Chapter 15
“Smoky, oh my Smoky!” And like that, I slid down
to the floor, pressing against him, covering his face with kisses
as his hair gently wound around me. For a moment, I flinched,
memories of Hyto’s cruel strands surging forth. But then I forced
myself to relax as Smoky gently embraced me, pulling me to him. He
covered my forehead with kisses, pressed his lips against the welts
running across my cheeks, whispered my name against my mouth. Tears
streamed down his face out of those glacial eyes, as he gathered me
by the shoulders and held me back, drinking me in.
“Camille, my love, my only love. What did my
father do to you? I wasn’t there to protect you—how can you ever
forgive me? How can I even ask you to forgive me?” And then he
slowly stopped, his gaze fixating on the collar. “No . . . no . . .
he did not . . .”
Jumping up, he stumbled back. “I will destroy
him. I will carve him to shreds. I will wingstrap him until he
screams for mercy, and then I’ll tighten the screws! Hyto will die,
painfully, in agony.” He stood there, panting, and a musky,
possessive odor rose off him like an aura made of ice. He was
trembling, and I could sense the energy he was using to repress his
rage.
The pain of his retreat was worse than anything
Hyto had inflicted on me. I slowly forced my way to my feet and
stood, staring at him. “Love, would you turn away from me because
of what your father did to me?”
Smoky stopped, frowned, and then understanding
crossed his face. “Oh my sweet. Oh, my love. I am not turning away
from you—no, never think that.” And he
opened his arms. “I’m just so angry.”
Painfully, I went to him, bit my lip as he
enfolded me in his embrace, pressing against the bruises. I didn’t
have a clue how dragon society felt about abused women, but I was
about to find out.
“You have to know . . . I have to tell you . . .
and Trillian . . . what he did to me. And I have to get this collar
off.” I tugged on it. “I hate it—I hate the feel of it. I hate
knowing he’s still got hold of me.”
Smoky examined it. “Damn him. He’s used a
cunning spell. I can’t break this, but . . . maybe . . . I know
someone who might be able to.” And then he glanced down as my robe
slipped off my shoulders. “Camille, what did he do to you?”
I stepped back and shrugged the sleeves up.
“I’ll tell you, but I need you to promise me you’ll remain calm. I
can’t handle any more stress right now. I really can’t. I feel like
I’m walking a tightrope as it is. I can handle what happened to me,
but only with your support.”
Trillian motioned to Smoky, patting the seat
next to him. “Dude, sit down.”
Trillian would get it—during the civil war in my
home city-state, he’d had been captured and raped by soldiers from
the other side. He’d managed to both escape and eviscerate them.
But his attackers had been Fae—mine, a dragon.
As Smoky headed for the sofa, the door to the
bedroom opened and Hanna peeked out. She took one look at him and
screamed, dropping to the ground and covering her head.
I rushed forward, cursing every painful step of
the way. “It’s okay—it’s okay—it’s not Hyto.” Falling to my knees
at her side, I gathered her in my arms. “Smoky . . . it’s Smoky—Hyto’s son. My
husband. He won’t hurt you.”
As we rocked together on the ground, Smoky let
out an impassioned groan, his expression racked in guilt.
“My father . . . that my father has caused such
terror.”
“Hyto captured Hanna and her son. He killed her
husband and locked her boy up in a box for five years.” I glanced
up at him. “Over that time, Hyto killed at least two dozen women.
Hanna had to clean up afterward . . . he forced her to bathe them
for him and then take them to their deaths on the threat of
torturing her son.”
Smoky motioned for me to stand. “Tell us now.
Tell me what he did to you. Show me what my father did to you.” His
gaze was deadly serious.
Delilah moved to help Hanna over to a chair as I
slowly stood. Swallowing my shame, I dropped the robe in the middle
of the floor, then slid the nightgown off my shoulders.
As it fell to the floor, Smoky and Trillian
stared at me. I knew they were seeing the marks on my stomach,
between my thighs—brilliant purples and black, deeply bruised, the
skin raw and abraded. Slowly, I turned around, moving my hair to
expose the long weals embedded deeply across my skin and the boot
prints that had slammed into my side when he kicked me.
While my back was turned, while I was staring at
the wall, I said, “Hyto raped me . . . as painfully as he could,
wherever he could find an opening. He meant
for it to hurt. He beat me, used me for furniture, forced me to
blow him . . . had me on the floor like a worm, groveling, calling
him Master. And he collared me like a dog.”
I rattled his sins off like a grocery list.
Keeping myself aloof from what had happened helped me cope with the
memories that flashed through my mind like a revolving door. As I
turned back to face them, I added, “Hyto taught me what it means to
fear. I want him dead.”
Meeting their gazes, I forced myself to stand
strong, even as a flood of emotions rushed through me. Delilah
stared at me, tears streaking down her face, but I realized I
couldn’t cry anymore. I’d cried myself out. Now I just felt a core
of white-hot rage beginning to build.
“I want him dead. And I
want it to hurt. I want him to hurt as much
as he hurt me. As he hurt Hanna. As he hurt his other
victims.”
Trillian slipped over to my left side, Smoky to
my right. They did not touch me, but knelt at my side, each taking
one of my hands.
“Oh, love, we will see to it,” Trillian
whispered. “I vow to you, I will not rest until your attacker is
dead.”
Smoky simply nodded. “Trillian’s correct,” he
said abruptly. “I give you my word, my love. My father will pay for
his sins with his life, and it will not be an easy out for
him.”
“We’d better get to planning then, because we
also have to rescue Chase. I will not allow him wander alone on the
astral while I can help. I refuse to let Hyto stop me from doing
what I need to do. And if what you say is true, Hyto will be
tracking me by this collar. I want it off. If it takes ripping his
still-beating heart out in my hands to do so, then that’s what I
will do.”
And my husbands—bless them—leaned in and kissed
the palms of my hands gently. And I knew they would do everything
in their power to see our enemy destroyed.
Sharah took me into the bedroom, along with
Hanna, to examine us and tend to our wounds. As she examined my
back, she said, “Do you know the one interesting thing about
this?”
“I don’t think any of it is interesting.” I wasn’t feeling particularly
chatty.
“You’ll want to know this. Your tattoos? They
were right in line with several of the blows, but neither tattoo
was touched. It’s obvious the chain landed along them, but where
your tattoos are, there is no mark—no wound.”
I raised my head. “Really?”
“So help me, yes.” She traced the lines
crisscrossing my back. “These will heal. You will have scars, but I
think I can minimize most of them. You’ll need to rest,
though—”
“I will rest when Hyto is dead and rotting. We
have a dragon to kill, and Chase to find.” I then told her
everything I could remember about seeing Chase on the astral. Even
though she tried to remain professional, I could see the relief
breaking in her eyes.
“I miss him so much. But Camille—you have to
rest. I can dress these, but if you use them too much, they may
tear open and scar—”
“Then color me marked. Menolly lives with her
scars, and so can I. And if I am scarred,
let it be a reminder that no man will ever touch me this way again.
Be he dragon, demon, or devil. I have to get out there again. I
have to see Hyto die. I can’t hide at home
or I’ll never be able to go out again. Do you understand?”
I turned to her, grabbing her wrist and leaning
forward. “Hyto taught me to fear in a way I’ve never, ever experienced. If I don’t conquer this,
I’ll have nothing left. I don’t have Menolly’s strength, or
Delilah’s athletic ability. All I have are a handful of spells,
some of which work when they have a whim to. I can’t let this beat
me. If I stay at home, cower in my room, Hyto will have won. I have
to exorcise him from my mind. I have to get him out of my
head.”
Hanna stood up. “Let her do as she will. Camille
is a brave young woman, and I thought sure Hyto would kill her the
first night. But she withstood his treatment and even managed to
drive him into a rage like no other I’ve seen. If she can come down
off that mountain with the wounds she has, then she can withstand
another battle.”
She turned to me. “You would make the Northmen
proud if you were one of us. You are a warrior woman in spirit, if
not in body. And spirit is often far stronger than muscle and
bone.”
Sharah let out a long sigh. “You’ll do as you
wish, of course. You three always do. All right, but at least let
me give you a painkiller. I have developed one that your system can
withstand.”
“Will it take me off my game?” I stared into her
eyes, challenging her. Flanked by my family, by Trillian and Smoky,
I found my courage returning, and I wanted to make them proud. I
wanted to make myself proud. I wanted to
prove that no pervert could cow me. The memory of groveling at
Hyto’s feet stung far more than the blows on my back or anything
else he’d done to me. “I have to be alert.”
Sharah nodded, and something told me she knew
what I was thinking and understood. “You won’t lose any speed with
this one. But it will help you move around without as much pain,
and so will the ointments I have for your wounds.”
“Then I will gratefully accept it.” I smiled
then, and she leaned in and hugged me as a sister might. “Do you
think Hyto might have given me a disease when he . . . when he . .
.”
Sharah bit her lip. “You’re pretty bruised up
down there. I can give you a potion to dispel any disease he might
have. I’ve never had the opportunity to treat a dragon for wounds,
let alone an STD. So I don’t really know.”
“I hate asking Smoky about it—just another
reminder of what Hyto did to me. To us. But
I’d better take the potion, just in case.” I kicked the ground,
wincing as the blow ricocheted through my leg muscles. “Damned
devil.”
“We all have our devils . . . yours is just
larger than most,” she whispered as I downed the bottle of pink
liquid she pressed into my hand. “Here, drink this for the pain.
And if you need to talk, I’m here. You know that, don’t you?”
“Yeah,” I said softly. “If Hyto is my devil,
then he’s going to find himself on the wrong end of the
pitchfork.”
After she treated me, Sharah turned her attention
to Hanna and I rejoined the others in the living room. Delilah
motioned me toward the kitchen and, managing to convince Smoky and
Trillian that I’d be all right without them joined to my hip, I
followed her into the warm, cozy room.
As I slid into one of the distressed kitchen
chairs, wincing, she pushed a sandwich in front of me. “You need to
regain your strength. Eat more.”
“Yes, ma’am.” I pulled the sandwich to me—peanut
butter and jelly? Since when did Smoky eat peanut butter?
As she sat down, staring at me, I felt my
reserve slipping. “Camille . . . what do you need? You’ve always
been here for us, and now it’s our turn. Whatever you need, just
ask.”
She leaned forward and picked up a potato chip
off the plate, lifting it to my lips. I obediently opened my mouth
and accepted the crisp, chewing slowly as I thought over her
question. What did I need? My emotions were
racing between heartbroken and furious.
I let out a sigh and put down the sandwich as
she stood and poured me a glass of milk. “What do I need? What I
need is for none of this to have happened. But it did, and now I
need to figure out how to cope with it. My emotions are all over
the board. I haven’t had time to process what’s happened. Hyto . .
. he humiliated me, Delilah. I can withstand a lot of things, but
that—no. He stripped me of my dignity, and he hurt me.”
“How . . . how are you going to handle what he .
. . the . . .”
I shrugged. “Rape isn’t about sex—it’s about
wielding power. I know that much, and I refuse to let him destroy
my passion. I won’t let him take that away from me. But the pain .
. . the beatings . . . I’ve never experienced pain like that
before. And you know I’ve been hurt a lot since we came over
Earthside. I’m not as quick or physically as strong as you and
Menolly. The pain scared me.”
Delilah bit her lip, then leaned forward. “You
will get through this. It’s your nature, Camille. But whenever you
need to vent, just tell me—or Menolly—and we’ll be there for you.
If you need to scream in the woods, or beat up on some stupid
troll, we’ll find you what you need and let you whop ass on
it.”
I sucked in a long, deep breath and let it out
with a shudder. “I thought I’d met evil before, but he is evil like
. . . like Karvanak was—only less reasonable and far more
dangerous. He’s a sadist. He drinks deep from the pain of others.
And he’s jealous—he’s so jealous of Smoky.”
“It’s sad when a father can’t rejoice in the
joys of his children.” Delilah frowned. “At least Smoky didn’t kill
Vanzir. We thought he was going to, but when we found out you’d
been captured, he went wild. He totally blames himself for it—if he
hadn’t yelled at you and told you to get out of his sight, you
wouldn’t have gone walking in the woods and been captured.”
“I already had a talk with Vanzir about that.
Smoky’s going to have to get over it. I don’t have the energy to
soothe his fears. And whatever happened, there’s nothing we can do
about it now. The important thing is that we pull together. I
notice they’re in the same room out there and there’s been no
bloodshed. That’s a good thing so far.”
I finished my sandwich and flexed my hands,
except for my finger held rigid by a splint. They were about the
only part of me that didn’t hurt, aside from the fractured bone.
But Sharah’s salve had worked wonders, and the pain was muted. As
was the queasiness and my fatigue. Whatever was in that little vial
was a wonder drug as far as I was concerned.
“We have to get over to the astral and find
Chase. He seems to be able to home in on my energy field—we have
similar sparks in our auras and I think he’s going to end up
wielding some interesting magic in the future.”
“Are you sure you’re up to it?” Delilah cocked
her head, giving me a skeptical look.
“Keeping busy is the only thing that will save
my sanity right now. I can’t sit here forever, worried that Hyto is
going to come barreling down on me. Come on, let’s see if Smoky can
take us over with him.”
I pushed back from my chair, then stared down at
my nightgown and robe. “I guess I’d better get dressed first,
huh?”
She laughed, and her laughter felt good as it
rang through the air. “Yeah, somehow I don’t think those are
fighting clothes.”
“You said it, not me.” I forced a smile to my
lips and we headed into the other room. “I keep clothes out here
for when we come to stay. Hold on and I’ll be right out.”
As I entered the bedroom, I saw that Hanna was
back in bed, asleep. Sharah motioned me to the side. “She’s
malnourished and exhausted and has a nasty case of asthma. I’ve got
her on meds, and she’ll need to rest for a couple of weeks at
least.”
I nodded, quietly plundering the closet for a
skirt, bustier, and jacket. I longed for my unicorn horn—until we
killed Hyto, it was the only thing that might stand between me and
the dragon.
As I returned to the living room, the others
were gathered together, discussing the best place to approach Hyto.
I motioned for Delilah to lace me up.
“Are you sure that’s wise? That corset is
tight.” She pulled on the laces and I let out a gasp of pain.
“It will help. I checked with Sharah. The
support will ease my bruised ribs even though it makes the
lacerations on my back hurt.” I held up my hand. “Not much is going
to help this little bugger but time, though.”
Being back in my own clothes, among my family, I
began to relax just a little. It would take time to heal, but as I
glanced around from face to face, I knew that with their help I’d
be back in control sooner than later.
“Chase was stronger than I’ve ever seen him. He
had no clue how he’d gotten out on the astral, but the fact is he
managed it.”
Delilah let out a long sigh. “Smoky’s the only
one here who can reach the astral. He can’t take all of us. If Roz
were here, but he’s not . . .”
“I can take three,” Smoky said, “which means
Delilah, Camille, and Trillian. Vanzir—” Here he stopped, again
staring coldly at the demon.
Vanzir met his gaze, but did not challenge him.
“Truce holds?”
Enough of this crap. I stood up.
“Both of you—listen to me. I don’t want to have
to say this again. I’ve had enough of feeling responsible for the
hostility between you. So right now, it ends. No more. No more
fighting. What happened between Vanzir and me happened. It
shouldn’t have, but it did. We were both injured by the
aftereffects. It’s over. Done. He’s been drained of his powers, and
I ended up as Hyto’s plaything. We’ve both been hurt. So, Smoky,
you have to stop. You have to stop
this.”
Smoky sputtered, but I shook my head. “No. Just
. . . no. I want you two to shake hands and
apologize to each other.”
Vanzir let out a long breath. “I don’t do
apologies easily, but I am sorry for this. I’m mostly sorry to
Camille—it was she whom I hurt. But Smoky, my apologies to you,
too. Whatever it takes to be on the same side again.”
I turned to Smoky. “I’m waiting,” I said,
tapping my boot. I’d had enough of petty fights.
My dragon rolled his eyes. “Whatever you wish,
my love. Vanzir, I remove my threats to dismember you. But remember
this: Once was an accident. Twice—”
“Yeah, yeah, the big bad dragon will tear me to
shreds.” Vanzir waved him away, but then his gaze fell on me and he
sobered. “I’m sorry. I just realized . . .”
I bit my lip. I had to make a choice. Either I
could let this drag me down, or I could soldier on. And regardless
of his feelings toward me now, I’d been born and raised a soldier’s
daughter and I still had that sense of honor. We didn’t have time
for me to wallow. I’d have to wait until downtime for revisit
hell.
“Then let’s get busy. Until we know what we’re
going to do about Hyto, we go on as usual, except I live out here
because with this collar, once Smoky’s father decides to come
finish me off, I’ll be a moving target and I won’t put our house in
danger.”
“We can just transfer all the operations out
here for now. Menolly can sleep in the barrow during the
day—there’s no chance for sunlight to reach some of the caverns
here.” Delilah leaned back in her chair. “We can leave a skeleton
crew of Asteria’s guards at the house. But we bring everybody else
out here just in case Hyto decides to destroy our house out of
spite.”
I frowned. “If you think so . . .”
Smoky nodded. “There are labyrinths in the lower
chambers—Menolly and Maggie can hide down there. I’ve actually got
a well-lit living area down there, where the light of day never
touches. You can’t see it from up here.”
“Then go outside and give Iris a call. Have them
start moving things over.” One worry off my list. “Meanwhile,
Smoky, you, Trillian, Delilah, and I are going hunting for Chase on
the astral. Vanzir and Roz, you take Shamas and go home. Do what
you can to help Iris get ready.”
As I stood up, I turned to Sharah. “Can you stay
with Hanna? I don’t want her waking up and freaking out because
we’re gone.”
“No problem,” she said. “Duties at headquarters
are pretty light right now.” She paused, then whispered, “When you
find Chase . . . tell him I’m . . . waiting for him.”
Delilah let out a soft sigh. “I’ll tell him,
Sharah. I know he’ll be happy to hear it.”
And that was it. We were on the move again—me
with a broken finger and a bruised and battered body. But it felt
good to be in action again. I’d had my fill of being on the other
end of the stick.