Dragon's Curse (Harlequin Nocturne)

by Lynn, Denise

  “Oh, no, you don’t.” Cam grasped her chin, forcing her to face him. “A beloved family retainer, a friend, a trusted confidant died today because of you.” He paused to visibly swallow before asking, “Do you think your tears mean anything to me?”

  “You don’t understand!” Her voice broke on a cry.

  “You have had more than one opportunity to gain my understanding. I would have willingly helped you, had you just once told me the truth.” He rose and looked down at her. The disdain on his face was obvious. “Now I don’t care.”

  Ariel sat up on the bed as he walked away to retrieve the duffel bag. She brushed away the despicable tears spilling from her eyes, and forced back the pain tearing at her to shout, “They will kill my brother!”

  He threw the bag at the door and stormed back to the side of the bed. “You fool, they still will.”

  “No.” Ariel looked down at her hands. If she believed that, all hope would be lost. The only thing she had to hang on to was the slim promise of Carl’s continued safety. “No. He promised.”

  “Promised?” She flinched at Cam’s harsh bark of laughter. “The Learneds don’t know the meaning of the word. Get up, you need to get packed.” When she hesitated, he ordered without emotion, “Now.”

  “Please, I can’t. I can’t go there.”

  “This isn’t a debate.” He pulled her from the bed and shoved the empty duffel bag into her arms. “You’ll pack, or I’ll pack for you. Doesn’t matter to me either way. But you are coming with me.”

  Cam pushed her toward the door. Following behind her he grabbed his bag on the way out of his bedroom. When they walked into her room, he pointed at the grimoire. “Take that along, too.”

  She tried once more. “Don’t make me do this. Don’t make me go with you.”

  His raised eyebrow should have been answer enough. But when she didn’t change her mind, he said, “If I leave you here my aunt will kill you with her bare hands. You’d fare better against the dragon than you would her.”

  * * *

  Nathan stared at the flashing computer monitor on his desk. The beginnings of a smile eased his scowl. “It worked.”

  “What worked?” Jeremy sat up straighter on the chair across from his father’s desk. The last conversation with Ms. Johnson hadn’t gone well. When he’d seen the whip hanging over the back of Nathan’s chair, he had feared that this interview with his sire would end as badly as their last one.

  Slowly healing gashes from the whip still burned like fire each time he entered this office. Memories of the whistling sound as the whip flew through the air toward him, the stinging pain as it laced across his flesh and the taste of his own blood as he’d bitten his lips to keep from screaming were still fresh in his mind.

  Eventually he’d given up trying to hold back his screams and had let the high-pitched wails tear from his throat until he could scream no more. The only reason he lived was because his father believed he could still prove useful.

  Until he could devise a way to catch his sire off guard, he would build upon that belief.

  “The Drakes’ private jet is being fueled. And flight plans to Mirabilus have been filed.” Nathan’s voice lightened with each spoken word.

  Jeremy closed his eyes in relief. As hard as he’d tried to get to the handyman at the Lair, he’d been thwarted at every turn. Refusing to accept failure, he’d turned his attention to Mirabilus.

  It had been fairly easy to hire someone to slip beneath the older, weaker security system on the isle and kidnap Brightworthe.

  Unfortunately, killing Brightworthe had been child’s play. The mercenary’s death had been quicker and even less enjoyable.

  In truth, the whole episode had proven quite boring. Brightworthe had died far too easily for Jeremy’s taste. He’d found no pleasure, no assimilation of power in the man’s quick demise.

  “What had you expected?”

  His father’s question instantly jerked him out of his thoughts. “From what?”

  “You killed the soldier too fast—leaving nothing for you to gain. And the old man wasn’t a wizard, just long-lived. Surely you didn’t expect to find anything worth stealing from his departing soul?”

  “No.” Absently, Jeremy added, “But I had hoped there would be…something of value.”

  Nathan laughed softly, drawing the end of the whip through his fingers. “Nothing of value can be gained from a mortal’s soul. You need to learn how to take pleasure in their suffering.”

  Jeremy flinched, afraid to even wonder how he could learn such a skill. From the intent look of pure evil shimmering from his father’s eyes, he feared the answer would be found at the painful end of the whip.

  The older wizard’s roar of laughter set Jeremy’s heart racing. Nathan let the whip coil onto the floor alongside his chair and then leaned forward. “You are still useful, my dear boy. And at the moment, I find it far too amusing to watch you seek ways to best me. Your death right now, at this time, doesn’t suit my interests.”

  When Jeremy breathed a sigh of relief and eased back into the chair, Nathan added, “At least not today.”

  Chapter 14

  Through half-closed eyes, Cam studied Ariel while she alternately stared out the window of the jet and fell into a fitful sleep. He should feel bad about having been so heartlessly nasty and manhandling her earlier.

  But he didn’t.

  It was a little hard to have much sympathy for her considering how she’d withheld information that might have prevented Brightworthe’s death and Harold’s fall.

  It would have been quicker, and easier, to fly to Mirabilus alone under his own power. But Danielle Drake would have killed Ariel if he’d have left her at the Lair—not figuratively, but literally.

  And while he was beyond angry with her and himself for this strange sense of betrayal, he didn’t want to see her dead.

  Which was the reason he’d made damn certain he and Ariel had gotten out of the Lair and onto the jet as quickly as possible.

  To his chagrin, his beast had spent the past nine hours making him pay for hurting Ariel’s feelings and frightening her. Heartburn and indigestion didn’t begin to describe the rumbling and twisting of his stomach.

  Still, he found the dragon’s snit rather fascinating. What did it hope to gain by this spiteful torment? This woman wouldn’t be in their future.

  After taking care of things at Mirabilus, he would find a way to get her out of this mess with the Learneds. Then he’d send her on her way.

  Cam gritted his teeth against the sudden twisting contraction of his stomach. Silently he tried to reason with the beast, “Look, you know as well as I do that it was just physical. There was never anything between us except lust. She doesn’t care for us any more than I do for her.”

  In his mind he could see the dragon toss its head and turn away as if refusing to listen. Cam seethed inwardly. Of all the times to be cooped up with an audience.

  He didn’t argue with the dragon often. Most times it was a losing battle. But until Ariel, they’d never had to argue about a woman. This was a battle Cam knew he couldn’t afford to lose.

  He tried another tactic. “Okay, sure, you seem to think she’s your mate.” The beast hitched one spiked eyebrow, but still refused to look directly at him. “We’re cursed, you know. If you keep her, she’ll die. It’s kinder to let her go. Even more so if she believes we don’t care.”

  Cam waited a moment, then asked, “Don’t
you understand that’s it always going to be just you and me?” When the memory of the shadowy changeling they’d seen last night entered his mind, he added, “You know as well as I do that last night’s vision was nothing more than wishful thinking.”

  The dragon’s mournful sigh sent a shiver down Cam’s spine. The beast lowered its head and Cam knew by the sudden heaviness in his chest that it understood.

  “Mr. Drake, we’ll be landing soon.” The pilot’s voice over the intercom drew Cam from his internal conversation.

  He nudged Ariel’s foot with his own. “Put your seat up and buckle your seat belt.”

  Ariel jumped at the contact. This was the first thing he’d said to her since they’d left her bedroom at the Lair.

  After bringing her seat up and securing the seat belt, she stared back out the window toward the island far below. The last time she’d flown over the island it had been night and she’d jumped out of a perfectly working helicopter into the sea.

  Her parents had always thought that it was insane to bail out of an aircraft—especially if the thing was in good working order. She’d agreed. And when she’d dropped from Renalde’s helicopter, she’d felt insane.

  But right now she’d give anything for a good parachute.

  It didn’t matter that Mirabilus sparkled like an emerald in the sunlight. Nor did she care that from here even the rocky cliffs looked beautiful and exotic jutting out between the green of the land and the brilliant blue of the sea.

  If she had a choice, she’d rather bail onto the rocks without a chute rather than step foot on the island again.

  Something deep inside her warned that it was waiting for her. The dragon-man she’d encountered in the workshop lurked in the shadows, eager to once again make her acquaintance.

  “It’ll be all right.”

  She flinched at Cam’s touch against her cheek and jerked her face away. “Don’t.”

  “Don’t what?”

  “Don’t be nice, you don’t mean it. Don’t touch me.”

  Naturally, he caressed her cheek before turning her head back to face him. “It’s not for much longer. Soon we’ll be out of each other’s lives.”

  “Good.” His soft laugh at her snide reply chafed, so she elaborated, “I’m glad we won’t have to deal with each other for much longer.”

  He stroked the pad of his thumb across her lower lip. “Of course you are. In the meantime, we could pretend to get along.”

  She smiled, then caught his thumb between her teeth.

  “Bite me, Ariel, and I swear I’ll drop you naked to the floor of this plane and make you moan until you beg for release.”

  Surely he was bluffing.

  “I don’t embarrass easily. An audience wouldn’t faze me in the least.”

  Still uncertain if he’d truly pull such a stunt with a cockpit full of people, she hesitated.

  “The pilots and the attendant are all on the payroll. Do you think they’d say or do anything to stop me?”

  When she didn’t relax her hold, Cam did little more than arch one eyebrow. Instantly her bra disappeared and she felt the silky smoothness of her blouse rub against her naked breasts.

  She opened her mouth, freeing his thumb. But instead of withdrawing, he traced across her tongue, then lightly trailed just along the inside of her lip before pulling his hand away.

  A tiny jolt of electricity raced through her, she gasped at the sudden and completely unexpected zing.

  Cam leaned back against his seat. He propped his elbows on the armrest and steepled his fingers before him. “We’d be liars if we said there was no attraction here.”

  He might not embarrass easily, but she felt her cheeks flame and looked down at her lap.

  “We’re only going to be here a few days. Nothing is going to happen to you—nothing you don’t want. I’ll see to that.”

  She waited for the punch line, fully expecting it to include something about sex.

  “However, I’m not going to have time to play any more games. You need to tell me what it is you’re doing for the Learneds. In return, I’ll find a way to get them out of your life.”

  Ariel blinked with surprise at that unexpected offer. She looked up, not trusting him to be telling her the truth. “Why would you help me now?”

  “Honestly?”

  She nodded.

  “Once they’re out of your life, they’re out of mine and so are you.”

  She couldn’t understand why that statement hurt so much. To keep him from knowing what she really felt, she glared at him. “And if I refuse to tell you?”

  “I have every intention of chaining you to a bed naked and driving you wild until you change your mind.”

  A part of her wanted to laugh at his ludicrous answer. But the serious tone in his voice and his unwavering stare warned her that he might not be kidding.

  Unwilling to put him to the test, she said, “If I tell you, he’ll know.”

  Cam’s lips twitched, making her aware that no matter how…interesting he found the idea, he had only been teasing her. He asked, “How would he know?”

  “He’s like your aunt.” She spoke without thinking.

  This time, he frowned. “When do you have to call him again?”

  “In six days.”

  “Then we have less than a week to find whatever it is you’re looking for.”

  Ariel debated for a minute. The plane banked and she looked out the window at Mirabilus. Her breath hitched. The less time she spent here, the better off she would be. Finally, she gazed back at Cam. “An emerald dragon pendant and a wooden puzzle box.”

  He shook his head. “You can’t have the dragon. It belongs to Alexia and I know that she’d never give it up.”

  “Is there another one?”

  “Doesn’t matter, because even if there is, I’m not about to hand it over to a Learned.”

  Ariel wanted to scream at him in frustration. Why go through this pretense of wanting to help her if he had no intention of doing so? “If I don’t find these things, my brother will be killed.”

  “Then we’re going to have to figure something out, aren’t we?” His frown deepened as he glanced out the window at the quickly approaching runway. “I know why they want the pendant, but what magic does this puzzle box contain?”

  “I have no clue. It’s not like Renalde confides in me.”

  The jet touched down lightly and taxied toward the small airport. Cam flipped his cell phone open and requested a car be sent to the hangar. He undid his seat belt and then rose. “Let’s go. Our ride will be here momentarily.”

  Queasy and not at all anxious to get off the plane, Ariel took her time. Essentially they were here for a murder investigation and a funeral. Neither would be fun for Cam.

  “Will the authorities be here?”

  “Authorities?”

  Ariel shrugged. “To investigate the murder?”

  To her dismay, he walked away. Over his shoulder he explained, “In Braeden’s absence, I am the authority.”

  She followed him down the steps, shocked to find a limo already waiting. When Cam stepped onto the tarmac, the driver snapped his heels, came to attention and saluted before opening the limo’s door.

  Ariel had the sinking feeling that Cam hadn’t been kidding about the lord-king thing. She climbed into the car, taking a seat across from him. “Mirabilus isn’t just an island, is it?”

  He kept his focus on the papers he’d retrieved fr
om the briefcase on the seat, answering absently, “Of course it’s an island. It’s land surrounded by water.”

  She closed her eyes for a moment, attempting to rein in a flash of anger. “It’s not part of any other country, is it?”

  “No.”

  “So, your brother is…the king?”

  “In a sense.” He paused to shuffle through the pages in his hands. Finding the one he wanted, he put the rest down, adding, “His official title is High Dragon Lord of Mirabilus.”

  Of course. “And you are…what?”

  “Tired of your questions.”

  She jerked back as if slapped. “Excuse me, your lordship.”

  “That’s ‘my lord.’”

  “What?”

  He glanced at her over the page he was studying. “You address me as ‘my lord’ or ‘my liege’ if you prefer. But in this case, a simple ‘sir’ will suffice.”

  Before she could summon the ability to speak, he went back to his reading. She batted the page with the back of her hand. “Excuse me?”

  He lifted his head and stared at her. Ariel couldn’t believe she was involved in this conversation. “How about if I address you as Cam, or maybe even Cameron?”

  “In private that’ll be fine.”

  “In private? You’re kidding me, right?”

  “Unfortunately, I’m not. This is an official visit, not a vacation. I’m in charge when Braeden isn’t in residence. This is my island. Small as it is, it’s my country.”

  “I’m not a citizen of your country.”

  “Neither are you my wife. If you want to call me by name when we’re alone, that’s fine. But in public, if you can’t bring yourself to show a little respect for the customs of Mirabilus Isle, you can either keep your mouth shut, or stay in your room. We’re not in the States. This isn’t Tennessee.”

  “And I didn’t ask to come here.”

  He tapped the tinted window between them and the driver. The limo came to a stop. Cam pulled out his cell and offered it to her. “Would you like to listen to Danielle’s voice message? I’m sure then you’ll understand why you’re here. She’d have no problem killing you. And with her talents, trust me when I tell you that she’d get away with it.”