The Island Of Dragons: A Paranormal Shifter Romance Page 13

  When we were maybe halfway back to the shore, he spoke in a yell to be heard above the crashing surf, startling me. “You know what, Miss O’Brien? I’m not even scared at all right now.” He paused for just a second or two, gulping air, then continued in a quieter voice. “Gotcha. I’m actually a little bit scared.”

  “That’s okay. We’re doing good.”

  “Is my mom okay?”

  “She’s fine.”

  “Her baby comin’ on out?”

  “Yes.”

  I didn’t say anything else; the few words I’d spoken seemed to have used up every last remaining bit of oxygen in my lungs.

  It was getting pretty dark. But soon, even in the gloom, I was still able to catch a glimpse of dark shapes flying just to the east. Warren’s dragons.

  Davy, showing no signs of being thoroughly winded just yet, paused in his helper swimming just long enough to point up at one of the dragons. “That’s my dad up there, and he’s one of Chief Warren’s strongest dragons. No gotcha.”

  I opened my mouth to say something like, “That’s good,” but I couldn’t even manage it. I was weakening quickly, and there was another monster-sized wave, caused by a monster’s footfalls, rolling toward us just up ahead.

  When we finally neared the shore, I’d become so weak I had to crawl through the shallows. Now Davy helped me, pulling on one of my shoulders, telling me I could do it. When we reached dry sand, he helped me up to my feet, paused for a few breaths, and then launched himself into a back handspring, landing with his hands in front of him, giving me two thumbs up.

  “That’s two thumbs up for your hard swimming, Miss O’Brien. Remember when you taught me to backflip in tumbling class?”

  Hands on knees, I nodded, sucking in great lungfuls of air. “Yes.”

  “Are you surprised I still had enough energy left in me to do that flip?”

  I sucked in another deep lungful, thinking. “No. I’m starting to think you have enough energy for a hundred children, Davy.”

  We soon started making our way up to the castles as the golem’s booms became almost deafeningly loud and the ground began to shake as if an actual earthquake was happening. But when we were almost to the boardwalk, there was a long moment of perfect stillness and silence that made us both stop in our tracks. I turned to the east just in time to see a large dragon, inky black in the now-complete darkness, begin charging at some indistinct shape that towered above the treetops in the distant jungle. Warren was charging at the golem.

  I gasped, saying a silent prayer that he would be okay. Another split-second of perfect stillness and silence. And then the crash. I’d been in a major car accident before, had heard the sickening crunch of tons of metal colliding with tons of metal at a high rate of speed, and this was even louder. And more than that, it was even more jarring. It felt as if a bomb had gone off beneath my feet. Clutching Davy, I flew through the air, landing on my rear in the sand somewhere near the boardwalk.

  The next thing I knew, strong hands were pulling me up in the dark, hurrying me and Davy up toward the castles. I heard Hugh’s gruff voice, saying everything was going to be okay. I prayed with all my heart that it would be. There were several more earthquake-type crashes before Hugh ushered us into the nearest castle, which was Melody and Josh’s. Joanna was pacing around the living room, crying out, with Melody by her side. Despite seeming to be in incredible pain, Joanna still managed to hobble over to Davy and give him a quick hug with tears in her eyes. She also managed to tell me a quick thank you for rescuing him, though her words were cut off by another wail of pain.

  Dr. Benson was inside, too, and after I’d said that Davy and I were fine, she whisked us both away to separate guest bedrooms, saying she was going to examine us both anyway.

  A short while later, after we’d each been given a clean bill of health, we returned to the living room amidst more crashing and booming coming from the east. Joanna and Melody were gone, and Davy asked where they’d went.

  Sadie, who was sitting in an overstuffed chair with a pillow behind her head, smiled at him. “They went into one of the bedrooms to welcome your new little sister into the world. By the sound of a feisty little cry I heard a minute ago, I think she’s here already.”

  Davy turned to me, big brown eyes wide. “I’m a big brother now, Miss O’Brien. Ultimate zero number of gotchas.”

  After I’d congratulated Davy and given him a big hug, Hugh took me aside and congratulated and hugged me.

  “You did it, kid. You took that mean old ocean, and you said, ‘Look here... I’m tougher than you. You swam in it, and you were strong, and you not only survived, you helped two other people survive, too. Three other people, to be technical. And I bet you weren’t even scared.”

  I pulled my face from Hugh’s shoulder to look at him. “No... I was. But just somewhere underneath. Mostly, I felt driven to protect, and help. And that made the fear part just kind of melt away.”

  Hugh grinned, giving me a light pat on the back. “Congratulations again. In my opinion, Miss Ellie O’Brien just became the bravest young woman in Knight’s Shore tonight.”

  Soon I went back into the bedroom Dr. Benson had examined me in to wait out the battle. Sadie brought me a towel and dry clothes, and gave me a hug and a few kindly pats, and then left. I curled up in the bed, listening to the distant booms, which were getting quieter and father apart now. I cried. I prayed for Warren’s safety. I prayed that he was okay. And somehow, unbelievably, in the midst of it all, I fell asleep.

  ***

  When I awoke hours later, I thought I was in a dream. Pale sunshine was streaming in through the windows, and Warren was beside me in bed. He looked healthy and whole, and his full lips were curved in a smile. I’m dreaming. But his fingers, which were stroking the side of my face, felt solid and real enough, and when he spoke, his voice seemed real enough, too.

  “Good morning, you gorgeous creature.”

  Acting on impulse, I pressed my lips to his, hard, finding them as solid as his fingers. This was no dream.

  “The golem... did you destroy him? And are all your men okay?”

  His smile got even bigger.

  “Yes, and yes. Things definitely didn’t go as smoothly and easily as I’d hoped, but in the end, I was able to gain the upper hand. And my men aren’t entirely without injuries, but everyone is going to be just fine after some rest and recovery.”

  Weak with relief, I heaved a sigh. “Oh, thank God. I’m so glad.”

  Still smiling, Warren stroked the side of my face some more before speaking again, expression serious. “You’re amazing, Ellie. You’re awe-inspiring. Last night, everyone told me what you did. Davy told me how you protected him and held onto him even through the biggest waves...and even in the midst of everything going on... I just couldn’t help but think about what an amazing woman you are... and I also couldn’t help but think about what an amazing mother you’ll make someday.”

  I smiled, twining my fingers with his, heart soaring. “Well, that’s funny, because I’ve been having thoughts about what an amazing father you’ll make someday.”

  Warren’s delectable mouth curved into a sexy half-grin.

  “Hmm... interesting. Because now with the golem destroyed, I think we’re going to be able to spend more time together and maybe talk a bit more about some of these thoughts we’ve both been having.”

  I hiked a leg over his slim hips, sure I was grinning ear-to-ear. “Hmm, maybe so. And what do you say we start on that spending a bit more time together idea right now. What do you say we head over to your castle and see where things lead?”

  With his coal gray eyes twinkling, Warren rolled out of bed and scooped me up in his arms. “That, Miss Eleanor Christine Elizabeth O’Brien, esquire, is a fantastic idea.”

  A short while later, we showered together in his marble-tiled master bathroom, our hungry mouths and bodies only parting just long enough to briefly soap each other up. Now, with the golem destroyed, we could fi
nally be together again physically, and it didn’t seem as if either one of us was willing to waste a second of it.

  By the time we emerged from the warm spray of the shower, Warren’s thick shaft was rock-hard, and the feminine folds between my thighs were slick and swollen. I wanted to make love right away, and I told Warren so, but instead, he carried me into his bedroom, saying that we needed to take things slowly.

  I stared at him, incredulous. “Cruel. You’d be absolutely cruel to tease me at this point.”

  “Maybe. But still....” After setting me down on his bed crosswise, he cocked his head to one side and looked off into the distance, as if thinking. “But still, I think I want to.” With his full lips twitching, he returned his gaze to my face. “And I’m going to. And I’m afraid you don’t have a choice about this, Eleanor. So, just sit back, relax, and try to enjoy my cruelty if you can.”

  With that, he pulled my hips to the edge of the bed, got down on his knees, and began planting kisses along my inner thighs, slowly. I knew what was next, and I wanted it, but I felt like I just couldn’t wait for it. I couldn’t wait for Warren to take his sweet time.

  “Warren, please... I’ve been deprived for too long.”

  More slow kisses along my inner thighs.

  “Warren, don’t be cruel. You’re being inhumane.”

  He began moving his kisses inward a bit, but his mouth still didn’t connect with the exact spot I wanted it to connect with. The spot I was desperate for it to connect with.

  Truly feeling a bit tortured, I arched my back, gripping and twisting the blanket in both hands. “Warren, please... don’t make me beg.”

  To my extreme relief, he didn’t. The moment I felt his firm, full lips touch the spot I was so desperate for them to touch, I cried out, arching my back even further. Before long, I was writhing in ecstasy, panting, as he rapidly raked his tongue over my most sensitive spot, slowly stroking his beyond-stiffened rod while he did so, in a feat of pretty impressive coordination. When my passion reached its final crest, I held his head in place between my thighs, tangling my fingers in his thick, dark hair.

  A full four hours or so later, after a marathon lovemaking session broken up by only a few brief rests, we finally fell asleep, naked limbs entwined. We didn’t wake up until three in the afternoon.

  After another shower together, this one a little more leisurely than the last one had been, Warren went to check on a few of his men who’d been injured. After he’d made sure that they were all okay and improving, we enjoyed a delicious dinner of tequila-lime glazed chicken and shrimp that Sadie cooked for us. Warren’s phone dinged with a text alert just as we were finishing a heavenly dessert of mango sorbet.

  He apologized to me, adding that he felt that he had to look at his phone in case it was a message about any of his injured men, and then he looked at the screen briefly before speaking. “It’s from Dr. Benson. Dalton has his memory back, and he wants to talk to us both.”

  We literally flew to the clinic. Warren flew in dragon form, and I flew on his back. Once inside the clinic, we raced down the corridor to Dalton’s room and found him sitting up in bed, looking healthy and well with an empty dinner tray in his lap.

  When he saw us, he pushed the tray aside and got right to it. “I remember everything, and I’m ready to tell you both everything. Everything about this island, the Forms, the golem, and even why I said that the two of you couldn’t have relations until the golem was destroyed. See, as you correctly suspected, Chief Knight, I’m not just a scientist here for a look-see. My father was one of the computer scientists who designed this island. Incidentally, he was also your father, too, Ellie. We’re half-siblings.”

  I stood speechless, stunned, and he continued, his gaze on Warren now.

  “But all that isn’t important right now, Chief Knight. What is important is that the golem was the least of your problems. This island is set to self-destruct in thirty days. And no one, not even you island leaders, can get off the island now. If my calculations are correct, which I think they are, the portals have closed. We’re all going to die.”

  Warren suddenly had to hold me up with an arm around my waist because my knees had buckled. I leaned against him, trembling, barely even able to process what I’d just heard, let alone believe it. But if it was true, if the island was going to self-destruct in thirty days, I wasn’t going to let it happen without at least trying to stop it. Now that I knew I had at least some bravery in me, I wasn’t going to give up my life and my future with Warren without a fight.

  CHAPTER TEN

  Waiting for Dalton to explain exactly why he’d said the island was going to self-destruct, I stood against Warren, trembling. Perfectly steady and not quaking in the least, Warren tightened his arm around my waist, continuing to hold me up.

  With his dark gray eyes just slightly narrowed, he looked at Dalton and spoke in a low voice that exuded authority. “Please explain everything. This second.”

  Sitting up a little straighter in his hospital bed, Dalton took a deep breath, seeming like he was going to do just what Warren had asked. But before he could speak even a single syllable, something funny happened: the tile flooring in the room seemed to ripple or shake or something. At first, just for the briefest of seconds, I thought my rubbery legs had simply begun to get even worse. I thought I’d begun literally shaking like a leaf. But a quick look at Dalton’s face, and then Warren’s, told me this definitely wasn’t the case. Judging by their twin expressions of confusion and alarm, they’d both felt the floor shake, too. Warren began to say something but halted abruptly mid-word when another tremor rippled through the floor, this one even more pronounced. This one was strong enough to make a few paper cups on a tray table skitter over the edge and fall to the floor.

  Flinging off a sheet and swinging his legs over the side, Dalton began getting out of bed. “It’s happening already. I expected there would be earthquakes. We need to get outside before the building collapses on us.” Frowning, he started pulling an I.V line out of his arm while at the same time jamming his feet into a pair of slippers. “Something just tells me this could be bad.”

  Warren wasted no time getting me to safety. Instead of wasting seconds by leading me out of the room and down the hallway to the building exit, he whisked me over to one of two large open windows in the room, yanked the screen up, and lifted me through the window, telling me to run from the building.

  “But don’t go near the castles. Just get to open space where nothing can fall on you. I’ll see Dalton out, and I’ll be right there.”

  I did as I was told, getting a good distance away from the clinic, and into the open sandy, rocky terrain adjacent to it. Not even a hundred yards from me, the clear, turquoise ocean glittered in the last rays of the sun, though I could hardly see it over a line of tall dunes studded with a few palms. What I could clearly see in the distance, however, was the long row of castles facing the water, and just a bit to the east, the rest of the stone buildings that made up the heart of the village.

  As Dalton emerged through the same window I’d come out of, with Warren behind him, the ground quaked again, though quaked wasn’t even a powerful enough word. What happened to the ground felt more like an explosion, even though nothing had exploded. The force of the tremor was so powerful it knocked me off my feet and onto my rear in the sand. While a horrible, strange, groaning-scraping sound assaulted my ears, several of the two-story castles in the distance seemed to rise up and out of the sand a few feet, shaking, and then their second stories partially collapsed, sending their turrets and big slabs of stone crashing to the sand beneath. One of the castles was Melody and Josh’s, and the other belonged to Joanna and Lucas. I knew Joanna and Lucas’ bedroom was on the second floor, as was Davy’s bedroom, and as was newborn baby Abby’s nursery.

  I screamed, jumping to my feet. “No!”

  Taking off running wasn’t even a conscious decision that I made, it just kind of happened. Next thing I knew, my feet were just
flying over the sand. I was sprinting faster than I’d probably ever sprinted before in my life, for any reason. I had to get to the village. I had to help. That was all I could think. Warren’s request that I not go near the castles had left my mind entirely.

  Though very soon, I was reminded of it. I was reminded of it because Warren tackled me and brought me down to the sand. And not roughly at all; in fact, he seemed to cushion me in his strong arms as if I were a piece of fine china. But it was crystal clear that I would not be taking a single step further.

  “No, Ellie! You can’t! You stay right here, and—”

  “No! Let me go!”

  Thoughts focused solely on my friends and the children, I kicked, struggled and twisted like some wild, ferocious animal, desperate to escape his encircling arms.

  “Let me go, Warren!”

  He didn’t, and instead, he held me even more firmly, though still without hurting me.

  Half-insane with blind desperation, I began thrashing even more furiously. “Let me go! Let me go, goddammit!”

  Warren’s arms may as well have been steel bars around me. He continued holding me, shushing me. “You have to stay safe, Ellie. You have to stay safe right here.”

  Another quake rippling through the ground, immediately followed by more horrific grinding-crashing noises in the distance, only intensified my desperation.

  “Warren, you have to let me go help! My friends need me!”

  “But you can’t help in this case. Can you lift several-ton slabs of rock if need be? I don’t think you can, but I can. And you’re preventing me from doing that right this moment.”

  Right away, I realized he was right. I obviously couldn’t lift massive slabs of stone like a shifter could even in human form. In my desire to help, I was actually delaying help from reaching everyone. I stopped struggling, and while another tremor shook the sand beneath us, Warren spoke in a low voice near my ear. “Swear to me you’ll stay here if I leave you.”