Caged Warrior (12 page)

“I won’t do it.”

He’d never heard a statement spoken with so little conviction.

Leto was exhausted from the challenge of moving so slowly. He needed to shake out
of this trap. Standing from the bench, he grabbed Nynn’s forearm and hauled her to
her feet.

She tripped once as he dragged her to the Cage, but soon she strode beside him. Up
they climbed. In they went. With the door locked behind them.

The deactivation of her collar made Nynn cry out. She slumped to all fours. That same
rush surged over Leto as if swept over by a wave of pure energy. The lingering taste
of Nynn’s kiss turned violent as he savored every little detail.

That was his gift. Every time the collar held him in check, he missed his gift as
he would an absent limb.

Nynn’s gift was a ghost hiding somewhere in her mind.

“If you had no powers, you wouldn’t drop to your knees,” he said. “You wouldn’t have
cried out if you didn’t feel it. Humans can walk into a Cage and feel nothing.” He
stared down at her as she crawled to her feet, with eyes like the blue center of a
flame. “I hope you enjoyed your seduction, neophyte. Break’s over.”

T
he release of the collar’s damping hold shot power to the deepest recesses of Nynn’s
body and mind. Energy coursed through every cell—energy she needed. That vitality
was even more potent now, after the adrenaline rush of Leto’s persuasion. He was right.
A human wouldn’t have noticed that empowering shift. The woman named Nynn was exhilarated
and freed.

No.
She caught herself.
I’m Audrey. I’ve been Audrey since high school.

Did it matter?

He had kissed her, she had let him, and something chilling was pressing in from the
back of her mind.

She was losing herself.

Even in the labs, she had rarely felt as helpless as when Leto had traced his lips
across hers. The intensity of his attention had been . . . enticing. Unsettling. Full
of potential.

Wrong
.

The gold-flecked mask of his eyes and the exploring touch of his tongue had been terrible
enough. Terrible, because she’d responded. Not by running or shouting. She’d been
too shocked for that. She’d responded by
relishing each honey-slow caress. Just his mouth and her mouth and what sick spell
they’d brought to life. Her body was keyed up and aching in ways she’d never known.
The call and response of ancient needs.

Needs she’d thought dead and buried with Caleb.

The depth of her betrayal was staggering. Her heart stuttered, and the taste of ash
settled at the back of her mouth. For that alone she needed to stay clear of Leto.

As if that were an option.

She couldn’t shake free of those moments when his exhales had tangled with her inhales.
She’d shivered through the entire encounter—not from fear, but from an elemental exchange.
His curiosity about her. Her unconscious response to that curiosity. She’d practically
stopped her own heart. Wondering. Searching. What did he see when he looked at her?

Now she was nauseated to realize how easily she’d responded.

Her limbs buzzed all the way to the tips of her fingers and toes. Not fear. Not hatred.
Dragon be, not even simple lust. For those moments when he’d stroked her jaw and her
cheek, she’d wanted comfort. From a beast. She’d only found real comfort when in the
company of her cousin, Mal, and in the arms of her late husband. Any reaction—
anything
—to Leto’s enticements was like personally shooting Caleb in the heart.

That was where the torture had started. She had wanted to fight back. She was a Dragon
King. She should’ve been able to do
something
. Her gift had failed her, as it always had.

Another darkness slunk forward. Distant fear. Grief
she couldn’t identify. A terrible thing sat at the edge of her vision, like being
stalked by a wraith.

Muscles coiling, blood surging, she faced her tormentor—the brainwashed brute who’d
just kissed her.

“Use logic, Nynn. You know I’m right. You have greater potential than you’ve yet tapped.”

“What would an animal like you know about logic?”

With a casualness that mocked the situation, he glanced around the Cage wires. “Animal?
Seems we’re both locked up.”

“But you’re so subservient that you stay locked up by choice.” She couldn’t stop moving
now. Spinning. Her head was a tornado. She couldn’t keep still.
Didn’t want to
keep still. “How can you sit down here in the dark? You’re a circus freak, not a
man. I knew a good man and I loved him and he’s dead—murdered—by the cartel family
you serve without thought. I look at you and I want to throw up.”

He didn’t react. He didn’t even taunt her with the kiss she’d just accepted. “Who
did you lose?”

“My husband!”

“No. Farther back. There’s a hole where something happened. Where someone should be.”

“No one!”

“Think about it. I didn’t hit you. I didn’t threaten you. I only asked who you’d lost.
Now look at you. Look around you.”

As if of its own accord, a ball of light appeared before her. It grew and grew until
it was half her height and twice her width. Explosions sparked at its heart. She was
mesmerized by what she had wrought.

Beautiful. Fascinating. Destructive.

“Let it go,” Leto called. “Release, Nynn.”

Her impulse to hold on to the magic was strong. She only wanted to look at it a while
longer. Otherwise she wouldn’t believe it. She couldn’t even trust that she’d remember
it. The bursts of color and hot violence were like vicious fairies in pitched battle.
She could watch it forever. Let it grow. See if she could crack a crater in the earth
with one blow.

In the back of her mind, where the woman once known as Audrey MacLaren still thought
and assessed, she saw the truth in an instant. Such a release would kill her.

She closed her eyes. Arched her back. Spread her arms.

The ball that shivered out from deep within—it was part of her. She had to let it
go.

It
burst
.

A wave of heat and electricity shot around the Cage in whirling circles. That power
hit her back in the face. The ricochet effect knocked the air from her lungs and threw
her back in a lopsided stagger. She landed hard on her ass. The back of her head connected
with one of the Cage’s metal posts.

“Aw, fuck,” she muttered. Blood seeped from the base of her skull. Leto strode toward
her and knelt. She touched a strip of that leather woven through his armor—leather
singed black. “How?”

“Less damage? I was ready this time. Flat on my back, or it would’ve been shredded
to pieces.” He grabbed her upper arms and gave her a hard shake. “Tell me you remember
that. Nynn, you stubborn little shit. Tell me.”

“I’m not stubborn. I did what you wanted.” She wiped the blood on her pants. No number
of blinks cleared the image of what she’d just done.

Dragon be. I have a gift.

She had expected Leto to remain as still as statuary, yet his features spoke of surprise—and
something close to approval. “You did. We can move forward now.”

She shook her head, which added dizziness to her pain. Or maybe that was another aftereffect
of her gift. He was right. Audrey MacLaren was not a Dragon King. Yet
Nynn
was. This demonstration, the unnatural way she took so quickly to Leto’s training,
maybe even how she’d responded to his physical allure—all proof.

But to let go of Audrey? That would mean turning her back on the life she’d shared
with Caleb. She would not be the same mother Jack loved. Perhaps that might be for
the best. For his safety, he needed her to become a warrior like Leto. Only later
could she offer comfort and the pure affection she longed to give. Warrior and mother
were interlinked.

A year in the Cages.

She didn’t want to become such a monster.

“The next step is for you to control it,” he said plainly.

“That I managed to do it at all is as good as it gets.” She pushed to her feet. Her
balance was unnaturally steady. “How are we going to fight with that bomb ready to
mow us both down?”

“Energy can be controlled. If you want to learn how.”

“You act like I’m doing this on purpose!”

“I thought that. Not anymore.”

This talk was more than just talk. He was prodding a place as tender as a wound that
had never healed.

“Dragon damn,” she whispered. “I
hate
you.”

If he shrugged in reply, she was going to smack him until her hands bled and he wrung
her neck. Instead, he stood and walked toward the center of the Cage. Big man. Big,
confident steps. Eyes the color of his singed leather armor were sharp, but his arrogance
had dimmed. Why? Perhaps less need to posture? Or the inherent faith in what it was
to be a true, unencumbered Dragon King?

Maybe she didn’t hate him. The word didn’t take into account how he made her terrified
of her own impulses. She wore the same skin, but beneath it were new urges. She was
struck by how the energy of their gifts reminded her of sexual potency. He looked
stronger, bigger, and more intimidating, and her body responded—no matter that he
still bought into a system so corrupt that no decent person could possibly defend
it.

They squared off. Audrey was furious at him and the Asters and herself. Leto was as
calm as she’d ever seen him.

“Let me tell you five words.” His voice was low. Hypnotic again. “See if it jars your
memory.”

“Do it.”

He paused for three heartbeats. “A box in a corner.”

Cold covered her skin. Flashes. Old memories. From inside out, her body convulsed.

“Follow it, Nynn. Talk.”

“Can’t.”

“I can’t read your mind like some Indranan witch.
Talk.
”

“Some gifts are too dangerous.” Her voice sounded different. “No. Those weren’t my
words.”

“It’s what they told my parents about my sister Pell. Now she’ll be in a coma for
the rest of her life. What there is of it.” He crossed his arms, appearing defensive.
“Did they beat you? When they forced their way into your mind?”

“I don’t remember.” Audrey shook her head. “Did they beat you?”

“Yes.”

No wonder he looked so wary. She couldn’t imagine anyone or anything strong enough
to cow Leto of Garnis.

Bitter acid had collected at the back of her tongue. Flickers returned. Whispers and
secrets and fear as painful as needles piercing her eyelids. Entire years were missing.

Leto reached out to touch her clenched hand. A zap tingled between his skin and hers.
Their gazes caught. “They took it from you, Nynn. There are steps to reverse the process.
You know that.”

“And let some Heartless witch in my head? If that’s what’s happened, I’m sure as hell
not letting it happen again. There has to be a better way. More training.”

“We’re almost out of time.” His anger, and all of his emotions, were becoming easier
to read. Was that Nynn’s doing, or was she affecting his personality as much as he
was altering hers?

“Then I want to make the most of that time. That means sleep. Will you let me, or
will this argument go on all night?”

He caught her chin and looked at the back of her skull. “You’re still bleeding.”

“And that’ll be healed by morning. Don’t tell me you haven’t realized I’m changing.”

“For the better.”

Audrey pulled free of his taut fingers. “Are we done?”

“Fine. Limit met. Loud and clear.” From beneath his armor he pulled a fist-sized packet
wrapped in white butcher paper. “Here. One of the guards wanted you to have this.”

The scent of mint hit her with an old memory. Jack with a candy cane stuck in his
hair. His third Christmas, when anything Tonka yellow made her little boy squeal with
a child’s enthusiasm.

“Why?”

He lifted his brows. “To buy your attention with trinkets. Would you take one of them
as your lover to secure gifts and privileges? Or would you fight to earn them honorably,
as I have? I pass them on to you as a reminder. Trust anyone here but me and you’re
a fool. I’ve always been clear about my motives. These humans would trade Dragon knows
what for trinkets and pornography. You’re above them.”

She took the package from him.
You need to make a choice.
That meant knowing what, exactly, she was choosing.

“Were you given the chance to hold your niece?”

He flinched. “Sometimes you make no sense.”

“Answer me, please. Sir.”

A long exhale. Was he merely frustrated with her? Tired? Or did he feel the same buzzing
aftereffects of their kiss? The fizzing snap in her blood—part Leto, part aftershocks
of her explosive gift—was tantamount to infidelity. Caleb was dead, while she’d been
turned on in the midst of a sick power game. Leto’s mouth. His
hard restrained strength. His beautifully masculine body and oddly innocent reserve.

“Did you?” she asked more sharply.