Page 39 of Defy Me

Brothers, Oh Brother

"Yvaine, get behind me." Jett shoved the stool he was sitting on over and stood in front of her. The shimmer of black light that preceded his shift into dragon form swirled around him. She placed her hand on his back making sure he knew she was there and safe for the time being. He growled low in his throat. "What spell has Ereshkigal cast on you brother? If you think you can touch Yvaine, I will send you back to hell myself."

The other people who had been in the shop with them were long gone, smart enough to know trouble when they saw it. The sun had set outside and the street was dark. Too dark. The shadows inside the shop grew and Yvaine clung closer to Jett. She was tired of all the fighting, of having to battle another creature every other minute.

Was this the kind of life Jett led on a daily basis? She had to put a stop to it if it was. He couldn't live a real life this way. She slipped out from behind Jett, under his arm when he tried to stop her and held out her hand to the other man. "Hi. I'm Yvaine. I don't really know how everything works here in the paranormal world, I'm kind of new, but I think you're maybe my new brother-in-law."

The man hissed and stepped back from her. Jett yanked her away. "Don't touch him. He tried to kill you."

"When? No, he's too good looking to be a killer. Besides he's your brother, so there has to be some good in him." She understood there was good and evil in this world, but she had a hard time believing that most creatures would choose to harm, maim, and kill as Jett and the other dragon warriors had described that the demon dragons did. Besides. Jett thought he could somehow save them. If it was a curse that kept them from being their true selves, it wasn't their fault if they'd had to be creepy minions to the baddies of hell.

"Yesterday," he snapped. "I can not vouch for his actions if he's under a dark spell and being controlled by Ereshkigal or the Black Dragon. We need to get you out of here before he alerts the Annunaki."

"I'm no longer connected to them. I can however still feel our brethren being tortured by the curse. The one you promised us you would break. You've betrayed us all for her, haven't you?" The man bared his teeth at Yvaine and his eyes went from black to red. A fire similar to Jett's burned in his pupils.

Yikes. Except those fires were angry and they were directed at her. She didn't understand why he had his mad on or why he thought Jett had betrayed him. Pretty much from the beginning Jett had made it clear his goal was to save his brothers. The only time he'd relented even a little was for sexy times. If this guy knew how awesome doing the deed was, he wouldn't hold that against Jett, surely.

"I have not betrayed you. She's the key to breaking the curse. She will lead us to a unicorn and it's blood will free all the demon dragons under Erishkigal's spell."

"Why do we need unicorn's blood, when we have hers? Let us rend her limb from limb and feed her to any demon dragon who wants free of the demon bond. Then together we can rise up and overthrow the AllFather."

Umm. How about they didn't do that. Yvaine really didn't want to sacrifice something as cool as a unicorn. She was still crossing her fingers they would only need a few drops and the creature would be all happy to give it to them since it could help save the world and all.

"I will never sacrifice her. We do not even know what kind of being she is or if her contact with you is what broke the spell. The First Dragon himself has given us the means to find the unicorn. He confirmed its blood will break any curse. Our brethren need not wait much longer for the revolution."

"We have waited long enough. You can go in search of something none of us even know exists or not. I will take the girl. Her body alone will break the curse for at least a dozen more demon dragon. Maybe more. We will have to see how much of her blood each needs. I held her heart in my hands. Hopefully that was more than enough."

"Do. Not. Touch. Her."

The demon dragon man didn't listen. Nope. He shifted into a big black dragon that filled the entire tiny fish and chips shop with its giant butt.

Jett also shifted and his body broke the wall behind him. They were going to be in so much trouble. Yvaine could already hear the neener-neener of sirens headed their way.

"Jett, sit on me."

Run, love. Run to the abbey. Find the unicorn.

"Sit on me right now. I'll be trapped and we'll zap out of here. Then you don't have to fight your brother."

You're not going anywhere, little beast.The other dragon swiped at her with its claws and she avoided him by taking a dive toward the wall. She clocked her head on the broken bricks and little birdies and stars floated around her head.

That made Jett fricking explode. Or maybe that was all in her head because she suddenly couldn't see him or the other dragon anymore. The bricks and tables and chairs disappeared and instead of sitting on the tile floor of the shop, she found herself in the grass outside some sort of castle mansion looking building.

Aw, fudge. She'd Houdini'd without Jett.

She pushed herself off the ground and tried to see if she could hear him in her head.Jett?

Nothing but the insects chirping. Fine. She'd just had to figure out where she was and get back to the beach. They hadn't gone more than a couple of miles the last time she'd done this, so she was hoping the same would be true again. She pulled the map out of the pocket of her pants and scanned for a castle. Aha. There was one. Palace of Holyroodhouse.

Oh. A shiver raised the hair on the back of her neck and skated down her arms. The Holyrood Abbey was just on the other side of the palace. That was where Mr. Bohacek had indicated on the map that she should go to find the unicorn. She was no more than two minutes away from finding it. She could go, ask it nicely for a couple drips of blood, and know who she was, what she was.

Would she remember who her family was too? What had happened to her or them or both that had landed her in an orphanage? Maybe the unicorn would know. Did unicorn's talk? Dragons did, so possibly.

But what if this was a once in a lifetime kind of a deal. She should go back and get Jett so they could also ask for some blood to break the curse on his brothers. Jett hadn't told her much, only that he planned to save them. But from what the angry demon dragon dude had said, cursed life was literally hell.

Finding the unicorn now on her own was selfish. She'd wanted to know her whole life why no one was there for her, and deep down, why no one had loved her. That wasn't the same level of horribleness as being enslaved to a witch and a king of hell dragon. She could wait. The beach was only maybe an hour walk away. Probably ten minutes if she could find a cab. She would go back and find Jett, tell his brother she knew where the unicorn was and come back.

Maybe just a quick peek at the abbey first to make sure she knew what she was talking about. No going in and definitely no looking for unicorns. She jogged through the grass of the small park that surrounded the palace and got the strangest sense of deja vu. She was sure that she'd recognize what lay beyond the next corner. She'd run through this park before. Growing up.

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