Mate Of A Dragon Villain (Skeleton Key) (12 page)

Amanda yanked her hand back, blinking out of the trance she’d fallen into, coming back to the dark and damp hallway when she realized one thing.

The sounds of fighting were over, but there were also more footsteps. People were coming. Their voices echoed in the distance.

They could be Hargreave’s men, or they could be more of those traitors he talked about. What if he was injured? She couldn’t leave him here. She couldn’t leave him.

“My lord?” a voice called.

Amanda made up her mind. She lifted her skirts, leaving the key behind in the lock, running the fifty feet back to the hole in the wall that led to the throne room.

Two bodies were splayed out on the floor.

Hargreave was face down.

Amanda’s heart squeezed as she all but flew down there, falling to her knees. “No, no, no. Hey, come on, you’re not dead. You’re all right.”

The echoing voices were closer.

Amanda turned Hargreave onto his back. He jerked and sucked back a sharp breath, face still bleeding as he coughed. He clutched at his stomach. His hand was bloody, so were his teeth when he smiled at her.

“You came back.”

“Oh God, you need a doctor.”

He shook his head, grunting. “I will heal. He will not.”

Hargreave pointed to the second dead traitor. Amanda didn’t want to risk that he was just faking it. She needed to get them out of here. She pulled Hargreave to his feet, ignoring the pained noises he made as she forced him up.

“Come on. We need to get out of here.”

“I am well.”

Amanda pulled him up the small stone steps and back into the hallway. “I’m not risking it. You’re coming home with me.”

“My lord!”

Amanda and Hargreave turned. Down at the very end of the hall were three more men, and Amanda didn’t know if they were the bad guys or not.

“Come on. We have to go.”

She rushed to the doorway she’d left the skeleton key in. Hargreave grunted but didn’t fight her. They hobbled along, and Amanda didn’t turn around this time. She couldn’t. It was bad enough she could hear the footsteps of those men getting closer as they ran to her and Hargreave. She didn’t want to see how close they were. She couldn’t.

“My lord! You’re injured!”

So close. So close. But she was close to the door. Then she was right there. The key hadn’t vanished either, thank God. She put Hargreave against the wall. He still clutched at his stomach, but held one hand out to his men. “Come no closer!”

They didn’t obey, and for a split second, it felt like the door was still locked. Amanda’s heart flew into her throat as she pushed against the door.

The wood was swollen. Of course it was. Why wouldn’t it be all the way down here? She slammed her shoulder into it twice, feeling the wood also give as it was so fragile. It slammed open.

Fresh air hit her face. Daylight. Carbon smells and so many other things she didn’t care to name just then as Amanda reached for Hargreave’s arm, grabbed it, and yanked him through the door just as his men made it to them.

“Stop!”

Amanda twisted the key out of its hole and slammed the door shut on the three warriors.

She stared at the door, heart pounding, out of breath and sweating, expecting it to open, for the warriors to drag her and Hargreave back inside, especially when it swung open.

No, not swinging open. Falling forward. Hargreave yanked her out of the way as the door fell off its hinges, landing with a hard slam on the concrete floor of the alley they’d found themselves in. Behind it, there was no opening, no portal leading into another world. Just dirty brick from the side of the building they’d walked out of.

D
own town Ottawa was busy
. People were going to and from the Rideau shopping center and there were buses everywhere picking people up and dropping them off.

A few people looked sideways at her when Amanda hobbled down the street, holding Hargreave’s arm over her shoulder. She was dirty, he was clutching at his stomach and a little on the bloody side, but Amanda was fairly convinced no one saw the blood. With any luck, they all thought she was helping a drunk friend get home, or they were in costume for the Haunted Walk.

Not that she’d ever been. Amanda was probably the only person in Ottawa who had yet to go to the Haunted Walk, but considering how dead on her feet she felt, she figured she looked the part of a creepy employee, or someone who had come from a costume party.

Anything other than stepping through a magical door in the side of a tattoo parlor, only for that door to vanish into the brick work. A door that led to a world Amanda had thought she’d made up.

“Where are we going?” Hargreave’s teeth stayed clenched. He was awake and aware, however. That was better than what he should’ve been, considering the wound.

“Almost home. I’m taking you home.”

“Who are these people?”

“I don’t know. Here we are.”

For the first time, Amanda was thrilled that she’d jumped at the chance to live in one of the new condos that had been built. She didn’t care about the cost or anything. The problem was she didn’t have her key, any ID, nothing she could buzz herself in with.

She had to call one of her neighbors. Luckily, Amanda had gotten to know them quickly when she’d made the move.

“Okay, come on. I have a first aid kit. You sure you don’t want a doctor?”

“No healers,” Hargreave grunted.

Amanda couldn’t argue with him. Mainly because she had no idea how she was supposed to explain him. If Hargreave went into a modern hospital, there was no telling what would happen. He might freak out, turn into a dragon, and burn the place down in a panic when he saw all the people in white, as well as the nurses, the noises, the smells.

“If you don’t want to go, I won’t make you. At least until you pass out from blood loss or something.”

Hargreave chuckled when they made it to the elevator. “I’m already healing. I just need…to rest.”

The way his eyes got all droopy scared her. Amanda nudged him, forcing him to stay awake. “Hey, don’t you dare close your eyes on me yet.”

They stepped into the elevator. Hargreave looked around, a confused frown on his face when Amanda pressed the button for her floor.

“What is this?”

He stumbled a little when the elevator lifted. “It’s taking us to my floor. Don’t worry. I got you.”

Hargreave looked at her with wide, red eyes, as though he couldn’t believe she was offering to protect him.

The elevator stopped and opened once. An older couple halted suddenly at the sight of them. Not for the first time, Amanda could just imagine how bad they both looked.

“We’ll take the next one.”

Amanda clicked the button to make the doors close about ten times. “Thanks,” she said, relieved when they were back on their way.

There were no more stops after that. Thank God. The neighbor Amanda had called even called up the building’s super. He was efficient. Already waiting there, ready to let her in with some strange lock picking equipment. “Gonna cost you twenty for a new key,” he said, glancing at Hargreave before quickly looking away. “You both all right?”

“Fine, we’re fine. He’s just got a stomach ache, and I’ve got a key, it’s just inside.”

He lifted a brow at her, as though wondering how she could have locked herself out to begin with if her key was inside.

In the end, he dropped it, and it turned out he wasn’t a great lock pick. He had to take the deadbolt right off the door to let her inside. It took him ten of the longest minutes of Amanda’s life. It also made her wonder about how sturdy and safe these doors really were if all anyone had to do was take the lock right out to open it, but she would think about that later.

It only took two minutes to put it back together again, giving Amanda and Hargreave the privacy they needed.

“Thanks so much for your help! Bye!” Amanda felt like a jerk, but she needed to get rid of him.

“Yeah, yeah. Just don’t lose your key again. Call down if you can’t find it.”

“I will, see you later!”

She closed the door in his face. Right, she felt bad, but she’d put some money in a Christmas card for him to make up for being a bitch. Right now she had to worry about Hargreave.

Hargreave didn’t seem overly concerned with his surroundings. He was busy easing himself down onto Amanda’s couch.

Amanda rushed to his side, suddenly afraid to touch him in case she made it all worse. “Oh God. Okay, first aid kit.”

“I am fine!”

Amanda ignored his call and ran into her bathroom. She briefly recognized how strange it was to be back, how everything looked and felt the same as she’d left it, but that thought was fleeting, and it didn’t stop her from ripping open the bottom cupboards in her bathroom and rummaging around until she found the first aid kit. She’d thrown it under the sink and it was beneath several boxes of feminine products and makeup remover.

She grabbed the bag, yanked the plastic wrapping off it, and ran back into her living room.

Hargreave was still there, but he looked much calmer, despite being bare-chested, probably cold, and with a bleeding gash down his face and in his stomach.

The fire in his hands was what really got Amanda’s attention.

“What are you doing?”

“Cleaning it?”

The way Hargreave spoke through his teeth let Amanda know how painful that act was.

“Here, stop, let me try this.” She pulled out a bottle of peroxide and a clean rag before she decided to forgo the rag. Amanda leaned over Hargreave, aching for the wound that split apart his perfect skin, and gently poured some of the peroxide into the wound.

Hargreave hissed and jumped a little, his entire body tensing.

“Sorry! I’m sorry!”

Hargreave relaxed, blowing out a deep breath from his mouth. “Gods. I would rather the fire.”

Amanda was as gentle as she could be when she wiped away the blood and peroxide, showing off how deep his wound really was.

“I think you need stitches, but…I’m not sure. I don’t think anything important was hit.”

“I will live.”

Amanda clenched her fists and shook her head. “Much as I like the tough guy approach, now is really not the time for you to be acting all macho about this.”

“I’m not trying to impress you. I’m stating the fact that I will be all right. I will be healed well enough that I can go back and kill those idiots in two days.”

Amanda knew the dragon people had healing powers. She had to believe him.

She shook her head. “I’ve going to give you stitches anyway. I don’t know if your healing will work here.”

“Why wouldn’t it? You just watched me summon fire.”

That was true, and Amanda so didn’t care. She wasn’t about to take the risk and watch his guts spill out when he decided to get up.

Good thing she’d taken those first aid classes. Research for some of the books she’d written.

But that didn’t make threading a needle through skin any less disturbing and gross.

Amanda had to laugh a little at the entire situation. “It’s kind of funny, actually.”

Hargreave blinked. “What is?”

Amanda couldn’t stop smiling, even when she finished with the stitches and wiped the blood away. “You were complaining so much when I used the peroxide on you, but stitches are apparently a breeze.”

Hargreave didn’t smile with her. His face stayed solemn as he reached his hand out and cupped her cheek.

Amanda blinked, only then feeling the wetness in her eyes and lashes. She crumpled.

Hargreave pulled her close, and Amanda had to touch him, had to be comforted by him—even though he was injured, she needed it. She did her best to keep herself off his wound, but if he was in pain, or even in any discomfort, he didn’t point it out. He just held her and shushed her as she cried.

* * *

I
t was kind of embarrassing
. Hargreave was the one who was hurt, but he was also the one comforting her when Amanda had her meltdown.

She couldn’t help it. She needed to get it out. Luckily, when she did, she was fine.

Hargreave also passed out, for all his talk of healing quickly. He was out like a light.

Amanda rushed around her apartment while he slept. She brought Hargreave a clean blanket even though it wasn’t cold, and then set about having a quick shower before getting her computer and opening it up.

She couldn’t believe it. According to the date, she hadn’t been gone more than a day. That explained why no one was shocked to suddenly hear from her, and why the super wasn’t asking about her late rent check.

This was insane. She’d been gone for weeks. How the hell could time not have been moving while she was here?

Amanda glanced at Hargreave, making sure he was real before she checked all the news sites, and even Googled the date just to make sure she wasn’t missing something.

It was the same no matter where she went. According to the Internet, Amanda might as well have not left at all.

She checked her book files after that, just to make sure they were all there. Then she went to her shelves. All the books in her dragon series were still there. Amanda flipped through the pages, making sure nothing had changed, and nothing had. Eldric had married Jane, and Hargreave remained the evil lord hell bent on destroying Eldric’s happiness out of revenge for something she hadn’t written in yet.

Amanda left the books on the coffee table. She was going to have to show them to Hargreave. Right now, the stupid skeleton key was staring at her intently from the desk where she’d tossed it.

Amanda had kind of hoped it would vanish, but it stayed put. It wasn’t leaving this time. She wasn’t sure what that meant, but got the feeling it involved going back to that world.

Or sending Hargreave back.

She didn’t want him to go back.

Amanda ordered Chinese. She needed something normal after all the not normal shit she’d gone through. It came quickly. She gave a hefty tip to the delivery guy just because she was so happy to be back. Bringing any amount of good Karma seemed kind of important.

Amanda brought the food back to Hargreave. He was still out on the couch. She shook his shoulder a little, even putting the sweet and sour chicken close to his nose, hoping to wake him, but there was nothing.

Amanda checked his bandage, shocked to see just how much he really was healing, and then ate alone, less terrified for him now that she’d checked on him. Amanda turned on the TV and ate in her pajamas, sitting on the floor with her back to the couch, listening to his soft snoring while she binged on
Outlander
.

She didn’t feel lonely while he was back there, even if he was sleeping and missing out on all the neat things the modern world offered. Maybe she could convince him to stay here with her? Why wouldn’t Hargreave want to stay in her world? It was a pretty amazing world. Peaceful, at least in her part of it. Hargreave wouldn’t have to worry about going to war with Eldric anymore, about his men dying or fighting. He really could stay here.

Amanda didn’t go to bed that night. She grabbed a spare blanket and some pillows, making herself a nice little nest on the carpet next to Hargreave. She ate more rice, pulled some frozen yogurt out of her freezer and polished it off before falling asleep well before midnight, something she almost never did as a writer who worked late hours.

She barely dreamed at all, and was shocked when she woke up to the light of dawn, and Hargreave sitting up on the couch, brow furrowed as he read one of Amanda’s books.

He was clearly deep in thought, and Amanda tensed when she remembered which books she’d left on the coffee table. She’d left them there to show him, but she’d wanted to tell him about them, not let him read them before she had the chance to explain.

Amanda sat up, rubbing her eyes. “H-hi.”

Hargreave looked at her, then held the book out. The cover showed a couple who looked enough like Eldric and Jane for it to be obvious who they were. “What is this?”