Dragonswan.doc Read Online Free PDF Page A

capable of, they're just as capable of kindness."
    He sneered at her. "You'll forgive me if I ruthlessly disagree." He shook his head as if the mere sight of
    her disgusted him. "I marvel at the fact you've lived to your age and no one's taken those rose-colored
    glasses and shoved them up your—"
    She held her hands up in surrender to silence his tirade. "You're entitled to your opinion just as I'm
    entitled not to listen to it."
    That set him off even more. He pushed himself away from the counter and headed toward the front door.
    "You're irritating. If I had to have someone barge into my home, couldn't they at least have been mute?"
    He picked up the gun and started for the small hallway that led to his den. "Don't make yourself too
    comfortable. I want you out of here the instant the weather clears."
    Her gaze sharpened on the gun in his hands. "Trust me so little?"
    "I don't trust you at all." And with that, he went off to his den and left her standing in his kitchen.
    Leta took a deep breath as she felt his hostility reaching out to her. Good.
    So far Dolor hadn't managed to break into the mortal plane. But it wouldn't be long.
    Dolor had been summoned to kill Aidan and he would do everything within his power, which was great,
    to succeed. There would be no stopping him.
    Which meant she wouldn't have long to build up her own powers by feeding from Aidan. She frowned as
    she felt a twinge of guilt. As a Dream-Hunter, she shouldn't feel anything like that at all and yet she
    couldn't squelch the part of her that didn't want to hurt Aidan when it was so obvious he'd been cut
    enough by those around him.
    It's for his own good.
    Odd how the gods and humanity used that so often to justify brutality.
    Zeus had even said that when he'd ordered all the emotions stripped from the Dream-Hunters. When
    he'd had all of them punished for a crime only one god had committed. And even that hadn't been a
    crime. It'd been intended as a joke on old Thunderbutt to make him not take everything so seriously.
    Instead of laughing, Zeus had abused his powers to lash out against everyone who didn't agree with him.
    The rest of the dream gods had merely been innocents caught in the crossfire. But Zeus's fear of being
    overthrown and mocked had caused him to punish them all. How pathetic to live his existence in such
    paranoia.
    However, Zeus's god complex didn't concern her. What she needed to focus on was saving Aidan's life if
    she could and killing Dolor at any cost.
    Dolor's laughter from the past filled her head. " I am Pain. I am eternal. And you are insignificant,
    Leta. You will never defeat me."
    So far he was right. She hadn't defeated him, but she had wounded him.
    His arrogance would be the tool she would use to break his strength and Aidan was the hammer she
    needed to drive her spike right between Dolor's eyes.
    Her resolve set, she went to find Aidan and anger him some more.
    CHAPTER THREE
    Aidan sat in his chair, strumming the Indigo Girls' "Strange Fire" on his electric guitar, as he realized
    tomorrow would be Christmas Eve, and for the third year in a row, he'd be all alone for it. It was why he
    hadn't bothered decorating anything. All that would do was remind him of just how lonely his life had
    become.
    He sighed wearily as he thought about all he'd been through. How could one man be adored by millions
    and loved by no one? Yet that was his fate. The only people who claimed to care for him didn't know
    him at all, and the people he'd once loved with everything he had spent every moment of their lives trying
    to end his.
    "Merry fucking Christmas," he muttered.
    Trying to forget the past, he focused on the song in his head. Since the guitar wasn't plugged in, the notes
    were only a whisper around him but it was enough to soothe his ragged state. Music had always been his
    sanctuary. No matter how hard life was, it was music and movies that he ran to for comfort and
    inspiration. They gave him solace when nothing else