Page 16 of Tempt the Dragon

“But it didn’t work. You couldn’t save him,” Aiken told her. “That’s okay, Riya. It wasn’t your job to save him.”

“Still you tried,”Mel said, and he sensed a hint of agitation in her tone. “You were there when your brother needed you. And then I show up asking you to tell me where he is so I can turn him over to whoever it is that wants him so desperately.”

Riya turned in Mel’s direction. “When he was here, listening to him talking, seeing that look in his strange eyes.” She pressed the backs of her hands into her eyesand sighed heavily when she pulled them away. “He’s not my brother anymore. Not the way I knew Duncan. When he was on the phone and he said he would ‘take care’ of something, I knew he meant he would kill. Just like those vampires had tried to kill us. If he’s captured, he’s not hurting people.”

The logic was there and so was the pain etched in every word Riya said. Aiken wanted to offer sometype of comfort but he remained still. Because while Riya was reeling from learning that her brother had become a killer, beside him, Mel was warring with her own demons, probably because she’d never been able to explain what had happened in her own past with this much detail. Maybe if she’d known why her parents chose to leave her, it would’ve made a difference. Maybe not. The quick blast ofheat that shot from her body as she struggled to remain calm told him her beast was dealing with the past issues too. Mel wouldn’t like that.

“Anything you can think of that might lead us to him?”

Riya picked up the mug once more, this time taking a huge gulp that Aiken was sure burned the back of her throat. She probably needed that sting to take away the blunt force of the pain they’ddredged up with their questions.

“The car,” she said when she was finished drinking. “It was expensive and had a flag draped in the back window.”

Aiken knew what she was going to say next, but waited.

“Deep purple stripes over white, yellow circles around the edges. The moon in the center.” She’d closed her eyes, recalling it in her mind.

He stood and lifted his arm so he couldtype a message into his communicator. “The Royal Blood flag. Your brother is staying with the Royal Blood.”