by Celia Kyle
“That would be lovely.”
She unlocked the security door and they followed her inside. Chelle and Allon exchanged expressions of interest and concern as the woman turned away and shuffled down the hall. Jilleon waved at a small, cozy den as she continued on toward a small kitchen.
“Wait in there,” she said without looking back.
“Thank you, ma’am,” Chelle said softly as her keen gaze identified and processed every item within eyesight. The old habit often proved useful, but not this time. Nothing but knickknacks, antiques, and a wall full of old cuckoo clocks.
They sat on a threadbare loveseat across from what was obviously Jilleon’s favorite armchair, judging by the wear. They barely had time to take in all of the junk surrounding them before their host joined them, carefully carrying a loaded silver tray. The porcelain dishes jangled slightly on the tray as her hands shook, and Allon quickly stood to take the tray from her and set it on the coffee table. The older woman beamed at him warmly and Chelle looked on with genuine approval.
“Oh, thank you,” she murmured, sitting down in the armchair opposite them. “Now how can I help you?”
Chelle leaned forward, smiling gently. “We’re looking for your nephew.”
Jilleon’s sharp gaze bounced between them. “You’re dragons. Aren’t you?”
Chelle had been considering the option of pretending they were friends with Danque, but his aunt was too smart for that old ruse. Probably easier just to fess up.
“We are, ma’am. I hope that doesn’t mean you’ll kick us out before we can have a sip of your delicious tea.”
Allon shot her a look, no doubt wondering where shoot-first Chelle had disappeared to. She ignored him and silently prayed he’d follow her lead.
“On the contrary,” Jilleon said as she poured, but she didn’t elaborate. Once they all had a cup and had settled in their seats, she shared more.
“Last time I saw my no-good nephew was three days ago. He claimed he’d been reformed during his last stint in the clink, and heaven help me, I wanted to believe him. He’s my sister’s son, you know, and I loved my sister more than I can express in words. When she passed, I swore I’d look after him.”
Jilleon’s eyes grew misty and Chelle’s heart hurt for her. None of her special dragon senses detected the slightest falsehood from the woman. They weren’t infallible, but Chelle had learned to trust hers. Right now they were screaming this woman was not on Danque’s side.
“What happened during his visit with you?” Allon asked softly, adopting Chelle’s approach.
Jilleon pulled a tissue from a box on the side table and dabbed at her eyes. “Excuse me for being emotional, but I just never believed a family member…”
They allowed her a moment to gather herself. Despite the pain she was feeling, Jilleon met their gazes with a confidence and will Chelle admired.
“I knew he’d been released after his latest conviction,” she started. “But I honestly didn’t think he’d have the nerve to come back to my house after… Well, he was all apologies when he arrived, begging my forgiveness for stealing from me last time. All he wanted was a hot meal and a bed for the night, he said. Had a new job in town and the boss was putting him up until he got on his feet, he said, just needed one night.”
Her gaze pleaded with them to understand. “What was I supposed to do? Turn away my dead sister’s only child?”
“Of course not,” Chelle cooed, leaning forward to pat her hand. “You opened your heart and your home to him, like any loving aunt would.”
“I should have known better,” Jilleon said with a sniffle. “As soon as he got what he wanted, he disappeared. Haven’t heard from him since and I doubt I will ever again.”
The pain of losing a family member obviously weighed heavily on her shoulders, but they couldn’t stop now.
“What did he get, Miss Jilleon? Before he disappeared, what did he take from you?”
“What little cash I had in my purse, plus my credit card. I guess I should count myself lucky he didn’t know I have a safe.”
Alarm flashed in her eyes at the realization she’d just told total strangers a very private piece of information. Allon gave her a warm smile.
“Don’t worry, Miss Jilleon, your secret is in the safest of hands.”
She released a breath and nodded. “Yes, I suppose you’re right. You lot are about as trustworthy as they come. Danque, on the other hand… Do you know, I’ve been afraid to open my door since he left? I’ve barely left the house, afraid he’ll be lurking nearby, waiting to find out what else of value he could steal from me.”
Anger grew into a raging inferno inside Chelle. That anyone would treat someone who loved them so much like Danque had treated his aunt disgusted her. Pissed her off. Made her want to rush out and capture him that very instant.
“I’m so sorry he did that to you,” Allon said, his tone completely genuine.
And Chelle had no doubt he felt badly for the woman. Who wouldn’t? Still, a week ago she would have expected him to be ambivalent at best. That was the Allon she’d conjured in her head during their competition, and she was gratified to find he wasn’t such an asshole after all. In fact, he really wasn’t too bad of a guy. As far as guys went.
“Truth be told, Danque’s been a thorn in the family’s side since my sister died. We’ve all given him chance after chance to turn his life around, but that doesn’t seem to interest him. He wants what he wants and will do anything to get it.”
“What do you think he wants now?” Chelle asked.
Jilleon shrugged. “I couldn’t possibly say. If I had to guess, power. But then again, he might just want his next fix. I really can’t fathom how his mind works. None of us can. All I know is that…”
She trailed off, averting her eyes to look at a framed photo on a nearby desk. Two young women stood hugging a small boy between them. Chelle didn’t need to be a psychic to know it was Jilleon, her sister, and Danque as a child.
“All you know is…” Allon prompted.
“This last stretch he did… I don’t really know how to explain it other than he came out different. I mean, he was always a troublemaker, the black snake of the family, but now he seems…evil.” She shook her head as she topped off their cups. “Plus, that new talent of his is downright terrifying.”
Chelle and Allon exchanged a curious glance before Allon took point. “Talent?”
“That hypnotizing thing he does. Surely if you’re looking for Danque, you know about that.”
Chelle smiled. “We do, but don’t all snakes have that ability to some degree or another?”
She’d never heard of a snake shifter being able to stun anything larger than themselves, but it was certainly worth digging to see if the Anguis family were particularly skilled at it.
“Of course, but not like that. He was your normal, everyday snake shifter when he was convicted, but not so much anymore. I don’t know how he developed this new ability of his, but I don’t like it. It’s unnatural, I tell you. Do you know he stunned my neighbor just for looking over my backyard fence to say hi? Poor Thomas didn’t know what hit him, and he’s a werewolf!”
Chelle felt certain the woman wasn’t hiding anything from them, and she’d given them all the information they needed. Now they needed to track down Jilleon’s ingrate nephew and teach him some manners.
Chapter Nine
“Unnatural,” he repeated as they got back into the SUV, surprised the old woman had opened up to them so fully. “Damn. What makes a person say that about her own nephew?”
“Danque Anguis makes a person say that about their own nephew,” she grumbled as they buckled themselves in. “Shit, that was heavy.”
Allon stared through the window, thinking through everything they’d just learned. “So his own family doesn’t want anything to do with him now. I think we can take her at her word on that. I didn’t sense a scrap of deception in her, unless she’s the world’s best actress, in which case, we�
��re out of our league.”
“You’re right about that,” she nodded firmly. “I didn’t like the fear in her eyes when she talked about him. Seen it too often in traumatized family members.”
“Yeah, and it means he’s more liable to act rashly than we thought. Good work handling her, by the way. I don’t think I could have gotten her to talk like that.”
“Whatever,” she said, but the pink glow in her cheeks suggested she wasn’t so ambivalent about his admiration as she liked to let on. “If you’d been on your own and put on the charm for like, a minute, you’d have had that sweet old lady telling you everything about Danque.”
“If I’d been on my own, I’d still be sitting right here, sucking on stale coffee and praying for Danque to show himself,” he said with a sideways smirk.
Yesterday morning, hell could have frozen over before he and Chelle ever traded compliments, but now they were flying through the air like confetti. It was starting to grow on him, just like Chelle.
“Well, I think we sucked all the info we could out of poor Jilleon,” she said. “Guess we might as well follow up on Slinger’s bullshit lead, huh?”
“Off to Hometown Savings it is,” he said, pulling out of their parking spot.
Tension filled the car with its musky aroma, and Allon knew she still was hot for him. Seemed fair since she never strayed far from his thoughts. Two full days of thinking about her smooth skin sliding against his, her hair flowing like molten lava across her shoulders as she rode him, her dark nipples tightening to diamond points as they slid home to ecstasy, and of course, her sassy mouth. That mouth had kissed him like the devil incarnate. That mouth he dreamed would wrap around his…
“Sure is a shame no one thought to get anything decent to eat,” she said, interrupting his lascivious thoughts as she glanced inside the bag full of danishes. “You know, something deep-fried and maybe a little twisty.”
She turned a sly smile on him, and he knew she knew what he’d been thinking, but instead of giving him shit for that she was giving him shit for something slightly less mortifying than the chub in his pants.
“Good lord—”
“If only there was a name for such a delicious treat,” she continued, tapping her chin like she couldn’t quite thing of the word.
Allon laughed, which eased the sensation that he was a taut guitar string ready to be plucked. “Crullers are definitely second date fare. Gourmet crullers. We’ll hit up a hipster bakery I know and get some crullers dusted with gold flakes.”
Chelle pulled a face that only an east-coaster could manage when presented with something so ridiculously West Coast. But she laughed too, and the tension between them melted completely. A very different kind of welcome energy filled the car—a comfortable warmth that took him by surprise.
Watching her in action had really opened his eyes. Her interviewing skills were just as good, if not better, than her tracking abilities. She really was all that and a bag of crullers. But what thrilled him most was how they’d been working as a team all morning. No vying for the top spot, no elbowing each other out of the way, just pure, simple teamwork.
By the time they pulled into the bank’s parking lot, Allon was envisioning them taking down the worst of the worst together. Busting down doors, running interrogations, performing searches of some of the most dangerous people in the world, and taking them down as a team—
“Looks pretty chill to me,” Chelle said, snapping him out of his fantasy.
“Uh, yeah,” he said, looking away from her to hide the heat in his face. “Average day at the bank, I guess. Doing all sorts of banking things.”
The parking lot was about half full of cars, mostly crappy shit boxes no doubt owned by low-income folks trying to get their banking done on their lunch break. No sign of Klent or Danque, at least from their vantage point in the SUV. They’d have to sweep the entire lot to be sure, but everything looked about as normal as this particular neighborhood could manage.
“Whaddaya think?” Chelle asked, her keen gaze checking every shadow and dark corner before turning to him. “Sit and wait or…”
“God, I’m tired of sitting in the car. Aren’t you? Probably wouldn’t be a bad idea to sweep the perimeter.”
Chelle flashed him a happy smile. “Thought you’d never ask. Let’s go!”
They walked all the way around the parking lot, checking under cars for the shape of a big snake while keeping their eyes on any traffic coming and going. There wasn’t much. Not too much of a surprise considering the neighborhood.
They walked at a casual pace in an effort to blend in. Allon’s fingers itched to slip into Chelle’s hand. He figured he could pretend it was part of their cover if she balked, but he thought better of it. If that nosy Klent Ellwood was lurking around, Allon didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of another show of affection between him and Chelle. Besides, touching her in any way would just get his blood boiling and they’d probably wind up making out on the hood of some beat-up Datsun.
When they’d completed a semi-circle around the bank, Chelle shot him a questioning look. He nodded and followed her around the back corner of the building to check out the alleyway. It consisted of a grimy strip of asphalt between the bank’s back door and a rusty chain-link fence overgrown with weeds. A lone dumpster sat against the fence with a big lock keeping out vagrants and dumpster divers. Again, no sign of Klent or Danque. Because of course Klent had been fucking with them.
Allon was about to apologize to Chelle for succumbing to the wild-goose chase when a pair of strong hands grabbed him by the shirt and slammed him against the bank’s brick wall, taking him completely by surprise. Before he could react, two of the softest, most supple lips he’d ever tasted crushed against his in a smoldering kiss that made his toes curl. His fingers gripped her hips to draw her closer to him, and he groaned so eagerly he almost didn’t realize how different this kiss felt.
Chelle had clearly been holding something back. She lifted her thigh to rub her leg against his as she slowly explored his tongue with hers, taking her time—so unlike the passion and hunger in their previous encounters. Of course, he was a big fan of any kisses from Chelle, but this seemed more purposeful, as if she was testing the waters, maybe confirming a suspicion. Whatever was behind it, Allon wasn’t about to complain.
When she finally pulled away, they both sighed and Allon pressed his face into her neck, making his already hard cock pulse. Her scent reminded him of a beach bonfire—sharp, a little acrid, and a helluva lot of fun.
“Sorry, I couldn’t resist,” she breathed against his ear, sending shivers skittering along his skin.
He pulled back and smiled down at her, regretting what he was about to say. “No apology necessary. You can ravish me any time your heart desires…after Danque is in custody.”
“Ugh,” she groaned and rested her forehead against his chest in a wholly uncharacteristic and completely welcome show of intimacy. “I hate it when you make sense.”
Still, neither of them moved to break their embrace. Like spending a few too many minutes in bed before getting up to start the day, what was the harm in flirting with the boundaries between them, if only for a second? They were so engrossed in each other that they barely noticed the back door of the bank swinging open. Allon glanced in the direction of the person coming out before returning his gaze to beautiful, sexy Chelle. It took a full second for his brain to process what he’d seen and then he did a double-take that Chelle followed.
Carrying a large, bulging duffel bag over his shoulder, Danque Anguis swaggered out of the bank like he was king of the world. A broad smile graced his lean, pasty face and he hummed a happy tune under his breath. As the door snapped shut behind him, he paused and took a deep, contented breath as he rolled his shoulders back and turned his smile toward the sun.
With the speed of his kind, his head snapped to face them, his pupils already turning to slits.
The world slowed to nearly a halt, all activity fr
eezing in place around the three of them as they stared at each other in disbelief. It felt as though the very air surrounding them crystallized in place, keeping them riveted to the spot even as Chelle’s instincts all-too-slowly began to kick in. The violent change of gears, going from the hot and heavy passion of making out with Allon to her blood running cold at the sight of Danque, jarred her so deeply it took far too long for her brain to catch up.
Then, just like that, all three shifters came to their senses at the same moment in time. Allon pushed her away as his body tensed and grew larger, desperately trying to shift into his dragon form as quickly as possible. Her own body burned hot and cold simultaneously, adrenaline spurting into her system and triggering her own shift. But Danque somehow seemed to be a half-beat ahead of them already.
He gave them both a sinister glare, the corners of his mouth curling into a horrible grin. Bile rose in Chelle’s throat as he shifted right before her eyes, shrinking down inside his clothing in a sickening display. It was eerie to behold, almost as though she was watching someone disintegrate into thin air. His clothes dropped to the filthy alley floor in a heap, and it looked for a moment as though their inhabitant had vanished completely. But then a long, scaly neck rose out of the pile, eyes wide and staring.
Chelle willed her dragon to come forth more quickly, but before she could so much as avert her gaze, her body seized up, caught in his tractor beam of wickedness. She couldn’t move, couldn’t speak, could barely even blink this time. Next to her, she sensed Allon in the same predicament. If she concentrated hard, she could almost make out his form in her peripheral vision. But straight ahead of her stood Danque’s snake, holding his body vertical with the strength of his thick tail.
It was a strange, highly unsettling sensation, like having someone break into her home right in front of her and steal all of her most prized belongings while she sat helplessly tied to a chair. Except he wasn’t breaking into her house, he was breaking into her mind, and all she could do was watch with horror as her body, usually so ready for a fight, succumbed to Danque’s will.
