Fire & Ice (5 page)

“Okay, I’ll be ready to go in fifteen,” she groused. She was anything but a morning person, but knew she couldn’t take it out on her friend who had generously not only given her a place to crash last night but also stayed up and helped her write the newspaper article that was due. She had just made it in under the deadline by five minutes.

Evangelina splashed water on her face to help her wake up, and then walked back out into the living room to gather her stuff and straighten up the couch. Fifteen minutes later both girls walked out the door and were soon heading back to Evangelina’s apartment to pick up her car.

The ringing of Adrian’s phone brought him out of sleep. He hadn’t bothered with an alarm when he and his brother finally called it quits around four o’clock that morning. They had sifted through their mate’s apartment, but came up empty handed as to any rational explanations.

He reached over and snatched the phone up, and growled, “Yeah?”

The hysterical young woman on the other end was not what he was expecting. “Adrian, or Aiden, whoever this is, please help me! Oh my God, the car fucking blew up with her right next to it! Oh God, I don’t think she is going to make it. Oh God, no, no, hang on, oh where is that ambulance?” He immediately recognized the voice of Angel, but was unable to get a word in otherwise. Still, as soon as the first few words were out of her mouth, he had opened a communication line to his brother and was relaying everything to him as he threw on some clothing.

He met Aiden at the front door just a quick moment later. His brother glanced at him and the phone still held up to his ear and firmly stated, “I’m driving, let’s go!”

Even though Aiden broke every speed limit known to mankind, the fact they were across town in rush hour traffic made it difficult. They made the decision about halfway there just to meet Angel at the hospital. They were right inside the emergency doors when the ambulance unloaded the gurney and wheeled their mate past them. Adrian caught a distraught Angel in his arms.

“Oh thank goodness you are here,” she sobbed into his shoulder. She was shaking so badly that Adrian just held onto her tightly for a moment. “It was so bad,” she finally breathed out as she glanced up at his face.

A police officer walked up to Angel and Adrian. “Miss? Are you the one who was at the scene of the accident where the car exploded?”

Angel nodded her head, still being comforted by Adrian. The officer looked at him for help. “Can we go somewhere and sit down? I need to get some information as to what happened today. The sooner we do this, the sooner we can get to the bottom of things.”

All four walked over to a corner of the waiting room. The brothers were glad it was empty and quiet, at least for the moment.

“Okay, first, I need your name and your relationship to the injured woman,” the officer stated as he took out a small notebook to jot notes down on.

“Angel Thomas. I am a close friend of Evangelina Blackmon. She is the woman who was injured during the explosion.”

“Okay, Ms. Thomas, can you tell me what happened?” the officer calmly continued.

Angel nodded as she blew her nose with a tissue that had been handed to her by the officer. “Yes, if you check your reports, her apartment was broken into yesterday. She filed the report last night around eight o’clock. Her apartment was vandalized, and she didn’t feel safe staying there. She came home with me about nine-thirty and spent the night. I dropped her off this morning on my way to work. She got out of my car and walked toward hers. About halfway there I think she hit the remote ignition, because the car just suddenly exploded. She was thrown backward at least eight feet due to the explosion.” She was sobbing hysterically by the time she was finished, and Adrian wrapped his arms around her once again, trying to offer what comfort he could.

“Any idea who might want to harm her?” the officer continued.

Angel’s head snapped up, her tears drying up immediately and replaced with a scowl on her face. “Yes, again, go back to your records. She filed a restraining order months ago against an ex-boyfriend. We know who broke into her apartment yesterday, just like we know who blew up her car this morning! Go talk to Gerald Sutton. Because I can guarantee he did this. She has no enemies. She has filed numerous complaints against him prior to the restraining order, and these guys will tell you that he has been stalking her over the past week.” She jabbed her thumb toward Adrian and Aiden.

The police officer turned his attention to the brothers. “And who are you two?”

Aiden spoke up first, answering for both of them. “I am Aiden Barrymire and this is my brother, Adrian Barrymire. We are private investigators and own Fadri Security. The local newspaper called us a little over a week ago to check on Mr. Sutton due to him phoning in crank calls and ranting about aliens and things of that nature. They wanted to try to get him help if they could, and hired us to locate and observe him in order to see if he truly needed psychological help or was just being vindictive. We noticed he has been stalking Ms. Blackmon over the past week, and met up with her last night to warn her. We believe he broke into her apartment during that meeting. The girls called us after they discovered the breakin and called the police. The place is trashed.”

The officer didn’t say anything for a moment as he was furiously jotting down notes. When he finished, he looked up from his notepad. “Okay, based on everything you three have told me, we have enough to at least bring Mr. Sutton in for questioning. I am going to need contact numbers for all three of you, in case we have any further questions.”

No sooner had the officer walked away than a man in scrubs came in through the double doors that Evangelina had been wheeled through just a short time ago.

“Family of car bomb victim?” he inquired, walking over to them. They were still the only ones in the waiting room, so it was a safe assumption that they were waiting to hear news about Evangelina.

Angel stepped away from Adrian and addressed the doctor. Knowing they would never tell her the full details of her friend unless she fibbed, she let the lie flow off her tongue smoothly. “Hi, her name is Evangelina Blackmon. I am her sister, Angel Thomas.”

The doctor stopped and wrote his patient’s name on the chart he was carrying and then gestured for all of them to sit down. “I don’t have a lot to tell you at this time. When she was thrown backward, she landed on the back of her head, which has caused some swelling around the brain. Only time will tell if there is any permanent damage. On the flip side, being thrown backwards just may have saved her life. If she hadn’t been, she probably would have suffered life-threatening burns. As it is, she only has a few on the front half of her body where debris landed. We are ordering a CT scan of the brain, but other than that, we are in a wait and see situation.”

Fadri stirred restlessly in both brothers. '
Wait and see, my fine ass! I say we get her out of here and take her home. You know I can help her if you just give me a chance
.'

'
Calm down, Fadri. We know you could help, but we certainly can’t let you loose in the middle of a hospital, now can we?'
Adrian soothed.

'
That is why I said get her out of here. Take her home to Dragonose. She is your mate, and you know your father will want to meet her. Besides, our medical technology is far superior to anything they have on this planet
.'

The two brothers looked at each other. '
You know, Fadri has a point. She would have a much better chance if we could get her out of here and take her home
,' Aiden silently communicated with his brother.

'I agree, but how do you plan to get her out of here? And what are we going to do about Angel?'

The two brothers stared at each other for a moment as a plan started to develop. It wasn’t the stealthiest of plans, but it just might work in getting their mate out of the hospital. First, they had to have a talk with Angel and hope they could trust her with their secret.

They decided that Adrian should be the one to talk with Angel, and Aiden would stay back in the waiting room, in case there was any news. Adrian walked outside with Angel toward a secluded bench seat.

“Angel, I need to entrust you with a secret, and tell you something about my brother and me. But I want you to promise me to listen with an open mind and not freak out on me, okay?”

Her eyes were large as she waited for whatever bomb he had to throw on her already miserable day. “Adrian, can’t this possibly wait? My best friend is in there!”

“I wish it could, Angel. But what I have to tell you directly relates to Evangelina. Now are you willing to listen?” She nodded, and he continued, “My brother and I are not from around here. We are not from this country. We are not even from this planet.”

Angel stood, suddenly angry. “Adrian, this is no time to be playing games! I have better things to do than to listen to stories about you and your brother being aliens. You can go to hell right along with Gerald, who believes in vampires and witches, and one of my ex-boyfriends, who thought he was from outer space.”

She only took one step before Adrian’s large hands reached out to stop her. “Just sit and listen for one moment, please. You promised me you would hear me out with an open mind.”

She rolled her eyes but sat back down. “Fine. Tell me what planet you think you and your brother are from.”

“We are from a completely different planet. We are from Dragonose, and my brother and I are dragon shifters.”

“Right, and I am from Mars and turn into a Martian once a month,” Angel snarked.

“Angel, look at me.” Adrian made sure no one was around before partially allowing Fadri to the surface.

What Angel saw when she turned her head to look at Adrian was his hands had changed to claws, and as she looked into his eyes, she saw his dragon staring back at her. “Oh my God, I am losing it!” she whispered as she began to tremble violently.

Fadri’s voice spoke to her, even though the face was still Adrian’s. “We would never hurt our mate, Angel. Please trust Aiden and Adrian. They are your friend’s best option.” Adrian quickly pulled back on Fadri’s leash, as he took back control over his body completely.

Reaching over to snatch a scared, trembling woman in his arms, he was quick to reassure her. “Hey, it’s okay. I am still me. I am still the same man you met a few days ago.”

“B-b-but how?” she babbled.

“That is a long story, unfortunately, I don’t have the time to answer. Listen, we don’t exactly go around promoting that we are not all human every day, and for good reason. The only reason I am telling you now is because we believe the best way to heal Evangelina is to take her to our home world. Our dragon has healing abilities, as well as my father, and we also have a powerful healer. Between the three of us, I believe we are her best option. Our medical technology is far superior to Earth’s.”

She began shaking her head. “You are not taking my best friend to who-knows-where, so I’ll never see her again. Sorry, just not going to happen.”

“Angel, this is why I am telling you our secret. We would like to take you with us. But you must know, I can’t tell you how long we will be gone. It could be a few weeks, or maybe even longer.”

Angel placed her face in her hands. “I just don’t know. I don’t want to make a life and death decision like this for her. I just don’t know what to do anymore.”

Adrian placed his hand on her back and rubbed in a soothing circle. “Let Aiden and me make the choices. We just need you to go along with us.”

She let out a tired sigh. “I am too tired and too nervous to think straight. Do what you think is best.” There was no way she could dispute what she had seen. She just hoped she wasn’t making the worst decision of her life and killing her best friend.

Chapter Four

The plan was for Fadri to release a small, controlled burst of fire, just enough to set the fire alarms off. They were banking on being able to slip Evangelina out unnoticed during the commotion.

First, though, they needed to arrange transportation once they got Evangelina out of the hospital. They didn’t want to take any chances of further injuring their mate. They decided to use an ambulance to transport her from the hospital to the portal that would give them access to their world.

Luckily, they discovered two unattended ambulances at the back of the hospital parking lot. They never bothered to worry about keys, because Aiden could hotwire anything with wheels. Finding medical clothing to fit their larger frames proved to be a bit more difficult, but after consulting the phone book, they discovered a local store that sold scrubs. Even the largest scrubs they could find barely fit, and Aiden ripped through the seam of his pants as soon as he put them on. Thankfully, they had also purchased basic white lab coats that would hide his torn britches.

So, with almost fitting scrubs purchased and an ambulance on standby, the guys headed back to the hospital. They sat down on either side of Angel, asking if there had been any change in their mate.