shift happens 03 - no were to run (28 page)

Chapter 25

“This is bullshit,” Nicolai shouted as he strode purposefully across the large room, planted himself in the far right corner and glared at me menacingly. “I’m in charge here and I do not accept these ludicrous terms.”

“Dima, I’d suggest you control your
mate
,” my father hissed with deranged glee, most likely hoping we would kill each other and save him some time.

“Screw you,” I shouted at Nicolai as the Dragons began to mutter in confusion. “You are a lowly common Dragon. I’m a Princess. You will bow down to me, you stupid man. You’re pathetic and your Dragon is an embarrassment.”

Smoke began to waft around the room as the Dragons tried to figure out which side they were supposed to be on. Only Lenny and Seth were calm and smiling.

“You want to see an embarrassment?” Nicolai roared. “I’ll show your spoiled Princess ass
embarrassment
!”

I held my breath and couldn’t believe he was going to do it. When I’d said big, he’d taken me at my word.

“I’ll give you to the count of three to take back all you have said,” Nicolai growled and bared his teeth.

I simply flipped him my middle finger.

My father sat down on his throne to watch the impending violence play out. He was safe behind his fire wall no matter what happened on our side. His smile was rabid and his position could not have been better.

“One,” Nicolai ground out through clenched teeth as small fires broke out all around him. “Two…three.”

And then he did it.

My glorious mate shifted into his big, beautiful, deadly Dragon and completely blew out the palace wall. Brick, glass and plaster crashed to the ground like a tornado had ripped through the building. It was magnificent and all kinds of perfect. It was the mother of all diversions.

As Nicolai’s Dragon roared and sprayed fire I closed my eyes and transported directly behind the throne. I’d traversed the magic fire wall without walking through it. The pain was intense, but I’d made it through and come out in one piece. In the chaos, my movement went unnoticed. My ego wanted my father to see me before I ended him, but pride would be my downfall.

It didn’t matter if he ever knew…it was enough that I would.

With strength honed through my years of having to fight for my life, I clamped my hands around his throat and squeezed—gouging my fingers deeply into the arteries to halt the blood flow. It wouldn’t kill him, but it would make what I was going to do far easier. I knew this macabre fact because I’d done it before.

I prayed I would never have to do it again.

The chaos and noise in the room seemed to disappear. My heartbeat thundered in my ears and all I could see was the back of my father’s head. All I could feel was the frantic pulse in his neck as he tried to pry my grip open. The movie of my family’s brutal death replayed over and over like a broken reel that would never end. I saw a girl who resembled Nicolai and Seth being skinned alive and I visualized all of the horrors Lenny had endured.

Faces I didn’t recognize joined the ones I did and with sickening clarity, I understood that by touching my father I could see his sins. Blood, terror, greed and power bathed my mind and the only thing I wanted to do was run. But I would never run again and neither would anyone that I loved.

The scream that left my body was horrifying—completely animalistic and straight from the darkest part of my soul. Using my feet to brace myself and the love I’d found to guide me, I did what I did best.

I killed him.

I jerked my father’s head back over the jagged, ornate wooden carvings of his precious throne and twisted it with a violent white hot rage. With an ease that ashamed me, I tore his head from his shoulders. I let the bloody mess carelessly fall to the ground with a thud at my feet. The top half of him fell forward on his throne and slowly began to turn to ash. The King’s decapitated body emitted small puffs of acrid black smoke as he disintegrated before my eyes and the wall of fire splashed to the ground and dispersed with his last breath.

I was finally free.

I felt nothing. No joy at his death—no sadness. There was no regret. I searched my soul for guilt and I found none. He’d been nothing to me for so long that his death—even at my own hands—was nothing as well.

Maybe the adrenaline hadn’t worn off. Maybe one day I would feel remorse, but somehow I didn’t think so.

An enormous velvety Dragon nose gently pushed at my stiff body and Nicolai huffed. “You’re done now, my love. It’s time to go home.”

I laid my head on his powerful body and ran my hands over his smooth jet-black scales. This day would not have come without him and the others. My goal would have never been accomplished on my own.

“We did it,” I whispered as tears filled my eyes. “He’s gone.”

“You did it,” Nicolai said as black and silver smoke wafted down and wrapped a warm cocoon around my exhausted body.

“No.
We
did it,” I stated firmly as I finally glanced out at what was left of our people.

They had gone to their knees for me. It was humbling…and it was all wrong.

“No,” I called out. “Stand. We bow no more.”

But they didn’t listen. They began to chant my name along with Nicolai’s. I would tackle the prostrating problem later. Right now there were four people I needed to touch.

Easing down to the floor I took the nearly lifeless body of my mother gently into my arms. Lenny ran forward as did Elaina, Seth and Maria.

“Hi, Mamma,” I whispered into her tangled and matted hair.

Even through the years of degradation and filth, her delicate floral scent still remained. I breathed her in and my soul calmed. She was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen. My brothers were being lovingly attended to. I would go to them next.

“I’m going to take care of you now. You will never have to live like an animal again,” I promised her as tears rolled down my cheeks and splashed on her parched and cracking lips.

“Dima,” she said so softly, I wasn’t sure she’d spoken. “My daughter.” Her smile was weak and her heartbeat even weaker.

I glanced up as I heard a ruckus in the back of the room and saw the Cows. All eight of them were primed and ready—top half, dressed and bottom half, naked. I couldn’t believe I was capable of laughter after what I’d just done, but I was. Fate was kind and God was good. Only after Cade, who thankfully was still alive, explained what had gone down did the gals pull up their pants.

“Well, I guess they
are
girls,” Nicolai said with a grimace and chuckle. He was back in his human form. He sat down beside me and wrapped his strong arms around both my mother and me. “And I think I need some eye bleach.”

“I told you,” I said as I tried to bite back my laugh. The Cows did not deserve our laughter. They’d been instrumental in our victory…but it was damn hard when they entered pants-less en masse.

My mother had fallen asleep in my arms with a contented smile on her lips and I carefully brushed her hair from her gaunt face.

“Nicolai, we have to take my family somewhere to heal. There’s no way they can shift and fly. Should we drive? I’m worried about them being able to hold on if they fly on our backs.”

My brothers were in as bad shape as my mother if not worse. Maria cradled her father Sean in her arms and rocked him like a baby. Her tears flowed and her smile was blinding.

“My name is Maria,” she whispered as the broken man in her arms reached up and touched her beautiful face. “I’m your daughter.”

The guttural sound that came from my brother’s lips went straight to my heart and pierced it with deadly accuracy. The thought of not knowing about Daniel or losing him was far more than I could ever endure. My anger welled up again as I thought of all the lost years that my brother could have protected and loved his daughter. I thought of the desolation I’d suffered and the fear I’d lived with for hundreds of years. How much I had mourned my family…

Little sparks burst out on my skin and I closed my eyes tight to rein in my fury.

“It doesn’t matter anymore,” Lenny said quietly as he knelt down beside me. “It’s over and we can’t get the time back.” He caressed my sleeping mother’s face lovingly. “Do not let him win in death as he won in life.”

“You knew he had them?” I asked.

“I suspected, but like you I had to give up hope after a time.” He let his face fall to his hands and he sobbed.

I touched my grandfather gently. He leaned into me and pressed his forehead to mine. My mother rested quietly between us.

“You’ve got your hoard back,” I whispered.

“No, my dear granddaughter. I already had my hoard.”

“You did?” I asked, confused.

“I did.” He nodded and kissed my cheek. “You, Daniel and Maria are my hoard. There is nothing more precious to me in the world. Now my hoard is bigger. And that blessing, my child, is because of you.”

Emotion clogged my throat and I realized my hoard had grown as well. My hoard was now quite large and continued to increase. Luck had played no role in my life thus far so I had to believe this was fate—and that she was smiling down on me with love.

“You knew this would happen?” I asked, still confused.

“Seth had a vision and shared it with me when Nicolai rescued me all those years ago,” Lenny said.

“What was it? Was it specific?”

“Not to him, but it was to me.”

I waited as my grandfather gathered himself. “Are you sure you want to hear it?”

“Um…I don’t know. Do I?” Today had been long, I wasn’t sure if I could take anymore revelations.

“You do. After today, you are ready to hear it,” Lenny said as he held out his arms for my mother.

He lifted her as carefully as if she was spun glass and pressed his shaking lips to her forehead. She was his daughter and his love for her moved me back to tears.

“The prophecy goes like this,” Seth said as he stood behind the quietly weeping Lenny. “I saw that one day Lenny would get his hoard back. It wasn’t clear to me exactly what the hoard was, but I knew it was meant to be.”

“Is there more?”

“Tell her,” Lenny said as Seth hesitated.

“Yes, tell her,” Nicolai said. “I want to hear this too.”

“I told him he had to wait for the true Dragon Queen,” Seth said and then paused.

My gut clenched as I waited. I was pretty sure I didn’t want to hear the rest of it.

“And?” Nicolai prompted his brother. “Out with it.”

Unfortunately, everyone was interested now, including the Cows and the Vamps. The mood was somber as they gathered our dead, but they were all clear something rather large was about to go down.

Seth cleared his throat and winked at me. “I knew the moment I saw you Dima. I’d been searching for you for decades,” he said.

“Knew what?” Nicolai was impatient now—nothing new…

“The true Dragon Queen will wear the mark of the Royal Dragon line. She will link the nations and by her side will stand the most powerful Dragon of them all. Together they will lead us to prosperity and peace.” Seth finished with a smile as all the Dragons and even the Cows and their Vamps went to their knees and bowed their heads.

Oh. Shit. No.

“You must have deciphered that one incorrectly,” I insisted as I jumped to my feet in agitation.

I didn’t want to rule anyone. Ever. Monarchies were antiquated bullshit. Look at what my father had done with it. My God, I had a preschooler and a mate—which was somewhat the same thing as far as care went. I didn’t have time to rule a nation of violent freaks that were hated by every other Were species alive. This was
not
in my future plans. I needed a damned vacation, not a list of responsibilities and a crown.

Frantically, I glanced around the room and wanted to scream. They were nuts to want me. I was grossly under qualified. I’d been away from my people for centuries. And then I saw Pat—face on the floor and hand in the air.

“Do you have a question Pat?” I asked cautiously. I never knew what was going to come out of the Cows’ mouths.

“I do,” she said but it came out all muffled because she was still face planted. “Can I rise, Your Majesty?”

I rolled my eyes and wanted to punch something, but the sooner we got the questions over with the sooner I could explain why this was not going to work for me—or them.

“Yes,” I said reluctantly as I watched Nicolai grin at me like an idiot.

“I’d just like to put something out there as a possibility,” Pat said. “We had a little pow-wow outside after we ripped the air sharts and offed the guards.”

Oh my God, this was going to be bad…

“Since we don’t actually have a population anymore and we’re all mated to dead guys that don’t have little swimmers and can’t reproduce, we were just thinking maybe we could become part of the Dragons,” she said as she gave me an awkward bow and then promptly face planted back to the floor next to her sisters.

“Sweet Jesus,” Nicolai muttered under his breath as he successfully bit back his laughter—barely.

“Okay, everybody get up. This is making me very uncomfortable having to think while all of your asses are in the air,” I said as I began to pace.