Chapter 20 #3
“You don’t want to come back to this property anymore,” Kade said in a calm, low voice. He wanted to throttle the guy for taking him away from Violet. “There are no Dragons here, no gator apes, no supernatural creatures at all.”
Smitty nodded, his eyes blank. Deuces couldn’t implant memories the way Caidos could, but he could suggest things.
“You will go directly home and give up your quest. Understand?”
“Yes.”
“You saw nothing out of the ordinary, other than a lightning strike that came out of the blue and hit you.” Kade took his camera, sending enough magick to short out the circuitry and fry the memory chip. Then he handed it back. “Go now.”
The man walked casually, as though he hadn’t just seen Dragons fighting. Kade ran back to Violet.
Mia was there now. How had he missed her? She searched his face. “Kade?”
He passed her, though, focusing on Violet, who was still on the ground, flanked by her brothers.
They were all in Dragon form now, her brothers Breathing into her.
He felt so damned helpless. He looked up to the tree where he’d shot down her rope.
The seared end swung in a breeze, the rest of it lay coiled on the ground.
Gods, he’d almost killed her. He clutched his head as more pieces came together.
“Kade, are you all right?” Mia asked.
“Stop bugging me, sis. I’m going to be fine. I’m worried about Vee right now.”
She smiled. “You kinda sounded like the real Kade just then.”
The real Kade. Who was he, anyway? More memories came together. The one who slid down banisters and flouted the rules? The one who lived to be a Vega?
Violet mumbled something, though her eyes were closed. Jessup and Ryan stood, Catalyzing to human again.
“We need to get her inside.” Jessup leaned down to Violet. “Catalyze back to human, Vee.”
She mumbled again, shaking her head.
Kade knelt beside her and gently shook her arm. “Come back to human, babe. That’s an order.”
She became a naked and dirt-smudged woman, hard scales morphing to soft skin. Her brothers moved in, but Kade scooped her up in his arms. “I’ve got her.” He had her, and he’d never let her go.
He could scarcely keep his eyes off her as he walked into the house and laid her on the couch. The bedroom was a mess. The whole place smelled like marinara sauce.
“Turn off the stove burners,” he said to Mia.
He pulled the blanket down from the back of the couch and laid it over Violet. She wasn’t trembling anymore. Her brothers’ healing Breath had erased the cuts on her face and body.
He sank down beside her. Memories twisted around one another. He held her hand, stroking her fingers, and let them come. The recent past was the clearest. Why the hell they were in the mud naked and making love, that he’d like to know.
She opened her eyes, but it seemed to take a few moments to get her focus. She smiled, soft and sweet. Her eyes were hazy, like she’d woken from a long, deep sleep.
“Kade?”
“Yeah, babe.”
That made her smile even more. “Are you really back?”
“I can feel the memories weaving together. I think it’s going to take time to make sense of what I’m seeing.” He brushed his hand down her cheek. “The important parts are intact. Close your eyes and rest. I’ll be right here.”
When Violet’s eyes drifted shut, he turned to Mia. “The orderly in the psych ward worked there when our father broke out that prisoner. He told me her name.” He tried to pull it out of his memories. “Wither. Widow…no, Willow. I want to find out more about her.”
Jessup stepped closer. “Did you say Willow?”
“Yeah. She claimed she’d been kidnapped as a child by a member of the Concilium.”
Jessup looked over at Ryan. “Remember the Murphy girl who went missing, what, thirty years ago?”
“Yeah, Willow. I always thought the name was silly since we don’t have willow trees around here.”
Kade traded a look with Mia. “So, she was telling the truth about being kidnapped. Our father trusted his instinct and had the guts to try to break her out of prison, just like you all did with me.” He heard the relief in his voice. “He died doing the right thing.”
“Maybe they put the Black Bore Orb in her mind, too,” Mia said.
Kade frowned. “Black Bore Orb?”
“It’s what Ferro put in your head that fractured your memories.”
His head hurt just hearing about it. He was in no hurry to remember that.
Kade watched Violet sleep while he told the others that Ferro and Onyx had been killing people to save Drakos.
He rolled that name around in his head. It resonated.
And it wasn’t good. He remembered a painting in Ferro’s office. “Drakos is a member of the Tryah.”
Jessup wrinkled his nose. “Tryah? I vaguely remember them being the gods who started the war. If it weren’t for them, we could have been living on a tropical island eating coconuts and watching beautiful naked women all day.”
Ryan punched his arm. “Focus. We’re not out of the woods yet.”
Kade looked at Violet, sleeping so peacefully. “Onyx is still out there. And she wants Violet dead even more than Ferro did.”