Guardian's Beloved Mate (Song of the Sídhí Series #4) Read online

  He curled his hand into a fist. Fury pulsed through him, but his burning emotion had no outlet. The small room lay empty of anyone.

  To his left stood a door, more silver bars covered the small square. A sasquatch snarled at him, flashing long yellow teeth. The creature screamed a dual tone challenge.

  “Oh, shut-up,” a menacing voice said immediately behind him. He barely distinguished the words over the continued shriek of the dirty haired sasquatch.

  Startled, Alex whirled at the softly spoken words. It was very rare to find anyone that had the ability to sneak up on him, a two thousand year old dragon. For him to find that person in enemy territory was not comforting.

  Sword in hand, he crouched ready to confront his opponent.

  He blinked. Once. Twice. A twitch moved his lips.

  “Lady Sarah,” he said in formal greeting to the dangerous, young woman who followed him through the portal, “my honor to you and your family.”

  “Blast your honor to hell and back,” Sarah said frostily, staring icy bullets at his head. “If we are captured, I’ll rip off your head before I risk you telling the Dhark Lords my secrets.”

  Alex sobered, nodding his head in agreement. “Actually, I agree with that.” If the Dhark Lords found out whom Sarah was, that she was actually the first Chi’Kehra in four thousand years, they would stop at nothing to either kill her or force her to do their dirty work.

  The thought was terrifying. It was the last Chi’Kehra who created the second dimensional bubbles that secretly lay across the face of the Earth.

  She tilted her head as if surprised at his words.

  The sasquatch was joined by two more of its kin. The racket increased, making speech simply impossible.

  Alex watched Sarah frown slightly. He hesitated to say anything. The teen had an odd glint in her eyes. One that Alex didn’t know if he wanted anything to do with or not. He feared that she was going crazy. It wasn’t unknown for older Sídhí to go insane if they didn’t find and bond with their destined mate, the one person who completed their very soul.

  Sarah wasn’t very old, but she wasn’t what most people called normal, not with her body being flooded with enough synth crystal to power every known Sídhí valley and Earth for a few decades.

  Sarah stalked toward the door, and a slender crystal sword appeared in her hand. The sword guard extended, swirling around her hand, continuing upward around her wrist in an elegant, yet impenetrable wrist guard of delicate-appearing beads. The three-foot sword looked like it would shatter if it encountered a softly padded pillow. That was not happening, not in a million years, because when it came to synth crystal, appearances were very deceiving.

  Before he had a chance to understand, she slashed downward, cutting through the steel clasp that connected the armor-platted door to the cave wall. The door burst open, spilling a large sasquatch onto the floor. Another sasquatch jumped over the first, lunging toward Sarah.

  She danced backward, swinging her slender blade as she went. Before Alex had time to blink in surprise, the attacking sasquatch lost an arm. The sword flashed. Blood spewed everywhere. The creature didn’t have time to scream in pain as its head thudded across the stone floor.

  Alex lurched forward, killing the second hairy creature.

  He turned, but Sarah had killed the third and was walking through the doorway.

  He shook his head in disbelief over Sarah’s calm features. Well, he was the one who asked for her help.

  Twenty minutes later, his hope of finding Lizzie began crumbling into despair. The prison system was a massive warren of tunnels going everywhere and nowhere. They had already hit three dead ends, four traps and a break room for the normal guards. Three vampires and two elves lay dead.

  Still, he found no sign of Lizzie or any other prisoner.

  Harry, his informant, had lied.

  A small sound froze them in place.

  A tense moment in time passed.

  A muffled moan sounded to their immediate left. He turned and stared at the blank gray wall, a wall carved from solid stone. He touched the wall, seeking a seam. There wasn’t one. The rocky surface was cold. Bits of dirt crumbled at his touch.

  “Wait,” Sarah hissed, motioning for him to back up.

  He didn’t waste any time. The girl was as impetuous as a wild khatt. Normally, her spontaneous actions wouldn’t matter, but deep in the bowels of TèVarrn, every move made a difference whether they succeeded or not. He couldn’t even port to safety. The entire wretched system of caves had silver bars embedded throughout.

  Sarah lifted her sword. The razor-sharp edge flashed outward, hitting the wall. Not surprisingly, the synth blade slid through the rock like slicing a cake. In liquid form or solid, synth crystal was the most powerful energy source in the known world. A synth blade could slice through anything.

  She chuckled. The soft sound was not reassuring.

  “The wall is a mirage,” Sarah stated.

  Alex struggled to contain his growing desperation.

  Unwillingly, he watched in fascination as she lowered and raised her sword, swirling it within the depths of the fake wall. A few moments later, she snorted. “It must be fairy made and a master fairy at that. I can’t break through it.”

  She pulled her sword out of the wall.

  He felt like she stabbed him through the heart with it.

  “We’ve got to find another way. I know she’s down here,” he said. Desperation made his voice thick and harsh.

  “Agreed.” Sarah slowly nodded, and touched the wall with the tips of her fingers. She seemed to be searching for something. Trailing down the wall, she stopped after a few feet. She seemed to be arguing with herself. Finally, she looked at him and bared her sharply pointed teeth. “Discovery is on your head. That I swear.”

  He was still trying to understand her words when he noticed a tiny thread of synth crystal pouring out of the palm of her hand and into the wall.

  Sarah’s eyes stared straight ahead. She took a shallow breath, hissing it out between clenched teeth. “Show me what Lizzie looks like.”

  Alex wondered what the girl was up to, but he didn’t hesitate. He mentally sent her an image, but after a few seconds, he realized she never received it.

  “There’s too much silver, it’s blocking me,” Alex said, snapping his teeth together in frustration.

  She pursed her lip. “Silver is such a hassle.”

  That’s not what he would call it, but he grunted his agreement with her assessment.

  She reached out and touched a single finger to his forehead.

  He nearly fell to his knees as her power flooded his senses. He shuddered. His mind expanded, trying and failing to grasp the magnitude of the sheer energy pouring into his every cell. His neck contracted, sharp teeth burst through his gums. His body burned as dragon scales formed across his human body.

  “The picture,” Sarah said unhurriedly. “You’d best send it to me before that drip of power burns through the soles of your feet.”

  He snarled. Leathery wings sprouted on his back. Dragonfire boiled up his throat. He began convulsing. His mind whirled and smashed apart, instantly reforming and healing. Death heaved through him, killing him. The synth, she poured in his body, jerked him to life.

  He mentally flung a dozen mental images of Lizzie at Sarah.

  The freakish-girl dropped her hand, calmly nodding her head as if nothing had happened.

  The moment her finger moved, he collapsed like a bowl of Jell-O, hitting the floor with a solid thud. Scales and wings disappeared. His body rapidly healed his internal damage.

  He bared his very human teeth and glared-up at her through narrowed eyes, growling deep in his chest.

  She glanced down at him, slightly arching an elegant eyebrow. “Suck-it up then get-up, I’ve found her.”

  Excitement filled his body. His eyes glittered with such an overwhelming emotion he couldn’t put a name to it. “Found? Lizzie!”

  He struggled to st
and, forcing his healing muscles to work when they wanted to melt. “How?” He demanded, grabbing the wall for support.

  She silently watched his efforts. She hesitated then moved to help him, wrapping her hand around his upper arm.

  He shuddered at the contact and hissed at her, but she didn’t let go. It took him several seconds to realize she was not pouring her lethal brand of energy into him. Her helping hand was simply that, a way to help him get his feet under him.

  He had a thousand questions for the girl at his side, but only one of them mattered. “Where is she?”

  Sarah waited until he stood a little straighter.

  The moment he seemed to gain control of his shivering body, she released him.

  She took off in the opposite direction of where they had been going.

  He stumbled after her, lurching like a rag doll. Within a few strides, his body seemed to realign itself. His stumbling gait turned smooth and he stalked after the silent moving girl.

  She did have a lot of questions to answer, but at the moment, he didn’t care about her, Dragon Valley, or even stopping the Khr'Vurr. Nothing mattered to him, except finding his mate.

  Sarah stopped at a blank wall. Putting her hand to its surface, she spun a thread of synth crystal into its surface. The thread expanded, forming a tube.

  “I think this will let you smell what’s on the other side. Take a whiff and see if you smell her,” she said, nodding toward the open end of the small tube.

  He glanced inside the tube. A tiny fan whirled within it. Hell, the girl was scary.

  The stagnant scent of feces and unwashed bodies filled the air. He froze. Among the scents, he smelled paradise. Lizzie’s pure scent sifted through the air. He shuddered harder than ever before. The sweet scent of jasmine called to him.

  His fingers curled and he clawed against the rock wall, desperate to reach his mate.

  “Well, I’ll take that as a yes,” Sarah said. She moved backward, removing the tube as she went.

  He growled, turning on her in a flash of fury. His guttural words were barely recognizable. “Put it back!”

  “Easy, guardian,” she said quietly. “I believe getting her out is better than simply smelling her. Don’t you?”

  He swallowed convulsively. Unable to speak, he quickly nodded his head. He was not familiar with being the weakest person present. It grated against his inner dragon as he waited for the girl to speak.

  She didn’t say anything. She looked at the wall. Tiny strands of synth flowed from her hands, covering the wall in a sparkling web. The strands sunk into the wall, disappearing from sight.

  One heartbeat turned into two. It was the longest two seconds of his entire life.

  The wall, on either side of the fairy-made illusion, crumbled. He surged forward before the rubble settled, scrambling over the pile of rock.

  He exited in an empty cell.

  He rushed forward, through the single door and nearly lost his head.

  A tall dhark elf darted forward, twisting his swords in a deadly dance of death.

  Alex dropped to the ground and rolled out of danger, immediately springing to his feet. He clutched his sword in front of him.

  The elf’s head rolled across the floor.

  He glanced toward Sarah.

  She didn’t comment as she turned away from the elf’s convulsing body.

  Not a flicker of remorse showed in her icy gaze. “You’d best hurry. I hear more people coming.”

  He nodded once, but the scent of jasmine snagged his attention. Like a bloodhound, he raised his head and shot down the corridor.

  Shouts of prisoners bloomed around him. He clenched his fist around the hilt of his sword, ignoring each sound.

  He jerked to a halt in front of a solid metal door decorated with a small mesh grate.

  Before he could ask, Sarah cut through the locks.

  He shoved the door open and rushed into the small cell. For the first time in twenty years, he felt joy fill his heart. He thanked God for answering his daily prayer.

  In a corner, chained to the floor, lay his mate. She remained unmoving, curled on her side. Bone thin and dirty, she stared at him. Her dull gray eyes flashed purple, glaring at him in hatred.

  “Bloody, filthy changeling you’ve tried that trick before,” Lizzie said, her voice rasping with what he knew was lack of moisture. “First you tried to look like Alex then you tried looking like my baby girl, you filthy animal. I won’t believe you.”

  He dropped to his knees, gently touching her cheek. “Lizzie, my heart, it’s me. I swear.”

  Lizzie curled her lip, baring her teeth at him in silent warning.

  “Guardian,” Sarah called, “catch.”

  Alex turned in the nick of time as a thirteen-inch bowie knife flipped through the air. He snatched the blade by its hilt, turning his fury toward the pale-blonde girl.

  Sarah was gone. Just like that, she disappeared.

  His sharp senses expanded and he heard the running patter of dozens of feet.

  Well, blast the girl. She’d left when he needed her the most. If he ever got his hands on her, he’d rip her head off her shoulders.

  The sound of clashing swords filled the air.

  “Guardian, I can’t hold them forever. I suggest you hurry,” Sarah’s icy tone clipped the words in his head.

  Alex growled.

  He turned to the furious gaze of his mate and was struck silent.

  The Song of the Sídhí burst through his veins, thrumming through him until he felt like his eyeballs would explode. The eerily, blaring music boomed and crashed demanding his complete attention. His gaze softened as he watched Lizzie. Instinctively, he knew she heard the same symphony that he heard. This time, he did not hear the music alone.

  Lizzie’s eyes grew wide, filling with tears as she recognized the sweet mate song. Her lips trembled. She tried to raise her hand, but thick, silver cuffs held her secure against the floor.

  He dropped a quick kiss onto her forehead.

  Curling his fingers around her wrist, he slid Sarah’s synth blade through the heavy manacles. First, he freed her wrists then her feet. Finally, he cut the collar from around her slender throat.

  He slid his arms around her, so very gently pulling her bone-thin body against his rumbling chest.

  At the contact, her body shuddered. “Hurry, Alex. If they release the basilisk we’ll never get out.”

  He stood, cradling her in his powerful grasp. It wasn’t a moment too soon.

  Sarah darted through the door.

  Lizzie snarled at the girl.

  “Easy, love, she’s with me,” Alex said, hoping, nay praying the girl would agree to port them out, because from the sound of the corridor more troops were fast arriving.

  Sarah shoved the door shut and leaned against it, a thin bar of synth crystal formed across the doorway.

  “Port us out of here,” Alex said firmly. His insides twisted. He didn’t doubt she would refuse him.

  “Right,” Sarah said, glaring at him, “just like that I’m supposed to risk everything to save your miserable hide. Tell me guardian, why should I do that?”

  Alex glared at her, searching his brain. He knew there was only one thing she wanted: The secret to locking the portals in her home valley. It was one of the most closely guarded secrets within the Dragon Council.

  “I’ll talk to Nick.” Nick was her destined mate, a stubborn young man that refused to bond with her. “Give me ten minutes with the boy and I’ll make him understand how precious a mate is. After I’m through with him, he’ll beg you to bond with him,” Alex said, grasping at the one thing he knew she cared about above all others.

  Or so he thought.

  Sarah laughed. The sound ended in a near sob as she abruptly cut the laughter off. For a single moment, the girl looked demented.

  He clung tighter to Lizzie. “My hoard is yours. Everything, jewels and treasure from two thousand years, it’s yours to keep. Just get us out of here.”r />
  Sarah turned her face to the silver door. “I’ve killed everyone who saw my face. No one knows I’m here, perhaps I should just leave.”

  Lizzie shuddered. Her husky voice barely rose above a whisper. “You won’t. Your aura is that of honor and loyalty. God almighty, I’ve never seen anyone with such an aura. It literally has thick streams of what looks like synth crystal twined throughout. It’s a constant flaring ribbon with so many vivid colors I can’t separate them, integrity and righteous morality are two of the strongest.”

  Sarah’s shoulders stiffened. “My loyalty is to my people,” she said, not looking at either of them.

  “No, it’s not,” Lizzie stated, “at least, not entirely.”

  “Sarah, I’ll do everything in my power to get you the information you seek,” Alex said earnestly.

  “What does she want?” Lizzie questioned.

  “The ability to lock Trellick Valley’s portals against her enemies,” Alex said, gently rubbing his chin against the top of Lizzie’s head. His precious bundle leaned closer.

  Alex glanced up.

  Sarah watched them with impassive eyes.

  “I want the services of a Dyrst’Lye dragon,” Sarah said impassively. The pain glittering in her eyes spoke volumes.

  Lizzie growled. “I can’t believe it, not with the aura I see around you. You’d never let a Dyrst’Lye burn the lifeBud out of your mate. You’d doom him to never having a mate, while your lifeBud would reset. You would bond to someone else, probably within the month. Someone who would not be your perfect soul mate, you’d go crazy.”

  “I have no intention of letting the Dyrst’Lye near Nicholas. The Dyrst’Lye will burn-out my lifeBud. Obviously, having so much synth in my veins has warped my ability to find the perfect soul-mate,” Sarah said, with ice-cold emotions. This time, her voice didn’t sound scary, it sounded defeated, like warrior who lay dying on the battlefield.

  “You have more synth… oh crap. The bars on the door are pure synth. My mind is moving like sludge,” Lizzie’s muttering ground to a halt. Her whole body shook. “You’re not full elf.” She mentioned the one condition everyone believed necessary for a Sídhí to become Chi’Kehra.