shift happens 03 - no were to run (12 page)

“Do you have a death wish?” he shot back with full laughter now coming from the occupants of the room.

“Some would say yes, but I would patently disagree,” I said coolly—apparently I was a little hasty with the
like
thing. “The only death I wish for is that of my father. Anymore questions?”

“Just one,” he said and crossed into my personal space.

His scent made me dizzy and I longed to either caress him or punch him—both would have satisfied. Although I was leaning toward the punch.

“Why do you have everything to lose? What is this
everything
you speak of?”

Me and my damn mouth. With a covert look at Seth, I raised my eyes to the man I couldn’t stand and who made me want things I would never have. “That’s for me to know and no one else to find out. Some secrets are meant to be kept, Nicolai. I’m quite sure you have some doozies.”

“Does your secret affect the lives of my people?” he demanded with narrowed eyes.

“Only in that it will make me fight harder for the end of the man who wants all of us destroyed. And that’s all any of you will ever need to know.”

With that, I turned to walk out of the room. I was done playing nice with Dragons. The faster my father was eliminated, the faster I could leave and never lay eyes on any of these people again.

“One more thing,
Princess
,” Nicolai said.

I ground my teeth at the repeated mention of my title and waited.

“Try not to kill Maria tonight. The Resistance can’t afford to lose too many.”

He raised an eyebrow and gave me a smirk that made me like him a little, not that he ever would know. I shrugged and gave him a mock salute.

“I’ll do my best, but that will depend on her, Asslump,” I replied as I turned on my heel and left.

The laughter and shocked gasps from the Dragons in the room were music to my ears—not to mention Nicolai’s indignant, furious grunt. But this was too difficult to keep up for long. My inner Dragon had ideas about Nicolai that were not going to happen in this lifetime—tamping her down was becoming increasingly exhausting. Not to mention constantly watching my back sucked.

Being around so many of my own kind was waking up my sexual appetites—it wasn’t Nicolai at all. Maybe I should find someone here to put out the fire. It might clear my head and make my inner Dragon shut the hell up. However, the best scenario was eliminating my father and getting out of here as quickly as possible before I did something stupid.

There were many reasons my being here was a bad idea…the very least of them was my attraction to the man who clearly hated me and I despised in return. They didn’t want me here and I didn’t want to be here, but I was practical enough to realize I needed them. They just had to realize they needed me as well.

My father’s downfall could not come soon enough.

***

“You probably shouldn’t kill her,” Lenny said as came from out of nowhere and caught up with my brisk pace.

It was almost sundown as I made my way to the outdoor training area of the compound. It was enormous, as we were Dragons after all and needed an absurd amount of space when we shifted. Lenny’s company was a welcome relief from my own jumbled thoughts.

Lenny shortened his stride. His legs were much longer than mine.

“Why’s that?” I asked. “She’s disrespectful and I’m losing ground here. I don’t have time to slowly earn trust. One quick beheading and I’m in,” I said half-joking half-not.

The thought was actually repugnant to me. In my long life, I’d only killed in self-defense or in defense of someone else. Sadly, I’d had to defend myself repeatedly over the years and I had become quite adept at ending lives. My father’s assassins were never far behind me. I realized early on that you didn’t have to like something to be good at it.

“You’ll be sorry,” Lenny said.

“Lenny, the cryptic stuff isn’t really working for me. If you’ve got a point, then get to it. I would hazard a guess that Maria is going to go for the kill. I’d also guess that she’s a sloppy and easily distracted fighter by the way she conducts herself in life. She’s also stupid.”

“Really?” Lenny asked with a slight grin.

“Yep. She’s stupid because she’s fighting me over a man. A man I don’t want—a man who utterly disgusts me. She could die because of petty jealously. Men are simply not worth dying for.”

“All men?” he asked, pulling me to a halt and making direct eye contact.

My stomach lurched as I wondered what he meant. Did he know about Daniel? He had powers I couldn’t even begin to explain—could he read minds? I stared back evenly and considered my words carefully.

“There is one male I would die for. I’d die for him happily,” I said holding his gaze. “Is that the answer you were looking for?”

“It is,” he replied with a knowing smile.

“It’s not Nicolai,” I blurted, then smacked myself in the head and quickly resumed walking. Oh my God. Where in the hell did that come from?

Lenny chuckled, nodded and kept pace next to me. “No one knows what the future will hold.”

“Lenny you’re kind of a walking nightmare and you’re starting to ride my nerves.”

“Yes, well, I’m good like that,” he replied. “But back to the matter at hand. Don’t kill Maria.”

“Is that all I’m going to get here?” Frustrated didn’t begin to cover my feelings. I was almost ready to have a go at Lenny.

“Do you want more?”

“It might be a bit helpful,” I snapped sarcastically as he tried to suppress a grin.

He failed.

“She’s your niece.”

He watched my horrified reaction for a brief moment and then vanished into thin air.

WTH?

Maria the leggy, rude, blonde pain in my ass who wanted to bang Nicolai was my niece? What were the odds of that? One of my brothers had a child? They were certainly of age to have mated when they were murdered, but wouldn’t I have known about it?

Was Lenny full of shit?

Could my life get anymore complicated?

Actually, it would be easy to tell if Lenny was lying. I just needed to see Maria’s mark. If the Warlock Dragon was telling the truth, it would match mine and Daniel’s.

If Lenny lied, it wouldn’t.

Chapter 9

God, she was stupid. Instead of readying herself for a fight that could potentially end her life, Maria was busy sucking up to Nicolai. If she was truly my relation, I prayed there weren’t more of her.

The outdoor training area was well maintained and the covered bunkers that flanked the fields were stocked with weapons. The Resistance was definitely trained and prepared, but taking on a regime that had been around for at least a thousand years was no simple matter.

If I had to guess, I’d say all two hundred Dragons had come out to observe the match. This was going to be tricky. If Maria was my niece I wouldn’t fight her. I couldn’t.

There was one sure way to find out.

Without breaking or slowing my pace, I walked right up to the wildly inappropriate flirt-fest and grabbed Maria by the hair. Deciding to ignore my reaction to seeing Nicolai flirting with another woman, I focused on the tall blonde that might or might not be related to me. Nicolai was not mine and I didn’t want him. I’d deal with my own stupidity later—or maybe never. Ignoring my underused girly parts was probably the safest way to go.

Taking Maria to the ground was simple. Holding her squirming body—not so much.

“Excuse me,” I said politely to the gathering Dragons. “I have to check something before the showdown.”

“Get off of me, bitch,” she screamed as I put my knee on her spine to incapacitate her.

Damn she was strong.

“In a minute, sweetheart,” I growled as I moved her hair aside to examine the base of her neck.

My vision narrowed to almost darkness as I stared at the mark of my family clearly embedded in her skin. I gasped and rolled off of her as I tried not to throw up. How was this possible? How was I unaware that one of my brothers had fathered a child?

In my shock, I didn’t even see her coming. The blow to my head was impressive, but I didn’t have time to deal with a headache or getting busted on by a woman I had no intention of fighting. I should have been protecting her my entire life. I wasn’t about to spill her blood.

However, she wasn’t on the same page.

She ran at me like a freight train from hell. She was sloppy and unfocused, just as I’d suspected. Who in the hell trained her to fight? She was a hot mess. Watching her, I was surprised she’d lived as long as she had.

With ease I moved to my right and stuck my foot out. She went tumbling like a mini tornado clear across the ring. I was going to have to educate this Dragon on how to defend herself.

“Enough,” I shouted and willed crystal pink flames to burst from my hands and upper body much to her shock and the shock of the Dragons hoping for a bloody fight.

Maria stood several yards away, literally frothing at the mouth—highly unattractive.

“What’s the matter?” she screamed, clearly furious and embarrassed, but thankfully not completely daft enough to run toward the deadly fire flowing out of me. “Are you afraid of me?”

“Hardly,” I shot back as I searched for a resemblance to my long dead brothers. “Who is your father?”

The Dragons, very confused, began to murmur unhappily amongst themselves. They were primed for a bloodbath and it wasn’t happening.

“None of your fucking business,” she spat.

“Filthy language is not necessary,” I hissed. Maria needed to learn some damn manners. “Don’t make me repeat myself.”

“I don’t have to tell you anything,” she shouted.

“Name your father,” Nicolai demanded as he stepped up and stood next to me.

Startled that he’d taken my side I let the deadly flame recede a bit so I didn’t blow him to Kingdom Come. That wouldn’t go over well at all.

“What are you doing?” I hissed quietly, wondering if he was going to try to take me out.

“I’m not sure,” he said with a half smirk and a shrug. “Call it Dragon intuition, but for the moment, I’m with you. And the pink fire is kind of hot.”

Before I could process if Nicolai was making fun of me or hitting on me, Lenny poofed in from out of nowhere much to the delight of the antsy Dragons.

“You heard your leaders,” Lenny stated with an eerie calm. The crowd hushed. Clearly they never heard him speak much either—or maybe it was fact that he’d referred me as their leader along with Nicolai. “Name your father.”

The silence was long as I watched Maria struggle with the turn of events. Part of me wanted to take her in my arms, but that would be as welcome as death to her at the moment.

“I don’t know,” she whispered harshly. “I don’t know who my father is.”

“You mother?” I questioned.

She eyed me with hatred and looked to Nicolai who nodded curtly.

“My mother was Christina.”

My fire receded completely and I dropped to my knees.

“How old are you?” I choked out as I realized which of my brothers she resembled.

“I’m 485,” she said, now watching me strangely.

She was the daughter of my brother Sean. He’d loved Christina with a passion, but refused to mate and have children because of my father’s deadly wrath—or so I’d thought.

“You said was. Is your mother alive?” I asked already knowing the answer.

“No,” she hissed, furious again. “My mother was murdered by
your
father when I was a child.”

“Shall I rephrase that last sentence for you?” I asked as I got back to my feet and pushed the nausea I felt aside.

“You make no sense,” Maria snapped. She was ready to go at me again now that my flames were gone.

I didn’t blame her. When she heard what I had to say next, she was going to burst into flames.

“You mother was killed by your grandfather and your father was my brother, Sean,” I said flatly, waiting for a tirade of swearing from her or at the very least a spear of fire aimed at my head.

No such tirade came. Maria said nothing as her eyes rolled back in her head and she passed out cold on the ground.

Again I didn’t blame her.

Our family lineage sucked.

“Well that certainly answers a few questions,” Nicolai said as he snapped his fingers and several Dragons ran to attend to the unconscious Maria.

I wanted to go to her as well, but knew my welcome would be iffy.

“Her marking has always confounded me,” he said as he lifted my hair and examined my neck.

Little shocks of heated desire shot though me at the touch of his warm fingers on my skin. Roughly I pulled away and turned to face him.

“I suppose you’ve been all up in Maria’s neck,” I snapped and then closed my eyes and pinched the bridge of my nose hoping everyone would disappear if I couldn’t see them. I sounded like a jealous lover. This was all kinds of inappropriate and unprofessional.

“No,” Nicolai said with a grin that made him ungodly beautiful. “All of my people’s markings are known to me. Unfortunately the only neck I
want all up in
right now is yours,” he added under his breath.