Guardian Dragons of Prospect Falls: (A Paranormal Shifter Romance)

by Serena Meadows

  Chapter Nine

  ***Gabriel***

  Gabriel studied Chloe, feeling the bond between them growing stronger, not sure he was ready to take the next step, but knowing she could never fully understand everything at play if he didn’t tell her the truth. “Prospect Falls is a little different than other places,” he said, earning an eye roll from Chloe.

  “Like I hadn’t noticed,” she said.

  “What I mean is the town didn’t just spring up; it was planned down to the last detail, and hasn’t really changed that much since it was founded all those years ago,” Gabriel struggled to explain, knowing he wasn’t getting it right. “What I’m trying to say is that this town was founded for a reason, a reason that we keep secret because if the outside world found out, well, I’m not sure what would happen.”

  “You’re still talking around it, Gabriel,” she said impatiently. “Get to the point. What is the protection spell keeping away?”

  “Demons,” he said, the word echoing in the room.

  Chloe had been leaning forward, waiting for his answer, but she sat back in the chair, a look of shock on her face. “What are you?” she finally asked, her voice barely audible over the crackle of the fire.

  “A dragon shifter,” he said, his heart pounding in his chest, feeling like his fate was in Chloe’s hands.

  She studied him for a long time, her eyes focused on his, and he felt a wave of warmth spread through him, then realized with a start that Chloe was reading him, that what he felt was her magic. The bond between them tightened again, making his body tingle, stealing his breath and awakening something new deep inside him. Chloe gasped, and the warmth disappeared, leaving him feeling empty.

  “What was that?” she asked, narrowing her eyes at him. “How did you do that?”

  “I didn’t do anything; you did,” he said, then shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know exactly what it was, but I think our magic just blended.”

  She jumped up from the chair and began to pace the room, then turned and looked over at him. “That’s not possible, unless...” her words trailed off. “That’s just part of the legend, isn’t it? I mean, you don’t really...”

  Gabriel got up from the chair and walked over to her, very aware that he had to take it slowly, that he had to give her time to adjust to the reality of who he was. When he was close enough to touch her, he stopped but didn’t reach out to her, even though every nerve in his body was telling him to.

  “I’m not sure what you’ve been told, but shifters bond for life, especially dragon shifters; it’s part of our power, and without that life-long bond, we become weak,” he said. “I didn’t see it coming, Chloe, I even tried to fight it, but it’s not really our choice.”

  She turned away from him. “I can’t do this now,” she said. “We need to think about Emma Jean.”

  He knew that she was right but ached to hold her in his arms. “I’m sorry, Chloe; I know you’re right but this thing between us, it just keeps creeping in, and I can’t seem to stop it.”

  She turned and looked at him, her eyes locking on his; he felt that pull again, but she looked away. “We should check on Emma Jean,” she said. “It’s almost dawn, and the staff will be here soon. I don’t know what to tell them.”

  “I think you should open the tea house as usual,” he said, following her up the stairs. “The fewer people who know about this, the better, but we are going to need some help. I think it’s time to call the other guardians.”

  Chloe stopped on the stairs and looked back at him, then shook her head. “Never mind, I’m not ready to think about that.”

  When they got to the top of the stairs, he pulled out his phone. “Why don’t you go on in? I need to make a couple of phone calls. I think it’s time we asked for some help.”

  “Okay, I should make sure the protection spell is still working,” she said. “I’d rather do it alone, if you don’t mind.”

  Gabriel grinned at her. “My little reluctant witch,” he said, then couldn’t stop himself from pulling her close.

  She pushed against him for only a second before relaxing into his arms, but she didn’t stay there long. “I really should check on Emma Jean,” she said, her cheeks pink, her eyes sparkling with desire.

  He tipped her chin up and brushed his lips across hers. “I’ll be waiting for you right here,” he said, then gave her a little push toward the bedroom door.

  She stumbled away from him, then stood, hand on the doorknob for a second, staring at the floor. After taking a long look at him over her shoulder, Chloe opened the door and disappeared into the bedroom.

  ***Chloe***

  As soon as the door was shut, Chloe quickly moved away from the cold spot but realized that she hadn’t felt the sense of evil and dread she normally felt. Instead, there was a warm spot deep inside her and a tingling that made goosebumps break out on her arms. She was so distracted; she didn’t notice Emma Jean watching her from the bed until she said her name.

  “Chloe, what happened to me?” she asked. “The last thing I remember is you coming to my door.”

  She rushed over to the bed. “Oh, you’re awake. I’m so glad,” she said, sitting down next to Emma Jean on the bed. “How do you feel?”

  “Like I’ve been run over by a truck,” Emma Jean croaked.

  “Let me get you some water,” Chloe said, getting up again. “I’ll be right back.”

  Gabriel was standing outside the door when she came out, and as soon as he saw her smile, his matched it. “She must be awake,” he said.

  Chloe nodded. “She’s thirsty,” she said. “I’m just going to get her some water, and I’ll be right back.”

  When she got back to the bedroom, Gabriel had pulled up a chair and was sitting next to the bed. She helped Emma Jean take a drink, then put the glass down on the bedside table, settled down on the bed next to her, and took her hand. The dark magic was still there, pulsing against her protection spell, but her magic was stronger. She looked over at Gabriel, who had a hopeful look on his face, and shook her head.

  “Is someone going to tell me why I feel like this?” Emma Jean demanded. “I saw that look. What’s going on? The last thing I remember was Chloe knocking on my door...” Her words trailed off, and her face changed, filled with pain.

  “Darrell did something to me, put a spell on me. I couldn’t fight it,” she whispered. “He wants the book, but it won’t work for him; it will destroy him before it lets him use it.”

  “It’s okay,” Chloe soothed. “He isn’t here; he can’t get the book.”

  “But he will come,” Emma Jean said, her voice filling with panic. “He’s going to come for the book. You have to find it for me. We have to hide it or burn it, I don’t know, but Darrell cannot have it. It’s special. It should have gone to my daughter, and I would have buried it with her if I could have.”

  Gabriel scooted his chair a bit closer. “We’ll take care of it, Emma Jean; you just have to tell us where the book is,” he said, reaching out and taking her other hand.

  Emma Jean smiled at him, exhaustion beginning to show. “You were always such a good boy,” she said. “I put it up in the attic in a big chest so Simon wouldn’t find it.”

  “I’ll go find it right now,” Gabriel said, getting to his feet.

  “Take Chloe with you,” Emma Jean said, then her eyes drifted closed. “I’m just going to take a little nap.”

  They slipped out of the room and down the hallway, but instead of going down the stairs, Gabriel opened a little door and revealed a staircase that led to total darkness. “I think we need a flashlight,” she said, shivering.

  “There should be a light switch just inside the door,” he said, running his hand along the wall.

  She heard a click, and then the stairs were bathed in a weak light. “You go first,” she said, suddenly afraid and not sure why.

  Gabriel grinned at her. “Are you scared?” he asked, his voice playful.

  “I guess that’s the way t
o describe it,” she said, trying to pinpoint the feeling.

  But as she stared up the dimly lit stairs, the feeling solidified, changing from fear to something different: a sense that she was about to discover something that would change her life. Gabriel came over to her, studied her for a second, then put his arms around her.

  “What’s wrong, Chloe?” he asked, rubbing her back. “You look like you’ve just seen a ghost.”

  She looked up at him. “Or maybe I’m about to,” she said, not sure where the words came from. “I just have a weird feeling that if I go up there, nothing will ever be the same. It’s the same feeling I got when I drove into Prospect Falls, the same feeling I got the first time I met you, and the first time I walked into this house. I’m tired of not having control of my life. I just want to go back to the way it was before. I can’t take any more surprises.”

  Gabriel pulled her closer, and she felt her frustration fading. “It’s going to be okay, Chloe,” he said. “We’ll figure this out. I promise.”

  His words made her feel better, and she relaxed in his arms. “Why is it that you both scare me and make me feel better?” she asked.

  When he grinned at her, she put her fingers over his lips and said, “Never mind, I don’t want to know the answer to that question.”

  Gabriel reached up and gently grabbed her wrist, brought her palm to his mouth, and kissed it. “I think you already know the answer, but I’m willing to wait for you to catch up.”

  She gasped, and her knees went weak. A thrill rushed through her, followed by a wave of pleasure that began on her palm and spread through her body. The insane need to kiss him washed over her, and before she could stop herself, she rose on her tiptoes and brushed her mouth over his. Gabriel growled deep in his throat, pulled her tighter against him, slid his tongue into her mouth, and feasted on her.

  When she finally managed to push him away, her body was throbbing, and she could barely breathe. “Don’t do that again,” she said, but she knew she didn’t mean it, and so did Gabriel.

  Chapter Ten

  ***Gabriel***

  Gabriel was trying hard not to grin. “I can’t make any promises,” he said, then started for the stairs, but a knock on the front door stopped him.

  “Oh, no,” Chloe said, looking around, panicked. “What time is it? Our pastry chef shows up at six. I have no idea what to say. I haven’t decided if we should open up today. I mean, I haven’t slept, and Emma Jean shouldn’t be alone.”

  Gabriel started for the door. “Don’t worry, it’s still early,” he said. “I’m sure it’s the other guardians.”

  Chloe followed him to the door but backed up a few steps when the three men walked in and filled the entryway. “I think you’ve met Michael,” he said. “This is Adam, he’s kind of our leader, and the other one is Vincent.”

  “It’s nice to meet you all; thank you for coming,” Chloe said, her natural charm taking over. “I’m sorry we had to call you so late, or I guess early. Let’s all go to the kitchen.”

  The four men followed her to the kitchen and sat down at the big table in the corner of the room, making it look small. “Coffee or tea?” Chloe asked, piling a plate high with pastries.

  “Your choice,” Gabriel said, grinning at the other men, who shot him a dirty look.

  “Let’s do both,” Chloe said, clearly relieved to have something to distract her.

  While she made coffee and heated water, he caught the other guardians up on what they thought happened, and Emma Jean’s partial recovery. “We were about to go up to the attic and look for the book, but you showed up,” he finished.

  “So, Emma Jean is better, but that might not last unless you can completely remove the spell?” Adam asked.

  “Yes, and we don’t have a spell that will do that,” Gabriel said.

  “And Darrell is so desperate to get this book that Emma Jean was talking about that he’s trying to kill her,” Vincent said.

  “That about sums it up,” Gabriel said.

  Chloe, who had been silent the entire time, came over to the table, a tray of mugs in her hands. “I think the book is the key to the whole thing, and I think I know what kind of book it is,” she said, letting Gabriel take the tray. “It’s a spell book, a grimoire, a book of shadows, something like that.”

  “Why didn’t I think about that before?” he said. “It makes sense, but didn’t Emma Jean said it wouldn’t work for him, that it might destroy him.”

  “Because the book is only meant for the women of the family,” Chloe said.

  “What do you mean?” Vincent asked.

  “Gabriel told me that Baxter House has always belonged to the women in the family, that even after they married, they kept the name,” she explained, sitting down next to Gabriel. “There was probably a reason for that: it ties them to the magic in that book. It’s been passed down from mother to daughter for generations.”

  “The book is their power,” Adam said.

  Chloe nodded. “And Darrell is trying to get his hands on that power, but it won’t work for him.”

  “What does that mean?” Michael asked. “What will happen?”

  “I don’t know,” she answered honestly. “I haven’t exactly embraced the world of magic over the last few years. I cut my training short when I was just a girl, so it’s been a while since I thought about this stuff. But I do know that magic can backfire in very terrible ways.”

  Gabriel sensed something important in Chloe’s words but shoved it to the back of his mind for later. “The question is, what do we do now?” he asked instead. “We need to figure out if it was really Darrell and how to protect Emma Jean if he comes here.”

  “I’m going to head down to the station and see if I can get a trace on that call,” Michael said, getting to his feet. “Thanks for the tea; stems and leaves taste better than I thought they would. I’m going to send Amy over to give you a hand today.”

  “Oh, you don’t have to do that,” she said. “I’ll be fine.”

  “You need to get some sleep,” Adam said. “I’m sure Molly will be happy to come over and sit with Emma Jean.”

  “And if they’re coming, Charlie won’t be far behind,” Vincent said, rolling his eyes. “Besides, she’s been dying to see this place since you opened.”

  Chloe looked over at him, still clearly undecided. “There are good things about Prospect Falls, too,” he said. “We do try to take care of each other.”

  “What about the book? Shouldn’t we be looking for it?” she asked. “I don’t know if I’ll even be able to sleep knowing it up there waiting for us.”

  “And it will still be there after we both get some sleep,” Gabriel said. “One thing we’ve learned is that exhaustion leads to mistakes. Neither of us slept last night, and you used magic; don’t tell me that didn’t take a lot of energy. I saw you when I got here last night.”

  “If I weren’t so tired, I’d be insulted by that comment,” Chloe said. “You win. Call in the troops, and we’ll see what we can figure out.”

  All four men smiled at her. “You won’t be sorry; besides, I think it’s time that you all met,” Vincent said, shooting a look at Gabriel, who shrugged his shoulders but had a little smile on his face.

  Chloe looked around the table at them again, then said, “I don’t think I want to know what that was all about; in fact, I’m going to go check on Emma Jean and then take a shower.”

  When she was out of the room, Vincent turned to Michael and said, “You owe me twenty bucks.”

  Gabriel felt a moment of panic, but it passed quickly. “Hey, hold on a minute; you two are getting ahead of yourselves,” he said, crossing his arms over his chest.

  “Have you kissed her yet?” Vincent asked, raising his eyebrows.

  “Twice,” he said, scowling at them, wishing he’d just lied when he saw their faces.

  ***Chloe***

  After checking on Emma Jean, who was still sleeping comfortably, Chloe slipped back through the cold
place around the door and went to her room. She turned on the water as hot as it would go and stood under the spay with her eyes closed, feeling her tense muscles begin to relax.

  For just a few minutes, she managed to clear her head, managed to forget all the mixed-up emotions that clogged her brain, and made it hard to think logically. But clarity didn’t last, and she knew that only sleep was going to slow her brain down long enough for her to make sense of everything that had happened. She longed just to fall into her bed, but she had people depending on her, and new friends to meet, so she finished her shower and got dressed.

  Coming down the stairs, she discovered a spark of excitement coming to life, and she realized just how long it had been since she’d had people around her that cared enough to help. It was comforting to think that three women she’d never met were willing to come to her rescue, and she hoped that they might eventually become friends. Until now, she hadn’t had time for friends. Moving like she did, it wasn’t easy to maintain any relationship, but like everything else in her life, that had changed when she came to Prospect Falls.

  Deciding that Gabriel might be right, she headed for the kitchen, noticing that the sun was just coming up over the mountains. The first thing she saw was Gabriel hunched over the table, his head on his arms, his snores echoing through the kitchen, and warmth spread through her. A feeling of tenderness flooded her, and she was tempted to walk over and kiss him on the temple, but a sound at the back of the kitchen caught her attention.

  Belinda was coming out of the walk-in refrigerator, her arms full of baking supplies, but when she saw Chloe, she motioned for her to come over. “I heard you all had a rough night,” she whispered. “How is Ms. Emma Jean?”

  “She was sleeping when I came down,” she said, wondering how much Belinda knew.

  “That’s good. I hope she’s feeling better,” Belinda said. “You look pretty beat. Do you still want to open up today?”