Sanctuary, Texas: My Dragon Masters Part 7

"Yet, even Charlie will not allow you her blood?" I didn't understand. How could she deny this person what she needed to live if she owed her mother's life to her? Why didn't the whole pack adore Eira?

"I can see the questions rolling through your brain. Just forget about it. Even though we are friends, Charlie still grew up believing that vampires are evil, bloodsucking monsters that enslave the people they drink from. Needless to say, I normally have to go a week or two between feedings. It's hard to find people out alone these days in the country. Humans have been educated to be a little smarter and I prefer to drink from people who take care of themselves, rather than the homeless and sick who live on the street."

"I do not mind sharing whenever you have need. It is the least I can offer for you stepping in to save my life and explain this strange world I find myself thrust into." I sat down in the chair opposite her and she smiled at me.

"Thank you, D. Though I would like to have some every day, I really won't need more for several days."

"It is yours when you wish it. You need only ask."

"I really hope my friend in Ada can help you. I'm dying to know who you really are underneath all that well-mannered tactful speech. Because the woman fighting last night was a bada.s.s, not the proper and fancy lady-in-waiting type."

I gave her a quick nod. More than anything, I hoped for the same thing. Even more, I wanted names to go with the faces of the two men, the twins that haunted my dreams. I wanted to know why I would awake in the middle of the night, sometimes sobbing, and hear the cry of a baby in the recesses of my mind. But deep down, I really wanted to know who had stolen my life from me so that I could take my vengeance on them. So the beast inside me could rest from its relentless pacing and fury.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN.

DIANA.

Day after monotonous day pa.s.sed. The group moved steadily west each night and I continued to feed Eira every third day. She tried to say it was too often -an unnecessary risk- but I didn't see it that way. I saw it as something I could contribute to this group. Because nothing I had done so far was making this trip any easier.

My body burned at the touch and I iced everything around me when I slept. I'd taken to sleeping in the woods instead of the hotel where the pack holed up during the daylight hours. It was better than continuing to raise alarms when I ruined one hotel room after another. I hated that I inconvenienced Eira, but she said spending the night outdoors was nothing new to her and that my winterization didn't bother her at all.

She speculated one evening while we were walking, if all the ice was my powers trying to cool the fever that raged inside me from the heat. I wished I had an answer for her, but I did not. I saw it as torture. The desire to touch and be touched coupled with the knowledge that it could never happen. The heat within me was burning hotter than ever. Now, I would burn anyone who touched me. Even Eira refrained and joked that "in the middle of winter we could fry an egg on your stomach".

I looked up at the rising sun in the distance. Seeing the pinks, purples, oranges, and yellows every morning had become a favorite memory. I knew I'd been in that tower a long time. But there had been no windows, no way to measure the pa.s.sage of time. Now witnessing the rise and fall of the sun each day was a blessing I would never again take for granted.

"It's beautiful, isn't it?" Eira spoke next to me, her voice quiet and almost mournful. "I was trapped in the dark for so long before I got this ring." She rolled the gold band around her finger and sighed. "It's little moments like these that remind you why we want to keep living. Keep fighting."

"I do not know how long I resided in that prison tower. Most likely centuries. I know nothing about myself or my kind and neither do you because they all disappeared off the face of the earth." I kept walking and waited for her response.

"No matter how long you were there, you have to focus on the here-and-now. You're out and free. Don't dwell in the past. I did that for a long time and I can tell you it sucks."

"Donkey b.a.l.l.s?" I asked, trying to stifle a giggle.

She laughed. "Yes, it sucks donkey b.a.l.l.s, you crazy woman."

A howl echoed through the cold night air, making the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end, sending the joviality I'd felt skittering away. Since the night we'd been attacked, several of the group had taken to patrolling in wolf form to try and keep soldiers from being able to sneak up on us again.

Eira tensed beside me and waited. I watched the muscles in her jaw flex as she tried to decide what to do.

Another howl joined the first, followed by several short yips.

"Soldiers?" My voice was no more than a breath of cold air, but Eira nodded.

Footsteps sounded behind us as the group gathered. We moved off the road together into the dense trees and overgrowth to our right. A shot rang out, cutting through the night and one of the wolf's songs was cut short.

I whimpered and Eira covered my mouth with her hand, then drew it back again with a hiss. She'd forgotten the slightest contact burned like a live flame.

"You have to be quiet, no matter what," she whispered.

Others crouched nearby and the tension in their bodies was nearly unbearable. I could feel their anger and their sorrow over losing one of their own. Yet they didn't move. How could they stay here and- Another shot ended the remaining howling. Silence made the night air empty and stagnant. The breeze had died down, too. Both wolves were either dead or dying and we were all hiding.

I did not like it.

The beast within me did not like it.

It was not right.

Everyone looked to Eira, but she shook her head. Charlie was only a few feet away and she nodded to the vampire, agreeing with her a.s.sessment. I could hear noise in the distance. Voices. Conversations. The rumble of the large machines they called vehicles.

"Why aren't we doing something?"

Eira shushed me and glared. "There are too many. We're only twenty people. They have at least a hundred in this regiment. Can't you hear them?"

I nodded. I could, but I still wanted to fight. Being stopped by these men was not an option. Answers waited for me in Ada. At least I hoped they did. Two wolves had possibly already given their lives tonight. Did they expect to hide in these trees and never be found?

Crawling forward slowly, I peered up and down the empty road. I could hear them coming, but it would be several minutes before they arrived. Eira crept up beside me and hissed. "Stop. What the h.e.l.l do you think you're doing?"

"I'm going to fight."

"You're being ridiculous. You can't even control your own sweat, how are you going to fight a hundred highly trained soldiers?"

"You know this heat I'm in is not my fault," I shot back. "The beast wants to fight. It doesn't like hiding. I don't like hiding."

"Well la-de-dah to the beast," she growled. "I would rather not die because you have a sudden hero complex."

"We beat the last group that attacked us."

"There were only twenty soldiers and they didn't have heavy artillery vehicles with them. You hear that rumble and metal on metal sound. Those are guns. Big guns. Bigger than the ones that shot you the first time. These guns will blow your whole arm off."

I sucked in a quick breath at the thought, but it didn't change my mind. Or the mind of the dragon inside me.

"I can do this," I growled low in my chest. The beast stirred and I could feel it rising to the surface. My vision changed first and then I fell to all fours as my body began to morph. At least this time I knew what was happening.

"s.h.i.+t." Eira hissed and backed away to give me s.p.a.ce.

I shook my head and took a step. My body felt unfamiliar, but powerful and strong. Terror didn't grip my soul this time. This time fury burned hot. I instinctually crouched and moved stealthily as possible for being taller than most of the trees surrounding me. The dragon pushed for dominance in my mind and I gave in, becoming a mere pa.s.senger. She, the dragon, knew what to do and wanted to do it.

A blur to my left caught my attention. Eira was moving along the tree line with me, her face no more than a faint creamy outline in the moonlit night.

A male voice shouted an alarm and I sprang into action. My breath iced everything in front of me and my feet smashed the vehicles. Several guns sounded and I felt glimmers of pain in my side, but continued on. My huge tail swung around to my side, sending vehicles and people flying in every direction. A terrifying roar came from my throat and I lunged at a group of soldiers preparing to fire a large, metal weapon at me. Eira reached them before they fired, ripping all five of them to pieces. The weapon lay on the ground and I stepped on it, crus.h.i.+ng it in my enormous white claws. The metal pole snapped like a twig, giving me a delicious sense of satisfaction.

"Get the other car!" Eira's call caught my attention and I swung my long neck toward her. Another group of soldiers had taken up residence in a large, brown vehicle with another of the bigger guns on its top. A flash of light and then burning pain ricocheted through my chest.

I roared again, covering everything around me in a swath of ice. Wolves came racing from the edges of the forest. They began picking off the soldiers still firing at me one by one. I sent the offending vehicle and soldiers flying dozens of feet into the air with another swipe of my tail. The wolves fell on the rest and I stumbled.

Breathing was difficult. I gulped in the cold winter air, but it did not help much. That last shot must have hurt me worse than I realized.

Everything around me began to fade. My vision blurred and then changed. My body s.h.i.+fted back to human form and I flickered my eyes open and closed. Wolves rushed back and forth around me, then I finally saw Eira's pale blue eyes and heard her voice telling me to suck it up, that I "wasn't allowed to die on her." And something about "being a stupid, stubborn dragon."

If I had more energy I would have laughed at her, but at that moment, I really wanted to sleep. My heavy eyelids closed again and the voices around me faded to silence. I really hoped all the soldiers were gone.

The buzzing, white torchlight greeted my eyes as they opened. I squinted and turned my head, hoping to see a familiar face. It was. Just not the face I wanted to see.

Instead of Eira's friendly blue eyes, Charlie's dark brown ones met my gaze. Her eyes widened when she realized I had awakened. She rose from her chair and moved to my bedside, wiping my forehead with a damp cloth. It felt like a cool drink of water to my burning skin.

"Where is Eira?"

"She's meeting with a mutual friend of ours. Apparently there are two wolves from Texas looking for you in Ada. We're trying to figure out how they even know about you."

I licked my dry, cracked lips and swallowed. My chest hurt like I'd been run through with a broadsword. Pain shot through me like fire every time I drew a breath. "I need to see them." I struggled to move even a fraction of an inch. Visions of the men in my dreams flashed through my mind. "Were they twins?"

A growl rumbled in Charlie's throat. "Stay still. That 55 caliber put a couple of holes in your chest. You need to lie still and rest while your body rebuilds itself." She paused for a moment. "Manda didn't say if they were twins. Just that they were two wolves from Texas. Why?"

"Please. I want to speak to them," I groaned and tried to move again. There had to be a connection. Why else would they be looking specifically for me? "Please," I said, holding back a wheeze.

"If you promise to stay in bed, I'll send in Eira. Deal?"

I nodded, wincing again. All the talking made me breathe deeper and it hurt so badly tears were running from the corners of my eyes.

She stopped at the doorway and turned back to face me. "Thank you for risking your life for the pack. You saved lives that night. We owe you a debt and I promise we will help you in any way we can." She started to say more, but didn't and slipped out the door.

I had earned their respect and grat.i.tude. Something told me that was no small feat.

Lifting my head slightly, I raised the sheet covering my body and bit back a whimper. My ribs were wrapped in layers of gauze. Spots of red stained the white bandage in three places.

Three wounds. No wonder I felt as though I'd been run through. I glanced around the room, bare white walls, no windows, and the floor looked like stone. All of it was covered in a thin layer of clear ice, of course. Even wounded and unconscious, I couldn't keep from icing everything around me.

I tried to draw a deeper breath and hissed through the pain that burned in my lungs. It was unbearable and I wished unconsciousness would come back and claim me.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN.

MILES.

"Rose!" Eli and I both yelled as we stomped into the cafe at four in the morning. The French doors shuddered behind me, slamming back into place. A little harder and I probably would've broken the gla.s.s-again. I didn't care.

Diana was in trouble and we were bound to this place out of honor.

I could feel her pain and confusion like it was my own. I knew Eli could feel the same and it was driving us both mad. She was much closer now, but she'd gotten hurt again. This time worse. This time she was struggling to heal.

She needed us. If the wound was severe enough it would take all three of us together to heal her. We could lose her if we waited too long.

"Yes?" She poked her head out of the kitchen, her eyes wide with surprise. "Y'all are here awfully early for breakfast."

"You have to send Travis and Garrett again. They have to bring her back with them somehow. She's close. Maybe a couple hundred miles. She has to be in Oklahoma." I gripped the edge of the counter and forced a deep breath. Diana's pain ran through me like flames racing along a trail of gasoline. It was as if every breath she took caused her agony.

"Rose. She's dying," Eli growled, saying aloud what I'd been unwilling to admit.

But I knew it and my dragon did, too. He paced and pushed and it took every ounce of my strength not to s.h.i.+ft and fly straight to her side. Our bond acted like a homing beacon. Knowing she was fewer than three hours away was tearing us apart at the seams. We'd been snapping at the Sisters for days and now they scurried away as soon as they saw us.

I released a deep breath and it raised the temperature in the cafe by a good ten degrees.

Rose wiped her forehead and narrowed her brow. "Are you sure? Travis said the smuggler they spoke to knew about the dragon s.h.i.+fter, but not where she was. If they were bringing her to Oklahoma all along, wouldn't they have told them?"

"Who did they speak to?" Eli asked, pacing the length of the counter.

"Her name was Eira."

"That's it?"

"That's the only name she shared. They did say she was a vampire and able to walk in the sunlight."

Rose came around from behind the cafe counter and stood before me. She looked up and met my gaze with her soft brown eyes and some of the anxiety in my heart faded a little. I knew she would do her best for us, but it was so hard not to do it myself.

"I will send one of the pixies to fetch Travis and Garrett." She touched my arm, but withdrew it quickly. My body temperature was high right now and uncomfortable for anyone to touch besides another dragon.

"She's old then and has witches for friends. I wonder if Meredith or her sister knows her." I released the counter and tried to calm the fire rising within me. No need to melt the wallpaper if I could help it. She'd make me replace it.

"We will find her, old friend. I promise." She looked past me to my brother. "Eli, please."

He stopped pacing and looked up.

"I promise you. We will find her. If she's in Oklahoma, then she's almost home." She spoke with such self-a.s.surance. It was difficult not to take her at her word. But the radiating pain in our chests said we were racing against the clock. Diana didn't have much time. Travis and Garrett needed to hurry.

Rose disappeared into the kitchen, calling Maven's name. Rushed footsteps upstairs said she'd been waiting for the call since we had arrived. The back door of the cafe slammed and I turned to my brother.

His eyes were glowing orange. The flames of his dragon were pus.h.i.+ng to the surface. He frowned and sat himself at one of the closest tables.

"How are you keeping your dragon at bay? Mine is clawing at my insides."

I shook my head and walked to him, sitting in the chair across from him at the small square table. "Mine is the same. We've been battling it out since we felt the first shot of pain days ago. I just keep reminding myself that she's alive and close. We will have her in our arms soon, brother. We will be united once more. Our fathers' legacies will continue and the House of Blackmoor will have a chance to reign in the Veil again one day."

"You think she has one of the daggers of Shamesh?" Eli's eyes s.h.i.+fted back to brown. The distraction had worked.

"There's no other option. Those four daggers are the only way in and out of the Veil. After all these years ..." It had been so long. My heart broke at the thought of Leif and Kevan torturing her for so many centuries. Eli and I had watched them hurt her when the House of Blackmoor fell, helpless to protect her or any of our family. They'd slain our mother and the two brothers we called our fathers.