Page 54 of Tempt the Dragon
“What do you mean?” He stared at her quizzically. “I’m her mate. Didn’t we just get finished talking about the two of us being selected for each other?”
“You’re her mate. Her partner. A link that completes the person or Drakon that she is. You don’t control her.” Ravyn made what he was feeling sound foolishly wrong.
“I don’t want to control her. I justwant to protect her. How’s that wrong?”
“If protecting her means stifling her magick or power until it only conforms to your guidelines, then that’s totally wrong.” Shola’s tone had changed yet again, to that of the chastising parent.
Ravyn leaned forward now, as well. “Besides, she told me you were the one pushing for her to fully accept being a Drakon. If that’s true, then why wouldyou think she can’t do this?”
Sitting back in the chair, Aiken could only shake his head. “See, this is the confusing part. I did want her to accept her Drakon half. I’ve always wanted her to be everything she was meant to be.”
“And now that you see that accepting her Drakon half consists of walking into this battle with the same urge to win as the rest of us, you want her to walk away,”Shola said.
“I want her to fight beside me, to stay close so that if anything goes wrong—which we all know it can and probably will—I can protect her.”
“Have you ever considered that she can protect herself?” Ravyn asked. “I know Steele thought he had to protect me from the Reaper. He didn’t want me to die and that was cool. I wasn’t ready to die either. But when it really came down toit, I had to stand up to the Reaper to save us both. Steele never considered that I’d been just as big a part of saving my life as he was.”
“It’s that male Drakon logic. They’ve got to dominate, to be the one coming up with all the answers, fighting all the battles. It takes them a while to digest the fact that we’re not just their partners in bed, but that we’ve been specifically createdto be their partners in times of war as well. It’s why we were selected to be with them in the first place,” Shola said.
For the third or fourth time he felt like this wasn’t really a conversation he wanted to be part of.
“Look, I’m just not feeling comfortable with how this has to play out. But she’s decided she’s going and no amount of me brooding or even arguing with her is going tochange her mind. I learned that eighty years ago.” He stood, ready to leave them to continue talking about how chauvinistic and idiotic male Drakon could be.
Ravyn stood too. “Then you can try showing her that you’re in agreement instead of wearing that wrinkle in your brow that gives away your discontent with the situation.” She tapped him on the forehead to reiterate her words.
Hearing the door open and close, Mel used the back of her hands to wipe the tears that had been falling for the last few minutes. With a final press of her fists to her eyes she sucked in a deep breath and fought for control. She couldn’t show him anything less.
“Hey there.” He sounded uncertain, like maybe he was fighting for control as well. “You ready to go over details to the plan. Bleu’smaking all the reservations and we’ll be ready to leave early tomorrow morning.”
“Uh-huh, yeah. Um, about that.”Come on, get your words together.She took a deep huff and turned around ready to tell him what, she wasn’t quite sure, but the moment she looked into his eyes, she faltered. “No. I can’t go.”
“What?” Concern and confusion warred for space in his tone and the frown that immediatelymarred his face. He took a step closer and she wanted to take two back. If he touched her, she’d break.
“Something’s come up and I won’t be able to go. We should probably meet with Theo again to come up with a Plan B. You’re the one who taught me to always have alternative plans, remember? And in this situation a Plan C and D might also be a good thing because there’s no way we can considerall the anomalies since nobody’s ever been to this region of the Congo, or on a burial site guarded by witches’ spells.” The second his hands fell on her shoulders she trembled. “Don’t.”
“Tell me what happened. Who was that call from?” Hewouldzero right in on the call. Well, it had been the last thing she’d said to him, when she was all excited about heading out to fight the vamps.
She cleared her throat. “It was Mr. Beaumont. He’s Rosilda’s neighbor. He’s been checking on her daily since she became really sick. When she’s not being stubborn as a mule, as Mr. Beaumont puts it, she allows him to take her to her dialysis treatments. She has to go every day.” Or else she’d die.
“Slow down, baby, and tell me what happened.” Damn she had a love/hate relationship with him callingher that. On the one hand it endeared him to her, made it seem as if she were the only woman in his world, his heart. On the other, it made her feel weak, like he called her that because he knew he had to treat her delicately, to protect her, to save her.
Shaking her head, she tried desperately to get ahold of her wayward thoughts. She hadn’t been able to think straight since completing thecall and her heart still raced with the fear that was now swirling throughout her body.
“I just want to help, Mel. But I can’t if you don’t tell me what’s going on.”
He would want to help. Since the day she’d met him Aiken had always been trying to figure out a way to help her accept being a Drakon, to accept the Selection process, to accept they were meant to be together.
“Rosilda’sbeen rushed to the hospital. The clock is ticking, and her organs are beginning to shut down. If they don’t find a match for her to receive the kidney and liver transplant, she’ll die. And when they find the match, I still need to have the money to pay for the surgery and subsequent rehabilitation. I can’t be in the Congo when I need to be here. Even a Drakon can’t be two places at once.”
She probably shouldn’t have said that; being a Drakon wasn’t the problem in this situation.
“Just tell me what you need me to do.” The sincerity in his voice pricked her heart and she wanted to do nothing but fall into his arms and let him hold her. That wouldn’t change the circumstances but the beast inside of her knew it would calm their anxiety.
“I need to go to her. I need to be atthe hospital and to make preparations. I have some money saved and I can apply for a loan.” Shaking her head again, she tried to hold on to the logical line of thought. “I’m sure she has some type of medical insurance, although throughout the years that coverage has gotten worse.”
“How’ve you managed to keep anyone from finding out how old she really is? I mean, as Drakon we don’t deal withthe human medical system, but as a half human I’m assuming Rosilda has to wade through all that red tape their government is so good at constructing.”
She nodded. “It hasn’t been easy, but luckily I’m a chameleon. I’ve gotten in the vital records department more times than I can count, changing her birth certificate. Everything’s computerized now so I do the same at the insurance company,go in, take a cloak that’s close to one of the employees long enough to steal their login codes and then I wait. After hours I log in and change those records too. Currently they have her down as a seventy-eight-year-old, which oddly enough works well with the deterioration detected in her kidneys and subsequently her liver.”
