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DRAGONHEAT
by
SHERRILL QUINN
Amber Quill Press, LLC
http://www.amberquill.com
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Dragonheat
An Amber Quill Press Book
This book is a work of fiction. All names, characters, locations, and incidents are products of the author's imagination, or have been used fictitiously.
Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, locales, or events is entirely coincidental.
Amber Quill Press, LLC
http://www.amberquill.com
http://www.amberheat.com
http://www.amber-allure.com
All rights reserved.
No portion of this book may be transmitted or reproduced in any form, or by any means, without permission in writing from the publisher, with the exception of brief excerpts used for the purposes of review.
Copyright © 2008 by Sherrill Quinn
ISBN 978-1-60272-378-8
Cover Art © 2008 Trace Edward Zaber
Layout and Formatting
Provided by: Elemental Alchemy
Published in the United States of America
Also by Sherrill Quinn
The Claiming
Claiming Hannah
Dragonfire
It Takes A Thief Or Two
Obsidian's Flame
Chapter 1
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Nikolai Zelenka watched his Rastaban--the leader of the mountain dragons--bend over the newborn babe in his wife's arms. Despite being in labor for over twenty hours, the Rastabana looked radiant, smiling down into the infant girl's face, touching the tiny fingers.
"The twin didn't survive." Rainer Batsakis, cousin to the Rastaban and second in line should something happen to their leader or his family, stopped beside Nikolai in the hospital corridor. Grief colored his deep voice.
Nikolai glanced at him and saw the reddened rims of Rainer's eyes. A dragon baby's death hit them all hard, but Rainer, as the babies' Protector, had been involved with them almost from the moment of conception and so took it harder than most.
Rainer cleared his throat. "Something has to be done."
"Something is being done," Nikolai responded quietly, looking again at the baby. She was a tiny replica of her mother--absolutely gorgeous. Breathtakingly fragile. But she'd already demonstrated a remarkable lung capacity from which his eardrums still reverberated.
"We have a geneticist working on the problem," Nikolai reminded him now.
"A human." Rainer heaved a sigh. "I can't believe we've entrusted our future to a human."
Nikolai shot him a sidelong glance. "Our Rastabana is human, Rainer." He gestured toward the room where the newest addition to their clan rested in her mother's arms. "We've already entrusted our future to a human. And you helped," he added, reminding his friend of the bonding ceremonies they had both participated in the year before.
Rainer scowled. "The Rastabana is magical--a descendent of the Druids. She's something more than human." He shook his head. "This geneticist, Adair, is only a human. Nothing more."
"Maybe, but he's a brilliant scientist. And we need him." Nikolai folded his arms over his chest and leaned against the wall. "He could be the key to reversing whatever's causing the rise in the mortality rates of our infants."
Rainer sighed again. "You're right, I know. I just..." He straightened and planted one palm against the wall. He stared at Nikolai with frustration boiling in his gaze. "I don't like not being able to do anything."
Nikolai nodded in agreement. He felt the same way. Give him someone he could fight, something he could put his fists into or throw a stream of fire at and he at least felt like he was contributing. Turning his head, he watched as their Rastaban planted a kiss on his newborn daughter's head and then kissed his wife. He murmured something to her that made her smile.
Giving her another kiss, the Rastaban straightened and walked out of the room, his dark gaze fixed on Nikolai and Rainer. "Graham Adair has disappeared," Zander Lyaksandro said, raking his hand through his hair. "He didn't report to his lab this morning. I don't know what's become of him, but he was close to a solution. That I do know." He looked from one to the other of them. "I want you to find out what's happened."
"Of course." Nikolai glanced at Rainer.
His friend's face had lightened and his eyes glittered with the anticipation of action--finally there was something they could do. He knew exactly how Rainer felt.
For the past few decades dragon births had been on the decline, and certainly not because the females weren't getting pregnant. But they were, for whatever reasons, unable to carry most babies to full term. In many cases of multiple births--like the Rastaban's twins--only one baby survived.
When that happened... Well, the surviving child was truly a miracle.
"Here's his home address." Zander gave Nikolai a piece of paper. "Go there, see what you can find. Let me know as soon as you have something."
Rainer pushed away from the wall and glanced at the piece of paper in Nikolai's hand. Nikolai could sense his friend's eagerness to be off.
"Tucson, eh?" Rainer lifted an eyebrow. "Well, at least it's someplace with mountains."
Nikolai grinned. "Let's go, buddy. We have work to do."
* * * *
Ten hours later, just after midnight, they stood outside the back door of Graham Adair's modest ranch-style home on the far east side of town. They had shifted from their dragon form back to human five miles out in the desert and once they'd dressed in clothing they'd carried in pouches around their necks, they'd jogged to Adair's.
Now Nikolai waited for Rainer to pick the lock. "Hurry up," he urged in a hushed tone. "Someone might see us."
"Who?" Rainer didn't look up from where he bent over the doorknob. "All of the houses are a couple of acres apart and everyone's lights are off. They're all asleep." He glanced up and in the moonlight Nikolai saw the glint of his teeth. "You worry worse than an old woman."
"I'll show you 'old woman,'" Nikolai muttered.
"Yeah, I just bet you... Ah, got it." Rainer twisted the knob and stood, pushing open the door. He looked over his shoulder at Nikolai. "Well? Come on."
Nikolai rolled his eyes and followed his friend inside. He closed the door behind him and walked through the kitchen, following Rainer as he unerringly made his way through the darkened house.
Nothing seemed out of place. "There doesn't appear to have been a struggle." Nikolai stepped through the living room to the front door. He bent and looked at the deadbolt--fastened from the inside. "No evidence of a break-in. Well, at least not from the front entrance," he qualified, since he and Rainer had just illegally entered from the rear of the house.
Rainer snorted and went down a hallway. Nikolai followed him in time to see him turn to his left and push open a door. As Nikolai entered the room he realized it was a home office--there was a large desk on one side of the room with a desktop computer and printer on a sidebar, and the monitor and keyboard sat in the center of the desk.
"If he left anything behind, it should be in here, don't you think?" Rainer sat in the office chair. Leaning forward, he pulled the light chain on the banker's lamp. Muted light spread over the desk and the surrounding area. He tried to open the middle drawer and frowned when it didn't budge. "It's locked." With a muttered curse, he pulled out his lock-picking tools again.
Nikolai walked to a large bookcase and picked up a framed photograph. He moved back into the light and studied the picture. Adair had his arm around a petite brunette--a very beautiful woman with long dark hair and sparkling blue eyes. His heart rate increased, his gut--and his cock--tightened. He'd had this reaction to beautiful women be
fore, but not just from their pictures. He tipped the photograph toward Rainer, "What do you think? Girlfriend?"
Rainer plopped the thin lock picks onto the top of the desk and pulled open the middle drawer. He glanced up, then stilled and looked at the photo more closely. Finally, he shook his head. "Sister, I'd say. There's a resemblance around the eyes. And the nose." He tilted his head to one side and held out his hand. "She's beautiful."
Nikolai handed him the picture.
Rainer studied the photograph in silence for a few moments, then gave it back and started rooting around in the desk drawer. He muttered a low curse. "I'm in trouble."
Nikolai frowned and leaned over the desk, trying to see inside the drawer. "Why?"
"I'm getting a hard-on and all I've done is look at a damned photo."
"Well, I'm in trouble, too." Nikolai grimaced.
Rainer looked up. He glanced at Nikolai's groin and pursed his lips. "We've gone too long without a woman, that's what it is."
"Or there is another possibility."
Rainer shook his head. "Both of us? I don't think so."
"It's happened before." Nikolai headed across the room and replaced the photograph on the shelf. He squinted, reading the spines of the various books--textbooks by the looks of them--standing there.
"The last time it happened was way before our time." Rainer shut the drawer and Nikolai heard the slide of wood on wood as he opened another one.
"I understand that." Nikolai turned and looked at him. "Almost two hundred years before our time. But still, it's possible."
Rainer leaned back in the chair. "You think that you and I, the two of us together, have recognized a shared mate? Not by scent, but from a photo?"
"All right then. Tell me this--when was the last time you got aroused just by looking at a picture? A picture that wasn't a naked woman in a girly magazine," he qualified.
Rainer remained silent.
Nikolai raised his eyebrows and waited.
"Fine," Rainer finally muttered. He huffed a sigh. "You could be right. But it's damned poor timing. And she's human."
"What is it with you and humans? I happen to like humans." Nikolai frowned. Rainer had been increasingly conservative in his views on the mixing of species. Nikolai was waiting for his friend and brother-in-arms to start chanting "Dragon Power" with his fist held high.
"I like humans," Rainer said. "Most humans, anyway." He shook his head. "Look, it's just... I think dragon problems should stay just that. Dragon problems. There are too many hunters out there--any information about us that gets into their hands would prove disastrous."
He wasn't wrong. Any time they took a chance and showed a human that dragons were real, it could come back to bite them in their collective ass.
Big time.
"Which, I guess, is one reason why you and I are here." Nikolai began perusing the bookshelves again. Perhaps Adair had hidden some small clue among these texts that would give a hint as to his whereabouts. But there didn't seem to be anything here. "I'll go check his bedroom," he murmured.
Rainer muttered an agreement, still bent over the desk drawers.
Nikolai headed farther down the hallway. He poked his head into the next room and flipped on the light. The full-size bed was neatly made with an old-fashioned quilt on it. There was a lone dresser against one wall, but no signs of use. Guest room, he surmised. He turned off the light and kept going down the hall. The next room was where he hit pay dirt.
He felt along the wall until he reached the wall switch. The overhead light revealed a large unmade bed. Clothes littered its surface and several dresser drawers were open. As Rainer came into the room, Nikolai glanced up. "Looks like he left in a hurry, that's for sure." He shook his head. "We could be in trouble."
"There's nothing in his desk." Rainer sat on the edge of the bed and sifted idly through the clothing next to him. He looked up at Nikolai. "If he left voluntarily, Nik, it wasn't necessarily because he wanted to."
"But because he had to." Nikolai started to say more but stopped when he heard the front door open.
Rainer narrowed his eyes and hopped off the bed. The two of them moved soundlessly toward the open bedroom door. Nikolai turned off the light and they waited, one on each side of the door.
Whoever had entered the house turned on a lamp in the living room and light spilled into the hallway. There was a thud and the jingle of keys, then a woman called out, "Graham?"
Nikolai pushed away from the wall. Those husky feminine tones shot from his eardrums straight to his groin. His cock hardened and he winced, reaching down to adjust himself. He had a strong feeling the owner of that voice was the same woman in the photograph he and Rainer had already been drooling over. Either that or his libido was completely out of control. "Stay here," he whispered to Rainer and started to leave the room.
Rainer grabbed him by the arm. "Why?"
Nikolai glared at him. "If we both go out there we might scare her," he muttered. "If you go out there by yourself, you'll definitely scare her. Let me see who it is and what she wants."
His friend's lips compressed, but he let go of Nikolai's arm. "Fine. But don't take too long."
"Graham?" The woman's voice came closer.
Nikolai gave Rainer a warning look and then left the room. The woman--and indeed she was the same one from in the picture--had already started down the hallway and he met her halfway between Adair's bedroom and the living room.
He had time to notice she was dressed in jeans and a red knit shirt over which she wore a long-sleeved denim jacket. Her long, dark hair was gathered behind her head in a ponytail. She halted abruptly, knuckles going white around the purse strap on her shoulder. Her free hand delved into the oversized bag and she pulled out a can of pepper spray. His gaze focused on it even as he raised his eyebrows in surprise.
"Who the hell are you and what have you done with my brother?"
* * * *
DeeDee Adair pointed the nozzle of her pepper spray at the man's face. That he was gorgeous--tall, built, and blond--registered right away. But that he was dangerous--as evidenced by the ready way in which he held his body and the grim look in his eyes--was the observation in the forefront.
He held his hands up in an age-old gesture of surrender. "I've done nothing to your brother, Ms..."
She frowned. For now she wasn't going to give this guy any more information about herself than was necessary. And from where she was standing, the less he knew at the moment, the better. "Then what are you doing in his house? And how did you get in?"
A pulse pounded in her throat and her breath came hard and fast. She focused on getting her fear under control. Now would not be a good time to start hyperventilating.
His reply came with ease. "Dr. Adair has been working on something for us. It came to our attention that he suddenly left town and we came to find out what happened." The man's deep voice was smooth, soothing even.
That he hadn't answered either of her questions coupled with the fact that he alluded to another person being involved didn't exactly put her in a calmer frame of mind. "I'll ask you again--what are you doing in his house and how the hell did you get in? And who are we?"
Another man, equally as tall and well-built--and dark to the first man's light--stepped out of Graham's bedroom. "We are Nikolai Zelenka"--he gestured to the other man--"and Rainer Batsakis." He put his fingertips in the middle of his chest before letting his hand drop back to his side.
Which told her absolutely nada. DeeDee drew in a deep breath and slowly let it out. And kept the pepper spray steady on the closest man. She raised her eyebrows, waiting for one of them to answer her other two questions.
She was a floor manager at a large retail store--she did a lot of interviews and employee "interventions" as she liked to call them. She knew the tricks of staying quiet so the other person would feel the need to fill in the empty space with words.
You could learn a lot about someone by the way they dealt with lapses in conversati
ons.
After several moments went by and neither man responded, she pursed her lips. All righty then, these two must know that same trick, because it wasn't working.
Deciding that perhaps a strategic retreat was in order, DeeDee backed up into the living room. Leaving her small overnighter where she'd dropped it by the sofa, she kept going until she reached the front door, never taking her eyes--or the aim of her can of pepper spray--off of the two men who followed her.
She'd do what any thinking person would have done when confronted by an intruder--get the hell out and call the cops.
"Look, Ms...Adair is it?" The dark haired man--he'd called himself Rainer--raked a hand through his hair. "We really are the guys in white hats here."
"Uh-huh." DeeDee bumped up against the front door. Letting go of her purse strap for the moment, she reached behind her and found the door latch. She pushed it down and started to ease open the door.
Nikolai's stance became ultra-alert, his nostrils flaring and eyes narrowing. His gaze slid past her to the large curtained picture window on her right. "Get away from the door," he ordered in a low voice.
"Now, listen here," she began, only to be cut off when he charged toward her. Eyes wide, fear closing her throat, she still managed a squeak of alarm and depressed the button on the pepper spray. The stream soared over his shoulder to land harmlessly on the carpet. God, he was fast! He grabbed her and moved behind the sofa. He pushed her to the floor and slanted his big body over hers, his large hands cradling her head.
At the same time Rainer turned off the lamp. She heard him moving, his heavy boots squeaking as he crawled past her on his way to the picture window.
Heat from Nikolai's body seeped into her, tempting her to stroke her hands along his lean sides. Ay-ay-ay. Get a grip, girl. Now's not the time to be lusting after him, though that's an interesting development. She wiggled a bit and the bulge pressing against her abdomen hardened even further.
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