CHAPTER 1 of FOR THE LOVE OF HER DRAGON #5
“Besides, you said you wouldn’t melt,” he winked, and she was once again reminded of a bad little boy just waiting to be scolded. Goddess bless Sam for signing up to deal with him forever.
“No, but I may call in the flying monkeys if you two don’t behave yourselves.”
“Hey! I didn’t do anything,” Devon pretended to pout while Lance laughed so hard Kyra was almost afraid he might fall off the side of the mountain.
“No worries, Dev. I’ll direct them to the pain in the ass over there…
” No sooner were the words out of her mouth than a familiar pain hit her square in the chest. Devon’s eyes widened, and Lance stopped laughing.
‘Pain in the ass’ was what Royce called Lance, and everyone knew that.
Everyone also knew that the six-foot-ten-inch wall of muscle with red curly hair and deep brown eyes had snuck out before dawn the night after Jay MacLendon’s first birthday party and had basically been incommunicado ever since. That had been thirteen days ago.
Thirteen long, miserable days and nights of her lamenting over the last time she’d seen Royce and the conversation between him and Devon that she’d overheard.
Unintentional eavesdropping had been a part of her life from a very young age.
She had always been short and then stopped growing at twelve.
So at five foot two, she went unnoticed…
A LOT…and that allowed her to hear things that she otherwise wouldn’t have.
She had replayed the Guardsmen’s conversation over and over and always came to the same conclusion.
Royce was surprised that he could intimidate her.
It was almost as if he was scared of her, and that shit just didn’t make sense.
What the hell could she do to a hundred-plus-year-old dragon shifter who was chock-full of his own special brand of magic, chivalry, and goodness, with the ability to change into a thousand-pound beast of war and knock down skyscrapers like they were Legos, not to mention the whole fire-breathing thing?
At first she thought it was because he recognized her just as she had recognized him and just wasn’t ready for the whole ‘be together forever in this lifetime and the next’ gig that Destiny had decided for both of them.
Then she thought it was the fact that she had unknowingly helped that little shithead, Andrew, hurt some of the sweetest people in the world that just happened to be part of Royce’s clan.
But she knew he was there the day she had apologized and been forgiven by each and every person, even little Sydney.
Hurting people was not something Kyra ever wanted to do in any way, shape, or form, and especially not with her magic.
Not only because she had taken the Pledge to ‘do no harm’, but also because she just wasn’t a villain.
Hell, she didn’t even have an evil laugh.
At the age of thirty, she had pledged her magic and her life to the Goddess of the Earth, assuring both her coven and the Universe, as well as the blessed Goddess, that she would only ever use her gifts in a positive manner.
It was kind of like the Hippocratic Oath that doctors took before they became licensed, but much more comprehensive and punitive.
In its simplest form, the Pledge meant DO NO HARM, and since she was supernatural, if she did intentionally do harm to any living thing, she would be low-jacked and the ‘powers-that-be’ could zap her ass.
It was incredibly painful but with no long-lasting effects.
If, Goddess forbid, she got a couple of zaps, the Council showed up, and that was something she never wanted to have happen.
The Council was made up of the oldest, most powerful witches in existence, who had absolutely no sense of humor or patience for rule breakers.
She had only ever seen them once, and it had been another time when she was somewhere she wasn’t supposed to be but had gone undetected.
A man she’d known her entire life had gone completely off the rails, killed people, irreparably damaged the Earth, and had completely turned to dark magic.
It had taken ten of the most skilled from her mother’s coven to capture him, and the Council’s punishment had been swift.
One minute the accused was screaming and spitting venom, and the next he was on fire.
Poof! Gone! Pile of Ash on the ground! Definitely not something Kyra ever wanted to experience firsthand.
She was shaken from her memories when Devon’s hand touched her shoulder.
“Come on, let’s get this over with. I’m ready to go home and relax.
Kyndel invited me to dinner, and Jay and I have plans for a rousing game of roll-the-ball.
” He winked, and she knew he was trying to get her mind off the one track it had seemed to be stuck on ever since meeting the dragon they all called ‘the gentle giant’.
Devon’s beautiful smile and twinkling grey eyes didn’t hurt anything either.
He didn’t make her feel anything but friendship, but he was sweet and really nice to look at, as were all the Dragon Guardsmen.
“Alright, you two knuckleheads, lead the way.” Lance pointed towards the direction they had been heading before the downpour.
Laughing, they began their trek, joking and teasing, but the fun was long forgotten after several hours of endless walking.
Kyra was hot, tired, and seriously pissed, convinced they were just wasting time, aimlessly marching around the hillside.
She was just about to suggest a break when a chill ran down her spine, and her hands began to shake.
Without saying a word, she dropped into the lotus position with her backpack on her lap and began pulling out her supplies, completely ignoring Lance’s bitching and Devon’s inquiries about her well-being.
It took only a few seconds, and she had the silver-framed mirror that had been her great-great-grandmother’s, a vial of blessed water from the Black Lake, and her special herbs, and was working her Scrying Spell.
She could hear the two Guardsmen discussing what she was doing but concentrated on the task at hand.
They had been around her long enough to know she wasn't wasting time.
Any other explanations would have to wait.
The spell took less than five minutes and had a side effect she’d experienced only once before.
Not only did she get Andrew’s location, but she also saw what he was planning.
The scene that played out in her mind was like watching a horror movie, only she could feel what each character felt.
Her heart raced, and a cold sweat broke out all over her body, but she was stuck watching the complete annihilation of a quaint little community tucked in a once beautifully lush valley.
Everything she saw was from Andrew’s point of view, so although she hadn’t seen him, she knew he was there; that was the only thing that felt familiar.
She searched the faces of the dead and injured for any indication of the target of the asshole’s destruction, but nothing looked familiar, and there wasn’t any sound to help.
All she knew was that he was somewhere off a rocky coast with turbulent waters, and he was having a great time hurting anyone and everyone in his path.
The silent movie of destruction went on and on.
When she was sure she couldn’t take any more pain and suffering and had decided to see what the guys thought about what she had seen, her heart ceased to beat, and her lungs refused to hold air.
There, standing in the middle of the war zone, was Royce.
His brow was furrowed, his brown eyes scanning the area for those who most needed his help.
Her heart broke when she saw the cuts and bruises covering most of his beautiful face and his torn, bloody, and soot-covered clothes.
The horror show unfolding in Andrew’s mind switched to slow motion as Royce moved from person to person, helping the living from the rubble and getting them to safety.
He wasn’t the only one working rescue, but he was the only one that mattered to her.
He shouted something, and she cursed the lack of sound.
In the next instant, a taller version of Royce (was that even possible?) appeared to his right.
The resemblance was uncanny. The new guy’s hair was short and curly, auburn instead of bright red, and he was not all muscular and hunky, more long and lean, which only added to how absolutely tall he was.
The two worked furiously to clear away the debris, looking for someone or something specific.
Even though only a vision, she could tell they were engaged in a constant stream of mind speak, another wonderful perk of being magical.
An ominous sense of danger filled her, and once again her breath stilled in her lungs.
She watched as both men turned in unison and began running almost faster than her eyes could track.
They were obviously screaming orders to anyone who could hear, from the expressions they wore and the way their mouths moved.
The feeling of impending doom engulfed every cell of Kyra’s body as she felt Andrew’s enjoyment grow.
The sick son of a bitch was enjoying what he was seeing and delighted that more was coming.
Horror movies had never been her thing, and to have the man that was her mate in a starring role in one that would be a reality was seriously freaking her out.
Sifting through everything she had ever learned that was stored in her goofy brain, she looked for a way to pull out of the vision.
Finally, she found what she thought might work, but true to form, a bright light burst before her eyes.
Vibrations of an explosion she knew was taking place in her mind gave her the sensation of falling, right before her world went black.