The Detective's Dragon

by Karilyn Bentley

  “Some care is better than none. My ankle hurts like a son of a warrior.”

  What kind of friend was he? So concerned about Parker and escape he completely forgot to inquire about Erik’s injuries. Sappy idiot. “I should have asked earlier. My apologies, friend. We will go to this hospital and have it treated.”

  “I will read the mind of one of the healers to learn the language.”

  He nodded. Much better idea than dipping into Parker’s. “Parker, we need to go to the hospital. Erik’s ankle needs treated.”

  “So does your shoulder. But I’m not sure where we are. Hold on.” She reached into her purse and pulled out a glowing rectangular object. After pushing various items on the object, she showed him what looked like a map. Erik leaned forward and Parker tilted the thing so they all could see. “We’re here.” She pointed to a red dot. Then she touched the screen and the map moved.

  Erik gasped and Jamie slanted his gaze to see if the map dropped from the side of the object. No map. What interesting magic. And yet, he did not feel a magical signature. The device felt like the hum in the air before a lightning strike. “We need to go here.” Her fingernail tapped the screen. “Think you can transport us there?”

  In theory. “Yes. We need a shadow to hide in so we remain unseen.”

  “Cast a spell, scout.” Erik slapped him on the back of the head. “You learned that in first year reconnaissance lessons.”

  Yes, but he never needed to perform a spell until today. Well, that wasn’t true. Plenty of times on their missions, spells were needed. Problem was, his spell casting ability made a hatchling seem like a mighty sorcerer. Needless to say, Erik cast all the spells.

  But not in Parker’s world. The dominant power switched, thrusting him into a prime leadership role, and casting Erik into the shadows. An infusion of pride slammed through him, and he stood a little taller.

  Pride goes before a tumble and makes a dragon look the fool. Words Balthor always said. Words he needed to take to heart.

  Poking fun of another’s calamity failed to make him powerful. Instead it made him weak and insecure. The last thing he wanted was to appear weak and insecure in front of Parker.

  “Thanks for the reminder.” He turned to Parker. “Are you ready to go?”

  After pushing a button on the side of her device, the glow and map disappeared and she placed the object in her purse. She grabbed Jamie’s hand. “Yep. Beam me up.”

  Why did she always say ‘beam me up’ when she meant transport? Something to ask later.

  Jamie grasped Erik around the waist, focused on direction of the hospital, and cast them into a transport. This time they disappeared on the first try.

  Chapter Nine

  Parker stared at the illuminated façade of the hospital. Amazing. Even though they stood in plain sight under a light pole in the parking lot, they seemed invisible to all eyes.

  She must be crazy. Her suspension, the drug, kidnappers, a heart-pounding rescue, and two hotter than hell guys clearly scrambled her circuits. Why else would she be helping two men who had enough magic tricks up their sleeves to make Houdini look like an amateur?

  While she no longer thought Jamie had anything to do with her kidnapping, his insistence on being from someplace else left a sense of unease crawling across her skin. She believed him. Believed he spoke the truth. Believed he might be an alien or from another dimension. Which made no sense. Since when did she believe in aliens or other dimensions? While she might enjoy a good sci-fi flick that didn’t mean she wanted to act out an episode.

  How could she believe Jamie spoke the truth? Yet how could she not? Nothing else made sense. Humans did not poof from one spot to the other outside of sci-fi movies. The unbelievable situation and the fact she believed him instead of locking both men away, made her mad. Mad at herself. Mad at them.

  But as the only thing she could bust them on was being too hot to touch—and there wasn’t a judge in the state who would sign an arrest warrant for smokin’ hot man syndrome—she settled for anger management.

  Embarrassment over one’s own judgment was not a reason for anger. Really. Not. A. Reason.

  She couldn’t believe she was helping two men who claimed to have hopped dimensions. If anyone on the force discovered her lapse of judgment they’d never allow her to return.

  Parker glanced at Jamie, at his square jaw, the lock of long brown hair he kept shoving behind his ear. So what if she jumped into the fool’s pool. At least she had eye candy while experiencing her potentially fatal lack of judgment.

  She gestured to the closest cars. “Squat between the cars, drop the invisibility shield, and then rise. Our appearance won’t seem so sudden that way. Hopefully it will fool the cameras.”

  “Cameras?” Jamie’s brow furrowed.

  Yet another reason to believe him. His hesitancy over certain technological words. His speech pattern went beyond not being fluent in a language and entered the realm of not understanding the fundamentals of technology.

  Odd, odd, odd.

  More evidence to believe him.

  Take that self-directed anger.

  “Visual recording devices.”

  A deeper furrow creased his brow, but he shrugged and nodded. He turned to Erik, spoke in their language, words thick and rich as a cream based sauce. Yet they followed her directions, squatting between two cars.

  “Ready?”

  Jamie nodded, muttered words under his breath, and the air shimmered around them. He nodded once, and she pulled Erik’s arm across her shoulders, Jamie doing the same on the opposite side. Together they walked into the emergency room entrance, blinking in the glow of white lights.

  Parker directed them to the window in the ER lobby since they eyed the place like a couple of kids in a candy shop. Make that a candy shop with no candy. Two noses wrinkled in distaste as if the place reeked. Maybe they’d never smelled disinfectant before.

  “My friend here fell and twisted his ankle.” She gestured to Erik. “The other one has a cut on his shoulder. From a large tree branch.” No use in mentioning a gunshot wound. Hospitals were required to report it, and she did not want to get her name involved with that kind of report. No telling how that would look on top of her suspension.

  Her lie might buy them time or not. The doctor should be able to tell a graze from a bullet.

  “Insurance?” The intake receptionist raised a brow.

  “Do you have insurance?” Parker hissed at Jamie.

  “Insurance?”

  Why did she even ask? Although by asking she found another word having nothing to do with technology he had no idea about.

  “None. We can pay cash.” She hoped.

  “Fill out these forms, please.” The receptionist stuck multi-colored forms on a clipboard and passed it to them. “We’ll call you back in a minute.”

  Parker took the clipboard and pointed to a set of chairs. After settling Erik in one of the chairs, she began filling out the forms, asking questions as she went.

  No last name. Seriously? A raised brow elicited two identical confused looks. She shrugged and wrote Smith. Date of birth gave a response but how to fit thirty-second day of autumn in the five hundred and fifty-first year of the building of the Temple in MMDDYYYY format was over her head. She gave him a September 24th birthday and guessed at mid-thirties for his age, filling in the year accordingly.

  Insurance, blank. Of course. Responsible party. Parker sighed. Leaving it blank or putting in Erik’s name and a false address was stealing. And lying. Both of which tweaked her moral conscious. She wrote her name and address.

  In for a dime, in for a dollar.

  She continued to fill out the forms, trying to ignore the conversation between the men. The guttural cadence of their language relaxed her, easing tension from her muscles like a hot stone massage.

  Or maybe that lightheaded feeling had to do with the late—or should she say early—hour.

  Where was a bed when she needed one? Did she dare inv
ite them back to her place?

  Was she out of her frickin’ mind? Since when did she pick up men? And two at that. Although after all they’d been through tonight, Jamie no longer seemed a stranger. She felt like she’d known him for years, and that attitude would get her in more trouble than an alcoholic partner.

  Shoving the pen under the clip, she marched the paperwork back to the reception desk and passed it under the bulletproof glass protecting the intake coordinator from the sick and injured. Then she sat by Jamie and waited.

  A gentle pat on her arm and her eyes flew open. What the…? Oh, right. Emergency Room. Jamie’s gray eyes peered into hers, drawing her into his gaze, casting a hypnotic spell.

  “You fell asleep. They are calling our name.”

  “Oh. Sorry. Thanks.” She rose, shot the nurse standing over them an apologetic smile and turned to see Jamie helping Erik stand.

  “Put him in the chair,” the nurse gestured at the wheelchair she pushed. Jamie and Erik stared at the chair, then each other, and shrugged. As if they carried on some sort of mental conversation. Which was ridiculous. They’d been talking all night in their own language.

  Erik lowered himself into the chair, raising his legs as the nurse lowered the footrests. The minute she started pushing, his eyes widened, the same look from a child after sledding down a slope for the first time.

  So, no wheelchairs in their hometown.

  More evidence.

  Okay, fine. They weren’t from around here. As in not from any developed country, or third-world country for that matter. More evidence to back up her theory they spoke the truth, no matter how crazy it sounded.

  Un-frickin’-believable.

  The way to get back on the force was not to hang with a couple of mentally unstable men.

  Parker followed Jamie into the exam room, logic becoming more of a losing proposition with each step. Like he possessed a homing beacon tuned to her frequency. She could no more walk away from him than she could take a bullet through the heart and live.

  Logic be damned.

  So what if he was a space alien or a visitor from a different dimension. She wanted to stay with him. When had her emotions morphed from fear and distrust to a comfortable attraction? Maybe she was the mentally unstable one.

  “Are you all right, Parker?” Jamie whispered as the nurse helped Erik onto the bed.

  “It’s been a long night.”

  At the guilty look on his face, remorse sliced her heart. “It’s not your fault.” Not really. Most of it was Grizzly’s.

  “I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t be. I’m just tired.”

  “You need rest.”

  “Yeah. After Erik’s patched up.”

  The nurse left and returned a minute later with the doctor. They patched Jamie’s shoulder first, no questions asked, and moved on to Erik. After an X-Ray and a diagnosis of a severely sprained ankle, they placed a boot on Erik’s ankle, tended to the cuts on his face, and released him.

  Despite the quick care, he looked grumpy. Probably due to pain. Or the sun casting pinks and oranges across an early morning sky. Parker yawned. Was it really morning already?

  She wanted nothing more than to go home and crash. To crawl into her bed and sleep for days. But what would she do with the men? Rent them a motel room?

  She sighed. No. No renting. They could stay with her. If she was going insane then she might as well dive into the deep end of the ocean.

  An orderly rolled Erik out the door, parking the chair in front of the ER. “Where’s your car?”

  Good question. She guessed hers still sat in the bar’s parking lot. Man, that seemed like days ago. Had it really been less than a day since her suspension?

  “We came in a cab. I’ll call one. You can take the chair back.” Something told her Jamie would transport them away and the less people who noticed their disappearance, the better.

  The orderly gave her a raised brow, but one glance to Jamie and he tapped Erik on the shoulder, motioning for him to rise. Jamie grabbed his friend around the waist, supporting him as Erik twisted his lower leg back and forth.

  More evidence. Never seen an ankle boot either.

  Once the orderly wheeled the chair back into the ER, doors sliding shut behind him, Jamie turned to her.

  “You need rest.”

  “You do, too.” She swallowed. “You can come over. I have a guest bed and a couch. But don’t get any ideas, okay?”

  His brows slammed down then released. “Ideas?”

  “You know. You stay in your room, and I’ll stay in mine. The invite is not into my bed.”

  Red splashed into his cheeks, and Erik barked a laugh. As if he understood their conversation. Which, come to think of it, he seemed to start understanding English while in the ER. Something she’d ask about later. After making Jamie realize what her invite meant.

  Jamie blinked a couple of times as if waiting for the blush to disintegrate. No such luck. He cleared his throat and rubbed the back of his neck. “I would not presume such. And we thank you for the invite.”

  “Good. Let me tell you where I live.”

  After showing him the GPS map on her smartphone, he grabbed her hand and wrapped an arm around Erik’s waist. A splash of jealousy punched her in the stomach. She wanted his arm around her waist. Wanted his body against hers. Wanted less hormones and more sense.

  Of course, he wouldn’t pull her close. He was trying to show her that he respected her boundaries. Damn boundaries. Why had she made them again?

  While Jamie mumbled under his breath and the air shimmered around them, she gave herself a mental smack. What was she thinking? Hormones should not influence her logic.

  Damn it.

  A humming started in her feet, wrapped around her legs, her torso. The beginnings of the transport. The hospital disappeared as her thoughts disintegrated under the onslaught of her body shattering into millions of molecules.

  Barking dogs sounded in the distance as they landed on her tiny front porch. The air stopped shimmering as Jamie dropped his spell. Shouts echoed down the street as neighbors hollered for their dogs to be quiet. With any luck, the neighbors missed their sudden appearance. Parker rummaged in her purse until she found her keys. “Welcome to my home.”

  Chapter Ten

  The persistent vibration of her phone woke Parker from a dream of ruby-scaled, green-eyed dragons. She blinked in confusion, tendrils of the dream wrapping her consciousness in fog. Her bedroom ceiling came into focus, snapping her attention to the present, to the impatient dance of her vibrating phone.

  She rolled onto her side, grabbed the phone and a swipe later pressed it against her ear.

  “‘Lo?”

  “Parker?” the voice of her ex-partner, Jason Schultz, snapped her upright.

  “Schultz? Where are you?”

  “Home. Sobered up. Came to my senses.” A long pause. She rubbed the bridge of her nose. “I owe you an apology.”

  “Yeah? You think?”

  “You did what needed to be done. I had no right to show up drunk to work and expect you not to report me.”

  Her fingernails dug into her skin as she inhaled. Another long pause, this one from her. “You know they suspended me over it.”

  “What?” Parker yanked the phone away from her ear at Jason’s shout. “You’re kidding me, right?”

  “Nope. Thomas and Johnson rolled on me. Claimed this had happened before and I said nothing. I’m out on administrative leave until they can investigate.”

  The muffled sound of a fist hitting a wall slammed through the connection. “I’ll call the captain. Get things straightened out. I didn’t know…didn’t realize they’d do that.”

  “They weren’t too happy when I was promoted to detective instead of their friend, Officer Dickinson. They’ve been harassing me ever since.”

  “Why didn’t you say something?”

  “And be known as the complaining bitch? No thanks. I thought I was handling it until this
happened.”

  “I didn’t realize. You should have said something.”

  “Yeah, well. Hindsight and all that.”

  “I owe you a bigger apology than I thought. Don’t you worry. I’ll get this straightened out. I’ll call the captain and speak to him about it. You’ll have your job back. Don’t worry.”

  “Thanks, Schultz. I appreciate that.” She drew in a deep breath, the humiliation and unfairness of her suspension lifting as if she discarded a heavy mantle. “How are you? Have you had anything to drink today?”

  “Not today. Today I decided to call AA and go to tomorrow’s meeting.”

  A grin turned her lips. “Good, Jason. That’s good. I’m glad you’re finally getting help. I’ve worried about you.” Yesterday was the first time he showed up drunk for work, but she knew how his divorce blindsided him and what brand of bottle he drank to stop his mind from spiraling out of control.

  “I know. And I’m sorry. But I’m going to make it right for you. Okay?”

  “Okay. And thank you.”

  After a few more words he cut the connection, leaving her almost giddy. Almost. She didn’t really do giddy but might make an exception today.

  Her phone beeped a dying battery warning. Parker set it back on her nightstand and reached for the plug. She loved her phone, but it sucked batteries dry like a vampire drank blood. Quick and with no warning.

  The digital display on the phone’s clock read 5:15 PM. Seriously? She’d slept all day. If it wasn’t for the excitement at the possibility of getting her job back, she’d crawl back under the covers.

  The sound of swooshing water from her kitchen tap drained the excitement right out. Had she really invited over two mostly-strangers to spend the day with her? Last night replayed through her mind. The good, the bad, and the eye candy. After Jamie transported them to her house, she showed them the guest bedroom and bath and locked herself into her bedroom.

  Not that the lock would help against his transporting power, but it made her feel better.