Breathing Fire (Heretic Daughters) (19 page)

“Please,” I begged him softly, willing him not to say another incriminating word.

“Why would I listen to your plea?”

“Is there something you want from me?
 
Is that what you’re getting at?”
 

His jaw clenched hard.
 
“Many of the answers I wanted from you I found on my own this morning.
 
What else could you give me?”
 
He was being more of a bastard than I’d ever seen him.
 
At least in regards to me.
 
Even knowing he despised me, the thought of him showing no mercy towards me just wasn’t registering.
 
And I’d thought I was far too old for naiveté.
   

I glared at him.
 
“I don’t know.
 
I can’t pretend to know you that well anymore.
 
For instance, you never used to insist on conducting personal business in front of your men.
 
Is that one of the ways you get your kicks these days?”

I could see the moment the nerve under his golden eye started to tick.
 
“Don’t flatter yourself that this is personal,” he spoke menacingly, each word threatening me to contradict him.

I swallowed, and took a deep breath.
 
His gaze stayed mercilessly on my face.
 
I just wasn’t sure how to get through to this new Dom.
 
“I’ll answer any question you ask, if we can do this in private.”

His cold gaze ran down my body insinuatingly.
 
“Answers.
 
Is that all you’re offering?”

Man, I wanted to punch him.
 
It took me a minute to stifle the urge.
 
“Aren’t answers what you want?
 
Is there something else that you’re asking for?”

He took exception to the wording.
 
“I ask for
nothing
.”
 
His voice raised only slightly, but a chill ran down my spine at his obvious rage.
 
The other druids bowed their heads low as they felt the punch of his power.

I spread my hands in defeat.
 
“Fine.
 
You want nothing.
 
This isn’t personal.
 
If you couldn’t care less about any of this, why are you here?”

His right hand shot out, gripping my neck lightly.
 
His hands were large enough, his fingers long enough, that he could span a great deal of it with just the one hand.
 
“You tread too carelessly here, Jillian,” he rasped.
 
“Don’t presume to know me after all these years.
 
You far overestimate my care for your welfare.”
 
It occurred to me suddenly what he was doing.
 
Was this all just a matter of his pride?
 
I supposed that the only way to find out was to test him.
 
Fuck his pride.
 

I pressed my neck harder into his hand.
 
“Are you rescinding your protection of me, then?
 
Am I fair game now, to all of the druids that hate me?
 
Just say the word and they’ll have me taken care of within a month.
 
A year maybe, if I run fast enough.
 
Is that what you came here to tell me?”
 
I threw my trump card at the bastard with no expression on my face.
 

He shut his eyes tightly, and I knew I’d won.
 
He turned his rage-filled eyes on the men who’d stood silently and watched our tableau.
 
“I do not rescind protection.
 
If anyone touches her, I’ll make them pay, and pay dearly.
 
Leave us!”
 
His voice built into a roar at the end.
 

When we were alone, he moved his snarling face against mine, until we were nose to nose.
 
“I met with the dragons this morning, as I can see you’ve guessed.
 
They’ve proposed to ally with us, to lend their support to our numbers.
 
They would be a formidable weapon to add to our army.
 
They had only a few, peculiar requests.
 
If those requests aren’t met, they’ve sworn to go actively rogue.”

A knot formed in my throat, despair trying to choke me.
 
“What were the requests?” I asked, though I had a good idea already.
 
My mind began to work furiously.
 
If he took me into custody, I had to find a way to warn Lynn.
 
She could still get away.

He pushed away from me, beginning to pace.
 
“Both requests are deal-breakers for them.
 
We must agree categorically, or find ourselves at odds with their wishes.
 
We adjourned the meeting long enough for me to deliberate with the council.
 
I give them my answer first thing in the morning.”

“What were the requests?” I asked again.
 

“The first is that we help them retrieve two of their own.
 
Apparently two of their daughters left the clan a long time ago.
 
One was a prisoner, the other a runaway who helped her escape.
 
Both brought grave dishonor to the dragons.
 
They have been named heretic, an apparently grave charge to the draak.
 
They are to face the justice of their people.
 
They will show no mercy.”

My body was shaking, but I was proud my voice came out steady.
 
“What was the other request?”

“The other request was not so unexpected.
 
As you know very well, the dragonslayers have long been on our rosters.
 
They have, for the most part, been abiding by our laws for centuries.
 
The draak request that they be named rogue and given into the dragon’s custody.
 
Understandably, there’s some animosity between those two enemies.”

It shed a whole new light on Dom’s interest in Christian’s involvement in our skirmish at the fair.
 
It could be named a rogue act, and help to justify the changing of alliances.
 

I was silent for awhile, eyes clenched tightly shut.
 
Me and Christian were caught.
 
But Lynn still had a chance to get cleanly away.
 
I needed to get to a phone.
 
“So that’s why you came here?
 
To take us both into custody?”
 
I tried to keep the fear out of my voice.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

The Element of Fire

He was suddenly back in my face, angrier than ever.
 
“Is that the only logical conclusion to you?”
 
His wolf eye had succumbed to the beastcall, but his blue eye was shining with emotion, and his gravelly voice was all human.
 
All pain.
 
“No, actually, that is far from the reason I came here.
 
I came here to tell you that I know what you are now, and that I didn’t have to learn this way.
 
I’m going to refuse their offer tomorrow.
 
We would never turn on our allies.
 
And we hardly make a habit of handing over innocent women to the grisly justice of any clan.
 
There was never a time that the druids would have considered accepting such a treaty.
 
Not fifty years ago.
 
Not even seven.
 
I came here because I wanted you to know that.
 
You killed anything we had when you betrayed me, and broke your oath.
 
There’s no going back from that.
 
But I wanted you to know that you-“ he swallowed hard, visibly trying to calm himself, “you were an idiot if you thought I wouldn’t have protected you.”

I laid my hand on his shoulder, but he wrenched away, pacing.
 
The relief I’d felt just a second before, when I’d realized he wasn’t here to take us, left as quickly as it had come.
 
Now I felt fresh a pain that should have been more dulled by the years.

“It wasn’t just that, Dom, and we both know it.
 
You were assumed heir to one of the Arch positions, and your people hated me.
 
The demons of my past were just one thing in a very long list of reasons why it never could have worked.
 
Your people mate with humans, or other druids.
 
I’m neither.
 
You wanted Arch.
 
You lived for it, more than anything.
 
You’ve been preparing for it since you were a child.
 
Your uncle would never have held elections while I was around.
 
And your people never would have elected you to Arch with a mysterious Other as consort.
 
And you refused to take it through combat.”
 
Who was I trying to convince? I wondered.
 
Him, or myself?
 
I didn’t like the answer, so I made my mind ignore the question.
 

“You’re a fool.
 
Don’t pretend you did what you did as a favor to me,” he said bitterly.

I swallowed hard.
 
“We’re both fools.
 
But I want you to tell me that you could have made Arch with an unknown Other on your arm.”
 
He was silent.
 
“Exactly.
 
I get it.
 
I handled the break-up badly.
 
You have every right to hate me for that.
 
But I didn’t exactly have to return a ring when I left you.”

“What the fuck does that mean?”
 
His voice was a shout.
 
He was back in my face in a flash.

“It means that you weren’t going to give up Arch, and I wasn’t going to make you.
 
So maybe we aren’t such fools, after all.”

“Bullshit.
 
That’s all bullshit.
 
The only problem we had that couldn’t be worked out was your propensity for fucking other men.”
 
I kept my expression blank, but my nails dug into my palms hard enough to draw blood.
 
“At least have the decency to take credit for a decision you made alone.”

I inclined my head towards him.
 
“I take it.
 
I always have.”

He stared at me for awhile.
 
“How was I with you for so many years and I never saw how cold you are?
 
Your element must be ice.”
 
He’d done some research.
 
Not many knew much about the dragon elements.

 
Each dragon adopted a different element.
 
It was the gnosis to our power.
 
And the focus.
 
The element colored every magic we had.
 
In my clan, fire was believed to be the most powerful element, but I had always been skeptical.
 
Every element could wield equal power in the right hands.
 
Fire simply put on the biggest show.
 

“Is that a question?” I finally asked.

He just shook his head at me.
 
“I can’t believe you’ve trusted the dragonslayer all this time.
 
But perhaps trust is the wrong word.
 
You know what he’d do if he found out what you are.
 
He couldn’t help himself.
 
An unfulfilled destiny is a powerful thing to come between friends.”

I smiled at him sadly.
 
“Indeed.
 
It’s a problem without a solution.
 
The story of my life.”

“Maybe you like your life like that.
 
I mean, how perverse do you have to be, to be a dragon, with a slayer for a best friend?”
 
He wasn’t being funny, he was being mean, but strangely, it still made me want to laugh.
 

I smiled wryly.
 
“Pretty perverse, I suppose.
 
No more perverse than the druid King who lives in the desert.”
 
He glared at me for the jab, but was silent.
 
“Are you bringing any charges against him?”

His mouth hardened.
 
“I don’t see the point.
 
He won’t learn anything, and he’s too stupid to be humbled.”
 

“Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me.”

We were silent for awhile, and I thought we were done.
 
We didn’t look at each other.
 
“The dragons won’t stop hunting you.
 
None have been born to your clan since you left.
 
I got the impression that your clan was very short on females.”

I shrugged.
 
I always assumed I was being hunted.
 
And I didn’t want to talk about The Purging.
 
“Are you having them followed?”

“Of course.
 
They wait patiently at the hotel for my answer.
 
You should wear more clothing,” he commented, changing the subject suddenly.
 
“You never used to dress like that.”

I rolled my eyes, still not looking at him.
 
“I always dressed like this to work out.
 
I didn’t come here expecting a meeting.”

“Does it work, not looking at me?”

I shrugged, still not looking.
 
“It helps some.
 
I haven’t jumped you, so that’s a good sign.”

“So much has changed, but the wanting hasn’t gone away.
 
Do you suppose it was only ever lust?” he asked.
 
Ouch, that one hurt.
 
I tried to shake it off.
 
His shot had hit it’s mark squarely, though.
 
I only wished it had been aimed to take out my libido.