by S. A. Ravel
Sanaa swallowed as if to force her own emotions in her throat back down. “My mother sent minions to my trailer. I ran to the only place I thought she wouldn’t follow. “
No, a dark walker with sense wouldn’t go into a dragon’s domain. Adad taught him that much about the world of powyr. Nobody fucked with dragons unless they wanted a roasted ass, and Ronin was lucky enough to have been born one.
Her battered body proved the danger. Her discomfort proved that she hadn’t come to trap him in a mating bond. “Alright, say I take your word for it, what do you expect me to do about it? You can’t stay in my house forever.”
Unless she used his need against him. With the right moves at the wrong time, the skinwalker could lay claim to him for the rest of his life. She would have her own ready-made champion, no begging required, if she could only tame Ronin’s cock. The only thing saving him was that she didn’t know that.
She folded her arms, leaning against the heavy kitchen table. “I’ve never had a dark walker stalking me. I don’t know how far she’ll go, and I don’t want to. I need you to intervene.”
“You expect me to go to a dark walker and negotiate for you? A few sacks of potatoes and some jerky ain’t gonna cut it.”
“A lot more. I don’t want you to talk her down. I need her dead.”
The matter-of-fact way the words spilled from Sanaa's lips shocked him. "She's your mother," he said as if the words really meant anything.
"Niabe stopped being my mother a long time ago. Now she's just an evil bitch who wants to hurt my baby."
“Why don’t you go to your community for help?”
“There’s nobody in my tribe that has the power you do.”
Ronin heard the quiver in her voice. She was trying to convince herself, more than him, of the truth in her words. Her eyes held his, but he didn't miss the way her shoulders trembled. Her world was turned upside down, and only sheer stubbornness and a will to survive was keeping Sanaa upright.
He remembered his own descent into those hellish days all too well. That didn't mean he wanted to get involved in this fight. Blood feuds were messy, emotional battles. The last thing he needed was this woman's emotions mingling with his own.
"There's food in that bag," he said, jerking his thumb toward the one closest to her. "Take it to your room and go to bed."
“Are you going to help me?”
"Go!" Ronin roared, not caring if he frightened her. Let her run screaming if that's what it took to get her to follow his instructions. He barely heard her climb to her feet and scurry down the hall as he closed his eyes and forced down the growing ember in his gut. He couldn't afford to go into a full-blown Heat with the Skinwalker in his home. He would not be tied to her.
Ronin lost track of time as he stood in the kitchen, unseeing eyes fixed on a worn part of the kitchen table. The sun in the sky told him that it couldn't have been more than a few minutes, but it felt like hours. When he was sure the fledgling fire was extinguished again he went to her room.
Sanaa lay in bed on her side, the baby stretched out next to her cooing as it sucked milk from her breast. Ronin knew he couldn't stay long. The sight of the mother tending to her child was enough to bring the ember back to life. But there was a question in his mind, one that had needled him since he found Sanaa at the mountain clearing.
"The father. Why do you not ask him for help?"
It seemed like a simple enough question, and instinct told him there was a piece of the puzzle he was missing. Sanaa's reaction could provide an important clue to the information which eluded him.
She couldn't hide the sadness in her eyes, though she tried. "If I went to him now, he would only help out of obligation. I can't accept help if it isn't freely given. I don't expect you to understand."
He didn't understand, but then again, he didn't need to. Her reasons for not approaching the father were her own, and the pain was too heavy an emotion. It came from her in waves, calling him to her, begging him to soothe it away.
Ronin turned his back to her. Anything to get away from those eyes. "Don't leave the house while I'm gone."
Sanaa sat up, letting her nipple pop out of the baby's mouth. Ronin half expected the girl to start wailing, but only a soft snore came from her. "Wait, you're leaving?"
"The dark walker won't attack you here, not if she values her life. That doesn't mean my perimeter doesn't need to be guarded from others."
"But are you going to help me?"
Ronin glanced over his shoulder at her. There was nothing seductive about the way she knelt on the bed or the panic in her eyes. In another life, Ronin could have lost himself in those eyes. He could have filled libraries with onyx-eyed, raven-haired heroines and never capture the depth he saw in Sanaa. Even her scent wafting beneath his nostrils was too much. He needed distance. Now.
"You'll know in the morning." He was down the hall before Sanaa could speak again, casting his clothes aside as he went. The second he reached the front door he broke into a run until he was far enough down the path to shift into his dragon form.
3
Sanaa had no idea how she managed to sleep that night. Exhaustion settled on her body as it struggled to process the guppies’ poison, but her mind wouldn't quiet long enough to let her sleep. If the Dragon refused her offer, she had nowhere else to turn. Securing his help was only half the battle. If she expected to live among the Bloodbones, to raise her daughter among them, she needed absolution from the Elders.
Two sides, both powerful in their own right, held Sanaa's future in their hands. Neither had a vested interest in keeping her alive. Worry consumed her thoughts, pushing sleep away anytime it came too close. By sunrise, she gave up trying to rest entirely and padded out to the kitchen. If she hurried, she could get some breakfast and tea in her system before her ravenous baby woke.
When she went into the kitchen, she found Ronin sitting at the table, a laptop in front of him and a steaming mug of coffee to his left. His fingers danced over the keyboard, filling the air with a low, clicking sound.
"Did you sleep?" Ronin asked without looking up from the screen. He looked every bit the reclusive artist. Nobody would suspect he could rip a grown man in two.
"Not well," she admitted.
His fingers paused, and he looked up at her. Obviously, he didn't like the fact that she hadn't followed his instructions to the letter. "You need to rest if you're going to fight."
"When your mother tries to murder you, we can talk about how soundly you sleep." Sanaa didn't bother to keep the edge out of her voice. Her body, her mind, every part of her was stretched to the limit, and the day had just started. There were harsher words waiting for her back in the village.
Ronin glared at her for a second, then pressed the lid of his computer closed. "Keep snapping at me, and I might change my mind about helping you."
The next snappy retort, already primed on her tongue, died in a wave of relief. Her silence must have pleased Ronin, judging by the way his lips turned up at the corners. Damn him for taking so much pleasure in putting her in her place. Why did his eyes so freely roam over the white tank top and satin pajama bottoms which clung to her frame? If she didn't know better, she could swear he could see her naked body through the thin fabric.
The sudden emotional shift left her already exhausted body reeling. The only safe place for her was in a chair. She crossed the few feet to the kitchen table and sat down.
"Don't get excited," he grunted. "Your problem isn't solved yet."
"Do you have a plan?" she asked. "Because I sure as hell don't."
The Dragon shrugged. “The best way to catch anything is to lay a trap, and the most efficient trap has bait."
It took Sanaa's foggy brain a few seconds to put together what he meant. He wouldn't come out and say it, because only a monster would suggest using an infant as a tool to trap evil.
Sanaa shifted in her chair, prepared to fling herself out of it and run down the hall if the Dragon made the slightest
move toward her child. "No."
Ronin leaned back in his chair and shrugged. "Then I hope you know more about dark walkers than you've told me."
He didn't have a plan either. Panic set in before Sanaa could suppress the emotion, making it harder to keep her voice in check. She needed to be strong for her daughter. Tears and fear could wait.
“I don’t, but the Elders will. I have to see them anyway."
"I thought you didn't want to go back home?"
She didn't. Sanaa would have been delighted to never set eyes on the trailer again. Before the attack, it had been her home, albeit a humble one. Now it was visible evidence her own mother had tried to kill her. A tangible reminder of her near complete failure to protect her daughter, the one living soul she had vowed never to let down.
"They will be in the community center, our meeting place. People in the neighborhood will have seen the wreckage. If I don't explain what happened and ask for absolution, my baby and I will be kicked out of the community."
“What the hell do you need absolution for?”
“Some sins don’t disappear with an apology, but you can’t have blood feuds running out of control either. If a Bloodbone thinks an action demands blood, they need to have absolution from the Elders before any punishment is dealt.”
“How often do arguments end in blood?”
“Almost never. There are too few of us left for it to be worth the risk. But the threat is enough to keep some people in line, and being heard by the Elders is enough for most people.”
The Dragon snorted. “How delightfully bureaucratic.”
“I take it that’s not how dragons handle disputes?”
Ronin braced his arms against the table and leaned forward. He held her gaze with his rich, brown eyes, a rim of fire dancing along the edge of his pupil. “Wouldn’t know. I didn’t grow up around them. My protection doesn't extend into the village. If I were the dark walker, I would hit you again the second you set foot in the town. Probably before you got out of the valley."
Sanaa swallowed. She hadn't been this close to the Dragon since the night she offered herself to him. Her fingers twitched as sensory memory and visual input connected. He hadn’t said much when he changed to his human form. Pity.
"If something happens to me, the Bloodbone tribe will be the only place my daughter has to go. The protections they would give her disappear if I’m ejected from the tribe. I can't put that at risk." Not when the odds of her dying in the fight were so high. Maintaining a tie to the tribe was just as important as putting the dark walker down.
Ronin nodded. Sanaa was beginning to think he was asking questions just to study her reactions. She didn't see why it mattered. "Eat. We'll ride down after breakfast."
The Dragon didn't speak to her again for most of the morning. He made breakfast, while she bathed and dressed the baby and herself. He didn't have much to say during breakfast either, but the silence suited Sanaa just fine. She was too busy putting as many forkfuls of food in her mouth as she could manage to replace what she lost in the skirmish with the hell spawn.
The silent treatment continued as they rode his horse down the path out of the mountains. By then, Sanaa's mind was fully occupied with the coming appeal to the Elders. If they refused her absolution, it was tantamount to a death sentence. Ronin might still help her, but the Elders would know and count it as much a transgression as if she had done it herself.
"It's just over there." Sanaa pointed in toward the largest building in town. It was only half the size of Ronin's house.
The scent of powdered lemonade and dream flower wafted through the window panes. Sanaa hoped the pungent herb in their pipes made them more charitable, but her hopes were dashed the second she walked through the doors.
The Bloodbone tribe had five elders, four of whom sat in pairs near the wall playing checkers. The Chief, Ramon, sat at the center table, pipe to his lips and a game of solitaire spread on the table before him. All of them glanced at Sanaa with narrow eyes and climbed to their feet, more than one knocking over their chair.
"Intruder!" Janna, the Seer, screamed.
Bastian, the Scholar, roared. "Sanaa, are you insane!"
The Tribunar Pair, Omar and Elena, stayed silent, but both moved to Ramon's side, their hands sliding to the blades strapped to their thighs.
Ramon climbed to his feet and held up a hand. As quickly as the room had erupted in chaos, it fell into silence. "Sanaa, who is this stranger you've brought to us?"
"He is the Dragon of the mountain." Sanaa dropped the statement like a pipe bomb, watching the Elder's stunned faces.
Each of the four lesser Elders stared at Ronin, their mouths slack and eyes narrowed as they tried to gauge whether she spoke the truth. It was exactly the reaction Sanaa had counted on. None of the Bloodbones had ever seen the dragon in human form. That alone might make them take her more seriously.
Only Ramon managed to hide his surprise behind a neutral mask, though the brief moment his eyes widened gave him away. "And what does the Dragon of the Mountain want with the Bloodbones?"
Sanaa answered before Ronin had the chance. "He's agreed to ally with us against the dark walker." She could feel the dragon's eyes burning into her back at her words, but he said nothing. Strictly speaking, she was stretching the truth. He had agreed to help her, but only on his terms. The Elders wouldn't give her the absolution she needed if they knew too many details.
Janna clicked her tongue and shook her head, her gray hair fluttered like cotton around her ears. "If a dark walker hunted among the community I would see it."
As the Bloodbone Seer, Janna was tasked with divining all threats to the community. Sanaa never put much stock in her predictions. Janna often flailed her arms and screamed about encroaching skinwalker tribes, but she never once predicted a drought or the recession in the rest of the world which decimated the Bloodbone's already meager resources. Meanwhile, the tenuous truce that kept their race from extinction held, bolstered by generations of intermarriage.
“She’s hunting my daughter and me. The dark walker is already known to you, Seer." Sanaa struggled to keep her tone neutral. She couldn't afford to offend Janna and lose a potential vote in her favor. “Her name is Niabe Chavez."
Niabe, the Bloodbones’ secret shame. Sanaa's mother had grown up in the community, just as she had. When her husband left her a widow too young, and a single mother to a growing toddler, Niabe moved to the city to find work. None of the Bloodbones knew for sure how it happened, but Niabe acquired the dark lust for power and lost her soul in the process.
Ramon took care to hide his emotional reaction from the other Elders, but Sanaa knew him well enough to spot the way his eyes crinkled in pain. He knew the story of Niabe’s fall better than anyone. “What is it you want, child?"
"Absolution."
Each of them stared at her with icy eyes. Only the Chief spoke. “No one has asked for absolution in two generations.”
“It’s a relic,” Bastian said, pushing his glasses higher on his nose. “A remnant of a time we’re well rid of.”
“I’m not talking about a broken engagement or a stolen six-pack. A dark walker never breaks from a hunt once it starts. You taught me that, Uncle.”
Ramon leaned forward in his chair, bracing his arms against the table. “Don’t make this about our family, Sanaa. You consort with men outside the tribe and parade your shame freely, now you want the community you disdained to take your side?"
"Maybe she'd honor your traditions if you had any that were worth a damn," Ronin spat.
Sanaa winced. The Elders wouldn't contradict the Dragon—not to his face— but he wasn't helping her case.
The Chief bristled at the stranger’s judgment. "I don't know what this one has told you--"
"She didn't have to tell me anything. For fuck’s sake, she just said she’s being hunted. One of your children is being hunted.”
Ramon pulled himself to his full height. “Sanaa isn’t a child. We have our
laws. Until the girl’s father can be identified and a proper marriage arranged, we can’t consider her one of us.”
“I’ve been here for ten years listening to you people and your pitiful prayers. You call yourself leaders? A real leader would save his people. A real man would save his family. He wouldn't leave them to die in the desert from malnutrition or thin, inbred blood."
Sanaa flinched as Ramon slammed his palm on the table. She wanted so badly to turn around and tell Ronin to shut up, but she couldn't risk losing his aid. If either side refused to help her, she had no hope of fighting off Niabe. No hope of securing her daughter’s future.
"We honor your customs when we barter for your spells, Dragon. I would ask you to pay us the same favor."
Sanaa heard Ronin growl quietly behind her, but he stayed silent.
"The Bloodbone Elders haven't granted absolution in decades,” Bastian said. “This council has never done it." And from his tone, the Scholar was content to keep that tradition intact.
"And there better be a damn good reason to ask for it now," Elena spat. She was the youngest of the Elders, only about ten years older than Sanaa. Next to Ramon, Elena had taken Sanaa’s disgrace the hardest.
Sanaa expected the Elders to challenge her, for the love of hell she was asking their permission to murder her mother. They wouldn't be doing their jobs as leaders of the community if they didn't question her motives. She knew all of that. Nothing about the meeting, so far, had taken her by surprise...not even the disapproval on the five pairs of eyes trained on her.
"My home was attacked last night." She hated the way her voice quivered as she spoke, knowing they might mistake it for a lie. "The evidence is there for anyone to see."
Omar waved a dismissive hand. "For all we know that was a personal squabble. It’s not as if you are an innocent. “
He was right, they all were. The fight wasn't between a dark walker and the Bloodbones. The baby had only caught Niabe's eye because of Sanaa's own stupidity. One moment of weakness had been all it took. Sanaa would have paid any price, even her own flesh, to take that moment back. The best she could do was offer her pride.
