Wildfire (31 page)

The pressure built inside, choked her breath as freezing
dark loomed around her. Her head, her jaw, every bone in her body hurt. Brain
freeze.
Obaa-chan’s
voice whispered in her head.
Stop fighting. Be
one with the dragon
. Her eyes fluttered close as she willed her muscles to
relax one by one. She imagined a single flame, then allowed it to multiply and
burn until her mind held a bonfire.

Henry sidled up to her, cupped her face in both hands.
There
is still time
.
Stop resisting me.

She raised her arms —bands of scale erupted along broken skin
revealing bone and blood red muscle— and snagged his shoulders, the sharp claws
tearing through the thick cloth of his jacket, through the shirt and into skin.

“Hell!” Henry jerked.

She pulled him close. Eased her hold just enough to stop his
panic, but still keep him in place. Forced the words to form.
You are mine
.

He stopped struggling and smiled.

All mine.

He relaxed his hold. The biting chill ebbed.

Heat flared inside, countered the cold, allowing her a small
respite that ebbed and flowed. One of
Obaa-chan’s
long-ago stories
whispered through the spill of memories. When cornered by the enemy, an ancient
dragon shape-shifter had chosen to unite with his dragon, to build the flames
until they became one and burst into a fire ball as hot and devastating as the
sun up close. Suicide and revenge rolled into a final, fiery blaze.

She let the fire rage through her veins.

Henry stroked her scale-covered snout.
What next?

Her tongue flickered out, tasted his desire.
I will show
you how to be a true dragon
.

Focusing inward, she worked the fire. Blew on it with the
wind of her will, stirred it with her sorrow and fueled it with her anger. Hot
sparks and gray ash flew inside her as the heat grew bolder.

Lynn stood trembling on the edge of death, free of all fear,
almost welcoming the end.
Obaa-chan
was lost.
Jack
. Sobs bubbled
inside. Maybe Jack hadn’t died, maybe he’d survive in the end. She hoped Timmy
and Jen would be okay, that whoever had called her had called the police. Her
parents would miss her. So many goodbyes left unsaid. But taking out Henry
would be worth the cost.

Heat flowed up and down her veins, stoking the flames at her
molten core. She called on the dragon and it roared in answer, a dry desert
wind rose and churned inside, whipped her fire into an inferno. All thought,
all sadness, eviscerated by the blaze.

“Ow, it’s getting hot.” Henry struggled against her.
Thrashed her about the snout with the gun.
Stop it. Stop whatever you’re
doing
.

Blood flowed from her nostrils and lips. Tasted salty on her
tongue. She closed her eyes and held on.

He pushed her up against a cave wall and wrapped his hands
around her half-human throat, squeezing. His mental coldness stabbed her over
and over like a bayonet.
Stop
.

Ice formed, steamed off, reformed in the folds of her brain.
Darkness lapped at the edge of her conscious. She refused to let go, dug in her
nails deeper.

The stench of sweat, blood and fear rolled to her nose. His
or her own
?

Sweat poured off her in waves. A quake started deep inside,
then spiraled outwards building in strength. Soon, the earth beneath her feet
shook, the cave shook. Rocks crumbled and rained from above.

Despite the sharp pain needling through her, the bite of hot
and cold, Lynn focused on her breathing, her fire.

The grip around her throat slipped, disappeared. Oxygen and
relief rushed through her. Air had never tasted so good. Lynn’s eyes popped
open.

Henry groaned and coughed as he lay sprawled at her feet. Jack
stood over him wielding a huge ivory bone —was that a rib?— like a bat. He was
alive. Why hadn’t he got out?

Lynn glanced across Jack’s face, taking in the sweat slick
skin, the determined press of his mouth, the tic pulsing by his left eye.
Run
.

Jack’s eyes blazed with anger and heat as he stared at Henry.
Then he looked up and met her gaze. Then she noted worry and resolve.

Henry shoved to his feet and rushed Jack. She pulled in great
big drags of air, as the two men rolled together on the floor.

Henry landed a hard punch on Jack’s bullet wound.

“Damn!” Jack clutched his arm, his face turned ash gray.
Blood poured between his fingers. Henry seized the chance and scurried away
from them.

Lynn’s tongue flickered out, tasting the blood in the air.
The heady scent filled her breaths, seeped into her own blood. Heat simmered in
her veins.

The remaining physical changes rippled to completion. A sigh
escaped her as she slid into full dragon form. She lumbered forward.

Henry’s gun roared.

Jack jerked as a new wound erupted on his thigh. He moaned
and rolled toward her.

Henry continued to back away, his gun pointed at Jack. “Come
after me, and I’ll shoot to kill.”

Lynn watched him through a half-lidded eye.
I don’t need
to come after you
. She pulled in a deep breath and opened her mouth. Heat —all
the heat she’d built and stoked— flared inside her like a beast gone mad,
clawing and slashing to get free. Intoxicated on the need to burn, she let go.

Fire leaped out of her, wrapped around Henry, scorched the
cave walls. Fire devoured with abandon.
Die, you bastard
.

Screaming, Henry danced away from them engulfed in
red-yellow flames with cold blue hearts. He turned and twisted, fell to the
ground and rolled. A flaming dervish consumed by fire.

His skin blistered red, split and popped, turned black.
Leathery bat-like wings half-extended from between his shoulder blades. His
face contorted into a monstrous jumble of black dragon and human, froze in a
grimace as he fell into the pool.

Nausea rocked through Lynn as she breathed in the odor of
burning flesh and hair, listened to the fading echoes of the screams. The
sudden spending of all the heat and fury left her weak. She toppled to the
ground her gaze pinned on the smoldering half-submerged blackened corpse that
was Henry.

She lay there as her form flickered and shifted back to
human, feeling strangely empty. Where was the triumph, the vindication? No
matter how horrible a death Henry died, no matter how much he deserved it, none
of it would bring
Obaa-chan
back.

A hand caressed her naked shoulder. She managed to turn her
head and meet Jack’s gaze. He’d dragged himself to her. His eyes shone as he
stared down at her.

“I killed him.” Her words rasped her throat raw. “I killed
him in cold blood.”

“You did what you had to do.”

“Yeah.” The dragon had taken over. In the end, she was a
beast. She let her head fall forward, closed her eyes. “Henry was right. I’m
just like him.”

“You’re nothing like him.”

Lynn’s head snapped up at the vehemence of his words, her
gaze jumped to his.

Jack ran a light finger along her face, tucked an unruly
curl behind her ear. “He would have killed innocent people, including an
eight-year-old. He would have killed you.”

“This thing inside me—”

“Saved us.” He held out a blood and dirt covered hand to
her. “Come on, let’s get out of here.”

Chapter
32

Bile churned in her stomach as Lynn took in his pale,
sweating face, his jagged panting breath, the metallic scent of blood. He’d
been shot twice and lost a hell of a lot of that precious fluid. She squinted
into the mouth of the dark corridor. He was right, he wouldn’t make it on his
own, but no way was she leaving him behind. Alone, in the dimly lit cave, where
other dragons came to die. “Strip.”

“What?”

“Your shirt. I could use it as a tourniquet to staunch your
bleeding.”

He hesitated, then complied. “Maybe you should just use it
to cover yourself.”

Lynn looked down at herself suddenly aware of her nakedness.
She busied herself tearing the shirt into strips. “That wouldn’t be practical
for the next part of the plan.”

“You have a plan?”

“Yes.” She wrapped the torn shirt around his wound and tied
it as tight as she could.

Jack grunted through gritted teeth. “Want to clue me in?”

She sat back on her heels, wrapped her arms around herself.
“Do you trust me?”

His steady gaze met hers, remained. “Yes.”

“Then I could turn dragon and carry you as far as I can,
then you’d just have to tough it
out through
the rest.”

“Carry me how?”

Lynn glanced away at the skeleton. “I could grab you with my
mouth and drag you along.”

A strangled sound made her look back at Jack’s horrified face.
Apparently trust didn’t stretch to include her mouth. “Or you could climb up on
me and hold on.”

“I think I prefer the second option.”

She took a deep breath and called for the transformation.
This time it came slower, tingling and sparking like an electric charge through
her molecules. Back in dragon form, she lowered herself to the ground.

Hissing with pain, Jack levered himself up and onto her. His
arms slipped around her neck as he settled in between her wings.

She rose up and lumbered forward making her way through the
dark. Whenever they came to a tight tunnel, Lynn would transform back to human
form to drag and push Jack in turns.
Inch by
inch they worked their way toward the opening.

When they finally emerged back on the top of the mountain,
Jack flopped on the ground, breathing shallowly and looking almost bloodless. A
network of fine, bleeding scratches covered his bare skin. Lynn pulled in a
deep lungful of fresh air and stood. She peered through the brush and looked
down. “Oh wow.”

“What now?”

Lynn stared at the flashing lights around Jack’s house. “The
cavalry’s arrived, so Jen and Timmy should be okay.”

She turned to face him. “Except how do we explain Henry?”

“I don’t think we can explain Henry.” Jack pushed himself
up. “And I’d really like to keep the cave a secret.”

“I’ll call the Dragon Council to come retrieve the body.”

Jack blinked. “Who?”

“I’ll tell you about them later.” She grimaced. “But that’s
part of their job and believe me they are discreet.”

He gave a slow nod. “Fine.”

Lynn hunkered down. “Okay, we still need to think up a story
to explain Henry’s absence.”

Thinking might be a problem. “Um, right.”

Lynn looked up to find Jack’s heated gaze on her breasts, and
finally back up to her eyes. His breath came fast and shallow through slightly
parted lips. Warmth washed through her at the desire she sensed burning inside
him. Images of his hands and mouths on different parts of her body flashed
through her mind. Her own thoughts or his? For a moment he made her feel all
woman. Then common sense kicked in and she shrugged off her backpack. She
pulled her spare clothes out and shoved herself into jeans, tee-shirt and
sneakers. “Sorry.”

“Nothing to be sorry about,” he winked. “I didn’t mind.”

“Whatever,” she hurried up to him and pulled his uninjured
arm around her shoulders. “Come on, we need to start down.”

He hobbled along beside her. “But we don’t have a story
yet.”

“We’ll figure something out.”

He squeezed her, gentle and reassuring.
And we can always
mindspeak.

Cannon’s barks drew closer, and swords of light cut through
the darkness as the search party worked toward them. Head down, Lynn
concentrated on using the broken branch to eliminate footprints leading up to the
mountain. Then leaving Jack slumped in the dirt, she ducked behind a boulder.
For a moment, her limbs just sat there heavy and aching as she leaned against
the solid comfort of the stone. Her body lay still, depleted from all the
changes, her mind weary after having tangled with Henry and finally faced the
truth. Tears leaked out of her eyes and ran down her cheeks. All she wanted was
to sleep, to fade into oblivion.

Lynn.
Jack’s call made her jerk upright.
They’re
coming. I need you.
Both woman and dragon shivered in delight, responded
with eagerness, melded together. Lynn dragged herself up, and ran to join him.
If Anderson commented on her footprints, she’d tell him she’d been taking a
damn piss.

Jack’s eyes lit up as she stumbled to a stop next to him,
slid down to the dirt and settled in. His dirt and blood covered hand grasped
hers.
Ready?

As ready as we can be.

Cannon bounded through the shrubbery and found them, then
proceeded to lick and trample Jack. Roberts and his group appeared right
behind. He radioed the good news and asked the medics to hurry. “You guys
okay?”

“Banged up, but alive.” Jack managed a lopsided smile, while
Lynn just nodded.

Soon more people arrived on the scene. Medics shoved between
them, moved her a small distance. Jack’s hand slipped free of hers. She
stumbled, unwilling to move, tried to voice a protest. But EMTs and medical
equipment swarmed between them, filled in the space, hid him from view. He
needed them more than he needed her.

Another set of medics hovered around her, asked her
questions, cleaned up her cuts and scrapes. Someone thrust an opened bottle of
water into her hand. The sight of it made her parched throat ache. She hadn’t
even realized how thirsty she’d been in the midst of everything. She chugged it
down.

Anderson emerged from the crowd and watched her. The EMTs
slid into their groove, settled into their routines and worked quietly and
efficiently. Roberts stood tall surveying the chaos, with Hernandez directly
behind him. Their grim faces had her heart careening. What were they thinking?
What questions would they ask? Jack lay motionless on a gurney to her right,
his face tilted toward her. The sight of him calmed her frayed nerves.

She set the empty bottle down, wiped her chin with the back
of her hand. “Are Jen and Timmy okay?”

“Yeah, they are safe,” Roberts said, ambling up to her.
“Need to ask you all a few quick questions, you think you can handle that?”

“I-I think so.” Jack’s voice sounded weak and fading.

Anderson squatted down in front of her and skewered her with
his steel blue gaze. “So what exactly happened?”

Lynn glanced at Jack.
Don’t tax yourself. Let me do most
of the talking.

Fine. I’ll jump in if I can help.

Carrying on two simultaneous conversations —one in her head
and one outside— proved interesting. The most challenging part turned out to be
keeping her expressions from giving away her thoughts. Lynn bit her lip, stared
at the ground and had to stop and think a lot. The confused look came naturally
under the circumstances.

“Where’s my backpack?”

Somebody passed it over. Lynn opened it and pulled out the
red folder. All the people crowded around her, pushing and shoving. She flipped
open to the map of the planned development that she and Jen had marked up. She
pointed out the overlaps with the fire scenes. “Looks like the San Antonio
developers brought in Henry to convince people to sell any way he could.”

Then she showed them the phone records between Kate
Harrington and Commissioner Ward. “I’m not sure what Kate’s motive was. I mean
she seems to be well off.”

“I can answer that,” Roberts said. “She is up to her neck in
debts. Both she and her ex seem to have a gambling problem.”

Lynn shook her head. Then she pulled out the articles on
Henry and told them about her interview with Barton and about the Callaghan
connection.

“Why did you decide to go Jack’s place?” the Sheriff asked.

“I thought Jack was in danger. I had to warn him.”

While the law enforcement officials questioned her and Lynn
answered, Hernandez took notes. She said Henry’s motive included revenge for
the way Grandfather Callaghan had treated his mother and jealousy and this idea
of a hidden treasure.

The sheriff gave a slow nod. “Kate Harrington said about the
same thing when we arrested her. So then, y’all went off on a treasure hunt?”

Lynn wrapped her arms around herself. “Jack tried to tell
him there wasn’t any treasure, but Henry didn’t believe him.”

“So I decided to play him and take him away from the rest of
the people.” Jack spoke up. “My plan was to try and take him when it was just
the two of us.”

“Why’d he take you along for the ride?” Anderson scratched
his face and turned back to her.

Heat painted Lynn’s face. “He seemed kind of obsessed with
me.”

Jack reached out for her. People moved out of the way and
Lynn found herself scooting close. His hand wrapped around hers again. “Of
course, that complicated matters, but I had to go through with the plan. Not
too many options at that point.”

“Go on, what then?” Both the Sheriff and Hernandez leaned
forward.

“I took us to Fire Mountain because couldn’t think of
anyplace else, kept him thinking we were heading for the treasure.” His hand
tightened around hers. “First chance I got I attacked him with the axe, but he
pulled the gun out and shot me.”

“Jack dropped the axe.” Lynn spoke through a sob. “Henry
went crazy, he grabbed the axe and started waving it around.”

“He said he’d hack me to pieces for tricking him,” Jack
said.

“I-I couldn’t let him hurt Jack anymore, so I tackled him
from behind,” Lynn put in. The gun shots tearing into Jack’s flesh, her kicking
his still body, Henry’s screams as he burned rushed through her mind,
overwhelmed her senses. Strangled sobs pushed out of her with a violence that
surprised her.

Let me take over
. “Then we heard the sirens. Henry
took off, and I wasn’t in any shape to give chase,” he said. “Lynn refused to
leave me and I didn’t want her alone with him out and about.”

“Where do you think he went?” Anderson’s soft voiced
question crashed into the crowd.

Lynn’s mouth dried up as if she’d swallowed a dust storm.
Sweat pooled under her arms. Memory of blackened skin and the smell of burning
meat had bile rising in her throat. “I-I don’t know.”

“Kate’s property borders mine at this end, maybe he escaped
there,” Jack said. A soft groan escaped his lips and he closed his eyes.

Lynn stared wildly around. “He needs to get to the
hospital.”

The West Texas Regional Hospital chopper clattered in the
air above them, raising up a storm. People rushed around getting ready for the
landing. Lynn closed her eyes to the chaos and let sleep claim her.

Lynn woke up in a hospital room. The drawn curtains created
a muted glow, allowing her eyes to adjust and focus. All kinds of tubes and
wires hung around her. And machines monitoring her pulse, her breath and
god-knows-what-else beeped reassuringly.
I’m still alive
.

The smell of food tantalized her nose, stirred the hunger
inside, and she discovered a covered tray on the table attached to the hospital
bed. The
San Angelo Herald
lay on top of the cover.

Her gaze swooped to the headline: “Arson Snuffed Out.” Lynn
smiled as she read the byline. Hernandez had listed her name first. She ran a
fingertip under her name Lynn Hana Alexander. Maybe she was an ego maniac, but
she felt a rush of pure delight at seeing her name in print. She didn’t think
she’d ever tire of that experience.

She read the article twice and sighed in satisfaction.
Connecting the dots, doing the research, pulling information from interviewees —all
of it had been hard work. She held the paper like a trophy. Hard work yes, but
also solid printed proof that she’d been on the good guys’ team. She’d made a
difference.

Her eyes found the clock. 2 p.m. No wonder she was starving.
Lynn inhaled her lunch of cold vegetable soup, crackers, a warm fruit cup and
canned orange juice. A knock sounded and a nurse came in. “Oh you’re awake and
fed!”

“Jack?” Her question emerged as a whisper.

“He’s got a couple of bullet wounds and he did lose quite a
lot of blood, but the doctors said he’ll be okay.”

She almost asked to see him, but swallowed her words. Why?
She was a dragon and he…wasn’t enough of one. They had no future together. Time
to return to Houston and her life.

“People have been peeking in on you all day,” the nurse
said, changing the IV bag and checking the monitors. She took the empty dishes
away with her.

Lynn lay back and picked up the paper again, when there was
a knock at her door. Maybe Jen had come to visit. She sat up, ready for a hug.
“Come in.”

Another nurse wheeled Jack in. He carried a bouquet of
sunflowers. “Hey.”

“Hey, yourself,” Lynn said. Yet again he sported a
spectacular black-eye. Her gaze lingered on his face. Dark hair curled at his
collar. Stubbles spread a light shadow along the planes and angles of his face,
giving him a rakish pirate look. All he needed was a gold earring and an almost
unbuttoned white shirt. A ship and the wide open sea. The dragon inside her
shivered. Stop being a fool.