by Amelia Jade
Sonofabitch.
That was the same line Colonel Mara had just used on him. How could he stand there and tell Marie to believe him when he didn’t even believe the same thing?
“Tell me where to go,” he rasped, giving in. They would get one chance, and once chance only. The first time one of them showed their true colors, he was gone.
“Then we have a deal?”
Do it for Marie.
“We have a deal.”
They shook hands.
“He’s holed up in an abandoned barn halfway between here and Barton City.”
The door to her office opened and a tall, fair-skinned fair-haired man with a sharp jaw walked in, his baby-blue eyes the only thing that betrayed what he really was.
“Who is this?”
“This is Cowl. Take him with you.”
“He’s a dragon.”
“Very observant.”
“An ice dragon.”
“Your powers of observation do you credit, Garath.”
“I’m working alone.”
“No, Garath. You aren’t. Cowl is going to go with you. He’s going to help.” There was no give in her voice.
“Fine. Give me the exact location and a vehicle. We’re going right now.” Garath ignored the ice dragon. He didn’t want a single thing to do with him. An unknown dragon shifter? He trusted him about as far as he could throw him. Which even with his strength wasn’t very far at all. He trusted him even less in a situation like this.
“I have a Jeep out front,” Cowl said calmly, seemingly unaware of the hatred flowing from Garath to him. “I can get us there faster.”
“Oh perfect. He’s barely awake and already knows how to drive. I’m glad I got the same quality of education.”
“Shut up.” Colonel Mara stood, having had enough of the byplay. “Cowl knows the location. He’ll take you there, and he’ll make sure that nothing goes wrong. Our tracker says your man, dragon, whatever, just headed back to the city. Go set a trap and capture him or something, okay?”
Capture? No.
Garath was going to kill him.
Chapter Twenty
Marie
“This is stupid. He’s not going to talk to you, girl. It’s been almost a year and a half now. He probably doesn’t even remember who you are.”
It was sad, but it seemed entirely too likely to be true. Toward the end of their relationship Liam had changed, and not for the better. She’d put it down to pre-wedding jitters, but she’d been wrong. The Liam she was starting to see wasn’t a fake, temporary thing. It was his real personality shining through the façade he’d maintained for nearly three years with her.
Marie was sickened by how much she’d trusted him, what she’d gone through with him, together, all the while thinking that he truly loved her. The first thing she’d done after the wedding, besides cry, drink a lot of wine, and eat one—okay two—tubs of ice cream, was go get herself tested. She doubted Liam had been faithful to her. Even now, as she searched Clinton Heights mall for him, she wondered if any of their relationship had been real.
Why do you care? You have Garath now.
Right. Garath. The other dragon. She just couldn’t seem to escape them, despite her stated desire to never see another dragon again after Liam. Heaven forbid she date some nice boy who lived in his mom’s basement until a year ago and wore thick-rimmed glasses and watched cartoons. That guy at least wouldn’t turn into some mythical creature.
Except she didn’t want that. She wanted tall, beautiful, gray-eyed, brown-haired, soft-smiling and big-speaking Garath. Marie hadn’t doubted that. Even when she’d told him to leave, she’d known her feelings for him weren’t faked. That wasn’t the problem. Her feelings for Liam hadn’t been faked either, even if it had taken her two years to feel half as strong about him as she did toward Garath after two weeks.
And that was exactly what scared her. Two weeks was all it had taken for her to realize she was starting to fall for him in a big way. A serious way. How could something come to mean so much to her in such a short period of time? She didn’t have an answer for it, and so she’d pushed Garath away out of fear.
Fear that he was the same as Liam. Fear that she’d fall just as hard for him, or even harder. Fear that he’d take from her whatever was left after Liam was through. Her dignity and her father’s car were gone of course, but she was still hale, healthy, and had a good job. She’d even made a few friends in town, including Joanna. She didn’t want to lose all that.
So she’d told Garath to leave, and then sat down on her couch and cried until her eyes were red and nothing more flowed. She’d pounded fists into the couch, asking herself why life had to be so difficult and confusing. Then she’d tried to cry some more, but nothing had come of it, so she’d turned the television on as a distraction.
Which is when the live team at Clinton Heights mall about some sort of cat fashion show going on there had panned around to reveal none other than Liam in the background. Stunned, she’d rewound the feed to confirm it was him, thankful more than ever for PVRs.
After all this time, she’d found him again. The mall in question was no more than ten minutes from her house. So she’d hopped in her car, broken more than one speed restriction on the way over, and now was desperately searching the mall for him. This was the best chance she’d gotten since her efforts to track him down had begun, and it was all a fluke. She wasn’t going to waste that.
It was time to confront that asshole and see if she could get her father’s car back. It was a slim chance, but she wasn’t going to let it slip by. If there was any hope that he still had the car, she had to take it. For her father.
“Where are you?” she muttered, walking up and down the various hallways. He should stand out with ease, but she wasn’t finding him.
Had he somehow realized she was coming, and given her the slip?
Marie wasn’t looking as she walked around a corner, and slammed into someone.
“Watch it,” she snapped, only belatedly realizing she was the one who had screwed up.
“My apologies, I didn’t…Marie?”
Her head came around like a bolt of lightning. “Liam,” she said flatly.
“Well, well, well. If it isn’t little Marie, come to grovel.”
The sharpness of his tone should have been her first warning, but she was too caught up in the other changes. He looked bad. His once nicely kept hair was short and greasy. The powerful regal lines of his cheeks were gone, replaced with a gauntness that reflected his overall weight loss.
“Liam, what happened to you?” she gasped, taken aback. He reminded her of someone who had become addicted to heroin and taken to a life on the streets. It was a painful thing to see on someone she had once cared about, even if he’d mistreated her so badly.
“Nothing. I’m better than I’ve ever been,” he snapped. “Especially now that you’re here.”
“I’m not here for you, dickhead.” This was the Liam she remembered, and the months upon months of built-up hatred started pouring out. “I’m here for my car. Tell me where it is, give me the keys, and I’m gone. All I want is what you stole from me.”
The dragon shifter stared at her for a moment. Then he threw back his head and roared with laughter, attracting the attention of passersby, who started to give the two of them a wider berth.
He sneered at her. “Are you sure that’s all you want? I can think of a few other things you used to want. I can provide that.”
“Ha. You wish. Not a hope, asshole. I used to think you were good in bed. Then I found someone better.”
Liam stepped forward so quickly she couldn’t retreat. He snatched her wrist and brought it to his nose, inhaling deep. His eyes widened. “Oh. Oh this is too good.”
He didn’t release her wrist.
“Let go,” she snapped, trying to shake herself free.”
“No. No I don’t think so. You’re going to come with me if you want to see your car or your precious dragon
boyfriend ever again.”
Marie gasped. How could he possibly know about Garath? Her eyes flicked to her wrist. Could he smell him?
“This is perfect. I’m going to get you and him again. Oh, I almost can’t believe it. What a perfect coincidence.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” she snapped, twisting her wrist.
It was no use though; his grip was like a vise, unbreakable to her human strength.
“The two of you, together,” he chuckled, still talking mostly to himself. “This is just too great.”
“I don’t understand.”
He tugged on her arm hard enough to send pain stabbing into her shoulder when she didn’t immediately follow.
“You will. Now come along without any fight, or I promise the next time you see your new man he’ll be nothing but a corpse on your doorstep.”
The promise sent chills down her spine. She’d come to the mall knowing it was a public place, that it was probably the best shot she had at confronting Liam without him doing anything. Despite that, Marie hadn’t expected him to try. Liam had never been like that before, even after he’d grown cold and distant. Never once had he lifted a hand or lost his temper with her.
This was a new Liam, a different Liam, and it scared her. And what the hell had he meant about Garath? Did they know each other?
“I don’t understand.”
Liam pulled her along after him, heading like an arrow for the nearest exit, unwavering. People moved aside as he barged along, only too eager to remove themselves from the path of the lumbering giant.
Marie hurried to keep up, hoping she hadn’t just made a terrible, terrible mistake.
What the hell had happened to Liam?
Chapter Twenty-One
Garath
The fair-skinned dragon quietly cleared his throat.
Garath’s face twisted with anger at the reminder of his presence. Trust Colonel Mara to saddle him with another dragon.
“Listen, Cower, you can stop with the attempts to get me to speak. I’m not interested. Now shut your mouth before I sew it closed with your own skin.”
“My name is Cowl.” The ice dragon didn’t sound the slightest bit apologetic about speaking. Nor did he sound suitably awed by Garath’s temper. Well, he could change that in a hurry.
Turning, he pulled one fist closed. Darkness slid out from under his sleeve and down his arm. “One more word,” he threatened.
They were hiding out in the top of the barn, waiting for Liam to return. The place was rather less ramshackle on the inside than it appeared, though he still wouldn’t term it a luxury palace. Those had decidedly less cow shit in them. Especially if you got rid of the politicians.
He waited for a response. Cowl looked away, then looked back. Then looked away again. What the hell was he doing? Garath wondered if maybe the ice dragon wasn’t right in the head. It would certainly be a great practical joke for Colonel Mara to play, sending the crazy one out as support. Just what he needed.
“What?” he snapped as Cowl repeated the routine for a third time. “What the fuck does that mean?”
Cowl sighed, the noise full of exasperation. “They’re here,” he hissed.
Garath snapped around. They? Liam was the only one that was expected to return. He could see now though that there was a second form visible in the car as it pulled up. The window was facing the setting sun directly, and he couldn’t make out who it was beyond the reflection.
“Why the hell didn’t you say anything?”
Cowl rolled his eyes. “You were busy threatening me and told me not to speak another word! Make up your mind, you nutjob.”
If it weren’t for Liam’s presence and his renewed focus on killing the man who had swindled him of his treasure and hurt Marie terribly, he would have gone after the ice dragon. Of all the dragons, they were the most notorious for being sticklers about ignoring metaphors and idioms, taking them literally.
Garath hated them.
“Uh, Garath.”
“What now?” he snarled.
Cowl nodded toward the slats of barnwood they were hiding behind. “Isn’t that Marie?”
His blood ran cold as he looked out from between two planks. Cowl was right. The other passenger was Marie. She was getting out of the passenger-side door, looking around, appearing outwardly to be calm, but Garath knew better. His mate was petrified; he could read it in her eyes. The ice in them was cold. Brittle. Ready to snap at any moment and make a break for it.
“Change of plans.” He spoke softly now. Liam’s hearing was as dangerous as any dragons’. “I take him. You get Marie out of here. Take her to safety.”
Cowl stared at him. “You’re joking, right? You’re going to trust me to get your mate to safety?”
Garath’s lips pulled back in a silent snarl. “I wish. But Marie is the thing that matters most to me, and if you value you your life, you’ll treat her as such. Because after I’m done ripping Liam apart limb by limb, I’m going to come to her. And if so much as a single hair is out of place, I’m going to blame you.” He poked Cowl in the chest.
“I will see her to safety. You have my word.”
“Your word means shit to me. Get it done or I will kill you.”
“Yeah, I heard you the first time.”
By now Liam was too close for them to discuss it anymore, leaving Garath to seethe about it in silence. The idea of trusting his mate’s safety to anyone other than himself was hard enough. But to another dragon? Impossible. It shouldn’t be done. Her safety and protection was his responsibility.
It didn’t matter that he was seeing to it by dealing with the traitorous silver dragon Liam. He should be there, in person, instead of by proxy with Cowl. It offended his entire dragon sense of self-worth. Worst of all, he knew it was his fault for leaving Marie. He should never have left when she told him to. He should have ignored that and stayed, forcing her to deal with the situation right then and there.
And if you’d done that, you would be no better than Liam. Disregarding her wishes, doing as you pleased because you deemed it best. Taking her right to choose her own actions away from her. That’s not what a mate does.
A mate was not in control. A mate was a partner. An equal. Half the equation.
And all of the protection.
Below, Liam and Marie entered the barn. Garath hoped and prayed that by rubbing cow shit on themselves that he and Cowl had covered their tracks adequately enough. The barn may have been abandoned, but it was still adjacent to several other cattle farms. The smell was prevalent enough. It had to be, otherwise their trap would never work.
“Go wait over there for me dear, will you?”
Garath nearly gave everything away, launching himself from cover before the time was right. Why was he talking to Marie like they were together?
“Of course.”
The tiniest of squeaks in her voice was all that told him she was faking it. Playing along. Garath had no idea how she’d found him, or what was going on, but he was almost happy to hear the fear in her voice. It let him know that she’d been telling the truth all along, that she and Liam weren’t pulling a con job on him.
Which meant his mate needed rescuing. Gently, using a gust of wind to help hide the noise as it whistled through the barn, he rose onto his fingers and toes. He crouched in the loft, waiting for the precise moment. Beside him Cowl nodded his own readiness. Frost gathered in the air between his hands.
Garath called upon his own dragon powers. Inky black acid spread across his skin, emerging from under his clothes to coat his entire body. Long blades made of acid leapt out of the sides of his arms, running parallel to his limbs. From there the rest of his body followed suit, turning him into a ball of sharp blades.
Below Liam finished locking Marie up in one of the stalls. Garath waited until he was nearly ten feet away.
Then he leapt.
“GET HER OUT OF HERE!” he shouted, midair.
The prompt was unnecessary. Cowl
was already moving, spraying ice from his hands as he leapt to the ground, building a wall of ice between them.
Garath had time to hear a terrified scream rip from Marie’s mouth, then he collided with Liam, the two of them slamming into the ground and rolling across the barn. A support pillar exploded as they went right through it, and the entire south side of the barn groaned in protest.
They came to a halt, Liam bleeding from a thousand cuts inflicted by Garath’s defenses. He had jammed a hand into Liam’s mouth at one point, pouring acid down the silver dragon’s throat in an attempt to cut off his air supply.
Liam heaved once as if choking, and then a blast of quicksilver, the ultra-cold metal that silver dragons used, came exploding out of his throat. Garath jerked his hand out of the way as the stream coated half the wood on the ceiling above them. The decades-old barn couldn’t handle the stress, and chunks of roof began to fall.
The two pushed away from each other, the quicksilver-coated wood shattering between them like a makeshift barrier. Both rose to their feet, staring at each other, waiting for the rain of deadly projectiles to end.
Garath couldn’t see behind him, but Liam could, and he howled in anger. Cowl must have succeeded.
“It’s just you and me now,” he spat. “And this time you aren’t going to be able to attack me in my sleep. I’m awake now, and you’re going to pay for what you did to me, and to Marie.”
Liam looked at him, and Garath was struck at how unhealthy he appeared. Gaunt and thin, the typical mass of dragon muscles were notoriously absent from his frame. Even as he noticed that he recalled the off-color tinge to the quicksilver he’d vomited up.
“What happened to you?”
Liam just stared at him.
“No words? Fine. I don’t need you to speak before I kill you.”
This time the silver dragon laughed. “Strike me down and I shall return more powerful than you can ever imagine.”
