WickedBeast (3 page)

All too soon Kelly’s head lifted, bringing their faces
intimately close. “Who are you?” she whispered. The hesitancy in her voice
brought him back to reality.

“I’m the guy Minuet called when you were in trouble,” he
answered calmly.

“Right. I thought you said she flagged you down,” Molly
declared with a frown.

Kelly’s head jerked to look at Molly in surprise. Cord
immediately shifted to help Kelly stand. Minuet clung to her mother, making
getting up difficult. Cord helped Kelly. Lifting easily, he maneuvered her into
the chair he’d been sitting in.

“Minuet does not make mistakes about people,” he told Kelly
conversationally, ignoring Molly for the moment as she also stood.

Sitting in the kitchen chair, clutching Minuet, Kelly’s
expression was priceless as she glanced at Molly, as if afraid Cord would say
something she couldn’t explain.

Cord straightened. “You’re right, Molly, I did lie. That was
before you
helped
Kelly feel better. The need for subterfuge has
passed.”

“Ah.” Molly’s hand nervously fluttered to her neck. “Um.
Well. I don’t think… I mean, I saw the lights…” Her glance touched Minuet’s
head.

“Minuet called you telepathically after I carried Kelly up
from the basement,” Cord stated flatly. “She’s too young and upset to be
coherent, but you brought your cell phone in the housecoat pocket, didn’t you?”

Molly’s hand grasped the right pocket of her housecoat
reflexively, giving away the truth. Cord continued looking down at Kelly.

“You have always tried to conceal Minuet’s abilities, just
like your mother taught you to blend in and appear normal. Just like your
friend Molly is so good at appearing normal. Why do you think the two of you
are such good friends? You are sisters. Not by blood, you are drawn to each
other by something much more binding. The three of you keep secrets. You don’t
need too. Not from each other.”

“Molly?” Kelly asked hesitantly.

Her first question going to Molly told Cord how deeply Kelly
trusted Minuet’s judgment. It would have been far more natural for her to
question the strange man in her house, but she didn’t need to. Minuet had
called him.

Cord pulled out a kitchen chair for Molly and invited her to
sit with a sweep of his hand. She did so with a deep sigh, her eyes moving from
Cord to Kelly.

“I have a…um…a gift. I don’t talk about it because it’s so
strange to normal people. I can sort of use the energy of living things. Not
animals or people, I use, ah, draw from plants, the earth.” She paused as her
eyes went to Cord again.

He could feel her looking at his back as he opened a
cupboard for glasses. She reached for him with her senses, trying to probe him.
This time he blocked her. Molly tried again and he gently pushed back as he
filled two glasses with water and set them on the table in front of the women.

“You’re being nosy, Molly,” he said softly.

“What are you?” Molly asked again.

Kelly’s eyes bounced between them. “What’s going on?”

Minuet was sitting quietly in her mother’s lap, her head on
her shoulder, nearly asleep. Cord reached down and picked up the child.

“Come to Cord, honey. Mommy needs to drink and rest.”

Minuet went to him willingly, wrapping little legs around
his chest as arms circled his neck, her head dropping to his shoulder. Kelly’s
jaw went slack for a second as her daughter relaxed in the tall man’s arms.

Cord pulled another chair away from the table and sat facing
them. “We’ll get to me. How about you?” he nodded to Kelly.

Both women stared at him as Kelly started speaking. “I have
a thing too. A lot like yours only my strength comes from air. I can influence
the wind. I know where it’s been. It tells me things and it strengthens me.”

Molly nodded but didn’t take her eyes off Cord. “That leaves
you,” she said with a frown.

“My name is Cord Windweaver. I have a place up on Correl
Mountain. Minuet called me when she realized you were trapped in the basement,”
he stated to Kelly. “You’d passed out by the time I arrived. The old heater
tank had crushed your leg. When I got you into the kitchen, I couldn’t find a
phone to call the paramedics so Minuet called your friend Molly. Miss Molly
used her gift to repair your leg. Then you woke up.”

Both women drank the entire glasses of water he’d set in
front of them, replenishing power. He wondered if they knew why they needed it.
There was silence for a few moments.

“Cord, that wasn’t the question. Why is my daughter, who is
very uncomfortable with strangers and men in particular, sleeping on your
shoulder?” Kelly asked. “I know she reads people. That’s why she has a hard
time interacting with them. I’ll give you the latitude her trust earns. Now
tell me why she contacted you?”

Looking into Kelly’s eyes, Cord struggled with his answer.
He couldn’t lie. Damn it to hell. If it were Molly pressing him for an answer,
he could give her just enough to stem her questions. But it was Kelly, and his
response to her was writing the future. She deserved to know that, but he would
do almost anything to keep that burden from her. Seemed there were a few more
things he didn’t know about what was happening now. Apparently his drive to
protect her was a rock-solid mandate he couldn’t escape. Along with it came the
impulse to shield her from…well, anything that she might not like.

Minuet lifted her head. “Cord dagon. Him save mommy and
Minuet.”

“Dragon?” Kelley asked her daughter softly. “You mean he’s
the friend you sometimes talk to? The one Mommy thought was an imaginary
friend?”

“No, dat my dagon. Cord Mommy’s dagon.”

Cord controlled his features to remain calm. Such simple
words, the logic of a child and it was entirely complete. It was frighteningly
revealing.

The two women were struggling with the concept of dragon.
Cord took advantage of their silence.

“Honey, what’s your dragon’s name?” he asked, smiling down
at Minuet encouragingly. They had no idea how important that was. The little
power pack in his arms had abilities he could barely fathom. She was certainly
capable of calling the creatures Cord’s entire world had sacrificed itself to
contain. Now it seemed the worst might have already happened.

Minuet laid her head back on Cord’s shoulder, her eyes
already closed. “My dagon sleep. Him name is, My Dagon.”

“Dragon? Is she saying dragon?” Molly asked in
consternation. “There is no such thing as dragons.”

Cord looked at her and smiled. “Nor are there really women
with unique powers that might make other people call them witches. Right?”

Molly’s mouth thinned as she clamped it shut.

“Why does she think you are my dragon?” Kelly interjected.

Cord turned to her, such a perfect goddess. Her kind was
called witch, but their title should have been goddess.

Kelly’s scent perfumed his every breath, and he wanted to
lick it out of the air. The pale warmth of her now-glowing skin was a fine
shade of temptation, and he intended to taste every inch of it. He had no right
to what he wanted, but he had sacrificed eternity for the opportunity.

“I am a protector. In this age, you would call me a
bodyguard. You’re the one I am here to protect. Minuet reads that in me.”

“I don’t need protection.” Kelly shook her head. “Why does
she need a protection dragon?”

“I’m afraid you do. So does Molly,” he added. “The two of
you are mistresses of natural elements. You’ve both hidden that power, but it’s
out now. Minuet’s distress could easily have disclosed your secret to forces
whose most merciful choice would be to kill you. They have never been known for
their mercy.

“She calls me dragon because I am.” He nodded at Molly.
“You’re right. Dragons should not exist. We are not natural to this planet.
That doesn’t mean we don’t exist. Being unnatural, our lives are not bound by
what humans call the laws of nature.”

Cord laid his arm on the table, palm up, close to Kelly.
“Put your hand in mine and feel with your gifts, Kelly,” he invited softly.

“Protection from whom?” Molly pressed, her eyes narrowed on
Cord as Kelly hesitated.

Cord didn’t look away from Kelly as he answered. “From the
dragons created specifically to capture you.”

“By dragons do you mean big lizards, flying, fire breathing?
Or some bike gang with scary jackets?” Molly wanted to know.

“Take my hand and know what I am,” Cord invited Kelly. He
really didn’t want to be in charge of the explaining. Letting them draw their
own conclusions would absolve him from deception. What they came up with would
be correct, just limited without the history involved. They weren’t ready for
the history.

Kelly’s hand slowly descended to rest on his. Skin to skin
involved fierce control of the starved beast. That selfish, depraved animal who
was stealing her future. She was air. His air. Surrounding him, invading him.
Delicate as a breeze, powerful as any hurricane gale, Kelly touched him and he
drank her.

He didn’t close his fingers around her hand, just let her
rest there. He wanted her in control of the touching, adding the illusion of
safety. Placing herself in Cord’s hands was a personal choice. One he was
determined she would make on her own.

Her eyes were on their joined hands, but as she reached
inside him, her eyes rose to his. Understanding, amazement, acceptance. She
gave him all of these things because she didn’t know he was still hiding a part
of himself from her, using her ignorance to conceal what would hurt her to
know. He couldn’t have her frightened of him. Not now. So he ensured her trust
with truth, truth that concealed.

What else could one expect from a soulless abomination?

Chapter Three

“Oh,” Kelly breathed, looking into his eyes. She absorbed
him. Glided into his world and took her place at the center, right where she
belonged. He let her see all that, and she innocently thought she knew him.
Knew his motives, his desires, what he intended and needed.

“Well?” Molly prompted impatiently. “You’re holding his
hand. Does it magically tell you what he is?”

“Yes.” Kelly smiled at Cord, her eyes glanced away from his
shyly only to return. The shyness was still there but there was trust too.

He controlled his response and gave her a gentle smile.
“Explain it. I’m not sure what words she’ll understand,” he encouraged in an
intimate tone.

Kelly nodded and focused on Molly. “You know that scene in
Terminator
II
where the mother realizes the machine is really there to protect? He’ll
never get tired. He’ll never leave. Never stop. That’s what Cord is. Not a
machine, I mean the protector part,” Kelly clarified.

“He’s Arnold Schwarzenegger?” Molly asked skeptically.

“He’s Cord,” Kelly corrected.

“That still doesn’t tell me what he is. When I healed your
leg, I gathered power from the organic world. Too late I realize I was getting
life force from him. Is he a talking rock? A big fungus? What is he?” she
demanded in frustration.

“Perhaps your dragon will know how to explain it to you,”
Cord responded. “Kelly needs to rest. Minuet is already sleeping. For right now
everyone is safe. It’d be a good idea if you ladies took advantage of the peace
and slept.”

“My dragon?” Molly exclaimed. “I don’t have a dragon.”

“Sure you do, and he’s on his way,” Cord assured her. “I’d
rather you didn’t go back to an empty house. I’m not at full strength and can’t
protect you that far away. Legion would be upset. He’s unpredictable when he’s
mad.”

“Legion?” both Molly and Kelly said in unison.

Cord frowned at Kelly. “He’s a big, ugly earth dragon, sorta
like a giant mole. You probably will not like him. I’m the wind dragon, much
better looking.”

“You’re vain about being so handsome?” Kelly asked in
surprise.

She thought he was handsome. Cord smiled as her statement
bloomed in him. No, not just handsome,
so
handsome. That went a long way
toward soothing his initial reaction to her interest in Legion.

“You know what I am,” he evaded her direct question. “Mostly
I’m trying to get the three of you in bed and failing. That should tell you
something.”

Light teasing would only get him so far. These two women
were gifted in every way. Not being stupid went without saying. He’d brought up
Legion because he needed them prepared for the large, dark dragon when he
appeared. Implying he was benevolent was a reach, a guess or a hope. Cord’s
responses were forcing conclusions that went against everything he thought he
believed. If those conclusions were true in him, they would likely be true in
his two counterparts.

Legion had endured the same amount of time without power and
would be as diminished as Cord had been. That was Cord’s only advantage.
Contact with Kelly and Minuet gave him an edge. He’d need it to buy the time to
explain how the plan had changed, but as soon as Legion saw Molly, Cord had a
feeling all bets would be off.

If he were a gambler, he’d let Legion run into Molly first,
but he couldn’t take that chance. What if Legion didn’t react as he had to
Kelly, he’d kill Molly. If Cord didn’t let him see Molly, he’d have no reason
to change the plan, so he’d try to kill them all.

Cord had spent time with Legion before. The dragon was all
things earth. Calling him dark, passionate, volatile and strong in the physical
sense was a serious mistake. Those words did not begin to cover the minimum
facts, but they were the best Cord could do in English. Legion was also huge.
There was nothing streamlined or aerodynamic about the earth dragon. He had a
wicked sense of humor and an appetite for physical gratification.

This meeting was going to be fun in the really deadly sense
of the word. Cord needed to soak up as much power as he could before Legion
arrived. He would not allow things to go wrong. Legion would have one chance,
if he didn’t get with the new program, Cord would take care of it in the only
way possible.