Throne of Oak (Maggie's Grove)

by Dana Marie Bell

  “Dragos! Do something!”

  Gods above, the woman’s voice was grating.

  Before he could move, Dom picked up a vase of flowers and dumped the entire thing, blooms and all, on Kate’s pretty blond head.

  It did little to put the fire out. It did, however, make the witch look like a drowned rat with its skirt on fire.

  “Oops.” Dom tilted his head as Kate tried desperately to pat out the fire with her bare hands. “Well. That was ineffective. Say, Kate? Why don’t you just use magic?”

  “Argh!” Kate ran for the ladies’ room, stopping only long enough to pick her purse up off the floor. The flowers and water were a sad reminder of her presence.

  “Good riddance.” Dom placed the vase back on the table and began picking up the droopy flowers. “I think Eddy is running out of Oreos, Dragos.”

  Trajan turned so fast he should have fallen flat on his ass, Kate’s antics completely forgotten as the dragon focused on his unclaimed mate.

  Eddy grinned weakly, black goo covering his teeth.

  His brother ignored Eddy’s frightened squawk and cupped the Renfield’s cheek. “What have you been eating?”

  “Mookies.” Eddy shoved another one in his mouth and took a step back. He shook his head in denial as Trajan reached for him again.

  “Mookies?” Trajan eyed the bag warily. “Ah. I see.” He glanced at Dragos, but his gaze swiftly returned to the object of his obsession. “Does he eat these frequently?”

  Dragos shrugged. “Only when he’s terrified.”

  Eddy whimpered.

  “Shh. You have no need to fear me.” Trajan’s smile was predatory.

  The boy tried to take another step back, but Trajan growled, and Eddy froze like a frightened rabbit. “I had not wanted to disrupt my first meeting with my lost brother by claiming you, young one. But you are mine, and I will not be denied.”

  Eddy nodded, then shook his head so violently Dragos was surprised it didn’t fly right off his shoulders. “Imma Menfird.”

  Trajan tilted his head and stared at Eddy. Dragos could see the predatory smile relaxing into an almost real one as Eddy’s innate weirdness worked its magic on his brother. “Menfrid?”

  “I believe he means Renfield, sir.” Dom stepped forward to take Eddy’s bag of Oreos.

  Eddy pulled them tight against him and glared at Dom. “My cookies.”

  “Of course, young one. No one will take them away from you.” Trajan glared until Dom took a step back with a shrug. He turned his gaze once more on Eddy. “Come to me.”

  “Oh hell no.” Eddy dodged around Trajan’s outstretched hand and took off, running up the creaky stairs to the second floor. Where he thought he could go from there Dragos didn’t know, but he let him run. Trajan would sooner cut off his right arm than hurt the boy. Eddy was Trajan’s mate, whether he’d been officially claimed or not, and both he and his Renfield would just have to deal with it.

  Dragos would have to make sure Trajan stayed in Maggie’s Grove. He wasn’t about to completely give up the son of his heart, after all.

  Trajan smirked. “I love it when they want me to give chase.” And before Dragos could stop him he was off, gliding silently up the stairs after his reluctant mate. Dragos shook his head, amused. He’d kicked his brother out of his house far too quickly when they’d last met. He’d have to find the time to pin his brother down, find out exactly why he was in town. But for now he let it go. There was no way in hell he was chasing after Trajan when Trajan was chasing after Eddy.

  Eddy was almost as safe with Trajan as he was with Dragos, no matter what reason Trajan had originally come to Maggie’s Grove for. Besides, there were some things he did not want to see his brother doing, thank you very much. Especially with the boy he considered his son.

  Dominic stared toward the stairs, listening to Kate’s angry muffled mutters and Eddy’s squeal of shock, and sighed happily. “Gods above, I do so love my job.” He adjusted his glasses and, in his precise, rather prissy way, made it back to his own office, not a hair on his head out of place.

  Dragos waited until he was safely back in his own office before he allowed his laughter to escape.

  Dom was, as usual, right on the money. Gods above, he did love his job.

  Chapter Six

  She stood at the edge of the ring of trees that surrounded the Throne and took a deep, bracing breath. “You have no power over me.” Her voice was wobbly, indecisive. Could she really do this? Did she want to? Stepping outside the Throne meant opening herself to immense pain, and Dragos wasn’t here this time to help her through it. He hadn’t come back the night before, explaining he needed to get some work done. She couldn’t blame him. Parker and Amara, and to a certain extent Greer and Ash, had kept her apprised of what was happening in the town. Dragos was swamped with the efforts to rebuild. He couldn’t be here now, but if he knew the pain she was about to inflict on herself he would drop everything.

  She couldn’t allow that. She understood the nature of a ruler, the sacrifices that had to be made in order to ensure the safety and well-being of your people. Her pain could, and would, be endured without him.

  But while that was what the invader in her mind wanted her to believe, it was not reality. It would more than likely end with her standing outside the Throne, wondering what she’d been so afraid of.

  Besides, Ash was on her left, Greer on her right. What could possibly go wrong?

  For once, the voice was silent. Maybe Dragos truly had driven it from her mind.

  “You have no power over me.” Her voice took on more strength as the intruder remained silent. She could do this.

  She picked up her foot, ready to set it outside the Throne.

  She was strong, the strongest in the forest. Nothing and no one could stop her, not when she set her mind to something. She was woman. Hear her roar.

  She could do this.

  Mina took a single step outside the Throne—

  She hadn’t known the term “blinded by pain” was based in fact, and she still wished she didn’t. Agony filled every pore of her being until she couldn’t even see. She collapsed under the weight of it, hitting the ground and curling into a ball.

  But no, that wasn’t right. She wasn’t on the ground at all. Rough bark pinched at her skin, and the agitated rustle of leaves filled her ears.

  Goddess, no. Not again.

  But she couldn’t deny what her senses were telling her. She was once again pinned to her tree—

  “No one will come for you. No one can save you.”

  She stared down into virulent green eyes. The aura around Terri was stronger, the sense of evil shivering through Mina. That evil hadn’t managed to touch her...yet. She had no doubt Terri meant to change that. “I don’t believe you.”

  Scabrous, moss-covered brows rose in disbelief. “They’ve left you alone. There’s no one here. Not even your precious Dragos.”

  “Dragos will come for me.” She knew that, just as she knew the sun would rise in the morning and Greer would get into trouble without really meaning to. It was inevitable.

  Her mate would come, and he would destroy the one who’d done this to her.

  Terri smiled, and poison pumped into Mina, sending her into screaming agony once more. “Give up, Mina. Give in. You no longer hold power here. I do.”

  Mina held on. The bitch was wrong. Terri would never hold power here, not in the Throne. Not while Mina still drew breath. She knew the truth of it now. None of this was real, and when Dragos got hold of whoever this was he’d tear them apart with his bare hands. “Get out of my head.”

  The creature laughed, a wet, bubbling sound that revolted Mina. “I can’t. I’m a part of you.” Terri placed her hand on Mina’s cheek. “What do you think happened when I pumped my poison into you?”

  Mina stared at Terri, horrified. No. It wasn’t possible.

  “I am you now.”

  * * *

  “Mina!”

  Mina opened her eyes
and screamed.

  “Shit. Call Selena—this is worse than we thought.” Greer kissed her forehead. “Calm down. Dragos is going to come back and think we hurt you, and then he’ll hurt us. I don’t like being hurt, okay? Besides, if he really is a dragon shifter, I’ll bet I’m crunchy and good with ketchup, but I don’t want to find out.”

  Mina stared up at Greer, her thoughts reeling out of control. “She’s in me.”

  Greer tilted his head. “Well, yeah. We know someone’s in your head, sweetie. That’s why we called Selena, remember?”

  “No. Terri. She’s still in me. She pumped something inside me when she tortured me, and she’s still fucking in me.”

  Greer blinked and placed his hands on her shoulders. The easygoing expression that normally dominated his face was gone, replaced by the man who was her guardian just as much as Ash was. He began to speak in a singsong voice, the tones low, the words just at the edge of understanding.

  Mina held perfectly still as Greer worked his magic. If he found Terri’s spores within her, there would be nothing left for him to do but kill her. It was his duty. Oak could not become corrupted.

  It would be the second time in the long history of Maggie’s Grove that the ruling dryads had been forced to put Oak to death, and the grief would be nearly overwhelming until a new Oak was born.

  Losing both Mina and Iva would be catastrophic, and not just to the forest. Everything was tied together, root and branch, their little town as much a part of Mina’s demesne as the actual forest. She had almost forgotten that, until Terri came and reminded Mina of her duty.

  If Oak went insane...

  No. She wouldn’t believe it. Couldn’t. The death toll would be too high if Mina lost control to a creature like Terri.

  Greer stopped the chant, shaking her a little. “You listen to me, okay? Terri is not in you. That fucker is messing with your head again.”

  Mina shook her head. “She said—”

  “I may be weakened by Iva’s absence, but something like what you describe couldn’t hide itself. Not from me.”

  “Are you certain?” She couldn’t believe. It could all be a lie.

  “She could have told you she was a purple, one-legged hippopotamus and it wouldn’t make it true. Would I lie to you about something this important?”

  Greer wouldn’t, but there might be things he didn’t know, couldn’t see.

  “I’m a singer, Mina. You know that. Trust me, if there was anything of Terri left in you, I’d be the first to know, weakened or not. I might not have been strong enough to fight her my way, but now that I have her sound I’d know if she was in you. She’s not. It’s not her voice.”

  She took a deep, shuddering breath, and let it out slowly. He was right. There was no way that sort of evil could hide itself from a singer.

  Dryad singers were healers of soil and leaf, warriors who rooted out rot and weeds so that healthy plants could grow and thrive. They were to the forest what a doctor was to the body, singing both back to health. It was one of the reasons she’d sent him to The Greenhouse after Terri attacked the town, nearly destroying Mollie Ferguson’s life work. He’d sung to all of the plants there, taking joy in their renewed life. As a ruling dryad, his power was greater than any other singer of the forest—even without Iva to complete them.

  Each of them had different skills they utilized to keep the forest, and its inhabitants, free from harm. It was Ash’s job to be the guardian, keeping them all safe. Iva’s job had been, and remained, that of peacekeeper and, some day, Mina’s ambassador to the other supernaturals in town. Iva used to laugh and say that her main purpose in life was to keep Ash and Greer from killing each other. Some days that was a full-time job.

  Goddess, Mina missed her, missed the woman she claimed as sister with all her heart. It was Greer’s job to see to the well-being of every creature and tree within the borders of Mina’s forest, using his powers to search out what he called their songs. He still felt guilt over not catching Terri’s discordant notes winging through the forest, but Mina was glad he hadn’t. If he had, he would have rushed off to confront her and more than likely lost his life. It had taken all of them working in concert to destroy Terri, and they’d required not only the hamadryad but Mollie Ferguson’s power over fire. Only Mollie’s fire and Selena’s magic had been able to finally put an end to the witch’s reign of terror.

  Greer would have been just another casualty if he’d confronted Terri alone, and the thought had Mina hugging him tight.

  “Hey!” Greer hugged her back, hard, his voice filled with concern. “What’s this all about?”

  He might not have been strong enough to remove Terri’s poison from the forest, but he could tell if it was there. She believed him. She had to.

  “If that’s what you choose to believe, who am I to argue?” The voice laughed with that same horrible bubbling madness that filled her nightmares.

  She bit her lip hard enough she tasted blood. Even Greer could make mistakes. There was no way he could be one hundred percent certain Terri’s taint was out of her system.

  “Can too.”

  She stared up at him, shocked.

  “Please. It was all over your face. The bitch in your head is pretending to be Terri, drawing on your memories and twisting them for her own purposes. And if you can’t believe me, for whatever reason, trust Selena and Dragos. Trust me. Please?”

  She did trust him. “Okay.”

  He stood and held out his hand. “Let’s get you on your feet.”

  Mina took it and allowed him to haul her up. “I feel like I’ve been run over by a Zamboni.”

  “Scraped raw and left wet?”

  She snorted out a laugh. Trust Greer to get it. Ash would have looked at her funny, and Iva would have just rolled her eyes, utterly exasperated. “Exactly.”

  “What have you been doing to my sotiei, Greer?”

  Greer grimaced and took a step back, leaving a wobbly Mina to collapse back against a hard male chest. He held his hands up in the air in the classic “I give up” pose. “Nothing. Honest. Tell me you don’t like ketchup.”

  “What?”

  Greer grinned. “Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons—”

  Ash echoed Greer. “—for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup.”

  Dragos sighed. “I don’t like ketchup.”

  “Go me.” Greer grinned and took another step back. “Could you confirm something for me, please?”

  “Of course.”

  “Tell her nothing of Terri is left within her.”

  Mina felt the scrape of claws against her stomach. “I would be delighted to.”

  Greer took off at a run, the lowly, yellow-bellied coward, followed swiftly by Ash. So much for her guardians.

  “What makes you think Terri is inside you?”

  Mina blew her bangs out of her eyes. “The voice told me she was.”

  Dragos growled. His beast was closer to the surface than she’d thought. “Did she now.”

  “Not... What I mean is, the voice attacked when I set foot outside the Throne.”

  “You stepped outside the Throne?” Dragos picked her up and spun her around, hugging her tight. “I’m so proud of you.”

  She sighed and held on tight, burying her face against his neck. With him holding her off the ground, it was something she could do without turning her tall mate into a pretzel. “It didn’t work out the way I’d planned. I collapsed the minute I did. The voice told me she was Terri, and that she was still inside me. That she’d have control over the whole forest because she was me.”

  Dragos sniffed her neck, a low, rumbling growl continually shaking his chest. She bet if she got a look at his eyes they’d be blood red. “Did she hurt you?”

  He must have picked up the scent of her pain from her skin. The chemicals the body produced during pain, as in pleasure, would be noticeable to a shifter. “Yes.”

  Dragos roared, the sound shaking the trees around them, causing leaves
to float down on them.

  She patted his chest, refusing to lift her head. Not only was she comfy, but she was afraid if she did he’d see it as some sort of desire to move away from him. The way his beast was acting, that could wind up with Ash and Greer either dead, or standing over the body of her mate. Neither was something she wanted to see.

  “Where’s a Renfield when you need one?” Ash’s voice was shaken, but she didn’t dare lift her head to check on him. He must have returned at Dragos’s cry.

  A Renfield knew how to calm the beast of his chosen vampire—making them far more than gophers or day guardians. A Renfield, with the right training, could actually put a vampire in the grip of his beast back into day sleep, keeping him from doing harm. It was one of the reasons Dragos insisted every vampire in town have one, and had the town council pay their salaries. Renfields provided a necessary service, placing their lives in danger whether they knew it or not.

  If a vampire gave in to his beast and had not connected properly with his Renfield, all the chanting in the world wouldn’t be able to save him. Only his blood would soothe the beast, but the Renfield could die due to massive blood loss.

  If he lived, he was removed from the vampire, a new Renfield replacing him. If he died, the vampire in question had to pay restitution to the family of the lost one. It was a hazard all Renfields were aware of and accepted for the chance to have what Parker and Brian, Dragos and Eddy had.

  A home, where they were safe, loved and protected.

  But Eddy wasn’t here, so she kept petting her vampire, hoping her power as his sotiei would calm him.

  The rumbling didn’t let up. If anything, it grew stronger, practically making him vibrate. His arms tightened around her in a display of possessiveness that might have annoyed her on any other day.

  Today, she needed to feel safe, to be held like this. She wasn’t Queen, she was Mina, and her mate was hurting on her behalf and ready to take on whatever had harmed her.

  “Eşti sigură, iubita.”

  He was using the bond he’d established with her to speak to her, trying to calm her.

  That was it! Why hadn’t she thought of that before? If he could do that, so could she. “Dragos, it’s all right. I’m okay.”