I looked to Davin, who looked...annoyed. Thank fuck. He glared up at Tadhg. “You burned my favorite jacket, you absolute arsehole.”
He lunged forward, balling up his fist and planting it in Tadhg’s belly. The dragon hunched a bit, clearly affected by the force of the blow—understandable, since I’d seen Davin lay vampires out with a single punch.
But then, Tadhg drew himself back up and stepped forward, using both hands to shove Davin back, and my boyfriend went fucking flying.
I spun to see as he crashed into the stone wall next to the door where we’d entered the room, then slumped to the floor.Still breathing, I assured myself. Tadhg hadn’t touched his skin or drained him. He’d just...fuck, he was strong.
Twist joined us then, dropping a gun from her mouth, apparently a trophy she’d brought back from one of the fake soldiers she’d hunted down. “There are dozens of dragons in these cages, Father. Rows of them.”
Tadhg grinned at her. “You mean my lovely machine?” he asked. No, not quite asked. Wheezed, while holding his gut.
Apparently Davin had hurt him more than had been immediately apparent.
He backed up two paces, and I thought maybe he was thinking about running away. That was good. If he ran away, I could go check on Davin. That was more important than?—
He reached the end of the first cells, a stone divider between them, and reached up to brush his fingers across a panel there.
Two buttons.
One red, one black.
He grinned at me, as he slammed his hand down on the red button. Then he turned to the woman in the cage. The one who’d set off the alarm. “Betraying my grandson to me, Shella, really. Unforgivable. Even if I’m going to kill him myself, you had no right. Every member of the line of Tadhg is more important than any of you pathetic wishful lizards.”
Inside the cell, the woman screamed and...fuck. Fuck me. It was the same as the human he’d drained of life with his bare hands a moment earlier, but somehow even worse. She trembled and collapsed and then, after a moment, literally fell into dust.
When Twist threw herself at him a second later, I almost screamed, terrified for my kitten. A thought proven valid when he hit her so hard I heard ribs snapping, even though she’d latched onto his wrist and sunk her teeth in deep.
When he hit her again, she let go with a yowl and snapped her teeth at him again. But she did fall back next to me. Twist was injured. My Twist.
Tadhg looked at the panel across from him—the one that would allow him to do the same thing to the man we’d been talking to, and I realized...he was considering it.
He wasn’t clutching his belly anymore. Stealing the woman’s entire life force had healed the damage Davin had done, and then Twist had done more, so he was contemplating another murder.
Twist seemed to realize this as well, as she stepped forward, a low growl in her throat, and her back legs bunched, ready to lunge at him. They leapt at the same time, and she knocked him slightly off course, so he only managed to hit the lower, black button.
I half hoped it was a release mechanism, but I wasn’t naive enough to expect that. No, the man in the cage collapsed just like Sexton had when drained.
One button for murder and one for plain old draining energy.
Without missing a beat, Tadhg fell to the ground, caught himself, and turned to breathe fire at Twist.
She gave a yelp and fell back toward the other end of the hall, limping, one paw held close to her chest.
Tadhg turned back to me, his grin gone wild and near-manic. “I can do this all day. Your beast wasn’t wrong, each cell but two has a dragon in it. Each one, I can drain for healing. For strength. How many other dragons have to die for me to stop you, boy?”
CHAPTER 32
That?
That seriously pissed me the fuck off.
“What are you, some kind of pathetic domestic abuser?” I asked him. “Are you suggesting I’m forcing you to be a monster? No one can force you to be evil. You choose that yourself. You gave Albert that artifact that aged him and made him smell like he wasn’t even a dragon. You imprisoned people. You’re the one who’s done all of this.”
He spun around, taking three steps back to bring himself in front of the next set of cages, then motioned to the people in them. One was already either unconscious or asleep, and the other was hunched in the back of their cell, clutching a pillow and cowering, clearly terrified. “Why don’t you ask them if they want your help? If they want you to continue on, even if it causes their deaths.”
The person holding a pillow, a woman, frowned at that, then turned to meet my eye. “Do it,” she said, her voice hoarse and dry. “Anything to stop him. All our lives.”
Tadhg bared his teeth at her, turned and rushed at the buttons on her panel. Twist interrupted him at the last minute,and he barely had a chance to tap the black button before she was on him.
