks. She couldn’t help it; she just started crying. It had to be the sedative. It could have an emotionally polarizing effect on some people.
Damien sat on the edge of the bed, a grim look in his eyes.
“I know this is tough, but just answer my questions, and then you can sleep off the drugs. You’re safe now, little sis.”
But she wasn’t. This was her family, and they were treating her like she couldn’t be trusted.
“What happened when you got to Moscow? What did you do?”
She tried to bite her lip, but she was unable to control her thoughts as they spun in a kaleidoscope of her mind.
“I went to Rurik’s nightclub,” she finally said.
“What was your plan?” Damien asked.
“Recon. See the target, watch his habits, get the lay of the land. I thought I stood a chance of getting his attention where your agents had failed.”
Damien shared a glance with Tamara. “What happened at the club?”
No. Don’t tell him. But her lips moved of their own accord. “I didn’t even have to order the wine. He just knew.”
“Rurik?”
“The bartender.” Charlotte almost laughed. None of this mattered, but she’d tell him anyway.
“The bartender?”
“Yes. He might be a werewolf.”
“Okay, and then what?”
“Assholes. They came after me.”
“Who?”
“Just some jerks. Human. I hit one…pretty good.” She giggled this time, remembered she’d walloped that one guy. But the memories were blurring together, and she struggled to focus.
“So you got into a fight at the club?”
Charlotte’s thoughts sloshed around inside her brain, making her dizzy. Flashes of Rurik roaring from behind her…
“He saved me. And he asked me to dance.”
“Rurik Barinov?”
She nodded. God, she wished she was back in that cage with Rurik. She wanted the whole world to vanish and just be with him.
“You danced?” Damien asked, his tone implying he didn’t believe it.
She nodded. “It was amazing. I felt so good. For the first time I was enjoying myself. Not looking over my shoulder. Not worrying about you or your agents watching me. And he was wonderful…” It was humiliating to be talking to her brother about this, and it was even worse because he was forcing her to tell them things that were private. What gave him the right? Why hadn’t he just asked her?
“Then what happened?”
“Damien, don’t make me tell you.” If he made her tell him, she would never forgive him. Never.
“Charlotte, what happened next?”
She tried to fight, but the story came out. Every detail, every intimate moment—emotionally and physically—that had occurred between her and Rurik.
Damien’s hands were curled into white-knuckled fists on his thighs. “He forced you to have sex with him?”
“No! How dare you say that you—you asshole!” She shouted the word, even though her head ached. She spoke the one truth she hoped would stop this madness. “He’s my mate, Damien. He would never hurt me. Don’t you see? He’s my mate.” The truth weighed heavily upon her lips, but it was a relief to finally tell him. Her brother stared at her, his lips parted and eyes wide.
“Mate?”
“Yes. We are mated.”
“No. I won’t let this happen,” Damien argued, his tone cold enough that it made her stomach roil. “You’re still suffering some effects of being compromised by him. Whatever bond you think you have with him, it’s a lie. He’s probably used his powers to bend your will. You’re not mated.”
“It’s true. He is my mate. Matey, matey, you’re too latey.” She giggled, suddenly feeling completely silly.
“We’ll find a way undo it. You won’t have to stay with him,” Damien vowed.
“But I want to stay with him. Don’t you understand?” Her voice turned into a screech as she jerked at her bound hands.
Damien looked away. “Dammit. He’s got his hooks in you good.” He stood and looked at Tamara. “Give her something to help her sleep.”
“Damien, you dumb son of a bitch, I will never forgive you for this! I will hate you for the rest of my life. You are not my brother!” Charlotte shouted, her voice breaking as Tamara injected her with another needle. Darkness crept in at the corners of her vision as her brother left the room.
“Tamara. Please, save my mate…I love him.” The words came out in a whisper. And it was the deepest truth she’d ever spoken in her life. Tamara had always been nice to her the few times they’d met. She prayed the woman would take pity on her.
“I believe you,” Tamara whispered back. “Your brother’s not thinking straight. I’ll do what I can.”
Then the darkness drowned her.
33
Whatever can d
ie is beautiful—more beautiful than a unicorn, who lives forever, and who is the most beautiful creature in the world. Do you understand me? ―Peter S. Beagle, The Last Unicorn
“All right, you fucking bastard, talk!” A rough hand shook Rurik in the chair he was tied to. Rurik could feel the tranquilizer leaving his system. If he could delay whatever torture they intended just a few minutes longer, he might be able to break his bonds and then…
“You want me to talk?” he replied with a grin. “What shall we talk about? How about the cowardice of the Brotherhood? You seem well acquainted with it.”
The man who’d shaken him cocked a fist, but the door opened and a second man entered. This was the one Rurik recognized—Damien MacQueen. The younger man resembled him so much that he had to be Jason. Charlotte’s brothers.
“Stand down, Jason.”
“Let me do this,” Jason insisted. “Just one little punch.”
“I would barely feel it.” Rurik chuckled, flexing his hands against the chair arms. “So you’re Charlotte’s infamous brothers.”
“Infamous? Only to some.” Damien’s expression didn’t bode well, but he kept calm, whereas Jason looked ready to explode.
“Guys, I don’t mean to interrupt,” a dark-haired man in the corner of the room said, “but he’ll be getting his strength back any minute now. Should we dope him up again?”
“Not yet. I’ll handle this, Nicholas. Go check on my sister. Tamara’s given her something to help her sleep. Make sure she doesn’t have a bad reaction to the truth serum,” Damien said.
His words filled Rurik with rage. “You drugged your own sister?” he bellowed, jerking violently against the chair. “Where is she? I demand to see her. I want to know she’s all right.”
“Demand?” Damien laughed. “You don’t get to make demands here, Barinov.” He pulled out a syringe. The green liquid was something Rurik recognized all too well. “You know, all I wanted was to talk. Russia’s got a power vacuum right now. It’s a powder keg ready to explode, and you seem to be at the center of it. We tried to talk to you, but you refused.”
Rurik snorted. “Talk? Sending your other agents to lure me into a trap? That is how you talk?”
“We don’t exactly trust your kind to keep your temper,” Damien countered. “And the fact is, you have the advantage over us. So what if we took that advantage away?”
“Don’t you fucking dare!” Rurik roared, his body starting to push past the sedative’s effects.
“Fuck, Damien. Look at his eyes,” Jason said. Damien saw swirls of bright gold starting to fill them. “The tranq’s wearing off.”
Damien jabbed the needle into Rurik’s neck. The serum hit his blood instantly, burning through him. Whatever he had imagined it would feel like to suffer the effects of this drug, he couldn’t have imagined it would be like this. It was like his breath had been knocked from his body and someone had sapped all of his strength. It was like half of him was being torn away and locked into an impenetrable safe.
Damien checked his watch. “We’ll let it take full effect, and then we’ll talk.” The brothers moved away from him, consulting quietly by the door.
A few moments ago, his enhanced hearing would have picked up everything they said, but now it was as though he had cotton in his ears. Everything sounded muffled, and the voices seemed tinny. Mortal hearing…and mortal sight. Fuck, he’d never known how good he’d had it as a dragon.
The door opened, and a dark-haired woman whispered something to Damien. Whatever she said made Charlotte’s brothers look at him. Then Damien took out a vial, this one with a clear liquid.
“Now let’s see what truths we can get out of you.”
Rurik remembered Charlotte’s story about her brothers drugging her prom date. In a weird way, here he was facing the same fate. It was almost funny. Rurik tensed as the second needle plunged in. A low growl, horribly human sounding, escaped his lips.
Damien and Jason stared down at him, but Rurik had faced worse than them before. They didn’t scare him.
“Did you use pheromones to seduce Charlotte?”
“What the fuck is it with you guys and pheromones?”
“But you seduced her,” Damien added.
He tried to hold back what he knew would be a damning response, but it came out anyway. “I guess I did.”
Jason backhanded him. “You piece of shit!”
“Jason!” Damien caught his arm. “Do that again and I’ll have you removed.”
Blood trickled down Rurik’s chin, and he licked his split lip. His chin and cheek on the left side throbbed. Normally it took a blow from another dragon before he felt pain like this.
“Did you know she was our sister?” Damien asked coolly.
“No. She admitted it to me after we slept together.”
“She says you are mates. Is that true?” Damien’s hazel eyes lacked Charlotte’s warmth. His gaze was stony.
Jason stared at his brother in horror. “What?”
“Answer me, Barinov,” Damien said. “Is it true?”
“She is mine. My true mate,” Rurik said through clenched teeth. “I have claimed her.”
For a second nothing happened. It seemed like Damien was holding himself back. For a moment it seemed like he was reaching for his pistol, but his hand froze as it touched the holster.
“How do we undo it? How do we break the mating bond?”
“How do you undo love? The bond only occurs because the feelings are true. I belong to her and she to me as long as she’s alive. When she dies, I die.”
Jason frowned. “I thought that was only with other dragons. This works with humans too?”
“Barinov, answer the question,” Damien said.
“Dragons mate for life. The bonds are…” He tried to swallow the words, but they bubbled back to the surface. “When a dragon loses its mate, the dragon dies of grief. It always kills the human part of the dragon, because one cannot live without the other.” He didn’t know how to explain that dragon mythology of his people, largely because so much of it had been lost over the millennia, to the point that no dragon alive knew how much of it, if any, was actually true.
“But does that happen to humans too? If you die first, will Charlotte…” Damien didn’t finish the thought, but Rurik knew what he was asking.
“No, at least I don’t think so. She isn’t a dragon, so I don’t think mate grief would kill her.”
Rurik sighed heavily. His limbs ached, and the iron cuffs cut into skin that could no longer heal properly.
But he knew the serum’s limitations. This would last a day, at most, and then he’d come roaring back to himself, and he could deal out some serious retribution to the Brotherhood. Then he would rescue Charlotte and get the hell out of there.
Assuming they didn’t kill him first.
Charlotte lay on her side in the back of an SUV, her head pounding. She tried to sit up, but her body ached. She blinked, her brain foggy. She recognized the two women in the front seats of the vehicle.
“Tamara, Meg, what’s going on?” She didn’t immediately remember what had happened, but when her gaze met Tamara’s in the rearview mirror, the last few hours came flooding back to her.
“Rurik!” She gasped and scrambled to reach for the car door.
“Charlotte!” Meg spun around in the front passenger seat. “Calm down, okay? Tamara and I are working on a plan. But first we had to get you somewhere safe.”
“A plan?”
“Yeah. We both think your brothers are a bit unreasonable at the moment. Damien especially. I know it’s going to piss him off, but I know what I saw between you and Rurik tonight. I’ve seen enough shifters in my day to know what a mating looks like. But the fact is we’re never going to get your brothers to calm down by flying off the handle. So just relax, okay?”
Charlotte tried to calm herself, but it wasn’t easy. It certainly wasn’t helping to have her blood pounding through her head.
“God, what did yo
u guys give me? I feel like shit.” She moaned, her stomach churning.
“Sorry,” Tamara said. “I had to give you a sedative. Damien was watching. But I didn’t give you the full dose.”
“Thanks, I guess.” Charlotte couldn’t keep the sarcasm out of her voice. “Did you see Rurik? Was he okay?”
“He was okay when I saw him. Your brothers were questioning him about your relationship. I swear if anyone else had been involved in this but you, Damien would have reached an understanding by now. It’s almost like he doesn’t want to.”
Charlotte frowned. If they hurt Rurik, she would destroy them. It didn’t matter that they were her brothers. Their overreaction was unforgiveable. When Rurik’s brothers had found out who she was, they had panicked, sure, but they hadn’t drugged her and tied her to a fucking chair.
No, only my family does that.
“What’s your plan?” She sat up properly in her seat and buckled herself in. They were driving through Moscow now, but it was clear she’d slept most of the journey because they seemed to be almost out of the city.
“They wanted us to take you to the airport. Don’t worry, that’s not happening,” said Meg.
“We’re taking you to a safe house the Saint Petersburg branch has out here,” said Tamara. “By the time we get back, they’ll probably want Rurik taken to the airport for transport. We’ll make sure he ends up at the safe house with you instead. That should buy us some time to talk sense into those numbskulls, give them a chance to cool down before they do something they can’t undo.”
“Don’t worry,” said Meg. “We’ll get you through this. Even if your brother fires us.”
Tamara grinned. “I don’t know about you, but I definitely have some serious vacation time accrued.”
Charlotte smiled. They were going to help her. Everything was going to be okay—
Twin headlights appeared on the driver’s side of their SUV a millisecond before they were T-boned. Everything exploded in a spray of glass. Metal screamed, and the world around her flipped over and over. Charlotte gasped as the car finally stopped rolling. It landed on its right side, smoke billowing from the engine. Something trickled down her nose into her right eye. Charlotte raised a shaky hand, wiping at her face. Her hand came away bloody. She stared at the red smear on her palm, and between her splayed fingers she saw the front of the car where Tamara and Meg were hung like rag dolls, their seatbelts keeping them locked into place.