Charred Tears (#2, Heart of Fire) (11 page)

Afraid of what he’d find, Chace slid a hand beneath her t-shirt, checking her warm skin for injuries. He stretched to run a hand over her legs then checked her head gingerly.

“What you got?” Gunner asked, crouching beside him.

“Bleeding from her shoulder. Neck all banged up. I think that’s all.”

“Good chance she’s got a concussion after being thrown around by that thing.” Gunner eased her away from Chace and stretched her out flat. “Why she doesn’t have a broken neck is beyond me.”

Chace’s breath stuck in his throat at the words. His eyes went over Skylar again.

I should’ve been there for her.

Gunner expertly poked and prodded her neck, checked the wound in her shoulder and did a quick exam of the rest of her body.

Chace waited impatiently, one of his hands remaining in contact with her at all times. The idea of not touching her was almost as painful as his beaten down body.

“Neck’s fine, just bruised,” Gunner said, sitting back. “I can stitch up her shoulder. She’s got a knot on the back of her head. The shoulder wound looks like she got winged when someone tried to shoot her. I’ll need to check her head, though.” He rose. “She shouldn’t be sleeping with a possible concussion. Fortunately stitching her up with no anesthetic should wake her up.”

Chace released his breath. He resisted the urge to wrap Sky in his arms once more, not wanting to cause her more suffering. He made himself content with brushing her cheek with the back of his fingers and leaning forward to plant a light kiss on her forehead.

The sight of her injuries and blood made him feel sick.

And furious. She’d turned from slayer into someone who had freed trapped dragons. She was the Protector of the shifters, and he was her guardian. Never again would something like this happen to her, no matter what he had to do to stop it.

“This is it, Sky. You may hate me when you wake up, but I’m not leaving your side again,” he whispered softly, firmly. “I’ll figure out how to protect you, even if I never get my magic back again. I will find a way.”

“Damn tigers. Think they own the world,” Gunner muttered as he returned.

Chace looked up, his hand remaining on Sky’s abdomen. It moved up and down with her breathing, and the heat of her body reached him through her T-shirt, assuring him she was alive.

“This is Penny.” Gunner motioned to the small form beside him. “Pegasus shifter.”

Chace leveled his gaze on the small girl with golden skin and dark hair. She was somewhere around six or seven, pudgy, with large eyes and a band-aid on her forehead. She wore a long sleeved t-shirt that smelled faintly of Sky.

“Protector,” she murmured, squatting beside Skylar.

“You want to tell Chace what you told me?” Gunner asked the little girl gently. He knelt beside Skylar, his small first-aid kit in his hands.

Penny held out her hand. Chace reached out, and she deposited a tiny figurine of a Pegasus into it.

“That’s my mom,” she said.

“What?” Chace looked from the figurine to her.

“Apparently, that’s what happens to the shifters that the slayers catch. They’re turned into one of those,” Gunner said. He nudged Chace aside to get to Skylar’s injured shoulder.

With reluctance, Chace moved away.

The little girl followed and pried the figurine out of his hand.

He clenched and released his fists, not liking the idea of being so close to Skylar without touching her. His attention split between watching Gunner work and the story the Pegasus shifter just told him, he addressed Penny.

“How did you turn from this into you again?” he asked.

“The Protector. She goes like this.” She squeezed it tight in one fist. “Then, we wake up.”

“You’re serious?”

She nodded.

“That’s incredible.”

“She woke up the two tigers and was supposed to wake up my mom but the griffin got us and made us fly into the sky.” The girl rose as she told her story, pointing upwards then twirling around. “We turned and turned and turned and turned and then – he dropped us!” She indicated the SUV. “But I protected the rest of them.”

“The rest of who?” Chace asked.

“Come on. I’ll show you.” Without waiting for him, she spun and trotted towards the car.

Chace didn’t want to move. Sensing he wasn’t ready to leave Sky, Gunner tossed his head towards the SUV.

“Go see. Let me work in peace.”

Chace growled but rose and trailed Penny, who was trying to pry open one mangled door.

“Wait,” he said, stooping down to pick her up. He held her against him with one arm then yanked the passenger side door open. It creaked but gave. “What am I looking for?”

Penny squirmed to be free.

“Be still. There’s glass everywhere,” he told her. “I’m not setting you down to get hurt.”

She gave an exaggerated sigh. “They’re in there.” She pointed to the seat then the floor. “I was counting them when the griffin took us flying.”

The faint light overhead illuminated dark figurines amid the glass and flecks of metal littering the cab of the SUV.

Chace took her a few feet away and set her down.

“Stay there,” he ordered.

“I’m a
Pegasus,
” she returned, crossing her arms with a pout. “I don’t have to listen to a dragon.”

He leaned over to meet her gaze. “You really think a little pony can take on a mighty dragon?”

“My mom says Pegasuses are smarter.”

“Dragons are bigger.”

“I can fly faster.”

“I can breathe fire.”

“You’re not in a pissing match with a seven-year-old, are you?” Gunner called.

“Yeah, are you?” Penny echoed.

Gunner laughed.

Suppressing a smile, Chace shook his head and straightened. He returned to the SUV and began digging around, collecting the tiny figures. When his hand was filled with them, he stopped to stare.

The inanimate objects in his hand were
alive.
Somehow. Not only that, but Skylar had figured out how to return them to life. What was more amazing: the figurines or her gift?

A shirt dropped on his head. Chace snatched it off, looking up.

Penny had found a way to defy him. She hovered a few feet overhead in her Pegasus foal form.

“You just wait,” he told her clearly. “When I get my magic back, I’ll show you why people don’t mess with dragons.”

Penny whinnied loudly. He had the sense she was laughing at him.

Chace smiled to himself, amused by the playful filly, and set down the shirt she’d been wearing. He gathered up the remaining figurines and placed them in the shirt, growing more concerned and amazed with each one he collected.

How many shifters had been put to sleep by Caleb, Dillon and the rest of the slayers?

“The tigers said there are a lot more at Caleb’s, but I think the car ride confused them. They don’t know where that is exactly,” Gunner said, joining him. “Now we know what happens to those of us that got caught.”

“Skylar can wake them up,” Chace said. He held up a panther. “Maybe this is your sister or mom.”

Gunner took it. “It doesn’t … feel that way. I wonder if I can tell.” He sifted through the figurines in Chace’s collection and pulled out another panther. “This one. No idea who it is, but she’s talking to me.”

Penny lowered herself to their level and stuck her muzzle into the middle of the figurines, alternately blowing air out through large nostrils and pushing shifters around.

“You looking for someone?” Chace asked, trying to keep any of them from falling to the ground.

Penny snorted.

Chace moved several steps away and knelt, placing the shirt on the ground. Penny landed beside him and began sorting through the figurines.

“I can’t get over it,” he said softly. “She can fix whatever happened. How many hundreds or thousands of shifters can she restore?”

“When I was little, my mother said there were enough shifters to fill a kingdom,” Gunner answered. “With you and Skylar to help them, we just have to find them all and help them wake up.”

Penny picked up one delicately with her lips then sprung into the air, flying the short distance to Skylar.

Chace realized for the first time that the woman was conscious and seated, propped against a boulder, her back to them. Her hands shook as she held out one to Penny, and her profile had grown even more ashen.

He stared at the back of her head, every fiber of his being urging him to go to her, to wrap his arms around what was his and never let go.

It wasn’t an option, though. He was a disgraced dragon with no powers, one who not only turned on his protector but failed to appreciate anything about her until it was too late.

Penny dropped the figurine into Sky’s hand and landed nearby, ears forward as she waited expectantly. Skylar made a fist around the figurine and shifted onto her knees, tucking hair behind one ear. After a few seconds, she placed the figurine on the ground and moved back.

To Chace’s surprise, the tiny statue was moving. And growing. Fast.

“My god,” Gunner breathed.

“It’s incredible,” Chace agreed, his eyes sliding to Skylar again. Aware of the movement as the Pegasus grew, he wasn’t able to take his attention from Sky.

Or what he’d been thinking since waking up in the cabin, convinced he was going to die. He had nothing but regrets – about not accepting what he was, about not realizing how much he’d had until it was gone, about
her.
He didn’t know where to go from here, only that he needed to protect her the way she had him and the rest of the shifters.

Keep his distance or plunge in and hope for the best?

Which one got me into this mess to start out with? Because I’m doing the opposite this time.

Chapter Ten

Skylar watched the Pegasus grow. The back of her neck wasn’t just itching – it burned. Without turning, she knew
he
was close. She took her time assessing her body and emotions. Her head throbbed but not as much as the stitches some panther shifter had just put in her shoulder.

It was more painful than the gunshot wound and pulled her out of the dark slumber she’d fallen into when her head hit the rock. He’d introduced himself as Gunner then ordered her to lay still and be happy he was there to fix her. Every stitch felt like he was stabbing her.

Shifters are jackasses.

Yet the pain and headache – coupled with the unpleasant introduction to Gunner – were nothing compared to the buzz in her body created by Chace’s nearness.

Her instincts were getting stronger. The more she accepted what was going on and her role as a protector of shifters, the stronger her intuition became. She didn’t know what to think about it or how her intuition could be so right about helping the shifters and so wrong about Chace.

It urged her closer to him. If she listened, she thought she might be able to hear his heartbeat, no matter how impossible it seemed.

God I hope I can walk out of here.
Her upper body was a mess, her muscles strained from fighting a griffin in midair and her neck and head heavy and hurting.

The foal Pegasus squealed when the creature beside Skylar finished growing. The loud, high-pitched sound made her flinch in pain.

Despite her misery, Skylar wasn’t able to help but stare at the Pegasus. Its long, white wings unfurled, looking as soft as the clouds the creature flew among. Its body was cream rather than white, its eyes large and dark. It arched its long neck before tossing its head, the black mane blending with the night.

It nipped Skylar’s arm then nudged her, as if urging her to stand.

With effort, she rose, willing herself to be stronger than she felt. She wasn’t about to pass out in front of Chace or to show any other kind of weakness. No, he’d get no help from any opening in her defenses.

Balanced and stable on her feet, she faced the waiting Pegasus. It bent one leg in an eloquent bow.

“Yeah, whatever. You’re welcome,” she said, too agitated to know how to respond. “Do me a favor and stay out of trouble. I can’t handle too much more shit.”

The Pegasus tossed its head in response then leapt deftly into the air. The dragons drew their grace from sheer power while the winged horse was the epitome of ethereal beauty. Skylar watched it, entranced by the surreal vision of mother and foal moving through the air.

At last, she knew she couldn’t delay the inevitable anymore. Skylar drew a deep breath and braced herself to meet Chace for the first time since he betrayed her and she began to accept he was right all along about the slayers and shifters.

She turned, her gaze falling immediately to Chace’s tall, muscular form. His chiseled jaw was shaded by several days of growth, his broad forehead and aquiline nose, high cheekbones and sculpted lips bathed in starlight. His dark blue gaze was direct, resting on her. Though he seemed tense, she sensed something else about him, a strain in his features she didn’t recall from their last meeting, as if Dillon told the truth about hurting him somehow.

The sweater he wore was loose, stretched across wide shoulders and draped over his fat-free form. His jeans hugged his hips and long, lean thighs in a way that left her too warm.

Why was he keeping his distance? He had never hesitated to approach her before. Did he suspect that she planned on decking him if he got close enough?

Then again, did she want him close enough for her to smell his honey-bonfire scent? She was already on the balls of her feet, leaning into the breeze, to see if she could catch the faintest whiff. Too aware of the tension that was always between them, she wished for once she was able to think without her emotions interfering when he was around.

How did the scorching look of one man threaten to undo every decision she’d made the past few days? His intense gaze sizzled through her, thrilling her before she had even touched him.

No, Chace being close enough for her to deck wasn’t a good thing. She wasn’t able to look away from him or quench the need to touch him.

The thick silence grew long and awkward. Gunner looked between the two of them.

“It’s great that all of us are not dead, right?” he asked.