It was true.
She was just the teensiest bit scared about what she might hear. And that was the understatement of the century.
***
After setting the wards, Mal buried Joe in the woods at the back of the house, putting up a marker so Lily would be able to find the place. Then he returned to the study, took out his cell phone, and frowned. He didn't want to contact the King. In fact, he wanted to forget Vortigen even existed. He wanted to go and slake himself in Lily's delectable body and ignore his duties for a while.
How about forever?
Mal pressed his fingers to his eyes. He was getting in too deep with Lily. Hell, who was he fucking kidding? He was already in too deep. He'd been almost undone by the feeling of rightness when he kissed her. As if she already belonged to him.
But she could never be his mate.
Or so he'd believed.
Everything had changed when they stood in front of the altar and the portal had opened. He needed time to think about the implications, but one thing was sure-Vortigen had lied.
The King had always claimed only the pure bred and their mates had the powers to open the gate between the worlds, and consequently the children of the Dragon Princesses had never been permitted to mate.
But together he and Lily had opened the portal. What other lies had Vortigen told? He sighed but punched in the number for the King's private line.
"It's Mal."
"Where the hell are you?"
"That should be my question," Mal replied. "We went to the meeting place last night, and we were ambushed."
"The meeting place? What meeting place? You were supposed to bring the girl here."
Mal frowned. "I spoke to Cassandra. She told me you'd changed your mind-that you didn't want the girl brought there in case she couldn't be trusted."
Vortigen was silent for long minutes, when he spoke again his voice seethed with barely repressed anger. "It seems the girl isn't the only one not to be trusted. I'll deal with Cassandra. You bring the Dragon Princess here. Now."
"No."
"What? Do I have to remind you yet again of your allegiance?"
"You need remind me of nothing," Mal snarled. "I'm drained of power and the countryside is swarming with sorcerers. They know we're close, and they're searching for us. It's not safe to move at the moment."
"Where are you?"
Mal ignored the question. "I'll call you when it's safe." He shut off the connection before Vortigen could ask anything further and switched the phone to messages.
He stretched, feeling the power in his muscles, coursing through his blood. He'd lied to Vortigen. When he'd stood at the open portal with Ankesh before him, he'd felt his power renewed. He hadn't been this strong in over a thousand years. The magic hummed in his blood. He had healed Cole with ease, and setting the wards had been no problem. The knowledge that he was now the strongest of his kind nudged at his brain. He could take any of them. Even the King. He pushed the thought to the back of his mind.
A shower, some food and by then he figured Lily would be ready with her questions. They would talk and after that …
***
Lily found what must be the professor's room. She'd showered and was now wearing one of his shirts-he was hardly going to need it again-and added her jeans. For the first time in what seemed like forever, her brain was clear, and she wanted answers. She went in search of Mal, and met him coming out of the kitchen, a tray in his hands. She smelled the coffee and swooned.
"We'll go in the sitting room," he said.
Lily followed and sank down onto the sofa beside him. Along with the coffee, he'd made roast beef sandwiches and opened a bottle of red wine. He poured her a glass and handed it to her.
"I raided the professor's cellar," he said. "I thought it was the least he could do."
The wine was delicious, deep-dark red and rich. She rolled it on her tongue, savoring the taste, then put her glass down and fell on the sandwiches. When she glanced up, Mal was watching her, his golden eyes gleaming with amusement.
"What?" she asked.
"Nothing." He picked up a sandwich of his own and started to eat. Lily pursed her lips, but then resumed her feeding. Ten minutes later, she sat back, glass in hand, replete.
"How do you feel?" Mal asked.
"You know it's weird, but in my entire life, I don't think I have ever felt this strong. Though maybe strong isn't the right word. It's as though there's something inside me, some sort of power. Now the drugs have worn off, I can feel it growing stronger."
"Magic from Ankesh," Mal said. "You opened the portal."
"I know." She closed her eyes and saw again the flames of another world. A shiver ran through her. "So tell me."
"Tell you what?"
"Everything. Who am I? What am I? What are you? The secrets of the universe. Everything." There was one thing she desperately wanted to know but was almost scared to ask. "Tell me about my mother."
Wariness flashed across his face. "What about her?"
"Is she alive?" She looked into his eyes and knew the answer. Her heart cracked with sudden pain. Why? She'd always believed that her parents had abandoned her, that she had been unwanted, but it had never occurred to her that they were both dead. In the back of her mind, buried deep in her sub-conscious, she'd clung onto the dream of a happy ending. Now she dragged that dream up into the light and cast it away forever.
There was something close to pity in Mal's face, and she forced her face into blankness. "How did she die?"
Mal hesitated, and then spoke softly. "She killed herself."
"Why? Was it after she abandoned me?" Lily's mind reeled. "Was it recently?"
"Lily, it was over two thousand years ago."
She heard the words but they made no sense. "What?"
"It's a long story. You have to understand what came before."
"Then tell me."
Mal took a sip of his wine, obviously thinking about where to begin. After a minute, he put down the glass and leaned back, staring into space. Lily sat, gnawing at her lower lip. At last, he started speaking.
"I told you how Tannith made the Dragon Princesses?"
She nodded and he continued, "By dragon standards, the princesses were weak, but they had certain powers. Tannith arranged it so they alone could open the portals for their mates. At first, they were fertile and had many children. Some were born with the mark of the dragon and of those, the males were destined to enter Ankesh and become dragons. The females were the Dragon Princesses. For thousands of years we were content."
"What happened to the children born without a mark?"
Mal smiled bitterly. "That was the start of the problem. The dragons had no interest in them, and in the beginning, they were given to human families to raise on Earth. Eventually, there developed a group of people who had dragon blood, who possessed the ability to perform magic."
"The sorcerers?"
"Yes. The most powerful joined together and formed the Conclave. The portal called to them, but the dragons refused them entry to Ankesh. They could do magic, but they required dragon blood for their spells, and they turned to sacrificing their own kind to gain further powers. It was their dream to enter Ankesh, and obtain immortality. They believed it was their birthright. When Vortigen became king, he ruled that from then on the children born to the Dragon Princesses without the mark were to be slain, so the blood of dragons could no longer be mixed with that of humans. The princesses became bitter. Many died of grief at the fate of their children. They bred less, and more babies were born without the mark and were killed.
"So the numbers of dragon princesses dwindled. Vortigen killed any who spoke out against him. He's obsessed with purity of the blood."
"What about this ‘goddess'? Where the hell was she when all this was going on?"
"She hasn't been seen in over two thousand years. It seems that Tannith has forsaken us." He shrugged. "In the end, only Cara, Vortigen's mate, remained."
"Tell me about her. What was she like?"
"She was beautiful." He smiled at some memory.
"You loved her, didn't you?"
He shot her a quick glance. "Not in the way I … " he broke off and shrugged. "I admired her, cared for her, and I thought we'd become friends. I knew she was bitter, and eventually Vortigen went too far and tipped her over the edge to where vengeance on him for the death of her children became more important than anything else. She had little freedom, but somehow she aligned herself to Draegar, the most powerful of the sorcerers, and she bore him a daughter."
"Me?" Lily frowned. "So I can't be a dragon princess then? I'm half human."
"No, not half-Draegar had much dragon blood in his veins. But it's true, when we found out about your birth we believed there was no way you could bear the mark, and Vortigen intended to kill you. The Conclave had amassed an army. They were at the portal to protect your mother. But Vortigen brought a host of us through and there was a great battle."