Dragon Heart

by Amelia Jade

  The big dragon shifter had been conspicuously absent, and Linny was too shy to ask around after him, not wanting the others to know that something was going on between them. Why not? It’s perfectly allowable. Look at Thorne and Carla.

  Thorne was an onyx dragon, and Carla a battlesuit operator. They had become mates, and now Thorne served in the Steel Scythes, a mixed unit of dragons and battlesuits that trained together. Nobody cared that they were together. So why would they care about her and Rokk?

  Walking across the hangar floor, her foot hit a protruding cord. She stumbled, cursing at everything and its mother. “Stupid-ass lights…can’t get a modern piece of equipment that doesn’t take all day to turn on…”

  She paused, waiting for Rokk to appear out of the darkness and chide her for her potty mouth or some similar sarcastic quip. The first time she’d expected him to do that and he hadn’t materialized she’d felt a pang of sadness that startled her. She’d missed him. Linny was developing feelings for the lovable lug, and now he was just gone at a time where she could really use his company.

  The lights continued to come up, leaving Linny staring at her three sets of equipment. The crushed blocks. The ruined table. Last, and certainly not least, her cage. Made of inch-thick steel rebar, it had a door built into it. The entire thing was supported by four steel poles nearly half a foot in diameter. Meant to be the climax of her act, she was now going to have to build her entire show around it.

  “Let’s see if this works still,” she muttered, stripping down to her leotard once more before climbing up the rolling stairs that led to the door.

  Looking the door over she tested it, pulling on it, lifting, closing and opening. It all seemed perfectly fine. A shake of the frame around it revealed no weakness that she could discern.

  “Perfect.”

  Linny hauled herself up into the cage, pulling the door closed behind her and letting it latch. Then she settled herself onto the black rubber rectangle in the center, the only non-metal part of the cage. It was this mat that told her exactly where to stand so that she could trigger the trap door and fall out without getting hurt.

  The cage made her feel quite at home. She sat down cross-legged, eyes closed, and let her mind wander. When she was younger and still a practicing stage magician Linny had often sat in the cage while thinking of new tricks to perform. It made her feel calm, safe, protected. And warm.

  Warm? I’ve never felt warm.

  Her eyes snapped open. The entire cage was growing heated, and one of the support legs was starting to glow.

  “What the hell is going on?” She spoke aloud, though there was no one around. “Rokk? Rokk if this is you this isn’t funny.”

  Sparks shot from one of the welds of the support legs. Linny gasped as she caught sight of the floor and realized what was going on. The electrical cord she’d tripped on earlier wasn’t one that she’d run. It was a new one, and it was linked directly to one of the legs of her cage, feeding it with energy.

  Someone was trying to kill her.

  “ROKK!” she screamed at the top of her lungs, hoping against hope that maybe he’d decided to come practice.

  The heat in the cage was growing unbearable now. Her pores opened and her hair slowly grew damp, plastering itself to her forehead as she looked around frantically for a way out.

  Leaning forward to get a glimpse, the entire cage wobbled. The heat from the electricity in the metal was causing the welds to fail. Linny slowly sat back down. She had to stay as still as possible, conserving her energy and preventing the cage from toppling over while she came up with a plan.

  Why was someone trying to kill her? She didn’t have any enemies on the base that she knew about. Linny had few friends, but she also had nobody that hated her. Certainly nobody that wanted to see her dead in such a horrific manner.

  “It doesn’t matter right now,” she whispered to herself. “All that matters now is getting out of here.”

  The entire corner of the cage was staring to glow yellow-orange as the metal heated up. How much more of this can it take? She had nothing on her that would be of help. All she had was the very leotard she was wearing. That was it.

  Her eyes turned to the cage itself. To the door she’d come through.

  “Wait!” She looked down. At the escape hatch.

  The trigger was made of metal; it had to be to hold up to repeated use and weight, but it was a pressure trigger underneath the rubber mat she now sat upon. Long practice had taught her how to sit without triggering it.

  She slammed her hand down on the specific spot on the mat and waited for the floor to drop away, spilling her to the ground and safety.

  It didn’t work.

  Angrily she hit it again. And again. She was about to hit it again, arm upraised when something broke and she abruptly plummeted to the ground below. There was no padding in place, meaning she hit the concrete, shrieking in pain as she fell into a heap.

  But no matter how much it hurt, she was safe. She’d escaped. Her eyes spotted the trigger mechanism, and the spotty weld someone had applied to try and keep it from coming open. She grinned. The heat of the energy going into the cage must have weakened the new weld enough that her hammering on it had broken it. The saboteur’s plan had backfired.

  Her legs were still numb from the fall, not responding properly as she started to pull herself to safety.

  Above her the cage groaned and she watched, horrified, as one of the legs buckled, the metal too soft to support the weight any longer.

  Linny screamed as it toppled toward her, angry that she’d come so close to safety, and also terrified at dying.

  Footsteps clattered off the concrete and suddenly someone was there next to her. She watched as Rokk slid to his knees and grabbed the metal cage.

  “Rokk, no!” she screamed.

  Electricity coursed down into him as he absorbed the current, forming the other end of the switch with the cord that had been wrapped around the leg.

  Instead of getting blown away and dropping the cage on her, the dragon shifter just shuddered, and to her surprise absorbed the energy. It just flowed into him, disappearing deep into his body. His skin started to glow, turning translucent to reveal the current of energy running through his veins and muscles.

  “I’ll be okay, Linny,” Rokk said, speaking once more in that inhuman voice of his. “But I cannot touch you like this. You’re going to have to pull yourself to safety. I dare not put more stress on the cage already, lest it break and something touch you. Can you crawl?”

  She nodded, unable to find words as she watched him continue to glow brighter and brighter. The being—it was tough to think of him as Rokk when he looked so inhuman—shot her a glance.

  “Right.” Her body protested the movements, wanting nothing more than to lie in a heap for the time being, but bit by bit Linny pulled herself clear.

  When Rokk dropped the cage at long last she was feeling strong enough to get to her feet.

  “Are you okay?” she asked as he stumbled slightly while pulling himself upright.

  “Yes,” his dragon essence replied. “But I must get outside. I cannot touch the door.”

  Linny moved as fast as she could to get ahead of Rokk as they moved out into the landing area outside.

  “Stay back,” he warned, moving away.

  Above them dark clouds swirled. The storm had abated after a day, but the clouds had yet to dissipate, staying fixed over the area and blocking out the sun.

  Linny watched as Rokk pulled his arms wide and looked up at the sky. An inhuman howl tore from his throat, followed a split second later by a torrent of energy. The blue-white beam stabbed straight upward into the sky, where the clouds absorbed it. They crackled and rippled with the intense energy. Moments later thunder boomed out over the mountains.

  Rokk fell to his knees, panting and exhausted-looking, but no longer glowing blue.

  “Is it safe now?” she called nervously.

  He nodded, and then flop
ped onto his back, staring up at the sky as the clouds flickered and billowed as they struggled to adjust to the energy they’d absorbed.

  “That was a lot of energy,” he muttered as she fell to her knees at his side. “I understand how Grandfather felt now. And why the humans worshipped him.”

  “Grandfather?”

  He grinned. “You might know him as Thor.”

  Linny’s jaw dropped. “Wait a minute. Are you telling me that the Norse god of thunder, a mythological being, was your grandfather?”

  Rokk grinned. “Taught me everything I know.”

  “Well now, that’s fascinating,” she mused, sitting back on her haunches. “Thank you, by the way.”

  He nodded.

  “Is it safe to touch you now?”

  “Yes, I discharged everything up there.” He pointed lazily at the lightning display in the sky overhead.

  “I saw,” she deadpanned.

  Rokk snorted.

  Linny fell over him and kissed him. She didn’t care who saw it. He’d rescued her from the brink of certain death.

  “Come on, let’s go back inside,” she said, picking him up as soldiers started to arrive. “There are going to be a lot of questions about the beam of blue light.”

  “Yeah, sorry about that. Next time I’ll just let the cage crush you.” He heaved himself upright.

  Linny grabbed his arm and stuck herself into his armpit, helping to support the tired dragon as they made their way back into the hangar. She waved the soldiers away. Some of them recognized her and backed off, giving them space.

  The first thing they did inside was to kill the power to the wire.

  “This is 220-volt stuff,” Rokk told her. “No wonder the cage was so charged. If you’d touched even one inch of it…” he shuddered. “This was no accident.”

  “Really? And here I thought cables like this just up and move around and attach themselves to cages at will.” She was scared. Scared and mad. “Rokk, someone tried to kill me. They were in here.”

  He whirled around to look at her. “What?”

  “I touched the cage before I got in it. Nothing happened. It was only after I got inside that it was electrified. Someone was here and turned it on.”

  Rokk didn’t say anything, but the thunderclouds brewing in his normally placid eyes told her he was furious. He stomped back over to the breaker panel, moving his head strangely. Linny eyed him, trying to understand what he was doing.

  “Are you…sniffing?” she asked.

  “Tracking,” came the distracted reply.

  “Oooh.” But she fell silent, waiting for him to finish. “What did you find?”

  “Nothing.”

  “Damn. Could it have been done remotely?”

  “No, not that kind of nothing,” he corrected. “I picked up something, but it wasn’t a person. It was a masking agent. Whoever did this knew I would try and find them, and they knew how to mask their scent from me.” He growled. “I picked up the same thing on the table leg I took as well. I was going to tell you the other night, but you were already overwhelmed with your work and you seemed so happy at dinner I…” A meaty fist slammed into his palm as his anger doubled.

  She shook her head. “I don’t blame you for that, Rokk, it’s okay. It wouldn’t have done anything.” She frowned at him, deciding to try and change the subject to calm him down. “But where have you been these past two days? I’ve missed you.”

  Her stomach flipped inside out with her last sentence, as she revealed herself to him, exposing her raw emotions. It didn’t seem too big of a gamble; she was fairly certain he was interested in her as well, though to what extent she didn’t know.

  “I’m sorry,” he said, abruptly looking away, closing himself off from her. “I’ve been fighting with my brother. I don’t know what to do.”

  This was not going the way Linny had expected. He was ignoring her display of feelings. He had a twin brother—was fighting with him really anything new? This was supposed to be about them right now, not him and his brother. She was being selfish, she knew, but he hadn’t even told her that he’d missed her as well. Just a textbook apology. It bothered her slightly. Maybe he didn’t care as much as she’d thought?

  “What’s going on there?” she asked.

  Rokk turned away, crossing his arms over his bulky chest in the most outward display of discomfort she’d ever seen the big man show. Just what the hell was going on?

  “We had a bet. I’m winning, he’s losing, and he’s not taking it very well. I don’t know why.”

  “I see…What was the bet about?” Was she really sure she wanted to know?

  Rokk spun back around, startling her so that she jumped back a step. “Cameras.”

  Linny furrowed her brows. “You guys are fighting over a bet about cameras?”

  He slashed at the air. “No, not that. Here, the hangar. Cameras. It must have surveillance video, right?”

  Linny looked down. “It does, yes.”

  “But…”

  “But I may have disabled them.”

  Rokk growled, a sound she was quickly associating with him being angry. “Why would you do that?”

  She shrugged helplessly. “So that nobody would spy on me and my act before the talent show.” She winced as he took the news like a baseball bat to the gut.

  “I see. So I did this.” He shook his head.

  Linny felt anger flash through her at his treatment of her. How dare he be irritated over that?

  “I guess you must really want to win this thing.” He looked away at the melted cage. “It’s a shame that I’m going to beat you. That prize is mine.”

  Linny felt her jaw drop open. How dare he so callously dismiss her? Did he not have any idea what was going on? She had to win. Had to. Now her chances were dashed, because someone was after her for a reason she couldn’t figure out.

  Anger welled up in Linny, growing stronger the more she thought about the distracted, mopey dragon in front of her. She’d opened up to him, and he’d dismissed her without so much as a flicker of care on his face. Why should she bother with him if this was how he was going to treat her?

  The change in mood was abrupt, but just then it felt completely justified. Linny was through. She’d thought that meant there was something going on between them, but now she knew the truth. She was just fun to him. Nothing more.

  She lifted a hand and pointed at the door.

  “Get out.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  Rokk

  His jaw dropped so quickly it popped on him.

  “What?”

  “I said get out.” Her finger was shaking as she stabbed it repeatedly at the doorway. “Now.”

  Looking around in confusion, he spread his arms wide. “What did I do? I thought I just saved your life?”

  “For which I am very, very grateful. Now please, Rokk, leave.”

  He took a step toward the door, wanting her to know that he would do as she asked. “Are you sure? I…I don’t understand.”

  She rolled her eyes. “Then maybe you should go take another two days to think about it. It doesn’t seem that hard for you to just disappear without a word for that long.”

  He sighed. “Linny, it’s not what you—”

  “You have no idea what I think, Rokk. I tried to tell you, but you ignored me. Now go. I don’t want to talk to you anymore.” She flicked her finger once more at the exit.

  Shoulders slumping in dejection, a confused and saddened Rokk did as she wanted. He paused at the doorway. “I’m sorry.”

  Linny started to shake, tears forming in her eyes, but she just pointed once more, not using words this time.

  He lowered his head and walked outside. The door closed behind him and he erupted with anger. Great. Now both his brother and his mate were mad at him. Could he do nothing right these days?

  “What a screwup I am,” he muttered.

  “You’re not a screwup.”

  He looked around for the source of the
voice. A soldier was walking past.

  “Thanks…” he peered at the name stitched onto the uniform. “Singler. Hey, wait a minute, you’re the VR tech. I recognize you.”

  Singler, a corporal if he judged the ranking on his sleeve correctly, nodded with a big smile on his face. He was obviously happy at being recognized by a dragon shifter. “Yes, sir. Anyway, I just heard you talking to yourself. You aren’t a screwup.”

  “Thanks, Singler. I appreciate that.”

  The tech nodded and carried on, the smile never leaving his face.

  “Well, that’s one versus two,” he said to himself. “Now if I can only figure out why Linny is mad at me. That would be awesome.”

  He wandered back toward the administrative section of the base while he thought.

  Things had been going well between them. They’d grown close, and he could see emotions developing between them. Then something had changed.

  Maybe she secretly blames me for the sabotage? That was it then. He needed to find out who the hell was out to kill her. That should have been his priority from the start.

  No wonder she’s pissed at me. Someone is out trying to kill her and I’m just standing around trying to woo her instead of finding the sonofabitch and blasting their worthless corpse into a million atoms.

  The surge of anger cause his powers to once again come to the fore as he stomped up the stairs into the administrative building, causing soldiers of all stripes to practically leap out of his way. He entered the command area, making a beeline for one office in particular.

  “Rokk? Sir? I’m sorry, he’s in a meeting—”

  Rokk ignored Corporal Luce. Now wasn’t the time. He tried the door but it was locked. That was solved with the simple expedient of removing the door from the frame. Several officers with the pompous air of being high ranking rear-echelon motherfuckers stared up at him, annoyed at the interruption.

  “Who are—”

  “Get. Out.” His thunderous voice filled the small office. Neither of the two men moved. “NOW!” he roared so loud the window shattered.

  The two officers got up faster than they’d probably moved in years, if not decades and made themselves scarce. Rokk took the door and roughly shoved it into place.