Dragon Fever: Limited Edition Holiday Romance Boxset

by Serena Meadows

  She gazed up; her mouth open.

  The huge creature stared down, icy blue eyes blazing in hate and rage. A long low hiss escaped its parted jaws, and Taylor cowered. It would kill them all. She felt certain she would meet her death, not at Craig’s hands, but in the mouth and gullet of this monster.

  Taylor and the girls were under it, caged in by four long legs with sharp talons, and a long tail that ended in the shape of a spade. The fierce eyes blinked, and its muzzle closed. In a split second, it was gone.

  Kane stood beside her.

  “Taylor.” He sank to his knees with a long groan. “Are you all right?”

  “I—I—”

  She had no answer to that. The screaming twins caught at her mother’s instincts, and she turned to them. They sat close together, crying, their small faces red, their arms reaching for her. “Mommy! Mommy!”

  “It’s all right, babies, hush now, it’s all right. Mommy’s here.”

  Holding them in her arms, she rocked them, soothing their terror as best she could, not even close to dealing with her own. First, Craig and his murderous intent shocked her to her core, then a huge…thing shot fire from its mouth.

  Behind her, Kane spoke softly, with grief, with sorrow.

  “I’m so sorry, but I had to. I had to do it. He would have killed you.”

  Kane’s words finally sank in. Still holding a weeping child in each arm, Taylor half-turned to stare into his eyes. “That was you?”

  Miserable, Kane nodded, turning his face from hers. “Now you know what I am.”

  Only then did Taylor see the blood soaking his shirt. “Oh, my God, you’re shot?”

  “I suppose.”

  Needing to shake off her shock, her disbelief, Taylor took a firm grasp of her scrambled emotions and thoughts. Taking a deep breath, she looked around at the lot empty of people. “We have to get inside. Someone may have reported hearing a gunshot to the cops. Can you carry Megan?”

  “Yeah.”

  Stopping herself from wondering why she willingly handed her daughter to this—creature, Taylor pushed Megan toward him. “Come on, let’s get inside. Girls, it’s okay, hush now.”

  She picked up Lila as Kane rose with Megan cradled in his arm, her face buried in his shoulder. Their crying subsided into softer sobs and sniffles as Taylor led the way into the hotel, using her key card to open the door. Kane followed her, murmuring soothingly to Megan as they strode to the elevators. Fortunately, no one was using them at that moment, potential witnesses to Kane’s gunshot wound, and they retreated to their rooms.

  Taylor went to an armchair and sat down, still holding Lila. Kane didn’t put Megan down as he sat on the edge of the bed, rocking her a little while watching Taylor, his expression bleak. Fumbling for words, not knowing what to ask or how to ask it, she finally blurted, “What are you?”

  “A dragon.”

  “A—a dragon.”

  “Yeah.”

  Needing to wrap her head around this, Taylor rubbed her hand up and down Lila’s back, thinking. Remembering. His incredible strength. How he terrorized the dogs from attacking the girls. The roar he had made in doing so. And his lack of knowledge of the most common of things.

  “You’re not human.”

  Burying his face in Megan’s small body, Kane didn’t answer. Megan wrapped her small arms around his neck, completely trusting him, feeling safe and secure with a—dragon. Suddenly ashamed of her reaction, Taylor said, “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean that the way it sounded.”

  “You’re right,” he replied, his voice muffled. “I’m not. I shift between dragon and this form, but I am not a human.”

  “Kane. Look at me.”

  Lifting his face, Kane turned to her, his expression, naked and vulnerable and terrified, completely melted her heart. “I was just scared,” she said softly. “First Craig, then you—a dragon. Give me a few minutes to get my head around it.”

  He nodded without speaking, running his fingers up and down Megan’s cheek. He talked softly to her, asking her if she was scared, and Taylor watched her nod. “Did you get a boo-boo?” he asked.

  “Yeth.”

  “Aww, I’ll help make it better real soon.”

  “Kay.”

  Realizing again how good he was with the girls, Taylor had to smile. “I’ll figure it out somehow, Kane. Maybe we should take a look at your wound.”

  “It’s all right.”

  “Megan, Kane has an owie. Tell him he should let me look at it.”

  Megan raised her head to look him in the face. “You have owie?”

  “I guess so.” Kane moved her aside in order to expose his blood-stained shirt. Megan touched it gently with her finger. “Owie.”

  “I guess your mommy blackmailed me into letting her see my owie, huh,” he told her.

  “Uh-huh,” she agreed.

  Taylor laughed at the dark look he shot her, discovering it felt good to laugh. It certainly lightened some of the darkness within her. This was still Kane, the man who saved her life, saved her daughters, and who had just saved them all again.

  “Come on. Into the bathroom.”

  Carrying Megan, Kane stood up and went into the bathroom, switching on the light. Taylor put Lila down as she followed, but Lila clung to her leg, making it awkward to walk. “You’re okay, baby,” she murmured, her hand on Lila’s silken hair.

  “I have owie, too, Mommy.”

  “Okay, I guess the bathroom is now the owie room.”

  “Owie room?”

  “Yup.”

  Kane set Megan on the edge of the bathtub. “Sit there by your sister,” Taylor told Lila. “Let me look at Kane’s owie first.”

  With a sigh, Kane sat on the closed toilet seat as the twins looked on in awe at the proceedings. Taylor helped him remove his shirt, then gawked at the bloody hole high on the right side of his chest. “You need a doctor.”

  “No. No doctor, no hospital.”

  “But why?”

  He sighed. “My anatomy is different. A single X-ray will reveal things we really do not want revealed.”

  “But I can’t deal with this. You’ve been shot.”

  “Yeah, I noticed that.”

  Bending closer, Taylor studied the wound. “Maybe it’s all your muscle,” she murmured, “but it actually doesn’t look that deep. I think if I washed it, maybe I could see the bullet.”

  “Help yourself.”

  Smiling a little at his humorous tone, Taylor wet a wash cloth and gently cleaned around the wound. “Turn toward the light.”

  Kane obeyed, and Taylor peered again. Something was in there. “I have tweezers,” she said, “but have no way of sterilizing them.”

  “You don’t have to,” Kane told her with a grin. “I don’t get infections.”

  “Why does that not surprise me.”

  Going to her room’s bathroom, Taylor dug in her make up bag for her tweezers, then returned with them. “I’ll try not to hurt you,” she said, holding them ready to pluck the bullet out, “but if I do, you yelling will scare the kids.”

  “I won’t yell. I promise.”

  Nor did he. Kane stiffened as she probed the wound but plucking the bullet from it proved far easier than she anticipated. Withdrawing it, clutched between the tweezer’s prongs, she held it up to the light.

  “Maybe I was a doctor in another life.”

  “Wanna see, Mommy.”

  Taylor showed it to the eager girls before dropping the bullet into the sink. The hole in Kane’s chest oozed fresh blood, but he wiped it away with the cloth. “As good as new,” he commented.

  “We don’t have bandages for that. Maybe I should go get some.”

  “I’m fine,” Kane told her. “By tomorrow, it’ll be mostly healed.”

  Taylor lifted her brow. “You heal that fast?”

  “Part of being a dragon.” He grinned.

  Shaking her head, Taylor turned to the twins. “Okay, let’s see your owies.”

  But in t
he drama of Kane’s injury, both Lila and Megan had forgotten where they had been hurt. Megan pointed to a red mark on her hand, which Taylor kissed and instantly made better. “Okay, time for jammies. Let’s go, babies.”

  The twins rushed out of the bathroom as Kane stood. “Thanks,” he said.

  “I should thank you,” Taylor told him. “Again, you saved us.”

  Kane followed her into Taylor’s room next door where Lila and Megan shuffled through the suitcase. “How did Craig find us?” he asked. “Or you, rather.”

  “I always suspected he might have put a tracking device on the van,” she replied, helping the kids change clothes. “Now I have proof he did. That’s the only thing that makes sense.”

  “So, he meant to—you know—us all.”

  Taylor looked up at him. “I bet he followed us for a while and seeing you with me drove him over the edge.” She turned back to dressing Megan in her pajamas. “Though that wasn’t much of a push.”

  “Will you report what happened to those officers?”

  She took only a few seconds to think about it and shook her head. “How can I explain you? You might demonstrate what you are and have them believe us, but is that what you want?”

  From the corner of her eye, Taylor saw him sit in the chair across the room. “No,” he replied. “We are supposed to keep what we are a secret from people. To have you know about us is forbidden.”

  “Then why did you come?”

  “A bunch of us were exiled,” he told her, his voice quiet. “Me and my friends. We were ordered to come here, live among humans.”

  “Why? What did you do?”

  Kane smiled. “We wouldn’t stop flying.”

  Recalling the huge wingspan, the narrow stream of fire that licked Craig’s hands and made him drop his gun, Taylor stared at him, Megan only half-dressed. “You fly. And breathe fire.”

  “It’s what dragons do.”

  She returned to dressing her daughter. “And here we thought your kind never existed.”

  “We do. In secrecy.”

  At last, the kids were ready for bed, their teeth brushed, their hair combed, and Taylor promised them they could watch thirty minutes of television before they went to sleep. Lila and Megan crawled into one of the big beds while Taylor found a show suitable for them to watch.

  “We’ll be in here,” she told them and left the door between the adjoining rooms open.

  Suddenly drained of all energy, succumbing at last to an emotional overload, Taylor sank into a chair. Putting her face in her hands, she fought not to cry. “Twice in one day. Twice in one fucking day.”

  She didn’t hear Kane come to her, but his strong hands lifted her to her feet. He held her close, and then she did cry, a storm of weeping that rivaled her children’s best. Sobbing, trying not to let the sound reach the other room, Taylor wept against Kane’s bare chest. Unlike with Megan, he did not soothe her with words.

  His powerful presence was enough.

  Soon, her sobs drained away into hitches, and she lifted her wet face. “I’m sorry,” she whispered, her voice hoarse.

  “Don’t be,” he replied. “I think I like being cried on by females.”

  He gently set her back down, then went into the bathroom. She heard running water, and Kane returned with a cold, wet washcloth. “Here.”

  Crouching beside her, he wiped her face for her, as though she were as small as Megan and Lila. His pale eyes gazed at her with compassion and kindness, and she understood better why he was the way he was. As he was not truly a human, he didn’t seem subject to the human need to be cruel to one another.

  “You are still the sweetest guy I know,” she murmured, trying to smile.

  He grinned. “Maybe you’re just attracted to us he-dragons.”

  Taylor snorted laughter and wiped her face, her fingers over his. “That has to be it.”

  “Soon, dragons will be the only folks you want to be around.”

  “If dragons are as strong and courageous and sweet as you, then yes. I do.”

  “We pretty much are,” he told her, sitting on the carpet at her feet. “Males are very possessive and protective of their mates. Once mated, a dragon never looks aside.”

  “There’s no cheating on one’s mate?”

  “So rare as to be almost nonexistent,” he said, smiling. “We’re very loyal to one another, and we very seldom fight amongst ourselves.”

  “How many are there of you?”

  “Our numbers have gone down over the last few hundred years,” he said. “There are dragons living among you permanently. They keep us updated with what you humans are up to and run vast corporations. That’s how we get money, but we don’t always use it.”

  He pulled a thick wad of money from his pocket, and Taylor gaped. “You’re carrying all that around with you?”

  “Well, yeah. What else am I to do with it?”

  “That’s asking to get robbed.”

  Kane looked at her, and Taylor chuckled. “Never mind. I pity anyone foolish enough to rob a dragon.”

  “Your Craig found out quickly enough what challenging a dragon does,” Kane went on. “Will he try again?”

  “I cannot say, Kane,” Taylor replied, chewing her lip. “He’s stupid crazy sometimes, and he’s not very predictable.”

  “Then let’s hope the cops arrest him before he learns what it means to piss me off.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  “I want to go home.”

  Kane eyed Taylor in surprise. “Is that smart right now?”

  She gazed at him in defiance over the restaurant table where they ate their breakfast. “If the police are out to arrest him, then Craig knows better than to go there. And with you with us—”

  Kane held his hand up, understanding the defiance now. “Slow down; let’s think about this.”

  “There’s nothing to think about,” Taylor replied, gazing at the kids, who ate pancakes with messy enthusiasm. “Being in a hotel is not good for them. We need you. Please. There’s an extra room, and the house is more comfortable than the hotel. Cheaper, too.”

  “But you’re also asking to aggravate Craig more.”

  “No matter what we do, he is going to be aggravated.”

  Kane nodded, seeing the sense in that. “What about this tracking device on your vehicle?”

  “I have no idea how to find it,” she answered. “So, we’ll park it somewhere and rent a car.”

  Impressed, Kane commented, “You’ve been thinking about this.”

  “All night when I couldn’t sleep.”

  “Then I accept. I’ll stay with you at the house.”

  Taylor grinned, obviously relieved. “Thanks. I hate to ask for your protection—”

  “Having a dragon around can be useful.”

  “That’s not what I meant,” she protested. “I also enjoy your company.”

  “Even so, dragons are useful.”

  At last, Taylor answered his grin. “I suppose so. When I need a tree uprooted.”

  “Setting it on fire is easier.”

  “Just how hot are your fires?” she asked, biting into bacon.

  Kane smirked. “Craig’s gun is now nothing but slag.”

  Choking, Taylor drank from her glass of water as the twins giggled at one another. “You burned him?”

  “I aimed for the gun, but yeah, his hands should be very painful right now.”

  “And that was just a small fire. I’m guessing you could do more.”

  “Had I used even half of what I’m capable of, Craig would not just be ash on the wind, but the entire hotel and half the block would be incinerated.”

  Taylor’s eyes widened until he thought they might fall right out of their sockets. “Is that why you don’t mix with us? Because of what you can do?”

  Kane snorted. “Hardly. If humans learned of us, they’d send every weapon they own against our people, and we’d be exterminated. Humans destroy anything they perceive as a threat, and that would inc
lude dragons.”

  “Yeah, unfortunately, you’re right,” she admitted. “Presidents and kings wouldn’t send ambassadors, they’d send rockets. Humans fear what they don’t understand.”

  “And how can they understand something that looks human but turns into a flying, fire breathing monster?”

  “You’re not a monster, Kane.”

  He shrugged. “Were you not terrified at first?”

  “Well, yeah, but after I realized it was you, then I was able to think coherently.”

  “If all folks were like you, then we could live among you in harmony. But you are willing to think, and consider, and learn. There are very few like you among your kind.”

  “I choose to believe there are more than you believe.”

  Kane gazed at Megan and Lila. “If human young were raised to understand, it might be different.”

  “True. But we haven’t even solved racism yet, and slavery was only a couple of generations ago.”

  Kane shook his head. “The world needs more dragons.”

  Thinking belatedly of his wound from the night before, Taylor asked, “How’s your injury?”

  Kane pulled the neck of his t-shirt down far enough to reveal the bullet hole already closed, and no redness or swelling around it. Taylor met his amused eyes in astonishment as the twins clamored for a look. Kane turned so they both could get a good look, though they probably didn’t understand the meaning of what they gaped at.

  “That’s incredible,” Taylor murmured.

  “We heal fast.”

  “Let’s hope Craig doesn’t,” Taylor added. “He has a very painful reminder of what it means to mess with you.”

  “If he’s smart, he’ll crawl under a rock and stay there.”

  As Taylor suspected Craig would be too busy nursing his wounds and hiding in terror from Kane, she thought they had a day or two of freedom from worry. “When and if he finds his balls again, then we worry.”

  Thus, she and Kane packed their belongings at the hotel and put everything, including the kids, in the van.

  “There’s a car rental place along this road,” Taylor explained as they drove from it. “We’ll park this near the lot and rent a car that Craig doesn’t know.”

  “But he’ll see it at your house.”