Iszak (The Dragon's Mate Book 2), page 17
“You don’t have time to indulge in this. I don’t think I have to remind you—“
“That I’m under a curse. I know. How could I forget when you tell me at least twice a day. Do you want to know why I left the mansion in the first place, why I went to the cabin? To get away from you. I know I’m cursed, I know I have less than three months to find my soulmate or I will go insane. This isn’t news to me Andor. And guess what? You may not want to believe it, but chances are very good that Julia is my soul mate and she’s gone. So don’t fucking tell me that I don’t have time for this.” Iszak’s voice echoed against the walls and he sighed. “Look, I appreciate that you’re concerned for me. I was in your shoes not too long ago when Lyssa learned the truth about you and didn’t take it very well.”
“What are you going to do about it?” Andor crossed his arms over his chest, and it didn’t appear that Iszak’s mini tirade had made any sort of impression.
Iszak closed his eyes for a second. Why couldn’t his brother go away and leave him alone? He didn’t want to talk about his curse and he didn’t want to talk about Julia. He just wanted to sit here and wait until it was time for him to die. Andor raised an eyebrow, apparently he was waiting for an answer.
“What am I going to do about what?”
“About her.” There was a tightening of his brother’s mouth on the last word, and Iszak knew that Julia wasn’t his brother’s favorite person at the moment.
“Nothing.” What could he do? She’d made it very clear that if she saw him again she would put a bolt through his heart. Since the wound she’d put in his shoulder had only just healed, he had little doubt that she would follow through on the threat. He’d lost her and there was no getting her back.
“Wrong answer. If she’s the one, you can’t just let her go. You have to talk to her, tell her how you feel.”
“Oh like you did when Lyssa left you after finding out what you are? I seem to recall that you were intent on drinking yourself into oblivion.” His brother had hit rock bottom when Lyssa had left him. It was only because Lyssa had come to realize that he was telling the truth about himself that she'd come back.
“I know. And I got a taste of what the curse can do, and it would have consumed me if she hadn’t saved me from it. I don’t want that for you. Do you remember how hard it was for you when you thought you were going to have to kill me? Do you think it would be any easier for me?”
“I know.” Iszak looked down at his hands. “I hurt her. She thinks that I toyed with her, that I used her so I could keep tabs on her inquiry into Kevin’s disappearance. And the truth was, that was how it started out in the beginning. As soon as I found out who she was, I decided that I was going to seduce her, to keep her close to me.”
“But that’s not how it turned out, and she needs to know that. If you love her, you have to tell her. I came so close to losing everything, Lyssa, my sanity and my life, because I wouldn’t go after her. I wouldn't tell her how I felt about her. I let my pride get in the way and I wouldn’t be alive to pester you about this if she hadn’t saved me. You have to talk to her. You have to get her to understand.”
“It’s not that simple. In case you failed to notice, she shot me the last time I talk to her. I’ll end up looking like a pin cushion if I go near her.”
“No you won’t. She shot you in the shoulder, not in the heart. If she was intent on killing you, she would have succeeded. If she was as hurt as you say, then there has to be a reason for it. Maybe it’s because she has the same feelings for you that you have for her. Get her to listen to you. Don’t let your pride keep you from claiming her for your own.”
Could it be that Julia did have feelings for him? Was there hope for them yet? Iszak cast his mind back to the confrontation she’d had with him. She’d been upset about him being a dragon at first, and the issue with her brother was definitely a sticking point. But he recalled that her anger had only turned to tears when she’d asked him why he had slept with her. Did she feel so betrayed not because he was a dragon or that his brother had killed hers, but because she thought that he didn’t reciprocate her feelings? That he hadn’t been falling in love with her as she had been with him?
Iszak scrubbed his hand over his face. He didn’t know what he was going to do, but he couldn’t sit here feeling sorry for himself until his curse came to claim him. If he was wrong, then he would be another dragon killed by the Robillard family. Without her he was dead anyway. He had little to lose by telling her what was in his heart.
“So, I’ll ask you again. What are you going to do about her?” A smile kicked up the corner of his brother’s mouth, and Iszak gave his head a shake.
Before he could reply, his cell phone rang and a frown wrinkled his brow. He looked at the screen, and his heart thumped heavily inside him. It was Julia. Could it be that the week apart had done the same for her that it had done for him? Had she realized that he hadn’t set out to deliberately hurt her and was willing to give them a second chance?
“It’s Julia.” Iszak’s fingers trembled slightly as he swiped his finger across the screen and put his phone to his ear.
“Iszak?”
He closed his eyes at the sound of her voice on the other end of the phone. How could he have thought that he could let her go when just hearing her say his name sent hope crashing through him? He was going to take his chances.
“I’m sorry for everything, sweetheart. No matter what happens I want you to know that whatever my intentions were at the beginning of this, I’d abandoned them the moment I made love to you for the first time.”
Her breath was a sob on the other end of the phone. “I need to meet you. I need to talk to you.”
There was a trembling quality to her voice, and cold seeped into Iszak’s veins. Something was off. “Come to the apartment and we’ll talk.”
“I’m afraid that’s not possible. I want to go to where this all started. I will meet you where Kevin died and you can explain to me how all this happened.”
Something was definitely wrong. Her voice had taken on a monotone quality, as if what she was saying was a script that she could not deviate from.
“Will you be alone when you meet me?”
“No.”
That could only mean one thing. Her father was in town and he knew what had happened to Kevin. This could only be a trap set up to kill him. He gripped the phone tighter as he prepared himself to ask her the following question. He needed to know if this was something she was a whole hearted participant in, or if she was being coerced.
“Your father is there listening, isn’t he? Are you in danger?” Iszak silently prayed that this wasn’t the case. While he didn’t want her to hate him so much that she was willingly leading him into a trap, the alternative, that her life was in danger, was much worse.
“That’s correct. But like I said, I don’t want to discuss this over the phone. Please meet me where Kevin died.”
The call ended before Iszak could say any more and he surged to his feet. His brother’s face sobered when Iszak looked at him.
“What is it?”
“Julia’s in danger. She wants to meet where Kevin died, and her father is with her.” He charged toward the door, dragging his hand through his hair as rage and panic rose inside him. If something happened to her, if she was hurt because of him, he wouldn’t need to wait for his curse to kick in to become a bloodthirsty killer. Andor grabbed his arm in a vice grip, and wouldn’t let go. “Let go of my arm or I swear to you that I will break your hand.”
“I know you want to help her, but you have to be smart about this. You can’t go off half cocked and get yourself killed.”
“I don’t care about that.” Didn’t Andor realize that she was his woman, that she needed him and that nothing, not even his brother, could keep him from her now.
“You should care. I know exactly what is going through your mind right now, because if the situation was reversed, and Lyssa was in danger, I’d feel the same way. You aren’t going there alone. If it’s more than just Julia and her father, you need back up.”
“No. I’m not putting you at risk too. This is my fight.” Them going together was probably what Julia’s father wanted, and he was not going to serve his brother up to him on a silver platter.
“It’s our fight. I killed Kevin, and the reason this is all happening is because of me. Now this is what we are going to do.”
16
"Please don't do this." Julia turned to her father as soon as she hung up the phone. A lump formed in the back of her throat as she looked at the man who she thought would never hurt her. Her father had always been a hard man, and she was aware that he had his obsessions. She never thought that his thirst for revenge would be more important to him than his daughter.
"Spare me. Move." He waved the gun toward the door and she wondered if he'd use it. She didn't really have the courage to test the theory that he wouldn't because there was a cold look in his eyes that she'd never seen before. She trembled for a moment and then stiffened her spine. Surely her father could be made to see that he didn't need to do this.
"Why are you doing this? It doesn't have to be this way. He isn't dangerous. He could have killed me any time he wanted, and he didn't. I honestly don't believe that those dragons are as dangerous as you seem to think." She had a feeling that what she was saying was falling on deaf ears, but she had to try to get him to see reason. There had to be a way that they could get past this without bloodshed. She knew now that she loved Iszak. She also loved her father and it was tearing her apart to have to choose between them.
"They killed my son. You may not care about your brother, but I do. He was my only son, I have no one to carry on my name and my legacy now. Those dragons stole that from me and they have to pay with their blood. I know that dragon messed with your head and that if you really thought about this you'd see I'm right. Don't make me hurt you because your judgment is clouded."
"My judgment is not clouded, in fact I'm seeing clearly for the first time in a long time. You have always been blind to everything but Kevin. You have me and Diana as your legacy but that's never been enough for you. I loved Kevin too, he was a part of my family just like you and Diana are. But that doesn't mean that I saw him through the same rose colored glasses that you do. He was obsessive and dangerous. He tangled with a dragon twice and that dragon let him live the first time. If Kevin had stopped then, if he'd been able to get over the fact that it was over between him and his ex, he would be alive today. He chose to go out for blood, and he was killed because he couldn't let go of the obsession. Frankly, Kevin got what he deserved."
It was the wrong thing to say to her father. Gerard drew his hand back and let it fly. He slapped her across the face and pain slammed through her as the inside of her cheek shredded against her teeth. Tears prickled in her eyes as she turned her head to look at him. He had never raised a hand to any of them in her entire life. He was turning into someone she didn't recognize and she could see now the danger she was in, even if the gun he held on her hadn't made it clear. His grief over Kevin had blinded him to reason. All he could think about was his need for revenge, no matter the cost. He didn't seem to realize that revenge would not bring his son back and she knew he would not listen if she told him.
"I was willing to forgive you for sleeping with that creature because you didn't know what he was. I'm starting to see that it doesn't matter to you what he is, that you'd go back to him in a heartbeat if given the chance. I can't let that happen. Someday you'll see that I'm doing this to save you too. I'll kill you myself before I let you lay with that inhuman abomination again." He brought the gun up under her chin and the barrel dug into her soft flesh. "If you aren't with me, you are against me. Make a choice, Julia."
There was no choice, not unless she wanted her father to spread her brains all over Kevin's apartment. She cast her eyes downward, and gave a slow nod of her head. There had to be a way for her to get out of this, but arguing with her father was not the way. Not with the mood he was in. Her mind raced as she tried to think of something. Could she take him by surprise and disarm him somehow, to turn the tables on him?
That idea wouldn't work, because unless she was prepared to kill him, she couldn't very well hold a gun on him for the rest of her life. Was she prepared to kill him? Could she end her father's life if it meant saving herself and Iszak? In her heart she knew that answer was no. There had to be another way, one that wouldn't have her father's death on her conscience for the rest of her life.
He seemed satisfied with her answer and he lowered the gun. With a shove he propelled her to the front door of the apartment, and she hoped that someone would see that she was being forced forward with a gun pointed at her.
As they made their way down to the parking lot where her father's van was, her hope that someone would intervene on her behalf was crushed. This was not the kind of neighborhood where people looked out for each other. If anyone had seen her at her father's mercy, they'd chosen to turn a blind eye. However she managed to get out of this, it was up to her.
Her father opened the driver side door of the van and motioned for her to get in. She hesitated for a moment and he growled low behind her. His grip on her arm was bruising as he shoved her forward, and she banged her shoulder against the steering wheel as he tried to force her into the seat.
"Okay, I'll get in." She climbed behind the wheel, and thought for a moment about taking off as he went around to the passenger's side of the van. Unfortunately she was going nowhere because the keys were still in his possession. He climbed in beside her and handed her the keys, with the gun steadily trained on her the whole time.
She had to try one more time to reason with him.
"You don't want to do this. I refuse to believe that you would kill a member of your family over this. You aren't a killer, Dad."
"I never wanted you to find this out, but I think it's best if you know now. If you are under the mistaken belief that my threats are hollow, then you better think again. Your mother made that mistake and paid for it."
Her mother? Julia's heart thumped hard when her father brought up her mother. He never talked about her, had not spoken of her in decades. The last thing he'd had to say about her mother was when they'd woken in the morning and discovered that she was gone.
"What are you talking about? Mom left, you told us yourself that she didn't want to be a wife and mother anymore."
"I wanted to spare you the truth. You were too young to understand but now you're an adult and if it will help you to realize that I won't hesitate to kill you if you cross me, then you need to know. I'd always told your mother that if she ever tried to leave me, if she ever tried to take my kids from me, I'd kill her. She made the same mistake you're making now, of thinking that I won't keep my word. She was wrong. Don't make the same mistake, Julia. Now start the van and drive."
Ice invaded Julia's body as she put the keys in the ignition and turned on the van. She felt numb as she navigated out of the parking lot and down the road which would take them to the place where her brother had died. All this time she'd thought her mother didn't love her, that she'd willingly left them in the care of their obsessed father. It had all been a lie. One perpetuated by the man in the van next to her.
She risked a glance at him out of the corner of her eye, and the knowledge of what he'd done all those years ago turned him into someone she didn't know. The deadly look in his eyes told her that if she moved one toe out of line, he would kill her. If it came down to it, would she be able to end his life? Could she be as cold blooded as he was? There had to be a way out of this the didn't involve killing anyone, but she couldn't see it.
As it was, the best that she could hope for was that Iszak, knowing this was a trap, would not set foot in it. He hadn't given her the impression that he would stay away when she spoke to him on the phone, but it was the last bit of hope lingering inside her. It wouldn't stop her father from coming after him, but it might buy her some time to figure out a way to save them both.
She pulled the van up to the appointed spot and Julia's stomach churned when she saw the place her brother had died. There wasn't much left of the building, only sad, charred remains. She risked a glance at her father's face and knew there was no way he was going to come to his senses and stop this all from happening. Not now that he'd seen the place where his precious son had died. He turned his head and she swallowed hard when she saw the murderous rage in his deep blue eyes.
"Do you see now? Do you see what your precious dragons are capable of? Who knows what sort of pain and horror your brother suffered because of them. They have to die."
Julia swallowed hard and couldn't find the words to tell her father that killing them wouldn't bring Kevin back. He was deaf to reason, that much was certain. He was prepared to kill her if need be to get his revenge.
He reached over and shut off the van, putting the keys in his pocket and cutting of her means of escape. She got out of the van on shaky legs, and wondered if she could make a run for it. She might be able to outrun her father, but she doubted that she could outrun the bullet he would put in her back for it. She went over to his side of the van, trying to give all appearances that she was cooperating with him willingly.
He opened the side door of the van and picked up the crossbow that was laying beside the seat and handed it to her with the gun trained on her.
"What do you think I'm going to do with this?" An icy prickle of dread came over her when she realized what he intended for her to do. The bow was loaded with dragon forged iron, and that meant only one thing. She didn't think he wanted her to hold it for him until they got to the appointed spot. As soon as the bow was in her hands, he grabbed her and turned her body away from him. It made it impossible for her to turn the crossbow on him.
