“My lineage is not your concern,” Alec said. “Do you join us or do you die?”
“You’ll be the one to die.” His enemy clapped twice and stepped back. “You have your first and second, I see.” He looked scornfully to Alec’s left side. “Poor Tyren, always the bridesmaid, never the bride.”
Fury raced through Alec’s blood, and he changed to his black dragon form in a flash. Soul-deep tremors surged through his body as his dragon gained its full power. He spread his wings and gusted air at the challenger. He waited, as was customary, for his enemy to change forms.
“Finally.” Ambrogino smirked and jumped into the air, changing into his brown dragon form mid-leap. He surged toward Alec with his fangs bared and spiked tail swinging.
Alec’s talons met the attack, and he slammed the lighter-bodied dragon to the ground. The hard floor absorbed the impact with a shudder. The brown dragon flipped over and crawled to his feet. Alec blew smoke around the room, obscuring the fight from the others.
Inside the column of smoke, Alec circled. The brown dragon feinted, left, then right, and blew a stream of fire at Alec. Alec dodged and waited. The highest dragon always had the advantage in a fight. His enemy was trying to trick him into giving up his superior position.
Ambrogino soon grew impatient and stalked to the perimeter of the smoke, looking for a different advantage. Fury raged through Alec at the thought that he might escape. With a roar, he dove on the brown dragon, pinning his enemy to the ground.
“You’ll never win.” His enemy heckled him in the old language. “You have become soft and predictable.” He wound his tail between their bodies and pointed the razor sharp tip at Alec’s heart. He pushed the tip between Alec scales, and to Alec’s astonishment, the tip speared through his scales to his rib cage.
Pain exploded, and his vision wavered. Alec roared and jumped off. The barbed tail imbedded inside his chest yanked free, pulling his scales out with it. Blood dripped over the brown dragon.
The brown dragon roared in short and staccato bursts, the equivalent of human laughter. He jumped in the air and met Alec eye to eye. “You’re dead.”
“Not even close.” Alec lunged at him, clamping the brown dragon’s tail between his vise-like jaws. Alec shook his head back and forth, shaking the dragon like a bullwhip. Finally he slung Ambrogino to the ground. He followed him to the floor and held his back leg on his flailing tail.
“Submit!” Alec latched his jaws around his neck.
The brown dragon bucked under him, trying to get leverage. Alec tightened his mouth, and his caustic saliva coated the brown dragon’s face. The furious beat of the brown dragon’s pulse hammered on his tongue, and Alec’s blood fury rose. He bit harder, until his enemy roared in pain.
“
Through the smoke, Tyren and Leo marched forward. “Swear your loyalty, Ambrogino,” Leo ordered. “You’re beaten.”
One of the Siberians came forward and bowed. “I am Ambrogino’s first, and the former leader of the northern fold. The fire dragon is beaten. We pledge our loyalty to the black dragon in return for attending the ceremony.”
Ambrogino roared underneath Alec, and Alec gave his neck a shake until his enemy stilled.
“And the brown dragon?” Leo asked.
“I cannot speak for him,” the man said.
Alec pushed his teeth into his enemy’s neck. Blood oozed. His life would end with one more squeeze of Alec’s jaw. Since the day his former friend had tried to take the throne from him, he had waited for this moment. The moment when he would push his fangs into his enemy’s throat, his death just moments away. He wanted to do it, end the fight for good.
Alec firmed his mouth, ready to bite—
“I submit,” Ambrogino gurgled. Alec paused, feeling his frantic pulse and the taste of his metallic blood against his tongue.
“Jer’ol,” Leo called. “He is done.”
Frustration beat through Alec. This wasn’t over. His enemy would challenge him again, and again until he was dead. But he was the Jer’ol, the leader of the dragons. How could he expect others to follow the ancient ways if he did not?
Alec released his enemy and leaped off his body. In a soul-trembling quiver, he changed back to his human form. His rational human mind exerted welcome control over the beast.
In his human form, Ambrogino cowered, looking pathetic. It was an act.
The Siberians hurried forward to help him to his feet.
“All of you, on your knees before your Jer’ol.” Alec’s chest throbbed, and hot sticky blood wept from his chest wound. He didn’t feel the pain, just fury at the missed kill.
The group fell to their knees and bent their heads.
“Do you swear to adhere to the ancient ways, swearing loyalty to me as your Jer’ol?”
“Yes, Jer’ol,” everyone chorused.
Alec surveyed the group for any dissention—none so much as lifted their head to look at him. “The Siberians may join the ceremony,” Alec said. There was a murmur of excitement through the group. Siberian, or Russian, or African…every dragon alive wanted to find his mate. “First sign of trouble and all of you will be banished. Police yourselves if you have a hope for your lineage.”
Ambrogino regarded him with a pleased smile that made Alec’s skin crawl. He was beaten. He had just pledged his loyalty publicly.
Why did he appear so content?
Chapter Fourteen
“Do you like the name Lilly Belle?” Lucy hurried beside the Viking, taking two steps for the tall woman’s every one.
“It’s my name.” Lilly Belle glanced at her.
“I know, but do you prefer something else?”
They strode across the casino floor toward the gem exhibit. Lilly Belle grabbed her arm and stopped her when they came to a branching hall. She looked both ways, like a crossing guard, and then pulled Lucy forward.
“Do you have a nickname or something?” Lucy said.
Lilly Belle glanced down at her. “Yes.”
Okey dokey. She only
Ahead of them, a short-haired woman stood between the guards watching the sealed gem exhibit. As they drew closer, Lucy saw that the woman had something in her hand, something big and metallic.
“Is that a sword?” Lucy asked. “How can you have a sword in here?”
“Thank you, Mia,” Lilly Belle said to the woman and pulled the sword blade, checking the edge before sheathing it and unbuckling the harness straps. It was a sword, real and deadly, with honed steel and a three-inch wide blade. The two dark-suited guards did not react, but stood as still as the Beefeaters at the Buckingham Palace.
“I thought it was illegal to carry weapons in a casino?” Lucy whispered.
The new woman grimaced at her like she had grown two heads. “The human?” The brunette had a slight accent. She reached for Lucy’s right hand and examined the stamp, then muttered a foreign-sounding expletive.
Lilly Belle answered in the same singsong language.
Lucy pulled her hand back and cradled it over her stomach. She knew five languages, including Latin. Their words did not sound Nordic, or Russian, and definitely not Italian. “What language are you speaking?”
The dark-haired woman shook her head. “Be careful, Lil,” she said before she turned and left.
“Lil,” Lucy said, glad to grab onto a safe topic. “Your nickname is Lil. It fits.”
