Daughter Of The Dragon Princess(21)

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."