Taste of Darkness (29 page)

Everything faded away when he saw her, long, black hair free around her face and shoulders, her green eyes shimmering. Shit, were those tears? He raced toward her, dropping the blade in the snow before he caught her midair when she jumped at him. She wrapped her legs and arms around him as she buried her face in his neck.

“I saw you go down in those trees and…” Her voice caught on a sob, his neck wet from her tears. Shit, she was shaking too.

He held her tight, rubbing his hand up and down her spine as he tried to comfort her. The feel of her so close, wrapped around him soothed him on the most primal level.

But it also made him feel as if he didn’t deserve her touch. He’d just destroyed three dragons and felt no guilt. If anything he was amped up for more bloodshed. “I’m okay,” he murmured. And she was too. The only thing that mattered.

When he met Gabriel’s gaze, he nodded at the Guardian in silent thanks for protecting Victoria. He knew that Gabriel would have preferred to be fighting, that staying back would have tested every warrior bone in his body. Gabriel nodded once in acceptance, but there was something in the male’s gaze that gave Drake pause. It was respect and something else.

Something he didn’t know if he wanted to define because it made him question his choice to bring Victoria here at all.

She shouldn’t be here. Not when he had no clue if the Devlin clan would even be able to finish off the Veles clan. No, she shouldn’t be here at all. Not when next time he might not be able to protect her. According to what his brother had told him, these types of attacks were not common in the dragon world, especially not in the middle of the damn day. And he didn’t like that all this was happening now that he’d returned to his clan.

When Gabriel stepped forward, closing the distance between them instead of giving Drake and Victoria space, Drake knew something else was wrong.

“We have a problem,” Gabriel murmured, low enough for only Victoria and Drake to hear. “We need to head somewhere private. Now.”

Victoria dropped her legs from around him and by her fierce expression he knew she was aware of whatever Gabriel was referring to. Her mouth pulled into a thin line as she glanced up at the blasted out sunroom. He handed her the blade he’d made her. Instead of sheathing it, she held it tight in her grip.

“This way,” Victoria said, motioning toward the woods on the side of the house where a gray and brown wolf stood keeping guard.

The intelligent, amber eyes would have told him it was Rhea even if he hadn’t seen her in wolf form before. She looked at them, then turned tail and trotted out of sight.

Drake glanced behind him to see Conall and Bran heading up the hill. He nodded once at his brother and motioned with his hands that he was going to talk to the others. Conall nodded back and Drake just ignored Bran. He didn’t need to tell the other leader anything.

Drake wanted to check on his sister, but with Conall there he wasn’t worried about her. Ten minutes later the three of them met with Rhea deep in the woods. As she shifted to her human form, Gabriel tossed her his shirt. She didn’t seem to be concerned with her nakedness, but put it on anyway.

“Nice kills,” Gabriel said before anyone could talk, looking between Rhea and Drake.

Drake’s eyebrows raised as he glanced at the female shifter. “You killed one?”

“Hell yeah.”

That was impressive. He’d ask Gabriel for details later. “What’s going on?” He wrapped his arm around Victoria’s shoulders.

Rhea raked a hand through her wild hair, her jaw clenched tight. “There was silver in the mimosas. I scented it.”

Ice congealed in his gut. “You’re sure?” Drake knew Victoria hadn’t drank any. The Veles clan had attacked before either he or Victoria had tasted any.

She nodded. “Yeah. Before I could say anything, shit went haywire.”

“Did either of you drink any?” Drake asked.

Rhea shook her head and Gabriel snorted before he said, “I’m not drinking anything called a fucking mimosa.”

“Did you scent any?” he asked Victoria.

She shook her head. “No. Gabriel couldn’t scent it either after Rhea told us. But she’s sure it’s in there.”

He frowned and glanced at Rhea for an explanation.

“Colloidal silver is difficult to detect, period. Even to wolf shifters. Put it in something like orange juice and champagne and it’s guaranteed to hide the very faint scent of it. But I’m a tracker.” She shrugged, as if that should explain everything.

“And?”

“I have a stronger sense of smell than pretty much all supernatural beings, including our Alpha. Spiro’s a tracker like me too,” she said, referring to one of the Stavros packmates. “It gives us an edge when hunting.”

Drake frowned, digesting the information. “Silver won’t hurt dragons.”

“Exactly,” Victoria murmured.

So either she or all three of the wolves were targets. But he was betting it was just her. “You’ve been targeted.” A deep, ugly rage began to unfurl inside him. Whoever had done it, would die.

Her eyebrows drew together as they did when she was deep in thought. “It would appear so. It’s possible that Gabriel and Rhea were targeted too, but that doesn’t make sense. It would be easy enough to put something in those mimosas that wouldn’t hurt most who drank it, to target one or a few individuals. If I had to guess, I’d say someone wanted to hurt me to hurt you.”

“It’s possible someone from the Petronilla pack told the Veles clan where you were in Tennessee,” Gabriel continued. “Who else other than them and us knew you were there.”

“Bo,” Victoria said.

“I don’t think he’d do anything against our pack,” Gabriel said.

Drake nodded. He remembered the way the male had protectively stood in front of Victoria at his club, the action almost instinctive. And what motive would the half-demon have? “Agreed.”

“And now someone wanted to poison Victoria or all of us the same day the Veles dragons attack your clan and the Devlin’s,” Rhea added.

“The poisoning seems like overkill though, if the Veles clan thought they could surprise us with an attack.” Drake wondered if the two events were separate. Because how would someone from the Veles clan get in the cabin to poison them? Especially when they’d just arrived this morning. “Someone in the Devlin clan or my clan tried to poison you. Where are the drinks now?”

“Keelin poured some into a Mason jar so we could test it,” Victoria said.

“Shit.” Drake rubbed a hand over his face. Shit, shit, shit. “The female Fia made the drinks. And she was nervous.”

Victoria nodded. “Yes, but it would be so stupid to make the drinks if she intended to poison someone. She doesn’t strike me as stupid. I think she was simply nervous to see you after so long.”

“Shit,” Drake said again. He didn’t want friction with the Devlin clan, not when they could be powerful allies, but he also didn’t want to endanger his clan or Victoria. She was the most important thing of all.

“That about sums it up,” Gabriel muttered. “What are you going to do?”

Instead of answering the Guardian, Drake turned Victoria in his arms, placing his hands on her shoulders. “I think you need to head back to Biloxi with Gabriel and Rhea. Too much is going on and I need you safe. I’ll come for you once everything is sorted out.” He was going to find out whoever was behind the poisonings and if need be, finish off the Veles clan. He couldn’t risk another attack on Victoria. What if he wasn’t there to protect her again? Next time the guilty party might succeed. If that happened…no. He couldn’t imagine a world without Victoria in it. He
wouldn’t
.

Victoria gently cupped his cheek with one hand and placed another palm on his bare chest. She smiled sweetly at him. “Hell. No.”

Chapter Twenty-Four

What. The. Hell.

Dragos had destroyed four Veles dragons in minutes with a pale, blue fire. Everyone in the village was on lockdown and they were all talking about the powerful display the male had made. And some were wondering if he should be leader. He was the eldest so it made sense he would be, but it hadn’t seemed as if he was interested.

Those fucking Veles dragons shouldn’t have attacked and he wasn’t sorry they were dead.

He was also glad he’d found out about Dragos’s ability. He wondered if it had something to do with his time in Hell, but that didn’t make sense. Whatever it was, he didn’t care. It was clear that he could never take on the male one on one.

So he’d have to move on to his next target: Keelin. She was so naïve and trusting she should be easy enough to subdue. That wasn’t the hard part. Cornering her alone was.

Arya, her mother, would never recover if Keelin died. Never. Maybe the bitch would go mad, just as she’d accused his own mother of doing. He rolled his shoulders, as if it could lift the agonizing memories of losing both his parents.

According to the
great
Arya and the older Dragos, his mother had gone mad. Or feral, as other supernaturals liked to call it. She hadn’t though. She’d just been more in touch with her dragon than most.

So what if she’d killed a few humans or livestock? Thousands of years ago they’d been respected and feared. Still myth in most parts of the world except in certain areas. Where dragons had thrived, the people had thrived also. They’d been protected. In exchange for that protection his mother had taken what she wanted for their clan.

It had only been fair after all.

It was unfortunate they didn’t live like that now. They were fucking dragons in a world full of weak humans. He and the other supernaturals should be ruling this planet.

His inner dragon clawed at him, its talons scraping and raking against his insides, whispering that he undergo the change, that he take whatever he wanted. The darkest part of him smiled, imagining what it would be like to reveal himself to humans, to go on a rampage destroying anything he wanted. His own clan or other clan leaders would try to kill him and maybe succeed, but by then it wouldn’t matter. They’d be revealed to the world and fire would rain down everywhere. It would be a fucking bloodbath between humans and all supernaturals.

His soul sang at the possibility of that type of freedom. To not have to hide who he was. To anyone.

His phone rang, the low tune bringing him back to reality. He frowned at his inner dragon’s darker thoughts. He couldn’t reveal himself to humans. That would be foolish. A dull throb ached at the base of his skull.

He couldn’t end up like his mother and inadvertently, his father. Because his father had died when his mother had been taken down, as bonded mates did when they lost their other half. No, he would avoid their fate. He’d go into Protective Hibernation to protect himself before his inner dragon wrestled too much control from him. The thought of sleeping for a couple hundred years was exactly what he needed. No one would be able to find him then.

First he was going to kill Keelin, but he wouldn’t just kill her. No, he was going to make sure his clan remembered him before he went into Protective Hibernation. He’d make sure that when Arya finally woke up, she woke up to Hell. Perhaps he’d be able to take the shifter bitch too. His poisoning attempt had failed because of those inept Veles dragons. Now it appeared he’d have to be more hands-on.

Tonight if possible.

* * *

“You can try to stare me down all you want. You’re not going to win this stupid argument. And it
is
stupid.” Victoria crossed her arms over her chest as she glared at Drake, refusing to get up from where she sat behind the desk in Conall’s library.

After shit had gone haywire, as Rhea liked to say, they’d all returned to the village and the Devlins had moved to another location, though they were still in the area. Their precise whereabouts were unknown to the Petronilla clan as of now. Only Victoria, Drake, Gabriel, Rhea, Keelin and Conall knew about the attempted poisoning. And of course the guilty party—or parties. Drake and Conall wanted to keep the knowledge of the poisoning quiet until they discovered more clues. Any freaking clues at this point. Sure it might be the Devlin clan, but that just seemed so freaking obvious.

And stupid.

So for now Victoria was scouring books on various dragon histories. Conall’s library was extensive and she was determined to find out what had caused Drake to emit that pale, blue fire with seemingly impossible heat. He’d confessed to her that he had no idea how he’d done it, only that he’d felt different when he’d shifted earlier, more savage. It had seemed like he wanted to say more, but he’d held back.

“Wanting to keep you safe is not stupid.” Drake mirrored her pose, his big arms crossed over his chest as he leaned against the front of another desk. The muscles in his arms bunched, flexing tight as he stood there.

Her gaze strayed over every inch of bared flesh and she was barely able to contain the growl of need rising up inside her. In the woods he’d been absolutely beautiful and naked and it hadn’t mattered that he’d just killed four dragons. She’d simply wanted to jump him once she’d seen he was unharmed even though they’d had no privacy. Until now.

But things between them were awkward and even though she still wanted to jump him, they needed to hash things out. “I don’t need or want to be locked up tight and kept safe from the outside world. I’m a capable shifter. Treat me like one.”