The Dragon's Heart (Dragon Lore) (29 page)

“Come on.” Seren sighed as she braced a hand at her lower back and followed the giant. “Trust me, it’s easier to eat when he says to eat than to get him annoyed. He tends to lecture when he’s annoyed.”

Shelby shook her head, a laugh bubbling out of her. Only in her world would a four-foot-eleven pregnant woman worry about a seven-foot giant’s lecture.

* * * *

Daniel stood in the middle of a burnt-out building, the other dragons and Cage fanned out next to him. Luca was on his left, Adrian on his right.

They were deep in the seedy bowels of Chicago’s underworld. Only the very lost and walking dead, desperate for a fix of their drug of choice, darted between the shadows.

“You’re sure about this.” Daniel’s graveled voice grated out as he shot Luca a look, measuring him. “Alexi will know you led us here.”

“Fuck him.”

It was all Daniel needed. Reaching under his black leather jacket, he pulled two long-bladed knives out from the sheath at his lower back.

“They know we’re here.” As Daniel and the others turned to look at him, Cage shrugged and jerked his chin up toward the vacant building next to them. “There are two in the shadows up there, with another one behind us.” A slow grin stretched his face, the puckered scar twitching with it. “I’ve got this. You boys go have fun.”

Without another word, Cage was gone, blending into the shadows as he went after the sentinels.

Daniel focused on the rubble in front of him. “Luca, you’re with me, we’ll take the tunnel on the left. It’s where Alexi will be. Bain, Broderick, you’ve got the right and Dallas…”

“Don’t worry. I’ll take everything else.”

Daniel nodded once as he started into the ruined building. The stairwell spiraled down, crumpling more with each step they took, down into tunnels created more than a century before by Dragan underlings.

There were no lights to illuminate their path, and other than the occasional scurrying of a rat, Daniel heard nothing. If anyone else lived down there, he couldn’t hear them yet.

It took them a good five minutes to reach the bottom of the stairwell, and when they separated, Daniel jerked his head at Dallas, reminding him to stay put. He nodded, his arms crossed over his chest as he leaned back against the damp stone wall.

“Give us ten,” Daniel murmured to him as they ducked under the jagged edge of the ceiling and started down the tunnel. It stretched out for miles, a winding maze incomprehensible to anyone without dragon senses. “You know what to do.”

“Yeah, boss. I gotcha.”

Daniel nodded and without another word, he and Luca disappeared into the blackness.

25

Shelby liked Seren a lot, and the more time they spent together in the small safe house, the more she liked her.

While Shelby was new to this world, it didn’t take her long to realize Seren, who was a female dragon who worked in a world dominated by humans, was just as lost as Shelby.

Yet despite their age difference, they had a lot more in common than either of them would have believed. Though Seren had millennia on her, she didn’t trivialize Shelby’s problems. If anything, she was just as grateful as Shelby to have someone–another female–to relate to.

Seren shifted on the couch, trying to get comfortable. “I don’t know how you do it,” she murmured, her gaze troubled. “Weren’t you lonely?”

From anyone else, Shelby knew the comment would have come across as snarky, but there was nothing but genuine concern in Seren’s eyes. Shelby snorted as she curled into the corner of the wingback chair. “Yes. Very lonely, and very stressed out. It definitely had benefits, don’t get me wrong, but they rarely made up for the stress of never being myself. I had to watch every word I said everywhere I went, and the smiles…” She sent Seren a beautiful smile, the one she was famous for, before she grimaced. “Anything other than perfectly serene would have stories and gossip running completely insane about how much trouble I was in, or how I was heartbroken, or on my deathbed.”

Seren winced. “Didn’t you ever want to just take one of those rumors and run with it?”

Shelby laughed. “Absolutely. But it would have just created so much more trouble than it would have been worth.” Her head canted as she studied her new friend. “How far along are you?”

“A little over seven months.” She smiled, but there was a hint of worry in the depths of her dark blue eyes. “I can’t wait to see her, but I think Cage needs every day of the next two months to prepare. I don’t know if he’s more nervous or excited to be a father.”

“Doesn’t he have a much younger sister?”

Seren nodded and blew out a breath. “Yes. Actually, he’s more of Lily’s father than brother, but I can’t get him to see it.”

Shelby titled her head as she wondered, again, at how much depth and history the dragons and Hunters must hold inside after all those years of living. It was overwhelming to think of how much they’d seen and been through. Wars, loved ones lost, and always hidden, never revealing who they were, facing a world that would never accept their kind.

It broke her heart a little. “Has he raised her since she was born?”

Seren shook her head slowly. “No, they’re not really related. He found her when she was nine. She was abused and terrified. When they saw each other, they just… connected. Even if she hadn’t insisted he keep her, he would have anyway. She’d needed him, and after the death of a biological sister a couple decades ago, he needed someone to take care of.”

For as terrifying as Adrian was, after seeing his gentleness with Seren, he would be a wonderful father.

Seren’s head swung around toward the front of the cabin. “Micah’s here.”

Gabriel was already moving toward the door. “I sent for him.”

“What?” The hysterical scream caught in Shelby’s throat. “Why would you do that?” Her terrified gaze snapped to Seren, who was leveraging herself up from the deep sofa.

“Stay behind me,” Seren murmured as she finally got to her feet. “I’m the one person in the world he won’t hurt.” She shifted her gaze, her voice deceptively calm. “Gabriel, what are you doing?”

“Ending the dragon war. I’ve finally found the weapon needed to destroy Alexi. Don’t get in my way, Seren.”

No. This was wrong. Everyone had spent the last two days telling Shelby how dangerous Micah Dragan was, and Gabriel had led him straight to her.

She took a giant step back, even as she realized she wasn’t stupid enough to run. She wouldn’t get far, anyway. Their legs were twice as long as hers.

But it didn’t mean she was going to just surrender to whatever they wanted. Daniel had gone to war to keep her safe, so the least she could do was try to keep herself alive.

“Where is she?” a cold voice asked from the house entry-way.

Shelby took another step back behind the couch. She groped at the built-in bookcases for anything she could use as a weapon. She didn’t expect to do much damage, but damn it, she was not going down without a fight.

Then her mouth dropped open as Aragorn from
The Lord of the Rings
walked in, only much bigger and with dark blue eyes. His jeans were ripped at the knees, and his button-down shirt was as black as sin.

As if realizing where her thoughts had gone, Seren turned her head slightly so she could see Shelby. “Don’t say it. He tends to get violent when people mention Aragorn.”

Yeah. Shelby didn’t doubt it. She didn’t doubt he had a soul, either. If there had ever been any humanity inside of him, it was long, long gone.

She swallowed hard, her fingers wrapping around a candlestick.

“What took you so fucking long?” Gabriel snapped, handing him a gun. “Ashborne left hours ago.”

Micah shrugged. He palmed the gun and slid it into the waist band of his jeans. “I hunted down his sister in case I needed to use her as leverage.” His gaze dragged over Shelby. “Mate works better.”

The blood drained out of Shelby’s face. She shook her head slowly, her hand clamped around the candlestick as she watched Micah stalk around Seren to get to her. She was so screwed. Gabriel was blocking the front door, while Micah was between her and the only other exit to the house.

She forced herself to focus on Gabriel, not bothering to hide the betrayal and devastation in her eyes. “Why?”

There was no compassion in his eyes, no gentleness to soften the blow of his words. “This war is a game I plan on winning.”

Her face crumpled. “Daniel trusted you.”

If he heard her, if her words affected him at all, she couldn’t tell. He simply jerked his head at Micah. “Get her out of here.”

Micah nodded once. “I’ll make sure Alexi is appropriately grateful for his gift.”

“Micah, don’t do this.” Seren put herself directly in his path, but the blue-eyed giant picked her up as easily as if she were a puppy and moved her to the side.

Screw it. She shifted slightly and the second Micah reached for her, she went up on her toes and swung. It was the last thing she remembered before her world went black.

* * * *

“Where the fuck is he?” Daniel yanked his knife out of a dragon’s throat with his left hand while he swung up with his right, slicing another Dragan underling’s stomach open. As the dark-haired man screamed in agony and doubled over, Daniel kicked him to the side as he swung on Luca. “We’ve been at this for hours.”

Luca shifted his grip on his long dagger and slammed his fist into the face of the man coming at him, shattering his nose on impact. Neither of them liked killing their own kind, but the underlings knew what fate waited them when going up against their king. “He’s playing with us.”

“No, he’s feeding us.” Daniel turned his head and spit out blood. Some lucky bastard had gotten a cheap shot in. He was sure his goddamn jaw was broken, along with his other cheek and a few of his ribs. He would heal, but not before the next fight. He could fight in dragon form, which would make him harder to hurt, but it was never as fun, and was usually over way too quickly.

Luca shook his damp hair out of his face and pointed at the sudden silence of the tunnel in front of them. “It’s his version of fucking bread crumbs to make sure we’re going the right way.”

Daniel sneered as he looked behind him at the trail of bodies they’d left in their wake over the last two hours. “Glad to know their loyalty paid off.” He shoved a hand through his hair and started forward. “Let’s just find him. I’m tired of playing his damn games.”

“Agreed.”

Daniel followed the damp, stale tunnel with Luca directly behind. He wasn’t kidding. He’d had enough of this shit. He wanted it over
now
.

As if Luca read his thoughts, or could sense the same itchiness crawling up Daniel’s spine, he rolled his head. “Something’s not right.”

“No shit,” Daniel shot back. The mark over his heart was trying to jackrabbit its way out of his chest. “I’m about to come out of my goddamn skin.”

Luca grunted his agreement just as they both caught sight of a single flickering light up ahead. “About fucking time.”

“Remember.” Daniel swung both his blades once as they came upon the cavernous room. He shifted, pressing his back against the tunnel wall next to the room’s opening. “I want the fucking Hunter who shot Shelby. Nobody dies until I have answers, then you can have your father.”

Luca nodded, a slow grin spreading across his face. “You ready for this?”

Daniel nodded once. “The Highlands in the 1700s?”

“Nah.” Luca snorted. “That was too easy. Over too quick. I say we go with what we did in Spain. You know, an actual challenge.”

It was Daniel’s turn to snort. “Because we let it be.” He flashed Luca a grin. They’d fought side by side for thousands of years, and had combat down to a science. “Alright. Let’s do this.”

Luca’s smile went manic as his hand flicked out, dowsing the light from the torches on the cavern walls. Daniel waited until the murmuring voices rose with temper and started to move to relight the wicks before he moved to the middle of the entrance. Without having to shift into dragon form, he opened his mouth.

Flames shot into the middle of the room before anyone knew what was happening. Daniel and Luca took advantage of it as they charged in, blades swinging.