by Vella Day
“I thought Fate needed to make someone a Guardian.”
“Fate has,” Declan said. “He, or she, paired you with my sister.”
“So I’d be fighting all day long?”
“Hardly. We all hold down full time jobs. No one knows who we are or what we do, so in that sense it’s a rather thankless profession—except for the person we’ve just saved.”
“Can I think about it?” he asked.
Declan smiled. “Of course. Take all the time you want. We may not need your services for a while, but when we do, we’d like to know we can count on you.”
Finn looked over at her. “Do you also battle on a regular basis?”
“I might fight,” she said, “or I might gather information.”
“So I could still try to get a job managing a bar and help in that way too?”
“Absolutely.” Kaleena so appreciated that Finn was willing to be in her life so completely. “It will be dangerous, but Thane will continue training you, just as he trains us all.”
He glanced between the two of them. “Then count me in!”
She hugged him, and her love for him continued to expand.
Declan stood. “If you’re interested in a little entertainment, check out what’s on every channel on the set. The Royals are sparing no expense for Rathan’s funeral. I have to hand it to the family. Their acting skills are unparalleled.”
“Aunt Teresa might be upset, since all of her kids managed to convince her they were saints. The others might be rejoicing Rathan is gone.”
Finn leaned forward. “What did they say caused his death?”
Declan chuckled. “The protector of the realm was viciously attacked while on a surveillance expedition. They never said he wasn’t in the province.”
“I guess it’s a good thing that they didn’t come out and say a member of the Sinclair family killed him.”
“Cousin Ander, who’s the most reasonable of the bunch, knows what kind of publicity nightmare that would unearth,” Declan said.
She couldn’t agree more. “So what’s next?”
“While you were recovering, we had a meeting. I think the next order of business is to find a way to free the prisoners from the castle prison cells. The last thing we need is for the Royals to have more dark magic.”
That thrilled her to no end. “I hope it’s not too late for those people. The woman next to my cell had already been there a week before I escaped. If the dark lighter was able to turn her, it could be a problem.”
“That’s why we’d like the two of you to join us tonight in the conference room for a little brainstorming session—assuming you’re up for it.”
Kaleena looked over at Finn. He nodded. “Tell us what time and we’ll be there.”
The idea of getting back into the swing of things thrilled her. It was what she was born to do.
Finn wasn’t sure Kaleena should put herself in danger so soon after her near fatal injury, but she swore she was good.
“I need to be active,” she said. “It’s woven into the fabric of my being.”
He chuckled. “I can tell. Perhaps Declan should have asked the four sisters to join us. With their help, I feel like the Guardians could accomplish anything.”
They climbed to the top of her condo building and opened the door to the rooftop. “They don’t like to interfere. They help only when needed.”
“They sound like Ophelia. She basically said the same thing.”
“It’s a balancing act for them. They fear that if they run around and save everyone that people won’t take any responsibility to help themselves.”
“They might have a point.”
“Ready to shift and hop on over to the SinCas building?” she asked.
“You bet.”
It wouldn’t be a long flight—maybe ten seconds in duration—but it beat getting in a car and hassling with traffic. One minute they were on her building, and the next they had landed on the SinCas roof where they immediately shifted back into their human form. This time he was pleased that he didn’t have to search for a spare set of clothes. Life on Tarradon certainly had its advantages.
They headed down the stairwell and exited one flight down. Kaleena strode over to the first door on the right and opened it. Shouts sounded, balloons filled the air, and everyone jumped up from their seats.
He was speechless at the party atmosphere.
“What’s going on?” Kaleena asked.
Her parents moved toward them. “We wanted to surprise you two.”
“I hope this doesn’t embarrass you; my family tends to go overboard,” she telepathed.
“No, it’s something my parents would have done. It looks like a welcome home party. I think it’s sweet.”
Kaleena looked up at him and smiled. “You’re right.”
Both of her parents hugged each of them. “I can’t tell you how thrilled I am that you and Kaleena have finally mated,” her mom said. “She’s the first of my children to do so. It’s why I wanted to throw a party.”
“Thank you.” He wasn’t sure what else to say.
Several more members of her family came up and congratulated them. Jamison patted him on the back. “Let’s everyone sit down and enjoy some cake. I could use a strong drink after having to sit on the sideline while my girl went against one of the most powerful fighters in the realm. She is something else.”
Finn’s gaze caught Kaleena’s, and she beamed back at him as she mouthed the words, I love you.
“She sure as hell is, and she is all mine.” Finn winked and told her he loved her too, without anyone hearing him.
It made him smile as he remembered how a lot of guys over the years had come into the bar and had said they wished they could find the woman of their dreams.
Damn, he was a lucky man. The woman of his dreams was a reality, and he was never letting her go. Kaleena turned toward him and slipped her arms around his waist. Bending down, he kissed her, letting his love for her flow.
“I love you, dream girl. Forever and always.”
“Right back at you!”
THE END
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I hope you enjoyed Kaleena and Finn’s story. Next up is Nessa and Kyle’s story, called SEDUCED BY FLAMES.
“Come on, come on. Where are you?” Nessa Caspian tapped her sharply pointed dragon talons across the rock face, determined to find the gold vein. Her ability to locate metals by touch had yet to fail to her, so why couldn’t she sense the gold now? It was here. She was sure of it.
Nessa closed her eyes, and when she focused all of her white lighter energy on sensing the metal vibrations, her father’s words came back to her, cutting short her concentration. If you’re wrong, he’d said, we’ll be in serious financial trouble.
Way to cut down my confidence, Dad. Now she wished she’d told him that in person. But Caspians didn’t whine or show any weakness. It just wasn’t done.
He always had been a worrywart about finances, but of late things he’d become worse. Not long ago, they were the richest metal mining company in the entire realm of Tarradon. Sure, their heyday had ended a few years ago, and yes they had a few mines not pan out, but Nessa was positive she’d sensed the gold in this area, and it would bring the family glory days back.
What about the two looming lawsuits? her dragon reminded her. That could slow your family’s progress for years.
Way to put more pressure on me. You should be helping me.
Nessa wasn’t that worried about the lawsuits. They weren’t their fault.
I’m trying.
More than anything she wanted to prove to her dad that she had the touch to find the perfect mother lode. From what her father told her, she’d inherited this gift of being able to read vibrations from rock from some great-great grandfather. No one else in the f
amily could find gems and metals the way her ancient relative had—until now.
Once more Nessa ran her nails across the cold rough rock—rock that had been blasted loose because of the underground digging. She was determined to find the location of the pure metal. Before she could identify the source, a small vibration skittered across the surface, and her pulse soared. She was close. Nessa could almost taste it.
She chuckled at what it had taken to get this far—a month of pleading and promises for her dad to relent. She couldn’t fail now. It was why she was two hundred feet below the surface doing this exploratory search for the vein of gold she was convinced existed.
A larger vibration tingled her fingers, returning her attention to the elusive vein. When a high tinny sound accompanied the shaking, her heart slammed against her rib cage. The frequency coupled with a distinct pitch, signaled a metal was present. She wouldn’t celebrate yet. There was a fine line between gold and copper, and between silver and platinum, and Nessa needed to be right this time. Listening intently, she was convinced the two matched gold’s signature.
Yes, she’d found it! Or so she hoped. The only way to be sure was to dig into the rock face and see the metal in its pure form.
Standing back, she fully shifted her hands into dragon claws. Only when she was in this partial state could she shoot fire from her fingertips. Unlike other dragons, her fire had laser precision coupled with an extremely hot flame.
More efficient than a blowtorch, she extended her arms and pointed to the area she suspected contained the gold—and not merely gold flecks embedded in the rock, but thick veins of metal. She smiled at what she was about to do. If anyone on Earth had a mother lode like this, they’d celebrate for years. Hell, it might make the history books.
With intense concentration, Nessa bored through the rock sending bits and pieces of sediment in every direction and pummeling her body, but she ignored the distraction. The heat blew back in her face, forcing her to squint but that didn’t stop her from making progress.
Don’t fail me now, she demanded of her body. Two minutes turned into four. Then on the next push the shine of pure gold bounced back at her. “Yes!!”
Heart pounding at her discovery, she stopped the fire and extended her claws to dig out a sample. The gold had somewhat melted, making it easier to scoop out. Extracting the container from her pocket, she brought the exquisite metal to her nose and sniffed, wishing it had a scent like a rose. It didn’t, but a girl could hope. As much as she wanted to paint her body with the stuff, she placed the scraped metal inside the container. Since it was impossible to remove all of it from her hands, her talons glowed yellow. She wiggled them and then let them return to normal human fingers.
Excited about the discovery for many reasons, she collected her light and headed back to the elevator. See, Dad? This is the mother lode of all mother lodes. Told you I could do it.
Ten steps from the metal cage that would take her swiftly to the top and let her bask in her glory, the entire wall exploded, blowing massive amount of rock debris in her direction, jettisoning her backward. Her mind failed to comprehend what was happening other than to tell her she was in deep shit.
Without any thoughts of shifting, her dragon burst forth to take the brunt of the blast. The force slammed Nessa’s animal hard into the stone wall, and she crumpled to the ground. She tried to bring in her wings to avoid more damage, but something was stopping her. As much as she wanted to look, between all the dust and the flying rocks, she had to close her eyes. A sharp object pieced her skull and she moaned at the intense ache. Where had the detonation come from? She was the only one down there.
Rocks fell on top of her, and dirt clogged her pours. Seeking as much safety as possible, she lowered her head and waited for the onslaught of rubble to stop falling, hoping against hope she wouldn’t be buried alive.
Seconds passed and then minutes, as more aftershocks shook the area. When silence finally surrounded her, she took a deep breath to assess the situation and was immediately sent into a coughing fit.
When she opened her eyes to check out the damage, she closed them immediately. Rocks were pressed against her snout and the silt had lodged into her eyes. While she didn’t like to jump to any conclusions, it was pretty obvious she was trapped hundreds of feet below the surface—all alone, and with no means of communicating with anyone. Damn.
While both of those facts made her situation dire, she was a dragon after all—one with some magic at her fingertips—no pun intended. Nessa should be able to get out of there. The big question was how long would it take her, and would she live long enough to reach the surface?
The one glimmer of hope was that everyone on the surface would have heard the explosion. Sadly, there was little they could do about it. She was too far down for them to drill. Hell, it took them a month to build the shaft in the first place.
When she blew out a breath, her chest screamed in pain. Really? She chanced opening her eyes a smidge and noted a mammoth rock sitting on her chest. Not only that, one wing sat under a ton of rubble. Well, double damn. It was worse than she feared.
Sure she was scared, but she was more pissed than anything. Given this was the third accident in as many months it might be better to die down here than to go through the humiliation of the Mining Consortium shutting them down. Her father had already received two warning letters. One more and it would be lights out for them for a long while. Given she was in charge of the mine safety, she’d be the fall guy.
It would be one thing if SinCas Gems and Mining had been guilty of neglect, but they hadn’t been. Nessa had been meticulous keeping everyone out of harm’s way.
Her memory flitted back to last month and her heart ached. Nessa’s second in command had died from faulty explosives. She’d personally inspected the devices the day before and everything was good to go. So what had gone wrong? That question had plagued every day since. Nessa just wished she’d been the one that day to set the charges. It just wasn’t fair.
Stop feeling sorry for yourself and get us the hell out of here, her dragon grumbled.
Her animal was right. No one was going to save her, which meant she had to figure out how to get out of there.
The first thing Nessa had to do was move that huge boulder off her body. To do that, she needed her claws—claws that were trapped under a mountain of debris. Ugh. This wasn’t going to be easy or painless. Using much of her energy, she dug her claws upward inch by inch. Because one of her wings was not accessible, it wouldn’t be of much use until she could free it.
Slowly but surely, Nessa edged her talons to the surface, tossing small rocks aside along the way. When one talon broke into view, she took a big breath.
“Ouch. Damn it.” Why couldn’t she remember that inhaling deeply was painful?
Move the damn rock, her dragon complained.
“I was planning on it.” Sheesh. The only reason she vocalized her comment was to make herself feel less alone. “I’m sure help is on the way.”
In a month maybe, her dragon shot back.
She refused to listen to such negativity. Grabbing onto one side of the boulder, Nessa pushed with her claw while she lifted her right wing a few inches. While not totally free, it was enough to move the rock to the side. In the process of shoving it out of the way though, several ribs cracked.
Don’t move, her dragon said. Let me heal you.
“I have no place to go. Have at me.”
While she waited, she slowly picked the debris off of her wings and tossed it to the side. By the time the ache in her chest began to subside, she’d managed to free her right wing completely and part of her left wing.
Exhausted from the exercise, Nessa leaned back. What the hell had gone wrong? She hadn’t brought any explosives into the shaft, so what had detonated? This mine was far from all of the others, so there was no reason for anyone to be excavating anywhere near there. She didn’t want to consider someone wanted her dead. Hell, without her constant vigilan
ce to keep the mines safe, more people would be injured. She’d always believed the employees were grateful to them, but clearly she’d been wrong.
Nessa pounded the stone in frustration and instantly regretted her burst of anger.
You aren’t going to find the answer unless you start digging, her dragon reminded her.
Knowing she spoke the truth, Nessa opened her mouth and shot a hot stream of fire straight at the rock in front of her. The powerful spray of fire excavated the rocks and dirt, boring a hole straight through the middle. With more room to maneuver, she was able to claw away the rest of the debris from the bottom half of her body. Given she was fifteen feet tall, it was no small feat to give her enough room to stand and then spread her wings.
Several hours of labor later, when she finally had space, she stood—or as close to standing as she could. Her left wing hung at an odd angle, and both of her legs were severely cut, but that wasn’t going to stop her from cutting her way out of there—however long it took.
Knowing what she had to do, Nessa began moving the larger rocks out of the way. By heating the rocks to a high degree, they fused, providing stability to the walls. She just hoped like hell she didn’t have to repeat this process for two hundred feet straight up. She’d never last.
Kyle Harper’s cell phone rang. When he saw it was his sister, Lily, he smiled and pushed back his office chair to get more comfortable. “Hey, there.”
“Kyle, there’s been another accident at the Caspian mine.”
He jerked forward, unable to detect her level of anger. His sister despised dragons. “When? Was anyone hurt?”
Lily worked for Avonbelle Insurance Agency, the agency that insured all of the miners. The last thing they wanted was to pay out for something one of their workers did. That meant she and her company would love to prove the Caspians had been negligent—and to be honest, so did Kyle. Dragon shifters were evil beings. One glance at Lily’s burned and scarred back proved it.
“I don’t know any details.”
“Fuck.” As head of the Mining Consortium it would be his job to shut them down, and the thought of battling one of the most prestigious families in the whole province didn’t appeal to him. After the last two accidents, he’d given Laird Caspian a final warning. Any more safety violations and there would be dire consequences. Kyle shoved back his chair and stood. “Thanks for the heads up.”
