THRAX

by Bonnie Burrows

  *

  Not a second after I'd launched my arrow, a dark gray wolf stepped out from the shrubbery on the other side of the clearing, only several hundred feet away. It was Ezra. My pulse quickened, and I glanced up at the cloudy sky, looking for Nick. But I didn't see any sign of him. However, I knew he was likely still hiding in the forest just a short distance behind me. And I knew that he'd soon spot Ezra as well, come out and shift into dragon form, and then roar the signal for Sam, who was even a bit deeper into the forest, to come pick me up. And then, Nick would attack Ezra before he could even get near me.

  At least twenty seconds ticked by while Ezra very slowly stalked across the clearing toward me, and I still didn't see or hear any sign of Nick. No jets of fire in the sky. No roar for Sam to come pick me up. I waited maybe ten more seconds, beads of perspiration breaking out on my forehead, while glancing between the gray sky and Ezra's even darker gray, massive wolf form.

  But still no sign of Nick. Wondering if he'd positioned himself too deep in the forest and just couldn't quite see Ezra across the clearing, I decided to give him a shout.

  With my heartbeat hammering in my ears, I glanced back toward the forest.

  "Nick! Nick, now! He's coming!"

  Ezra was now maybe only three hundred feet away, and he picked up his pace a bit.

  After glancing up at the sky and still seeing no sign of Nick, I glanced back at the forest again. "Nick, please! Now!"

  Ezra was now moving swiftly, and I knew I was running out of time. With trembling fingers, I grabbed an arrow from the bag by my feet, loaded it into my bow, and fired at Ezra. But I missed. By a mile. Ezra paused, glanced at where the arrow had landed at least ten feet to his left, and gave his head a little shake while looking at me, as if expressing how pathetic my attempt had been. And then, he took off at a run.

  Gasping, I snatched up another arrow, loaded it into my bow, and fired. And this one came much closer to Ezra. But it still missed him. And I was out of time. He was now so close I didn't think I had time to draw another arrow and fire. However, I knew I couldn't give up. I had to try.

  But suddenly, before I could even stoop to grab another arrow, I heard a sound that to me, sounded like angels singing. I heard the loud whoosh of a dragon breathing fire. I looked up just in time to see an enormous dragon begin diving straight for Ezra. But it wasn't a green dragon. It wasn't Nick. This dragon was a dark charcoal gray. Damien.

  He charged into Ezra when Ezra was no farther than ten feet away from me. I actually felt a breeze from Damien's thick scales passing by close to my face. And soon, he and Ezra became a snarling, roaring tangled blur of gray while they clawed and bit each other with lightning-fast speed, rolling in the grass.

  I began backing up toward the forest, watching with my hands on my face. But within seconds, I came to a dead stop, hearing snarling behind me. I turned slowly and saw two large light gray wolves stepping out from the trees.

  "Oh, no. No!"

  I took off running away from them, past Damien and Ezra. Somehow, even while engaged in battle, Damien seemed to spot me and immediately delivered a mighty head-butt to Ezra that seemed to knock him unconscious. And not a moment too soon. Because now, the two light gray wolves were charging right at him.

  Knowing that Ezra would likely only be temporarily stunned for a minute or so, I dashed away to hide behind some low, thorny bushes on the west side of the clearing. But they weren't very near, and it took me at least a full minute of running full-out to reach them. And by that time, to my shock, it seemed the fight was already over.

  One of the light gray wolves was in a bloody heap in the grass, possibly dead, and the other was soon dispatched by Damien stabbing him through the heart and then through the eye with a razor-sharp claw. However, I didn't see Ezra anywhere.

  Once his task killing the second light gray wolf was complete, Damien began whipping his head from side to side, seeming to be frantically looking for me.

  Standing in front of the bushes, I cupped my hands around my mouth. "I'm over here!"

  He soared over to me in a flash, shifted into human form immediately, and took me in his arms. "Please tell me you're okay."

  I nodded into his chest, wrapping my arms around his neck. "I'm fine. But Ezra...where did he go?"

  Damien snorted. "Running back to Howler's Creek like a coward."

  He continued holding me, tightly, stroking my hair, and I made no attempts to free myself from his embrace.

  But after a little while, I lifted my face from his hard chest. "It seems like a miracle that you saved me. Thank you."

  He lifted the edges of his mouth in the slightest of grins, sighing. "After I caught you when you jumped out the window during the last fight, and now what happened here today...when are you going to understand? I always have my eye on you, even when Nick doesn't. I'm never not thinking about your safety. I'm never not thinking about protecting you. It's no miracle that saved you today. Just devotion. Just love."

  Before I could respond, before I could even begin to think of a response, Nick descended from the sky, landed right beside us, and immediately shifted into human form, his expression anguished.

  "Daisy. Are you all right?"

  "I'm fine. Thanks to Damien."

  "Thank God. Thank God you're okay."

  Nick reached for me and began trying to pull me from Damien's arms, but I resisted and stepped to the side of both of them, folding my arms across my chest.

  "No. No, not right now, Nick. I just can't be held by you right now." I paused, trying to get a handle on the hot lava suddenly flowing through my veins. "I need to hear some sort of explanation first. What happened?"

  His expression became one of such anguish I actually wondered if he was going to cry.

  "Daisy, I'm so, so very sorry. Right before I left town behind you and Sam, Alexandria begged to come with me, and like a fool, I let her. She just wanted to see me fight. Just wanted to see her handiwork, she said. And being that she's a sorceress with some magical self-defense skills, I let her come and dropped her in the forest near where I was going to be watching you. But before I could even take my position, I heard her calling out for me. A couple of Ezra's spies were attacking her, and she couldn't hold them off with her spells. And so, I had to help her and kill the wolves, and clearly, it cost me some time."

  I stared at Nick, incredulous. I couldn't even speak for a long moment. "So, you were helping Alexandria while I myself was being attacked? You were helping your ex-girlfriend while your current girlfriend was herself in very serious and immediate danger?"

  Nick cringed. "Please try to understand. I couldn't just leave her there to be ripped to shreds by the wolves."

  "But I was nearly getting ripped to shreds by the wolves. And I only didn't get dragged off to Howler's Creek by Ezra because of Damien." Suddenly developing a sudden and very painful headache, I sighed, rubbing my temples. "Look. I know you're right. You couldn't just leave Alexandria there to be killed. That would've been cruel. I get it. But I'm just kind of feeling like...." Still rubbing my temples, I sighed again. "I just kind of want to be left alone for a little while, please. I just can't talk to you anymore right now. Okay?"

  Almost as if on cue, Sam landed beside us not a moment later, and I huffed off toward him.

  "Here's my ride."

  After climbing on Sam's back and asking him if he could please take me back to town, I glanced over at Damien just before Sam lifted into the air.

  "Thank you again, Damien."

  My tears didn't wait until I was in private to start falling. By the time Sam landed in front of the cabin, I was openly weeping. I scrambled off his back and mumbled a hasty thank you before dashing up the front walkway, wiping my eyes.

  Once inside the cabin, I ran upstairs, began drawing a bath, and stripped, still crying. I didn't even know exactly why I'd had an impulse to take a bath, though I was sure some sort of desire to metaphorically wash away the events of the morning had something
to do with it, even though I knew that those events couldn't be washed away, or ever forgotten.

  The fact would always remain that I could have been hurt, raped, or killed, or all of the above, while Nick was protecting Alexandria. And it didn't matter that I understood that he couldn't just leave her to be killed. I was still hurt and angry, and I felt more than a little humiliated, as well. In addition to being confused. And profoundly so. Damien had now saved me twice, and I couldn't deny that, just like it had back in Tennessee, being held in his strong arms had felt so incredibly right.

  I reclined in the warm water, sobbing while rubbing my temples, and when a knock sounded on the door after several minutes, my tears had barely slowed at all.

  After shutting the water off with my toes, I wiped my eyes, knowing exactly who'd knocked. "Please leave me alone. I'm taking a bath."

  Nick's deep voice sounded from the other side of the door.

  "Daisy, please. After your bath, will you talk to me? I'm begging you. I'm begging you to at least just think about it while you're in there."

  Fresh tears overflowed my eyes.

  "Just please leave me alone. I don't want to talk to you. And I don't know when I will." Making a sudden decision, I sat up in the tub, hugging my arms to my chest. "I want a break, Nick. I need some time to think things over. I don't know if I need a few hours, days, or months, but I just need some time to think. And if you really love me, you'll give me that time."

  I waited for a response, but all I heard was silence. And then, after a few seconds, his voice again, soft and pleading.

  "Daisy, please. I'm begging you. Just let me talk to you. Just let me-"

  "No. I just can't talk to you, okay? I need some time. I need a break. We are officially no longer in a relationship from this moment on. Now, please just leave me to cry in peace."

  After several moments, I heard the sound of his heavy boots slowly thudding back down the hallway. I sank back in the tub, sobbing, wondering if I'd made the right decision.

  CHAPTER 10

  The moment I saw his eyes, I knew I was in serious danger. Danger of weakening and caving. And I couldn't let myself.

  Damien's dark, long-lashed, charcoal-gray eyes were just one of the many, many things I found attractive about him. And sometimes when he fixed me with his piercing gaze, I found him almost literally impossible to resist. Which was what was happening currently. I'd been arranging pots of rust-red mums on the front porch of the guest cabin I was staying in when I'd noticed him ambling up the lane. He was now maybe only thirty or forty feet away, glancing at me with those piercing gray eyes of his, making my stomach do flips.

  Not waiting for him to get any closer, I set a pot of mums by the porch steps and stood, wiping my potting soil-covered hands on my jeans. "I can't talk to you, Damien. Not now. Not yet. Please just go."

  He didn't turn around. He didn't stop walking. And in fact, he increased his pace to a stride.

  Huffing, I folded my arms across my chest. "I mean it, Damien. I'm not ready to talk to you yet. I can't be near you and your...."

  Embarrassed, I didn't finish the thought, realizing that I'd been about to say eyes. I could have also added long, hard body, too.

  He still didn't stop or even slow in his approach. I huffed some more, knowing that any further protestations from me would be pointless.

  It had been a week since I'd broken up with Nick. During that time, I hadn't spoken more than a few brief words to him or Damien, other than to repeatedly ask them both to please give me space and leave me alone. Which they'd both done, for the most part; however, the more time alone I spent, it seemed the more confused I was becoming.

  I still felt hurt by Nick, and I was still mad at him, even though I know these feelings really weren't fair. I knew he couldn't have just left Alexandria behind in the forest to be ripped to shreds by the wolves. Though still, I couldn't help how I'd felt ever since he'd saved her when I myself had been in serious danger. And I couldn't just shut my feelings off like a faucet, regardless of whether or not these feelings were right or fair.

  I also couldn't seem to shut off my growing feelings for Damien, feelings that had been getting stronger and stronger ever since he'd saved me from getting attacked by Ezra. And, I realized, maybe these feelings had been buried somewhere deep within my heart ever since he'd caught me when I'd jumped out the window when Ezra had been trying to kidnap me. I also realized that maybe these feelings had been buried somewhere deep within my heart even since the very first day I'd met Damien. Which made me uncomfortable, since my whole heart had supposedly belonged to Nick almost since that very first day.

  I didn't know what I was going to do. I didn't really even have any kind of course of action to help me figure things out. All I knew was that I just didn't feel ready yet, to talk to either Nick or Damien, and I had no idea when I would. I knew that a tiny part of me was waiting to see if Nick was going to ask Alexandria to leave Crystal Falls, which, somewhat to my surprise, and definitely to my disappointment, he hadn't yet done.

  Katie told me that she'd overheard Nick telling Sam that Alexandria didn't want to go back to Coldwater, her hometown, because she'd had some recent painful family losses and just didn't want to return. I knew it was possible that this was true, though I doubted it. It seemed more likely that Alexandria wanted to stick around in Crystal Falls to see if Nick would be willing to rekindle their romance now that I'd put the brakes on his and mine. Katie had confirmed my suspicions about this when she'd reported that all week Alexandria had been making attempts to spend time with Nick, despite the fact that he didn't seem interested.

  While Damien approached the porch, he began whistling an upbeat tune. I stood on the porch, arms across my chest, watching him. Even just wearing a t-shirt and jeans, he was devastatingly attractive. The battered jeans hung low on his slim hips, and the white t-shirt was fitted just well enough to reveal the contours of his muscular chest. One hank of his dark, rakishly tousled hair hung over his forehead. Butterflies flapped their wings in my stomach, and I couldn't help but yet again tell him not to come any closer.

  "And I really mean it, Damien. Don't you dare come up on this porch, or else...or else you might find yourself wearing a mum planter for a hat!"

  Completely disregarding my warning, he jogged up the porch steps and came to a stop in front of me, his full mouth curving in a grin. "Sorry, were you saying something? I have a little water in my ears. You see, ever since you basically stopped speaking to me, I've taken to having long baths with a little toy duck to keep me company every day. I call her 'Miss Quackers.' And she's not nearly as beautiful as you, and not even a fraction as spirited, but...she's decent enough company, I guess. Terrible kisser, though."

  Picturing Damien kissing a little toy duck, I cracked a smile, completely unable to resist.

  "I'm sure." A smile slowly spread across his own face, and he reached for my shoulder.

  "That's all I wanted to see. Just wanted to see you smile."

  His touch, and the resulting increase of butterflies in my stomach, reminded me that I was in a dangerous situation. A situation where I could easily encourage his casual touch, maybe to the point that the touching got more intimate.

  And so, keeping my arms folded across my chest, I shook his hand off. "Please just go. I'm not ready to talk to you right now."

  His smile immediately faded.

  "So you've said. And you've been acting like you're mad at me."

  I sighed, a tiny bit ashamed of myself. "I'm not mad at you. And I'm sorry if I've come off that way. But I just...I just haven't wanted to get too near you."

  "Why?"

  I began turning away from him. "Please just go. I can't-"

  "Why?" Putting his hand on my shoulder again, he stopped me and gently turned me to face him. "Why haven't you wanted to get too near me?"

  "I don't want to talk about this right now. I just-"

  "I came here for answers. So please just tell me. Why haven't you wante
d to get too near me?"

  The feel of his touch on my shoulder, even through the fabric of my shirt, was making me a little lightheaded and weak in the knees.

  "Tell me, Daisy."

  Suddenly a little frustrated and irritated, at both him and myself, for reasons I couldn't even articulate, I just let it all out. "I haven't wanted to get too near you because I'm afraid, okay? I'm afraid that I'm falling in love with you. And that maybe I already even have."

  "And why is that a bad thing?"