Page 268 of Dragon Slayer

“That’s – that’s not at all what I meant!” her dad protested. “It’s just – I only meant that – Prince Valerian is a criminal!” His voice went shrill, trying to convince them all.

Vlad reached for his wine and said, “My brother was locked up for killing me. But I’m not dead, am I?”

“Well…” Dad said, helpless.

“When we are finished eating,” Vlad said with finality, “I will take you to see him.”

Mia’s stomach flipped, and she reached for her silverware.

~*~

Mia couldn’t decide if her father was frightened of Vlad, or merely trying to butter him up to encourage his cooperation. Probably both.

For her own part, she settled on thoroughly intimidated, but unwilling to show it. (Or, okay, unwilling to showtoo muchof it.) But she wasn’t afraid. Not really. Maybe she should have been. But she’d spent her life studying animals, and nothing about Vlad’s tone, or posture, or hard to read glances suggested that he intended to harm her.

After dinner, he led her through a stunning library and into a sleek, modern elevator. When the doors slid shut, closing them in together, their reflections stared back at them: strange at best. Her, tired and wilting, and him, implacable and steely.

It was silent a long, tense moment, as the car started its descent. Then Vlad said, “My brother’s life has been…difficult.”

“That seems like a massive understatement.”

He snorted and it sounded like agreement. “Your father–” he started.

“Is an asshole,” she finished. “I’m not here for Dad, or for me. I’m here for Val.” She turned to face him, rather than the reflected image of him, and thought he might be holding back a smile.

He took his time in returning her glance. “He cares for you,” he said. “That much I gleaned the last time I spoke with him. And that means he trusts you.”

A fluttering in her chest.

“I neither know you, nor care for you. And I don’t trust you,” he said, flatly, and the fluttering died down. “But you don’t smell like a liar.”

She swallowed. “That’s something you can smell?”

“Sometimes.” He faced forward again with an air of dismissal, but said, “If you love my brother, you’ll do as I say when I say it.”

She bristled.

“Hush, child. You don’t know what I know. Or what I’m planning. If you love him, you won’t hurt him.”

She forced a deep, slow breath. “I wouldneverhurt him.”

The elevator arrived with a quiet ding. Just before the doors slid open, he said, “Good.”

~*~

Vlad had put him back in the cell, but he’d left off the cuffs, and collar, and chains. The bars were silver, but there were gaps, and through those, Val could feel it when she arrived.

He was lounging back on his cot, one leg drawn up, arm resting along his knee, contemplating his freshly clean fingernails, when the faintest vibration shivered down the walls. A helicopter landing all the way up on the roof.

He sat bolt upright, that shiver moving under his skin. People came and went – soldiers, staff, scientists flown down from the New York location. An arrival wasn’t unusual.

But Vlad had said Mia was coming.

He waited like that, even when his back grew sore from holding the position. He inhaled deeply, testing the air, searching for the tiniest scent, the smallest sound. Straining, really, his heart beating butterfly-fast in his throat.

It could have been minutes, or hours. He convinced himself that he could sense her presence, though he had no idea what she smelled like; didn’t know the unique rhythm of her heartbeat. So he only imagined he could hear her footfalls through all those layers of steel, and stone, and floorboards.

But then.

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