The Jade Dragon (15 page)

He took his time responding. She found herself wanting to snuggle up to him. She shifted slightly, putting a smidgen of distance between them, hoping he wouldn't notice.

“I won't bite,” he growled.

So her move wasn't so subtle. “Pity,” she said. “I was hoping you would.”

Gregori choked on his wine and she nearly did as well at her wayward tongue.
Keep your mouth closed Alanna!

His eyes glinted with promise. His hand reached out and cupped her cheek. He stared intently into her eyes. “Let me in.”

Why did he have to be so single-minded? She pretended she didn't know what he meant. His hand dropped away and she lifted her glass to her lips and sipped the warm, smooth merlot. It was exquisite. She rolled the liquid around her tongue as he'd suggested and swallowed.

“I'll strike a deal with you,” she said.

“I don't do deals.” He frowned, his eyes watchful, remembering the one he'd made with Anton only the other day.

“You'll want to do this one. Show me those images, but promise that's all you'll do. Nothing more. No searching around in my head looking for whatever it is you're looking for.”

He didn't hesitate. His mouth curled upwards and his eyes lit with his success. “Deal.”

• • •

“So how are we going to do this?” Alanna lay on the couch, her feet up on the arm, her head resting on a pillow.

“I've a special skill.” Gregori pulled up a dining chair and sat. He picked up her hand and held it gently between his palms.

Her lips twitched. “You don't say.”

He chuckled. “It's called mindwalking. Don't worry,” he said. “All I'm going to do is go in long enough to transfer the images from my mind to yours.”

“Tell me first what those images consist of.”

“If I tell you, you'll shut me out.”

“I'm no coward.”

“No, you're not.”
You've nothing to fear as you've blocked everyone out.

“Just trust me.” He gripped hands, focusing on her, making her feel as if she was the single most important woman in the world. “Close your eyes.”

She stared at him. He waited. A minute ticked by. Just when he thought she may pull back, her eyelids drifted closed. He shut his eyes also. It was easier to use his mind's eye. Once more, as he had done when he'd mindwalked last night, he merged his mind with the link between them.

Alanna's breathing quickened. With her compliance came an immediate strengthening of that bond between them.

“Don't pull out now,” he whispered softly. “It's dangerous.”

Her breathing hitched, but her eyes remained closed. “Now you tell me.”

The entire process would be smoother if he could get her to relax. At the moment, he could feel the tension in her as she lay there. Coiled, ready to spring upwards given the slightest provocation. “Just a few seconds more. Quiet now. Still your mind if you can. Breathe in, concentrating on relaxing your muscles as you breath out.”

He continued instructing her until he was sure she was in a semi-meditative state and then, before she could change her mind, he gathered all the images of that awful day ten years ago and gently sent them to her. He was worried she would be overwhelmed. He decided to give her only what he thought she could handle. He left out images of her parents lying bloody and dead in the vehicle. What he gave her was his arrival at the scene of the accident just after it had occurred, of him calling the emergency services, of him taking care of her until help arrived, soothing her brow, gifting her the solace of unconsciousness.

His mission accomplished, he withdrew and opened his eyes. “Alanna,” he whispered, fearing the worst. Usually vocal in everything, her silence was telling. “The Bells of Marylebone tolled for me when you were fourteen. The police were looking for me in connection with the accident. People believed it was my fault. You must believe me. I didn't do it. I arrived only on sensing your distress. I'm here now to hunt their killers. To clear my name.”

And to bind my magic with yours.

Of all the images she expected, it certainly wasn't this. This was why he had asked about the accident yesterday. It was the strangest feeling and yet his presence in her mind was not invasive. He did as promised and showed her images only. Tears erupted in her eyes and rained unchecked down her cheeks. She scooted to the far end of the couch, curling up into herself, once again hugging the pillow to her chest. Her sorrow, she knew, leaked in waves from her body, convulsing into heart-wrenching sobs she didn't seem to have any control over.

Gregori reached out to her. She backed up as far as she could and when that wasn't far enough, she shot from the seat like a dark voluminous eruption from a volcano and placed herself in the doorway to her bedroom. He'd promised not to enter her room. She would be safe there.

“It was you,” she whimpered.

His anguish was written in his features. There was a great sadness in his eyes. He paced towards her, stopping scarcely an inch away from her. She forced herself to remain where she was, determined not to be bowed by this revelation when she had so much more to reveal than he.

“I didn't cause the accident.” He towered over her. “It's imperative you believe me.”

“It's imperative you keep your distance,” she managed between shuddering sobs.

He went silent and waited, like an avenging dragon whose wings had been broken and could no longer fly. She felt his pain along their connection. He spoke the truth, but the shock, the emotions she'd repressed for so long, the images of that time when her life had changed so dramatically came rushing back, breaking through the barriers she'd erected to keep her from remembering. Could she forgive him for that, when she'd been so successful in ignoring the truth for so long?

“The bells tolled for you when I was fourteen,” she rubbed away the tears from her eyes with the back of her hand. “How can you still be here, alive, with magic?”

“Marylebone ensorcelled me.”

It all made sense now. “Until I was old enough to bind with you?”

Gregori nodded. “Yes. Otherwise I would have had to sacrifice everything. I'm born immortal. Not made. The consequences of ignoring the bells are far greater for someone like me. I'm old. Very old. With so much power at my fingertips, to deny the bells would ultimately spell disaster for everyone and to sacrifice all the knowledge I possess drove them to desperation. Marylebone did not want to lose that knowledge so they risked ensorcelling me. Against my will, I might add. I was intent on searching for the cause of your parents' death and I was doing so when they entrapped me. If you don't believe me, ask Zelda. She knows.”

His image blurred as new tears filled her eyes. “Zelda!” Alanna felt the blood drain from her cheeks. She shook her head from side to side, her eyes closed, her mouth twisted in pain. “All this time,” she murmured to herself. “She's known all this time and said nothing.”

Her knees buckled. She slid to the floor.

Gregori bent down and picked her up. “I'm sorry. Much of what happened has been outside my control. It came a as a huge shock when the Fates tolled the bells for me. I am a toy to them, as they play some game I don't understand.”

He took her back to the couch and sat her down. “You're in shock.” He picked up her wine, waved a hand over it and handed it to her. “Drink a little of this. It will calm you.”

Alanna flung the glass back at him, the dark red merlot spilling down and staining his shirt, the crystal goblet smashing into pieces on the floor. “No! You already enchanted me earlier. No more spells. I need a clear head. I need to know my thoughts are not clouded with drugs of any kind.”

“It was but a mere herbal to calm you.”

“I'm sorry about your glass,” she whispered. “I know it was valuable.”

He was bewildered by her response. “Glass is replaceable. You are not. It is you I'm concerned for.”

“You don't need to be.”

Gregori wanted her to forgive him. Which was laughable. Not only did she need
his
forgiveness, but
his
acceptance. His secret was not so dark when hers was even greater.

She brought her knees up to her chest and clasped her hands about them. Leaning forward she pressed her mouth against the material of her jeans, afraid she would blurt it out. She was afraid he would leave her, when she wanted him to stay. She was afraid her heart would break all over again.

Gregori was in a twilight zone. He was almost positive it wasn't his revelation which had upset her so much. Nor that Zelda had known. He sat beside her and brushed her glorious red hair from her forehead in a gentle sweeping motion, over and over. “Ah, my little one, it's a lot to take in.”

“You. Don't. Understand.” Alanna sobbed each word out between breaths.

But he did understand. More than she knew. He laid his heart bare. “We are destined to be lovers,” he leaned forward to cup her face with his palms and thumbed her tears away. “You are my heart. There is no one else for me. I'm here for you.”

She stared at him, her sobs subsiding. “I'm not good enough for you. I'm not good enough for anyone.”

She attempted to twist her face away, but he refused to release his hold. “Look at me,” he insisted. “I'm not going anywhere.”

“You'll be gone in less than two weeks,” she reminded him. “You need to find someone else to bind with.”

“I'll go back into stone and wait for you if I need to.” The statement cost him, but he had made a promise to both Marylebone and now to Alanna. “There will be no other woman for me.”

“I can't let you into my heart,” she told him, her eyes red rimmed and swollen. “I'm unlovable.”

Gregori was extremely disturbed by her statement. She genuinely believed she wasn't good enough, not only for him, but for anyone. Ever. All that bravado, all those smart sassy remarks she made on a daily basis were a cover. But for what?

He filled the link between them with what was in his heart and sent it to her.

Her eyes flared as his message reached her. Then the light died once again. “You're only trying to make me feel better.”

“I don't understand,” he said. “I thought you'd be angry with
me
.”

“I need to thank you,” she said as she looked him square in the eyes. “You cared for me in the accident. You called the emergency services. Left alone out there, I could have been another statistic. Beth and Alanna would have lost me, too.”

“I won't lose you now either,” he told her. “I've spent years, frozen by spells inside various stones. I don't want to go back. I want you. I've known you since you were born. You are the one for me.”

She reached up and cupped her hands over his and although her mind and heart were guarded like a fortress, her desire was evident. “I want you too. Show me. Teach me how to love you.”

“I can't teach you. That you must do yourself. And to truly bind with me, you will need to open not only your body, but your mind and your soul.”

Alanna sighed. “We can start with satisfying our bodies. I won't promise you anything other than that.”

Although his heart ached for Alanna, it also gathered in a little hope and tied a love knot around it. “I refuse to take advantage of you when you're so upset.”

“Take advantage of me,” Alanna urged. “I want you to.”

Warlocks' Oath. Her aura glowed with a lust to match his own. His body quickened in response.

“You want to,” she murmured, encouraging him.

“This is not something I want you to regret,” he said as he tried again to dissuade her. “I would not have you reject me afterward and tell me I took advantage of you while distressed.”

“Oh for the love of the Goddess,” she muttered. “You're asking for me to let you in and now you're saying no!”

“I'm not saying no. I'm saying not now.” Her breath was so sweet. Her desire as evident as his. He couldn't believe he wasn't running his hands over her bare skin, claiming her as his right now.

“When then?”

“When you've had time to absorb all you've learned tonight. If you haven't changed your mind by then.”

Alanna looked directly in to his eyes and he knew her answer before she uttered the words. “I won't.”

Dawn approached slowly. Bone weary and tired beyond her years, Alanna let herself out of the studio and Gallery without waking Gregori in his little makeshift bedroom and walked to Zelda's cottage on the outskirts of Raven's Creek. She left a note in case he was concerned. He'd been so kind, so gentle with her last night. Despite his confession, he had her grudging respect.

The good thing about the town was that it was so small, one could walk anywhere within an hour and be at their destination. It was daylight, just. But Alanna knew that, unless away on Supreme Council business, Zelda would already have been up at daybreak and completed a range of tasks most people took all day to get to.

Zelda stood framed in the open front door, waiting for her arrival. “Felt your intention to visit,” she said and pulled Alanna into her arms and hugged her close. “Come in. We'll go out into the garden.”

Although the hug wasn't unusual, the strength and warmth of Zelda's welcome worried Alanna. She followed Zelda, who walked like a twenty-year-old instead of the elderly woman she portrayed to the public, through the cottage and out onto a private lawn. Flowers bloomed in abundance around the entire perimeter of the property dotted with fruit trees everywhere. A white cast-iron table and chairs were located in the center of the lawn. On the table was a pitcher of orange juice and freshly baked savory biscuits. The aroma was enticing and Alanna's stomach grumbled. She'd barely eaten anything since Gregori had forced his way into her life.