Her Dragon's Fire (31 page)

One of the things she found absolutely amazing was the raw power and energy that poured off her mate in his dragon form. She could feel the rush of the breeze and hear the whoosh when he would flap his massive wings. She wanted so very much to witness what she was sure was a spectacular sight with her own eyes. There would other times, of that she was sure, but the first time was extra special and Andrew had stolen that from them. Her
special intuition
had been unusually quiet since they had taken flight. It seemed every part of her enjoyed being in this man’s care, no matter what form he was in.

She drifted along, enjoying all that she could of her first dragon ride, when she felt them descending. It wasn’t long before she felt and heard what could only be described as a
thump.
In the next breath, she was being carried, still strapped to the apparatus she had flown in. Well, they must have arrived. She tried one more time, with all the strength she could muster, to break out of the spell holding her hostage, and was once again denied. She definitely had a new appreciation for the saying, “Mad as a wet hen”, that Kyndel’s granny used to say all the time. She’d seen firsthand exactly how mad a hen can get when she was visiting their family farm. Grace had watched as the poor little animal shook and flipped feathers everywhere, while making the most horrific sounds she had ever heard. She had laughed until tears ran down her face, but at this moment, she completely understood the little pullet’s anger, and the tears that threatened to fall were not from anything funny at all.

She was so sleepy; she wondered why, when all she had been doing was lying about. Then she wished she could have laughed at loud. Why the hell wouldn’t she be tired? In a little over thirty-six hours she had been roughed up in a parking lot, made love to the sexiest, most perfect man in the whole world, had been shot, kidnapped, interrogated by a deranged idiot, trapped in a spell, and had her first flight with a dragon. While not all of it was bad (as a matter of fact the making love and flying parts were really very enjoyable, more than enjoyable, they were freaking fantastic), the other parts really sucked. Her brain was getting really foggy as she felt herself lifted off the gurney and placed on a cool firm surface. She could hear people all around. She started to drift off to sleep just as she felt the familiar electric current she knew only one person could create within her. One beautiful word drifted across her mind as she felt him place her hand in his…”
Aidan
”, and she let sleep take over.

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

Aidan stood as still as possible, waiting for the Cleansing Ritual to begin. He stared into the face of the most perfect, wonderful gift he had ever been given, his Grace. He was completely mesmerized by her beauty not only on the outside but even more the inside. She was just magnificent with a heart of gold, a spirit that could not be stopped and so fierce and determined, absolutely everything he could have ever wanted in a mate and so much more. He was truly the most blessed in history.

The scent of the healing herbs filled the chamber from the incense and candles the healers had burning on every surface. He sent up the most fervent prayer to the Universe to restore his miraculous mate to her near perfect self and waited for the ceremony to begin. Just as the healers began their chant he could have sworn he heard Grace’s voice in his mind. It sounded like she was calling to him. He closed his eyes and focused on what he was sure he had heard just a few seconds ago. In his mind’s eye, he could see a light shining off in the distance. He increased his focus, knowing deep in his heart it was Grace and that she was trying to tell him that she was still in there somewhere and was fighting to come back to him. He could feel it, her feelings of love, warmth, strength, and a fire to not let the evil win. It was his mate, his beautiful mate and she was doing everything within her power to beat a foe she had no knowledge of until very recently. He could feel her confusion and focused all his energy on the light, certain that it would bring her back to him. The chanting of the healers rang in his ears as Siobhan led the Cleansing Prayer along with Eric, another highly skilled Healer Elder. Using everything he had learned in all his years, he channeled all the energy he could absorb and pushed it into that light, trying whatever possible to make contact with Grace.

His shoulders began to shake and sweat gathered on his upper lip and ran down his back as he continued to push. Almost ready to give up, he gathered all he had left and shoved everything he was into his mate and then it happened, Grace’s fingers fluttered against his. He gripped her tighter and began speaking to her, mind to mind. “
Grace
, solas mo anam,
please come back to me
.” He pleaded. “
I love you
, mo chroi.
Follow my voice. Let me lead you back to me.
” He continued to talk, saying anything and everything that came to his mind, not sure he was even making sense, but nothing mattered, as long as she came back to him.

The healers continued to chant and he continued to coo, cajole, beg, and finally ended up telling her all the plans he had for their future together. He worked his way from sublime to sexy. The more heated his description, the brighter the light burned, until he wished for a pair of ray bans. He had just reached one of his personal favorite fantasies for their future, when the light just went out. From one heart beat to the next, it was gone. His eyes flew open. He placed his fingers to the side of her neck looking, praying for a pulse, but felt nothing. He watched her chest and waited for the next breath that never came. He even laid his lips upon hers, hoping against all hope to feel her breath, but there was nothing.

He threw his head back and roared. Long and loud he bellowed, begging her to come back to him, but nothing changed. He fell to his knees, clinging to Grace’s hand like the lifeline she truly was. He realized the cavern had gone silent, the chanting had stopped. It wasn’t until Siobhan laid her hands on his shoulders and began to knead in earnest, whispering that everything would be ok, that he realized he was sobbing. Long anguished cries of pain and loss that he never would have believed he was capable of. For the first time since he believed his younger brother dead, he cried, real tears tracking down his face and wetting his chest.

He slumped to the side, resting his head on the edge of the table that held his mate, gripping her hand with all his might, still careful not to hurt her in any way. At least he had stopped screaming, but nothing he tried stopped the tears from flowing. How had he failed her? How had he let this happen? He had one job that truly mattered, and that was to keep her safe. He had done nothing since actually meeting her but lead her into danger. Plain and simple, he had failed. Just like he believed he had failed in that clearing all those years ago, but this time it was real, there was no subterfuge; she was gone and there was nothing he could do but sit there and hold her hand, praying that his true death would come quickly so that he might follow her.

With no clue how long he sat there, he finally heard the healers leave the chamber as Siobhan gave his shoulders one last squeeze, rose to her feet and left. He knew that he should be doing something, anything except sitting on the ground in a heap but he couldn’t move. It hurt to breathe, to think. This had to be what it felt like when your heart broke, only this was more, so much more. Not only
his
heart was broken but so was his dragon’s. Both souls now had a gaping wound, a vast dark hole of nothingness that felt like death itself. And it was death, the death of their mate. The light from their soul had been extinguished and now they would live in darkness until they could follow her to the heavens. He now understood what his father had meant when he told him that his life had ceased to be a life after his mother had gone, that was exactly how Aidan felt. He could not live without her now that he had experienced life, no matter however brief, with her.

He had no idea how long he sat there, holding her hand, feeling lost and broken. He had even stopped praying. He was empty. There was nothing left. The beast inside him felt the same. He could see the once majestic creature lying on its side, curled as tightly in a ball as he could get, grieving the loss of the life they had dreamt of but lost. He knew he should be out searching for the traitor. He should be ripping the very heart from his chest, but he couldn’t leave her, not yet. He knew she was gone, but he wasn’t ready to let her go.

One by one all the candles in the chamber went out, until he sat in complete darkness. Siobhan must have evacuated everyone from every chamber because the silence was almost deafening in its completeness. He could hear the sounds of the healing springs that flowed into the deepest cavern from an underground source. It almost sounded like little bells tinkling as the water ran down the cave walls and into the lagoon. The simple sound of that warm, clean water streaming into the cave soothed him. He offered up one last prayer to the Universe, imploring the heavenly body that gave them life to bring his Grace back. He prayed like he had never prayed before. Divine intervention was something he had been taught from an early age but when an idea began to form, he was sure it had to be the Universe answering. He prayed with even more earnest, willing the idea to become whole, and just like that, he knew what he had to do. If he worked fast enough, he and his beautiful mate would never be separated again.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Grace had no idea what had happened. One minute she could hear Aidan’s voice and was actually getting aroused, and then everything was gone. No more dulcet tones of the sexiest voice she had ever heard, no more tingles from where he held her hand so tenderly in his, not even the breeze that would raise goose bumps on her skin every few minutes; just a big black hole of nothing. She tried everything she could to get back to where she was, but nothing worked. It was complete and total darkness. Total sensory deprivation was just plain freaky!

At first she thought
“Oh shit! This is death!”
Panicked, cried, screamed, threw a tantrum and then, since that got her absolutely nowhere, calmed down to think. Of course all of this took place in her mind, making it as freaky as the shit she had seen in Wes Craven movies. She couldn’t be dead, she was too aware of the nothingness all around her. Besides, there was no bright white light calling her, or no fiery depths trying to drag her down, so this had to be something else. Probably another creepy side effect of the damn spell thing Andrew had thrown at her. It felt like she was floating, and she could have sworn her arms and legs were moving, but she knew that they weren’t because
nothing
would move. God knows she had tried that over and over again. She guessed that was what people that had lost a limb felt like. She had heard one of the other attorneys at her office talk about ‘phantom limb’ pains since the loss of his arm in Afghanistan. He had talked about how crazy it felt to have feelings where there wasn’t anything to feel. She knew exactly what he was talking about, but for her, it was her
whole body
.

It was time to take stock and figure out exactly what the hell had happened. She knew that she was in the healing caves they had all talked about because there was chanting. It was a beautiful background for her mate’s soothing voice. The longer Aidan had spoken, the closer she had felt to him, and then in the blink of an eye, everything was gone. She remembered all the times in her life that she had wished for a few minutes of absolute calm, but this just sucked. In any other situation she would use this as a learning experience, but she’d had enough of those to last her for a while. The floating should have been calming, but it was infuriating. She really had to get the hell out of wherever she was.

She concentrated on the last thing she remembered; Aidan’s voice. Then she remembered his eyes and what those mesmerizing whiskey colored orbs could make her feel. She really hoped this wasn’t the end. God knew she was having a bunch of near death experiences lately, and if things didn’t slow down one of them was surely going to take her that last step, something she was
not at all
ready to contemplate. So she focused even harder and remembered how he had made her feel before she had met him. His scent was something she craved. She could get drunk on that rich, masculine scent combined with the scent of the woods after a snowfall, so crisp, and fresh, and clean. If she let it completely overtake her, she could even smell a sweet undertone, almost like the trees just waiting for their chance to bloom at the first sign of spring. She had so many more things she wanted to experience with
him
. She
would
find a way back.

The longer she concentrated, the more she came back to herself. It was more difficult than the bar exam and worse than running a mile, but she believed it was worth it;
anything
would be worth it if it led her back to her mate and her life. So she kept focusing and adding other important events and people from her life. She thought of Kyndel and the baby she was carrying, she
had
to be there for the birth of her niece or nephew. Kyndel was the closest thing to a sister she was ever going to have, there was no way she was missing any more important events in her bestie’s life. Being an auntie had been something she had thought she would never experience. It was within her reach, all she had to do was figure out a way break the spell the asshole had thrown at her.