by T. S. Joyce
And as the Hummer picked its way through the shattered forest and disappeared from her view, warmth trickled out of her nose and splatted against the dry leaves at her feet.
Rowan wiped her nose on her bare shoulder, and red smeared across her pale skin.
And so The Sickening began.
Chapter Twenty-One
A week in this place, and Kane was already going mad. He paced the length of the room, then back to the door and slammed his palm onto it. He had to get back to Rowan. He had to save her because right now she would be sickening without him.
Kane pounded on the door again and was startled when it lurched open. It was Dr. Mir.
“Again?” Kane asked.
“Yep.” A short, squat doctor with a clipboard in one hand and a Taser in the other, he was dressed in fireproof gear, like always.
This wasn’t like the first time Kane had gone through Apex. Other than the first dose of meds to subdue the dragon, Kane hadn’t been given anything in seven days.
Seven days away from his mate, and he wouldn’t be able to hold back The Darkness much longer.
He grabbed the cane by the door and leaned heavily on it as he walked out. “Has she called?” he asked as Dr. Mir followed him down the cement hallway. “Or sent a letter? Anything?”
“Easy Kane. I told you, if she tries for contact, we won’t keep you apart.”
His voice sounded truthful when he said that. Huh. Apex had gone and gotten a soul in the years he’d been away from the program.
Dr. Mir guided him to a cavernous space he called the Changing Room. The walls were made of rock, and electric currents flashed like laser beams around the outer edge. On part of the wall was two-way mirror glass, so scientists could study his shifts and pick him apart. As far as he could tell, Kane had been taken to some deep cave system. Likely very few in the world knew where he was. He could escape, though. He had the power to, but Dr. Mir kept promising if he played nice, good things would happen. And Kane hoped to God those good things were visitations with Rowan.
If she ever wanted to talk to him again.
Kane stood in the center of a large painted X in the middle of the room and waited for Dr. Mir to get into place behind the fireproof screen and give him the signal.
Dr. Mir flicked his fingers. Kane inhaled deeply, closed his eyes, and let The Darkness rip out of his body. Only it wasn’t like before when he was a boy. Thoughts of Rowan anchored him to his dragon, and he was there, fully present, driving the animal. The room wasn’t big enough and didn’t leave much space to move around. Uncomfortably, Kane circled, limping on the bad leg. There was no room above to stretch his wings, and they were sore from being tucked up for too long.
“Head to the right,” Dr. Mir said in a bored voice.
Okay. Kane turned his head to the right.
“Now left.”
Kane did it and sighed a breath that dislodged a healthy layer of dirt off the cement floor.
“Am I boring you, Kane?” Dr. Mir asked in an amused tone.
Kind of. He just wanted to see Rowan. Nothing else. He just wanted to see her again.
“Change back.”
This part sucked. They didn’t let him stay in dragon form too long, and the quick Changes hurt his body. They left his muscles feeling pulled, fatigued, and aching down to his bones for hours afterward.
Kane tucked The Darkness away and stood there panting, sweating, balancing on his good leg.
Dr. Mir brought him his cane and grinned. “You have a visitor.”
The pain evaporated in an instant. “Is it her?”
“This way,” Dr. Mir clipped out, leaving Kane to hobble behind the doctor toward the door they came in.
Kane was led down a hallway he’d never been down before. It was lengthy, and his steps echoed for a long time. Kane narrowed his eyes at the back of Dr. Mir’s head. If this was the part where they put him down, Kane was going to burn this fucking facility to the ground.
He didn’t have much fear anymore.
Dr. Mir opened a door on the right and waited for Kane to enter. Kane paused at the sight of the man sitting in the center of the room at a metal table. He knew him. Didn’t mean he wanted to be in the same room as him.
“Go on,” Dr. Mir said.
Kane scanned the room for possible escapes. The door behind him was the only exit, but there was two-way glass in here, too. If things got hairy, he could smash through that and find an escape through there.
“Kane, sit,” the man said. “Please.”
He wore a dark suit, and his dark hair was streaked gray at the temples. His silver eyes tightened at the corners, and his pupils elongated.
“Damon,” Kane greeted him somberly. He pulled out a metal chair and sat down across the table from the blue dragon himself. From the man he’d feared all his life.
“You’ve done well in here,” Damon said. “Better than I expected.”
Kane frowned and cast a glance up at the camera in the corner. Leaning forward, he clasped his hands and asked, “What do you mean?”
“This is my facility, Kane.”
“You own Apex?” he asked through the raging hum of his dragon.
“This isn’t Apex. This place isn’t designed to strip away animals, Kane. It’s designed to rehabilitate them.”
Shocked, Kane leaned back in his chair. “How…but the police arrested me.”
“My people got to you first. I had them on the ground, waiting for Rowan to make her decision.”
“Make her decision,” Kane repeated low.
“To bite you and release your dragon. Wouldn’t have worked if she didn’t love you, Kane. It wouldn’t have worked if her dragon didn’t choose yours. If she didn’t call your animal from you. We knew it would be bad. Knew it would be rough when your dragon emerged because he’d been locked inside of you for so long, but Rowan…”
“Kicked my ass?”
Damon chuckled low, and his eyes lost some of their tightness. “You let her. You were trying not to hurt her.”
“How do you know?”
“Your epic dragon battle was videotaped from three different angles from three different bystanders in the Smoky Mountains. She was tempted to kill you for burning the cabin, and you were going to let her.”
“The cabin was collateral damage.”
“Ah,” Damon said, nodding once. “You managed to do something I’ve been trying to do for years.”
“And what’s that?”
Damon’s mouth set in a grim line. “Prove to Rowan that sheet of warped metal wasn’t her treasure. She clung too damn tight to it. She’s stubborn like me, and like her father. Once she picks something, she picks it.”
“Were you responsible for her luggage getting lost on the plane?” he asked.
Damon gave a slight smile and nodded.
“Were you responsible for her sitting next to me on the plane?”
Another nod. “All I could do was put her in your path though, Kane. You had to rise up and do the rest.”
“I didn’t rise, sir. Rowan did. Your girl is a beautiful destroyer.”
“Just like I always knew she could be. She needed you to show her that, though.” Damon pushed a few buttons on his phone and shoved it across the table to Kane.
A video played.
News stories showed a battle between a Blackwing Dragon and a smaller, gray-scaled Bloodrunner Dragon. Him blowing fire on the mountains and burning the cabin. The battle on the ground after they’d tumbled to earth. And then it cut to videos of Rowan speaking in front of crowds with the Bloodrunners standing behind her.
“Kane’s a good man, in control of his dragon, and the battle was a direct result of what Apex Genetic Testing does to shifters. I demand that the hunt for him be called off, and that Apex be shut down immediately. This is a matter of shifter rights. They have been stripped from my mate, and I want him back.” Rowan looked the camera dead on. “I need him back.”
And then there was home video
of Rowan standing over a sink, Harper holding her hair back as blood streamed from Rowan’s mouth and nose.
“It’s okay, Roe, we’ll get him back,” Harper murmured. “Beck, what do we do? Should we take her to him? It’s getting really bad.” Harper turned a panicked look to a woman in a dark gray business suit standing behind them.
“If she stops the tour now, Kane won’t be safe out of hiding. He won’t be safe outside of Damon’s facility. If we don’t take the heat off him, the government and Apex will be after him the second he steps out of hiding. Rowan, you’ll always be on the run, and your mate will always be at risk.”
“I can do this,” Rowan said, steel in her voice. Blood gushed, and she retched. Harper rubbed her back, but the Bloodrunner alpha looked scared.
Beck held Rowan’s phone in front of her. “See if this helps.”
On the screen was a picture Rowan had taken of them. In it, she was kissing his cheek and looked radiant with happiness, and Kane was even smiling.
“It doesn’t work anymore,” Rowan murmured in a weak voice. “I need to hold him. I need to see him. I need the fucking charges to be lifted.”
“Ryder.” Harper looked at the person behind the camera. “Go get some towels. Stop hugging Kane’s prosthetic leg. He’s in hiding, not dead. And shut that damn camera off. No one needs to see this. If I find it on your social media, I’m gonna burn your ass.”
The video went shaky, and then faded to black.
“Fuck,” Kane murmured, grimacing away from the phone. “Let me go to her, please Damon. I can fix her. I can make her feel better. I can stop The Sickening. I’m her treasure. I know I am. It’s my dragon. It was always the dragon. Just…let me see her.”
“Since no one was hurt and since the Bloodrunners, the Ashe Crew, the Gray Backs, the Boarlanders, the Winterset Coven, and Ben Porter’s Red Havoc Crew have been tirelessly rallying for you, it was announced today that all charges have been dropped. I’ve submitted video of your controlled Changes to law enforcement, and they have called off the search for you. This morning it was announced that you are free. You will always be listed as a dangerous shifter, Kane. That’s something no one can fix, and you’ll have to be careful every day. There won’t be second chances—not for a shifter like you. But if you work hard enough, you can still have a good life. With Rowan.”
Kane dragged in a shaky breath as relief flooded his body. All the shifters had rallied for him with his brave Rowan at the head of it all. He’d never cried before, but damn if his eyes didn’t burn right now.
Damon stood and nodded his head toward the exit. Kane rose and leaned heavily on his cane as he followed the old dragon out into the hallway and then through a maze that led them eventually to an elevator.
Damon Daye stood straight-backed and proud, his hands clasped in front of his lap as the elevator took them up. And right before they reached the sunlight, Damon turned and clasped Kane’s hand. “Thank you for what you’ve done for my girl. You take care of each other. Always. And if you ever need anything, call me. You remind me…” Damon cleared his throat and dropped Kane’s hand. “You remind me of all the good parts of your father. The parts I’ve missed.”
Sunlight hit Kane in the face, and he squinted, shielded his face with his hand, and when his eyes adjusted, he could see Damon walking away toward a black Town Car.
The man opened the back door, and the most beautiful sight Kane had ever seen stepped out.
Rowan was wearing a pink sundress and flip flops, and her blond hair was whipping around her shoulders. She was already crying as she ran for him. Kane rushed, leaning on his cane harder and harder. He was ready when Rowan leapt through the air and wrapped herself around him. She buried her face against his neck, her body racked with sobs. And fuck, he never wanted to stop holding her. He pulled her in tight against him, looked up at the blue sky, and tried to remember how to breathe.
“I’m sorry,” he chanted over and over.
“It’s okay. I thought you were burning my treasure. I thought you were trying to hurt me, but you weren’t. I love you, Kane, I love you.” Rowan eased back and cupped his beard. He probably looked like shit right now—tired, unshaven, and still healing from the burns she’d given him—but Rowan was staring at him as if she’d never seen anything so stunning.
Kane cupped the back of her head and kissed her. Rowan slid down, stood on her own two feet, and slipped her arms around his shoulders. The damn tension in his chest eased with every moment that he touched her lips with his.
Rowan disengaged and rubbed her soft cheek against his. “Kane, you knew all along, didn’t you?” she whispered.
“Knew what, dragon?” There was no more calling her princess because she’d gone fearlessly to war with The Darkness and won.
Her breath hitched, and a smile stretched her face. Slowly she leaned forward until her lips were right by his ear. And then she whispered something that banished every hurt he’d ever endured.
“You aren’t Dark Kane anymore. You’re my Kane.” She leaned up on her tiptoes and kissed him gently. “You’re my treasure.”
Epilogue
Kane was laughing that easy sound Rowan had fallen in love with as he gave her a piggy-back ride around the house to the front porch. He was dragging a pair of two-by-fours in one arm and dropped them with a clatter in the front yard.
“Today is the big day,” she murmured excitedly as she climbed down to the ground.
“Mmm,” he rumbled, his soft brown eyes dancing. He was shirtless and sweaty from working, but she didn’t mind him hugging her. “What day is that?”
“The day we finish our home. It’s a big deal.”
“So you’re sure you aren’t going to disappear on me and go back to Damon’s Mountains?”
Rowan clamped her teeth over the claiming mark she’d given him. “Sorry, Blackwing, you’re stuck with me.”
Kane licked his bottom lip and hugged her closer, opened his mouth to say something, but the hum of approaching engines sounded through the valley.
With a dangerous look, he narrowed his eyes on the road. He didn’t stoop down and pull his knife from his ankle on reflex anymore. Now he trusted The Darkness to protect them from whatever came their way.
When the pair of trucks pulled to a stop in his front yard, Kane relaxed and gave Weston a two fingered wave. The Bloodrunners piled out and greeted them. Ryder picked Kane up in a back-cracking hug while Alana hugged Rowan.
“What are you guys doing here?” Kane asked. In the last six months, the Bloodrunners had only come here a few times. Rowan was pretty sure it was because Kane’s dragon felt huge and terrifying, and they were trying to give him space to lay claim to his territory.
Ryder held up a case of canned margaritas. “We’re here to celebrate, naturally.”
“Celebrate the house being done?” Kane asked, confusion knitting his dark eyebrows into a frown.
Weston lowered the tailgate of his truck and pulled out a couple of cheap plastic forest green shutters and a wooden board.
Kane’s face fell, and his cheeks tinged with shame. He ran his hand up the back of his head and ducked his gaze. “Are those from ten-ten?”
“Yeah, we saved a few bits and pieces of her. Figured you could use some of the mojo on your place.”
“You aren’t pissed that I destroyed it?” Kane asked quietly.
Lexi held up a plastic cage with a little black and white mouse with giant testicles. Sammy Scrotum, mascot of the old cabin. “The important parts survived.”
Weston dropped the shutters on the ground and handed Kane the large, misshapen wooden cut-out. It was charred around the edges but there were four numbers still nailed crookedly to it. 1010.
Rowan put her hands over her mouth to cover her emotions. She’d been heartbroken over the loss of 1010, but it wasn’t lost at all. It was just moving.
Avery rested her head on Rowan’s shoulder. Already, Rowan’s vision was blurred with tears, and she still had work t
o do.
Kane swallowed hard as he took the plank of wood from Weston’s grasp. With a crooked smile, Kane hopped up on the porch, picked up the hammer and a couple of nails, and secured the plaque to his cabin.
The gurgling of a baby sounded, and Rowan smiled as Harper approached with baby Hudson in her arms. Wyatt walked beside his mate, a proud smile on his boy. Harper had been strong enough. She’d survived having her baby Bloodrunner boy, and now she looked so beautiful. Hair down in waves, her eyes so full of emotion already as she came to a stop right in front of Kane.
“Blackwing Dragon,” Harper said formally. “I’ve thought about this so much. Thought about your place here, right next to my mountains. I’ve thought about how lonely it must’ve been for you walking through life with no crew. You feel like a part of us.” She swallowed hard. “After Hudson was born and when I got my dragon back, I had planned on asking you to be a part of my crew, but after talking to Rowan, I don’t think that would be fair to you. Your dragon is too big, too dominant, and it’s too much for one crew.”
“It’s okay,” Kane murmured, pressing his finger against Hudson’s searching hand. Rowan didn’t miss the sadness in his voice, though.
“I can offer you friendship and a steady ally if you ever need us,” Harper said.
“I understand,” he whispered thickly, his eyes on baby Hudson.
“Kane?” Rowan said, pulling the folded paperwork out of her back pocket. “Here.”
With a confused frown, Kane studied her face, then looked at the others before he took the papers and unfolded them. Aloud he read, “Blackwing Crew. Application for Second in the crew. Rowan Barnett.” Kane inhaled sharply, and now his eyes were full of emotion as he rubbed his chin. “Are these crew registration papers?”
Rowan nodded. “Say the word, and I’ll turn these in. We’ll start from scratch, me and you. Say the word, and I won’t be a Gray Back anymore, Kane. I’ll be a Blackwing.” She turned her face and exposed her neck to him. With an emotional laugh at his shocked face, she murmured, “Alpha.”
