I roared again, covering everything around me in a swath of ice. Wolves came racing from the edges of the forest. They began picking off the soldiers still firing at me one by one. I sent the offending vehicle and soldiers flying dozens of feet into the air with another swipe of my tail. The wolves fell on the rest and I stumbled.
Breathing was difficult. I gulped in the cold winter air, but it did not help much. That last shot must have hurt me worse than I realized.
Everything around me began to fade. My vision blurred and then changed. My body shifted back to human form and I flickered my eyes open and closed. Wolves rushed back and forth around me, then I finally saw Eira’s pale blue eyes and heard her voice telling me to suck it up, that I “wasn’t allowed to die on her.” And something about “being a stupid, stubborn dragon.”
If I had more energy I would have laughed at her, but at that moment, I really wanted to sleep. My heavy eyelids closed again and the voices around me faded to silence. I really hoped all the soldiers were gone.
The buzzing, white torchlight greeted my eyes as they opened. I squinted and turned my head, hoping to see a familiar face. It was. Just not the face I wanted to see.
Instead of Eira’s friendly blue eyes, Charlie’s dark brown ones met my gaze. Her eyes widened when she realized I had awakened. She rose from her chair and moved to my bedside, wiping my forehead with a damp cloth. It felt like a cool drink of water to my burning skin.
“Where is Eira?”
“She’s meeting with a mutual friend of ours. Apparently there are two wolves from Texas looking for you in Ada. We’re trying to figure out how they even know about you.”
I licked my dry, cracked lips and swallowed. My chest hurt like I’d been run through with a broadsword. Pain shot through me like fire every time I drew a breath. “I need to see them.” I struggled to move even a fraction of an inch. Visions of the men in my dreams flashed through my mind. “Were they twins?”
A growl rumbled in Charlie’s throat. “Stay still. That 55 caliber put a couple of holes in your chest. You need to lie still and rest while your body rebuilds itself.” She paused for a moment. “Manda didn’t say if they were twins. Just that they were two wolves from Texas. Why?”
“Please. I want to speak to them,” I groaned and tried to move again. There had to be a connection. Why else would they be looking specifically for me? “Please,” I said, holding back a wheeze.
“If you promise to stay in bed, I’ll send in Eira. Deal?”
I nodded, wincing again. All the talking made me breathe deeper and it hurt so badly tears were running from the corners of my eyes.
She stopped at the doorway and turned back to face me. “Thank you for risking your life for the pack. You saved lives that night. We owe you a debt and I promise we will help you in any way we can.” She started to say more, but didn’t and slipped out the door.
I had earned their respect and gratitude. Something told me that was no small feat.
Lifting my head slightly, I raised the sheet covering my body and bit back a whimper. My ribs were wrapped in layers of gauze. Spots of red stained the white bandage in three places.
Three wounds. No wonder I felt as though I’d been run through. I glanced around the room, bare white walls, no windows, and the floor looked like stone. All of it was covered in a thin layer of clear ice, of course. Even wounded and unconscious, I couldn’t keep from icing everything around me.
I tried to draw a deeper breath and hissed through the pain that burned in my lungs. It was unbearable and I wished unconsciousness would come back to claim me.
Chapter 14
MILES
“Rose!” Eli and I both yelled as we stomped into the cafe at four in the morning. The French doors shuddered behind me, slamming back into place. A little harder and I probably would’ve broken the glass—again. I didn’t care.
Diana was in trouble and we were bound to this place out of honor.
I could feel her pain and confusion like it was my own. I knew Eli could feel the same and it was driving us both mad. She was much closer now, but she’d gotten hurt again. This time worse. This time she was struggling to heal.
She needed us. If the wound was severe enough, it would take all three of us together to heal her. We could lose her if we waited too long.
“Yes?” She poked her head out of the kitchen, her eyes wide with surprise. “Y’all are here awfully early for breakfast.”
“You have to send Travis and Garrett again. They have to bring her back with them somehow. She’s close. Maybe a couple hundred miles. She has to be in Oklahoma.” I gripped the edge of the counter and forced a deep breath. Diana’s pain ran through me like flames racing along a trail of gasoline. It was as if every breath she took caused her agony.
“Rose. She’s dying,” Eli growled, saying aloud what I’d been unwilling to admit.
But I knew it and my dragon did, too. He paced and pushed and it took every ounce of my strength not to shift and fly straight to her side. Our bond acted like a homing beacon. Knowing she was fewer than three hours away was tearing us apart at the seams. We’d been snapping at the Sisters for days and now they scurried away as soon as they saw us.
I released a deep breath and it raised the temperature in the cafe by a good ten degrees.
Rose wiped her forehead and narrowed her brow. “Are you sure? Travis said the smuggler they spoke to knew about the dragon shifter, but not where she was. If they were bringing her to Oklahoma all along, wouldn’t they have told them?”
“Who did they speak to?” Eli asked, pacing the length of the counter.
“Her name was Eira.”
“That’s it?”
“That’s the only name she shared. They did say she was a vampire and able to walk in the sunlight.”
Rose came around from behind the cafe counter and stood before me. She looked up and met my gaze with her soft brown eyes and some of the anxiety in my heart faded a little. I knew she would do her best for us, but it was so hard not to do it myself.
“I will send one of the pixies to fetch Travis and Garrett.” She touched my arm, but withdrew it quickly. My body temperature was high right now and uncomfortable for anyone but another dragon to touch.
“The vampire is old then and has witches for friends. I wonder if Meredith or her sister knows her.” I released the counter and tried to calm the fire rising within me. No need to melt the wallpaper if I could help it. She’d make me replace it.
“We will find her, old friend. I promise.” She looked past me to my brother. “Eli, please.”
He stopped pacing and looked up.
“I promise you. We will find her. If she’s in Oklahoma, then she’s almost home.” She spoke with such certainty that it was difficult not to take her at her word. But the radiating pain in our chests said we were racing against the clock. Diana didn’t have much time. Travis and Garrett needed to hurry.
Rose disappeared into the kitchen, calling Maven’s name. Rushed footsteps upstairs said she’d been waiting for the call since we had arrived. The back door of the cafe slammed and I turned to my brother.
His eyes were glowing orange. The flames of his dragon were pushing to the surface. He frowned and sat himself at one of the closest tables.
“How are you keeping your dragon at bay? Mine is clawing at my insides.”
I shook my head and walked to him, sitting in the chair across from him at the small square table. “Mine is the same. We’ve been battling it out since we felt the first shot of pain days ago. I just keep reminding myself that she’s alive and close. We will have her in our arms soon, brother. We will be united once more. Our fathers’ legacy will continue and the House of Blackmoor will have a chance to reign in the Veil again one day.”
“You think she has one of the daggers of Shamesh?” Eli’s eyes shifted back to brown. The distraction had worked.
“There’s no other way she could be here. Those four daggers are the only way in or out of
the Veil. After all these years …” It had been so long. My heart broke at the thought of Leif and Kevan torturing her for centuries. Eli and I had watched them hurt her when the House of Blackmoor fell, helpless to protect Diana or any of our family. They’d slain our mother and our fathers without remorse.
Then when escape was within our reach, Diana been snatched from our grasp at the last second. Another reason we fought with Rose against Xerxes—he was the one responsible for taking our mate from us and leaving us trapped in the earth realm, unable to save her.
Eli reached across the table and touched my shoulder. “Vengeance will be ours, brother.”
“Yes.” I nodded, grimacing through the phantom pain in my chest. “They will all pay with their lives.”
I looked up at him. His eyes were completely brown again and glassy, though not one tear rolled down either of his cheeks. “I need to hold her, Miles. It’s been so long. She needs us and we can’t go to her. We could lose her if those damn smugglers don’t give her up,” Eli growled low in his chest.
The front door burst open and Travis appeared. “Won’t happen. My brother and I will find her. I give you my word.” Garrett entered a moment later and nodded. He’d only been in Sanctuary a few months, but the two Lycan males understood my brother and me better than anyone else in town. They knew what it was to share a mate … and lose her. Theirs had been killed, along with most of their pack, after the riots of 2046.
Sharing a mate was uncommon among Lycans, but not unheard of. For Drakonae though, it was customary. Drakonae brothers shared and treasured one mate for their lifetime. No one outside of the Drakonae race, other than Rose Rose, knew how permanent the bond really was.
Eli and I would literally cease to exist in out human form without her. And that would leave Rose and the Sisters of Lamidae unprotected and vulnerable to Xerxes…and even more vulnerable to our dragons. A fallen dragon, one missing his human half, cannot help but terrorize anyone and anything in its path.
If finding Diana wasn’t at the top of Rose’s priority list a week ago, it was now. Diana’s death could spell the end of Sanctuary and everything we’d fought for centuries to protect.
Chapter 15
DIANA
The door across the room shuddered and finally sprang open. Bits of ice flew across the room and I struggled to open my eyes. I still burned with the heat, but exhaustion had weakened me to the point that it didn’t matter. The entire male half of the pack could stroll through my room and I would not bat an eyelash. Tremors racked my body with each labored breath. Death was reaching for me.
Eira came in and sat on the edge of my bed. I blinked a few times before trying to smile at her.
“I’m so sorry, D. I wish there was something I could do.”
“I need t-to remember who I am, Eira. Please. You said y-you had a friend. A witch.” Even if I died, I wanted to know the truth of my past. Who was I leaving or who had I already lost?
The vampire shook her head. Her blue eyes were despondent. “Hannah is staying in town right now and already came by while you were sleeping yesterday. She said you’re too weak to do the spell. It requires more energy than you can give. It was all she could do to stem the flow of your blood. Your wounds aren’t healing, D.”
I ignored her last statement. “We are in Ada?”
“Yes.” Eira nodded. “You saved the pack. We found an old van and got you here as quickly as possible. The rest of the group will be here in a few days.”
They’d risked exposure crossing into the Texas Republic in a vehicle to try and save me. But death was embracing me quickly. I could feel the life slipping out of me. Even the beast inside me was heavy and sluggish.
“Please. Ask Hannah to come back.” I tried to lift my hand, but it didn’t budge. My arm felt as though it was made of stone.
Hurried footsteps in the hallway led my gaze to Charlie in the open doorway. “Those Lycans from Texas are back. They’re demanding to see her.” Charlie’s voice was low, but I could still hear every word. They were back. Someone who knew something about me.
“How do they even know she’s here? Manda wouldn’t have told them we were bringing her to Ada.” Eira growled and her eyes brightened.
I gasped for another breath. “Eira, let them in. Please,” I begged. “It is not like they can make it any worse for me.”
“Fine.” Eira waved to Charlie and the Lycan female hurried off.
Moments later, two large males entered my room and approached my bedside. When they were about six steps away, Eira motioned for them to stop and they did, though neither looked pleased to be ordered about. They were handsome men. Not the ones that haunted my dreams, but pleasant nonetheless. They both had shaggy hair the color of wheat and enough scruff on their chins to be considering a beard. Their eyes were blue-gray and I saw flashes of gold appear the second I caught their gaze.
“My brother, Garrett, and I have come from Sanctuary to fetch you.” The man on the right spoke first. “Your mates, Miles and Eli Blackmoor would’ve come themselves, but cannot leave their charges unguarded.”
“Mates? Charges?” Eira’s lip curled, showing a hint of fangs. “You’re not taking her anywhere. She can’t be moved. She’s too weak.”
“That’s exactly why Diana must come with us. If she doesn’t, she will die. Miles and Eli were quite clear—her injuries will be fatal if they are not allowed to heal her through their mate bond.”
“Diana?” I let the name slip between my chapped lips. No matter how much water they gave me, I sweat it out within minutes. Even the ice I continued to throw off was barely cooling the room anymore. Most of it had melted.
“I guess we were on the right track calling you D, huh, sweetie?” Eira dabbed my forehead with a cold cloth and I took another shuddering breath.
Miles and Eli Blackmoor. The names didn’t mean anything to me. The name Diana didn’t, either. I needed to see their faces. If they are the men in my dreams, I would know for sure I had found a piece of my missing past.
The other Lycan shifted his stance and frowned. “What do you mean? Right track?”
Eira turned to the werewolf. “She has no memories. She didn’t even know she was a dragon until she turned into one.”
“She shifted? Did anyone see her?” The first man sucked in a breath and came closer.
“Of course they did,” Eira scoffed. “Why do you think she’s lying here with three 55-caliber holes in her chest? Only a fully shifted dragon could take those hits.”
I opened my mouth and tried to speak, but only a whisper left my lips. “I have to go, Eira.”
She turned back to me and growled. “You can’t be moved. I won’t let you die because these two wolves think you’re their pals’ long-lost mate. They don’t know for sure. Miles and Eli should’ve come themselves if they were so worried.”
“They would move heaven and earth to have come, but they couldn’t. They are bound by an oath. They sent us to bring you back, Diana.”
“No.” Eira stood, and her eyes flashed red. “The trip would kill her.”
The one who called himself Travis spoke again. “She will die for sure if she doesn’t and then we will have two very pissed off dragons in Sanctuary. I don’t know how scary this one is,” he said, throwing a thumb in my direction, “but those two fire-breathers can cause more damage than you ever want to see.”
“T-tell me what they l-look like.” Speaking was getting harder and the pain was starting to make me lose consciousness again. I could feel myself slipping back into that dark hole.
“They’re identical twins, both as big as a brick house with long, black hair and brown eyes that turn to flame when they’re upset. Believe me, honey, they’re about as upset as I’ve ever seen them. It’s driving them mad knowing you’re only three hours away and they couldn’t come to you.” Travis took a breath and knelt to the floor beside my bed.
I glanced at Eira. She nodded. She knew.
They had described the men i
n my dreams perfectly.
“I go with her. She’s been in my care this whole time. I want to make sure everything’s as you say,” she said, glaring at Travis who was at eye level with her now.
“Good. Let’s go. There’s a bus parked a few blocks away. We can lay her out in the back so she’s comfortable.”
“A bus?” Eira frowned.
Travis chuckled. “Cops rarely bother to pull over buses, so we usually travel that way.”
“I see.”
“What’s with all the ice in the room?” The other Lycan, Garrett, spoke from behind Travis.
“She does it. And get ready for more. We get a thick layer every time she falls asleep or slips into unconsciousness,” Eira answered.
“She’s an ice-breather?” Travis asked, standing.
“Yep. Don’t touch her, though; she’s burning up with a fever like she’s made of fire right now. We have to carry her using the bed sheets. I’ll tell Charlie we’re leaving,” she said, hurrying from the room.
Both Lycans stared down at me and I fought for enough breath to speak, but couldn’t manage it.
Travis leaned down to touch my sweating forehead and pulled his hand back quickly. “Damn, that vampire wasn’t kidding. She’s too hot to touch, even for us.”
“Is she going to make the drive?”
The other wolf thought he was whispering too quietly for me to hear, but he wasn’t.
“I hope so, for all of our sakes. I know Miles, Eli, and Rose are hiding something. I get the feeling if she dies, we’re all in for a shit load of trouble in Sanctuary,” Travis replied.
I refused to die, yet. Answers were so close. At least now I knew my name and that the men I remembered from my dreams were still alive, but I wanted more.
“Travis, what’s that scent? She smells so—”
“I think she’s in heat.
Sanctuary, Texas Complete Series Box Set Page 31