shift happens 03 - no were to run (8 page)

“This is a party,” she huffed. “Half of the women here looked like they walked out of a Victorian painting. I mean I loved living in the Victorian era, but come on that was centuries ago.”

I was correct about her age.

“Well,” I said as diplomatically as I could. “Some of the gals could have checked the calendar year as a style guide.”

“Agreed.” My benefactor nodded curtly and then turned her focus on me. “It’s wonderful to see a new face. I don’t believe we’ve met. I’m Elaina. Welcome to the Resistance.”

“Thank you and, um…I’m a friend of Seth’s,” I replied with a wince of embarrassment at my lack of manners. Telling her my name could end the evening quickly. I needed Seth here for back up and to vouch for my character. Shit. Where was he?

The beautiful creature stared at me with shrewd eyes for a brief moment and then smiled. “Well,
Seth’s friend
, it’s nice to meet you. He should be along shortly. Tell me what you think of the gala.”

I let out an inaudible sigh of relief that she didn’t press for more information and didn’t call security on me. These Dragons had the same goal as I did and I didn’t want to have to kill them to save my own hide. As unsettling as it was I felt happy being amongst my own people again.

“I find it curious you’re having a party at all,” I told her truthfully. “It would seem that this would make you sitting ducks for my…for the monarchy.”

“Oh my dear,” she said kindly as she took my hands in hers. “When you don’t know if there will be a tomorrow, you must live today to the fullest. And we have outstanding protection here.”

She winked and gave me a thumbs up. I found myself grinning at her. She was a lot smarter than I had originally thought and she reminded me a bit of my mother. If the security was anything like what was in the parking lot, she was correct. No one had ever come up behind me before and lived to tell about it.

“Speaking of protection, you have a very um…overzealous guard outside,” I said carefully, not wanting to insult anyone and end up a pile of ash on the floor.

“Yes,” she laughed and nodded. “He’s quite a character that one. However, there were far more out there than just the one you met.”

“How do you know which one I met?” I asked, confused.

“Darling, you’re a beautiful woman. He wouldn’t have let any of the others near you. He’s quite territorial that way,” she confided with a smirk that seemed vaguely familiar.

Did I know her? I didn’t think so, but when you live for almost 500 years you meet a lot of Dragons. And when you’re the daughter of the most evil Dragon King alive, you meet more than your share. I couldn’t place her. Odd.

“So the over-sexed jerk in the parking lot was an anomaly?” I asked with raised brows and a smirk of my own.

Elaina’s giggle turned my smirk into a full-blown grin.

“Ohhhhh, he
is
one of a kind. I’d love to hear you call him that to his face!”

“I did call him a jackass,” I offered up hoping to hear her giggle again.

She didn’t disappoint.

“And you’re still alive. Amazing,” she said as she stared at me with open curiosity. “He doesn’t take well to backtalk, but I’m quite sure he deserved it. His manners are somewhat boorish even though his parentage is impeccable.”

“He doesn’t have any manners at all as far as I could tell,” I replied enjoying the gossip. Clearly she didn’t think too highly of Parking Lot Rambo either. “He was quite powerful though.”

“That’s an understatement, child. There is no other like him anywhere in the world.”

“Your leader, Nicolai must be happy to have the guard pig in the weyr—even as uncouth as he is,” I said with a shrug as I remembered how good the big oaf’s hands felt on me.

“An uncouth jackass and a guard pig,” Elaina repeated with delight. “I don’t believe I’ve ever heard anyone brave enough to call him that.”

“You’ve been hanging out with the wrong people,” I told her, liking her more and more.

“Perhaps you’re right! Although you should probably know…” she started, but the rest of her sentence was drowned out by loud cheering.

“Who’s here?” I shouted over the din.

“It’s Seth,” she yelled back as she pointed to the door. “Nicolai will be along in just a moment. This is protocol.”

What the hell was she talking about? Was Seth part of the government of the Resistance? He never mentioned that little fact. In my experience the first in was the Seer. Was Seth the freakin’ Seer? Oh my God, no wonder we hadn’t had sex. Seers were celibate. Had he been playing me?

Kill me now.

I’d told the guard dog that I was mated to a damn Seer. Wait…I hadn’t said Seth’s name. Thank God for that. And I’d only told Elaina I was his guest.

I had to get the hell out of here. Immediately.

Of course there was one way in and one way out. Dragons were not stupid, but apparently I was. How had I trusted Seth? He’d seemed so wonderful and kind. We wanted the same thing—to end my father’s reign of terror. I thought he was my boyfriend or at the very least, my friend.

I’d lost my edge where my people were concerned. We were not nice. We couldn’t be trusted. We were foolish if we trusted others. I was all kinds of a fool, but I wasn’t going to be a dead fool. I had a child and a limited amount of time left on this earth. I needed to accomplish my goal so my son could live in relative safety and not have to be on the run as I’d been for most of my life.

It was becoming abundantly clear to me that Seth had tricked me—lured me here to use me for leverage against my father. Little did he know, that wouldn’t work. My father wanted me dead just as much as I wanted him dead. Maybe these Dragons planned to hand me over to him in exchange for I don’t even know what.

I was so out of here. Getting killed was something I could do all by myself. I didn’t need any help in that department.

With my head down, I quickly edged my way along the wall toward the exit. Seth was moving into the room and I was certain their leader Nicolai was close behind. The excited chaos was to my advantage. I’d just get near the exit and slip out after the arrogant man in charge made his entrance.

Not my best plan, but it would have to do. Sadly my boobs were not working in my favor as every male I passed ogled them. I was going to kick Dwayne’s undead ass if I made it out of here alive.

Nicolai was clearly a dawdler because the guard pig from hell was the next in. Time was not on my side. Seth was scanning the crowd for me. Getting out was my only goal. I had a trick up my sleeve that I would only use in the most dire circumstances. It was a gift from my mother. It hadn’t saved her life, but it might save mine.

As Seth’s eyes landed on me a huge gentle smile pulled at his lips. My God, his acting skills were impeccable. If I wasn’t onto his plan for my demise, I’d think he was genuinely happy to see me. Note to self…have the words
gullible idiot
tattooed to my forehead. Never again would I trust a male Dragon. They were all bad.

Screw Nicolai, I didn’t have the luxury of his entrance as a distraction to aid in my escape. Getting past Rambo presented a challenge, but as long as he wasn’t behind me I could take him if I had to.

The midnight oil was burning and I only had seconds before Seth reached me. No time like the present to make the party more exciting.

“Move it, you uncouth, jackass guard pig,” I hissed as I shoved hard at the enormous sexy Dragon and tried to get away.

The expression of shock on his face would have made me laugh if I didn’t have to run like hell. Clearly no one had ever spoken to him as I’d just done. Asshole Dragons like him needed to be taken down a peg or two. It would be very satisfying to continue but I had death coming toward me at a rapid rate and no time to have fun.

Wait. What was happening?

The cheering had stopped abruptly and I could feel every eye in the room glued to me. The silence was deafening. This was not part of my escape plan. This was a clusterfuck. Who exactly had I just insulted?

A sick feeling rolled through my gut. I was pretty sure Rambo
wasn’t
just a guard.

A stupidly sexy, evil smile lit his face and his attention was focused solely on me. For the briefest moment I wished that his smile was real and that he was truly happy to see me in the way a lover would be. His lust was unmistakable. Unfortunately mine was as well. Dragons had a distinct scent when aroused—a clean scent that could be best described as the ocean after a storm. Part of me wanted to run him over and get the hell out of Dodge and the other part wanted to run to him and wrap his strong arms around me.

However, there was my life to think about.

“Dima, my dear, I see you’ve met Nicolai,” Seth said warmly as he took in the standoff in the entryway with interest.

“
This
is Dima?” Nicolai demanded as the smile left his face and his eyes narrowed to slits.

“Yes,” Seth said as he stepped between me and his leader. “We spoke about this. You knew I was bringing her.”

“The guard dog is Nicolai?” I asked with unhappy shock.

“Well, I suppose you could call him that,” Seth said as he tried unsuccessfully to hide his grin.

“Seth is who you were meeting here?” Nicolai snapped as he pushed Seth aside and pinned me against the wall. “Our Seer is your
mate
?” he sneered in a whisper.

“Get off of me,” I growled as I fought my death-wish of a need to press closer to him.

“Nicolai,” Elaina admonished as she grabbed the deadly Dragon leader by the ear and pulled him back. “That is no way to treat a guest of your brother.”

Nicolai and Seth were brothers?

“Mother,” Nicolai snapped. “Leave this to me. There is much you don’t understand
here.”

Oh. Hell. No. Elaina was their mother? I’d told her that her son was an uncouth jackass, guard pig. Was the sky going to fall next?

“I
understand
that your behavior is appalling,” she hissed as she once again yanked him by the ear, throwing him off balance. “This will stop now.”

“I was just leaving,” I said stiffly and edged closer to the door.

All of the Dragons in the room were riveted to the scene. Tendrils of smoky aggression wafted around the room menacingly. My chances of survival were getting slimmer by the second.

“You’re not going anywhere,
Princess
,” Nicolai growled as his took my arm in a vise-like grip.

The hisses started low but gained volume as the crowd correctly pieced my identity together.

“Nicolai, unhand her now,” Seth said in an authoritative voice I hadn’t heard before. “This is the way it’s destined to be. I’ve seen it. We can’t succeed without Dima.”

Ripping my arm away from a surprised Nicolai, I turned on Seth. “You,” I hissed. “You are a liar and you betrayed me.”

“Dima, you don’t understand,” Seth said gently as he approached.

“No, I understand too well,” I ground out through clenched teeth as I realized the bastard Nicolai was blocking the doorway along with about ten other mean looking Dragons. “You’re scum and I’m stupid. Good luck with your fight. I will have no part of this.”

Seth continued to move closer along with his mother, Elaina. Gasps of outrage filled the room and several small fires broke out. God, I was a fool. Dragons were bad, myself included, but I was trying to make so many wrongs right. Letting these people stop me by using me as a pawn was not an option.

“Dima, calm down and let me explain,” Seth pled.

He looked hurt by my accusations and a humorless laugh left my lips.

“You’re really good,” I said flatly. “And you’re an arrogant ass from hell,” I tossed over my shoulder to Nicolai. “But I’m better. I’d say see you later, but if I ever see any of you again, I’ll kill you.”

With that fabulously threatening last line I used my gift—the one I should have kept secret from all Dragons. Although when life or death was on the line, secrets meant absolutely nothing.

I waved my hands and in a fiery blast of shimmering golden smoke and fire, I disappeared. I knew they’d come after me, but they’d have to put out the massive explosive fire I’d created first. I had about an hour head start. I’d worked with less and succeeded.

I could work with this.

I had no choice.

I didn’t need these Dragons to destroy my father. I’d been on my own for years. Keeping it that way was going to be the wisest move I could make.

My father was mine alone and I would succeed.

I had to.

Chapter 6

“Where’s Daniel,” I shouted frantically. “I have to get him out of here.
Now
.”

In a blast of fiery smoke, I arrived back at Essie’s house in a panic. Essie, Hank, Dwayne and Granny flew into the living room coughing due to the thick smoke my arrival created. With wide eyes and shocked expressions they stared at me as if I was an alien.

“Sweet Baby Jane without mascara, did you just poof here from Chicago?” Dwayne asked as he swiped at the air to tamp down the glittery golden smoke.

“Yes,” I said tersely. “Seth’s a liar. They want to kill me and I don’t have much time to get Daniel out of here and find a safe place to hide.”