Chapter 20
Chapter
Twenty
LORD
U nease prickles under my skin as my scales ripple across it rapidly. My dragon is not at all relaxed and I can’t say I am either. It was a mistake to let Alrick go alone, but what can I do about it now? I could find him using our bond and his scent, but then what? Kidnap him from his own family?
“Lord.”
I look at Arson, aware that I haven’t heard any of the last twenty minutes of conversation.
“What?”
“I said Dahlia is on her way over.”
I nod, returning my gaze to the glass of whiskey I’ve been nursing for over an hour. “Okay.”
“Dude. He’s got it bad,” Valentino says.
“Of course he does. It’s his mate,” Lake chimes in.
“It’ll be okay,” Dempsey offers, ever the soother.
My brothers and their mates continue discussing me as though I’m not in the room, and even as their voices offer some comfort, my chest tightens. I need to know he’s okay. I need him here with me.
My doorbell rings, and I’m vaguely aware of Dahlia’s presence, until a pop and hiss causes Montrose to screech and jump into Tino’s arms.
“Get that away from me,” he says, curling his body around my brother’s.
“It won’t hurt you,” Dahlia says, holding the offending bottle slightly in front of her. “Unless you drink it.”
“What is that?” Lake asks.
“A special request,” she says, setting it on the coffee table in front of me. “It has to cure for three more hours, but I figured I’d bring it over, if only to get it out of my workshop. Are you sure about this, Lord?”
I glare at the bottle filled with spitting liquid in a swamp green color. It smells terrible. I want to throw it across the room, but instead, I turn away from it.
“Can you at least tell me its purpose?” Dahlia asks.
“Oh shit,” Arson says. “It severs the bond, doesn’t it?”
I respond with only a curt nod.
“Severs what bond?” Dahlia asks.
“Mate bond.” Nico huffs. “Lord accidentally on purpose bonded himself to a dragon slayer.”
As soon as the words hit my dragon, he thrashes inside me, bringing a wave of nausea with it. I’d rather pluck the scales from my body than sever this bond. A tendril of smoke escapes my lips, and I growl.
“That makes a lot more sense now,” Dahlia muses. “It was the first time in all my years of practice that it felt like the recipe was fighting me.”
“What do you mean?” Dempsey asks.
“It was like the ingredients had their own mind. I’d add a leaf, and it would somehow end up on the table again. As you can see, it’s a very active potion. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“Where did you get this recipe?” Tino asks me.
“Dragon mage,” I mutter.
“Another thing that makes sense. As soon as the potion was complete, the paper I wrote the recipe down on shriveled up and burned itself out.” She grins. “It was pretty cool, not gonna lie.”
“Fascinating,” Dempsey says.
I huff with frustration. I should thank Dahlia for her efforts, but I can’t be agreeable to something so at odds with everything I am.
“Where is the mate?” she asks, causing another searing pain to stab my chest.
“He went home,” Nico explains.
“No,” I growl. “This is home. I’m his home.”
Everyone falls silent for a few seconds until Tino speaks up.
“He went to deal with his family.”
“About what?” Dahlia asks.
“Okay, here’s the rundown,” Lake says. “Lord’s dragon led him to the woods where he found a fatally wounded man. Lord used his fire to save him, which as we all know, bonds them together as mates. Unfortunately, the object of his Lord’s affection turns out to be a dragon slayer.”
“He’s not a slayer,” I growl.
Lake raises his hands in surrender. “Correction. He’s part of a dragon slayer family.”
“Holy hemlock,” Dahlia says.
“His mate has plans to return to Lord.”
“If his father doesn’t kill him first.” Simply speaking the words leaves a bitter taste on my tongue and has bile rising in my throat. “How can I sit here, useless, when my mate might need me?”
“Trust your bond,” Arson says softly. “Use it.”
Closing my eyes, I search the bond, but I’m met with fear and anger. “He’s hurting.”
“But he’s alive, right?” Arson asks. “He’s strong and he’s got your fire in his veins.”
His words only help slightly. The special weapons taunt my thoughts, but I have to hold out hope his own father wouldn’t use them on him, and a regular sword would do nothing to harm him.
“Why don’t I put some steaks on the grill,” Nico says. “Get our minds off the situation for a few hours until Alrick comes back. He’s gonna come back, Lord.”
I nod. I’m positive I won’t be able to eat, but at least I can surround myself with the love of my family.
I get to my feet, but just as I do, I’m dropped to my knees by the most intense pain in my gut. My dragon thrashes, and a stream of fire burns through my throat.
“Oh gods. They’re hurting him.”
ALRICK
My mouth fills with blood as Digby lands another punch to my jaw. He’s bound my arms, making it impossible for me to fight back. Viggo lies on the ground, taking kicks to the gut from our dad.
So much for talking.
I should have known better. Calm, logical discussions have never been a thing in our family. I was a fucking idiot for thinking I could change that. I was an idiot for thinking I could change him . I spit out the blood welling in my mouth and glare at Digby.
“You disgraceful, worthless fucks,” Dad growls at Viggo. “I always knew the two of you were soft, but I had no idea you’d turn on your own flesh and blood.”
I scoff, spitting more blood, my stomach roiling at the salty copper flavor filling my mouth. “You expect loyalty when this is how you treat your flesh and blood. That’s rich coming from you.”
Digby wraps his hand around my throat and squeezes, his fingers biting into my flesh hard enough to leave deep bruises that should last for days, tighter and tighter until I’m struggling to wheeze through each attempted breath. “Don’t talk to him that way,” he growls, releasing his grip.
I cough and glare at my oldest brother again. “You’re such a follower,” I grit out through the pain. “Daddy’s little soldier. You’re pathetic.”
I see the shame my words cause flash across his face, his jaw ticking and his eyes narrowing. Just to prove how much he takes after our dad; he responds by landing another punch to my gut. The force of it makes bile rise in my throat and knocks the wind out of me. The worst part of it is, I never really expected Digby to take my side. If our dad tells him to kill me, he’ll do it without blinking. I just wish he could see that he’s just as expendable as I am.
“You have nothing to offer him but brawn,” I taunt him with a wheeze. “You’ll always be in his shadow.”
“Shut up, loser. At least I’m not a traitor.”
“There are two sides to every conflict. You’re on the wrong side.”
Viggo’s pained moans rattle through me, and I know I have to do something before our dad kills him. If I can confuse Digby enough to let me go, I have a shot at getting us out of this.
“He told me once he was ashamed of you.”
Digby’s brow creases. “He did not.”
I nod, fighting back the pain in my chest—not just my pain but Lord’s. I can feel his panic making my heart race.
“He said you were his least favorite, but you showed the most enthusiasm. He said if I could be as committed as you, he’d pass his sword to me when he died.”
“You shut up,” Digby hisses. “He didn’t say that.”
“He did. He thinks you’re a dumb brute. No mind for strategy, just violence. He said you could never lead an army.”
Digby’s eyes fill with hurt, but I don’t give a fuck. I’ve suffered too many beatings at his hands to care how he feels. Even if our dad never actually said these things, it’s how he feels. He’s never had an ounce of love or respect for any of us. We’re tools to him. We always have been.
“He doesn’t love us, Digs. Look how he’s treated us. He doesn’t care if we live or die.”
Digby glances behind me as our dad continues to pummel Viggo, whose grunts are growing quieter and weaker with every blow. Please don’t let him die because of me .
“He… he did it to make us strong. To make us men.” There’s a quiver in Digby’s voice now though, the slightest hint that maybe a tiny part of him knows I’m right.
“If I shoved a sword into your chest right now, he wouldn’t try to save you. He would call you weak. That’s what he called me, right? When I was attacked? He told you to leave me for dead. You took my sword with you, and you left me there to die alone in the woods, and our own dad didn’t even shed a tear.”
His jaw twitches. “You aligned with the enemy.”
“No. You have,” I spit. “ He is the enemy.”
“Dammit, Digby,” Dad bellows. “Can you do anything right?”
I turn my head to see my brother’s body on the ground, crumpled and still. Before I can do anything, a sharp pain sears through my side. I look down to see the flash of silver as my dad pulls back the sword he just used to tear my flesh open. I gasp, as much with surprise as with pain. He stabbed me, he actually stabbed me.
I huff out shallow breaths, staring wide-eyed down at the blood rapidly staining my shirt, wet and sticky and warm.
Fuck, fuck, fuck .
“I have a feeling your blood will help us break through the dragon compound.” He chuckles darkly, then glares at Digby. “Drop him. He can bleed out.”
A conflicted mix of emotions flashes across Digby’s face before he does as he’s told and lets me fall to the ground.
“Come on, Digby. We’re going back to that compound and torching the dragons.” He kneels down and roughly grabs my chin. “I’m going to use your sword to kill them. Hopefully you’ll be alive long enough to think about the damage you caused.”
He shoves my face as he takes his hand away and stomps off toward the main house. Digby lingers, glancing back. I reach out a hand, but he tears his gaze away, leaving me and Viggo on the ground to die.
I let out a broken wail, slamming my fist into the soft dirt and dragging in pained breaths through clenched teeth. It can’t end like this. Not now. Lord promised me we’d have centuries, fucking millennia together, not just a few weeks. I try to stand, but pain sears through me. I collapse right back into the dirt and close my eyes.
I drift in and out of consciousness for only the gods know how long, an endless cycle of pain versus nothingness until death seems like the kinder option. But then Lord’s words come back to me, breaking through the fog.
He tried to kill me and left me for dead.
Except I won’t die.
Not yet.
I reach down to assess just how bad the damage is. Will Lord be feeling the poison seeping through his own veins yet? Is it making him weak? My shirt is stiff with drying blood, and I shove my fingers through the hole to check the skin beneath. To my surprise, the wound doesn’t feel nearly as bad as it did before. Actually, the pain is starting to fade as well.
A stunned laugh bursts from my lips, and I probe a little more. I’m almost sure I can feel my skin slowly knitting itself back together even now.
He used a regular sword to cut me.
He doesn’t know how the bonding works or that I have Lord’s healing powers now.
More laughter rocks me. Maybe I’m hysterical from the blood loss or maybe just from relief. Maybe it’s just fucking funny that if my dad knew half as much about dragons as he thinks he does, Lord and I would both be dead already.
Viggo lets out a rattling breath a few feet away, and that sobers every ounce of gallows humor inside of me. I push myself up out of the dirt, soaked with my own blood, and I crawl to Viggo. His back is rising and falling with shallow, uneven breaths. He’s still alive. Thank fuck, he’s still alive. But he’s in bad shape.
I flip him over. His face is bruised and bleeding, so swollen he’s barely recognizable. He manages to open his eyes a crack and twist his mangled lips into a smile, flinching through the pain of it.
“I’m alright, baby bro,” he rasps.
“Are you strong enough to get up? We need to get to the Drake compound. Are you with me?”
He searches my eyes for a second. “Is it worth it, Al? Because when it’s all over, we have nothing. No family, no home. Are you willing to put everything on the line for this dragon?”
“You’re kidding, right? We were just beaten to within an inch of our lives by our own family. What exactly am I giving up?” I brush his hair from his blood-stained cheek. “I know I’m asking a lot of you. I’m asking you to turn on our family, but what they’re doing is wrong. If they survive the attack, they’ll kill us if we stay here. I have to go to Lord.”
His brow creases. “What about me? If we do this, I have nothing.”
“You have me.” I grip his hand in mine. “I won’t desert you.”
“But will your dragons accept me?”
I close my eyes for a second, searching the bond between me and Lord. I feel a wave of warmth and love return.
“Yeah. I think they will, but if dad and Digby kill them first…” I can’t allow myself to finish the sentence.
Viggo nods, using my hand to pull himself up. “You’re right. Even if I’m left with nothing, I can’t keep living like this. I think I always knew at some point I would have to take a stand. It’s time we end this. It’s time we do what’s right.”
“Thank you.”
Once we’re back on our feet, Viggo exhales, but holds his side. “A few cracked ribs. I’ll survive.”
“The Drakes have ways to help us heal.”
He looks down at the wound on my side that’s already nearly gone. He tilts his head, clearly confused.
“Long story. I’ll tell you over a beer later, huh? Right now, we have some dragon hunters to fight.”
As we head to the garage to get a vehicle, I do my best to send my love to Lord and reassure him that I’m alive and on my way. All I can do right now is get there as quickly as possible and hope I’m not too late.
If something happens to any of his brothers, I’ll never forgive myself. And if something happens to Lord, I’ll die too. If that happens, at least I’ll be with him. If my journey to the afterlife begins, I’m going with Lord.