Charred Tears (#2, Heart of Fire) (15 page)

“Eat up, Sky. We gotta go driving after this,” Mason told her with a smile.

She grinned.

Dillon’s gaze swept over her, before he turned to speak to Mason quietly.

“She’s sixteen. Time to make things permanent,” he said.

Skylar pretended not to hear, eating her cake quickly. She wasn’t certain what he meant by permanent. She’d been here her whole life, since she was orphaned soon after her birth.

“It can wait a day,” Mason replied. The troubled note in his voice distracted her.

She glanced at him.

He was watching her, no longer smiling.

Skylar hesitated, the back of her neck itching the way it did around him sometimes.

“No, it can’t. No delays, or the process won’t be permanent. Besides, our mistress wouldn’t approve of any delay,” Dillon said crisply. He faced her, and she looked down quickly. “Happy birthday, Sky,” he said with a brief smile. “After this, report to the shrink for your annual session.”

“Okay, Dillon,” she murmured.

Satisfied, he left.

She looked at Mason quizzically. “What’s wrong? What does permanent mean?” she asked him the questions she wasn’t going to ask Dillon. While handsome, Dillon was also the son of the most revered of the slayers, someone Skylar feared upsetting, if he found out from Dillon she was asking about things she wasn’t supposed to.

“Don’t worry about it. You can go in tomorrow to see the shrink. Today is your day,” Mason said with a glance over his shoulder. “Let’s sneak out and go driving.”

Skylar didn’t need a second invitation. She shoveled as much cake as would fit on a plate and bounced to her feet, following Mason through the corridors of The Field to the motor pool.

Skylar awoke the next morning to the sound of someone splashing around in the pool. Her dream faded again, and she once again was only able to recall Mason. This time, she’d been content in her memory, not scared like the first one he’d been in.

Despite the rough day before and vivid dreaming, she was surprisingly refreshed, if achy and sore. The soft snoring of Chace made her frown. She’d been tired enough to lower her guard with him last night, leaving her confused as to whether she should be angry at herself or at him.

His body was molded to hers beneath a blanket, his strong arms wrapped tightly around her and his breath tickling the tiny hairs on her neck. His body heat kept the morning breeze from chilling her. The hard, thick frame at her back made her want to stay in their cozy little cocoon as long as possible, protected and comfortable.

I can’t forget what happened.
No matter how much she loved their bodies being together, she wasn’t able to forgive him yet for what he’d done.

She grudgingly and gently worked her body free from his. Almost instantly, the chill of morning crept around her. Crawling to the edge of the bed, she paused. Chace remained on his side, his features relaxed in sleep. The lines beneath his eyes were gone. The sight of his lean, muscular frame teased her, beckoned her back to his strength and heat. She could see herself wriggling beneath the crossed arms until he pulled her against him and the two of them falling back into happy sleep for hours.

The idea of leaving him made a pang of longing hurt more than it should.

Skylar shook her head but wasn’t able to purge her senses of his scent. He was in her skin and hair once more, a taunting reminder of the man she didn’t know what to think of. Her body and heart were his but her mind …

I know better than to trust him.

Doing her best to remain resolved, she pulled on her boots and stooped to pick up the figurines on the floor when she froze.

Her body was sore but not hurt, as if …

Skylar straightened and yanked up the sleeve of her shirt to see the shoulder that had been swollen and painful when she went to sleep.

Nothing but scars remained. She checked the back of her head, expecting the knot Gunner said was there. It, too, was gone.

She turned to stare a Chace’s slumbering form anew. He’d rolled onto his stomach in his sleep, his arms stretched over his head. Her gaze went to the rounded shape of the firm ass she’d dug her nails into on more than one occasion.

She checked her shoulder again.

“I’m not dead,” she murmured, perplexed. “Which means he healed me.”

Mason was right about shifters being inconsistent.

Exasperated before she’d even had breakfast, Skylar snatched up all the figurines, placed them into Mason’s gym bag and marched out of the room. Her hands were shaking. This time, it was emotion, not exertion.

The farther she got from Chace, the harder her intuition pushed her to go back.

She ordered her instincts to be silent and went to the lobby, not certain if Gunner was still waiting for her father. Neither was present, and she pulled out her cell to see a message waiting for her.

Breakfast.
Gavin had texted not twenty minutes before.

Skylar crossed to the small restaurant off the lobby and paused in the doorway, looking around. Her gaze settled on the solitary figure of her father near a window. Before the hostess was able to intercept her, she struck off in his direction. Uncertain how her dragon of a father was going to react, she slowed.

“Hey,” she said, reaching the table.

He glanced up at her, cold eyes giving no indication of what he was thinking.

“Can I join you?” she asked.

He motioned to one of the three vacant chairs at his table. He’d already started eating an omelet and sat back, watching her with his usual lack of warmth and emotion.

“So …” she started awkwardly. “Glad to see you made it.”
Maybe.

“Where is he?” Gavin asked.

“Why is that any of your business?” she asked, immediately guarded. “You two have a horrible history, but I mean, come on. Stop being moody dragons for one minute! You both need to understand I can make my own choices and if I’m going to be a protector, I need to be able to focus without you bickering.”

“I meant Gunner.”

“Oh.” Her face flashed hot. “Not sure. We all had a long night.” She touched her shoulder absently.

“Chace told you that you’re the Protector.”

Skylar met his gaze. He didn’t sound pleased about it.

“You are one of three people keeping secrets from me,” she snapped. “Fess up, Dad. Tell me why you didn’t want me to do what I’m supposed to or about Chace being my shitty-but-legitimate guardian.”

“I wanted to protect you,” he replied without hesitation. “I wanted to ensure what happened to your mother didn’t happen to you.”

“We don’t know what happened!”

He was quiet.

Skylar wanted to be angry at him for giving up on her mother the way she wanted to be angry with Chace. Recalling the last letter her mother had written Gavin, she struggled to hang onto her emotion. She, too, thought the chances of her mother being alive were slim, if Caleb was involved.

“You dragons are so hard to read,” she said with a sigh. “I don’t need protecting anymore.”

“Because you have Chace.” The note of disapproval was clear.

“No, because I have a good head on my shoulders. I don’t need a dragon guard dog.”

“You do. If you think you can protect thousands of shifters alone, then you aren’t thinking at all,” he replied.

“I don’t trust any of you,” she pointed out. “Is there anything else you’re hiding? Anything else I need to know about who or what I am?”

He said nothing.

“Or maybe why Caleb and Dillon are doing this?” she prodded.

Gavin released a deep breath and shifted forward in his seat. She waited, sensing he was about to reveal something she needed to know.

“A few thousand years ago, there was a division within the shifters. It was fueled by differences in opinion about how we should behave within the human community and a natural division about who should be in charge. Dragons are very rare, and it was thought for a while that there would be no Protector born. Three thousand years passed. I had many protectors – female companions – but none of them had the blood of the Protector, the woman meant to protect the shifters,” he said slowly. “I believe that a movement to wrest control from the dragons was reaching its peak when I found your mother. Five thousand years of waiting, and I stumble upon her accidentally at a mall.”

“You think they figured out their plan was going bust and then started chasing Mom?” she asked, intrigued by the insight into her father’s secretive life.

“Yes. The lassos Caleb has used to belong to the dragons. It was how we kept internal order, by putting our kind into a deep sleep as a form of punishment. It was an alternative to killing,” he said, shrugging. “Not my idea. But a tradition I maintained. The lassos went missing soon after I met your mother.”

“Caleb … or Dillon … whoever is behind this … started using them to take down the shifters.”

“Kidnapping and brainwashing the children of shifters to use them to track down the shifters themselves in a power grab.”

“I don’t know,” she murmured. “Sometimes, this seems really … personal. Like they had me for six years. If you were the problem, or Chace was, why not use me sooner to hunt you guys down?”

“It might be personal,” Gavin said. “Griffins are as rare as dragons and used to be the natural enemy of dragons. His father is likely like you, someone with the blood but not a full shifter. I’ve made some enemies over the years. When you’re the biggest and baddest of the shifters, you tend not to care.”

“Until they track down your wife and daughter,” she pointed out.

He said nothing but sipped from his water glass.

“What about Mason?” she asked, throat tight.

“I don’t know him.”

She almost sighed.

“Maybe I should say, I don’t know that name,” he clarified. “Dillon and Caleb have had many names over the years. I made an effort to track them. If Mason had another name, I might know it.”

She groaned. “Okay. Then how did Mom use the shifter magic to protect them.”

“Fairly simple. Whatever shifter you is nearest to you, you can tap into their magic. Use it to control them.”

Skylar leaned over, remembering the bag she’d brought with her. She pulled one of the figurines free.

“I can also bring them back to life,” she said, setting it on the table.

“Yes,” he agreed softly. “You can undo what I did with the lasso. The Protector safeguards. Her dragon enforces the rules or punishes those who endanger the shifter community.” He lifted up the figurine. “Our community is not a close knit one, but there are rules and an order that must be maintained.”

Her tattoo burned. Skylar cursed quietly, uncertain if her father’s cooperation was about to take a dive once he knew Chace was there. She sought him out and saw him in the doorway of the restaurant.

He was watching her, muscular frame tensing when his blue gaze went to Gavin. He waved away the hostess and took a seat just outside the restaurant, stretching out his lean legs and folding them at the ankle.

“Can I trade my dragon for a new one?” she asked, irritated by the reaction her body had to him.

“No.”

“Did you and Mom have a rough start?”

“No.”

Skylar clenched her mouth closed.

Gavin smiled. “It wasn’t easy,” he added. “But I had the benefit of knowing my history and what I had when I found it. Chace has no appreciation for anything outside his ego.”

“You two aren’t that different,” she replied. “Both of you think your opinion is the only one that matters.”

“When you’ve been a ruler for five thousand years, you get used to people obeying,” he said.

“In all my memories, I don’t recall you being there,” she said, troubled. “Why were you always gone?”

“I wasn’t always gone,” he replied softly. “Sometimes I had to watch over you from a distance. Shifters can track their king, which meant Dillon always knew how to find me. If I wasn’t too close to you, you had a better chance at surviving to an age where your power manifested like it has.”

If I have a daughter …
 she almost asked what happened but stopped herself. There was too much between now and that future.

“Why didn’t you just take him out?” she asked.

“We were on the run the entirety of your young life,” he explained. “I could only use my dragon senses at night, and he knew that. I wasn’t about to risk your mother’s life by sending her after him during the daylight.”

“You were scared.”

“Terrified. To live five thousand years alone in contentment and have your life usurped by the beautiful blue eyes of the woman you didn’t know you’d been waiting for …” he drifted off, rare warmth crossing his features. “Dangers I’d ignored because they couldn’t get to me now had their chance to take everything from me. The first few years were difficult. I learned a lot about the kind of ruler I should’ve been.”

“Like Chace.”

“Like Chace. When we identified him for what he was, Freyja, one of the oldest dragons at the time, tried to talk some sense into him. It didn’t work. She then betrayed me and the rest of dragonkind to side with the griffins. I put her to sleep for it.” Gavin’s voice hardened. “I saw firsthand what kind of dragon he his – trading you to me without caring what happened.”

“He’s trying to be a better person,” she said automatically before rushing on. “Not that I disagree with you. But you must’ve said or done something to him when you stripped his magic. He’s different.”

“He’s lucky he’s not dead,” Gavin said acidly.

“You sent Gunner to help him?”

“I checked up on him every night. He didn’t have the skill to fix himself without his power. Yes, I sent Gunner to help him.”

“Because you know deep down that I need him.”

Gavin’s jaw clenched, ticking visibly. His blue eyes were frigid.

“Not judging,” she said. “But I mean, you know he’s strong enough to protect the shifters.”

“Strong enough, yes. But too selfish.”