Dragan's Redemption Book One of the Manor at Echo Lake Trilogy (25 page)

Stepping into the
large building
, she inhaled deeply.  The animals
,
seeming to sense Shadow, started to move
nervously
.  Not wanting to frighten them
,
she spoke quietly to them all.  Hearing her voice, the
y
instinctively
settled down again.

“How do you do that?”

Jumping, her eyes searched the dark corners for him.

“Dragan!  You scared me.”

Moving away from the wall where he was leaning
, he walked over to her.  She turned to walk to the
horse’s
area
,
but he was in front of her in a millisecond.

Looking up, she could not read his expression as his hands cupped both sides of her face
,
pushing her hair to the back
while
scanning her face
.

“I am getting the feeling you are
avoiding
going to bed.  You are tired
,
Amira
,
and need your rest.”

Her heart beating
wildly
in her chest, she tried to pull away.  “No, actually
I am not that tired
.  I was missing the cottage though
.  I thought I would come here to unwind before heading upstairs.
”

“
Liar
.”

His head dipping down, he kissed her hard on the lips.
  Opening her mouth to lessen the
assault
, Dragan took advantage of the
opening
, pushing his tongue into her mouth capturing
hers
he
sucked gently.

Amira
gasped at the
sensation
,
clutching at his arms before sliding them up behind his head, pulling him more deeply into her.  Giving and taking for a few minutes, both seemed to try and get the upper hand.  Sliding her hands up his back, she ra
ke
d her fingers across his skin
,
and he arched his back.

Dragan turned her so that they were in the shadows of the barn. 
Lifting
her up, he set her on the workbench.  Wrapping her legs around his waist, she pulled
his lower half against her, moaning when she felt
him against her
.

“
Let’s
go inside
,
Amira.”

“
No
,
Dragan. 
Here
.  Right now.”
She unzipped his pants, sliding her hand inside while he moved away to give her access.  Taking him in her hand
,
she slid her fingers up and down
over him
.

“You are going to drive me insane
,
Amira
.”  Kissing her deeply on the lips, he moved his hips. 
“
You
need to rest.”

Whispering in his ear, he felt her breath on his skin
like a caress
.  “I can rest later.”

Overcome with his need for her, he ran his tongue on the inside of her ea
r
, begging
.

“
I just want you Amira
.”

Lowering his
head,
he sucked on her breast
.
She felt the pressure increase inside of her and moving to her other breast, he
r
breath came out in short gasps shocked
as
she realized that she was going to come just like that
if he continued what he was doing to her body
.
 
Feeling
his hands move lower, he lifted her up in his strong arms
,
sliding
off
her
underwear
,
before setting her back down.  Arching her back while never releasing him, she felt him move
against her
.  Out of control, she stopped the
movement
as fire ripped through her veins, her whole body shuddering.  Before she could think, he slid her toward the edge of the
workbench
entering
her.  The wood creaked as he
loved her
, calling out
her name as he spent himself inside
of her.

When their heart rates slowed, he slid her down
,
placing both of her feet on the floor.  Kissing her
forehead
, Amira thought
the gesture was
sweet.

“Not how I planned the end to our evening.”

“
Really
?  You planned out the ending?”

Grinning
,
he took her hand
,
walking her out of the barn.   “Didn’t you?”

Shrugging her
shoulders,
she
hesitated
before responding.  “You seemed off today.  I
wasn’t
quite sure what was going to happen.”

Walking to the bedroom in silence, he closed the door before pulling her to him again.

“Hear me well
,
Amira.  We need to talk about today
,
soon, but not now.  No matter what happens with us, I want you to know that I care about you.  You understand that
,
right?”

“
Nodding
her head, she watched him as he walked to the closet, grabbing a tee shirt
from off a hanger
before walking back to her.”

Saying
nothing,
he took
off
her shirt
,
replacing
it with his.  It was so long that
it
went past her thighs
,
and she smiled.  Sliding his hands under it, he then removed her skirt before tucking her under the sheets.  Sinking into the
softness,
she sighed deeply while watching him change his clothes then sliding in next to her.  Pulling her close onto her side, the
y
lay there for a long time, both lost into the
ir
own thoughts.  The sun was just peeking above the horizon when they
finally
fell asleep.

Dragan stepped out of the Chapel with a heavy heart.
150 years of praying
,
and
there was
still no solace for his soul.  Tapping his leg, Shadow stepped in line with him. 
Reaching the door on the side of the
house,
he entered
into the kitchen.

James was immediately by his side. 
“Can I get you anything
,
Sir?”

“Yes, please
,
I am starving.  What ever you have available
is fine
, but make it two, I am sure
Amira
hasn’t eaten.”  Catching the look between the Chef and James,
Dragan
looked at James
.

“Miss
Amira
went back to the cottage early this morning
,
Sir, shortly after you left for the Chapel.”

Frowning
,
Dragan looked down. 
Resisting the urge to go after her
,
he decided
he
would give her the time she seemed to need right now.
  He needed to focus anyway.

“Very well.   James, did you put the package in the lab?”

“Yes, last night when you arrived.  It is in the cooler.”

“Great, please bring my meal to me there and a pot of coffee
also
.”

“Very good
S
ir.”  James watched in silence, worry creasing his fore
head
.  Something had changed dramatically in the past
twenty
-four hours and not for the better.

Stepping into the sterile lab,
Dragan
put on his white coat and gloves before walking over to the
refrigerator
that held the
vials
of Amira’s blood.  Taking a
stopper,
he placed a drop of the
three
samples on different slides before sliding them under the microscopes he had resting on the counter.  Bending over, he moved methodically from one to the other, writing his observations as he went.  The first sample showed the Protein C deficiency as he expected.  Moving to the second sample, he stared at the
Protein C and now the
mutation
on the slide
.  He
didn’t think he
had ever seen anything like
it
before
,
but he needed to make sure
.  Walking to the journals
filling up a wall of the lab
,
he flipped through
many pages of
his findings over the years
,
only to realize that t
here was
nothing that even came close to the
anomaly.  Going to the third slide, his heartbeat picked up
.  Dragan recognized
his own venom,
and
he watched as
his
poison
seemed to attack
the bad cells.  The battle for
dominance
was obvious
,
and the mutation was no match.
  Dragan
continued to observe
as many of the cells
die
d
on the slide.   There was no noise
in the room except for the
scratching of his
pen
on the pad of paper
.
   He noted that the venom itself died once it did
its
job of killing off the mutation.  With morbid fascination, he watched the
anomaly try and regenerate, but the process was slow and many cells were killed off before it was successful.

His legs felt weak.  Sinking down on the
stool,
he processed what was before him.  If enough of his venom
were
injected into her, then she would be cured and would not have to die.  Hope swelled inside of him.

Standing to look into the microscope again, he heard a light tap at the door.  Without looking up, he called out.

“It’s open, James.”

“It’s not
J
ames.”

“Aaron!”

“What the hell are you doing in here for so long
?
”

Scowling
,
Dragan looked at his watch unable to comprehend that it was 3
o’clock
in the morning.  He had been working for 17 hours straight.

“Don’t tell me you didn’t know what time it was?”

Rubbing his face, Dragan felt the wave of hunger and exhaustion
hit him for the first time
.  “Actually, I didn’t brother.”

Looking curiously at the
papers,
books
and equipment
strewn all over the lab,
Aaron
knew his brother was in deep, what ever it was.   “You look like a mad scientist right now.  I suggest you give whatever you are working on a break.  Here I brought you a gift.  I am not James, so don’t count on this happening again.”  Throwing his brother a
thermos
,
Aaron
sat
behind the desk in the corner watching as his brother opened the top looking into it grateful
ly
before drinking
deeply.

“I am not even going to ask how you got this
,
but I appreciate it.”

Aaron laughed. 
“Good, because I wasn’t going to tell you.  What is going on?”

Dragan sat on the stool feeling the blood hit his stomach before coursing through him
,
renewing his strength.  The headache that had plagued him finally
went
away with the nourishment.

“You were right, Amira is very sick.  She has something in her blood that is killing her.  The problem is
,
no one knows what it is.”