Daughter Of The Dragon Princess(19)

She uncurled, her arms wrapping around her naked body.

Closing the distance between them, he dragged his T-shirt over his head  and tossed it to her. The shirt covered her down to her slender thighs.

"Thank you."

"My pleasure. Now, let's get out of here." But he couldn't resist a  brief touch and he ran his finger down her cheek. As he caressed her  skin, the archway flared to brilliant life, the darkness banished by the  ever-burning fires of Ankesh. Green and blue flames, crimson and  orange, twisting and dancing.

His heart beat faster. The portal had recognized the Dragon Princess.  Not only that, but it had recognized him. Vortigen had sworn the portal  would never open for a dragon of impure blood. A wave of bitterness  washed over him. Had the King always known?

The gateway was opening, and inside him, his dragon stirred again,  filling every cell with a longing to take his true form, and fly free  once more.

He pulled Lily into his arms, and the flames burned brighter. Power  swelled inside him, unlike anything he'd experienced for centuries, as  though the magic of Ankesh was seeping through the portal. He knew then  that they could go together, that the gateway would open for them. They  would be safe on the other side. The Dragon Princesses had always had  the ability to survive in Ankesh.

Unlike humans.

The thought sobered him. He glanced back to where Cole stood alone  against almost twenty adversaries. The glow from the arch highlighted  their shrouded figures. They'd halted their retreat when the gateway  opened. Now, they gazed at it in wonder. All except Cole knew, or at  least guessed, the significance.

"Mal!" Cole shouted a warning, and then the night erupted in gunfire around them.

He dragged Lily behind the altar stone, and peered over. Cole had also lunged for cover, but he'd been hit, and lay motionless.

Mal gave one last, longing look at the archway. The burning fires  beckoned him. They could just go. After all, what was the detective to  him?

Once, he would have done nothing to save a million human lives. He would  have gone through the portal without a thought. He gritted his teeth,  frustration clawing at his insides-he wanted to go so badly, the craving  was a physical pain.

"Goddammit!"

He couldn't do it-Cole was a friend.

"Stay down," he whispered to Lily. He stood, and shot into the ring of men surrounding Cole.

Two fell. The others shrank back into the shadows of the stones, seeming to merge into the night.

He turned back to Lily. "Can you walk?"

"I think so."

"Stay behind me then."

They made their way to where Cole lay unmoving but still conscious. A  bullet had hit him in the left shoulder, and blood pulsed from the  wound.

"Lily, take my gun," Mal said. "If anything moves-shoot it." He crouched down. "Cole?"

"Yeah, I'm still here," Cole muttered through gritted teeth. "Next time you tell me to go home, remind me I should listen."

"I will. I'm going to carry you down. This will hurt, but we haven't got time to sort you out now."         

     



 

"There's no time to carry me down either. Just leave me. Get Lily away from here. I'm not going to make it, anyway."

He coughed and blood flecked his lips. The bullet must have nicked a lung.

"Don't be so melodramatic." Reaching down, Mal ignored Cole's grunt of pain, picked him up, and hoisted him over his shoulder.

***

Lily's bare toes curled into the soft, cool grass. She breathed in the  clean air, ridding her lungs of the lingering fumes of incense and  smoke. Every sense alert, her blood fizzed with energy, and adrenalin  coursed through her system. She shifted and the soft material of Mal's  shirt stroked against her bare skin, teasing her sensitized nipples. A  shiver ran through her. She had never felt so intensely alive.

"Lily?"

She glanced across to where Mal stood with Cole draped over his  shoulder. He was studying her, head tilted to one side. His eyes ran  over her body, settling on her bare feet. "Are you okay? Can you walk  like that?"

"I'm good."

She was more than good-she was alive. It was unbelievable. Only minutes  ago, she'd stared up at that knife, seen the moonlight glinting on the  razor sharp blade, and been filled with the awareness of her own  imminent death. She'd known that no one would save her.

Yet, here she was.

"Let's go, then," Mal said. "Shout if you can't keep up."

She almost smiled. Just how fast did he think he could go while carrying a six-foot policeman?

Then he was off.

For the first few steps, her legs were unsteady, but slowly her body  came to life, casting off the effects of the drugs. Moonlight silvered  the path in front of her. Once or twice, she glanced behind her as they  descended, but the sorcerers had vanished.

At the foot of the hill, Mal led the way through a copse of oak trees  and came to a halt beside a dark estate car. Cole must have lost  consciousness, since he didn't stir as Mal opened the door and laid his  limp form across the back seat.

Lily chewed on her lower lip as Mal checked Cole's pulse.

"He's still alive," Mal said.

She released her breath. "Thank God."

The euphoria of finding herself alive had drained away somewhere on the  journey down. Now her legs were shaking, and her head whirled with all  that had happened.

Mal glanced up at her. "Can you check in the back for a first-aid box?"

She went around the car and opened the trunk. The box was beside the  spare wheel and she handed it to Mal. Leaning over Cole, he pushed his  jacket aside, and tore open his shirt. Lily winced as the bloody wound  was exposed.

"Will he be all right?" she asked. It didn't seem possible.

"I think so." He peered down at the detective with something close to resentment on his face. "He'd better be."

Strapping a pad across the shoulder, he bandaged it tightly, then  straightened. "That should stop the bleeding for the moment, but we have  to get him somewhere I can treat him." Slamming the car door, he came  around to the driver's side and climbed in.

Lily got in beside him. "Where are we going?"

"For now, I just want to put some distance between us and them."

It seemed like an excellent idea. Lily sat back and closed her eyes as  Mal turned on the ignition and pulled out into the road. She was  definitely down from the high of just being alive, and reaction had set  in. The night was warm, but she shivered, tugging the thin shirt tighter  around herself. Behind her closed lids, fires flickered and danced, but  failed to warm her. She remembered the flames from the stones. What had  she seen through the archway? A glimpse into another world?

It was as though the existence she had always known had shattered into a  thousand little shards and then remade itself in a different pattern.

She bit down on her lower lip, trying to get control of herself, but  like her world, she was disintegrating. Wrapping her arms round her  middle, she clamped her teeth on her lower lip, and tried to stop  herself from falling apart.

They'd been driving for ten minutes when Mal glanced sideways at her, a  slight frown drawing his brows together. "Are you all right?"

No

She bit back the answer and forced a weak smile. "I'm just cold."

He opened his mouth to say something, but a groan came from behind them,  and he obviously changed his mind. "We have to keep going."

"I know." She peered behind her. Cole was still unconscious.

Her emotions were all over the place. Euphoria, sadness, the first  stirrings of anger and defiance. What did Mal plan to do with her now?  Did he still mean to hand her over to this other man?

No way.         

     



 

From now on, she refused to be anyone's pawn.

But-whatever his motives-Mal had saved her life tonight. Again.

"Thank you," she said. "For saving my life."

He raised an eyebrow. "Anytime."

"And Mal?"

"Yes?" He sounded wary.

She wasn't sure what had happened back there, but she had seen something  through the archway, a glimpse of another world. "Was that Ankesh?" she  asked. "Through the arch?"

He nodded. "The gate opened for us."

His voice filled with wonder and a twinge of bitterness stabbed her in  the gut. Her life was turning to shit. Joe was dead, and Mal didn't  care. But why should he? He had a chance to go home, and Joe was nothing  to him.

"What is it?" he asked.

"Joe's dead."

"Joe?"

"He was my friend."

"I'm sorry."

Why did she find that hard to believe? "Are you?"

He glanced sideways at her, then shrugged. "Tell me what happened. How did the sorcerers get you?"

She told him briefly. Joe and the professor, Stark. About waking up in the stone circle.

Afterward, he sat, fingers drumming on the steering wheel. "The professor, was that the guy with the knife?"

She shuddered as she remembered. "Yes."

"Well, I guess he won't be using his place anytime soon. We'll go back there."