Twiceborn (26 page)

Garth gave me a lazy grin. “Obi-Wan would be proud.”

“Easy for you to laugh, you stupid lunk. You’re not the one driving without a licence.”

Or the one being shoved out of your own head by some dragon parasite. How the hell did she keep doing that? There was no sign of her presence now, but that was no guarantee she’d stay buried. At least she’d done some good this time, using her fancy mind control tricks on the poor cop.

I followed the tail lights of the car in front, careful not to speed. We needed to be far away before he came back to his senses, but I didn’t want to attract any more attention. I changed lanes a few times, weaving my way through the other cars, trying to lose us in the crowd. At least we were driving a white sedan and not something that stood out more.

“Kate?” Garth’s expression had turned serious.

“Yes?”

“You’re back?”

I gritted my teeth. “Yes, I’m back.”

And he’d better not be disappointed his mistress was gone, because I was going to fight to keep her out. This was
my
body, dammit, and she had no right to it.

“Why did she want you to swallow the channel stone? Do you know?”

Yes, I knew. I knew a hell of a lot more about dragons than I ever wanted to. They were vile. A bunch of egotistical murderous users, the lot of them.

“She thought if it was part of my body, she could use it to transfer her consciousness to me. She hoped to throw me out of my own body and take over.” I couldn’t keep the bitterness out of my voice. She seemed to be getting better at it all the time, and it scared me. “It was a gamble, but she had nothing to lose—she was dying anyway. Too bad about
my
life. I guess dragons aren’t big on considering other people.”

We stopped at a set of traffic lights and I glared across at him, daring him to defend his precious mistress. “She’s picked the wrong woman to mess with. I am
not
letting her win.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

“Have you ever heard of King’s?”

Garth gave me a funny look. “It’s a boys’ school for rich brats. Near Parramatta. Isn’t that where we’re going?”

I glanced across at him. Though he still leaned back against the headrest, he looked better, not quite so beat up. I could stop worrying his brain was about to leak out his ears—and the little pink nub that an hour ago had only been a proto-ear now almost matched the undamaged one. Of course, he was still smeared with blood and dirt, and sporting some serious gashes. He wouldn’t be getting into any swish hotels without a good wash and a clean set of clothes—but then, there weren’t likely to be too many fancy hotels in our immediate future.

“Well,
that
King’s, of course.” I’d even had Lachie’s name down there for high school. “I thought there might be some secret dragon place of the same name. Like Hogwarts for shapeshifters or something. Micah said Nada was going to King’s, but what would she be doing at an Anglican private school?”

“Probably stirring up trouble.” His face had a healthier colour now. He caught me looking at him and shifted uncomfortably in his seat. “What are you staring at?”

“Just fascinated by werewolf physiology. Not so long ago you were half dead—but spend an hour relaxing in a car and look at you—a new man.”

“Being driven by
you
isn’t relaxing.”

The lights changed and I turned off the highway into the heart of Parramatta.

“And anyway, what’s the big deal? Have you looked in the mirror lately?”

“What do you mean?” I checked the rear vision mirror, thinking he was still complaining about my driving. No flashing lights.

“You think werewolves are such fast healers? What about dragons?”

He gestured at me, and I looked down, confused. “But I’m not …” I trailed off. When I’d got into the car my arms were throbbing lumps of tenderised meat, riddled with burns and blisters from flying embers. Somewhere along the way the pain had eased, and then I’d stopped noticing it altogether. Now I could see why. There wasn’t a single mark on my bare arms.

I sat at the lights outside the old wrought iron gates of Parramatta Park and turned my arms this way and that, staring at the smooth unblemished skin while a cold fear seeped into my bones. The car behind me honked. Oops—lights had changed.

“I’m not a dragon,” I said, uneasy now. Whatever I was, it clearly wasn’t human.

“Well, you heal like one.”

Did that mean Leandra was taking over? I felt a flutter of panic and swallowed hard, fighting it down. I had to stay in control.

“It’s not such a bad thing, you know. Being a shifter.”

The look on his face was almost sympathetic. Garth? Being nice to me? He must have been injured worse than I thought.

“Easy for you to say. You don’t have someone trying to force you out of your own body.”

“Sometimes it feels like that.”

“How do you mean?”

He shrugged. “The wolf is hard to control, you know? It makes me do things—well, things I wouldn’t have done before.”

“Before what?”

“Before I was bitten.”

Oh. Somehow I’d assumed he’d always been a werewolf. I sneaked a glance as we stopped at the lights outside the swimming pool, its car park dark and deserted now. On a day like today it would have been bursting with people earlier, all with nothing more to worry about than avoiding sunburn in the heat. Lucky bastards. Garth’s head was turned away, looking out at the night. A million questions hovered on my lips but that averted face suggested a lot of them mightn’t be welcome.

“But now you like being a wolf?” I ventured.

Another shrug. “Doesn’t matter, does it, whether I like it or not. That’s the way it is. You just have to deal with whatever life throws at you.”

A werewolf philosopher. Every girl should have one.

“So you’re suggesting I
just deal with
having a dragon parasite inside me? Let her take over?
Oh, sure Leandra, you can have the body. What do I need it for?
You’d like that, wouldn’t you? You’d get your precious mistress back.”

He gave me a flat stare. “Not so precious. I doubt she would have hit that guy with a shovel to save me.”

Well, that was plain speaking. But how far would his gratitude go?

“Do you know of a way to get her out?”

“You must be joking. I’m just a wolf. I keep my head down and try to stay out of dragon business. Have you tried asking her?”

“No!” That came out a bit too forceful. I tried to speak normally. “I’m not going to invite her out. She takes over enough as it is without me asking for it.”

“In that case we’d better find this stone and hope Luce is right about it having some kind of message for us.”

That damn channel stone. I was pretty sure now there was no message. It had just been the means for Leandra to colonise my body. As to why she wanted it back so badly—it was safe to assume it wouldn’t be good news for Kate O’Connor.

What if I let it go, let Nada destroy it, or whatever she meant to do with it? Maybe Leandra would die off for real, and I wouldn’t be forced to share my body with her any more. I felt her surge inside me and fought her down again. Didn’t like that idea, did she?

But she’s part of you now
, a little voice said. That same little voice which lived inside every mother and worried about every possible calamity. I knew from bitter experience that sometimes the voice was right to worry.
What if killing her kills you too?

Garth still watched me. This time I saw sympathy in his eyes for sure. “I’m not your enemy, you know.”

“Says the guy who tried to eat me in my kitchen.”

That surprised a laugh out of him. “Told you—sometimes the wolf gets the better of me.”

We turned on to Pennant Hills Road. King’s was only a couple of kilometres further along. It was a huge place, set on over a hundred hectares of sprawling parklands, with every imaginable facility—theatres, sportsgrounds, even a fifty metre pool. A network of roads connected the various parts of the property. I’d come here for a tour when Lachie was still small, and the place was so big they’d loaded us into minibuses to ferry us around.

I’d been thinking what a wonderful opportunity it would be for Lachie. I hadn’t wanted him to board, naturally, though it was surprising how many people who lived in Sydney did board their boys, even if only on weekdays. But the school had a reputation for excellence, and I’d hoped we might have been able to afford to send Lachie there for high school. That was before the divorce, of course. Living as a single mum put such expensive dreams out of reach.

We turned in through the big sandstone gates and drove down to the main car park—there were several dotted around the campus. Not surprisingly, since it was nearly eleven o’clock at night, it was empty, so I kept going. Silent buildings loomed out of the dark as we made a circuit of the grounds.

After ten minutes I’d been down every side road and dead end, with no sign of Nada. A few lights burned in lonely windows, but apart from that we might have been the only people here. At any minute I expected a security vehicle to glide up behind us and demand to know what we were doing.

Back in the main car park I pulled in behind a row of bushes and cut the engine.

“Maybe she’s been and gone.”

“Or maybe she hasn’t arrived yet.” Garth got out and slammed his door.

I got out too and frowned around at the tree-lined roads and vast dark swathes of lawn.

“Why would Nada bring the channel stone here? Do you think there are other dragons here?”

“Could be. You find money, you find dragons—and there’s plenty of money here.”

“Micah said she was hunting something. I got the impression it wasn’t good news for Jason. She’s got a huge chip on her shoulder about Jason. Thinks he and I are in some big conspiracy against her.”

“Makes sense. She’s probably had her nose out of joint since the day he showed up. I mean, she’s been Valeria’s second since before the proving began. And then a dragon muscles in and tries to take over her role.” He popped the boot and pulled out a tyre iron. “She’s only a griffin—hard to compete with a dragon. Bet she’s been looking for a way to take him down from day one.”

I indicated the tyre iron. “What’s that for?”

“Something to persuade Nada to hand over the stone when we find her.”

“How
are
we going to find her?” If she was even here. I glanced around, hoping by some miracle to spot a brunette with a bad attitude coming my way. “This place is so big. We could wander round for hours and never see her. Can you … I don’t know … smell her or something?”

He gave me an impatient look and tapped the length of steel against his other palm. “Track her in a place like this, with a thousand people coming and going? Even wolves aren’t that good. Besides, I’m not even sure I remember her scent. We’re not exactly best buddies.”

Damn. Short of any better ideas, I started up the path to the nearest building that showed a light. My stomach coiled into uneasy knots. I was all too aware that time was ticking away. Maybe we’d be better off staking out the house at Mosman, hoping to catch her when she came back.
And then what? Politely ask her to stop her car so we can belt her over the head with a tyre iron and take back the channel stone?

Considering it was late at night in the middle of the Christmas holidays, I wasn’t too surprised to find the building locked up tight. None of the doors we tried would open. Where was Luce when we needed her? Her lock-picking skills would have been handy.

I looked at Garth and he shrugged, then pulled out his phone.

“Who are you ringing?”

He ignored me and spoke into the phone. “Hey mate, it’s Garth—how you doing? … Yeah, sorry to ring so late. Listen, I was wondering, do you still have Nada Kusic’s number? Fantastic. Thanks, mate, I owe you one.”

He hung up and gave me a smug look.

“You’re going to ring Nada?” Maybe I was dense, but I couldn’t see how that would help. I rubbed distractedly at an ache that had started in my chest.

“I’m gonna flush her out. Let’s get back to the car.”

He dialled as we walked, our footsteps loud on the empty road. “Nada? It’s Micah.” He’d pitched his voice lower, and he did sound uncannily like the surly werewolf. “Valeria wants you back at Mosman right now.”

He winked at me as Nada’s tinny voice crackled in his ear. “I don’t know, I’m only the messenger boy—but she ain’t happy.”

He hung up.

“Do you think she believed you?”

“Guess we’ll find out if we see her leaving. Let’s get up to the main gate.”

He got in the driver’s seat this time and I didn’t object. If car chases were on the menu I was happy not to be driving. But there were several car parks, and more than one exit from King’s. She could slip past without us any the wiser.

As he started the engine I glanced across the rolling lawn to the historic old mansion where the younger boys boarded. A dark four-wheel drive idled out the front. Pain lanced through my chest and I gasped as a wave of longing filled me. The channel stone!

I clutched Garth’s arm. “Wait! Is that—?”

A dark-haired woman came down the steps with a small boy in tow. In the light that spilled from the open door, I saw a thin frame and tousled brown curls, and my heart did a familiar sick somersault. It wasn’t Lachie. It could never be Lachie. My mind knew that, but my heart refused to listen to reason, and it kept playing this agonising trick on me.

“Yep, that’s her,” said Garth, but I’d forgotten Nada. Yearning for the channel stone surged within me, but I fought it down, still staring at the boy. About nine or ten, tall and delicately framed, just as Lachie would look if he’d lived. He even bobbed his curly head like Lachie as he walked, as if it were too heavy for his slender neck. But Nada blocked my view of his face.

She opened the back door and shoved him in, sliding in after him. Something about that shove told me he wasn’t happy about going with her. Garth rolled us quietly through the car park, headlights off, ready to cut the other car off as it approached, and I craned past his big frame, trying to get another glimpse of the boy.