Chapter 2
“Why is she unconscious?” A high-pitched, ear-splitting shriek jerked Vanessa from her ‘happy family’ dream like a bucket of cold water had been dumped over her head.
Then came the crash, smash, and shatter of something extremely heavy, hitting a wall, followed by the ting-a-ling of about a million pieces of expensive glass clattering onto a wooden floor.
“I know I’m awake, but I’d swear I’m still caught in a nightmare,” she mentally whispered to the Polar Bear Princes with whom she shared her soul. Then to the babe she carried, she whispered, “Thank the Heavens that you’re okay, Little One. Your Auntie Celeste made sure of that, didn’t she?”
“I damn sure did.”
Refusing to open her eyes or acknowledge the chaos on the other side of what she assumed was a wall, Vanessa’s hand immediately went to her stomach as Celeste, the Polar Bear Princess with whom she shared her soul, called for Cyrus through the Mating Bond they shared with the Guardsman.
Roaring within the confines of her mind when their powerful Ursus Magic ricocheted right back and smacked her in the face, Celeste snarled, “Of course, the asshole has us locked down tight. If you just would’ve let me skin that bastard Wolf alive when I had the chance, we wouldn’t… ”
“No, you’re right,” Vanessa cut into her alter ego’s thought with a fair bit of sarcasm. “We wouldn’t be here.” Exhaling, she continued as calmly as possible, “Instead, we would be sitting in one of the Council’s prisons for murder without a reasonable defense.”
“Murder?” Celeste scoffed. “Pfft! That rat bastard was guilty as sin, and that’s just one of the things we were pretty sure he’d done.”
“Exactly,” Vanessa countered. “Things we thought he had done but had no solid proof of.”
“Oh, we knew…”
“Okay, we knew- but again I say, we had no proof. Without it, the Council couldn’t do a damn thing. They would’ve looked at us like we had three heads and not a lick of sense in any of them.”
“I could’ve claimed justifiable homicide for all the trouble he caused you and that blasted Dragon. After all, the useless bag of fur and fangs forced us off the road and kept us from getting back to Cyrus when you lost your mind and showed your butt.”
“Yes, but…”
“Yes, but that alone was kidnapping.”
“More like persuasively persuading to listen without consent. I wasn’t bound and gagged. He just wouldn’t let me leave until I heard what he had to say.”
“Isn’t that the definition of kidnapping?”
“No, you know it’s not the technical…”
“Girl, tell me again why you decided not to practice law?”
“Well….”
“Nope, not buyin’ it.”
“I didn’t even…”
“We share a brain. I know what you were gonna say, and…”
“Whatever.”
“Don’t you dare whatever me. You graduated top of your class every damn time and even passed the BAR exam the first time with one of the highest scores in Texas history, then…”
“You know damned good and well what happened. I don’t want to…”
“I am not making you relive that day.”
“It sure feels that way.”
“Oh, stop being the petulant damsel. It doesn’t suit you.”
“I am not being…” Getting more irritated by the moment, Vanessa tried hard to scream as Celeste continued to walk her down the dark and dreary twists and turns of an especially nasty block of Memory Lane.
“Yes, you are.”
“No. I. Am. Not.” She slowly exhaled, not wanting her captors to realize she was awake or to upset her unborn child. “Now is not the time to discuss the Council or that nasty asshole, Fogarty Petersen. We have more pressing issues, don’t you think?”
“Oh, shit.” True regret filled the bond Vanessa shared with the Polar Bear Princess. “Dammit, you’re right. I’m sorry. I just…”
“You just got carried away because (A) You hate Aamon Blackwood more than you hate collard greens and spinach. And (B) His little stunt on the road that evening was the spark that set the dumpster fire our lives have become ablaze?”
“Now, wait a minute. I didn’t even think all that. Things aren’t that bad. We’re way closer to finding Cyrus than we were eight and a half months ago. You remember that, right? When we finally got back to the house, and he was gone?”
“Yeah, I remember.” Vanessa sighed. Then, grabbing ahold of her usual sass and determination, she added, “Woohoo. I somehow wish we’d just stayed home.”
“And that brings me back to my original statement.”
“Well, hell. You set me up for that one.”
Sighing, Celeste just kept right on going, and Vanessa continued to rub her swollen tummy, half-listening and praying for a miracle.
“If you had let me have my way,” The Polar Bear Princess ranted.
“We wouldn’t have had to worry about being thrown in the slammer for murder.
There wouldn’t have been enough of that rat bastard left for anyone to find.
He would’ve been another missing person who lost his way in the Chihuahuan Desert.
No body-no crime. Isn’t that what they say on all those murder shows you’re always watching?
Didn’t you learn that in one of those fancy law classes you took? ”
“Well… Yeah, it is-sort of… And there is legal precedent for that defense, especially when no one initiates a missing person report. However, we now know…”
“Now, we know he has a family,” Celeste growled.
“Aamon Blackwood is not the Rogue he told you he was. He was never all alone. Bastard just used your big heart and good nature to get close to you. It was all just another lie from that worthless snake. Was anything he said the truth? Are you sure his name is even Aamon?”
“Umm, well, I’m pretty sure that’s his name.”
“I swear, if he’s not the best reason for birth control, then I don’t know what is.”
“Celeste!” Vanessa
“What?” The Polar Bear Princess snapped. “You know I’m right.”
“It’s not that.” She continued to rub tiny circles on her pregnant stomach. “The baby can hear everything we say. I don’t want…”
“Girl, that ship has sailed,” Celeste scoffed.
“You know as well as I do that the little one heard every word Aamon said before he threw that nasty powder in your face. He called you everything but a show, white Polar Bear Shifter, and the things he said about Cyrus. HA! Let’s just say I can’t wait to tell that old Dragon ass.
It’s gonna be fun to watch him beat the crap outta that worthless Red Wolf. ”
“Yeah, I know you’re right about the baby. Poor dear is gonna have quite the vocabulary when he or she is born.” She paused for a second, then added, “As for what Cyrus will do, who knows. He might slam the door in our faces.”
“Nope,” Celeste adamantly declared. “That boy loves you more than barbeque ribs, baked beans, cornbread, and sweet tea.”
“Only ‘cause we taught him what those things are,” Vanessa laughed. “When we met him, he was lookin’ for bangers and mash if I remember correctly.”
“You do know he was puttin’ you on, don’t you?”
“He was not.”
“Oh, yes, he was,” Celeste chuckled. “There are Dragons all over the world, even if we thought they were all gone until a decade or so ago. The ones from the Isle of Skye, like Cyrus MacDonald, have been over here just as much as the ones who call the US of A home have been over there.”
“Are you sure?”
“Of course I’m sure,” Celeste snickered. “I saw the way that boy’s eyes lit up when you lifted the lid on the grill and slathered those ribs with sauce. His mouth was watering so hard, I was sure it was gonna roll down his chin.”
‘Well, I missed all that.”
“Sure, you did,” the Polar Bear Princess teased. “You were all starry-eyed and in love. All you saw was your happily ever after with dark eyes, wide shoulders, and an ass that filled out a pair of jeans like nobody’s business.”
“Celeste!”
“Oh, puhlease, that baby knows it’s momma and daddy love each other. I just hope he or she is not as stubborn as the two of you.”
Clearing her throat, trying not to throw up from the lingering taste, Vanessa abruptly changed the subject, “What was that crap Aamon threw at me?”
“Way to change the subject, Princess.”
“You caught that, did ya?” Swallowing as hard as she could, Vanessa once again tried to get the nastiness out of her mouth while hoping the Polar Bear with whom she shared her soul would take a hint.
Thankfully, Celeste did.
“If my senses are right…”
“Which they always are.”
“Which they always are,” the Polar Bear Sow sarcastically snorted.
“Before I even saw that nasty little gris gris bag, my nose was burning. I just thought it was something in that cave. That hole in the middle of that network of tunnels had been freshly dug, but whatever came out of it had been there a helluva long time. There was burnt flesh and dried blood everywhere.”
“Yeah, I know.” Vanessa exhaled. “I sure hope whoever came out of there is okay.”
“Me too, but I sure wish he hadn’t left all those smells behind. They confused my nose. It wasn’t until I saw the gris gris bag that I realized what was really making my eyes water was the stench of overboiled cabbage mixed with a ton of regret.”
“Henbane?”
“Yep.” Shaking her big, white, furry head, Celeste grumbled, “And I missed it, right along with a whiff of skunk spray.”
“Not Rue?”
“Yes, Rue,” Celeste snapped. “Not to mention the foul stench of Devil’s Trumpet and the sting of Valerian Root.”
“None of that will hurt the baby, will it?” Instantly worried all over again and not trusting her own senses, Vanessa reached for the mind of her unborn child.
Finding the little one’s heartbeat strong and the slow, steady sounds of the babe asleep, she breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank you,” she whispered to Celeste.
“Of course. Girl, you never have to thank me for doin’ my job.
” The Polar Bear Princess reassured. “The first thing I did was push all the Magic I had in the tank into the protective cocoon we built around the baby the minute we knew for sure that you were pregnant. Sadly, that’s how Aamon was able to knock us out.
I hadn’t built enough back up to deflect what he had. ”