Dragon's Heart (17 page)

L
ocal law enforcement and emergency personal swarmed
around the inn. Draakar and James stood in the lobby and saw an investigator
approach the owners. Draakar made his way to the investigator and spoke to him.
He wanted to make sure Paul would not be a suspect or subjected to questioning.
He placed memories in the investigators minds they had notified Paul, and he
suffered a nervous breakdown upon hearing of his wife’s death. He would remain
at Akgon castle, a guest of Lord Draakar and available if needed. There would
be no need.

Head bowed, Draakar watched
Paul’s wife’s body taken out on a gurney. The body would remain at the morgue
until Paul contacted them. Her death would be attributed to natural causes.
Draakar had already removed all evidence of her violent death.

Unobserved
by anyone, Draakar and James went up the stairs and entered Paul’s room. A
residue remained of both the betrayer’s and Paul’s essence. They followed it as
far as the road but couldn’t track them once outside.

“I
don’t get a sense of either one of them,” James said.

Draakar
called on the Stones to reinforce his powers and with their assistance, he had
no trouble following the tracks of chaotic magicks left by the betrayer.

 
“I don’t sense Paul but I have the
betrayer’s scent now,” Draakar said as he and James, moving swiftly, followed
the trail up the mountain.
It almost
certainly never occurred to him to hide his passing more,
Draakar sent to
James
. He had every reason to believe he
was the last aware brethren left until he found Paul, an awakened dragon.
 
He’s probably trying to use Paul’s
magicks to enhance his own and break through the wards around the Stones.

Ah,
James sent
back,
the Stones barred him from the
circle. Unworthy.

Yes, if the Stones did not want him
in the circle, no power on earth could get him in. My father bound the wards
with the will of the Stones. But the betrayer, whether he knows that or not,
would still ignore the ban against him and continue to try.

      
They
arrived at the clearing just as Maya sent out her call.

      
I am here, my Lady.

     
Three heads swung around.
Behind them at the edge of the forest stood Draakar and James. Draakar
approached the body on the ground. “Stay back.” He crouched down beside him,
stretching his arms over Paul but did not touch him. Fingers spread wide, he
passed his hands back and forth over Paul’s body. His audience watched green
light shine from his palms over Paul. Draakar felt the presence of Ian and the
other brethren as they approached the area. After a brief time, Draakar lowered
his arms and gathered Paul into them. With a slight flexing of his jean clad
thighs, he stood in one fluid movement, cradling Paul’s only slightly smaller
frame as though he were a child.

     
“Will he be all
right?” Sherri asked coming nearer.

     
“Yes. He needs
rest now. Go back to the castle. I will take him to his room and join you
soon.”

     
“What happened
to him?” Sherri asked.

     
“The betrayer
tried to steal his energy.”

      
As the
last syllable left his mouth, Draakar disappeared from the clearing with his
burden.
 

     
The remaining
brethren turned to make their way back toward the castle, but Maya coming up
the rear, felt a tingle crawling up her spine—not a pleasant sensation.
They were being watched. She whipped around and glared at the very edge of the
wards, expanding her dragon senses. There seemed to be something there, a
shadow where there shouldn’t be one. Instinctively, she took a step in that
direction. Then the sun, as suddenly as it had disappeared behind clouds
earlier, burst forth, momentarily blinding her. When Maya again focused her
eyes, the shadow had disappeared. She continued to stare at the spot. This time
a chill invaded her bones.

     
Ian glanced
back, Maya no longer walked with them, so he stopped and turned around. She’d
stood several feet behind them.

     
What is it, my Lady? Is something wrong?

     
They all stopped and turned
to Maya.
 

      
I’m not sure. For a moment I
thought I saw a shadow but it’s gone now. Don’t worry about it. Come on let’s
get back to the castle.

     
The brethren
waited until she walked between them and they formed a protective circle around
her. Ian relayed what Maya sensed to Draakar and his strident command came back
to them all, except for Maya, loud and clear.

     
Protect your queen!

     
They made their way back to the castle without incident, completely
unaware of the menace following them with shining silver eyes until they were
out of his sight.

     
The form hidden
in shadows watched from beyond the wards, silently raging.
 
Everything had gone wrong. He couldn’t
breach the barrier, and the awakened one had gotten away from him.
 

The awakened still lived because he had been distracted. The
ripple of power coming from the direction of the inn, a power with a signature
that should not be there, made him hesitate. A Dark Lord. The knowledge caused
the intruder to momentarily release his hold on the one the others called Paul.
With a strength this Paul should not have possessed, the fool had lunged
through the barrier where Arwan could not follow.
 
Known by many other names over the decades, Arwan remained
his true name, and this name suited him best. In the old tongue it meant, God
of death. Soon, they would all learn to fear his name

 
He’d returned to the inn in search of
the power source and followed the trail back here. A Dark Lord on earth? The
silver dragon raged. This should not have been yet somehow had come to be. As
impossible as it seemed, he’d felt him. Then again, Arwan reconsidered, the
Dark Lord would probably think it impossible for him to still exist as well.
Yet, he did.
 

Only
this time, he would not be denied what should have been his all along. All of
this paled to the fury rolling inside him, knowing the Dragon Lord could do
what he could not—call the blood and awaken the dragon within. He had
seen more than one awakened with his own eyes. Arwan had tried, but he never
could call forth the dragon in others. He could not awaken the dormant magicks.
He could only bind some of the weaker minded with a little brethren blood to
him, although, one mind showed great potential.
 

Most
of all, his fury centered around the fact
this
Dragon Lord awakened Maya.
His Dam!
He’d found her first! With her he’d be able to call forth the dragon brethren.
How dare the bastard get in his way! The Dragon Lord could be only one person,
his weak brother’s whelp. All use of power carried a signature, part of the
essence of the brethren wielding it. A dark dragon’s power being the most
distinctive of all. It could only be Draakar.

     
Well, Maya
belonged to him. He had searched for her for hundreds of years from the time he
first sensed her being, always getting closer to finding her. He had been aware
each time she came into the world and each time she left it. But he could never
find her at the right moment of her existence. This time, his timing had been
perfect. Over the last couple of years, he’d carefully cultivated their
relationship, and he’d planned to make her his mate. She was meant for him. He
just needed a little more time to convince her to come to him willingly. For
with her powers fueling his, no one would be able to stop him.
 
Not even the Dark Dragon Lord.

     
Unfortunately,
as long as she remained within the protection of the wards, he couldn’t have
her. He had to get Maya away from there. The Circle of Stones did not represent
the only conduit of power, and Arwan had spent ages finding and collecting
other sources. Though none were as powerful as the Stones. Still, with a little
help from the humans he commanded they should enhance his powers enough to
defeat the Dragon Lord. He just needed to lure Maya back to a place he could
control. Where he held more power than the whelp. He knew just how to get her
away from Draakar.

     
After Arwan
arrived at the airport, he took out his phone to call one of the men who over
the years had helped him successfully get rid of any obstacle standing in his
way. A favorite, because this man appeared different from the others he’d used
in the past to do his bidding. Luck had nothing to do with finding this
particular man while hunting for Maya. He didn’t believe in luck. He made his
own.

A
few years ago, he’d been drawn into a bar he had never been to before. When he
entered the place, psychic energy in the air had the fine hairs on his skin
standing at attention. It was not the
Dam
he searched for but something not unlike the life energy brethren emitted, just
different, weaker. Instinct told him the source of the lifeforce emanated from
the brown-skinned man who sat by himself at the end of the bar. It took less
than a second for Arwan to know before him stood a human of brethren origins.
The first Arwan had encountered in hundreds of years who recognized his power
and accepted him as master without mind manipulation.

A
week after meeting this man, he had found Maya. His Fate, and at long last, his
time, his destiny were at hand, and nothing was going to stop him from taking
his rightful place as Dragon Lord of all human kind.

When
the person Arwan called picked up, he didn’t bother with a greeting. No need.
Isaiah Turner knew only one person called on this line. “I want you to do
something for me that will require a light touch.”

     
Isaiah’s
background served Arwan well. After having spent years mastering the dark
rhythms of the streets and preying on others, the brief time Isaiah spent in
prison hadn’t changed his talents. Isaiah had proven his cunning to Arwan many
times in the past. Isaiah also feared no man, except him. Arwan knew Isaiah
wasn’t really sure if his employer was human, nor did he care.

“I’m
listening.”