Her Dragon's Fire (20 page)

“Is this the place or are we here for a picnic?” Andrew could not keep the sarcasm from his voice.

“You will follow us to the ritual site. Please keep up, Master does not want any delays.” Master Eaton’s lackey did an about face and headed back to the SUV he had exited a few minutes before.

“Fucking melodramatic assholes,” Andrew whispered to himself as he raised the window and secured his seatbelt. He damn sure hoped this ritual worked; then he would be rid of this bunch of fuck ups once and for all.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

They were all in place and ready to move forward when the first sounds of trucks approaching alerted everyone to an incoming change in plans. She, Aidan, Rayne, and Lance were all poised and ready to enter the back of the building. It was their job to get to the offices on the top level and get everything they could out of the filing cabinets. Her adrenaline was pumping. She was ready to get in and get out then her
spidey senses
went crazy and she felt Aidan tense at her side. Almost immediately the buzzing in her head started. Rayne was standing still as a statue at her other side, deep in conversation through mind speak from the looks of it. She just stared, waiting to see what was going on, as the butterflies in her tummy threw a party.

“He’s talking to Aaron. He, Max and Juan Carlos are at the front of the building with a clear view of the highway. It appears that four large trucks are turning onto the access road and headed our way,” Aidan whispered.

She thought about what she had seen on the blueprints. She knew those trucks had to be headed for the tunnels. “Aidan, there are young girls in those trucks. I just know it.”

He nodded, “Let me see if Royce can see anything from where he is,” and the buzz in her head became more intense.

Her
spidey senses
were ringing so loudly she felt like everyone around her could hear them. The closer the trucks got, the louder her intuition yelled at her that something very terrible was about to happen.

“Shit! Royce said the trucks are moving directly towards the warehouse and they are heavily armed.” Aidan looked at Rayne, “All humans in the trucks, no sign of wizards, hunters, or the traitor.” He answered out loud she was sure, for her benefit.

She watched as Aidan once again debated with himself and she noted his discomfort. Second guessing his decisions was apparently very new to him. She chuckled to herself, thinking it was something she could teach him a lot about. As she studied the man she cared for more than she wanted to admit, she also saw guilt, but for all she was worth, she could not figure out why someone like Aidan would feel guilty. She also noticed that they all kept referring to a
traitor
. Just another question she would have to get answered when all this mess was behind them.

“Devon says there are five SUVs approaching from the other direction, filled with wizards.” Rayne paused as a murderous look crossed his face, “There is a car following the SUVs.” He stared directly into Aidan’s eyes, “It’s the traitor.” There it was again, the mention of this traitor, and he was definitely someone Rayne had a serious beef with.

No sooner were the words out of his mouth than the buzzing started in Grace’s head again. It was louder and angrier than before, more like an angry hive of bees than the usual static from a radio. The look on her mate’s face said it all; he also had a score to settle with the person they kept calling ‘the traitor’. She grabbed his hand and began rubbing circles with her thumb in an effort to calm him. Between the buzzing in her head, the waves of pure aggression pouring off of Aidan, and her
spidey senses
ringing loud and clear, she felt lucky she was still able to stand.

She jumped as Lance laid his hand on her shoulder, “How you doing, Hellcat?” He used the hand on her shoulder to pull her back from Aidan. He looked in her direction as her hand slipped from his and she moved farther away. His eyes flashed to Lance and she felt the buzz die out. The boys had been talking about her.
Damn him!
What was happening that he could talk to Lance and not her? She and Aidan were definitely going to talk about this when everything calmed down. He had no right to keep things from her. She opened her mouth to tell him exactly what she was thinking when he smiled at her. Not the toe-curling sensual smile she had already experienced, but one of pure love and adoration. She knew in her heart that that one simple smile was meant to comfort her, but at this moment, she couldn’t decide if she should kiss him silly or kick him in the shin. She held his eyes for another second, trying to convey her annoyance. His simple reassuring smile grew and he mouthed,
I love you
. Her mouth dropped open and most of the air left her lungs.
He loves me? Oh my God. He just said he loves me.
Lance used her moment of shock and his enhanced abilities to get her back to the edge of the woods.

She looked around and realized he had moved her away from the warehouse and more importantly, away from Aidan. “What the hell are you doing, Lance?” she glared at him. “I need to be up there with Aidan. He promised I could go in there and gather evidence.” She poked him in the chest, “And you all agreed.”

He shrugged, “I’m doing what Aidan asked me to do.” He saw the fire jump in her eyes, “Now hear me out before you lose your mind, Hellcat.”

She nodded for him to continue while trying to control her temper. How could Aidan do this to her? He just said he loved her, looked at her like she was his whole world, and the whole time he had been planning to have her moved out of the way. “’A’ just wants to make sure you are far away from the human criminals and the wizards, at least until he can make sure it is safe. We didn’t know they would be here. This changes the original plans. He is trying to do everything possible to keep his word to you, but you have to understand; he is instinct driven to protect you.”

She felt her anger rise. He must have been able to feel it also, because he rushed on, “Come on Grace, you have to know how he feels about you. I know he explained what it is like for a dragon shifter and his dragon when they find their mate. It took everything in his power just to let me get you out of harm’s way. It goes against every instinct he has to let you out of his sight, and even though we’ve been brethren for almost a hundred years, I can assure you he’s having a very difficult time with me being alone with you. If it wasn’t for his hell bent on revenge little brother, he would be the one standing here having this conversation with you,
not me
. It is killing him to be away from you, but he is the only one that can stop Andrew from whatever hell on earth he has planned.”

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Lance saw the look on her face go from fury to confusion to suspicious in a split second, “What do you mean ‘hell bent on revenge little brother’? Aaron is older than he is and he is here with us. Who the hell is Andrew?” Her eyes squinted in a look he was sure Aidan had already seen a time or two. He scrambled to cover up his obvious mistake.

“Ummm, sounds like you and ‘A’ still have a lot to talk about,” he stammered. “I’m not sure I’m the one to tell you the story.”

She would never have thought it possible to see the very self assured jokester so nervous. If she had time, she would go easy on him but time was the one thing she did not have right now. Her
spidey senses
were telling her this was important. Whoever ‘Andrew’ was and whatever was going on between him and Aidan would explain her mate’s drive to catch the wizards that seemed so much more than the others of his Force, aside from Rayne. She knew it was an integral part of who he was, a part of his DNA that he help people in need. It was a mission for all the Dragon Guard to eliminate the wizards and the hunters because of their threat to all dragon shifters but every time they talked about the wizards or the traitor her intuition told her there was more, something deeper that she was not being told. Earlier, she had dismissed it because of her ordeal in the parking garage and then again because of how quickly everything was happening between them but now it was staring her in the face, demanding to be dealt with. No time to avoid the elephant in the woods, she had to get to the bottom of it.

This had to be the main reason Aidan had been so adamant about her not accompanying them in the first place. She knew he worried about her safety, that he had promised to give his own life for her. But she also knew there was more to the story, and now that she was presented with the opportunity to find out what it was, she was not going to stop until she knew. “Lance, if you don’t tell me what the hell is going on,
right now
, I swear I’m going to yell so loud that everyone within a five mile radius will hear,” she stared directly into his eyes, making sure he knew she meant every word. “I don’t think everyone wants their cover blown, what do you think?” She couldn’t help giving him her best shit eating grin. God only knew she had already taken enough of his.

She watched as he took a deep breath and felt the buzzing in her head start again. He was telling Aidan what had just happened, she just knew it. “You can tell him that I’m pissed as shit and he’s a hell of a lot safer up there right now. But when we are in the same place again, I’m going to kick his ass. I don’t care if he is some big, bad Dragon Guardsman.”

The color drained from Lance’s face and the buzzing immediately stopped. At least her asshole mate knew she was mad. Not that it mattered right now, but with enough time she knew she could come up with some really creative ways to punish him for what he had done. Right now she needed to get answers, and if that meant torturing her mate’s brethren, she was willing to do it. “Tell me, Lance. Tell me why he would trust you with me if it’s so hard for him to be away from me. Why does he have a brother that he didn’t tell me about? And I’m guessing that this Andrew is a blood relative brother, not a brethren like you and the others. What is going on, Lance? Tell me,” she put all the emotion and conviction she could in the next word she spoke. “Please.”

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Aidan owed him big time. This was way beyond the call of duty, no matter how many times ‘A’ had saved his ass. He knew things had all been happening quickly and that Grace had been hurt not even twenty-four hours ago, but this shit was important. What the hell was he thinking bringing her out here and not telling her about Andrew? Now it had been left up to him, because Aidan had to be ready to confront him the second Andrew was out in the open. He knew it was every dragon shifter’s dream to find their mate, but he could make it a few more lifetimes without the hassle. It took everything in him to just keep himself out of trouble. There was no fucking way he could deal with a mate too. But no matter his personal feelings, here he was, staring at Aidan’s mate. A beautiful, intelligent, feisty woman that was the other part of his best friend’s heart and soul; he had to explain the nightmare they had all lived for over six years. Explain what her mate had witnessed and lived through. What the hell was the Universe playing at? He saw her frustration rising and knew it was now or never. “All right, Hellcat, here it is. Before I get started, I want to make sure you understand the
only
reason I’m doing this and not Aidan, is that he has to be up there with Rayne and Aaron. He is the only one with a deep enough connection to their little brother to capture him and stop whatever he has planned.” She started to interrupt but he put up his hand and shook his head. “I need you to just listen. We don’t have much time and I have to make sure you understand. Can you do that for me?”

“You guys are the bossiest bunch of pain in the ass men I have ever seen. Since I don’t have a choice…,” she shook her head and huffed a breath that lifted her bangs off her brow. “Yea, I can do it. Just hurry the hell up. My
special intuition
is screaming that I need to be with Aidan, even though I want to kick his ass. I know he needs me.”

Lance smiled despite the situation. Aidan had said she had the most acute intuition he had ever encountered. He had called it her
spidey senses
. Those extra senses plus the mating call were driving her to be with her mate. He could only imagine what ‘A’ was going through. Just another reason his best friend had for taking a chunk out of his little brother’s hide. Now, to tell her as much of the story as he could without letting her know that Aidan had been looking for
her
the night that changed all of their lives forever. That was something she and her mate could hash out later. No way was he getting any deeper into this mess than he already was. He was thinking of all the ways to make ‘A’ pay for forcing him to talk to Grace about this shit. “All right, here it is in a nutshell. A little over six and a half years ago, Aidan and his younger brother, Andrew, were out on patrol. Aidan had gotten a whiff of something a few days before and couldn’t shake the feeling that he needed to follow up on it. So they went out to see what it was. The scent Aidan was tracking had taken all his focus and he was careless, something completely uncharacteristic for
your boy
. He hadn’t continually scanned the area like was protocol, and let’s just say Andrew always depended on one of us to take care of him, so he wasn’t scanning either. He was the youngest in our force and the younger brother to two of the best Dragon Guardsmen this world has ever known, and to top it off, he was and I imagine still is, a lazy little shit.