She didn’t know if it would work this time. She’d become something new. A Fate/ Burner hybrid designed to be the ultimate combination weapon to destroy the Dracae.
Ladon’s nostrils flared, his expression arrogant. “You will have what you want.” A quick nod at Dragon and he kissed her temple. “And so will we.”
He’d become so tied to her that when she dropped to the bottom of Hell, he’d drop with her. Dragon, too. They’d never escape.
She’d kill them.
“We will buy a house in Minneapolis when this is done and both you and your mother are safe. You can finish your education.” He grinned, kissing her again. “Dragon and I, we will mow the lawn and install track lighting.”
“Ladon, please don’t.” She needed to know that they could escape.
He held his breath. Pain flitted through his eyes and his jaw tensed. “I don’t have to buy—”
She touched his chin. “It’s not that.” He offered so much: Every night, she’d sleep snuggled against his side, the rhythms of his body soothing, the brilliant energy he shared with Dragon perfect as it traveled over her skin. She’d wake to the warmth of Dragon’s touch and to Ladon’s smile. He’d touch her cheek. Then he’d offer a “Have a good day at class,” and a “Dragon packed you an orange with your lunch.”
The life she wanted.
But no matter what he believed, she didn’t see it. “I need to know you’ll be willing to take care of… me… if you need to. And that you’ll be okay when it’s done.”
“Don’t say that. Don’t—”
Rysa cut him off, a finger on his lips. She felt like a thief. She stole his strength and gave nothing but the promise of death in return. Ladon and Dragon were everything she wanted. They were everything she needed, but it didn’t matter anymore. It never did.
She was a Fate. A goddamned Parcae. The future would have its due and what happened here was nothing more than a ripple in the coming lake of fire.
She could shield them, though. She may wound them, but she’d keep them alive. “If you’re with me, he will hurt you.”
He slapped the floor. “You are not toxic!”
This wasn’t about her. This was about the future in her head. “We need to focus on what’s relevant—”
“You are relevant!” The same pain she’d seen earlier sparked behind his eyes. “I can’t let this be. We will not walk away from you! You’re part of our lives. You’re the best part. We don’t care about prophesies or Faustus’s threats or damned Fate power games. We haven’t cared for a very long time. All we care about is that you are safe and the spike is healed.” He touched her temple. “We care about you because we—”
“Ladon, don’t.” She wanted to kiss him until the anguish in his eyes vanished. She wanted Dragon to feel it, too, and for his hide to glow in starbursts.
No matter what they believed, she was dangerous. The Parcae blood in her veins made her toxic. “We can talk about this later. We need to get through what’s happening first. Alive.”
He closed his eyes and leaned his forehead against her shoulder. Dragon touched Ladon’s back and nuzzled Rysa’s side.
Ladon kissed her lips and forehead as Dragon pulsed information to him. “He’s telling me not to argue with you. He says he’s too tired and that your visions hurt you too much.”
Leave it to Dragon to make practical sense of the situation.
Ladon stroked her cheek. “It doesn’t change how I feel. Nor does it change how he feels.” He patted Dragon’s neck. “We will get you through this. Both you and Mira. I don’t believe she was complicit in this. It wouldn’t be the first time Faustus has used a sister for his own gain.”
Some of the weight lifted. Even if they had to pop her Burnerized body, they’d help her mother.
“I’m going to take you to Sister. She’s going to watch over you while Dragon and I find a healer.” He leaned forward and kissed her neck. “And fetch your mother.”
A seer-made vision: Another dragon, but not her Dragon. Smaller, sleek. Angry.
She pressed on her temple again. “Your sister’s not happy about helping.”
“I can handle Sister.” He stood up, moving toward the front of the van. “You are more important than her irritations.” He grimaced as he dropped into the driver’s seat. “I need coffee.”
She lay down next to Dragon.
Ladon glanced back before putting the van in gear, worry darting through his eyes.
32
They parked outside the main entrance to Rock Springs’s hospital. A sprawling, one-story building, it housed several local clinics, as well as the emergency department. Construction dominated the back of the building—the hospital looked to be doubling its floor space.
Rysa’s seers had calmed while they drove. For the entire half hour, Dragon rested his head on her lap and she fretted over the danger she’d put them in, but, thankfully, without any burning visions.
She didn’t pick up any more from her mother, either. But the War Babies were smart enough not to strip off her mom’s flesh. Nor would they murder her. If they did, they’d kill their own father, but it didn’t mean torturing Mira to prove their superiority wasn’t a possibility.
Ladon took her hand as they walked toward the hospital entrance. Dragon ran by and scaled well-worn dragon holds behind the landscaping.
“Sister-Dragon’s on the roof.” Ladon pointed at the little chunks of brick as they fell behind the decrepit evergreens.
This part of Wyoming was drier than Minnesota, a semi-arid place with many more grays and browns than Rysa was used to. Her childhood in California had been green and gold and the vastness of the Pacific. Minnesota had been fresh water and deep green trees with winter snow banks so tall they blocked sightlines. But here, the mountains and the sky commanded all and the trees cowered next to the buildings, clinging to the human population like domesticated pets.
She liked it. Even through the pain in her skull, she felt at home. The mountains began here. Real mountains, not the smoothed-out cores of the Mesabi Range near Duluth, in northern Minnesota. California had it too, at your back when you looked out over the ocean. The massive presence of the land.
It fit Ladon and Dragon.
The beast’s ghost-form refracted before he disappeared over the edge of the roof. AnnaBelinda had been pulling into the hospital parking lot when Ladon called. Derek’s blood disorder made him grit his teeth and refuse to eat so Ladon’s sister brought him down to the hospital.
Ladon stopped at the check-in desk and flashed an ID card.
The lady offered a cordial nod to Rysa. “ID, please.”
Her driver’s license was in her backpack. On the floor of the coffee shop in the basement of the Continuing Ed building. In Minnesota.
Ladon leaned over the counter. “Julie, she left her wallet in the van. She’s with me.” He winked and flashed a brilliant smile.
Julie smiled back, charmed. “What’s your name, Miss?”
“Lucinda Thomas,” Rysa said, using her middle name. Not having her real name in a database combed by law enforcement agencies seemed like a good idea.
Julie typed something and her computer printed off a name badge. “Next time, bring in your identification, okay?”
Ladon peered down the hallway.
“Same room as always, Mr. Drake. 1367E.” Julie pointed in the direction Ladon looked.
Ladon flashed his brilliant smile again. “Thanks.” He nodded to a waving nurse as he led Rysa down the hall.
A woman, small and lithe, wearing a black t-shirt and jeans much like Ladon’s, her wavy black hair pulled into a ponytail, ran from the room and jumped into his arms.
“Brother!” she squealed. She hugged him and dropped back to the floor.
“Sister.”
AnnaBelinda’s uncanny eyes darkened when she looked at Rysa. Light brown like Ladon’s, hers were flecked with green instead of gold. “So you’re the source of the trouble.”
Ladon sc
owled.
The dragon woman scowled back and rolled her eyes. “Come on. Derek wants to say hello.” She looked Rysa up and down again. “You stay out here.”
“Sister,” Ladon said, his tone hard-edged. He tightened his hand around Rysa’s.
Icy annoyance crackled from AnnaBelinda. Her mouth opened to respond, but she snapped it shut and walked back into the room instead.
Inside, Derek played solitaire on a table next to his bed. He was about the same height as Ladon, his biceps as defined and his shoulders as broad, but he had sandy brown hair. An IV tube snaked across the bed and into his arm above an ugly bruise. His crystal blue eyes gazed at Rysa from across the room, but she couldn’t tell his age. His face looked both young and old, as if he’d seen more of this world than he should have.
Ladon’s and AnnaBelinda’s expressions carried a detachment, a sort of immortal irony. Derek, though, understood death. Tom’s cousin had had the same look when he came home after three tours in Afghanistan.
A broad smile brightened Derek’s face when he saw his brother-in-law. Some of Ladon’s tension fell away as he smiled back. These two men showed a closeness Rysa would have hoped for if she’d had a sibling.
“Ladon!” Derek back-slapped his brother-in-law.
Ladon pulled two chairs next to the bed and presented one to Rysa. She sat and Derek offered his hand. AnnaBelinda grumbled at the foot of the bed.
Derek ignored his wife and nodded to Rysa. “You are the Fate?” His Russian accent colored his resonant voice. Maybe he was an enthraller like Penny.
“I’m Rysa.”
AnnaBelinda scowled. She shifted her weight and glanced at the ceiling. Annoyance poured from Sister-Dragon above.
Rysa had never met anyone with a smile as charming as Derek’s. Not even Ladon could match its brilliance. If Derek wanted to be a movie star, all he’d have to do is wink.
He shifted in the bed, sitting straight, and Rysa saw the tip of a dragon’s tail winding across his shoulder, under the hospital gown. It looked like an old tattoo, not very colorful, and faded. He had another dragon on his ring finger, partially hidden by his wedding band.
How did he get tattoos with his blood disorder? Everything in this new world was turned upside down.
“You have caused quite a stir, if you didn’t know.”
Her attention snapped back to his face.
Derek’s eyes narrowed and his gaze flicked to Ladon before another smile highlighted his perfect teeth. He scratched his arm near the IV site. “There are new Shifters in town.”
AnnaBelinda rolled her eyes, shaking her head.
“I told her to ignore them. Maiming isn’t wise right now.” He nodded toward Rysa.
AnnaBelinda snorted. Rysa understood these Shifters were an irritation, but one not normally ignored because, as she learned in the electronics store, they were dangerous. When Rysa dropped into Ladon’s life, she complicated things for his sister in ways that hurled an already on-edge woman over a cliff.
“We have a situation which must be contained.” Derek leaned toward Rysa. “I know Shifters.” He frowned and sat back. “They whisper of the families and the Prime triads. The Shifters stay away. Mostly.”
Rysa nodded.
“I know your family had something to do with the attack in Abilene twenty-one years ago. The Shifters are still angry.” His lips thinned.
“I don’t want anyone to get hurt because of me.” She’d upset the delicate politics of Fates and Shifters and now anyone trying to help her had a target on their heads. No wonder AnnaBelinda was upset.
AnnaBelinda grimaced behind Rysa. She felt it, picking up the energy Ladon’s sister shared with Sister-Dragon.
Derek sat back, his gaze steady on his wife even as he addressed Ladon. “You look like hell, my friend. Go home. Brother-Dragon needs sleep. As do you.” He watched AnnaBelinda tic like she wanted to pace. “They will let me out this afternoon. We will find Mira. Isn’t that right, rodnoy?”
“No. Not a Jani Prime.” AnnaBelinda stood behind Ladon, feet planted, her body tense. Scowling, she refused to look at Rysa. “And I told you on the phone that I will not have a Fate in my home.” Her body shifted, a slow alignment with Rysa. “I don’t care if you’ve inserted yourself into Brother’s life. I don’t trust you.”
Of course you don’t trust me, Rysa thought. Why would you? But Rysa’s nasty raised its head, digging around the edges of AnnaBelinda’s belligerence. Rysa shouldn’t trust her. Unlike Ladon, her fury never cooled.
Derek pinched the bridge of his nose. “Why don’t you wait in the hall for a minute, Rysa.” His face showed real concern. The suggestion was meant to protect her from his wife’s ire.
Ladon’s jaw tensed. “She stays with me.” He pulled her closer.
AnnaBelinda whipped a gesture at Ladon that Rysa didn’t understand.
Rysa squeezed his fingers. “I’ll be okay.” Dealing with his sister’s hate would be easier for him without his Fate girlfriend breathing the same air.
He shook his head. “But—”
“I’m fine,” she lied. Her head throbbed. AnnaBelinda’s hostility beat in a painful rhythm. “There are chairs right outside.” She’d wait for them to stop yelling. Then she’d make Ladon go home. Dragon needed sleep. He couldn’t fight. He’d get injured, or worse, killed.
She’d had faith in her mom’s ability to survive. That as a Prime present-seer, she’d get away or manipulate the Burners into an action revealing their location. But also that Ladon’s sister was like him—someone who woke every morning intending to be the best person possible. Rysa had hoped AnnaBelinda would take this burden from his shoulders. That, as his sister, she’d help.
But AnnaBelinda believed all Fates deserved what the future forced down their throats. If Rysa’s mom escaped, so be it. If she didn’t, well, that wasn’t AnnaBelinda’s problem.
If Rysa sighed at the wrong moment, if she flinched or pouted or let down her guard for one second, Ladon and Dragon would disappear into the Black Hills of South Dakota. They’d track her mom. Not sleeping. Not resting. They’d drive themselves into the ground before they’d let her lose her family, all because his sister refused to help.
They’d die. Burned, frozen, she didn’t know. The world would lose a dragon and cause the other to rampage, like her uncle foresaw. She’d serve her purpose as the weapon who killed the Dracae.
She stood up, giving AnnaBelinda a wide berth as she walked out into the hall. Maybe luck would hold. Maybe Ladon might talk some sense into his sister. Either way, he was done searching for the Jani Prime. Rysa would cut off that path to ruin.
“Why did you bring her here?” AnnaBelinda spit the words at Ladon, venom coiled around her. The disdain ripped at Rysa’s gut as she stepped into the hallway.
“Will you calm down? You know damned well what’s at stake.” The harshness of Ladon’s voice added to Rysa’s anxiety.
AnnaBelinda swung her arms around. “Just because you’re sleeping with her doesn’t mean she’s trustworthy. She’s a time-bomb! Maybe things are fine now, but she’ll be the death of us all.”
AnnaBelinda slammed the door.
A time bomb. The death of them all. AnnaBelinda wouldn’t put a knife in Rysa’s belly, but she’d drive her into the back country and leave her there to die.
AnnaBelinda would do the same to her mom. She’d track Mira, but not well, and she’d miss opportunities. When Dragon woke, he and Ladon would take up the slack, but it’d be too late. And he’d never speak to his sister again.
Another path to ruin.
Rysa couldn’t catch her breath, and she bent forward, attempting to hide her spasms from the nurses who walked by. Nausea flooded through her chest. She stood up, pacing, and stared at the door. AnnaBelinda yelled something and she heard Ladon yell back. Then more yelling, this time from Derek.
The hospital hallway closed in. Claustrophobia welled up, stuck as she was in a corridor smothered under hate from a woman who s
hould be her friend.
Ladon and AnnaBelinda yelled at each other but the entrance glowed with the midday sun. Fresh air, warm and clean, beckoned from outside. Walking down the corridor, Rysa passed the reception desk and nodded to Julie, but stopped, backing up.
She needed a pen.
“Julie.” A can decorated with construction paper and macaroni pinwheels rested against the computer. “Did your daughter make that?”
Julie blinked. “Umm, yes.”
Rysa nodded toward the room. “Ladon told me.” She didn’t know why she lied. Her nasty wanted a damned pen.
Julie glanced at 1367E. “You two serious?” She leaned forward, her eyes wide. “He’s a good guy. He’s in here all the time visiting Mr. Nicholson when he comes in for treatments.” She tapped the side of the pen cup. “He probably won’t tell you this, but he and his sister paid for the new wing.” She nodded toward the construction. “He’s so down-to-earth I doubt he’d let on… you know…” She nodded toward the construction again.
Rysa focused on the pens. Julie’s words rolled by without registering as Rysa’s fingers pulled a marker out of the can. “Can I borrow this? I’ll bring it back. I promise.” She had no idea why her seers had a desperate need for the pen, but she figured she’d better listen.
Julie shrugged. “Sure thing.”
Forcing friendliness, Rysa smiled and saluted with the marker. “Thanks again.”
Julie nodded before turning to a nurse. Rysa felt them watching as she walked toward the entrance, their lips twittering as they glanced down the hall at 1367E.
Rysa caught her breath at the door. The bright sunshine beckoned. Everything floated by, skating on a thin film, flattening the world. Something told her to step through the entrance.
Outside, the hospital loomed behind her, anchored to the sky. She filled her lungs with the clean air, her head clearing.
Her nose pricked. Surprised, she searched the parking lot. She’d caught it on the breeze, faint but obvious: the unmistakable tang of Burner.
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Games of Fate (Fate ~ Fire ~ Shifter ~ Dragon #1) Page 23
