Dangerous Lovers (223 page)

I knew that he wasn’t ashamed of who he was, of who his true mate was. True mates were rare yet always were treated as a treasure. I knew that for some paranormals it was as easy as looking at their true mate to know, others it was a little more difficult. Instincts took over when one found their true mates.

Drake sat slumped a little. I couldn’t be sure if it was because it took him so long to accept it, or he still hadn’t fully accepted it.

“The only way a dragon spirit will back off is in the presence of their true mate. I knew that I couldn’t always be around Xavier since I had to find my…” He paused looking again at his mate. “Our daughter.”

“Drake made the difficult decision to do it, what we hadn’t planned on was that fact that our hearts now can’t be separated for more than a couple of months at a time.”

“It made looking for Audrey difficult.”

We were silent for a while.

“Were you planning on telling her?” I didn’t know how to feel. I still felt anger toward the man who scarred and abandoned his daughter. But looking at him now, telling me this story, I could see that he was mortified by what he had done.

“We were. Tonight. We wanted to let her get used to me. She still seems too uncomfortable.” Xavier watched me with dark eyes.

“Do you know what happened to her?” Drake asked his voice sounding so strained and broken.

“Yes.” I answered unemotionally.

“Could…could you tell us?” Drake asked again sounding like he was trying to be careful. It was strange seeing this overbearing dragon act so tame and nervous.

“No.” I answered, turning my own cold eyes on Drake. “She will tell you when she is ready. If ever.”

• • •

I didn’t find Audrey in the room after I left the meeting so I went back to her room to wait for her. When she came back, her eyes were red and puffy. I pulled her close and she cried some more. I tried asking her what was wrong. I knew already. Audrey had finally talked to Nixie. Nixie hated the York Clan for years for what they had done to her father. What she thought they had done. It reminded me of what Drake and York had said about the uncover team in the Braden clan. I wondered who was on that team. While I held Audrey, I wondered if I should tell Nixie about it.

“Audrey…” She looked up at me, her destroyed eye even redder than normal, and her good eye completely blood shot. “I will tell your father and York that we will hold off on dinner with them tonight.” I kissed her forehead and went to go find Drake and York.

Leaving the room my body felt tight, uncomfortable. I didn’t know why, but I assumed it was because I hadn’t changed into an animal form for a while.

Heading toward the kitchen I felt pins in my neck and tried to rub them away. The building seemed eerily quiet but it also seemed emptier than when we first arrived. Most likely York’s doing. Until we gave him a definite answer he probably wanted to keep our knowledge limited. If we decided on the Braden clan, the witch who had attacked Elijah that night at the cabin would likely erase our memories of this place and replace them with something else. But the less details we knew, the easier it was for the witch to erase.

While I mused on these thoughts I didn’t realize how far I had gotten. The kitchen was on the other side of the building from the rooms which was inconvenient, but I figured it was also because we were in the guest rooms. The glorified prison rooms really. I didn’t complain because it was better than being in the dungeon far away from Audrey. I thought about our night together, and it was hard to believe how it was only a short while ago. I could still feel her skin, taste her, and unfortunately my body remembered just as well. I wanted to get back to her as soon as possible. I wasn’t sure if she would be up for anything tonight. The encounter with Nixie seemed to leave her pretty exhausted.

I’d almost reached the kitchen when, with no warning, lights started to flash and a piercing shriek rented the air. I looked around, waiting to see what would happen next. Then it hit me, the alarms were going off meant that someone was trying to break in. The kitchen door slammed open. Drake stood there chest heaving.

“Audrey,” I whispered. I turned and ran as fast as I could, my skin melting away into the form of a cheetah. I heard Drake running behind me, but I was losing him. I didn’t care. I needed to get to her.

When I got to the room, the door was kicked down. She wasn’t there. The reeking stench of fear clouded the air. Her fear. I recognized some of the other scents. I didn’t waste any time, I ran. I thought my heart was going to punch out of my chest.

The smell brought me to Drake’s room. I burst through the broken doors only to see a black clad figure holding an unconscious Audrey over its shoulder. A cord connected them to the helicopter hovering above the broken glass dome. They were already half way in the air being pulled up. All I could see, all I could process was Audrey being taken from me. I shifted forms again.

I turned into a massive eagle and took flight. Something struck me in the neck. I fell back to the ground falling on my wing, breaking it. I shifted back to my human form trying to repair my broken arm. Everything felt slow. I couldn’t command my body to do anything. My last sight was of my Audrey disappearing into the night sky.

Chapter Forty-One

Audrey

When Stone left, I was desperate to go after him, but it wasn’t because I didn’t feel like I couldn’t be without him. I felt a weird restlessness. I rolled over and closed my eyes, listening to the light taps of Stone’s feet retreating. Then, there was another noise. Not matter how hard I tried to concentrate I couldn’t figure out what the noise was. When I did, the door crashed in.

I tried screaming for Stone, but before I could finish getting his name out, a body slammed into mine, crushing me. I grunted trying to push the body off, but I couldn’t get enough leverage; it was too heavy.

My eyes grew wide seeing the syringe that the person held. “Help! Nixie! El-” A hard slap cut off my screams. My teeth had cracked together so hard that I was sure they were all chipped. Hot tears flooded my eyes, doing nothing but irritating the already burning skin.

Nixie’s scream tore through the air. “Oh my fucking Gods! Eli-” I wrenched myself up enough to see Nixie. Something pinched my skin and the world started to go fuzzy.

"Nix…” The world went black. I had never been so afraid of the darkness before.

• • •

My wrists were cold. Not only were my wrists cold, but my whole body shivered at once. I shivered a great powerful shake that forced my eyes to a dark grey world. Rock surrounded me. I was in a small cave-like room, a barred caged made of metal was the door. Memories shook my body until my whimpers echoed off the walls. I tried to bring my arms in closer. I couldn’t. I couldn’t get smaller. My arms were chained to the wall. I was open. I was so very open. The world was so cold around me. Rocks pressed into my back. My heart beat so hard it threatened to break free and run away without me. My breath hitched. I started to pull, I needed to become small. I needed to be small. Small meant less to hit. Small meant less to notice. Small. Small. Small. I looked around. There. Cracks.

One. Two. Three. Four. A sound distracted me. No, don’t stop. Ten. Eleven. It grew closer, a dragging of metal on metal. It’s a sharp piercing noise to the ears. Twenty-four. Please make it stop. Please make it stop. My eyes lost their place. Start over. The noise was overwhelming. Don’t look. Please, please, please don’t look. I looked.

Standing in the doorway was a beautiful blonde man. His downcast eyes were hidden behind a fall of hair. He was large, bigger than me. Fear was running through my body so intensely I was amazed it wasn't oozing against the fear coated walls, feeding them. He looked up as soon as the door made a click.

Horrid, beautiful eyes stared back at me. Such a strange hazel color, rings of light brown, green, and grey. All separate, but connected. The hatred, the cold unfeeling colors behind them made me cringe into the wall. It was safer. I wanted to be part of the wall. His feet slammed and echoed around the room as he approached.

“Right where you belong.”

His smooth, inviting voice terrified me. I swallowed. He watched. He gripped my neck in his hand pressing lightly. He cocked his head, watching for my reaction. I forced my face blank. Blank like Stone’s. Stone. I would think of him and find strength. He thought I was much braver than I actually was. I was scared that he would notice one day. That day he would no longer look at me with those sunset eyes. I had to prove him right. I had to prove that I was brave.

“I wanted you dead.” His lips curled into a snarl.

“And yet, I breathe.” Did I just say that? How was my voice so strong? His hand tightened. I felt that. I felt each finger press just a little tighter into my skin.

“Yes, because I ordered it to be so. If I wanted you dead, you would be. Yet, I find myself wondering why three of my best agents are leaving their clan for you. And better yet, my little treasure, will bring an even better hoard my way. I will be the one who destroys the dragons, once and for all.”

“You’re Cain.” The Braden clan leader. His smile confirmed it.

“Ah, yes I did forget to introduce myself. I suppose it would be considered bad manners but seeing as you will be dead soon, I will not fret over it. Now, tell me Audrey…how did you manage to get a wraith on your side? That is what I am the most curious about.” He pressed his mouth to my ear. He was uncomfortably close. His other hand moved on my body in ways that only Stone could do without making me feel ill. I squirmed my legs trying to move away from his touch. He gripped my neck tighter. I couldn’t breathe.

“Oh, quit your moving. I don’t want you. I was just wondering if you offered your body to the wraith. I think he would have feasted quite nicely on your fear. You reek of it.”

His words bit into me. I still couldn’t breathe. I was gasping now, desperately wanting air. Not to feel relief for my lungs because I realized that I wanted to live. For the first time in a very long time, I felt the need to survive. He let go as soon as the darkness started to sink in.

“If you won’t talk, then you will simply be destroyed.” With that, Cain turned on his heel and walked away. The door remained open and someone else stepped in. I recognized the werewolf.

He looked a little older since I had last seen him, but I suppose he would have been under a lot stress considering his prized capture had escaped. He looked at me with a glint of madness in his eyes. I wished that I had passed out from the assault that Cain inflicted.

Now, the real torture would begin…

Time slowed. Minutes felt like years. Each second dragged against my skin like a jagged old knife. Only it wasn’t time that was cutting deep into my flesh and forcing the rushing blood out, to part with it forever. His claws pulled an endless amount of screams from me, and a limitless amount of pain. One set of claws would dig in and stay there, while the other found old scars and forced them to reopen. Reopening the wound doubled the already too intense pain. When I would start to fade, the moving hand would stop, the other would come out, forcing a hard gasp from my throat. And it would begin again. And again. And again.

He didn’t ask me questions. This wasn’t torture for the answers I had. This wasn’t meant to be a torture device. This was meant to be revenge, to show me who was in charge. He was the Alpha here. I was nothing compared to those claws.

So much blood. It puddled and formed a river that moved around his feet, and soaked his shoes, I hoped it soaked his socks, too. Nothing was quite as bad as wet socks. If I didn’t learn how to stifle my laughs all those years ago, the thought would have cost me another rip of skin, probably over the ribs. Screaming was the easy part; not screaming and holding in the tears was the hardest. They knew you were in pain when you screamed, but when you stopped it became too much. When it became too much they stopped. They allowed you to rest. They would start again.

When our time together was up, he left looking satisfied with his work. My head fell forward, I could finally rest now. Darkness was a comfort once more. How I missed it.

• • •

I lost track of time. I fell asleep and woke up so many times I wasn’t sure if it was the same day, different month, or minutes separated by minute nightmares. Nightmares haunted me even in the waking world. My throat was raw. There were no screams left. That is what I feared the most. When the screams stopped. The blood had stopped leaking from my open wounds, I was barely holding on.

I rolled my eyes so I could look down. My poor skin. New angry lines, slimmer and shorter, joined the long thick scars I already wore. But the new wounds were healing quicker.

The dragon was there, I felt her stirring when I first woke, but now, with less blood, no sleep, and fear shaking my body, she hid. I needed her, but could barely feel her. I wanted her strength. I tried to breathe properly.

I think I fell asleep again. When I woke, my hands were numb, and my body slumped forward, putting pressure on my wrist, cutting off the circulation. My legs were weak and could barely hold me up. With the blood loss, and my lack of food, I was too weak to try to solve the problem of numb hands. I tried staying still instead. My mind started to take me places I did not dare visit.