The Dragon Chronicles_City of Sin

by Melissa Stevens

  “Chris?” she called out.

  “Yes?” his voice carried clearly from the other room where he still looked. “You need something?”

  “Have you been to Emily's apartment?”

  “Yes, why?”

  “How's your sense of smell in this form?”

  “Far better than a normal, but not as good as when I'm a wolf, why?” His head appeared in the doorway. “You need something?”

  “Come look at this.” She couldn't help but frown as she continued to stare into the closet. Chris came into the room and stopped beside where she stood in front of the open closet doors, her hands still on the doors holding them wide.

  “I'm gonna guess Ricky's not a drag queen?”

  “Not that I'm aware of, and I can't imagine he would keep something like that from me.” Rachel turned to him. “I was wondering if maybe they're Emily's... if maybe you could see if you can scent her on them.”

  “That's actually a good idea.”

  Rachel released closet door, and he stepped closer, pulling one t-shirt toward his face and sniffing. He dropped that one and went to a dress a few items away. “Yes, they're hers, but the scent has faded, as if she hasn't worn them in a while. But that fits, doesn't it? Since she's been missing for a month.” He turned and scanned the room. “Did you find anything else that might be hers?”

  “Nearly half the stuff in the dresser is hers, or at least, I assume it's hers; it's women's clothes. That's all I've checked so far.” Leaving the closet open, she went to the table on one side of the bed and looked in the drawers before checking the other as well. Condoms, lube, a few toys she had no desire to know her brother had been using, but nothing else. Next, she checked the bathroom. There were two toothbrushes in the cup next to the sink and an army of women's toiletries on the counter but nothing that she could tell was missing. If Ricky was planning to be leave, he would have at least taken his tooth-brush, wouldn't he?

  “Find anything in here?” Chris poked his head in-to the bathroom.

  “Nothing remarkable. Between the clothes and this,” she waved one arm over the bottles and tubs of makeup, lotions, and ointments, “I'd have to guess that Emily was spending probably at least as much time here as she was at her place, if not more, but there's nothing that jumps out at me as missing or shouldn't be here.”

  “I'd probably want to stay here over her place too. It's not much, barely more than a studio with no kitchen. I offered her a place at the Obsession, but she refused. She wants to be on her own, not beholden to me or anyone else... her words.”

  “From the sound of it, I'd want to be here too.” Rachel looked in the tub, but didn't see anything remarkable and went back into the bedroom, Chris backed away from the door to let her through. “Did you find anything else in the living room?”

  “I didn't.”

  “All right, let's grab his computer and go back to my place. I can leave his things there and grab my purse before we head out.” Back in the bedroom, she picked up the stack she'd made earlier and together they left.

  GLAD SHE HADN'T HAD to go through her brother's apartment alone, Rachel was hurt Ricky hadn't told her that Emily was all but living with him. Although, thinking about it, she had to admit she'd been busy the last few weeks. First with planning Teya’s birth-day party, then the legend contest Teya wanted help spreading the word about. Apparently, as leg-end had it, there was a mate who could communicate with your dragon... Rachel hadn’t had as much time for Ricky as he was used to.

  “Stop thinking so hard.” Chris's voice drew her back to the present. They were standing in front of her apartment door. She'd made the trip from Ricky's apartment on autopilot and didn't remember a single step. Pressing her hand against the security panel, she waited until the lock flashed green, then let them into her apartment.

  “I'm sorry. I was lost in thought. Were you talking to me? Did I miss something?”

  “No, but you were thinking so loud even I could hear you.” Chris took her shoulders and spun her around to face him. “It doesn't matter how busy you were, it's not your fault Ricky disappeared. It's not your fault he hasn't been in touch, or that he's missing.” A finger under her chin lifted her head until she met his gaze. “We all have responsibilities, jobs and things that have to get done. No one can blame you for doing them. I understand you feel responsible for him, but Ricky is an adult, and if some-thing has happened to him, we'll figure it out. All right?”

  “You heard what I was thinking?” Rachel tilted her head as she watched him. When he'd touched her chin, a spark of recognition had shot through her. That spark sent heat through her body, and memories of the night before flashed in her mind.

  “Clear as a bell.” Chris looked surprised. “It was almost as if you were deliberately using telepathy, but you've not done that with me before, and what I was hearing didn't feel like you were talking to me. It felt like you were berating yourself. That's why I spoke up.”

  Rachel pulled away and let her head hang for a second as she tried to recover her wits. After taking a deep breath, she lifted her head and met his gaze. “Thank you. I'll be more careful.” Turning away, she took the computer and the rest of the things from Ricky's apartment to the table where the files they had gone over the night before still sat. “Give me just a minute; I need to make a call.” She picked up the in-house phone that connected all the rooms with the rest of the resort and hit 0.

  “Front desk. This is Wendy, how can I help you?”

  “Wendy, this is Rachel Tao, can you look and see if my brother, Ricky Tao, has any mail he hasn't picked up?”

  “Sure, I'll check if you'll give me a moment?”

  “Of course.” She waited while Wendy put her on hold. A couple of minutes later, the girl came back.

  “Miss Tao?”

  “Yes.”

  “There is quite a large stack of mail here for your brother, is there something you'd like me to do with it?”

  “Is Howard in?” Rachel hesitated a second.

  “Yes, I think so. At least I saw him about an hour ago.”

  “Great, if you could have him take Ricky's mail to my office? I'll pick it up there.”

  “Will do. As soon as I see him again, I'll send him down with it.”

  “Thank you.”

  “No problem. Have a nice day.”

  “You too, Wendy.” Rachel gently placed the ear-piece back on the cradle. “She said there was quite a bit there for him. Ricky obviously hasn't picked it up in a while.”

  “I heard.”

  Rachel frowned.

  “You're hearing is that good in this form?” Rachel tilted her head to one side. “We already determined your sense of smell is stronger, what other senses are more intense for you?” She watched him with new interest. She knew other kinds of shifters exist, wolves, cougars, bears, and that there were were-wolves, but she'd never known any and didn't know exactly how they differed.

  “Just scent and hearing mostly, though our vision is a little better. Are your senses not enhanced in your human form?”

  “My vision is good, but that's about it. But then, my senses are not that much better in my dragon form.”

  “I don't know a lot about dragons. I had never been around anything but werewolves and wolf shifters until I took over the Fraction.”

  “I've been around them, but only for business and things like the party the other night, which was still Fraction business, even of it was dressed up in a ball gown and mask.”

  “So, you don't know much more about my people than I know about yours?”

  “Not much.” She gave him a wry smile, which he returned. They stood for a couple minutes, then Chris broke the silence.

  “So, what are we going to do now? You said you don't want to wait for your brother to respond to your text.”

  “Well, let's print off a list of the ATMs he's been to most recently. We can take a picture and ask people if they've seen him. Sound like a good idea?” Rachel looked back at hi
m, hoping he wouldn't think it was a waste of time.

  “It's something, which is better than nothing.”

  “You have that picture of Emily with you?”

  “I have a couple copies in my truck, will that do?”

  “Perfect.” She opened Ricky's laptop, pulled up the bank's site again, and printed out the list of locations her brother had used. “Give me just a minute and we can go.” She went into her bedroom, used the attached restroom, changed shoes, and grabbed her purse. She could get away without it in the re-sort where everyone knew her and she just had to sign her name for whatever she wanted, elsewhere she might need her wallet. Besides, the bag gave her some place to keep the papers she'd just printed. “You ready?” Rachel asked Chris once she made it back to the living room.

  “Whenever you are.”

  “Great, just one more thing.” She went to the wall of photos and scanned it; she was searching for a specific photo. “There it is.” She reached up for a photo that hung over her head but couldn't reach it. A warm body pressed up against hers and an arm appeared over hers as Chris took the frame she'd been reaching for off the wall and handed it to her. Immediately, he stepped back and deep inside, she felt a pang of regret. His body next to hers had felt somehow right. “Thanks.” She glanced at Chris then back down to the photograph in her hands. It was Ricky, one of her favorites, and the only one that was just him. Her chest ached with the possibility of losing him. Pushing the thought away, she put the picture in her purse and took a deep breath. “All right, let's go.”

  “You want to drive or you want me to?” Chris asked as they made their way to the elevator.

  “You said your pictures of Emily are in your truck, which means we have to stop there anyway, so you might as well drive.” She knew most men didn't like not being in control of at least something, she didn't care about driving, so it was no big concession to let him have that.

  10

  Chris was strangely nervous as they made their way out to his truck. If he'd realized they would be going somewhere in it when he came to see her the night before, he would have brought a better vehicle. He hadn’t planned to spend the night, much less that she would want to go with him somewhere. Now he was kicking himself for bringing the truck, which was more than ten years old. He'd like to impress her and an old pickup wouldn't do that. Not that his old truck looked all that bad for its age, but still. He'd chosen this vehicle because he didn't want to draw a lot of attention to his visiting the dragon resort, like some of his other cars would.

  On the other hand, it was a good vehicle for what they were going to do. It was plain and average; a newer, flashier car would draw attention and make them stand out. Another of his cars would mark them as outsiders, someone who didn't belong in the area, which would in turn, keep people from answering their questions, and they didn't want that.

  Chris glanced down at what he was wearing, making sure it wouldn't cause them problems, a clean looking, if slightly wrinkled, cotton t-shirt and running shoes rounded out the rest of his outfit. Glancing over at Rachel, he considered her outfit as well. She was a little better dressed than him, but there was nothing fancy and nothing designer. She wore a pair of jeans, they were newer than his and fit like they'd been made for her, and a red blouse, which made Chris want to pull her close, kiss her hard, and see where it went from there.

  It occurred to him that most people wanted to be armed for the rougher parts of town, but he didn't need to bother. He was easily ten times stronger than a human his size. He would have no problems even if they ran into another supernormal.

  “This is me.” Chris unlocked the doors with a touch of the remote in his hand and the headlights flashed. He'd had to park in a small, single layer lot off Carson Avenue because his truck was too tall for a garage. A glance at her face revealed no judgment about his truck, but he wasn't sure yet if she could keep what she was thinking from her face. She may have a killer poker face, but he wouldn't know. Though, thinking back, he was certain she hadn't intended for him to hear her thoughts as they went to her apartment, so she may not have that good of poker face. Instead of getting in behind the wheel, Chris went to the passenger's side and opened the door for her. “Do you need help climbing up?” He gazed down at her. She wasn't very big and the truck was lifted, the bottom of the door came to her waist.

  “Maybe, give me a second though.” Her eyes scanned the opening then she reached up and took a firm grip on the door handle and another on the edge of the seat as she put her foot on the step that hung below the door frame, but still above her knees, and hoisted herself up. Once she stood on the chrome tubing step, she had no trouble making it the rest of the way in. “I got it.” She turned back to him with a grin. Her happiness at being able to make it up was obvious, but Chris made a mental note to bring a lower slung vehicle the next time so she could get in and out more easily.

  This was his play truck, the one he would take out to run through the mud when there was a good rain storm, or just to climb hills and ravines when there wasn't. The lifted suspension was good for that, but she didn't need to fight to get in and out every time. He waited until she was seated then closed the truck door before going around to his side and climbing in.

  Chris glanced across the seat at Rachel as he started the truck, letting the first powerful roar of the engine vibrate through him. Some guys went to the gym to pound out their frustrations, Chris got behind the wheel of a finely tuned engine. He glanced over at Rachel again to see how she reacted then put the truck in reverse and backed out of the parking space. With practiced ease, he put the standard transmission in first and pulled onto the road toward the first ATM on their list.

  IT WAS ALMOST SIX O'clock when Chris dropped Ra-chel off at the MesoAmerican.

  “I'd like to take you out tonight,” he said as he pulled up next to the hotel. “Dinner, maybe a little more. Show you my place.”

  “I'd like that.” She gave him a tired smile. They'd stopped at least at a dozen places and showed at least fifty people pictures of both Ricky and Emily, but had not found anyone who could remember seeing them.

  “I'll pick you up at what, eight? Is that enough time for you to shower and do whatever you need to do?”

  “Eight sounds great. I'll be out front waiting.”

  “No, I'll come inside for you. Elevator or front desk, it's your choice.”

  “Front desk is good.”

  “All right, I'll see you in a couple hours.” Chris leaned across the seat and gave her a lingering kiss before putting the truck in park and climbing down to help her out.

  “You didn't need to do that,” Rachel said as her feet touched the ground. “I could have gotten down on my own.”

  “I didn't want to risk you falling and getting hurt.” Chris dropped another light kiss on her lips before releasing her and watching her walk into the casino. Once she was inside, he got back into the truck and headed home.

  CHRIS WALKED INTO HIS apartment and went straight to the bedroom. He peeled out of his clothes and stepped into the shower. As much as he liked the scent of Rachel on his skin, it was his habit to show-er first thing in the morning, but he hadn't wanted to risk making her uncomfortable by asking. Be-sides, he hadn't had anything clean to put on.

  As the hot water cascaded over him, and the heat helped his muscles to relax, he replayed scenes from the night before through his mind. It had been one of the most amazing nights of his life.

  It's because she's ours. His wolf's voice growled into his head.

  I know. We're working on that, but it's not as simple as I know you would like.

  Ours. That is all that matters.

  I know you think so, but it's simply not true. I don't want her to leave like our mother did.

  Our mother was not mated to Father. His mate was Tiffany.

  Just give me some time to make this work, okay? Chris sighed. His wolf couldn't seem to grasp that women didn’t like to be told what to do or that they belonged to someone.
Rachel was older, so she might accept him without knowing much more about him, or werewolves, but he didn't even know how dragon's felt about their people mating with non-dragons. Rachel hadn't seemed to care last night, but that didn't mean the rest of her Fraction wouldn't.

  After showering, Chris put on a pair of comfortable jeans and a flannel shirt. He didn't have time to deal with anything major, but he needed to check in to make sure his orders were being followed and that there had been no Fraction business that came up while he had been gone. A cloud of unease settled over him as he thought about Emily. She was younger enough than him that she'd tried to tag along with him, and he'd been nothing but annoyed. Who wanted a little girl trailing after you to tattle about the stuff you knew you weren't sup-posed to do but tried to get away with anyway?

  Chris had heard rumors she was dating some supernatural that wasn't a werewolf, and he'd been so relieved she'd moved on from stalking his every move, he hadn't cared. Now he regretted that. Not that she had dated outside their kind, he was glad she had, because if she hadn't he might not have ever met Rachel. And he couldn't regret that, no matter how it turned out.

  Barefoot, he took the stairs down one floor to his office. Before going to his desk, he stood for a moment, facing the glass wall that normally sat behind him while he worked. He loved that it let in so much light and kept him from feeling closed in while he had to spend so much time indoors. Scanning Las Vegas Boulevard, he watched the tiny little people scurry from building to building far below. That wasn't the part he liked, he liked being able to see past the crowd of people jammed into the town like sardines to the open space beyond, getting a good view of the mountains that skirted the area. When having too many people around weighed on him, this was the second-best therapy he had. First was to get out of town and to shift, run, and hunt.