Chapter 14 Trajan
XIV
TRAJAN
Fucking hells.
I sat in a stupor, trying to catch my breath, all while the beast languished in the pleasure of her scent.
She was my mate, the dragon’s one true treasure.
I’d noted my attraction from the first time I set eyes on her, but it wasn’t difficult to be attracted to Lela. She was exquisitely beautiful, by any man’s standards. I’d also thought my obsession was merely because she was enslaved by Valerius, a man I hated more than any other.
But no. As I sat back on my haunches in the olive grove, having heard the depths of her pain, my dragon roared deep inside me, clawing at my skin, wanting to come out and destroy whoever had hurt her.
Valerius was already dead, but the dragon was an instinctual beast. He sensed her loss and pain and longed to avenge her.
I’d swallowed his fire and kept him in his cage, but there was no other reason for his violent reaction. Lela was meant to be mine.
The realization was shocking and glorious and vexing. While the beast inside me both reveled and raged, I tried to accept the fact that the woman the gods destined for me would never want me. Never trust me.
I was no fool. The only reason she shared her secret with me was because I’d given her my blood. It was the only way she’d ever trust a man now, especially a Roman. After being the property of that filthy fuck Valerius, it was no surprise.
But the gods were never mistaken. The dragon inside our blood was gifted from the gods.
His intuition was a direct line from the heavens.
Whether I accepted it or not, and whether she knew it or not, Lela was mine to care for and protect.
And that was what I would do, as if I could deny the dragon’s will. As if I wanted to.
Heaving a sigh, I stood and followed the path through the trees to the back steps that led to my bedchamber. When I reached the top of the stone steps, I stopped, hearing the water trickle in the bath. I waited, knowing she was bathing and would want privacy.
When the dragon started to growl, I stifled it and shoved him back. I needed to be civil and human. Listening to her light footsteps as she toweled off then slipped into a clean tunic, I waited until I heard her climb into bed and pull the blanket over her.
Then I stepped across the room and behind my dressing screen. Quickly, I stripped and changed my tunic. After washing my hands, I walked back into the bedchamber and sat in the chair next to the bed. There was still one oil lamp burning on a small table near the bed.
She lay on her side facing my direction, her eyes open, watching me with no readable expression at all. I held her gaze, holding back everything I wanted to say, venturing for another way to make her trust me. I had to give her more secrets, more information.
“I learned something today,” I told her softly, ignoring the fact that she’d stormed away in anger only moments before. She appeared calm now. “Something that could help us.”
I learned two actually, but I wouldn’t tell her the second.
She sighed softly, likely grateful I wasn’t going to discuss what had just happened in the olive grove.
“What is that?” she asked.
“Caesar made a sacrifice at the Temple of Vesta. And his soothsayer forbade him from killing the Visigoth until after Lupercalia.”
She blinked drowsily, her eyes heavy. My gut tightened, knowing I should let her rest. But I couldn’t leave her. Not yet.
“There are plenty of evil things he can do besides kill a man,” she said sleepily. “What does this matter?”
“Because that means he has to wait to kill the Visigoth king Drussus captured in Thrace.”
“I still don’t see why this matters.”
“I know what favor I need from you now.”
This jarred her awake. She sat up. “Tell me.”
“I need you to help me get through the guards without killing them so I can speak to this king of theirs. If I kill the guards, it will raise the alarm to Caesar. Can you make men forget they even saw us?”
“Yes. But why would I do this favor?”
I found myself distracted by her unbound hair falling in dark waves over one shoulder.
She always wore it partially up or entirely on top of her head in the formal way of most patrician women.
Valerius had required it of her apparently, and she kept to that habit since she’d been in hiding here at my home.
To see it falling loosely to her waist made me lose my train of thought.
“Trajan?” She snapped me back to attention. “What do you want to speak to this king about?”
Clearing my throat, I lifted the chair I was sitting in and turned it to face the bed then sat back down.
“Before I became tribune to the senate, I was an officer in a legion. My general and I encountered these barbarians in Moesia. They were like ghosts—there, then gone quickly, out of our reach. We had to return to Rome defeated by them after one skirmish in the forest.”
“You are referring to Legatus Julianus, Caesar’s nephew who betrayed him.”
“Julian’s dramatic exit from the city will be heralded for years to come, I imagine.”
“Most certainly. Everyone, slave and pleb alike, knows of the Coldhearted Conqueror and how he flew out of Rome with his woman on his back after burning half of Palatine Hill.”
I smiled. “I’d been with him that night.”
“You were?” Her eyes rounded with excitement and she shifted her body to sit at an angle. “Did you see them fly away?”
I chuckled at the memory. “From a distance. I was killing one of the praetorian guards that Caesar had already sent to capture Julian when I caught sight of them flying out of the city. Then I had to get to Caesar to report his nephew’s treason.”
She made a disgusted sound in her throat, her brow furrowed. “You betrayed your own friend?”
“No. I lied to the emperor so he wouldn’t think I had any part of it.
He would’ve found out within the same hour, and it served me better being the one to tell him.
” I gestured around the room. “After all, I’m still here in the city of Rome, able to implement the plan Julian and I had formed together. ”
She dipped her chin in understanding, still pensive. “But what does this Visigoth king who got away from you both have to do with anything?”
“When I was summoned to Caesar’s palace earlier today, I saw a pile of humans, having been tortured before executed, in his courtyard.”
“And?” she urged.
“I’d thought he might be there, this king of the Visigoths, and that Julian had been wrong. You see, Julian encountered him during that one battle with them near the forest. Their leader had cut him with a poisoned blade and fought with superior strength even when Julian was in half-skin.”
“Oh.” She blinked quickly. “But a human can’t stand against a dragon in half-skin.”
“No,” I said, grinning. “But a dragon can.”
“What?”
“Even in human form, a dragon holds great strength. Before this king disappeared, Julian was sure he sensed and saw a dragon’s fire flickering in his eyes.
Not only that, but Julian’s mate encountered one of the barbarians in half-skin.
We are certain that not only was this king a dragon, but so was his army.
A legion of dragons who hate Romans. That could be very beneficial to us. ”
Lela remained still, turning her gaze toward the open archway in thought. It gave me a moment to drink in her loveliness. By the gods, she was crushing in her beauty. The golden light of the oil lamp caressed the sloping curve of her jaw and cheekbones, the soft upturn of her chin.
She turned back to me. “You want to speak to him and see if this king wants to help you and your allies defeat Caesar here in Rome.”
I smiled wide. “You’re a smart woman, Lela. That’s exactly what I want to do. But I need to know he will join us with his army first. We need an army for what we plan to do.”
“Of course you do. To fight Caesar’s legions.” She tucked a lock of hair behind her ear, and my gaze lingered again. “But how can one barbarian army fight all of Caesar’s? He has as many legions as he has generals.”
“Not all of the soldiers and officers in each legion are loyal to Caesar. That’s a fact we’ve already learned through our allies. The senators on our side hold the power of the people.”
“But the plebeians and free Romans are still no match under Caesar. He could burn them all if he wanted.”
“Not if he is up against an army of dragons.”
“You believe this Visigoth king has that?”
“That’s what I want to find out,” I assured her. “We also don’t believe all of the Roman generals will side with Caesar once we come forward with an army of our own. Still, it will be a deadly battle.”
My stomach soured at the thought of Lela here when that happened. I had to get her out of Rome. Soon. If only we could find Euphemia. I was sure she would help me smuggle her out.
“So you need me to help you get in to see this king undetected using my power.”
I nodded. “Can you do that?”
“If you can get me their blood, I can do it.”
“I can easily do that.”
She heaved a resigned sigh. “When?”
“Tomorrow after the triumph. There will be a great parade and celebration for Drussus in the forum, celebrating his victory. Caesar will undoubtedly parade the Visigoth king through the square and before the temple steps but he can’t kill him.
When he’s taken back to his cell in the dungeon, we will follow.
The guards will be rejoicing and drinking.
They won’t be at their best. That will be our time to speak to him.
But I’ll need the guards to forget they ever saw us. ”
“That won’t be a problem,” she assured me, lying back down with a smile on her face, cradling both hands beneath her cheek. “I can take care of that.”
Nodding, I lifted the oil lamp, watching her. “That isn’t something I believe I’ve seen on your face before. A smile. A real one, that is.”
“I’ve had little reason to smile. But I like this plan of yours. And I like doing something that the emperor and his kind would not like at all if they knew.”