“Mm… I wish all your teammates saw it the way you did. Most of them seemed to think I made the entire narrative of someone pursuing me up as if I could pluck something so fantastic from thin air.”
“I believe you, sir,” she said. It was true and would calm him, so why shouldn’t she say it?
“Thank you, but I must ask, did you believe me before you saw the intruder?”
“We hadn’t even met yet so I had no reason to disbelieve you.”
“But the intruder convinced you.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
It was an odd question. Of course she would be convinced by the intruder. Their very existence proved that something was amiss. But she didn’t want to say something so obvious to Windfire, especially if his mind was starting to go like Jasper had said.
“Well, sir, it was their movements, I guess.”
“You say their because you suspect it was more than one?”
“No, sir. I don’t want to assume it’s a male. I had a look at their eyes and if I had to guess, I’d say it was a female. Plus, the last time I saw something like this…well, let’s say I don’t want to be sexist to anyone, not even criminals.” She reminded herself about Death being female and her instinct told her that whoever had shot the dragon might well be a woman as well. In fact, the more she thought about it, the more likely it seemed that the intruder and sniper were one and the same person.
“So, it was only one?”
“Yes, sir. Although I think, based on their movements, that there’s a group of people studying your security system. The infiltration was efficient and optimized to avoid your cameras and security devices.”
“And how was the intruder able to outrun you and your abilities? If the newspapers are to be believed, you’re quite adept at using your dragon abilities when in human form.”
“I don’t know, sir. Do you have any enemies? My guess is that the intruder isn’t a dragon, so maybe a mage, then? Do you know if there are mages who can use their powers to augment their speed?”
“Who doesn’t covet what I’ve amassed and what I’ve done?” Windfire said ponderously.
“I think there are groups we can rule out if that’s what you mean.” She frowned in thought. “I believe a regular team of humans would avoid your estate on principle. We’ve already ruled dragons out, which means something in between. A group who knows dragon culture but is not part of it. Are there any organizations like that?” She kept her gaze on her host. He hadn’t answered her previous question. Would he answer this one?
“Throughout the ages, humans and dragons have collaborated on various projects. It’s not unthinkable to imagine they’ve come together yet again, at least in some capacity. Or perhaps those humans who once worked for dragons have grown to resent their shared past.”
“Is that what you think? That these are former dragon operatives who have gone rogue?” Kristen hoped to nail down exactly what Windfire thought. She was already beginning to suspect there was indeed more to this ancient dragon than senility and paranoia. The way he constantly avoided her questions indicated that he wasn’t merely building grand, unfounded conspiracies in his head. It also became quite frustrating.
“I don’t wish to color your hypothesis, Lady Steel,” he said enigmatically. “I believe you are correct, though. Whoever is behind this assault knows dragon kind far more intimately than the average human.”
Kristen took a deep breath and tried to change tactics. She found it more and more obvious that Windfire knew something about his attacker. Usually, those under attack were far more willing to divulge their ideas about their assailants, but Windfire obviously didn’t want to bounce ideas off her. “Are you involved with any politically contentious projects?”
He paused at that and the faintest of smiles appeared beneath his mustache. “Politically contentious, how?”
“Well, you’ve been around for a long time. I’m sure you’ve seen all kinds of political factions. Different members rise and fall on the Dragon Council and that can’t always go smoothly. You must have lived through the two rebellions as well.”
“Indeed.”
“So do you think this could be politically motivated? Is it possible someone resents the power you wield or opposes the networks you are a part of?”
“I believe everything is politically motivated,” Windfire said.
It was another crap answer, but she decided to count that as a, “Yes, Lady Steel, I do indeed believe that this attack was about power and not wealth.” She decided to press the point. “What are your political beliefs?”
“We’ve only just met! I’ve known dragons for centuries and never discussed political beliefs with them. What next—will you ask me my net worth?” He chuckled. It was a human joke, based on human social cues. Quite obviously, he was trying to lead her astray again.
Kristen wouldn’t have it. “Still, neither one of us believe that someone got through all this security simply to stuff their pockets”—she gestured around the room—“with all this. If it is a politically motivated assault, it would be helpful if I knew your political beliefs as it might assist me to determine the motives of the attacker. The thought is that we can assume they feel differently than you do.”
“I suppose there’s a certain logic to that. Where shall I begin? Would you like to discuss gun rights, or shall we dive into the electoral college’s effect on the vote in America?” The twinkle in Windfire’s eye said he could do this all night.
It was definitely time to cut to the chase. “I was thinking more about human-dragon relations.”
That caught him off guard, but only for a moment. There was an uncomfortable blink and a shift in his aura before the façade returned, the aura confident and calm once more. “What about them?”
“Well, how do you feel about people?”
“They are useful beings and deserve to have a place on this earth.”
Kristen nodded. “That’s fairly basic, though, right? Even Shadowstorm believed humans were useful and had a place—as slaves serving dragon kind.”
Windfire shook his head. He didn’t look displeased—he was far too controlled for that—but she had a feeling she’d struck some kind of nerve.
“You are brash like them, aren’t you?” he said with a smile.
“Like who?” she asked.
“Humans, of course.” He said as if it were obvious.
“So you admit there are differences between human and dragon culture.”
“Of course there are differences. I have lived for thousands of years. No human will have such a privilege.”
“Should they?”
“Should they what?”
“If you could,” Kristen began slowly, not sure how best to ask this question, “would you help humans with your abilities?”
“I think I already have, many times, and in many ways,” Windfire said a little huffily. “I have wielded my power to protect mankind from dragons many times throughout the centuries, with varying levels of success. If you are asking if I see human beings as cattle, the answer is no, I do not. But I don’t see them as vultures either, waiting to swoop in and attack at our moment of weakness.”
“What do you see them as?”
“Some dragons see them as predators or parasites, hungry masses waiting to attack us as soon as an opportunity presents itself.” Once again, he attempted to change the subject.
She had won a tiny but honest response. Maybe she could win another. “I don’t care what other dragons think, I want to know how you see humans. If one did this, your viewpoint of us might be vitally important.”
“My viewpoint of them, Lady Kristen Steel. You are one of us, a member of the family as it were, and a human no longer.”
Kristen shrugged. That viewpoint certainly didn’t come as a surprise. “Sure. Of them. How do you view them?”
“I think similarly to how some of you humans view the chimpanzees. There is potential in humanity—great potential,
in fact. You must only stop hurling feces at each other to realize it.”
She stared hard at Windfire as she tried to parse exactly what that meant when she realized that the elderly dragon actually giggled quietly, presumably because he’d made a poop joke.
“Sir, if there’s anything else you can tell me,” she said but already understood that the conversation was over. She’d seen enough interrogations to know when to quit.
Indeed, she was right. Windfire swallowed the last gulp of his tea and stood from his chair. “I’m afraid not, Lady Steel. I would be more than willing to answer more of your questions in the morning, but after all my millennia, I can’t stay up like I once could. If you’ll excuse me.”
Kristen nodded. She could feel the fatigue in his aura as it pulled up over his other emotions like a warm blanket on a cold bed. Without speaking, she stood as well, walked him to the door of the library, and when he insisted that he didn’t need her help, she went to find Jasper and acquaint herself with the nerve center of the security system.
Windfire knew more. In fact, she thought he knew far more, but she’d have to unravel it in the morning. She hadn’t learned much in their conversation, but she felt quite convinced that the danger to him was very likely far more real than she’d first thought.
The old dragon walked up the stairs, careful to keep his aura up to mask his true emotions. He couldn’t believe the conversation he’d had. He had centuries of experience guiding conversations in the direction he wanted, and yet Kristen had still found a way to strike a nerve and almost made him reveal more than he wanted to. In truth, he hadn’t wanted to reveal that he believed humans were worth helping. Even the idea would be considered dangerous in the wrong circles of dragons. And Kristen, as sharp as she was, might use the knowledge as a blade. Steel Dragon indeed. Still, there was no way she would be able to untangle Windfire’s…involvement. She didn’t get the answers she was looking for and she hadn’t yet asked the right questions. And why should she?
She didn’t know that he was her father and that he was being targeted by the very forces that had made the Steel Dragon’s existence possible.
It had been a mistake. He had known that as soon as he’d made it, and yet he’d gone on with it because he felt guilty—indebted, perhaps, like he could do something for the poor humans who for centuries had accomplished little beyond killing each other.
At the time, he had thought that if new dragons—and indeed, new kinds of dragons—came into the world, perhaps the old structures might begin to change.
Based on that hope, he’d given them what they’d ask for. It wasn’t much, all told–a trimmed claw, shed scales, hairs from his mustache, and a sample of blood. He hadn’t understood what DNA meant—in fact, the concept of his abilities being coded into each and every tiny piece of him still seemed a little grandiose—but he saw what the humans had been able to do with them.
They’d taken those pieces of him that he might have cast off without thought and turned them into something beautiful. They’d used Windfire’s DNA to grow a dragon of their own.
Instead of an egg, she’d been in something they’d called an incubator. Instead of a mother, she’d had a dozen. Instead of a father, she’d had him, absent her entire life and yet responsible for what she was if not who she was—a dragon.
And now, after the life he’d helped the humans bring into the world, after they’d lost her and he had thrown himself into seclusion—shocked at how much losing the daughter he’d never known had hurt him—now, after all their history of mistakes and missteps, the very same humans he’d helped decades before were trying to kill him.
And Windfire had little doubt about who was targeting him. Already, they’d played their hand with a handgun that could hurt the Steel Dragon. Nothing else but the abominable weapons they’d created from his DNA without his permission could have done such a thing.
They’d come to him, years before, asking for more samples and he’d refused them. After all, they’d lost his daughter. They hadn’t taken his refusal very well.
Those humans were why he had gone into seclusion and also why he’d built a security system around him that was designed to stop beings besides only dragons. Windfire had inadvertently given a group of humans who were hostile to the dragon-controlled status quo the power to do something about it.
They had asked him for his help to create life and now, they would use that same power to kill him.
Or try to, anyway.
Windfire believed that the Steel Dragon could protect him. He hadn’t wanted her involved because he hadn’t wanted her to become a target, but fate had stepped in. Either they were destined to work together and help change the world of dragons and humans, or they would die.
Chapter Ten
Kristen didn’t want to swim across the pool. Why swim when she could fly? She transformed but instead of a dragon, she became a Pegasus. Her brother looked at her from the other side. He was doing a handstand and eating French fries.
“Your alarm is going off.” Brian crammed some fries into his mouth.
“What?”
When he opened his mouth, the gentle tinkling of her ringtone came from his lips.
She snapped awake and fumbled for her phone. There was a missed call, but she’d get back to that. She looked around and remembered that she was in the security room with Jasper. Television screens displayed empty hallways. A few showed the aerial views of drones, strange, high-contrast black-and-white images of snow glaring under halogen bulbs while the night swallowed everything else with blackness. Near the screens, diodes blinked on and off, alerting her to animals moving past motion sensors.
Jasper was asleep in his chair, exactly like she had been, his coffee cup empty and balanced on his round belly.
The last thing she remembered was feeling sleepy. It was her first overnight assignment at Windfire’s residence, and it had been slow and tedious. She and Jasper had made a circuit of the cold, silent grounds and almost froze their fingers off. They’d returned to check the cameras and warm up. She had yawned. Jasper, being the gentleman he was, ordered coffee from one of the few staff Windfire still kept on in the manor. They’d sat, gone over the cameras, and the coffee had been delivered. The next thing she recalled was the dream about the pool.
How was it possible that she fell asleep while drinking a cup of coffee? She’d been tired but not that tired, at least she hadn’t thought so. And her partner fell asleep too. That seemed like more than a coincidence.
Her phone rang again. Kristen was already so wound up that at the sound of her ringtone, she turned her skin to steel. She was relieved that turning to steel was her reflex when confronted with stress. If she’d become a dragon, she would have trashed the entire room.
She checked the caller ID. It was Stonequest calling and she answered quickly. “Stonequest?”
“Lady Steel! Hey, you don’t even sound sleepy. Good for you!”
“I think something’s up,” she replied.
“Yeah, you are. I remember my first overnight doing private security. These wee hours of the morning are the hardest.” He chuckled.
“I think someone decided it’s the best time to try something.”
“Wait, what are you talking about?”
“I just woke up. Jasper’s still out cold. I think maybe something was in our coffee.” Kristen picked her coffee cup up and sniffed it. She couldn’t smell anything besides dark coffee, but she didn’t know what she smelling for, nor did she normally smell for anything. Her faint hope that her dragon abilities would have clued her into something brought no luck.
“Wait, you were both asleep?”
“Yes. Jasper still is.” She took hold of her partner’s arm and shook him.
His eyelids fluttered. “You may be the queen of England, but that doesn’t mean I can’t get you a sandwich.” He chuckled and sagged in his chair, unconscious. Kristen shook him again. This time, he didn’t stir at all.
“Okay, Kriste
n, I’m on my way. This is insane. I was only calling to see if you’d fallen asleep. I didn’t expect—never mind. Stay put for now. Don’t go looking for trouble by yourself. If someone already managed to knock you both out, they probably have a plan for dragon security. I’ll get there as quickly as I can.”
“Their plan was to knock us out so they would have the run of the mansion. I can’t stay here. That’s exactly what they want.”
“Damn it, Kristen, stay where you are! That’s an order.”
Movement on one of the screens caught her eye. “I see someone moving on the cameras. A figure dressed in black is headed toward the library. This has to be the same person as last time.”
“And they’re on the cameras that they completely avoided last time? Think about it. This is a trap. Stay where you are.”
Kristen rolled her eyes. They couldn’t keep talking on the phone forever. “Yes, sir,” she said and tried to keep the sarcasm out of her voice but not terribly hard. Stonequest knew who she was when he hired her, and she was not the kind of person to sit on the sidelines or hide behind a locked door while someone was in danger.
She left the security room and closed the door as quietly as she could.
The halls of the mansion were as quiet as ever. Nothing was out of place. There were no furtive footsteps and no people lurking in the shadows. She knew that none of that meant a damn thing. If this person, this woman—she felt increasingly sure that it was a woman—had the goal of infiltration, she wouldn’t put anything out of place. Hell, she probably knew the security system better than Kristen did, considering she hadn’t activated any of it.
As she hurried forward, she turned her body from steel to flesh. The floors were old and she didn’t want them to creak under the increased mass of her steel form.
Furtively, she moved toward the library and remained as quiet as possible. She was almost there when she heard hushed voices coming from Windfire’s grand hall.
Jasper had explained that nearly every dragon mansion had a room like it—a place to throw parties, to dance, and where dozens of dragons in human form could congregate. Windfire had built one in his mansion but he’d never once used it. It was another example of dragon opulence. But now wasn’t the time for political commentary, she told herself sternly. She crept down the hallway, straining her ears to make out the voices.
The Steel Dragon (Steel Dragons Series Book 2) Page 7
