Waterfall (Dragon's Fate)

by Lacy Danes

  She already was a folly. Nothing she could find here would change that. She walked along the edge of the pool to the far end. In the corner was another smaller alcove she hadn’t noticed the last time. She walked to the arched entrance.

  A painting of a beautiful woman hung on the back wall, and on the walls that surrounded her image hung small shelves filled with hundreds of items.

  She picked up a leather loop with a small green stone dangling from the center. She ran her finger over the smooth but bumpy nugget. An uncut emerald, perhaps?

  The woman with curly black hair in the painting wore the same about her creamy-skinned neck.

  She placed the necklace back in its spot.

  Next to the emerald lay a lock of red hair, and next to that a faded ribbon.

  She turned to the right and on the third shelf down sat…

  Her bracelet.

  She picked it up. She had not seen this since she woke on the beach. He’d taken it when he bit her. A cold chill raced her spine, and her stomach dropped. She swallowed hard.

  She glanced around at hundreds of such items.

  These…

  Each item he had taken from women he’d killed.

  Her throat constricted.

  The women who wore these items all died.

  She lived.

  Her heart pounded in her throat. Without the lore he told and the magic he created, he would be a murderer by society’s eyes. Truth was, he was a murderer. Why would he keep such things? Unless…

  He had loved all these women.

  The painting. To have a portrait like such here in this place… He was smitten with her. Her heart pinched, and her gut tumbled a bit lower.

  He didn’t know Celeste enough to be smitten with her. He was only drawn to her through a magical primal urge.

  Not one rational thought had passed through her brain since Jordan entered the ballroom and knelt before her.

  And now Hudson… Oh, what had happened to him?

  When she saw him in the silver room, he was pasty white with sunken eyes. A description better suited for a monster from a gothic novel, not the Duke of Hudson.

  My stars, had her association with Jordan done that to him?

  So much of what happened today was wrong.

  Life was thrust at her, and she rode the wave once more. No longer would she simply float along. This time, she would make the decision. She would paddle her own boat.

  She turned around, and water splashed from a puddle on the floor up onto her foot. A strange fluttering wiggled through her. She clenched forward to try to dissuade the feeling and closed her eyes. A vision flashed in blue and gold light.

  Moonlight streamed through the windows of a dance hall, casting a glow on the scuffs from a night’s dancing on the polished wood floor.

  A shadow slid along the wall at the edge of the room.

  The short stature and rounded shoulders were unmistakably those of Grandmum.

  Another shadow slid along the polished floor from behind her. Closer…

  Closer…

  Celeste’s heart raced. Oh no. Please, no.

  Gloved hands grabbed Grandmum’s shoulders.

  In the moonlight, a pale face with sunken eyes emerged from the shadows.

  Celeste sucked in a breath. The same face as Hudson’s had been in the silver room.

  His mouth opened, and long, bony fangs curled his lip back.

  In a swift motion before Grandmum could protest, he bit her neck.

  Grandmum cried out.

  His hand jerked up to her mouth and smothered her scream. They dropped to the floor, where Hudson continued to feed on her. Grandmum lay in a column of moonlight as blood ran in a stream onto the pale marble floor.

  The image vanished.

  Celeste jerked and gulped, trying to breathe. But her lungs would not work.

  She stared ahead, seeing only mist and darkness. Tears streamed down her face unstopped, and the image of red wine as it streaked down her dress only a night past flashed to her mind. She had stained everything with blood. The blood that pulsed in her veins was that of a water dragon. Her knees weakened, and she fell to the floor.

  Hudson knew that.

  Had he married her only for that reason?

  Had he truly killed her grandmum?

  She needed to go back to the mainland. Back to Grandmum and family.

  Something in this house made her mad. This was her decision. She wanted Jordan, but she needed Grandmum too. She stood up and rushed past the pool and out into the hall. She needed her clothing and… My stars, how would she get off the Isle?

  “Your Grace, may I be of service?” The young woman with huge eyes and black hair stood in the hall in front of the tapestry that symbolized air. Jordan had called her Astrid.

  Celeste stared at her. “I need my dress. Can you bring it to the room I was given, Astrid?”

  “Your dress is quite in distress, Your Grace.”

  “It is of little consequence. I need clothing to wear off the Isle, and eyebrows and tongues would wag if I showed up in this.”

  “I will bring you a dress.” She bobbed a curtsey and passed Celeste, heading down to the other end of the hall.

  Celeste continued to the room in which she had warmed herself by the fire. She stepped into the room and walked to the fire once again.

  The flames flickered the same warm red and yellow. Tears welled in her eyes. Please don’t let that vision be true.

  “Carmen! Do you know? Can you teach me to see the truth?”

  “I sincerely wish I could see for you. Locked here, I have only you to see through. I can teach you more about your sights in time. Where is Jordan? He can help you.”

  “Where are you locked?” She shook her head; it didn’t matter at this moment. “Never mind. I need to get to my grandmum.”

  Was Jordan the key? She needed to find him and tell him of her vision. They needed to return to London at once to ensure Grandmum’s safety.

  Astrid knocked on the open door frame. “Your Grace. I believe this shall fit you.” She held in her arms a dark red satin dress.

  “It will have to.” Celeste walked to the bed and slipped out of the robe.

  Astrid laid the dress on the bed and hastily worked to unbutton the tiny buttons that ran up the side and back. She held the dress out, and Celeste stepped into thick satin skirts. Without corset, petticoats or stockings, she was dressed almost as scandalously as in the robe she had discarded moments before.

  Astrid buttoned the back up. It was a simple dress, but lovely. “Where did you find this?”

  “The brothers bought the dress for me, but I never found an occasion to wear it.” She smiled, and her eyes danced with fondness.

  “I shall take good care of it.”

  “Please, don’t worry yourself.” Astrid turned from the bed toward the window. “Do you wish me to send this letter off, Your Grace?”

  “Please, call me Celeste. The title does not suit me.” If being called Your Grace meant you went daft in the attic, she would ensure others called her by her Christian name too. “The letter is useless, as I am headed to London.”

  “Very well. Oh! Your handwriting in the middle looks similar to Madoc’s. Oh dear.” Astrid held out the parchment to her. “Pardon, I should not have…”

  Celeste grasped the paper:

  Dearest Grandmum,

  I am well, Hudson and Jordan are with me, and we wish you to accompany us for an adventure. Please have three extra dresses packed for me, and bring your favorite books to read. I am so looking forward to reading them to you.

  Pardon the intrusion to your letter, Celeste. This is Madoc. I would never have invaded your privacy this way if it was not of an urgent matter. I am more sorry for the news I need to convey. After Ferrous left for the Isle, the police found your grandmum brutally attacked. On her body, they found several long black and white hairs. They are now mounting a manhunt to search for and find Jordan. No matter how desperate you are
to return to England and your grandmum, you cannot allow Jordan to leave the Isle. I will bring your grandmum to you. Again, please excuse the rude and impersonal way I had to inform you.

  Oh, and pack your warm shawl. See you soon, Grandmum.

  With much love,

  Celeste

  Chapter Eight

  “Everything is set in motion.” The black voice inside Hudson echoed through his pores.

  “Will I have all I wish for by nightfall?” Hudson had bitten a Zir. He could not take much more of this uncontrollable dark urge to obtain his goal. All his dignity and status were naught when he acted worse than a savage dog. He shoved his fingers through his hair. Shook his head and did it again.

  “All will be seen to.” The voice slid over his shoulder, and he spun about to see an empty room. He was worse than mad.

  The door opened, and Ferrous slipped in. “Your Grace.”

  Hudson stared at him. Was he that daft as to come back in this room with him?

  “There was another presence in the room before,” Ferrous said, glancing around the room. “Do you wish to tell me who is here with you?”

  A cackle burst from deep in his chest. “Another presence? You truly have gone mad and I had always thought you the sane one of you four.”

  Ferrous walked toward him. His eyes narrowed. “Prove me wrong, Hudson.”

  “Never will I bow to your orders.”

  “And Celeste? How is she an instrument to your jest?”

  His jest. He rolled his eyes. Amazing that only yesterday he had considered the four of them his friends. Or had he only wanted to be like them? “Celeste is none of your concern.”

  “She is all of our concern. She is the first of our mates.” Ferrous walked closer to him. “You were aware of that before we had the knowledge. Were you not?”

  Had he been? He shook his head. No… No, but why had he wed her? Surely the match had been the means to his goal. His mind was consumed by dark fog. He couldn’t navigate to that answer if it was in him. Sweat pierced his brow. How could he not know? This was the worst effect of the wine that Havanis had given him. Nevertheless, if he had known she was a Zir mate, achieving his promised goal of immortality was all that mattered.

  He would never lose another loved one.

  He would never die, and anyone that he loved, he would make immortal too.

  A satisfied smile curved his lip. Breath puffed against his face, pulling his thoughts back to the room he now stood in.

  “Who or what did you make a deal with?” Ferrous was so close to him that the smell of the tea he had recently drunk stifled Hudson’s nostrils. “I know you did, so refusing to answer is beyond the pale.”

  He would never disclose that information, and Ferrous knew that. He narrowed his eyes. “Think what you will.”

  Ferrous caught his wrist. “Then you won’t mind.” He swiftly bent down, and pain sliced though Hudson’s forearm as Ferrous’s sharp fangs dug into his skin. Hudson jerked his hand back swiftly, but Ferrous already had his blood in his mouth.

  In one hasty move, Ferrous vanished beyond the door and closed it. The lock clicked shut.

  What had Ferrous done? Why did he want his blood? The four punctures on his forearm turned from red to black. Burning snaked through his veins and up his arm. He screamed as the burning wrapped his neck and rushed up his skull. One more thing to taint his mind.

  Ferrous spit the blood from his mouth into his casting bowl on the table before the fire in the library. He drizzled wax on the blood and then lit it to flame.

  Sadness crept up Jordan’s throat, and his heartbeat jumped to triple time. Where had that emotion come from? Celeste. He swallowed, but his throat was dammed up, and he coughed.

  “Are you well?” Ferrous poured a metallic-looking mineral onto the flame.

  “No. Something has happened to Celeste.” Jordan turned away from Ferrous and toward the large open door that led from the library. “Keep trying to break the connection that you found in Hudson’s energy. We can’t have him making good on his threat to harm those we care for.”

  Jordan left the room without waiting for an answer and ran down the hall. He tensed and reached out for Celeste. Her sadness ripped through him and stole his breath. He turned into the room that he had found her in earlier that day.

  Celeste huddled on the floor, wearing a deep red dress. Astrid paced between her and the fireplace.

  He walked to Celeste and knelt down. “What happened?”

  She turned her face to his. Deep sorrow etched her features, and her green eyes turned black. “The unthinkable.”

  She turned back to stare at the fire.

  Jordan looked up to Astrid. “What is she speaking of?”

  Astrid held out a piece of parchment. Jordan grabbed the letter and read.

  This was not an ability Madoc typically had the strength to do. Stopping motion and time, indeed. But interrupting thought and capturing another’s actions? That required the art and control of all the elements and the power to possess. Madoc simply didn’t have that skill. None of them had.

  His brother had not written those words.

  He glanced at Celeste and the bleak sorrow on her face. She needed comfort, and he needed time to think.

  “Astrid, a plate of olives.” He touched the back of Celeste’s hand. She turned it over, and he rolled his knuckles into her palm. She had said she liked lemon. “Lemon cakes and tea. If we are not here when you return, bring the tray to the library.”

  “Yes, sir.” Astrid turned and left the room.

  Jordan sat on the floor behind Celeste. “Madoc has never had this power before. While I see his handwriting clearly, I do not believe this was him.”

  She sighed and relaxed back against him. “How I wish that were true. But Jordan, I was in the water room and looked at your items…” Her body stiffened again. “Pardon the intrusion. I was curious.”

  “There is nothing in that room that you don’t deserve to know about. With me present or without.”

  She turned her head and stared up at him with glossy eyes. “I had a vision.”

  “Ah.” Without letting go of her hand, he wrapped his arms tightly about her. “Tell me.”

  “I read the letter… I saw Hudson kill her.”

  “Hudson?”

  “I am certain. Yet he was not himself. He had long teeth, and he fed from her blood.”

  “That is useful information. I am sure that will help Ferrous. How strong do you feel?”

  She twisted around to face him. “Do you think the vision was true?”

  “I cannot say.” He wished he could tell her it wasn’t, but so much was uncertain. His fingers gently rubbed her lower back. Damn, he wished he could reassure her better than this. “Your vision could be true. It could also be a mad jest. I hope with all my soul that that is the case.”

  Anger lit her pretty eyes. “If this is all a jest, I will of course be relieved, but I will also be beyond vexed. Either way, I need to know what happened to Grandmum and to ensure my family’s safety.”

  “Ferrous is working on purging the strange energy from Hudson.” He squeezed her tighter. “I won’t permit anything to ever happen to you. You are now my world.”

  She tipped her face up to stare him in the eyes. Tears shimmered on the verge of another deluge. “Jordan. The painting in the water room and the…” She closed her eyes, and tears rolled down her face.

  “Her name was Ada. Continue.”

  She twisted back around to face the fire, and he wrapped one hand around her waist and the other he let rest on the top of her thigh.

  “Continue.”

  “The items. You had bitten all those women?”

  He frowned. This is that conversation. “Indeed.”

  “They all died.” She ran a shaking finger along the top of his hand that rested on her thigh. “Did you love them?”

  “Some. Ada, indeed. She was my first. Others were simply a primal attraction.”

&nb
sp; Her breath hitched, and she swallowed a swallow that pinched his soul. “I had always hoped to marry for love and…”

  “Continue.”

  “And neither my marriage to Hudson or this have started in that vein.” She glanced back up at him, and tears ran down her face in a stream.

  Jordan’s heart ached. He enclosed her hand with his. “What we have is more than simple love or primal need.”

  “What more is there than that?”

  “Destiny. Devotion. Passion. Caring for all time. Knowing without a doubt we are meant to be together and I will do anything to protect you, your family and us. What we stand for is love. What we have the capability to be is an iconic romance.” He turned her around, leaned in and kissed her. Her soft lips were wanting beneath his. She opened her mouth to him, and he slowly traced the inside of her lips with his tongue. Her unique taste of sweet candied cherries and orange blossoms filled his senses. His head lightened. Keep your calm. She is unsteady. He softened the kiss.

  She pulled back. “You believe what you just said?”

  “What I said has nothing to do with belief. I know what I said is true. I more than love you, Celeste. If you let yourself relax and give it time, you will see that all I said is sincere. You feel, and would do, the same for me. You have already. Think of the boat.”

  She turned her head to look back at the fire. “Why would someone make such a huge jest?”

  “I can’t promise this is one. Simply put, there are inconsistencies that lead me to doubt their truth. You should prepare yourself for the worst.” He pulled her close. “Your grandmum may be injured. Or worse, gone.”

  She pulled back from him. “I understand. I want to speak with Hudson.”

  He didn’t want to allow that. He wanted to protect her from all that was harmful, but she deserved to confront the man. “After we tell Ferrous of this new development, we can all go back to the silver room.”

  She nodded. “Very well. Let’s go see Ferrous.”

  They walked down the hall toward the library. He wanted to pick her up and carry her. Her pain and confusion streamed through him as if they were his own.

  She should be safe. She should feel secure, damn it.