I raised my eyebrows, unable to help myself. “Oh yeah? Just like you’d have known if any of your little minions were off torturing any innocent victims?”

Tom sucked in his breath at my words.

Corrigan snarled at me. “Watch your place.”

Oh, he so didn’t say that, did he? “Actually, my Lord, now that you’ve rejoined the council – of which I believe I am the head – you’re the one who’ll have to watch your place.” I smirked. “It’s my orders you’ll be following. Not the other way around.” As soon as I’d said that, I regretted it. Shit. I didn’t want to antagonise the Lord Alpha. I wanted him to like me. More than like me.

His face twisted and he began to speak again but, before any words could form, his attention was caught by a flickering screen from above our heads. His skin paled dramatically. Frowning, I half turned to see what he was looking at. My stomach dropped when I did. A video loop of Solus and me dancing was playing. Our bodies were pressed together and my eyes were half-closed as if in ecstasy, with my hands round his back, and what appeared to be his lips on my skin.

“We’re thinking of trying out for Strictly Come Dancing,” said Solus. “I’m not sure they’ll be able to show us before the watershed though. There’s just no stopping a passion as deep as ours, is there, dragonlette?”

Just when I thought I couldn’t feel any worse.

Corrigan pulled his eyes away from the screen, ignoring the Fae. “If you’re really going to lead the council, then you’re going to have to start acting a damn sight more responsibly. Especially now that the entire Otherworld clearly knows that you’re a Draco Wyr. So much for all that effort you put into keeping it a secret. I guess you just wanted to make sure that everyone was fully aware of your power. Well, congratulations. Because now you can bet that it’s all over the Othernet and that Endor knows too. Thanks to your stupidity, we’ve lost just about the only element of surprise and real advantage that we had.”

I probably deserved that. It didn’t stop me from rising to the challenge, however. I was pissed off he thought this was what I’d wanted. “Oh yeah? I think that thanks to your presence on the fucking gossip pages, he was probably pretty much already aware of that. So don’t coming knocking on my door to lay the blame.”

Corrigan took an angry step towards me. I did the same, then abruptly remembered that standing was a bit of an issue, and my knees gave way. All three of them jumped forward to grab me, but Corrigan was first to catch me. Despite his vaguely unkempt appearance, he still smelled as good as ever. I jerked away, cheeks burning.

“We need to go,” I mumbled, avoiding meeting Corrigan in the eyes. “There’ll be another council meeting tomorrow. I’ll call everyone in the morning.” Asserting my authority one final time, I added, “And tell Staines I still want to see him.”

With that, I moved to my left, Tom and Solus carefully supporting me from either side. I didn’t look back. I didn’t dare.

Chapter Eleven

I woke up late the next morning, my head pounding incessantly. The heavy hot feeling in my stomach hadn’t gone away and I generally felt as if I’d been driven over several times by a ten ton truck. It was an unusual sensation. I was no stranger to getting hurt or passing out, but I normally started to recover fairly quickly. Even the very first time after I’d inadvertently transformed myself into a dragon hadn’t been quite so physically bad as this. The stress of the last week was clearly getting to me.

Dragging my protesting limbs out of bed, I lurched over to the small bathroom and splashed my face with cold water. Then I leaned against the sink and stared at my reflection in the mirror. I poked at the bruise across my cheekbone. At least it didn’t hurt quite as much as it had the day before, although I reckoned it looked considerably worse. The purple was darkening and the shape now looked oddly similar to the outline of Africa, just a rather skewed version. My mouth felt dry and furry and, even though I’d brushed my teeth for at least ten minutes before I’d gone to sleep, I could still taste ash. I sighed deeply, then pulled myself together. A cup of the strongest coffee that I could muster, and I reckoned I’d start to feel more human. So to speak.

I pulled on an old t-shirt, and headed to the kitchen, then almost gave myself a heart attack when I realised someone was already there.

“Fucking hell, Tom!”

He gave me a wave and handed over an already steaming mug of dark, delicious caffeine.

“I could have freaking killed you! What are doing here?”

He grinned amiably. “You passed out pretty quickly before the faerie and I could leave last night. He was going to stay to check on you and make sure you were alright, but I managed to convince him that it’d probably be better if I did that.”

I took a sip, closing my eyes momentarily in pleasure. “Why?”

Tom looked at me as if I was stupid. “The Lord Alpha wouldn’t be best pleased if he found out that you spent the night with the Fae.”

“Somehow I’m not convinced he’d care. Not any longer.”

He shook his head, tutting. “The pair of you are as bad as each other.”

“What the hell do you mean by that?”

“Never mind.”

I eyed him suspiciously. Once upon a time I could have cajoled Tom into doing or saying pretty much anything. He’d been a member of the Brethren for almost a year now though, and the effects were starting to show. Not only did he have the obvious physical changes of more lean muscle and strength, but there was also an edge of steel to him personally that had been absent back in Cornwall. Part of me felt sad for the slight naivety and puppy dog enthusiasm that he’d once sported and that had now disappeared, and part of me admired what he was becoming. It made me wonder just what he’d been doing for the Brethren all this time.

“Why did you do it, Red?”

I knew what he was referring to. “Nobody else was going to be able to keep an inter-species council intact. I had to.”

“I don’t mean the council. I mean dumping him like that.”

“The Arch-Mage and the Summer Queen told me…”

“Screw them!” shouted Tom. “Since when have you ever done what someone else has told you to? You let them walk all over you. That’s not you. That’s not the person I grew up with.”

“They were right, Tom. If I stayed with Corrigan, then the Fae and the mages would never trust me because the balance I provide would be shifted in the Brethren’s direction. And if the Fae and the mages don’t trust me then it all falls apart, don’t you see? Endor will win. We need to work together!”

“I still don’t see how being with the Lord Alpha stops them from doing that.”

“You need to see what I see,” I pleaded with Tom. “I’ve had the lot of you tailing me since I got to London so I have first hand experience of exactly how terribly all the different species get on. To be frank, I’m amazed that none of you have killed each other yet. And I’m not trying to be bigheaded here, you great oaf. Even with those token Otherworld meetings that the bigwigs head off to every so often, the only time I’ve seen any real cooperation has been when I’ve been taking the lead. Not because I’m so fucking amazing or anything, but because I’m not a shifter or a mage or a faerie.”

“You shift into a dragon,” he said sullenly. “And you grew up in a pack.”

“Exactly. So your lot think I’m okay even though I’m not a shifter. Just like the mages think I’m okay because I can do magic. And the fucking Fae think I’m okay because I can resist their glamour stuff and break their spells, and I get on with them. Name me one other person who is balanced across all three groups and I will give them this fucking job right now.”

I stared at him in obvious challenge from across the kitchen table. Tom stayed silent.

“Once we’ve dealt with Endor, I will step down. This is only temporary. I thought maybe once Corrigan got over his anger, he’d wait for me and everything would work out in the end.” I sighed, and tugged at my hair. “Except he’s not. He’s already moved on and that’s that.”

Neither of us spoke for a few moments. Then Tom rubbed his forehead and looked me in the eyes. “It’s not going to be temporary.”

“What?”

“You know what I mean. We’ll work together and bring down Endor, and everything will be all hunky-dory. And then something else will rise up and take his place and it will start all over again. You’re going to be tied into this council for the rest of your life.”

I looked away. “That’s not going to happen.”

“Sure.”

“It’s not!”

“Okay.”

I toyed with the handle of my coffee mug. I couldn’t deal with this topic of conversation any longer. “I’m impressed that you managed to get Solus to leave,” I commented, changing the subject. “If he’d thought that he could piss off Corrigan by staying, then I don’t think that wild unicorns would have dragged him away.”

“Yes,” frowned Tom, “your friend does seem to enjoy being antagonistic.” He gave me a long, thoughtful look. “Is he in love with you?”

I laughed slightly. “Solus? No.”

He gave me a skeptical look.

I took another gulp of coffee. “He’s my friend, Tom. Just like you. He’s just a bit of a flirt, that’s all.”

Tom still looked doubtful. He gave in for the time being, however, and changed the subject. “Anyway, I managed to encourage him to leave because the two of us need to get that training started.”

“I thought we were going to meet on Thursday?”

“Don’t you think we need to move that timetable up somewhat now?”

I eyed him with a mixture of hope and trepidation. It was obvious that I needed to bring my dragon side under control, and the sooner the fucking better before I really did end up hurting someone innocent. I was just terrified that I wouldn’t be able to manage it.