Page 29 of Burn for the Dragon
“Why did you bring her here?” Kohl asked with genuine curiosity. “Why not just let her go?”
Hawke gave Kohl a level stare, every cell in his body screaming in revolt as he said, “To do what I have to do to protect our coven and our home.”
“Don’t you think not having a dragon in our midst would do a better job at that?”
“She came to us.”
“To help her break her brother out of Parasupe. Which proves she either has no idea of the bad blood between your species and hers, or she’s just playing us. What’s to keep them from tracking her here?”
It saddened Hawke that his friend didn’t include himself in either of those groups. “They won’t find her here, for just that reason. And I will do whatever I have to do to protect the coven, but I firmly believe she didn’t know. About her brother, or about herself.”
“Good. Because you may need to.” He paused. “As soon as we find out what she’s really about, she’s out. And I’m leaving that mess up to you to take care of.” His tone was final. The words of a true leader who had to make hard decisions and stand by them.
Hawke lifted one eyebrow in surprise. “I thought you’d be softer about this. After all, you wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for your mom and dad hooking up.”
Kohl barked out a derisive laugh and slapped his palms flat against his own chest. “That’s exactly it, Hawke. You want to bring another abomination like me into this world?”
“You’re not a fucking abomination.”
“No? What would you call it, then? I’m a freak of nature. And I would’ve been dead a long time ago if the Master hadn’t taken us in.”
“Because he saw you were worth keeping alive.”
“Because he wanted to fuck my mom.”
Hawke almost forgot about Everly for a second. Almost. “What?”
Kohl laughed bitterly. “Yeah. I was young, but I wasn’t stupid. And when he was done with her, he killed her.”
This time his attention was all on his friend. “What?”
“Better that than have a grown dragon running loose in his coven.” Kohl’s shoulders suddenly sagged, and he rubbed the back of his neck. “I can’t prove it. But I know he did. She was healthy. She was fine. And then she…wasn’t.”
His friend’s pain was plain to see this time. “Why didn’t you ever say anything?”
Another bitter laugh burst from Kohl’s throat. “To who? You? Or one of the other vampires who were so far up the Master’s ass it was a wonder they could piss without his permission?” He shoved his hands in his pockets and shook his head. “No. There was no one to tell. And I was too young to do anything about it. Hell, even if I’d tried, I would’ve either been killed or shoved back out into the sun to be captured by assholes like Parasupe or taken out by another coven. If I didn’t burn alive first.”
Hawke felt like an asshole. On an impulse, he grabbed Kohl in a hug, ignoring his efforts to push him off. “I’m sorry, man. I really am. I wish I’d known.”
Finally, Kohl gave up and hugged him back hard for a quick second before pushing him away for real this time. “It’s in the past. Nothing you can do about it now. So, don’t worry about it.”
Hawke scrubbed his face with his hands. “Fuck.” That was about all he could say to sum up this conversation.
“I’m gonna need to talk to Everly.” Kohl paused with one hand on the lock. “Are you sure she didn’t know anything at all about what’s going on with her? Didn’t know about her brother?”
“She only does now because I told her before I brought her here. But she was completely shocked when I stuck a mirror in front of her face tonight. If her eyes have done that before, she wasn’t aware of it.”
“That’s how it starts.”
Hawke well remembered the horror on Kohl’s face the first time it had happened to him. “Yeah.”
“And, Hawke?”
“Yeah?”
“Stay the fuck away from Everly.” Kohl turned on his heel and stalked off to go find Devon and Everly.
Stay away from the female. Easy, right?
