Dragon's Flame

by Jory Strong

  He turned away from the debris then lifted and draped her over his shoulder. “Why—“

  “No talking,” he said and the net tightened at her throat.

  She struggled and the net immobilized her.

  He carried her out of the bullpen, hurried down the hall and into what had to be the evidence room, then dropped her onto the floor near his desk.

  Pain radiated through her shoulders and along her spine.

  He muttered, “Nothing magical,” then jerked a green lab coat off the back of a chair before pulling scissors from a desk drawer.

  He cut strips from the coat. Knelt next to her, hovered a forefinger over her chin. “From the top of her head to here, release.”

  The weave disappeared. She opened her mouth to shout and had that shout silenced with brutal efficiency by the magic at her throat.

  Anders gagged her, tying a strip of lab coat so tightly around her head that it cut into the corners of her mouth.

  She tasted blood. He hovered his forefinger below her wrists. “From her chin to here, release.”

  The magic disappeared. She tried to move her fingers but they remained locked against her thighs.

  Frowning, as if touching her repulsed him, Anders grasped her forearms and moved them inward, then bound her wrists together.

  Hope flared and she grabbed onto it. With her arms in front of her, given enough time, she could get free.

  He lowered the net again, smart enough to tie her ankles together but stay out of range of a kick. Or maybe he believed he had her cowed.

  She wasn’t, but he had the advantage. For now.

  At his command the rest of the net peeled away. And with the lack of contact, shrunk so it once again looked like a large, red-and-blue marble.

  Anders picked it up, put it in a desk drawer than returned to crouch at her shoulder. He grasped the silver necklace chain and tugged Shanna’s charm from beneath Saffron’s shirt.

  For the first time, the gnome smiled. “He thinks I’m too stupid to know the real reason he wants you.”

  With a jerk Anders tore the chain from her neck. He stood, contemplated it, muttered, “I can’t risk taking it with me.”

  He returned to the desk, wrapped the charm in the destroyed lab coat and shoved it into the bottom drawer. He slammed the drawer closed, then opened a door into the garage.

  The sight of the black cargo van with its back doors open had her fighting against panic. Wait. Think.

  It took everything she had not to just react. Reason dominated, barely.

  Struggling wildly wasn’t an option. Bound and gagged, she couldn’t call out and she’d get a few hopped steps before he’d reach her.

  Even if she were miraculously to get free, in a room full of magical artifacts, the advantage would still be his.

  Better to wait. Make her move when there was a chance of escaping. Better still to find a way to lead Taine and the others to Anders, and from him to the sorcerer.

  Anders hauled her up and over his shoulder. Whether luck, or prudery, her face was above his ass instead of his crotch.

  It didn’t matter. She’d take any advantage.

  She reached backward. Managed to remove the charm Sabra had given her when they were eleven.

  Anders reached the doorway into the garage. Saffron feigned a struggle to escape, distracting him as she threw the charm toward the desk.

  It landed underneath, near one of the legs. It was the best she could do.

  For now.

  Chapter 14

  Saffron was tossed into the van. Her skull slammed against the vinyl floor, sending shards of pain through her head.

  With the same expression of disgust he’d worn at having to touch her when he bound her wrists, Anders wrenched her arms above her head then secured her wrists to a tie down meant to keep cargo from moving. He did the same with her bound ankles.

  Thin lips disappearing, Anders liberated her cellphone from her pocket along with her keys. He then cinched chains across her thighs and chest.

  It was total overkill. But it made her wonder if he didn’t have magic of his own, or if he was worried she’d get free and kick his ass.

  The thought lifted her spirits, but then the weight of the chains, the sense of helplessness threated to crush them. She countered with deep breaths.

  Forced herself to lie quietly, conserving her energy. There was nothing she could do now, and so far, Elon Moates had avoided killing people.

  Don’t let me be the first, she prayed.

  The van’s engine started and they left the garage. All she could see was a sliver of blue sky through the front windshield.

  Seconds later they stopped, probably next to her car. Anders got out, then returned to the driver’s seat and the van surged forward.

  He’d need to come back, for the charm and to cover his involvement with Elon. When he did, Taine and the others would be waiting for him.

  She had to believe that, not that she’d wait for rescue.

  The further they got from IRE headquarters, the better, she told herself. It’d give Taine time to miss her, to go looking for her. He’d find the shattered snow globe and know something was wrong.

  Maybe he could follow her scent to the evidence room. Or if he couldn’t, then maybe one of the others would switch places with Kellen at the astrologist’s.

  Only... Would Maksim allow them to be distracted by this when time was running out?

  Whether Maksim allowed it or not, Taine would look for her. She knew that with absolute certainty.

  Let Taine find the charm. If he found the charm, he’d have cause to question Anders, to search the desk and take possession of Shanna’s charm.

  Her heart thumped painfully. She’d done her best but there were no guarantees this would end well.

  She’d be close to the egg. There might be a chance to act as a portal. There was a greater chance, given the forest fire and the warehouse fires, that she might be one of the first to die when the phoenix emerged from its egg.

  Regret clogged her throat. At not being courageous enough to admit her feelings to Taine—not that he’d actually said the L word.

  But that didn’t mean he hadn’t told her with his hands and mouth and cock, with the possessive way he looked at her, the growled mine she’d let slide because she wasn’t ready to hear it, or see it, or acknowledge it. It’d been there in the way he was protective, had fought against his own instincts and let her enter the sorcerer’s house because she needed to be who she was.

  She might not see Taine again, might never get a chance to tell him that because of him, she’d broken her ultimate rule when it came to getting involved. Reflexively she jerked at the bindings. Once, twice, a third time, self-discipline threatening to desert her.

  Chill, she told herself, forcing her arms and legs to remain against the floor. Chill.

  Anders would check her wrists and ankles before he unchained her. Any sign that the cloth ties had loosened and he’d redo them. She needed to wait until she was within striking range of Elon—or the egg.

  The van slowed to a crawl though she had no true sense of how much time had passed. She had no idea where they were in relation to IRE headquarters.

  Anders backed up. Parked.

  He made a call, said, “I’m here with her,” then moved into the cargo area.

  He checked the bindings at her wrists and ankles.

  Satisfied that they were still tight enough, he removed the chains and freed her from the tie-downs.

  He opened the back doors, jumped out of the van then grabbed her ankles and dragged her toward him, forcing her to sit and once again positioning her over his shoulder.

  The instant she was no longer shielded by the van, the desire to go somewhere else hit her in waves. It assaulted her, growing stronger with each step away from the van.

  Images flashed through her mind, mostly of being at the beach with Taine and friends and family. She ached to walk on sand and feel the surf across her feet.
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  A craving for chocolate fudge ice cream had saliva saturating the gag. More than anything else, she wanted to get an ice cream cone and walk on the beach.

  The need to map out a route from here to there was the sole reason she took note of her location. Even upside down, she recognized Balboa Park.

  Her mind skipped back to ice cream and the beach. Compulsion, she thought, saliva still filling her mouth.

  A few more steps and dread crept in. She imagined Anders getting back to IRE and discovering the charm she’d left behind as a clue.

  Her father had forgotten to take his stay safe charm with him. He’d gone on deployment and returned in a casket.

  What if Anders destroyed the charm? What if he got rid of her Corolla after leaving Taine a break-up note next to the shattered snow globe?

  The feelings of dread expanded. Her adrenaline surged and self-discipline deserted her in a rush.

  She couldn’t allow Anders to find her charm! She couldn’t allow him to take possession of Shanna’s charm! And she sure as hell couldn’t allow him to hurt Taine with his lies.

  She thrashed, tried to fling herself to the ground, was prepared to crawl if she couldn’t run.

  Her heart banged against her ribs, threatening to break them in a desperate attempt to escape an unwanted cage and flee.

  This isn’t me.

  That thought was like a hook catching a flailing sliver of sanity.

  This isn’t me.

  This isn’t me.

  This isn’t me.

  The thought became a hammer driving back the mindless panic.

  She was covered in sweat but she found an inner calm.

  They were inside the Botanical Building. She hadn’t been aware of entering it, but she recognized the lath walls and domed roof.

  She strained for sounds of tourists but wasn’t surprised to hear no voices. Elon had cleared the building, must have cleared the area as far as he dared or someone would have seen her with Anders and interfered.

  The walkway came into focus and she saw the script written there, watched as Anders was careful to avoid stepping on the inked symbols.

  The writing reminded her of what was in some of the books in the IRE library, and what had been carved into the astrologist’s table.

  They cleared a cluster of trees. A male voice that had to belong to Elon said, “Put her there.”

  Anders dropped her onto bark in a landscaped area. She hit hard enough to force the air from her lungs into the gag.

  Pain burst across her back but she wrenched herself upward into a sitting position. Elon was still wearing his park ranger uniform.

  It was soiled and stained, as if he’d raced from the fire to here. He was on his knees, braced on one hand as he wrote on the floor.

  His hair was blond, like Shanna’s. He was tanned, obviously fit though he wasn’t eye-catching in the way the IRE agents, with the exception of Anders, were.

  Elon finished a line of script. He set the pen down and straightened onto his knees. He rolled his wrist, flexed his hand then rolled his shoulders before standing and carefully making his way to her and Anders.

  He looked down at her with a scowl. “I can’t waste magic securing her, or attention watching her. Her hands should be behind her back, not where she can free her ankles and ruin everything by smudging the spell or escaping.”

  Wait for the chance. Wait…

  She managed it until it became clear that they meant to lash her hands on the opposite side of a tall, thin, deeply-rooted tree. Then she struggled, swinging, landing a satisfactory uppercut to Anders’s chin that knocked his head back.

  But two against one, her ankles bound, they got her wrists behind the tree and retied them.

  It didn’t mean she’d given up.

  There was still hope. She refused to believe otherwise. She would get free.

  Standing in front of her, Elon asked Anders, “Where’s my sister’s charm?”

  Anders’s expressionless face might as well have been carved from smooth, white stone. “The dragon has it. He was afraid she’d put herself at risk if they determined the location of the egg.”

  Elon scowled but Anders’s lie had Saffron looking for the egg, finding it to her right, cradled a few inches off the ground in a polished tripod made of shiny black volcanic rock.

  Her pulse sped at seeing the flames fuzzing the surface of what would otherwise have looked like a gray, pitted clump of ash. Symbols carved into the stand touched the egg and flowed down the tripod’s legs to join with the script on the floor like a detonation cord.

  “The charm poses a threat,” Elon said.

  “I’ll take care of it.”

  “I’ll walk you back to the van to make sure there’s no trace of her there.”

  It became clear to Saffron why Anders had left the charm at IRE headquarters. He’d wanted to keep Elon from finding it. He was probably afraid of being double crossed and thought the charm could be reworked to give him protection—or maybe it was his get out of jail card.

  Even if she hadn’t been gagged, she wouldn’t have told Elon where the charm was. As long as Elon didn’t have it, there was a chance he could be stopped.

  The instant they were out of sight, she worked on the knots at her wrist. A glance at the egg and she jerked harder against the restraints, the cloth at her wrists dampening with blood.

  * * * *

  Too much time had passed.

  Taine had been ignoring the sense of loss for what felt like hours.

  True, the moment his mate left the library he’d wanted to fetch her back. He hadn’t because he was needed here, and he’d respected her wishes.

  He’d even congratulated himself on his restraint when he’d looked out the window and seen her talking on the phone.

  This city was full of humans she cared about. And besides, he’d turned her world upside down in the shower.

  He couldn’t help but preen, then silently laughed with the admission that learning he was a dragon might have rocked her world more thoroughly than the incredible sex had—at least this time. But whatever the cause, this had turned into far too long a separation.

  Taine huffed—very careful not to let a hint of smoke or fire escape in the library.

  Maksim’s phone buzzed where it lay on the table. Everyone looked up from the tomes they were studying.

  In the center of the table, the list of possibilities had grown to fifty-two. A name had been crossed out.

  The merest shake of Maksim’s head as he read the message told them their second guess had been wrong. Gaige picked up a pencil and scratched through that name.

  The visible clench of Maksim’s jaw indicated that the news was worse than this latest failure. Crew said what the rest of them were thinking “The astrologist is tapped out.”

  “One more guess,” Maksim said. “The last was expensive. Isolde’s kingdom touches this one in two weeks, in Sydney, Australia. The next guess has to be the right one.”

  Open books lay across the table. There were hand-drawn pictures of reigning queens in some of them, paragraphs of description in others.

  It was entirely possible that they were wrong about the spell Elon intended. Except…

  Saffron’s theory made sense.

  Unable to continue sitting, Taine stood and paced to the window. Looked out and saw his mate’s car, but not his mate.

  Too much time had passed and he couldn’t bear the separation any longer. Wheeling around, he left the room.

  He didn’t care that he’d soon be on the receiving end of any number of amused jabs. Getting to his mate was all that mattered.

  He took the stairs two and three at a time. He hadn’t heard her come back in and there was no sense of her presence in the house.

  He went out through the front door. The breeze had dissipated her scent.

  Not seeing her, he jogged around to the back of the house.

  There was no sign of her.

  He pulled his phone from his po
cket. Called her.

  Five rings and he got voicemail.

  His heart leapt into a faster beat with the sound of her voice.

  He called her again.

  For a second time it went unanswered.

  Fear left a metallic taste in his mouth.

  She wouldn’t ignore his call. Even if they were in the midst of a disagreement—which they weren’t—she wouldn’t ignore his call, not with so much at stake.

  He entered the house through the back door, charged into the bullpen on the wild hope that she’d left a message for him there.

  Pain ripped through his chest at finding that message. The snow globe lay shattered on his desk, the dragon and his human mate in pieces.

  Taine dropped into his chair, could only stare, ache streaking through his heart and climbing his throat. Confusion fogging his thoughts.

  Why? He’d thought…

  How could this be happening?

  His lungs and throat and eyes burned.

  He clenched his jaw against a roar that would set fire to everything around him. He closed his eyes against the moisture gathering there, his thoughts taking him to the memory they’d made just a short time ago in the shower.

  I’m a rip the bandage off kind of girl, she’d said and with his cock lodged inside her, he’d finally revealed that he was a dragon. Had breathed fire over her skin in a caress that had startled her, but also brought the scent of fresh arousal.

  Her channel had clenched on him. She’d licked delectable, sensual lips and acknowledged, without understanding it was more than fantasy, that in the moment when he’d bound himself to her, when the spurs at his wrists had raked across her stomach and the spur on his cock had turned orgasm into something that transcended the physical, she’d seen his dragon form.

  This couldn’t be happening.

  She’d teased him, called him a lizard when he’d suggested she rethink her pet’s name. How could anything he’d done since then have driven her away? Especially now, when her city was in danger and at her core, she was a protector?

  She wouldn’t. His mate wouldn’t abandon her city in its time of need! His mate wouldn’t run rather than question. She was as courageous as any dragon!

  His eyes snapped open. He catapulted from the chair, sure in the knowledge that someone else was responsible for his mate’s disappearance.