Deryk (Dragon Hearts #2)(33)
“I don’t—”
“Without mercy,” Pyotr insisted fiercely.
Izzi gave up all further thought of trying to convince the Petrovs there was no such thing as dragons. “Why?”
“Because our parents discovered who and what they are and threatened to expose them,” he bit out coldly.
“Your parents were dragon hunters?”
“Not at first,” Pyotr said bleakly. “Initially, they were just two ordinary people, going to work and bringing up their two children. But once our father began to work in the gardens at Mikhailov Palace, he discovered they were also dragons.” His eyes glittered with malice. “Our parents were devout people, knew such an abomination must be erased off the face of the earth. They began to research how best to kill a dragon, and wrote down those findings in several journals.”
This situation just became worse and worse. “You have those journals?”
He nodded. “But the dragons discovered what our parents were doing before they succeeded in destroying any of them. To ensure our parents didn’t tell anyone else what they knew, the dragons killed them. Without a thought or care for the two children they left behind,” he added bitterly.
Izzi’s mouth was so dry, she was having trouble swallowing. Not only because of the things Pyotr and Tanya were telling her, but because of the fact they were telling her at all. Revealing everything they had done, and why, would seem to imply Izzi wouldn’t be around for long enough to relay that information to anyone else.
She winced. “What happened to the two of you?”
“I was eleven and Tanya fifteen, so what do you think happened to the two of us?” Pyotr sneered.
Even today, Russian orphanages were known to be harsh and totally inadequate for the care of small and vulnerable children. Ten years ago, Pyotr and Tanya hadn’t been endearing babies or young infants, and so would have had little chance of being adopted and leaving the orphanage.
“I spent only a year of abuse at the orphanage before I was thrown out into the street to survive as best I could.” Tanya took over the narrative from her brother. “With no family, no means of support, and nowhere to live, I had no choice but to walk those streets. To become a whore for whoever had the money to pay me.”
Izzi could only imagine how desperate a much younger Tanya would have been.
“But over time, I became good at it,” the other woman added somewhat proudly. “I was eventually able to pick and choose my clients. I was even exclusive to the same man, who kept me in this apartment for six months. I saved the money I earned on the nights he wasn’t able to be with me, was determined when Pyotr was allowed out of the orphanage that he would come to live with me here and have the opportunities I hadn’t. That he would go to university and attain the qualifications that would allow him to find a decent job, a career. Instead, he met you.” Her tone chilled. “Someone who not only lived with them but was one of their human pets.”
Izzi had never thought of herself in that way, nor did she think the Romanovs thought of her and her family that way. But she could see how it might appear that way to the embittered Tanya and Pyotr.
“You used me to get to the Romanovs,” she realized dully.
Tanya huffed. “It was all too easy for Pyotr to charm the privileged rich girl rebelling against the way her family lived to serve the Romanovs.” She eyed Izzi contemptuously. “The spoiled and pampered Izabella Mikhailova, from a family protected by and living with the Romanov dragons. It was too convenient an opportunity to miss. Our destiny, if you will, in revenge for taking the lives of our parents. Having you come here today plays even more perfectly into our hands,” Tanya added triumphantly. “We were going to leave St. Petersburg without achieving what we set out to do, but now we can all simply sit here together and wait for the dragons to arrive.”
“You’ll both die if you try to attack them.” Izzi had no doubt of the outcome. Two humans against the power of ten dragons? Tanya and Pyotr wouldn’t stand a chance.
“But we have you,” Pyotr reminded her. “We’ll demand one of them in exchange for releasing you.”
“And you’ll still both die,” Izzi stated with certainty.
“Not before we’ve killed one of the dragons,” he dismissed with relish. “And Tanya is correct, we can then use you to get ourselves safely out of the city.”
Her eyes widened. “You have no intention of honoring the exchange?”
“Honor?” Pyotr scoffed. “What do the Romanov beasts know of honor?”
The nausea Izzi had felt earlier was nothing compared to how ill she felt now. Not only had she allowed Pyotr to get close to her, but she had arranged for Tanya to be employed at the palace. Vaughn had almost died because of her stupidity. She had placed all the Romanov brothers in danger with her naive and childish rebellion against her family’s servitude to the Romanovs. Deryk was now also at risk.
Because, as Tanya predicted, Deryk would come for her. Just as Izzi knew without a doubt he would be the one to offer himself up in exchange for her safety.
Deryk had expected his brothers to come to his aid in looking for Izabella, but the Romanovs had also insisted on joining in the hunt.
Not that Deryk gave a fuck one way or the other what the Romanov brothers did or didn’t do. His only goal was to find Izabella and take her away from here to somewhere he could keep her safe. Once he had Izabella back in his arms, he intended to do exactly that. They would leave the other dragons to sort out the rest of this shit-storm.