She was tempted to anyway, but what was the point in avoiding recognition, and possible capture, if it also meant that she didn’t find out what she’d come for?
“I’m sorry. I don’t recognize you,” she said after a long moment.
He looked a little disconcerted and then shrugged. “Phil … Phil Collins.” He paused, obviously waiting for a comment. “I don’t sing,” he added, grinning abruptly.
Marlee managed a thin smile at his little joke.
His eyes narrowed on her thoughtfully. “I guess you wanted to check things out yourself?”
“Something like that. The problem is, I don’t have a very clear memory of any of it. I followed some hikers up to the site where they found the bear ….”
He nodded, considering her assessingly. “Haven’t seen it myself. I wasn’t with the group that found you.”
Meaning some of the rangers might have been? “I suppose I could talk to somebody at the local PD …?”
He nodded again. “Or you could talk to some of the other rangers.” He frowned thoughtfully. “I think Boyd and Fletcher were both in that area when you were found. I was actually heading to the local watering hole myself—they’ll be there. If you’re interested, I could give you a ride.”
That was generous! She didn’t especially want to ride with him, though. That meant she was stuck until he decided to give her a ride back … unless she could find someone else to give her a ride. “I drove over from the … hotel where I’m staying.”
“Beaumont Lodge?”
So much for trying to keep that little secret, she thought wryly. “That’s it.”
He grinned. “It’s the closest to the park entrance. Visitors usually stay there to visit the park unless they’re camping at one of the campgrounds.”
Marlee nodded. “I sort of figured that.”
“Well, you can ride with me and I’ll give you ride back—or someone will. Or I’ll wait and you can follow me.”
“Actually, I think I’ll follow you and come back to clean up a little bit before I go to the watering hole,” she said, grimacing as she looked down at herself. “I’ve been hiking most of the day. I’m feeling pretty grungy.”
“That’ll work, too,” he said cheerfully. “We’ll probably be there a while.”
In spite of the fact that Marlee had already assessed her situation and arrived at the conclusion that she should either jump on the opportunity offered or take off right away, she was still wrestling with it when the ranger pulled his pickup into the parking lot of a nightspot that was already hopping, regardless of the early hour. The bustling parking lot was enough to tip the scales against returning until she caught a glimpse of a truck that looked familiar.
Her heart jolted as soon as it popped into her mind that it was Gabriel’s truck, sending her pulse to hammering in her ears. The urge to turn around and make another pass to get a confirmation was so strong her hands tightened on the steering wheel and her foot came up off the gas pedal as if her body had taken over and put her mind out of gear.
She fought the urge off, but she was so shaky as she headed back to her cabin that she couldn’t think straight. Trying to ignore her state, she headed inside and straight to the shower to clean up when she got to her cabin. The bath soothed some of her jitters, enough to allow her to question her reaction—which seemed excessive even to her.
Granted, she’d had an instant, powerful attraction to him. She thought that was reasonably understandable even given her dire circumstances. He was a gorgeous hunk and personable besides—and there was no getting around the fact that he’d delivered in spades when they’d gotten back to her cabin. With the exception of her ‘erotic dream’, she’d never felt anything even close before.
But she hadn’t been as giddy and stupid with her raging hormones even when she was a teenager and the jock she’d had such a wild crush on had actually noticed her and smiled at her!
She should take the warning to heart, she told herself. For whatever reason, there was something about that man that reduced her IQ to barely above slobbering idiot. She needed to stay as far away from him as she could possibly get. She’d already screwed up once just by taking him up on his offer of dinner—and spending the night with him. She couldn’t risk being drawn any further under his spell.
It wasn’t as if she couldn’t talk to the rangers about a guide, or at least directions, by simply going to the park again the following day.
She discovered she couldn’t fight the urge to go back, though. The entire time she dressed and fixed her hair and wrestled with the urge to discard the jeans and shirt she’d picked and put on something more alluring she kept telling herself she was just going to talk to the rangers, arrange a tour of the site, and leave. She managed to resist the impulse to go overboard on the primping, but she also managed to convince herself that she really needed to meet the rangers at the bar. She couldn’t be certain she could run them down to get what she needed if she waited until they were on duty the following day.
And she’d probably been completely mistaken about the truck anyway.
The depth of her disappointment when she made it back to the tavern and saw that the truck was gone was so profound it should’ve sent another wave of alarm through her. Instead, she found herself wanting to discard the idea of even going in.
Shaking it off, she parked along the street since the lot was full to overflowing and walked across to the entrance. The music and the cheerful voices of the patrons all seemingly talking at once hit her in waves as the door opened and closed with people passing in and out.
She paused just outside, trying to steady her nerves, sucked in a calming breath and plunged inside.
The place was as crowded as it had sounded like it was, but she discovered why as soon as she was inside. It was far more than a watering hole, as Ranger Phil had called it. The bar itself wasn’t actually very big at all although it took center stage inside. To one side of it, however, booths lined the wall across the front and down one side. A few tables were sprinkled in the open space between the booths and the bar. On the other side of the bar smaller tables were clustered around what looked like an open space set aside for dancing—which was currently occupied by a handful of couples. In the back, there were three or four pool tables, all in play and with men standing two deep along the walls waiting for a chance to play.
Clearly, it was the place to go for dinner, dancing, and entertainment in the area.
Ranger Phil must have been keeping an eye out for her. He spotted her before she saw him, coming halfway out of his chair and lifting at arm to catch her attention. Her nerves tautened a little more when she saw he was sitting with nearly dozen people, all gathered around two tables they’d drawn together.
Girding herself, she wove her way through the people crowding the floor until she reached them. Phil introduced her around, but she didn’t really note any of the names beyond the two he’d mentioned to her—Boyd and Fletcher. Thomas Boyd was almost painfully young—or at least looked like he was barely out of high school—string bean thin and not a lot taller, she didn’t think, than her five feet four inches. Ben Fletcher looked to be about middle aged and rather more fond of the highlife than he should’ve been considering his field of work.
She didn’t especially like the assessing look either man gave her—or rather the ‘undressing’ look. It seemed pretty clear they’d been on the scene alright and they obviously hadn’t missed much—at least in regards to her. She doubted they’d noticed a hell of a lot else, though.
“We just ordered,” Phil explained when they took their seats. “I’d decided you weren’t coming after all.”
Marlee’s stomach growled either in response to the suggestion of food or from the smells wafting around the tavern from the other dinners. She hadn’t packed a lot of food for the trek and discovered she was hungry, never mind her nerves. The selection was fairly simple. She ordered a burger and fries when Phil had waved the waitress over.
> “Put it on my tab,” Phil told the waitress.
Marlee smiled at him with an effort. “Thanks! But no.” She gave the waitress a firm look. “Mine’s separate.”
Ranger Phil looked more than a little miffed that she’d insisted on paying for her own, but that was just too fucking bad! He needn’t get any ideas that paying for her dinner was going to pay his way into her bed! Maybe she was just being paranoid—or full of herself—but she got the distinct impression that he had designs and she figured she might as well nip than in the bud right off.
“Sure you don’t want a drink?” Boyd prompted as soon as the waitress turned to leave.
Marlee hesitated. There was nothing quite as annoying as being stone cold sober around a bunch of half-lit jackasses, but she’d heard somewhere that alcohol wasn’t good for pregnant women. Besides, as much as she felt the need to ease some of the tension, she thought she needed to keep her wits about her more. “Just the water.”
“So what brings you back?” Fletcher drawled as soon as the waitress left.
“I’d think that would be pretty obvious.”
“Officially? Or unofficially?”
“It’s personal.”
“Well, I don’t know what you think you’ll see, but I could take you to the scene tomorrow if you feel up to a long hike through some pretty rough terrain. It’s a good piece from the nearest trail.”
Marlee nodded, flicking a questioning glance at Boyd since it was Fletcher who’d made the offer.
Boyd shrugged. “Or I could take you. I’m working tomorrow, though. Fletch is off. I could take you day after tomorrow, though.”
Marlee didn’t especially like the vibes she was getting from ‘Fletch the lech’, but she couldn’t afford to hang around any longer than necessary. “I appreciate it—both offers. I guess I should take Fletcher up on the offer, though. I’m not going to be here long and there were a few others things I wanted to check on.”
“Other leads?” Phil asked with sharp interest.
Marlee grimaced. “I suppose you could call it that.” She hesitated, but she was interested in their reaction. “There was a group of … I guess you’d call them UFologists at the bear site today ….”
Phil snorted. Boyd flushed and grinned. Fletch studied her assessingly.
“They’ve been crawling all over the park,” Phil said derisively. “There wasn’t a single person that reported any kind of sighting, though, and I’m damned if I can figure out what brought in all the kooks.”
They hadn’t struck her as ‘kooks’ despite the fact that she’d felt pretty much the same way that Phil appeared to—that it was absurd to connect the dots and come up with aliens.
They’d seemed rational and intelligent and they’d come with equipment, taking radiation readings and soil samples.
“We’ve had a bunch of folks out there looking for big foot, too,” Boyd added with a chuckle that didn’t disguise the fact that he was at least excited about all the hoopla, whether he believed in any of it or not. “Or something else.” He shook his head. “Not that I believe in any of those things they’re always looking for, but it was weird. You have to admit that.”
Fletch sent him a sour look. “I ain’t got to admit nothing. Wild animals are unpredictable—always have been, always will be. There ain’t no figuring out why they do some of the things they do. Two bears got into it. That’s all. They’re trying to make something out of nothing if you ask me.”
“Yeah, but they didn’t find any tracks indicating another bear. They didn’t find nothing but human tracks—and a man running around barefoot in that area is weird all by itself.”
Phil snorted again. “Yeah, well it was a big foot—about a size fourteen—but it was still human!”
“What time should we get started tomorrow?” Marlee asked as soon as there was a lull in their discussion, almost sorry she’d ordered since she was already regretting it.
“’Bout day break. I can take a service road part of the way, but it’s still going to be a long hike there and back.”
Anything to cut a little time off of the trek! She had no reason to believe Fletch was going to present any sort of problem or that it was dangerous to even consider being alone with him in the woods, but there was no getting around the fact that there was something about the guy she just didn’t like. She glanced around a little hopefully for the waitress and saw that she was waiting another table. “I don’t suppose there are any local legends about sightings of any kind of ‘creature’?”
“Just the dragons,” Boyd said with a chuckle.
Chapter Five
Fletch glared at Boyd but Phil merely looked blank. “I never heard any legends about dragons,” he disputed. “And I’ve been here a lot longer than you have, boy.”
Boyd shrugged. “Well, I don’t guess it’s really relevant. There certainly haven’t been any sightings that I ever heard of. The Indians have a legend, though.”
Marlee’s interest was instantly piqued. “So … you’re saying maybe the dragon took out the bear?”
All three men laughed at that. Boyd reddened. “I guess that was misleading. It’s an ancient legend—really old. Like I said, from the Indians, but it wasn’t even the ones around here now. It’s from way back—the locals refer to them as ‘the old ones’.”
“I picked up a story about a golden dragon,” Marlee admitted, “when I went to the novelty store.”
“That’s the romanticized version for tourists,” Boyd said dismissively.
“It’s all romanticized if there even is such a legend,” Phil said dryly. “It was probably made up for tourists.”
“There is!” Boyd said defensively. “I heard it from my grandmother and, in case you haven’t noticed, the locals use a dragon symbol as a totem even now.”
“What was romanticized about it?” Marlee demanded, redirecting the conversation.
He shrugged. “Well, she created a lot more dissention than it mentions in the toned down versions—nearly caused a war within the tribe, not to mention there were warriors from neighboring tribes trying to get her attention. It was also because of her that the Spanish came to this area, because they’d heard about the dragon from people in the other tribes, and they nearly wiped out ‘the old ones’ looking for her lair because they were convinced there would be gold there.
“Apparently, she settled the issue by wiping out the Spaniards. As far as I heard, her lair was never found, but the belief persisted among the ‘old ones’ that she’d given birth—or hatched her brood—and that her descendents walked among them.”
Marlee stared at him blankly. “How could her brood walk among the ind … Native Americans?”
“You aren’t falling for all this bullshit?” Phil asked with a chuckle.
“I’m just curious as to how they could explain dragons living with people,” Marlee said a little testily.
“They took human form, just like their mother had.”
Marlee felt her face heat. “Alrighty then! You had me going for a little bit there.”
Boyd looked uncomfortable. “I did say it was a legend, but you know every legend there’s ever been about dragons accounts them as being magical creatures.”
Marlee nodded even though she’d never read a single story about a dragon in her life beyond the one she’d picked up in the novelty store. To her relief, the waitress finally arrived with the food. She thought she’d dismissed the tale completely, but she found herself turning it over in her mind, trying to infuse logic into a tale that clearly couldn’t have any since it was entirely fairytale material. “So … what kind of magic did the dragon have besides the ability to turn herself into a beautiful blond?” she asked, using a joking tone.
Boyd shrugged. “They said she could get inside their heads and control them. And, although it was generally held that she was very beautiful, they also believed that she had the ability to enthrall her lovers so that they behaved contrary to their nature. Nobody believed the warrior
s were just so smitten with her beauty that they would turn on each other. They thought she’d … bewitched them.”
Marlee felt her belly clench and lost all interest in the sandwich she’d dove in to with such enthusiasm. A wave of nausea washed over her. She pushed her plate away. “That’s … interesting. I guess the ‘old ones’ weren’t so different from anybody else way back. They explained anything they didn’t understand with magic.”
She glanced around the table and saw that nobody was more than half finished with their meals and then glanced at her watch. It wasn’t even nine o’clock, but she thought she’d gathered all the information she was likely to get and the urge to leave was strong. She glanced around, trying to get the waitress’ attention so that she could pay her bill and leave.
“You aren’t going to rush off?” Phil asked.
She flicked a look at him. “Actually, I’m pretty tired after hiking most of the day and it looks like I’ve got another long hike ahead of me tomorrow. I figured I would.”
He flicked an appreciative look at her. “You’re too young to be complaining about being worn out so early. You owe me a dance for hooking you up with Fletch at the very least.”
It was said jokingly, but Marlee was uncomfortably aware that she hadn’t shown a lot of appreciation for his efforts on her behalf—not that she could see that he’d gone out of his way that much, but still …. She didn’t particularly like the idea of encouraging him, but she decided she could rebuff him if he tried to get too pushy. “I guess I could hang around for at least one dance,” she responded finally. “I really am tired, though! And I really intend to make an early evening. I’m two hours behind this time zone and it feels a lot later to me than it does to you.”
He seemed content to leave it at that, but she could see she hadn’t convinced him—or that he figured he could convince her once he wowed her on the dance floor.
She’d already begun to regret yielding to pressure by the time everyone finished eating and the majority of the rangers sitting with them got up and headed toward the pool tables in the back. Phil helped her with her chair, which might have been pure curtsey but which gave her the impression that he was thinking ‘date’ when she had no intention of allowing the evening to progress beyond friendly strangers.
Dragon Blood Page 8
