Oh, of course. I eyed his face, pale beneath the blood. “Does it hurt?”
“Like the devil.” He hesitated. “Beats being dead though. You saved my arse with that shovel.”
He looked away, as if expressing gratitude was difficult. Guess he didn’t get much practice at it.
“After I tried to kill you, too.”
This was the longest conversation we’d ever had—and probably the only one that hadn’t ended with him threatening me. As an apology it needed work, but I’d take what I could get.
“Well, we all make mistakes. So you don’t think I killed Leandra any more?”
“I know I took a knock to the head back there. Maybe I dreamed the whole thing.” His battered gaze never wavered from my face. “But I think we both know Leandra’s not dead.”
I drew in a sharp breath—and nearly coughed up a lung. But I was glad of the diversion. He’d said it, and now it hung in the smoky air between us. I didn’t know what to say, so I took refuge in practicalities.
He had blood matted all through his hair. I recalled the sound of his head slamming against the water tank. Could be concussion. And the way Micah had kicked him too—maybe internal injuries.
“Get out of there. You’re not driving.”
“I’m fine.” He squinted up at me with his one working eye.
“You can hardly see where you’re going.” I took his head and felt all over for bumps, as gently as I could. One on the back of his head was the size of an egg.
“I can see the two of you. You both look like shit.”
“Nice. You don’t look so hot yourself, you know.”
“When fighting werewolves you have been, look as hot you will not.”
I glanced down at the Darth Vader T-shirt. “Thanks, Yoda. You’re a big Star Wars fan, huh?”
“Absolutely. Han shot first, you know.”
I shook my head. How much weirder could this day get?
“Out.” I got hold of one muscled arm and hauled. Reluctantly he allowed me to help him out. “Are you really seeing double or are you just being a smart-arse?”
“Bit of both.”
I got him settled in the passenger seat and started the engine. Then I sat, staring out at the smoke and the eerie yellow light. I heard the wail of a siren in the distance. The fire brigade was on its way. The massive tree blocking the road behind us was going to be a problem for them.
“What are you waiting for?” said Garth. “Let’s go.”
“We have to go back. We can’t just leave them.”
Ben would never abandon me—and I’d run out without even knowing if he was still alive.
“We can’t go back.” He leaned closer, the expression in his one good eye fierce. “Luce would be the first to tell you—your safety’s more important.”
“I don’t care.” I grabbed the door handle. “I can’t leave Ben.”
He reached across and stopped me with one big hand over mine. “He’s got Luce. She’s worth any five others in a fight. She’ll keep him safe if anyone can. You’re more important.” A look almost of wonder came over his battered face. “When Valeria finds out about you …”
Adrenalin rushed through me at the thought, and something more—a confused welter of fear, hatred and exultation. Yes, when Valeria found out, I’d better be miles away. I had only a battered wolf for protection until I found the stone.
He was right. The human would be safe enough. It was more important to go after the stone. What was that bitch Nada doing with it? I clenched the steering wheel, knuckles white. Jason’s fear had infected me. What was he afraid of?
“Stop her”—had he meant Nada? Stop her destroying the stone? Or had he been addressing his human female, telling her to stop me? Either way, why would he care?
I frowned at Garth, mind racing. In the end, it came back to the channel stone. I felt its lack as a pain beneath my breastbone. I had no choice, compelled like a common thrall to seek it out.
“Mistress?” Garth whispered, eyes wide. “We have to get you to safety.”
I started the car. The wolf laid his head back and closed his eyes. He was injured—I should get him to hospital. Concussion could be nasty.
No. Ridiculous. The wolf would heal, or not. It didn’t matter. The channel stone was more important.
I huffed out a breath, shaking my head to clear it. Get out!
“Garth! Don’t go to sleep.” His face was pale, almost grey under the dirt and ash and blood.
“Not sleeping,” he grunted. “Thinking.”
“Must be a new experience for you.”
Best to keep him talking. If he lapsed into unconsciousness I wanted to know about it. My body trembled as if I’d just run a marathon, but at least it felt like mine again. I kept sneaking looks at Garth as I drove, torn between my inner struggles and a growing concern for him. I’d seen him heal unnaturally quickly before, but so far he didn’t seem to be improving.
“I heard Jason call you Leandra.” He rolled his head toward me and opened his eyes. Well, the one eye that would still open. “And I … I felt her … I don’t know how to explain it. The way she stands. Even her voice—it’s deeper than yours, you know. And the way you compelled Micah—only a dragon can do that.
“But I know she’s dead. I saw the body. And I thought you killed her—but Jason said he did … and now … Shit, my head hurts. I don’t know what to think.”
Well, that made two of us. I couldn’t even be sure it was me doing the thinking. A stranger kept looking out of my eyes, a ruthless stranger whose coldness was alien to me. My whole body tensed, as if I could keep her out by sheer willpower.
I drove a little way in silence. It was the most god-awful mess, and I was pretty sure if Garth was picking sides between me and Leandra I wouldn’t be coming out on top. But he was all I had right now.
And if all else failed I could probably take down a concussed werewolf.
“Ben got a call for a courier job. It was urgent, and they asked for me by name.” Ben had been pleased—said it showed I was building up a reputation for a quality job. Ha! How wrong could you be? That Leandra was a stone-hearted bitch. “The pick-up point was right across the other side of Sydney, and it took me nearly an hour to get there. The place was a mansion, but I’d been told not to go to the house but to let myself in through the side gate. There was a beautiful garden around the back.”
Garth nodded, eyes shut again. No need to tell me he knew the place well. The scent of roses came to me again, their glorious reds and pinks glowing in the sun as I walked past on the sandstone path. I’d followed the path as it meandered under the trees and past the pond with the red Japanese bridge. And there she was.
“Leandra was waiting for me in the garden. As soon as I saw her I knew something was wrong.” She’d been so pale, her beautiful face grey and sweating, her body shaking as she fought the urge to hunch over in agony. God, I could feel that pain now, like an animal tearing at my intestines. I shuddered, hatred for Jason welling up inside. I would rip him apart, feed on his organs while he screamed for mercy.
“That filthy traitor poisoned me. He contacted me and begged for a meeting. He swore he wanted to come back to me.” The steering wheel creaked ominously as my hands tightened on it. “Why didn’t I kill him then? I didn’t trust him for a moment, but I made myself vulnerable to him, like a fool.”
There was a distinct crunch under my hands, and a crack appeared in the steering wheel. The wail of the siren was closer now. As we rounded the next bend a fire engine roared past in the other direction, lights flashing.
“I met him in a public place. I took the thralls. Every precaution! And still he managed to poison me.”
Garth cast an uneasy glance at the speedo. “Slow down, mistress. Why didn’t you tell us you’d been poisoned?”
I waved an impatient hand, still fuming at my remembered stupidity. “You could have been in on it. Luce called while I was with him, and he used the distraction to slip the
poison into my drink. I didn’t know who I could trust. So I told the thralls to get me a herald and make sure it was Jason’s woman.”
“Why her?”
“There was a chance Jason still cared for her. The only thing better than killing him would be doing it in her stolen body.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
I sat on the bench beneath the graceful boughs of the jacaranda, arms wrapped round my stomach. Its green-dappled shade couldn’t cool the fire in my veins as the bane leaf burned its way through my system. Swaying leaves faded in and out of focus as I shook, each breath harder to draw in than the last.
Where had he found it? Such a rare plant. So feared by dragons it had been all but exterminated from the world. It had been long years since one of our kind had succumbed to its deadly toxin, but the memories were still fresh, handed down through the generations. Tasteless. Colourless. Odourless.
But not painless, as I could now attest.
Sweat broke out all over me and ran in undignified trickles down my face. I hunched over as another agonising cramp racked me. They were coming closer together now. Time from ingestion to death was rarely more than three hours, and there was no known antidote.
At best, I had another hour.
Where was the damn herald?
Alone in the garden, I sat my own death watch. I’d forbidden the thralls to leave the house, cutting off their panicked pleas with orders to make sure no one disturbed us once the herald arrived. Orders gave them a way to serve, which always made them feel better, though the panic was barely contained. They wanted Luce, or even Garth, to relieve them of the burden of responsibility. I couldn’t trust anyone, so I had forbidden the thralls to call them.
I heard the click as the side gate opened. At last! I forced myself to stand, though my legs trembled. I would not be found languishing on a seat.
Pretending to gaze at the roses, I watched her approach out of the corner of my eye. She was dark-haired and apparently heavily pregnant, pretty in an unremarkable sort of way. There were a hundred such as her on the street every day; I couldn’t see what Jason had found so alluring. I felt a sudden misgiving—perhaps there was nothing here to work with.
But I had no other options, so she would have to do. She stopped a few paces away, and I turned to meet her gaze fully. There was a hardness there I liked, a tilt to the chin that said she didn’t care what the world thought, lines that spoke of suffering and lessons learned. She was more than she’d first appeared.
Another spasm seized me and I shifted unsteadily.
“Are you all right?” she asked, a little warmth creeping into her businesslike mask. Human females couldn’t seem to resist the urge to nurture and defend. So unlike dragons. She stepped closer, one hand outstretched as that urge warred with the need to remain aloof and professional. Silver glinted at her throat as she shifted—a chain that no doubt held the symbol of her office.
“Help me, Kate,” I whispered, allowing fear to show in my eyes, pouring every ounce of the terror that swelled in me into that look. Less than an hour left. I couldn’t compel her while she wore that charm but normal human decency would serve for the moment. They did so love to play Good Samaritan.
“What’s wrong?” She started forward and helped me to the bench. Her grip on my arm was strong and capable. “Are you ill?”
As she bent over me, her Hermes charm swung free from the sack-like maternity dress she wore. I doubted she was truly pregnant; her movements were too swift and sure. Besides, she’d run another job for me only a couple of months ago and I didn’t remember any pregnancy. Doubtless it was part of the game the heralds played with the watchers who’d come out of the woodwork for the proving, trying to shake off pursuit.
You could spend all your time chasing off one set, only to have another take their place. And it wasn’t only my sisters’ people; our mother also liked to keep up with events, as did other factions like the wolves or even the goblins. Some of the overseas queens had spies on the ground for the proving too, nor were they above trying to influence the outcome. I had long decided either to ignore them or to use them to feed misinformation to my sisters. Today’s effort should be doubly amusing, since there would be no delivery.
At least not one they could see.
“A momentary faintness. Please, sit down. I just need a minute to catch my breath.”
She sat, with an anxious glance back at the house. “Should I call someone for you?”
The thralls had obeyed orders to stay out of sight. “There’s no one home. I have a very important delivery for you, and I didn’t want anyone to see it. I can trust you to take care of it, can’t I?”
“Of course.” She nodded, but her eyes had a wary look.
“That’s a lovely necklace you have there,” I said, as if noticing it for the first time. “May I see it?”
She leaned closer, holding the charm out for inspection.
“I’m sorry, I don’t have my glasses. Would you mind …?”
I made a little helpless gesture and she obligingly lifted the charm over her head and offered it to me.
Another spasm racked me and my hand shook as I took it. So easy. The first part of the great gamble had paid off. I knew she was new and I’d heard there was something unorthodox about her appointment. There’d even been rumours she knew nothing of shifters—and now they were at least partially borne out. No one had told her of the protection the necklace afforded her.
Of course, I could have produced the gun from my pocket and forced her to hand it over, but then she might have run, and I couldn’t actually shoot her if it came to that. She was the perfect instrument for my revenge. I couldn’t wait to see the look on Jason’s face as his ex-lover murdered him. It had seemed to me he still bore a candle for her, that the hatred weighed much more on her side than his. How delightful to see him betrayed in his turn.
I smiled as I closed my hand around the charm.
“Thank you, Kate. You don’t mind if I call you Kate, do you? We’re going to get to know each other so much better, after all.”
She frowned, not yet alarmed, but the wariness was back. I had to smile, despite the pain, as her clear green gaze met mine. I had her.
“You’re going to do something for me.”
I leaned in and forced my will on her. The green eyes lost their sharp focus and her face went slack.
“Of course. What would you like?”
First I gave her the letter. I didn’t want her seeking help before I was strong enough to take control, so I planned removing her memory of this interview. The letter would direct her somewhere safe and isolated until I could assert control of her body.
I waited till she had stowed it safely in her bag, then handed her the hunting knife that nestled next to the gun in my pocket. I was a regular little arsenal today, both weapons taken from one of the thralls. Normally a dragon had no need of any such.
Today was not a normal day. I grimaced with pain, but Kate continued to stare with that dreamy smile, not noticing as sweat ran down my face. I stank of fear and sickness and the garden was beginning to blur. Not much time left.
“I want you to take that and make a cut here,” I said, unbuttoning my silk blouse to show her the place. “A deep one, mind. You need to get right down to the bone.”
“But that will hurt you.”
Confusion chased the smile from her face and I felt my grip on her mind weaken.
“Look at me, Kate.”
I forced my way back in, soothing and shaping, moulding her will to mine. It would have been easier to simply enthral her, but she’d be significantly less useful to me afterwards. I needed an unbroken mind for my new home.
“Right here.” I guided her hand so the tip of the knife pricked my skin. Both our hands were shaking. Sunlight reflecting off the ornamental pool behind her dazzled my eyes. I blinked, but it made little improvement, my vision fading as the poison did its deadly work.
She drew the knife back. A tiny drop of r
ed clung to its point. I closed my eyes, heard the rush of breath as she exhaled, then pain exploded in my chest.
She struck so hard the blade lodged in my sternum. I felt the tug as she freed it, then dragged it down in a long slicing cut. Whimpering with pain, I fought to hold on to consciousness.
“Yes. That’s it,” I gasped. “That’s it. Now … reach in.”
My body spasmed in agony. I tried to hold on to her shoulders but felt myself slipping, and she laid me down on the grass. When I opened my eyes the world wheeled above me: green leaves, blue sky, and her face looming over me. Fear fought its way to the surface as my control faded. Blood pulsed from the deep slash down my chest, covering her hands and splashing her face and the ugly smock she wore.
No! Not now, when I was so close. “You can do this,” I insisted.
I shut my eyes again and refocused. All would be lost unless I held myself together a moment more.
Renewed agony flamed as her fingers pushed inside the wound. My breath came in short sobbing gasps.
“There’s a … stone. See it? Not … there … higher. Yes!” I felt the jolt as her questing fingers found it. “Take it.”
A roaring filled my ears. My voice sounded faint, as if coming from a long way away. I tried to move my hand, but its weight was suddenly beyond me.
“Go on,” I urged.
I tried to meet her gaze, to compel, but darkness had crept up on me. Her face hovered in the centre of my vision, no more than a pale blur. Everything else had disappeared. My soul fled towards the channel stone, seeking union.
A tugging sensation, then a terrible crack that reverberated through my body as she tore the stone free. Oh, God, the pain. I could no longer see, had no way to know if she had obeyed me. Reduced to begging as my consciousness slipped away.
“Please … swallow it.”
***
Garth’s brow furrowed. Thinking wasn’t his strong suit at the best of times. “What’s a channel stone? Why did you want her to swallow it?”
I’d forgotten he was only a wolf.
“Dragons don’t normally speak of them.” We passed through quiet suburbs as we wended our way back down the mountain on the Great Western Highway. I took my eyes from the road and pinned his gaze with my own, forcing my will on him. He was loyal, but I knew better than anyone how fast loyalties could change. “And neither will you.”
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