Revealing the Dragons (Stonefire Dragons #2.5) (6 page)

Tristan raised an eyebrow. “And?”

Bram let out a sigh. “The Order of the Dragon Knights are claiming responsibility for the attack.”

Chapter Five

Careful to keep her voice low so as to not wake the babies, Melanie asked, “The same Dragon Knights as the ones in the legends old William tells when he drinks a little too much?”

Bram nodded. “And while most humans believe them to be legends, the Dragon Knights were real. They disappeared three hundred years ago thanks to pressure from Enlightenment thinkers and scientists who wanted to save the dragon-shifters from extinction. Because of their centuries of silence, I’m taking their claims of responsibility with a grain of salt.”

Mel blinked. “Wait a second. In all of my research, no one ever mentioned the Knights being real. Why not?”

Tristan squeezed her shoulder and she looked to him. “Because, love, we believed them long gone and didn’t want to give anyone ideas about starting something similar again.”

Melanie eyed her mate. “You’re not supposed to keep secrets from me, Tristan.”

Uncertainty flashed in Tristan’s eyes, but Bram spoke up before her mate could answer. “It was on my order, Mel. A clan leader’s word is the only thing that outranks a mate’s.”

Her throat closed up at being excluded, but Mel pushed it aside. “So you still don’t think of me as one of the clan? Or that I could know a secret and keep it? As you’ve seen today, this book’s release has caused major damage and threatened my life. Complete honesty is the least you owe me.”

Bram shuffled his feet. Evie elbowed him and after a quick glance to Evie, Bram focused back on Melanie with regret in his eyes. “I’m sorry, lass. The decision was made shortly after you conceived, when you asked about writing the book. Between the increase of dragon hunter attacks on our borders and Evie’s kidnapping, I forgot all about it. I’ll rescind the order with the entire clan as soon as the threat passes and it won’t happen again.”

Bram’s words eased some of her hurt. “I need some answers now, Bram, or I can’t help and think of a way to tackle the threats.”

Stonefire’s leader nodded. “Ask away, then, lass. I have a few minutes.”

Facts were more important than dwelling on the past slight, so Mel continued, “Right, then, let me get this straight. Not only do we have the dragon hunters wanting to trap all of you and drain your blood, we now have knights who want to slay you? For what purpose? Killing a dragon won’t bring them prestige.”

Bram answered, “I’m sorry, lass, but you’re wrong about that. In addition to earning a reputation in criminal circles, because killing a dragon is bloody difficult to do, they’ll gain prestige with their fellow knights. If they truly are back, they’ll be competing against each other and then it won’t be long before they have fans romanticizing them and admiring their work from afar.”

Evie spoke up. “Why the bloody hell would someone cheer on slaying dragons? If nothing else, their healing blood would be wasted.”

Bram drawled, “Nice to see you equating us with other medical rarities and not as individuals.”

Evie slapped her mate’s chest. “Stop it, Bram. From a logical perspective, slaying a dragon makes little sense anymore. They can’t win trophies or the respect of a king or nobleman. Not to mention it’s illegal and will bring the DDA down on them.”

Mel remembered something from her time working with Evie over the last few months. Leaning forward slightly, she looked to her friend. “But didn’t you mention the next-in-line at the DDA wanted to dismantle the sacrifice system and pretty much destroy the DDA? Jonathan something or other.”

Evie’s mouth dropped open for a second before she regained her wits. “Jonathan Christie. He’d have knowledge of the old Dragon Knights. Not only that, but by attacking the London DDA office, he’s sure to have killed the head of the DDA, Regina Ward.”

Mel frowned. “Does this Christie bloke have connections to pull something like today off?”

Evie shrugged. “I have no bloody idea. The man was far up the hierarchy. I only saw him from a distance at department-wide events.”

Tristan jumped in. “This is nothing but conjecture. Where’s the proof?”

Bram shook his head. “We just came up with the theory, Tristan. Gives us a little time to prove it.”

Mel pushed past her mate’s words. “If we can prove it and Christie is behind the Dragon Knights’ return, then we have a bigger problem.” She looked back to Evie. “If the head of the DDA is dead, then who is in charge?”

Evie’s face turned grim. “Jonathan Christie.”

Mel continued. “Right, so if he’s in charge, he’ll ignore the Dragon Knights and they’ll continue making terrorist attacks. No human female in her right mind would volunteer to be a sacrifice. Rather than becoming targets, the sacrifices and their families would turn to the black market for dragon’s blood.”

Bram nodded. “Right, which benefits the hunters.” Stonefire’s leader looked to his mate. “At one point, you mentioned the possibility of Simon Bourne working with the authorities to look the other way for his dragon hunts. Maybe it went all the way to the top levels of the DDA. That could explain the laxness of arresting dragon hunters over the last few years.”

Evie placed a hand on Bram’s arm. “Maybe, and it’s bugged you for months why my rescue was so easy. Do you think it was a distraction, to give Simon Bourne or Jonathan Christie a chance to recreate the Order of the Dragon Knights? They might’ve had this attack planned for months to coincide with Mel’s book launch and needed to ensure no one made any sort of connection between Christie and Simon Bourne until they could pull off the attacks.”

Bram frowned. “Maybe. Although I don’t like making assumptions without proof. I need to talk to Kai.” He looked at Evie. “And we need to contact your friend. The more information we have, the better we can face this possible new threat.”

~~~

Despite the possible conspiracy brewing amongst the ranks of the DDA, all Tristan could think about was his mate.

He didn’t like the way Mel was slowly moving away from him. It might only be an inch or two at a time, but he knew it was because he’d hurt her.

His dragon paced.
You should have listened to me. She might leave us because of your actions.

She won’t. And listening to you meant disobeying Bram. Dragon-shifters need a clan structure to survive or it will become chaotic.

A real dragon wouldn’t hide anything from his mate. It is the way it’s supposed to be.

Right, so his dragon was now giving him the guilt trip.
I will handle this. Be quiet so I can listen to the conversation.

With a huff, his inner beast moved to the back of his mind just as Bram mentioned needing to talk with Kai. Then Bram looked to Melanie and added, “Keep a watch on the human media for me and if you could come up with any ideas on how to use it to our advantage, let me know. I’ll be back as soon as I have more information.”

Mel gave a stiff bob of her head. Tristan wanted to rub her back to help ease her tension, but as she scooted another inch away from him, he decided against it.

Bram looked to him. “Tell Melanie whatever she wants to know. There won’t be any more clan secrets kept from your mate. She is one of us.”

Once Tristan nodded, Bram turned toward the door. “Keep your phones close to hand. Evie or I will call you soon.”

As Bram left with his mate and son, a strained silence filled the cottage. He wanted to ease his mate’s pain, but Tristan had never been very good with words. He had no idea of what to say, yet if he said nothing, he might lose her trust.

Unsure of what else he could say, Tristan blurted out, “I’m sorry.”

Mel turned toward him, her eyes guarded. “Right here, right now, I need to know if there’s anything else you’ve been keeping secret from me.”

“Just one more thing.”

She moved another inch away. “Well?”

He glanced down at his son, asleep in his arms. The sight of his son’s peaceful face gave him the courage to look back at Melanie and say, “After Annabel was born and I waited to see if you’d live or die, I cried to the point of nearly sobbing. I hadn’t done that since my mother’s death.”

Mel’s posture eased. “Tristan.”

She would probably allow him to hug her and hold her, but he needed to do more than patch up his mistake; he needed to heal it. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about the Dragon Knights, Melanie. Bram’s dominance and my respect for his leadership prevented me from giving in to the desire to share everything with you. I won’t do it again. Please don’t leave me or take away our babies.”

His mate frowned. “What the hell are you talking about?”

“You’re angry and keep moving away from me. I keep waiting for you to bolt.”

“Tristan MacLeod, stop being paranoid. I’m upset, yes, but I would sure as hell hope our love is stronger than one little incident. Things have been nearly perfect up until now. Something was bound to happen. However, if you’re willing to give up on us that easily, maybe I should leave.”

Tristan reached out and touched her cheek. “No, I don’t want you to leave. You and the children are my everything.”

Her face softened. “There’s that tenderness again. It wouldn’t hurt to show it a bit more often, you know, when I’m not angry?”

“So, you forgive me?”

With a sigh, she moved, readjusted her grip on their daughter, and cuddled her head against his chest. “I suppose so, but to start making it up to me, tell me everything you know about the knights.”

He kissed the top of his mate’s hair. The heat and softness of her against his side allayed both the man and beast’s worries. “There’s not a lot to tell, really. The modern human sacrifice system was loosely based on one used during the medieval period, when lords and villages would offer a human female in exchange for protection against outside threats. The Dragon Knights thought they could do a better job of protecting other humans, at a price of course.

“The legends say the knights slayed the dragons to prove how much better it would be to hire them for protection than to offer a female to a dragon-shifter for the same thing.”

His mate nuzzled his chest with her cheek. “Bram mentioned the Enlightenment-period thinkers saving the dragon-shifters. Is that when your number repopulated, even without human sacrifices?”

“Yes. At least, until the two world wars during the last century. After that, we were desperate again.”

“I know the rest from my research, about the local bargains being made on a case-by-case basis until the DDA was established in the 1980s. If only I had access to some of the university libraries, I could start digging for references. Just think, Tristan, there’s a whole side to human and dragon-shifter history which the humans know nothing about.”

She fell silent and the corner of his mouth ticked up. “Are you outlining another book in your head?”

Looking up, she gave a coy smile “Maybe.”

He chuckled and kissed her nose. “Let’s handle the aftermath of this one first, love. Then we’ll tackle the next.”

His mate snuggled against him again. “I love you, Tristan. And I wish we could just stay like this, cuddled all day with our children, but Bram asked for us to watch the human media reports. We should get started.”

Tristan growled. “If you want up, then give me a kiss first.”

“How about asking nicely?”

“No.” He moved his son on his lap to lean against his sister in Melanie’s arms and then placed his finger under Mel’s chin. “This time, I’m going to take what I want.”

Tilting her head up, he kissed her. She allowed his tongue in without protest and he made each stroke count, letting his mate know how much he loved her better than he could ever do with words.

~~~

When Tristan finally broke their kiss, Melanie sighed. “One day, you’re not going to make me forget everything with a kiss, Tristan. What will you do then?”

His eyes flashed to slits and back. “That day will never come. My dragon agrees with me on that.”

With a smile and a shake of her head, Melanie readjusted her children so they were both on Tristan’s lap. “So cocky.” As Tristan placed a hand behind the heads of each of their twins, her heart squeezed. “Yet so devoted.”

Before her mate could persuade her to do some more kissing, Mel moved to the TV and turned it on. The BBC was in the middle of a special news report. Settling back beside her mate, Melanie tried to make sense of the images dancing across the screen.

Judging by the fire brigade trying to put out the flames of an old, brick building, the scene was the London Department of Dragon Affairs.

Pushing aside her initial shock, Melanie focused on what the announcer was saying.

“We’re still waiting on an official count, but sources say the death toll might reach as high as two hundred people. The Chief Fire Officer has put out a public statement asking citizens to please stay away from the scene. Memorials and tributes will be scheduled at a later time, once the fires are out and the investigation is complete.”

The announcer went on to replay the Chief Fire Officer’s earlier statement and Mel looked up at Tristan. “Two hundred people dead in London alone.”