Something quite different than the well-bred lady I am trying to be, she thought. He transformed me into a wanton creature.. . .
Let it out more often... .
Jack, what have you done this time ... how could you hide while we were so worried about you ... please, let me find you safe and sound... .
Will the duke really take me to Jack ... I want to trust him ... but am I a fool?
He knew that vampires could trade thoughts with other preternatural beings, but only when both parties were willing to send their thoughts.
“We will go and fetch your brother very soon.” He said the words softly, the way a mesmerist tried to push his will into another’s mind. And he sent more thoughts back to her. Was there a boy your father spoke about? Did your father ever tell you about a boy named James?
She would not know where these thoughts had come from and, if she knew anything about his nephew, it would trigger her thoughts in response.
They rushed to him. What Father said ... the day before he died ... he had done something awful ... he had tried to protect a child ... and he’d failed ... what if it truly was the duke’s nephew? What if the child he was speaking of was not an orphan or abandoned?
Sinjin’s heart picked up speed and he waited.
Why would Father take his nephew ... I don’t understand... .
With a sharp pain in his head, Sinjin lost the connection with her thoughts. He lifted her hand and bestowed a soft kiss. Damn, but he should despise this woman—this dragon—who was one of the family who had taken James.
But she was so different from any other dragon he’d met. Human emotions were powerful in her. She was vulnerable. But also she deeply loved her brother. He’d tasted the emotion she’d felt when she’d thought about his nephew. It was empathy, worry, fear, pain. None of those emotions suggested she was guilty.
Her father and brother might be vicious enough to hold his nephew hostage as a pawn in the battle between dragons and dragon slayers, but Lady Lucy Drake seemed to be astonishingly softhearted. For a dragon.
Sinjin gently lifted her so she was sitting up. “First we will get you washed up, my dear. Then we will get your brother.”
At which point she would know what he was—a dragon slayer. What was he going to do then? His duty was to destroy both her and her brother. Unless they could help him find his nephew, he was supposed to do it.
For the first time in his life, he felt something other than ice-cold at the thought of carrying out his duty, damn it. He saw Lady Lucy push back her tangled raven-black curls and he felt regret.
7
The Hunt
She had done the most intimate things with this man—she had let him make love to her in the most shocking and scandalous ways. That, she’d had the courage to do, but speaking to him as they sat across from each other in a carriage? Suddenly it was impossible. And being in such a confined space with the Duke of Greystone felt like the most awkward thing in the world.
Lucy folded her arms in front of her chest. Her neck ached from the ramrod stiffness of her spine, but the duke looked far more pained than she. He was slumped in the corner, his head thrown back, his eyes shut. Harsh lines ringed his mouth. He kept making grumpy, growling sounds, like an angered bear.
“What is wrong?” she ventured. “Is it worry about your nephew? I am—I am sure he must be all right.” He must be—surely Father could not have done anything else. “I am sure Father would take the best care of him.”
“Are you?”
How could he make love to her, coax her to do such naughty things, smile at her while he did, then speak with such ice?
She knew why—it was this horrible thing he believed her family had done.
“Yes,” she answered swiftly. But her father’s tears and his words—I failed a child—rang in her head. She didn’t know the truth, but she feared the worst, and it made her sick with guilt and horror.
“What of my brother?” she asked, and the silence seemed to shatter like fragile ice on a pond. “Was he all right? Did your men tell you anything about how he is faring?”
Greystone stretched out his legs, and lifted a brow. “You are worried about that worthless scoundrel? Lady Lucy, you are foolishly and unnecessarily sentimental. Your brother is hiding in a brothel. I assure you he is fine. Very fine, though perhaps a bit tired.”
Something about the way he spoke ... “Did you see him? You said your men found him, but you speak as though you have seen him for yourself.”
“Indeed. I visited him last night. I wanted him to tell me where my nephew is being held. He refused.”
Lucy swallowed hard. “You don’t seem like the sort of gentleman who takes a refusal in stride. What did you do?” Her voice rose as her panic did. “Did you hurt him? Torture him? Kill him?”
“My dear, I would not be taking you to the brothel if I had either hurt or destroyed him. What would be the point? Also, he can’t help me if he is dead.”
It was true. “So you simply left him in the brothel when he would not help you?”
“That was my intention for the time being, while I determined the best plan of attack to make him help me.”
Oh dear God, she had been a fool. Greystone wanted to force her brother to speak ... and he had her alone in a carriage. “Are you planning to use me as leverage?” Her voice broke. Lucy began to laugh—laughter that turned to choking sobs. She regained her breath. “It wouldn’t work. And you can’t threaten to ruin me, can you? We’ve already done that. What are you going to do? Threaten to kill me. Perhaps he would let you—”
“No, he wouldn’t. You told me he saved your life once before.”
“I do not know anymore what he is capable of doing. He can hardly care about us all when he simply deserted us to live in a brothel.”
The duke’s brow rose. “He would hardly let you suffer.”
“I don’t know... . I do not know anymore... . He didn’t care if our sister was forced to marry an older, disgusting earl. He knew how afraid and desperate we were.” She took a shaky breath. Ice emanated from the duke’s glower. Softly, she asked, “Is your nephew like me? Can he change into a dragon?”
“Yes.”
Through narrowed eyes, he watched her. “So the truth now comes out. You do know your family took my nephew.”
“I do not.” But she sucked in a harsh breath. Could Father have believed the duke’s nephew was in danger? Perhaps he could have taken the boy, if he believed he had to protect the child. When Father took in abandoned children, it was to protect them from parents who thought them monsters, from villagers who intended to kill them, from dragon slayers.
But to kidnap a duke’s nephew ...
“Did my father speak to you about your nephew’s power? Did my father want to take your nephew to help him?”
“No, Lady Lucy.”
She waited for more explanation but he gave her nothing. “I—I thought perhaps my father insisted that your nephew should be with others of his kind. So we could help him adapt to the human world.”
“No, my dear. Such things were never discussed.”
Was he lying? Her father would not take a child unless he had no other choice.
“But you knew about your nephew’s ability to become a dragon?”
“Yes, I had witnessed it. It was unfortunate, but