by Julie Wetzel
The dragon let out a heartbreaking keening as two more men came in to tie the poor thing up.
Daniel sat up and moved away from the struggling pile of men and dragon. Now that the creature was taken care of, he was free to examine the scene. Looking back at the mess in the center of the room, he crept closer to the fallen woman. It was most definitely Raven. Carefully, Daniel rolled her over. The front of her dress was soaked in blood, but it wasn’t hard to find the hole in her chest where the knife had punctured her heart. “Oh, Raven,” he said softly as he caressed the hair back from her face. “What happened here?” he asked.
His only answer was a high-pitched wail from the dragon.
Daniel turned to look at the thing still struggling under the men. They were doing their best to hold it down until the medical team could get there with sedatives to calm it. As he turned back to Raven’s body, Daniel’s eye caught on something unusual next to her. He reached out to get the strange item and stopped as soon as his fingers touched it. Pain raced through him as the residual energy slammed into his mind, washing it with the recent memories of the dragon. They ripped through his brain, setting off a seizure that dropped him to the floor thrashing.
When Daniel regained his senses, he was stretched out on the floor of the foyer with a medic standing over him. “The dragon?” he gasped as the sound of his own voice echoed through his head, making it ache.
“It’s all right,” the medic soothed him, “it’s been sedated.” The man nodded to a lump on the far side of the room.
Daniel waved the man away and rolled off the mat the medic had laid him on. “Get me Laurence,” he said as he pushed the blanket off.
The EMT’s hands came up and caught Daniel on the shoulders, stopping him from getting up. “Sir, you need to rest. An ambulance is on the way.”
“I don’t need an ambulance,” Daniel growled, “I need Laurence!” He shoved the man back and forced his way up from the ground. “Laurence!”
“Yes, sir,” Laurence answered as he loped into the room.
Daniel waved to him. “Come here.” When the larger man stepped close, Daniel grabbed him and staggered across the room to the dragon. He paused as he looked over the cloth-wrapped creature. The poor thing was out cold. Dropping to his knees next to the beast, Daniel tugged on the cloth, loosening the small animal’s bindings. “I’m sorry.” A tear ran down his cheek as the dragon’s memories raced through his head. He searched the dragon for injuries. There were a few spots that were roughed up, but it looked to be in good health. He also noted a black leather band wrapped high around the creatures throat, but the clasp was up under the boney frill and would require some work to get off. He decided to leave it for later. Once he was sure the dragon was fine, he ran his fingers over the boned frill at the back of its head. “I’ll get the king, and we will figure this out.”
Patting the warm scales one last time, he turned to look up at Laurence. “Grab four men and take this dragon back to the main office. Get him secured in one of the guest rooms and see that a medic checks him over. I want to make sure we didn’t hurt him.”
“Yes, sir,” Laurence said as he nodded. Reaching down, he helped Daniel from the floor.
Once Daniel was on his feet again, he patted Laurence on the arm. “And stay with him.” He nodded down at the small dragon. “He’s going to need someone familiar nearby when he wakes up.”
Laurence gave Daniel a confused look. “Yes, sir,” he agreed.
Daniel nodded once more and stepped away to stand on his own. There was much he needed to do, and he didn’t know how long he had to do it. First, he needed to find something to collect that sphere before anyone else touched it and figured out what it was. Then, he had to find a place to hide it away until he could figure out what to do with it. Only then could he take the whole mess to Kyle. Maybe he would know what to do.
“Daniel,” Laurence called before his boss could get out of the room.
Daniel paused and looked back at him with a raised eyebrow.
“Who is it?” Laurence glanced down at the sleeping dragon.
The corner of Daniel’s mouth turned up in amusement. Of course he hasn’t figured it out. “It’s Noah.”
Laurence’s mouth dropped open in shock, and he turned wide eyes to the small pile of dragon.
A smile turned up the rest of Daniel’s lips. If the situation hadn’t been so serious, the look on the normally unflappable man’s face would have made his day.
3
The rain beat down on the pavement as Kara sat in her borrowed car and stared out at the main building of Eternity. This was just not her day. Grumbling, she reached for the umbrella she always kept under the seat but came up empty-handed. Crap. Letting out a sigh, she leaned her head forwards onto the steering wheel and resisted the urge to scream. Of course the umbrella was not there. It was under her seat in her car back at the shop, where they were putting a new head on the engine. Grabbing her attaché, she shoved the door open, climbed out into the light rain, and raised the case over her head in a vain attempt to keep dry. She wasn’t even supposed to be here today.
Today was supposed to have been dedicated to organizing her new home. She had spent yesterday moving her things into a nice townhouse just minutes from her new office across town. Most of the furniture was in place, and the large boxes had been moved into the proper rooms. Now all Kara had to do was sort through the small things and make the space her own. She had been elbow-deep in packing peanuts when Daniel called, demanding that she come into the main office for an emergency. An emergency! She was a therapist, for goodness sakes. The only thing close to an emergency she’d ever seen was a dragon that couldn’t shift, and that was more of an inconvenience. In those cases, the dragon king was called in directly to suppress the out-of-control dragon and help them shift back to human. She dealt with the individuals afterwards to help them work through their issues. She couldn’t think of anything she could do that couldn’t wait until Monday. When she’d told Daniel this, he threated to throw her in the brig for insubordination and have her court-martialed! That had gotten Kara up and moving fast. Never in the years she’d worked in Eternity had anyone ever pulled rank on her.
After checking for traffic, Kara loped across the road, hoping to make it into the main building before the weather completely drenched her lovely, new suit. The call from Daniel had her so flustered that she hadn’t even considered a rain jacket when she’d left home. She glanced up at the sky as she reached the curb. The clouds looked horrible, but the rain was starting to let up. Dropping her case to her side, she hurried along the sidewalk. She could move faster if she weren’t supporting that thing on her head.
Kara’s flight was interrupted just feet from her goal when her foot came down and her heel sunk in further than it should have. The unexpected drop, coupled with her speed, was a fatal combination. She threw her arms out to catch her balance but failed. With a loud crack, gravity won out, and she ended up sprawled across the sidewalk in a puddle. Kara lay on the sidewalk for a moment, breathing past the pain in her knee and resisting the growing urge to scream. It was so tempting to thrash about and let out the tantrum building inside her, but she took several deep breaths before pulling herself up to inspect the damage she’d done.
Her physical injuries weren’t bad. The heels of both her hands were a little raw, but not really cut up. She did have a bit of road rash on her knee, but that was nominal compared to the damage she had done to her outfit. She might be able to save the light blue pencil skirt and matching jacket from the dirty water she had fallen into, but her shoes were a total loss. The spindly heel had come down in the soft caulking in the sidewalk and had broken clean off the body of the shoe. Kara glared at the damaged heel sticking out of the sidewalk mocking her.
“Are you all right, Miss Rose?”
Kara looked up as the light rain stopped. A large man dressed in a black Eternity uniform stood over her with an umbrella. It took her a moment to register th
e man’s words. He had used her name. She had no idea who he was, but he had obviously been told to watch out for her. There was no other reason he would know her name. She hadn’t been to the main office in a while. And of course she would make the most embarrassing entrance possible. She ran her hand down her skirt, hoping it hadn’t slipped up far enough to show anything off.
Letting out a deep sigh, she shook her head in disbelief. Could this day get any worse? “I’m fine,” she answered, taking the hand the man offered to get up. “It’s just been one of those days.”
The man chuckled softly as he reached down and picked up her briefcase. “I know what you mean.” He held the bag out to her.
Bending at the waist, Kara ripped what was left of her heel from the sidewalk and kicked out of her shoes. At this point, there was no reason to even try to be professional. Hopefully, someone inside would have an extra uniform she could borrow for a while. Grabbing up her ruined shoes, she turned to the guard holding her bag. “Thank you.”
A warm smile slipped across his face. “You’re welcome.”
Kara considered him for a moment. His pearly white teeth shone brightly against his dark skin. He was also much heavier in size than most of the guards of Eternity. He would probably be very impressive in his grand dragon form. But, then again, you couldn’t really tell much about a person’s dragon from their human form. Some of the largest dragons she had ever met were rather small people. Kara shook her thoughts away and smiled back at the man. “Are you here to meet me?”
His grin widened. “Yes. Daniel asked that I show you directly to him. Call me Mac.”
“Thank you, Mac.” Kara slipped her ruined shoes into her bag and settled her things back into place. Once she was done, she looked back up at Mac. “Whenever you’re ready.”
Mac chuckled and held out his hand towards a part in the fence. “This way.”
Kara started off, and Mac fell into step next to her, holding the umbrella between them. “So…” she shot the man a sidelong look, “what’s the emergency?”
The happy look on Mac’s face dropped, leaving a level of seriousness that worried Kara. “I think it’s best if you talk to Daniel about that.”
Concerned by his words, Kara gave him a surprised look before letting the conversation drop and turning her attention back to where they were going. What could this emergency be? She was a counselor that specialized in a very narrow field of mental health. Give her a disconnected dragon, and she could work wonders. Give her anything else, and she was almost as clueless as a monkey doing math.
Kara turned possible scenarios over in her mind as Mac led her through the halls of the main office. Even though it had been a while since she’d been there, she knew her way around pretty well. She paused for a heartbeat when Mac passed up the turn leading to Daniel’s office and headed down the hall to the holding cells. Her brow creased in confusion when they came upon a group of men standing outside one of the cells.
It wasn’t uncommon to see groups of soldiers standing around waiting on something, but these looked like they had been on the losing end of some epic battle. They were rumpled and torn up. A few sported bleeding bites, and one was holding a bag of ice to what looked to be a burn. The group huddled together, peeking through a small window in a door.
Mac stopped a few paces back from them and held out his hand, ushering Kara on.
Kara glanced at him before walking past and up to the men. Each one stepped back and let her closer to the small window. The looks on their faces frightened her. She turned towards the glass, not knowing if she wanted to see what was inside. Gathering her courage, she stepped up and looked through the window.
The room beyond was fairly small. Nothing really remarkable about it. Just a simple holding cell with a concrete bed on one side and a metal toilet on the other. What was remarkable was the condition it was in. The metal toilet had been ripped from the floor, and water sprayed out over the torn-up shreds of what was left of the pad that had been on the bench. There were long claw marks down the walls. They hadn’t really damaged the brick walls, but the paint job was toasted. And speaking of toasted, there were huge soot stains on the walls where something had tried to set them on fire. Right in the middle of the whole mess was the culprit. A small, black dragon, no larger than a dog. It stared at the door as if it were daring someone to open it. As Kara met its eyes, a trickle of smoke rolled out of the beast’s nose, and it growled. The thing launched itself at the window.
Kara jumped back as the creature slammed into the heavy glass. Hands of the men around her caught her before she could hit the ground again. As she regained her balance, she listened to the dragon terrorize the cell. Never in her time as a counselor had she seen a dragon lose it like that. A sinking feeling settled into the pit of her stomach as she stared at the door to the cell. Is this the reason Daniel called?
“Did you see him?”
Whipping around, Kara found the owner of the voice. Daniel and two more men, both looking worse for wear, had just turned into the cell block.
Kara pointed a shaking hand at the door. “Is that why you called me?”
Daniel passed her up and went to look in through the window. The door rattled as the small dragon slammed into it again. “Unfortunately, yes.” He sighed, turning to look at Kara. “He needs help.”
Easing her way up to the window again, she watched as the dragon ripped into a large chunk of bedding and shook it violently. No fucking way! “I think you had better call Kyle or Carissa for this one,” she said as she stepped back from the window before the dragon saw her and attacked the door again. “This is way above me.”
A forlorn look came over Daniel’s face, and he stared at her for a moment before looking in the window. “The king and Carissa have both been by. They were unable to help. He’s gone feral.”
Feral! Kara’s heart clenched. For a dragon to go feral, their two halves would have to be completely separated. It wasn’t an uncommon thing in the old days, but in today’s world, the signs of distress were well-known. Someone should have noticed long before the dragon had lost control. Kara peeked back into the room. This dragon had either suffered in silence for a long time or experienced an intensely traumatic event.
Daniel pulled in a long breath and pushed away from the door, drawing Kara’s attention from the dragon. “Besides, Kyle doesn’t have the time to work on this right now. He’s going to have his hands full this afternoon when he announces the murder of an Ancient.”
“An Ancient!” Shock colored Kara’s voice. Very old dragons were treasured. For someone to kill one was unheard of. “Who?”
“Raven Nightingale.”
Kara stood in disbelief. Raven was one of the most distinguished dragons around. Even though she was a recluse, her reach was vast. Everyone knew who she was. Announcing her murder was going to rock the dragon world. “Who did it?”
Daniel shrugged. “Don’t know.” He looked up at the door. “Noah in there is the only living witness.”
Pushing her hands up over her damp hair, Kara tried to get herself together. The death of Raven was shocking, and to have the only witness go feral was bad beyond words. No wonder Daniel had insisted she come as fast as she could. She turned the situation over in her mind, trying to figure out how she could help. Once she had gotten her thoughts straight, she turned back to Daniel. “Tell me what happened.”
***
Kara stood in front of the cell door and contemplated her course of action. The tale Daniel had spun was preposterous, yet his men had backed him up one hundred percent. It was hard to believe the dragon beyond the door had been a human just a few days ago, but Daniel had explained it and shown her the heart stone responsible for transferring the dragon. Kara had never heard of that form of sharing a dragon, but Daniel had assured her it was real, and he would know. He wasn’t as old as some of the Ancients, but he was older than most of the dragons she knew.
But that didn’t matter. What did matter was that she had
a person whose human and dragon parts were completely separate. This she understood and could work with. She had never seen a case as severe as this, but the concepts needed to reunite the pieces were the same. Marrying two halves that had never been one was the part that worried Kara the most.
Taking a deep breath, Kara took a step towards the door.
“Are you sure you want to go in there like that?”
Pausing, Kara looked at the tall man next to her and studied him for a moment. Of all the men in the hall, Laurence was sporting the deepest bites and wounds from the small dragon. He was also supposed to be Noah’s closest friend. In fact, all the men were people Noah was supposed to know, but the little dragon had attacked them all without mercy. An offhanded tease by one of the men had made her second-guess changing into the clean uniform Daniel had found for her. If Noah and the dragon weren’t connected, the dragon might not recognize the men as friends. It might just see the uniform and recall the men who had captured and drugged it. If she put on that same uniform, there was a good chance it would lump her in with the people the dragon saw as the enemy. Since her outfit was mostly ruined anyway, she thought it was worth risking its complete destruction verses the bites and burns she was sure to get in the Eternity uniform.
“Yes, Laurence, I’m sure.” She bent over and snagged the broken shoe out of her bag, just in case. “Let’s do this.”
Laurence shrugged, unlatched the door, and pulled it open just enough for her to slip in.
The sound of the bolt sliding home unnerved Kara, but she kept her eyes trained on the small dragon hunkered down in the center of the room. It watched her closely as she stood there, taking the scene in. The room was more trashed than she’d been able to see from the outside. Blood and soot stained everything. Chunks of concrete were missing from the bed, and the metal toilet was shredded beyond recognition. Thankfully, Daniel had had someone turn off the water so it wasn’t fountaining anymore, but everything was still soaked.
