by Alice Brown
Hmmmm, she had pegged the slime bucket for being a spy for Jade’s father, but she would have never guessed Bores had a connection with Boragello. She wondered since the initial attack took place before Lady Jade arrived, when did Bores get involved? Had he known and helped with the initial attack, or did the two simply make a connection after Jade arrived?
Either way they were both dead, just too stupid to know it. Her hand was still buried under her pillow, fingers wrapped tightly around the handle of her dagger.
She heard her door softly close and assumed Bores had left. Her eyes flashed open, immediately landing on Mr. Boragello. His attention was focused on the now-closed door, and she quickly took advantage before he turned his head and realized she was awake. She swung her arm holding the dagger up and out, aiming for his heart. He never saw it coming. Blood spurted everywhere, and he slumped over. Natasha quickly jumped out from under him and pushed his body onto the floor. It was bad enough blood had spurted out of his chest and landed on the pretty sheets and comforter, she didn’t want the entire bed in a bloodbath. She got to her feet and scanned the room. The feeling of danger was still there, but not as close as it had been. Yes, the castle was still under attack, but for the moment her room was safe. She quickly opened the dresser drawer that held all of her weapons, loading up on another dagger, her 9mm, and her favorite, poison-tipped blowgun darts. She then crept to the door that separated her room from Blain’s.
She opened the door just a crack, and quickly scanned the room. Not seeing or hearing anything, she quietly made her way inside his room. She spotted Blain’s peaceful form sleeping, surrounded in rumpled sheets. His bare chest was exposed to the moonlight beaming in through the windows. She had just convinced herself that he was in no immediate danger when another just-barely there sound hit her ears. She stood in the shadows, completely obscured from anyone, as she watched someone coming through the doors. She watched silently as the figure came over to the side of the bed. Ah, she recognized this one. And she owed him a punch in the face or two. Bores stood poised over Blain’s sleeping figure, raising his handgun, readying it to fire.
Natasha wasted no time in silently lifting a poisoned dart and blowing it across the room, knowing it would find its mark. Unfortunately, it wouldn’t kill him immediately, but it would buy her enough time to get over to him before he had a chance to shoot Blain. She heard the dull “thud” of the dart landing in Bores’s neck and made quick movements. Just as she reached him, he suddenly doubled over and then slumped to the floor, leaving a wide-awake Blain in front of her.
“Hey, beautiful, I am glad you are okay. What is going on?” Blain whispered to her while he quickly threw on a pair of pants. “Have any idea what we are facing once those doors are opened?”
“I’m not sure yet. But I’m pretty sure there’s more than just these two.”
“These two?” he questioned, as pulled on his pants.
“Yeah, Mr. Boragello decided to pay me a midnight visit,” she stated casually, jabbing her thumb over her shoulder toward her door.
A low growl from deep inside him escaped. Yep, he was touchy about another man being that close to her while she was in bed. She didn’t have time to worry about that now. Boragello was dead, so in her mind that was two down and a small army to go. And in all honestly, killing some scum-bucket bastards sounded like a pretty good way to relieve stress. Turning back to face Blain, she found him testing the sharpness of his sword.
'Hmm, he does look quite delicious, just standing there in the moonlight, bare—chested, faded jeans, and rumpled raven hair.'
“Holy shit, what was that?” she asked as she spun around trying to find who was behind the voice she had just heard.
Blain stared at her. “What was what, love?” he asked in total ignorance.
She cocked an eyebrow up at him. Was she going crazy? “You didn’t just hear a female voice a moment ago?”
“No, what did it say?”
“She said you look delic…oh, never mind, we don’t have time for this. I’ll figure it out later.”
Blain smiled. He was pretty sure he knew what was going on, but he’d need to explain all of it later. He had gathered his weapons and was ready to go. She glanced over to him. He looked so different from what she was accustomed to seeing. Gone was the charismatic businessman. Instead, in front of her stood a dragon warrior, ready to go to battle. Most people seeing Blain like this would be frightened, but she knew with every ounce of blood in her body that he would never hurt her.
'Umm, no he would never hurt us, but I want to rub up against him and lick those thick pectoral muscles and…'
Natasha stopped and pinched herself, seriously wondering if this was all a dream. “Nope, I felt that.”
“Felt what, love?” Blain asked as he grabbed her hand, preparing to defend his castle.
The last thing she wanted was for Blain to think she couldn’t handle this. “Nothing, let’s go.”
“Listen, I don’t know the exact state of everything or even everyone, as I have not ventured out of the bedroom area. But I do know it is beginning to sound like a small army invasion.”
He gently cupped her face in his hands. “I want you to stay here. I’ll take care of things.” He grabbed the door handle, ready to walk out.
She pressed her hand against the door, in order to keep it closed. “Blain, you can’t just walk out there.”
He cocked his head. “What else would you have me do?” Was she really telling him to stand aside and not fight and just let everyone in the castle get slain?
She looked up at the ceiling and then gave him a wink. “Give me a boost up.”
“What the hell do you have up your sleeve?” He could just barely make out what looked like a small cut-out in the ceiling. When in the hell had that appeared?
She flashed him a wicked smile. “Just trust me.”
“Always, love.” His hands found their way to her hips with no problem at all.
Lifting her up high, he watched as she knocked open a secret panel in the ceiling leading to the rafter beams. Grabbing a beam, she lifted herself up through the hole with ease. “Come on,” she said with a smile, poking her head back down.
Tossing his sword up to her, Blain quickly followed suit. Supporting himself on a thick beam, he found Natasha perched like a hawk ready to swoop in for its prey. She gave him back his sword before gracefully walking along the beams to another secret door. How many secret doors had she installed and when in the hell had she done this without his knowing it? She had only been with him less than a month. Slipping through the small doorway, he followed her out onto the high beams in the hallway, beneath them, men covered completely in black traveled the hall armed with sniper gear.
“You hit the alarm, I’ll take care of these three,” she whispered, pointing to a group of three getting ready to go into one of the downstairs offices.
Her next move surprised Blain. He watched in disbelief as she quickly stripped her pants and panties off. He cocked a brow at her. “Don’t you think this isn’t the best of time for that?” He half teased, sighing in relief—and slight disappointment—when she pulled her pants back on and tucked her dagger away safely in her waistband.
“Just trust me,” she replied with a wink. She nodded her head for him to get moving to trigger the alarm.
The alarm that he needed to pull would not only alert every single guard on the property that there was trouble—not that Blain thought for a second they weren’t already in the castle, fighting—but it would also alert the Council that there was trouble and he needed backup. The backup could consist of clean-up, police type work, investigation, etcetera. The Council did it all when it came to protecting the other community.
She waited and dropped the delicate material of her panties just at the right time, letting it drift down in front of the three men. They pointed their guns at it at first, and then one picked it up, looking back at his companions with confusion and delight. Natasha gave a
whistle from her spot up above them, not even flinching when they jumped and aimed their guns up at her.
She gave her sweetest smile and waved flirtatiously down at them. Blain had to shake his head, watching all of this safely out of sight, they were actually falling for the oldest game in the book. She waited and watched out of the corner of her eye until Blain jumped out of the rafters and hit the alarm, the blaring noise enough to wake the dead. The three attackers turned their guns to Blain, ready to fire when she sailed down from the rafters and took two to the ground at the same time, stabbing one in the neck with her blade. She barely had a chance to look up to see two more attackers coming Blain’s way before she was picked up and thrown against the wall by the one she had not been able to take down.
She used the wall to help launch herself back at the one who had thrown her; grabbing his neck, she spun around to his back and used him as a shield as one of the other attackers fired their way. She dropped to her feet as her shield fell lifeless to the ground, the attacker that had just fired upon them was now facing her. He cocked his head to study her for a quick moment, as if realizing that there was much more to the pretty face in front of him. He wondered if this was the one the boss wanted dead at all costs. He had offered a large reward to the person who killed her, and damn, but he needed the money. And it just wasn’t in him to back down.
In a surprise move, he quickly tucked his gun in his pants and came charging at her head first. She was surprised at the speed and agility of her rather large attacker. He hit her with his shoulder straight in her gut, slamming her backwards into a wall. She gasped, the breath knocked out of her lungs at the impact, and saw stars as he grabbed a fistful of hair and rammed her head onto a suit of knight’s armor standing right next to her. She felt a warm trickle of blood run down her temple, but couldn’t take the time to pay any attention to it before lashing back at her attacker. She spotted a clean shot and kneed him hard in the gut, then brought her elbow down on the back of his neck as he doubled over from the gut shot. At this point, she felt sure she was in far worse shape that he was, and she slid to the floor, not able to hold herself up any longer. Not giving her time to catch her breath, her attacker was on her immediately. He didn’t even notice when she retrieved her own 9mm and fired, not even aiming, hitting him directly in the head.
“Messed with the wrong girl,” she murmured to herself, starting to feel lightheaded now.
She jumped and yelped when a decapitated head sailed over her lap, landing next to her oozing blood and gore. She felt herself getting nauseated. She turned her head in the direction it had come from to see Blain stepping over the headless body, heading her way.
Kneeling beside her, she noticed Blain looking very pale and concerned, but she couldn’t understand why. “My God, baby, look at you. Just relax, I am going to take care of you, love.” He carefully picked her up, cradling her in his arms as if she were fragile. She heard voices all around them, but nothing was making sense. She couldn’t understand what anyone was saying, or what was going on.
Everything was a blur as Blain whisked her into a hidden doorway that took them straight to his office. She tried to plead with him that she was all right and needed to get back there and help the others, but was having trouble even speaking, so she wasn’t sure if she was communicating or not.
They arrived at his office, and Blain knew they were safe. He could hear the final battle cries as his guards were killing or rounding up their attackers. And his office was safe. He had hit the emergency button as soon as they entered, thereby sealing it off from the rest of the house.
He lay his precious bundle down on the couch in order to assess her injuries. She had a major gash in her skull, but it looked to be already knitting itself together. She looked and was acting a bit disoriented, but he assumed that was due to the major bash her head took when her attacker rammed it into some heavy armor pieces sitting out for display.
He ran into the attached bathroom, and was back just a moment later with a cloth and a small bowl of cool water to clean her wound. She winced when he touched the wound with the clean cloth. “Shh, it’s okay. I am just cleaning it up a bit. You are already healing.” He examined the wound as he carefully dabbed away some of the blood. “You probably took a bit of an internal jarring out of that, so part may take a bit longer to fully heal.”
There was a knock at the door. “Anyone in there?” one of the guards called out.
“Yeah, Gerald, we are in here and we’re fine. Is the fight over?” Blain spoke in a loud voice and then noticed Natasha wincing.
Looking at her, he said softly, “sorry,” as he continued dabbing away the blood off the side of her face and neck.
“Blain, Blain, please let me in. Are you in there? One of the guards said he thought Natasha was hurt. Blain, please answer me!” Jade’s voice came through the door.
Natasha closed her eyes, willing her head to stop pounding like a drum and her stomach to calm back down. At least she felt like she could understand everything that was going on around her.
“Blain,” she stated in a whisper, “Unlock the door. Everyone needs to know you are okay. They’re not going to shut up until they do.”
“They can wait, I am worried about you,” Blain growled at her.
Natasha sighed deeply as she attempted to sit up. Her neck hurt, and she wondered if she wrenched it during fighting. And Blain was trying to show her his love, and while she appreciated the gesture, he was still in charge of this castle, and as such, needed to take his responsibilities as owner of the castle to heart.
She leaned on him heavily for a moment until she adjusted to the upright position. Turning to him with a slight smile on her face, she addressed the non-stop knocking on the office door.
“I am fine, Blain, see? Let your staff in, so they can rest assured that you are okay. They also need your guidance.”
“I need to know if you’re all right first.”
She grabbed his wrists before they could reach her injury. “I am fine. But everyone else needs to know that their leader is unharmed.” He stared at her for a long moment, searching her eyes, hoping that she would take back what she said and let him tend to her in peace. “Open the door. It’s not like I’m going anywhere. Besides, head wounds always look ten times worse than what they really are.”
With a grumble, he finally stood and walked to the door. He flung it open and almost busted a few of the guards’ noses. He was not pleased with being disturbed while taking care of his girl, as far as he was concerned, all his men could just wait until he had taken care of his woman properly. He ignored them as they all fell into the room, overcrowding it quickly, and started badgering him with questions.
“Silence!” he roared a moment later. The room went deathly silent.
“Is everyone accounted for, and do we have anyone left alive that attacked us?”
Donatello stepped forward. “There are five that are alive. I have locked them down in the basement.”
“Very good,” Blain acknowledged with a slight nod.
Jade had rushed over to Natasha’s side the moment the door was open. Holding Natasha’s hand, she glanced over to Blain. “I feel a strong female dragon presence in this room. Did you two mate?” The last question she had turned her head back to Natasha to ask.
Natasha nodded her head in confirmation and then winced immediately.
“Have you heard any voices, like in your head but they seem so real, recently?” Jade continued.
Natasha blushed a little. “Yes, right before we went into battle. I was beginning to think I was sleepwalking.”
Jade was nodding her head the entire time. “I think you may have been the recipient of the gift of the dragon. It is rare, but sometimes when two Others mate, the weaker can be gifted with some of the same benefits as the stronger one has. In your case, I think Blain’s dragon has bestowed the dragon to you.”
'You wouldn’t know anything about this, would you?' Blain growled inwardly at
his dragon.
'What? You don’t approve? She is going to be a beautiful dragon. It is not fair to make her fight like you do with no superpowers to fall back on. I just helped her out a bit. Wait until her dragon introduces her to other powers!' Blain’s dragon was jumping up and down in excitement.
'And just what kind of powers are we talking about here?' he questioned Sapphamire.
His dragon ignored him. Looked like they were going to need to wait and see what powers Natasha ended up with. It was a great gift for his dragon to bestow the dragon on their mate. And it was a rare gift indeed. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d heard of this happening.
“Hmm, well, Sapphamire did seem to take a real liking to me the other day when we met,” Natasha remembered, as she considered the implications.
Blain was quickly getting everyone back out of his office. He walked over to Natasha and Jade. “You don’t have any questions about this?” he asked as he gazed down at her. The split in her head was indeed knitting itself back together.
Natasha winced slightly as Jade brought the cloth up dabbing at her wound. “I have too many to ask.”
“Maybe you should just start with the first one,” he encouraged.
“Am I going to shift into a dragon?” she asked.
“Yes, evidently Sapphamire has gifted you with a female dragon. Knowing him, he did it so he could make her his own mate.” As he noticed the frown on her face, he continued, “You will still be both of our mates, just like we will both be mates to your female dragon as well as you. It is how the dragon works when both mates are the same.”
Blain sighed heavily as he heard a commotion downstairs. “Dammit, what now?” He looked over to Natasha. “Something is going on downstairs and I need to go find out what. Do you want to stay here, or are you feeling well enough to...” he let the sentence hang in mid-air.