Dragon with the Girl Tattoo by Julia Mills
Chapter Eleven
“I really don’t have time to discuss my love life right now,” Lenn protested, wanting to punch both Kayne and Maddox in the jaw for even bringing up Tessa’s name. “Did you hear what I said? We found the Cambion, and they are all young, very young.”
“Teenagers, maybe younger,” Pearce added, picking up the conversation when Lenn failed to get the Mad Dragon or the Demi-God to listen. “I’ve never seen such a thing. Usually, the Cambion are completely undiscernible, appear as humans to even the most heightened senses, until they’re much older because they haven’t fed yet.”
Shaking his head, Pearce got louder, his tone sharper. “So not the case with this lot. They are full-fledged Cambions.” The usually calm, cool, collected Guardsman threw his hands in the air. “Children! Are they mad? Teaching them to feed at such a young age is absolute lunacy! I’m sure it breaks about a hundred or so laws of the Council of Others.”
“Precisely,” the Panther King responded as he walked into Kayne’s kitchen. “I had a feeling we would find younger ones. The feeding patterns are just too erratic to be from a Cambion with any skill or practice.”
“There were nowhere near the forty or fifty you mentioned before,” Lennox suggested. “But it was still early in the evening, so some may have been out hunting or not awake yet.”
“You might be right.” Stopping and rubbing his temple, Max quickly went on, “But it is more likely the leader has split them up. It’s what I would do.” Nodding, he took a sip of his drink. “No good Commander has all his soldiers in one place. You must always be prepared for your enemy to attack. You can’t have the whole army taken out at once.”
“Army?” Pearce and Lennox asked in unison.
“But of course,” the Panther King casually replied, despite the gravity of the situation. “These Cambion are being used as soldiers for a Master Vampire, of that I have no doubt.” Taking another sip of what Lenn could scent was rum, Max continued, “It is my belief that the Master is using the Cambion to weaken the prey for his Kiss, or more specifically, his chosen few. It would make mind control virtually effortless. The human or humans would be ripe for the picking for the next batch of Cambion to feed upon. Together, the two parasitic vermin literally suck their prey dry, do away with the body, and move to the next.”
Lennox thought about Tessa and the little bit he knew of her. She was kind and loving, nothing like what Max was describing. She’d been with him for an entire night, made love to him, slept alongside him, and never once even left the tiniest mark on his skin, much less tried to suck his blood.
Could he have been wrong about her? Were his friends and Vulcan right? Was he being prejudiced by the past?
“Yes, yes, and yes,” the Dragon King grumbled. “Would you rather I drop a boulder on your head? Maybe make the letter Y-E-S flash in bright orange neon in your mind?”
“I will go find Tessa and beg for forgiveness as soon as all this shit is over,” Lenn promised. “I swear.”
“Good, now pay attention. The Mad Dragon is about to lose his temper.”
“Are you listening, boy?” Maddox spat.
“Yeah, I’m listening,” Lenn nodded. “What did you say?”
The room erupted in laughter, which eased a bit of the tension before Kayne slapped Lennox on the back and said, “Thanks, kid, I needed that. Now, what I’m wondering is, do you think we could set up some surveillance on that little cabin you found? See where they’re going, maybe find the others of their Family?”
“Sure. No problem. It’s close enough to the mountains that we can use the rocks and foliage for cover. The Cambion either have no sense of smell or haven’t been taught to use it. They never even looked up when Pearce and I were poking around. Getting the drop on them is gonna be pretty easy.”
His friend readily agreed, “It’s true. They were completely clueless, just sitting around, looking rather dazed and confused.”
“Don’t be fooled, mis Dragones. Cambion are very tricky and have keen senses, not unlike ours. The young ones were either fully fed or newly transformed hence their docile state. We will need to be on guard at all times, for they strike like vipers.” The Panther King’s eyes had a haunted look attesting to the fact that he’d seen more atrocities than he cared to remember.
It was a reoccurring theme with all of them. The good guys - the ones fighting to save all the Light in the world from all the creepy things that went bump in the night, got left with the kind of demons that never went away.
“I understand,” Lennox agreed. “We need to speak to Rian and the others. Set up patrols. Get organized. We need to stop this shit now.”
Nodding, Max readily agreed, “Right you are. Because the ones you located are young, we have tonight to get organized. Unlike our Vampire friends, they cannot tolerate the sunlight at all. They will burn and disintegrate from the slightest touch of UV light.”
Once again Lennox’s thoughts turned to Tessa. Had she suffered at his hand? He hadn’t even thought about her sensitivity to light. Hell, hadn’t known about it when he had carted her across the Lair wrapped in nothing but a comforter.
At first, he thought, “Serves her right.” Then instantly he corrected, the little voice that wasn’t Vulcan – but his own conscience – chastising as he freely admitted, “Nope, I’m an asshole.”
“Finally, he speaks the truth,” Vulcan interjected.
“So, riddle me this, Dragon Man,” Lenn honestly asked. “How did I not sense her Vampire side? I’s sure she didn’t hide it from me. She’s not like that. Tessa is honest with a good heart. She doesn’t have an evil or deceptive bone in her body.”
“You are catching up,” Vulcan deadpanned. “And might I add, oh, what a body she has?”
“You are r…”
“Boy, I’m gonna whop you upside that thick head of yours if you don’t stop that damn daydreaming. There’ll be time enough later to deal with your personal issues,” Maddox growled.
“Stay the hell outta my head, ya’ old fart.”
“Shield your thoughts, young eejit.”
“Alright,” Kayne snickered. “That’s enough of the love fest, you two.” Putting his phone back in his pocket, he continued, “I just spoke to Rian, and he’ll meet us in the Hall in about a half hour.”
“Good, time for a shower,” Lennox commented, still glaring at the Mad Dragon who was returning his glower with added fury.
“And get your damn fool head on straight,” Maddox snarled. “Or I’ll straighten it out for you.”
Before Lennox could respond, Kayne stepped between them. Steering the Mad Dragon towards the door, he explained as they walked. “How about you and I go help Audrey with those muffins she’s sending with Rian? And don’t you need to touch base with Calysta? She’ll surely be wondering where you are.”
“Thank you.” Lennox spoke directly into Kayne’s mind, using their unique link for privacy.
“You owe me, big time. And shut the door on your way out,” the Demi-God chuckled, disappearing out the door with the Mad Dragon in tow and Max grinning from ear-to-ear as he followed.
“Now, what have you decided about Tessa?” Pearce asked before Lennox could get Kayne’s front door shut.
Rolling his eyes as he turned and stepped off the porch, Lennox admitted, “Hell if I know. I’m drawn to her. There’s no doubt about it. When we were…”
Feeling awkward for the first time in their very long friendship, he paused for second. “…together, her mind was completely open to me. She hid nothing.”
Thinking over their time together for the hundredth time as they walked up the back steps to the house they shared, he went on, “How I missed that she was part Vampire is beyond me, and I guess…”
Stopping as he walked into the house and headed for the stairs, Lennox was praying the conversation was over. However, true to form, Pearce didn’t let it go. “And you guess that you’re the stupid jerk who jumped to conclusions and blamed your Mate for your painful past even though she was in no way to blame. Does that about cover it?”
Stopping on the stairs, Lennox refused to turn around as he grumbled, “I hate you, ya know that, right?”
“No, you don’t. You just hate being wrong. You despise having screwed up. You abhor admitting you’re fucked up and detest having to grovel. Which is what you’re gonna have to do – grovel, by the way, in ways yet hereto unknown by Dragonkin - to get her back.”
“Yeah, like I said – I hate you.”
Laughing out loud as Lennox went on upstairs, Pearce added, “You love me, and you know it. I’m your brother from another mother. Now, hurry up so we can get rid of these damned Cambion, and you can go beg for forgiveness.” Laughing even louder, he added, “Cause this I gotta see. Might even film it for your kids to watch when you try to tell them you never make mistakes.”
“I really do hate you sometimes.”