Page 59 of Firedrake Betrayal
“Am a friend,” Da gasps as he yanks on Isaiah’s wrist. “Just a friend.”
The backyard door swings open. Shep and the dragon burst in. The dragon looks irritated and Shep frustrated. They must have been arguing—probably about Jade—out there.
“Get the fuck out of here,” I snarl as Jade whispers. “You. It was you.”
Something brushes my bare arm.
A translucent blue glowy ribbon thing about two inches thick circles Jade’s right wrist. I scramble back, nearly tumbling over the coffee table. “Ah! The fuck is that?”
When Jade looks down, the ribbon slows its circling motion. “Oh. It came back.”
It came back?
“What is that?” Since Jade doesn’t seem surprised by whatever it is, I decide I don’t need to grab her and pull her to safety.
“Spirit.” Dominik smiles. “She’s emerging.”
Every time this guy opens his mouth, I want to kill him. First for kidnapping Jade. Now, for knowing more about what’s going on with her than I do. I can draw stick men andmaybehint at some dangers in the world. I have no way of protecting her from them, and I fucking hate that.
“What are you doing here?” Shep demands as he stalks toward my da. “Isaiah, stop choking him. We need answers.”
Isaiah loosens his grip and my da focuses on Jade. He smiles. “Hi, there.”
“Come near me and I will set you on fire,” Jade threatens as the glowy blue thing whips faster around her wrist.
I give the blue ribbon that’s a little too close for comfort a nervous glance, hoping it knows I’m a friend. “And can you do that?”
Jade’s eyes narrow. “Now feels like a good first time. You wore Patten’s face and tried to feed on me.Twice.”
Dominik’s eyes flare an ominous red-orange. “That was you?”
Da gulps. “I’m here to help. If you want the collector, you’re going to need my help.”
“You don’t know the first thing about helping anyone, Da,” I say.
“Da?” Jade breathes.
Shit.
I take in her wide-eyed expression and realize I forgot to tell her something important. “Uh, I was going to mention that.”
“He’s your father?” she breathes.
She’s not backing away from me.Yet. I hope to fuck I haven’t made her think I’m anything like him.
I forget about Da. He’s no longer important. Convincing her that I’m not interested in feeding on her takes precedence. “I was going to tell you but?—”
“Things keep happening.” She sighs, scrubbing a hand over her face. Which is when I notice the blue ribbon disappeared as suddenly as it appeared.
“Uh.” I nod at her wrist. “What happened to your blue ribbon friend?”
She smiles faintly. “I don’t know that it’s a friend.”
I wrench my eyes from her wrist. It scared the shit out of me, but I’m glad she has something to protect her from my da. “Well. If you ever want to use it to take out my da, go for it. You might have better luck than I did.”
She stares at me. “You tried to kill him?”
“That night he took a night stroll in Wilkerson,” Shep says dryly, eying my da as if waiting for an excuse to kill him. The dragon’s eyes are no longer flame orange, so I guess he isn’t in danger of cremating Isaiah while he takes out my da. A relief.
