Lucy leaned in closer yet, despite the danger, and screamed back. “He was just a kid! The only monsters roaming the streets of Purdy after dark are you!”
She knew from the explosion of rage in his cold eyes that she’d pushed him too far. If she’d had any doubts, the open backhand against the soft cushion of her cheek confirmed it. With a gasp of pain, she cupped her cheek, feeling the sticky wetness where the skin had split and was already starting to swell.
She looked over at her father, who made no move to intervene, despite the hint of remorse and indecision in his old eyes.
Her brothers and father were strangers she’d never really known. She backed through the doorway and into the hall.
“I’m going. Please don’t hurt Blaine, he’s your family then too, right? I guess he’s not really mine. I won’t say anything, though. They’d lock me up right alongside you.
She needed to get out of there before it was too late and before their stupidity took her down with them. She couldn’t help the poor girl in the basement. But she’d be back for Blaine. They could say anything they wanted, but Blaine was her brother, and she didn’t leave family behind.
She moved quick down the hall to her room, packing the bare necessities and nothing more. She refused to address the throbbing on the side of her head where Jazz had struck her. There was no sound coming from Blaine’s room, and she was thankful he hadn’t had to witness her abuse at the hands of his family.
She wasted no more time, exiting the warehouse and trotting up the road towards the mountains. It wasn’t safe in town anymore; not if you were a Magical or Other, and not for her, not now. She was on her own as she headed up the mountain road and into the dense forest full of shade and secrets.
LUCY TREMBLED, THE brambles in the near darkness pulling at her clothes and snagging them as if they were trying to hold her back. She pushed through with a sob of frustration, the spiky thorns digging into tender skin and making her wince.
So she’d left. Big deal. What now? She had no money, no job, no place to go. How was she supposed to take care of Blaine when she couldn’t even take care of herself? What was she supposed to do that wouldn’t land her in the same trouble as her crazy family?
Not my family. She reminded herself, remembering what her father—Terrence—had said. If she hadn’t been so scared and confused, she might have stopped and taken a moment to wonder about her real ancestry. If she wasn’t a Sawyer, and frankly she was okay with that, then who was she?
She had no illusions that her brothers and father would make good on their threat to have Blaine institutionalized. Still, that was preferable to them taking care of him. She’d protected Blaine from knowing what they did. He wouldn’t have understood it. She didn’t understand it.
There were so many unanswered questions. She thought of the other victim she’d left behind. She stopped cold in the middle of the trail to lean one hand against a tree and pant as the horror of everything overwhelmed her and she struggled to breathe. The crack of a branch off in the woods on her left made her head jerk up in panic. What was that?
Lucy was a city girl, born and bred. She didn’t have a lot of experience with whatever lived in the woods at night. Did they have cougars? Or wolves... or werewolves. She gave a jagged laugh and pushed away from the tree to keep on going up. Wouldn’t that just be the biggest irony of all? To be killed and ripped to shreds by the very thing she’d risked everything to defend?
WE SAT AROUND THE FIRE watching those around us roast s’mores and chat with friends and family. Thomas and Todd had taken off for parts unknown with Sirris. Todd hadn’t seen Jayne in several days and we knew it was bothering him. He vacillated between worrying that something had happened to her or that something had happened with her and she was no longer as into him as he was her.
I worried too, but perhaps not for the same reasons. I was still sore about her lying to me, especially since I wasn’t entirely sure what part of what we’d talked about she’d been lying about. I was certain I hadn’t mentioned SP-17. And if it was as she said and she hadn’t known him, then that made her knowledge of the drug even more suspicious. There was something about Todd’s new girlfriend that didn’t add up, but I didn’t know what. In the meantime, all I’d done was piss him off with my suspicions.
I sat close to Niel, sharing body warmth as we both stared into the fire. We both ignored everyone else around us, much to the disgruntlement of several girls who were all pie eyed over Niel’s dark good looks.
I sighed and looked up at him. “Have you heard anymore? Any sign or news about Janice Whitmore from the counsel?” I asked, hopeful. But I already knew there had been none. He would have mentioned it before, if so.
One of his Cabin mates chose that moment to come over and wave a blackened marshmallow in his face. “Hey Reece, want some charred and extra crispy. I made this one special for ya!” he quipped. But he didn’t wait for an answer when Niel shot him a look of annoyance. He pranced off instead to find someone else to annoy.
Niel glanced down at me and pulled his knees up to his chest, draping his long arms across them and staring pensively into the fire.
“No. Not a thing. I think it’s time for us to do some more snooping on our own. Have you gotten a good look at Mr. Hobert of late. I think he’s aged fifty years, and for a Dragon, that’s saying something.”
I knew what he meant. I hadn’t liked the gaunt look of desperation I’d seen on his tired face at dinner the night before. Like he was revisiting a nightmare from his past. I thought of mine and figured I could relate.
I nodded. “Sirris, Fern, and I were talking about that last night. I have a test tomorrow, but it’s Friday. I’m thinking we meet up?”
Niel nodded, mouth set in a grim line. “It’s a plan. I’m coming loaded for bear.”
“Same.” I gave him back. We both remembered the grisly discovery that had started the mess almost a month ago. Neither of us wanted to find Janice in the same state of dead.
JAZZ LOOKED AT HIS father from across the table. He moved his jaw back and forth until it cracked. Old man packed a wallop for his age to be sure. He reached into the box of fried chicken and placed a leg and a wing on the plate. Next to it, he scooped a spoon of potato salad from the local deli and snatched up a plastic fork.
He left long enough to walk down the hall and peek in on his brother. He had moved little. He still sat in front of that damned CD player, following along in that book of his. Jazz sat the plate down on the short cabinet by his bed.
“Time to eat Blaine.” He offered. Blaine never looked up. Jazz shrugged and left the plate where it lay. He figured either he’d eventually look up and see it and get hungry... or not. It was all the same to him.
Back in the kitchen, he was just in time to slap his brother Wyatt’s hand away from the last sizeable piece. “Don’t even you pig. I haven’t had any yet.”
Wyatt shrugged and went back to what was on his plate as his older brother dished up and sat down.
Around his first bite, he looked up at his father. “So, tell me. Why did you lie to Lucy about that shifter? You told her we found her in town.”
Terrence shrugged, wiping his mouth and reaching for his beer. He grimaced at the taste. It would have been so much better cold.
“Didn’t feel like the argument. I don’t know. Guess I saw it coming and was just hoping to hold her off a while longer. Dreaming, I suppose. Blood or no, she’s too much like Sara. Always whining about treating people fair and using manners and hell, what good is any of that stuff anyhow?” he grinned around a mouthful of chicken and potatoes.
Wyatt, standing at the counter, watched his father in mild disgust. He didn’t agree with everything his father said and did, and he wasn’t all in with his brother’s cruelty. Still, he’d loved his mother. What the monsters had done to her... No, he was on board with the important stuff.
An ear-splitting scream drifted up from below and with a grunt, Jazz shoved to his feet and tossed hi
s plate in the garbage, grabbing his beer and waving it in a circle above his head by the long amber neck. “Well, now, that’s my cue. Wonder what Jonah has found out about our new guest? She’s pretty enough, don’t you think Wyatt?’
Wyatt glared at his brother’s back before following him. He’d protested vigorously against taking their latest victim. She sure didn’t look like any Magical he’d ever seen. The thought they might have made a mistake and captured a human made his stomach curdle. It was one thing to destroy the monsters...
All three men moved to the stairs and down to the basement where all the action was.
In the basement, strapped and heaving on the stainless steel cart, writhed Janice, eyes wide and frantic with terror and disbelief. She stared with pleading eyes in Wyatt’s direction. He gulped back the rising bile and looked away.
Jazz looked on with interest. Jonah Whiting had cut most of what they’d found her in away, exposing her arms and legs and midriff. The tattered remnants of her blouse and undergarments were all that were left, dampened by sweat and fear.
The two brothers and Terrence stood off to the side and watched as the doctor worked. Several long narrow cuts graced the smooth skin of her shoulders and abdomen where he’d cut her, leaking a thin ribbon of blood that had run in long rivulets to pool in a growing puddle beneath her twisting form. Her breath came in heaving pants, making her chest rise and fall.
As they watched, the latest cut made her body bow in tension, her scream long and low as she twisted. The doctor suddenly leapt back as the tenor of her scream changed to a lower paced agitation, not quite fear, but all rage. Great shudders suddenly wracked her slight frame and they watched in fascination as the hair along her arms and hands suddenly transformed and flattened. Grayish disks the size of a pencil eraser cropped up and spread up and over her shoulders. When the small gray scales didn’t spread any further, the doctor, eyes alight with malice and pleasure, moved in with the knife and tweezers as she struggled to squirm away. It took several attempts, but he finally snagged one of the glittery scales. With a yank he pulled it free and held it up to the light where it shimmered in silvery splendor, reflective; much like the scales of a fish in the sunlight. He glanced in her direction, and then went back for more, ignoring the tears of humiliation that leaked from the corners of her eyes and ran through the tangle of blond hair smearing her cheeks. He collected several more and moved his small prizes toward a table with a long, low bank of lights and several microscopes set up. He wanted a closer look.
Terrence glanced at his middle son, Wyatt, who stood in shocked silence, his eyes glued to the glittering spectacle of her arms and all those scales. Jazz wasn’t looking at the scales on her arms and hands, though. Instead, his eyes had wandered to her midriff and the pretty belly ring that glittered there, surrounded by several more scales creating a tempting display.
“What a pretty little mermaid you are...” he taunted. It was not a compliment.
“You bastard,” she hissed. “I’m no damned mermaid.”
He shrugged, moving closer. “No matter, let’s see how much of you is woman.”
She made to lunge away, but the chains holding her in place prevented her from going far. His eyes lit on her face with casual cruelty. He moved slowly, watching her eyes dilate as his hands came closer and splayed flat over that ring.
Wyatt spoke up, a wobble in his voice. “Better watch it Jazz, we don’t know what she’s capable of.”
Jazz laughed. “I’d sure like to find out.” Watching her rage grow, his hand moved lower and his smile widened, enjoying her distress. He reached the top of her panties and she screamed, her eyes lighting a liquid gold. More scales erupted along her thighs and spread along her legs.
Terrence growled. “Cut it out. Get away from her.”
Jazz ignored them both, his eyes intent on his prize. When one finger slipped beneath the waistband, all hell broke loose. They’d had shifters on their tables before. Vampires, werewolves and more. But Dragons were a unique breed, and far stronger. With a growl of outrage, the leg closest to where he stood broke free. Her aim was to the point, catching him firmly between the legs with a satisfying crunch that sent him straight to the floor howling in agony.
The scales spread faster now, his fingers where they shouldn’t be the final straw. Her back bowed and came off the table in an impossible arc. Terrence and Wyatt leapt back in astonishment at the sound of cracking joints and bones and reforming sinew and muscle.
“No!” she screamed, the sound ending on a growl that was far more animal than human. In the space of seconds, her entire body transformed, the chains busting under the pressure of growing limbs that were far denser than the links of any human steel.
Terrence finally came to his senses and screamed. “Get the tranquilizer gun, now!” His eldest was still out of commission, the idiot. But Wyatt sprang into action, taking the steps two at a time and returning in a matter of seconds with the loaded gun. Without a word, Terrence snatched the weapon from his son and swung it around and took aim. Janice, by now a fully formed Dragoness, swung her elegant silver neck around, her golden eyes piercing as she charged in their direction. There was no mercy in those glittery orbs.
And Terrence showed her none as he fired, the dart hitting dead center and followed by two more. Triple the dose necessary to bring down a Magical. Barely enough for a Dragon. But Janice was young. She took several staggering steps forward in their direction, her wings unfurling from her back and stretching wide. The motion knocked beakers and pans sideways and sent them skittering with a screeching slide across the floor. But the dangerous cocktail of drugs was doing its job and they watched in panicked wonder as she took several more stumbling steps forward before her newly formed legs gave way and she slid to the floor. As the drugs took effect, she transformed back into her human form. What remained of her clothing had shredded and all four men stared down in shocked wonder at the naked young woman curled in on herself unconscious on the floor.
Nobody moved.
Terrence bellowed, “Can someone get a blanket. And chains, we’re going to need stronger chains. I do believe, boys, that we have a dragon in the house.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
“WHAT ARE WE GOING TO do about the dragon in the basement?” Wyatt wanted to know. All three men sat around the table in the kitchen with lit cigarettes, puffing away in a high state of agitation.
A Dragon. It was hard to wrap their minds around such a thing.
Terrence glared at his oldest son, sitting on a bag of frozen peas with a pinched expression on his face. “Well, what we will not do is put our hands where they have no business being. She nearly got the upper hand on us. If she’d gotten a hold of us with those teeth and claws... well I don’t really need to go into detail, now do I?” he ground out, taking a deep draw on his cigarette. It wasn’t enough. He needed a drink.
Jonah wandered in from the hall, a disgruntled expression on his face. His next favorite toy was all alone in the basement, and he missed her.
Terrence eyed him with distrust. Despite what Lucy might have thought, Terrence was smart enough to know what Jonah Whiting really was. He had his uses, but he was an unlit fuse and bore watching.
“When will we be able to resume the experimentation? A dragon. Wow, there is so much we can learn from her...”
Terrence held up a hand. “And we will, Jonah, I promise. But for now, we need to wait until we know a little more about them. I don’t want to risk her going through another change when we aren’t prepared. She almost got to us last night.”
“So when do you think? I don’t enjoy waiting. No, don’t like it at all...” he whined.
Terrence’s mouth thinned and his eyes darkened. “But you will, won’t you? Because you know Uncle Terrence knows best, right?” he ground out, watching the younger man’s eyes jump and quiver. He reminded him of a rat, with his cold black eyes, always searching, forever on the hunt for his next satisfaction.
He looked at
his sons. “More to the point, I think we need to take a trip up the mountain and see if there are more like her. We may have discovered an entire other cell of shifters. If so, if there are more dragons on that mountain, then we need more than just the four of us. There’s a group we interacted with down south a piece, they always claimed to have knowledge of Dragon shifters. I never believed them. Well, now I do. Maybe it’s time to invite the Hunter’s Guild to our party.
Wyatt spoke up. “I don’t like bringing anyone else in. I enjoy handling our own business with no interference from someone else mucking things up.”
Terrence nodded. He understood what Wyatt was saying and usually felt the same way. “True, but maybe we need to swallow our pride so we live through the mess to fight another day, hmm?”
Wyatt looked away, but he didn’t argue. Jazz might have added something more, if he hadn’t still been busy trying to get his eyes to uncross. Terrence figured he was lucky he still had a set at all. She’d nailed him good. Served the idiot right.
“So agreed, we look tonight. Mosey on up that mountain and take a peek around, see what’s up there that doesn’t always walk on two legs...”
He turned speculative eyes on Jonah. He didn’t like the next part, but he didn’t see as he had much choice. Their creepy scientist wasn’t exactly made for stealth and the exertion required to climb a mountain in the dark. “Jonah, you need to stay here. Leave the girl alone, do you hear me? There will be plenty of time to run all the fun experiments you want later, after we know more of what we’re dealing with. But I don’t want anyone in there with her without me around, am I clear?”
“Sure boss.” Jonah nodded, eager. Terrence didn’t like the crafty gleam in those light eyes, not one bit. Tonight couldn’t end quick enough in his opinion.
Valley of the Dragons (Rule 9 Academy, #3) Page 15
