Thea Harrison - Dragon Bound

“Well, you can hardly blame them,” she pointed out. “You did trespass.”

“Yes, and you stole from me,” he said. “And look at how well we’re getting along.”

She was taken aback. She thought back on the overloaded day. They were getting along extraordinarily well. She suspected she ought to be freaked-out by it. Come to think of it, some part of her was.

“Now that you mention it,” she murmured, “you do seem to be running against type a bit. Aren’t you?”

“Of course,” he told her in a silken voice. “Do you think I go from possibly rending to kissing in a day with just anyone who’s stolen from me?”

“I . . . I haven’t had much time to think about it.” She hadn’t had time to think of much of anything.

He held up a finger. “First, you’re the only one who’s ever successfully stolen from me.” He held up another finger. “Second, I am not a forgiving creature. In fact, you’re the only one I’ve ever forgiven before.” He put up a third finger. “And third, I like vengeance. I’m looking forward to ripping apart the person who gave you that charm and who ended up with my penny.”

“Put like that, I should still be running away screaming,” she said. She swallowed and looked out her window at the dark night scenes passing by. “Why is this so different?”

“Remember when I said I wasn’t bored?”

She nodded as she folded the corner of her long-sleeved shirt between her fingers.

“Looking back, I think I’ve been bored for centuries now. That’s a pretty big rut. People rush to give me anything I could want. And if for some reason that doesn’t happen, I can always buy what I want.”

“I can’t imagine,” she murmured.

“Well, I live that way every day. But you’re different. You have been a series of surprises from the first,” said Dragos. “I have never been so angry. Then your note made me laugh out loud. The dream? Big surprise. The ridiculous things you say, the way you smell, the color of your hair in the sunlight, in the moonlight.” He shot her a sidelong glance with that blade-sharp smile of his. “I am very much not bored. I find that’s worth a lot to me, including figuring out how to do new things.”

She turned to look out her window again. Oh great, so she could relax as long as he was entertained? What happened when he got bored with her? Would he forget how he “forgave” her? She bit her lip.

Good thing there were still three caches in New York, with three new identities and more money. Guess she was going back to the city with him after all. She would just have to play along until she found some way to get away.

His hand landed on her knee. She jumped and turned her attention back to him. “Pia,” he said. The smile was gone from his voice. “I want you to listen to me. I’m serious. Do not try to run away when we get back to the city.”

Her eyes went wide. “What are you talking about?”

“Oh come on, it’s not a big leap,” he retorted. His hand tightened, as hard on her as an iron manacle. “Remember I said I called New York? I talked to my First sentinel, a gryphon named Rune. We think we know who might have been responsible for orchestrating what happened, manipulating and killing Keith and his bookie, making sure the charm got to you and who ended up with the penny.”

“Oh,” she said, her voice very small. “I have a feeling I don’t want to hear this.” The almond she had just swallowed seemed to stick in her throat. She folded the package, put the remaining nuts in the shopping bag at her feet and drank part of a bottle of water before capping it and throwing it back in the bag.

“I have a feeling you’re right. But you have to hear it. If Keith said anything about you, anything at all, you’re not safe. Can you guarantee he didn’t before you made him take the binding oath?”

She squirmed, leaden with the return of fear. “He said he had mentioned me but hadn’t said much. It makes sense if he hadn’t. He would have wanted to try to control how things went down.”

“But try this thought out,” said Dragos. “He also would have had to be pretty damn convincing to someone in order to get that charm. Do you know how many people could make something like that, something with the strength to hold against my strongest spells?”

“I’m guessing by how this conversation is going, not very many,” she muttered.

“Again, you’d be right. Offhand, I can think of three.” The manacle on her leg loosened. He rubbed her thigh. “See what I’m getting at?”

Following instinct, she grasped his hand between hers. He allowed her to hold it in her lap. “Who are they?”

“A very old witch in Russia. The Vampyre Queen in San Francisco is a sorceress. And the Dark Fae King.”

“Shit.” Shit, shit, shit.

“I have people doing research right now to see if there might be someone else who could pull off a charm strong enough to find my hoard. Right now, it looks like there isn’t. The witch is pretty indifferent to things that happen outside of her neighborhood. I don’t see her as likely. And the Vampyre Queen is a friend of sorts, or at least an ally, but the Dark Fae King?” Dragos shook his head with a grim smile. “Urien hates me beyond anything else. It just so happens that for the last two hundred years I’ve had something he desperately wants, and I’m not letting him get his hands on it. He wouldn’t hesitate to level the continent if he thought it would take me down too. You’d be nothing but a small bump in his road.”

From what little she knew of the Fae, there were two Courts, one Dark and one Light, and more often than not they were fighting each other over something. The Light Fae were ruled by a queen. Urien ruled the Dark Fae. He could be the nasty Power that had manipulated Keith behind the scenes.

She focused on the hand she held in her lap. It was such a big, strong hand. His arm was a tree trunk. She realized she was petting him, stroking his long fingers with her own.

“My people are very good. I don’t think you would be able to get far anyway, but you’ve proved to be surprisingly resourceful,” he said. He could be many things—seductive, coaxing, quiet—but this capacity for gentleness surprised her. “And on the off chance you did manage to get away, I would find you again. But you would be in danger until I did, so how about that promise?”

“Okay,” she said.

“Good girl.” His hand tightened on hers and then he pulled away.

They fell into silence. Sometime later, when the sky had lightened to predawn, the headlights behind them flashed, and the car that had been following pulled away. She supposed that meant they had crossed out of the Elven demesne.

After a while her eyelids drooped again. She didn’t think she could fall sleep, but two two-hour stretches and an afternoon nap wasn’t enough rest, since she hadn’t slept a full night through for a while.

She rubbed her temples and said, “One of these days, I’m going to get a real meal and a real night’s sleep.”

Dragos said, “I told Rune to find someone who could cook the kind of food you eat.”

Despite herself, she had to smile. He made vegetarianism sound so foreign, like cooking dog food. “That was very thoughtful of you, thank you.” She had a brief struggle between pride and desire, and desire won. She put her head against his arm.

It was wrong. It was foolish. She shouldn’t take such comfort from the hard, muscled warmth she leaned against. And the last thing she should do is start to rely on it.

He cupped her head and then focused again on driving. She dozed.

Some indefinable time later, she came alert to a vague sense of anxiety. It strengthened as she straightened and looked around. The morning light was stronger, although the sun had not yet appeared at the horizon. The passing scenery was whipping by. She glanced at the speedometer. They were traveling close to 110 miles an hour.