by Leela Ash
One hand held her wrist in an iron grip. With the other, Lily pried her fingers apart. “You got your thumb inside your fingers. You’ll break it if you slug someone that way. Keep it on the outside. Like this.” Gently, she tugged Savannah’s thumb up, then wrapped her fingers into a fist once more, thumb curled on the outside. “There you are. Good to go.”
Lily released her hand and stepped back, face bright with joyous expectation.
LePierre’s brief flash of fear had already died, killed by annoyance. “What are you blathering about, Ms. King?”
Savannah punched her in the face. Hard.
And, to Lily’s credit, she did not break her thumb. However, a satisfying burst of blood exploded from the Hare’s nose, and she shrieked in pain and shock.
That wail sent the Wolf howling with glee. “And Dad said trials were boring!”
“Lily!” Briggs groaned, appalled (once more) by his Wolf Mate.
“What? Bunny-girl had it coming.”
Hand clamped over her streaming nose, Danielle LePierre bolted from the room. Savannah glared after her until she scrambled out the door, then stalked back and took her seat next to her shocked Mate.
Only Lily laughed out loud – but Griffin and SueSue fought to keep a straight face.
Donnelly, however, sighed dramatically. “And, once again, we’ve lost our quorum.”
The Chimera leaned forward and lowered his voice to a conspiratorial stage whisper. “Hey, I’ve got an idea. Why don’t the rest of us vote without her? I’m sure Danielle won’t mind. I mean, yesterday, she insisted nobody but Dragons really ought to get a say. So, we’re down one Hare? Who cares?”
“Griffin,” Donnelly groaned.
“I’ll start. Mate and a soul make all the difference in the world to me. I say give Nemo… er, Beaumont, another chance.”
As soon as the Chimera cast his vote, SueSue added her own. “He killed Manning. I say he lives.”
“SueSue,” Rex groaned, “that’s not sensible.”
“You got your reasons, Bear. I got mine.” The Rat folded her arms across her chest.
“Fairburn?” Donnelly prompted.
The Bear shrugged. “A Mate matters. If somebody could love him, he’s worth a shot.”
“I agree.” Briggs nodded at his Mate. “What about you, Lily?”
“He’s done nothing to me. I say he lives. And wipe that look off your face, Casey, or I will come over there and slap it off. It’s like the Rat said: I don’t have to defend my reasons.”
Which left only the First Flight. “I vote in favor too. So, I guess it doesn’t matter that the Witch Queen left. She’s either with us, or out-voted.”
Jordan remained impassive as his fate was decided. Neither relief nor fear troubled his handsome face. Only Savannah, seated by his side, heard a soft inhale. The sole clue of how relieved he was.
Unlike him, she felt no urge to hide her feelings. Eyes closed to fight back tears, she lifted his hand to her lips and kissed his fingers. The man she loved, the man she dared to redeem, would not be torn from her. Not today.
A tender moment – that lasted only a second before Lily said, “Where’s the beer?”
Everyone turned to the Wolf. “What beer?” her Mate asked.
“This is a trial! How can you not have beer?” Savannah bit back a smile. The Wolf loved playing the buffoon, but she was a sharp, sharp woman. “Okay, from now on, I organize all trials. That way, we have something to drink to celebrate our decisions.”
Her joke did its job: The trial’s icy formality finally shattered. Freed from it, people began to chat and mingle. A couple, like Griffin and Rex, even came over to shake Jordan’s hand.
Savannah stayed close by his side. Offering him the comfort, the wordless support, of her presence. This was where his healing would begin. Among his people, other Shifters. With small talk and teasing. Normal things that regular people did every day. Things that had grown completely alien to the Worm over the long centuries.
But as the gathering began to dissolve, Donnelly cleared his throat and shot Lily a pointed stare. “So, before people head out on beer runs, there’s one more thing I want to try. Lucas, you have the Aegis, yes?”
“Yeah.” Lily’s brother opened his denim jacket and lifted his shirt – to reveal a bag strapped across his chest. “I’m not losing this thing again.” From it, he withdrew a plate-sized ‘shield’ of white leather.
Savannah’s heart skipped a beat. The Aegis. The key to locking the demon lord Nemagorix out of this world. (If anyone could figure out how to use it…)
Four images lined its edges, drawn in black ink. A horned Dragon, a Wolf, a Bear, and a winged lion, which must be Griffin’s Chimera. A blank patch of leather left room for a fifth.
Donnelly turned to face Jordan. “Last night, our Not-Quite-A-Worm tried to fly.”
“Unsuccessfully,” her lover admitted.
“True. Because your wings are damaged. They’re not real wings, they’re bones and tatters.”
“Holy hell.” Rex Fairburn’s jaw dropped. “You think he’s…”
“I do.” Turning to Savannah and Jordan, Donnelly grew somber. “We know that, in order to defend this world, the Aegis needs to bond to five Shifters. So far, it’s chosen Casey Briggs, Lucas Clay, Rex Fairburn, and Griffin Davis.”
Dragon, Wolf, Bear, and Chimera. That explained the ink figures!
“Fairburn found an ancient drawing that revealed all five Shifters. The one we’re missing is a skeletal creature with bone wings. We had no idea what that might be… until last night, when we saw Beaumont’s messed up Dragon.”
They thought her Mate might be the last Shifter of the Aegis?
Pride filled her, setting her face alight with joy. Her Mate! Her Dragon! (And yes, that’s what he was: A Dragon. Injured, weighed down by years of despair… but a Dragon’s heart still beat within his chest. She would never think of him as a ‘Worm’ again. Nothing was further from the truth!)
Jordan paled as the full impact of Donnelly’s words hit him. “You believe that the Aegis might choose… me?”
“Only one way to find out. Lucas?”
The young Wolf stepped forward and held out the little shield.
A tremor shook Jordan’s hand as he reached for it − the tiniest crack in the flawless self-control he prided himself in. Her Mate paused, clenched his fist tightly, until that faint weakness passed. He didn’t open his hand again until he was once more his own master.
Dazed and proud, he laid a finger on the Aegis.
Nothing happened.
Around the circle, faces fell. “Well, dammit,” Donnelly muttered. “I thought I had it all figured out.”
Savannah’s heart fell as well… then broke when she saw the mask of icy indifference that Jordan quickly donned.
How much worse was this for him? To dare to hope that, finally, after so many long years, he meant something? That he could do good, a noble deed to lighten the debt of sin his soul bore? One second of hope, one moment to dream… and then, reality came crashing back. He was a Worm. Unclean. Unworthy of a relic like the Aegis.
Those thoughts, so harsh, so unloving, shocked her. Anger burned away her disappointment; anger at herself.
I need to be strong enough to hope for both of us.
“It’s okay.” She slid close to him, pressing against him and slipping an arm around his waist. “It doesn’t matter.”
Stiff, unyielding, Jordan rejected the comfort she offered. “I’m not surprised.”
“There’s no shame in having the Aegis thumb its nose at you,” Donnelly insisted. “Thing didn’t have any use for me either.”
The Dragon didn’t understand. He couldn’t. He wasn’t a Worm. He didn’t realize that hope was a double-edged blade, as dangerous as it was necessary.
Savannah did. “You can’t blame yourself. This doesn’t say anything about you.”
“Oh, I don’t think it does, don’t worry.” Those were the words she
longed to hear. They fell from his lips so easily, so glibly, however, that she couldn’t believe them. “In fact, I haven’t given up yet.”
That did cheer her. Even more when he turned to the Dragons and said, “May I ask a great favor of you? Will you leave me here along with the Aegis and my Mate? I think I may know a way to get this relic to change its opinion about me.”
“I would prefer that one of us Dragons stayed here as well. I’m willing to give you a second shot, buddy – but that doesn’t mean I trust you with the Aegis.”
“There is something I need to do which I cannot in the presence of another.”
No one except her? What…? Oh!
Savannah blushed. He wanted to make love? Perhaps that would prove to the Aegis that he had changed.
Donnelly’s mind followed the exact same path as hers. “Oh. Er, gotcha. Well, we can give you some space. Though – fair warning – we’ll be right outside, watching. Don’t try to leave this house with the Aegis.”
“Of course not,” Jordan promised.
The other Shifters filed out. Some, like Casey Briggs, scrupulously polite. Others, like his Mate Lily, on the verge of teasing. Briggs dragged her outside before she could do something obnoxious like wolf-whistle.
Which left Savannah and her own Mate, alone.
Chapter 16.
Even though they were lovers and Mates, the idea of sex on demand wasn’t exactly romantic. Especially since Savannah could still hear people outside. Lily’s high laugh cut through the walls with a special ease.
Not sexy. Not sexy at all.
“Maybe we should move into the bedroom? Away from the front door?”
Jordan stared at the Aegis, as if mesmerized. He didn’t even seem to hear her question.
“Jordan?”
“Hmm?”
“The bedroom?”
“Oh.” Like a man waking from a deep sleep, he shook his head. “No, this will do fine.”
On that sofa? Oh, it was clean and nice, all right. And about a foot and a half wide. Surely, he wasn’t suggesting they make love on the floor? Rug or no, that was not comfortable!
“I’d prefer a bed.”
Jordan gave a tired, half-hearted chuckle. “Actually, I didn’t ask you to stay because I wanted to make love. There’s something I need to say.”
Thank goodness! Close outside, a motorcycle roared once and died. Trying to get in the mood with that going on was a lost cause!
“Okay. What is it?” She drifted to the couch (a fine place to sit – just not to make love!).
Jordan didn’t follow her. Grief lined his handsome face as he stood, Aegis in hand. His was the visage of a man condemned to death – not one who’d just been freed.
“I want you to know that I love you.”
Those words should have thrilled her soul. Instead, they cast a chill across her heart, for no joy warmed them. His confession of love was as sad, as cold, as a funeral eulogy. “Jordan, what’s wrong?”
“Nothing.”
Oh, no, that was not true!
With a sad smile, he stepped to her side and placed a hand on her elbow. “I just want you to know that you saved me. You gave me hope when I despaired. You believed in me when no one else would. Because of you, I literally found my soul again.”
Why did that sound more like a suicide note than words of love? “You know this is only the beginning, right? You’ll heal. You’ll get better. I’ll stay with you while you do too because I… I love you too.”
That melancholy smile grew strained. “Good. Now, would you leave me, please?”
Alone? With the Aegis? “Why?”
“I need to focus. There was a clue in the Fangs’ research, one I believe may be a hint on how I can bind myself to the Aegis?”
Really? She didn’t remember that… or did she? Something woke at the back of Savannah’s mind. Some odd fact, some unpleasant idea she hadn’t believed. “How?”
“Let me just try, all right?”
“No, tell me what you’re going to do. I don’t recall any−”
“Savannah?” He cupped her chin and laid a thumb gently against her lips. “Do you trust me?”
“…yes…” Right now, that almost felt like a lie.
“Then, please, give me five minutes alone.”
How could she refuse? If she denied him this, she proved she didn’t trust him. Could any love survive that?
No. Words and deeds had to be one. Rising onto her tiptoes, she planted a kiss on his lips. “You know I love you, right?”
“I do. I just need you to trust me too.”
“Okay.”
Feeling like it was the worst mistake of her life, she left him.
The moment the front door clicked closed behind her, Lily trotted over. “No way! That was like three minutes! Nobody could get it on in−”
“Lily!” her Mate hissed. “Manners, please, I beg you!”
A blush crept across Savannah’s cheeks at the Wolf’s impudent question. “He just wanted to talk to me.”
“Uh huh. And…?”
“And nothing.”
“Then you left him alone in there with the Aegis? Why?”
That was just damned impertinent! “Because I trust him!” she snapped at the rude woman.
Unfortunately, to Wolves, challenges were a way of life. Lily didn’t take the hint. Just wrinkled her nose and forged on. “You trusted a man to think by himself? Girlfriend, that is the dumbest thing any woman can do!” Behind her, Briggs fluffed with indignation. Lily, however, was on a roll. “This speech he gave you – was it weird?”
“No. Well…” She remembered his expression as they parted. Grieving, sad. Completely at odds with his loving words. “Kind of…”
The Wolf began to bounce from one foot to the other. “I knew it. Get back in there! Guys always give weird speeches right before they do stupid ass stuff!”
Alarms were ringing in Savannah’s mind. Something about that Fang record she couldn’t quite remember… the somber tone of Jordan’s words – like he was saying goodbye. But… “He begged me to trust him!”
“Oooh, Kiss of Death! Red flag! He’s up to shit!” Lily shrieked.
She should have laughed or slapped the annoying woman. Instead, all her fears came rushing back, crashing down on her with the force of an avalanche. More than an intuition, Savannah knew – with no doubt or question – that something was wrong.
Was this what a Dragon felt when his Mate’s life was in danger? Adrenaline flashed through her and drove her, sprinting, back into the house. Like a dog chasing a car, Lily bolted after her.
“Jordan!”
Savannah burst in on a scene so strange that, at first, her mind could make no sense of it.
Frozen with shock, Jordan stood where she’d left him. The Aegis lay on the ground at his feet. And his hands…
His hands were Dragon claws. Scaled. Tipped with deadly talons. One lay on his cheek, as if he’d just slapped himself.
“Savannah! What…?”
Why did his fingers curl so? Why did shame paint his cheeks a brilliant red?
Then it came back to her. That one, critical fact that had slipped her mind. According to the Fangs’ reports, Nemagorix insisted that the last person the Aegis chose needed to die.
He meant to kill himself. To wake the shield’s protections with his life’s blood.
Her shock betrayed her; Jordan saw it and knew the game was up. “I’m sorry. If there were any other way…” Lethal talons dropped to his throat.
Half a room lay between them. She could never cross it in time.
But Lily stood at her elbow. With a gun holstered at her side. In a blur of movement, Savannah grabbed it – and raised the muzzle to her own temple. “Stop or I’ll shoot!”
People froze, both inside and outside the door. “Whoa, that’s a new one,” Lily muttered as she edged away, hands held up in surrender.
“Savannah, put that gun down, now!” Jordan roared.
�
��No! I love you and I’m staying with you, in this world or the next. If you die, I die!” A lie would never fool a Mate; she meant what she said. Yet, she prayed his Dragon would not see through a bluff. That, as it had in their dreams, it would abandon its foolishness to save her.
Donnelly inched forward carefully. “Ms. Dare, why is anybody dying? Beaumont? What the hell is going on?”
“He’s going to tear his own throat out!” Savannah snapped. “Dragon claws are the only thing tough enough to tear through a Dragon’s own scales!”
Jordan didn’t contradict her. “Information the Fangs uncovered suggested that the last spot on the Aegis would be filled by a dead man.”
“Nemagorix said that,” Griffin admitted. “That someone needed to die.”
“Since when do we do what demons tell us?” she growled. Jordan winced, as if she’d kicked him in the shin. But, to her relief, he lowered his hand, the first hint of doubt darkening his face. “Do you have any other evidence? Any reason to believe that a demon lord would just blurt out the key to its own defeat?”
No one offered any. Jordan actually had the grace to shuffle his feet. “I admit, it sounds foolish when you put it like that…”
“That’s because it is foolish! Idiotic! The stupidest thing I’ve ever heard!” she screamed.
“Okay, okay. Calm down.” Claws shrank into fingers as he held his hands out. One tiny drop of blood clung to his fingertip and dripped to the floor. “I won’t hurt myself. I promise. Now, you’ve got to put that gun down before you kill yourself.”
“Don’t worry!” Lily chirped. “She’s fine. I didn’t want to ruin your moment, girl, but you forgot to click the safety off.”
“That was deliberate. Last thing this day needs is for me to accidentally blow my brains out.”
The Wolf snickered, an unladylike, whiffling snort that was contagious as hell. To Jordan’s outrage, Savannah started to giggle. The other woman joined her, and suddenly, both of them howled with laughter.
“You really were going to kill yourself though!” the Worm protested. “I could tell!”
“Well, sure, but…” The rest of her words got lost in chuckles of pure relief.
Jordan rushed over and pushed the gun aside. As the others crowded into the room, he pulled her into his arms. “Don’t ever do that. Don’t ever threaten to kill yourself!”
