Chapter Seventeen

Jericho woke early. A couple of hours were as good to him as a full eight hours to a human. He could go days on those few hours if necessary.

Karina slept beside him, her face partially buried in the pillow, her lips slightly parted and emitting a whisper of sound with each breath she took. Her arms, bare and slender, lay on top of the covers. He leaned down and kissed the curve of her neck. She made a snuffling sound and settled back to sleep.

He could easily spend hours, no days, watching her sleep, but she might find it a little off-putting if she woke and found him hovering over her.

The dragon in him wanted to curl around her and protect her. His human side knew he had to destroy her enemies to make her safe. He rolled out of bed and dressed quickly before he lost the will to leave her.

He started to tuck the covers around her but thought better of it. If he touched her, he’d end up back in bed. Out in the hallway, he leaned against the closed door and sighed.

“She still asleep?” Sadiq was waiting for him with a cup of coffee in hand.

“Yeah.” Taking the offering, he downed it in one long gulp. Caffeine didn’t really affect him, but he had a taste for coffee. They all did. “You get any sleep?” The others needed rest. They’d all been pushing themselves hard. But they also needed to keep a watch out for Birch and his people.

“We took shifts,” Sadiq told him. He turned and went back down the stairs with Jericho right behind him. “Breakfast is in the oven.”

His stomach grumbled. He was always hungry these days. “Thanks,” he said as he followed his friend into the kitchen.

“Enoch is tinkering online. Khalil is on security patrol.”

He yanked a huge pan mounded with pancakes, eggs, steak, sausages, and hash browns out of the oven and dug in. “Any sign of intruders?”

“None.” Sadiq strolled over to the window and stared out. “They’ll be here soon.”

He felt it, too. They both had a sixth sense about danger. It had helped them avoid their enemy for millennia and was also useful in their chosen profession.

“What will we do once this is over?”

“What do you mean?” He kept shoveling food in as fast as he could, knowing time was short.

Sadiq turned, hands braced on his hips. “Will we keep killing people for money, doing what we’ve always done? Won’t be easy with a chick in tow.”

He set aside the empty pan. “I won’t abandon her. And I’m sure as hell not taking her on a mission.”

“Why not? She’s good at killing. Or at least ordering someone to be killed.” Sadiq took a step forward and so did Jericho, neither of them willing to back down. Sadiq’s body was rigid, primed for a fight. “Fuck,” his friend finally muttered under his breath.

He sensed Sadiq’s frustration, not only with him but the situation. Everything was changing. “We’ll be okay,” he promised. “We’ll figure it out.”

Sadiq rubbed his hand over the back of his neck and sighed deeply. “Yeah, I’m just stressed. We all are. I need to shift. Or at least beat the shit out of something or someone.”

Jericho clapped him on the shoulder. “I expect you’ll get your wish before long.”

“I want this over with. I’m sick to death of having to keep looking over my shoulder for one of those fucking Knights.” Sadiq poured them both another cup of coffee. “We need to launch a search.”

He didn’t need to ask who Sadiq meant. Their thinking often ran parallel. “Yes, we do. If there are any drakons being held by Knights, we’ll find and free them.”

“Our new mission?”

He nodded before lifting the mug Sadiq had pushed across the counter toward him. He held it high, making a toast. “Our new mission.” They wouldn’t allow their brethren to suffer any longer. It shamed him that they hadn’t already investigated and freed them. According to Karina, at least one drakon had died. And there had probably been many more over the years. He had no idea how many of them there were in the world. A hundred? Two? More? Less?

He was no different from his blood brothers. They’d never bothered looking for him, just as he’d never bothered looking for the drakons taken by the Knights. They were all guilty of being stupid. It wasn’t malicious on any of their parts. But that still didn’t excuse it. The fact that drakons tended to be secretive loners didn’t help. It had only made it easier for the Knights to capture them.

“We’ll find them,” he promised. When he heard Karina coming down the stairs, he turned toward the entrance.

“Find who?” Wearing the leggings she favored, and a long-sleeved tunic in a deep plum color that made her skin look even paler and creamier, she appeared alert and focused. He wanted to eat her up.

“Any drakons still in captivity.” He ignored Sadiq’s growl of displeasure at sharing their plans.

“My grandmother—” She broke off and shook her head. “No, she doesn’t deserve that title. If my vision is right and she’s behind this, Svetlana will have records. I can guarantee it.”

“Why don’t you?” Sadiq walked slowly toward her, and Jericho automatically stepped in front of her without thought.

Karina eased around him to face Sadiq. “The Knights aren’t exactly forthcoming with one another. The ones I told you about? It took me years to gain that knowledge. I embedded spies with various other Knights. Some get found out. Some don’t.”

“Convenient.” Sadiq’s tone left no doubt that he thought she was holding back, possibly lying.

“None of this is in the least bit convenient.” She took a deep breath before continuing. “Svetlana will have spies everywhere. I don’t doubt she knows more than I do.”

Jericho took over the conversation. “It makes sense she’d have spies embedded with the other Knights. Being able to wield magic only makes her that much more dangerous.” Svetlana had been, and likely continued to be, a master manipulator, pulling everyone’s strings for her own gain. “You want coffee?” he asked Karina.

She looked startled and then smiled. “Thank you, but I can get it.”

He ignored her and got it himself. It was a little thing, but the primal part of him took pride in providing for her. He handed it over with a grunt. She looked bemused, but she took the mug he offered.

“What’s the plan for today?” She sat at the table and took the first sip of coffee.

He couldn’t stop watching her mouth and the way her lips curved as she lowered the mug and swallowed. His jeans were tight once again, a condition that rarely seemed to abate around her.

“We’re waiting.” She wouldn’t like it, but there was nothing else she could do.

Sighing, she toyed with the handle of the mug. “I hate feeling useless.”

Doing nothing would be a problem for her. This was a woman used to being in control, being in charge. He doubted she had much downtime.

“Think of it as a vacation,” he began, but broke off when she laughed.

“Waiting to see if Birch is coming to rescue me or kill me isn’t exactly a vacation. And Svetlana will have a tail on him.” Karina smiled, and it made him nervous. “I know in my gut she’s behind this. And I wouldn’t mind coming face-to-face with her.”

“That’s probably not a good idea.” He was still uncertain about that damn tattoo of hers. It might be damaged, but that didn’t mean it was totally ineffective. There would be problems if her grandmother could somehow reactivate it.

Sadiq leaned against the counter and simply listened to their conversation. The bastard was enjoying it, too. It wasn’t often he was witness to Jericho tiptoeing around a subject.

…

Jericho was trying to be tactful, and it made Karina care for him all the more. But there was no way to sugarcoat or pretty up any of this. People were coming to kill her. Heck, he and his men had come to kill her.

Everyone wanted her to die.

It was depressing as hell, so she shoved it out of her mind and focused on the task at hand. “What will we do when Birch shows?” Even if she hadn’t had the vision, she would have expected him to turn up eventually. He was tenacious at his job and had contacts everywhere.

The painful reality was she’d been taken in by him. How many things had he lied to her about? How much information had he held back? There was no way to ever know.

“You stay inside, and I’ll talk to him.” Jericho crossed his arms over his massive chest and scowled. He was doing his best to intimidate her, but she wouldn’t be dissuaded from her path.

“I can’t.” She went to him and placed her hand on his arm. It was like iron beneath her fingers. A hard, remote expression covered his face, a far cry from the passionate lover of last night. “I need to confront him, find out what he knows.”

“Do you honestly think he’ll tell you?” He wasn’t trying to be cruel, but it hurt, nonetheless. And he made a valid point.

“I’ll know if he’s lying.”

He shook his head. “He deceived you for years. You really don’t know him at all.”

She took the blow to her ego and swallowed the emotion that threatened to erupt. Tears pricked her eyes, but she would not allow them to fall. “Fair enough.” Her voice was hoarse with the strain of keeping herself together.

“Karina—” he began, but she cut him off, not wanting platitudes. Not from Jericho.

“No, you’re right. I don’t know him at all. I don’t know myself, either, for that matter.” She wanted to laugh at the absurdity of it all but pressed her lips firmly together. If she started laughing, she might never stop.

“How could you?” He reached out, but she took a step back. Hurt flashed in his eyes before they went blank, and his hand dropped to his side.

“I should have.” And that would haunt her for the rest of her life. “I was a pawn, a tool to be used and discarded when no longer useful.” That was all she’d ever been to her family, what she still was to Jericho and his men. The only person who’d never treated her that way was her sister, and she’d driven Valeriya away until they were nothing more than strangers.

It did no good to feel sorry for herself. All she could do was focus on the present and do whatever it took to make things right. She’d already taken a huge step in that direction. If she was killed, Jericho and his men had a hell of a lot of information that would help them drain her funds and those of other members. They also had data that might lead them to any other drakons being held.

She wanted to be the one to do it. And that was purely ego. But she couldn’t deny the burning desire to cut the Knights of the Dragon off at the knees and dance on their graves. They’d gone unchecked for far too long.

Some people might find it impossible to believe that she’d turn on people she’d worked with and ruled for her entire adult life. But they’d never been friends, and more than one had tried to kill her over the years. Birch had thwarted several assassination attempts.

She was tired of playing games, was now fighting for her life, however it might turn out.

Enoch shoved the door open and walked in. “We’ve got company coming down the driveway.”

“Who?”

“Single white male in an SUV. But he’s not alone. There are three more trucks with more than a dozen men following. Mercenary type. From the looks of things, they’re armed to the teeth.”

Enoch set his computer on the table and slipped back outside. “This is it,” Jericho told her. “Watch her,” he told Sadiq and headed toward the door.

“Wait just a minute.” She wasn’t being kept inside like some child.

He whirled around and caught her shoulders. He yanked her up onto her toes and slammed his mouth down on hers. Heat and pure need crashed into her. His need? Hers? It didn’t matter. She clung to his biceps and returned the kiss. Their tongues dueled, and she tasted a deeper heat, something not quite human. Dragon.

“Protect her,” he tossed over his shoulder as he pulled the door shut behind him.

“You need to be out there,” she told Sadiq. Yes, Enoch and, she assumed, Khalil were both with Jericho, but from everything she’d witnessed, Sadiq was his best friend.

Sadiq didn’t look any happier than she did. “He wants you protected.” The words were guttural and deep, followed by a growl of displeasure.

Good. She was none too pleased, herself. “If I went outside, you’d have to go, too, wouldn’t you?”

He paused and tilted his head, studying her. “And why would you go outside? Unless it’s to warn Birch.”

“Warn the man who has been deceiving me all these years, the man who allowed Svetlana to drug me? I don’t think so.”

“Why?” he persisted. “Why do you want to go outside?”

There was a good chance Jericho and the others could hear her but didn’t care. “Because I don’t want Jericho hurt. I don’t want any of you hurt. This is my fight.”

“What do you care if he’s hurt?” Sadiq prowled toward her, fists curled at his sides, a sneer marring his handsome face.

“Because I do.” She was not discussing her feelings for Jericho with Sadiq. “Stop trying to divide his focus,” she warned.

With that, she walked to the door and yanked it open. Sadiq could either follow her or stop her. And if he touched her, she had a feeling Jericho would lose his mind, and her temporary guard knew that. She was banking on it keeping him from getting in her way. Plus, she knew he’d rather be alongside his friends than babysitting her.

Jericho was standing in the yard looking very unhappy with both of them, but it was too late to scold them or send them back inside. The black SUV came into view. The driver jammed on the brakes, and before the vehicle had rocked to a stop, Birch was out with his gun drawn. He didn’t seem to know who to point it at. It tracked from her to Jericho to Sadiq and back to her.

“Hello, Birch.” She kept her tone modulated and cool, projecting a woman in control. His left arm was in a cast and his face had several bruises—likely a result of the accident—but he looked as tough and formidable as ever.

“You’re alive.” He started to lower his weapon but jerked it back up when Jericho shifted his weight from one leg to the other. “Stay where you are,” he warned.

“Did you think I wouldn’t be?” It was important to keep Birch’s attention on her. The rest of the men he’d brought with him would be deploying to the area, circling to catch them in a squeeze. She had to assume Enoch and his brother would handle them.

And they’d only be the first wave. Svetlana wouldn’t be far behind.

“I was worried. You were kidnapped.” He glanced from her to the men and back to her, assessing their role in what was unfolding. If she didn’t know the truth, she would never have doubted his sincerity. He honestly seemed concerned.

“I was injured in the crash, but I survived.” She took a step closer but stopped when Jericho scowled at her. “The drugs are all gone from my system,” she told him. “The tattoo was damaged, and my gift is back.”

Birch slumped slightly, seeming defeated. “So, you know?”

She wasn’t buying it, not for one second. “That you’ve been drugging me for years? That Svetlana is still alive and using me as a puppet? That you helped her? That she used magic on me? Yes, I’m very aware of that,” she added when his eyes widened in surprise. “Are you here to finish the job?”