Tianna Xander (5 page)

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” May felt her face growing warm. “I’m dressed the way I planned to dress for the party tonight. I couldn’t see a valid reason for wearing anything else. That way, if I get back in time, I can still go to the party. Who knows? I might find a dragon there to my liking.”

“I doubt it.” Ginger giggled as she trotted past her and up the stairs. “If that dragon has his sights on you, I would lay odds that you’re his mate unless he’s under the influence of that dragon aphrodisiac.”

“That must be it.” May perked up at the idea. “He must be under the influence.”

“Yeah, it’s a good thing you aren’t and I’m not, and every other female in this house—especially the human maids.” Ginger tapped her finger on her cheek. “Oh, that’s right. If he
were
under the influence of that
Dragon’s Desire,
all of us women would be flocking around him and making ourselves pretty for him.” She grinned. “But it’s only you, May. I wonder what that means.”

“It means,” May said with a growl, “that I am just going out to dinner with him to thank him for being so generous and giving the shelter a five-million dollar grant.” May glared at her. “
That’s
what it means. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m late for a date.”

“Just keep telling yourself that, big sister. Just keep telling yourself that,” Ginger said as she continued up the stairs.

Dinner was everything she thought it would be, but nothing like she had hoped. The steak dinner was absolutely delicious, but she expected nothing less from the most expensive restaurant in town. She wasn’t sure if he took her there to impress her or if he always ate there, but all May knew was that it made her uncomfortable.

Damek wiped his mouth and set his napkin back in his lap. “You never did tell me what man hurt you enough to make you fear men my size.”

“I never said a big man hurt me.”

“No, you didn’t, but it’s obvious.” He took another bite of his meal as though he had all the time in the world to convince her to tell him her reasons.

May looked down at her plate and pushed the food around, unable to eat another bite. How could she tell him why she felt the way she did when she didn’t know herself?

“I don’t remember a muscular man ever hurting me. I’ve never been abused physically or mentally, thank God.”

“Hmmm…” he said as he chewed. “I wonder if it’s something that happened when you were younger.”

Picking up her glass of wine, May took a sip and shrugged. “I couldn’t tell you. I do know that I’ve been with the Flowers’ for almost as long as I can remember.”

“And before that?” he asked before taking a long pull from his own glass.

“I—I don’t remember much other than being hungry.” She frowned. “Didn’t I say I’d been with them for almost as long as I could remember?”

She rubbed her stomach. It felt funny. She felt somewhat sick and it hurt all at the same time. She looked down at her plate, suddenly glad that she hadn’t taken more than a few bites before he started asking her questions. If this was going to make her sick, at least she didn’t have much to throw up if that’s what she was going to do.

“I don’t feel well.” Her head began to spin and she felt hot. Really hot. She picked her napkin up from out of her lap and waved her face. “Is it hot in here, or just me?”

Damek frowned at her and said something, but she didn’t understand a word he said. It was as though everything he said was a recording that someone played back way too slow and possibly backward.

She watched as Damek moved in slow motion. He threw his napkin on the table and stood up. His chair tipped over behind him and he came to her. May giggled. He could have picked the chair up. He moved so slowly anyway. What was another five minutes for him to pick up his chair?

“Don’t leave a mess, Mamek.” She felt her head drop back against the back of her seat. “Hey! That was
my
minner, Mamek.” She scowled as he took a small bite of her steak. “I midn’t think it was that bad,” she said, as he spit it back out into her napkin.

May’s head fell back on Damek’s shoulder as he picked her up and hurried from the restaurant. She giggled when he slid into the backseat of his limo with her still in his arms. “Midn’t pay the check, Mamek,” she said, then suddenly, everything went black.

Chapter Eight

“Get us to the airport as fast as you can, Howard.” Damek barked at his driver as soon as Carter closed the door and hopped into the front seat. “Carter, call the plane’s crew and tell them to have it ready to go when we get there.”

“Yes, sir,” Carter said as Howard put the car in gear and mashed the gas. “Can I assume that your dinner went well?”

“No. You can assume that someone poisoned my mate with the nectar from a
tanquila
flower.”

“Where have I heard of that before?”

“You heard it last month when one of my people found a live specimen in the mountains in Alaska.” He placed a kiss on her forehead for the contact as much as to see what her temperature was. It was rising quickly. If he didn’t get her the antidote soon, he would lose her before he even had her.

“I knew I’d heard of that somewhere.”

“I wish I never had. I wish that the damned plant was as extinct as we thought was it for so many years.” If it had been, there was no way anyone could have poisoned May with it.

“Call Anderson and tell him to send an agent over to the restaurant. I want to know who tampered with her meal.” He looked down at May. Her creamy complexion grew lighter by the moment. “Just get us to the airport as fast as you can. I have something on the plane that I can give her to help slow down her metabolism.”

It wouldn’t just slow down her metabolism, it would almost stop it. Tetrodotoxin, made from the poison of a puffer fish, would slow her metabolism down so far, it would make her appear dead. He only hoped that the drug, mixed with the poison, didn’t kill her. Damek didn’t want to give it to her, but he didn’t have a choice.

Carter managed to get them to the airport in record time. Damek didn’t wait for him to get out and open the door. He’d flung it open before the limo had even come to a complete stop.

May babbled something incoherent when she fell against his side. Damek wrapped his arm around her, pulled her close, and kissed the top of her head. “It’s okay, little one. I’ll take care of you.”

Taking May into his arms, he got out of the limo and headed to the boarding ladder. The crew had the plane warmed up and ready to go. Its engines rumbled as he crossed the tarmac and climbed up to the entry.

“Sir.” The pilot stood ready when he entered the plane. “Where to, sir?”

“Alaska. On the double. May has been poisoned and we need the antidote,” he said as the man secured the door.

“You know you’ll have to sit with her until we’ve taken off. You won’t do her any good if you get injured during take-off because you’re too stubborn to stay seated. Surely, anything you need to do can wait a few minutes. Otherwise, we’ll have to wait to take off.”

“I’ll stay here with her until you tell me I can get up. I don’t want to delay take-off.” He knew where everything he needed was stored, but that was it. It was all stored and it would take some time getting it together. He looked down at May and prayed she
had
that kind of time.

While the nectar of the
tanquila
flower could kill, it usually killed slowly. It caused paralysis until eventually it reached the organs. May was still moving and trying to talk. It wouldn’t affect her organs for hours, even if he didn’t give her the tetrodotoxin.

The crushed leaves of the
tanquila
made into a tea, could heal almost anything. It was an antidote for many poisons, including its own nectar. He only wished that he had already gotten the several leaves he’d asked for. They hadn’t arrived yet, most likely due to the nature of the shipment. Plants and animals had to go through rigorous testing and quarantines before one could carry them across state or country borders.

Take-off took an eternity. Damek was out of his seat as soon as the pilot turned off the
fasten seatbelt
sign and headed for the storage area. His first-aid kit was easy to get to, so were the syringes. What took the longest was opening the safe that he had stupidly set up on a delay to help deter thieves.

Almost twenty-five minutes after he left to get the supplies, Damek returned to see May sprawled across the two cream, leather seats. Her arm dangled over the side and rested on the floor palm up.

Damek’s heart leapt in his chest as he saw her like that, appearing dead. Dropping the kit he put together, he rushed to her and gathered her in his arms. The poison never worked this fast—she couldn’t be dead.

“Let me go, you meanie!” May fought him like a wildcat. She balled her hands into fists and pummeled his chest. “Leave me lone! I want my mommy!” She began to cry and it wrenched Damek’s heart. He couldn’t bear to watch her relive this traumatic moment from her past, yet knew he had no choice.

He must stay with her until she calmed down enough so he could inject her. He couldn’t lose her. Not after all this time. Not after so many thousands of years of loneliness. He
refused
to lose her. Her screams of terror died down to little sobs as May cried on his shoulder for a few minutes, then stiffened in his arms.

“Let me go, please.”

She was coherent!

When he didn’t immediately let her go, May pushed him away. “I asked you to let me go.” She moved to lean against the window, looked out and grew very still. “Why am I on a plane?”

“You were poisoned.”

“Oh. Well, that makes sense. Someone poisons me so you take me for a plane ride.” She stared at him, disbelief shining in her eyes. “My belly hurts.” She rubbed her stomach with a frown. “Take me home, Damek.”

At least she wasn’t calling him Mamek anymore. That was a good sign. “I don’t believe I can. If someone will try to kill you once, they’ll do it again.”

“Well, they only tried to
kill
me while I was with you. Are you sure it wasn’t you who arranged for my meal to make me sick?” She gave him a sideways glance.

“Don’t be ridiculous. I wouldn’t have to drug you to kidnap you.”

“But you
did
kidnap me.”

“Only to save your life.” He didn’t add that he intended to do just that if she didn’t agree to go to Alaska with him. He not only wanted to spend as much time as he could alone with her, he knew there was a possibility she could help him find every undiscovered
Dragon’s Desire
plant in existence. If he showed her the one plant he had, she could cause every one of the plants in the vicinity to reveal itself if—and it was a big
if
—he could convince her to help him.

He looked down into her deep brown eyes and willed her to kiss him, but knew she wouldn’t. She wasn’t ready, not yet. He wished he could force just one kiss on her, but it didn’t work that way. She must be willing, open, and susceptible to receiving the signals sent from his subconscious in order to see them.

Damek stopped short of begging her to stay the course with him. He’d wanted to let her make the decision, but disagreeing with him at every turn, he had no other choice but to take her to Alaska whether she wished to go or not.

“Forgive me, May.”

She stared at him for a moment before he noticed a little crease between her brows. “For kidnapping me?” She shook her head. “Never.”

“It is for your own good.” Could he never get the woman to see reason? “Look at it this way, May. The person or persons who made an attempt on your life no longer know where you are. At the most, they only know that you boarded this plane.”

May glared at him for a moment, then turned to stare out the window. “Drake will kill you for taking me against my will, you know. He takes the idea of being our protector very seriously.” She turned to look at him, most likely to see his reaction to her threat.

Damek examined his fingernails for a moment, just to get her riled, then he shrugged. “No matter. I am the stronger and he will lose. I will kill him and, unfortunately, your sister will die as well. They are mated and her life force is tied to his.”

He pretended not to hear her gasp and purged all emotion from his expression. He couldn’t afford to let her know that she could sway him on the matter. There was no reason to give her ammunition, so-to-speak.

“I am one of the oldest and most experienced dragons to walk this earth. If you think Drake is old…” he paused with a grin… “you’re going to think that I’m positively ancient. I grew up with his grandfather.” He stared deep into her eyes so she would know he spoke the truth. “I am probably the most experienced, battle-hardened dragon alive. Do not underestimate my powers, little one.”

May rested her head on the glass and stared out the window. “Where are you taking me?”