Page 8 of Waking Her Dragon

Beneath the fire, a sickening layer of icy dread crept through her veins. Like frost tracing the edges of her heart, it was followed by the heavy, metallic taste of blood pooling in the back of her throat.

Then came the darkness. It didn't just fall lazily like a fuzzy blanket fresh from the dryer. It hit her like a ton of bricks–an avalanche of pain, horror, agony, and unrelenting misery. It molded to her every curve. Thick and suffocating, it sought to devour the Special One.

Her vision splintered into shadows as the phantom weight switched its girth to her limbs. She couldn't move. She couldn't breathe. Every nerve screamed with the terrifying, invisible sensation of being pinned to the floor and held down by unseen hands.

“RUN!”

It wasn't a request. It wasn’t a suggestion. It was a command roared with absolute supremacy. The word slashed through Sydney's mind, exploding into a million jagged shards that echoed into every dark crevice of her consciousness. It demanded her body obey. It demanded she run.

But she couldn’t. The pain was too intense.

Hit with an especially brutal wave of heat and phantom blood, Sydney doubled over, left arm around her waist and her right hand over her heart.

Gasping, trying to catch her breath, another slash of fire, an explosion of icy dread slammed into her chest. Her knees buckled. The world tilted sideways. She was falling, and there was nothing she could do about it.

But she never hit the floor.

Carrick’s arms caught her. Solid and unyielding, he lifted her to his chest.

“Garrett!” Sydney choked out, the name ripping from her throat, a hiccupping sob of utter exhaustion and complete horror.

From one beat of her heart to the next, everything moved at lightning speed.

Complete panic erupted around her. A chaotic blur of noise and motion, she caught a few sights and sounds but truly felt what was happening as a distant vibration against her skin.

Carrick was instantly in full Dragon Elder mode. His initial calm, cool, and collected demeanor was gone. There was no more of his gentle, caring tone of questioning when he’d asked, “Come in, Syd. Tell me what's wrong?” It had all been wiped away by the pure, lethal instinct to protect one of his chosen family.

Hoisting her up into his iron-tight grip, he swept her inside the house. His sense of urgency and command filled the massive mansion. Ginnie instantly appeared at his side. Her presence was the sharp anchor they needed amidst the rising chaos.

Carrick didn't slow his action in the slightest. Laying Sydney down, his voice barked out in a rapid-fire interrogation born of pure desperation.

“What did you feel? Did you see him? Did he speak? Where is he, Sydney?”

Sydney opened her mouth to answer, to scream that Garrett was burning, that he was drowning in darkness, but the words were utterly scorched out of her.

Inside her mind, Kara was going absolutely ballistic. The Dragon Queen was spitting frantic orders, raging against the cage of Sydney's skull, demanding answers the young woman simply didn't possess.

“Two…” Kara’s voice hissed, a violent, trembling vibration that cut through the internal noise attacking Sydney’s brain. “Two of them,” the Dragon Queen repeated.

Sydney’s thoughts fractured. “Leviathan?” She anxiously replied through their mental link.

Frantically trying to force her physical lips to move, to tell Carrick something, anything, she gave up and mentally asked Kara, “Is Leviathan with him?”

“No!” Kara snarled, her ancient power flaring so hot it made Sydney’s vision blur. “Dragon. Ancient. Powerful. Hurt.”

“Okay,” Syd tried to snap, but fell short. “You don’t have to bite my head…”

A cold shockwave washed over her, bypassing her physical body, striking her soul, and stealing the words from her mind. She knew Garrett shared his soul with Aodhan, Dragon King of the Gray Dragons, but he had been completely hidden, locked behind an impenetrable wall alongside Garrett's mind every time she’d touched her Mate’s mind. She’d never been able to feel him– and neither had the Dragon Queen with whom she shared her soul.

That is… Until that very moment.

Something shattered. Was blown to smithereens and obliterated in every sense of the word. The inconvenient and invasive obstruction that had kept her from Garrett had broken, and through the crack, Kara hadn't just felt Garrett's agony–she had found the wounded Dragon King.

Sydney forced the air back into her lungs, fighting the residual burn in her chest, refusing to give in to the pain. Panting like a dog, she worked to slow her heart rate, calm herself, and get one full breath.

But it wasn’t easy. Standing at her side, Carrick’s massive frame radiated a tight energy. He was vibrating on the inside. He appeared still as a statue. However, he was anything but… The true Dragon Guardsman, the Warrior he’d been from the very beginning, before he became a Leader and an Elder, that man needed the facts… just the cold, hard, unembellished evidence to prepare, to plan, to strategize what must come next.

“Please speak to me, Sydney.” His voice was dangerously low. She could feel the steely undertone he was keeping tight to the vest. He was working hard, for her, to be the loving, caring man she’d always known.