Jessup gestured for Kade to step away. He didn’t want to, but he relinquished control. While they Catalyzed and worked on healing Violet, Kade watched and paced. Damn, he was so tense, he saw light flashing out of the corner of his eye.
Flashes. He focused on their origin. Smitty. Hell. The man was perched on a lower branch snapping away with his camera. He’d seen it all, Ferro and Violet and maybe even Drakos.
Smitty climbed down from the tree and took off. Kade raced through the woods after him, catching up quickly. Smitty was terrified, looking behind him, tripping on roots the way people did in horror films. He fell, sprawling out on the ground, and Kade crouched over him.
Smitty rolled to his side and screamed. “Who are you people? What are you people?”
Kade grabbed hold of him by his bony shoulders and waved his hands over Smitty’s bulging eyes. Green light emanated from his palms, washing over the man’s face.
“You don’t want to come back to this property anymore,” Kade said in a calm, low voice. He wanted to throttle the guy for taking him away from Violet. “There are no Dragons here, no gator apes, no supernatural creatures at all.”
Smitty nodded, his eyes blank. Deuces couldn’t implant memories the way Caidos could, but he could suggest things.
“You will go directly home and give up your quest. Understand?”
“Yes.”
“You saw nothing out of the ordinary, other than a lightning strike that came out of the blue and hit you.” Kade took his camera, sending enough magick to short out the circuitry and fry the memory chip. Then he handed it back. “Go now.”
The man walked casually, as though he hadn’t just seen Dragons fighting. Kade ran back to Violet.
Mia was there now. How had he missed her? She searched his face. “Kade?”
He passed her, though, focusing on Violet, who was still on the ground, flanked by her brothers. They were all in Dragon form now, her brothers Breathing into her. He felt so damned helpless. He looked up to the tree where he’d shot down her rope. The seared end swung in a breeze, the rest of it lay coiled on the ground. Gods, he’d almost killed her. He clutched his head as more pieces came together.
“Kade, are you all right?” Mia asked.
“Stop bugging me, sis. I’m going to be fine. I’m worried about Vee right now.”
She smiled. “You kinda sounded like the real Kade just then.”
The real Kade. Who was he, anyway? More memories came together. The one who slid down banisters and flouted the rules? The one who lived to be a Vega?
Violet mumbled something, though her eyes were closed. Jessup and Ryan stood, Catalyzing to human again.
“We need to get her inside.” Jessup leaned down to Violet. “Catalyze back to human, Vee.”
She mumbled again, shaking her head.
Kade knelt beside her and gently shook her arm. “Come back to human, babe. That’s an order.”
She became a naked and dirt-smudged woman, hard scales morphing to soft skin. Her brothers moved in, but Kade scooped her up in his arms. “I’ve got her.” He had her, and he’d never let her go.
He could scarcely keep his eyes off her as he walked into the house and laid her on the couch. The bedroom was a mess. The whole place smelled like marinara sauce.
“Turn off the stove burners,” he said to Mia.
He pulled the blanket down from the back of the couch and laid it over Violet. She wasn’t trembling anymore. Her brothers’ healing Breath had erased the cuts on her face and body.
He sank down beside her. Memories twisted around one another. He held her hand, stroking her fingers, and let them come. The recent past was the clearest. Why the hell they were in the mud naked and making love, that he’d like to know.
She opened her eyes, but it seemed to take a few moments to get her focus. She smiled, soft and sweet. Her eyes were hazy, like she’d woken from a long, deep sleep.
“Kade?”
“Yeah, babe.”
That made her smile even more. “Are you really back?”
