[ade Calhoun Series Book 9] - Dragons of Bourbon Street

by Deanna Chase

  The bottle was cool in my hand, and I nearly cried tears of joy that quickly turned to frustration as I struggled to open the top. I was weak from the heat and lack of food and water. At least I knew the water wasn’t tainted. Leaning against the wall, I sucked in a fortifying breath and twisted. The lid finally moved.

  “Thank the gods,” I whispered and forced myself to sip the water slowly. Gulping it down would likely only make me sick. After I got half of it down, I eyed the tray of food. It wasn’t anything fancy, but it was better than what I’d expected. They’d brought me a chicken sandwich on a croissant, a bag of pretzels, and a packaged brownie. I hadn’t had an appetite since I’d found myself in my Victorian prison, but still, for the baby’s sake I forced myself to at least eat the sandwich.

  Once the sandwich was gone, I tore through the pretzels and the brownie, not leaving a crumb in sight.

  The door swung open again, and the gray-haired lady strolled back in. “Good, you’re finished. Get up. It’s time to find out why you’re here.”

  If there was one thing I wanted besides getting the hell out of there, it was to know why they wanted me. I hauled myself to my feet, my magic strumming just beneath the surface of my skin, and I followed her out the door. The moment we stepped into the hallway, I pushed my magic out, trying to read her. But just like before, I hit a brick wall and learned nothing.

  She chuckled. “You have spunk. I like that about you. But your magic isn’t good in this house. You’d be better served conserving your energy.”

  Dammit. I’d been afraid of that, but I had to try. I shrugged one shoulder but said nothing as I followed her down the stairs and into a large grand ballroom. The house reminded me of the Victorian Kane and I had south of New Orleans. The floor plan appeared to be the same, though the details in Kane’s house were more ornate. Not to mention our house was decorated with plenty of gorgeous antiques and artwork.

  We made our way through the ballroom and into a formal living room. A broad-shouldered man wearing an expensive suit sat on an ornate love seat with Harper next to him. She was wearing a gorgeous white sheath dress and high heels, and she had her red hair piled up in a fancy updo. Diamonds dripped from her wrists and earlobes.

  “Miss Calhoun,” the man drawled lazily. “Please, have a seat.” He waved to the matching couch that was directly across from the love seat.

  Gritting my teeth through the pain in my side, I gingerly lowered myself onto the couch and glared at Harper. She glanced away and visibly flinched. Good. She should be uncomfortable, and by the time we were done here, she was going to feel a hundred times worse.

  “What am I doing here?”

  “I think you know,” the man said and took a sip of amber liquid.

  “Something to do with leading the dragons?” I asked.

  The man looked at Harper. She continued to stare at nothing. He pulled her hand into his lap and exaggerated stroking her skin. “Yes. You’re the key to unleashing their full potential. Especially now that you’re blessed with motherhood.”

  I instinctually covered my baby bump with my hands and scowled at him. “Your girlfriend over there sent I don’t know how many volts into me, knocking me out, while I’m pregnant. Don’t think I’m going to help you do anything.”

  Harper jerked her head in my direction and gasped, “What? I didn’t—”

  The man squeezed her hand so hard it made her wince. Pure evil rolled off him, and for the first time since I’d walked into the room, I started to think that maybe Harper wasn’t one hundred percent on board with whatever was going down in this house. But she had been the one to knock me out, and I wouldn’t forget that anytime soon.

  The man gave me a cold smile and said, “You’ll do what I tell you unless you want to spend the remainder of your pregnancy as my guest.”

  Cold dread ran through me. Not from his threat that he’d keep me locked up but because he’d been specific about my pregnancy. “Why until then?”

  “If you won’t work with us, your child will do.”

  I nearly levitated right off the couch as pure rage fueled my reaction. “You will never take my child,” I said, my voice low and full of fury. “If you ever touch her, I will kill you myself.”

  “Good. I’ve got your attention.” He stood and walked over, holding out his hand. “I’m Zeph Winsor, the man who’s going to make you the most powerful woman in New Orleans.”

  I stared at him defiantly, refusing to take his hand. “I’m already powerful enough.”

  He pulled his hand back and crossed his arms over his chest, clearly irritated that I wasn’t playing his game. “You’re in danger. Your daughter is in danger.”

  “The only reason we’re in danger is because you’ve got me in your fun house for… I don’t even know what.” I met Harper’s gaze and stared her down. “How could you do this? Are your missing cousins here too?”

  She opened her mouth to speak, but Zeph shot her a look and she promptly closed it, looking away again.

  “What is going on?” I demanded, glancing between them. It was clear Zeph was controlling her, but I had no idea if she’d started out a willing participant or if she’d been forced into this arrangement.

  Zeph turned to me and said, “There’s a war coming. One between the dragons and the council. And you, Jade Calhoun—white witch of New Orleans—are the key.”

  18

  Again? It was the one and only thought that ran through my mind. I’d been the link between Conor Wells and the dragon soul that possessed him. Was I some sort of dragon magnet or something? Probably.

  “And how is that?” I asked.

  “You have the power to let the dragons to rise.” He sat back down and picked up his drink. “And she who unleashes them becomes their leader. I’m offering you the world on a silver platter. I’d think you’d be more grateful.”

  “Maybe I would be if hadn’t been brought here against my will and left in an insufferable, empty room with just a bucket for a chamber pot for God knows how long. Not exactly the most hospitable reception, Zeph.” As if I’d ever be grateful to a man who was so obviously an abuser. If it weren’t for the fact that the house stifled my magic, I would’ve blasted his ass into the next room.

  “You’re feisty,” he said with a small, satisfied smile.

  Damn that look. It only served to piss me off more. “Are you keeping Harper’s family members? Are they here of their own free will? How long until you grab Willa and the others?”

  He said nothing, but the various emotions flashing over Harper’s face told me everything I needed to know. He did have her cousins, and it was unlikely they’d come along willingly. And the idea of Willa being next was making Harper’s body tremble with obvious fury.

  “What do you get out of this?” I asked him.

  “Isn’t it obvious?” He glanced at Harper and took her hand in both of his. “I get this lovely lady and a place at her side.”

  “He wants my power,” Harper spat out, yanking her hand from his.

  He threw a ball of magical fire at her, but she was already out of her seat and moving over to me. The fireball winked out and instead burned in his eyes. Flames actually flickered there while his light skin flashed blue, silver, and back again in the blink of an eye.

  “You’re… Oh. My. God.” I gaped at him. “You’re already a dragon.”

  Harper let out a bark of laughter as she sat next to me, her own skin flashing red momentarily. “He has some of the traits, just like I do. But he can’t shift, and that’s his real goal.” She turned to me, disgust in her bright blue eyes. “He wants his wings.”

  “Who came to who?” he asked. They stared each other down, silent communication passing between them before she glanced away, tears glistening in her eyes.

  So she was a willing participant. Or at least she was one to start. Crap on toast. Reading the situation was proving to be impossible.

  “Why do you need me?” I asked.

  “It should be cle
ar,” Zeph said. “Conor Wells. You have the gift.”

  Only because the dragon soul had been feeding off my magic. I shook my head, refusing to give him an inch. “No. I don’t.”

  His dark eyes glinted. “Oh, but you do.” Zeph reached out and grabbed my wrist. His touch burned, the heat crawling up my arm. Tendrils of his energy seemed to seep right into my skin, making me nauseated. Then he tightened his hold, and my magic flowed out of me and into him. The world spun, and horror filled me at what he was doing.

  I was being violated, my magic taken against my will, and it was slowly weakening me.

  “Stop!” Harper cried. “You’ll kill her doing that.”

  I was certain she was right. My magic was streaming out of me at such a rapid rate that I was having trouble breathing and thinking clearly. Images of Kane flashed in my mind. One showed us holding our little girl, and then one of Kane holding her while they stood near a tomb, tears streaking my husband’s face. The day was gray, ominous, and still as a crow flew past him and landed on my final resting place.

  “No!” I cried and internally clamped down my magic, even though it did no good. He was too strong. Panicked and having no idea what else to do, I focused on him, concentrating my remaining power and blasting it into his hand where he was still holding me. A crackling noise filled the room as the intensified magic slammed into him and he flew backward, crashing into the nearby wall.

  “Run!” Harper ordered. “I’ll hold him off.”

  I didn’t hesitate. My choices were to stay and fight, which I could only do if he was touching me, apparently, or try to get out of the house and run for help. I chose to run.

  Just as I reached for the doorknob, a familiar, haunting music sounded from upstairs. The violin notes seemed to swirl around me, holding me transfixed in place, and before I knew it, my feet were carrying me toward the stairs, toward the magical music that had possessed me once before.

  Liam Colman’s music was the only thing that mattered. It filled me up, fortified me, and pulled me right up the stairs and down the hall until I found him sitting on a folding chair in the middle of an empty room, pouring his heart into his violin.

  “I knew you would go,” Zeph whispered in my ear.

  I didn’t even jump, though in the back of my mind I knew I should have. I hadn’t known he’d followed me up the stairs, hadn’t felt him or heard him. Instead, I was completely mesmerized by Liam Colman and his magical violin.

  “Don’t you understand, Jade?” Zeph said. “You’re the key to setting us all free. Me, Harper, her family, and even Liam. Until you help us, we are all bound by the chains of the council.”

  I glanced over my shoulder at him. His expression was so earnest, so hopeful—it was an unsettling contrast to the man I’d met downstairs, the one who’d tried to drain my magic for his own resources.

  “What is it you expect me to do?” I asked.

  “Just help us reclaim our freedom. Let us be who we were meant to be. Dragon shifters who aren’t beholden to the angels or the council witches. To be allowed to walk this earth as the universe intended.”

  The music intensified, and I turned back to Liam, watching as the young man played faster and faster, his music a mix of anger and desperation and longing. The emotions swept over me, cocooning me, and all I wanted in the world was to wrap him in my arms and protect him from his pain.

  “Say you’ll do it, Jade. Say you’ll help us,” Zeph whispered. “Say you’ll help Liam.”

  My reaction was immediate. “Yes. I’ll help Liam.”

  The young man in front of me stopped playing and slumped in his chair. As silence filled the room, it was then I noticed his feet and waist were chained to the chair. Exhaustion had set in around his eyes as he collapsed, weak and pale as if he hadn’t seen the sun for months.

  “Liam?” I said and started to move forward, but Harper let out a cry and rushed past me, flinging her arms around him.

  “It’s going to be all right now,” she said through her tears, kissing his cheeks, his eyes, and his lips. “She’s agreed to help. You’ll be free soon.”

  Zeph just threw his head back and laughed. “Free? None of you will be free. You serve me now.” He snapped his fingers. Magic burst from him, making me stand at attention.

  Fury rose inside me and I grunted, then gasped as the pain in my side intensified. My instinct was to hunch over, but I couldn’t. His magic was holding me taut. Just like Liam’s… or was it Zeph’s magic that had forced me upstairs? I couldn’t tell. All I knew was that I was being manipulated by someone’s power, and mine was stuck in neutral. Or was it? I had been able to combat Zeph downstairs when he’d been stealing my power.

  There was only one way to find out. The magic churning in my veins burst from my palms, heading straight for Zeph. It was powerful enough that it should’ve obliterated him. Instead, he turned to me, his hands outstretched, and soaked it in, his eyes closed as if my magic had sent him into pure ecstasy.

  “Son of a bitch!” I cried and ran toward him, ready to pummel him with my fists if I had to.

  But he held his hand out and my feet planted on their own, leaving me frozen in place with no way to fight, magically or physically.

  “How are you doing this?” I demanded again. “How are you able to just soak up my magic as if it’s nothing?”

  “Come, Jade,” he ordered. “I’ll show you to your new quarters, and then we’ll talk.”

  My feet obeyed without any help from me, and soon I was walking side by side with my captor, his hand on the small of my back. He hummed softly, contentedly, as if he hadn’t been imprisoning Liam and me and quite possibly Harper.

  “We’re going to make quite the power couple, Jade,” Zeph said, opening the door to a richly decorated bedroom that was easily four times as big as the one I’d been locked in before. There was a four-poster bed complete with a white silk bedspread and more pillows than Kane and I had in our entire house. The bed looked as though it would feel like sleeping in a cloud. In the space by the window, there was a velvet chaise and two matching antique armchairs, and a gorgeous wood trunk stood at the foot of the bed. Everything about the room was opulent and fit for royalty.

  “Our bathroom is through there.” He pointed to an open door, steering me into the marble bathroom. I took in the double sinks, a large two-person shower, and a freestanding extra-deep bathtub with bronze fixtures. It was beautiful. And completely terrifying.

  “Our?” I finally asked. “You think you and I are going to be a we?”

  “Yes.” He nodded. “Together we’ll be more powerful than the council. My people will walk the earth again, and this time we won’t be servants to the angels.” He gave me a gentle smile. “Now go clean up.” He sniffed the air and wrinkled his nose. “You’ve gone far too long without a shower.”

  “Whose fault is that?” I asked hotly, hating the psycho in front of me.

  He snorted and pointed, once again forcing my body to act under his will. Once I was inside the giant bathroom, I slammed the door shut and threw the lock.

  His amused laughter filtered through the door, and I immediately started searching the cabinets for anything sharp. To my extreme disappointment, there wasn’t anything sharper than an unopened eyeliner. I put it on the counter, anticipating its use anyway. A well-placed stab to the throat might be doable.

  “Shower!” he yelled through the door. “Now. Then we have work to do.”

  “Fuck you,” I called back and slammed the drawer where I’d found the eye pencil.

  “Maybe later.”

  My entire body stiffened, and if he hadn’t been safely on the other side of the door, he’d have suffered a slow and painful death, courtesy of a makeup pencil right through his eyeball. I pretended I hadn’t heard him, flipped the water on, and disappeared into the shower where I let my tears run unchecked, purging my frustration and fear. And when I was done, I reemerged, ready to fight with everything I had to save myself and my daughter and get
us both the hell out of there.

  19

  When I emerged from the bathroom, I found Harper sitting nervously on the edge of the white bed. She was wearing a blue cotton dress and worrying the hem.

  I didn’t say anything as I clutched the thick robe tighter and moved to the large armoire, praying there was something, anything, in there that was clean and would fit me. After rummaging around, I found a T-shirt and a pair of sweats and returned to the bathroom to get dressed. When I walked back into the bedroom, Harper still hadn’t moved.

  “Jade,” she whispered, slipping off the bed and moving toward me.

  I held my hand up and stared her down. “Don’t come any closer. I don’t know what’s going on with you exactly, but you attacked me with a Taser and you’re the reason I’m here. So forgive me if I don’t trust you.”

  Tears filled her big blue eyes, and she shook her head. “It wasn’t me. I swear. It wasn’t. I’d never…” Her gaze dropped to my belly and grew horrified. “He fucking used a Taser on you… while you’re pregnant?”

  “He? What are you—?”

  “It wasn’t me,” she said, her voice suddenly earnest “It was Zeph. Don’t you understand? He’s a witch. A witch with dragon blood. He’s behind all this. He’s the one who broke me out of the council. He abducted you. He— Oomph!”

  She flew backward, landing flat on her back as Zeph stalked into the room, his eyes burning with fire.

  “You never learn, do you?” he seethed and mimed picking her up by the neck with his bare fist. Harper rose in the air, her hands clawing at her neck as her eyes bulged. “I told you to keep your fucking trap shut. And what did you do? You went and tried to turn my white witch against me.” He jerked his hand, shaking her with such force she swung like a rag doll.

  “Stop!” I ran at him, clutching the eye pencil with one hand and aiming straight for his throat. It was a poorly executed, desperate attempt that missed by a mile, but when he jerked out of the way, Harper fell to the ground, gasping for air.