The Dragon Lady (The Dracosinum Tales)

by Angelique S. Anderson

  “Says the man who killed hundreds of people for monetary gain. Now shut up before you wake everyone up. I have things to do, things that involve getting you out of here, remember?”

  He plodded back to his bed to lie down, twisting the vial in his fingers as he awaited his release.

  What’s a few million for my freedom? Once I carry out my plans, I’ll be THE richest man in the world.

  Chapter Two

  Fake Out

  Katelyn Vosburg stood outside the warden’s office, and knocked softly.

  “Who is it?” his voice boomed out.

  “Vosburg.”

  “Enter.”

  She turned the knob, entered the room, and closed the door behind her, locking it.

  “Anyone out there?” he asked

  “Officer Charleston, but he’s busy dealing with something.”

  “Where is everyone else?”

  “At their desks.”

  “Very good.” Warden Halloway got up from behind his desk, came around the front of it and sat down on the edge, crossing his ankles one over the other. She hated that he looked so good in his uniform. “What did you find out?” he asked.

  “He agreed to the extra cash.”

  “Oh yeah?” He stood up, and walked over to her, towering above her by just a few inches. “That’s a good girl,” he said, grabbing the sides of her face, and sticking his tongue in her mouth.

  Pig. She thought, as she kissed him back. His time is coming too.

  ###

  Another day had passed behind the concrete walls, and Lars was no freer.

  “Dammit,” he muttered the word over and over, as he sat waiting on his bed. He had even drifted off to sleep a few times.

  Where the hell is she?

  The words seemed to act like a summoning spell, as seconds later he heard footsteps coming down the hall.

  Keys jingled outside the door of his cell, and Vosburg walked in.

  “I need you to stand up and put your hands behind your head Lars. You’re being relocated.” Obediently, he stood to his feet, and placed his hands on his scalp.

  “What the Hell is going on, Vosburg, I thought you agreed to get me out of here yesterday?” he growled.

  “What are you, stupid? I told you what was happening, now do what you’re told, or we may have to accidentally ‘misplace’ you on the way. Got it?”

  He wanted to blow the lid off the place, and if he ever got out, he was going to do just that. He had now added officer Vosburg to his list of people who needed to die first.

  “Hag,” he muttered under his breath.

  “Oh no, honey. I’m your worst nightmare. I can’t wait to get your scum sucking ass out of my prison,” her voice carried a note of superiority.

  “What’s with the attitude, Vosburg?”

  “Do you ever shut up?” Lars closed his mouth then, secretly thinking about all the ways he could kill her.

  She locked the handcuffs on his wrists too tight, which pissed him off even more. He almost went off on her, then thought better of it. It was clear by her behavior that she was in an extremely foul mood, and she was also the one with the gun. He wasn’t about to set her off more than was necessary.

  She pushed him out into the hallway, where two other officers were waiting. Each grabbing an elbow, they began carting him off. Almost as an afterthought, she walked to his bed, and reached under his pillow. Sure enough, he had left the serum there.

  “What an idiot,” she mumbled, then marched out of the cell, shutting it quietly behind her so as not to wake the other inmates. She caught up to the officers who were detaining him. Together they headed towards the warden’s office, where a uniformed guard was waiting.

  ###

  “Have you filed the correct paperwork, Vosburg?”

  “Of course, Charleston.”

  “Just making sure. I don’t want the warden coming down on you.” She grimaced at his response. Just hearing the word 'warden’ ticked her off. Every fiber of her being wanted to see that man get what was coming to him.

  “Yeah, I appreciate it. Thanks.”

  He smiled, and tipped his hat to her.

  “No problem, ma’am.”

  If only the warden was a little more like Charleston, she would have felt differently when he’d first come on to her. Now, she constantly felt like an insect trapped in a web she couldn’t escape. She was forever waiting for him to descend on her, and suck the life out of her as he monitored her every move.

  She tapped on the door to the warden’s office.

  “Vosburg?”

  “Yes sir, I have Deacon and Peterson with me.”

  “And the prisoner?”

  “Yes Sir,” She raised her voice to be heard through the door. Despising the fact that she had to call him sir. He demanded respect, which by her estimation, he didn’t deserve. He insisted on having his every whim catered to, but she was quickly reaching her limit. For the time being, she would do what she needed to keep him happy, knowing that the cogs had been set in motion to bring him down. He would never force himself on anyone else. Not after she was done with him.

  The door opened suddenly, and he came out.

  “Very good, let’s go down to transport. I have a vehicle and an officer waiting.”

  She nodded solemnly and followed him, the two officers holding the prisoner followed suit. Once they reached the transport area, Lars was forced into the rear passenger compartment of an armored vehicle. The automatic lock clicked into place as the door closed behind him.

  “Officer Davenport, I am going to need you to stay here. The only person I trust with prisoner Morello is officer Vosburg.”

  “But I need to get back to my facility,” he argued.

  “I’m aware of that. I will make other arrangements for you, or you can wait until she gets back.” Warden Holloway answered.

  “What? No, I need to return the truck.”

  “Don’t you trust my officer?”

  “No, it’s not that. There’s a set protocol to follow… you… you’re breaking protocol!”

  “Listen you little bastard, when you’re here, you work for me. Got it? I said I don’t trust anyone else with this prisoner. So as far as I’m concerned, that is the only protocol I need to follow. You want to whine to your superiors about it, go ahead cry baby. I have things to do, and you’re cramping my style. Now either shut up, and get your wimpy little butt inside, or walk back.”

  “Davenport, why don’t you head inside with us? We can figure something out,” Officer Deacon suggested.

  “Very well, but I’m doing so under protest.” Davenport jumped out of the vehicle, and stormed into the building like a child throwing a temper tantrum. Vosburg took his place behind the wheel of the truck.

  “Now, hold on a second, come back down here,” Vosburg cringed inwardly. Damn Halloway. She should have known it wasn’t going to be that easy. Sliding down from the truck, she stayed behind the door, so that even though it was wide open, she could pull it in on her, if necessary. He approached her, and just as she started to pull the door, he stopped it.

  “Are you trying to hide from me?” He took a look over his shoulder to make sure the other officers had gone inside. There was no one around. “You’re not upset with me, are you baby? Didn’t I do what you wanted?” He stepped in close and pressed his body against hers, kissing her neck. “Damn girl, you smell good.” It took everything in her, not grab the back of his head and yank his face into her knee. His hand made its way to her shoulder, and slid down her front.

  In a split second, she drove her knee up into his groin as hard as she could. She made solid contact, and he stumbled backward yelling in pain.

  “Shit!” he said as he collapsed to the ground. She hopped in the truck, and slammed the door. She saw him mouthing a few choice words as she backed out, but she didn’t care. Warden Holloway was going down and letting Lars escape would be only the beginnin
g of it.

  ###

  Lar’s neck hurt from being jostled around so much, and he was fuming mad from having been deceived. What the hell was Vosburg trying to pull, anyway? It must have been a good hour or two before he finally felt the vehicle slowing down. The vehicle hit a couple of large bumps that sent him airborne, bouncing around in the back of the truck like a ping-pong ball. Then stopped, suddenly. He heard a crunching sound right before his body hit the floor.

  “Ow! Dammit!”

  He felt battered and bruised. All he could do was lie on the cold metal floor of the back of the truck, where he’d landed and groan. He could hear the front door of the vehicle open and slam, then the door to his compartment opened. Full glaring daylight poured in, and it took his eyes a minute to adjust.

  “Come on jerk off, we don’t have much time.”

  “Where the hell are we?”

  “Middle of nowhere, sorry about that.” She stepped up into the cab and helped him to his feet. “I had to make it look like something ran us off the road.” She left his handcuffs on him, as she led him away from the truck.

  They were in a rough wooded area, and as he looked back, he could see the tire marks through the shrubs and bushes. His eyes followed the tracks to the vehicle which had plowed into a tree. The front was crushed in, but not too badly.

  “How did you manage to not hit anything else on the way in here?”

  “Pure dumb luck, I guess. Look, we don’t have much time. I’m going to need you to run as fast as you can with me. I know for a fact that truck has an electronic tracker on it, and they may be no more than a few minutes behind us. We need to get out of here. I have a safe place for us to go, but it’s going to take some real effort to get there.

  “Are you going to take my handcuffs off?”

  “Not yet, you’re just going to have to trust me. If we get caught out here, it’s in our best interest if it still looks like you’re my prisoner.”

  Lars let out a string of obscenities.

  “I know, life sucks a big one. Now let’s get the hell out of here.” She grabbed his arm, and they took off running in an easterly direction away from the accident. Her heart had never beat so fast in her whole life. She wasn’t sure what the warden was capable of, but if he had managed to get the okay for a female to work at an all-male prison, and had managed to get a transfer for the most hated man in America, then no doubt, he was capable of some pretty evil voodoo.

  Chapter Three

  Underground

  Lars and Officer Vosburg ran on and on for hours, stopping for short rests from time to time. Lars was not happy about the less than regal treatment. He had expected by now to be returned to his status as it was before his beloved Plant Harmonics shut down. As nightfall approached, and his hunger started to get the better of him, he stopped running and sat on the ground.

  “What are you doing?” Vosburg demanded.

  “I’m starving.”

  “So am I! We’re almost there.”

  “I want to eat,” he insisted, folding his arms angrily across his chest.

  “You’re acting like a child. Get your ass up and let’s go.”

  “Not until we eat.” Vosburg undid her gun clip, and pulled it out of its holster. She pointed its business end at Lars.

  “Now get up off the ground and get moving. We’re almost there, but you’re going to have to trust me.”

  He grumbled as he struggled to get to his feet, impatient with his clumsiness. She grabbed the crook of his elbow and hoisted him up.

  “We can walk for a bit, it shouldn’t be more than another mile or so.”

  He cursed at her under his breath.

  “Better watch yourself, Lars. Until you pay me, I’m in charge. When your debt is settled, you can do whatever the hell you want. Also, I have just upped my fee.”

  “Bet you’re….”

  “Ah… ah… ahh…… watch your mouth around a lady. Or so help me, I’ll leave you here and radio for help. Warden Holloway will disregard anything you say, if he believes it will get him into my pants. I’ll bet you anything I could have him lock you up and throw away the key.”

  “Oh, I know he likes you,” he hissed, his gaze falling to her breasts. She smacked him across the face, leaving a glowing red mark.

  “Don’t even.” She pushed him ahead of her, and stuck her gun in his back. “Since you want to be a smart ass, instead of this nice little companionship we could have had, you get to be in front. Make any wrong moves, and my little friend here gets to scramble your insides. Savvy?”

  He didn’t say a word, but nodded his head, and stomped onward, anger emanating from every pore. He couldn’t wait to pay her off so he could have his life back.

  It took them about a half hour more trudging through the woods, struggling through brambles and stumbling over deadfalls, before Vosburg stopped. She holstered her gun, and walked a few steps ahead squinting at the ground. Kneeling, she pushed away some leaves and vines, and finally found what she was looking for. Lars could see a silver handle beneath the shrubbery. Is that a door in the ground? He found himself experiencing an extreme case of Déjà vu.

  “What the Hell?”

  “Told you, you could trust me.” Vosburg brushed aside a thin layer of vines and other detritus, uncovering a small metal panel. As she did so, a familiar looking, scanning device rose up out of the ground.

  “Identidisk machine! I assumed those were all destroyed?”

  “Oh, they were. The technology to create them was not. There were only a small handful of these ever made, primarily in preparation for your return. I think you will be quite pleased.” She pulled out a delicate silver chain that hung around her neck. A small tree with green emeralds swung from the bottom of it, and she waved it over the identification system. “There have been some changes, since you last saw the design. We’ve made it a little less obvious, the chips are smaller, and they contain less personal information. As you can see, it looks more like tasteful jewelry now.”

  After reading her chip, the machine descended back into the ground with a metallic click, followed by the sound of pneumatic compression, as a submarine style hatch rose out of the ground. As it did so, all of the vines and undergrowth shifted like pieces of a puzzle unlocking themselves.

  “I really would like to take your handcuffs off now, as the passage down is a bit narrow. Problem is I don’t trust you, yet. What are you going to do to change that?”

  “What’s down there?”

  “Why Lars, it’s your very own lab. To do with as you will, but we assume that you have great plans for Eden’s Serum. Am I correct?”

  “We?”

  Vosburg let out a hearty laugh.

  “Just wait and see!”

  If you enjoyed that sample, be sure to check out:

  Eden’s Serum: Book One in the Eden Series

  Eden’s Demise: Book Two in the Eden Series

  Little Lost Girl: The Complete Series

  And other work released by Angelique S. Anderson

  Thank you for your support!