Twiceborn (25 page)

As she bent over me, her Hermes charm swung free from the sack-like maternity dress she wore. I doubted she was truly pregnant; her movements were too swift and sure. Besides, she’d run another job for me only a couple of months ago and I didn’t remember any pregnancy. Doubtless it was part of the game the heralds played with the watchers who’d come out of the woodwork for the proving, trying to shake off pursuit.

You could spend all your time chasing off one set, only to have another take their place. And it wasn’t only my sisters’ people; our mother also liked to keep up with events, as did other factions like the wolves or even the goblins. Some of the overseas queens had spies on the ground for the proving too, nor were they above trying to influence the outcome. I had long decided either to ignore them or to use them to feed misinformation to my sisters. Today’s effort should be doubly amusing, since there would be no delivery.

At least not one they could see.

“A momentary faintness. Please, sit down. I just need a minute to catch my breath.”

She sat, with an anxious glance back at the house. “Should I call someone for you?”

The thralls had obeyed orders to stay out of sight. “There’s no one home. I have a very important delivery for you, and I didn’t want anyone to see it. I can trust you to take care of it, can’t I?”

“Of course.” She nodded, but her eyes had a wary look.

“That’s a lovely necklace you have there,” I said, as if noticing it for the first time. “May I see it?”

She leaned closer, holding the charm out for inspection.

“I’m sorry, I don’t have my glasses. Would you mind …?”

I made a little helpless gesture and she obligingly lifted the charm over her head and offered it to me.

Another spasm racked me and my hand shook as I took it. So easy. The first part of the great gamble had paid off. I knew she was new and I’d heard there was something unorthodox about her appointment. There’d even been rumours she knew nothing of shifters—and now they were at least partially borne out. No one had told her of the protection the necklace afforded her.

Of course, I could have produced the gun from my pocket and forced her to hand it over, but then she might have run, and I couldn’t actually shoot her if it came to that. She was the perfect instrument for my revenge. I couldn’t wait to see the look on Jason’s face as his ex-lover murdered him. It had seemed to me he still bore a candle for her, that the hatred weighed much more on her side than his. How delightful to see him betrayed in his turn.

I smiled as I closed my hand around the charm.

“Thank you, Kate. You don’t mind if I call you Kate, do you? We’re going to get to know each other so much better, after all.”

She frowned, not yet alarmed, but the wariness was back. I had to smile, despite the pain, as her clear green gaze met mine. I had her.

“You’re going to do something for me.”

I leaned in and forced my will on her. The green eyes lost their sharp focus and her face went slack.

“Of course. What would you like?”

First I gave her the letter. I didn’t want her seeking help before I was strong enough to take control, so I planned removing her memory of this interview. The letter would direct her somewhere safe and isolated until I could assert control of her body.

I waited till she had stowed it safely in her bag, then handed her the hunting knife that nestled next to the gun in my pocket. I was a regular little arsenal today, both weapons taken from one of the thralls. Normally a dragon had no need of any such.

Today was not a normal day. I grimaced with pain, but Kate continued to stare with that dreamy smile, not noticing as sweat ran down my face. I stank of fear and sickness and the garden was beginning to blur. Not much time left.

“I want you to take that and make a cut here,” I said, unbuttoning my silk blouse to show her the place. “A deep one, mind. You need to get right down to the bone.”

“But that will hurt you.”

Confusion chased the smile from her face and I felt my grip on her mind weaken.

“Look at me, Kate.”

I forced my way back in, soothing and shaping, moulding her will to mine. It would have been easier to simply enthral her, but she’d be significantly less useful to me afterwards. I needed an unbroken mind for my new home.

“Right here.” I guided her hand so the tip of the knife pricked my skin. Both our hands were shaking. Sunlight reflecting off the ornamental pool behind her dazzled my eyes. I blinked, but it made little improvement, my vision fading as the poison did its deadly work.

She drew the knife back. A tiny drop of red clung to its point. I closed my eyes, heard the rush of breath as she exhaled, then pain exploded in my chest.

She struck so hard the blade lodged in my sternum. I felt the tug as she freed it, then dragged it down in a long slicing cut. Whimpering with pain, I fought to hold on to consciousness.

“Yes. That’s it,” I gasped. “That’s it. Now … reach in.”

My body spasmed in agony. I tried to hold on to her shoulders but felt myself slipping, and she laid me down on the grass. When I opened my eyes the world wheeled above me: green leaves, blue sky, and her face looming over me. Fear fought its way to the surface as my control faded. Blood pulsed from the deep slash down my chest, covering her hands and splashing her face and the ugly smock she wore.

No! Not now, when I was so close. “You can do this,” I insisted.

I shut my eyes again and refocused. All would be lost unless I held myself together a moment more.

Renewed agony flamed as her fingers pushed inside the wound. My breath came in short sobbing gasps.

“There’s a … stone. See it? Not … there … higher. Yes!” I felt the jolt as her questing fingers found it. “Take it.”

A roaring filled my ears. My voice sounded faint, as if coming from a long way away. I tried to move my hand, but its weight was suddenly beyond me.

“Go on,” I urged.

I tried to meet her gaze, to compel, but darkness had crept up on me. Her face hovered in the centre of my vision, no more than a pale blur. Everything else had disappeared. My soul fled towards the channel stone, seeking union.

A tugging sensation, then a terrible crack that reverberated through my body as she tore the stone free. Oh, God, the pain. I could no longer see, had no way to know if she had obeyed me. Reduced to begging as my consciousness slipped away.

“Please … swallow it.”

***

Garth’s brow furrowed. Thinking wasn’t his strong suit at the best of times. “What’s a channel stone? Why did you want her to swallow it?”

I’d forgotten he was only a wolf.

“Dragons don’t normally speak of them.” We passed through quiet suburbs as we wended our way back down the mountain on the Great Western Highway. I took my eyes from the road and pinned his gaze with my own, forcing my will on him. He was loyal, but I knew better than anyone how fast loyalties could change. “And neither will you.”

He nodded. “Of course.”

“They are a means of channelling mass between this plane and another.”

His gaze was attentive, but no spark of understanding lit his grey eyes. I may as well have been speaking Greek.

“The mass of a
dragon
, Garth. Where do you think it all goes when we take human form? Dragons are enormous. Other shifters’ trueshapes are roughly human-sized, so there is no displacement of mass. But our human forms would be gigantic if we couldn’t relocate the extra mass. So we send it otherwhere when we shift and call it back when we wish to assume trueshape.”

“
Otherwhere
?” He didn’t sound convinced. “Where the hell is that?”

I had neither time nor inclination for a dissertation on dragon lore. “It’s not important. The point is, each dragon is born with a channel stone nestled next to their heart. It’s the core of our ability to shift from trueshape to human form. Think of it like the tide running through a channel. It comes in, it goes out, but the sea is always the same size.”

He shook his head, struggling with the concept. We came down off the mountains while he thought and joined the stream of Sydney-bound traffic. There was always traffic. Humans were like ants, scurrying to and fro on errands that only made sense to themselves. At each red light I tapped impatiently on the steering wheel. When we got onto the M4, we would make better time.

A nagging whine intruded, growing louder. Frowning, I glanced into the rear vision mirror and saw blue lights flashing behind me.

Garth twisted round in his seat, suddenly conscious of the wailing siren too. “Police. You’d better pull over.”

“What do they want?”

“You were driving rather fast, mistress.”

Annoyed, I pulled on to the shoulder. Three lanes of traffic whizzed past as I wound down my window.

The patrol car pulled in behind me and a uniformed officer got out, putting his cap on as he approached.

“In a hurry to get somewhere, madam?” His bored expression disappeared when he got a good look at us. “What happened to you?”

“We’ve been fighting fires in the mountains. My friend’s hurt. I’m taking him to the hospital.”

“I’m sorry to hear that. But I’m afraid I still have to see your licence.”

The bottom fell out of my stomach. I didn’t have my licence—I didn’t have anything to prove my identity. My wallet had been left behind somewhere in Valeria’s mansion.

“Oh! My licence …” I glanced at Garth, panicked, and mouthed: “What do I do?”

He cocked his head, puzzled till he realised Leandra was gone. Then he fanned the fingers of one hand and wiggled them. “What did Obi-Wan do when the troopers were looking for the droids?” he muttered.

I glared. Him and his stupid Star Wars obsession. Was this really the time, with a police officer at my window?

Oh, right. The “force”. I looked back at the cop and gave him a nervous smile. He was young, and probably not all that intimidating out of uniform.

Could I do it now that Leandra had slipped away again? Only one way to find out.

I met his eyes and stared hard, focusing my will. It felt … right. “I don’t have my licence with me, but it doesn’t matter. I’m sure you don’t mind.”

His expression hardened. I’d faced plenty worse lately, but there was still something unnerving about the glare of a highly unimpressed policeman.

“You’re driving without a licence? I’ll need to see some identification, madam.”

“I don’t have any. The bushfire …”

I trailed off. Damn. Jason had completely thrown me with his pleas—so out of character. I had to get to King’s and stop Nada. Whatever she was doing, it was something bad. I could feel it.

And she has the stone.

I clamped down hard on that thought. That was Leandra, not me. I had no need for her precious channel stone. Unless, of course, Nada meant to use it against Leandra. I stared at the policeman, willing him to let me go. Much as I wanted to be rid of my toxic hitchhiker, I wasn’t leaving the job of evicting Leandra to Nada’s tender mercies. Any scheme of hers would probably involve killing me too.

The cop’s face looked even flintier than before. “I’ll have to run a registration check. Are you the owner of the vehicle?”

“No.”

“Who is?”

I hesitated, a shade too long, and he stepped back.

“Please get out of the car.” There was no “madam” any more.

Panic bloomed in my chest. Could I take him down? He was a highway patrolman. Unlikely to be a crack shot.

I got out, shaking all over. The rush of passing traffic buffeted me. God—why was I even thinking like this? I couldn’t attack a
policeman
.

The air still reeked of smoke—or maybe that was me. I was hot and dirty and spattered with blood. Mostly other people’s. His eyes widened as he took in my dishevelled appearance, and his hand crept closer to his gun.

“You say you were fighting a bushfire?” Clearly he wasn’t buying that story.

My heart hammered so loudly I was sure he could hear it, but I moved closer, watching his gun hand out of the corner of my eye.

“Stand still!”

I froze. A door slammed behind me as Garth levered himself out of the car.

“You stay right there!” the cop snarled, and now the gun was in his hand.

Garth was a big solid guy, and looked even more disreputable than I, but I could tell from the way he leaned on the car’s roof he wasn’t going to be any use in a fight.

The cop retreated to his car, never taking his eyes off us, and reached in for the radio. Calling for backup. I closed my eyes.

I didn’t have
time
for this.

“Officer!” I caught his gaze with mine. Easy does it. He still had the gun. “I’m sure there’s been a misunderstanding.”

I stepped forward, forcing my will on him, moulding him to the proper subservience. Slowly the gun hand drifted to his side.

“A misunderstanding.”

“That’s right. You’re sorry you stopped us. My friend needs a doctor.”

He blinked like a man waking from sleep and offered a slow smile. “Of course, madam. You’d better get your friend to hospital. He looks a mess. Would you like a police escort?”

“No thanks, officer. We’ll be fine.”

“You take care, then.” He watched us get back into the car, still smiling. In a few minutes he’d be wondering why he was standing on the side of the road in the middle of the night holding his gun.

Humans. So easy to manipulate.

Sudden fury surged through me—

—and I was back. That
bitch
. She’d taken me over again. I pulled out into the traffic. My hands were shaking. The crack she’d made in the steering wheel snagged at my palms.