Chapter 8
Ruby sat in the passenger seat of Cyntag’s T-bird, The Book of the Hidden on her lap. “I don’t remember anything in Mon’s stories about them being naked.” She absently scratched at her rash.
“As you know, he took some liberties with the truth. For instance, was I drooling? Did I smell like”—his nose twitched—”dirty socks?”
“No.”
She had to admit, to herself anyway, that he was gorgeous as a Dragon… if you were into that sort of thing.
She blinked. God, she was. She remembered feeling a powerful draw to him, or at least some part of her did.
Her Dragon.
God.
She ran her hands across the pages, forcing those thoughts away. “There were beautiful illustrations here. Since the fire, they’re gone.”
“Moncrief probably created them with magick. Just like the spell he put over you, the stories disappeared, too.”
No, she didn’t want to think about never seeing the illustrations or his beautiful writing again.
She tried to remember the main storyline: the Dragon Prince kidnapping Garnet, but saving her as well, imprisoning her, casting the Dragon spell, training her.
And yes, there were similarities in the story and what had happened so far.
Think. Think about the rest of it.
Something bad was coming. Something they had to fight together.
She turned to Cyntag, trying not to get caught up in his profile, the natural pout of his lower lip, the bump on his nose that indicated a break in the past. He looked aristocratic, regal. Even as Dragon, actually. His eyelashes were thick but not feminine. Yeah, he was total hotness.
Uh, not getting caught up in his profile, remember? “You said Brom can tell the future?”
“Yes.”
“Could Moncrief?”
“Not that I know of. His skills ran toward creating illusions, like the pictures in the book and his magic tricks.”
So the parallels with the story were a coincidence and not a foretelling of the future. That was a stretch. Maybe Brom had told Mon about his predictions.
While Cyntag drove, he kept watching the rearview mirror as well as their surroundings. She knew he wasn’t watching for traffic but for horrid creatures.
Speaking of… “When you were at the Yard, did you see any of those things you said were all over, like the one in your office?”
“A couple, yes. One stayed close to you. A fire Elemental, like Allander.”
So ironically, she wasn’t crazy because the monsters and creatures were real.
“I could see Leo’s and Jack’s Crescent eyes. Why couldn’t I see this Elemental?”
“Your ability to see the Hidden isn’t consistent because you haven’t been Awakened yet.” He pulled down the street on which his dojo resided, driving slowly. Odd, since he’d been driving fast the entire way.
“Get down,” he said.
“What?”
He placed a hand against her head and pulled her toward him. In that second before her cheek was on his hard thigh, she saw an old man sitting on a bench in front of the dojo.
“One thing we need to get straight right now, Ruby. When I tell you to do something, you do it. You don’t question or hesitate.
” Tension vibrated in his voice. “You just do it.” He took a corner sharply.
“Now you can get up,” he said in a very deliberate voice because the moment he’d lessened his pressure on her, she’d snapped upright.
“What the hell? You can’t just shove me around—”
He grasped her face with one hand, pulling her close. “I am the difference between whether you live or die. You don’t have to like me. In fact, disliking me would probably be better in the long run. But you have to obey me, which means trusting me.”
“You have to earn someone’s trust.”
“We don’t have time for that.” He released her. “Did you see the old man on the bench?”
She rubbed her cheeks where his fingers had dug in. “Yeah.”
“Not an old man. A harbinger demon. One of the few that can be seen by Mundanes, which is why they take a disguise. And they can take any disguise. But we can see the shadow around them that signals what they are.” He pressed a couple of buttons on his phone.
“Dragon Arts,” the DJ-smooth voice said through the car speakers.
“Glesenda, there’s a harbinger outside the door.”
“Oh, shit. What are you involved in—it’s that girl, isn’t it?”
He slid her a look. “It’s not her fault, but yes, it wants her.”
“Can I play with it?” Glesenda’s eagerness permeated her words. “I can draw it in. What’s the girl’s name?”
“Ruby Salazaar, and I’m not a girl.”
Glesenda laughed. “Ooh, baby, you are a baby. Cyn, you got your hands full with that one.”
He sighed. “Indeed. Go ahead, lure it into the Obsidian Room. Call if you need me. Have fun.” He disconnected.
“You’re going to let her fight that thing by herself?”
“Glesenda can hold her own. She’s a hundred and forty years old, which is why to her, you are a child.”
“You’re really… what’d you say, two hundred years old?”
“Two hundred fifty or sixty something. After a while you tend to lose track. Once you’re Awakened, the aging process slows down. You’ll look like you’re in your mid-twenties for decades.” His mouth stretched into a sort-of smile. “If I can keep you alive that long. That will depend on you.”
“On whether I obey your every command.”
“Exactly.”
She flopped back against the seat, arms crossed in front of her.
“There’s a reason I’m my own boss. I never had a lot of rules to follow growing up.
Dad was busy with his science stuff, and Mom was busy with the Yard.
I don’t take orders well.” Ever since losing her parents so suddenly, being in control of her life was paramount.
Now this arrogant man-Dragon was insisting she follow his every order without question.
He was right, though. She needed him. And when he’d held her face and harshly ordered her to obey, she thought she saw a speck of fear in his expression. Fear for her safety.
“Everything in your life is about to change,” he said, getting onto one of the interstates. “You’re about to change. I suggest you put aside your stubbornness and pride. Neither will serve you well right now.”
“This sucks, you know. Totally reeks of suckiness. The suckiest ever.”
Another twitch of his mouth. “Whining won’t serve you either.”
“Well, I deserve to whine. A little.”
The coil of edgy energy she felt coming off him when he’d driven past the dojo was gone. He leaned back in his seat, his left hand draped over the top of his steering wheel. On the underside of his arm was a scar that looked like an elongated V.
“Where are we going?” she asked.
“To my place. I have a soundproofed room there, too.”
“It’s not a castle, is it?”
“My castle, I suppose. The Dragon Prince had a castle?”
She picked up the book, which had slid to the floor when Cyntag manhandled her.
“Yes, where he kept her prisoner.” Panic speared her as she recalled her fears when he’d caught her in his office.
“I can leave your house whenever I want, right?” Reading about Garnet’s imprisonment had always given her a claustrophobic feeling.
“You may leave. But only with me.”
Augh. He did sound like the Dragon Prince.
He took an exit and drove through one of the many not-so-nice areas. Bars on the windows of businesses, people loitering outside. The area was run down and dirty. Soon, though, they were downtown, passing through the touristy area where the cruise ships docked.
As they continued, they passed a park and several marinas, definitely a nicer area.
The cars were fancy and expensive, the kind she usually only saw at the resto Yard in a decimated state.
Coral Gables maybe. She didn’t venture toward the coast much.
A lot of the houses were Mediterranean or Spanish style, all large with yards filled with flowers and trees.
“Won’t this bad person who sent demons know where you live?” she asked.
“Not easily. It’s hidden, too, under layers of corporations. When you’re as old as I am and you hold power, others want it.”
“They… want it?” He paused, and she knew he was considering whether she could handle whatever it was. “Just tell me. It can’t be any worse than anything else you’ve told me… or that I’ve seen.” She hesitated. “Can it?”
“Dragons can take the power of another Dragon.”
She snorted. “Well hey, they can have my power.”
“You have to die first.”
“Okay, maybe not.”
“It’s called Breathing Dragon.”
“That’s what you and Jack were talking about. But that’s murder.”
“Long ago, the Concilium decreed that no Dragon should kill for the sole purpose of attaining another’s power. It works as well as the Mundanes’ laws about murder and theft does.”
“Oh, great. So there might be people after me just for my power.”
“The good thing is that you’ll have little, at least in the beginning. You’re a mere morsel.” His gaze drifted down her for a second.
She felt a shiver move across her body. “That is not comforting, not that you’re a comforting kind of guy.” But he’d brushed her hair from her face… said he was sorry. And she’d nearly let herself fall against him. Idiotic thing to do.
“I’m not here to comfort you, Ruby. I’m here to train you to defend yourself. To teach you to fight. And to keep you alive.”
She didn’t want to be a morsel. “But that’s not why I’m being targeted now, is it, this power breathing thing?”
“No, a Deuce cannot take your power. As soon as we get you up to speed, we’re going to find out what the hell is going on.”
He pulled up to a gated entrance. Thick, green hedges blocked the view of what lay beyond a bit more effectively than the detailed iron gates that slowly opened.
She’d refinished a set of gates like these years ago for one of her regular customers.
Cyntag’s were even more ornate, topped with spikes that discouraged someone from climbing over.
Her chest tightened as he drove up to a beautiful home, a mixture of contemporary design and wood. And in that house, everything was going to change. She was going to change.
Once they were pulling her luggage through a spacious kitchen with dark wooden floors and matching cabinetry, he said, “I’ll make lunch, and then we’ll get started.”
“I’m not hungry.”
“You’ll eat. After Awakening, you’re probably not going to feel like eating for a while.”
“Great, knowing that really helps my appetite.”
She was too worked up to even appreciate two stories’ worth of ocean view beyond a wall of windows. Or the gorgeous interior: a curving staircase, a bridge over a pond surrounded by plants, and water drifting beneath a piece of solid glass to the pool out on the patio.
He passed the stairs and opened the door into the short hallway just beyond. “You’ll stay here for as long as it’s safe. Take a minute or two to settle in, then meet me in the kitchen.”
“As long as it’s safe?” She paused in the doorway. “I thought this place was hidden.”
“The thing about the Hidden is, we’re never really safe.
As strong as you are, there is someone stronger.
As clever as you are, there is someone cleverer.
And as hidden as you think you are, someone will find you.
They know about me, obviously. If someone has the right connections or the right magick, they’ll find where I live. Which is why we don’t have much time.”
She stared out the huge glass doors at the sparkle of sun on the choppy waves and felt as if she were slipping beneath them. His finger on her chin startled her.
“I can be easy on you, at least in the beginning. If you need that.”
She stepped away from the way his touch felt electric on her skin. The way his low, soft words washed over her. “No, don’t be easy on me. These people killed my uncle. And are trying to kill me. I don’t want easy.”
“Good girl. See you in a few minutes.”
Damn it, he’d manipulated her again.