Drakon's Knight (Blood of the Drakon)

by N. J. Walters

  “You think one of them faked their death?” Sadiq asked. “Because someone is giving her that medication without her knowing what was in it. Could be another Knight has someone in her inner circle on their payroll,” he speculated.

  “Easier for a family member. They’d have people loyal to them.” Jericho had seen a lot of evil over the course of his lifetime, but this was right up there with the worst. He’d fight to the death to protect his friends, but there was a high possibility someone in her own family had done this to her. The Knights were known for being devious, but this took it to a whole other level.

  “You can’t discount another member of the Knights being involved,” Sadiq pointed out. “They know most of the membership will only support an Azarov at the head of the group. This could be their way of trying to tip the scales in their favor without having to dispose of her. And as much as you don’t want to hear it, maybe it’s none of those things. Maybe she designed the drug herself but didn’t remember. Then there’s the question of the tattoo. Maybe she really is the cold bitch everyone thinks she is.” The last was said with pity in his voice.

  “No. She’s not that person.” If she was, he was doomed. Bleakness threatened to send him into despair, but he wouldn’t give in. Not while there was still a fighting chance. But Sadiq was right about the rest. “We have more questions than answers.”

  “At least until she wakes and tells us more.” Sadiq frowned. “If she will.”

  “I want to know everything you can find out about all the deaths in her immediate family.”

  “I’ve already looked,” Enoch told him. “I don’t think there is any more to find.”

  “Look again.” There had to be something. “What were the grandparent’s names on the maternal side?” The women were always the leaders of the Knights.

  “Svetlana and Ivan Azarov,” Enoch announced.

  “Dig out anything you can find about them and her parents. I want to know if one of them is alive.”

  “You’re missing the most likely source of information,” Sadiq pointed out.

  Jericho stepped between him and Karina, willing to protect her from his friend. “And who would that be?”

  “The bodyguard.”

  He shook his head and rubbed his hands over his face. “Of course. He’s been with her since she was a teenager. Find out who hired him,” he ordered Enoch. “And find out all you can about him.”

  “On it.” Enoch went back to work. Jericho had no doubt he’d have answers soon. Maybe they should have brought the bodyguard with them, but it was too late to go back in time.

  When Karina moaned, he forgot all the rest and sat by her side. He needed to be cautious but couldn’t stay away from her.

  Her eyelids fluttered open. “What happened?”

  “You fainted.” He was curious to see her reaction.

  As expected, she frowned. “I did not. Did I?” She pushed herself upright and rubbed her temple.

  “You did. We think it was too much for your brain to process at once.” He watched closely for signs of distress or pain. Drakon blood was tricky. Although it could cure all physical injury, there were some people who didn’t respond well. There were rumors that some even died, although that was rare.

  And he’d never heard of anyone healing a brain injury. The brain wasn’t like the body—it was more complex, with emotions and memories. It wasn’t the same as fixing a broken bone or healing some physical disease.

  “That makes sense.” Color swept up her cheeks. “I remember what I was saying before I passed out.”

  She was embarrassed because she recalled talking like a child and not the powerful woman she’d become. “Do you remember more?”

  “There’s so much. Almost too much.” Karina’s voice was flat and emotionless, but her eyes were anything but. Fury burned in their depths. “Someone drugged me without my knowledge or permission. I know I’m not paranoid. I’m also not sure how far back it goes, as I’ve been on medication since I was a teenager. I also know there are those around me who want me dead. I wouldn’t be surprised if someone has used my disappearance to further their own case, to take control of the Knights. I’m sure if I proved to not be useful any longer, they’d have found a way to kill me.”

  All the men took a step back. It should have been laughable that four almost indestructible drakons were wary of one human woman, but none of them were laughing. Karina had proved herself to be a very dangerous woman.

  “They’ll most likely think I’m dead.” She looked to Jericho for confirmation.

  “I would assume so. We’ve made no ransom demands. No one knows who took you. It’s logical to assume if another Knight kidnapped you, they’d torture you for any information before killing you.”

  She gave a decisive nod. “Good.” Straightening her shoulders, she slowly pushed to her feet. “Now I just need to figure out who has been feeding me the medication, because it damn sure wasn’t me. I thought it was a normal painkiller, not the cocktail Enoch described.”

  “Your bodyguard?” Jericho suggested.

  “Birch? I’d have said he was loyal to the bone until recently. Now I don’t know.”

  “Who hired him?”

  “My grandmother.” Reaching behind her, she touched her shoulder. “She’s also the one who took me to get the tattoo. I didn’t want it, but I couldn’t say no to her. My parents were furious.”

  Now that was interesting. “How old were you?”

  She closed her eyes for a moment. “It was for my fifteenth birthday. And if she had it done, there was a reason for it. If it’s part of a suppression spell, I have no idea what it’s for. I’m not sure why I never questioned the marking more. Never had it removed.”

  “She’s dead,” he pointed out. “Her body cremated.” As much as he wanted to trust Karina, she could be lying about everything, manipulating him.

  The roar of his dragon echoed inside him. He clenched his jaw to keep from yelling aloud. With her memories returned, she could even now be planning his downfall. He wanted to shift, to fly away from everything, from her. But that would hurt even worse than being beside her did.

  When Karina laughed, the sound wasn’t pretty. “It’s easy enough to come up with a body to burn. It would be like that bitch to pull something like that. Fake her death. Try to manipulate me from the shadows using Birch to help her. I took many of his suggestions over the years. Listened to his counsel. She could direct things without being in harm’s way herself.”

  As outlandish as it seemed, it was possible. The Knights had a history of doing whatever it took to stay alive. They were a ruthless bunch, and Karina was their leader.

  “What do you want to do?” he asked, surprising not only himself, but the other men in the room.

  She smiled with deadly promise. “Why, I’m going to use the skills they taught me to destroy them.”

  …

  Myriad emotions bubbled deep inside Karina, like a volcano waiting to explode. Righteous anger at what had been done to her, shame and guilt at her own actions, and relief that she was able to see more clearly now than she ever had before. She wanted revenge and wanted it now.

  “What makes you think I’ll allow you to do that?” Jericho’s words stopped her cold. She’d forgotten she was nothing more than a pawn to him and his friends. That’s what she was to everyone—a disposable piece in the big game of life.

  She studied all four men, feeling conflicted. They’d kidnapped her, but they’d also given her back her life. They had their own agenda. She’d do well to remember that.

  “What’s your plan?” she asked.

  “You don’t need to worry about that right now. You need to rest.”

  That was the last thing she wanted to do, but she did need some alone time to process everything. Turning on her heel, she marched toward the stairs and up. No one stopped her.

  When she was finally alone, she sank down on the bed, all the fury that had carried her this far disintegrating into con
fusion and anger, overlaid with sadness.

  Why had someone drugged her? What had the tattoo really done to her? Magic was real, but it wasn’t something she’d ever been taught to wield. Why not, when she’d been taught everything else?

  Why did I do those terrible things?

  It was as though a veil had been lifted, and she was able to take a step back and see all her actions without the taint of bitterness and lies that had been a part of her life since childhood.

  There would be no easy answers. Her memories were brutal. She didn’t like herself. Not one bit. She was a nasty woman with few redeeming qualities.

  With the medication gone from her system, her head injury healed, and the amnesia gone, she saw herself as she truly was. Whatever Jericho had given her, it allowed her to question everything she’d been told, everything she’d believed.

  All those years, her parents and others had hammered home that dragons were cold and brutal, thinking only of themselves. They had to be contained to protect people. They killed humans without thought, without conscience. But the truth was the exact opposite. It was the Knights who were everything they claimed the dragons to be.

  She could only blame so much on the medication, on the indoctrination that had started in childhood. Ultimately, she was the person who’d given orders that had led to the deaths of others. She was the one who’d distanced herself from her sister in her misguided attempt to protect her. But even that was questionable, given what had happened between them.

  The only thing keeping her from hating herself was the understanding that she’d been made, shaped to be that creature. Someone had used drugs and subtle manipulation—as well as magic, because her grandmother did nothing without purpose—to encourage her to be what they wanted.

  And she’d become exactly that. Never questioning, never diverting from her path. Not until recently.

  Fists clenched on her thighs, she gritted her teeth to keep from screaming her fury as a memory hammered at her.

  “You will do as I say.”

  Karina turned to the older woman beside her. “No.” She didn’t like the things her grandmother wanted her to do. “I’ll tell my parents.” It wasn’t much of a threat, and they both knew it.

  She laughed. “They won’t protect you. They do what I tell them to do.” Her grandmother brushed a hand over Karina’s head. “You’re so much like me. There is greatness in you. You just need to channel it. And I will help you. You will be my legacy.”

  “I don’t want to be your legacy.” Defiantly, she shoved her grandmother’s hand away. She’d seen one of her sister’s picture books, one that their other grandparents had given her. It was a book of fairy tales. She was too old for them, of course, but had read them anyway. She’d read one about a dragon who’d seemed magical and kind. Something to be protected, not harmed.

  “It doesn’t matter what you want. Only what I want.” She leaned down and stared Karina in the eyes. “Remember, you have a younger sister. So fragile.” She made a tsking sound. “It would be a shame if something happened to her.”

  Karina knew she was in the presence of pure evil but didn’t know how to fight it.

  She rubbed her forehead and forced herself to try to remember more.

  “You’re so proud and headstrong,” her grandmother whispered in her ear. “You will make a formidable soldier in my war on dragons.”

  Karina didn’t want to go along with her but knew there was no choice. At least, not for now, but she’d bide her time and wait.

  Karina was breathing heavily as the recollection faded. She’d been defiant once, but it had slowly faded over time. It made her wonder about her early medication. Had they given her something to make her more malleable, or had she simply relented, giving in to a will greater than her own?

  Even before she opened her eyes, she knew she was no longer alone. Jericho crouched in front of her, big and solid and real. The genuine concern in his eyes almost broke her.

  But she couldn’t trust him or anyone else. They all had their own motives, their own endgame.

  “What else have you remembered?”

  She thought about lying. It was something she did easily on a regular basis and had for her entire life.

  She refused to be that person any longer.

  “A memory of my grandmother.” She didn’t want to think about that, didn’t want to remember any of it. All she wanted to do was stare at him. It was odd how his face had become dear to her so quickly.

  “What will you do now?” she asked him. Her life still hung in the balance. She was surrounded by drakons, and they had more reason than most to want her dead. And honestly, she couldn’t blame them. “My life is a mess,” she murmured.

  He started to laugh. After everything she’d been through, he was laughing at her. But then her lips started to twitch. It was really absurd when she thought about it. And if her choices were to laugh or to cry, then she’d much rather laugh. Or at least smile.

  The corners of her mouth turned up. Jericho stopped laughing. His gaze homed in on her lips.

  “Fuck.” He muttered the profanity as he leaned inward. Not only did she not try to evade him, she met him halfway.

  …

  “I’m assuming Karina is dead. It’s time for me to take back control of the Knights,” Svetlana said over the phone.

  Birch was hardly able to believe what he was hearing. He got on the proper exit, heading toward the airport while she kept on talking.

  “If the reason for taking her was money, there would have been a ransom demand by now. If another Knight has her, she’s being tortured. They won’t let her live. They can’t. There are too many who would protest such a thing, and it could cause all-out war among the Knights.” Her voice was cultured and unemotional, even though she was discussing the possible death of her granddaughter.

  “After all,” she continued, “if their leader isn’t safe, then none of them are. What they can and will do is scramble to try to claim everything that belongs to me. I need to secure the family wealth and lock down the vaults before things go missing.”

  Birch almost crushed the phone in his hand. “I have a handle on security.” And Karina’s abduction notwithstanding, he was very good at it. Over the years, he’d thwarted dozens of attempts on her life. “I also have a lead on her whereabouts.”

  One of the men he’d sent out had found, not a witness, but a man out walking his dog who’d seen a bunch of bikers ride by. He’d given a detailed description of them—the machines, not the men. One of the bikers had apparently had a woman behind him. They’d gone by quickly, according to him. He hadn’t gotten much of a look as he’d been more interested in the bikes than the people, but the woman had long dark hair with some sort of headband.

  Birch was assuming the “headband” was a bandage. With that description, his people had fanned out. It couldn’t be coincidence that those same bikers had also been seen boarding a plane at a private airport not too long after.

  “Doesn’t much matter now,” Svetlana continued, oblivious to his growing anger. “She’s either dead or soon will be. I left it as long as I could, but you weren’t fast enough to find her.”

  Of course, she would make it his fault. That was what Svetlana did. “What will you do now?”

  “I need to make plans to come back to life, but everything must be in place before I step forward. I still have enemies. Too bad Valeriya isn’t around. I could have used her, even though she’s weak. In the meantime, keep things quiet. Karina’s disappearance isn’t public knowledge yet, and I want to keep it that way. I’ll be in contact.”

  When she hung up, he tucked his phone into his pocket. Svetlana might be sure Karina was dead, but he wasn’t. He wouldn’t be satisfied until he had a body. He also couldn’t afford to believe her. Manipulating those around her was one of her favorite pastimes.

  His phone rang again just as he pulled into the private airport where he had a plane on standby. He almost ignored it, but habit was too
ingrained. “Birch.”

  “Sir, have more information from our contacts in California.” Karina wasn’t the only one with people loyal only to her. He’d learned from her and had steadily built his own network. Like all the Knights, he had people everywhere.

  “Tell me what you have.”

  Chapter Twelve

  This was the height of stupidity. It was one thing to kiss Karina when she didn’t remember who she was and quite another to do it when they were both aware of her checkered and dangerous past.

  But Jericho couldn’t stop himself. Walking into the bedroom and seeing her sitting there with her eyes closed and pain etched on her face had been too much for him to bear.

  He wanted to comfort her, to know what she remembered about her past, what she was thinking, and why she hated his kind.

  In short, he wanted to know everything.

  Seeing her distressed aggravated both man and dragon. Still, when she’d said her life was a mess, he hadn’t been able to keep from laughing. That was the understatement of the century. When her mouth had twitched, and she’d smiled, he lost it.

  He had to kiss her. The pull to touch her was greater than his self-preservation.

  Their lips met, and she let out a little hum of pleasure that had his dick standing at attention. He laid his hand gently against the side of her face, wanting to stroke her soft skin.

  When she released a sigh of pleasure, he took advantage and slipped his tongue inside. And she welcomed him, teasing and tormenting, playing sensual games that had his body clenching in anticipation.

  Her lips were soft, her mouth warm and inviting. He shouldn’t be doing this. She’d had an enormous shock, was probably very emotional. But he couldn’t stop, was greedy for more.

  She speared her fingers through his hair, grazing her nails over his scalp. The caress curled his toes in his steel-toed boots. He went down on his knees and moved between her spread thighs until they were chest to chest. Wrapping one big hand around the back of her head, he held her in place while he kissed her as though his life depended on it.