The Last Dragonet Read online

  “You’ll see to me, huh? Well, what if I don’t want to be seen to?”

  He opened his eyes just a little and gazed at me from under those long eyelashes. “Oh, you’re the kind of boy that needs to be seen to and often. And I’m the only one you’re going to let do it from now on.”

  “Oh, yeah?”

  “Oh yeah,” he said and pulled me over on top of him, holding me tight. I had to admit, it felt damn good. In only a minute or so, he was sound asleep.

  I lay there for awhile and then I eased myself off and crept as quietly as I could into the bathroom for my clothes. I got dressed again quickly and then walked over to the dresser where I’d seen him put down the keys. I found them and on second thought, I grabbed his wallet too, which was lying beside it. I went to the door and stepped out in the hall.

  I actually expected him to come roaring out behind me any second, but I made it all the way to the elevator and still no sign of him. I got in and pressed the button for the lobby, then made my way out to where we parked, still not believing I’d really got away from him. Even as I made my way out of the parking lot, I kept my eye on the rear view mirror but nobody ran out of the front door after me, and it slowly sunk in that I’d actually gotten away. I found the car and used the key to get in.

  There was no need, of course for such a huge vehicle, but I hadn’t been surprised when he rented it. Showing off their wealth was just how pure-bloods were. They loved their treasure hoards, but were never tight of pocket. I guess there was little sense in having a lot of money if you never spent any of it. Still, I hated the waste—I could have lived off what he paid for the rental of that monster for a couple of weeks or more.

  I pulled out and headed south on I-75, going towards South Georgia and ultimately Florida. I thought briefly of going back to Atlanta, but soon realized all I had waiting for me there was Artie’s gang. I had no idea why they wanted me, but Dmitri had said they were trying to kidnap me. Since Dmitri and his friend Sebastien were too, I needed to get away from all of them until I could figure out what was going on. I put my foot on the gas pedal and flew down the interstate as fast as I thought I could get away with.

  Since it would soon be twenty something hours since I’d slept last, other than a quick nap in the car when Dmitri was driving out of Atlanta, I knew I should be exhausted by now, but the adrenalin was still pumping through my body. I kept driving for hours.

  I was using Dmitri’s cash I’d found in his wallet, and there was plenty of it. I looked inside when I stopped for gas near Valdosta around dawn, and stopped counting after two thousand dollars. I stuffed it all back in his wallet. I was driving the big rental SUV and for the last hundred miles or so I’d been trying to figure out what the hell I was going to do. I had plenty of money, but where was I supposed to go? I’d never been much farther out of Atlanta than the suburbs. I didn’t have any relatives out of town that I could stay with or have any in town for that matter. I didn’t even have any friends to hide out with. So basically I was on my own.

  After about twenty more miles of drawing a blank, I decided that I was too damned tired to think, so I thought I’d better look for a motel. With all that cash in my pocket, I rolled right on past the Motel 6’s and their kind and pulled into a Hampton Inn not too far from the Florida line. While Hampton Inn’s might not seem like super luxurious hotels to some, to me it was the nicest place I’d ever stayed in.

  Even though it wasn’t full light, I’d ducked my head when I got out of the car to go get a room on the off chance somebody might have somehow followed me or Dmitri used some kind of tracking device like I’d seen on TV. I knew I was taking a chance, but I seriously had to lie down somewhere and think for a while.

  The room was almost two hundred bucks for the night, but I wanted to splurge for once in my life, and I promised myself I’d find a way to pay Dmitri back later. I guess I had enough of my dad in me not to worry about it overly much. Especially when I saw the room. There were at least six pillows on that king sized bed, with a big flat screen TV parked right in front of it. The room was cool and dark and quiet, and I could lie on my back in the middle of that soft mattress and use a remote to change the channels and maybe even get a little HBO. Damn, I thought I’d died and gone to heaven. The room I’d stayed in with Dmitri was probably just as nice, but I’d been too wrapped up in Dmitri to notice it much.

  I ordered a huge plate of bacon, eggs and waffles from room service and got them to bring me a Coke to drink. After practically inhaling all of it and taking a couple of aspirin to get rid of the nagging little headache I had, I must have put my head down because I went right to sleep.

  Right away I began dreaming of Dmitri. He was so warm and solid in my dreams and when he wrapped his arms around me and kissed me, I melted into him. He was making love to me and I was telling him I’d never felt this strongly about anyone after just meeting them when a soft voice by my bed said, “Luca. Wake up.”

  My eyes flew open, and my heart started banging like I’d run a marathon. I jerked back against the pillows, trembling all over, until I focused my eyes and saw it was Dmitri.

  He must have seen the recognition dawn in my eyes like the fucking sun coming out, because it felt that good to see him. My first reaction was to throw my arms around his neck and press my lips in the hollow by his throat, so I could smell his cologne again. I couldn’t believe how much I’d missed him and how I was grieving over the idea that I’d never see him again.

  “Dmitri! Is it really you?”

  “It’s me,” he said, his voice sounding grumpy. “Who did you expect?” His demeanor was frosty but he allowed me to jump on him and hug him close and press my body against his for a moment, and he even pulled me a bit closer to himself. God, he really did smell so good. Like the kind of expensive cologne he wore, but something else too. Subtle and not overpowering at all. I hugged him like that for a couple of minutes but finally he pulled my arms from around his neck and held me out at arm’s length to stare down in my face.

  “Did you honestly think I wouldn’t come after you?” he said, his voice stiff and angry. “What did you think? Or did you?” He stared down at me for a long time. “I can’t believe you sneaked away like that and left me. You’re in big trouble, Luca.”

  I shrugged and turned my head. “I didn’t know what else to do. I’m not going to Russia.”

  “Oh really? Think again. You’ll do as you’re told.”

  I returned his stare, my eyes narrowed. I felt stupidly hurt by his attitude. What had I expected anyway? He was a fucking pure-blood. He’d only wanted one thing from a Spawn like me and once he got it, he was done. I should have known better. Actually, I did know better, but I had allowed myself to dream. Story of my life.

  Dmitri stood staring down at me for a long time and then he cleared his throat. “Get up and get dressed. I’m taking you back to Atlanta to the airport.” He stood up abruptly, but flinched when I grabbed his hand, like my touch burned him or something.

  “Damn it, Dmitri. I can’t go back today. I’m exhausted, completely worn out. I’ve been driving for hours.”

  “Whose fault is that? Now get up and get moving.”

  I lay back against the pillows and sulked. “No. I’m not moving. I’m tired, and I’m going to sleep for a while. Go ahead and beat me if you want to, but I’m not getting out of this bed until morning.”

  “Do as I say, Luca.”

  “The hell I will,” I said, and narrowed my gaze stubbornly. Dmitri took a step toward the bed and reached for me. My arm shot out and grabbed his wrist, pulling him as hard as I could toward me. He was off balance, so it worked and he fell toward the bed. I slid his feet out from under him as he fell and then quick as lightning, I fell across his back, took his arm and twisted it around behind him. Pressed against the soft bed, Dmitri couldn’t get any traction and I guess he was so shocked he could barely move at all other than to buck wildly.

  Despite the situation I found myself in, I was a
ctually a little impressed at myself for taking him down. He was a pure-blood after all and they were known to be much stronger than Spawn. I’d never really tried my strength against anyone before—my father had intimidated me so badly, I shied away from any kind of violence and would walk a mile to get away from any kind of fight. As a result, I had a reputation among the Spawn as soft and weak, but that wasn’t it. I just hated violence and wanted no part of it.

  I had been naked under the sheets when he came in so my hard cock was pressing into the crease of his ass. He gave a full body shiver when he realized it and a little moan escaped his lips.

  While I had him down, I reached into his back pocket with my free hand and fished out his handcuffs. Snapping one end on Dmitri’s wrist, I kept my weight on his back and pulled his arm up so I could snap the other end of the cuffs to a rail on the headboard. Leaning back, still half lying on top of him, I kept his face pressed into the covers long enough that I felt him struggling to breathe. I had absolutely no wish to hurt him—I only wanted to show him that I was willing to, whether I meant it or not. He didn’t have to know it was a lie. I held him down another second or two and then I let him up by scrambling off his back to stand beside the bed.

  Dmitri pivoted around onto his back, glaring up at me. Trying desperately to catch his breath, he wheezed at me. “How did you…? You know that when I get out of here, I’ll—”

  “Yeah, yeah, I know, I know. You’ll beat my ass. It doesn’t look to me like you’re in a position to make a lot of threats right now, though.”

  I smiled at him a little mockingly and leaned against the wall. He was beautiful, and the flickering light from the TV played across his angry features. I steeled myself to keep looking only at his face, refusing to let my eyes travel down farther. He lay there glaring up at me and I wondered what kind of game he was playing. I knew how strong he was—I’d seen it for myself and I knew he could rip that bed apart if he wanted to. So that meant he had to be enjoying this a little. He was letting me do this to him. I took some of the sheet to wrap around each of his legs, one at a time, and tied them to the bed frame. Dmitri growled and kicked out, snarling at me.

  When I was a kid, my dad tied me down a few times. I wasn’t planning on abusing him or hurting him in any way like my father did to me. He had to know that and he wasn’t frightened of me in any way. There was a gleam in his eye that let me know he considered this to be love play. And damn it, so did I, I guess, because I’d never been so hard before in my life.

  I came up beside him and reached into his pocket to retrieve the other set of cuffs I knew he had to have. Dmitri pretended to wrestle me with his free hand briefly, but in a few moments, I snapped the cuff on Dmitri’s other wrist, attaching it to the bed rail above his head, securing him. Out of breath by then myself, I lay down on the bed next to him. He watched me carefully, his breathing as calm as if we were lying down together for a little nap.

  “I won’t hurt you, Dmitri. I’d never do that.”

  “Why would I take the word of a Spawn?” He turned his head away from me and I could see the pulse beating rapidly on the side of his neck. So maybe he was a little upset with me.

  “I’m telling you the truth. Now I’m tired. If you’ll stay quiet, I won’t have to stick anything over your mouth.” I peered over at Dmitri, smiling as he glared at me. I patted his cheek. “Good. I’m tired now, honey. Go to sleep, and we’ll talk later.”

  To tease him and add insult to injury, I scooted over to lie next to Dmitri and drape my leg over his crotch. I wasn’t just doing it to mock him. I needed to be close to him too. I unbuttoned his shirt and rubbed my hands across his chest and made a soft, sighing sound. He growled at me, but didn’t try to pull away very hard. His heart was beating a rapid tattoo under my fingers.

  Like I said, it had been a long time since I felt an attraction for anyone like I did for Dmitri. I wish it could have been different between us. Close like this, his warm body was the one thing I could take comfort in, and I hoped mine was bringing him a little comfort too. His body already felt familiar, as well as his sweet scent. Exhausted from our struggle and the long journey, we both finally drifted down into sleep together.

  I don’t know how long I slept or why I came awake suddenly with my heart racing. I could tell that it was still dark outside, but something was wrong. I could feel a presence in the room, but I couldn’t see anything. Had Artie’s gang found us after all, and what the hell had I been I thinking, tying Dmitri to the bed? He wouldn’t be of any help tied down like this, and they might manage to hurt him. I needed to wake him and let him know that we were no longer alone and then try to get him free. I moved my head as quietly as possible to get my lips close to his ear. “Dmitri, wake up. Someone’s here.”

  I had barely spoken, but it was apparently enough because he jerked and said in a sleep-roughened voice, “What is it?”

  Suddenly, the overhead light flipped on, blinding me. When I could see again, Sebastien was standing next to the bed with a gun pointed right at me and a mean look on his face. He glanced over at Dmitri and back at me. “Get those cuffs off him and make it quick.” As I scrambled to find the key, he turned back to Dmitri. “Mitya, how the hell did this happen?”

  Dmitri just shrugged as I unlocked his wrists. He sat up rubbing them and reached down to untie his legs while I sat perfectly still as I felt the barrel of the gun touch the back of my head. “We’ll talk about it later,” Dmitri said. He looked over at me, sitting there naked and absolutely still, and he pulled the sheet up over me. He looked back at Sebastien. “Take that damn gun away from his head, and stop looking at him.”

  Sebastien rolled his eyes. “Oh, for God’s sake, Dmitri. I’m not looking at him, other than to make sure he doesn’t make another move until you can tell me what the hell is going on. I don’t intend to hurt him. That’s not what we came here to do, but we have to be certain that he doesn’t hurt us either.”

  “It was a game more than anything else. Don’t be so nosy,” Dmitri snapped at him.

  I had begun to relax a little when I heard Dmitri tell his partner to take the gun away and when I heard Sebastien’s response. So I felt compelled to put my two cents worth in.

  “I think it’s about time that one of you tells me what’s going on, don’t you?”

  Sebastien looked at me like one of the chairs in the room had suddenly spoken up.

  “Hush, Luca,” Dmitri snapped at me. “I don’t want him to hurt you, but that doesn’t mean I’ve totally ruled it out myself.”

  Well, since he put it like that...

  Dmitri looked over at me with a frustrated look, but he addressed Sebastien. “You have no idea how much trouble he is.” He shook his head. “He’s going to be hard to handle.”

  Sebastien laughed and patted Dmitri’s shoulder. “I have faith in you, cousin.”

  I was getting more pissed off by the second. “I can hear you. You know that, don’t you?” I gave both of them a scathing look, but I felt that my nakedness definitely put me at a disadvantage. “Now, if neither of you gentlemen—and I use the term loosely—mind, I’d like to get dressed.”

  Dmitri spoke up. “Certainly.” He looked over at the other man. “Sebastien, turn around.”

  Raising his eyebrows questioningly, Sebastien said, “You’re kidding, right?”

  “No, I’m not kidding. Turn around.”

  “Not until I know that you’ve got your gun trained on him.”

  “I don’t need a gun for him.” He grabbed me and pulled me forward so suddenly I couldn’t brace for it. I fell flat on my face and I felt his big hand come down hard on my ass. I yelped and cried out, but he showed me no mercy. He spanked my ass for maybe thirty seconds until I was shaking all over. Then he let me go and said, “Stop complaining. You obviously like this kind of thing. Now get up now and get dressed.”

  Sebastien was chuckling a little, and I decided I hated him. I wasn’t overly fond of his cousin in that moment either. I sl
id off the bed rubbing my ass and retrieved my clothes, trying hard not to give him the satisfaction of hearing me sniffling. I dressed quickly as he watched me broodingly. When I was finished I looked at him.

  “Now what?”

  He was quiet for a minute before saying, “Now, we make a plan. You can turn around, Sebastien. Let’s decide what would be the best way for us to get out of here before the Spawn find us.” Dmitri took a seat on the foot of the bed and indicated he wanted me to sit beside him. I flopped down sullenly next to him, then regretted that as my ass hit the bed. I winced and Dmitri didn’t even bother to hide his grin.

  Sebastien sat in the chair facing us. He was frowning. “They tried to follow me out of Atlanta and it took me a while to lose them, but I finally managed it. Still, I have a feeling that they’re going to catch up to us if we don’t get out of here soon.”

  Dmitri nodded. “I agree. They seem to be relentless. And I suspect they’re tracking us somehow. They’re probably expecting to receive a big reward when they deliver Luca to Eldor.”

  “Say what? Deliver me? To whom? Who the fuck is Eldor?” They certainly had my attention. “Did you just say…?” I was sure that I’d heard correctly, but it never hurts to double-check.

  Before Dmitri could respond, Sebastien spoke up. “We’re trying to protect you, Luca, but you’re not making it easy.”

  I gave him a disgusted look and turned to Dmitri. “Protect me by kidnapping me yourselves? You know, this might be easier on all of us if somebody would just tell me what the hell is going on and why I need protecting.”

  Dmitri gave me a long look. “You’re probably right, but we don’t have time for explanations right now. First, we need to get out of here.” He looked over at Sebastien. “I say we separate again. We’ll swap cars and travel back by two different routes.”

  I watched as Sebastien nodded. “If they choose to follow you…”

  I looked back over at Dmitri. Damn, this was like watching a tennis match. He frowned. “I know, but I don’t see that we have any other options.”