Persuading the Dragon (Stonefire British Dragons Book 12) Read online

  Which she repeated over and over again to herself as he massaged one foot and calf before the other, not caring if it were the truth or not. She couldn't be vulnerable to a dragon's charms, not if she wanted to find a way to escape once she was strong enough to do so.

  The instant Ivy's pupils dilated at his touch, it took everything Zain had to not drop her foot and storm out.

  Many human females lusted after dragon-shifters. That wasn't new.

  However, she'd dedicated a number of years to eradicate his kind. She couldn't have it both ways.

  His dragon spoke up. If you put her past with the Dragon Knights aside and simply look at her as a female, she's pretty.

  What the fuck are you talking about?

  His beast grunted. I'm merely being honest. I wouldn't notice her ginger hair or blue eyes if you'd take a partner and have sex more often.

  I've been busy, as you well know, watching over the human.

  Well, if you want someone we can fuck and discard, she's perfect. After all, once we get the information from her, she'll be handed over to the DDA, and we'll never see her again.

  I'm not going to use and discard her, dragon. She's one of our enemies, for fuck's sake. We could be cock-deep inside her and she'd stab us in the back.

  His beast snorted. She can't even sit up by herself, so when would she go find a knife and bring it back here? Not to mention the cameras would alert everyone if she tried it.

  Right, you're spending far too much time thinking about this.

  That's not my fault. You're the one who came up with all the stupid rules about which females we could fuck and which we couldn't. Loosen your bloody rules, find a willing partner, and then we wouldn't have this problem.

  Yes, Zain had rules. But those rules allowed him to do his job, keep his distance, and prevent a repeat of the disaster he'd had during his time with the British Army almost ten years ago when his superior had tried to coerce him to have sex or be booted out. Once we finish this assignment, I'll find a willing female. Just don't wax on about this one. She has blood on her hands. Remember that.

  Maybe not literally, but some of the children the Knights had pumped full of drugs—drugs she probably had a hand in—might never get their inner dragons back.

  And for a dragon-shifter, that was the equivalent of losing half your soul.

  His beast huffed. We don't know the full extent of her involvement yet, just that she was a researcher. Find out the truth and then pass judgment, not before.

  Don't wish for rainbows and happy endings, dragon. She's our enemy. A useful one, but still an enemy.

  Zain finished massaging Ivy's legs and moved up to her right arm.

  Staring down at it for a second, he truly noticed how thin and pale she was for the first time.

  If he squeezed too hard, she'd probably snap.

  No. He wasn't going to feel pity for the human. His clan had already saved her life from the poison in her body, a mixture of chemicals the Knights had been secretly giving her the whole time. Only once she hadn't received the daily antidote had her systems started breaking down, or so the doctors had told him.

  How the bloody hell had she missed what they'd been doing to her?

  His dragon grunted. I'd suggest something, but you want to hate her unequivocally, so finish your job. Wake me if we need to shift.

  His beast curled into a ball in the back of his mind and went to sleep.

  Aware that he was standing and merely staring at her thin bicep, Zain took her hand in his to begin working his way up the limb.

  His hands dwarfed hers. And yet, her tiny hands had probably hurt members of his clan.

  The human asked, "What are you staring at? If my cuticles offend you, then don't look."

  He narrowed his eyes. "Are you trying to piss me off? Because it wouldn't take much for me to break a finger."

  As soon as the words left his lips, he regretted them. He shouldn't encourage her untrue beliefs about his kind.

  Ivy raised her brows. "I know how much it must be killing you to hold back and play nice. I'm sure you'll get a new victim to torture or kill soon enough."

  Zain should let it go. She was merely trying to rile him up, maybe to figure out some of his weaknesses.

  Or, she was just bloody delusional, and nothing he'd say would change her mind anyway.

  However, he couldn't help but blurt, "The only one hurting innocents is your former friends, the Knights, as well as the fucking dragon hunters. Who targets children? Oh, you and your kind. You're the monster, not me."

  She opened her mouth but closed it. Zain focused on his massage for a few minutes—working his way up her wrist, her forearm, and eventually her bicep—and was about to go to her other arm when her voice filled the room again. "The targeting of children is why I left."

  His gaze shot to hers. "What?"

  She didn't look away from his eyes. He wasn't sure if he was impressed or annoyed that she kept them free of emotion. "I didn't mind silencing inner dragons. I thought that might help the children lead normal lives. But I had no idea about some of the brutal experiments and torture. Once I discovered that was happening, I knew I had to leave. And since anyone who challenged the decisions made by the higher-ups—unless it was to further hurt dragon-shifters—ended up mysteriously missing, I escaped the Knights and went to hide with my brother."

  He had to remind himself not to give her any information about his kind, so Zain didn't mention how losing an inner dragon was nearly as bad as torture for some individuals. "So you only approved certain levels of bigotry and villainy. Good to know."

  "You act all self-righteous, but I've seen some of the women down south who were purposely impregnated. And afterward, the dragons stole their babies before tossing the women aside, no matter if they wanted to stay with their children or not. How do you explain that?"

  Zain had never heard of those rumors. True, Clan Skyhunter down south had only recently acquired some decent clan co-leaders. Before them, a bastard who'd ended up burying murdered humans on his land had ruled.

  It was entirely possible that Marcus King, the former Skyhunter leader, had done as Ivy said. He'd have to ask the other clan about it later.

  However, rather than argue, Zain decided to deflect. "I can only speak for my clan, and we never terrorize or hurt humans unless they attack or seek to harm us first."

  She paused a second before asking, "What about those villages in Yorkshire and Cumbria? Let me guess—you didn't burn them down or kill babies for sport? Some other creature did it? Ghosts, perhaps? Or demons?"

  Ivy was talking about the damn propaganda videos. "First, there aren't any bloody demons or ghosts. And second, everything in those videos was faked. And before you say of course I'd plead innocent, why were the place names never mentioned? Even a little-known village has a name. No, it's always some nameless place in the middle of fucking nowhere. How convenient."

  The human opened her mouth and promptly closed it. Thinking she would shut up for a bit, he finished massaging her arms and moved back to her legs.

  However, before he could explain what he intended to do next, Ivy blurted, "But how could everything burn so fast? It was hellish dragon fire that left everything so mangled."

  He snorted. "For someone supposedly so clever, you can be bloody stupid. Dragon-shifters can't breathe fire. It's get-to-know-a-dragon-shifter 101."

  She narrowed her eyes. "You're lying."

  He raised his brows. "Am I? Do you want me to bring some of the others in here and show them how thick you are? Because I'll gladly do it. To be honest, it would make my day."

  She growled. "You're an arsehole."

  He tilted his head. "Says the female who thought it was okay to pump our children full of drugs."

  A machine attached to Ivy beeped a few times, and Zain tried to figure out which one. He hadn't intended to rile up the human. But he hadn't been able to help himself.

  Dr. Trahern Lewis walked in, glanced at the machines
, and pushed Zain back. "Leave. You're putting her health in danger."

  Zain looked past the doctor, straight at Ivy. "If you want to confirm the truth, ask Trahern about the fire. You seem to like him best, after all."

  He turned and walked out of the room before the human could say anything else.

  As he quickly headed toward the exit so he could avoid a scolding from Dr. Sid, he started analyzing what Ivy had shared.

  Could it really be true that members of the Dragon Knights thought dragon-shifters breathed fire and burned people alive for entertainment?

  His dragon finally woke up. I wish we could breathe fire.

  I don't. It's one less thing the DDA can restrict, not to mention one less thing for the humans to fear about us.

  Still, her words are just further proof of how the Dragon Knights mess with the minds of their recruits. More than us, she needs Serafina's help.

  Serafina's still doing some research. Besides, we didn't get the name of the leader, not that Ivy seemed to know it. She just gave us some bloody password to pass on to the others.

  Which we need to do as soon as possible. There could be something important behind that protected data.

  He grunted his consensus. The human may be his enemy, but any shot at gathering more information on the Knights was one he'd take.

  Zain's inner beast continued, And just think, maybe once reality starts filtering in, Ivy will realize the pain she's inflicted on others. She'll definitely do whatever she can to help Stonefire then, even more so than she already has. And then we would finally have the upper hand and could fight and defeat one of our greatest enemies.

  No doubt his dragon wanted Ivy to think of them as some kind of hero in the end, just to get some pussy. The only reason I want her to wake up from the fog of lies is so she can become Lucien and Nathan's problem.

  Until she can walk and function again, she'll be our problem.

  Don't remind me.

  Zain picked up his pace. He'd give Lucien and Nathan the password she mentioned and then report everything to Serafina. With any luck, the new password would open all of the cryptic data in time. And maybe, just maybe, if that became true, Zain could perform her physical therapy without saying another word.

  Because if she continued to get under his skin, he could seriously fuck up his mission by sharing something he shouldn't. And since being a Protector was everything to him, he couldn't allow that to happen.

  Then an idea came to him. If Zain taught the most basic of moves to one of the nurses, he wouldn't have to see the human that often. True, he'd have to come back when she reached a certain threshold, but not before.

  Yes, that would work. Right after he visited Lucien and Nate, he'd approach Gregor with the idea. Because Zain only wanted to ask the human questions, nothing more. And he may have just figured out how to do that.

  Chapter Five

  Ivy stared at the door of her room long past after Dr. Lewis had left.

  His answer to her question about dragon fire ran on repeat inside her head: "No, dragons can't breathe fire. It's physically impossible. Let me explain every reason why."

  His scientific jargon had been lost on her, but the fact he had such a detailed explanation made Ivy wonder if she was wrong.

  Maybe dragons didn't breathe fire.

  And if that was the case, then what else had she been taught that was also a lie?

  Turning her head against the pillow, Ivy stared at the wall and tried to think of where she'd first learned of dragon fire.

  Hadn't it been in elementary school? Or, had it been university?

  Somewhere before the Dragon Knights, for sure.

  Then it hit her—it'd been during the introductory counseling sessions she'd done with the Dragon Knights' recruiter.

  At the time, she hadn't known the truth behind the organization that called themselves the Friends of the World. They'd had a tent in the city center, offering free therapists and a collection of books about the dragon-shifters. The books had claimed to reveal all the dragon-shifters' secrets.

  Ivy had always been afraid of dragons growing up and had purposefully kept her distance. If she stayed out of their way, they'd stay out of hers. But for some reason, she'd gone inside the tent that day. Maybe it had been the attractive man smiling at her, or something he'd said to make her laugh. Either way, she couldn't remember any longer. She'd only been twenty-one years old and had still been searching for who she was.

  Back then, Ivy had probably thought the therapists would help her figure it all out.

  Regardless, she'd gone home with a few books and a shot of self-confidence.

  Only after she'd later read one of the books titled, The Truth Behind the Dragons of the UK, had her confidence faded and her smile turned into a gasp of horror.

  They'd been so many gruesome stories, with so many deaths and innocent lives stolen.

  Many of the victims had been dropped from a great height for fun, almost like a competition among the dragon-shifters.

  Not to mention the dragon fire they used for torture, and how survivors had said the dragons had laughed at their screams as they burned alive.

  By all rights, the British government should've imprisoned most of the dragons, or sent them to any of the prison colonies around the world designed to hold dragon-shifters.

  However, World War II had decimated the dragons' numbers, to the point their population became dangerously low. That's when they'd pretended to be nice to humans again, forming alliances and agreements—dragon's blood in exchange for human females. They'd struck even more bargains with the DDA in the 1980s to counteract the AIDS epidemic.

  But as Ivy lay in her hospital bed, one nestled inside a dragon clan, she began to wonder if the books had been written to make her hate them.

  The same with the videos everyone inside the Knights had been forced to watch.

  Squeezing her eyes shut, she wished she could throw something. Not long before she'd fallen into a coma, the world had made sense to Ivy. Everything about dragons had been black and white. She hated and feared them. They deserved to be contained and lose their inner dragons by any nonlethal, humane way necessary.

  But now? Now she had dragon doctors fighting to save her life, as well as a muscled dragonman giving her massages with strong yet gentle fingers.

  And they didn't—or, according to Dr. Lewis, they couldn't—breathe fire.

  The last fact shouldn't make such a difference, but Ivy had always had a thing for threes. And with three things making her doubt her former beliefs, it was enough to make her want to learn more about the dragon clan she was staying with. Maybe armed with more information, she could figure out what was true and what was a lie.

  As she tried to think of how the hell she could do that, someone knocked and entered before she could ask who it was.

  A tall, dark-haired woman with slightly pale skin whom Ivy had seen on TV before strode inside the room. She was some kind of reporter, although Ivy couldn't remember her name.

  The woman stood next to her bed and studied her. Since Ivy was tired, she merely waited to see what the woman would do.

  Finally, she spoke, her accent telling Ivy that she was from somewhere down south. "You look exhausted. And whilst normally I'd let you sleep and come back to visit you again later, Zain thought you might need another human to help you understand a few things."

  Ivy didn't want another person to merely tell her things. She was done with that. What she needed was to see dragons for herself, in their daily lives.

  And since the doctors and Zain were the only ones who could do that, she didn't hide her impatience. "Someone helping me understand a few things is how I eventually ended up here, in a coma, for a year. Just go away and let me sleep."

  The woman raised her brows. "You must not recognize me from the telly, so let me tell you. I'm Jane Hartley, a former reporter and one of the most stubborn humans you'll ever meet. And considering my mate can be even stubborner than I—he's in c
harge of security for Stonefire—don't try to outlast me. I'll win in the end. And today? Well, today you're going to listen to me and as many other humans as it takes to start to break through the lies you believe."

  Ivy muttered, "I'm already working on that and don't need your help."

  Jane tilted her head a second before she sat down. "How is that possible?"

  She looked away. "It's not important."

  "Of course it is. Especially since your former friends drugged my teenage sister-in-law, imprisoned her alongside children half her age, and silenced her dragon for months."

  At that, Ivy met Jane's gaze again. "I didn't want to hurt any children."

  Jane studied her a beat before replying, "I think I believe you. But regardless, if you think dragons can breathe fire, then you have a lot to learn, Ivy Passmore. And lucky for you, I have an introductory video series about dragon-shifters. Maybe we should start there."

  "No, no videos. Videos lied to me before, so why won't those ones? Until I can get out of this room and see things for myself, I don't trust anyone or anything."

  Jane tsked. "And you've just lied to me, Ivy. You trusted Zain with that password and it unlocked more files than just those about the organizational structure of the Dragon Knights. One of the newly accessible files detailed the specifications of a special formula. And thanks to that, our doctors are able to create a vaccine that will protect against most of the chemicals devised before you left the Knights. Now, would you give that information to just anyone? Or, only to someone you marginally trusted?"

  She ignored the small thrill at learning Zain had shared the password. "It's not about trust, but quid pro quo. I gave Zain something so he'll want to help me. That's all."

  "I see." Jane stood. "Well, me, as well the other humans, will visit you fairly regularly, so prepare yourself."

  Her brows knitted together. "I thought you were here to break through lies or some such thing?"

  Jane shrugged. "I was, and I'll be back. But I've learned what I needed to know for today. So rest, Ivy. Someone else will probably be by again shortly."