by Rinelle Grey
“I’m more than happy to drop you off,” Lisa retorted. “But you’re going to have to live without your camera.”
“That’s theft,” Rita shot back. “Do you have any idea how much that camera cost?”
Lisa scooped the camera out of her lap and fiddled with one hand, pulling out the memory card, and slipping it into her bra. Then she pulled the strap off her neck and swung the camera over the back of the seat towards Rita. “Fine, have the camera, but not the pictures.”
She couldn’t even take another picture now without the memory card.
Rita grabbed the camera and glared at Lisa. “The images are mine too. I have the right to photograph whatever I want. You can’t stop me.”
“I think she just did,” Verrian said softly.
Lisa could see Rita turning her glare on him in the rear-view mirror, then averting her gaze just as quickly. She bit back a giggle. Apparently Rita couldn’t handle Verrian’s nakedness.
She had no problem with it. Under normal circumstances, she’d even take the time to stare. But not right now. Right now, she was concerned about his wounds. They were enough to have a normal human heading straight for the hospital.
How long could Verrian go without healing?
“I’ll call the police,” Rita shot back.
As if summoned by her words, Lisa heard a faint siren in the distance.
Rita kept talking. “And it won’t be my problem if they arrest both of you. That will give me even more evidence.” She folded her arms and glared at Lisa.
“Shh,” Lisa demanded. “Can you hear that?”
When Rita stopped talking, the siren was unmistakable.
Damn Paul. Lisa had forgotten about his phone call.
Well, at least they weren’t still at the ruined house. The police would be heading there. Thank goodness, for once, that it took them so long to respond.
There was silence in the car, as everyone listened to the siren. Lisa expected a snide remark from Rita, but to Lisa’s surprise, she looked as concerned as Lisa felt.
In the silence, they could quite clearly hear the siren growing louder. It wasn’t heading towards the ruined house. It was heading for them.
Lisa’s heart beat sped up.
“What is that sound?” Verrian demanded, his voice far from calm.
Lisa didn’t blame him.
“It’s the police,” she said grimly. “And they’re coming this way.”
How were the police tracking them?
Had Paul given them enough information to guess where they were heading? How could he know when she didn’t? Lisa had just been heading away from Ultrima, she didn’t care where they ended up, so long as it was in town.
How could anyone have guessed where they were going?
Maybe the sirens had nothing to do with them at all? Maybe they were chasing someone else?
Somehow, she didn’t believe that.
The sirens were louder now, and the impulse to put her foot down was strong. She was already doing about ten kilometres over the speed limit. Any faster and she’d only draw more attention to them.
Verrian didn’t really have any concept of what the police were, but she’d probably told him enough that he could guess that it wasn’t good. He didn’t offer anything though, just looked worried. Poor dragon. He didn’t know enough to be able to help.
It was all up to her. Lisa’s mind worked feverishly, trying to think up a story that would get them out of this.
Glancing in the rear-view mirror and seeing Verrian’s nakedness, she wondered if any story could possibly explain this one. Especially not if Paul had already told the police about fighting dragons.
Verrian’s lack of clothes and wounds would only prove that something very strange was going on.
“You need to cover up,” she told Verrian firmly. She stared around the four-wheel drive, and her eyes fell on an old leather jacket in the front seat. “Here, put this on.” She reached over and picked it up then threw it over the back seat to Verrian.
That would only be half of the problem covered. She looked back over at the other seat, hoping to find something else, when her eyes fell on a mobile phone sitting on the seat.
Alarm bells went off in her head.
It wasn’t an old phone. It was the latest model. The purple case with bunny rabbit ears wasn’t exactly something she could imagine Paul using. And, in fact, she’d seen Vera with it earlier. Paul’s fiancée never put her phone down, so Lisa didn’t think it was here by accident.
Rage blossomed immediately. At Paul, for pretending to help, for setting this up, and for deceiving her so thoroughly.
Most of all, at herself for believing him.
“Paul’s tracking us.”
“What?” Verrian paused with one arm half way into the jacket, his eyes flying to hers in the mirror.
Lisa picked up the phone and held it up. “Is this how he found us?” she demanded to Rita.
She could tell that it was from the fact that Rita wouldn’t meet her eyes.
Lisa glared at her.
She tossed the phone back to Verrian. “See if you can turn it off.”
Verrian just stared at the phone. Lisa bit back a sigh. He wouldn’t even know where to start.
“I’ll do it,” Rita offered.
Lisa didn’t even begin to trust her.
But she had to do something. With the sirens growing louder, she had only seconds to make up her mind. “Toss it out the window,” she ordered.
“But I can turn it off,” Rita insisted.
Turning off the phone would stop any further tracking, but the police would still have their last known location, and that was too close for comfort. They needed something better. A way to send them in the wrong direction.
A ute heading towards them gave Lisa an idea. “No, leave it on. Here, pass it to me.”
“But…’ Rita protested.
“Here.” Verrian handed it forwards to Lisa.
Lisa hit the button on the automatic windows just as the ute was passing them the other way. It was a long shot, but better than nothing. Lisa tossed the phone towards the passing ute, breathing a sigh of relief when it tumbled into the tray.
She took the next left hand turn, her only thought to put as much distance between her and the other vehicle as possible.
She didn’t breathe a sigh of relief though, until the sirens began to fade.
The poor driver was going to wonder why he was being pulled over, but at least he wasn’t trying to hide a naked, wounded dragon shifter who lacked any sort of ID.
Chapter 10
The borrowed leather jacket was a little too small across the shoulders and it rubbed painfully against the wound on Verrian’s arm. But the biggest problem was that it really didn’t hide anything.
“Here.” Rita pulled a rug from under her feet and handed it to him, carefully averting her eyes.
Verrian tucked it in around his body, feeling a little better.
It wasn’t that he was bothered by being naked. No one paid any attention to it in his clan. Dragons were always naked in dragon form, and finding clothes in between wasn’t always worth worrying about.
But this was different. Rita obviously felt uncomfortable and that made him uncomfortable.
He shouldn’t care that she was self-conscious. She’d caused nothing but trouble for him since the moment she’d appeared. But her discomfort did make it hard to have a discussion on what they were going to do now.
A discussion on how they were going to get rid of her, not what they were going to do afterwards. Letting her know where they were going next was a bad idea.
Not that they had any idea where they were going yet.
Lisa had already solved one of their problems. She’d been amazing. By realising that her brother was using the phone to track them and throwing it into a passing car, she’d got the police off their tail.
Verrian had been useless. He hadn’t even known where to start in figuring out how to tu
rn the tracking off. He didn’t even understand how it worked.
Lisa might not have contributed much in the fight, but she was certainly good at thinking on her feet when not in the heat of battle.
Hopefully she’d have some idea of what to do now, since he didn’t.
They couldn’t go back to the ruined house. Everyone knew about it now, and he didn’t really think returning to Lisa’s parents’ place would be a good plan either. Ultrima might not bother them there, but it was clear her brother couldn’t be trusted. Besides, these police, whatever they were, would surely be able to find them there.
And that would apparently be a problem, since he didn’t have any of the humans’ ‘ID’.
“So, are you ready to admit that you’re a dragon now?” Rita challenged. “I mean, it’s not like you can deny it any longer.”
“We’re not admitting anything,” Lisa said grimly. “Verrian and I don’t trust you as far as we can throw you.”
“Verrian, is that your real name?” Rita asked, her eyes narrowed. Verrian could almost hear her taking notes in her head. “So, you’re trying to tell me you’re the good dragon, and… Ultrima is it? He’s the bad dragon? That seems a little simplified, doesn’t it?”
She just didn’t get it. She hadn’t even met Ultrima, so how would she know? Of course he was the bad one. Verrian opened his mouth to fill her in, but Lisa beat him to it.
“Fishing for information, Rita? Well, it’s not going to work. We’re not telling you anything,” she said firmly.
Verrian cursed himself for nearly falling for that. He wasn’t used to not trusting people or having to doubt their motives.
Rita folded her arms and stared at Lisa. “Fine then. Don’t tell me anything. I’ll figure it out eventually, one way or another.”
Lisa swore. “You are not going to print this article,” she said firmly. “You’ve already done enough damage with the one you did. If you do it again without better photos, everyone will laugh at you.”
“I’ll get more photos eventually. You can’t hide this forever,” Rita insisted. “This is far too big to stay secret for long. You realise that, right?”
She was one very determined young lady. Verrian had to give her that. If her quest was different, he might have admired her determination.
As it was…
“We’ve kept it hidden this long,” Lisa said firmly. “And the only threat to that is you.”
Verrian followed Lisa’s words up with his own. “My people don’t take kindly to humans who lead our enemies to us.”
Lisa shot him a look in the rear-view mirror. A slightly nervous, slightly impressed look.
What? His voice may have held a bit of a threatening tone, but Rita’s implications were obvious. Surely she deserved it.
Rita paled, but to her credit, she didn’t back down. “Threats won’t silence me,” she said firmly. “And I’ve left a letter with everything I know in case something happens to me. There’s nothing you can do to stop this from coming out.”
Verrian frowned. That wasn’t good. Not that he was planning on doing her any harm. But if she kept sniffing around dragon business, who knew what would happen?
“They’re not going to believe that any more than they believed the last article,” Lisa countered.
But she stared back, meeting his eyes, and her expression was worried.
Verrian wished he could help, but he didn’t know how.
Rita just folded her arms and glared at them both.
Lisa heaved a sigh. “Look, Rita, I know you think that your job is to keep people informed…”
“It is,” Rita interrupted. “Literally.”
Lisa grimaced. Verrian didn’t think Rita could see it from where she sat though.
“But you need to look at this from the dragon’s perspective,” Lisa said, her voice frustrated. “They’ve lived in this area for hundreds of years without bothering anyone. Do you really think there’s any chance humans are going to do the same thing for them? If people find out about this, they’re going to try to hunt the dragons down. Informing people about this is only going to hurt. Surely you can see that it’s better to keep the information quiet?”
“Of course that’s what you want me to do. That benefits you, doesn’t it?” Rita challenged. “It’s not right. The people of Mungaloo deserve to know. The world deserves to know.” She waved her hands expansively.
Her words worried Verrian even more. He’d really messed up. Before the fight today, Rita may not even have quite believed her own eyes. Now there was no way she was ever going to give up searching for proof.
They needed some way to convince her to keep this information quiet.
“Are you sure about that?” Lisa challenged. Her voice was calm and even, in contrast to Rita’s impassioned high tone. “You saw what just happened there. Right now, keeping the dragon’s existence a secret from the rest of the humans means Ultrima didn’t follow us into town. If everyone already knows about them, then there’s nothing to stop him.”
“That’s your problem,” Rita said firmly. “If the dragons are determined to fight each other, why should I care if they can’t hide from each other here in Mungaloo? We’ll all be a lot safer if they keep their battles away from town.” She crossed her arms and glared from Verrian to Lisa. “Are you sure you aren’t more concerned about impressing this dragon than keeping your own town safe?”
Verrian gave a short laugh at that. He was pretty sure Lisa’s concern wasn’t just about him. Not completely anyway. “Don’t you get it?” he said to Rita. “If the secret is out, do you really think Ultrima is going to care if he hits a few humans while he’s shooting lightning at me?”
“He wouldn’t,” Rita said, but uncertainty tinged her voice.
“He would,” Lisa answered. “Ultrima doesn’t care about humans. Only about them being a threat to him. You saw how quickly that dragon attacked Verrian. They’d do the exact same to any human who got in their way.”
“They almost did to you,” Verrian reminded her.
Rita’s eyes were wide. She didn’t say anything for a few moments, then she heaved a sigh. “Even if you have a point, and exposing the dragons is going to cause issues for dragons and humans, this isn’t just going to go away. Even if I don’t tell everyone about the dragons, they’re going to find out, there were already whispers going around town.”
“What whispers?” Lisa demanded.
Rita hesitated. “A good reporter never divulges her sources.”
“Anyone who revealed the dragon’s existence doesn’t deserve to be protected,” Lisa said immediately. “We need to know who it is, so that we can make sure this doesn’t happen again.”
“I’m not going to let you blame innocent people,” Rita responded just as quickly. “I’ve seen how your dragons handle their problems.” She gave him another glare.
“Look,” Lisa said in exasperation. “This is obviously getting us nowhere. I think it’s about time we drop you off home now, so that we can be on our way.”
Rita frowned. “I’m not sure that’s such a good idea.”
“There’s no use hanging around, Rita,” Lisa insisted. “We’re not going to tell you anything more, and you’re certainly not getting this memory card back.”
“Well, if you want to walk into a trap then.”
What was she talking about? Lisa ignored her cryptic remark, but Verrian couldn’t.
“What do you mean?” he asked.
For a moment, he thought Rita wasn’t going to answer. She glanced into the front seat, but Lisa said nothing. So she turned to him. “Well, Paul knows I’m with you, and he knows exactly where I live. Since he can’t follow us any more, there’s every chance he, or the police, will be waiting for us at my place.”
She spoke so quickly Verrian couldn’t quite follow what she meant, but it didn’t sound good. He glanced toward Lisa in the front seat, and she was biting her lip. That plan was out then.
And maybe, maybe
her telling them meant that Rita was coming around to their way of thinking.
“They’re going to find you eventually,” Rita said softly. “The details of the car will already have been broadcast, and they’ll be on the lookout for it. All Paul had to do was report it stolen. If they find you, you’re going to be in serious trouble.” She glanced over at Verrian. “Especially since I’m guessing you don’t have any ID?”
Verrian shook his head. The humans seemed very preoccupied with this ID thing. They kept talking about it anyway. Not having it seemed to be very bad.
Lisa’s shoulders slumped.
Verrian didn’t blame her. It was fast reaching the impossible stage. So many people looking for them, it wasn’t safe to stay in town. But if they left, Ultrima would be after them. It seemed like there was nowhere safe for them to go.
And he didn’t even know where to suggest.
Not only was he useless in a fight, he was useless here too.
He was totally reliant on Lisa. And she seemed to be losing hope too.
But he should have known better than to doubt her. After only a few moments, Lisa’s shoulders straightened. “We’ll drop you at the town square,” she said firmly to Rita. “You’ll have to find your own way home.” She hesitated for a moment, then asked, her voice stiff, “I’m hoping you won’t call the police as soon as we leave.”
She really thought of everything, Verrian thought admiringly.
“Of course not,” Rita said at once. “Just because I want to know what’s going on doesn’t mean I’m heartless. I want to see you get away as much as anyone. I just…” her voice trailed off.
“You just want to be part of it somehow,” Lisa filled in for her, her voice soft.
Rita shrugged uncomfortably. “I’ve never had a news story this exciting. It’s not like anything much ever happens out here in Mungaloo. And I thought… well, when I heard…” She heaved a sigh. “Oh well, it doesn’t matter I guess.”
She looked so dejected, Verrian almost felt sorry for her.
“If you were actually concerned about the dragons, and wanting to help them, then you could tell us exactly what it was that you heard,” Lisa pointed out to her.
For a moment, Verrian thought Rita was going to refuse again. Then her face grew thoughtful. “Maybe we could do a trade?”
