Stryker: Dragon Protectors

by Benton, Ava

  “I’ll carry my dad’s pistol.”

  “Do you know how to shoot?” She didn’t stand a chance against these guys. She’d pull out the gun and get shot a dozen times before she could even bring it up to aim at one of them.

  She shook her head. “I’m a fast learner. Clever, remember?” She tapped her temple with her index and middle finger, but the gesture looked more like she was pantomiming putting the gun to her head instead. The mental image hit me like I was reading the future.

  If I walked away, she’d be dead by the end of the day.

  If I helped her, I’d risk everything. The brotherhood, my job, my own life.

  But could I live with myself knowing I’d sent her to her death?

  “Where do you live?” My words were gruff, and she eyed me sideways, like she didn’t want to tell me that. Smart girl. She knew when she was staring danger in the face. “I’ll get you home.”

  “You don’t think people will see the damn dragon?” She arched an eyebrow at me.

  I shook my head. One rule of the brotherhood; always use cloaked flight. It was a skill we all possessed that had kept us from being found out for centuries. “No one will see us, I swear.”

  She studied me. “I live off Fifth and Jackson.”

  I shifted, feeling the tearing sensations as I grew. Every scale tore from my flesh and I gritted my teeth. The bullets had left bruises in my hide, but I was whole and mostly unharmed. I lowered my face to her, and she stared at me, then reached out with one hand like she was going to touch me.

  I pulled back, the instinct to protect my soft spots—my eyes and snout—taking over. She didn’t back down; instead she waited for me to be still, then crept closer, hand still outstretched. Her fingers trailed up my nose, then her whole hand flattened to my scales and her sweet, juicy sent filled my lungs.

  With a look of wonder, she stared at me, her lips parted. Her hands moved over my face, then toward my chest. I stayed put as she stroked my scales, then touched my claws.

  I jumped back and she stood there a moment, looking confused before turning back to me. Her eyes adjusted and I knew she’d been unable to track my fast motion. I lifted off and flew in the air over her head.

  She watched me, turning in a circle before I cloaked. “Where did you go?” Her soft voice prompted me to uncloak myself. “That’s why we won’t be seen, isn’t it?” A smile tugged the corners of her lips.

  I landed before her, shifted swiftly. “You say nothing of this.” I snorted and she stared at me, a confused look on her face as her eyebrows knitted together.

  “Of what?” She peered up at me, perplexed.

  “About me. No one would believe you anyway.”

  Her brows scrunched closer over a crease in her forehead. “Why would I betray you? You saved my life.”

  I hesitated. I hadn’t expected that response. She smelled like she told the truth and I wondered if our paths crossing meant something more. I wasn’t the type to believe in fate, but I’d been roped into this divide and conquer method by another member of the brotherhood. I’d been tailing those thugs looking for someone else. Instead, I’d found her. Saved her. And something about her gripped me and refused to let go.

  She didn’t deserve to die. I could smell the good rolling off her. The honesty, the kindness. I made a decision; I was going to save her. Without payment. No matter how much it pissed off my dragon brotherhood.

  I’d already lost everything once.

  I wasn’t going to lose this woman too.

  Not when I had the power to save her.

  3

  Kat

  I rushed into my house. I only had about ten minutes before I had to rush out the door to my second job. While I didn’t doubt I could beg off work tonight, I couldn’t afford to do so.

  “Dad!” I shouted at him and heard him rumble back. “What the heck are you into now? It’s not gambling again, is it?” I peeled my sweater off and threw it over a chair before walking back toward where he’d settled on the ratty old couch before our old tube television that only got about four channels because I couldn’t afford cable; or even freaking Netflix. Every penny I made went to keeping our heads above water and there were no luxuries.

  I planted my hands on my hips and glared at him. For a forty-eight-year-old man, he looked awful. His heavy, hooked nose and sagging throat had that ruddy red look that screamed alcohol abuse. His eyes were red-rimmed and watery all the time, but not from emotion. He’d forever look sad and beaten down, even in the droop of his shoulders and the permanent downward curve of his lips.

  “What are you on about?” He waved a hand at the TV. “I’m trying to watch the news.”

  “I almost was the news, Dad!” My hands dropped to my sides. “Some thugs said you owe a lot of money you’re obviously not going to pay and said they were going to kill me!” I lowered my voice and glanced back toward Mom’s room. “And they said Mom’s next!”

  His face went white. Or whiter, I guess, around the red.

  “Kat?”

  I glanced at the doorway, stunned. My mother, looking so frail a good gust of wind could blow her away, stood there. Her almost skeletal hands gripped a blanket around her shoulders as she studied me.

  Please tell me she didn’t hear me.

  “Mom! How are you?” I hurried up to her and gave her a hug around her bony shoulders.

  “I heard you yelling.” Her shoulders shook.

  “I’m sorry, Mom. Let’s get you back to bed.” I could feel her trembling violently and I gently pressured her back toward her room, but she shrugged me off.

  “What do you mean men tried to kill you?” Her brown eyes, so like mine, scanned my face. I’d gotten my looks from my mother. I knew she’d been beautiful a lifetime ago, but now she looked like the walking dead. Her hair, perpetually stringy and greasy because of how hard it was to get her out of bed, much less in the shower, clung to her face. Her skin stretched tight over the bones of her face thanks to many days of refusal to eat. I’d taken more time than I’d like to admit over the last five years struggling to get her to eat a few bites of food. Even Dad would plead with her to eat. And she would… but only a few bites at a time.

  Some part of me knew she’d be better off in a hospital. But we couldn’t afford it and our state healthcare just didn’t cover extended treatment for mental health issues. So we made the best of things, but I knew it wasn’t good enough. What else could I do? I was already struggling to even get enough sleep with two jobs. I couldn’t take on a third. We didn’t live lavishly; we scraped, scrimped and saved.

  “Mom, you need to rest.” I tried to move her again, but she resisted.

  “I’ve been resting! I’ve rested my whole life away. I need to know who’s trying to hurt my baby!” Her claw-like hands gripped at my face and tears slipped down her cheeks.

  My piece of crap phone’s alarm went off and I quickly silenced it. Three minutes grace. Time to get ready and get out the door.

  Her eyes met mine. “You have to go again, don’t you?”

  I nodded.

  “Don’t go. Please don’t go.” She clung to me, her voice rising. “You can’t go! Don’t go!” Her voice rose to a wail and I shushed her gently, making a snap decision to ask for a family leave day. I’d beg to work my day off to make up for the hours.

  “I’ll call out, I’ll call out.” I tried to calm her down as I pulled out my prepaid phone that didn’t have internet or even a touch screen. I made the call quickly, aware my boss could still hear my mother melting down in the background.

  “Sorry to do this, but I need a personal day,” I said.

  “Family medical emergency?” My boss sounded sympathetic, at least.

  “Something like that.” I held my breath. I knew I wasn’t supposed to call out minutes before my shift. He could write me up for it or punish me by taking away my hours.

  “I’ll mark it as PTO. Take care.” He hung up and I stared at my phone, stunned. Paid time off? Things w
ere looking up. Sure, I’d almost been murdered by some thugs, but I was getting a paid day off, my mom was out of bed and lucid, and I’d met a dragon that also happened to be a handsome man who’d saved my life.

  Warmth filled me and I hugged my mom. “Okay, I’m off. I’m here. Want me to draw you a bath?”

  She nodded, still clinging to me. I walked her down the hall toward the bathroom and turned on the water. I added some lavender Epsom salts to help keep her calm and set up the railing I’d installed to keep her from falling.

  Once the bath was half full, I helped her undress and get in. I knew better than to run her a full bath and I always kept the bathroom door open. Her depression rarely came with self-harm, but I wouldn’t chance losing her.

  She eased in, her eyes closing as she soaked in the warm water. I heard her sigh and her hand sought out mine on the railing. “Thank you, angel.”

  I blinked back sudden tears. “You’re welcome. I love you.”

  “I love you.”

  “I’ll be right back, Mom. Are you hungry?” I threw the last line in there even thought I knew she’d tell me no. It was my clever way of telling her that I wasn’t going far, nor would I be gone long. It would help keep her calm.

  She shook her head.

  I nodded and slipped out of the bathroom, on the warpath right back to Dad. Grabbing the TV plug, I yanked it out of the wall and glared at him. “You better get to talking.” I hissed the words at him, and he blinked.

  “About what?”

  Anger rose in me like a tide. “I’m tired of being the responsible adult in this house. I’m tired of cleaning up after you, tired of fixing your mistakes.” I planted my hands on my hips, fury pouring through me.

  “I’m your father, you don’t talk to me like that.”

  I shook my head. “You can’t even be bothered to clean up after yourself.” I nodded at the mess of dirty cups and dishes beside him. I’d been too tired to take care of it the last couple days and it showed. He didn’t do anything except sit in front of the TV and make messes he expected me to clean. “I work two jobs, take care of Mom, take care of you and now I have to dodge people trying to kill me because of some debt you owe!”

  He seemed stunned into silence, but I wasn’t done.

  “I work two jobs to support us! I cook, I clean, I help Mom. You sit here.” I waved a hand at his mess. “I’m sick of it! I’m sick of you.” The words ached, but I refused to cry in front of him. Instead, I walked down the hall to check on Mom.

  She still rested, head back, eyes closed. “Need something to drink?” I whispered, in case she’d fallen asleep.

  “Water would be lovely.” Her lips curved up at the corners and I breathed a sigh of relief.

  Without another word to my father, I walked through the house and got Mom a glass of water, saying a silent thank you to the universe that our water hadn’t been shut off. As I walked back through, I could feel his eyes on me.

  “Kat…”

  I ignored him, even though the begging tone of his voice clawed at my heart. It didn’t feel right. I loved my dad, despite all his flaws. Sure, he wasn’t a perfect human being, but who was?

  “Here, Mom.” I handed her the glass and sat down, studying the cracks along the line of the ceiling. The place was falling apart around us and there was nothing I could do about it. That helpless feeling permeated my being and I blinked back tears. They deserved better. They might not be perfect, but they deserved better.

  “You’re such a godsend.” My mother whispered the words and the tears escaped my eyes for real this time and slid down my cheeks.

  “I love you.” I whispered the words. There were never enough of these moments where she was lucid and talkative.

  “I love you too.” She finished the water and I took the cup. We sat in silence and my brain slipped back to the handsome dragon man. Maybe I’d hallucinated all of it. But I didn’t think so.

  “I know that look. You met someone.”

  My gaze jumped to my mother. Her head, still resting back on the edge of the tub, was turned toward me, a soft smile on her lips.

  “Maybe,” I said. But I knew better. I didn’t have time to have a relationship. Not that it mattered; why the heck would a dragon want anything to do with little old me?

  “He’d be crazy not to see how amazing you are.” Mom’s head rolled again, and she stared up at the ceiling. Her unexpected, kind words tore me up inside and I smiled through the pain.

  I couldn’t bear it if anything happened to them. I needed to figure out how to keep them safe. But without money, what could I really do? Go to the cops? They’d laugh at me. Or throw me in a mental hospital if I told them a gang of thugs wanted to kill me.

  Hopelessness crushed my chest and I struggled to breathe.

  4

  Stryker

  “You won’t be a rookie forever, brother.” Draco spoke with blind confidence in my abilities. But he didn’t know that I’d broken the rules. I’d tell him, at some point, but now was not the time.

  I peered around from my vantage point. This cell tower gave me a clear view to her home and every access point to it that someone could try to slip through. No one would get within four hundred yards without me seeing them first.

  “I didn’t find her.” I’d already told him things would have been easier if I had some way to track her scent. My sense of smell wasn’t the most keen, but I had a way of sniffing out important things. Without some baseline, though, some piece of her clothing, a brush, anything that her scent clung to, my sense of smell was nothing short of worthless.

  “Me, either. Where would I hide if I was a rich debutante?” He let out a frustrated sigh.

  The wind kicked up and tickled through my hair. My shirt and pants flattened to my body and flapped a bit around me as I swayed a little with the wind. If I fell from up here… I’d shift midair and land on my feet. Heights didn’t bother me. Never had.

  “Well, depends on how she thinks. Would she try to hide in plain sight? Or would she up and disappear off the face of the earth?” What I was really asking was if the beautiful, rich mark could handle not being in the limelight. Would she risk everything for those all-consuming likes and follows?

  His growl told me he had no more idea than I did. Since he’d taken me under his wing and handled my initiation, we’d worked shoulder to shoulder on this one. I knew firsthand that the file on this woman, Luna Lawless, was about as thin as a file could be.

  The ‘file’ was one sheet of paper. That sheet gave us her name, a photo, last known whereabouts, and the fact that she’d reported seeing a strange guy with a tattoo. The tattoo, described in great detail on the otherwise nearly empty sheet told us exactly who she’d seen.

  A couple turned, a few blocks from Kat’s house and I watched them. Hand in hand, they walked into a little house on the corner, closing the door behind them. I focused in on them and my nose picked up their activities. I doubted the people after Kat would indulge in a smoke before heading out after her.

  “Damn it. I don’t fucking know. So where have you been all day? Any leads? Anything?” Draco’s annoyance came through loud and clear over the phone. “And where are you now?”

  I stiffened. “I tailed the thugs once I found them.” I’d only found them a few moments before they’d decided to try to kill Kat. The slippery bastards had ways to slip out of any noose. They were just some fucks that owed some money and proved their worth were used as henchmen, so the turnover rate kept us on our feet. The guys that tried to kill Kat would not be the same ones that came to kill her later. “And I’m around.”

  “Are you being purposely vague?” His suspicion trickled into my ear and I growled a little.

  “None of your fucking business.” We might not be actual blood brothers, but the brotherhood were more like brothers than most families. Not like my brother and I were, though. Declan was my best friend from day one.

  “Don’t make me hunt you down.” Draco’s suspicion seemed
to double.

  “Don’t make me tell you your name is shit.” We’d joked around about how on the nose his name was. But he’d come from old-school dragons that still bragged about their lineage. For most of us, just the dragon blood in our veins was prestigious enough, but his family was proud of their particular origins. I didn’t know enough of our actual history to make a judgment call if it was impressive or not.

  He snorted and the mood lightened. “Just check in regularly, okay?”

  It was the kind of thing I would have said to Declan. I swallowed hard and sat across one of the metal beams, eyes still trained on her place. “Yeah, whatever.” I could smell her inside the house still. She’d told me she had to be to work, but I assumed something kept her home after all. I didn’t think she’d been dishonest—I could smell and sense dishonesty—so something stopped her from working.

  But while the smell of distress clung to her, it wasn’t that life-threatening terror I’d experienced when they were about to pull the trigger on her. So I doubted she was in any pressing danger.

  “Bros before side hos.”

  “Fuck off.”

  He laughed and hung up. As much as I gave him shit, I really appreciated everything he’d done for me. When he’d found me, I’d been at my worst, ready to take up fucking cage fighting to work out the rage. I’d been willing to give myself away and get shredded alive for it. But he’d given me a purpose. A choice.

  And my life had been severely lacking choices or purpose.

  Guarding this woman struck me as a betrayal. He’d taught me the rules and my insubordination might reflect poorly on him. Our protection doesn’t come cheap. We’re the people called when a president’s daughter needs a bodyguard. When some rich actor goes missing and it needs to be kept on the down low. When some important witness finds themselves in government protection. We’re the crew that keeps the important people safe and the bad guys dead. Except for this group. They’d found a way to circumvent our strengths with rotating lackeys, removal crews that would strip every bit of evidence from a victim’s life, and more members than anyone knew. They were the number one source of providing bodies for sex trafficking and the rising number of ‘suicides’ our city had seen as of late.