The brown dragon bucked under him, trying to get leverage. Alec tightened his mouth, and his caustic saliva coated the brown dragon’s face. The furious beat of the brown dragon’s pulse hammered on his tongue, and Alec’s blood fury rose. He bit harder, until his enemy roared in pain.
“Submit!” Alec repeated with mind speak.
Through the smoke, Tyren and Leo marched forward. “Swear your loyalty, Ambrogino,” Leo ordered. “You’re beaten.”
One of the Siberians came forward and bowed. “I am Ambrogino’s first, and the former leader of the northern fold. The fire dragon is beaten. We pledge our loyalty to the black dragon in return for attending the ceremony.”
Ambrogino roared underneath Alec, and Alec gave his neck a shake until his enemy stilled.
“And the brown dragon?” Leo asked.
“I cannot speak for him,” the man said.
Alec pushed his teeth into his enemy’s neck. Blood oozed. His life would end with one more squeeze of Alec’s jaw. Since the day his former friend had tried to take the throne from him, he had waited for this moment. The moment when he would push his fangs into his enemy’s throat, his death just moments away. He wanted to do it, end the fight for good.
Alec firmed his mouth, ready to bite—
“I submit,” Ambrogino gurgled. Alec paused, feeling his frantic pulse and the taste of his metallic blood against his tongue.
“Jer’ol,” Leo called. “He is done.”
Frustration beat through Alec. This wasn’t over. His enemy would challenge him again, and again until he was dead. But he was the Jer’ol, the leader of the dragons. How could he expect others to follow the ancient ways if he did not?
Alec released his enemy and leaped off his body. In a soul-trembling quiver, he changed back to his human form. His rational human mind exerted welcome control over the beast.
In his human form, Ambrogino cowered, looking pathetic. It was an act.
The Siberians hurried forward to help him to his feet.
“All of you, on your knees before your Jer’ol.” Alec’s chest throbbed, and hot sticky blood wept from his chest wound. He didn’t feel the pain, just fury at the missed kill.
The group fell to their knees and bent their heads.
“Do you swear to adhere to the ancient ways, swearing loyalty to me as your Jer’ol?”
“Yes, Jer’ol,” everyone chorused.
Alec surveyed the group for any dissention—none so much as lifted their head to look at him. “The Siberians may join the ceremony,” Alec said. There was a murmur of excitement through the group. Siberian, or Russian, or African…every dragon alive wanted to find his mate. “First sign of trouble and all of you will be banished. Police yourselves if you have a hope for your lineage.”
Ambrogino regarded him with a pleased smile that made Alec’s skin crawl. He was beaten. He had just pledged his loyalty publicly.
Why did he appear so content?
Chapter Fourteen
“Do you like the name Lilly Belle?” Lucy hurried beside the Viking, taking two steps for the tall woman’s every one.
“It’s my name.” Lilly Belle glanced at her.
“I know, but do you prefer something else?”
They strode across the casino floor toward the gem exhibit. Lilly Belle grabbed her arm and stopped her when they came to a branching hall. She looked both ways, like a crossing guard, and then pulled Lucy forward.
“Do you have a nickname or something?” Lucy said.
Lilly Belle glanced down at her. “Yes.”
Okey dokey. She only asked because she didn’t want to know.
Ahead of them, a short-haired woman stood between the guards watching the sealed gem exhibit. As they drew closer, Lucy saw that the woman had something in her hand, something big and metallic.
“Is that a sword?” Lucy asked. “How can you have a sword in here?”
“Thank you, Mia,” Lilly Belle said to the woman and pulled the sword blade, checking the edge before sheathing it and unbuckling the harness straps. It was a sword, real and deadly, with honed steel and a three-inch wide blade. The two dark-suited guards did not react, but stood as still as the Beefeaters at the Buckingham Palace.
“I thought it was illegal to carry weapons in a casino?” Lucy whispered.
The new woman grimaced at her like she had grown two heads. “The human?” The brunette had a slight accent. She reached for Lucy’s right hand and examined the stamp, then muttered a foreign-sounding expletive.
Lilly Belle answered in the same singsong language.
Lucy pulled her hand back and cradled it over her stomach. She knew five languages, including Latin. Their words did not sound Nordic, or Russian, and definitely not Italian. “What language are you speaking?”
The dark-haired woman shook her head. “Be careful, Lil,” she said before she turned and left.
“Lil,” Lucy said, glad to grab onto a safe topic. “Your nickname is Lil. It fits.”
Lilly Belle buckled the sword’s leather harness to her chest.
“You’re like the Beatles song. ‘Her name was MacGill, she called herself Lil, but everyone knew her as Nancy…’”
“You like the Beatles?” Lil gave her a surprised look when Lucy nodded. “They’re a little old for you, aren’t they?”
“Are you kidding? The Beatles are timeless. My Mom and Dad used to dance to them, before my Dad went away…”
It was one of the best childhood memories she and Joey had. Lucy could still remember her parents moving all the living room furniture and dancing to songs from their youth after dinner. Lucy relished the bittersweet memory and heard again in her head the tinny tunes of The Long and Winding Road. Their Mom had giggled at Dad’s off-key baritone. He always sang along. He knew every song, and every single word.
They had been a family then. They had been happy.
Little did they all know, the winding road would soon dead-end.
Next to them, a uniformed staff member pushed a cleaning cart toward the bathroom. Lucy watched the cart with unfocused eyes, her mind still in the past. A wheel squeaked on the cart, and Lucy focused on the janitor.
Joey smiled back at her and blew her a kiss.
Joey. Her breath stuck in her throat and her mind careened out of the past and into her present pile of shit-o-la. “I need to use the restroom,” she said to Lil. Her voice sounded shaky, but Lil didn’t seem to notice.
“I’ll go with you.”
“Can’t a girl do anything alone?”
“No.” Lil seemed unfazed. “I need to stay with you at all times.”
Lucy walked to the restroom with Lil at her side. She stopped beside Joey, who was straightening the supplies on his cart. What a joke. He wouldn’t know how to clean a bathroom if his life depended on it.
“You done in there?” she asked him.
“Yes, ma’am.” The way he said the word ma’am with two syllables and a fake southern drawl got her hackles up. What were he and Gino planning now?
“What kind of cleaning are you doing?” The question sounded rather obvious since he was outside the bathrooms, but Joey would know what she meant.
Lil frowned and crossed her arms. “I thought you had to go?”
“I do.” Lucy glared at Joey. “I’m just so curious about the cleaning.”
Joey grinned. “Just double checking everything, making sure it’s all ready to go.”
Ready to go. Dammit, they must have gotten new keycard somehow. “When do you finish your cleaning?”
Lil shifted beside her impatiently.
“I’ve got a long shift today,” Joey said. “I don’t get done ‘til midnight.”