Blood of the Dragon (Her Dragon's Bane 2) (3 page)

“We’ve talked about this Connor. Don’t think I will ever change my mind. We are a dying species. And that is how it should be. We no longer belong in this world.” Zoah clenched his fists, and Serena waited for the explosion of anger to be unleashed and for the two brothers to fight again.

“When you meet the right woman Zoah, you’ll understand,” Connor said, a face full of pity for his brother.

“I have no intention of meeting the right woman. I like my life the way it is.”

“So you won’t help me?” Connor asked calmly.

Serena stood still, hating that Connor had insisted she come with him to ask for Zoah’s help. All his anger was directed at her, the person who had come along and wrecked their lives, turning it upside down.

Zoah stood tense and straight, his arms folded across his chest, his breathing heavy as he fought to control his temper. “That is different brother. I will not do this for her, but I will do it for you.”

Connor relaxed. “Thank you Zoah. I only hope that one day you will accept Serena as a part of our family too.”

“Don’t get your hopes up Connor. We’ve lived this long just the two of us. I see no reason to change that, but if your mind is made up you’ll need me. It won’t be the worst battle we’ve been through together.” He went to the door, shaking his head.

“Zoah,” Serena said, speaking directly to Zoah for the first time. She thought he was going to ignore her, and keep on walking, but he didn’t, he paused but didn’t face her. “Thank you.”

He grunted, and left, maybe it was the best she could hope for under the circumstances. Instead of letting it get to her, she turned to Connor, and said, “OK, now what?”

“Now we go take a look at this church.”

“Tonight?”

“No. In daylight. We walk past it, two normal people in a city full of people. He won’t be expecting to see you, he’s probably imagining I have you chained to my bed.”

“A nice thought,” she said, trying to smile.

“When we return, I can make that real for you.” He drew her into his arms, and the press of him against her told her this was what he would rather be doing too.

“I wish we could simply fly away, Connor. I really do.” She kissed his lips, his tongue pressing to enter her mouth and tease her sensitive lower lip.

With a groan he pulled away. “So do I. But you will never be at peace if we don’t rescue your sister. So let’s go. Wrap up, put a hat on if you have one, it would help to disguise you a little.”

They went back to her room. Serena checked on Hope, and fed her, knowing that she was stalling. There was no way she wanted to go near Samuel’s place, ever. If anything happened to Connor she would never forgive herself. However, she needed his help. The frustration of the situation ate her up inside. All she wanted was for her loved ones to be safe, and live a normal life.

She shook her head. The man she was in love with was a dragon. There was never going to be anything normal about that.

“Ready?” Connor asked impatiently.

She pulled a hat on, pushing her hair up under it. One glance in the mirror told her it wouldn't be a very good disguise if she came face to face with Samuel, but there was nothing else she could do. “I guess,” she answered, kissing Hope on the head and stroking her purring body before leaving the room and pulling the door to behind her.

She followed Connor to his room, and watched him pull clothes out of the closet. For once he was going to have to cover his magnificent body with clothes. The one thing that would be sure to draw attention to them was Connor half naked on the city streets. His body was perfect enough to draw more than a little attention, even fully clothed. As a human he would never have given her a second glance, as a dragon she felt blessed for the connection they had made.

“How do I look?” he asked. He had put on a shirt and a black leather jacket, looking like a cool super model.

“Too good, you’ll be like the pied piper, it’s going to be hard to walk anywhere without people, or should I say women taking notice.

“I can’t help that.”

“Maybe you should wear a hat too, and glasses.”

“It won’t be that bad.”

She raised her eyebrow. “When is the last time you went out in broad daylight?”

“I have no idea. We have food delivered in, it’s left at the gate and our account is paid by credit card.” He stood and thought about it. “In this city, it has to be about fifty years.”

“Fifty years?” she exclaimed.

“In daylight. I’ve been out under the cover of darkness, of course.”

“Of course. Are you sure that’s not going to be a better idea?”

“No. It makes it look as though we have something to hide. Skulking around in the shadows is not good for keeping a low profile.”

“Nor is looking like you’ve just stepped off a cat walk.”

“Are people really so shallow that they will stare?”

“Oh, yeah. Especially when they see you with me. Talk about two opposites.”

He shook his head. “We made the right decision to withdraw from the world. But we have to go. I’ll put a scarf on, wrap it around my face.” He opened his closet and got out a back scarf. “Better?”

“A little, although now you look like a thief.”

“I can’t win. Let’s just go and get this over with.”

The reality of the situation suddenly hit Serena, she buried her face in her hands and said, “I can’t believe I’m joking with you about what you look like when I might very well get you killed, or worse.”

“Don’t worry about it, you have that in common with Zoah. He’s always had this macabre sense of humour.”

“Don’t let him hear you say we’ve got something in common, he’ll hate me even more. The thought of him having anything in common with a human doesn’t seem to sit well with him.”

“We’ve spent centuries being above ordinary humans in the food chain, then the last half a century or so, you’ve overtaken us in the ability to destroy everything in your path.”

“Not me, Connor. Please don’t judge us all as being the same.”

“I’m sorry. Again, we’re so used to grouping all of humanity together. It’s been a long time since we’ve come across anyone worth saving.”

“That’s sad. I mean there are billions of people on the planet, and no one has ever seemed worth saving?”

“All the things you read in your history books, we’ve lived through. War and destruction. There were times when humanity was in it’s infancy that we could have wiped you out of existence, and there are times lately when we wished we had.”

“Then we would never have met.”

“And our species would have died out too. That’s the thing, dragons need humans to breed.”

“So that’s all I really am, a brood mare?”

He shook his head, seeing her pain. “No. I think that’s the thing. I’ve tried breeding before, there have been other virgins, other sacrifices on the altar.”

She ducked her head and wiped away the tears that threatened, feeling weak. She had known there had been others before her. There was nothing special about her.

He tilted her chin up, and wiped her tears away. “My point is, that now I’ve found you, I am so glad we didn’t wipe you out. I think dragons can only conceive with their true mate. And I believe with all my heart, that you are my true mate.”

“So you think I will carry your child?”

“Yes,” he smiled and kissed her head tenderly.

“I want to be happy, Connor, I really do. But if that’s true it means when we go to rescue Charlotte I will be putting another life at risk.” She placed her hand on her stomach, wondering if that new life was already in existence. Did the heart of their child already beat with dragon blood?

“I will protect you, Serena, with every last breath in my body.”

“That’s what worries me, Connor.”

He hadn’t walked among ordinary humans like this for decades. It was more crowded than he remembered, so many people so much noise. Madness seemed to have consumed the human race. He had witnessed so much over the years, watched men tear each other limb from limb on the battlefield. However this modern world frightened him more.

Yes, for the first time in his life he felt fear.

Zoah might just be right. Why would he want to bring a child into this over crowded world? He would never know what it was like to breathe air untainted by mankind. He would never be free to fly wherever he wanted, whenever he wanted, without being seen and hunted down.

Yet when he turned and looked at Serena, and she smiled at him, he could think of nothing else but his need to create a life for them as a family.

They walked for half an hour, he refused to take a bus, the only transport he ever used apart from his legs, were his wings.

“Why?” she asked.

“To do so would be to put my life in someone else’s hands. I do not trust any man, or woman that much.”

“Including me?” she asked. “Because you know this whole thing could be a trap. I could be leading you right into danger.”

“But I know you are not.”

“How can you know that?”

He looked deep into her eyes. “Because I know you, I know your heart.”

“I could be fooling you.”

“No. That would be impossible, I can hear your heart beat. I know when it quickens.”

“Do you?”

“Yes, Serena. When I touch you, when I make love to you. I know what you feel. And I know what you fear.”

“So do I, Connor.”

He stopped, the people around them taking no notice as he pulled her into his arms, and whispered, “We will get through this, Serena. I swear to you.”

She side, and pulled away from him. “Then let’s get there and see if we can find a way of ending this mess without anyone getting hurt.” Connor pulled her back to him. “Serena. That is not going to happen. I am going to make sure this Samuel can never hurt you or our family again. Do you understand that? He is not going to walk out of there alive.”

“I know. I just don’t want to think about it. The thought of you killing someone for me...”

“For us, for our child.”

“I know, but still ... I wish I’d never brought it on you.”

“You didn’t. Samuel did. He made you do this.”

“The thing that eats me up inside though, is that if he hadn’t made me come to you. I would have never known you existed.”

“Perhaps, or perhaps we would have found each other anyway. Fate works in strange ways, and I for one believe our fates are twisted around so tightly together, we would have met and shared our lives anyway.”

She shoved her body against him, when he looked at her, she smiled. “I never would have guessed that a big bad dragon could be such a romantic.”

He grinned back at her, his heart skittering as he took in the woman who was his mate. “Only with you, Serena, only with you.”

She couldn’t know how true his words were, because the other part of him, the dark brooding dragon, thirsted for the blood of those behind the walls of the church that lay before them.

“So this is it,” she said, looking up at the church. “There’s no one here, what if Samuel’s moved elsewhere?”

“I don’t know. How long has he been here?”

“Since as long as I can remember, my mom brought me here about ten years ago, maybe more.”

“Then he will still be here. It’s his lair, and if he thinks controlling me will make him a god then there is no reason he will move now. He is confident you will be able to deliver what he wants.”

“How? He knows I’m a coward, if I wasn't I’d have taken Charlotte and left months ago.”

“Why didn’t you?”

She shook her head. “Because I’m stupid. He told me he would always know where I was, that he would track us down no matter where we were and then he would hurt Charlotte while he made me watch.”

“Then you had no choice. It’s only natural to want to spare your sister pain.”

“There worst thing is that I actually planned it. I bought tickets for the train, squirrelled some money away. Then the night before we were due to leave, he came to the apartment, and went straight to the place I was hiding everything.”

“The witch would have told him.”

“You mean she really can see the future?”

“From what you have said, yes.” He was quiet for some time. “It makes this so much harder.” He looked up to the top of the buildings all around them.

“What?” she asked, knowing she was missing something.

“If she is a seer, I’m surprised they are not here waiting for us. She would have seen us coming.”

“Perhaps because the five days are not up?”

“Maybe. It could mean that she knows you haven’t conceived yet. But they could capture us and make us mate until you do.”

“Make us mate?” she asked, shocked.

“Yes. They control you through your sister, and they control me through you. With or without the potion.”

“That’s twisted,” Serena answered, feeling sick to her stomach. The thought that they would be forced to do things in the church, maybe even in front of Samuel, he certainly was depraved enough.

Connor stared at the church, unseeing. She waited patiently while he shifted through his thoughts. Occasionally he almost stopped breathing, concentrating his will on the ornate building, so outwardly a picture of sanctity, while inside it hid the sordid will of a monster.

“We have no element of surprise if he has a seer,” Connor said at last, shaking his head.

“I know. Is there no way of tricking the witch?”

“I’ll have to give it some thought. Come, I don't want to risk staying here any longer. It was a fruitless journey. I had hoped that when I saw the place for real I would have some idea of what we should do. But if the seer is as powerful as she appears, there is little we can do but use brute force.”

“But they’ll be waiting ... with guns.”

“That might be the chance we take, unless of course we risk the potion.”

“No. What if it’s real?”

“Then I will be placing myself in your hands. It might be the only way.”

“I won’t accept that.”

“You may have to, Serena. You may have to accept that there will indeed be a choice to be made.”

“You mean between you and Charlotte?”

“Yes.”