by R. K. Lilley
The groomsmen were rounded out with Eugene and Anton. I was more surprised than anyone was when I introduced Dante to Anton and the two men actually became friends.
There weren't many attendees beyond the wedding party, and that was perfect with me. It was a beautiful, happy day, filled with laughter, friends, and love.
We both had tears in our eyes as we watched our gorgeous little flower girl decorate the small path to the altar for us. But they were happy tears. Progress.
"Marriage is the most valuable, treasured friendship of your life," the officiate began.
I won't lie, we barely heard the rest, but at least it was a strong start.
Dante and I were having a moment, staring at each other, thanking the powers that be that in spite of everything, in spite of ourselves, somehow we'd ended up here. Together. Joined.
Whole again.
"Dante Durant, love of my life," I said at the end, still drowning in his ocean deep eyes, my mascara a mess down my face. "There aren't a lot of guarantees in life, but I promise you this: I will never lose my faith in you again."
I saw in the way his face fell and lifted, the way his eyes melted at me, that I'd said the right thing, what he'd needed to hear. What I'd needed to say.
It took me time to make peace with the decisions Dante had made, even after I'd come to understand them. He hadn't had a lot of choices and his priority, as ever, had been to protect me.
It took me longer to come to terms with the fallout I had caused as a result.
Some wounds time couldn't heal, this I had always known.
But what I learned, even as I learned what it meant to forgive, was that some wounds it could.
It was a revelation to me.
I had forgiven him and he me.
But perhaps most important of all, I had learned to forgive myself.
BOOKS BY R.K. LILLEY
THE LOVE IS WAR DUET
BREAKING HIM
BREAKING HER
THE WILD SIDE SERIES
THE WILD SIDE
IRIS
DAIR
THE OTHER MAN
TYRANT - COMING SOON
THE UP IN THE AIR SERIES
IN FLIGHT
MILE HIGH
GROUNDED
MR. BEAUTIFUL
LANA (AN UP IN THE AIR COMPANION NOVELLA)
AUTHORITY - COMING SOON
THE TRISTAN & DANIKA SERIES
BAD THINGS
ROCK BOTTOM
LOVELY TRIGGER
THE HERETIC DAUGHTERS SERIES
BREATHING FIRE
CROSSING FIRE - COMING SOON
THE BISHOP BROTHERS SERIES
BOSS - COMING SOON
Crossing Fire
This is the followup to Breathing Fire (Heretic Daughters #1)
CHAPTER ONE
HOT MESS
JILLIAN
The house was small and nondescript, and right smack in the middle of a shockingly populated area. This, though, was the best thing about the hot mess that was Las Vegas. Hiding in plain sight. Mixing in with loud, messy crowds of strangers. Conducting top secret meetings in rows of cookie cutter houses.
I parked my black, brand spanking new Dodge Challenger at the curb, and approached the house cautiously. My two-handed, double-bladed battle axe stayed in the trunk, unfortunately. I had a small pistol strapped to my ankle, hidden under the hem of my bootcut jeans. A large knife was strapped to my other ankle. I wasn't expecting trouble at this meeting, but ruling the idea out completely went against every instinct I had.
My weapons were a considerate gift from my ex. Ex-ish? Hell, I didn't know what he was, but he'd supplied me with everything he thought I'd need on short notice.
It had been a nice thought, but I was already itching for my old, familiar arsenal, which had been lost when I'd been captured by my deranged relatives. I'd escaped, but hadn't been exactly in the mindset to find my confiscated stash, as I'd bolted from the place in my dragon form, then promptly flown far, far away.
I knocked softly on the light blue door of the tiny stuccoed house. It was the darkest house on the street, the porch lit only by the streetlights. From what I could see of the inside from the small, twin front windows, every light inside of the house was off, as well.
The place looked deserted. There was even an old for sale sign in the tiny desert landscaped front yard.
I wondered briefly if I was somehow at the wrong address when the door flew open, and a hard hand yanked me inside. A harsh voice that I recognized well kept me from lashing out at the sudden contact. "About time," Caleb told me, shutting the door quietly, then dragging me further into the dark house.
I shook him off, waving him ahead of me when he shot me a glance.
I certainly didn't need the sociopath chameleon alien to hold my hand.
He led me down a dark hallway to a door with faint light showing through the bottom. I was surprised, when he opened it, that it led to a basement. Basements were hard to come by in Vegas, especially in a tiny house like this one. But it did explain why the rest of the house was completely dark.
Caleb waved me down the narrow stairway first, closing the door very quietly behind us.
I just blinked for a moment when I saw the inhabitants of the top secret basement meeting place, and what they were doing.
Christian and Luke both rose as I entered, but I didn't miss what filled their computer screens, the bright colors vivid even across the room.
Christian positively beamed at me, rushing forward to lift me up in a bone-crushing hug, spinning me around and talking all at once. "We missed you, girl. And you're all glowy and golden. Preetty. Is that what color your dragon is?"
I didn't answer, since he was both squeezing the air out of me, and not stopping long enough to let me get a word in.
Caleb managed to cut in with an answer. "The pictures I saw of her landing on the roof looked to be pale gold, or even silver, in the dark."
"Ohhh," Christian said, setting me down to study me. He took a lock of my hair between his fingers, rubbing. "It's so bright, it looks like it could rub off."
I shrugged it off, not really worried about the after-effects of my dragon-trance. I knew that they would fade away, eventually. I pointed at his computer. "How's WoW treating you these days? Please don't tell me that you made me come here for a top secret World of Warcraft party," I told him archly. If they had, I was going to be royally pissed.
Christian waved a cursory hand at the gaming computers set up in the corner. "That? Naw. That was just to kill time."
I looked at Caleb. He met my gaze with a very blank expression. "No, Jillian, we did not invite you here for a gaming party," he said, his tone slightly disgusted.
I supposed that, while I could have expected something that silly from Christian, I should have known better, with Caleb involved.
I was suddenly distracted by Luke, who had moved close behind me and gone to his knees, his head lowered.
Oh Lord, he was still doing that.
I sighed.
"Um, hey, Luke. How's it going?" I asked, patting his head rather awkwardly.
"Good, Mistress Jillian, now that I've gotten to see you again. My Mistress is even more beautiful than I remembered."
Christian giggled like a school boy. I glared at him. I had no idea what to do with a submissive man. Generally, the men I hung out with were sarcastic, crude, dominant, aggressive, borderline or not so borderline psychotic, violent to the batshit crazy degree, and sometimes just plain obnoxious. None of those qualities could be called submissive. Frankly, I didn't even know what to do with a man that didn't give me shit just for breathing. Which reminded me . . .
I pointed a finger at Christian. "You need to stop baiting Dom. It's gotten old already."
His giggles died until he was just smiling at me, an almost fond expression on his face. "You know I'd do almost anything for you, girl, but I won't do that."
I closed my eyes and counted to ten. This meeting was not of
f to a productive start.
Caleb spoke, finally bringing up the reason I had come. "Tianlong is still in town, though the rest of his people left months ago. Luke here has joined his household, becoming one of his favorite pets. He overheard news of another dragon visiting Vegas, one of the Chinese, and he thinks it might be Drake. Luke needs to get back undercover very soon, but he refused to go without getting to see you, since he unfortunately overheard us talking about your return."
Caleb gave Luke a very unfriendly look. "Well, here she is. Anything you want to say before you go back?"
Luke just shook his head, darting a quick glance at my face, then looking back down at my feet. "No. Everything I need to say to Mistress Jillian I've said in the letters that Christian is holding for her. And I have gazed upon her beauty. I can go back to my duties with a light heart."
I shook my head at him, exasperated, but still, I tried to be nice. I could do nice. Sort of. "You're, um, doing a good job, Luke. Thank you for helping us."
He was kissing my feet suddenly, and I backed hastily away, the room filling with Christian's most obnoxious laugh.
"I am not worthy of your thanks," Luke said, prostate on the ground.
I cringed, but tried to talk some reason into him. "You are, Luke. Of course you are. I'm proud of you. It sounds like you're doing a really good job, and it's a very selfless thing that you're doing to help my sister."
He turned his head until his cheek lay on the basement's concrete floor, a look of near bliss on his face. "Mistress is so kind. I live to please you, Mistress Jillian," he said.
I sent Caleb a wide-eyed, 'help me', kind of look. Luke's kind of adoration made my skin literally crawl, and I didn't know what the hell to do with it, especially since I owed the strange hunky sub so much for his unexpected help.
Caleb gave me his little shrug. That shrug said it all; Who knows? Who cares? Not me. Deal with it. It was Caleb in a nutshell.
And Christian was even less helpful, of course, just clutching his belly and laughing at me. If he'd been a few feet closer, I'd have kicked him.
"Get going, Luke," Caleb finally said, after an awkward pause. "You know how to contact me if you learn anything useful."
I breathed a sigh of relief when he finally made his embarrassingly adoring goodbyes.
Caleb seemed unaffected by the uncomfortable exchange, getting back to the point after Luke had gone. "We're as sure as we can be that Tianlong doesn't have Lynn. And we're nearly positive that the Chinese took her. That makes Drake our most likely suspect. He's due in town in five days. We need to have a plan for when he gets here. I say we kidnap him, torture him for information, and get this mess figured out, once and for all."
I processed the information while he paused for long moments.
Christian showed considerable restraint, being that he was a dragonslayer and we were talking about an enemy dragon. For all of a minute. "And then we slay his ass!"
I sent him a baffled look, opening my mouth to retort. Caleb beat me to it. "No. We keep him, until we have Lynn back. After that, whatever. Who cares? But we use him alive, as a hostage, until we get her back."
Christian just sighed, not a bit surprised. "A slayer's gotta try, yanno?"
I rolled my eyes. "It's easy to say we'll kidnap him. Harder to do it. We have a plan for that?"
Caleb smiled, his cold, creepy smile. "Yes. You owe Tianlong a date. It's time to deliver."
I groaned. I had been a tiny bit busy since I'd made that promise. I had completely forgotten the stupid thing. "It's not a date. I promised him a meeting."
He gave his little shrug. "You need to set it up, in six days, with the druids to act as intermediaries. I'm sure you can talk Dom into that, for your own safety and all. Drake won't want to come anywhere near that meeting, being that he has to know that you'll suspect he has your sister."
"This will hopefully tie up Tianlong and the druids for a few hours, leaving Drake to Christian and I. And since the druids clearly won't approve of kidnapping one of the few dragons that they aren't actively warring with, you need to get as many of them involved with that meeting as you can manage. Make it real official, real political, and real long-winded. Hell, work the jealousy angle with Dom. If he knows that Tianlong wants you to have his dragon babies, that mess could last for days. If we really luck out, the whole thing might dissolve into outright war. You just have to get your psycho ex mad enough. You seem to have a talent for that. The more time you give us to work, the better our chances are of snatching Drake."
Christian finally piped in, helpful as ever. "We'll call it, 'Operation: Baiting the Bear and Snatching the Dragon.'"
"We're not calling it that," I snapped back instantly.
I closed my eyes, rubbing my temples. Caleb's plans were usually solid, but this one already made me want to beat my own head against the wall. There was no question that I'd rather be in on the kidnapping part, as opposed to the whole meeting fiasco.
"Fine," I said finally, "I'll talk to Dom."
"Good. And while you're at it, get him to set up a meeting for us with their captured dragon."
My eyes snapped open. Dom had mentioned something about that...and then promptly distracted me. "Who is it?" I asked Caleb.
His mouth hardened. Touchy subject. "We don't know. We don't know anything about him, and we haven't been allowed to speak to him. They have him held in some sort of underground compound in the desert, but I haven't been able to get close enough to check it out. Dom won't tell us a thing. He wouldn't even discuss the prisoner with us, until he saw you again."
"Bastard thought we knew where you were," Christian piped in. It had been an unusually long period of silence for him. "He thought that we just weren't telling him." He sounded disgruntled, his English accent growing thicker, at the thought.
I had to smile just a touch at that. Everyone in this room knew that if they had known where I was, and I hadn't wanted them to tell Dom, there's no way in hell that they would have, so him getting defensive about it was just good comedy. And very typical Christian.
"I'll talk to him about that, too," I assured them.
"Make sure to stipulate that we all get to talk to the dragon," Caleb said, a hard glint in his eye.
I arched a brow at him. He was very much overestimating my skills of persuasion, but I supposed I'd try. "I'll see what I can do. In the morning. Dom didn't seem too happy with me when I left. I'm going to give him some time to cool off, before I start asking for favors."
Caleb shrugged. "No one knows how to play Dom like you do, so I'll leave it to your discretion."
I gave him a very hard look for that one. "That's going a little far. I do not play Dom."
Christian coughed slightly, muttering, "Like a fiddle," under his breath.
I didn't look away from Caleb, who had started it, but I suddenly had the strong urge to deck Christian.
Caleb met my eyes steadily. "Just calling a spade a spade. You can look at it through the filter of your emotions, if that makes you feel better, but I see it solely for what it is."
I felt my temper boiling, though I knew Caleb well enough to see that he could never understand my feelings for Dom. "And that would be?"
"Extremely useful. I don't see that as a bad thing. On the contrary. Wrapping one of the most powerful druids around your littlest finger is a very good play. But we're getting off track. If you won't ask him tonight, I have something else planned."
I stayed silent, just waiting for him to continue.
I was trying real hard not to be pissed about his assessment of my relationship with Dom. I had never been so mercenary, never set out to make him utterly obsessed with me. And I certainly hadn't chosen to stay just as obsessed with him, though no one ever seemed to notice my feelings.
I knew that the druids saw me as the cold bitch that had played with Dom's emotions. Having my own friends thinking that...stung. But that was just how Caleb's mind worked, so how upset could I get about it, really? And Ch
ristian was, well, an ass, likely giving me grief just because it tickled his fancy. I should have been used to them both, but I struggled for endless moments to stifle my rage and hell, my hurt.
Why was I being so sensitive? Was it the dragon-trance, still keeping some hold on me? Was I feeling a sudden bout of postpartum depression? I really didn't know.
Finally, when I thought I had a good handle on it, at least enough to drop the subject for the moment, I spoke. "What did you have planned?"
Caleb smiled his cold little smile. "A surprise. I'll ride with you in your car. Christian, you follow us in yours."
Christian was nearly vibrating in anticipation. "I love surprises."
"It's not for you," Caleb said coldly.
Christian shrugged. "So? I still like surprises."
I wondered, not for the first time, how these two men could be friends, spend significant time with each other, when they were very nearly polar opposites.
"I don't like surprises," I told Caleb. He knew that. Hell, everyone knew that.
He gave me his little shrug. "This surprise is unavoidable, so you might as well get it over with."
I studied him closely, though I knew that was pointless. Caleb was exactly as readable as he wanted to be. It could have been a mimic thing. I had no idea, since I'd never met another of his kind. I mused that it may not have been a bad thing. The thought of more than one Caleb in the world just boggled the mind.
Being enigmatic and hard to read was one thing, expecting me to go blind into some surprise situation was quite another. "I'm not walking into anything blind, Caleb," I told him frankly.
In a way, I trusted Caleb. He'd played reliable backup for me too many times to count, and he had obviously been actively involved in trying to find my sister, even without my having to ask. I had also played his backup many a time, so you could say we were even-steven.
Yes, I trusted Caleb to do exactly what he said he would, but only that. Him keeping secrets left too many gray areas for my peace of mind. I wasn't playing along until the rules were very clear. He knew me well enough to get that.