Her Mad Dragon (Dragon Guard Series Book 15) by Julia Mills

family.
Seems like…”
    “Let me see what you’ve got.” The mad dragon talked over the
mad bomber, swatted his hands away from the folder he was trying to take from
Brannoc, and grabbed it for himself.
    Looking over the printouts, he listened to Brann’s summary.
“Seems Mrs. O’Baoill passed away some years ago under suspicious circumstances,
leaving the crazy bastard we all know and love as Tariq to raise his
six-year-old twins.”
    “Holy crap! There’s two of them?” Maddox shook his head.
    “Oh, yeah, a matched set – one boy, one girl, and wait, it
gets better,” Brann continued. “The girl, Eve, whom you’ve had the pleasure of
meeting, has two doctorates, one in microbiology and the other in physiology.
She has a black belt in two kinds of martial arts and is an expert marksman
both with a gun and a bow. Her twin brother, born three minutes after her,
named Adam, has three PhDs – virology, zoology, and cellular biology and
histology. Seems he’s more of a bookworm than his sister, as he only has one
black belt and it’s in Aikido, but then again is a world-ranking swordsman.”
    Lennox picked up as Brannoc took a breath, “Seems Tariq
created his own evil research team and gave them all the lab animals they
needed for their heinous experiments.”
    Niall, who’d entered the room while Lenn was talking, chimed
in, tapping his pen on the chart in his hands as he spoke. “That makes sense
with what I’ve finally been able to determine from Maddox’s bloodwork.” The
Elder Healer furrowed his brow. “The silver nitrate you inhaled was combined at
an elemental level with a synthetic compound designed to stop cellular
regeneration and accelerate the spread of necrotic tissue.”
    “In English, please, Niall,” Maddox growled, still reeling
from the revelation that there were two more O’Baoill’s terrorizing the world
while seeking revenge for their father and more importantly, that they had
Kyran.
    “It means,” Calysta said, walking into the room but avoiding
eye contact at all costs, “that they figured out a way to slow your enhanced
healing powers while also helping the dead tissue to spread instead of being
disposed of the way your bodies are supposed to.” She stopped right in front of
him and speared him with a look so full of emotion that his heart beat like a
bass drum and a cold sweat rolled down his spine. He could see fear, anger,
frustration, betrayal, and thankfully, love in her deep emerald eyes. He
physically ached that he was the cause of so much turmoil for the one he loved
more than anything in the world.
    He reached for her hand and for the first time since he’d
awakened, she didn’t pull away. Timidly threading his fingers through hers, the
mad dragon felt as if the missing piece of his heart had returned. Wanting to
pull her into bed with him and kiss her until neither one of them could catch
their breath, he refrained because of their audience and gave his brethren a
sharp look as they waggled their eyebrows.
    Thankfully, Calysta continued her explanation. “It means
that if you hadn’t gotten here when you had and Niall hadn’t pumped you full of
liquids to flush your system while the younger Healers performed the healing
chant and I covered you in herbs, you would’ve died ... forever. ”
    She shivered, fear filling their mating bond, and Maddox
could no longer resist. Pulling her onto his lap, he kissed her soundly on the
lips before tucking her against his chest and glaring at Lennox and Brannoc.
Under his breath, he warned, “Not a word, you two, Not. A. Word.”
    Holding their hands up in surrender, they playfully
relented, “You got it, old man.”
    Clearing his throat, Niall smirked a knowing grin as he
said, “Calysta is right; it took all three methods to rid your body of the
toxin, as well as the strength of your magic and that, my friend, is what
worries me most. If they’ve created something that can take you down,
the most magically