Page 28 of Rurik
“You’re breathtaking.” He cupped her face, and his hands were warm even without gloves. “Just when I think I’ve gotten used to looking at you, it’s like the sun opens up and it shines on you all overagain.”
Rurik, her beautiful scarred battle dragon, was murmuring sweet words that were breaking her heart. The serum in her purse seemed to weigh a thousand pounds. His green eyes glowed with an inner fire that mesmerized her. She leaned into his body, pressing herself against him. She didn’t care if anyone was watching. She was flooded with a hunger for this man, but it went beyond physical. It went to the farthest depths of her very soul. The truth was on the tip of her tongue. Could she tell himeverything?
“Rurik…” she began, her voice breaking. Could she confess future sins to this man? Because she couldn’t deny it any longer—she was falling for him. Like a shooting star, she was burning up in his atmosphere, and there was no going back to the safety of the lies she’dspun.
“What is it? Are you cold? You’re shivering.” He curled his arms around her. The leather of his jacket was warm; his body heat defied the snow and icy wind. She rubbed her cheek against his chest, breathing in the scents of leather andman.
“I know.” The words shot out of hermouth.
He raised her chin so she had to look up at him. “Knowwhat?”
“Iknow.I know what youare.”
His concern sharpened in an instant to a cold, almost feralgaze.
“What I am?” he saidslowly.
“Yes. I know about you…and your brothers.” She drew a soft deep breath, her body shaking from fear. “You’re a dragon shifter.” There. It was done. Nothing could take the wordsback.
Rurik’s arms tightened around her. “How?” His eyes left her face as he searched the crowds on the palace embankment. He then jerked her away from the people. She almost tripped trying to keep up with him. When they reached the gilded gates of the Winter Palace, he stopped her hard enough that she fell intohim.
“How?” herepeated.
This had been a mistake—she shouldn’t have told him. The rage in his eyes waschilling.
“A friend of mine saw your brother back in London. She knew he was a dragon.She—”
“Who is your friend?” Rurik snarled. His gaze turned from green to gold, and a fuzzy dizziness swamped her. She couldn’t look away, even though she wanted to. A compulsion to speak overcameher.
“MegStratford.”
“And how did she know what Iam?”
“She’s a hunter.” She hadn’t meant to tell him that, but she bit her tongue before her brother’s name could slip outtoo.
“The Brotherhood?” Rurik’s face was pale, the dark scar turning pink on his cheek and forehead. The dizziness in her head fadedslightly.
“Yes.”
He gripped her by the arm and started to drag her away from the snowy grounds of the Romanov palace. “You’re coming with me, rightnow.”
“Where are we going?” She tried to break free of his hand. Her heart beat hard against her ribs, and she swallowed the lump of panic lodged in herthroat.
“We are going somewhere safe so I can get some answers. Do not scream for help. No one will come to your aid.” He glanced back at her, a fierce look that gave her chills. “You know what I am, so you know what I can do. If you cooperate, you won’t be harmed, but Iwillget my answers out of you—one way oranother.”
Charlotte knew she was in serious trouble. The sweet, sexy man who’d caressed her this morning was gone. In his place was the dragon shifter she’d feared before she’d stepped into the nightclub. The intimidating enforcer from the Brotherhoodfiles.
Telling him the truth had seemed so important. But now she feared it might cost her everything—perhaps even herlife.
9
Heroes know that things must happen when it is time for them to happen. A quest may not simply be abandoned; unicorns may go unrescued for a long time, but not forever; a happy ending cannot come in the middle of the story. ?Peter S. Beagle,The Last Unicorn
Damien steppedoff the Boeing C-17 Globe Master military transport, tactical gear backpack slung over one shoulder. His team followed behindhim.
“Welcome to Russia,” Damien called out to the rest of the hunters andtrackers.
They’d touched down on a private airbase run by the Russian military. After the end of the Cold War, the Brotherhood had created secret agreements with local military bases in every major country to have safe passage in and out of any region. The local military assumed that they were some kind of special forces, though the use of an American transport no doubt raised some eyebrows. The Brotherhood’s true identity was only shared with top government officials, and sometimes not even then, depending on the country’s stability. The last thing anyone wanted was for word of the supernatural to reach the generalpopulation.
