Blood & Roses: Warriors of the Krieger (13 page)

“They seem to want to help, but they warned
me that this is their duty, not yours.” Her voice was stern, like
my mother was scolding me for getting in trouble at school.

“Speaking of the
Krieger
, where’s
Dragus?” I begged. I’ll admit that I was a little disappointed when
I woke up and he wasn’t there. He was growing on me. Deep down, I
kind of liked his me-warrior-you-woman attitude, but if there was
going to be something to this, whatever it is, he was going to have
to back off on the doting.

“He’s out tracking, told me to tell you he
would be back before sunrise and for you to rest,” she chuckled.
“So, what’s the hubbub with him?” She tilted her head to the right,
pointing toward the table against the wall. There were four crystal
vases filled with a dozen roses in each one. Each bouquet had the
most beautiful white and red rose buds intertwined with those
little white flowers. I don’t know what they’re called, but it made
the arrangement look twice the size it should have been.

Lydia laughed at my mouth-gaping-open
expression. “He’s brought a dozen for each day you have been in
here,” she sighed heavily. “How romantic is that? So, what’s the
dish?” I couldn’t keep this from my best friend, so like a
tattle-tale, I spilled the beans; even about the ‘
mi amado’
thing.

She was so surprised, then that surprise
turned to excitement. I swear I heard her murmur something that
sounded like ‘spring wedding’. I ignored her. Now that my happy
juice was kicking in, I actually fell into an honest to God sleep
listening to Lydia ramble on and on about weddings and
Krieger
and whatever was on her mind. I didn’t really mind,
it helped me relax as I drifted off.

I woke a little later to the smell of warrior
blood in my face. Dragus was propped on the edge of my hospital
bed, with his bleeding wrist in my face. I frowned at him.

“I’m perfectly capable of taking your vein,
Dragus,” I rolled my eyes. “You don’t need to cut yourself.”

He laughed and pushed his wrist into my
mouth. “Drink, my lady,” he demanded. “We’ll talk once you’re
finished.” I wasn’t one to argue. Much. Risking a glance at the
table, I noticed there was an addition to the garden of roses that
had taken bloom in my hospital room.

After my evening elixir, a-la-Dragus, I
immediately berated him with the questions. “Where is Adam? Is
everyone okay?”

“Everyone’s fine,
mi amado
, you worry
about others before yourself, that’s very noble of you, but you
need to heal first.” I noticed how he didn’t answer my Adam
question. He must have read my mind, because after a deep sigh he
continued, “We haven’t found him. I need to know what happened the
other night.”

I really don’t want to relive the agony, so I
grabbed his monstrous hands and placed his palms on the side of my
temple. Dragus closed his eyes and bowed his head. He replayed the
whole scene from our stolen kiss to the last moment before I
blacked out. His territorial growl backed up my concern about
Adam’s promise to find me again, which didn’t surprise me one bit.
With the way Dragus treated me, you would think that he would kill
anything or anyone that got within ten feet of me.

“He’s going to come back,” I reinforced the
warning. “Dragus, we have to do something. Could we maybe talk to
the doctors here, find some witches, or even check the histories?
There has to be something we can do!” I drew in a jagged breath.
The panic was severely close to bubbling to the surface.

“You need to calm down, Charity,” he
begged.

“I wish everyone would quit telling me to
calm down!” I flinched when the pain in my chest peaked. Dragus
jumped to his feet and immediately ripped the covers off. His huge
fingers carefully unbuttoned the bottom half of my shirt. He
removed the bandage, looking for any sign of bleeding. I noticed
the hole was stitched closed, but still leaked blood from around
the edges.

“How bad does it hurt?” he asked,
concerned.

“Not as bad, but it hurts to yell.” I
narrowed my eyes, threatening him to protest. “Now, talk to me. We
have to do something, Dragus.” He reached over to the side table
and opened a new package of gauze, and made quick work of covering
up my wound. I wondered why he was doing this, instead of the
nurses. He finally sat down in the chair and sighed.

“I’ve already started the research,” he
promised. “If the doctors can find a cure, they will. I promise.” A
promise I intended on holding him too. He chuckled softly in
response after reading my thoughts.

We sat there staring at each other for a
while. Immediately I threw up a block on my thoughts. It’s
something we can do, but since I haven’t done it very often, it was
hard to accomplish. I needed to ask him about the dream; it was
time.

“Why are you blocking me?” he demanded.

“Because I am thinking of something to ask
you and I don’t want you reading my thoughts before I ask you,” I
laughed.

“What is it?” He looked concerned, like I was
about to drop a bomb on him or something. I figure it would be best
to just to come right out and say it. After a steady breath, I
asked.

“I use to dream about you. When I was human,”
I paused to watch his face. His breathtaking smile lit up his face.
“You know about this? Don’t you?”

“When I was human, I use to dream about you
too,” he smiled. “In my dream, you were dressed in a white gown,
sitting on the top of a hill outside my family home. I would run to
you every time. When I would ask who you were, you would tell me,
‘You will not know me for many centuries, but I am the one who will
love you for eternity’. It wasn’t until I became a vampire that I
knew you had not even been born into this world yet. I spoke with
Akalika and told him about you. He explained to me that you were my
destiny.”

“Lydia told me about Akalika. She said he was
the first
Krieger
and his abilities were passed to each one
of his sons. Were you the one who visited me in my dreams?”

His face saddened, “Yes, I’m sorry if I
scared you. I wanted to know you, but because you were human, I
couldn’t track you. For months I would search for you, tell you
that I was looking for you and you never would tell me where you
were. As soon as I would tell you that I had been looking for you,
you would smile and then disappear. I assumed that was when you
woke up. Then after a few months, you stopped dreaming. I thought
that you had died. When I saw you in the club, it took all of my
power not to run to you, just as I had done in my dream.” He kissed
the back of my hand and sighed.

“When you came into the club, I was sure it
was you, but I was afraid to say something. I thought you might
think I was crazy,” I laughed and then flinched from the stinging
in my rib. “Ow!”

“Are you okay?” he stood over me, hands
fluttering above my rib, not touching.

“I’m fine, Dragus.” I tried to stretch,
hoping that would ease the pain, but I flinched again when it made
it worse.

“No, you’re not,” he growled. He pressed the
button to call the nurse’s station. A soft voice answered and
Dragus shouted orders to the poor woman, “Ms. Harwood needs pain
medicine now!”

I laughed, “Dragus, you are going to give
these nurses a lot of unnecessary stress.”

He held my hand gently and smiled, “Only the
best for you. I don’t want you in pain.”

We were interrupted by the nurse as she came
running into the room, “Sorry, Master Dragus. I got here as soon as
I could.”

After my injection she immediately stepped
out of the room. Dragus looked pleased that I was now relieved from
the pain. I felt the weight of the Morphine pressing down heavily
on me. I yawned involuntarily.

“Sunrise is close,
mi amado
,” he
smiled. “Get some rest. Hopefully we can take you home
tomorrow.”

I rolled over onto my side and I let Dragus
rub circles on my upper back, until the medicine floated over my
vision and I succumbed to its weight.

Chapter 8

Charity

Saturday evening, I woke in my own luxurious,
pillow top bed. I stretched and rolled over to look at the clock, a
few minutes after sunset. I forced out my super vamp senses and
detected four human males and one
Krieger
, Ashby. All here
to watch my land, or probably here just to make sure I didn’t go
gallivanting through the woods looking for Adam, which was
something I intended to do, but not tonight, no matter what the
Krieger
said.

I quickly showered, thankful not to have a
nurse there with a washcloth to help me. Then I dressed in my
skinny jeans and a Nights shirt. It felt so much better to be home
and into my own clothes. Thankfully, the stitches had been removed
before we left the hospital early this morning, around three a.m. I
had forced myself to get up out of that bed and move around. Dragus
helped, well damn near carried me through the halls of the
hospital. I had to scold him a few times; telling him that I
wouldn’t get any better if he kept helping me along.

My mind shifted to work. It was the weekend
and I needed to get back to the club. Lydia had been in charge
while I was away. The place was in perfect hands, but I was a
little disappointed that the club ran smoothly without me there. I
always felt that I was needed there and I felt at a loss when I
realized that maybe I didn’t need to spend so much time at work. I
laughed to myself when it hit me that I could actually take some
much needed time to myself…or with a certain warrior.

I didn’t even talk to the men outside my
home. Once in my car, I backed out of the driveway and was on my
way to the Red Cross. I called Lydia, reminding her to meet me at
the clinic.

Looking over, as I passed Mr. Jones’ ranch, I
noticed two
Krieger
Hummers parked in the driveway;
wondering why they were there. Most likely giving him warning about
the Lycans and Adam living in the woods. Dragus had told me, while
I was in the hospital, that there had been multiple sightings of
werewolves in the forest. I was totally depressed that I may not be
able to help Adam.

There may be nothing I can do, other than go
on living my life. After the first fifty years of my new existence,
I learned to grow a tough skin when it came to certain things.
People die and life still moves forward. Mourning those who have
passed on only last for so long, then they are forgotten. Like old
relics, important to the bearer, but considered null to the
acquirer.

Although this had been my belief for a long
time, a small part of my heart squeezed for Adam. I think it’s
because I’ve felt his pain. Granted it was through the telepathy,
but it was still excruciating. Either way, I’m planning on making
good on my promise to help.

My cell rang, bringing me back to reality. It
was Dragus.

“Hello,” I smiled to myself.

“
Mi amado
,” he whispered. “Where are
you?” He asked politely, even a withering sigh put in for good
measure.

“On my way to the R.C., to meet Lydia,” I
laughed. “Are you checking up on me?”

“Well,” he paused. “Yes.” Wow! He’s actually
sounded…normal. No me-warrior-you-woman attitude tonight. I liked
it.

“I’m fine
Krieger
. What are you
doing?”

“I’m with a team looking for Adam.” His voice
lowered a level when he spoke, like he was hoping I wouldn’t catch
on to what he was doing.

I gasped, “You are
not
in the woods!
Are you?” The thought of anyone being out there during the night,
made my skin crawl; I hoped he would listen if I begged him not to
go.

Okay, so after these past couple of weeks,
Dragus was growing on me, a lot. I’ve been feeling possessive of
him, like he was mine. Warrior or not, the thought of him in pain
caused me heartache and I needed to get over that. He was a
Krieger
, the strongest of our kind. Lydia teased me that I
was getting close to bonding with him. Although I denied it to her
face, deep down I felt it coming. Was it love? Hell, I don’t
know.

“Nope, I’m on the edge of Shepherd’s Forest,
about
to go in.” Point for Dragus, he made a funny, but I
didn’t like it.

“Listen to you, trying to be a comedian. Now
seriously, please don’t go in there, it’s too dangerous,” I
begged.

“This is what I have been trained to do, for
the past 500 years, I know what I’m doing,” he laughed. I didn’t
care if he had been hunting Lycanthropes for the past two
thousand
years; I couldn’t fathom the idea of him being
hurt, or much worse, poisoned. I’m pretty sure the other
Krieger
would give him hell if I told Dragus he couldn’t go
into the woods. The Head
Krieger
being told to stay home by
his woman wouldn’t go over well. I had to trust him.

“Okay, I trust you, but please promise to
call me tonight at the club,” I begged, my voice a little
shaky.

“I promise,” he said. After a short goodbye,
I slapped my phone shut and tossed it in the passenger seat and
headed over to the Red Cross.

I was still thinking of my
Krieger
when I pulled into the clinic parking lot, and like usual, Lydia
was standing there tapping her foot. It was nearing seven when we
entered the building. Mary, the lady at the counter, stood up when
we walked into the lobby and nodded for us to go on in.

Robbie was waiting patiently for me reading a
copy of the latest Cosmopolitan magazine. He looked up and
immediately his eyes welled up with tears. The magazine was tossed
into a bin beside his chair and he flung himself at me.

“Oh, Charity,” he cried. “I was so worried.
Are you okay?” He stepped back and gave me a good once over,
patting my arms, my forehead and my hands.