Haunted By Her Dragon (The Dragon Guard Series) (37 page)

“I
did, but I was so focused on you and…” She paused, was she really going to
admit this to him? Yeah, she sure was. “I was so worried about you that I
remember little else besides taking care of you and Sydney and sleeping.” She
tried to bow her head to avoid his knowing eyes, but he obviously had other
plans as he used his thumb and forefinger to lift her head until they were eye
to eye.

 “Thank
you,” he said so softly that she had to strain to hear him, and then kissed her
on the very tip of her nose. “You brought me back, and I will forever be
grateful. I love you, Doc.”

Trying
to regain her composure, she asked, “And I’m guessing that ‘Doc’ is my
nickname?”

“You
got it. Now let me finish this story because I have something I need to ask
you. That day in the clearing, we were ambushed by a group of hunters led by a
magic practitioner pumping them with enhanced abilities. Even with the black
magic, we were winning the fight, but somehow, the magical guy got past us, and
held
Kyndel
at knife point. While Rayne was
negotiating for her release, the SOB pulled off his mask, and there stood
Andrew, obviously not dead, and seriously fucked in the head from his time with
the wizards.
Kyndel
was hurt when we caught the
asshole, then he used the black magic he’d gotten from the wizards mixed with
his dragon magic and escaped before ‘A’ and Aaron could get him back to the
Elders for the Tribunal.

“It
took us a while, but we’ve pieced together bits and pieces of what happened.
There are still holes, but we are some tenacious sons of bitches. The one thing
that all of our Elders and Leaders believe is that it will take at least one,
if not both, of his ‘real’ brothers to bring him down. ‘A’ and Aaron take turns
leading hunting parties tracking him, but even with our enhanced senses, the
traitor has been able to hide from us. We think it’s another effect of the
black magic. We also can no longer mind speak with him, and ‘A’ is positive
that the traitor’s lost touch with his dragon. But I think his beast is coming
back to him, especially after that shit at the hospital. There was a touch of
dragon magic mixed in there, too.

“But
Andrew didn’t stop there.
He was there the
day you were kidnapped and used the explosion to capture Grace in an effort to
lure ‘A’ into a trap. Thankfully, Grace is one tough cookie and held on until
Aidan was able to rescue her, but we almost lost her to a fucking spell.

“Taking
Sydney to get to you was the last fucking straw. He is a spineless, useless
coward that attacks women and children instead of coming right at us. I met
Kyra out there on the mountainside and learned how he’d used and exploited her
as well. So as far as I’m concerned if I have a chance to take him down, I’m
doing it…to hell with the Tribunal.” He breathed deeply, and she could see and
feel the incredible amount of anger he was keeping at bay. She rubbed his chest
trying to soothe him and the beast she knew dwelled within her miraculous mate.
She wondered what the Tribunal was but decided to ask another time.

After
several minutes, he started talking again, but she could still hear the rage in
his voice, “Then there’s ‘The Auctioneer’ and his band of idiots, who are
responsible for
your
kidnapping. Killing that shit for
brains will be too good for him. He needs to suffer.” She smiled at his
righteous indignation for what she had suffered, and loved him more for it.

“I
know that somehow, someway, Andrew, the leader of the wizard coven, and this
asshole crime boss, are all connected. You should talk to Grace to learn all
about the ‘The Auctioneer’. He was actually the State Prosecutor, her boss,
until that day at the warehouse when she recognized him, and later exposed him
for the dick he really is. She’s been researching and collecting information to
put him in jail as soon as we catch him, and she can tell you anything you want
to know. Please, tell me
that’s
all the questions for
now, because I
really
have something I want to talk to you about.” He
almost whined the last sentence, so even though she had other things she wanted
to know, she let him off the hook for the time being.

“I’m
done for now. What’s your question?”

He
lifted his hips slightly and faster than she could track, retrieved something
from his back pocket, and hid it in his front pocket. Amazed by how fast he
could move, she looked for what he had gotten. She could see
the outline of a small cylinder under the
denim but had no idea what it was, and as soon as he started speaking, she was
captivated once again. “Doc, I love you and you said you love me. I know that
you’re the woman I’m meant to spend all my days with, in this life and the
next, and I’m praying that you feel the same way.”

He stood with her in his arms, gently set her
on the couch and knelt before her. For the first time since meeting him, she
saw tears glistening in his eyes. She
worked as
hard as she could to keep her emotions under control,
but knew he could see the moisture in hers as well. “Samantha Anne Malone,
mo
ghra
’
ru’nda
, my mate,
solas
mo
anam
,
you
complete both the dragon within, and the humble man before you. Will you be my
mate now and forever, on this earth and in the Heavens, with the blessing of
the Universe that made you for me and me for you?”

She didn’t know whether to jump for joy or cry
from happiness, but she was sure sitting there dumbfounded was all she could do
while she caught her breath. As if all he had said was not enough, he pulled
out a golden velvet box. Her jaw dropped as he opened the hinged top and
presented her with an absolutely gorgeous aquamarine ring. The brilliant
emerald cut stone was such a light blue that she was sure when the sun hit it
just right it would look colorless and shimmer like no other. The band had an
intricate design that, the longer she looked it, resembled the scales she had
seen on the tail of the amazing golden dragon that glided past her window all
those weeks ago. She continued to stare as he spoke. “This ring was given to my
mother by my father at their official mating ceremony two hundred and eleven
years ago today. It was fashioned from
his
scales and the stone was one
he found while tracking a specifically heinous pack of hunters in Brazil even
before he knew she existed. He’d carried it with him for years and knew the
moment he scented my mother that she would wear it as a token of his undying
love for her. She, like you, was human by birth, and he wanted to adhere to as
many of her customs as he could out of respect for his mate. Something I also
plan to do.

 “Mom gave it to me the day we received
word that dad had succumbed to his forever death, and made me promise that I
would give it to my mate, just as he had given it to her.” He paused, and she
watched him battle his emotions before he spoke again. “I would be the happiest
dragon that ever took to the sky if you would wear my ring and be my mate. He
watched her for a minute, and then spoke again, “And happy birthday,
mo
chroi
. Sorry I was out for the party.” He winked, and
she wondered if she would ever get tired of his silliness. “So what do you say,
Doc?”

All thoughts of residencies and careers, plans
and goals flew from her mind. The only thing she knew without a doubt was that
no matter how she’d fought it, no matter how much she had denied it, this man
was a part of her, a part she
could not
and
would not
live
without. They could figure out the rest. As long as they were together,
everything else would fall into place. She tried to speak but only squeaked so
she nodded her head. He smiled that beautiful smile that she
knew
was just for her. It lit up
her entire being just as he had said she did to him.

Within the span of two heartbeats he had the
ring on her finger, and she was in his arms spinning around and around. They
were kissing and spinning, and moving across the floor, happy to have found one
another. Her only regret was that her mom and dad would never know the man that
had stolen her heart, but even that thought was driven from her head when her
back touched down on their bed, and he gently landed on top of her. Their eyes
met, and the love and adoration she saw shining down on her made all the years
before fade away. He spoke, and his chest vibrated against hers, causing her
already peaked nipples to rub against the lace of her bra. His lips were almost
to hers. They shared the same air, and then she heard and felt him whisper, “I
love you, Doc.” Their lips touched, and together they celebrated all that they
were, and would be together.

Andrew waited outside the huge
iron gate
that resembled something out of a gothic novel. It surrounded the biggest, most
ostentatious estate he’d ever seen. He sat in the nondescript sedan he’d rented
early that morning, waiting impatiently to be allowed entry into the
lair
of ‘The Auctioneer’. It was the best case of hiding in plain sight he’d ever
seen. He looked up the property after receiving the address via email. County
records indicated it was owned by some drug lord’s ex-wife. The loser was
rotting away in Federal prison. Not to mention his research had turned up that
she had restraining orders against him in twelve states and eleven countries.
He figured the boys in blue were not wasting much time monitoring the goings on
at this address, and ‘The Auctioneer’ would’ve known about it from his previous
job as State Prosecutor.

The meeting he was waiting to attend had taken
so much posturing and pandering, and playing ‘nice’ by all parties, that there
had been a time last week that he’d thought about killing everyone associated
with any of the ‘alliance bullshit’, and dealing out his brand of justice.
Fortunately, John had talked him off the proverbial ledge. After all, Andrew’s
right hand man had been the one that was approached by a minion of Master
Eaton’s after the fuck up on the mountainside. When the rogue had explained how
important it was to build the relationships, even if it was just to get to the
next step before disposing of every idiot in the place and taking over himself,
he’d had to agree. Neither had any idea what the other parties were after.
Maybe it was just a way to draw them out, but ‘The Auctioneer’ and Master Eaton
could be valuable and had connections that it would take Andrew years to forge
that he didn’t want to waste. That all led to sitting outside waiting like a
peasant to
be
admitted to a
stolen residence.

He’d come alone, something John was not
thrilled about in the slightest, but he really didn’t give a shit. The rogue
wizard tried to convince him that he needed to be there to sense any magical
traps that might be set. Andrew had laughed to himself, thinking that if the
bastard knew who he really was, he would shit where he stood. During the time
he’d spent in the company of Master Eaton, and then the rogue wizards, he’d
learned that the fanatics had collected tons of information about the dragon
shifters. Surprisingly, a majority of it was spot on, but the part that was
complete bullshit was fucking hilarious. The shock of his hundred years came
when he’d found an ancient text, written in the language of the mage, all about
the Special Ones,
and the information was frighteningly correct and
enlightening. There had been things even he didn’t know detailed in the volume.
He’d damn near had a heart attack, if dragons were able to have heart attacks,
because it appeared the wizard had actually begun to translate the old
language. The book had ‘mysteriously’ disappeared the next day. When John had
asked him if he’d seen it, he simply shook his head. It would never be found.
There was no way he was leaving that shit laying around. He was having a
difficult enough time hiding his returning dragon senses and enhanced
abilities. What the
fuck
would he do if the contacts he painfully stuck
in his eyes daily to hide one amber eye and one blue eye fell out? The paranoid
sons of bitches were already questioning him at every turn about his magical
training and teachers. One or two might’ve ‘left without a word’ when they’d
questioned him closer than he was comfortable with and those bodies had been a
pain in the ass to dispose of without getting caught, and he really didn’t look
forward to doing it again.

He’d already had a meeting with Master Eaton a
few days earlier and figured from the questions he was asked that they were
coming to him because of his use of white magic. Of course, he’d assured the
Master he could deliver whatever they needed, and
Andrew
thanked the Heavens that
he had done so much reading on the subject when searching for Kyra. He’d been
incredibly convincing and that had gotten him to the next step. He made it
clear to John that he would walk away if the assholes asked for things he
couldn’t or wouldn’t deliver. If they knew the tiny, white witch’s
location
then he would definitely play ball but, other than
that, he would set the terms, and they would deliver or they could kiss his
ass. Thinking of Kyra, no matter how much he wished she was with these men, he
was somehow sure she was with the dragons or they were protecting her. He knew
she was a mate to one of them and had narrowed it down to either Royce or Devon
but really had no clue and didn’t give a shit.