Tynan

by Bonnie Burrows

  “That’s what I was told,” Sierra said, preparing herself for the sensation.

  “Humans who wear these,” Barbara continued, “always say they make them feel almost as if they really were a dragon. I’ve heard of humans having themselves completely covered with them and having horns put on, just for the complete feeling.”

  “I don’t need to go quite that far,” said Sierra, a bit bemused by the idea. “Just enough to give my man and myself a good time tonight.”

  “You will absolutely have a great time,” Barbara smiled, holding the first strips of scales over Sierra on the table. “The skins make everyone feel great every time.”

  The careful and in its own way sensuous process began. The spa worker applied the first strips to Sierra’s arms, lifting them and lowering them to fix the patterns of scalation around them. As each piece of faux reptile skin was layered onto her body, Sierra felt a subtle, warm tingle working its way into her muscles. “Mmm,” she said. “You were right about those endorphins. I feel them starting to work already.”

  “Wait ’til tonight,” replied Barbara. “Your man will get a bit of that too.”

  “Wonderful,” Sierra said, with a feeling of relaxation settling over her.

  “It will be,” Barbara promised, taking another piece of scaled skin and smoothing it onto Sierra’s chest right above her bosom. “It will be…” Her voice lowered, softened, in a way as soothing and relaxing as the music wafting in through the spa’s audio system.

  Sierra’s eyes fluttered shut and Barbara continued her work. She felt another patch go on one breast. Then another. It felt so warm, so mellow, so relaxing. Soon Sierra could not even feel the skin going on her. She felt only the warmth of it sinking through her skin and into her muscles. It went all the way…to her brain.

  And in another moment, Sierra lay in a deep, deep sleep.

  Barbara stood silently over her sleeping patron, waiting to make absolutely sure that the ingredients of the reptilian skin seals had taken their full effect. When after a few minutes Sierra did not move so much as an eyelid nor twitch so much as a muscle, Barbara touched her sleeve to activate her comm, and said, “It’s done. She’s ready for you.”

  The portal to the compartment opened and Liona Vess stepped inside.

  “Good work,” said Liona, addressing the spa employee but resting her eyes on the sleeping Sierra. “Kharno’s people will be in touch with that ‘bonus’ I promised. You can go now; we’ll take it from here.”

  Barbara saw herself out, leaving Liona alone with Sierra.

  The dark dragon woman stepped over to the drugged and unconscious human and looked down at her with mock pity and genuine contempt. “What a sight you are,” she said, “making yourself a sham of a dragon for someone you don’t deserve. Someone who belonged to me. Barbara said you were ready for me. Hardly, my dear. You’re not ready for me. And you’re not ready for what I have in store. But trust me—Kharno is more than ready for you.”

  And Liona smiled a smile of pure malevolence at her sleeping prisoner.

  _______________

  Everything was ready in Tynan’s bedchamber.

  He’d had dinner prepared and it was waiting on heated platters under silver covers on the table at one side of the suite. The wine was chilling beside it. The lights were off, and the chamber was lit by floating golden diodes that drifted and glowed their way through the space like stars imitating a swarm of fireflies. The bed was strewn with petals of flowers from the family conservatory.

  On the nightstand by the bed rested the case of Proliferon patches. Tynan was clad in nothing but a loincloth like the one he’d worn to take Sierra flying. He needed only one thing now to complete the setting. Only the woman was missing; the woman he was going to take to that bed and screw all night long with the passion of man and dragon alike. It was all he could do to stop himself wetting the loincloth with his cream at the thought of being on top of Sierra again.

  Eighteen hours—dinnertime—came and went. He kept looking at the hatch to the bedchamber, expecting her to appear, to see him nearly naked and ready for her, to rush into his arms, perhaps even to beg him to strip her and carry her to bed for an appetizer before dinner. And he would give her just that. All she had to do was be there.

  And yet…she wasn’t.

  Perhaps she’d gotten held up with whatever special arrangements or plans she had made to make the evening special. Well, she damned well better have done something awfully sexy to get ready. What could she be up to?

  Tynan pulled up a chair next to the table and sat down, mildly disgruntled at Sierra’s tardiness. They had not known each other that long in spite of his feeling as though he had sexed her enough for a lifetime already, but still… Was it really like her to be so late, especially for a night of sex?

  He called out to the house’s systems, “Outbound comm to Sierra Smith.”

  The room trilled at him for a second, then the house’s voice reported, “No connection with Sierra Smith.”

  Tynan frowned at that. Why in the Inferno would she have taken her comm offline?

  “Internal comm to Mother,” he said.

  After another trilling, Moira’s voice chimed in. “What is it, dear? Is all going well?”

  “It’s not going at all, Mother,” said Tynan. “She hasn’t gotten back yet.”

  “She hasn’t?”

  “No. Do you have any idea where she’d be?”

  There was a little pause before Moira’s voice returned: “I wasn’t going to tell you this, but she’d planned to go to the Dragon Cloud Spa right after your appointment with Dr. Garver. She wanted to prepare a surprise for you while she was there.”

  “Well, the surprise is she’s not here. And her comm is offline.”

  “It is?” A note of concern came with Moira’s voice.

  “Yes, it is. That’s really peculiar. I’m going to call Brogan and have him do a security search for her.”

  “That’s a good idea. I’m sure it will turn out to be nothing. There may have just been something else she wanted to do at the last minute.”

  “And not called to let me know? Or sent any kind of message or anything?”

  There was another pause, and Tynan again felt a note of concern in the silence before his mother responded, “Call Brogan now and get it all sorted out.”

  “Yes, Mother, I’m doing that.”

  He got Brogan on the comm next and apprised him of the situation. Brogan understood and told Tynan to stand by while he did a routine check of the city, including all emergency situations, comings and goings, and comm traffic. During the wait, Tynan sat, hunched over, hands folded in his lap.

  A hot-and-cold, stinging anxiety had wrapped itself around his insides and drained the blood from the member under his loincloth, leaving it limp with all the confusion, uncertainty, and worry that now assailed him. This was not right. Something about this was very wrong. Knowing that it was wrong and not knowing what it was were a double-edged sword.

  After a short time sitting in the drifting, floating light of the diodes that were meant to make the night’s passions so memorably romantic, Tynan heard Brogan’s voice come back over the house systems. “Tynan? It’s me.”

  Immediately, Tynan straightened up as if his friend were actually in the room and called out, “Brogan? What is it? What did you find out?”

  “I hate to tell you this, but…we found nothing.”

  Tynan went pale at the word. He gulped, then forced out the awful word: “Nothing?”

  “Not a thing,” said Brogan, edgily. “We can’t find her comm, and we can’t find her on any system in the whole city. And no visual scans of her, and no record of her leaving Nimbus. We…can’t find her at all. She’s just…gone.”

  His heart thundering, Tynan rose from his seat. His hands knotted into fists. His breath felt hot now. The cold of dread was gone. There was only the heat of mounting fear.

  “She can’t just be gone,” he said. “She’s suppos
ed to be here with me now. If she’s not…,” he did not finish the sentence. Instead he said, “Brogan, I need you and Elaina to get over here right now.”

  “We’re as good as there, buddy,” said Brogan, and cut off the comm.

  Tynan was oblivious to everything now except the sure and certain knowledge that something—something—had happened to Sierra. Before this night was over, he would know what. He quickly crossed the room for his closet to find a fresh skinsuit. Already he was prepared to direct every resource of Nest Moran to finding his partner—no, his mate. And he knew exactly where he would look first.

  CHAPTER NINE

  The two members of the Corps appeared at the spa with a warrant to search the premises, and with a grimly determined Tynan Moran right at their heels.

  In short order, the woman behind the counter, who was nearing the end of her shift and more than a little anxious at having to deal with two uniformed officers and an angry Prince, led them to the compartment where she last saw Sierra Smith.

  She left the three of them alone to enter the space, where they found only the now empty table on which the portfolio of faux skins has rested, and the almost empty table on which Sierra had lain down. On this latter there was now only a shiny metallic disk, which Brogan and Elaine recognized.

  “That’s a holocoin, the type with a recorded message on it,” said Elaina. “Don’t touch it or go near it yet.” She tapped on her badge and said, “Analysis of object on the contour table. Search for weapons or explosives.”

  In a moment the AI in Elaina’s badge reported, “Standard holocoin containing visual data. No weapons or explosives detected.”

  “Good,” said Elaine. She picked up the shiny object from where it lay, and squeezed its edges, triggering the nanodevices inside it. A light image leapt into the air, displaying three words: YOUR PRINCESS FOREVER.

  At the sight of those words, Tynan staggered back a step as if struck a physical blow. His eyes widened. His lower jaw went slack.

  Brogan frowned at the message. “‘Your Princess forever’? That can’t mean Sierra…”

  Tynan found his voice. It was muted with shock and barely contained rage. “Liona.”

  Both of the Corps members eyed him, quietly startled, realizing his meaning. Brogan repeated, “Liona?”

  Tynan seethed at what he knew must have happened in this room. “‘My Princess forever.’ That’s what she used to call herself—until I found out who she really was. ‘My Princess forever’—damn her.” Now Tynan’s voice exploded, blasting out his horror and his fury at full force. “Liona! Bane and damn it, LIONA! That bitch! THAT BITCH!”

  Elaina palmed the holocoin, shutting off its message. “Liona…your ex. She must have been released from dungeon…”

  Tynan raged on: “And what did she do? The bitch came after Sierra! She’s got Sierra!”

  Brogan noticed something else in the room. “Look over there,” he pointed. “The clothes basket.” Tynan stepped in that direction to retrieve Sierra’s clothing. Brogan put out an arm in Tynan’s path, stopping him. “No, don’t; that’s evidence. Let me.” The Corpsman went to the basket and lifted out what Sierra had been wearing. He sensed a lump in Tynan’s throat behind him at the sight of the last clothes in which he had seen Sierra, now without Sierra in them. Brogan felt a pang of guilt at having the panties and support cups of Tynan’s lover in his hands. Concentrating on duty, he touched his badge and said, “Analyze systems in jumpsuit.”

  Brogan’s badge reported, “Comm and IT systems in jumpsuit deactivated; offline.”

  “Of course,” said Brogan. “Leave the clothes, shut off the comm and IT in them; the trail goes cold. No way to follow.”

  “I do not accept that!” Tynan roared. “NO FUCKING WAY DO I ACCEPT THAT! We’re going to find her. Do you understand me? WE ARE GOING TO FIND HER!”

  His anger now beyond all reason and restraint, Tynan gave full vent to his fury. After all the years that Brogan and Elaina had known him, after all the things they had been through with him, they thought they had seen him in every possible mood. None of that prepared them for the wrath to which they were now witness. Tynan’s body burst into half-dragon form. His wings and tail flung themselves forth; his serpentine neck and dragon head lunged out like a striking python.

  He stormed past his friends to the table from which Sierra was taken. He grabbed it in his claws, ripped it from the floor in one mighty surge of dragon muscles, and upended it, flinging it with a monstrous crash against the wall. Raging on, he lifted his claws and raised his horned head into the air, bellowing madly, “YOU BITCH! YOU FITLHY BITCH! YOU’D BETTER NOT HURT HER!”

  His roaring ebbed, he lowered his claws and stood with stooped shoulders, clenched fists, trembling wings, and thrashing tail, huffing and snorting like a maddened beast. “If she’s hurt Sierra, I will see her dead. I. Will. See. Her. DEAD.”

  Carefully, Brogan touched Tynan on one shoulder. “First things first. Try to calm down, buddy. Go back to human; get yourself in focus. You’re going to need a clear mind. Your anger’s helping Liona, not Sierra. Come on…”

  With a snort of boiling frustration, Tynan jerked his head away from Brogan but did as his friend said. More slowly than he had gone dragon, he melted and morphed his body back to human. The dragon form was gone, but the seething anger—and the fear—were still there.

  “That’s good,” said Brogan, as calmingly as he knew how. Then, “I want to talk to whoever was in here with her.”

  “She was supposed to be in for a scale job,” said Elaina. “We need to question the person assigned to do it.”

  “Okay, let’s find whoever that is,” said Brogan. “Come on, Tynan; let’s go ask some questions…”

  His head lowered, his features shadowed with wrath and desperation, Tynan followed his friends out of the compartment.

  Trying to question Barbara was unavailing. The spa’s personnel system registered her as off-duty, and like Sierra, the employee who had attended her now did not show up on any comm system, visual search, or transit log anywhere in Nimbus City. She too was gone without a trace, leaving another dead end.

  After this, Tynan stopped talking, much to the concern of his friends. Brogan and Elaina accompanied him to the avenue outside the spa, watching him all the way and worrying about his silence. He was quiet in a way that was as loud and raucous as a fit of screaming. And he still looked fit to commit bloody mayhem.

  Outside, Brogan suggested, “Look, maybe it’s a good idea we take you home now.”

  Elaina agreed. “You haven’t eaten anything, right? Let us take you home; you can get something to…”

  Tynan finally spoke up to cut them off sharply. “No! We’re not going back to the aerie. We’re going down, planet-side.”

  Both members of the Corps were puzzled at this. “Down to the planet?” asked Brogan. “What’s down there that you need to do now?”

  “Not a thing,” said Tynan. “Someone. Someone I need to see. Take me down there.”

  A look of deepening concern passed between Brogan and Elaina before Brogan said, “All right then, if it’s that important. Down to the planet it is.”

  _______________

  The visiting room of the dungeon outside Silverwing was a cold, sterile, grey place. And it was with a cold and grey expression that Tynan, with Elaina and Brogan standing behind him, sat on one side of the table, staring across it at the little alien on the other side.

  “She abducted your mating partner?” said Daxav. “That’s terrible.”

  “And it could be more terrible yet,” said Tynan. “We’ve lost time getting from Nimbus City to here to talk to you. Anything could have happened to Sierra in that time. We need your help and we need it now.”

  The Visanian timidly asked, “What can I do?”

  Tynan leaned slightly over the table at him. “You know what you can do, Daxav.”

  Daxav’s brown and grey skin took on an ashen look. “But…with my powers in their pre
sent state from the inhibitor? I couldn’t possibly do that now.”

  “I can authorize giving you a temporary counteragent to the inhibitor,” Tynan said. “It’ll be on my authority and you’ll be in our custody.” The two standing behind Tynan stiffened at the mention of this, Brogan crossing his arms and Elaina putting her hands on her hips, gestures to let the prisoner know they meant business. “And then you can use your telepathic tracking power to help us find Liona.”

  Plaintively, Daxav said, “But…but…”

  “But what?” Tynan pressed.

  “But…even if you give me something to counteract the inhibitor, the effect won’t be immediate. The telepathic center of my brain has been inactive; it will be like an unused muscle. My powers won’t be at their full sharpness and acuity. They’ll be weak—too weak to help you.”