Dragon Her Back

by Susannah Scott

  He’d waited a long time for those words from her. Years. Nearly a decade of his life. Now, they were nothing. More worthless than the woman who professed them.

  “You are vapid,” he said. “Deceitful.”

  Mei blinked a few times in rapid succession.

  “Those are the words that come to mind when I think of you. You are all vacuous lies that lack even a touch of imagination. You think coming in here and telling me now that you love me changes a damn thing?” He shifted forward, and the muscle in his right hamstring clenched in a painful charley horse.

  “Then, when we were together again,” her words rushed out as if she seemed determined to press on with her tale, “it was magical, and I wanted more. I started to believe that maybe Li had forgotten about me. He had another woman. It had been years.”

  She thought her lies were justified. That just made it all the more likely to happen again. “You got any painkillers in that lab coat of yours?” he breathed through the radiating hurt in his body, not caring anymore what she said.

  Mei sat adjacent to him, and in his distraction, he couldn’t protest. “I’m so sorry. I’ll never keep anything from you again.”

  Sweat broke out on his brow, and her voice drifted away as pain racked through his body. The muscles in his shoulders pulled tight and fired to his lower back, his quads, and balled in another charley horse in his calf. He felt as if he was stretched on a medieval torture device.

  “Just go away.”

  “I’m not going anywhere. No matter what happens, I’m staying with you.” She rested her hand on his right finger, and a soothing chill spread up his forearm to his bicep and settled like an ice pack surrounding his fiery, screaming shoulder muscles. He let out an involuntary sigh of relief.

  Mei noticed the reaction with a quick glance. She set her other hand on his left side, and again the pain receded.

  “I don’t want your help.”

  “I know.” She ran her hands from his knees to his quads, and then repeated the motion underneath, lifting his legs in turn to reach his hamstrings. The relief was so welcome, she could have been the devil herself, and he wouldn’t have stopped her.

  “Lean forward,” she said. He did so, and she repeated the process on his back. “I can tell when you’re hurt. I feel it.”

  He sat up and held her gaze. “You lied to me. Twice.”

  “I was wrong.” The pieces of mask at her mouth fluttered with the force of her words. “I was wrong about everything. I’ve never had anyone fighting for me before. I never had anyone who cared about me for more than what I could do for them.”

  He lifted his hand to pull the mask pieces away, and she flinched back from him as if he was going to strike her. The action was so real and automatic that his heart hurt for what she had lived through. “I might be pissed at you, but I wouldn’t hurt you.”

  “I know.” She grabbed his hands and held them, and an amalgamation of relief and desire surfaced at her touch. “My instincts kept me alive on the islands. But they were wrong with you. I promise I’ll never give you reason to doubt me again.”

  More of Mei’s truth. It was all she had, he realized with sudden clarity.

  Was it enough?

  Slowly he lifted his hand, so she wouldn’t startle, and pulled away the mask pieces, revealing her natural golden-colored skin.

  She leaned her head into his hand and shut her eyes. “Please forgive me.”

  Darius became aware all at once of their surroundings, and Alec’s men at the door. With her torn off disguise, there’d be no leaving for her without being spotted. She would have known this. She’d put her life at risk for the mere chance to talk to him.

  “You shouldn’t have come here.” He reached forward and pulled her into his lap, taking a moment to run his fingers up her waist to the clamshells covering her breasts. “I really like this get up, but it won’t help you get out of here.”

  “I wasn’t planning on leaving.”

  “I see that now.”

  She kissed the side of his face, as if reverently. “I love you.”

  It was the truth. Mei’s truth. And would have to be enough.

  He pulled back and looked hard at her. “If we make it through all this, it is going to take a while, a long while for me to trust you again.”

  “If we make it through all this,” she said. “I’ve got the rest of my life.”

  He might never trust her again, but he wouldn’t see her harmed or turned over to the water dragons. She was still his mate. His mind sped forward to how to get her out of the security center and to safety.

  A knock sounded at the door, and before he could hide her, Scott entered. “Leo is on his way up.”

  “Fuck.” He pushed Mei off his lap, and they stood together. “Get her out of here, take her to my suite.”

  “No,” Mei protested.

  “You want trust?” he asked, his words as harsh as any he’d spoken to her. “Go with Scott now.”

  Mei and Scott had only been gone for minutes when Leo entered the room. In the wake of her visit, he was better physically, but still not well enough to manage his usual ice dragon bluster.

  Leo, however, was in fine form. “Where is Mei?”

  Darius hid his relief that Leo had not encountered her as she left the center. He walked into the kitchenette, ran water into the cup, and drank thirstily. “I don’t know. You’ve had me in here since I arrived.”

  “The king has ordered her brought in.”

  “I heard him.” He tightened his grip on the glass so that it crackled a frosty warning. “If I did know where she is, I would never tell you until I knew you would help her and not turn her over to that monster.”

  “You two have put us in a precarious position.”

  Darius put his hands to his temples and rubbed at the pounding there. “She doesn’t deserve this.”

  “You didn’t advise the king of the situation with the water dragons like you told me you had.” Leo bristled with heat, and the warmth of it reached Darius where he stood.

  “I didn’t tell you all of it,” Darius admitted. “I wanted to know what I was dealing with first.”

  “It’s pretty straightforward,” Leo countered. “A group of water dragons are coming to attack us.”

  “I only knew Mei was in trouble.” Darius hit the counter next to his hip with an open hand. “What would you have done if it was Tee?”

  Leo stared at him, then dropped his gaze. He pushed his hand through his dark blondish hair. “I don’t know.”

  They continued to size each other up, clearly at an unretractable stalemate. The door to the room opened, and Alec appeared, looking fresh in a gray suit and tie. He held three takeout coffee cups pressed in a triangle in his hands. He assessed the two glowering at each other and stopped a few feet away.

  “It’s too early for this.” Alec gestured his head toward the dining table. “Come. Sit.”

  He walked to the table and sat the coffee down.

  Darius turned away from Leo and crossed the small space to the table. He pulled out the chair and sat down directly across from Alec, instead of taking the proffered position at his side. Alec lifted a brow in acknowledgement of the adversarial choice.

  Leo sat heavily at Alec’s right and reached for his cup of coffee. He busied himself removing the lid and drinking.

  “You’re angry that I didn’t support you last night,” Alec said to Darius. He leaned back in his chair in a move Darius knew was meant to put him at ease. Nothing would put him at ease until he knew Mei was safe.

  “Can you blame me?” He leaned back himself, mimicking Alec’s casual posture. “My enemies drag me in front of you, and you send me to a cell?”

  “It was the start of the gala. I would’ve had a revolt on my hands,” Alec said. “Besides, I needed some time to think.”

  Darius said nothing.

  “This is a bad situation. Not only are there still water dragons in the kingdom, Leo tells me there’s an e
ntire fold of them who have lived undetected with the aid of the Vietnamese. A treasonable action.”

  Darius nodded.

  “Why didn’t you tell me what was going on?” Alec asked. “Why didn’t Mei tell me?”

  “I didn’t tell you because I was gathering information so that when I brought it to you, you would be ready to make the right decision. Li surprised me. I didn’t expect him to attack Mei.”

  “That is unacceptable.” Alec leaned forward. “As is the way they apparently keep their women in servitude.”

  “You can’t support Darius and Mei,” Leo interjected. “At least not publicly.”

  “Why not?” Darius’s hackles rose and his dragon, beaten down as he was, stretched for a fight. “We’ve both been loyal to the king.”

  “You broke the law. You slept with a mated dragon.”

  “Please.” Darius turned his head away in anger. “She is my rightful mate, not his. If you rule in his favor and return her to him, what’s to keep anyone from claiming a mate where there is no fated paring?”

  “True,” Alec said. “But if I side with you, I’ll have a war on my hands.”

  “You’ve managed to bring the kingdom to the point of civil war,” Leo said.

  “Enough, Leo,” Alec said. “Sheath your fangs. You would do the same any day of the week for your mate. We all would.”

  A surge of hope filled him that Alec seemed to want to find a favorable solution. “It’s not fair, or just, to exclude a whole race of dragons from the kingdom because of the actions of a few, whether in ancient times or now.”

  “But the fact they act the same hundreds of years later should be cause for concern,” Leo said.

  “Agreed,” Alec said to both of them. “So how do we bring them into the kingdom without visiting this vileness on our own houses and on others?”

  “Li has to go.” Darius leaned forward. “A public fight, as in the olden times, to determine the outcome.”

  “I saw him fly,” Alec said. “That would hardly be fair. You would crush him.”

  “In our human forms then.”

  Leo looked thoughtful. “It could work, but it needs to happen now to mitigate the damage. Dragons are staying over from the gala to see how you handle this.”

  “Now works for me.” Though his words were confident, doubt rang through his mind. His body was not yet whole.

  Not by a long shot.

  “What if you lose?” Alec looked at Darius full in the face across the table. “Mei will be sent back with them. I’ll have no choice but to honor his claim.”

  “I won’t lose.”

  He wouldn’t. Or if he did, he would take that bastard Li with him to Hell.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Scott held Mei’s elbow and turned his head to hers, so that it looked like they discussed something of great importance as they hurried from the security center. In the hall, he stopped against the left wall. “The cameras can’t see your face here.”

  “I don’t want to leave him,” she whispered, aware that anyone could come upon them. Even though she’d donned the disguise again, her face was revealed behind the glasses.

  “He said to take you to his suite, and that’s what I’m going to do.”

  “Go back inside.” She was worried about what would happen between Darius and Leo. “He might need you, and I’ll be fine.”

  Her own safety was secondary to Darius’s. She’d never seen him so pale, or hurt, or utterly lacking in strength.

  Scott looked over her shoulder, and she could tell he was considering the best action.

  “I’ll be fine,” she repeated. “He needs you in there with him.”

  Scott nodded and walked back to the security center without a backward glance.

  Mei dipped her head and hurried down the corridor to the main congregating area. This time, she heard the chatter of the visiting dragons with sharp precision. She circled the sitting areas and branched to the north toward Darius’s private quarters.

  In the narrow hall, she saw Tee walking toward her with her head down. She stared at her phone with the usual obliviousness it seemed all humans, and especially Tee, exhibited. Her long brown legs peeked out from a whimsical, blue-sky colored skirted suit, as if she walked on cloud nine and hadn’t a care in the world.

  Tee looked up suddenly and stopped. She narrowed her eyes as if she was picking up on an extra-sensory emotion. Mei stood caught-in-the-headlights still. There was nowhere she could hide in the long hallway.

  Tee put her hands on her hips, and Mei knew she’d been recognized.

  “Come on.” Tee motioned her head to a closed door on her right before stepping through it herself.

  Mei followed her into a conference room with an elaborate walnut table in the middle and matching chairs nestled around it. Tee sat on the table, her legs swinging off the edge. “You aren’t going to eat me, are you?”

  “No.” Mei pulled the glasses from her face and ran a shaky hand over her forehead, dislodging the blond wig. “I’m so sorry I was awful to you. I didn’t mean it. Any of it.”

  Tee lifted elegant brows, which said she wasn’t yet forgiven.

  “I’ve been going through a lot of stuff,” Mei stammered. “I’m a water dragon. Do you know what that means?”

  “I do now.” Tee still looked unimpressed, reminding her vaguely of Lana with her hardened expression.

  “I’ve been hiding so much.” Mei’s voice broke. “It all broke down at the same time. I never meant to take things out on you.”

  Tee sighed and stood. She walked to Mei and wrapped her arms around her. Mei hugged her back, letting the warmth of Tee’s arms and affection soak all the way to her grateful soul.

  “I’m so sorry,” Mei said, emotion welling a wedge in her throat.

  “You just scared me.” Tee pushed Mei back to stare fierce brown eyes at her. “Don’t do that again.”

  “I won’t.”

  “Okay, then.” Tee nodded. “We’re good.”

  “Thank you.” Mei stepped back, needing some air.

  “That’s officially the most you have ever hugged me.” Tee laughed easily, mirth returning to her as if she’d flipped a switch.

  “I’m trying to do better and let the people I love know it.”

  Tee lifted her brows. “Really?”

  “Really.” Sadness filled her for all the years she’d lost. “I’m glad I got a chance to tell you in person.”

  “Leo is on the warpath for you and nothing I say will calm him down.” Tee put her hand to her heart, making the silver bangles on her wrist chime. “This bond thing.” She shook her long dark hair. “He knows everything.”

  “I’m not worried about him. I’m worried about Darius.”

  “I heard you’ve a husband you never told us about.” Tee let a teasing, disgruntled tone color her words.

  All the words of explanation cluttered her throat, so it felt hard to breathe. “He abused me. I escaped. I thought he would never find me, and then I thought he didn’t care.”

  Tee put a comforting hand on her shoulder, and then let it drop. “You should have told us. We would have helped you.”

  “I know.” They would have, she realized. They would have helped her head off this awful mess.

  “You’re safe now,” Tee said. “Leo said Darius could take Li with his hands tied.”

  She’d been on the other side of those fists before and knew Li didn’t fight fair. Terror that Darius’s life hung in the balance hit her with the full force of a sledgehammer, and the room spun around her.

  “This is all my fault.”

  Tee reached for her cold hand and squeezed it. “No one should have to live like you did over there.” Tee’s hand on hers felt restraining, pitying—as if she was still a victim of Li’s blows. “The Vietnamese are singing, in five octaves now, everything they know about the water dragons.”

  “Oh.” Everyone now knew her hidden shame. She could hardly bear it. Her skin seemed turned insi
de out, its protective layer gone, so that she was raw and vulnerable to the slightest poke.

  Her head whirled as if she was sucked down a vortex, never to surface.

  She disengaged gently from Tee and put her hands on a chair back, breathing determinedly and fighting for equilibrium.

  “You okay?” Tee asked.

  “Yes.” But she wasn’t, not really. She’d pushed it all under, hidden the pain. Her body had healed, but the emotional wounds ran deep, and now they were wide open.

  “You sure?” Tee asked. “You don’t look so good.”

  “Darius…” Her throat tightened around the words. “If I go with Li now, at least I’ll know he’ll be safe.”

  “Darius will be fine.”

  Mei wasn’t so sure. Tee wiped tears from her cheeks Mei hadn’t known she’d shed. She was a damn leaky faucet today.

  Tears never helped anything. If Li saw them, it would make things worse. He loved to see her cry. She tried and failed to get her rioting emotions on an even keel but stuffing them under only made her knees buckle. She took a deep breath, then three more. Pulling the air into her lungs, trying to think past her panic.

  “You don’t need this disguise anymore.” Tee pulled off the lab coat and gave a grunt of shock at the mermaid outfit.

  “Wow,” Tee said. “Just wow.”

  “It worked,” Mei managed numbly. “Got me inside.”

  “I bet it did.” Tee pulled off her light blue jacket, stuffed Mei’s arms into the sleeves, and buttoned it up. She finger combed black wisps of disarrayed hair away from Mei’s face. “Much better. Come on. Let’s go find Jane and Leo.”

  Tee led her by the hand into the hallway, back out to the common room, and onto the football field sized grass roof.

  Mei followed, still in a daze of indecision.

  Human-formed dragons congregated everywhere and parted respectfully in front of them—such was Tee’s status as Leo’s mate. He had made sure every dragon gave her the deference she deserved so that she was free to move around safely without a bodyguard.

  “I sense Leo out here somewhere,” Tee said as her gaze swept the roof.

  Ahead of them, Leo stood next to Alec in front of six of the king’s other lieutenants. Their wide-legged stance, uniformly facing the casino, said something was about to happen. Something important.