Dragon Riders

by Elle Casey

  “I’m coming with you,” Ben said. “Jared will want to hear from me too.”

  Tony got into the car and I followed, gesturing for Powers to do the same on his side. “Sorry. No room for Dark Fae in this Camaro. This is a Light Fae ride only.” I closed the door behind me.

  Ben leaned in the window as I was trying to roll it up. “See you there.” A big gust of wind appeared out of nowhere and surrounded the car. Our view of the school was blocked for about five seconds as the vehicle rocked side to side and was covered in parking lot dust…and then the strange weather system was gone as fast as it had appeared, and Ben was gone with it.

  “Dude,” Long said from the middle spot in the back seat with Mike to her left and Tony to her right. “He just disappeared in the wind.”

  “On the wind,” I corrected, securing my seatbelt. “Come on, Brad. We have to get to Miami, like, yesterday.”

  Brad didn’t say a word, but he peeled out of the space and broke some kind of land speed record exiting the parking lot, so I took that as an affirmative response to my plea. We pulled out onto the main street, and I let the normal non-Ben-created wind blow across my sweaty scalp as Tony introduced himself to my new friends in the backseat.

  My mind drifted to the upcoming meeting with Jared. I wondered if I’d see Spike, Sam, Becky, Chase, and Finn, and if I did, if I should say something to them. Would I be able to hold myself back from mooning over my man, Spike? What if I told him we were meant to be together forever and he laughed at me? It could ruin everything. And there was no way for me to know if revealing to my guardian angel that I knew who he really was or if telling a girl who will hate me on sight that we’re actually related would screw up our futures. I had a feeling that revealing anything I knew about my friends’ futures would have drastically awful consequences, so my new and improved plan was to meet with Jared alone. And I prayed Ben wouldn’t get in my way.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  THE CLOSER WE got to Miami, the more my misgivings grew. It got to the point that I thought I was going to start hyperventilating, I was so freaked out. “Pull over,” I said to Brad, reaching out to grab his arm. My ears were hot, but at the same time, I was suffering cold sweats. My pulse was banging away in my veins.

  He looked at me with concern as he hit his turn signal, slowly easing the car over to the shoulder of the highway. “What’s up?”

  Tony leaned into the front seat. “You okay?”

  I rubbed my temples. “I’m getting a headache, and I feel sick to my stomach. Feverish, too.” I battled to keep from panting like a dog.

  “Are you getting the flu?” my BFF asked.

  “Or is it a spell?” Brad asked.

  I lifted my head to look at him, a light blub going on in my head. “It might be a spell.” Dammit! What kind of witch could cover an entire city with evil like that? Who has that much power?

  “Did she have spells in the…hospital?” I heard Tony ask someone in the back seat.

  “Tony, it’s not that kind of spell,” I said with a sigh. I felt defeated again, like I had in the mental ward, only this time it was almost worse. Ben was going to get to Jared long before we did, and it would give him plenty of time to poison the daemon’s thoughts toward me. And if I was effectively blocked from getting into Miami by a spell, I wouldn’t even get a chance to plead my case.

  “Can’t you use that Green stuff to fix it?” Long asked.

  Another light blub lit up in my aching brain. Thank goodness I have these friends with me or I’d be sunk, since my gray matter seems to have turned to mush. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. “It’s worth a shot.” I connected with The Green and felt it humming along like it always did. There was a ton of energy there on the side of the busy highway, as millions of people, animals, insects, and local plant life all played their parts in a symphony whose structure was too complex to fully comprehend. Along with beautiful melodies and harmonies, there were wrong notes playing here and there—signifying people doing bad things to one another or to creatures who they were meant to care for—but even so, there was beautiful music playing in the streets of Miami. I allowed myself to appreciate it for about ten seconds before I got down to business.

  Beautiful Green bubble shun, clear the spell that makes me numb, protect my friends and me from harm, bring me to the one I must charm. Within seconds, the pain receded from my head and my lungs instantly felt more elastic. I was able to breathe better, and my body seemed lighter. My body temperature returned to normal, and I no longer had the urge to barf. Relief flooded through me, replacing the last vestiges of awfulness with hope. “Phew. Hot diggity dog, that worked.” I turned around to check on my friends. They were all staring at me. “Did you feel something too?”

  They shook their heads silently.

  “Then why are you looking at me so funny?”

  “It might have been the weird glow coming out of your eyes,” Brad suggested.

  “But they’re in the back seat. How could they have seen my face?” When I looked at Tony, he pointed to the rear view mirror. Apparently my reflection had given them quite the show, since I’d forgotten to keep the power out of my eyes. Duh. I was definitely out of practice. “Oh. Yeah, well…sometimes my eyes get goofy when I call to my elements.”

  “Elements?” Tony asked.

  I waved him off with a flick of my hand. Now was not the time to enroll him in an Elemental Power 101 class. “I’ll explain later. Suffice to say we’re good for now. Any witchy bitchy magic going on in Miami can’t touch us.”

  “Us too, or just you?” Brad asked.

  “Nope, all of us. You’re part of my crew, so you’re good.”

  He grinned, looking happy for the first time in…ever. It was then that I realized how miserable he’d been. His smile transformed his face into something that looked almost angelic.

  “Cool,” he said.

  I chuckled as he pulled back onto the highway. It was a strange relief to know that the world could still surprise and amaze me, even after all I’d seen and been through. I never thought Brad could look like a nice person, but I was wrong. Apparently, he had his moments. As we continued down the road, though, he frowned.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked.

  “I have the weirdest sensation that I need to get off at the next exit.”

  “Where are you feeling that sensation?” Head, heart, or asshairs…big difference.

  He poked at his chest with his thumb. “Here.” He rubbed the spot like he was massaging a knot out of his muscle. Since I’d made sure the bad magic wasn’t able to touch us, I had to believe it was something good leading us in the right direction.

  I nodded. “Do it. Take the exit.” I was suddenly getting the same feeling Brad was, and I prayed it was The Green doing my bidding by bringing me to the one I had to charm. Hang on, Jared. I’m coming. Don’t fall for Ben’s bullshit before I get there.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  BRAD FOLLOWED THE signs given to his gut or his solar plexus or whatever, and instead of finding ourselves outside the train station or the warehouse where I’d met Jared almost a year ago, we were parked in a lot outside of a hotel I knew only too well.

  “Is this where Jared is?” Tony asked, looking through the front windshield at the valet area where we’d stopped.

  “No.” I swung the door open and got out, closing it behind me. “But there’s someone else here that I guess I’m supposed to talk to first.” Dardennes. Céline. I hoped it was them and not some unknown quantity I hadn’t counted on.

  “Don’t you think we should go in with you?” Long asked.

  Brad turned the motor off and opened his door. “I am.”

  “No, I need you to stay and protect Tony.”

  “Protect me?” Tony asked, sounding alarmed. “From what?” He looked first at Mike and then at Long.

  I chewed my lip, wondering what I should do and say that wouldn’t freak my friend out. He was probably already on the edge of running afte
r having seen my glowing eyeballs and hearing all that talk of witches’ spells. I really didn’t want to leave Tony out in the car, though. I had zero worries about Long or Mike—they weren’t on anyone’s radar—but my best friend would be too vulnerable with Ben on the loose. I also didn’t want Tony dragged into a trap and then used as leverage against me. Hello, Rock, meet Hard Place.

  “I think we should all go in together,” said Mike. “Safety in numbers.”

  “I second that,” said Tony. “But are we having a safety issue here? I thought we were just going to talk to someone.”

  I stuck my head in the window to look at my friends more closely. “I can’t promise you there won’t be some kind of trap in there. Obviously, a witch knows I’m coming, and whoever it is doesn’t want me to have this conversation with Jared, otherwise there wouldn’t have been a spell over the highway. But if that spell were meant to hurt me, it would have done a lot worse than give me a headache and make me feel like barfing.” For sure it would have cut me off from my elements. I focused on Tony. “There’s nothing to worry about. You’re totally safe with me.”

  “Just bubblewrap us,” Long said. “The wyvern likes your Green bubbles.”

  I had to smile at that as I focused on my new fae friend. “And The Green likes your wyvern.” I lost my happy face and tried not to grimace. “But in the interest of full disclosure, whenever I’ve gotten into a conflict with someone, especially a witch, it hasn’t always gone well.”

  “Meaning you lose your temper?” Long asked in a very understanding tone.

  “Meaning sometimes I don’t know my asshole from a hole in the ground, and shit goes sideways.”

  She smiled along with everyone else. “Sounds like fun,” she said.

  I shook my head, grinning right along with the rest of my friends. I mean, seriously…how could I not love these people who were totally down with me screwing shit up? “Fine. Feel free to come, but don’t blame me if you end up comasized.”

  They wasted no time in piling out of the car, and we entered the lobby as a group. Brad and I walked side by side in the lead, Tony and Long were in the middle, and Mike brought up the rear. I focused on busting a rhyme, hoping it would help minimize any future screw-ups on my part. I figured a double dose of requests for protection couldn’t hurt, either. Earth Element, hear my plea, keep those who wish to harm away from me, protect my friends, and lead us true, no matter what the Dark tries to do. I was too nervous to come up with anything better, and I’d run out of time anyway. We were standing at the front desk, and the hotel receptionist was waiting for me to say something.

  “Hi. Uh…I…uh…have a meeting with someone who’s staying here.” Smooth as ever. I blew some air up onto my sweaty forehead.

  She moved to her computer. “Do you know the room number or have a name?”

  “Uh…yeah. Dardennes. Anton Dardennes. Or Céline. You could try the name Céline.” It was the first time I realized I didn’t know her last name, or I’d known it at some point and had forgotten. I prayed that didn’t mean I’d forgotten any other important information.

  “We don’t have anyone by those names staying with us at this time.”

  “Huh.” I chewed my lip, wondering what I was supposed to do with this information. It was true that my original meeting with Dardennes and Céline hadn’t happened until a day or two from today. Maybe they hadn’t checked in yet. Maybe they weren’t even staying at the hotel at all.

  “You said you had a meeting scheduled?” she said, pulling me out of my pre-panic attack.

  “Yes. Kind of.”

  “I could check our meeting rooms and see if they’re in that database.”

  “Perfect. Do that.” Hope!

  “Do you know the company name?”

  “Yes. One-Eleven Group.” I totally pulled that name out of my butt. I would have patted myself on the back if I could have done it without pulling a muscle.

  She tapped on her keyboard and frowned. “Nnnooo, doesn’t look like they’re in here either.”

  What do I do now? Who else would have rented that room? My mind flashed back to a certain plane ride… “How about…Ivar. Ivar…” I had to wrack my brain to come up with his name. “Niche? Nimka? Numbskull?”

  “Nischa?” she prompted.

  I pointed at her, instantly psyched. “Yes! That’s him!”

  She lifted up a phone headset. “Just a moment. I’ll see if he’s in.”

  I bounced on my toes as she waited for him to pick up. My body was tingling all over. I was so happy I’d thought to ask about Ivar, but I didn’t want to get ahead of myself. There was at least one powerful fae very invested in the idea of cutting me off from my feeps, as Tim would say. God, how I miss that pixie.

  I could hear the line ringing and ringing. My heart plummeted when she put the phone back on the cradle a few moments later. “I’m sorry. He’s not answering.”

  “But I’m going to be late for our meeting.” I checked my pretend watch again as my heart banged away in my chest and my pulse raced.

  She looked me up and down, giving me a tight smile. “We could try again in a few minutes.” She gestured over to a set of chairs and tables. “You could sit there if you’d like.”

  Brad spoke up, making me almost jump in surprise. “Actually, we have some insulin we need to deliver as soon as possible. Mr. Dardennes has diabetes, and his nurse here brought some over especially for him. Maybe you could tell us what room the meeting is in so we could deliver it?”

  “You’re a nurse?” she asked, looking at me through narrowed eyes.

  Thank the heavens for former archenemies turned heroes! I pointed to my feet, lifting one up really high so she could see it from behind the counter. “Yes! Got the Crocs to prove it, too. You think I’d wear these as my regular gear?” I pointed to Mike and Long, both of them similarly garbed in scrubs and sitting in nearby chairs. They both managed to tuck their feet under their seats just in time so the receptionist wouldn’t notice they weren’t wearing shoes. “Brought my interns. They’re learning on the job.”

  She looked uncomfortable. “I suppose I could take the insulin from you and be sure he gets it.”

  “You want to take on the liability for that?” Brad asked. “What if he doesn’t get it in time? He could die. You’d be held responsible, you know. Chain of custody and so on. Negligence. Definite lawsuit material.”

  Where Brad was getting this stuff, I had no idea, but inside I was cheering him on like I had pom-poms and a color-coordinated miniskirt. Go, Brad, go! Bullshit that girl like it’s your job!

  She looked left and right. “I could ask my manager.”

  I checked my freckled arm one more time, shaking my head while frowning. “We really don’t have time for that.” I looked up at her and adopted the most professional, nurse-like expression I was capable of creating. “Give us the room number and we’ll just wait for him there. He knows to expect us soon.” I leaned in closer, letting a little Green power into my eyes. “We promise we won’t tell.”

  She backed up a step.

  “Hey,” Brad said, snapping his fingers at her.

  She looked up as if in a daze, and he gave her his best, most smarmy smile. It was impressive. “What’s your name?”

  “Megan.” She sounded kind of stunned.

  “Megan, do you live around here?” He leaned on the counter, flexing his bicep a little.

  I watched, dumbfounded. Is this actually working? Does he have magic muscles? What kind of fae has those?

  She nodded.

  “Cool. Maybe you could give them the room number and then you could give me your number.”

  Her smile was shy. Nervous. She was totally falling for the biceps move. Pitiful. “I suppose that could be all right.” She glanced at me. “Since she’s his nurse.”

  “A medical professional,” Brad said, all cheerful, like he was happy he was going to be rid of me and be alone with her soon. “Just doing her job.”

  She w
rote something down on a piece of paper and handed it to me. “It’s around the corner, down the hall, on your left.”

  “I’ve been there before,” I said, snatching the paper that had a room number on it from her. “Catch up with you later,” I said, leaving Brad to untangle himself from the mess he’d created, taking off with Tony and company behind me.

  “Where are we going? You said you’ve been here before?” Tony asked, breathless from trying to keep up with me.

  “We’re going to meet a guy named Dardennes, I think.”

  “You don’t know for sure?”

  I slowed down at the sound of panic in his voice. Once he was by my side, I continued. “I came here a year ago and met three people who turned out to be fae. But at the time, I didn’t know who they were, exactly. I thought I was going to an interview.”

  “An interview for what?”

  “A clinical trial. You and I needed money and they were offering five hundred bucks each.” I could sense he was going to ask why, so I hurried on. “Because we’d run away with only twenty bucks between us.”

  “That wasn’t very smart. I mean…assuming that what you’re saying is even possible.”

  “Trust me…it’s true and it’s very possible. It was a spur of the moment kind of thing.”

  “Jayne, I don’t know how well you think you know me, but I don’t generally do spur of the moment.”

  I stopped suddenly and caused a pile up of Long and Mike behind me. While they got straightened out, I faced my friend. “No, you generally don’t do anything spontaneous, that’s true, but that day, you did. You brought a gun to school because you had grand ideas about protecting me from my mother’s boyfriend. You knew.” That was all I was going to say on the matter, but it was enough.