Dragons Crown (Elder Enterprises Book 2) (6 page)

Chapter 7

“That stupid bitch,” Julie mumbled as she watched Katie crawl out of a manhole. “How the hell had they known?”

Julie had thanked fate over and over since seeing the Royals out and about. She didn’t want to pull anyone in to help her because she didn’t trust that they wouldn’t turn on her and tell the Royals her plans for them. Yet they had known. How?

She had been so careful. Paul had seen her for a split second before she had disappeared. They had no idea that she had followed them back to Mark’s apartment.

Julie reached into her pocket and thumbed the talisman there. It was a simple opal wrapped in twine that had been enchanted to give the owner the power of invisibility. Even in her dragon form, if she ever gained that ability. Julie had wondered off and on over the last few weeks if anyone had found out that she had visited the witches. Surely if they had, they would have put something together to counter the effect of this talisman.

A slight laugh of joy rolled off of her lips as she took in Katie’s appearance. The look of horror was written in every crease. Tears streamed down her face. A roar of fury echoed below the street. “So the queen is running from her king. Interesting.” After cutting gas lines to to the whole building and setting it on fire, Julie had hoped that it would kill them, but now she was curious to see how this would all play out.

After another moment, Katie took off running toward an alleyway. Paul exploded from the man hole and took off after her. Then came Mark. The jackass looked as if he was about to faint at any moment. A man that Julie didn’t know followed closely behind Mark. He was tall, dark and handsome. Mark stumbled a little bit and this stranger caught him and helped him for a moment before pulling his hands away. The man went stiff. Unmoving. Then slowly he turned his head until he was staring straight at Julie.

“Now who are you?” Julie whispered to herself as her heart began to pound away in her chest. The man tilted his head to the side for a moment before spinning around and going after the group of Royals.

Julie fell to her knees. Had he really seen her? Or had something else happened? Julie wasn’t sure, all she knew was she felt as though she had just been stripped down and left standing there naked for the world to see. Uncontrollable tears spilled down her cheeks. Her body started to shake as heat built up in her chest.

              Julie wasn’t sure how long she knelt there in the middle of the sidewalk feeling as though she was on fire. It felt like a lifetime had passed. Images flooded her mind. People burning. Blood gushing from lacerations. Families breaking down in tears and screams.

              She had caused all of that destruction. Had killed innocents. For what? For selfish reasons. A laugh escaped her lips. She loved knowing that she had caused so many people pain. Had taken everything away from some very deserving people.

              It took all of her mental strength, but eventually Julie had broken free. She rolled her neck and stretched with a huge smile on her face. The stranger was powerful. He could be very useful, especially since he was already so close to the Royals. She would give him the choice. Pledge his loyalty to her or die.

***

              “Katie!” Paul bellowed somewhere close behind her. Katie tried to push aside the thoughts of turning and running straight into his arms. She couldn’t do this. Not now. She needed to get away. Needed her own space.

              People gave her dirty looks and cussed at her as she pushed past them. There were too many humans. They could die just for being close to her. Tears spilled down Katie’s face. She needed to get away from them, but where could she go quickly? Where no human could follow?

              Her eyes shot to the sky. There. She would have to push past her fears again, but she could do it to save lives. To get away. She scanned the buildings that surrounded her. To her surprise, Elder Enterprises was just down the road. She turned and headed straight for it.

              The guys caught up to her as she waited for the elevator to open. Paul didn’t say anything, just swept her up into his arms and held her close. He mumbled something in a foreign language before pressing kisses anywhere he could reach.

              The elevator dinged and the doors slid open to reveal a group of men standing there, eyes red and puffy from tears. They all stood there in shock as they looked at Katie, Paul, Mark, and Chiles.

              “We were told you were inside Mark’s apartment when the building exploded,” an elderly gentleman said on a sniff.

              “We got out right before it went up in flames. But why don’t you ride back up with us and we will explain everything?” Paul said with a smile that didn’t touch his eyes. When everyone nodded in agreement, the four of them entered the cart and road up in silence to the top floor.

              Katie didn’t move her head out of the crook of Paul’s neck the whole ride. Tears silently rolled out of the corner of her eyes and onto his neck. His hands clenched around her each time one dropped onto his skin. When the doors slid open, Paul ordered everyone into the conference room to wait for them. He turned in the opposite direction. Once inside an office, he sat down on a couch and forced her to look up at him.

              “Don’t ever do that again,” he said before capturing her lips with his. It was soft and loving. His hands gently rubbed over her body, making her shiver in need.

              Katie broke the kiss. “I shouldn’t be here,” she whispered. “All those people died because of me.” Tears fell uncontrollably.

              “No, love. Those people died because of a sick-minded person. Not because of you or me, but because someone had it in their mind that they were doing the right thing.” Paul pressed a kiss to her temple.

              “I’m not ready for all this responsibility,” Katie finally admitted out loud. “I don’t want to be Queen. I just want to be with you.”

              “Oh, love, I know exactly how you feel. I didn’t want this either, but we have each other. We will make it through this together. For whatever reason, fate believes we are perfect for this. So if nothing else, trust in that. It was fate that brought us together. It will be fate that gets us through these though times.”

              Katie smiled. “You are wrong about one thing.” Paul raised an eyebrow in question. “It’s not fate that will get us through this. That is all us. We are the ones fighting. The ones hurting. The ones who have to make the hard choices.” She leaned down and gave him a quick kiss. “We are the ones who love each other. Not because fate said so, but because I feel safe with you. I need you.”

              Paul didn’t say anything, just pulled Katie close and held her in a tight hug for a few minutes. Slowly the worries washed away and were quickly replaced by a burning need. She twisted in his arms so that she was now now straddling him. Placing both hands around his face, she pulled him in and pressed her lips against his.

Chapter 8

An hour later, Katie and Paul walked out into the conference room holding hands. Katie still wasn’t sure she would make it as the queen, but she felt better knowing that Paul had the same fears. It gave her some hope that they would survive this. That they would make great leaders.

Katie let out a sigh as she slipped her hand out of Paul’s and stepped forward. After a quickie in the office, Katie and Paul had finally decided on their next step. As she separated herself from Paul, everyone in the room turned to look at her.

After a few moments of silence, Katie started walking around those seated at the table. Among them were a few Elders that Paul had said he trusted, so she walked up behind them, leaned down and whispered in their ears. Their faces automatically went blank and they sat there awaiting her next order.

“What the hell are you doing?” one man blurted out as Katie passed him. Katie paused and looked straight at him.

“I am changing the path of the dragons. We would invite you to help but let’s be honest, we don’t trust you.” He clenched his jaw as if trying to stop himself from saying something. Katie just brushed it off before turning and finishing up what she had started.

Once at the head of the table again, all eyes turned to Katie. She took a deep breath and dug deep to pull out as much authority as she could find. “Unless I have told you differently, you need to leave now and do not come back until you are called upon.”

All the men she had not spoken to stood, bowed, and then walked away without another word. Katie still didn’t think she would ever get used to the feeling of using her Alpha abilities. She hated taking away someone’s free will. After they got the dragons back on a good route, she would never use it again unless it was absolutely necessary.

“Now, each of you have been given specific orders. If you would begin doing as you were told, I would greatly appreciate it,” Katie said with a slight smile. She had barely said the words before they all stood to do as they had been asked. Some scattered into offices to make calls or set up meetings. Big things were about to happen for the dragons. Drastic changes were coming. But first, they needed that damn book of prophecies.

Three men approached Katie and Mark. “Take me to the book,” Katie demanded. They all turned and led Katie over to the far wall. They each stood before their own block and pressed a hand to the center. The wall fell back a few inches before splitting and sliding to the side.

There, behind a wall of what looked to be four-inch thick bulletproof glass, sat the book surrounded by lasers.
Damn
, Katie thought. They really weren’t taking any chances again. Good thing for her that she could get to the book without all the hassle of breaking through the barriers.

“Open it,” she commanded. She wasn’t in the mood to be nice. That could come later after these messes were cleaned up. When the dragons were on a better path. Katie was even toying around with the idea of coming out to the rest of the world, but she figured that should wait until most of the females were found.

The three elders stepped forward to stand in front of three glass bowls jutting out from the wall. Then as if they were all of one mind, they each pulled out a dagger and sliced their palms open, letting the blood fall freely into the containers.

After a few moments, something clicked and the wall started to slide open. Katie went to step forward but Paul held her back. “It’s too easy.” He moved to stand in front of her. “Ask them if there is any other trap.”

Katie turned her head to look at the three men. “Is there anything else protecting the book?”

The men all shuffled their feet and looked around as if to try and fight telling Katie something. “The book is coated in a lethal poison. It will eat through anything you use to protect your hands. Gloves, clothes, anything you can think of. Then it will slowly leech all the oxygen from your body. Your organs will slowly shut down. No dragon healing will be able to save you.”

“How do you neutralize it?” Katie asked, her voiced laced with annoyance.

“You have to collect the tears of a water dragon turned ice,” one of the men squeaked out.

“Damn it,” Paul barked out. “Where do you keep a stash of the tears?”

“We don’t have any right now. We used the last of it to test to make sure it worked.” The man tilted his head down to look at the floor.

Katie looked up at Paul, “Wait, there are ice dragons now, too?”

“In a way, yes. They are water dragons that have lived so far north for a really long time, their water has frozen and their bodies have evolved to accommodate it. The issue is, I have only ever heard of two of them.”

“So I guess this isn’t going to be as easy as we originally thought?” Katie let out a sigh. It would be her luck that they couldn’t just get this done and over with.

“Is the pedestal laced?” Paul asked as he eyed the book.

“Not that I know of,” the last man spoke up.

“Better to not risk it.” Paul turned to Mark. “Go find the longest tongs you can find and thick rubber gloves. We will read the book without removing it, at least until we can find a fucking ice dragon.”

***

Paul watched from a a few feet away as Chiles flipped through the pages of the book. He had on gloves that went up to his elbows and in each hand he held a pair of tongs. As promised, the tongs would start to melt after about an hour.

At first everyone had gathered tightly around Chiles as he read through the book. Chiles would mumble incoherently every now and then. Sometimes it would be in English while others it was in an ancient tongue that even Paul didn’t know. It unsettled him to know that Chiles could read this as if it was nothing, but it had taken him months to try and decipher it and had failed.

Katie twitched in the seat next to him. Paul looked over to see her lids closed, head back, mouth open. She hadn’t slept nearly as much as she should have. Yes, he was to blame for that, too. He loved seeing her like this. She looked so peaceful, as if her world hadn’t been turned upside down.

A small sigh escaped his lips. He had been so lost before he had found her. He didn’t really have a purpose in life; well, except to fuck everything up. Now? He had so much to live for. Katie, of course, was the biggest reason. But so was the fact that the dragon kind needed them. Needed their help to not only find these females, but to get them back on a track where life was great.

“Paul, get over here,” Chiles whispered over his shoulder. Paul was grateful for that. Katie needed to sleep, he could deal with whatever was happening now. He slowly stood and walked softly over to Chiles, looking over his shoulder as he moved to make sure that he hadn’t woken Katie up. With a sigh of relief, Paul closed the space between he and Chiles.

“The book can be destroyed, and I know how to do it, but,” Chiles looked as if he was having an internal fight with himself.

“Then what’s the problem?” Paul asked, annoyance filling every syllable.

“If I were to destroy it now, then I would never have the answers I seek. There has to be something in here telling me where I came from.” Chiles shook his head before looking up at Paul. “I have searched almost my whole immortal life for any clue as to where this hidden place could be. I’m not going to throw away that chance now.”

Paul knew the feeling. Knew he couldn’t ask Chiles to give up now. Couldn’t ask him to throw away the only chance he had. Paul shoved his hands into his pockets and turned to look at his mate. He knew that he should ask for her opinion, but he couldn’t bring himself to go wake her up. He could handle this one situation on his own. After all, he was King.