Chapter 15
Wynn melted into the buttery-soft cushions of the limo as the demon driver put the car in gear and headed down the narrow path.
Her body was so drained she’d barely managed to walk the short distance from the destroyed castle to the waiting vehicle.
Not that she was going to let Azh carry her like a helpless damsel in distress again.
Not unless they were headed to a soft bed with satin sheets...
She swiftly shoved away the tempting image. There was still too much to do to think about the things she wanted to do to Azh. When she finally got the dragon naked, she wanted to make sure she had plenty of time to explore and savor and indulge in their heated passion.
“How did you make friends with Saxton?” she asked, as much to keep herself awake as out of genuine interest.
“Hardly friends. More like enemies temporarily forced to work together,” Azh corrected. “It was Saxton’s demons who discovered where you’d been taken.”
She shuddered. Memories of being trapped in the dungeon with Malis were going to give her nightmares for years to come.
“I’m glad they did.”
“Tell me what happened,” Azh commanded.
“It was Pheral who created the fissure that took me to the castle.”
“Why?”
“He spotted a poster hanging in one of the demon bars offering a huge reward to locate me.” She made a sound of disgust. “Luckily it had an image of me from my earliest days in London. Not many demons knew about me back then, which is the only reason I wasn’t captured before I realized I was being hunted. ”
“Was he infected?”
“I couldn’t detect any corruption. He’s just a greedy jerk.” Wynn’s words faltered as she recalled Pheral collapsing at her feet. She didn’t know what sort of spell had been used against him, but he’d died instantly. “Or he was until Malis killed him.”
“Malis is the demon who put up the Wanted poster?”
“Yes. I think he’s been infected for a long time.”
Azh tapped a slender finger on his leg, frustration smoldering in his stormy gray eyes as her words reminded him that Pheral and Malis might be dead, but the evil magic had escaped.
“But he’s not the original source of the magic?” he asked.
Wynn shook her head. “Not the original source, but he was something more than the zombie demons that have been popping up,” she said.
“Why do you say that?”
“I think he’s been infected for so long that the magic is able to communicate through him.
” She struggled to find the words to explain the sensation that she’d been talking to something inside Malis, not to the actual demon.
“It was like he was an empty shell that the corruption was using to move through the world.”
He stilled, as if shocked by her words. “You were talking to the corruption?”
She wrinkled her nose. “It sounds ridiculous, but he claimed that we’d been together long ago and that he’d rescued me. And then he did something that allowed me to remember my past. Or at least a portion of my past.”
“You remember?”
She held up her hand, sensing his surge of hope. “I’m not sure if the memories are mine or if they were put there by the magic,” she warned, “but yeah, I suddenly had a vision of when I was still human.”
“Tell me,” he insisted, leaning toward her as he struggled to contain his eagerness to know more about his people’s nemesis.
“I was on a hill. In the distance I could see the river, but I wasn’t near London. The air was too clean. And I could see a village below me,” she told him.
“Do you know the location?”
“Not exactly. I don’t even remember my original name, but I do know that I was surrounded by a coven of angry witches.”
His excitement faded at the edge of pain in her voice. “Were you attacked?”
She shuddered. The bitter fury of the women condemning her to death might have happened two hundred years ago, but it felt agonizingly fresh. Probably because the memory had just been exposed. Her ability to process and heal from what had happened to her would take time.
“I was trapped and burned at the stake.”
Heat blasted through the limo as Azh’s eyes swirled with thunderclouds. “Who?”
“I don’t know any names, but I’m sure it was a coven of witches. I think they were pissed that my magic had flared and I was becoming a mage.” Her lips twisted into a bitter smile. “Although it turned out to be worthless. I might as well have stayed human.”
With a low growl, Azh reached to frame her face in his hands, gazing down at her with a fierce expression.
“Never say that you’re worthless,” he rasped. “You have more power than any mage I’ve ever encountered.”
Wynn tilted back her head, easily becoming distracted by the lightning that danced at the back of the smoky gray eyes. So much raw power. So much raw passion. So much raw...dragon. Glorious, sexy, and possessive.
With an effort, she forced herself to finish revealing her memories. “Anyway, I had a vision of being surrounded by the flames and then falling into a deep pit. I think I was dying but then I was surrounded by a silver light that healed my burns.”
“A silver light?” He considered the various possibilities. “That must have been Gabriela,” he at last concluded.
She shrugged. “Maybe.”
“What do you remember about the pit?”
“Nothing much. A lot of barren rock. And of course, the silver light was there.” She took a minute to consider what else she’d seen.
Her vision had been limited by the blinding glow.
And worse, the memories were beginning to fade.
As if they were being slowly erased again.
“After I was healed I noticed the silver light was threaded with streaks of green. I assume it had to be the corruption attacking it.”
“Was there a statue?” he pressed.
“I didn’t see one, but I wasn’t really looking,” she admitted. “Oh, and there was also another magic. I could see the shimmer of it coming through a crack in the wall.”
“Dragon magic?”
“I wasn’t paying enough attention to do more than get a glimpse of it,” she admitted.
“I was too busy trying to get out of the pit while the weird powers were distracted fighting each other.” She paused again.
“I think I heard the pit collapsing behind me, but I don’t know why.
My next memory is stumbling toward the river. ”
Azh studied her with a fierce intensity, visibly trying to imagine what had happened to her all those years ago, and why.
“Maybe you didn’t get your magic from an artifact,” he at last suggested, as if the thought was just forming in his mind. “Maybe Gabriela shared a portion of her powers to heal you and your particular ability allowed you to absorb the magic.”
Wynn jerked her face out of his grasp, still not comfortable with the thought the dragon magic was inside her. Especially not when it might be the sole reason Azh was so interested in her.
“I’ve never been able to absorb the magic directly from the user,” she stubbornly protested.
Easily sensing she didn’t want to discuss the bright light or Gabriela, Azh leaned back to regard her with a searching gaze.
“Okay, tell me why you want to find Axton.”
Wynn readily latched onto the change in conversation. She didn’t want to dwell on the creepy unease that there was more than an echo of distant magic inside her.
“Because of something Malis said about my medallion,” she said, reaching into her pocket where she’d unconsciously shoved the necklace after she’d released the curse that destroyed the demon.
Azh arched a brow as he watched her pull it out. “He recognized it?”
“He claimed he used it to track me to the pawnshop. He wasn’t happy when the medallion was there and I wasn’t. I assume that’s why he destroyed the place.”
“Did he create it?” Azh demanded.
She shook her head. “I don’t think so, but I was wearing the medallion while I was being burned. I could feel it melting into my skin, so that means I had it while I was still human.”
“Then the corruption must have placed some sort of tracking spell on it while you were in the pit.” Azh hesitated, as if struck by a sudden thought. “But if it had, why did it take so long to track you?”
Wynn shrugged. “I’m more concerned why it decided to track me at all,” she said. “It implied that I had something it wanted.”
“How do you imagine Axton can help?”
“This medallion is a clue to who I was and where I came from. There was a reason Axton bought it and why he kept it for two centuries.”
He studied her for a long moment before giving a slow nod of his head. “You’re right,” he agreed. “For now, rest. I’ll wake you when we reach London.”
With a grateful sigh, Wynn closed her eyes and sank back into the soft leather seat.
She could sense the effort it took Azh not to continue badgering her for answers about her encounter with Gabriela.
It wasn’t just his fascination with the legendary dragon.
He was desperate to understand the danger to his people and how to protect them.
For now, however, he put her needs above his own, pulling her close as she allowed the bone-deep exhaustion to claim her.
It felt like minutes passed, although it had to be a solid two hours, when she heard the muffled sounds of the city penetrating the hushed interior of the limo. With an effort, she forced open her eyes.
“Tell the driver to drop us off in Hackney,” she croaked, pushing herself out of the comfort of Azh’s arms.
Azh relayed the command, remaining silent as she struggled to clear the cobwebs from her brain.
It was still early, but the sun was up as they reached Mare Street.
The neighborhood was an odd combination of old squat houses in the process of being restored by investors and colorful street fronts.
There were dozens of trendy nightclubs that catered to the flocks of tourists who arrived in waves during the evenings as well as less well-known pubs that were the sole domain of the local demons.