by Romi Hart
She cast one last glimpse toward the fire. The men’s voices bubbled and laughed over there. Were they laughing about her throwing myself at Victor? Maybe they were congratulating him on his erstwhile conquest.
So much the better. She took a step backward. She put her foot down with exaggerated care so she didn’t make any noise. At that moment, Isaac appeared between the trees coming from the fire. He strolled past her without a care in the world. He even smiled at her.
When he drew abreast of her, he took a flying, diving leap into the bayou. In mid-flight, he changed into that orange puma she saw feeding on the deer at the hunting camp. He streaked past her and landed on all fours running for the shadows. He made no sound. In half a second, the trees swallowed him.
A chill ran up her spine and her guts twisted in knots. She tricked herself into thinking they were normal men. Isaac was a puma and Lincoln was a wolf. They could track her down in no time. She wasn’t going anywhere with them hanging around.
Another rising wave of voices came from the opposite direction. Did she dare go over there? Did she dare show her face in that circle? Bryce was Victor’s brother. What would he say about what she did?
Just then, another eruption of laughter shattered the stillness. This time, though, it didn’t come from the fire. It came from behind her. She rotated around to see Isaac walking upright again like any ordinary man.
Two dozen people followed behind him in a loose convoy all talking at once. Isaac and an older man with grey hair led the way heading straight for her.
Isaac gave her that same meaningless smile. The others paid no attention to her at all. They walked past her heading for the fire, but before they got there, Victor appeared between the trunks. He clapped his arms around the older man and thumped him on the back. When he pushed away, he burst into a brilliant grin. “Hey, Pop.”
7
Cameron Griffin squatted next to the tree where Victor leaned his back. The older man bent low and murmured to his son in an undertone. “Don’t you know how dangerous this is? What were you thinking?”
“I was thinking I might try to save her life,” Victor fired back. “What do you say I should have done—left her there to die?”
He pulled his head in. “I don’t say that. I’m just saying it’s fucking dangerous.”
Victor passed his hand over his eyes. “You don’t have to tell me. I already found out the hard way.”
Cameron lowered his voice to a whisper. “Is it true what Bryce said? Did you do it with her?”
Victor fixed his gaze straight ahead. He couldn’t look at his father and he certainly couldn’t explain it. “It’s true.”
“You know what this means,” Cameron breathed. “You know the rules.”
“I know.”
He waited for Victor to say something, but Victor didn’t bite. “So what do you want me to do?”
Victor let his head fall into his palm and closed his eyes. He couldn’t imagine a worse disaster. “Just do me one favor, Pop. I won’t ask for anything else.”
“Name it.”
“Don’t tell her,” he murmured, “not yet. She’s fragile. She doesn’t know whether to shit or go blind. She’s flying off the handle in every direction. That’s how this happened. Just don’t tell her about the rules. I’ll do my part. You can count on that. Just give her time. Give me a chance to bring her around and I’ll tell her in my own time when she’s ready—not before.”
Cameron straightened up and his eyes glinted. “I don’t know if I can do that.”
Victor looked away. “Please, Pop. I’m begging you. I didn’t ask for any of this. Just let me play it my own way. I wouldn’t ask if it wasn’t important.”
Cameron straightened his legs and paced up and down for a minute. He didn’t answer. That gave Victor the greatest sense of foreboding of this whole awful situation. His father might decide not to honor his wishes. He might load Riley with more information than her mind could handle. Victor shuddered to think what would happen then.
She could shatter and he would be left with a lunatic on his hands. Holy shit, what was he thinking? He already had one.
Cameron swiveled around to face him. “What do you want to do? What’s your plan?”
Victor shrugged. “I don’t have a plan. I was waiting to talk to you about it. I was hoping…..” He trailed off.
“I can’t help you with this, son,” he told him. “This is all yours.”
Victor looked up at him from the ground. “Just don’t leave, Pop. Please. I’ll handle it. Just…. stick around. Please.”
Cameron pursed his lips and his features hardened. “All right, son. I’ll trust you and I’ll stick around.
Victor closed his eyes and let his chin fall onto his chest. He let out a shaky breath feeling the weight of a thousand millstones lifted off his neck. He couldn’t imagine facing this without his father’s support. “Thank you, Pop.”
Cameron jerked his shoulder sideways. “You better take me to meet her so we can get it over with.”
Victor nodded and stood up. On the way back to camp, Cameron drew level with his shoulder. “Bryce says she already tried to escape.”
“She didn’t try to escape,” Victor murmured back. “She shifted unconsciously. It happened once before when she was asleep. She just shot off and started flying. She didn’t have a clue what she was doing, but I wouldn’t put it past her to try to escape for real. She’s out of her mind.”
“You have to prevent that at all costs, son,” Cameron told him. “You can’t let her make contact with the humans.”
Victor didn’t say anything. He already knew the consequences if Riley escaped. His father didn’t have to tell him. He chalked up his repeating it to the strain. Victor had to chalk it up to that to keep his temper under control at his father patronizing him like a child. He did just beg his father for help, so he guessed he asked for it.
The two men re-entered the same hunting camp and returned to the house Victor shared with Bryce. He invited Riley in against his better judgment, but this catastrophe already went way beyond what Victor considered reasonable. If she shifted again and destroyed the house, so what? Things couldn’t possibly get any worse.
They climbed the ladder and found her sitting cross-legged by the fire while Bryce cooked. Victor and Cameron interrupted what looked like a decent conversation. She looked up. Bryce looked away.
Victor waved between her and his father. “Riley Strickland, meet my father, Cameron Griffin.”
She hopped up and stuck out her hand. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Sir. Thank you for your hospitality. I have to tell you that your sons have been exceptionally kind to me since this whole thing started.”
Cameron waved that away. “Please, sit down. You don’t have to be so formal.”
She assumed the same position, but she didn’t relax. She kept glancing back and forth between Victor and his father, but Victor couldn’t help her with this. Bryce made himself scarce and Victor retreated. He leaned his shoulder against a post to watch.
Cameron squatted by the fire and planted his elbows on his knees. Instead of making him less intimidating, the position made him look a lot bigger than he was. He could scare anyone when he looked like that. “I’m glad to hear my sons have treated you well. I don’t think I have to tell you that you’ve caused us all a lot of trouble.”
She lowered her gaze to the floor. “Yes, Sir. I realize that and I’m sorry.”
“I don’t want you to be sorry. I want you to understand the position you’re in and the position you’ve put all of us in. We can’t let you go. We’re not trying to keep you a prisoner, but you can’t go back to the human world. If you told them the slightest detail about us or our whereabouts, thousands or millions could die. Do you understand that?”
She opened her mouth to protest and shut it again. She went through a confusion of emotions trying to decide what to say to him. Victor watched it all unfold on her face, but in the end, she didn’t s
ay anything.
“I know it’s hard to accept,” Cameron went on. “You’ll just have to trust the fact that we’ve seen this before. We know the dangers better than you do. We can’t take you near other New Breed, either—not until you quiet down and get used to your powers. You’ll have to stay here for a while.”
She whipped around. “Here? Why here? Can’t you at least take me to….?”
He cut her off with a curt shake of his head. “It’s too dangerous. Just look what happened today. Most dragons can breathe fire. Some can breathe lightning or other things. You could flip out of control again. You could wipe out millions of people. We can’t let that happen. You’re a danger to yourself and everyone around you. I would leave you here alone, but that’s not safe, either. These men will have to stay here and keep watch over you.”
When she opened her mouth. This time, she didn’t shut it. “But that’s not fair! I don’t want to stay here. I…. I have to go. I have to get back to my….”
“You can’t,” he snapped.
She started to say something else and stopped herself. Victor observed the interplay of competing impulses appearing and submerging in her features. She could change her expression in a heartbeat.
All at once, she became calm and smiled. “All right. If you want me to stay here, I will.”
Cameron frowned at her, but he knew better than to say anything to that. Victor inwardly congratulated his father that she showed him the truth of her own accord. She planned to escape. Anybody could see that. She wouldn’t go along with this if she didn’t.
Cameron gave one more minuscule nod and straightened up. He cast a glance over his shoulder at Victor. A silent barb of understanding passed between the two men before Cameron walked out.
When he moved aside, Victor found himself looking down at her. She peered up at him with an inquisitive tremor in her eyebrow. That look raised too many questions for him to cope with right now. He left the house, too.
He stopped in the yard outside. He trained his ear to listen for the slightest noise. He knew the Quag at an intimate biological level. It flowed in his veins. Everything that happened in it tapped his skin. It entered his consciousness no effort on his part.
While he stood there pondering everything his father said, the black wolf loped out of the trees. It padded a few paces away and shifted into Lincoln. The tall young man cast a fleeting glance around the village. Then he jerked his chin at Victor. “What’s the word?”
“Set up the hostile perimeter,” Victor replied. “Keep the sentries fresh and on task, but post the fliers with them. If she attacks, they have to be ready to subdue her at a moment’s notice and the sentries won’t be able to do that.”
Lincoln put his head on one side to examine Victor. “Are you sure you want to do that? Getting into a battle could…..”
Victor swung around. “Could what?”
Lincoln shrugged. “You know…. kill her?”
Victor compressed his lips. He already knew the risks. “Just do it. If she attacks, we’ll have no choice but to respond.”
Lincoln turned away. “It’s your funeral, man.”
He vanished into the shadows and left Victor alone with his thoughts. Riley would try to escape. He never doubted that for an instant. If she did, it would take every dragon in their party to knock her out of the sky.
Maybe he secretly wished they would kill her instead. That would certainly simplify the situation. He wouldn’t have to worry about her threatening all their lives. He wouldn’t have to hang around this piece of shit camp anymore, either.
He kept his lips sealed and made his way to the next house along the row. He climbed the ladder and entered without knocking. Finn lounged on his elbow by the fire.
His eyes shot open when Victor appeared. “What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be next door babysitting your new pet?”
Victor snarled under his breath. “Say what you want, man.”
Finn pushed himself up chuckling in that infuriating undertone of his. He knew exactly how to rankle Victor’s nerves. So why did Victor come to his house of all places? Did Victor harbor a secret gluttony for punishment of the most excruciating kind?
He must harbor one because he sat down opposite Finn. Finn took a pot of gumbo off the fire and set it on a potholder on the floor. He fanned the steam away and sniffed the mixture. “What did your pop say about her?”
Victor shrugged. “He didn’t say anything. He told me to come up with a plan.”
Finn bit back laughter. “I’ll say he did. So what’s your plan?”
“I’m posting a hostile perimeter, but this one armed with fliers.”
Finn nodded his approval—as if that meant squat to Victor. “Did you think about sending scouts to the gas plant?”
Victor’s head shot up. “What?”
“The natural gas plant in Breaux Bridge,” Finn repeated. “There’s a communications relay inside the fence. The workmen use it to communicate with their leadership if anything goes wrong. If she gets out of here, she’ll have to go somewhere she can communicate with her people to tell them where she is. She might go to the gas plant. It’s the nearest place she could go—short of kidnapping one of the humans—and we all know their military claims to have a code of honor forbidding that kind of thing.”
Victor squinted at him. “How do you know so much about this? How do you know they have a communications relay inside the fence?”
Finn indulged in a quiet smile. “Not all New Breed in this man’s army grew up under a rock like you did. I get out and about. I hear and see things. I know a lot about the human world.”
Victor raised his eyebrows and shook his head. “Well, shut my mouth. If you know so much about it, why don’t you scout the gas plant?”
“Maybe I will.” Finn ladled some gumbo into a wooden bowl. He handed it across to Victor before serving one for himself.
Victor balanced the bowl on his fingertips. He let the succulent aroma fill his mind. Finn always made the best gumbo. Come to think of it, Finn did a lot of things the best, but he never jumped up and down shouting about it. His actions spoke for him and he let others take the credit.
Only now did Victor realize that Finn manipulated him into this. He knew Victor couldn’t pass up the chance to catch Riley at the gas plant. He knew Victor would assign Finn to the job as soon as he found out Finn knew more about it than probably any other New Breed in the state.
Now he had assigned Finn to the job and he couldn’t take it back. If Finn caught Riley at the gas plant, Victor couldn’t be certain Finn would bring her back alive. He couldn’t be certain Finn would bring her back at all. That might be the last time Victor ever saw Riley.
He took a sip of the gumbo cursing himself. He walked right into Finn’s trap. Riley became a more intolerable burden by the minute. He had to protect her from herself and from the military. Now he had to protect her from Finn, too.
Victor kept his eyes on the fire. The gumbo warmed him from the inside. He didn’t look up, but he considered Finn from across the room.
Victor always got along with Finn. He might even be tempted to call the man his friend. Finn never crossed Victor. He never did anything to cross anybody—not men, anyway. No one ever questioned his loyalty to his people.
In recent years, though, only since he grew up and became his own man, Victor started to doubt Finn. He never witnessed any overt action on Finn’s part to justify these fears. Something about Finn made his skin crawl. Victor would never let his sister anywhere near Finn Weeks, not in a million years.
When he looked at Finn or even thought about him, Victor imagined all kinds of horrible scenarios. He pictured Finn hijacking humans, taking them off someplace, and doing diabolical things to them. Victor hated even to imagine what those things could be.
Maybe Finn did it to vent his resentment against humans. Maybe he did it to pay them back, one person at a time, for the hateful things the military did to New Breed. Maybe he didn’t
even need a reason to do it. Maybe he did it for his own twisted amusement. Victor couldn’t say.
One thing Victor knew for certain. Finn could captivate any female on the planet just by looking into their eyes. He could cast a spell over them so they couldn’t look away. In that penetrating gaze, he could bend them to his will.
Victor saw Finn do it dozens of times. He twisted more than one woman around his little finger and got them to do anything he wanted. Swarms of them spent their lives dreaming of ways they could serve him and get his attention long after he lost interest in them.
He never took a woman against her will. He didn’t have to. He made them want it. He made them crumble so they couldn’t resist. Now Victor saw him doing the same thing to Riley. He cast his attention on her and he wouldn’t quit until he got her.
He glanced up to find Finn studying him over the flames. Too bad that shiny gaze did nothing to men or Victor wouldn’t be entertaining these thoughts about someone he considered a friend.
What did he care if Finn took Riley? If Victor had his way, she would never look sideways at him again.
That wasn’t strictly true, though, was it? He didn’t want it to be true, but he did care. He cared a great deal. As much as he hated her for what she did to him, he couldn’t exactly go back in time and make it un-happen.
It happened and it changed him. It did something to him. He could never undo it. So what did happen? What exactly did she do to him besides fuck him silly?
He would never dare to tell a living soul what really happened to him on that flight. Her dragon soul took hold of him in a way he couldn’t understand even now. She worked a magical charm on his body and soul he could never break.
She did something far more forceful to him than Finn ever did. She changed him at the cellular level. She shattered something inside him so he couldn’t go back.
In a way, he didn’t want to go back. He experienced a measure of bliss and ecstasy on that flight. Did the others know? Did his family and his relatives and his people even fathom what it could be like?