“What?” Dragon raged through his voice, unmistakable and threatening, drowning out my somewhat breathless yell for help.
“I’m very sorry, sir, but there’s a visitor who refuses to leave, and when he gave me his card, I thought perhaps you might like to see him.”
There was a brief pause, during which I filled my lungs again, ready to yell more loudly this time, but waiting first to see what this was about.
Impossibly, James Fortescue laughed. “Of course it is,” he said. “Leave us, and send him up.”
I was still trying to figure out what was happening when the door was closed once more.
“You okay?” Alex asked me. “You’re bleeding.”
As James Fortescue returned to his chair and carefully sat down, tension in every line of his body, I put my hand gingerly to my nose. At least it felt like it was still nose-shaped rather than the flat pancake I was expecting.
And then the door opened.
ALEX
An old gentleman entered the room, carrying a cane, though he didn’t appear to need it. He stopped a few paces in and glanced around, no doubt seeing the smashed lamp, the blood on the rug, and Steven on the phone, gesticulating and shouting. His gaze rested on Nate for an instant.
“Do clean yourself up, Nate.” His gaze moved over me towards James, and then he looked back at me. He examined me as if I were a bug on a pin, raising an eyebrow slightly before concentrating once more on James.
“James.” I could read nothing from the newcomer’s tone or stance. For all I could tell, he could have been out for a Sunday stroll.
“Abimelech.”
I finally realised that this was Nate’s infamous grandfather. So did Steven, it appeared, because he swiftly ended his call and stood staring at Bim from under lowered brows. Almost as if he were about to rush him.
“I’d ask to what I owe the pleasure, but I suspect I already know.” James waved to a seat and Bim took it. He was smaller-framed than James and immaculately dressed, down to the silk square in the breast pocket of his suit. There was no mistaking that he was one hundred per cent dragon.
“We’re taking back only what you stole, plus a little extra for our time and the inconvenience,” Bim said. “I’d be within my rights to demand additional reparation, but there are more important matters in play.”
My eyebrows rose as I wondered what could be more important to a dragon than gathering treasure.
“I speak for the Swifts, the Carews and the Mortimers. As three of the first four dragon families, we are in agreement that your recent behaviour has been unacceptable.” He gave a wintry smile. “You’ll understand that is an understatement. What Nate had to tell me about your younger son attempting to hook your eldest on drugs was, if you’ll forgive the cliché, the last straw.”
“Steven?” James's fingers clenched on the arms of his chair, and his expression should have had Steven bursting into flames on the spot.
Steven paled under his burning regard. “I don’t know what he’s—”
“Silence!”
I was glad Mr Taylor was a floor away, because the dragon in James’s command was unmistakable. Close enough to a bugle to have me and Nate stiffening at the threat.
Bim showed no sign of intimidation. “Your inability to control your family almost put every dragon at risk. We require you to deal with your younger son in a way we deem acceptable, or we will do so. Nonetheless, you will bedraco non gratafrom this point onwards.” He smoothed an imaginary speck of lint from his trousers and stood. “Nate, you’ll come with me.”
Nate staggered when he got to his feet. I was instantly beside him, my arm round his waist, steadying him. “What’s wrong with you?” his grandfather asked.
“He”—I pointed at Steven—“drugged him.”
I was very glad I wasn’t Steven Fortescue. The look Bim turned on him was ice-cold and contained so much threat that my arm tightened around Nate.
“I’ll add that to the account,” Bim said.
James Fortescue was even paler than Steven. His power and assurance gone, he looked suddenlyold and ill.
“Abimelech,” he said. “May we speak privately?”
Bim looked thoughtfully down at his highly polished shoes before returning James’s gaze. “We may.”
