HAPTER 9
I stood with Damien's arms around me, hardly even daring to believe the words that had just come out of my mouth. Though, unbelievably, I made no attempts to take them back.
Looking deeply into my eyes with his expression serious while the campfire crackled and popped behind us, Damien spoke in a husky whisper. "Are you sure?"
He'd shuffled his feet a bit, lightly pressing our lower bodies together, and I could feel the considerable length of his already-stiffened manhood against the curve of my belly. I nodded, thinking that I not only wanted him to kiss me, but maybe even do much more.
With his eyelids slowly closing, he brought his face to mine. I began closing my own eyes as well, anticipating the feel of his full mouth on mine. But suddenly, I thought of Nick. Nick, the man I loved. Nick, the man who I was planning a future with. Horrified at what I was about to do, I opened my eyes and pulled my face away, seeing that Damien was doing the exact same thing, simultaneously.
He gave his head a little shake, cringing. "Oh, I just...hate these. I just could not possibly hate these any more. These little sudden attacks of conscience that I get from time to time. But I'm sorry to say, I can't do this. I want this...I want this more than anything; I want you...but not like this. I won't kiss you while you're still my brother's girl, and I won't kiss you when you've been drinking. At least not when you've been drinking under these circumstances. I want you to choose me; I don't want to take advantage of you when you're clearly more than a bit buzzed." Closing his eyes briefly, he paused, sighing, before looking deeply into my eyes once again. "When we finally come together, and I know we will, I want it to be right. Do you know what I mean, Daisy?"
I suddenly didn't know anything anymore. All I knew was that I had to get out of his arms, fast.
"Please just walk me back to the campfire, and let's just forget about this whole thing. I'm sorry; I just don't handle alcohol very well. I'm just not in my right mind. I'm loyal to Nick, and I always will be, because he's the man I love. Let's just forget about this whole thing."
With a little nod and an almost-inaudible sigh, Damien released me from his embrace and began walking me back to the campfire with an arm around my shoulders. After sitting me down on a low, flat rock, he boiled some water and made me some tea.
While handing me the steaming cup, he glanced at the two empty wine bottles with his gray eyes twinkling in the golden light from the fire. "Looks like I missed quite a party here."
I took the cup, cracking a smile. "Kind of. I get the feeling that Katie is the fun, crazy friend I would have had in college, if colleges even existed anymore."
After giving me a grin, Damien returned to the fire and began heating up some leftover bacon for a sandwich. While I sipped my tea, I began to feel myself sobering up. And once Damien sat down a few stones away from me with his sandwich, I felt the need to say something, and so I did, forcing myself to look him in the eye.
"Again, really sorry for that back there. And again, I'd really appreciate it if we could just forget the whole thing...and never speak of it again. To anyone."
With his expression unreadable, he took a bite of his sandwich, chewed, and swallowed before responding. "You have nothing to be sorry for. Sometimes when a person's been drinking, emotions come out that a person wouldn't normally allow to rise to the surface otherwise. But as far as forgetting about what happened, I can't. And that's because I'll treasure the memory of holding you in my arms until I can hold you in my arms again. However, as far as speaking about it, don't worry. I won't say a word to Nick. And I promise you that."
At the mention of Nick, I suddenly felt a little warm and even claustrophobic somehow, despite being in a very wide-open space, to say the least. I unzipped my hooded sweatshirt, took it off, and set it on the rock beside me. "Can we please just change the subject now?"
Damien said sure and went back to his sandwich. Yet we didn't go back to talking. Which was fine. I was beginning to feel profoundly exhausted.
However, once he'd finished his sandwich and a bottle of water, he looked over at me and spoke, the campfire illuminating the angles of his handsome face. "Despite how things may seem sometimes, I do love my brother, you know. I just haven't liked him since we were kids. He was our parents' first son, their golden son...even literally, with that dark golden blond hair of his. I was always the dark one, the naughty one...just the spare to the heir, so to speak. My father never had time for me, and my mother always seemed perplexed and disappointed that I wasn't an exact carbon copy of Nick. I don't even think Uncle Marshall has ever much liked me. Nick has always seemed annoyed by me at best, and disgusted by me at worst. So, you can see why sometimes I can come off like I have a chip on my shoulder. I've always felt like a complete outsider in my own family. I don't act the way I do sometimes for nothing. It's not because I'm an asshole."
I nodded, feeling a little twinge in my heart. "I know."
But before we could talk any further, Katie and Sam returned, hand in hand, both of them looking distinctly flushed and happy.
Katie gave me a little smile. "Sorry we took so long on our walk. There was just...so much scenery to enjoy. So much...scenery that's even more interesting at night."
Sam took a seat next to Damien. "All okay here?"
Damien moved his head in the most perfunctory of nods. "Yep. Just got out of the cave. And with about a pound of crystals in my pockets. Whoever hid that damn chest sure didn't want anyone to find it. Was at the end of some tunnel at least five miles long."
Still looking at Damien, Sam put his arm around Katie, pulling her close. "Well, Nick will sure appreciate what you did."
Damien stared into the fire, stony-faced. "Yep."
We all soon unrolled our bedding and went to sleep beneath the stars, Katie on my side, and then Sam next to her, and then Damien a good distance away from him.
The trip home was uneventful and quick. I didn't sleep stretched out on Damien's back as I’d done on the way down to Tennessee. I just didn't want to get too close to him, being that I already felt guilty enough about doing so the previous night.
When I hopped down from Damien's back in front of the cabin, Nick was already waiting outside, and he lifted me off the ground and just held me tight for a few moments before looking at my face.
"Everything go all right?"
I nodded. "Perfectly."
He glanced over my shoulder at Damien, who was already walking away down the lane, having given the crystals to Sam back in Tennessee.
"And did Damien behave himself?"
I nodded again, willing my cheeks not to flush pink. "Yes. He was actually a perfect gentleman the entire time."
Nick studied my face for a long moment before giving me a quick kiss and setting me down. "Good."
"And how have things been with you and Alexandria? She still behaving in a friends-only manner?"
I'd told myself I wouldn't even ask. But for some reason, I just hadn't been able to help it.
Nick nodded. "Oh, yes. Yes, we've barely even spoken more than a few words to each other, actually."
Alarmed, I thought I saw his eyes dart to the side for just a split-second before he'd answered my question, possibly indicating deception, though I couldn't be sure. And I decided to just let it go. I trusted him.
Over the next several days, with a string of crystals around her neck, Alexandria did her spells over Nick while he sparred with Damien and other shifters while in dragon form. And this time, the spells worked. When Nick fought Sam at the end of day three, Sam said he could tell a marked difference in Nick's strength.
At a council meeting that night, everyone agreed that Nick was ready to take on Ezra.
Katie, who hadn't been turned off from drinking since our trip like I'd been, slugged back her last sip of wine before looking at Nick. "How exactly will you do it, though? And I mean...where will you fight him?"
Nick looked thoughtful for a long moment before responding. "Ideally, I'd like to fight him in a neutral open space away from the citizens of our respective towns. The wide clearing just a short way outside of Howler's Creek would be nice. Though if I arrived there, which I'm sure his spies would see, I fear that he might not be man enough to face me. And I'm not quite sure how I might lure him out."
"Well, I have one surefire idea." I paused, clearing my throat, knowing that Nick wasn't going to like it. "I could be the bait to lure Ezra out. When his spies see me, they'll alert him, rather than just grabbing me, because they'll probably be suspecting a trap. And even if Ezra himself suspects a trap, I still don't think he'll be able to resist. He's cocky and way too sure of himself. He'll probably think he can race in and get to me before whoever is waiting in the wings can attack him. And at that point, that's when you come flying on out."
I'd thought that Nick was going to shoot my idea down immediately. But, to my surprise, he nodded slowly, knitting his dark blond brows together.
"That just might work. And I'm absolutely certain that I can get to Ezra before he would ever have a chance to harm you or take you back to Howler's Creek. I won't even let him get anywhere near you."
Damien frowned. "I don't like this. There's too many variables. Too many things that could go wrong. And with Daisy's safety at stake...." He shook his head. "I don't like this."
Nick narrowed his deep green eyes at him. "You don't have to. You're not in charge, here. I am."
Damien scoffed, his dark hair glinting in the soft glow of a lamp hanging above the table. "How could I ever forget?"
Nick took a deep breath, sweeping his gaze across everyone at the table. "It's settled, then. Daisy will be the bait, and I'll take out Ezra. We'll carry out the plan tomorrow at dawn."
That night, I actually slept like a baby. I wasn't completely without anxiety about my role as bait to lure Ezra out to the clearing, though I had complete confidence in Nick that he would protect me and keep me safe.
An hour or so before dawn, Nick and I met up with everyone at the council lodge to go over a few last-minute details. It was decided that Sam would fly me to the clearing, drop me off, and immediately fly away, and not all the way back to Crystal Falls, but far enough away so that Ezra wouldn't be discouraged from coming out to get me. Then, when Ezra did, Nick, who'd be not too far behind Sam and me, and who'd hide in the forest behind me, watching, would shift into dragon form and charge at Ezra before Ezra could even get near me. At this time, on a roared signal from Nick, Sam, who'd be hiding in the forest in human form, would immediately shift, come pick me up, and take me back to town. Damien offered to serve as backup, but Nick refused, shaking his head.
"Thanks, but with my new increased strength, taking out Ezra should be a snap, and I doubt his men will even have time to approach and join the fray before I've killed him. You coming along as backup would only serve to alert more spies of our presence, something we definitely don't need."
Damien shrugged at Nick and then gave me a little smile. "Good luck."
Still confident that everything would go according to plan and Nick would keep me perfectly safe, I wasn’t terribly nervous. Which wasn't to say that I was completely not nervous, but it wasn't that bad. However, just before leaving Crystal Falls on Sam's back, I went back to the cabin and grabbed my longbow and some arrows in a drawstring backpack. Not because I thought I'd actually need to use my bow, but just because I felt much safer with it, and I figured it would help keep my nerves under control.
And it did. When Sam set me down in the clearing near Howler's Creek just after dawn and flew off, I was actually beginning to think that some of Nick's new-found super-confidence had rubbed off on me. I felt fairly calm, cool, and collected and didn’t feel any anxiety. I actually felt like I just wanted to get the whole thing over with so Nick and I could simply move on with our lives together. I still wanted that more than anything. He was the man I loved and I desired my future and life to be with him. Despite what had happened with Damien in Tennessee and the funny, conflicted feelings I had about him, which seemed to keep bubbling to the surface every so often, I truly wished to forget that I had asked him to kiss me.
Standing in the clearing, I watched a small grayish-tan rabbit hop across the tall grass in front of me, and wondered how long I was going to have to wait. The early October morning was overcast and a bit chilly, and I didn't want to catch a cold. Realizing that my biggest concern in the midst of my current endeavor was catching a cold, I chuckled briefly, hoping I wasn't being as cocky as Ezra was.
I stood around and waited, watching more rabbits hop across the clearing. Birds in the forest behind me seemed to come to life all at once and began chirping. I passed some time trying to identify exactly what kinds of different birds were singing. Eventually, maybe after twenty minutes or so, I strung an arrow in my bow and shot it at a small, skinny, orange-leafed tree by some shrubbery on the other side of the clearing, simply out of boredom. And that's when things went horribly, terribly, calamitously wrong.
*
Not a second after I'd launched my arrow, a dark gray wolf stepped out from the shrubbery on the other side of the clearing, only several hundred feet away. It was Ezra. My pulse quickened, and I glanced up at the cloudy sky, looking for Nick. But I didn't see any sign of him. However, I knew he was likely still hiding in the forest just a short distance behind me. And I knew that he'd soon spot Ezra as well, come out and shift into dragon form, and then roar the signal for Sam, who was even a bit deeper into the forest, to come pick me up. And then, Nick would attack Ezra before he could even get near me.
At least twenty seconds ticked by while Ezra very slowly stalked across the clearing toward me, and I still didn't see or hear any sign of Nick. No jets of fire in the sky. No roar for Sam to come pick me up. I waited maybe ten more seconds, beads of perspiration breaking out on my forehead, while glancing between the gray sky and Ezra's even darker gray, massive wolf form.
But still no sign of Nick. Wondering if he'd positioned himself too deep in the forest and just couldn't quite see Ezra across the clearing, I decided to give him a shout.
With my heartbeat hammering in my ears, I glanced back toward the forest.
"Nick! Nick, now! He's coming!"
Ezra was now maybe only three hundred feet away, and he picked up his pace a bit.
After glancing up at the sky and still seeing no sign of Nick, I glanced back at the forest again. "Nick, please! Now!"
Ezra was now moving swiftly, and I knew I was running out of time. With trembling fingers, I grabbed an arrow from the bag by my feet, loaded it into my bow, and fired at Ezra. But I missed. By a mile. Ezra paused, glanced at where the arrow had landed at least ten feet to his left, and gave his head a little shake while looking at me, as if expressing how pathetic my attempt had been. And then, he took off at a run.
Gasping, I snatched up another arrow, loaded it into my bow, and fired. And this one came much closer to Ezra. But it still missed him. And I was out of time. He was now so close I didn't think I had time to draw another arrow and fire. However, I knew I couldn't give up. I had to try.
But suddenly, before I could even stoop to grab another arrow, I heard a sound that to me, sounded like angels singing. I heard the loud whoosh of a dragon breathing fire. I looked up just in time to see an enormous dragon begin diving straight for Ezra. But it wasn't a green dragon. It wasn't Nick. This dragon was a dark charcoal gray. Damien.
He charged into Ezra when Ezra was no farther than ten feet away from me. I actually felt a breeze from Damien's thick scales passing by close to my face. And soon, he and Ezra became a snarling, roaring tangled blur of gray while they clawed and bit each other with lightning-fast speed, rolling in the grass.
I began backing up toward the forest, watching with my hands on my face. But within seconds, I came to a dead stop, hearing snarling behind me. I turned slowly and saw two large light gray wolves stepping out from the trees.
"Oh, no. No!"
I took off running away from them, past Damien and Ezra. Somehow, even while engaged in battle, Damien seemed to spot me and immediately delivered a mighty head-butt to Ezra that seemed to knock him unconscious. And not a moment too soon. Because now, the two light gray wolves were charging right at him.
Knowing that Ezra would likely only be temporarily stunned for a minute or so, I dashed away to hide behind some low, thorny bushes on the west side of the clearing. But they weren't very near, and it took me at least a full minute of running full-out to reach them. And by that time, to my shock, it seemed the fight was already over.
One of the light gray wolves was in a bloody heap in the grass, possibly dead, and the other was soon dispatched by Damien stabbing him through the heart and then through the eye with a razor-sharp claw. However, I didn't see Ezra anywhere.
Once his task killing the second light gray wolf was complete, Damien began whipping his head from side to side, seeming to be frantically looking for me.
Standing in front of the bushes, I cupped my hands around my mouth. "I'm over here!"
He soared over to me in a flash, shifted into human form immediately, and took me in his arms. "Please tell me you're okay."
I nodded into his chest, wrapping my arms around his neck. "I'm fine. But Ezra...where did he go?"
Damien snorted. "Running back to Howler's Creek like a coward."
He continued holding me, tightly, stroking my hair, and I made no attempts to free myself from his embrace.
But after a little while, I lifted my face from his hard chest. "It seems like a miracle that you saved me. Thank you."
He lifted the edges of his mouth in the slightest of grins, sighing. "After I caught you when you jumped out the window during the last fight, and now what happened here today...when are you going to understand? I always have my eye on you, even when Nick doesn't. I'm never not thinking about your safety. I'm never not thinking about protecting you. It's no miracle that saved you today. Just devotion. Just love."
Before I could respond, before I could even begin to think of a response, Nick descended from the sky, landed right beside us, and immediately shifted into human form, his expression anguished.
"Daisy. Are you all right?"
"I'm fine. Thanks to Damien."
"Thank God. Thank God you're okay."
Nick reached for me and began trying to pull me from Damien's arms, but I resisted and stepped to the side of both of them, folding my arms across my chest.
"No. No, not right now, Nick. I just can't be held by you right now." I paused, trying to get a handle on the hot lava suddenly flowing through my veins. "I need to hear some sort of explanation first. What happened?"
His expression became one of such anguish I actually wondered if he was going to cry.
"Daisy, I'm so, so very sorry. Right before I left town behind you and Sam, Alexandria begged to come with me, and like a fool, I let her. She just wanted to see me fight. Just wanted to see her handiwork, she said. And being that she's a sorceress with some magical self-defense skills, I let her come and dropped her in the forest near where I was going to be watching you. But before I could even take my position, I heard her calling out for me. A couple of Ezra's spies were attacking her, and she couldn't hold them off with her spells. And so, I had to help her and kill the wolves, and clearly, it cost me some time."
I stared at Nick, incredulous. I couldn't even speak for a long moment. "So, you were helping Alexandria while I myself was being attacked? You were helping your ex-girlfriend while your current girlfriend was herself in very serious and immediate danger?"
Nick cringed. "Please try to understand. I couldn't just leave her there to be ripped to shreds by the wolves."
"But I was nearly getting ripped to shreds by the wolves. And I only didn't get dragged off to Howler's Creek by Ezra because of Damien." Suddenly developing a sudden and very painful headache, I sighed, rubbing my temples. "Look. I know you're right. You couldn't just leave Alexandria there to be killed. That would've been cruel. I get it. But I'm just kind of feeling like...." Still rubbing my temples, I sighed again. "I just kind of want to be left alone for a little while, please. I just can't talk to you anymore right now. Okay?"
Almost as if on cue, Sam landed beside us not a moment later, and I huffed off toward him.
"Here's my ride."
After climbing on Sam's back and asking him if he could please take me back to town, I glanced over at Damien just before Sam lifted into the air.
"Thank you again, Damien."
My tears didn't wait until I was in private to start falling. By the time Sam landed in front of the cabin, I was openly weeping. I scrambled off his back and mumbled a hasty thank you before dashing up the front walkway, wiping my eyes.
Once inside the cabin, I ran upstairs, began drawing a bath, and stripped, still crying. I didn't even know exactly why I'd had an impulse to take a bath, though I was sure some sort of desire to metaphorically wash away the events of the morning had something to do with it, even though I knew that those events couldn't be washed away, or ever forgotten.
The fact would always remain that I could have been hurt, raped, or killed, or all of the above, while Nick was protecting Alexandria. And it didn't matter that I understood that he couldn't just leave her to be killed. I was still hurt and angry, and I felt more than a little humiliated, as well. In addition to being confused. And profoundly so. Damien had now saved me twice, and I couldn't deny that, just like it had back in Tennessee, being held in his strong arms had felt so incredibly right.
I reclined in the warm water, sobbing while rubbing my temples, and when a knock sounded on the door after several minutes, my tears had barely slowed at all.
After shutting the water off with my toes, I wiped my eyes, knowing exactly who'd knocked. "Please leave me alone. I'm taking a bath."
Nick's deep voice sounded from the other side of the door.
"Daisy, please. After your bath, will you talk to me? I'm begging you. I'm begging you to at least just think about it while you're in there."
Fresh tears overflowed my eyes.
"Just please leave me alone. I don't want to talk to you. And I don't know when I will." Making a sudden decision, I sat up in the tub, hugging my arms to my chest. "I want a break, Nick. I need some time to think things over. I don't know if I need a few hours, days, or months, but I just need some time to think. And if you really love me, you'll give me that time."
I waited for a response, but all I heard was silence. And then, after a few seconds, his voice again, soft and pleading.
"Daisy, please. I'm begging you. Just let me talk to you. Just let me-"
"No. I just can't talk to you, okay? I need some time. I need a break. We are officially no longer in a relationship from this moment on. Now, please just leave me to cry in peace."
After several moments, I heard the sound of his heavy boots slowly thudding back down the hallway. I sank back in the tub, sobbing, wondering if I'd made the right decision.