Ancient Magic (Dragon's Gift: The Huntress #1)(16)

I scowled. It was unnatural, and dangerous for my sanity.

“Ready?” he asked.

“Yep, let’s get a move on.” I climbed into his car. It was nondescript, but way nicer than my junker. Cars were not one of the things I considered to be treasure. Thus, Cecilia was an old broad on her last legs. “Is your plane at the Fairfield Airport?”

“Yes,” he said as he pulled out onto the street. “I’ve told them to expect us.”

His phone rang. He picked it up. “Merrick.”

I perked up when he spoke. Eavesdropping wasn’t cool, but it counted as extenuating circumstances when mysterious, powerful strangers showed up on your door and needed your help with something that threatened your life.

But his words were in another language. Not Irish or English, so I was out of luck. I gave up listening as we drove through the quiet streets of Magic’s Bend. It had started raining, and the streets were empty.

By the time Aidan hung up the phone, we were pulling up to the small airport at the edge of town. Magic’s Bend sat on the Pacific, with a deep water port that wasn’t used very often. There wasn’t much in the way of suburbs, except on the south side of town where the rich people lived, so the rest of the city backed up to the forest and mountains. The airport was positioned right at the edge of town.

Aidan drove completely around the main terminal to the back. Sitting apart from the small fleet of commercial jets was a sleek private plane, far bigger than I’d expected.

Aidan stopped the car beside the stairs that lead up to the plane. I hopped out.

“I’ll take that for you.” A bright-eyed flight attendant—a guy only a couple years younger than me—held out his hand for my bag.

“Ah, I’m fine.” I smiled, then headed up the stairs.

I whistled when I stepped into the plane. His car might have been nondescript, but his plane was anything but. Creamy leather and sleek wood decorated the space. The seats looked huge and comfortable, and there was even a couch in the back. I stepped in and turned to him. I was about to ask him how he afforded such a ridiculous plane when a thought occurred to me.

“How come your plane is here if you were in Ireland earlier today? You didn’t have time to fly here.”

“Magic’s Bend is my home base,” he said as he stepped into the plane. “I was just at my place in Ireland for the week. I took a portal charm to get here.”

“But wouldn’t that leave your plane back in Ireland?”

“I flew commercial,” he said as he walked to the small kitchen in the front. A curtain was pulled back, but when closed, it would conceal the small space. He grabbed two bottles of water from the fridge and handed me one. “If it’s just me, I feel like a jerk taking this thing. It burns a lot of fuel to carry just one person.”

“So you’re an environmentalist?”

“Not a good one.” He held up the plastic bottle in his hand and nodded to it. “But I try to do okay about the obvious stuff. Taking this jet for just me is one of those things.”

“But you’ll take it tonight.”

He shrugged. “You need to sleep, and this one has a bed.”

Huh. That was…nice of him. I’d never had a guy be thoughtful enough to offer me a plane before. Then again, I’d never known a guy with a plane before. Who did?

“Thanks,” I said.

The captain came out of the cockpit. “If you’ll take your seats, we’re about to take off.”

“Thanks, Tom,” Aidan said.

I found a seat in the middle and sank into it. I stifled a moan. It was so dang comfortable. After fighting the demon and then immediately dealing with Aidan, I’d been too distracted to realize how much my whole body hurt. Especially my leg.

“You all right?” Aidan asked as he took the seat next to me. The plane rumbled as it taxied down the runway. He was close enough to me that I could smell the fresh forest scent of him. Most shifters had a slightly musky scent. Not bad, just animalistic. But he didn’t. Because he was the Origin, maybe.

“I’m fine,” I said. “Just bruised up my leg pretty bad in the temple. I heal quickly, though.”

“I’ve got some healing ability if you want me to give it some help.”

I glanced up into his dark gaze. My breath caught. Healing meant touching. Not a lot, but any kind of touching with a guy like Aidan…

“Uhhh….” Wow, I was great with words.





CHAPTER FIVE





“It’s no problem,” he said. “It’ll only take a moment.”

It was a bad idea, but I couldn’t help myself. The plane was now ascending into the sky, and it felt like I was leaving the real world behind. “Okay. It’s my leg. Left shin.”

I held my breath as he laid his big palm against my leg. Even through my tall boots, I could feel the heat of him. Worse, I could feel his magic. I thought just standing near him was sensory overload? Though his hand stayed still, his magic caressed me, starting at my leg and working its way up. It felt amazing—comforting and tingly at the same time. About the best thing I’d ever felt.

I closed my eyes and tried to control my breathing. I did not want him to know how much I liked this. If he moved his hand up my leg, I wasn’t entirely certain I would stop him. Normally I was great at shutting down guys who got handsy. But Aidan was different.