Surrender (THE DRAGONFLY CHRONICLES) (4 page)

Kailin looked sideways at him. “More of a method of self-preservation.”

“Self-preservation? Why would a fortified castle worry over self-preservation?”

Kailin’s lips tightened at the slight. Fortified castle indeed! She turned from the rail. “Good evening, Mr. Black. I am finished with this exchange.”

“Wait,” he chuckled. “Miss Whitaker. Kailin.” His voice reached out to her like a stroke of his warm fingers, taunting her with undoubtedly false sincerity. Was she gullible enough to turn back? No. Kailin took a step away. Jackson’s hand shot out and grabbed hold of her upper arm. It was a gentle locking, but the results were anything but.

The
dahabiah
stalled in the water with such a sudden impact that Kailin toppled sideways and right into Jackson’s arms. The clean scent of leather and man coming from his warm chest engulfed Kailin. Her heart thumped against her breastbone as she inhaled.

“Steady now,” he said softly near her ear. Several deck hands ran past them up to the rail and peered overboard. “Why do I think they won’t see anything odd in the water?” he whispered.

Jackson continued to hold her as she breathed in and out, trying to tamp down her brimming fear. How did he mute her powers? First in the corridor, now on the deck. Both times he’d irritated her, her magic had flared hot and ready but then disappeared upon his touch. She looked at him closely and her breath stopped somewhere between her throat and her lungs. His eyes nearly twinkled with surprised mirth yet his mouth was firm, set, as if he too struggled.

“What are you?” she murmured just above the loud gestures of the captain as he too peered over the side of the
dahabiah
.

The humor left his eyes. “Flesh and blood, miss. That’s all.”

She shook her head minutely. “Release me.” It was a command, but her tone waved a white flag. Kailin was tired. Tired of the physical exhaustion of controlling her magic and the rigors of the journey. Tired of the questions and worry about Anthony churning inside her. Tired of the emotional sparring with the utterly gorgeous, unfortunately perceptive cowboy holding her. “Let me go.”

“And where exactly are you going?”

The question added another problem. Kailin glanced around the small deck. She indicated the chaise lounges. “I will rest there. Get some air.”

Kailin stepped away from him and Jackson let his hand drop. She ignored the small stumble and louder conversation at the rail as her magic once again churned underneath, propelling the boat through the sluggish current. She sunk onto the stretched mesh chair and pulled the folded blanket nearby across her lap. She’d slept in much less comfortable surroundings before.

She leaned her head back and searched the black sky for the friendly forms she knew. Kailin’s face warmed at the blush. She pursed her lips tight. Yes, these friends might be untouchable, but they also couldn’t hurt her.

She followed the invisible lines connecting the pinprick lights. She ignored Jackson where he stood talking to the captain. His easy drawl floated over the air toward her as if her ears were specifically attuned to it.
Annoying
!

Kailin forced her eyes to follow the lines of Orion, the great hunter. Scanning north, she traced the familiar guardian, Draco, the dragon. As a child she’d imagined the winged beast flying down to fight off the hurtful whispers and the imagined demons haunting her nights. Anthony would shake his head at her fears, reassuring her that she was the most powerful force in existence. That she should never have need to fear anything or anyone.

A shiver rippled along Kailin’s spine and she pulled the wool blanket up over her chest to her neck. Because Kailin knew now that wasn’t completely true. Her gaze moved from the slope of Draco’s neck to Jackson standing against the rail. His gaze met hers without wavering. Yes, now Kailin knew that there were things out in the world that could hurt her, whether they be demons or magic or a single man; there were things to fear even if she couldn’t remember them.

Chapter Three

“So close I could smell the sweet fear in her blood!” Bechard, a blond, black-winged demon, roared into the inter-dimensional mist. A low grumbling like thunder amongst mountains followed in furious agreement from the other twelve demons dissolving in and out of form.

Semiazaz sat on his imagined throne, silent, brooding. He’d come so close to capturing both the dragonfly amulet and Gilla’s third daughter, Kat, in the sixteenth century. Yet both had slipped through his sharp grasp.

“Drakkina!” hissed Bast, a sensuous Egyptian catlike demon. “The witch interferes again! When I catch her I’ll slice her skin, layer by layer, from her body.”

“She doesn’t have a body anymore,” Semiazaz commented, a loose, far-away memory surfacing of a young beauty running barefoot through spring grass. He growled low and banished the picture along with the sickening sentiment it brought. “Drakkina’s true body withered to dust long ago.”

Bast flicked her tail in annoyance but then smiled slyly. “I’ll give it back to her with the amulet. Then I’ll skin her alive.”

Semiazaz sighed, tired of dealing with the roiling emotions of twelve riotous, monstrous souls to which he was shackled. It had been 4,000 years since Drakkina had bound them together to hinder their growth as the most powerful coven history had ever known. The thirteen demons must move together everywhere, agree in order to accomplish even simple tasks. It had taken nearly 2,000 years for them to stop battling one another long enough to simply move. Quite the clever prison. Momentary pride whisked through Semiazaz as he thought of Drakkina’s unique trap.

He glanced around at the figures in the temporal mist. Some of them manifested bodies, both beautiful and hideous. Others rested in the amorphic shifting of shadow. Four thousand years was long enough to learn that in order to escape they must act together. Semiazaz had mastered his emotions quickly and had become the leader of the group. Although dissension was a daily encumbrance, the group knew that a leader must be in place or they would battle impotently forever.

Semiazaz stroked his perfectly-groomed white beard. “The amulet is of great power. But to give Drakkina back her body and life we’d need the other half.”

“Let us find the Orb of Life then.” Deumis, a horned female demon, nodded from her corner.

Semiazaz rose from his gold throne to pace in the small circular space the demons left open in the middle, preferring to be as far from each other as possible. “The two together would certainly give her back her life.”

“The amulet could do that alone,” Bechard stated and flexed his wings.

Semiazaz shook his head and stared hard at the glinting maw of the tempest demon. “The amulet can give her corporeal form, but to give one back their life in full, full sensation, emotion, spirit, the two pieces must be linked.”

Megaira, a lush female demon with serpents coiling her head like hair, hissed loudly from her perch. “Lest you forget, we couldn’t even retrieve the amulet.” The mask of beauty faded from her features leaving the horrific skeletal points of envious anger. “I want the Orb of Life! I want the amulet! I want Drakkina’s body to twitch with agony!”

Semiazaz patted his hand down through the mist. “Yes, yes, we all want revenge.”

“And life,” Bast added.

“Apart!” Bechard roared in his thundering voice that increased the tension in Semiazaz’s imagined head.

Semiazaz could allow his body to dissolve, momentarily easing the pressure of keeping up his appearance but to do so would show weakness. And amongst these monsters, weakness could easily overturn his rule. As much as the idea of resting seemed favorable, the thought of relinquishing his control on the group was frightful. It would take them another thousand years to decide on a new leader. And who knew where Bechard, the likely usurper, would take them.

“We
will
obtain the power to break apart,” Semiazaz stated calmly, using his muted powers to enhance the volume of his voice to reach over Bechard’s cursing and Bast’s hissing. “And then you will have your revenge on the white witch. But…” His eyes met each of the burning orbs of his brethren. “First…Drakkina is mine.”

****

Drakkina’s ethereal body flew under the moon and over the great pyramids. The land of the pharaohs, so full of ancient magic, resonated like a beacon, pulling her toward it. Her hand rubbed across the dragonfly amulet she wore on a chain around her neck. She knew the pull was from it as the powerful amulet sought its mate, the orb. Together they would create the circle of life, giving her power over life and death.

Drakkina huffed softly, her faint voice caught unnoticed in the breeze blowing along the Nile. As much as she’d like to be mortal again, to feel the things that can only be felt when truly alive, it just wasn’t practical right now. No, she had a mission to finish first, a mission to save the world. She’d found three of Gilla’s daughters already, hidden in time by the great witch just before the shackled demons killed her. But there was one daughter left, the other twin.

The silhouette of a great horned owl dipped and rose across the large moon. The acrobatic movement and great height caught her attention. The essence of magic vibrated around her. Drakkina breathed in through her nose, enjoying the sense of smell once again. Did the animal hum with magic or was the power hidden between the grains of sand on the landscape below and in between the two-ton bricks of the pyramids? She cocked her head and pierced the night with her senses straight toward the feathered raptor.

The bird dove, a startled cry renting the air as if it had been shot. Had it felt her curiosity? Drakkina swooped toward the animal only to lose it close to the cold Egyptian hills. She hovered, listening, waiting, hunting. If this bird held magic, someone created it or gifted it. The resonance she had sensed was familiar. “Gilla?” she murmured. Finally, after a decade of searching for Katell’s twin. Egypt? Of course! The ancient magic shielded the child from her and also from the demons.

A flutter heralded a screech and Drakkina gasped on a spin, dropping through the thin air so fast she lost her concentration. The dragonfly amulet gave her form substance and that substance was plummeting. She grabbed the amulet and yanked it off over her head. Ethereal dragonflies dove after her as if they could rescue their mistress with their tissue-paper wings. The rolling white hills of cold sand spread below, ready to accept the painful thump of her body. The owl swooped after her, circling. Drakkina’s body thinned, dissolved, faded into her spirit form until she slipped completely through gravity’s powerful fingers. Drakkina spread her arms, her diaphanous sleeves billowing in the dry desert air. She floated, floated and scowled at the wide wingspan and beady eyes studying her.

“I’m a friend, fool bird,” she hissed at it. The owl landed on a crate left littering the desert landscape and cocked its tufted head. “Do you understand?” Drakkina drifted to the sand, settling without making an impression. “Are you Gilla’s pet, a guardian for her last daughter?”

The bird stared, its luminous eyes assessing. Drakkina sighed long and funneled a tendril of power to touch the silent owl. An echo of Gilla’s great magic encompassed the creature, every feather, every miniscule part.

It hopped from foot to foot and ruffled its feathers but didn’t fly off. “You feel that, don’t you?” Drakkina glanced around at the night. The Nile snaked through the white-washed hills, bordered by tall grasses and an occasional tree. “Where is your mistress then? You wouldn’t fly far from her.”

Drakkina felt a tickle of magic under her imagined hair. She shivered but held still. “I am no demon, but it’s certainly prudent of you to check.” The tickle dissolved and the owl opened its wings. Drakkina indicated the distant river. “Lead on then.” And the great protector leapt silently into the air.

****

Kailin breathed in deeply through her nose. The tangy smell of earth and water infused her and she stretched her toes inside her laced boots and blinked upward at the gray-blue sky that lightened directly off the bow of the boat. East, they were moving east, not south. They must be traveling on the curve of the Nile that wound east, just north of Thebes and Karnack. Kailin let the blanket fall down her arms and stretched them overhead with a satisfied smile. They’d made good time through the night, even without her interference. Her magic would have drifted off as she drifted off to sleep last night. Perhaps she’d made up enough time earlier in the evening. They should reach Luxor by the following morning.

Kailin’s breath hitched as she turned and her gaze locked with Jackson’s. He sat, two chaises down, feet crossed at the ankles, watching her. She resisted the urge to check her hair with a quick pat.

“Good morning, Kailin,” he drawled and raised his arms up in the air to interlock his fingers and stretch. Muscles bunched under his thin button-up traveling shirt. His hair hung loose and overly long around a strong, stubbled jaw. He grinned, which added a roguish appeal to the casual charm of his brilliant gray eyes. Kailin fought to quell the giddy unease at having woken up near the man, as if they’d slept in the same room.

“What are you doing up here?” Her words came out a little breathless and she forced a smooth, calm exchange of air. “I did relinquish my cabin to you, Mr. Black. If you are still trying to protect me in a misguided attempt to make yourself useful, you needn’t, as I am more than capable of looking out for myself.”

He shrugged and set his booted feet with a heavy clunk on the deck boards. “I too prefer to sleep under the stars. Does the constitution good. Growing up in wide open spaces”—he shook his head—“I spent many a night sleeping under God’s canopy.”

His answer irritated her. Why? Her lips pursed together. Certainly it wasn’t because she’d hoped he’d admit to wanting to watch over her. Kailin rarely needed a protector. And when it was required for some social or cultural dictate, Anthony filled the role. Perhaps her irritation was merely that she sensed another lie.