Oro had explained what would happen if Juan was tipped off before Oro was able to stop him. He would turn his drug addicted zombies into an army against innocent people. Or he would make them all self-destruct simultaneously. Oro had said it was something like one million people who were addicted to the techno-drugs.
As they drove down the highway, Tabby thought about what would happen if she screwed up or failed. She might be a take-action kind of person, but it wasn’t like she had no conscience. She wanted to help Oro for a reason, and it wasn’t selfish one. She wanted to put a stop to men like Leo and Juan as well. She also wanted to see the world become a better place. She wanted to do her part in making that happen. She’d never realized it before, but as she watched the desert fly by, it became more and more clear to her that she did.
It only took about fifteen minutes to drive to the gate of Juan’s compound. The reinforced steel gate slid open. The guards’ eyes slid over Tabby suspiciously, but they let her pass anyway.
Leo drove into the compound and parked outside of a big two-story Spanish-style mansion. It was a beautiful place that anyone would like to live in. Knowing it was occupied by the most dangerous criminal in the state, maybe even the world, made the place a lot less attractive.
Leo slid out of the driver’s seat, and Tabby followed him up the walkway to the front door of the mansion. There were men in bulletproof vests holding semi-automatic rifles, pacing back and forth around the porch. No wonder Oro was having such a hard time finding an opening.
The thought of Oro made her flush. He had been spying on the compound for days. Maybe he could see her now. The thought of him hiding somewhere, watching his mate walk into such a dangerous situation, filled her with regret. She didn’t want to hurt him or upset him.
Tabby was beginning to have genuine feelings for Oro, feelings she’d never experienced before. She wasn’t sure exactly what to call them. Was it love? She would have to think about it later because the door to the mansion slowly slid open, and she and Leo were welcomed inside.
The front hallway had the same Spanish style as the exterior, with intricate tilework on the floor and open beams on the ceilings. It was a beautiful place. Too bad it was owned by an asshole like Juan Norte.
“I’m here for my weekly meeting,” Leo said to the guard who had greeted them.
“Juan is down in the basement overseeing inventory. He’ll meet you up in his office in fifteen minutes. Who is this?” the guard asked, tilting his gun towards Tabby.
“This is a little extra payment.” The guard nodded at Leo and Tabby suppressed a surprised gasp. She instead smiled and giggled as if being given to Juan Norte by her ex-boyfriend was a normal thing to have happen in any given day.
They walked up the stairs, led by the guard from the front door. The man opened a reinforced metal door that led into a well-appointed office space that looked like it had originally been a master bedroom. There was a big oak desk facing the window. A table set with lunch and a bar full of decanters of alcohol.
“Help yourself to the food. Juan is expecting you. He’ll be here in a few moments. I’m sure he’ll appreciate the gift.”
Tabby slid into a padded chair in front of the table, scooped up some fruit and bread, and poured herself a mimosa from the bottle of champagne and orange juice sitting on the table. If she was going to be in this dangerous situation, she might as well have something to eat and drink while she was at it.
Leo didn’t sit down. He paced in front of the big French doors that looked out onto a patio and the pool area at the back of the house.
“Why don’t you sit down and have something to eat?” she asked.
“I’m not hungry,” he said. People who were hooked on the techno-drugs rarely ate real food anymore. Many of them wasted away over time because they lost their appetite, not only in reality, but for the sustenance of life.
“Your loss,” she said. There were fresh melons and strawberries. It was delicious and nice for a change. Leo rarely had fresh food in his house. It was usually something from one of the restaurants that he extorted. Usually, that wasn’t very good. Something about extortion just wasn’t conducive to “made with love”.
As she shoved a piece of watermelon into her mouth, the door opened. A short, fat, bald man in his early fifties waddled into the room.
“What do we have here?” Juan asked Leo.
“Juan, I brought you a gift. We’ve been doing business together for a long time, and I thought that it was appropriate to show my appreciation. This is Tabby Wilson.”
“It’s always appropriate to show your appreciation,” Juan said, coming closer to inspect Tabby.
“Stand up, Tabby,” Leo commanded, still pacing back and forth in front of the window. “Let him see you.”
“No, no, no. Stay seated. Make yourself comfortable. My home is your home, as they say,” Juan said, sitting across from her. The guy wasn’t necessarily disgusting. It wasn’t like he was missing all of his teeth or anything. But knowing what she knew about Juan Norte, he was the ugliest man she’d ever met.
“I love these melons,” Tabby said.
“I love your melons,” Juan said. Seriously? Did he really just say that?
“Thanks,” she said, not knowing how else to respond to such a lame line. This guy seriously needed to work on his game. But she supposed that he really didn’t have to have any game, considering he was a drug kingpin and all.
“Leo, you go down and get your shipment. I want to get to know my new friend here,” Juan said.
“Whatever you say, boss,” Leo said, moving to the door. “Bye, Tabby. You can consider our debt closed.”
Leo walked out of the room and closed the door, leaving her with Juan. He was leering at her in the most unsettling way, his eyes grazing over her cleavage and then focusing on her lips.
“Where did a guy like Leo find a girl like you?” he asked.
“My old neighborhood, on the border. It’s been a really sketchy place since the Draconians arrived.”
“Ah, the Draconians. The race who created my entire industry. Someday, I’ll have to thank them. But right now, I’m more interested in getting to know you. What makes you tick, Tabby Wilson?”
“I like shopping, relaxing with friends, hanging out by the pool in my bikini. You know, girl stuff.”
“We have a pool. I’m sure we could find you a bikini, too. But of course, who really needs a bikini when you have Juan Norte, leader of the entire techno-drug cartel? You partake, Tabby?”
“I never got the habit. I prefer things to be…physical,” she said, reaching across the table and sliding her hand over his. She was going to have to find a way to contact Oro soon. Now was his chance.
If he didn’t realize that it was Tabby alone in the room with Juan, he wouldn’t strike. She had her cellphone in her purse, waiting to text him at any moment. She slid her free hand into her purse as she ran her fingers over Juan’s wrist.
She had pre-prepared a text message, and she only had to press the send button. She had grown up with technology in her hands, become an adult in the time of the Draconians, she was a techno-native. She knew what she was doing. She hit the button and waited, smiling gleefully at Juan Norte’s ugly face.
If Oro was as good as he said he was, he would come busting into the room at any moment. Tabby was counting on it. If he didn’t, she was royally screwed. And she might get royally screwed by Juan, which was not a prospect she was looking forward to in any way shape or form.
Juan drew his hand away and poured himself a mimosa, still smiling at her with that leering, gross look on his face. He took a step and raised his eyebrows as if he had had a new idea.
“Why don’t we finish our drinks, and then I’ll show you the pool,” he said.
“That’s an awesome idea,” she said, pouring herself another drink. She had to buy herself some time. Oro, where are you? She slowly sipped the orange juice and champagne, the seconds ticking by as if they were hours.
She heard a subtle crack on the roof above, and Juan looked up. He narrowed his eyes and frowned, pulling away as if he were going to call his guards. Tabby held onto his hand and frowned at him, giving him her best pathetic girl pout.
“Where you going?” she whined. “We were just starting to have fun.”
He settled down and smiled at her. “I thought I heard something. I suppose it’s nothing.”
She picked up a strawberry from the plate and slowly leaned across the table, showing as much of her cleavage as possible as she angled the strawberry towards Juan’s mouth. He smiled at her and parted his greasy lips, knowing what she was doing. She pushed the ripe strawberry between his lips, her entire body revolting at the sight of it. Gross. Juan closed his eyes and ran his tongue over her fingertips as he took the strawberry into his mouth.
Juan reached across the table and slid his damp fingers down her bare arm. Tabby repressed a shudder of disgust. She was beginning to worry that Oro might not come. What then? She’d have to allow Juan to do whatever he wanted with her or she’d been in deep shit.
Juan stood from the table and came to stand beside her, grasping her hand in his.
“Let’s take this to my bedroom,” he said, in a suggestive tone. Tabby squeezed her eyes closed, trying to keep her face from betraying her true feelings. His very presence made her sick. This guy was responsible for destroying so many lives, including her parents, including her own.
She slowly stood, turning to Juan with her best fake smile. He was shorter than her and smelled like a combination of gasoline and old cheese. He ran his hand over her hip and gripped her waist, growling.
“Leo’s going to get a bonus for this,” he said, his hand inching up toward her breast.
The doors of the patio opened and both she and Juan gasped, turning toward the door. In an instant, a laser shot across the room and blasted Juan right between the eyes. She jumping back, knocking her chair over onto the floor. Juan wheeled around, his face smacking into the plates on the table before he fell to the floor.
“What do you think you’re doing, woman?” Oro spurted angrily. She was shocked and a little bit traumatized, so his angry words made her angry as well.
“I’m helping you with your mission! What you think I’m doing?” She knew he had a right to be irritated. But she wasn’t going to admit that right now.
“Who told you, you could help me with my mission?” Oro demanded, grabbing her and inspecting her body for injuries.
“I’m fine, stop fussing over me. We need to get out of here.”
“This is unacceptable, Tabby.”
“Did you or did you not just take out Juan Norte? I mean he’s dead on the floor right now, right? Or did that not just happen?”
“Okay, okay. You helped me. I see that. But you put yourself in danger.” He wrapped her in his arms and crushed her against his chest. “I would have died if I had lost you.”
From what Tabby understood about the Draconian and mating impulse, the part about dying if he’d lost her wasn’t far from the truth. She did feel kind of bad about it. If something had happened to her, Oro would’ve slowly lost his mind. But nothing had happened, and she’d helped save the day. She was feeling pretty good about that fact and didn’t want him to take it away from her.
“I’m sorry. I know I shouldn’t have done it. But I didn’t know what else to do. I wanted to help, and I was tired of sitting around the house watching television. I’m not the kind of girl who can just sit there and do nothing. You kept me around on this mission. Let’s just think about that for a moment, shall we?”
Oro heaved a heavy sigh, still keeping her crushed to his chest. “I concede, my mate. You did help me, and I will be forever grateful to you. I see you are a brave, strong warrior in your own right, and I should not have doubted you. Now, we must leave.”
He pulled her towards the open doors, enfolding her in his arms. Out on the patio, a line shot out from his wrist up towards the roof. It elevated them upwards, and they jumped onto the rooftop. Once there, Oro flicked a spot at the base of his neck and his uniform disappeared. There was shouting from below and gunshots ricocheted off the roof.
“You will ride on my back, my mate.”
Before Tabby had a chance to ask what he was talking about, Oro shifted into a steely black dragon. His scales mirrored the surroundings, making him camouflaged. She scrambled on his back and wrapped her arms around his neck. The prospect of riding a dragon was more terrifying than even going into Juan’s compound. She buried her face in his scales and gritted her teeth. His powerful wings beat the air, and he launched into the sky. The sounds of gunfire followed them as they hurried away.
Chapter 10
Without stopping, Oro flew all the way back to Phoenix and the Draconian consulate there. He landed at the front door, and Tabby slid from his back. He shifted and flicked the spot on his neck that made his uniform reappear. He opened the door for her, and she stepped inside.
It was the same place she had been just a few days before. Since then, everything had changed. When she had originally come to sign up for the lottery, she never could have anticipated everything that had happened to her in the last few days.
She never would have expected to have feelings for the Draconian mate she was assigned to. She never would have expected to help him on a dangerous mission against Leo and Juan. Now she was triumphantly returning from Oro’s completed mission. Her feelings for him were as boundless as any she’d ever experienced in her life. As she had ridden on his back from southern Arizona to Phoenix, with her face tucked against his scales, she had examined her feelings and her life the whole time.
Her feelings for Oro were stronger than anything she’d ever felt before. Maybe she was falling in love with him. If this was love, it was exactly what she wanted to feel for the rest of her life. She couldn’t stand the idea of being away from him. She wanted to learn more about him and grow closer every day.
Oro nodded at the secretary as they walked by and they proceeded through the big open room to a back door that led into a smaller space. He pressed a few buttons on the computer on the wall and some doors slid open. Beyond the door was the interior of some kind of vehicle.
“Is this a spaceship?” she asked.
“This is my ship. We will take it back to the armada.”
She sat in one of the big comfortable chairs, and Oro helped her get strapped in. He tapped some information into the computer terminal and sat beside her.
A moment later, they were propelling upward and into space. Tabby could see the world sinking below her outside the window. When they hit the atmosphere, she saw the fiery burn as they broke into outer space. Above the atmosphere, the void darkness of space stretched out before them. Stars twinkled in the heavens, and she could see the planets of her solar system spinning around the sun. The Earth sank below them, and they approached the silent ships that hung in orbit around her planet.
She had believed she was emotionally and psychologically prepared for the sight of it. Aliens had come to her planet when she was still a teenager. Everyone’s consciousness now accepted that there were extraterrestrial life forms. Space had become much less of a mystery in her lifetime. But experiencing the sight of the ships and the planets against the backdrop of space was more awe inspiring than she ever could have conceived of.
“This is so beautiful,” she said in a whisper.
“I can imagine it must be amazing to see space for the first time. My first time in space was when I was only five years old. That was many years ago.”
“How long do Draconians live?”
“Most Draconians live about two or three hundred years, depending on their health.”
She had known that Draconians had a different lifespan than humans, but realizing how much longer frightened her.
“But I won’t live that long,” she said, sad to think of leaving him to live the rest of his life without her.
“When I give you the
mating bite, it will change your DNA, allowing you to live a lifespan comparable to a Draconian’s.”
She would live for two or three hundred years? The idea was almost too much to comprehend. She didn’t know if she even wanted to live for two or three hundred years. It sounded like being a vampire or something. Still, it wasn’t immortality. She and Oro would eventually grow old and die. Hopefully, they would do it together.
The ship silently sped towards the open hatch that led into the docking bay of the command ship in the armada. Oro explained everything to her as they were coming in for a landing. When the ship came to a complete stop, the hatch opened and they climbed out.
Oro was immediately greeted by two other devastatingly attractive Draconian males in skintight uniforms. Oro introduced them as Commander Nash Or and General Mylash Shin. Commander Or was the commander of the entire armada. General Shin was Oro’s direct superior officer and the leader of the commandos.
“We received word that your mission was successful,” General Shin said.
“I have taken out Juan Norte, the leader of the Arizona techno-drug cartel.”
“As far as we know, he was the only one who had the codes that would enslave the army of techno-drug addicts. Good work Lieutenant Nix.”
“This is highly unusual, but I had help on my mission. I would like to acknowledge the part my mate Tabby Wilson played in taking out the threat.”
“You allowed your mate into a dangerous situation with dangerous criminals?” Commander Or said. His tone was completely shocked and flabbergasted. Tabby’s face burned hot with embarrassments. Sure, she had done something kind of dangerous, but they’d succeeded and everything was fine. They didn’t have to be so shocked about it.
“My mate is extremely brave and confident. We should ask her help in further missions regarding this matter. She has a great deal of experience with the drug cartel in the southwest of the United States on the North American continent. Even with Juan Norte gone, the threat to the human race still continues.”
Draconians: Complete Series (BWW Dragon Shifter Scifi Romance) Page 19
