Breathing Fire (Heretic Daughters) (16 page)

“So tell me who you’re hiding from,” he ordered me calmly.

“My family,” I answered.

“Why?”

“Well, primarily, because if they find us, Lynn will be executed.
 
And me, well, I suspect they’ll rape me until I’m either pregnant, dead, insane, or maybe two out of the three,” I answered.
 
It was an almost sugar-coated version of the truth.

His gaze was shuttered, but the tick had started up under his glowing yellow eye again.
 
“Your family would do this?”

“Yes.
 
That and worse.”

“They’re the ones you’ve been running from all this time?”

“Yes.”

“Why didn’t you just tell me this seven years ago?”
 
A pleading note had entered his voice.
 
I knew he was unaware of it.
 
“There is no force stronger than the druids.
 
I could have protected you.”

I shook my head at him sadly.
 
“Not every race is in your registry.
 
And they certainly don’t follow any of your laws.
 
Our kind could raze this city to the ground.
 
Too many of your people would have died for me to start a war just for myself.”

“What are you?”
 

“I can’t say.”

“You said you’d tell me any-”

“I said I’d tell you what I could.
 
I can’t tell you this because I know you. You’ll rip the world apart looking for answers to questions too dangerous to ask.
 
You’re kind isn’t mortal, it’s true.
 
You’ll never die of old age.
 
But a clean beheading will kill you.
 
I don’t know how to kill the things that hunt us.
 
Even a clean beheading won’t do the trick, just on it’s own.”
 
His phone rang and he answered it, never taking his eyes off of me.
 
“Yes, Amy,” he said into the phone.
 
“Cancel everything scheduled tonight.
 
Yes, everything is fine.”
 
He hung up.

“She wasn’t too pleased to meet me.
 
She seems possessive of you,” I said.
 
“Are you seeing her?”
 
I could have sworn that my mouth formed the words completely independently from my brain.
 
I didn’t want to speak of this, didn’t want to know anything about his love life, really.
 
I told this to myself firmly, over and over again.

He just stared at me malevolently, his jaw clenching and unclenching.
 
“You lost the right to ask me that question a very long time ago.
 
Don’t you think it’s a little hypocritical of
you
to be keeping tabs on
me
, all things considered?”

I nodded, making my face into a careful mask.
 
He was right, and I had nothing to say for myself.
 

“And how many conquests can you account for since we parted?” he asked, surprising me.

“Do you really want to know?” I asked softly, fully prepared to tell him the truth, no matter how stupid that would be.
 
And it would be oh so stupid
.
 

He shut his eyes tightly, and it was like the sun setting.
 
I wanted to look at his perfect eyes forever, I always had, and all of the years apart had only made that craving worse.
 
“No, I suppose I don’t.”
 
He stood like that for awhile, eyes closed, and I knew that he was battling for control.
 
“Please get dressed,” he told me.

I disobeyed the order completely, instead stepping close to him again.
 
“I don’t want to,” I whispered in his ear.

“Vixen,” he growled at me, when we finished this time.
 
It wasn’t an endearment.
 
He hadn’t looked at me once that time, keeping his eyes shut tight.
 
It hurt worse than I wanted to admit to myself.
 
But he didn’t budge, just lay against me, as if it were old times.
 

A moment later my skin began to burn, and I knew the attacks were starting again.
 
“Get off me,” I grunted at him.
 
He misunderstood me, and jerked off of me in a flash, eyes sparkling in anger.
 

The anger faded when he saw that I was panting uncontrollably.
 
The strangest sensation had begun in my stomach and chest, not pain really, but alarming all the same.
 
It felt as though my insides were shifting around.
 

“What’s happening to you?” he asked, brows drawn together in concern.

“I don’t know, but it seems to be happening more and more.”

He knelt down to touch me, but I stopped him.
 
“Don’t.
 
My skin will burn you.”
 
As though to prove my words, everything touching me began to sizzle.
 
I clutched my stomach as the feelings intensified.
 
Something big knocked against my mind, but I beat it back.
 
Now was NOT the time for that.
 
To my dismay, I fainted dead away.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Last Word

I awoke in an unfamiliar bed that carried a very familiar scent.
 
I breathed it in, closing my eyes.
 
I was not so subtly sniffing a pillow when Dom walked into the room.
 
I set it down nonchalantly.
 
I would deny to my deathbed what I’d been doing.
 

Dom stopped in his tracks.
 
He was dressed down now, in a simple black V-neck T-shirt and dark gray slacks.
 
The effect was just as devastating as the three-piece suit look that he usually sported.
 
His short hair caught me off-guard all over again.
 

He was staring at me strangely.
 
“What?” I asked.
 

“What’s up with your hair?” he asked.
 
He was almost smiling.

I felt it and started swearing.
 
The curls were back “It’s just been doing this.”
 
I cursed some more. ”Don’t ask.”
 

 
I looked around the huge bedroom.
 
“Do you live in this casino?” I asked him

He shrugged.
 
“More or less.
 
I travel between here and Denver quite a bit.”
 
He moved and sat in a dark-brown leather armchair.
 
It was set a good distance away from the bed, pretty much as far away from me as he could get while still in the same room.
 
“So have you been in Vegas this whole time?” he asked abruptly.

I so did not want to go here, but I had promised him answers.
 
“We’ve moved around a lot, but mostly, yes,” I said.
 
I could have given an explanation, something, but nothing would make it less hurtful, so I didn’t bother.

“And all of the fake leads we had of you going halfway around the world?
 
Were those meant for your family, or for me?”

“Both,” I answered brutally.
 
I could tell by his grip on the chair arms that he was getting angry again.
 
“They had discovered us in Colorado.
 
We made some fake trails, and cut all of our ties there.
 
Then we relocated in Vegas.”

His eyes were glowing in the room’s dim lighting.
 
I didn’t think it was a good sign.
 
“So all I needed to do to find you was follow the fucking dragonslayer?
 
He followed you here, didn’t he?”

I sighed.
 
He’d latched onto that rather quickly.
 
It was unfortunate.
 
“Eventually, yes.”

 
He cursed.
 
“Right under my fucking nose this entire time.”
 
His agonized voice hurt my ears.
 
Hell, it hurt my chest.

“My family found us from your registry.
 
You should be aware that someone is leaking that information to outside sources.”

“I’ll ask my uncle about it.”

“Please don’t.
 
Every inquiry you make just brings us closer to discovery.
 
I was told that it was your family that had looked into our past seven years ago, and that they had tipped off the ones chasing us.
 
Certainly someone had delved into our past and found enough about us to have us blackmailed.
 
I wasn’t told who-”
 

“You were told?
 
Care to elaborate?”
 
His voice was harsh.
 
He had put the pieces together.
 
I had been hoping I could just gloss over that part.

“Declan-”

“You dare say his name to me like that?
 
You mention him like some kind of confidante?”
 
His voice was a roar, and waves of power lapped at me.
 
I knew that every druid in the building must have felt those tempestuous waves of his power.
 
He was a fearsome being now, even more so than before.

I swallowed nervously.
 
This was very dangerous ground for us.
 
“I apologize.
 
But there is a leak within the druids.
 
It is not something I care to repeat,” I finally settled on saying.
 
I looked down.
 
The less said about Declan, the better.

He was silent for a time, which was a vast improvement over questions about Declan.

All of my charred things had been laid beside the bed.
 
They weren’t in top shape, but still covered the essentials.
 
It was enough.
 
I began to get dressed, my back to him.

“So, what happened back there?” he asked finally

I assumed he was referring to my passing out.
 
“I honestly have no idea.
 
It’s been happening to me a lot lately.
 
Perhaps there’s a mortal in my bloodline somewhere, and my number’s up.”
 
I was joking, but hell, it was as good a guess as anything, at that point.

“How old are you then?” he asked.
 
The subject had never come up between us before.
 
I knew he had always suspected that I was immortal, considering how long ago we’d met, but I’d never confirmed or denied his suspicions.
 

I smiled at him, and his jaw clenched hard.
 
“A lady never tells, darling.”
 

He swallowed.
 
“Don’t toy with my, Jillian.
 
Ever again.
 
I’m immune to your charms now.”
 
I knew he was telling the truth, and it made me sad.
 

“What’s going to happen to Mav and Michael?”
 
I changed the subject.
 

He started rubbing his temples.
 
“I’m undecided.
 
I’m thinking about ripping their heads off.
 
That’s the only idea I’ve come up with.
 
You’re the wronged party.
 
Tell me what you think their punishment should be.”

Oh boy.
 
A part of me thought the world would be a better place without those two thugs.
 
But most of me thought that was too harsh a punishment.
 
Perhaps I sympathized with them, just a little, because I knew their hatred for me was rooted in their love of Dom, and how I had hurt him.
 
“I guess you shouldn’t kill them,” I said grudgingly.
 
“Maybe just some torture and imprisonment?”

“Perhaps,” was his answer.
 
Frustrating man.

“So are we square then?
 
I’m off your roster, and you’re done with your questions?” I asked, not nearly ready to leave, but knowing that I had to.

“I’ll have to enter something in the books.
 
I’ll make sure it’s something unexceptional, and that you’re not listed as sisters,” he told me.

“I guess it shouldn’t matter, as long as you don’t enter the address of our house or shop.”
 
I got up and headed for the door.
 

He stopped me with a question.
 
“Was it only ever a game to you?”
 
His voice was barely more than a whisper.
 

I froze, my hand on the doorknob.
 
“You know it wasn’t,” I told him softly

I could feel his rage building in the air.
 
He stood several feet behind me now.
 
He was like a violent storm being held at bay through sheer willpower.
 
It was hard to keep my back to such a presence.
 
“I know that you told me more lies than truth.
 
I know that you jumped from my bed to
his
.
 
Or were you sharing both the whole time?”
 
His fist punched a hole into the wall, not a foot from my
 
head, but he kept talking.
 
I studied that gaping hole with wide eyes.
 
“I know that you never would have looked back if Mav and Michael hadn’t found you.”
 
I sure as hell wasn’t going to mention that Collin had actually found me, too, geas in hand, and that
that
was the only reason I had come to him.
 
He continued, “I know that you’ll walk out that door with no regrets.
 
I know a lot of things about you, but not that.”