I Like Big Dragons and I Cannot Lie (The I Like Big Dragons Series) (8 page)

She nodded.

His father told my Dodd about what would happen. When we were blocked off from our family, the day before he died, he started to write in that book. For hours he wrote, and I lay against him, telling him what I thought should be in there. Then we were attacked, and Dodd dispensed the first wave of Purists. But they gutted him, and he died a very slow and painful death. He was able to breathe his dragon fire into me, and I willingly took it, knowing it was something he wanted me to have. To raise our sons like they should be raised. To be with them and help them carry on their legacy.

I watched as she wiped a lone tear that had escaped, despite her tight control, and I felt my own responding tears start to take over.

“I’m a mess,” I muttered to myself.

Skylar snorted. “Welcome to our show. We’re clan fucked up. Keifer’s our leader.”

I laughed out loud.

“Awesome,” I muttered.

Two hours later found Skylar, Bella and I playing Go Fish.

“Do you have any twos?” I asked Skylar.

She narrowed her eyes at me. “You know I do, you horrid woman.”

I snickered.

I liked Skylar. She was spunky, sassy, and was really good at keeping my mind off of the things that wouldn’t help us out.

Mainly whether Keifer was dead in a field somewhere, while I was laying on pillows in a climate controlled room that smelled like apples and had an unlimited supply of snacks and drinks.

Taking the twos, I placed all four of them down on the pillow in front of me and turned to Bella. “Do you have any Kings?”

She narrowed her eyes at me and handed her three over as well.

“You’re such a cheater,” Skylar whispered under her breath.

I’d also learned that the Vassago women were sore losers.

We’d played Clue, Monopoly, and Go Fish in the time we’d been cooped up in here, and I’d won every time.

I was about to reply to her comment when a shiver tore through me and suddenly a burning pain was tearing through my arm.

I cried out, dropping my hand of cards, and yanked my shirt from my body.

I looked down at my arm as a line appeared, hideous and red, starting at the top of my shoulder and running down to the base of my elbow.

The line was four inches thick, and its edges were jagged, almost as if a wound had appeared and then healed before I even had the chance to look at it.

Your hurts are your mate’s hurts. When you are hurt, your mate will display the same wounds, albeit healed. You will be one, and she will forever know when you are hurting.

The paragraph slid through my head, reminding me, instantly, of what I’d read, and I knew that something had happened to Keifer.

Something that hurt so bad that he could barely breathe.

“Blythe,” Skylar gasped, scooting forward on her knees to get a better look at my arm. “What the hell’s going on? What is that? That wasn’t there earlier.”

I looked into Skylar’s scared eyes and started to explain.

“In the book I read,” I met Bella’s eyes for encouragement. “It said that when one of the mated pair gets hurt, the other will feel it. The wound will display on his or her body in exactly the same place as the mate who actually got wounded.”

Skylar drew in a breath, and Bella’s eyes filled with tears as she ran her hand down my arm.

It wasn’t tender at all.

Not even a little bit.

“He’s hurt,” she breathed. “We have to get out of here. I can help him.”

I nodded, in complete agreement with her.

Concentrating on opening the door, I was pulled up short by Bella’s cool hands on my cheek.

When I drew my eyes to hers, she shook her head slowly.

“Don’t,” she mouthed.

And, although it hurt me, practically gutted me to know that Keifer was out there hurting, I closed my eyes and nodded. “Okay.”

“Mom!” Skylar cried. “We can’t. I have to go. I can help!”

I shrugged my shirt back over my head, and looked down at my hands, keeping an eye on the other two in my peripheral vision.

Bella shook her head and Skylar slumped into her recently vacated seat, crossing her arms over her knees and resting her head on top of them.

“I have four more weeks until I graduate with my BSN in nursing,” I told them both. “Will I be able to finish?”

Maybe if I talked, I’d forget about how my heart hurt. How worried I was. How scared I was that there’d be nothing left to go back to when I finally left this room.

He’s fine,
slithered through my brain, and I gasped, tears starting to fill my eyes.

Thank you, Declan,
I replied.

“What was that?” Skylar
questioned.

“What was what?” I asked in confusion.

“You made a face. The same one Keifer makes when he’s communicating with Declan.”

My brows rose.

“Really?” I asked,
and then waved my hand in front of my face. “That was Declan. He was telling me that Keifer’s alright.”

They both slumped.

“Okay and
okay
are two different things. Freakin’ men. They’re all the same,” Skylar mumbled.

“We…” I stopped when a roll of magic poured through me, and the sealed door opened revealing Nikolai.

“Get up, we need you,” Nikolai pointed at Skylar.

When I went to stand, too, Nikolai shook his head. “Not you.”

I laughed. “Why don’t you try to stop me?”

He glared, but I noticed he got out of my way without trying to stop me. I followed the fleeing form of Skylar as she raced towards the back of Keifer’s ornate house.

I hadn’t seen that much of it, only a few of the rooms, but the ones I had seen weren’t these, so I had to stop and wait for Nikolai, who I could hear stomping along behind me when I lost sight of Skylar.

“What’s wrong with him?” I whispered.

He looked at me. “How’d you know he was hurt?”

I lifted my sleeve and showed him, which made his eyes widen.

“Holy shit,” he breathed. “I read that in the book when Keifer gave it to me once you both were done reading it…but I didn’t think
that
was true.”

“Tell me,” I ordered.

He sighed and grabbed the back of my arm, pushing me in the direction of a long hallway as he started to talk. “A claw ripped through his arm. He’ll be okay, but he’s hurt enough that he has no feeling in his hand. That’s why I came and
got Skylar.” Then he muttered
, “Not that the fucker would stop fighting long enough for us to look at it. Dumbass.”

“Ohh,” I breathed as I saw Keifer standing up outside, yelling at a couple of young men. “Holy shit.”

His arm was wrapped up in what looked like the t-shirt he was wearing when we rushed out of the room that morning. Silver duct tape was wrapped around that holding it in place, and he was standing there shirtless, with a real life sword in his hand.

He had on a pair of black jeans that I felt was probably a really good thing seeing as he had what looked suspiciously like wet stains on his pants, and I could do without the confirmation that it was indeed blood.

“Keifer, let me see your arm!” Skylar growled as Keifer turned once again and started to talk to the two men instead of listening to his sister.

“I want you two on the perimeter, along with Morales and Hughes. Make sure Jones is aware of what’s going on, and y’all please ask your dragons to be on the lookout for another breach. What we think is that they were just a scouting party, not a live party. So keep your eyes peeled, and run your patrols in eight-hour shifts so you don’t get tired and sloppy. I’ll inform the other men what’s going on, and if I have need, I’ll have Declan contact you, got it?” Keifer asked.

The two men nodded and hurried away towards two dragons that were lying on the lawn.

They were beautiful, of course, but they weren’t Declan and Story.

“Keifer, this is bad. If you can’t feel your hand, then that signals nerve damage to me. You need to come into the infirmary and let me take a look at it, at least.
Okay?” Skylar tried again.

When he whistled and Declan, who’d been lying in the grass next to the other two dragons, roared, I knew it was time to intervene.

He wouldn’t be going anywhere until he was checked over.

“Keifer?” I called softly.

Keifer stiffened slightly and turned to look at me.

His front was covered in blood, but I assumed that was from his arm again, and not any other injuries.

His expression was thunderous as he saw me standing outside.

“What are you doing out here?” He asked angrily.

I blinked, surprised that he’d used that tone of voice with me when he’d done nothing but speak softly to me in the day and a half that I’d known him.

Back straightening, I said, “Obviously, trying to make it so that my
mate
,” I spat the word, “doesn’t lose his arm because he’s being stupid.”

He frowned. “Go back to the room.”

I laughed. “How about you make me?”

He took a step forward, and I took a step back.

This continued until I was back in the house and backing up the hallway as he stalked forward.

“This would be more convenient if I knew which room was the infirmary,” I muttered to myself.

Declan, the ever helpful dragon, shot the information to my mind as if it was a picture, and I suddenly knew I needed to take the last hall on the right, which led straight to the infirmary.

“You’re going the wrong way,” he growled when he saw me take the turn.

I snorted. “You’re not my mother. I don’t have to listen to you.”

He narrowed his eyes. “You’re my mate, which means what I think should play a significant part in what you decide to do. Which, if you knew what was good for you, would be to go back to the safe room and stay there until I come get you.”

Once I was in the doorway, I turned and started walking forward, only to come up short two feet in with a large arm around my waist.

“Don’t turn your back on me,” he growled against my neck.

I shivered, leaning my head into his shoulder as his beard rasped against the back of my neck.

“I just wanted you to be checked out,” I whispered hesitantly.

Everything along my back felt hard.

His abs. His chest. His arms. His cock.

Everything.

He sighed and breathed against my neck, the hot, minty breath washing over me, making my nipples pebble.

“Okay,” he finally agreed, letting me go reluctantly before he went to the exam table his sister was standing next to and hopped on. “Nikolai, you know what to do.”

I heard steps behind me start to retreat and knew Nikolai followed his orders without questioning them.

Skylar got to work, removing the bandages with a pair of wicked looking scissors, and I walked up to her, helping remove the tape and bandage as well.

“Jesus,” I whispered as the tape started to peel off. “Did you need so much tape?”

He snorted. “Wait till you see it, then tell me if you think I used enough tape.”

I understood what he meant when all the tape finally came off, and the only things that was left was the layers of gauze.

They were saturated with blood, and the moment the wound was revealed, I nearly lost it.

Although managing to stay on my feet, my head did get woozy, and my face was suddenly cool.

“Holy shit,” I breathed, utterly flabbergasted at what he was able to do with the way his arm was torn to shreds.

I could see muscle, bone, fat, and debris in the wound.

“Holy shit,” I repeated.

“It’s bad, don’t get me wrong, but I don’t see you not healing this. Especially with Declan’s abilities. You’ve probably got about two and a half to three days until it’s fully healed,” Skylar inspected the wound.

Keifer grunted. “Been worse.”

I couldn’t even imagine.

“Worse?” I whispered
. “Days? What?”

Keifer looked at me and grabbed my hand, his eyes clear of any anger as he said, “I nearly had my entire leg bitten off four years ago. Declan has the ability to heal himself, as well as others. Something that’s extended down to me. I don’t heal anywhere near as fast as him, but it’s definitely significantly faster than most humans.”

I nodded, understanding what he meant completely.

“Kind of like this?” I asked, lifting my
shirt sleeve and showing him my arm where the new scar was located.

He sucked in his breath, and it literally felt like all the air in the room was sucked out with it.

“Holy fuckin’ shit,” he breathed. “Oh, holy shit.”

His uninjured hand lifted, and he gently trailed his finger over the large scar on my arm.

“Does it hurt?” His voice cracked.

I shook my head. “No.”

I didn’t think it was a good idea to tell him that, initially, it’d hurt like a motherfucker.

He didn’t seem to like me having this mark and I was fairly sure it’d be bad for him to know he’d inadvertently caused me pain.

“God,” he shook his head, leaning forward and pressing his lips to the scar. “I hoped that part in the book wasn’t true. I can only imagine how many scars you’ll have by the end of our relationship.”

I winced. “Yeah, that might suck a little bit.”

He smiled, and then winced when Skylar poured alcohol over his arm straight out of the bottle.

“Goddammit, Skylar. You could’ve warned me,” he gritted through clenched teeth.

Skylar, with her long blonde hair and warm green eyes, flashed her straight white teeth at Keifer. “Oops.”

I smothered a laugh, and dropped the hand that was holding my sleeve up, concealing it from Keifer’s still searching eyes.

“What happened?” I asked quietly.

His eyes moved up from my shoulder to me, and he winced.

“A search party of Purists, stumbled through the veil. Normally all they do is bumble around looking, never to find a thing. Except today one of them found us. It was pure luck, and we dispatched them within seconds, but one of the younger dragons fell from a cross bow to the eye, and did this on the way down,” he indicated his wound.

I frowned. “Well, they have to have some clue where you are, otherwise they would’ve never gotten so close to you in the first place.”