Angry chatter started around the residents. Now I was seeing where all the rumors had come from. I’d wondered how all the prisoners and guards had seemed to know the breakouts were from a secret room and that they were marked. The Four had been making sure everyone knew; they wanted people to rally against this. They were trying to stir up trouble so no one would keep the marked a secret.
Number Four had a low, strong voice. “You are all probably wondering why the marked are imprisoned and not killed. The simple fact is that we are yet to find a weapon that can kill the marked. For all intents and purposes, they’re immortal, which makes it doubly important that they are locked away again.”
I choked on my tongue or something like that. I had to cover my mouth to halt the harsh barking cough trying to flee.
Immortal. Mischa and I exchanged glances. Well shit, sounds as if I don’t have to worry about death anymore. Wish I’d known that when Vlad had me.
Chapter 17
It was time for Number One, who looked to be the hardest of all, to speak: “There are two female dragon marked, very old and very powerful, breaking free marked from prisons worldwide. They’re searching for the two to match them. Together these four will mark the points on the compass that will free the king.”
Compass points. Was that part of the ritual?
Number One stepped a little in front of his brothers, the first time they had broken rank from their stance. “We cannot let these four join together. We cannot let the king rise. He will have a legion of immortal soldiers at his beck and call and he will destroy us all.”
Shit, he even had me convinced that the dragon marked were going to take over the world, and I was one of them. I continued spinning my head around the zone, trying to find the boys. It was very unlike them to not be with me or their family. Since I could see Jack and Jo close by, I knew they weren’t with their parents.
I smiled as I noticed the little boy huddled close to the vampire-sorceress’ side. Jo had an arm tightly wrapped around his shoulders as if she could keep him safe with her love alone. I was glad that Louis had managed to spell Nash’s mark and energy. He was too young to be able to access any of it yet, and for now he was undetectable from the Four. Once this thousand year thing passed, he might actually have a shot at a decent life. And if no dragon king rose, well, my hope was that the dragon marked would be free from this constant persecution.
I was a dreamer.
The First stepped back to join his brothers. “You have five minutes.” The four of them crossed their arms over their broad chests and raised their chins in unison.
Gah, that was like the freakiest thing ever, robotic almost.
Mischa and I had our hands tightly linked. Jonathon and Lienda were close to us also. The minutes passed in a slow blur of motion. There were no noises and no one stepped forward to offer up any dragon marked.
I turned my head out into the crowd again. I was starting to jitter on the spot and I knew I had to stop it. If I continued to act like a guilty dick, the Four were going to find me with absolutely no help from anyone. And where the effing hell were the Compasses? I was going to throat punch each of them when they appeared, worrying me like this. It was, well … very annoying. Yeah, let’s go with annoying.
Then I was going to hug the hell out of them. So the order of actions was clear: throat punch, then hug.
Spinning back to the fountain, my eyes widened and I felt more shivers caress my body. Where the hell had the Four gone? There was space where they’d been standing and I had not heard or sensed them move at all. My fidgeting was getting worse. Something told me they were searching the crowd. They were going to find us. I just knew it.
“Stay calm, Jessa.” Jonathon loaned me some of his power, easing my nerves. “You will be fine. I would never let anything happen to you or Mischa.”
His words were low and calming and yet I was not calmed at all. If anything, my nerves were increasing. Freeing my hands, I spun around and started to blindly push my way through the crowd. I knew drawing attention to myself in this manner was dangerous, but the fear was choking me. I needed to shift into my wolf. Problem being, my dragon was also stirring. She’d unfurled herself and was nudging at the thin, flimsy barrier that surrounded her now. I could almost scent the smoke from her nostrils, the shimmer from the scales and fur that coated her skin. She was just under my skin the way my wolf often was. If I lost control of her now, the Four would be on me faster than Maximus when he scented a sexy vamp girl.
People got out of my way, and finally I made it to the edge of the crowd, which, thankfully was close to the forest. I was going to be able to run, shed the human skin and be a wolf for a while. I hoped, too, that would ease the tumult of my dragon. I sighed as the cool dark of the forest canopy surrounded me. The earthy scent, a mix of dirt, plants, and flowers flowed over me, and in itself this was soothing.
“Going somewhere?”