He’d really lucked out that the dragons were so careless
with their security. Not that he blamed them. They’d never had any reason to
suspect anyone would ever be capable of beating them. No one had ever tried.
Dean made it into the generator room. He stopped as he
entered. The sounds of grinding from the power source reminded him of his
childhood. Watching his father try to maintain the machines for New Strauss. Funny
how scents and sounds could do that. One second he stood among the dragons’
electrical source, the next he was back in his childhood watching in awe as his
father meticulously fixed the power shortage for their whole township.
“Dad. Why do the dragons kill us?”
His father glanced up at him before looking back down at
his work. “I don’t know. You’ve heard the story, the same as I have. They came
from the skies and the world that was ended. Now we make do as best we can.” He
lifted his gaze, giving Dean the smile that always told him how much he loved
him. “But when you grow up you’ll be able to do something about it. I just know
it, son.”
Dean blinked, finding himself back in his adult body
standing in the dragons’ electric room. “You’re right, Dad.”
He’d spoken to his late father as if he’d been standing in
the room with him. His father had died trying to save a little girl from being
eaten by the green scaly monsters they could never get away from. He’d lived as
a good man, died a hero.
A million heroes
.
They deserved remembrance and maybe, finally, vengeance.
He stormed forward. As he took the final two steps, he
pulled the lever to turn off the electricity to the entire enclave. The power
made a swishing noise before it dimmed into blackness.
He grinned as he pulled out the knife he’d stuck himself
with earlier. It would come in handy again. With a swish of his wrist, he
jammed it into the device, cutting every wire he could find.
When he felt he’d made a good enough dent in the system that
it would trip them up for hours, he turned and left the structure. Shouts
sounded as he approached the courtyard.
Good
. That meant the servants had done what he’d
asked.
He stepped out just in time to see Ruby slamming a wooden
board into the face of one of the female dragon-joined humans.
Dean winced. Maybe he should have been more specific when
he’d told them to cause the humans pain. The woman staggered backward, her eyes
widening. She blinked several times.
“Can you hear me?” the former joined human asked.
Ruby grinned. “Come with me. We’re getting out of here.”
Ruby took the woman’s hand and ran for the exit. That was
good. They’d all be getting out just as planned, assuming they didn’t screw up
using the harnesses he’d spent most of the morning constructing out of the
climbing equipment.
It helped to be the son of a carpenter who had a knack for
electronics. Dean knew how to make things work and how to reconstruct things
for his own purposes.
Princess stormed forward, fury flowing from her gaze,
directed straight at him.
“You.” She pointed at him. “Prepare to die.”
“No.” He put his hands on his hips and didn’t budge. “You
should be the one prepared to die. You see, I know where you sleep, you crazy
bitch.”
“If you kill me, and you’ll never get that close, she dies
too. Are you prepared for that? I know what the two of you have been doing. Sex
to keep me out of it. Ha. I’ll destroy her before I let that happen again.”
Dean sucked in his breath. “You harm one hair on her head and
I’ll make you really know pain before you know death. And I think you’re bluffing.
Killing you will release her. You forget, I had one of you in my head for a
moment, I know how weak a dragon’s consciousness really is.”
“Try it. See what happens.”
He shook his head and held out his hand. “You’re a sick
bitch. I’d die before I let any of my people suffer or put them up as a
challenge. You’d really let your dragons die just so I can see you’re correct?
Why not offer yourself? Give me Amanda and I’ll leave you alive. Give me
trouble and you’ll wish you hadn’t. Ask Xor if I make threats I don’t mean.”
Amanda stumbled forward. He grabbed her before she could
fall.
“Dean?” She touched his face. “I’m so confused. What are you
doing?”
“Getting you out of here, gorgeous.”
She looked left and right. “Do you really think she just let
me go?”
Before he could answer, Verve rushed forward holding a board
in his hand. Had he participated in getting the human joined free? But instead
of aiming for one of the joined, he rushed at Dean.
Hell. The man meant to smack him. Pushing Amanda out of the
way, he took the whack to his shoulder. Grunting as he tried to ignore the
pain, he kicked Verve down.
“What the hell are you doing? We’re getting out of here. Why
take their side? You think was what Zane wanted?”
He turned back to Amanda. Verve could do whatever he wanted.
The man had more than one screw loose. Maybe he preferred to stay with the dragons.
Amanda rushed to him, kissing him hard on the lips. “I love
you. I just have to say it.”
He grinned. “Me too. Now—”
As if the dragon had orchestrated the whole thing to repeat
history, Princess flew low, ripping Amanda from his arms with her claws. His
love screamed, trying once again to extricate herself from the dragon.
“Damn it.” He threw his hands into the air. “No!”
Why hadn’t he knocked Amanda silly? Princess would have been
too disoriented to kidnap her. Then she could have been harnessed like the
others. His own negligence had just cost him everything.
“Amanda.” He sank to his knees.
Princess dropped Amanda onto the ground, where she groaned,
grabbing her stomach. The dragon hadn’t been gentle with her, throwing her
around the sky. Her stomach had emptied itself about halfway through the trip,
then she’d continued to retch over and over again. Her whole body ached.
“I’ve been good to you,” Princess spat. Her dragon body
waited next to her.
“Are you kidding?” Amanda wasn’t the same girl she’d been at
sixteen. She wouldn’t try to behave just to be treated a little better by a
creature that didn’t have one bit of care for her. “You used my body to amuse
yourself, to play at being human for years.”
Princess waved her hand in the air. “This is my body now. I
own all of you. The fact that I leave you alive is a tribute to how tolerant
and good I actually am. You want to know pain, Amanda Sugar? How about the
intolerable cruelty of not being able to exist at all? Where I’m going to shove
you is so far down in your mind you’ll never have a free thought again.”
Amanda darted backward. “Don’t do that. I’d rather you kill
me.”
“Not an option, little girl. You’re mine. Forever.”
Blackness surrounded her. Gone was her ability to see
through her own eyes, hear through her ears, or even know where she stood. Amanda
saw nothing. Princess had shoved her into a brown room where everywhere she looked
she could see only shades of dark.
She sank to the ground. Dean had gotten out. He’d saved the
other humans. Hopefully he’d burned the place to the ground.
Tears swam from her eyes. She knew that when he left he’d go
home to her brother and sister. That mattered. Living in her box would be
unbearable without him but at least she knew that for one second, he’d loved
her too. That was more than she’d expected to get.
* * * * *
Dean stared at the dragons in front of him. It had taken
four days to get home. His people had taken turns alternatively whacking,
hitting and knifing the joined humans to keep the dragons out of their bodies.
All in all, they had rescued thirty humans. Twenty of them
were not joined. The other ten were. They’d ridden the dragons back, which had held
a certain perverse joy for him. After the years of abuse they’d all taken from
the dragons, to harness them like giant horses made his people very happy.
But there would be no happiness for Dean. Not until Amanda
came home. How could he have failed her again?
“Dean,” Jane called out to him, and he blinked, trying to
recall what they’d just been speaking about. He needed Amanda. Without her, he
didn’t see the point to any of this anymore.
“What?”
“I’m asking you what you want to do.” Jane stared at Robert
over his head. The two must have some sort of silent communication going on
about his distractibility. He didn’t give a shit. “We have to find out if we
can separate these people from their dragons. No way can we continue to hurt
them forever.”
Dean sat back in his chair. His neck hurt, his jaw clenched
and his back felt as if someone had kicked him hard. He still hadn’t gotten
home to see the kids, which made his chest tight. Amanda would have wanted him
to do that first. Only he had no idea what he’d tell them about their sister.
They were bound to hear about it. New Straussworked like a gossip
network on a slow day. His losing Amanda Sugar again would never be kept quiet.
The kids needed to hear about it from him first.
But he couldn’t do anything until he did something about the
mess of harnessed dragons.
“Princess said killing the dragons would kill the humans. No
way will the dragons leave on their own.” Princess had taught him that much.
Dragons didn’t know the meaning of giving up.
Jane nodded her head. “And you told me you thought it was
bullshit.”
He had? He’d been so out of it the whole way home. Hell, he
might have had a thousand conversations he couldn’t remember.
Amanda is gone. I’ve failed her again. My love
.
“Dean.” Jane stomped her feet. “Pay attention for one damn
moment.”
“You know what?” He stood up. “If you don’t like how I do
things, feel free to replace me. Want to lead, Jane? Want to know what the fuck
that feels like?”
Robert held out his hands. “We’re all dependent on you,
Dean. When we thought we’d lost you it was the single worst moment of my life,
and God knows I’ve had some bad ones. We need you. So calm down. Everyone gets
that you’ve been through something here, something Jane and I don’t really get
because you won’t explain it to us.”
“You want to talk? Pretend we’re women?” He took a couple of
deep breaths. “I fell in love with Amanda Sugar. Okay? And now she’s gone and
probably dead. Once again, her fate is my fucking fault.”
Jane scratched her head. “Isn’t she, like, fifteen?”
“She’s twenty-two. Almost twenty-three. And I know she’s too
young for me. But I love her anyway.”
Dean stood up. He knew what he had to do. Only he’d reached
the point where he didn’t think his soul could take any more deaths laid on top
of it. Zane had burned with the dragon lair. Dean had wanted to become ash in
it as well. But Ruby had grabbed him and he’d come out of his near-comatose
state on top of a dragon, flying downward.
His people had been excited to see him. They’d embraced him
and let him know in no uncertain terms that they’d missed the heck out of him. He
supposed it was better to be loved than hated. They were all family to him. But
his love hadn’t come home with him, where he could have bathed her in as much
safety as he could provide for the rest of her life. If she’d let him.
He shook his head. No good could come of imagining what
would never be. Princess had threatened to destroy her. Would she actually do
that?
His stomach turned.
Dean stared up at his people. They didn’t know what to do
with him like this. For years, he’d kept himself apart in order to lead them,
lived by himself until he’d taken the kids in and kept his sexual escapades
discreet and casual. This was why he’d done it. Falling apart destroyed
everything.
New Strauss has to survive.
“We have to kill them—the dragons.” His head throbbed. Maybe
he’d sleep for a couple of hours and it would go away but probably not.
Dougal finally spoke. “Should we ask the joined humans
first?” He’d leaned against the door and hadn’t uttered a word during this
whole mess of a conversation. Or maybe he’d said something and Dean hadn’t
focused on it.
“You’re testing me.” He stared straight at Dougal when he
made the statement.
“I am. I want to see what you’ll do. I know what the Dean
Andrews I’ve always respected would say. But I’m not sure exactly who came home
from that place. I’m not sure I know you, boss. So answer me. Should we ask
them first? If they want to be separated. Maybe some of them would prefer a
life with their dragons to the potential of death without them.”
“First of all,” he had to bite his cheek so hard that he
drew blood to keep himself from taking off Dougal’s head, “fuck you for the
test. You don’t get to test me, you little shit. I’ll tell you what I told
Jane. If you want this job, take it. Otherwise, take your high-and-mighty
opinions that you can have from a distance and shove them where the sun doesn’t
shine. Get it?”
Dougal raised his eyebrows, then nodded.
“Good. Now that we understand each other, I’ll tell you what
I’m going to do.” He looked around the room, taking one last glance out the
window at the harnessed dragons. They were subdued as long as he kept them in
pain. That couldn’t possibly last.
“Kill them.” His voice sounded hoarse.
“All of them?” Robert always knew the right question to ask.
That was why he got to be second in command, and his proximity to the leadership
had probably been why he had been the one not to question Dean. Who the fuck would
want his job if they really knew what it entailed?
“Every last one. Kill the fuckers. I don’t care how. You can
decide.”
“Right.” Robert nodded.
“And are you going to tell the joined first?” Dougal asked,
this time using a more respectful tone.
“No.” Dean walked toward the exit. “Why let them worry when
I’m doing it whether they like it or not?”
And that was why he really was a bastard. Maybe even why the
universe never wanted him to have Amanda. Truth was, he didn’t rank much higher
than the dragons when it came down to it. He led with blunt force and damn
anyone who got in his fucking way.
* * * * *
Dean wasn’t sure he’d ever get the sounds of the dragons
screaming out of his mind. He’d tried to be quick and painless, not brutal or
cruel, which was more than he could say for the flying monsters. Still,
beheading the monsters one by one had given him a pounding headache.
In the end there had been a lot of blood splattered on the
ground near his feet and fifty percent of the humans who had been dragon joined
were dead. That left five living humans finally free of their dragon masters. They
were elated.
Two of the women had fallen at his feet, offering him all sorts
of things in the way of thank you. He’d politely thanked them. It might be
years, if ever, before some woman other than Amanda got his libido charged up. Maybe
it would be better to remain celibate permanently. That way he couldn’t be
responsible for getting any future lovers killed or taken away to endure hell
at the hands of a psychopathic lizard.
“What do we do to make that number higher? Save more
people?” Jane asked him.
He stared at her. “I have no idea. What do I look like? Some
kind of biologist? The anatomy of this is meaningless to me. If you get joined
to a dragon, it’s fifty-fifty whether or not you’ll make it out alive.”
“You’re so cold-sounding.” Jane sighed. “This isn’t you.”
“Maybe I’m traumatized.” He grinned and she stepped back.
“Or maybe I need to go to sleep. Let’s go with the latter for now.”
“Go home and rest.”
“That’s where I’m going.” He moved past her. What he had to
do, somehow, was to get the images he’d created of bringing Amanda home with
him out of his mind. He’d lived here before and been perfectly happy in his
life.
So why did it feel so empty now?
He finally reached his small home. The smell of burned toast
greeted his nose and he grinned. Steven must have tried to cook again. The boy
had the desire, just not the talent. Lily, on the other hand, could create
remarkable meals but couldn’t be trusted not to burn the place down when she
lit the match. They were not supposed to cook without him around.
But he’d been gone for days. The women had banded together
to watch them. That didn’t, however, mean that when the cat was away the mouse
didn’t play.
Or in this case, cook.
He opened the door and the kids rushed at him. Twelve years
old, they were getting tall. Lily jumped into his arms and he caught her. Steven
didn’t try to do that anymore but he really wanted to be rubbed on the head and
sometimes still hugged. This time his adopted son squeezed him hard.
“I heard you almost died.”
“Who told you that?” He set Lily down, keeping an arm around
her shoulders.
“I don’t know.” He shrugged. “People.”
Steven could pretend to be brave but Dean saw right through
his façade. “I didn’t almost die. I never came close to that. I promise.” He
sought and got Steven’s eye contact. “The dragons took me. But it’s okay. They
didn’t hurt me.”
Lily took his hand in hers, rubbing her finger over the
bandage. “They hurt you a little.”
He shook his head. “I did that to myself.”
Steven bit down on his lip. “Why would you do that?”
“That is a very long story.” He stood back up. “Have you
guys eaten?”
“Yes,” they answered in unison.
To him, they both looked like their biological father. Blonde
and blue-eyed, they had the same cheekbone structure that he’d had. Lily’s eyes
were catlike in their intensity and a light blue, whereas Steven had a rounder
gaze with darker blue irises. Lily’s hair flowed down her back. She refused to
cut it. Steven preferred to keep his shaved to his head.
They had been his lifeline for a while. He just hadn’t
realized it.
Amanda looked quite different. Darker, like her mom had
been. They didn’t look as if they were related. Yet the kids’ love for her told
of the time and care she’d given them when she should have been too young to do
so. They’d been so small when they’d come to him and still they could remember
her.
Loving Amanda would be something they’d share from now on.
Even if he couldn’t explain it to them like that.
“Look. Something did happen while I was gone. Something I
need to talk to you about.”
Steven sat down next to him. The little boy never missed a
trick. “Just tell us.”
Lily shoved her brother. “Don’t be rude.”
“Thanks, Lily.” He grinned. His mood had lightened since
he’d arrived back home to the kids. Some of the pressure on his shoulders
seemed to have disappeared.
“No problem, Dean.” She grinned so wide that he could see
she’d lost a tooth in the back.
“You aren’t going to have any teeth left soon. How will you
eat?”
“Get to the point,” Steven shouted. “Please.”
The added politeness tempered the rude outburst a bit. Still,
Dean had come to understand that anxiety fueled Steven’s bad moods. He didn’t
act obnoxiously unless something had scared him scared to the bone. Not that
Dean usually tolerated it.
That moment seemed made for exceptions.
“Look, there was someone else there with me. When I was with
the dragons. And I wasn’t able to save her.” He cleared his throat to keep from
crying. If he wept, the kids would never recover from the shock. “It was
someone you know.”
“Someone we know?” Sebastian looked at Lily. “Like who? All
the people here who the dragons take get eaten. That’s what dragons do.”