Chapter 33 Chance
Chance
Fire.
It ripped through my skull, hotter than magma, shrieking with Caden's rage and raw panic. No warning, just the explosion. I went from dead asleep to adrenaline overdose in a heartbeat, bolting upright. My skin sizzled with it, every nerve a live wire.
It was Tash. Couldn't be anything else. She was terrified, stripped-bare, screaming-into-the-void terror, the kind that doesn't give a shit if you wake the neighbors. Caden went nuts, tried to tear out of my chest.
I lunged for my phone.
The screen blinked in my hand, and the last message from her burned at the top.
I'm home.
Tash had mentioned that Mere often got up early.
"Dad?" She sounded sleepy.
I calmed my voice as much as I could. "Hon, would you check your mother's room and see if she's home?"
"'Kay." She yawned and I heard shuffling noises, then the click of a door opening.
"No, she's not in her bed."
My heart pounded harder. "Please wake Gerty up and have her call me, hon?"
"Is Mom okay?"
"I hope so but tell Gerty to call me."
I hung up and dialed Xavier in one move. "Tash is in trouble," I snapped, no hello, no preamble, just the facts. "I got her text very early this morning that she went home but something's wrong. She never made it there."
He didn't even pause. "Give me her last known location. I'm leaving the house for patrol now anyway."
"The twins are at the rental cabin, the one right past the old sawmill. But Tash isn't there, though she left here a couple of hours ago. I'm going to check the route now." I was grabbing boots and a jacket as I spoke.
"Copy. I'll make sure there's no one near the cabin, then sweep for her car from that direction. If you can, track the bond."
"Already on it."
I hung up. We didn't have a real bond yet, and whatever had helped me find her the other day when she was panicking at the creek wasn't working. Either she wasn't panicking or something was blocking us.
My hands shook as I texted Mom. No time for explanations, just the order.
Get the twins. Use the safe house. Now. Leave the humans there.
It was shocking that the order was going after Tash, but it wasn't out of the realm of possibility. Them going after the fully human friends of Tash's was. It just didn't happen.
She replied in three seconds.
Already leaving.
She knew the drill. We'd done this too many times. The explanations could come later, and would, but in the heat of the moment we did as we were told by the person who clearly knew the most. In this case, it was me.
My phone rang. Gerty.
"What's going on?" she snapped when I picked up.
"Tash headed home two hours ago and didn't make it there.
There's been threats against my family in the past. I'm sending my mother over and the sheriff will be checking too.
These people are armed and dangerous, Gerty.
I'm going to see if I can find Tash's car.
My mother will take the girls somewhere safe. "
"I'll take Beth and we'll spend the day in Knoxville, shopping," Gerty said. "But you better keep me posted as soon as you know where my best friend is."
"I will."
I hung up and tore out the door. I didn't even lock up. Caden was shrieking. I barely heard the slam of my own boots as I hit the truck, gunned the engine, and fishtailed up the gravel. Every hair on my arms stood up, skin burning so hot I nearly scorched the steering wheel.
Goddamn it, Tash.
The bond had been a flicker before, a little thread of magic, sometimes clear, sometimes not.
Then it was radio silent. All of a sudden now it was like she was right here beside me, tornado-strong, yanking me toward her.
The world outside my headlights barely mattered.
Nothing but black pavement and the banshee-wail in my head.
Her fear came in waves, jagged and erratic. Sometimes sharp enough to blind me. Sometimes it faded, replaced by grim determination.
Christ. What was going on?
I hit the main road and nearly missed the turn, wheels locking as I saw the shape of her car, nose-down in the ditch, hazard lights still blinking. The driver's door hung open, battered. No sign of her.
I skidded to a stop and jumped out so fast I nearly left the engine running.
The smell hit me like a roundhouse.
Mint.
Not the sweet candy shit. This was pure peppermint, sharp as knives. It clawed up my throat, making me gag. The ground was littered with leaves and wet mud, but all I could smell was the reek of it. Dragon bane. Hunters used it to burn out senses, to break a dragon's magic wide open.
I gritted my teeth as bile threatened. They'd used it on her. Maybe on themselves, too. Bastards.
The car told the story. It'd been shoved hard off the road, side scraped by a bull. The urgency in me doubled.
Fly! Now! Find her! Caden banged against the inside of my ribs, wild to get out, wild to hunt.
There was no physical trail. Mint killed scent, and the ground was soaked anyway. It didn't matter. The bond between us was electric now, every twitch of Tash's emotion mapped against the current running through my veins.
She was moving. Still scared but less so now. I let Caden out.
The shift came so clean and fast it was almost beautiful. Skin splitting, bones warping, scales rippling into existence. My wings unfurled with a snap loud enough to shake the branches overhead.
I dug my claws into the mud, lashed my tail, and launched. The first rush of air was ice, like diving into winter. My wings caught, lifted, threw me up and over the trees.
Below, the world slotted into place. The mess at the road, the woods, the lines of panic drawing me south, maybe ten miles, maybe more. I didn't care about being seen in the pre-dawn light. I just had to get to Tash.
I banked right, following the burn in my head.
The farther from the car I flew, the louder the signal came from her.
Human brains use words, plans, logic. Dragon brains use fire and emotion, and Tash had those in spades.
She was out there clawing her way to freedom, and every spasm of her fear made the world clearer. I closed in on it, slicing the air with my wings, hunting for movement.
Caden hissed to himself, scanning every hollow, every shadow. We soared, dipped, snapped at the air, searching.
Movement. There.
A crack in the canopy, not far from an old creek bed, miles from the nearest house. Down below, another flash of movement. Someone tiny, battered, shoving through the brush like she was pursued by monsters breathing down her neck.
Tash.
She kept moving, stumbling, then she went to ground under a massive hemlock.
I dove, hard and hit the ground with enough force to send dirt flying everywhere. I twisted back to human with my next breath.
"Natasha," I called.
The woods held their breath. Then she broke cover with a sob. She sprinted, half-tripping, straight for me and slammed into my chest.
I wrapped her up, locking her in, head to chin, heart to heart.
Every muscle in her body jumped. She was soaked, scraped raw, and shaking badly.
For a moment she just sobbed, shoving her face into my neck, fingers clawed deep in my shoulders.
I held on and waited. Nothing in the world could've pulled me away.
She gasped, finally. "How? How did you find me?"
I lifted her chin, brushing mud from her jaw. Her cheeks were streaked with dirt and tears, and her skin was so cold I could feel the tremor even through my dragon heat. I cupped my hands around her face to warm her.
"You called me." I set my forehead to hers. "I'll always find you, Tash. Always."
She shook in my arms, every breath jagged and harsh.
I rubbed her back with one hand, the other keeping her hair out of her face.
The smell of mint lingered on her skin, but she was soaked and covered with mud.
Most of it had been washed away or covered up.
Not that I cared at this point. It would take a hell of a lot of mint to drag me away from her.
"They were waiting. On the road. They forced me off. I tried to get away, but they were too fast." She stopped, shuddering so hard her teeth clacked.
I squeezed her shoulder, let her hang on. "Take your time, sweetheart. You're here. They'll never touch you again."
She sucked in air. "They had mint. Not just gum, leaves too. Rubbed it on my skin." She grimaced, fighting for words. "They were going to use me as bait. Warn the girls!"
The urge to murder them all went white-hot. Caden clawed at my insides, ready to burn the world down. But I kept it calm for her.
"What else did they say?" I asked. I needed to get all the information she could remember while it was still fresh.
She spat the words out. "They said if they get the mate, the monsters always come for their own. They called me leverage. They called you monsters."
"Look at me," I said, and when she did, I made sure she saw it. The promise. The fire.
"My mother has the girls at the safe house by now. Nobody gets past her. Not even a hunter with a death wish."
Her face crumpled, tears hotter now, but the dread in her chest loosened a hair.
I yanked off my jacket and wrapped it around her. She clung to it, knuckles white. I tucked it tight, then touched her face, thumb brushing grit from her cheek.
"Did they hurt you? Anywhere else?"
She shook her head. "Zip ties cut my wrists. Nothing major."
Kill them! Now! Caden wanted to find every mark on her and take her to Maeve to be healed after killing every hunter who'd touched her.
At the same time, I wondered why this cell seemed so incompetent.
Hunters were usually more than able to contain dragons once they captured them, if they didn't kill them outright.
Never again.
I agreed with Caden. Nobody would ever get this close to Tash again.
She blinked, fighting for control. Then said, "There was a woman. With the hunters, but she helped me. Kira. She told me to tell Livia, Kira is there with them. She said Livia would know what that meant. She opened one of the zip ties and showed me how to get free."
Kira. I had no idea who that was. No doubt my mother wouldn't be terribly forthcoming with the information, either.
She buried her face against my neck, voice worn thin. "If I hadn't gotten out, I don't—"
"It doesn't matter," I cut in. "You did. You made it. And if they try for you again, they'll wish they'd stayed away."
I shifted her so she could lean fully on me, then scanned the shadows, letting Caden do his thing. The world went sharper, the woods breathing, animals on lockdown, but nothing was close enough to hurt us. No footsteps, no human stink. No threat here.
"Rest," I said, shifting to keep her off the muddy slope. "You're safe. I'll watch for any followers."
I scanned again, every muscle set to detonate at the first sign of trouble.
Caden approved with a satisfied rumble in my chest. He wanted to take to the sky and torch the whole county, but he loved having her beside me more.
The ripple of pride in the way she'd fought her way free, then trusted me to finish the job made my dragon want to show off.
But I kept him leashed. Tash needed warmth, not napalm.
She exhaled, finally, against my skin. "I can't believe you're here. God, I'm glad you could find me."
"Never doubt it." My voice dropped, pure iron. "This ends now. They want a war, they'll get it. They picked on the wrong people this time."
She looked up, something fierce and grateful in her eyes.
I kept my hold. Nothing would pry her away. Not now, not ever.
And when I made the promise, I meant every syllable. "As long as I breathe, nobody's getting to you. Or the girls."
Caden rumbled again. Protective, primal, locked and loaded for any next attempt.
She curled in, finally letting the fear drain away. I kept my arm tight around her, ready to fight the world if it so much as blinked wrong at us.
But for now, she was here. Exactly where she belonged.
And I wasn't going to let her go.