by Julia Mills
She looked around and realized he had moved her away from the warehouse and more importantly, away from Aidan. “What the hell are you doing, Lance?” she glared at him. “I need to be up there with Aidan. He promised I could go in there and gather evidence.” She poked him in the chest, “And you all agreed.”
He shrugged, “I’m doing what Aidan asked me to do.” He saw the fire jump in her eyes, “Now hear me out before you lose your mind, Hellcat.”
She nodded for him to continue while trying to control her temper. How could Aidan do this to her? He just said he loved her, looked at her like she was his whole world, and the whole time he had been planning to have her moved out of the way. “’A’ just wants to make sure you are far away from the human criminals and the wizards, at least until he can make sure it is safe. We didn’t know they would be here. This changes the original plans. He is trying to do everything possible to keep his word to you, but you have to understand; he is instinct driven to protect you.”
She felt her anger rise. He must have been able to feel it also, because he rushed on, “Come on Grace, you have to know how he feels about you. I know he explained what it is like for a dragon shifter and his dragon when they find their mate. It took everything in his power just to let me get you out of harm’s way. It goes against every instinct he has to let you out of his sight, and even though we’ve been brethren for almost a hundred years, I can assure you he’s having a very difficult time with me being alone with you. If it wasn’t for his hell bent on revenge little brother, he would be the one standing here having this conversation with you, not me. It is killing him to be away from you, but he is the only one that can stop Andrew from whatever hell on earth he has planned.”
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Lance saw the look on her face go from fury to confusion to suspicious in a split second, “What do you mean ‘hell bent on revenge little brother’? Aaron is older than he is and he is here with us. Who the hell is Andrew?” Her eyes squinted in a look he was sure Aidan had already seen a time or two. He scrambled to cover up his obvious mistake.
“Ummm, sounds like you and ‘A’ still have a lot to talk about,” he stammered. “I’m not sure I’m the one to tell you the story.”
She would never have thought it possible to see the very self assured jokester so nervous. If she had time, she would go easy on him but time was the one thing she did not have right now. Her spidey senses were telling her this was important. Whoever ‘Andrew’ was and whatever was going on between him and Aidan would explain her mate’s drive to catch the wizards that seemed so much more than the others of his Force, aside from Rayne. She knew it was an integral part of who he was, a part of his DNA that he help people in need. It was a mission for all the Dragon Guard to eliminate the wizards and the hunters because of their threat to all dragon shifters but every time they talked about the wizards or the traitor her intuition told her there was more, something deeper that she was not being told. Earlier, she had dismissed it because of her ordeal in the parking garage and then again because of how quickly everything was happening between them but now it was staring her in the face, demanding to be dealt with. No time to avoid the elephant in the woods, she had to get to the bottom of it.
This had to be the main reason Aidan had been so adamant about her not accompanying them in the first place. She knew he worried about her safety, that he had promised to give his own life for her. But she also knew there was more to the story, and now that she was presented with the opportunity to find out what it was, she was not going to stop until she knew. “Lance, if you don’t tell me what the hell is going on, right now, I swear I’m going to yell so loud that everyone within a five mile radius will hear,” she stared directly into his eyes, making sure he knew she meant every word. “I don’t think everyone wants their cover blown, what do you think?” She couldn’t help giving him her best shit eating grin. God only knew she had already taken enough of his.
She watched as he took a deep breath and felt the buzzing in her head start again. He was telling Aidan what had just happened, she just knew it. “You can tell him that I’m pissed as shit and he’s a hell of a lot safer up there right now. But when we are in the same place again, I’m going to kick his ass. I don’t care if he is some big, bad Dragon Guardsman.”
The color drained from Lance’s face and the buzzing immediately stopped. At least her asshole mate knew she was mad. Not that it mattered right now, but with enough time she knew she could come up with some really creative ways to punish him for what he had done. Right now she needed to get answers, and if that meant torturing her mate’s brethren, she was willing to do it. “Tell me, Lance. Tell me why he would trust you with me if it’s so hard for him to be away from me. Why does he have a brother that he didn’t tell me about? And I’m guessing that this Andrew is a blood relative brother, not a brethren like you and the others. What is going on, Lance? Tell me,” she put all the emotion and conviction she could in the next word she spoke. “Please.”
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Aidan owed him big time. This was way beyond the call of duty, no matter how many times ‘A’ had saved his ass. He knew things had all been happening quickly and that Grace had been hurt not even twenty-four hours ago, but this shit was important. What the hell was he thinking bringing her out here and not telling her about Andrew? Now it had been left up to him, because Aidan had to be ready to confront him the second Andrew was out in the open. He knew it was every dragon shifter’s dream to find their mate, but he could make it a few more lifetimes without the hassle. It took everything in him to just keep himself out of trouble. There was no fucking way he could deal with a mate too. But no matter his personal feelings, here he was, staring at Aidan’s mate. A beautiful, intelligent, feisty woman that was the other part of his best friend’s heart and soul; he had to explain the nightmare they had all lived for over six years. Explain what her mate had witnessed and lived through. What the hell was the Universe playing at? He saw her frustration rising and knew it was now or never. “All right, Hellcat, here it is. Before I get started, I want to make sure you understand the only reason I’m doing this and not Aidan, is that he has to be up there with Rayne and Aaron. He is the only one with a deep enough connection to their little brother to capture him and stop whatever he has planned.” She started to interrupt but he put up his hand and shook his head. “I need you to just listen. We don’t have much time and I have to make sure you understand. Can you do that for me?”
“You guys are the bossiest bunch of pain in the ass men I have ever seen. Since I don’t have a choice…,” she shook her head and huffed a breath that lifted her bangs off her brow. “Yea, I can do it. Just hurry the hell up. My special intuition is screaming that I need to be with Aidan, even though I want to kick his ass. I know he needs me.”
Lance smiled despite the situation. Aidan had said she had the most acute intuition he had ever encountered. He had called it her spidey senses. Those extra senses plus the mating call were driving her to be with her mate. He could only imagine what ‘A’ was going through. Just another reason his best friend had for taking a chunk out of his little brother’s hide. Now, to tell her as much of the story as he could without letting her know that Aidan had been looking for her the night that changed all of their lives forever. That was something she and her mate could hash out later. No way was he getting any deeper into this mess than he already was. He was thinking of all the ways to make ‘A’ pay for forcing him to talk to Grace about this shit. “All right, here it is in a nutshell. A little over six and a half years ago, Aidan and his younger brother, Andrew, were out on patrol. Aidan had gotten a whiff of something a few days before and couldn’t shake the feeling that he needed to follow up on it. So they went out to see what it was. The scent Aidan was tracking had taken all his focus and he was careless, something completely uncharacteristic for your boy. He hadn’t continually scanned the area like was protocol, and let’s just say Andrew always depended on one of us
to take care of him, so he wasn’t scanning either. He was the youngest in our force and the younger brother to two of the best Dragon Guardsmen this world has ever known, and to top it off, he was and I imagine still is, a lazy little shit.
“They were flying over a wooded area when they were both literally pulled from the sky by what we now know was black magic. The force from the dark spell pushed their dragons back and left the men falling to the ground. Apparently, a coven of wizards had seen Aidan earlier when he had been out tracking and had set a trap for him. However, they had not counted on two dragons, so from what we now know, they didn’t have enough magic to hold them both. In a quick plan B move, the sadistic bastards used their dirty magic to disorient Aidan while they held Andrew and made it look like they had killed him. Aidan actually saw what he thought was Andrew’s severed head thrown into their huge ritual fire. They then hit ‘A’ with another blast of their tainted shit and left him there for dead.
“Hours later, ‘A’ woke up and made his way back to the lair, but by then there was no sign of the wizards. We searched and searched and found absolutely no clues. Now, you have to understand, we have some serious mojo of our own, dragon magic is nothing to scoff at, but those sons of bitches were packing some kind of hyped up, serious power that night.
“We all mourned Andrew’s death. I know you know we live a long time, and to lose one of us so early in our lifespan because of the scum of the earth is horrible for all of us, but it hit ‘A’ the hardest. He felt responsible for Andrew’s death and spent every waking minute punishing himself for what had happened. For six years, we all watched our friend and brethren in pain and constant turmoil, with no way to help him. No matter what we tried, nothing helped. Then a little over six months ago, everything changed.
“We were on our way back to the lair. Trying to get Spitfire, I mean Kyndel, back to the lair,” he smiled, trying to ease into what he was about to tell Grace. He was glad for her strength because the rest of this story may just send a weaker woman screaming into the woods.
“We were ambushed by a group of hunters led by a magic practitioner able to give them enhanced abilities. Even with all their magic infused powers we were winning the fight, but somehow, the magic practitioner got past us and held Kyndel at knife point. While Rayne was negotiating for her release, the leader revealed himself to be Andrew, obviously not dead, and seriously deranged from his time with the wizards. After a skirmish that left Kyndel injured, we captured him, but the infusion of black magic he received from the wizards mixed with his dragon magic, allowed him to escape before ‘A’ and Aaron could get him back to the Elders for the Tribunal.
“We’ve pieced together bits and pieces of what happened but there are still a lot of holes. The one thing that all of our Elders and Leaders believe, is that it will take at least one, if not both, of the ‘real’ brothers to bring him down. For the last six months ‘A’ has tracked him, but even with our enhanced senses he has been able to hide from us. We think it’s another effect of the black magic. We also can no longer mind speak with him and ‘A’ is positive he has lost touch with his dragon.
“In the last week, some of the men that work for Max have been able to catch his scent on more than one occasion, leading us to believe that either the black magic is finally wearing off, or he has used all he had stored. Max’s men also found that Andrew has been meeting with the wizard leader. The traitor you heard Aidan and Rayne refer to is Andrew. He is headed here with wizards and the criminals we believe are associated with ‘The Auctioneer’ you’ve been investigating.
“All of that bullshit is why Aidan is up there and not back here with you, where he truly wants to be. He told me that you can tell when he is mind speaking with one of us, so you know he has been bitching at me the whole time I’ve been talking to you. Now, I know you have questions, so fire away and I’ll do my best to answer, while we still have time.”
Grace just stood and stared at Lance. Not sure what to ask first, she started with one of the last things he had said. “Kyndel was held at knife point? And hurt? But I saw her and she seemed fine. She is really ok, right?” She was controlling her temper the best she could. She was so pissed at the two people that meant the most to her right now for keeping things from her. So pissed in fact, it was getting difficult to see straight.
“Yes, she was held at knife point and yes, she was hurt.” She felt her cheeks get hot at his admission and knew they were red from her fury. If this guy had any sense at all, he might want to take a step or two back, because she might just punch him since the people she was really furious with were not in front of her and he was. “But before you rip my head off, she completely recovered and is healthier than anyone I’ve ever met.” So he did know she was close to her breaking point; smart man or dragon or whatever.
Grace just nodded, thinking the reunion she imagined with her best friend was shot to hell, because she was going to kick her ass just as soon as she delivered her little niece or nephew. “Does Aidan have a plan to catch Andrew? Because if anything happens to him I will cover him in Kyndel’s granny’s ointment and nurse him back to health just to kill him myself.”
Lance grinned and her hand itched with the need to smack it off his face, “We always have a plan, Hellcat.”
“On a side note, your nicknames for Kyndel and I are really not funny,” she smirked.
Somewhere in the last two seconds her anger had melted away, and she had decided not to be mad at Lance for what was happening. If she had to be honest with herself, and she always was, she would have done the exact same thing if roles were reversed. The buzzing started again and she knew Lance was telling Aidan she had not killed him, yet. “I kinda like the nicknames.” He shrugged, “And it was your mate that gave Kyndel hers, not me.”
Grace’s eyes widened and she smiled the first real smile she’d had since earlier this morning, while still in Aidan’s arms. “Well, hell, I guess I have to give him credit for that one then.” The smile left her face, “I know you’re talking to him. Tell him that I understand why he has to be up there and why he is worried for me, but that this discussion is far from over. Make sure he knows it is in no way ok to keep secrets from me.”
Grace knew Lance was relaying her exact words from the look on his face. This time, the buzz seemed a little less anxious than it had been while Lance had been explaining the situation to her. She figured being able to feel Aidan’s emotions, along with the recognition of his mind speak, must be an added benefit of the mating call thing they all kept talking about. But the fact that her spidey senses were screaming at her, telling her first and foremost that she needed to be with Aidan, and secondly, that Lance had not told her the whole story, was about to drive her crazy. She could get the whole story later. The pressing issue was that she needed to get to Aidan. Something big was about to happen and she needed to be with him when it did. “Tell him we’re coming back,” she stated, daring Lance to tell her otherwise. “And tell him I’m not taking ‘No’ for an answer.”
Before Lance could answer, she spun around and started walking back the way they had come. She knew they were going to try to talk her out of it and she was having none of it. Just to prove she was right about their plans, Lance called out, “Hey there Hellcat, your mate is having a shit fit in my head. Can’t we talk about this?”
“Nope. No more talking. I can’t explain this shit but I know I need to be up there with him and that is where I’m going to be,” she talked as she walked, knowing with his enhanced hearing that he caught every word.
“Ok! You got it. I’m just the messenger and I damn sure don’t want to get shot.” He chuckled from closer behind her than he had been two seconds ago.
He caught up to her and she saw that familiar twinkle in his eyes. She wondered if he always made a joke out of everything. Then she had a sad thought. What if something had happened in his many years to make him use humor as his defense mechanism? She had seen how nervous he had been when he was telling her
about Aidan and his brothers, but even then she could tell he would have busted out a joke or two if he thought he could get away with it. It was easy to see how he and Aidan were so close. Hell, how they were all so close. She was so lost in thought that she almost fell forward when the ground shook and a sound like the earth caving in on itself made her ears ring. It took a couple seconds for her to realize the sound had come from in front of her. She looked up to see smoke billowing over the tree tops. With no thought of her safety or what she was running into, she sprinted as fast as she could towards the smoke, her only thoughts of Aidan; the fear that she would never see him again causing her to move faster than she ever imagined her chubby thighs could carry her.
“Grace, I can’t let you run in there until we know what is going on. ‘A’ made me promise to keep you safe,” Lance called to her as she raced towards the fire, but there was no way she was stopping. He would have to bodily restrain her to keep her from getting to Aidan.
“I really don’t give a shit what you promised. He is up there and could be hurt. I am going.” She really needed to exercise more, she thought to herself. Running had never been her thing. Her words were barely more than a breath as she struggled to keep up her pace. “Use your damn mind talk thingy and find out what the hell is going on. Find out if he is ok.”