Breathing Fire (Heretic Daughters) (43 page)

They looked at each other, trying to decide without speaking what to tell me.
 

I just stared at them, waiting.
 
They shifted their eyes and feet nervously.
 
I could tell I disconcerted them.
 
“Do the dragons already know what you are?
 
If so, it’s pointless not to tell me.”

“I”m a phoenix,” Nix stated tonelessly, shocking me speechless for a moment.
 

“I thought your kind were extinct,” I told her honestly.

She shrugged, obviously having heard that before.
 
“If they manage to kill me, then as far as I know, we will be.”

I nodded at Leona.
 
“And you?”

Her watery eyes were pointed at the ground.
 
“Just think of the most useless creature in existence.
 
I bet you can guess it.”
 
It’s not an exaggeration to say that her despairing tone brought tears to my eyes.
 
She was powerful at evoking emotions in others, that much was obvious.

I thought for a few moments, but came up blank.
 
“You’re a necro, then?” I shot back.

She smiled, just the tiniest bit, and hope bloomed inside my chest.
 
She seemed to have no idea that she cold affect emotions with her slightest
 
move.
 
“No.
 
A unicorn.”

I whistled softly.
 
“I knew unicorns weren’t extinct, but just barely.
 
Do you know of any more of your kind?”

She shrugged.
 
“My dead-beat dad’s still breathing somewhere in the world, but my mother’s human.
 
I don’t know of any other relations.”

“What are these bastards up to?” I asked softly.

“Collecting pets is the only idea we’ve come up with,” Nix told me.

“They like to have things around to torture,” Leona added.

“Are you the only ones they’re holding?”
 

They both shook their heads.
 
“We don’t think so.
 
We’ve heard them talking about other captives.
 
They tell us all the time that we’re their favorites.
 
But we haven’t actually seen anyone except our captors, you, and each other.”

”Do they move you at all?
 
Or have you been in this room for months?”

“Oh, they move us all the time,” Leona spoke.
 
“We’ve traveled almost constantly since they captured me.
 
I was in Florida when they grabbed me, walking home from school.”

“They took me in Ontario, Canada,” Nix added.
 
“They snatched me out of my bed.”

“Have you heard them talk about the two women I had with me?”

They exchanged a wary glance.
 
“They said something about a druid woman….
 
They said she was dead.
 
They seemed to think it was funny how they’d killed her.”

I shut my eyes tightly against a sharp rush of emotion.
 
Rage, anger, and pain, oh yes, pain, washed through me.
 
Pain for the death of a woman I had always liked and respected.
 
But most of all, I felt guilt, that she’d died for my fight.
 
The rage seemed to help some of the pain in my body.
 
Revenge had always been my best motivator.
 
Heads were gonna roll for what had happened to Sloan, of that I was sure.

“Did they mention anyone else?
 
My sister was with me as well.”

They shook their heads in unison, and I cursed.
 
They both cringed.
 
“I’m not mad at either of you.
 
And, though I know it’s hard to believe at the moment, I will get us all out of here.
 
My kind don’t stay conscious and captive for long.”

Nix had a thoughtful look on her face.
 
Thoughtful and determined.
 
“So if you’re a dragon, can’t you make fire?”

I studied her for a moment, trying to see what she was thinking.
 
“Of course.”

“Could you set me on fire from that far away?”

I just stared at her, a little shocked.

“Oh no, Nix!
 
You can’t!
 
You told me you’ll lose your memories!
 
And it will hurt!
 
You said you wake up in total agony.”

Nix shrugged.
 
“I only lose some of my memories.
 
As it stands, there are quite a few memories I’d
love
to lose.
 
And I can take the pain.
 
The only thing that worries me is how long it takes to recover from the change.
 
It’s just so hard to predict when they’ll check on us.”

I shook my head at her, meeting her gaze squarely.
 
“I couldn’t do that.
 
I’m sorry, but I just can’t torch a little girl.
 
I’m capable of some pretty dark stuff, but not that.”
 

She glared at me, but didn’t speak.
 
I decided to cheer them up a bit.
 
I pulled off one my faux black pearl earrings.
 
I waved it at them.
 
“My reclusive family must not know too much about druids and their tracking devices.
 
Guess what these are, girls?”
 

They both just shook their heads at me, looking at me like I was crazy.
 
I just smiled.
 
“I’m being tracked by the druids, which means that, any minute now, we’ll be rescued.”
 

Nix and Leona both glared at me, as though I’d said something offensive.
 
“The druids only care about their own.
 
Why would they help us?” Leona asked, her tone accusatory and bitter.
 

My brows rose.
 
“I’ll agree that the druids can be elitist bastards, but they would help you if they knew of your plight, that I can promise.”
 

Nix snorted.
 
“These monsters have been working with some druids.
 
We’ve heard them talk about it.”

That was a bit of a shock.
 
I filed that away with things I needed to tell Dom the next time I saw him.
 
Hopefully that would be very soon, like when he was busting the door down to free me.
 
“That’s strange and disturbing information, but it won’t stop our rescue.
 
The Arch himself is tracking me, so I guarantee our rescuer outranks whatever druids you’re talking about.”

Nix gasped suddenly, her hand flying to her mouth.
 
She pointed at me.
 
“You’re her.
 
I’ve heard of you.
 
Leona, remember the stories about the mysterious supernatural woman that the Arch is obsessed with.
 
Everyone knows the story, how she bewitched him with some dark magic, and then betrayed him with the last Arch.
 
She actually caused the one to kill the other.”
 

Leona’s lovely brow furrowed.
 
“No, it can’t be her,” she said softly.
 

I sighed.
 
I really was famous, far and wide.
 
Infamous, rather.
 

“Yes it is her.
 
You can tell, even with her all beaten up and dirty, that she’s exquisitely beautiful.
 
Her long golden hair, and her pale blue eyes.
 
She’s tall, with comic-book curves.
 
I’ve heard her described tons of times.
 
The druids hate her, every single one of them.”

Leona was still doubtful, but studied me intently.
 
“No,” she said softly, less certain now.
 

“Tell us the truth.
 
Are you Jillian?” Nix was nearly glowing in her agitation.
 

I grimaced and nodded.
 
“Yes, I’m Jillian.”

Leona looked crushed and defeated at my admission.
 
It made me feel bad just looking at her.
 
“No,” she whispered.
 
“But you’re…evil.
 
The druids won’t be rescuing you.
 
They
hate
you.”
 

“She gets off on tormenting people.
 
I’ve heard that about her,” Nix spat.
 
“She gave us hope, just so she could crush it.”
 

“Don’t believe everything you hear.
 
I’m no angel, but I’m not evil, either.
 
Dom put this tracker on me himself, and I swear to you that he will come here to free us.”
 
I reached the device across the distance between our cages.
 
It covered two-thirds of the distance, but Leona would have to reach to grab it.
 
“Take one of these.
 
That way, even if they separate us, the druids will still find you.”
 
She hesitated, and my patience snapped even as the roaring in my ears grew with the huge presence trying to overtake my body.
 
“Take it!
 
What do you have to lose?”
 

My tone frightened her into obeying, but she backed away from my cage the instant she got ahold of the pearl.
         

“You’ll be okay,” I reassured the young girls, as well as myself.
 
“No matter what happens, they’ll find you now.”
 
I was folding into the corner even as I spoke, my body turning on me, as it tended to do lately.

The change started like a raging torrent in my blood.
 
It was faster and more violent by far than any I had experienced before.
 

The girls looked on with horror as I lost all control of my body.
 
I think my eyes went first, because my vision changed to dragon between one blink and the next.
 
It’s impossible to say what changed next, it all happened so fast.
 

I tried to reassure the girls in the other cages.
 
I just wanted them to know that no matter what I turned into, they didn’t need to fear me, but there was no time.
 

Blue flames engulfed my body, which was normal.
 
My wings expanded in one huge flap, quick as flight.
 
That was not so normal.

The steel bars on the cage that had seemed so sturdy just moments ago snapped like twigs.

I was suddenly too big for the oversized theatre.
 
There was no exit that would come anywhere near fitting my full dragon form.
 
I would have to make one.

CHAPTER FORTY

The Return

I landed softly on top of the vaguely familiar building.
 
My shift to human form was more difficult than any I could remember.
 
But also faster.
 
I had been submerged in my other form for over six months.
 
I had never stayed changed for such a long period of time.
 
But I’d had a lot to do as my dragon self.
 

I just lay on the textured concrete pavement of the roof for what could have been hours while I acclimated to my new form.
 
I lay wrapped around my precious burden.
 
It was carefully bundled inside a thick leather hide that I had been clutching securely the entire flight here.

Finally, I stood on wobbly legs.
 
My skin still glowed gold, and I could see from the strands of my hair that lay against my chest that the dragon-trance still claimed that as well.
 
I knew from experience that these effects would last for days or even weeks.
 

My landing perch was the posh balcony that I knew connected to the presidential suite of the casino that was my destination.
 

I didn’t make a sound as I slipped in the door.
 
The first four rooms I moved through were empty, but I followed the sounds of voices and easily found my target.

I found him holding court in a palatial dinning room.
 
The room was dark and beautifully decorated, all dark wood and marble.
 
Dom sat at the head of a massive table, his back to me.
 
I’d obviously arrived at a bad time, during some kind of business dinner, but I couldn’t leave until I’d completed my mission.
 
Dozens of druids faced me, staring with mixtures of shock and contempt.
 
Siobhan sat to Dom’s left, obviously his hostess.
 
Hers was the only glare I returned.
 
She clutched a steak knife in her hand like she intended to use it on me.
 
I half-wished she would try.
 
The draak still held enough sway over me that I knew I would show no mercy.
 
Consequences be damned.

Dom had frozen at my entrance, but hadn’t turned.
 
He addressed his dinner party.
 
“I assume by your silence that whoever just entered is posing no threat to me.”
 
His tone was sardonic.
 
I heard him take a deep breath.
 
“Jillian,” he said, his voice dangerously soft.
 
I wasn’t myself enough yet to have any idea what that tone of voice meant.

“Dom.”
 
My voice was hoarse from disuse.
 
I worried that the faint sound hadn’t reached his ears, but suddenly, he turned.
 
He stood at the sight of me, and it was only as he stared at me with shock and fury that I remembered clothes.
 
Or rather, my lack of clothes.
 
I was nude, of course.
 
Dragons have no thought for clothing.