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  There was silence inside the carriage. There was no sound of men in pain. Just the frantic whinnying of the horses, the clatter of hail, and the creaking of the carriage and the wheels.

  Her arms were empty. Raw horror washed through her. She stared in shock at her hands. Where was James? She thought she had been holding him. It was pitch-black and she couldn’t see. Panicked, she sat up. Her bottom was resting on the shattered window. “James?” she shouted. “James?”

  Strong arms lifted her. She struggled. “Where is James? Let me go. Leave me. I have to find him.”

  “It’s all right, Lucy, my beautiful angel. James is safe. I already found him. Now I have you. Despite what your brother told you, I intend to protect you.”

  Sinjin. She tried to break free of his embrace, but as always, it proved impossible.

  Where was her brother? Where were his vicious, horrible lackeys? Dead? Safe? Were they going to jump out and attack at any second?

  “Your brother is gone. He’s disappeared. The other men are all dead.”

  “What happened?”

  “I don’t know. I ran after you, and managed to get ahead of the carriage. The coachman drove around me, but then the horses went mad and started racing. He couldn’t control it.”

  Blinking she saw another carriage.

  “Ours. The one we arrived in. I’m taking you and James back to London. I know the perfect place we can hide.”

  “You are a dragon slayer. I can’t ... trust you.”

  “It isn’t a matter of trust, Lucy. You are mine now. I am not letting you go.” Sinjin’s lips touched her neck, warm and soft. Then something scraped. Weakly she clasped his cheeks. She tried to push him away. But she couldn’t. She felt the rushing sensation inside as he took her blood. Weakening her. Making her languorous, dazed, sleepy.

  Lucy struggled to stay conscious, to keep her eyes open. She fought to keep her lids as widely spread as she could. But enveloping blackness still rushed up and wrapped around her. Tumbling into the void, she cursed Sinjin. Dimly, she knew what he was doing. Making her faint so she would be completely under his control.

  Blast. Fight it. Fight—with every scrap of strength you have.

  But Sinjin tweaked her nipple and her body betrayed her, lurching into an orgasm that she couldn’t control or stop—a pulsing of her body that was strong and physical and that she didn’t want. It sapped every last bit of her strength. Then darkness claimed her.

  15

  Surprises

  She was warm. She was dry. She possessed a pounding pain in her head.

  Lucy’s head hurt so much she couldn’t bear to open her eyes. Slowly she lifted her arm and pressed her hand to her temple. A strange warm weight lay on her limbs and her chest.

  She wasn’t dead, though. Lucy was quite certain of that.

  Dragons had tales of what happened when they died. She knew a little about human heaven—at least the differences between it and a dragon’s heaven. She had grown up with stories of a sun-filled world, lush with greenery, warmed by soft breezes, filled with the perfume of beautiful flowers and the music of waterfalls and dancing brooks. Where berries, fruits, and wild boar were plentiful. Where one stayed in dragon form for eternity.

  There was no glow sneaking in the seam of her closed lids, no babbling streams. Anyway, if she’d died, she wouldn’t ache so much, would she? Not only did her head hurt, so did all her limbs. Her throat was parched and dry. Even before she opened her eyes and saw her skin, her limbs, her hair, Lucy knew she was definitely not in dragon form. But what had happened to her? Memories were flirting with her and she couldn’t quite grasp them... .

  Then it all came slamming back into her brain.

  James.

  Sinjin.

  She bolted up in the bed. Crisp white sheets tumbled off her, and cooler air struck her skin. Her nipples hardened in the slight draft as she realized she had been put to bed naked.

  She slid out of the enormous bed. An exquisitely woven rug protected her bare feet from the cold wood floor. The bedchamber was opulent—purple silk covered the walls and set off the ivory hangings of the bed—but she had never seen it before. Where was she? She saw bruises on her arms and below her breasts, near her ribs. She hadn’t dreamed the accident, which meant she could not have just dreamed that Sinjin was alive. It had been real, hadn’t it?

  She must find him. She must find James.

  But her nightdress was not in the room, nor were her slippers. Frowning, she walked around the room naked. A few days ago, she would have felt awkward. Now modesty seemed the least important thing. A large wardrobe stood in the corner, but it proved to be empty.

  Had Sinjin taken her clothes so she could not escape?

  Her stomach gave a painful lurch. Lucy let go of the wardrobe doors and they swung closed. She hurried to the bedroom door and rattled the knob. It didn’t turn. It was locked. She raced to the window, threw back the drapes, not caring that she stood naked in front of it. Lacy sheer curtains adorned the window. As did wrought-iron bars, on the outside.

  Sinjin had imprisoned her.

  She could not believe it. Though, really, given the evidence, she had no choice.

  Driven by fury, and by the fact that she really wanted to put something over her bare skin, Lucy ran to the door. She slapped her palms against it. Then her fists. She beat on the door and shouted. It didn’t take long before she shouted herself hoarse and the only sound she could make was a furious growl. She kicked the door once.

  Dear God, she must have broken her toes. Cupping them, she hopped around.

  Damn Sinjin, what was he doing?

  An awful but coolly logical voice in her head said: He has captured you in preparation for slaying you, you daft trusting girl.

  Tears wanted to come: she wanted to let out a veritable waterfall of frustration. But she held them back. She had been an utter fool. One man had betrayed her in the worst way: he had attacked her and tried to kill her. One man had shown her what a selfish, vicious brute could do.

  Yet she had given her body to another man—to Sinjin—when she knew nothing about him. She had believed every lie he had told her, and she had foolishly opened her heart to him.

  She had even asked him directly if he were a dragon slayer, and of course he had openly lied to her face.

  Really, had she thought he would tell her the truth?

  Love. What an awful emotion it was. Did it ever survive? Was there any man alive who would not take a woman’s love and crush it by doing terrible things? She had loved Allan Ferrars, and he had turned out to be a sadistic beast. She had loved Jack, and he had grown into a monster. She had loved her father, and he had stolen a child. Even if it had been for the best of intentions, it had been wrong. It had badly hurt the child, and there was no excuse for that.

  And Sinjin ... well, at least she had not fallen in love with him.

  True, her heart had almost stopped beating when the arrow had torn through his chest. Fear had squeezed her heart, horror had frozen her, and when he’d fallen, she thought the pain of grief and loss and terror would crush her. When she’d gathered James in her arms, she’d feared she would start to cry and never stop. She had tried to run to Sinjin, and her brother had snatched the pistol from her hands. For one moment, she hadn’t cared if he shot her in the back, she was so desperate to ensure Sinjin wasn’t dead. Then she had realized she had to protect James, and she had let her brother drag her out of the house, not knowing if Sinjin was dead or not.

  She had been sick with the fear that he was.

  But it didn’t mean ... it couldn’t mean ... that she was in love with a dragon slayer. This couldn’t be love. That emotion did not feel like this at all. She had admired Mr. Ferrars before she had fallen in love with him. Love had grown from admiration and she had never had any reason to doubt him before she had fallen in love with him, before she learned the truth. Her feelings for Allan Ferrars had not started with the kind of tumultuous mix of fear and desire and
anger and longing that tormented her now. Love was the comfortable warmth Father made her feel. The affection she had for her sisters. It could not be this awful pain in her heart... .

  Stop. She couldn’t deny it, could she? How many debutantes in love had she heard speak of unbearable pain? She had done the most idiotic thing possible: she had fallen in love with Sinjin.

  With a man duty-bound to destroy her.

  The lock on her door clicked and before Lucy could run for the blankets to cover her naked body, the door opened. A sapphire blue robe appeared—the man had his back to her. But it was Sinjin—no one else had such golden hair that spilled long past his shoulders.

  She would turn into a dragon. She would fight for her life.

  Do it now, her instincts urged inside her head. Don’t wait. Waiting will give him the chance to attack. Waiting could mean he will kill you—

  She summoned the change, but Sinjin spun around. “No, Lucy. I don’t mean you any harm.” Swiftly his hand twitched the belt of his robe, opening it. Blue silk parted, revealing his muscular body, as naked as hers. “No weapons. I’m not here to hurt you.”

  Shaking, she struggled to stop her change. Knowing she was stupid, even as she did it. He could have weapons anywhere in this house, ready for his use. He had to kill her. Had to. Or else he would be destroyed. That was how the code of dragon slayers worked. A man could not walk away without killing his enemy.

  Breathing harshly, she faced Sinjin, naked, human, and vulnerable. “I don’t believe you. You took an oath to kill me. Did you become a vampire so you could slay dragons for eternity?”

  Sinjin walked around her slowly, the robe whispering around his skin, teasingly revealing his body. “At the beginning, love, I had planned to do my duty,” he said heavily.

  Damn. She had been such a complete fool—

  “But I cannot do it anymore.”

  “I don’t believe you. I don’t believe you would be willing to die to protect me.”

  “I can prove it, love.” He stopped moving and opened his arms wide. “If you want, you can change into a dragon and rip me apart. However, before you do it, you have to promise you will look after James. Keep him safe from the slayers. Keep him safe from any of your kind who mean him harm.”

  From her brother’s enormous debts, she knew Sinjin had great skill in gaming. Obviously he must be able to bluff. Lucy searched his eyes. Glittering, green, as beautiful as ever, they gazed back at her. His eyes were shadowed, his forehead lined, and the only emotion she could truly read in his gaze was self-mockery.

  “You know I wouldn’t kill you. I can’t even bring myself to attack first.” She sighed. “However, I would appreciate some clothing. It’s one thing to keep me prisoner in this room. I refuse to be trapped in that bed, hiding under the sheets because I have nothing to wear.”

  “I’m sorry for the bars on the window, and for locking the door. This house is an informal sanctuary for vampires—one of a network that has grown up across England in the last year.” He shrugged out of the robe, letting it slide off his shoulders, and he caught the mass of silk in his hand. “I brought this for you.”

  “Then you will be nude.”

  He eyed the bed. “I don’t mind.”

  She laughed. What else could she do? She was so shocked, so astounded, that rippling laughter fell off her lips. “You really think I am going to go to bed with you?”

  “I do recognize you’ve been through hell, love. Which means you should be resting. And I suspect the only way to keep you in bed is to hold you in there.”

  “You are a dragon slayer. I am a dragon. Of course I am not going to let you get into my bed. And I must go and find James. Is he all right?”

  “He’s sleeping. He’s been asleep since we reached here.”

  She heard the worry there.

  “The ladies told me I would not be doing any good sitting by his bedside. And it’s daylight, time for me to rest. So I came to find you, love.”

  “Ladies? There are ladies here?”

  A cheeky grin flashed his white teeth, but he quickly sobered, and his eyes softened so much it startled her. “This house is also a brothel. The women here are delighted to look after James.”

  Sinjin was thinking of his nephew, and it was the deep love he felt for James that was responsible for the deep look of tenderness. It had nothing to do with her... .

  Then Lucy focused on what he’d said. “A brothel?” she squeaked. “This is the safe place for us to hide?”

  “It worked for your brother.”

  Pain welled. “Don’t. I don’t want to think about my brother right now.” She threw the words at him, angry with him, with Jack, with her father. “I do not want to stay in a brothel. I must go home—my sisters are there, and at Jack’s mercy. I need clothing. I need a carriage. I have a family, just as you do, and I intend to protect mine just as fiercely.” She stalked to him and groped at the robe.

  His lashes lowered. “I thought you hated me now.”

  She pressed her naked body against his, and she grasped the silk robe from his hands. Staying up against him, she began sliding her hands all over the robe. There had to be pockets. To get in the door, he must have used a key. Where had he hidden it?

  Nothing. There was no bulge, no hard shape—at least not in the two small pockets of the robe. His erection nudged and bumped her stomach as she searched.

  “Your groping seems more industrious than seductive.” His palms pressed against hers, guiding her hands away and he threaded his fingers between hers. “If you are looking for the key, it’s not there. I left the door unlocked.”

  “Then let me go.”

  “You have slept through two entire days, Lucy. I watched over you for part of the time, when I was not watching James. You woke twice, and I don’t think you were fully awake. You cried out, and thrashed around. When I drank your blood, I exhausted you, and the accident did not help. Nor did the shock you received regarding your brother.”

  Sinjin turned her, so her back was to the bed, nudged her backward, and continued to press her until the bed bumped the backs of her calves. “Sit, love. First, you need food. Then clothing.”

  “I have to go to my family.”

  “So you shall, when you are ready. Your sisters are here.”

  Surely he was joking. Her lips flapped for a moment then she managed to gasp, “In a brothel?”

  “In one of the private apartments. They will have no contact with the male clientele.”

  Oh dear heaven, only a man could be so utterly obtuse. “But if they are seen—”

  “They won’t be. Trust me to protect you.”

  Exhaustion and despair overwhelmed her. She’d intended to stay strong, to fight with him. She slumped with her fingers still twined with his. “I simply can’t. For my entire life, I’ve been taught to fear dragon slayers. Now that I’ve finally met one ... you’re nothing like what I expected. I don’t know what to think.”

  “I’ve never hurt you. Think of that, love.”

  “But you told me you intended to.” Heavens, her eyes could not be burning. There could not be tears lurking, ready to spill. Lucy took a shuddering breath, seeking strength. Pulling her hand free of his, she moved back from him. Tugging fiercely, she pulled one of the white sheets out from underneath his derriere and clamped it against her body. Never could she forget what he had told her: she could not forget he had admitted he had intended to kill her, because he was a slayer. She was far better to trust no one.

  He reached for her cheek and she pushed his hand away. Pain tugged his lips downward. “I’m sorry. Lucy, it’s impossible to look at you without wanting to touch you.”

  He would not make her feel wrong or bad. She wrapped the sheet tightly around her body. “You will have to learn.”

  On a groan, he stood and pulled on the blue robe, then tied the belt. “You need breakfast, love.”

  She buried her face in her hands as he rang the bell pull, and he went to the door
and instructed someone on the other side to bring her breakfast. Suddenly, her thoughts went to her brother. She jerked her head up, forced words through her tight throat. “Jack ... he is still alive, isn’t he?”

  “Yes. He shifted shape when he saw me and flew away.”

  “He deserted us?” She meant her and James. Why should it surprise her? She’d seen enough to now know Jack had become a coward.

  She could not simply take this in stride and move ahead. For she had no idea where she was supposed to go. Her whole world had been turned upside down. She knew Jack was careless, but she’d never thought he could do deliberate evil. Now she was in a bedchamber with a man sworn to kill her, who was waiting by the door to receive a breakfast tray for her, and who was showing her more concern and kindness than anyone ever had.

  She had always taken care of things since her mother’s death. She had been the one to look after her family, because Father was busy with looking after the Drago clan. But her brother had betrayed her, she was in danger from both slayers and her own kind, and she couldn’t see any solutions to those problems.

  It had only been a few days ago that she had gone to Sinjin’s house, thinking all she had to do to solve problems was give him her body. Lucy couldn’t stop a desperate laugh at the insanity of it—one that sounded like a half sob when it came out.

  “I don’t know what happened to Jack.” She should not be revealing such things, now she knew what Sinjin was. Heavens, she should keep her thoughts, her secrets, and facts about her family to herself. She could put her family at risk.

  But she needed to talk to someone, or else she thought her heart would explode.

  The madness of the thought made her draw a shuddering breath. How much worse could their lives be? Well, there were more horrifying prospects. She could be running with her sisters, scrambling across London, chased by dragon slayers. Or she and her sisters could be dead.

  Instead, at this moment, they were all under the protection of a dragon slayer.

  A discreet rap sounded at the door. Sinjin opened it and took a large silver tray—one stacked with covered dishes—from a servant’s hands. He brought it to the bed, set it down on the elegant table that sat beside the headboard. “What do you mean, love?”