Sapphamire (5 page)

Danielle, who had been talking on the phone, stepped back into the circle and called Blain back to attention. Natasha stood and went back to her standing spot. She watched with curiosity this time when they did not immediately engage into training. No, this time, Danielle looked different, angry somehow. She listened in on what was being said between her and Blain.

“It is such a pity that your pretty little girlfriend must watch you die,” Danielle snarled.

Snarled?

And who was she to call Natasha ‘little’? Danielle only stood an inch or so taller than she did.
Bitch.
She continued to watch Danielle and Blain carefully, wondering if her feared thoughts were about to come true.

“Danielle, it is against the rules to change strategy in the middle of a session,” Blain stated as he quickly went down on one knee, raising his sword above his head to block a deathly blow as their weapons collided.

“I give you greetings from Mr. Boragello. You turned your back on a deal last month. No one turns their back on Mr. Boragello and lives to tell about it.”

“What? Danielle, stop, immediately!” Blain roared the order, but was completely ignored. She kept coming at him, giving all she had, and had no intentions of stopping until she was victorious.

Natasha was just getting ready to jump into action when Blain roared, “Natasha, don’t!” She stood there fuming, wanting to go against his order, and still trying to believe this was what the trouble was all about. Oh, she wished she truly had some type of magical power that other shifters were gifted with. She couldn’t even smell the damn bitch trying to remove Blain’s head from his shoulders to know if she was human or not. She cocked her head as she studied the sparring match that was quickly changing by the second. No human female could ever attack Blain and even match him, let alone get the upper hand. Blain was a dragon, for crying out loud.

“What the hell are you?” Blain roared as he just barely missed her sword.

The grin she gave him was evil. Pure evil.

Blain’s gaze shot back behind him when he heard her yelp. A man twice her size grabbed her from behind and held her in place. His guards, all ten, were lying on the ground, moaning in pain.
What the hell was going on?
He just barely caught Danielle coming back at him in time to avoid her sword. As it was, she nicked his shoulder. Warm blood oozed down his shoulder and back. This can’t be right. He was a shifter, and as such a simple cut should heal almost immediately. But it wasn’t. And it was burning like the devil.

Danielle came at him again, but this time Blain seemed to be moving in slow motion. Again, he just barely missed an all-out strike, but he quickly lost his balance as he dodged her sword and slammed his head into the boulder.

Natasha watched in horror as Danielle slowly stalked over to Blain, as he tried to shake his head clear of its sudden fogginess. The brute behind her held her tightly in place, as if he thought that was really going to stop her.
Whoever these people are, they obviously did not do their homework on me.
If they
had been smart, they
would have secured my legs
. She kicked back and up until the heel of her boot smashed his balls. He immediately loosened his death-hold on her and leaned forward, in obvious agony. When his head came down and forward, she threw her own back, hitting him dead in the nose. She felt blood splatter onto the back of her head and grimaced, she so hated getting blood in her hair. He released her completely and brought his hands up to his face, covering his nose.

“You bitch,” he growled out.

Why is it that every time a woman gets the best of a man she is called a bitch?
“Yep, and proud of it!” She quickly spun around and gave him a roundhouse kick in the chest, which knocked him down completely.

Not sure how long her own attacker was going to stay down, she quickly sprinted over to one of the guards still on the ground, but seemed to be coming out of whatever he had been suffering from. If Natasha had to make a guess, she would say that some sort of spell had been put over them. Natasha wondered why she hadn’t been affected, but put it aside.
No time to think about that now,
must get to Blain!
Her conscience warned her. She grabbed the guard’s sword and took off in Blain and Danielle’s direction.

Blain was trying his level best not to succumb to the dizziness and sickness he suddenly found himself fighting.
What the hell has this witch done to me?
The minute his mind processed this thought, his dragon huffed, '
She’s not like any witch we have ever come across!'
He had managed to bring himself back up to a kneeling position, leaning heavily on the boulder he had just collided with. His head hurt like a bitch, and the burning pain in his shoulder was getting worse.
Well, she has to be some type of magical being. My human body isn’t healing from where her sword caught me, and the burning tells me the sword has been either spelled or poisoned.
His vision cleared just enough to see Danielle getting ready to take the kill shot.
Damn, and I still don’t understand why she wants me dead. I mean, yeah, I turned down her boss’s
business deal last month; the man is as crooked as they come. But the man actually ordered me killed because I refused a business proposition?

Natasha glanced over to Blain as soon as the sword was in her hand. She saw Danielle bring her sword up, readying to go for the kill shot. Natasha didn’t think, she didn’t have time to. In one huge leap, she landed between Danielle and Blain’s kneeling form. If the look in her eyes were any indication, Natasha had caught the other woman by surprise. Danielle jerked to a stop, her eyes going wide as Natasha brought her sword up to meet hers.

Taking the momentary advantage she had with her surprise attack, she brought her foot up and kicked Danielle in the gut while their swords were still locked together. The other woman stumbled slightly as she took a step or two backwards, and Natasha wasted no time in giving her another kick, this time sending her sprawling on the ground. Knowing she had no other choice, Natasha quickly swung her sword down and to the side, cleanly decapitating Danielle.

Natasha stood over the body, breathing heavily. Commotion off to her side snapped her head back up. All of Blain’s guards had suddenly jumped up, as if coming out of a trance.
Hmm, maybe she had been a witch of some type, and had cast a spell on them
. That would make sense, since it would have been suicide to try to fight both Blain and his guards. As it was, the guards were making short work of rounding up Danielle’s minions.

“Leave a few of them alive,” she heard Blain order from behind her.

She turned his way and helped him to stand. “Damn, but whatever she had dipped her sword in burns like a bitch!” he growled as they headed over to one of his guards who was holding a captive.

“Speak!” Blain demanded. “Tell me why you attacked, why Boragello wants me dead!”

“Fuck you!” The mammoth of a man spat in Blain’s face. “You might win today, but if Boragello didn’t already want you dead, he damn sure does now that you have killed his girlfriend!” Both Blain and Natasha watched as the man started twitching, an evil grin spreading across his face, even as he began foaming at the mouth. “There are more coming, he won’t stop until you are both dead.” The man’s eyes rolled back into his head as he took his last breath.

“Don’t touch him,” Blain ordered both Natasha and his guard. “It’s poison, I can smell it. He must have had something in his mouth that he could activate if things went south.

They both turned as they watched with horrid fascination as all of Boragello’s men succumbed to the same thing. “Well, it was either something already in their mouth, or it might be some kind of spell.” He looked over to Natasha. “I suspect Danielle was some type of witch and used her abilities to cast a spell on the men. As far as I can tell, they are all human, so it could have been a spell to increase their strength. It may also have been laced with succumbing to death by poisoning if she didn’t make it.”

He turned to walk away from her, but she reached out to grab his arm. “Wait a minute, you couldn’t smell what she was?” He was a dragon shifter. Surely he knew what type of paranormal being she was.

“No, whatever she was, she managed to cloak her scent very well from me.”

Just then they began to hear the engine of a car. It was still a bit off in the distance, but from the sound of the roaring engine, it was heading their way, and fast.

Blain looked around at his guards. “Come on, everyone in the vehicles, we need to regroup.” He was still strongly feeling the effects of what he was fairly certain was poison running through his body. And although the guards had seemed to come out of whatever spell Danielle had placed on them, he noticed none of them was completely one hundred percent. The only one who didn’t seem affected by the battle was Natasha.

They quickly reached the two limos only to find Blain’s driver dead, slumped over in his seat. He called for one of the guards. “Move the body over. He goes back with us for a proper burial. I refuse to leave him here with all the tainted magic and evil on these grounds.”

The guard made short work of moving the driver’s body, and Blain started to get in the driver’s seat. “Uh, no, big man, I’m driving. You are injured.”

Blain gave Natasha a look as if he thought she had grown two heads. Just as he was about to argue, his guard stepped up. “Sir, she is right. Allow me to drive, please.”

He shook his head at the two people standing in front of him, blocking the entrance to the vehicle. “Very well, Ethan. Get in,” he grabbed Natasha’s arm and yanked her into the back, following her in.

As soon as they were on the road, Natasha reached over to the seat directly in front of her, pulled the seat portion up, and retrieved a black leather duffle bag.

“That wasn’t there before,” Blain said, watching her closely as she unzipped the bag and pulled out two pistols.

“I had the car renovated early this morning. I never go anywhere unprepared. And I can promise you,” she paused, snapping in two new magazines and looking over at him. “That’s not the only new hidden compartment in this car or the castle.”

The car jerked suddenly as a bullet zipped past the side of their limo, shattering the side mirror. Blain looked behind them to see they were being pursued by three cars. Still didn’t make any sense why someone would want him dead just because he turned down a business proposal.

They both heard tires squealing as they watched the limo with the guards in it get hit from behind, lose control, and go into a spin before stopping on the forest side of the road.

Natasha rolled down her window and stuck her upper body through the empty spot just enough to unload the magazine in her gun at the cars behind them. She shot out at least one tire on two different cars, and had also managed to hit the passenger in the car directly behind them. The two cars with blown-out tires skidded to a stop, leaving only one chasing them.

“Sir, what do you want me to do?” Ethan inquired from the front seat.

Before Blain could open his mouth to respond, Natasha answered, “Just keep driving and don’t stop, no matter what!”

“I can’t get a good shot at the driver,” she said, sliding back down into her seat.

“I guess we’ll just have to see if we can lose him along the way,” Blain stated, noticing that she was looking at him intently. “What?” he questioned, wondering what was going through that devious mind of hers.

Without saying a word, she climbed on top of him, straddling his lap facing him, her thighs hugging onto his hips. His mouth fell open as she pulled out a sniper’s rifle from the bag and looked back at him.

“I don’t think that this is the right time to be playing any games,” he teased, though loving having her on top of him.

She cocked a brow at him with a devilish glint in her eyes. “Just help hold me steady,” she said, leaning out of his window and aiming the gun once again.

The way she positioned herself gave him a great view of her ass. Even with her clothes on, his dragon was salivating to bite into the luscious globes. If it weren’t for the crazy situation they were in, he would consider letting his dragon have his way. But the situation was getting crazier by the minute, and he had to reach home and then figure out how to rid his body of the poison now running through it. '
Hmm, luscious
,' his dragon groaned. '
I’d even let her be on top, oh yeah, with those delicious melons bouncing as we take her.'

“Um, boss, we got a bit of a problem. We are coming to a dead end up ahead, so if you two got something up your sleeve back there, please hurry up with it,” his guard called from the front.

“Give me a minute,” Natasha yelled as she tried to get a clean shot in.

He leaned forward to check on the road. “Natasha, we don’t have a minute. Take the shot now.”

“Give me a
minute
.”

“Take the damn shot!” he yelled as he watched them fast approaching the end of the road with a barricade up and a long drop down off the cliff after that.

Suddenly, time slowed down into slow motion. The rifle was fired as Ethan slammed on the brakes and spun the car around, the back tires skidding to a stop just at the edge of the cliff. They watched as the now dead driver’s car flew off the road and down into the unknown. Natasha slid back inside, staring back into Blain’s wide eyes. That was way too close a call for either of them to like. He reached up and cupped her cheek, smiling slowly as the realization finally hit him that she was okay—they were all right and still here.

“We did it,” Natasha breathed heavily, leaning her head against his.

“No, you did that, baby,” he corrected. He couldn’t help himself from sinking his fingers deep into her hair that had loosened from its tight braid during all the action. Their breaths mixed together as they panted from their adrenaline.

Her eyes searched over him. Had he really just called her
baby
? Why so? She was his right-hand, secretary, and maybe friend, nothing more. She had chalked up last night to two friends having a good time and just a few too many drinks on Blain’s end of the deal, but that was it. He hadn’t shown any signs otherwise this morning, so she thought she knew where she stood. And then after she had looked up a bit of information…. But now? His hands running through her hair, his lips only inches away from kissing hers… Her gaze landed on the trickle of blood running down the side of his face, she looked up to see that where he had hit the boulder, his head had been cut open and was gushing blood.