He got up from the table and occupied himself tidying the kitchen. “I think we’re going to have to get more food.”
“I’m not up for going anywhere today,” Emily replied, trying to remember what stuff she had in the freezer. “How about tomorrow?”
“That’s fine.”
Emily managed to eat most of the soup, then pushed the bowl away. “Thanks for fixing that.”
“No problem.”
He leaned against the counter and folded his arms over his chest. If ever a man wore his heart on his sleeve, it was Drake at that moment. Emily felt certain he was about to tell her he loved her, and she didn’t want him to. Not yet. Not while she was sick and hurting and her mind fuzzy. I have to figure out my own feelings, sort them out. Am I falling in love with him, too?
Emily knew she could easily fall for him. Yet was it real love she was moving toward? Or was it simply the by-product of Drake’s protecting her when she needed him? Was she becoming dependent upon him? If so, was that where her emotions sprang from? She didn’t think so, but at that moment she didn’t dare trust that it was real and true love.
Standing shakily, she tried to smile. “I think I need a nap.”
He didn’t try to touch her as she made her slow way down the hall to her bedroom, but he did follow. When she lay down, he covered her up, tucking her in as tenderly as any mother her child. Or a male and his sick mate. He was still there when she drifted to sleep.
Not knowing what woke her, Emily discovered her room dark and her clock reading twelve-thirty in the morning. She had slept all afternoon and half the night. The house was silent and still, and none of Drake’s light snores drifted from the couch where he usually slept.
Emily got out of bed and donned a robe. Her arm ached fiercely, but she ignored the pain as best she could and walked down the hall. In the faint light from the street light outside, she saw the couch empty. It didn’t even look as though Drake had slept there. Heading for the door, she saw the alarm was off.
Thinking that Drake patrolled the yard, Emily opened the door. No car with Toombs inside lurked on the street. Listening intently, she heard nothing except the cars on the interstate a ways away. Stepping barefoot onto the lawn, she looked around.
Emily felt the eyes on her.
Turning, she looked up.
Drake stared down at her, unblinking. His huge teeth gleamed as he bared them in what might have been a dragon grin. From what she could see, he lay comfortably on the roof, his wings folded over his back. His front claws, or maybe they should be called talons, she told herself, curled over the edge.
“That’s not very smart,” she told him in a loud whisper. “Anyone can see you.”
Drake yawned; his muzzle filled with ranks of sharp teeth. But she had to admit, unless he moved or showed his teeth, he was very much invisible in the dark. “Look, you have to sleep sometime.”
He rested his head on his front legs, his tail curled around him. Blinking lazily, he told her without words that he intended to stay up there all night. Only because she stood so close, and knew what to look for, did she see anything at all.
Emily sighed and gazed around. All the houses in the neighborhood were dark, and Emily suspected that Toombs wasn’t going to sit in a car outside her house anytime soon. He would try something different.
“All right,” she finally said, glancing back up at him. “I’m going to watch a little TV, then go back to bed. See you in the morning.”
Back in the house, she took another pain pill, knowing she would need it if she were to sleep again, then lay on the couch with the television on. Sleep claimed her about an hour later, and when she woke to the bright morning sunshine, Drake stood over her.
“Hi,” she said, stretching carefully with a yawn.
“Hi back. You’re looking better.”
Emily sat up, holding her still painful left arm. “All I’ve done for almost twenty-four hours is sleep.”
“Shouldn’t your bandage be changed?”
“Yeah. I was going to have a doctor do it, but if you’re volunteering.”
“I am.”
“I need to bathe, too. I stink.”
In the bathroom, Emily sat on the toilet seat while Drake carefully cut the old bandage away. She examined the stitches that closed her wound, the swelling of the tissues and the redness all around. “Now that’s ugly.”
Drake peered closely at it. “Actually, I think you’re healing quite nicely.”
As he wrapped a fresh bandage around her arm, Emily asked, “Can you handle breakfast while I take a bath?”
“You dare risk my cooking?”
“That’s me, the great risk-taker.”
Not knowing what to expect when she arrived in the kitchen, freshly bathed and her hair washed, Emily breathed in the delicious scent of frying bacon. Her damp hair fell down her back, and she had dressed in jeans and a shirt that would hide her injury. Yet she put her left arm in its sling, as it tended to hurt less that way.
Drake eyed her as she sat down at the table. “I suppose I should ask how you like your eggs?”
Emily laughed. “Where did you learn that line?”
“From watching the television.”
“Then I will respond that I like them over easy.”
Drake grunted and turned back to the stove. “Okay.”
Absently watching as he cracked eggs into a frying pan, Emily wondered if he had also learned how to cook from the TV. Fearing she’d get eggs that were half done or too well done, she was pleasantly surprised to find everything cooked just right. Since she hadn’t eaten anything since the afternoon before, she ate with gusto.
Drake joined her with his own plate. “It’s good to see you improving.”
“My arm still hurts like hell, but I do feel a little better.”
“Can you drive?”
Emily forked eggs into her mouth, then nodded. “I should be able to.”
“Then let’s take a trip to get groceries.”
“I am getting a little tired of soup.”
“I saw a grill in your backyard,” Drake went on. “Maybe we can cook some steaks on it tonight.”
“I like that idea.”
The supermarket was not far away, and Emily had little trouble driving them there. She permitted Drake to do most of the shopping but encouraged him to buy simple things to cook as he would be doing most of that for a while.
As he paid for everything from his wad of cash, Emily had to wonder where his people got money. But she didn’t ask him about it until they were back in the car.
“Some of my people live among you secretly,” he answered, checking their rear for any sign of Toombs. “They own big corporations and funnel money to us. The elders gave each of us a large amount to help us down here in the south.”
“That was generous of them,” she replied dryly. “Since they kicked you out.”
“Yeah.”
Parking the car in the garage, she hit the button to close the garage door as Drake got out. He opened the door that led into the house and stopped dead, listening. “Someone’s inside.”
Emily’s mouth dried instantly. “Oh, shit.”
“Stay here.”
Chapter Fourteen
Stepping cautiously into the kitchen, Drake listened intently. Someone was just out of sight in the living room; small grunts of effort and harsh breathing wafted out from it. He had no doubt it was Toombs, but how he had gotten in without setting the alarm off baffled him.
Trying to walk quickly, yet quietly, Drake hadn’t gone halfway across the kitchen floor when Toombs suddenly appeared in the archway between the two rooms. Drake stared at him, and Toombs stared back, both frozen as they sized one another up. Drake curled his upper lip and sauntered toward Emily’s stalker.
“Now that was really stupid,” he commented, readying his hands to break Toombs’ scrawny neck. His anger and hatred rose as he confronted his enemy, Emily’s enemy, his dragon instincts kicking in to pr
otect the female he loved.
Toombs suddenly bolted, reaching into his pocket for something. Drake instantly gave chase, planning to tackle him to the floor before Toombs could escape out the front of the house. Toombs suddenly spun, a cylindrical object in his hand. Drake was nearly on him, reaching for Toombs at the same moment.
Toombs snapped his wrist, twisted sharply to the side, and cracked Drake across his chest with something very hard. Drake staggered and fell onto his back, pain exploding across his chest and ribs. He couldn’t draw breath. Looking up as Toombs stood over him, sneering, the small object now tripled in length.
“Look at the fearsome dragon now,” he gloated, lifting the weapon over his head to slam it down on Drake’s face. “As helpless as a child.”
Drake lifted his arm to ward off the coming blow. Had he tried to escape, he knew the club, or whatever it was, might easily strike the back of his vulnerable head. Toombs, too close and too fast, aimed the stick at his face.
I have to shift.
Drake started to shift into his dragon, knowing it was his only chance to survive the coming blow. While Emily’s house could not contain him, he dared not remain in his human form. He locked his will—
A gunshot exploded, making Drake’s ears ring, and the bullet shattered the plaster, burying itself in the wall just behind Toombs. Drake and Toombs glanced toward the kitchen at the same time. Emily stood there, the Glock in her hand, her mouth set in a grim white line.
Toombs ran for the front door.
Emily fired again and missed Toombs head by an inch, the bullet splintering the wood of the door. It must not have been locked, as he opened it easily and ducked out just as Emily fired a third time.
“Dammit,” she grated, striding past Drake, still on the floor.
She went outside, and if Drake had breath enough for voice, he would have called her back. As it was, excruciating pain shocked through him when he tried to get up. Seeking to get his breath back, he rolled onto his stomach and sought to get up to his hands and knees. He got that far when Emily slammed the front door, flinging a string of filthy words from her mouth.
“Motherfucker got away,” she snapped. “Fuck. I missed because I couldn’t use my left hand to steady my gun.”
Drake sucked in some air, wondering if Toombs had cracked his breastbone. It felt like it from the shooting pain still coursing from his chest. He couldn’t stand up, but he did manage to get to a sitting position on the floor.
“What did he hit me with?” he whispered, still breathless.
“A police tactical baton,” she answered, pacing the carpet, grimacing in anger and pain. “It’s small, so it can be hidden, but it opens when you flick it the right way.”
“Shit,” Drake muttered.
“Available just about anywhere.”
“The things I wish I knew.”
“How the fuck did he get in here without setting the alarm off?”
Emily paced to the alarm on the wall and set up another round of filthy language. “Great. He knew the fucking code.”
Oddly, that didn’t surprise Drake at all. Toombs had proven himself to be highly organized and very smart, always two, even three, steps ahead of them. He dragged himself to the couch and onto it, lying down, and tried not to breathe. Cutting his arm to ribbons hadn’t hurt this bad.
The approaching sirens announced that once more, the police were on their way. Emily set the Glock on the table, and sat in her chair, then finally seemed to realize that Drake was truly hurt. She frowned.
“How bad?”
“Bad enough.”
The police cruisers pulled up to the house, and when the knock came at the door, Emily called, “Come in.”
The door opened slowly, and the cops stepped in with caution, their hands on the butts of their guns. “We got a call about shots fired.”
Emily waved her hand toward Drake. “An intruder hit him with a police baton,” she said, then pointed to her Glock on the table. “I shot at him but missed.”
Hours later, the investigation wrapped up, all the crime scene investigators and cops departed except Clem. It was he who found the second bug Toombs had entered the house to plant, and once again took it as evidence. In spite of his own pain as he still lay on the couch, Drake saw that Emily was at the end of her endurance. Her flesh pale, she sat in her armchair, trembling with pain and fatigue.
She hadn’t taken a Percocet, and Drake didn’t dare take one for himself. Not with Toombs so bold as to enter the house while they were gone. Clem stood in the middle of the room, glancing from one to the other.
“Quite the pair you are,” he commented.
Drake rubbed the sore spot on his chest, remembering the massive bruising he was forced to show the EMTs while refusing to go to the hospital for treatment. “Emily shot in self-defense,” he said, annoyed.
“I know. Clem looked again at the bullet holes in the walls and the door. “I do wish her aim had been better.”
“I’m used to using both hands,” she muttered sourly.
“The baton was actually quite clever,” Clem continued. “Certainly, took you out easily enough, Drake.”
Thinking that if Clem didn’t shut up soon, he’d go dragon despite destroying Emily’s house in the process, and flame Clem to cinders. “He caught me by surprise.”
“The man is full of them,” Clem agreed. “I don’t suppose you’d agree to going to a hotel for a while, would you?”
“This is my house; that asshole won’t force me out of it,” Emily snapped.
“I didn’t think so.”
Clem ambled toward the door, then glanced back at Drake, then Emily. “I’ll post a cruiser in front of your house. I’m only authorized for twenty-four hours, but I’ll try to get more time from the powers that be. Meanwhile, keep your heads down.”
He started for the door again, then paused. “And change the fucking code.”
Offering a salute, he left the house. Drake closed his eyes as Emily swore again, then got up to lock the door and change the code. That took several minutes while Drake thought about getting up to help her into her bed. I have to bring all those groceries in.
He managed to get into a sitting position as Emily went to the bathroom for her pill. “I’m gonna get addicted to these fucking things, then have to go to rehab,” she snarled from down the hall.
Standing unsteadily, his head swimming, Drake joined her in the bathroom, discovering her leaning her right hand on the counter, her head bowed. Drake put his arm around her neck and pulled her into him. “I’m so sorry,” she wept, sobbing against his shirt. “You’re hurt again because of me.”
“Hey, stop that now,” he said, his voice gentle. “I heal fast, remember?”
“Doesn’t matter. You shouldn’t be getting hurt.”
“Keeping you safe is worth it. Now come on; you need to rest.”
He started to guide her into her room when she stopped and then fumbled one-handed at his shirt. “Let me see.”
Though it hurt to do so, Drake pulled his shirt off over his head. Emily stared in horror at the massive black and purple that had spread across his chest from nipple to nipple and down to his belly. “Oh, God,” she choked.
“Come on.”
Emily continued to weep and apologize as he guided her into her room and her bed. After covering her up, Drake sat beside her, stroking her hair, soothing her with soft talk. At last, she fell asleep, her furrowed brow smoothing out at last. Aching, he watched her sleep for a few minutes, then finally left the room.
He brought the groceries from the car and put them away, his chest muscles protesting at every movement. He couldn’t understand how such a slender object could deliver such pain and damage. I didn’t even think to ask Clem why that was.
By now, it was late afternoon, and Drake pondered making something to eat. He sat at the kitchen table but didn’t feel hungry enough to do so. Given he hadn’t slept all night, as he had guarded Emily from the rooftop and plan
ned to do it again once it got dark, he thought maybe he should try to sleep.
After looking through the window at the police cruiser parked outside, he lay down on the couch. While he thought he was in too much pain to sleep, he did.
Chapter Fifteen
“I feel so much better.”
Though she didn’t heal as fast as Drake, Emily’s pain waned quickly over the next few days. As long as she didn’t put stress on her wound by lifting, her arm only ached dully. Toombs didn’t call, nor did he show himself anywhere Drake could see him.
Drake sat at the table while reading a book, something he admitted he didn’t do very well. “That’s good.”
“And I’m finally done with that project,” she went on, feeling happier than she had in a long time. “But another one awaits.”
“Maybe it’s time to consider taking a long drive.”
Emily turned from the beef casserole she was making. She met Drake’s thoughtful gaze and nibbled her bottom lip. “Maybe it is.”
“I know he’s around,” Drake went on, closing the book. “I can feel his eyes. I just don’t know where.”
She nodded, recalling how he sat in his dragon form on her roof at night and had told her how he had felt Toombs eyes on him. “I’m just not so sure he’ll take the bait.”
“We have to try. Right?”
“Clem certainly hasn’t caught him,” Emily replied, turning back to making dinner. “If I want him caught, I guess I’ll have to draw him out.”
“I’ll be there to protect you.”
Emily smiled over her shoulder. “I know. We’ll have to do this after dark.”
“Right.”
“I’m just scared he’ll hurt you again,” she said, her voice lowered. “Or kill you.”
Drake was silent for a few minutes, and Emily finally turned toward him again, curious.
“I underestimated him,” Drake admitted. “That won’t happen again.”
“He looks like a harmless accountant,” Emily reminded him. “It’s only when you look into his eyes that you see what he really is.”
Dragon Fever: Limited Edition Holiday Romance Boxset Page 48