O'Malley: Summer (Shifter Seasons Book 7) Page 6

  When O’Malley woke up this morning, all he had to think about was his bar. Now he was leaving the bar in the hands of a man he barely knew to fly off into the night with his mate, while riding on the back of a dragon.

  Fate sure knew how to mess with a man.

  Chapter Eight – Hannah

  After her talk with Amber, Hannah felt a little more confident about everything. She’d confirmed Kelos was a dragon shifter and left Hannah in no doubt that they weren’t all making this up as a joke on her.

  She’d also talked about mates, just as Betsy at the diner had. Amber seemed to think, no, believe, that Hannah was O’Malley’s mate. Although, she didn’t explicitly say the word.

  Now things were about to get real. Kelos was about to shift and then Hannah and O’Malley would climb on his back and they would fly away to the Himalayas.

  “Just breathe.” Amber touched Hannah on the shoulder and spoke to her in a soothing voice. “Kelos will look after you. He won’t let you fall.”

  “I don’t like flying much at all,” Hannah confessed.

  “This isn’t like putting your life in the hands of a pilot who is flying a metal box, Kelos’s dragon is a living, breathing, feeling creature who is deeply caring of those around him.” She smiled as Kelos looked at her. A look that was deep and loving. That was the look that finally convinced Hannah that she would be okay.

  Even if their journey took them across oceans and up a mountain.

  “Are we good?” O’Malley asked. The cougar shifter had been keeping himself in the background, letting Amber reassure Hannah instead. She was grateful he’d seen that she needed to hear about Kelos the dragon from someone else. There was less pressure listening to Amber tell her about the marvels of dragon flight.

  “We’re good.” She gave a nervous smile. “I might not be saying that when we actually take off and fly but for now, we’re good.”

  “Then we need to move.” O’Malley had his pack on his back and held Hannah’s pack in his right hand.

  “I’ll take that.” She held out her hand and he passed it to her, helping her heave the pack onto her back as she put her arms through the straps.

  “Comfortable?”

  She nodded although comfortable wasn’t exactly the term she’d use. Even with the extra weight O’Malley had shouldered, the pack still dragged at her shoulders. “Thank you, Amber.” She gave her new friend a quick hug.

  “I’ll see you both when you get back. And I hope I’ll get to meet your brother, too.” Amber hugged Hannah and then went to the kitchen door where she leaned against the frame, waiting for Kelos to shift.

  Kelos was waiting around twenty feet away having already said goodbye to his wife. With one last lingering look, he turned his attention to O’Malley and Hannah. “Don’t scream.”

  “I think he must be talking to you,” Hannah leaned across and whispered in O’Malley’s ear.

  “You might be right.” He slipped his arm around her shoulders and she leaned into him.

  Her teeth chattered as she watched Kelos closely. It was the strangest thing. One moment the man was there, the next he was gone.

  Hannah took a step back. She didn’t really know what she’d been expecting but that wasn’t it. For a person to just completely vanish seemed more unbelievable than dragons existing. This whole experience was definitely messing with her grasp on reality.

  If shifters were real, if dragons were real, then what else was real?

  “Hannah.” O’Malley’s hand on her arm brought her back to the mountains where the darkness surrounded them. But there, out of the darkness, a large creature loomed, its scales rippling in the light from the kitchen doorway where Amber stood.

  “It’s really a dragon.” She stared at the creature as it turned its head from side to side and then sank down with one knee.

  “It’s really a dragon and we have to get on his back.” O’Malley cupped her elbow in his hand and propelled her forward. She wasn’t aware of how it happened, which foot she placed on his leg first or how she managed to swing her leg over its back, but somehow, she was straddling the dragon.

  Hannah gripped onto the large horn that jutted out along the dragon’s back, just as O’Malley had described. Behind her, his body pressed against her backpack, his arms around her waist, was the man who was her mate.

  “Hold on tight.” As the dragon dipped down and then launched himself into the air, Hannah saw things in crystal clarity. Dragons were real and she was O’Malley’s mate. They shared a connection. It was evident in the touch of his fingertips as he held her elbow and now in the way her body tingled as he held her against him.

  Her world tilted sideways just as the dragon did as he cleared the tops of the trees and then flew across the side of the mountains, heading for the peaks. There was nothing between them and the stars as the dragon skimmed the peaks and then flew higher. He climbed and climbed until the air was cold and thin. Up here they would not be seen from the ground as he banked to the right and flew toward the coast.

  Out across the ocean, he flew without pause. On and on, not tiring as her hands stiffened around his horn. She could not flex her fingers and ease the cramps that tightened her muscles. Yet she wasn’t scared. Amber was right, this was not the same as being in a tin airplane with a pilot at the controls.

  She was riding on the back of a living, breathing dragon. Made of muscle and bone, with scales that shimmered and wings that beat a steady rhythm as he carried them toward their destination.

  Time seemed to have no meaning, she was locked in another world with O’Malley watching over her, holding her, keeping her safe. She leaned back and rested her head on his shoulder. Turning her head, she said, “This is incredible.”

  “It is.” His cheek rubbed against hers. Rough against smooth, and her nerve endings tingled at his touch.

  Hannah never wanted this to end. She wanted them to fly on and on, an endless flight where her problems were left behind on the ground far below. But that would mean Karl would stay lost forever and she couldn’t let that happen.

  So when the dragon banked to the right and began to descend, she was ready to face the next part of the adventure she’d started out on when she walked into the bar and met O’Malley. Unsure of where exactly that adventure would take her, or where it would end was yet to be seen.

  But she was ready to face whatever life threw her way if her mate was by her side.

  Hannah’s resolve temporarily dissolved as the dragon came in to land. A strong wind buffeted them as they dropped lower over the mountainous region where the village Karl had set off from was situated. The dragon coped well, but Hannah’s grip threatened to fail as her stiff hands refused to obey the commands sent by her brain.

  O’Malley held on tight, his arms circling around her, keeping her from falling off as the wind whipped her hair around her face, temporarily blinding her. Hannah closed her eyes and focused on the things that were tangible, solid, and real. She didn’t want to look at the world below that seemed to be rushing toward them too fast.

  Kelos would keep them safe. He wouldn’t let them fall. She repeated the words Amber had told her until at last, with a light thud, the dragon landed on two feet.

  She let out a rush of air her lungs had kept prisoner and the wind immediately stole it away, leaving her breathless. Hannah sucked in another breath, breathing deep, filling her chest with air before letting it out slowly. She was back in control.

  “Are you okay?” O’Malley asked as he loosened his hold on her.

  “I think so.” She stared down at her hands, willing her fingers to uncurl from around the horn, but they refused to obey.

  O’Malley shifted his weight and leaned over to one side. Covering her hands with his, he rubbed them until they warmed enough for the feeling to return. Stretching and flexing her fingers, she finally gained mobility and let go of the dragon horn that had been her constant security during the flight.

  “We need to get off so that Kel
os can fly home.”

  Hannah nodded and rolled her stiff shoulders as O’Malley swung his leg behind him and slid down onto the dragon’s leg. She followed, practically falling into his outstretched arms as he caught her and stopped her from falling. When he was certain she could stand on her own, O’Malley jumped down to the ground and helped Hannah as she clumsily followed.

  As soon as they were on the ground, the air popped and fizzed and the dragon disappeared to be replaced by Kelos in his human form once more. “Are you sure you are okay here? I can wait twenty-four hours just in case the trail is cold, and you need to go straight back to Cougar Ridge.”

  “No, this is the right place,” O’Malley confirmed. “We have to take our time and search thoroughly.” He glanced sideways at Hannah. “Unless you would feel safer with Kelos here?”

  “No, go home. This is the place. This is where he called me from the last time I spoke to him and this is the area where the search party tracked him to. They tracked him about five miles west before they lost his trail. Then they did a sweep of the area and asked in the other villages, but no one saw him.” Her mouth drooped at the corners. “Thank you for bringing us this far. And thank you for the offer of help.”

  “As long as you are sure.” Kelos nodded, took a couple of steps backward, shifted into his dragon, and then leaped into the air, swooping low across the mountainside before beating his wings hard as he rose back up into the air. In minutes he was gone from view and she was alone on the mountain with O’Malley.

  “We need to get moving,” he said to her as the wind buffeted them once more. “We’ll go to the village and see if they have somewhere for us to stay.”

  “You don’t think it’s too late to go to the village?” Hannah realized she had no idea of what time it was. They had traveled across time zones to get here. Would the dragon flight give her jet lag?

  “It’s a little before midnight. I’m sure someone will be awake. And we need shelter. It’s cold and I don’t want to wrestle with the tent in this wind.” His teeth flashed white as he grinned. “We could always find a cave. I could shift into my cougar and keep you warm. He’s extremely hotblooded.”

  She opened her mouth to give some smart retort, but she had none. Curling up next to a large cat was not a bad idea. “Whatever you prefer.”

  “Let’s get to the village. We need to ask around about your brother and it might be easier at night when the people aren’t busy working. They might also have had a little of the local drink they brew in these parts. It’ll loosen their tongues.” He took a compass out of his pocket and checked the direction before he set off in what she thought was a southwesterly direction. At least that’s what she figured by looking at the stars.

  But the stars looked different here, there were more of them. With the lack of light pollution, as they walked toward the village and what she hoped might be a comfortable bed, Hannah looked up at the heavens above and saw stars she had never seen her whole life. Stars that were hidden from her even though they were always there.

  Was Karl looking up at these same stars even now? Or was he up there, part of the great cosmos? After her mom died, Hannah found comfort in the idea that her mom was looking down on her, watching over her beloved family. Perhaps Karl had been reunited with his mom.

  But Hannah’s gut instinct was that her brother was still alive, and she had to hang on to that thought, she had to hang on to hope until she knew for certain he was dead.

  Chapter Nine – O’Malley

  O’Malley helped Hannah as they hiked along a trail they had found that looked as if it led to the village. He’d been tempted to shift into his cougar since his feline night vision was much superior to his human’s. But Hannah needed the O’Malley she knew right now, not a large cat she had never met.

  “The village should be over that next rise.” He had to practically shout over the wind to get her to hear him.

  Perhaps we should have checked the weather forecast before we set out, his cougar said.

  Perhaps we should have, but I doubt anything short of a hurricane or a whiteout would have stopped Hannah. She is determined to find Karl and now that she has set things in motion, I don’t think she can stop.

  The need is like a constant nagging in her head. His cougar could certainly understand Hannah’s need to find her brother. She had spent weeks trying to get the authorities to do something. Weeks of frustration. Now that she was able to do something to start the search herself, she couldn’t let it go.

  We just have to make sure she doesn’t do anything to put herself in danger. O’Malley’s concern for his mate stretched further than the present moment. He was worried that information they might gather about Karl might lead them deep into the mountains where the terrain was treacherous and the risk of death real.

  “There. I see lights.” Hannah pointed to their left and sure enough, through the trees, there appeared a light that twinkled like the stars above their heads.

  So much for our super senses, his cougar said lightly. Our mate has found the village before us.

  With Hannah so near, our senses are consumed by her. O’Malley’s apprehension grew. If he could not trust himself and his senses, he should abort the mission.

  That might be easier if our flight out of here hadn’t already left, and if there was any chance our mate might listen to us if we told her it was too dangerous to stay. His cougar was resigned to their continued mission.

  O’Malley glanced over his shoulder at Hannah. Her eyes were fixed on the lights as if she were afraid they might disappear if she looked away. Her pace had increased, and she seemed filled with a purpose. Her eagerness might put them both in danger.

  Would he soon regret agreeing to bring her on this hunt for a ghost?

  Karl might not be dead, his cougar reminded him.

  I know but the more I think about it, the more I cannot understand why Norton hasn’t gotten in contact with his family. A week, two weeks, yes, he might think they wouldn’t worry about him. Six weeks is a long time and he would know that.

  So, where is he?

  That was the question, and as they approached the village, O’Malley hoped that they might find their first answers. He’d brought candy bars and some chocolate cookies. the kinds of treats that the people might trade for answers. If he’d learned one thing in the Army, it was that people often avoided helping the authorities, not wishing to draw attention to themselves.

  However, a friendly smile and a little bribery could go a long way toward opening a line of dialogue that ended in new information.

  The trail they were following turned a sharp right and joined a wider, more well-used trail that was wide enough for a vehicle. It led to a timber gate that stood open and Hannah and O’Malley passed through it without being challenged.

  “Where to now?” Hannah asked.

  “Let’s head for the center of the village.” He shrugged. “If nothing else, we might find someone to talk to on the way.”

  Hannah nodded in agreement and they walked side by side along the well-used route that wound past houses that were shuttered against the elements. The smell of woodsmoke filtered out through chimneys before being whisked away by the wind.

  Tired now, Hannah stumbled along the uneven road and a couple of times he reached out and stopped her from falling. She didn’t stop or complain, she simply righted herself and took the next step.

  Then the next step until eventually, they passed a large building that wasn’t shuttered. The sound of a flute accompanied by a guitar drifted out and O’Malley stopped to listen.

  If they were welcome anywhere, this would be it.

  “Are you going to knock on the door?” Hannah asked quietly.

  “They already know we are here.” The music stopped and he sensed someone approaching the door. A moment later, it swung open and a tall, broad-shouldered man with a red beard stood blocking it, framed by the light behind him.

  “You are strangers in our village.” His ton
e was not accusing, it was more of a statement of fact. Of true fact.

  “We are. We wondered if there was somewhere we can seek shelter.” O’Malley stepped forward and offered the red-haired man his hand. “My name is O’Malley, and this is Hannah. We planned to set up a camp, but the wind swept in and…” He held out his hands. “Here we are.”

  “Here you are.” The man had a slight accent which O’Malley found familiar. “You do not recognize me?”

  O’Malley stared at the guy before he cracked a smile. “Yes, I do. O’Brian. What the hell are you doing here?”

  “I live here.” He grabbed O’Malley’s hand and dragged him into a bear hug. “It’s been a long time, my friend.”

  “Too long.” O’Malley patted O’Brian on the back.

  “O’Brian and O’Malley?” A woman appeared behind O’Brian.

  “Yes. We served together for a tour way back when.” O’Brian sighed. “Another lifetime.”

  “Another lifetime indeed.” O’Malley looked over his shoulder to where Hannah was standing with her arms wrapped around herself, watching the events as they unfolded. “And this is Hannah Norton.”

  “Norton’s sister?” O’Brian stepped out of the building and took a closer look at Hannah. “I can see the resemblance. But you are the better looking one.”

  “Thanks.” Hannah smiled at O’Brian. “Have you seen my brother?” Her voice was small like a lost child.

  “Oh, so that makes sense of why two ghosts from my past have crossed my path.” O’Brian stepped backward and beckoned to them. “Come inside. You can stay the night here.”

  O’Malley turned around and ushered Hannah forward since she seemed frozen to the spot.

  “Are you sure it’s not too much trouble?” O’Malley asked as they entered the building.

  “Nothing is too much trouble for a brother-in-arms.” O’Brian closed the door behind them, and they were immediately warmed by the heat from the fire. “Come, take off your coats. Drop your packs by the door over there. Elvie, get our guests a drink and some food.”