Dragon Fever: Limited Edition Holiday Romance Boxset

by Serena Meadows

  Johnson nodded. “You sure can. You need anything, you let me know.”

  He sent her a quick wink and a smile, then departed her hospital room. The door swung shut behind him, then opened again a moment later. Kane, his face swollen, bruised, and scraped raw, entered with two small hands in his. He moved stiffly and limped, but he was alive.

  “Hey, there’s your mama,” he whispered.

  Then all Taylor saw were her babies.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Sitting in a chair, aching all over, Kane held both girls on his lap, cradled in his arms. They had fallen asleep on his chest while he listened to the conversation between Taylor and her mother, Jackie. He had called her mother from the hospital waiting room on Taylor’s phone, and now she wept over her daughter and grandchildren.

  “I’m so sorry I didn’t believe you,” Jackie told her, tears running down her face. “I really thought that bastard was gone.”

  “I know, Mom. Stop fussing.”

  Taylor kept looking at him and the twins, as though unable to believe they were alive. After being helped out of the wreck of three cars, the twins screaming from the rear seats as firefighters and EMTs cut them free, Taylor lying unconscious, bleeding, on a gurney, Kane also found it difficult to believe they all survived.

  Despite his terrible pain, bleeding from many cuts, his right leg feeling as though it were broken, Kane wouldn’t let the EMTs or firemen touch him. Taylor and two other people were taken away by ambulance, but he rode to the hospital with the girls in another, watching over them as the medics examined them carefully.

  The car seats and the side impact airbags saved their lives, he was told. The airbags saved himself and Taylor, they said. While Taylor was in another part of the hospital with doctors removing the bullet, Kane refused to let the twins out of his sight. He stayed in the room while they were checked over, and their only injuries were cuts from flying glass and a few bruises.

  The big cop asked him questions at length, and Kane answered them all honestly. Of course, he neglected to speak of protecting Taylor and the twins from Craig Westerman at the hotel by turning into a dragon and burning the man’s gun. But in all else, he told the truth.

  “You really should let the docs have a look at you,” Lieutenant Johnson suggested. “You’re a mess.”

  “I’m fine.” Kane gave him a lopsided smile. “I heal fast.”

  “Just don’t go suing nobody if you don’t.”

  Now he wished Jackie would cease her fussing even as Taylor asked her to. She sat in a chair next to the bed, wiping her face with tissues, worrying about what Craig would try next.

  “Maybe he thinks he killed us,” Taylor offered helpfully, and that set off another weeping fit.

  “Can you leave now?” Kane asked, wanting to get Taylor home so he could take care of her.

  “The doc says I’m here until at least tomorrow,” Taylor replied. “Mom, please take Kane and the girls back to my house.”

  “No, I can’t leave you here. What if he comes here to kill you?”

  “I’m in a hospital, Mom,” Taylor said patiently. “The next safest place is a police station. Please.”

  Jackie looked at Kane, who nodded. “The kids need to be in their beds. You’ll stay with us tonight.”

  He didn’t make it a suggestion. Jackie relented after staring at him for a long time, and then stood up. Bending, she kissed Taylor’s brow. “We’ll be back in the morning, sweetheart.”

  “Take care of him, Mom,” Taylor told her, smiling a little. “I love him.”

  Kane also stood, but he couldn’t bend to kiss her as he wanted, not with the sleeping twins in his arms. Instead, he kissed her with his eyes, smiling, then winked. “You rest now,” he said softly. “These two will be just fine.”

  “I know. I love you.”

  “Love you, too.”

  He followed Jackie out of the hospital, seeing cops everywhere. They lined the corridor walls, the lobby, and he wondered if they were there for Taylor or themselves. Officers Harrison and Adams stopped him briefly to ask about Taylor.

  “She’ll be okay,” Kane replied. “Will someone watch over her? I have to get these two home.”

  “She’ll be guarded,” Harrison replied, his tone grim.

  Lieutenant Johnson, talking with a group of cops, nodded his respect as Kane limped past and out of the lobby. The cool night air felt good on his skin as he followed Jackie across the parking lot. He gazed up at the big sign that spelled out EMERGENCY, at the ambulances parked nearby. His pain increased with every step, and he wondered if Taylor had any pain pills in the house.

  “I don’t have any child safety seats,” Jackie said, her tone slightly wild as she clicked to unlock the doors to a big sedan.

  “I’ll hold them.”

  Jackie held the door open for him as he eased into the car, the twins not stirring in the least. She closed the door, then walked around to her side and got in.

  “I want to thank you for all you’re doing for her,” Jackie said. “I’m sorry you’re catching me at my worst, but I am grateful.”

  “I love her,” Kane said simply.

  “I know that, too. And for that, I am also grateful.”

  She didn’t speak much as she drove back to Taylor’s house. Once there, Jackie helped him get the twins settled into their beds in their room, then led him out. She turned to him in the hallway, staring up into his face with a frown.

  “Why won’t you let the doctors help you? Don’t you have insurance?”

  “Uh, no. But it’s not that. I’m all right.”

  “The hell you are. I’m not dumb, Kane, I see you’re hurting. Get in the bathroom.”

  Unable to resist Taylor’s small but somehow fierce mother, he obeyed. At her order, he removed his shirt, but under no circumstances would he take his jeans off. She glowered, her hands on her hips.

  “It’s not like you have anything I haven’t seen, dammit.”

  Kane glowered back. “I’m bigger than you. My pants stay on.”

  Grumbling under her breath, Jackie washed his many scrapes and cuts on his chest, back, stomach, and arms. “I bet you have cracked ribs,” she stated, eyeing the massive black stain spreading across his right side.

  “I did get a car’s front-end smacking into them.”

  “Don’t be a smartass with me, mister.”

  As laughing hurt too much, Kane settled for a grin. “You’re just like Taylor.”

  She huffed. “She is my daughter.”

  “Does your daughter have anything for pain in those cabinets?”

  Jackie searched and found a bottle of something called Percocet. “Take two of these and call me in the morning.”

  Kane eyed her warily as he swallowed the pills. “Was that supposed to be funny?”

  “In another lifetime. Take them and find me a weapon.”

  Limping out of the bathroom, Kane showed her where the service belt was. Jackie eyed it with disillusion, then up at him. “I said a weapon, not a stupid nonlethal firebox.”

  “Just don’t shoot me, all right?”

  He gave her Craig’s former service gun, fetched from his room. “You going to stand watch all night?”

  “Just watch me, sonny. That asshole won’t get near those babies.”

  Still clad in his jeans, Kane watched her march from his room. “Wake me if you need me.”

  “You’ll hear the gunfire.”

  When she had gone, he half-closed the door, then unzipped his jeans to pull them off. His right leg was a mess. Swollen, blackly bruised, he suspected his ribs weren’t the only bones he had cracked. From his hip to his ankle, his skin had been scraped raw.

  “Those airbags can shred your skin like nothing.”

  “Get out,” he roared.

  Jackie smirked from the doorway. “Good night.”

  In the darkness, Kane lay on the bed, hurting more than when he had been shot. In fact, getting shot was nothing compared to this. His mind cons
tantly roved to Taylor, worrying over her safety, and would not leave. I shouldn’t have left her; I shouldn’t have left her.

  At long last, the pills kicked in and knocked him out.

  Sunlight streaming in through the windows woke him. Kane lay with his arm over his eyes to shut it out, tasting something nasty in his mouth. Flexing his right leg under the blanket, he found it more painful than he liked, yet moved with greater ease than the previous night.

  Slowly sitting up, he examined his cuts and bruises. His open wounds had closed for the most part, but his bruises hadn’t faded as he had hoped. Listening, he heard Jackie’s voice coming from what he thought was the kitchen, and the twins answering.

  Donning a fresh pair of jeans, Kane limped from his room and down the hall. Peering into the kitchen, he saw the twins sitting at the table and Jackie wearing Craig’s service gun on her hip. She might have appeared comical if not for Taylor in the hospital, and the small cuts on the twins’ faces.

  “Morning,” he greeted them.

  “Good morning, sunshine,” Jackie replied, looking him up and down as he limped over to the table.

  Bending stiffly, he kissed Lila and Megan, checking the cuts for signs of infection. For the first time since he’d known them, they didn’t play or giggle. “How are the princesses?”

  Neither answered but watched him gravely with milk dripping down their chins. He glanced quizzically at Jackie.

  “They’ll be all right,” she replied to his silent question. “They’re sore, and they woke up in the night, crying. They need a little time, that’s all.”

  “And Taylor.”

  “That, too.”

  “Are we going to go get her from the hospital?”

  “I think it’s best if I go,” Jackie replied, pouring coffee into a mug. “We don’t have car seats. Even without Craig in the picture, driving with little ones and no safety seats is a risk.”

  Kane nodded slowly, watching the girls. “That’s what kept them alive yesterday.”

  “Yep.”

  “Give me time to shower before you go.”

  Desperate to see Taylor again, he wanted to go with Jackie to get her from the hospital. He saw Jackie’s wisdom of not risking the twins in another accident. The hot water felt good on his sore and battered body, sluicing down his ribs and legs. It loosened his stiff muscles as well as eased some of his pain.

  Megan and Lila sat on the floor in front of the television when he emerged from his room with damp hair and clean clothes. He walked into the living room in time to see Jackie stuff the gun in her purse, and it made him grin.

  “You’re as tough as Taylor.”

  “Where do you think she gets it from? Now it may take a while to get her discharged, so don’t worry if we’re not back right away. Feed the kids sandwiches for their lunch, no soda, and, under the circumstances, they can watch TV.”

  “They’ll be fine. You and Taylor are the ones who need to be careful.”

  Jackie gave him a sharp look. “You need to stay alert as well, Kane. That idiot might try something here. He’s insane, and there’s no telling what he might try.”

  Kane recalled Craig approaching the four of them with a gun, obviously planning to shoot every one of them down. He clearly had no compunction about killing children. “He won’t touch these kids.”

  She smiled. “You’re a good man. I like you.”

  Sitting on the couch watching her leave, Kane wondered what she’d think if she knew he wasn’t a man at all, but a dragon. Outside, her car started up, and the sound faded away as she drove down the street. Not feeling hungry, he settled back on the couch to watch the show that fascinated Lila and Megan.

  And to wait.

  Jackie returned with Taylor just as Kane fed the twins their lunch. Her arm in a sling, her face wan, she nonetheless smiled as he took her carefully into his arms.

  “You’re back,” he whispered, kissing her lightly, yet with love.

  “I am so glad to be back,” Taylor murmured, her healthy right hand in his. “You know, hospitals are supposed to help you heal, but they never let you sleep so you can.”

  “Now you’re home, you can sleep all you want. Are you hungry?”

  Leaving him, Taylor went to Lila to kiss her messy cheek, then Megan’s. The twins grinned, chattering away in which he only understood the word “Mommy”. But he felt glad to hear them talking again, as they had been too silent for his comfort.

  “No, not really,” Taylor replied, sitting down at the table. “I’m just sore and tired.”

  “You need to eat,” Jackie told her, fussing once again.

  “I ate this morning,” Taylor told her. She looked up at Kane. “How are you doing? You’re still limping.”

  “I’ve been better,” Kane admitted, leaning against the counter. “I’ll be all right in a day or two.”

  “Huh,” Jackie snorted. “I saw his leg. He’s lucky it’s not shattered. And his ribs. Jeez.”

  Rolling his eyes at Taylor’s concerned expression and Jackie’s drama, Kane said, “I’m fine.”

  “I hope so,” Taylor murmured, looking at Megan. “Because this is not over. Craig isn’t done yet.”

  Chapter Nineteen

  Staring blankly at the television, Craig munched cold pizza, trying to decide what to do. Though his plan had worked, insofar as he shot at Taylor as she drove the van, and then bolted for his car upon witnessing the terrible wreck, he realized it had also failed.

  Taylor was still alive.

  Craig had lurked among the crowd of looky-loos that gathered at every accident; he watched the police, EMTs, and firefighters extract all of them from the mangled Honda. The big blond dude, covered in blood, had infuriated Craig until he thought he’d lose his mind. The asshole strutted like a rooster as he watched over the screaming twins.

  Now he had to come up with another plan. Craig still had Cliff’s hunting rifle, and now every cop in Portland would be hunting him. Cliff would have reported it missing, and no evidence of a break-in pointed straight to Craig. They would match the bullets from the shooting to the gun.

  “Dammit,” he muttered, throwing the rest of the pizza in the box. “She should have died. He should have died.”

  Gazing at his still-reddened hands, half-healed now of their burns, Craig absently considered making a run to Canada. Every police hand was against him, he had broken too many rules. Cliff would never forgive him for embroiling him in a shooting.

  “But not until they’re both dead,” he growled. “Once they’re both dead, I can sneak into Canada and start a new life.”

  Plan after plan invaded his head, and he rejected them as not foolproof enough. What he needed was to be in absolute control of the situation. Only then could he succeed in killing Taylor and her boy-toy.

  “Control,” he murmured, thinking. “How do I get control?”

  An idea formed in his mind. Craig smiled, then laughed out loud. “Bang, bang, you’re dead.” Then he howled with laughter.

  Walking with Kane across the porch, Taylor breathed deeply of the sweet-scented night air. “How long will you be gone?” she asked.

  “Not very long.”

  Kane gazed up into the dark sky. “I just need to fly for a while and have a look around.”

  Her left arm still in its sling, her wound continued to throb and ache. The doctor told it was healing fine, however, and soon she wouldn’t be hurting much at all. Jackie had returned to living in her own house, and the insurance company had popped for the rental car sitting in the driveway.

  Kane didn’t fly every night, but from the air, circling the neighborhood on silent wings, he hoped to spot Craig. Taylor felt certain he watched them from somewhere, but since he’d shot her, they hadn’t had further trouble from him.

  He bent to kiss her, then winked. “Back soon.”

  Stepping away from her, he changed into his dragon. As many times as she’d seen it happen, Taylor never failed to be startled. First, Kane was there in
front of her, then his dragon was. Yet, it also delighted her.

  Lowering his huge head, Kane stared into her face. Taylor caressed his muzzle, his warm hide not quite fur and not scales, yet something in between. Flaring his wings, Kane nudged her gently, his jaws widening slightly in what Taylor thought was a grin. It looked humorous, anyway.

  Retreating to give him more room, Taylor admired his leap skyward, his wings sweeping a huge wash of air into her face. Dragging her hair from her eyes, she watched him climb higher, then bank over the neighbor’s house. Still, he circled overhead, his pale eyes almost glowing in the dark.

  Then he vanished into it.

  Taylor went back into the house to the twins who watched the last few minutes of their show before going to bed. Sitting on the sofa, half her mind was with Kane in flight, the other half worrying about what Craig might do next. She kept his service weapon close at hand at all times, took it everywhere with her. But she knew that with careful planning, Craig still might manage to kill them.

  “Okay, babies, time for bed.”

  Reluctant, yet not exactly complaining, Lila and Megan stood up. Taylor turned the television off, then also stood to escort them to their room. With Kane’s help, they had already been bathed and their teeth brushed, but neither wanted to go to bed.

  “What’s the matter, sweeties?” she asked, tucking them into their small beds as they still pouted.

  “Want Kane.”

  Lila rubbed her eyes, her lips pursed. Taylor leaned over and kissed her, smiling.

  “Kane had to go out for a while,” Taylor told her. “He’ll be back soon.”

  Lila started to cry, then Megan joined in, a sure sign they were tired. Since the accident, the girls had grown extremely attached to Kane and didn’t like being away from him. Taylor suspected much of that came from his being there when they were hurt and frightened; they trusted him on an instinctual level. They tended to cling to him and were insecure when he wasn’t around.

  “Settle down, girls, and I’ll read you a story.”