by Roxie Ray
I understood why they needed discretion, but it made me hopeful. Not enough to rush back home and risk it, though. We left Tennessee and went to the other three territories, taking turns driving to keep our time cut down. Still, it had been two weeks since we’d left Bluewater.
The other three territories gave me so much more information. They all had a human mate in their clan. All were safe. I’d never felt such relief in my entire life.
About ten minutes from town, my phone rang. I hit the button. “Hey, Sammy, what’s up? We’re almost back.”
“Anthony, something’s wrong.”
My instincts went on high alert. Jace sat up and stared at the phone, even though Sammy’s voice came out of the car speakers. “What is it?”
“Tessa came to me earlier today, telling me you’d instructed her to employ me to wipe Skylar’s memories of the clan.”
“I did no such thing. Tell me you didn’t do it!” I gripped the steering wheel as my rage spiked and tried to drive sensibly.
“Of course not. But I wasn’t sure where you were with the search, and I didn’t want to bother you. I went and had lunch with Skye and decided she’s not a threat to our clan. I let her know what Tessa tried to do and came home. Tessa called me to see how it had gone, and I told her the truth.”
“I bet she didn’t take it well,” Jace said. I tried to laugh bitterly, but it came out as a growl. I was too angry and worried.
“Yeah, she kinda flipped. I’ve known her since she was a little girl and I’ve never seen her like that. She’s always been catty and scheming, but this was off the deep end. She said she’d handle it herself. I rolled my eyes at first and started to let it go, but then I got worried. I called Skye’s office, and she was still there working, so I waited. When I called them again and the office was closed, I tried her cell. I still had her number that you’d given me, so I tried to call, but it went straight to voicemail. I went to her house, and Anthony, there’s something majorly wrong.”
“What?” I yelled. “Spit it out!”
“I can’t get in. I’m afraid to directly attack with magic because it might rebound on me. There’s a sickly feeling in the air and a stench. I think Tessa’s gotten her hands on an untied witch, one without a clan or coven. There aren’t many witches that go without the protection and companionship of a witch family, but they are out there. Even rarer are witches willing to do this sort of magic without the sanction of a clan alpha or coven priestess.”
“Get to the point, Sammy.”
“The point is that I can’t fight it with magic. You are going to have to come with muscle. There’s a ward around the house! Get your ass here and fast because they’re going to scramble this poor girl’s brains.”
I hit the gas and Jace grabbed the phone, switching it off of the car’s system. “You focus on driving,” he said.
We were close to town, but Skye lived several minutes past that. I drove like I’d never driven in my life. He spoke to Sammy in a low voice, ordering the clan warriors to report and meet us at Skye’s.
We hadn’t had any clan wars in hundreds of years, but as was tradition, we had a fighting force, prepared to assemble at a moment’s notice.
I focused on weaving around slow cars and praying none of the police force was out. Jace hung up and made other phone calls, so he likely was warning our clan members that were officers. And sure enough, moments later, a police car pulled out in front of me as I rocketed down Main Street. I hated to take such a public route, but it was the fastest way to get to Skye. The car drove in front of me with the siren on and lights flashing, helping us clear the path to get to my mate.
“Tell him to turn off the siren. We want to approach as quietly as we can.”
Jace pressed buttons on the phone again, and a few seconds later looked at me. “Got it. He knows.” The sirens cut off far enough away that Tessa might think they went in another direction if she’d heard them from this far away.
I knew Tessa had a thing for me, but this was so far above and beyond anything I ever imagined she would do. I never thought she’d go to such lengths. She loved her clan. She had to know this meant major punishment. I wasn’t even sure what I was going to do about this. It would depend on what Sammy could help me with.
As we got closer, the officer in front of us, I wasn’t sure which one it was, turned off his lights. He pulled off on the road beside Skye’s house but out of sight of her front windows. I went forward and parked behind her car in her driveway. I felt the magic before I stopped the car. Sammy was right. There was some sort of magical protection around the house. Jace made a gagging sound as we pulled up. “Oh, that’s foul.”
I threw it in park and launched myself out of the car, running hellbent for the front door. This felt like some dark, sick magic Tessa was about to use or was already using on my mate. The ward hit me like a freight train. I stopped short, nearly losing my breath as I hit it. Pushing forward, I strained against it. It fought me, but then the scent changed from foul, rotten eggs and sulfur to a bright spring day, like a field of flowers. I looked back to see Sammy standing in a defensive position, bent forward with her hands outstretched. Her icy blue eyes flashed as she groaned and fought against the magic. “Keep trying!” she yelled. “I’m just helping you get in!”
Cars began to pull up to the house, filling up the driveway and the road surrounding the area as dragons poured out of them. It wasn’t just my warriors that had arrived.
My entire clan was here.
I turned, bolstered by Sammy’s magic and the knowledge that I had the backing of what looked like all of my clan, and pushed forward.
This time, I was able to break through. The ward tried to steal my breath, but I pushed and pushed until I stumbled forward several steps, sucking in a deep breath of air.
As soon as the black spots faded, I ran to the door and slammed against it as I turned the handle. It opened easily.
As soon as I passed through, the stench of sulfur intensified about ten times. Tessa was in the corner of Skye’s small living room and it looked like she was out cold.
A woman I didn’t know stood in the middle of the room and Skye was laid out on the couch. The witch was totally focused on Skye, and the look in her eyes was pure greed. “I was going to just take her memories, take the money, and go. But then I smelled it on her.” She breathed in deeper.
The witch stepped forward and blocked me from Skye as she bent over and put her hand on Skye’s stomach.
The witch finally looked at me. “In all my years, I never knew a human could create life with a dragon. This is unprecedented.”
My stomach dropped. Elation filled me, but it was chased away by terror. Skye was carrying my child, but the witch had her magic in Skye.
“I can only imagine the spells I could create with the mixed breed’s blood.”
I surged forward, ready to rip her head from her body, but she held up her hand.
“Don’t move another muscle or you’ll end up just like that little bitch over there. She tried to stop me when she found out about the spawn in this human’s womb. I’m going to have this baby.”
A glow surrounded Skye’s stomach.
I wanted to shift, but the room was too small. I’d be likely to trample everyone.
There was only one thing a witch couldn’t fight against: Dragonfire. But I wasn’t that sort of dragon. I channeled water, not fire. But it had been known to happen.
My dragon couldn’t speak to me. It wasn’t that sort of relationship. He wasn’t a sentient being. He was a part of me. But thoughts of trust washed over me, and I let my dragon take the lead.
He was raging inside me, anyway. I wasn’t sure how much longer I could’ve held him off.
I didn’t want to hurt Skye, but I had to get the witch away from her. My throat shifted, and something inside me did as well.
This time, it was painful. Partial shifts weren’t really supposed to happen. Part of my inside turned, and fire rose up my thro
at. It burned as it went, but I let my dragon do what he needed to do, and he fired a shot of pure dragonfire at the witch. I didn’t really want to hit the witch, but for it to be enough to get her to back away from Skye.
It worked. She turned toward me and jumped back, luckily closer to the front door. I shot fire again, catching the curtains alight right over Skye. But I could get her out, first I had to get this witch out of the house.
The witch was pissed. She screamed and sent spells at me, but I kept shooting fire at her until she backed out of the house. Then I crowded her.
“Sammy!” I yelled. “Get Skye out and make sure nobody can see us!”
“Kill her!” she screamed, telling me we were covered. I watched as Jace and my dad fought against the ward. They’d get Skye and my baby out.
The witch sent another spell my way, which I ducked. It hit the house, catching another spot on fire.
Enough. I shifted fully into a dragon, filling up the front yard and breathing more fire toward the witch but away from my family as they tried to get in the house. I had an idea and lifted my head, directing a pure, white-hot stream of flames at the ward.
It had the intended effect. Jace and Dad let out grunts as the ward disappeared and they fell through.
Good. Now I could give the witch my full focus.
If a dragon could grin, I would’ve. She shot spell after spell at me, but my hide protected me. She tried focusing on my face, the most vulnerable part of me, but the fire kept melting the spells before they struck.
The downside was that producing the fire depleted my energy at an alarming rate. I didn’t want to take a life. As a doctor, I’d spent all of my adult life fighting to save all the lives I could. But I couldn’t see any other way around it.
I focused on the witch and opened my mouth again. With a mighty roar, I blasted her with the hottest, thickest dragonfire I could muster. It encompassed her, lighting her on fire immediately.
Her scream, the horrific sound of her dying, would be a sound that would stay with me until the day I died.
The witch’s magic burst from her and hovered in the air, wild and unstable. Sammy rushed forward. “Go,” she yelled. “See to Skye!”
She turned and did something, waving her arms around, but I didn’t have time to see what it was. I turned to find Jace carrying Skye out of the burning house and my dad carrying Tessa. We rushed out into the yard, well away from the fire.
The rest of my clan shifted. Sammy did something and started yelling. “Shift! Use your waterpowers!”
In minutes, the dragons had shifted, and water flowed from my clan onto my mate’s house. I didn’t care about that right now. If she were well, I’d build Skye a million houses. I only worried about what was happening inside her. I collapsed in the side yard beside her, where Jace carefully set her down. “Skye,” I whispered.
Sammy rushed over and dropped down between Tessa and Skye. She put one hand on each of them and closed her eyes. Shuddering, she moaned and stiffened, but then seconds later, both Skye’s and Tessa’s eyes opened.
Sammy leaned forward and retched into the grass as both Skye and Tessa gasped and sat up.
I gathered Skye into my arms and began to sob. “I’m so sorry,” I said into her shoulder. “I should’ve been here for you.”
She patted me on the shoulder. “What in the hell happened?”
I didn’t have words to explain it. I felt silly, the big bad alpha sobbing into his mate’s hair, but I couldn’t help it.
I was that relieved.
23
Skylar
My house reeked of smoke. I sat at my kitchen table with a cup of tea that someone had put in front of me. I couldn’t remember coming home. The last thing I could bring to mind was being at the hospital, shocked at the news I’d gotten at lunch. I realized my hand was on my stomach and jerked it away before the rest of the people sitting around the table noticed.
Tessa sat across from me, looking like guilt personified. My house was totally wrecked. In my daze, I couldn’t muster much grief for it, but I knew myself, later on, I’d be upset about some of the things that had burned. Books on my bookshelf beside the front window. My curtains that had been Dad’s. And I loved that sofa, just a pile of ash now.
Members of Anthony’s clan moved furniture out as we sat, and I tried to wrap my mind around everything. Anthony’s mom sat beside me with one hand on my back. “Darling, are you sure nothing hurts?” she asked.
“Yes, but I need to go get something checked out,” I whispered. I wanted an ultrasound. I needed to make sure the baby was still there and there was a heartbeat.
Sammy tapped the handle of the teacup. “Drink that. It’ll bolster you up, and the babies, too.”
I stared at her in shock, my gaze darting from her to Anthony, and then his parents. “The what?”
Anthony mimicked me. “The what?”
Sammy’s eyes widened. “I thought you knew,” she whispered and covered her mouth. “You didn’t know you’re pregnant?”
“You did?” I asked. “And you said babies, plural.”
She nodded. “Yes, I sense two distinct souls in there.”
My jaw dropped. “No, no way. I only found out today. I haven’t even had time to tell Anthony or my dad!”
“Well, they’re healthy and strong.” She reached over and patted my shoulder. “And the tea will help, so drink up.”
I pulled the cup to my lips with shaking hands and drank. It was tasty, at least.
“Are you okay?” Anthony asked. “Really?”
Sammy smiled. “Well, I gotta run. You two don’t need me anymore.”
“Are you sure?” I whispered.
She just winked and looked at her bare wrist, as if she were checking her watch. “Gotta go!”
“I’m fine,” I said, answering Anthony’s question. “I just want to know what the hell happened.”
He nodded. “Right, well, let’s get sorted. Mom, Dad, can you see to locking Tessa up until we know what to do with her?”
Tessa moaned. “I’m so sorry,” she whimpered. “I thought I was helping you.”
Anthony glared at her. “You were trying to help yourself. Get out of my sight.”
His dad squeezed his shoulder and they left, marching Tessa between them.
“Couldn’t she just run away?” I asked.
“I don’t think she will,” he said. “Come on. Let my clan work on your house. We’ll have it back as good as new in no time. In the meantime, will you stay at my place?”
I looked at my destroyed living room. Part of the wall had burned totally through. It was going to need so much work. “Yeah, I’ll stay with you.”
My only other choice was staying with Dad, and I could always do that if Anthony pissed me off or didn’t have a really damn good explanation.
I downed the rest of the tea now that it had cooled and felt a little stronger almost as soon as I finished it. I made a note to remember to thank Sammy later on.
After some finagling of cars, since most of Anthony’s clan was still at my house, he extracted my car and drove us straight to his place. As soon as the door shut, I started grilling him.
“What happened?”
He grimaced. “Today or over the last two weeks?”
I had a good idea of what had gone down today. “Start at the beginning.”
“We’ve been on the road nonstop. I’ve been texting you every night, but you never replied. I just knew you were so mad at me that you’d never speak to me again when you never replied.”
I held up one hand. “Hold on. What do you mean every night? I haven’t gotten a single text from you!”
He leaned over and dug his phone out of his pocket with his eyes on the dark road. I wasn’t sure when the sun had set, but it was pitch black on the quiet beach road now. “Look for yourself.”
Hey, he suggested it, so I went for it. I scrolled through his messages, glancing only briefly at the ones that didn’t apply to me. Under my
name, there were dozens of messages.
We’re halfway to Tennessee. Stopping for the night. I miss you.
Got some encouraging news in TN! More when I’m surer. Miss you.
Please just text me and let me know you’re okay.
Miss you.
Love you.
We’ll figure this out, Skylar, please believe that.
They went on like that. Short, but so sweet. “Anthony, I didn’t get any of these,” I exclaimed. “I wouldn’t have felt so abandoned the last two weeks! After the first couple of nights, I cooled off and really worried about where you were. I only sent you one text, out of stubbornness, I guess, but never got a reply.”
I held up my phone when he stopped at a stoplight. All I’d sent to him was, I miss you.
“Check the phone numbers,” he said as he waited for a car to pass in front of us at the four-way stop and then he went.
I clicked his name on my message to see the phone number. “207-555-6238.”
“My number ends in 6239. Now check your number in my phone.”
I looked, and sure enough. “Mine is off by one digit, too.” I changed it and then fixed his number in my phone. “I’m assuming Tessa did that,” I said, my voice nearly matching the severity of Anthony’s when he did his angry growling thing.
“I’ll find out,” he replied.
I sighed and leaned against the seat. “So, you got good news?”
“Yes, I visited four clans that all had a human living amongst them, who had taken the bite. They had zero complications. When I told them about the woman in Washington, they were shocked. The only conclusion any of us could come up with was perhaps they weren’t really fated, and the dragon was mistaken about the direction of his affections. I don’t see how that could happen, it seems unlikely he’d be confused about who his tattoo burned for. But two of the clans I visited knew of other instances of the mating that were not their secrets to tell. They told me they were not in America, so I know they weren’t the same clans I went to see. Those clans also had success. So, if the Washington clan’s experience was a true one, and it is possible, we have a one in seven chance of you not responding well to the bite.”