Deryk (Dragon Hearts #2)(35)
Everything had become crystal clear in her mind the past few minutes as they silently waited for the arrival of the dragons. As Izzi knew they would, if for no other reason than Deryk, once he discovered she was missing, would then search the city until he found her.
Her enhanced awareness of Deryk told her he had already found her. That any second now, he was going to burst into the Petrovs’ apartment.
Only to find her a prisoner there and his own life the price the Petrovs would demand for her release. A release they had already stated they had no intention of honoring, intending to use her as their means of escaping St. Petersburg altogether once they had disposed of Deryk.
The clarity Izzi now felt had nothing to do with the Petrovs and everything to do with her feelings for Deryk.
They might not have known each other very long, but Izzi now knew she had fallen in love with him, not only as his fated mate but as a woman. How could she not? Deryk might be arrogant and forceful, but he was also warm and loving, and he made love to her as if she were the most precious thing in the world. Because to him she was. How could any woman resist knowing the loyalty and protection of that fierce golden dragon, and the love and devotion of a man like Deryk, for the rest of her life?
Which, if the Petrovs had their way, wasn’t going to be for much longer!
But Izzi no longer had any doubt she was Deryk’s fated mate.
As such, she had no intention of allowing them to kill him.
She would fight to the death herself to prevent that from happening.
All was silent in the Petrovs’ apartment, but nevertheless, Deryk’s enhanced dragon hearing told him there were three people inside one of the rooms at the back of the apartment. Two of them he dismissed, but the third person he knew to be Izabella.
He knew his mate’s every breath. Every movement. Sensed she was sitting right now, while the two humans paced the room either side of her. Her heart was beating faster and louder than normal, but he believed she was otherwise unharmed. No doubt the increased heartbeat was caused by the fear of being kept prisoner by the Petrovs.
But not for much longer.
“How do you want to do this?”
He turned blankly to look at his two dragon brothers. Grigor the red, Bryn the bronze, although they were all in human form at the moment. Deryk’s anger and worry were such he was barely holding on to his own humanity.
“Your mating with Izabella means she now belongs to our clan, and the Romanovs have agreed to stand back for now.” Grigor explained their absence.
“They can all go to hell—” Deryk broke off to draw in a deep and controlling breath. “I intend to go in there and rip the Petrovs apart.” He answered his brother’s earlier question.
“In front of Izabella?” Grigor shook his head. “Not a good idea if you want her to go ahead with the mating. Watching her mate rip two humans apart in front of her eyes, people she knows and believed until a short time ago to be her friends, isn’t going to be something she easily forgets.”
Deryk’s nostrils flared with frustration even as he acknowledged the logic of that. The last thing he wanted was for Izabella to be disgusted or frightened by him. “Then what do you suggest I do?”
“How about knocking on the door and simply asking for Izabella?” Bryn suggested dryly.
Deryk snorted. “You’re suggesting I do what civilized people do?”
“It would be best for both Izabella’s safety now and the future of your mating,” Grigor advised.
Deryk clenched his hands at his sides, ignoring the pain as the tips of his talons pierced his palms. “I want to kick the door in, not knock on it,” he growled.
“Then I’ll be the one to knock,” Bryn drawled as he stepped forward and did exactly that. “Once we’re all inside, you get Izabella out as quickly as possible and leave us to deal with the Petrovs.”
“If they have harmed Izabella in any way…” He knew Izabella wasn’t dead because his heart was now beating in time with hers, but that didn’t mean the Petrovs wouldn’t still try to hurt her.
“You will leave us to deal with them,” Grigor insisted. “Your only priority now is to take Izabella away from here.”
Deryk could now hear either the Petrov brother or the sister approaching the door from the other side. He also sensed his mate farther inside the apartment as she rose to her feet before moving across the small confines of the room she was in.
What the hell was Izabella doing?
Whatever it was, she had better remain unharmed, or Bryn and Grigor could forget any idea of Deryk allowing them to deal with the Petrovs. He would personally ensure they suffered the pains of hell before he dispatched them both there.
“How can you let one of those abominations even touch you?” Pyotr sneered as he watched Izzi closely. He had given her permission to stand up and take a glass from one of the kitchen cupboards before filling it with water, after she had claimed she felt faint.
Izzi continued to appear as if she was filling the glass with water, when in reality she held the glass several inches to the side of the running water. “Deryk is a fiercely protective man and a magnificent dragon.” If anyone was an abomination, then it was Pyotr, not Deryk. The malevolent hatred in Pyotr’s eyes and the way spittle issued from his mouth every time he spoke totally disgusted her.