“What the fuck?” Bones spat when the men dumped the body in front of him and Kaida.
“Who is this?” Kaida stared into the man’s lifeless eyes.
The Senator cleared his throat again. “A volunteer who understands the importance of what we’re trying to achieve.”
“You killed someone,” Kaida said. “You’re a – a murderer.”
“Well, I didn’t kill him,” Senator Matthews said. “But that doesn’t matter. Because as far as our city and the rest of the world is concerned, the dragons killed this poor man.”
“What are you talking about?” Kaida said.
Senator Matthews smiled at her. “Kaida, that’s your name, right? Well, Kaida, unless you want to see your elder’s brains splattered all over the wall, you’re going to set this man on fire.”
“You’re fucking insane,” Bones said.
One of the men was approaching him, a needle in his hand, and Bones bared his fangs at him. “Come anywhere near me with that and I’ll melt the flesh from your bones.”
Martin pressed the gun against Cadmus’s temple. “I’ll kill him. Don’t fuck with me, dragon. You don’t ever want to fuck with me. You’re going to be a good little asshole and let the nice man inject you.”
“Bones,” Cadmus said. “Do not allow them to inject you. My life doesn’t matter.”
Bones stared at their high elder as the man holding the needle approached him. His big hands in fists, Bones turned his head and exposed his throat. “It matters, Cadmus.”
“Inject the motherfucker. Now,” Martin said.
Kaida watched as Bones was injected. Her dragon snarled and hissed but she stopped it from surging forward as Bones curled his lip at the man. The human skittered back, licking his lips nervously.
“Bones?” Kaida said.
Bones closed his eyes, his hands clenching and unclenching. “Fuck.”
Martin laughed. “You think it wouldn’t work?”
Another man approached Kaida and the senator held out his hand. “Wait. She has to burn the body first.”
“I won’t,” Kaida said.
“You will or your giant asshole buddy dies,” Martin said. “I’m itching to put a bullet right through his ugly face.”
Bones stared steadily at him and red rose up Martin’s neck and across his face. “Fucking animal. Stop staring at me.”
“Enough,” the senator said. “Burn the body, Kaida.”
“Just do it yourself,” she snapped.
The senator cocked his head at her. “My dear, you know that won’t work. We need the body to be ash and bone and,” he grinned at her, “without access to a crematorium… it’s all up to you. Go on, show us what you can do to a human body.”
Her stomach roiling and her heart hammering a frantic beat against her rib cage, Kaida drew in a deep breath and released her flame. The heat rushed over her and her dragon tried to make a bid for freedom. She blew more flame onto the body, holding her dragon back with grim determination as the smell of burning flesh assaulted her nose.
Wincing, she continued to blow flame until the body was nothing but ash and a few fragments of bone.
“Astonishing,” the senator whispered. He was holding a handkerchief in front of his nose and he waved it in the air as a look of disgust crossed his face. “God, that smell really lingers doesn’t it?”
Kaida flexed her broken hand, wincing when pain shot up her arm. It was already starting to heal but it would take a few more hours for it to be back to normal. The man holding the needle approached her and a growl burst from her throat.
“Jesus, enough,” Martin said. “You know the deal by now. Get injected or watch your friends die.”
Kaida eyed the needle, her heart a loud bass beat in her eardrums.
No, please.
The pleading and fear in her dragon’s voice broke Kaida’s heart.
I’m sorry, my love, she said to her dragon as she tilted her head, exposing her throat. She stared at Cadmus, at the sorrow and love that radiated from his gaze, as the needle slid into her neck with a sharp pinch.
The liquid was cold and alien and her dragon made another wailing cry. She took a deep breath, trying not to let her panic get the best of her as the cries of her dragon grew quieter and quieter. She was still there, Kaida could feel her, could feel her sorrow and her fear and her rage, but it was like there was a thick wall of glass between them. Her dragon was throwing herself at it in an effort to get to Kaida, but the glass stood solid.
I’m so sorry, she repeated to her dragon. Forgive me.
“Well, now that that’s taken care of, let’s get down to business,” the senator said. “Obviously, we’re going to frame the three of you for the murder. Once the people of this city realize you lured their senator to an abandoned hangar under the ruse of peace talk, when they’re told you killed a man and almost killed me, support for my bill will skyrocket. We’ll be saving mankind, and you will be a part of that. You should be proud of yourselves.”
“Go fuck yourself,” Bones said.
The senator laughed. “Not exactly the most elegant phrase but it gets right to the point. Here’s the thing, you know we can’t let the three of you live, right? There are enough bleeding hearts in this city that they might actually believe the shit you tell them. So,” he shrugged, “this is the part where you die. Sorry about that.”
Martin grinned at the senator. “Jesus, look at their faces. It’s like they actually thought they all might live through this.” He turned to Bones, the lunatic grin widening. “Guess you should have shifted when you had the chance, huh? Now you’re gonna die because you wanted to save this old man who’s gonna die anyway. Stupid fucking animals… dumb as shit.”
“Get on with it,” the senator said with another glance at his phone. “we don’t have all night.”
“Right.” Martin’s finger tightened on the trigger of the gun pointed at Cadmus’s head. Before he could squeeze the trigger, a roar pierced the inky darkness just outside of the hangar.
* * *
“You sure this is right?” Mal asked.
Both he and Bishop had volunteered to go with him once he had his father’s cell location. Bren had accepted gratefully. He hoped he was overreacting, hoped his suspicion wasn’t true, but that tingling sensation nagging at the base of his skull wouldn’t let him quite believe it. Realizing his father’s cell was pinging at the abandoned airfield just outside of the city only strengthened his suspicion.
“Yeah, that’s my dad’s car parked by the hangar,” Bren said. “Kill the lights, would you?”
Bishop shut off the headlights and drove slowly toward the hangar. He stopped the truck when it was still a good sixty feet away from the building and shut off the engine.
The three of them studied the hangar. The rusted enormous doors were wide open at the front of the hangar but from the angle they were at, they couldn’t see inside.
“Pretty fucking creepy,” Bishop said. “No way this is just a goddamn meeting.”
He rolled down his window and inhaled deeply before looking at Mal. “Shit, you smell that?”
“Yeah.” Mal was unclicking his seat belt and opening his door. “Hurry.”
“What do you smell?” Bren climbed out of the truck after them. “Bishop? What the fuck?”
Both Bishop and Mal were already stripping off their clothes and fear slithered down Bren’s spine. “Bishop?”
Bishop shoved his jeans and briefs down his legs. “I can smell at least a dozen humans and Cadmus and Bones.”
“What about Kaida?” Can you smell her?” Bren said as Mal made a low grunt and shifted to his wolf form.
“Yeah, I can smell her. She’s…”
“She’s what?” Bren pulled his gun from his belt and clicked off the safety. “She’s what, Bishop?”
“She’s afraid,” Bishop said.
He shifted to his grizzly form and ran toward the hangar, Mal loping behind him.
“Fuck!” His
body shaking with adrenaline, Bren ran after them.
* * *
“Shoot it!” The senator shouted as the massive grizzly ran into the hanger, its paws slapping down on the concrete with hard booming thuds.
Screaming, Martin shoved Cadmus to the ground and aimed his gun at the grizzly.
“Bishop!” Kaida screamed as Martin fired. The bullet hit the grizzly in the right shoulder and Bishop roared angrily before slamming one paw into Martin’s side. The force of the blow drove Martin back, the gun flying from his hand as he crashed into the side of the hangar and dropped to the floor.
One of the other men aimed his gun at the snarling grizzly. Barking and growling, the grey wolf leaped onto the man, knocking him to the ground. The man screamed, and fired his gun, the bullet ricocheting off the metal roof. His scream turned into a gurgling moan when the wolf sunk his teeth into his throat and tore it open.
“Cadmus!” Bones charged forward, growling with pain when the gunshot echoed in the hangar and blood appeared in a bright bloom on Bones’s shirt. He clapped a hand to his ribcage and bared his teeth at the man who had shot him before stalking forward.
“I-I’m sorry,” the man whispered. “Please, I didn’t mean…”
He threw the gun down on the floor and turned and fled toward the back of the hangar, slipping out through a side door.
“Say goodbye, you stupid dragon bitch!”
Kaida froze, her dragon screamed behind its glass wall, throwing itself at the glass with renewed frenzy as Kaida stared at the barrel of the gun pointed directly at her chest.
“Ain’t no way you’ll survive a bullet to the heart.” The man about to kill her was small and unremarkable looking. Freckles were scattered across his nose and his pupils were huge. She could smell the fear and adrenaline rolling off of him like mist on a lake.
Vaguely, she could hear the angry roar of Bishop, could feel the floor trembling as he bolted for her. He wouldn’t make it in time. She was going to die today in this cold hangar. She was going to die, and she’d never told Bren how much she loved him.
She flinched back at the gunfire, waiting for the pain in her chest, and the agonizing screams of her dragon.
There was nothing. No pain or weakness. She watched in numb shock as the man about to kill her, crumpled to his knees and fell forward, his face hitting the concrete with a harsh smacking sound that reminded her of rubber soles on wet pavement.
There was a large bloody hole where the back of his head used to be, and she stared at the bloodied bits of grey matter oozing out of his skull with a numb sense of shock.
“Kaida!”
Bren was standing a few feet behind her. She stared at him as he lowered his gun. Her dragon sang with happiness, the sound muffled behind that terrible glass wall. “Bren?”
He tried to smile at her, but it came out more like a grimace. “Sorry I’m late. I can’t run as fast as a grizzly and a wolf.”
She started toward him, her relief turning to horror when his father stepped up behind him. “Bren, watch out!”
She froze in place, the heat that always burned within her turning cold when Bren’s father pressed the gun against his temple.
Bren stiffened, his hand tightening around his own gun. “Hello, Dad.”
“Drop the gun, Bren.” The senator’s gaze darted around the now quiet hangar as both Bishop and Mal changed to their human forms with low popping sounds.
“It’s over Senator,” Mal said. He held his hands up in a non-threatening manner. “Your men are dead or have run away. You’re the only one left.”
“Martin,” the senator said. “Martin, get your ass over here.”
“He’s gone.” Bishop pointed to the far door. “He ran out of here just like everyone else. You’re done.”
“Shut the fuck up!” The senator’s voice was panicked.
“Let him go.” Kaida moved slowly toward them. From the corner of her eye, she could see Bones step in front of Cadmus, shielding the high elder with his body.
“Don’t you dare say a fucking word to me, you - you animal.” The senator turned his empty gaze toward her. “This is all your fucking fault. You seduced my son. You -”
“She didn’t. I asked her out first,” Bren said. “You wanna be pissed with someone, be pissed with me.”
“Shut up, Bren,” his father snarled. “For once in your fucking life, just shut up.”
“It’s over, Dad,” Bren said. “Whatever you had planned? It’s finished. Give me the gun.”
“It isn’t over,” the senator said. “We can - we can help each other, Bren. I’m your father for God’s sake. If you back me up, if you tell your captain that these dragons burned a man, he’ll believe you.”
“I won’t lie for you,” Bren said. “Give me the gun and maybe, just maybe, you won’t go to prison for the rest of your life.”
The senator laughed, a bitter sound that set Kaida’s teeth on edge. “You have no fucking idea what you’ve done, Bren. You and your fucking animal friends have wrecked everything. My entire life, everything I’ve worked for, gone just like that because you couldn’t stop from sticking your dick in her!”
He sneered at Kaida. “Brainwashing my son into turning against his own father was your plan all along, wasn’t it? You stupid, lying whore! You -”
Kaida cried out when Bren drove his elbow into his father’s stomach. His father jerked back, retching and coughing, but when Bren reached for the gun in his hand, he stumbled back, aiming the gun at Bren’s face. “Don’t.”
“It’s finished,” Bren said. “Give me the gun, Dad.”
“I’m not going to prison,” his father said. “I’m walking out of here and getting in my fucking car and driving away.”
“You know I can’t let you do that,” Bren said.
Kaida’s stomach dropped when the senator put his finger on the trigger of his gun. “I’m your father.”
“I’m your son,” Bren said softly as he took another step forward. “You may not be a good man, but even you wouldn’t shoot your own son.”
The senator stared at him for a few seconds before lowering the gun, his body slumping. Kaida released her breath in a harsh rush, adrenaline still singing its way through her veins, her dragon still snarling and growling in its glass prison.
Bren reached for the gun and Mal shouted a warning as the senator shoved Bren aside and pointed his gun at her. “You don’t get to have my son, you stupid bitch!”
The senator’s body jerked wildly at the gunshot. He staggered back, catching his balance as the gun fell from his hand and landed with a clatter on the cement. He clapped his hand against his shoulder as he stared at his son. “You shot me. You shot your own father.”
“It’s just a flesh wound, you’ll live.” Bren holstered his gun and grabbed the handkerchief sticking out of the front pocket of his father’s suit jacket. He pressed it against the wound in his father’s shoulder. “Put pressure on it.”
“You shot me,” his father whispered again.
“Stay still, Dad.” Bren, his face pale and grim looking, pressed hard against his father’s shoulder before glancing at Mal. “Call 9-1-1.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
“Oh, you are the sweetest little hatchling. Yes, you are. Look at that beautiful red hair.” Gram lifted Lila into the air, studying her in the sunlight that filled the cabin. “I could just eat you up.”
She brought Lila down to her chest, kissing her cheek before grinning at Ava. “That’s only a saying, human. I don’t mean a harmful thing by it.”
“I know,” Ava said with a smile.
“My goodness, you really are so sweet,” Gram said as Lila stared up at her. “The clan members would go crazy over you.”
Ava glanced at Kaida and then at Bishop before standing. “Why don’t we introduce Lila to a few of the other clan members.”
“Oh bless you, they’d love it,” Gram said. “Most of them are in the community cabin right now.”
; Ava kissed Bishop. “You and Kaida stay here and get… caught up.”
“Sure,” Bishop said.
Kaida smiled at Ava when the curvy redhead took her hand and squeezed it. “You have a lovely home, Kaida. I’m so glad to finally visit your clan.”
Kaida nodded but didn’t say anything. She couldn’t. Her throat was too tight, and the compassionate look Ava was giving her was threatening to break loose the flood of tears Kaida had been holding back for the last two days.
Her dragon made a plaintive cry before falling silent. Kaida wasn’t sure what was worse – her dragon badgering her constantly to go to Bren, or the melancholy and misery it kept lapsing into.
She realized that Gram and Ava had left the cabin with Lila, and Bishop was staring silently at her from across the table.
“My bear,” she said. “How is your shoulder?”
“Fine,” he said with a dismissive shrug. “Healed in a couple of hours. Can the three of you shift again?”
“Yes. The suppressant wore off by mid morning yesterday. There seems to be no lingering side effects for me, Bones, or Cadmus.”
Bishop muttered a curse. “I can’t believe the fucking humans. To think they can control us by suppressing our ability to shift. This is so bad, Kaida. Really fucking bad.”
“I know,” she said. “Did they find Martin?”
Bishop shook his head. “No, he’s gone. They already have someone new in charge of the HAPI group and they’re denying any knowledge or involvement with the drug Martin was trying to create. It’s complete bullshit, they’re lying through their goddamn teeth, but there’s no proof that any of them knew. Bren had a search warrant by Saturday afternoon for the organization, but if they had anything on their computers or in their office, they’d already gotten rid of everything. They said they haven’t heard from or seen Martin or any of the members who ran on Friday night.”
Kaida rubbed at her forehead. “Jesus, what a mess. Bren’s captain came by this morning. He met with Bones and Cadmus and me and we went over everything that happened again. Gave more official statements, as he put it. He said that the senator is insisting that he had no idea the HAPI group had created the suppressant and that he really did think they were meeting to talk peace with us.”
The Dragon's Mate (Book Seven) Page 35
