Pierce (Dragon Heartbeats Book 1)

by Ava Benton

  Her car was on the forest floor by now, washed off the road. There was no other way for her to get down the mountain. The police would want to know. Word might get out on the news, on the internet.

  The girl who claimed a dragon saved her from certain death.

  What would happen then? It didn’t take a genius to follow the scenario to its natural conclusion. Anyone aware of the that which we were guarding would know there were dragons present in the Appalachian Mountains. They’d find out the general location and start their hunt. We’d be exposed, in danger. It would risk our mission. We had worked hard and made countless sacrifices, and she could undo all of it.

  But she’s ours. She’s meant for us. The dragon wouldn’t stop insisting on being heard.

  She’s too big a risk. I have to let her go, I thought.

  A roar of outrage filled my head. She is our mate! You will not allow her to die!

  “What am I supposed to do?” I shouted out loud, my voice echoing off the mountainside and throughout the valley below.

  I heard myself asking the same question again and again, until the echoes overlapped and eventually faded into silence.

  I looked down at her again, torn between self-preservation and pity. And the constant nagging from the dragon, though I did what I could to keep him to a dull roar. He wasn’t helping.

  I couldn’t leave her. It was as simple as that. I’d never forgive myself. I’d always know she was there, that her beauty was rotting under the sun and rain and snow, that the animals would get to her before long and tear her flesh to pieces.

  With that image in my head, I lifted her as gently as I could and made the decision to create a very big problem for myself.

  We hadn’t used the cells for almost as long as I could remember, not since the very early days when we faced discovery by a group of hunters who’d stumbled upon us and tried to attack.

  It had been no contest, but those who had survived the fight had spent the rest of their short, miserable lives locked up inside a separate series of tunnels connected to the rest of our underground compound but existing on the other side of the mountain. The tunnels were divided into six separate cells, each lined with iron bars. I hadn’t even visited them in more than a hundred years, but used to sometimes escape there for the sake of being alone and hearing myself think.

  Television, video games, internet and the like had made it easier to entertain ourselves and stay out of each other’s hair when needed, but that wasn’t the case only a century earlier.

  There was an entrance on the opposite side of the mountain from the cave mouth where Cash still stood sentry, and I wasted no time getting there. The sooner I had her inside, away from the risk of discovery, the better.

  And that meant keeping her from the rest of the family, too.

  I wasn’t sure how that would be possible, seeing as how we were so entwined in each other’s lives, but there had to be a way. They would never understand why she had to be here. They would never forgive me for putting us in danger.

  Tell them she’s ours, the dragon demanded.

  Ignorant bastard, single-minded as always. Black and white. Right and wrong. She was ours, and that was all there was to be considered. No gray areas, no concern for the other dragons I called my brothers and cousins. They didn’t matter. It was all so easy for him.

  And what if I did tell them? Like it would matter in the face of the bigger picture. Putting us all in jeopardy. Ten centuries with them had stripped away all illusions. They would care about survival and duty. We had no duty to this girl.

  The tunnel was dark, windowless of course, without the lighting or air filtration systems we used in our underground maze. She wouldn’t suffocate, but the darkness would become a problem. I would have to bring candles in for her, and bedding which would prove more comfortable than a pile of rags on the floor. It would have to do for the time being. I lowered her carefully, cautiously, still fearing internal injuries.

  What was I thinking? Caring about her comfort, hoping I hadn’t worsened any invisible bleeding she might be suffering. Digging myself deeper and deeper.

  There was no time to think about it. I had to get back to my suite, shower, and dress and make a point of covering up for my absence.

  The truck would still be sitting on the road, if it hadn’t succumbed to the mudslide, so I had an excuse for coming back empty-handed.

  I ran barefoot down the long, dark tunnel which would eventually lead to a wooden door that sealed the cells off from our home.

  With any luck, the other side would be empty, and I’d be able to get to my room without notice. If any of the others saw me, they’d want to know why I hadn’t used our normal entrance—and, of course, I should have.

  I should’ve flown around to the mouth of the cave and told Cash about the mudslide as though there were no further complications. I was already slipping up, not thinking clearly.

  I would have to get my story straight if there was any hope of getting away with keeping my prisoner a secret.

  5

  Pierce

  An hour passed before I could get back with supplies for her. I had to explain what happened to everything I’d purchased at Costco—Fence and Miles offered to go back to look for the truck—and clean myself up before I had a chance to gather things for her.

  Blankets, dry clothing which was much too big for her, but at least it was clean, bottled water, candles and flashlights. I had no idea what she’d need, if anything, but it was a start.

  She was still unconscious when I arrived. I wished I knew if that was a good or bad thing. Should she still be out like that? Should I wake her?

  I made a more comfortable pallet for her and moved her to it, then used my pocket knife to cut the hoodie away from her shoulder rather than trying to pull her arm out of the sleeve.

  The caution I used with her, the gentleness she inspired in me… it was all a surprise. I had never been a gentle person. None of us were. There was too much of the dragon in us to concern ourselves with tenderness or caution.

  She brought out something in me I wasn’t aware of until now.

  I was just as gentle when I poured fresh water over the wound to get a better look at it without dried blood getting in the way. It appeared to have stopped bleeding, but I could see the shoulder joint clearly. The wound was far too deep for me to do anything about it—anything humans were accustomed to doing, at any rate. Sewing, that sort of thing. I wasn’t a surgeon, and I had never suffered a wound I couldn’t recover from on my own, thanks to my blood.

  My blood…

  The sound of footsteps further down the tunnel stopped my thoughts in their tracks. There shouldn’t have been anyone else here, ever. There was no reason. I moved closer to her, protective.

  “I thought so.” Smoke and Gate stepped out of the darkness.

  Smoke’s scowl was clear even with his face still half in shadow. “I heard the noise out here before you showed yourself to us and thought you must’ve stopped here for some reason.”

  “You’re a regular detective.” I , turned back to her.

  Well, they knew. It was bound to happen.

  Her breathing was shallow and rapid, like she knew she was in danger without being conscious. Just how much danger remained to be seen.

  Not much, I hoped. I would hate to have to fight either of them for her sake or any other reason, but I would do it if they pushed me far enough.

  “What’s she doing here?” Gate demanded, walking into the cell and standing over the two of us. “Where did you find her?”

  “She was swept up in the mudslide on the road. Her car was dangling off the cliff. I pulled her out before it went all the way.”

  “Why didn’t you just let her go?” he asked.

  My head snapped up, and I glared at him.

  “Would you be able to sit by and watch a car plunge off a cliff without so much as trying to help?” I whispered, afraid of waking her.

  “Knowing that the car wa
s driven by a human? Yeah, I would. Like they’ve ever done anything but hunt our kind.”

  “I don’t believe you. I know you would’ve at least tried.”

  He didn’t argue. “I sure as hell wouldn’t have brought her here!”

  “He’s right,” Smoke agreed, entering the cell.

  He was always the voice of reason, the one who measured his words and decisions more carefully than the rest of us. I normally respected that—in the moment, with the girl lying helpless and in need of my protection, my temper flared and the dragon roared inside me.

  “Easy for you to say.” I stood up to face the both of them with my hands balled into fists. “I couldn’t leave her to die out there. The road was useless. I had to shift to catch her before she hit the trees—”

  “You shifted?” Smoke grunted.

  “You let her see you?” Gate’s jaw dropped. His eyes moved, focusing on her.

  “She was unconscious for almost all of it,” I argued, even as I knew my argument was falling flat. They wouldn’t want to hear it. “Hell, she has a cut on her head. I could always tell her she imagined it.”

  “If she even wakes up at all,” Gate pointed out, looking at her again. “She’s probably all banged up inside.”

  “Look at that wound on her shoulder,” Smoke said, bending to get a better look. “It’s wide open. She’ll get infected. That could kill her.”

  “What if I healed her?”

  “What if you what?” Gate’s voice boomed in the tiny space. “Have you lost your damn mind? It’s bad enough you brought her here, with us, and let her see your dragon. Now you want to heal her?”

  “Why not? Our blood can heal just about anything.”

  “Impossible,” Smoke muttered, shaking his head.

  “It’s not impossible, and you know it.”

  “I don’t mean that it isn’t possible your blood could save her,” he clarified. “It absolutely could, and we all know that. But you can’t save her! You can’t run that risk.”

  “Don’t the rest of us mean anything to you?” Gate asked, eyes wide and wild. “Doesn’t our mission mean anything? I don’t know about you, but I haven’t been living in a fucking cave for the last thousand years, half a world away from the only place I ever thought of as home, protecting something from the ones trying to find it only to have you ruin everything because your cock twitched at the sight of a pretty girl.”

  Smoke stepped between us before I got my hands on him.

  “Enough. Both of you.” He pushed at me, moving me back a few steps away from Gate, who looked mad enough to kill.

  I knew exactly how that felt.

  He looked back at my cousin, then at me. “Don’t you see what this has already done? I mean, is this girl’s life worth tearing us all apart this way?”

  “It’s not my fault he can’t handle this like an adult,” I growled, staring daggers over Smoke’s shoulder.

  Gate glared right back.

  “This isn’t like you.” Smoke took my shoulders and steered me slightly, so I was looking at him instead of at Gate. “You’ve always known what’s right, and you’ve acted from that place. You’ve done just as much as anybody else to ensure our safety and the success of our job here. You have to know how potentially dangerous this girl is.”

  I couldn’t lie. It would only make things worse. “Yes. You know I do.”

  “And yet, she’s here. How can you explain that?”

  Tell him she’s ours, the dragon ordered.

  I could almost see him in my head sometimes, especially when his voice was as clear as it was just then. His presence was so strong, it threatened to overwhelm me. Even so, I couldn’t give in. Calling her my mate would only make things worse.

  “I suppose I can’t explain it,” was all I said.

  It sounded lame, half-hearted, but I had no choice. It would take a little more time for me to make sense of the conflict tearing me in pieces. I didn’t want to speak too soon.

  Gate’s voice was low, foreboding. “I’m warning you. Don’t even try to heal her. You’ll only make things worse.”

  “I’m warning you,” I snarled in reply. “Don’t warn me. Don’t ever try to tell me what to do again. I don’t want this to end badly, but it will if you ever try something like that again.”

  “Enough.” Smoke’s voice cut through the tension like a whip. He sounded like an exhausted father driven to distraction by his quarrelsome children. “I think the rest of the family should hear about this. Miles and Fence should be back soon, and it’s my turn to stand guard after Cash’s shift is up. The three of them need to hear about it, too, and we can arrive at a decision once they know.”

  “I see. This is a democracy now?”

  “I thought it always was. Anything one of us does affects the rest of us.” He frowned. “When did you forget that? Or was it always a matter of convenience for you?”

  I didn’t know what I say. I searched for the right words but came up empty.

  No matter how my dragon roared and thrashed and demanded satisfaction, my human side couldn’t deny the truth of what Smoke was saying.

  There was no excuse for what I was putting the family through except what the dragon was telling me: the girl was my mate, the one I had long since stopped waiting for because I was sure she would never exist—and even if she did, there was the problem of us finding each other when I spent my life in a cave.

  “I couldn’t leave her there, and I won’t let her die here.”

  Smoke held eye contact for a beat, like he was waiting for me to change my mind or come to my senses. When I didn’t, his shoulders fell along with his expression.

  He knew there was no getting through to me. “Fine, then. Gate will be back with the others—it’s my turn to keep watch outside.”

  “All right.” I stared at Gate as he left, and he shot me a dirty look.

  I wished things didn’t have to devolve the way they had. We weren’t on opposing sides and never had been, but a wedge had suddenly worked its way between us. Maybe between me and the rest of my family. The thought made my heart heavy, but some things meant more than avoiding friction.

  Like her.

  Every moment her wound was exposed to the dank, moldy air of the cells put her one moment closer to infection, then death. I couldn’t allow that after already risking so much to bring her there, including my relationship with my family.

  Just like I couldn’t risk them killing her to protect us.

  Would they do that? The dragon in me roared in fury at the thought of it, and it was a struggle to keep my head on straight long enough to think things through.

  I could never think straight when he was on the rampage, and just now he wanted me to tear through our home and upend everything in sight.

  Especially when I considered that they might, in fact, kill her in order to remove the threat of her alerting the outside world to our presence.

  Or let her die. They might overpower me, find a way to subdue me.

  One dragon was strong, but five against one was still unfavorable odds, and I had the feeling all five of them would be against me. They could allow her to die in that cell. She wouldn’t be the first, only the first in a long time.

  I was running out of time. I had to make a decision. As I watched her, lying there on that pile of blankets without another person in the world to stand up for her life, there was no question about what I needed to do.

  I lit one of the candles and rinsed the blade of my knife, which I’d just used to cut off that blood-soaked hoodie, then held it over the flame to sterilize it before sliding it across the inside of my wrist.

  Instantly, blood flowed from the cut. I wasn’t worried about it—I’d heal just as quickly as I healed from everything else. What worried me was getting enough blood onto the girl’s wound in time to heal her.

  I held my arm over her shoulder and watched as blood poured out, covering her wound.

  “Come on,” I whispered, watching, waiting
for the healing to start. “Come on. Close up.”

  Instead of the muscles and skin knitting themselves together, the way I had imagined it, my blood began to sizzle as it worked its way into her muscles and tendons.

  Her eyes flew open just before a soul-searing scream split the silence.

  6

  Jasmine

  I was on fire. My shoulder was burning, exploding in pain, and I wanted to die.

  The only thing I could do at first was scream in shock and agony. My whole existence centered around the torture I was going through, all centered in my right shoulder.

  “Stop it!” I screamed, beating at the dark figure who hovered above me with my good hand.

  It was like hitting solid rock.

  He didn’t give—there was no softness to his body. He didn’t flinch, either.

  “Please! You’re killing me! Please, stop!” I gritted my teeth as a shriek raced up my throat.

  I could hear my voice doubling, tripling, filling the shadows with the sound of my agony.

  He moved, finally, to pick up a candle and hold it close to my face.

  I recoiled in fear, thinking he was doing it to burn me someplace else, on some other part of my body that he hadn’t already destroyed.

  “Stop it!” he ordered in a sharp voice, and I turned my face toward his.

  Dark eyes probing mine, looking for answers. Dark hair, smooth, tanned skin. A strong face. A handsome one. The face of a demon because he was torturing me and it would kill me because ohmigod, it hurt more than anything I had ever been through or could ever imagine.

  “Please… please, help me. I’m dying…” I couldn’t control my whimpers of pain and panic.

  I forced myself to look down at my shoulder and bit back another scream as the sight of my sizzling flesh greeted my eyes.