Page 58 of Rurik
“This was before we came to an understanding,” Damien said diplomatically. “Let’s stay focused on the objective here.” Rurik couldn’t help but snort at this oversimplification. But for Charlotte’s sake, he let itgo.
Grigori’s voice lost some of its vigor. “Until the drug wears off in Rurik’s system, we won’t know where sheis.”
No one moved. Even Damien feltfrozen.
“So what do we do?” Jasonasked.
Grigori spoke up again. “MacQueen. I need you to listen to me. Drakor will rain fire down on this city. He has nothing left to lose, and once he learns he’ll be fighting you as well as us, he won’t care about casualties, and the first person to die will be your sister. We know his lairs and his allies better than you. If there is any chance to save her, it lies in trustingus.”
There was a tense silence as Damien glanced at the faces of his team, then looked to Rurik and the phone heheld.
“What’s yourplan?”
“Follow my brother to the roof of the hotel. Mikhail and I will pick you up. Five minutes.” Grigori hung up, and Rurik gave the cell phone back to Nicholas. He slapped Damien on the shoulder, a serious expression shared betweenthem.
“Don’t take it personally, but we’re in charge now, hunter boy.” Rurik grabbed his leather motorcycle jacket, slinging it on as he strode to the door. “You guyscoming?”
The others collected their gear and followed Rurik to the elevators. They had no time to waste, not when Charlotte’s life hung in thebalance.
17
Dragons and legends…It would have been difficult for any man not to want to fight beside a dragon.?Patricia Briggs,Dragon Blood
“You are Rurik’s mate,”the Russian dragon mused as he leaned in and inhaled Charlotte’s scent. She tensed, closing her eyes as he drew close enough to kiss her. He didn’t, but the invasion of her personal space wasunsettling.
When he finally leaned away from her, she opened her eyes again. Luis, the man she’d head-butted, leaned against the closed door, watching her with black eyes. He’d brought her to an expensive high-rise structure in Moscow, newly built and mostly empty. She almost fainted at the height when she realized they were more than forty stories up in an empty corner office. She sat in a metal chair, but she wasn’t restrained. Why bother? She had no way to escape, exceptjumping.
Luis’s gaze raked down her body. “She reeks ofBarinov.”
Dimitri Drakor didn’t seem nearly as brutish as she’d expected. He was nothing like Luis, who’d so casually talked about using her and leaving her ravaged body for Rurik to find. Instead, Drakor stared at with her with open curiosity, as though she were a strangely shaped puzzle piece that wasn’t fitting where heexpected.
“He has claimed you.” Drakor brushed her hair back from her neck, his fingers tracing the outline of the still healing bite mark Rurik had left onher.
“That’s just a love bite,” she said, forcing herself to calm down. They weren’t going to kill her, at least notyet.
Drakor smirked. “Justa love bite? I think not. You experienced thedar bogov, didn’t you?” Charlotte looked puzzled, not knowing what he meant. The Russian dragon struggled for words. “I believe in English it means ‘gift of the gods.’ You could see through his eyes, and he through yours.” He reached up and curled his fingers around her throat but did notsqueeze.
“Did you know he loved another before you? My son killed her in front of him, before Rurik murdered him. But he never claimedher.”
Charlotte swallowed. The suffering he must have endured being so close to her for so long, yet holding himselfback.
Drakor growled softly, his eyes glowing a reddish gold as he captured her attentionagain.
“I’d counseled my son to wait, to let Rurik mate her first, but he was young and impulsive. He got what he deserved, I suppose. But now I will have my wish. When I kill you, Rurik will die. It might take hours, maybe days, but it will happen. And then his brothers, lost in grief over his death, will be easy targets.” His fingers pressed a little harder into her throat, but his touch was still loose enough that she could breathe. It didn’t stop the panic inside her,however.
“Then why haven’t you killed meyet?”
“I have my reasons,” Drakor said. “Nothing you need concern yourself about. But then there is this…” He crooked a finger in the air. Luis stepped forward, holding up a set of three vials. Charlotte recognized them with dread. They were early samples taken from her lab. A stronger version of the drug she’d created, a version that she didn’t trust herself to use because she feared it might cause long-lastingdamage.
“Yes,” Drakor said, still watching her face. “Luis recovered these from the hunters and thought they might prove useful. Do you care to enlighten us as to what they are? My instincts tell me that you know. In fact, I feel as though your entire presence here in Russia revolves aroundthem.”
Charlotte tried to remember the training she’d had from her brothers, tried to think her way through this.Stay alive. That was her biggest concern. Because staying alive kept Rurik alivetoo.
“It’s a drug I created. It has the power to make a shifter’s dragon godormant.”
Luis looked like he wanted to throw the vials on the floor and smash them beneath hisboots.
“Why would you make such a thing?” Drakor asked, then raised a finger before she could answer. “Ah. Yes. Of course. Control. Your brothers have plenty of weapons to kill us with, yes, but the Brotherhood has never been able to controlus.”
