Breath of Fire (24 page)

“Yes, but not all of them. Only four are dead. The others are still missing.”

“You’re tied to your people by blood. You said last night that you felt when they were taken.”

“Yes, but I lost all ties to them when they were taken to another Realm. I cannot feel the bond of my people across time and space.”

I wondered if the same would be true for me now that we were joined.

“I do not know,” he answered without me having to ask aloud. “I hope we never have to find out.”

I ran my hand down his arm and then squeezed his fingers. I had to touch him. And the ferocity of the need scared me. I released him and paced back and forth in front of his desk so I could think.

“How did you find the remains?” I asked.

“Their bodies entered back into this Realm shortly before dawn. I felt the tie immediately, but it was short-lived. They’d been dropped into a densely wooded area away from any civilization, Drakán or otherwise. Their hands and feet were bound. And then they were torched by the flame of another dragon while they lay there helpless. It had to be the Destroyer. I could feel the strength of his power through my people. But I could not see his face.”

“Take me to them,” I said, no longer thinking of myself as his lifemate, but as the Enforcer. I wasn’t sure I liked it that the title I’d always associated myself with was now overshadowed by another.

Chapter Twenty-One

Julian drove us to the crime scene in a mean-looking SUV that had tires the size of small elephants. I’d convinced him it would be better to drive instead of dematerializing, since I needed some way to transport the remains back to the chateau once I was done inspecting the ashes.

The rain was a light drizzle when we left Brussels, but by the time we reached our destination, the drizzle had turned into a deluge. It was almost a two-hour drive to Nieuwpoort, a small town close to the Belgian port of the English Channel, but Julian managed to make it there in half the time.

The land was open and empty, with only a smattering of farms and cottages along the countryside. Fields of wheat were broken up by groupings of towering trees, and both of them swayed as a storm rolled in from the coast.

I worried about the crime scene with the weather the way it was. Ash didn’t last long against water or wind. But Julian assured me that it would be okay.

Half-walled fences of stone broke up the land and lined the narrow road we sped along. Julian turned the car sharply through a break in the fence and directly into a field of grass toward a heavily treed area. Cars were already parked just outside the perimeter of trees, and our tires spit up mud so it splattered across our windows as we raced to meet them.

My boots squished down in the mud when I jumped out of the SUV. The air was considerably colder than it had been in the city. The wind cut through my clothes and whipped my hair around my face in disarray until I stepped into the shelter of the trees. The upper branches were so thick that water was unable to seep through. The ground was dry.

I followed Julian deeper into the wooded area, but I no longer needed him to guide my way. His memories were fresh in my mind, and I knew exactly where the remains were. Xana stood guard over them, her posture straight and her hands clasped tightly behind her back. Everything was utterly still around her. Not even the leaves dared to twitch.

Others of Julian’s clan were spaced farther out, forming a wide circle around the scene in case there were intruders or the Destroyer decided to make another visit.

Four long piles of fine black ash were lined up next to each other. There was nothing else left to show that anything living had once been there, not even a shard of bone. I knelt down beside the first pile and put a teaspoon of ash in a clear plastic bag. I’d send each sample back home for Erik to analyze.

A protest formed on Xana’s lips at disturbing the ashes, but I cut her off with a look. She knew her job. And I knew mine. I sifted through the pile with my hands, the ashes like silk between my fingers.

My knuckles grazed something cold and hard, and I knew what it was before I dusted the ashes away to see for myself.

A misshapen disc of melted silver gleamed against the blackness of the ash. I picked it up gently and rubbed it between my fingers. It had already hardened completely.

“What is that?” Julian asked, kneeling beside me.

“A piece of silver. If it’s the same as the last Drakán victim there should be two inside all of the remains.”

“I don’t understand.”

“The Destroyer feels as if these people have betrayed him somehow. These are the exact coins that Judas was given for betraying Jesus.”

“Yes, Shekels of Tyre. I have thousands in my hoard. They’re not hard to come by for anyone who was alive during that time period.”

“Great. That’ll certainly narrow it down.” The problem I had with finding suspects had everything to do with age. As the centuries wore on, fewer and fewer Drakán were born. So the older Drakán far outnumbered the young.

“Have you found many remains with the silver embedded in them?” Julian asked.

“I’ve only found the remains of one Drakán, period. Your Jillian. All of the other crime scenes I saw were human, and if the Destroyer is truly forming an army, then it makes sense that these humans were simply meals. But it’s impossible to know about the other clans and their missing Drakán. There could be hundreds of remains scattered all over the world, and I wouldn’t know about it unless I had a vision like I did with Jillian. I’m still not completely sure why I dreamed of her.”

“It’s because she was connected to me. Even before you and I met for the first time, we were destined to be with each other. You recognized my power through her.”

“Oh.” His explanation made sense, and it was nice to have at least one of my questions answered. “As far as any other Drakán remains, you know as well as anyone that the other clans don’t use my position as Enforcer. The Archos all choose to try and handle the problems themselves, or ignore them completely, just to keep me from coming into their territory. You’ve all made it very difficult to do my job over the centuries.”

“Yes, we have,” he said softly.

I put eight pieces of silver into a Ziploc bag, and then I went about the task of shoveling the remains of the four Drakán into separate wooden boxes, no bigger than shoeboxes. There was nothing left to do for them except return them to their families and send them off in ceremony to the Realm of the Dead.

“Xana will take care of it,” Julian said as I began to transport everything back to his car.

He lifted the small boxes from my arms and gave them to Xana. He tossed her the keys to his car with a flick of his wrist and grabbed for me. I dodged out of his way before he could take hold.

“Oh, no. I’m not doing that again,” I said. “I’ll ride back with Xana.”

Julian’s lips twitched, and I swore if he laughed at me that he was going to be sorry. He moved with a speed I could only envy and grabbed me around the waist. I didn’t have time to fight back before we dematerialized into nothing.

We reappeared back inside the deep cavern built under the
Chateau de Longévité
. My head spun, and I gasped for breath as I checked to make sure all my body parts had reassembled correctly. Julian sat on the edge of his desk, completely in control of himself, while I struggled to get things together.

“Stop doing that,” I growled. Nausea roiled in my stomach, and my dragon was agitated and bumping against me, which wasn’t helping matters any.

“It is a waste of time to drive in a car when I have a power such as this. Especially when it’s a matter of urgency.”

“Now’s not the time to be logical. Not when I feel like throwing up on your feet.”

The corners of his mouth quirked in my direction, no doubt amused. “I will ignore your unpleasantness for now. You’ve had little sleep.”

I sputtered at his insult, and finally closed my eyes. I had to get my anger under control. New or uncomfortable situations always brought on my dragon rage. I opened my shields, trying to draw on the calmness Julian was presenting, but I gasped as his magic practically crackled off his skin. He wasn’t calm at all. The fury inside him was wielding a double-edged sword as it hacked viciously at his temper.

His rage swelled bigger and stronger but had no outlet. Guilt weighed him down so heavily I thought I might drown in it. He hadn’t been able to save his people. Hadn’t kept his promise of protection. And he blamed himself for their deaths.

He’d been calm for my sake, and I wanted to reach out to him—to soothe and comfort. I understood his anger, and I joined him in his rage at what had been done to our people.

Our
people. Already it seemed I’d forsaken my clan for his.

“Julian—” I reached out for him, not sure what to do to soothe the beast inside him.

He rushed by me in a blur, and the walls trembled with his fury. Stone crumbled, and his most precious possessions flew from the shelves and shattered into millions of pieces. The floor cracked into fissures beneath my feet, and water seeped through the cracks. He whirled like a cyclone, leaving nothing but destruction in his path. He left no corner unturned. And I didn’t try to stop him.

It was easy to understand in hindsight how I’d thought him cold and cruel upon our first meeting. In truth, he was anything but. His responsibility as Archos was great. And he approached his duty with the respect it deserved. I knew for a fact that Alasdair didn’t feel for his people the way Julian did for his own. Alasdair loved the power. And he loved the yearly tax he was paid from each of his subjects to add to his hoard.

It was then I remembered that Julian came from true Drakán royalty. His father should have been king. And Julian should be king now.

He stood with his back to me, facing the far wall. His hands were splayed over the rough stone and his shoulders heaved with every breath. I didn’t know what to do for him. How to tell him that I finally understood.

I approached him slowly, avoiding the remains of his treasures as I went. I placed my hands on his back and felt the shudder that ran through him. I stroked him gently, calming his beast with my touch.

“I’m so sorry,” I said. It was inadequate, but it was all I had to give him. I didn’t like to see him hurt, and all I could think was that it was my duty to take his pain away. I ran kisses along his shoulder blades and put my arms around him in a hug.

The fight seemed to go out of him a great whoosh, and I turned him so that he faced me. His expression was back to the impenetrable mask he wore when he didn’t want anyone to know what he was thinking. I leaned up slowly, keeping my eyes steady on his as he watched me warily.

I traced his lips with my tongue and drank in his gasp of breath. I nibbled at his bottom lip and rained kisses across his entire face. The diamonds of his pupils grew large as I savored each new taste of him. Finally, I placed my mouth directly on his. And kissed him.

I sank into his softness and marveled at the textures of lips and teeth and tongue as I explored him. I pushed the jacket from his shoulders and ran my hands across the hard planes of his chest. I pulled at his clothing, not caring that I tore it in my haste, until he was bare before me. I had to feel him beneath my hands. My dragon agreed as she writhed inside of me.

He circled with me to the bed until I was dizzy in his arms, but I protested as he tried to strip off the blue silk blouse.

“No, let me,” I said.

I pushed him back gently so he lay in the middle of the black lake that was his bed. He was gloriously naked, and my gaze devoured every inch of his body. I unbuttoned the blouse slowly, teasing him with glimpses of flesh before letting the silk fall down my arms and drop to my feet. I left the black lace bra in place and went to the snap on my black jeans. I unbuttoned them and pushed them slowly over my hips until all that was left was the tiny scrap of lace at the juncture of my thighs.

He growled, and his eyes glowed with passion at the sight of me. “Enough. Come to me now.”

“I don’t think so. You got to call the shots last night. It’s my turn now.”

I crawled over him slowly on hands and knees, rubbing my flesh against his teasingly. I dropped my shields completely so I could feel exactly what he was feeling. So I’d know what he liked and didn’t like. My only thought was pleasing him.

“You do,” he groaned.

I kissed my way from his lips down to his neck. From his neck to his muscled chest. I circled my tongue around his nipples, and it brought a gasp to my lips as I felt the sensations I was giving him against my own nipples. I reveled in the pleasure he got from my hair skimming along his heated skin as I kissed my way lower.

I nipped at the muscular indentions just above his hip bones and scraped my nails over the ridges of his stomach. I moved lower until the dark curls around his sex tickled my nose and chin.

“You’re killing me.” His fingers gripped the sheets so hard that they lay in tatters.

“I know.” I smiled and waited until he looked in my eyes. So he could see the desire there and know how much his body pleased me.

He was long and thick and hard, and I licked my lips in anticipation. I rested my cheek against him and inhaled the muskiness of his desire. A clear drop of liquid formed at the tip of his cock, and I couldn’t help but taste it.