Licked by the Flame (18 page)

And if such close, physical contact with her just happened to lead to something more…well, he’d need to be fit for that as well. Of course, there wasn’t enough room for flying in the various caves they’d need to travel through to get out, so perhaps this form wasn’t the most efficient right now. She might be more comfortable if he appeared as she was used to seeing him, too. Now that his strength had returned, he could assume human form again, feeling more healthy and virile by the minute.

Plenty virile enough, as a matter of fact.

“What is it?” she asked nervously. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

He curled one spiky corner of his wide, dragon mouth. Yes, he could well understand why she might sound a bit insecure. He must have been leering at her as if he could gobble her up.

“Sorry. I was just thinking maybe getting through these passages here would be easier if I took on my human form.”

Clearly, she was relieved. “Yes, that would most definitely be easier, if you think you’re up to it.”

He puffed two perfect rings that drifted through the hot cavern air, twisting and twining themselves around Lianne before they dissipated and floated away.

“Oh yes, I’m most certainly up to it.”

R
ight before her eyes, Nic transformed from enormous, terrifying dragon to the same enormous, terrifying man she’d made out with just hours ago. He looked even better to her now, oddly enough. Her body reacted instantly when his fiery eyes latched onto hers.

“Come,” he said, reaching his hand toward her. “I’ll lead you out of here.”

“What if they are here already?” she asked. “What if that next shipment of whatever is on its way down? Won’t we run into them along the way?”

“I will sense when they are here,” he said and seemed to know what he was talking about. “Now that I have my strength back, I can sense the entire mountain. No one has arrived; we are still alone.”

“And all those eggs?”

“Safe. Healthy. The mountain gives them their strength, so now that the device is inactive, they will regain anything they have lost. They will hatch on time, just as planned.”

“You can feel that? Just standing here, you can feel all this stuff with your mind?”

God, but the grin he gave her nearly set her toes on fire. “I can feel a great many things with my mind, Lianne. But come, I want you to be safe.”

She had to admit, she did like the idea of being safe. If Nic thought he could get them out of here and back to their jobsite, she was all for it. She took the hand he extended. His fingers were warm and they wrapped tightly around hers. With her coat slung over her shoulder, she followed him toward one of the passageways.

“That isn’t the one you brought me here through,” she pointed out.

“There are many ways into this cavern. Trust me, Lianne.”

Trust him? Now there was a thought that made her chuckle a bit. But of course she would trust him. Her brain had been whirling in circles since…well, since the Geo-Diagnostics helicopter dropped her off on the jobsite and left her there. She couldn’t think straight enough not to trust him.

Besides, dragons apparently didn’t wear clothes. When Nic changed back, there hadn’t been anything for him to change into, so he was standing here now completely, beautifully naked. God, but she did like the tattoos. And everything else.

She let him lead her into the relative darkness of the passageway. This one was wider than the one she had come through before. It had the feel of frequent use, too. In fact, there was more than enough light spilling into it from the glowing cavern beyond that she could see evidence that humans had been here.

Boxes of supplies and unused equipment parts lined one wall. They must have been using this as a staging area. One box caught her attention and she tugged at Nic’s hand.

“Not that I’m in any hurry to cover up the view,” she said and gestured for Nic to notice a pile of folded clothing. “But it’s going to be cold when we get away from all this lava. Do you need some clothes to put on until you decide to go all dragon again?”

“You’d rather I put clothes on?”

“Absolutely not. I just don’t want you getting pneumonia.”

He laughed at her, but took a moment to grab a jumpsuit and a coat as they went by. She snagged the largest pair of boots she saw in the line of boots waiting there. If Nic did have to go around in human form out there in the Icelandic wasteland, he could do it at least fully covered.

They moved into the passageway and Nic took a moment to pull the jumpsuit on. Well, mostly on. He wore it up to the waist, then left the top part hanging down. The resulting bad-boy-cover-model effect was inspiring, to say the least. Damn, but she loved those tattoos.

He led her along this passage for a while, until the light behind them was distant enough that she could barely make out Nic’s perfectly formed shape in the darkness. He was still holding her hand, though, so she was close enough to occasionally bump into him—accidentally, of course—and cop a cheap feel. He didn’t seem to mind. After a few minutes of darkness, he slowed his pace.

“I don’t sense anyone close by yet, but I think we should continue on in a less direct route just in case.”

“All right. I can’t see anything at all, so unless you can glow, or something, you’ll need to guide me along.”

“Sorry, no glowing in this form. But I promise to keep you close to me, Lianne.”

That was a promise she could live with. She made sure he didn’t have to work too hard to keep it. As the air temperature slowly grew cooler, they followed first one passage, then another. He was guiding her through the labyrinth, keeping his pace steady but slow enough that she had no trouble along the way. She had no idea how he could possibly know all these twisting, sloping passages, but he did. He assured her more than once that they were not lost, merely taking an obscure route to avoid any unexpected arrivals.

He became increasingly quiet and she started to wonder what that must mean. She could feel the tension building in his body and it sparked an anxious worry in hers. Did he sense something? What did he know that he wasn’t telling her? She was just about to ask him, as a matter of fact, when he stopped short.

“What is it?” she whispered.

“They’re here. Humans, with fairies. I can feel them nearing the entrance to the mountain,” he replied.

“Shit. Do we have time to get out of here?”

He waited a moment before answering, probably using those crazy senses of his to feel around, or whatever. “No. They’re coming in fast. They must be using human conveyance, of some sort.”

“Then they’ll find us!”

“No. Stay calm, Lianne. Their equipment is ruined—my magic is strong again and there are secret places I know. I can hide us.”

She had to agree that these tunnels were a maze. Even with powerful lighting and a good map, they could likely stay hidden for hours. But did they have hours? What if these people set up more magical dampening equipment? Nic would be in danger, and she had no hope of ever finding her way out, especially if the only entrance was guarded by evil fairies, and humans who were involved in some sort of plot with them. They’d find the mess Nic made of their stuff—and their friends—in the cavern and they’d be understandably pissed.

Her only hope was to trust Nic. She gripped his hand tighter and let him practically drag her along an especially narrow downward-sloping passage. The walls were smooth like all the rest of the passages she’d been on, and she was glad for it. More than once her shoulder or elbow slammed against it as she hurried to stay beside Nic, clinging to his hand as her lifeline.

They turned another corner, then another, until finally they came to a halt. She felt the wall beside her and could tell that it curved just in front of them. They were not following the passage around this curve, though.

“Where do we go?” she asked.

“Up,” he replied. “Sorry, there are no steps and no footholds for you. I’ll have to hoist you up.”

“Um, up where?”

“There’s a crack in the rock ceiling just above us. I’ll push you through, then you’ll find yourself on a narrow ledge. Hang on, and move to the right. I’ll follow you and guide you from there.”

That did not sound like someplace she wanted to go, especially if she had to go first.

“But how will you get up there?” she asked. “You can’t fly in here, it’s too narrow. I can feel both sides of the passage when I put my arms out.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll manage. Just trust me. You’ll be safe up there.”

“Um, okay…”

It sounded like a really bad idea. She couldn’t see a blessed thing and he was going to shove her up through a crack in the ceiling and she was supposed to find her way along on some ledge? Well, if they were looking to hide someplace where no one would come looking for them, this was probably it. She felt Nic’s hands at her waist so she took a deep breath and made a little hop as he hefted her up.

She was moving toward the ceiling as if she weighed nothing at all. Wow, Nic’s awesome biceps must not be just for show. He held her high and steady so she could reach her arms up and feel around.

Sure enough, she felt a gap in the ceiling. It was not smooth as the rest of the walls, but this was rough and jagged. The rest of the caves felt as if they’d been formed by great heat, molded and polished as part of some great design. This was just as Nic said, a crack. She felt her hands over it as Nic pushed her through, grabbing at outcroppings and pulling herself upward.

When he’d lifted her as high as he could, he stooped to allow her feet to find purchase on his shoulders. It was just enough to give her the support she needed to find the base of the ledge he had mentioned. As he stood to full height below her, she was raised up just enough to get leverage to pull herself up. She twisted, sitting precariously on the ledge, just as blind as a bat and shaking with fear.

“I’m supposed to go to the right? Does that mean my right, or your right?” she called down to him.

“To your right,” he answered.

She nodded, not that he could see it, and began scooting. On her second scoot she reached her hand to steady herself on the ledge and suddenly the ledge just was not there. She wobbled, flailing for something to grab onto. In the frantic movement, she knocked herself off balance and started to slip off the ledge. As she fell forward, her leg swung back and became wedged between two broken rocks. She cried out in pain, the full weight of her body suddenly supported by her leg, jammed at an odd angle.

Suddenly Nic was there. He was pressing against her with his shoulder, pushing her back up onto the ledge. Her leg came free and she was able to find something to hang on to again. He was slightly huffing, so he must have propelled himself up through the crack by sheer upper body strength. She sucked in a breath as his leg brushed against hers. Ouch! Whatever she’d done to herself, it hurt. Badly.

“You were sitting on the ledge, weren’t you?” he asked softly. “I assumed you’d be standing, facing the wall.”

“So I guess I should have moved left instead of right, huh?”

“Yeah. Sorry. Are you hurt?”

“A little bit.” She gasped again as he ran a hand over her leg. “Okay, maybe more than that.”

“Shit. You’re bleeding.”

He was right. She could feel the blood starting to trickle. In the darkness she had no idea how bad it might be, but obviously any sort of injury here, in this situation, was bad enough. He hoisted himself up to stand over her. She had no idea how much room there was, or how she was going to get off this ledge.

“It sure would be nice to have that fairy back again,” she said. “He was a jerk, but he glowed and I could see at least a couple feet in front of me.”

“Forgive me. I forget how dark everything must be for you.”

“You mean you can see? You went back to your human body but you kept your dragon eyes?”

“I don’t need my eyes. I have other senses to keep me aware of my surroundings. Right now I’m aware that we need to take care of this leg. Come on.”

“But how can—”

She didn’t get to finish her question. Somehow he had both of her hands in his and was helping her to stand, then supporting her as she limped off the ledge and onto what felt like solid cave floor again. They had come through that crack and were now…somewhere else. It was an open area of some sort, but still pitch dark. Nic seemed to have no difficulty standing beside her, helping her along, so clearly there was ample ceiling space and width.

When she brushed against the wall behind her, she found it was not smooth and polished as the other surfaces had felt in the passageways. Since Nic had her hands, she couldn’t feel around to know how wide or how long this particular area was, but a slight draft of air brushed her face, so she had the impression it was more than just another narrow passage. What she could tell for certain was that they were heading upward.

“Will this take us back to the entrance of the mountain?” she asked, trying to ignore her pain.

“No, it is someplace safe.”

He kept saying that.
Safe
. She had to admit she liked the sound of it, but obviously it was a little hard to believe. How would they be safe anywhere? There was a whole shipment of magical machines coming their way, orchestrated by homicidal fairies and humans with evil intent. Already she’d gone and injured herself, and in the ultimate darkness of this labyrinth of caves, she had no hope of ever finding her way out on her own. Still, Nic seemed to think there was someplace safe for them, so she followed him blindly, dragging her injured leg along as they went.

“In here,” he said, turning her sharply to the left. “Careful, it gets a little tight through here.”

She quickly found out that he wasn’t kidding. She had to lean very close into him—which wasn’t really a hardship, considering how much her leg hurt and the fact that, well, he was still half-naked. The walls of this passageway were jagged and rough, as in the last. It was getting chilly, too. She wished she’d pulled her coat back on, especially when she slammed her elbow into a rock jabbing out from the wall.

“Ouch. Damn it.”

“Almost there,” Nic said, pulling her around another tight corner into an even narrower passageway.

This time something was different. “I think I can see light!”

“Yes, you can,” he said. “Around the next bend there will be enough light to get a good look at that wound.”

That meant she’d be able to get a good look at him again, too. The thought of his hard body with those tempting tattoos definitely helped take her mind off the pain in her leg. She hobbled just a little bit faster.

Exactly as he said, when they came around the next turn, orange light spilled in from a slit running lengthwise on the wall. It appeared to be another crack, similar but much smaller than the one they had crawled through. She blinked in the light, loving it, but turning away from it after so long in the dark.

“Is it morning? Is that crack open to the outside?” she asked.

“No. Come up here and squeeze through the opening.”

As she watched, he scrambled up onto a rock and pressed himself into that orange crack and disappeared. She followed and was instantly amazed. Out of the dark passageway, she had suddenly stepped into a warm, tidy apartment.

Light was filtering in through a horizontal slit in the wall, but heavy drapes were hung nearby to cover over the crevice they’d both just come through. If they had been closed, she never would have seen the orange light spilling into that rough, dark passage. Indeed, Nic’s little hideaway here could be perfectly hidden. She stared in disbelief at the cozy dwelling.