by Tara West
Abby came across Gabriel searching for Safina through nearby rubble and told him Teddy had come for Charlotte and the baby. Abby’s heart sank when Gabriel said Safina hadn’t come home yet, but she tried to remain optimistic. After all, she’d seen her dragon mother swim after her. Abby suspected Safina had dragon magic, too. Such powerful giants couldn’t have succumbed to the storm.
Most everything south of Irene’s house had been flattened, but it was easy to find Señor Cortez’s home. It was the only standing structure amid blocks of rubble.
“Nana! Nana! I’m back!” Abby raced up the porch steps and through the front door, ready to launch herself into her Nana’s arms.
Instead, she was met by Señor Cortez, standing over a body draped in a sheet. Abby froze, unable to absorb the shock of the sight before her, for sticking out from under that sheet were her Nana’s shoes. She recognized those gold buckles and wide heels.
Abby didn’t remember much of what happened after that. She thought she fell, for her knees throbbed. She wasn’t sure how she ended up sitting on Gabriel’s cot, a blanket draped over her shoulders and a glass of milk in her hand.
Señor Cortez was the only person there to comfort her. All the other men, he’d said, had been ordered to assist in recovering the bodies.
He kept telling Abby it wasn’t her fault, that it was her Nana’s time, but Abby knew better. She’d killed her Nana. When Abby went out into the hurricane without so much as a goodbye, Nana had worried herself to death.
* * *
Safina’s legs felt as heavy as sandbags as she trudged through the muck. She and her family had fallen into a fitful sleep and risen shortly before dawn, swimming to shore and discovering they’d drifted to the far end of the island. It took them several hours to make the journey back to Galveston. The storm had passed, and the floodwaters had abated, leaving behind the calamity’s gruesome aftermath.
After seeing a bloated, naked corpse, she kept her head down, unable to stomach the sight of another. She’d hardly slept last night, listening to all kinds of dark sounds from within her shell while worrying over Gabriel and her friends. If Mother hadn’t reassured her that she’d witnessed Gabriel wielding the wind and water like the mighty earth speakers of old, Safina’s fears would have consumed her.
Safina staggered into Señor Cortez’s house with only one purpose, to find Gabriel. Mother and Father trailed far behind. Mother kept stopping to place her hands on the sick and injured, but Safina couldn’t stop until she knew her mate was safe.
She froze when she saw the cloth-draped corpse lying on a table in the center of the parlor. The body was too wide to be Gabriel. She lifted one corner of the drape and saw strands of familiar grey hair. She felt bad for the old woman, knowing she’d probably died from fright after Abby left. Had she and Gabriel forced Abby to come back, Mrs. Jenkens might have lived.
Still, she had no regrets, for Mother had told her she’d saved Charlotte’s life and delivered her baby. By mortal standards, Mrs. Jenkens had lived a long life, while Charlotte and her child had so much more to live.
She found Señor Cortez in the kitchen preparing food.
When he turned to her, she fell back in shock. Señor Cortez had always looked old and fragile, but the man standing before her was a skeleton with a layer of parchment-thin skin.
“Oh, niña.” he rasped. “You’re alive!” His bones cracked as he leaned against the table.
She stumbled toward him. “Gabriel?”
“He went looking for you.”
Safina fell into a chair, burying her face in her hands. Gabriel had survived the storm, and for now, that’s all that mattered.
* * *
Safina pulled back the curtain to Gabriel’s room, her heart sinking as she watched Abby sob into a pillow. “Mind if I share a bed with you?”
Abby sprang up. “Safi!” She jumped off the bed and grabbed her in a fierce hug. “I’m so glad you’re alive!”
Safina squeezed her back. “Oh, Abby. I’m sorry about your Nana.”
Abby hung her head, wiping tears from her eyes. “I killed her.”
“No you didn’t.” Safina’s words punched the air with enough force to make Abby gasp.
“Yes I did. If I hadn’t gone after Charlotte, she’d be alive.”
Safina led her friend to the bed. “But now Charlotte lives, and so does her baby.” She tilted Abby’s chin, forcing her to look up. “Listen to me, Abby. My mother spent most of her life lamenting the death of my grandmother. I have had to bear the burden of her guilt as well. Your Nana would have been proud of the way you saved Charlotte. Do not make the remainder of your days miserable because you did what was right.”
Abby’s lip quavered as she nodded her agreement. Then she cleared her throat, her eyes darting around the room as if she lacked the courage to look Safina in the eyes. “Last night I saw your mother turn into a dragon.”
Safina jerked away, sucking in a sharp breath.
Abby reached for Safina’s hand. “Do not fear, Safi. I will tell no one. I promise,” she said with a wink as she drew an X across her heart. “That shark didn’t rip off your clothes, did it?” Her eyes lit up like stars twinkling in the moonlight. “You turned into a dragon and saved Pedro from the shark.”
Safina grimaced. “Aye, I did.”
Abby shivered. She shifted onto her knees, the bed squeaking with the movement. “Did you kill it or scare it away?”
Odd how Abby seemed more fascinated than frightened. In fact, she didn’t seem scared at all. “I bit it in two.”
“Oh my word!” Abby squealed. “That’s amazing!”
“Not so amazing.” Safina stuck out her tongue, recalling the shark’s salty, pungent blood had nearly made her vomit. “His blood tasted awful.”
Abby tossed back her head and laughed before throwing her arms around Safina and kissing her cheek. “Thank you, Safi.”
Safina looked at her friend as if she’d grown a second head. “For what?”
“For cheering me up,” Abby said, batting her eyelashes. “For being my friend.”
The warmth that flooded Safina’s chest was indescribable. How many times throughout her youth had she wished for a mortal girl to call her ‘friend’ and truly mean it? “You are the first mortal girl to learn my secret and not run away screaming.”
Abby tilted her chin, a sly smile tugging at the corner of her mouth. “I’m not afraid of you. I know you and your mother are good. I’m proud to be your friend, and I always will be.”
“Thank you, Abby.” Safina heaved a sigh of relief, many years of sorrow and rejection melting away with a few kind words. “You don’t know how much your friendship means to me.”
* * *
Fiona trudged through the front door, holding tightly to Duncan’s hand. She gasped when she saw the body and knew instantly Mrs. Jenkens was beneath the sheet. She sent a silent prayer up to the Earth Mother to welcome the old woman’s spirit into the light.
Señor Cortez met them in the kitchen. “Safina and Abby are sleeping in Gabriel’s room. The men have gone to help recover the dead.”
Fiona silently nodded as she sat at the table. Duncan pulled a chair up beside her. She chewed on a piece of bread while they wordlessly shared a cup of water.
“Lass, you need rest.”
Fiona stared absently at Duncan. “Huh?”
He smirked, pointing to the cup she clutched in her hand. “You have been drinking from an empty glass.”
“Oh.” She was so tired her head spun. Though she wanted so badly to go back outside and help those poor souls, she didn’t have the strength to heal another.
“I have prepared the upstairs back room for you,” Josef said. “You will find a basin of water and a change of clothes.”
Fiona leaned against the table, so tired she could barely lift her head. “Thank you, Josef.”
Before she knew what was happening, Duncan had scooped her into his arms and was carrying her upstairs. She sa
t at the foot of the bed, numbly obeying as he removed her clothes and scrubbed her with a damp rag. She was too tired to be modest as he ran his hands down her bare arms and back, but when the cool cloth grazed her breasts, she instinctively laid back with a moan.
“That feels good,” she murmured.
As tired as she was, her senses awakened when he ran the cloth over her abdomen. Much to her chagrin, he stopped before reaching the mound between her thighs. He lifted each leg, cleaning one and then the other, running the rag from her buttocks and to the tender cups beneath her feet.
“You missed a spot,” she drawled before biting down on her lip, flushed with desire.
“You will have to do it.” Duncan held the rag out to her. “I don’t trust myself to touch you there.”
She pushed his hand down. “But I trust you.”
His eyes darkened, his features hardening to a mask of stone. “You and I both know what this will lead to.”
“Aye, Duncan,” she said as she held her arms out to him. “I know exactly what this will lead to.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
Gabriel searched among the piles of bodies, exhaling a sigh of relief when he didn’t spy a mass of flame-red hair among the victims. He quickly turned from the stench. As the clouds parted, and the Texas sun bore down on the island, the smell of bloated corpses got stronger. More than once, Gabriel had come close to passing out. Even though he and many of the survivors wore kerchiefs over their faces, the masks did little to diminish the stench of death.
“Gabriel!” Gabriel’s youngest brother, Manny, bounded toward him. He stopped long enough to remove his mask and catch his breath before blurting, “Safina’s alive!”
Gabriel swore his heart stopped beating for an eternal second, as everything around him—people mourning the loss of their loved ones, crews digging bodies out of the rubble, children crying for their parents—went silent. As he stood in the center of so much devastation and destruction, Manny had given him a beacon of light.
“Where is she?” he demanded.
Manny thumbed behind him. “At Papi’s house.”
Gabriel’s chest squeezed so hard, he had to bend over, steadying his hands on his thighs to keep from passing out. The last time he’d seen his mate, she was being kidnapped by the villain who’d stabbed him in the gut. And though Gabriel had feared the worst, he’d had no time to mourn Safina, as he battled the hurricane. After the storm had passed, and the midnight moon shone down on the ruins, Gabriel didn’t think Safina could have survived such devastation. All the homes on the west side of the island had been destroyed. Lydia’s home had only survived through Gabriel’s magic.
Manny leaned over him, patting him on the back. “You all right?”
Gabriel nodded. “Just give me a minute.” He slowly stood as his heartrate slowed to nearly normal. “And her family?”
Manny flashed a boyish grin. “They are well.”
Gabriel’s hand trembled as he grabbed his brother’s shoulder. “I need to see her.”
“Come on.”
Gabriel was happy to escape the gloom, if only to hold Safina for a few moments, but he knew he needed to help the others dig for bodies; a gruesome chore, but one that needed to be done.
Two of his brothers, Pedro and Raul, climbed down from a pile of rubble, dragging the body of a man behind them.
He whistled to them and waved his arms. “Safi’s alive!”
They gave him a thumbs-up and went back to work.
Just as Gabriel was about to follow Manny, he stopped cold. Something about that corpse was eerily familiar. He bounded across the rubble until he was upon his brothers.
He hissed sharply when he saw the lifeless eyes of his attacker, Dr. Straw, staring up at him. The cane Dr. Straw had used to rip open Gabriel’s guts was protruding from the man’s chest. His eyes bulged, his mouth hanging open, as if his face was frozen in a permanent state of shock.
“I know that man,” Gabriel growled. As much as Gabriel wanted to celebrate the doctor’s death, seeing his lifeless body only brought back painful memories. He couldn’t wait for the doctor to be buried, along with the past.
“Who is it?” Pedro asked, mopping sweat off his brow.
Gabriel scowled. “It’s that pendejo, Dr. Straw.” He pointed to the cane in the man’s chest. “He stabbed me with this.”
“Hold it just a minute!”
An older, stocky man with sharp, grey eyes approached them. Gabriel recognized him as Colin O’Leary, a strongman who worked for a local saloon. Gabriel had witnessed a few occasions where O’Leary had thrown grown men out on the street and knew he was not a man to be crossed.
His iron-eyed glare focused on Gabriel before he stared down at the corpse. “You found Dr. Straw?” He kicked the body, and it made a gruesome, wet sound like a fish hitting a butcher block. O’Leary squinted at the corpse and chuckled. “He owed a lot of people money in this town.” He nudged Gabriel. “Check his pockets.”
Gabriel swallowed as a sense of unease twisted his gut. Dr. Straw was a snake, but Gabriel still didn’t like the idea of rummaging through a dead man’s pockets.
“Well, go on!” O’Leary commanded. “Or lift him, and I’ll do it.” He tapped his knee. “Haven’t been able to bend this leg since the war.
Gabriel heaved a groan before kneeling and turning out the doctor’s pockets. He found a velvet bag in the man’s vest and tugged on the drawstring, surprised to find several pieces of expensive-looking jewelry.
He held the jewelry out to O’Leary. “I doubt this is his.”
O’Leary frowned. “Stolen, no doubt. We’ll have to bring this to the chief and see if anyone claims it. If not, it will help pay down the doctor’s debt.”
Gabriel stood, brushing his hands on his pants, trying to get the feel of Straw’s stiff corpse off his fingertips. A shot rang out so loudly, it nearly split his skull in two. He lurched forward, falling on top of the doctor’s body. The blast had somehow thrown him off balance. He thought he heard his brothers screaming, but their voices sounded more and more distant as his world began to fade.
* * *
Duncan knew he looked like an animal caught in a snare as he gaped at Fiona, but he couldn’t help himself. And though he’d dreamed of this moment for so long, he couldn’t help but have doubts. She was asking to bond with the man who’d murdered her mother.
“Lass,” he rasped, struggling to find the courage to refuse the one thing in the world he wanted more than anything. “You are tired. You need rest.”
“I know. But I need you more.”
He dropped the rag on the bed. “You don’t have to do this.”
“But I want to, Duncan.” She leaned up on her elbows, her pretty hair fanned out across the bed, her alluring nude body a temptation that was becoming harder to refuse.
He shook his head, hating himself for denying her. “I don’t want you living an eternity regretting this.”
She sat up, grabbing his thigh, her mouth dangerously close to his groin as she looked up at him with alluring amber eyes. “My only regret is that I waited five hundred years to again feel your lips on mine.”
He fell on the bed beside her, searching her gaze for any sign of deception. Though he wanted so badly to take her in his arms once more, he feared she only wished to restore the bond to give Safina immortality. He wanted that for Safina, too, but he couldn’t stand the thought of Fiona loathing herself afterward.
He stroked her cheek. “Lass,” he whispered, “think of what you’re asking.”
She placed her hand on his, leaning into him. “I saw my parents last night. I nearly drowned, and they came to me in a dream. My father was dismembered by the Knights Templar, his body parts hidden in boxes.” She paused, swallowing. “When you killed my mother, you freed my father from a lifetime of torture. You set them both free.”
Though it was a sad tale, if it were true, perhaps Fiona could find it in her heart to forgive him. “It was still wrong, what
I did. Had I known what she was, I would have never….”
“She has long since forgiven you,” she interrupted, placing a finger on his lips, “and she asks that I do the same.”
Duncan’s throat tightened, his chest feeling as if it were being crushed. “And do you forgive me, lass?”
She nodded, tears streaming down her face. “I forgive you, and I love you.”
Duncan had heard all he needed to hear. He took her in his arms, kissing her neck and the lobe of her ear. “And I love you, lass, with all my heart. I’ve loved you for the past five hundred years, and I will love you forever more.”
They took turns washing, laughing as they splashed each other. She toyed and teased his member until he thought he’d explode. When he’d finally had enough, he rolled her over with a growl, sinking into her warm heat with one fluid thrust.
He held steady deep inside her, whispering words of affection in her ear before kissing her brow, the tip of her nose, and her lips. She opened her mouth to him, groaning as their tongues sparred with one another. He reached between them, teasing that swollen juncture and coaxing more fluids from her core. He thrust again and again, until they fell into a rhythm that neither of them could stop.
All outside sounds seemed to fade away. There was just their labored breathing, the slippery sound of their bodies moving together, and the erratic pounding of their hearts. Duncan smiled when he realized he felt her heart beating as if it were his own. He also sensed heat building between her thighs and her need for fulfillment. They were bonded once again.
As he carried her over into one climax and then another, he could no longer hold back his own. He spilled his seed deep within her, crying out as her sheath clenched around him, milking him until every last drop was spent.
He collapsed beside her, taking her in his arms and kissing her senseless. She whimpered and stroked him, grinding against his groin, his staff still inside her. He swelled again, rolling her over once more, and they surrendered to that timeless dance of soul-searing love and carnal pleasure.