INTO THE FIRE (Forbidden Love) (12 page)

“Merrick is of no concern. If he dares show his ugly mug around here, we will kill him. No questions asked.” Jacque turned for the door.

“What about the press?”

“We will handle it.”

Jacque strolled out of the room on that note, leaving Leigh alone with Rebel. How had her life gotten so fucked up? How had it all come to this? She liked her life at one time, damn it. All she had to worry about was herself. Take care of herself.

But when she thought of going back to that life, a fierce pang of loneliness stabbed her heart. She didn’t want to be alone anymore. Freaking hell, she wanted the vampire. Now, if he would only live….

FOURTEEN

They had gone and done it this time. Those vampires had brainwashed Leigh. Had her so badly under their mind control that she believed that she wanted to be with them. Had her believing that she was the mate to one of them.

How sickening was that?

Dragons did not mate with vampires. It just wasn’t done. Surely Leigh knew that? But perhaps not. She was, after all, enthralled by them. They were controlling her. But how to break her free? Would the public believe that Angel Knight would brainwash another person? He was something of a hero to them. What had the world come to, when a filthy bloodsucker was considered a hero? Pathetic, really.

Someone knocked on the hotel room door and Merrick cursed. “What?” he snapped in the direction of the door.

“I’m looking for the dragon, Merrick. I have an appointment.” The small voice was definitely feminine. She had an appointment? Merrick looked at the digital clock beside the bed. Nine a.m. Oh yes. He had an interview with some kind of environmentalist.

He strode to the door and opened it. What he saw took him back. Definitely feminine. Definitely human. The little woman was barely five feet tall, if that. Her golden hair fell from her head in long tresses, curling around her perky breasts and dipping nearly to her naval. He assumed it would brush her backside if he could see behind her. She had wide, blue eyes that looked at him with a mixture of trepidation and excitement. Her petite nose was straight, except for the slight lift at the end. Her pink lips were full and stretched around a mouthful of perfect white teeth in a nervous smile.

Merrick’s cock punched against the zipper of his jeans, painfully aware of her beauty. It demanded that he take action. Take her. Why, he didn’t understand. He hadn’t reacted to a female like this in centuries. And never to a human female.

He shoved the physical reaction aside. It had been too long since he slaked his lusts, he decided. And now was not the time. Not when he was so close to his goal.

“Welcome, Miss..”

“Elizabeth Redley,” she supplied, holding her hand out to him. “I work for the Agency For Extinction Prevention. It’s nice to meet you, Merrick.”

Merrick took her outstretched hand. He thought he was supposed to shake it, but he had better manners than that. It felt small and delicate in his own broad and calloused palm. He lifted her hand to his lips and skimmed her knuckles. He drew in a breath through his nose. Lilies. She smelled of lilies.

He was quite satisfied with the rosy blush that covered her cheeks. “Won’t you come in,” he suggested, not waiting for her answer, but leading her into the hotel room. She had to jog to keep up with the pace of his longer legs. He led her to a small dining table and pulled out a chair for her.

Merrick knew that the impression he left on this woman would make or break his case with the human public. If he was a total ass, she would convey that sentiment to the press. The same if he scared her. He was going to make certain that she was completely enamored with him by the time she left his hotel room. Yes, this lovely woman was the perfect advocate for his cause.

“Welcome, Miss Redley,” Merrick drawled. “May I offer you something to drink?”

She shook her blonde head. “No, thank you. Mr. Keller, I have a lot of questions for you. I would like to get started right away, if you don’t mind.”

A woman who got right down to business. He liked her already. “Go for it,” he answered. He took the seat across from her at the small table. “What would you like to know first?”

“Well, first of all, how can you be sure that you and Leigh Harmond are the last two of your species?”

“I was there when the wars were fought. I saw the carnage first hand. I have searched the world over for more of our kind, with no luck,” Merrick answered.

“Tell me about these wars,” she said, propping a tape recorder on the table. “You don’t mind, do you?” she asked.

“Not at all,” Merrick said with a smile. He told her of the wars between the
Magi
and the
Coni.
He told her of his search for more of his kind. He even told her of his trials with Leigh.

“If she doesn’t want you, why pursue her?” Elizabeth asked, quirking a finely sculpted brow at him.

“For one, we were promised to each other. It is the way of our people. For two, I do not personally want to see the end of our line with us. It is pertinent to the continuation of our species for us to mate. A dragon can only produce young once every hundred years or so. I do not wish to waste what time I have left alone and without young.”

“How long does a dragon live?” Elizabeth asked.

“I am six hundred and fifty seven years old,” Merrick told her. “I do not know how long I will live, because I have never met a dragon who died of old age. The oldest dragon I have ever known was fifteen hundred years old.”

“You don’t look a day over thirty,” she told him with a dubious brow.

“We age very slowly. Our progression from infant to adult takes about a century. Our bodies are full grown by the time we are about fifty, but mentally and magically it takes at least fifty more to mature.” Merrick stood and fetched himself a beer out of the mini-fridge. “You sure you don’t want one?” he asked.

“I would like one, but I never drink on the job.”

“Suit yourself,” he said as he dropped back into his chair. “What else would you like to know?”

“You can fly, right?”

“Yes.”

“Change your shape, breath fire, and perform magic?”

“Yes, yes, and yes.”

“How do I know that you haven’t cast some spell on all of us, you know, to make us more receptive to you?”

Merrick whipped his head around and glared at her. “I am no vampire. I do not bewitch humans to do my bidding. I would never screw with someone’s free will.”

Elizabeth, nonplussed by his reaction, continued, “Is that what you believe has happened with Leigh? You think the vampires have her under some kind of mind control?”

“That’s exactly what I think.”

“You must know that the Clan Leader is well respected in L.A,” she said. “It will be very difficult to convince people that he would influence anyone’s thoughts.”

“I know. That is why I have asked for help. I can’t just go out accusing him of this atrocity. I must have proof. Right now, all I have is my word. I don’t even have the benefit of public respect to back me up. That is why I have agreed to research possibilities.”

“A mutual show of faith?” she asked.

Merrick nodded. “That’s what I am hoping for.”

“I see,” she said. But Merrick could tell that she didn’t. He was going to have to do something drastic to win this little woman over.

“Come,” he said, stretching to a standing position. “I want to show you something.” She followed him out of the hotel room and into the parking lot.

“What are we doing out here?” she asked.

“I couldn’t do this inside,” he said. Then, he pulled on his magic. His form shifted and reshaped into his dragon.

“Holy cow,” Elizabeth breathed. The massive red creature before her was magnificent. “Beautiful,” she breathed.

Climb on,
he said in her mind.

She shook her head.

Trust me
.

Elizabeth reluctantly climbed onto the dragon’s back. She didn’t know why, but she knew that he would let no harm come to her. She scampered up his back, using his powerful hind leg as a step, and settled herself onto his back.

Hold on to my neck
, he said. She secured her arms around his thick neck and had to press her body close to make her hands reach around. As soon as she was secure, Merrick shot up into the sky. The few people who had gathered on the ground below heard her exhilarated scream of delight.

FIFTEEN

Rebel was swimming in a sea of black. There was nothing to see, nothing to hear. Every now and again, he would catch the impression of light, or the thought of sound. But nothing concrete, just vague images and whispers of sound that very well could have come from his own imagination.

And oh, the things he could imagine! He imagined he was slowly roasting in the midday sun, the burning sensation on his skin was so acute. He imagined that razor blades were slowly and deliberately being drawn across his back. He imagined that he had been poisoned and his intestines were tying themselves up in knots trying to rid himself of it.

Of all which wasn’t really happening.

He hoped.

The last thing he could remember was being with Leigh. He had made her his. And then, pain. Oh God, the pain. And that wasn’t just a memory. Every time he thought the pain was gone, it would rear its ugly head again, slicing through his body and making his mind scream. What he would give to have an outlet for it! But his body was lost to him. He could feel nothing but the pain. He couldn’t move. He couldn’t speak. How long had he been like this? It could have been hours, weeks, or hell, it felt like forever. Time had no meaning. It was one, continuous, unending moment of horror. It was a black dream that he couldn’t wake up from.

He tried to find some kind of something, anything, that he could hold on to. Some kind of fixed stimuli that he could depend on. Any anchor that he could grab on to and hold himself to sanity.

But there was nothing. Nothing existed but the pain.

Not for an endless and unendurable amount of time.

But then, something changed.

Rebel realized that he could hear something. It was faint, but it was there. It was a faint whooshing noise. He concentrated on the steady sound. When he concentrated, he could sense the presence of someone near him. Breathing. The steady sound was someone breathing.

He counted the breaths of the one who was sitting with him. Finally, he knew that at least, he wasn’t alone. He found that he could count the time by the metronomic sound.

Soon, the breathing was accompanied by a distinct thud-thud. A heartbeat. His senses were clearing. Amazingly so. He could hear the drag of air into the lungs. He could distinctly tell the difference between the inhale and the exhale.

Someone knocked lightly. Rebel could hear the soft fall of booted feet on the carpet. The singular heartbeat kicked up a notch and was joined by second, slower one.

“Anything?” Leigh’s voice asked from right beside him. It was most definitely her. He would know her voice anywhere. But it was different, too. Rebel imagined he could see the different colors of the rainbow bending and twisting within the pitch of her voice, as if each vocal cord she used had its own color to go with its own distinct sound. In his mind’s eye, it created a kaleidoscope of colors and shapes. It was a symphony, too beautiful to describe accurately.

“Actually, no.” It was Gage. His voice presented in Rebel’s mind in colors as well, only darker and vibrating instead of rolling and twisting.

Man, whatever he was on, it was one hell of a trip.

He listened to the orchestra of sounds that surrounded him, letting it dull the pain and lull him into a peaceful rest. With his mind at ease, Rebel realized that he had gone through something similar once before in his life. When he had been turned. That one, dark night when his mortal life had been stolen from him, and his new life as a vampire had begun.

He had thought for certain he would die that night from the pain. Thought his life was over. But even that night had nothing on the pain he experienced now.

Leigh stayed by Rebel’s side faithfully. She counted the time by the visitors to his room. Each of his brothers took turns checking on them. They brought her food when it was time to eat, not that Leigh had any appetite. It was only on Angel’s insistence that she even tried.

She watched Rebel for any sign of improvement. But he displayed none. He lay there, still as a corpse, barely breathing. The steady drip, drip, drip of the bagged blood and other fluids that dripped into his IV was the only sound in the room. The monitors that Jacque had connected to him ran on silent mode, so that Leigh would be able to detect the slightest sound from Rebel. But there had been none. There was no outward sign that Rebel was still inside that body. What if her blood had scrambled his brain? He had a seizure, after all. That was definitely a sign of brain damage. Leigh battled the hopelessness she felt welling inside her. She had to be strong. She had to be ready if he woke up. When he woke up. He had to wake up.

“Do not be so hard on yourself,” Jacque said to her.

“Jacque,” she said, “I didn’t hear you come in.”

“I am not surprised. You looked very deep in thought. I know you blame yourself, but please, C
herie
, you must know that no one blames you.”

“I know. Any luck on those tests?”

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Jacque replied. “His blood has taken on a strange activity. There are cells that act like cancer attacking his red cells. They are engulfing and changing them. And the rate is increasing. No matter how much blood I pump into him, the anomaly cells are working twice as fast. I don’t know what to do for him.”

“Is it my cells?” Leigh had given Jacque samples of her blood to compare with, along with anything else he had wanted. She had allowed the vampires to poke and prod her for anything that might help.

“I don’t know,” Jacque replied. “I am working on it and I promise you that I will not give up until I have an answer.”

“I wish I knew what to do for him,” Leigh said, fighting a wave of tears. “If there was something, I would do it, no matter the cost.”