"Oh, my…" She couldn't finish the words as horror choked her. Kat reacted instantly. She threw herself over Cassandra. The dragon shrieked louder as if frustrated by her actions. Fire blew across the prow of the boat. Wulf didn't slow down at all. He pulled his gun out and fired up at the dragon.
The dragon dove straight for them, screaming as it came. Cassandra could see when the bullets struck it. The dragon recoiled, but didn't really slow or veer off. It continued toward them with a single-minded determination. Closer. Closer…
It swooped in so close she could feel the dragon's hot breath. Wulf reloaded his clip and fired more rounds. Just as Cassandra was sure it would devour them, the dragon vanished instantly. For a full ten seconds, no one moved.
"What happened?" Chris asked.
"He must have been recalled," Kat answered. "It's the only thing that could have stopped him like that." Wulf finally slowed a degree. "Recalled by whom?"
"The Destroyer," Phoebe said. "She won't let him hurt Kat."
"And just why is that, Kat?" Wulf asked.
Kat appeared uncomfortable with that question. "Like Stryker, I'm one of her servants."
"I thought you served Artemis," Cassandra said.
"I serve them both."
Cassandra tilted her head as she looked at her friend. Someone she had thought she'd known for years, and now she realized she really knew nothing at all about Kat.
"Question," Cassandra said, her heart pounding in fear. "What happens when you have a conflict of interest? Which one of them will you follow then, Kat?"
Chapter 11
Kat glared at her indignantly. "I think the answer to that is quite obvious. I'm here, aren't I?"
"Are you?" Cassandra asked, her anger erupting. "Every time I turn around there seems to be a Daimon on my tail. Now every other day I'm learning a vital fact about you that you have conveniently neglected to tell me in the past… oh…five years. How do I know I can trust anyone at this point?"
Kat looked hurt as she pulled away from Cassandra. "I can't believe you would doubt me."
"Cassie—"
"Don't Cassie me, Phoebe," she said, snapping at her sister. "Why didn't you ever bother to tell me you were alive? You know a postcard wouldn't have killed you. No pun intended."
Phoebe raked an angry glare over her. "Don't you dare take that tone with me! Not after Urian and I have risked everything for you. For all I know, right now, they're back there killing him."
The tremor in her sister's voice brought Cassandra back to her senses and calmed her down. "I'm sorry, Phoebe. Kat. I'm just scared."
Kat helped her to her feet, but instead of going back to her seat, Cassandra headed to Wulf's chair. He slowed the boat only enough so that she could sit safely in his lap. At least there she felt sheltered. Secure. She trusted him implicitly.
"You'll be okay, Cassandra," he said against her hair, over the roar of the boat. She snuggled closer to him and inhaled his warm, masculine scent. Cassandra held tight as he sped them into a future that terrified her.
Dawn was coming. Cassandra could, feel it as she rode silently in the custom-built, heavily modified Land Rover next to Wulf. She was immune to the rays, but she knew Wulf and her sister weren't. Chris was asleep in the back seat, sitting between Kat and Phoebe with his head on Kat's shoulder, while Kat looked out the window nervously.
They had left the boat behind well over an hour ago and were now in a multiterrain Land Rover racing for a destination Phoebe wouldn't name. She just gave them directions.
"How much longer?"Cassandra asked.
"Not much farther." The uncertain apprehension in Phoebe's voice belied her words. Cassandra took Wulf's hand into hers. He squeezed her fingers reassuringly, but didn't speak.
"Will we make it before sunrise?" she asked her sister.
"It's going to be close." Then under her breath, Phoebe mumbled the words, "Real close."
Cassandra watched Wulf as he drove. He had his sunglasses on to help with the glare from the snow, but the night was so dark, she wasn't sure how he saw at all. His whiskered jaw was set and rigid. Even though he didn't say anything, she noted the way he kept glancing at the clock on the dashboard.
She offered a prayer that they made it to their destination before the sun killed him. Forcing her fear away before it overwhelmed her, she looked down at their joined hands. Her hand was covered by her black knit gloves. His bare fingers were long and manly. The hands of a protective warrior.
Who would ever have thought that she would find a friend and lover born to a race that was the sworn enemy of her own? And yet here she sat, knowing he was the only thing that could save and protect her baby. Knowing he would willingly die to protect her child. Her heart ached with that knowledge and with the nervousness she felt as the sky lightened.