Warrior's Rise (14 page)

He frowned. “Is everything okay?”

“Yeah, there was a prowler around here earlier. Tried to break in my house, I think. I just want everyone to be careful and be safe, all right?”

He nodded. “Okay, Miss Willow.” He arched his back and made a face. “Man, my back is killing me. Has been all day. Feels like it’s on fire.” He rubbed at his lower back. “Must have pulled something.”

Willow felt her heart plummet, once again, as Darien turned to go. His back… It was the mark. It had to be. She just hoped no one saw it. Especially Lucy. She would flip. From this moment on she had to keep an extra close watch on Darien. Obviously he had become full Alveda d’Kai.

Chapter Thirteen

Logan screaming her name brought Willow out of her stupor and she slammed the door, running back into the bedroom. He was shaking and sweating profusely. She remembered the strange, glowing light Darien’s touch had produced and she knew what it was, but that wasn’t necessarily a relief. Darien had wished Logan well, had used his healing power without even knowing it, but Alveda d’Kai healing powers were tricky and very specific. Darien had said, “…get that nasty stuff out of your system.” Willow could only imagine what that entailed.

“Willow, I think I’m gonna be sick,” Logan muttered, sitting up and clutching at his stomach.

She grabbed the trash can by the side of her bed and handed it to him just as he threw up violently. She put her hand on his shoulder in consolation, but withdrew it immediately. His skin was so hot! Waves of heat emanated off of his body. She ran into the bathroom and got a washcloth, dousing it in cold water. Great. Darien had attempted to heal him by saying the poison needed to get out of his system. The body rid toxins in two ways. By throwing up and sweating it out. So Darien had tried to cure his poisoning with a high grade fever. Fry his brain instead. That just made everything so much better.

She flew into the bedroom and placed the cold cloth to Logan’s forehead as he flopped back against the pillows with a groan. He was shivering so badly that his teeth were chattering.

“I’m freezing,” he whispered, trying to tug the covers up around him.

“You have a really bad fever, Logan,” she said. “We have to get it down.” She flipped the washcloth over and went to apply it again, but he lunged out of bed and grabbed the trashcan as he got sick for the second time. She went into the bathroom, wet the washcloth again and applied it to the back of his neck as he hung his head over the waste basket.

This routine repeated about five times until he had absolutely nothing left to throw up unless his stomach and intestines decided they wanted to come out as well. He collapsed against the bed, exhausted and still shaking and sweating, but his skin no longer felt like it was on fire.

Willow cleaned up and put the washcloth in the bathroom, then returned to the bedroom and pulled the covers over him.

He winced. “I’m so cold,” he whispered.

She looked down at him and her heart ached at seeing him so helpless and miserable. Without thinking, she flung the covers aside and crawled into bed beside him, pulling him into her arms. This was her fault. This had happened to him because she’d left him alone, unsuspecting, having no idea of what he was or what he was up against. The least she could do was offer him some kind of comfort. “Is that better?” she asked.

A lump clogged her throat and she closed her eyes, tightening her arms around him. This man was the most arrogant, self absorbed person she’d ever met in her life. He was strong, masculine, athletic and alpha in the worst way…And here he was, trembling in her arms and admitting he was scared like a little boy. It broke her heart in about ten different ways. “I won’t go anywhere,” she promised.

She smiled and absently ran her hand across his back in lazy patterns. “Close your eyes, Logan,” she soothed. “You need to get some rest.”

“Don’t leave.” He tightened his hold on her as if to keep her pinned there.

“I won’t.” She pressed a kiss to the top of his head. “Please sleep.” She had never been more relieved than when she felt his body relax against hers, stop trembling, and she heard him breathing deep and rhythmic. It was only then that she lost it and cried.

* * * *

You’re next, dragon warrior…
Logan awoke with a start, his heart beating madly in his chest and his breath coming in short gasps. It took him a moment to realize that he was lying in bed, in Willow’s room…and his body felt like he’d been run over by a steam roller and then used as a punching bag. He groaned and turned over, then blinked in surprise. Willow was lying next to him, asleep.

The whole previous day flooded back to him in painful clarity. He’d been poisoned. That woman had tried to poison him. It was the only thing that made any kind of sense… That excruciating pain… Then he’d gotten really sick. Willow had stayed with him; she’d taken care of him… He let his gaze roam over her beautiful face. Even in her sleep she looked worried and drawn. Worried…about him. He reached out to tuck back a strand of her fiery hair.

His brain felt sluggish and foggy. He couldn’t put the pieces of what had happened together. Who had that woman been? Willow had said she didn’t have a sister. Who was she then? And why had she been looking for Willow? Something strange was going on and he had to get to the bottom of it… Right after he took a shower.

With another groan, he forced himself to sit up, then forced himself to stand and stagger into the bathroom. Every muscle in his body was screaming at him. Maybe the hot water would help.

His clothing was gross. He’d soaked them with his sweat the night before. He had no desire to put them on again so, after rummaging around in the hall closet, he managed to find a towel that was big enough to wrap around his waist. He did his best to be quiet, not wanting to wake Willow up, and slipped into the shower.

The hot water eased his sore muscles, but he still felt like someone had taken a crowbar to his body. He relished the feel of the water sliding over him, let it invigorate and refresh him as much as it could, and tried to ignore that same nagging restless feeling in his chest. Too bad he hadn’t managed to purge that from his body while he’d been purging everything else that wasn’t attached to some vital organ.

Willow was still asleep when he emerged from the shower and he left her alone, going into the kitchen to put on a pot of coffee for her. He sure as heck didn’t want any, but she would probably welcome a fresh cup. He waited until it was done brewing, then poured a mug full and went back into the bedroom, where he sat down on the edge of the bed and set the coffee on the nightstand. He studied her for a second and smiled to himself, a calm, serene kind of warmth filling him as he stared down at her.

He’d thought of Willow as an ice queen with no heart. She’d had his number from the minute he’d walked in the door. At first, he’d been offended at her coldness and harsh words, but he saw now that she’d only been speaking the truth. He’d needed a serious reality check. Nothing like getting whacked in the head, shot in the arm, socked in the stomach, told what-for by a teenage girl and poisoned by a stranger to make you get a clue.

But Willow, under all her frigidness, had taken care of him. She’d let him sleep in her house when his cabin flooded. She’d stayed with him through the night, slept next to him and held him because he—big, bad Logan Savage—had begged her to like a child. Because he’d been terrified of dying. He’d never been that close to death before. He’d felt it like a presence, lurking, waiting. It had been horrifying. It made him realize he still had way too much life to live, and he didn’t want to waste any more of it on being stupid and selfish.

He reached out and cupped Willow’s cheek in his palm, liking how her skin felt against his hand. Soft and supple, satiny, like it looked. She unconsciously leaned into his touch and her eyes fluttered open. She blinked a few times before her gaze settled on him and she sat up with a gasp.

“Logan!”

The concern in her voice, as well as the breathy way in which she spoke his name, tugged at his heart. He smiled. “Good morning.”

She looked him over and glanced up at him in surprise at seeing that he was sitting there, showered and in a towel. “Are you all right? How do you feel?”

He gave a lazy shrug with one shoulder. “I feel terrible… But I’m alive. Can’t complain. Here, I made you a cup of coffee.” He indicated the mug on the nightstand, but was taken aback by her flinging her arms around him and sobbing. His arms instantly came up to hold her and he blinked in confusion.

“Thank goodness you’re all right!” she cried. “I was so scared! I thought I’d killed you! It was all my fault!”

He frowned. “Your fault?” He took her gently by the shoulders and held her out so he could look at her. “Why would it be your fault?”

She sniffed and shook her head. “I was careless. I thought—I underestimated her. Logan, she tried to assassinate you.”

He stared vacantly as his mind tried to wrap around that one. To his credit, he was a decently smart man, but his brain absolutely could
not
handle any more surprises. They were getting harder and harder to compute. “Wait a second, did you just say
assassinate?”
He stood and looked down at her. “Okay, I’ve about had it with this. I need to know what’s going on right now, Willow.”

She met his eyes with uncertainty. “Not yet. You’ve been sick. You almost died—”

“Exactly!” he exclaimed. “Willow, you just said someone tried to assassinate me. Not murder,
assassinate!
Normal people like me do not get assassinated! They get attacked, sure, killed, fine, but only really important people get
assassinated!
Last time I checked I wasn’t a world leader, or a controversial political figure! I deserve to know what’s going on! I almost died! Some freaky woman tried to kill me with a kiss! What kind of sick person does that to a man?” He started to pace, a habit he was quickly coming to realize was one of the only things that made him feel any better at all.

She stood and held her hands out to him to stop his pacing. “Okay, okay, you’re right. You do deserve to know what’s going on, but you’re going to think it’s crazy.”

He snorted. “Crazier than anything else that’s happened to me thus far?”

She reached out and took his hands in hers. “Logan, this is important. I need to know that I can trust you.”

He looked down into her eyes and some of his frustration morphed into concern and anxiety. Something huge was going on. Something huge was about to happen. He could feel it. It was like his whole existence was balancing on the edge of a knife. For a second, he seriously thought about telling her that he didn’t want to know… And then he would book it very fast.

But he couldn’t. Something inside of him
had
to know. It was screaming to know. He let his shoulders slump and he sighed. He squeezed her hands and locked eyes with her. “Willow, you can trust me. I promise you can. Please tell me what’s going on.”

She heaved a sigh and closed her eyes. Whatever she had to say was obviously very difficult. “I’m a fairy queen,” she said softly.

He blinked, then blinked again before he let go of her hands and took a few steps backwards. “Y-You’re a gay cross dresser?” No way. Not Willow. Come on, she was a hottie!

She looked up at him and frowned. “N-Not that kind of fairy queen, Logan.” She rolled her eyes.

He breathed a sigh of relief, but then instantly got confused again. He frowned. “Then what are you talking about?”

She chewed on her bottom lip. “Look, I know you don’t believe in anything mystical. You believe that if you can see it and you can touch it, it’s real, right?”

He stared at her in bafflement. What kind of jacked up place had he been sent to? These people really were nut jobs. Every last one of them. He rolled his eyes and opened his mouth to protest, but her hands on his chest stopped him.

“Logan, please. You asked for answers. I’m going to give them to you, but you have to trust me also. Please, just go get Darien and meet me back here.”

She shook her head. “Wait until I get out of the shower. I changed my mind. I’m going with you. I don’t want anything else to happen to you.” She started towards her bathroom.

He caught her arm with a frown. “Hey…” He swallowed. “This is really serious, isn’t it? Whatever it is?”

She nodded. “Yes, it is. Please stay here. Promise.”

His heart melted despite his lurking terror at the complete unknown. He reached out and stroked her hair. “You stayed with me when I asked. I’ll do the same for you.”

She smiled and went to him, wrapping her arms around his waist. “I’m so happy you’re all right,” she murmured. “This is all about to get really bizarre for you. Just please trust me. Trust me the way I’m trusting you.”