A Dragon's Honor (11 page)

“I’m
sorry. I’m so sorry I almost bonked you on the head,” Raven said
apologetically.

“You
didn’t almost hit me. It was him that was going to get hit. I have great
reflexes, and it seems you do too,” Hawke replied. “Raven, I presume.”

She
nodded. “I am, and I assume you are Hawke and she is
Daisye
,
but I don’t know the other two.”

“That’s
Aki,” Hawke said.

Raven
held out her hand. “Nice to meet you.”

“I’m
honored.”

The
very tall man with black straight hair pulled into a long braid down his back
stepped forward and shook her hand. At the end of the braid she noticed
something glinting in the light. Aki noticed her staring and flipped his long
braid over his shoulder to show her the end. There was a series of very thin,
sharp blades braided into it.

“My
hair is not just to be aesthetically pleasing but to be used as a weapon as
well,” Aki explained.

She
touched the tip of one small blade carefully and smiled. “Our worlds are
intermingled. I’ve studied Asian cultures incorporating this into martial
arts.”

Aki
nodded and gave her a small smile. “Dragons have been around for a long time.”

Raven
couldn’t help but laugh. Dragon myth has been around for hundreds of years; she
was seeing now that her studies could have been more fact than lore all along.
Dragons probably helped to shape world cultures more than she realized.

“This
redheaded brute is
Lleau
,” Hawke said, introducing
the man with the vibrant blue eyes.

He
bowed low and behind him his companions all rolled their eyes, including
Daisye
. “Raven, none so fair should have a name that describes
the darkest of nights.”

“Maybe
I have a black heart,” Raven commented casually.

He
gasped and then winked. “I’ll be the first to share it if you allow me to.”

“Cool
your jets, hound dog.”
Daisye
stepped forward and
slapped him away. “Shoo. She belongs to Raul.”

“And
I’ll fight for what’s mine,” Raul said.

Everyone
turned at the sound of his voice. He walked further into the room, draped in his
black robe edged with golden dragons. Her heart jumped at his words and at the
sight of him. His hair was misted with rain and his face had a sexy wind-whipped
glow.

“Ah,
you lay claim to her?”
Lleau
asked.

“In
a way, we lay claim to each other,” Raul replied and changed the subject
abruptly. “I think I found the
Shen
cell stronghold.”

“Where,
exactly?” Hawke asked.

“An
old lead mine south of our position, and, before you ask, no, I was not seen,
but I saw their movement from the sky,” Raul replied. “I landed to take a look
from the ground and there should be nothing in that area since its overrun by
vegetation. It looks like they cleared a lot of it away recently. We need to go
in while they are unaware.”

“Not
yet. We need more reconnaissance on the area,” Hawke said.

Raul
gave a frustrated growl. “I just told you I did all of that. My father could be
in there, Hawke.”

“And
maybe this is a trap to get one of us, claim a warrior, and use him as a pawn
in the war that’s brewing,” Hawke snapped. “Use your head, Raul. All is not as
it seems.”

“Maybe
so, but as I hear it, you’ve been holding a lot back from me, Hawke.” Raul gave
him a cold stare.

“And
who would have you been talking to that could give such information?” Hawke’s
voice was deadly soft.

Raven
felt her breath still in her chest as she watched them face off. Anyone could
see they had a strong bond, yet they both stared each other down, neither
willing to give an inch. Finally, it was
Daisye
who
broke the tense silence.

“Oh,
for the love of God, you two are the most pigheaded souls I have ever met,”
Daisye
said and threw her arms up in exasperation. “Always
butting heads even though I know full well that you would lay down your lives
for each other. Now, Raul, whatever are you talking about?”

“We
went to Paladin.” Raven stood and took Raul’s hand. She watched as Hawke’s gaze
fell on their linked fingers and an eyebrow rose.
Lleau
grinned and nudged Aki. She focused on the tense conversation. “Orin told us
that Raul needed to talk to Hawke for the truth. It’s been too long, don’t you
think? Don’t let hard feelings simmer between the two of you.”

“And
what would you know of it? You’ve been around for less than a week. He has been
my ward for ninety-five years,” Hawke replied.

Oh, no, he didn’t just call me out to try
to get me to back down!
Raven
felt her temper simmer. No one spoke to her like that and got away with it.

“So
for ninety-five years you have been holding on to a secret and treating him
like a child,” Raven snapped. “Let me tell you something, Hawke, the big bad
dragon, he is everything but a child. You may have that in your head,
but,
trust me, I know he’s a man in every possible way. You
get me? Instead of trying to protect him from the truth, how about you give it
to him so he’s fully armed, and don’t ever talk to me like that again. I may
have only been in his life for a week or so, but it seems to me that I’ve had
his back and slept in his bed. I know him better than you think.”

She
was too angry to care that
Lleau’s
and Aki’s lips
were twitching with laughter and Raul was openly grinning.
Daisye
nodded at her with approval in her eyes and Hawke… Well, Raven thought maybe he
wanted to roast her with his dragon breath. In the end he just sighed and sat
down.

“Sit,
Raul, your woman is right. This has been a long time coming,” Hawke said.
“She’s also right that sometimes I still see the small boy who I took from a
broken man. But you are a boy no longer. Your mother was my sister and she
married your father against our parents’ wishes. Instead of being kind to your
mother, he was cruel and we slowly saw her beauty fade into nothingness. She
was a broken woman. That is, until she met Colmar and he brought her back to
life. They tried to keep their love a secret, but everyone could see the change
in her including the man who abused her. She became pregnant with you and
planned to leave with Colmar and petition the king to have her marriage
declared null.”

“What
happened?” Raul asked. He was holding Raven’s hand so tightly she felt she
would lose all feeling in her fingers, but didn’t ask him to let go.

“Colmar
was your father, by blood, and he died protecting your mother from being
carried off by a
Shen
hunting party. She came home to
our mother, steeped in years of abuse and then grief from losing Colmar that
made her inconsolable. In the end, she had you and we saw her life come back
once more as she held you in her arms. The man you know as your father, Jonas, came
to her on his knees and begged for forgiveness.” Hawke ran his hand through his
hair and closed his eyes for a moment before meeting Raul’s eyes again. “
Selmiere
accepted and she went home to him. My father and I
had a talk with him that reinforced that no harm would come to you or her. We
saw her smile and laugh as you grew, but her heart was never the same. She
longed for Colmar even as Jonas wooed her. They made a home for you, but her
will to live faded and she gave in to the call of our ancestors. For months
after, we thought Jonas was keeping his word by taking care of you, but he
wasn’t. In the end, he could not live with his guilt on how he treated her and
thought he was to blame for her death. He thought the solution was to walk into
the barrens and let fate deal him whatever hand it chose.”

“So
my father was not actually my father…” Raul broke off. “And you are my uncle. I
always saw that sadness in her eyes when she smiled at me. But this doesn’t
change the fact that the
Shen
are
holding him and I have to save him. Ultimately, he changed and tried to do
right. I could try to hate him for something that happened before my birth, but
how do I when I saw the man dote on her all those years she was alive? He
tousled my hair and took me for walks through the star fruit grove on his
shoulders, talking about life and teaching me how to pick the ripest fruit. I
saw him grieve. Oh, God…” Raul put his head in his hands and leaned forward.
“What do you want me to do, leave him there?”

“You
don’t know he is alive, Raul, and if he is, he would not want you risking your
life for his,” Hawke said harshly. “We can’t take the risk of you being lost or
worse for something that may or may not be true.”

“Damn
it, Hawke, he is the only father I know!” Raul roared. “You cannot tell me to
leave him to die.”

Hawke
stood and roared right back. The walls and glass in the windows seemed to
reverberate with the sound and Raven flinched. He pointed to Raul. “I will not
lose you as well!”

Raul
stood. “You’ve got to trust me, Hawke. By the gods, I do not want to die, but I
have to do this.”

“I
am your elder in the court and I order you to stay here until further notice,”
Hawke replied. “We will find the stronghold and see for ourselves what is going
on. You are to stay here until we return.”

“Hawke,
you can’t protect me all my life because of some misguided promise to my
mother!” Raul roared.

“Maybe
not, but I can sure as hell try,” Hawke growled. “Aki,
Lleau
with me; Raul, you are to stay put.”

“That
is so not fair, Hawke, and you know it,”
Daisye
said.

“I
know I’ll pay for it later, but I have to do this. He’s not thinking
straight…and…I have to keep him alive,” Hawke said, casting his gaze to Raul.
“No matter what the cost. I can take your hate, but I cannot take lighting the
flame on your funeral pyre. I won’t.”

“
Lleau
, Aki, help me out here. Talk some sense into him,”
Raul pleaded.

Aki
shook his head. “
Lleau
and I have to defer to Hawke.
His word goes.”

“Damn
all of you,” Raul snarled and strode towards the bedroom angrily. The door
slamming made Raven flinch.

“Go
to him,”
Daisye
said gently.

Raven
glared at all three men. “You are so wrong to do this.”

With
that, she went to the bedroom door and slipped quietly inside. Raul was pacing
back and forth like a caged tiger. He was furious and hurt and each emotion was
written all over his face.

“They
did this to me. I can’t believe they put me on—how do you say it
?—
the sidelines!” He turned and faced her. “I’ll not
stand for it. I am a warrior of the court, the same as them. I will not be
treated like this. I’m going, and that’s final.”

She
rushed in front of him and placed her hands on his chest. “No, Raul, no, not
like this, not angry, and you’re not thinking straight.”

There
was a knock on the door and she cracked it open to
Daisye
.
“Hey, the guys can’t go right now. The visibility is completely gone due to the
storm.”

“Thanks,
Daisye
,” Raven said and closed the door again.

She
turned to Raul and his face was set in a stubborn line. “See, they’re not going.
We all just need to breathe and we can approach this again in the morning.”

He
shook his head. “I’ll head out as soon as it lets up and beat them to it.”

“No,
Raul, please, no,” Raven begged and kissed him once, then twice. “Stay with me,
love me, be with me right now.”

“Raven,
I—”

She
cut his words off with her lips before looking into his emerald eyes. “No, just
you and me, nothing else from the outside world for a little while.” She wanted
him to lose his anger, burn it off, and if it was with her then it was perfect.
At least he wasn’t out there putting himself in danger. Raven worked at the
sash of his robe and kissed him hungrily. She was terrified she would lose him
to his anger and the things that waged a war against them all.

When
he took over the kiss and pulled her hard against his naked body, nothing else
mattered. Raven wanted him to sink into her and forget it all just for a little
while. She barely heard the sound as he ripped her shirt down the middle and a
moan escaped her lips as he cupped her breasts with hot hands. Raul’s entire
body seemed to be super heated as if the fire of his anger and passion was
erupting out of him. His hands skimmed down her body to her skirt, and she felt
the flimsy material and the buttons give way under his grasp. He ran his hands
up her hips and between her legs cupping her sex and Raven moaned in pleasure.

“The
bed, baby. My legs feel like jelly,” Raven whispered urgently.

“You
wanted me hot and bothered. You wanted to tempt the dragon and now you have it.”
Raul fisted his hands in her hair and kissed her hard. “You’ll take it all and
scream my name before I’m done.”