Haunted By Her Dragon (The Dragon Guard Series) (28 page)

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

It had been an hour since Royce had told her that Lance had
been hurt. She knew he was alive, she could
feel
him, something she was
going to have to examine later. When he’d explained that there was a
state-of-the-art medical facility in the basement and that a ‘Healer’ from
their family was on the way, she’d damn near punched the big man in the gut.
She knew their brief conversation would’ve been comical in any other situation.
“I’m a doctor, Royce. Let me help.”

“I know you’re a doctor, Samantha, and a very
good one, but Lance has a few unique…
medical conditions
that require a
‘specialist’.” She’d seen him look over her head with concern, and Sydney had
squeezed her hand. She had glared over her shoulder to find Aidan looking back
at the big man. It was obvious some type of silent communication was taking
place but she had no clue how.

Letting her anger take over, she took a step
forward, standing toe-to-toe with a six foot ten giant, and threw as much
attitude into her voice as possible, “
Dammit
,
Royce, take me to him! I can help…” The resignation she saw in his eyes swamped
her with fear. Her knees trembled, but she refused to show weakness. Lance
needed her to be strong.

“Please…” was all she could get past the lump
in her throat.

“I promise you can go down just as soon as
Siobhan has gotten here, and had a chance to look at him.” Without another
word, he turned and headed towards a door she hadn’t seen before. Grace was
immediately at her side, directing her back into the family room where
Kyndel
sat with Jay.

Sydney had crawled up in her lap, and that was
where they’d been ever since.  Devon had returned, and she heard the voice
of an older woman. The timber of the woman’s voice seemed to lower the tension
level in the house exponentially. When she’d asked Grace and
Kyndel
about her, both ladies had smiled, and assured her
their family Healer was the best in the world. While all of that was well and
good, she was a trained surgeon, top in her class, and working to be one of the
best in the country. She
needed
to be down there.

Sydney sat on the floor next to Jay, she paced,
trying to think of a way to get past the young man guarding the door. Seeing
Lance was her number one goal at the moment. She’d lost everyone she’d ever
loved without being able to help. There had been no goodbye or prayers for a
happy ending, only caskets, and flowers, and weeping mourners. That shit was
so
not happening this time. She was
not
losing him, not as long as she drew
breath. Her pacing halted, and she stared out the window. Was it true? Did she
love him? Despite all her misgivings and thoughts of her future, since he had
burst into her world she hadn’t been able to imagine her life without him. He
had haunted her every thought. Even when he’d been watching her, she’d longed
for more, and now that she had it, imagining a future with him was almost too
easy. There were things he wasn’t telling
her
and
that
would have to be dealt with, but what mattered in that moment was that he was
hurt, needed her help, and they were being kept apart.

She paced the other direction and ran right
into Grace. Both women grabbed the others’ arms for support, “Oh Grace! I’m
sorry. I didn’t see you there.”

Grace shook her head, “No! No! It’s my fault, I
was following too close. I thought you were headed into the kitchen and maybe
we could talk over a cup of coffee.”

Little red flags went up. She grabbed Grace’s
arm again, “What is it? What has happened?” she whispered, fearing the worst.

“Oh, Sam, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to freak you
out. It’s nothing like that. There are just a few things that you should know
about our
family.
Things that Lance should’ve told you but wasn’t able
to with all that’s happened.” Grace smiled sweetly, and Sam wondered if these
things were answers to the questions that were piling up in her mind.

“Sure, coffee sounds great, and if this
conversation will get me down there with him,
all the
better.” She turned, and headed for the kitchen, not waiting for an answer.
Lance needed her. She knew it like she knew her own name, like she’d known
every time he was near. It sounded weird even to her, but she could
feel
his need for her. He was reaching for her with his mind instead of his body.
Maybe all the stress and lack of sleep over the last couple of days was making
her loopy. Hopefully, Grace and
Kyndel
would have the
answers that she needed. Sitting at the table, she watched the other woman
approach.
Kyndel
moved the kids and their toys into
the breakfast nook with them. When she met the red-headed woman’s eyes,
Kyndel
smiled and giggled “You surely didn’t think I was
getting left out of all the fun did you?”

Grace took the seat across from her, and
Kyndel
pulled another next to her best friend. Whatever
they had to say was important, that much was obvious. The butterflies in her
stomach fluttered like when she’d had a big exam at school. The others seemed
completely relaxed, leading her to believe it was nothing ominous. Her mind ran
wild with what it could be. Deciding that maybe it was something as simple as
making sure she understood they were family by choice, not blood related.
Surely, they knew that didn’t matter to her.

After popping up and hurrying to grab the 
refreshments, Grace returned with cookies, a full coffee pot, mugs, sugar,
cream, and milk for the kids, and went about making sure everyone was well
taken care of before taking her seat. It was like she was stalling, and Sam’s
tension jumped. Her suspicions were confirmed when the raven haired beauty sat
down, took a deep breath, and said, “So how are you
really
?”

Deciding to answer instead of be an ass, she
said, “I’m scared and frustrated and heading towards pissed. I don’t understand
any of this. Why in the hell would you have medical facilities in your home?
Why does your family have its own
Healer?
What can this Healer do that I
can’t” For Christ’s sake
I am a doctor.
Why can’t I go down there and
help? Is he really okay or are you just preparing me for the worst? I know you
don’t know much about me, but everyone I ever cared for has passed away. If
he’s already dead, just tell me.” She fired questions one right after another.
The lump that had been growing in her throat since she sat down caused her last
words to be barely more than a whisper.

Both women were frantically shaking their
heads.
Kyndel
was the first to speak, “
Dammit
, I’m so sorry we’ve freaked you out. Lance
isn’t dead, honey. It takes a hell of a lot more than what he’s been through to
take out one of our guys,” she said as she made a circle indicating the three
of them and continued. “What we need to talk to you about is the reason why
Rayne and the others haven’t let you see him yet. I’ve had to argue with my
lovely
husband for the better part of an hour to get him to let us talk to you. He
still thinks we need to wait for Lance to get better, but I know if it was my
man laying down there on a gurney and I had no idea what was happening, I’d be
tearing the doors off the hinges to get to him. Am I right?” Her southern
accent only accentuated the meaning and feeling behind her words.

She nodded her head. Of course she wanted to
get down there. She had no idea what kind of future they had together, if any.
But she was falling in love with the big lug, and knew she could help him, if
they would just let her down there. Motioning for
Kyndel
to continue, she took a sip of her coffee.

It was Grace that picked up the conversation,
“Okay, what we’re about to tell you is going to sound insane, especially
because you haven’t known us for long. When Lance wakes up, I’m going to kick
him in the shins for not talking to you before he went running off, but then
again, I remember what the first few weeks are like,” she got a dreamy look in
her eyes. Sam smiled, knowing exactly what the other woman was talking about.
Lance was a force to be reckoned with. All she was wanted was to have him safe and
sound and in her arms.

Kyndel
swatted Grace’s arm, and both ladies giggled like
schoolgirls. They had the kind of friendship Sam had always wished for, like
sisters. Maybe if things worked out with her blue-eyed hero they would all end
up friends? Stranger things had happened. Interrupting her wayward thoughts,
Grace spoke again, “I can only think of one way to tell you all of it, and
that’s to start at the beginning. When Aidan told me all of this, he asked that
I not ask any questions until he was done, but I’m not like that, so if at any
time you need to stop me or ask a question, just jump right in, okay?”

Sam nodded, growing more leery by the minute.
Grace took a deep breath and started, “You know all
the
stories you’ve heard of knights and dragons?” Sam nodded. “Well, they’re
absolutely true. But there’s a huge twist they left out of the story books we
were read as children and the history books we studied in school. They were as
real as the ones in
Dragonheart
about 1500
years ago, but they aren’t like that now. As time progressed and the world
became more populated, the dragons weren’t able to hide their existence any
longer. They enlisted the help of a very powerful mage.” Sam felt her brow
furrow, and both women sitting across the table from her grinned.

“I
know what you’re thinking, but I assure you, we are completely sane. There
really are mages and magic, and a whole lot of other shit, but that’s for
another time. Back to my point, the mage was able to combine what made the
dragon special, its soul and its magic, with the knight of its choosing. 
The knight had to possess all the characteristics necessary to protect their
clans, to fight for those that needed a champion, and keep their race from
falling into extinction.”

“King
Arthur,” Sam felt her eyebrows shoot up almost to her hairline and her eyes get
big.

Grace
laughed but continued, “Yeah, that guy was real too. But I have no idea about
Guinevere, I do however know that your mate was named for a great warrior from
that time, but you’ll have to ask him about that. Anyhow,” she drew a breath
and shot a look at
Kyndel
, who was sitting on the
very edge of her chair, “King Arthur had like a code of conduct for his
knights, a list of sorts, of characteristics that a man had to have to even be
considered to be one of his knights. The dragons looked for men that had the
same qualities as the knights they fought beside for thousands of years. These
warriors had to be courteous, honest, generous, courageous, loyal, just,
discreet, wise, brave, and honorable. They made sure these qualities were so
ingrained in the individual, that they were an integral part of that
individual’s bloodline. It was imperative they ensure their power would never
be abused. You see, dragons are fire made flesh, and fire is power.

“The
men you’ve met here are descendants of the men that were given this honor. It
all started in the sixth century, shortly after King Arthur disappeared. From
that point forward, every male from the chosen families has gone through a
transformation between the ages of 18 and 21.” Grace stopped and looked Sam
right in the eye, “You okay so far?”

She
thought about it for a minute and decided she was as good as she could be and
wondered when both of these obviously intelligent women were going to yell
PSYCH!
“Yeah, I’m good.”

Grace
and
Kyndel
exchanged a knowing look, and she braced
herself for what was to come next.
Kyndel
spoke, “I
can see from the way you are looking at us that you think we’ve lost our minds,
or maybe we’re just messing with you to keep you from thinking about your man,
but that could
not
be further from the truth. We’re telling you all this
so that you
can
get down there with him. Once you’re down there you will
see and hear things that defy all rational explanation. It’s going to be real,
I promise, but you’re still
gonna
freak, even though
we’re telling you all of this.

“So
Grace told you all about the dragons, but now let’s
talk
about the guys, and what it all means right here, right now, okay?”

Sam
nodded her head, and wondered exactly what the fiery red-head with the emerald
eyes and southern accent could possibly say that would be any crazier than what
she had already heard. “Well, now she,”
Kyndel
motioned towards Grace, “said something about a transformation. Before I go
down that path, I
wanna
ask you a question. You know
that tattoo on Lance’s chest, the big dragon that looks like he’s flying off to
battle?”

“Yes…”
Jealousy ran through Sam at the thought of
Kyndel
looking at Lance’s chest. She shoved it down but still felt antsy. First of
all, she’d never been jealous in her entire life, and had no clue what the hell
had caused it to happen now. Then there was the fact that it was obvious
Kyndel
was head over heels in love with her husband. Other
men had ceased to exist to her. Shaking her head, she said, “Go on…”