Holden's Mate

by Meg Ripley

  6

  Dirk thought he was angry before when he discovered that Dr. Brinkmann was holding him captive, but he was even more furious when he saw Alyssa’s face peering at him through the glass. The shock that was written there was enough to make him try once again to break the glass, even though he knew it was useless. Still, Brinkmann must not have been entirely convinced that Dirk couldn’t break free, otherwise he wouldn’t have insisted on keeping his upgraded soldiers stationed around his cell.

  Alyssa brushed aside some of the soldiers with her hand, and they moved like water away from her. Dirk wondered if they had somehow been programmed that way, or if they just had respect for the beautiful woman. She stepped up to the mic for the com system, her blue eyes watching him as she spoke. “Hi. I’m Alyssa. Can you talk?”

  He glared at her. Why was she talking to him like that? “Yes,” he growled.

  Her face flushed slightly. “Can you tell me your name?”

  A startling realization hit Dirk. Dr. Brinkmann hadn’t told her who he was. Why not? Didn’t his identity make things all the more complicated? But perhaps the doctor didn’t give a shit who Dirk was and who his father was. He just knew he had a dragon in his lab. Well, that was fine. If Dr. Brinkmann wasn’t going to tell her, then neither was he.

  “What’s your name?” Alyssa repeated gently, interrupting his thoughts.

  Dirk shook his head.

  “Dr. Brinkmann says you’re a human,” she said, her voice sounding odd through the speaker. “Can you change back?”

  He ran his tongue against his teeth, feeling the sharpness of each one. The tranquilizer had worn off well enough at this point that he could shift any time he wanted, but he wasn’t about to. Dirk had more weapons at his disposal in his dragon form. There was no good reason for him to give that up unless he had to. Besides, he was pissed. He didn’t want to give anyone the satisfaction of feeling like they could control him. Not even Alyssa.

  She frowned and hesitated for a moment. Dirk wouldn’t have expected her to be anything but bold and ruthless in the lab, just like Dr. Brinkmann, but she had probably never seen a dragon before. “Did someone do this to you?”

  Dirk turned away so he wouldn’t have to look at her. What must Alyssa think right now? The Dirk she knew had disappeared sometime in the night and not come back, but he had gone and left that damn note on the table. He had known he would be gone for a while, but he hadn’t anticipated something like this. He doubted Alyssa was even sparing a thought for their night of discourse and passion now that she had a new test subject in her lab.

  “I see you have a broken wing. Does it hurt?”

  Dirk cast a glance over his shoulder at her, and then at his wing. Sure enough, one of the phalanges had broken during his foolish efforts at escape. It made the leathery skin hang loosely. He’d rarely been injured as a dragon before, and it had always been a superficial wound that healed quickly. He knew he would recover from it eventually, but it wouldn’t be as simple as healing a cut.

  “I’d like to help you. Will you hurt me if I come in there?”

  It was a bold question and one that Dirk had to give her credit for. She had seen him for all of five minutes, and already she was willing to step inside the enclosure with him. Even Dr. Brinkmann hadn’t dared to do such a thing, opting instead to take all the samples he wanted while Dirk was asleep. He could still feel the sting on his arm where several scales had been forcibly removed. But he wouldn’t hurt Alyssa. None of this was her fault. “No.”

  Alyssa stepped away from the com system and went to the other side of the lab. She returned a few moments later with a splint and medical tape. She spoke to the soldiers, a conversation Dirk couldn’t hear through the wall. They hesitated a moment before they filtered away, dispersing throughout the lab. Alyssa unlocked the door with the retinal scanner, entered, and closed it behind her.

  Dirk could smell her as soon as she entered. It was the same scent he recognized from his night out with her, but it was heightened now that he wasn’t experiencing her through human sensors. It was not just the sweet fragrance of her perfume and the soft scent of her body, but the bouquet of her own essence mixed with his, and it was heady. Unfortunately, he was in no position to do anything about it.

  “I don’t know how this happened,” she said quietly as she slowly stepped forward. “I only hope that you did it to yourself. I wouldn’t like to think that anyone else did it to you.” She meant Dr. Brinkmann, but she wouldn’t just come out and say it.

  “You didn’t bring your guards,” he grated.

  Alyssa was close enough now that she could reach out and touch him. She ran her hand gently over the curve of his wing before tenderly probing at the broken bone. “I didn’t see much need. If you decide to hurt me, I’ll be dead before the men can do anything about it.” Her fingers were cool as they touched him.

  He laughed, a gravelly sound in his reptilian body. “You’re probably right.”

  “I’d like to get this x-rayed, but I think I can do this well enough as it is. This next part might hurt a little, so I apologize in advance.”

  Dirk grunted as she popped the broken bone back into place. It was painful, but only for a moment. Now that the bone was in the right position, it would heal quickly. He stood still while she taped the splint to his wing.

  “Are there others like you?” she asked softly. “I can’t say I’ve ever heard of a real-life dragon before, if that’s what you are.”

  He didn’t answer. How could he? Alyssa was a wonderful woman, a different woman, but she worked for a very evil man. Dirk couldn’t risk the rest of the Darkblood Society falling prey to him.

  She nodded when she didn’t get a reply. “Okay, I get it. I’m going to leave you alone for a little while. Can I bring you any food?”

  Dirk shrugged, which was a flap of his good wing. “Protein.”

  She considered him a moment, numerous questions that she wanted to ask him dancing in her blue eyes. “I can do that. And then I’ll come back later and maybe we can talk again.” She stood up and was gone, leaving her scent lingering in the air.

  A guard came back twenty minutes later and slid a plate of steak through a slot in the door. “Eat up, you brute,” he barked.

  Waiting until the soldier was gone and there was nobody around to watch him, Dirk gobbled down the steak and wondered just how he was going to get himself out of this.

  7

  The dragon needed some time. That was reasonable. Whoever he was and whatever had happened, it had probably been a very long night for him. Brinkmann and the guards had poked, prodded and teased him, and it made sense to let him rest. Besides, Alyssa had plenty of other work to do.

  She quickly found the blood samples Brinkmann had drawn and set them up with various tests. One vial went into the genome sequencer. She used another sample to test for any known bacterial strains. There was plenty of blood available, and she quickly started all the analyses she could think of with her muddled brain.

  There was a dragon in the basement. A dragon. It was the kind of thing a zoologist would want to find, not a synthetic biologist—no, maybe not, since Dr. Brinkmann insisted that this creature was also a human. It was just so hard to wrap her mind around, and she had helped develop artificial vision and bionic limbs for injured soldiers. The kind of work she was doing was incredibly advanced to the point of being illegal for most people, and yet she couldn’t stop thinking about him.

  Once the lab equipment was doing its job, Alyssa sat down at her computer. She tapped absently at the keys, not even sure what she wanted to do next. She just wanted to talk to the dragon, to find out everything about him and who he really was. Maybe she should be taking pictures of him and measuring his wingspan. Either way, she had to get back down there.

  Alyssa was pleased to see that the soldiers had followed her orders and stayed away from the containment unit. She had considered bringing another meal with her, but she decided it might be a better idea to u
se that as a bribe if the dragon refused to talk again. She stepped into the cell without hesitation.

  The dragon was in almost the same position as she had left him. The plate that had held his steak was licked clean, and the creature paced along the back of the enclosure. He watched her as she approached, those silvery eyes staring into hers.

  “I hope you enjoyed your meal,” Alyssa said pleasantly, aware that she shouldn’t anger him.

  He said nothing.

  Great, it was going to be like this again. At least Brinkmann had only been expecting lab results, not a full-length interview. “I want to help you. I don’t know exactly what’s going on or why you’re here, other than you broke in. But I can’t help you at all if you don’t talk to me.” She wanted to help, but he had to cooperate.

  The dragon swung his head around to look at her. “Why would you want to help me? Aren’t I your captive?”

  Alyssa bit her lower lip. “I don’t know. I’m not sure I would put it that way. You’re certainly a medical marvel, though, and I think knowing more about you could make a big difference in the lives of regular humans.”

  He grunted. “If you say so. It’s not as though I could stop you.”

  Watching him for another minute, Alyssa studied his scale-studded face and the way his large, reptilian eyes looked back at her. There was something almost familiar about him, but of course that was ridiculous. “If you’re human, as Dr. Brinkmann says you are, then you probably have friends or family who are worried about you. Is there someone I can give a message to?”

  “I wouldn’t advise it,” he said crisply. “Not if you want to stay alive.”

  “Alright, then. I do prefer to remain whole.” Her heart was pounding at the threat, even though it was an indirect one. “Just tell me your name. You don’t have to actually identify yourself or tell me your address, but give me something I can call you.”

  That silver eye narrowed at the corner. “No. You’re going to have to guess.”

  She almost laughed. “How could I do that? You could be anybody.”

  “I could, but I’m not,” he assured her. “Have you decided you like White Russians?”

  Alyssa stared at him for a long moment, her breath caught in her lungs like a trapped fish. It couldn’t be. Someone had to be playing a trick on her. This was just some very elaborate costume or something. Dirk was a rich man, and he must have gotten together with Brinkmann to make a fool out of her.

  With hurt and dismay rattling in her chest, she understood that she knew exactly what was going on. “Dirk? You’ve got to be lying to me. I’ve never wanted anyone to lie to me in my life, but please tell me you’re shitting me.”

  But those familiar eyes looked at her once again, and she knew this was no prank. As though to prove it, the dragon began to change right before her eyes. The massive wings shriveled and sank into his back, the useless splint falling to the floor. His strong, scaly arms smoothed over with human skin, the claws shortening and retreating into very human fingernails. The creature writhed as it morphed, as though the process was painful. Alyssa took a step back as the shoulders narrowed, the neck shortened, and the long muzzle of the dragon pushed in to once again become the man she had gotten to know so well the night before.

  Tentatively, Alyssa reached out with one finger and touched the back of his hand when he had finished the transition. “Is it really you? I mean, it looks like you, but…”

  Dirk stood, but he didn’t try to approach her. Instead, he watched her carefully as though she was the creature who might lash out at any moment.

  Her confusion fell away to anger. “Why didn’t you tell me?” She turned her back to him and wrapped her fingers around the back of her neck, trying to think. Would she have done anything differently if she had known it was Dirk? Of course she would have, and that was what made it worse. The identity of the man in the containment unit never should have mattered. It had been more important that they get their scientific studies in than that they consider the feelings of the shifter. Sure, she had tried to get him to talk, and it had been his choice to refuse, but still. “I can’t believe this.”

  “You seem like you’re angry with me.”

  “I am angry!” she raged. “I’m beyond pissed. You come waltzing into my life acting like you want to know about the work I’m doing, but you’re a medical marvel yourself. Or maybe a mythical one. I don’t even know. And then you’re here, and you’re a dragon, and you won’t even talk to me. I’m not the enemy here, Dirk. I don’t think I even know who is, anymore.” Alyssa turned to look at him, but she couldn’t stand seeing those same soulful gray eyes that had only a minute before been part of a beautiful and wondrous creature.

  “If it makes any difference to you, Brinkmann knew exactly who I was.” Dirk took a few tentative steps closer. “I was still in human form when I broke into the lab.”

  This brought a whole new round of questions to her mind. “You mean, he knew all along that you were a shifter? Even when we were out at dinner and everything?”

  “No, not until after one of your action heroes shot me with a tranq gun. Then my body shifted on its own. But he certainly knew my identity.”

  Alyssa took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. She had to find some way to control her temper or she was going to pass out. “I don’t get it. I don’t understand why he wouldn’t tell me.”

  Dirk was only a few inches away now, and he reached out and touched his hand to her waist. “Because he knew what you didn’t know until after we went back to my apartment. You like me. If you had known who I was, it would have made you think twice about keeping me here.”

  She didn’t want to admit he was right about that, about all of it. She did like him, but it didn’t seem right that anyone should know about it before her. “Alright. Then tell me why you broke in here. You left a note that you had gone for a walk.”

  He bobbled his head from side to side as he thought about it. “Which isn’t technically a lie because I parked down the road and walked to the building, but I get what you’re saying. I told you I wanted to know more about what you were doing here. I knew it had to be something big, but Brinkmann made me suspicious about it when he gave me so little information. I can see that I wasn’t wrong.” He gestured around him, encompassing the soldiers, the equipment, the building.

  “The Talos Project is big,” she agreed. “It’s bigger than I ever imagined it would be. It’s named after a mythological creature made of bronze at the order of Zeus, an automaton who patrolled the island of Crete to protect it. Some myths say that he was part man and part machine, making him a perfect role model for this project.” She had helped come up with the name herself and had been quite proud of it until recently.

  “And from what I can tell, you’re creating super soldiers.” It wasn’t a question, and Alyssa didn’t doubt that Dirk had seen a lot during his short stay at the lab.

  “I didn’t think we would go beyond fitting war veterans with robotic arms. But these are men who want to get back out in the field and fight again, who don’t want to be seen as a hindrance because they’ve been injured. Brinkmann is going a step beyond bionic organs and is outfitting them with weapons. We even have one who has heat vision.” It was just the sort of thing she was starting to wonder about, ethically.

  “Yes, I met him last night. Charming fellow. As exciting as your work must be, why would Brinkmann be interested in me?”

  Alyssa shifted uncomfortably, suddenly wishing she was on the other side of the glass. Why did this have to be so hard? Why did Dirk have to be so damn good looking, and then smart and charming on top of it? He was clouding her judgement, and it had been clouded enough by working on humans, even when that wasn’t what she had originally signed on for. “Think about it, Dirk. A man who can become another creature, especially one as fierce and terrifying as a dragon, would be the perfect soldier. They come in looking completely normal and then scare the holy living hell out of their enemies while taking the
m down with ease. What better super soldier is there than that?”

  Dirk reached out with his finger and brushed aside a strand of her hair. “Do you really think I’m terrifying?”

  She didn’t know how to answer that. He was, but not for the reasons he thought. Alyssa was confident that Dirk wouldn’t shred her with his claws, but he represented a threat of an entirely different kind. She’d lived her life for herself for a long time, and she hadn’t been sure how Dirk would fit into it even before she had known what he really was. “Listen, I’ve got to find a way to get you out of here. It isn’t going to be easy. Brinkmann has the soldiers who aren’t being actively experimented on set on guard duty at all times. It keeps them busy and it keeps our secret safe, at least most of the time.”

  He waved ironically at the containment unit around them. “But what will happen when a scary beast like myself gets out of here? Won’t I harm all the villagers?”

  She didn’t miss the spark of humor in his eye, but she didn’t have the time for it. “Just come on. This is only going to get more complicated the longer we wait.” Opening the electronic lock, Alyssa led the way out of the containment unit. A soldier immediately stepped up, weapon at the ready, when he saw Dirk following her through the door. “It’s alright,” she said, holding up her hand. “I have some other tests I want to run on him, and I can’t do it inside the cell. He’s agreed to stay peaceable.” Alyssa continued through the lab confidently, as though she had nothing to worry about.

  “You’ll lose your job,” Dirk whispered in her ear.

  “I know.”

  “And Brinkmann will expose you for everything the two of you have done here together. He’ll blame you for everything.”