Charred Tears (#2, Heart of Fire) (22 page)

Chace drew nearer, until he was able to feel her body’s warmth.

She’d grown tenser at his approach, and he began to think she’d overheard some of what he’d discussed with Gavin. When he touched the soft skin of her cheek, though, some of the strain in her features fell away.

She took his hand in both of hers and held it, searching his face the way she had many times since their paths crossed again. The inches of distance between them almost crackled with the physical tug he always experienced around her, a need to possess her, to wrap her in his arms and never let go.

“All of the shifters are free,” she murmured. “I wish I could say the same for the slayers.”

A pang of sympathy almost undid his resolve to keep the truth from her. Chace offered a tight smile instead and squeezed her hand. With his other one, he traced the side of her face lightly, down her neck and around to the base, tracing his raised mark.

“Scratch,” she ordered, arching her neck. “You guys make me so itchy.”

He chuckled and obeyed. She gave a tiny groan, one that reminded him of their time in bed together. Chace cupped the back of her neck and drew her into his body gently.

Skylar hugged him. He breathed in her scent, lazily exploring his body’s reaction to hers. Her full breasts were plump and soft against his chest, her smaller frame fitting into the crook of his body as if she’d been made for him. Wisps of dark hair tickled his face, and the dragon magic humming between them was overcome only by the always-present sizzling sexual tension.

The emotion blooming inside him was far more than desire, and yet, it wasn’t enough to egg his magic free. Dwelling on Gavin’s explanation, Chace realized it would take more than his feelings for Skylar to free his magic. It was going to take her forgiveness, maybe even her love, before his power would accept him back again.

“I really wish I could protect you better,” he said with regret.

“I’m good.” Her voice was muffled, her face buried in his shoulder.

He pulled away and lifted her chin. “No matter what happens, stay with me, okay?” he said.

“You need me to defend you?” Her eyes twinkled. “I can do that.”

“If that’s what it takes, then yes, I’m a damsel in distress,” he replied. “Mainly, I don’t want to lose you.”

She arched an eyebrow, and he had a feeling she was getting ready to tell him off again.

“Guys, we got movement,” Gunner called from the back door of the bar.

“Saved by the panther again,” Skylar snapped. “You are so lucky, Chace.” She tugged free of him and spun, marching back to the bar.

Chace’s eyes went to her hips and ass, and he admired the way they swayed and moved with her movement. In a few hours, this would all be over. He’d be able to reveal what Gavin shared, and he’d fuck her until neither of them could walk.

His blood already racing in anticipation of feeling her naked skin against his again, Chace followed them into the bar and back to the table where Luke, Wyle and Max sat.

Another shifter was present, one he didn’t recognize.  

“This is the cat who was scouting when they flagged him down,” Gunner explained, motioning to the new shifter at their table.

Gunner was grim, Skylar troubled.

“What’s up?” Chace asked.

“Well, our plan worked. Sorta,” Gunner said. “The slayers are in the valley about a kilometer from us. They want us to meet them halfway between their camp and ours.”

Chace crossed his arms. “We’d be sitting ducks out in the open desert with Dillon hovering over head.”

“Too dangerous. We’ve only got Gavin for another half an hour or so,” Luke agreed. “The sun will be full up soon.”

“We’ve got two hundred other shifters,” Skylar objected. “Besides, they promised a peaceful meeting.”

“Yeah, temporary truce.” Gunner rolled his eyes. “Because those always work out.”

“Then stay here,” she told him. “I’m going.”

“It’s foolish,” Chace replied. “What’s your plan? Talk to them?”

“Exactly!” Her face was flushing, her eyes sparking with anger. “They don’t know who they really are. Maybe if I can show them, they’ll –”

“That’s a one way trip, Sky,” he said firmly.

“What’s the alternative?” she demanded. “We tell them to shove their olive branch up their asses and wait here?”

“Think this through,” he urged. “What’s the point of talking? In the middle of the desert? Away from the only refuge the shifters have, if things go downhill?”

“If they try anything, we capture them. There are less than fifty slayers, Chace. We have over four times that many shifters right here in the valley.”

“Half of those we awoke are nocturnal,” he reminded her. “Look, Sky, we don’t know whose alliances are where. If there is a shifter divide like Gavin believes, then half the shifters with us might not really be with us.”

She frowned. “I have to try, Chace. I’m going.” She spun and started away.

Frustrated, Chace watched her. Every fiber of his being warned him that this set up wasn’t a truce at all but a trap.

“If things go bad, Gavin can airlift her out, even if it’s daylight. We’ll take our chances,” Gunner said. “We can easily outrun a bunch of humans in our shifter forms.”

“I don’t like this at all,” Chace snarled.

The moment Skylar disappeared out the door, his decision was made. A sliver of panic went through him at the idea he was about to lose her again.

“Gotta die sometime, I suppose,” he said. “Gun, tell our friends to try to be discreet. I’m going with her.”

“Will do.” Gunner’s skin was rippling already as he began to shift. “Be safe, Chace.”

Chace smiled grimly and trotted out of the bar. Instincts at a roar, he nonetheless knew he had a promise to keep. Even without it, he wasn’t going to let Skylar go again, not without a fight.

“Sky!” he called, waving at the figure in the SUV. “I’m coming with you!”

Chapter Twenty One

Skylar hesitated, thoughts on the last text she’d received from Mason. He’d asked her to come in good faith. She wanted desperately to give him that one chance to explain, to go without the army of shifters the others thought was necessary.

Her gut wasn’t clear about what she should do. There was too much truth in what the shifters tried to tell her in the bar. But she wasn’t one of them. They made that much clear every time she mentioned the slayers. She was their Protector, which made her special. Yet at the end of the day, she was more like the slayers waiting to meet her in the desert than she was the shifters.

No matter how confused she was about who to trust, she waited for Chace. He trotted towards the truck, his muscular form framed against the lightening eastern horizon. He got in with a glance at her.

Why did I wait?
She never understood what it was about him that made her whole world stop. Some of her distress calmed when he was near, and she tried hard not to think about the warning from the others that she might be entering a trap. If so, she didn’t want him with her – she’d handle it on her own.

Then again, one look at his thick biceps, and she began to think she did want him there, in case someone threw a punch.

She put the vehicle in gear and drove away from the bar, towards the rising sun.

“Dragon-daddy is kind of a dick,” Chace noted. He was leaning forward, peering up at the sky.

“Yeah. I don’t always know what to think of him, either.”

“He loves you.”

She gripped the steering wheel tightly. She knew how much Gavin cared to do what he’d done. She just wished he was more affectionate, more like the father she’d always imagined she’d have when daydreaming of what her family was like.

Her mother was everything good and cheerful and warm, from what she was able to recall. What did she see in Gavin?

Skylar’s gaze slid to Chace. Innately she understood that being with her dragon was not entirely by the choice of either of them. It was their destiny. There’d been more to her parent’s relationship – that much was clear from the photographs, the letter she had in her pocket, the lengths her father went to in order to try to protect those he’d loved.

As angry as she was at Chace, she was also able to see the effort he was making to make up for what he’d done. Since they’d met, she’d been drawn to him physically. At some point, it had turned into something more than sex. When?

The night he betrayed me.
It’d started then, if not before. The depth of her pain was too great for their relationship to be strictly physical.

She halted the SUV at the small line hills that marked the halfway point. Several SUVs were visible nearby at the point where the hills started. Resembling an enormous, poised vulture, Gavin was perched on the tallest of the hills, overlooking the valleys that ran in either direction.

Somewhat comforted by the proximity of her father, Skylar saw Mason step away from the other slayers. He was flanked by two others dressed in dark tactical uniforms identical to the one she wore.

Unaware she was staring, she almost jumped at Chace’s touch.

“We can turn around and go back,” he offered.

“No,” she said and turned off the ignition. “Stay here.” She climbed out of the car and closed her door, only to hear Chace’s close as well.

“Oh. I meant to tell you. I’m not doing shit you say unless I know you’re safe,” he said casually, joining her at the front of the SUV.

“I need to talk to Mason,” she told him.

“Anything he has to say to you, he can say in front of me.”

She glared up at him, not liking the idea one bit. She knew where Chace stood on Mason and doubted her friend was going to be willing to talk in front of the dragon shifter who betrayed her.

“We can go together, or I can tell dragon-daddy to come get you,” Chace warned, his chiseled features resolved.

“If you betray me again …”

“Golden lasso yadda yadda pocket-sized Chace. Go.”

Skylar drew a deep breath and went. “It’s kind of ironic, isn’t it? I don’t know which of you is more likely to turn on me or lie to me,” she hissed as they walked.

“Not me.”

“You’re telling me you’ll never keep another secret from me?”

Chace said nothing.

Skylar glanced up at his hard face. His blue eyes were stormy.

“Oh. What a surprise,” she snapped. “You’re hiding something from me right now.”

“Assuming we both survive, we’ll chat later.”

She ignored him, irritated that her instincts were right about things not quite being right between her and Chace. She turned her attention to Mason, and her heart grew heavier. They reached him and the others, stopping a few feet away.

He offered a small, guarded smile that did nothing to alleviate her sorrow.

“Hi, Mason,” she started.

“Hi, Sky. I see you brought a friend.”

“And you brought two.”

“They’re your friends, too. Or so I thought?”

She glanced at the two with him, a man and woman she’d trained with at The Field. People like her – trapped between worlds.

“Yeah,” she murmured. “So … what am I doing here?”

Mason glanced at Chace before focusing solely on her.

“We have a slight problem. Dillon has gone crazy,” Mason started. “Off the map crazy.”

“You kinda killed his father,” she reminded him. “Not judging. Just saying that might upset someone.”

“True,” Mason agreed. “But … this is different. He blames you completely. He’s endangering all of us. Your people and mine.”

“My people,” she repeated. “Slayers? Or the shifters?”

“You haven’t remembered more yet.” Mason cocked his head to the side, gaze sliding to Chace again.

“What gave it away?” she said drily. “What are you, Mason? What are
they
?” She motioned to the two slayers with her.

There was a pause. Chace moved closer behind her until she was able to feel his warmth.

“We got a problem,” he whispered for her ears only. “Your friends are circling around behind us.”

She waved him away. “I deserve some kind of answer, Mason.”

“Most of them are shifters,” he replied finally. “Some of them are the children of shifters we … removed from their homes to groom.”

Skylar looked at him anew, not believing her Mason was admitting to kidnapping and brainwashing the children of shifters.

“It didn’t start out as it ended up,” Mason continued. “The cause was a bit more noble than … what you went through.”

She crossed her arms. “Then this shifter against shifter issue is real. You’re on one side and my father is on the other side.”

“It’s been that way for thousands of years. Caleb and Dillon went too far on our end,” Mason said. “I never fully bought into it and tried to take care of you the best I could, given the circumstances. Caleb saw your mark a couple of weeks ago and figured out that someone on the inside was working to sabotage their grand plan.”

He paused. Skylar waited, her intuition humming with alarm.

“When we went to the library, Caleb had figured out it was me who was running interference. I made sure the reprogramming process wasn’t complete. I watched and waited for your dragon to mark you, hoping it was enough for you to remember who you were.” A dark look crossed Mason’s features.

“Really. We’re not going to be able to leave soon,” Chace whispered to her.

“What do you want with me, Mason?” she asked, waving him back once more.

“You’re the Protector. You should be neutral. It’s what we wanted when we took you from your home. Someone who would see both sides of the story and broker a peace,” Mason supplied. “They wiped out all the shifters old enough to remember the first war between shifters. By grabbing you, wiping your mind, they hoped to control the rest of the shifters through you.”

From behind her, Chace growled low in his chest.

“Like I said,” Mason added. “Things got out of control. Look, whatever happened, the truth of where we are now is that Dillon is a loose cannon. He’s taken the rest of the griffins with him and will try to start a second war.”

Skylar wanted to believe him, wanted to think her friend had no involvement in the brainwashing of innocent children. The more Mason said, the less she was able to hold onto the notion that he truly didn’t know what was going on. Whatever Mason’s intentions were, it wasn’t for peace. Peace wasn’t won by brainwashing a generation of children and turning them against their parents.