Surrender (THE DRAGONFLY CHRONICLES) Read Free

wide-brimmed hat that had slipped to hang against his back. Moonlight glinted off his tawny hair. Broad shoulders tapered down along muscled arms to narrow hips. He must be over six foot two. Kailin’s blood pulsed energy through her.
    She drew in a breath and funneled her magic toward him. Leaves and small bits of debris blew past his form, but the man’s wavy hair didn’t even ruffle. Good God! He took a step toward her and she backed up, legs hitting the edge of the bed.
    “What are you?” she whispered and glanced around to find a manual weapon.
    He stopped, eyes narrowing just slightly like he was trying to understand her question. Then his mouth turned up at the corners as his eyebrows rose. “What am I? Well that’s a new one.” He shook his head. “I’m from the States but I’m a treasure hunter, mostly in Egypt.” He extended his hand as if to shake hers. “I am Jackson, Jackson Black.”
    Kailin stared as his words sunk in. Not a devil, not a proclaimed wizard of any type, but still able to block her powers. She tried once more to move him, but he stood there immune. Never before had she encountered someone or something that could stand against her magic. When she didn’t react he withdrew his hand and pulled a piece of paper from his back pocket. His smile vanished.
    “I don’t usually sneak into ladies’ bedrooms.” He eyed her outdoor bed but didn’t ask. “But your butler said you’d retired for the night and I couldn’t speak with you until morning.”
    “He was correct,” Kailin snapped.
    Jackson offered her the folded letter. “But this is something you’ll want to see right away.”
    “A letter?”
    He placed it in her hands. “You are Kailin Whitaker, daughter of the renowned Dr. Anthony Fitzgerald Whitaker?”
    She opened the parchment while funneling her magic into the oil lamp behind her. It flared, casting a splash of light along the crinkled paper.
    Kailin’s eyes dashed across the typed words. Her chest gripped hard, holding her breath and her magic in a painful crush of panic. For a moment she forgot about the massive man invading her balcony. Her entire being focused on the horror spelled out in boxy script: Anthony had been kidnapped.
    She glanced at Jackson. “Who? Do you—”
    He shook his head before she could get her words in the right order. “I don’t know where they are keeping him. We’re friends, your father and I.”
    “He’s never mentioned you,” she said and scanned the letter again. Orb? They, whoever they were, wanted the Orb of Life in exchange for her father.
    “We dig together. Peers you could say. He talked about you a lot, Kailin. His intelligent, beautiful Kailin.”
    Jackson’s mouth formed her name like a caress, but all she could do was stare back at him. “Do you have the orb?” she asked.
    He shook his head. “We were hot on the trail of it. Close, but then he just gave up. Said he didn’t want to find it. The next day he was gone and this letter was in his room, addressed to you. I owed it to him to deliver it.”
    “Why?” she asked. “Why do you owe it to him?”
    Her question made his mouth tighten. “He’s been good to me, let me help him.”
    Kailin turned toward her double doors and walked through. Jackson leaned against the door frame but didn’t enter. “I will go.” She yanked her duffle bag from under her indoor bed.
    “At first light,” Jackson suggested.
    She turned to him, back straight, mouth tight as her shock wore off. “And where will you sleep?”
    His eyes took in her bed and his mouth turned up into a lopsided grin that made Kailin’s pulse jump. She frowned over her reaction. No proclaimed devil, but powerful enough to make her heart pound.
    “I’m used to camping outside,” he said, tipping his head toward the darkness beyond her oil lamp. “I’ll make do in the gardens.”
    She stared for an exaggerated moment, as if his gaze held her captive. Ridiculous ! She blinked hard and returned to