Warrior's Rise (10 page)

He frowned and tried to twist to look down at his back. “What?”

Her puzzled frown deepened as she realized it wasn’t a tattoo like she had thought. It was ink pen. She looked up at him. “This symbol.”

He craned his neck further, then rolled his eyes. “Nice,” he muttered. “So they decided against writing ‘BALLS’ on my forehead and opted for drawing on my back instead.”

She smirked in amusement and traced the outlines of the symbol for one glorious second. Warmth filled her heart. It had been so long since she’d seen the mark.
If only…
His back muscles rippled beneath her fingers and brought her out of her stupor. She cleared her throat and looked up to see him looking even further in an attempt to see it clearly.

“What is it, anyway?” he asked.

She smiled. “It’s the mark of the Alveda d’Kai, an old legend.” She moved around and sat down next to him, grabbing her cup of coffee again.

He rolled his eyes. “Of course it is. Lucy and her dragon myths.”

She arched an eyebrow. “You know about them?”

He looked at her. “Please. Lucy is obsessed with the…” he waved his hand flippantly through the air, “Alvega denominators, or whatever the heck they’re called.”

She wrinkled her nose and gave a little laugh. “Alveda d’Kai,” she corrected. “You make them sound like a math problem.”

Her words caused a beautiful smile to split his lips and he chuckled. “Well, they seem just about as foreign to me as a math problem.” He shook his head. “You know she actually believes in all that junk?”

She gave a thoughtful frown. “You mean you don’t?” She said it in a teasing tone, knowing full well what his thoughts on fantasy were.

He stared at her for a second, a perplexed look on his face. “I know if I can see it and touch it, it’s real. Everything else, aliens, ghosts, mythical dragon warriors, they have to all be stories.”

“Why? Because you can’t see it and touch it?” She snorted. “What kind of two dimensional, black and white world do you live in?” She turned slightly so she could stare him right in the eye. “You can’t see the air you breathe.”

“No, but you feel it inflate your lungs, don’t you?” His green-gray eyes met hers, obviously taking her challenge and running with it.

He chuckled. “You’re right, but you feel them well enough, don’t you?” His smile softened the argument. “Listen, you can believe whatever you want to, Willow. I’m not going to try and tell you otherwise. I’m not trying to argue with you, although the stubborn fire you get in your eyes when you’re standing your ground is undeniably sexy.”

She felt her cheeks burn at the playful and flirtatious glance that accompanied his words. She hated it and she averted her eyes with a huff. “Is everything always a game to you?” she grumbled.

“Who said I’m playing games? I’m just having a conversation.”

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.”

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 breath 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.”

“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.”