Zanaikeyros - Son of Dragons (Pantheon of Dragons #1)(88)
Zane had hated to leave her alone with Misty.
At the least, he would have liked to wait outside Misty’s bedroom door, to have made sure Jordan knew he was there—always there—but when the dragon lords called, the dragyri jumped.
There were simply no ands, ifs, or buts about it.
The Four Principle Laws…and all that.
And there was something else—something that demanded Zane’s attention—something that had come out during the debriefing with Ghost in the temple: When the feral dragyri had latched onto the demon’s throat in the Dragon Sea, he had swallowed several chunks of the pagan’s flesh, and in doing so, he had also absorbed a handful of Salem’s most recent memories—the fact that he had entered the domain as a beetle, concealed in Jordan’s purse; the fact that he was on a mission from Lord Hades to destroy a Genesis Son, in this case, by trying to murder Jordan; and the fact that he had placed a powerful compulsion into the mind of a vulnerable surgeon, ordering him to use and seduce Jordan’s best friend.
On the advice of Lord Topenzi, the dragons had dipped Ghostaniaz into the pearlescent waters of the Oracle Pool, and since they finally knew what they were looking for, they had been able to see a little more: the fact that Dr. Kyle Parker would be at Macy’s apartment on Friday night at seven o’clock to make her a candlelit dinner.
To begin the process of seduction.
Normally, the dragon lords would not have given two hoots about human affairs, not even those peripherally connected to a dragyra or a dragyri, but this was decidedly different—it was personal—every maniacal plan Lord Drakkar had hatched had been designed with a singular purpose: to destroy a Genesis Son.
To one day…somehow…get to a dragon lord’s original offspring.
And that could not go unanswered.
Lord Saphyrius had ordered Zane and Axe to show up at Macy’s apartment, remove the doctor’s right hand, then stamp it with the official seal from the Temple of Seven and place it in a box of chocolates. The box was to be wrapped in Christmas paper and delivered to a local bank on Fifteenth Street—King’s Castle Credit Union, where the manager, a lifelong member of the Cult of Hades, would read the card and make sure that it got to the horde: For Drak; the best-laid plans of mice and pagans often go astray!
Axe inclined his head at Zane, letting the dragyri know he was ready, and with one swift chop of his battleaxe, Zane hacked a fist-sized hole in the center of Macy’s front door, reached through the cavity to unlock the deadbolt, and the two ruthless Dragyr stormed inside.
f
Macy Wilson stood in front of her bathroom mirror, checking her hair and makeup for the fifth or sixth time—she had excused herself from the table, yet again, to try to catch her breath.
Oh. My. Gosh.
Doctor Parker had brought her a dozen long-stemmed red roses and an expensive bottle of wine. He had lit two candles on her small glass kitchen table and even pulled out her chair before he’d presented her with the gourmet lasagna and tossed Caesar salad that the surgeon had prepared from scratch.
And thank God, all the saints, as well as good fortune, he hadn’t noticed—or said anything—about the fact that she wasn’t wearing his pin: that beautiful, expensive, ruby-and-gold beetle.
The one that Macy had lost!
She gritted her teeth and snarled at herself in the mirror—it still didn’t make any sense. How could she have been so careless? How could she have lost something that was so very dear to her heart?
She wanted to kick herself a dozen times over.
Running her fingers through her hair one last time and smoothing her reapplied lipstick, she told herself to forget it—let it go—this night was too beautiful, too important to ruin. And then she drew back her shoulders, tried to calm her nerves, and headed back to the romantic table.
“Everything all right?” Kyle asked her, eyeing her like she was covered in whipped cream.
“Everything’s perfect,” Macy replied, gracefully taking her seat.
The aroma of the lasagna wafted up from the table as Kyle poured her a glass of red wine. “You haven’t taken any painkillers today, have you?” he asked. And wasn’t that just so sweet…
“Nope.” Macy smiled. Then she lifted her crystal glass and clinked it against his.
“To new beginnings,” he drawled in that deep, sexy voice, and Macy shivered from head to toe.
Just then, there was a huge clamor and an explosion of wood in the front hallway—it sounded like someone had just driven a sledgehammer through Macy’s front door. Doctor Kyle jumped up from his chair, dropping his wineglass in alarm, and Macy suppressed a squeal. Her heart began to race like she had just run a marathon, and she instinctively reached for a knife.
“You won’t be needing the utensil, darling.” A sonorous voice rang out in the dining room, the words coming from a tall, gorgeous blond with strange sapphire eyes. “Sit down.”
Macy dropped the knife and planted her rear in her seat, her mouth dropping open in horror and surprise. The blond was accompanied by a dark-haired male who looked as deadly as he did, savage. And for some odd reason—in that stark, terrifying moment—Macy’s thoughts turned squarely to Jordan. She thought about her recent surgery and her recovery room…images from that morning.
But it didn’t make any sense, and her mind filled with cotton.