Warrior's Rise

by Brieanna Robertson

  She slid her eyes back over to his in a suspicious glower. “You were hitting on me.”

  He snorted. “Dang, lady, you have a high opinion of yourself, don’t you? I just said the fire in your eyes was sexy. It was a simple statement of fact. I stopped trying to hit on you after you told me you wanted to see me buried in the desert with the buzzards waiting for my carcass.”

  A laugh was torn from her throat unexpectedly. She had forgotten about that exchange of words the day she had first met him.

  He chuckled. “I figured having a woman basically wish me dead was a bad sign.”

  She giggled. “You think?” Her eyes grazed over his profile for a second and she took a sip of her coffee. “Well, I do believe that myths can be true, and I think it’s strange and interesting that Lucy would pick that symbol to draw on you.”

  He frowned. “Why? The girl is nuts over the dragon guys.”

  She shrugged. “If she loves them so much then she wouldn’t choose to draw such an important symbol on any old person, would she? The Alveda d’Kai were a strong and noble race. She must see something good in you.”

  He sighed and rolled his eyes over to meet hers. “Heaven forbid, right?”

  Willow’s lips quirked. “Logan, I’ve only been talking to the real you for a little while. All I’ve known of you up till now is the jerk you like to portray. I don’t see anything in that guy, but I think there might be a small glimmer of hope in the man in front of me.” His eyes widened in surprise and he stared at her for several silent seconds. She looked away. “Don’t you dare take that and run with it. I’m not sleeping with you.”

  He chuckled and reached over to lift her chin with his finger. His green-gray eyes were soft, sincere. “Willow, I have to admit, the woman I’ve been dealing with every day since I got here is not a person I see anything in either, but I could get used to you.” He smiled. “Thank you for everything. Nursing my wounds, letting me sleep here, good coffee…good conversation.” He dipped his head slightly. “It’s nice of you.”

  Her heart made a funny thud-flip in her chest. Had his voice always had that deep, sexy timbre? She shook her head. What was wrong with her?

  Logan frowned suddenly and shook his head. “Oh man… I don’t know what is in those pain pills the doctor gave me, but I think I’m hallucinating.”

  She frowned. “What do you mean?”

  He rubbed at his eyes as if to rid himself of some image. “I swear on my life your skin just started to sparkle.”

  Her eyes bulged and her hands flew to her cheeks so quickly that she dropped her cup of coffee. It fell to the floor with a dull thwack, expelling what was left of the liquid. She let out a yell and jumped up, keeping her hands pressed to her cheeks.

  Logan stood. “Here, I’ll clean that up.” He discarded the blanket he’d had around his shoulders, revealing his gorgeous and defined upper body once again.

  Willow whirled, her face burning. “I-uh-I’ll get your cot out right after I go to the bathroom. I’ll be right back.” She darted into the bathroom and looked in the mirror. She gasped in horror and fanned her face. Good lord… She hadn’t reacted like that to a man’s presence since puberty. Stupid Avari genetics. Only race she knew of that sparkled when they got aroused. Only the women too… Designed to attract a potential mate, the elders said. Well, a lot of good that did her in the human world.

  She closed her eyes and tried to concentrate on cold, logical, boring things. Anything other than Logan’s chiseled body, his resonating voice and the way his eyes had looked at her when he was being sincere. She did not want to be attracted to Logan Savage. She groaned. “Come on,” she whimpered to her own reflection. “Anyone but him.” Her face just sparkled back at her. She wanted to break the mirror.

  * * * *

  It was a strange sensation in Willow’s chest when she was pulled from sleep. It felt like alarm mixed with arousal, and it made her eyes blink open in confusion. She gasped as she stared up into Logan’s eyes and realized that he was looming over her, planted on all fours. Her first instinct was to scowl and smack him a good one, but something in his eyes stilled her. They were steely cold and burning all at the same time. She drew in a shaky breath. “Logan?” she murmured. Something in his gaze seemed far away, not himself.

  Shivers tingled up her spine as his lip curled and a feral growl rumbled from his throat. He lowered his head and placed his mouth against her neck. “You’re mine,” he snarled. “I will be the one to protect you.” He trailed his fingers down the other side of her neck and dug them gently into her shoulder while he buried his nose in her hair and drew in a deep breath.

  She blinked in bewilderment. “Logan?” she questioned again. “Are you out of your mind?” Something really bizarre was going on. She moved her head so that she was looking into his eyes. She recoiled at the fierce possessiveness they reflected, but quickly forced herself to frown and seem stern. “Logan, what are you doing?” she snapped.

  He blinked and the strange look in his eyes vanished. He blinked again and focused on her, then let out a shout and jerked away, tumbling backwards off the bed.

  “Logan! Oh my gosh!” She jumped up and moved to the side of her bed, looking over to see if he was all right. She flicked on the light on the nightstand. “Are you okay?”

  His bewildered eyes glanced up at her. “What was I doing? Did I just growl?” He winced and brought his hands to either side of his head with a groan. “I feel like someone’s trying to split my melon with an axe.”

  She frowned and scrambled off the bed to kneel beside him. “Did you hurt yourself?”

  He shook his head. “No, I just—” He looked around. “What am I doing in here?”

  “I think you were sleepwalking.”

  He groaned again and rubbed at his temples. “I was having the weirdest dream.”

  “What was it?” She took his arm and helped him back up on the bed.

  He shook his head. “I’m…not sure. It was so strange. There was this woman, this beautiful woman with black hair and weird, amber-colored eyes.”

  Willow drew in a sharp breath and stared at him. “A woman with black hair and amber eyes?” she murmured.

  He nodded. “Yeah, and she was watching me sleep. It was like…like I could see myself sleeping on the cot and I could see her too. It was like I was outside of my own body. She watched me for awhile, then knelt down next to me and put her mouth to my ear. She whispered…” He frowned. “She whispered, ‘You’re next, dragon warrior. Say goodbye.’” He shook his head. “Man, too much talk about those warrior guys.”

  Willow’s throat was dryer than a desert in mid-summer. She licked her lips, but it didn’t help. “What else happened?” she rasped.

  His eyes narrowed as if he was trying to remember. “My head filled with all these awful images of people dying and villages burning. It was horrible. I felt terrified, like I was stuck, like I was next. I felt like I was going to die and there was nothing I could do about it. I heard that woman’s voice through all of the images and she said, ‘She’ll die alongside her warrior… How poetic.’ I got the feeling that she was talking about you and…something weird happened.” He looked up at her.

  She forced herself to stay calm when everything inside of her was screaming and trembling. “What?” she whispered.

  “I got…really pissed. I felt like something took over my body. It was like fire. All I knew was that I had to protect you. It was more important than anything else, more important than my own life. I suddenly had all this anger and vengeance surging through me like blood and I turned to the woman with this deadly resolve to end her life. I must have caught her off guard because she ran lickety split, man.” He shook his head. “Then I went looking for you. I had to make sure you were all right… It was so real.” He tangled his fingers in his hair. “It was the worst dream I’ve ever had. It felt like two complete opposing forces had control over my body and I was powerless to stop either one of them.” He let out a ragged br
eath and snapped his attention to her suddenly. “I didn’t… say anything weird to you, did I?”

  He looked horrified and she knew he had to be referring to the “you’re mine” statement. She forced a small smile and reached out to touch his uninjured shoulder. “No, Logan,” she lied. “You just scared the wits out of me, that’s all.” That wasn’t the only thing that scared the wits out of her…Cyrcinus had been in her house. She’d called Logan dragon warrior… Why in the world would she do that? The Alveda d’Kai were extinct. She’d seen to that personally.

  “I’m sorry, Willow. I don’t think I’ve ever done that before.” He let out another shaky breath. “That was the freakiest dream ever.”

  She threaded her fingers through his hair and tried to give him a comforting smile. “It was just a dream.”

  He glanced up at her, still visibly shaken. “Yeah…”

  She patted his arm. “Come on. Go back to bed.”

  His eyes flashed that possessive fire again for a split second. “I’m not leaving you by yourself.”

  She frowned. “Logan—”

  “Screw that, Willow! I don’t care if it was a dream!” he exclaimed. “It was friggin’ freaky! Either I’m staying in here or you’re coming out there with me! I’m not leaving you by yourself! That woman wanted to kill you!”

  A lump of emotion clogged her throat, and she felt tears sting her eyes. It was made up of about a hundred things all at once. Fear at knowing that Cyrcinus had located her in the human world. Alarm and concern for her family. Confusion at why she had thought Logan was a dragon warrior. Compassion for Logan, who had been directly on the receiving end of a subconscious mind assault, and surprise over the fact that he was more concerned for her than for himself. That was definitely out of character.

  She blinked back her tears and plastered on her forced smile. “Come on, now,” she said in a sad attempt to sound playful. “You couldn’t see her or touch her. She wasn’t real.”

  The look in his eyes was deadly serious. “Willow, I saw and heard her well enough. I don’t care if she was a manifestation of my stupid, drug-induced brain. It scared the crap out of me. Now, am I sleeping in here, or are you sleeping out there?”

  Okay, she could tell he wasn’t going to budge on this one, and some small part of her felt flattered. She rolled her eyes. “I’ll come sleep out there. It’s warmer.”

  He gave a decisive nod. “Fine.”

  “But I’m sleeping on the floor. You’re the one who’s injured.” She grabbed her pillow and a blanket and followed him out into the living room. She lay down and listened as Logan got situated on his cot. She waited until she knew he was sleeping, then flung the covers back and stood, going to her couch where she pulled a long, sharp sword out from underneath it. She sat down and set the blade across her legs, adrenaline making her entire body tingle.

  She would wait out the night there.

  Chapter Ten

  Willow stared down at Logan, studying him while he slept. Thank goodness it was morning. That had been the longest night of her life. She welcomed daylight. Cyrcinus wouldn’t try anything in the daytime when bunches of kids were running around the camp.

  Even in his sleep Logan looked troubled. His brow was slightly furrowed and the hard line of his jaw seemed clenched. She wasn’t surprised. Poor man. She actually felt sorry for him. Not only had he been shot in the arm with an arrow, but he’d been the victim of an attack on his subconscious. That was something Supporo did to Avari, or other enemies. It was not something commonly practiced on human beings… But then, for some reason, Cyrcinus didn’t think Logan was a human being. She thought he was Alveda d’Kai. Why? Had she seen the mark Lucy had drawn on him? No, she knew the Alveda d’Kai well enough to know that the mark only appeared when the warrior was in an intense emotional state, and didn’t tend to show up in blue ink. There was some other reason… And what in the world had caused Logan to react so strangely to Cyrcinus’ attack? His eyes… She had never seen anyone look like that before. He’d growled. It had almost been frightening.

  She frowned as she thought of her brother. He’d seen something in Logan that had reminded him of a warrior. Had he meant dragon warrior? How would he know? The Alveda d’Kai had been eradicated during the rule of their father. She had been ten years old. Tiyenen had only been six. The only dragon warrior he would remember was an old, crippled man who had died ten years ago. Something strange was going on. She needed to go home. She needed to talk to her brother.

  Her attention snapped back to Logan as she heard him shift and let out a sigh. His eyes fluttered open and he glanced up at her with a startled frown. She smiled and held her hand up in greeting. “Just me.”

  His frown deepened and he sat up. “What are you watching me for?” he grumbled. He put his head in his hands and tangled his fingers in his hair. “Man, my head still hurts.” He looked up at her with a start. “Are you okay? Were you okay last night?”

  Her heart warmed at his concern. All right, the man was obnoxious, but he wasn’t a total waste of a person. “I’m fine, Logan,” she said. “Everything is fine.”

  He sighed in obvious relief.

  “Do you want some coffee?”

  He looked up at her and nodded. “And some pain reliever if you have any.”

  She frowned. “For your arm?”

  He shook his head. “No, for my friggin’ melon.”

  She gave a soft laugh at the fact that he kept referring to his head as a melon. It made a picture of him with a watermelon on his shoulders keep flashing through her mind. “Sure.” She went into the kitchen.

  “I feel like I have a hangover and I didn’t even get to have any fun.”

  She smiled as she pulled some aspirin out of a cabinet. She poured a glass of water and handed it to him, along with the pills.

  “Thanks,” he muttered.

  She studied him for a second longer, then went to go pour him a cup of coffee. “I have to go somewhere,” she said, “but I’ll be back by tonight. You’re welcome to use my shower if you want. Just please lock up when you’re finished.” She added the cream and sugar and went back over to him, handing him the mug.

  He took it and looked up at her. “You mean you trust me in your house all by myself?”

  She raised an eyebrow at his dry, sarcastic tone. “Well, you were just about ready to slaughter an invisible woman who wanted to kill me last night so I figure you’re pretty safe.” She smirked. He gave a soft chuckle, but she noticed that his smile seemed stretched and forced. “You should take it easy today,” she suggested. “Maybe have the kids participate in whatever activity one of the other counselors has planned.”

  He waved her words away. “I’m fine. Once my headache goes away, I’ll be good as new. I think maybe I just had some sort of weird reaction to those pain pills the doctor gave me.”

  Overconfident, overbearing Logan Savage sounded so unsure when he said that statement that her heart twinged. She had no idea what it would be like for a human’s mind to be attacked like that. Had Cyrcinus done any kind of permanent damage? She had to talk to Tiyenen. “All right, well I’m going to go,” she said. “Please take it easy today, Logan.”

  He glanced up at her and smirked. “Concerned over little ol’ me?”

  She met his eyes. “You tried to protect me against a nightmare while you had an arrow hole in your arm. That was pretty decent of you.” She arched an eyebrow.

  He gave a dry chuckle. “Yeah, well, regardless of what you think of me, I have more substance than your average degenerate.”

  Her lips turned up slightly. “I’ll see you tonight.”

  He gave a halfhearted wave and she slipped out the door. She was to her car and all but tearing out of the camp parking lot within record time. Her heart was thrumming against her ribcage with adrenaline. Something inside of her was screaming that everything she knew was about to change, that war was imminent. She had spent almost all of her adult life hiding from Cyrcinus, keeping her p
eople hidden, traveling and living in both the fairy world and the human world. Now, Cyrcinus had found her hiding place in the human realm. It wouldn’t be long before she located the Avari tribe in the fairy realm as well.

  In a short span of time, Willow had driven from the camp to the Oregon Vortex, a tourist attraction full of strange phenomena and electromagnetic activity, a whirlpool of force and energy. The Native Americans had referred to it as forbidden ground, and the entire area was full of optical illusions and unusual occurrence. Some people thought it was a hoax. Other people thought it had something to do with aliens. Only Willow knew what it, and other vortexes around the country, actually happened to be.

  It was too early for tours to begin and she was thankful for that. Trying to slip undetected past a hundred or so people with cameras was difficult. She went up to the gate and knocked on the window of the guard station. She waved and the guard smiled, motioning her inside, hardly looking up from his paper.

  Willow plunged past the gate and inside the vortex, getting the strange, motion-sick feeling she was accustomed to as she traveled deeper. She went to the tree at the entry point, touched it, and stepped past it, immediately emerging into her own realm. With no time to spare, she jogged the small stretch of forest between the portal and her home. As she came upon the Avari village nestled amongst the trees, her heart warmed. People were going about their daily routines and stopped when they saw her, gasping and bowing in respect and reverence. She wished she could speak to all of them, but she didn’t have time. She had to find Tiyenen.

  “Sis!”

  She came to a dead stop and wheeled around at her brother’s voice. She spotted him standing in a pod of young, attractive women, all batting their lashes and trying to give him gifts. She rolled her eyes. Of course. Her brother was almost as much of a womanizer as Logan. It didn’t help that he was part of the royal family. That made his appeal go up by about ten notches to most of the women.