Page 22 of Tempt the Dragon
“I needed you to wait, to give me time.” She paused because her voice wavered. “I needed you, Ziva.”
That may have been too much because Ziva backed away. She ran a hand over the side of her head where her hair was cut short and smoothed back in the chic style she wore. For a few moments she simply watched herblink. Long lashes, hazel eyes, pert lips. This woman was all she could think about, when she wasn’t thinking about making the worst mistake of her life.
“If you’re going to continue helping us, I’ll need to know why.” Ziva’s tone was cool and Enes bristled.
“Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth, Ziva. Take the information I give you and do what you need to do with it. Or don’t take it,I don’t care.” She headed to the door.
“I’ve seen us,” Ziva said.
Those three simple words stopped her departure but she didn’t turn around. Ziva’s clairvoyance was her Drakon power.
“Together. You and me, the way we were before. I’ve seen it.”
If she’d had a heart this was where it would begin thumping wildly in her chest. But she didn’t. Still her fingers clenched at her sidesas something akin to hope brushed over her skin.
“I don’t know why or how. I’m not even sure it’s what I want, but I’ve never lied to you.” Ziva let out a huff of breath. “The two don’t mix. What we were, or are, or whatever. And stopping this vampire army from rising. The conflict is staring us both in the face and it’s better if we don’t forget it.”
“I’m not with them. I wasn’t borninto the Royal Blood and the bastard that changed me wasn’t accepted by them, so that’s that. I’m doomed to be at the bottom of their food chain forever.” That’s why she didn’t give a damn if their plan to bring hundreds of ancient vampires into the world to slaughter every species was foiled because of the information she gave to the dragons. After all she’d been through, Enes couldn’t muster upthe strength to give a damn about the death toll on either end. Nobody had given a damn about her as she’d bled to death in that alley years ago.
“But you still work for them by being here at Twilight. So what are you, one foot in and one out? Make me understand how this works and I’ll make Theo and the others understand.” Damn, she loved the sound of Ziva’s voice. She heard it in her sleepthrough the long hours of daylight and yearned for it the moment she woke at nightfall.
“I’m on my own,” she said. “As always.”
The touch was unexpected. She let down her guard whenever Ziva was around, so she’d been able to move, approach, touch her and Enes didn’t know until it was too late. The second Ziva’s fingers moved from her shoulder to the bare skin of her neck, walking awaywas a no-go.
“I’m here now.” The touch of her fingers easing around to cup her chin had Enes sucking in a breath.
Enes turned, she couldn’t help it. Ziva leaned in, their lips touched. Just a quick brush of softness. Of the sweetness she’d missed, with every bit of life she had left.
“I don’t want them to kill you.” It was an admission she hadn’t thought she’d ever make, but this,the feel of Ziva so close, the scent of her hair, her skin, her blood. She couldn’t lose her, not again.
“Shhhhh.” Ziva stopped her words with another kiss. “Neither of us will die.”
Their lips touched again, this time her tongue stroking over Ziva’s. “No, I won’t let you die,” she whispered when they broke apart momentarily. “But they won’t let both of us live, not together. When theRoyal Blood finds out what I’ve done, they’ll kill me.”
“I won’t let them kill you.”
Enes shook her head. She was through cheating death. It hadn’t paid off in the way she’d wanted it to. The urge to kiss Ziva again was too strong to resist. The very real possibility that this might be the last chance for them to share this intimacy was too much for her to ignore.
“I’ll do whateverI can to keep that army from being raised, as long as I can.” She kissed her again, this time pulling Ziva’s body tight against hers, reveling in the feeling that washed over her, the feeling that filled her with heat and strength and passion. It was love, she knew. She’d always known.
Theo walked into the room and took a seat in an ornately designed high-backed chair that was fit fora king—or an emperor, Mel corrected. To be fair, all twenty-two chairs surrounding this massive wood table were the exact same design as the one the Drakon emperor occupied now. His was at the head of the table, his wife, Shola, coming to sit in the first seat on the side to his right.
The others she’d already met were also seated along the sides, including the two new ones—Steele and hisgirlfriend, Ravyn. Moments before they’d all begun to file into this room Aiken had introduced Ravyn as Steele’s mate. The woman with the startlingly pretty smile and slick-ass hairstyle seemed content with the title while something inside Mel chafed at the thought.
Here was another part of the whole selection/mate scenario that she just didn’t understand. To her, the termmateimplied ownership.Ownership meant she was beholden to whatever someone else said or ordered her to do. Is that what Aiken ultimately wanted? To own her? Nothing in their past relationship had ever given her that impression. Still, the possibility swirled in her mind, making this situation all the more difficult to deal with.
“Tell me what happened.” Theo’s slowly spoken words brought everyone in the room toattention.
As Mel’s presence was that of a contractor, she’d let her gaze wander off to the smooth walls of this room, painted a tree bark brown color. Paintings hung on these walls, similar to the way they did in the main foyer and the one closest to the library. Those were a couple of the places she remembered so far in this fortress.
“We visited the species leaders, gave them the gistof what was going on and asked them to keep an ear to the streets for any chatter about Duncan or what the Royal Blood was up to. They’re all on board.” Aiken gave a recap of the early part of their day.
“That’s good. The last thing we need is any resistance from another group. Then we’d be fighting two wars.” Magnum spoke in his deep commanding tone. He had to be third in line of authorityafter Theo and Shola, of course. The way the others looked to him when he talked spoke of unwavering respect, and a touch of brotherly admiration. The latter came whenever she looked at Reese who’d agreed with what Magnum said by nodding, but still held that bit of mischief in his eyes.
“Tell him about the attack from the vamps and how you went into hiding instead of burning those bastardsto the ground.” Reese came through with the grin as he basically snitched on Aiken to the Drakon emperor. His comments brought the immediate stare of every Drakon in this room to Aiken and a quick flash of defensiveness moved through Mel.
Aiken didn’t spare Reese a very heated glare through his Drakon eyes before turning his attention to Theo. “As I told you when I reported in, we decidedto do a stakeout. We parked a block away from the Royal Blood headquarters and waited to see if Duncan came in or went out. I wasn’t really expecting either but I thought we’d see some type of action since it was about an hour after nightfall when we first arrived. All who were inside would want to come out for the evening.”
