Sacrificed to the Dragon: Part Three (3 page)

A thick, jagged scar ran from Arabella’s right temple, down across the bridge of her nose, and ended near the bottom of her left ear. The right side of her neck was covered in skin that had recovered from a very bad burn; the pink, crinkled skin told her that whatever had happened to Tristan’s sister had been painful both at the time and during the long recovery.

But it was Arabella’s eyes that Mel noticed most. A mixture of hatred, fear, shame, and sadness shown in them, as if Arabella MacLeod didn’t believe anything good would ever happen to her again.

She was on the verge of losing hope.

Tears started to prickle her eyes, but Mel took a second to fight them before she held out a hand and said, “I’m Melanie Hall, Mel to my friends. It’s nice to meet you.”

Arabella gingerly took her hand, but rather than shake it, the dragonwoman raised it to her nose and inhaled. As soon as she had, she dropped Mel’s hand as if it had burned her and looked at Tristan. “The human female is carrying your child. That is the only reason I will let her in here. But if her behavior makes me suspicious, you will leave. Those are my terms.”

Mel glanced over at Tristan, and he nodded at his sister before giving Mel a reassuring look, as if to tell her she’d done well so far.

She had no proper training when it came to dealing with survivors of tragedies, so she decided to fall back on her anthropology training. She would observe Arabella and her surroundings to find out what she could without talking to the dragonwoman directly. At least, until she could figure out how to deal with the woman’s less than cheerful past and her hatred of humans. Tristan’s sister melted into the darkness of the corridor.

Standing her ground, Mel waited until Tristan placed a hand on her lower back and said, “Come. Let’s go inside.”

Mel nodded. Without realizing it, she leaned a little against Tristan’s side as the dragonman led her into the cottage. The contact reminded her that if she could deal with Tristan-the-asshole, she could very well deal with his sister. She just needed to figure out the best way to do it.

Chapter Three

As Tristan guided Melanie into his sister’s cottage, he breathed a sigh of relief. His argument for his sister to simply scent the human’s skin to find out if he was telling the truth or not had worked.

Unfortunately, his sister’s sense of smell was as keen as his own, and she had scented Melanie’s momentary sadness as she’d stared into Arabella’s eyes. Knowing what he did of the human, he didn’t think it had been pity. Rather, he believed it had been sadness at what had been done to his sister all those years ago.

Arabella, however, would think the worst of Melanie unless she found a way to change his sister’s mind. Not that he should be surprised. Tristan had acted the same way, and a very small part of him was starting to feel slightly guilty about it.

Melanie leaned against him as they made their way to the living room, and his dragon surprised him by crooning. His beast was usually quiet around Arabella. While his inner dragon had never told him why, he had a feeling it was in sympathy of his sister’s circumstances. After all, her inner beast had been silent since she had escaped from the dragon hunters ten years ago. After arriving on Stonefire’s land and shifting into her human-form, Arabella had never again shifted into a dragon.

He had debated telling Melanie that little detail, but had decided against it. Knowing Arabella had all but lost her dragon-half might make the human act in a way counterproductive to Arabella’s acceptance. If Melanie knew about his sister’s fear of shifting, she would probably push and ask why. The few times Tristan had brought up the topic with his sister, it hadn’t ended well. Ara put up with it from him, but would never tolerate it from a human. If anything, it would cause her to hate Melanie more, and he didn’t want that to happen.

And yes, as he tightened his grip on the human female at his side, he wanted his sister to accept Melanie. It wasn’t just fulfilling his dragon’s wishes; Tristan, too, wanted to get to know the mother of his child. She’d spoken fondly of her brother, and while he vaguely remembered his vial of dragon’s blood had gone to heal him, he hadn’t bothered to find out what had ailed Melanie’s brother.

First her brother, then Caitriona, and now maybe even his sister. It seemed that Melanie Hall had a knack of taking care of everyone but herself. Tristan hoped to fix that, especially since his dragon would revel in protecting and taking care of Melanie. Hopefully that would distract his inner beast from wanting to fuck her every ten seconds.

Then he remembered they were in his sister’s house and no fucking would be taking place here. He waited for his dragon to protest, but he kept silent. It seemed even his beast had some sense of decorum.

They arrived in the living room and Tristan guided Melanie to the couch. His sister sat in a plush chair on the far side of the room, one of her laptops in front of her. From the corner of his eye, he noticed the human staring at Ara’s wall of photos. Before he could explain them, Melanie said, “Arabella, why do you have hundreds of pictures of different doors?”

Ara glanced from her computer screen and stared at the human. Tristan kept his silence and was rewarded with Arabella saying, “Because I like them.”

His sister went back to working on her computer, but Melanie pretended as if she hadn’t seen his sister’s cue that the discussion was over. Instead, she got up off the couch and went to the wall covered in pictures of doors. She looked from one to the other until she stopped in front of one that was crooked and a faded blue. “Where did you take this blue, crooked one?”

Ara looked up from her computer again, but this time at Tristan. He crossed arms over his chest and shook his head. No, he wasn’t going to answer for her.

She frowned and he wondered if Ara would actually talk to the human.

Then his sister went back to working on her computer, answering his question.

Glancing at Melanie, he wondered what the human female would do next. Giving up was the last thing he expected from her, so he waited to see what would happen.

~~~

Melanie heard the clicking of keys and knew Arabella had gone back to typing on her laptop. She knew this wasn’t going to be easy, but not even asking about something that clearly interested Arabella was getting the dragonwoman to talk with her. She was going to have to try a different approach.

Turning around, she found Tristan on the far side of the room with his arms crossed over his chest. He gave her an inquiring look, but she ignored it and turned back to Arabella. Her dealings with Tristan gave her an idea. Maybe the siblings were more alike than either had acted at first.

Mel went over to where Tristan’s sister was sitting, stopped next to her, crossed her arms, and waited.

It wasn’t long before Arabella stopped typing and frowned up at her. “Why are you staring at me? If my actions weren’t clear enough, I can say it now: I don’t want you here.”

Melanie took a fortifying inhale and let loose. “I don’t like passive-aggressive behavior. If you’re going to dislike me, I want you to tell me straight to my face, because as of right now, I have done nothing to warrant such hatred.”

Arabella’s eyes flashed. “How dare you talk to me like that in my own home. You humans are all the same—you think we dragon-shifters owe you everything.” She slammed her laptop closed and stood up. “You’re the reason we even have to bring in humans like you to breed. You killed our kind to near extinction, and if that weren’t enough, you now use us as magical blood fountains.” Arabella narrowed her eyes. “I despise all of you.”

Mel raised her chin. “If you’re going to tell me that dragon-shifters are purity and innocence incarnate, I’ll start laughing right now.” She poked Arabella in the arm. “Violence and wars take two sides to complete. Dragon-shifters have fucked up, just as humans have, but blaming each other for what a small minority has done throughout history is a waste of time. After all, we can’t change history. We can only create our own.”

The pupils of Arabella’s eyes flashed to slits and back. “Thanks to your kind, I have no future to look forward to.”

“And why not? You seem clever, stubborn, and are attractive. You’re a lot like your brother, actually, and if he can find a woman who likes him, I don’t see why you can’t find someone. If it’s a mate you want, you first need to step outside of these walls and talk with people.”

Arabella lost a little of her bravado. “No male would want me.” Mel opened her mouth, but the dragonwoman spoke first. “Don’t try to say otherwise. I hate fake encouragement and pity nearly as much as I hate humans.”

Mel was starting to understand what kept Arabella cooped up inside this house.

Maybe she was crazy, but Mel decided to keep pushing. “Do you think I’m really the type of person who gives fake encouragement? If I only cared about my own skin, I never would’ve goaded a six-foot tall dragonwoman into an argument. So when I give you a compliment, take it. The only reason you think you have no future is because you keep yourself locked up inside this house and in front of a computer. But it’s not protecting you, Arabella. It’s slowly killing you.”

~~~

Tristan couldn’t help but think of how Melanie Hall was bloody fantastic. Even with his sister towering half a foot over her, the human had held her ground and given Arabella an earful.

While he didn’t think Ara would hurt the mother of his child, his dragon was prowling around his mind, telling him to be careful. They needed to protect their human. Compared to the dragonwoman, she was fragile.

Melanie might be physically fragile, but bloody hell, the woman was strong inside. He’d seen a glimpse of it when she argued with him, but seeing it as an observer rather than a participant put things into a whole new perspective.

Then the human mentioned if a woman could like Tristan, then Ara could find someone too. Was she talking about herself?

Not that he had time to dwell on Melanie’s words. Soon her words made Ara’s eyes flash to dragon slits and he blinked. Tristan hadn’t seen that happen in over a decade. Had he been wrong all these years? Was Ara’s dragon-half still inside her somewhere?

When Melanie called Arabella on her shit, Ara’s eyes flashed again and his sister said, “Here you are, all proud of yourself for standing up to me, but you’re no different than the rest. When I met you at the door, you pitied me like all the others. There’s a reason I stay inside this house, and it’s because I don’t want to have to explain myself to people like you. I have a job and help the clan. Your pity, along with everyone else’s, just takes time away from my work.”

Melanie shook her head. “You’re wrong. I didn’t—and don’t—pity you. I felt sad for what had happened to you and the pain you must’ve endured.”

Arabella picked up her laptop. “I don’t know why I bother to argue with you. This is my house.” She looked at Tristan. “I want you two to leave.”

While he was her brother, he had to admire how Melanie was handling the situation. Hell, the human had shown him that Ara’s dragon-half was still there. Maybe it was time to try to push her. After all, Tristan had coddled his sister for too long out of guilt.

Two days ago, he never would’ve believed it, but he was going to side with the human. “No, Ara, unless you agree to come over to my house for dinner in the next few days, and stay for at least two hours, we’re staying the night and will continue to stay the night until you give in.”

He sensed the human’s eyes on him, but he focused one hundred percent on his sister. Ara blinked and said, “What?”

“I’ve recently been told, by more than one person I might add, that I’ve let what happened to Mum take over my life. And I’m finally starting to see how that hatred and pain has damaged far more than me. I’ve tiptoed around you for too long, not wanting to take your issues head on because of guilt. Am I sorry for what happened? Of course. Do I think you should hide away here for the rest of your life? No.” He took a step toward his sister. “While you were arguing with Melanie, I saw your dragon-side surface. Twice.” He took another step toward his sister. “I need to know—have you been lying to me all these years about your beast being silent?”

Ara’s confidence faltered a fraction. “Don’t ask me about that, Tristan.”

He walked until he was standing in front of his sister. Luckily, she didn’t try to run away from him. “It’s all right, Ara. If you have, I forgive you. But if you keep trying to hide your beast, I fear that you’ll go insane. Have you ever shifted because you couldn’t control it over the last decade?”

Fear flashed across his sister’s face. “Yes.”

He put an arm around Ara’s shoulders. “It’s all right, love. We’re part dragon, and it’s only natural.”

Ara shook her head. “No. No, no, no. If I’m in dragon form, then the dragon hunters will find me. I need to stay in human form so I can keep hidden from them.” She looked up at Tristan, her eyes wild and lost to decade-old memories. “I need to push the beast back, deep, deep into my mind. It’s the only way to stay safe.”

Tristan hugged his sister and stroked her hair, trying to decide what to do. Despite his, and others’, recommendations to see Stonefire’s equivalent of a therapist, Ara had always refused.

He glanced over and saw Melanie staring at them. Her eyes were honest and open, and he could swear they mirrored the pain he felt right now for his sister. Recalling how Melanie hadn’t been afraid to address the issue head on, gave Tristan an idea.