Dragon's Heart (2 page)

Just as he and Mick reached the other two, the sorcerers let loose with a hail of gunfire right in the middle of the ER. Lester dove for cover behind a crash cart, at the same time yelling, “What. The. Fuck? This is a hospital, you idiots!”

That comment only earned him more gunfire. Patients and staff members began to scream as they scrambled for cover or just cowered right where they were.

“I think they know where they are. They just don’t care,” Mick said in a loud stage whisper.

He had taken cover behind a garbage can a couple of feet from Lester. Tristan let out a low hissing sound and nodded to a set of double sliding doors a couple of feet from them. Mick gave a nod before turning to Lester.

“We need to make a run for it before any humans get hurt or the police show up. When I tell you to, run for the door. We’re going to shift as soon as we get out here. Since we can’t risk being seen, we need to take off right away. So I need you to be ready to jump on my back and do it quick. Got it?”

Lester nodded. “I understand.”

He was willing to do anything if it meant getting the gunfire away from the patients and the ER. Sure the staff would wonder what happened to him, but so be it. It didn’t look like he’d be going back to his human life anytime soon anyhow.

Tristan mouthed, “
Now.”

They all made a mad dash to the double set of doors. When it looked like the three dragons were prepared to just smash their way through the thing, Lester quickly pushed the button to open them.

They all paused a moment to give him a look of shock. He wiggled his fingers. “No magic. I just know how to use electronics.”

They raced outside and the three others quickly shifted—Tristan into a green dragon, while Brody was black. Mick was the most beautiful, though. His scales were blue, and that meant they were every shade of blue. The hues were darker at his head and gradually grew lighter down near to the tip of his tail.

Lester could have spent all day staring at Mick, but he remembered his orders and quickly scampered onto Mick’s back. It was a good thing that even in dragon form Mick was a bit on the smaller side. Had Lester been trying to mount Brody, he would have needed a step stool. The guy was massive.

The trio flapped their wings and took off. Not a moment too soon, either. The sorcerers came out and started to shoot at the sky. Lester knew they wished they could use their magic, but that was one thing their council forbade them to ever do in public. Not that all sorcerers obeyed that rule, but so far this group seemed to be acting like good boys.

A fireball came their way, just narrowing missing Mick. Oops, looked like Lester had jumped to conclusions too soon. These guys didn’t mind using magic in public after all.

Another fireball came their way, but Mick easily dodged it. After that, they were too far out of firing zone for the sorcerers to reach them by gun or magic. Lester let out a little whoop of excitement. It almost reminded him of old times. Even though he and Mick were twenty-eight, they were both considered young in the dragon world. So Lester still got a perverse kick out of close calls like the one they’d just been through.

Tristan huffed, letting out a puff of smoke, before he banked to the left. The others followed. Lester tightened his grip on Mick. It wasn’t the first time he’d ridden his friend. In fact, it was something they used to do all the time before Lester left. Lester found himself falling back easily into the old habit, much like one would riding a bike.

He just wished that he had his thick riding gear that he used to wear. His thin scrubs were little protection against the cool air. While it didn’t take them that long to fly home, by the time they got there Lester was shivering badly and in the early stages of hypothermia.

The dragons landed in front of what used to be his father’s house but now belonged to Lester’s oldest brother, Brian. Lester slid off Mick’s back and nearly fell when his legs gave out from under him.

Mick and the others shifted back to their human forms, their clothing coming back into place. Mick reached out to steady Lester. “You okay?”

“Yeah, it’s just been a while since I’ve flown and it was cold up there,” Lester answered through chattering teeth.

“Shit!” Mick swore. “I didn’t even think of that. I was too worried about getting away from those jerks.”

Lester looked up at the house. While to many others it just looked like a simple home, to Lester it was so much more. To him it was a place of many bad, hurtful and hateful memories and yet he was willingly walking back inside it. Dear God, he must have lost his marbles or something. Or maybe he really was as stupid and simple-minded as his father had always accused him of being.

Brian came out and stood on the front porch. Like all the brothers, Lester included, he had dark hair and even darker eyes. Brian was the only one who kept his a bit longer, at shoulder length, whereas Lester preferred to keep his cut short. Aside from that, they could have been twins, were it not for the fact one was ten years older and the other a bastard.

“Lester, it’s good to see that you made it home safely,” Brian said.

Lester noticed there was no brotherly hug coming his way. He let out a sigh. He would be getting enough of those from Nicholas and Duncan anyway. Besides, it was Brian who had summoned him here, not the other way around, so Lester could care less if he impressed the guy.

“I take it my old room is still ready?” Lester asked as he walked up the stairs.

“Yes, Father insisted that nobody touch it.”

That bit of sentiment came as a shock to Lester, but at the moment he was too overwhelmed to chew it over. He just nodded and made his way to his childhood bedroom. After going inside, he crawled under the blankets and was asleep almost as soon as his head hit the pillow.

Chapter Two

As Mick glanced up at the old farmhouse that Lester had grown up in, he couldn’t help but wonder how his friend felt to be back. While Lester had never come out and admitted as much, Mick knew it had not been easy living there.

And why? For something that Lester had absolutely no control over. Like he had asked to be born, let alone chosen who his parents would be. Yet it had been he who had been punished for their sins. He had been the one to face the shame. Sometimes, life just sucked.

Mick turned to go to his own home in one of the cottages on the perimeter of the land, but Brian called him back. “Mick, I need to talk to you for a minute.”

Mick barely restrained his sigh of irritation. He loved his leader—he really, really did—but to the guy, a minute of talking often turned into two hours of chatting. Orders were orders, though, so he went up the steps and walked inside.

As he did, he couldn’t help but catch a whiff of Lester. As if it had a mind of its own, Mick’s cock began to swell.
Great!
Just what Mick needed—his old infatuation for Lester literally springing up again. Mick had thought he was over the guy, but it appeared things couldn’t be further from the truth. He still had a mega case of Lester-itis and there was no cure in sight.

How could Mick not like the guy, though? Even in those ugly hospital scrubs, he was still hot as hell. With his dark, short hair that still fell a bit into his deep, brown eyes, a slim, tight body that was made for fucking and lips that begged to be kissed, he was everything Mick wanted in a guy.

But in the past, each time Mick had tried to make the moves on Lester, Lester had always pulled away, which was strange because Mick was good at reading other people and he could tell Lester liked him, too. So why in the hell was Lester refusing him? Unless he didn’t think he was good enough for Mick or something, an idea that was just as crazy.

Mick followed Brian to the library that also served as Brian’s office. Brian went behind the massive desk in the centre of the room and sat down.

Motioning to one of the chairs in front of the desk, Brian said, “Sit, this may take a while.”

So it was going to be a marathon chat, just as Mick had suspected. He sank down in the seat and made himself comfortable. “What do you want to talk about, sir?”

“I think it’s pretty obvious, since he just rode in on your back,” Brian answered with a little smirk. “Just like old times, huh?”

“Yeah, only this time we don’t have to worry about Lester getting a beating for not doing his chores properly when he comes back home,” Mick bit out angrily.

He realised he probably shouldn’t have said that since he was talking about Brian’s dead parents, but years of pent-up anger had burst loose and it’d just popped out.

Much to Mick’s surprise, anger flashed through Brian’s eyes, but it wasn’t directed at him. “To say that our parents were less than kind to my youngest brother would be a vast understatement. That’s one of the reasons I didn’t blame him for leaving. I would have sent for him sooner, but I know this place only holds bad memories for him. The only reason I’m forcing him to return now is because of the asshole sorcerers who would kill him on sight.”

“Do you really think that he can tap into his powers?” Mick asked. “In all the time I’ve known him, he hasn’t shown a hint of having any magical abilities.”

“Trent seems to think that with some proper training that can all change. Apparently he isn’t the only one, since the sorcerers have suddenly put a bounty on Lester’s head.”

“How much is it?” Mick asked.

Brian gave a sardonic smile. “Let’s just say it would have made our dearly departed father so proud to know that one of his sons was worth so much.”

“Your mother, on the other hand, probably would have turned him in for the cash,” Mick countered.

“Faster than one could say
Prada
.
”

“Is Trent really going to work with Lester?” Mick hedged.

“Of course. Why wouldn’t he?”

“I know how some people can be when it comes to half-breeds. I don’t want Lester to have to work with somebody who is going to treat him like crap.”

Brian cocked an eyebrow. “Since when did you have any say in it at all?”

Since the first time I held him in my arms while he cried when we were just kids. From the moment I realised that he was more than just a friend to me. Since I love him even though I know that I can never have him as mine, because bastard or not, he’s royalty and I’m just a common soldier.

“Lester and I go way back and are pretty tight. I would just hate to see somebody hurt him,” was all Mick said.

“Trent knows all about Lester’s history and he was just as appalled by it as we were.”

“What do you mean appalled?” Mick said. “If you, Duncan and Nicholas were so upset about it, then why didn’t you ever step in and try to protect him when you were kids?”

Mick knew he was bat-shit crazy to be speaking out to his leader this way, but he couldn’t help it. All he could think about were all the beatings and verbal abuse Lester had gone through. If there had been anything that the other three could have done to stop it, and they hadn’t, then that made them just as guilty as their parents.

“We did,” Brian said. “But every time we spoke up, they would only double Lester’s punishment. So we learnt quickly to bite our tongues, no matter how much it hurt us to do so. Do you have any idea how hard it was for us to watch our baby brother getting beat and know nothing we could do would help him?”

“I hate to say this, sir, but most of us just thought you were going along with it,” Mick confessed.

A look of anguish passed over Brian’s face. “Even Lester?”

“Especially Lester.”

Brian put his face in his hands. “Our mother would never let us near him, so we couldn’t explain the situation to him. Does he hate us?”

“I think hate would be putting it mildly,” Mick said truthfully. Might as well get it all out there in the open right from the start. No sense in tiptoeing around the bushes.

“What do I do? Should I go talk to him?” Brian asked.

For the first time ever, Mick saw his leader at a loss for what to do. It was a bit unsettling and comical at the same time. Brian was always so stoic and put together. It was kind of nice to see that even he could crack a bit at times.

“I don’t think now is the best time. He’s a bit pissed at us for ripping him out of the world he set up for himself.”

“But even he has to realise that it wasn’t safe for him there,” Brian protested.

“True, but he’s still pissed off at us nonetheless. Anything paranormal equals us in his book, so even though it’s the sorcerers who are making him hide out, he’s still blaming the dragons for it.”

Brian gave a bitter laugh. “Lester always could be stubborn.”

“And that hasn’t changed. I had to practically drag him out of that ER.”

“That sounds like my brother.” Brian let out a deep breath. “I missed him so much. I wonder if he even realises that?”

“Probably not.”

“Our parents did a real fuck job on his head, didn’t they?”

Mick shrugged. “It sounds like they did a pretty good job with all of you.”

“Yeah, they did. Which brings me to the reason why I called you in here.”

Finally!
They were getting to the point of the conversation.

“What’s that, sir?” Mick asked.

“I want you to rekindle your friendship with Lester. We need him to be as cooperative and trust us as much as possible. I think you’re going to be the only way that he’s going to open up.”

Mick had to hide his hands under the desk so his leader wouldn’t see that they were formed into balls of fury. “So you want me to get close to my old friend so you can use him for your cause. How about I get close to him so you can finally get to know him? Or so you can apologise for standing back all those years he was abused? How about that?”

Brian ran his hands through his hair. “Of course I want all those things, but I’m also running a war here, Mick. We have hundreds, maybe even thousands of captured dragons out there, and we need to find out who is holding their Dragon’s Eyes. Trent thinks he can work a scrying spell to locate all of them, but he needs the help of another sorcerer. Since we don’t happen to have another one of those just lying around, Lester is the next best thing. If Trent can teach him to unleash his powers, we can save countless lives. So you’ll have to excuse me if I don’t come across as Brother of the Year right now. As much as I would love nothing more than to be by Lester’s side, I have all my people to worry about.”