by Kyl, Celia
She leaned into him and pressed her lips against his, their bodies swaying gently in the fading light. Her heart felt so full, like it would overflow with emotion. Time to get back to the lair so they could get started on that family!
But when she pulled away to drag his ass along after her, something glinted in the near distance, catching her eye. Maybe a bird—there were plenty of those flying around—but she could barely see it. A bug? No, it moved too smoothly for that. As it came closer, she also realized it was round.
A blue bubble, floating right toward them. She stared at it, confused.
Grizz tried to pull her along the path but she resisted. Following the direction of her gaze, he scanned the sky.
“What are you looking at?”
“That bubble.”
“What bubble?”
“Right there,” she said, pointing at it. “You really can’t see it?”
He looked at her like she might be hallucinating, despite the fact the bubble was floating right in front of her face. “Um, no?”
“Oh, shit,” she muttered, her brain moving fast to catch up. “That must mean—
The bubble popped, releasing a plume of pale blue smoke that shaped itself into a series of letters.
It is a trap.
“It’s a trap,” she said aloud as she watched the message evaporate.
“What is?” Grizz asked, starting to get frustrated.
“I don’t know, but this is definitely a message from Charlie. I’ve seen him do all kinds of weird shit with blue smoke over the years. Unlike anything else I’ve ever seen another dragon do.”
“Okay,” he mused, clearly unconvinced. “Assuming there was actually an invisible bubble that sent you a secret message in blue smoke, how can you be sure it isn’t the trap?”
She turned to him, nostrils flaring as the importance of the message sank in. “It came from Charlie, Grizz. He’d never lie to me like that or try to trick me into turning myself in.”
“Are you sure? Are you sure?”
She looked him straight in the eye. “One hundred percent. Not a shred of doubt. You don’t know him like I do, Grizz. But I have to ask… How well do you know this Josh guy?”
“Joshua, actually. Joshua Slocum.” He looked thoughtful for a moment and then shrugged. “Seems like a good guy. I mean, we aren’t best buds, but we get along. It’s definitely a professional relationship, I suppose. It’s just…”
“What?”
She waited for him to work through whatever was going on in his head.
“Got it!” he shouted, his eyes lighting up and then dimming with worry before he explained. “When we were at Harlow’s house, I ran across some paperwork reprimanding Joshua for insubordination. Is it possible—”
But Elektra didn’t hear what else he had to say because something else caught her attention and wouldn’t let go. Something in the far distance but growing larger by the second. Six dark shapes, high in the sky, flying from the direction of LA
Dragons.
Chapter Eight
“Uh oh,” Elektra said, her flesh pebbling at the shiver that rattled down her back. When Grizz gave her a quizzical look, she couldn’t even find the words. She simply pointed.
The dragons practically glowed in the dying light of the sunset. He followed her finger and then his eyes flew open and he sucked in a harsh lungful of air. “Shit! I guess Charlie told your team where to find us after all.”
Her heart thumped along her neck and her body warmed with adrenaline as it prepared for battle. She didn’t know who the dragons were, but she knew who they weren’t.
“Those aren’t Wildridge dragons. I guarantee it.”
“How can you be sure?”
“Same way I knew they were about to bust into Harlow’s house. We’ve worked together a long time. Besides, they’re not flying in the same formation we use.”
“Then who the hell are they?”
Elektra turned her gaze on him. “Have to be yours.”
“Mine?” He scowled at her for a second and then returned his attention to the rapidly incoming dragons. Understanding dawned and his shoulders slumped. “Oh, shit. But…”
She could tell he didn’t want to believe it, and no one could fault him for that. But they really didn’t have time for her to sugar-coat it. Grabbing his bicep as hard as she could, she drew his attention back to her.
“Your pal Josh figured out where we are. The message he sent was a decoy to slow us down, to think we were safe so we’d let our guard down. And it worked. Now we need to make up for lost time. Okay?”
At her touch, as fierce and undoubtedly painful as it was, his anxiety eased, which helped her focus better too.
“How did I not see this coming?” He shook his head violently. “No time. We need to shift.”
Elektra glanced back at the dragons. She could make out their eyes, the puffs of smoke trailing from their nostrils, and their individual colors. They’d be in range in minutes, if not sooner.
“Like you said, no time,” she said. “They’re almost on top of us. We shift now and we’re big huge targets for them to hit. We probably wouldn’t even make it off the ground before they blasted us to smithereens.”
“Six against two,” Grizz breathed, determination setting in his jaw. “You’re right. We need to keep our human forms and make a run for it.”
Elektra hated the very thought. Admitting defeat before the battle had even begun rubbed her the wrong way, but they had no other choice. “I just found you. I’ll be damned if I lose you now.”
Grizz’s gaze softened and he cupped her cheek. Her hand flew up to cover his, trying to tell him with her eyes—and maybe her soul—exactly what he meant to her. Then they heard the screech of the dragon leading the horde.
“Come on,” he grunted, grabbing her hand and sprinting back down the path toward the woods they’d just walked out of. “We need to stay under cover.”
The vegetation on the island had evolved to withstand harsh marine conditions, which meant most of it was low-lying, scrubby and sparse. But the copse of trees that ran down the center of the island like a scar might provide enough cover to evade their pursuers. If they could reach it in time.
She didn’t dare risk looking back while running over such rough terrain. If she’d learned one thing during her years of training in the woods it was that losing your concentration for even a second could spell disaster. In the case of training, that might mean a sprained ankle. The consequences were considerably higher when six deadly dragons were chasing you.
Only once they reached the tree line did they glance behind them. The dragons had spread out into a line, barreling directly toward them. As soon as the hunters were hidden behind the foliage, Grizz pulled Elektra off the path and led her parallel to the tree line, trying to make it past the last dragon in line before he or she decided to release its fire. For the first few seconds, he seemed to slow down to accommodate her, but he had no idea her idea of fun was pushing herself to the limit by running in the woods. As soon as she passed him with a single running leap over a felled tree, he caught the clue and worked hard to keep up.
But this was nothing like her daily workout. The terrain and obstacles might be similar, but the circumstances were anything but. She’d always been the pursuer, not the prey. It was unfamiliar and uncomfortable. Now she knew what the frightened little squirrel felt like while it tried to outrun a hungry hawk. And she didn’t like it one little bit.
Normally, she walked away from her workouts with a supreme sense of power and control. But everything had changed the moment she laid eyes on Grizz. Now that she had everything to lose—her mate, the pretty future they’d dreamed up together—a strange emotion filled her to overflowing. At first she had a hard time identifying it because it wasn’t one she typically experienced, but then it hit her. She was as close to terrified as she’d ever been. And that pissed her off. After a lifetime of being alone, of being an other, everything she’d never know
n she wanted was under siege.
Dragons whooshed overhead, unseen other than by a looming shadow. Then they swooped around to double back. For a brief moment, she thought they might have a chance, but then a powerful spout of fire engulfed a stand of trees directly in front of them. They veered away from the scorching wave of heat, and Elektra briefly wondered if the entire island would catch fire. Another blast to their left focused her attention on survival.
They reached a long, narrow clearing and Grizz hesitated. They’d be exposed, but they’d have to run parallel again and that hadn’t worked for them. Time to try something new. Elektra grabbed his hand to give them both strength.
“Zigzag,” she shouted so he could hear her over the pounding rush of dragon wings.
He gave a curt nod and they sprinted into the open. A high-pitch screech nearly blew out her eardrums and she knew they’d been spotted. Plumes of smoke had dimmed what remained of the late afternoon light, but not enough to hide them.
The dragons overhead shot balls of fire in their direction, but the zigzag pattern she and Grizz were using as they ran helped them avoid injury. One burst perilously close to them, but they zagged and were soon under cover again. Not that they could slow down, but at least they could run in a straight line again.
Until another fireball blew up a few dozen yards away. The impact made them both stumble. But they were built for endurance and they only lost a second or two. Not that Elektra had a clue if a second or two mattered. Grizz knew the island, and she trusted he was leading her to safety. Hopefully he wasn’t just leading them on a chase to wear them out because even as strong and fit as she was, the human half of her didn’t stand a chance of outrunning six full-grown dragons.
They sprinted across another, much smaller clearing as blistering-hot fire rained down just yards behind them, but even as they crossed it into the tree line, Elektra saw it was already thinning to miles of low-slung brush and scrub in every direction. With the dragon horde tracking them closely, they had no choice but to take their chances.
They found themselves stumbling down a slope to the slippery banks of a river winding through the valley. It would have been a beautiful sight to behold under normal circumstances, but when Elektra’s eyes clocked the massive waterfall cascading over a steep, rocky cliff just a little way down the river, she nearly gasped out loud. The drop had to be over a hundred feet.
And not far away, a massive black dragon had landed, looming over them so that its great shadow cast them in darkness as the other five circled overhead. Panicked, Grizz and Elektra edged into the river, the rushing water tugging at their bodies as they held hands tightly. They were backed into a corner now with nowhere else to run. The black dragon lurched closer and they stumbled backward several steps, drawing dangerously close to the drop-off of the waterfall.
It was all coming to an end.
Their brief time together was over.
The dragon before them sucked in a deep breath, preparing to unleash a tunnel of fatal fire over them. Without a word, Grizz wrapped his arms around Elektra and turned to face the waterfall, shielding her with his back to the dragon as if he would be able to protect her from dragonfire with his human body. They would both be reduced to ash in a single, split-second heartbeat.
They clung to each other, waiting for the end to come.
And waiting. And waiting. Finally, they heard an odd sound.
A chuckle.
Then a low male voice. “Hey, Grizz.”
* * *
The pull of the water flowing around his ankles almost comforted Grizz as he stared into the insufferably smug face of Joshua Slocum.
Grizz saw red.
“Bastard!” he snarled, lunging toward Joshua, but Elektra caught his wrist before he could get very far against the current.
A dragon swooped down and blasted the water just feet from Grizz, singing his eyebrows. Joshua laughed heartily as he stood nude on the bank of the river.
“That’s how you greet your superior officer, Agent Magna?”
“You fucking asshole! You killed Harlow!” Grizz’s eyes went reptilian and his fingertips burned as claws began to form, his dragon threatening to emerge.
Another dragon, one Grizz recognized, dove down and let out a plume of flame along the river’s surface. The white-hot flames kicked up a bath of steam that billowed into the air like wildfire smoke.
Grizz realized his feet were getting hotter, and the flow that passed made Elektra yelp and yank her legs out of the water as the boiling river rushed past them. The dragon took off again, and Joshua merely watched the beast with a mildly pleased expression.
Sick bastard.
Joshua glanced up at the dragons circling high overhead and then turned a frown on Grizz. It looked almost sincere. “It really is a shame that Harlow had to die. Don’t get me wrong, he definitely had to go, but still…a shame.”
“He sniffed you out,” Grizz flexed his fists, his fingernails black with dragon’s nails. “He knew you were up to something. What did he find, Josh? “
The asshole’s lips thinned into a hard line for a moment.
“Joshua,” he corrected before relaxing his expression again. “Harlow started sticking his nose where it didn’t belong, is all. We weren’t comfortable with his…interest.”
We?
“Quite honestly, I tried to save him. Really, I did. I tried to distract him with some juicy cases. Offshore accounts, possible serial killer, a politically motivated crime. But no.” Joshua sighed as if his heart was breaking and he began pacing along the riverbank. “You just had to get involved, didn’t you?”
Elektra’s fingers tightened on Grizz’s.
“We weren’t expecting you—someone good ol’ Harlow trusted completely. If you’d only stayed in Belarus, maybe Harlow would still be with us.”
“So it’s my fault that you murdered the head of the SBI in cold blood?” Grizz growled.
Joshua’s nostrils flared and his gaze darted up to the circling dragons briefly. They remained high overhead, making Grizz wonder if he could reach the traitor before they noticed, but he quickly realized there would be no way. They were too fast and Joshua too far away.
“As a matter of fact, you are to blame that I had to kill him. Of course, as far as the agency is concerned, it remains a robbery gone bad.”
“For now,” Elektra said, her dark eyes watching every move Joshua made.
He ignored her and continued with his little pre-death speech. Grizz wondered if he’d practiced it on Harlow.
“Imagine our delight when we learned Harlow had given you a super-secret mission that kept you locked up with only him as your handler. A risky oversight, for such an experienced director. He learned the hard way that risks have consequences.”
“So your solution was to kill Harlow and let me rot in a human prison?”
Joshua looked shocked. “Of course not! We had…other plans for you, Agent Magna.”
Grizz didn’t like the sound of that at all.
“You see, we’d never tested our process on a dragon shifter before. We didn’t dare, not until it had been perfected. Zero percent mortality rate and an increase in power that would give even your tight ass friend here pause.”
Joshua looked Elektra up and down.
“Fuck off,” she snarled.
Joshua gave her a dark smile. “You kiss your mother with that mouth?”
She bristled next to Grizz but remained silent, trying to kill Joshua with her glare.
“And then you came along,” he said to Elektra. “Another unexpected turn of events. No one could have guessed Agent Magna, the very man you’d been tasked to apprehend, was your fated mate and you’d help him escape.”
Joshua snorted and looked to the darkening heavens. “Lightning would strike twice on my watch. Wouldn’t it? Three times, if you count your initial escape from custody, Grizz. I have to hand it to you. You’ve been a constant surprise. An annoying surprise, but impressive nonetheless. Wh
ich brings me to the reason for this meeting.”
Meeting? That’s when it hit Grizz that the dragons hadn’t been trying to kill them with their fireballs. They’d been herding them. And now he and Elektra were precisely where Joshua had wanted them all along. Quite literally between a rock and a hard place. The rock being the big ones at the bottom of the waterfall.
“Which is?” Elektra asked.
“We couldn’t ask for two more perfect volunteers for our…study.”
“Don’t you mean experiment?” snapped Grizz, even though he really had no idea what he was talking about.
“Tomato, tomahto,” Joshua said with a sniff. “The way I see it, it’s your only chance at a life together. That’s what you want. Isn’t it? To live a long and happy life with your fated mate? I mean, really, how rare is that? And you’re ready to just give it up?”
The words cut Grizz straight to the heart. No, he wasn’t ready to give up on Elektra, but he’d be damned before he allowed either of them to become guinea pigs in some twisted mad scientist plot. But before he answered, he looked down at Elektra. Her cold, hard gaze never wavered from Joshua, even as her nostrils flared and her fingers tightened painfully on his hand. Of course her answer was the same as his. It couldn’t be otherwise.
“Disrespectfully, Agent Slocum,” she smiled widely, flashing elongated canines, “go fuck yourself.”
As soon as the words were out of her mouth, one of the other dragons Grizz recognized—Revel, a guy he’d gone drinking with several times—dive bombed them and blasted a gout of flame that just missed Elektra’s braid.
Joshua waited for Revel to fly off before turning back to them. That’s when understanding dawned for Grizz. Joshua was acting alone. That’s why he kept waiting for the others to be out of earshot before speaking and why he kept track of where they were. The five circling dragons almost certainly thought they were hunting a traitor to the SBI. They had no clue the leader of their mission was the actual traitor.
