Page 13 of Tempt the Dragon
Chapter Four
They’d been out all day and when Aiken climbed behind the wheel of the truck and prepared to drive off again, her scent reminded him again how different this assignment was from any other he’d had with the Legion.
“That was as unhelpful as all the other stops we’ve made today.” Her tone was as sarcastic as it’d been after leaving each house, storefront or office buildingthey’d visited today. Her hair might be different but that part of Mel was still the same.
He pressed the button to start the engine and eased his foot off the brake before replying. “In order to keep everyone safe, our next move had to be notifying the leaders of each preternatural species in the city. The last thing we want is an otherworldly war kicking off in the streets and humans beinginadvertently hurt.”
“They aren’t as stupid as you think.”
“Who?”
“Humans.” She huffed as if it were a bother to explain to him exactly what she meant. “They know they’re not alone anymore. That display of feline shifters running rampant through Washington, D.C. fifty years ago sealed that fate.”
Aiken recalled that night when feline shifters had attacked an ex-military leaderturned drug dealer and the subsequent years of turmoil that had followed. The unfortunate event had been aired on national television, creating a worldwide frenzy and insurgence of shifters. If there’d ever been any doubt whether there were other beings on this realm with the humans, that night proved there were. It also proved that humans weren’t ready for that revelation. Now, things were much different.The presence of different species on this realm had increased, as well as the unwillingness of some species to remain here in secret. As for the Drakon, it was a hell of a lot easier to protect every human from preternaturals when three-hundred-ton dragons weren’t knocking down buildings and scorching everything from one state to another simply because they could.
“We’re committed to beingmore responsible than that.” At least that was always the first plan of action. In the last year and a half there’d been a couple of occasions where they’d had to shift and take action within the city. The subsequent cleanups—monetarily and magickally—were a huge undertaking as a result, but Theo had approved it and they’d managed to move on. Bringing a full-scale war with the vampires to the streetsof Burgess promised to be more than expensive and revealing, it would be a bloodbath.
“Knowledge is power,” she said when he turned down an alley. They were leaving the industrial district where they’d met with four leaders from the shifter community—two wolves and two jaguars. “You aren’t protecting them by keeping them in the dark. By giving them all the information they need, humans willbe better equipped to make informed decisions about which preternatural beings they should be afraid of.”
“They should be afraid of all of them.” That was a knee-jerk statement and one he knew sounded dire, but it was how he felt. Not knowing the big bad was out there was definitely better than facing it every time they turned around. That situation would undoubtedly lead to widespread fear,which everyone knew would lead to more death.
“I disagree. Fear feeds off ignorance.” Her tone was vehement, her head turned so that she was staring out the window as he now drove through open land.
“Is that what happened to you? Did not knowing what you were for so long cause you to run away instead of embracing your Drakon heritage once I told you all that it entailed?” The air in theinterior of the truck suddenly chilled and he knew he’d pushed another one of her buttons. She had so many don’t-touch subjects it was hard to navigate sometimes. Right now, Aiken had jumped in headfirst, and he wasn’t even trying to tiptoe through the minefield anymore.
“You don’t know what you’re talking about.” Spoken through clenched teeth, the words were stilted yet impactful. “And Ididn’t run.”
“No. You didn’t run, Mel. You took slow methodical steps out of my life and you never looked back.”
“You didn’t either,” was her quick and vehement retort. “So don’t sit there and act like you’re about to pile a bunch of guilt onto my shoulders. You made it seem like it was all or nothing. Either I decided to be what you wanted and live how you wanted or we couldn’t be together,because you were all about following your destiny as a Drakon. You didn’t ask me to stay or even come after me so we could continue what had been working so well for us. That makes us even.”
“We were never even,” he admitted. “Not as long as you held everything about who I was born to be against me. You were angry with me for telling you that you were Drakon, when nobody else had ever toldyou.” He paused, hating that they were still at odds about this, but needing to get it all out once and for all. “How was I supposed to ask you to stay when you made it so clear our love wasn’t enough incentive for you to even try to accept the beast inside you, or what doing that could mean to our future?”
“I’m not going to do this with you, Aiken. I never wanted to do this with you.” Hecould see her shaking her head now and for a second he was the one who felt guilty. Her pain was palpable, as was the sour stench of fear that outlined it.
“And I’m not going to work alongside you while skating around the obvious boulder between us. Better to just get this conversation over with so we can take care of the business at hand.”
She shrugged. “I can take care of business withoutdredging up the past. You’re the one with the problem.”
“Because I’m the one with the questions you don’t want to answer. Or is it the truth you don’t want to face?”
“You have no idea what my truth is, Aiken. None at all.”
Running her fingers through her hair, she sighed and then cleared her throat. “Okay, here it is again, since you’ve suddenly forgot I told you all of this before.I was never afraid of loving you. Not ever. That came as natural as breathing to me.”
And the sound of those words effectively sucked the air right out of his lungs.
“The problem came when you announced that’s what dragons do. They set out into the world and find the one beast they want to claim and then do it without question or concern for how the human may feel about being ‘claimed.’I won’t be told what to do, not by you, or some dated Drakon mythology that my parents neglected to tell me about.”
“What about from the beast that’s an equal part of you and has apparently chosen my beast as well? How do you ignore what it wants?” He was the one shaking his head this time. “Because I gotta tell you, that shit’s getting harder and harder for me.” And she was the only personhe’d ever admitted that to.
“That beast has no place in my life. I’m fine without it.”
“But you use its chameleon power to help your hunting.” All Drakon were born with the ability to use Drakon magick, as well as a specialty power that was often handed down through their clans. “I remember watching you do it. Hell, I pulled you out of a cloak last night.” Because he’d felt her presenceso strongly his beast had been ready to rip free in search of her.
“Magick and power, I’m fine with. It’s being dictated to by a beast that has otherwise never shown me an inch of loyalty, that I’m not willing to accept. None of the Drakon came for me, none of them offered to raise me to teach me what it meant to be one of them. That’s why I denounce them all. If they didn’t want me back then,then I certainly don’t need to be one of them now.”
“Not even to be with me.” Why were those words so painful? After all this time he shouldn’t give a damn what Mel wanted or thought. He shouldn’t give a damn about her. But he did. Still.
