Resurrection of Fire

Part 3
*******

Calgary lifted her red rimmed, watery eyes as warm comforting arms settled
around her. She took as deep breath and gave a Quinn a grateful smile. She hadn't meant to succumbed to her moment of helplessness but she had all the same. Leaning against him she whispered. "Tell me about the last days of the dragon, Quinn."

He leaned back against the roughened stone wall, wincing at the creaking of
the rusted springs below. Her request seemed simple enough but it was
opening himself up, his memories, his past, and that was a difficult thing
for him. "I saw him when I was just a boy, saw the dragon...." He began the
long intricate tale, his eyes closing as he held her against his side, a
comfortexchexchange of body heat taking place between them. ".....Alex
distracted him with several rounds an I loaded the cross bow and prepared to fire...." He looked down at her and noticed her deep rhythmic breathing, she had fallen asleep. "I killed him." Came his whispered voice as he closed his own eyes.

********
Sweltering heat boiled towards her, oozing over her skin, damp darkness
closed in over her head. There was a scream trapped somewhere within her,
she could feel it, welling up to choke her.

But the darkness was parted ahead as she stumbled towards the flickering
beacon of light. And there he was, smoothed head, tattoos decorating his
large arms, his features set with a hard unforgiving edge. Van Zant. He was
pointing out something to her but the shift of light over his masculine
features captured her attention.

"It's not done..." His voice rang in her ears and her eyes swung to his
extended arm, his pointing finger. The scream broke, scalding along her
throat, vibrating across her lyrnax. Her eyes widened and were unable to
shut out the sight around her. She stood with her feet anchored among
thousands upon thousands of eggs, eggs incubating in the humid dank air.

"It's not done..."

***********

"NOOOOOOO!" The scream died on her lips as she bolted upright in the bed, gasping for breath alone in the gray pre dawn hour. Lifting a trembling hand to her face she swiped at the beaded dampness there, pushing thin coppery wisps behind her ear. With a deep calming breath she turned and dropped her legs over the edge and stood, stretching, releasing the long months of constant tension and perpetual movement. A thickened groan fell from her lips at the popping scream of abused tendons and over worked joints.

With the nightmare fading to the distant halls of her mind she glanced at
the room around her. She was struck by its small demensions, but there was a underlying warmth, a comforting milieu, that spoke of the man that inhabited the space. She smiled with the remembered feel of his arms around her and her pulse sped along her veins.

She moved towards the door, pulling it's heavy wooden panel open, casting a parting glance over her shoulder. This was and would would forever be a
haven for her.

********

Quinn lifted his head the instant she entered the kitchen, almost as if
there was a invisible string teethering him to her. He smiled as searching
eyes finally fell on him, he was almost nervous and to his chargin he didn't
understand why. Dropping his eyes back to the coffee he was preparing he
sighed, thinking back to the hour he had spent simply watching her sleep.
The coffee was a luxury that was taken sparingly but today, with new family
among them it was worth allowing the frivolity.

Calgary took a step towards him and winced as her upper arm grasped in a
vise like hold. Hot tears sprang quickly to her eyes at the intense sting of
pinched sking and bruising muscles.

"Where the bloody hell were you last night, woman?" Breck growled, close to
her ear. His anger radiating off of him in crashing waves.

She had no idea why he was acting in such a degrading manner, in such a
posessive scene. "I..I was .."

"Ya were whorin for him?" He continued, pulling her into a secluded corner,
away from the trafficed area. "Ya spread you legs didn't ya?"

"No, but that's none of your..."

Breck brought his hand up and was reaching the pennacle of an arch when he realised what he was doing. "Oh bye god, Calgary, I'm..."

Quinn had looked up just in time to see the blow coming and had dropped the tin cup in his hand and rushed towards the volitile situation. His fists
clentched into tight bloodless knots. "Don't do it..." He yelled, his heart
dropping at the though of Calgary being hurt.

Breck turned on him, anger sparking in the depth of his hazel eyes, this was suddenly the compition and that fact didn't sit well with him. He wanted her, wanted to love her, wanted to have a family with her, and here that was
being threatened. "Stay outta this Quinn! It's between me and Calgary."

"Breck, please..." She moved up behind it, her pale willowy hand touching
gently to his shoulder. She had known Breck for the whole of her life but
there was nothing beyond the love for a brother there.

With a deep heavy sigh he cut his eyes to her over his shoulder. "I meant it
Cal, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hurt ya." He pushed past Quinn, bumping
roughly into his shoulder. His tall lanky form was swallowed up by the
others that sought out nourishment.

"Christ, does he always treat you like that?" Quinn turned to her and took
her hand in his, actually pulling her close, pulling her within the circle
of his arms.

"No. Never before." She answered, her voice quaking with the unspent emotion inside her. "Thank you, Quinn."

*************
TBC