by Denise Lynn
Howls and growls of beasts in the distance, generally unheard by human ears, set him at ease. Just knowing that nature was performing as it should was enough to lull him into deep, blissful slumber.
At one time the low chuff or growl of a bear would have caused him concern, as would the mournful howl of a wolf. But now, as much beast as he was human, the territorial protests of the forest animals caused him nothing more than a second’s notice—a mere heartbeat of recognition before it was swept along with all the other nonevent moments of life.
Sean glanced toward the hallway. A nonevent kind of moment was what Caitlin should have been. She should have remained an extremely gorgeous woman he walked by on his way out of the bar. Instead, he’d had to meet her, had to mark her, had to spend three days and nights in her bed.
And because of all those had tos he was now a father and mated. And his child was stolen, a bargaining chip in a game as old as time.
Being a father wasn’t a bad thing. It actually made him feel as if he’d accomplished the miraculous feat alone. And being mated also wasn’t exactly a bad thing. Although Sean wished he’d had more say in the matter, more time to decide if this was truly his mate before the beast had up and taken the decision out of his hands. While it was too late now, it would have been nice if the dragon could have chosen someone who actually wanted to be mated to him.
Some type of shared wanting would come in handy for this wedding his aunt was planning. The woman was going to be sadly disappointed when it came to her youngest nephew since he wasn’t at all interested in getting married.
But right now he had other, more important things to concern him. Like the little fact that he was essentially lying—withholding the full truth—to Caitlin about something that really wasn’t quite so little, after all.
How was he going to tell her that everything she thought she knew about him was a lie, or at least not the whole truth? He wasn’t a dragon born. His beast existed because of a curse, and he had no way of knowing what would happen once that curse was broken.
Hell, he didn’t know if it could be broken. And even if he discovered a way to rid himself of this curse, did he want to surrender that part of him?
Chapter 5
Sean turned away from the panoramic view and headed down the hall to see what was keeping Caitlin, meeting her as she opened the door, rubbing a towel over her head. “I was coming to get you.”
She peeked at him from beneath the bath towel. “You told me to take some time, so I did.” She snatched the towel from her head. “I assumed we weren’t going out anywhere, but I didn’t really bring anything comfy-casual to wear, so I borrowed some things from your dresser. I hope you don’t mind.”
Sean lowered his gaze from her wet hair. He couldn’t remember his T-shirt or sweatpants ever looking quite so beguiling before. Of course she had to choose one of his old, small, thin, white T-shirts that suddenly seemed nearly transparent where it hugged her body. Even though she’d lost far too much weight since he’d last seen her, there was still enough padding beneath her smooth flesh to provide curves worth exploring.
Caitlin shoved the wadded-up, damp towel against his chest. “They’re called breasts, and you’ve seen them before.”
Unable to speak through the dryness making his tongue stick to the roof of his mouth, he stood there in silence and watched her sashay down the hallway toward the kitchen. The gray sweatpants—also threadbare and too small even for her—accentuated each and every dip and curve.
Oh, yeah, she’d chosen clothes from the bottom of the these-are-too-small drawer of his dresser on purpose. If she thought to distract him, the tightening of his groin and heavy thudding of his heart proved her effort successful.
Where his instinct was to protect and command, hers was to tease and tempt. And when she wasn’t outright exhausted, she did a damn fine job at both. He tossed the towel behind him, not caring if it made it to his bedroom floor or not, and took a deep breath before following the bewitching temptress into the kitchen.
“Are these what I think they are?” Caitlin touched a fingertip to the grimoire before picking up the emerald and sapphire dragon pendants. “What about the box?”
“That’s in Danielle’s possession. I don’t expect to see it tonight.”
She frowned and then slid her gaze from the sparkling gems to him. “You’re going to let me give the book and pendants to Nathan?”
Sean shook his head. “Hardly.”
“Not even in exchange for our son?”
Only if it became absolutely necessary and he had a surefire way to ensure the items stayed safely in Drake possession. But he wasn’t going to tell her that. “We’ll get our son back.”
“Not if we stand here chatting.”
It was only natural for her to be upset over the kidnapping, so he wasn’t surprised by the coldness in her voice. But her words chipped at his patience. “You didn’t think I was coming here just to rush pell-mell into the Learned’s stronghold without a plan in place first, did you?”
When she didn’t respond, he stared at the flush coloring her cheeks and realized that was exactly what she’d thought. “Just how stupid do you think I am?”
“I never thought you were stupid. Just...”
“Gullible? Easily beguiled? Quickly seduced?” He leaned on the counter next to her. “You thought what? That you’d walk back into my life, surround me with an aura of lust and I’d hand the ransom over to you without question?” Sean dipped his head closer to hers. “What made you think I would do that?”
“He’s our son.”
“I know that. But the Learned has used every trick conceivable to gain possession of these items. Since the only thing he craves is power, it’s apparent that somehow having these items would make him too powerful for anyone to stop. You yourself said that you felt his evilness. That is not someone who should be permitted to live, let alone rule the world.”
“So, you will risk our son’s life to stop Nathan?”
He would risk his own life to stop the Learned, but not the child’s. “We will get the boy back.”
“How?” She slapped a hand flat on the countertop. “How are we going to get him back?” Her voice rose with each word until she paused, gasping, then breathlessly asked again, “Will you risk his life to stop Nathan?”
The shakiness of her voice let him know that the minuscule amount of strength he had given her earlier aboard the plane was fading. Sean moved behind her. She stiffened, but then her body softened, welcoming his warmth, and he pressed against her.
“Caitlin, I know you are frustrated and that everything seems to be taking forever, but I promise you, the child will come to no harm. Nathan may be twisted and brutal, but he is far from stupid. He knows the child’s value. He knows full well that if he harms the boy, he’ll get nothing. And I assure you, Nathan isn’t going to risk coming up empty-handed.” He grasped her shoulders and squeezed lightly. “We have a small leeway of time to plan his rescue. So try to unwind a little. We will figure this out.”
Once she relaxed slightly, he reached around and opened the grimoire. “This is the history of the Drake family from the Middle Ages until now.” He turned the pages slowly, letting her look at each one.
“What do I care about your family’s history?”
“This book contains spells that only a dragon and his mate can see. It might have some answers for us.”
“Why do you have it, then? You didn’t know you had a mate until recently.”
“While I waited for you to join me, it just appeared on the counter.”
“Simply appeared?”
“Yeah, I’m told it does that on occasion.”
“Wonderful.”
By her tone of voice, he didn’t think she thought it was wonderful at all. To ease her concern, and uncertain if it was true or not, he said, “Braeden spelled it here.”
He flipped the first two pages and then paused. “That wasn’t here before.”
�
��What do you mean, it wasn’t there?”
“I just looked at these first few pages while you were in the bedroom, and this one wasn’t here. Apparently the history of this book is true.”
“In what way?”
Sean turned back a page, then flipped back to the new image. “It seems that part of the book’s magic is that it’ll paint scenes meant only for us.”
“Do you think it will tell us how to get Sean back?”
“We’ll have to go through it to find out.”
Both of them looked at a picture of two young women kneeling on the floor with a wooden chest between them. He studied the image. It looked as though the women were using two of the dragon pendants as keys to unlock the chest. One pendant was sapphire and now belonged to Cameron’s wife, Ariel. The emerald one, which currently belonged to Alexia, wasn’t in the picture. He’d never seen or heard anything about the amethyst one the other woman was using on the chest.
He shook his head. This was something he’d have to ask his brothers, or Aunt Dani about, because if the picture was right, there was still one pendant missing. And the wooden box was nothing like the cube Aunt Dani kept close at hand at all times. The one in the grimoire was shaped more like a small chest.
Sean turned to the next page. This picture was still in the Middle Ages and was of an old, white-haired man on a bed, with a crazed-looking younger man leaning over him holding a puzzle box.
This one he understood. He tapped the image of the younger man. “This is Nathan the Learned. Unfortunately, he is a distant relative.”
“Is that the box he wants?”
“I’m sure it is. It contains the soul of his uncle Aelthed.” He pointed toward the older man. “That must be Aelthed.”
At Caitlin’s frown, he explained, “In the twelfth century, Nathan conjured a spell to capture his uncle’s soul the moment it left his body, and it’s been there ever since. He did so because Aelthed killed his own brother, Nathan’s father, for committing what amounted to treason against the family and then buried him in an unhallowed grave. At the time, Aelthed was the Druid High Lord and when his death was at hand, he refused to pass the power on to Nathan.”
Caitlin brushed a fingertip across the image of the puzzle box. “So even if Nathan wasn’t evil from the beginning, he was pushed into it?”
“I don’t know for certain. I can only guess that he was evil from the day he was born and Aelthed’s actions were the tipping point.” Sean turned the pages, letting each flip past in vivid illuminations. Every page propelled them through the decades.
“Stop!” Caitlin grabbed Sean’s wrist to stop him from turning over that page. “That’s my father.” She stared at the picture of a man tied to a tree while a half man, half dragon loomed over him.
She pointed at the sword near the man’s side. “That’s Ascalon.”
He’d seen the dragon slayer’s sword somewhere before. An image of it hanging against a dark, forest green wall flitted in and out of his mind. A shiver trickled down Sean’s spine. “Isn’t that one of the weapons mounted in your bedroom?”
Caitlin nodded. “It’s been handed down through the centuries and was passed to me on my twenty-first birthday.” She pumped back an elbow into his gut. “It was supposed to keep me safe from dragons.”
Sean was fairly certain that had she been in full control of her body and mind, she would have realized who she’d led to her home that night and would have used Ascalon. He tensed against another shiver. Just the name of the weapon made him break out in a sweat. There was no defense against the sword. It was pure magic. One small cut from the blade would leave any dragon changeling defenseless. He had no way of knowing if it would work on a cursed dragon or not and had no desire to find out.
So far his beast’s magic had kept him safe through its ability to heal almost instantly. However, if he wasn’t immune to the weapon’s power and his skin or scales were so much as nicked with Ascalon, the magic would drain from the beast, leaving it and him without the ability to heal. As a man, he would be rendered motionless. In beast form he would be reduced to nothing more than an oversize lizard. In either case, a death blow would then become—fatal.
“Are you afraid, Sean?”
He snapped his attention back to Caitlin. She hadn’t moved, and her voice was so soft, so steely, that he wasn’t certain she’d actually spoken.
“Are you?” She repeated her question.
He cocked an eyebrow. If nothing else, she bounced back quickly. While he still sensed her anger, the fear had been replaced by a cold, ice-forged steel. “Why would I be afraid?”
“You should be.”
The weapon had been hanging on her bedroom wall. Sean frowned then directed his attention to her luggage in his bedroom. One was long enough to carry a broadsword. He tilted his head and extended an arm.
Caitlin jumped at the sound of her heavy bag thudding onto the kitchen floor behind them.
“Did you bring your sword with you?”
She laughed softly. “Would you go into the lion’s den unarmed?”
He spun away from her, grabbed the bag before she could react and tugged down the zipper. A length of forest green velvet had been wrapped around the weapon. Carefully reaching inside, Sean lifted the sword out and placed it on the countertop.
“That’s mine.” Caitlin tried to force by him and reach for the weapon.
Sean easily pushed her out of the way. “Touch it and I swear, Caitlin, you’ll regret it.”
He jerked on the free end of the fabric, unrolling it until the sword clattered onto the counter. A leather-wrapped, wooden scabbard protected the blade. He traced the cross-bindings, wondering if they were as old as the weapon before sliding the blade free.
His beast screamed in wild-eyed rage and abject fear. Shocked by the depth of the reaction, Sean silently crooned to the agitated dragon until it quieted. At the beast’s questioning glare, he promised, We have the blade. I’ll put it someplace safe where it can’t harm us.
Sean was surprised by the lack of ornamentation on the weapon. The hilt was bare save the worn, well-oiled leather wrap, the pommel nothing but a metal ball. He lifted the sword, holding it out to test the swing, and was impressed with the balance. Even though it was impossible, it was as if the blade had been made specifically for him.
Caitlin leaned against the counter. “That’s part of its magic. The fulcrum changes with each person who wields the weapon. It will always feel perfectly balanced in the hand of a preternatural.”
“You would think that wouldn’t be the case if a dragon held it.”
She shrugged. “Yeah, well, it was assumed that the St. Georges would rid the world of the beasts, so maybe that wasn’t a consideration.”
He ignored her to look closer at the etching on the flat shoulder. A rough picture depicting a dragon slayer standing over a dead dragon had been etched from the crossguard and down the spined blade.
“Check this out.” Caitlin reached toward the weapon.
Sean jerked back; his beast snarled.
She stopped and extended her index finger. “Just let me touch the blade. I won’t try to take it away.”
He took a breath and nodded, but stayed on alert for any sudden movement on her part.
When Caitlin placed her fingertip on the tip of the blade, the spine glowed a deep amethyst color. She slowly trailed her touch up the ridged spine. The glowing light pulsed, expanding and contracting, as it followed along behind her finger.
She drew her hand away and the light disappeared. “I think that’s the magic.”
“Does it do that when you use it?”
“I’ve never run into a dragon before.” She grinned. “We could find out.”
Sean slid the blade back into the scabbard, rolled the velvet around the wooden case and then held the bundle up with one hand. “This is going somewhere safe. I’ll return it to you...later.”
He released the bundle and willed it into the safe in his office. Not on
ly was the strongbox made with a twelve-inch-thick casing and locked with a combination lock, it also had a fingerprint sensor. The digitized print was synced to the ring finger on his left hand. A joke his brothers teased him about all the time—insisting he was married to his safe.
To make the safe even more impenetrable, Sean kept it constantly secured with magic. There would be no way for Caitlin to retrieve her deadly weapon until he was ready to give it back to her.
Once he heard the faint click of the safe’s door closing, he willed the dial on the lock to spin and then lowered his arm. “There, now everyone is safe.”
He glanced at Caitlin and frowned at her smirk. For some reason she didn’t seem too concerned about being separated from her sword. When she arched her eyebrows, he asked, “What?”
She didn’t reply. Instead, she extended her right arm and crooked her index finger.
To Sean’s shock, Ascalon, minus the scabbard and velvet wrap, flew directly to her hand. She closed her fingers around the hilt and twirled the blade. Only then did she return his stare to ask, “Tell me, Sean, now are you afraid?”
His heart pounded at her repetition of the exact same question he’d asked her in his bedroom back at the Lair. The hairs on the nape of his neck rose, a cold sweat beaded on his forehead and his snarling dragon’s gaze was riveted on the glowing blade. Fear didn’t begin to describe the tumult of emotions making him nauseous.
“You should be.” She threw his own warning in his face.
Sean took a step back, wondering if Braeden would be outraged to learn that yes, he could be more foolish. Not only had he welcomed the dragon slayer into their lair without giving it a second thought, he now found himself at the pointed end of the one weapon in existence that could easily end his life along with the lives of his brothers and their families.
Caitlin tossed the weapon in the air, sending it spinning end over end before her. She easily caught the sword, rested the blade across her forearm and extended the hilt toward him. “You can return this to your safe hiding place.”
