The P.J. Stone Gates Trilogy (#1-3) (32 page)

Bryn grunted his disapproval. “I don’t trust him.”

“You have no reason not to. He’s never lied, and he’s been totally upfront about himself and his motivations since I first met him. Besides, if he wanted to keep me from bonding with you, he could have.” Bryn didn’t say anything in response but instead chose to glare at me. I, in turn, chose to glare right back at him for being utterly ridiculous. “Well, I’m going to talk to him whether you like it or not.”

“I’m not going to let you talk to him alone.”

“Fine. Whatever.” I wasn’t about to have this argument with Bryn right now. He had nothing to worry about with Khol. Bryn and I were bonded, and Khol had saved my life; what was the big deal? Okay, so maybe the fact that I’d slept with Khol was kind of a big deal, especially because it sort of wasn’t my choice, not rape exactly, but not one hundred percent my call either, but with everything that happened after . . . Well, I was willing to try and forget about it at least. But it wasn’t like it would hurt to have Bryn present for the conversation. Besides, the thought of being separated from him for even a couple minutes at the moment seemed like torture. “Khol,” I called. “Hey, Khol, we need to talk to you, please.” Being polite never hurt anyone.

Instead of Khol, Drake appeared. “Yes, what can I do for you?” he asked with an undertone of sarcasm. Boy, he really didn’t like me. So why hadn’t Khol come?

“Where’s Khol? I need to talk to him. No offense,” I added, trying to be nice, not that I cared all that much. I knew there was little hope of changing Drake’s opinion of me now.

“He is . . . indisposed at the moment. Unless it’s an emergency—”

“No, no emergency. I was just hoping to talk to him about some stuff. When’s he going to be un-indisposed?” I asked.

Drake smiled at me condescendingly. “It could be some time. He is currently occupied with a guest—of the female persuasion.”

“Oh.” My cheeks heated. “But I thought—well, I thought . . .” I knew our bond was broken, but I thought it might take Khol more than five minutes to get over being in love with me.
Hello
. . .
blow to the ego.

“Oh, yes, that.” Drake met my eyes knowingly. “He will love you and desire you until the end of time, but he knows you are out of his reach now. So he will try to forget you the best way he can. Pointless, really, but he has little choice.”

“I don’t understand.” Or maybe I didn’t want to.

“Oh, come on, Peej, he’s trying to forget you by burying himself in some other female dragon,” Bryn said with disgust.

I shook my head in dismay. “Yeah, okay, but won’t he bond with her then? And if he bonds with her—nevermind, I don’t wanna know anymore.” I obviously didn’t understand the dragon mating process as much as I had thought.

Drake’s eyes lit up as he looked at me with unmasked hostility. “But maybe you should know. Maybe you should know what he sacrificed for your . . . happiness.” He raked his disapproving gaze over Bryn before meeting my eyes again. “He’ll never be able to bond, never be able to love another, and he’ll never father a child. He’ll be able to desire other women, have intimate relations with them, but it won’t be the same. It’ll be sex, and sex only, for the rest of his very long life. Yes, the
Anam Cara
bond is broken, but a male dragon loves forever. If only he hadn’t fallen in love with you, and merely wished to claim you for your power, then he would have lost nothing. Or if you would have stayed dead. But we all know that isn’t the case.” My heart clenched in my chest as I thought about what it would really mean for Khol, but what could I do? Both Khol and Bryn would have been completely free if my suicide attempt had been successful. I thought that since my attempt had broken the
Anam Cara
bond, it had broken everything else. Apparently I had been wrong.

Bryn growled beside me. “It’s not her fault Khol fell in love with someone that didn’t belong to him. She’s been mine since way before he came into the picture.”

Drake growled back, his body tensing as he stared down Bryn. “You don’t deserve her. You are no match for my Lord. It shouldn’t matter that she is part human. He won her fair and square by the way of the dragon, and he should not have let you have her.”

“Hey!” I said as my blood began to boil with anger. “Stop talking about me like I’m some property to be claimed or inherited and fought over. I chose Bryn. Besides, you don’t even like me. I would think you’d be ecstatic that Khol didn’t get stuck with me.”

“It makes no difference if I care for you or not, only that my Lord does. I would have served you regardless. What you did—we would have all been better off if he hadn’t saved you.”

“Don’t talk to her that way,” Bryn said through clenched teeth.

Drake smirked at Bryn. “Or what? What are you going to do about it, little dragon? You’re too young and too weak to play this game with me.”

Bryn growled low in his throat, eyes blazing bright, as he stalked towards Drake, who didn’t seem alarmed in the least. “I’ll make you regret that you said that.”

I clutched at Bryn, but he shirked me off as if I were nothing. “Bryn, please.”

“You should listen to your little
Anam Cara
. Maybe she’s not as stupid as she seems,” Drake said scornfully while still wearing his smirk.

“Hey,” I exclaimed, “I’m not stupid.”

“Then you would have stayed bonded with my Lord,” Drake spat, “and not have chosen this baby dragon.”

A red haze seemed to drop down over my vision, and a growl erupted from my chest. How dare he insult Bryn again and again. He had no right. I charged at Drake, my hands stretched out towards him instinctually, and then before I had a chance to really process what was going on, Drake was engulfed in flames—flames that were coming from my palms. I stopped and stared as Drake dropped to his knees screaming out in pain, and yet I had no control over what was happening with my body, the flames kept on coming.

“No,” I heard Khol say as he stepped in front of the flames drawing the fire into his own palms. “Control your
Anam Cara
,” Khol snarled at Bryn.

“I don’t know what to do,” Bryn snapped with alarm. “Tell me what to do.”

“There’s no time for that.” Khol stepped forward, absorbing my flames into him as he moved closer and closer until finally he reached out and interlocked his hands with mine. It felt like he was drawing out my power, sucking it away, and I suddenly dropped to my knees, weak and dizzy. My eyes fluttered shut, and someone caught me before I hit the ground.

“What did you do to her?” I heard Bryn demand. “Give her to me.”

“I did what needed to be done to save Drake. She could have killed him,” Khol snarled. “Follow me inside. I’ll restore what I took, but not here.”

“Wait,” I heard Bryn say before I sensed we were inside. Khol must have just shifted us there.

“I don’t feel good,” I mumbled into Khol’s chest. “What did you do to me?”

“I’m sorry, my little Seer, so sorry I had to do that to you, but you’ll feel better soon, I promise.” Khol’s voice had lost all its harshness as he whispered tenderly to me.

“That’s her, isn’t it? I can tell by the way you’re looking at her. What is she doing here?” A female voice I didn’t recognize demanded with scorn.

“Leave. I don’t want you here anymore,” Khol responded, cold as ice.

“But—but—I at least thought—”

“You thought what? You’re dragon, you should know better. Now leave before I throw you out.”

Even though I was physically weak, my mind was still reeling. Was the woman that Khol was currently speaking to the one that he’d been
occupied
with? I was almost one hundred percent sure from how they were talking that she was, and he was just going to kick her out like that?
Wow, what an asshole
.

“I’ll remember this,
my Lord,”
the woman hissed.

“See that you do, so next time you’ll remember your place.”

“She’s not even full-blooded, and she’s a child. How could you want her over me? In fact, how could you want her at all?” The women’s voice suddenly took on the tone of a petulant child.

“The heart wants what the heart wants,” Khol muttered. “Now get out. I don’t owe you any explanations, Shannon.”

“You’re an asshole,” I managed to say in a normal tone, my eyelids still too heavy to lift. “You can’t just use someone and throw them away like that.” I felt outraged for Shannon. Women need to stick together instead of fighting like they usually do.

She laughed darkly. “Maybe I do like her after all, even if she is a nai¨ve child.”

“I’m not either of those things,” I grunted with annoyance as another wave of dizziness slammed into me. “I just don’t feel good.”

“Well, I’m leaving,” Shannon said just before the door slammed. Couldn’t she shift, or was she just being dramatic? I’d probably never know.

Khol lay me down on the bed, which despite my current physical condition, got an instant reaction out of me. My eyes fluttered open even though I couldn’t quite focus as I clutched at him. “Ew! No! Don’t put me down on used sex sheets! Someone else’s used sex sheets!” I’d have to burn my skin off. Good thing I could now probably do that.

Khol pushed me back down easily because I was about as strong as a newborn baby. “We didn’t have sex in the bed, so don’t concern yourself.”

“Oh.” I let myself settle back down.

“Now, let me give you back what I took before Bryn comes storming in here.”

“Why didn’t you just—” My words were cut off as Khol’s lips pressed to mine as he exhaled into my mouth. His breath was warm and sweet with a tang of power that swam onto my tongue and down my throat, wrapping itself around my core. My eyes snapped open with the sudden energy boost, and I sat straight up in bed as Khol broke contact with me. I met his heated gaze with wonder. “Wow. What did you just do?”

“I gave you back the energy I took from you. You would have eventually regenerated it yourself, but it could have taken days.” He stood and backed away from me, flicking his gaze to the side. “I’m not an asshole.”

“What?” Was he going to try and defend himself now?

“Shannon is dragon, and she knows what my situation means. She chose to be with me under no false pretenses.”

“Really? That still doesn’t mean you had to be so callus towards her. You were just plain mean.” I grimaced as Khol slumped into himself at my words. For some reason I felt sorry for him.

The bedroom door suddenly flew open and a wild-eyed Bryn hurried through its frame. “Peej!” he exclaimed. I rose as quickly as I could and ran into his open arms. “You’re fine now?” He murmured into my hair as his grip tightened around my waist.

“Yes,” Khol answered for me. “I returned to her the energy I stole.” He began pacing. “This is why young dragons such as yourself don’t usually find themselves with
Anam Caras
. It’s your job to keep her under control. If I hadn’t shown up when I did, Drake would be dead.”

I gasped, horrified that I’d almost forgotten what I’d done to Drake. “But he’s going to be okay now, right?”

“Yes. But no thanks to him,” Khol spat in Bryn’s direction.

“This isn’t his fault,” I hissed in Bryn’s defense. “It’s mine. I don’t even know how I did that.”

“You’re just coming into your powers, strong emotions are normal triggers. What happened was normal, but what happened after was not.” Khol continued pacing. He reminded me of a caged animal, like a tiger at a zoo.

“Tell me what I need to do, so it doesn’t happen again,” Bryn said softly. I looked up at him with surprise, not expecting him to accept the blame that Khol was trying to place on him.

“You’ll need to train to do it and even then . . .” Khol met my eyes with some unknown emotion. “I’m not sure how long it’ll take a Black Dragon to be able to do what I did.”

“What do you mean?” I asked, not really sure I wanted the answer.

“You’re a fire dragon, all Red Dragons are, and it’s our element to control. All dragons have some fire, but not like us, and you’re stronger than even I guessed.”

I glanced back at Bryn before I met Khol’s gaze again. “What does that mean exactly?” I swallowed to try and combat the dryness of my throat.

“It could take decades before he can do what I did today, if at all.”

“But why? If all dragons have fire?”

“Black Dragons are water dragons, and I’m what you would call ancient. I have more power than most.”

“Can’t I just use water to douse her flame then?” Bryn asked with hope.

“No!” Khol exclaimed with alarm. “Promise me you’ll never try. With the both of you being so new to your powers and so out of control, you could kill her.”

“No. I’ll never try,” Bryn said as his arms slid around my waist again to pull me up against him.

“Where are all these dragon powers coming from? I don’t understand why they’re just appearing all of a sudden. And I haven’t had any visions since I’ve been here. Something’s wrong; in fact, that’s why I called Drake to us, because we wanted to talk to you about that.”

“Yes. That is a problem,” Khol said, his voice growing pensive. “I will admit, I’ve been a little . . . distracted. There are some things I hadn’t taken into consideration when I brought you here.” Bryn squeezed me once as if to say
I told you so.
I glared at him briefly before focusing back on what Khol was saying. “—the gates for your power. It would explain why your dragon natures are emerging so fully here.” I had a feeling both Bryn and I were wearing the same dumbfounded expression on our faces. Khol paused to study our reactions before continuing. “You might need to go back in order for your Seer gifts to work.”

“But why would being here make that much of a difference? There are gates all over the world. I’m sure there’s bound to be one close enough,” I said, still a bit confused.

“We exist in your world and yet . . . not. Dragon magic helps to keep us concealed here. You simply may not be strong enough to receive visions through the barrier yet.” Khol shrugged.

“So being cut off from our other sides has allowed the dragon magic to be pushed to the forefront,” Bryn stated as the pieces began to click into place.