Blood & Roses: Warriors of the Krieger (30 page)

“Just stay with me until Dragus gets back.”
That’s all I could ask for at the moment. The last thing I wanted
was to be alone.

“Where is he?” she asked.

“He’s arresting him,” I sighed. “If I just
had a stake with me earlier, I would have killed him myself.” My
anger boiled and then I shivered.

Lydia looked at me with pleading eyes,
“Please do not confront him. That monster could hurt you worse
now.”

“Oh, don’t worry. I have no plans on seeing
him anytime soon. The first time has left his face burned into my
brain for too long.” I groaned.

Lydia cleared her throat and whispered, “What
did Dragus say?”

I lifted my eyes to meet hers. Worry was
plastered all over her face. “He didn’t say much. I sensed he was
angry and confused. He didn’t push me too hard to talk about it
either.”

“That’s good,” she sighed. “You don’t have to
talk about it, if you don’t want too.”

“That’s the problem. Now that he is in
custody, I’m going to have to tell a courtroom full of strangers
about it.” I grabbed her hands and looked into her eyes to enforce
what I was about to say. “Lydia, I
don’t
want to talk about
it!”

I felt tears stinging in the backs of my
eyes. I tried to squeeze them closed to stop the bloody moisture
from spilling over. Fat lot of good it did me, because the second I
opened them, the tears rolled out over my lids and flowed down my
face.

Before I could wipe them away, ghost hands
caressed my cheeks and removed them for me. The smell of sweet musk
enveloped me and a faint brush of lips touched my forehead.
I
will be home soon, mi amor.

Lydia gasped and jumped back as she saw the
tears vanish from my face. “What the hell was that?” she
gasped.

“Dragus, he was checking on me,” I shrugged.
“Don’t worry, he does it a lot.” I had to laugh at her expression.
It was priceless. She looked like a fish out of water, gasping for
air. Her lips formed as if to ask a question, but no sound would
escape. It took her a minute to spout out what she was
thinking.

“He can actually touch you?” she squeaked the
question she was having trouble asking.

“Yeah, he knows when I’m stressed or upset.
His powers are very strong. He can even speak to me with his
thoughts.”

“What did he say?” she was surprised. I don’t
blame her either. I never knew that a
Krieger
held
that
much power, until now.

“He said he will be home soon.”

Lydia stood up off the couch and grabbed her
coat, “Well, sunrise is coming. I better get going myself.”

After a quick hug, she took off to her place.
I was all alone. The house was too quiet. The servants must have
retired for the day and the humans had not arrived yet.

I jumped when my phone rang. I checked the
caller id and was a little puzzled at a call from Meadow. “Meadow,
is everything okay?” I answered the phone.

“Yes, my lady,” she paused. I stifled a
laugh. She must have heard about our bonding. “I had a vision
again, sort of.”

This confused me, for a second. I had already
forgotten about Meadow’s new ability. I felt bad that I hadn’t been
a very good mentor to her lately. “What do you mean by ‘sort
of’?”

“Well, it’s not so much a vision, as it is
more of a feeling,” she laughed unsteadly.

“What’s the feeling?” Sometimes it was like
pulling fangs to get her to just come right out with whatever she
needed to say. Tonight was one of those nights.

“I was sitting here, reading a book, when I
felt my mind go a little hazy. The next thing I know, I was
speaking aloud.” I heard her sigh heavily on the other end.

“And what did you say, Meadow?” I
pressed.

“I said, ‘Whatever you are planning, it will
work’, and then I saw a vision of you standing outside, close to
some trees.” She laughed slightly, “I hope you can decipher it,
because I have no clue what that means.”

I had a good feeling what it meant; my idea
about getting the potion to Adam may work. Maybe I’m just being
hopeful. If her visions were correct. When a vampire is just
starting to manifest their powers, sometimes those abilities can be
a little erratic. Could Meadow’s visions be correct?

“Thank you, Meadow. I will let you know if
your vision comes about. Don’t worry about it. You did the right
thing by telling me.”

After I hung up, I put her vision in the back
of my mind. I couldn’t take the things she sees to heart just yet.
The best thing for me to do was to keep them to myself, for
now.

Dragus wasn’t home and it was getting close
to dawn, and I wondered what was taking him so long.
Dragus,
where are you?
I thought as I closed my eyes waiting for the
dawn to take me into my death sleep.

Strong hands wrapped around my waist at the
exact moment the aching in my chest lifted. I looked down and felt
relief as I saw his muscular arms encircling around me, in solid
form.

“I’m here, love,” he whispered. His cool
breath washed over my neck and I shivered. “Rest well. I’ll be here
when you awaken.”

With those last words, I felt the pull of
death wearing down on me and I closed my eyes.

As soon as I took my first breath of the
evening, I found myself cocooned into my warrior’s arms. He was
still in his death sleep and I found that odd. Dragus was always
awake whenever I arose in the evenings. I touched his arms and
found them cold and clammy.

I had to strain my neck to see the clock on
the bedside table. It said the time was five p.m. The time had me
confused as well. I have never awoken this early, ever. My usual
time was around six p.m. during this part of the year.

I struggled to remove myself from his embrace
and found out that I just wasn’t that strong. By some miracle, I
was able to roll myself over to face him.

I reached up and traced the strong muscles in
his firm jaw. His beautiful lips were blue from the lack of oxygen
to his body and they were relaxed into a subtle pout that I found
erotic. Dragus’ hard exterior vanished in his death; his features
softened. The black dragon tattoo that all
Krieger
adorned
rested peacefully on his neck. It too looked as if it was sleeping.
His thick lashes draped down almost to the tops of his cheekbones.
I traced the cords of muscles from his neck over the tops of his
shoulders and down his side.

Out of habit, I pulled the covers up over his
waist and onto his shoulders. He would never know comfort in this
gesture, for he never felt the chill in the air during his rest.
For some reason, I just felt better knowing I was providing for
him. He was my warrior, my mate.

We were bonded and needed to prepare for our
Joining. Dragus said he had sent word to the queen. She would be
the one to set our date and be the one to approve our Joining.
Would she deny me because I was tainted?

I had a moment of panic spear me as I thought
those words. There is no reason why she would deny our bonding.
Dragus would fight her if she dismissed our request for the
Joining. I hope. And why would I worry about my past?

By the time Dragus took his first breath, I
hadn’t quite reeled in my concern. He looked at me puzzled, “Are
you okay?”

“I’m fine,” I lied.

“When did you awaken?”

“Oh, about,” I looked over at the clock,
“half an hour ago.”

“How did you do that?” he insisted.

“I don’t know, it just happened,” I barked.
“I opened my eyes and I was locked in your arms and you were still
dead.”

“Hm,” he frowned. “It will happen, since you
have warrior blood in you. Just don’t leave the room until I’m up,
okay.”

“So, what did Dr. Mason say?” I asked,
changing the subject.

“He thinks that he can do as you asked.
Mistress Kai was to work on the darts today while we rested. If she
is able to get them done, we will need to go to your house
tonight,” he paused to take a deep breath and shook his head. “I
don’t like the idea of you being bait. I just don’t like it.”

I reached up and placed two fingers across
those soft lips I loved so much, “Stop panicking. I will be
fine.”

“Yes and your judgments have been perfect
over the past few weeks too,” he said sarcastically.

“I’m going to ignore that comment and go
brush my teeth,” I huffed. Dragus chuckled as I stomped my feet
across the bedroom floor. It didn’t take long before he joined me
in the bathroom.

After we finished with our silent brushing, I
followed him back into the bedroom. Dragus sat on the edge of the
bed and patted the mattress.

Because of my early waking, my thirst peaked
as I caught the scent of him. The sweet musk of his rolled through
my senses and I felt my fangs lengthen. I paused to clinch my
shaking hands. Dragus immediately sensed my thirst and pulled me
down onto his lap.

Once we were sated from our morning meal, we
dressed and met Simon in the dining room. Dragus scooped up his
packet from the table and walked into the living room. He sat down
in the recliner and pulled me onto his lap. I laughed and slung my
legs over the side; resting my head on his shoulder, “What’s in the
packet?”

“Reports from the human police,” he murmured
as he read. I noticed the muscle in his jaw tighten. My warrior
always working, always taking charge of everything. How could I not
love him? I watched his expression as a little pucker pinched his
brow.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“The news media picked up the story about his
arrest,” he grimaced. “Word got out about his charges.”

I gasped and immediately felt my stomach
lurch. It took a lot of willpower but I was able to keep from
throwing up. Everyone would know what he did to me. I couldn’t get
away from the spotlight. Couldn’t I just crawl into a hole
somewhere? I tried to remove myself from his lap. It didn’t
work.

Dragus tightened his hold on me and sighed,
“Once his picture was posted all over the news, four women came
forward with the same complaint.”

“What?” I shrieked.

“You’re not the only one, my love.”

“Good, they can talk about it so I don’t have
too,” I murmured.

“What?” he asked.

“Nothing,” I lied.

Dragus watched me wiggle free from his arms
and walk over to the couch. His intense stare agitated me more than
it should. I know he meant well, but his observation of me had my
head reeling and all I wanted to do was run away. Dragus must have
read my thoughts. He fished through more paperwork, looking like he
was more intent on it than my own problems. And for that I was
thankful for a little time to myself.

Chapter 14

Dragus

My heart ached as I watched Charity trudge up
the stairs. I didn’t dare watch her directly, but I did more or
less from the corner of my eyes. Her emotions were all over the
grid; fear, guilt, uncertainty, worry.

Tonight would hopefully extinguish at least
the worry she held for Adam Castillo. In about an hour, Bastian and
Powle would meet us at her farm house with specially made
tranquilizer darts filled with the witch’s potion to hopefully cure
the hybrid. Extra darts were being made, just in case we find more
hybrids other than Adam.

Our plan was simple, send Charity alone to
the edge of the forest, in her backyard, to connect with Adam. The
Krieger
will be posted, like snipers, at certain invisible
points on her property already, in hopes that Adam will not know we
are waiting for him when the time comes. Once a clear shot was
available, the sniper with the best advantage would shoot him with
the potion. My job is to be close enough to protect her, but far
enough away not to be noticed by the hybrid.

“Master Dragus,” Simon interrupted. “A letter
from the Queen arrived for you this morning.”

“Thank you, Simon.” I took the letter and
waited for him to leave before opening it.

The envelope was eloquently made out of a
thick beige parchment. The letter inside was hand written in the
queen’s perfect script. She was pleased to hear of our bonding and
had scheduled our
Joining
for the first day of March, this
year. I breathed a sigh of relief for the happy news I’d just
received; finally something to brighten the day of my beloved
Charity.

I tossed the packet aside and immediately
made my way upstairs to find her. She was stretched out on the
couch, bundled up in a blanket reading a novel. Her eyes flashed to
mine when she sensed me in the room.

“What is it, Dragus?” she asked
skeptically.

“A letter from the queen arrived this
morning,” I paused. Her beautiful golden eyes lit up at my words.
“Our
Joining
has been set for the first day of March.”

“Oh my!” she gasped. “That doesn’t leave a
lot of time to prepare. We haven’t even found a place to hold the
ceremony.”

“No worries, love,” I laughed. “The queen
says we can have it here at the estate. The servants will take care
of everything. Your only worry should be the dress.”

She sighed and relaxed back into the couch,
“Well that helps out. Bless the queen for letting us use the
estate.”

My phone rang, interrupting our conversation.
Charity slumped back into her depressed state on the couch;
covering herself with the blanket.

“Master Dragus,” Palo said. “We’re ready when
you are.”

“How much potion were you able to get from
Mistress Kai?”

“Only seven darts were made,” he paused. “I
hope that is enough.”

“We’ll see,” I sighed. “We’ll be there
shortly.”

Charity stood up from the couch and folded
her blanket. “So, I guess this is it.”

I materialized next to her and pulled her
close. She rested her head on my chest. God knows, I would protect
her life with my own, but I had no idea how to soothe the pain
inside her.