He couldn’t. No more than Kya could shift. She’d been forced to forego her dragon form for the safety of their child. Her inability to transform into a dragon had left her uncharacteristically depressed. She slept too much during the day and spent the night hours on the roof staring at the sky. Armstrong never knew how she’d managed to climb onto the roof, particularly after she entered her final trimester.
With Kya unable to turn into a dragon, their home had become a revolving door of dragons in human form. He’d met all of Kya’s siblings and her mother. They were as lovely as Kya and treated Armstrong like a member of the family. Their visits were irregular, and they didn’t stay long. When they left, however, Kya was more like her normal self.
Her dragon family filled a void in her life that he couldn’t, no matter how hard he tried. They hugged and kissed her. They cuddled on the couch with Kya, stroking her hair and belly. They were, without a doubt, the most openly affectionate family he’d ever met. A dragon family, he finally saw. They would care for his child when Armstrong couldn’t. Seeing them with Kya, loving and warm, he knew his baby dragon would be well taken care of by the Dracontias.
The thought should’ve brought him peace of mind, but it didn’t. A father was supposed to provide love and security for his child. He could do neither. What he could do, however, was make sure his baby had a beautiful nursery to come home to, filled with toys, clothes and furniture from a father the baby would never know or remember.
It was a depressing thought that had Armstrong tossing his duffle bag onto the floor of the foyer and slamming the door closed. He didn’t worry about disturbing Kya. He’d convinced her to stay with Isaiah and Nicole while he was away. She hadn’t liked it, telling Armstrong, “I can take care of myself. I’m the Bloodstone Dragon.”
She’d looked adorable, all round and indignant, that he’d kissed her until her frown disappeared and she moaned, an arousing concession Armstrong had taken advantage of before he dropped her off with his family.
Standing in the middle of the foyer, Armstrong heard nothing in the empty house. It smelled of Kya. A sweet floral scent he would always associate with her. He stood there and listened. This would soon be his reality. An empty, quiet house. He wondered how long it would take after Kya left for her smell to disappear, too, denying Armstrong even that small connection to her.
A fist smashed into the wall. Again. Again. He ached to tear the whole goddamn house apart with his bare hands. What would it matter? Who would care after Kya and the baby were gone?
Armstrong raised his bloody fist to slam it into the wall again but stopped when the phone rang. He stared at his knuckles. They reminded him of the first time Kya had healed him. Back then, he’d had no idea how profoundly his life would change.
The ringing stopped, then started again. Who in the hell kept calling him? Couldn’t a man wallow in self-pity without being interrupted? He guessed not because the person on the phone called him for a third time.
Stalking into the living room, Armstrong picked up the phone. “What?”
“Armstrong, thank God you’re home.”
“Nicole. What’s wrong? Did one of the girls fall off her bike again and get hurt?”
“No, nothing like that. It’s—”
“Are those sirens in the background?”
“Yeah, listen, Isaiah’s talking to the police.”
“The police.” Bloody knuckles forgotten, Armstrong’s heart began to pound. “Nicole, I need you to tell me what’s going on.” She sounded like she’d been crying and her breaths were coming fast. “Calm down, and tell me why the police are there.”
“You need to come over now. It’s Kya. She’s missing.”
Armstrong didn’t remember running out the house and leaving the door wide open. He didn’t recall jumping into his car and speeding all the way to Isaiah’s home. He had no memory of crashing his car into the curb in his haste to get out and find out what in the hell had happened to his Kya.
Armstrong remembered nothing but the screaming in his head. His voice telling him he was too late to save his family.
Kya wasn’t missing. She didn’t get up and leave. Kya never went anywhere without telling Armstrong. She may have been an independent dragon, but she was also a thoughtful one. Kya wasn’t missing.
Kya had been taken.
Armstrong knew, with every bone in his body, that the enemy he’d thought was out of their lives had returned. The ‘how’ of her disappearance confirmed what he’d already concluded.
The officers were gone, and he sat at the kitchen table with Isaiah and Nicole. They both looked terrible—Isaiah angry and worried, Nicole weepy and frightened.
“Are the girls okay?” he asked.
Nicole nodded, her face blotchy, eyes red and swollen. “I’m sorry. You asked us to watch Kya.”
“This isn’t your fault.”
No, it was his. He’d kept the truth from Kya. Armstrong should’ve told her the real reason those five men had come to his home. If he had, she wouldn’t be missing and in danger. Kya hadn’t known there was a threat to her freedom, maybe even her life. His selfish need for his dragon was to blame. With his lie, he’d betrayed her, and now she was gone.
He’d given one of the officers the picture of Kya he kept in his wallet. He hadn’t appreciated the sympathetic eyes and nod of the head. Armstrong had worked in law enforcement long enough to know what the officers thought about Kya’s kidnapping.
They would search for her, do their due diligence, but they didn’t expect to find her alive. If they found her at all.
The girls had told the officers Kya had been shot. She’d fallen to the ground and then four men had surrounded her. There was more to the story the girls hadn’t told the police.
“I think those men followed Kya and the girls to the park,” Isaiah said. “Michelle said she saw one of the men watching them as they played. She thought he was ‘creepy,’ so she told Kya.”
Michelle was Nicole and Isaiah’s oldest daughter. At nine, the girl was all long legs and bright smiles. She hadn’t been smiling when she’d rushed into his arms, crying into his chest about, “Aunt Kya and those awful men.”
“She said Kya gathered them up and headed for the park’s exit. That’s when the other three men appeared. They blocked their path.” Isaiah pushed from the table, waves of fury wafting from his older brother. “They threatened my children, Armstrong. They cornered Kya and said they would hurt the girls if she didn’t go with them.”
Armstrong couldn’t meet the hard, furious gaze of his brother. Not only had he put Kya in danger, but his actions could’ve also cost Isaiah his children.
Nicole’s warm, small hand reached across the table, found his unharmed hand and held it. “Kya shoved them behind her, right before one of the men shot her in the shoulder. Michelle described it as a dart. There was no blood, and Kya didn’t seem to be in pain. The man shot Kya two more times after that.”
“They were hysterical when they got home.” Isaiah slammed the palm of his hand on the countertop. “Do you know how they got home, Armstrong?”
He had a good idea what Kya had done. She loved and protected children. The men who’d taken her had to have known that, which was why they’d struck when they did. It also meant the men had Kya and Armstrong under surveillance and he’d never known.
Damn him.
“Fucking magic. Poof. One minute they were in the park, screaming their heads off because their aunt had been shot, and the next they were in the goddamn backyard. Scared the shit out of them.”
“Kya sent the girls home. Bloodstone magic. Looks like red fog.” On shaky legs, Armstrong stood. “The assholes knew they couldn’t take her in a fair fight, so they used her affection for the girls to get close to her. The darts were probably some kind of animal tranquilizer.”
“What the fuck are you talking about?”
“You know what I’m talking about.”
He shoved the chair out of his way and
approached his brother. If Isaiah wanted to take a swing at him, he damn well could do it while Armstrong was standing.
“The Knights may love Kya, but you also think she’s strange, from the way she speaks to her eating habits and her mood swings. You’ve been too kind to say, especially since she’s made me happy and is caring to everyone.”
“The girls haven’t been sick, not even a cold since Kya moved in with you.” Nicole’s hand came to her mouth, and she shook her head. “God, Armstrong, none of us have been sick. Momma Knight has never been healthier. It’s as if decades have been taken from her.”
“It’s not possible.” Isaiah slammed his palm against the countertop again. “Dammit, it’s not possible.”
“Kya is the Bloodstone Dragon. Gold and beautiful and taken because someone wants what isn’t theirs to have.”
Armstrong may have forgotten about the five men who’d come to his home, but he’d done his homework. With the help of a couple of FBI buddies, who’d he’d passed the driver’s licenses along to, Armstrong had learned a lot about Captain Winston Rudolph and the other four men.
Ex-military. Special operations. Hard core. Professional soldiers who fought for money. That’s who’d taken his dragon. Getting her back wouldn’t be easy, especially since Armstrong’s FBI friends hadn’t been able to track down Rudolph’s contractor.
When the first year had gone by without incident, and then the second, Armstrong had convinced himself that Rudolph and his men had either died on Kerguelen Island or their employer had lost interest and turned to other ventures.
It had never felt so painful to be wrong.
“It’s true. Deep down, you know it makes sense. That’s her secret. Our secret.”
Nicole slumped in her chair. “Kya’s a dragon. The gold dragon that heals children?”
“Yeah.”
“I would say it’s impossible, but I was standing in the kitchen looking out the sliding glass doors when Isabelle, Michelle and Jasmine appeared. Like you said, there was a fog. A lot of it. I didn’t know what it was and didn’t see the girls until they stumbled from the red cloud. I’ve seen her on television. Huge and gold, and never sticking around for applause or praise. That dragon is our Kya. I can see it, but it’s hard to reconcile with the human Kya I know.”
“If you want to punch me, Isaiah, do it now. I have important phone calls to make.”
“Why in the hell would I punch you?”
“Because my secret endangered your children. Because I lied to everyone for years. Because I can’t beat my own ass for what happened to Kya and our baby.”
Two big arms yanked Armstrong forward. Isaiah hadn’t hugged him since the day of their father’s funeral. He’d cried like a baby then, thinking his life would never be the same without his dad. He’d been right. But he’d survived, thanks to Isaiah’s strength.
He wished he could cry now. Armstrong damn sure felt like bawling. But crying wouldn’t get Kya back and help his child.
“I can’t fault you for falling in love and wanting to protect that love. I’d do damn near anything for Nicole. I wouldn’t expect you to feel any differently about Kya.”
“I can’t get her back on my own.” He backed away from his brother and toward the wall phone. “I have to break my promise to Kya. She may never forgive me, but I’ll never forgive myself if I don’t do everything I can to rescue her.”
“Who are you going to call?” Nicole asked.
“The Director of the US Secret Service, who I hope will pass my story along to the president.”
“That’s a huge gamble,” Isaiah said. “What if the government decides to only help you to get their hands on a shapeshifting dragon?”
He’d thought of that, which was why his second and third call would be to the Washington Post and New York Times.
“How many children do you think the Bloodstone Dragon has healed? More, what do you think will happen if all the dragons stopped healing humans because of Kya’s kidnapping? Do you really think the president of the United States, who’s running for reelection, would want to be responsible for driving the dragons away and for doing nothing to help the one dragon who’s saved the lives of thousands of children?”
For the first time since arriving at his brother’s home, Isaiah smiled. “From the poorest family to the rich and famous, the Bloodstone Dragon has touched the lives of many people. Even the Pope has praised her. I get it. You plan to out the dragons in order to turn the whole world into your ears and eyes.”
“Someone, somewhere must’ve seen or know something. Those mercs aren’t amateurs, and their employer probably has enough money to buy silence and support. I need to leverage what I have. And what I have is a dragon story everyone will want, as well as the Bloodstone’s Dragon humanitarian reputation. Those will be my sword and shield. It’s all I have, Isaiah.”
The Dracontias would likely kill him for revealing their secrets to the world. They could do whatever they wanted to Armstrong after he saved his Kya.
Nicole sat up straight in her chair, brown eyes full of worry. “What about Kya’s family? I don’t want to think about what they’ll do once they learn Kya has been taken.”
That was a problem for tomorrow. Tonight, he had a promise to break and a world to set on fire.
10
“Don’t worry about it, Rudolph.” Dr. Kenneth Westmore slapped him on the shoulder. “Once this dies down, you’ll be able to return home. They have nothing on you.”
“They have my name, address, entire military history, and my face is plastered all over the goddamn television and newspapers. I have no idea what my wife thinks because I can’t risk calling or going to see her.”
“It’s the price of success. Speaking of price, we wired your payment into your Swiss account this morning. You’re a millionaire.”
He said the last word in a sing-song voice, as if money replaced everything Rudolph lost and still had left to lose.
Dr. Westmore walked away from Rudolph and to the bank of televisions on the other side of the viewing room. Each screen displayed an image from one of the surveillance cameras inside the room adjacent to the one they were in. Miles underground and in a remote location, this labyrinth of reinforced steel was the equivalent of a panic room for the Circle of Drayke. More, the room Dr. Westmore watched with orgasmic pleasure had been designed for one purpose.
To contain the Golden Fleece.
“I can’t believe it. The gold dragon. But not a dragon. A woman.” The man, eyes bright with a lust that had nothing to do with the beautiful creature strapped to a gurney but with the sadistic anticipation of playing Victor Frankenstein, licked his lips. “I thought you and your team lied to hide your failure. A dragon that can turn into a human, ridiculous I thought.” A long finger that hadn’t known a day of hard labor ran across the unconscious face on the screen in front of him. “Beautiful. I can’t wait to take a peek inside.”
Thanks to Armstrong Knight and his pet dragon, Rudolph and his men had spent more than six months on an island he’d never heard of. They had no money and provisions and didn’t speak the language. The dragon had dumped them in the middle of nowhere and left them for dead, which is what his wife had thought him. When he’d stumbled home, with no reasonable explanation for his long absence, his wife threatened to file for divorce if he ever did anything like that again. He supposed the million dollars could go toward lawyer’s fees.
Rudolph hadn’t lied to the Circle of Drayke. Who in the hell could make up a story like that? He’d been shocked when a red fog had surrounded him and his men, stealing his breath and crushing his bones. Powerful hands had clamped around arms, legs, and neck and squeezed. Even now, five years later, Rudolph could still hear the sound of his bones breaking.
He hadn’t screamed or cried out. Not because he was military tough and didn’t fear death, but because the woman in the middle of the fog wouldn’t allow it. Her magic had controlled every molecule of his body, and her red eyes sparked drag
on fire.
The next thing he remembered was waking. Cold, dazed, and smelling of shit. The dragon had won that day, reducing Rudolph to a terrified puppy who shits his load when scared. Today, Rudolph had reclaimed his manhood. If he’d had his way, he would’ve put a bullet between the dragon’s eyes.
But no, the Circle of Drayke wanted him to bring the dragon in alive. Four years of waiting and watching had finally paid off. The Secret Service agent was a non-issue. A couple of his men could’ve taken care of the man. But the dragon, even in human form, was a force of freakish nature. So he’d bided his time.
Snipers, like Rudolph, were patient. There had been many missions where he’d go days hunkered down in the same spot, waiting for the perfect kill shot. The dragon’s pregnancy turned out to be his perfect kill shot. Once one of his men noted the dragon’s protruding stomach and increased frequency at the house she shared with Armstrong, Rudolph scented the opening he’d been waiting for.
He had to make sure, so the rotating team of men who’d observed the dragon’s every movement was tasked with documenting everything. Their notes proved revealing as did the notable absence of the gold healing dragon over North America.
Rudolph grinned now as he did then, wide and malicious. He had her. The dragon, knocked up by her human lover, disgusting, no longer shifted into her dragon form. He hadn’t known if her pregnancy made her weaker, which meant he needed a plan that would put the dragon at a disadvantage and his men in the best possible position to take her down.
It had taken three tranquilizers meant to incapacitate a ten-thousand-pound adult male elephant to drop the dragon. They’d had to shoot her again halfway to their secret location. She’d begun to stir, red vapors hissing and snapping from her nose, mouth and ears. One tranquilizer to the neck got them through the rest of the flight.
Sirens and Scales Page 314
