Iszak (The Dragon's Mate Book 2), page 16
"I didn't tell her about me, I didn't have to. She searched her brother's apartment, and I don't know what she found there, but whatever it was it made her realize that you are a dragon. She put two and two together and came to the correct answer that I'm a dragon too. She knows you killed Kevin." And Iszak didn't know what he was going to do about that. He was certain that she would tell her father, and he would be out for his brother's blood. Was he prepared to kill her father in order to keep Andor and Lyssa safe? If it came down to it, would he be able to do what needed to be done in order to save his brother?
"You stupid bastard. How could you have brought her into our lives, how could you have endangered my mate like this? If Lyssa is hurt as a result of this, I swear to God I'll kill you. You should have eliminated that bitch as soon as you knew who she was." There was literal fire in Andor's eyes and it ignited the anger that had been smoldering alongside the heartbreak inside Iszak. Most of it was directed at himself for letting things go so horribly wrong, but with his brother standing there, insulting Julia, it found a convenient target.
Iszak surge to his feet and shoved Andor with his good arm. “I’m not the one who killed her brother. You did that. She was coming here looking for you whether I was involved with her or not. I did what I thought was best, what I had to do to protect you. Do you want to hear me say it? Will that make you happy? Do you want me to congratulate you for being right, that there was no way she could ever have loved me once she knew what I am?”
“I think that’s enough out of both of you. Kevin is dead and Julia knows it.” Lyssa walked into the living room holding several hand towels in one hand and first aid kit in another. “Accusations and recriminations are not going to help anyone. Whatever happens, we’ll deal with it.”
The glare she cast at his brother made him physically back down. If he wasn’t in so much pain, both physically and emotionally, Iszak would have found it amusing that this woman could take the sting out of his brother’s tail.
“Can you we just get this bolt out of me, please.” Now that the adrenaline was no longer pumping through him, Iszak could feel the exhaustion seeping in as his flesh throbbed around the piece of wood stabbing through him. He sagged back down on the couch, and Andor came forward. His mouth was pinched white at the corners, and he reached behind Iszak to snap off the back of the wooden bolt.
“Get ready with the towels and press it on the wound as soon as I pull the bolt free. He’ll start healing as soon as it’s out, but we’ll need to put some pressure on it until the process starts.” Andor looked over at Lyssa, and she put the first aid kit on the couch. She quickly and efficiently folded two towels into makes shift pads and nodded to Andor as she held them in each hand.
Iszak braced himself and pain screamed through him when Andor pulled the shaft free. He clamped his eyes shut as Lyssa pressed the towels against the wounds in the front and the back. A wave a nausea passed over him, and he gulped in several deep breaths as he willed himself to get through the pain. Once it had gotten to a more manageable level, he opened his eyes. It took all his strength to keep himself sitting upright. The worst of it was over, but the wound would still need dressing. Then he could curl up somewhere and sleep off some of the pain. While he knew that the physical pain he was in was temporary, the pain in his heart was a wound that would not be healed.
Andor paced the living room, clenching open and closed his blood covered hands. He knew that he longed to do something, to commit some action, that would somehow make up for what had happened to Iszak. He hoped his brother saw that going after Julia would only make things worse, since she’d only been reacting to what he’d done to her brother.
“Andor.” Lyssa’s voice came out in a soft tone as she looked toward her mate. The affect of her voice was instantaneous, as if the sound of her speaking his name was enough to soothe the beast inside his brother. “Go wash up while I look after Iszak. Pacing around the living room will help no one and there is nothing you can do right now.”
Andor looked like he wanted to protest, but he gave her a curt nod and left the room.
“Thank you,” Iszak said, relieved that he wouldn’t have to watch his brother pace.
“He loves you, and seeing you hurt hurts him. He only wants to protect you.” Lyssa removed the makeshift pad from the front of his wound, and already the blood flow had been reduced to a trickle. She opened the first aid kit and took out the scissors that were in there. She cut away the sleeve of his shirt, and he could see that already the wound looked better than it would have if he’d been the human that Julia thought he was. “Do you want to talk about it?”
“About what?” What was there to say? He’d taken a gamble and he’d lost. Rehashing it wouldn’t change it.
“About what you’re going to do about the fact that you love her?” Lyssa administered to his wound with gentle hands, and he could see what it was about her that had snared his brother. She had the courage to stand up to him, but there was a softness to her that a hard man like his brother needed. It was what he’d thought he’d seen in Julia.
“There is nothing I can do. She hates me now, and I can’t blame her. I lied to her, and although my motives changed, I did set out to seduce her. I arrogantly thought I could keep myself apart from her while I did it, but I see now that I was wrong. My punishment for my arrogance is that I now love a woman who will never love me in return.”
At least his suffering wouldn’t last too long. Once his curse kicked in, he wouldn’t care about anything anymore.
“I think you’re selling yourself and her short. When Andor told me what he was, I was so hurt that he’d made me love him when I was certain he was crazy. But I realized that I wouldn’t have felt that way if I didn’t love him. I think it’s the same for Julia. She wouldn’t be so hurt if there wasn’t love there for you inside her.”
“Thanks for the thought, but it’s too late. She may have had feelings for me, but I’m sure those are dead now. I kept too much from her. The only thing I can do now is make sure that nothing happens to you or Andor because I led her to us.”
He was certain that Julia would tell her father, and that Gerard would come gunning for both him and his brother. If he did, it would be Iszak’s fault because although Andor had killed Kevin in self defense, Iszak had brought Julia here. He’d introduced her to his world, and put his brother and Lyssa at risk by doing so. He would do whatever it took to make sure that his brother and his mate stayed safe, and if he was killed in the crossfire, perhaps it was for the best. It would save Andor from having to kill him when his curse came to claim him.
15
It had been a week since Julia’s confrontation with Iszak, and he still haunted her every thought. She wanted to hate him. He was everything she'd been raised to despise, and he'd hurt her so much. It wasn't so much that he was a dragon, since he was what he was. It was the fact that he'd made her want him, he made her body sing and she still craved his touch when she was alone at night. Why did he have to pretend that he wanted her when all he'd been doing was making sure that she didn't find out what his brother had done to hers. It would have been less cruel if he'd killed her outright.
The fire of anger that had been inside her when she'd shot him had burned out days ago. She couldn't believe that she'd done it, that he hadn't retaliated after the bolt had gone through his shoulder. He would have had time to charge her before she got the other bolt in the bow.
Her father always said that the only safe dragon was a dead one, that if you shot one it had to be to kill, otherwise they would be on you faster than you could blink. So why then had Iszak let her go? She'd shot him, he had every reason to want to retaliate if he was the mindless killer her father believed he was. Could her father be wrong?
She didn't know what the answer was as she pulled into the parking lot of Kevin's building. She was staying here for lack of anywhere else to go. If it had been up to her she would have left Waldron Valley by now. She would have chalked this all up to the biggest mistake of her life.
Unfortunately, telling her father a week ago that she'd met someone had only sent him straight to her. She didn't know what she would have told him about Kevin, but she'd forgotten to hide what Kevin had left behind and her father had read it all. He knew exactly what had happened to his precious boy.
His rage had been cold rather than incendiary and she shivered when she remembered the look in his eyes. She half expected him to go off after Iszak and his brother but he hadn't made a move in that direction all week. She was certain that dragon hunting was on the agenda, it was only a matter of time. She was unsure what she was going to do about it. If he'd gone off immediately after her confrontation with Iszak, she'd had enough hurt and anger inside her to go along.
All the time waiting had given her was time to think and time to miss him. Why couldn't she put him out of her mind? Was she some sort of masochist who couldn't see what was right in front of her? What had happened between them had been a sham, a lie to keep tabs on her. It meant nothing to him, despite what he'd said when she held the crossbow on him. He'd say whatever he thought would keep her from going after his brother for what he'd done.
She gave a shake of her head. Why was she even debating this? She'd been raised in a dragon hunting family, it was a legacy she couldn't dodge. Iszak may not be a killer, at least not that she was aware of, but the same could not be said for his brother, Andor.
Her phone rang inside her purse and she pulled it out. Her heart gave a small leap at the thought that it could be Iszak, and she shoved the thought ruthlessly aside. If it was him, she didn't want to talk to him. She needed to harden her heart. She was going to have to choose between her family and a man she barely knew, a man who'd callously used her so he could keep her from learning the truth about her brother.
The number was one she didn't recognize and when she answered the voice of a woman came on the other end of the line.
"Julia? It's Lyssa."
Julia's hand clenched around her phone. What the hell was Kevin's lying ex doing calling her? All the anger at her inability to stop thinking about Iszak came spilling out.
"What do you want?" There was nothing this woman could say to her that she wanted to hear, but she found herself unable to hang up the phone. God, she was a glutton for punishment.
"I thought you might want to know how Iszak is doing. His wound is almost healed." A spurt of relief went through Julia but she was not going to admit it to this woman. Lyssa sighed on the other end of the line, but it was apparent she wasn't going to give up on whatever the reason for her call was. "I suppose it's a miracle that you aren't hanging up on me. Would it help if I told you that I know how you feel?"
"Oh, you do? Did Andor kill your brother too? Did he seduce you and lie to you about everything just so he could keep you from finding out?" The anger inside her tasted bitter on her tongue as it spilled out. How dare this woman call her and tell her that she knew how she felt. She had no idea what it was like to know that someone you had feelings for, someone you thought reciprocated those feelings, was lying to you the whole time.
"I know you're angry and you have every right to be. I know you have no reason to believe me, but Iszak is just as devastated as you are about what happened. I think you were both in a situation that spiraled out of control, and you were both hurt as a result. And make no mistake, Iszak is hurting just as much as you are."
Julia gripped the phone tighter. She didn't want to talk about Iszak, not to her. "You don't know what I'm feeling or what I think, so don't try."
"Why don't I tell you something that I'm very familiar with then. I'm not sure you know what kind of man your brother was. Maybe he was the sweetest, kindest of men to his family." Kevin had never been that, but Julia was not going to admit it. She knew exactly what kind of man her brother was. Sweet and kind were not words that were even in the realm of existence for Kevin. But just because he was an obsessive asshole, did that mean he had to die? "Let me tell you about the man I was with for close to two years. He was dangerous. He broke into my home, destroyed my things. He threatened me and made me afraid to walk out my front door and he tried to kill Andor, twice. The first time Andor let him go. We both thought it best that the police deal with him and it was only after Kevin proved that he wasn't going to stop until both Andor and I were dead that the man I love did something about it."
"Why are you telling me this?" Lyssa's story jived with what Iszak had been trying to tell her. If she was honest with herself, she knew that this story rang true because Kevin had been dangerous to those women who'd been caught in the snare of his obsession. Lyssa wasn't the first woman he'd stalked, and he'd been violent with his other girlfriends in the past.
Julia was torn by the knowledge of the kind of man that Kevin had become with the memories of who he was when they were younger. He'd been the sweetest little boy when he was a kid and she didn't know what had happened to him to turn him into the abusive man he'd become. The kid version of Kevin was the one she missed, and he hadn't been around for a long time.
"I just want you to understand that Andor isn't the bloodthirsty killer you want him to be. Your brother threatened him in a way that made it clear he was never going to stop, and it came down to a choice. Andor chose to live. Your brother knew his death was a risk when he went after a dragon." Lyssa's voice grew softer, and there was a wealth of compassion and understanding in it when she spoke again. "I don't know what all happened between you and Iszak, but I do know he is hurting. I know that he feels the same about you as you do for him. If there weren't feelings there you would not be so hurt by what happened. You would have shot him in the heart and been done with it. If he or Andor were the monsters that you've been raised to believe, you wouldn't be alive now. As soon as Iszak learned who you were, he would have killed you."
Julia swallowed hard and didn't want to listen to any more. It was too late for all this. Her father was here, and she had to stand behind him. But before she hung up the phone she wanted to give Lyssa one chance to save herself and those she loved.
"My father is here. He knows what Andor did. If you thought Kevin was dogged, that's nothing compared to my father. He's out for blood and if you care about your man and his family at all you will convince them both to run and hide where he will never find them."
Julia ended the call before Lyssa could reply. She hoped that Lyssa heeded her warning, because there was no way her father was going to stop. And Julia knew that she didn't have the strength to keep him from taking his revenge. She'd spend her life obeying him, and she had nothing now. When she'd shot Iszak instead of listening to him, when she'd turned to her father and poured out her heartbreak to him, she'd chosen a side. Her father would expect her to be on his side, and she'd never stood against him before. A part of her was frightened of what he would do if she did. The best thing for them all would be if Lyssa warned Andor and Iszak, and they went somewhere her father would never find them.
She got out of the car with a heavy heart. Why had Lyssa called her, why had she planted the doubts in her head that made her want to believe her. It was wishful thinking on her part that made her think that Iszak felt something for her, that it all had not been a lie. It didn't matter what she felt for Iszak, as far as her father was concerned he was the enemy, and she was only one person.
She didn't think she had the will to defy him. And going against her father would do little to save Iszak.
She walked back into Kevin's apartment, and her father stood there with an implacable look on his face. It sent a shiver down her spine. She knew what her father was going to say.
"It's time to avenge your brother. It's time to hunt those bastards down and show them what it means to cross the Robillard family." As her father stood there, Julia knew it was crunch time. She could do what she'd always done, jump when her father said jump or she could do what she wanted to do and say no.
"I think it would be better if we let it go. Kevin knew what he was getting into when he went after that dragon, and he should have left well enough alone." Julia swallowed hard. A dark look descended upon her father's face and the urge to tell him that she didn't mean it, that she wanted to take it back, was so strong that she had to bite the inside of her cheek to keep from doing it. Iszak had numerous opportunities to kill her when he found out who she was. The fact that he hadn't, told her that he wasn't the dangerous creature her father wanted her to believe.
"You are going to call that abomination you spread your legs for and you are going to do it now." Her father didn't yell, in fact his voice was calm, but the tone raised the hair on the back of her neck. She'd never heard it from him before and neither had she seen the look that crossed his eyes. It was cold and menacing, like a snake staring at its prey the moment before it struck.
She swallowed hard and straightened her spine. This moment was the most important one of her life and what she did now would inform the rest of her life.
"No. There is nothing you can do to make me do to call him. I will not lead him into a trap."
A shark like smile crossed her father's face and he reached around his back to the waistband of his jeans. He brought his hand back around and pointed a revolver at her. Julia's body went cold all over and in that moment there was something dead in her father's eyes that told her that her carrying his blood in her veins would not stop him from shooting her if she didn't do what he wanted.
"How about you make that call now?"
Iszak stared straight ahead as he tried to block out his brother’s voice. Julia had been gone a week, and still his brother wouldn’t let it go. Iszak pinched the bridge of his nose as he sharply exhaled.
“Look, I’m not moving back to the mansion. If I want to sit here and wallow in my own self pity, as you seem to want to accuse me of, then I will.” If Andor wanted him to come home, nagging him into it wasn’t going to work. Perhaps he was feeling sorry for himself, but surely he had a right to. His woman was gone, and he knew he was never going to get her back.
