by Ruby Dixon
“If you want me to beg, I’m not going to beg,” Tate says coldly.
Azar chuckles again. “No, I do not want you to beg. Rand?”
Before I can ask who Rand is, a gunshot goes off in the room, blasting my eardrums and making my head ring. I recoil in shock as something wet splatters my face.
Oh.
My.
God.
43
SASHA
“Tate?” I whisper. I can barely hear myself. My head’s still reverberating with the gunshot in such close quarters. My ears ring. Fear makes me pant, and I’m sweating with nervousness. Someone here has a gun.
Someone just got shot.
“He will not be answering,” Azar tells me.
My body grows cold. Oh my God. Tate’s…dead?
“And I do not think anyone else will be running their mouths anytime soon,” Azar continues. “It is such a dangerous thing to do, selling out people.” He moves forward, and his hand touches my face. He tilts my chin up, and even though I can’t see him, I feel scrutinized. “I do not want you to be alarmed, Sasha. You are my guest.”
I want to retort that Tate was his guest, too, but I’m too distracted. His hand is hot against my skin, and the spicy smell is thicker now that he’s standing closer, and I realize where I’ve smelled that before.
On a dragon. On Dakh.
Is Azar a dragon? But how? He’s talking in English, and even though his accent is strange, he sounds human. And sane.
Or a little insane, but nothing like Kael or Dakh. I don’t understand.
He taps my cheek. “Interesting that you are his mate. I would not have guessed it by looking at you. But Tate says he did not lie.”
“What if he did?” I reply, voice hoarse.
The air shifts, and I can tell Azar is leaning in. The heat of his body is close to my face, and the intense spice smell of him grows thicker. “We both know he did not,” Azar murmurs to me. He straightens and steps away. There is a pause, then footsteps. “Someone get him out of there and wipe her face. She is our guest. Now, I am going to go and take a nap. Wake me up when the dragon figures out where she is.”
Time passes. I feel like I’m stuck in limbo. I’m uncomfortable because of the cuffs and my blindfold, but I’m not really sure what else to do other than sit here. I’m thirsty. I’m tired. My head is swimming.
But at least I’m not dead.
It’s been hours, I think, since Azar left. Hours since someone came in and wiped my face with a wet towel, getting rid of the spatters of Tate’s blood. Hours since someone showed up and mopped the floors of whatever mess Tate left. I don’t like to think about it.
I focus instead on Azar.
The hand that touched my face was hot. The scent of him was familiar. If I could have seen him, maybe I would have noticed claws or golden skin and golden eyes. The question is, why is he so different? How does he speak English so well? How is he not completely insane unless he has a mate, too?
He must…but who?
And if he has a mate, what does he want with me and Dakh?
There has to be an answer I’m overlooking. Something obvious. Something that will pull this all together and make sense. I just haven’t found it yet.
The door opens, and I lift my head, body going on alert once more. “Who’s there?”
“It’s me, Emma,” comes a whispered voice. Footsteps pad across the floor. “Keep your voice down so the guards don’t hear us.”
Emma?
I’m shocked. Of all the people I expected to hear from in this place, Emma isn’t it. But as she nears, I smell the rose perfume that she’s been wearing since that day in the store when we swapped her deer spray for a more pleasant scent. “You…you’re working with these guys?”
A second later, gentle hands lift the blindfold from my eyes. She gazes at me with a haunted expression. It’s Emma, all right, but there’s a giant bruise across one cheek, and her chin is scratched up. She’s dirty, and there are circles under her eyes. She looks miserable as she sets down a tray of soup on a nearby table. “Bathroom?” she calls loudly. “Okay, come on then.” She puts a finger to her lips and takes me by the arm, helping me to my feet.
I have no choice but to go. Even as I do, I glance around, making note of my surroundings. What I can see doesn’t tell me much—it’s a hotel room of some kind, but the carpets have been torn up and there’s nothing but bare floor showing. The sofa I was sitting on is filthy and worn, and there’s a stained mattress in the corner of the room. The one window in the room is covered with cardboard so I can’t see outside. There’s a bathroom off to one side, and Emma steers me in that direction, her expression tense.
I head inside, and she immediately locks the door, and then it’s the two of us in the tiny bathroom with not much room to stand. “Not to get too fresh,” she whispers, “But I’m going to pull up your skirt and it’ll probably look more legit if you actually use the bathroom. Take your time, though, so we can talk.”
“Uh, okay.” I try not to get weirded out as she hikes my skirts up and pulls my panties down for me. I sit on the toilet, and she sits down on the lip of the old, chipped bathtub next to me. “What’s going on? Why are you here? Are you all right?”
Emma crosses her arms over her chest and hunches over. “Define ‘all right’? I’m alive and haven’t been raped yet. That’s about all I’ve got going for me right now.” The smile she gives me is wintry.
“Are they holding you captive?” I shift on the toilet seat, because I didn’t think it was possible to be more uncomfortable in a pair of cuffs, but I guess I’m wrong. The toilet is hard and uncomfortable, and I can’t seem to sit in a way that doesn’t pinch my arms against the tank.
“Yes and no? I don’t want to be here, but I don’t have a choice.” She rubs her hands over her forehead. “These nomads, they’re kind of a gang. Most nomads split up after robbing each other and go their own way. This bunch sticks together and looks out for each other. I guess they’re able to get more shit done that way. Anyhow, they passed by my gas station about a week ago. Lucky me. And guess who was there with them? My brother, who got my butt kicked out of Fort Tulsa with him two years ago.”
“Your brother?”
“Long story short, he’s an asshole. He’s…not a good guy.” She wrings her hands. “When we got booted from Fort Tulsa, I tried to stay behind. I didn’t want to go with him. But because I’m an Arroyo, too, they made me leave the fort with Boyd. I ran away from him a couple weeks later when it became obvious that when we ran out of money, I was going to have to hustle for him.” She shakes her head and tucks a strand of dark hair behind her ear. “I never wanted to see him again. Finding him here was bad luck. Finding out that he’s one of Azar’s right-hand men? Worse luck.”
“This Azar guy,” I say softly. “You—”
“I know,” Emma replies, glancing at the door. “I think he’s a dragon.”
44
SASHA
Emma twists her hands as she says the words. “No one else has figured it out yet—that he’s not one of us. I knew it the moment I saw him. He’s got that weird monochrome look that Dakh does, but he’s a lot paler. No horns. Long hair. Heard someone joke that they thought he was an albino, but I think he’s a dragon. He’s got weird fingernails, and he just seems…strange.”
“He is a dragon,” I tell her with a nod. “You’re right. Have you seen his mate?”
“I don’t think he has one.”
“How is it possible that he’s not crazy if he doesn’t have a mate?” That goes against everything I’ve learned about dragons.
“There aren’t many women traveling with this bunch. I’m the only one under the age of menopause.” She twitches, nervous. “And if I don’t start putting out for someone soon, it doesn’t matter that I’m Boyd’s sister. They’re going to get rid of me for not playing nice.”
“Emma, I’m so sorry.” I twist my hands in the cuffs, frustrated. “They know about the scen
t disguising.”
Her smile is brittle. “I know. Boyd. That fucker.”
I shake my head, trying to focus. I need to think about Azar. “He has to have a mate. What about…what about guys? Is there a particular man he might be involved with? If dragons can have female mates, surely they can also have male ones.”
“No, that’s just it. I don’t think he’s close to anyone. Azar’s always alone.”
Well shit. “What do we do?”
“It gets worse,” she tells me, a look of despair on her face. “They have another dragon.”
I stare at her in horror. “They…what?”
“I know.” She bites her lip, her face haunted. “He’s shifted into his human form and they have him all rigged up in these special chains so he can’t change back. He’s totally crazed, Sasha. We have to help him.”
“How are we going to help anyone?” I jerk at my cuffs, then wince at the shot of pain that rolls up my arms. “And what does this guy want with a dragon?”
“I don’t know. I worry he’s going to attack the nearest fort and take it over. Isn’t that what every power-mad idiot wants? More power?”
“He can have the fort,” I tell her, shifting uncomfortably once more. “I don’t want anything to do with them.”
“I can’t just let him take over. Who knows how many more people he’s going to kill?”
I think of Tate and shudder. Of the families still living there. No, I guess I talk a big game, but I don’t want them to die, either. “What do we do, then?”
“I don’t know,” she admits. “But as long as I’m ‘with them—’” she makes quotes with her hands “—they let me work with prisoners and do shitty jobs around here. I found out about that Tate dickhead yesterday. They’d been messing with him for a while now, making him act as their slave, doing shit jobs for them, all kinds of unpleasant stuff. The moment I joined them, I found out he’s been blabbing about dragons and you, and then the next thing I know, we’re heading in your direction and Azar has a plan. I don’t know what the plan is, but he’s really excited about it. My brother says this is the most excited he’s seen Azar since he met him.”
“What do you think it could be?”
“Something with Dakh,” she tells me ominously. “If you hear from him, you need to tell him to stay away. That’s why they kidnapped you. They want to bring him in and use him.”
“Use him? No one can use a dragon.”
“Azar thinks he can,” she says. “And that’s the part that scares me the most.”
Me, too.
We talk for a bit longer, but Emma has to go before the others start to suspect our friendship. She bandages my wrists with a bit of fabric so the cuffs don’t cut into my flesh, replaces my blindfold and leaves it high enough so I can see a bit underneath, and apologizes over and over again.
“I’ll be back as soon as I can,” she promises as she leads me back out to the couch. “Until then, just hang tight.”
“We have to get out of here,” I tell her, worried. “Please. You have to help me.”
“I know. I will, I promise. I just have to figure out the best way to get us both out of here without getting killed.”
“Tell me where we are and I can direct Dakh. I can have him come in and start flaming—”
“And get captured like the other dragon?” She shakes her head. “If he’s got a way to capture one dragon, he’ll capture yours, too. And then he’ll have two dragons at his beck and call and no one will be able to stand in his way. I’ve learned enough about Azar to realize that he’s not interested in what’s good for the common people, Sasha. He’s out for Azar and Azar alone.”
“Then what do you suggest?”
She thinks for a moment. “The best thing we can do right now is figure out a way to get you out of here and back to him, and he can fly us both the fuck out of Dodge.”
I nod. “I’m trusting you.”
She moves me back to the couch and helps me sit down, then picks up the bowl. “You don’t know me,” she whispers. “I’m just the girl that serves you soup.” Then louder, she holds up a spoon. “Open wide. Let’s make this feeding quick or you’re going to be wearing this stuff.”
45
DAKH
The ravens are my companions as I wheel about in the skies, endlessly searching for my mate. I never realized until now how big this world is, how much land there is to cover.
How small one human female can be in all this.
It has been an eternity since I felt her thoughts, and with every moment that passes, my despair grows and the ravens fly thicker. Already they cry terrible things, encouraging me to flame this building as I pass, or to destroy this barricade. Turn this tree to ash, that field to dust.
But the field is full of flowers, and I know my Sasha loves them, so I land there and wait, hoping against hope that her mind will connect with mine. That I have just somehow missed her and she is there, waiting for me. That she is safe.
That she is not hurt, or in pain.
I know she is not dead. The tenuous thread of her mind is there, and I have followed it as closely as I can, trying to make it grow larger, to increase the connection. To hear her thoughts pour into my head. So far, there has been nothing.
I am failing her, I realize with despair. Failing my sweet mate, who I should have protected. SASHA, I call again, my thoughts raging. I pump all that I am into the thrust of my mind and force it forward like a bolt. SASHA, I AM HERE.
There is only silence. Not even the ravens dare to speak up.
Furious, I launch myself from the field of flowers and take to the air once more. I will not stop until her mind touches mine again. She exists. I just have to find out where she is and save her.
And I will take great pleasure in destroying the ones who have stolen her from me.
I use the long ribbons of hard concrete—Sasha calls them “highways”—as markers. Once I have coasted as far along a highway as I can, I turn back and go in another direction. They continue on for what seems like forever, but I remain close to the ruins of Old Dallas. She is here. Somewhere. I do not want to think what will happen if whoever has stolen her takes her farther away while I sleep and I lose the thread of her mind entirely.
I will not sleep until I find her once more.
SASHA, I call out as I turn in another direction, swooping low to follow along another highway.
Dakh?
The thought is faint but beautiful. HERE, I call to her, as forcefully as I can. I AM HERE. WHERE ARE YOU? I alight atop a building so I can concentrate on sending her my thoughts as clearly as possible. Tell me where you are and I will come for you!
I…I don’t know where I’m at. The people that took me, they’re keeping me blindfolded. I’m in an old hotel, but there are dozens of those all over the city, Dakh.
Ravens flutter in the edges of my vision, and anger burns. They think to keep her from me? From her mate? From her protector? They will burn. I will find out which building, I vow. I will follow your scent—
They’ve sprayed me with the scent-masking perfumes, Dakh. They don’t want you to find me yet. They’re up to something. You can’t come for me. It’s too dangerous.
I do not care if it is dangerous. You are mine to protect.
Dakh, no. Stop and listen to me, all right? Please.
Even though it is the most difficult thing I have ever done, I force myself to stop, to pay attention. The ravens circle about, waiting, but I push them back. My Sasha is the most important thing right now. Nothing else matters. Speak, and tell me why I cannot come for you.
There’s something weird going on here, she tells me. Emma’s here. Tate was here, too, but they killed him. He’s the one who told them where to find me.
Who is it that has you? Which humans? Are you at the hive? My legs tense, and I am ready to spring into the air once more.
No, I’m not. I don’t know where they have me. Someplace hidden. They don’t want you to find me. Or rat
her, they do, but not right away. I think they’re setting a trap and it’s not ready yet. That’s why they’re keeping me blindfolded and masking my scent. They want to wait, and then they want me to bring you in.
So I can destroy them? I put flame behind the thoughts.
That’s just it—I think they want to capture you. They’ve got another dragon they’re holding captive, Dakh. And their leader? I think…I think he’s drakoni. His name is Azar, and he’s pretending to be human. He smells like a drakoni, and his skin is hot, but he sounds like any other human, and he’s not crazy. It’s so weird—
Rage boils through me. I let out a massive rush of flame and crisp a nearby tree. She has felt his skin? He has touched you? He will DIE.
Not like that, babe. I promise. Please, please listen. You can hear me, right? Concentrate on my voice. Calm down. Think about me. Calm. You can’t lose your shit, babe. I need you to be focused. I need us to be in this together. I need to be able to count on you. Can you stay calm for me?
I growl low in my throat. Every instinct I have tells me that I must go and rescue my mate. That I should ignore her words and follow her scent and mind until I track her down. I can flame every building from here to the ocean. I will find her. I am strong enough to defeat any other dragon.
But there is an anxious note in her thoughts that keeps me from charging forward. She is truly worried for me.
Of course I’m worried. They’re setting a trap for you. It’ll destroy me if you get hurt, Dakh. You’re the only thing that’s keeping me from losing it.
Her rising panic makes me realize that what she says is true. They have my mate. They took her deliberately in a ploy to attack me. They know how I will lose control if she is in danger, and they are counting on that. Even though it goes against everything that I am—and everything the ravens caw in my ears—I must listen. This is…difficult. I will try.
