Dancing with Dragons

by Lorenda Christensen

  “No, this is not a joke.” Rosa said with a triumphant smile, her tone very clearly mocking.

  I looked again at the red package she’d carried through the door. What I’d thought was a fancy, designer shopping bag was actually emblazoned with a familiar white logo. Rosa noticed I was straining to get a better look and turned the package toward me.

  “The Salvation Army? There’s a Salvation Army in Hungary? And they carry Hawaiian print muumuus?”

  Rosa’s smile grew wider. “No. The Salvation Army doesn’t carry anything this ugly. The hospital has an arrangement. We are given the clothes that aren’t good enough for their stores.” She pushed the muumuu toward me. “Of course, we do offer you the option of a hospital gown.”

  “Of course you do.” The hospital gown fit like all hospital gowns—not at all. So this was spitting in a customer’s food...hospital style.

  Chapter Five

  About an hour later, I walked slowly toward the information desk at the entrance of the hospital, Dr. Garay’s sheaf of discharge papers clutched in my hand. Despite the very drafty back, I’d chosen the hospital gown. The muumuu had been truly hideous, and once Rosa brought it closer, had emanated a distinct mothball fragrance.

  I’d told myself that at least I’d be able to blend in with the rest of the hospital patients until I could pick up something else. I’d cinched the thin material as tightly as I could around my waist and prayed the well-worn fabric held together long enough for me to find some decent underwear.

  The elation of outsmarting Daniel Wallent had worn off. Now the reality of being alone in a foreign country at a hospital at which I barely remember arriving hit me hard. Richard hadn’t returned yet, and it was becoming harder and harder to feel good about my decision to wait for him here. But every time I decided to take my future into my own hands and get a flight out of Budapest on my own, I’d remember that Richard had braved a dragon’s fury in order to remain in the city with me. The least I could do was stick around until he came back.

  If he came back. I realized my hand had an unconscious stranglehold on the small bottle of pain medication prescribed by the good doctor.

  Luckily, the woman seated at the reception desk looked much friendlier than Rosa, so I swallowed the panic and asked to use the phone.

  “Of course. Anything we can do for our patients.” She lifted both headset and base onto the narrow vinyl lip of the nurse’s station. I dialed the number to the apartment Myrna and I shared in Tulsa, and was surprised when a male voice answered. It took me a minute to place it.

  “Trian? Hi, um, is Myrna around?” I felt awkward talking to Myrna’s ex-boyfriend. We hadn’t spoken since Myrna told me he regularly morphed into a two-thousand-pound dragon and started tearing things apart. It would be weird to greet him with “Hey, I hear you turn into a reptile, that’s cool.” But not mentioning it at all felt like I was somehow hiding the fact that I knew, or basically admitting to him that dragons were still somewhat terrifying to me. I’d actually hoped to ease into the discussion during a series of casual double dates or something.

  So much for that. It looked like Trian had moved out of ex-boyfriend status, and I now had a dragon morph living in my apartment.

  “Carol? Is that you?” Trian’s voice crackled through the old telephone system as he sighed. “Oh Carol, you shouldn’t have called here.” He sounded disappointed, and more than a little resigned.

  “I’ve run into a little problem...” I trailed off, unable to explain my current situation without sounding mentally unhinged. “I’m actually at a hospital right now, but I’m being discharged. Richard was supposed to come and pick me up, but I’m not sure where he is. I’ll tell her about it as soon as I’m back, but I wanted to give her a heads up about a reporter I accidentally talked to.”

  “Before you say anything else, you really need to give Myrna a call.” There was an uncomfortable pause.

  “Ookaaay...” I waited for him to tell me what he meant by that, but he either didn’t want to tell me, or didn’t notice my discomfort. I heard him rustling papers on the other end of the line before he rattled off a string of digits and told me they were Myrna’s new number at DRACIM.

  “Trian, what’s going—”

  “If anyone asks, you didn’t speak with me. Call Myrna.” The call disconnected.

  Frowning at Trian’s abrupt sign off, I gave the receptionist an absent smile as I punched the phone’s worn keypad.

  “Myrna Banks.” My friend sounded flustered.

  “Myrna, it’s Carol. I just got off the phone with—”

  “Carol. Thank God you’re okay. I’m so glad you called. I’ve been worried sick.” There were a couple of loud bangs, and I heard Myrna yell at someone to give her ten minutes alone. A few shrieks and several thunks later, and she was back on the line.

  “Sorry about that. It’s been more of a zoo here than usual. Now that Emory’s out of commission, DRACIM’s tapped me to deal with the fallout from the last few weeks. I felt really bad about leaving you in Budapest all by yourself.”

  I winced, feeling guilty yet again for adding to Myrna’s constantly overwhelming workload. “Don’t worry about it. Richard was here to look after me. Myrna, I’m just glad you’re okay. And I’m sorry to do this to you, but a reporter came in my room at the hospital right after I woke up and asked me some questions—”

  “Wait. Richard is there with you? Have you watched the news lately?”

  “I don’t think they have TV here at—”

  “You need to find a television or a newspaper right now. Big things are going down, and you’re right in the middle of them.”

  I was getting really sick of people interrupting me. Did no one have polite conversation anymore? I drew a frown from Rosa as she caught me pretending to bang the telephone receiver against the counter on her way to another patient room.

  “I’ve been in the hospital for the last week and a half. I haven’t exactly been up to reading the paper.” I waited for Myrna to ask me how I was feeling, or crack some joke about my head injury allowing the last of my common sense to leak out. But she did no such thing.

  “You have to leave. Now. There are people looking for you.”

  “If you mean that arrogant reporter, I’ll take care of him. I just wanted you to know that he’s done enough research to know who I am and how to find me. Other than that, he has some pretty crazy ideas, but no real dirt.” I shifted onto my other foot, and glanced around the hallway before asking Myrna my next question.

  I forced a laugh. “The guy actually thinks Richard is responsible for the bombing that happened at your offices. What’s going on there? He’s got to be full of crap, right? Richard is probably taking some flak for staying behind with me instead of rushing back to the U.S., but Relobu wouldn’t seriously point a finger at Richard. Have you heard anything about Richard’s job being in danger?”

  Myrna didn’t answer. There was more yelling and another crash on her end of the line, and when she spoke, she was obviously distracted.

  “Carol, listen to me. You need to leave the hospital right now. When I said people, I didn’t mean humans. Lord Relobu has sent a group of dragons to track you down.”

  “Track me down? You mean Richard, right? What would he want with me?” Did the dragon lord think I’d have some insight into why Hian-puo had sent the dragon after Myrna? If so, he was going to be sorely disappointed.

  “Relobu made an announcement on all the public radio stations that if he finds you, he’s planning on charging you with the DRACIM bombing.”

  “What?” I’d been experiencing a lot of “I can’t believe this” moments lately, but this one took the cake. “Why in the world does he think I had something to do with it? I wasn’t even around. In case no one has noticed, I’ve been laid up in a hospital bed for a while now. Unless I developed an ability to spirit-walk and possess people while being in a coma, it wasn’t me.”

  Myrna sighed. “I know. It’s ridiculous. But some
one mentioned to the dragon lord that you flew dragonback to Budapest ahead of the rest of the China team. Alone.”

  “I did, but it was to buy clothes, not to orchestrate the theft of a weapon of mass destruction!” I made a conscious effort to lower my voice. My hysterical tone had managed to draw the eyes of several hospital occupants, and the last thing I needed was to make myself more visible. “Myrna, you and Richard used Relobu’s jet to go after the bomb Hian-puo shipped from China into Adelaida’s territory. Relobu ordered another to carry the human members of the team Hian-puo had been holding captive, but it was going to take at least twenty-four hours to get the plane to China, and then the plan was for it to fly straight back to the U.S. When one of Relobu’s dragon’s offered me a ride to Budapest, I took him up on it. That’s all.”

  “I have a hunch I’m tracking down, but it’s going to take a while. I don’t have time to explain exactly why, but you need to leave. Preferably without Richard.”

  I was stunned. “Without Richard? Myrna, I’m a foreign country! My clothes and passport are still at the hotel, and I don’t even have money for a cab. Maybe it’s better that when Relobu’s people show up, I simply explain how there was no possible way I was involved.”

  I knew the words were stupid as soon as they were out of my mouth. There was no way any of Relobu’s subjects would dare disobey him, even if they did believe me. Richard was as close to the dragon as any human could be, and even he had been a nervous wreck in my hospital room. And if Relobu sent actual dragons to pick me up? I seriously doubt they’d even give me time to try and explain. Dragons weren’t exactly known for their patience. And the fact that I was accused of killing some of their coworkers—likely a friend or family member at that—did not help the odds that they’d be inclined to friendliness.

  “Myrna. I didn’t do it. You have to believe me.” My voice broke as a sob threatened to break free.

  “I do. And I’m doing the best I can to make him see reason, but I need some time. Which means I need you to get out of there. Quickly. I’ve done what I could to keep your location under wraps, but I’m hearing chatter that one of Lady Adelaida’s teams has received a tip that you’re at the hospital, and she’s sending someone to check it out. With all the recent disturbances, she’s being careful to demonstrate that her allegiance with Relobu is still very strong, so if she finds you, it’s a given that you’ll end up in a Relobu holding cell as soon as they can strap you to the back of a dragon. Someone must have ratted you out. Frankly I’m surprised she hasn’t found you already.”

  Just then, Rosa entered the hall and gave me another glare. Suddenly her attitude made much more sense. She was the rat. And she’d turned me in, not because I’d insulted her hospital, but because she thought I was a murderer.

  Oh crap.

  “You need to get out of the hospital.”

  I couldn’t agree with her more. But that was easier said than done. I could barely walk without becoming dizzy. I’d have no chance with a group of trained predators.

  I needed to get to the hotel, find my passport, and find a plane heading west...

  It was as if Myrna read my mind. “You can’t come back to the United States. Relobu is in charge, and I can’t guarantee your safety here. Right now, Adelaida’s dragons are the ones you need to avoid. But when Relobu’s team gets there...the only reason there isn’t a swarm of North American dragons dragging you out of there right now is because Trian told Relobu he needed more time to recover before going back out on assignment. The instant Trian is back in command, he’ll have no choice but to come and get you himself.”

  And I’d basically told Trian where I was. No wonder he hadn’t been in the mood to talk to me. He’d been doing his best to play dumb, and I had to go and ring him up on the telephone, leaving him no choice but to fly straight to Budapest as soon as he was cleared for duty. I’d jumped out of a frying pan, directly into a freaking volcano.

  “But I don’t understand.” Things were moving faster than I could process them. “Why is he after me? I need to talk to Richard. As soon as he gets back, I’ll—”

  “Carol, don’t wait on Richard. You need to leave, now.” The thumping from Myrna’s office had started up again, only this time it was accompanied by a human voice shouting profanity in very loud dragonspeak. “Honey, I have to go. There’s a dragon tearing my waiting room into bits. Stay safe. Call me when you can.” The line went dead.

  I was still staring at the phone when I heard a familiar voice. “Trouble in paradise, little girl?”

  Daniel Wallent was propped against one of the hospital’s stone columns only feet away, giving me a smug smile of his own.

  “What are you still doing here?” Daniel Wallent was the last person I wanted to see while I was still trying to absorb what Myrna had told me. Lord Relobu made an announcement, and now I was a fugitive? It just didn’t make sense.

  I was Myrna’s best friend, for goodness’ sake. Until moments ago, I was still technically employed by the dragon lord as a dragonscript expert in an ongoing investigation. It was the reason I was in Budapest to start with. Well, that and the fact that I’d self-appointed as Myrna’s fashion adviser. Shopping was the only part of the trip I’d actually enjoyed. And now, because I’d hopped on a dragon’s back to fit in an extra couple of hours of my favorite activity, I was a wanted fugitive? Even the idea was insane. I didn’t think my confusion was unfounded.

  “Is Richard still here in the hospital? I’d still like to get a quote for that story.” Daniel’s expression was open and expectant, and despite the fact that most of my current predicament wasn’t his fault, his obvious good cheer was more than annoying. It was downright infuriating.

  “Even if he was, I wouldn’t tell you.”

  He shrugged as if he’d heard that same response a million times before. “Fair enough. However, I couldn’t help but overhear your conversation. Sounds like you’re in a pickle. Are there holes popping up in Wonderland?”

  I leaned my forehead against the cool surface of the reception desk. My head was throbbing, I was dizzy, and apparently there was one dragon army after me and another on the way. Not bothering to lift my head from the desk, I rolled my face around to look at the reporter.

  “Can we please not do this right now?”

  Daniel studied me silently for a moment. “Tell you what. I’ll get you out of here. Tomorrow I’ll help you figure out how to get your stuff from the hotel, or get you in contact with your boyfriend.”

  I raised my head. “You’d do that? Why?” Visions of Daniel hauling me to the nearest police station and turning me in to Adelaida’s dragons jumped to mind. We’d make a quick stop to pick up his photographer, of course, so the story he wrote about my capture would be properly illustrated. There was no way he’d be doing this out of the goodness of his heart. The guy had no qualms about interrogating a girl fresh out of a coma. He was an unrepentant shark.

  My feelings must have shown on my face because he nodded. “Oh, I’m not doing it out of the kindness of my heart. I find you someplace to sleep tonight, and in exchange—”

  “I knew it.” I took a step closer and stabbed a finger into his chest, so angry I could hardly speak.

  What had I done to deserve all this? The dragon attack, the coma, and now being forced to trade who knows what for some temporary safety—it was infuriating.

  So I took it out on Daniel Wallent.

  “I knew it was too good to be true, that you could be a decent human being. I didn’t just fall off the turnip truck, you know. I’ve heard this one before. You’d let me stay at your place, in your bed, and in exchange, I show you the night of your life?”

  Why my mind went straight to sex, I have no idea. Maybe it was the stress of the last week that had been building in my system with no physical activity to release it, or maybe it was the arrogant way he simply stood there and watched me, his relaxed position displaying a wide set of shoulders, flat stomach, and a set of delicious khaki-encased legs
. The leather jacket he’d been wearing earlier was hanging from a single finger on his left hand, while a pair of dark aviator glasses were in the other. He was just a guy standing against a wall. But for some reason, my hormones had decided this guy was the thing to have.

  Evidently my accusation made him angry, because his lips tightened as he raised his hand to run a finger lightly across the bandage strapped to my head. “Babe, trust me, at the moment your sexual favors are the last thing on my mind. I’m not sure whether you noticed, but you’re too skinny, half bald, and in possession of a whopper of a busted lip.” His finger continued past the gauze and along the outer shell of my ear before tracing a lazy path down the side of my neck to my shoulder.

  I was so surprised by the gentle touch that it took me a minute before I heard him, and when I did, I sputtered, partly shocked and partly humiliated by his dispassionate cataloging of my flaws.

  “I...I am a very attractive woman! Where I’m from, guys are practically lining up for sexual favors from me. I work for an advertising agency with strong ties to Hollywood, and they always ask why I waste these looks on a desk job instead of becoming a model.”

  His angry expression morphed into amusement when he gave me an all-out belly laugh. “I’m sure they do. Now, were you coming with me, or did you plan on sticking around to talk to them?”

  Daniel’s eyes flicked to something behind me in the hall. I turned to see two dark-haired men enter the hospital through the extra-large doors installed at the main entrance. They stopped at the information desk and said something to the man on duty. The taller of the two humans pointed to the insignia on his jacket. The employee nodded once before pushing away from the desk, probably to find a supervisor.

  “The badge he just pointed to? That’s Lady Adelaida’s crest. They work for her. She’s the dragon lord of this territory.”

  “I know who she is,” I snapped. “What I don’t understand is why you and Myrna are both convinced everyone is after me. Maybe you are right, and they are looking for me. But what if they’re just trying to piece together other stuff that happened? What if I’m the witness, and not the suspect? Did you ever think of that?”