Cherishing Destiny (A Dangerous Destiny) by Noelle Blakely Read Free Book Online

changed.  That was the night that Destiny had been conceived and the reason
that she thought that she was probably the first of the Vamphyr to be born.
    It made her a little uncomfortable to know every detail of
her parent’s intimacy, but she had fourteen hundred years of her mother’s
memories, so there was no getting around it.  Her Dad was  more than handsome but, really?!  Ick!   She might have laughed if she didn’t know it would hurt
so much. 
    She had been dreaming of Sara and Ryan too.  I need to get
out of here and find them, she told herself.  I hope they’re okay. Sara should
be safe, but Ryan might be looking for me right this minute.
    Sara was like a second mother to Destiny, and for years, she
was her only mother.  And, then there was Ryan.  Her relationship with Ryan
was… well...complicated.  Yeah, that’s it, complicated.   She felt a
twinge of guilt when she thought of the last time she had spoken to Ryan.  They
argued, and she knew that she was being unreasonable, but she just hadn’t been
able to back down or to apologize.  She hoped that she would get that chance
soon.  Sara and Ryan were her family and for better or worse, she loved them.
    Sara was around fifty now and even though she was starting
to look a little older, circumstances had kept her young looking.  Ryan, on the
other hand, was a year older than Sara but, he was a Were and he did not
age as quickly as a human would.  He still looked twenty-nine or so even though
he was more than fifty.  She did the math in her head.  Yeah, fifty-one.
    Ryan never acted fifty a day in his life, she thought. 
He’s just a gigantic sexy puppy.  Ryan’s Were species was the wolf, and
whenever Destiny wanted to push his buttons, she called him a puppy.  Ryan had
always been the center of Destiny’s world, growing up, and now she ached to see
him give her his big, flashy grin.  She figured she had another 36 or so hours
before she could try to get up and around.
    Her eyelids were heavy again, and she let them drift
closed.  She let darkness enfold her and take her back into a deep healing
sleep.

 
    eight
    Aurora woke to choking gray smoke, burning her eyes and
gagging her.  She held her breath to avoid taking in any more of the noxious
fumes.  She didn’t actually need to breathe anyway.  She only needed the air to
talk, so she stayed silent and tried to see through the smoke. 
    As near as she could tell, the floor of her bedroom had
dropped into a wide hallway on the main floor.  It was still slanted at a crazy
angle and everywhere she looked there was only wreckage.  She did not think
that much of the house was still standing. 
    She moved a chunk of her headboard from her path and tried
to see a way out of the rubble.  She spotted legs sticking out from under the
mattress that went with the headboard.  She lifted it out of the way and found
Sara, still unconscious, but stirring and moaning. 
    She pulled Sara up by her arms and let her upper body drape
over her own shoulder.  She lifted her, vaguely aware that the effort it was
taking was greater than it should have been.  Sara was a small woman, and
Aurora was still much stronger than a human, but she felt a weakness that she
was unaccustomed to and could not explain. 
    As she tried to wade through the wreckage to find a way
out, Alex came from somewhere behind her and grabbed her arm.  He was not
speaking either, but Sara was starting to cough.  There was so much smoke. 
Alex gently pulled Sara from Aurora’s shoulder and into his arms. 
    Aurora thought that she could hear flames crackling behind
the smoke toward the rear of the house.  Alex indicated the opposite direction,
using his chin to point.  Aurora tried to clear as much debris from his path as
she could so that he would not have to let go of Sara.  She finally found an opening
to the outside that used to be a dining room window.  She stumbled outside still
enveloped in thick smoke and kept