The Island Of Dragons: A Paranormal Shifter Romance (13 page)

Immediately, I turned and began wading back through the warm, tropical fish-filled water to the shore. “I’m sorry, guys. Just can’t do it. I guess I’m just not the brave kind of woman Warren deserves.”

Hugh, Sadie, and Melissa had been swimming nearby, and I heard Melissa’s voice coming from somewhere behind me.

“Ellie, wait! Don’t chicken out! Just do the damn thing, and prove to yourself—”

Hugh had cut her off, telling her to just let me go. “She’s just not ready yet. And only she’ll know when she is.”

I doubted I’d ever be. I was beginning to lose faith about everything. I was beginning to seriously doubt that Dalton would ever wake up from his coma, that the golem would ever be destroyed, that Warren and I would ever be able to sleep together again, and now, that I’d ever be the kind of wife that he deserved. It was all starting to feel hopeless.

While Hugh, Sadie, and Melissa swam out to the rock, I toweled off, threw on my shorts and tank top, and sat on my towel in the pale, golden sand, developing a lump in my throat. The day was brilliantly sunny, with only a few wispy clouds sailing across the robin’s egg blue sky, and all this brilliance only seemed to make a mockery of my mood.

While I knew Melissa was right, that Warren deserved a wife with bravery on par with his, I also knew something else. Warren cared about me deeply, maybe even loved me, and I didn’t think that would change, regardless of how brave he eventually learned I was, or wasn’t, rather. We seemed to have a genuine connection, and I knew finding out about my cowardice in certain areas probably wouldn’t change his feelings for me. Though despite knowing this, the lump in my throat just wouldn’t be swallowed down. It wasn’t that I felt I
had
to be a brave woman in order to be loved by Warren; it was that I
wanted
to be. And I just couldn’t seem to be.

Soon, while I tried to fight off a few sniffles, little Davy came strolling down the beach with his longish, golden brown hair glinting in the sun. Far behind him, his mom Joanna walked along at a snail’s pace, just about as heavily pregnant as a woman could be. She seemed to be struggling to walk even as slowly as she was going, and once she saw Davy approach me, she waved to me and sat down on a wooden bench in the sand, clearly needing a rest.

Davy held some small object in one hand, and when he reached me, he held it out to me. “For you, Miss O’Brien. My mom made some homemade coconut-vanilla candy things, and I just wanted to give you one.”

Taking the candy, I tried to ignore the heaviness in my heart just long enough to muster a smile. “Well, thank you, Davy, that was very nice of you.”

He smiled, revealing a gap where he’d recently lost a front tooth. “You’re welcome.”

The candy, which was a tiny white square with a light sprinkling of sugar and grated coconut on top, was wrapped in cellophane, and I unwrapped it and popped it into my mouth. The taste of it was absolutely amazing. It was like coconut-vanilla fudge, rich and creamy, with just the slightest hint of sea salt. I’d never tasted anything like it, and I knew I’d have to get Joanna to teach me how to make this kind of candy sometime.

Once I’d finished the candy and expressed my thanks again, Davy smiled but then fell silent for a long moment, tracing a triangle in the sand with his toe, before looking up wearing a very serious, solemn expression. “Um... Miss O’Brien?”

“What, Davy?”

“Um... I just wanted to tell you that I took some white bird doodoo, and I mixed it in with your candy before you ate it.”

By now, I knew this was probably just one of Davy’s little jokes. However, I’d always had somewhat of a weak stomach, and just the thought of bird droppings mixed in with my candy made me make an involuntary noise of disgust.

Right away, Davy brought his hands together in a loud clap, grinning. “Gotcha, Miss O’Brien! Almost made you barf! I actually didn’t mix bird doodoo in with your candy; I actually sprinkled extra sugar and coconut on your piece of candy! Bye!”

Despite my low mood, I couldn’t help but crack a little smile, thinking of what a spirited shifter he would make when he was able to shift in a decade or so, at about age sixteen. He took off down the beach, back toward Joanna, whooping with delight.

I sat on the beach a while longer, watching Melissa, Hugh, and even Sadie doing cannonballs off the diving rock. Melissa was whooping just about as loudly as Davy had been. I got up and left when I saw the three of them begin heading back to shore. I didn’t need to be cajoled back into the water again.

While I walked back to my castle, taking my time, letting the soft, warm sand massage my feet, I received a text from Warren, who was out on patrol, flying high above the jungle. I’d seen him lift into the sky with his men in dragon form earlier that day, and I’d also seen something else. I’d caught a few of the married women in the village gazing up at Warren’s dark form with clear admiration, and maybe even a bit of lust, glimmering in their wide eyes, despite the fact that their husbands were flying not too awfully far away from Warren, still clearly visible. “Warren’s just kind of the fantasy crush of the village, and that’s just the way it is,” Melissa had told me once. I wondered what the village women would think if they knew that despite the fact that Warren was my boyfriend, he was becoming
my
fantasy crush, because I was beginning to think I’d be able to sleep with him again only in my fantasies.

Warren’s text consisted of three brief lines:
I miss your beautiful smile. I miss the way my heart seems to skip a beat whenever I’m able to make you smile. I miss everything about you.

I read the text with a twinge in my chest, and then read it again, savoring it, before replying, telling Warren that I missed his voice, his laugh, and the feel of his strong arms around me. Just after I hit
send
, I received another text, this one from Melody. It read:
I’m at the clinic. Dalton’s awake.

I gasped, fingers flying to send Warren another text telling him about this development. Once I’d sent it, I began racing across the shimmering sand, heading in the direction of the clinic.

When I arrived, Warren was already there, and we headed into the clinic together, holding hands but not speaking. I glanced over at him a few times, seeing that his teeth were clenched and the muscles in his strong jaw were working. In Dalton’s room, Dr. Benson started trying to say something to Warren, but he ignored her and yanked back the curtain in front of Dalton’s bed.

“Speak. You have a lot of explaining to do, about this island, the golem, and also about Ellie and me.”

Dalton, who was sitting up with a stack of pillows behind his back, stared at Warren, looking genuinely bewildered. “I’m sorry... I don’t think we’ve met. And where am I again?”

Standing next to Warren and me, Dr. Benson spoke in a soft, quiet voice. “He has amnesia, Chief Knight. He doesn’t remember a thing. It might take a few hours, or days, or—”

“Oh, for God’s sake.” Scowling, Warren raked a hand through his thick, dark hair. “You’re kidding me.”

Dr. Benson shook her head, making her delicate pink seashell earrings sway. “I wish I was, but I’m not. He sustained quite a severe concussion, so him having a case of temporary amnesia actually isn’t all that surprising to me.”

Melody, who’d just stepped in the room, piped up in her lilting, musical voice. “It isn’t to me, either. Before we all came to the island, I actually had a case of temporary amnesia myself after falling and hitting my head on a frozen skating pond.”

Dalton looked from Melody, to Dr. Benson, to me, to Warren. “I’m sorry, where am I again?”

Warren heaved a sigh, quietly thanked Dr. Benson and Melody, and then began leading me out of the room by the hand.

Neither of us spoke on the way out of the clinic. To say I was disappointed was an understatement, though the feel of Warren’s hand on mine distracted me from that a bit. But then I remembered that holding hands could be the extent of our physical contact, and I became disappointed once again. Disappointed
and
frustrated, that is, which was becoming an all too familiar feeling to me, like I was sure it was to Warren as well.

Once outside the clinic in the fading sunlight, Warren brought us to a stop and finally spoke. “It’s time. We can’t wait for Dalton to regain his memory and fill us in about the golem’s strengths and weaknesses. Every single day, the golem comes closer and closer to our village, and every single day, he seems to get stronger and stronger. I can’t afford to play defense anymore. The next time he tries to charge in, I’m going to let him. I’ll have some of my men specifically block his way back to the lake, even. I’ll have some others try to drive him to the east, to the outskirts of the village where no one will be present to get hurt, and there I’ll do battle with him and try to destroy him with brute force. I’ll simply try to smash every boulder making up his body to bits.”

My stomach instantly churned with a feeling of dread.

“But what if you get hurt in the process?”

Warren just shook his head, taking both my hands now. “Everything’s going to be just fine.”

“But... but think about what could happen. Aren’t you worried? Scared?”

Caressing the backs of my hands with a slight crease between his stormy gray eyes, he didn’t answer right away. “Scared, honestly, no. When you’re trying to protect people you love... a whole community that you love... you find that fear has a way of somehow just melting away. And maybe you’re still a bit scared deep down... maybe
I’m
still a bit scared deep down... but when you’re driven to protect, I guess what you feel the most is just love. Just love, and the strength that comes from that.”

I nodded, sure I’d never experience what he was describing. Clearly, I was the type who’d never be able to compartmentalize fear and just move past it. Clearly, I was the type to just wade back to the shore.

Warren started to say something else, but just then, the alarm sirens pealed. Immediately after, the ground began to quake with heavy, rhythmic booms.

CHAPTER NINE

Warren kissed each of my hands in turn, quickly. “This is it. I have to go tell my men the plan I just told you. Please get to safety as fast as you can.”

“But, Warren, just wait. I know how strong you are, but I’m scared for your safety, and—”

“I love you, Ellie. Please get to a shelter right now. Probably here in the clinic is your best bet. Get in the basement.”

He pressed a brief, hasty kiss against my lips, and then seconds later he was gone, rocketing into the sky in dragon form, mighty black wings beating the air. The force of them actually blew a breeze onto my face, even though I was hundreds of feet beneath them.

That was the first time Warren had told me he loved me. My heart soared, even while at the same time it felt like it was skipping beats because of my fear and dread.

While the alarm sirens continued to blare, I began heading back into the clinic. But, with my hand on the door handle, I suddenly froze, realizing something. I was pretty sure Hugh, Sadie, and Melissa had all made it home from the beach by now, but, being that Joanna had been so slowed by her pregnant figure, I couldn’t be sure that she and Davy had. And in fact, now that I was thinking about it, I recalled that she’d appeared to have been wearing a long skirt and a bright pink, one-piece bathing suit, as if she was planning on a swim. Though what had seemed like a bathing suit might have been a tank-top, I reasoned. But at the same time, I’d seen her at the beach before, and I was pretty sure her bathing suit had been bright pink. Also, I now recalled that when Davy had given me the candy earlier, he’d been wearing his green swim trunks, no shirt.

They’d gone swimming after I’d begun heading home from the beach. All of a sudden, I just knew it. Besides Hugh, Sadie, and Melissa, who’d almost certainly went home around the time Joanna and Davy had gotten in the water, the beach had been empty. The day had been unusually hot and humid, so most folks had seemed inclined to stay in the coolness of their castles or the community center.

As pregnant as she was, I imagined that Joanna had probably just taken Davy into the shallows, and they’d probably been able to get out right away and head up to the safety of the castles when the alarms sounded. They were probably within the safety of someone’s castle at the present moment, I thought. However, as slowly as she’d been moving earlier, I figured it was possible Joanna hadn’t been able to be that fast. Also, I remembered that many women in the village believed that vigorous swimming hastened labor, which maybe Joanna had been looking to do.

I knew her husband Lucas wouldn’t be out looking for her and Davy, because he was one of Warren’s top men. He’d be being briefed right now, or flying in formation around the golem, driving him toward the east, and Warren. Once all the shifters and the golem neared the ocean, Lucas might not even have view of the stretch of beach in front of the castles, because Warren would have him and the other men specifically trying to keep the golem away from the village.

Mind racing, I thought all these thoughts in the span of about two seconds. I realized what I had to do just as quickly as well. I had to go down to the beach and check to make sure Joanna and Davy were out of the ocean and heading to safety. On any other day, the urgency might not have been so great, but considering Warren’s decision and his plan, and the fierce battle that was surely about to happen nearby, I knew time was very much of the essence.

I’d just go down to the beach, and if Joanna and Davy were there, I’d quickly help them both to safety. I figured we’d all be safe inside a castle within five minutes, tops. Maybe even less than five, hopefully, since even during the few seconds I’d been thinking things through, the golem’s booming footfalls and seemed to become much louder and nearer. Faster, too.

Backtracking down the route I’d taken to get to the clinic earlier, I raced down to the beach in record time as the sun sank beneath the horizon, dimming the island in the span of a second. There was still enough light for me to scan the beach, though, of course, but I didn’t see anyone right away. I
heard
Joanna first. She shouted, surely at the top of her lungs to be heard above the alarm sirens.

“Help! The diving rock! Davy!”

I finally spotted her out in the ocean a ways to my left, up to her neck in water.

She waved her arms briefly, making sure I could see her. “Help!”

I didn’t even think; I didn’t have time. I didn’t even have a fraction of a second to contemplate the ocean or my fear. Though that wasn’t to say my fear was gone. My hands shook as I stripped down to my bathing suit and flung my clothes aside, not wanting to be weighed down by wet fabric when I got in the water.

Keeping Joanna’s bobbing head in view, I began sprinting across the sand toward her, yelling as I went. “Start swimming toward me if you can, and I’ll meet you halfway!”

I didn’t have time to even glance at the diving rock, but I gathered from what Joanna had shouted that Davy was somehow there. I had two rescues to make, and not much time to do them. I hated to make Joanna exert herself, but I needed her to help me as much as she could. The golem’s footfalls sounded as close to the village as they’d ever been before, and with each one, I kept seeing something curious. And terrifying.

With each heavy boom of the monster’s massive boulder feet, it wasn’t just the ground that was quaking, the ocean was kind of quaking as well. From what I could see in the waning light, it looked as if the normal rolling of the gentle waves coming in was messed up, for lack of any better or more specific way to describe it. The water in the ocean looked like liquid in a bowl that was being shaken by an uncoordinated toddler. Giant waves that were rolling in were met by giant waves rolling out, and vice versa. And those giant waves, bigger than any I’d even seen on the island before, were getting even bigger with every step of the golem’s mighty stone feet.

I had to hurry. I had to swim faster than I’d ever swam before in my life, and I knew it. I had to be stronger and more fearless than I’d ever been in my life, too. This was definitely not the time for biting shell freak-outs, wimp attacks, or any kind of hesitation whatsoever.

I dove into the crashing waves and began swimming arm-over-arm, something I’d never been very great at, even in a pool. But I forced myself to stick with the stroke and do it to the best of my ability, knowing that doggy-paddling in this situation just wasn’t going to cut it. All the while, I tried to keep an eye on Joanna, who’d been doing her best to swim toward me, and soon I reached her, and not a moment
too
soon, it seemed. She was gasping for breath, clearly using her last ounce of energy to stay afloat. No words were said; I hooked an arm around her back and half-dragged her back to shore, using only my legs and one of my arms to swim. I kicked with all my might, having to use every ounce of my own energy just to keep us afloat and moving forward. The waves were getting even bigger, wilder.

We reached the shore after what felt like hours, but was probably only a minute or two. While the ground shook beneath our feet, I staggered up to the sand, half-carrying Joanna, and she collapsed, almost taking me down with her.

“We were swimming back from the rock. Davy was right beside me, but he must have gotten scared and turned around when the big waves started. I tried to go back and get him, but I... oh!” She clutched her large, round stomach, cringing. “I’m having labor pains.”

Already walking backward into the water, I pointed in the direction of the village. “Get up to the castles. Crawl on your hands and knees if you have to; just get up there. I’ll get Davy. Don’t worry. Just go.”

She began crawling, crying out even as she did so, and I plunged back into the raging waves and started swimming hard, heading toward the diving rock, which even in the dimness I could see was almost entirely submerged by the now furiously churning water. All I could see was the dark outline of the rock and something small and light atop it. Something cream-colored on top, and a blurry splash of bright green on the bottom. Davy’s swim trunks.

              Hang in there, Davy
, I thought.
Just give me three minutes
. With the muscles in my back, legs, and arms burning, I cut through the waves as best I could, taking in water and coughing it out periodically. Twice, huge waves rolled over the top of my head, submerging me, but each time, I fought my way to the surface, barely even having coherent thoughts anymore. The only words my brain seemed able to think were
rock
,
Davy
, and
faster
.

*

By the time I reached Davy, the diving rock was fully submerged by waves crashing over the top of it. Davy seemed to stand in one spot for just a brief second, up to his neck in roiling water, and then he seemed to suddenly lift. A wave had pulled him right off of his feet, but fortunately, it also pushed him right into my arms.

Like with his mom, no words were said. I just quickly hooked an arm around his back and began heading for shore, kicking as hard as I could, muscles and lungs burning. Beside me, Davy stoically held his head above the water as best he could, closing his eyes and mouth every time a wave crashed over our heads. Every so often, he began trying to swim arm-over-little-arm, trying to help. And under normal circumstances, when the ocean was calm, not only would have been able to help, he probably would have been able to swim himself back to shore just fine. He probably would have been able to help
me
to shore. He was actually known as an exceptionally strong swimmer for his age, though obviously, swimming in an ocean rocked by a golem’s footfalls was an entirely new experience.

When we were maybe halfway back to the shore, he spoke in a yell to be heard above the crashing surf, startling me. “You know what, Miss O’Brien? I’m not even scared at all right now.” He paused for just a second or two, gulping air, then continued in a quieter voice. “Gotcha. I’m actually a little bit scared.”

“That’s okay. We’re doing good.”

“Is my mom okay?”

“She’s fine.”

“Her baby comin’ on out?”

“Yes.”

I didn’t say anything else; the few words I’d spoken seemed to have used up every last remaining bit of oxygen in my lungs.

It was getting pretty dark. But soon, even in the gloom, I was still able to catch a glimpse of dark shapes flying just to the east. Warren’s dragons.

Davy, showing no signs of being thoroughly winded just yet, paused in his helper swimming just long enough to point up at one of the dragons. “That’s my dad up there, and he’s one of Chief Warren’s strongest dragons. No gotcha.”

I opened my mouth to say something like, “That’s good,” but I couldn’t even manage it. I was weakening quickly, and there was another monster-sized wave, caused by a monster’s footfalls, rolling toward us just up ahead.

When we finally neared the shore, I’d become so weak I had to crawl through the shallows. Now Davy helped
me
, pulling on one of my shoulders, telling me I could do it. When we reached dry sand, he helped me up to my feet, paused for a few breaths, and then launched himself into a back handspring, landing with his hands in front of him, giving me two thumbs up.

“That’s two thumbs up for your hard swimming, Miss O’Brien. Remember when you taught me to backflip in tumbling class?”

Hands on knees, I nodded, sucking in great lungfuls of air. “Yes.”

“Are you surprised I still had enough energy left in me to do that flip?”

I sucked in another deep lungful, thinking. “No. I’m starting to think you have enough energy for a hundred children, Davy.”

We soon started making our way up to the castles as the golem’s booms became almost deafeningly loud and the ground began to shake as if an actual earthquake was happening. But when we were almost to the boardwalk, there was a long moment of perfect stillness and silence that made us both stop in our tracks. I turned to the east just in time to see a large dragon, inky black in the now-complete darkness, begin charging at some indistinct shape that towered above the treetops in the distant jungle. Warren was charging at the golem.

I gasped, saying a silent prayer that he would be okay. Another split-second of perfect stillness and silence. And then the crash. I’d been in a major car accident before, had heard the sickening crunch of tons of metal colliding with tons of metal at a high rate of speed, and this was even louder. And more than that, it was even more jarring. It felt as if a bomb had gone off beneath my feet. Clutching Davy, I flew through the air, landing on my rear in the sand somewhere near the boardwalk.

The next thing I knew, strong hands were pulling me up in the dark, hurrying me and Davy up toward the castles. I heard Hugh’s gruff voice, saying everything was going to be okay. I prayed with all my heart that it would be. There were several more earthquake-type crashes before Hugh ushered us into the nearest castle, which was Melody and Josh’s. Joanna was pacing around the living room, crying out, with Melody by her side. Despite seeming to be in incredible pain, Joanna still managed to hobble over to Davy and give him a quick hug with tears in her eyes. She also managed to tell me a quick thank you for rescuing him, though her words were cut off by another wail of pain.

Dr. Benson was inside, too, and after I’d said that Davy and I were fine, she whisked us both away to separate guest bedrooms, saying she was going to examine us both anyway.