Dragon's Blood (12 page)

Confused, she made a slow circle. He wouldn’t have left her here. She was his mate. She’d given him blood. She’d saved him from the Djinni who was killing him…

Her hand pressed over her mouth, her fingers splaying up her face as tears formed in her eyes. He’d left her.

She staggered to the steep wall leading out of the ravine and up to the road. She expected pain, but none came save for the pain in her heart. How could he leave her here like this?

Overwhelmed, she sank against the wall. Its incline seemed as insurmountable as her situation. He’d abandoned her in the middle of nowhere, in a tattered, bloody dress, missing a shoe, with no cash, no credit cards or ID, no phone, no transportation. She was hundreds of miles from home and she didn’t really know where she was. She wasn’t even sure she could go back to where she lived. Would Janos’ enemies come after her there? Would she be safe where she’d hidden? Would she be safe anywhere?

A shudder went through her as cold settled into her bones. She couldn’t stay here. She’d freeze to death in this thin sleeveless dress. She needed to find shelter then make a plan. The car seemed an unlikely choice. After the fall, it probably wasn’t safe, and…a dead Djinni oozed over the top of it. Just the thought of going near it made her ill, as did the thought of staying here. Still she had to.

The passenger door lolled open and she pushed it open wider, avoiding the Djinni. If she was lucky, the paperwork for the car would be in the glove box. It wasn’t. She really was

without a direction—not that she thought going to Janos was a good option anyway. He’d deserted her.

With no other choice other except scaling the ravine wall, she headed for the trees and hoped she wouldn’t encounter some animal that thought eating her would be a good idea.

* * * *

Janos surged awake, opening his eyes and sitting up in one swift motion. Darkness surrounded him, but the familiar sounds around him revealed he was at home. As his eyes adjusted, he realized he was in his own bed. Alone. Scarlett wasn’t beside him, but Lucan sat in a chair beside his bed.

“Where’s Scarlett?” Janos demanded. Flashes of the scene in the ravine shook him as the worst scenario settled over him. He couldn’t believe it. She couldn’t be dead. He couldn’t have found his mate after all this time and lost her in the space of days. Lucan’s head snapped up. “Thank heavens… You’ve been unconscious so long I thought we’d lose you.”

Janos swung his legs to the side of the bed and stood. His rubbery legs threatened to topple him backward once more, but the rest of his body vibrated with health. In a moment, his legs followed suit.

“Where’s Scarlett?” he asked again.

“We don’t know. We—”

His fist clenched on Lucan’s collar. “What do you mean, you
don’t
know?”

“Janos, please,” his younger brother pleaded, disengaging Janos’ hands. “When Jonah got to the clearing, you were dying. Scarlett was unconscious—but fine. He had to make a split-second decision, and he brought you home first so the ancient magic could help you heal and the letters could give you blood. I don’t know how you survived as long as you did. Jonah had to do it. The clan couldn’t lose another elder. Not so soon after our parents’—”

Lucan broke off, unwilling to say the word everyone thought but no one spoke. Death.

“He
left
her there? How
could
he?”

“Jonah did the best he could. She’d ingested your blood and that made her safe—and it healed her though she wasn’t yet awake. He made a choice, albeit probably the wrong one, and he’s been torturing himself ever since. He will not easily forgive himself and has been searching tirelessly for both Athena and Scarlett.”

Janos sank back to the edge of the bed. “Scarlett gave me her blood. That’s how I survived. After the attack, I felt her sharing it with me but couldn’t respond.”

“It was the poison.”

“Poison?”

Jonah nodded. “Much of it was gone from the knife that nearly killed you, but it was still there near the hilt. We suspect it must have coated the entire blade.”

“Dragon’s bane?” It was the only poison known to kill Dragons.

“Yes. And the weapon—at least the blade portion—is made of material from Dragons’ claws.”

Janos nodded. “The Elvish called it Dragon claw. But I don’t care about that right now. Tell me about Scarlett.”

“You know Jonah could only carry one of you, and Scarlett was gone when he returned. He’s searching for her but hasn’t found anything but her dress. And he’s in enormous pain—the mating call. He must find Athena.”

“He must,” Janos conceded, his entire being protesting. He understood Jonah’s choice though he didn’t agree with it, and he knew his scion might never rest if they did not find Scarlett. “She wasn’t with Scarlett. I don’t know where she was, but I’ll bet my mate knows and that will help Jonah, too.”

“When Niko came back to the compound yesterday, he joined the search. Nothing. We can only guess your mate’s left the area.”

“How long have I—”

“A week. It was a lot of poison.”

“She’s been alone for a week!” Janos could have understood Lucan’s inability to find Scarlett. He was the youngest and, at the moment, the weakest of the Dragons, a product of their father’s second union—Janos’ own mother had been killed when he was only two, and Lucan’s mother was the only one Janos had really known. Lucan and his twin Alexi had only come into their abilities a few years ago. Niko however was just minutes younger than Janos. He should have been able to track Scarlett.

“Everyone’s searching. Everyone but me. I was assigned to watch over you.” Lucan ran his fingers through his raven-black hair. “Look, I know you don’t want to hear this, but all signs indicate she left willingly by her own power.”

“No.”

Janos didn’t believe Scarlett had left him—not willingly. He’d heard her words in the ravine. She’d declared her love again. And again, he’d been unable to do the same. “No,” he said, conviction strong in his voice. “There must be more to this than we realize.”

His brother looked dubious but remained silent on the matter. “Now that you’ve woken, I’ll join the search.”

Janos nodded then headed for the closet where he pulled on the first clothes his fingers touched. He wouldn’t rest until Scarlett was once more at his side. He no longer feared for her life—physically, she was safe from any harm, including that of Djinn and Elvish, though the thought of them using the knife on her made his blood run cold. No, instead he feared for his and Scarlett’s souls. He’d watched many Dragons whither and fade away without their mates, and it was a fate he refused to meet. He and Scarlett
would
be together again even if he had to search every corner of earth.

Chapter Nine

Wrapped in a patchwork afghan, Scarlett stared into the dying embers in her fireplace remembering how the flames had shot from Janos’ mouth when he’d attacked his enemies to protect her. No matter what she’d done over the last three weeks, she hadn’t been able to get him out of her thoughts. Late at night like this was the worst. She slowed down and rested her body and the memories assaulted her. Despite her exhaustion, both mental and physical, she was loath to go to her bed. She knew what awaited her there—feverish dreams, bittersweet recollections of complete pleasure, torment.

They were still far better than the desolation-filled days that had followed the last attack on her. She’d found a cabin not too far through the trees, its cheery lights beckoning her. Whoever had lived there hadn’t been home despite the lamps she’d seen through the windows and her repeated knocking. To her relief, the owners had left their door unlocked as many did so far out in the country, and she’d snuck inside, feeling a lot like Goldilocks and hoping the owners wouldn’t return in the form of bears or worse—Djinn or Elvish. They hadn’t. After borrowing a pair of jeans and a cotton shirt that were both too big for her, and a pair of shoes that almost fit, she’d hightailed it out of the cabin. She’d returned to an icy stream she’d earlier crossed on her trek. After washing, she’d put on the clothes. As she continued to watch her fire die away, Scarlett fingered the band still around her upper arm beneath her pajamas. She couldn’t bring herself to remove it for more than the few minutes it took her to wash every morning. She’d left it on after she’d washed in the stream, too. The other jewelry had gotten shoved into her pockets. Having fresh, warm clothes and being clean had gone a long way toward clearing her thoughts. Returning to the cabin, she’d found a car with the keys in it in garage and had driven into a nearby town. She’d parked on the outskirts of town, and the following morning, had headed for the local bank. It had been a simple matter to leverage her star-power and her easily recognized face along with her knowledge of her account numbers and passwords to access the money she needed. After that, it had been a fairly easy trip home.

She’d left the locked car in a parking lot in Denver with an envelope of cash on the passenger seat, had purchased her own vehicle from a used car dealer who wasn’t averse to waiving photo identification after she’d slid him an extra thousand dollars, then had driven to her home in Vermont. She’d resurrected Molly Smith, sans mousy hair, and now was trying to choose her next step. As much as she’d told Janos she wanted to return to her music career, she wasn’t sure it was safe.

There hadn’t been an attack on her in the three weeks since he’d left her. But then they hadn’t found her in the seven years she’d lived here, too. Maybe the backwoods of Vermont were off their radar.

Sighing, she threw off the afghan and stood. Time to face the demons in the bedroom so she could be wide awake to face another empty day tomorrow. It would likely include several fruitless hours of searching for any listing of a Janos Aventech on the internet. Yahoo and Google came back with no results no matter what she searched. She’d resorted to census databases and genealogy sites and reports of people seeing ‘dragons’ or huge alien lizards. She took her time getting ready for bed then wandered down the hall to her bedroom. Her lethargy instantly lifted as she opened the door. The dark shadow of a man blocked the window beside her bed. Screaming, she slammed shut the door. She should have known she wasn’t safe here. She wasn’t safe anywhere.

“
Velree
!”

Halfway down the hall, she froze at the muffled voice coming from the bedroom. Turning, she dashed for the door and shoved it open. She plowed into Janos, her arms and legs wrapping around him. His mouth covered hers, immediately reclaiming it as his.

“I’m so sorry, love,” he gasped between kisses. “I would never…leave you alone…willingly.”

Instinctively, she knew it was true. Every frantic touch told her of his desire, of how much he’d missed her, of how much he needed her. And she needed him just as much.

“I didn’t know how to find you,” she said.

Tears of happiness blurred her vision as he set her down and she took him in. Health glowed from him, all signs of the battle gone. She yanked up his shirt to see his scar-free chest for herself. She drew her fingers over the smooth skin then splayed her hands over his rippling muscles. Blinding need swamped her senses, stopping anything but the signals from her pleasure centers. Her pussy clenched with remembered sensation as it readied for him and dampened her cotton panties.

“I couldn’t find you, either,” he said, his frustration obvious. “I’d been unconscious

for a week when I found out you were missing.” He pulled off her pajama top. His fingers stroked lightly over her armband before he dropped his hand. His eyes closed as he flattened his palm over her belly. He smiled then turned his hungry gaze on her. “It wasn’t until I received a package in the mail today from Levi that I found you. Several from his clan were doing cleanup at the church and one of them found your purse. This address was in it. I’ve been gutted. I’ve never been so desperate.”

His palm slid down, his fingers slipping into the band of her pajamas. She arched into his touch. “I thought you deserted me.”

“Never, not even when I thought you’d left me.”

“I didn’t. Athena—”

“She’s missing.”

“I haven’t heard from her. She doesn’t know how to reach me here.”

“Jonah’s out of his mind. I know how he feels. I’ve been insane with worry for you. And need. And emptiness.”

She gasped as he slid lower and parted her folds then rubbed her clit. Tiny streaks of lightning sizzled through her, stealing her breath. “I wouldn’t have left you.”

He shoved her pants down, and she stepped out of them. She reached for the button on his pants.

“Even if you did,” he said, “it doesn’t matter. We’re one. We cannot be separate without emptiness. It won’t go away.”

“I never want to be away from you,” she confessed, reaching up to kiss him. “The emptiness was horrible, but the pain in my heart was worse.”

With a groan, Janos sealed his mouth over hers. He lifted her and her legs went around him again. She ground herself against his cock, showing him how much she wanted him there, too. Her back hit the mattress as he tipped them onto the bed. He settled between her legs, taking up her grinding motion. His tongue thrust against hers, and she sucked it deeper into her mouth, reacquainting herself with his taste. Joy filled her as she felt the connection of their spirits.

Janos kissed a path to her shoulder. “I’m so hungry for you, love,” he murmured.

“Then take of me,” she said. Her mouth watered as she remembered the taste of him in that crazy moment before she’d passed out. It confused her. She tried to push it away and focus on him.

He drew back and looked down at her. His brow furrowed. Reaching up, he slid his thumb over the creases of her forehead. “What is it?”

She looked away. Gently, he caught her chin and drew her back.

“Don’t be afraid to tell me anything.”

“I…” She shrugged. “I-I don’t know why, but…I want to taste you, too.”

Janos chuckled. “Of course, you do. It is the way with united mates. I told you we have the perfect mix of blood.”

“But I crave it.”

He smiled, his eyes speculative and tender. “You don’t know…”