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“Why didn’t you tel me? I’ve been trying to defend you, to keep Delilah from kil ing you with her anger.” I pushed to my feet, staring at him from across the table. “Vanzir, what the fuck’s going on?”
“And what would you have done if I’d told you?” He stood and leaned across the table. A smug look clouded his face, but beneath it, I could see the hints of worry. “When your sister’s goddess stripped away my powers, the soul binder went with it. I’m free. But I’m stil here. After what happened with Camil e, I know it’s going to be hard to trust me again, but I’m stil here and I’m wil ing to stay and play by your rules.”
I gazed into his eyes. The whirling kaleidoscope flickered by, a never-ending parade of indescribable colors. “You’re stil wil ing to fight with us, even without your powers? Even though you aren’t bound to us?”
He nodded. “Even more so now. This is my choice. I owe it to Camil e for what I did to her. I owe it to you for the fact that you spared me. I may have kept the Demon Underground secret, but they’re al against Shadow Wing, so real y, did it harm you? Does it have anything to do with your war against the Unravel er?”
Delilah answered for me. “No. No, it doesn’t . . . but from now on, you be straight with us. We may not be able to put you under a death threat about it, but we can certainly kil you with our hands rather than our minds.”
Vanzir smiled then, dropping back into his chair and crossing one leg. “Puddy-tat, I would expect nothing less than that. I’m in, if the big lizard doesn’t tear me to shreds. Camil e . . .” A pained look crossed his face. “I’l always regret what I did, but some things cannot be undone. She and I knew that . . . at the end.”
The room was silent for a moment, then I slowly told them about everything that had happened with Morio and my blood, and how Wade and I had chased Charles through the tunnel and the explosion. By the time I was done, we were al exhausted.
“Camil e said she’l be home later today,” Iris said, clearing the teacups and saucers from the table. “Let’s hope things look up from here out.”
“Yeah,” I said, heading toward my lair. Delilah and Shade had retired to their rooms upstairs.
Vanzir was gone, out to the shed. “Iris, does it feel like things are fal ing apart to you?”
She shook her head, slowly. “No, dear, things are simply evolving. Rest. Let go of the day.
Tomorrow night things may seem brighter. Go now and sleep.”
And, taking her words as gospel, because I couldn’t afford not to, I obeyed.
CHAPTER 23
When I woke, I could hear the commotion al the way down in my lair. I threw back my covers, slipped into jeans and a blue turtleneck, pul ed on my boots, and headed upstairs. The noise didn’t sound like it was coming from the kitchen, so I took a chance and slipped through the hidden entrance to my nest. I was right. Whatever was going on was confined to the living room.
I raced in to find that Smoky had returned. For a moment I thought he was going after Vanzir, but the dream-chaser demon was nowhere in sight. Smoky was ranting, and Camil e and Tril ian were trying to calm him down.
“Hey, bro, good to see you. What the fuck’s al the commotion about? Where’s Roz?”
“Rozurial is resting.” The six-four dragon turned to me, and his eyes could have frozen my heart if it had been stil beating. “My father, that’s what the commotion is about.”
Camil e looked petrified. She gave me a slow shake of the head. “Hyto . . . he tried to kil Smoky’s mother and when the guards caught him and put a spel of banishment on him, the last thing he said was that he’s coming to punish the one responsible.”
“Meaning Camil e.” Smoky’s hair was up in arms, too, it seemed, the ankle-length tendrils coiling and snapping through the air like wild silver whips. His arms were around her shoulders, holding her to him. He wouldn’t even let Tril ian near her.
“My father wil die before he ever puts a single finger on my wife,” he said with a growl.
I’d never seen such a horrific look on his face, not even when Camil e was in danger from our enemies. His dragon energy swirled around him, a mist of white with silver sparkles, and he looked ten seconds away from transforming. Which would total y trash the house, if he did.
“He tried to kil my mother, and for that alone, he must die. But if he thinks he can touch my wife, I wil rip his throat out, I wil emasculate and eviscerate him, and then toss him over the highest mountain in the land.”
I blinked. He wasn’t kidding.
“Is your mother okay?”
Smoky gazed at me, his face a frozen sculpture. “She is. She is more powerful than Hyto, and she cast him down. My brothers and sisters wing-strapped him until help could arrive. Ever since she denied him in front of the Council, he’s apparently been planning her death. If he sets foot in the Dragon Reaches again, he wil be tortured and put to death.”
I glanced at Camil e, who was looking absolutely petrified. Nothing like being on a dragon’s shit list, that was for sure.
The thought of fighting dragons was certainly enough to cow me. “It must be a terrible sight, dragon against dragon.”
Smoky gave me a subtle nod. “It is a terrifying spectacle. An actual fight between dragons can ravage the country for miles around. Some young males who do not want to accept their place in the hierarchy bear scorch scars across their bel ies and backs for life.” He let out a long breath.>I couldn’t resist sauntering up to them, about to ask What’s up? when my question died on my lips. There was a sinkhole in the street, in the center of the intersection, about twenty yards from the manhole. Dust bil owed up from the hole as a group of firemen and FH-CSI officers stared down into it.
Iris saw me first, and raced over to throw her arms around my waist. “Menol y! You’re safe!”
