by Rinelle Grey
Lisa paused, then read it again, this time more carefully.
None of the information she’d given Rita was there. In fact, aside from the obviously damning photos, there was little text at all. A location, lots of rhetorical questions, but nothing else.
Not that it helped. The photos by themselves were more than enough of an issue, as evidenced by the way Olivia was staring at her.
This was a disaster. She needed to call Karla and Taurian right away.
But first, she had to deal with Olivia.
And her entire office.
“Is Verrian really a dragon?” Olivia asked, her eyes wide.
Lisa summoned up her most scornful look. She stood up, put her hands on her hips, and stared around the office for good measure. “Do you really think that dragons exist? That they’ve been hiding, in the Australian outback of all places, for goodness knows how long?”
“But… the photos…” Olivia sounded disappointed.
Lisa could understand that.
“Haven’t you watched the movies lately? They can make pretty convincing animated dragons. I bet stills are even easier.”
A young lawyer stood up at his desk nearby, giving up the pretence that he wasn’t listening. “But why? Why would someone do that?”
“Jealousy,” Lisa said promptly. “Rita, the reporter who did this, has been jealous of me since high school. When she saw Verrian, the guy I was with, she obviously came up with this elaborate prank to cause trouble for us.”
Barry Hutchinson, her boss, raised an eyebrow. “She’s putting her career on the line, all to get back at you for hooking up with some cute guy?”
“He’s not some cute guy,” Lisa told him. “He’s drop dead gorgeous.” She looked over at Olivia and raised an eyebrow. “Wouldn’t you say, Olivia?”
Olivia actually blushed, adding some more credence to her story. She nodded enthusiastically. “Movie star gorgeous,” she agreed.
“Enough to pull this sort of stunt over?” her boss challenged, waving his hand at the phone.
Olivia giggled. “And more.”
Barry grimaced and shook his head in disbelief.
Lisa suspected there was quite a bit of jealousy in his reaction too.
Yet, even her easy victory didn’t do much to settle her nerves. Yes, there would be a lot of people who would approach the news article with a healthy dose of scepticism. But not everyone. Some would believe it, or want it to be true. Enough to cause a problem.
Especially since Rita had made the town’s name so prominent.
Verrian wasn’t going home any time soon. In fact, with all the dragon seekers that were bound to descend on Mungaloo after this reveal, Lisa would be surprised if she didn’t have a few more dragons camped out on her couch before the week was up.
Olivia wandered back to her desk, though she kept looking up and staring at Lisa, her eyes curious.
Lisa ignored her.
She tried to focus on her work, or at least pretend to, but it was almost impossible.
She just kept thinking how quickly this could all go wrong.
What if the police showed up?
No, that was crazy. They weren’t going to believe this insane story. Surely they ignored these sort of sensationalist news pieces?
What if Ultrima read the papers?
That thought was enough to send her cold.
Ultrima turning up on her doorstep was worse than the police. There would be no fooling him. He knew exactly what Verrian was. And he wanted to kill him.
But they were in the middle of a crowded city. Ultrima wasn’t going to risk showing up here. At least, not in dragon form.
Besides, it hadn’t been her town printed in the paper. It was Mungaloo.
She wasn’t the one in trouble. Her family she couldn’t care less about. She hoped this caused a whole parcel of trouble for them.
Karla, Taurian and the other dragons though…
She stared at her phone, but she couldn’t call Karla in the middle of the office.
She needed to get out of here.
Taking a sick day right now was going to look awfully suspicious. Everyone knew about the article. They’d guess it was the reason she was leaving, and it would make them doubt her denial of any of it being true.
What did it matter?
What did any of it matter?
Her whole life here, the charade she’d built, pretending she was someone other than a nobody from a small country town, none of it mattered more than the fact that Verrian was home alone. If Ultrima, or the police, showed up, he wouldn’t know what to do.
She needed to help him.
Her mind made up, Lisa grabbed her phone and keys and stuffed them into her pocket, then she headed for the ladies’ room, trying to keep her walk casual.
Once she was inside, she stared into the mirror.
What was she doing? This could cost her her job.
Probably not, although if the truth actually did come out, if someone got irrefutable proof of the dragon’s existence, then maybe she wouldn’t want to come back anyway.
Barry would forgive her. He’d understand that she’d had to do it. It was only one afternoon anyway. She’d call in sick, except then everyone would think she’d done it because of the news article.
Which would be true. But she didn’t want them suspecting that. Not right now.
She’d deal with all this later. Right now, she had to get home and check that Verrian was okay.
Taking a deep breath, she headed for the door, but it swung open before she could even touch it.
Olivia looked around, but the room was empty. “Are you okay?” she hissed at Lisa.
Lisa bit back a sigh. Of all the people…
“I’m fine,” she assured Olivia. Maybe she could take advantage of the woman’s presence. After all, Olivia did owe her. “Just got a bit of a headache, and I’m going to go home. Can you cover for me?”
Olivia nodded immediately. “Of course. Is there anything else I can do?”
“Nope, that’s all. I’m just going to go home and lie down.”
She could tell that Olivia wanted to ask her more questions, but to her relief, she didn’t. She just nodded. “Well, call me if you need anything.”
“I will,” Lisa lied.
She made a move towards the door, but before she could slide past Olivia, the woman reached out her arms and gave her a hug. At the same time, she whispered in her ear, “If he really is a dragon, and he has friends, remember me, okay?”
Lisa raised an eyebrow. “What about Kevin?”
Olivia blushed bright red. “Well… uh…” she stammered. “I mean, Kevin’s cool, but…”
Lisa heaved a sigh. There was something about these dragons. Something that could even pull a girl away from a guy she sorta liked.
She wasn’t sure whether to laugh or cry.
She’d been just like that a few weeks ago. How different the experience had been.
Chapter 38
Raven stared at the news article, then back at Verrian, his face uncertain. “Normally I’d totally agree with you,” he said slowly. “Logically it’s far more likely that these photos were doctored than that you’re actually a dragon, but…” His eyes narrowed. “There was something definitely not normal about your singing. It was almost like it mesmerised everyone in the audience. I’ve been to a lot of concerts and worked with a lot of singers, and I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Verrian winced. He should have known that would come back to bite him.
That day, along with the article on the computer, added up to a conclusion that couldn’t be ignored.
And he’d walked right into it.
He was stuck here, miles from anywhere he knew, with no idea how to get home, and a human who was going to be damn hard to convince he wasn’t a dragon.
Great.
“Look, we’re not going to out you,” Raven started.
“Looks like someone else has already done that,” o
ne of his friends joked.
Raven glared at him, and he shut up. Raven turned back to Verrian. “I was just wondering… can you teach me to sing like that?”
The question was so unexpected, Verrian stared at him for a few minutes, speechless.
To his surprise, he felt a strange desire to help the human. Trouble was, sound dragon singing couldn’t be taught. Oh, he could probably show Raven a few tricks that would help his singing, but no amount of teaching could create the connection with his audience that Verrian could command.
But he couldn’t say that. It would only confirm that he wasn’t human.
So instead he shrugged. “I can try to teach you some of my singing, but there’s nothing special about it. I just sing.”
The look Raven gave him said he didn’t believe a word.
Verrian was just trying to figure out how he could get out of this and find a way back to Lisa, when there was a knock at the door.
Raven sighed. “I’ll be right back,” he said. “Probably the postman.”
He headed back towards the door, but something made Verrian nervous. He watched from the doorway.
When Raven opened the door and a silver haired young man stood there, a chill ran down his spine.
He recognised him instantly—the same dragon he’d defeated back at the ruined house.
How had the dragon found him here? How long had he been following them?
He made himself take a few deep breaths. He wasn’t alone. The other three humans all knew nothing about dragons. The dragon wouldn’t transform and attack him here.
Then again, it hadn’t cared about Rita and Paul.
“Where is he?” the dragon demanded.
“I beg your pardon?” Raven said in confusion.
The dragon tried to push him out of the way and step into the house. Raven moved in front of him. “I think you’d better leave.”
“You think you can stop me, petty human?” the dragon snarled.
So much for convincing Raven he wasn’t a dragon. Verrian stepped into the hallway and said, magnifying his voice slightly, “It’s me you want, leave him alone.”
“Let’s try that battle again, this time without any humans to interfere,” the dragon snarled.
This time, Verrian was reasonably confident he could beat him. Having already done it once helped, so did his experiments at Lisa’s apartment, even though they’d failed. He was pretty sure he’d figured out what the problem was.
In fact, he was a little eager to try it out for real.
So it wasn’t even a struggle to get some real disdain into his voice. “Don’t you think you’ve let the humans get enough photos of us already?”
“It is true,” Raven exclaimed.
Both dragons ignored him.
“You were the one who led the humans to your hiding place and let them photograph you,” the other dragon sneered. “This is all your fault. Your family always was gullible.”
The slight made Verrian see red. His instinct was to fly towards the dragon and teach him not to disrespect his family.
Only one thing held him back.
His family’s existence had already been exposed, and despite the fact that the Trima dragon’s accusation was designed to inflame him, it was also partly true.
He wasn’t going to make the same mistake twice. Raven might believe the news story now, but he had no proof.
He couldn’t afford to let the humans get any more photos.
Even fighting in human form in front of Raven would be far too damning. But how was he going to deal with this dragon without giving the humans more evidence?
One thing was certain, there was no way he was going to run again. He’d done enough of that. And none of it had helped. Running was a waste of time. What he needed to do was deal with his problems.
The ones that were small enough anyway. Like this dragon.
For that, it was to his advantage that sound magic couldn’t be seen.
Verrian drew himself up to his full height, and used a little magic to make his voice sound even more intimidating. “At least my family understands that you can’t force someone to love you.”
“Your family doesn’t know the first thing about love,” the lightning dragon snarled.
“That’s where you’re wrong.” Verrian kept his voice soft. “We know far more than you will ever know, about love and war. And we will destroy you.”
“Woah, maybe not here,” Raven said, holding up his hands.”
“Stay out of it, human,” the Trima dragon said, not even looking over at him. “I’ll deal with you once I’ve fried this one.”
Verrian growled low in his throat. Did the Trima dragon have to keep making the fact that they weren’t human so obvious? Verrian glanced over at Raven. He was pretty sure he could use his magic subtly enough that the human wouldn’t see it, but he wasn’t sure enough of his accuracy yet. He didn’t want to accidentally hurt Raven or his friends.
“It might be better if you get out of here,” he warned him.
Raven’s eyes widened. He swallowed. “Uh…”
The back door slammed. It distracted Verrian enough that he looked over.
“Pete and Marlow just left. I think they took you at your word,” Raven joked weakly.
He didn’t show any signs of following his friends.
Verrian was a little impressed that Raven was standing his ground, but the trouble was, he needed to get rid of him. He couldn’t teach this dragon a lesson until he did. “You go with them.”
“Afraid your friends will witness your defeat?” the other dragon taunted.
Could he just shut up already?
“Well, don’t worry, your girlfriend won’t see it at least. Ultrima is on his way to deal with her now.”
Verrian froze. For a second, everything seemed to slow down, as though his whole body had been encased in ice. He couldn’t think of anything other than the need to protect Lisa.
Verrian made himself take a deep breath. Lisa was safe at work, with all the other humans. Ultrima wouldn’t dare attack her there, would he?
Of course, if Verrian wasn’t there to keep her safe when she got home…
He needed to get rid of this dragon. Now. So he could get home.
Any doubts as to whether he could do this, or how he could keep Raven safe at the same time, fled. Instinct took over.
He was only peripherally aware of giving a low growl, and his hands clenching into fists. In reality, concerns of his physical body faded away as he focused on the dragon in front of him.
The real sound he gave couldn’t be heard by anyone in the room. But Verrian could detect it, could control and focus it, as it pulsed out from him, heading towards the other dragon in a narrow beam.
It was strong enough that it blasted the Trima dragon straight over before he even knew what was happening.
“What the hell?” Raven demanded.
But Verrian didn’t pause. The Trima dragon struggled to his feet, his hand going out before he was even half way up.
Verrian didn’t wait for him to gather his magic to create a lightning bolt. He hit him again with another focused beam of sound.
This time, it threw him several metres.
“Bloody hell,” Raven said again. “Are you doing that?”
At least there was nothing for him to take a picture of. Even the other dragon couldn’t see his sound magic coming.
That was apparently unsettling enough to intimidate the Trima dragon. He struggled to his feet again, but this time, instead of advancing, he turned and ran.
Verrian hesitated, but any need to continue this fight to prove himself, fled. His only concern was to get home to Lisa. But how?
Raven stared at the retreating dragon, then at Verrian.
There was only one option. He needed to call this human on his offer of friendship, and hope it was genuine.
Chapter 39
Lisa paid the cabbie, and then stepped out onto the sidewalk. She kept her head
down, not meeting anyone’s eyes. She’d already had the cabbie ask, “So are you that girl in the papers? The one with the dragons?” She didn’t need any more questions.
She just wanted to get inside and away from prying eyes so she could ring Karla and warn her, and so that she and Verrian could decide what to do next.
“Lisa!”
Her heart skipped a beat.
Verrian.
She jerked her head up and stared as he jumped off the back of a motorbike across the street. What was he doing outside? On a motorbike? With… was that the singer from the band last night?
She waited as he hurried across the street. She was about to ask what was going on, when he pulled her into a hug. “Thank goodness you’re okay.”
His lips touched the top of her head, raising goosebumps on her arms. She pulled back to stare up at him. “Of course I’m okay. Why wouldn’t I be?”
The news article. He must have seen it.
Verrian didn’t even seem to realise they were standing around in the middle of the street, and that people were watching. One or two even had their phones up, snapping pictures. He bent his head and kissed her.
Everything around her faded away and all she was aware of was his warm lips on hers, how just the taste of him curled her toes. She melted against him.
So much for them sleeping together dealing with that itch.
Worse enough that Verrian was kissing her in the middle of the street. When their pictures were already in the paper. Lisa pulled back. “What’s going on?” she demanded.
“Ultrima,” Verrian said breathlessly. “I was terrified he’d hurt you.”
Lisa’s heart skipped a beat. Ultrima? Here? She stared around, but aside from people watching them, she could see no sign of the enemy dragon. “Where?” she demanded.
Verrian glanced around too, as though her words had concerned him. “Not yet,” he said. “But the other dragon said he was coming. We need to get out of here.”
Lisa stared at him, her mind in turmoil. She’d thought they were safe here. Where else could they possibly go? She shook her head. “No, there isn’t anywhere else, remember? We’re safe here, so long as we stay where it’s populated. Ultrima won’t dare try anything here.”
