The Dragon's Heart (Dragon Lore) (12 page)

“Hey,” she murmured, her hands sliding gently over the tense muscles in his back. “I’m here. Where did you go?”

He drew in a shuddering breath as he buried his face in her hair. “Doesn’t matter,” he rasped hoarsely. “Just keep talking to me, Shel, please. Chase away the demons.”

“Okay.” She shifted as much as she was able with his fierce grip on her. Moving in, she wrapped her arms as tight around his torso as she could get them. “You’re shaking, Daniel,” she whispered, dropping her chin on his chest. “Everything’s alright–everything’s okay. We’re safe. Luca’s still here, and nothing happened. We’re safe.”

* * * *

Daniel closed his eyes and dropped his head against hers as he continued to take in huge gulps of air. He couldn’t get his body to stop trembling. Worse, he couldn’t get himself to let her go.

Nothing he’d ever done scared him like coming back to reality and finding himself strangling the life out of Shelby. “You shouldn’t be touching me.”

To her credit, she didn’t even blink at the harshness of his voice. She lifted her hands to his face, holding it gently, her gaze locked on his. “You didn’t hurt me.”

The pad of his thumb traced a drop of blood down the side of her throat where his talon had bit into her. “Bullshit.”

Instead of responding, she searched his eyes for answers he would not give her. “Where did you go?” she asked again quietly.

“I don’t know,” he lied. She didn’t need to know what he dreamed about when he slept. He forced himself to let go of her and put as much distance between them as he could make himself. He would not think about her taking care of him. “Did I say anything?”

“Yeah.” Her voice wobbled slightly as she stepped back until she was leaning against the wall. “At first, all I heard was this low tortured growling. I thought you were hurt, but you were still sleeping.” Her gaze scanned his face as she took in a deep breath. “You said a name. Leanora.”

He methodically started closing down his emotions. He would not allow her to follow him into his nightmares. “We should call Seren, have her check out your throat.”

“I’m fine.” Her expression determined, she crossed arms over her chest. “Who’s Leanora, Daniel?”

“No one.”

When she inhaled slowly, he had the distinct feeling his little warrior was preparing herself for battle. “Daniel, you were trying to kill her in your sleep.”

“We’re not talking about this, princess,” he ground out. “Just forget it.”

“No.” He turned his back on her and headed toward the main area of the house.

“I’m your mate.”

He stopped dead in his tracks as his head started to ache. “No, princess.” He stalked back to her and bent forward, sticking his face in hers as he bared his teeth. “You don’t get to play that card whenever you don’t get your way.”

She went up on her toes and pointed her finger in his face. “Too bad, because it’s exactly what I’m doing. Who’s Leanora, and what did she do to you?”

Confusion rippled through Daniel as he straightened, trying to figure out what game she was playing. She wasn’t screaming because he’d hurt her, or throwing a tantrum about how dangerous he was. Fucking hell. The one thing he didn’t know how to build defenses against was how much she seemed to care about him
.

She quirked a brow at him. “I’m waiting.”

He sighed. “It’s a long story, Shelby, and it has no place in your perfect little life.”

“So.” The temper in her eyes faded slightly as she offered him a hesitant smile. “We’ve got time, right?”

He pointed at her. “Fine, but I want you to eat while I tell you.”

“You’re hoping I will get distracted.”

The woman loved to eat, so it was a perfect way to distract her. He figured it was obvious enough he didn’t need to respond. Instead, he wrapped his hand around hers, tugging her toward the kitchen. She settled herself on a stool, pulling her legs up to her chest. “Okay.” She dropped her chin on her knees and waited. “I’m listening.”

He walked over and stared out the wall of windows into the darkness before he let out a disgusted sound and scrubbed both hands over his face.

“Fine,” he snapped, “but I expect full disclosure from you, too, got it? I mean it, Shelby.”

She hugged her knees closer to her chest as fear flickered over her beautiful face. “I don’t know who shot me, Daniel.” Her teeth worried at her bottom lip, before she shook her head, helplessness flashing in her eyes. “I don’t know who would want me dead.”

Gods help him, he believed her.

“A little over two thousand years ago…” His words trailed off when she let out a strangled sound. “Yes, I am that old.”

She gave him a cheesy grin. “Ok, I’ll wrap my head around it eventually. Please continue.”

He waited a beat before he continued. “A long time ago, a woman named Leanora enchanted me. She was human and wanted immortality, which I refused to give. It would have meant mating to her for eternity. By the time I realized something was wrong, it was too late. The damage had been done.”

“What damage?” she asked, softly.

“I’d turned on my kind, those I’d sworn to protect, and almost destroyed an entire village.”

Her eyes went wide. “Almost?”

“Yeah.” His jaw worked for a moment, before he bounced his shoulders in a restless shrug. “Almost. I still don’t know what stopped me, but I suddenly realized I wasn’t myself. My thoughts weren’t my own. My punishment for disobeying her wishes was pain. A dungeon too small for my human size, let alone a dragon.”

He watched the blood drain out of her face, her small hands clenching into fists. “How did she manage to imprison you?”

He shrugged again, deliberately keeping his face impassive. Talking about it was one thing. He couldn’t control his nightmares, but he would not give the bitch the satisfaction of reliving the sensation of being caged ever again. “My blood. I don’t know how she got a hold of it.”

She let out a soft sound before she slid off the chair. She moved around the island to stand in front of him. “You were locked up in your dragon form?”

“Yes.”

Her hand came up to rest against his chest. For some reason, he found the touch soothing. “For how long?”

“I lost count after about six months.” He held his arm out and let the glamour spell drop. Suddenly, where his perfect shoulder had been was a melted mess. His gaze met hers, probing. “I spent months chained in a damp dungeon beneath a frozen lake.”

She slapped her hand over her mouth when a strangled sound escaped her. “Water did that?”

“It’s amazing what a steady stream of ice water can do to even dragon scales.”

He expected her to be horrified, and part of him had hoped the sight of his arm as it really was would disgust her enough to rethink wanting him. But instead of running away in revulsion, or feeling sorry for him, she moved in between his spread legs. She slipped one hand into his much larger one, linking their fingers together. She rested her head against his chest as the fingers of her other hand traced feather-light over the damage of his ruined arm. “How did you get out?”

He was helpless to stop his fingers from tightening around hers.
Ryuu,
what the hell was she doing to him? “She came for me. She thought time would have weakened me, and that I’d succumb to her advances.”

“You killed her.”

Because it wasn’t a question, he only jerked his head in a quick nod. “She was a danger to my people.”

“She betrayed you,” she whispered, her voice soft and fierce at the same time. “She imprisoned you and she tortured you. Anyone else would have broken, but you were still stronger than her.”

He didn’t say anything for a long moment, before he slowly lowered his head and rested it against hers. “I don’t need you to make this better for me, princess.”

She let out a tear-filled snort. “Maybe I’m making me feel better since I can’t hunt her down and kill her myself for hurting you.” Like a light bulb going off in her head, he saw her put the pieces together. “You…you think I set you up to be killed that night?” Her eyes widened as she jammed her finger into his gut. “Oh my God, you do.”

He opened his mouth to say yes. It made sense. Leave it to him to fall for, and bind himself for eternity, to someone who wanted him dead. He wanted to rage at her, to blame her for everything. Anything to help her hate him, to stop taking care of him and make him want things he was never going to have.

“You–”

“What?” he finally demanded as he leaned down and growled at her when all she managed was a stutter. He deliberately put enough power behind the sound to rattle the window behind him. “Go ahead, princess. Let me hear how innocent you are. How you would never, ever do anything like set me up to die.”

He wanted her to deny it. He wanted to believe she was lying. The woman was a mind-fuck in every sense of the word, and he needed the mess in his head to go away. He had to trust his instincts, and if he’d been wrong, if he’d let emotions cloud his thinking, he was to blame for everything that had happened to her for the last year.

He yanked his hand free before she could say anything. “Never mind. I don’t want to hear it.”

He walked over to where Luca was sprawled on the couch. “Do not let her out of this apartment. Do not let her follow me. Do not let her near a computer or television, and do not put a fucking phone in her hand.”

Luca’s voice was bland when he asked. “Where are you going?”

“Out.” He turned, determined to get as far away from Shelby as he could, only to damn near plow her down. He bared his teeth at her. He didn’t want to hear whatever she wanted to say. What he needed was to get the hell away from her.

Without a word he stalked to the elevator and got in, leaving her standing there, staring after him.

* * * *

“Let him go,” Luca said when she started to follow Daniel. “He’ll work this out on his own eventually.”

Shelby went still as she tried to process what he was saying, before she slowly turned to face him. “So in the meantime, you’re suggesting I just let him continue to live with this hell in his head?” She shoved past him as angry tears blurred her vision. “Not. Happening.” She stopped and swung around to growl at him. “You’re supposed to be his friend. Why haven’t you helped him?”

Real confusion flickered over his face. “We’re dragons. We don’t have friends.”

Her chest physically hurt, more than just the emotional ache she’d lived with for the last eleven months. She spun on her heels and stalked off to the kitchen, muttering under her breath. He came up behind her, hooking his arm around her waist just as she reached for a butcher knife.

His hand caught her wrist as he hauled her back against his front. He leaned down, growling in her ear. “Now, now, Blondie. You don’t want to do that.”

She slammed her heel backward, catching him in the shin. “The hell I don’t.” She vibrated with fury. “Let me go, Luca, or I swear I will find a way to hurt you.”

He did as she commanded and stepped back, his stance lazy as he leaned back against the island, but she didn’t miss the anger in his eyes.

Too freaking bad. Fury blurred her vision. “He’s been living with this for two thousand years, then, on top of it, he saves my life while believing I tried to have him killed. And your brilliant response is to just let him work it out on his own?”

“Yes. Have you ever tried to help him work something out he wasn’t ready to work out?”

“We have a problem–” Daniel’s words cut off as the elevator doors slid closed. She actually growled at him when he plucked the knife out of her hand before she could succeed in throwing it at Luca’s head. “What the hell is going on here?” he roared.

“Nothing.” Shelby crossed her arms over her chest, tapping her foot as she frowned at Luca. “Just give me back the knife, Daniel, and walk away. I’ll deal with you in a second.”

10

Worried about the fury in her eyes, Daniel hooked his arm around Shelby’s waist and lifted her off her feet. Ignoring her snarls and struggles, he pointed at Luca to warn him against opening his mouth, and carried Shelby to the bedroom area. He set her on her feet, deliberately keeping his enormous self in her path when she would have darted past him to finish what she’d started.