One True Mate 2: Dragon's Heat

by Ladew, Lisa

  She hoped their relationship never changed, although she knew in her heart it would have to, once the young arrived.

  ***

  Forty minutes later, Ella had to jog to keep up with Trevor and Wade, who were taking large, swift strides through the tunnels below the police station, past the prophecy room, past a grand, ornate double door she’d never been in but she knew led into the great hall. They turned into a tunnel she hadn’t been down yet. Far ahead of them, Crew was striding just as fast, his head bent, his back bowed. Ella watched him, wondering how he was doing. From the back, he looked tired, worn out.

  Wade was speaking quickly, telling Trevor all the places they’d found masses of spiders and what Graeme had said it could mean.

  “We don’t know where Graeme is. Mac says he took off with the woman, Heather, on his back, heading northeast. I can only guess that he took her to Scotland, which is bad, because I called the police Chief there who originally contacted me about him, and he says Graeme doesn’t own a phone. He just shows up occasionally. They know about where he lives in the forest, but he won’t send anyone out there to talk to him. He says it’s dangerous to approach a dragen’s home without an invitation and he won’t risk any of his males.”

  Trevor held out a hand. “Wait, doesn’t he have control over Graeme?”

  Wade shook his head. “I’ve been meaning to tell you, but it’s been crazy over here and I haven’t gotten around to it.” He stopped in the hallway and faced Trevor. Ella had to turn and come back to them when her momentum carried her past. For just a moment, she watched as, ahead of them, Crew stopped and opened a door to his right, then disappeared inside. She turned her attention back to Wade.

  “I haven’t told anyone this, but you need to know in case something happens to me.”

  Trevor scoffed. “Nothing’s going to happen to you.”

  Wade shook his head. “I’m getting old, Trevor. For the first time in my life, I feel like my time to return to The Light is closer than it is farther away. I can’t ignore that.”

  Trevor reached out and grabbed Ella’s hand. Ella squeezed it hard.

  Wade began his story again. “I learned a few things about Graeme the day he woke up. He never was a police officer. He’s more of a hired gun. He’s been showing up at the Chief’s office for over two hundred years, out of the blue, asking if there’s anything they can’t handle. They’ve had him do normal stuff, like infiltrate drug rings, but they’ve also asked him to do stranger stuff, like investigate tales of monsters in the forest and the lochs. He’s always come through for them, and they have great trust in him, but they’ve never had any control over him.”

  Trevor stared off down the tunnel. “I wonder if one can control a dragen. They aren’t wolven.”

  “Exactly. But I have to tell you, I asked him to join the KSRT. We need him. I’m certain he would have said no, flat out, except for one thing.”

  Ella felt tingles march up and down her spine. She knew what that thing was. Love. True love. She got the feeling if anyone deserved it, it was Graeme.

  Wade glanced at her, like he could read her thoughts. “The woman, Heather, who was in the duty room the other day. It was not the first time he had met her. She came to him at Remington’s place. I don’t know how or why, but she touched him then. He didn’t believe it, thought he dreamed her, but the touch set off the same cascade it did with you, and until he mates her, he will be dangerous to all of us.”

  Ella shuddered, remembering how big the dragen could get, and how far he could shoot fire. Was he more deadly than five or ten wolven put together?

  Trevor rubbed his chin. “Maybe they will mate while they are in Scotland. We should let them be.”

  Wade nodded. “That would be ideal, but I am afraid it won’t happen. In fact, I’m surprised he took her there at all.”

  “Why?”

  Wade lifted his face to the low ceiling, then back down. “Trevor, what do you know about dragen?”

  “Nothing.”

  Wade sighed and forced his words out, like he was sharing something he would rather hold back. “They aren’t like us. They weren’t made to protect humans. Graeme has three major reasons why he is determined not to ever take a mate, and one of them is because he doesn’t think he’s worthy.” Wade dropped his eyes and stared at the floor. “Half a millenium ago, he killed humans, many of them.”

  Trevor’s eyes narrowed. “You know this but you still invited him into the KSRT?”

  Wade nodded. “I was able to see inside his heart. Something major changed him, five hundred or so years ago. He has devoted his life to protecting humans since. It’s like he’s had two lives. One… I don’t want to say evil, because I will not judge him in that manner, but I will say the life he has lead since then could be called good by anyone’s standards. If he takes a mate, he will be doubly determined to stay the course of Rhen, the course against Khain.” He leaned forward. “You know how I know we need him?”

  It came to Ella. Slammed into her like a concussion. “Because if we didn’t, he wouldn’t have a one true mate just for him.”

  Wade nodded at her. “Right.”

  Trevor snapped his fingers, about to ask another question, but Wade’s phone began to buzz uncontrollably. He held up a finger and looked at it, scrolling through message after message. “Damn. I gotta go.” He looked up. “That video? The one with Boeson on it?”

  “Boeson?”

  “The foxen. The video went viral and now our foxen population here in Serenity, maybe the entire state, is revolting. Go talk to Jaggar. He’ll tell you who Boeson is and what exactly he was saying, then you’ll get it. Oh, and check on Crew, I’m worried about him. He was out all night killing spiders and he doesn’t look good. Then come find me.”

  Before he could run off, Ella grasped his forearm. “Wade, ah, I haven’t had a chance to talk to Trevor about this yet, but is there any more work that Trent and Troy could do? I’m afraid they are getting bored just watching me all day.”

  Wade looked at her appraisingly, his phone buzzing relentlessly in his hand. “There will be a lot of work for them in the coming months and years, I’m sure. They and Mac and your mate are the only wolven who have ever made it out of the Pravus alive. I’m afraid we’ll be going back there in the future and we will need their experience. Do I need to talk to them?”

  Ella nodded, knowing he understood.

  “Will do.” He turned and left, running back the way they had come.

  Trevor kissed her on the nose. “I love you for loving my brothers.”

  “I do, you know,” she said, as they headed back down the tunnel again, her chest aching. “More than you know.”

  Chapter 24

  Trevor pulled Ella down the hall. There was much to be done, and he loved having her with him. He felt like she softened the team, gave them a focus they’d never had before. As long as he could keep her safe.

  “Let’s check on Crew, first,” he said. “I saw him go into his office.”

  Ella nodded. They stopped in front of the door and knocked on it. No answer. Trevor knocked again, calling out for Crew. Still no answer.

  He tried the knob and it turned, so he pushed open the door. The office looked like a tornado had ripped through it. One desk sat in the far corner, covered with papers and folders so high, Trevor wondered how Crew could possibly find what he needed. A black leather couch was to their left, against the far wall, and every surface of floor and table in between the two was stacked high or just strewn with books and folders. Trevor took a step into the room. “Crew?” he called out, then bent to pick up a book.

  He showed it to Ella, then paged through it. It was ‘The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe’, and from a glance, every chapter had a few passages highlighted.

  “Did you see him leave?” Trevor asked.

  “No, he didn’t leave. I would have noticed.”

  “Yeah, me too.”

  Trevor picked his way across the room to the other
side, looking under the desk and behind a chair while Ella picked up more books to look at the covers. Much of it was non-fiction. How to Understand the Fifth Dimension. Space and Time Warps. Time Travel, Four Ways in which it Could be Possible.

  Trevor walked to the couch and seemed to sniff it, then lifted the cushions off it, and even moved it to peek behind and under it. Ella turned and looked behind the door, reading a few of the titles she found there. Daughter of Smoke and Bone. Outlander. Into the Abyss. The Traveler. Ella frowned. Crew had a serious obsession going here.

  “This is the last place in the room he was,” Trevor said, holding two couch cushions in his hands. “His scent is still warm.”

  Ella turned in a circle. There were no windows, no more doors. “I’m kind of freaked out.”

  Trevor nodded and reached for her hand. “Me, too. I’ll forever be grateful to Crew for helping me save you, but he gives me the creeps when he does this.”

  She looked at him. “This?”

  Trevor nodded, looking around at the piles of paper and books around their feet. “It’s happened before. I follow him into a room, and he’s not there anymore. Then he walks out of a bathroom or a closet or something, like nothing ever happened. Once, we couldn’t find him for a week, but Wade would never let me discipline him.”

  Ella shuddered. She wondered if even Wade knew where Crew went when he disappeared.

  Trevor pulled at her. “Come on, let’s talk to Jaggar. His office is the next one down.”

  Out in the hallway, Trevor knocked on the next office door. “Yeah,” a male voice called from inside. Ella put on a polite smile. She hadn’t officially met Jaggar yet.

  Trevor pushed open the door and entered the office, holding Ella’s hand. Ella got just an impression of the exact opposite of Crew’s place, a neat and tidy space with computers lined along one wall and a large weight rack on the opposite wall, with a mural of the forest painted behind it. Then she saw Jaggar and she gasped. He paced in the middle of the room, an electronic tablet in hand, not looking at them.

  He was completely naked.

  “Jaggar! Get some clothes on!” Trevor roared, backing up into the hall and fumbling with the door, trying to pull it closed, dropping Ella’s hand to do it. Ella covered her mouth and tried not to giggle, looking at the ground.

  Trevor finally got the door closed and turned to her. “Fuck, I forgot he did that.”

  Ella couldn’t stop the smile from spreading across her face. “Did what? I didn’t see anything.”

  Trevor shook his head. “Walked around naked. He says it helps him think. The first time I caught him in a debriefing naked, sitting in a leather chair with one leg thrown over the arm, I lost it.”

  Ella couldn’t help the giggles then. They streamed out of her in a liquid rush. “Where does he keep his gun?”

  Trevor grinned. “I’m trying to save the world with a bunch of misfits working for me,” he muttered, but Ella thought she heard affection in his voice. He faced Ella. “I shoulda told you about him, anyway. He’s our code-breaker, and, ah, did you see his face?”

  Ella shook her head.

  “Don’t stare, whatever you do. He doesn’t like that. He’s half-felen, half-wolven, and he looks different.”

  Ella stared at the door as if it would open and Jaggar would appear. “How is that even possible?”

  Trevor shook his head. “No one thought it was. He’s the only one there’s ever been, as far as I know, and before you ask, no one’s ever seen him shift, he won’t even say if he can. But both his parents were big deals, his mom had Wade’s job before she died. Plus, he’s wicked smart about Khain. He’s earned his position.”

  Before Ella could respond, the door flew open, and there stood Jaggar in camouflage pants and an olive-green shirt, his eyes on Ella’s feet. “Sorry, I didn’t know you had your female with you.”

  Trevor stared at him. “Even if I didn’t, nobody needs to see you airing out your balls. Put some pants on before you answer the door.”

  “Whatever you say, LT.”

  Jaggar backed into the room without looking at Ella. Trevor tried to introduce them, but Jaggar kept his head down, raising a hand to her from a few feet away, which let Ella study him. His face was hard, with lines around his mouth and between his eyes, but his hangdog expression and apparent shyness softened it. His coloring intrigued her the most, with the right half of his body lighter, and the left half darker, but no matter how she stared, she couldn’t see the demarcation on his face or chest, it blended together so well.

  He spoke to Trevor. “Sorry, but I don’t have any more intel on the boxes from your mate’s old house. Each box is in a different code. I’ve broken one and can confirm the contents seem to be from something Grey was working on, but he’s disappeared from his position in the Chicago PD and we can’t ask him about it. Top said I had to put it aside for now and work on this foxen thing.”

  As he was speaking, he looked up for just a second a few times and Ella could see that one of his eyes was much lighter than the other, but he never let her look for long enough to determine the exact colors.

  “Who’s Top?” she whispered to Trevor.

  “Wade,” he whispered back, then spoke to Jaggar. “It’s cool, Jaggar. I’m here about the foxen thing. Tell me everything.”

  Jaggar nodded, still looking at the floor, then turned away from them to walk to his desk. “You’ve heard the video?”

  “Yeah.”

  “I’ve analyzed it. Want to hear what it really says?”

  Ella remembered that video, the one where all the words ran together and didn’t seem to make any sense.

  “Tell me,” Trevor said.

  Jaggar picked up a piece of paper from his desk. He cleared his throat and began to read slowly, like reading out loud was not something he did often or well. He broke for so long between each paragraph that Ella could almost visualize them as stanzas, or verses.

  Oh hear me, thy cunning and crimson

  The angel has spoken, and his words fall on the side of our father

  Claimed are those who witness and follow and heed the call of the new world. For when the Vahiy has come, it is us who will rule

  I am Boeson, sending this to the seven corners of the earth, calling all faithful seven times, until the seven nights of Vahiy fall upon us

  Our father, The Destroyer, the Vanquisher, the Demon, and the Great Matchitehew, he who will bring the glory to us

  And lead us into righteousness and power

  These lands will be ours to reign over as lords and our females will be restored to us. Our progeny will flood the soil

  “I am the Vanquisher of the unworthy,” says our Father, the strongest of all beings. “Follow me, and your future is certain.”

  I, Boeson, your pack mate, share your disquiet at having been misjudged, mistrusted, and mistreated by those who think they are better

  I have been called to spread the word as the Destroyer’s trumpet. I did behold a vision straight from The Light, who proclaimed he would restore our father to his rightful place when the world had been cleansed and readied

  The voice of The Light spoke to me over seven nights, clear and strong, proclaiming how we will prove the progeny of the deae unworthy

  He told me I must record his words, must spread them, and that all believers will enjoy the Ula forevermore, when it has been wiped clean of the ungrateful and the unworthy

  We, the crimson, the cunning, the quick, and the children of the chosen shall usurp them

  The coming of the 777 secret signs will signify our father has risen up and is prepared to vanquish the deae forever

  The greatest being showed me how this will happen. He showed me a vision of the new world, and how our father will beget it to us

  Ella’s stomach twisted and a lump formed in her throat. Could she be interpreting what she was hearing right?

  Jaggar stopped and looked up at Trevor for a second, then dropped his eyes again. “It goes on
like this for a bit longer, but it’s all the same and doesn’t say anything new. He starts reciting the 777 signs, but only gets a few of them out and then he does a little hiccup and starts over at hear me, thy cunning and crimson. I think he’s batshit crazy, but there’s a lot of ways this message could blow up in our face if it gets out.”

  Trevor shook his head. “Wade just said it went viral.”

  Jaggar finally stared right at him, his eyes blazing. One was light blue and the other a deep chocolate brown. “Oh boy, the foxen are going to lose their shit. This is bad.”

  Trevor nodded. “You think there’s any truth to it? Like Khain can really bring about the Vahiy by making all of these 777 signs happen?”

  Jaggar nodded, then shook his head. “The ones I heard have already happened. Example. Eradication of the great lizards who walked the earth, and two wars in which every country in the world took part. I’ve got Sebastian trying to figure out if Khain could have had a hand in either of them. I need to hear all of the 777 signs to give you my opinion on the truth or falsity of the rest of it.”

  Trevor grunted. “We need to get our hands on that foxen.”

  “Yeah, before Khain does. We have no way of knowing if he’s aware of the signs, or if he can accelerate them. Plus, if we don’t know what the signs are, we don’t know if there’s any way for us to stop them.”

  Trevor stared straight ahead for a long time, and Ella leaned into him, scared for him, for their future. She dropped a hand to her belly and rubbed it softly.

  Trevor’s phone buzzed. Ella read the text over his shoulder.

  We need you and your crew. Command post at Elm and Locust.

  He nodded at Jaggar. “What’s your next action?”

  “Sebastian and I are scouring the prophecies, trying to find any other mention of the signs, while we wait for someone to find Boeson. We also have several citlali sitting in repose, seeking answers.”

  “Good. Contact me at once if you find anything.”

  Jaggar nodded, making sneaky eye contact with Ella for the first time, then snapping his gaze back to Trevor. “Oorah, LT.”