Page 11 of Valentine's Day Treasure

Trevor opened his mouth to say something, but stopped when he heard a noise from the forest—a snowmobile engine. He looked at Mac, about to ask if they had any males on snowmobiles, but Mac shook his head, watching the forest. Whoever it was, they were ready.

The snowmobile exited the forest and Mac grinned. “Bruin!” he yelled, running that way.

Bruin was abearen, and Mac’s bestie since the day they met. He was on a snowmobile, coming in fast.

“Mac attack!” he yelled, and then he leaned to his left, stuck his foot in the snow, tilted the snowmobile, and revved it, shooting a spray of snow up over Mac’s head.

Mac ducked the snow and ran for Bruin, then hopped on the back of his snowmobile, and they took off into the forest. Trevor turned around and went back through the structure and the tunnel by himself, thinking. Blake and Troy were no longer where he’d left them, but the tarp tunnel was in good order.

“Stuck out here,” Trevor said aloud. “Can’t leave, can’t go to work, no meetings, no rank stopping by…” He picked up speed, his mind working fast, then he broke into a run, heading for his house, wanting to find Ella.

They were going to have a real day off for once.

8—ADragen’sDuty

Graeme, still in dragon form, watched his mate, who was still sleeping. He had stopped breathing fire onto her an hour or so before, because she no longer seemed to need it. He’d kept his post though, just in case, but now the clock on the dresser said it was just after 8:00 a.m. and Heather would be waking soon. Graeme decided to check on the weather. He transformed smoothly into a man and went to the fireplace to open a decorative metal door the size of a file folder. It was an exit chute he’d installed himself that ran along the length of the chimney. He transformed into a dragon the size of a hummingbird, and flew inside, straight up and out the top.

He flew high up, growing in size, until he breached the crown of trees around his place, now the size of a Clydesdale, which made it easier to handle the falling snow that splattered against him, sizzling into steam. He cloaked himself withdragenmagic, essentially making himself invisible to all but the strongest augurs and, of course, anyone with a touch of the divine.

He leveled off and surveyed Trevor’s property. He could see nothing but snow at first so he rode the air currents, sensing the ground below. Slowly, his senses adjusted. He could see both ultraviolet light and infrared heat signatures when needed. Below, he sensed Trevor’s house, with the residents moving around inside and more people in the driveway, plus the other residents in their cabins directly behind the house, and the horse in the barn. Graeme and Heather’s cottage was set off in the forest a bit, away from the others, and he circled it one more time before he left the property. All was in order, so he headed north, scouting to see what had made the loud noise before the power went out.

Snow continued to fall heavily through the overcast sky, but the wind had stopped. Below, nothing moved, not one car on any road. He flew high enough to see most of Serenity, and it was clear no people were out and no traffic was moving.

A whimper cut through his mind, and then his name.

Graeme.

It was Heather, and she was hurting.

Coming,he said.

Graeme aimed up, flipped in the air, and flew home as fast as he could, getting back to the property in under a minute. When he saw his cabin in the forest, he folded his wings and hurtled down through the trees, shrinking as he went, until he was tiny again. He landed in a snowdrift with just a softfloomp. He transformed into a man, still wearing only silk boxers, and burst heat around him, melting the snow into steam, then ran to his front door and inside the house.

He found Heather in the bathroom, naked, dry-heaving into the toilet.

“Leannan,” he said softly, calling her sweetheart in Gaelic. This had only happened a few times during her pregnancy thus far. He went to her, wrapped a robe around her, then gently pulled her hair away from her face. She looked at him weakly and tried to smile. He helped her to the sink, where she rinsed her mouth and brushed her teeth half-heartedly, then they went back to the bed. Graeme went to the kitchen, got crackers and water, and took them to Heather.

“Better?” he asked.

“Yeah,” she said, but she didn’t look better. She was breathing heavily and wiping her face with her hands. She put the crackers and water on the nightstand and said, “I can’t tell if I’m hot or cold.” She stood and took the robe off, then put it back on. She rubbed her pretty, rounded belly, then paced a little.

Graeme put on his slippers, then took her hand. “We’ll go outside,” he suggested. “It’s cool out there.”

Heather followed him willingly, put on her flip-flops at the front door, and cinched her robe tighter around her. Outside, the ground he’d melted the snow from was already white with a thin layer of fresh snow. Heather took small steps, and Graeme slowed his stride to her pace. She had her eyes on the ground and was scowling slightly, her blonde hair hanging free, snowflakes falling on her and instantly melting. She seemed perturbed.

“I’m not cold,” she said. “Not hot either… I’m…”

“Nauseous?” Graeme suggested.

“No. I’m…” She wasn’t watching where she was going and a branch of a small tree they were passing hit her in the head. She swore, then grabbed the tree by the trunk. It burst into flame.

“Oh,” Graeme said. “Yer angry.”

“What? No I’m not,” she snapped, her eyes on the fire, which strengthened under her gaze and reached high into the sky, until the tree had burned to ash. Water from snow on the trees above them pelted them like a rainstorm. What was left of the tree collapsed to the ground and Heather turned and found a bigger tree. She put her hands on its trunk, her expression irritated. The thing started on fire from the inside out, and within a few seconds, the entire tree was blazing.

“Are ye certain?” Graeme said, chuckling softly.

Heather spun to face him, a clearly peeved look on her face. She grabbed his wrist and fire blazed around the both of them.

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