Breath of Fire (Rena Drake)

by Liliana Hart

  The top half was blood-red leather and fit like a glove—better than a glove. The straps were finger-width and hooked at the back of the neck in a halter-style. The neckline plunged, terrifyingly so, and I knew the only reason my breasts didn’t spill out was because they had no place to go. The back was open to my waist and showed the multitude of scars that crisscrossed on my lower back. The red skirt was gauzy and flowed to the floor, and the red satin of my underwear could be seen through it. The icepick heels that finished the outfit made me a full four inches taller.

  I grabbed the cell phone on my desk and hit speed dial before I could talk myself out of it. I needed to hear Noah’s voice. I needed an anchor; someone who could keep me grounded in reality and remind me who I really was. Or at least the person I wanted to be. My dragon didn’t like the idea and nudged against me hard.

  But the phone rang and rang and finally went to voicemail. I didn’t leave a message.

  “Tsk, tsk, Rena. You fool yourself if you believe he has the power to help you. I am your true lifemate. You should come to me with your needs.”

  “Stay out of my head. And I wouldn’t go to you for my needs if you were the last dragon on Earth.”

  “You’ll regret those words. Your fire is already burning for me, just with the sound of my voice. Your passion speaks the truth, while your brain tells you lies.”

  “Leave me alone.”

  “You know I cannot. The party has started and we are without a guest of honor. Olaf will escort you down.”

  A soft knock sounded at the door. I checked myself in the mirror one last time before going to answer it. I’d left my hair down, so it covered my shoulders and helped alleviate the nakedness I felt. I opened the door, and just as Julian said, Olaf was waiting for me. He followed closely behind me as I maneuvered down the stairs in my heels.

  Julian stood at the bottom, and the look of desire and possession in his eyes made me want to turn around and run back to my room. The black tuxedo fit him to perfection, and he looked even more devastatingly handsome than the last time I’d seen him. Lack of attraction between us definitely wasn’t the problem. His hair hung long and loose against his shoulders, and his eyes were fierce and penetrating as they looked me over from head to toe. I stopped where I stood.

  “You’re not a coward, Rena. Come to me.” He took a step forward and held out a single red rose.

  “Stay out of my head,” I said again. I accepted the rose with a gracious nod. Tonight wasn’t the time for pettiness.

  “I see your disobedience this afternoon was well warranted if this is what you escaped my walls to buy.” His lust-filled gaze was enough to start the glow of blue fire just under my skin.

  “Stop it,” I hissed. My own angry fire ate at the gentle blue flames until they were completely gone. “I’d prefer to meet your people without my clothes turning to ashes.”

  “Very well,” he said, obviously disappointed. “Has anyone ever told you how magnificent you are when you’re angry?”

  I growled and my anger escalated. But then something incredible happened. My rage physically jumped from my body to Julian’s. It then dissipated and fizzled into nothingness. I felt as calm as I ever had.

  “Relax, little one,” he said.

  My mouth hung open from how easily he’d taken away my anger. There was a link between the two of us, almost like an invisible thread that attached our emotions. I thought back to what Eunice had said about absorbing others’ powers, but I hadn’t realized he could do the same with emotions. He leaned down as if he were going to kiss me.

  “No, absolutely not.” I put my hands against his chest to push him away. Big mistake. The planes of muscle under his shirt were solid beneath my fingers, and I found myself grasping hold instead of pushing away.

  “Why?” I asked, though it sounded more like pleading.

  He knew what I was asking even though I wasn’t sure I knew myself. “Because we are meant for each other. Stop fighting it.”

  “I don’t want this.”

  “You lie.” His voice whispered across my skin “Your resistance wears thin.” He ran his hand just over the swell of my breast, and it sent shivers down my spine. “I know you want me. I can smell your desire. You won’t be able to fight me much longer, Rena. Now come, we have guests to greet.”

  I followed him into the throne room where we’d shared our dream. I looked around the room. Long trestle tables filled every space. A head table sat upon the platform where the throne had been the day before. There were no decorations on the black granite walls or rugs scattered on the floor to give the room color. The candles in the chandeliers had been changed from white to black, giving off an eerie glow. Black velvet tablecloths were draped across each table.

  Thousands of Drakán milled around the large room—more than double the amount that attended our own sfaras—and others were still arriving. “I didn’t expect for so many to come.”

  “All my people are here. I demanded it. This will be a night of celebration, a time of judgment and sentencing for those who need it, and a time for all to renew their oaths to me. This will also give them the opportunity to meet my lifemate.”

  “I am not your lifemate.”

  “A technicality. One which I will thoroughly enjoy rectifying. I find it quite a coincidence that after all these centuries of spending our lives apart, you were forced to darken my doorstep as Enforcer. And then only to find yourself mated. Just think, Rena, if we’d come across each other centuries ago you’d already belong to me. You wouldn’t have put up the fight you are now.”

  He brushed my hair back in an oddly intimate gesture so my shoulders were exposed. “Maybe you should ask yourself what the real reason is for denying me.”

  “I don’t believe in coincidences.”

  “No, neither do I. So I wonder what steps have really brought you here to me. Is the search for the Destroyer truly your idea? A simple step in your investigation? Or has someone manipulated events so you are here as a pawn in someone else’s game?”

  I didn’t know the answer. All I knew was my clan would try to kill me if I became Julian’s lifemate. They probably would anyway once they found out my dragon wasn’t the same color as the rest of them.

  I looked back toward the double doors as he led me farther and farther into the room. My chance for escape disappeared with every step. As we made our way toward the table, I noticed a short podium with what looked like a kneeler attached to it.

  “What is that?” I asked.

  “It is where my people come to voice their grievances or where an accused party must kneel before me to hear his sentence. It was my father’s and one of his greatest treasures. I keep it as a reminder.”

  “A reminder of what?”

  “That I am not my father.”

  He pulled out a chair for me, and I sat cautiously. My eyes kept glancing at the doors, so I noticed as two children walked into the room. A boy, somewhere in his mid-teens who was stiffly pressed into a black suit. In human years he was probably nearing sixty. He was on the brink of manhood. His pale skin shone like a beacon against the dark fabric of his clothing, and I could practically feel the excitement coming off of him.

  A little girl walked stiffly beside him. She was still childlike, and looked eight or nine rather than the thirty years of age she was closer to. Her black hair was braided into pigtails and her small hand grasped tightly to her father’s.

  “You allow children to come to the sfara?” I asked, surprised.

  “Of course. They are our people too and must also be allowed to have a voice. It is a weakness of the other clans that they think adults are the only ones who can have valid ideas. Children think in simplistic terms, and sometimes that is what we need to better our society. How can anyone know their own worth if they must be an adult before they find it?”

  It was a good point. The only problem I had was that they might be too close to the action if things got violent. And with this many dragons in the room,
things were bound to get violent. I’d no sooner had the thought than an argument broke out in the corner. The heat spiked in the room as two dragons faced each other, already half transformed.

  Julian stood and did exactly what he’d done with me earlier. The heat left the room, and the anger that was beginning to call to everyone’s beast evaporated. It was as if Julian were a vacuum for our emotions. A nifty trick. Everyone quickly took their seats as if nothing had happened.

  I sat through what seemed like an endless evening. A seven-course meal, followed by thousands swearing their oaths, one by one, to Julian. Twelve marriage proposals were approved, to much rejoicing. And to everyone’s great disappointment, including my own, there were no pregnancies to announce. The punishment portion of the evening came last, and a man was sentenced to forty lashes for owing back child support.

  It had to be past a couple of hours past midnight, and I was about to fall asleep in my dessert when Xana burst into the room with Olaf and several other guards at her back. Xana was in the center and the other guards fanned out to make a V shape behind her.

  All talk and clatter from the tables ceased, and everyone’s attention focused on the warriors approaching us. The temperature in the room dropped, and white puffs of air came out of my mouth as I breathed.

  Julian stood slowly beside me. I felt the arctic blast of his anger whip through the room hard enough for his people to flinch. I wasn’t sure exactly where it was directed.

  “What’s going on?” I whispered to Eunice.

  She was seated on my other side, anciently regal in her petite body and skimpy dress. The only sign that she was bothered by what she saw was the white-knuckled grip she held on her dessert fork.

  “Something terrible,” she said, her face ashen and aged by some unseen thought. “Something tragic.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  Eunice turned her head and looked at me. Her dark eyes went completely opaque, much like Calista’s did whenever a vision came upon her. I was told mine did the same. Eunice smiled and I knew she was back with me.

  “You’ll be okay,” she whispered. “Though I don’t completely understand why you’ll be okay. Just remember that you have great power hidden within you. And try to stay out of the line of fire. I have some salve in my rooms to help with the burns if you need it.”

  “Shit,” I said, already dreading what was to come. How could I be burned badly enough to need salve, but not burned badly enough to turn to ash? I was afraid to find out.

  The deep timbre of Julian’s voice resonated through the hall and snapped me back to reality.

  “What did you find, Xana?”

  “It is as you claimed, my lord. They are all gone. There is no trace that we can find.”

  I was beginning to get the picture, and I could feel the swell of Julian’s heat replace the cold and wrap itself around his body like a cloak.

  The silence in the hall was deafening, and Drakán throughout the room reached for their mates as their worst nightmares became a reality.

  “What happened? Were there any witnesses?” Julian asked.

  “It is just as you saw. A group of our clansmen were on their way here tonight, from different locations, using different modes of transportation—none of them were connected in any way other than their destination. They all had their mates with them, and then somewhere between where they began and here, the Drakán just disappeared into nothingness. By my estimation, including the other clans’ losses, the total of missing Drakán is now close to a thousand. With more being taken every day.”

  Anger vibrated around the room as outraged beasts railed against the human husks that housed them. These were their own brethren, and they wanted to hunt for who’d done this to them.

  “Someone has transported them to another Realm where I cannot pinpoint their location,” Julian said. “But they left this Realm alive.”

  Xana nodded. “I’ve collected all the human mates of the missing and put them in the front parlor.” She waved her hand and the large doors to the gathering hall opened by an unseen force. It was then I could hear the low, keening wails of the grief-stricken. It was a sound I’d never heard before, and one I hoped never to hear again. Maybe human emotions weren’t so great after all.

  Julian’s face was a mask, but I could feel his pain at the loss and heartbreak of his people as if it were my own. Then something crossed my mind. Maybe all of this could have been prevented if Julian had actually put some effort into finding the Destroyer when this all started. He’d obviously known about it from the start, and more extensively than I did, since I didn’t have complete access to other clan information like Julian. He could have at least gone to meet with the Council members to determine the Destroyer’s true identity instead of ignoring him. There must have been something he could have done to prevent this.

  The thought passed through my mind like a gentle breeze through a windstorm of emotions before I could stop it, and Julian’s anger shifted to me. I was in exactly the place that I didn’t want to be. Right in the line of fire. Literally.

  There was a swift decompression of air around my body that made my ears pop audibly. My body flew across the room like a rag doll, and I landed with a thud on my hands and knees in front of Xana. The air closed in around me, and it felt like cinderblocks were pressed against my chest. My hair hung limply in my face and sweat beaded on my brow.

  “Who are you to pass judgment on me, Enforcer?” Julian said.

  I couldn’t get a deep enough breath to bother wasting the oxygen to refute him, so I stayed silent.

  “You are the one who speaks of the law and your rights as Enforcer. This is your responsibility, but you’ve done nothing. Maybe you’re the one responsible. Is this your way of proving a point? Is your power so great that I’ve been deceived into thinking you were merely untrained? It was foolishness on my part not to keep you under a more watchful eye, but I was somewhat distracted by our chemistry. It’s the oldest trick in the book, no? Did the Destroyer tempt you? Do you already belong to him?”

  I shook my head no. It was all I could do. The rage of his words lashed out at me like a whip, though his voice never escalated in volume. Then it was over as quickly as it had begun, my body frozen in terror in the eye of the storm. I somehow got the courage to look up and realized that Julian’s anger hadn’t diminished—only his target. Xana stood in front of me, taking the full force of his power.

  “You protect her?” Julian asked surprised.

  “No, my brother,” Xana said, bowing her head in submission, “but I’m protecting you. She is your lifemate and the daughter of another Archos. You would bring war to all the clans and your own death.”

  I thought Xana was wise for reminding Julian that they were indeed family—their father the same cruel man who begot them both, though I was afraid Julian was past the point of caring.

  “You need not remind me of who she is,” Julian spat. “And you need not remind me of who I am, Xana. We are already at war.”

  “Fine.” Xana stepped aside and the pain hit me full-force. It was a good thing I was still on my knees. I didn’t have far to fall.

  Xana continued in her mocking tone. “I defer to your wishes, my lord. You are correct that it is your decision as to whether or not you sacrifice your true lifemate, though it seems a shame to ignore the mating fire when a child might be the result. I’m sure Dimitris would approve if he were alive.”

  The entire room gasped at the mention of the mating fire and then silence reigned. I hadn’t noticed until that moment how Julian’s power affected his people. His anger intensified their own, and already some of them had shifted to their dragon forms, ready to tear me to shreds as soon as he gave the word. Julian’s own fire engulfed him and swelled with his anger. The little girl with pigtails I’d noticed earlier had shifted completely, her scales gunmetal grey and her body no bigger than a baby cub’s. She wiggled for freedom against her father, her talons clamping tightly around his forearms, wantin
g to take part in the possible carnage.

  Xana bowed low before Julian, her braids brushing the floor, and the sarcasm was thick enough to cut with a knife. I couldn’t decide whether or not she was the bravest woman I’d ever met or the stupidest for provoking his attention back to her.

  The temperature in the room increased until beads of sweat dripped down my face and body like a river. I looked around the room through a fiery haze and realized the other Drakán were feeding off his fire, though they all stood back far enough to not get trapped in its flame.

  A towering inferno of the brightest orange swirled around Julian in a rage and licked at anyone who stood too close. This was not the gentle blue mating fire I’d experienced earlier. This was a fire meant to destroy, and if he unleashed it, Xana would be dead. And I’d probably be caught in the aftermath, though I was pretty sure I’d much rather be incinerated alive than eaten first.

  I could understand Julian’s anger at the disappearance of his people. I could even understand the need to punish Xana for her insubordination, but I knew if Julian destroyed Xana he’d never forgive himself. She’d been his protector for most of his life, and she was his family.

  The force of Julian’s power brought Xana to her knees. Blood dripped slowly from her nostrils and plopped onto the black granite. His fire grew, and if he wasn’t careful it would consume the entire room.

  The human mates in the room had all been shuffled out the doors at the first sign of fire. I had to do something. I couldn’t let any more deaths happen on my watch. I was already guilty of losing too many. I prayed to the gods for a strength I knew I didn’t possess.

  I hadn’t appreciated until that moment what great control Julian had over his powers. If Julian wasn’t really the Destroyer and he wielded this much power, I was afraid to run into the real thing.

  I stood slowly, fighting against the waves of heat that pressed against me. My eyes burned with the intensity of Julian’s flame, and I felt a moment of such despair that I almost sank back to my knees and let the fire destroy us all.