Dragonfury 01 - Fury of Fire

approach her. Crouching to camouflage his size, he settled on, “Hey.”
    She started at the sound of his voice, nearly coming out of her skin as she tucked the baby in close and swung to face him. Huge blue eyes met his, the deep hue almost the color of violets.
    Bruised. She looked bruised, battered by shock…and something more.
    Even exhausted and beat up by circumstance, she possessed the most powerful energy he’d ever seen. Pure white, it pulsed in her aura, lighting her up from the inside out, nearly knocking him on his ass.
    God, she was practically plugged into the Meridian.
    Hers wasn’t a slow draw or gentle siphoning of the electrostatic current that fed Dragonkind. Hers was so intense it would make males fight to possess her. The rawness of it seduced him, urged him to get closer, to touch her, to see what all that energy would feel like against his skin.
    Bastian forgot where he was for a second, a terrible hunger rising in his gut.
    No doubt sensing the sudden danger, she gasped and shuffled sideways. As the distance between them grew, he clamped down on his reaction to her, wiping his expression clean.
    “Easy.” He extended his arms, hands up in a gesture meant to reassure. “The ambulance, remember? I’m here to help.”
    A single tear rolled over her bottom lashes, running through the blood smear on her cheek. “I c-couldn’t stop the b-bleeding and…I just…”
    “I know.” He really did. Understood exactly what she’d walked into when she entered the house.
    “He would have d-died, too. I couldn’t…I had to…” Her bottom lip trembled as she squeezed her eyes shut. More tears fell. “Oh, God.”
    A surge of protectiveness rolled through him. Fierce pride followed: for her strength and intelligence, her stead-fastness in the face of overwhelming odds.
    His gaze dropped to the tag visible on her bag. Picking up her name and address, he murmured, “Myst, it’s all right. Open your eyes and look at me.”
    She exhaled a long, shuddering breath, but obeyed.
    The second her gaze met his, he held out his hand. “Come, bellmia . Let’s get you out of here.”
    “But, Caroline, she—”
    “You can’t do anything for her now. The ME will care for her,” he said. “Your job is the baby. Think, Myst. What do you need to do for him?”
    She blinked, and Bastian saw the moment her mind left the horror and came back online. He almost smiled. Good girl, he wanted to say. The need to praise her surprised him a little, as did his need to go gently. He should be wiping her memory and hauling her into the ambulance. But he couldn’t do it. He didn’t want her to forget him.
    And Bastian hated himself for it—and for what he was about to do. He’d known the instant she’d turned her violet eyes on him that he wasn’t going to let her go. Five days. He had five days until the Meridian’s axis realigned. The biannual occurrence was the only time his kind could sire a child with a human female, and he needed to meet the deadline. He’d made a promise to himself, was bound by duty and honor to protect the race, and like it or not, Myst was coming with him.
    Rikar crossed over the threshold. “Holy shit.”
    “Back off,” he said, knowing his friend was responding more to Myst’s energy than the bloody scene.
    “Understood.” Rikar looked away from her. The move was pure instinct, one male backing away from another staking his claim. “We need to move. Company’s coming.”
    “How soon?”
    His first in command gave him a meaningful look.
    They’d run out of time. Bastian reached for Myst. Patience was no longer an option. Not if he wanted to get her out in one piece.

Chapter Three
     
    His voice drew Myst through the fog, out of blind panic and back into Caroline’s kitchen. The sight of her patient’s body almost made her lose it again. She could handle blood in normal amounts. Had even worked a stint in the ER, but this?
    Myst shuddered. Trauma wasn’t her thing. But, babies…
    Her gaze dropped to the bundle in her arms. Wrapped in her fleece-lined rain jacket, the newborn stared up at her, more alert than she would have expected for the difficulty of his birth. Myst studied him a little more closely. Tiny fists tucked beneath his chin, he yawned. Her eyes burned as she watched him. Yeah, babies were her thing.
    She blew out a shaky breath and glanced at the paramedic. Calm in the face of tragedy, he crouched a few feet away, no doubt wondering whether he needed to