Haunted By Her Dragon (The Dragon Guard Series) (39 page)

The
best surprise of all came when Grace called her into her office the night
before they were to leave. She had been trying to find her iPod for Sydney when
she heard, “Hey, Sam, is that you?”

“Yep,
sure is,” she said as she headed towards the door. “
Whatcha
need?” She asked as she flopped on the couch just inside the other woman’s
office.

“I
just got a call.” Grace paused, and Sam braced for whatever was to come next.
“It was from the judge handling Sydney’s case.” She smiled, and Sam let go of
the breath she hadn’t realized she had been holding.

 “Tell
me, Grace! You’re killing me here.” She knew she’d raised her voice, but there
was no way to stop it.
She was freaking out.

 “We
got the approval to take her out of the county. Sydney gets to go the lair with
us and will be there for your mating ceremony.”

She
jumped up and ran around the desk, hugging Grace for all she was worth, “Thank
you, thank you, thank you.”

“It
was you that made the best impression on the home visit. And I quote, ‘In all
my years in child services, I have never seen a foster parent care so deeply
for her ward.’ That was just one of the positive comments the new social worker
had to say. It was all you, love.”

Sam’s
vision wavered as she let the tears fall. She really did love that little girl.

Kissing
Grace on the cheek, she ran out of the office, and hollered over her shoulder,
“Thank you Grace! You’re the best!
Gotta
go tell
Syd
and Lance!”
The sound
of laughter was all she heard as she raced down the hall.

They
hardly slept the rest of the night. When morning came, and it was time to head
to the lair and the girls had
all of their
luggage at
the bottom of the stairs. She and Sydney made breakfast, and then lunch for
everybody; the waiting was killing them. They were down in the basement looking
for a doll when Lance took them back upstairs with the guise of forgetting
something, but as soon as they stepped onto the patio at the back of house both
she and Sydney stopped short. There, standing not a hundred feet from them,
were five fully mature, absolutely breathtaking dragons. She looked at Sydney,
who smiled ear to ear while squealing her delight, and then at her mate, who
wore his patented shit-eating grin complete with dimple and twinkling eyes. As
she turned back to take in the splendor of the moment, Lance moved behind her
and whispered, “You asked if we were all the same color. I figured showing was
better than telling.” She nodded, still unable to speak.

When
her brain finally started to work again, she asked, “Aren’t you guys afraid of
being seen.”

“Yes,
but we took care of it. Close your eyes, and try to clear your mind.”

It
took a few seconds and a few deep breaths, but finally her mind was empty. In
the next heartbeat, she could see an array of translucent colors that reminded
her of the ‘rainbow’ from an oil-covered puddle when the noon day sun shined
upon it. She gasped, and her eyes flew open, “What was that?”

“That,
mo
chori
is a shield created from our combined
dragon magic. I shared what I could of my enhanced vision so that you could see
it.” He sounded so proud.

“This
is what it will be like once we are officially mated?”

“It’ll
be so much better, Doc…
so much better
,” he said as he kissed her cheek.

They
stepped off the wooden deck, and walked toward the men in their dragon forms.
The beast closest to them was biggest by far and had the most vibrant, royal
blue with deep green scales running throughout, that it resembled the pictures
of the water in the Caribbean that she had seen in the travel magazines Momma
Maybelle
had strewn all over her house. From his sheer
size, she was sure it was Royce, but when he lowered his head and looked at
her, it was the gentleness deep in the brown orb that confirmed it. 
Something told her that he had suckered more than one opponent into thinking
his gentle nature meant he wouldn’t tear them apart and they’d been sorely
surprised.

Behind
Royce and to the right, were two silver dragons with glittering black scales
running down both sides of one and covering the underbelly of the other. They
were nowhere near as massive as Royce, but formidable in their own right. The
dragons bent their front legs until their knees touched the grass and they
bowed their massive heads. She saw whiskey eyes in one, and blue in the other,
confirming it was Aidan and Aaron, twins as men, twins as dragons.

Kyndel
was standing to her left, and even if she hadn’t already known from the flaming
red of the scales on the next beast that is was Rayne, the loving smile of his
mate and the constant ‘
da
da
da
da
’ of Jay, were dead
giveaways. Then there was the commanding way he held himself, and the laser
stare from his violet eyes.  

Standing
at the back had to be Devon, who although the others said was coming out of his
shell, still talked way less than everyone else. She recognized him from his
mother’s description of his father’s dragon and the heart scale she had seen in
Siobhan’s locket. His beast had to be the most unique of them all, with
opalescent white scales that covered his entire body. As he took a few steps
towards them, an array of colors appeared and disappeared, making his gigantic
body seem even more magical than she knew it to be. He stood just a bit taller
than Rayne’s dragon, but not near as tall as Royce’s dragon, and his body was
sleek, with a longer, thinner tail like the twins. The one thing that remained
constant as she looked from dragon to dragon was the array of deadly spikes and
thorns that adorned their bodies, reminding her how lethal in battle they would
be.

Filled
with gratitude for what these men had just done for her, she said, “Thank you
so very much, so very
very
much.”

Each
dragon returned to standing, and dipped their heads in acknowledgement. Lance
spoke from behind her ear, causing
goosebumps
to rise
on her arms, “Do you want me to ride with you? Royce volunteered to take us, or
do you want me to call forth my dragon for you and
Syd
to ride?”

She
spun in his arms, and looked him square in the eye, “I want you to fly,
please?”

“You
got it, Doc,” he swooped down, laid a really quick, really amazing kiss on her
lips, and before she had her eyes open, had called forth his beast.

Standing
before her was the golden dragon from her ‘dream’, more magnificent than she
remembered. He truly reminded her of everything she had ever read about the
knight, Lancelot. She would have to remember to tell him the nickname she’d
given his dragon when they reached their destination. At this angle, she could
see that on his proud chest the gold looked more like silk. She moved forward,
completely unafraid of the huge beast before her. Standing on tip toes to reach
as high as she could, she felt the underbelly of the dragon that was also her
mate. He shivered in response to her touch, and she felt the earth quake a bit
with him. It was a giddy feeling to know she had that effect on something so
large and powerful. Stepping back so that she could see his face, she was not surprised
to find that even in his magical form, he appeared to have a smirk on his face.

In
unison, the dragons of Aidan, Rayne and Lance held out their front right paw,
palm up, and placed them on the ground. She glanced over to find Grace crawling
into Aidan’s colossal paw. She and Sydney followed suit by climbing into
Lance’s front paw. The child vibrated with excitement and giggled as Sam also
climbed into ‘Lancelot’s’ outstretched palm. “This is the coolest thing ever,
huh, Dr. Sam?”

 “It
sure is,
Syd
.”

Once
they were seated, he closed his long massive toes around them, and she heard
the click of his imposing claws. Lance had always made her feel safe…
protected
.
Witnessing his dragon and feeling the raw power thrumming through him only
solidified all she knew. This man…
this dragon,
would protect her,
and all that she held dear with everything he was,
and
that
was truly saying something.

Settled
in with Sydney by her side, the wind from his long, powerful wings ruffled
their hair. They felt his body lower slightly and with no more movement than
getting off the couch, he launched them into the sky. Magical was the only word
that came to mind as they soared through the sky.

The
flight to the lair was absolutely awe-inspiring. Had she not been actually sitting
in the palm of a 1000 pound, prehistoric beast gliding across the sky, she
would’ve sworn she’d fallen through the looking glass. But it was real,
completely and totally real, and simply the best thing aside from meeting Lance
that had ever happened to her. Surreal didn’t even begin to describe the
experience, and she had the most wonderful man in the world to thank for it.
Sydney constantly asked questions or commented on the things they saw. The
child’s enthusiasm was infectious, and before long, they were playing ‘I Spy’
but on a whole new level.

Sam
could only imagine what they looked like from the ground. Rayne’s red dragon
led the way with them right behind, Aidan and Aaron on either side, and Royce
and Devon following behind. She knew the dragon magic hid them from sight, but
was sure that back when a dragon soaring in the sky was a commonplace event, it
had been spectacular to watch.

Looking
at her watch, she was shocked to see they’d been in the air almost three hours.
Time had just flown by,
she thought to herself, and then laughed at her
pun. She could feel them descending, and the butterflies in her stomach began
to flutter with loads of excitement, and a healthy dose of nerves. Lance had
explained so much, but talking about it was way different than actually seeing
it.

They
touched down, and after a dozen steps Lancelot stopped completely. He lowered
his paw to the ground, and opened his palm. Climbing to the ground, she noticed
they were high atop a ridge that overlooked a lush green valley with a thriving
community right in the center, which
had
to be her mate’s home. Across
from where she stood, there was another larger mountain with hundreds of caves
and outcroppings. The whole place looked like it had come right off a movie
screen. Sydney yelled, “Hey Dr. Sam, let’s go!”

She
turned to see men where a few minutes ago there had been dragons. They were all
dressed in the same clothes she remembered them wearing back at Aidan and
Grace’s, and she once again stood in awe of the power of their magic. “Yeah,
Doc, let’s go!” her mate yelled as he lifted Sydney onto his shoulders. She
caught up to them, and together their entire party walked down the path to meet
the people that would become her family.

Sam and Sydney were
welcomed by everyone they came in contact with, just as he knew they would be,
but that didn’t stop his chest from puffing out with the pride he felt from
presenting the one the Universe had made for only him to his clan.

The
girls wanted to see the village right away, and there was no way he could deny
either of them anything even if he did want some alone time with his
spectacular mate. When they reached the Town Square (as
Kyndel
had renamed the center of their lair) Sam and Sydney’s eyes flitted from one
thing to another, taking it all in. This was the commerce center of the lair
holding all the merchants and craftsmen as well as the school for the children.
They stopped at shop after shop and bought little trinkets along the way, but
it was Emma, the jewelry artisan’s
studio
that had them both staring in awe.

Emma
made jewelry from the dragon scales that were broken or misshapen, and not
useful in any other way. She was by far the most gifted craftsman in their
clan, and according to Siobhan, just recently her powers as a mystic had
manifested. It appeared she was adjusting well, at least until she touched
Sydney’s hand while explaining a specific piece of jewelry. It happened in a
split second. He was sure that neither of his girls noticed that Emma’s eyes
had glassed over and she had swayed slightly. She looked at him over the
child’s head, and then averted her eyes. He called to Rayne and Royce through
their link,
“Emma, the jeweler, has mystic powers. I completely forgot
Siobhan telling me about it after I woke up. I just witnessed them for myself
when she touched Sydney. Can one of you talk to her, and see what that was all
about? I don’t want to upset Sam until I know what it is.”

“No
problem, Bro.
Kyndel
, Jay and I are headed that way,”
Rayne
answered
.

“Maybe
she can help locate the traitor,”
Royce added,
“I need
to head that way, too. See you there.”
And they all cut their connection.

Royce
had been acting weirder than usual since Lance had awoken from his coma. The
few times he’d tried to talk to him, the big guy had completely blown him off.
The older Guardsman had also been spending a lot of time alone, which was
seriously unusual for him. He was usually the caregiver and mother hen of their
Force. Lance had been so wrapped up with Sam and making sure that she and
Sydney were safe until he could finally get them to their clan’s lair, that he
had let Royce off the hook too easily, but that shit was going to change. As
soon as he and Sam’s formal mating ceremony was complete and they’d had a
proper honeymoon, he was going to nag and badger his old friend, as only he
could, until he got answers.