His dragon roared, and his skin heated from the inside out as the beast fought to be free, to protect their mate. She was a precious gift and so very, very rare.
Jericho clenched his fists, exerting control over his other half. Instinct was fine and good, but he had to be smart about this. It wasn’t just his life at stake, even though the mere thought of not having her beside him was killing him.
Chapter Fourteen
What was wrong with Jericho? She’d expected more reaction to her proposed plan to bring down the Knights, but he was strangely quiet, allowing the others to question her.
The bitter reality was he didn’t fully trust her. They might have slept together, had the most intimate experience of her entire existence, but a part of him expected her to betray him.
The sad thing was, as much as she wanted to demand he believe in her, she couldn’t blame him. Yes, the drakon blood had healed her—now that she had her memories, she knew that must be what they had given her—but she really had no idea what would happen if she was drugged again. Would she revert to the way she’d been, or were those days behind her? She wanted to believe they were.
Then there was the magic. It had been used against her once and could be again. She’d be on her guard going forward, but it was smart to accept it might be beyond her control. There were powerful artifacts that could be employed against drakons, although she never had. But she’d also never uncovered any information suggesting a Knight had practiced magic on another member of the group. Still, it made a sick kind of sense. The Knights were always looking for an advantage over one another.
“I know you can’t completely trust me.” She ignored Sadiq’s snort, squared her shoulders, and continued. “That’s why I’ll stay in the background.”
“Let us do the dirty work for you. Yeah, quite the coup for you to round up four drakons—excuse me, dragons—for your Knight buddies.” Sadiq’s derision was more than she could bear.
“You can’t have it both ways,” she pointed out. “If I want to charge forward, you’ll insist I’m going to betray you. If I do nothing but feed you information, you say I’m trying to use you. Give me something to work with.”
“I don’t have to do anything,” he pointed out. “None of us do. It would be easier on us to just get rid of you.”
That pointed barb hit home, sending a shiver snaking down her spine. She looked to Jericho, who was quietly watching her. When it became clear he had no intention of saying anything, she slowly pushed back from the table and stood.
Her chest was hollow. Empty. She’d held out some hope that he had a slight emotional attachment to her. He’d seemed to. Now he was like a stranger who she’d fucked. A one-night stand.
Grasping her dignity—what little remained—she addressed the group. “If you want to follow the money, I can help. I know more about their business interests than any of the Knights think I do.” She’d made it her business to know. “With the recent deaths among the ranks, I’ve acquired quite a few assets and a great deal of money.” She had access to billions.
“And I’ve never had a drakon. I know of a few Knights that do, but they’re very secretive about where they keep them. I may be able to help you there. And for what it’s worth, I’m sorry for every drakon death, every drakon captured.” Hatred without question or reason was a horrible thing. So was apathy. She was guilty of both, going along with the teachings of her grandmother and parents, and then continuing their work long after they were all gone—assuming her grandmother wasn’t still alive.
“Of course, you’re always free to kill me and drop my body on my doorstep. I’m sure that would have an impact as well. Only not quite as big a one as you intended. Someone else will simply step into my role and take over where I left off.”
She wanted to hate Jericho for making her want him, making her believe they could have something special, but she couldn’t. Neither could she stand there and pretend to be calm while he treated her like a stranger. Like any wounded creature, she wanted to be alone so no one else witnessed her pain.
Everyone had a breaking point. And it seemed that he was the one person who could push her over hers.
“If you’ll excuse me, I’m going to sit out on the porch. I assume you’ll hear me if I go any farther. And, really, where would I run. Back to the people who drugged me? Likely used magic on me? To my fellow Knights, many of whom would be happy to see me dead?”
Jericho said nothing, nor did he try to stop her as she walked away. With each step her heart broke a little more. By the time she reached the front porch and sat on the swing, the organ was nothing but dust in her chest. A vacant cavity existed where there had been hope only a short time ago.
Dusk was closing in. Time meant nothing, the days all running together. They no longer mattered. Nothing did. All the money and power in the world couldn’t fix what was wrong.
Trust. Such a simple word, but when it was broken it was almost impossible to regain. Not that she’d really ever had it. And that was what hurt most of all.
Pushing off with her foot, she set the swing in motion and watched the sun go down. She couldn’t remember doing such a thing since she was a child. Too many important things to do, places to go, and people to see to notice something as mundane as a sunset.
Now she drank in every nuance and color. She had no idea how many of these spectacular creations she actually had left. Life was precarious at best, and hers even more so.
…
Jericho had made a huge mistake. Watching the life and hope drain from Karina’s expressive eyes made his chest ache and his guts clench. He was caught between his love for his family and his feelings for her.
Did he love her? He honestly didn’t know. He wanted her. Knew she belonged to him and that he’d die for her. Was that the same thing?
“What do you think?” His voice was flat, wooden. He’d hurt the one woman in the world who was precious to him, who’d given herself to him completely.
The others appeared worried. And they should be. If they were all still alive at the end of this and she walked away from him, the Deep Sleep might be his only option.
Could a drakon die of heartbreak? He didn’t know and sure as hell didn’t want to find out. As it was, he’d have to find a way to fix things between them and wasn’t sure he could.
“I think she’s telling the truth,” Khalil said. “But the brain is a tricky thing. It’s not like physically healing.”
“You’re worried about her reverting to form if she’s exposed to her old life.” It was something that also concerned him. It was one thing to have Karina here with him, another if she was forced to face her past.
“I am. Like I said, there’s really still a lot unknown about the brain. I’m sorry,” Khalil added.
“The tattoo is a wildcard,” Enoch interjected. “I think its influence is gone because of the damage done to it, but I can’t be sure.”
He knew Enoch was right. So was Khalil.
“That was quite a sob story she told us.” Sadiq crossed his arms over his chest. “It’s likely a trap.”
“It could be,” he agreed. “Or she could be trying to help.” He turned to Enoch. “Could you empty all their bank accounts? Take over their businesses?” It was time to start hitting the Knights where it would hurt them the most. They’d always fought their wars with their physical strength, but the world had changed, and technology was king. If anyone could do such a thing, it would be Enoch.
He rubbed his jaw and a slow grin crossed his face. “It would take time and wouldn’t be easy, but yeah, I could do it. There’s always the chance someone would catch on to what I was doing and initiate countermeasures. Would be a hell of a lot easier if I had help from someone on the inside,” he pointed out.
“You aren’t seriously considering taking her up on her offer, are you?” Sadiq jumped up from the table. “Why don’t we just call the Knights and tell them where we are? Hell, with all their resources and contacts, they might a
lready know and be coming for us.” He whirled around. “We were supposed to kill her and disappear. That was the plan. Not to hang around in an unsecure location for days.”
Jericho pressed his hands flat on the table to keep from wrapping them around his friend’s neck. Sadiq was upset, which was the only reason he wasn’t pounding on him.
“I get that you have concerns.”
“Concerns?” Sadiq pointed toward the front door. “You’re fucking right I have concerns. You can’t really believe anything she tells you.”
That’s what it all boiled down to. The only people he’d ever trusted were the ones in front of him. His sire had left him without a backward glance. His mother had tossed him from the only home he’d ever known when he was still a boy. His own blood brothers had unknowingly abandoned him. These men had been by his side for thousands of years.
“I don’t have a choice.” His quiet words dropped like a bomb between them. He couldn’t lose Karina. She was as much a part of him as the blood in the veins.
“Fuck.” Sadiq raked his fingers through his short-cropped hair. “Just fuck.”
“So eloquent,” he teased.
The corners of his mouth twitched. “Yeah, fuck you.” He turned serious once again. “I’m going to watch every move she makes.”
“I’d expect you to.” Sadiq would always have his back. Khalil and Enoch were brothers and had each other, so Sadiq and Jericho had forged a deeper bond.
Evening had fallen while they’d talked. Karina was sitting outside in the dark. Alone. It was time for him to join her. They needed to talk. The others cleared away the dishes. But before he could head outside, the front door opened.
What would her mood be? She’d closed herself off from him earlier.
“He’s coming.” Her voice was flat, and she swayed as she stood in the doorway. Her eyes were different. The pupils were so wide the black almost completely blotted out the lovely green irises.
He started to go to her, but Khalil put a hand on his arm and shook his head. “Who is coming?” Jericho asked, keeping his voice low and gentle.
She ignored his question. “He knows your plane landed in Northern California. He’s closing in. Not here quite yet, but within a day he’ll come across someone who remembers the motorcycles and the big men.”
“Damn it,” Enoch swore. “Khalil and I took the bikes out for a run last night. We were gone a couple of hours.”
Unable to stay away any longer, he slowly approached Karina. “What will he do?” And what the hell was going on with her? He wondered if she was having some kind of brain-related episode, like Khalil had suggested was possible. Whatever it was, her eyes were downright spooky. An icy shiver of dread snaked down his spine.
“Rescue me. Take me back. Hide me.” She frowned.
No way in hell he’d let someone take her. “Who?”
She stared at him, or rather, through him. There was no focus in her gaze. She was seeing something only she could see. “I thought he was loyal.”
“The bodyguard?” Sadiq asked her.
She slowly nodded, the motion wooden. “Birch.” Then she whispered, “He works for her.”
“Who does he work for?” Jericho demanded.
Karina’s eyes suddenly rolled back in her head. Her legs buckled, and she collapsed.
He caught her before she hit the floor, carried her into the living room, and placed her gently on the couch. “What the hell was that?” he demanded as Khalil crouched beside her. Karina’s eyes were closed so Khalil carefully opened each one and examined them.
“I have no idea, but her pupils are back to normal.”
“That wasn’t freaky. Not at all,” Sadiq muttered.
Karina’s eyelids flickered and finally opened. She seemed confused to see all of them standing around her. “What happened?” she demanded.
“You don’t remember?” Jericho sat beside her, not happy when she scooted up to a seated position and away from him. He wanted to drag her back by his side but let her be.
She rubbed her face and blinked several times. “I was sitting on the porch swing. Then…” She paused and shook her head. “Nothing. I had an episode, didn’t I? I haven’t had one since I was about fifteen. Not since I started getting the headaches.” She slowly lowered her hands from her cheeks as awareness dawned. “That has to be the reason.”
“The reason for what?” He wasn’t following her train of thought.
“For the tattoo. You said it was to suppress something. How could I have forgotten? Don’t you get it? I had a talent, a gift or curse, depending on your point of view. I’d know things about other people, blurt them out at any time and any place.”
“That would be dangerous for the Knights. Make you a liability.” And if there was one thing the Knights didn’t tolerate, it was being vulnerable. As a child, Karina could have exposed any of the members at any time.
“Yes.” She pulled her legs up to her chest and wrapped her arms around her knees. “The episodes started when I was around twelve or so. I only had one that first year. Two the year after. They seemed to be getting stronger the older I got. I said some things about my grandmother. I knew she didn’t really like my parents. She thought her daughter weak. Things like that. Then, they simply stopped.”
“She found a way to silence you while making you over in her image.” It sickened him to imagine a grandmother deliberately drugging a child.
“Yes.” She shook herself. “The headaches started after I got the tattoo. The medication was prescribed shortly thereafter by my grandmother’s physician. I never connected the two. There was no reason to. And after I hadn’t had an episode for a while, I simply forgot about them. I began to wonder if I’d made them up, imagined them.”
“Suppressing your gift with magic likely caused the headaches.” Khalil frowned as he thought. “The older you got, the stronger your talent would have become, causing the headaches to worsen.” He turned to Enoch. “Could also be the reason some of the ink seemed faded.”
Enoch nodded in agreement. “The magic would have had to work harder for the spell to remain effective, putting a strain on the tattoo. Stopping your medication likely had consequences as well. It’s possible that you would have broken free of it over time,” he told Karina.
“Just as likely it could have caused even more damage,” Khalil interjected. “There’s no way of knowing how the tattoo and medication messed with your brain, not to mention the physical strain caused by the headaches.”
Jericho knew it went unsaid that they also had no idea how it affected her mentally or emotionally to have such a powerful psychic gift suppressed. Add in the cocktail of the drug she was taking, and it was anyone’s guess just how much control Karina had had over her own life.
“What did I say?”
“You don’t remember?” That sucked, and it also left her at risk from anyone who was around her when she had one of those visions or episodes or whatever the heck they were.
“Only bits and pieces. I seem to get lost. The space is mostly blank for me. I might remember an image or two or nothing at all.”
“You said he was coming. That he’d find us within twenty-four hours.”
“Birch was the one who gave me the medication, continued to give it to me.” The sadness in her eyes almost killed him.
“Yeah.” He reached out and lightly laid a hand on her leg and was pleased when she didn’t yank it away. “You said he worked for her.”
“My grandmother was the one who suggested my parents hire him. Do you believe she’s really alive?”
“We should assume she is until we know for sure one way or the other. But if she is dead, why did your bodyguard keep on making sure you were given the drugs? Why not simply find a way to wean you off them? And where does he get them? Is he simply protecting himself? If he knows what your gift can do, maybe he was afraid you’d find out what he’d done and kill him.”
Touching her helped settle the rage seething inside hi
m. Like him, when she’d been young and vulnerable, no one had protected her. But the difference was that she’d never found anyone she could truly depend on. The one person she thought was on her side had worked for her grandmother.
His brothers hadn’t deliberately hurt him. They’d been guilty of neglect, but he was just as guilty of being too full of pride. He could easily have sought them out. Birch had deliberately set out to hurt Karina.
Her throat rippled as she swallowed heavily. “He’s been with me since I was a teenager. The one person I thought I could trust.”
“What about your sister?” Enoch asked. It wasn’t surprising he’d ask about a sibling.
“Valeriya?” The emotion in the one word was heartbreaking. “We weren’t close. Not by the time we were adults. As a child, I stayed away. I didn’t want to, but grandmother promised to leave her alone if I worked hard, trained harder. It was how she kept me in line when I was younger, before my talent became too obvious to ignore. And after my parents died…”
“After they died?” Jericho prompted.
“Well, then I was too busy with the Knights, wasn’t I? She was just a responsibility. I tried to protect her, in my way, but I’m not sure I wouldn’t have killed her if she’d been brought in after she ran.” She stared down at her hands, spreading her fingers wide and studying them. “What kind of monster am I? I loved my sister when we were children. Everything I did was to protect her.”
He grasped her hands and brought them both to his lips, kissing one and then the other. “You protected Valeriya as best you could. That’s who you are.”
Karina shook her head in disagreement. “If she’s still alive, she’ll want nothing to do with me and rightly so. She couldn’t trust me any more than you can.” She tugged on her hands until he released her.
“Does Valeriya have a talent, a gift?” They were sisters, it made sense if one had a physic ability of some kind the other one might, too.
She opened her mouth and then closed it, giving the matter some thought. “I’m not sure. If she does, she hid it well from me and everyone else. She was smart to do so,” Karina muttered.
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