“Listen, Robert,” Charles said, a slight wheeze in his voice. “She’s not going to leave. Not with knowing who all is here. Let’s just get the good stuff started. She’ll show herself when she sees what we’re doing. She’s a nurse. Don’t they take oaths or something?”
I gritted my teeth and let my head fall down to my knees, my broken arm dangling uselessly at my side.
“Fine,” ugly Robert said. “I’ve got my stuff right here. I’ll take the geis off of him, and you can see how to do it for next time.”
My eyes widened in shock as they walked over to Merrick and picked him up by the arms, half dragging, half carrying him to the kitchen table that was only a few feet from my face.
I swallowed bile as they let his body flop down hard, his head hitting the table with a soft thud.
He was beyond feeling it.
His eyes weren’t even open, and I was fairly sure he was only a few minutes away from death’s door.
“Why are we taking this off of him?” Charles asked. “Wouldn’t it be easier if we let him die like this?”
“He won’t die with the geis on him. It’ll keep him alive just by the magic in the power object,” Robert answered, lifting up Merrick’s shirt and showing off the tattoo that was on his left side. “I weaved words into the ink, forming the image. Once the image and ink are gone from his skin, he will be able to die if you choose for him to.”
I leaned forward, curious how they were going to get rid of it.
I wasn’t left wondering.
Seconds after the thought crossed my brain, Robert pulled out a wicked looking blade, then sliced the skin right off of Merrick’s side.
The tattoo disappeared with the skin, and what was left was just a gaping hole from hip to ribs.
Blood welled, and the muscles of Merrick’s side were exposed by the horrific act.
“There,” Robert wiped the blade off on Merrick’s back. “That should be enough. I want my money.”
My brother pointed to the box that was on top of the kitchen counter, and Robert went directly to it, stopping only long enough to check that there was indeed money in it before he left, closing the door to the cabin softly behind him.
Something about the way he left so abruptly had me wondering why.
Why, when he’d spoken about his plans with my brother and then abruptly left meant there was a motive behind the act.
I didn’t know what, but I knew better than to show my hand.
I would wait, no matter what.
Nikolai would be here soon.
I knew it.
I could feel it.
My brother hissed, staring at Merrick, then he scanned the room.
“I’m going to fucking torture him until you show yourself,” Charles growled.
Then he did just that, and he didn’t stop at just Merrick.
He’d started in on the other dragon rider and Merrick’s sister when torturing him didn’t work.
Sickened, I prayed.
God, please hurry, Nikolai, I pleaded.
But he didn’t answer, and the worse was proven yet to come.
***
Thirty minutes later, I’d had enough.
I couldn’t take it anymore.
My arm was healed enough that I could now wiggle my fingers without screaming in pain, and I couldn’t let Charles hurt the woman any more.
I pulled out my badass, letting her off the chain.
And when I say ‘off the chain,’ I mean it in the worst way possible.
I wasn’t proud of what I did next.
Chapter 17
There are two kinds of people without beards. Boys and women. I am neither.
-Jase, Duck Dynasty
Nikolai
To say that I was out of control was an understatement.
Anything and everything that I was ever taught was thrown out the window when I realized my mate was gone.
So, as Perdita flew me over the cabin on my second flyby, I made an instinctive decision.
“Get me onto the roof,” I said, noticing the large chimney.
How do you know this is the right place? Perdita chimed into my chaotic thoughts.
It’s like a buzz under my skin. I just know. As we flew, the buzz became stronger and stronger until I felt her, I explained to her telepathically as she hovered over the roof.
Before I could reply, the screaming started.
I practically flew down the chimney, coming to a thudding stop in the black dust filled bottom, coughing slightly as I tried to look around.
The fucking fireplace was huge, and I could stand up all the way and still see everything that was going on and more.
“Brooklyn!” I bellowed, not seeing her anywhere.
I did, however, see a man on the floor, screaming for his life. Merrick.
Choosing to prioritize rather than freak out, I bolted for Brooklyn, scooping her up in my arms and burying my face into her neck.
She pushed off of me, though, and went to Merrick, pressing her two fingers to his neck and checking his pulse.
She looked at me grimly.
“He’s not good,” she whispered.
She took a wad of paper towels off of the counter that was a few feet away from her hand and pressed them to Merrick’s side.
“Don’t hurt him!” the woman pleaded. “Don’t hurt him!”
Brooklyn blinked, her brows furrowing.
“What the fuck is going on here?” Keifer roared from the doorway.
Nobody moved.
The ones on the tables couldn’t.
This whole thing was so fucked up.
Where was everyone?
Nobody in the vicinity but the ones in the cabin, Perdita relayed.
“You,” Keifer said, pointing at the woman. “Speak. What’s going on here?”
The room went silent.
“It’s my brother. Please,” she cried. “He didn’t have a choice.”
“What are you talking about?” Keifer said through gritted teeth. “Who are you talking about?”
The woman gestured.
“Him. Merrick. He’s my brother. Please,” the woman had tears pouring from her eyes.
She looked terror stricken.
“What’s your name?” Jean Luc asked, shaking him slightly.
“Desi,” she said, voice breaking.
Desi shook her head.
“He forbade me to do anything,” Desi whispered hollowly. “I couldn’t have helped even if I tried. He’s my brother. He gave me an order, and his word is law, no matter how much I wanted to disobey it.”
I looked over at Merrick, seeing his breathing uneven and coming in pants that were getting slower and slower.
“We need to get him home to Skylar,” I muttered, hurrying over to the bed.
“Don’t move him,” Brooklyn whispered. “I think…I think we just need to get him to his dragon. He can fly him to the heart. I think…I think that’s the way to do it.”
I blinked.
“What?” I asked.
Brooklyn started talking even as she urged me to help her move Merrick.
I took the hint and grabbed the end of the sheet while Desi’s boyfriend—the other dragon rider—Tony, picked up the last corner.
“I heard my brother talking,” Desi whispered. “Charles was hurting Tony.” She looked guiltily at the man beside her. “As he was working him over, he kept talking about stealing ‘hearts’ and how he was going to become a rich man with the ability to heal anyone he wanted to. I didn’t understand, not at first, but this is my best guess. If what he says is true…I think that’s the only way we can save him.”
“The closest heart is about an hour’s ride from here. It’s the one just off of our property,” I said.
“You’re not bringing that man back onto our property,” Keifer growled. “He’s tried to kill you twice now.”
“He didn’t have a choi
ce,” Brooklyn said, pointing at Keifer. “Back the fuck away.”
Keifer didn’t budge, and Brooklyn let the sheet drop and charged up to Keifer.
“If you don’t get out of my way,” she hissed. “I’ll shove that stupid fucking cane up your ass. Wide end first.”
I looked down at the cane in Keifer’s hand, then back at my mate who rarely had a bad thing to say about anyone.
Then raised my eyebrows at Keifer.
“She has a point,” I said. “That tattoo is gone. Something happened here that he didn’t want. Look at him.”
Brooklyn bared her teeth at Keifer, who didn’t back down from her angry stare.
“I’m thinking of not just you, but my whole sanctuary. We can’t bring them into Dragon Rider territory. We can’t vouch for any of them.”
“Then we’ll stay here. You take him. We will keep,” Desi pleaded, her voice filled with desperation.
Keifer gritted his teeth, his mind working a hundred miles an hour.
I knew his dilemma. He had more than just us to think about.
He had a mate at home that was pregnant. A threat that he knew nothing about. And four unknowns that could possibly kill all that he loved.
He was just being protective.
And I didn’t know who to side with.
Turns out, though, that Brooklyn could take care of herself, which she proved in the next instant.
One second Merrick and Brooklyn were there, and the next second, they weren’t.
My vision blurred, and then I was privy to the same thing that Brooklyn was. She’d weaved her own illusion to help get Merrick help.
Good girl.
“Help me,” she whispered. “Help me now.”
I looked into her eyes, studied her face, and then nodded.
This was the time.
I would either choose her or Keifer.
I picked Merrick up, cradling him like an over large newborn, and walked out the door.
***
I witnessed magic that night.
Saw the amazingness of it before my eyes.
Merrick’s dragon, a shiny pale bronze dragon, the size of a small tractor, used to mow acres upon acres of hay, stood proudly by Merrick’s side.
It was then that I realized that the dragon was taking in just as much healing power as Merrick himself.
I hadn’t realized that the ride was as far away as it was, but the longer I watched Merrick and the dragon, Sascha, heal, the more I realized that we must’ve been further than was safe for even Perdita to go.
“You need to tell your brother where, exactly, you are or he’ll keep hounding us until he finds us. And I don’t really want to deal with the fight that I can see coming. Tell him and be done with it,” Brooklyn growled for the fourth time.
I narrowed my eyes.
“If he comes here, he’s going to try to stop you and me,” I informed her.
She shrugged.
“It’s already done,” she said.
I looked from her to Merrick and back again.
“You think he’s going to be okay?” I asked, leaning forward slightly to study the other man.
He isn’t bleeding anymore, so that was a good thing, right?
Yes, Perdita said telepathically. Your brother has found you.
I looked up just in time to see Declan and Keifer land on the soft forest floor beside us.
Keifer didn’t attack like I thought he would, though.
Instead, he calmly slid off the dragon’s back, and crossed his arms as he watched whatever healing was happening with Merrick, and his dragon, happen.
“I took the others to the sanctuary,” he said. “And I would’ve brought Skylar with me, but you never answered.”
Brooklyn snorted.
I sent a glare in her direction.
“What exactly are you thinking I’m going to do here?” Keifer asked my mate.
Brooklyn looked up, and her eyes narrowed.
“What do I think is going to happen?” she asked. “How the hell would I know? Everything that I’ve wanted since you’ve gotten back has taken a backseat to what you wanted. My best friend, my mate, they all deferred to you. And I’m tired of coming second best to the people that used to put me first before you showed up.”
As Brooklyn spoke, she leaned forward and poked Keifer in the chest, pronouncing each word with more and more force until her finger was sinking into the soft jacket Keifer was wearing.
“You done?” Keifer asked.
Brooklyn hissed at him.
Keifer’s frown cracked, and suddenly a smile overtook his face.
“You’re good for this family, you know,” he said. “I’m sorry.”
“Sorry for what?” Brooklyn asked in confusion.
“Sorry that I haven’t tried harder to get along with you. You’re one of mine now, and I’ll do my best in the future to listen to you before I choose what I think is best for you,” he promised.
I threw one arm around Brooklyn’s shoulder.
“You’ll excuse us for a moment?” I asked my brother.
I didn’t wait for him to tell me yes or no; instead, I just walked away with Brooklyn as she dragged her feet.
We were about thirty feet away, and out of hearing distance, of at least my brother, when I turned Brooklyn to me and stared at her, studying her tired face.
“You’re okay?” I asked her worriedly.
She held up her hand.
“I think it’s healed,” she answered. “Are you okay?”
I looked at my own hand.
The flash of pain I’d felt earlier when Brooklyn had broken her arm was a distant memory now, but it still hurt to think that she’d been in pain and I’d had no way of preventing that hurt.
“Yes,” I said. “I’m fine.”
She nodded.
“I’m still mad at you,” she promised.
I nodded this time.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “I shouldn’t have chosen my brother over you. I’ll offer no excuse.”
She sighed.
“I know exactly why you chose your brother over me, and I agree with it,” she admitted. “But it doesn’t help. I’ve gotten a taste for freedom and I don’t like having it denied to me.”
I pulled her into my arms, letting my lips rest on her forehead for a long moment before pulling back to look into her eyes.
“There’s always going to be a threat to us…to you,” I told her.
She frowned, and when she would’ve spoken, I stopped her before she could.
“Listen,” I said.
When she nodded, I continued.
“Every day will be a constant struggle,” I informed her. “When there’s that many people under the same roof and in the same immediate area, tempers are bound to flare. So you’ll have to try your hardest to work with the others there, even my brother.”
She nodded.
“And when you have a problem that you can’t solve, I’d like you to come to me, talk it out with me, before you go about trying to fix it on your own. Like today,” I said.
She winced.
“I was just trying to get some air,” she said softly.
“I know,” I informed her. “But that’s another thing. You‘re going to have to get used to having security. If not me, then a dragon escort. Anything; but you can’t be left alone. You’d be a huge pawn in this war against the Purists.”
She grimaced.
“You’ll need to choose,” I said. “Your freedom, where you’re able to do whatever you want, or this place.” I hesitated, “It’s not always the best place to be in the world, but there’ll be no better place that has a greater group of friends that care about you enough to take absolutely anything for you. Even a bullet.”
“You know I can’t leave. You were the one who explained that I’d die if I was away from you,” she muttered darkly.
I smiled at her obvious
irritation.
“I never said you’d be getting rid of me. I’d go with you, of course,” I said softly. “We can live out of the public eye. If we moved to a different state, it’d be likely that nobody would even know who I was.”
Her mouth dropped open.
“You’d leave this place?” she asked in stunned disbelief. “For me?”
I smiled at her.
“I’d give my left nut for you. Is it so hard to believe I’d give up my sanctuary for you?” I asked teasingly.
Her eyes narrowed. “That’s disgusting.”
I laughed, then shrugged.
“It’s the truth.”
“I don’t want you to give up your left nut,” she sighed, turning fully to face me as she said what she had to say next. “I’m not even asking you to always side with me over your brother. All I’m asking is that you at least give me the benefit of the doubt. If I tell you I’m going stir-crazy, we need to fly out as soon as possible.”
I stared at her, studied her face, and then nodded.
“I can do that. I will do that,” I amended.
She smiled then, and then walked into my arms.
Her body felt right as I wrapped my arms around her shoulders and pulled her into me.
She rested her hand over my heart, and my arm trailed down her arm to her forearm where she’d broken the bones earlier in the day.
“Are you okay?” I asked softly.
She let her head fall back as she stared into my eyes.
“I’m better than okay,” she answered. “I had a lot of thinking to do while I was waiting for you to get there, and I didn’t like what I saw.”
I blinked.
“What do you mean?” I asked worriedly. “What did you decide?”
Was that panic in my voice?
I didn’t like the tightness in my chest, or the way my breathing seemed to stall as I waited for her to reply.
“I saw my life. Two different paths I could take.” She hesitated and I lifted my hand to run down the side of her head, smoothing her hair down so I could see her eyes completely.
“Go on,” I urged.
She swallowed.
“I had two choices,” she answered. “One, I could leave…test out the theory of whether or not I would die without you.”
Despair rose inside my body, but her next words calmed that roiling storm.
Dragons Need Love, Too (I Like Big Dragons Series Book 2) Page 15
