Breathing Fire (Heretic Daughters #1)(43)
He gave me a little mysterious smile. “I’m Drake. And you are Lynn’s sister, Jillian. You have a very strange choice of lovers. Where I’m from, your affair with the druid King would be considered quite taboo.”
I just blinked at him. I really, really didn’t like Drake. The feeling was instant and almost blinding. He knew way too much about me, about us, and I didn’t care to hear anyone’s observations about my love life, not even someone whom I didn’t hate on sight. I didn’t trust him, but if he was staying and we were leaving, I decided to deal with the problem later. One thing was for certain; We wouldn’t be coming back here until I knew more about the bastard.
I smiled at him rather unpleasantly. It was no coincidence that he had rolled into town at the same time as my family. It simply couldn’t be.
I addressed Lynn, knowing even as I did so that she was in no condition to help me just then. “What were you thinking, bringing him here?”
Her eyes seemed clear enough as she stared me down. “You need to trust me on this, sister. He’s on our side. I don’t have time to explain it now, but I will tomorrow. Can you wait until then to question my judgement?”
I sighed. She’d gotten way too defensive way too fast. I knew my sister. When she got defensive, she got stubborn, and a stubborn Lynn was nothing I wanted to deal with. “Fine. Tomorrow will work, I suppose, if it all doesn’t blow up in our faces before that.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
That's Siobhan
The meeting place we’d been assigned was a large warehouse in a seedy part of town. Cars nearly filled the parking lot. Anyone driving by the place probably thought a rave was going on.
The first person I noticed when we walked into the room full of druids did not set the evening off to a good start.
Siobhan was tall and voluptuous and every bit as beautiful as I remembered. And the moment her bright green eyes met mine across the room, I knew that she hated me every bit as much as she had seven years ago. The feeling was very much mutual. She started whipping her deep red hair back repeatedly as she stared at me. I made a note to tell her that horses did the same thing when they got agitated. That might sound a little catty, but Siobhan brought me to catty in seconds flat. She and I did not have a friendly past. Ok, that’s putting it very lightly. She’d hated me from the moment she’d heard of me. I hadn’t really cared one way or the other. Until she’d poisoned me. The poison didn’t kill me, of course. It did make me throw-up my dinner. Oh yeah, and it pissed me off royally. I’d returned the favor by throwing her headfirst out of a twelve story window. It’s safe to say that didn’t help us to patch things up.
Siobhan was childhood friends with Dom and his cousins. They had also dated some years before he and I became an item. According to her, I was all that stood between them reconciling and living happily ever after. According to everyone else, they’d always just been friends and occasional bedmates. I was the only woman Dom had ever dated exclusively. I’d also heard from other sources that Dom had flat-out told her he was planning to marry me. So, all of her jilted lover angst always fell to me. Go figure.
Christian, who had entered the room right behind me, whistled softly. “This should be an interesting evening.” His whistling suddenly turned into the tune for the theme from ‘Rocky’.
I shot him a glare over my shoulder. “For you, maybe.”
“Hell yeah, for me. I’d say I have your back, but if I touch that prissy druid princess, they’ll gut me outright.”
I nodded. “Yes. You definitely need to stay out of it. It’s fine. I’m going to ignore her anyways. It’s all ancient history. If she has half a brain, she’ll pretend she didn’t see me.”
“She always had more tits than brains,” Christian muttered. Sure enough, she was striding across the room to us as he spoke. Several druids paced after her, talking rapidly. Trying to talk her out of doing anything stupid, I was sure. The room was full, mostly of men. Not surprising. Most of them wore black, with various armored vests. Christian and I were decked out the same. Not Siobhan. She wore a slinky red dress that barely covered her crotch. Oh, and it clashed with her hair.
She stopped a few feet from me, her hands clenched. “Whore,” she spat. Not a good start.
I calmed myself before speaking. “Siobhan. It’s pointless for us to still be fighting each other for a man that doesn’t belong to either one of us. Let’s just leave it at that.” I really was trying to defuse the situation. Honest.
If anything, it worked her up even more. “Don’t you tell me where to leave it, you dumb bitch! I’ll leave you buried in the f**king desert!” I just blinked at her for a minute. She wasn’t alone with that sentiment. Apparently my desert burial was a popular fantasy amongst the druids.
“I’d love to see you try,” I told her softly. I couldn’t help it. Seriously. When someone threatened me, and I was ninety-nine percent sure they couldn’t kill me, I had to call them on it. And I would sincerely love to see her try.
“One of these days I will.” Her voice was a purr. I’d forgotten how much I hated that venomous drawl.
I shrugged. “I’ll be waiting. Has it ever occurred to you that your problems with Dom have nothing to do with me? I left for over seven years, and it looks like all you managed to get out of him were some pity f**ks.” Okay, even I thought that jab was on the bitchy side. But it felt so f**king good to say it.