Badass Dragons - Complete Set (20 page)

CHAPTER SIX

Cheryl’s eyes boiled and burned.

Rafe’s lips
peeled and his teeth clenched.

He made no
further move to attack, and neither did she. Both were waiting for the other to
strike first.

“Maybe we
should talk instead,” Cheryl suggested.

“Maybe,” Rafe
replied. He straightened his back up and then looked to his motorcycle. “You
want to take a ride with me?”

“No,” Cheryl
said quickly.

“You know you
have to face me either way,” Rafe declared. “Are you sure you want to do it
here? In public like this? You want to think about the effect that’s going to
have?”

Cheryl
pondered a moment. She knew if there was a chance she could deal with him, she
should probably take it.

“Where would
we go?” Cheryl asked.

“Wherever you
want to.”

“Back to
Synrith.”

“You must be
crazy.”

“No,” Cheryl
said. “You need to sit down with him. So no one else gets hurt.”

“If we were
to do that, then we’d need to meet on mutual ground. I wouldn’t be safe in that
building.”

Cheryl
stepped forward. “Yes you would be. Seriously, Rafe. What would happen if you
went in there and didn’t come out alive? What would your pack do?”

“Nothing,”
Rafe said. “Because the past me is with them.”

“But you
could tell your past self to watch out for you, couldn’t you?”

As the words
came out Cheryl’s mouth, she realized they sounded a bit loopy. There were
still many aspects of this phenomenon she didn’t have a hold on.

Rafe stared
back at her. “Fine.”

He picked up
his helmet and climbed back on the bike.

“Are you
coming then?”

Cheryl
hesitated a moment, before she approached his motorcycle and hopped on behind
him.

“You better be
reasonable in there,” Cheryl muttered as Rafe fired the ignition.

“Will he be
reasonable?” Rafe shot back.

Cheryl
couldn’t give any guarantees.

CHAPTER
SEVEN

They were outside the skyscraper
again less than a minute later. Cheryl stepped off the bike while Rafe remained
seated. He was staring at her suspiciously, perhaps wondering if he was making
the correct move.

“I have to
make a phone call,” Rafe said pulling out his cell. “But you run along without
me. Tell him I’ll be there in a sec.”

Cheryl bowed
her head and walked back up to the sliding doors.

The guard
behind them, waved to her.

“Master
Synrith will be pleased you returned,” he announced.

“He will?”
Cheryl said with surprise.

“Yes,” the
guard replied. “He’s had a change of heart.”

The guard’s
expression altered as Cheryl moved passed him to reveal Rafe outside. He
reached out, placing a hand on Cheryl’s shoulder.

“What’s
he
doing here?” the guard demanded.

“He’s
requesting a meeting with Master Synrith,” Cheryl said. “A peaceful one.”

The guard
looked at her distastefully. He signaled to the man at the desk.

“Tell him we
have company.”

The
receptionist picked up the phone.

“Can I go in
the elevator?” Cheryl asked the guard.

“I don’t
know,” he mumbled. “I mean, yes. Go ahead.”

Cheryl walked
to the elevator and pressed the button.

As she waited
for it to come down, the guard spoke into his radio, alerting all nearby guards
that there was a threat within range of the premises.

CHAPTER
EIGHT

Master Synrith was waiting for Cheryl
on the top floor, right in front of the elevator as she stepped out.

“Oh gosh!”
Cheryl exclaimed. “You scared me!”

Synrith
grabbed her by the wrist and shoved her up against the adjacent wall. “You led
Rafe here?”

“What?”
Cheryl cried. “I didn’t have to tell him how to get here!”

“You’re
working with him, aren’t you?” Synrith seethed.

“No!” Cheryl
shouted. “Why are you being such a dick?”

Synrith
glared at her a moment. Then he let go of her.

“Ouch,”
Cheryl said nursing her wrist. “Don’t do that.”

“Don’t
pretend like it hurts,” Synrith said stepping away.

Cheryl looked
up at him. She realized it wasn’t hurting.

“Why’s he
here then?” Synrith demanded.

“He wants to
negotiate a peace treaty with you,” Cheryl said. “He’s making himself
vulnerable to you as a gesture of good faith.”

“Or he wants
me to let my guard down so he can assassinate me,” Synrith snapped.

“It’s not
that,” Cheryl argued. “I was the one who
convinced
him to come here.”

“Oh really?
Why?”

“Because
until you guys work your stuff out, people are just going to keep getting hurt.
He’s not as bad as you think he is.”

“What do you
know about him?”

Cheryl
shrugged. “He’s probably not much different than you.”

Synrith
rolled his eyes. “No one is like me.”

“Said he who
is so full of himself.”

“I never
asked your opinion.”

“Well, maybe
you should.”

The pair
stared at each other, the anger radiating between them. Synrith then laughed.
He leaned back against the wall chuckling.

“What’s so
funny?” Cheryl asked.

Synrith let
himself slide so far down the wall he was practically sitting.

“Hey,” Cheryl
tried again. “Why are you laughing?”

“Look at us,”
he said. “Arguing like an old married couple.”

Cheryl
frowned. “Can you just trust me for once? I’m trying to help you.”

“And why on
earth would you do that?”

“Because …
Because…”

“Go on.”

Cheryl knelt
to him. “You remember what you said. When you saved me from falling just
before.”

“That you
mean the world to me?”

Cheryl
grabbed his hand. “Yes.”

Synrith
looked at her. His eyes were dull and cloudy. “I have no idea why I said that.”

“Don’t you
play with me,” Cheryl insisted. “You know who I am. It’s me. Cheryl.”

“Yes…?”

“From the
future.”

“The future,”
Synrith laughed. “Okay. So what happens in our future?”

“You die,”
Cheryl said without hesitating. “Rafe’s going to kill you with the golden dagger.”

“Oh really –
well that is utter –”

“It happens
tomorrow night. I came back for you. To save your life. That’s why I’m here.
That’s the only reason.”

Synrith
blinked. Then he closed his eyes.

“Take my
arm,” he said.

“What?”

“The right
one. Take it.”

Cheryl
wrapped her hands around it. He pulled her up with to stand against the wall.

His eyes were
still closed.

“Repeat after
me. ‘I am yours.’”

“I am yours,”
Cheryl said.

“‘I am
powerless.’”

“I am
powerless,” Cheryl whispered.

“‘I will
never deceive you.’”

“I will never
deceive you.”

“‘I am your
slave.’”

Cheryl
paused. She was awash with anxiety again.

“‘I am your
slave,’” Synrith repeated firmly.

“I am your
slave,” Cheryl said finally. “And I am also your salvation.”

CHAPTER NINE

When Rafe entered Synrith’s office,
he was not escorted by a guard. In fact the corridor behind him was eerily
quiet – the door’s turn and creak echoing as it opened.

He didn’t
enter the room right away. He remained motionless, the lighting around him not
penetrative enough to reveal any more than his dark figure. His arms were
bulging, full of intensity and muscle. His eyes were glowing neon blue. Cheryl
could hear him breathing. The wind of the city night moved along the window
glass.

“Well don’t
just stand there,” Synrith muttered, calm and composed. “Come in. Take a
chair.”

Rafe
scratched his nose with the tip of his left thumb.

His arms then
fell by his sides. He advanced.

Cheryl was
standing next to Synrith who was seated behind the desk. She could see that it
was giving Rafe a lot of grievance being here. He didn’t trust Synrith, or his
surroundings.

They waited
in silence while Rafe dragged the chair in front of the desk back, and then
proceeded to sit in it. He kept his legs apart and his fingers interlocked,
pointed towards the floor.

“So what can
I do for you?” Synrith asked.

Rafe glanced
up, fidgeting. “Step down.”

“I beg your
pardon?”

“I said,
‘Step down.’ You’re finished here.”

Synrith
ginned. “You make such a compelling argument.”

“You’ve heard
her story – yes?” Rafe demanded. “She tell you what is to become of you?”

“That you’re
to kill me with my own dagger? Yes I’ve heard the story.”

“Well, if you
want to stay alive, you’ll adhere to my request.”

“I thought
you wanted to negotiate,” Synrith said thinly.

“This is the
negotiation,” Rafe said. “You leave here, leave your building behind. You do it
tonight.”

“And what of
my men?”

“I don’t care
what they do. They can stay if they like. But I want you gone. You’re finished,
Synrith.” Rafe inhaled through his nose and stood from the chair. “You have
twelve hours.”

He turned his
back to Synrith and Synrith rose from the desk.

“Now that I
know you’re going to kill me and how you’re going to do it,” Synrith began,
“I’ll make sure it never happens.”

Rafe turned.
“You don’t get it, do you?”

“Get what?”

“I can kill
you whenever I want to. I can kill you even before this moment now.”

“Then why
haven’t you?”

“Because I
know you’ll leave eventually,” Rafe said. “You’ll do it for her.”

Rafe turned
to leave again.

Synrith put
his hands together.

He was silent
until Rafe exited the room, and then he went over to the door and slammed it
shut. He walked back to Cheryl and pulled her into him.

“What are you
going to do?” she asked, whilst being smothered with his kisses. “Are we going
to run away together?”

“Oh yes,”
Synrith said, his eyes widening. “We’ll run away. Far, far from here. You have
no idea how far we’ll go.”

Happiness
washed over Cheryl. It was exactly what she needed to hear.

She let him
run his hand all over her body, kissing her cheeks, her neck, her lips.

But when his
fingers went into her hair, they pulled at the root.

And she could
feel his anger in her pain.

 
CHAPTER TEN

“Are you ready?” he asked her.

“Am I ready
for what?” Cheryl replied.

“Are you
ready to be mine?”

Mine
. She liked
the sound of the word. At the same time, she felt lost. His face was as
handsome and daring as it had always been, and she knew him more. She trusted
him more.

But at the
same time, Synrith rarely revealed what he was thinking.

His hands
were at the side of her face. His fingers, so cold and soft in their touch to
her skin.

Behind those
fingers though…

He could
crush her skull in his bare hands.

The way he
looked at her was mesmerizing. But it wasn’t simple in its nature. Shades of
love, shades of lust, and a little bit of obscure wonder. Underneath all that,
she wondered also, if she was but an ant to him. Nothing … yet everything. The
answer was yes.

She was ready
to be his.

Synrith
stepped away from their embrace and moved towards the door. “Shall we go then?”

“Huh?” Cheryl
mumbled, caught off guard.

“You didn’t
think I was going to have you on the floor, did you?” Synrith smiled. “I think
we can do better than that.”

“But aren’t
we getting ready to leave?” Cheryl asked walking over.

“I have to
make sure you’re mine first,” Synrith said.

“How do you
do that?”

“Come on,
I’ll show you.”

She let the
master dragon lead her out into the hallway, while he closed and locked the
door behind them. He took her hand and they walked to the right side of the
corridor which branched out to the left after that. Two thirds along this
passageway, he stopped in front of another door. He opened it, revealing a set
of stairs leading down into darkness.

“After you,”
Synrith said making room for her.

Cheryl nodded
politely and began making her way towards the steps. Synrith soon joined her,
and closed the door behind him.

At the base
of the steps, there was very little light and Cheryl was unable to see much
further. There was a door in front of them with a gold security pad by the
handle, which Synrith immediately seized upon.

Cheryl leaned
against the door beside him.

She looked at
her man.

Worrying.
Hoping.

She had no
idea where this door was about to lead.

The lock snapped
open and Synrith put his hand to the lever.

He paused,
acknowledging her forlorn stare into his eyes.

“If you’re
having second thoughts,” Synrith said, “now is the time to run. Once this door
is opened, you and I will be inseparable. Do I need to ask you again?”

And Cheryl
could feel it. Like a magnetic pull.

Magic was
once again in the air.

“No,” she
said. “You don’t have to ask me a thing.”

Synrith
nodded. Then he opened the door.