Page 43 of Red Dragon’s Heart

“What, you’re my mother now?”

She didn’t know whether to smack him or feel sorry for him. She could tell by the song he’d been singing that he was lonely and hurting. Maybe even scared that she’d fail. He’d pinned all his hopes on finding her, and on her being able to reverse what had been done to him.

If she couldn’t, he’d have no hope left.

No one could blame him for having mixed emotions. But why couldn’t he, just once, admit how he felt instead of being a total jerk?

“No, I’m not your mother,” she said. Being around him made her feel anything but motherly. “I’m supposed to be your partner in this craziness. And partners should be able to talk to each other. To be honest, I’m trying really hard to figure out how to fix what Larkin did to you, and I’m scared to death I can’t.”

“Yeah, because then I’ll probably get pissed off and my dragon will eat you. Sucks for you.”

Now she was the one getting pissed off.

“Is it so hard to believe I actually care about what happened to you? That I might even care about you?”

“What? You caring about the inhuman monster?”

He was totally impossible. Like a feral cat hiding under the shed—needing warmth and safety and affection—maybe even wanting it—and then swiping at you with its claws when you tried to give it.

“If you don’t want me to think you’re a monster,” she said, “why do you keep trying to pretend you are one? I saw inside your head last night. You have feelings and fears, like everyone else. And you have people you care about. Those other boys, that were with you when you were wearing that collar. And what about the little girl, who drew the picture on your desk? Kay-kay?”

There was complete silence for a breath, and his hands tightened on the top of the concrete parapet so hard that a piece of it crumbled away. The vibe coming off him turned to simmering rage, like someone had let loose a volcano that might erupt any moment.

He whirled on her, his eyes glowing in the darkness. “Don’t talk about her. You, of all people, do not get to talk about her.”

Fear washed through her. Fear of that rage, and of the possible, unthinkable meaning behind his words.

“No,” she whispered. “The monster—it didn’t hurt her, did it?” Or worse. Please, no.

“It was just pure dumb fucking luck that it didn’t.”

She backed off a step, putting a hand to her mouth in horror, but his hand shot out and grabbed her forearm with a grip like iron.

“You want to crawl inside my nightmares with me? You didn’t get enough of that last night? Buckle up, sweetheart.” His voice was harsh with fury, and his fingers dug into her arm with bruising force.

“Kay-kay is Princess Kendra, the daughter of my clan leader. She’s four—no, five now. She calls me Uncle Zak, but she always said it ‘Unka Zak.’” He shook his head, an almost-smile touching his face. “Always looked so damn innocent, all dimples and little swishy pony tails, but she’s a total hellion.” He sounded proud of that—of her.

“I used to take care of her sometimes, while her mother worked.” And he adored her—it was all over his face. “She loved to draw me pictures. The one downstairs was the last one she ever drew me.”

“What happened?”

“The fucking monster happened,” he said, the anger returning to his voice. “After I recovered from the first effects of the serum, I went back home to the Al-Maddeiri territory. We thought I would be okay—dragons are immune to almost everything that affects humans and other shifters. Nobody anticipated that the monster would keep coming out, or how strong it would be. Or how it would react to other dragons.”

The rage coming off him was rising. Maddie instinctively tried to back up, but he was still holding on to her, making her listen.

“The first day I was out of isolation, Kendra found me and came running up to me like she does, wanting to show me something. The monster burst out of me and tried to rip that little girl to pieces.”

Oh, god. Please say it hadn’t hurt her. “But it didn’t?”

“Only because what she wanted to show me was that she’d just learned to Change into her dragon. She was able to do it fast enough to fly out of my reach.”

Maddie went limp with relief. “So she was okay, then?”

His eyes burned with emotion. “Sure,” he ground out. “Everything was just fucking peachy. They locked me up until I Changed back, and then I got out of there. I can’t be around the clan without wanting to kill people. I can’t be around other shifters. I can’t be around Kendra. Even when I’m alone, the monster still tries to take over. All the fucking time. Something always sets it off.”

“We’ll fix it, Zak,” she said. “I swear. I’ll find a way.”

He flung her arm down and turned away. “You can’t fix everything you broke, Madeleine. I haven’t even talked to anyone from the clan since I left. What the hell could I say? Some of them try to send me messages, but I haven’t had a single word from King Emon since that day. He’s done with me. And Kendra will never forgive me.”