Page 12 of Rurik
“Luis, he is headed your way. His motorcycle is marked with a GPS. I will send you the coordinates when hestops.”
“My men will take him out,” was the curtreply.
“Our deal doesn’t come into effect until he isdead.”
The other dragon hissed. “Wewillkill him. And then the Moscow drug trade is oursalone.”
“Of course.” It was an easy concession to make. Dimitri had no interest in the drug trade. Luis was a Brazilian Starback shifter, and his little overseas empire was welcome to do what they wanted once the Barinovs were eliminated orneutralized.
His only concern was that the hotheaded Starbacks might draw the attention of the Brotherhood if they weren’t careful. He’d faced the Brotherhood before, many centuries ago. He’d witnessed them slay dragons in Europe with cunning traps and deadly weapons. Even though they’d possessed the talents and intelligence of cavemen, the Middle Ages had somehow given these human mortals an unfair advantage. But today the Brotherhood was limited in their ability to fight the preternatural unless it was absolutely necessary. They were more concerned with preventing humankind from knowing that monsters did exist. But times changed, and if the Brotherhood should turn their eye toward his kind again, he wanted to be ready forthem.
Dimitri would not let another slaughter of dragons occur, not again. Once he was in control and had a strong alliance with the Starbacks, he would extend his connections to the Chinese serpents next. When the dragons stood united, they could defeat the Brotherhood and truly take over. They would put the humans in their place, beneath the clawed feet of theirbetters.
But in order for that to happen, Rurik had todie.
4
Don’t be afraid. Don’t be afraid of anything. Whatever you have been, you are mine now. I can hold you. ?Peter S. Beagle,The Last Unicorn
Tonight was a fucking disaster.
Rurik’s dragon growled in agreement inside his head. He revved his engine as he drove through the streets of Moscow, trying not to think about how good it felt to have Charlotte’s legs wrapped around his hips. He was supposed to have been busy handling the account books tonight, not getting distracted by a shapely blonde in a killer reddress.
He’d seen her being bothered by those fools, and he knew he had to intervene. But there was more to it than that. There was something about her that he and his dragon couldn’t resist. She’d almost seemed to glow when he’d first seen her in his club. And her scent…God, he could have inhaled it for days and never gotten tired of it. If he hadn’t known better, he’d have sworn she was a dragoness. But that wasn’t possible. She lacked any of the telltale signs of being ashifter.
When she’d been threatened, his dragon had almost lost control. One thing he didn’t allow in his club was women being harassed, especially those he was attracted to. His dragon had wanted to rip those bastards limb from limb when he’d caught the scent of the woman’s fear in the air. That was one of the reasons he knew she could not be a dragoness. Yet the moment he drew near her, he realized his intervention had been dangerous. Her mouthwatering scent was somehow addictive, like a drug pumping through his veins, and there was something more abouther…
A virgin. In his club. A curvy, untouched female of childbearing age. He’d only been around one of those once before, when he’d met his brother Grigori’s future mate, Madelyn. The scent then had been unmistakable, almost irresistible. But this woman? It had been impossible to walk away from her. He finally understood what Grigori had told him about the temptations of virgins. Rurik hadn’t wanted to believe his brother’s warnings, but there was no denying itnow.
This new obsession couldn’t have come at a worse time. He couldn’t afford such distractions, not when his family was so fragile. The Barinovs once had great allies, but over the years the noble dragon families had begun to diminish, until all that were left were the power-hungry lines like theDrakors.
I’m the only one strong enough to protect my family, because I’m not foolish enough to fall inlove.
The uneasy peace Grigori had made with Dimitri Drakor after their battle three months ago did not fool Rurik. Nothing would hold Drakor to his word now. He had nothing to lose, and Drakor would do anything to destroy the Barinovs. That made Rurik’s dragon pace restlessly inside his head. Danger was always on the horizon. It had already cost himdearly.
Nikita. The Frenchwoman who’d worked in his bar for two years, a possiblemate.
Her lifeless eyes flashed across his mind, and he gripped the handlebars of his motorcycle tighter.Don’t think of her. Don’t relive thatpain.
Rurik hadn’t allowed himself to claim her as his mate, but his heart and his dragon recognized the loss of what could’ve been. He had no intention of dying young from the loss of a truemate.
And I have no intention of letting Charlotte test mycontrol.
He had to take Charlotte home and walk away from her, no matter how irresistible she was. There was somethingtootempting about her, and it wasn’t just her body that called him. During dinner he’d become addicted to her laughter and her shy smiles, but when she’d danced for him in the cage, he’d almost come undone. She was different from all the other women, even Nikita. He’d come so close to losing control again and again with Charlotte. She made him feel like an untried youth courting his first female. He hadn’t been that reckless or desperate with lust incenturies.
It continued to rain as they rode to her hotel near Red Square. Charlotte clung to him from behind, and he could feel the shivers racking her body. She had to be soaked to the bone. He parked near the hotel entrance and waited for a crowd of people on the sidewalk to clear. Then he helped Charlotte off his bike and set the helmet on his seat. A valet appeared and took the bikeaway.
“You’re coming inside?” Charlotte asked. The lower half of her hair was drenched and hung in dark gold strands. For a moment, he was lost imagining curling that liquid gold around his fingers. With a shake, he pulled himself away from the daydream and the dangerous path it couldlead.
“I’m taking you right to your door. I told you the city isn’t safe, even in a nice hotel likethis.”
He checked the street, out of habit rather than actual suspicion, and saw a black sedan coming from the same direction they had come. Could be nothing; black sedans were ubiquitous in Russia. It pulled up close to the valet booth. Rurik guided Charlotte away from the street in case it splashed water onto her. The window of the car rolled down, perhaps to hand the key to thevalet.
Instead, the lights of the hotel glinted off the barrel of asilencer.
Rurik’s instincts, honed by centuries of combat, subterfuge, and betrayal, came roaring back to life. He grabbed Charlotte and threw her to the ground, covering her body with his. The hotel’s lobby window exploded behind them. He grunted as a bullet tore into his back, another hit his shoulder, and a third hit histhigh.
All around them, glass tinkled to the ground in diamond-like shards, the light from the chandeliers inside reflected in dazzling sparkles over the broken field of glass. Sounds rushed around him, the jumble too chaotic for him to process. He focused on breathing, his blood pounding in his ears. A dragon, once engaged, focused on sight and movement, notsound.
