by Amelia Jade
Snatching up the phone, he punched in a well-worn number.
“Get me Colonel Mara immediately,” he snapped. “It’s an emergency.”
Less than twenty seconds later she was on the phone and he told her everything he knew.
“I’m sending a chopper. Get him to the roof.”
Corde acknowledged, hung up the phone, and rushed to Vanek’s room. He grabbed a duffel bag in the closet and ransacked his drawers, swiftly packing a number of outfits. The helicopter would take nearly twenty minutes to reach them, so he had a bit of time to spare.
After that he went to his room and did the same. Who knew how long they would be at Fork Stark, to the southwest of the city. All packed, he carried the bags and Vanek’s limp form to the roof, where he set his friend down, using the bags as pillows for his head.
“What the hell happened to you, pal?” he asked, gray eyes tightening as his attention was drawn to the mountains to the west.
Out there was Fort Banner, where the portal was heavily guarded by some of the most advanced weaponry and best-trained soldiers in the country. Suddenly Corde knew what had happened to his friend.
The Outsiders were back, and they’d hurt his friend. Badly.
Corde’s throat rumbled with a growl that filled the air, promising revenge on the creature as soon as he could locate it.
In the distance, the sky began to beat with the sound of the blades of the approaching helicopter. Hopefully it wasn’t too late.
Chapter Seventeen
Harlow
She sat at the table alone, her long flowing skirt covering her legs, and the silky black halter-top combining with it to make her feel extremely out of place.
The smell of deep-fried potatoes and hamburgers haunted her nose, while off to her left a batch of children screamed in delight as they raced through the two-story indoor playground, high off the sugar and salt in their late-evening meals. Four middle-aged women sat nearby, chatting excitedly to one another, seemingly oblivious to the hurricane of destruction their kids were leaving across the restaurant.
At least the fries are good.
She looked at her phone again. It was nearly two hours since Vanek had promised to meet her outside the theatre across the street, and still he was a no-show. Her texts were unanswered and her phone calls went straight to voicemail. Something was wrong, she just didn’t know what. It wasn’t like Vanek to be this way. He’d always responded with an eagerness and swiftness that would rival a millennial.
Another mouthful of delightfully salty and crispy fries cooked to perfection later, and she was still upset. It wasn’t until her hand went back for some more and found the little box empty that she knew it was time to leave. The time for waiting was past, all that was left now was to take action.
She went outside, hailed a cab, and stared out the window as they crossed downtown to his penthouse tower. The drive took about twenty minutes, between distance and traffic, which wasn’t bad. Harlow sometimes regretted not having her own vehicle, but the semi-truck was far more practical for her needs than anything else. Back when she’d first bought the company she’d had a driver for it, while she took her own vehicle, but as time went on and things got tougher, she’d been forced to sell it.
“Where are you, Vanek?” she asked, starting to feel a combination of nervousness and outright fear.
He’d promised not to do something like this.
And she’d believed him.
The elevator up to his suite was quick, and she was thankful that he’d insisted on giving her access several days earlier, just in case. Now it was working out in her favor. The doors opened up just as a helicopter thundered past the building, its rotors chopping at the air and vibrating the windows. Harlow cursed in surprise, wondering what the hell the pilot was doing flying so close to the buildings. Weren’t there regulations about that?
“Vanek?” she called cautiously, stepping out of the elevator as the doors slid closed behind her.
Only silence greeted her.
“Corde?”
No reply. Where the hell was everyone?
“Kylie?” She didn’t know the other woman well at all, only having met her once, but just in case she didn’t want to scare anyone.
Once more though nobody answered her call, prompting Harlow to move farther into the penthouse and up to the second floor, where they could most often be found. The upstairs was clean, looking as if it hadn’t been disturbed in some time.
Frustrated, she walked over to the room she and Vanek had shared together for the past few nights, wondering if perhaps he was asleep. Though why he would be asleep here and not have told her was a mystery. The door was open, and before she even entered Harlow knew the truth of the matter.
Vanek was gone.
His drawers were open, bunches of his clothes missing from within, as if they’d been hastily packed. Socks, underwear, shirts and pants. Each drawer was devoid of some of each.
Harlow felt the punch that ripped out her heart, the emotional impact staggering her physically as she reached out for the door frame, needing it for support as she sank to the ground. Fear welled up in her stomach and locked down any rational thought, pinning her in place as it pummeled her with visions of her father’s funeral and the months of pain she’d been in afterward.
“No,” she gasped as darkness closed in at the edges of her vision, hysteria taking full hold.
The tears refused to come, anxiety overwhelming even that base instinct within her. Giant sobs caused her lungs to work overtime as they fought to supply her with oxygen to prevent her from hyperventilating. It was a losing effort though, and the noises of her struggle filled the room, reflecting back against her and only intensifying the reaction.
He had left her. Without warning, without reason. Not even a letter to explain why he’d gone. It was worse than her father’s abandonment. She’d shared with him her fears, and then he’d gone and done exactly that. Harlow was devastated, the mental agony too strong for any rationality to punch through, locking down her brain with its depressing and defeating imagery.
Once again, she’d let a man into her life and he’d broken her trust. She should have known better. It was all her fault. It had to be. Why else would they keep on leaving her behind, abandoning her when she needed them most? Once was a coincidence, but twice was the start of a pattern, and the only common theme in it was her. Something was wrong with Harlow.
She didn’t know what, but the knowledge that she’d screwed up somehow weighed down upon her heavily. Even her mother had left Harlow, dying when she was young. Someone out there hated her, and was ruining her life every way they conceivably could. Her father. Her mother. Her float company. Her Vanek.
She laughed, a hysterical noise torn from her throat. Her Vanek indeed. He had never been hers she saw now. When she’d tried to make him hers, to open up to him, he’d left. He saw the destruction that was her mind and soul, and wanted no part of it whatsoever. The empty drawers were just the physical proof.
For a long time Harlow lay on the cold floor, trying to figure out what was wrong with her.
Chapter Eighteen
Vanek
One day.
His eyes finally opened after a gargantuan effort. Immediately regretting that decision he slammed them shut again as the bright lights of the medical ward seared his eyes.
“Ow,” he moaned.
“Try not to talk or move,” a soothing voice said from nearby.
Vanek focused on it, the first real sound he’d heard since waking up. He’d stirred several times before, but it was always a blur, nothing making any sense. Now he could latch on to the voice. Was it Harlow?
No, his brain told him after a moment. Not Harlow, but definitely female, and familiar as well. Running through a catalogue of the females he knew took time as his brain ached with every effort to recall detail, but eventually he settled on a name.
Lianna. She was the human scientist that worked with Kyen, an ancient pl
atinum pacifist dragon. It was the two of them who had devised the method to awaken the dragons from their sleep of stone, converting their fossilized bodies back into living, breathing, flesh and blood.
He’d first encountered them upon waking, and it was Kyen who had taught him the basics of the human language until he could converse enough to read the texts and grasp a much fuller concept of the English language. Which, he’d noted sourly, was horrifically jumbled and made no sense.
Which witch? To, too, two? There, their, and they’re? Who came up with this nonsense! He blamed it on writers and their constant need to come up with new words. Burn the lot of them, he thought grumpily.
Realizing his brain was wandering, he brought it back to the original thought. Lianna. That meant he was back at Fort Stark where everything had begun, and not in Barton City.
“Harlow,” he said, his voice a slur.
Dammit. He was still weak. Anger infused him with a bit of strength, and he repeated his mate’s name.
“She’s not here, Vanek. You’re at Fort Stark undergoing some medical tests and recovering.”
He was aware of that. What he didn’t know was why his mate wasn’t here. If she knew that he’d been hurt, Harlow would have insisted on being at his side. He knew her. She wouldn’t abandon him when he needed her. Not now.
“Phone.”
“What?”
His lips curled back in a snarl, but before he could say or do anything more, huge vise-like hands gripped his shoulders and forced him back into the bed.
“Stay put, Vanek,” a silvery-smooth voice said gently, though there was no mistaking the iron inlaid in his words. Kyen was a pacifist. He wouldn’t fight, but he wasn’t above using his strength to get his patients to do as they were told.
Vanek, for his part, was far too weak to fight the older dragon. The Outsider had sucked a lot of life out of him. The longer he was awake the stronger he felt, but it would still be some time before he felt up to his usual tricks, that was for sure.
“Phone,” he repeated, stronger this time.
“Why do you need a phone?”
Forcing his brain to focus, he opened his eyes and stared at the silver-haired giant standing over the bed. “To call my mate.”
Kyen’s eyes flicked over to Lianna and then back. “Is she not aware of why you’re here?”
“I’m not aware of why I’m here,” he said, his fear for Harlow kickstarting his brain into forming full sentences.
“You were almost dead,” Lianna said, coming over to the bedside now that it was clear he wasn’t going to put up a struggle to escape.
Not yet at least.
“Well, I’m not. And Harlow is waiting for me. I need to get back to Barton City. We had a date.”
Pain colored Kyen’s eyes, turning them from a friendly whiskey-brown to something darker, more soulful. “Vanek, you’ve been unconscious for almost twelve hours.”
“What?” He looked around, panicked. “How is that possible?”
“Well,” Lianna said slowly. “When you came here, you were in rough shape. Weak vitals and everything. I’d never seen anything like it in your kind, and neither had Kyen. We didn’t know what to do, so we kept you sedated while we pumped you full of fluids to hopefully jumpstart your metabolism into healing you. It seemed to work, but you were dreadfully weak, Vanek. What happened to you?”
He growled angrily at the admission of his weakness. “Outsider jumped me. Ambush, a new tactic I guess. I didn’t see it coming, and took a blow right to the chest. Luckily I struck back, and then was able to escape. I must have hurt it. I’m not sure. Then I sort of passed out. I don’t really remember much besides trying to get out of that graveyard.”
The room spun as he finished talking, weakness filling his muscles and he lay back into the pile of pillows.
“Food,” he added.
Kyen nodded to Lianna, and they left the room to get him something solid. He hoped it was a burger, but doubted he had that much luck left in him.
Twelve hours? Not including however long it took him to get here, that added up to a long time that Harlow hadn’t heard from him.
“Vanek.”
His eyes focused on the voice as a stout female in military garb entered.
“Colonel Mara,” he said warily. “I don’t think I’m up for any more reconnaissance missions anytime soon.”
“I know, Vanek. I’m so sorry. I had thought you could kill one of those things. If I’d known, I would have had you wait until Corde could get there.”
He laughed weakly, the effort making the room spin, but less so than before. Vanek was growing stronger by the minute.
“If I’d known, I would have waited too. But Colonel, I need to get back to Harlow.”
“You need to rest, Vanek. She’ll be there.”
“There’s no time,” he snapped, feel a minor rush of energy slip into his veins as he thought about his mate, exposed and alone, thinking herself abandoned by everyone. He needed to get to her, to ensure she didn’t believe that, to explain the truth of everything.
“Yes, there is. We’re going to wait until you’re better, then you, Kallore, and Corde are going to go back together and finish this. But only once you’ve recovered. The deadline will just have to wait a day.”
“Fuck the deadline,” he snarled. “I couldn’t give two shits about your superiors’ precious ‘deadline.’ This is my mate. She is mine, and I will not allow any harm to come to her while I sit here in a medical gown with my ass exposed!”
Colonel Mara frowned, his anger slipping off her like it was nothing. “What are you talking about, Vanek? Why will she come to harm?”
“I think I know why the Outsider didn’t chase me after,” he said heavily. “I hurt it, but not bad enough to stop it from getting the rest of me.”
“Why, then?”
“You said it can sense the bond between mates, right?”
“We think so. It’s shown an uncanny ability to go after me and Kylie, forcing the dragons to do something drastic to stop them. If they had gotten one of us, it would have destroyed Kal or Corde, leaving them vulnerable to the…oh no.”
Vanek nodded. “Something happened when it attacked me.” He told her all about the burst of energy and the blue glow that had surrounded his sword as he attacked, all of his thoughts focused on Harlow. “I think it sensed that link somehow, since it was hurt by it. It’s going to be after her now.”
Colonel Mara’s face filled with horror as she realized the truth of his statement.
“I need to get back. Now.”
“But Vanek, you’re not ready. Kal and Corde are out at Fort Banner, doing an inspection of the portal. Corde couldn’t stand seeing you like that. He was beating himself up over not being there to help, so I sent him away to do something busy.”
“What about Kylie?” he asked, worried for his friend’s mate.
“She’s here. She’ll be safe.”
“Then I need to go.”
He pulled the sheets off and slid to the edge of the bed, exposing his entire backside to Colonel Mara, who, despite the gravity of the situation, snickered.
“Clothes,” he growled.
She brought them to him from where they’d been stacked. “This isn’t a good idea, Vanek. I can’t support this.”
“No shit. I can barely walk. But what else do you suggest? That thing is not going to get her. Now, I need a portable phone, a helicopter, and Harlow’s location. Can you do that for me? I need you to find her again before I get back to Barton City.”
She stared at him. “Vanek, no. You can’t be doing this.”
“THEN GIVE ME A BETTER IDEA!” he roared, the commotion bringing a pair of guards inside.
He tossed a chair at them with another bellow and they wisely retreated from the room. Kyen and Lianna returned, took one look at him, and stepped aside.
“Don’t do this, Vanek,” Kyen warned. “You aren’t ready to fight.”
“No, I’m not,�
�� he agreed, struggling into his shirt as fast as he could. “But you don’t fight at all. So what I’ve got is the best we have.” He pinned Colonel Mara with his fiercest glare. “Is my helicopter ready? Do we know where Harlow is?”
“I can’t support this decision—”
“I’m not asking you to!” he shouted. “I’m telling you to just do it! Tell them I overpowered you and forced you to do it, I don’t care. Just get me that helicopter and her location!”
Colonel Mara thought about it a moment longer, then nodded. “If you’re going to do this anyway, then I’m damned well going to make sure you’ve got the best shot at it possible. Kyen, give him your phone, take him up topside, and get that chopper in the air. I’m going to find Harlow.”
The room sprang into motion as he lurched for the door, the movement slow and laggy, but he moved. Eventually Kyen tired of this, and snatched him up. “You can recover in the chopper. Lianna, get all the food and ration bars you can. Have the guards radio topside and have all the men rush whatever they can to the helicopter. He can stuff it all down on the way. Move it!”
Lianna and the two guards outside rushed to fulfill his requests, stuffing the bag of food into his arms before she went.
Vanek, carried effortlessly in the platinum dragon’s arms, stuffed a hand into the bag.
“Holy shit, Kyen, I think I love you.”
He tore into the cheeseburger with gusto as the base leapt into action, all with one dedicated mission: Get him to Harlow.
Chapter Nineteen
Harlow
“Harlow. It’s me, Vanek. I’m sure you’re beyond angry right now, and rightfully so. But I promise, I have a really good explanation for what happened, if you’ll just give me the chance to explain. Please call me back. I was on my way to see you, when I was—”
She shut the phone off, stabbing her hand down on the screen to the red button, hitting the digital icon repeatedly until it shut off his voice, whatever last words he was saying drowned out by the buzzing roar in her head.