Scorch (Dragon's Destiny:Fated Mates Book 2)(31)

"Give them to me," Ivan hissed, his eyes dropping to the twins. "You are not fit to raise our kind."

Flames from the bed licked up his clothes, rippling over the cloth and  Ivan's skin as he reached for us. He snatched at Zach, grabbing onto his  tiny shoulder and yanking him half out of my arms. The cry that burst  out of my son made me see red, but my rage was eclipsed by a spike of  fear as the dragon fire raced over the baby's skin. The blanket he was  wrapped in started to burn. I kicked at Ivan, struggling to loosen his  hold on my son.

"NO!" The word burst out of me, a roar of sheer desperation. Without  meaning to, I had pulled on the power of Maks's dragon, and the air in  front of me visibly quivered. Even though one dragon couldn't control  another, the sheer force of it made Ivan pause in shock. I pulled Zach  out of his clutches, and before Ivan could react Maks was on him.

Maks grabbed Ivan from behind and heaved him away from us, then tackled  him when he tried to scramble away. The flames had risen to engulf most  of the room, and I lost sight of the two of them as soon as they moved  away.

My clothes were burning now, too, but I fought down my instinctive fear  and reminded myself that with Maks's fire inside me, it couldn't hurt  me. Michael burrowed into my shoulder, but didn't flinch away from the  heat. Zach was wailing as the fire engulfed him-the sight was  horrifying, but it only took a heartbeat to tell that the baby was  scared, not hurt. Neither one of them seemed affected by the flames any  more than I was. I wanted to get them out of the room, away from Ivan  and the destruction around me, but it was hard to see through the heat.

"You are weak," I heard Ivan say to Maks disdainfully, his voice coming  out in grunts mixed with the sounds of fighting. "So concerned for a  human who has already served his purpose."

And then I heard the roar of my mate, and the crashing of glass as the  french doors shattered. The flames around me roared with new life as the  sea air rushed in to feed them.

         

     



 



29





~ Maksim ~





I flung my brother out onto the balcony, ignoring the sting from the  broken glass as I dove after him. A part of me knew that his fire  couldn't hurt my family, but the rage that had filled me when he went  after them made it hard to think rationally. Ivan didn't know that Devin  and been safe, and he'd put his hands on my son.

I'd told Ben not to kill him, but there was a moment as I followed him outside when it would have been easy to forget that.

Ivan was still in his human form as I shifted, and I clutched his  smaller, human body in my claws and leapt off the balcony for the second  time that night, winging toward the open ocean. Not thinking clearly  enough to know what I wanted to do with him, other than the immediate  need to get him away from the people who mattered to me.

"Devin is my mate," I hissed at him, anger still surging through me at  his callous disregard for my family. "He doesn't ‘serve a purpose.' I  love him."

"Our kind doesn't ‘love,'" my brother scoffed, wriggling away from me as  he shifted into his otherself. He was too fast for me to grab hold  of-my claws barely grazing him as he twisted away. He didn't go far,  though, stopping to hover in front of me-just out of reach-the moonlight  picking silver glints from his darker hide. "And you're right, love is  not a purpose. That is your weakness."

I knew that the dragons he'd known didn't value love, they saw the  accumulation of power and territory as their only purpose. If Dane  hadn't shown me a different way to live, I could have become one of  them, never knowing the true friendship of men I admired-not recognizing  the love fate intended for me when it came my way. I shuddered at the  thought. Ivan had been taught only contempt for the kind of  relationships I was blessed with.

"You're wrong. Love is my strength," I told him quietly, all the anger  draining out of me as I realized how thoroughly I'd failed him. "If I  had been able to save you, Ivan, you would have grown up knowing that."

"‘Save' me?" he repeated in a mocking voice. "You?"

"Our sire didn't tell you? When you were born, I …  tried. I was there  when he pulled you from your human father's body. As soon as I found out  about you, I came for you. I wanted to rescue you from the life he  intended for you."

He laughed coldly. "Then you are a hypocrite as well as a weakling. You  wanted the same thing I do now-but your reasons were as weak as your  effort. Our sire was right. Your hatchlings will be better off if they  are raised to understand their true legacy of strength and power. Your  softness will only pollute them."

His words were ugly, but his disdain didn't hurt me. It made me pity  him …  and feel guilty. He deserved better than the life I'd left him to.

"If you had succeeded," Ivan spat. "I would be-"

"You would be happy," I cut him off. "You would be surrounded by people  who care about you. About you, Ivan, not just about what you can do to  preserve a ‘legacy.' You would have friends, and you would know that  there's someone out there who is fated for you, just like Devin is for  me."

"I don't need ‘fate' to find a human when I need one."

"But only fate can find you the one that you really need, brother." I  sighed, knowing he didn't believe me. I wasn't going to convince him to  change a lifetime of belief in one night. "You won't succeed here,  Ivan," I said forcefully. "You can't. Go home."

I felt his surge of anger at my dismissal, and it was enough warning  that when he dove toward me, flaming with his claws extended, I was able  to dodge and knock him aside. I didn't want to hurt him, but he had to  know I wasn't going to let him get past me again.

"I don't give up as easily as you, brother," he snarled. "I didn't  expect you would just let me fly away with your hatchling. Our sire did  tell me about your failed attempt to take me when I was born. He told me  that you were too weak to stand against him. That is what your ‘love'  gets you. You made the choice to run, instead of fight. You abandoned  me, when you could have killed him."

I grimaced, thinking back to that long-ago confrontation. I'd been  young, and heart-broken to discover that the cost of my new brother's  life was a human one. At the time, I'd done my best to fight for him,  but my sire's experience and callous brutality had overwhelmed me. Even  with Dane at my side, we hadn't been able to stand against him without  the cost becoming too high.         

     



 

"Killing him wouldn't have been as easy as all that, Ivan. And not just  physically. He outmaneuvered us, both in his fighting skill and in his  willingness to hurt others-humans-to manipulate us. I tried, but …  I'm  truly sorry I didn't do more."

"Don't be. I'm grateful you failed," he said, glaring at me. "If you had  taken me, I would now share your weakness-but I don't. I never expected  you to give up your hatchling without a fight. I came fully prepared to  kill you, ‘brother.'"

He was lying, but I wondered if he knew it. I could feel a deeper truth  underneath his harsh bravado, a yearning that had him hovering here  trading words instead of attacking me again. A longing for something  that he didn't believe in and wouldn't let himself acknowledge.

I wondered if he knew that this bond existed between us, and that it  told me so much that he wouldn't say. I had never realized it, and it  was possible that he wasn't conscious of it, either …  although now that I  knew it existed I had no doubt it was what had led him to me.

"You're not going to kill me," I said confidently. "And it's time for you to leave."

"You're wrong," he roared, launching himself at me.

He knocked into my wing, throwing me off balance, and slashed at my head  with his front claws. I flamed at him, jerking out of his grasp, and  succeeded in loosening his hold enough to twist away. He went for my  head again, trying to wrench my jaws open, and I realized with a start  what he was trying to do. Our dragon bodies healed so quickly that we  were virtually indestructible …  in all areas but one. He knew where I was  vulnerable, and even though I wanted to believe that he wouldn't go  through with it, he was trying to attack the one spot that could kill  me.

I dove at him, shredding his hide as I ripped at his underbelly. It  wouldn't kill him-I didn't want to-but I was determined to inflict  enough damage to get my point across. He grunted, instinctively folding  in on himself in protection, and I went after his wings, piercing the  tough membrane and driving him back with every slash.

"Leave," I said, refusing to let up.

"Weakling," he gasped. "You know this isn't going to stop me."

"It will, brother," I said, whipping my spiked tail across his eyes as I  continued to attack him with claws and teeth and the sheer force of my  determination. "You have become what you are because I failed you once,  but I won't do it again. I will never give up on you. Someday you'll  remember that I chose to stop you this way, rather than kill you. I want  you to live, and someday, when your destiny finds you, I want you to  remember what you found here, and what you can have, if you let  yourself."