Dangerous Lovers (224 page)

I couldn’t help but wonder if they had taken Nixie as well? Was she safe because she belonged with the Braden clan or was she being tortured and beaten? I couldn’t bear the thought of her going through the same pain as me.

Then, my mind wandered to Stone, his eyes shifting to a pink color that showed his love for me, his beautiful scar-mapped skin, and callused hands touching my face. I leaned toward the phantom feeling, wishing that I could have felt his touch one more time. I felt something brush down my cheek. I thought for sure they were Stone’s fingers, that he was trying to wipe away the grime coating my face. But when I looked up, there was no one there. The feeling came again, and I realized that I was crying. I couldn’t understand how it was possible that I had tears left.

Later that day, after a period of suffocating silence, a new noise came. I didn’t realize how much I had become accustomed to noises since I had been freed from the white room. I didn’t realize how much I missed it. Not the echoing screams, but the small mutterings of Stone while we slept, the creaking of the bed, walls, and floors. Everything. Those small noises joined to make a symphony. The noise that I heard now did not bring comfort. Just steady footsteps. They stopped outside my door. I hoped they would move on.

“Oh, wee lass.”

I looked up. Marcus stood there. His shocking red hair, and strange yellow eyes looked so unnatural in such a dark, dirty place. He came into the room, barely making a noise. I tried to flinch away, but my body barely could move.

“Lass, I would ne'er hurt ye.” His words soothed me and spread over my skin like a balm. I knew I shouldn’t believe him, but I wanted to believe him so much. I wanted to be safe from violent hands.

“Can ye lift yer head for me, Audrey?”

I lifted my head up as much as I could, and he helped support it with a gentle hand as he poured small amounts of water into my mouth. It felt so good for a second, then it too became a torture of its own. I tried to cough, but it took too much energy. I wanted to slump back down and give up but Marcus wouldn’t have it.

“Nae, lass, stay with me. We will have ye out of here soon. Waitin' for reinforcements.” He winked at me.

I didn’t understand and tried to tell him, but he just gave me a reassuring smile.

“Th' less ye know th' better.” Marcus winked and tried to feed me some more water. He did this a couple more times until my throat actually felt less raw and I was able to get the water down without coughing it back up.

He left, promising to be back soon. When he left, I was hoping for sleep, my stomach felt like it was caving in on itself. The water went through me absorbing into my dehydrated system. I needed food. I tried to keep my mind off of it, but the pains were getting worse. I was tempted to slam my head against the wall behind me hoping it would knock me out. Instead, I hung on by a thread, waiting for my sanity to snap.

A light noise woke me. It was funny how before I was craving the small noises but not if they forcibly tried to pull me out of sleep. My heart started to race. I couldn’t handle another round of torture. When I looked up, there was nothing there. I tried to go back to sleep, but I felt another presence.

I opened my eyes there still was no one. That is when I felt the stirring in my mind. It was my dragon, she was waking. I could feel her. It should have been an amazing feeling but I was so scared that even this couldn’t save me. She pushed at my mind as if trying to take over. I didn’t think I had the strength to stop her, but I also didn’t think I had the strength to shift. She pushed again, I let go and passed out once more.

I woke up again, the room was silent, but I was in a different position. I lay with my belly on the ground, arms underneath my head. When I opened my eyes I didn’t see my arms. I started to panic. The noises I made were rougher, more animalistic. That is when I heard more footsteps, I crawled into myself. It seemed like my shape had shrunk incredibly. The footsteps stopped in front of my door.

“Where the hell is she?” Jacobs roared.

His voice echoed in my ears causing me to flinch. He was looking at me and yet he didn’t see me. Marcus and Dallas stood there as well. Marcus was actually seeing me, and for a second, I saw the awe pass over his eyes. Dallas, like his father, scanned the room. Marcus kept his face blank when Jacobs glanced at him.

I started to move to get up, Marcus made a stay there motion very briefly. I didn’t move.

“Dallas, go inform the guards. Marcus, check around down here and see if she is hiding somewhere. And someone tell me who was on guard last night!” Jacobs continued to yell as he moved through the dungeon. I didn’t dare move until Marcus came back to the cell I was being kept in.

“Wow lass, ye look like a mini-dragon. I knew yer father was a dragon, but I was under th' impression ye couldn’t shift.” Marcus moved closer to me. I backed away, confused by what he was saying. “Ah, they did nae tell ye yet did they? You’re lookin' at their greatest kept secret.” Marcus winked at me with a bright smile.

“No, hen, we have tae get ye out of here. Stay as ye are though, I am nae quite sure what is gonnae on, but ye are invisible tae everyone else. Weel everyone but fey, we can see through all glamours. Come along lass.”

I watched him closely. I wasn’t sure if I could trust him. Then, I remembered what Stone and Nixie had told me about fey. They couldn’t lie, granted they would twist their words to the truth enough to make it sound like what you wanted to hear, but he flat out told me that he was going to help me out of here. I followed, crawling in my new body.

Marcus looked back at me a couple of times. “Amazin'.”

I looked up at him, not understanding what he was so amazed about, but in this form I couldn’t speak. I would have to wait. I was going to be free.

Chapter Forty-Two

Stone

As soon as my body became aware of itself again, I was up. I couldn’t stop pacing. Nixie tried talking me down, I just snarled at her. She had been right there. She could have saved Audrey. I knew deep down I shouldn’t blame her that she had been attacked as well, but this was Audrey. My Audrey. Drake wasn’t any better than me; York had to take him away to calm him down.

We waited while York gathered information.

In a logical part of my mind, I knew that we were waiting to find a track to follow, getting a plan together. Important things that I would have normally been a part of. Right now, though, I couldn’t think past the black suited man that had taken her. The same black suits I used to wear doing exactly this. Stealing what wasn’t mine but what I thought would be better. I thought this would be for the best. I slammed my hand against the wall. Audrey might have never looked at me like a monster, but damn did I ever prove her wrong.

“Time to head out,” York announced, standing in the doorway. He looked almost as angry as Drake, I understood that he was taking his position as Audrey’s new parent figure seriously and while I respected his decision to treat her like kin, she was mine now. I was protective of that fact that she didn’t know. She hadn’t accepted him yet. I wanted to brush past him; I wanted to prove that she was mine. I held in the instinct. At this point he was my only way to her, I had to play nice. For now.

• • •

The team that assembled took a helicopter in. I wanted to fly; I wanted to be out where Drake and York were in the sky so I wouldn’t feel so trapped. I could get there faster. But they said that if I didn’t stay in the helicopter they would force me to stay back.

I twitched in my seat, watching the ground below. The forest beneath us seemed never ending. I felt as if the Eurocopter EC155, which I didn’t even think was open for public sale, couldn’t have been going fast enough. My skin felt tight as if I needed to change forms immediately. I straightened my back trying to get more comfortable. I knew nothing would help.

Nixie looked mildly sick and kept her eyes shut tight, muttering how she hated the sky. Normally flying with her would make me feel slightly at ease, the rest of the team and I would always get a good kick out of her hatred for the sky. Even the familiar memory couldn’t break my concentration. I used to be one of the torturers; I knew what they would be doing to her. I could feel it on my skin as if it was happening to me. How could I have ever let them take her? I would never be able to forgive myself. I promised I would protect her.

The Valkyrie, Elijah, and Imogen the witch, were with Nixie and I in the first helicopter. Elijah kept giving Imogen the coldest looks I had ever seen him give and she just smiled back at him. I think there was a loose screw in her head because she was looking death in the face and smiling.

I kept shifting in my seat. It had been a day since she went missing. A lot could happen in a day, but one thing I knew, I knew she was alive. Drake told me before we left that Marcus was their last surviving undercover agent, and this wasn’t only a mission to save Audrey, but to retract him as well. I nodded understanding, hoping that he would be able to help Audrey. I started to recognize the air, the trees. We were getting closer. It felt like an old piece of home, but it would never be my home again. It didn’t matter, my home was with Audrey.

We set down a few miles from the Braden headquarters. I paced restlessly, and watched as Drake had chose to stay in his dragon form. York walked over him looking a little grim. His tail twitched, and wings fluttered. I noticed his fists were as clenched tight.

“We haven’t heard from Marcus. We thought he would have contacted us the moment that Audrey stepped into that building. Drake wants to attack. Gods dammit Stone would you stop that infuriating pacing?” York snarled at me.

I wasn’t going to let that slide. I moved close to the tall Gargoyle, I didn’t realize that I started to add inches to my height until I was eye to eye to the six foot six inch Gargoyle. My face was set in a snarl.

“Do not tell me how to act when
my mate
is in there.” I paused and quieted down, “What if it was Drake?” I tried to keep my voice low not knowing if that their mating was a secret to both Elijah and Nixie. Though knowing them, they probably picked up on their relationship the first time they saw the two together.

York looked down and he stepped back.

“We didn’t…”

I growled not letting him finish. I started to pace again. My gut was telling me something was wrong. I had to move, I had to do something, anything. Drake blew a bit of smoke toward York who headed over to talk to his own mate.

Night started to fall and I was going mad. I needed to go after her. I started to head out. I couldn’t stand there knowing that every minute her skin was being torn apart only to repair itself and the process repeated. I knew the other types of torture would happen, I had perfected the art of Braden warfare. We didn’t take prisoners to let them live, we extracted information and destroyed every fiber of their being.

Drake’s head popped up. I watched him closely. His nostrils flared and his slit, reptile eyes narrowed. I expanded my senses as far as they could go and the lightly burnt scent of lavender. My eyes popped opened, and I ran through the familiar trees toward her scent. I avoided any underbrush not allowing anything to get in my way. My heart pounded in my chest, and all I could think was that she was close.

Marcus’ voice rang out in the forest.

“Pal, turn th' other way. They are right behin' us.” Then, I saw him. He moved gracefully. The trees bending to his will. I didn’t see Audrey though I could smell her. I wondered for a brief moment if Marcus had been with her then left her behind. I couldn’t think straight. I acted on instinct and tackled Marcus shoving him into a tree.

“Where is she?” I roared.

“Pal, she is right behin' me,” He pointed to an open space where there were only plants. Nothing.

I punched him in the face. “Where is she?”

Marcus disappeared as he willed the tree to wrap him in an embrace. I knew my attacks barely put a dent in his thick skin, so I didn’t register another thought.

I couldn’t ask anything else, my breathing erratic. I felt as if I was sinking into a black hole. Nothing else mattered, not the crushing of the underbrush by boots coming from the other direction. I didn’t care that Drake’s roars were filling the air or York was making demands of his people.

“Gabriel…” Only her voice could soothe me. My eyes shut involuntarily.

I turned Audrey stood there completely naked as if she had just shifted. New scars covered her body, along with dried blood. I tore off my shirt, shoving it over her shivering form.

“Where the hell did you come from?” I didn’t wait for her answer. I ran my hands over her hair and pulled her in for a kiss. I touched her lips and I felt my whole body sigh. She was safe. I pulled Audrey closer, barely registering the other noises.

“Stone, come 'en. We have tae goin’, pal.” Marcus had reemerged and started off toward the others. All the cracking in the woods and then what Marcus said came crashing in. The Braden had brought in their own witch who was shooting off spells in our direction.

Our real reunion would have to wait. I pulled Audrey along. When a bolt of lightning flew past our heads, I flinched. A bolt that strong could do serious damage. We were getting closer to the clearing. Audrey was keeping up but barely, I knew she was tired. I saw Drake’s tail in the clearing as he fought on the other side of the helicopter.